Shaman Pathways - The Celtic Chakras - Elen Sentier 2011

About Elen Sentier

I was born on Dartmoor in Britain, of a family of cunning folk, awenyddion, spirit keepers and taleweavers following the old ways of this land. I grew up on Exmoor spending much of my free time exploring the moors on foot and horseback learning from the wildwoods, beasts, birds and plants. The patron lady of my home village is the ancient mother-goddess Iwerydd and my aunt used to own her sacred well which gives “clear sight”; cures cataract and gives the ability to see across space-time, what the CIA call far-viewing. The village still does the mummers play on Iwerydd’s story, very much Christianised now but the tradition is still alive, and girl children are still sometimes called Urith.

My mother ’s mother was a witch from the Isle of Mann, my father was a spirit keeper and storyteller. Aunts and uncles worked with herbs and plant and animal spirits, gardening and farming. I spent many nights sat amongst the trees on the edge of Dartmoor, with my uncle, learning from foxes, dormice, weasels, rabbits, badgers and hunting owls, all the night denizens of the wild woods. Uncle could call a wild hawk to his fist and have an adder twine around his wrist. I spent my childhood and youth learning the ways of animals and plants from the ancient traditions handed down through the family and village elders.

My father ’s family also had very close connections to the theosophists. My grandmother ’s cousin was Esther Bright a close friend of Annie Besant; Esther ’s mother, Ursula, was an outstanding worker for women’s rights and an active supporter of the Theosophical Society. Ursula donated generously to the building of the Benares (Varanasi) TS Centre and provided a home for Annie Besant when the latter was in England. Ursula was married to the Rt. Hon. Jacob Bright MP who pioneered women’s rights with the Married Women’s Property Act.

I’ve done all sorts of things in my current incarnation. I started out teaching Rudolph Laban Modern Educational Dance but went on to do contemporary dance, partly with Robert Cohen at The Place in London. Then I took a big step sideways and joined the Ministry of Defence, carrying on dancing as “demonstrator ” for a friend who taught for Arlene Phillips at the London Pineapple Dance Studio. I enjoyed my time with the MOD and finished up as project manager designing a networked computer system for Defence Sales. After leaving the MOD I studied transpersonal psychology with Ian Gordon-Brown and Barbara Somers, and had a practice working with dreams until I moved out of London in 1999.

I’ve been fortunate in this life to work with many friends such as Caitlin & John Matthews, Emma Restall Orr, Lilla Bek, C Maxwell Cade, Rose Gladden, Colin Bloy, Paul Devereux, Michael Poynder, Tom Graves, Hamish Miller, Vicky Wall and Theo Gimbel. I was part of Fountain International and the Ley Hunter as well as working on The Dragon Project with Dr Don Robins during 1977/8. I studied Alice Bailey’s work for many years with the Lucis Trust.

I live now on the borderlands between Wales and England by the river Wye. The name Merlin takes here is Dyfrig. It feels very good to be living in his land and that of one of the mother-rivers of Britain. I share my home with my husband, two cats and a host of wildlife; I paint, read, spin, knit and weave; we garden and grow our own veg … and I write.

Elen Sentier www.elensentier.co.uk