The Game of Shepherd and Dawse (2 page)

Within each house dwelt no more than four people, as no family had more than two children which is what kept the population in even balance. The style in which the houses were built can now be seen in today’s era, as people have once again started to build in this very fashion which is ecological, unique and cost effective. As the consciousness of people is again now starting to awaken, it would appear that an old memory of home building is resurfacing. We know them today as pixie houses and earth ships.

In Shepherd Wood, the houses were built in circles of seven, with six of the houses facing inward toward a communal recreational area and one of the houses facing outward, which in itself completed the circle of another circle of houses. Every circle was interlinked to the circle next to it by one house and in this way kept the entire community linked together.

The area in which these people really excelled, far ahead of the peoples of today, was in the spiritual realms. There were all manner of things these people could do, which in current times are things many of us have only heard rumors about and far fewer of us could ever hope to experience for ourselves.

Everyone in Shepherd Wood had the gift of telepathy, without exception but in varying degrees, which meant the surrounding plain was much quieter than any village or settlement would be in today’s times. People could speak verbally, of course, but this was done more for fun than anything else and the language that was spoken was of a very poetic nature. There were no arguments or rowdy conversations or hard disagreements because people were not selfish in this society and the aggressive male ego was all but extinct. People took what they needed to take and never took what they didn’t need. There was no greed because no one felt the need to have more than any other or be better than anyone else. Everyone was respected for the person they were and the gifts they possessed. Every person focused their time on the betterment of themselves and when they weren’t focusing on themselves they would be helping someone else on their journey of self-improvement.

Everyone in Shepherd Wood had a gift and everyone had a trade: some made clothes, some made cooking utensils, some made handy little devices to use in the home and some made jewellery. It all depended on what sort of trade you were drawn to the most. No one was ever forced into doing something they didn’t want to do.

During this era on Earth, nothing was ever bought or sold. If a young couple was starting out and needed to build themselves a house and kit it out with all the necessary things we all need, then people would pitch in and help them build it, if building was their trade. Then at a later date, that young couple who had been helped would make something for the person who had built their roof for example, when the roofer was in need of something.

There weren’t books or diaries in which people kept a log of who owed what to whom, as there was no need. It was a pleasure and honour to be able to help your neighbour or friend and to be able to say you added a certain amount of your own energy into their home or possessions. People always looked forward to being able to repay a gift with a gift. The whole of Shepherd Wood society was founded and based on giving, not taking.

To feed themselves, the inhabitants relied on a hunting and gathering system. The amount of food that was consumed was much less than we eat today because of the amount of goodness in the food and the fact that there was no such thing as pollution. Those who couldn’t hunt or gather would help with the preparation of the bounty or the clean-up afterwards. This was something every resident took part in, from young to old, as nourishment was something each of them needed daily.

The few who couldn’t take part in any way shape or form due to old age or infirmities were no longer of any use to the community but this wasn’t seen as it would be today. To no longer be of any use to the community was an honour as it showed that you had lived every last part of your being. When a member of their group got to this stage of not being able to contribute, they usually wouldn’t have long left to live and certainly didn’t want prolong the passing over process.

When an elderly person decided their time was due, they would sit in their dwelling and neither drink water nor eat food. During this time, all of their friends would come in turn to their house and share the fond memories they had had with them and wish them well on their journey. It would be one last joyous occasion for them to enjoy.

No one would mourn for them when they passed over. Instead, they would celebrate that person’s life. They would be cremated and their ashes would be buried at the base of their personal tree. It was said that a tree could often take on some of the characteristics of the person who was buried there and if someone missed their friend who had passed over, they would go and sit with that person’s tree for a while until they missed them no more. It wouldn’t be until much later in history that people were forced to suffer their end days in some of the most horrible ways possible, being led to believe that life alone was more important than the quality of it.

On the other side of the river was where all of the meetings, gatherings and celebrations took place. The main meeting hall had been constructed in an amphitheatre style, allowing everyone to be able to see what was going on. The seating part of the theatre had been sunken into the floor and had several levels of steps. This gave the meeting hall great insulation during the colder months and kept it cool during the summer months. The roof was made with lots of bendy and long thin twigs that had been woven together in a way that water couldn’t penetrate. The twigs could be harvested from certain trees all the time without damaging the tree and gave the meeting hall a unique looking roof.

Between the ground and the underside of the roof were wooden hatches that could be opened or closed depending on the temperature. Inside the theatre there were many different types of cushions and pillows that had accumulated over the years and had been individually made by different people that wanted to add their energy to the theatre. The theatre was also where all learnings and education took place and where the Wise Council would hold their meetings.

The education of this time was far different to the social programming forced upon us today and, most importantly, everything that was learned was used to great effect by the person wishing to attain their new knowledge. The sort of things that were taught and learned were things like meditation, astral projection, healing techniques and how to make or repair things that could be of use to other people as well as themselves.

They held sewing workshops, pottery classes, woodturning classes, jewellery and costume making sessions, healing classes and any other workshops that nourish the soul.

By far the most popular class that was held was the dream day class. To take part in this class, you would have to stay awake all night the night before. Classes would start at 6 am, when you would find a comfortable spot to lie down and slowly drift into a dream. Every 10 minutes, the dream catcher (the person in charge of the class) would very gently hit a gong and by doing this, the day dreamer would stay in the brain pattern of theta mode and not fall into the deep sleep of delta mode, giving each person an abundance of dreams.

Every hour on the hour the dream catcher would hit a larger gong and everyone would awaken from their dream state and share what they had learnt and where they had travelled to. There would be three dream journeys throughout the day and the better you became at it the more amazing things you could do in your dreams. Everyone loved dream day so everyone had to wait until it was their day to take part. This worked well as nobody spent too much time in the dream world and kept a healthy balance with mother Earth and father sky.

The education system was by free choice and there was no age limit as to whom could educate themselves. A typical class would range from roughly three years old to a couple of hundred years old, depending on who wanted to learn what and when. When people were not learning something specific, they were learning the fine art of teaching itself, by teaching others.

There wasn’t any set structure to the education system either. When someone woke up one morning and had the urge to teach about a particular subject or topic, they would put the word out via means of telepathy and let everyone know what they were planning for the day. Those who wished to take part would then come along and join in. Everything was done truly from the heart, which meant everything was done to the best of each person's ability.

It was art that flourished the most as recreation in Shepherd Wood. Art was a staple in the diet of all residents there and was not just a means of nourishing one's own soul, as it enabled others to be spiritually lifted by what was created around them. Being artistic also allowed people to be in touch with higher spirits and to channel what those spirits wanted them to share. In later centuries, art would become something discouraged and censored by those who had gained power. They knew only too well how this kind of activity made everyone so happy and how it exercised the mind to be greater - far greater than those who gained the power of control over the masses in the first place.

Art would take many different forms and anything that pleased other people to watch look at or listen to was deemed as art. There were some truly amazing objects that were made and sculptured and people would take many years to make just one object, they could do this because there was no sense of urgency to get the piece finished, they didn’t have sell it to try and get by and they didn’t have any deadlines to meet, they also lived a lot longer than the peoples of today so there was never any rush which meant that everything was made with astounding precision and intricate detail.

On the one side of the river were all of the houses with winding stone paths that had been laid down over many centuries. Each house was unique in design and reflected the character of its owner, as did the clothes each of them wore and the ways in which they styled their hair. The people of Shepherd Wood wore clothes that expressed themselves as a character which meant that everyone always looked and felt amazing. Their hair styles matched the same trend. Some people had very elaborate hair styles in which bee’s wax would be used to hold into place and some had very simple styles. Some people chose to have no style at all, which was a style in itself.

There was no such thing as 'fashion' in Shepherd Wood. Fashion was a concept created centuries later by those deceptively wanting to have a steady and constant sale of their products - regardless if the clothing actually suited the person or not. If something was considered 'fashionable' then you were deemed to look 'good' and that’s how fashion worked in later years.

The structure of society as a whole wasn’t that dissimilar to what we now know, except for all of the little differences. There was no legal system because no one had any desire to hurt another person. As a result, there was no penal system either. Everything ran smoothly and people treated each other with care and respect.

There was a kind of farming that took place but not one we would recognise today. The forest and surrounding areas were plentiful in food, though most varieties they relied upon have now been long extinct due to over consumption in later years. Around Shepherd Wood, wherever a certain type of plant naturally grew, it would be encouraged to flourish there using techniques that didn’t alter its natural surroundings too greatly. If a key food type had been found, residents would carefully cut down just a few of the nearby trees, allowing the key food type the space it needed to flourish and spread. The trees they cut down would be used for fuel, building and making various other items, and new trees would be planted elsewhere to replace the ones that had been cut down.

Farming this way ensured that nature grew at its very best because nature grew where nature wanted to grow, meaning yields were always more than enough to feed everyone. There were no ploughed fields full of crops nor huts cramped with animals in awful conditions, as the people never outgrew their environment and always remained in harmony with nature.

Animals roamed freely in Shepherd Wood and every so often one would give itself up to the community, as that was what the animal had chosen as its purpose. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a hunter to have an animal in its sights and choose not to kill it. This would be because the animal had communicated to the hunter that it was not ready to go yet. Other times an animal would freely offer itself to the community, if it had gone lame for example. The residents had the most humane way possible of putting an animal in this condition to a peaceful rest. The animal would be given a heavy natural sedative, then quickly and painlessly be starved of oxygen so it would, in effect, die in its sleep.

When these occasions happened there would be great celebration for that animal and nothing would ever be wasted, as that would have been disrespectful to the animal. There was much reverence for the animal kingdom in Shepherd Wood, as there was a lot of communication with the animal spirit world, as well as with the living animals. After all, the people who were alive there were animals themselves just as we are today – just a different type of animal, that’s all.