Lughnasa

Lughnasa

"About the Calends of August Taltiu died, on a Monday, on the feast of Lughnasad of Lug; around her grave from that Monday forth is held the chief fair of noble Erin."
___ "The Metrical Dindshenchas," ed. Edward Gwynn (trans CM)

This feast is often understood to be a celebration of the Irish god Lugh (LOO'kh), but this is not the case. The festival celebrated primarily in honor of Lugh's foster-mother, Taltiu (TAWL'too), who single-handedly cleared the plains of Ireland of trees in order that agriculture and the gazing of cattle might take place. This necessary work is remembered and honored in the myth of Taltiu. The word 'Lughnasa' (LOO'nas-ah) comes from the old Irish 'Lugh nasad,' or 'the binding promise or duty of Lugh.' On the death of his foster mother, Lugh caused funeral games to be held in her honor. Over time, these games devolved into a fair, held annually in Telltown in County Meath. On this eve, the sacred time of harvest is celebrated - a time for harvest suppers and for enjoying all the varieties of food that have been in short supply.

At another level, Lugh's honoring of Taltiu acknowledges the bounty of harvest and the contract that exists between all living being and the earth. It is in that acknowledgment that the last sheaf of grain is harvested and honored, to be bound about the churn-dash in the form of a woman of sprouting hair and spreading stalks, or be woven into complex shapes as a corn-dolly.

"Make your own promise to the Land this evening, as the sun strikes the harvesting earth
with its last rays. Meditate upon how you can keep this time sacred in your personal spiritual practice."
[From "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews

Voyage to the Summer Stars

Voyage to the Summer Stars

"Come let us build the ship of the future

In an ancient pattern, that journeys far.

Come let us sail for the always islands,

Through seas of leaving to the Summer Stars."

___ Robin Williamson, "Seasons They Change"

The sense of being visited by our spiritual allies is strong in many people. The beautiful, potent ones who are our spiritual friends and whose inspiration and encouragement keep us company come to us in moments of solitude and insight, speaking to us of the unseen world that lies on the other side of the veil from our own. This sense of visitation is not alien, unfriendly or extraterrestrial; it is common, ordinary and familiar, giving us hope, not fear.

Our awareness of the region of the 'Summer Stars' - that area just within the boundaries of the otherworld - is often very powerful. We may feel, when we enter into communion with our spiritual friends, that we have indeed slipped over the horizon of our world and entered into a new blessedness. The vessel that 'journeys far' is indeed the vessel of the living imagination that exists beyond time and space. As a vessel, it is very ancient indeed, and in its bows have stood many a voyager to the other shore.

The two-way traffic between ourselves and our spiritual allies is purposeful and creative. The communion between the spiritual voyager and her otherworldly friends is profound, respectful, and reciprocal. Our own voyage to the Summer Stars is taken in company with thousands of human beings who enjoy their lives and who have responsibilities that they are not going to throw over just because they are spiritually inclined. They voyage in order to enhance life, not in order to leave it, returning to speak with soul-friends of the wonders and joys that have been the secret of all mystics.

"Make your own voyage to the Summer Stars to meet your allies."

[From: Caitlin Matthews' "The Celtic Spirit"]

The Mound of Wonders

The Mound of Wonders

"Whoever sits upon this mound cannot go hence without either

receiving blows or else seeing a great wonder."

___ Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, from "The Mabinogion"

Ascending to mounds and high places in order to look out over the land in a divinatory way was a common practice among the Celts. It was especially customary in the days leading up to Lughnasa, when the harvest was in its last week of ripening. It was a method of auguring what the year would bring, as well as an honoring of the Land.

The Mound of Wonders is a place where the veil between the worlds is thin. Prince Pwyll decides to ascend this sacred seat of wonder in order to take an augury of his reign, and while there he sees a great wonder indeed: a woman in a golden dress riding upon a horse. He learns that she is Rhiannon, a woman from the Underworld, and that she has come thither in order to marry him. Pwyll believes himself to be in receipt of the wonders promised by the Mound, but his subsequent story has enough heave blows in it to render his prophetic expectations low.

Pwyll's experience on the Mound of Wonders demonstrates the double nature of seership and prophecy: the thing that is shown often bears an unsuspected barb in its tail. Our expectations of divinatory methods leads us to accept the best and to reject the worst findings of our augury, to embrace the prophesied end but to ignore the rather irksome human means to its achievement. But once we have called out in question to the otherworld, we have to bear the burden of the answer.

"Go out into the countryside and climb to a high place where you can look out over the land. Ask for an augury of the land for the coming season."

[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Incubatory Divination

"What is your name?" asked Maeve.
"I am Fedelm, poetess of Connacht," she replied. "I have
come from Albion after learning the art of divination."
"Have you the power of prophecy called imbas forosna?" asked
the queen.
"I have indeed," said Fedelm."
____ "Tain Bo Cualgne (trans. CM)

Here Queen Maeve of Connacht interviews a prophetic female poet in order to determine the outcome of the battle. Only poets who had trained in the highest divinatory techniques could illumine dark matters that could not be solved by normal means. 'Imbas forosna' (IM'bas for-OS'na) - literally. 'the inspiration of the great sigh' - was one of the 'Three Illuminations" or prophetic techniques of divination. Fedelm tells Maeve, "I see it bloody, I see it red." She then prophesies accurately, and in some detail, the valor of the hero Cuchulainn, who will be responsible for laying waste Maeve's champions.

'Imbas forosna' is a form of Celtic incubatory divination that can be employed when we need to get more information about things that are unclear to us. By using the technique with modifications, we can attempt to 'dream true.' Imbas forosna requires well-framed intentions and an ability to remember our dreams. Before sleeping, create an invocation that addressed your spiritual allies and ask for help about the matter in hand; include the instruction that you wish to wake up when the answer has been revealed. Immediately write down any remembrances on waking, bearing in mind that the 'answer' may be in riddling or hidden form. In order to unlock the answer, keep asking yourself how your dream experiences relate to your question. Try this for not more than three nights in succession, as continual attempts to 'work' instead of rest during the night can disrupt sleep patterns.

"Make your own incubatory divination, as indicated above."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Holy Earth

The Holy Earth

"There is no state or condition more holy than the Earth."

___ R. J. Stewart. "Power Within the Land."

The British writer R. J. Stewart makes this firm and startling claim to counter the ways in which the physical world has been disregarded and disrespected for so many centuries. He does not state that there is nothing but the earth, only that we should regard it as 'equally holy'

with every other realm.

This is quite a difficult thing for many people to do, especially those raised in the belief that the earth and all its works are somehow spoiled from the outset and that the only holy condition is the heavenly one. This concept and others like it have soured our relationship with the earth, causing us to abuse it as a commodity, a provider of resources, and a place to live our mundane lives as we wish.

What is holiness, and how can the earth be said to be holy? Holiness is nothing less than a condition of wholeness, completion, and attunement. The earth is holy in that it is the womb of manifest life, the partner in holiness with the otherworld, which is the originative fructifier of life. Both sides of this alchemical partnership are equally important; we cannot leave one of them out of the equation.

Awareness of the earth's holiness and partnership with the otherworld is still possible, especially when we stand at a place upon the earth where the veil between the worlds is thinner. In such a place we can still intuit earthly holiness. Even though the earth's surface has been abused, it is nonetheless a womb of holy life, and we are its children.

"Meditate upon the earth as a holy place, and your own human state as a holy condition."

[From "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Elements

"If I break faith, may the skies fall upon me,

may the seas drown me,

may the earth rise up

and swallow me."

__ ancient Gaulish oath of the elements

This mighty oath binds the swearer's existence to that of the ancient Celtic elements themselves. We take the elements' gifts for granted: we do not think for even a minute about the air we breath, the water we wash with, or the earth that sustains our every step.

But this ancient oath has more ominous and immediate connotations in our age. We have taken the elements so much for granted, dis-respected their gifts so absolutely, that we have made it more than possible for the skies to fall on us, for the earth swallow us, for the seas to overwhelm us. As heavy industry pollutes the air, the air quality grows poorer; as the earth heats up from greenhouse effect, the ice caps begin to melt and the seas rise; as we fill the earth with our un-recyclable waste, the soil itself becomes poisonous and infertile. We forgot the meaning of this oath long ago, and now we are reminded.

The broad and beautiful gifts of the elements are so willing, able and bounteous. They clothe, nurture, and irrigate the planet and all its inhabitants freely and blessedly. To keep faith with the elements, we need to make an intentioned effort to sustain the life-flow of our planet by putting our minds and hearts and actions to the uplifting of life. These precious elements of air, water and earth are the triad of powers that maintain the life of the world. Preserved by the warmth of the sun (fire element) and these three mighty powers, our earth has heat, light, and life. Without them, it is cold, dark, dry, and barren.

"Consider each of the elements as you use them. When washing your hands, lighting a fire, or stove, taking your first breath of fresh air, walking to work, stop and be thankful for their gifts. Bless them and pray that they be preserved in peace, so that human hubris may not invoke the ancient oath upon our dear planet."

[From "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews

Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, and Seekers

Exile

"Exile, like memory, may be a place of hope and delusion.
But there are rules of light there and principles of

darkness..... The expatriate is in search of a country,

the exile in search of a self......"

___ Eavan Boladn, "Object Lessons"

One of the strongest sorrows of the Celtic world was exile from one's own country. To be banished beyond the ninth wave of the shore was to lose touch with the integrity, power, and belongingness of the Land. Another form of exile came to the Celtic peoples in the Christian era: the self-chosen exile of Christian service in foreign lands. This was known as 'white martyrdom' to those who endured the pain of exile.

Unwilling exiles need the completion of their native land to make them whole. They are always longing for it -- indeed , they will reproduce it, living within a ghetto created by memory and regret = and are ever suspicious of anything the new land has to offer. When the darkness of exile's night passes, the light of expatriate dawn can arrive. The new land and the immigrant can begin a fresh relationship in partner-ship and (though the old country is never forgotten)

the new homeland can begin to bring nurture, support and joy in all possible ways to the welcome guest.

"From what are you exiled (for example: home, customs; people, places)? What new opportun ities surround you now?"

[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews, July 24th essay]

I cannot let this blog posting go by without bringing into mention Frank MacEowen's book

"The Mist-Filled Path". The subtitle of the book I've put in the title of this posting. In the

book Chapter 1 - 'The Threshold of Mist', begins with first "The Celts believed that there was another dividing line that all people could straddle, if only they stretched themselves a bit.

And that's the divide between the world and the otherworld." (Steve Rabery, "In the House of Memory.")

Then MacEowen begins with: "The mist called to me when I was a child. In the early mornings, and sometimes at dusk, I would look out the window into the thick woods behind our Georgia home and a deep longing would fill my soul....... Just beyond the mossy stone wall, just past the clusters of fern, I would often see the eerie gray-green mist swirling in the trees. It would hang there like a gull in the wind, as if searching for something. It seemed to capture something of my own quest, a deep childhood search for an experience of thy mystery of the sacred world. Some mornings I went outside to see the mist, up close and personal, and just as I would arrive at its edge, it would suddenly disappear from view, almost as if it had never been there. A strange shadowy afterimage would remain. At other times, I would look non with astonished eyes as the mist changed directions and moved away from me, visible retreating from my presence. It would glide along the tree line, withdrawing itself from my overly analytical stare. In truth, my precocious and unrefined piercing gaze was exiling me from the teachings of the mist. ..... The soul searches an ineffable intelligence that cannot be controlled. Like the mist, the soul, we might say, has a mind of its own. It cannot be forced, directed or squeezed into a box where it does not belong. It cannot even be fully seen or perceived, for the soul is a timeless, feathered thing that flies in more worlds than one."

He moves on a little later to say: "Exile is that undeniable sensation of being cordoned off from what is most essential to our souls. .... We may be exiles from a basic sense of joy in our lives. Sometimes our exile is characterized by our sense of being a stranger in our own families, not able truly to share wh0 or what we are without being criticized or judged. ... For many of us a kind of exile may lie at the very heart of our lives. It is an exile many people feel in the twenty-first century. It may express itself as an exile from nature, from ancestral traditions, from cultural homelands, or from spiritual lineages. Sometimes these lineages and traditions appear to be lost forever without the potential of reclamation, so the exile feels even more poignant"

And may I leave you with this bit of instruction from Jalal-Ud-Din Rumi:

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep."

Fierce Defenders

Fierce Defenders
"I thank you, Andraste, and call out to you as one woman to

another..... I implore and pray to you for victory, and for the

maintenance of life and freedom, against arrogat, unjust,

insatiable and profane men."

___Dio Cassius, "Roman History"

This speech is attributed to the British Queen Boudicca (BOO'dik-a), known to later generations as Boudicea, queen of the Iceni. When she assumed rulership of the tribe after her husband's death, the Romans did not recognize her queenship. She was given a punitive lashing for her defiance, and her two virgin daughters were raped.

Before going into battle against the Romans, Boudicca released a hare from the fold in her cloak, in order to make a battle augury: the direction and nature of its running would determine her chances of victory. She also called upon the Goddess of Victory, Andraste - she who is Unconquerable - in order to uphold the Icenian cause against the Romans. With her troops, this mighty queen killed an estimated eighty thousand before she was defeated. Rather than risk capture and the dishonor of being paraded in a Roman triumph, she committed suicide.

There are many who will applaud Boudicca's forceful action against Roman barbarity to herself and her daughters. Her shock tactics and powers of leadership certainly confounded and weakened the Romans for a significant period - long enough at least to have avenged the insult to her royal person and her daughters' honor.

When men encounter the fierce defender who lies within women they are frequently dismayed or even terrified. Let a child be harmed or a animal mistreated, a beautiful area polluted or human rights diminished and we see that the warrior queens are not dead and forgotten; they still stride among us, calling out to the Unconquered Goddess for help in times of need.

"What causes your warrior instincts to surge to the surface?"

[From: Caitlin Matthews' "The Celtic Spirit"]

Journey to the Heart of the Labyrinth

Journey to the Heart of the Labyrinth

"Spiralling towards the center,

We know that we have come

to the center of who

we are."

____ Philip Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Tradition"

The old Cornish midwives of the southwest tip of Britain used to have a flat stone into whose depths a spiral labyrinth was carved. Expectant mothers about to give birth would be encouraged to trace this spiral pathway in order to help the birth. By tracing it over and over with their fingers and reciting certain secret prayers, they could help the long gestation of the child draw to its close. It was believed that this practice would clear any obstacles standing in the way of an easy birth and bring the child forth from its long months in the dark.

The correlations between the birth process and our own spiral circuit with the labyrinth become clearest when we trace the route of our life to date. In order to begin our spiritual journey, we must first be born from the heart of the labyrinth: the mysterious womb. As children we know our origins; as adults we begin to forget, so we have to painfully take the path home in unknowing, coil by coil. For many of us, the heart of the labyrinth, the goal of the spiritual journey, is anticipated as a place of horror: a stalking place for Minotaurs and other beasts. But though we may expect to find all kinds of alien and external influences lurking there, we find, on arrival, nothing more than ourselves.

Only by treading the turning, spiraling coils of the labyrinth of our lives can we come to perfect understanding of what lies at the center. It is as familiar to us, as dear and memorable, as the road that leads homeward.

"Meditate upon the different phases of your life in roughly seven-year intervals. Write down the qualities, discoveries, and themes of each phase. Arrange each of these phases around the paths of a labyrinth, noticing which paths and themes come close to each other."

{From Caitlin Matthews' "The Celtic Spirit"}

Mother-Right - Celtic Spirit Essay for the Day

"They bound themselves by the sun and moon that the possession of

the (Pictish kingdom)....should be held by the right of the female

rather than that of the male progeny to the end of the world.:

___Geoffrey Keating, "Forus Feast at Eirtinn

In our times, a reconsideration of the role and status of women has brought us into new relationships with mother-right, with a proper acknowledgment of the gifts of the feminine. For men and women this has been a rediscovery of a secret inheritance, for our connection the mother-country of the soul has been fractured. Our society has been (and for the most part still is) patriarchal: things are ordered from the masculine point of view, generally for the benefit and enhancement of masculine privileges. That which partakes of the feminine has been marginalized and neglected - including not only the lives of women but also the feminine side of male nature.

A whole new way of living and valuing things comes into focus when we consider the mother-right. The hidden side of our nature, the side that intuits rater than reasons, the part that view things from the inside out rather than from the outside in, can come into play when mother-right is allowed to function normally. This does not mean switching a patriarchy for matriarchy, for each of these extremes is as unbalanced as the other, Rather, it means allowing the side of our society and individuaoity that has been recessive to take its rightful place. This recognition of the feminine quietly acknowledges the intrinsically royal nature of mother-right, which speaks as sovereign from the depths of the mother-country -- a land that still waits to be fully rediscovered and restored.

"Mediate upon the feminine in your life. Revisit the mother-country of the soul where the feminine's holy and regal nature is recognized."

[From "The Celtic Spirit" essays by Caitlin Matthews]

OverThrowing Illusions

"Each man is in his spectre's power

Until the arrival of that hour

When his humanity awake

And cast his own specre into the lake."

__William Blake, "Each Man Is in His Spectre'sPower"

Long before Freud and Jung, William Blake coined the word

spector to signify the illusory self that, by its appetites and desires, overrules and dictates to the true self. The illusory self becomes our personal image, the projected likeness we want others to see.

The spector is fed by our patterns of appeasement, by our fear of authority, by our need to be perfect. Lest it take hold of our lives, we have to return to our essential humanity, to the core of our being, to the soul within us, and clarify by the soul's mirror what constitutes self and illusory self. In everything we do, we need to determine whether we are acting out of the core of our integrity or at the dictates of the specter.

Where mind and heart, reason and compassion are separated, there Blake's specter roams hungry and unchecked through our life. Casting off our illusory self is an act of maturity that strengthens the light of the soul. Acting out of our own heart, rather than out of projected self, we come once more to the true likeness with which we have been endowed.

"Where is the specter raging through your life? What false projections of your soul are showing on your screen this week? Meditate upon what life would be like without the support of those projections. Search for your true, authentic self."

[From "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews, July 20th's essay]