Samhain

Samhain

"Samhain night with its ancient lore
was occasion for new and merry custom;
it was learned in the wilderness, in oak-woods,
from spirits and fairies."

  __ "The Metrical Dindshenchas" (trans CM)


   The festival Samhain (SOW'en) marked the start of Winter when beasts were brought in from the hills to the nearby fields for winter slaughter or for overwintering in barns. Samhain was a liminal time in which the world of the living and the ancestral realms overlapped. This was a time for the remembrance of the dead: candles were set in the window to welcome the loved ancestors and to shine upon the path of the unquiet dead to bless them on their way.

  There was always an element of fear and trepidation about this night - the eve before Samhain - and also one of expectancy. When the dead were abroad, certain kinds of divination could be practiced, which asked questions of the ancestors. This night was one when your people disguised themselves and play pranks on the community. The modern custom of trick-or-treating is bsed upon the old tradition of 'mischief night,' where the guisers begged for food and drink from door to door. At inhospitable houses, the gate might be removed from its hines, or other petty misdemeanors might be performed.

  The great fear that many still have about this night is not aided by the commercialism of modern Hallowe'en, which emphasizes ghoulish fascination with ghosts rather than communal reverence for the beloved ancestors. As we enter the darkness of winter this envening, let us remember our own ancestors with love, with a prayer that all unquiet souls be led to blessedness and peace, with a hope that this sacred festival may be restored to its former respect as a time of communal honoring.

"Lit your own candle for the ancestors this evening, and breathe your blessing upon all who no longer walk this world."
[From "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

And so with this essay, I am at the end of the book and will return to its beginning tomorrow with November 1st,,,,,   S.

Flexibility

Flexibilty

"May we never be so straight that we cannot bend;
May we never be so unapproachable that children
Cannot climb up into our lower branches."
    ____ Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"

  Wherever we have set our roots, there will we grow. The ability to be flexible and adaptable to different growing conditions determines the nature of our development. Learning to change and adapt with each new circumstance is a human gift that we share with all life. Evolution itself shows us that those species that cannot change die out. Opinions and attitudes can become like carapaces that harden about our shoulders, bringing rigidity to our life-flow. Rigidity of opinion causes us to become unapproachable, which may increase our sense of isolation or confirm us in our self-contented stasis. We begin to lose opportunities to exchange views, to receive love, to find other sources of nurture. It takes courage to allow children to swarm in our branches, to allow the questions and opinions of those younger than ourselves to bend our trunks in their fresh breeze. The beauty of the many-leveled generations alive at one time allows us great opportunities to practice our flexibility and share our wisdom.

"Visualize what kind of tree you are. Check on how vital your root system is; assess the flexibility of your trunk, the reach of your branches. What opportunities for change and adaptability are available and needed by you at this time?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The image I placed here with this entry - the picture of the willow tree - represents the choice of tree I see for myself.  Maybe I can be too flexible, don't know, but I do see myself always ready to 'bend' to the new ideas of the younger generations.
S.

Living the Metaphor

Living the Metaphor

"Then as  now the Cauldron of Ceridwen..... was on the boil;
and its life giving drops..... were being scattered abroad,
according to what, by mere human computation, amount to
nothing but the accidents of pure chance."
     ___ John Cowper Powys, "Obstinate Cymric"

  From Ceridwen's vessel of inspiration three drops flew out, and were caught by the child, Gwion as he sat tending the cauldron. When a spark of knowledge catches the tinder of our being, it runs through us like a forest fire. All the metaphors and images by which we have lived our lives become incandescent with immediacy and meaning. After the kiss of knowledge, Taliesin, who was once the boy Gwion, declares that he has been in many times and places, that he has been a drop in the air, a letter among words, a sword in the hand, a string in a harp, and many other conditions associated with the human state. It is the metaphor of himself in the immediacy of the realized present that sings.

  To realize and truly live our metaphor, we need the random grace of the cauldron's drops to awaken us to our true potential. Suddenly meaning explodes behind our eyes and thoughts run together and connect like the colors on an easel when it rains. This is the experience of the child Gwion when he puts his lips to his hand to cool the scalding drops. The incubation period of knoweldge for Gwion is nine months in the womb of Ceridwen, where he brings together the many metaphors of himself and learns their truth. By the time he is born they have become part of him; he is living repository of his own knowledge.

"What metaphors do you apply to your own life (e.g., a lone wolf, a rolling stone, a busy beaver, a foolish clown)?  What triggers knowledge of these metaphors? What fixes their truth in you?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Cauldron

In the early times the cauldron sat over the fire, and meat, bones, vegetables and herbs would simmer in a sustaining broth. The rich stew in the cauldron became a potent symbol for the Celts, for spiritual as well as physical nourishment - for inspiration, mystic knowledge and regeneration. Dead warriors who plunge into Bran's cauldron come back to life but without the power of speech - signifying that you can't talk about the great mysteries, they can only be experienced or tasted. And when little Gwion tastes the brew in Ceridwen's cauldron, he begins the journey that transforms him into the all-knowing bard Taliesin. 

A cauldron of transformation:

  When you're facing a period of difficult change, find or make a cauldron. It doesn't have to be big, but it should have a round, embracing shape, like a bowl.
    Put into the cauldron any negative emotion you need to transform - for example, disappointment, fear, resentment or guilt. Look into the cauldron and imagine it drawing this quality from you. Pour in some water or wine and swill it around, then take a sip. Trust in the process of transformation: let it happen without any further input from you.
[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Finding Our Place in Nature

Finding Our Place in Nature

"Did you hear what the fish said,
Floundering among the reeds? --
Nature's wiser than learning."
   ___ fourteenth-century Welsh verse (CM)


   In the Celtic and world folk traditions, reminders of this important fact emerge time and again in stories that tell of speaking animals. All young heroes and heroines who are sent out on the road of adventure eventually encounter animal allies who speak to them of deeper wisdoms than those they received at school. These encounters require that the young person treat the animal with respect, share her goods or food with the animal, and listen and act upon the animal's wisdom. The characters who do these things emerge unscathed; the ones who neglect to respect, share, or listen lose their way and fall prey to dangers. It is for this reason that so many spiritual traditions regard animals as their wisdom-keepers: animals are respentatives of the oral, living world of nature -- beings who know the implications and responsibilities of their belonging and guardianship.

  All people now living have the responsibility of relearning the wisdom of nature, directly from nature: from the trees and hills, the birds and streams, the animals and fields, the fish and seas. Wherever we are, there is an older wisdom singing, which keeps the world in harmony. When we can join in that singing, we will begin to find our true place in nature and be at one with our brothers and sisters beings.

"Be present with a being of nature; be present to it spirit to spirit. What is the wisdom of nature about the plan that is currently brooding in your heart? How does this differ from the received wisdom of your society, friends, advisers?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

I feel compelled to give some sort of comment on this particular celtic essay this morning.... It speaks to me of the environmental damage that is happening all around us and yet we continue to let to go on.  OK, I know that those who would read a blog like do not intentionally ignore environmental issues but yet often we feel like 'what can we do?'  One thing we can be more aware of our own habits of existing on the planet.  While we don't necessarily have to go out on the streets and shout the message of environmental issues we can try to set an example to those around us by trying to practice ecology in our lives.  There are so many things we can be doing that will make a step in the right direction - do I need to list them yet again here?
S.

Unleasing Joy

Unleasing Joy

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does a winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."
  __ William Blake, "Etrenity"


   Joy is not a creature of the cupboard; it is wild, free, and profligate, spending itself in one great burst of energy. The ability to enjoy and be part of something is a skill many of us lose; as we disengage from the immediacy of life, we are less able to sink outselves deeply into things. This distancing of the self often arises from the need to protect ourselves from perceived dangers (physical and emotional). Whatever its cause, this form of separation from life clips the wings of joy very effectively.

  Certain people want to restrain the freedoms of others; having hushed the ecstatic song of joy in their own lives as a thing too flighty or too dangerous to be allowed, they find it suspect in others as well. At the other extreme are people who, having tasted joy, want it all the time.

  Whatever our condition how do we make access to joy? It can come only when there are three conditions present: a state of lively engagement with life, a receptive and spacious heart, and a respect for other beings than ourselves. If we live in a closed-off bubble, forcing life to happen beyond us, joy cannot enter; but if we play ball with life, catching and throwing back the many experiences that come our way, we begin our true engageent. If we have a daily receptive space where we allow the universe to speak to us, joy will find its way. If we truly believe that the freedom of other beings is as important as ourown, if we truly respect that freedom, joy will wing toward us.

"Meditate upon the three conditions above and discover which ones will help you to be hospitable to joy."  [From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Hag of Beara
(Kerry, Ireland)

  On the Beara Peninsula in the far southwest of Ireland, a strange outcrop of metamorphic rock shaped like a woman's face gazes out to sea. It is the Cailleach Bhearra (vyey-ruh), the Hag of Beara, whom local tradition calls the Shaper of the Land. Once an immortal ancestral goddess, she was changed by the pen of a medieval scribe into an old nun grieving over her lost youth and beauty. The poem might be the lament of the goddess herself for the end of the pagan era.

I have had my day with kings

drinking mead and wine;

today I drink whey and water

among shriveled old hags....

The flood-wave,

and the swift ebbg;

what the flood brings you

the ebb carries from your hand..."

[From Mara Freeman's "Kindling the Celtic Spirit]

Surviving Marriage

Surviving Marriage

"The first year's a year of kisses
The second year's a year of fists."
    ___ Scots Gaelic proverb

  The settling-down year of marriage needs to be handled with an understanding patience.  And we may need to summon that same high level of patience again in another ten years, when long-term relationships often go into a place of stasis and stagnation. The chief method for surviving as a couple is to realize that two individuals brought into partnership have to find the point of balance and reciprocation. No longer separate, they keep developing as individuals even as the realationship itself is growing.

  Behaviors, comments, and feelings that initially seem to be warning signs of fallout often are nothing more (and nothing less) than signs of growth. These little buds and shoots need space to spread, and a reciprocal understanding of personal needs. Such matters cannot be intuited by our partner, however; they have to be communicated. Petty domestic resntments and larger-scale problems can incubate at an alarming rate beneath the surface of married life, sometimes because both partners have grown together sufficiently to feel that they have one consciousness and that their wants and needs should be obvious to the other. They are not.

  The second year of marriage does not have to be one of fists if we keep attuned to our own and our partner's needs, holding the communication channels open.

"Take time to speak of your needs and concerns to your significant other and to inquire what his or her needs and concerns may be. If you are not in a relationship at present, consider a past relationship; ask yourself where and why the partnership worked."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Passing of Arthur

The Passing of Arthur

"Be brave, be impeccable!
Endure challenge, be cheerful!
I go to the summer world
of Afallon, to recover.
But I'll come back to my land
Once more......."
    ____ Thomas Gwynn, "Arthur's Passing"


    The prophecy that King Arthur will return has been often uttered and widely believed throughout Britain and beyond. It was so strong a belief centuries ago that twelfth-century cleric, Alan of Insulis wrote "Preach about the market places and villages that Arthur the Briton is dead as other men are dead, and..... Hardly will you escape unscathed without being overwhelmed by curses or crushed by the stones of your hearers."  Arthur the British war-leader  - the King Arthur of the later medieval legends - derives from a potent Celtic archetype the function of which is to maintain the integrity of the land. His ending is seen as no death, but as a time of recovery for the healing of his wounds, after which he will come again. This legend fueled his Latin title Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus: the King Who Was and Who Shall Be.

   There comes in every country's history a time of hardship and a corresponding time of shining deeds to overcome the hardship. When the land plummets into war or other difficulty, the inhabitants of the land need leaders who can reach into the very soul of the land and draw forth the necessary inspiration, courage, and resourcefulness to defend it and them. Every land has its own Arthur, called by a multitude of names, remembered in heroic stories that can be retold to encourage us in later times of trouble. And the same prophecy is uttered: that the hero or heroine is not dead, but shall come again.

"What is the sacred trust of your own land? Which figures and emblems have been associated with it?  How do they endure?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


Water's Healing Powers

Water has a special magic for the Celts as a symbol of vitality and inspiration. The fact that it could capture light (for example, a reflection of the setting sun) could not be rationally explained and was taken as proof of supernatural properites. Wells and springs were charged with magic powers. Lakes and rivers were the dwelling-places of otherworldly beings, like the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend.

Walking by a river or stream, let the power of the water, seen and heard, energize your spirit. Let every ripple add its soothing blessing to your deepening inner calm.

The watery cage of the moon

"Do not fear the Druid's magic,

You too are a skilled magician.

You can summon the spirits of the night

You can endure the moon in a puddle."

   If you gaze into a puddle and see the full moon's reflection there, the time is auspicious for you to make a wish - nas long as your wish is sincere and virtuous, there is a good chance that it will be realized soon. But best of all is to try to catch the moon's reflection in a well: this simple spell may bring you closer to achieveing your heart's desire.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Ancestral Dependence

Ancestral Dependence

"The one whose solitary boast is his lineage, but no
descendent of any virture."
    ___ Welsh proverb (trans CM)


   The Celtic peoples honored the keeping, rememberance, and repetition of genealogies and family lists. Such genealogies were 'memory resident' in bards and poets, one of whose chief tasks was to recite these ancient lineages on important occasions.  In our society, we generally leave such matters to the professional genealogist or herald, and so our own memory dwindles. As a result of this neglect, strange obsessions sometimes develop. People with no knowledge of their lineage sometimes invent family trees or make outrageously unsubtantiated claims regarding their descent. Such acts have a terrible pathos about them. At the other extreme, we find those who dine out on their ancestral achievements without any attempt to make their own mark. Both they and the people who invent their lineage fall into the trap of ancestral dependence. Whether actual or invented, our lineage is a path that moves through us to our own descendants. Our physical bloodline may have great and good ancestors among its number, but their deeds do not flow through our veins or belong to us unless we make them ours by similar doing.
   Dependence upon the ancestors is often just a manifestation of laziness, a wayof absolving ourselves from total engagement in life; it is also a form of theft that robs our hard-working ancestors of their credit.  We cannot live in the reflected glory of ancestral honors without absconding from own lives and missing the very real opportunities to become worthy ancestors in our turn.

"Honor your ancestors, known or unknown, by a worthy act of your own."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Becoming a Bard

   The training to become a bard or file (an Irish poet seer),
was long and arduous; it could invovle lying in a dark hut for hours, or sitting in cold water to force inspiration to come. But a poet had to have natural talent before he could be trained. There are many tales of the favoured one receiving his gift from a woman of the Otherword, as in the Scottish border ballad of Thomas the Rhymer:

"They they came to a garden green,

And she pulled an apple from a tree:

'Take this for your wages, true Thomas;

It will give you the tongue that can never lie.' "

It is the queen of Elfland who initiates Thomas and gives him the gift of unfailing truthfulness. He is not sure he wants this, because he realizes how awkard it could be when flirthing with women or haggling at the market, but she insists. Every great gift must have its price.

Kindle your creative spark:

We all have great potential for creativity. This bardic exercise will help you to kindle your spark:

1. Find a room that can be made completely dark and quiet. Sit or lie comfortably wrapped in a blanket and wait until midnight.
2. Keep your eyes open and stay there until you are teetering right on the edge of sleep. In this trance-like state, which is neight sleeping nor waking, new ideas will bubble into your mind.
3. Get up and write your thoughts down straightway (however odd they may seem) - otherwise you'll forget them. They may be the seeds of something wonderful.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

I've been awarded the

Award.... Thank you Mary....

S.

Conflict

Conflict

"On Tuesday they dressed in their finery,
On Wednesday their common desire was bitter,
On Thursday envoys were chosen,
On Friday carnage was assessed,
On Saturday action was forthright,
On Sunday bloody blades were distributed,
On Monday they were thigh-deep in blood."
   ___ Aneirin, "Y Gododdin" (trans. CM)


    The battle of Catreath in A.D. 600, fought between the northern Britons and the Angles, is commemorated in this epic Welsh poem. The resolution of conflict is never simple. We may long and pray for peace to come, but it cannot be built upon shaky foundations of wished-for pacification. We cannot tiptoe around areas of conflict forever. If we truly want to seek peaceful solutions, we have to be actively prepared to deal with conflict. Principles of arbitration and conflict resolution are traditionally part of the druid path: when conflicts, arguments, and differences arose in ancient times, a druid was consulted as an arbitrator.

"Meditate upon some area of your life where you are in conflict with another person.
  Visualize your opponent as an innocent child, an uncertain teenager, a mature adults, a wise elder. Cease to demonize your opponent. Consider how your conflict warps the world's web, the great net of life and consciousness that binds us all together. With your own issue of conflict in mind, repeat this prayer for peace, written by druid Cairisfiona Worthington:

   "Deep within the still center of my being may I find peace,

Silently with the quiet of the Grove may we share peace.

Gently within the greater circle of humankind may we radiate peace."

Take a period of silence to allow solutions to arise."

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

Ordinary Things

Ordinary Things

"There are three slender things that support the world:
the slender stream of cow's milk into a pail; the slender
blade of green corn in the ground; the slender thread
running over the hands of a skilled woman."
    ___ ancient Irish triad

   The comfort and nurture we derive from dairy products is the gift of the cow, that supremely important animal to the Celtic world. The cow, a unit of wealth, was so highly prized that it is remembered in the heavens among Gaelic speakers who know the Milky Way as 'the Way of the White Cow." The fertility of the fields was always considered a measure of how committed a ruler or chieftain was to his land and people; poor crops were an indication of poor rulership. Along with the milk of the cow, the bannock (loaf) of bread made up the staple diet of most people before the advent of the New World potato, so grain was another measure of prosperity and well-being.

  Before the coming of industrial looms, all clothing was made laboriously by hand. The woman of the house (with the help of her daughters) clothed her entire family; she would take the unwashed wool , comb and card it, and then time-consumingly spin it from the distaff until it could be labor-intensively woven on a hand-loom.

That wool kept the cold out, but the greatest skill went into weaving the linen garments for wear next to the skin.

It is the help of the ordinary things that much of our own living is supported. In different countries, there are different staple grains and foodstuffs, different materials. From their slender existence our own is sustained.

"What three ordinary things are the supporters of your life? Make your own personal triad."

[From: "The Celtic Spirit"]

Harvesting Color

   The beautiful tartans and plaids we associate with Scotland were colored with vegetable dyes. In the HIghlands sheep's fleeces were put into a three-legged cauldron in layers with crotal moss from the moors and boiled - the result was a bright red fleece (despite the moss being yellow), which could then be spun and woven. For black, oak bark and acorns could be used; for yellow, crab apple or ash; for green, flag iris root.  Outside of crofts stood pots for collecting urine, which was used as a mordant (fixative) to prepare the cloth to hold the dye.

A Simple Dye -  This method will work for most plants. Bruise or crush the plant material and put it in a large stainless stell scaucepan. Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour. Allow the plant to steep in the water for up to three days, stirring well each day. Strain the liquid through muslin into a dyebath. Add the damp yarn or fabric to the dye-bath. Bring it to the boil and simmer for one hour.

   The strength of the dye will depend on what time of day and in what season you picked the plant. For some plants you may need to prepare the cloth with a mordant.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

The Language of Winter

The Language of Winter

"We have all of us eaten the pomegranate seed of language, and we are its Persephone in its ways
of structuring our experience of ourselves and the world."
    ___ John Moriarty, "Turtle Was Gone a Long Time"


   John Moariarty refers here to the Greek myth of Persephone, who went into the Underworld with the god Hades. When sought by her mother, Demeter, she was licensed by the gods to return to the middle world again, as long as she had not eaten anything while in the Underworld. But Persephone had partaken of six pomegranate seeds, and so it was judged that she could return to earth for only half of the year. During those six months that she remains in the Underworld, we have winter.  Similarly, the ways in which we think and speak, the concept that we use to frame experience, give their own limited seasonal coloration to our culture. Meaning is submerged in the very words we speak. We have little sophistication of expression in the West to speak about deeper, mythic states, which is probably why we have such a correspondingly rich folk-story tradition, which speaks of nothing else.

  The revolt against the lagnuage of winter is everywhere around us as people attempt to explain their own subtle experiences. This revolt often expresses itself in extreme ways - as an unhealthy stretching out toward the bizarre, the unexplained and the alien, when all the time the common but subtle experiences of life are so ordinary. When we begin to use the wisdom of the pomegranate seeds of language with the insight of those who have experienced the deep riches of the Underworld, we will be liberated Persephones, able to bring beautiful spring to our bare acres of expression.

"Recall a subtle experience of your own. Write it down or speak it onto tape in a way that captures the mood and experience."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Mantle of the Universe

The Mantle of the Universe

"You never enjoy the world aright, till the sea
itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed
with the heavens, and crowned with the stars."
   ___ Thomas Traherne, "Centuries"


   To re-experience the integration of ourselves with nature, we have to take ourselves out of our four walls and set our life-story in the context of nature's terms. This means becoming especially aware of one area of the natural world - an area that is our listening place, an area where we tune out the old broadcasts of our separateness and retune to the original station of the universal belonging . In that place we enter into a new relationship with nature, conducting a dialogue of one with the other, in which both parties speak and both listen to the other.
   In this communion, a further state of belonging may be experienced - initially just in brief glimpses, then sometimes for longer and longer periods. It is the condition that poet and mystic Thomas Traherne speaks of above: the temporary loss of our sense of identity, a softening of the hard boundaries that separate us from the tree and the animal, from the earth and the sunset. In this condition, we experience ourselves as no different from nature or anything within it. We come into true relationship with nature in such moments, which strip away our hubris, our control, and our feelings of separation and bring us once more under the mantle of the universe.

"Sit in nature and just be with it, without judgment or mental comment. Let your attention be drawn to one feature around you. Be present to it as though it were another being: listen and speak; speak and listen. Finally experience that feature and yourself occupying the same space, breathing the same air. Just be. Slowly reverse the steps above until you are fully restored to your own body and consciousness again."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Transmigration of Souls

Transmigration of Souls

"The same spirit has a body again elsewhere, and death
is but the mid-point of a long life."
   ____ Lucan, "Pharsalia"

  The druid belief in the transmiugration of souls is evidenced in Celtic literature, as a simultaneious belief in metamorphosis (a changing of one's shate), metempsychosis (a passing of the soul into another form), and reincarnation (a rebirth into a different human life). All three of these beliefs are evidenced in the story of Gwion (GWEE'on), who when chased by the goddess Ceridwen (Ker-RID'wen) assumes the shape of hare, fish, bird, and corn before being reborn as Taliesin (Tal-ee-ESS'in).  In the story of the Irish heroine Etain (e-TAWN), we learn of her enchantment into a pool of water, a worm, and a fly - metamorphosis in action; but when the fly is consumed in a cup of wine by Queen Etar (e-TAR), a new Etain is reborn in a human shape (reincarnation).
 
  Today many people are preoccupied with their past incarnations, more anxious to know the details of former lives than to get on and live the life they now inhabit. Such details rarely come to memory, however, and those that do are often very private and significant pointers to aspects of the current life that need attention. The Celtic belief in transmigration does not involve the past-dependency or life-sapping introversion that most modern reincarnational belief does.

  The Celtic attitude toward transmigration rather draws upon the bodily and genetic knowledge of former lives that inform this life in active and positive ways. It does not linger in the past but lives attuned ato the present, with a fearlessness toward death that reflects a healthy soul-spiral lived to the full.

"What wisdom do you carry from the former habitations of your soul?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" Cailin Matthews]

Death And Rebirth

The chambered tomb of Gavrinis (entrance opposite) stands  on a lonely 'isle of the dead' off the coast of Brittany. Its walls are engraved with patterns that have puzzled archeologists for centuries.

One theory is that, as part of an initiationa ceremony,

candidates were shut up in the tomb. In their terror,

they would have traced the spirals on the walls with

their fingers, and would eventually have been

'reborn' with a new understanding of reality, having

lost their fear of death. Often we have to stop clinging

onto our old ways before we can reach for the new.

Reaching for the new vision:

  You probably don't want to be shut in a tomb for days, but a 'retreat' from your everyday routine is essential if you need to make changes in your life.

   Go somewhere new for at least 24 hours - ideally longer. Leave behind your mobile phone (cellphone) and stay away from the radio and TV. Seek silence. Consider what you need to let go of and visualize the future you desire. Draw pictures and write poems based on this vision.

   When you go home the world will seem different and you will feel inspired and energized to make the necessary changes.

Isle of the Dead

Necessity

Necessity

"The art of our necessities is strange
That can make vile things precious."
     __ William Shakespeare, "King Lear"


    A touch of necessity may remind us uncomfortably of our mortality and transience, but it can also bring us to greater resourcefulness and clarity.  The human potential to overcome adversity has been proved in many extreme and hazardous circumstances. Those who can make do survive; those who are helpless without their conveniences do not. When life is pared to the bare bones, when stone soup is all there is to eat, the survivor will ensure that at least the soup is hot and reviving!

  The clarity that necessity brings, that we feel when inessentials are stripped away, can be a great gift - one that helps put our life back on track. This is why many cultures have spiritual beggars and mendicants, men and women who forswear the luxuries of life in order to experience the space that necessity makes around them.

  The ownership of good things by all is an ideal within our society. Though that ideal is complicated by the fact that one person's luxury is another person's necessity, by any standard we are far from it. Valuing the things that matter and not undervaluing our ability to be resourceful will help us to a more simple and less consumer-focused way of life, as well as setting a scale of necessity that brings us clarity.

"Choose one convenient thing on which you depend in your life and contemplate the difference
its lack would create. How would you manage without it; what would you use instead?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Forger of the Elements

The Forger of the Elements

"A shoemaker makes shoes without leather,
With all the four elements together,
Fire, Water, Earth, Air
And every customer takes two pair."
    --- ancient British riddle

  This riddle refers to the work of the blacksmith, who heats the fire for the furnace by means of the bellows, who hammers the softened metal into shape with his hammer, and then plunges it into the water to cool and fix its shape.  The blacksmith's customers are of course horses, who clop off with their two pair of shoes. The smith is a revered, almost magical figure among many traditional peoples worldwide because of the alchemy of his trade, which forges with the help of the elements. Those among the gods who are smiths play a prominent role in the defense of the land and the mysteries of the afterlife: the Welsh Gofannon and the Irish Goibniu ( Go-VANN'on and GUB'noo), for exampl, both make weapons of extraordinary power. The power to curtail life or to prolong it is part of the smith-god's skill. Goibniu - when he was not smithing - presided over the otherworldly feasting of heroes, supplying the food and drink that preserved the lives of all who partook of them.

   Whoever forges with the help of the elements is seen as a worthy guardian, one whose luck will embrace all in his household. The Celtic mediator of otherworldly skills and healing, and as one who can lead the dead from this world to the other. As we draw nearer to the festival of Samhain and toward the dark half of the year, we approach the time of introspection when the elements of our own life's forging can be refined and appreciated. When they no longer hold the life within our body, when our soul goes free of this life, they will become available for the smith to reforge another.

"How are the elements part of your own life's forging?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Earth Energy


  The Celts sited their temples carefully to exploit the energies of the earth. For example, a shrine to Manannan, the Lord of Waters, might be built near a river. Certain places held certain kinds of power, depending on factors such as the stone underlying them, the kinds of vegetation growing, and the positioning of nearby hills or waterways. Some places are healing, some energizing, some conducive to contemplation; while some have an uncomfortable or uncanny atmosphere.

The art of dowsing:

  Dowsing is an ancient method of detecting subtle currents of earth energy, such as underground water. A common technique involves holding a forked rod, usually made of hazel, in both hands with the single end pointing toward the ground. You should feel a reaction when you walk across a channel of energy - it might be a tingle in your hands, a twitching of the rod or a light vibration.

  It's important to feel relaxed, so prepare by stretching your muscles and breathing deeply. For practice, find a bridge over a river and familiarize yourself with the change in sensation when you move from bank to the bridge.
[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Hydromancy

Hydromancy is another ancient form of divination that goes back thousands of years and involves the use of water to bring messages. Water is a metaphor of creation linked to the flow of the collective unconsciousness, also known as the Hall of Records, Akashic Records, Grid Harmonics, matrix of experience within our reality.

Ancients would sit by a calm body of water and watch its flowing motion create patterns that they would interpret. Often a spirit would appear within the water and bring a telepathic message.

Great myths were created about sea creatures who live in the water.

The ancient Greeks believed that nature spirits dwelled in fresh water.

In ancient Initiation ceremonies one would spend hours gazing into a sacred pool of water, or large sacred urn filled with water, to receive messages from the gods. This generally involved time and focus, and the abilities of the initiate to focus within. This brought visions of gods and the future.

Many indigenous people use some form of water divination to receive messages. It was mostly subjective, but often more defining.

Nostradamus practiced Hydromancy as a means of receiving messages and predictions, through the movement of water in a bowl. He recorded what he saw, combined with psychic messages, with amazing accuracy. Unfortunatley most were too cryptic, as we still reference his quatrains to this very day, tyring to fiure them out as if encoded messages.

The more you learn to focus your mind while gazing into the water, the more quickly you open yourself up to receiving messages and understanding their meaning as most messages are cryptic.

Hydromancy Techniques

In Nature

Hydromancy is best done on a calm day alongside a body of water, such as a stream or lake, where you will gaze. Sit down. Relax and look within this natural body of water. Wait and observe. You can also drop a pebble in the water and read the ripples as they form. You might see an image appear in movement as water is always in transition, a metaphor for the flow of our reality. Some people prefer to gaze into water at night in the light of a full moon as lunar energies are linked to the goddess.


Indoors

Find a quiet area, free of distraction, as you will have to focus your mind.

Select a bowl in which you will place the water. It should not have a pattern on it.

Singing crystal bowls used for harmonics, may be used, but please be careful not to harm the bowl, as most are attuned for other purposes.

Otherwise, simple select a large, deep bowl made from glass, brass or silver. It must have a smooth and even rim. You may have to change bowls several times to find the right one for you. Remember, metal bowls carry harmonic frequencies.

Set the bowl in a dry level space, one in which you can easily observe.

The water used can be bottled, from a well, a tap, or a stream. It can also be stored an used at a future time to water scry again.

Water with great energy is often thought to be collected by the light of a full moon or the after standing in the sun.

Simple Observation Techniques

Place the bowl of water on a flat clear surface. Gaze into the still water and focus your mind until images appear.

Using a Wand

In some rituals people use a wand made from the branch of a bay tree, hazel tree or the laurel. The end of the wand should be covered in dry tree sap or resin. Dip the end of the wand into the water until it becomes wet. Wet the rims of the bowl. By gently drawing the rim of the wand around the bowl it will cause it to resonate. The action of the resonating basin will cause circular ripples to form in the basin. The water may seem to breathe with the sounds.

From:  http://crystalinks.com/waterscrying.html

Criticism

Criticism

"To correct is good, for the mind accepts correction; not so is reproach, against which
the mind rebels." 
  __ Colman Mac Beognae, "Apgitir Chabaid"
                (trans. CM)


   Certain kinds of criticism stick in the mind like a thorn. The words of the cleric Colman are specifically addressed to teachers within his monastery, but all who are in positions of authority and responsibility should guard their words carefully, lest reproach rather than correction come to their lips. This is especially true for parents, teachers, and all who deal with the young, who are especially susceptible to reproach. Continued critism, offered in place of helpful suggestion, can overwhelm a child and leave her with little self-esteem. Correction shapes technique and eliminates errors over the course of time, until the student himself becomes expert, able to guide and correct in his turn. Reproach, on the other hand, is like lime: whatever it touches immediately shrinks away. Wherever reproach has spread its acid, nothing further grows.

  Criticism springs from three desires: a desire to improve, a desire to detract and a desire to hide the same fault in oneself. The last of these desires is the deadliest: by casting criticism on others, we throw a convenient smoke screen over our own faults, which often perfectly mirror the thing we have pointed at elsewhere. The only way to guard against unwarranted criticism in daily life is to think first, keep silent when possible, and speak only words that will be received without undue offence.

"Consider a recent situation in which you were criticized or you criticized others. Was correction or reprach used?  What wisdom can you learn from the situation?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Landscape of Myth

For the Celts the outer reflected the inner, and certain places held a strong emotional charge. The sea was the cauldron which gave and took life; the beaches were the border between this world and the Otherworld (of the conscious and the unconscious); the mythical islands visited in the voyage poems each emboidied a particular state of consciouss.  Hills or mountains gave the close access to the world of the sky gods. And under the earth was the world where the fairies and gnomes ruled. 

The elemental world of the fairies

The Celtic fairy could be a dangerous creature who could steal your baby and

replace it with a sickly changeling, or put a hex on your cattle. On the other

hand, in Ireland, the Tuatha De' Danaan (Children of the Goddess Danu) were

tall shining beings with magical skills who lived in another dimension inside the

'hollow hills'. It is the fairies who create the natural world. And any enchanted

place will be the haunt of elemental spirits, if only you have the eyes to see them.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

And here is a link to a video about the Celtic Samhain (nice harp music in the background):

Celtic Festivals; Samhain  -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLZSy1GsvCk&feature=related

Authority and Authenticity

Authority and Authenticity

"Our deeds remain single till they wed perseverance."  __ Welsh proverb (trans. CM)


   Many people seek validation for their spiritual pathway. Because we may have generated the components of our spiritual search from many different places and traditions, we often have a feeling of fraudulence or lack of authenticity. Our efforts to make sense of these components, to make a living habitation or pathway from them are haunted by fear of authority. We feel that if we change the received pattern, if we deviate from the spiritual tradition into which we were born, we will be punished or shunned. This has certainly been the message given by organized religion to those on a spiritual search: authority is withheld from those who heretically deviate in our society; authenticity can derive only from the centrally authorized mandate.

  No human being shares the exact same spiritual path as another. Each person constellates various elements of spirituality, that speak to him, borrowing from old traditions and new perspectives. Finding authority for what we do, who are, cannot come solely from the human world: authenticity arrives when we have begun to move from the known into the unknown through the unique thresholds that life opens to us. Perseverance is the key.

Answer these questions to get a sense of your own search for authority and authenticity:

• Whose approval am I seeking?
• Who encourages me?
• How do I gain vitality?  What drains my vitality?
• Who/what do I need to control?
• To whome/what do I consistently relinquish power?
• What do I need for self-nurture?
• Which old repeating patterns prevent me living in balance?

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

Uninvited Guests

Uninvited Guests

"Three things that come without asking: fear,
jealousy, love."
   Scots Gaelic triad


   When fear grips us, our ability to act quickly or think clearly evaporates; we may become completely petrified and powerless. Fear often skims along just below the surface of perception, ready to appear when given opportunity. Its appeasing can lead to avoidance: we can be thrown out of the house of our soul by extreme fear. Fear cannot be evicted or overcome as such, though it can be transformed. Fear holds the key to lock away our abilities. To gain acess to them again, we have to grasp the key and transform fear into power, recognizing that one becomes the other, just as water becomes ice.

   Jealousy brings with it a fierce twisting of our perceptions so that everything concerning the object of our jealousy isdistorted. When Cuchulainn fell in love with another woman, his wife, Emer, was consumed by a terrible jealousy that changed her perceptions utterly: "What's red is beautiful, what's new is bright, what's tall is fair, what's familiar is stale. The unknown is honored, the known neglected." The only cure for Cuchulainn's enchantment and Emer's jealousy was for the God of the Otherworld, Manannan, to shake his cloak between them to bring them both forgetfulness. By all accounts, this is the only socially acceptabe antidote to this particular guest.

  Love is not altogether a welcome guest either. Its coming is often accompanied by disorientation and upheavel. It is frequently confounded with illness, as when King Ailell took to his bed with an unspecified disorder: his doctors finally proclaimed that he was suffeirng from 'the two deadly pangs which no doctor can cure: love and jealousy.'  The only remedy for love is reciprocated love; this and nothing else can erase the pangs.

"Which was the last of these uninvited guests to nvisit you?  How did you cope?  What did you learn from its visit?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Power of Three

  The Celts thought, spoke and wrote in threes. Three-pronged statements called triads encapsulated Celtic wisdom and history in a form that the bards could remember, recite and pass on to their successors. In folk tales the hero or heroine is often granted three wishes; the triple goddess and god arise in many forms; and, underlying all this, is the magical seccret about three - it is the first number after one! Because the moment you see one and two you have three, which is the relationship between them. This is the mysterious 'third force', which seems invisible, but makes all the difference.

The three fortunate concealments of Britain

"The first fortunate concealment: the head of Bran the Blessed, son of Llyr,

which was buried in the White Hill in London, with its face toward France...

Second, the dragons in Dinas Emrys, which Lludd son of Beli concealed

and the third: the bones of Gwerthefyr the Blessed, in the chief ports of

this island. And as long as they remained in that concealment, no]

Saxon oppression would ever come to this island."

Affirming threeness:

You can harness the power of three by making three affirmations at the beginning of each day. These may be specific statements of intent for the day or more general aims or observations. Express your affirmations in the positive rather than in the negative. For example:

1. I will get up right now and take a long walk in the woods before going to work.
2. I am enjoying my job, especially the long meetings, which give me a chance to observe how people are interacting with each other.
3. My relationship is deepening gradually and bringing me great sense of fulfilment.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations: by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Sleep and the Soul

Sleep and the Soul

"In sleep what are you, in sleep,
in the ebb of the tide:
a body dormant, a thing breathing,
or a soul afloat?
What are you in sleep
in the small watch of the night
but a ray of life regathering forces,
the secret retreat of light."
   __  Ross Nichols, "The Cosmic Shape"


   While we may not have a strong sense of what our sould does in its mysterious circuit of the night, most of us value the coming of darkness as a time of quiet, of winding down from the day's activities, of restoring ourselves in the cavern of sleep. For those who remember some of their dreams, there is the added pleasure of sharing in the adventures of the soul. Sometimes these are only a recapitulation of the day's activities; other times they are strange revelations whose meanings we can only guess at. And very occasionally, we find a treasury of meaning so overwhelming as to make us conscious of the soul's capacity.

  The circuits of the soul during sleep enter into a timelessness in which our past and future are inextricably mixed, in which we meet the dead, encounter the expected, and fly and dance and swim through the elements that we normally do not move within. Whether or not the daytime consciousness has a spiritual framework or dedication, the night-wandering soul encounters spiritual allies and experiences inspirational truths. Within the compass of sleep and night, the soul explores the unseen universe with skillful knowledge, leaving the body as a secret retreat of the light that will emerge at dawning. But it is in the night that the light shines brightest and can be perceived.

"Use the next twenty-four hours with awareness of the interconnectedness of night and day, soul and body." 
{From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Boasting

Boasting

"As blackbirds are to swans, as ounces to hundredweights,
As shapes of peasant-women are to noble queens....
As drones are to great music, as rushlights are to candles,
So is any sword to my own sword."
   ____ Saying of Colman mac Leinin (trans. CM)


   Most accounts of the early Celts note that boastfulness was virtually an art form among them, often leading to factionalism and argumentative competitiveness. These factors were instrumental time after time in the downfall of soverign Celtic nations, an inability to combine forces proving disatrous when organized foreign armies came against them.

  When boasting is lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek, when everyone else is in on the joke, it can be a pleasant after-supper pastime. Such boasting was often the custom during and after feasts: heroes would boast of their deeds and possessions in a way that now reminds us of the bluster of world-class wrestlers. But when boasting becomes seriously competitive, there can be problems.

  If we boast in the spirit of competition - whether we stretch the truth broadly or just embellish it - sooner or later we will be asked to run the race. One thoughtless boast can outrun our ability to perform it very easily; a lifetime habit of boasting can swathe the boaster in a garment of illusion that will eventually be seen through.

"Check up on your own boast factor and ensure that it will not distrub the peace. Remember times when boasting caused you trouble."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


Riddles

   The bard Taliesin framed his mystical insights in riddling verse that hinted at a reality too big and too slippery for the normal mind to grasp. He could not say directly what he meant -- he needed to stretch the imagination of his listeners to lead them to the truth. Indeed, this was one of the roles of the bard: to convey secret or sacred knowledge in verse.

An Elementary Riddle:

Can you identify the 'strong creature' in this riddle by Taliesin?

Discover thou what is
The strong creature from before
the flood,
Without flesh, without bones,
Without vein, without blood,
Without head, without feet,
It will neither be older nor younger
Than at the beginning.

The Riddle of the Cauldron:

 Now try to answer this question, often asked of apprentice druids:  "What two words are never spoken from the cauldron?" (A clue: the cauldron contains the water of life, which never stop moving....)

Such riddles are like Zen koans (paradoxes) - the key is to think about them, even if you don't get the
'right' answer.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

The Triskele of Energy

The Triskele of Energy

"Energy is eternal delight"
   __ William Blake, "Energy is eternal delight."


   The Celtic peoples had a sacred symbol that embodied the energy of life. In the interlocking continuity of movement within the triskele - the three legged cross - we see the spiraling movement of life. Its perpetual motion, turning its three legs ever sunwise, is the very turas of delight. The three-legged whirligig of the triskele appears in Celtic art from the fifth century B.C. on, adorning many articles as the central design feature. It is a sign of good fortune, all things moving sunwise in the centrifugal dance of life. The triskele preserves the wearer from scathe and gives him a long life.

   The triskele spins like a whirlpool or a propeller blade, lending its threefold motion to the wheel of life. Stasis is not in its nature. The innate triplicity of the cosmos underscores the whole of Celtic culture, providing a sacred impetus for all action. Each leg of the triskele is one limb of the sacred spirit of all life; all three legs together imbue the universe with the energy to activate the body, heart, and mind of all beings with physical vitality, emotional responsiveness, and mental agility, unlocking the wealth of our potential from sheer inertia, emotional stasis, and mental laziness. The energy of the threefold triskele runs consciously upon its qualities, we can grace our lives with an ever-living energy that encompasses the beginning, middle, and end of everything we undertake.

"If there is any leg of the triskele to which you are unresponsive, look to the appropriate areas in your own life to see what fear, doubt, or uncertainty is keeping you static and unmoving in your developement."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Endless Knot

   The Celts were fascinated by the symbol of the endless knot - an elaborately interlaced line without a starting or finishing point. The knot is a kind of Celtic mandala, a cosmic mind-map. It expresses the Celts' belief in eternity - a transcendental state beyond the material world.

Meditate on the Eternal Truth:

Meditate on the endless knot as the ultimate reality of the cosmos, the eternal truth of existence, the immortality of the spirit.

1.  Sit comfortably with the endless knot in front of you. Breathe evenly and deeply.
2. Focus your awareness on the endless knot. Let the image seep into your consciousness.
3. Don't attempt to put your thoughts into words, but just sit there, with the knot in your mind, calmly experiencing the present, sensing time as a continual flow inseparably linked with eternity. Stay like this for five to ten minutes.
4. Find your meditation by repeating to yourself seven times the following affirmation: "Each moment is a curve on the endless knot of time."

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Culture

Culture

"The purpose of culture is to enhance and intensify one's vision of that synthesis of truth and beauty which is highest and deepest reality."
    ___ John Cowper Powys, "The Meaning of Culture"


   Culture is not only for the specialist, the expert, or the rich and powerful: it embraces everyone in its cloak. What are taken for the highest achievements of a civilization - the art, music, drama, poetry, film and so of a people - are not culture's only expression. Culture also includes fashion, sport, science, gardening and a mass of other areas that define a society's interest in itselfand its environment.

  How do we bring balance and harmony - the fruit of truth and beauty - to our culture? By honoring the wider vision of whatever branch of culture we are most involved with - not only guarding its boundaries from inappropriate incursions but also looking for ways through which we can expand our human vision to its fullest expression. By ensuring that commerical interest does not become the paramount thrust of our vision. By warranting that the vision does not become hidebound by custom.

   This latter element is crucial. We cannot inhabit our romantic percetion of past ages or keep culture in a traditional backwater. This is especially so of the Celtic traditions, which many people would like to have preserved as a time-warped romance. Such a vision may be fine in a museum, but it will not serve in daily life today. Taking only what is finest and fittest for our culture and submitting it to the tests of truth and beauty, we can find ways of living our culture with dynamism and delight.

"How are you woven in the cloak of your culture? Reflect on the core principles that underlie your particular strand or interest."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


Celtic Spirituality

   Long before the Celts swept westward, the native peoples of Europe embodied their knowledge of the sun, moon and stars in monuments such as Stonehenge in England, Newgrange in Ireland and the Ring of Brodgar in Orkney (Scotland).  When the Celts came, there was a reservoit of native wisdom for them to tap into and make their own. The bards and druids carried on the wisdom tradition, and the stone circles were incorporated into Celtic tales and ceremonies.

  Early writings show that, on the western seaboard at least, the Celtic gods and goddesses were grouped into various families, such as "Children of Don", known in Ireland as the "Tuatha De' Danaan" and the "Children of Llyr". Many Celtic tales tell of these gods: Don, or in Ireland Danu, the great mother goddess who gave her name to many of the rivers of Europe, such as Dnieper and the Don; the magical child Lleu, or Lugh, who grows up to become a solar hero; Manannan mac Llyr, the sea god, equivalent of the Greek deity Poseidon (the Isle of Man is named after him); Arianrhod, the shining virgin goddess whose castle - Corona Borealis - can be seen among the stars; Bran the Blessed, the great king who sacrifices his head in order to save his land; and Morgan, or the Morrigan, the dark goddess who haunts the battlefields in the shape of a black crow to collect the souls of the dead. These deities are found all over the Celtic world with slight variations and under different names. When the Romans came it often happened that their gods merged with the Celtic ones, and names were changed again.

  With the coming of Christianity nmany of the Druidic wizards converted to the new faith. As a part of the same process, some of the old gods were transformed into saids; for example, the triple goddess Brigid became St. Brigit. This religion, with its emphasis on love and individual salvation, appealed to the Celtic spirit, and a golden age of Celtic Christianity arose; great men like Columba founded monasteries, most notably Iona, and the exquiste illuminated gospels, such as those from Laudisfarne and Kells, were created.

  True Celtic spirituality is neither pagan nor Christian but something that transcends these catagories. It is based on a deep connection with the natural world, a relentless intellectual curiosity and a sense of comradeship with all creatures. The Arthurian legends, which are of Celtic origin, weave these strands into the world-famous story of Arthur and Guinevere, and their court at Camelot. Their doomed love, the coming of the wasteland and the quest for the Grail, which brings regeneration and hope, are all quintesssentially Celtic themes.
[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]