"Too many men and women spend their time between an
office and a home in a state of intellectual stupor."
___ Llewelyn Powys, "Earth Memories"
Among the bards and druids, the training of the mind and memory was of paramount importance; the continual use of memory kept open the neural pathways, making response quick and incisive. Speed of mind meant speed of tongue: the swifter-than-thought pronouncement of judgment or pithy and apposite verse was expected of bards and druids. While there are many professions today that use training methods to sharpen the intellect, most of us do not exercise our minds to any great degree. Instead of thinking deeply about a thing, we often summon up our sensations, emotions, and instincts and create an opinion woven of these strands. Although the intellect needs stimulus and training, it still has its place in the scheme of things.
In the wintertime, the air is clearer and crisper, the brain seems to work just that little bit more quickly than it does in the summer. Those of us who are intellectually flabby may find that now is a good time to exercise our intellect, to stretcvh it further than it is accustomed to. The process of learning something is one way to engage the intellect; if there is no time for that, however, engaging in deep discussion about a topic is important to you with freinds or reading something that stretches your conceptual apparatus is also beneficial. There are no set boundaries on the limits of human intellect: see how far we each can go!
"Exercise with the spirit of the country in which you live. Ask it what are the freedoms and privileges that it guards. Ask how these freedoms are to defended and what is the greatest threat to them at this time."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. Above the entrance to the passage of the Newgrange mound there is a opening called a roof-box.
On mornings around the winter solstice a beam of light penetrates the roof-box and travels up the 19 metre passage and into the chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens so that the whole chamber is dramatically illuminated.
Winter Solstice is the time when light is born out of the womb of winter's darkness. Every year, on or around December 21st, the sun appears to stand still, or rise and set in the same place for a few days. It is the time of the longest night, when Earth's very breath seems to falter in the face of the overpowering dark. Then, imperceptibly at first, the sun begins its long journey toward the south, and all of creation begins to exhale.
Rituals for welcoming back the sun date from the dawn of civilization, as communities come together to celebrate life with feasting, music, dance, drama, and above all, light and fire. Whereas today we tend to think of Christmas as a single day or weekend even, most cultures suspend normal work routines and celebrate for at least twelve days.
In ancient Rome the Winter Solstice was welcomed with a joyous and unruly feast known as Saturnalia. By the second century C.E. they also celebrated the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun on December 25th, a custom that originated in Syria. Further north, Scandinavians celebrated Yule, a name that could mean 'wheel' or that possibly gives the root wood for 'jolly.'
The exact nature of the early Celtic celebrations are not known because in the fourth century C.E. the Church of Rome overlaid the old festival of the birth of the Sun with the birth of the Son. The actual birthday of Christ had never been certain, so after much debate the ancient midwinter feast was chosen because people were used to celebrating the birth of a sun god or hero at this time of the year. Even then, the Church fathers had to continually remind believers that they were supposed to be worshipping the birth of Christ, not the Sun. For although this holiday now had a new name, many of the same customs were carried on as they had been for thousands of years and for the same reason to banish the dark and welcome back the light.
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