"I am the author
written into the
greenbook of the grass,
the primal scripture."
___ Bill Lewis, "The Skyclad Christ"
The idea of a document's being 'scriptural,' - that is, having authority - is intregal to Western thought. We no longer remember that wisdom, knowledge, and teaching were covered primarily by oral means, but in early Celtic times it was the
word that had authority, not what was written. The druids did not write their teachings down; they conveyed them by word of mouth direct to the ear of hearer. Nothing intervened.
Beyond oral traditions of transmission is another level of understanding that human beings have largely forgotten but, the animals still live by and understand - the gospel of the grass. The connective principles of the green world have their own authority and primacy in the transmission of living wisdom. The 'Book of Job' compares all life to grass, and speaks of the way in which the upspringing grass shoot that withers away is cast into the fire to be burned. Yet this green shoot feeds the human and animal worlds. The green grain ripens into the golden harvest that makes our very bread.
Before people spoke, or wrote, or even existed, the grasses were growing and swaying in the wind. If we are able to listen to the wisdom of the green world with our instinctive senses, we may hear the primal scripture that has its own spiritual language and understand the knowledge that transcends all religious boundaries.
"If you can, sit with the grass and listen to the wisdom of the green world today. What does it tell you?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
Footnote to the image in this entry:
In the Garden of Dreams.
The sculpture was made by brother and sister team Sue and Pete Hill. There best known works are the series of earth and plant sculptures they made for the Lost Garden of Heligan and for the Eden Project.
This sculpture was created as a sister to the Mud Maid which can be found at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall.
No comments:
Post a Comment