Spontaneity

Spontaneity

"When he sees the subject - a person or thing - before him, the poet makes a verse at once upon his finger ends, or in his mind without studying: composting and repeating simultaneously."
   ____ "Cormac's Glossary,"  ed. Kuno Meyer

    The ability to be spontaneous is granted when we touch something deeply important: a moment of clarity in which we see an eternal truth. We give our truest reactions and utterances when we stand at the moment in question, all previously prepared words and actions suddenly voided in the face of the moment. A spontaneous response results, if only we can trust it. Spontaneity requires us to let go of fear and of continual self-observation, to let pass the deeper truths that we have perceived or that have touched a chord in our soul.

   Spontaneity is a great gift, and it grows stronger in us the more we attend to the present moment rather than living forever in the past or in the future: both memory and expectation can get in its way and expunge the upflowing revelation. Spontaneity occurs when all our senses are attuned to the present moment, when we see through the veil that usually separates us from the otherworld and see its bridging connections coming through to our side of reality.

  Spontaneity lifts the ordinary dull rote of existence into life of another order; it is a sparkling touch of revelation that responds to whatever is true, beautiful, and harmonious, giving energy to the living moment.

"Mediate upon the dull and unyielding areas of your life. Now temporarily remove the rules, limits, and proscriptions that surround these areas. Allow truthful realizations about the connection between your controlling or limiting behavior and the flow of your life to spontaneously arise, even though their realizations might initially seem frivolous or irrelevant."
{From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews}

Merlin of the Woods

Merlin In the Woods

"He became a silvan man just as though devoted to the woods. For a whole summer after this, hidden like a wild animal, he remained buried in the woods, found by no-one and forgetful of himself and his kindred."

   When Merlin views the terrible battle of Arfderydd (Arv-DAIR'with), he becomes mad and runs into the depths of the forest. Within the forest's embrace, he becomes one with the trees and seasons and puts aside the terrible sights he has seen to focus upon the gifts of the wild world, becoming rusticated and 'uncivilized.'

   Ever pertinent and prophetic, he sees through the pretexts and pretensions of those who come to lure him back to civilization with the sure instinct of an animal, with the abiding perception of long-lived tree. Rather than look into the book of human nature, he prefers to consult the almanac of the seasons and discovers his center within their compass.

    But no human being however gifted, can remain forever in the wild.
    The displacement of our lives by difficult events may not be as severe as in Merlin's experience, but we each go through periods when the flow of events swirls past us too swiftly for us to cope. It is then that the indwelling presences of nature, the little unregarded things that surround us, reveal their own life and wisdom. These become precious handholds along the precipitous rock-face of our lives. Their innate familiarity makes them an ally capable of leading us on the pathway home to our soul.

"Recall a time of personal disorientation. What factors were most important to your return to health and confidence?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Green Man

The Green Man

"Every man marvelled mightly what it should mean
That a man and his horse should be such colour green."
   ____ "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", anon. Irish poem, (trans CM)


    Throughout northern and western Britain, this day is the focus of many May-time customs. These customs, banned by Parliament under the Commonwealth in the seventeenth century, were reinstated at the Restoration of the monarchy, when King Charles II made his triumphal entry into London.  Known thereafter as Oak Apple Day, it is celebrated in Britain by the wearing of springs of green oak leaves.

   An earlier veneration was restimulated by an incident that befall Charles II when he was but a prince. Fleeing from the parliamentarian soldiers, Charles was forced to hide in an oak tree. But the face peering out from the green leaves, originally in the primeval forest but now also in contemporary May-time celebrations, is a much earlier one: that of the Green Man.

   The Evergreen God is one of the earliest deities. He is represented in many summertime customs by mummers and disguisers who wear garlands of leaves and flowers or cover their bodies in greenery to ceremonially show the Green Man to the people.  He comes out of the primal, all-encompassing forest that once covered the earth, dynamic and vigorous, with pulsing sap of summer in his veins.

   The Green Man is the irrepressible wildness of the world of vegetation. He bides in the stillness of the deep forest or dances in the sun filled arcs of leaf-green light that filter through the branches of the tree canopy. His name is delight, and his meaning mysterious - a potent  sexual force that invigorates the earth at this time. As the Evergreen God, he is likewise potent in the wintertime when he plays a riddling game at the thresholds of the year with such daring ones as Sir Gawain.

"Ask your spiritual allies to take you to meed the Green Man in meditation or soul-flight."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Negative Potential

Negative Potential

"There's no more savage beast stalks through
Wales than  the four-legged beast who talks."
     ___ Welsh proverb


    This grim little proverb sees humanity as the most savage beast that walks the earth, the top predator of the animal kingdom rather than the supreme species. The truth is known in our hearts: that every human being living is capable of acts of great cruelty. This capacity is not always acted upon, of course, but it remains as a kind of negative potential, a misuse of our human abilities that can bring about terrible violence and harm.

   Acts of violence, harm and coercive manipulation can stem from good intentions as well as from bad ones. There is no point in taking the moral high-ground against a particular trouble spot unless we each first understand our personal capacity for negative potential. Only a clear examination of motivation and intention and mutual vigilance can keep us from walking the same road as the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

   Neither religions nor ideologies, however ideal, have the monopoly on the one correct way to behave. The only valid criteria for action are truth, compassion, and justice, together with a deep comprehension of the laws of cause and effect and a firm grasp upon the ethical pathways that lie under the feet of every human being alive.

"Contemplate your own negative potential. What areas are potentially hazardous for you? Where do you have to be most careful in your actions? Clarify your motivations in order to place your life on an ethical pathway."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Inauguration

Inauguration

"There was a square stone....with a man's foot cut thereon, upon which he stood, denoting that he should walk in the footsteps and uprightness of his predecessors."
    ____ Hugh MacDonald of Sleat, "On the inauguration of Kings," quoted in Caitlin Matthews, "Arthur and the Sovereignty of Britain"


The ancient inauguration ceremonies of Gaelic rulers were far from the coronation rituals of modern monarchy. Instead of receiving a diadem or crown to mark the beginning of a reign, Celtic kings stood or were ceremonially ensconced upon a stone that conferred the rights of kingship. Many such ancient stones remain, including the famous stone at Dunadd in western Scotland; it has the impression of a footprint upon it in which rulers would stand - literally standing in the footsteps of their ancestors - to be acclaimed king.

From the swearing in of a new president or the chairing of a judge or the election of candidates to office, to the first day at a new job or the acceptance of great responsibility or the first moments as a parent or householder, we all need rites of inauguration to mark the special moment, making it a day to remember. Our ability to accept responsibility and maintain our obligations is invested in where and how we stand. For we make deep footprints upon the earth itself - footprints in which only those willing to share a like commitment will ever want to stand.

"In whose footprints do you aim to stand in a responsible and committed way? What kind of footprints will you leave? What are the oaths and promises that you have made to stand where you do?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Security of Home

The Security of Home

"A house where rain does not pour,
A place where spear-points do not threaten,
As bright as a garden but with no fence about it."
    ____ "Subhne Geilt," anon. Irish poem (trans CM)


    The security of home is something settled people gladly take for granted. For the normal, home is the place you happen to be. For the traveler, home - and the longing to be there again - is the spur to a speedy returning. For those made homeless against their will, home is the Holy Grail of their desire. But even those of us who have a home, one that we are streetwise and alert in protecting, sometimes long to be in a place of greater security and safety, a place where we simply cannot be got at.

   The security of being at home with oneself, at home in one's being can never be forgotten once it has been experienced. This sense of ease, insightful understanding, and peace provides a new kind of security. Although people often reach this state through a sudden shock, or realization, it is also accessible through a daily regime of meditation or regular contemplation alone in any place where we feel empowered. In this time alone, we make friends with our soul, allowing it to become expansive and fully fledged.

   The security of home does not derive solely from being in a 'nice neighborhood' or a beautiful environment; it comes in part from the innate sense of being at home with our soul. The safe circle of home is the expectation of every human being, the right of every child. Home is our microcosm, our little world, supplying comfort, warmth, nourishment,m and a safe environment for learning about who we are.

"Make a blessing of protection for all within your household."
[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 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 living 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 King Who Will Come

The King Who Will Come

"He is remembered in the stars - Arcturus and Telyn Idrys -
and the mountains do not forget."
    ___ John Matthews, "The King's Moon Rite"


   The title that medieval legend gave to King Arthur was Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus - literally, "The King Who Was and the King Who Shall Be."  If we look at the unfolding story of King Arthur as he moves from Celtic warlord to medieval king, from a figure of myth and legend to the refiguring of the archetype within the many novels and stories of our own era, we recognize a potent legend that has given Arthur's name long life and glory beyond the days of his actual existence.

   The need for the only heroic is one that seizes every generation. We hunger after heroes who win through great odds, titans whose stories bring hope in dark and difficult times. Those who have heroic capability soon pass beyond the limits of their own lives; they become invested with the regalia of sovereignty - the weapons, tools, and emblems of the qualities by which they are known and to which they are entitled by right of intention, deed, and common consent. Even if heroic qualities are innate in someone, however, that person becomes a hero only if he assents to live beyond the limits of one existence.

   Those who have experienced the inspiration of heroes in their lives know the reality of these deathless ones, those who stand by our side and show us how to go through motions of heroism when we stand friendless and in need. There is an undying sovereignty in every heroic heart that causes us to say, "The king is dead!" and "Long live the king!" in the same breath.

   From what unimaged futures will Arthur come among us again? He who is not dead, but resting in Avalon,  is not a done-for king but a king of all our futurity.

"Which heroes - male and female - inspire you? How do their deeds and qualities live in you?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Everyday Love

Everyday Love

"Too late I understood
That love is not in the blood,
But in every simple kindness I denied
To those to whom I owed humanity,
Just because they were day by day beside me."
     ____Kathleen Raine, "The Oracle in the Heart"


    We have no word except kindness for the love that we use every day. Kindness is a courtesy that we ow to all, an act of inclusion that notices the human condition and its needs, however rushed we mat be. The kindness is not a custom that comes naturally. Concern, politeness, attention - all these have to be noticed and learned as we grow up.
   Those who are most often with us can become so much a part of the furniture, so much an extension of our life and household, that we often forget the basic courtesies of kindness, treating them with the same kind of forgetfulness that we may have for ourselves. This may trigger the revelation that we have little self-respect, only a cold contempt that arises from a deep personal unworthiness. If we feel that we stand beyond the inclusive circle of regard, we will not be capable of generating much kindness toward others.
    Loving-kindness is not innate. It has to be practiced with everyone we meet, friend or stranger. The obligation of humanity is to give respect to those to whom it is due; each of us, though, has someone who stands outside that circle, someone whom we exclude as unworthy, some group or association that we feel does not mean out kindness or our attention, never mind our love.

"When do include within your circle of kindness?  Whom do you exclude? Where is respect due to yourself; where do you stand in the circle?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Courting the Inspirer

Courting the Inspirer

"The Muse,nae poet ever fand [found] her, 
Till by himself he learn'd to wander
Adown some trotting burn's meander, 
An' no think lang [long}."
    ___ Robert Burns, "Epistle to William Simpson, Ochiltree"


   We frequently read about the must, the female form that inspiration takes for men. She is courted by artists who know that they cannot create alone, who need to be folded within her embrace before the creative speak leaps the synapse of potentiality. We hear less about the forms that inspiration takes for women, who are no less inspired as artists and creators then men, although the inspirer most often appears to them in male form. The inspirer of women is  the daimon (DYE'-mone), the quicksilver spirit who, like the golden muse, brings the wealth of the imaginable realms of creation to our world.
   Sometimes the qualities of our muse, or daimon, are seen to temporarily reside in or become superimposed upon a living person, someone who shows us how desire, joy, love, and inspiration fuse together in creation. Sometimes the muse or daimon is seen not in a person but in a place, which fires us with inspiration. The embrace of nature becomes the embrace of the inspirer. In an act of participation as intimate as making love, the creator walks with the inspirer in the place of making.
   When the inspirer is absent from us, we feel as empty as if a lover had gone. To woo the inspirer, we must go faithfully, time after time, to the threshold places where our soul is exposed to beauty - go without expectations to cloud our coming, without demands or extortions to coerce the erring inspirer to visit us again. Venturing into the frontiers of creation, we come to meet with the one who makes our heart's wish leap into verdant life again.

"What are the forms of your inspirer? Who most resembles your must or daimon in the world?" 
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Restoring the Web

Restoring the Web

"May there be peace in the North;
May there be peace in the South;
May there be peace in the West;
May there be peace in the East.
May there be peace throughout the whole world."
   ___ Druidic blessing given to the four directions

   The giving of peace to the directions symbolically actually changes the whole ambiance of a circle meeting, and the relationship of the people within it to each other and to all that lies beyond its limits. It is a calling together or re-formation of a primal web of unity and harmony that individual and corporate acts have torn or fragmented.
   When we open to sacred space and focus spiritually, we first need to put ourselves in right relationship to the whole world, in both its seen and unseen aspects. To proceed without some act of truce, some easing of earthly anxieties and expectations, is to proceed unprepared, to view the sacred heart of the ceremony, prayer, or meeting, through the eyes of our fears and disquietings.
   The circle itself is a restatement of the web of life, of connection and unity. Whenever we meet together in this way, we potentially recreate its delicate networks of connection. Even within each encounter with another person, we have to carry this intention of peacefulness, to send over to that person a thread that can become a pathway to peace.  If we meet in anger, disgust, or scorn, we sever all possible connections that can exist between us. When we have learned what maintains us within the circle of life, then we are able to be in right relationship to its supporting web.

"Create your own act of reconciliation with the apparent and unseen worlds, for use beforee you open sacred space." 
 [From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Plenty Enough

Plenty Enough

"My chosen husbandry I'll reveal, without concealment:
Fresh leeks, hens, speckled salmon, bees.,
Sufficient clothes and food from the King of fair fame,
And chance to sit at times, praying God in each place."
    ___ St. Manchan, "Prayer" (trams CM)


    The fantasy of future perfect conditions, of how life will be when we make the big time, often hides the fact of our present plenty, which we take for granted. In a consumerist society, we are tempted to go after more when we actually have enough of something, becoming hoarders or collectors rather than users of a commodity.
    And yet, even when we have every good thing that money can buy, if we do not have the simple commodities listed in Manchan's poem - clean water and air, fresh food free of contamination or toxicity, the company of like-souled people to share our plenty - then we are truly impoverished.
    How can we truly appreciate what we have? Learning to live with enough, rather than with indulgence, may help us balance the availability of all good things, help us refrain from using more than we need.
     An indwelling sense of scarcity may derive from feelings of inadequacy and our desire to make good the deficiency, or it may originate in fear of poverty. To obtain a sense of plenty, we have only to appreciate the things we enjoy and own on a daily basis to be glad of the way that they sustain and support our lives.

"Take time to contemplate your present life-style. Where do you need to rein in your consumption? Appreciate the plenty you enjoy and give thanks for it."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Creative Ingredients

Creative Ingredients

"Four things are needed by every work of art: a place, a time, an
author, and a cause."
    _____ "The Martyrology of Oenigus," ed. W. Stokes, (trans CM)


    There are many ideas and inspirations wandering throughout the world. They seem to be shaken like stardust over everything, to be caught in handfuls by those who are ready to receive them, or missed by those who have not got a cause in their sights. The extraordinary way in which an idea seems to proliferate in the air is remarkable: several inventors invent the same thing simultaneously; several writers are inspired to write similar books; several musicians compose and record similar tunes. All inspirations must find an author to express them in some form. From the unseen depths of the formative otherworld, many ideas may go forth, but only a few will fall to earth, only a handful will actually find their mode of manifestation. If the author, musician, artist, scientist or inventor is not receptive to the ideas that flow, nothing comes into being; the idea passes on, waiting to be received by someone who is ready and willing.

    Yet even readiness and willingness are not enough: time and place must also be right. Both opportunity and space must be found to bring the idea into manifestation. Timeliness is about the attunement of opportunity and creative impulse to each other. Place is not only about location but about correct placement of our idea.

   The struggle to make our ideas manifest must account for all these ingredients. If we try to avoid or omit any of them, we quickly face frustration and dissatisfaction. The coming into being of a creative piece of work is an act of birth that results from many secret unfoldings and preparations.

"Check the progress of the creative spark within your own act of making. Are you ready and prepared; is this the right time; is the world ready?"
{From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Entering the Charmed Circle

Entering the Charmed Circle

"Open the portal!"
"I will not open it."
"Wherefore not?"
"None may enter Arthur's hall but the son of a king of a privileged country or a craftsman bringing his craft."
     ____Culhwch and Olwen, from The Mabinogion


    This dialogue is between the porter of King Arthur's hall and Culhwch (KIL'ook), a young kinsman of Arthur's who arrives after the feasting has begun. He seeks to enter the charmed circle of the feast to gain his uncle's help and has to persuade his way in past the resolute porter, who has been given orders that no one may gain admittance.

    We each draw upon a network of people and things to fuel the power circuit of our lives: environment, habits and familiar things, relationships to people, our job, family and personal connections are all important factors in our lives. We base our power network on many things. Finding out where our power lines are truly strong and where they are based on dependency or appropriation is an important task. Claiming kinship with things with which we have no actual personal association, boasting and exaggerating our links with these things, can give us a find feeling of strength; but that feeling is illusory When our bluff is called and we attempt to call upon those strengths, they prove to be unsupportive and the whole facade tumbles down, leaving us exposed.

   We earn the right to enter the charmed circle of acquaintance or association only when we show proper commitment, when we prepare ourselves and make the trial. Wanting to be in the exclusive club is a terrible hankering for some. Nothing can replace the sense of fellowship and belonging that results when she is truly welcomed as a kindred spirit.

"Which charmed circles, and associations am I attempting to enter? By what right?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Living Ancestors

The Living Ancestors

"When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them
as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this."
   ___ Philip Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Tradition"


    Theoretically, we each have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on, back in time. In practice, though, if each person alive continued that exponential progression for, say, thirty generations, we would come up with more people than were on earth at that time. Genealogists tell us that if we each went back about seventeen generations, we would find many family relationships between ourselves and people of our acquaintance. In follows, then, that we are all intimately related to each other, that our personal ancestors are shared with many thousands of people alive today.

   These shared ancestors are the ones with whom we can relate, even though we may not have details of their names and places. Not all were wise or clever or happy for all human beings make mistakes and bad decisions. But the ones who were wisdom-bearers and way-showers in their lives have not ceased from these roles. By asking our spiritual allies in meditation to take us to meet one or more of our wise ancestors, the living ancestors, we can travel to the timeless otherworld and visit them. We can discover new spiritual allies in our living ancestors, consulting them about matters to do with our family, our way of life, and ways of responding the spiritual core of all things.

"Ask your spiritual allies to help you meet one of your wise ancestors in meditation and soul-flight."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Blodeuwedd

Blodeuwedd

"I was made through the ninefold elements:
From fruit trees, from paradisal fruit:"
   ___Taliesin, "Cad Goodeu" (trans CM)


   When the Welsh goddess Arianrhod (Ar-ee-ANN'brode) is tricked into bearing a son, she retaliates against her scheming brother Gwydion (GWID'yon), who has taken the boy into his fosterage. She states that the boy will have no name or manly arms unless she gives them to him, nor will he ever have a wife of human stock. Gwydion contrives to trick Arianrhod into calling the boy "Lleu" (HLY) and into arming him but even Gwydion's magic cannot circumvent the problem of a wife. With the help of Math (MAHth), he brews flowers to create a woman: Blodeuwedd (Blod-EYE'weth), the 'flower-faced'. Lleu loves her, but he neither seeks nor wins her consent. Blodeuwedd takes a secret lover of her own choice, who under her tutelage, fashions a deadly spear designed to kill Lleu at his most vulnerable moment, though he escapes death. The vengeful Gwydion, distraught at the injury to his nephew, turns Blodeuwedd into an owl, shunned forever by the birds of day.

   In this complex tangle of immortal vengeance and magical trickery, Blodeuwedd emerges as the one most manipulated. Conjured from the essences of flowers and plants, she does not consent to be a human woman, nor wife of a man she has never met. Her beauty and sexual urges are those of a plant, not those of a woman. The profligacy and bounty of Blodeuwedd are abroad at this time of year as the blossom gives promise of fruit to come. The coming of Blodeuwedd to every bough reminds us that if blossom is picked now, no fruit will result: it must stay upon the bough, unless we would reap a barren autumn. When the blossom is ready to depart from the growing fruit, it will send its soft, owl-feathered petals of snow over the earth in its own time and season.

"What elements make up your own sexual nwyfre? "
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Awakening the Dragon

Awakening the Dragon

"Love is the power to feel through the feet
into Earth and through the spine into heaven
to mingle into motion the inner wheels, to
awaken the sleeping Serpent."
    _____ Del Hughes, "Sacred Loyalties"


    As the glory of May-time unfurls in every leaf and flower, we begin to feel a new well-being in our bodies, a sense of vigor and energy that we have lacked over the cold months of winter. In terms of Celtic understanding, we are experiencing the nwyfre (NWIVE'ry) of the earth in our own bodies. Nwyfre is a Welsh word that means the subtle energy field of the earth; it is also often used poetically for the sky or heavens.

   Every sentient being has its own energy field or nwyfre as well. The symbolic representation of nwyfre is the dragon, which is a very important emblem in Britain (the red dragon being the guardian beast of Wales and appearing upon its flag). The awakening of the dragons is the land traditionally happens about the time Beltane. The nwyfre of the land rises up at summer's approach and the dormant dragons, emblems of the land's power, rise from their dark earth caverns upon powerful wings.

   To experience the awakening of the dragons of nwyfre in our own bodies, we need to take ourselves out into the open air, to stand without concrete between our bare feet and the earth, to experience the daily miracle of life within our bodies. If we make this our practice, our nwyfre will not be lacking.

"Stand on the green earth and close your eyes, soaking up the light of the sun and the warmth of the earth at the same time. Be aware of the nwyfre of the earth. Now become aware of your own. As you breathe in, experience drawing up the subtle energy of the earth. Give thanks for renewed energy and life."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


  

Light in Darkness

Light in Darkness

"O Greatness, hear! O Brightness hark!
Leave us not little, nor yet dark!"
    ____ John Mansfield, "The Box of Delights"


   From the beginning of time, people have been appealing to the Power that lies beyond their comprehension when they are in trouble. This Power has been invoked under many names by many people. In our current postreligious age, there is some uncertainty about this Something we appeal to. We know that it is Big and that it sheds Light, but we are often at a loss to name it.

   As we began to disbelieve in the lode-bearing stories and lost patience with the ancient metaphors for the Divine, we entered a no-man's-land where the most authoritative images are scientific or cosmic. The rumor in that land is that there may be no Big Something. But never, fear, say some: in the last event there is ourselves after all!

   This sad, lonely place is inhabited by many who no longer reach toward the beautiful, the glorious, or the holy in a daily connective way. For them, there is not even a metaphor to put in place of the sacred. Whether for us the Greatness is understood as immanent , transcendent, or actually present, it contrives to protect us when we ask for protection. Whether the Brightness is seen as a candle, a lamp, or a planetary body, it contrives to leave us less dark.

   To comprehend the enormity and illumination of the Divine, we must look into our own hearts and perceive the metaphors that define for ourselves the immensity, the friendship, the beauty, and the eternal brightness, using words and images that are meaningful upon our own urgent tongues.

"To what or whom do you appeal when you are in crisis? What metaphors define the Divine for you?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The War With the Green

The War With the Green

"O if we but know what we do
When we delve or hew -
Hack and rack the growing green!
....even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been."
      ___ Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Binsey Poplars'


    This poem was written by Hopkins in response to the felling of the poplar trees at Binsey in Oxford - a place where he often walked and found inspiration. The felling of the trees and the destruction of wild green places is always a sorrow. When green life is cleared for housing or landfill sites, we feel strong resentment. Human beings have been clearing the earth for agriculture and habitation from early times. Desertification began to replace habitation long ago.

   It is easy to wax sentimental about the loss of particular trees and green places, but the war on the green world is not a world issue, as tree cover shrinks from year to year. It is not primarily our own human survival that is at issue, but that of the many species that rely upon the green world for their livelihood and habitat and the complex food chains that stem from the plants and the soil. For humans and their fellow creatures, it is a question of whether our descendants will have sufficient vegetation to sustain the continuance of life.

"Plant something in your garden or in a pot inside your home, to help replace the loss of the green."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Overfamiliarity and Neglect

Overfamiliarity and Neglect

"The blacksmith's mare and the shoe-maker's wife are aye [always] worst shod."
   ___ Scottish proverb



    Habit and overfamiliarity can cause some strange neglects in areas where we would least expect them. The things and people that we know best often prove to be furthest from our consideration, sometimes becoming so familiar to us that they feel like extensions of ourselves. This happens if things are unwinding equably like clockwork; when we become used to the easy rhythm, the habitual can become neglected. If our own self-respect is low or we frequently abuse our body and energy with overactivity, we may have a tendency to treat familiar things with the same neglect or contempt.

   This is a dangerous pattern. Whether it is the tools of our trade or our partner who is misused in this way, sooner or later something is going to snap. Before a critical tool breaks or we come home to an empty bed, we need to reappreciate the familiar, lest we lose touch with it altogether.

   The ability to truly see our familiar surroundings, possessions, and loved ones can be stimulated by an act of will or by looking through the eyes of stranger or visitor whose remarks and body language tell us about our environment in ways we have forgotten. Recreation is the best freshener of stale perspectives, because it takes us out of the rut of work and daily usage. It is then that we are able to see that the things we most value on our own doorstep.

"Reappreciate something or someone who is really close to you. Look with the eyes of the 'visiting anthropologist' to see how you are living in your environment and community."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Grace of the Grail

The Grace of the Grail

"The Grail, whether chalice or cauldron,
Gives of its grace unstinting
To gentle and simple, wise and wanting."
    ____ Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"


    The Celtic mythic tradition speaks of the vessels of grace that restore the life of the world. In the early legends, we find the many cauldrons that nurture heroes, initiate and inspire poets, and bring rebirth to those slain in battle. In the later stories, the cauldron has become the Grail - which is sometimes associated with the cup of the Last Supper. Grail and cauldron have similar properties; they provide the food that people most desire, bring revelation and wisdom to those on spiritual quest, heal the sick, and revive the dead. The Grail is a vessel of divine grace that appears upon the earth at times of greatest need (though only if help and restoration are sincerely sought). No action of ours can bring it into operation.

   What cause the Grail to appear? A large factor seems to be the concerted hearts of many individuals who realize that their personal quest is part of a larger one. It seems that the thing that their personal quest is part of a larger one. It seems that the thing that individuals cannot achieve alone - peace, harmony, healing - becomes possible whenever like-minded people are gathered together to discuss the problems that beset their land and all being living within it; then something profoundly mysterious happens. The concentration of hope and desire upon the object of need creates the ability to see the Grail and hear its message.

"Meditate upon the Grail as a vessel of grace and healing. Present your needs and those of the world to its grace."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Fullness

Fullness

"The three most beautiful things in the world; a ship under full sail, a woman with child, and a full moon."
   ____ Scots Gaelic triad


   These three fullnesses are eulogized throughout the Celtic world; they define aspect of daily life that were very important to the ancients. Among the Celtic peoples, mothers were held in special awe - not only because their fertility increased the tribe, but because each mother was also under the protection of the Mothers, the triple goddesses who were depicted in statues and inscriptions as women with loaves, baskets and babies on their laps. Abundance, stability and power were their strong message to any who gazed upon them. The woman with child was seen not as frail or ill, as is often the case in some places today; but as strong and fulfilling her purpose. The full moon had a special meaning to the Celts as well, for it marked the twofold division of the month into the bright or waxing half and the dark or waning half. The full moon marked the day of the festivals, since the Celts did not use the modern calendar or reckon things by exact date. For them, the moon was the guide to each month's shape.

   In our own time, our standard of values places the fullness of wallets, shopping bags and gasoline tanks ahead of the natural triad above. Our lives are abundant with so many good things that we do not have a conscious awareness of fullness and emptiness (unless our paycheck is late). Yet there are many other kinds of fullness that are important and beautiful to us: the burgeoning growth of our creativity, the increase of sexual passion, working at the fullest stretch of our abilities. All these take us deeply into the abundance of our human lives and give us a sense of true beauty and fullness. 

"What are the three most beautiful things in your world?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Death of a Loved One

Death of a Loved One

"Though I live, yet am I not,
since my sweet hazel-nut has fallen;
since my dear loved departed,
bare and empty is the dark world."
    ___ Muireadhach Albanach, in Osborn Bergin,
             Irish Bardic Poetry (trans. CM)

   Directly after the death of a loved one, we no longer walk the same earth as everyone else. Part of us lingers at the frontier of death's domain, looking into its unknown distance for signs that the soul is safely over, or for comforting messages that will assure us that we are not really, finally alone.

   The sudden loss of someone vital to our life's story means that our own story may be whirled out of context into total disorientation or petrified into a stasis wherein time no longer runs at the same speed as it does for others. Since every daily action, every piece of of forward planning, necessitates the painful realization of how different life will be from now on, how lonely, how impossible, time and our progress through it alter our perceptions completely.

   A loss must be fully recognized. The old custom of the wake - which kept vigil about the bed, included the body of the deceased in a communal celebration and farewell, and encourage tears and laughter to freely mingle - was healthier than the relegation of the corpse to a mortuary or the chill obsequies of a 'professional' funeral.

   Our support of the bereaved is best shown in our willingness to talk about the deceased in a warm and natural way when appropriate, by acknowledging and sharing loss rather than hurrying to cover over the aching gap, and by understanding that our compassion must extend beyond a few month's passage of time.

"Make your own blessing for all people facing bereavement."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Safe Return

Safe Return

"May my strength be increased,
May my tomb not be readied,
May I not die on my journey,
May my return be ensured to me."
  ____ early Irish invocation (trans CM)


   Whenever we set out on a journey, fears and anxieties beset us. We repreatedly check our money, passport, and plane tickets, and we leave instructions for the smooth running of the household in our absence. Even while we are busy with those details, part of us fears the dangers of travel - dangers that are perhaps no worse than those our ancestors faced. We are now more concerned with material things and less concerned with the spiritual support that accompanies us wherever we go.

   Because some difficult journeys are unavoidable and come upon us suddenly it is good to have our own ritual sequence to help us deal with the anxieties of travel. My own ritual procedures for departing and returning are to bid farewell to my home and household and to speak to the spirit of the land to explain that I am going away. I seek protection and direction for my journey. At the airport, I say a final farewell to the land on takeoff and commit myself to the spirits of the air; on landing, I greet the spirits of the land I am visiting and ask their help during my stay. I use my free time to explore the place I am visiting and to greet the local spirits of place. On leaving, I bid farewell and give thanks to all who have helped me. I reverse my procedures on coming home, greeting all in my own land and giving thanks to them.

   I cannot say that this keeps me invulnerable from the dangers of travel, but it is a good way to travel, with its own cyclic unfolding and continual support. It also banishes homesickness and enables me to truly engage with each land I visit.

"Meditate upon your own procedures for departing and returning. Make your own invocation for a safe return."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Accepting Our Purpose

Accepting Our Purpose

"Help me to find my happiness in my acceptance of what is my purpose in friendly eyes; in work well done; in quietness born of trust, and most of all, in the awareness of your presence in my spirit."
   ___ Alistair MacLean, "Hebridean Altars"


   The dull or continual round of life can set up a pace that gives us little space to appreciate and enjoy it as it turns. We yearn for some new stimulus or a change of pace to help us escape the grindstone that feels as though it is wearing us down. We do indeed need holidays and rest times during which we can refresh ourselves, unscheduled changes from routine that give us new breath, but these are not always possible when life is very demanding. To continue without becoming broken or burned out, we must change the way we perceive our lot in in life.

   Without entering the trap of resignation, we can focus instead upon our own life's purpose and see how it sits with our circumstance right now. If our life's purpose is at odds with our present life-style, then a complete change is needed for the sake of survival. But if, as is usually the case, our purpose and our life-style (while not perfectly harmonious) are walking together in the same direction, we can make a renewed dedication to our purpose and tread with better spirit down the road.

   We can refocus, not upon our own dull state but upon what is happening around us, in order to express our life's purpose in our work and actions with generous hearts and to live in the moment without chafing at the passage of time. Suddenly, dramatically, the daily round of life becomes a place of revelation that we have not envisaged. Where once we harbored a grudge in our hearts. there is now an entirely different spirit. The daily round no longer seems dull but has its own tides and rhythms. We have become aware of Spirit's presence in a new and wonderful way.

"Meditate upon your life's purpose. Make your own prayer of dedication and implement the suggestions above."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

May Day

May Day

"The true man sings
gladly in the bright day,
sings loudly of May -
fair-aspected season."
   ____ John Matthews, "From the Isles of Dream"



    Since before dawn this morning, many people all over Britain and Ireland have been up to greet the May, to sing to the rising sun, and to gather greenery and flowers. Others have been preparing to celebrate with May-pole dancing and community activities, which may include the election and crowning of a king and queen of May. Most often the holiday royalty are a boy and girl from a local school, but once they would have been lustiest young man and woman of the district.

   This is a day that is still honored in every part of Britain. Despite many efforts to quell its rowdy good humor and lusty enjoyment down through the centuries, it has survived in very good shape up to our own time. The sheer exuberance of May overwhelms the restrictive and humorless reformers who have tried to stop it.

   The explosion of May-blossom, sunlight, and burgeoning life needs expression at this time, when workday commonplaces can be thrown to the four winds and the bright joy of living can bubble up within us with natural ecstasy. All who have waited at dawn to welcome in summer have felt the sudden burst of brightness that ignites the deep happiness of the living earth as the sun rises. This brightness is the sign of the ancient Celtic god Bel, whom the Gauls called Belenos - the Shining One - the bright-faced splendor of green summer whose glad arising spreads a shining honey of golden light over the waiting earth. It is hard to witness this sunrise without feeling part of it.

"Cancel work today. Go and enjoy May Day by doing something that gives you great pleasure. Try to be outdoors all day if you can. Leave formal meditation alone and let your natural joy find its best outlet."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Beltane - Season of Summer

"Month of May - wanton is the lascivious,
Sheltering the ditch to everyone who love it,
Joyous the aged in his robes."
    _____ anon. Welsh poem


We welcome May and the coming of the summer season, the festival of Beltaine.  This month's themes include meditations upon safety and assurance, times of light and darkness, familiarity and the unexpected, holiday and recreation, plenitude, guardians of life, and the green world.

Beltane

   The summer quarter of Beltane brings the gift of increased confidence and is a time of growth and greater sociability as the weather grows fine and hot. It is traditionally the time for celebrating the essential eros of the year, the vitality of Summer and the joys of youth. In the human growth cycle it corresponds to the period of young adulthood when the blood is hot, when ideas are sometimes impetuous and ambitions powered with vigor and ardor. Beltane is a good time to celebrate the lives of all heroes and heroines, all protectors of the land, all who were involved in innovative and resourceful means of help, all holy ones whose great love complements their spiritual practice with human grace.
[From: "Celtic Devotional" by Caitlin Matthews]