"Tuirgin is a successive birth that passes from every nature into another...... flowing through all time from beginning to end."
_____ "Cormac's Glossary" (trans CM)
Turigin (TOOR'ghin) is a very precise word for which there is no English equivalent; the nearest we can get to a translation is 'a circuit of births.' One might assume, from that definition, that turigin is the same as reincarnation, but this is not so. In turigin, the soul moves between the otherworld and this world in a series of journeys.
The understanding and remembrance of past lives was acknowledged within the didactic stories told by the Celtic church, which saw the ancient legends as vehicles of wisdom. Among these is the story of the legendary Fintan, who passed from human to animal shape, finally being reborn from a human mother. From his living memory, the whole history of Ireland can be reconstructed. In conversation with learned men of Ireland, he admitted, "A continuity of existence remained in me, which I do not deny." This is significant, when we consider that any notion of rebirth has been uncanonical within the Roman Church since the Council of Lyons in 1274. Despite that official condemnation, adherence to early druidic and similar classical understandings of metempsychosis - the migration of soul from one body to another - seems to have survived.
Turigin is nothing less than the birth of the true nature, for it is not until the soul has been fused with everything else that it assumes its true nature; the soul's many turnings bring about its wisdom. The Celtic turigin is about fusion - not the refining of the soul till it reaches nirvana, but a profound communion with everything that brings authenticity to the soul.
"Meditate upon your true nature and authenticity of soul."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
You know, that picture looks kind of barren and desolate, but I like it. I had never heard of 'turigin' Thanks for the post on it.
ReplyDeleteMary
Yes, I know the picture does look a bit desolate, but I was thinking that perhaps that is what it look like as we progress from one 'birth' in the otherworld - we cannot really see what is ahead - we just know we are moving to somewhere else. If you look closely at the background in the picture you can see a shoreline ahead, but it misted over until you land.
ReplyDeleteSobeit