Renewal

Renewal

"When the great concrete megaCity chokes the
globe from pole to pole, it shall already have, bedded in some hidden crack, the sacred seed
of its own disintegration and collapse."
    ____ David Rudkin, "Penda's Fen"


   What we have paved feels safe, secure, permanent, habitable, civilized. Already a majority of people feel uneasy in the countryside or in open land, without sight of buildings, shops and the full panoply of urban living.
    When a civilized place is abandoned by people, the green world takes it back again. The first tough weeds quickly force their way through the concrete, splitting the man-made amalgam of civilization, and soon the wild seeds celebrate their return by germination unchecked until the stone is covered with green.
     The prospect of ending or decay is greatly dismaying to people who feel that it means the end of life as they know it. And they are rightfully fearful, for the enemy of life is stasis. The seeds of renewal are always mysteriously buried within the thick of decay and corruption, ready to spring up when all seems lost.
    At this time of the year, when the trees look disheveled, when growth stops, we may feel the loss as a personal thing and cross the threshold to depression. Yet the roots of renewal lie in the contemplation of the way in which this year's leaf mold on the forest floor will become the rich earth for next year's glorious growth.
   The urbanization of the soul has become in many ways like a 'great concrete megaCity' that petrifies the living impulses of our natural heart. The lesson of this season is to welcome the elements that free our soul into wider ways of living, to burst out of the urban soul into the great expanses where renewal can clear away all that impedes our way.

"What is static or decaying in your current life? Commune with the fruits of this season and find out how you can welcome change in."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Spiraling Prayer

Spiraling Prayer
"People visited groves and springs at the sacred times
and made the Turas, circling these holy places and wells.
A sort of concentric prayer spiraling inwards."
____ from a speech by Nuala Ahern,
   Irish Member of the European Parliament


    The word turas (TU'ras), which means 'journey,' pilgrimage,' and 'time,' refers especially to the circular, spiraling prayer and meditation form used by people in the Celtic countries as they walked sunwise around a sacred site. Making the turas, or circling around a sacred site, well, tree, or stone, is still a living part of Celtic spirituality today.
    The motion of this walking prayer is always deiseal, or sunwise - that is, from left to right. The clockwise method of making the turas is customary in the nothern hemisphere; it is considered to be the fortunate and appropriate way of moving, while tuathal, or counterclockwise, is considered to be less fortunate. (Note: In the southern hemisphere, sacred motion is counterclockwise.)
    We need to circle, spiraling around the sacred site with our body in tune with our intentions and with the presence of the site. The process of spiraling around builds power, strengthens intention, and brings us into attunement with our soul's thread. It also attunes us in another way: as our planet spins around the circling year, we too simultaneously experience the turning of our soul toward the source of greatest spiritual light. Each season is a mystical gateway of opportunity and understanding, a sacred time of wisdom. If we live with awareness of the year's cycles, we will achieve a direct alignment with those sacred opportunities.

"Visit a tree, rock, well or other place in nature to which you feel particularly drawn. Make your own turas about it. If you live in an urban environment, find a stone that can represent a sacred site within your own home."
[From" "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Passing of Time

    The passage of time was a crucial aspect of ancient Celtic beliefs. Indeed, measuring and marking it was a mater of survival because the Celts lived close to the land and seasonal activities such as sowing and planting had to be carried out at the right time.  To the Celts, the cycles of the natural world and the celestial bodies had spiritual significance, and therefore exerted a powerful influence on humanity. The Celtic year is split into two parts: the dark half and the light half, reflecting the recurring cycle of birth, growth and death, followed by renewal and rebirth.All life, whether plant or animal, begins in darkness, and all outer actions begin with inner preparation, so Celtic cycles begin with the dark segment. Thus the Celtic year begins with the first onset of winter.

Grace Before Food

Grace Before Food

"Be with me, O Goddess, at the breaking of bread,
Be with m, O Goddess, at the end of my meal.
May no morsel of my body's partaking
Add to my soul's freight!"
   ____ Scots Gaelic grace (trans CM)


   The blessing of food or the saying of 'grace' before eating is regarded as old-fashioned behavior in most households these days,
except perhaps on Thanksgiving, when it plays a traditional role.
   The blessing upon our food is itself a thanksgiving to all who have participated in the preparation of our meal: the grains, the earth, the elements, the animals, the ones who have processed our food and sold it to us - everyone is involved. If we contemplate only one item of food on our table and trace it back through the steps that brought it there, the scale of our thanksgiving becomes very real - a network of cooperation that is one strand of our life.
    The Gaelic blessing above seems very relevant today. With the addition of chemicals and pesticides and the genetic manipulation of the cellular structure of our food, many people are very worried about swallowing anything these days. The need to return to organic food-production methods where only the usual growing agents - air, sunlight, water and root nurture -
are allowed to influence the food we eat is now widely recognized.
    Very few people wish to harm their bodies or souls by participating in immoral and disrespectful food-production methods. The same goes for foodstuffs whose gathering and production endanger other species of animals or plants or further exploit already exploited people. Our choice of food is determined by the staple items of our region and our culture, many of which are in short supply. Can we change our eating habits in order to be able to breathe a true blessing upon our table?

"Write your own grace or meditate upon silently before you eat."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Integrity of Action

Integrity of Action

"We of the Fianna never told a lie. Falsehood was never attributed to them. But by truth and the strength of our hands, we came safe out of every combat."
   ___ "Ladoidh Chunaic an Air,"  anon. Irish poem


      The Fianna (FEE'enn-a) was the prestigious war band of the hero Fionn mac Cumhail, whose honor was bound up in their maintenance of truth, as their motto says: "Truth in our hearts, strength in our hands, consistency upon our tongues."

    If we divert the truth in pursuit of our ambitions, however marginal the lie, we also divert the course of our honor; we weaken our soul's thread. It is often easier to lie than to admit the truth. To state our honest objections, to cut across the dishonesty of those with whom we associate, to challenge falsehood in the workplace or in high places may seem a kind of foolhardiness today.

     The practice of honesty is a daily exercise that hones our integrity in both trivial and important actions, the experienced truth-bearer is like a hero who has practiced her sword strokes so many times that she can cleave through thistledown with accuracy and perception.

   The integrity of truth offers a clean way of dealing in our lives - a way of dealing that sets down better and more honorable patterns upon which our society can be reformed.

"Try to tell the truth for twenty-four hours. Feel in your body how living honestly changes your life's experience. If your life is wholly or partially built on lies, begin to examine the scaffolding on which it is based: ask help of your spiritual allies to discover how the scaffolding can be dismantled, and how you can become true to your soul's thread."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Initiations of Youth

The Initiations of Youth

"Youth's native sadness
dramatizes itself ever against time
in experimental mime
against the immensities."
  ___ Ross Nichols, "The Cosmic Shape"


    There are no formal rites of passage in our society to help children become adults: young people graduate, take their driving test, become sexually active, try intoxicants, get tattooed or pierced.  Forever testing the limits of their powers, they seem to know no restraint. This applies to girls just as it does to boys. In societies where rites of passage are customary, physical ordeals push participants to their limits of endurance, courage, and dedication, sometimes failure means actual death. While we may view such rites of passage as barbarous and unnecessary, we should note that our own children create their initiatory rites in the same daring spirit: running across the freeway, climbing up tall buildings, and driving at top speed down winding coastal roads are just a few of these initiation. Yes, youth dramatizes itself all right.
   We have made our choice not to initiate our children into adulthood with formal ceremonies that bring them to the edge of their powers. Having done so, we cannot blame them for making their own rites. Young people need to claim a name for themselves. In Celtic society, adolescence was often a time when a nickname became attached to the childhood name, or when the original name was changed to one that reflected a more adult commitment - a name 'discovered' in someone's chance remark, perhaps. How can our children make their own name in our society unless they are given the initiations that bring them to opportunity?

"Make your own initiatory blessing for adolescents about to launch themselves into the world." 
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

  

The Kindling of Love

The Kindling of Love

"There are three sparks that kindle love:
the face, the demeanor, and the way of
speaking."   ___ ancient Irish triad


    These sparks are like three lights that shine from the beloved, beacons that shine upon our dark and lonely landscape and illumine it in a way that no other person can achieve. The first light strikes us from the eyes: there is a liquid light within the eyes of the beloved that illuminates her face. Because the soul can be seen in the eyes, the glance of the beloved warms and welcomes us, while the glance of the enemy chills, repels, or withers us like a laser beam.
    The whole nature of the soul is seen in the demeanor of the beloved: the way the person moves, his body language, his way of guarding and shielding his soul with respect. The demeanor of the beloved is like an aurora of dawning that permeates the surrounding area with a gentle light and picks out features that are important and noteworthy in our own soul.
    Most wonderful is the light shed by the voice of the beloved. It is tuned to our own cadence, becoming a pathway of welcome, a resonant and gently penetrating music. Of all the sparks that we value about our beloved, the voice is probably the one we remember longest. Even those lovers whose beloved is dead and who can now scarcely remember every loved feature, who become impatient with the false memory of a photograph, say that the voice of the beloved is the most beautiful thing they still remember. The beloved speaks of things beneath the spoken words, like a ray of light that carries the shape and the shadow in its wake. To that shape we cleave while others linger in the shadow.

"Consider your own beloved, whether alive or dead. Which of his or her qualities spark love within you? How are loving qualities present within yourself?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Daring

Daring

"He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That dares not put it to the touch,
To gain or lose it all."
   ___ James Graham, Marquis of Montrose,
   "My Dear and Only Love"


    When the young Setanta was being taught by the druid Cathbad, the students asked their teacher, "What deeds are favorable for this day of all days?" Cathbad replied, "This day is one on which any young stripling who claims the arms and armor of a man shall become the hero who surpasses all the youth of Ireland. His name will be glorious, but his life will be fleetingly short." On hearing that, Setanta - who would become the hero Cuchulainn - immediately decided that the day had come for him to take valor and claim his status as a man.

  When we are young, we are fearless, heedless of both hidden and obvious perils. We have the brash arrogance and ignorance of youth, a combination that is oddly endearing and chillingly frightening at the same time. Age and experience bring us to greater circumspection.

    Whence do we draw the daring to perform the deeds of adult life? There is no time to dither when we stand in danger of losing our livelihood or well-being. To take up the gage of daring is dangerous, but to have never dared is to have never won. It is good to spend our lives in risk-free circumstances, never challenged or stretched beyond our personal comfort factor? Sometimes we have to become vulnerable, and suffer risk to protect and defend that which we love beyond our personal lives. When our response is absolute, we seize our fate with urgent hands, fly out on the spiral loop of our soul's thread, without a parachute, only by the truth and integrity of our actions are we protected.

"What feels risky in your life? How are you endangered? Where are you being stretched to dare?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Voice of the Soul

The Voice of the Soul

"Who is this Singer that sends his voice through the dark forest and inhabits us with ageless and immortal music, and sets the long echoes rolling for evermore?"
   ___ Mary Webb, "Gone to Earth"


    In all people there is a potent voice sounding from the very depths of their being. When we stand at the timeless intersections of our lives, when danger threatens, when beauty awakens us to deeper levels of being, we hear its clear call. It speaks words of urgent survival, of potent arousal, of immediate and uncontrollable response. It may not speak with words that we hear with our physical ears, but its vibrations permeate our very body. Many people who have been aware of this voice fear it with an almost superstitious terror: they fear its strength, its persuasion, and especially its passion. They believe that this voice is from some dark malevolence, rather than from the very heart of love.
    It is the voice of the soul itself, which has its wavelength tuned exactly to our personal pitch. In our society, which validates only that which is seen, 'hearing voices' is associated with serious mental disturbance. Our society's inability to recognize the unseen as real in turn causes us to distrust our deepest beliefs and instinct. Instead of listening to the voice that surges passionately into every aspect of our understanding, we attempt to blot it out, expunge its presence, substituting our rational explanations as being more authoritative.
    Beginning to make sense of the soul's voice often requires us to 'tune out' the interference that our suspicions and conditioning have created. The voice of the soul speaks from the heart of love. True love does not injure; rather, it upholds the good of the beloved before itself. By the fruits of our experience, our trust in that voice will grow until we can progress to a stage wherein we will be borne up in love and trust.

"Listen to the deep voice of your own soul. Feel what it is saying. Do not be distracted by the voice of your mind."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Deferred Decisions

Deferred Decisions

"Do not go Monday, be still on Tuesday,
Wednesday's a bad day, Thursday is slow,
Friday's unlucky, Saturday's grudging,
So give up your troublesome travel tomorrow!"
   ____ Scots Gaelic song  (trans CM)

   This song is sung to beguile the welcome guest, to delay her departure and cause her to stay longer. Sometimes, though, we cannot be so self-indulgent; we need to make incisive action rather than defer it.
    Procrastination is subtle and invasive self-persuasion that second-guesses all avenues of possibility as they present themselves. It is always easier to leave a difficult decision to the next day, to put off reading and signing a complex document until a later date, to ignore a request until the time is more convenient and our mood more amenable. The prince of procrastination is Shakespeare's Hamlet, who virtually worries himself into mental illness. When deferred actions are deferred too long, the fear around their performance becomes horrifically amplified.
   When we are stuck in procrastination, we need 'a rabbit bolter' - something that flushes realizations out of their deep hiding places up to the surface of our attention. This bolter may involve taking a day off work and away from the family, going into nature or to a place of some peacefulness, without stimulus and interface from any outside source so that our minds can cease their squirrel-cage contortions and come to rest in focused attention upon how we must act. In our prayers and in the companionship of our spiritual allies, we can ask for help, clarity and strength to make the right decisions and to defer them no longer.

Choose one current predicament and mediate upon possible solutions."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Living in the World

Living in the World

"Were All the World a Paradise of Ease,
'Twere Easy Then to Live in Peace."
    ___ Thomas Traherne, "Centuries"


    When we first plunge into the full flood of response to our spiritual path, the world seems a wonderful place. Our ecstasy is often so persuasive that we enter a period of convert fervor and rapidly become bores, singing the delights of our chosen way for the benefit of any friends (or total strangers) unfortunate enough to meet us.
   For anyone descending from the spiritual high-ground, the next phase is the most challenging to our chosen way. All the delights, joys, and insights that we enjoy at the peak suddenly run up against all the lethargies, doldrums, and seemingly meaningless interludes of daily life. If our prayer life has been connective, it becomes prone to a strange interference in this phase; if our meditations have been colorful, they suddenly start receiving black-and-white transmission; if our spiritual allies have favored us with the intimate interviews, they suddenly become amazingly elusive. No one and nothing seems to be on the same wavelength anymore.
    The individual who finds himself in such a predicament needs to look at each new challenge to his new found spiritual peace as a practical opportunity to manifest some of his theoretical notions.
   It is not solely in the otherworld or in paradise that spirituality is to be implemented, but in the world in which we live. If our spirituality cannot supply us with resourceful encouragement, then it is very shallowly rooted in us. It is in the challenges to our spiritual peace that we find the solutions. Like a parched tree that has to send out deeper roots to sources of water, we also have to send our spiritual roots deeper in search of help. To live our sacred text, to implement our holy philosophy, there is no better place than here and now.

"Apply your spiritual wisdom to the most challenging daily trail."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Clan Bond

The Clan Bond

"The bonds of affection that unite the present chief and her clansmen in all the arts of the world is indeed a living tie that neither mountains nor a waste of seas can divide."
    ___ Sir Iain Moncrieffe, "The Highland Clans"


   Sir Iain Monfrieffe, the late Albany herald of arms, speaks warmly here of the late Dame Flora MacLeod, clan chief of the Clan MacLeod. The special bonds that bring the clan and its chief together are very different from those of president and citizen or of monarch and subject. The clan chief is responsible to the clan as the head of a family is responsible for her children; the clan's responsibilities toward the chief are like-wise familial and intimate.  Despite the decline of the clan system, the clans and their chiefs still gather in familial assemblies from all parts of the world to rejoice in each other's company.
    With the breakdown of extended families into nuclear units, few families can enjoy a similar intimacy and recognition. The strongest sense of clan affection is not experienced among those families that are members of the vast diaspora of immigrants who have left their homeland for a new country. The sense of clan may remain in the new land, with those from a particular area who have settled in a given region, or it may extend back over the water to the people of the old homeland.
    The sense of wanting to belong to part of our human identity, but even this special bond is shifting as human consciousness seeks a more personalized identity, as it reaches for a wider connection. We are all moving toward a greater clan bond that is planetary and universal. We are not altogether happy or convinced about this belonging: it lacks intimacy and could so easily come to nothing very much. Whether we can be part of this larger clan is yet to be seen.

"Which clan bonds include you in their embrace?  Which do you admit to?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Scandal

Scandal

"Fionn, Prince of the Fianna,
Shall deliver me from the lie,
The son of Cumhail of the sharp blades,
And Goll of the strokes shall be my shield."
    __ Scots Gaelic charm against ill-report (trans CM)

   In this Scots Gaelic charm, the speaker invokes the help of Fionn mac Cumhail (FINN mak KOOL), the great champion of the Gael, and one of his heroes, the hard-hitting Goll. When our own good name is brought into disrepute, through the spiteful words of others, we need strong heroes to champion us against a world of back-stabbing gossips.
   Ill report and scandal are like forest fires, sweeping through a circle of acquaintance faster than the wind. For anyone, regardless of prominence or anonymity in the world, the assault of scandal is the most difficult to parry or refute.  When the rights of livelihood or marriage or parenthood are stripped away as a result of false report, the injustice rankles to the core.
   Every person alive has a responsibility to those in his shared circle of life. If by one unregarded word of ours we cause pain or hurt unjustly, if we endanger the public esteem of someone without warrant, we are no better than the armed assailant, who mugs people on the streets. To steal someone's good name is theft, however we wrap it up. Scandal flourishes only because there are willing ears to receive it. If we close our ears to unjust gossip and restrain our tongues from passing it on, its muddy outpourings will cease to foul our lives.

"How have you entertained gossip?  How can you cease to be the exponent of ill-report?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Guardians of Power

Guardians of Power
"Who has seen the Cup flame in the West,
who has not also seen the breath of Nine
smoke on the air above the Cauldron's rim?"
   ___ John Matthews, "The King's Moon Rite"

    In British folklore, the Lord of the Underworld has a cauldron whose brew is available only to those who are courageous and worthy. In one of the earliest written texts to mention Arthur, the hero himself goes in quest of this cauldron as proof of his sovereignty. It is tended by nine women who heat and empower the broth by their exhalation: these are nothing less than the guardians of the powers of life.
     The nine sisters of the cauldron are the forerunners of the two Grail guardians of medieval Arthurian tradition: the beautiful Grail maiden who carries the blessed vessel and the ugly Grail messenger who stimulates the knights to quest for the vessel. Whether Grail or cauldron, the vessel in question bestows special qualities upon those who imbibe its contents, conferring immortality, healing, or specific virtues that manifest the quester's intrinsic life-purpose.
   These nine sisters are the ones who guard the vessel of life and grant every living soul special gifts. Each breath that they breathe across the cauldron of our life's essence imbues each of with our particular vocational gifts and tendencies. If we ignore the blessings of the guardians of life, we do not flourish easily: life is an uphill grind, and we have to reinvent the wheel at every turn. If, however, we examine the nature of our particular brew and discover with what blessings and potentialities we are each imbued, we can find a wonderful unfolding richness in all we attempt.

"List up to nine qualities that are blended in your unique brew of life. Speak to the Gifting Mothers and ask how their blessings may be used."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Misunderstandings

Misunderstandings

"The last thing I intended
Was for a deed to come between us."
   ___"The Song of Liadan," early Irish text (trans CM)


   Liadan (LEE'dun) and Curithir (KOO'reer) were poets who met while on their poetic circuit of noble houses and fell in love. Curithir suggested that they marry immediately, adding that any child of theirs would be famous. Perhaps piqued by his words and by the suggestion that Curithir thought more of any future child than of their very real love, Liadan took religious vows of chastity. When Curithir came to claim her as his wife, he was too late: she would not sleep with him, preferring to honor her poetry above her sexuality. The muddle was not helped when the lovers put themselves under the direction of the severe St. Cummine, who gave Carithir, the choice of seeing Liadan and not talking to her, or speaking to her without seeing her. Since he was a poet, he chose speech. In due time, the suspicious St. Cummine banished Curithir from his monastic settlement accusing him of sinful lust; Crithir then became a pilgrim and renounced Liadan's love. Liadan's subsequent poetry is a heart-rending, self-condemnation of her action. She eventually died while clutching the stone on which the exiled Curithir used to sit.
   When misunderstandings arise, they usually germinate in small and insignificant ways: a slighting glance, a failure to greet, a thoughtless word, a sense of exclusion or neglect - and so grow into substantial disasters. A phone call or letter or small token of apology can quickly bring reconciliation.

"Consider a situation in which you were misunderstood or were the agent of misunderstanding. What factors exacerbated the situation? How could the misunderstanding have been prevented? Is there a go-between who could have brought about reconciliation? Apply your realizations to a situation in which you are currently involved."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Pilgrimage Routes

Pilgrimage Routes

"Though the long tracks know no glad step,
And the circle goes unblessed.
From their long homes may the old ones
Welcome travellers upon their quest."
    ___Caitlin Matthews, "Pilgrims' Blessing"


   Pilgrimage is a step beyond tourism, which merely comes to look at place and enjoy them; pilgrimage involves a deeper engagement with the land, with the sacred nature of the experience that is had not only at the destination but along the route as well. Those who travel with spiritual purpose find pleasure and enjoyment no less than the tourist, but their experience is colored by the reality of their contact with the unseen world - not only with the apparent landscape about them, but with its inhabitants and guardians.
   When we re-engage with the sacred places of our spiritual heritage, the ability to be a pilgrim affects our experience of the places we visit: the ability to see beyond desacralization, the skill to travel the road with expectant and prayful hearts, the greeting we send out - before  we even begin to travel - to the ancestral guardians and spiritual presences who have awaited our coming this long time.
   In pilgrimage, it is the ability to give blessing upon the places we visit, rather than seek blessing for ourselves in our travel, that is most appreciated. In offering our blessing, we are able to resacralize both the way and the site: for if we become alive to the generous and sacred nature of each place, so may many others; and we will have become guardians and pilgrims of a new generation for all the generations to come.

"Make your own pilgrimage to a special or sacred place during the wintertime, drawing upon some of the ideas above."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Avalon: An Otherworldly Paradise

    The Isle of Avalon is an Otherworldly Paradise, a golden Isle of Blessed Souls where the goddess reigns forever. It is a magical land lying far to the west across the waters, veiled in mystery. Avalon means the place of apples and in many apple orchards of this beautiful land the red and gold fruits of the goddess's immortality grow in abundance. In some tales Avalon is one of the Fortunate Isles, a fabled Island of Women, where women and our mysteries reign and people lives a hundred years and more. Birds of omen, large and small, flock to the sacred land, singing with great sweetness of her beautyways. Here too there are animals, black or white with red ears, all beloved of her. In particular Avalon is a land of transformation, sometimes known as the Western Isle of the Dead, a place of dying, healing and rebirth.
[From: "In the Nature of Avalon: Goddess Pilgrimages in Glastonbury's Sacred Landscape"
by Kathy Jones]

Three Rocks of Judgment

Three Rocks of Judgment

"The three immovable and perfect rocks
on which the judgments of the world are sustained; the poet, the written word, and nature."
   ___Irish triad from Senchus Mor


    This triad speaks of the three kinds of authority by which judgments can be made: authority from the divinatory composition of poets, from the letter of the law, and from the law of nature. These are the three traditional 'courts of appeal' that sustain the law.
    The first court of appeal is the oral word, and its exponent is the poet. The divinatory prowess of the ancient poets was considered to be both wise and authoritative. The spoken word is still a lively defender and prosecutor in modern courts of law, able to sway juries and reveal discrepancies in evidence.
    The second court of appeal is the written word, which now has precedent over the spoken word in our society. The written word is not so flexible as its spoken counterpart and has tended, over the centuries, to become the 'dead letter of the law' rather than a perfect rock upon which judgments may be based. The written word is indeed a strong rock if it is administered and maintained by people of probity and good guardianship, but it can also be interpreted in narrow and unhelpful ways. Many traditional legal frameworks stand in need of redrafting to encompass the changes that have overtaken our world.
   The third court of appeal is nature itself, which has its own immutable laws to which both word and writing must bow. The natural laws cannot be overset by human judgments. They govern the whole round of life. As we seek to manipulate nature, to bypass its natural processes, we find out just how enduring and implacable its laws are. Beyond human memory and written judgment stands nature, the final court of appeal, reflecting the truth of our actions and desires.

"What are the three rocks that sustain your world?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Tearing the Cloak in Two

Tearing the Cloak in Two

"Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low."
    ___ Ewart Alan Mackintosh,
    "In Memoriam, Private D. Sutherland" 

   Within the last five generations, there has probably not been a family living that did not have some remembrance of war and conflict, some dead to mourn as a result of warfare. The day, November 11, has commemorated dead warriors, throughout the Western world, since the armistice of the First World War.
   Those who serve in the defense of their families and countries - like the Gaulish soldier St. Martin of Tours, who tore his fine cloak in two to cloth the needy - tear the cloak of their lives in two, severing themselves from accustomed comfort and habitual kindness to enter a zone of pain and confrontation.
    In our own age, where much of the warfare is against ignorance, heartlessness, and environmental devastation, new kinds of warriors learn the art of sacrifice with a different set of weapons. They seek to tear their lives in two to make a greater mantle in the defense of the poor, the innocent, the needy.
    We no longer glorify war as our ancestors did; the loss, grief, and bewilderment of families for their fallen have been too great in this century for such assuaging. We count the cost and bless the sacrifice of those who have had the courage to tear the cloak in two, knowing that they did not glory in the pain and bloodshed any more than we ourselves now do.

"Make your own prayer of remembrance for those who have died in war, and for those who are on the battlefield of conflict throughout the world today."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Wisdom Within

The Wisdom Within

"The faery queen of wisdom lived
With the sun-room of a tree;
From there she saw the wide, wide world,
But no fool could her beauty see."
    ___Scots Gaelic folk story (trans. CM)


    This story tells of a faery queen who invited all the women of the world to visit her so that she might give them wisdom. Some declined, thinking themselves wise enough already, while others came in order to be seen and admired. When the guests had assembled, the faery queen went among them with a blue limpet shell containing the essence of wisdom. Those guests who were there for the wrong reasons refused to drink, but those women who sought the wisdom within their own hearts drank gladly, each receiving a portion of wisdom until there was nothing left in the shell.
   The wisdom that is already within each of us often needs only a small catalyst to develop, as long as we are open and receptive to wisdom when we meet it elsewhere. the unwritten wisdom of the heart abides within us as our motherwit, the wisdom of the body that we inherit from our ancestors. That wisdom is in the process of developing all the time as new information and experiences are brought into contact with it. We often mistakenly assume that wisdom must come from without, but external wisdom cannot develop within ourselves until our own wisdom meets and assimilates it in a practical way.
    Valuing our own wisdom is hard in a world that offers so many expert opinions wherever we turn. often easier to defer to professionals than to regard our own views on a subject. Only when we have been to the limits of our own wisdom can we find the humility and receptivity to increase it.

"Where are the limits of your knowledge? How many of your opinions are really your own, rather than adopted from others?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Creative Destiny

Creative Destiny

"Welcome, oh life! I go to encounter for the millionth
time the reality of experience, to forge in the smithy of
my soul and the uncreated conscience of my race....."
   ___ James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man


    These words of Stephen Dedalus are the ecstatic greeting of a young man on the verge of exile and adventure, creative destiny and the fulfillment of his heritage. "Creative destiny" sounds like a very grand proposition, the kind of thing that poets and artists might get themselves excited about. That we each have a creative destiny to fulfill is often conveniently forgotten, especially if we have carved out our niche in the world of work or have put the aspirations of our youth far behind us.
    We think of creativity as the production of professional and beautiful artwork or music or other achievements, but the whole course of our lives is one creative endeavor: not only the work of our hands, but the way we weave our relationships,  the way we make our homes, the way we raise children, cook food, dream, garden shop - all these and more are our creative fields. Our creative destiny is not fated by distant galaxies or proscriptive deities; it is nothing other than the mindful growth, development and manifestation of the gifts that lie in potemtia, the talents, aptitudes and heritage with which we were born.
    Every year, millions of young people begin their active, determined and intentioned lives as adults. Like salmon returning to their source, they set their faces toward the fulfillment of their creative destiny. It is a great adventure that few pursue unansweringly to the source; but for all who undertake it, there is no greater joy than to enter 'the smithy of the soul' and bring into manifestation something that was not possible before we brought our creative destiny to play there.

"What is your creative destiny? If it seems far off or unknown, consider the shape of your life to this point. Where has your life been wanting to flow?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit Catlin Matthews]

The Lamp of Memory - November

 "Thou fill'st the winged chalice of the soul 
With thy lamp, O Memory....."
   ___ Dante Gabriel Rosetti


    The dark days of November lead us deeper into the mysteries of Samhain, with All Saints' Day on November 1st and All Souls' Day on November 2nd, two Christian festivals that overlaid the earlier Pagan festivals of the dead.
In modern America we tend to regard death as something of an aberration, but our Celtic ancestors viewed life as a never-ending spiral of birth, death and rebirth. They believed that after death the soul journeyed to the Summerlands beyond the Western sea, where the grass was always green and fruit and flowers grew together. Feasting, hunting, music, love and joyous sporting contests went on forever; and if any were wounded or killed one day, they sprang back to life the next. In the Iron Age men and women of noble rank were buried with everything they were likely to need in the afterlife: drinking horns, cauldrons, jewelry, weapons and even chariots. Because of their beliefs, they were fearless in the face of death, which they considered to be 'but the center of a long life.' In fact, it was not uncommon for a man to lend money and agree on repayment in his next lifetime.
[From Kindling the Celtic Spirit" by Mara Freeman]

Ethics

Ethics

"Ethics teach us the mysteries of morality, and the nature of affection, virtues, and manners, as by them we may be guided to our highest happiness."
   ___Thomas Traherne, "Centuries"


    It is no longer customary for men to take off their opponents' heads, to boast of their own achievements after dinner, or to buy less fortunate people into slavery - all aspects of the ancient Celtic world that are not missed.
    Manners and moral codes may alter, but not the structures that underlie. Ethics are the invisible scaffolding upon which our actions are built and without which life would be in supportable. Ethical conduct follows an unwritten law that runs in every part of the world, forming a path for all action. Becoming sensitive to its dictates is like acquiring taste, poise, or insight. Its invisible lines run laser-straight from our soul to the object of our consideration. Sensing the dynamic of that tug is like sailing a ship and having to be attentive to the winds and currents that move our vessel.
   Ethics uphold the rights, privileges and identity of every living soul: a maintenance that stretches to include the soul of what we may previously have considered inanimate or lifeless - the land, growing things, animals. Our subtle interrelatedness to all life walks these ethical lines, and when we are insensitive to the lines - when we forget that interrelatedness - we sever them. If any action that we undertake warps or threatens to sever the soul-lines of ethical connection, we may be sure that there is something intrinsically wrong with our idea or our approach.

"Meditate upon a future plan. Visualize the line that stretches between you and it. Is there any discomfort or tug on the line? What is causing it? Does your plan uphold the dignity and rights of all who are involved in or affected by it?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Constancy

Constancy

"They'll turn me in arms, lady
Into a deer so wild;
But hold me fast, let me not go,
The father o' your child."
   ___ "The Ballad of Tam Lin,"
    anon. Scots ballad

   The Scottish ballad of Tam Lin describes how a young heroine, Janet, becomes pregnant by a man whom she meets in the woods. But Tam Lin is a mortal who has become stuck in the realms of faery, in bondage to the faery queen. The only way for Janet to win her lover home is for her to come to the crossroads at Hallowe'en, when the faeries ride by, and pull him down from his horse. Then she must hold him fast while he changes into a variety of shapes. No matter what monstrous shape he assumes under the enchantment of the jealous faery queen, she must hold on tight, remembering that he is the father of her child. Janet does so, and Tam Lin is restored to her again.
    No relationship is proof against change, whether it be through illness, unhappiness, new ambitions, discontent, or overfamiliarity. In such circumstances, consistency and patience are required, as well as support.
    But when we experience a time of neglect or a failure to communicate, changing needs, rather more than constancy is required. A clear challenge to re-engage in the mutual contract of relationship needs to be issued, giving a strong signal that neglectful behavior will not be tolerated.
   Sometimes we just need the patience to endure a period in which our partner is undergoing changes in her physical, emotional, or spiritual life. Such changes cannot be rushed: they can only be accompanied with sensitivity. When we ourselves undergo such changes, we need to ask for a period of patience, to express our need for support so that, like Tam Lin, we can eventually re-emerge into our daily lives.

"What changes are you and your partner undergoing now?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Here are links to several sites that are about the Ballad of Tam Lin

http://www.tam-lin.org/front.html

http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/bltamlinhalloween.htm

http://www.tam-lin.org/front.html

The Lay of History

The Lay of History

"Were poetry to be suppressed, my friend, with no history, no
ancient lays, save that each had a father, nothing of any man
would be heard hereafter."
   ____ Giolla Brighde Mhac Con Midir, in Osborn Bergin, "Irish
Bardic Poetry"


    Celtic poets not only sang praises and songs to their patrons, but they were also the repositories of history and genealogy. These were passed down to poets from generation to generation, until the era when the church wrote them down.
   Before the coming of St. Patrick to Ireland, it is said that only three classes of people were permitted to speak in public with any authority: the chronicler to relate events and tell stories, the poet to eulogize, and satirize, and the brehon, judge, to pass sentences from precedents and commentaries.
    We may wonder at the way that poetry and history are conjoined. In order that historical, poetic, and legal traditions could be recalled accurately, memory was aided and strengthened by the 'thread of poetry' that bound together the teachings. The memory of these teachings can be likened to a preserving shrine or storehouse of knowledge, or to a bright candle of knowledge conveyed from one person to another. The memory of wise traditions is called 'the old road to knowledge' - the road by which people can walk to their ancestral wisdom.
   Our own chronicles normally record events, trends, and times, and are rarely seen as the preservers of wisdom. The poetry of the living knowledge of a skill is of more benefit than a bald recital of events: it becomes a road upon which we too can walk all the way down to the depths of time and find the ageless knowledge. Without its mythic levels, history is shorn of glory and usefulness.

"Meditate upon the history of your people. What parts of it come alive for you? Down which 'old roads of knowledge' can you walk?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Gifts of Directions

Gifts of the Directions

"Star of the East, give us kindly birth,
Star of the South, give us great love,
Star of the West, give us quiet age,
Star of the North, give us death."
   ___Fiona MacLeod, "Iona"


  Throughout the world, every traditional society has its own local understanding ab out the gifts of the different directions. These are seldom written down, remaining firmly embedded in consciousness and folklore.
   In Britain, the gifts of direction above are commonly accepted in many locations. The east - the place of beginnings, where the sun rises - guards the time of birth and development; the south - the place of growing, where the sun is at its warmest - is where our love is most strongly engaged; the west - the place of maturity, where the sun sets - is the place of vision; the north - the place of endings, where only the midnight sun shines - is commonly thought of as the place of death and still abiding.
   The gifts of the directions depend upon the location of a land mass on the globe and are affected by the prevailing winds, the nature of topographical features, the position of the sea, and many other factors. Many books attempt to assign fixed definitions to the gifts of the directions, but these cannot hold in every place on earth. The only way to learn more about these gifts is to seek them out in the place where you live - from your own experience, not from a book. Then you will truly be in a position to receive and experience those gifts for yourself and give thanks for their guiding qualities.

"Standing or sitting outside, face each of the directions in turn. With eyes closed, meditate upon each direction, feeling for its particular gift and opportunity. Try repeating this at different times of the day and night. How do these qualities intermesh with your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Habit of Familiarity

The Habit of Familiarity

"We are every day betrayed by the blank state of custom. The commonplace accessories ... weigh us down."
    ____Llewelyn, "Earth Memories"


   As the dark November days draw in, our working lives begin similarly to draw close about us. The daily round begins to grind: the very position of a desk or table, the same blank faces on the street, the systematic regularity become like the beat of a hammer, emphasizing how very dull and ordinary every day seems.
   How do we keep our lives fresh and sparkling with energy when we hit to doldrums of the habitual and the familiar? If our daily surroundings and routine are beating out a rhythm so regular and unchanging that we are going to shoot the conductor soon, then it is time to introduce a new melody, a counterpoint to the rhythm. That does not mean that we stop our daily tasks, only that we begin to dance through them in a more conscious way.
   When personal focus becomes one-eyed, it is always good to get another perspective, to invite a friend over, spring a change on our partner. If we are the routine-holders in our family, we have a special responsibility to ring the changes; without help, we can get into 'corporate' ruts so deep that we cannot leave them. If we live alone, we need to go out with friends, practice our special skill,s find the deep nurture of the things we enjoy.
    In nature, all life is stripping off its finery to reveal its essential bare self. If the surface of our life seems dull and unmoving, we have only to look deeper and find where our energy is tending. In what secret place is it biding to wake refreshed?

"What are your strategies for coping with the habitual? How can your own routines be enlivened?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Making Peace with the Ancestors

Making Peace with the Ancestors

"Dear ones in the house of the dead,
Can you forgive
An old woman who was your proud
Daughter, who now too late
Returns your love?"
   ___ Kathleen Raine, "The Oracle in the Heart"


   We often do not understand those who are closest to us until it is too late. This is especially true of our parents, upon whom we heap the faults of our upbringing. Parents struggle to do the best thing for their children, but these efforts are seldom appreciated until the children themselves become parents and enter into the war of attrition that we call growing up. When we are adults, our activities take us far from our parents' domain. The death of parents is perhaps the last part of growing up, usually happening when we are raising our own children, so that we stand midway between youth and age. Those who now find themselves the eldest generation of a family discover new responsibilities: as they become grandparents, they look to the new generation to solve old, long-standing problems. This ancestral bequest tends to gather weight and momentum as it rolls from generation to generation, sometimes becoming too heavy for any one person to carry.
   Making peace between ourselves and our ancestors requires two things: the ability to speak the truth lovingly, and the ability to forgive and let go of issues that have muddied the way between us and the dead. We need to offer a word of love, a sign of admiration or praise, a visit, a gift, even a phone call - some direct communication while there is opportunity, before the time for regret is all that is left.

"Make soul-flight to a place where you and a relative who is now dead used to meet together. Speak the words that you would have liked to say before death intervened. Listen to the words that your relative speaks to you. Thank and bless your relative."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Samhain Quarter of the Year

   The winter quarter of Samhain brings the gifts of restoration and renewal, as the cold weather closes in, so the soul is led to more reflective depths. It is traditionally associated with the remembrance of the ancestors, with the coming of death and the conception of new life. In the human growth cycle, Samhain corresponds to the period of old age when wisdom, freedom of spirit and clarity are experienced. Samhain is a good time to celebrate the lives of all wise elders, all those whose actions and ideas have brought resolution and peace, all holy ones whose sacrifice have brought new life and opened spiritual thresholds to all.
[From: "Celtic Devotional" by Caitlin Matthews]

Activities for the Winter Months

* Practice introspection, meditation contemplation, drawing upon the peaceful sanctuary of this season.
* Shift burdens by doing something about them (e.g. make your will) or by giving up unnecessary patterns.
* Remember your ancestors and celebrate their wisdom.
* In this deep season of darkness and introspection, seek the sun at midnight, the rich treasures that lie in the lap of Winter.
* Be aware of the ancestral teachers, the grandparents and elders of the spiritual traditions, whose footsteps have kept the pathways open.
* Cut back old growth in the garden and burn or compost it. Dig over the soil in preparation for the Spring.
* Walk and meditate outdoors for at least ten minutes daily.
* Identify the nature of the soil and rock-forms in your locality and how it affects the life-forms who lived upon the land.
* Be active, with like-minded others, in recording, preserving, living and learning about the ancient wisdom of indigenous people, especially those in your own land.
* As you travel through the land of Winter, relate your spiritual journey to the wisdom of this season.
[From: "Celtic Devotional" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Assembly of Peace

The Assembly of Peace

"It was their custom at the Feis of Tara to pass six days in feasting
together before the sitting of the assembly: three days before Samhain and three days after it, making peace and entering into friendly alliance with each other."
   ___ Geoffrey Keating, "Forus Feasa ar Eirinn"

   The Festival Assembly of Tara, at which the nobles and learned people of Ireland ratified and renewed laws, took place every three years. During the festival it was strictly forbidden for any robbery, assault or legal wrangles to take place. Anyone so engaged was summarily sentenced to death, and not even the king himself had power to pardon the one who had disrespected the assembly of peace. Samhain (SOW'en) marked the beginning of winter and the cessation of hostilities between warring factions. The poets and their retinues quartered with the rich households of Ireland until Beltane (BEL'tenn-a; May) so that the winter months might pass more quickly by their entertainment.
   Samhain means 'the summer's end.' In early days, this festival heralded a period when the gates of sid (SHEE), the faery gates of the Otherworldm were open and when the ancestors were nearer to the Otherworld than at any other time.
   After a preliminary evening of half-fearful, half-mischievous activities, the daytime of Samhain was one of gravity, wherein all the changes could be acknowledged and assimilated. Of all the Celtic festivals, this is the one at which we best experience the overlap of one world with the other. It is time to assemble peacefully and be conscious of the ordering of our affairs, bringing ourselves into alignment with the blessings, work, and opportunities of the darker half of the year,.

"Spend part of this day in assessing your place in life: look at the unfinished. Assess your current spiritual position, scrutinize your movtives, clarify your commitments, recognize and discard inappropriate patterns that no longer serve you."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

November

"Month of November - very fat are the swine;

Let the shepherd go; let the minstrel come;

Bloody the blade, full the barn."

     ___ anon Welsh poem

The season of Winter begins at Samhain, the Celtic New Year, on the eve of November. The meditation themes this month include destiny and fate, cycles and ages, fullness and emptiness, enduring traditions, overcoming difficulty by finding deep resources, the nature of action, and directions and spaces.



How to Use this Book (The Celtic Spirit)

How To Use This Book

   And here is another section in the beginning of "The Celtic Spirit" which I feel will help those who follow these posts most every day.

   This book contains 365 short meditations, one for each day of the year to enable you to walk along and learn something of the sacred wisdom of the Celtic path. Each page is headed by a short quotation from a Celtic source or from another inspirational source that acknowledges the ancestral wisdom of our culture. These quotations draw on a wide variety of eras, from ancient to modern times. They were chosen because they reflect some aspect of the sacred path.
    Each accompanying meditation was drawn from my (Caitlin Matthews) druidic and shamanic experience of walking between the worlds. You are invited to reflect upon each entry, to meditate upon each entry, to meditate upon the deep sources of the natural world, upon personal approaches to living as well as upon universal concepts that are relevant to us all. You may follow the sun's circuit and read a portion as set for each day (which is what is posted here daily), or you may choose to dip into the book, using the thematic index to draw upon those passages most relevant to your condition.
   Each month of this book provides interrelated themes for meditation within the framework of the four seasons and the Celtic festivals, which stand like sentinels to mark each part of the year's turning; Samhain (SIW'en) or Hallowe'en in November, which marks the beginning of winter; Imbolc (IMM'bolk) in February, which sees the season of spring; Beltane (BEL'tenn-a) in May-time, which marks the summer; and Lughnasa (LOO'nas-ah) in August, which guards the three months of autumn. The arrangement of the meditations in this book, from November to October, follows the old Celtic and agricultural cycle of the year from barrenness to plenty, rather than the more conventional calendrical year.

   Each meditation can be seen as a tree in the sacred grove of the year, a place of reflection under which the reader can seek sanctuary, peace, and restoration of spirit. Meditation is simply making a space of time wherein our souls can be purposefully engaged and focused. It deepens us, giving us soul-capacity.
    Finding a daily space in which to be still and receptive is a discipline in our busy world. Your place of meditation can be inside or outside, as long as it is free from disturbance.
   As you read each day's meditation, actively enable the words to go beyond this page by interacting with the subject. Regard each meditation as an extension of your own meditation space, so that it can become your own sacred grove. From that grove, you may discover pathways that gradually lead you from personal space in the apparent world into the universal space of the unseen world. As you contemplate, let the words and meanings become like sparks that leap from idea to idea, strongly connecting with your own understanding and allowing your own memory-resident realizations to join up in new conflagrations of inspiration.
   Many people have forgotten how to understand the soul; they do not recognize its signals any longer, mistaking deep soul-urgings for paranoia, creative inspiration for psychic disturbance. In such ways are the deep sendings of the soul dismissed and many wonderful opportunities lost! To be responsive to the messages the soul sends us, we need a deep listening ability to pick up the frequencies beyond the surface-level transmission of daily anxiety and business. These subtle messages are easily ignored as irrelvant or too difficult to deal with; sometimes they are mistakenly dismissed as self-delusions. The daily practice of meditation can help us retnne to soul's frequency again and gain a sense of proportion.
    On the days when you are ill, emotionally disturbed, or burdened by worry, do not be meditationally ambitious. Look after yourself, get some help, and temporarily reduce your commitments. Make your meditation time one of refreshment, concentrate upon your breathing, and commune with the inspirers and helpers of your spiritual tradition.

   At the end of each meditation there is an invitation for you to make your own contribution. Sometimes this involves considering an aspect of your own life experience, at other times you will be invited to make upon or visualize something. Some meditations invite you to visit a place by soul-flight: this means sending part of your soul out to that place and with your own vision, being aware of whatever happens there. Some meditations conclude with an invitation to put a concept into practice in your daily life, for spiritual wisdom evolves not in solitary meditation but when implemented in ordinary life. Such implementation helps us avoid the inbalances and delusions that may arise from a purely theoretical approach to spirituality.
   Some meditations end with a question. Questioning was a method of oral teaching given by the druids. Questions are like keys for opening doors. When we ask ourselves the right questions, the resulting synaptic leaps take us into profound areas of realization.
   It is easy to read a portion of this book every day. It is less easy to become involved in your own spiritual path. Some days you will not have the time, of course; but it is only by your own practice that the spiritual path opens. As you make your own sunwise turas round the year, you will make many interesting discoveries about yourself, your own natural mode of spiritual practice, and you will learn traveling the spiral path of the year.
   Many meditations suggest consulting your spiritual allies: this means consciously contacting the spiritual beings whom you hold as sacred guardians and guides on your path. Spiritual allies can include the manifest aspects of the Divine with whom you have close relationship, as well as saints and heroes, and the spirits animals, trees and places with you are strongly aligned.
   As a unique human being with an immortal soul, you have the capacity for discrimination, imagination, and spiritual adventure. Learn to commune with your soul, giving it space to speak to you. Cherish your dreams. Allow the inspiration of your soul to pave the way to creative endeavors that have haunted your unfulfilled desires for many years.
    As you meditate around the year, be aware of others who have walked this path before you. Their inspiration, endeavor, and hope have kept open the track. Remember too that the way you walk the path matters - it clears the way for those who come after you.
    I have alternated male and female pronouns throughout the text. Rough pronunciation of Celtic words is given in parentheses after the word in question - for example, Fionn mac Cumhail, (FINN mak KOOL) or Rhiannon (Hree-ANN'on) . Stress is given on the capitalized syllables. This book offers only approximate pronunciation, as Welsh and Gaelic have their own subtle consonantal and vowel qualities which are apparent in the spoken rather than the written languages.
   This book is set up for following the Northern Hemisphere seasons.  If you live in the Southern Hemisphere you should be following the book in reverse.  To post this book in reverse as well as in the Northern Hemisphere is not something I am prepared to do.  I apologize if this is going to make it difficult to participate in the reading of the essays.  My only suggestion is to go backwards in last year's postings and see if you can work with that method. To give you a place to begin look upon this month of November as being May in the Southern Hemispere and so on. 

The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year

Introduction

I am beginning another journey through this book and thought it might be nice to 'introduce' the book and its purpose to those of you who follow the posts here.

"The limbs of science are equal to the limbs of man; for there are 365 joints in the body, 365 days in the year, and 365 herbs through the earth."
   ___ "Auraicept na nEcces,  anon Irish text
              
A Sunwise Circuit

    Increasingly today, ancient wisdom is seen as something archaic, and forgotten, of use only to learned exponents of arcane lore. But, truly, the wisdom of the ancients is no different from the wisdom that springs from our own life experience. I hope that you will find a deep connection between what is written in his book and your own daily life. 
    As season succeeds season and one year cascades into another, so our lives spiral into new constellations of understanding. If we look over the years, we will see the unique spiral of our life-course interweaving its dance with that of the planet's own revolutions within the solar system.
    The cycles of day and night are ruled by the sun, the cycle of months by the moon, the cycle of the year by the wheeling stars. In every age, human beings have looked to the heavens and been astonished and inspired. The course of a year is but a small compass for change in one human life, but it nevertheless provides a useful chart on which to plot our spiritual voyage.
   The nature of each season brings its own wisdom and insight, testing the practical grasp of our understanding from winter's cold grip through spring's unfolding and summer's heat to autumn's bounty - and on again. Through each season's eye we see the earth and its inhabitants. The changes in animals, plants, trees, and landscape reflect back to us the changes to which we ourselves are subject.
    In the apparent world - the realm that we perceive and know with our physical senses - the year turns its circuit of seasons, providing us with much wisdom. But the apparent world is not the only world with which we interact. Just as real, though perceivable only by our subtle senses, is the Otherworld, the world, the world of Spirit which all of us experience through the receptor of our soul.
   Throughout the year, our comprehension of the unseen changes in the country of our soul fluctuates. Sometimes we clearly hear the music of Otherworld leading us on; sometimes we have to strain to hear it; at other times it seems to be absent. The changing seasons in the apparent world teach us to trust that, though the skies be cloudy, the stars still shine in the dark or the day; that though there are no blossoms, leaves or fruit upon the tree, the cycle of growth will turn again. So too in the country of the soul, we trust that silence will be replaced by singing and that inspiration will flow once more.
   As we make our own pilgrimage round the seasons of the year, we simultaneously make what is called in Irish a turas (TU'ras) - a word that means 'journey', 'pilgrimage' and 'time' all at once. A turas usually refers to the circular, spiraling prayer and meditation form used by people in the Celtic countries as they walk sunwise around a sacred site.
    As our planet spins around the circling year, we too simultaneously experience the turning of our soul toward the source of greatest spiritual light. Each season is a mystical gateway of opportunity and understanding, a sacred time of wisdom. If we live with awareness of the year's cycles, we will achieve a direct alignment with those sacred opportunities.

   The essay post for today, November 1st, will posted in a separate entry.