"Too many men and women spend their time between an office and a home in a state of intellectual stupor."
___ Llewelyn Powys, "Earth Memories"
Among the bards and druids, the training of the mind and memory was of paramount importance; the continual use of memory kept open the neural pathways, making response quick and incisive. Speed of mind meant speed of tongue: the swifter-than-thought pronouncement of judgment or pithy and apposite verse was expected of bards and druids. While there are many professions today that use training methods to sharpen the intellect, most of us do not exercise our minds to any great degree. Instead of thinking deeply about a thing, we often summon up our sensations, emotions and instincts and create an opinion woven of these strands. Although the intellect needs stimulus and training, it still has its place in the scheme of things.
In the wintertime, the air is clearer and crisper, the brain seems to work just that little bit more quickly than it does in the summer. Those of us who are intellectually flabby may find that now is a good time to exercise our intellect, to stretch it further than it is accustomed to. The process of learning something is one way to engage the intellect; if there is no time for that, however, engaging in deep discussion about a topic important to you with friends or reading something that stretches your conceptual apparatus is also beneficial. There are no set boundaries on the limits of human intellect: see how far we each can go!
"Exercise your mind in a new or different way: a new language, a different way of looking at the universe. Choose something that intrigues you and see how it connects with what you know."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
The Wisdom of the Word
The use of words was one of the central aspects of ancient Celtic culture. Not only did words represent the medium of communication, they also formed the focus of spirituality and a repository for sacred wisdom. The Celtic culture had an almost exclusively oral tradition; this was the sole means by which the culture expressed its identity, its sense of history and continuity. The spoken words was used both to preserve Celtic mythology and for storytelling, including poetry and song. There were also a variety of lesser spoken forms, such as proverbs, sayings, riddles, prayers and blessings. The timeless treasures that survive from this tradition still have much to offer us today - as a means of gaining wisdom, rediscovering our native spirituality , and dealing with the challenges that modern living presents.
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