Imbolc

Imbolc

"Washing the hand, the foot,
the hand: this is the work of Imbolc."
   ___ ancient Irish saying (trans. CM)


    The festival of Imbolc (IMM'bolk) marks the loosening of winter's grip upon the land. The feast's matron, Brighid (BREE'yid) brings new energy and light to the world, breaking the spell of the Cailleach's hammer, which has frozen the ground hard.
   The name Imbolc is derived from the lactation of ewes, which begin lambing at this time of year. For people in ancient time, the milk from sheep would have been the first dairy produce after the long winter. All food production and household protection was believed to be under the aegis of Brighid, who was also seen as the primordial midwife.
   Imbolc is a time of lustration, cleansing, and purification. It is not without significance that February, into which Imbolc extends, is exactly nine months from the lusty festivities of Beltaine in May - festivities during which many women would have conceived children who were born now. Rites of lustration frequently follow childbirth.
     The celebrations of this feast include a ceremony wherein young people gather together to sing the praises of Brighid and to fashion a brideog (BREE'jog), or Brighid doll. The company go from house to house, knocking for admittance. At each door the brideog is welcomed and ushered in, since every household wishes to partake of the blessing. The making of Brighid's cross out of rushes is also part of this festival: this was originally a woven emblem with three slanting legs running sunwise, but now it is commonly a four-footed cross. The power and light of Brighid's protection encircles the household where this emblem is displayed.

"Make everything clean for this festival with the conscious intention of purifying your household of all old, stale, and wintry influences. Kindle candles at fall of dark and set them safely in every room. Then go to the door and welcome into your home the protective blessing of Brighid."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Farewell to the Season of Samhain

(to be said at the back-door/window of the

house on the last morning of the Samhain

quarter, January 31st.)

"Go with thanks and go with blessing,

Season of deep memory.

Souls with joy are deeply freighted,

Hearts are charged with heritage.

As ancestors you have traveled,

You have come to Winter's home.

Father Counsel, who has cheered us,

Mother Wisdom, who has smiled,

Touch the hidden seed within me,

May we grow as Spring's own child."

[From Caitlin Matthews' "Celtic Devotional"]

Threshold Invocation for the Festival of Imbolc

(to be said at the front door of the house on the

eve of Imbolc, January 31st in the evening.)

"Midwife of Mystery, open the door,

Infant of the Infinite, come you in.

Let there be welcome to the newborn truth,

Let there be welcome to the Spring of the Year.

In cold and darkness you are traveling,

In warmth and brightness you will arrive.

May the blessed time of Imbolc

Kindle the soul of all beings,

Bringing birth to innocence and integrity.

From the depths to the heights,

From the heights to the depths,

In the heart of every soul."

[From Caitliln Matthews' "Celtic Devotional"]



The Song of Cailleach

The Song of Cailleach

"Sad the day, woe is me,
That I sail not on youth's sea!
All my years of beauty gone
And my lusty flesh forlorn."
   ___"Death Song of the Cailleach Beare",
        early Irish poem (trans. CM)

   The Cailleach Beare (KAHL'lee-ak BEE'ra) - the Old Woman or Grandmother of the Beare Peninsula in Ireland - is remembered in many land features as the one who formed the mountain ranges by tossing rocks from her apron - a titanic figure who rules the wintertide, whose hammer freezes the ground.
   This long poem laments the passing of her youth and of the many excitements, lovers, horseraces, and gifts she once enjoyed. In her decrepitude, she no longer savors the company of young people or feasts on tasty food with kings as she was wont. Instead, she is incarcerated with veiled nuns whose only conversation is dull and dreary prayer. The Cailleach sings of her former life as the flowing tide of incoming waters, but she begins to see that her later life is of the ebbing tide.
   As youth's vigor passes from our limbs and we enter the wider sea of age, so we all become old ones of memory and experience, the new rememberers and guardians in our turn. We cannot reach that role without relinquishing our youthful grasp on life, however. Only when we become aware of the changing tide; only then are gifts of age available. If we continue to swim against the tide, we will not find them.
   Not only for the aged and the wise, but also for the young and the inquiring the Cailleach sings her song. She is the mistress of winter's heart. Now we can hear her song clearly and understand that the changing of the tides heralds no ending, only a renewal of all that we are.

"What is flowing and ebbing the tides of your own life right now?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion

Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion

"Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?"
   ___ William Blake, "On Another's Sorrow"


    How involved do we become when misfortune falls upon those around us? Our level of affection and acquaintance may determine our response, as well as our level of responsibility: this will obviously be higher in our immediate family than with our friends or with strangers.
    The three main responses to misfortune are usually clustered around expressions of sympathy, empathy, and compassion. We offer sympathy to those whom we do not know well and with whom we have little intention of becoming involved. Expressions of sympathy offer the minimum response that is socially acceptable when suffering arises, and they do little to assuage the suffering. Well-motivated empathy, on the other hand - distinguished from sympathy in that it regards the sufferer more than the self - can ease pain and bring comfort.
   Compassion, alone of these three, embraces the needy and acts to meet the need. Because of its impartiality, it is the most difficult of the three to experience and to maintain. It neither remains on the boundaries of the suffering nor becomes emotionally entangled with it. Rather, it encompasses suffering with a love that is universal, respecting the primal core of life and envisioning its relief with heartfelt action. Compassion takes a good deal of disinterested regard. For that reason, it may be easier to maintain compassion among strangers, those by whom we are not known and with whom there are no intimate ties to emotionally cripple our actions.

"Consider your own responses to the suffering that is about you."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Transforming Our Rage

Transforming Our Rage

"It is in bringing the rage of what hurts you personally into the world that you have the power to bring neart, this active spirituality, out into the world."
    ___ from a speech by Nuala Ahern, Irish   
       member of the European Parliament

   The Irish word neart (NYART) is one for which there is no English equivalent. It means 'strength' or 'power' in the sense of 'the energy of life.'  This sacred energy is the source of all movement in the universe. People who have been disconnected from the health and harmony of their
neart for any length of time, lose contact with their essential power. In people who have been disconnected from their neart, rage is often a positive sign of returning life and power. People who are totally downtrodden and powerless do not have the energy to be angry. But what do we do with  our rage once it is awakened? The transformative aspect of rage is found in reconnection with our
neart: instead of being stuck in victimhood and persecution, we step out powerfully and acknowledge our strength. Rage can be destructive if it remains in a mentality of victimhood, for it never properly connects with the primal power of life. However, it can become a revolutionary force that rights many abuses when victims decide to band together, to blow the whistle and ensure the others do not suffer in like manner.
   But rage can be an important gauge of distress, and neglecting its warning is dangerous. If rage flares out of self-protection or warning and we ignore it, we begin to lose our neart; we give it away to others and let them walk all over us. The life-power that courses through us is a gift to be protected and guarded; it cannot be taken from us unless we allow that to happen. If righteous rage arises, listen to its warning voice and act to protect your precious gift.

"What kinds of things enrage you? Correlate your findings with the boundaries of your own neart."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Waking the Sleepers

Waking the Sleepers

"Woe to the coward that ever he was born,
That did not draw the sword before he blew
the horn."
  ____ traditional Scots rhyme


    There are many stories concerning giants (or King Arthur and his knights) sleeping under a hill. The sleepers are really guardians who should not be woken until there is a great and national need. A fool-hardy man discovers their sleeping place, usually when seeking buried treasure that is supposed to be lying with the sleepers. Greed takes him in but at the sight of the awesome warriors and their gear, confusion grips him. He blows the horn to wake them but fails to draw the sword that lies nearby to indicate the real urgency of his need. The sleepers stir and ask, "Is it time?" The foolish man has nothing to say for himself, and is indicted with the rhyme above. He is never able to find the cavern again.
   In every country, there is a similar tale of sleepers whose purpose is to be the vanguard of defense in national crisis - ancestral or other-worldly sleepers who are contracted to be guardians and protectors of the land. They should not be woken unless we really need them. Those who invoke the sleepers out of greed or curiosity get neither gold nor knowledge. This applies also to those whose spiritual practice is entirely self-serving, who undergo a kind of metaphysical assault course wherein all traditions are ransacked for their spiritual treasures in order to provide soul-credits at the finish line.
   There are many aspects of ancient traditions that are in a period of sleep, retreat, or transformation - aspects that are best left sleeping now. Not only atavistic and barbarous practices that are no longer a part of our world, but also deep and abiding truths that will one day awaken and come to aid of those in centuries yet to dawn.

"Who are the abiding sleepers in your tradition? Meditate upon the purpose of their sleep."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Extremity

Extremity

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity."
    ___ Scottish proverb


    When we are brought to the verge of crisis, our well-honed philosophies and careful, controlled strategies fall away. All the spars that make up our life raft, the things on which we daily rely, have tendency to break up in the force of events. It is usually when we feel our utter solitude and helplessness that we call upon the spirit world for assistance. Even though we may have no well-founded belief, we instinctively know that even if all other things have fallen away, divine providence will not let us down.
   Crisis may help kick-start spirituality temporarily, but only a consenting soul can maintain it. Crisis and extremity are not missionaries on an evangelical campaign trail for our souls; they are agents of change able to strip away the inessentials and awaken us to a deeper resourcefulness that is not ours alone.
   Like the volcanic force that shaped the rugged landscapes of Scotland, extremity scoops out hollows and scours deeply embedded rubbles from the surface of our lives, leaving behind deep declivities that only Spirit can fill and temper. The excavation of possibility simultaneously brings the realization of wider capacity. As nature abhors a vacuum, so does Spirit find ways of filling the emptiness of our soul.
   We may be aware of none of these realizations in a conscious way during our time of trial, but we can throw the imploring rope of appeal to our spiritual source and ask for it to be safely caught.

"Meditate upon a recent crisis situation in your life. What spiritual opportunities were present? Which did you take up, which refuse? Create your own short invocation for help, to be used in a time of future extremity."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Gift of Love

The Gift of Love

"Love is drawn to love."
     ___Welsh proverb (trans. CM)


    On this day, the Celtic equivalent of St. Valentine's Day, Welsh lovers celebrate the patron of love; St. Dwynen's Day (DWIN'wen), by sending each other St. Dwynwen's Day cards. Many legends tell of St. Dwynwen, including one that speaks of her love for Maelon Dafodrill (MY'lon Day-OD'ril). Things did not work out, however, and one night St. Dwynwen prayed to be cured of her love. God appeared to her in her dreams, giving her a draught that cured her of love and causing Maelon to be frozen into a block of ice. But St. Dwynwen was offered - and made - three divine wishes. The first she uttered was that Maelon be unfrozen; the second was that any true lovers whose love was not reciprocated might be cured of their love; the last was that she might never marry.
   Love is one of our world's most cliched words. It has to work hard to cover all kinds of conditions and relationships, from the intimacy of lovers to the filial, parental and national forms of love that surround us. We look for love and approval everywhere without understanding that love must also be extended by ourselves, that the giving of love is an essential part of the process. There is a lack of grace, a kind of lovelessness that inhabits the body of someone who has not been a receptacle of love.
    The presence of love calls out the gift of love in others. Love's reciprocity is catching if we once allow it in. Unreciprocated love, however, is a curse not a gift - one that St. Dwynwen herself seems to have well understood.

"Mediate upon the gift of love. How has it been manifested in your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Selling Our Souls

Selling Our Souls

"Very early in the life of every youth there
will be.... the question of how far he ought
to sell his soul for the sake of his life."
   ____ John Cowper Powys, "The Meaning
       of Culture"


   How can we be true to our vocation in situations that call us to sell our souls? We must remember that there are two criteria in the workplace: We work in order to gain a livelihood, and we work in order to honor our soul's potential. It is becoming rare for workers to be able to meet both criteria. Many people who feel that their talents have been used for unspeakable ends have found more satisfaction in menial work well done than in their chosen profession. But maintain this kind of professional honor is to take the high moral ground, a stance that may not support a home and family.
   For many people, work is a compromise between livelihood and soul's honor. They cannot be without work, but they can search out ethical employers and forms of work that do not exploit their skills without proper return. This return is not only monetary, however: there must also be respect for the worker and his rights, and a proper appreciation of the work done. When this return is absent, we feel cheated, short-changed.
    When we prostitute our talents to purely exploitative ends, we risk divorcing ourselves from our primal vision. Such a divorce is a separation from the greater reality of which we are a part, and a selling of our souls to those who will wring out every last essential drop of our vocational skills.

"Meditate upon your vocational vision, even if you are not actively performing of fulfilling it at this time. What qualities and features, characterize it? How have these been employed, recognized, and acknowledged in your life to date?  How and why are you dissatisfied with the work you currently do? Are there remedies for the dissatisfaction?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Clearing the Way

Clearing the Way

" The plow must go five times over the site of a wood before it can become a field."
   ____ traditional Welsh saying (trans. CM)


   The sun has returned and the light is growing, but the plans we have been brooding upon may show little signs of progress. Now is a good time of the year to prepare the ground for the projects and plans that are important to us. Make a list of plans and projects whose unfinished rubble clutters your way forward. Theses may include long, ongoing plans are not going anywhere fast and short-term projects that are unfinished due to a lack of resources or energy. Look down your list. Which irritates you the most? Which nags at you as unfinished? Which did work out according to plan, and why? Do not be surprised if you access deep emotion, and do not be afraid of what you feel.
    Go through this list, creating questions that challenge and uncover the roots of the problem. Has your vision for each of the plans changed? Are your projects still workable as they stand?  Evaluate long-term projects for significant progress and assess which approaches might loosen things up. Do you perhaps need to break down long-term plans into shorter achievable components, for example?  Are there associations with partners or friends that are impeding your progress? If someone else is involved, what contribution has that person made? Finally, go through your list item by item and mark projects for eradication, rethinking, and fresh effort.
   This procedure requires hard mental effort, but it can help dig up the soil of our potentiality and prepare it to receive new growth.

"Set aside time to clear your way and root out outworn strategies and failed plans."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews}

Phantom Lovers

Phantom Lovers

"Running ever through my head is an old-time rune -- "Who meets the Love Talker must weave her shroud soon."
   ___Ethna Carberry. "The Lover Talker"


   This poem speaks about a faery spirit called the Love Talker, who is said to come to young women and cause them to fall hopelessly in love with him. Such phantom lovers are not mythical. They still affect our world and draw our desires to them.
   When we interact with phantom lovers, we draw upon the image of the ideal man or woman to which we naturally gravitate. The problem comes when we either project that image upon a living partner, relating to him in a totally false way, or become obsessed with the projected image and fall in love with it to the exclusion of our health and well-being. Then the characteristic signs of one lured away by the phantom lover are clearly visible: an inability to relate directly to those who love us, a distaste for usual pleasures and recreations, an unhealthy need for solitude. In such cases, we come under the spell the of the phantom lover and dance to his tune.
    When we project our ideal image upon a real person, we create terrible confusion and heartache. We also expose ourselves to unsuitable relationships and even violent abuse: because we are in thrall to the ideal image, we do not see that its mundane reflection is not worthy of our love. The phantom lover speaks to us of things that are attractive but unrealistic. It is essential that we become aware of the reality of the situation and make a clear separation between the phantom lover as ideal image, our actual human partner, and the true image of our soul - the anima or animus. Finally, we should not confuse phantom lovers with our soul's beloved, the one who is the true friend of the soul and certainly no deceiver.

"Scrutinize your relationships for traces of the phantom lover. Ask your soul's beloved to give you help in clarifying this matter."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Superiority

Superiority

"When we let go of believing we are superior,
we open ourselves to the experience of living
in the community of Nature."
  ____Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm,
        "The Druid Animal Oracle"


    In nature there is a pecking order of dominance
to which weaker species bow; but the sense of superiority seems to be especially strong in human beings, regardless of any real power we possess. Our culture has told us that our species is superior to all others, that human convenience is at the top of the heap, and that every other inhabitant of earth must give away to us. This view is not held in traditional cultures such as the Celtic, however; instead, all life forms are seen as fellow participants in life's dance.
   Superiority separates us both from other species and life forms and from our fellow human beings. To live even one day with an awareness of our interconnected participation in life is a profoundly humbling experience that reconnects us with the community of nature. To experience, say, trees without the barrier of human superiority is to meet and interact with wise beings; to greet a child as a living soul, without adult superiority marring our encounter, is to be aware of primal understanding; to stand in a shower of rain and experience every drop as a kindred being is to be washed clean of separation.
   We do not have to walk around feeling mystically merged with everything, devoid of a sense of our own distinct identity; we need only remember that the beauty of life is too precious to be hidden by superior attitudes.

"Practice experiencing the world for a short time without allowing your innate sense of superiority into the driver's seat."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Spiritual Navigation

Spiritual Navigation

"O where will I get a guide sailor,
To take my helm in hand,
Till I get up to the tall top-mast,
To see if I can spy land?"
   ___ The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens,
    Scots folk song

  The art of spiritual navigation is one that few are taught in our era. If we are fortunate enough to have a spiritual director or adviser as companion along our way, then we receive expert guidance when difficulties arise. A sensitive adviser does not attempt to solve our problems but make suggestions and gives resourceful clues.
    The chief aid to our personal exploration is our own spiritual practice. In our meditation, in our prayerful listening, in our silent attunement, we derive a good deal of navigational information. Most of this is likely to go unnoticed if we do not record and correlate it. Like any explorer to an unknown realm, we need to know the contours of the land, its flora and fauna, its friendly and hostile inhabitants. The mapping of our spiritual progress will certainly not be straightforward or easy to record. We will have to be alert to subtle changes and correspondences between what we experience and what seems to be true for us. Like the navigator who steers his ship through the fog, we have to sound the waters ahead of us and proceed slowly, always acknowledging that thought we cannot see the stars, they still shine above us.
    We each have an in-built aid to spiritual navigation in our dreams. In those nocturnal journeys, we visit new zones and landscapes, encounter archetypal and mythic beings who speak directly to us, often in pun-laden language. Our mapping of the otherworldly shore is based on a set of sequential explorations and recognitions that grow in confidence and trust as we take our spiritual voyage.

"Begin to note and map your spiritual journey using a diary, chart and/or set of pictures to which you can refer and add regularly."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Shutting Out the World

Shutting Out the World

"It is I
From earth and sky
Shut out, or they
From my closed heart?"
  ___ Kathleen Raine, "The Oracle in the Heart"


   As we become increasingly urbanized and the population rises, people in cities cannot help but begin to exclude parts of the world around them, out of sheer self-survival. We cannot meet and greet everyone in the street, nor would this be entirely desirable. Given the effort we expend on blanking out parts of the world, it is any wonder that we sometimes have the impression that we are shut off from the world?  If we are emotionally hurt or physically traumatized, if patterns of depression and disconnection continue, we can end up feeling isolated and unable to communicate with the world around us.
   The process of opening our heart after it has been injured is best begun in nature. We can become aware of the beauty, variety and seasonal changes of the nature world by regular exposure to the countryside. We can also go directly to the sources of nurture that have given us insight and empowerment in the past: music, animals, poetry, books, places, and friends are all able to feed our spirits. Learning and observing fresh subjects can also draw us from depressive introspection into new avenues of communication. Reaffirming our spiritual connection through daily prayer, meditation, or communion with the sources of spiritual strength can likewise reopen closed pathways.
   The most profound change comes about if we frequently extend our sincere welcome to the world to be with us in our space. In that invitation we learn that it is not the world that excludes us, but we who shut the world out.

"Contemplate times when you have felt excluded from the world. What factors helped you feel included again?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Polishing the Jewel of the Craft

Polishing the Jewel of the Craft

Nede: "What do you practice?"
Ferchetne: "Hunting for the treasures of
  knowledge."
     ____ "Colloquy of the Two Sages", anon.
     Irish poem (trans. John Matthews)


    When young Nede (NAT'da) hears of his father's death, he returns from Scotland to take his poetic chair. To give himself a semblance of maturity, she sticks on a grass beard. But this fails to fool Ferchetne (Fer-KET'ne), who challenges him to a poetic contest.
   Each poet throws challenging questions at the other: Ferchetne's are aerobatically ambitious and self-vaunting, while Frechetne's are sober, modest, and grounded in real practice, his prophetic insight far surpassing that of his junior. The dialogue concludes when Ferchetne asks Nede, "Who is greater than yourself?" Casting off his false beard, tearing off his professional robe, Nede kneels at Ferchetne's feet, asserting that only God and the greatest of poetic prophets is greater. He cedes place to Ferchetne as his elder and puts himself under his protection.
    To arrive at a position of mature power and discernment, like that held by Ferchetne, takes much practice and many years of experience. Nede tries to short-circuit the path of his own fledgling art by assuming a maturity that he does not as yet possess and is forced, out of humility and truth, to acknowledge that his elder has a better claim to the poetic chair than he does. The years lie ahead of him which will bring polish to the uncut gem of his inexperience.
   It is practice alone that brings a burnished glow to our own rough-hewn skills; it is by continual application of our craft that they become jewels in their appropriate setting.

"Consider your particular skill or talent. Visualize this as a gem and meditate upon its appropriate setting and context."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Leaving Home

Leaving Home

"Dark is yonder town
Dark are those within
You are the brown swan
Going within fearlessly."
   ___ Scots Gaelic blessing
            for a child leaving home


   The moment comes in every parent's life when his child is launched on the world for the very first time: a moment fraught with hope, fear and expectation for both child and parent. The invocation given above offers clues to the kind of preparations that can pave the way for the one who is leaving. Chief among these is a self-esteem that comes from the recognition - by others and self - of one's innate qualities, those strengths that every young person has. Second comes the appeal to and recognition of the role models that inspire the one leaving, that encourage and sustain her in times of adversity. Third is the blessing that comes from the heart of the parent to rest upon the child.
    In Celtic folklore, the child about to leave home asks the parent for a blessing. The formulaic reply to this request is, "You can have a mother's blessing and half a bannock (loaf) or a mother's curse  and a whole bannock."  The child who asks for the latter usually does not fare well, but the child who asks for the half the bannock is truly blessed. So it is in our own times, when so many children feel driven out by their parents: their leaving is not experienced as a cooperative venture involving both parties, and they feel the blight of the parental curse. Those for whom leaving home is an anticipatory enterprise want to have parental blessing: they are willing to carry half a bannock with them on their journey as prophecy of their own ability to earn a living, thankfully taking the half that is offered as a token of their parent's continuing support and as recognition of their own new-found independence.

"Make your own prayer for those leaving home."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Returning to Work - Plough Monday

Returning to Work

"From midwinter's burrow,
Send light down the furrow.
Come forth, hidden sun,
For the year's work's begun!"
   ___ Incantation for Plough Mother
     by Caitlin Matthews

    The first Monday after Twelfth Night was called Plough Monday in earlier centuries: the day on which farm laborers returned to work and the plow was honored and paraded around the village. During this week when many people have returned to employment after the holidays, it is easy to either become mindlessly immersed in work or to remain detached from it (depending on how committed we are to our job). For many of us, work is a means to an end rather than a craft or profession that we undertook purposefully and in which we actively delight. How can we return to our work with better spirit?
   The customs of Plough Monday offer suggestions that can help reinvest both our work and our workplace with fresh interest and vigor. Meditate upon the nature of your work. What tool or object is emblematic of it?  ( If you use computers, this might be a pen and paper; if you work on the land, this might be a plant.) Whatever your actual work, what small object might represent it ritually? What is the finished product or effect of your work?
    On the day when you must return to work after a period of rest, spend some time in meditation with the emblem of your work enshrined and honored before you: contemplate it and the outcome or final result of your work (even if this is shared by many employees). Make your own dedication to the work of your hands and ask for a blessing upon it.

"Create a personalized and suitable ritual of your own based on the suggestions above."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


Plough Monday:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough_Monday

http://www.ploughmonday.co.uk/

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/ploughMonday.htm

Mediating the Primal

Mediating the Primal

"A culture that doesn't have....a shaman, that doesn't
therefore have access to the potencies of the beginning,
is in trouble."
____ John Moriarty, 'Turtle Was Gone a Long Time"


    The ability to access the primal powers 'of life', to connect with them and meditate them, is the task of the shaman. Today most of us have forgotten to honor (or even recognize) the primal powers of life. Life is merely the stream of existence in which each of us swims. We move along this stream largely unaware of the larger reality in which we are involved.
    The shaman stands at the threshold between the worlds with the duty of honoring the powers of both apparent and unseen worlds. On the druid path, this role is fulfilled by the ovate: the vision-seer who walks between the worlds in order to bring the apparent world into harmony with the unseen world.
    Without such mediators, who are aware of the primal otherworld, our own world can become disconnected from the larger harmony. A shaman's work is primarily healing the fractures that separate our world from the other so that power can once more flow; the task is performed for people, animals, plants and places.
    The potent, primal world of beginnings is potentially accessible to all of us by virtue of the life within in our veins. The spiral ladder of DNA is itself a pathway of life, a circuit of power connected to the primal source of life from which we can consciously draw the healing that we need. But we still need our shamans - our mediators and healers - who can pass beyond physical boundaries to effect the work of reconnection; we need them to maintain an embassy at the threshold of the worlds so that the ways of negotiating remain open.

"Mediate upon the source of primal life. How are your body and soul connected to this source? By what evidence do you know this?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Merlin's Isle

Merlin's Isle

"She is not any common Earth,
Water or Wood or Air,
But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye
Where you and I will fare."
   ___ Rudyard Kipling, "Puck's Song"


    Merlin trains King Arthur to be a worthy king, but long before Arthur passes to Avalon, Merlin retires from his role as prophet and adviser to a tower that has seventy doors and windows. From which he can see the whole realm and maintain his guardianship. It is for this reason that the name Clas Myrddin (KLAS MER'thyn) was given to the island of Britain, for it falls under his watchful protection.
    Many countries have a secret, hidden, or poetic name that describes the true nature of the land in a deep, mythic way. When wearing this name, the country becomes a realm that somehow lies beyond its geographical location and given name, leading us into a hinterland that can be crossed only in dreams and visions, perceived only in stories and legends. Something in our hearts speaks to us of the mythic reality of Merlin's Isle, a place that yet abides.
   Beneath the history of every country there is a gramarye - a secret magical teaching - to be learned: the lore, the stories, the enchantments that only the land can teach us.  It is so in Merlin's Isle. There the gramarye is written non in the common elements but in their subtle counterparts, which are perceivable at dawn and twilight, at the between times when color and light merge into sound and distance. Within the folded hills, by the singing streams, deep in the secret hollows, Merlin keeps his school; and there, under his intimate tutelage, we can read the book of nature and of story and know our land's gramarye.

"What are the rudiments of your own land's gramarye ? Which figures in story and legend are associated with the keeping of your country's secret wisdom and power?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Embrace of Heaven and Earth

The Embrace of Heaven and Earth

"The stars speak through the stones. Light shines in the
densest matter. Earth and heaven are one. Our physical
beings and our heavenly souls are united in the Mystery
of Being,"
  ___Philip Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Tradition"


   The druidic tradition is deeply acquainted with the interrelationship of the apparent and unseen worlds. This interrelation's understanding certainly did not originate with the druids, but it was apparent to the earlier megalithic peoples whose stone circles and monuments are now popularly assigned to the druids. If you have ever stood within such a stone circle at night, the relationship between stone and star becomes immediately apparent: in earlier times, when street lighting did not pollute the night sky, the most immediate feature would have been the dazzling stellar canopy overhead. It is unfortunate that our dazzling technology has diminished the stars with its emissions.
   Even nonscientific people suspect that we are part of something greater and more complex than a merely physical universe. It is not only the nature world that speaks to us of an integral but unseen relationship, but also the everyday mystical experiences that elevate us to spiritual insight. In this way, we are no different from the deep ancestors of prehistory. Scientists today discern the heavens with more far-reaching sight than ever the druids could achieve, yet many still fail to see the stars within the stone or the light within the matter. The continual embrace of heaven and earth surrounds us all, if we become still enough to perceive it.

"Go out and look at the stars. As you look up, meditate upon the connection between the matter in your body and the matter in the stars."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Twice-Born

The Twice-Born

"To dare the incarnation, to take the road
in silence.
To know the ascension; to will the resurrection.
The song shimmers in the golden people."
   ___ Aidan Andrew Dun, "Vale Royal"


    There comes a stage upon our spiritual path when we stand at the threshold of serious commitment:  Do we enter into the unknown mysteries of the deeper way or remain on the safe, known pathway? This process of going within is called 'initiation,' and the one who enters within is called the 'initiate.'  This is a scary threshold to cross because no one can share the experience or explain it in advance.
   Within the Celtic tradition, there have been people in every generation who have gone consenting to the threshold of initiation in order to learn from and be taught by the teachers who are no longer incarnate. It is they who have kept open the ways and been the mediators of the mysteries. Their commitment and avowal of intention to serve their spiritual tradition may have been hidden, arrived at in solitude and struggle, but they have stretched out their hands to the ancestral teachers nonetheless and become the 'twice-born' - initiates who have been born anew into the life that is beyond physical existence.
   The twice-born, like the bards and druids of old, access the help of spiritual guardians for whom time and space are no obstacle. Over many centuries, to the mundane eye, they have arisen and disappeared, quietly stating and living the ancient wisdoms. These courageous wisdom-keepers have in turn become teachers for the next generation of seekers.
   So the old songs have become new, not only by studying and researching, but by crossing the boundary between the worlds and entering into direct, living relationship with the mystery of the ancestral wisdom.

"What initiatory thresholds have you encountered in your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Recognizing the Potential

Recognizing the Potential

"Three things that should be despised: a ragged young man, a shaggy filly and a freckled-legged girl."
    ___Scots Gaelic triad


   The ability to foster potential and encourage the young is one of the great gifts of a mature individual. It gives power and hope to the as-yet-developed soul struggling to find its place in life. When we invest interest and encouragement in someone, we invest her with a level of trust, a belief in herself that may give her the power to blossom and mature in wonderful ways. Every act of encouragement must be sensitively judged however, for if we invest two much hope in people, our expectations become a burden that may cause them to falter.
    The recognition of potential is something that all ages need, if we are to flourish. This is especially true for those souls who have been discouraged in their early life or whose potential has been blocked by unfortunate circumstances. The soul damage to people who have been taught to despise their own potential is incalculable; they can speak only slightingly of themselves and their achievements.  They need careful, steady encouragement to remind them of their true worth and to reintegrate the gifts they were born with but that were stolen by the insensitive and manipulative actions of others.
    The ragged young man may make good, the shaggy-hair filly may win uncounted races, and the freckled-legged girl may turn into a beauty without help and encouragement; but if the beholder can recognize the potential of each, the hidden gifts may develop in a more assured way.

"Without judging by appearances, look for the potential in those you meet."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Reconciliation

Reconciliation

"Two men can meet quicker than two
mountains ever." 
      ____ Welsh proverb  (trans CM)


    When we have fallen out with friends or colleagues, the way back to reconciliation can seem worlds away. Pride and hurt can cause us to decide that the first approach will never come from our side, but the same sentiments are often experienced by the other party.
   To arrive at reconciliation, we may have to explore the avenues of negotiation and compromise.
If we can find a sensible and eloquent go-between who can be trusted not to fan the flames of dispute, then the first approaches can be taken by this means. If we have no such go-between then we have to open negotiations on your behalf. With tact and sensitivity, we can invite the other party to meet with us on neutral ground, to discuss the causes of dispute and each other's views - an invitation  to come down from the lofty heights of separation and agree on a truce.
   The aim is not to shame or coerce the other into capitulation, but to allow both parties to bring their differences to the light of day so that they may be seen as they really are, rather than as they are emotionally experienced. This perspective may be difficult to maintain, especially if anger or grief is involved. It may be that the discussion must be carried on through letters, if emotions are too raw.
    While both parties are in the healing stage, it is often beneficial to perform some common act together - something that benefits neither party directly but is undertaken for the common benefit of others, such as a clearing a stream of rubbish or giving a few hours to a community project. Such acts provide a mutual focus that helps to heal division.

"With whom do you wish to be reconciled?  If your disagreement is of long standing, write a letter offering to close the gap."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Kindness of Kindred

The Kindness of Kindred

"Natural kindly human instincts, whose earth-born
rudiments existing among animals and birds, have
come to us from Nature herself."
____ John Cowper Powys "Obstinate Cymic"


   The kindness imputed to nature by the write J. C. Powys might
be disputed by those who find her 'red in tooth and claw' in a
variety of ways, as she turns the seasons and the weather without warning and creates destruction.  Yet nature is a mother who teaches all species to interrelate with each other. Kindness is nothing less than the recognition and acknowledge of our kinship with other beings, extending beyond humankind to embrace all that is. Kindness includes all and is cooperative. Kindness enables recognition of kinship in others.
    Nature's real beneficence is found not in 'random acts of kindness' patronizingly meted out to the web of life but in an ordered dispensation wherein all things touch, meet, and mingle. Kindness for nature, does not mean the cozy preservation of one life at the expense of all; it is an instinctive cooperation with the larger web of life. Those beings who choose to live outside this law are no longer kindred with life - a fact that human beings would do well to remember if we wish to continue!

"Is there someone or something toward whom you find it hard to be kind? What is it that severs kinship between you? How can true kinship be restored?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Well at World's End

The Well at World's End

"Those who in youth and childhood wander
alone in woods and wild places, ever after
carry in their hearts a secret well of
quietness and.... they always long for rest
and to get away from the noise and rumour
of the world."
   ___ W. B. Yeats, 'Letters'


    The Well at World's End is one of those secret places of restoration, healing and beauty that are sought in faery stories.  To carry its refreshing waters, we have to overcome obstacles in our path, identify and ask the help of allies who may not be human and purify ourselves in order that we may be worthy to receive the immortal draught.
    The surest doorway to the secret threshold between the worlds lies hidden deep in our experience of childhood. Search your memory for the sweet, essential time of childhood play when the universe was in your grasp: when the dammed-up stream behind your house became a river in flood, when your own body became the horse you (now rider too) intrepidly rode, snorting and stamping along the path. Remember the dappled jungles of undergrowth wherein toy figures became heroic in their adventures, battling with mighty ants. Recall the stories that you told yourself, reading the landscape with masterful childhood senses that instinctively knew the way between the worlds.
    Those stories, feelings, and perceptions are your childhood passport to the realms of the Well at World's End. Those magical waters have power to revoke the march of morality and to invoke the wild places of the heart. They recall to you the allies that you made when you played unselfconsciously - allies that you have ignored through lack of trust and because you have 'put away childish things.'  When you long to rest from the whirling everyday world, remember your own Well at World's End and drink deeply of its waters.

"Recall your childhood allies. (These might be places, toys, books, games, friends, animals.) Give them thanks for their companionship."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Traveling to Wisdom

Traveling to Wisdom

"I travelled over the earth
Before I became learned person.
I have travelled, I have made a circuit,
I have slept in a hundred islands, dwelt
in a hundred cities."
___ Taliesin, "Cad Goddeu" (trans CM)


    The Welsh poet Taliesin speaks here of his spiritual peregrinations - not only his physical travels but also his soul's circuit before it became
incarnated in its present form. The way to spiritual maturity is through personal and interactive experience. We travel to wisdom along the roads that our soul is drawn to explore, eventually evolving a map that we being to understand. Even within formal religions this journey must take place; otherwise, spiritual stasis sets in.
    In the old language of craftspeople, there are three aspects to the spiritual path: first we are the apprentice, painstakingly learning the basics of our craft; then we become journeymen, trained apprentices who are able to travel from place to place practicing our craft; finally we become masters of our craft and are honored as repositories of skill. Our journey to wisdom, to a mature spirit, must go through all three phases. And even when we have arrived spiritually, we face the devastating revelation that the spiritual path is just that - a path, not a destination.
    This is a lonely realization for many, yet we are not unaccompanied on our path. Upon it we encounter others who are traveling our way, some of whom will become close personal friends because they are spiritual kindred. These encounters and spiritual friendships mold our understandings as soul calls to soul, bringing new insights and concepts. By working with such friends, we realize the validity of our journey, we absorb new concepts that modify our own. we become more practical and less theoretical, and we change and grow in spirit.

"Draw an overview map of your own spiritual progress, noting significant features and encounters that have helped mature your soul."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Lord of Misrule

Lord of Misrule

"Now, now the mirth comes
With the cake full of plums,
Where Beane's the King of the sport here;
Besides we must know,
The Pea also
Must revell, as Queene, in the Court here."
   ___ Robert Herrick, "Twelth Night"


   The Lord of Misrule governed the celebrations of this January day. He was appointed from the company by drawing the slice of cake with the bean in it and would devise games and forfeits for the company.
   The Lord of Misrule governs in the holidays that are outside temporal time, when misrule (or disorder), revelry, and games take the place of order, sobriety, and work. The function of misrule is the mixing up of one reality with another. Within the resultant confusion, we enter the clown's world wherein the proud are humbled, the usual becomes the unusual, the tight-lipped are made to laugh, and the tight-fisted are made to pay up. Societies that do not have the safety valve of seasonal misrule become monolithic, dour, and life-denying.
    Lords and Ladies of Misrule are supreme magicians who bring good cheer through a healthy mockery of institutions, both loved and hated. The ability to laugh at what we hold dear is not disrespectful: if we cannot take a joke about precious things, we do not share the divine sense of humor that rules the universe and is probably responsible for life itself.  The opportunity to laugh at what we fear is god-given, since it releases us from the shackles of fear itself and lessens fear's powerful hold over us.
    The ones who govern the Court of Misrule are truly mediators of freedom, to whom we owe considerable respect and not a few custard pies!

"Overturn your usual customs. Do something uncharacteristic. By no means do any meditations today! Find your own freedom instead."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The People of the Gift

The People of the Gift

"Give humble respect to each of the wise people of the gift,
for honor is due to them."
    ___"The Book of the O'Connor Don," Irish text (trans CM)


   In Celtic society, the people of the gift - the aos dana (EES DAH'ma), or artists - were given the kind of respect that we now accord to great religious leaders, political leaders, actors, and singers. They were honored because they had the power to go beyond this world, to commune with otherworldly powers and to meditate their inspiration to the community. Respect was given because they represented the unseen reality to our world in a process of meditation.
    In our society, the ability to convey sacred reality to living forms has become the preserve of the religious painter, poet, or performer, and only in the highest forms of aesthetic appreciation do we see a comparable attempt to convey the beautiful and simple truths of the sacred. Only when performers and artists come close to the heart of the mystery of their craft do they feel the impinging power of the sacred . Those whom we universally regard as especially gifted, because of their ability to convey something beyond the music, the script, or whatever art form corresponds to their skill, have humility and regard for their sacred art. But today the respect that is due to the gift is often accorded solely to the artist and appropriated by her as a personal honor.
   People of gifted vision are generally unable to live by their art because so few people are able to apprehend and receive the gift. It is not a question of money but of our interest in and involvement with the gift, with the art itself. This alone creates a climate wherein the gift of the otherworld can be received and welcomed, and true respect for the people of the gift can flourish once again.

"Meditate upon your personal relationship with sacred gifts of art, music, performance. Your respect changes everything."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Restoring the Enchantment

Restoring the Enchantment

"Without the enchantments to kindle the beckoning flame of mystery, and wonder, we lose touch with the on-going story of the soul."
  ___ Caitlin and John Matthews "The Little
Book of Celtic Wisdom"

   The ancient bards of Britain maintained 'perpetual choirs of song' that kept the land harmoniously connected and whole. As long as there was one voice, the land and its inhabitants remained within the enchantment. We now think of enchantment as a malign magical spell, but the original meaning of 'to enchant' was 'to infuse with song' which is what the ancient choirs of once did, maintaining the interconnection between the world and the otherworld. When awareness of this sacred link is severed, we lost the enchantment and fall into a sorry condition of disconnection.
    Disenchantment happens to us all, taking the familiar forms of depressive illness, addictive behavior  and malaise from which there seems no escape. It is important to act quickly when these states begin to set in, to realize that our soul's story is out of phase with its sacred connection.
    How can the soul or the world be re-enchanted once it has lost the enchantment? Only by returning to the story of the soul and retelling it up to the point of fracture; only by placing our own story within the context of the greater song. When Myrddin (MER'thyn), now known as Merlin, is exposed to the carnage of battle, he runs mad through the forest. Many try to calm him and bring him back to society but only when the Welsh poet Taliesin (Tal-ee-ESS'in) comes and sits with him does Myrddin respond, asking the odd question "Why do we have weather?" This seemingly trivial query is all that Taliesin needs to help his friend. He begins to recite the creation of the world. At the end of Taliesin's recital, Myrddin is restored as the sacred context of his story is given back to him.

"Consider the enchantment that keeps your soul's story on track."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Pledge of Passion

The Pledge of Passion

"And Findbair used to lay her hand on every goblet and
every cup for Ferdiad, because he was her beloved and
chosen wooer."
    ___'Tain Bo Cuailgne', early Irish text


   The ancient Celtic and Germanic worlds shared the custom of pledging the cup of hospitality to guests. The woman of the house would greet the leader of a company with the guest cup. In certain circumstances, eligible women took the opportunity presented by this hospitable action to check out the guests. Findabair (FIN'a-ba), the daughter of Queen Maeve of Connacht, who was besotted with the hero Ferdiad, evidently took every opportunity to be close to him, using the old custom of hospitality to welcome him home from combat. It is clear that the offering of the guest cup could be an erotic invitation that might, or might not, lead to marriage.
    Over the pledged cup, alcohol and sexual desire created their own ferment of intoxication, overflowing mundane barriers of reserve and opening up the gateway to intimate encounter. In similar fashion, it is common today for future partners to meet each other over the holiday season at parties and gatherings.
    The love that is pledged at this time is whirlwind and generally physical and nonverbal. There is a kind of ritual alchemy of attraction at work that is intensified within the ceremonial cup of the season. And though this may not be the rational and considered love of other seasons, its passion carried a forceful truth that fixes the unspoken pledge at a deep level of promise.
    The pledging of passion is not the preserve of the young alone; passion can arise at any age, in any circumstance, when we least expect it. No one is immune to the kindling sparks of passion that burn at certain meetings.

"Pledge your passion to your beloved and welcome ecstasy back into your relationship."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Meaning Beneath the Meaning

The Meaning Beneath the Meaning

"The journey we begin as we answer the call is long,
and filled with all that we have been and all that
we will become."
   ___Cairstiona Worthington, Modron of the Order
      of Bards, Ovates and Druids


   Our spiritual journey leads us through many stations of experience. We feel the need to travel in company with others: we join churches, courses, movements, and groups, learning all that we can from their leaders and exponents. Sometimes sharing the journey is helpful and supportive to our unique spiritual call; other times it is very dissatisfying, causing us to give up and continue our journey elsewhere. This period of spiritual nomadism can be lengthy, as we move from place to place, from religious movement to spiritual group, in search of the meaning beneath meaning.
    It is good to realize early on that whatever is spiritually important to us must be identified and made use of, not discarded later in the journey because it does not 'fit' our current spiritual practice. It is in the experiences that we have along our way that our spirituality grows, and matures. Dancing, catching leaves, meditating in the bath, praying while singing, walking in the countryside - all these are ways to honor Spirit.
    In order to live our spiritual path, we cannot leave out any part of ourselves or our experience: every single bit of who we are and what we do has to be included. It is in recognizing the mystic we always were rather than in mimicking the pious practices of our faith that we discover the meaning beneath the meaning which has always been calling us.

"What cause you to be aware of the meaning beneath the meaning? Begin to incorporate your own innate spiritual responses into your daily practice."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The New Year

The New Year

"Wind from the West, fish and bread,
Wind from the North, cold and flaying,
Wind from the East, snow on the hills,
Wind from the South, fruit on trees."
   Scots new year weather omen


    New Year's Day is a time of reading omens for a fresh beginning. It is widely held that the first twelve days of the year will reveal the disposition of the weather for the year ahead. This is a good day to go for a long walk, to divine the possibilities of the year ahead in a very simple way.
   Before you set off on your walk, stop and and tune your intentions to the unfolding year ahead; sense the pathway of the year that stands about you, including the mythscape, story folklore, and feeling of the land. Keeping the year ahead to your consciousness, allow your attention to widen to include everything about you. If you come across something that draws your attention with urgent filaments of greeting -  it might be the  sudden movement of a bird, the beauty of a patch of moss, the intensity of the light through the trees - stop and be attentive to what caught your attention.
    Listen and attend to the greeting, and intuitively reach out for and feel its meaning - a meaning that might not be experienced in words or even in sound but may come to you as a subtle understanding. Appreciate it, note it, and then pass on. Keep repeating this throughout your walks until you have had twelve such experiences. Each time stop, attend and intuit (with fishing for a rational explanation) why
your attention has been engaged. Then return home and review the omens in the order you experienced them, relating them successively to the months of the year. Next New Year's Eve you can check your findings.

"Take a walk as suggested above."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

January sees the growing of the cold. This month's meditation themes include the soul's circuit, beginnings and approaches, the gifts of youth, mediators, mutual care and separateness, and clarity.

Month of January - smoky is the vale;
Weary the wine bearer; strolling the minstrel;
Lean the cow; seldom the hum of the bee.
    anon Welsh poem