Stories Against Ourselves

Stories Against Ourselves

"And the penance that was imposed upon her was ... that she
should relate the story to all who should come there."
     ____ Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, from "The Mabinogion

   On the night that Rhiannon (Hree-ANN'on) gave birth, her baby was stolen by an otherworldly suitor. In the morning, the nurses were terrified of being punished their lack of vigilance, so they killed a litter of puppies, spilled the blood upon Rhiannon's bed, and threw the small bones about in such a way as to cause onlookers to believe that the mother had devoured her own baby. Her husband, Pwyll (POO'ilh) was reluctant to condemn her, but condemned she was. Her punishment was that she stand at the mounting block in the courtyard for seven years, to stop all comers and tell them her terrible deed and to offer to carry the guest into the hall on her own back. When her child was eventually restored to her, she was released from her undeserved punishment.
    For many, telling untrue stories against themselves is a daily experience. This may begin unconsciously. A parent or teacher may start the process in the early years with an observation such as, "You'll  never come to any good." If this message is reiterated often enough, the story becomes ful-filling, accepted and believed by the person who might originally have denied its truth. Whatever the cause, the false story that we tell against ourselves can poison our lives and embitter our relationships with others. As the example of those who have been burdened with false report, Rhiannon is the lifter of burdens and the singer of the true song. She can help restore self-esteem and allow a new story to shine forth.

"Examine closely the "never" and "always" accounts and all the sorry untruths that have become part of your own story.  Begin to tell a new story about yourself, taking every opportunity to detach yourself from the old, unhappy stories that you tell against yourself."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Between-Places

The Between-Places

"Celtic mysteries occurred in twi-states between night and day, in dew that was neither rain nor river, in mistletoe that was not a plant or a tree, in the trance state that was neither sleep nor waking."
    ___Elizabeth Sutherland, Ravens and Black Rain


   For every one of us there are moments of revelation at the nexus point where opposites meet: dark and light, joy and sorrow, knowing and unknowing, keeping and losing, making and unmaking, silence and singing. In these days of growing light, when spring is still far ahead and the grip of winter is ever present, the opportunity to sample the opposites and stand at their still center is potent. These experiences do not have to be sought after; they arrive, magically blending elements together to seek us out. These are thresholds of power where neart (this is a word for which there is no English equivalent; it means 'strength or power' in the sense of 'the energy of life.') and soul are fused in one vision of wholeness, unity and often ecstasy. These between-places are the creative nexus at which vision and craft come together in embrace; this is where poetry, song, art, beauty, and inspiration uncoil from their hidden domain.
    The between-places are neither fearful nor horrific, as popular opinion has so often depicted them,  not are they filled with monsters and demons; rather, they are thresholds of awakening where the soul is alert and watchful for omens of change, auguries of joy, promises of belonging.

"Be attentive to the thresholds and boundaries of your life - the places where change happens. What is your most ardent need for transformatory and revelatory change right now?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Fallowness

Fallowness

"All Nature seems at work
Slugs leave their lair ---
The Bees are stirring -- birds are on
the wing ---
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing."
    ___ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Work Without Hope"

   When fallowness strikes, it is important to place it in the context of the creative cycle. After the period of conceptio9n - an exciting period during which we sparkle with ideas - comes the time of gathering and preparation, when things get moving. This followed by a period of growth, which cannot be hurried, and then by the moment of ripeness, when the idea must manifest or the project get off the ground.  This is followed by a time of enjoyment and appreciation, when we can share our manifest idea or plan with others. After all that has happened, we come to the time of fallowness.
   To honor our own creative cycle and patterns, we must respect this period and learn to be as empty and receptive as we can. After any birth and manifestation, we are too tired to immediately reconceive: we need this time of rest when we lie fallow as the unplowed field that the farmer sets aside for several seasons to regain its fertility. Let us honor our fallowness, our uncreating emptiness, by cutting ourselves some slack and giving mind and heart time to recover their former savor in a new season. Fallowness is the ground of our conception: when the soil is ready, the seed will fall and germinate.

"Consider helpful strategies to sustain yourself through these empty times in ways that honor
fallowness creatively."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

A Cheerful Household

A Cheerful Household

"The house without a dog, a cat, or a baby: a house without cheer and laughter."
    ___ Scots Gaelic triad


    The spiritual quality of a house is derived from its inhabitants. When the owners are away, the house seems soulless and unhappy. Those who live alone are particularly aware of this. When they arrive home, there is no one to greet them, no meal on the stove, no one with whom to share the day's activities. The presence of a pet within the house changes the whole atmosphere. Whether it be a dog, cat. goldfish, or bird, a pet charges the house with life throughout the day, and the homecoming of a solitary dweller is thus a happier one. The interdependence of animals and humans is a two-way process: not only do we care for our pets, but they also care for us, often giving us companionship when our fellow human beings do not.
    A house without children is often a very formal affair, with everything preternaturally neat and totally geared to the occupants' pleasure. A house with children, on the other hand, is rarely either tidy or static: everything from disorder and muddle to outright chaos can typify such a home. There is a sense of nesting when babies are present, a sense of transit when the house is full of teenagers about to launch themselves on the world.
   The cheerful household is one wherein love is present. As long as love inhabits the home, the spirits of neglect solitude, and sadness are absent. We all need someone to love and someone to love us. In a house where love is absent, there is little cheer. All homes need the kindling of love; only with that kindling can the spirit of the house hold welcome us to its hearth.

"Where is the love invested in your household?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Advice

Advice

"He who won't take advice will take the crooked track."
      ____ Scots Gaelic proverb


   It is often said that advice is a two-edged weapon: it can both harm and help, depending upon how and whether we take it. Young Peredur, who was brought up in purposeful woodland seclusion by his mother, sought to go to the court of Arthur. Peredur's mother gave him advice so unworldly and indiscriminate that it subsequently led him into discourtesy of the grossest kind.
   Without discrimination, advice can be worse than useless. When good and thoughtful advice is offered to us, we must have the wit to weigh it for its worth and implement it as sensitively as we can, balancing it with the prevailing circumstances that surround our case. When we offer advice to others, it must always be set within the context of our experience rather than based on someone else's criteria.
    Age and wisdom tend to give advice to youthful experience, but it is not always welcome. The reactionary stubbornness of youth often chooses to take the longer road of personal example in order to gain wisdom. The crooked track that then unwinds may be like that traveled by Pereadur - a road fraught with obstacles and difficulties. Only when we have traveled such a road and labored to clear the obstacles can we finally have a true context for advice that is offered.

"From the experience of your life to date, what are the three best pieces of advice that you could offer someone about to make her way in the world?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Rites of Passage

Rites of Passage

"How can we help our young
Who wait to cross the frontier
Between child and adulthood?"
   ___ Caitlin Matthews, "Conference of the Trees"


    The transition from childhood to adulthood is a time of emotional upheaval not well supported in our society. The preparation for adulthood requires sensitive rites of passage that actually mean something. In Celtic society, children were frequently given in fosterage to neighboring families so that this transition could be overseen by adults who were not blood kindred, who had good sense or some special skill into which the child could be inducted. The custom of fosterage also put a buffer zone between child and parent, thus avoiding the worst of the acrimonious generational confrontations that plague families during adolescence. Poorer children would receive the initiation of solitude when spring was well under way, for then the herds and flocks could be taken out of lower pastures and driven up to higher ground. There some distance from their homes, adolescents would tend the animals, living by night in a sheiling,  or temporary structure.
    When a much-loved child crosses into the harsh frontier of adulthood, there needs to be a sense of achievement and celebration, a paving of the way, a marking of the transition. Rites of passage need to welcome the new adult into the community and value him or her.

"Think back to your own time of adolescent transition. What would have made your transition easier? What ceremony would have given you a sense of achievement and self-worth? If you have children, meditate upon ways to enable their transition."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Loss of Mythic Place

Loss of Mythic Place

"If the full, rich, mythic sense of place is finally taken out of our cultural compass, then we will mentally inhabit a spiritual wasteland.
     ___ Paul Devereux, Revisioning the Earth

   In the Grail legends, the loss of primal harmony between the worlds causes the apparent world to become a wasteland. A similar process is at work within our own world at this time: the demythification of the earth. The long-held stories and understandings about the land are being eroded by forgetfulness and active neglect. Each region has its own stories and traditions, fusions of legends and stories that cluster about the nexus points of sacred sites and prominent land features. They tell of the creative acts of giants, gods or spirits, the deeds and quests of heroes and heroines, the wise advice of animals and trees. These points are thresholds of connection between our daily temporal world and the eternal timelessness of the otherworld.
   The erosion of such myths in our landscape arises when we begin to view the land as inert and spiritless, as a commodity of financial value when we separate ourselves from the greater community life of our own country, when human beings are understood as the summit of creation and are encouraged to take its bounty as their own, without thought of return or reciprocation.
    If this process is continued, we will indeed begin to inhabit a spiritual wasteland, a place of separation wherein we have no intercourse with the abiding soul of the land.

"Find out about the area in which you live. What history, myths, stories, and legends are wound into the soil?  What do these tell you about the nature of your region?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Inspirers

Inspirers

"I draw my knowledge from the famous cauldron,
The breath of nine muses keeps it boiling."
   ____ Periddeu Annwn, (trans. CM) anon. Welsh poem


   The cauldron of Annwfn (ANN'uvn), the Welsh Underworld, was guarded, warmed and inspired by the nine sisters of the cauldron - the primal inspirers of the Celtic world. The ninefold sisters were understood to take the threefold thread of each life and amplify it till its full potential was realized. They were seen as the Gifting Mothers. Actual sisterhoods of priestesses played an important part in the sacred and inspirational guidance of the ancient Celtic world. The sacred flame within the enclosure of St. Brigit was tended by nineteen sisters - two shifts of nine nuns and their abbess.
    The relationship between ourselves and our various inspirers is complex and subtle. We rely on the teachers and inspirational people of many ages whose craft we follow; the practitioners of our own life-skills who preceded us; the places, animals, plants, trees, and land features that have become central to our symbolic and metaphorical understanding of our vocation; the music, books, art, and skills that feed our soul; the stories, songs, texts, and teachings by which we live our lives. All of these come together to heat the brew in our cauldron of life. Our inspirers pull the thread of our soul's circuit to remind us where our vocational duty lies.

"Which nine major influences in your life keep your own cauldron of inspiration boiling? Visualize each of these, appreciating them and focusing upon those aspects that most inspire you."
[From; "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Doors of Perception

The Doors of Perception

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would
appear as it is, infinite."
   ____ William Blake, "A Memorable Fancy"


    The doors of perception  are the senses - not only the physical senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, but also the subtle senses of inner vision, resonance, instinct, discrimination, and empathy. Without the cooperation of these two sets of senses, we cannot perceive truly.
    To be able to perceive everything as it really is means retraining and exercising senses, as we reach beyond the physical for the unseen reality and its meaning. Using a range of senses, we rely on our tactile and empathetic senses to combine with our hearing and resonance so that, like a bat or whale, we have a sense of space, distance, and mass. Or we may find that our sense of smell/taste combines with our instinct and discrimination to give our visual field a sense of color and quality that is both accurate and surprising.
    When the doors of perception are cleansed, we receive earlier warning of matters that are likely to be dangerous or problematic for us; we are subsequently able to make better decisions, draft more accurate forecasts, and read the character of the universe in an altogether better way.

"Practice using your subtle senses in combination with your physical senses today. Your eyes tell you one thing about a person, but what do your ears tell you? Is the message different? What do your deep instinct and discrimination have to say?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Red, the White, the Black

The Red, the White, the Black

"Peredur stood and compared the raven and the whiteness of the snow and the redness of the blood to the hair of the lady that best he loved, which was blacker than jet, and to her skin which was whiter than snow, and to the red spots upon her cheek, which was redder than the blood upon the snow."
    ___ Peredur, from The Mabinogian


    In his adventures, Peredur (Perr-EDD'yr) comes upon a scene that transfixes him so completely that his companions are unable to gain his attention. He sees a raven stooping upon a wild duck in the snow; and the fusion of the three startling colors - the redness of the blood, the whiteness of the snow, and the blackness of the raven's feathers - causes him to fall into a reverie of his best beloved.
    These three colors - black, white and red - appear in worldwide folklore as heroes and heroines long for the beloved of their heart. A kind of soul-alchemy surrounds these colors, which are considered to be the sacred colors of many spiritual traditions. Within the Celtic tradition, these colors appear in triadic fusion as the colors of the spiritual quest, which has its easy, difficult and inspired phases. These respective fair, ugly, and strong phases of our soul's circuit are the central core of our personal pathway: all phases are important; none can be excluded. As we follow our personal quest for meaning, we can draw upon the wisdom of each phase.

"Obtain three balls of wool or reels of cotton in the colors discussed above and cut three arm-lengths from them. Meditating upon your spiritual path to date, consider the difficult times, the easy times, the inspired times. Weave together these three colored threads into a braided cord. Decide which color represents each strand of your life. This sacred cord now embodies the three most important strands of your soul's pathway. Keep it safe."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Druid Circle

The Druid Circle

"In Druidry, we come together in circles ..... to experience that we are in communion not just with our present-day companions, but with the spirits of the animals, trees, stones, stars, ancestors and children."  ___ Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Animal Oracle"

   The breaking of hierarchy was the idea behind King Arthur's Round Table at which worthy guardians of the land could sit without order of precedence getting in the way, at which counsel could be given and taken without offense. The old stone circles that predate the Celtic era by centuries were the first meeting places erected to put people into correct alignment and spiritual communion with past, present and future, and with all the beings no longer living as well as those yet to be born. In our own time, people are learning these wise yet ancient ways of relating to the universe.
   The change of emphasis that spiritual practice undergoes when people meet together in a circle is radical: no altar rails, no pulpit, no them and us, no priest and congregation. Suddenly there is an equity we have never before experienced. We are one, not only with those gathered about the circle with us, but also with beings in ever-wider concentric circles of relationship that set the universe in a different order and break the old hierarchies forever.
    The whole universe is symbolically seated about a communal fire called life - a fire that we all share in the darkness of our isolation, that courses through all veins, that maintains the life of even stones and plants and all that we seldom think of as living.  It is a fire that burns in all times and places.

"Light a candle and invite other beings and allies - from the spirits of stars to the spirits of stones - to gather in a circle around the candle and meditate upon the life of the universe. Thank all your invited guests and extinguish the candle. What happened, what changed when you did this? What have you learned?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Parenting

Parenting

"Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they
judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."
   ___ Oscar Wilde, "A Woman of No Importance"


   The things that we hold against our parents seem to remain larger than life in our imaginative memory for the duration of our adult years. It is a fact that makes parenting especially poignant and exasperating, since our own childhood experience potently informs us how our own children are likely to judge us in later years.
    The twentieth century has gone through several models of acceptable parenting, from highly disciplined and formal models (in which children are expected to behave well or receive strict punishment) to more liberal models (in which parents and children have contracts for allowance and self-discipline). Since these extremes each have their own fault, most parents today aim somewhere in the middle in an attempt to provide a moderate and tolerably workable system.
    We seek the love of our children, but we should not expect their gratitude - at least not until they are grown up. Parenthood is a responsibility, not an obligation. We will make mistakes - sometimes the very mistakes that our parents made with us - but we remain parents out of love.

"How do you judge your parents? What still rankles with you about your upbringing? If you have children, what is their judgment of you? Where do you need to exercise greater sensitivity with them?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Books for the Soul

Books for the Soul

"That I might search all books and from
their chart,
Find my soul's calm!"
  ____ St. Columba's, "Song of Exile"


   When St. Columba went into self-imposed exile on the Island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, he borrowed a particularly fine volume of the psalms from Abbot Finnian of Moville and had it secretly copied. When Finnian discovered what had happened, he demanded not only his book back but also Columba's copy, on the principle that 'to each cow her calf'. Columba, whose enthusiasm for the dissemination of knowledge often outran his ethical judgment, had to comply.
   In the early days of book transcription, only sacred texts were considered important enough for an illuminator and scribe to spend several months working on them. Today printed books are widely available; we are able to read a variety of writings from sacred scriptures to poetry, from biography and history to philosophy, from legends to novels.
    If we look along our shelves, there are certain books with which we would never wish to part, dear to us because they provide us with soul-food. These are not always sacred texts: they may be myths, folk tales or other stories whose narratives inspire us with their abiding wisdom; they may be poems or songs that reflect the music of our own soul; they may be biographical accounts of people whose lives and works have been inspiring to our own soul's circuit.

"Which book comes nearest to being your soul's chart? Meditate upon a passage from it today. Make your own blessing for the author."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Service of the Grail

The Service of the Grail

"Go, heart, unto the lamp of licht [light],
Go, heart, do service and honour."
   ___ anon., "Go Heart, unto the Lamp of Licht"


    The traditional concept of service is based upon the honor of the soul and the respect that we tender to other souls. In Grail legends, the sacred vessel of healing and restoration can be assessed only by questers who are sufficiently attuned to their soul to ask the "Grail question," which is said to be "Whom does the Grail serve?" - a question that, once asked, accesses the healing that it freely brings. It is only when we are able and willing to look beyond the boundaries of our own concerns and inquire what is wrong and to what extent we are involved in putting things to right that we truly understand service. Then the realization that we are not the source of help, grace, or service becomes clear to us: we are truly cooperating with the spiritual source of our life and made mediators of healing.
   The Grail is a lamp of light, life, and love that brings its solace only when someone is willing to serve. When we align our heart with need and honor, the heart itself becomes a lamp at which light is kindled. When the heart is alight with service, the flame can pass freely from heart to heart.

"What is the nature of your service within the universe? What are the terms of the contract between your service and the spiritual source whom you serve?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Unrequited Love

Unrequited Love

"To luve unluvit is ane pain."
  __ Alexander Scott, "To Luve Unluvit"


   Unrequited love is painful to both the lover and the putative beloved. It is an urging that comes unbidden and makes a wasteland of the heart. The lover's longing for reciprocation and union is met with the beloved's disdain and separation. All offers of affection are distasteful, all gifts returned. Nothing can change the heart that is not pledged.
   Unrequited Love, though overwhelmingly powerful, usually is of finite duration simply because the beloved does not respond. The one who attempts to persuade the beloved to attend, who goes beyond the normal limits of trial, courtship, and persuasion, merely makes himself a nuisance.
   When someone with whom we have had a long-standing relationship leaves us suddenly, there is little time to retract love: one side of the bridge of partnership is just no longer standing one day, but the old traffic of love does not come to a halt. The lyrics of songs of unrequited love now have a dimension of their own, as love enters the twilight zone of bereavement.

"Send greetings of affection to your beloved. If your relationship has come to a sudden end, express your love and sorrow in verse or song."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Cosmos of the Soul

The Cosmos of the Soul

"One soul in the immensity of its intelligence, is greater and more excellent than the whole world. The ocean is but the drop of a bucket to it, the heavens but a center, the sun obscurity, and all ages but as one day."
  ___ Thomas Traherne, "Centuries"

   The druids believed that the soul encompassed the far extents of time and space, uncircumscribed by temporal dimensions. For the Celtic peoples, the physical world was seen to be made up of three elemental dimensions: the depths of the sea, the breadth of the earth, and the airy regions of the heavens. Fusing these three dimensions together was the fiery sun, whose diurnal circuit maintained the life of the apparent world. Each ensouled body lived within the dispensation of these dimensions. But the soul was regarded as yet greater than these, able not only to move through water, earth, air, and fire but also to travel beyond these modes into the wider domain of the unseen world. For the soul, the passage of ages is but a day in cosmic time, there is no sense of time passing, only an eternal present to soul-travelers who enter the otherworld. 
   When we begin to pay attention to our soul, rather than ignoring its needs and urgings, we experience a sense of inclusion within the universe. If we learn to pass beyond the limits of our body as soul-travelers, we discover that the constellations and planets that spin within the soul are qualities, intelligences, and allies we have always longed for.

"Look into the depths of your soul, as into the immensity of inner space. How is the cosmos reflected within your soul?  What constellations and planets are featured within therein?: Within the solar system of your soul what major features do you recognize?
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Finding Our True Song

Finding Our True Song

"Only when I gave
my fame to the Hazel shade
did the true song come."
    ___ Paul Matthews, "The Hazel Shade"


    Finding our true song is about relinquishing the burdens of ego and the false choruses that it sings. Self-importance causes us to dance to strange tunes that our feet find unnatural. When we act out of self-importance, we trip ourselves up, make Freudian slips, inadvertently revealing to ourselves and others how far we are from our soul's circuit.
   The false songs that we sing are out of tune with our soul; they are merely the responses we have adopted from others, not utterances from our own deep core. Our uncertainty and lack of conviction echo in them. The solution to these false songs is to forget ourselves and concentrate upon what we are doing, refusing to engage with fear and self-disclosure. It is not that we should ignore ourselves, but rather that we should attempt to step out of our own way. The Irish poet W. B. Yeats noticed this for himself: he discovered that whenever he went out of his way to create something purposefully beautifully, he sabotaged his poem.
   The same is true of our own deep song, which is forever singing its beautifully melody beyond the reach of our ears. When we act sincerely, when we speak from the heart, when our passion is engaged, the true song is heard in all its glory.

"Meditate upon who you truly are - not upon what you have achieved, nor upon background and antecedents, nor upon your social status or reputation. When is your true self allowed to express itself in your life?  If you do not like what you find, do not suppress your realizations; invite your true self to sing its own song and help the false personas step out of the way."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

A Life Deferred

A Life Deferred

"Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart."
   ___ W. B. Yeats, "For Anne Gregory"

    We all know someone who has put her own life on hold for the benefit of another person or for a project. This is a fine thing if there is eventually a turning back to the heart's desire and one's own way of life, but too often this does not happen.
    Deferred life inevitably means lost opportunities. We can stand only so much of this. To refrain from action, from personal engagement, from practicing skills and talents, from the formation of satisfying relationships is to marginalize our power. Never being attuned to our power, never being able to cooperate with it, sends the message of despair to our soul.
    If our life's purpose is not to curdle within us after deferment, we must set to fostering it again and learning how to move from the place of imprisonment into a wider place. This may mean relinquishing our service to another, or delegating or sharing it. It may mean a total change, a turning of the back upon the service in question, the opening of a new door.
   Before the heart becomes a stone, we must seek out the cause of our joy and integrate it fully into our lives, or else discover the joys within the way of service.

"What is the joy of your life?  How are you serving it?  If you are not, where has the joy gone? Take steps to engage with it."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Innocence Abused

Innocence Abused

"Who is it that laments in this house of stone?.... It is
Mabon, the son of Modron who is here..... and no imprisonment was ever to grievous as mine."
   ___ Culhwch and Olwen, from "The Mabinogian"

   In the story of Culhwch and Olwen, Mabon, son of Modron, is a primal being of innocence, abducted from his mother's side when he was only three nights old. No one knows whether he is alive or dead, as the young hero, Culhwch (KIL'ook) discovers when he goes to liberate the Child of Light from his long imprisonment.
    The gifts of innocence are eagerly sought by those who have lost their own. Those who have spilled and wasted in hideous ways the hope, freshness, vigor, openness, directness, and joy of youth seek to replenish their stores, and so the cycle of the abused preying upon the innocent goes round.
   How can the cycle of abuse be short-circuited in our society? Only when each of us decides to break the circle that keeps us imprisoned as victim, in fear of predator. It is only by liberating the Mabon of our innocent selves that we can find the strength to overcome abuse and violence: we need the primal help of our innocent, lost, and imprisoned soul-fragment, which was overwhelmed in childhood.

"Has your innocence been abused or lost? Over a period of time, begin to create the components of your quest for the Mabon of your own lost soul-fragment. Where does the crying come from? In what circumstances do you access the memories and pathways? Follow these until you find the place in dream, meditation, and soul-flight. Envisage the innocent becoming the strong liberator."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Disorder

Disorder

"The three oppressors of the wise are drunkenness and adultery
and bad disposition."  ___ triad from "Laws of Hywel Dda"


   These aspects of disorder are thieves that break the sacred contracts upon which society is based. The misuse of intoxicants creates a muddied perception of reality, resulting in disorderly behavior. When we misuse sacred substances for mundane recreation, we poison ourselves and lose the pathways to bliss.
   Sexual desire has its own sacred contract, grounded in the consent of two hearts together. Adultery attempts to steal the affection of another person's partner and violates this sacred contract.
   Those who set their faces against the tide of the society in which they live are thieves of the common good. All societies are based upon the contract of good order. Those who exclude themselves from upholding the common good parasitically bleed the resources of their society.
    The contracts that we make within our society are what keep it orderly. When these are subverted, turned aside, or appropriated, we do not merely hurt other people around us; we also sever pathways of connection between ourselves and the spiritual allies who interface with our world.

"What contracts have been severed by disorder in your life? Ask help of your spiritual allies to reconnect what has been broken."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Mythic Present

The Mythic Present

"It is not the literal past, the 'facts' of history, that shape us,
but images of the past embodied in language...  We must never cease renewing those images; because once we do,
we fossilise."
    ____ Brian Friel, "Translations"


    For contemporary society, history has become factual and finate, an index of deeds done and words spoken. This literal past grips our imagination, disabling our vision from ranging wider and seeing the infinite variety of possibility, shape and pattern that could be revealed.
   Finding the living context and eternal resonance of the past can deliever us from the bondage of history. This means allowing the silt of history to fall and the living metaphors and images to rise up buoyantly to the surface so that we can understand the mythic present. True myth is a living entity that clothes the present in wonderful ways. It comprises both the received awareness of popular consciousness and the archetypal metaphor of history, being a collection of symbols, images, and metaphors that abide beyond the context of history.
    The mythic present is continually reshaping events, whereas history alone merely chronicles the tides of time. History deprived of its mythic context becomes petrified into sound-bites of the timeline; but when myth inspirits history, we hear the voices of the past with our own ears, see the images with our own eyes.

"Remember an incident in your past in which you were actively involved. Now retell that incident as if it were a folk story or myth, putting it in the third person and allowing the parallel story to unfold in its own way. Draw upon metaphors, symbols and images that the incident evokes for you. Note the differences between your myth and your history. What is changed by this process of narration? What is made clear, and what new insights do you have?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Willingness

Willingness

"Ae man can lead a horse ta the water but twenty couldna gar [make] him drink."
  ___ Scots proverb


    If you have ever tried to give strong-tasting medicine to an animal or child, you have encountered (probably with some frustration) the full extent of unwillingness. The same frustration sometimes arises when we try to persuade someone to our way of seeing something; no matter, how many times we explain our perspective, the listener's understanding does not come to the place of realization. It is just not within range of his will.
    In our lives we must do many things contrary to our consent: out of duty, expediency or consideration for others. Our ability to show willingness is often a measure of our maturity, a skill honed by circumstance, upbringing, and experience. But these very factors often have the reverse effect; that is, they detach us from our own will.
    When we do spend time trying to define our will, it is often a shock to find how much of what we think of as our own opinion, our full consent, our true will is formed by the opinions, wishes and desires of others. Sorting grit from the grain takes a lot of perseverance.
    Will without maturity is of no service to us; we must know when we can compromise it and when we should defend it.

"Consult your own will. Where are its boundaries, and when must you defend them?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Concentration

Concentration

"Traditional training laid great stress upon...... observing the motion of the breath, concentrating on a tree or a stone, hearing the environment and observing the traditional cycle of the year in plants, animals and the earth itself."
    ____ Ian G. Rees, "The Therapist's Chair and the Seige Perilous," in R. J. Stewart, ed., "Psychology and Spiritual Traditions"


    The preparation of bards, ovates and druids included training not only in the memorization of knowledge and practices but also in the stillness of attention that we call concentration. If you have even tried to learn a new skill that requires the memorization of long lists or subtle correspondences, you will know that modern memory can be often unprepared and evasive when it comes to remembering on command.
   The traditional Celtic method of concentration is learned in stillness and in the contemplation of the natural rhythms and cycles, involving the whole of our body, not just our intellect. In this deep stillness, poets discern metaphor, musicians music, architects primordial design, thinkers archetypal patterns, and relationships, seers truthful visions. We too can achieve this kind of concentration if we slow down and exercise our deeper faculties into a robust vigor that sustains whatever we wish to learn.

"Find a quiet place where you can contemplate some aspect of nature: a stone, tree, plant or star, for example. If you are indoors, concentrate on the sky you can see from your window, or on a plant growing in your home. Be aware of the object of your contemplation. Gradually become aware of the space around the object, Now switch your attention from object to space and back again, backward and forward repeatedly. Finally become aware of both object and space at once, and then include yourself in the relationship and remain in stillness and waiting, entering into a deep communion. Record your feelings in a poetic or artistic way."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Healing at Hand

The Healing at Hand

"May healing be hear to our hurt!"
   ___Eoghan Ruadh Mac An Bhaird,
     in Osborn Bergin, Irish Bardic Poetry (trans. CM)


    At moments of crisis or action, there is no time for long-winded utterances or beautifully written invocations, only for a swift arrow of prayer to pierce the veil between the worlds and beseech assistance. The prayer 'God between me and all harm!' and the observation 'God is nearer than the door' are examples of the Celtic trust in the immediacy of help and spiritual assistance.
    The help or healing that is near to us may not always be obvious or seem available. But even if we do not know who our spiritual allies are, they know who we are and will find us soon enough. The important thing is to ask for help or healing, so that we create a pathway down which help can come.
   Many of us feel that we are personally and solely in control of our lives, that we should be able to manage without intervention, that we are capable human beings who do not need help.
    The healing that lies near to our hurt needs our assistance to be manifested: we must be able to ask for it without setting limits on its action. Rarely given in an instantaneous miracle, healing makes us whole over an organic period of time. But we must cooperate with and trust the healing, not pick off the band-aid every hour to see how the wound is doing! To trust the help or healing, we must learn to trust the spiritual allies who provide it.

"Make your own short invocation for help or healing. Meditate upon the help that you need and upon your own receptivity to healing. Make an act of trust in your own spiritual allies and their ability to heal."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

A Ruler's Rules

A Ruler's Rule

"Do not be too wise, nor too foolish,
do not be too conceited, nor too retiring,
do not be too haughty, nor too humble
do not be too talkative, nor too silent,
do not be too hard, nor too weak."
    ___ "The Instructions of King Cormac mac Art" (trans. CM)

   The Irish King Cormac's instructions can be applied to anyone with benefit. If we give the impression of being wise, much is expected of us; if give the impression of being naive, we are taken advantage of. If we are full of ourselves, we annoy people; if we hide our achievements under a bushel, no one notices us. The overloquacious soon lose their audience; the silent are never asked their opinion. Those who act harshly are broken on the rock of their own flinty hearts; those who act like victims are crushed.
   Avoiding the extremes of exaggeration or underemphasis, we allow the true self to be expressed. Finding our own proper balance is the work of years of practice, however. Since we reflect and respond to each person in an individual way, we are occasionally thrown off course or present ourselves awkwardly.
   It is not the duty of any human being to appease or permit inappropriate behavior out of misplaced politeness. It is possible to stand firm in our innate integrity and not be swayed by persuasive and manipulative people. We can achieve this stance by holding to the core of our own being and discovering the power of our soul.

"Check your demeanor with people today. Did you come on too strong to some? Did you feel ignored or manipulated? Meditate upon how you can be more adaptable, especially with those people and in those situations that cause you to feel out of balance."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Conception

Conception

"It is in the agony and ecstasy of corporeal love,
it is under the ascendancy of this first- born of all
the senses that mortals draw most near to the quivering
secret of life."
   _____ Llewelyn Powys, "Earth Memories"


   In the Celtic tradition, it was believed that conception took place after a significant event: when the mother drank water from a certain well or say under the moon, for example, or when she ate a magical salmon or when the shadow of a god fell upon her.
    The moment of the soul's entry cannot be heralded or decreed. Women who yearn to conceive often do so only when they cease worrying about their goal. It is in the secret unregarded moments that a soul incarnates.
    In the conception of a child or of an idea, there has to be a passionate connection wherein the seed of making can pass from one to another, whereby life can be kindled and its flame grow secretly in the dark. Conception is not a solitary or a daytime affair. Our passion must be stimulated, recognized, and shared by another being: in the conception of a child by our physical partner; in the conception of an idea, by a nonphysical partner - a spiritual ally who can penetrate the veil between the worlds to help convey the soul of a thought into manifestation. The actual conception takes place in darkness, beyond the compass of our conscious thought or participation.
    Wrapped in a passionate embrace, in which differences of gender or form are reconciled in the bliss of union, the ecstatic wellspring of life springs up.

"Meditate upon some project close to your heart before you go to sleep, praying that it might come into being. Pass into sleep and let your dreams reveal their secret magic."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Light in Darkness

Light In Darkness

"There are three candles the illuminate
every darkness: truth, nature, and knowledge."
   ancient Irish triad

  Truth has been the mirror and shield of all seekers since life began. The primal integrity of all beings shines out like the light of a diamond, sharp and clear; but when truth is hidden, we are aware only of a dimness, and obscurity that cloaks our perception. Our unique sensitivity of soul to truth is inbred. It tells us what is good, well-aligned, and perfect. If we return to recognizing truth in ourselves, our actions, our speech, and our thoughts, we relate to ourselves and to the universe with better respect.
   Nature is the shining garment in which all life is clothed. The vigor, strength and power of life are
nature's gifts. We experience nature through our physical senses, and this experience is often ecstatic. We tend these days to rhapsodize nature, after a long era of neglect and abuse. we are each part of nature: if we abuse it, we abuse ourselves and those we love. If we observe and learn from nature's beautiful and balancing continuum, we live lives of harmony and justice.
    Knowledge is the glory that arises when truth and nature are properly welcomed and respected. It cannot be given to another; it can only arise when Mother Nature and Father Truth conjoin in union. Knowledge is the glorious child stored in every cell of the universe. If we search for glory in our thoughts, motivations and experiences, we align ourselves with knowledge. But neither truth, nature, nor knowledge can be owned: this is why they are the eternal candles. Let us always be on guard, therefore, for anyone who attempts to trade these three, for such action heralds the approach of absolute darkness. But with the three candles of truth, nature and knowledge to light out way, we need never be in darkness.

"How do these three candles illuminate your own darkness?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Imbolc

The Spring quarter of Imbolc brings

the gift of insight and inspiration and is

a time of beginnings and of essential truthfulness.

Begun in the dark and often icy days of

early Spring, it is traditionally the time to

appreciate innocence, truth and justice, to

make resolutions and plans and to prepare

for the enfolding year.

In the human growth cycle,

Imbolc corresponds to the period

of childhood when all things are questioned or

enjoyed for their own sake.

Imbolc is a good time to celebrate the

lives of all 'soul-midwives'  who have

taught and prepared us, all who have been

upholders of justice and truth,

all holy ones who have gone to the heart

of the matter with great clarity and insight." 

[From: "Celtic Devotional" by Caitlin Matthews]

Brighid, Mother of Memory

Brighid, Mother of Memory

"Brighid of the mantle, encompass us;
Lady of the Lambs, protect us;
Keeper of the hearth, kindle us;
Beneath your mantle, gather us,
And restore us to memory."
   ___ Caitlin Matthews, "A Blessing for
    Hearth Keepers"


   The festival of Imbolc is under the protection of Brighid. The ancient goddess, daughter of the Dagda - or Good God of the Gaelic gods, the Tuatha de Danaan (TOO'a-ha day DAH'nan) - is the matron of poetry, healing and smithcraft. In the fifth century, her namesake St. Brigit of Kildare took over many of the goddess's qualities and aspects.
    The extraordinary fusion of goddess and saint demonstrates how important Brighid is to the Celtic people. So great was her power that even the coming of Christianity could not diminish her influence: Brighid was immediately promoted within Irish Christianity to the role of the Virgin's midwife and Christ's foster-mother, and remains the secondary patron of Ireland to this day.
    The mantle of Brighid is continually invoked in Celtic prayer, to powerfully encompass all and protect from harm. As the keeper of the hearth, Brighid and her power are present in the hearth-fire that radiates its welcoming glow throughout the household. Poets and craftspeople look to her as their inspirer, householders beseech her to encompass their homes and flocks, and the sick pray to her to cast her mantle over them and bring them again to health.
   Brighid is the mother of memory, the one who reminds us of the original, divine, protective motherhood that promotes the individuality of our power and fan its flame to quickening life.

"Make your own invocation to Brighid to ask for the encompassment and protection of your household, including all that is dear to you."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

February

Month of February - scarce are the dainties;

Wakeful an adder to generate its poison;

Habitual is reproach from frequent acknowledgement.

____ anon. Welsh poem

February sees the beginning of the season of spring, the festival of Imbolc. The themes of this month include beginnings, illumination, recognizing our song, myth and story, disorder and pattern, clear discernment and memory, help and advice, service and sacrifice, the three threads of the soul, and their ninefold expression, wasteland and healing.