"Our violated senses yearn back to the flow
Of Segais' well; five pure streams
Bridging the worlds with wonder."
_____ Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"
When King Cormas visited the otherworld, he saw a shining fountain bubbling up, with five streams running out of it. Nine hazelnut trees grew over the fountain, dropping their nuts into the waters; and a salmon swam in the pool, eating the nuts and sending the husks down the streams. Cormac found himself transfixed by the melodious singing of these waters, which was sweeter than that of any singer he had heard. Manannan mac Lir (MAN'nan'NAN mak LEER) told him that this was the fountain of knowledge and that the five streams were the streams of the five senses through which knowledge is obtained. He said that only those who drank of the five streams and of the fountain would gain knowledge, and that all the gifted people - the poets, artists, and craftspeople - drank from both.
The five senses that are our windows upon the world have both mundane and spiritual functions, although we all too often utilize only their mundane mode. These doorways of perception can also be channels of direct inspiration if we dedicate them to the fountain of knowledge and become more sensitive to the ways in which we receive information. This increased sensitivity will result in a direct awakening of our subtle senses: insight, resonance, discrimination, instinct, and empathy. These are the correlatives of mundane senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. When both sets of senses are consciously connected, otherworldly knowledge flows directly into our sensors, causing our creativity to become active and visionary.
"Meditate upon how your own senses are fed by the five streams of the otherworldly fountain."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]
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