Merlin of the Woods

Merlin of the Woods

"He became a silvan man just as though devoted to the
woods. For a whole summer after this, hidden like animal, he
remained buried in the woods, found by no-one and forgetful
of himself and his kindred."
      _____Geoffrey of Monmouth, Vita Merlini

   When Merlin views the terrible battle of Arfderwydd (Arv-DAIR'with), he becomes mad and runs into the depths of the forest. Within the forest's embrace, he becomes one with the trees and seasons and puts aside the terrible sights he has seen to focus upon the gifts of the wild world, becoming rusticated and 'uncivilized.'
    Ever pertinent and prophetic, he sees through the pretexts and pretensions of those who come to lure him back to the civilization with the sure instinct of an animal, with the abiding perception, of a long-lived tree.  Rather than look into the human nature, he prefers to consult the almanac of the seasons and discover his center within their compass.
     But no human being, however gifted, can remain forever in the wild.
     The displacement of our lives by difficult events may not be as severe as in Merlin's experience, but we each go though periods when the flow of events swirls past us too swiftly for us to cope. It is then that the indwelling presences of nature, the little unregarded things that surround us, reveal their own life and wisdom. These become precious handholds along the precipitous rock-face of our lives. Their innate familiarity makes them an ally capable of leading us on the pathway home to our soul.

"Recall a time of personal disorientation. What factors were most important to your return to health and confidence?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Courting the Inspirer

Courting the Inspirer

"The Muse , nae poet ever fand (found) her,
Till by himself he learn'd to wander
Adown some trotting burn's meander,
An' no think lang (long). "
   ____Robert Burns, "Epistle to William Simpson, Ochiltree"


    We frequently read about the muse, the female form that inspiration takes for men. She is courted by artists who know that they cannot create alone, who need to be folded within her embrace before the creative spark leaps the synapse of potentiality. We hear less about the forms that inspiration takes for women, who are no less inspired as artists and creators than men, although the inspirer most often appears to them in male form. The inspirer of women is the daimon (DYE'mone), the quicksilver spirit who, like the golden muse, brings the wealth of the imaginal realms of creation to our world.
    Sometimes the qualities of our muse, or daimon, are seen to temporarily reside or become superimposed upon a living person, someone who shows us how desire, joy, love, and inspiration fuse together in creation. Sometimes the muse or daimon is seen not in a person but in a place which fires us with inspiration. The embrace of nature becomes the embrace of the inspirer. In an act of participation as intimate as making love, the creator walks with the inspirer in the place of making.
     When the inspirer is absent from us, we feel as empty as if a lover had gone. To woo the inspirer, we must go faithfully, time after time, to the threshold places where our soul is exposed to beauty - go without expectations to cloud our coming, without demands or extortions to coerce, we come to meet with the one who makes our heart's wish leap into verdant life again.

"What are the forms of your inspirer? Who most resembles your muse or daimon in the world?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Restoring the Web

Restoring the Web

"May there be peace in the North;
May there be peace in the South;
May there be peace in the West;
May there be peace in the East.
May there be peace throughout the whole world."
    Druidic blessing given to the four directions


     The giving of peace to the directions symbolically and actually changes the whole ambience of a circle of meeting and the relationship of the people within it to each other and to all that lies beyond its limits. It is a calling together or re-formation of a primal web of unity and harmony that individual and corporate acts have torn or fragmented.
     When we open to sacred space and focus spirituality, we first need to put ourselves in right relationship to the whole world, in both its seen and unseen aspects. To proceed without some act of truce, some easing of earthly anxieties and expectations, is to proceed unprepared, to view the sacred heart of the ceremony, prayer or meeting through the eyes of our fears and disquietings.
      The circle itself is a restatement of the web of life, of connection and unity. Whenever we meet together in this way, we potentially recreate its delicate networks of connection. Even within each encounter with another person, we have to carry this intention of peacefulness, to send over to that person a thread that can become a pathway to peace. If we meet in anger, disgust or scorn, we sever all possible connections that can exist between us. When we have learned what maintains us within the circle of life, then we are able to be in right relationship to its supporting web.

"Create your own act of reconciliation with the apparent and unseen worlds, for use before you open sacred space."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Plenty Enough

Plenty Enough

"My chosen husbandry, I'll reveal without concealment:
Fresh leeks, hens, speckled salmon, bees.
Sufficient clothes and food from the King of fair fame,
And chance to sit at times, praying God in each place."
  ____ St. Manchan, "Prayer" [trans. CM)


    The fantasy of future perfect conditions, how life will be when we make the big time, often hides the fact of our present plenty, which we take for granted. In a consumerist society we are tempted to go after more when we actually have enough of something, becoming hoarders or collectors rather than users of a commodity.
     And yet, even when we have every good thing that money can buy, if we do not have the simple commodities listed in Manchan's poem - clean water and air, fresh food free of contamination or toxicity, the company of like-souled people to share our plenty - then we are truly impoverished.
       How can we truly appreciate what we have? Learning to live with enough, rather than with indulgence, may help us balance the availability of all good things, help us refrain from using more than we need.
     An indwelling sense of scarcity may derive from feelings of inadequacy and our desire to make good the deficiency, or it may originate in fear of poverty. To obtain a sense of plenty we have only to appreciate the things we enjoy and own on a daily basis to be glad of the way that they sustain and support our lives.

"Take time to contemplate your present life-style. Where do you need to rein in your consumption? Appreciate the plenty that you enjoy and give thanks for it."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Creative Ingredients

Creative Ingredients

"Four things are needed by every work of art: a place, a time,
an author and a cause."
   _____ The Martyrology of Oengus, ed. W. Stokes (trans. CM)


     There are many ideas and inspirations wandering throughout the world. They seem to be shaken like stardust over everything, to be caught in handfuls by those who are ready to receive them, or missed by those who have not got a cause in their sights. The extraordinary way in which an idea seems to proliferate in the air is remarkable: several inventors invent the same thing simultaneously; several writers are inspired to write similar books; several musicians compose and record similar tunes. All inspirations must find an author to express them in some form. From the unseen depths of the formative otherworld, many ideas go forth, but only a few will fall to earth, only a handful will actually find their mode of manifestation. If the author, musician, artist, scientist or inventor is not receptive to the ideas that flow, nothing comes into being; the idea passes on, waiting to be received by someone who is ready and willing.
     Yet even readiness and willingness are not enough: time and place must also be right. Both opportunity and space must be found to bring the idea into manifestation. Timeliness is about the attunement of opportunity and creative impulse to each other. Place is not only about location but about correct placement of our idea.
      The struggle to make our ideas manifest must account for all these ingredients. If we try to avoid or omit any of them, we quickly face frustration and dissatisfaction. The coming into being of a creative piece of work is an act of birth that results from many secret unfoldings and preparations.

"Check the progress of the creative spark within your own act of making. Are you ready and prepared; is this the right time; is the world ready?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Entering the Charmed Circle

Entering the Charmed Circle

"Open the portal!"
"I will not open it."
"Wherefore not?"
"None may enter Arthur's hall but the son
of a king or a privileged country or a
craftsman bringing his craft."
    ____Culhwch and Olwen, from The Mabinogion


   This dialogue is between the porter of King Arthur's hall and Culhwch (KIL'ook), a young kinsman of Arthur's who arrives after the feasting has begun. He seeks to enter the charmed circle of the feast to gain his uncle's help and has to persuade his way in past the resolute porter, who has been given orders that no one may gain admittance.
    We each draw upon a network of people and things to fuel the power circuit of our lives: environment, habits and familiar things, relationships to people, our job, family and personal connections are all important factors in our lives. We base our power network on many things. Finding out where our power lines are truly strong and where they are based on dependency or appropriation is an important task. Claiming kinship with things with which we have no actual personal association, boasting and exaggerating our links with these things, can give us a fine feeling of strength; but that feeling is illusory. When our bluff is called and we attempt to call upon those strengths, they prove to be unsupportive and the whole facade tumbles down leaving us exposed.
    We earn the right to enter the charmed circle of acquaintance or association only when we show proper commitment, when we prepare ourselves and make the trial. Wanting to be in the exclusive club is a terrible hankering for some. Nothing can replace the sense of fellowship and belonging that results when she is truly welcomed as a kindred spirit.

"Which charmed circles and associations am I attempting to enter? By what right?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The Living Ancestors

The Living Ancestors

"When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this."
   _____ Philip Carr-Gomm, The Druid Tradition


     Theoretically, we each have two parents, four grandparents, eight-great-grandparents, and so on, back in time. In practice, though, if each person alive continued that exponential progression for, say thirty generations, we would come up with more people than were on earth at that time. Genealogists tell us that if we each went back about seventeen generations, we would find many family relationships between ourselves and people of our acquaintance. It follows, then, that we are all intimately related to each other, that our personal ancestors are shared with many thousands of people alive today.
     These shared ancestors are the ones with whom we can relate, even though we may not have details of their names and places. Not all were wise or clever or happy, for all human beings make mistakes and bad decisions. But the ones who were wisdom-bearers and way-showers in their lives have not ceased from these roles. By asking our spiritual allies meditations to take us to meet one or more of our wise ancestors, the living ancestors, we can travel to the timeless otherworld and visit them. We can discover new spiritual allies in our living ancestors, consulting them about matters to do with our family, our way of life and ways of respecting the spiritual core of all things.

"Ask your spiritual allies to help you meet one of your wise ancestors in meditation and soul-flight."[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Awakening the Dragon

Awakening the Dragon

"Love is the power to feel through the feet
into Earth and through the spine into heaven
to mingle into motion the inner wheels, to
awaken the sleeping Serpent."
    ___Dei Hughes, Sacred Loyalties

     As the glory of May-time unfurls in every leaf and flower, we begin to feel a new well-being in our bodies, a sense of vigor and energy that we have lacked over the cold month of winter. In terms of Celtic understanding, we are experiencing the nwyfre (NWIVE'ry) of the earth in our own bodies. Nwyfre is a Welsh word that means the subtle energy field of the earth; it is often used poetically for the sky or heavens.
     Every sentient being has its own energy field or nwyfre as well. The symbolic representation of nwyfre is the dragon, which is a very important emblem in Britain (the red dragon being the guardian beast of Wales and appearing upon its flag). The awakening of the dragons of the land traditionally happens about the time of Beltane. The nwyfre of the land rises up at summer's approach, and the dormant dragons, emblems of the land's power, rise from their dark caverns upon powerful wings.
    To experience the awakening of the dragons of nwyfre in our own bodies, we need to take ourselves out into the open air, to stand without concrete between our bare feet and the earth, to experience the daily miracle of life within our bodies. If we make this our practice, our  nwyfre will not be lacking.

Stand on the green earth and close your eyes, soaking up the light of the sun and the warmth of the earth at the same time. Be aware of the nwyfre of the earth. Now become aware of your own. As you breathe in, experience drawing up the subtle energy of the earth. Give thanks for renewed energy and life."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Light in Darkness

Light in Darkness

"O Greatness, hear! O Brightness, hark!
Leave us not little, nor yet dark!"
  ___ John Mansfield, The Box of Delights


     From the beginning of time, people have been appealing to the Power that lies beyond their comprehension when they are in trouble. This Power has been invoked under many names by many people. In our current postreligious age, there is some uncertainty about this Something we
appeal to. We know it is Big and that is sheds Light, but we are often at a loss to name it.
     As we began to disbelieve in the lode-bearing stories and lose patience with the ancient metaphors for the Divine, we entered a no-man's-land where the most authoritative images are scientific or cosmic. The rumor in that land is that there may be no Big Something. But never fear, say some: in the last even there is ourselves, after all!
      The sad, lonely place is inhabited by many who no longer reach toward the beautiful, the glorious or the holy in a daily connective way. For them, there is not even a metaphor to put in place of the sacred. Whether for us the Greatness is understood as immanent, transcendent, or actually present, it contrives to protect us when we ask for protection. Whether the Brightness is seen as a candle, a lamp, or even a planetary body, it contrives to leave us less dark.
     To comprehend the enormity and illumination of the Divine, we must look into our own hearts and perceive the metaphors that define for ourselves the immensity, the friendship, the beauty and the eternal brightness, using words and images that are meaningful upon our own urgent tongues.

"To what or whome do you appeal when you are in crisis? What metaphors define the Divine for you?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The War with the Green

The War with the Green

"O of we but know what we do
When we delve or hew ---
Hack and rack the growing green!
 ......even where we mean
To mend her we her,
When we hew and delve:
After comers cannot guess the beauty been."
    ____Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Binsey Poplars"


     This poem was written by Hopkins in response to the felling of the poplar trees at Binsey in Oxford - a place where he often walked and found inspiration. The felling of the trees and the destruction of wild green places is always a sorrow. When green life is cleared for housing or landfill sites, we feel strong resentment. Human beings have been clearing the earth for agriculture and habitation from early tims. Desertification began to replace habitation long ago.
    It is easy to wax sentimental about the loss of particular trees and green places, but the war on the green world is now a world issue, as tree cover shrinks from year to year. It is not primarily our own human survival that is at issue, but that of the many species that rely upon the green world for their livelihood and habitat and the complex food chains that stem from the plants and the soil. For humans and their fellow creatures, it is a question of whether our descendants will have sufficient vegetation to sustain the continuance of life.

"Plant something in your garden or in a pot inside your home, to help replace the loss of the green."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Overfamiliarity and Neglect

Overfamiliarity and Neglect

"The blacksmith's mare and the shoe-maker's wife are aye [always] worst shod."
     ____ Scottish proverb


    Habit and overfamiliarity can cause some strange neglects in areas where we would least expect them. The things and people that we know best often prove to be furthest from our consideration, sometimes becoming so familiar to use that they feel like extensions of ourselves. This happens if things are unwinding equable like clockwork: when we become used to the easy rhythm, the habitual can become neglected. If our own self-respect is low or we frequently abuse our body and energy with over activity, we may have a tendency to treat familiar things with the same neglect or contempt.
     This is a dangerous pattern. Whether it is the tools of our trade or our partner who is misused in this way; sooner or later something is going to snap. Before a critical tool breaks or we come home to an empty bed, we need to reappreciate the familiar, lest we lose touch with it altogether.
     The ability to truly see our familiar surroundings, possessions, and loved ones can be stimulated by an act of will or by looking through the eyes of a stranger or visitor whose remarks and body language tell us about our environment in ways we have forgotten. Recreation is the best freshener of stale perspectives, because it takes us out of the rut of work and daily usage. It is then that we are able to see that the things we most value are on our own doorstep.

"Reappreciate something or someone who is really close to you. Look with the eyes of the 'visiting anthropologist' to see how you are living in your environment and community."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The Grace of the Grail

The Grace of the Grail

"The Grail, whether chalice or cauldron,
Gives of its grace unstinting
To gentle and simple, wise and wanting."
   ____ Caitlin Matthews, 'Avebury Easter'


    The Celtic mythic tradition speaks of the vessels of grace that restore the life of the world. In the early legends, we find that many cauldrons nurture heroes, initiate and inspire poets and bring rebirth to those slain in battle. In the later stories, the cauldron has become the Grail - which is sometimes associated with the cup of the Last Supper. Grail and cauldron have similar properties: they provide the food that people most desire, bring revelation and wisdom to those on spiritual quest, heal the sick, and revive the dead. The Grail is a vessel of divine grace that appears upon the earth at times of greatest need (though only if help and restoration are sincerely sought). No action of ours can bring it into operation.
     What causes the Grail to appear? A large factor seems to be the concerned hearts of many individuals who realize that their personal quest is part of a larger one. It seems that the thing that individuals cannot achieve alone - peace, harmony, healing - becomes possible whenever like-minded people are gathered together to discuss it; then something profoundly mysterious happens. The concentration of hope and desire upon the object of need creates the ability to see the Grail and hear its message.

"Meditate upon the Grail as a vessel of grace and healing. Present your needs and those of the world to its grace."
{From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Fullness

Fullness

"The three most beautiful things in the world: a ship under full sail, a woman with child and a full moon."   ____ Scots Gaelic triad


    These three fullnesses are eulogized throughout the Celtic world; they define aspect of daily life that were very important to the ancients. Among Celtic peoples, mothers were held in special awe - not only because their fertility increased the tribe, but because each mother was also under the protection of the Mothers, the triple goddesses who were depicted in statues and inscripti8ons as women with loaves, baskets and babies on their laps. Abundance, stability and power were their strong message to any who gazed upon them. The woman with child was seen not as frail or ill, as is often the case in some places today, but as strong and fulfilling her purpose. The full moon had a special meaning to the Celts as well, for it marked the twofold division of the month into the bright or waxing half and the dark or waning half. The full moon marked the day of festivals, since the Celts did not use the modern calendar or reckon things by exact date. For them, the moon was the guide to each month's shape.
     In our own time, our standard of values places the fullness of wallets, shopping bags and gasoline tanks ahead of the natural triad above. Our lives are abundant with so many good things that we do not have a conscious awareness of fullness and emptiness (unless our paycheck is late). Yet there are many other kinds of fullness that are important and beautiful to us: the burgeoning growth of our creativity, the increase of sexual passion, working at the fullest stretch of our abilities. All these take us deeply into the abundance of our human lives and give us a sense of true beauty and fullness.

"What are the three most beautiful things in your world?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Death of a Loved One

Death of a Loved One

"Though I live, yet am I not,
since my sweet hazel-nut has fallen;
since my dear love departed,
bare and empty is the dark world."
     Muireadhach Albanach, in Osborn Bergin,
  Irish Bardic Poetry, (trans. CM)


    Directly after the death of a loved one, we no longer walk the same earth as everyone else. Part of us lingers at the frontier of death's domain, looking into its unknown distance for signs that the soul is safely over, or for comforting messages that will assure us that we are not really, finally alone.
     The sudden loss of someone vital to our life's story means that our own story may be whirled out of context into total disorientation or petrified into a stasis wherein time no longer
runs at the same speed as it does for others. Since every daily action, every piece of forward planning, necessitates the painful realization how different life will be from now on, how lonely, how impossible, time and and our progress through it alter our perceptions completely.
      A loss must be fully recognized. The old custom of the wake - which kept vigil about the bed, included the body of the deceased in a communal celebration and farewell,k and encouraged tears and laughter to freely mingle - was healthier than the relegation of the corpse to a mortuary or the chill obsequies of a 'professional' funeral.
      Our support of the bereaved is best shown in our willingness to talk about the deceased in a warm and natural way when appropriate, by acknowledging and sharing the loss rather than hurrying to cover over the aching gap, and by understanding that our compassion must extend beyond a few months' passage of time.

"Make your own blessing for all people facing bereavement."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]


    

Safe Return

Safe Return

"May my strength be increased,
May my tomb not be readied,
May I not die on my journey,
May my return be ensured to me."
   ____early Irish invocation (trans. CM)


    Whenever we set out on a journey, fears and anxieties beset us. We repeatedly check our money, passport and plane tickets, and we leave instructions for the smooth running of the household in our absence. Even while we are busy with those details, part of us fears the dangers of travel - dangers that are perhaps no worse than those our ancestors faced. We are now more concerned with material things and less concerned with the spiritual support that accompanies us wherever we go.
     Because some difficult journeys are unavoidable and come upon us suddenly, it is good to have our own ritual sequence to help us deal with anxieties of travel. My own ritual procedures for departing and returning are to bid farewell to my home and household and to speak to the spirit of the land to explain that I am going away. I seek protection and direction for my journey. At the airport I say final to the land on takeoff and commit myself to the spirits of the air; on landing, I greet the spirits of the land I am visiting and ask their help during my stay. I use my free time to explore the place I am visiting and to greet the local spirits of place. On leaving, I bid farewell and give thanks to all who have helped me. I reverse my procedures on coming home, greeting all in my own land and giving thanks to them.
    I cannot say that this keeps me invulnerable from the dangers of travel, but it is a good way to travel, with its own cycle unfolding and continual support. It also banishes homesickness and enables me to truly engage with each land I visit.

"Meditate upon your own procedures for departing and returning. Make your own invocation for a safe return."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Accepting Our Purpose

Accepting Our Purpose

"Help me to find my happiness in my acceptance of what is my
purpose in friendly eyes; in work well done; in quietness born of
trust, and, most of all, in the awareness of your presence in my
spirit."  ____ Alistair MacLean, Hebridean Alters


   The dull or continual round of life can set up a pace that gives us little space to appreciate and enjoy it as it turns. We yearn for some new stimulus or a change of pace to help us escape the grindstone that feels as though it is wearing us down. We do indeed need holidays and rest times during which we can refresh ourselves, unscheduled changes from routine that give us new breath, but these are not always possible when life is very demanding. To continue without becoming broken or burned out, we must change the way we perceive our lot in life.
     Without entering the trap of resignation, we can focus instead upon our own life's purpose and see how it sits with our circumstances right now. If our life's purpose is at odds with our present life-style, then a complete change is needed for the sake of survival. But if, as is usually the case, our purpose and our life-style (while not perfectly harmonious) are walking together in the same direction, we can make a renewed dedication to our purpose and tread with better spirit down the road.
     We can refocus not upon our own dull state but upon what is happening around us, in order to express our life's purpose in our work and actions with generous hearts and to live in the moment without chafing at the passage of time.  Suddenly, dramatically, the daily round of life becomes a place of revelation that we have not envisaged. Where once we harbored a grudge in our hearts, there is now an entirely different spirit. The daily round no longer seems dull but has its own tides and rhythms. We have become aware of Spirit's presence in a new and wonderful way.

"Meditate upon your life's purpose. Make your own prayer of dedication and implement the suggestions above."
From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Growing Up

Growing Up

"how many inner umbilical cords connecting me with the depths and heights of all that is...were
severed and knotted in me in the course of my
education?"
    ___ John Moriarty, Turtle Was Gone a Long Time.

     The freedom we experienced in the country of childhood is very special. Most deep childhood bonds are never severed entirely, only stretched so that they can help us through our adult years with more flexibility. These bonds are those of wonder, play, and simplicity. The jaundiced perceptions of adulthood allow little room for wonder: the ability to be deeply moved and reconnected with the wider world. When wonder leaves us, our childhood senses are finally fogged up and we no longer see the world as part of ourselves. A renewed sense of wonder awakens our ability to be responsible as adults and helps us bequeath an unspoiled world to our own children.
     The child's ability to play, to be completely involved in the game, can be ours if we make love with life enthusiastically. Childhood simplicity gives way to adult sophistication, which seeks how to please others and is self-aware in a way that childhood is not. The ability to retain a measure of simplicity enables us to perceive things without worrying about other people's opinions, beliefs and ideas, to be guided by the innocence in our soul.

"In which areas of your life do you feel that you are still 'growing up'?  What facets of your childhood wisdom have you retained?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Care of the Land

Care of the Land

"Spiritual orderliness originates in harmonious
care of the land as sacred."
     ___ Nigel Pennick, Celtic Sacred Landscapes


    For the Celtic peoples, the land was inspirited, able to reflect whatever was done upon it. The concept of land as inert, unable to respond, was foreign to them. There was also a sense that not every inch of the land could be used for human purposes, that some was to be set aside as sacred to the spirits of the land.
    The prosperity of the land, the abundance of flocks and herds, the fertility of fields and orchards - all these were dependent upon the sacred ordering that gave respect to the spirit of the land. This intrinsic
knowlkedge arose from the land itself and was mirrored in the way people behaved and believed. In an age when few of us actually work the land with our own hands, this knowledge is now retreating and we begin to see the products of the soil as commodities rather than as inhabitants of the natural order.
     The very and and its inhabitants speak to us of spirit and sacred order if we will listen to them. It is in the patient tending and listening that those who have worked the land for generations know when a plant or animal needs particular things, and when some profound wisdom is being conveyed. If we make the spaces for these moments of transmisson, create opportunities for communication between ourselves and the land, we may begin to embody the sacred orderliness that maintains our whole ecology.

"Go and listen to the land sometime this week. Be sensitive to its needs, your appropriate response to those needs, and the spiritual lesson that it has to teach you."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

May Day

May Day

"The true man sings
gladly in the bright day,
sings loudly of May --
fair-aspected season."
    ___ John Matthews, "From the Isles of Dream"


    Since before dawn this morning many people all over Britain and Ireland have been up to greet
the May, to sing to the rising sun, and to gather greenery and flowers. Others have been preparing to celebrate with May-pole dancing and community festivities, which may include the election of a king and queen of the May. Most often the holiday royalty are a boy and girl from a local school, but once they would have been the lustiest young man and woman of the district.
    This is a day that is still honored in every part of Britain. Despite many efforts to quell its rowdy good humor and lusty enjoyment down through the centuries, it has survived in very good shape up to our own time. The sheer exuberance of May overwhelms the restrictive and humorless reformers who have tried to stop it.
     The explosion of May-blossom, sunlight, and burgeoning life needs expression at this time, when workday commonplaces can be thrown to the four winds and the bright joy of living can bubble up within us with natural ecstasy.  All who have waited at dawn to welcome in summer have felt the sudden burst of brightness that ignites the deep happiness of the living earth as the sun rises. This brightness is the sign of the ancient Celtic god Bel, whom the Gauls called Belenos -- the Shining One -- the bright-faced splendor of green summer whose glad arising spreads a shining honey of golden light over the waiting earth. It is hard to witness this sunrise without feeling part of it.

"Cancel work today. Go and enjoy May Day by doing something that gives you great pleasure. Try to be outdoors all day if you can. Leave formal meditation alone and let your natural joy find its best outlet."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

MAY

" Month of May - wanton is the lascivious;

Sheltering the ditch to everyone who love it;

Joyous the aged in his robes." 

anon. Welsh poem

We welcome May and the coming of the summer season, the festival of Beltane.

This month's themes include meditations upon safety and assurance, times of

light and darkness, familiarity and the unexpected, holiday and recreation,

plenitude, guardians of life, and the green world.

And so we enter the Season of Summer, the Beltane Quarter of the Year