Freedom

Freedom 


"Ah! Freedom is a noble thing! 
Freedom makes man to have liking; 
Freedom all solace to man gives; 
He lives at ease that freely lives!" 
   ____ John Barbour, "Freedom"

   We take granted today that freedom should be possessed by all people, but there
are still many places in the world where basic human rights are absent. There are many
forms of freedom: national autonomy, individual liberties, spiritual and ideological freedom.
   Individual freedom is composed of many thing: the exercise of personal truth and
integrity, freedom of spiritual belief, the ability to be educated and follow vocational
urges, freedom of movement and of expression and liberty to marry or not marry,
among many other things. The measure to which we are free to exercise these
elements of choice gives us our sense of liberty. When any of these are constrained,
then the struggle for freedom is joined.
   Regimes that scorn free states and countries often sneer at their permissiveness and
inability to curb crime, disorder and dissent - conditions that are generally stamped
upon severely in totalitarian states. We lives in a remarkably tolerant age in the Western
world, an era when maintenance of the freedom we enjoy is being pushed to its limits.
But where tolerance spills over into permissiveness or disorder, totalitarian or restrictive
legislation may be applied and freedoms lost.
   The archetype of freedom recognizes and extends tolerance to all, but it stops short
of allowing people the total freedom to behave as they will; it does not permit anarchy.
The apportioning of freedom in a fair and ordered way has to be balanced to ensure
that it does not become license to infringe on others' liberty.

"Meditate upon the freedoms you enjoy in your life. What are the limits that demarcate
your freedoms?" 
[From The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The Holy Earth

The Holy Earth 


"There is no state or condition more holy than  the Earth." 
     ___ R. J.. Stewart. Power Within in the Land 


    The British writer R. J. Stewart makes this firm and startling claim to counter the ways
in which the physical world has been disregarded and disrespected for so many centuries.
He does not state that there is nothing but the earth, only that we should regard it as equally 
holy with every other realm.
    This is quite a difficult thing for many people to do, especially those raised in the belief
that the earth and all its works are somehow spoiled from the outset and that the only hold
condition is the heavenly one. This concept and others like it have soured our relationship
with the earth, causing us to abuse it as a commodity, a provider of resources, and a place
to live our mundane lives as we wish.
    What is holiness and how can the earth be said to be holy? Holiness is nothing less than a
condition of wholeness, completion, and attunement. The earth is holy in that it is the womb
of manifest life, the partner in holiness with the otherworld, which is the originative fructifier
of life. Both sides of this alchemical partnership are equally important; we cannot leave one
of them out of the equation.
     Awareness of the earth's holiness and partnership with the otherworld is still possible,
especially when we stand at a place upon the earth where the veil between the worlds is
thinner. In such a place we can still intuit earthly holiness. Even though the earth's surface
has been abused, it is nonetheless a living womb of holy life, and we are its children.

"Meditate upon the earth as a holy place, and your own human state as 
a holy condition." 
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

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 the many cauldrons
that nurturing 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 quests, 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
concerted 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 the
problems that beset their land and all beings living within 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]

Care of the Land

"Spiritual orderliness originates in harmonious 
care of the land as sacred." 
   _____ Nigel P:enick, Celtic Sacred Landscapes 


    For the Celtic peoples, the land was inspired, 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 knowledge 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 land 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 those moments
of transmission, 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

"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 greeny
and flowers. Others have been preparing to celebrate with May-pole dancing
and community festivities, which may include the election and crowning 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 a 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]

Beltaine

"Unite, unite, let us all unite, 
For Summer is a-come unto day
And wihither we are going we will all unite
On the merry morning of May." 
   ____"Padstow Night Song, traditional Cornish song

    At twilight this evening, May Eve, the great festival of Beltaine begins, a
great communal celebration that excludes no one from its embrace.
Ancient Celtic celebrations involved the kindling of bonfires at this time -
indeed, the name of the festival derives from 'bright fire'. The Beltaine
fire itself was kindled in a special way: evidence from nineteenth-century
Scotland reveals that the wood had to be of nine different kinds, that
it had to be gathered by men with no metal about their persons (metal
being inimical to the faerykind), and that it had be kindled without metal.
The ancient method of fire-raising involved a fire spindle and a small
piece of wood to create friction or by the rubbing together of two oak
poles. This arduous task was traditionally performed by nine teams of
nine married men - eighty-one firstborn sons.
   Once the fire had been kindled, people danced sunwise round it and
jumped through the flames. As the fire was dying down, the animals
that had wintered over in barns and local pastures were driven, on
their way up to summer grazing, between the parted fire to ensure
their fertility. Before the coals died out, people took fire from the
ceremonial blaze to rekindle their hearths (which had been extinguished
in every household prior to the festival).

Welcome in the May by making your own fire or lighting a candle 
and singing May-time songs. Honor the coming of summer in your 
own way. Rise before dawn and wash your face in the dew tomorrow
morning to receive the blessing of Beltaine.  If you have a partner, this 
is the best time for sexual fun and frolic. 

Faeries

"We are from the beginning of creation
Without old age, without consummation of earth." 
   ____ "The Voyage of Bran", early Irish text (Trans. CM)


    The faeries are the race of beings who live between the worlds, making
their home upon the earth but usually apprehensible only to otherworldly vision.
Every country in the world has stories about the faeries as the 'people between'
who inhabit quiet country places but occasionally interrelate with human beings,
exchanging favors for small gifts and courtesies, such as gifts of milk or food.
    Within the Celtic countries there is still a great respect for the faerykind.
People and faeries are considered to be neighbors who must live in mutual
respect. People are careful to build their houses away from routes frequented
by the faeries, and refer to them only as 'the good folk,'
    Many stories relate how musicians have learned tunes from the faeries or
how humans have wandered into faery domains and lived with them there.
Such tales may seem fabulous to those who have cliched images of tiny,
gossamer-winged faries who flit about from flower to flower; but faeries
within the Celtic tradition are considerably more robust, some being even
taller than humans.
    As B eltane (BEL'tenn-a) approaches, faeries become very active. It is
believed that now and at Samhain, the doors to the faery hills are open,
and that the faeries make their progress through the land. It is a time to be
sensitive about our movements and intentions so that we do not disturb
the fair folk about their business.

Discover the faery traditions of your own part of the land. What spots
are associated with faeries? What courtesies are customery? Respect 
their ways; leave them to their own affairs. 
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Helping Others

"One should give only what people need or want, 
and in the way they need or want it." 
    __Peter Levy, The Flutes of Autumn 


   It is a good and natural thing for us to want to help and support others.
But it can also be a very difficult thing, as we may have already discovered.
There are a number of factors we must consider before we step forward to
assist someone. In the first place, help may not be wanted. In the second
place, if help is wanted, we may not be the best people to bring it. The one
we wish to help may not want our assistance or be able to receive it. This
inability to ask for or receive help can be very frustrating to the would-be
helper, but for the one in need, personal control over her life - even to the
extent of refusing help - may be all that she has left. To persist in helping
in the face of down-right refusal is a way of further dis-empowering that
person in need.
   When we help others in order to help ourselves, we are on a slippery
slope of self-delusion. Sometimes, after discovering something wonderfully
efficacious to our own condition, we press that something on everyone we
meet in a fit of convert fevor and excessive zeal. People find their own ways
to ask help. Our part is simply to be sensitive to the signs (Whether obvious
or indistinct) that they make in our direction. Then we can look into what kind
of help is needed, what nature of support and backup is desired, when to
back off and let well enough alone so that nature can heal wounds. If our
personal help is inappropriate or inexpert, we must leave the helping in
the hands of those better capable than ourselves and not press our attentions
where they are not wanted.

Is there something you need to ask help with at this time? If so, is 
there someone you know whom you would like to have help you?
[From: The Celtic Spirit Caitlin Matthews]

The Gateways of the Heart

"Ancient power spots and sacred sites .... are gateways. The real
openings lie in our hearts, minds and lives." 
  _____ Jo May, Fogou 




    The whole of our lives is a bringing together of our inspirational and power sources.
These are like the stones that form the gateway of our spiritual path, creating thresholds
in which our spiritual allies in the otherworld are drawn; they come close to us when we
recognize and visit our inspirational and power sources. Our efforts and their efforts
combined make these thresholds real gateways between the worlds, through which vital
energy can flow. The reciprocation between the worlds passes through these thresholds.
When we finally come to die, our fear will be lessened because we will already be familiar
with these thresholds of passage.
    The ancestors who once visited sacred sites were acutely aware of these things. They
would doubtless prepare themselves before visiting by prayer, fasting and purification and
be interviewed by the guardian of the site before they approached it, to ensure that each
visitor truly attuned and prepare. If we also cleanse the gateways of our heart before we
approach sacred sites, we will come fully prepared for the encounter between the worlds:
to greet our ancestors with peace and our spiritual allies with love.

Before you next visit a sacred site, meditate upon the preparations you may need
to take before visiting. 

[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Manifesting Our Dreams

"Dreams grow holy put in action, 
Work grows fair through starry dreaming; 
But when each flows on unmingling, 
Both are fruitless and in vain. 
May the stars within this gleaming, 
Cause my dreams to be unchained." 
   ___ Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Devotional 


  We live in a world where the divorce of dreams and their practical implementation is
almost complete. How can we weave the two worlds of dreaming and working together?
By attending first to our dreams and visions, and by allowing a space to appreciate and
develop them. Unless we take steps, our dreams fall barren into rocky soil of our
unconceiving imagination. Dreams will not manifest without our active help, or
without the energizing grace of the spirit. And while that grace is generously available
to us, it will not accomplish our dreams without our hard work.
   When our dreams manifest through this process, the whole world is recreated in
that moment, for we have been cooperators in the work of creation, not merely passive
creatures who crawl upon the earth. It is then that the stars dance where we step and
the song of joy issues from our spiritual allies, for we have made holy the daily ground
of our working.

Before sleeping, hold your inspired plans and visions in your heart as you recite
this prayer above. Be attentive in the days that follow to the clues and pathways 
that open to your dreaming. 
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Mattews]

The Door 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 tough, 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 that we have often neglected. Meditation can hone our subtle senses to combine with our hearing and resonance, so that, like  a bat or a 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 cleaned, we received 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 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 time 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]

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 on  the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, he borrowed a particularly fine volume of the psalms from Abbot of 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 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 accessed 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 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]

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 ensoulsed 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 beyonds 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 therein? Within the solar system of your soul, what major features do you recognize?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Light in Darkness

Light in Darkness

"There are three candles that illumine every darkness: truth, nature, and knowledge."

   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 our way, we need never be in darkness.

"How do these three candles illuminate your own darkness?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit 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."

   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 fans its flames to quickening life.

"Make your invocation to Brighid to ask for the incompassment and protection of your household, including all that is dear to 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 that 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]

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 to 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 the 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 or fulfilling 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 whose unfinished important to us. Make a list of plans and projects whose unfinished rubble clutters your forward. These may include long, ongoing plans that 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 not 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 or 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]

Spiritual Navigation

Spiritual Navigation
"O where will I get a gude 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 advisor as companion along our way, then we receive expert guidance when difficulties arise. A sensitive adviser does not attempt to solve our problems but makes suggestions and give 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 navigation 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 though 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 navigation journey using a diary, chart, and/or set of pictures which you can refer and add regularly."
[From: The Celtic Spirit  by Caitlin Matthews]

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 mediate 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 swims. We move along this stream largely unaware of the larger reality to 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; this 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 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.

"Meditate upon the source of primal life. How are your body and soul connected to this source? By what evidence do 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 pf 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.
    Man y 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 use 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 not 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 own 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 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."
   ___Andan 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 whome 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 bundary between the worlds and entering into direct, living relationship with the mystery of the ancestral wisdom.

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

The Well at the World's End

The Well at the World's End

"Those who in youth and childhood wander alone in the woods and wild places, every 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 likes 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 your own body became the horse that 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 you childhood passport to the realms of the Well at World's End. Those magical waters have power to revoke the march of mortality 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 water.

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]

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 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'na), 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 mediation.
  In our society, the ability to convey sacred reality in 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 receive 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 enchantment to kindle the beckoning flame of mystery and wonder, we lost 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 song once did, maintaining the interconnection between this 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 be 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 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 the 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 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 to 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 causes 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]

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

January see 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 with clarity.

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 tune your intentions to the unfolding year ahead; sense the pathway of the year that stands ready before you. Now begin your walk, attentive to everything that is about you, including the mythscape, story, folklore, and feeling of the Land. Keeping the year ahead in your conscious, 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 walk until you have had twelve such experiences.  Each time stop, attend, and intuit (without 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]