Empowerment

Empowerment

"Power of sea be yours,
Power of land be yours,
Power of heaven."
    ___ West Highland blessing


   When the life-force of the universe and the vigor that runs through our bodies are aligned with our spiritual core, then we experience our true power and live with it. The difference between living with power and simply behaving powerfully lies in one thing: those who inhabit their power by aligning with the universe freely let power pass through them, whereas those who behave powerfully hold onto power like a commodity. When the power of the cosmos is restrained, unable to come and go like a tidal current or a mighty wind, it merely inflates the holder, it does not empower her. And when it is hoarded to aggrandize the holder, she risks disease, want, misery, and a host of ills.

  We all have times when we feel powerless and insignificant, but the theft of power from another person or place cannot ultimately assist us. We may have a temporary sense of strength, but it does not last. It is only when relinquish our fearful grip that our own power comes back to our core, empowering us again. Learning how to live with our power involves living close to the truth that is within us and not deviating; it involves periodically checking out how we are behaving, how we are giving power away to things that do not need or deserve our intervention or assistance, how we are retaining or stealing power to create a cocoon of protection.

   Power cannot be owned; it is only on loan to us all.

"Check your own use of power in your life. What element of power that you have does not rightfully belong to you? Give back the power that you have held onto so that the tides can flow again."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Threefold

The Threefold

"The Sacred Three
My fortress be,
Encircling me.
Come and be round
My hearth, my home."
    ____ Alistair MacLean, "Hebridean Altars"


   The reverence for the threefold is deeply engrained in Celtic culture. This threefold conjunction is implicit within the creative process of beginning, middle and end; in the three sacred seeds of wisdommthat flash out of the cauldron of knowledge as primal sparks of inspiration; in the human family as mother, father, and child; in the apparent world as sea, land, and sky. Each of these threefolds offers an essential understanding of the nature of life itself and is recognized and revered as one of the supreme supports of the cosmos.

   Ancient Celtic wisdom was encapsulated in triads, tersely gnomic renditions of precedents, proverbs, historical incidents, and knowledge that could be remembered by everyone. Triple-headed gods and threefold coteries of goddesses are also common in Celtic religion: a triplicity  that is reflected in the Trinity - a concept thought by some scholars to have been developed by the Celtic St. Hilary of Tours in the fourth century.

  Today the ancient respect for three has become part of our concept of luck: 'The third time's lucky,' we say. Or, if we have had two unfortunate happenings we may wonder what the third misfortune is likely to be. Three is the number that comprises creation, destruction and maintenance of life.  For all these reasons, the Celts could not revere a greater or more encompassing number than three.

"What are the three sources or supports of your life - those people, things, or places without which it would have no meaning?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Mysteries

Mysteries

"The three things which surpass understanding: the work of the bees, the mind of women, and the flow and ebb of the tide."
    ____ ancient Irish triad


   Much of our world is mysterious to us. However much science explains to us about our surroundings, there remain many mysteries that still evoke wonder. Though the beekeeper is close to the work of the hive, for example, she remains essentially an outsider, able only to exploit the bees and their honey-making skill. The thought processes of women, totally congruent to the feminine understanding, are mysterious to men. The ebb and flow of the tide can be reckoned by mariners and the Coast Guard, but they are mysteries to those who have not observed them.
  These unmapped terrains of mystery do not yield themselves easily to us; they are not apprehensible or quantifiable after short study. Only be observing the movement of migrating birds over many seasons, for example, do bird-watchers understand a little of that process which is natural yet deeply mysterious to the casual observer. Even our own mysterious processes are graspable only when we give time and meaningful attention to them. This means long, patient observation and notation of our dreams, our intentions, our relationship to the world. When we become more sensitive to the subtle messages that are clearly transmitted to us, we come to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place within the world.

"What intrigues about your life? Begin to gather information by observing and tracking your inner workings; then meditate upon your findings."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Underground River of Creation

The Underground River of Creation

"Apart from sleep where the creative act seems involuntary and instantaneous, it does appear that a creative process goes on, all the time beneath the level of conscious thought."
    _____ Neil Gunn, "The Atom of Delight"


    The underground river of creation curves on beneath the surface of life, its inspiring waters ever available to refresh and bring sparkle to daily life. People who feel that they are uncreative often complain that they do not know how to get access to these waters. Surely, these people assert, creative waters run through particularly gifted people only.

   The way to find the ever-flowing creative river is to dig an artesian well by means of engaging actively and consciously with our creativity. By so doing, we allow the water to rise swiftly. The moment of creative conception happens in the dark, in sleep,  in moments of forgetfulness, in lapses of concentration when we have been beavering to bring something wonderful to fruition - but to no avail. As we continue to work, suddenly our project starts to taking shape, though progress is still gradual, inching forward day by day. The creative process cannot be hurried without loss or miscarriage of our project. However much we want it to manifest, it has to have organic space and time. It has to rest, like dough of good bread 'proving' in warm place to double in size. The frenzy of kneading and pummeling will not hasten its arrival. The moment of manifestation, when we share our creation with others, is only one among many moments of deep satisfaction, wherein we have drunk of the sweet waters that flow deeply through us.

"What are the processes of the plan you currently foster? At what stage are you at the moment?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Therapy of Nature

The Therapy of Nature

"Common experience tells us that a solitary walk by the river or
ocean, a few calm hours in the woods restore the spirit and may
produce more insight.... than the best labors of the professional
analyst."      ___ Theodore Roszak, "The Voice of the Earth,"
  cited in Paul Devereux, "Reclaiming the Earth"


   Now that the light is growing stronger and the first signs of spring are becoming apparent, it is good to explore the countryside and see its beauty with our own eyes. Nature is the best therapist for putting things into perspective. When we go purposefully outdoors, we enter our true, living context, becoming once more part of a world that is always there but whose gifts are excluded when we live entirely within walls, under a roof. Early Irish poetry speaks again and again of Spirit as the thatcher who roofs the sky with stars and keeps all things under divine protection. When exchange a tiled roof for the roof of the heavens, our soul has more room to expand.

   The ancients understoon about taking problems for a walk: the measured pace of walking, the juxtaposition of the problem against natural surroundings, the submiersion of abolition of worry in the face of the beauties and wonders of nature - all these factors enable us to discover a new perspective. Being under the mantle of nature, we receive a truer reflection of help, a more tolerant understanding, a more profound solution that encompasses not only our labyrinthine mental contortions but our physical discomforts and our emotional longings.

'Take your own problems for a walk and be open to wider solutions and perspectives."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Desire of the Eyes

Desire of the Eyes

"What is it that will not stand lock nor chain?  --- The eye of a
person in the company of a friend: it will not abide shutting nor
restraint, but only looking upon."
    ____ from the riddle contest between Fionn  and Grainne,
           Scots Gaelic lore (trans CM)


    The riddling courtship of the aging Irish hero Fionn mac Cumhail and the young and lovely Grainne (FINN mak KOOL and GRAWN'ya respectively) comes to nothing when Grainne sets eyes on Fionn's best companion, Diarmuid. Instead of marrying Fionn, Grainne runs away with Diarmuid. The desire of the eyes that both feel cannot be tamed; they are helplessly bound to each other and have to retreat from Fionn's sight or suffer in a terrible eternal triangle.

  Desire of the eyes is an affliction from which we have all suffered whether the desire be for a person or an object. In any love affair, desire of the eyes is the first signal to those close to the couple that something is sparking, for they cannot tear their eyes away from each other. The desire that links two people together in a mutual bond is a beautiful and potent force that other people do well to avoid: it has its own attractive energy with the power to short-circuit any interference. But the unreciprocated desire of one person for an unwilling one is an unhappy bondage that sometimes leads to a series of possessive interferences: stalking, interception, even soul-theft or rape. The doting parent who gazes unsparingly upon the apple of her eye with more pride than descretion inflicts the desire of the eyes upon her child; the lonely man who yearns after a woman who is ignorant of his existence inflects unwanted attentions upon her. Despite these potential distortions, desire of the eyes sometimes leads to a great love that (if it is mutual) no one may sunder to the world's ending.

"How does desire of the eyes affect your life? Is the attraction mutual or unreciprocated?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Harp - it's a new month - March

Month of March - great is the forwardness of the birds;
Severe is the cold wind upon the headlands;
Serene weather will be longer than the crops.
     ___ anon. Welsh poem


March gives us proof that spring has really arrived. The themes here in "The Celtic Spirit" will include observation and sensitivity to subtle messages, spring cleaning and restoring, tribal and individual consciousness, constancy and change, power and its abuses, creaton and increase, public service, creative fire.

I posted this image on a whim - when searching for images of the month of March, which was one of them that came up.
It comes from Arts Council of Northern Ireland and is by
Christy Keeney - Ceramics


 
 
 
Today's essay is called The Harp:
 
"Healer of each wounded warrior;
Comforter of each fine woman,
Guiding refrain over the blue water,
Image-laden, sweet-sounding music!"
   ____" The Book of the O'Connor Don,"  Irish text (trans. CM)

 
 
   The harp is one of the most characteristic instruments of the Celtic tradition. The harp of the Dagda (the Good God of the Gaelic gods) was magical. In it the Dagda had bound melodies that would not sound until he summoned them. It had three properties, or 'strains' that all harpers in ancient times used in their music, each property having a different effect. It had the suantraigh (SWON'tree) or 'sleep strain', which lulled people to sleep. It had the goiltraigh (GOYL'tree) or 'sorrow strain,' which cause people to weep. And it had the geantraigh (GEON'tree) or 'joy strain,' which caused people to laugh.
 
  These three harp strains are still the property of harp music today - music that can lull us into a restful state, bring tears of beauty to our eyes, or enliven us and set the foot tapping. With these three strains, harp music affects the soul: it pours comfort, balm, and rest into the soul laden with cares, burdens, and anxieties, giving it rest with the sleep strain; it plumbs the depths of sorrow and grief, of loneliness and bereavement, with the sorow strain; it reconnects those who are lost, stressed, and humorless with the primal joy of life with the joy strain. The playing of the harp confers a special privilege upon all harpers: the ability to unlock the doors of the soul.
 
"Choose three pieces of music that represent for you the three musical strains outlines above. Play
them when your soul needs rest, relief and uplift."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKF13msGu7o&feature=related 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEIsDc_f5o0&feature=related  
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmB5cZOQAdc&feature=related