The Religion of the Heart

The Religion of the Heart

"Forced prayers are nae [no] devotion."
    ___ Scots proverb


   Too often, religion is a forced devotion, coercively thrust upon unwilling souls. used to keep people submissive and obedient - an approach that smacks of the reformatory, the orphanage, or the prision, a mode that infantilizes and imprisons the soul. Wherever we are in our spiritual search, we must each worship according to the needs of our heart and nature. To do other than this is to betray our soul. But it is not an easy path. Many confusions arise, especially when we find helpful clues within spiritual traditions and writings whose primary tenets we abhor, or when we discover that our chosen way of worship, though satisfying to others, has become savorless to us. Who or which is right? Those who want ultimate certainty and reassurance in their spiritual lives often choose fundamentalist modes of worship; those who want to be always right choose dogmas that exlude everyone who is remotely wrong.

   It is worth realizing that the many factors that comprise our religion of the heart may be shared by different spiritual groups, and that our most potent spiritual experiences and clue may lie not in scripture but in nature. The fact that there is not only one (even any) right way and the possibility that our spiritual questing may not have an ultimate solution or destination are hard to accept. We can only follow our heart's leading to our soul's home.

"What is the religion of your heart?  Of what factors is it comprised?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by  Caitlin Matthews]

Consumerism

Consumerism

"With the desire for possessions the very nature of man alters."
     ___  Llewelyn Powys, "Earth Memories"


    The human desire to possess is threatening to consume the world's resources. How do we rediscover a way of life that is more simple and respectful? Few people wish to return to baking their own bread, typing on a manual typewriter, or washing clothes by hand, so how can greater simplicity emerge, how can our consumption be reduced? Taking a leaf from our grandparents' generation and from traditional peoples around the world, we can begin by living within our income rather than running up our credit cards. This means shopping carefully and thoughtfully, and buying goods that are well made so that we do not need to replace them often. It also means considering the kind of impact that the object we want to purchase will have on the world when we have finished with it. Knowing that today's consumer durables are tomorrow's antiques or cast-offs, that we will not be in possession of them we breathe our last, will help moderate our life-style.

  The pleasures of shopping brings color and variety into our lives. If ease of purchase is weighted against our actual needs, the satisfaction of possession will find its own golden mean.

"When you next go shopping, balance your actual needs against the world's good."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Treasures of Solitude

Treasures of Solitude

"To get the full impact of all the elements, within and without, one has to be alone."
    ____ Neil M. Gunn, "The Atom of Delight"


   The physical impact of the elements upon our earliest ancestors must have been considerable. It motivated them to construct clothing that would protect them from extremes of heat or cold. Human beings have gradually adapted to their climate and habitat in distinctive ways, until only the adventurous still face the challenge of the elements regularly. These days, most people are accustomed to living predominantly indoors rather than outdoors, seldom exposing themselves to the elements long enough to be affected by them.

   Yet there is  a more subtle way in which the elements affect us, a way that passes beyond their physical impact: the way in which the elements play upon our emotional response and spiritual understanding. If we listen to the subtle messages of the elements, we can become aware of how they illuminate bridges between our conscious and unconscious awareness of what moves our inmost heart.

   To be alone in nature is not to be lonely. The companionship of the elements surrounds us on every side, enveloping us in a living web of vitality and movement. Within that mantle, we are enabled to find out own place, uninfluenced by the demands and bustle of everyday life. We are able to hear the wisdom that wells up from our unique perspective - wisdom that the elements alone can amplify loud enough for us to hear and understand.

"Allow yourself to experience the elements of wind, rain, or sun, earth, and sea or sky at first hand on a solitary walk today."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Grail Messenger

The Grail Messenger

"When you were in the court of the Lame King and saw the
youth bearing the streaming spear from which drops of blood
flowed in streams..... you did not ask their meaning nor their cause." 
    ____ Peredur, from The Mabinogian (trans. CM)


   These words addressed to Peredur (Perr-ED'yr) by the Grail messengar, an ugly maiden who comes to berate him for not having asked the "Grail question". She publicly rebukes Peredur for his lack of resolve. The Grail procession passes through the hall, but Peredur, who has been warned about curious questions, keeps silent and so loses a wonderful opportunity to transform the stalemate suffering of the Wounded King and the wasteland.

   The function of the Grail messenger is to remind putative Grail winners of their responsibilities. Within our own lives, we need such figures to goad or shame us in behaving ethically and appropriately. Strong advice is not always forthcoming from our friends, who may love us too well to speak out for our good. Only our very close friends have license, and it is a privilege they do not often exercise. Our spiritual allies may also bring to our attention important things we have neglected or the effect of actions that have set things awry; but unless we are in close relationship with them, we do not always choose to heed their words.

   The one Grail messenger whom none of us can avoid is the voice of the soul - that thing which many people call conscience. The word conscience literally means 'with knowledge'. Our unwitting actions do not go unregarded by the soul, which reminds us where we have contravened its codes of behavior. Its voice can be an ugly reminder of things that have to be put right.

"Consider the things that blemish your soul. Change or put right the consequences of your actions wherever you can."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Including the Soul

Including the Soul

"Excluded soul is the great calamity of our age."
    ___ John Moriarty, "Turtle Was Gone a Long Time"

   Wherever we look, we see a lack of sensitivity to the soul's needs. In the race to eliminate world starvation, we have forgotten that the soul can also suffer from lack of nurture. On the way to world literacy, we have fogotten how to read the book of the soul. The temptation to go beyond what is humanly feasible, to drive our energies to the breaking point, is often irresistible. In conventional health care, the needs of the soul are often secondary to the needs of the body (if they are consulted at all). In the building of housing, little attention is paid to the aesthetic and pyschic needs of those who will occupy the structures.

   When soul is excluded, we instinctively and unconsciously recoil from the implicit rejection, seeking out ways in which soul-satisfaction can be stimulated. This stimulated satisfaction often takes the form of shallow gratifications that give us a quick-fix sense of satisfaction, but when this feeling passes - which it soon does - we reach for even less nurturing things. When soul is pushed right out onto a limb, we grasp at addictive things: not just substances - drugs or food - but forms of behavior and crablike ways of living that scurry around the real need.  These addictive ways of life are on their own continual loop, giving us nothing eroding soul ever more at each turn. Addictive fixes are merely self-sabotaging. The needs of the soul are not just religious: they are cultural, creative, and inspirational. When we pay attention to these, the soul is able to give scope and dynamism to our lives.

"Meditate upon the needs of your soul and how they are being met currently. Where are they being enroached upon or neglected?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Perspective of Age

Perspective of Age

"I could have told much by the way
But having reached this quiet place can say
Only that old joy and pain mean less
Than these green garden buds
The wind stirs gently."
    ___ Kathleen Raine, "The Oracle of the Heart"

   It is said that youth loves autumn best because it promises the fruits of maturity, but that age loves spring best because it recalls the freshness of beginnings. When we have come into that quiet place that age open us to, into the secret, walled grden of remembrance, the deeds of our lives seem of less moment than the miraculous spiral of life. The old pains and joys, the treacheries and rejections as well as the sweets
and pleasures, find their resting place. It is at such moments that we find windows to accept or bestow forgiveness, to for get injuries, to fully appreciate the riches that have come to us, and to accept and cease to regret the things we have not done.

    From the perspective of youth or middle life, none of these resolutions may seem currently possible or ultimately achievable, but our time will come. The returning cycles of the year bring us ever nearer to the heart of things, to the core of ourselves, wherein all things cease to spiral. At the perfect heart of the still center which is the soul's home, there is a different vision - not the view of the traveler along the way, but the intimate persective of age, which at last understands the motions of life from the heart's stillness.

"Recall moments of stillness that have given you a brief glimpse into or perspective of your soul's circuit in this lifetime - moments of convalescence, times of crisis, periods of mystical introspection. What eternal truths have you learned from such moments?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Five Streams

The Five Streams

"Our violated senses yearn back to the flow
Of Segatis' well: five pure streams
Bridging the worlds with wonder."
    ___ Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"


   When King Cormac visited the otherworld, he saw a shining fountain bubbling up, with five streams running out of it. Nine hazelnut trees grew over the fountain, dropping their nuts into the waters; and a salmon swam in the pool, eating the nuts and sending the husks down the streams. Cormac found himself transfixed by the melodious singing of these waters, which was sweeter than that of any singer he had heard. Manannan mac Lir (MAN'nan'NAN mak LEER) told him that this was the fountain of knowledge and that the five streams were the streams of the five senses through which knowledge is obtained. He said that only those who drank of the five streams and of the fountain would gain knowledge, and that all the gifted people - the poets, artists, and craftspeople - drank from them both.

   The five senses that are our windows upon thye world have both mundane and spiritual functions, although we all too often utilize only their mundane mode. These doorways of perception can also be channels of direst inspiration if we dedicate them to the fountain of knowledge and become more sensitive to the ways in which we receive information. This increased sensitivity will result in a direct awakening of our subtle senses: insight, resonance, discrimination, instinct, and empathy. These are the correlative of our mundane senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. When both sets of senses are consciously connected, otherworldly knowledge flows directly into our senses, causing our creativity to become active and visionary.

"Meditate upon how your own senses are fed by the five streams of the otherworldly fountain."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]