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 us that they feel like extensions of ourselves. This happens if things are unwinding equably 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 overactivity, 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 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 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 the many cauldrons that 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 cause 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 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 being 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]

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 the 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 inscriptions 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 the 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 loved 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 of forward planning, necessitates the painful realization of how different life will be from now on, how lonely, how impossible, time 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, and encourage 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 loss rather than hurrying to cover over the aching gap, and by understanding that our compassion must extend beyond a few month's 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 repreatedly 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 the 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 a final farewell 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 cyclic 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 Altars"


   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 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 circumstance 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]

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 activities, which may include the election and crowning of a king and queen of May. Most often the holiday royalty are a boy and girl from a local school, but once they would have been 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]

Beltane - Season of Summer

"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 Beltaine.  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.

Beltane

   The summer quarter of Beltane brings the gift of increased confidence and is a time of growth and greater sociability as the weather grows fine and hot. It is traditionally the time for celebrating the essential eros of the year, the vitality of Summer and the joys of youth. In the human growth cycle it corresponds to the period of young adulthood when the blood is hot, when ideas are sometimes impetuous and ambitions powered with vigor and ardor. Beltane is a good time to celebrate the lives of all heroes and heroines, all protectors of the land, all who were involved in innovative and resourceful means of help, all holy ones whose great love complements their spiritual practice with human grace.
[From: "Celtic Devotional" by Caitlin Matthews]