Creative Ingredients

Creative Ingredients

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


    There are many ideas and inspirations wandering throughout the world. They seem to be shaken like stardust over everything, to be caught in handfuls by those who are ready to receive them, or missed by those who have not got a cause in their sights. The extraordinary way in which an idea seems to proliferate in the air is remarkable: several inventors invent the same thing simultaneously; several writers are inspired to write similar books; several musicians compose and record similar tunes. All inspirations must find an author to express them in some form. From the unseen depths of the formative otherworld, many ideas may go forth, but only a few will fall to earth, only a handful will actually find their mode of manifestation. If the author, musician, artist, scientist or inventor is not receptive to the ideas that flow, nothing comes into being; the idea passes on, waiting to be received by someone who is ready and willing.

    Yet even readiness and willingness are not enough: time and place must also be right. Both opportunity and space must be found to bring the idea into manifestation. Timeliness is about the attunement of opportunity and creative impulse to each other. Place is not only about location but about correct placement of our idea.

   The struggle to make our ideas manifest must account for all these ingredients. If we try to avoid or omit any of them, we quickly face frustration and dissatisfaction. The coming into being of a creative piece of work is an act of birth that results from many secret unfoldings and preparations.

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

Entering the Charmed Circle

Entering the Charmed Circle

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


    This dialogue is between the porter of King Arthur's hall and Culhwch (KIL'ook), a young kinsman of Arthur's who arrives after the feasting has begun. He seeks to enter the charmed circle of the feast to gain his uncle's help and has to persuade his way in past the resolute porter, who has been given orders that no one may gain admittance.

    We each draw upon a network of people and things to fuel the power circuit of our lives: environment, habits and familiar things, relationships to people, our job, family and personal connections are all important factors in our lives. We base our power network on many things. Finding out where our power lines are truly strong and where they are based on dependency or appropriation is an important task. Claiming kinship with things with which we have no actual personal association, boasting and exaggerating our links with these things, can give us a find feeling of strength; but that feeling is illusory When our bluff is called and we attempt to call upon those strengths, they prove to be unsupportive and the whole facade tumbles down, leaving us exposed.

   We earn the right to enter the charmed circle of acquaintance or association only when we show proper commitment, when we prepare ourselves and make the trial. Wanting to be in the exclusive club is a terrible hankering for some. Nothing can replace the sense of fellowship and belonging that results when she is truly welcomed as a kindred spirit.

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

The Living Ancestors

The Living Ancestors

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


    Theoretically, we each have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and so on, back in time. In practice, though, if each person alive continued that exponential progression for, say, thirty generations, we would come up with more people than were on earth at that time. Genealogists tell us that if we each went back about seventeen generations, we would find many family relationships between ourselves and people of our acquaintance. In follows, then, that we are all intimately related to each other, that our personal ancestors are shared with many thousands of people alive today.

   These shared ancestors are the ones with whom we can relate, even though we may not have details of their names and places. Not all were wise or clever or happy for all human beings make mistakes and bad decisions. But the ones who were wisdom-bearers and way-showers in their lives have not ceased from these roles. By asking our spiritual allies in meditation to take us to meet one or more of our wise ancestors, the living ancestors, we can travel to the timeless otherworld and visit them. We can discover new spiritual allies in our living ancestors, consulting them about matters to do with our family, our way of life, and ways of responding the spiritual core of all things.

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

Blodeuwedd

Blodeuwedd

"I was made through the ninefold elements:
From fruit trees, from paradisal fruit:"
   ___Taliesin, "Cad Goodeu" (trans CM)


   When the Welsh goddess Arianrhod (Ar-ee-ANN'brode) is tricked into bearing a son, she retaliates against her scheming brother Gwydion (GWID'yon), who has taken the boy into his fosterage. She states that the boy will have no name or manly arms unless she gives them to him, nor will he ever have a wife of human stock. Gwydion contrives to trick Arianrhod into calling the boy "Lleu" (HLY) and into arming him but even Gwydion's magic cannot circumvent the problem of a wife. With the help of Math (MAHth), he brews flowers to create a woman: Blodeuwedd (Blod-EYE'weth), the 'flower-faced'. Lleu loves her, but he neither seeks nor wins her consent. Blodeuwedd takes a secret lover of her own choice, who under her tutelage, fashions a deadly spear designed to kill Lleu at his most vulnerable moment, though he escapes death. The vengeful Gwydion, distraught at the injury to his nephew, turns Blodeuwedd into an owl, shunned forever by the birds of day.

   In this complex tangle of immortal vengeance and magical trickery, Blodeuwedd emerges as the one most manipulated. Conjured from the essences of flowers and plants, she does not consent to be a human woman, nor wife of a man she has never met. Her beauty and sexual urges are those of a plant, not those of a woman. The profligacy and bounty of Blodeuwedd are abroad at this time of year as the blossom gives promise of fruit to come. The coming of Blodeuwedd to every bough reminds us that if blossom is picked now, no fruit will result: it must stay upon the bough, unless we would reap a barren autumn. When the blossom is ready to depart from the growing fruit, it will send its soft, owl-feathered petals of snow over the earth in its own time and season.

"What elements make up your own sexual nwyfre? "
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Awakening the Dragon

Awakening the Dragon

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


    As the glory of May-time unfurls in every leaf and flower, we begin to feel a new well-being in our bodies, a sense of vigor and energy that we have lacked over the cold months of winter. In terms of Celtic understanding, we are experiencing the nwyfre (NWIVE'ry) of the earth in our own bodies. Nwyfre is a Welsh word that means the subtle energy field of the earth; it is also often used poetically for the sky or heavens.

   Every sentient being has its own energy field or nwyfre as well. The symbolic representation of nwyfre is the dragon, which is a very important emblem in Britain (the red dragon being the guardian beast of Wales and appearing upon its flag). The awakening of the dragons is the land traditionally happens about the time Beltane. The nwyfre of the land rises up at summer's approach and the dormant dragons, emblems of the land's power, rise from their dark earth caverns upon powerful wings.

   To experience the awakening of the dragons of nwyfre in our own bodies, we need to take ourselves out into the open air, to stand without concrete between our bare feet and the earth, to experience the daily miracle of life within our bodies. If we make this our practice, our nwyfre will not be lacking.

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


  

Light in Darkness

Light in Darkness

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


   From the beginning of time, people have been appealing to the Power that lies beyond their comprehension when they are in trouble. This Power has been invoked under many names by many people. In our current postreligious age, there is some uncertainty about this Something we appeal to. We know that it is Big and that it sheds Light, but we are often at a loss to name it.

   As we began to disbelieve in the lode-bearing stories and lost patience with the ancient metaphors for the Divine, we entered a no-man's-land where the most authoritative images are scientific or cosmic. The rumor in that land is that there may be no Big Something. But never, fear, say some: in the last event there is ourselves after all!

   This sad, lonely place is inhabited by many who no longer reach toward the beautiful, the glorious, or the holy in a daily connective way. For them, there is not even a metaphor to put in place of the sacred. Whether for us the Greatness is understood as immanent , transcendent, or actually present, it contrives to protect us when we ask for protection. Whether the Brightness is seen as a candle, a lamp, or a planetary body, it contrives to leave us less dark.

   To comprehend the enormity and illumination of the Divine, we must look into our own hearts and perceive the metaphors that define for ourselves the immensity, the friendship, the beauty, and the eternal brightness, using words and images that are meaningful upon our own urgent tongues.

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

The War With the Green

The War With the Green

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


    This poem was written by Hopkins in response to the felling of the poplar trees at Binsey in Oxford - a place where he often walked and found inspiration. The felling of the trees and the destruction of wild green places is always a sorrow. When green life is cleared for housing or landfill sites, we feel strong resentment. Human beings have been clearing the earth for agriculture and habitation from early times. Desertification began to replace habitation long ago.

   It is easy to wax sentimental about the loss of particular trees and green places, but the war on the green world is not a world issue, as tree cover shrinks from year to year. It is not primarily our own human survival that is at issue, but that of the many species that rely upon the green world for their livelihood and habitat and the complex food chains that stem from the plants and the soil. For humans and their fellow creatures, it is a question of whether our descendants will have sufficient vegetation to sustain the continuance of life.

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