Pilgrimage Routes

Pilgrimage Routes

"Though the long tracks know no glad step,
And the circle goes unblessed.
From their long homes may the old ones
Welcome travellers upon their quest."
    ___Caitlin Matthews, "Pilgrims' Blessing"


   Pilgrimage is a step beyond tourism, which merely comes to look at place and enjoy them; pilgrimage involves a deeper engagement with the land, with the sacred nature of the experience that is had not only at the destination but along the route as well. Those who travel with spiritual purpose find pleasure and enjoyment no less than the tourist, but their experience is colored by the reality of their contact with the unseen world - not only with the apparent landscape about them, but with its inhabitants and guardians.
   When we re-engage with the sacred places of our spiritual heritage, the ability to be a pilgrim affects our experience of the places we visit: the ability to see beyond desacralization, the skill to travel the road with expectant and prayful hearts, the greeting we send out - before  we even begin to travel - to the ancestral guardians and spiritual presences who have awaited our coming this long time.
   In pilgrimage, it is the ability to give blessing upon the places we visit, rather than seek blessing for ourselves in our travel, that is most appreciated. In offering our blessing, we are able to resacralize both the way and the site: for if we become alive to the generous and sacred nature of each place, so may many others; and we will have become guardians and pilgrims of a new generation for all the generations to come.

"Make your own pilgrimage to a special or sacred place during the wintertime, drawing upon some of the ideas above."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Avalon: An Otherworldly Paradise

    The Isle of Avalon is an Otherworldly Paradise, a golden Isle of Blessed Souls where the goddess reigns forever. It is a magical land lying far to the west across the waters, veiled in mystery. Avalon means the place of apples and in many apple orchards of this beautiful land the red and gold fruits of the goddess's immortality grow in abundance. In some tales Avalon is one of the Fortunate Isles, a fabled Island of Women, where women and our mysteries reign and people lives a hundred years and more. Birds of omen, large and small, flock to the sacred land, singing with great sweetness of her beautyways. Here too there are animals, black or white with red ears, all beloved of her. In particular Avalon is a land of transformation, sometimes known as the Western Isle of the Dead, a place of dying, healing and rebirth.
[From: "In the Nature of Avalon: Goddess Pilgrimages in Glastonbury's Sacred Landscape"
by Kathy Jones]

Three Rocks of Judgment

Three Rocks of Judgment

"The three immovable and perfect rocks
on which the judgments of the world are sustained; the poet, the written word, and nature."
   ___Irish triad from Senchus Mor


    This triad speaks of the three kinds of authority by which judgments can be made: authority from the divinatory composition of poets, from the letter of the law, and from the law of nature. These are the three traditional 'courts of appeal' that sustain the law.
    The first court of appeal is the oral word, and its exponent is the poet. The divinatory prowess of the ancient poets was considered to be both wise and authoritative. The spoken word is still a lively defender and prosecutor in modern courts of law, able to sway juries and reveal discrepancies in evidence.
    The second court of appeal is the written word, which now has precedent over the spoken word in our society. The written word is not so flexible as its spoken counterpart and has tended, over the centuries, to become the 'dead letter of the law' rather than a perfect rock upon which judgments may be based. The written word is indeed a strong rock if it is administered and maintained by people of probity and good guardianship, but it can also be interpreted in narrow and unhelpful ways. Many traditional legal frameworks stand in need of redrafting to encompass the changes that have overtaken our world.
   The third court of appeal is nature itself, which has its own immutable laws to which both word and writing must bow. The natural laws cannot be overset by human judgments. They govern the whole round of life. As we seek to manipulate nature, to bypass its natural processes, we find out just how enduring and implacable its laws are. Beyond human memory and written judgment stands nature, the final court of appeal, reflecting the truth of our actions and desires.

"What are the three rocks that sustain your world?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Tearing the Cloak in Two

Tearing the Cloak in Two

"Happy and young and gallant,
They saw their first-born go,
But not the strong limbs broken
And the beautiful men brought low."
    ___ Ewart Alan Mackintosh,
    "In Memoriam, Private D. Sutherland" 

   Within the last five generations, there has probably not been a family living that did not have some remembrance of war and conflict, some dead to mourn as a result of warfare. The day, November 11, has commemorated dead warriors, throughout the Western world, since the armistice of the First World War.
   Those who serve in the defense of their families and countries - like the Gaulish soldier St. Martin of Tours, who tore his fine cloak in two to cloth the needy - tear the cloak of their lives in two, severing themselves from accustomed comfort and habitual kindness to enter a zone of pain and confrontation.
    In our own age, where much of the warfare is against ignorance, heartlessness, and environmental devastation, new kinds of warriors learn the art of sacrifice with a different set of weapons. They seek to tear their lives in two to make a greater mantle in the defense of the poor, the innocent, the needy.
    We no longer glorify war as our ancestors did; the loss, grief, and bewilderment of families for their fallen have been too great in this century for such assuaging. We count the cost and bless the sacrifice of those who have had the courage to tear the cloak in two, knowing that they did not glory in the pain and bloodshed any more than we ourselves now do.

"Make your own prayer of remembrance for those who have died in war, and for those who are on the battlefield of conflict throughout the world today."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Wisdom Within

The Wisdom Within

"The faery queen of wisdom lived
With the sun-room of a tree;
From there she saw the wide, wide world,
But no fool could her beauty see."
    ___Scots Gaelic folk story (trans. CM)


    This story tells of a faery queen who invited all the women of the world to visit her so that she might give them wisdom. Some declined, thinking themselves wise enough already, while others came in order to be seen and admired. When the guests had assembled, the faery queen went among them with a blue limpet shell containing the essence of wisdom. Those guests who were there for the wrong reasons refused to drink, but those women who sought the wisdom within their own hearts drank gladly, each receiving a portion of wisdom until there was nothing left in the shell.
   The wisdom that is already within each of us often needs only a small catalyst to develop, as long as we are open and receptive to wisdom when we meet it elsewhere. the unwritten wisdom of the heart abides within us as our motherwit, the wisdom of the body that we inherit from our ancestors. That wisdom is in the process of developing all the time as new information and experiences are brought into contact with it. We often mistakenly assume that wisdom must come from without, but external wisdom cannot develop within ourselves until our own wisdom meets and assimilates it in a practical way.
    Valuing our own wisdom is hard in a world that offers so many expert opinions wherever we turn. often easier to defer to professionals than to regard our own views on a subject. Only when we have been to the limits of our own wisdom can we find the humility and receptivity to increase it.

"Where are the limits of your knowledge? How many of your opinions are really your own, rather than adopted from others?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Creative Destiny

Creative Destiny

"Welcome, oh life! I go to encounter for the millionth
time the reality of experience, to forge in the smithy of
my soul and the uncreated conscience of my race....."
   ___ James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man


    These words of Stephen Dedalus are the ecstatic greeting of a young man on the verge of exile and adventure, creative destiny and the fulfillment of his heritage. "Creative destiny" sounds like a very grand proposition, the kind of thing that poets and artists might get themselves excited about. That we each have a creative destiny to fulfill is often conveniently forgotten, especially if we have carved out our niche in the world of work or have put the aspirations of our youth far behind us.
    We think of creativity as the production of professional and beautiful artwork or music or other achievements, but the whole course of our lives is one creative endeavor: not only the work of our hands, but the way we weave our relationships,  the way we make our homes, the way we raise children, cook food, dream, garden shop - all these and more are our creative fields. Our creative destiny is not fated by distant galaxies or proscriptive deities; it is nothing other than the mindful growth, development and manifestation of the gifts that lie in potemtia, the talents, aptitudes and heritage with which we were born.
    Every year, millions of young people begin their active, determined and intentioned lives as adults. Like salmon returning to their source, they set their faces toward the fulfillment of their creative destiny. It is a great adventure that few pursue unansweringly to the source; but for all who undertake it, there is no greater joy than to enter 'the smithy of the soul' and bring into manifestation something that was not possible before we brought our creative destiny to play there.

"What is your creative destiny? If it seems far off or unknown, consider the shape of your life to this point. Where has your life been wanting to flow?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit Catlin Matthews]

The Lamp of Memory - November

 "Thou fill'st the winged chalice of the soul 
With thy lamp, O Memory....."
   ___ Dante Gabriel Rosetti


    The dark days of November lead us deeper into the mysteries of Samhain, with All Saints' Day on November 1st and All Souls' Day on November 2nd, two Christian festivals that overlaid the earlier Pagan festivals of the dead.
In modern America we tend to regard death as something of an aberration, but our Celtic ancestors viewed life as a never-ending spiral of birth, death and rebirth. They believed that after death the soul journeyed to the Summerlands beyond the Western sea, where the grass was always green and fruit and flowers grew together. Feasting, hunting, music, love and joyous sporting contests went on forever; and if any were wounded or killed one day, they sprang back to life the next. In the Iron Age men and women of noble rank were buried with everything they were likely to need in the afterlife: drinking horns, cauldrons, jewelry, weapons and even chariots. Because of their beliefs, they were fearless in the face of death, which they considered to be 'but the center of a long life.' In fact, it was not uncommon for a man to lend money and agree on repayment in his next lifetime.
[From Kindling the Celtic Spirit" by Mara Freeman]

Ethics

Ethics

"Ethics teach us the mysteries of morality, and the nature of affection, virtues, and manners, as by them we may be guided to our highest happiness."
   ___Thomas Traherne, "Centuries"


    It is no longer customary for men to take off their opponents' heads, to boast of their own achievements after dinner, or to buy less fortunate people into slavery - all aspects of the ancient Celtic world that are not missed.
    Manners and moral codes may alter, but not the structures that underlie. Ethics are the invisible scaffolding upon which our actions are built and without which life would be in supportable. Ethical conduct follows an unwritten law that runs in every part of the world, forming a path for all action. Becoming sensitive to its dictates is like acquiring taste, poise, or insight. Its invisible lines run laser-straight from our soul to the object of our consideration. Sensing the dynamic of that tug is like sailing a ship and having to be attentive to the winds and currents that move our vessel.
   Ethics uphold the rights, privileges and identity of every living soul: a maintenance that stretches to include the soul of what we may previously have considered inanimate or lifeless - the land, growing things, animals. Our subtle interrelatedness to all life walks these ethical lines, and when we are insensitive to the lines - when we forget that interrelatedness - we sever them. If any action that we undertake warps or threatens to sever the soul-lines of ethical connection, we may be sure that there is something intrinsically wrong with our idea or our approach.

"Meditate upon a future plan. Visualize the line that stretches between you and it. Is there any discomfort or tug on the line? What is causing it? Does your plan uphold the dignity and rights of all who are involved in or affected by it?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Constancy

Constancy

"They'll turn me in arms, lady
Into a deer so wild;
But hold me fast, let me not go,
The father o' your child."
   ___ "The Ballad of Tam Lin,"
    anon. Scots ballad

   The Scottish ballad of Tam Lin describes how a young heroine, Janet, becomes pregnant by a man whom she meets in the woods. But Tam Lin is a mortal who has become stuck in the realms of faery, in bondage to the faery queen. The only way for Janet to win her lover home is for her to come to the crossroads at Hallowe'en, when the faeries ride by, and pull him down from his horse. Then she must hold him fast while he changes into a variety of shapes. No matter what monstrous shape he assumes under the enchantment of the jealous faery queen, she must hold on tight, remembering that he is the father of her child. Janet does so, and Tam Lin is restored to her again.
    No relationship is proof against change, whether it be through illness, unhappiness, new ambitions, discontent, or overfamiliarity. In such circumstances, consistency and patience are required, as well as support.
    But when we experience a time of neglect or a failure to communicate, changing needs, rather more than constancy is required. A clear challenge to re-engage in the mutual contract of relationship needs to be issued, giving a strong signal that neglectful behavior will not be tolerated.
   Sometimes we just need the patience to endure a period in which our partner is undergoing changes in her physical, emotional, or spiritual life. Such changes cannot be rushed: they can only be accompanied with sensitivity. When we ourselves undergo such changes, we need to ask for a period of patience, to express our need for support so that, like Tam Lin, we can eventually re-emerge into our daily lives.

"What changes are you and your partner undergoing now?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Here are links to several sites that are about the Ballad of Tam Lin

http://www.tam-lin.org/front.html

http://poetry.about.com/library/weekly/bltamlinhalloween.htm

http://www.tam-lin.org/front.html