Merlin's Isle

Merlin's Isle

"She is not any common Earth,
Water or Wood or Air,
But Merlin's Isle of Gramarye
Where you and I will fare."
   ___ Rudyard Kipling, "Puck's Song"


    Merlin trains King Arthur to be a worthy king, but long before Arthur passes to Avalon, Merlin retires from his role as prophet and adviser to a tower that has seventy doors and windows. From which he can see the whole realm and maintain his guardianship. It is for this reason that the name Clas Myrddin (KLAS MER'thyn) was given to the island of Britain, for it falls under his watchful protection.
    Many countries have a secret, hidden, or poetic name that describes the true nature of the land in a deep, mythic way. When wearing this name, the country becomes a realm that somehow lies beyond its geographical location and given name, leading us into a hinterland that can be crossed only in dreams and visions, perceived only in stories and legends. Something in our hearts speaks to us of the mythic reality of Merlin's Isle, a place that yet abides.
   Beneath the history of every country there is a gramarye - a secret magical teaching - to be learned: the lore, the stories, the enchantments that only the land can teach us.  It is so in Merlin's Isle. There the gramarye is written non in the common elements but in their subtle counterparts, which are perceivable at dawn and twilight, at the between times when color and light merge into sound and distance. Within the folded hills, by the singing streams, deep in the secret hollows, Merlin keeps his school; and there, under his intimate tutelage, we can read the book of nature and of story and know our land's gramarye.

"What are the rudiments of your own land's gramarye ? Which figures in story and legend are associated with the keeping of your country's secret wisdom and power?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Embrace of Heaven and Earth

The Embrace of Heaven and Earth

"The stars speak through the stones. Light shines in the
densest matter. Earth and heaven are one. Our physical
beings and our heavenly souls are united in the Mystery
of Being,"
  ___Philip Carr-Gomm, "The Druid Tradition"


   The druidic tradition is deeply acquainted with the interrelationship of the apparent and unseen worlds. This interrelation's understanding certainly did not originate with the druids, but it was apparent to the earlier megalithic peoples whose stone circles and monuments are now popularly assigned to the druids. If you have ever stood within such a stone circle at night, the relationship between stone and star becomes immediately apparent: in earlier times, when street lighting did not pollute the night sky, the most immediate feature would have been the dazzling stellar canopy overhead. It is unfortunate that our dazzling technology has diminished the stars with its emissions.
   Even nonscientific people suspect that we are part of something greater and more complex than a merely physical universe. It is not only the nature world that speaks to us of an integral but unseen relationship, but also the everyday mystical experiences that elevate us to spiritual insight. In this way, we are no different from the deep ancestors of prehistory. Scientists today discern the heavens with more far-reaching sight than ever the druids could achieve, yet many still fail to see the stars within the stone or the light within the matter. The continual embrace of heaven and earth surrounds us all, if we become still enough to perceive it.

"Go out and look at the stars. As you look up, meditate upon the connection between the matter in your body and the matter in the stars."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Twice-Born

The Twice-Born

"To dare the incarnation, to take the road
in silence.
To know the ascension; to will the resurrection.
The song shimmers in the golden people."
   ___ Aidan Andrew Dun, "Vale Royal"


    There comes a stage upon our spiritual path when we stand at the threshold of serious commitment:  Do we enter into the unknown mysteries of the deeper way or remain on the safe, known pathway? This process of going within is called 'initiation,' and the one who enters within is called the 'initiate.'  This is a scary threshold to cross because no one can share the experience or explain it in advance.
   Within the Celtic tradition, there have been people in every generation who have gone consenting to the threshold of initiation in order to learn from and be taught by the teachers who are no longer incarnate. It is they who have kept open the ways and been the mediators of the mysteries. Their commitment and avowal of intention to serve their spiritual tradition may have been hidden, arrived at in solitude and struggle, but they have stretched out their hands to the ancestral teachers nonetheless and become the 'twice-born' - initiates who have been born anew into the life that is beyond physical existence.
   The twice-born, like the bards and druids of old, access the help of spiritual guardians for whom time and space are no obstacle. Over many centuries, to the mundane eye, they have arisen and disappeared, quietly stating and living the ancient wisdoms. These courageous wisdom-keepers have in turn become teachers for the next generation of seekers.
   So the old songs have become new, not only by studying and researching, but by crossing the boundary between the worlds and entering into direct, living relationship with the mystery of the ancestral wisdom.

"What initiatory thresholds have you encountered in your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Recognizing the Potential

Recognizing the Potential

"Three things that should be despised: a ragged young man, a shaggy filly and a freckled-legged girl."
    ___Scots Gaelic triad


   The ability to foster potential and encourage the young is one of the great gifts of a mature individual. It gives power and hope to the as-yet-developed soul struggling to find its place in life. When we invest interest and encouragement in someone, we invest her with a level of trust, a belief in herself that may give her the power to blossom and mature in wonderful ways. Every act of encouragement must be sensitively judged however, for if we invest two much hope in people, our expectations become a burden that may cause them to falter.
    The recognition of potential is something that all ages need, if we are to flourish. This is especially true for those souls who have been discouraged in their early life or whose potential has been blocked by unfortunate circumstances. The soul damage to people who have been taught to despise their own potential is incalculable; they can speak only slightingly of themselves and their achievements.  They need careful, steady encouragement to remind them of their true worth and to reintegrate the gifts they were born with but that were stolen by the insensitive and manipulative actions of others.
    The ragged young man may make good, the shaggy-hair filly may win uncounted races, and the freckled-legged girl may turn into a beauty without help and encouragement; but if the beholder can recognize the potential of each, the hidden gifts may develop in a more assured way.

"Without judging by appearances, look for the potential in those you meet."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Reconciliation

Reconciliation

"Two men can meet quicker than two
mountains ever." 
      ____ Welsh proverb  (trans CM)


    When we have fallen out with friends or colleagues, the way back to reconciliation can seem worlds away. Pride and hurt can cause us to decide that the first approach will never come from our side, but the same sentiments are often experienced by the other party.
   To arrive at reconciliation, we may have to explore the avenues of negotiation and compromise.
If we can find a sensible and eloquent go-between who can be trusted not to fan the flames of dispute, then the first approaches can be taken by this means. If we have no such go-between then we have to open negotiations on your behalf. With tact and sensitivity, we can invite the other party to meet with us on neutral ground, to discuss the causes of dispute and each other's views - an invitation  to come down from the lofty heights of separation and agree on a truce.
   The aim is not to shame or coerce the other into capitulation, but to allow both parties to bring their differences to the light of day so that they may be seen as they really are, rather than as they are emotionally experienced. This perspective may be difficult to maintain, especially if anger or grief is involved. It may be that the discussion must be carried on through letters, if emotions are too raw.
    While both parties are in the healing stage, it is often beneficial to perform some common act together - something that benefits neither party directly but is undertaken for the common benefit of others, such as a clearing a stream of rubbish or giving a few hours to a community project. Such acts provide a mutual focus that helps to heal division.

"With whom do you wish to be reconciled?  If your disagreement is of long standing, write a letter offering to close the gap."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Kindness of Kindred

The Kindness of Kindred

"Natural kindly human instincts, whose earth-born
rudiments existing among animals and birds, have
come to us from Nature herself."
____ John Cowper Powys "Obstinate Cymic"


   The kindness imputed to nature by the write J. C. Powys might
be disputed by those who find her 'red in tooth and claw' in a
variety of ways, as she turns the seasons and the weather without warning and creates destruction.  Yet nature is a mother who teaches all species to interrelate with each other. Kindness is nothing less than the recognition and acknowledge of our kinship with other beings, extending beyond humankind to embrace all that is. Kindness includes all and is cooperative. Kindness enables recognition of kinship in others.
    Nature's real beneficence is found not in 'random acts of kindness' patronizingly meted out to the web of life but in an ordered dispensation wherein all things touch, meet, and mingle. Kindness for nature, does not mean the cozy preservation of one life at the expense of all; it is an instinctive cooperation with the larger web of life. Those beings who choose to live outside this law are no longer kindred with life - a fact that human beings would do well to remember if we wish to continue!

"Is there someone or something toward whom you find it hard to be kind? What is it that severs kinship between you? How can true kinship be restored?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Well at World's End

The Well at World's End

"Those who in youth and childhood wander
alone in woods and wild places, ever after
carry in their hearts a secret well of
quietness and.... they always long for rest
and to get away from the noise and rumour
of the world."
   ___ W. B. Yeats, 'Letters'


    The Well at World's End is one of those secret places of restoration, healing and beauty that are sought in faery stories.  To carry its refreshing waters, we have to overcome obstacles in our path, identify and ask the help of allies who may not be human and purify ourselves in order that we may be worthy to receive the immortal draught.
    The surest doorway to the secret threshold between the worlds lies hidden deep in our experience of childhood. Search your memory for the sweet, essential time of childhood play when the universe was in your grasp: when the dammed-up stream behind your house became a river in flood, when your own body became the horse you (now rider too) intrepidly rode, snorting and stamping along the path. Remember the dappled jungles of undergrowth wherein toy figures became heroic in their adventures, battling with mighty ants. Recall the stories that you told yourself, reading the landscape with masterful childhood senses that instinctively knew the way between the worlds.
    Those stories, feelings, and perceptions are your childhood passport to the realms of the Well at World's End. Those magical waters have power to revoke the march of morality and to invoke the wild places of the heart. They recall to you the allies that you made when you played unselfconsciously - allies that you have ignored through lack of trust and because you have 'put away childish things.'  When you long to rest from the whirling everyday world, remember your own Well at World's End and drink deeply of its waters.

"Recall your childhood allies. (These might be places, toys, books, games, friends, animals.) Give them thanks for their companionship."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]