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 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 inscripti8ons 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 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 love 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 forward planning, necessitates the painful realization how different life will be from now on, how lonely, how impossible, time and 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,k and encouraged 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 the loss rather than hurrying to cover over the aching gap, and by understanding that our compassion must extend beyond a few months' 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 repeatedly 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 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 final 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 cycle 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 Alters


   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 life.
     Without entering the trap of resignation, we can focus instead upon our own life's purpose and see how it sits with our circumstances 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]

Growing Up

Growing Up

"how many inner umbilical cords connecting me with the depths and heights of all that is...were
severed and knotted in me in the course of my
education?"
    ___ John Moriarty, Turtle Was Gone a Long Time.

     The freedom we experienced in the country of childhood is very special. Most deep childhood bonds are never severed entirely, only stretched so that they can help us through our adult years with more flexibility. These bonds are those of wonder, play, and simplicity. The jaundiced perceptions of adulthood allow little room for wonder: the ability to be deeply moved and reconnected with the wider world. When wonder leaves us, our childhood senses are finally fogged up and we no longer see the world as part of ourselves. A renewed sense of wonder awakens our ability to be responsible as adults and helps us bequeath an unspoiled world to our own children.
     The child's ability to play, to be completely involved in the game, can be ours if we make love with life enthusiastically. Childhood simplicity gives way to adult sophistication, which seeks how to please others and is self-aware in a way that childhood is not. The ability to retain a measure of simplicity enables us to perceive things without worrying about other people's opinions, beliefs and ideas, to be guided by the innocence in our soul.

"In which areas of your life do you feel that you are still 'growing up'?  What facets of your childhood wisdom have you retained?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Care of the Land

Care of the Land

"Spiritual orderliness originates in harmonious
care of the land as sacred."
     ___ Nigel Pennick, Celtic Sacred Landscapes


    For the Celtic peoples, the land was inspirited, able to reflect whatever was done upon it. The concept of land as inert, unable to respond, was foreign to them. There was also a sense that not every inch of the land could be used for human purposes, that some was to be set aside as sacred to the spirits of the land.
    The prosperity of the land, the abundance of flocks and herds, the fertility of fields and orchards - all these were dependent upon the sacred ordering that gave respect to the spirit of the land. This intrinsic
knowlkedge arose from the land itself and was mirrored in the way people behaved and believed. In an age when few of us actually work the land with our own hands, this knowledge is now retreating and we begin to see the products of the soil as commodities rather than as inhabitants of the natural order.
     The very and and its inhabitants speak to us of spirit and sacred order if we will listen to them. It is in the patient tending and listening that those who have worked the land for generations know when a plant or animal needs particular things, and when some profound wisdom is being conveyed. If we make the spaces for these moments of transmisson, create opportunities for communication between ourselves and the land, we may begin to embody the sacred orderliness that maintains our whole ecology.

"Go and listen to the land sometime this week. Be sensitive to its needs, your appropriate response to those needs, and the spiritual lesson that it has to teach you."
[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 festivities, which may include the election of a king and queen of the May. Most often the holiday royalty are a boy and girl from a local school, but once they would have been the 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]

MAY

" 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 Beltane.

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.

And so we enter the Season of Summer, the Beltane Quarter of the Year