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 or 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 fine 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. It 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 meditations 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 respecting 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]

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."
    ___Dei 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 month 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 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 of the land traditionally happens about the time of 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 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 it is Big and that is sheds Light, but we are often at a loss to name it.
     As we began to disbelieve in the lode-bearing stories and lose 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 even there is ourselves, after all!
      The 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 even 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 whome 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 of 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 her,
When we hew and 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 tims. 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 now 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]

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 use that they feel like extensions of ourselves. This happens if things are unwinding equable 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 over activity, 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 a 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 are 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 that many cauldrons 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 causes the Grail to appear? A large factor seems to be the concerned hearts of many individuals who realize 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 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]