Restoring the Enchantment

Restoring the Enchantment

"Without the enchantment to kindle the beckoning flame of mystery and wonder, we lost touch with the on-going story of the soul."
   __Caitlin and John Matthews, The Little Book of Celtic Wisdom

     The ancient bards of Britain maintained 'perpetual choirs of song' that kept the Land harmoniously connected and whole. As long as there was one voice, the Land and its inhabitants remained within the enchantment. We now think of enchantment as a malign magical spell, but the original meaning of 'to enchant' was 'to infuse with song,' which is what the ancient choirs of song once did, maintaining the interconnection between this world and the otherworld. When awareness of this sacred link is severed, we lost the enchantment and fall into a sorry condition of disconnection.
   Disenchantment happens to us all, taking the familiar forms of depressive illness, addictive behavior and malaise from which there seems no escape. It is important to act quickly when these states begin to set in, to realize that our soul's story is out of phase with its sacred connection.
    How can the soul or the world be re-enchanted once it has lost the enchantment? Only be returning to the story of the soul and retelling it up to the point of fracture; only by placing our own story within the context of the greater song. When Myrddin (MER'thyn), now known as Merlin is exposed to the carnage of battle, he runs mad through the forest. Many try to calm him and bring him back to society, but only when the Welsh poet Taliesin (Tal-ee-ESS'in) comes and sits with him, does Myrddin respond, asking the odd question, 'Why do we have weather?' This seemingly trivial query is all that Taliesin needs to help his friend. He begins to recite the creation of the world. At the end of Taliesin's recital, Myrddin is restored as the sacred context of his story is given back to him.

"Consider the enchantment that keeps your soul's story on track."
{From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The Meaning Beneath the Meaning

The Meaning Beneath the Meaning

"The journey we begin as we answer the call is long, and filled with all that we have been and all that we will become."   
   ____ Cairstiona Worthington, Modron of the
     Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids

  Our spiritual journey leads us through many stations of experience. We feel the need to travel in company with others: we join churches, courses, movements, and groups, learning all that we can from their leaders and exponents. Sometimes sharing the journey is helpful and supportive to our unique spiritual call; other times it is very dissatisfying, causing us to give up and continue our journey elsewhere. This period of spiritual nomadism can be lengthy, as we move from place to place, from religious movement to spiritual group in search of the meaning beneath the meaning.
   It is good to realize early on that whatever is spiritually important to us must be identified and made use of, not discarded later in the journey because it does not 'fit' our current spiritual practice. It is in the experiences that have along our way that our spirituality grows and matures. Dancing, catching leaves, meditating in the bath, praying while singing, walking in the countryside - all these are ways to honor Spirit.
   In order to live our spiritual path, we cannot leave out any part of ourselves to our experience: every single bit of who we are and what we do has to be included. It is in recognizing the mystic we always were rather than in mimicking the pious practices of our faith that we discover the meaning beneath the meaning which has always been calling us.

"What causes you to be aware of the meaning beneath the meaning? Begin to incorporate your own innate spiritual responses into your daily practice."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Month of January - smoky is the vale;

Weary the wine-bearer; strolling the minstrel;

Lean the cow; seldom the hum of the bee.

____  anon. Welsh poem

January see the growing of the cold. This month's meditation themes include: the soul's circuit, beginnings, and approaches, the gifts of youth, mediators, mutual care and separateness with clarity.

The New Year

The New Year

"Wind from the West, fish and bread;
Wind from the North, cold and flaying;
Wind from the East, snow on the hills;
Wind from the South, fruit on trees."
    ___ Scots new year weather omen


    New Year's Day is a time of reading omens for a fresh beginning. It is widely held that the first twelve days of the year will reveal the disposition of the weather for the year ahead. This is a good day to go for a long walk, to divine the possibilities of the year ahead in a very simple way.
    Before you set off on your walk, stop and tune your intentions to the unfolding year ahead; sense the pathway of the year that stands ready before you. Now begin your walk, attentive to everything that is about you, including the mythscape, story, folklore, and feeling of the Land. Keeping the year ahead in your conscious, allow your attention to widen to include everything about you. If you come across something that draws your attention with urgent filaments of greeting - it might be the sudden movement of a bird, the beauty of a patch of moss, the intensity of the light through the trees - stop and be attentive to what caught your attention.
    Listen and attend to the greeting and intuitively reach out for and feel its meaning - a meaning that might not be experienced in words or even in sound but may come to you as a subtle understanding. Appreciate it, note it, and then pass on. Keep repeating this throughout your walk until you have had twelve such experiences.  Each time stop, attend, and intuit (without fishing for a rational explanation) why your attention has been engaged. Then return home and review the omens in the order you experienced them, relating them successively to the months of the year. Next New Year's Eve you can  check your findings.

"Take a walk as suggested above."
{From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Our Heart's Desire

Our Heart's Desire

"You shall receive whatever gift you may name, as far as wind dries, rain wets, sun revolves; as far as sea encircles and earth extends."
   __Culhwch and Olwen, from The Mabinogian (trans CM)


  How many times since childhood have we pondered our heart's desire3? When we were young, we grasped the notion of bountiful giving and the granting of wishes very easily from the folk and faery stories that we read. In  our growing up, we begin to struggle against the denial of heart's desire. As adults, most of us have given over even contemplating it.
    The heart's desire is not an illusory or unachievable ambition if we can suspend our adult disbelief. The true heart's desire is an integral potentiality, a germinated seed waiting to manifest. So what prevents us from achieving it? Our lives may be littered with unresolved and undeveloped wishes, all of which block the way to our true heart's desire. If we are to achieve the core of our wish, we must first rescind and cancel our immature wishes, unless, of course, we still wish to grow a monkey's tail, obtain a rocking horse, drive a steam engine, or marry Elvis Presley! We must cancel our old and immature wishes by calling them back and revoking them, along with other idle wishes we may have uttered and since forgotten. Then the way stands clear.
    If we can commune deeply upon our true heart's desire, rather than upon our fantasies, if we can envision it with every cell of our body and call to it, then we send a true song to make the pathway between ourselves and our heart's desire.

"What is your heart's desire? Which former wishes are preventing you from attaining it? Cancel them, as suggested above."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Sacred Life

Sacred Life

"Everything that lives is holy."
      ___ William Blake - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell


    For many hundreds of years, the false tale that whatever is alive is evil has been told: this tale has been told from fear and denial, from pain and rejection, as a way of explaining why things go wrong and why perfection cannot be expected. Many people regard the living world as a predominantly evil place, full of beings of whom we should be suspicious. For such people, the only good place, the only good beings are in heaven. Living defensively in the eye of evil is not a happy to live. Fear and suspicion darken everything with a sad pall.
    The opposite view sees all life as worthy of respect, as potentially able to achieve its fullest stature. Of course, not every being alive reaches its potential; but then neither does it sink into irredeemable iniquity. Entertaining the possibility of all things living being able to achieve their potential of holiness is a powerful and supportive way to live. But, like all life-ways, even this view can be abused: when we live as though no harm could come, we are foolish rather than innocent.
    Life is a sacred gift that all beings receive. It is the manner of our living that makes the difference. The way in which we relate to other living beings encourages them to change the world for good or violate the world for ill; the way in which we spend our lives illuminates or darkens those around us. But if we are not aware of the sacred potential in each living being, if we do not acknowledge it and respect it, we may become active agents of the soul's darkening. Everything that lives is holy because it is an abiding place of Spirit; every body is a home where the sacred gifts of Spirit may be born anew.

"Contemplate the living beings with whom you are in contact - not just human beings but other living beings of nature as well. Hold each of them in your heart and acknowledge their sacred gift."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The Gifts We Really Want

The Gifts We Really Want

"Be sensible of your wants, that you may be sensible of your treasures."  
  ___Thomas Traherne, Centuries


    At this of the year, when the commerciality of Christmas swamps sacred and seasonal considerations, we ask and are asked, 'What do you want this year?"  True wants are not easily satisfied by prettily wrapped parcels; they immensities of space within us that we often block up by needs and yearnings. To consider our real wants is often too frightening.
    Our wants are sharper than super large screen TVs with 3-D or video games with super special effects, jewelry that dazzles the eye
or beautiful clothing.  Our real wants eat holes in us: never resting, never loving, never greeting, never finding, never seeking, never ever being satisfied deep down.
    Those ravenous wants define our treasures so truly. They create a Christmas list that no department store could supply: time to stop and enjoy, in a space of quietness and contentment, all the things we were put on earth to do; space to give and receive love reciprocally; grace to seek and find our spiritual joy; freedom from the tyranny of others' expectations and judgments; acceptance of ourselves as we truly are. But we can discover our true treasures and how near we actually stand to them. When we really listen to ourselves say, "I haven't  time to...... I never get to ..... I'm sick of ......," we come within sight of our treasury - that wealth that goes on being unvisited year after miserable year.
    The miracle of self-permission and allowance, the willingness to receive, the gift of truth - these are the keys to unlock the treasury that has been open to us this long time.

"Make your list of real wants in order to find your true treasures. Make a present to yourself of one of these by turning one of the keys above. "
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Aids to Healing

Aids to Healing

"Three things bring healing at Myddfai: water, honey, and work."    ancient Welsh triad

   The healing arts of the Physicians of Myddfai (MUTH' vay) in North Wales were renowned throughout Britain. This famous family was descended from the alliance between a human man and a faery woman who came out of a lake and taught her healing skills to her children.
    The source of illness lies not with physical symptoms but with some spiritual cause and that cause must be treated if healing is to come about. Many things cause illness to constellate: not only physical predispositions such as infection, lowered resistance, bad hygiene, and physical weakness, but also messy relationships, fear, anger, neglect of vocational or emotional needs, and so on. Any good healer knows that these factors must be understood and included within any diagnosis. This means working to establish a basis of trust with the client.
    The work of the client is also important. The minimum requirement of the client is that some benefit should come and the minimum obligation is a readiness to make radical change in order to facilitate healing: we may have to leave a situation or relationship or reform beliefs, attitudes, or ways of life before healing can have its effect.
    Our society embraces the concept of  'self-healing.' In its truest sense, self-healing is not about taking credit for health. It is about our willingness to change our ability to receive; about taking steps by which healing can happen. Healers know that healing comes with the help of many things: plant, chemicals, human support and attention, and spiritual guidance of allies, as well as the client's predisposition to be healed. The miracle of healing lies in treating the cause of illness not by merely quelling its symptoms.

"Consider a current or past illness. What factors cause the illness to constellate? Which healing agents were helpful? What changes in situation or attitude had to take place before healing could come about?"
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]