Samhain

Samhain

"Samhain night with its ancient lore
was occasion for new and merry custom;
it was learned in the wilderness, in oak-woods,
from spirits and fairies."

  __ "The Metrical Dindshenchas" (trans CM)


   The festival Samhain (SOW'en) marked the start of Winter when beasts were brought in from the hills to the nearby fields for winter slaughter or for overwintering in barns. Samhain was a liminal time in which the world of the living and the ancestral realms overlapped. This was a time for the remembrance of the dead: candles were set in the window to welcome the loved ancestors and to shine upon the path of the unquiet dead to bless them on their way.

  There was always an element of fear and trepidation about this night - the eve before Samhain - and also one of expectancy. When the dead were abroad, certain kinds of divination could be practiced, which asked questions of the ancestors. This night was one when your people disguised themselves and play pranks on the community. The modern custom of trick-or-treating is bsed upon the old tradition of 'mischief night,' where the guisers begged for food and drink from door to door. At inhospitable houses, the gate might be removed from its hines, or other petty misdemeanors might be performed.

  The great fear that many still have about this night is not aided by the commercialism of modern Hallowe'en, which emphasizes ghoulish fascination with ghosts rather than communal reverence for the beloved ancestors. As we enter the darkness of winter this envening, let us remember our own ancestors with love, with a prayer that all unquiet souls be led to blessedness and peace, with a hope that this sacred festival may be restored to its former respect as a time of communal honoring.

"Lit your own candle for the ancestors this evening, and breathe your blessing upon all who no longer walk this world."
[From "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

And so with this essay, I am at the end of the book and will return to its beginning tomorrow with November 1st,,,,,   S.

Flexibility

Flexibilty

"May we never be so straight that we cannot bend;
May we never be so unapproachable that children
Cannot climb up into our lower branches."
    ____ Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"

  Wherever we have set our roots, there will we grow. The ability to be flexible and adaptable to different growing conditions determines the nature of our development. Learning to change and adapt with each new circumstance is a human gift that we share with all life. Evolution itself shows us that those species that cannot change die out. Opinions and attitudes can become like carapaces that harden about our shoulders, bringing rigidity to our life-flow. Rigidity of opinion causes us to become unapproachable, which may increase our sense of isolation or confirm us in our self-contented stasis. We begin to lose opportunities to exchange views, to receive love, to find other sources of nurture. It takes courage to allow children to swarm in our branches, to allow the questions and opinions of those younger than ourselves to bend our trunks in their fresh breeze. The beauty of the many-leveled generations alive at one time allows us great opportunities to practice our flexibility and share our wisdom.

"Visualize what kind of tree you are. Check on how vital your root system is; assess the flexibility of your trunk, the reach of your branches. What opportunities for change and adaptability are available and needed by you at this time?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The image I placed here with this entry - the picture of the willow tree - represents the choice of tree I see for myself.  Maybe I can be too flexible, don't know, but I do see myself always ready to 'bend' to the new ideas of the younger generations.
S.

Living the Metaphor

Living the Metaphor

"Then as  now the Cauldron of Ceridwen..... was on the boil;
and its life giving drops..... were being scattered abroad,
according to what, by mere human computation, amount to
nothing but the accidents of pure chance."
     ___ John Cowper Powys, "Obstinate Cymric"

  From Ceridwen's vessel of inspiration three drops flew out, and were caught by the child, Gwion as he sat tending the cauldron. When a spark of knowledge catches the tinder of our being, it runs through us like a forest fire. All the metaphors and images by which we have lived our lives become incandescent with immediacy and meaning. After the kiss of knowledge, Taliesin, who was once the boy Gwion, declares that he has been in many times and places, that he has been a drop in the air, a letter among words, a sword in the hand, a string in a harp, and many other conditions associated with the human state. It is the metaphor of himself in the immediacy of the realized present that sings.

  To realize and truly live our metaphor, we need the random grace of the cauldron's drops to awaken us to our true potential. Suddenly meaning explodes behind our eyes and thoughts run together and connect like the colors on an easel when it rains. This is the experience of the child Gwion when he puts his lips to his hand to cool the scalding drops. The incubation period of knoweldge for Gwion is nine months in the womb of Ceridwen, where he brings together the many metaphors of himself and learns their truth. By the time he is born they have become part of him; he is living repository of his own knowledge.

"What metaphors do you apply to your own life (e.g., a lone wolf, a rolling stone, a busy beaver, a foolish clown)?  What triggers knowledge of these metaphors? What fixes their truth in you?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Cauldron

In the early times the cauldron sat over the fire, and meat, bones, vegetables and herbs would simmer in a sustaining broth. The rich stew in the cauldron became a potent symbol for the Celts, for spiritual as well as physical nourishment - for inspiration, mystic knowledge and regeneration. Dead warriors who plunge into Bran's cauldron come back to life but without the power of speech - signifying that you can't talk about the great mysteries, they can only be experienced or tasted. And when little Gwion tastes the brew in Ceridwen's cauldron, he begins the journey that transforms him into the all-knowing bard Taliesin. 

A cauldron of transformation:

  When you're facing a period of difficult change, find or make a cauldron. It doesn't have to be big, but it should have a round, embracing shape, like a bowl.
    Put into the cauldron any negative emotion you need to transform - for example, disappointment, fear, resentment or guilt. Look into the cauldron and imagine it drawing this quality from you. Pour in some water or wine and swill it around, then take a sip. Trust in the process of transformation: let it happen without any further input from you.
[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Finding Our Place in Nature

Finding Our Place in Nature

"Did you hear what the fish said,
Floundering among the reeds? --
Nature's wiser than learning."
   ___ fourteenth-century Welsh verse (CM)


   In the Celtic and world folk traditions, reminders of this important fact emerge time and again in stories that tell of speaking animals. All young heroes and heroines who are sent out on the road of adventure eventually encounter animal allies who speak to them of deeper wisdoms than those they received at school. These encounters require that the young person treat the animal with respect, share her goods or food with the animal, and listen and act upon the animal's wisdom. The characters who do these things emerge unscathed; the ones who neglect to respect, share, or listen lose their way and fall prey to dangers. It is for this reason that so many spiritual traditions regard animals as their wisdom-keepers: animals are respentatives of the oral, living world of nature -- beings who know the implications and responsibilities of their belonging and guardianship.

  All people now living have the responsibility of relearning the wisdom of nature, directly from nature: from the trees and hills, the birds and streams, the animals and fields, the fish and seas. Wherever we are, there is an older wisdom singing, which keeps the world in harmony. When we can join in that singing, we will begin to find our true place in nature and be at one with our brothers and sisters beings.

"Be present with a being of nature; be present to it spirit to spirit. What is the wisdom of nature about the plan that is currently brooding in your heart? How does this differ from the received wisdom of your society, friends, advisers?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

I feel compelled to give some sort of comment on this particular celtic essay this morning.... It speaks to me of the environmental damage that is happening all around us and yet we continue to let to go on.  OK, I know that those who would read a blog like do not intentionally ignore environmental issues but yet often we feel like 'what can we do?'  One thing we can be more aware of our own habits of existing on the planet.  While we don't necessarily have to go out on the streets and shout the message of environmental issues we can try to set an example to those around us by trying to practice ecology in our lives.  There are so many things we can be doing that will make a step in the right direction - do I need to list them yet again here?
S.

Unleasing Joy

Unleasing Joy

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does a winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."
  __ William Blake, "Etrenity"


   Joy is not a creature of the cupboard; it is wild, free, and profligate, spending itself in one great burst of energy. The ability to enjoy and be part of something is a skill many of us lose; as we disengage from the immediacy of life, we are less able to sink outselves deeply into things. This distancing of the self often arises from the need to protect ourselves from perceived dangers (physical and emotional). Whatever its cause, this form of separation from life clips the wings of joy very effectively.

  Certain people want to restrain the freedoms of others; having hushed the ecstatic song of joy in their own lives as a thing too flighty or too dangerous to be allowed, they find it suspect in others as well. At the other extreme are people who, having tasted joy, want it all the time.

  Whatever our condition how do we make access to joy? It can come only when there are three conditions present: a state of lively engagement with life, a receptive and spacious heart, and a respect for other beings than ourselves. If we live in a closed-off bubble, forcing life to happen beyond us, joy cannot enter; but if we play ball with life, catching and throwing back the many experiences that come our way, we begin our true engageent. If we have a daily receptive space where we allow the universe to speak to us, joy will find its way. If we truly believe that the freedom of other beings is as important as ourown, if we truly respect that freedom, joy will wing toward us.

"Meditate upon the three conditions above and discover which ones will help you to be hospitable to joy."  [From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Hag of Beara
(Kerry, Ireland)

  On the Beara Peninsula in the far southwest of Ireland, a strange outcrop of metamorphic rock shaped like a woman's face gazes out to sea. It is the Cailleach Bhearra (vyey-ruh), the Hag of Beara, whom local tradition calls the Shaper of the Land. Once an immortal ancestral goddess, she was changed by the pen of a medieval scribe into an old nun grieving over her lost youth and beauty. The poem might be the lament of the goddess herself for the end of the pagan era.

I have had my day with kings

drinking mead and wine;

today I drink whey and water

among shriveled old hags....

The flood-wave,

and the swift ebbg;

what the flood brings you

the ebb carries from your hand..."

[From Mara Freeman's "Kindling the Celtic Spirit]

Surviving Marriage

Surviving Marriage

"The first year's a year of kisses
The second year's a year of fists."
    ___ Scots Gaelic proverb

  The settling-down year of marriage needs to be handled with an understanding patience.  And we may need to summon that same high level of patience again in another ten years, when long-term relationships often go into a place of stasis and stagnation. The chief method for surviving as a couple is to realize that two individuals brought into partnership have to find the point of balance and reciprocation. No longer separate, they keep developing as individuals even as the realationship itself is growing.

  Behaviors, comments, and feelings that initially seem to be warning signs of fallout often are nothing more (and nothing less) than signs of growth. These little buds and shoots need space to spread, and a reciprocal understanding of personal needs. Such matters cannot be intuited by our partner, however; they have to be communicated. Petty domestic resntments and larger-scale problems can incubate at an alarming rate beneath the surface of married life, sometimes because both partners have grown together sufficiently to feel that they have one consciousness and that their wants and needs should be obvious to the other. They are not.

  The second year of marriage does not have to be one of fists if we keep attuned to our own and our partner's needs, holding the communication channels open.

"Take time to speak of your needs and concerns to your significant other and to inquire what his or her needs and concerns may be. If you are not in a relationship at present, consider a past relationship; ask yourself where and why the partnership worked."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Passing of Arthur

The Passing of Arthur

"Be brave, be impeccable!
Endure challenge, be cheerful!
I go to the summer world
of Afallon, to recover.
But I'll come back to my land
Once more......."
    ____ Thomas Gwynn, "Arthur's Passing"


    The prophecy that King Arthur will return has been often uttered and widely believed throughout Britain and beyond. It was so strong a belief centuries ago that twelfth-century cleric, Alan of Insulis wrote "Preach about the market places and villages that Arthur the Briton is dead as other men are dead, and..... Hardly will you escape unscathed without being overwhelmed by curses or crushed by the stones of your hearers."  Arthur the British war-leader  - the King Arthur of the later medieval legends - derives from a potent Celtic archetype the function of which is to maintain the integrity of the land. His ending is seen as no death, but as a time of recovery for the healing of his wounds, after which he will come again. This legend fueled his Latin title Rex Quondam Rexque Futurus: the King Who Was and Who Shall Be.

   There comes in every country's history a time of hardship and a corresponding time of shining deeds to overcome the hardship. When the land plummets into war or other difficulty, the inhabitants of the land need leaders who can reach into the very soul of the land and draw forth the necessary inspiration, courage, and resourcefulness to defend it and them. Every land has its own Arthur, called by a multitude of names, remembered in heroic stories that can be retold to encourage us in later times of trouble. And the same prophecy is uttered: that the hero or heroine is not dead, but shall come again.

"What is the sacred trust of your own land? Which figures and emblems have been associated with it?  How do they endure?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


Water's Healing Powers

Water has a special magic for the Celts as a symbol of vitality and inspiration. The fact that it could capture light (for example, a reflection of the setting sun) could not be rationally explained and was taken as proof of supernatural properites. Wells and springs were charged with magic powers. Lakes and rivers were the dwelling-places of otherworldly beings, like the Lady of the Lake in Arthurian legend.

Walking by a river or stream, let the power of the water, seen and heard, energize your spirit. Let every ripple add its soothing blessing to your deepening inner calm.

The watery cage of the moon

"Do not fear the Druid's magic,

You too are a skilled magician.

You can summon the spirits of the night

You can endure the moon in a puddle."

   If you gaze into a puddle and see the full moon's reflection there, the time is auspicious for you to make a wish - nas long as your wish is sincere and virtuous, there is a good chance that it will be realized soon. But best of all is to try to catch the moon's reflection in a well: this simple spell may bring you closer to achieveing your heart's desire.

[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]