Intellectual Stimulus

Intellectual Stimulus

"Too many men and women spend their time between an
office and a home in a state of intellectual stupor."
     ___ Llewelyn Powys, "Earth Memories"

   Among the bards and druids, the training of the mind and memory was of paramount importance; the continual use of memory kept open the neural pathways, making response quick and incisive. Speed of mind meant speed of tongue: the swifter-than-thought pronouncement of judgment or pithy and apposite verse was expected of bards and druids. While there are many professions today that use training methods to sharpen the intellect, most of us do not exercise our minds to any great degree. Instead of thinking deeply about a thing, we often summon up our sensations, emotions, and instincts and create an opinion woven of these strands. Although the intellect needs stimulus and training, it still has its place in the scheme of things.

In the wintertime, the air is clearer and crisper, the brain seems to work just that little bit more quickly than it does in the summer. Those of us who are intellectually flabby may find that now is a good time to exercise our intellect, to stretcvh it further than it is accustomed to. The process of learning something is one way to engage the intellect; if there is no time for that, however, engaging in deep discussion about a topic is important to you with freinds or reading something that stretches your conceptual apparatus is also beneficial. There are no set boundaries on the limits of human intellect: see how far we each can go!

"Exercise with the spirit of the country in which you live. Ask it what are the freedoms and privileges that it guards. Ask how these freedoms are to defended and what is the greatest threat to them at this time."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Newgrange - Winter Solstice


Newgrange is best known for the illumination of its passage and chamber by the winter solstice sun. Above the entrance to the passage of the Newgrange mound there is a opening called a roof-box.

On mornings around the winter solstice a beam of light penetrates the roof-box and travels up the 19 metre passage and into the chamber. As the sun rises higher, the beam widens so that the whole chamber is dramatically illuminated.

  Winter Solstice is the time when light is born out of the womb of winter's darkness. Every year, on or around December 21st, the sun appears to stand still, or rise and set in the same place for a few days. It is the time of the longest night, when Earth's very breath seems to falter in the face of the overpowering dark. Then, imperceptibly at first, the sun begins its long journey toward the south, and all of creation begins to exhale.

   Rituals for welcoming back the sun date from the dawn of civilization, as communities come together to celebrate life with feasting, music, dance, drama, and above all, light and fire. Whereas today we tend to think of Christmas as a single day or weekend even, most cultures suspend normal work routines and celebrate for at least twelve days.

  In ancient Rome the Winter Solstice was welcomed with a joyous and unruly feast known as Saturnalia. By the second century C.E. they also celebrated the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun on December 25th, a custom that originated in Syria. Further north, Scandinavians celebrated Yule, a name that could mean 'wheel' or that possibly gives the root wood for 'jolly.'

   The exact nature of the early Celtic celebrations are not known because in the fourth century C.E. the Church of Rome overlaid the old festival of the birth of the Sun with the birth of the Son. The actual birthday of Christ had never been certain, so after much debate the ancient midwinter feast was chosen because people were used to celebrating the birth of a sun god or hero at this time of the year. Even then, the Church fathers had to continually remind believers that they were supposed to be worshipping the birth of Christ, not the Sun. For although this holiday now had a new name, many of the same customs were carried on as they had been for thousands of years and for the same reason to banish the dark and welcome back the light.

Integrity in Work

Integrity in Work

"He should be constitutionally and habitually devotional,
so that blessing of God may be upon him, and what he does,
and that he may be conscientious ton do what is right and
beneficial in the practice of his art."
  --- "The Herbal Remedies of the Physicians of Myddfai"


    Whether we work for an employer or are self-employed, whether we have retired or are taking a sabbatical from work, the integrity of our actions constributes to the universal web of life. If an employer begins to bend the rules for his own benefit, then his staff may be tempted to follow his example. One person's actions may affect the company in such a way that certain positions or products are canceled - for who robs one, robs all. Occupations that strip the earth of its resources or leave it polluted are easy to target as culpable of gross theft and planetary vandalism, yet the actions of everyone living enable such results to some degree.

  To be in right relationship to our universe, a certain integrity and code of practice in our work and actions is necessary. Most of us have no explicit code by which to steer, but what we value is revealed when we consider why and for whom we are conscientious in our work and actions. Surely it is not only our employer or fellow workers who inspire us to do well but those who consume or use what we make, or our families who are supported by our work.

  Hands that work are the partners in manifestation of the unseen world wherein Spirit (by whatever form or forms we recognize it) is the keeper, maker, and inspirer of all that is. Any code of practice must first apply to the sacred source of spiritual inspiration to keep its actions pure, to operate from the highest movtives, to irrigate all work from the wellspring integrity.

"Draw up a short, realistic personal code of practice both for your occupation and for your actions in general."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]


The Month of December

Month of December - the shoe is covered with dirt:
Heavy the land, flagging the sun;
Bare are the trees, still is the muscle.
      anon. Welsh poem

December see the winter solstice and the return of gradually longer days. The themes of this month include the nature of work, revenge3 and forgiveness, gifts and blessings, belief and disbelief, and practicing being human.    [From "The Celtic Spirit"]

Spiritual Space

Spiritual Space

"We see only the loving hollow
Of a tomb which is always a womb:
A perfect, wondering O of beginnings."
         __ Catilin Matthews - "Conference of the Trees"


   Spiritual space, silence, the emptiness from which all things can be born - these spaces worry us. We are fretful to fill them. As Christmas approaches, we can be pulled into cycles of gift-buying, into hectic socializing and so abandon the empty spaces that our soul needs so badly. From the empty spaces, from tasklessness of a spare afternoon, we can find the place wherein we actually fit. This gap is like a tunnel that joins our world with the otherworld, a tunnel wherein our moments of blankness or emptubess comes the invittion to be ourselves, to bury the old busy self, to give birth to a new self that is sensitive to these precious moments.

  This is especially so when we have received a great revelation, or encountered an immense thought, or experienced a world-changing situation: instead of rushing off to complete the next task, we benefit from stopping and allowing the precious, wondering O to envelop us in a circle of calm contemplation. Within this circle, we can re-experience and ponder all that has befallen us, allowing it to connect with the wisdom that is already ours.

  Creating sacred space is an art. Consider the forbearance of the artist who stops when the picture is finished rather than painting in yet more, inessential detail. Our own spiritual space needs the same kind of forbearance, needs patience and deep listening for revelation to be made manifest: a wondering O in which profound realizations can dance and sing.

"Be attentive to, and give allowance for, spiritual space to encompass you."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Moon and Its Light

   Our ancestors made stone circles to mark the movements and
interaction of the sun and moon. They understood that what
happens in the heavens affects us on Earth, and saw the moon
as a focus for extraterrestrial energies. The Celts believed that
when the moon was high it was a good time to plant seeds, while when it was low it was time to harvest (modern
biodynamic farmers still apply this rule). Druids would make
lunar calculations to advise poeple when to make a journey or
conceive a child. A bronze-age body was found in a grave in England with a disk on its chest with seven notices on it, which may have been used to make such astrological predictions.

Moonlight and shadow exercise:  Go out at the time of the full moon and walk. Notice the effect of moonlight, how it transforms the world, how strangely beight it is and how strong the moonshadow.
The more time you spend in the moonlight, the more refined your lunar consciousness will become. This will help you become more aware of the rhythms and cycles in the sky and in your own body.
[From: "Celtic Inspirations" by Lyn Webster Wilde]

Renewal

Renewal

"When the great concrete megaCity chokes the globe from pole to
pole, it shall already have, bedded in some hidden creack, the sacred
seed of its own disintegration and collapse."
     ____ David Rudkin, "Penda's Fen"


   What we have paved over feels safe, secure, permanent, habitable, civilized. Already a majority of people feel uneasy in the countryside or in open land, without sight of buildings, shops, and the full panoply of urban living.
  When a civilized place is abandoned by people, the green world takes it back again. The first tough weeds quickly force their way through the concrete, splitting the man-made amalgam of civilization, and soon the wild seeds of life celebrate their return by germinating unchecked until that stone is covered with green.
   The prospect of ending or decay is greatly dismaying to people who feel that it means the end of life as they know it. And they are rightfully fearful, for the energy of life is stasis. The seeds of renewal are always mysteriously buried within the thick of decay and corruption, ready to spring up0 when all seems lost.
  At this time of the year when the trees look disheveled, when growth stops, we may feel the loss as a personal thing and cross the threshold to depression. Yet the roots of renewal lie in the contemplation of the way in which this year's leaf mold on the forest floow will become the rich earth for next year's glorious growth.
   The urbanization of the soul has become in many way like a 'great concrete megaCity' that petrifies the living impulses of our natural heart. The lesson of this season is to welcome the elements that free our soul into wider ways of living. To burst out of the urban soul into the great expanses where renewal can clear away all that impedes our way.

"What is static or decaying in your current life? Commune with the fruits of this season and find out how you can welcome change in."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

To Part The Mists

The path to the top of the Tor

Is also the spiraled way to the woman within

A journey of growth, empowerment,

And self understanding

Voyage to the Source.... the Center...the Goddess....

She whose Name can only be found in the silence of the soul

Delve into your darkness... enter your pain

Conquer your fears....

Call the Barge to take you

To the Holy Island of Healing which resides within...

and emerge renewed

The Mysteries of Avalon are alive

Her Apples are red and sweet....

Do you dare take a bite?

Become the Woman you were born to be...

Remember...

by Jhenah Telyndru (1995)

From "Avalon Within"

Spiraling Prayer

Spiraling Prayer

"People visited groves and springs at the sadred times and made...
the Turas, circling these holy places and wells. A sort of concentric
prayer, spiralling inwards."
____  from a speech by Nuala Ahern, Irish Member of the
    European Parliament

  The word turas (TU'ras), which means 'journey', 'pilgrimage,' and 'time',
refers especially to the circular, spiraling prayer and meditation form used by people in the Celtic countries as they walked sunwise around a sacred site. Making the turas, or circling around a sacred site, well, tree, or stone, is still a living part of Celtic spirituality today.

  The motion of this walking prayer is always deiseal, or sunwise - that is, from left to right. The clockwise method of making the turas is customary in the northern hemisphere; it is considerd to be foertunate and appropriate way of moving, while tuahal, or counterclockwise, is considered to be less fortunate.  (Note: In the southern hemisphere, sacred motion is counterclockwise.)

   We need to cricle, spirialing, around the sacred site with our body, in tune with our intentions and with the presence of the site. The process of spiraling around builds power, strengthens intention, and brings us into atunement with our soul's thread. It also attunes us in another way: as our planet spins around the circling year year, we too simultaneously experience the turning of our soul toward the greatest spiritual light. Each season is a mystical gateway of opportunity and understanding, a sacred time of wisdom. If we live with awareness of the year's cycles, we will achieve a direct alignment with those sacred opportunities.

"Visit a tree, rock, well, or other place in nature to which you feel paraticularly drawn. Make your own turas about it. If you live in an urban environment, find a stone that can represent a sacred site within your own home."

[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Sister Song

by Jacqui Wood-Smith

Spinning in the Wheel of Morgens

Woman, priestess, witch, am I

Hidden secrets now revealing

Wild, unbroken spirits fly.

Ancient hearts and primal rhythms

Throbbing drumbeats, crackling fire

Join the Morgens in their circle

Feel them kindle your desire.

Heart's true song and soul's deep learning

Secret spells and passions true

Join the Morgens in their circle

Let them weave their song for you.

Nine will dance and nine will gather

Crows and tatters touch the sky

Join the Morgens in their circle

Claim your power with crows' wild cry.

Spinning in the Wheel of Morgens

Women, priestesses, witches we

Hidden secrets now revealing

Wild unbroken spirits free! 

Grace Before Food

Grace Before Food

"Be with me, O God, at the breaking of bread,
Be with me, O God,k at the end of my meal.
May no morsel of my body's partaking
Add to my soul's freight!"
    __ Scots Gaelic grave (trans. CM)

  The blessing of food or the saying of 'grace' before eating is regarded as old-fashioned behavior in most households these days, except perhaps on Thanksgiving, when it plays a traditional role.

  The blessing upon our food is itself a thanksgiving to all who have participated in the preparation of our meal: the grains, the earth, the elements, the animals, the ones who have processed our food and sold it to us - everyone is involved. If we comtemplate only one item of food on our table and trace back through the steps that brought it there, the scale of our thanksgiving becomes very real - a network of cooperation that is one strand in our life.

  The Gaelic blessing above seems very relevant today. With the addition of chemicals and pesticides and the genetic manipulation of the cellular structure of our food, many people are very worried about swallowing anything these days. The need to return to organic food-production methods where only the usual growing agents - air, sunlight, water and root nurture - are allowed to influence the food we eat is now widely recognized.

  Very few people wish to harm their bodies or souls by participating in immoral and disrespectful food-production methods. The same goes for foodstuffs whose gathering and production endanger other species of animals or plants or further exploit already exploited people. Our choice of food is determined by the staple items of our region and our culture, many of which are in short supply. Can we change our eating habits in order to be able to breath a tru blessing upon our table?

"Write your own grace or meditate silently before you eat."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Generosity

Generosity

"As long as sun and moon shall last
The generous one shallo never be empty."
    __ Scots Gaelic saying (trans. CM)


   True generosity flows from the one who is full to the one who is empty. With whatever gift we are full - whether it be a skill, a resource, even time and space themselves - we have the ability to dispense from our fullness. The truly generous one gives without stint, like Fionn mac Cumbail, of whome it was said:

"If only the brown leaf were gold the tree sheds when the year is old!

Silver, the foam upon the bay, Fionn would give it all away."

  Where, then, are the limits of generosity? Generosity is limited by a patronizing attitude that condescends to another's need. It is curtailed by a misery spirit that gives only to 'the deserving' - a category7 that few seem to fit when it comes right down to it. Generosity can also be abused by receipients who do not reciprocate any kind of thanks. It does not matter if the reciprocated gift is of a different kind only that thankfulness is expressed in some measure. The law of hospitality is the law of return - a law that makes sense onloy when we regard all beings, all strangers, as potentially our family.

  This is the curious paradox about giving from the depths of our gift: if we give, the giving wells up in us more strongly than ever like an ever-renewing fund of hospitable welcome from the source of life itself. As the planets light our world with unbegrudging light, illumining the good and the bad, the poor and the rich, the sick and the healthy, so the impetus of generosity is a well that does not discern to whom the draft is to be given; all may drink.

"With what are you full? How does generosity irrigate your life?"

[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]