Hogmanay

Hogmanay

I am now come to your country,
Renewing the duty of Hogmanay;
Of its mysteries, what need I tell?
It began in the time of our ancestors.
    ___ Scots Gaelic song of Hogmanay (trans CM)


  The festival of Hogmany - a word whose origins are lost - is celebrated in Scotland every New Year's Eve.
A festival that outshines Christmas even today. Hogomany is celebrated with vigor by every Scot. Rich food and strong drink are abundant; shining music and lively dancing are enjoyed. The custome of first-footing - of receiving with celebration the first guest across the threshold after the stroke of midnight - is still practiced. According to tradition, the first-footer should be a dark-haired person from outside the household who is able to bring good fortune to the house: healthy, young, and vigorous people are particularly welcomed. The first-footer brings a 'handsel' (or token of good fortune)  to the household . This is usually fuel, food, or a bottle of whisky. The first-footer is then hospitably welcomed and given a gift, usually joining in the party that runs until the small hours of the morning.
  

  The magical turning of the old used-up year into a fresh new one has little to do with chronology and much to do with the hope of new beginnings and all that they bring. The old year can bring no more opportunities to us, but we can give it a good send-off with a party that simultaneously welcomes the new possibilities ahead. If the celebrations of this evening become sometimes riotous or rowdy, it is worth remembering that the mysterious crack between one year and another is best leaped rather than crawled over! In this time between worlds and times, nothing is as orderly as normal. It is a time to celebrate life and the return of the sun from its darkest, deepest depths.

"Welcome the new year over your threshold and see the old year out with some fancy footwork and good cheer!"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

More Hogmanay information:  http://www.scotlands-enchanting-kingdom.com/hogmanay-customs.html

Excerpts from the link above:
•The Pre-Hogmanay Preparations.


Cleaning the House - the 31st December was often a busy day, a day of preparing to see the Old Year out, and to bring in the New Year. Many businesses closed early to allow the workforce time to go home and clean their houses from top to bottom. This cleaning began in the days when everyone had open fires, and fireplaces in particular had to be cleaned. It was considered bad luck by some to go into the New Year with a dirty house. The tradition of cleaning the house for new year still exists today.

Getting rid of Debt – this was another thing that was seen as unlucky and most households would endeavour to get rid of all debt before midnight on 31st. It wasn’t good to go into the New Year with debt. It’s a pity this tradition has stopped as we now live in times when most people enter the New Year with the debt of over-spending at Christmas.

•Midnight


Having family and friends together and partying is one of the main Hogmanay customs. As soon as the clock strikes 12. bells are rung in every town and village throughout the land. Many places have street parties with the villagers for example all meeting in the village square to bring in the New Year together. These days of course fireworks are also set off, so it can be quite a spectacular sight, depending on where you are. So even if you don’t want to go outside, you can open your curtains, see the fireworks, hear the bells and the music.

Immediately after midnight it is traditional for everyone to stand in a circle, cross over their arms, hold hands with people on either side sing Robert Burns' "Auld Lang Syne". If you don’t know what the words mean – click here to see my attempt at a translation People from around the world sing this, although they often only know the chorus:

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot and auld lang syne
For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o kindness yet, for auld lang syne."

But of course the Scottish hospitality of welcoming family, friends and neighbours, also extended to strangers is still very much a custom today. Everyone is in a happy mood, with or without a ‘drink’ and the belief is very much that a line is drawn under the Old Year and the New one welcomed in on a happy note.

•First Footing


This is another one of those hogmanay customs which is still practiced today. It literally means the "first foot" to step into a house after midnight is still common in Scotland. This is still full of tradition and even superstition. In order to ensure good luck for the house, the ‘first foot’ over the door should be male, dark; and of course everyone ‘first footing’ should take symbolic gifts such coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and whisky. (Blonds & redheads, and especially females with this hair colouring first-footers were considered ‘bad luck’). These gifts meant the household would be safe and warm and have enough food for the year. These days, however, whisky and perhaps shortbread and the famous black bun are the most common gifts first-footers take. Of course most hosts would have plenty of food and drink in to offer to their guests.

When I was a youngster, we used to go ‘first footing’ around the parents of my friends, often not get home until the wee small hours. For others the party went on until the next day, or even the day after that!

•Torch and Bonfire Ceremonies

As I mentioned earlier most towns and villages have their own celebrations and there are often TV cameras in larger communities which interview the party-goers wishing others throughout the country a ‘Guid (good) New Year’. Obviously in places like the capital Edinburgh you will find not only the bells, but the whole street party is televised, has bands playing and there is also the fabulous and magical Firework display and torchlight procession.

Scotland comes to a standstill on January 1st and it’s worth noting that January 2nd is a also a holiday in Scotland. I think the theory is to allow folk time to recover from a week celebrations, and the hogmanay customs.

Gathering in the Year

Gathering in the Year

It is at the year's end that the fisherman tells of his fishing.
   ___  Scots Gaelic proverb


  The end of the calendar year is the time when we traditionally look forward and make good resolutions for the coming year. But before you can do that, we need also to make a summation of the past year's achievements and mistakes so that we have a sense of the year's shape. It may be helpful to wind the year backward, retracing our steps from November back to January. As we go backward, month by month, we can consider the following questions: What was the major theme of this month? Which events made the greatest impression on my life? What did I achieve? What mistakes do I regret? The point is not to indulge in blame and guilt but to neutrally survey our findings.

  Now look back over the year as a whole and make a summation of its overall pattern and effect upon you. What has this year meant in real terms to you? How has it changed the world? Which new figures and influences have come into your life?

  Now for the third part of this review. Looking at the year just past move forward from January to December, asking these questions about each month. What seeds were sown in this month that affect me now? What wisdom have I learned? Which patterns and connections are poised to continue unfolding in the year ahead? Which obstructing or unhelpful aspects of my own behavior need to change? Having made our review, we can now consider the year ahead and lay down pathways of resolution and intention that will help guide our steps.

Make your review of the year as suggested above.
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" By Caitlin Matthews]

Heart's Desire

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 desire? 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 began 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 Presely!  We must cancel our old and immature wishes by calling them back and revoking them, along with any 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 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]


 I noticed in the margins of my Celtic Spirit book this morning that I had written in Revelation of Art by this essay.  This is the name of a tarot card in the Celtic Wisdom Tarot deck by Caitlin Matthews. So I looked it up and posted the image of it here with this essay this morning.  In the Celtic Wisdom Tarot deck the Minor Arcana suits are listed as:  Swords suit is called Battle suit; Wands suit is called Skill suit; Pentacles suit is calle Knowledge suit; and Cups suit is called Art suit.  So this card is the Nine of Cups in traditional tarot decks.

  For those not familiar with tarot cards the Nine of Cups card represents wish fulfillment, achieving what you desire.  Looking in the handbook for the Celtic Wisdom Tarot deck and reading the Soul-Wisdom for this card - "Wishes come true for those who keep the longing alive. Ensure that you really want what you wis for, Rescind any wishes that are no longer appropriate. What is your heart's true desire?"  

  The Background story of this card's image is this:  Conn of a Hundred Battles asked how many kings of his line would reign after him. No sooner had he asked, than he and his poet, Cesarn, found themselves in the Otherworld. They entered a great hall where the Goddess of Sovereignty sat in a crystal chair, crowned with a golden diadem. There was a silver vat with golden edges before her and a golden cup beside her. Also at her side sat the spiritual form of the God Lugh. The Goddess of Sovereignty gave Conn food and asked Lugh to whom the cup of red lordship (ale) should be poured. Lugh named every successor of Conn's in order, while Cesarn recorded these in ogam on staves of Yew. The Goddess of Sovereignty's duty is to defend the land and ensure that worthy candidates become rulers. By their unique relationship with her, kings like Conn are married to the land and maintain that contract by faithful husbandry.

  Found this rather interesting to read about....
S.

The Chalice of Remembrance

The Chalice of Remembrance

And when the circling year comes round,
And Christmas snows have wrapt the ground....
Take the cup, and drink the wine,
"Drinc heil" - as I to thee and thine.
    __ John Sobieski Stuart, "With An Antique Crystal Cup and Ring"


   When death or accident befalls us at times of holiday, it is very difficult to re-engage with the general celebration. Some people choose to go away at this season rather than to relive difficult memories that accompany this time. Even the angle of the light or the weather, the carols and songs, the smell of rich foods can enhance the memory of loss. It seems altogether easier to go away somewhere without memories than force a cheerful countenance or dampen the celebrations of others.

  This process of anniversarial grieving is not widely understood; family and friends may attempt to draw the bereaved out of her grieving solitude into the heart of jollification, baffled and perhaps angry at the lack of response to their generosity. Grief and loss are not proceses that can be hurried, however, the grieving one cannot 'pull herself together' or to order.

  A bridge of hope and connection can be erected on the anniversary by a simple ritual known as the chalice of remembrance. A liquid-filled glass that all present can drink from is set in front of a photograph or emblem that represents the dead person. Then all present speak simply and directly to the dead person, drinking to him. The remaining liquid is left overnight with a candle burning and then poured out upon the earth the next morning. In this way, the anniversary is marked, the mourning shared, and the circle of love reunited.

"Meditate upon other ritual acts that might be used to help mark grief and loss in ways that bring integration to the bereaved."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Being Human

Being Human

"What is the thing the Creator never saw, that kings see but seldom, and that I see every day?" The Creator never saw another the same as his self, kings are scarce and see each other seldom, but I see my own kind every day - other folk like myself.
    ___ Scots Gaelic riddle (trans CM)


  During the twelve of Christmas, a Lord of Misrule was appointed to create games, riddles, and forfeits to amuse the company. The riddle above, with its witty answer, is a typical brain-teaser. This holiday time of gathering offers us the opportunity to consider what it is to be human. Being human does not keep us from kinship with other animals; the same life passes through our veins, we share the same ability to perceive with the senses, and our bodies die and decay in the same way. What makes us different from animals is our self-awareness and our ability to use our minds in complex and sophisticated ways; our application of language; our ability to record information outside our memories.

  There are many stories of deities who have aspired to the human condition, gods and goddesses who have purposely chosen the gifts of mortality in order to share and experientially understand what it is to be human. Within tgus extraordinary interchange, the divine becomes briefly human, just as through our spiritual striving we attempt to understand the gifts of immortality.

  This wonderful reciprocation of the earthly and otherworldly realms seems to be part of the mystery that underlies the depths of midwinter, a season that was understood in the ancient world to be the time when sacred beings incarnated to be numbered among the peoples of the earth, to understand the gifts of being human. If our human state is so much sought after, how much more precious seems our mortality and its many gifts!

"What, for you, are the gifts of being human?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The King of All Birds

The King of All Birds

"The wren, the wren, the king of all birds
On St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze,
Although he is little, his family is great
So rise up, good people and give us a treat."
     ___ "The Wren Song" traditional Irish lay

  The old Celtic custom of hunting for the wren, killing it and passing it around the village in a holly-bush cage in return for money, food or drink continues in Ireland on this December day, although a wren is no longer killed. Instead, wren-boys take an empty decorated wren-cage around their neighborhood and beg for treats. The origins of this custom are lost to us, but we may conjecture. A folk story common across Europe tells how the birds had a battle to see who would be their king. The contest required all the birds to fly into the sky and see how near they could get to the sun. As all the birds climbed higher only the eagle could be seen soaring above the others on its powerful wings. It loudly claimed the kingship, asserting that it had risen higher than the rest. Then a little voice cried out from its back, "But I am higher even than you!" It was the tiny wren, who was than made king of all birds.

  The wren, or drolan, the druid's bird, and its utterances and cries were one the subject of augury and divination by the ovates (or druidic seers). The oracular bird was clearly important  to them and was protected throughout the year. Indeed, it is still thought to be unlucky to harm a wren. The sacrifice of living beings is very distastefulo to us now; but our ancestors made offerings of precious life to create bridges between this world and the otherworld at certain times. The death and honoring of the wren seems to be extricably associated with the returning of the sun: a rite of propitiation and celebration at once, a case of 'the king is dead, long live the king."

"Set aside, from your winter riches, your own charitable offering."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitliln Matthews]

The Soul's Beloved

The Soul's Beloved

The only beloved is the living mystery itself."
     ___ Kathleen Raine, "The Lion's Mouth"


  The incarnation of love in our lives is a special miracle. Our capacity to recognize and receive love is closely associated with the soul's beloved - the spiritual being whom our soul recognizes as supreme. The soul's beloved is not an earthly or human lover tht we may have - although we may look for the features of the spiritual form in the human perosn; it is a spirit. For followers of defined religious paths, this figure will be the lord, lady, or spirit from whom spiritual revelation flows; and this figure will be central to their prayers and practices. Religious iconography may provide specific, traditional images of this figure, or the practitioner may have his own special insight into the appearance of his soul's beloved.

  There are now many among us without any formalized spiritual path, people who are still traveling between the rejected images of childhood faith and the unknown potentialities of their soul's country. They may be unaware of any living mystery. This is nothing less than the inapprehensible glory and splendor of spirit that is both formless and has many forms, that is immanet and transcendent, known and unknown to our experience.

  The conscious awareness of the soul's beloved is not a continuous awareness for the majority of people: it is fleeting, glancing, glorious, exciting, rapturous. The methaphors we draw upon to describe the feelings and perceptions that we have of this beloved are not always human: sometimes a beautiful animal, a shining lamp, a great tree, a planet, a complex pattern, or a subtle music in the soul is a true reflection of the mystery that we each experience.

Contemplate your soul's beloved. Even though you may have no form or name for that beloved, be still and ask your soul to help you share this living mystery."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]