Spontaneity

Spontaneity

"When he sees the subject - a person or thing - before him, the poet makes a verse at once upon his finger ends, or in his mind without studying: composting and repeating simultaneously."
   ____ "Cormac's Glossary,"  ed. Kuno Meyer

    The ability to be spontaneous is granted when we touch something deeply important: a moment of clarity in which we see an eternal truth. We give our truest reactions and utterances when we stand at the moment in question, all previously prepared words and actions suddenly voided in the face of the moment. A spontaneous response results, if only we can trust it. Spontaneity requires us to let go of fear and of continual self-observation, to let pass the deeper truths that we have perceived or that have touched a chord in our soul.

   Spontaneity is a great gift, and it grows stronger in us the more we attend to the present moment rather than living forever in the past or in the future: both memory and expectation can get in its way and expunge the upflowing revelation. Spontaneity occurs when all our senses are attuned to the present moment, when we see through the veil that usually separates us from the otherworld and see its bridging connections coming through to our side of reality.

  Spontaneity lifts the ordinary dull rote of existence into life of another order; it is a sparkling touch of revelation that responds to whatever is true, beautiful, and harmonious, giving energy to the living moment.

"Mediate upon the dull and unyielding areas of your life. Now temporarily remove the rules, limits, and proscriptions that surround these areas. Allow truthful realizations about the connection between your controlling or limiting behavior and the flow of your life to spontaneously arise, even though their realizations might initially seem frivolous or irrelevant."
{From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews}

Merlin of the Woods

Merlin In the Woods

"He became a silvan man just as though devoted to the woods. For a whole summer after this, hidden like a wild animal, he remained buried in the woods, found by no-one and forgetful of himself and his kindred."

   When Merlin views the terrible battle of Arfderydd (Arv-DAIR'with), he becomes mad and runs into the depths of the forest. Within the forest's embrace, he becomes one with the trees and seasons and puts aside the terrible sights he has seen to focus upon the gifts of the wild world, becoming rusticated and 'uncivilized.'

   Ever pertinent and prophetic, he sees through the pretexts and pretensions of those who come to lure him back to civilization with the sure instinct of an animal, with the abiding perception of long-lived tree. Rather than look into the book of human nature, he prefers to consult the almanac of the seasons and discovers his center within their compass.

    But no human being however gifted, can remain forever in the wild.
    The displacement of our lives by difficult events may not be as severe as in Merlin's experience, but we each go through periods when the flow of events swirls past us too swiftly for us to cope. It is then that the indwelling presences of nature, the little unregarded things that surround us, reveal their own life and wisdom. These become precious handholds along the precipitous rock-face of our lives. Their innate familiarity makes them an ally capable of leading us on the pathway home to our soul.

"Recall a time of personal disorientation. What factors were most important to your return to health and confidence?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Green Man

The Green Man

"Every man marvelled mightly what it should mean
That a man and his horse should be such colour green."
   ____ "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", anon. Irish poem, (trans CM)


    Throughout northern and western Britain, this day is the focus of many May-time customs. These customs, banned by Parliament under the Commonwealth in the seventeenth century, were reinstated at the Restoration of the monarchy, when King Charles II made his triumphal entry into London.  Known thereafter as Oak Apple Day, it is celebrated in Britain by the wearing of springs of green oak leaves.

   An earlier veneration was restimulated by an incident that befall Charles II when he was but a prince. Fleeing from the parliamentarian soldiers, Charles was forced to hide in an oak tree. But the face peering out from the green leaves, originally in the primeval forest but now also in contemporary May-time celebrations, is a much earlier one: that of the Green Man.

   The Evergreen God is one of the earliest deities. He is represented in many summertime customs by mummers and disguisers who wear garlands of leaves and flowers or cover their bodies in greenery to ceremonially show the Green Man to the people.  He comes out of the primal, all-encompassing forest that once covered the earth, dynamic and vigorous, with pulsing sap of summer in his veins.

   The Green Man is the irrepressible wildness of the world of vegetation. He bides in the stillness of the deep forest or dances in the sun filled arcs of leaf-green light that filter through the branches of the tree canopy. His name is delight, and his meaning mysterious - a potent  sexual force that invigorates the earth at this time. As the Evergreen God, he is likewise potent in the wintertime when he plays a riddling game at the thresholds of the year with such daring ones as Sir Gawain.

"Ask your spiritual allies to take you to meed the Green Man in meditation or soul-flight."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Negative Potential

Negative Potential

"There's no more savage beast stalks through
Wales than  the four-legged beast who talks."
     ___ Welsh proverb


    This grim little proverb sees humanity as the most savage beast that walks the earth, the top predator of the animal kingdom rather than the supreme species. The truth is known in our hearts: that every human being living is capable of acts of great cruelty. This capacity is not always acted upon, of course, but it remains as a kind of negative potential, a misuse of our human abilities that can bring about terrible violence and harm.

   Acts of violence, harm and coercive manipulation can stem from good intentions as well as from bad ones. There is no point in taking the moral high-ground against a particular trouble spot unless we each first understand our personal capacity for negative potential. Only a clear examination of motivation and intention and mutual vigilance can keep us from walking the same road as the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

   Neither religions nor ideologies, however ideal, have the monopoly on the one correct way to behave. The only valid criteria for action are truth, compassion, and justice, together with a deep comprehension of the laws of cause and effect and a firm grasp upon the ethical pathways that lie under the feet of every human being alive.

"Contemplate your own negative potential. What areas are potentially hazardous for you? Where do you have to be most careful in your actions? Clarify your motivations in order to place your life on an ethical pathway."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Inauguration

Inauguration

"There was a square stone....with a man's foot cut thereon, upon which he stood, denoting that he should walk in the footsteps and uprightness of his predecessors."
    ____ Hugh MacDonald of Sleat, "On the inauguration of Kings," quoted in Caitlin Matthews, "Arthur and the Sovereignty of Britain"


The ancient inauguration ceremonies of Gaelic rulers were far from the coronation rituals of modern monarchy. Instead of receiving a diadem or crown to mark the beginning of a reign, Celtic kings stood or were ceremonially ensconced upon a stone that conferred the rights of kingship. Many such ancient stones remain, including the famous stone at Dunadd in western Scotland; it has the impression of a footprint upon it in which rulers would stand - literally standing in the footsteps of their ancestors - to be acclaimed king.

From the swearing in of a new president or the chairing of a judge or the election of candidates to office, to the first day at a new job or the acceptance of great responsibility or the first moments as a parent or householder, we all need rites of inauguration to mark the special moment, making it a day to remember. Our ability to accept responsibility and maintain our obligations is invested in where and how we stand. For we make deep footprints upon the earth itself - footprints in which only those willing to share a like commitment will ever want to stand.

"In whose footprints do you aim to stand in a responsible and committed way? What kind of footprints will you leave? What are the oaths and promises that you have made to stand where you do?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Security of Home

The Security of Home

"A house where rain does not pour,
A place where spear-points do not threaten,
As bright as a garden but with no fence about it."
    ____ "Subhne Geilt," anon. Irish poem (trans CM)


    The security of home is something settled people gladly take for granted. For the normal, home is the place you happen to be. For the traveler, home - and the longing to be there again - is the spur to a speedy returning. For those made homeless against their will, home is the Holy Grail of their desire. But even those of us who have a home, one that we are streetwise and alert in protecting, sometimes long to be in a place of greater security and safety, a place where we simply cannot be got at.

   The security of being at home with oneself, at home in one's being can never be forgotten once it has been experienced. This sense of ease, insightful understanding, and peace provides a new kind of security. Although people often reach this state through a sudden shock, or realization, it is also accessible through a daily regime of meditation or regular contemplation alone in any place where we feel empowered. In this time alone, we make friends with our soul, allowing it to become expansive and fully fledged.

   The security of home does not derive solely from being in a 'nice neighborhood' or a beautiful environment; it comes in part from the innate sense of being at home with our soul. The safe circle of home is the expectation of every human being, the right of every child. Home is our microcosm, our little world, supplying comfort, warmth, nourishment,m and a safe environment for learning about who we are.

"Make a blessing of protection for all within your household."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Holy Earth

The Holy Earth

"There is no state or condition more holy
than the Earth."  
    ___ R. J. Stewart, "Power Within the Land"


    The British writer R. J. Stewart makes this firm and startling claim to counter the ways in which physical world has been disregarded and disrespected for so many centuries. He does not state that there is nothing but the earth, only that we should regard it as equally holy with every other realm.

   This is quite a difficult thing for many people to do, especially those raised in the belief that the earth and all its works are somehow spoiled from the outset and that the only holy condition is the heavenly one. This concept and others like it have soured our relationship with the earth, causing us to abuse it as a commodity, a provider of resources, and a place to live our mundane lives as we wish.

  What is holiness, and how can the earth be said to be holy? Holiness is nothing less than a condition of wholeness, completion, and attunement. The earth is holy in that it is the womb of manifest life, the partner in holiness with the otherworld, which is the originative fructifier of life. Both sides of this alchemical partnership are equally important; we cannot leave one of them out of the equation.

   Awareness of the earth's holiness and partnership with the otherworld is still possible, especially when we stand at a place upon the earth where the veil between the worlds is thinner. In such a place we can still intuit earthly holiness. Even though the earth's surface has been abused, it is nonetheless a living womb of holy life, and we are its children.

"Meditate upon the earth as a holy place, and your own human state as a holy condition."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]