Imbolc

Imbolc

"Washing the hand, the foot,
the hand: this is the work of Imbolc."
   ___ ancient Irish saying (trans. CM)


    The festival of Imbolc (IMM'bolk) marks the loosening of winter's grip upon the land. The feast's matron, Brighid (BREE'yid) brings new energy and light to the world, breaking the spell of the Cailleach's hammer, which has frozen the ground hard.
   The name Imbolc is derived from the lactation of ewes, which begin lambing at this time of year. For people in ancient time, the milk from sheep would have been the first dairy produce after the long winter. All food production and household protection was believed to be under the aegis of Brighid, who was also seen as the primordial midwife.
   Imbolc is a time of lustration, cleansing, and purification. It is not without significance that February, into which Imbolc extends, is exactly nine months from the lusty festivities of Beltaine in May - festivities during which many women would have conceived children who were born now. Rites of lustration frequently follow childbirth.
     The celebrations of this feast include a ceremony wherein young people gather together to sing the praises of Brighid and to fashion a brideog (BREE'jog), or Brighid doll. The company go from house to house, knocking for admittance. At each door the brideog is welcomed and ushered in, since every household wishes to partake of the blessing. The making of Brighid's cross out of rushes is also part of this festival: this was originally a woven emblem with three slanting legs running sunwise, but now it is commonly a four-footed cross. The power and light of Brighid's protection encircles the household where this emblem is displayed.

"Make everything clean for this festival with the conscious intention of purifying your household of all old, stale, and wintry influences. Kindle candles at fall of dark and set them safely in every room. Then go to the door and welcome into your home the protective blessing of Brighid."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Farewell to the Season of Samhain

(to be said at the back-door/window of the

house on the last morning of the Samhain

quarter, January 31st.)

"Go with thanks and go with blessing,

Season of deep memory.

Souls with joy are deeply freighted,

Hearts are charged with heritage.

As ancestors you have traveled,

You have come to Winter's home.

Father Counsel, who has cheered us,

Mother Wisdom, who has smiled,

Touch the hidden seed within me,

May we grow as Spring's own child."

[From Caitlin Matthews' "Celtic Devotional"]

Threshold Invocation for the Festival of Imbolc

(to be said at the front door of the house on the

eve of Imbolc, January 31st in the evening.)

"Midwife of Mystery, open the door,

Infant of the Infinite, come you in.

Let there be welcome to the newborn truth,

Let there be welcome to the Spring of the Year.

In cold and darkness you are traveling,

In warmth and brightness you will arrive.

May the blessed time of Imbolc

Kindle the soul of all beings,

Bringing birth to innocence and integrity.

From the depths to the heights,

From the heights to the depths,

In the heart of every soul."

[From Caitliln Matthews' "Celtic Devotional"]



The Song of Cailleach

The Song of Cailleach

"Sad the day, woe is me,
That I sail not on youth's sea!
All my years of beauty gone
And my lusty flesh forlorn."
   ___"Death Song of the Cailleach Beare",
        early Irish poem (trans. CM)

   The Cailleach Beare (KAHL'lee-ak BEE'ra) - the Old Woman or Grandmother of the Beare Peninsula in Ireland - is remembered in many land features as the one who formed the mountain ranges by tossing rocks from her apron - a titanic figure who rules the wintertide, whose hammer freezes the ground.
   This long poem laments the passing of her youth and of the many excitements, lovers, horseraces, and gifts she once enjoyed. In her decrepitude, she no longer savors the company of young people or feasts on tasty food with kings as she was wont. Instead, she is incarcerated with veiled nuns whose only conversation is dull and dreary prayer. The Cailleach sings of her former life as the flowing tide of incoming waters, but she begins to see that her later life is of the ebbing tide.
   As youth's vigor passes from our limbs and we enter the wider sea of age, so we all become old ones of memory and experience, the new rememberers and guardians in our turn. We cannot reach that role without relinquishing our youthful grasp on life, however. Only when we become aware of the changing tide; only then are gifts of age available. If we continue to swim against the tide, we will not find them.
   Not only for the aged and the wise, but also for the young and the inquiring the Cailleach sings her song. She is the mistress of winter's heart. Now we can hear her song clearly and understand that the changing of the tides heralds no ending, only a renewal of all that we are.

"What is flowing and ebbing the tides of your own life right now?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion

Sympathy, Empathy, and Compassion

"Can I see another's woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief,
And not seek for kind relief?"
   ___ William Blake, "On Another's Sorrow"


    How involved do we become when misfortune falls upon those around us? Our level of affection and acquaintance may determine our response, as well as our level of responsibility: this will obviously be higher in our immediate family than with our friends or with strangers.
    The three main responses to misfortune are usually clustered around expressions of sympathy, empathy, and compassion. We offer sympathy to those whom we do not know well and with whom we have little intention of becoming involved. Expressions of sympathy offer the minimum response that is socially acceptable when suffering arises, and they do little to assuage the suffering. Well-motivated empathy, on the other hand - distinguished from sympathy in that it regards the sufferer more than the self - can ease pain and bring comfort.
   Compassion, alone of these three, embraces the needy and acts to meet the need. Because of its impartiality, it is the most difficult of the three to experience and to maintain. It neither remains on the boundaries of the suffering nor becomes emotionally entangled with it. Rather, it encompasses suffering with a love that is universal, respecting the primal core of life and envisioning its relief with heartfelt action. Compassion takes a good deal of disinterested regard. For that reason, it may be easier to maintain compassion among strangers, those by whom we are not known and with whom there are no intimate ties to emotionally cripple our actions.

"Consider your own responses to the suffering that is about you."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Transforming Our Rage

Transforming Our Rage

"It is in bringing the rage of what hurts you personally into the world that you have the power to bring neart, this active spirituality, out into the world."
    ___ from a speech by Nuala Ahern, Irish   
       member of the European Parliament

   The Irish word neart (NYART) is one for which there is no English equivalent. It means 'strength' or 'power' in the sense of 'the energy of life.'  This sacred energy is the source of all movement in the universe. People who have been disconnected from the health and harmony of their
neart for any length of time, lose contact with their essential power. In people who have been disconnected from their neart, rage is often a positive sign of returning life and power. People who are totally downtrodden and powerless do not have the energy to be angry. But what do we do with  our rage once it is awakened? The transformative aspect of rage is found in reconnection with our
neart: instead of being stuck in victimhood and persecution, we step out powerfully and acknowledge our strength. Rage can be destructive if it remains in a mentality of victimhood, for it never properly connects with the primal power of life. However, it can become a revolutionary force that rights many abuses when victims decide to band together, to blow the whistle and ensure the others do not suffer in like manner.
   But rage can be an important gauge of distress, and neglecting its warning is dangerous. If rage flares out of self-protection or warning and we ignore it, we begin to lose our neart; we give it away to others and let them walk all over us. The life-power that courses through us is a gift to be protected and guarded; it cannot be taken from us unless we allow that to happen. If righteous rage arises, listen to its warning voice and act to protect your precious gift.

"What kinds of things enrage you? Correlate your findings with the boundaries of your own neart."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Waking the Sleepers

Waking the Sleepers

"Woe to the coward that ever he was born,
That did not draw the sword before he blew
the horn."
  ____ traditional Scots rhyme


    There are many stories concerning giants (or King Arthur and his knights) sleeping under a hill. The sleepers are really guardians who should not be woken until there is a great and national need. A fool-hardy man discovers their sleeping place, usually when seeking buried treasure that is supposed to be lying with the sleepers. Greed takes him in but at the sight of the awesome warriors and their gear, confusion grips him. He blows the horn to wake them but fails to draw the sword that lies nearby to indicate the real urgency of his need. The sleepers stir and ask, "Is it time?" The foolish man has nothing to say for himself, and is indicted with the rhyme above. He is never able to find the cavern again.
   In every country, there is a similar tale of sleepers whose purpose is to be the vanguard of defense in national crisis - ancestral or other-worldly sleepers who are contracted to be guardians and protectors of the land. They should not be woken unless we really need them. Those who invoke the sleepers out of greed or curiosity get neither gold nor knowledge. This applies also to those whose spiritual practice is entirely self-serving, who undergo a kind of metaphysical assault course wherein all traditions are ransacked for their spiritual treasures in order to provide soul-credits at the finish line.
   There are many aspects of ancient traditions that are in a period of sleep, retreat, or transformation - aspects that are best left sleeping now. Not only atavistic and barbarous practices that are no longer a part of our world, but also deep and abiding truths that will one day awaken and come to aid of those in centuries yet to dawn.

"Who are the abiding sleepers in your tradition? Meditate upon the purpose of their sleep."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

Extremity

Extremity

"Man's extremity is God's opportunity."
    ___ Scottish proverb


    When we are brought to the verge of crisis, our well-honed philosophies and careful, controlled strategies fall away. All the spars that make up our life raft, the things on which we daily rely, have tendency to break up in the force of events. It is usually when we feel our utter solitude and helplessness that we call upon the spirit world for assistance. Even though we may have no well-founded belief, we instinctively know that even if all other things have fallen away, divine providence will not let us down.
   Crisis may help kick-start spirituality temporarily, but only a consenting soul can maintain it. Crisis and extremity are not missionaries on an evangelical campaign trail for our souls; they are agents of change able to strip away the inessentials and awaken us to a deeper resourcefulness that is not ours alone.
   Like the volcanic force that shaped the rugged landscapes of Scotland, extremity scoops out hollows and scours deeply embedded rubbles from the surface of our lives, leaving behind deep declivities that only Spirit can fill and temper. The excavation of possibility simultaneously brings the realization of wider capacity. As nature abhors a vacuum, so does Spirit find ways of filling the emptiness of our soul.
   We may be aware of none of these realizations in a conscious way during our time of trial, but we can throw the imploring rope of appeal to our spiritual source and ask for it to be safely caught.

"Meditate upon a recent crisis situation in your life. What spiritual opportunities were present? Which did you take up, which refuse? Create your own short invocation for help, to be used in a time of future extremity."
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]

The Gift of Love

The Gift of Love

"Love is drawn to love."
     ___Welsh proverb (trans. CM)


    On this day, the Celtic equivalent of St. Valentine's Day, Welsh lovers celebrate the patron of love; St. Dwynen's Day (DWIN'wen), by sending each other St. Dwynwen's Day cards. Many legends tell of St. Dwynwen, including one that speaks of her love for Maelon Dafodrill (MY'lon Day-OD'ril). Things did not work out, however, and one night St. Dwynwen prayed to be cured of her love. God appeared to her in her dreams, giving her a draught that cured her of love and causing Maelon to be frozen into a block of ice. But St. Dwynwen was offered - and made - three divine wishes. The first she uttered was that Maelon be unfrozen; the second was that any true lovers whose love was not reciprocated might be cured of their love; the last was that she might never marry.
   Love is one of our world's most cliched words. It has to work hard to cover all kinds of conditions and relationships, from the intimacy of lovers to the filial, parental and national forms of love that surround us. We look for love and approval everywhere without understanding that love must also be extended by ourselves, that the giving of love is an essential part of the process. There is a lack of grace, a kind of lovelessness that inhabits the body of someone who has not been a receptacle of love.
    The presence of love calls out the gift of love in others. Love's reciprocity is catching if we once allow it in. Unreciprocated love, however, is a curse not a gift - one that St. Dwynwen herself seems to have well understood.

"Mediate upon the gift of love. How has it been manifested in your life?"
[From: "The Celtic Spirit" by Caitlin Matthews]