Seeding the Wasteland

Seeding the Wasteland

"Learning the mysteries whereby wasteland
Becomes wheatland; grains must fall
Into the hungry earth and be swallowed whole."
     ____Caitlin Matthews, "Avebury Easter"


    When wasteland has become an ever-present reality, when something stricken has lain barren for many years, it takes special grace to recover again. It is not a matter of snapping back into normal mode or of pulling ourselves together. It is usually a matter of picking up the pieces slowly and painfully, an organic process that can take a long time. This reassembly is like a gathering of precious seeds and fertile fragments, a putting-together of the essential selves that form our soul, so that life's flavor and savor can return.
    The scattered seeds that hold the potential of our lives must come home and rest once more in the familiar soil of everyday living before the grain can germinate and send its long shoots toward the sun. This mysterious return is begun by preparing the soil to receive the seed. The farmer must remove all obstacles from the ground; the hatreds, fears, lies, and treacheries have to be relinquished. Then the plow must turn over the soil; all the deep needs of the soul must be acknowledged and an urgent request for help and return must be sent up. This is a time for singing over the ground of loss in consolation, and a time for singing for the scattered seeds to come back, letting them know they are welcome.
    The mysterious sowing happens in silence and unknowing, the soul seeds return and lodge in the deep earth. There they will rest, germinating in their own time, until the once-barren wasteland becomes fertile again.

"Look at the cause of your wasteland; then let go of the fears, hatreds, and other obstacles that impede your return to full health and wholeness. Now begin the work of welcoming back whatever qualities have fled. Be patient, persevering and hopeful."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

The Hidden Truth of Dreams

The Hidden of Dreams

"Your dream tells a truth about yourself. A truth you hide from
while you are awake. A truth you need to know about yourself. For
your.... wellbeing."
    ___ David Rudkin, Penda's Fen


    Dreams are  messagers of the soul. Every one of us has dreams, whether or not we remember them. Dreams speak of hidden truths in oblique ways - truths that we have not been able to understand or assimilate in our waking lives. Their enigmatic symbolism cannot be decoded by books or dream interpretation that give pat or plausible answers for standard dream themes; dreams must be decoded entirely by the dreamer and scrutinized for their personal symbolism.
     What is the truth that we need to know about ourselves? Whatever we have covered over or hidden from in our daily lives has a way of breaking through in self-disclosing (and often pun-filled) ways in our dreams,  For example, we may dream of putting an annoying but senior colleague at work into the garbage, while in waking life we seriously wish that we could put a lid on his snide remarks.
     In a society that defines dreams as wacky or illusory, it can be hard for us to realize that they reveal to us the nature of our waking self-delusion. Dreams not only warn of dangers; they also reveal areas that we have never dared explore because of their power or wonder. Dreams bring us ato meet the potentialities of our soul in a remarkable manner: we may dream that we are flying, dancing, shining, meeting - deep truths that are the very essence of our well-being, that we can find, court, and assimilate if only we listen to our soul's messagers.

"Take one dream fragment from this week. Without giving it a psychological spin-dry, look at it honestly and see what truth it has to tell you. What emotions does your dream evoke? Where is your power free or suppressed? What is the overall impression or message it conveys?"[From: The Celtic Spirit  by Caitlin Matthews]

The Green Fire

The Green Fire

"Aengus mac Og is a deathless comrade of the Spring, and we may well pray to him to let his green fire move in our veins."
   ___Fiona MacLeod, "The Birds of Anegus Og"


    Aengus mac Og (ANN'gus mak OGE) is the Irish deity whose spirit inhabits the megalithic monument of Newgrange to the Boyne Valley of Ireland. His hostel on the banks of the Boyne is a traditional entrance to the otherworld, a place where souls congregate and rest. In their soul's circuit, several Irish heroes and heroines have become lost or disoriented. It is within Aengus's care that they are given time to recover.
    Birds and other animals begin to choose their mates as the growing year burgeons strongly in the strengthening sunlight. The green fire that runs over all the earth is sparked by this very sunlight and the deep germinating power of the earth. When plants reach toward the sunlight, the red, violet and blue bands of the light spectrum activate the chlorophyll pigment within each leaf so that it reflects green. This pigment alters as the year progresses, causing the leaves to change color, but from this time forward a medley of greens is apparent.
    This green fire is also within us - not in our physical bodies, as it is in plants, but in our emotional and creative lives. Spring fever has many manifestations, some almost hormonal. The creative urge of spring brings into being much verse, for example, as our emotional upheavals reach out for fresh life and vigor. To experience the green fire and answer its call is to commune with the green vigor of Aengus.

"Where is the green fire in your own life at this time? Take your emotional and creative temperature; also give yourself over to something pleasurable and enlivening this week."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Defending Ancient Springs

Defending Ancient Springs

"Where her head was lifted, a spring was found....
Healing for every disease is within it....
Making body and soul whole."
  ____ Life of St. Gwenfrewl, anon, Welsh chronicle (trans CM)


    The communion with the holy waters of a well or sacred spring is intrinsically part of Celtic tradition. All natural places of water have their own indwelling spirit, but many wells and springs frequently have holy, curative properties.
     The way in which we approach these sacred waters matters a great deal. The tendency among many people now exploring and discovering the sacred sources of land, heritage, and culture is to act as consumers, demanding that the sacred otherworld give to us unstintingly. We do not participate in the sacred by such action, rather, we disconnect ourselves from participation. We can so easily become takers rather than givers. The act of sacred participation always requires us to give the gift of ourselves, to honor the sacred presence, to respond and reciprocate with our very best. This means behaving appropriately when we visit: not using the sacred place as a site for mundane refreshment, for example, smoking or picnicking or listening to the radio or Ipod. When we come within the compass of ancient springs, we are on holy ground. When we take the waters, it should prayerfully and thankfully, engaging spiritually with guardian spirit of the waters.
     By not allowing ourselves to become consumers of the otherworldly gifts that present themselves so generously to us, by reciprocating with thanks, we permit those gifts to work their own healing, reconnective magic upon us.

"Find out where your own nearest source of sacred water is to be found. What are the traditions surrounding it? Go and visit it if you can, and experience the waters for yourself."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Invulnerability

Invulnerability

"I am an indestructible fortress,

I am an unassailable rock,

I am a precious jewel."

    ___ from an ancient Irish prayer

for long life  (trans. CM)

   To be vulnerable means never to be wounded. Yet it is the nature of life for human beings to suffer assaults from many quarters. Our bodies endure various accidents illnesses; our emotions are roiled by fierce winds; our minds are subject to doubt, fear, delusion.

    For those on the druid path, death is not the end. The soul passes into other forms to find rebirth again and again. Similar beliefs are still held around the world in many cultures. It is only in the West, where we have disbelieved in any other reality than the apparent world, that we have an awesome terror of death. For many people today, this life is all there is or will be. No wonder they live without joy or expectation!

     Only the soul is deathless. It is indeed our indestructible fortress, our precious jewel, our unassailable rock. So where, then, is the eternal vigilance in our care of the soul? Where are the limberings, the workouts, the exercise programs, the efforts at beautification and enhancement of the soul? If we truly wish to share confidently in the invulnerability of the soul. we need to polish our jewel and peer deeply into its primordial and unassailable facets to find the beauty that cannot die.

"What are the gifts of your vulnerability?"

[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Trees and the Life of the Planet

Trees and the Life of the Planet

"Every tree is a living watercourse; its roots, trunk and branches conduct water up from the soil to the leaves, from which it then passes into the atmosphere."
  _____ Nigel Pennick, Celtic Sacred Landscapes


    The interdependence of all living things is something we often take for granted. It goes unnoticed in the daily round, so we forget that what happens in one place has its effect upon another place. It is only now that deforestation has been revealed to be a terrible legacy to our children that we begin to appreciate the contribution of trees to the life of our planet.
   At this time of year, the spring rains have an important function in the revivification of the land, especially around the full moon. Trees are able to draw up the rainfall from their roots to their highest branches so that the canopy can become green again. As the leaves emerge from their buds, we notice a corresponding unfurling of spirit in ourselves as we respond with gladness to the annual regreening of the world.
    As those leaves unfurl, they exude oxygen, so vital for our planet's atmosphere and our own living breath. The carbon dioxide that humans beings exhale is absorbed and transformed by trees. Our lives
and those of the trees are beautifully and aptly intertwined as we share and replenish the atmosphere for each other. Our breath and the exhalation of trees have a symbiotic link that is necessary to our very life.
    Verdancy of spirit comes when the sap rises in our souls, when we return to a state of thankfulness and welcome the spring with joy.

Attune to the life of a tree that grows near you. Meditate upon the life that you share. Even better, plant a tree.
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]

Young Love

Young Love

"Oh that I and my choice of partners were in yon glen up there, no witness beneath the white sun, save the bright star and the planets; no simple infant with no sense, no gabbling one there nor lying one to spread about the story."
    ___ Carmina Gadelica, (trans. and ed. A. Carmichael)


    The sexual passion that wells up in young lovers is akin to the urgent energy of spring. It is vibrant and undivertible, a deep sap that rises irresistibly to the surface. The need to be private, to experience the ecstasy of young love when it is running, is one that we all understand well. Within the family home and community, there are always people to snoop and spy, and soon the story goes around that a certain girl is going with a particular boy. Only in the broad expanse of the natural world is there any privacy for lovemaking.
   Regardless of the moral upbringing children are given, most find ways to express their potent sexual urges, whether they are mature enough to form lasting relationships or not. This period of sexual experimentation is one that all animals undergo. In humans, it rarely leads to marriage or a committed relationship.
    The fears of parents for their children around sexual matters are very real ones. Sexually-related diseases and life-wrecking consequences haunt parental minds at night, as do fears of emotional vulnerability and spiritual health. No amount of sex education can prepare young people for the immense power of physical desire, as life itself begins to pour through their bodies. We might as well try to push plants and saplings back into the earth as forbid all sexual activity. Life will find its way through our children, as it did through us. All we can do is ensure their well-being in the best ways we know how.

Consider your own sexual awakening. What advice can you offer the young and their parents, based on your own experiences?
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]