Somehow taking time to create this entry, when I have a list a mile long to prepare for a house full of festivities, just seems like something I should really do. Something which brings me back to what I really enjoy, which is writing. And just when I'm sure I read an email and this appears One of the important opportunities of this solstice and new moon is to work on releasing all disappointments, regrets and dissatisfactions from the past year. It's all tied together, it's a circle, we are one human family on one planet earth.....
So...my intention for these next few days is to share some of the insights from this book, which, toward the end of December, focuses on the solstice, hearth & home, and being human. Those would be the 12 days of xmas. Two days prior, the topic is suspending your disbelief and what gifts do you really want. I'm particularly interested in 23 December when the focus turns to coming home, the preparations we make for family and friends. Perhaps you will have, or take, the time to read and reflect on your life, your family, your beliefs. For me, there are some calming and restoring inferences to temper my conflicts both personal and global. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did...
The 12 days plus 2 which I've chosen are December 19th through January 1st, and have no real connection to the art picture above , the song or the Christian references...it's just a title.
From The Celtic Spirit, by Caitlin Matthews
~ 19 December ~
Suspension of Disbelief
People must believe what they an, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn't seen some of it. GEORGE MAC DONALD, The Princess and the Goblin
Our long standing beliefs--whether they be about the scientific nature of reality and temporal time or about our spirituality--have a tendency to become hidebound and static, comfortable and unchallenging. When we encounter situations and things that push at the boundaries of our comfortable enclave of belief, we have two options: we can totally ignore the challenge, safe in the belief that we are right or we can enter into a temporary suspension of disbelief while we entertain the possibility that things are other than we have believed them to be. The suspension of disbelief is something that happens every time we attend a play or a movie: we lose all sense of separation between audience and performer as we see the story unfold before us, as we become immersed in events and protagonists. At the end of a moving performance, movie or novel, we leave the world of that story and return to our own reality again.
The strongest challenges to belief are the things we experience: experience is a great changer and shaper of belief because it gives us pragmatic knowledge offering tangible and physical proof, even though its workings are often mysterious to us--we know what we experienced even though it may be unbelievable. This tells us our perceptions are informing and changing belief. Sometimes the facts we experience in our very body are so overwhelming we have to enter into a suspension of disbelief, behaving as if they were true in order to accommodate the experience.
What is challenging your beliefs right now? Analyze the challenge using both sets of senses--physical and spiritual--to understand the experience.
~ 20 December ~
The Gifts We Really Want
Be sensible of your wants, that you may be sensible of your treasures.--THOMAS TRAHERNE, Centuries
At this time of year, when commerciality of Christmas swamps sacred and seasonal considerations, we ask and are asked, "What do you want this year?" True wants are not easily satisfied by prettily wrapped parcels; they are immensities of space within us that we often block up by needs and yearnings. To consider our real wants is often too frightening.
Our wants are sharper than [the host of new products or blockbuster movie]. Our real wants eat holes in us: never resting, never loving, never greeting, never fining , never seeking, never ever being satisfied deep down.
Those ravenous wants define our treasures so truly. They create a Christmas list no department store could supply: time to stop and enjoy, in a space of quietness and contentment, all the thing we were put on earth to do; space to give and receive love reciprocally; grace to seek and find our spiritual joy; freedom from the tyranny of others' expectations and judgments; acceptance of ourselves as we truly are. But we can discover our true treasures and how near we actually stand to them. When we really listen to ourselves say "I haven't time to...; I never get to...; I'm sick of...," we come within sight of our treasure--the wealth that goes on being unvisited year after miserable year.
The miracle of self-permission and allowance, the willingness to receive, the gift of truth--these are the keys to unlock the treasury which has been open to us this long time.
Make your own list of real wants in order to find your true treasures. Make a present to yourself of one of these by turning one of the keys above.
~21 December ~
The Prayer of Midwinter
Who is it who declaims the sun's arising? Who is it who tell where the sun sets? __Amergin, Lebor Gabala Erenn
On the shortest day of the year, at dawn, a thin finger of dawn light passes into the aperture of Brugh na Boinne, other wise known as Newgrange in Ireland. This megalithic enclosure was erected long before the Celtic peoples arrived in Ireland. We can all experience the wonder of this day if we rise before dawn to trace the track of the sun's turas on this, the shortest day of the year.
Midwinter day gives the least period of light followed by the greatest period of darkness. For those who watched the heavens in ancient times, it must have seemed as if the sun were standing still or diminishing entirely. Nearly every culture has its own special celebrations to encourage the light on this day. Here is one that we can perform.
Stand in the sunlight at midday, facing the sun, and tune your heart to the season of winter. If a song of thanksgiving rises in you, utter it. Now turn and face your shadow: this is the longest it can be at midday, far longer than it was at the autumn equinox. Consider the deeds of your life, the extent to which the shadow of your own influence has fallen upon the earth. Upon whom has it fallen? How has your own turas affected the world in which you live? Turn once more to the sun and draw the sunlight deeply and thankfully into your body; feel it permeating your being. Be aware of the partnership between yourself and the vitality of life itself.
Spend some time silently meditating upon the light in darkness, be aware of the potentialities of light that lie within the darkness; pray to become aware of the potentialities within your own soul, which are vaster and more mysterious than your manifest life.
Commune with the shortest day and longest night, making your own prayer as suggested above.
~ 22 December ~
Waiting for a Birth
The world has tilted far from the sun, from colour and juice...I am waiting for a birth that will change everything. __ HILARY LLEWELLYN-WILLIAMS, The Tree Calendar
The rebirth of the sun begins on this day, though it seems as short and dark as the previous ones. Although we prepare for the holiday season, there is another urgency in us__to consciously experience the mysterious change that comes over the world at this time, affecting all creatures.
We do indeed wait for "a birth that will change everything" and give us joy and fresh hope. For Christians this sense of waiting has its own special manifestation in the person of Jesus Christ and his Christmas birthday. But many earlier societies have also celebrated the birth of their special Revealer at this time, turning into the implicit urgency for change and rebirth. Festival o flights and stories of triumph of light over darkness are celebrated and told. Our current bustle to conclude midwinter holiday preparations like the mother's last minute bustle to make things ready for the baby's birth.
 |
| born in the eyes of a child* |
But what waits to be born in us at this time of year? It is a glorious, heroic light that blazes forth with the fierce directness of an innocence that we need now. It is a deep renewal in our lives that we crave; it is the rebirth of innate qualities that well not fail or become slothful or be deterred by obstacles that will be responsive and true, honest and enduring, bright and shining.
In the busy, celebratory days to come, take time to acknowledge this very necessary rebirth that is happening within ourselves; time to draw apart and be still to clear a space wherein we can be attentive to the change that is happening within us at the fulcrum of the year.
Meditate upon what needs to be reborn in your own life. Which qualities, skills, and talents bring light and hope into your life?
* the caption from Pinterest said "Revolution is born in the eyes of a child", this girl is from Afghanistan
~ 23 December ~
House Blessing
May god bless the dwelling; Each stone and beam and stave; All food and drink and coverings; May health to you be always here.--traditional Scots Gaelic blessing at Hogmanay
The heart of winter is a time of homecoming and cessation of travel. We return home, ostensibly to celebrate the holiday with our family, but actually to attend to the domestic shrine which is our family home. Western spiritual culture has tended to emphasizes the importance of the temple, church, or place of spiritual gathering over the domestic shrine, but in truth the home is the primary abode of Spirit; if Spirit swells not there, there is certainly no use seeking for it in other places.
The householder is a true priest of priestess who maintains the holiness of the hearth and gives all guests the welcome of the home's indwelling spiritual presence. As guests gather or are expected, the householder can ritually acknowledge the house as a shrine of blessing by spiritually cleaning it in preparation for holy days ("holidays"). This may entail going about the house with a bowl of burning aromatic herbs or a flame warmed dish of sweet oils to cleanse the house-space of any worries, arguments, sorrows, or hidden fears. With intentioned prayer, the householder can make all clean and clear again.
After the cleaning comes the hallowing or blessing of the house. Kindle your hearth, or light a candle. Be aware of the heart of the house as a beating, living, spiritual presence. Now, leaving the candle or flame at the hearth, kindle a fresh candle and take it throughout your house, Sing a wordless song of blessing. Now the spirit of your home can welcome all guests who come within its walls, that they might share in the blessing that is yours.
Bless your own house as suggested.
[The line which got my greatest attention in the following entry was "It is the manner of our living that makes all the difference", which in turn brought to mind a couple of my favorite mantras: re-phrased a bit from T.S. Eliot_I am the darkness in the light, and the stillness that is dancing and the other from an unknown source__how you live your days is of course, how you live your life.
We really are living, breathing examples of what we believe in...and the web is full of 'how you spend your day (s)'... Carry on, friends. If you are reading this you are working on it! (just like me)]
~ 24 December ~
Sacred LifeEverything that lives is holy.__WILLIAM BLAKE, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"
For many hundreds of years, the false tale that whatever is alive is evil has been told; this tale has been told from fear and denial, from pain and rejection, as a way of explaining why things go wrong and why perfection cannot be expected. Many people regard the living world as a predominantly evil place, full of beings of whom we should be suspicious. For such people, the only good place, the only good beings are in heaven. Living defensively in the eye of evil is not a happy way to live. Fear and suspicion darken everything with a sad pall.
The opposite view sees all life as worthy of respect, as potentially able to achieve its fullest stature Of course, not every being alive reaches its potential; but then neither does it sink into irredeemable iniquity. Entertaining the possibility of all things living being able to achieve their potential of holiness is a powerful and supportive way to live. But, like all life ways, even this view can be abused: when we live as though no harm could come, we are foolish rather than innocent.
Life is a sacred gift that all beings receive. It is the manner of our living that makes all the difference. The way in which we relate to other living beings encourages them to change the world for good or violate the world for ill; the way in which we spend our lives illuminates or darkens those around us. But if we are not aware of the sacred potential in each living being, if we do not acknowledge it and respect it, we may become active agents of the soul's darkening. Everything that lives is holy because it is an abiding place of Spirit; every body is a home where the sacred gifts of Spirit may be born anew.
Contemplate the living beings with whom you are in contact--not just human beings but other living beings of nature as well. hold each of them in your heart and acknowledge their sacred gifts.
~ 25 December ~
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 that we may have..although we may look for the features of the spiritual form in the human person; it is a spirit. For followers of defined religious paths, this figure will be the lord, lady, or spirit from whom spiritual revelations 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 immanent 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 metaphors 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 rue 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.
~ 26 December ~
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 then made king of all birds.
The wren, or dreolan, is the druid's bird, and its utterances and cries were once 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 distasteful to us now, but our ancestors made offerings of precious life to create bridges between this world and the otherworldly at certain times. The death and honoring of the wren seems to be inextricably associated with the returning of the sun; a rite of propitiation and celebration at once, a case of "the kind is dead, long live the king!"
Set aside, from you winter riches, your own charitable offering.
~ 27 December ~
Being Human
"What is the thing the Creator never saw, the kings see but seldom, and that I see everyday?" 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
During the twelve days 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 experiential understand what it is to be human. Within this extraordinary interchange, the divine becomes briefly human, just a through our spiritual striving we attempt to understand the gifts of immortality.
This wonderful reciprocation of the earthly 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?
~ 28 December ~
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 the jollification, baffled and perhaps angry at the lack of response to their generosity. Grief and loss are not processes 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 but leaving a little of the liquid so that the last drink belongs 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment