A selection ...

I RECOLLECTIONS: ORIGINS 

It was in the before time, before the mists were divided, or before the worlds and the visible and invisible natures existed, and before all things came to be as we now know them ... 

... Now the Great Mother raised her hands upward, spreading her fingers as the Sign of The Inviolable, and intoned her own name.  Three times she intoned, "Aaaaaaaaaaaa-nu, Aaaaaaaaaa-nu, Aaaaaaaaa-nu," and the otherworld and this one vibrated as one.  From this intoning of her own name she called into being Time, the first of the great Keepers, to permeate all of materiality.  She called it into being as a great unending, swirling, triple-spiral sea, and as sacred symbol fashioned its shape into seeds, sea shells, plants, animal horns, and even the movement of winds and waters ...

... For I, Tigernmas mac Goibnenn, am thirteen billion years old (give or take a billion or two), and was there with them when the Sea of Potentiality gave birth to our world and witnessed all this.  The dust of those first stars flows in my veins.  I have lived many 'befores.'  Or was it that I have only just now blinked into existence?

I RECOLLECTIONS: GARRETT OF THE FAR SIGHT 

In his own time, and not so very long ago at that, there lived a young man in Southeast Erin and his name was Garrett mac Barry.  He was born to a fine family in the town of Cahir, near the Galtee Mountains of County Tipperary.

Some say he was in direct linage to the chief Barry of the very Knockthierna of enchantments.  But that is no matter to this tale, of how our young man went from Garrett the boy, to Garrett the Seeker of Truth, only to become Garrett the Blind, and finally (thanks to the fair folk of the Sidhe) then Garrett of the Far Sight.  A grand story it is too, and one of no less than true magic and enchantments ...

... Garrett's father took a deep breath, "It's time, son, time this now passed to you; you will need it."  Then he pulled out from beneath his housecoat the very dagger used to kill the wolf, and solemnly handed it to his son, saying, "Its name is Red Piercer, and it comes with the same words my father used when he entrusted it to me.  First, this does not belong to you, it is a trust to be passed on.  You will know when.  Second, if you swear by a falsehood it will turn against you in battle,  Thirdly, beware, if the jewel at the end of the hilt turns blue with green flames leaping within it, then great peril is at hand.  That is how I knew to go running through the streets in search of you the day that thing attacked."   Then he taught him the Warrior's Prayer Before Battle ...

... The ground rumbled and shook violently, so much so that large waves formed on the surface of the lagoon.  Then the waterfall split in the middle and was drawn back like draperies, and a huge, round, golden door appeared in the rock face.  Deeply chiseled ancient symbols surrounded the outer edge, and in the centre was a large Triskel ...

... Then a lengthy procession of the children of the Goddess Anu, the Tuatha De Danann, began a descent to the lagoon, walking upon the face of the waters.  Women and men alike were no less that two meters in height, and each one was playing a golden harp ... 

II WISDOM: Foretale of Merudydd of Connaught 

When first I met Merudydd of Connaught my name was Eoin Michael mac Aodha, but that would all be changed, as was my entire life.  Had I known where boarding the train to Galway City that day would bring me in the end, I am certain not even a team of the largest Killarney draft horses could have drug me there.  But there is a degree of kindness in not knowing such things in advance, or so it would seem.

I felt compelled, a sense of being inwardly driven, to take the train into the Gaeltacht, now!  An uneasy, anxious anticipation of what lay ahead filled my mind as I climbed aboard.  From there on the only explanation I can give for what happened is that I was overtaken, overtaken by serendipity and destiny, neither of which I had ever thought really existed.  Now that I look back on these events, it is obvious to me they'd actually started some time earlier, back into my childhood, or even before ...

... Merudydd was cutting glass on his table, with the haunting melodies of Clannad an diolaim playing in the background ... "There are those," he said, not looking up, "who say Celtic art is a dead art form.  But I am of Celtic descent, and I do Celtic art, and I'm not dead, so it is not dead either," he smiled ...

... I put out my hand, "My name is Eoin Michael mac Aodha, and I'm after doing research into Celtic art, well actually all things Celtic, and I break glass too, though not so fine as yours."  "Welcome, Eoin Michael, I've been expecting you.  What took you so long?"  "I don't understand."  "We'll discuss it, but right now I could use a jar, and yourself?"  "Sure," I said, "there is a pub with a bright red door down the ways that's not half bad, and generally isn't jointed."  "I think I know the one, that'll do fine" ...

...The fire of the central chamber consumed his body that night, and we laid his charred bones to rest in another chamber off one of the corridors in the upper arm of the cruciform.  When next I visited the central chamber there was a new niche and skull in the walls, and another, newly carved out niche next to it, empty ...

The Great Mother's dream gives birth to the Cosmos.  A glass art piece, "Memory of Primal Deity," in Cork City, by the author.

II WISDOM: THE DOLMEN OF TRUTH

1 Life the Great Teacher

HEED well the word of this sight, for it is spoken from within the Dolmen of Truth, the doorway between the three worlds.  Now from between the Two Great Pillars are these words uttered, the right is the Pillar of Astute Observation, and the left the Pillar of Experiential Convergence.  Above, the Capstone of Ancestors, which shields with wisdom the path ahead.  Below, supported by the foundation of the Great Mother's Body, from the before time she who sustains us.  A son of the Fire speaks from within the flames of true utterance, the swirling vortex carries away and renews.

If someone says the great teacher is death, then they lie.  If it is said all life is in preparation for a good death, they have been deceived.  Truly the great teacher is life lived with passionate encounter, of embracing life fully.  Life lived with kindness and respect for all people and everything, is prepared already to enter the otherworld.  Look to life lived well, and you will not fear the door of death into the next life.

For without doubt these three things will sustain you in your life: the truth always maintained in your heart, strength of arm in the honour of your deeds, and being of true utterance.  Such a one's life will linger on in this world by the honour of deeds done, remembered by the people and the Gods, and be received with accolades by the ancestors in the next world.

If someone says that death is the great equalizer, then they have deceived themselves.  The great equalizer is a life lived with respect for everyone's freedom and the right to have hope.

III REFLECTIONS: VISION

Passing Year -

Each past year feeds timelessness; it is merged with Endless Potentiality.  It is not lost, gone forever, but is transformed into vibrant, dynamic pulse, and emerges into the birth of new life.  It is a birth of yourself within others and yourself; a birth of new potentiality.

IV LIFE PRINCIPLES: INSIGHTS

Of Honour - (after Cu Chulainn)

 "A short life with honour is better than a long one in dishonour ... though I were to live but one night and one day I care not, if only my repute and my deeds live after me."

V EVERYDAY RITUAL: RITES FOR LIVING

20 Great Mother Supplication

Blessings, Great Mother of us all,                                                     Queen of our health, and joy.                              Blessings, Great Cauldron of Plenty,                                                 Womb of our life, and Vivifier.                                          Blessings, Great Tree of Knowing,                                                     Golden Shade of our perils, and peace.                                 We your kindred pray you,                                                     We your children call to you,                                                 We your clan request of you,                                                         Be our encompassing of life,                                                 Be out encompassing of love,                                                 Be our encompassing of health.                               From the waves be our encirclement ever.                                      Oh ever be our encirclement from the waves!

21 Hymn to the Sun *

This night is the long night,                                                             It will snow and it will drift,                                              White moon there will be till morn,                                                 This is the eve of the Great Shining Forth.                         This night born seed of joy,                                                             From this night gleams the Sun of mountains high,             This night gleams together the Sun of sea and shore,                         From this night will come the Shining Forth.                       This night is the long night,                                                             Ice be frozen and it will crack,                                         Blast of north winds there will be till morn,                                         This is the eve of the Great Shining Forth.                         Ere the shout heard of the Shining come,                                       Ere the warmth of Sun's beam reached to earth,               Ere the cry of new Hope gleaming,                                                  This is the eve of the Great Shining Forth.                   Glowed now rock and tree,                                                             Glowed now mountain and sea,                                 Glowed now clouds and mounds,                                                     When the Great Sun's beam is come to earth.

 *adapted from Carmichael #252