The Death Song Poster

I've posted this verse before, a repaganized charm from the Carmina Gadelica.
This past Saturday I helped manage a funeral rite for a friend and Coleague, Ron White.
A heathen, he was an Odinsman, a student of Runes and lore and an aspiring magician. He has gone too soon.
This verse was too Gaelic for the rite, but I think of Ron as I post this little art-setting of the poem.

The Rann of the Summoner

In spring-tide, when the snow had melted and the roots of things soaked in cold waters, newly flowing, a vision of the spirits came to me. I saw the snows vanish away and the green wave sweep the world. Imbolc turned to May in the sweep of the Queen’s sleeve and the crowd of the Noble Ones showed themselves to me.

I beheld the Queen of the Sidhe, in her beauty and strength, and with her the Chief of Clans. Their loveliness was both deep and glittering and if I gazed straight upon them they might seem to be a woman and a man. Yet their presence seemed to call away from form, and to draw me toward the Other.

“Tell me, mighty Queen of Spirits, whether it is better that form rise into essence, or that essence should descend into form.”

I stood with the Fire and Water in my hands, and dared to question her.

The Queen of the Land kissed the Chieftain, and he departed into the forest. Then she raised her arms and the robes fell away from her, so that her raiment became her beauty, and her beauty became her power, and her power became the Sovereignty of the Land. By her power she called form out of potential, and the clans of the Sidhe emerged.

It was said in ancient days that the People of the Mound loved to process and to parade. So they appeared to me, coming in troupes from every quarter. From out of stone and soil, from the green of the forest and the waves of the sea they rose and marched, totems and standards raised high. Pure white and storm-black they came, red as blood and green as sap. Like hounds and like ravens they came, like stags and songbirds and like flights of bees. From out of the halls of the Lord of the Dead came heroes, mighty ones of the spear and of the plow, and of the Druid’s Wand. Striding across hilltops or mounted on horses of lightning-shadow, they rode among the hosts. At their head came the Chieftain, in wizard’s array, hazel-wand white as he led the Host that he had called.

Shining folk of silver and gold streamed from above; wild, lovely and mighty. Winged and horned and hoofed, in cloaks of leaves and light and shadow they joined with the scuttlers and slitherers, with the small folk of stone and bark. Together they came, summoned by the sorcerer Chieftain at the command of the Queen of Elfhame.

I beheld the coming and goings of things in the dancing procession of the spirits. In the whirl and turn of the parades of the Sidhe I saw life fall into death, and spirit rise. I saw the spirits of the Sea rise into the Clouds and fly, then dive to Soil again and grow green. I beheld the constant flow of form as it swirled and knotted to decorate all the worlds.

The Queen rose into the air before me, and spoke, saying:

“See you – it is never still. The fallen must rise, and the high must descend. All is reflection and refraction and unceasing motion in all the worlds.”

So I understood that the Work of the Wise is to come to stand at the Center of that Great Dance. As that understanding filled me, the Queen and the Chieftain came together before me, and raised their own hands as if to invoke a greater power. Before me the vision flowed and shifted, and two greater beings appeared – the Mother of All, and the Lord of Wisdom.

The Keeper of Gates, the Teacher of Heroes came to me then, with the Mother of Fate all around us. Before me, my vision coming to earth, I beheld my nemeton; Well and Tree and Altar of Fire, the iron cauldron, the forked staff, the ring of stones and earth on which the Fire burned. Over the Bile, wreathed in the smoke of the flame, stood the God of Magic. Robed in shadow with symbols sewn in twilight, he bore his staff and cauldron. His uncut hair and beard flowed around him and the Other Light shone in his eyes.

“Tell me, Lord of Secrets, how it is that a fire of human kindling may be a gathering-place for the Gods.”

The Lord of the Between reached out his wand toward my forehead. It was as if a new vision came to me, as I first gazed into the well. My Cauldron of ritual water, thrice-gathered, was a deep-pooled spring, a Well of Blessing. I saw ancient folk approach their own Wells with offerings of silver and I saw the spirits come to the ancient Well, and to the cauldrons of magicians.

I saw the Cauldron at the Root of the World, ever flowing, watering that root with life’s juice. Up from that deep I beheld the Pillar of the World, that ancient Tree. It stands in the Sacrifice Ground, carved and gilded; it is the Center of the Worlds. It is the Ridgepole of the Heavens it’s presence the presence of the World Tree itself.

A web of roots in the Underworld Water, a web of branch and leaf in the Heavens’ Light; the Tree is the All-Connection, the power that joins all things together. In this way the Tree is like the Mother of All, whose love draws all things into the great embrace.

“The Well of Potentials waters the Tree, and the Tree gives wood. It is of the Wood of the Tree that the fire is laid,” spoke the voice of the Red Lord of Wisdom, “The spark of the Fire is the Elder Spark, passed down through ages, hearth to high place. For it is the spark of the hearth that lights the Fire of Sacrifice. From

 the clans comes the spark and to them it returns with the shining blessing.”

“As it is in the Wood of the World, so let it be in your heart. Your flesh must die, and continual death sends memory flowing like water into the Well. Your living flesh is rooted in that very Water and the Heaven’s Light kindles the Fire in you. The Fire gathers the elements of the world, they dance in the way that is you.”

So I understood that the Cosmos is in my very being and that I am made of the parts of the World. From the Fire and the Water I saw the Plain of the World extend, from the Fire in the Four Airts to the wild Sea all around and the dome of the Sky over all.

The Procession of spirits made their circuit of the Middle World, turning rightward round the Tree. The Mother of All enthroned herself above the Well and the Lord of Wisdom stood with his Wand at the Fire of the Sacrifice. Thus I understood that it is the bond of blood and spirit between mortal folk and the spirits that brings the spirits to our Fires. It is the Mother’s Love and the Teacher’s Wisdom that inform us as we call the spirits, and it is by that same wisdom, love and power that the spirits respond.

For I time I rested in this vision, and greatly was I blessed by it. O Children of Earth, in this vision may you be blessed in turn. May the Strength of the Tree be in you, and the strength of the Well. May the strength of the Fire’s Light bring your best fate into the world. May the Mother and the Keeper of Gates open the way to the Gods and may the Host of the Spirits march in answer to your skillfull song.

Thus may we remember the Work of the Wise!

Toward a Druidic Mysticism Part 4 final

The rest... I should probably redo the bibliography, but it still isn't bad. Thanks for reading...

Hints Toward Druidic Mysticism

So we have taken a quick look at some of the patterns of mysticism in the Indo-European world. Most of these were originally systems functioning inside a fully developed Pagan world-view, but by examining the scraps of IE Paleopagan lore we can hope to find some paths and markers for our journey.

A: Expanded Awareness –
One place that we can begin is with a modern, definition of ‘expanded awareness’ or ‘mind expansion’, based on personal and psychological models. This leads us to start in a place that addresses a core problem of mysticism. We must address what the ‘common mind’ the ‘ego’ or the mask-self might be, and how we can address it in our efforts.

Common awareness, day to day mind, is limited by the habits and requirements of social existence. Our upbringing and inborn inclinations assemble a sort of random persona, which we deal with as we find it. We experience ourselves as ‘me’, a drifting point-of-perception which moves between states of mind, occasionally getting stuck in favorite or unavoidable ones. The processes of our minds and bodies often go unobserved, and we often dwell in a bubble of memory and imagination, with a less than clear awareness of our own perceptions.

One goal of mystical work could be seen as freeing this apparent ‘me’ from its unconscious rut. When we say we ‘center’ ourselves, we might mean that we take our seat in our own center, from which we can look out in all directions. We begin applying conscious will to our persona/ego, teaching it to do as we will in the way one teaches the body to dance or fight.

So when we say we ‘expand our awareness’, we might mean, at the simplest level, that we bring more of the content of our own mind and will into our conscious awareness, to become aware of the ‘higher’ and even lower portions of ourselves. We seek to know more about ourselves, and seek to manage it all more skillfully and from a better vantage point. There are many traditional and basic means by which to begin this process, including formal introspection, journaling, meditation and relaxation.

Many world systems that focus on this sort of self-awareness and self-control understand the psychological forces that are encountered to be spirits. This contains the possibility of various fun ‘angels’ of wisdom and insight and ‘demons’ of obstacles and ignorance, with which we might make mythic engagement, if we like that sort of thing…

B: Transpersonal Awareness –
As we gain skill in the expansion of awareness, tradition suggests that at the outside edges of our own minds and spirits we may find an interface with that which isn’t exactly, ‘us’. Mystical and occult training has often involved the creation of and work with complex imagined inner landscapes and temples. A great deal of valuable work can be done within such a self-created structure alone. More interesting, perhaps is the notion at at the edges, across the boundaries of such landscapes may lie the greater, transpersonal mind of nature itself. Within that transpersonal mind are the individual fires of humans and spirits and gods and all, but all might be thought to subsist within this impersonal ‘soul of nature’.

Conversely, we may consider that our own minds are in fact mirrors – or holograms – of the whole spiritual cosmos. When we construct our inner systems, or even merely examine the contents of our own minds, our own spirits can become become mirrors, containing all the cosmos in ourselves. So we can, at least, approach the reflections of the Gods and spirits in ourselves, and perhaps invoke those beings to be consciously present in our inward reflections.

A universal characteristic of ‘enlightenment’ is the identification of the personal awareness with some greater or higher spiritual reality. This may be as simple as the greater awareness that we talked about, but is more commonly the awareness of some spiritual being or continuum. The dhyana (meditative union) of Raja Yoga is often applied to a deity – one can ‘make dhyana upon’ a deity, so that the subject-object distinction between you and the God dissolves. In this way the local and apparent self is left behind within the greater self of a deity.

We can observe the ‘bhakti’ practices of Hindu polytheism for examples of how that process might work, and those can be applied easily to European deities and spirits. However tradition also presents the idea that mystical union might be made not with a specific divine mind, but with the impersonal divine mind of the cosmos. Hinduism calls this the Brahman and classically it was called the anima mundi – the soul of the world. The Northern European languages don’t have much vocabulary for ‘cosmos’, or even for ‘nature’ as an abstract concept. Modern Gaelic reconstructions have sometimes used the term An Bith – That Which Is. One might conceive of making dhyana, or Samadhi, upon An Bith.

C: Power and Wisdom, Peril and Madness –
These great trances, contacts with Higher Awareness, and trances are expected to produce understanding of real methods and means of real accomplishments. Most traditions make it clear that they also carry certain risks. Knowledge is power, and power offers opportunity and danger, and wisdom is the check upon power.

These experiences are often powerful, mind-changing events. They shine in the mind like a sun, draw attention and make more common experiences pale in comparison. This has led various sects to develop various doctrines based on the mystical experiences of their initiates. A mystic or group of mystics has a powerful inner realization, and decides that he must ‘proclaim the truth’. This is a natural process, but has lead to various conflicts inside of the monotheistic mysticisms. Perhaps a polytheistic mysticism can allow various seers to express their mystery without the rancor that comes from desiring a single comprehensive ‘Truth’. I hope we can avoid the tendency to cast experience into doctrine in favor of open experimentation for some years to come. We cannot, I think, settle questions of whether the Atman is real, or whether it can truly be equivalent to the Brahman, by discussing them, but only by years of practice, if at all.

Those who had undergone mystical initiation might be expected to have ‘magical’ ability, depending on the type of sect. Some of those might have served in towns and temples, but others became stranger than that. Often those who sought unusual status as mystics traded their normal lives for their status. They might become hermits, or attach themselves to a temple, or take to the road as beggar-teacher-priests. There is an authentic strain of world-denial and renunciation in Indo-European lore, and the most ‘powerful’ magicians are often well outside of the common social order. Plainly this is not a denial of the natural or material world, but of the human social world, in which the common persona must dwell. The implication in the lore is that the very nature of the spiritual states may drive an individual away from those who dwell in more ordinary awareness.

The insular Celts, especially, remember a poetic madness of inspiration which seems, perhaps, more a symptom than a goal. They saw some inspired poets being transformed by deep, powerful emotional experiences, leading to a transpersonal awareness that demolished their social personas. The experiences of terrible battles great loves, human tragedies or contact with the Otherworld was described as making people ‘mad’ in relation to the common patterns of culture. These victims of the poet’s muse sometimes returned to the company of humans, to live as ‘wizards’ or ‘seers’, never quite fitting the social patterns of common people.

D: The Holy Goal –
In a polytheistic system we are faced with vast numbers of choices in symbols and powers of enlightenment. In ADF’s usual habit, we might look for a deity or type of symbol that occurs in multiple IE systems. Specific cultures offer specific mythic complexes that can be initiatory mysteries – Demeter and Persephone, for instance. However there don’t seem, to me, to be deity-complexes that reach across cultures. IE lore does offer several models of quests, adventures and exploits that may provide hints of Pagan mystical patterns. It might be valuable to seek mythic symbols of the soul’s interaction with the divine which are not, themselves, deities, but which express a goal of a core divine power and presence.

The Holy Grail and its Gaelic antecedents in the Magic Cauldron, the later Hermetic symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone, the archaic Hellenic Golden Fleece and the related symbol of the Apple Garden, the Vedic Soma; many Indo-European cultures offer us non-anthropomorphic, even non-biological symbols of a form of the divine that can be within the grasp of mortals if we are strong and wise. The tales surrounding these symbols are of quests, visions and journeys and seem to resonate with models of mystical growth when viewed in an allegorical way.

Your Humble Author’s favorite such symbol, for broad Indo-European purposes, is the Triple Cauldron. The Cauldron of Feasting in the Hall, the Cauldron of Inspiration in the Temple, the Cauldron of Rebirth that holds our ashes in the Mound – the symbol is so wrapped with mythic context that it is like the never-empty source for us to discover. The Cauldron can be seen as bearing the Mead of Inspiration in a Celto-Germanic context, the Soma of the Vedas, the Ambrosia of the Olympians – all symbols of the power and wisdom of the divine that can be shared by Gods and mortals alike.

Indo-European lore offers other hero-quest tales that might be employed as models. The Rhinegold, the Golden Fleece, and other hero tales might catch the imagination of some mystics. Still, the image of the Sacred Drink Which Brings Inspiration/Enlightenment seems reliably pan-Indo-European.

Gaelic lore offers us another vision of a Pagan mystical experience. The Taliesin material, and other ‘I Am’ poems of Gaelic tradition offer a window into a transpersonal awareness among Irish poets, mythically induced by drinking from the Cauldron of the Gods. The speaker transcends their common history to be a part of all the world.

VI: Conclusion –
Most fully-grown religions contain multiple schools of practice seeking the sort of mystical goals that we have discussed. ADF has reached a stage in our development at which we can begin to create them, and choices we make now will influence the coherence and direction of our systems for the future. I hope we will approach the matter with curiosity and experimentation, and do our best to avoid the development of doctrine for as long as we can.

There are some obvious places for first steps. We could begin by thinking about the mystery and illuminative content of the High Days. Each seasonal rite allows us a moment in which the folk ‘drunk the waters of life’ in which we might seek to induce experience of the divine in the deities and symbols of the rite. The turning of the year presents a spectrum of flavors of experience that we might clarify and focus as part of our blessings.

From there we can think about creating special, non-seasonal rites, for festivals and intimate gatherings, in which we expose ourselves to powerful symbol sets in a condition of high focus and deep entrancement. The classic model for this are the rites at Eleusis, in which a long series of rites and actions build up entrancement and expectation for the final mysterious moment. Such rites could be run by a small group for an individual or group, or could perhaps be mutually performed.

We can also begin immediately to consider how we can find the mystical content in our basic ceremonies. What does it mean to our souls to approach the Center of the Worlds, to work the Open Gate? How can we use the presence of the Three Kindreds to expand the mind and exalt the spirit?

As we enter our next 25 years, we have new and exciting depths and heights before us…

Druidic Mysticism BibliographyDefining Mysticism and Enlightenment
• The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook of Sacred Texts by Marvin W. Meyer (Editor)
• Mysticism (Paperback) by Evelyn Underhill
• The Way of Mystery by Nema
A Digression into the Modern
• The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley
• Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
• Liber O Vel Manus et Sagittae sub figur VI – Aleister Crowley
Western Models
• Paganism in the Roman Empire – Ramsay MacMullen
• Greek Religion – Walter Burkert
• Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions by Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney.
• Theurgy and the Soul: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus by Gregory Shaw
• The Enneads: Abridged Edition (Penguin Classics) by Plotinus , John Dillon (Editor, Introduction), Stephen MacKenna (Translator)
• The Book of Abramelin: A New Translation by Abraham Von Worms, Lon Milo Duquette, Georg Dehn, and Steven Guth
• Liber VIII – Aleister Crowley
• Secrets of the Magical Grimoires – Aaron Leitch
•Self-Initiation Into the Golden Dawn Tradition: A Complete Curriculum of Study for Both the Solitary Magician and the Working Magical Group - by Chic Cicero, Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Eastern Models
• The Four Yogas : a guide to the spiritual paths of action, devotion, meditation and knowledge / Swami Adiswarananda.
• Integral Yoga-The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Sri Swami Satchidananda
• The Yoga of Spiritual Devotion: a modern translation of the Narada bhakti sutras / Prem Prakash.
• Yoga of Truth; Jnana : The Ancient Path of Silent Knowledge by Peter Marchand,
A Druidic Evaluation of Some Classical Models
• Teutonic Magic by Kveldulf Gundarsson
• Hermetic Magic by Stephen Flowers
• The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies / Robert Kirk; introduction by Marina Warner.
• The Artful Universe: an introduction to the Vedic religious imagination / William K. Mahony.
Hints toward a Druidic Mysticism
• Magical Use of Thought Forms: A Proven System of Mental & Spiritual Empowerment by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and J. H. Brennan
• Advanced Magical Arts by R.J. Stewart
• Taliesin: The Last Celtic Shaman by John Matthews, Caitlín Matthews, and Caitlin Matthews
• Neopagan Rites: A Guide to Creating Public Rituals that Work by Isaac Bonewits
• Ploughing the Clouds : the search for Irish Soma / Peter Lamborn Wilson.

Toward A Druidic Mysticism Part 3

Looks like this will come quickly, instead of over a week or two. It will also help me get to forty-eight posts for the year : ). I hope my non-ADF readers will forgive the in-house slant of this paper. I think there are enough general observations to make it worthwhile for anyone interested in polytheistic mysticism.

A Druidic Pagan Evaluation of Some Classical Models
A: Progressive Advancement –
I begin here because I think it would be hard to implement any such thing in our contexts. ADF has, so far resisted implementing any sort of ‘degree system’ that is thought of as ‘religious’ in nature, or as indicatory of spiritual growth, much less mystical attainment. It may be that the Initiate’s Work will be a small step in that direction, but even there the degree will be given only as recognition of specific demonstrated levels of skill and practice.

We find little indication of a ladder model of religious or magical evolution in Celto-Germanic lore. Northern Pagans lived at the center of their map, not at the bottom. Midgard, or the middle isle, could be the base for journeys in several directions. Those who like categorizing might find some use in wheel-shaped systems – three-fold, fourfold, eightfold, or whatever. Hellenic systems may be more comfortable with a classical ladder such as a seven planets progress. In any case, the real work of devising such a system will be in determining just what sorts of spiritual states are to be sought in each step or spoke. Myth and tradition, of course provides some direction. From there we must devise ways to seek to approach the Powers involved and then we will see what we see.

Several ancient systems bring us the motif of spirits trapped in matter and the effort to rise away from the common world. I find that notion to be rather contrary to the things I value in Neopagan thought, though I recognize that it exists in the old ways. Explicitly, northern models don’t seem to value the ‘higher’ spiritual functions over the life and strength of the living self.

The ‘ladder’ or ‘wheel-journey’ model fits well with the ‘quest’ theme, but we might wish to avoid a simple ‘climbing out of the darkness’ model. To me it feels Druidical to avoid a ladder-like approach in favor of a more spiraling path, an exploration of the world more than a departure from it.

B: Beatific Vision –
The technique of opening the personal awareness to a vision of the whole span of cosmic existence seems easy to adapt in an Indo-European mythic setting. It would be an easy matter to create a series of trance and/or ritual attunements for the various segments of our mythic cosmos, the whole then coming together in a grand vision. These could become a sort of ‘novena’, or nine-day working, combining purifications and attunements, to be crowned in the Big Vision.

(Incidentally, I have formalized a detailed visualization and meditation working based on this model, which I call the Nineteen Working. It is available in my forthcoming Book of Visions and other places. Some of that is also available on the blog under the Druidic Meditation heading.)

Primary results of such methods include increased understanding of and connection to the mythic system in which it’s set, and the practice of techniques of multiple awareness and expansion of personal boundaries. The final goal, at a first level, is to experience awareness outside common boundaries of the personal, and perhaps to glimpse the experience of the unity of self and cosmos. We could mention an ancillary idea of uniting (or at least attuning) the personal will with the ongoing threads of wyrd and the patterns of the world.

C: Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel –
The idea of a higher spiritual being that is attached to or even a part of the human individual presents very clear Indo-European parallels. The Greeks bring us the idea of the personal ‘daimon’, the being who is your intermediary between your personal mind and the divine world. Contact with the personal daimon is a documentable goal of Hellenic mysticism. Rev. Kirk in the 18th century describes the Gaelic coimimeadh - the ‘co-walker’, a ‘fairy’ being who shares life with a seer, and European folk-magic is full of helpful and messenger spirits used by magicians. Norse lore contains the fylgja – an animal or contra-gendered spirit who bears much of the personal luck and power. It would be a simple matter to construct rites to seek the knowledge of and conversation with the Fylgja or co-walker.

In modern western mysticism the Holy Guardian Angel is sometimes thought of as the ‘Higher Self’. This brings us immediately to those issues of ‘ladders’ of attainment, and of ‘higher = better’. I think we can look for a Pagan ‘Spirit-self’ – that may be more directly aware of the Otherworld, more of an actor among the spirits than our common-world self can be. One could certainly consider the Fylgja or the Daimon as a ‘greater’ portion of the self, in the sense of the portion of a multi-part soul model which is closer to the Gods and Spirits. In such a model, the Fylgja or Daimon would be the portion of the self that is, itself, divine, or has ‘access’ to the divine.

When we consider that each of us may become recognized as an honored ancestor, we see that each of us must have in us a seed of that which is worthy of worship. We can see this as the active presence of the divine in ourselves. In Irish we might call this An Da Fein – My Very Own God. Is this the same as the Holy Guardian Angel? Perhaps close enough to consider adapting some western forms of seeking the Angel to our own work.

D: Eastern Systems –
In addressing eastern ideas we will find ourselves dealing head-on with the issue of doctrinaire monism. Modern Hindu mysticism is quite soaked in the notion that ‘maya’ means ‘illusion’, and that escape from the rounds of rebirth is key to enlightenment. In a more ancient Vedic context Maya means ‘power of making’ and is the very thing we worship in the Gods.

Raja Yoga is a core spiritual system that can be applied in almost any mythic system. It’s clear and relatively undoctrinal descriptions of mental states make a good vocabulary for discussion. We can benefit, in my opinion, from every borrowing we care to make from this classical approach.

Bhakti Yoga is, in many ways, the core of common tribal Paganism. Sacrifices and hymns, images and rites of welcome are all basics of bhakti whether in the village or at the hearth. There are a few basic instructions in the method that would benefit our understanding, and the trappings of common religion can also be turned into a more focused program of uniting the personal spirit with the divine through love and aspiration.

Jnana Yoga – Your Humble Author doesn’t care much for extreme non-dualism, nor for the rejection of external deity, ritual relationship, etc. yet such ideas grew out of traditional IE cultures…

E: Mystery and Symbol –
The use of symbolism, altered states and invocation to create group opportunities for mystical trance provides perhaps our most direct way to begin in experimental ADF mysticism. We are fairly used to developing big ritual – I think we could handily turn our skills aware from an exclusive focus on reciprocal offering and blessing to more dramatic or more internal work focused on producing individual trance results in the attendees.

I think we can find complexes of cultural symbols that we could choose to render into effective ritual and trance experiences that could be worked for or by large, medium, small groups, and even individuals. Our ethnic inspirations would be the places to begin – what symbols in our Hearth Cultures express the personal soul and the exaltation or divinizing of the personal spirit?

Bakhti practices could be easily applied to specific deities. Can we build initiatory/illuminatory moments of contact –offer an illumination of Brigid, or of Apollo. Such deity-specific ‘mysteries’ should be relatively simple to put together.

While a great deal of ancient mystical work was done alone or in small groups there is also a tradition of large-group mysteries, such as at Eleusis. Neopagans have the opportunity to use the many festivals and gatherings as stging grounds for experiments in such things. Can we build specific ritual/trance experiences meant to transmit an experience in a festival context?

On to part 4 >

An Outline Toward Druidic Mysticism, Part 2

Part 2: Historic World Mystical ModelsI: Western Models.While we have some traces of Pagan-era descriptions of states of illumination, we have much clearer depictions of method and result in the quasi-Christian mysticism of the Middle Ages and renaissance. I welcome efforts (including my own) to more clearly investigate classical Pagan sources like Iamblichus, classical neoplatonism, Pythagorus etc.

A: Mystery and Devotional Vision
In its Greek context ‘mystery’ is the experience of viewing the secret symbols and rituals of the tradition in which one is working. The word mystery is derives from the Greek mystes, meaning ‘initiate’. A mystery is in this sense something which is revealed only to initiates.

These ancient mystery rituals combined long preparation, effort, song, drama, wine and excitement to induce illumination experiences focused on the cult objects of the rite. The most famous of these experiences was at Eleusis, where thousands of mystoi were lead through days of pilgrimages, sacrifices, dances, and ritual drama to conclude in a final revelation that was said to guarantee the initiate meaning in this life and entry into a happy afterlife. Different initiatory sects offered different types of symbols, most of them unknown to us since their initiates have successfully concealed their nature to this day. We can imagine that the mystery symbols of the various sects might be a single deity represented in its traditional idol or physical symbol, a constellation of deities perhaps expressing some specific mythic narrative, or might include non-deity divine objects – ears of corn, cauldrons, etc.

Some of this is reflected on a personal level in cults of devotion - to the Gods and Spirits in ancient times, and well-preserved in the Christian cult of saints. These practices can lead to a kind of ‘mystery vision’ of the deity so sought. Medieval ‘mystery plays’ and the various church spectacles of the bigger systems, seem to preserve the feel of Pagan processions, displays of mystical symbols, etc. Even in public worship of the Gods we seek, perhaps, the Mystery of the Vision of each High Day, the constellation of symbols that expresses the season and the Gods of the feast.

B: The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
Much of medieval spiritual magic was an effort to gain the counsel and aid of a spiritual being which would transmit the divine power or lead in practice to higher illuminations. The classical Greeks sometimes described a personal ‘daimon’ or intermediary spirit between the individual and the gods. Some later magical systems draw on Christian versions of that image to seek contact with the angel set over each of us by ‘God’ in that system. In any case the work of seeking contact with the ‘Holy Guardian Angel’ intends to contact the magician’s personal messenger of the divine.

The most famous system of contacting the Holy Guardian Angel is the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage. This renaissance magician prescribed months-long retreats, involving ‘purifying’ and ‘exalting’ the soul through study, fasting and prayer. It reaches a yogic level of self-control. This purity and power of soul allows contact with the Guardian Angel who then reveals the secrets of contact with the divine, and of control of lesser spirits. One side-benefit of the process was the ability to command ‘demons’ – lesser spirits who could serve one’s will.

In its original form this method seems to have nearly shamanic implications – the Angel serving as a kind of ally or spirit guide. In later interpretations the Angel becomes more a symbol of the divine in the individual, of the ‘Higher Self’.

C: Progressive Advancement
Many systems propose a series of ‘levels’ or ‘layers’ through which the soul advances. One popular way of explaining the order of the worlds was to map a series of ‘emanations’ from the first cause, or layers in a ladder of progressive spiritual experiences. The model is visible from ancient mysteries all the way into modern fraternal organizations and occult orders with ‘degree work’ systems.

We might speculate on an origin in Egyptian or Mesopotamian afterlife or cosmological concepts. The Book of Coming Forth by Day describes a series of gates and guardians that must be passed on the way to the afterlife goal. The Babylonian seven-tired planetary heaven influenced later Neoplatonic image of levels, each with their own ‘guardian’, who must be passed by knowledge of the right rituals and passwords. These systems fed into the later Qabalistic systems that underlie many of the more modern occult ‘Lodge’ degrees. One major influence on later ‘initiatory’ mysticism is the structure of Mithraic Initiation. It was built in seven levels, considered by some to have corresponded to the planets. The notion of a ladder of planetary lights was widespread in the late Classical world Planetary Levels.

D: The Beatific Vision
In medieval mysticism, the Beatific Vision was the state in which the blessed souls of the dead were said to dwell. It was described as a vision of wonder containing all the Cosmos, the veritable presence of ‘God and his angels’ of all the worlds of the system’s mythology. As a mystical method one sought to achieve this vision while living, and perhaps to benefit from it in common life. This approached is not concerned with gaining a teaching spirit, or so much with possibly ‘magical’ goals, rather it is about subsuming the personal soul in the grandeur and wonder of the divine.

There was a distinct devotional component to this method. The Illumination it means to bring is based on exaltation resulting from nearness to deity. It works well in a polytheistic system, in which case it might resemble the mystery vision described above, coupled with the presence of a specific deity. It also employs the principle of microcosm and macrocosm – as the mystic perceives the divine worlds, she also perceives their reflection in herself.

II: Historical Models part 2 – Eastern or Indian Models
The word ‘yoga’ is from the Sanskrit and means ‘yoking’. The image used in all discussions of yoga is of the human body and mind as a team of animals that must be brought into unity of will and direction so that the human being can accomplish her will in the worlds.

A: Raja Yoga – The “royal yoga” is a system (or many systems) of disciplined training of the mind and body, leading to a progression of deeper experiences, intending to lead to the transpersonal. Most of the various sorts of Yoga we know in the west are variants or subsets of Raja Yoga. Raja Yoga leads the mind through a series of disciplines, seeking fairly specific results:
1. Asana – physical exercise and the ‘postures’ that are the most well-known image of Yoga. The “Yoga of the Body” – Hatha Yoga – is an entire system that is often seen as the foundation of Raja Yoga. The practice of asana builds strength and discipline in the body, brings poise and relaxation and the ability to remain still for meditation and ritual.
2. Pranayama and Pratyahara – control of the breath, and withdrawing from sense-awareness. These basic techniques bring awareness of and a degree of control over the autonomic physical systems, and free the mind from the body’s distractions.
3. Dharana – concentration, limiting awareness to a single object. This is the basic level of what Raja Yoga refers to as ‘meditation’. The student focuses on a single object, such as the breath, or a mantra, or a visual object. The thoughts and flows of the mind are ignored in favor of that concentration, and eventually the chatter of the mind slows and even ceases.
4. Dhyana – dissolution of subject/object distinction. Yogis teach that success in concentration, when the chatter ceases and the student is alone with the object of the concentration, the mind may lose the perception of a distinction between the observer and that which is observed. This a basic level of what the Yogis call ‘illumination’ – the realization that the self is not confined to the body/name complex. As an exercise such states are sometimes focused on a simple thing such as a flame or a tree, but in practice mystics often seek to make this state with a deity.
5. Samadhi – the personal soul dissolves in the all-mind – Atman makes dhyana on Brahman. The final goal of the Raja Yoga system is to realize the identity of the personal soul with the all-web of cosmic existence. Hindu philosophy speaks of the atman – the personal eternal divine spark – and holds that in Samadhi the atman realizes its identity with the brahman – the impersonal all-mind of the cosmos. In practice, Samadhi is also a term for the tomb of an enlightened man, but once again we find the idea of perhaps coming to know what the Blessed Dead know while still alive.

Through the whole Yogic system, there is a core doctrine of the identity of the personal soul with the all-soul of the cosmos. This all-soul isn’t conceived of as ‘God’ in any sense, it has no temples and no cult, but it is the goal of much mystical seeking.

B: Bhakti Yoga -
Bhakti means devotion, and Bakhti Yoga is the Yoga of Devotion. The student focuses awareness on the form and deeds of a specific deity or group of deities, through worship, contemplation and loving aspiration. Then goal is for the personal soul to approach the divine through love.

Some sects hold that the personal soul can become identical with the object of devotion, dissolving into the divine being. Others hold only with exaltation and ‘bliss’ for the personal soul by the close approach to the divine. Much of eastern ‘religion’ is the public expression of this sort of devotionalism.

C: Jnana Yoga –
This system seeks mystical experience brought on by the understanding of truth – Jnana means ‘knowing’, from the same root as the Greek gnosis - and this is the yoga of ‘knowledge’.

Jnana Yoga arose in connection with the Advaita Vedanta sect of Hinduism in about 800 C.E.. The Smarta sects are advaitins, but they retain ritual worship of the pantheon of Gods and Spirits. Later Vedanta systems rejected much ritual and myth in favor of philosophical interpretation of the ancient symbols.

Jnana Yoga is usually based on the ‘non-dual’ (a-dvaita) concept – which holds that enlightenment lies in knowing that manifestation is not separate from unity. It focuses on the unified all-mind called the brahman, that is said to underlie all specific manifestation. It often contains a corollary idea that the manifest world is ‘untrue’ or ‘illusory’, making a doctrinal priority out of the experience of Samadhi.

Advaita and Jnana yoga arose out of the matrix of an IE Paganism. However it’s radical monism – which has often been exploited by monotheistic apologists, may make it less than fitting for our neopagan purposes. We shall see whether years of mystical experiment produce these ideas in our own systems.

D: The Problem of Monism.
The idea that at the deepest level all things are united in a single thing/process/existence – is a recurring presence in what we know of ancient spiritual philosophy. The Vedic Brahman, the Hellenic Anima Mundi, Norse Wyrd and Orlog all point to the idea of a ‘soul of all’ or ‘mind-material of all’ or ‘underlying unity’ that is within, and shared by, all things. If nature is One Nature, then in the same way the divine might be One Divine (though not One Person…). Monism is more prominent in the eastern systems, but occurs in various forms in western Pagan experience as well. With the rise of monotheism, monism was sometimes offered as evidence of ‘evolved’ thought by eastern thinkers. Monism has, in a few sects, sometimes rejected more folkloric polytheism, and many Pagans are skeptical of its value in our contexts, but it remains a menu-item in the list of IE models of mystical experience.

On to Part 3 >

An Outline Toward Druidic Mysticism

In discussions on the in-house ADF lists the topic has turned to Druidic Mystcism, and the problem of the transcendant in Indo-European myth and religion. I ended up promising to post this essay. It has been available as the back third of my "Toward A Pagan Mysticism" monograph. However the rest of that material has ended up moved to another publication, and I'm more-or-less withdrawing it.
I'll be posting this in three or four parts over the next couple of weeks. Comments welcome, here, or, for members, on the ADF-discuss list.

I: Defining Mysticism and Enlightenment –The terms mysticism, enlightenment, and illumination are widely used in discussions of religion and spirituality, but are frequently only vaguely understood. ADF (and Paganism at large) might wish to build some discourse about what we mean from the vantage point of our spiritual understanding. We have spent our first 25 years developing our mythic and ritual structures, and we have drawn on some very old and very deep symbols to empower them. It is Your Humble Author’s opinion that we are ready to begin asking ourselves how our work can bring the personal soul into direct experience and awareness of divine and spiritual things.

Let us begin by reciting some dictionary definitions:

For ‘Mysticism’, we find:
“a doctrine of an immediate spiritual intuition of truths believed to transcend ordinary understanding, or of a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy.”For Enlightenment, the dictionary presents mainly doctrinal ideas from the east:
the beatitude that transcends the cycle of reincarnation; characterized by the extinction of desire and suffering and individual consciousness; pure and unqualified knowledge. Illumination, likewise, finds:knowledge, revelation, insight, wisdom; intellectual or spiritual enlightenment and understanding; a condition of spiritual awareness; divine illumination;

These stock definitions only lead us into more difficulty, as we ask ourselves what we mean by ‘spiritual’ or ‘ordinary understanding’. One thing we notice is that all the definitions refer to events that happen to individuals. They refer to states that affect the individual soul even if connected to group practice by doctrine or ritual. They all point toward a component of spiritual awareness, not based only on faith, but on experience.

In order to begin the discussion, I’ll propose a more technical, perhaps modern, definition of the terms ‘enlightenment’ or ‘illumination’. Let us say that these terms refer to specialized states or events of awareness that connect the personal mind with transpersonal awareness/experience. We’ll spend some time on the idea of transpersonal awareness as we go. More plainly, the terms refer to states of spiritual awareness, of deep connection with the divine and peace and wisdom in the self.

We will use ‘mysticism’ to refer to specific efforts made to reach these states. A ‘mystical’ system is a system that intends to induce illuminations, and ‘mysticism’ is the practice of those methods. The word derives from the Greek, of course, from ‘mystes’ – an initiate. A ‘mystery’ religion involved initiation – a formal moment in which the student was immersed in the spiritual symbols of the system. Just as these were systematic events, planned an executed for initiates, so we may use ‘mysticism’ broadly to mean the systematic pursuit of illuminative experience.

Every religion, every spiritual system makes choices as to which types of specialized state conform to the system’s models – that is, which become accepted and traditional. Within the large religious categories – such as ‘Hindu’ – we may find dozens of specific mystical programs, each run by a teacher or group, each serving those that are drawn to it. Even the monotheisms present multiple models of the personal search for contact with the divine.

Building Mystical Practice in ADF
To date, ADF has largely focused on public Paganism and what we might think of ‘village’ religion. We have organized groups to begin to restore our local relationships to the deities, a path of sacrifice and blessing, in which we seek the simple goods of health, wealth and wisdom for ourselves and our land and folk. In ancient Paganism I think even the mystics of the folk would have kept their connection with the sacred rites of their tribe and land – assuming they weren’t leading them! I think it could be time for Our Druidry to begin to develop personal and, possibly, group practices meant to build the individual’s relationship with the divine, to exalt and expand the mind, heart and soul. I think some of the symbols and meanings that we can use will be found in our existing ritual order and ides, but I think there are new directions available as well.

History and lore present us with a menu of cultural and technical methods of seeking illuminations. In order to decide which practices will become ADF practices, we must decide, to some degree, what we intend to mean by these traditional terms, and what sort of mental and spiritual states we wish to induce under the banner of Druidic mysticism. Indo-European Pagan models (especially northern European) have not left us any distinct understanding of what sorts of states were sought by ‘mystics’ among the Celts or Germans. We have hints and models, but very little context. We have some accounts and method remaining from the Hellenic and late Classical ages, but even there the soul of the work isn’t clear. We have far less context than we could use.

In order to begin a discussion on mystical strains and practices in ADF, we begin by making a few bald assertions of what Your Humble Author thinks might make a system or practice Druidic. It is worth our while, when we have the time, to discuss theology, and feel around for the edges of our systems. I also want to discuss what I feel are some useful ideas from postmodern thinkers, occultists and mystics. Some of this is by way of full disclosure, since those ideas have influenced my own, and those of other ADF members. (Long-time readers of el bloggo will have seen some of this before...) In our next section we will examine several traditional models of Indo-European and later European and Indian mysticism, and then compare them to our ethos and goals in ADF. That will be the first goal of this effort. From there we may proceed to some simple suggestions for methods drawing on models we like.

II: A Digression into the Modern
Postmodernists and Illuminists -
Many of us in ADF have been influenced by the ideas of some modern and postmodern thinkers, both ‘occult’ and philosophical. The core lesson of writers such as Wilson, Bey, Leary, etc is that our perceived reality is largely socially and psychologically constructed. Daily life for humans usually consists of a body of habitual programs and models that shape our common thought, decision and action. These habits are shaped by our history and reactions to events, by the pressures of our immediate physical and social environment and, occasionally, by our deliberate personal choices.

Humans have the ability to notice our own programs and habits and, to some degree, to step outside of them and manage them - even to reshape them. Our ability to watch our own thought, and apparent ability it actually initiate changes in our thought at least on some levels, offers us the ability to adapt and thrive. It also offers us the potential to expand our mind into states and events outside normal sensory life. In this sort of neurological mysticism, judgment tends to be reserved as to the ‘objective’ merit of some spiritual experiences, but there is little question that they can have value.

In this secular sense one of the basic ‘enlightenments’ or ‘illuminations’ is the experience of noticing that “you” are separate from your construct persona and have some degree of control over it. This understanding seems to occur naturally in a number of folks, less so in others, but it’s proposed that anyone can get better at noticing and managing the programs and habits of the common self, and even to learn to step outside of it into more unusual states.

Many Neopagans have begun with this rather rationalist approach to spirituality, to move toward traditional religion, magic, yoga, etc. These systems are ancient and long-practiced attempts to use the self-management ability to produce transpersonal spiritual events in the self. Modern Pagan religion, mysticism and occultism, can offer individuals a level of sovereignty over the self that has not always been present in most recent religions, with a depth of practice comparable to any world system – at least in time.

Occultists and Mystics -
Another set of modern influences on my own thought, and on that of many Pagans are the various modern schools of occultism and occult mysticism. The more mystical modern occult thinkers – Crowley, etc - have proposed that there is a spiritual reality that underlies the psychological mechanisms of the layers of the personality. While much of this sort of thought accepts the basic psychological models of modern mind science, it also accepts the idea of paranormal events and the value for growth and health of unusual spiritual states. Postmodern mystics might say that the objective reality of spiritual phenomena isn’t really an issue in effective use of magic or religion. Other modern mystics find reason to accept the objective existence of the spiritual worlds.

The Veil and the Path –
I’m not entirely sure where to file this idea, so I’ll discuss it here… Both in this modernist perspective and in ancient ways, mystical illumination is often depicted as the discovery that common awareness, or reality itself, is a ‘veil of illusion’, that Things Are Not (only) As They Seem. The work of the mystic reveals the invisible sides of the worlds, reducing the common to just a section of existence.

Thus we find the Quest motif, the Great Work, the Fools Journey that inhabits much of the folklore tales of personal growth and mastery. From the Proto-Arthurian tales of the medieval Welsh to the symbolic forms of alchemy to the tales of great mystics such as Buddha or Merlin, the call to ‘come away’ is in many ways the core impulse of mysticism. We leave behind out metaphoric hearth and the Lands We Know to grow past our origins, to become more than we are.

This is an unusual position for our ADF ethos – we have worked to solidify our spirits in hearth and nemeton, to grow roots and networks where we are. From such a beginning the mystical quest might once again have meaning. To set forth on the Path, leaving behind the fields we know, is a powerful symbol that can’t be ignored.

III: What Makes It Druidic? – In which I stick my neck out to suggest what the boundaries of our modern Druidic spirituality might be. Please, Dear Reader, understand that I only mean to present my part in our discourse, and never to suggest any of this as fixed doctrine or creed for Our Way. I hope that this paper and these ideas will provoke discussion and adaptation of these ideas.

Druidic Spiritual Metavalues
1. Nature Centered – I feel I am safe in proposing that a Druidic spirituality is one that takes nature as a divine revelation, perhaps as the very presence of the divine. We view nature as a true and good image of spiritual reality – it is unfallen and holy as we find it. This includes the rejection of the idea that nature or spirit is divided into ‘good and ‘evil’ – we are not moral dualists, imagining that nature or spirit chooses sides between the light and the dark.

2. Life Affirming – Just as we value the material world as holy, so physical life is also holy and good, and death is a natural and holy part of life. We know that sorrow and suffering will probably be unavoidable, but we have confidence in our own virtue and strength to reduce and mitigate it.
3. Human Affirming – Just as physical nature is holy and good, so human personal and social nature is a true and holy part of nature. We are as much an expression of the divine as an oak or an eagle.
4. Polyvalent – We observe that in nature every kind of thing exists in multiple examples, similar but each unique. To us this demonstrates that the divine must also manifest as many beings, and that there must be multiple paths and methods to accomplish almost any goal. Thus, we are polytheistic, and understand the divine will to exist in and as many individual wills.

ADF Customs and Models –
these will tend to have immediate influence on which models we choose.
1. Ritualistic – We are not, generally, quietists, seeking to simply be still and know whatever. We favor expression of ideas in formal speech and symbolism, and use ritual to solidify spiritual powers into the manifest world. We are slowly developing a body of meditation practice that supports and reflects our ritual ideas, but we have not very far developed our own Druidic meditation models for seeking mystical states.
2. Reciprocal – Our work joins our personal spiritual reality with that of the greater divine and spiritual world. We intend to build relationships between the divine and the personal, the core idea of our practice is, in many ways, reciprocity. We can ask ourselves how that will apply to a more immediate union between the divine and the personal.
3. Mythic – ADF has tended to reject an ‘archetypal’ or purely psychosocial understanding of the Gods and Spirits in favor of a more directly mythic description. We enjoy working in the mythic models of the ancients – how will we use those tales in efforts to induce spiritual experiences, and in what directions will they send us?
4. Social and Tribal – Our Druidry has been focused on the social group, from the Hearth to the fully developed Grove. Mysticism is commonly done alone or in small focused groups – how will we adapt our direction for that?

Beginning with these basic ideas, we’ll go on, in the next part of our series, to examine various models of mystical practice in IE and post-IE Europe and India. In the final part I will discuss my thoughts on where we might begin in developing specific mystical practices inside our existing systems.

On to part 2 >

A Meditation on the Lord of Wisdom

Here's the next in the set of meditations and essays that I'm doing to examine potentials for 'mystical' meaning in ADF's Order of Ritual. For these first efforts, I decided to create visualization and contemplation meditations for the deities, while using essays and less 'worshipful' excercises for the abstract principles. I'll be writing some exercises for the Three Hallows directly. In the meantime here's the partner work to the Earth Mother item given below.

Let the Druid come before the Shrine, and enter a basic trance. Work a simple opening rite and compose the Vision of the Lord of Wisdom, thus:
• Envision the Lord of Wisdom, the Keeper of Gates, before you. See his towering figure, huge above a crossroad in the mist, feet floating above the road. He is slender and strong, dressed only in an open robe of white that billows in the moving air. His face is youthful, but his long hair and beard are snowy white. His left hand is raised, palm forward, and in his right hand he bears a shining white wand with a flame at its tip.
• Around his head shines a nimbus of every color and pattern, filled with every sign and letter of wisdom, shining around his being. His forehead shines with a wondrous light, with a flickering flame in the center. He stands at the crossroad, and you see that every road of it stretches away to another crossroad, and another. At each the Lord stands, in reflection outward, standing at the Center of All Ways, the Fire at the Center of the World.
Make a simple offering of whiskey or incense, or as you can, nine times, as you recite this hymn three times:
Lord of Wisdom
Wanderer on the Roads
Keeper of Gates and Ways
Priest of the Sacred Grove
I make due offering to you
(Offering given)
Because you teach wisdom
Because you guide spirits
Because you reveal secrets
I make due offering to you
(Offering given)
Lord of the Twilight
I worship your cunning
Keeper of Gates
I worship your might
Teacher of Heroes
I worship your wisdom
Lord of Secret Knowledge, inspire my mind with the Elder Ways
Keeper of gates, accept my sacrifice!
Renew your vision of the Gatekeeper and abide for a while in contemplation of that vision. Then proceed thus:
• Contemplate the shining presence of the Lord of Wisdom for a time. When his presence feels real to you then envision yourself seated at the crossroad with the gatekeeper behind you, his aura surrounding and interpenetrating you. You gaze along the roads and you see yourself at every crossing point, your awareness extending outward along the Infinite Paths. Feel your extending presence, out through the whole Web of Worlds. Abide for a while in contemplation of this vision.
• When you are ready, allow the whole vision, the Gatekeeper, the Web and your own form to shrink down and to become equal to your own head. Let the wisdom, knowledge and cleverness, the freedom to pass every barrier be concentrated in you. Feel the presence of the Gatekeeper shining in you, within the boundaries of your seated form. Abide for a while in contemplation of this vision.
• Finally, allow the image to grow again, bringing all the reflections of yourself firmly together in your material presence. Allow the form of the Gatekeeper to grow larger and larger, attenuating to become one with the light and air.
Renew your center, balancing all once again within you, and recite a simple ending charm, such as:
The blessings of the Holy Ones be on me and mine
My blessings on all beings, with peace on thee and thine
The Fire, the Well, the Sacred Tree
Flow and Flame and Grow in me
Thus do I remember the work of the Wise.

Self & Psyche in Druidic Ritual Symbolism

Pt 2 - The Two Powers and Three Realms
This is the next article in the series of attempted 'mysticism' things, based on our Druidic Order of Ritual. The first one part is the Earth Mother meditation posted here previously. This one is based on the 'honoring the Center' portion of the rites, as expressed in our Three Hallows of Fire, Well and Tree.

As we enter our second quarter-century it is perhaps time to begin a new phase in our spiritual practice and discussion. We have refined and focused our ritual order, linking it firmly with Indo-European concepts of cosmos. I think we can move beyond our current understandings to find new layers of meaning. It may be that this has been going on quietly in our Groves and hearths for some time, but I’ll make an effort to lay out some of my own thinking on how we can find deeper experience and meaning in our ritual symbolism.
It is common in traditional Paganism for spiritual techniques and symbols to have several levels of interpretation. For instance we can understand our Order of Ritual first as a feast that the house or clan sets for the Gods and Spirits. The Fire cooks the food, the Well gives drink. On a deeper level we can understand that the physical realities of the rite are spiritual and mythic as well. The Well is the Eye of the Underworld Waters, the Fire the Light of the Heavens. The Grove becomes one with the Center of Worlds. In these essays we will examine another level of interpretation, in which the symbols of the Order of Ritual are applied to the human psyche – the body/mind/spirit complex. In this I accept that ancient maxim best known to us from the late classical age: “That which is above is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is above.” By applying cosmic realities to personal realities I hope to find insights toward a Pagan Druidic mystical and spiritual path.
The Primal Powers and the Vertical Axis
The powers of the proto-cosmos – the Underworld Waters and the Fire of the Heavens – can have deep meaning in the personal self as well as in the rites. The Two Powers find expression as central functions of the psyche. They can be the root of much further analysis and practice.
The Underworld Power finds expression first in the material self as the inheritance from our genetic ancestors. The Underworld is the place in which all that has come before is boiled up and boiled down into its basic elements, to feed the rise of new forms. We as individuals rise from the chance of combining DNA – from the Womb of the Deep.
On a psychological level we can think of the Underworld as referring first to the place where body meets mind – the oldest and most ‘primitive’ impulses including hunger, reproduction, territoriality, pack-hierarchy and fight-or-flight. Even though modern humans have some ability to manage these impulses they continue to influence our behavior even in the most civilized of circumstances.
Just as the Underworld Waters bear all the raw nutrients that remain from that which has passed away, so in our mind the memory is the vasty deep into which our experiences are dissolved. Science now knows that memory is not a filing system in which events are clearly preserved. Rather it is more like a bog, in which events are sometimes dissolved, sometimes preserved, and sometimes sprout into living things. In this way the memory is a fine expression of the Underworld Power.
On a spiritual level we carry within our own flesh and spirit the power of the Dead. Our inheritance makes our very face and form an idol of our ancestors, and ancient religion plainly understood ‘the blood’ as carrying the power of our lineage. This presents many opportunities, including transpersonal memory, access to increased personal potential and the mysteries of the Road of the Dead themselves. Those roads lead finally to the Thrones of the Gods of the Deep. Euro-Pagan cultures show us images of the King and Queen of the Underworld, who welcome the Dead and grant peace, rest and, as needed, justice. We hear that the Celts said that they were descended from the Underworld Father. Among the Hellenes and the Norse it is the Underworld Queen who is regarded most highly. These mighty Powers exist by reflection within our own psyches as surely as they live in the Halls Below.
The Heaven Power finds expression in our body as the genetic pattern that makes each of us unique. We grow out of the long history of mating and mixing that preceded our own births, and the genes of our parents came together with a variety of potentials. It is the power of organization and quickening from the Heavens that assembled each of us from the potentials of chance, and our flesh is a combination of Underworld potentials formed by Heavenly shaping. In this way the Heaven Power is just as far outside of our ‘normal’ awareness as the Underworld – it happens whether or not we watch it or direct it.
However, we ourselves possess the Power of Shaping, to one degree or another, in our ability to shape matter and, perhaps, spirit by our skill and wit. The Heaven Power in us allows us to focus our awareness to make patterns and to shape both material and spiritual forms. Equally it finds expression in our human power of reason. Supported by the more complex structures of the brain we are able to plan, design, execute and support our will. For many of us these ability lie largely in potential – spiritual work can lead us to develop our access to the Power of the Sky.
On a spiritual level we carry in ourselves the Divine Fire of the Gods. The principle of Cosmos, of the Rightness of Things causes us both to exist as individuals and to be players in the Game of Worlds. The Heaven Power offers us a transpersonal view of the patterns of existence that we must strive to perceive and on which we may act when we can grasp it.
The Heavens wheel above us, shining their Light on all existence. In the same we have in us an ability to view our own beings, to step above our daily processes and see into our own patterns and habits. On that Inner Mountaintop we can survey our minds and our hearts, and perhaps find a perspective that sees the road through time, from decision to decision, event to event, offering us a more divine perspective on the flow of life.
In the highest halls of the heavens the Bright Ones are enthroned. The Father of All and the Queen of the Gods, the Thunder Hero and the Dawn Goddess all dwell in the Upper Realms. In much Pagan lore the dwelling of the Gods themselves is in the Sky Realm, though there are always hidden roads that link it with the places of the Gods Below. In their High Halls the Gods meet in council, making the plans that guide the worlds.
The Middle World finds symbolic expression as the World Tree or World Pillar in our Groves, rooted in the dark waters, crowned in the Heavens’ gold. We can conceive of All That Is growing, fruiting, passing away and nourishing the future, between the depths and the heights. The World Tree in this way is like our own individual beings – the product of the action of the Two Powers upon the forces and forms of the Middle Realm.
The question of the nature and identity of our personal existence is central to the work of mysticism. In order to seek the transpersonal it seems worthwhile to develop an understanding of our own person. Every tale of the mystic journey begins with the hero-to-be choosing to leave their lives behind. In the same way we may have to think of the spiritual journey as, in some way, a leaving behind of the ‘self’ that we have built for ourselves over the years.
The Middle Realm is a place of unending variety, and every manifest thing springs from the effects of the organizing power of the Light and the massive potential of the Darkness. So, in our personal mind, the thing we commonly perceive as “me” is not in fact the entirety of our being. Rather our daily perceived identity is more of a floating point-of-view. It - as we might say, “I” - wander in the Middle-Realms of the mind, encountering objects and beings – thoughts and memories, perhaps – and reacting to them. When we sleep our point-of-view wanders in the quasi-sensory realms of dream. When we wake, that same point-of-view functions as our sense of “me”, as we move through our daily lives and through our waking minds. If we are sick or injured we may dwell in our pain, when we love we dwell in our joy. In one moment we may be firmly in our bodies, at other times we drift in the abstractions of our minds. We construct our sense of ourselves out of our impressions, habits and inclinations, a figure built of memory and idea. We come to identify this figure with the body we see in the mirror, but the self is so much more.
The Underworld and Heavens are reflected in us as often unobserved portions of the personal mind. The ancient tales show the journey of the seeker through realms strange and distant, though much of the ‘action’ may take place in the Middle Realm. So the mystical seeker sets out “into” a mind that is rather like the land – tangled or cultivated, civilized and savage. We make our way through it by ‘our’ wits.
So, we dwell in the Middle Places of our minds, in our constructed “character” or “persona”. We have some limited awareness of a greater existence, and the connection of our commonly manifest presence with the Heights and Depths of the world sometimes gives us hints of something greater. If we are not open to that intuitive awareness, which varies widely in untrained individuals, this can lead to confusion, and difficulty in making wise decisions. We feel the impulses of the greater world, but dwell within our constructs, and thus we find that instinct often conflicts with will, memory conflicts with ideals, inertia conflicts with intention.
When we bring the Sacred Fire and Holy Well into the material world through ritual, we have an opportunity to contemplate that work as opening our own Middle Realm awareness – our common sense of self – to the presence of the Deep Memory and the Higher Reason. When we work the Two Powers meditation we powerfully direct our common mind to open to those greater psycho-spiritual forces. When we hallow the presence of the Fire and Water during our sacrifices or on our shrines we can take that into our contemplations as a catalyst, opening for us a fresh and clear access to a greater degree of our own spiritual nature.

A Meditation on the Mother of All

In the process of staring at the next phase of work on the Nine Moons, I have decided to write a series of short things focusing on the possible 'mystical' potentials of the elements of the Druidic Order of Ritual. By mystical, I will continue to mean concerned with the relationship between the personal psyche and transpersonal awareness. The first step in our Order, of course, is honoring the Earth Mother. Rather than write an article, I thought I would create a simple meditation/offering practice. the intent here is to bring the operator's mind into more direct contact with the Mother of all, through symbolic interaction. Let me know what you think.

A Meditation on the Mother of All
Come to your Shrine, open as usual and enter a basic trance. If you wish to open the Gate, do so, then envision the Earth Mother in the Gate:
• See the Mother of All, the Mountain Woman, before you. She is huge as a hill, seated with her back against the World Tree, naked, sitting with her knees drawn up, displaying her cunny and her round belly. Her breasts are great and round, hips and thighs mighty. She holds one hand raised, palm turned toward you, and the other she extends, palm up, as if in offering or receiving. Her face is beautiful, eyes kind and wise, and she smiles lovingly.
• Around her head shines a nimbus of light, gold and silver like sun and moon. Vines and trees are her gown, flowers and fruits her ornaments. Her womb shines and flickers with a light like moonlight on moving water. Every beast and bird, serpent and crawling thing are her court as the green of the world grows all around her. To gaze upon her is to feel the unconditional offer of her bounty, and also her challenge to the strong and to the weak.
Make simple offerings of grain or oil, or as you can, nine times as you recite this hymn three times:
Mighty Mother of All
Womb of Life
Source of Plenty
Soul of the Land
I make due offering to you
(offering given)
Because you uphold the World
Because you freely give your Bounty
Because you grant every Blessing
I make due offering to you
(offering given)
Queen of Sovereignty
I worship your Power
Mother of the Earth
I worship your Bounty
Giver of Every Life
I worship your Spirit
Earth Mother, uphold my work as you do the world
Earth Mother, accept my sacrifice!
(offering given)
Renew your vision of the Mother, and abide for a while in that vision. Then proceed, thus:
• Contemplate the wonderful being of the Earth Mother for a time. When her presence feels real to you, envision your own body, seated where you are, as lying within Her Womb. Become aware of your own body, naked beneath your garments. Feel the Mother appear around you, vast, your form an egg among countless eggs, kept safe and warm, filled with potential. Abide for a while in this vision.
• When you are ready, allow the whole vision, both the Mother and your own form, to shrink down and be enthroned in your own heart. Let the love and power and all-flowing generosity, the safety and strength and warmth be concentrated in you. Feel the presence of the Mother shining in you, within the boundaries of your seated form. Abide for a while in this vision.
• Finally, allow the image to grow again, until the seed-self is reunited with your material presence. Allow the form of the Mother to grow larger and larger, attenuating to become one with the land around you.
Renew your center, balancing all once again within you, and recite a simple ending charm, such as:
The blessings of the Holy Ones be on me and mine
My blessings on all beings, with peace on thee and thine
The Fire, the Well, the Sacred Tree
Flow and Flame and Grow in me
Thus do I remember the work of the Wise.

Druidic Mystical Practice Pt3: The Three Cauldrons

The first two phases of this sequence, presented below, are so basic to Neopagan meditation and trance that I have had trouble distinguishing 'basic mental training' from 'seeking mystical experience'. The basic methods of the first two phases of this sequence - Open Meditation, Two Powers Attunement and Middle-realm Centering- are preperatory work for almost any ritual or meditative activity. In the next steps we begin to add material that is specifically Celtic or Druidic in origin. Since the real intention of the whole sequence is a mystical one - we mean to link the personal awareness with transpersonal existence - I'm calling the whole sequence by the above new title.

Part 3: Using the Three Cauldrons
In the very small list of remnants of Celtic culture that suggest actual Pagan mysticism or spiritual symbolism the complex of the Three Cauldrons stands out plainly. Based on the medieval Irish poem the Cauldron of Poesy, we describe three Cauldrons or “boiling places” in the human system, into which the Power of Inspiration can flow and be held. The Cauldrons in each individual may be either empty, half-full or full, and by this is determined how much poetic or spiritual power the individual possesses.
The Three Cauldrons are described as:
1: The Cauldron of Warming, conceived of as located in the belly, is the source of physical and constitutional health and strength. It is born upright in all people, with the potential to be fully filled.
2: The Cauldron of Motion or ‘Vocation’, is conceived of as in the heart. It is the core of the poet’s vision and work, the place where he receives his actual skill and inspiration. It is born in most tipped on its side, able to hold only a portion of the flow.
“The cauldron of motion then, in all artless people is on its lips. It is side-slanting in people of bardcraft and small poetic talent. It is upright in the greatest of poets, who are great streams of wisdom. Not every poet has it on its back, for the cauldron of motion must be turned by sorrow or joy.”
3: The Cauldron of Wisdom is conceived of as in the head. It is the container of the highest spiritual and artistic inspirations. It grants not just poetry but ‘every art’.
The central metaphor for spiritual power or wisdom in the Cauldron of Poesy is Poetic Inspiration. The poet’s ability to produce inspired verse is also his ability to make magic. Throughout this work we will use the metaphor of poetic skill and inspiration as the equivalent of spiritual and magical power, and we will work toward the use of poetry as a core element of ritual and spellbinding.
The majority of the text of the Cauldron of Poesy focuses on the Cauldron of Motion as the vessel that truly holds the poets power. It is born half-tipped, and it is by the deeds and events of human life that it becomes fully upright, able to obtain a full measure of the Mead of Wisdom. In the same way the Cauldron of Wisdom is born tipped on its lip, empty of power, and must be turned. This is described as happening due to powerful emotional events - sorrows and joys - during the course of life.
The Four Sorrows: longing, grief, jealousy and hard travel.
The Joys are said to be twofold: divine joy and human joy. Human joy is fourfold: Sexual delight, physical health, the joy of prosperity from one’s vocation, the joy of success in one’s efforts. Divine joys are the delight of the Blessings of the Gods, and the joy of eating of the Hazels of the Well of Wisdom, as it is said.
These joys and sorrows come from the events of our lives – they are not just from within, but rather they must grow from real experience and relationship with the other. In a modern life, if we have any adventure in us at all, any of that which might make a poet or magician, we will have many of the joys and sorrows described. If we can take them in, process them, boil them up, they become the raw material for our understanding and wisdom.
So in this exercise we use the Cauldrons as anchoring symbols for a wide range of contemplations, focused on our own bodies, lives and spiritual growth. In order to comprehend and digest the joys and sorrows of our lives we contemplate them in formal meditation. By bringing the memory of the events before the mind’s vision, while maintaining the detached perspective of Open Meditation we can process them effectively. So we contemplate in turn the body, the network of our ‘professional’ life, and our spiritual condition.
There’s a word to be said about the presentation of the Cauldron of Motion. In the original poem the heart cauldron is plainly related to the poets life and livelihood, on the deeds that bring inspiration and the rewards of poetic success. For those of us who approach the work intending to be a poet-seer in the old ways, we can simply proceed. For those of us who may have different path in life, whether the warrior or the merchant or another profession, there’s no reason why wisdom and inspiration won’t serve equally well. So we have tweaked the work of the Cauldron of Motion to be more broadly applicable to the ‘vocation’ of whoever might undertake the work.

Fó topar tomseo,

fó atrab n-insce,

fó comair coimseo

con-utaing firse. good is the dwelling of speech,

Good is the well of poetry,

good is the union of power and mastery

which establishes strength.

The Three Cauldrons Attunement
The first two phases of the sequence are performed, the Two Powers are settled into a clear flow in the self, and she establishes herself in her Center. With the Two Powers established in your body, establish thebeginning with your loins.
Envision the Cauldron of Warming low in your Three Cauldrons, belly, see it made of iron, or stone heated by the fire below. intone the name:
Goriath (goh ree ah)
Envision the combined Light and Shadow flowing into your Cauldron of Warming. As it does, open your awareness to your body. Become aware of your flesh and bone, blood and belly and brain, seeking an awareness of your health and wholeness, and, by will, seeing yourself as hale and well in every part.
Envision the Cauldron of Vocation in the heart. See it made of silver and gold, heated be the fire in your heart. Intone the name:
Ernmas (air‘n mahs)
Let the Powers flow into the Cauldron of Movement, and feel your awareness open to your daily life and work, to the deeds and events of your life. Become aware of your place in the world, among kin and folk and the wide world. From the center that is the Cauldron see the webs of relationship and mutuality that hold your life together. See them made strong, whole and helpful.
Envision the Cauldron of Wisdom in your head. See it made of crystal and amber, lit and warmed by the fire above. Intone the name:
Sofhis (so wish)
Let the Two Powers flow into the Cauldron of Wisdom, and open your spirit to your spiritual way and work. As the Fire and Water fill the Cauldron open your mind to the sources of divine awareness in your life. Feel your Allies draw close, and the Divine In You shine and flow, filling you with the Mead of Inspiration.
As you wish, and as you are able, let your mind rest in balance between these three Cauldrons. Broaden your attention to allow the three sets of images to flow and intertwine. In this weaving there may be things to be learned. Understand that these Cauldrons are always in you, always turned or turning, just as the Two Powers always flow in you. Rest and work in this state as long as you like. Conclude with a prayer or gesture of thanks and closure.

on to pt 4