Anam Cara
 

I haven’t walked my Labyrinth in a while, but this morning, this was the mediation that my book opened up to, and I realized that even Mika, needs a wisdom lesson reminder.

As in all things it carries layers upon layers and I share it because I think it also speaks to the whole of the connection we have with each other on the forum.

The Wounded Gift

One of the great powers of love and relationships is balance,
It helps us move toward transfiguration.
When two (or more) people come together,
An ancient circle closes between them.
They also come to each other
Not with empty hands,
But with hands full of gifts for each other.
Often they are wounded gifts,
This awakens the dimension of healing within.
When you really care or love someone,
You shine the light of your soul on them.

We know from nature that sunlight
Brings everything to growth.
If you look at flowers
Early on a spring morning,
They are all closed.
When the light of the sun catches them,
They trustingly open out
And give themselves to the new light.

When you care or love someone
Who is very hurt,
One of the worst things you can do
Is directly address the hurt and make an issue out of it.
A strange dynamic comes alive in the soul
If you make something into an issue.
It becomes a habit
And keeps recurring in a pattern.
Frequently,
It is better to acknowledge that there is
A wound there,
But then stay away from it.
Every chance you get,
Shine the gentle light of the soul
On the wound.

It is helpful to remember
That there are ancient resources
Of renewal and refreshment
In the circle of friendship and love
That bring and hold you together.
The destiny of your relationship
Is never dependent
Merely on the fragile resources
Of your separate subjectivities.
You can invoke the healing
Third force of light
Between you;
This can bring forgiveness, consolation,
And healing in stony times.

When you care or love someone,
It is destructive
To keep scraping at the clay
Of your belonging.
There is much to recommend
Not interfering with your caring connection.
Two (or more) people who care or love each other
Should never feel called to explain
To an outside party,
Why they care, cherish, connect or love each other,
Or why they belong or are together.
The place that they belong
Is a secret and safe place.
Their souls know why they are together;
And they should trust that togetherness.

If you keep interfering
With your connection with each other,
Your love, your friends, your Anam Cara,
You gradually begin to force
A distance between you.
If you keep shining the neon light
Of analysis and accountability
On the tender tissue
Of your belonging, your friendship, your connection,
You make it parched and barren.

A person should always offer a prayer
Of graciousness
For the caring, compassion, empathy, love
That has awakened in them.
When you feel for your friend or love
And their caring or love for you,
Now and again you can offer
The warmth of your caring as a blessing
For those who are damaged and unloved.
Send it out into the world
To people who are desperate,
To those who are starving,
To those who are trapped,
To those who are sick,
Into all the terrains of those whose
Lives are struggling, bleak and suffering.
When you send that caring, that love out
From the bountifulness of your own love,
It reaches other people.
This love is deepest power of prayer.


A Friendship Blessing
May you be blessed with good friends.
May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.
May you be able to journey
To that place in your soul
Where there is great love
Warmth, feeling and forgiveness.
May this change you.
May it transfigure that which in negative,
Distant, or cold in you.
May you be brought
To the real passion, kinship, and
Affinity of belonging.
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them
And may you be there for them.
May they bring you all the blessings,
Challenges, truth, and light
That you need for your journey.
May you never be isoloated.
May you always be in the gentle nest
Of belonging
With your anam cara.

Quoted from - Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom - by John O'Donohue

Sacred Spaces - The Spirit of the Way
 

Once again I return to the labyrinth and begin walking again!

'Humankind has lost its way'
This sentiment surfaces
frequently
in our age,
and sometimes
it does feel
as though
everything is falling
apart around us -
not just
in our
personal crises,
but,
increasingly,
in what feels
like a shake-up
of all
our collective
certainties.

The structures
that have held us
more or less
together
in recent centuries
no longer hold.
National,
Cultural, and
Religious
Identities
are no longer
absolute.
Physics
and mathematics
are venturing
into the same
oceans of uncertainty.
Ethics and morality
are in a turmoil
of contradictions
and dilemmas.

So have we
really
lost our way?
Or have we
just mislaid it
for a while?
Has our 'way'
perhaps
become
buried
underneath
all the complications
we have
constructed
on top of it?

If we burrow
down
into the earth
of our human
spiritual experience
and searching,
we come across
the traces
of may 'ways'.

It seems,
then,
that in ancient
as in modern times,
the human heart
has always been
looking
for a way.
But a way to what?
What are we
actually
looking for?
Where or who
is the destination?

If we look back
over
several thousand years
we will find
a plethora
of answers -
some of them
very definitive -
to that question.

The Spirit
of the Way,
will not allow us
to pitch camp
and stay
forever
with these
artificial
certainties.

The Spirit
of the Way,
is much simpler,
and
more challenging
then that.

The plants
and animals,
and even
our small children
know
with a wisdom
deeper
than ours,
that the Way
is simply
about growing
and becoming
whoever
we really are
in the core
of our being.

It is about
recognizing
the acorn
in our hearts
and trusting
the process
by which
it will
become an oak.

It is about
cooperating
with that process
of Becoming,
about keeping
our feet
on the earth
of our own lived
experience,
even as
we reach out
to the horizon
beyond us.

It is about
letting
our own personal
Becoming
be fully engaged
with the evolution,
physical
intellectual
and spiritual,
of the whole
of creation.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Sacred Spaces - The Spirit of the Way
 

The spirit
of the Way.
follows a path
that was walked
by one branch
of the human family,
just one way
of traveling,
The Celtic Way,
but it resonates with
and reveres,
the spiritual quest
of all humankind,
since life
on earth
began.

Institutionalism
has built
many a solid edifice
on top
of this path,
but not so much
as to
obliterate
its traces.
Now
as some of those
edifices
are starting
to break down,
more and more
spiritual journeyers
are seeking out
these neglected
pathways
and discovering,
in joy,
that they are
ways
which can be trusted,
ways
of deep simplicity
that truly lead them
closer to
the heart
of themselves
and the heart
of creation.

The 'way'
is a journey,
not a structure.
It is a process
of growth,
It has many faces,
of which
the Celtic face
is but one.
The Celtic Way itself
has many facets.

It invites you
to spend
a little time
in seven
'sacred spaces'.
And as you pause
to reflect
on your experience,
it invites you
to weave
your own story
into the story
of creation,
and to let
your own dreams
and desires
rise up,
like the Celtic cross,
to join the earth
you live on
to the heaven
you strive for.

This will point
towards
a few signposts
for such a journey.
The rest
is a place
of encounter,
sacred and unique
to you
and your Becoming,
a place
where the invisible
and the visible,
in yourself
and in all creation,
can become
reconnected.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Sacred Spaces - The Spirit of the Way
 

For the Celts
there was never
any shadow
of doubt
that these two worlds,
the visible
and the invisible,
the material
and the spiritual,
were one.
In every way
the visible
and the invisible
were interwoven,
as surely
as the air
we breath
and the food
we eat
come together
to give life
to our bodies.


The invisible
was separated
from our
sense perceptions
only by
the permeable
membrane
of consciousness.
Sometimes
that membrane
could seem as solid
as a brick wall.
Sometimes
it could seem
very thin.
Even today
we speak
of some places
as being
'thin places',
where that presence
of the invisible
and the spiritual
is almost palpable.

Our Celtic forebears
revered
such 'thin places'
as 'sacred space'.
They sensed
intuitively
that here
the visible world
was totally
interpenetrated
by an invisible world
which is a mystery,
yet which is
somehow
in relationship
with us.

They are places
where we stand
still,
in awe,
where
the barrier between
our time-bound selves
and our
eternity seeking selves
is lowered.

They encapsulate
something
of the mystery
towards which they point,
and they help
to make
this mystery
real
and incarnate
in our human lives.

They invite us
to experience
glimpses
of transcendence
and help us
to live
our everyday lives
in the light
of the vision
of a reality
beyond ourselves.

They are personal
to each of us,
but they are
the space
in which we are drawn
to an inclusive wholeness
where we are all one
in unity.
They are places
of community,
sacred for each,
sacred to all.

They speak
to our hearts
personally,
as a friend
might speak.
They are not
doctrinal,
but experiential.
They draw us
into deeper
community
with each other,
with the whole
circle of creation,
and with
a creating power
who holds
all in being
and desires
to be in relationship
with every creature.

Sacred space,
whether a
geographical location
or space within
our own experience,
has the ability
to move us
forward
towards
some new growth
of Becoming.
It holds a call
towards transcendence,
if we have
the ears to hear!

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Sacred Space - The Spirit of the Way
 

This is not
a travel guide
for a personalized
ego trip,
when we go
deep
into our own
sacred space,
we move closer
to the center
and heart
of all creation.
There we encounter
each other,
and the eternal
presence
in which
we are held.
We discover
a web
of interrelatedness
that calls us
into a unity
which defies
separateness
and estrangement
from each other,
in which
many of us
live our lives
today.

Woven
into this exploration
of sacred space
is the thread
of our own story,
told in the
various chapters,
or stages
of our lives.
Each of the 'stations'
on the journey
reflects
something
of one
of the successive stages
of our living
and searching,
though,
our life stages
are never
as regular
or consistent
as this might imply.
They weave
their own patterns,
sometimes
leaping forward,
sometimes
winding back
upon themselves
and re-emerging
in a new place,
in a new way,
like the intricacies
of the Celtic knot.

The stations
along this Celtic Way
will frequently
invite you
to stop
for a while
and go
into your own
inner space
for reflection.
The journey
will not unfold
itself to the full
unless
we take time
to stand back
and become
aware
of who
we really are.

This is a journey
for all
who have ever
experienced
a glimpse
of eternity
slanting down
through the clouds
of everyday.


quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

Coincidentally also "Sacred Spaces"
 

"Coincidentally, I have a poem which I entitled "Sacred Spaces". I thought I might share it here:

SACRED SPACES

Within my Father’s house, there are many mansions
But all paths lead, winding back, to the blue room
For within its walls, every thing abides, waiting
What you may find, is consistent in its peaceful motion
And He shall lead them, a little child, an ancient shaman,
Through the wall of liquid glass; shining, flowing, distortionless
Everything lives vibrant within the blue room, you see?
Strangely familiar, analogous and real; you are present
It helps if your conscious mind, is sleeping, or a little drunk
To blithely accept the second world; no preparation suffices
We exist within the third world, a mundane echo of the bell
Praying for that precious blue room moment, the bell’s chime
For we are not ready yet, to give up our homely mansions
To fuse ourselves, selflessly, into that glimmering curtain wall
Where we are the bell, silently ringing, eternally, only once
Or at least i guess it so; never aware beyond the blue room

Alyara Arati, from my heart, thank you so much for sharing .. such a beautiful poem! :')

It 'rings' so true and resonates so harmoniously! My soul just lept for joy!

:)

Thank you so much! Truly, I value your comments. And I am so glad that through this I was able to bring you joy!

The Infinite Knot - The Weaving of the Dream
 

For all of us,
the only beliefs
to which
our deepest heart
and soul
can consent
are those
which our personal
experience
endorses.
Sacred spaces
are opportunities
to meet
that experience
all allow it
to take us
beyond itself.
And then
to discover
for ourselves
what the mystery
we call life
means
for us
and where
it is drawing us.

The Infinite Knot,
the weaving
of the dream,
It is remarkably
difficult
to follow
a single thread
through
the intricacies
and convolutions
of one of the
infinite-knot patterns,
which are a hallmark
of Celtic heritage.
If you try,
you may find
your mind
becomes occupied,
as if by a mantra,
leaving your deeper
consciousness
more open
to the whispers
of eternity.
It can be
even more
difficult
to follow
the knotted threads
of our own lives
and feelings
without losing sight
of the balance
in which
they are
ultimately held.
More difficult,
but even more
liberating.

The knot
holds us
in a state
of suspended
contradictions.
We know,
with our minds,
that we are
finite.
We are born,
We live
our span of years,
and we die.
The knot
contradicts
this knowledge
with its statement
of endlessness,
and in our
deeper reaches
something
knows this, too,
is true.
Something
in the depths of us
is unending -
or at the very least
it is intimately joined
to a reality
that is unending.

With our minds
we know
our lives
are a mass
of complication.
If you think back
to yesterday,
or forward
to tomorrow,
you will surely
become aware
of a whole catalog
of problems,
dilemmas,
choices,
and compromises,
beaten
into some kind
of shape
on the anvil
of your circumstances.
A far cry
from the perfect balance
of the infinite knot.
Yet
in your deeper reaches
there are whispers
of simplicity,
harmony,
a joining
of opposites,
a reconciliation
or irreconcilables.

These deeper reaches
are not
the realms of fantasy.
They are sending
signals
to us
from layers
of our being
that lied below
the conscious mind's
domain.
If they were not real,
with real power
to transform,
then our psyche
would not
be registering
any interest
in they symbols
of infinity,
such as
the Celtic knot.
As it is,
the knot
fascinates us,
just as it
fascinated
our forebears,
and it draws us
ever more deeply
into itself,
a place of paradox
becoming
a sacred space
within us,
guiding us
to a deeper discovery
of who
we really are,
who
we are becoming,
and in what
wholeness
we are all held!

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

These show so much of yourself :)

:)

I think for any of us, particularly with a Celtic Heritage, it probably speaks!

The Infinite Knot - The Weaving of the Dream
 

The Western Isles of Scotland,
the sea,
dotted with islands,
large and small,
green and barren,
smooth and rocky.
From some
points of view
there appear to be
hundreds of islands
and rocky outcrops,
as if some giant
had dropped
a bag of jewels
in the sea.
At dawn
or at sunset
they shine
like diamonds.
In stormy weather
they strike terror
into the hearts
of seafarers,
as their craggy teeth
reach up
from the waters
to seize
unwary craft
and suck them down
to destruction.

Even if you
are not familiar
with this part
of the world,
you will probably
have known islands
of your own,
or you will
be able to
imagine
our world
in the way we see it
when we look
at its outer surface -
an expanse of oceans,
dotted with land masses,
large and small,
continents
and islands.

It isn't difficult
to take this
imagined scene
further
and realize
that we
human beings
live our lives
of these land masses.
We are all
islanders.
Some of our islands
are huge continents,
and we lose
our sense of living
on an island.
For those who live
on Isles, however,
the sense of being
islanders
is never far below
consciousness,
and indeed,
so often told,
tend to be
much more
'insular'
than their
'continental'
neighbors.

An island view
of things
can easily
cut us off
from each other
by focusing
on the tides
that divide us
from others.
However,
it also carries the gift
of inviting us
to ponder
the reality
below the tides.
Turn for a moment
to that island vista
we might see
from the Celtic coastlands.
Imagine islands
spread out
all around you.
Imagine your own life
as if it were
an island,
and notice
how that forms
your view
of the islands
around you.
Your 'reality'
is defined
by your island.
Other people live
on their own islands
and have
their own 'reality'.
You may be able
to connect to them
in various ways.
You can make contact
with them,
for example,
by using a boat
or even by
building a bridge.
You can
do business with them,
or exchange
friendly communications.
Or you can
make war on them
and hurl missiles at them.

Humankind knows
a great deal
about how
to carry on
this inter-island
communication.
We do it
all the time.
Each of us
is our own island
and we spend
much of our
waking time
trying
to communicate
with each other's
islands.
We do it
personally,
and we do it
collectively,
as communities,
nations,
ethnic or religious
groupings.
We call it
'dialogue',
and it is
essential
to our humanness.
And,
like the islands
off the craggy
Scottish coast,
our human islands
can also be a focus
of joy and wonder
in our life's journeying,
such, for example,
when we experience love.
Or they can be
the cause of
our shipwrecks,
when we collide
with each other
in the dark.
Whatever
our relations
with our fellow islands,
one thing is clear -
we are dealing
on the surface
of things.
We may relate
to each other
in all kinds of ways,
but as long
as we remain islands,
we can never know
the deeper reality
of each other.
It simply
isn't visible
or tangible,
and it can't be
guessed at.
Islands and continents
are a surface view
of our Earth.
In the same way
they provide
only a surface view
of ourselves
and of each other.

But now
let your imagining
go a little further.
As you gaze
at these islands -
the physical islands
of a remembered coastline,
and the human islands
with whom you are
in daily contact -
just let
the tide go out,
universally.
If this were to happen,
it would become
instantly obvious
that the deeper reality
is very different.
The reality
below the tideline
is not a set
of disconnected islands
and continents
at all,
but a single
lump of rock,
spinning
through space.
We call it the Earth.
It is the bedrock
of our being,
and our islands
and continents
are just
passing pimples
on its surface.

Might not the same
be true
of our inner islands?

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

The Infinite Knot - The Weaving of the Dream
 

Consciously
we live our lives
as if
the center of gravity
were in
our personal island.
This is the way
we survive
as living,
physical,
conscious beings.
But unconsciously,
there is
a largely unexplored
bedrock
of common ground,
and of deep unity.
Physicists, too,
are telling us
that every particle
of creation
is interconnected
with every other particle.
Sometimes
we catch glimpses
of this bedrock unity -
in inexplicable
memories or intuitions,
in dreams,
or meditative prayer.
Sometimes we know
we are touching
the bedrock
when we experience
a moment
of deep communion
or empathy
with another human being,
or even with an animal,
or when we catch
the wonder of creation,
in a starlit night
or a dew-filled dawn,
a baby's touch
or the dying breath
of a loved one.

All of this leads
to the conclusion
that most of life
of which
we are consciously aware
is being lived
at the island level,
spinning round
a center of gravity
which is misleading,
and potentially dangerous.
At a deeper level
we sense
there is a need
to be reconnected,
and guided
by a center of gravity
that lies
not in the 'ego-self',
but in the bedrock
where all of creation
is held in unity
and where our
own true self subsists.
This deep unconscious need
expresses itself
in the desire
to 'belong'.
Occasionally
we are in touch
with this bedrock.
Perhaps someone
looks into your eyes
and sees your heart.
Perhaps creation
itself speaks to you
in a language
that makes you long
to respond with joy
to a touch,
once known,
but lost.
When such things happen,
we are reminded
our our longing
to be permanently
connected
to the wholness
of creation,
and to be
an integral
part of it.
The realization
of this longing
keeps us moving on
and searching.
It keeps us on
the pilgrimage of life.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

The Infinite Knot - The Weaving of the Dream
 

We don't need books
of ancient wisdom
to tell us
that life
is full
of ups and downs.
Sometimes
we feel
'on top of the world',
Sometimes
the world
feels
on top of us.
When we are
on a 'high',
we feel we know
where we are going.
We have
'got it together',
When life
is getting
on top of us
we feel
as though
we are underground,
blind,
without directions
or any sense
of perspective.
If we translate
the feelings
into the language
of weaving,
we can see
how these ups and downs,
these over and unders,
work together,
are essential
to the wholeness
of our lives
and the life
of all creation.
The dark underground bits
are as vital
as the light
overland experiences.
Yet
we are constantly tempted
to stay with our own 'bit'
and lose sight
of the possibility
of a greater 'whole'.
Stuck
with our own small knot,
we feel trapped,
if we are 'underneath',
and maybe
unwarrantedly
self-sufficient
if we are 'on top'.
Our position
at the time
loads
our entire perception
of how things
really are.
We are not alone
with these feelings.
To quote
Winnie-the-Pooh
'I ought to say
that it isn't just
an ordinary sort of boat.
Sometimes it's a Boat,
and sometimes
it's more of an Accident.
It all depends.'
'Depends on what?'
'On whether I'm on top of it
or underneath it.'

It is
one of the great sorrows
of modern life
that we rarely listen
to the inner voice
which so often
speaks in pictures
and symbols.
In our frenzy
to keep the island life
in order,
we dismiss
the possibility
of the vast
underwater world
across which we ply
our little boats
of consciousness.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf

The Infinite Knot - The Weaving of the Dream
 

It is quite
a struggle,
to put these reflections
into words.
The Celts,
however,
managed to do this
in just a single picture -
the picture
of the infinite knot.

This intuition
of things
not understood,
and realities
not quite arrived at,
is nothing new.
It has been part
of our human questing
since the first stirrings
of human consciousness.

The Celtic infinite knot
takes us
to the first
of the sacred spaces
of this pilgrimage,
this journey.
It speaks to us
of the bedrock union
from which our own
truest self springs
and to which
it longs to return.
It defies
a fragmentation
that divides us
so destructively.

What is it
about this symbol
that has the power
to reconnect?
It reminds
that our little span
of consciousness
is just a tiny arc
on the circumference
of something infinite.
It shows
that our own small
piece of thread
is just one snippet
of an eternal spool
of which the 'whole'
is weaving this Dream.
Just one small snippet,
but also a unique
and essential snippet,
without which
the tapestry
cannot become complete,
or the Dream
be dreamed
into its fullness.
It reveals the spaces
between the 'whole' thread.
These are the spaces
of free will, choices,
and where we can meet,
or refuse to meet,
with others
in genuine self-disclosure
and authentic fellow journeying.
The are the spaces
where warp and weft engage.
They are invitations
to be in relationship,
and in community.

Weaving can only happen
when two or more strands
come together.
It is a symbol
of community.
It needs the warp
and the weft.
There is no such thing
as a one-strand cloth.
Nor,
as our Celtic forebears knew
instinctively,
is there any such thing
as a solitary life
pilgrimage,
because
we are one
in the bedrock
and the choices of each
make a difference to all.

Frequently life
can feel like
an impossible tangle,
an insoluble problem.
The infinite knot
helps us to understand
that it is in fact
held in perfect balance,
which is beyond
the grasp of our senses
or our intellect,
if only we could see it
in its wholeness.
The knot gives the view
of the wholeness,
if only in symbolic form.
It is up to you
to discover
real ways,
within your own experience,
of translating that symbol
into the kind of choices
that can change
your perspective
and your way of being human.

quoted from 'Sacred Spaces - Stations on a Celtic Way' by Margaret Silf