"Come to the edge", he said.
They said, "We are afraid".
"Come to the edge", he said.
They came.
He pushed them ...
and they flew.
-Guilluame Apollinaire
"Who we are from conception to death isn't the whole story, our life in the universe isn't the whole story, and the universe itself isn't the whole story...and a day will come when we all of us will have stars at elbow and foot."
-John Moriarty, in an interview with RTE
Posts Tagged ‘maelduin’
pay heed to the herdsman
There is an island where there is a spear-burning river that keeps us away from the calves. Such a river need not be deep to protect the calves. Go, dip your spear in that shallow river and watch. Even small things can weigh heavy here. The calves of this island are calves, but appear to our young eyes to be great and magnificent oxen. Yet they are calves. The river is shallow. The herdsman on this island is huge.
Pay heed to the herdsman.
Don’t cross the burning river.
Even small meals must prepared. The branch must be given time to blossom the nourishing apples. The calf cannot will itself to grow. The mothers of the calves, we learn, are on the other side of this island. We must travel to the other side of the island. We must leave the calves and travel to the mothers on the other side of the island.
Pay heed to the herdsman.
Don’t cross the burning river.
Read the rest of this entry »
life is through that door: the journey to the depths
So now, let us prepare our boats and let us set out to sea. It is time for us to leave. But what am I saying? It is time for me to leave. It is time for you to leave. This journey must be taken alone. We are our own crew. Our entire Self must accompany us. We must undertake this journey fully as our Self with all parts. No more. No less. Be aware: any part that we take into our crew that is not truly part of our Self, will not return.
This is the journey to the depths. There is no safety.
We must sail the sea of glass. The sea of clarity. The sea of honesty. The journey to the depths demands clarity. Demands honesty. No easy thing. We cannot hide from our Self behind parts not of our Self. The journey to the depths will be one of cleansing.
the mantra of fionn
At times the singing voice of Mananaan Mac Lir rises above the din of the sea to reach my ears in a symphony of longing and serenity.
At other times, the din of silence drowns his voice out. At times, the noises of my thoughts chasing and bleeding into one another destroy all sounds, and strain as I might, I cannot hear the singing.
Perhaps this is the way it is supposed to be. Perhaps not. Perhaps I am on the wrong path. I don’t know. All I know is that this is the way it is, for me, currently. I have to start where I am. We all have to start where we are.
Posted in The Silver Branch | 
Tags: beauty, bran, druid, druidism, fionn, forest, human, lesson, maelduin, mananaan mac lir, music, oisin, osgar, patrick, sacred places, sea, serenity, sheep, silver branch, song | 
No Comments »
the son of the edge of battle
But for now we are in trouble. We have been raided. We are dead. We find ourselves in the paradoxical moment that is both death and birth.
Do we need a book of the dead?
Do we need a book of the living?
Could the book of the dead also be the book of the living?
This great book could show us the way into life within death, death within life. What wonders await us?
What perils?
Is there such a book? Is there a book of the living and of the dead, or should we leave the dead to the dead and seek a new way of living? A way of living that arises out of the death. Where is the way to move from this terrible moment where we are not dead yet we do not live, where we have perished, and have been birthed? Is there such a book to show us the way out of this terrible moment?