We as Druids claim that we take our guidance from the natural world. Well the natural world is often the most challenging teacher. This week I have seen a dog with and elephant and even Baboons adopting puppies as family. Look at the challenges mother nature is throwing at us. Are we ready to be so open or are we still afraid of differences.
We are always so ready to point out differences. To see the us and them, that we forget friendship and love can grow in the strangest of places. Please watch this video and learn that if they can do it what are we waiting for.
We as Druids claim that we take our guidance from the natural world. Well the natural world is often the most challenging teacher. This week I have seen a dog with and elephant and even Baboons adopting puppies as family. Look at the challenges mother nature is throwing at us. Are we ready to be so open or are we still afraid of differences.
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Today has been an interesting day for me as I have made contact with some other people who are walking the pagan monastic path. One of them has even started a yahoo group so I joined today. I am slowly reading through some of their blog posts but I have to say it is a great feeling to find like minded people.
Many years ago I was visiting a friary in the North of England and I was told that linked to the house was a hermit. I asked if it was possible to go and see him and was told yes but not right now as he is away at a hermit’s conference in Wales. Who knows maybe us pagan monastics could one day plan a conference. I wish my fellow seekers on this path a blessed journey and it is truly a merry meet. I have been thinking about tradition over the last few days. Especially about the paradox which exists that for traditions to remain the same then they have to change. If we stay frozen and unchanging in the customs and interpretations of a given time period then as circumstances change we end up looking old fashioned and out of touch, even if that was not your original intention. It would seem that some aspects of a tradition can be traditional but they can not all be ancient, for the tradition will have to adapt in some degree for it to remain meaningful and for people to be able to understand that meaning clearly.
The Christian churches have a lot of traditions but they are in no way like the churches of the first century. We as pagans and druids have to do the same thing. There is value in knowing our past and understanding what the druids of ancient day actually did, but do we still need to do the same things. The answer has to be no. We do not live in the same world no matter how much we wish we did. We have to take the ideas of our forefathers and use them in a way which speaks to people today. I have no doubt that as our world has evolved for good and for bad, and with us the Gods too have evolved. They are growing with us. This is an exciting part of our faith. So try not to get to caught up in well the ancient Celts did not do that. Well yes true but the ancient Celts did not sit a computers communicating with millions of people all over the globe. The question that has to be asked is does this tradition speak to me. Does it help me to connect to that which is greater than me (the Gods?). If you can answer yes then it has value. This is why we in the OSC have stated quite clearly that our traditions will change. We are looking to speak to the now with our eyes firmly fixed on a glorious future being propelled along by all that was great from the past. As a side line might bite is fine now. I have taken some medicine and my hand is normal size. So thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers. It turns out I am allergic to that type of insect bite… who would have known… nothing bite in the UK. Here it seems everything wants a little piece of you. Today I can't post as I have been bitten by a spider and my hand is all swollen. I will get back to it as soon as I can. Please remember me in your prayers. Thanks
Last night it rained here and rained quite a bit. After evening prayer I felt the urge to go outside and just sit for a bit. Have you ever just sat outside at night? Now I am very lucky that I live outside the city, surrounded by bananas and trees and fields.
At night when you go outside and just sit in silence then your senses change. Your eyes are no use to you really but your ears really start working and even your sense of smell gets more acute. In the Celtic world the night was really the start of the new day. Just like a seed begins to grow in the darkness of the earth unseen, just as a baby begins life in the darkness of the womb, so the day begins in the darkness of the night. There is a very common theme that the world was created with sound and this seems so true when you sit out at night. You can hear the owls, frogs, crickets and other night creatures singing the world into existence. Even the high pitched screech of the mosquito has its beauty. Being out at night we are able to join nature in a very different way, through smell and sounds. In this way the natural world truly enters into you and you truly become part of it as the creatures of the night pick out your scent too. Let the song of creation wash over you and you will feel its healing force. Drawing boundaries can be dangerous. Whether we draw these lines internally or externally we run into the danger of losing site of the interconnectedness of all things. Yet we know the Celts drew boundaries around their settlements. Yet always along the edge of these settlements lived the wise folk. These folk walked the boundaries they were neither one nor the other. This is the role of Monastic druidry to get back to be the people of the boundaries to speak from a place of change. To do everything from that place of transformation! In this way we can be as a resource to our communities even just as a place to go when you need to talk.
I know this is a lot to ask of a person in this day and age, but it is worth doing. Why not see the issues from all sides. Why not move within the community while being apart. Why not be a resource of lore and healing in the best possible sense just like our ancestors were. Yes also there will be those who will be afraid of us and our path, but this is a part of the price we must pay for walking and living our calling. I see many people within the pagan communities speak of these things then they become entrenched in their little groups. A fancy robe nor ritual a druid makes. A druid is one who does walk the boundaries and often may break them. Too often people get caught up in the truth of one way of doing things...... We do it right because we are ..............! (put any group or political party or even family name you want here and you will soon realise you have heard this sentence so many times.)This is human nature. Yet Boundaries kill parts of our true nature we become separated and possessive, we develop the this is mine and I can do with it what I like attitude. On an individual level we can become self centred and develop self seeking motives. We must walk the boundaries to show there is another way. We must show the path of harmony. We should develop this relationship with all and demonstrate this in our daily lives. We are the cunning women and man of the modern world. Not a role for everyone but an essential role if we are to survive. Today I just did not want to get up. I woke up on time but I just could not bring myself to get out of bed. I lay there for a bit and then I just forced myself up and began my day.
Coming from a Monastic tradition I knew that this was going to happen. There always comes a day where your body goes into revolt and says please let me sleep, I will get sick. I can’t go on like this.... It is mostly a lie..... Yes you will be tired some days and some days maybe you will be too sick to follow the life but those days are never that many. Generally the human body seems to dislike change and will try to re-establish things as they were. This is the first great stumbling block of any one starting his style of living. This is where your own self discipline comes in. Nobody will make you get up. Nobody can make you say your daily office. Nobody except yourself! When you begin this type of life we ask you to make a vow and to except the rule. This is not for reason of control. The vow is not to the other people living the rule. The vow is between you and the Gods. The Celtic way is one of honour and a vow should be kept. That is why you get up that is why you say your prayers and that is why you have to force yourself through this barrier. A couple of days later you will see the joy return and the need to pray will be like a bell sounding deep in your soul. Don’t give up at this hurdle as it will come. Gird yourself and push through. Silence is one of the great arts of conversation. -Marcus Tullius Cicero I have been talking a lot about prayer recently and so I thought I should talk about shutting up. I have finished writing the midday office and in that I have included a period of silence...not meditation, not personal prayer but real silence. Managing silence is not easy because that is when the bogey man can come out and start to run amuck in our heads. This is not all bad.... sometimes we need to listen to our inner noise just to be able to remove it. Silence can strip you bare and open you up to that greater connection. Silence is not an emptiness it is a deep fullness. We are more and more living in a world of instant communication and people are sharing nearly every thought that pops in their heads. There is so much energy consumed in saying nothing. This form of truly external living is very one sided. When do you recharge. When do you fill up again? When do you start to really communicate? These are the challenges of silence. Am I ready for all of these? The answer is quite simply no not yet, but I do know it is time to start. It is in silence that I am finding a new power to face myself and to be happy with myself. How often are you silent? Not doing anything just sitting and waiting. This is when the Gods may just answer you? Now getting up in the mornings is not such a hardship. In fact I am beginning to see it as a joy. It is a joy to see the sunrise. To see the world waking up, and to give thanks for my place in it.
Today I was struck that being there at sunrise in contemplative prayer is like being there as the Gods recreate the world. Each day has become like a small creation and now I am getting to add my energy to that. A very special part of me now exists in each day. I am part of it and it is part of me. I am now truly the owner of my day. It has stopped being something which just happens to me. I am truly connected to this day and all that is in it. Taking time to rise and pray in the mornings is an honour and a chance to experience the great interconnection of all. This web we call life. A web of interdependence of the sacred. Yes we are dependent and the Gods and they on us. Our relationship is not one of Great God above and oh so puny human sending up prayers. Ours is a relationship of mutual dependence of this great interconnection. This is what regular prayer time and especially Morning Prayer gives you, a chance to really connect to that web which so often we as humans forget we belong too. Why not make time and join your energy to the daily recreation of our world. Take your part in owning the day. “I am not afraid of tomorrow,
for I have seen yesterday and I love today.” - William Allen White Every day in our morning prayer we remind ourselves of the fact that all we can change is today. All we have control over is now. We begin each day with the salutation to the dawn and in that we say. For yesterday is but a dream And tomorrow is only a vision But today well lived Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness And every tomorrow a vision of hope What we are learning here is that if you want to change your life then you must start today. You can’t really do much about what you did yesterday except learn from it, and tomorrow does not exist, so all you are able to do today is live. All changes in our lives have to begin today. Stop putting off all those things that you want to do. When you go to bed tonight and review your day it is so nice to be able to do that with a smile on your face. How will you feel come sunrise tomorrow....... So why wait start today, even better start now. And may all your tomorrows be filled with visions of hope. |
AuthorI am the Reverend Mark P Charlton. I live and work in the South east of Mexico. This is a look at the ongoing experiences of life of a monastic druid. The Order of the Sacred Nemeton basically started after a number of discussions with different people. If you would like to help us grow please contact me using the contact page Archives
February 2012
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