A Circle of Stones: Journeys and Meditations for Modern Celts - Erynn Rowan Laurie 1995

Foreword

Three candles that illumine every darkness:

truth, nature, knowledge

from the Irish Triads

The ancient Celts were a people immersed in poetry. Their written records tell us that the most highly respected people in society were poets and story-tellers, those who kept alive the fire of tradition. Poetry was history, genealogy, praise and damnation. In a way, poetry was the magic of creation itself bringing into being the great heroes the acts of the deities and the memory of the people. The Senchus Mar, or the Great Ancient Laws of the Irish say that “the preserving shrine is nature and what is preserved in it,” and that all things are “connected by a thread of poetry.”

In the modern world, we have lost this deep poetic passion, this connecting thread. Our link with myth and nature's preserving shrine has been shattered; our lives follow the rapid rhythm of machines and not liquid bird song or the blowing of wind through scented trees. Still, some people attempt to break free from the tyranny of scientific materialism that dis-spirits and de-sacralizes the natural world.

Modern Paganism's varied traditions have rites to celebrate the turning of the seasons, rituals for marking the passages of human life, and celebrations of the waxing and waning of the moon. We seek to reconnect with the rhythms of our ancestors, to touch and share their experience of the sacred through acknowledging the movement of time in its cycles. In small individual acts of courage, we attempt to re-weave the fabric of our poetic connections with nature.

Many spiritual traditions recommend meditations upon rising, before the activity of the day begins, and again in the evening, as a reflection upon the day's accomplishments. Within this book are poems drawn from Celtic oral and literary tradition, accompanied by modern affirmations, meditations and activities. They are arranged as a circle of stones, a sacred space that we can enter in the morning and after our day's work is done, or any time that we need to pause and remember the power of poetry to calm or excite the soul.

Within the circle, ways of journeying into the three realms of land, sea and sky are taught. These are powerful tools for seeking wisdom and developing and deepening our connection with the earth. The techniques take time, as do all worthwhile things. No promises of instant success or enlightenment are made. The most significant accomplishment within the circle lies in contemplative repetition, using its gentle rhythm to reach a peaceful state of consciousness for sorting through the cares of the day and affirming that tomorrow our work can be done in greater harmony with the world around us.

We cannot go back in time to ask the ancient Celts how they practiced their religions, meditated, or traveled into the Otherworlds. Their religious traditions did not survive intact into this century, much as we might desire to learn their secrets. Because of this, what is presented here can only be a partial reconstruction and an extrapolation based on best guesses and existing source material. It is not, and cannot be an ancient path. Like all other modern Pagan traditions, it is a creation of our time and place, for modern practitioners. This circle of stones was birthed with the hope that it preserves something of the feel of early Celtic religion, bringing those concepts forward in a manner suitable for modern times and modern people. It is an attempt to find the connecting thread of poetry.

As with any act of creation, this book would not have been possible without several things. First, there has been the inspiration of friends. There is also the deeply appreciated support and encouragement of my husband over the four years it has taken to compile the right poetic pieces and to set concepts on paper. Many people have given generously of their time and effort as I have shamelessly cloistered myself; ransacking libraries, spending entire nights in front of the phosphor screen, refusing to eat because I had to type “just one more page.” The work of a writer is not one of moderation.

My thanks go to Moondancer, Raven and Zanoni for the original idea of a meditation circle; to Helen and Manya, who understand me when I'm possessed by the spirit of writing and take me out to eat when I've been at it too long; to Bjoern, who typed in the manuscript; to my online friends who have been behind me all the way, especially John G., who had enough faith in the work to take it to a publisher; and to Brendan at Eschaton, for taking a chance on an unknown author. Most of all my love to Gordon for his infinite patience, fervent faith and deep dedication, without whom none of this would have been possible.

Erynn Rowan Laurie

Seattle, 1994

The illustrations in this book are by the often-used but rarely-credited George Bain, beloved of Celtophiles everywhere