Ancestors, e. e. cummings, Spirit, Shamanism and Awe of Life

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

I attended a shamanic workshop this weekend near Athens/Albany, Ohio at a place called Dragon Waters in the foothills of the Appalachians in which I was born. It was a wonderful rejuvenating experience, and the connections I made were pretty amazing, both in this reality and in the Otherworld. The above poem by e.e. cummings was quoted in Tom Cowan's book, "Yearning for the Wind: Celtic Reflections on Nature and the Soul". I came upon the poem last night while reading and eating dinner at a Waffle House on my drive back from Ohio. I sat there and wept silently because it encapsulated so much about the weekend I'd just had. Well, also because I was dead tired.

The workshop was called the Circle of the Ancestors, and its purpose is to reconnect you with real ancestral allies in your family line. I knew that both sides of the family originated in Ireland, Scotland and England, but before the mid-1800's we really don't know much. My great grandmother, Brentice Senora Roberts's family came over from Ireland sometime in the 1800's but we don't know from where or who the connections are over there. (As a side-note my first name is Robert and almost all males on my Dad's side of the family have this name somewhere as a way of honoring the Roberts's.) As always, I'm skeptical about this kind of work until I'm thumped on the head by my spirit allies and actually do it and recieve useful, accurate information. Which, oh boy, did I receive in spades.

As is usual for journeying, one's intention plays a central part in what the journey is about, where you go, who you meet, and the quality of information that you get out of it. In journeying for these two days my intention was to meet an ancestor who has skills/insight into helping me the most with my current life situations, conundrums, blockages, frustrations, unlocking my musical, intuitive and shamanic abilities, and for helping me make a dang living at it all. This was a lot to ask for, and a little vague, so I wasn't expecting much to be honest.

For the first journey we were told to go to the Spirit of Place where your ancestor resided. I was flown there from above around the Moon through mists to a very specific headwaters of a river (running westward; this was importantly and repeatedly stressed). There was a mountain to the right, and a dolmen-type hut or house or burial ground on a rise slightly to the left across the river, and a simple low arched bridge made of stone, I thought down to the right and along a dirt road or path that skirted the mountain. The river had a feminine spirit and red/blond hair, and she also seemed to be coming out of some sort of cave in the mountain - I couldn't see where it ran off the side of the mountain, and I had the impression that just around the bend where I couldn't see it came directly out. She merely laughed when I asked her name. I get that kind of answer a lot in my journeys, so I'm used to the "ha ha, just you wait and see" attitude. Which now I understand is a message from the spirits that presages a particularly potent set of journeys, as it's happened that way time and time again. My exact words about the dolmen in my journey journal are: "the dolmen seemed also like a church or sacred place of worship. The allies showed me a picture of an arched church facade (cathedral?) overlaid over the front of the dolmen."

The next journey was to meet an ally associated with the same Place. I met a specific tree whom I had met in previous journeys, and he said strongly that he works with water and moon together. "We are three and work in concert, yet I am central". He was far more animated and clear in this journey than he has been ever before. Which always convinces me that I'm making this shit up.

The third journey was to meet the ancestor himself. I journeyed back to the Place, and asked the new ally of Place to take me to my ancestor. So he turned into a canoe and brought Moon along, and with the help of the river we flowed downstream to a place where the river widened into a lakey kind of area. On the north shore was another dolmen-like hut, and a small man wearing green and brown homespun smoking "bog-weed" (his words, and no, I still don't know what it is) in a simple clay pipe. He has the look of people in my family, short, grinning, round head, sort of Hobbit-y.

In subsequent journeys we were asked to connect to plant spirits shown to us by our new allies. Typically I get things in threes, so I was shown three different plants. The first had a specific height of about a foot (maybe a smidge larger), flower cluster and leaf shape, growing on a bank of a stream very near the water shaded by trees and I was given the information (through body-felt sense) that it was good for congested lungs and also for general calming and restfulness. I asked "are you sure?" at least twice, and the same body-felt sense was confirmed both times. Ever curious, I poked around the web this morning and found out that it is Primula pulverulenta, and that it grows in Ireland in bogs along the banks of streams and rivers, and that it is used for cough and congestion, as well as for sleeplessness.

This always amazes me to get such strong validation on things about which I know nothing.

I also found that the River Shannon originates in northerly parts of Ireland ("The source of the Shannon is in the Cuilcagh Mountains in south County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, from where it flows through Shannon Cave, and rises at Shannon Pot in County Cavan. The river runs through/between 13 of Ireland's 32 Counties" according to Wikipedia), and though she flows north/south, she does indeed flow west at several points, enlarging to lake-ish parts. "Within three miles of its source it is joined by the Owenmore, which drains the Cuilcagh Mountains and by the time it reaches Dowra, above five miles away, a wide stone bridge is needed to cross it."

It is believed that the earliest inhabitants arrived there around five thousand years ago when tribes such as the Tuatha de D'Anann, the Formorians, the Milesians and the Celts found their way up the rivers Erne and Shannon. Proof of this are the dolmens, ringed forts, caiseals, passage graves and lake dwellings. The numerous caves and underground passages provided a natural home for these early settlers. The ringed forts were built as a defence against the wolves and eagles during the Bronze Age and were used up to the twelfth century and even later.

Source: http://www.hoganstand.com/general/identity/extras/island/stories/cuilcagh.htm

Near Shannon Pot in the Burren ("rocky area") is a dolmen and balanced rock called the Druid's Altar.

I am so warmed and blessed by this information. Over the last two years I've been connecting with many, many Celtic elements and deities, but I didn't know that that's what they were: Water, Willow, Moon, Earth, things arriving in threes, the songs of stars and of green and growing things, my love of Mountains and the Sea, of misty air and cool nights. Also specific and obscure deities with very specific traits which were shown me right away and which I've only begun to verify. This is huge confirmation that this is all very real and that my source of spirit and power lies deeply ensconced in Celtic history and tradition, and though I used to pooh-pooh people who dabbled with "faeries" and celtic spirituality and paganism, after today's discoveries I'm a total convert and am so eager to dig more and journey deeper into these mysteries that I can hardly stand it.

I mean, honestly, I've not studied Irish geography, had no idea that there even was a River Shannon, nor that there would be mountain, bridge, and dolmen in the vicinity of her headwaters, or that she flowed West from her headwaters or that she widened into a lake-ish place. Or that people actually lived in the dolmens, or that there were lake-dwelling peoples. Or that they were that ancient. And I know nothing about herbalism.

I've always been fascinated with Druids, but have never said anything to anyone about this. Last year when I told my dad that I was doing shamanic practice, he said to me, "So, are you going to become a Druid?", and I just laughed and said, "no", but felt funny saying so, because I thought to myself, "I just might". Now, I'm more sure. The more I find out about them, the more appealing I find them - their love of trees and everything living. They seem to be very much like a Celtic version of Native Americans thankfully within my very own heritage stream, so I have no qualms about using the rituals and information I get from here, whereas I've always felt squeamish about borrowing from Native American spirituality regardless of how strongly I felt drawn to it, and despite the fact that I have a keen affinity for it's elements, philosophy and core beliefs. Plus, I've been longing to live in a Hobbit House, a dolmen dwelling if ever I saw one ever since I read The Hobbit in seventh grade. I've even got my underground Hobbit House designed on paper, and when I saw the rendition of Bag End in the Lord of the Rings movies, it was almost exactly as I had imagined and designed.

Now, I have all of that; a clear, deep connection with the earth and it's spirits, rituals, rhythms and beauty, yet I don't have to usurp and borrow someone else's traditions to fulfill my yearnings: I have my very own, and I can explore them deeply with my new ancestral connection. Part of the journey work that we learned this weekend is also to explore other ancestral connections, which I'm just itchin' to do.

A friend at the coffee shop today asked me about the usefulness and purpose of shamanism, and I detected both fear and skepticism in his voice. My reply was that it's primary purpose and deep motivation is to connect, to provide ways to strengthen the bonds of your community, ease discord, to receive help from your allies to resolve conflicts, problems, and for information from plant spirits about healing. Basically it's about Life, Love, and Healing and helping our human Family. This weekend confirmed all of that for me once again. I've come away with great awe at the power of shamanic practice, a new love and respect for my Irish ancestry, and I am eagerly looking forward to this new ancestral relationship I have begun with my many-times great-great-[n]-Grandfather, to putting his wisdom to work, and to using his skill and knowledge in my current-day life and healing work. I'm repeatedly dumbstruck that obtaining incredibly useful information is as easy as journeying, but ... it is. That's why shamanism has existed as long as people have.

May the blessing of light be on you
Light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
So that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
Like a candle set in the window of a house,
Bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.

May you ever give a kindly greeting to those whom you pass as you go along the roads.

May the blessing of the rain, the sweet, soft rain, be on you,
May it beat upon your Spirit
And wash it fair and clean,
And leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
And sometimes a star.

May the blessing of the earth be on you,
Soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
Soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
And may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you
That your soul may be out from under it quickly;
Up and off and on its way to God.

~ Traditional Irish or Scottish

Irish, and proud of it.

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