Sublime

Caitlín Matthews, The Little Book of Celtic Blessings, Element Books, Shaftesbury, 1994.

I had known and studied with Ross Nichols, had trained in psychology and psychotherapy, and in 1988 was asked to lead the Order he had founded twenty-four years previously. The Order published the course that I had created with the help of a number of writers, including Ross Nichols and John and Caitlín Matthews.

Bridget (Briget, Brede)-Goddess of the Sacred Fire, the sun, hearth, and home. Fire of fire, the bride Goddess of inspiration, poetry, medicine, healing, and smithcraft. Associated with the fire pot, her brass shoe, and the spindle and distaff.

The basic Celtic social unit was the tribe, or clan, which was, for all practical purposes, an extended family, capable of expansion through marriage, fosterage (as in the case of King Arthur), conquest, assimilation, and so forth. The tribe usually resided in and developed an association with a specific area. Early Celtic tribes bonded closely

Love of Peace Druids were traditionally peace-makers, and still are: each ceremony begins with Peace to the Quarters, there is a Druid’s Peace Prayer, and Druids plant peace groves.

In The Soul's Code, Mr. Hillman introduces the concept of the daimon. Daimon is a Greek word. The equivalent term in Latin is genius. Both words refer to an inhering spirit. We are born, each of us, (says James Hillman) with our own individual daimon. The daimon is our guardian. It knows our destiny. It kens our calling.

The daimon then becomes the source of human ethics, and the happy life—what the Greeks called eudaimonia—is the life that is good for the daimon. Not only does it bless us with its calling, we bless it with our style of following.

Sheep, on the other hand, are always completely dependent on their shepherd. They never outgrow their need for the shepherd to care for them, feed them, lead them, and protect them. The shepherd cares for the newborn lambs and is still there when the sheep grow old and weak.