Page 26
www.celtic-connection.com
NOVEMBER 2008
Divine Eyes Shine Through November Darkness
'The sun shines through a partially overcast sky. As I glance up, I see the sun while simultaneously the middle of my chest "sees " the sun as well.
The image my body sees of the sun is an eye, an oculus, that is viewing me through the same eye through which lam viewing it."
- Emergent image, 2008
"The eye with which I see God is the eye with which God sees me." - Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, 1260-1328
By CYNTHIA AUSTIN
It is said that it is "a gift to be seen." It is November and the baleful eye of the Cailleach, the Celtic "loathsome lady" is cast across the landscape. What do we know about that chilling vision? Who orwhatis it that is seen?
In 1973 Frederick Franck wrote "a non-creative environment is one that constantly bombards us... with noise, with agitation andvisual stimuli."
Franck's writing presaged the environment that most of us find ourselves in today. Competition for our attention span - for our mere glance - extends to any venue where there might be space to advertise an opinion or a product. But what is it we are looking for?
Jungian analyst Marialuisa Donati writes of the "withdrawal of aura" from our world. "Aura," in this case is the implication that "in every glance is the anticipation of the glance being returned. To feel the aura of something means to give it the power of returning our glance."
Donati continues that, if objects and experiences in our world seem meaningless, they have "lost their aura," becoming objectified and exploited like the lifeless stares of beautiful women and men from magazine and webpages. We look, we do not touch and we do not see.
Franck wrote of taking students to sketch scenes on the grounds of a college. They sketched vistas and scenic settings.
Then Franck instructed, "Now, open your eyes and focus on whatever you observed before - that plant or leaf or dandelion. Look it in the eye, until you feel it looking back at you. Feel...that it is the most important thing in the universe, that it contains all the riddles of life and death. It does! You are no longer looking, you are Seeing..."
Seeing, not mere looking, is an act of participation. Participation enables a correspondence between the seer and the seen, a relationship between all that is encountered, whether animate or not. To truly see or to truly be seen, one must participate.
There are many ways to "see." The eyes have been considered the seat or mirror of the soul throughout history. Cross-culturally the eye, or oculus symbol spans time as a powerful image of omniscience, enlightenment, all-seeing divinity, synchronicity and the gift of intuition.
Archeologist Marija Gimbutas speculated that primitive Paleolithic representations of the eye were meant to "transform and spiritualize the body to surpass the elementary and corporeal."
That is, depictions of the eye were intended to signal a transformation, a journey into something beyond the
m
BLUE MOSAIC eye on tile path at Brighton Beach, England.
bodily sense of sight. The image facilitated the participation of the individual with that which stands outside consciousness.
Eye symbolism figured prominendy in Neolithic grave goods including urns and pottery combining feminine features with owl markings.
Birds are messengers of the Otherworld and the habit of associating the owl, with its prominent eyes and nocturnal habits, with the death goddess is as old as mankind. It is the fearful eyes of the underworld goddesses, Sumerian Ereshkigal, Hindu Kali, Greek Gorgon and Celtic Cailleach (and her lesser sister, the banshee) that blow out the fragile flame of human life.
Why is it so terrifying to be seen? What vision could lay a heart so cold as to form a basis for the phrase "if looks could kill?"
As Sylvia Brinton Perera writes " [t] hese eyes see from and embody the starkness of the abyss that takes all back, reduces the dancing, playing maya [of life] to inert matter and stops life on earth."
In the face of an all-seeing divinity, Edward Edinger writes that the eye strikes terror in any soul "trying to evade full self awareness." Perera remarks that the eye of the underworld goddess is the "eye of the spirit in nature...it is awful and yet bestows a refined perception of reality to those who can bear it."
And to those who can withstand a glance of the infinite comes exacting vision, an objectivity found only in nature and in our dreams "boring into the soul to find the naked truth to see reality beneath all its myriad forms... and defenses."
It is death as a moment of initiation - death of a purely corporeal, ego-driven existence, birth of the liberty to find the unique, divinely driven expression that is your life alone. Thus then, to see or be seen, one must not only participate, one must sacrifice.
This is the vision for which Inanna, sister of Ereshkigal sacrificed herself to be hung on an underworld peg and for which later Odin, the Norse god, sacrificed himself on the world tree Yggdrasil. Not surprisingly, the bright Celtic god Lugh is kin to Odin.
Lugh slew his infamous grandfather, Balor, the one-eyed king of the Formorians, himself identified with Goll mac Morna. As well, both Eis Enchenn (distant sister to Kali) the hag adversary of Cuchulainn and Goll Essa Ruaid, the salmon of knowledge, among others, carry the Celtic distinction of a single Otherworldly eye.
We see then with our eyes, our courage and our participation. Writer Michael Dames believes the eye of the Goddess is found in the form of the largest man-made mound in Europe.
Enigmatic Silbury Hill in Wiltshire County, England, is a tiered chalk land form standing 40-metres high. The mound is named after "King Sil," who was purportedly buried there.
Upon excavation the mound was not found to hold any human remains and its purpose remains a mystery. It is interesting to ponder the similarity between the name of the hill and the Old Irish word for eye, "suil."
In Ireland, Dames reports that bonfires lit on the summit of the great hill of Uisneach, County Westmeath, were echoed by answering bonfires that were lit on neighboring summits. The resulting topographic web of fire stretching from the omphalos of Uisneach outward to the coast of Ireland, created a "fire-eye," a divine oculus mundi, or eye of the world through which the goddess of Ireland, Aine, could once again see and be seen.
Of monumental landforms, mythologist Joseph Campbell wrote, "to be seen in the eyes of the Goddess and to move upon [her] as she revealed herself in hill and vale was to be part of both time and timelessness, matter and spirit."
Moments of creation are marked by a dual sacrifice - when divinity, the Self, sacrifices its limitless nature to form an image, a definition, in our limited world and when we as individuals, sacrifice our limitedness to be dispersed into that which has no definition, the limitless.
This interpenetration of worlds - of the anima mundi, the "soul of the world," with our individual soul -becomes the "all-seeing eye" through which one sees divinity with the same eye through which divinity sees us.
To see and to be seen calls for both courage and vulnerability. Though being profoundly seen, as by the underworld goddess Cailleach or simply by a good friend, can be a withering experience, it can also -like the season - hold the seeds for an entirely different perspective.
To see requires cool objectivity, to put your own spirit to use in perceiving how it is, neither critical nor flattering, but simply how it is.
Both modes ask for your participation in the moment-by-moment creation of life. It is your option to look away or to see in. After all, as is said, "what you see, is what you get."
THE CANMORE HIGHLAND GAMES were hit with a freak snow storm on the Labour Day weekend. Despite the weather, hundreds of enthusiatic participants competed as usual.
Snow and Awards
at Canmore Highland Games
CANMORE, Alberta- There's one big reason to be in Canmore on Labour Day weekend - the annual Canmore Highland Games.
No matter what the weather, all events go on. This year it was heavy snow, with snowflakes the size of loonies falling from 7 AM until after 12 noon, when it finally changed to a light rain.
This year organizers were pleased to host Hamish Chisholm, the 33rd Chief of Clan Chisholm from the UK, and the Honourable Alexander Bruce from Scotland.
Both men shared duties as honourary Chieftains of the Games with much adventure surrounding the 8.5 centimeter snowfall experienced the day of the Games.
Hundreds of participants of Highland dance, piping, drumming and heavy sports showed up to c< mipete regardless of the weather. The enthusiastic crowd bundled up to enjoy sheep dog demonstrations, shopping at Celtic vendors, piping and drumming competitions and 21 massed bands.
Only one event did not go on as planned and that was the black powder demonstration by the Olde 78ttl Fraser Highlanders of Calgary, as they couldn't keep their powder dry! The Highland dance competition moved inside to the adjacent school gymnasium.
This year's new "Taste the Culture" was an instant success, raising over $16,000 for the presenters. Attendees rode from Calgary to Canmore aboard the Canadian Pacific Empress steam locomotive, were then marched to the Games behind a piper, and tasted five very fine Scotches not yet available in Canada from the Adelphi Distillery in Argyll, Scotiand, poured by the Honourable Alex Bruce himself.
The beer garden and evening ceilidh featured non-stop entertainment in the heated festival tent, packed to capacity for the duration.
The Canmore event was recently featured in a new Alberta Motor Association publication Celebrating Passion, Pride and Achievement-Alberta 100 Journeys and the American Bus Association has chosen the event to be one of 100 Top Events in North America for 2009.
The top 100 list is chosen from over 500 events nominated by state and provincial tourism officials and the top 100 are published in the Top 100 Events in North America magazine distributed widely to members and travelers worldwide.
For the Celtic culture experience of your life, make it die Canmore Highland Games, on September 6, 2009. For more information, visit www.canmorehighlandgames.ca, or call (403) 678-9454.
Clan Chisholm Gathering in Banff, Alberta
The first International Gathering of any Scottish clan in Western Canada was hosted by the Canada Branch of Clan Chisholm Society recendy in Banff, Alberta. Over 150 Chisholms from Britain, the United States, South Africa, and Canada attended.
Rob Chisholm played the pipes at the President's Reception while guests in Highland attire had an opportunity to meet The Chisholm, Hamish Chisholm of Chisholm and his wife Julie and the international president of the Clan Chisholm Society Val Perry and her husband Jack of the U.S.
The gathering took place at the same time as the Canmore Highland Games and Chisholms manned a clan tent at the event.
Despite an early fall of snow during the games, there was plenty of heat in a huge tent containing entertainment, beer, food, whisky, camaraderie, and warmth; it later became the venue for the evening Ceilidh.