Caitlin51
More About Me
My Tagline:
Nature Lover
My Interests:
Prayer, Meditation, Worship, God, Angels, Afterlife, Interfaith issues, Charity, History, Movies, Music, Books, Education, Travel, Current events, Politics, Art, Environment, Holistic living, Yoga, Health, Cooking, Family, Parenting, Pets, Dreams, Astrology, Community, Relationships, Science, History & Scholarship, News & Current Events
My Favorite Books, Authors, Musicians, Movies, Preachers, TV shows, etc:
Too many to really mention, but I love all historical fiction; contemporary fiction that challenges me to contemplate my own life, classical, country, Celtic music are my favorites; I miss certain television shows that just made me laugh or feel good about life (family-centered, clever writing); so many types of films - the ones that make me think as well as amuse;
Who Inspires Me:
Anyone in the world who really lives according to the way he or she believes and will not force it upon others; anyone who is compassionate and loving towards all people and creatures of the planet but is not a fool....
My organizations and affiliations:
I am a member of a local Roman Catholic Parish; DAR; I am searching for more affiliations, particularly in the Irish or Scottish American community and historical societies
My favorite spiritual activities:
Long walks at sunrise or sunset; reading spiritual or religious books before sunrise; practicing yoga, prayer and meditation; writing in my journal;
Who I'm praying for:
My family, friends, peace
What is your current spiritual mood?:
Curious
What's your spiritual type?:
Spiritual Straddler - I have one foot in traditional religion, one foot in free-form spirituality.
About Me
I am a practicing Catholic with a Celtic Christian focus. My spirituality is nature-based as well as higher-power based. I am a Christian, but very open-minded and have studied and explored other paths for many years and will continue to do so. I am interested in the Feminine as well as the Masculine essences in my religion, so I revere Mary as well as Jesus. I am interested in the concept of Wisdom, Sophia and Eastern Christian philosohies.
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March 20 of this year is the first day of spring, or the Vernal Equinox. Alban Eiler, which means, "Light of the Earth," is one of the two days that night and day stand equal. The equinoxes and solstices were holy times of transition for the ancient Celts, a celebration of the miraculous balance of nature and life cycles of renewal.
The Spring Equinox is the mid-point of the waxing year. The spark of light that was born at the Winter Solstice has reached maturity. Today the light and dark are equal; from this day forward, the days grow longer than the nights. We have survived another Winter and are once more surrounded by the delights of Spring. It is a time for celebrating the greening of the Earth, and crops are typically sown at this time.
This is the time of full Dawn, and was the time of the festivals of the Grecian goddess, Eostre, and the Germanic Ostara, both goddesses of Dawn. Some believe that this is where we get the word "Easter". Since the Spring Equinox is a time to celebrate fertility, and many cultures see eggs as a symbol of Life or the home of the soul, decorated eggs have been part of spring celebrations for centuries.
Here is a spring equinox ritual appropriate for Christians. Stand outdoors at sunrise, forming a circle with those you love. Put a small tree (representing "the tree of life") or a shrub in the center of your circle, or stand around a living tree. Meditate silently together with a sense of awe and wonder about the teeming abundance of life God has created. Tie festive ribbons or attach brightly colored pieces of paper onto the tree. As you do so, state your intention for yourself or a loved one with respect to personal growth, fertility, or spiritual renewal. End with a prayer of thanksgiving for the miracle that is the Continuity of Life, and ask that everyone around you might have a Bright and Blessed Spring.
http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/equinox.html
Feast of Samhain/Celtic New Year/Celebration of All Celtic Saints
Whereas Beltane was welcomed in the summer light with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of Samhain was at night. Oidhche Shamhna, the Eve of Samhain, was the most important part of the celebration. Villagers gathered the best of the autumn harvest and slaughtered cattle for the feast. The focus of each village's festivities was a great bonfire. Villagers cast the bones of the slaughtered cattle upon the flames. (Our word bonfire comes from these "bone fires.") Personal prayers in the form of objects symbolizing the wishes of supplicants or ailments to be healed were cast into the fire. Many sacrifices and gifts were offered up in thanksgiving for the harvest. With the great bonfire roaring, the villagers extinguished all other fires. Each family then solemnly lit their hearth from the one great common flame, bonding all families of the village together. As they received the flame that marked this time of beginnings, people surely felt a sense of the kindling of new dreams, projects and hopes for the year to come.
The gods drew near to Earth at Samhain, as at all the turning points of the Celtic year. The Celts believed that Oidhche Shamhna was a very holy time, when the boundaries between our world and the Otherworld were broken and the dead could return to the places where they had lived. Many rituals of Oidhche Shamhna involved providing hospitality for dead ancestors: Celts put out food and drink for the dead with great ceremony, and left their windows, doors, and gates unlocked to give the dead free passage into their homes. Bobbing for apples, another traditional Samhain pastime, was a reference to the Celtic Emhain Abhlach, "Paradise of Apples," where the dead, having eaten of the sacred fruit, enjoyed a blissful immortality. Swarms of spirits poured into our world on November Eve, but not all of these spirits were friendly. Celts carved the images of spirit-guardians onto turnips and set these "jack o'lanterns" before their doors to keep out unwelcome visitors from the Otherworld.
In the agricultural year, Samhain also marked the first day of winter, when the herders led the cattle and sheep down from their summer hillside pastures to the shelter of stable and byre. The hay that would feed them during the winter must be stored in sturdy thatched shelters, tied down securely against storms. Those destined for the table were slaughtered, after being ritually devoted to the gods in pagan times. All the harvest must be gathered in -- barley, oats, wheat, turnips, and apples. Peat and wood for winter fires were stacked high by the hearth. It was a joyous time of family reunion, when all members of the household worked together baking, salting meat, and making preserves for the winter feasts to come. The endless horizons of summer gave way to a warm, dim and often smoky room; the symphony of summer sounds was replaced by a counterpoint of voices, young and old, human and animal. Divination of the events of the coming year was another prominent feature of Samhain. Celts used hazelnuts, symbols of wisdom, to foretell the future.
There was also a lighthearted side to the Celtic New Year rituals. Young people would put on strange disguises and roam about the countryside, pretending to be the returning dead or spirits from the Otherworld. Celts thought the break in reality on November Eve not only provided a link between the worlds, but also dissolved the structure of society for the night. Boys and girls would put on each other's clothes, and would generally flout convention by boisterous behavior and by playing tricks on their elders and betters.
For centuries Christian people have commemorated the intercommunion of the living and the dead in the Body of Christ by honoring the dead who had professed faith in Christ during their lives, especially those who had crowned their profession with heroic deaths. Historic documents show the observance of a festival of martyrs as early as the year 270, although no month and date are attached to it. In the 4th century, an observance of this type is noted on the date of May 13th. John Chrysostom, who died in 407, says that a festival of All Saints was observed on the First Sunday after Pentecost in Constantinople at the time of his episcopate. It is believed by many scholars that the commemoration of all the saints on November 1 first originated in Ireland, spread from there to England, and then to the continent of Europe. That it had reached Rome and been adopted there early in the ninth century is attested by a letter written by Pope Gregory IV, urging that such a festival be observed throughout the Holy Roman Empire.
With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year. The night before became popularly known as Halloween, or All Hallows Eve. In Scotland and Ireland, Halloween is known as Oíche Shamhna, while in Wales it is Nos Calan Gaeaf, the eve of the winter's calend, or first. November 2nd became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all who the departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven.
Many ancient Celtic customs proved compatible with the new Christian religion. Christianity embraced the Celtic notions of family, community, the bond among all people, and respect for the dead. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry (hodgepodge) of celebrations from October 31st through November 5th, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery.
http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/samhain.html
The Celtic Cross, or wheel cross, is one of the most widely recognized patterns of this Christian symbol. It comes to us through at least three different paths, or interpretations of its development. First, the circle with rays coming out from the center through its sides, top and bottom, had been a widespread symbol for the sun. In the Celtic world, this sun symbol had often been represented as an actual wheel with numerous spokes, deriving from the old belief that the sun was drawn by a chariot with wheels. This interpretation is adaptable to Christianity on the basis that Christ is the Light of the world. Moreover, with its longer bottom line, the Celtic cross is reminiscent of the Star of Bethlehem, with the light directing us to the birth of the Savior.
The second path is more traditionally Christian and can be traced in the development of the cross itself on monuments in Britain and elsewhere. One of the earliest Christian symbols (even before the cross) was the Chi-Rho -- a combination of the first two Greek letters in the name Christos, resembling a P over an X and often placed within a circle or wreath. Gradually, the X was turned to become a crossed vertical and horizontal line, with the vertical line merging with the vertical line of the P. The loop of the P eventually disappeared, leaving us with the simple cross within a circle. By extending the lines outside the circle, we have the traditional Celtic cross.
In a more basically Celtic tradition, however, the cross is indeed a "wheel cross." The wheel was a symbol of the Indo-European peoples who had come into the West with the domesticated horse and the chariot. So the wheel in its simplest symbolic representation of a circle (the rim) with internal vertical and horizontal lines (the spokes) came to be associated with the Europeans and especially with the Celtic peoples. The Christian cross then is a traditional wheel symbol with the arms extended to form the cross of Christ superimposed upon the circular wheel. This interpretation is highly symbolic of Christ's Lordship over the Celtic people, but it also represents a combination of Christianity with traditional Celtic spirituality.
One thing that the interpretation of the Celtic cross as a wheel cross does give us that is most characteristic of the Celtic way is the idea of connectedness. As the Celtic knots that often adorn it show a connectedness through the single unbroken thread, the wheel cross provides us with another unbroken symbol in a circle -- often used as a symbol itself for the unity of the people of God -- connected and embraced by the arms of the cross.
http://allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic/celtic_cross.html
Beltane ~ May 01 - April 29, 2008 - 03:09 PM