A Celtic mystery.
Posted by John on 11/17/2006 15:15:40

In reply to Druid posted by Druid on 11/17/2006 09:11:22

Celtic Mystery

Hello, "Druid."

I have a color picture of Stonehenge on the wall over my bed. A friend
gave it to me, and every time I look at the beauty of it, I wonder what
it's doing there on my wall. What's up with those Celtic traditions?
And what's up with *me* and those Celtic traditions? How come I never
bothered to learn about this?

Even though I have a Celtic family background, on my Father's side, I
never really have informed myself much on Celtic traditions. My Father's
family was midwestern Methodism. And I grew up a pronounced "Rebel,"
choosing to do practically everything I did in a way different than I
grew up seeing my Father's way of doing things.

Maybe you're showing up here in Classroom Talk now is a harbinger that I
am about to grow out of those old Rebel bonds, and, at least be open to
understanding and respecting those ancient traditions that go way back
farther than my Father, and his Family, back to the Bilby's—whatever they
were like—of Stonehenge days.

So far, all I know is that their stone carvings on monuments small and
large bear an amazing resemblance to the petroglyphs of the Hohokam
Indians of the Sonoran Desert, where I live. These primary native
American Indians practiced Nagüalism, from before 500 B.C. until around
1425 A.D., and were the first settled Indians of North America—changing
over from wandering huners and gatherer. Antropologists and
archeologists call this transition the Neolithic Transformation. It is
a glimpse of what human life was like when people found a way to settle
down in villages for the first time, staying throughout the year there
and raising their own crops. The Hohokam were able to do this, in the
middle of a large, hot desert with mountain ranges throughout, by
developing irrigation through the fields of their crops by series of
lined canals that ran, from rivers rushing down from the mountains during
the rainy seasons.

I'm going into this kind of detail here for the sake of getting a glimpse
into any realities that can be found about the nature of homo sapiens
through whatever observations we can make of their actual lives back
then, milllenia ago.

And the central image that connected with the meanings of all the other
petroglyphs that the Hohokam pecked there on those dark rock faces with
little quartz crystal hammers showing up white, and lasting all these
years for me to see with my own eyes—the most primal figure in the
language of the petroglyphs is the interlocking spirals, just as one sees
so often carved on the ancient Celtic stone slabs that the Druids wrote
their messages on when they were settled farmers in their own lands
before much other history was being written down by the homo sapiens
crowd.

We have only the clues to who they were and what they did that have come
down to us by all the sources that have shared about whatever is known of
the Celts and their Druid Priests. And I think this carved symbol of,
showing up in pre-historic times —notwithstanding the uncrossed expanse
of the Atlantic Ocean lying between them—and lasting in stone until now,
may give a fair hint that the awakened state of mindful awareness was
known and practiced by those Druid priests in their ceremonies, and
perhaps—as coached here in the awareness game—they kept awake as they
could in their daily meanderings through the daily events of the lives
that they each had. So . . . *maybe* the coaching in this online school
might have some authentic relevance to the nature, whatever it was, of
being a Druid at Stonehenge.

My lucky life experiences have enabled me to verify, first hand, through
a 104-year-old maestro who lived in a hut with a mud floor in the Yaqui
village at Tucson. I studied with him—sitting on the ground in his
garden, and hiking in the foothills—until the time of his death. Don
Felípe García was a well known and beloved figure, albeit very a private,
figure in Tucson in those days . . . I learned from him that the
teachings of Nagüalism are grounded in the direct awakened experience of
aware presence, as we call it in this online school.

He was, formally, the "Nagüal" of his tribe, and led them all in the deer
dance performed at the April full moon. They called him that. And the
symbol, in that old Indian picture language (also verified by Frank
Waters), was that old pair of interlocking spirals, one signifying
"inward" in the direction of materiality, and "outward" in the direction
of space. When, I asked don Felípe what this was supposed to mean in
modern day practical terms, he laughed and said: "Easy! Just know you
are being here now, in there behind those eyes, and . . . see."

Maybe you would be willing to tell me more about your experiences with
Druidism, Druid. I'd be all ears! I suppose there are many people now
who are fascinated with Celtic artefacts of wisdom, and maybe groups of
Celtic friends and students together.

With friendly regards to you and to Celts and Druids everywhere! And to
my Father, bless his heart! I forgive him for being so domineering. May
he rest in peace. He didn't know any better. He never caught on that I
had *my own* life to lead.

John (now retired coach here at Classroom Talk).

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