The stirring of Cailleach Bhéara
The stirring of Cailleach Bhéara
Divine disorientation as dialogue
The Cianalas/Tãsknota folk opera film Kickstarter is 3 days in, and 21% funded. Before I get started on my reflection here is the link for that:
Reflection:
Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a hand-drum in her hand, and all the women went out after her with hand-drums, and with dances. - Exodus 15:20
Once upon a time, when Cailleach Bhéara was stirring with her giant ladle to wash her plaid in the straight between Jura and Scarba, she washed it until her plaid turned into a blanket of snow that she covered over the land.
Cailleach Bhéara is the winter hag. The veiled one. The old woman who weaves the landscape.
Now known as the Corryvreckan, this whirlpool… churned by the washing of the great plaid… might show us how the weaving of the landscapes and the seasons requires upheaval and change. Almost like a flushing of the old into the root systems that, like carbon sequestration, can absorb, and eat, and go dormant, and eventually push forth into photosynthesis… a reciprocal kind of sun praise.
In the Sufi and desert Christian traditions, the cyclical repetition of chanted prayer, (which later evolved into the Sufi practice of the whirling dervish), is not just imitating a broken record. It is really the practice of disorienting ourselves, so as to orient our own surrender, to the Divine presence. In a sense, like the Cailleach’s plaid, we consciously open to being churned, and intricately woven, as part of the landscape of this earth, to be saturated by the Indwelling Presence. To take part in what Richard Rohr calls the one Great Ache.
More recently, it has been revealed to me that over the years, most of us have been quite schooled in interfaith dialogue within the 1st axial religions, but one area that I have been very organically called into, is to actively and personally take part in pre-axial expressions, that are often left out of the conversation.
And looking at this through the lens of Jean Gebser, it becomes easier to see the “ever-presence” of every expression, as existing always presently in a sort of timeless “is-ness”. And the carriers of ancient things, are among us, beyond idealistic notions. An old tree will whisper secrets to you if you have the ears to hear.
One emphatic message for me has been to reach out to those from my own broken heritage, who are doing the deep work of seeking elders, and of sometimes crossing oceans for their drums, for the songs, for the teachings.
I have dreamt of my drum.
James Finley always says of Thomas Merton, that “Merton recognized depth wherever he found it”. And as one who has no desire to extricate herself from the Christian mystical tradition, (or in my case more of a Christianimism), I have really begun to do the work of deeper listening, and deeper dialogue with indigenous neighbours and teachers, with long distance friends from all corners of the planet, and also with people holding a post in the pre-Christian Western Mystery Tradition. I believe this kind of dialogue is part of the churning… the gratuitous, divine upheaval, that is asking us to be woven beyond our definitions. There is so much effort spent trying to show how just Christianity can or could be, but what if we just simply put more earnestness into becoming deeply compassionate listeners? Including listening to the ancient wisdoms that “preceded” it, and formed, and influenced Jesus.
In the timeless world, evolution is stirring the cauldron, churning everyone and everything from all time, working them together in each moment. A great ecosystem. And my greatest teacher who taught me that, and who has also taught me a deeper understanding of forgiveness, is my traditional indigenous friend Colleen who says “nothing and nobody is left out of the medicine wheel”.
Maybe the great wind snatching our maps, hell-bent on control, out of our vice gripped fists, is really about trusting in that as a universal truth.
Set in this context I want to deepen my reasons for who I have invited to guest on my folk opera Cianalas/Tãsknota.
What I’ve come to realize, is that the more we listen and seek to understand, and the more we touch the fissures and wounds, we begin to slowly join together as tender friends, scar tissue and all.
And when we practice this kind of dialogue, we soon realize we are also deeply listening to ourselves. Our roots. The shameful parts, and the beautiful parts.
Two days ago, in a studio in Edinburgh, historian, teacher and instrumentalist performer John Kenny recorded a performance of the Carnyx horn on the first track from Cianalas/Tãsknota.
John has gone so deep with this instrument, and through being immersed in archeology, and having spent so much of his life offering his breath to it, he knows it wasn’t just a war horn… and that there is a reason they call it “the mouthpiece of the Gods”. Because it also had spiritual significance.
Here is John playing the Carnyx horn and teaching us more about it:
About 2 months ago, Tara Wild, trained and steeped in nature-based Feminine Wisdom & Ancestral Teachings from Ireland & Britain, recorded a “keening” for my album. She has elder teachers particularly from Ireland, and I am so honoured to be in dialogue with her, and her deep, important work.
Here she is singing Seacht Suáilce na Maighdine Muire (The Seven Joys of Mary). In her words associated with this video, she says “Over the past year or so, as I have deepened into my ancestral medicine, I have done a lot of healing around the "rift" between Paganism and Christianity, and the ways that my body has held onto that story.
Through working more closely with my matriarchal lineage, I received a very clear message that Mother Mary has been an important guide for my female ancestors, and that I needed to open my heart to her.”
In one sense, Tara and I are meeting each other in the middle of this story from different directions. She has been coming through our ancient ancestors toward her Christian ones, and I have been going through my Christian ones, all the way to my ancient ones. Timeless. Timeless.
Grateful her presence of traditional keening will be on my album.
My Cree friend and songwriting colleague Phyllis Sinclair will be the only cowriter on this album. She and I are working together to craft a song that dances with the complexity of the colonial story. It is a vulnerable piece for both of us to dialogue about, and write together.
Here is an exquisite example of Phyllis’s work. She is one of my favourite song crafters, and it is a deep honour that she is joining me on the folk opera.
Phyllis, Tara, and John will also be guests on the film portion of my folk opera, and the Kickstarter for that is currently under way. I am so grateful and hopeful, and we have until Sept 10th to meet the goal.
To support the project, click here:
I am so thank to my dear Sister who introduced me to you via Point Vierge a few years ago. Your music and your creativity truly touch my soul. Thank you! 💖☘️