I hope this correspondence finds you and your families safe and well during this time.
Like most I have been riding the waves of uncertainty, negotiating feelings of fear and panic as the unfolding events make me further question the orientation of our economic, environmental and social landscapes. Individually, we are faced with the personal urgencies of putting food on the table, maintaining a healthy immune system and in my case rolling in the dirt with a fuller than life seven-year-old embarking on a pioneer homeschooling adventure.
Almost overnight the whole way in which we were approaching our future has been remarkably turned on it’s head. We are being encouraged to stay indoors, slow down and indirectly spend more time with ourselves. This also can be a challenge for us when the normal activities that fill our lives are no longer possible.
I am moved to respond and reach out, assist perhaps where possible. As I sieve through my Functional Medicine resources, meditation and movement practices. I realise a sense of restlessness hover over me. From an inner voice I am softly motioned to sit and listen. After some time an opening occurs and guidance comes from a surprising but familiar source, the ancestors of my Irish background. An old Celtic Myth whispers in my ear an offering.
A medicine for our current time. As the story permeates my being I take a deeper inbreath and an inner peace arrives. From here I feel the strength to continue.
I offer this story as a safe passage during this time of inward journey.
An Irish Myth
Mythology is the oral tradition of storytelling found across many cultures. Stories are passed down from generation to generation offering teachings to assist in life existential challenges.
In Celtic Folklore there goes one such story; “Sceal do Padraig agus an Phouka” which translates to “The Story of Patrick and the Fairy People”.
This story is about the journey of a young farmer boy who loved to listen to stories about the fairy folk or Phoukas. These Phoukas could be fierce and frightening or kind and helpful.
One day whilst tending to his father’s cows out in the field Padraig felt a strange wind. He knew that this wind was a Phouka going to the stone circle where the fairies danced.
Desperate to catch a glimpse of the fairy people he called out: “Phouka, let me see you! I will give you my coat to keep you warm during this cold day.“
Suddenly out of nowhere a large Bull presented itself in front of Padraig brandishing its horns and scrapping its feet on the earth. Charging at Padraig the young boy threw his coat on top of the animal stopping the bull dead in its tracks.
The Bull then said in a man’s voice,
“Go to your fathers corn mill tonight when the moon is full, and you’ll have good luck!”
On visiting the mill that night Padraig discovered that the men who worked for his father were asleep on some stacks of corn. ‘There was no work being done’ Padraig thought. As he too was tired Padraig curled up and fell asleep.
On waking the next morning he saw a strange sight. All the corn had been ground into flour, even though the workers were still asleep. This continued for the next several nights.
Padraig decided to investigate. The next night he crept into an old chest that he found in the mill. The chest had a big keyhole in which Padraig could peep out.
That night looking through the keyhole, he spied 6 little men followed by an old man wearing torn and ragged clothes. They carried out all the work of the lazy work men. Next morning on telling his father what he had seen, the lazy men were quickly relieved of there duties at the mill.
With no men to pay and with the Poukas doing all the work it was not long that Padraig’s father became rich. He never would speak a word of his fairy gift as he knew that this would cease and bring bad luck.
Curious in nature Padraig would continue to hide in the chest at the mill watching the Phouka’s at work. Watching the old Phouka working hard with only tattered old clothes on his back, Padraig felt to do something nice. He saved up all his pocket money until he had enough to buy a splendid suit of clothes which would keep the old Phouka warm during the cold winter nights.
One night before climbing into the old chest, he laid the clothes on the floor where the old Phouka usually stood. On finding them the old fairy was amazed at the beauty of the garments. Quickly putting them on and parading about he cried out “I’m a gentleman now and too grand to grind corn. I’m going on my travels!”.
No corn was ground that night or ever again.
Padraig’s father had made enough money to keep his family comfortable. Many years later Padraig, now a master Tailor celebrated his marriage. A gold cup, full of wine appeared at his place at the head wedding table. Padraig knew that this golden chalice was a gift from the Phouka, and his family kept it as a treasure ever after.
The great gift of Mythology is the guide map it offers of the human Soul Journey.
Like Padraig, our Journey begins with a yearning from within. It can “be heard in the wind” so to speak. Sídhe is the Old Gaelic term for wind, this same word was also the word for the Gods in Pre-Christian Ireland.
The Navajo people of the American Planes call it “the winds child” in Craniosacral work we call it the “Breath of Life” the intelligence found inside and all around.
This inner knowing we feel is as ancient and reverent as the wind.
We have heard the calling and we have acted.
Like all authentic pursuits there is always an inner “Bull” that is there to challenge us. This “bull” will come in the form of our thoughts telling us that we cannot do it, we must work harder to make the money we want or the structure of how society is set up to keep us in place, you might hear yourself say.
Like Padraig in facing our inner critics we are offered that wisdom. An inner voice from within bearing gifts. Go to the Mill the night of the Full moon” – the night in which the female energies bear it’s richest treasure.
The little wind inside ushers us to go deeper; we enter inward into our own wooden chest.
During our current times we are being ushered into our homes as we face the COVID-19 virus. It feels to me as though Spirit is guiding us to go inward, to line up our inner energies and purpose with our outer actions. This can be scary for most during these times of great unknowing. But know that this is offering a noble service towards yourselves. We are learning to navigate our lives on slowing down, listening to instinct and intuition rather than the old ways of certainty and security based on falsity.
In Eastern healing arts connecting into this primal operating system it is referred to deepening our connection with our Dan Tien - to connect to our life’s purpose, to move in the world from a connection. In Functional Medicine we look at aligning the ancient Gastrointestinal mirco-flora with the abundant microflora of nature around us (more on that later).
We are learning to settle into the reality that no matter what the chaos of the outside world is showing us we are at our deepest being unconditionally supported and provided for.
Honouring our inner light, a “keyhole” reveals itself to which we see glimpse of our life’s offerings:
“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
― Franz Kafka
In this depth of Silence an opening of the Heart occurs, an opening so tender that what you are looking for and what is looking for you are the same thing.
From this place an action arises, not from urgency, that urgency is no longer the driver. One will look on “the Old man in tattered clothes” and with all our Heart offer in such a way so that we become both the receiver and the giver.
An offering that is uniquely ours and from which we receive the Golden cup overflowing with all the beauty that life offers.
David McCauley is a Board Registered Physiotherapist, Dip. Visionary Craniosacral Work, Functional Medicine Practitioner, Father, Husband, Garden Keeper, Story teller, Hiker,
David, really enjoyed this article. Well done. Mum oxox