Chapter 4: Center

THE CENTER OF ANY MANDALA grants the seeker access to a holistic perspective. The center encourages an integrative sensibility, in which we are deepened by the collective lessons of all the other directions. The poet David Whyte has a wonderful saying: "Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you." In the Center of the Irish Spirit Wheel we are brought alive, we deepen our connection to our fullest selves, we are humble, secure, and ruled by grace rather than fear. Each of the sacred directions of the Irish Spirit Wheel demands that we step outside ourselves, and in the Center we are asked to connect with the magic and beauty of serving life.

 CENTER
Sovereignty - That Which Dwells In the Middle Of It All

The enlightened kings and queens of the past, as well as the
ascetics meditating in caves, have all said that the secret of
creating stability is to put the welfare of others before our own.
- Sakyong Mipham

In the primal Irish traditions, Sovereignty is a goddess. She holds the center of the wheel, the living hub of energy that connects all the directions, the axis mundi to which all paths ultimately lead. In this context, sovereignty is the core, the heart of our life. Every day we must all be able to answer these questions: Am I in good standing with my destiny? Am I in good standing with my life? Am I standing within my sovereignty?

In the ancient stories, the goddess of Sovereignty presents herself in various forms and, in the end, bestows "rulership" on those who are in right relationship with her - but not until they have heeded certain requests. This is no less true of our lives: our sovereignty and destiny depend on whether or not we have listened to and heeded the requests of our souls.

In one ancient story, we encounter the goddess Sovereignty, not only as a kingmaker, but also as a shape-shifter and a dispenser of sustenance:

One day, Niall Noigíallach (Niall of the Nine Hostages) and his brothers went traveling. At a certain point in their travels they became thirsty and began to look for water. Eventually they located a source of pure drinking water - an ancient well - but found the well guarded by a hideous hag. The hag demanded a kiss in exchange for water.

Two of Niall's brothers - Fergus and Ailill - were repulsed by the old woman and refused to grant her a kiss. They returned from the well empty-handed, and thirsty. Another of Niall's brothers - Fiachra - being somewhat sly, gave the crone a quick peck on the cheek, thinking that would suffice. It did not. She scowled at him and sent him away. Clearly, she had more in mind.

Niall, however, agreed to her demand, even going be-yond it. While Niall's brothers, thirsty and cold, shivered by their fire, Niall was sated and warm, for after he kissed the hag, it is said that she revealed herself to him as a beautiful maiden and that the two laid together for the remainder of the night. In the morning, she unveiled her true identity to Niall: Flaithius, or Sovereignty. Not only did she give Niall water, but she also declared that he would have the kingship of Ireland, as would many generations in his line after him.

This ancient tale portrays one of the deep truths of primal Irish tradition: initiations - be they spiritual rituals, the making of kings, the inspiration of poets, or the shaping of warriors - often occur at the hands of the feminine, the Goddess, and often the Cailleach, a wizened crone figure, who can have a fierce and challenging presence one moment and a sweet and tender countenance the next.

In ordinary reality, Sovereignty is represented in the Irish landscape by a standing stone at the Hill of Tara. Covered in spirals and other engravings, this upright monolith is called the Lia Fáil and stands about four feet tall. It is also known as the Stone of Dán, or the Stone of Destiny, dán being a word from Old Irish (Gaelic) that has multiple meanings, each referring to a different expression of energy. The energy of dán expresses itself in congruence with the airts of the Irish Spirit Wheel: dán as destiny (Center), dán as poem (South), dán as fate (West), dán as boldness (North), and dán as gift (East).

The oral traditions tell us that this stone at Tara, at the Center of the Irish mandala, was one of four sacred objects brought to Ireland by the ancient race known as the Tuatha Dé Danann. It is told that the stone would sing or shriek when a man destined to be king sat on it or leaned against it. In effect, the stone would announce whether rulership was part of a person's destiny.

Adhering to an ancient pattern found in different parts of the Celtic world, for thousands of years at this stone - the Center point in the Irish Spirit Wheel - individuals accepted the mantle of leadership, merged with the mandate of sacred energy of the island, bonded with the goddess Sovereignty, and became married to the land - of which they were expected to be good stewards, caretakers, and protectors.

In many ways, it is the same with our lives; the powers that bestowed our life on us fully expect us to be good stewards of it. In our reflections and meditations on the Irish Spirit Wheel, it is at the Center where we begin our explorations, and it will be the Center to which we will return.

The core association in the Center position on the Irish Spirit Wheel is sovereignty. Falling within this sphere at the Center are the additional associations of enlightened warriorship, dignity, mastery, destiny, and stability. Ultimately, the Center is about our life force and whether or not we are in good standing with its flow and wisdom.

The archetypal figure that sits at the Center of the Irish Spirit Wheel is the Divine King or Queen, both of whom are oriented to a life-affirming view symbolized by the life-giving Goddess. To use terminology from the Shambhala tradition, the presence or guiding energy at the sacred Center is the Universal Monarch.

Though most of us are not in a line to ascend to an actual throne, becoming a spiritual sovereign - in the primal Irish sense - resonates deeply with what Tibetan teacher Sakyong Mipham calls "ruling your world." This spiritual sovereignty is a cultivated state of mindfulness and energy that creates a royal bearing within us. Such a state gives us access to all the inherent wisdom energies that dwell in the four directions.

Having spiritual sovereignty doesn't mean that we are perfect; it doesn't mean that we don't struggle, that we don't have bad days, or that we don't experience conflict - far from it. Yet although we may become forgetful of the path we strive to walk, as the Shambhala teachings (the universal teachings of disciplined bravery) tell us, "The warrior's awareness is like an echo." Something always brings us back to Center.

While it does not mean we are perfect, it does, however, mean that rather than settling for a life that is a high-tension drama factory, driven by habitual conditioning, unchecked im-pulses, avoidance and ego-anchored agendas or addictions, we aim to consciously conjure or invoke the Big Life of our soul: the enlightened energy of dignity, primacy, and destiny that is our divine birthright. In the case of Sarah - a creative young woman I encountered when I was still doing counseling - the Irish Spirit Wheel served as a reminder of her deep passion for creativity and the unlived life waiting for her just beneath the surface of her addictions.

Sarah: Smothering the Big Life of the Soul
Sarah, an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, introduced herself to me as a "very spiritual person" who had "trained in Buddhism" and "made her living as an artist." Though she presented a very positive image, I continued to sense something tumultuous beneath the surface, as if she were masking some great struggle.

In time, the truth of her situation began to reveal itself. After I asked her a few piercingly focused questions about what I in-tuited, her happy-go-lucky spiritual facade quickly began to crumble. Sarah became nervous. My questions seemed to get under her armor, to the heart of the matter. I attribute this not to anything I did, but rather to the power of "seeing" through the "eyes" of the Irish Spirit Wheel.

Sarah confided that she had taken up a habit of sniffing cocaine, and that addiction and impulsiveness were permeating her existence. She told me that she had begun to make some highly questionable financial decisions, for example, not paying bills so as to support her habit. She began to complain about her daily level of fatigue, as well as her lack of funds. I pointedly asked about the cost of the drugs, which she quickly became defensive about and began to qualify, saying, "they aren't drugs... they are just my way to relax." Sarah said, "I don't do this a whole lot... just when I am tired, or feeling depressed about being broke."

I asked her how often she was tired and depressed about being broke. She grew quiet, and then responded, "I guess these days, most of the time."

After a while, I proposed an experiment. Because she identified herself as a "very spiritual person," she seemed intrigued. I invited her to visualize a circle, and I proceeded to describe the five points on the Irish Spirit Wheel, without going into depth about its origins. I simply focused on the particular attributes of each airt. I had her "face the East" in her visualization and then had her "walk" with me around the circle as I described it.

I encouraged her to move from one direction and its associations to another, taking time to step into each place in her mind's eye. Being an artist, she said she "liked the South" but "didn't like the North at all." She said the West "felt dreamy" and that she "couldn't really relate" to the East.

As I continued to describe some of the qualities beyond the core associations, I could discern a very subtle shift in her expression. The body never lies. She looked truly sad. I asked for clarification of what was happening for her. Sarah reported that she felt the energy "in front of her" (East) as the home she never had growing up, and she felt very frustrated about her lack of prosperity or means to manifest a home for herself that felt good.

At the same time, when she "tuned in" with the South of the Irish Spirit Wheel, she had a bittersweet feeling. For her, the South was not so much about music as it was about art, something she had gotten away from and that brought her great joy.

I then added, "All of us have a first love, something to which we dedicate our life energy. Some first loves can build our life up, and some of them can tear it down or prevent good things from happening for us. What's your first love?"

The process dropped into a very deep place and led to something of an epiphany. Sarah admitted that she hadn't done any art since taking up her cocaine habit. This disturbed her greatly. Sarah began to comprehend that to reclaim her personal sovereignty (Center), and her art (South), she needed to rid herself of these life-sapping addictions (North), find a new vision for her life (West), and truly explore what it would mean to extend hospitality to her own soul (East).

Within one year of exploring these topics using the guiding energies of the Irish Spirit Wheel to fuel and inspire her, Sarah became substance-free, financially more stable and secure, and an award-winning photographer with gallery openings in the United States and Europe.

And so turns the wheel...

When we are in right relationship with the energies at the Center of the wheel, we tenderly hold our life as a gift. Standing in the Center we can look out to the horizon, the East, the South, the West, and the North, and we can comprehend that each of these directions has lessons and different perspectives to offer us.

At times we may feel we have lost our path, or that it has lost us. Despite these feelings - even in the face of loss, disease, or our own impending death - a person manifesting the spiritual sovereignty of the Universal Monarch can embrace all aspects of his or her human experience as part of the path.

Meditation

Everything has been leading to this. There has never been a time when you have not been on destiny's path. All paths lead to the Center.

CENTER
The Lineage Of Enlightened Warriorship

The Lineage of Enlightened Warriorship
This wisdom does not belong to any one culture or religion,
nor does it come only from the West or the East. Rather,
it is a tradition of human warriorship that has existed
in many cultures at many times throughout history.
- Chögyam Trungpa

We are always on the path. Even when we are in utter despair, we are still walking the path toward our spiritual sovereignty.

Even when we feel we have lost our connection to our deepest, wisest expression, we still have a dormant seed of spiritual sovereignty within us. If we work toward creating the proper conditions for growth (just as we would when sprouting plant seeds), the seed of our spiritual sovereignty will quicken to life. Certainly there are times when we feel very far from our sacred center, very far from any sense of connection to peace, harmony, or the proper order of things, as prescribed by our souls. At those times it can be helpful to remind ourselves that our journey on the wheel of our life is leading somewhere, that it is evolving, and that we are evolving right along with it.

A person working toward embodying the sacred destiny and spiritual sovereignty has a certain attitude about life. It is marked by a consciousness of spiritual warriorship or focused bravery that has been known to many people, in many traditions, throughout time. In the Celtic way of seeing, we welcome everything as a potential and auspicious teaching from the field of our life. When we walk the path of the Universal Monarch, therefore, we can find gratitude and sacred knowledge even in the midst of our struggles, even in a world that is topsy-turvy, a world that has seemingly lost connection to its spiritual sovereignty.

It is easy to think of ideas such as spiritual sovereignty, peace, and harmony as naive and idealistic. When we read the front page of the newspaper or listen to the latest broadcast of NPR news, sovereignty - in the deepest spiritual sense - seems hard to imagine, and even harder to come by. And it is nearly impossible to fathom that any society has ever managed to cultivate these qualities.

Yet many societies and communities have managed to em-body spiritual sovereignty. The Tuatha Dé Danann of Ireland, the Kogi tribe of Central America, the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy), and numerous other indigenous people around the world have been exemplary expressions of the energies associated with the Center of the Irish Spirit Wheel. Like those who follow the Shambhala teachings, these various earth-honoring, spirit-aligned people have manifested enlightened warriorship in universally recognizable ways.

Likewise, when reviewing history we can take note of certain individuals who made their life journey one of profound self-cultivation and refinement and who - through their open hearts, focus, and discipline - have been able to manifest extraordinary lives imbued with an undeniable sense of peaceful warriorship and spiritual sovereignty. Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, Morihei Ueshiba, Aung San Suu Kyi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, Peace Pilgrim, Julia Butterfly Hill: the list goes on.

Perhaps you know individuals who are embodiments of peaceful warriorship. Whether they are quiet presences in your life or world famous, it is truly empowering to hold such exemplars of spiritual sovereignty as your guides, as your spiritual ancestors, as supporters of your path who stand behind you in a long line of brave, open-hearted people.

Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa described this collective of people - both known and unknown - as the "lineage of enlightened warriors," individuals who have appeared in every culture, manifesting brilliance, creativity, boldness, and peace. When we hold them as our guides, their bravery and their royal bearing set themselves up within us as well. We can invoke these guides; we can be nurtured by them. We step into the lineage with them and begin to speak with the voice of the lineage itself. We are the lineage.

Here is a meditation you can use, especially at times when you feel particularly challenged.

Meditation

I am not alone. I am accompanied. I stand within the lineage of enlightened warriors behind me, supporting me to manifest my most bold, creative, and enlightened self.

CENTER
Disconnection From Sovereignty As Invitation

We must be the change we wish to see in the world.
- Mohandas Gandhi

What do you see when you look at the world? Many practitioners of Celtic spirituality who are familiar with these teachings see a world that has lost its spiritual sovereignty.

So many people struggle with addictions, abusing themselves with toxic food, drugs, harmful relationships, and poisoned thinking. They haven't found (or they have lost their connection to) a true vision for their life. The addictions take their toll energetically, emotionally, and often financially, thus depleting their life force and their finances; their day-to-day existence is often characterized by a lot of drama, conflict, tension, and stress. Rather than feeling a sense of gratitude - a quality that envelops and radiates outward from one who has embodied the energies of the Center (and the teachings of the Eastern airt) - those who have lost their sovereignty are often deeply bitter that life has not delivered the things they deeply long for.

A number of contemporary governments have become sidetracked from their authentic sovereignty. Some neglect the poor and the elderly, while others dismiss global warming while assaulting the environment. Some political leaders slash education and social programs, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to human rights violations and the desperate need for humanitarian efforts all around the planet. Still other leaders pass bills and tax laws that benefit the richest 1 percent of their country.

And, as you read this, Ireland - a land of people richly endowed with both a spiritual and a natural heritage - watches as their government turns a deaf ear to the traditional lore keepers of the island and marches forward with a plan to build a superhighway through the sacred Boyne River Valley, near the Hill of Tara, the location representing Ireland's sovereignty.

Elected officials using their positions to benefit themselves rather than the people; large corporations dumping toxic chemicals into rivers with no regard for wildlife or the people who may live downstream; military sonar shattering the peaceful songs (and hemorrhaging the brains) of whales in the sea; megastores buying products made in China, despite being conscious that such products finance the genocide of the Tibetan people; consumers buying millions of tons of chocolate per year, the vast majority of which (as of 2005) is produced through forced child labor on the Ivory Coast: each represents a world that has lost its spiritual sovereignty.

As we read the news and learn of these - and other - conditions, certain words begin to assert themselves in our consciousness: Imbalance. Insanity. Illness. In the face of high-velocity modern living, and our increasingly plasticized, disconnected, and anonymous lifestyles, many people begin to feel overwhelmed or despairing at their accumulated exposure to and knowledge of these imbalances.

In the Celtic way of seeing, however, the deep feelings that emerge as a response to these conditions are a call from the lineage, a call from the "spirits of the wheel," from God, or from the Goddess herself, to explore how we can effect change. When looking through the lens of the Irish Spirit Wheel, we see the imbalances in the world, in our lives, and in the lives of those around us as an invitation to embody and act on the deeper powers and energies of the sacred directions. We seek to invoke their influence, lessons, aid, and inspiration. We strive to align the center of our being with the Center of the wheel. We start the journey of the wheel within, committing to doing the work.

Exercise

Set aside a few minutes each day, perhaps ten minutes to start with, gradually expanding the time to thirty minutes a day. Contemplate this question: What sacred life instructions does the wheel have for my life? How can I transform the things that prevent me from living according to the sacred instructions of my soul?

CENTER
Sovereignty As the Divine Feminine

See, we used to worship God as a mother.
- Sinéad o'Connor

Everywhere we hear a call to remember the divine feminine. From Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade to the book and movie The Da Vinci Code, in which ancient Christian concepts such as Sophia (the feminine expression of divine wisdom) and figures such as Mary Magdalene are brought to life in intriguing ways. It seems as if the modern world is responding to a deep calling for a wisdom that is nurturing and intuitive rather than forceful, that is compassionate and heart-centered rather than intellectual.

In the Celtic perspective, the divine feminine is a wisdom-bestowing goddess. The great Irish war hero Cuchulain learns both fighting techniques and the inner wisdom of a warrior-in-balance from Scathach, a goddess on the Isle of Skye. A number of poet-seers in the Irish and Scottish traditions experienced and related to the goddess Brighid as the patron of poetry and fire. She acted as a muse for those poets who endured sensory deprivation, often seeking their quickening verses alone in the darkness of caves.

In the Western world we have largely lost a connection to the feminine as divine and as an orientation point for our lives. The divine feminine tends life, yet in a world where the orientation of this divine feminine is not allowed to exist, an imbalance is spawned. This imbalance enables governments to turn a blind eye to the destruction of the planet; it is the same imbalance that enables individuals to adopt a stoical, self-deprecating approach to their own lives. In truth, it is a psychological schism, a disconnection from accurately perceiving the nature of reality as it is. If we truly saw the nature of reality - such as how our decisions affecting the environment will affect many generations yet to come, for better or for worse - then we would take great care to alter our course in many ways.

The same can be said regarding our relationship to our bodies. If we do not genuinely perceive the connection between our bodies and the earth, both are imperiled. The environmental crisis is not a crisis of the environment; it is a human self-esteem problem. We don't truly value ourselves, our bodies, each other, all of life, and because our human bodies are extensions of the body of the earth, we take our low self-esteem, our self-hate, and create discord in the very thing that sustains us.

Sometimes we do need to draw on the intensity or bravery of the warrior in the Northern part of the Irish Spirit Wheel to get things done in life, but if life becomes governed by that energy without the balance of gentleness, somewhere along the way the divine feminine is forgotten. To truly remember the preciousness of life, the warrior (the masculine qualities within both men and women) must surrender to the Goddess (the feminine energies within men, women, and the land). Hence the old Irish saying, "Never give a man a sword unless he knows how to dance." We aren't talking about a jig here. We are talking about the dance of integration.

Meditation

Life can be a blend of strength and gentleness. The Irish Spirit Wheel inspires us to bring our lives into balance. Are you aware of any imbalance within or around you?

© 2008, Frank MacEowen, All Rights Reserved

Excerpted from the book The Celtic Way of Seeing. Copyright 2007 by Frank MacEowen. Reprinted with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com or 800/972-6657 ext. 52.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Frank MacEowen is a writer whose personal journey has been influenced by primal Irish spirituality, cross-cultural indigenous wisdom, and Buddhist mindfulness training. An alumni of Naropa Universitys graduate program in psychology, MacEowen makes his home in Mississippi where he explores Zen practice, poetry, and the artistic process. His website is www.solasdana.org.