Celtic Spirit of Discovery Reawakens in Spring
By C. Austin
On the surface of another world, two robotic rovers roam a dusty
red planet named for the Roman god of war. The rovers, "Spirit" and
"Opportunity," were launched out of Earth's atmosphere in summer 2003,
thus beginning their odyssey to Mars, the "red wanderer."
The god Mars further lends his name to March, the month that ushers
in the vernal equinox, St. Patrick's Day and the juncture when
winter's thaw liberates a new season of action.
The spirit of discovery has dwelled within the human heart from its
first beat. The seeds of imagination that landed robots on Mars were
sown long ago when the first humans wondered what might lie beyond the
glow of their firelight. Indeed, one of the essential themes of
Celtic mythology is that of the otherworldly voyage.
The moniker "imram" refers to an Irish story that describes a
journey at sea, usually to otherworldly islands on the western ocean.
It is the navigation to and between these super-natural islands that
is essential. In Celtic mythology, the critical experiences are those
that involve the Otherworld.
To the Celts, and thus to us, their heirs, the world of human and
the world beyond are not mutually exclusive. They encroach upon,
synergize and enrich each other. To deny the existence of the Other,
by whatever name, is to deny the imponderable that fuels our everyday
lives. As such, the journeys taken today, whether to a distant planet
or through the vicissitudes of life, are tantamount to the ancient
oceanic journeys through sea and psyche.
The hero of the immrama tales undertakes the quest voluntarily,
usually beckoned by an alluring immortal being or fairy met on an
otherwise normal day. Motivation for voyages in the Christian era,
such as that of St. Brendan, took the form of discovery of new lands
or the expiation of crimes. St. Patrick willingly returned to Ireland
as a missionary, despite being abducted and escaping from that island
as a young man. In our age, motivations are many - a comely partner, a
search for new experiences, guilt or the growing awareness that more
years have fallen behind than lay ahead.
Immrama are not the contemporary journeys of spirit that begin with
a sudden loss or shock. Adventures in the underworld are known as
"echtra" in Irish storytelling. The actual journey is a secondary
feature of the echtra, not the primary framework as with an imram.
No, the imram begins on a day like any other. A breeze brushes
your cheek and an idea forms in your mind. A friend makes a
suggestion upon which you ruminate. Something subtle, music you cannot
remember entices you to take a different path this day and the next
and the next. Slowly it dawns on you that you are walking along the
shore of a vast sea, oar in hand.
It is a curious feature of Celtic mythology and hence life, that
one?s destination appears just as one accepts that one is aimlessly
adrift. Like dream imagery, Otherworldly islands are an
objectification of human experience -- an island of Joy, of Laughter,
of Black Mourners -- as many as 33 islands. Abstract principles and
forms find expression in these islands, white and black, femininity
and masculinity, pillar, pedestal and arch.
As befits the interaction between this world and that, a few of
these islands may truly be of this world; a "great Square Silver
Column rising from the sea" might have been an iceberg and a "river
that burns like fire" could have been a lava flow. As well, research
and reenactment have proven that transatlantic voyages in curraghs
could have allowed Irish mariners to reach Iceland, Newfoundland,
Florida and the Bahamas.
Like the explorers of the immrama, we may visit some of these
islands. To some we sail. On some we land. Still others we wisely
avoid, lest the violent or seductive archetypal energies embodied
there lure us prematurely from the mortal sphere.
Mythology reveals the fate of Otherworldly adventurers such as
Oisin or Neachtan who return to Ireland, homesick to see the land and
people they once knew. To their sorrow they find centuries have
passed, no vestige remains of the life they knew. Once one has
undertaken the Voyage, "Home" will never again be as it was. Those
expecting such will find one's life crumbling to dust in front of
one's eyes.
And in each life there are many journeys. Timeless inner questions
fuel outward action, leading us onward and to the stars. There are
some who believe the ancient immrama are the remains of an unwritten
Celtic "Book of the Dead;" that is, a guide to the craft of dying and
navigating the passages through which the soul passes. Passage from
this life is a great journey, but no greater than those undertaken
while we still breathe.
Our time in history is troubled. A single person's journey has the
power to change our planet for the worse or for the better -- be it the
leader of the world?s most powerful country or an aid worker in a
strife-torn region. The choice and the journey are yours.
The snow drips to rivulets that pour into streams that restlessly
make their way to the ocean. The equinox approaches, life flows, a
new season of discovery beckons.
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