Notes on The Spiral of Memory and Belonging: A Celtic Path of Soul and Kinship
By Frank MacEowen
CONTENTS
Introduction xv-xx
1—In a Green and Glowing Land: Entering the Spiritscape of Ireland 12—Moss Roof, Stone Pillow: Within the Mound of the Old Woman 133—Up From Ancient earth: The Rising Light of Dana 334—The Ever-Living Ones: The Shining Ones as Ambassadors of Dana 495—The Three Spirals: Journeying Into Darkness for Vision 616—The Downward Spiral: Falling Into the Abyss 697—Threshold Spiral, Upward Spiral: Wandering in the Land of Vision 798—Tending the Filaments of Spirit: Dana and the Opening of Soul 959—The sacramental Universe: Cultivating Animistic Perception 11510—Storied Beings of Power: Sacred Objects 12711—In the House of the Forest Spirits: Sacred Places 13512—Awakening the Ancestors: Sacred Connections 14313—Eyes of the Old Ones: Journeying With the Ancestors 15914—Climbing the Dreaming Vines: A Personal Account of the Ancestral
Bequest 18515—Walking Between Worlds: Reflections on Shamanic Spirituality 19916—Tuning In: Other Ways of Journeying 217Afterword: The Return of the Síth 229Appendix: Indigenous Prophecies and Global Initiation 233-
NOTES
Introduction
1—In a Green and Glowing Land: Entering the Spiritscape of Ireland 11 a series of dreams about Ireland
2 Mary Edwards synchronicity
3 dark corridor dream
The Shining Ones 4-11
4 the Faery People
They debate and intellectualize these things as if they were points of philosophy
rather than direct experience.
often seen through the lens of particular entrenched religious views that clash with
how a primal tradition perceives itself
5 Christianity was not always at odds with these earth-honoring indigenous beliefs
and customs.
the druids (the organized intelligentsia and shamanic lore keepers of the Celts)
the Tuatha Dé Danann
6 “the people of peace,” “the good people,” “the quiet folk,” and “the Shining Ones”
the Milesians, the Gael
the Sídhe . . ., an Irish word used synonymously to refer to the Faery People, the
parallel world in which they live, and certain kinds of hills or mounds that are said
to be entry points to their domain.
the People of the Mounds
10-11 shamanism—the practice of entering into a nonordinary state of
consciousness and leaving ordinary reality to enter the spirit world to acquire
knowledge guidance, or healing energy
2—Moss Roof, Stone Pillow: Within the Mound of the Old Woman 1314 Sliabh na Calli
cailleach = crone
15 Loughcrew
older than the Egyptian pyramids by at least a thousand years
may even predate Newgrange in the Boyne River Valley
the cailleach is what I call a gatekeer-spirit, a protector or guardian of certain
mountains and sacred sites
offerings to the spirits of the place
16 I focused on entering a nonordinary state of consciousness—a deeper level of
perception where spiritual rather than physical reality is discerned.
17 felt the energy
my body’s energy field
carved symbols on a large stone wall
18 a shamanic state of consciousness, in which my awareness became fully
anchored in a source of energy beyond ordinary consciousness, my spirit traveling
and merging with the parallel dimension of the Faery People.
transmission experience 19-27
20 For these people everything is alive; the entire island is alive, every blade of
grass, every pebble, every drop of dew. The island is a conscious, sentient being.
21 They are dreaming together. They are all sharing the same dream.
22 I am being shown the arrival of the Milesians.
24 Like the other glowing people who vanished in the midst of battle, these shining
ones are also transitioning out of corporal form. They are becoming invisible,
entering another place that human eyes do not often see, the Otherworld parallel to
this one.
druids among the Gael
25 people being transformed on a cellular level
filaments of light are spiraling upward
26 major changes are coming
27 I know within my heart that the initiation will have unique expressions, in
different places, influenced both by earth energy and divine consciousness, but that
the whole process is somehow connected.
My tears flowed for the Tuatha Dé Danann, those simple earth-loving people who
perished, as well as for those Shining Ones who dwell in a parallel realm even now.
They are filled with such compassion, available to guide those of us who are
courageous enough to embody the great harmony of Dana.
I offered my tears to my own ancestors, both those driven by fear and the disease of
conquest and those who would later attune themselves to the Síth and orient their
lives to the sacred energies of Dana.
3—Up From Ancient earth: The Rising Light of Dana 3334 the Shining Ones, who are so deeply and passionately oriented to the spirit of life,
still exist as guiding forces and can foster a profound quality of wholeness and
balance in our lives.
35 Many shamanic and healing traditions view the healer as one who mediates this
light, who radiates it, a possible explanation for why one translation of the word
shaman is “one who is on fire.”
Dana as a Path of Transformation 36-43
38 energy-body
40 Following this longing for union with this holy energy is what I call the spiral of
memory and belonging. It can heal us, unite us, and reveal deep insights about our
place in the wider spiral of the universe.
41 What we have taken to be our reality, and our habitual reactions to this reality,
have been spoon-fed to us through various forms of hereditary and cultural
conditioning that can often keep us apart from our destinies.
Dana as Goddess, Harmonizing Principle, and Primal Tending Spirits 43-47
different ways to view Dana
4—The Ever-Living Ones: The Shining Ones as Ambassadors of Dana 4950 a higher vibration
To comprehend, receive, and align ourselves with the knowledge and wisdom of
these beings we must actively seek to shift our consciousness, to raise the vibration
of our own energy to come into greater alignment with them.
Fasting on the Dananns 50-57
Dana and the Wider Experience of Soul Initiation 57-60
5—The Three Spirals: Journeying Into Darkness for Vision 6162 These processes involve a dynamic spiritual revolution and evolution within the
individual life, down to the cellular level.
63 dismemberment
melancholy and depression
In these instances the person becomes very different from what their community
had been accustomed to.
64 “under the enchantment of the Faery Beings”
65 the journey of the wounded healer
66 Until modern culture collectively rediscovers its shamanic maps such individuals
will often feel unsupported in navigating what is actually a powerful terrain of
spiritual awakening known to all of our ancestors.
67 We do not have to be an indigenous person to embark on it; it is through making
such a journey that we become one.
6—The Downward Spiral: Falling Into the Abyss 69A Long and Slippery Slope 72-76
74 the dark night of the soul, the night-voyage, and the “shaman’s death.”
76 We dwell within the Soul of the World, and the Soul of the World is ailing.
The Inner Harvest of the Downward Spiral 77-78
77 people do not change until the pain of change is perceived as less than the pain of
staying the same.
78 “When you are falling, dive.”
7—Threshold Spiral, Upward Spiral: Wandering in the Land of Vision 7980 The threshold spiral allows us to become active within the underworld.
It is a place of renewal, of personal resurrection, but before resurrection there is
often a flaking off of what no longer serves.
spiritual death  spiritual compost
82 Jesus, Odin, Gandalf
The Upward Spiral: Bringing Into the Light of Day 84-90
The Quickening Pulse of the Future Earth Culture 9090 The Great Remembering
91 What is needed to discern this larger process of initiation is a transpersonal and
holistic perception of the world, which shamanic spirituality fosters. This process is
also comprehended by those scientific disciplines that approach the concerns of the
planet from a living systems and systems-thinking model, such as the new physics.
8—Tending the Filaments of Spirit: Dana and the Opening of Soul 95-
9—The sacramental Universe: Cultivating Animistic Perception 11510—Storied Beings of Power: Sacred Objects 12711—In the House of the Forest Spirits: Sacred Places 13512—Awakening the Ancestors: Sacred Connections 14313—Eyes of the Old Ones: Journeying With the Ancestors 15914—Climbing the Dreaming Vines: A Personal Account of the Ancestral
Bequest 18515—Walking Between Worlds: Reflections on Shamanic Spirituality 19916—Tuning In: Other Ways of Journeying 217Afterword: The Return of the Síth 229Appendix: Indigenous Prophecies and Global Initiation 233-