Feed Your Soul!

Because I have studied the Celts and their spirituality for over fifty years now, my family and friends had been badgering me for ages to start my own Mystery School, to teach Celtic Mysticism. But for a number of reasons, up until a little over a year ago now, when I finally did found The Celtic Order of the Féth Fíada, I had steadfastly resisted — mainly because putting together a school and running it takes a great deal of time and effort, and because I have both arthritis and fibromyalgia, I’ve lived with chronic pain ever since I was in my early 20s.

It’s not fun. For many years, the pain came and went, so that I often had several pain-free days in a row — sometimes for months — which helped me cope with it. But unfortunately, the older I grew, the more the pain steadily increased. Because of that, I haven’t had a pain-free day in decades now, let alone several of them. Changes in the barometric pressure tend to exacerbate the pain, as do high humidity and rain. So all the crazy weather we’ve been having here lately has really wreaked havoc on my body. Today, the temperature’s dropped back down into the 20s (F), and the sky is overcast, as though it’s going to snow again, even though our meteorologists give that only an approximately 1% chance (although it has now snowed, anyway).

I hurt all over, and my right hand feels as though it’s got needles and pins in it, like it’s fallen asleep, even though I know it hasn’t.

All this makes it hard for me to work and equally hard to devote time to my spirituality. But still, if I waited until I felt better to accomplish everything I want to do in whatever time I’ve been allotted here on Earth, I’d never get anything done. So, over the years, I’ve learned how to push through the pain and press on, to keep on moving forward with my life, my work, and my own personal spiritual practice.

As you might imagine, all this takes a great deal of determination, self-discipline, and self-motivation — the very same traits it’s necessary to possess in order to establish a successful writing career, by the way.

Before I retired from writing (in my mundane life, I was a published novelist, a career that spanned 30+ years), I used to meet people all the time who would insist to me that they were going to become writers, too. I always knew that 99.9% of them never would. Usually, their main reason for not having yet become writers was “lack of time.”

Hearing that, I’d always smile and suggest, “Write a page a day. Then by the end of the year, you’ll have finished a book.”

“Oh, if only I had the time.” They’d sigh.

Well, honestly, I’ve got news for you: If you can’t even manage to write a single page a day, you’re never going to become a writer.

Author E.B. White said: “A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper.”[1]

To Sinclair Lewis, writer and activist Mary Heaton Vorse observed: “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” He claimed that she also took away his trousers and locked him in his room to encourage him to write.[2]

Writer Chuck Wendig wrote: “It’s work. It’s not always pleasant work. Sometimes it invokes a deep, almost psychic pain — an anxiety that blooms into an acid-spitting flower corrosive to confidence and craft. And yet, the words are the words. They only matter when they manifest. And you’re the magician that summons them into existence — their manifestation is on you and you alone. Nobody said it would be easy. Nobody’s saying you have to write thousands of words per day. You write what you can write. But that verb is still in place: write. Whether you write ten words or ten-thousand, they still involve you taking off your pants, setting your coffee onto its coaster, petting your spirit animal, then sitting your ass into the chair and squeezing words from your fingertips until you collapse, unable to do any more. It doesn’t matter if it’s good. Not now. It only matters that it’s done. Put your ass in the chair. No, that doesn’t tell you how to write. But it does tell you where it begins and where it ends: with you.”[3]

Read that last paragraph again, because in reality, Wendig might just as well be talking about one’s spiritual practice, too — especially when he says that it all begins and ends with you. Researching Deities doesn’t really matter if we don’t establish working relationships with them. Reading about Magick doesn’t really mean much if we don’t also take steps to perform it and work toward its manifestation. Is your Blessings Jar just sitting in a cupboard somewhere, or do you actually use it? Do you sometimes think, “Oh, how I wish I could talk to my grandmother (or other deceased relative or friend),” instead of creating an Ancestor Altar and communicating with the Dead on an ongoing basis? When was the last time you wrote in one or more of your journals about your spiritual beliefs, thoughts, and practices? In fact, what have you done at all lately to stoke your Divine Spark?

HO34, by Daniel B. Holeman


Just like writing, spirituality takes time and dedication, and even on your worst days, you’ve got to learn how to push through the pain (or whatever other obstacles may be trying to hold you back) and keep on pressing on. So if you’ve been giving your own spirituality short shrift, try jump starting it today. Take 10 or 15 minutes (you’ve surely got that much time to spare!), and light a candle: Speak a blessing; connect with a Deity or an Ancestor; send some healing energy; or perform a magick spell. Then take another 10 or 15 minutes, and share your experience with us here at COFF’s blog. Tell us how you felt. Was this merely an exercise in frustration for you when you had a million other things to do today? Or did you reconnect with Spirit and feel a deep sense of renewal and purpose in your life instead?

I’m going to guess that it will be the latter — because in case you don’t already know, spirituality is highly important to our brain and good health:

https://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/spiritual-science-new-study-brain/?fbclid=IwAR2zbovPSH-b2h3h5tKo9rcjcydDDmux6ZzY8JjKCFa4k-OLFFzSkyj83ro

That’s one of the reasons why, in the end, I finally listened to my family and friends, and founded COFF. We say we teach Celtic Mysticism here, but actually, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, because here, we believe that it’s not enough just to feed your head.

You’ve got to fuel your Divine Spark — and feed your soul, too.

Maybe you’ll be intrigued enough to join us. Maybe you won’t. Either way, may you always know a full heart and a joyous spirit!

Blessings!

APs Rhianwen Bendigaid

____________________

[1] Quote Fancy. Web. 29 January 2023.

[2] “Writing Is the Art of Applying the Seat of the Pants to the Seat of the Chair.” Quote Investigator. Web. 29 January 2023.

[3] Wendig, Chuck, “The (“The Admonition Of Ass-In-Chair, Or, ‘How Writing Is Actually Work.’” Terrible Minds. Web. 29 January 2023.

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