Blog 4. April 29th

After completing the week with the Jungian program on liminality and creativity, I picked up my car from the airport. They only had one car with plugin for IPod. So, I have been listening to lilting meditative music by Aine Minogue, Celtic meditations and Celtic Lamentations, as synchronous background for seeing the country and visiting ancient sites.

Sunday, on the day I picked up the car, I felt euphoric, liberated, I could go anywhere. I drove to Hill of Tara; that place is magnetic for me. It was the sacred place of coronation of the High Kings of Ireland, who ritually married the land of Ireland, making love to Queen Maeve or her representative. It is wide area marked by barrows and cairns, the highest of which is topped by a phallic standing stone. I contemplated and hung around there for a few hours, soaking up the energy, through several pouring rainstorms that would loom to the east and rapidly blow through, rain and hail, then lessen and veer off, heading west. There is a wild unfettered ancient energy there. One had better be a powerful and wise sovereign candidate supported by the other world if one seeks a marriage to this land ruled by the intimidating queen Maeve of the Sidhe. If you are not the destined one for the high kingship, making love to the land at Tara may devour, destroy, or drive you mad. This sovereign position and commitment was not for the faint of heart or one with any weakness.

I was in altered state as I drove away from Tara and got back on the N-3 to find my B&B in nearby Trim. After a few minutes on the motorway, I realized that I was going the wrong way. I found a turnoff at Kells,. in order to head back east toward Trim. As I drove through Kells, I came to a fork in the road, unsure which way to go, I decided to pull over. As I pulled over to the left side of the road, my front and rear tires hit the projecting edge of the curb and blew out front and rear tires….. The rest of the story about local people helping me access the National highway roadside assistance tow trucks etc. Three hours later, I rode in the tow truck with a very taciturn Irishman as he towed my car to garage in Trim. He dropped me off there, so I then walked about a mile in the dark to BB and checked in near 10:00 pm. The next day, my B&B proprietors gave me a ride over to the garage twice, once to give the garage man the keys, and once to pick up the car with two new tires on it. Ouch, cost of 2 tires from my first day on the road. But I was mobile again.

Well, everything belongs…..

On the third day, I hit the road with confidence in my left side of the road driving diminished. Hugging the white center line, :~}>, I chanced to notice that I was driving near Ouisneach, the navel of Ireland. It is the central place where the ancient celts celebrated Bealtana, May 1st with all nite Bonfires and bachanalia, fertility rituals all over the countryside, on every hill and high place.

The legend goes that Queen Eiru, the light filled fairy queen and her people of the Dana (original gods and goddesses ) were defeated by the warlike Milesians men. The chief of the Milesians was supposed to slay Eiru, but he fell in love with her instead. He was stricken with passion for her and made love instead of killing her. Instead, he banished her into the landscape of Ireland. She became the rocks, bogs, forest, and hollow hills, the land itself. And the country came to be named Eire, or Erin, for Ireland, for her living in the landscape. Thus the landscape is alive and Feminine, much beloved by the people of the scattered farms and thatch homes. Everwhere was enchanted with the light filled faery queen.

The legend goes on to describe how Queen Maeve took her place, a much more formidable warlike queen, that represented the faery world to the high Kings of Ireland. Therein lie many more tales, some quite daunting, from the mythological cycle of Celtic writings.

The energy from my pilgrimage to Ouisneach stayed with me as I drove into the west to Sligo.ace