We are a group of friends who jam, write and record together. We are inspired by the ancient forces which haunt and fill wilderness places with truths and enlightenment. We are inspired by Celtic truths and wisdom, and the need to make those powers known to people across planet Earth. We know these ancient forces can have a healing power.
We often write about traditional Celtic mythology and the ways in which modern spiritual seekers find that wisdom and respond to it in their own ways. It should forever be re-created and re-imagined, told and re-told again and again.We aim to be a living homage to the Mabinogion: stories of ancient Celtic truths and wisdom, drawn from deep human passions and unfathomable natural force. We believe in the shape-shifters and the magic and the re-inventing and the bards; the fires around which listeners would gather and the leaping shadows which danced without control. Let them dance for ever!We also aim to make the venerable harps and drums of Tara live again all across the world. Let them be known!But while we reach out to others, we also hope to learn from other cultures all over the world. We often use poetry and painting, photography and dance, to start our creativity. We love these words from Chief John Snow of the Stoney People:"These mountains are our temples, our sanctuaries and our resting places. They are a place of hope, a place of vision, and a very special and holy place where The Great Spirit speaks with us. Therefore, these mountains are our sacred places."We also love these words from one of India's sacred texts, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad:
"From the unreal, lead me to the real. From the darkness lead me to the light. From death, lead me to immortality."The Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Han-Shan wrote these words:"Pilgrims these days search for a way through the clouds. But the cloud way is dark and without sign, The mountains are high and often steep and rocky; In the broadest valleys the sun seldom shines. Green crests before you and behind, White clouds to east and west Do you want to know where the cloud way lies? There it is, in the midst of the Void!"
The mountains of North America have been sacred since the dawn of human history. From the rock spires of Alaska to the Appalachians, deep spiritual lessons have been learned from those wilderness regions. Modern writers have also recognised the life-changing value of these mountains. These words from Theodore Winthrop are a response to his visit to Mount Rainier in 1853:"Only the thought of eternal peace arose from this heaven-upbearing monument like incense, and, overflowing, filled the world with deep holy calm... And, studying the light and majesty of Tacoma, there passed from it and entered into my being, to dwell there evermore by the side of many such, a thought and an image of solemn beauty, which I could thenceforth evoke whenever in the world I must have peace or die. For such emotion, years of pilgrimage were worthily spent."The naturalist John Muir wrote in a similar way about his overwhelming reaction to the Sierra Nevada in California:"Then it seemed to me the Sierra should be called not the Nevada, or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years of wandering in the heart of it, rejoicing and wondering, bathing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of Light, the most divinely beautiful of all the mountain chains I have ever seen."
We love to learn from musicians, artists, travellers and pilgrims who have journeyed to wilderness places and have studied the traditional mythology in those areas. We try to be part of that tradition. We believe that ancient wisdom has so much to teach us in the modern world.One of the great lessons of ancient wisdom is the appreciation of symbolism. Today, too many people place too much value on literal interpretations of sacred texts - claiming to have a privileged way of thinking about sacred ways. This only leads to conflict and war. Many ancient peoples however, saw the world more symbolically. We should learn those lessons too.
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