by Searles O'Dubhain
Searles O'Dubhain was the central teacher and scholar of alt.religion.druid from its earliest years. Over two decades of posting, he developed an original synthesis of Celtic mythology, Ogham studies, and experiential mysticism — drawing on the filidh tradition, the Bretha Nemed law texts, and his own practice. This essay, posted in February 2012 as part of a cluster of reflective writings, is one of his most complete statements of Druidic philosophy. It ranges across the nature of deity, the limits of language and sensory experience, the imbas state, and the problem of communicating non-ordinary reality. Characteristically, it holds scholarship and mysticism together without subordinating either to the other.
The essay circles and returns — as Searles' thinking often does — approaching the same core ideas from multiple angles. The repetition is deliberate: in the tradition of the file (Irish poet-seer), saying a thing once in plain language and then again in another register is not redundancy but elaboration. The goal is to start a fire in the head. Here he attempts exactly that.
The entire point of the Druid Way is to find one's connection to spirit within oneself as well as outside of one's self. This discovery of spirit illuminates the connection that we all share with everything. It is very empowering to know that one is in harmony with and connected to all things. The idea of deity to Druids is one of mutual harmony and personal connection to all-that-is on an aware individual-by-individual basis. It is not a "power over" or an exclusively "intercessory" activity. It is a connection that each person is capable of learning and experiencing by first discovering their own center of being. Sometimes this is called finding the deity within oneself. Ancient Pagan philosophers have taught this very idea in many forms to many people.
Unfortunately, in the conditions and so-called real world most people just don't take the time to "be here now" or to consider a mystical connection to spirit or "all-that-is." These people want someone else to serve as their spiritual intercessor. They want instant religion. It is these people that Druids sometimes counsel and attempt to help. That's a minor part of being a Druid in a universe that has an infinity of connections and spirits within it.
Another name for this connection and the existence of the universe is God. This is not some white haired bearded man sitting on a throne who must be approached like an ancient king (though that metaphor is sometimes used in outward religious, mythical form to demonstrate relationships and concepts to the many). The true mystery within existence is one that is not bound by any form and is to be experienced by anyone who would choose to fly with their own wings.
To annihilate the self and then to experience what is at that point of origin is an experience I hope each person can have before their present bodies cease to function. It is an experience that if consciously learned and remembered can assist anyone in improving their choices in being and their abilities to create within Creation. This is the point in some forms of Ceremonial Magic where the mage says that they are a god. It is the point in many of the mysteries where the individual realizes that they are both the observer and the observed, they are cause and effect, they are creation and destruction, and they are spirit and Spirit.
People will read completely different meanings into shared words and experiences that come through extraordinary occurrences. We are limited by the shared means of words in the languages and symbols we use. These are often very imprecise and unclear in their meanings. Beyond that, there are some people that will never be able to communicate with one another due to inherent differences of outlook, opinions and life experiences. Finally, there are certainly people like that in our daily lives. There are even people that are just looking for a reason to misunderstand so that they can serve a different master or intention. In those cases, it's best to ignore one another and to reserve knowledge that could be misused or even abused. I've even found that people can disagree even when saying much the same thing. The best intentions sometimes serve as fire for destruction rather than for illumination. Go figure! It's a peculiar world and life in which we exist this time around.
I suppose that finer points and the more esoteric points should be left to better environments or occasions. Often such discussions are better held verbally and face-to-face. That way one can gauge impact, read emotional responses and have plenty of time for back and forth discussion of issues when they arise. Even in those cases, I've discovered that meaning can still be confused when people make assumptions about one another without honestly checking deeper into what's been said.
I'm still attempting to formulate these ideas and the others that flow from it, so I'm posting this here in this crucible in hopes of burning away the dross of the argument while maintaining the iron of its core. I hope to get an inspiration or three either through creative support or combative adversity.
I once had a discussion of this type about Nature, the universe and everything with a person. In the course of that discussion I said that the entire world around us was unnecessary; that it was an illusion that one could live or exist without. The world, even Nature, is only one part of existence and life. Nature is physical life, yet people are also mental and spiritual beings. The goals of being as I understand and know it is to grow in unity with everything. Holding on too strongly to the physical will limit one's mental and spiritual development. The love of money, politics, power and prestige are a few of the traps in this type of overly physical existence.
In some eastern forms of religion and spirituality, the world of Nature is said to be an illusion. All we have to prove that the physical world exists comes to us through our senses and these are then conditioned by our minds and the inputs that our brains receive. What would we think the world was like if we had extra senses? I bet we'd see things entirely differently. If we had hundreds or thousands of extra senses, we'd most likely have very different perspectives from what our five senses describe or interpret for us. Taliesin said he had seven senses. He claimed to be able to see and exist over all of time and space.
The imbas experience is a connection to all the senses and truths that can exist. In its ecstasy of existence, one can access information in ways that are not ordinary and are far beyond anything that a physical sense could ever provide. It presents dangerous temptations to a person in that one could simply discard present reality to abide in that state out of time and space. In this, it is like an addictive drug experience. If one's soul is not mature and aware, so that the right questions can be asked and beneficial decisions made according to will and purpose, then all could be lost. One could be considered to be trapped in the Otherworld or away with the fairies. Describing these non-ordinary experiences is difficult to do and also very open to misinterpretation by those who cannot fully see or hear; whose attention is limited and whose perspectives are filtered through conscious choice and the programming of the subconscious mind.
Among our ancestors, describing these unusual experiences was one of the tasks of Druids. Doing so today is even more difficult because most people have on blinders to esoteric and non-ordinary matters. I haven't always succeeded but on occasion have seen a glimmer of success in the works, words and deeds of others. Teachers and students of these ways have had their difficulties in exchanging this knowledge over the ages. It would be great to have the shoulders of giants as an aid in seeing and describing for others. As time goes on, it's my belief that Draíocht is coming back into this world to embrace the spirits that have always walked its ways. I hope that enough of those ways manifests here in understandable words and concepts to start a fire in the head, the home of the soul. Get enough knowledge and wisdom in one place and it creates a fire in the head that illuminates greater knowledge.
The gods are spirits as well as people are spirits. Spirit can inhabit anything. The gods are everywhere, even within us some of the time (though most of the time they are without us). Answering this question is like explaining: Where is beauty? Where is nobility? Where is Excellence?
The answer is that the Creator is us and we are the Creator and the Creation. Creator/Creation is everywhere. It is around us and within us. How could it be any other way? The gods are us and we are the gods, yet we are also most of the time separated from one another and from Creation. That is the Mystery. That's what Amergin sang about.
Colophon
Written by Searles O'Dubhain and posted to alt.religion.druid on February 14, 2012. One of several essays Searles posted that day as a deliberate act of reclaiming the newsgroup from noise and misuse.
Searles O'Dubhain was the primary scholar and teacher of the alt.religion.druid community from the early 1990s through the 2010s. His lifelong study of the filidh tradition, Ogham, and Celtic cosmology produced a body of Usenet writing that constitutes one of the most sustained records of late-twentieth-century reconstructionist Druidry in existence.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: 22fefe02-d12e-4825-9968-0c7054e8a255@e27g2000vbu.googlegroups.com.
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