by Searles O'Dubhain

In the Immacallam in Dá Thuradh — the "Colloquy of the Two Sages" — two great Irish poets exchange kennings about the tasks of the Druid. To go among the people of the Fomorii, into a clay dwelling, between the battle and the horror, at the Feast of the Great Boar: what do these images mean? Searles O'Dubhain — Celtic practitioner, scholar, and founder of the Summerlands, the first major online Celtic Pagan community — argues that they are a precise map of imbas forosnai, the Light of Foreknowledge, the initiatory experience at the heart of Druidic practice.

Writing in 2007 for alt.religion.druid, O'Dubhain weaves together the Immacallam with the Dagda's retrieval of his harp Daur Dá Bláo from the Feasting Hall of the Fomorii — the great moment in Cath Maige Tuired when the Dagda walks into enemy territory and calls his harp back with a chant that summons the seasons themselves. This becomes O'Dubhain's central image: one must enter the chaos to recover the music. Wisdom lives in the Hall of the Enemy. The Druid's task is to go there and return.

One of O'Dubhain's most sustained philosophical essays, it touches on imbas as meditative death, the three worlds of physical, mental, and spiritual existence, the role of truth as the king's pathway, and the Druid as cupbearer who carries wisdom back to the people.

A voice was heard to say:

"Tair Daur Dá Bláo,
Tair Cóir Cethairchuir,
Tair sam, tair gam,
Béola crot ocus bolg ocus buinne!"

"O Youthful One, what are your tasks?"

"Not difficult to answer: to go into the Plain of Age,
To go to the Mountain of Youth,
To follow the Pursuits of Age,
To trod the Pathway of a King,
Into a Clay Dwelling,
Between the Flame and the Wick,
Between the Battle and the Horror,
Among the people of the Fomorii,
Among the Champions of Tethra,
In the Land of the Streams of Knowledge."

"O Sage, what are your tasks?"

"Easily answered: to go into the Mountain of Rank,
To go into the Communion of Knowledge,
Which are the Lands of Understanding,
Which is the Breast of Poetic Vision,
Into the Estuary of Bountiful Wisdom,
At the Feast of the Great Boar,
A Discovery of Respect among initiates
A Discovery on Death's Slopes,
In an Abundance of Great Honors."

"Tair Daur Dá Bláo,
Tair Cóir Cethairchuir,
Tair sam, tair gam,
Béola crot ocus bolg ocus buinne!"

There are a number of tasks for Druids identified for us in the Colloquy between the Sages, Nede mac Adnae and Ferchertne mac Glais, known as Immacallam in Dá Thuradh. These tasks are set forth as a series of kennings known to the wise but obscured to the uninitiated. Indeed much of the wisdom of the Druids is hidden in this way, whether it is in kennings, Ogham associations or even as myths and traditional tales. In this hidden knowledge are to be found the keys to wisdom and the Druid way. One particular kenning that is given by Nede and echoed by Ferchertne is to go into a clay house to see the secrets of the stars. Nede describes this task as being between the battle and its horrors while Ferchertne likens it to the fair of the Great Boar where respect is found among men in death's hills. Nede's description expands the understanding by saying that this place is among the people of the Fomorii and the men of Tethra.

Before I expand on this kenning I'd like to emphasize that the object of these tasks appears to be to follow truth and to discover wisdom. Ferchertne says this place is to be found in the heart or "Breast of Poetic Vision" while Nede characterizes the working as being the "Pursuits of Age" and the "Pathway of a King" (the symbol of truth in Celtic culture). These descriptions provide us with two tasks of the Druid in Celtic societies. This going into a place of the Fomorii to gain wisdom seems to echo the episode in Cath Maige Tuired where the Dagda has to go into the Feasting Hall of the Fomorii to retrieve his harp, Daer Dá Bláo. Nine of the Fomorii were killed when the harp flew from the wall to the Dagda's hand as he chanted forth the seasons (and all of time):

"Tair Daur Dá Bláo,
Tair Cóir Cethairchuir,
Tair sam, tair gam,
Béola crot ocus bolg ocus buinne!"

"Come, Oak of the Two Meadows,
Come Four-sided Harp of Truth,
Come summer, come winter,
Mouths of harps and bags and pipes!"

Here again we have hidden knowledge that is difficult to decipher if one does not possess the key. Within the words are all of time, the seasons and the music of life itself.

This key is, in my own experience, to be found in the experience of imbas. I've long maintained that Druids and Filidh were initiated into the ranks of the wise only after they had the Imbas Forosnai, the Light of Foreknowledge. I'll not outline how imbas is achieved or even the rites that are performed to approach it here as that is not my purpose and is indeed only to be found by each person's spirit as it is released from its own clay dwelling. What I would like to present and discuss about this task of Druids is why it equates death, truth and wisdom. This triad of states of being seems to me to themselves be keys to secret knowledge. Perhaps they are kennings for the names of the Three Gods of the Filidh that Nede says are his fathers? In another place Nede describes these three fathers as being a father in the physical sense, a father in learning and a father in age. I see these three fathers as being none other than the three worlds of the physical, the mental and the spiritual.

Reading the tapestry of these triads in their warp and weave of wisdom should reveal to us a deeper understanding of what is meant by the act of following a king into the House of the Dead or journeying to the Feasting Hall of the Fomorii, even attending the feast of the Great Boar or being suspended on the boundaries of battle and horror — all of these actions to seek the heart of wisdom. What is described by both Nede the Ansruth and Ferchertne the Ollamh is a way that must be journeyed in order to be a Druid or a Filidh.

The House of the Dead ("into a clay house") that I've mentioned refers to going into one's body and achieving its death through following a king (finding one's truth). This is a metaphor for going into the deepest form of meditation and quieting of the body's bio-rhythms and processes. Yogis achieve this state often in Hatha Yoga and its mastery of the body. Druids and Poets performed these rituals and techniques in the safety of darkened rooms and beds with their eyes covered and their memory stones held upon their chests. When their bodies had been placed into a sort of suspended animation then the work of the mind began. This work is to achieve a mastery of one's mental processes which is the edge of a sword or knife. This is the narrow way that Amergin says gives one the ability to become one with all. It is the place that is between the "candle and the flame" described by Nede and it is also the "breast of poetic vision" known to Ferchertne. This is the place where the mind is attuned to the heart's wisdom. It is in its natural state. It is here that the ways to the people of Tethra are opened. These are the Fomorii, the primal spirits that empower everything that can be. If one is to have mastery over them or deal with them, then one is indeed on the edge of a blade in maintaining a mastery over one's own internal chaos and distractions. There is a real threat of becoming disconnected from self, from existence, from life and loved ones as the layers of our everyday conditioning are stripped away and our connection to our birth purposes are revealed. Truth is the only safety and protection at such times as the snares of illusion are fertile when planted in the plains of one's youth and age.

I've been told by others that those who went on these journeys away from self and into the darkness to find the light of wisdom and to connect with the minds and spirits of other Druids were warded by a chanting soul-friend and surrounded and empowered through ritual action by the people of their families and tribes. This is the most powerful way to do such things and is the way of it when the tribe is threatened or a specific quest must be made. In my own experience, I've found that having one's guardian spirits and ancestors is enough and that one's journeys can be empowered by the light of the Moon and channeled through one's tree as soul-friend. Of course one must first achieve a good relationship with spirits, ancestors and tree guardians before attempting to open the ways. The ancestors are there waiting through one's spirit of family connection. The trees live long and in many realms; their lives and spirits seen in this world are only a shallow illusion of their strength and wonder in other worlds. The spirits of one's families and truth eternally exist to be revealed to an open heart and mind. They are the most closed to the world of form and its physical wisdom, yet they still live in the heart of every object and in the vast spaces within the smallest of subatomic particles. It is within the smallest places that one will discover the vastness of the universe.

I've strayed from my own task here, which is to show that there is a place and a state of being where one becomes the food of the gods and yet one is also fed by the gods. Some religions see this eating and being eaten as being a part of the wheel of creation. All things are the food of something, even when eating or seeking food for themselves. Humans are no different from any other form of food in this chain and strand of sacrifice and blessing. We make offerings of our creations, our work, our spirits and our thoughts when we engage in ritual and rites. We are fed and are food at the same time along the edge of the ways of life and the ways of creation. We are the space between the wick and the flame where transformation constantly occurs, placing life and purpose into motion. To approach the Feasting Hall of the Fomorii is an act more frightening than facing one's deepest fears. It is a casting away of security for confidence in the abiding truth of one's own birth. It is a discovery of one's truth and purpose in an instant of promise that can lead on to a life of excellence. It is also a time when one's metal is tested in the fires of challenge and can be found to be unsuited to the tasks. One has choices to make before, during and after such experiences.

Before undertaking these experiences, one should also face and make the choices of personal dedication, training one's natural talents and learning from others who have already made the journey. Without accepting and accomplishing these tasks, a place of beauty can be seen only as a wasteland. Opportunities can be trod upon in ignorance. Wisdom can be heard only as babbling and chaos. The language of the Fomorii is not easily understood by the confused. Confusion is their food; from it they create chaos that contains both horror and beauty, each maintaining the other along the edge of realities. One wonders if the harp will fly from the wall to one's hand or if it will ignore the untrained mind's voice as it sinks wailing into the depths. Learning the great song is important before singing to discover what or who is for supper. The ways of knowledge are a rope of many strands that lift one from ignorance in any of the worlds of form, mind or spirit. They are worthy tools in the task of climbing the Mountains of Youth (as Nede would put it) or the Mountain of Rank (as expressed by Ferchertne).

It is only those who quest for truth and who have questions that burn within their minds requiring and needing answers who take such journeys. Others seek out their lives along the more well-trodden ways. They live in the carefully crafted worlds of form, fantasy and illusion that are mistakenly called "normal." Normal life is thought to be the same way for living, the life that is expected without the unexpected, the predictable outcome that is neither too much nor too little; it is the pathway of many and a mainstay of the cosmic feeding process. All too soon, one's "normal" life is over and is food and fertilizer for other normal lives. In this everyday existence Nature becomes a machine and automation of processes without mystery or inspiration. Everything is as it's expected or planned to be. Moments are ignored for passing fancies and time is regulated by digital watches or even sand through the hourglass. In this ignoring of all but the expected processes are born the death of planetary ecology, global warming and moral decay. Feeding our avarice today on the futures of our progeny is the crime of a "normal" existence. It is far better to be aware of the many realms, worlds and possibilities that surround the hard kernel of "normal" existence. Life is not a single way, it is a variety of opportunities. The small nut does not become the great oak of tomorrow without realizing in itself are many worlds, many spirits and many creations of the gods. The strands of DNA contain the chants of deities in their long ago and near to future chants of creating. It is between the words that the great empty places become wombs for every new thing that can ever be.

If we listen to the inner voice that is away from the crowds and confusion of everyday life as it is programmed to be, then we will awaken to our selves, our spirits and our fellows along the Druid way. If we can master our own awareness then the vision and illumination of countless others will be shared with us. We will merge with them at the crossroads between Past, Present and Future. We will achieve a union with all-that-is to increase its domains and dominions. If we die, we shall live. If we cease to exist even for a moment, we will become everything that can be. If we have our own cups at the fountain of wisdom, then we can drink or carry this wisdom back to our own work, our people and the coimgne that is the heritage of all that are human and non-human. If we have prepared ourselves through study, dedication and perfecting the inner vision that is clarity, then we can see opportunities everywhere in the bounty that is life, death and rebirth. Without these opportunities being embraced, the future is fated to become the end product of chance encounter, diminishing entropy and a static and soulless repeating expansion and contraction.

The secret of the Void that surrounds the Feasting Hall of the Fomorii is that each razor path to it or from it is itself composed of nothingness. The footfalls of the wise on these pathways create places for themselves where none existed before; each step is an act of primal creation fostered and nurtured by truth. The style of this journey is clothed in one's culture. The rewards of this undertaking are only limited by the joy of one's spirit. Everything is the Void. At the center of everything is nothing. Within nothing is to be discovered everything. Chaos is the mead of the Fomorii, yet it is a drink that can nurture order in the bellies of those who can see. The Feat of Béci was a skill attained by the highest levels of the Druids and the Filidh. It is the ability to see the crossroads and center of any situation and dilemma to see its answer and truth. One learns this skill and performs this feat first upon one's self in the initiation that is imbas. It is a widening of the field of vision to become the Plain of Age, where all things can be seen through the clarity of Poetic Vision and Druidic Mastery. These are won first within the death of the self and its rebirth into another world. They are won for the people of one's tribe and family each time that a journey is made away from form into spirit. It is the cup of the trained mind and the discipline of mastery that allows these draughts and inspirations to be born into the world of form. In a sense, Druids are the cupbearers of their people. They serve the tribe and family's thirst for drink and hunger for food in many worlds by traveling along the narrow ways using their expanded vision and by being participants along with acts of ongoing creation.

Let us feast in the Feasting Hall and chant to the Harp of All Plains in our individual and joint quests along the Druid way. It is not an ordinary life or journey. It is both alone and in communion at once. It is a separation and a reunion of spirit from spirit and spirit to spirit. It is the crossroads of everything that is constantly encountered by those who seek. It is a marking of the sign posts that show the many realities that are way stations on the great hunt for meaning as we each live lives of lives, die deaths of deaths and make the choices that guide us and inspire us being Seekers of Truth. On the Plain of the Towers between Sky, Sea and Earth the Great Eye is opening to us. Will our nine fosterers protect us? Will our unified knowledge perfect us? Will we find in the moment between annihilation and victory the wisdom we are seeking? The answering song that lives on within the Three Preserving Shrives will be sung in Ogham on the Shield of Fionn that is made from the wood of the White Hazel. To drink from the Well of Inspiration is to live again and again.

"Come Moment of Choice!
Come Act of Truth!
Come Great Boar! Come Plain of Age!
Music of lives and deaths and creations!"

Colophon

Written by Searles O'Dubhain, founder of the Summerlands Celtic Pagan network. Posted to alt.religion.druid, June 2007. O'Dubhain was a practitioner and scholar of Celtic Druidry, known for his work on Ogham, imbas, and the bardic tradition of the Filidh. This post is one of his most sustained philosophical essays — a meditation on initiation, the Immacallam in Dá Thuradh, and the Dagda's harp as images of the Druid's path through death into wisdom.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

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