As the end of the year approaches, many of us are already contemplating the year ahead. There are many challenges facing us as individuals and as a collective that may cause us to look towards 2012 with anxiety and uncertainty.
How do we look ahead with optimism and cheer when the hounds of chaos are nipping at our heels? How do we find it within ourselves to make plans for the future, pursue our goals and follow our dreams? In a nutshell, how do we find the courage to keep moving forward?
This writer sincerely believes that if we commit to the truth of who we are and accept the significance of this lifetime, then we can make the necessary changes in our lives to win peace, equality and freedom for us and Earth. From this standpoint, the prognosis looks promising.
There’s a wonderful book called Yearning for the Wind, by Shaman and Celtic visionary, Tom Cowan, where he refers to a story in which St. Patrick asks one of Ireland’s legendary warrior heroes, Finn MacCool, what sustained him and his men all those years before Christianity. The old saint found it hard to imagine that anyone could survive without knowledge of the gospels.
The brave warrior replied, “The Truth in our hearts, the Strength in our arms, and the Promise on our lips.” In other words, he summarized the old Celtic moral code: to live from the deep inner knowledge of heart and soul, to manifest it by physical action, and to be true to one’s word and live one’s truth.
To live in truth is to acknowledge the truth of who we are and live in harmony with our soul. In today’s society that can be very challenging. For too long, human society has suppressed the truth in certain circumstances mainly because the awareness of dark truths as well as the truth itself may have been too hard for us to grasp.
As a collective and as individuals we’re learning to live our truth which is all too apparent from the current situations within societies and governments around the globe. We’re opening our eyes to the fact that we can no longer tolerate deceptions and cover ups. And the worst of it is, we’re realizing that we’ve lived far too long with artificiality and other social requirements that have required us to deny the Truth and lost us our connection with our souls.
The activists of the Occupy movement are manifesting their truth by concrete action. The people in the Middle East who’ve risen up against their corrupt governments are also manifesting their truth with action. Every day, more and more people are speaking out in honor of their truth. It may come in the form of a government meltdown, activists meeting in the park or a single individual who’s simply tired of being taken advantage of and who finally decides to speak out and say, “Enough is enough.”
In Yearning for the Wind, Mr. Cowan also advises us to adopt the battle cry of the Celtic Queen Boudica when she rallied her armies against the Romans fighting for the Celtic people’s right to be in charge of their lives. “The Truth against the world!” She lost and the Romans took control of Britain. Nevertheless, she and her warriors fought with courage, truth, and promise.
As 2012 rapidly approaches, we’re on the verge of a new era, a new way of being as individuals and a collective. It’s time to let go of our old ways of being, look within our hearts and accept the inner truths. It’s time to live from the deep inner knowing of heart and soul and manifest it in concrete action, remaining true to our word. Take hold of your truth, be it, live it and stand with your soul.
Footnotes
Yearning for the Wind: Celtic Reflection on Nature and the Soul, written by Tom Cowan June 2003.