John O’Donohue Anam Cara
A Book of Celtic Wisdom
BEANNACHT
For Josie
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the gray window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colors,
indigo, red, green
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the curach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
In memory of my father, Paddy O’Donohue,
who worked stone so poetically,
and my uncle Pete O’Donohue,
who loved the mountains
And my aunt Brigid
In memory of John, Willie, Mary,
and Ellie O’Donohue,
who emigrated and now rest in American soil
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1 The Mystery of Friendship
Light Is Generous
The Celtic Circle of Belonging
The Human Heart Is Never Completely Born
Love Is the Nature of the Soul
The Umbra Nihili
The Anam Cara
Intimacy as Sacred
The Mystery of Approach
Diarmuid and Gráinne
Love as Ancient Recognition
The Circle of Belonging
The Kalyana-mitra
The Soul as Divine Echo
The Wellspring of Love Within
The Transfiguration of the Senses
The Wounded Gift
In the Kingdom of Love, There Is No Competition
2 Toward a Spirituality of the Senses
The Face Is the Icon of Creation
The Holiness of the Gaze
The Infinity of Your Interiority
The Face and the Second Innocence
The Body Is the Angel of the Soul
The Body as Mirror of the Soul
For the Celts, the Visible and the Invisible Are One
The Children of Lir
A Spirituality of Transfiguration
The Senses as Thresholds of Soul
The Eye Is Like the Dawn
Styles of Vision
Taste and Speech
Fragrance and Breath
True Listening Is Worship
The Language of Touch
Celtic Sensuousness
3 Solitude Is Luminous
The World of the Soul Is Secret
The Danger of Neon Vision
To Be Born Is to Be Chosen
The Celtic Underworld as Resonance
To Transfigure the Ego—To Liberate the Soul
There Is No Spiritual Program
The Body Is Your Only Home
The Body Is in the Soul
To Be Natural Is to Be Holy
The Dancing Mind
Beauty Likes Neglected Places
Thoughts Are Our Inner Senses
Ascetic Solitude
Silence Is the Sister of the Divine
The Crowd at the Hearth of the Soul
Contradictions as Treasures
The Soul Adores Unity
Toward a Spirituality of Noninterference
One of the Greatest Sins Is the Unlived Life
4 Work as a Poetics of Growth
The Eye Celebrates Motion
To Grow Is to Change
The Celtic Reverence for the Day
The Soul Desires Expression
Pisreoga
Presence as Soul Texture
Weakness and Power
The Trap of False Belonging
Work and Imagination
Spontaneity and Blockage
The Role Can Smother
Sisyphus
The Salmon of Knowledge
The False Image Can Paralyze
The King and the Beggar’s Gift
Heartful Work Brings Beauty
5 Aging: The Beauty of the Inner Harvest
Time as a Circle
The Seasons in the Heart
Autumn and the Inner Harvest
Transience Makes a Ghost of Experience
Memory: Where Our Vanished Days Secretly Gather
Tír na n-Óg: The Land of Youth