Opening Ancient Eyes

Healing from a world which is broken and severs us from our souls song.

Well a chairde,

I felt inspired to share on this platform again after a busy summer of travel, now that I am cozied up in the Highlands hibernating and rooting down into Winter.

I have some reflections, which may or may not resonate or be useful, but I thought I’d share them anyways. Below is a wee recording of a variation of this post I decided for those who prefer to listen to things rather than read.

It’s not a secret to anyone that the world at large that most people are inhabiting is one which is unfair, unequal and frankly quite sick. Illnesses, physical, mental & emotional are on the rise. People are struggling to have their basic needs met, that of shelter, proper nourishment, and of relational connection. This is by no means right or the way it needs to be. We are truly social beings, with huge creative capacity and potential. We are not born to be sick. And I speak from a place of privilege whereby I have great range of ability and wellbeing in my own body. So I make the conscious decision to caretake and not take for granted this gift of life which I have, by my lifestyle reflecting health at its core. My ancestors didnt survive a famine/genocide, struggle to get by and experience what they have done for me to toss away my health and the gifts I’ve been given in this life. I did not overcome everything I have in this life, including a variety of inherited addictions and traumas, just to ‘‘get by’’ and live at a substandard level of wellbeing and vitality. My health is everything, and I by no means take it for granted.

However it is all a choice, I could decide to feed myself processed food laden with chemicals and void of nutrients, I could make choices which inhibit the healing processes of my body, which make me feel lethargic and depressed. But I dont. Instead I have committed myself to living a natural life, and my choices of that which I engage with and ingest are influenced by this.

And it’s a journey, to restore wellbeing into our bodies and souls, when we have been so robbed of it, by the mainstream narratives and idea of life we have been fed by the dominant cultures of the world.

It is a journey of breaking away from the system, opening our ‘’ancient eyes’’ to see clearly in the world, unimpeded by the distortions of the corrupt indoctrination & influence of the ‘’mass media’’.

Most people are not reaching their full potential of health, wellbeing & vitality. We as humans actually have huge untapped potential to create, to grow & evolve. Most people are stuck in a cloud or haze, barely getting by, and kind of enchanted or hypnotised by the mass agenda of news, pop culture, unnatural foods, toxic chemicals & busyness which keeps people locked in and dependent on a system which is unhealthy in nature and doesn’t have our best interest built into its function.

The system by and large functions & operates by the work of the everyday person who keeps the cogs moving, working 9-5 monday to friday, just to put food on the table and pay the mortgage of a house you are under the illusion that you own.

That’s all well and good and we all make decisions, and perhaps some people are happy doing this. But what I see in the world is many people are unhappy, sick, traumatised and exhausted. Not actually having agency over their own time, not getting enough rest, really living or reaching their true potential.

I believe we have all come here with gifts, with a purpose, it doesn’t have to be loud or proud, but we have all come here for a reason. That reason to me is not to make a few billionaires in the world richer by feeding their economic systems, paying taxes and slaving away to pay loans for us to have a roof over our head, which to me is literally a basic need.

‘‘If we look at something very simple from our ancient Irish worldview, which is the Fianna Slogan of

Glaine inár gcroí, neart inár ngéag is beart de réir ár mbriathar

Purity in our hearts, strength in our limbs, truth on our lips/actions to match our words.

My interpretation: We must be clear & true in our hearts. We must take care of & train the body to be strong and meet its potential. We must honour our word, and walk with integrity.

To become a member of the Fianna, there were many trials & initiations undertaken. Including the act of fosterage, where you would be educated by different members of the tribe who were not your parents. This was a time where specific skillsets and values were passed down within the community to the younger generation. This is something I would love to see return and hope to adopt in my own life and community in the near future.

From the moment we are born in so many ways we are being told who we need to be, whether its true the lens of familial expectations and their unconscious traumas, or by the schooling system which in Ireland we are forced into by the age of 4 years old! In our formative years, we are involuntarily (at least in my case anyways) cast into the hands of complete strangers, to raise and imbue our children with values and education. In my case this was in a classroom with some 30 other students, all of completely different needs, levels of ability and backgrounds. Needless to say, my gifts went unnoticed and I didn’t receive the care I needed, instead I wasted a lot of time sitting in a classroom learning stuff I would then forget and never use again.

I have no issue with education and feel it’s one of the most important things there is. However this sit down and be quiet-regurgitation method is not in any way healthy nor does it create healthy people. In fact it is the opposite. Young people these days are not being shown the basic level human skills that help us to survive and look after ourselves. Ie food growing, crafts, sewing/knitting/repairing/mending, hunting/fishing, building, etc… these are base level skills that we as humans in times gone past all had and practiced in our day to day lives. Nowadays most people just work to buy stuff, and inturn, we miss the aliveness of being a human, in relationship & co-creation with our lives. We are the weavers of our own destiny, and when we harness this creative force and literally make & create the world we live in, we feel a deeper responsibility and relationship with this web of life and environment we live in, with the materials we use, with the food we eat… without this, no wonder humanity is in such a destructive cycle of separation and infliction of harm.

If we look at state education in Ireland historically, up until very recently, the education system was hugely abusive towards children. In the era of friends of mine and my parents generation, children were physically, emotionally & psychologically abused. I know these days school systems are actually much better and there are many wonderful schools and teachers out there for sure, I don’t discredit that at all. However I can only speak to my own experience, which was that as a child, I had a huge awareness of who I was in ways, and was highly creative, with a huge thirst for learning. However what was being fed to me in school, was not of interest in any way, and the way I was treated, i.e sit down be quiet, be good and do what youre told, just did not go down well for me. I always felt a sense of agency and a kind of trust in my own inner voice, and also the piece around ‘’ I dont want to do that’’, which in turn, in the schooling system, was that I was ‘’bold’’ or in some way difficult.

Being the difficult one is hard as a child, however now that I’ve become an adult and have a clearer image of what was going on, I am so grateful to my defiant younger self, who simply did not comply with a system that is inherently broken & unnatural.

My soul knew deep down there was another way, a way which I could express myself, a way which I could be seen and supported in how I needed, and a way which wasn’t rooted in me becoming a ‘’good compliant citizen’’. That is just not my destiny mate.

I came into this world with my eyes open, and that has not always been easy, in a world where there is so much darkness, if you are willing to see the truth.

That darkness is not just outside of myself, but is a part of me, and you, and us all. That for many, is the most difficult part. The denial of self, the denial of the shadows that live inside of us. In order to free ourselves of the shackles of the oppressive systems, of the belief systems that are ingrained within us, of the ancestral traumas and pain that manifest as illness in our bodies & souls, we MUST look at this darkness. We MUST open our ancient eyes, for it is in this seeing, that we can free ourselves, and grow into our becoming.

I ask you this, do you feel fully expressed from the centre of your heart and soul? Do you rise each day knowing that youre honouring and using the gifts you have been given in this life? Do you feel well in your body, heart and soul?

If the answer is no to some of these questions, its not to feel shame, or to blame yourself for this. So much of the illness that we inherit and that lives within us is a direct result of the society and cultures we are born into. Just to be born at this time as a human, is often to be born traumatised. Traumatised by the severance from the land, from our tribal cultures, from the support of elders, the relationships that bind and hold us, and so much more, That is why I believe the times we live in our so powerful and potent. We live in a time of soul retrieval, both individually for ouyrselves and collectively for humanity. We are like the Salmon, swimming against the current, finding our way home again, after a time of losing the way.

When we have not grown up or had our needs met in the way we have needed, which by and large is the case for most people, There is a kind of soul retrieval that must take place, a journeying into repairing the in tact nature of the soul, its gifts, and destiny, which we came into this world with. This is what I have been doing the past 10 years, and seeing how my illnesses, addictions and patterns have fallen away because of these deep healing that I have undergone. And it still continues, perhaps its a lifelong quest, of healing and bestowing a legacy of wellbeing to the next generation.

I leave you with this,

Glaine inár gcroí, neart inár ngéag is beart de réir ár mbriathar”,

Me as a 3 month old at my baptism: ‘‘Sh#t Mam, I didn’t consent to being initiated into this cult, wtf’’. haha