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To support the development of this site and the work of soul friendship you are invited to express your appreciation through the spiritual practice of Dana
Take the Yeats Poetry Tour and read some of Yeats works inspired by the Sligo landscape...
...but REMEMBER, there is nothing like experiencing it first hand.
We look forward to welcoming you in Sligo! Rollover the map to start the tour.
YEATS WEEKEND WINTER SCHOOL January 23rd-25th 2009 A weekend of relaxation, lectures and a tour of Yeats Country.
returns for the 16th year to In association with
FREE LECTURE Yeats and the Tragic Sense of Life
Co-sponsored by the W. B. Yeats Society of New York and the Glucksman Ireland House, Professor Nicholas Grene, Trinity College, Dublin, speaks on "Yeats and the Tragic Sense of Life," based on his new book Yeats's Poetic Codes (OUP, 2008). The lecture was recorded October 2, 2008 at NYU's Glucksman Ireland House.
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Clear Mind, Wild Heart guides you into the wellspring of this living poetic tradition through six hours of exploration and poetry with David Whyte, including the verses of such inspired voices as Emily Dickinson, William Blake, W. B. Yeats, Marina Tsvetayeva, Rainer Maria Rilke, Antonio Machado, and others.
Through their words, you will discover how to "apprentice yourself to beauty" and find a place of belonging where you can hold loss and grief, the challenges of change, and the wonder of new discovery and adventure.
"The language of poetry takes us outside of our small selves and calls us to look at ourselves and the world with open eyes," teaches David Whyte. Whether you are a lifelong poetry lover or new to its insights and pleasures, Clear Mind, Wild Heart is an inspiring guide to answering that call
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W. B. Yeats –
Soul Friend - Mo Anam Cara Soul friends will appear at various stages of the hero’s journey. William Butler Yeats started calling me around the time this writer was ‘coming home’ – returning to Ireland after thirty years living away. On the hero’s journey you are required to hear the call of the heart so that you may engage with your purpose. You do this with one of the key practices from the eCourse The Anamcara Experience – Ready to Radiate. W B Yeats led me into other places in my life situation I could never have imagined. For one, his poetry inspired me to become, of all things, a storyteller (following on from Accountancy)! I suspect that had I not made the decision to return home to Ireland he would not have appeared in the way he did. I returned to live in a part of Ireland close to what is referred to as Yeats Country. I often go to Lough Gill. I stand by the water looking out at the Lake Isle of Innisfree. I make it a matter of pilgrimage to arise and go to this place of natural beauty.
"I shall arise and go now…"
To go to an island is to go to a place apart. To arise is an invitation to higher consciousness and to feel the direct experience of what John O’Donohue called “The Invisible Embrace.” One can read the poetry of Yeats and be taken on a journey into the stages of the development of human consciousness. This is the true invitation from poetry. It is an invitation to remember who you are and why you are. In The Anamcara Experience ezine such invitations come to the reader each week. Sometimes they come from the poetry of W. B. Yeats. Sometimes they come from people who are passionate about poetry, including the poetry of W. B. Yeats. To feast at the banquet table of poetry one needs to learn to speak the language. This is what the Lakota call cante ista, the language of the heart. It is a language of love talking, what in Irish Gaelic is called geancannach. Everyone has this language. It is called energy. When it is allowed to move through the body free of doubt and judgment it engages in the art of communion. It converses long about love. We are each called to speak the language of love in our own unique way. Most of us do not arise and go and accept the challenge. We refuse to hear the call. We refuse to arise and go now. This means being willing to arise to the challenge to stay present in the action of the now, which is Love in action. We refuse to be gorgeous and talented. We play small. We refuse the advice of another great poet, David Whyte, when he says, “Anybody or anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you.” All these wonderful soul friends are each in their own way issuing a challenge. Through the use of your will (I will arise) you come to rise to the call. Through commitment to the journey of the hero you can hear and follow that voice that only you can hear and you here to sing and to sound. This is your sound and it comes from your willingness to get up (arise) and go to meet your true destiny. Leonard Cohen, the modern singer/songwriter, talks about this call to arise and go now. He is longing to do this in his poem “Time Out.” He longs to arise and for a time he is set apart in order to grow.
My
time is running out and
still I have not sung
the true song the
great song.
W. B. Yeats as one of the world’s great poets knows that time is a construct of the mind. It is a useful construct but it has become a prison. Without direct knowing of the other world beyond time you will not arise and go out. You will stay asleep. You will wander “the hilly lands and hollow lands” and still not find what you are looking for. You will have missed the call to adventure, the real adventure, and the real journey. You will have refused your birthright of joy. You will have traded gold for rags and stayed asleep in the tower of thinking and no one comes to kiss you awake into the consciousness of the Beauty you truly are. W. B. Yeats was connected to the fairy people. These people are called the Tuatha de Danaan. – The Shining Ones. These are the people in Irish mythology who were driven underground. This is a metaphor for the fact – and it sadly is a fact for most of us – that beauty within is driven underground. This is why today you have the cult worship of celebrity in television, magazines and newspapers. All this is the projection outward of the refusal to be the ‘celebratory’ we are each called to be. When we reclaim our ‘celebratory’ state given to us from our true source then there will be no projection outward of our inner beauty. In psychological terms this is the same as driving beauty underground. We have been taught to do this since we were little children. Some of us are even masters of this art. Here are some of the lines of invitation from a master who invites beauty to awaken from sleep.
I
shall arise and go now -
From The Lake Isle of Innisfree I
will find out where she has gone -
From The Song of Wandering Aengus
Irish mythology, the poetry of W. B. Yeats are both invitations to the awakening of the heart. This is the awakening to the truth of who you are beyond time and space and form. W. B. Yeats invites you to know your friendship with the soul through The Anamcara Experience when he writes.
Many
times man lives and dies Between
his two eternities That
of race and that of soul And
Ancient Ireland knew it all -From
Under Ben Bulben
© Tony Cuckson 2008 Another Soul Friend "click on graphic below"
John O'Donohue is a man of the soul. His scholarly meditation on the continuing relevance of Ireland's spiritual heritage has become a publishing phenomenon.... This poetic meditation has become a best seller on both sides of the Atlantic...... A lyrical epic prayer The Times
From Review of Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom THE ANAMCARA INVITATION The invitation to Soul Friendship is always available. There is, however, a price to pay. You are invited to trade rags for riches. You are invited to give away doubts, fears, sorrows and other rags for the diamond that you already are. There is no greater invitation than to become an Anam Cara - a friend to your soul. To learn more about this radiant diamond within and how to awaken your beauty from its sleep of many years you are invited to subscribe to our FREE weekly Newsletter entitled The Anamcara Experience This Newsletter includes articles which invite all the experiences listed above. These articles include spiritual stories, articles about songs - modern and old, articles about the power of spiritual poetry and many other aspects of spiritual development and much more. As a thank you for being willing to accept this invitation you will receive a short but powerful FREE REPORT entitled "7 Ways to a Wonderful Life." Simply subscribe now without obligation and begin today the journey into a wonderful life of an Anam Cara - soul friend
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