Fellowship of Isis 40th Anniversary
Caitlin Matthews speaking at the FOI 40th celebrations
The Fellowship of Isis has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding with a weekend of talks, rituals and celebrations at its centre at Huntington Castle, Clonegall, Ireland. We celebrated the Spring Equinox in the Fellowship’s temple in the basement of the castle, we held a ritual to inaugurate a grove of native Irish oaks planted on Ticky’s Island in the grounds, and we watched Logicreality’s film of a year in the life of Olivia Roberston. Caitlin Matthews gave the first talk on Saturday, which she is publishing on her blog, and Vivianne Crowley gave the last talk (about Black Madonnas) on Sunday afternoon. I gave the talk on Sunday morning, which you can find below together with an audio of the actual event, in which I go somewhat ‘off-script’… Photos of that wonderful weekend are sprinkled about…
Dr Vivianne Crowley speaking at the FOI 40th celebrations
TALK FOR THE FELLOWSHIP OF ISIS 40th ANNIVERSARY AT HUNTINGTON CASTLE, CLONEGAL, EIRE 20th March 2016
THE GREATEST OF GIFTS
There’s a wonderful scene in the film about Olivia that we’re going to watch this afternoon in which she says “People think that when you’re dead you wander around like a piece of fluff.” “Not in the least!” she cries!
I think we all here probably feel the same way – and we don’t believe that Olivia, and Derry and Poppy are flitting about like pieces of fluff, but are firmly present wherever they are, whatever they are doing…. Read more
5 Responses to “Fellowship of Isis 40th Anniversary”
Dear Phillip: I want to advise you how very thankful I am for your site. I am unable to leave comments at times, however, every single one is saved and red flagged for reading and re reading. This is one that not only fills me with information and joy, but like so many others it is an ‘ah ha’ moment, where in our soul and spirits ..we Knew this…affirmations and assistance on our path. I am quite silent a lot of the time. This gives me such joy. Just letting you know I am still here. All the best to all. Sherrie
So good to hear that Sherrie. Thank you! 🙂
Reading of Olivia Robertson’s journeys and the wisdom she brought back that you shared with us, I couldn’t help but think of my almost-favorite quote from Mark Halprin’s A Winter’s Tale – it is one chapter of two paragraphs and yet those two paragraphs say it all I think. I so enjoyed reading your post and I have included Mark Halprin’s chapter below as a thank you.
Bleessings – Darien
“Nothing is random, nor will anything ever be, whether a long string of perfectly blue days that begin and end in golden dimness, the most seemingly chaotic political acts, the rise of a great city, the crystalline structure of a gem that has never seen the light, the distributions of fortune, what time the milkman gets up, the position of the electron, or the occurrence of one astonishing frigid winter after another. Even electrons, supposedly the paragons of unpredictability, are tame and obsequious little creatures that rush around at the speed of light, going precisely where they are supposed to go. They make faint whistling sounds that when apprehended in varying combinations are as pleasant as the wind flying through a forest, and they do exactly as they are told. Of this, one is certain.
And yet, there is a wonderful anarchy, in that the milkman chooses when to arise, the rat picks the tunnel into which he will dive when the subway comes rushing down the track from Borough Hall, and the snowflake will fall as it will. How can this be? If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can there be free will? The answer to that is simple. Nothing is predetermined, it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined. No matter, it all happened at once, in less than an instant, and time was invented because we cannot comprehend in one glance the enormous and detailed canvas that we have been given – so we track it, in linear fashion piece by piece. Time however can be easily overcome; not by chasing the light, but by standing back far enough to see it all at once. The universe is still and complete. Everything that ever was is; everything that ever will be is – and so on, in all possible combinations. Though in perceiving it we image that it is in motion, and unfinished, it is quite finished and quite astonishingly beautiful. In the end, or rather, as things really are, any event, no matter how small, is intimately and sensibly tied to all others. All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden dimness continue, immobile and accessible; and, when all is perceived in such a way as to obviate time, justice becomes apparent not as something that will be, but something that is.”
― Mark Helprin, Winter’s Tale
What a great quote Darien. Thank you! 🙂
Thank you, I must read again.
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