The Centre
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The Centre of Sovereignty
The Mist or Ether | The Present Moment
“In a self-centered world, be the centered self.”
~Cristie B Gardner
We have travelled around the Medicine Spiral, from the stillness of nothing in the North, through the quickening of the Spring, the ripening of Summer, the dying of the West. To come to the Centre, is to be intimate with this cycle which is alive in everything. From our breath, inhaling life and exhaling death, to our whole lifetime from conception to death.
The Centre is the direction of home, it’s the place of harmony, the Sacred Heart, and the tiny White Bone where all of the colours of the rainbow flow through us. The Centre is the Eternal Season of NOW, this present moment of timelessness.
In many cultures, the sacred Centre is symbolized by the Fire Altaror Hearth, the World Tree, a flower, a pillar, mountain, or holy well. The Central Hearth is represented in our work as the Medicine Hearth–the fire-altar which is nourished by all directions, and nourishes us and our Medicine on all levels by all directions. The earth from the North provides the fuel for the fire which heats our inner cauldrons providing us nourishment physically, emotionally, psychically, and cosmically. The North also provides many of the sacred Lía who are our council of Elders. The East provides the air, that grows our central fire, and carries the wisdom and messages from Spirit, as well as our breath which carries our intentions in Ceremony and in our communication with the Medicine Hearth. The South provides the spark of alchemy, the transformational flame that burns away the old and heats our spirit to grow and evolve. And the west provides the waters that are life-giving and bring depth to our Medicine, quenching our Soul and connecting us with the Ancestors. Just as the World Tree is often seen as eternally flowering, the Sacred Central Hearth holds the eternal flame, the quintessential, harmonized, Centre of our being eternally nourished by each of the directions and doorways.
As we sit in the Centre of our being, we tune into the vertical energy of this direction, grounding into Mother Earth and opening to Father Sky knowing we are supported and protected from below and above. When all of the 7 directions come together, we are encircled in the Centre of the great circle of Life where there is no beginning and no end, and we are able to come into a state of harmony, which orients us to the path of our Destiny.
In the Centre, we learn to stand in right relationship with Sovereignty, experience the medicine of harmony, and the virtue of humility.
The Centre is the place of becoming a harmonizing presence in our world–not by “doing” or “using” the medicine, but rather by “being” and with practice and focus, allowing the medicine. Here we carry the medicine and are carried by it, we are of service to and serviced by the medicine, we are grounded in and being grounded by the medicine.
Our life is less about who we are and more informed by what and how we are. Here we learn to look to the nature of life in each moment to see how we can bring our unique gifts to harmonize with the Medicine to be of service.
Sovereignty translates as not being ruled by any outside force. In the Celtic traditions, there are many goddesses of Sovereignty because the land and the sacred feminine were one and the same. This is seen in the name Ireland which stems from the goddess Ériu, which is old Norse meaning land. She was the goddess who gave permission for the Milesians (patriarchal culture after the Tuatha de Danaan) to be in Ireland, as long as they named the land after her. When a king was placed in power, this was granted directly from Queen Sovereignty (the land). Bearing this in mind, Sovereignty didn’t mean to rule over your people, tuath, clan, or country, but to have been granted a divine power by the land herself to be in a sacred marriage.
This then is our walk with the Medicine. We have been granted and gifted an opportunity to be in sacred marriage with a divine power. Our path is to be in right relationship, in true and sacred reciprocity so that this relationship can prosper while sustaining us and bringing a harmonizing force into the world.
In the old Celtic tradition, it was believed that a blemish to a king would manifest in the land (Goddess); and we can see how this is reflected in our lives and our path. The reason for this is that the Throne at the Centre is where the four directions, the four cross-quarters, the three worlds, and time and space intersect. It’s the heart of the Triple Spiral. It’s indeed a place of great power, and with great power comes great responsibility! It’s not a place to have power over, or power under where the ego thinks, “I have arrived!” or “I’m not worthy!” because that pulls us out of humility and reverence, tilting our whole world, and closing the door to the Medicine. This leaves us with limited resources because we begin to source from finite self (ego) rather than infinite Source. Instead, the Centre is the place of reverence where we allow power to move through us as we hold our seat with a pure intention of harmony.
“There is a place in you where you have never been wounded, where there’s a seamlessness in you, and where this is a confidence and tranquility in you.”
- John O'Donohue
Writing Prompts:
Sit quietly for a few minutes, just breathing and listening to your body, before you start writing. What is your body saying to you? Where do you feel alive, strong, resilient, relaxed? Where do you feel agitated, worried, uncomfortable, weary? What is asking for more attention?
Pick 3 words that describe what the Centre means to you. Write about all the ways you have experienced this word lately and all the ways you want to.
Write about a practice, ritual, or activity you do that brings you back to your Centre. Describe how you transform when you are engaged in this. How do you feel? How can you do this more often?
Finish the sentence, “In this moment, I am...” keep repeating this sentence as many times as you can. See what happens when you write about each moment as it comes up.