John O’DonohueAnam 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