Post by wren on Nov 9, 2006 15:23:33 GMT -5
Muin (Vine), pronounced MUHN
Botanical name: Vitis vinifera. (sometimes known as bramble or blackberry) Status: Chieftan tree. Sound: m.
Elaborations on the Ogham Name Muin: Muin is a vine tree, highest of beauty is Muin
Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín: Vine is the strongest of effort, back of man or ox, for it is they that are the strongest
Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn: Vine equals pack of wolves with spears, three vines
Word Ogham of Óengus: Vine equals the condition of slaughter.
Harvest
The Green man crowns a vineyard scene. Vines sprouting from his smiling mouth, he drinks from a golden chalice.
Muin, vine, is a tree-letter of work completed and subsequent celebration. It suggests that you have reached a stage where your efforts stand finished and you can now take a pause to enjoy the fruits of your labors. This ushers in a season of festivity, itself reflecting the deeper mysteries of divine ecstasy.
Like the vine itself, the mythology of the grape was originally far more developed in the classical world that in the Western fringes of Celtica. The Celtic and Norse worlds certainly had their own cult of the divine intoxication in early times, but it was centered on mead rather than the grape. Either way, these cults revolved around the mysteries of fermentation, with the fermenting of honey or fruit becoming a metaphor for the transformation of the initiate. This exalted state of consciousness may be alluded to in the Ogham Elaboration phrase which names Muin ‘highest of beauty’.
Ceridwen’s Cauldron, from which Taliesin drinks in Welsh mythology provides a strong Celtic parallel, and this intoxicating brew is linked among other things to divine inspiration and poetry. Other divine draughts in Celtic myth flow from the Cauldron of the Dagda, which grants succor and renewal, and the Cauldron of the Abyss for which Arthur quests in early Welsh romance.
Wine and mead are the product of a whole archetypal cycle of cultivation. To ferment a beverage takes much planning, effort and commitment – the strain on the ‘back of man or ox’ of Morainn’s Word Ogham. The ground must be planted and weeded, the vines reared and protected, the pests driven off and then comes the period of waiting. This is a good metaphor for any project that we see through from the conceptual stage to its ultimate flowering.
Muin corresponds to the traditional harvest time, which in the ancient calendar was a period of respite, intoxication and Bacchic ecstasy. This is when we let go of the restraints and inhibitions that characterize our everyday life and give ourselves over to pleasure, fun and exhilaration. In due proportion, such revelry is healthy and proper to the natural order of things. Celebrate the bounty of the season!
Underlying the ancient rites of the harvest is an even deeper spiritual theme of self-cultivation, divine inspiration and ecstasy. Across the ancient world the symbol of ‘intoxicating liquor’ was used as a metaphor for divinely inspired states of consciousness. The sacred festivals, with their songs and dance, were designed to lift the soul – and body – closer to the higher realms, which in Celtic spirituality are pictured as places of continual feasting and plenty.
Reversed, Muin warns of excess and its consequences. If you continually indulge yourself and dwell in excess, you will end up being destroyed. The harvest season and its fruits are part of the cycle; at other times we must clear the ground, plant and sow, work and toil. Do not be seduced into a rootless existence of pure pleasure-seeking: the tide that seems so intoxicating can claim you without warning and leave you broken and useless on its shores.
Keywords:
Work completed, a project successfully concluded. Harvesting, festivity, celebration. Divine ecstasy, inspiration, fun and feasting. Festival life, seasonal celebration.
Reversed:
Excess and its consequences, seduction of the senses, a rootless existence.
Botanical name: Vitis vinifera. (sometimes known as bramble or blackberry) Status: Chieftan tree. Sound: m.
Elaborations on the Ogham Name Muin: Muin is a vine tree, highest of beauty is Muin
Word Ogham of Morainn mac Moín: Vine is the strongest of effort, back of man or ox, for it is they that are the strongest
Word Ogham of Cú Chulainn: Vine equals pack of wolves with spears, three vines
Word Ogham of Óengus: Vine equals the condition of slaughter.
Harvest
The Green man crowns a vineyard scene. Vines sprouting from his smiling mouth, he drinks from a golden chalice.
Muin, vine, is a tree-letter of work completed and subsequent celebration. It suggests that you have reached a stage where your efforts stand finished and you can now take a pause to enjoy the fruits of your labors. This ushers in a season of festivity, itself reflecting the deeper mysteries of divine ecstasy.
Like the vine itself, the mythology of the grape was originally far more developed in the classical world that in the Western fringes of Celtica. The Celtic and Norse worlds certainly had their own cult of the divine intoxication in early times, but it was centered on mead rather than the grape. Either way, these cults revolved around the mysteries of fermentation, with the fermenting of honey or fruit becoming a metaphor for the transformation of the initiate. This exalted state of consciousness may be alluded to in the Ogham Elaboration phrase which names Muin ‘highest of beauty’.
Ceridwen’s Cauldron, from which Taliesin drinks in Welsh mythology provides a strong Celtic parallel, and this intoxicating brew is linked among other things to divine inspiration and poetry. Other divine draughts in Celtic myth flow from the Cauldron of the Dagda, which grants succor and renewal, and the Cauldron of the Abyss for which Arthur quests in early Welsh romance.
Wine and mead are the product of a whole archetypal cycle of cultivation. To ferment a beverage takes much planning, effort and commitment – the strain on the ‘back of man or ox’ of Morainn’s Word Ogham. The ground must be planted and weeded, the vines reared and protected, the pests driven off and then comes the period of waiting. This is a good metaphor for any project that we see through from the conceptual stage to its ultimate flowering.
Muin corresponds to the traditional harvest time, which in the ancient calendar was a period of respite, intoxication and Bacchic ecstasy. This is when we let go of the restraints and inhibitions that characterize our everyday life and give ourselves over to pleasure, fun and exhilaration. In due proportion, such revelry is healthy and proper to the natural order of things. Celebrate the bounty of the season!
Underlying the ancient rites of the harvest is an even deeper spiritual theme of self-cultivation, divine inspiration and ecstasy. Across the ancient world the symbol of ‘intoxicating liquor’ was used as a metaphor for divinely inspired states of consciousness. The sacred festivals, with their songs and dance, were designed to lift the soul – and body – closer to the higher realms, which in Celtic spirituality are pictured as places of continual feasting and plenty.
Reversed, Muin warns of excess and its consequences. If you continually indulge yourself and dwell in excess, you will end up being destroyed. The harvest season and its fruits are part of the cycle; at other times we must clear the ground, plant and sow, work and toil. Do not be seduced into a rootless existence of pure pleasure-seeking: the tide that seems so intoxicating can claim you without warning and leave you broken and useless on its shores.
Keywords:
Work completed, a project successfully concluded. Harvesting, festivity, celebration. Divine ecstasy, inspiration, fun and feasting. Festival life, seasonal celebration.
Reversed:
Excess and its consequences, seduction of the senses, a rootless existence.