This is an excerpt from the talk Ordinary Sacred and includes additional activities for kids inspired by that talk. To view the talk in full find the link below.
The search for Nemetona
There is an ancient Celtic goddess known obscurely from shrines and place names throughout much of Europe from Turkey to the UK. Her name, Nemetona, also Nemetes, comes from the root nemeto- which means sacred space or sanctuary. She is usually associated with sacred groves. Nemetona dates from the pre-Roman period and is known from post-Roman inscriptions and offerings. In some of these she is associated with the war god Mars (or his Gallic counterpart, the lightening god Loucetius) (see Activity 6 below to learn more about why she hooks up with this guy). Nemetona is often referred to as Germano-Celtic, but since the Germanic tribes moved into Gaul after the fall of the Roman empire and pushed the Celts to the northern islands, this likely is an incorrect label. It is more likely she was adopted by the Germanic tribes along with many other native Celtic and Roman deities and Christian beliefs. The details regarding her worship have been more or less lost to us, but this goddess was perhaps a really long-standing and important figure in our prehistory. Too, we know she was so strongly held that was adopted widely and survived into Christendom. Born from Celtic mythology, we may guess that she is a personification of nature, like other gods in their pantheon. In this article, I seek to rediscover this beloved goddess.
All forms are part of the Oneness
Religious science teaches us that God lives in us as us. Ernest Holmes, the founder of religious science said,
“God is not a person; God is a presence personified in us.”
In John 5:19 Jesus says
“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”
And in John 10:30 it is written that Jesus says,
“I and the Father are one.”
The Katha Upanishad describes this presence as the
“conscious center of the self, like a fire without smoke, he that is awake in those who sleep”
and the Rig Veda,
“the son of heaven by the body of the Earth, the shining King who is hidden from us.”
Sri Aurobindo, a guru of the early 20th century, describes this presence as
“like a fire at the vital center of our heart, our psychic center and true “I” in us.”
For me, this assurity of Oneness- that concept that God cannot be both all things and exclusive of being me- applies not just to the Judeo-Christian description of God, but to all forms and description of gods and goddesses. They are personifications of divinity alive in us all and truly, God can be experienced in an incredible innumerable variety of ways, in all the forms of god and goddess every described in the history of humanity and more, like modern day gods of science and technology! And also, all the forms of God are alive in this Oneness all the time.
So in the quest to understand the goddess Nemetona, let us search within, in the sacred space, the sanctuary, that is alive in our own consciousness, or what we identify with as sacred.
Oneness lies within
We are often struck with a sense of sacred in nature. Many people will tell you, “Nature is my church.” This past winter, I was hiking at a local park. It was morning and the sun was still low so that the light was sharp and angled. As I came toward the end of the small loop trail, I saw a large, gnarled pine, with branches in all directions. Although it was downslope from me, it towered above me. The rising sun was coming up just behind it so that it was blocked by the massive trunk. This effect caused the golden beams of light to scatter from the middle of the trunk and shoot out through the branches in crown like a halo. It was truly breathtaking as in I literally stopped breathing, stood still and thanked the tree and all the elements for the gift of the experience, for the magic of that moment that I was a part of. This passed quickly into fumbling for my camera and trying to capture the magic.
This kind of experience has happened to me many times in nature, but sometimes, often times, they have happened during the everyday, mundane moments, like hanging the wet laundry at sunrise, the warm water on my cold hands when I wash the dishes. Some are so profound; they have left their marks on me as soul moments.
There is a certain moment, at a certain time of day, in a certain light, and seen through a certain perspective that when we experience it, we know it as sacred. What is ordinary can become extraordinary. With the right perception- we experience sweetness, timelessness, transcendent grace. What’s more, this perception is individually unique. Another perspective seen from a different with different eyes, a different heart does not yield the same magic. This means, because it is dependent on first being perceived and second by the attitude of the perceiver, that the sense of sacred lies within us, in our consciousness, and is not outside of us.
It is not hard to contemplate too, what is drawing my attention and what is doing the noticing in these moments?
When we question this, we quickly can come to understand that there is only one sense, as Sri Aurobindo puts it, “the only organ is Consciousness.” For without consciousness all of our senses (which have been enumerated by some authors as greater than 54!)- including sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell and all the rest, like sense of safety, sense of sacred, and sense of beauty, and sense of sanctuary would not and could not exist!
Sutra 124 of the Vijnana bhairava says
The state of Consciousness can be known everywhere, and by anyone.
Realizing that nothing other than Consciousness exists,
One attains union with Consciousness.
Just as I have, we all have experienced this feeling- serene peace. This is because Nemetona resides within us and in our presence every day and every moment. Sacred space, sanctuary, surrounds and envelops us all the time and at anytime we can relax into it. We are born with it, there is nothing more we have to do, or be, or know to be connected to it- to be in perfect union with Divinity and feel its comforting sweetness.
We feel Nemetona in our closest most intimate spaces, walking through the front door of your home, our beds that we sink into after a long day and comfort of a cozy couch. You can find her in a pair of slippers or well-worn sweatpants. It is certainly in all aspects of bathing, and of course, in nature. Nemetona is in the stillness of our minds amidst the noise in our daily lives.
Sri Aurobindo calls these moments soul moments and describes them as “The sunlit spaces where all is forever known.” These are moments of expanded awareness, an expansion of our psychic center beyond the physical.
Recognition of the goddess
How do we recognize these moments?
First, they are profound and we are enveloped in the sense of sacred, of sanctuary,
second, we have a sense of timelessness and
third, they leave a mark on our memory.
Sri Auribindo writes:
for the psychic, nothing is glorious or non-glorious, nothing high or low, and the conquest of Everest is not greater than the daily walking down to the tube when this is consciously done. It is in itself all glory. These soul moments may retain the impress of the physical circumstance which accompanied them; we may remember a setting, a place, a costume which we wore then, a banal detail which is as it were stamped with eternity at the same time as the inner revelation; but we have all known, in this very life, these moments of pure transparency, or of a sudden flowering and, twenty, forty years later we find intact this snapshot with the faintest color of the sky which clung to it, even the pebble which lay there on the road or the absurd daily round, as if all this was there for eternity – and is not, “as if”, it is for eternity, truly; these are the only moments we have lived, in which a true “I” has emerged in us from all those hundreds of hours of inexistence.
Sri Aurobindo as quoted by Satprem in Sri Aurobindo, or the Adventure of Consciousness
When we pay attention, are present to the ordinary sacred moments and the presence of the sacred all around us, very close to us, always connected to us, this is Nemetona.
What is more, and what is truly wonderful, is that we all know and have already known these moments. Our memories are full of them. These experiences are part of our natural being. We all know the sanctuary that abides in our own soul.
And when we allow our awareness of the present moment, each soul moment, to expand- not fumble for the camera- and then allow these soul moments to meet up, one with another, woven together into eternity we live as our true selves, as pure consciousness, as the “I” within. We wake up from the dream into our holy, sacred self.
Early 20th century esotericist, Rudolf Steiner writes,
“We may persevere patiently for years without noticeable results. And then suddenly, as we sit, we find ourselves surrounded by a spiritual light. The walls disappear and become transparent to the soul. A new world spreads out before our eyes which now see, sounding forth for the ears of our spirit, which now hear.”
Rudolf Steiner, How to know the higher worlds
And Sri Aurobindo,
“One emerges into another dimension where one sees oneself old as the world and eternally young and that this life is one experience, one link, in an uninterrupted succession of experiences which stretch out behind us and are lost in the future.
Sri Aurobindo, Ghosh, as recorded by Satprem in Sri Aurobindo,or the Adventure of Consciousness
The profound impact of individual realization
Individual realization has an impact on the collective consciousness, the waking up of all humanity, and for this and for our own personal experiences of soul moments, we can be grateful for all of the wakened masters, past and future. What’s more, this also means that our attention to, our presence in, our ordinary sacred moments is our most important task in this lifetime because it heals and transforms ourselves and all of humanity!
Science of Mind Principle: WE BELIEVE that heaven is within us, and that we experience it to the degree that we become conscious of it
Lesson Affirmation: I relax into God as the center of my being
Energy Center: Heart
Animal Guide: Hummingbird
Deity: Nemetona
Religion in focus: Celtic paganism
Activity 1: Tell a story of everyday enlightenment
This story is a favorite for me for so many reasons. It is a Buddhist tale from Tibet, a story of enlightenment through something very ordinary, through the sacred act of sweeping. This is the story of Chunda, The Broom Master adapted from the version in Kindness: a treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents by Sarah Conover.
Activity 2: Notice the little things
Pretend to be a small creature and see the world through their eyes. Act like a hummingbird, going from flower to flower. What do you notice? How does your awareness change as a hummingbird? What would the world be like full of such large flowers? What does nectar taste like?
Together with our children we can pretend to be anything and it is a game children love to play. This pretend play shifts our perspective and focuses our attention taking us into beginner’s mind. This mind pays attention to the newness of the world and immerses itself in the experience. So many new discoveries are made about ourselves and the world with a fresh perspective.
After hummingbird, pretend to be these animals: barnacle, ant, spider (see the world through 6 eyes!), flower, butterfly, flea.
Try now to pretend you are really, really large, a whale. Imagine you have an eye larger than your body and that your song can be heard throughout the seven seas and span the entire planet. How does this perspective change your awareness of yourself?
What is incredible and truly astounding is that human consciousness does have to capacity for this sort of imagination. How is that possible? It is fun to explore this question together with your child.
Activity 3: Just Journal! Nature and Not-nature journaling
Nature journaling is a method of slowing down, paying attention and connecting deeply with nature. Our very first scientists like Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Leonardo da Vinci, John Bartram, John James Audubon, William Clark, etc., etc., etc. primarily used nature journaling to make their great discoveries, and today the practice has been revived in popular culture as a growing trend for everyone. There are nature journaling clubs in every major city and not only that, since the pandemic, there are now global nature journal online groups that regularly meet. My friend Melinda Nakagawa of Spark In Nature hosts one such free, fun-filled, weekly global group open to all ages and offers classes and more. Truly, there is no better way to connect yourself and your child with nature, and to the sense of stillness within than nature journaling. Moreover, it counts as science education and because it is self-directed learning and inspires inquiry and discovery, far surpasses other science pedagogy simply because what we learn on our own, we remember. I see nature journaling taking a huge part in science education in the coming years, as a revival of the best practice of the scientific masters of the past.
Nature journaling will allow you to quickly and easily be in the presence of Nemetona, AND here I propose something altogether new. I call it not-nature journaling. Use the same intention, focus, and inquiry to journal the ordinary and everyday items around you. John Muir Laws, a pioneer of the nature journaling movement, suggest 3 questions as we journal:
- ! I NOTICE
- ? I WONDER
- ~ IT REMINDS ME OF
With your child use these 3 questions to journal about the mundane: your couch, your doorknob, your dirty dishes, your bookshelf, the stain on your carpet, the spider web collecting dust in the corner of the ceiling or anything the eye settles on. There are no rules for how to journal. You can sketch or write about it. This is a wonderful activity for all ages and great way to nurture in your children self-discovery and self-expression. Journaling in all forms has long been a path for to higher understanding, not only of the small self, but of the Universal self. So by starting to journal when your kids are young and making it fun, full of pictures, colors, sounds, smells, your children will turn easily and seamlessly to using their journal for conversations with their inner self in later life.
What is so powerful about this practice is that we begin to view everything that comes into our awareness as symbolic reminders or touchstones. Within these are messages or gifts of healings from our subconscious mind.
…we pay attention to our ideas or mental representations. Each one must become meaningful to us. We must begin to see in every image or idea a specific message about something in the outer world.
Rudolf Steiner, How to know the Higher Worlds
Activity 4: Bless the threshold
A common practice among modern-day Wicca, and quite probably among ancient Celtic pagans was to say a blessing upon crossing the threshold and entering the house. This is believed to be a realm of special magic, literally as entering from the outer world into the inner sanctum, and symbolically a coming into our most sacred space and innermost self. The front door is definitely the realm of Nemetona, of our sanctuary. The practice of saying a blessing or acknowledging the sanctity of coming home can be found in other traditions as well, like in the Christian tradition at Epiphany of chalking the door and in the Jewish tradition of hanging the mezuzah at every door of the house.
Inside the mezuzah is the the Jewish prayer Shema Yisrael, beginning with the phrase: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord (is) our God, the Lord is One” in accordance with Deuteronomy 6:9 which says to “write the words of God on the gates and doorposts of your house.” You may use a formal blessing like the mezuzah, or you may create your own with your family to acknowledge and show gratitude for your blessed home and sanctuary and the protectors of your sacred space.
Activity 5: Take a breath
Since becoming a parent, I have read just about everything there is to do with parenting. I’m not sure where I learned this tip first, likely from Dr. Laura Markham of Aha Parenting and her book Peaceful Parent, Happy Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting. Before reacting, she recommends taking a breath and if you notice that your response is very, very strong, give yourself a timeout before reacting. Both of these tips have helped me tremendously as a parent to reframe and refocus, to drop into presence and reconnect with what is really important.
Dr. Arayeh Norouzi takes this concept even deeper in her transformational coaching and teaching on conscious parenting. She explains that we can use our triggers as resets not only to connect to our still center, to Nemetona, through the breath, but to recognize that the trigger as coming from within us. Yes, that’s right- our kids do not trigger us, we are triggered. Recognizing this, we can allow the triggers to reveal and heal wounds. She advises first to STOP, Stop Take a breath, Observe and Proceed with love then to P.A.U.S.E. and outlines 5 steps to center in: 1. Pause and breathe, 2. Accept the as-is and feel emotions, 3. Understand thoughts and triggers; 4. Search for different perspectives; and 5. Eliminate fear and proceed with love and compassionate boundaries. There are a lot of things going on in that PAUSE, that may seem like a lot to master. Not to worry, Dr. Arayeh offers lots of classes on her website, book recommendations, and quotes for keeping you on track.
Mindfulness helps you fall in love with the ordinary.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Activity 6: Loving the god of war and lightening
In the introduction, I write that Nemetona is associated with and consort to the god of war, Mars, and his Gallic counterpart, Loucetius, the god of lightening. Their names are found inscribed together at a shrine in Bath, England. What is Nemetona, the goddess of sanctuary, stillness, respite and safety doing hooked up with this guy?
At first glance their pairing may seem unlikely, but upon further reflection on those moments when we have experienced deep stillness and presence, felt held in the arms of Nemetona, we possibly can also find Mars close by. His presence often precedes hers and is felt in the emotions and actions of arguments, stress, deadlines, defensiveness, power, and action.
I remember in graduate school walking home at night from the lab. I had been spending over 12 hours a day there for weeks on end, eating and even sleeping there at times. It was snowing big soft flakes and the only light came from the street lamps. My feet crunched underfoot and suddenly I was overtaken by a wave of the immense beauty and perfection all around me. I was also very aware that it was because of the stress I was under that I was propelled into, forced into that awareness. We really can only take so much of our self-perpetuated pain, suffering and warfare before our consciousness, before Nemetona, steps in to to offer sanctuary, to offer reprieve. And it seems those moments always arrive after the coming of Mars. Not to worry though, Nemetona is in no way dependent on Mars to appear. She is always available to us anytime.
What does this mean for children? For parenting? It means we don’t have to be the perfect parent. It means that no matter how many times we have bad days as parents and don’t PAUSE (Activity 6) or -the oh so terrible (gasp!)- fight with our partner in front of our kids, or yell, or any number of enumerated sins, as parents we are still perfect for our children, just as we are. This doesn’t mean we are excused to be unconscious of our actions that harm ourselves and others, or to continually yell at our children and our partners day in and day out. What it does mean is that it’s never too late to apologize, to forgive and to be forgiven, even if your children are adults.
I have found that the sweet presence of Nemetona and the deep sense of heart connection with my child is strongest after a major argument. We are all exhausted and I have hit a wall knowing that I have no idea what to do. In those moments, the sweetest healing happens. We apologize, we pray, we give thanks, we recover, and we find sweet blissful sanctuary in each other’s arms. These soul moments propel us into a deep, heartfelt connection and force us to slow down, pay attention, to listen to each other and to receive grace. In gratitude, we an also thank the situation (the Mars moment) that gifted us greater understanding and communication.
Activity 7: Dwelling in the present moment
This chant is from Lisa Littlebird’s community choir and created by Laurence Cole from the words of Thich Nhat Hanh. This song reminds us of the now and the calm presence of Nemetona available to us all the time.
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is the only moment
Breathing in, I calm body and mind
Breathing out, I smile I smile
Activity 8: Be still and know that I am God
This English chant to is a favorite of mine, to sing aloud or internally in my daily routines of cleaning, cooking and doing the laundry.
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am with you
Through darkest skies
A flame survives
Be still
Be still
REPEAT
Activity 9: Treatment for Nemetona
Life, all life, begins in awareness.
Awareness is the often likened to a light
It is the light of God consciousness, the sunlit spaces where all is forever known.
We recognize it in our sweet, small sacred, everyday and very ordinary life moments.
We recognize that we forever surrounded and held in the safe and comfortable arms of Nemetona, our sanctuary
All our senses are filled with her stillness, beauty, and luminosity
And this feeling clears our heart, our minds and our souls, instantly removing all confusion.
We relax into God as the center of our being
And we recognize truly and remember fully who we are
Pure Consciousness
And that we are, in this moment and in all moments, perfect just as we are.
All of life supports us.
All of life affirms this.
We experience great peace, the peace that passes all understanding.
Thank you, God
And So it is.
More reading
I recommend two memoirs about finding one’s true self in ordinary sacred moments:
- Everyday Sacred: a woman’s journey home by Sue Bender is one of my favorites! The author writes about her time spent living in simplicity with the Amish.
- Hand wash cold: Care Instructions for an Ordinary Life by Karen Maezen Miller is a memoir about the the authors journey from the have-it-all American dream lifestyle to Zen Buddhist priest.
I was also inspired by the thoughts and ideas of Joanna Van Der Hoeven in her article here on Nemetona published online in Order of Bards Ovates & Druids website.
May we have communion with God in the secret of our hearts, and find Him to be to us as a little sanctuary.
Charles Spurgeon
Image Credits
Clothes pin mandarinblues
Winged goddess at gate infopaul70
Tree with morning light Schäferle
Door knob Karsten Paulick
Monk sweeping Daniel Kirsch
Hummingbird Valinda86
Mezuzah at the door of Magen Hassidim Synagogue, Mumbai Rangan Datta Wiki, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Snowy night Ville Turkkinen
Hug Mark Filter
Blue flower Andreas Hensel
Sponsor
Thank you to my sponsor, Center for Spiritual Awakening, for supporting this week’s lesson.
Please contact me if you’d like to sponsor a post for Science of Mind child info *at* SOM-child.com. Find a the list of upcoming topics at Center for Spiritual Awakening children’s program.
