Messianic Myths - The High Man & the Sleeping Army

The above is a "teaser trailer", a short 2-minute video about The High Man, a giant warrior figure in the Irish landscape made up of ancient roads. His discovery at this time, and his location in an area full of myths of heroes and a sleeping army waiting for the final battle, is thought-provoking to say the least. This trailer is designed to give a taster for projects to come - web, music and video - based on The High Man.

The trailer is also being used to introduce the new High Man website which is due to be unveiled shortly.

A new ideology - connecting with the past to benefit the future

Something exciting is happening amidst all the current gloom surrounding the economic state of the world. A new energy is stirring, something ancient is awakening, and we have the opportunity to free ourselves from the entrapment of a belief system which insists that our predicament is dire.

Read enough headlines informing you of doom and gloom and pretty soon you'll begin to believe it all.

But is there another way?

For the past while, I have been trying to "plug in" to cosmic energy. I have come to believe, based largely upon my study of the ancient monuments and myths and landscapes of Ireland, that the people who inhabited this island in far-off times were tuned to the cosmic harmony. In essence, cosmos embodies everything. We are part of it, it is part of us. Cosmos is everyone, everyone is cosmos. The smallest particles, from which everything is derived, including us, are "star dust", the stuff of the cosmos. We are at one with cosmos, and it is at one with us. It's just that most people don't realise it.

A great number of people in the modern age have become detached from the cosmos. We lost our way a good long time ago. We beat a new path through the nettles and have become masters of our own destiny. However, we have threatened our very existence and survival by daring to think that we could achieve independence from the cosmos. We wish to become masters of everything. Perhaps, through the ultimate folly, we have put ourselves above cosmos, something which is impossible. Typical of humanity, we want to become masters of everything.

But what if a situation could exist where we were masters of nothing, arriving at a scenario where we are simply at one with everything? Sounds preposterous, right? Impossible maybe? Ridiculous to contemplate?

In such a scenario, the cosmos then truly becomes part of us, or all of us, because we accept we are cosmos and cosmos is us. Nobody is master of anybody anymore. We simply tune to the frequency of cosmos and enjoy the present moment which seems in the current scenario to be a moment full of dread, fear, procrastination, regret, loathing, and dreaming of happiness which is never found.

During the so-called "Celtic Tiger" years, we abandoned all rationale and all sense of restraint and any connection with our true selves and the cosmos. We decided that crass materialism could fill that "hole in the man" spoken about in the Apocalypto film clip below.

But after a decade or so of squander and greed and all sorts of ridiculous excesses, we've come out the other side with the same hole in our selves. That same seemingly unquenchable thirst within us, the longing for something which we cannot satiate.

The Celtic Tiger ideology is a redundant ideology. Its premises are empty. Its promises unfulfilled. We are lost, wandering along a road whose destination is unclear. Many are depressed. People have fled the church, whose ideology is also largely redundant, mostly because it is an ideology filled with negativity and self-loathing and judgment. Where do we go now?

There is an great awakening occurring in Ireland. A great sense of something wonderful, something very ancient, something cosmic. A new ideology is possible, founded on pure and natural principles. It's not an egotistical principle, nor a creed of leaders and followers, of priests and flock. No, it's something that is within us all, as individuals. It's the power of the cosmos.

The only reason we exist at all is because the cosmos exists. Cosmos is not something "out there" (pointing to sky). It is something "in here" (pointing to chest). Yes, we are it, and it is us. When we die, our bodies will become dust, and in the words of Aivanhov (paraphrased!), even if we could be ground down into the smallest particles, not one of those minuscule particles could be destroyed. Our component parts will continue to exist as long as cosmos continues to exist, and our component parts have existed since cosmos began to exist. Maybe we have existed forever?

I am asking you all to do one thing now, which I am trying to do myself. Think of those billions of cosmic parts of which you are composed as channels. Tune to the cosmic frequency. Call in the cosmic energy. Become one with the cosmos and allow its positive energies to flow through your every constituent part.

Do not, for a moment, think about your negative aspects, or your faults and failures, or your bad qualities. Just accept that you are human, and that humans have their flaws, and come to love yourself for what you are, warts and all.

I spent years under the capture of a different ideology thinking about my faults and failures, loathing myself, and constantly asking for forgiveness for those failures. It was a very negative experience, looking at yourself as something bad.

Another experience is possible. An experience where you look at yourself as fundamentally pure, with some flaws, but concentrating on developing and nurturing the good, and not dwelling on the bad. In that way you can connect with the things for which you were best designed, and exist in better harmony with cosmos.

I am on a journey. It's a fascinating journey, awe-inspiring and deeply moving. It stirs my very soul. I am reconnecting with cosmos, slowly but surely. In doing so, I am reconnecting with all my ancestors, right back to those who walked the earth in the very earliest days. I am metaphorically living their existences, beholding their sights, breathing their air, in order to get a better sense of the timelessness of cosmos and the everlasting nature of existence. It's a fantastic adventure.

I find that the best places to reconnect with cosmic energy are those which are sacred and ancient, and more especially those which have not been spoiled by the "tourist" experience.

Do me a favour this weekend. Find one of those sacred and ancient spots of Ireland, or wherever you live, and take a moment out of your hectic life and just think about being part of something vast and ancient. Let the cosmic energy flow through you. Connect with something pure and timeless. Let go of your preconditions and just ask the cosmos to point you in the right direction. Think of yourself as cosmos and think of cosmos as you. You are it and it is you. You are at one. You need not fear to ask for something from it. You know that you won't ask it for a million euro, or for a new mansion, or for that dream car. You know it doesn't work like that. But you know also there is a way to happiness. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy this beautiful connection with the cosmos. And just ask it to point you in the right direction . . .

Heavenly isle - our sanctuary in the deep

Each of us has a longing to find repose from the troubles and tribulations of the world. We dream of a sunny pasture, or a shaded glen, or a remote wood on the side of a mountain, some haven from the struggles of life. We imagine our own Garden of Eden, where trouble is absent, and where our spirit can find rest. This is an everlasting goal of mankind - to discover this one paradise where we will be removed from strife.

In coming to Ireland, the mythical invaders sought such sanctuary. Cessair, the granddaughter of Noah, thought Ireland would be safe from the coming flood because it was a place where man had not set foot and which would be free from sin and evil and monsters and demons.

The Milesians envisioned a heavenly land and sought to take it from the Tuatha Dé Danann. Their spiritual leader, Amergin, proclaimed Ireland as the "Island of the Setting Sun".

Even the Christian monks of Ireland, who saved the Christian heritage from utter destruction during the Dark Ages, sought refuge in the glens and valleys, along the rivers, on the hills and even on the remote islands of Ireland. Here, while they toiled to copy pre-Christian and Christian manuscripts and epics, they too sought that hideaway, that shelter from distress.

Ireland, too, has its own unique "island paradise" myth - that of the mysterious island in the Atlantic called Hy-Brasil. Supposed to be some sort of Eden-like utopia, shut off from the world of man, it was said to become visible off the coast of Connemara once every seven years. Such an island might actually have existed in reality, for Hy-Brasil can be found on several maps from as early as the 14th Century.

One 17th Century writer said of Hy-Brasil: "Whether it be real and firm land kept hidden by the special ordnance of God, or the terrestrial paradise, or else some illusion of airy clouds appearing on the surface of the sea, or the craft of evil spirits, is more than our judgments can pound out."

This is just a small taste of the material which will be explored in 'The Flood and The Fire - Creation and Apocalypse in Irish Myth and Prophecy' by Anthony Murphy and Richard Moore, to be published by Liffey Press in October 2009.

I am no more and I have nothing left to give

From Mel Gibson's film "Apocalypto":



Old man telling story:

"And a Man sat alone, drenched deep in sadness. And all the animals drew near to him and said, "We do not like to see you so sad. Ask us for whatever you wish and you shall have it." The Man said, "I want to have good sight." The vulture replied, "You shall have mine." The Man said, "I want to be strong." The jaguar said, "You shall be strong like me." Then the Man said, "I long to know the secrets of the earth." The serpent replied, "I will show them to you." And so it went with all the animals. And when the Man had all the gifts that they could give, he left. Then the owl said to the other animals, "Now the Man knows much, he'll be able to do many things. Suddenly I am afraid." The deer said, "The Man has all that he needs. Now his sadness will stop." But the owl replied, "No. I saw a hole in the Man, deep like a hunger he will never fill. It is what makes him sad and what makes him want. He will go on taking and taking, until one day the World will say, 'I am no more and I have nothing left to give.'"

The Flood and The Fire - advance book information

THE FLOOD AND THE FIRE
Creation and Apocalypse in Irish Myth and Prophecy

Anthony Murphy and Richard Moore

€19.95 (Stg£17.95); ISBN 978-1-905785-66-7; paperback; October 2009;
250 pages; colour illustrations

Every generation since the birth of Christianity has believed that Armageddon was close at hand. The very notion of apocalyptic events which all but wipe out mankind is deeply ingrained into prophecy and myth, but also in memory. The idea of a great judgement of mankind has become an essential ingredient in religious belief systems, but could these beliefs have a sound basis? Why do we harbour apocalyptic thoughts? Is it because we fear judgement, or because we have a visceral memory of great events in the distant past? Perhaps it is both?
The Flood and the Fire examines the ideas of cosmogony – the beginning of the human story – and eschatology – the fear of a final judgement of mankind – from a uniquely Irish perspective. Our mythology remembers Noah’s flood, and our prophecy hints at cataclysmic events in the future. Saint Patrick prayed for unique blessings for Ireland’s people to save us from great tribulation, and is said to have left guardians on seven mountains to watch over us.
Anthony Murphy, journalist and author, takes us on a journey through Ireland’s unique apocalyptic history, and examines on a scientific, spiritual and philosophical level the extraordinary potency of man’s eschatological complex.
That journey examines many diverse subjects, including the sanctity of the landscape, the 5,000-year-old stone monuments, the symbolism of light and fire, and of water and earth, the island paradises of myth, the ever-present belief in a cosmic otherworld, the honouring of the ancestors, the meaning of megalithic carvings, the study of the stars, the fear of the gods and of retribution through the destructive forces of fire and water.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of this study is its relevance to today. We consider ourselves the masters of technology, and forgers of our own destiny, but as we face the accelerating threat posed by global warming, by the increasing challenges of feeding and maintaining the earth’s seven billion inhabitants, is there an eschatological message for us? Do we stand on the brink of potential extermination? Should we incorporate ancient cosmological wisdom into our thinking as a means to save the planet – or is it already too late for that?

About the Authors
Anthony Murphy is the editor of the Dundalk Democrat and, with Richard Moore, co-author of Island of the Setting Sun: In Search of Ireland’s Ancient Astronomers. A photographer, graphic artist and avid amateur astronomer, Anthony has almost single-handedly assembled the website www.mythicalireland.com, which receives 2,500 unique visitors daily. Richard Moore is an artist, working mainly in oils and acrylics, who has been painting the ancient sites of Ireland for over 25 years.

The Liffey Press, Ashbrook House, 10 Main Street, Raheny, Dublin 5
Tel: 01-8511458. Email: dgivens@theliffeypress.com. Web: www.theliffeypress.com

A snippet from the forthcoming book by Anthony Murphy

Solon of Athens, the Greek statesman, met a “prodigiously old man” one time, on a visit to Egypt. This ancient elder of the world told Solon of many cataclysms which had purged the earth. “There have been and there will be many and divers destructions of mankind, of which the greatest are by fire and water, and lesser ones by countless other means”.
The previous incarnation of mankind, and the current one, are separated in world mythology and beliefs by a great inundation of the earth. The narrative of this deluge is universally familiar as the story of Noah and the great ark in which he sustained and protected life from utter destruction by the elements.
All across the world, from east to west and from north to south, the recounting of this great ferocious cleansing, this prolific but unconsummated washing of humanity, echoes among young and old, great and small.
If Nimrod's tower is a symbol of our desecration of cosmic sanctity, then Noah's ark is equally a symbol of hope, that we shall not be utterly removed from our place in the harmony of cosmos, and that we should once again plant our seed abroad on the face of the earth so that the flower of humanity should flourish and blossom with the earth's blessing, not retribution.
The waters of the great flood of the earth represented a baptism of sorts, a renewing of mankind and the natural order. We once again became infants, crawling and walking on the land and learning all over again what it was like to be nourished and nurtured and to give and take in equal measure, and to share in the wonders of creation. But our re-education in cosmic union taught us of the sacredness of the world, and the bitter necessities for that union to survive included the utmost requirement for restraint. The people of the new world urgently needed to grasp and maintain the infantile humility which had been demanded of them by the rapacious, apocalypic elements.

This is a brief snippet from my next book, currently in progress, which may or may not be called "The Flood and the Fire - the beginning and the end of the world in Irish myth and prophecy".

Antediluvian occupation of Erinn

The next book of considerable antiquity that we find reference to is that called the CIN DROMA SNECHTA or Cin of Drom Snechta. The word Cin, pron in Engl Kin, is explained in our ancient Glossaries as signifying a stave of five sheets of vellum and the name of this book would signify therefore the Vellum stave Book of Drom Snechta Tne words Drom Snechta signify the snow capped hill or mountain ridge and it is believed to have been the name of a mountain situated in the present county of Monaghan. The Cin of Drom Snechta is quoted in the Book of Ballymote fol 12 a in support of the ancient legend of the antediluvian occupation of Erinn by the Lady Banbha who is, however, in other Books called Cesair, pron Kesar. There are also two references to it in the Book of Lecan. The first of these fol 271 b is in the same words preserved in the Book of Ballymote From the Cin of Drom Snechta is taken this little bit as far as Cesair See APPENDIX No IX The second is fol 77 b col 2 where the writer says in summing up the genealogies of some of the families of Connacht that he compiled them from the Chronicles of the Gaedhil.

O’Curry, Eugene, M.R.I.A., Lectures on The Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History, delivered at the Catholic Uniersity of Ireland, during the sessions of 1855 and 1856, P.13.

The Elders of the End of the World

More bitter to me than Death coming between my teeth are the folk that will come after me, who will be all of one kind.

Wicked is the time which will come then; envy, murder, oppression of the weak, every harm coming swiftly, and neither layman righteous nor righteous priest.

No king who concedes right or justice, no virgin bishop over the altar, no landowner who will raise tithes from his herds and his fine cattle.

The elders who did God's will at the beginning of time were bare-haunched, scurvy, muddy; they were not stout and fat.

The men of keen learning, who served the King of the Sun, did not molest boys or women; their natures were pure.

Scanty shirts, clumsy cloaks, hearts weary and piteous, short rough shocks of hair - and very rough monastic rules.

There will come here after that the elders of the latter-day world, with plunder, with cattle, with mitres, with rings, with chessboards,

With silk and sarsenet and satin, with delightful featherbeds after drinking, with contempt for the wisdom of beloved God - they shall be in the safe-keeping of the Devil.

I tell the seed of Adam, the hypocrites will come, they will assume the shapes of God - the slippery ones, the robbers.

They shall fade away with the same speed as grass and young corn in the green earth; they shall pass away together like the flower of the fields.

The imposters of the latter-day world shall all go on one path, into the grasp of the Devil, by God' will, into dark bitter torments.

Irish, author unknown, twelfth century?
From 'A Celtic Miscellany', Penguin Classics.