{"id":531,"date":"2018-02-10T07:59:01","date_gmt":"2018-02-10T07:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divergence.blog\/?p=531"},"modified":"2018-02-10T07:59:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-10T07:59:01","slug":"turning-sideways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Sideways"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Eric Elnes writes in his book, Gifts of the Dark Wood<\/em> (see here<\/a>), about \u201can ancient sacred well in Ireland where Saint Patrick is said to have visited.\u201d\u00a0 Coming from my funda-gelical background, the idea of \u201csacred\u201d spaces or geographical locations smacks of superstition.\u00a0 Of course, I\u2019m not superstitious, but I am a little \u201cstitious\u201d (sorry, a\u00a0Michael Scott<\/a> reference\u2013I had to).\u00a0 In the FG world, any emphasis as to the sacredness of a place is put on God\u2019s presence.\u00a0 Thus, wherever God is, there is the sacred, and God is everywhere, so\u2026\u00a0 In such an understanding, what too often happens is the sacredness of everything ends up meaning, nothing is sacred, as it swallows up the immanent and leaves only transcendence.\u00a0 Sacredness then becomes something \u201cout there\u201d or something abstract, rather than a physical thing, or a place, we can see, touch, taste, hear, and smell.<\/p>\n

In reference to that sacred well, Elnes cites a poem entitled \u201cTobar Phadraic,\u201d which means \u201cPatrick\u2019s well.\u201d\u00a0 In the poem, there is a reference to turning, \u201cTurn sideways into the light as they say the old ones did\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Elnes goes on to write:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Whyte [the poem\u2019s author] explains it, the concept of turning sideways into the light is a reference to a mythological people called the Tuatha De Danann in Irish lore.\u00a0 As he explains it, they were a small, somewhat fragile, but immensely magical people who lived in Ireland before the arrival of human beings (probably the predecessors of leprechauns in Irish mythology).\u00a0 With the coming of humans, the Tuatha De Danann became agitated, as they found humanity\u2019s ways coarse and barbaric.\u00a0 Being a gentle people, they chose not to oppose humans.\u00a0 Rather, at one point, they are said to have simply \u201cturned sideways into the light and disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

This turning sideways into the light made me think of \u201cthin places\u201d (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>) a concept normally associated with the Christian Celtic tradition.\u00a0 Timothy George explains it thus:<\/p>\n

\u201cSites like Skellig Michael are called \u201cthin places\u201d by the Irish. Thin places\u2014not because the air is rarified, or the land is narrow but because the distance between heaven and earth shrinks, and time and eternity embrace. A thin place is where the veil between this world and the next is lifted for a moment, and it may be possible to get a glimpse of what one\u2019s life is all about\u2014perhaps of what life itself is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Christian faith is a mystical faith.\u00a0 It is not really a religion or theological framework. It\u2019s not an abstract philosophical summation.\u00a0 We use theological and philosophical language in discussing the Christian faith, out of a necessary weakness, but what we are discussing (while we are hopefully living it) is a mystical faith that speaks of sacred places, thin places, places where turning a certain way can transform one\u2019s vision, one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

We pray for the Kingdom to come, on earth<\/em>.\u00a0 We see the heavenly city descending to earth<\/em>.\u00a0 We see in Christ both the human and divine.\u00a0 This makes the soil along with the stars, sacred.\u00a0 This also allows for a specificity however.\u00a0 Jesus, while upon the earth in flesh, did not walk the entire earth.\u00a0 The burning bush appeared in one earthly place, one bush, one piece of ground.\u00a0 And there is a well in Ireland.\u00a0 To say a specific place is sacred or \u201cthin\u201d isn\u2019t to say all creation is less in some way.\u00a0 It is only to say that the divine does indeed touch the earth, the wind, the water, and the fire in general, in creation, but also with specificity.\u00a0 And since the Spirit blows where he will, lands in tongues of fire, since Sophia, in wisdom, hovers over the waters, since there is this movement of wind and of fire, there can certainly be sacred places and the possibility of transfiguration, where heaven and earth meet.<\/p>\n

The world is more mysterious, mystical, and surprising than we can fathom as Hamlet told us.\u00a0 The FG mind sees a world that is plain, flat, obvious, black and white, mathematical, and literal.\u00a0 The world however is a deeply layered poem written with a pen dipped in blood drawn from a well of unending love.\u00a0 And in such a world there is room enough for the Tuatha D Danann, thin places, sacred wells, and people coming and going, turning, first here and now there.\u00a0 Turning, always turning.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

TOBAR PHADRAIC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Turn sideways into the light as they say the old ones did and disappear into the originality of it all.\u00a0 Be impatient with explanations and discipline the mind not to begin questions it cannot answer.\u00a0 Walk the green road above the bay and the low glinting fields toward the evening sun.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let that Atlantic gleam be ahead of you and the gray light of the bay below you, until you catch, down on your left, the break in the wall, for just above in the shadow you\u2019ll find it hidden, a curved arm of rock holding the water close to the mountain, a just-lit surface smoothing a scattering of coins, and in the niche above, notes to the dead and supplications for those who still live.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now you are alone with the transfiguration and ask no healing for your own but look down as if looking through time, as if through a rent veil from the other side of the question you\u2019ve refused to ask and remember how as a child your arms could rise, and your palms turn out to bless the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

~ David Whyte<\/a> ~<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Elnes writes in his book, Gifts of the Dark Wood (see here), about \u201can ancient sacred well in Ireland where Saint Patrick is said to have visited.\u201d\u00a0 Coming from my funda-gelical background, the idea of \u201csacred\u201d spaces or geographical locations smacks of superstition.\u00a0 Of course, I\u2019m not superstitious, but I am a little \u201cstitious\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[86,134,290,293,341,467,476],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dave-whyte","tag-eric-elnes","tag-mystery","tag-mysticism","tag-poetry","tag-the-sacred","tag-thin-places"],"yoast_head":"\nTurning Sideways<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Eric Elnes writes in his book, Gifts of the Dark Wood (see here), about \u201can ancient sacred well in Ireland where Saint Patrick is said to have visited.\u201d\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning Sideways\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eric Elnes writes in his book, Gifts of the Dark Wood (see here), about \u201can ancient sacred well in Ireland where Saint Patrick is said to have visited.\u201d\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-10T07:59:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/\",\"name\":\"Turning Sideways\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-10T07:59:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-10T07:59:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"Eric Elnes writes in his book, Gifts of the Dark Wood (see here), about \u201can ancient sacred well in Ireland where Saint Patrick is said to have visited.\u201d\u00a0\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/10\/turning-sideways\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Turning Sideways\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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