Conclusion The Goblet of Relational Integrity

(Extract from: Muse of the Long Haul Thirty-One Isles of the Creative Imagination)
Copyright, Dr Ian Irvine, 2013 all rights reserved. All short extracts from the texts discussed are acknowledged and used under fair usage related to review and theoretical critique contained in international copyright law.

Cover image: Magical goblet [unknown origins freely available on www] use here to illustrate the magical goblet of truth and lies owned by Mananan and Fand that featured in the Irish tale Cormac Mac Airts visit to Fairyland.

Publisher: Mercurius Press, Australia, 2013. NB: This piece is published at Scribd as part of a series drawn from the soon to be print published non-fiction book on experiential poetics entitled: Muse of the Long Haul: ThirtyOne Isles of the Creative Imagination.

Conclusion The Goblet of Relational Integrity

[Sheldrakes morphogenetic field] would not be located anywhere. When it projects back into the totality (the implicate order), since no space and time are relevant there, all things of a similar nature might get connected together or resonate in totality. When the explicate order enfolds into the implicate order all places and all times are merged, so that what happens in one place will interpenetrate what happens in another place.1 [Bohms experiment with Aharanov in 1959] was the first instance in which non-local action was demonstratedthat is action that cannot be explained by physical events or properties, or that seems to take place outside of ordinary space and time. [This] action at a distance, suggested a fundamentally different ordering of the worldone that was more similar to the views of the shamans and indigenous healers than that of conventional scientists. Bohms universe is a mystical place where past, present and future coexist. The objects in the universe, even the subatomic particles, are secondary; it is the process of movement, continuous unfolding and enfolding from a seamless whole that is fundamental.2

Cormac Mac Art and the Magical Goblet The story of the otherworld journey of Cormac Mac Art explores a theme of particular interest to writers and artiststhe idea that poetry, music and story-telling are potentially autonomous magical talents capable of testing the performer/practitioner in ways he or she may not be conscious of. The story is also one of the most mysterious and enthralling stories in all Celtic literature. The story begins in Maytime with Cormac being approached by a strange warrior near the Hill of Tara. The warrior carries a magical item that Cormac, and perhaps any ambitious young, or not so young, poet, writer or musician, would give anything to possess:
[The warrior had] a branch of silver with three golden apples on his shoulder. Delight and amusement enough it was to listen to the music made by the branch, for men sorewounded, or women in child-bed, or folk in sickness would fall asleep at the melody. 3

In a sense Cormacs journey begins here since he is powerless to resist the branch which is soon offered to him by the warrior. As with most such magical gifts from otherworldly beings the warrior says I come from a land where there is neither age nor decay nor gloom nor sadness nor envy nor jealousy nor hatred nor haughtinesstheres a hitch, or in this case three hitches. The warrior asks for three boons to be granted him from Tara in return. The covetous Cormac cares a not whit for the fine-print and promptly accepts the deal. Its a moment many creative people perhaps understandeven if they wouldnt sell their own particular grandmother, or in this case son, daughter and wife. The truth is that at this moment Cormacs desire to possess and wield the creative power of the branch distorts his personalitymaking him for a moment less than human. The pursuit of art and literature under the influence of the ego, of course, has virtually been made into a virtue in our individualistic
1 2 3

David Bohm,as quoted in Rupert Sheldrakes The Presence of the Past, p.306. Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Narrative Medicine, p.96 Matthews, Caitlin and John. The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom, p.273.

age. Where, however, does it lead poor Cormac? At the end of the first year the warrior comes to Tara to claim his first boonI shall take your daughter Albie today, he says and Cormac ascents. The next year he takes Cormacs son, Capra Lifechair. Again Cormac ascents. Apparently the loss of children is worth the acquisition of a magical branch capable of producing such wondrous music and poetry! Finally, however, the warrior comes for the third boon, Ethne, Cormacs wife. Only then does Cormac realise the true cost of this awesome giftwe could say that the need for relationship finally overpowers the desire to possess art and literature. In his grief Cormac resolves to chase the warriorwho makes away with Ethneback to the Land of Promise as a means to reclaim not only her but his son and daughter. After seeing and experiencing many wonders, a fortress, vast and royal, a house of white silver thatched with the wings of white-birds, a shining fountain with five streams flowing out of it populated by five salmon eating the nuts that fall from a purple hazel, and so on, until he comes to a palace. In the palace he meets a man and woman of rare comeliness who invite him to a feast fit for royalty. After a strange exchange of truths said over the body of a roasting pig Cormac admits of his longing for his wife and children. The Lord of the house then puts him to sleep through a magical lullaby and upon waking soon after, Cormac is reacquainted with his wife and childrenall three apparently unscathed despite their adventures. At this moment Cormac is shown a magical, golden goblet, the goblet of truth and falsehoods.
Cormac was marvelling at the cup, for the number of the forms upon it, and the strangeness of its workmanship.4

In typical Celtic triadic fashion the lord announces that the cup will shatter if three falsehoods be spoken under it. This is demonstrated. Next he declares that Cormacs wife, son and daughter have been well-looked afterthree truthsand the cup reassembles. Next the Lord declares himself to be a God of the Land of Promise, specifically the Sea-God and says: Take thy family then and take the cup for discerning between truth and falsehood and to top things off, And thou shalt have the Branch for music and delight. The family then return to the mortal world. Though the Goblet serves as an abstract symbol of truth and falseness it seems to me that the question of what Cormac has actually learnt revolves around the fundamental importance of relationship. Cormac is motivated to chase the warrior to the otherworld because he loves his family (and therefore he acknowledged the importance of his relationship with others outside of the self) above his earlier mistaken views concerning the essence of poetry and music. This realisation, or rather this act of relinquishment of what we might call the delusional powers/talents of the egotistical artist, paradoxically delivers an even greater giftthe capacity to be able to discern between truth and falsehood. This is to say that music and art must be supplemented by wisdom (specifically the wisdom that true happiness in life comes via relatedness) since Manannan Mac Lir allows Cormac to retain the magical Branch only after Cormacs act of relinquishment (moral growth). Another, specifically post-modern, insight is that truth and falseness are not so much eternal abstract phenomena but are, rather, embodied in our most intimate relational exchanges. To learn such a great, though apparently simple lesson,
4

Matthews, Caitlin and John. The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom, p276.

Cormac, like many another Celtic hero, had to go on a fabulous otherworld journeyit was a journey illustrative of two quite distinct perspectives on the place of art and literature in the lives of individuals and collectives. In May 2009 I flew to Auckland New Zealand to watch my daughter, Lena, receive her Bachelor of Pharmacy (a vocation under the protection of the healer God Asclepius, son of Hermes). She graduated at the function centre in Aotea Square in the shadows of Aucklands famous Sky Tower. She graduated from the same University Id dropped out of twenty-five years earlier after relinquishing the roles of economist, accountant and professional cricketer. You might think this a strange event with which to conclude a quarter century creative journey, but as the roll call of graduates in the faculty of Health Sciences was announced and I waited eagerly for my daughters name to be called I realised I just might have a personal conclusion to this book. Of course Lena had been born soon after the journey outlined in this book beganand thus into all the confusion upheavals of my life at that time. The Elixir, Lapis, Stone, or filius philosophorum, that is the point of the story just recounted (the narrative of this book) had all but evaded me up until that New Zealand trip specifically the moment of watching my daughter find her feet in the adult world. In retrospect Id been unconsciously judging this books narrative according to a conglomerate of Neo-Liberal, academic, Orphic/Apollonian (derived from Romanticism) and Dionysian (derived from my years listening to alternative rock!) notions of how a creative journey should progress and conclude. All four models of the artist/writer seem to me to hold to highly individualistic notions of creative successthus the narrative should end with literary success, glory, fame, celebrity, etc.perhaps with a masterpiece or two thrown in to justify me writing a book like this! However, none of these things have happened to me to datemy public literary, academic and musical successes have been modest, my place in the hierarchy of creative achievement lowly and insecure. As Lena received her degree and quietly left the stage I began to list the features of my particular creative Elixir, Grail, Stone, Lapis or alchemical Goldand twentyfive years in the making! Four simple components came to mind: 1) Ive created and had published a range of creative works (poems, songs, novels and non-fiction books and essays) that have given pleasure to others as well as myself; 2) Ive lived a relatively stable life since the early 1990s full of creativity, deep and abiding friendships and family; 3) Ive had the privilege of having being paid for two decades to study, write and teach creative writing and other Humanities and Social Science classes to motivated, imaginative adults, and 4) overall I think Ive become a better human being as a result of the creative journey Ive undergone since 1983Im no longer the unhappy person I was at 19 when this journey began. Unlike many artists, writers etc. I can honestly say that living a relatively quiet but constructive creative life has contributed to my own psychospiritual well-being, particularly post-1991. All that experiential quartz (or prima materia) for crushing, you might well ask, to produce such a small crop of spiritual nuggets? In response, I can only point to the conclusion of Cormacs time on the Isle of Wonders as discussed above. Conclusion Homesick on the Voyage
The Relational Self Supersedes the Individual Self.5
5

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Narrative Medicine, p.48.

The otherworld quest motif, of course, has been a feature of this book, but another less obvious feature has been the examination of ideas about literary practice. Here and there in the text, but perhaps culminating in the last chapter Ive given the reader hints as to my personal vision of an emerging future Island of Creativity, one large and diverse enough to accommodate all-comers, also humane and imaginative enough to serve as a foundation for the kind of expansive, community embedded and anti-oppressive poetic I feel drawn to promote. In a sense we need a relational poetic that disassembles unhealthy forms of individualism and acknowledges our dependence upon the entire life-support network (i.e. the community of souls) that is planet earth. Only through such a poetic, such an orientation to language and culture, might our creative minorities be able to point the way (like Hermes) to away for the rest of the human population to live in balance with each other and the many beings that share Earth. Currently the quest for individualist creative immortality that is the unconscious goal of so many writers, poets and creative artists is absurd in the face of the challenges facing humanity over the next few decades. None of us, famous or obscure alike will be remembered if humanity fails to tackle the apocalyptic imbalances set in motion by the scientific advances of the past two hundred yearsi.e. by the Promethean Age. Our species faces significant threats that require unprecedented international cooperation, yet the Minority (Western) world remains stubbornly fixated on suicidal dreams of consumeristic and individualist paradiseutopias founded on reductionist Neo-Darwinist biological thinking itself based upon out-dated Newtonian ideas about the physical universe. With this kind of selfish leadership the species response to the challenges of the time fails at every turn. Westerners are quick to criticise suicide bombers and other terrorists but remain ignorant of their own role in generating a much deeper crisis. Currently, the entire Western world resembles a gigantic suicide machine (or virus-infested robot) diligently building a state of the art coffin in which to bury the species (and perhaps most of the life on Earth). I suspect that the creative imagination remains the primary re-visioning tool available to individuals, communities and even the global community to assist us in times of crisis. Poets, musicians, novelists, dancers, academics, creative thinkers, etc. have much work to do in coming decades as we desperately seek to short circuit the above Promethean suicide pact. This is the great task of creative artists in our era. We need to roll up our sleeves, leave our egos on the hat-stand and commit to the Goblet of Truth and Falsity (i.e. Relational Integrity). Meanwhile the ice-shelves melt ...
Author Bio (as at June 2013)
Dr. Ian Irvine (Hobson) is an Australian-based poet/lyricist, writer and non-fiction writer. His work has featured in publications as diverse as Humanitas (USA), The Antigonish Review (Canada), Tears in the Fence (UK), Linq (Australia) and Takahe (NZ), as well as in a number of Australian national poetry anthologies: Best Australian Poems 2005 (Black Ink Books) and Agenda: Australian Edition, 2005. He is the author of three books and co-editor of three journals and currently teaches in the Professional Writing and Editing program at BRIT (Bendigo, Australia) as well as the same program at Victoria University, St. Albans, Melbourne. He has also taught history and social theory at La Trobe University (Bendigo, Australia) and holds a PhD for his work on creative, normative and dysfunctional forms of alienation and morbid ennui.