The Deer's Cry

From the Lorica of Patrick, also known as The Deer's Cry

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

...

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me.

...

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation

St. Patrick (ca. 377)

Last year i had to look into Patrick. I had approached him with trepidation. I had seen him for a long time as someone who had repressed Druidism. In fact, the driving out of the snakes was always read by me as a metaphor of the persecution of Druidism. And truth be told by many other people as well. However, it was really important that i did the three major saints of Ireland - Patrick, Brigid and Colum. Brigid and Colum were pretty straightforward, but Patrick, well, i had to speak to someone about it. It was then suggested that i speak to Ben, the priest of the Christian Community. Anthroposophy has a very interesting take on Celtic Druidism. Steiner's lectures say that Christ was seen by the Druids as the Lord of the Elements and so they were ready to embrace Christianity when it arrived. And it wasn't hammered into them when it got here either. This gentle person who gave his life to the earth was something which the Druidism understood. The sacrifice of the son to the soil - it was as old as time itself.

This also explains this wonderful hybrid of Christianity called Celtic Christianity which is far more in tune with the land and the sea. A Christianity which has the woman in a very powerful place. A poetic, mystical version of Christianity which was here for a very long time until the 13th century when it more or less became very dogmatic.

However, Patrick hailed from a time earlier than that. He was contemporaneous with Brigid and therefore his version of Christianity was one which was woven with elements of nature - which explains the more powerful passages of The Deer's Cry, otherwise known as the Breastplate of Patrick. These are the most touching verses in the Lorica, which now extends for many many lines, which are also filled with hellfire and damnation. Those verses say nothing to me. But the paganism in the first verse i have here, followed by the universal Christ figure - Christ as Bhudda, Krishna and sustainer - and finally the invocation of the Trinity, which is again is a universally recurring theme of maiden, mother, crone, or father, son, spirit, or Creator, Preserver and Destroyer captures the essence of what it means to be alive in the spirit, to be present here on the Earth and awakened to all its possibilities.

As i got to know Patrick more, especially through his unintentionally funny autobiography and his letter which ranted and raved about the injustice of the persecution of the local Irish people, the many legends which surrounded him, i became very fond of him. I really admired him, and it made me glad that once again, as a Class Teacher i was able to understand something a little better. To reclaim and redeem Patrick for myself. I do not see Patrick as a long-bearded man with a crook and Bishop's mitre. I see him instead as a young man, far from home, a slave, living on the slopes of Slemish, tending sheep and praying with all his heart and soul to return to his home. And having once done that to have discovered he had fallen in love with Ireland and wanted to return again. He is a patron saints of immigrants surely. The stranger in the strange land who has offered up his heart to it.

Also Patrick's Day, celebrated on the cusp of spring, so near the vernal equinox, is a time of renewal and rejuvenation. Again, evidence of the Patrick's myth close connection to the Sun and the Earth. As the sun returns and the flowers blossom once again, as the light warms and the soils stirs into life, my soul kneels in gratitude for this annual miracle.

Nothing stays the same, everything changes, but it is good to know that Spring has come again.