Re: A 'modern' challenge Searles Tue Jul 7 11:01:51 1998 A Chara,*p*I recommend a threefold approach to overseeing the spiritual events surrounding the disturbance, opening and entering of a burial mound. This is the way that the ancient Celts were said to have viewed the universe and the worlds around them. They were also said to have viewed such mounds and passage graves as portals between this world and the Otherworld. In their ritual acts and burials these attitudes were manifested through the offering of grave goods to sustain those who had passed, as well as sometimes sacrificing people and animals to accompany important personages on their journey and during their stay within the Afterlife.*p*What does all this mean regarding our actions in this day and age regarding the opening and disturbance of a burial mound? It is to be expected that the orientation of the mound will contain information regarding the cosmological beliefs of the people that constructed it. For this reason alone, all details should be noted and guided from a threefold perspective. It was also thought that the last person to die would be the guardian of the grave. In the case of ,mounds that could be entered, sometimes sacrifices were made by interring living beings who willingly offered themselves as a "go-between" for the people to the Land. Such spiritual energy must be respected and offered a new place to serve the same function. The ancestors of the people must be transported with appropriate ritual to a new prepared location. If their bones are to be studied, there should be appropriate ritual and honor that is performed when they are handled. I suggest saying something to the effect, *p*"You have long served as a connection between the People and the Land. That journey has ended and a new one has begun. As you once stood guard and served the Land and the People in this place, now may you connect and serve the mind of the People as they attempt to connect Present with Past. As once you guarded the portal between Otherworld and world, now may you guide our world to your own. As you were honored in your death by you own people, now may you be honored in a rebirth of the life of your people among our own people. We come to you as the people of your people's people seeking our roots, so that we may also promote the future. Your work is not done, but it has changed and we join you in it. The future now belongs to the present and the past of this great land. May the gods of your people and our own find connection through us to the gods of the People, the Land and the Future." *p*While these words are being said I suggest making offerings of the three forms of matter: a gas, a liquid and a solid in the form of incenses, milk or mead and breads or cakes. Each of these is a form of the three worlds of Sky, Sea and Land that were also honored by our ancestors. I also suggest that the after these offerings are made, you wait for a sign from nature and the Land that they have been accepted, before digging starts. This cam be in the form of animals, coming to eat the cakes, rains, clouds or storms. If Nature is calm in the face of these offering, I suggest a more direct form of reading the signs: an Ogham divination or other suitable form of divination (whatever you're comfortable with or whatever survives in local custom). If a stone could be made up that commemorates the event as a kind of shrine to the mound that could be moved to a new place of importance to the Land and the People, it would also give honor to the spirits of place. This could be a marker as is found in a cemetery or a plaque that is placed upon a wall (such as the town hall or central park).*p*I also suggest camping out over the space of three days at the site prior to the ceremonies, with fires and singing as well as feasting and dancing, as a way of connecting the news of the present and the people's spirit to the ways of the past and their ancestors' spirits. Maybe do it on Lughnasadh as a symbol of the ongoing ways of culture, representing a harvest of the past so that new knowledge can be gained that will insure the survival of present and past within the future.*p*I've rambled a bit but the elements of what I suggest are:*p*Honor the Ancestors.*br*Ask permission to change the location of their burial.*br*Connect Past, Present and Future in the rituals and words.*p**br*Make the event a fun one for yourself, the people and the news media.*br*Change the energy of the excavation from one of work to one of acknowledging the connection to the Land.*br*Sensitize the work crews to the importance of paying attention to everything they see (for much is missed by the professionals and sometimes it is the man or woman with a shovel that finds the magic of the moment.)*p*Make certain that the intention of the original burial is continued in some modern form.*br*Let the spirit of your own creativity reach across the ages to be inspired by the life-force of the ancestors.*br*Give the people a sense of connection to themselves of long ago, far into the future and all around themselves in their present country.*p*Beyond this, I suggest a poem, a song or a work of creative art be undertaken by the nearby artistic community who are likely to possess elements of the same spirit that originally gave rise to the original burial.*p*In short, let the ceremonies honor the past; connect present to past and future; and be a fun way for the people and the Land to reaffirm their connections.*p*I'll be glad to offer additional suggestions, if you feel they have merit.*p*Slán is beannacht,*p*Searles*p*P.S. Remember that the dead were once alive and enjoy a party as well as the living (thinking fondly of your visit to our home with your friends, Alex and Natalie).*p**br*1X2 Willows wrote,*br*: As there is a possibility, that I might take part in the *br*: excavation of two newly discovered Celtic Funerary Mounds in *br*: Switzerland as a spiritual advisor to the Aercheological *br*: crew, I would deeply appreciate any comments or suggestions *br*: as to the specific behaviour or ritual(s) that any of you *br*: would consider appropriate for this specific case.*br*: The mounds - located in a wooded area will have to make way *br*: to a new route of railroad tracks and exploration of the *br*: sites will start this month.*br*:*br*: Slan*br*: Dan / One next to Willows*br* A 'modern' challenge 1X2 Willows 98 Tue Jul 7 00:18:13 1998