366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore. Carl McColman
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that not only keeps things going, but also fills everything with potential and possibility. If you want to look at it spiritually, it is the energy of Divine love. If you prefer a more non-theistic approach, neart could symbolize something akin to the impersonal “Force” of Star Wars fame. Except that there’s no dualism within neart—no “light side” and “dark side.” In the words of a new and delightful idiom that has surfaced in contemporary American speech: “It’s all good.” Neart is the energy of Celtic non-duality: it holds all things together in its flow of power and prosperity.
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In his book Where Three Streams Meet: Celtic Spirituality, Irish monk Seán Ó Duinn suggests that neart could be thought of as mana, the Polynesian concept of “life-force.” Which brings to my mind a variety of other ways of thinking about neart: it is reiki, the Japanese concept similar to mana—of “Universal Life-Force.” It is prana—a similar concept found in the Sanskrit tradition. Sure, it’s dangerous to draw sweeping parallels like this that blithely hop across cultures and their distinctive ways of understanding the cosmos—and yet, one of the treasures of neart is how it offers us both a sense of the energy that pulsates through all things, and how that energy is a source of plenty. In this way of seeing things, neart may not be exactly the same as similar concepts from other cultures, but it is close enough to celebrate common ground. We can leave it to the academics to split the hairs that separate reiki from neart, and so forth. In the meantime, Celtic spirituality can join numerous other wisdom traditions in affirming that the world we live in is not a place of scarcity and hardship—at least not essentially. No matter what material challenges we face, we are all custodians of immense spiritual wealth.
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So how does neart function in our ordinary lives? Let’s begin with faith. Believing something can often be the very essential key to making it so. People who believe in the power of prayer are far more likely to report it making a real, observable difference in their lives. For those who don’t believe, maybe it’s just a matter of prayer not being given credit where it’s due—or perhaps, lack of faith can be an obstacle to the flow of energy (read: neart) in our lives. You want a miracle? Begin by believing it. No, not just paying it lip service; but choosing to live your life in a way that creates the amazing open-minded possibility that a four-alarm way-too-big-to-be-a-coincidence miracle just might manifest for you. Sure, not everyone gets miracles: as a friend of mine put it, “the Goddess is not in the habit of breaking her own laws.” But once in a while, it seems that the laws of nature do get bent, or slipped around. And it’s neart that’s doing the bending and slipping.
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Choose to open your mind and heart and soul to the power and flow of neart. It’s exciting to believe that, at any moment in time, at any place anywhere, something amazingly wonderful, entirely unexpected and undeserved may possibly happen. With a belief like that, it’s so much, much easier to live by hope, rather than to sink in cynicism and despair. Yeah, sure, the odds may be against a miracle—well, the odds are against winning the lottery, too, and how many of us pop a dollar (or five) across the counter at the gas station, “just in case?” Belief in neart doesn’t even cost us anything! My father is the kind of guy who never spends more than a dollar a week on the lottery—but he does it every week, fifty-two bucks a year (cheaper than going to a rock concert). And he says, “as soon as I buy that ticket, I just assume I’m a millionaire. And if I don’t win, well, I’ll just buy another ticket. Then I’m a millionaire all over again.” Dad doesn’t live extravagantly—he’s a stickler for paying the credit card off in full every month, no exceptions. But he lives by faith. And so the neart flows through him.
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Opening up to the flow of neart is a lot like believing in God (or the Goddess, or the gods and goddesses. Choose the way of describing Ultimate Reality that is most in keeping with your religious or spiritual viewpoint). It’s a decision, a choice, a commitment. It’s saying “YES” to the universe, to possibilities, to hope. It’s deciding that it’s a whole lot more fun, effective, and meaningful to live from a sense that the cosmos is good and nurturing and plentiful, than to shrink within a self-armoring idea that there’s never enough, every one is out for themselves, ultimately there is no meaning. Sure, when life kicks us in the teeth it’s so very tempting to become cynicism’s lover. But ultimately that’s one affair that just leads to an ever-yawning downward spiral of despair. It can be cool, hip, intellectual, ironic, fashionable to be the cynic, the skeptic, the professional doubter. But at the end of the day, it really doesn’t feel very good. Meanwhile, my dad’s just as happy as can be—carrying his million-dollar lottery ticket around. Sure, call him naïve or even Pollyannaish. But who’s got the smile—the real smile, that goes way down deep inside?
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Take this question of believing in neart a step further … once we choose to believe in a force for life and power and miracles, then we actually are capable of experiencing that energy flow through us. Maybe it’s a physical sensation—similar to reiki, which can be experienced as a warmth or tingling sensation flowing through those who use the energy when doing healing-touch work with others. Or maybe it’s not so much a feeling, but a telltale pattern of serendipity and good things that flow through our lives and the lives of those we know and love. In other words, we can recognize it by the trail it leaves behind—a trail of happiness, of satisfaction, of a sense of Divine presence moving through the world. It creates a swath of joy, and anyone who believes that such a thing exists can start to see the evidence for it. A teacher of mine instructs her students to look for three miracles in their lives every day. Inevitably someone asks for a definition of “miracle.” Must it be something supernatural? Well, not necessarily—“miracle” is related to “mirror,” and refers to a reflection of Divine power in our lives; a reflection of neart. And that can come in small as well as huge ways. At least three times a day.
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The Celtic tradition has a reputation for being optimistic. Certainly Celtic Christianity is a remarkably positive expression of the Christ path, and Celtic paganism (with its emphasis on the beauty of nature, the nobility of the hero, and the immortality of the soul) has its clear positive orientation as well. I rather think this upbeat characteristic of the Celtic path begins with the reality of neart. If we live in a universe pulsating with power and abundance, then ultimately our problems are solvable, surmountable—there’s nothing to fear. It’s reminiscent of Jesus’ overarching message: Be not afraid. How sad that so many of his followers are wracked with fear, fear of offending God, fear of damnation, fear that others will be lost just because they live or think differently!
Optimism is a choice. It’s the product of faith, for it requires a hopeful approach to life. Faith says “I believe in neart,” while optimism says “I’ll experience its blessings most any day now.” They go hand-in-hand for those seeking to live a life of spiritual wisdom.
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Neart is more than just a psychological strategy for cultivating hope and faith and optimistic thinking. It’s also a cause for living a life according to the dictates of those positive values. If you want water to flow through a pump, you have to prime it. If you want neart to flow through your life, you “prime the pump” by creating the space for the abundance to manifest. That space is created through hospitality, generosity, and charity—good Celtic virtues, all! The only way for neart to flow to us is by creating the means for it to flow through us, which means finding ways to give it to others. Funny—the same thing is often said of love: the best way to find it is to give it away. It has been said that in heaven