I. Re-Creating the Self

The Song of Creation is a product of my learning and inspiration. It emerged from the world, through me, in response to an inner search for a means of using the ancient imagery and cosmological themes of ancestral mythology to create balance in the self, and ultimately to find peace. What I discovered was that anything was possible for the self (the “self” being the field of mind which gathers differentiation, will and name, and persists through a cycle of life and even beyond in various conditions) and any transformation or condition was possible with the power of the word.

This song had an intended use: to give a person, myself or others, a daily chant or song to be said in a private devotion (whispered or spoken) which created a state of mental and spiritual alignment with three specific cosmological and anthropological principles:

1. The principle of the “order of the cosmos” and our rightful place in it as humans;

2. The principle of the godly victory over darkness and the luminous presence of the Gods in us as humans

3. The principle of the harmonious, ordered community of humans, Gods, and other living beings, which is a source of stability and peace for those humans who integrate skillfully, consciously and wisely into it.

In these three things, cosmology and anthropology must unite.

These three principles are very important to me, believing as I do that they were the cornerstones of the older pre-Christian religious worldviews. The Song of Creation was my response from the Unseen world, a response from the spirit that supports me, as were the “instructions” that came with it.

By repeating the song, while being in a state of “oneness” with the world (the state of spreading branches and roots, or the state of sovereign union with the land), being calm, and understanding the sacred science of creation through the word, a person can change or create anything. What is “there”, or here in the world, can be re-created, made fresh and new.

Moreover, qualities that were not present in the old world can be spoken into existence in the new world created by the song, by adding lines to the song reflecting those new conditions. This is the key to a large portion of its power, and the key to the praxis we will discuss here.

By getting into the “sovereign” state and repeating the song as it is written, one engages the spirit, swirls the flux of creation, names the elements and parcels of the world into renewed existence, names the land’s fair divisions (thus renewing it and harmonizing its powers) and names the order of humanity and the truth of the Gods- all while “placing” oneself consciously within all parts of it. The truth is revealed- you were always a part of it all, and its renewal is your renewal, just as your renewal would be the renewal of the world, were the process reversed.

Using the song arranges the cosmos right and renews it, and renews the self. It satisfies the need to re-create or regenerate, in one’s conscious experience, the cosmos-order, so that one can take their place consciously within it again- or perhaps for the first time! It satisfies the need to re-create our awareness of the Godly light in us, the victorious Godly quality which is the source of our own nobility, gallantry and creativity, and which is reflected in the “outward mythology” by the victory of the Gods over dark powers.

It satisfies the need to re-create our awareness of the divine order in the land and in human society and to take our place there, alongside the society of the Gods and their many blessings on man, all of which helps us to have peace with where we are.

As said before, this Song was originally sought as a “daily devotion”, to be said to the rising sun, to the setting sun, to the moon riding high, but it turned out to be a layered reality, a magical chant which had dozens of levels of use and power. It came with the entire spirit of the true Old Ways encoded within, waiting to be reborn.

The Song can be used for just its original purpose- it can and should be memorized, and stated with dignity and careful inner imagery, illuminating its 49 mysteries, at “liminal times” or any time of appropriate peace and power, for the purpose of re-creating the world and self entire, and becoming conscious of the principles of life which bestow the blessings of the old ways and their peace. The Song creates conscious wholeness with the world.

* * *

But a time may come when, in the course of a personal age, or a life-age (that is, during the course of one’s life between their own regenerative birth and death) a person decides that something is worn out, missing, or lacking in them. It is true, I believe, that we are born complete; birth from the womb is a re-generation without a doubt, an entrance of something ancient into this world from another world, the “again generation” of a being that has existed before.

More than just flesh and fluid goes into the weaving-creation of a child; as the old religions of the Isles clearly taught, alongside the common bulk of Indo-European Pagan cultures and others, a spirit comes too- something related to the family-powers in a deeper, more mysterious way. The birth is a change of life-age for the spirit, the inauguration of a new era of existence, a re-generation.

The spirit, and the full composite being that comes into the world, arrives in fullness, without hints of the delusions that mortal men and women collect over a lifetime. The child must be taught to ignore the great resources that are natural to it, before it can begin to feel the pains of adulthood. A point may come when the spirit calls for a song of renewal; in the old days, amidst the old ways, cyclical renewal was a common part of spiritual life- and for good, vital reasons.

We need renewals and regenerations. Every life is a collection of countless life-ages. Sad indeed would be a man or woman whose life contained only one life-age: that one from birth to death. Such is the flexibility of spirit, its changeability, its passage through so many transformations, that it cries out for a means of declaring its essence and transitioning into “new” states of freshness. Even in the modern day, we have a vestigial sense for “rites of passage”, marking our own coarse categories of “life-age”, but they lack the full spiritual sense of regeneration and creation that I am speaking to now.

Every day that a man or woman chants the Song of Creation is the beginning of a new life-age. The entire course of the universal cycle can be mapped in one day, beginning with the morning that it is chanted, and ending in the night when one lies down to fall into the undifferentiated darkness of unconscious sleep- a direct experience, in the human being, of what happens to the cosmos as a whole, eventually. But a new morning comes; an alternation from dark to light, and a chance to chant the song of renewal again, reminding oneself of the great powers and the sacred order. Thus chanted, it is established for that day; or should I say, that day-age.

And the Song of Creation, as it is written, is well enough- but it has a second use, a use of further creation.

Above, I said “qualities that were not present in the old world can be spoken into existence in the new world created by the song, by adding lines to the song reflecting those new conditions.” And this is, indeed, the key to the Song’s more practical transformative potential.

An example is offered: I may have considered for a long time that I needed more patience in my life. My perceived impatience may be a torment to me for many reasons; it is enough that I feel a need for a change. In the new world born from the Song, myself as a patient person can be “named”- thus becoming a fixed and immovable feature of that world-order.

This involves the first three parts of the Song, primarily- the declaration, the flux of creation, and the charm of naming. The theory is simple: one declares, one rouses the flux of creation and its raw power, and then one begins “naming” the features of the new world, using the naming charm. When one reaches the end of the naming charm- the line “the ebb and the flow…”, one does not stop there; you add a poetic line after it, which describes the feature that you’d like added to the new world-order.

It is simple, really; “ebb and flow” are no longer the last two qualities of the world named into existence- as many more as you desire can be named, but they must be done shortly and poetically. I find that adding anywhere from one to three lines is enough for any one new “feature” you wish to poetically conjure.

One may make these additions while saying the entire five-part song, or only use the first three parts, if one desires. The song can, technically, end after the charm of naming, and it will have its regenerative impact, its magic. Indeed, the first three parts only may be desirable for briefer transformative workings, or for other reasons.

There is one other “alteration” that can made to the Song- though it lowers the strength of the chant, the “Flux of Creation” portion can be shortened down to just the last five lines, the “summation” lines, for they do, indeed, “sum up” the lines gone before.

Here are two different versions of the Song’s first three parts, used to create a world in which I am a more patient person, given as examples.

The storied wanderer speaks to this land, as sea spoke to sky:
An enchanter's song to name mighty powers, creating himself anew.
So with himself, all things are made again as before…

Before eye or ear, mouth or word,
The soundless chasm, the great radiance,
The alternation of darkness and light,
Summer growing day, winter returning night,
All coming to be: a lay of greatest power.

The story of many women in the waters,
The first of five holy kindreds,
Of the Woman of earth and water,
Daughter of the world,
Of her husband, white and old,
Son of the ocean deep.

Of the division of women to the corners of the land,
Of their re-gathering as the waters rushed forth again.
Of the journeys of people from beyond the waves,
Of oars and cattle,
Swords and spears, darkly sung tales of might:
The survival of memory, ancients recounting stories,
An old salmon thrashing, a hawk flying.

Dark and light, fire and water, summer and winter ice:
World; Ocean; Land and Rivers; the Ancient White Entity;
Waters and lands made different;
Waters overcoming; waters receding,
Conquerors crossing water; contests fought; songs of naming.

The naming of sky and earth,
Sun, moon and lake;
Rivers, many fruits,
Soaking rain,
Much wealth of sea,
Mouths, ears,
Eyes, treasures,
Feet, hands,
Warriors and storytellers,
Horses, swords,
Bright chariots,
Barbed spears,
Embossed shields,
Men's faces, women's faces,
Children running,
Dew, mist on rivers,
Stones on plains, sheen on leaves,
Day and night,
Ebb and flow,
Cuan Maqq Beli, soothing patient,
As patient as water-smoothed stone.


Or the shorter version:

The storied wanderer speaks to this land, as sea spoke to sky:
An enchanter's song to name mighty powers, creating himself anew.
So with himself, all things are made again as before…

Dark and light, fire and water, summer and winter ice:
World; Ocean; Land and Rivers; the Ancient White Entity;
Waters and lands made different;
Waters overcoming; waters receding,
Conquerors crossing water; contests fought; songs of naming.

The naming of sky and earth,
Sun, moon and lake;
Rivers, many fruits,
Soaking rain,
Much wealth of sea,
Mouths, ears,
Eyes, treasures,
Feet, hands,
Warriors and storytellers,
Horses, swords,
Bright chariots,
Barbed spears,
Embossed shields,
Men's faces, women's faces,
Children running,
Dew, mist on rivers,
Stones on plains, sheen on leaves,
Day and night,
Ebb and flow,
Cuan Maqq Beli, soothing patient,
As patient as water-smoothed stone.


I’ve been speaking of personal transformations- but why stop there? The imagination is truly the limit- in line with need. The entire Song- or select portions of it- can become a lorica, or a protection charm:

The naming of sky and earth,
Sun, moon and lake;
Rivers, many fruits,
Soaking rain,
Much wealth of sea,
Mouths, ears,
Eyes, treasures,
Feet, hands,
Warriors and storytellers,
Horses, swords,
Bright chariots,
Barbed spears,
Embossed shields,
Men's faces, women's faces,
Children running,
Dew, mist on rivers,
Stones on plains, sheen on leaves,
Day and night,
Ebb and flow,
Cuan Maqq Beli, shielded from every evil
From every wickedness of man
From every peril of spirit.


While considering the various uses of the Song, one must encounter a logical problem: if one were to create a new order on Monday, in which one was invoking (and thus creating) qualities of patience he didn’t have the day before, and then, on Tuesday, invoke the Song again, but forget to repeat the naming of the patience- would it be undone? If each singing of the Song is a re-creation, then surely leaving things out would mean excluding them from the new order, thereby un-doing them.

The issue here is easy to resolve. If you were to “name” a creation one day with certain qualities, and the next day leave them off, you are, in fact, undoing what you’ve done. But if you repeat your creation song nine times- at least nine times, over nine periods of time- then any exclusion of those qualities after that during new songs will not “undo” them, for by the power of nine, you have created a lasting, independent entity/pattern of some power.

The longer those periods of nine, the stronger the impact will be on you and the world- nine days, nine weeks, nine months, or nine years.

If you were truly trying to “create” patience using the song, then you would want to make the “naming” of the patience a part of your daily reciting, for as long as possible- nine days of it may help only a tiny bit, but I am certain that a person who integrated the naming of patience into their daily use of the Song for nine months or nine years would most certainly see amazing qualities of patience born in themselves.

To make this clearer, I am not speaking of having to include all new poetic lines/names every single time you use the song. When working on qualities of the self, it is the “daily” use, your central daily or weekly time of chanting the entire poem, which you need to remember to keep continuous with changes.

If you find yourself (on a day that you named patience in your creation) walking through a forest and in sudden need of protection, simply using the naming charm as written, and ending with the naming of your protected state, would not “undo” the larger working context you have flowing in the background- the one in which you are attempting to create patience as a quality in yourself.

This power of the Song to create qualities in yourself extends to others- by virtue of the fact that it is the world entire that is re-named and regenerated. You can heal another by creating a new world in which their health is a named quality.


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All Text, aside from given citations, is Copyright © 2009 by Cuan Maqq Beli
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