SPIRIT — A RAINBOW IN THE MIST ©
by Tira Brandon-Evans

Spirit is the Elemental You. Some call the Fifth Element Spirit. Others call it Love. Spirit and Love are one and the same. This Love is not romantic love although romantic love contains Love. Neither is it the love we mean when we say we ‘love’ chocolate ice cream or the color purple, although this sort of liking also contains Love. The Love of the Fifth Element is the Love we share with the Dreamer of the Shining Dream and with All That Is Dreamed. It is the current of etheric energy that passes through all things, fills the spaces between all things, and connects all things together in one great web of being.

Some call the Fifth Element Spirit. Others call it Life. Spirit and Life are one and same. The very word Spirit is derived from the Latin spìritus, which means breath. No flesh lives unless it breathes. When we cease to breathe, we cease to live. Breath is far more than the Air Element, it is Life or Spirit, which lives in us and allows us to utilize the Air Element along with the Elements of Fire, Water and Earth. No matter how well these are combined within us, without Spirit or the Breath of Life we would cease to be living souls and be immediately resolved back into the other four elements, which have no material life of their own in this world without Spirit.

Christian theologians would have it that Spirit and Soul are different from one another. The word soul derives from an Old English word sáwol, the Gothic form of which is saiwala. From the many definitions of soul, it is clear that Soul and Spirit are one and the same. Soul is variously said to be: the principle of life within humans and animals; the principle of thought and action; the seat of the emotions, feelings or sentiments; intellectual or spiritual power; the vital, sensitive or rational principle in humans, animals and plants; the essential, fundamental, or animating part, element, or feature of something; the animating principle of the world; the spiritual part of humans regarded as surviving after death; the disembodied spirit of a person regarded as a separate entity and invested with some amount of form and personality.

Spirit is defined as: the animating or vital principle in humans and animals; that which gives life to the physical organism in contrast to its purely material elements; the breath of life; the soul of a person. It is plain from the meanings that the two words are interchangeable and that there is no significant difference between them. Any controversy regarding whether or not Soul is greater than Spirit or vice versa is both silly and counter-productive. The semantic dichotomy that has developed between the two terms is nothing more than an effort on the part of Christian theologians to separate the soul, which is considered the property of the All-Father/War God Yahweh/El Shaddai and, therefore, “pure and good” from the spirit, which may be seen as ownerless or attached to the Arch-Fiend and therefore “evil”. In consideration of this, you may note that one never hears the phrase ‘evil soul’ but often hears of ‘evil spirits’.

In truth, Soul and Spirit are one and the same and are the animating, life-giving principle moving throughout all worlds, flowing into all worlds from the Dreamer of the Shining Dream and flowing from All That Is Dreamed back to its Dreamer. Spirit is the relationship All has with the One. Spirit is the relationship the One has with the All. Spirit is the means whereby the All communicates with the One. Wherever there is communication, there is an exchange of information. Those in communication learn of one another, receive from one another, connect with one another, touch one another. Through Spirit, we communicate with All That Is. We enter into communion with the All and with the One. The All and the One enter into communion with us through Spirit.

When we are conscious of being in Spirit we realize we stand on common ground with all things in all worlds and with that which continually dreams of all worlds. We belong equally to all things, share equally in all things, are made whole in the at-one-ment of all things. Because we are at one with all things, we discover we are part of a great community living not only in this material world but also throughout all worlds and all times. We know, and know that we know, equal relationship with all in this vast community. This relationship is not affected by size or age or intellect or any other quantity or quality. In Love, there can be no such distinctions for all are at one in Love. All receive equally from the great wellspring of Love and all give Love equally to each member of this limitless fellowship of Spirit.

[ ... ] bring yourself into the presence of that Love, into that community of Spirit. This is the center and the goal of all Shamans: To stand in the Presence and mediate Love, mediate Spirit, throughout all the worlds. This is the Great Work of the Faery Shaman. If this is your work, go and do it.

Tira Brandon-Evans is the Founder and Moderator of the Society of Celtic Shamans, editor of Earthsongs: Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans, and is, herself, a Faery Shaman. Her books, The Green and Burning Tree: A Faery Shaman's Handbook, Portals of the Seasons: A Celtic Wheel of the Year, Through the Unremembered Gate: Journeys of Initiation, The Labyrinthine Way: Walking Ancient Paths in a Modern World, and Healing Waters, are all published by Elder Grove Press. She is presently writing a book about the Ogham. You may contact Tira by email at info@faeryshaman.org.

Spirit – A Rainbow in the Mist excerpted from The Green and Burning Tree: A Faery Shamans Handbook, Copyright © 2001 by Tira Brandon-Evans. All rights reserved. Top of Page

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