Taking In Nature:
Why Amergin and Taliesin Sing^©
by Finnian O'Cianain

[NB: To read the Song of Amergin and the Flight of Taliesin click here.]

Amergin and Taliesin tell of crossed boundaries. They have placed themselves within Nature -- not merely in a natural environment, not simply immersed in the study of nature, and not even in fantasies of what nature is. They have taken the qualities of Nature, making them their own. They do so with conviction and at their own jeopardy.

As Celts, and bards, Amergin and Taliesin knew and had to know, the ways of their people. The expression of their role, though formulated in poetry and song, was more to inform than to entertain. They served to in-form in the people of who the people were, to instil pride in abilities that had made the Celts who they were as a civilization. The Celts succeeded where they did largely because they came to know the qualities and powers of the lands, the animals, the elements, and the peoples whose ways they came upon.

Both the Song of Amergin and Taliesin's Flight are told to us as having been uttered after each bard's dealings with Otherworld powers. Amergin is leading the Milesian Gaels into Ireland, where they confront the Tuatha De Danaan. These are a people who themselves are said to be of the Otherworld, possessing para-human powers. Taliesin, as the young Gwion Bach, is dealing with the goddess, Cerridwen, herself (or more particularly her cauldron) the source of inspiration and knowledge. In both instances, Amergin and Taliesin have faced death for crossing boundaries.

All of the images invoked in both songs are entities of this, our world, the Middleworld. They are familiar to anyone who lives in and knows anything about Middleworld. What is different is that the humans who invoke these images do so in the being of each entity. This is not the Me-It duality (thank you Martin Buber) of the Middleworld we know. Amergin and Taliesin have crossed this boundary.

Why? Why cross boundaries? Why, particularly, do these bards tell us about crossing the boundaries?

Within boundaries we have safety, or at least the illusion thereof. Boundaries are definitions and, as such, provide convenient categories of what is and what isn't, what is me and what is not me, and what is possible and not possible. Life becomes manageable, having boundaries, which though they may challenge and frustrate, give us parameters for choices. It is disconcerting, even frightening, to consider what Amergin and Taliesin are singing about. Theirs are the ramblings of the delirious or the drugged, are they not?

What if not? What if truly placing oneself in Nature, and that Nature within self (such perhaps that self is itself shown to be illusory), provides not only the freedom to cross otherwise impenetrable boundaries but the in-formation and powers one needs to function best in this and all worlds? What if by knowing the qualities and behaviours of the lands, the animals, the elements, and the peoples, we see past the myopia of assumed boundaries?

A visionary film producer, Antero Alli, has said, "It's far too late for anything but magick, as the future is clearly up for grabs." The shamanic path leads to and through boundaries. We go into Nature and bring Nature into our beings to effect change. Discovering the vision and capability of deity is dangerous, as it is to cross boundaries into any unknown place (ask Taliesin, but not when he is in flight from the vengeful goddess!). We must know the adversary as well or, better, better than it knows itself. So doing, adversary becomes ally. Having crossed the boundary, the boundary no longer restricts. Now, here is a cause for song!

Taking In Nature: Why Amergin and Taliesin Sing copyright © 2003 by Finnian O'Cianain, all rights reserved. Go Back

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