Dance as Metaphor

Dance as Metaphor . . .

by Maireid Sullivan, 1997

Published in The Celtic Chronicles, Inc. Portland, Oregon, USA, February 1997, this essay was written in reply to Letters to the Editor, Kevin D. O'Callaghan, requesting clarification on my references to traditional Celtic concepts on "egalitarianism" and "personal sovereignty" following publication of The Hidden People - the spirit of communication and 'the craic' in the December 1996 edition of The Celtic Chronicles.

On Human dignity: “egalitarianism" and "personal sovereignty"
Beguiled by the promise of personal empowerment, understanding traditional 'root' meanings so foreign to modern socio-economic philosophy can be enlivening.

Lift and Carry
We must create balance in our own lives:
Dancing, our most ancient cultural ritual, maintaining balance as a weight-bearing exercise while efficiently moving lymph fluid around our body.

Dance traditions can help us understand the origins of cultural wisdom - from traditional Irish jigs and reels, to the aristocratic European etiquette-laden minuet, to variations on the waltz, to Tai Chi Chaun - the ancient Chinese art of balance for mind, body, and spirit.

Dance is the perfect metaphor for focusing on levels of respect required in meaningfully meeting others.

Experiment #1.
Prepare to dance:

Poised
- eyes closed or gazing onto distant nature
- concentrate on being in-the-body
- shoulders dropped back
- body light and loose
- focus on heart-beat rhythm
Begin to move, fully aware, lightly and slowly lifting arms,
reaching out to slowly follow and balance each step
- eyes wide open
- quietly sense expanding personal 'energy field'

Experiment #2.
Dance with someone else:
Moving toward and around each other, focus on sensing and acknowledging each other's 'energy field'.

Aiming for greater concentration:
Focus begins with perceiving energetic fluctuations in our relationships with other people: 'awakening' within the energy fields of others - consciously exploring that sensibility as we move.

Sharing energy:
"egalitarianism" leads to acknowledgement of "personal sovereignty".
Focused awareness allows us to 'feel' the energetic 'field' of every person we respectfully make contact with. In other words, interpreting our personal 'right to life' in the sources of our energy as the gift of 'being alive' promotes respect for the 'dignity' of others. This perspective may seem esoteric but it is logical.

Following my arrival in Los Angeles in Feb. 1995, I was gifted with currently popular 'Near Death Experience' books, and while I was aware of their controversies, I found the following two perspectives worth considering:

- Firstly, that those 'experiences' could be purely brain/mind chemical effects caused by the welling-up of emotions when facing impending death.

- Secondly, that they were 'true' perceptions or insights following high-level information processes drawing upon our innate capacity to visualise and project culturally inherited beliefs on 'higher' dimensions of awareness, aka accessing and focusing our 'Alpha brain-wave capacity'.

My argument is this:

1. IF our ability to direct our 'Alpha brain-wave capacity' is the source of our capacity for wide-ranging 'insight' as a natural evolutionary part of brain chemistry,
THEN I want to learn how to contribute to 'naturally' developing those innate capacities, especially if we can learn to 'shape' our thinking by applying our imaginative powers to support optimistic interpretations of our experience:

"A visionary world view is the wand that makes dreams real,"
- Maireid Sullivan, Celtic Music for a new-world paradigm, 1995

2. To be sure to be sure:
Our expectations can be strengthened by PROOF.
When we can't 'prove' that we will be able to experience a 'higher' quality of consciousness in “life after death” we MAY choose to fulfill our goals by relying on a preferred 'endorsed belief system': 'belief before proof', referred to by scholars as "the theory of teleological reality" -Aristotle/ Christian Wolff,1728, Richards, 1980(pdf).

This brings everything back to FREE CHOICE
- exercising our "personal sovereignty"
- and the consequence must be egalitarianism.

The 'power of one' is witnessed in our ability to serve others.

Ergo: The VALUE of our existence is revealed in our ability to maintain good health, as reflected in our levity, with respect for others: When no one is a second class citizen, and all people are equal in common law, "The Craic must be mighty!"

The ancient Celtic concept of "personal sovereignty" defined:
"We are all born embryonic gods and goddesses and, when we achieve maturity, we have a filial duty to assist our kith and kin"
- Maireid Sullivan, 1992

Maireid Sullivan, February 1997
maireid.com

Note: This topic was discussed further, with references, in my 1999 interview with Australian historian Dr Gary Lewis, excerpted here:

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