In this book, MacEowen, a teacher of the spiritual traditions of Scotland and Ireland, issues a call to readers longing to live a more authentic life to wake up from "the land of sleepwalkers." "Too many of us squander our lives," he writes, "filling our minds with a crazed habitual raciness that is hard to throw off." MacEowen’s purpose is to show us how to break free of our unconscious habits to place our awareness where it matters, living from the perspective of our inner senses and informed by our souls. The "Mist" he speaks of is a metaphor for spirituality used by Celtic peoples. Drawing on his own personal experiences and myths and poems of the Celts and Druids, MacEowen introduces readers conditioned by modern Western society to a world of mystery and meaning that is ours to enter into at any time, were we only to become more aware of it.

Throughout the book, he also shares various exercises to help us further that awareness, and in the process he makes a compelling argument that the "good life" that all of us yearn for can only be found when we live each day with a sense of "wonderment and wakeful purpose" that is in tune with our divine birthright. With The Mist-Filled Path, MacEowen joins writers such as John O’Donahue (Anam Cara) and Caitlin Mathews (The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom) in introducing readers to the ancient spiritual traditions of "the misty green isles" of Ireland and Scotland that gave meaning to their inhabitants for many centuries, and which still hold value for us here in the 21st century.


R.J. Stewart, author of Earth Light
...a distinctive book that inspires us to participate in Celtic consciousness.


Julia Butterfly Hill
May this book guide you into heartfelt conscious action on behalf of all that is saced.


Malidoma Some
Frank is a brother of the Otherworld, who has learned the importance of listening to the ancestors.


John and Caitlin Matthews
...brings together the very best aspects of the Celtic vision of the world.


Robert Moss
To read Frank MacEowen is to go hillwalking with a friend who knows the 'thin places'


Book Description
The Mist-Filled Path: Celtic Wisdom for Exiles, Wanderers, & Seekers is a timely and powerful guide to a vision of human spirituality in the third millennium. Although rooted in the ancient wisdom of the animistic and mystical Celtic traditions, the teachings of The Mist-Filled Path will resonate with readers of such authors as Pema Chodron, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Julia Butterfly Hill, John and Caitlin Matthews, and Matthew Fox. In the Introduction: Waking Up in the Land of Sleepwalkers we encounter a stirring call to question our habitual habits of addiction and materialism, to reclaim our holy senses, and a sacred relationship to the earth as a sentient and intelligent spiritual force. In Chapter 1, The Threshold of the Mist, we learn about the mist as both an actual and tangible presence, as well as a moving metaphor for a kind of spiritual orientation rooted in the principles of mindfulness and rhythm. In Chapter 2, The People of the Shapes, The Children of the Mist, we learn about the Celtic peoples (the Irish, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Bretons, Manx, and the Galicians) as a people of migration and movement. In Chapter 3, The Spirit of Longing, we begin to turn our attention to the longing in our souls and how the Spirit of Longing is a valuable and trustworthy friend in the process of spiritual inquiry. In Chapter 4 and 5, Riding the Wind, and Dancing the Sun, we learn of the initiatory account of Frank MacEowen--a long-time participant in indigenous ceremonies of various kinds--who became aware of the living spirits of his ancestors while dancing in an Oglala Lakota Sun Dance ceremony. In Chapter 6, The Shape of the Sacred World, we enter into an exploration of the mystical dimensions of Celtic spirituality. In Chapter 7, The Great Song, we contemplate a Celtic Creation story that is not a story but a song; a living and continually renewing process of which we are all a part. In Chapter 8, The Mothering Heart of God, we encounter a deeply moving examination of the widespread denigration of the feminine by modern industrialized cultures and something MacEowen calls "the pater conspiracy"--the tendency for a male-dominated and patriarchal world to emphasize brute strength rather than spiritual warriorship based on the principles of peace, an honoring of the earth, and the feminine (accompanied by methods for all of us to "welcome the Mother home." In Chapter 9, The Body As Holy, MacEowen addresses the body as a sensual and trustworthy companion. In Chapters 10, 11, and 12, MacEowen outlines a vision of engaged spirituality that weaves social activism, a love of the earth, and healing of the self and the world.


From the Publisher
The Mist-Filled Path is an engaging, lyrically written account of old Celtic ways and a challenging manifesto to live them in this new world of twenty-first century. You may not be Celtic or even Western, but to read this book is to study with a teacher who can reanimate the wisdom of the past so that it sings in your modern heart.


From the Author
The content within The Mist-Filled Path represents an amalgam of personal experiences I have had; initiatory experiences that have opened me to the deeper flow of energy in the universe, and an expansive vision for an integrative human spirituality that celebrates the living earth. Although partially rooted in the ancient cosmologies of my Scottish Highland and Irish ancestors, I have written The Mist-Filled Path from a broader, interfaith, ecumenical, and integrative perspective. When one penetrates to the heart of mystical practice we find a core of teaching and practice shared by many wisdom traditions. The Mist-Filled Path is one expression of this.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In The Mist-Filled Path, Frank MacEowen, a preeminent teacher of Celtic spirituality, shows how embracing the indigenous wisdom of Scotland and Ireland can lead to healing and transcendence. Using his own travels and teachings along with Celtic stories and myths, he explores ancient traditions, eco-psychology, the ancient mother, altars and hearths, Oran Mor (the Great Song), contemplation, and mysticism. The book tells how to draw on ancestral roots to find a personal spirituality that also works for the greater good.

FROM THE CRITICS

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