The Clew of the Horse, Part 1

One of the longer and more mystic teachings (at least, in my opinion), is the Clew of the Horse. To me, this is the teaching most aligned with the Genia Madria Temperance, as it discusses and leads one towards the virtue she is most aligned with. It speaks also to the most unknown aspect of God as well, the Dark Mother or Mysteria. As it is broken into three parts, I'll discuss this in three parts.

 To start with, the title of this teaching includes the word 'clew' which at first glance may be perceived as a misspelling of the word 'clue'. Researching the etymology, it means literally 'a ball of thread or yarn', and if you are familiar with the story of the labyrinth wherein Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of yarn to find his way out of the labyrinth safely, we begin to see what is being inferred by the title. The overarching goal of this teaching is to show how our minds act as horses, running wild and free, and we should, using self discipline, learn temperance and restraint in order to become our best selves.

In the first portion, it begins:

Earth moves, but Heaven is still. The rim revolves, but the Centre remains without motion. Yet from the still point all movement comes; and Earth is the shadow of Heaven.

 This is setting up the somewhat strange notion and seeming contradiction of how things are; that Spirit is still, and is not created, yet everything comes from Spirit, Our Mother. 

The Point and the Moment and the timeless Centre; these three are One and the One is the Spirit. Each manifest thing hath a cause, and each cause hath a cause before it, but the First Cause hath no cause before Her, and She is the Spirit. She that acts not is the Cause of all action. She that is not is the Cause of all being. She that is still is the Centre and Source of all movement.

 God is the Source, is the Stillness, that from all comes forth. She is the font of all being, and is not created but creates. As we are limited by what language can convey, sometimes it is better to say what God is not versus what God is, but we can say that She is Source, the Origin. After that, we say that She does not do this nor that, is not this nor that, in an effort to convey what is in essence Mystery. Since we are speaking of Mystery, it will be most difficult to define in simple terms, but rumination and time help one to understand.

The second half of this first part moves on to discussing how one acts in this life, and how that can interfere with moving closer to Spirit.

At the rim is the movement greatest; close unto the centre is it least. Where is no movement, there is purity. The Spirit in maid loveth purity, yet her mind doth distract her. The mind craveth peace, yet it is made mad by the poisons.

In the western world, purity culture can definitely be seen as a contentious topic. There is a drive for 'purity', but the definitions vary wildly between groups. As purity relates to this writing and our faith, however, I interpret this to mean more simply being still, quiet, silence; much as Centre is unmoving and still, this is what is meant by purity. Centering oneself and calming, being silent and observing, is what is being meant by purity here and in the faith. To come closer to Spirit is to quiet oneself in order to hear Her and be in Her presence more fully.

What hinders this process?

The poisons are three, and the first of the three is named folly. Folly is that forgetfulness that doth stand between maid and the truth, like to an hoodwink that darkens her eyes. And even when her mind doth seize the truth is her stomach beglamoured by the veil of illusion.

This first part, 'folly', is meaning the veil we have most of the time while functioning in day to day life. While we focus on every day tasks, waking, work, school, speaking with others, we tend to 'pull the wool over our eyes' and not consider the impermanence that is life, and what is truly 'real' and everlasting. It takes energy and time to focus on Spirit and Truth, and since we operate in day to day living, it then takes effort to focus on spiritual topics and incorporate them into your every day life. We see efforts of others trying to point to this with the rise in 'mindful living' and similar ideas, wherein you bring your focus fully on the task at hand and also bring in a meditative aspect to it. When you approach tasks more mentally focused, you can bring yourself closer to Truth and slowly branch into bringing spirituality more fully into your life.

Desire and hatred are the other twain; that which pursues and grasps the way of pleasure; that which avoids and shuns the way of pain. These two must keep the wheel forever turning; the two blind oxen that drive it ever round.

 The other two elements of this are desire to be happy and avoid unhappiness. What could be more human? Of course one would want to be happy and avoid anything unpleasant. Though we know that these can drive one to extremes; hedonism from chasing too much pleasure and trying to avoid pain certainly comes to mind. One can also become so reserved that they miss entirely living at all. Much of all the spiritual traditions try to steer people from becoming hedonistic or avoid life at all costs.

All things, once gained, must pass into the darkness; all things, once built, must crumble into dust.

Life is a passing dream; of all its treasures, there is no thing among them shall endure.

We are brought to the point again that life is impermanent, and we can waste time chasing the wrong things. We can chase fancies, we can avoid living, or we can focus on our higher self and coming closer to Spirit by working to come into stillness and resting in Spirit. Admittedly, we likely do a combination of the above, but it does come down to what one focuses on most. We are, after all, human.

Restrain the soul from chasing bright illusions. Let her return to purity again. Thus shall she come once more to the still Centre, thus shall she stay upon her Mother's breast.

Again, the admonition to not go after frivolous things, to learn balance and stillness. This is why I say that this teaching is most aligned with the virtue of Temperance, of learning patient stillness deep within oneself. It's a most arduous task, but one everyone can take steps to learn and practice. 

There is a line I know that I have stumbled with, and have had to give thought to its interpretation:

Chasten thy soul with shame, and make her humble; thus shall she come to peace and sweet repose. When she has ceased from all movement, then she and the Centre are one.

Having not seen much in the way of shaming within the faith, I admit to being puzzled by this line. After much thought, however, I think what is being conveyed here is to gently reproach yourself when you stray from your true path. Humility is a virtue, and remaining humble is something I strive for. This doesn't mean that I give myself immense guilt when I do something incorrectly, it means I correct the action and try to do better. When I misstep, I try to get back on the correct path.

I'd entreat you to look into Eudaimonism, a concept within various Greek philosophies that says that achieving Eudaimonia (the highest human good, a truly good life) correlates with living a virtuous life (arete in the Greek).  A good article to start would be recommended here. As a Reformed Madrian, I absolutely stand that living virtuously is something all should strive for, within their means.

We will stop here and continue soon in the second part of this teaching.