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Volume 1 Issue 1 ISSN# 1708-3265

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ARTICLES
COLUMNS
REVIEWS

 The Tao of Openings
with Tira Brandon-Evans CH FS



"Thirty spokes unite at the hub but the ultimate use of the wheel depends on the part where nothing exists. Clay is moulded into a vessel but the ultimate use of the vessel depends upon the part where nothing exists. Doors and windows are cut out of the walls of a house but the ultimate use of the house depends upon the parts where nothing exists. So, there is advantage in using what can be seen, what exists. And there is also advantage in using what cannot be seen, what is non-existent."

(The Tao Teh Ching)


The walls of a house meet at the corners but the life of the home is lived in the rooms, in the openings defined by the walls. A room cannot be used unless there are doors and windows, for no one can enter or leave a locked and shuttered room.

A book is of no use until you open it, for only an open book may be read. A heart is of no use until you open it, for only an open heart may love. A mind is of no use until you open it, for only an open mind may learn. A hand is of no use until you open it, for only an open hand may receive the gift offered.

When the hand is filled it is not open, the gift fills it. When the gift is given away the hand is once again open and able to be filled.

Openings are spaces ready to be filled with life, possibility and potential. The more we open ourselves - heart, mind, and spirit - the more we are able to receive. The more we give of what we receive, the more open we become.

To receive, be open. To remain open, give. Thus, order and harmony, balance and transformation continue. The wheel of life rotates upon the opening at the hub.






Tira Brandon-Evans is the Founder and Moderator of the Society of Celtic Shamans, an 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, 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.

The Tao of Openings, copyright (c) 2003 by Tira Brandon-Evans, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

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