Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, April 30, 2009




St. Nectan: He went from Wales to seek his ideal location for the simple life. This turned
out to be Hartland Point in Devon. The serenity turned sour when a couple of thieves ran
off with his two cows. He chased after them and attempted to convert them (the thieves, that
is, not the cows). The two miscreants just laughed and sliced his head off. We imagine they
stopped laughing when our hero calmly picked his head up and carried it back to his homestead,
leaving a trail of blood drops. He then dropped his head into his well and presumably expired.
Wherever his blood fell, foxgloves appeared. So on his feast day a procession of children carry
foxgloves to the well. We don't know what happened to the cows.


Do you not love this! Hagiography! And what I love about “hagiography” (Google this if you don’t know the term) is its implausibility. And then, the implausibility frees us from the shackles of literalism to see the Truth in the metaphor, in the Imagination.

This was perhaps to be a “Christian” story. But it is essentially a Pagan story, a story from pre-Christian times overlaid with a Christian attempt to “Christianize” it. But it clearly succeeds!. Thank ‘God”.

Foxgloves! Here they are! (see above)

What do I like about this? It is an example of the exquisite human imagination. Where did foxgloves come from??? Out of the glorious human imagination comes an answer: St. Nectan’s Blood! It is the same with Jesus: out of the shedding of His blood comes the Flower of Freedom - in our tradition the Passion Flower, and the Crown of Thorns. But here is the wonder - that in Nature we find metaphors and symbols of the deepest longings of our heart, of our deepest longing to understand what Life is all about, where it begins, and where it goes, and what its meaning is.

Do you live anywhere where Foxglove blooms? Seek them out (or plant them). Meditate on them. They reache out to you and ask you – whether you are Christian or not - Do I catch a glimpse of the Truth that “God gives Her Life so that I can have My Life”?? Do they remind you that we are all part of the Divine, that is: Creation cannot fulfill its destiny until we claim our true nature and our part in it?

Each of us is a Foxglove. A drop of the Divine Blood. People try to kill that in us, in various ways. We do it to ourselves. But where our blood falls a flower of “God” grows. Our true Self. Keep an imagine of the Foxglove in your heart. Remember it when you are tempted to abandon our true nature. Pluck it – and breathe in its life-giving power. It’s scent will expand your spirit, You will become the "Christ" you were destined to be.

Brian+