Dercad Dúthracht: Devotion Meditation

Deepening any relationship means opening your heart and mind to another. Dercad (meditation) is about opening yourself to yourself. Dúthracht (devotion) is about opening your spirit to the Gods. When you combine the still waters of dercad, with the fire of dúthracht you get a very powerful alchemy. This practice is meant to calm your mind, while enflaming your love for the god or goddess you favor.

Yeats once said:

"We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet. Did not the wise Porphyry think that all souls come to be born because of water, and that 'even the generation of images in the mind is from water'?"

Dercad is the practice of making "our minds so like still water" as to quiet our spirit, and slow down the pace of life. When the mind achieves this state, "... beings gather about us that they may see, it may be, their own images, and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer life because of our quiet."

These beings can be ancestors, gods, even the sídhe. It is during dercad when I feel Brighid is close, so close that I am given the opportunity to reach and and touch her with my thoughts and presence. And that is when the flame of dúthracht begins to flare. Not only does this happen to beings around us, it also happens TO us. We are given the chance to see the churning waters of our minds and woo them into stillness. Dercad Dúthracht, or Devotion Meditation, is about balancing these opposites of fire and water within.

Your posture should be one of nobility. Ask yourself as you settle into your posture, "How would Finn MacCumhal sit?" or "How would Brighid sit?" The question alone gives the feeling of dignity; the back straightens, without becoming rigid, and the muscles begin to feel relaxed but not asleep. When you find yourself beginning to slouch simply picture Finn MacCumhal, Queen Maeve, or any of the other great heroes, heroines, or gods in the mind, and you will find your body responds instinctively. Remember that the natural state of the body is one of relaxed nobility.

Start with a prayer or poem, something that brings you with words into the moment, and gives thanks. An example would be:

Only because of the Tuatha De Dannan do I draw breath
From first breath to last breath
Breath of spirit
Spirit that gives Life
Sustainer of Life, she who is the Land
Land of shining mountains
Mountains of my birth
Birth of song
Song churning in my blood
My blood the Land
The Land of Elder Gods
The Elder Gods giving my breath
Only because of the Tuatha De Dannan do I draw breath

May my mind be still as a pool of clear water
May my devotion be as fiery as the Sun
May my practice benefit all beings
That I may give back to the multiverse, and the gods
Who have given me so much.

Any poem or prayer of thanks that feels powerful to you is exactly the one you can use.

Then simply breathe.

Breathe and keep your mind on your breath. When thoughts arise they may be full of fear, joy, plans for the future, thoughts of the past. These thoughts are not judged. Simply notice them and with your minds voice say "thought". Then give that thought to your god or goddess and gently return to your breath. When thoughts arise again, give them as gifts of yourself to your god, and return to your breath. Over and over again. And slowly the waters of your mind will begin to settle.

You may start to fall asleep. Dercad challenges you to live between the chaos of random thoughts, and the quagmire of waking sleep. Posture corrects this. Sit as your god or goddess would, and the mind wakes right back up. The thread that ties it all together is the breath. The breath is your center.

The fire of dúthracht is in your posture, and in giving ALL of your thoughts to your god or goddess, and letting go of them. Through this practice your god or goddess gets to see the places of your mind that you may normally keep hidden from them, or simply forget about. By sitting as your god would sit, and giving all your thoughts to them without judgment or attachment, your bond with them will grow.

The fire of dúthracht, coupled with the waters of dercad, are like the tools of the ancient metal smiths. By using fire and water, can the raw elements of your mind be transformed into the shining sword of a Druid's spirit.

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