Sally Weaver Glick
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Sparks of Light

Fish Light

12/29/2011

2 Comments

 
Picture
Goshen dam pond, 12-23, with several swans a'swimming.
I'm still reading Philip Newell, this time in Christ of the Celts, and this passage caught my eye:

One of the most ancient symbols of Christ in the Celtic world is the salmon. We find it in the earliest strands of Celtic Christian art and poetry. Even in the pre-Christian Celtic world, it is a favorite image, associated especially with true knowledge and wisdom. Of course, the fish had been a symbol of Christ in the earliest centuries of the church, but in the Celtic world, it specifically became a salmon. So the ancient symbolism for wisdom merges with the Christian symbolism for love, and love and its longings are viewed as the deepest expression of wisdom.    p.90

Musing on the fish imagery, I'm reminded of an O Antiphon I worked on at a writing retreat last year. Traditionally, the O Antiphons are a series of Advent songs, or verses, that call on Christ with a title from the Old Testament. If you are familiar with O Come, O Come Emmanuel, you'll recognize the pattern.

We were working with a variation on this, based on a collection of invocations written by Richard Skinner, Calling on the God in All, from the Celtic-based community on Iona. These O Antiphons begin by addressing God as revealed in some aspect of creation -- the first line beginning O (fill in the blank), four lines describing the thing seen, a line naming the facet of God that has been illuminated, and then a line or two of petition.

This particular antiphon was inspired by a recurring event that happened as I sat scribbling on a pier by the lake. I've worked on it a couple different times over the past year, and I'm not sure it has settled yet, but here it is. I enjoyed looking at it again with this image of Christ the Salmon.

    O Splash –
            sound and spurt of water in a silver lake,
            brief backwash ringing outwards into ripples,
            shimmering moment that draws my eye
            to seek the silent fish below,
        you are the tangible trace of unseen action:
            come, sound in the waters of our lives,
            alert us to the Spirit, rising.
Picture
Lake at Camp Friedenswald, early October
2 Comments
Sandy Fribley
1/5/2012 02:57:00 am

I really like this version of your "O Splash" as well as the connection to the Fish/Salmon symbolism. The last line feels just right, bringing to my mind the sign language we use for Spirit in Children and Worship.
Thanks, too, for those final sunsets of 2011...is there an "O Sunset" somewhere there?

Reply
Sally link
1/5/2012 07:51:17 am

You'll have to show me the sign for Spirit this weekend -- I don't remember it.
Sounds like there might be an "O Sunset" nudging for you. I'd like to see it : )

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    My approach to contemplative photography --
    "Pay attention.
    Be astonished.
    Tell about it."

    Mary Oliver in "Sometimes"

    Tesserae: small cube-shaped tiles of ceramic, glass or precious stone used to make a mosaic, or in this case, brief essays on some element of lectio divina with Luke 10:38-42.

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  • Home
  • Spiritual Guidance
    • What is spiritual guidance?
    • When should I seek it?
    • Individual or group?
  • Groups
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  • Individuals
    • Spiritual guidance for individuals >
      • Locally
      • At a distance
  • Sparks of Light blog
  • Martha Mary Mosaic
  • Writing
    • In Tune with God: the art of congregational discernment
    • Resources
  • About me
  • Contact