{"id":4394,"date":"2012-03-17T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T04:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=4394"},"modified":"2012-03-17T00:01:40","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T04:01:40","slug":"st-patricks-breastplate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/03\/st-patricks-breastplate.html","title":{"rendered":"St Patrick’s breastplate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Bronze shield from Lough Gur in National Museum of Ireland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It may be good to start St Patrick’s Day with a Celtic blessing that has been given his name. The blessing is known as Saint Patrick’s Breastplate. It is a lorica<\/em>, or “breastplate-charm”, believed to offer a shield of protection as we journey through life.<\/p>\n

The translation of Saint Patrick’s Breastplate was made from the Old Irish by Cecil Frances Alexander in 1889. The original text was probably written down in the 8th century, some 300 years after Patrick’s ministry in Ireland.<\/p>\n

But my favorite verse, moving in the waves of a traditional druidic incantation for protection on a journey,\u00a0probably predates the saint and the coming of Christianity to Ireland by many centuries:<\/p>\n

I arise now through<\/strong>
\n the strength of heaven<\/strong>
\n light of sun<\/strong>
\n radiance of moon<\/strong>
\n splendor of fire<\/strong>
\n speed of lightning<\/strong>
\n swiftness of wind<\/strong>
\n depth of ocean<\/strong>
\n stability of earth<\/strong>
\n firmness of rock\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We often speak these lines on the last morning of the retreats I lead, claiming our connection with the elemental powers that are named, and with the power of heaven, through our body language as well as through speech.<\/p>\n

In its fuller version, as a Christian hymn, the blessing begins with this affirmation:<\/p>\n

I bind unto myself today<\/strong>
\nthe strong name of the Trinity<\/strong>
\nby invocation of the same<\/strong>
\nthe Three in One and One in Three\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can easily find the full version online by searching for “Saint Patrick’s Breastplate” or “I bind unto myself today”. You’ll notice there are different versions of the text, which is also in many hymnals.<\/p>\n

If you want to say this blessing today, in whatever form, you will want to speak the words three times. All Celts know that three times makes the charm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may be good to start St Patrick’s Day with a Celtic blessing that has been given his name. The blessing is known as Saint Patrick’s Breastplate. It is a lorica, or “breastplate-charm”, believed to offer a shield of protection as we journey through life. The translation of Saint Patrick’s Breastplate was made from the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,38,26,21],"tags":[852,76,1130,1131],"class_list":["post-4394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancestral-traditions","category-ancient-religions","category-life-direction","category-psychic-health","tag-blessing","tag-lorica","tag-saint-patricks-breastplate","tag-st-patricks-day"],"yoast_head":"\nSt Patrick's breastplate - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2012\/03\/st-patricks-breastplate.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St Patrick's breastplate - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It may be good to start St Patrick’s Day with a Celtic blessing that has been given his name. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4394"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4401,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4394\/revisions\/4401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}