I Hear the Waters Lapping

              The Bathers – George Russell (AE)

“I will arise and go now
for always night and day
I hear the lake water lapping
With low sounds by the shore.”

From - The Lake Isle of Innisfree
By W. B. Yeats

These lines from the poem Lake Isle of Innisfree are for this Irish storyteller an inspiration. It is told that later in his life the poet W. B. Yeats had certain regrets at having written this poem. I have no such regrets.

These lines are the invitation from the mystic heart – the heart that has glimpsed and wishes to return to the Source.  This is the return to the Source that the writer Marianne Williamson writes about in her book entitled “Return to Love.”

In the opening lines of this Lake Isle of Innisfree poem the hero of this poetic journey makes the commitment when he/she says, “I will arise…”  This is not just a poem about a sentimental attachment to a part of Ireland where the poet had lived. I think that is how many people view this poem and why W.B Yeats came to dislike being associated with it. Yeats didn’t write from sentimentality. He wrote from the consciousness of one connected to the timeless and its glorious invitation.

The phrase, "I will arise" indicates the proper usage of will in the development of raising consciousness and its expansion into the higher realms of timeless Love. This is an arising that is also a deepening into the heart’s core.  Then comes the phrase, "and go now." This relates to the poet’s understanding of the nature of time as a window that frames the timelessness of the present moment – the NOW.

When you look at the nature of time you find that the only time there is, is the present moment – the eternal now. When you think about the past you think about the past in this moment. When you plan the future you plane the future NOW. When the future arrives it arrives in the now. Time is a construct that developed with the clock; the clock came into its own with the advent of railways. In this sense we got more and more tied to clock time and now many of us experience what has been termed ‘time poverty.’

When you make your will the willingness to be a servant of the real  then time becomes a living presence? Are you willing or are you wilful? Are you pushing yourself to become what you have been told you should become in order to achieve what is defined in this world of time as success?

The line, "I will arise and go now," is an affirmation to be the willing servant of Love. This means paying attention to the water lapping. Most of us do not have this luxury. The only water we get close to is the stagnant pond of deep self-interest and the pursuit of what the Master Jesus called ‘the dead burying the dead.’

A soul friend invites you to hear the waters lapping by the shore of the timeless. There you will have some peace. There, for a short time, you will have some peace fill your beautiful eyes and the radiance from those eyes will truly reflect your soul and its Source.

W.B. Yeats was aware of this timeless connection to the shore of the timeless. He heard the water calling always ‘night and day.’ However, to enter the water one needs to move beyond the duality of night and day, light and dark, good and bad. This is why the invitation ‘Judge not that ye be not judged’ is such an important spiritual practice.

The great Islamic mystic poet Jelaluddin Rumi says it this way:

There is a field out beyond
Right doing and wrong doing
I’ll meet you there.

This is the field, the quantum field beyond time and space and form where you can meet and say, “I see you” because you will be one who sees through their beautiful eyes.  You will be a seer with the eyes of a lover reflecting the absolute beauty of Oneness.

To be this willing is to arise and move in the world of time as a manifestation of love in action. "I will arise and go now," requires intention and commitment. In my article "7 Ways to a Wonderful Life," intention and commitment equate with purpose and passion. This willingness is not to be confused with wilfulness, which I liken to pushing the river. What is required is what is a more feminine approach. It is the approach where you allow the dance of Creation to do you rather than you ‘doing’ it. For all our doing we have got ourselves and the planet in the proverbial ‘do-do.

You are a human ‘being.’ The word human translates as ‘the sound of being in form.’ This sound is the sound of Love. You can learn to hear it but to begin to hear it you have to also begin to trust it and allow it to do its creative work through you.

In so allowing you will arise and go into the eternal now and out of this direct experience there is the knowing of the timeless radiance you are. You arrive on the shore beyond the night and day of your life and stand on the solid ground of the shore beyond time.

To find out more about how to arise and go now register you interest in our Deep Heart’s Core Workshop, which includes singing, ‘around the fire’ storytelling, drumming, dancing and community contact

Tony Cuckson
storyteller@tonycuckson.com

or

Debbie Beirne at
ruachrhythms@gmail