The Oran Mór
The Oran Mór: The Primordial Myth of Creation
The primordial myth of Creation, common to all peoples, tells of a mighty melody – the very breath of God – that sang Creation into existence. To the Celts of old she was known as the The Oran Mór,1 “The Great Melody,” a melody that did not cease with the initial creation, but goes on and on and on, inspiring Creation along her holy pilgrimage of giving and receiving blessing. But, alas, we live in an age that no longer hears, or even listens for, the primordial melody. We live amidst soul-less science and a life-less religion, each noisily clamoring to be heard above the other as the Song of Life. It is an age marked by fragmented, in your face, individualism: an individualism so tumultuous that it robs the Self of her very ease. No longer, in the discordant noise of this age, can the Great Melody be heard! And even if it is heard, ever so slightly, it is seldom recognized for what it is. All we hear is the contentious noise of conflicting realities. And so, we wander restlessly with a sorely diseased soul, through a clashing wilderness of antagonistic half-truths, each demanding to be heard as the Melody of Life.
Fortunately, the Melody does not have to remain unheard — and un-recognized if perchance, heard. There is a way to learn to hear, recognize, and sing her divine song once again; and in so doing, provide harmony to the discordant, fragmented world: The way of the The Oran Mór – The Never-Ending Song.
The Oran Mór: The Never-Ending Song is built upon the three premises: that the creative melody of Celtic myth, the Oran Mór, (1) continues to be creatively sung, (2) that in its continued singing, the song permeates the entire corpus of Celtic myth, legend and folklore weaving a tapestry of Holy Melody, and (3) that as the Never-Ending Song, the Oran Mór provides a spirituality whereby we may find both personal and corporate wholeness and in so doing, rediscover our intrinsic holiness.
The tapestry of Celtic myth is woven with two threads, both of which find their source in the music of the Oran Mór: “Then a great strain (breath) of Melody moved across the endless water.” The first thread is that of water, and the second is that of breath. However, before we can apply the Holy Melody to our lives we must learn to recognize the melody and hear her harmony for ourselves as she weaves through the tapestry of Celtic myth and legend. Oran Mór: The Never-Ending Song takes the reader on a spiritual pilgrimage following the strands of the Holy Melody as she flows through the tapestry from tale to tale. Along the way the pilgrim is encouraged to seek, hear and creatively apply that which the eternal, divine melody has to offer to a disharmonious, fragmented world both personally and corporately. The pilgrimage is broken into three quests:
(1) Recognizing the Melody.
(2)Learning the Melody.
(3) Singing the Melody.
I will be expanding on this over time.
Note #1: Or, Òran na Mara, "Song of the Sea"
"The Oran Mór," Written by Frank A. Mills (1996).
Frank A. Mills
February 15, 2024
