Lúcháir
Lúcháir
is Irish for 'delight', related to the
Scottish Gaelic luachair - the soft rush juncus effusus,
(literally,
'glory, splendour'), and the Welsh llwych, ('lightmaker, a spark'). The
pith of this plant was soaked in tallow and used to make rushlights and
so by association the word 'lúcháir' came also to mean
'the gleam of light on water' - a flash of beauty, a moment of
enlightenment, and in Celtic tradition, a glimpse of the other-world.
The Lúcháir Project started out with the intention of becoming a collaborative and multi-disciplinary two-year stretch which would raise awareness not only of the dangers we face in living beyond our ecological means, but of the possibility of a greatly enriched and enhanced life if we could connect, and cherish the earth and our neighbour, and come together to create something new and wonderful.
It didn't work out quite like that. I found that an awful lot of people were already active in this field. The Permaculture and Transition movements seemed to have got a lot of the social and practical issues covered, and, as I got more involved with it, the geo-poetics movement was way ahead of me in terms of mapping out research areas and stimulating art projects. Also, I found that I can't create and collaborate at the same time. My creativity needs solitude as much as community, and when my head is buzzing with all the exciting stuff I find in the world or on the internet, I don't focus so well onmy own work. Nevertheless, Lúcháir remains an important concept for me, as a guideline for my creative and ethical practice.It's the heart of everything I do.
The Principles
Lúcháir draws from:
the insights of geo-poetics, in which I found a way of grounding art in
an informed and intelligent awareness of the earth. You can find out
more at the site of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics.
the environmental initiatives of the permaculture movement whose
principles (which you can see here)
have a lot in common with the social
teaching of the church in which I was brought up, especially in the
emphasis on diversity, inclusivity and subsidiarity.
the spiritual practices of monastic traditions - particularly that of
the Rule of St Benedict. Living simply is more than an economic choice,
and many of the world's religious thinkers got there before us. I have
studied my own monastic tradition deeply, but I have also learned a lot
from friends of many faiths and observances – Wiccan, Quaker,
Buddhist, Socialist and many others. I hope people from other
traditions will free to use anything on this site or the blog which
they find useful, without
feeling pressured to buy into an institutional package.
Practice
Walking the Territory
My first aim is to connect with the world around me - the history and
geography, the ecology and community. Nothing wise compassionate or
effective can be done without a deep understanding of what is here
already.
Where I live now is a river valley. The Forth flows through it, still
tidal at this point, meandering crazily at the foot of the Ochils. It's
milder here than places even a short distance away, because it's
low-lying and sheltered, and sometimes we have mists and sometimes
floods. It's very close to the city centre, but, as it is isolated by
the river, it is secluded, and there are skies dark enough to see
stars. One day we will be on an island in the middle of an ox-bow lake,
but for now we are a semi-detached suburb, playing at being farming
country. It's good land, over devonian sandstone, a mixture of silt and
clay – there were orchards here for centuries – and it's a
good place for wild-life, with a variety of habitats, woodland, hill,
field, river and bog.
There is also my own smaller territory, the garden, which is about 1800
square feet, level, south-facing. It is bounded by a tall privet hedge
on the west side, a lower hazel one on the south, and suburban larch
fencing on the east. There are currently two trees, a rowan and a
birch, lawn, borders and a pond. It has been gardened organically since
we came, and is productive, but also over-run with ground elder,
buttercups and bindweed.
Then, you can't connect meaningfully with the earth, or with the wild,
unless you can connect with the human community. I feel very strongly
the importance of connecting with the past - my own family heritage in
Ireland, but also with the history and traditions of where I live now,
with the miners and artists and monks who used to live here and with
the farmers, university students, the shop-workers and people who run
B&Bs who live here now. The village used to play an important part
in the history of Scotland, and it has buildings and memories to
cherish.
Living Where We Live
My second aim is
to cherish what is around me, which means more than to
'conserve' or 'appreciate'. The permaculture principles of care for the
earth, care for the people and fair shares are important, encouraging
work for peace, biodiversity, respect for traditional cultures and
communities justice and equality.
Heart Mind and Spirit
The more I go on, the more it becomes obvious that redressing the
ecological balance of our lives is not only a practical scientific or
an economic task, but it is also social, psychological and most
importantly, spiritual.
It also becomes clear that though it is wise to learn from and be
enriched by the teachings of many faiths and traditions, in the end you
have to deepen your practice in one. My own practice is Catholic and
from time to time there will be posts on the blog specifically aimed at
the Catholic community, dealing with the social teaching of the Church
and integrating my own research.
The Gleam of Light on Water
The final aim is
to encourage creativity, the moment when the
connection and the relationship produces something new and wonderful.
Human behaviour may be the cause of many of our problems, but human
skill, wisdom and creativity may well be our best resource in solving
them. So by creativity, I don't mean just formal art, but any holistic
and earth-friendly exercise of skill that enhances life on this planet.
On the blog I run (erratically)an artist of the week feature,
highlighting some of the fascinating work that is going on, primarily
in Scotland and the UK, but all over the world.