John Barleycorn Won't Die

• Opening Words
• The Lighting of the Chalice & Uniting Statement
• The People Invoke their GodsKing Arthur and What Women Want
• Reading Pulling the Sword from the Stone from The Once and Future King
• Sermon: John Barleycorn Won't Die by David Miley
• Closing Words The Feast Of John Barleycorn

Opening Words

A story from Milton Erickson

I was returning from high school one day and a runaway horse with a bridle on sped past a group of us into a farmer's yard looking for a drink of water. The horse was perspiring heavily. And the farmer didn't recognize it, so we cornered it. I hopped on the horse's back since it had a bridle on it. I took hold of the rein and said, "Giddy-up" and he headed for the highway. I knew the horse would turn in the right direction and I didn't know what the right direction was. And the horse trotted and galloped along. Now and then he would forget he was on the highway and start into a field. So I would pull on him a bit and call his attention to the fact that the highway was where he was supposed to be. And finally, after four miles from where I had boarded him, he turned into a farm yard and the farmer said, "So that's how the critter came back. Where did you find him?" I said "About four miles from here." "How did you know he should come here?" I said, "I didn't know, the horse knew. All I did was keep his attention on the road." I think that's the way you do psychotherapy."

The Lighting of the Chalice & Uniting Statement

May this light warm our hearts with love and caring
And guide us in the way of truth.
As we gather here for worship,
We pledge ourselves to the endless search for truth;
To the right of each to believe as mind, heart, and conscience Dictate;
To accept the responsibilities this freedom commands;
And to implement our belief in the essential worth and dignity of
Every human being.

- from the Preamble of our Constitution

The People Invoke their Gods

As Unitarian-Universalists, we do not require specific Goddesses, Gods, Spirits, creeds or required inspirational words. The Ten Suggestions about sums it up. We do each have our own sources of inspiration, however. So, I ask you at this time to invoke your personal Goddesses, Gods, Spirits, creeds or inspirational words by filling in the blanks of the following prayer or meditation.

Grant O' _______, Thy Protection,
And in Protection, Strength
And in Strength, Understanding,
And in Understanding, Knowledge,
And in Knowledge, the Knowledge of Justice
And in the Knowledge of Justice, the Love of It
And in the Love of It, the Love of all Existences,
And in the Love of all Existences, the Love of _________
And all Goodness.

Gorsedd Prayer - Iolo Morganwg (1747-1826) Stonemason, itinerant Unitarian preacher, forger, poet and self constructed Druid.

A Story for all ages

The Tale of King Arthur and What Women Want

I'm going to need a little help with this from all of you for sound effects. When I say the word "horse" I want you to (monty python sound effect). Ok try it, "horse."

This is a story about King Arthur, Sir Gawain, a Lady and a Giant. Do you know who King Arthur was? (wait for answers). Well, King Arthur lived sometime in the Dark Ages in England. He lived so long ago that folks don't know if he was real or a legend, which is a different way of being real.

Well King Arthur went out a-hunting on his horse. Wandering in the forest, he saw a white deer with huge antlers. Now I'll tell you something here - Don't chase a white deer unless you want to have a dangerous adventure. King Arthur liked dangerous adventures, so he chased this deer on his horse.

He hadn't gone for very long when he was lost. Now who should pop up but an evil giant. "Ha, Ha little king, I'll have your head shortly."

King Arthur thought fast. "Sir Giant, this really isn't sporting, and it's against all the laws of giant behavior to not make this sporting."

The Giant had forgotten the laws of Giant behavior, but soon remembered that he was supposed to make an impossible condition.

"Ha, Ha, little king, so you want to make it sporting. All right, you have a year to answer this question, "What do women want above all other things?"

King Arthur thought that this would be an easy task and agreed. So off he went and found his way back to his castle.

King Arthur asked his knights, what women wanted. (shills).

Then, King Arthur asked the ladies of the court. (shills)

Feeling nervous, King Arthur sent out messengers on throughout the land to find the answer to what women want. Messengers went far and wide, all failing to find the answer until finally one returned on his horse and said, "My Liege (meaning king), I have found an horribly ugly woman living alone in a deep forest who is entirely sure that she knows the answer. She bids that you come to her now."

So King Arthur went out on his horse to a tiny hut deep in the forest and knocked on the door. Now, the women in the hut opened the door and King Arthur was shocked to see how ugly she was. She had humps and where she didn't have humps she had bumps and where she didn't have bumps she had lumps - and - he about ran away, but, realizing that this was his only chance, said courteously, "Thank you my Lady for making me a guest in your house." Now the Lady said, "I know why you're here Arthur, and if you want my help, you must agree to give me Sir Gawain for a husband."

Now King Arthur, said that he couldn't do that, but that he would ask Gawain if he would agree. Sir Gawain, hearing that this was the only way to save the King agreed to the deal and so the lady in the forest said this to King Arthur. "Women want there own will, that means that they want to do what they want to do." Not being a Unitarian-Universalist, King Arthur was really shocked, but he went, on his horse, to the meeting with the Giant in the forest as he had agreed.

"Ha, Ha, Ha, little king, do you have the answer to save your head?" And King Arthur pipes up, "Sir Giant, women want to do what they want to do." Now the Giant was so angry that he turned red, and then blue and then white and then he exploded knowing full well that King Arthur had outwitted him.

But, now, it was time to pay the lady for her help. And Gawain, weeped for happiness that he had saved Arthur and weeped for sadness that he was marrying someone who was really scary looking. With the whole court a-weeping they were married.

Gawain went out to look after his horses. He came back after dark back to find a beautiful lady in his room. And Gawain says, "You must leave immediately since you are not my wife." And the lady says, "I am your wife. I am under a curse that I may be either ugly by day and beautiful by night, or beautiful by day and ugly by night. You can choose how it will be."

So,Gawain thinks and thinks. And finally he says, "Lady, I cannot choose for you, you must do what you want." And there is a whoosh and a snap and a pop and the Lady was smiling saying, "You have broken the enchantment, because only a husband that would let me do what I wanted to do could remove this curse." And there was great rejoicing in the court. And Gawain and the Lady lived happily as long as they both lived.

Offertory Jigs, Traditional

Sharing of Joys and Concerns

A Time for Remembrance

Reading

Pulling the Sword from the Stone from The Once and Future King

- T.H. White

The following story describes the magic moment when the young Arthur pulls the sword from the stone and becomes rightful king of England. Until this time, Arthur had believed that he was the second son of Sir Hector and not in line to be the king of anything. His overbearing foster brother, Sir Kay, called him Wart. Merlin the magician came from time to time for lessons. These lessons involved being turned into an animal and learning the important things about each animal's life. Arthur, returning to town, searches for a sword for Sir Kay and spies one sticking out of a rock. Two times he tries to pull out the sword but fails. We begin at the third try as he calls out plaintively to his mentor.

"Oh Merlin," cried the Wart, "help me to get this weapon."

There was a kind of a rushing noise, and a long chord played along with it. All around the churchyard tehere were hundreds of his old friends. They rose over the church wall all together, like the Punch and Judy ghosts of remembered days, and there were badgers and nightingales and vulgar crows and hares and wild geese and falcons and fishes and dogs and dainty unicorns and solitary wasps and corkindrills and hedgehogs and griffins and the thousand other animals he had met. They loomed around the church wall, the lovers and helpers of the Wart, and they all spoke solemnly in turn. Some had come from the banners in the church, where they were painted as heraldry, some from the waters and the sky and the field about - but all, down to the smallest shrew mouse, had come to help on account of love. Wart felt his power grow.

"Put your back into it," said a Luce (or pike) off one of the heraldic banners, "as you once did when I was going to snap you up. Remember that power springs from the nape of the neck."

"What about those forearms," asked a Badger gravely, "that are held together by a chest? Come along, my dear embryo, and find your tool."

A Merlin sitting at the top of the yew tree cried out, "Now then, Captain Wart, what is the first law of the foot? I thought that I once heard something about never letting go.?"

"Don't work like a stalling woodpecker," urged a Tawny Owl affectionately. "Keep up a steady effort my duck, and you will have it yet."

A white-front said, "Now Wart, if you were once able to fly the great North Sea, surely you can coordinate a few little wing-muscles here and there? Fold your powers together, with the spirits of your mind, and it will come out like butter. Come along, Homo sapiens, for all we humble friends of yours are waiting here to cheer."

The Wart walked up to the great sword for the third time. He put out his right hand softly and drew it out as gently as from a scabbard.

Music John Barleycorn Must Die

Sermon

John Barleycorn Won't Die

by David Miley

John Barleycorn. The first time I heard it, it must have been near the summer of love. Even the record cover , less my modifications , promised something completely different from anything that I had heard before.

There has always seemed to be a certain amount of magic about this song that touched my 19 year old soul.

On one level, Little Sir John describes the agricultural cycle from planting (burial) to harvest (at the knee) to the final transformation into beer and whiskey. Informative story, but not compelling.

Then there are the connections of Little Sir John to the Green Man, and the Wild Man of the Forest and the Sacrificed God of the Harvest. All very interesting and great myth, but I didn't have a clue about any of that in 1970.

And then there is the moral imperative to control Little Sir John, lest you can't do anything without a little Barleycorn. Well that couldn't have been it - coffee had already taken over the starring role as morning muse.

So what was it back in my callow youth that caused such enchantment.

I didn't know then, ------ but I think I know now.

I believe that Little Sir John, bless his long white beard, is the spirit of inspiration alive in each of us.

Now, I am not talking about whiskey. Whiskey has certainly been one of the spirits of some inspirations. --- No, what I'm talking about is the spirit of inspiration that lies, fermenting , inside each of us. This spirit won't die, but just keeps on popping up, no matter how poorly we treat him.

Many folks will not admit to having any sort of inner life, much less a spirit. Oh, we may have had imaginary friends as children. And, we may have talked to dogs, rocks and trees before we knew that that simply wasn't possible. But, mostly we pretend that we are perfectly rational folks that have given up such childish things.

And then there are those of us who know that there is an unconscious world and are really afraid of it. This is the dark side of the spirit. Obsessions, compulsions, bad, uncontrolled and uncontrollable behaviors abounding. Little Sir John, on a rampage, calling for more Bushmills.

And still another view, that perhaps, those compulsions and obsessions are more our attempt to medicate or over occupy our psyche when our inner and outer worlds really don't match up anymore. Sort of like in Star Trek when the computer goes haywire. "Computer -- calculate all the decimal positions of Pi." Works every time.

Milton Erickson, the father of modern hypnotherapy had a fair amount of success operating on the simple principle that most psychological problems are based on conflicts between our inner and outer realities. He also believed that most solutions to psychological problems were to be found in the treasure chest of resources he called the unconscious. A treasure chest. . . .

If you don't believe that you have an inner world and think that you are consciously in control of your own life, try walking by telling each muscle to contract at the right moment. Or try driving a car. All through the day, whether doing the purely physical motions of life or in our basic daily interactions, we mostly are at the whim of our unconscious. At night, our inner lives really paint the town red.

The story of the lost horse illustrates Erickson's approach to psychotherapy. He didn't know what his patients needed to do and neither did his patients. The patient's unconscious mind, however, the horse again , knew exactly what to do, with a little coaxing. For the patient, the first step is to realize he has a horse, then to realize that he is on the horse and then to let the horse do all the creative work with minimal interference.

And, that means not telling the horse what to do, unless you want to remain hopelessly lost in the forest.

The core of Erickson's technique was a respectful relationship with the unconscious and a letting go of the illusion of control. Acknowledgement and respect for the unconscious allows a creative partnership in which both the conscious and unconscious parts of our minds thrive.

The story of King Arthur and What Women Want, is a prime example of this principle of partnership. Gawain, representing the everyday conscious mind, does two fairly amazing things. First of all, he fully accepts a truly hideous woman as wife in order to save Arthur's life. And second, instead of trying to control her and bend her to his own best interests, he lets the lady make her own choice. And amazingly enough, when he does, she is freed from an enchantment and becomes fair by day and night. And in the process, so does their marriage.

Recognize now, that we, as individuals, have our own interdependent web of existence. When we acknowledge and honor our unconscious selves our inner and outer voices sing in harmony.

Well, a sermon is supposed to be descriptive and instructive. I have witnessed to you, my faith, that each of you has an inner life and it is populated by spirits of all sorts, including, but not limited to imaginary friends, talking dogs, stones, trees, giants, fairies, evil wizards, damsels under enchantment and John Barleycorn. We have now completed the descriptive part of this sermon.

The instructive part is easy to describe and hard to do.

The basic metaphor is still that of Erickson's horse. First, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you must realize that you not only have a horse but, are, in fact, riding one. The easiest way to understand this is to find a quiet space and simply rerun the past few days of interactions with other people. What part of each day was "automatic" and positive? What part of each day was "automatic" and negative? How much of each day were you actually consciously thinking and how much of each day were you reacting. For good or ill, everyone will recognize parts of the day when, reactions, the sign of the unconscious, were in charge. This is not necessarily bad. Erickson always said that he was only terrified in taxi cabs when the drivers weren't in trance.

So now that you know that you have a horse and that the horse is really mostly in charge. What do you do next? Here are some of the classic techniques:

• Dreams - if you see your inner world as mysterious, analyze your dreams.
• Prayer - if you see your inner world as a manifestation of Deity then pray.
• Ritual - if you see your inner world as desiring a way to dance, then perform rituals.
• Self-hypnosis/Meditation - if you see your inner world as a potential partner, then do meditation or self hypnosis.
• Psychotherapy - if you see your inner world as a wild and out of control horse, then psychotherapy may be a way of feeling safe enough to make progress. And,
• Creation - if you see your inner world as a muse, then creating poetry, music, plays, paintings and sculptures celebrates the fruits of partnership with your interior world.

Each of these techniques are a way of letting go of the illusion of control and gaining relationship with your inner world. Which one is best for you right now is up to you. But, if you get it right, you may end up fair, both by day and night.

Well we wouldn't be Unitarian-Universalists if all this inner work did not mean something in the wider world. As Larry Ingraham once said, paraphrased I'm afraid, "First you have to feel right inside, and then from that feeling of rightness, you can do positive things in the external world. You might look at Iolo Morganwg's words as an eight step program, starting from a feeling of safety and moving forward from the personal level to an understanding of justice , a love of the interdependent web of existence and finally a return back to the original source of safety and goodness. When we are secure, our individual interdependent web can grow to include the whole interdependent web of existence. The respect that we show for our own inner lives can widen to include respect for all the lives and all the existences around us. And if that happens for enough people, the whole world may be fair by both day and night.

Hymn #27 Hildegard of Bingen

Closing Words

The Feast Of John Barleycorn

At this time of year, the Saxon's would ceremoniously harvest, bake, honor and consume the first loaf made from the new grain. In this way, they showed their gratitude and respect to the spirits of place. They demonstrated that they were part of the Land and were supported by it.

In some traditions, the holiday Lugnasadh, the Irish name for the month of August, is the celebration of the wedding of Lugh to the Goddess Eire, who IS the soul of Ireland. Lugnasadh was celebrated on the tops of hills with races, games and bonfires.

The spirit of Little Sir John is in both of these holidays. He is the honored loaf, the very symbol of Nature sustaining the people. He is also Lugh, the Sun God, who dies utterly but then is reborn in the dark of Winter, to restart the circle of life again.

Let us then honor John Barleycorn, spirit of the Earth, of growth, abundance and inspiration. Let us find respect first, for our own inter-dependent web of being, and for the greater interdependent web around us. Let us each, in our own way, make peace with our own natures and with Nature.

The Feast is Laid, Let the fiddlers play!!!