A Magical Place Apart

“Beyond the pale” is an Irish expression. When people say that someone has gone ‘beyond the pale” they are not referring to the state of that person’s complexion.

The Pale refers to a place. Metaphorically speaking, it is a place that the culture does not approve of or sanction in some way.

With our modern culture’s intellectual and scientific focus we often are suspicious of those who know wisdom. We are tentative about magic, miracle and mystery because we cannot completely explain it or explain it away. Some think that because we cannot explain it that therefore it is not valid.

This storyteller has written and tells a story, Return to Tir Na Nog, about one who metaphorically lives beyond the pale. This is a wise woman who lives in a cottage that is one and a half miles from nowhere depending on which direction you are headed in.

A storyteller, a bard or séanachie of the old Celtic storytelling tradition was well respected in society. They moved between the worlds coming from betwixt and between to issue invitations and calling cards to beyond the Pale. These were invitations to experiences beyond. They were invitations to magic and mystery.

The radiance of who we are has become diminished and in this way we are ones with a pale complexion. We have become shadows of our selves. However, we have more opportunities than ever to become the unique outsider we are and live beyond the pale.

Living beyond the pale invites you to enter the wonder tale that is the wonder of YOU. All fairy tales are issuing this invitation.

The great oracle at Delphi invites you to go beyond the pale when it says, “To thine own self be true.” She does not invite you to love your family, your culture, and your nation state. She invites you to be true to ’thine own self.’ This is about being in creative flow rather than creating a static role that you identify as ‘little me.’

Beyond the pale invites the beyond to live in and through you. This is life in flow with the way it is intended to flow through you. We think that the beyond is beyond us and not that which creates all things, including ourselves.

Religion is intended to give you access to this beyond. Except that the wisdom teaching within this kind of storytelling has been taught to fit within the pale. This is within the pale dimension of the limitation of time and space. Religion has, throughout history, persecuted those who have ventured beyond. These are the mystics of all traditions. These are the ones who have had the courage and commitment to be true to their Self (with a capital S) and ventured into the mystery.

Spirituality is beyond religion. This is the invitation to become an individual inspiration. It is the invitation to uniquely express the spirit as it moves through you. This means you become your own authority in matters of the spirit. In this way one goes beyond the pale.

The invitation to live beyond the pale is the invitation called the Anamcara Experience.