As the deer (fia), they gathered in the wilderness, apart from their fellow men and women, a holy order of warrior-poets. Like the bard, whose art they shared, they were not about pure violence, as warriors are so often painted, they were about justice.
The Fianna were an out-caste class of warriors (outside of class, not outcast in the sense of cast-off), typically adolescents and young-adults, similar to the wandering holy men of the Hindus (sadus) in their severence from society, but more militant than religious in nature. However, there is a mystical dimension to the Fianna, as many were accomplished poets and seers.
The way of the Fianna was not only the way of the warrior, but also of the hunter. The Fianna understood that the prey is so much more than a source of food and clothing, but also a guide and pathfinder in the Otherworld (in the sense of totem animals). They understood that the hunter becomes the one hunted: by taking the animal's life, the animal lives again in the hunter, and tranfers its wisdom to the hunter. The death brought to the animal, it is understood, will one day come to the hunter as well. It is not a competitive, antagonistic predator/prey relationship, but instead, one of love and kinship.
In this time when our world leaders are talking of war and making threats to hunt down their terrorist prey, it is important to remind ourselves of the true nature of the warrior and the hunter. True warriors seek justice, not vengeance, and they understand the kinship of humanity: they respect the lives of the innocent ones of the clan. And the true hunter understands that he becomes that which he is hunting.
Let us remind ourselves of that. Let us hunt not monsters, lest we become monsters ourselves, but instead righteousness, freedom, and peace. |
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