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The Celtic Wisdom of Poet and Mystic John O’Donohue

John O’Donohue was an Irish poet, scholar and priest best known for his writings on Celtic mysticism and the natural world. He grew up in County Clare, Ireland, a landscape that profoundly influenced his work. He called the west of Ireland “a huge wild invitation to extend your imagination…an ancient conversation between the land and sea.”

Click through below to explore some of John O’Donohue’s words on the divine, the soul and the invisible world, and for more inspiring stories, subscribe to Mysterious Ways magazine!

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Stone bridge over a river in Northern Ireland

“The eternal world and the mortal world are not parallel, rather they are fused."

The Dark Hedges at sunrise - Northen Ireland

“I think the divine is like a huge smile that breaks somewhere in the sea within you, and gradually comes up again.”

“The Bible says that no one can see God and live. In a transferred sense, no person can see himself and live. All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul.”

Skelling Islands from Ring of Kerry, Ireland

“Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.”

“Let us thank the Earth

That offers ground for home

And holds our feet firm

To walk in space open

To infinite galaxies.”

Green pasture scene with sheep in Ireland

“Each day is a secret story woven around the radiant heart of wonder. The sacred duty of being an individual is to gradually learn how to live so as to awaken the eternal within you."

"May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within."

Tranquil Scene from Killarney National Park, Ireland

"Love is the threshold where divine and human presence ebb and flow into each other."

Water flowing under the medieval Irish bridge

"There is an unseen life that dreams us. It knows our true direction and destiny. We can trust ourselves more than we realize and we need have no fear of change."

White Lighthouse, Fanad Head, North Ireland

“We need to return to the solitude within, to find again the dream that lies at the hearth of the soul. We need to feel the dream with the wonder of a child approaching a threshold of discovery. When we rediscover our childlike nature, we enter into a world of gentle possibility.”