The Noble Pagan Forums - Celtic Spirituality-- Skye Alexander

Celtic Spirituality: An Ancient Tradition Reawakens in a New Age


By Skye Alexander

Although for many people, St. Patrick's Day means shamrocks, parades, and wearing green clothes, it actually marks the Emerald Isle's shift from Pagan spirituality to Christianity. This transition is symbolized in legend by St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland.

In the past few years we've witnessed a burgeoning interest in all things Celtic, from the popularity of Enya's music and shows such as "Riverdance" to an influx of new books, calendars, and oracles to Celtic web sites on the Internet. One reason for this growing enthusiasm is that nearly one-third of the people in the U.S. can trace their ancestry back to Ireland and the British Isles. As we explore our roots, we rediscover the vibrant and magical heritage left to us by our Celtic forebears.

According to well-known English writer John Matthews, who has authored about sixty books on Celtic subjects individually and jointly with his wife, Caitlin, and friend R.J. Stewart, there is "a hunger for knowledge of these things and a desire to reconnect with Euroamerican roots."

Another reason is the Celtic connection with environmental issues. The ancient Celts and Druids had a profound respect for the earth and nature, and this reverence resounds with those of us who are concerned about the future of our planet. Because the Celts were so closely attuned to the earth's cycles, equinoxes and solstices were considered powerful and magical days.

People who are seeking a spiritual tradition that respects the feminine principle also find that the Celtic worldview speaks to them. In a world dominated by patriarchal belief systems, the Celtic paths offer a way toward balance and wholeness.

"The Celtic traditions have such vitality, such beauty and poetry, that people are finding something in them from a number of directions: art, music, literature, mythology, and spirituality," says Matthews.

The Basics of Celtic Spirituality

Over the past ten years, Celtic spirituality has grown into a full-fledged belief system which calls to as many seekers as Buddhism or Native American traditions. For many Anglo-Saxon Westerners, it's much more accessible than Eastern religions and richer than the religions in which they were raised.

The Celtic traditions encompass a wide variety of subjects, both Pagan and Christian. Among them are the Druids, Arthurian lore, the Grail legends, shamanism (although the Celts didn't actually use this word), the faery kingdom, folklore, divination, healing, and Celtic Christianity.

Like the Native Americans and Australian Aboriginal cultures, the ancient Celts lived in a world where the physical and spiritual overlapped and interpenetrated each other. Gifted seers or shamans, called aes dana, could walk between these worlds. An assortment of beings--faeries, elementals, deities, ancestors, spirits--inhabited these intermeshed physical and nonphysical realms (and what is sometimes called the Underworld). Humans who were sensitive enough could see and communicate with these entities.

The earth was sacred to the Celts, embodied by the Goddess of the Land. Desecrating the land, as is done today through strip mining, dumping toxic waste, and clear cutting forests, would have been the ultimate profanity to the Celts. "If the ancient Celts were transported to the present, they'd be in the forefront of the ecology movement," Matthews believes.

Trees were also sacred and considered to be the repositories of memory. Spirit beings and deities inhabited trees. The letters of the best-known type of Ogham, an ancient Celtic alphabet, were associated with various trees. According to Irish mythology and literature, there were (at least) five great trees in pre-Christian Ireland, each one guarded by a shaman-poet.

Animals played an important role in the lives of the Celts. Like the Native Americans, the Celtic shamans sought the aid of spirit animal helpers who served as guides, teachers, and guardians. Celtic tribes had totem animals who provided protection, ensured the fertility of the land, and offered other forms of assistance. Animal helpers could also be birds, fish, or reptiles and the Celts believed that by attuning themselves to the animals' energies, they could learn the wisdom inherent in nature.

Celtic shamans often assumed the forms of animals through shapeshifting, as shamans of other cultures have done. (Whether this occurred at a physical or spirit level is a matter of debate, and may not even be important.) The shaman uses the power of an animal helper to move between the worlds in order to gain knowledge, for protection, to guide others, or for healing purposes. Tales of humans turning into animals and of deities presenting themselves in animal-forms are common in Celtic songs, stories, and legends. Animals, fish, birds, and mythical beasts are also popular motifs in Celtic art and jewelry.

"Probably the greatest single contribution of Celtic spirituality today is that it fosters a love of the earth, of the natural world, of the animals and birds and fish and all living things. It can teach us how to get back in touch with ourselves and with the workings of the cosmos," says Matthews.

The Celts also held a deep reverence for their ancestors--not only their immediate forebears, but also those who may never have actually existed in physical form. These primal Ancestors (or inner beings) are considered to be the holders of all Celtic knowledge. In this country we tend to leave the past behind us as quickly as possible, and our youth-oriented society shows little respect for our ancestors (or for the elderly). The sort of Ancestor reverence we find in the Celtic traditions is more akin to that of Native American or Eastern cultures than white, Anglo-based societies.

Celtic Symbols and Their Meanings

Like all symbols, those found in Celtic art, literature, jewelry, architecture, and decorative objects have deeper spiritual and magical significance. The four most popular symbols found today--knots, serpents (or dragons), the cross, and spirals--can be found on artifacts dating back to the eighth century BC.

Although exquisitely beautiful as design motifs, Celtic knots are not purely decorative. Knotwork symbolizes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth as a continuity. Celtic knots also represent the path or way to the Ancestors, one's inner self, and divine inspiration--much as the labyrinth does.

The cross was a poignant symbol to both Pagan and Christian Celts, but its meaning in the two traditions is somewhat different. To Christians, the cross represents the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To Pagan Celts, the cross depicts the junction or union of two polar energies. The horizontal portion signifies the earth; the vertical symbolizes the heavens. In both viewpoints, however, the underlying meaning of the cross is eternal life, a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms.

Serpents and dragons are both symbols of wisdom. In Celtic spirituality, as in many other traditions, the snake represents the life force as well as hidden (or occult) knowledge. Dragons are seen as keepers of secrets, as well as the gatekeepers to other worlds.

The spiral shape depicts the path inward and outward, as well as the flow of life energy.

Celtic Holidays

The ancient Celts, understandably, didn't celebrate St. Patrick's Day (though the March 17th date may have been chosen to coincide with the Spring Solstice). Their original eight Great Days were closely linked with nature and the movements of the sun: Yule (also known as the Winter Solstice, December 21-22), Brigid's Day (also called Candlemas and in Gaelic Imbolg, February 1), the Spring Equinox (March 20-21), Beltane (May 1), the Summer Solstice (June 21-22), Lughnasadh (also called Lammas, August 1), the Fall Equinox (September 21-22), and Samhain (Halloween, October 31). Celtic Christians also celebrate a large number of saint's days as well as the major Christian holidays, such as Easter and Christmas.

Yule falls on the first day of Capricorn, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. In pre-Christian Europe, Britain, and Ireland the Winter Solstice marked the birth of the Sun God. It was a time of good cheer and festivities, celebrating life over death and the return of the sun--the turning point in the year after which the days grow steadily longer for six months. The holiday was so important to Pagan cultures that Christianity adopted this joyful season to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

Brigid's Day is dedicated to Brigid, goddess of fire and inspiration. The Spring (Vernal) Equinox is also the Druid Festival of Trees. It is the first day of Aries, when day and night are of equal lengths, and heralds the approach of warm weather. Beltane celebrates the earth's reawakened fertility and the return of the sun. (Modern Western culture has adopted parts of this holiday as May Day, incorporating the fertility/phallic symbol of the May Pole into its celebration.)

The Summer Solstice occurs on the first day of Cancer, the longest day of the year. In Celtic and Druid traditions, on Midsummer the Sun God's power reaches its peak and faeries and earth spirits revel along with humans (no doubt the inspiration for Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream). The reign of the oak king now passes over to the reign of the holly king as daylight begins to diminish from this point for the next six months.

Lughnasadh is named for the fire god Lugh or Llew. Because this is often the time when Northern regions began to harvest the first of the season's grain, this festival celebrates the harvest which sustains life. It was commemorated with feasting, rather like our present-day Thanksgiving. The Fall Equinox occurs on the first day of Libra, when the days and nights are once again the same length. It falls during the harvest period and was a time for giving thanks for the land's bounty. Samhain marks the end of the cycle of the year. It was a time for remembering and honoring the dead, as well as the night when the physical and spiritual worlds were closest together.

Mistakes and Misconceptions

As our interest in Celtic traditions has increased, so has the amount of material available on Celtic subjects. In the process, however, some mistakes and misconceptions have resulted. According to Matthews, "The biggest problem is the quantity of misinformation and a lack of real scholarship or research. There are a lot of very strange and very inauthentic books and music and materials around. Some are fun, but if you don't know what to look for they can be very misleading."

For instance, we tend to have a romanticized view of the Celts. (The same thing has happened with angels.) Often we see them through rose-colored glasses as beneficent bearers of wisdom, when in fact they were also a passionate, fierce, even savage people. "If you leave out this part you don't get an accurate picture," Matthews points out. Understanding their history and spiritual traditions requires acknowledging their unsavory characteristics as well as their attractive ones.

We have also misinterpreted the faery kingdom. New age stores are full of adorable "Celtic" figurines of gnomes and winged, Tinkerbell-type beings. These cute, cuddly creatures bear little resemblance to the awesome, sometimes terrifying beings who populate the Celtic legends and lands. This de-naturing of nature ignores the Celts' worldview and leads novices to believe that otherworldly beings are all sweetness and light--a fallacy which in some cases might even be potentially dangerous.

Some of the music that abounds today should probably be labeled "Celtic Lite." Rather than evoking the passion and fire of traditional Celtic music, it has an ethereal new age quality that is pretty and soothing, but, well, bloodless. True Celtic music isn't wishy-washy.

The muddling of Christian and Pagan Celtic belief systems can also be confusing to many people. There is a good deal of overlap, due to the fact that Christianity was only gradually accepted by the Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales over an extended period of time, and in the process Christianity assimilated many bits and pieces of the Pagan traditions. Some of the ancient Pagan holidays were adopted and adapted; for example, the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox became Christmas and Easter respectively. Some of the Celtic goddesses, such as Brigid, were transformed into saints.

Shirley Toulson's book The Celtic Year (Element Books) is a good presentation of the Celtic holidays from the Christian perspective. Caitlin Matthews' The Celtic Book of Days (Destiny) is an illustrated guide to four of the great Celtic festivals--Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh--and includes both Pagan and Christian streams of Celtic spirituality. The illustrated Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses, by R.J. Stewart (Blandford/Sterling) looks at the pantheon of Celtic deities and the magic and mythology surrounding them.

As many as a third of the ancient Celtic texts still have not been translated into modern English. As a result, only scholars, university libraries, and those few who can read the ancient languages in which these documents were written have access to this valuable source material. Perhaps the current interest in Celtic knowledge will inspire translations of the older texts and make them widely available.

Like all great truths and great spiritual traditions, Celtic wisdom opens doors between the past with the future as well as between the physical and mystical worlds, while giving us tools to help us understand our lives today.
Skye Alexander is of Irish and Scottish descent. She is the author of Hidden Agenda, Magickal Astrology, 10-Minute Feng Shui, and Planets in Signs.

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