Kindling the Celtic Spirit & Celtic Spirit Meditations CD in mp3 (Celtic spirituality and mythology, druidism)

402 Pages·2001·57.822 MB·English

by  Mara Freeman

, , lor LiG, an organiza
,,,1 .,' well as many wild
,,,,rrri¡ruation of this
To the Dwellers of the Vildwood,
,¡, I lttrrt¿hout the both seen and unseen,
I l'¡ rr¡rr'rl i¡r the United and to DIV
,.,,l rr.r'ry rnanner
I .l,r,,t.rl ror¡s embodied Cride hé
11,,, l',,l,lishers, Inc.
Daire cnó
rl,..
l)r()nr()lional
I 1.,¡,, r{ ,,llrrrs
,',1,,,,,rr1,,
' 't, tl,, ,,,,, ,,//,rl¿,r/t'.\ of'the mountains haue opened once again,
\', I tl,, ,,',',r,1 of s'rrtg and danctngfalls upon the ears of men,
, L",1 , l \ ,'rrrlt lics gleaming, fushed uith rainbow light and mirth,
\,' L1,, .,1,1 ('n(lttttrtrnent lingers in the honel-heart of earth.
A.E
CONTENTS
l . ,, tt ,,t,l I'v l'hilip gorr-Qop¡n , xi
l,,t,,,,ltt, tt.,tt; Buried Treasure . t
I 1,, 'i¡,¡¡,¡l l)tnce of the Year:
I in,l, t'.tt¿tttling Sacred Time .
5
| \ N llA R/, The Welcome of the Door . l
I i li li llA Ry' The Festival of Briuit . 4¡
,\1 ,\ ti ( I l, The well of wisdom . 7r
\ l'l( ll , Ihc Tree of Life . ro¡
.Ilrc
,\1 ,'\v, Festival of Beltaine . 9t
Il lN l , Mitlsr-rmmer Magic . 169
ll ll v, I lorrse- of Light . uor
\ I lt't l: l, The Festival oflughnasaáh . 4t
'l I'll'MBER, CreativeFire . z¡9
i )( I tr ll lt R, The Festival of Samhain . z9z
l\l ,' )\/ l-. M B E R, The Lamp ofMemory . J26
lrl( l',MBER' WinterSolstice.
Jfr
/i, r,,rrrr','.r .
181
.
\',,1,'.r
191
\, 1,, t,,1 Bil,liography . p9
.
\, l;r r,,rrlLr!.qments 4oI
tx
FCREWCRI)
Power of sea be Stours,
Pouer of land be 1ours,
Power of heauen.
\fiEsr Hrcnr¡ND
BLESSTNG
I lr,' qr-t'zrt Celtic scholar Dr. Anne Ross once This book is a celebration of those countries
,.rrrl, "l:veryone with European roots can con and those peoples who have manased to pre-
,r,lt'r. thenrselves of Celtic origin." l'eople who serve such treasures for the world.
.¡r. nt¡t directly descended fron-r lrish, \7elsh, But this book is more than a celebratior-r,
, 'r \r.trttish families tend to think they have because it is designed to make the treasures
rr,' (.1'l¡ls roots, but in reality so many dif- of Celtic culture and spirituality come alive
l.rt'r)t lruropean tribes contributecl to the cre- and be of use to us in the midst of'our
.rlron of Celticism, and over thousands of- modern and often busy lives.
v(';u's strch a mixing of populations has Good books are like handfuls of-seeds. They
t,t t'rrrrrd, that virtually anyone ¿rlive today eift us with ideas, turns of phrase, images, and
tr rt lr llrropean ancestry can be saicl to have memories that grow with time to color our
( ,.'ltic origins. world and bring beauty anrl masic to our lives.
Nevertheless, over the centuries, the coun- Ancl the first step in discoverins that
I r r('s on the western seaboard of-Europe beauty and that magic lies in the turning of
l'','l:rncl, Scotland, \7ales, Cornwall, and aPage....
lllittany--have become the guardians of Philip Carr-Gomm
( ,.'ltit- culture, struggline to preserve their Chief of the Crder of Bards,
l,rrrsuages, and proud inheritors of a folklore Cvates and Druids
.rrr..1 mytholoey replete with spiritual power. August 20OO
I N T R O D U C T I C N,
BURIED TREASI.I
RE
The old people had runes which thelt sang to the spirits duelling in the sea and in the
mountain, in the wind and in the whirlwind, in the lightning and in the thunder, in
the sea and in the moon and in the stars of heauen. I was naught but a toddling ch¡ld
at the time, but I remember uell the wals of the old people.
CenurNe Garnrrc¡
1 , , ''','1rt.'mber 1868, young Jimmy Quin was of Celtic wisdom to survive the centuries of
l,r,r,rrrq potatoes in a ring-fort near the village plunder.
,i \r..l;rqh in County Limerick. When he Over t'wo thousand years ago the first
,,.,, 1,,',1 the bank close to a thorn tree he people that we call the Celts were a larse
l.rrrrrI tlre surface soft, and when he d.rove his group of tribal communities who inhabitecl
'.l,.r,lr' ..lc-rwn between the roots of the thorn, it much of the European continent. They were
r r r r.. k something hard and rnetallic. He an energetic, intelligent, flamboyant people,
, lr .u t'tl away the earth and found a beautiful whose passionate natures expressed them-
,,,,1,1 .rnrl silver cup now known as the Ardagh selves in heroic warfare, brilliant craftsman-
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l,,rlr..'t', considered by many to be the finest ship, and the worship of many gods and
¡,,', irrren of Celtic art ever found. goddesses who dwelled in the earth below
I iLe the Ardagh Chalice, the treasury of them and the sky above them. By the first
( ,'ltir' wisdom and lore lies not too far century C.E., the Roman army had pushed
1,,'r,.';rth the topsoil of memory. Digging them lar into the northwestern hinterlands.
tl,r.,rrqh layers only a few generations deep, Only lreland and the most northern reaches
\\(' ( iur still uncover battered caskets of of Scotland escaped being crushed by the mil-
.rrr, icnt customs and rituals that may reveal a itary mieht of Rome.
'I'rrring hoard of story, prayer, and song. For [n the fifth century Christian missionaries
rlrt' .unazing thing is that despite a relentless arrived in lreland, and the old polytheistic
t r.lt' of invasions, persecutions, and immigra- religion gave way to the creed of the Cne
trt,r)s, there was enough gold in the storehouse God. Ireland became one of the greatest seats
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Ki"JIi"g the (-u/r,.. Spirit
of the new religion in Europe and host to a tht'ir nrother tongue; while thousands of the
golden age of learning and art, centered clescenclants of the Celtic diaspora, chiefly
around the monastic settlements. In their fronr North America and Australia, are
turn, the monasteries were sacked by Viking making pilgrimages to the homes of their
invaders at the end of the eighth century, the great-grandparents and visiting the once-
monks were slaughtered, and most of the neglected sacred sites of their ancestral homes
magnificent books and holy treasures were in lreland, Scotland, or Vales.
destroyed. The flower of this new manifesta- \fihether or not we have Celtic ancestry,
tion of the Celtic spirit was bitten by the frost many of us today are finding ourselves deeply
of successive invasions, first the Normans and attracted to Celtic spirituality, living as we do
then the English, and almost withered and at a time when the sacred seems so absent
died completely in the nineteenth century from our world. There is a \flelsh word,
when systematic oppression drove thousands hiraeth, that roughly translates in English as a
to the immigrant ships or to death by starva- longing for what is absent, the yearning of the
tion in the Great Potato Famine. A similar exile for the shores of home. Adrift without a
story of almost total cultural annihilation living tradition today, as so many of us are, we
played itself out in Scotland, \flales, and Corn- behold the many-faceted jewel of Celtic spiri-
wall, while on the continent Brittany was tuality sparkling like the sun on water,
engulfed by France. inviting us to set sail for those longed-for
Yet in the past thirty or so years, many islands of the soul. To step ashore is to dis-
willing minds and hands have undertaken the cover a world in which there is no separation
task of rekindling the guttering flame of the between the visible and invisible, between
Celtic spirit. Even as the languages began to spirit and nature, heaven and earth. Here we
die on the lips of a people forbidden to speak can embrace an awareness of the sacred in
in their own tongue, a new generation has every moment and within all forms of life, for
sprung up to reclaim its spiritual and cultural the pre-Christian Celts lived and worked in
birthright. As we enter a new millennium, easy relationship with the unseen world.
musicians are playing traditional melodies Sharing their lives in close-knit communities,
and songs; poets are writing and reciting in they felt the protection of their tribal gods,
Bur¡nJ Trnurur.
i,,1,' .,ll around them the earth was alive with whose nArues they once bore. Vhat is more,
rl,, ,¡,rrits of rivers, rocks, and trees. At the these invisible protectors were found not
,,,'.r{ .rf Christianity the world was viewed merely in church on Sundays or in a heavenly
,rl, lt,vt'and respect since it was the divine beyond; they attended everyday life in
' ,r.rtr.rr of God. Old trish scholar Robin kitchen, field, and barn. As poet and mystic
I l,,rrr'r ,lt'scribed the first Celtic Christians as George Russell wrote, "During all these cen-
,! ,,.r (lirrg the world with "an eye washed turies the Celt has kept in his heart sorrre
,".r( rrlrrtrsly clear with continuous spiritual afftnity with the almighty beings ruling in the
r .r rr rS('s,' which gave them "a strange vision unseen, once so evident to the heroic races
, ,l r r,rl ,,' ,,1 things in an almost unnatural who preceded him. His legends and faery
l'lr¡tlY tales have connected his soul with the inner
I l,r'r..lr-ecls of years later in the nineteenth lives of air and water and earth, and they in
, ' rrt¡rry,:r customs and excise officer named turn have kept his heart sweet with hiclden
\ 1, ..r",1,'r (-armichael, while working in the influence."'
I 1,,,1,1,'rr,ls and islands of northwestern Scot- lf we put our ear to the cracks of silence
!.', ,, l. , l't..'.',vered ordinary farming and fishing within the roar of twenty-first'century life, we
I ''''rl','s still living every day in close commu- can still hear the echo of these ancestral
, ¡ ,( ,, uv r t ll the divine. \floven through their voices and the sound of footsteps that have
l,',, , rr.rs ,r complex and beautiful tapestry of not yet quite faded upon the air. lf we listen
, l., , l y . n ,..1 seasonal prayers, rituals, and cere- respectfully, they rnay teach us the songs and
,,r{,rr('s, wl-rich Carmichael preserved in an stories that can open the gates to the Many-
, . rr.rt'r,linary compilation called Carmina Colored Land. if we walk with them along the
t,,t,l,'1t,,,, Gaelic songs. \fihether sowing seed, windy shore or up onto the heather-scented
l ,r r r r r¡¡ wool, or milking cows, these country tnoors, we can rediscover our connection with
,1,', ll,'r's carried out every task in the spirit of the natural world and take our rightful place
.r\('r, ,.lcspite the poverty and hardships of in the great circle of life. And if we follow
1,,
.l,,rst,'rrce living. Although they prayed to them horne, they may invite us into their
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lrrrslr¡ur saints and. angels, these figures houses and teach us how to kindle the flame
t L ,, ,ly ,r..'il the pagan gods and goddesses of Spirit within our hearths and our hearts.
Ki"JIi"g thn (-rlr¡ Spirit
A
FE\)Y NOTES ancl my personal background, this book
Because this book is mostly concerned with deals only with the "insular Celts" of the
old traditions, I use the past tense when British Isles and lreland, with an emphasis
referring to the Celtic peoples. But it is on the latter.
important to recognize that the convenient The stories in the book are retellings of
ethnic and cultural term Celtic refers not myths and folktales, and in some cases I have
only to the tribal Celts of Iron Age Europe adapted them sllghtly for modern audiences.
but also to the modern peoples of Alba To read more literal translations of some of
(Scotland), Breizh (Brittany), Cymru the early tales, you may want to refer to more
(\fales), Éire (lreland), Kernow (Cornwall), scholarly works, such as E*b lrnh Mlths and
and Mannin ([sle of Man). There is also a Sagas, by Jeffrey Gantz (London: Penguin,
case to be made for Galicia, a region of 1981), and Ancient lrish Tales, by Tom Peete
northwest Spain, being the seventh Celtic Cross and Clark Harris Slover (New York:
nation. Both because of space limitations Barnes ü Noble, 1969).
THE SPIRAL DANCE CF THE YEAR,
UNDERSTANDING SACRED TIME
\[othing perisheth, but (as the Sun and Year) euerl Thing goes in a Circle,
lesser or greater, and is renewed and refreshed ¡n its kuolutions. . . .
RosEnr KrRr, The Secret Commonuealth
! , , r,,,|,.'r't- we look, we see that life moves in reflects their participation in Earth's mysteries
, 1,,¡.rl rrrotion. From snail shell to sunflower, of blossom and leaf fall, the ebb and flow of
i ¡ , ,¡ ¡, I l',' irrvisible coils of the DNA molecule the circling year.
¡, , rl', 1','',,rrdless whirling galaxies, life unfolds The early Celts dlvided their year into
, , ,,1'i,.r1 This simple pattern holds the halves, called in Old Celtic gam, wrnter, and
, , r¡ | t,r the whole universe, for within its slm, srf,trrmer. These words also have deeper
i, ', ¡, lrt's the feminine circle and the mascu- resonances of meaning as dark/light,
1,r,, l"',' \X/ithout these two movements, there fémale/male, rest/work. Samhain at the end
, , ,' ,1, I l',' no motion and consequently no life of Cctober and beginning of November
,,, rlr,, w,''rlc{ of opposites. Spirals swirl marked the start of winter, and evidence sug-
il¡¡,i,rllr tlre art of the early Celts as they swirl gests it may also have been the Celtic New
, ,, , r lrt' sl()ne walls of the burial chambers of Y"ut, for the Celts reckoned the birth of the
ri,, rr l.ru'()pean Neolithic predecessors. In year from the darkening months, and, like-
t , lrr, r oq¡nf¡is5 people have danced in spirals wise, their days began at dusk. Behaine, at the
,,,( (' t""c began. Even today the people of end of April and beginning of Muy, marked
llr ru.n'y .l;rnce in all-night festivals where the the beginning of the light half of the year and
, , ,, , ,r\ ,,f l>agpipe and hurdy-gurdy never was the gateway into summer.
i, ,¡r', Slowly and rhythmically, they rnove The light and dark halves of the year were
irrr,, llrt'center and out again in huge spirals. themselves divided into two by [mbolc at the
\ r ,r., .. losely linked, bodies swaying, they beginning of February and Lughnasadh at the
r ,r,rl) tlre earth, mimicking the sowing of beeinning of August, giving a fourfold divi-
, , ,1,. .urrl other farming tasks. Their dance sion of the year: