Celtic Studies:
In the early nineteenth century excavations at Hallstadt in Austria explored a massive Iron Age cemetery associated with a community of salt miners. Most graves in this cemetery date from the seventh and sixth centuries BCE. The artifacts found at Hallstadt were associated with people who spoke Celtic languages, and eventually the term Hallstadt came to be applied to the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age period of Western Europe dating from 1200 BCE to 475 BCE. The Hallstadt culture is associated with late Bronze Age and early Iron Age Celtic language speaking people though it is quite likely that there are peoples who spoke other languages labeled under this identity. 

Druidry:
This prayer has been extracted from a traditional house blessing found in the Highlands of Scotland, originally in Gaelic though here translated and with one modification to make plural the word god. Notice that the blessing encompasses the whole of the house from foundation to summit on the outside and ridge to basement on the inside, from beam to wall which is the center to the edge on the inside and end to end again on the outside. It establishes the house as a small cosmos or world and blesses that world within and without from center to edge.
Gods bless this house from site to stay, from beam to wall, from end to end, from ridge to basement, from balk to rooftree, from found to summit, found and summit.

Ethics/morality:
Three candles that illumine every darkness: truth, nature, knowledge.
An ancient Irish triad used to preserve and teach wisdom. Think about what knowledge means and the various ways in which knowledge may be obtained. Think now of how we use the term truth to mean so much more that ‘factoid’, now consider that the Irish word used in this triad  and translated as truth also means justice and sincerity. When we say nature in this context are we meaning nature as wildlife separated from the world of the people, or are we speaking of the nature or virtue of a thing, its function or purpose?

Myth:
There is a type of mythic activity known as the giving of form which explains how the people and the order of the world came to be. Creation myths are of the giving of form variety but many mythic systems do not have a story of how the universe was created since generally ancient people thought not in a planetary system but in a cosmic system which was concerned with their own cosmos or world. This world was usually made up of the people, the ancestors, the gods, the land on which the people live and the spirits in that land with everything beyond that being considered strange or foreign and those not of the identity group being considered strangers. So when we see a myth translated and we see a description of the world being formed, flooded or destroyed we must remember that our modern English language denotation of world is not the same concept of world that the originators of these myths had.
It is often erroneously said that we do not have the Celtic creation myth, which at first glance may appear to be the case. But there are some errors in thinking being displayed here. The first error is the assumption that a mythic system has, as a matter of course, a ‘creation myth’ which tells how the planet or universe was made; many do not. The next error in thinking is to assume that our concept for world is the same as the ancient concept for world which; as seen above, is not the case. The next error in thinking is the assumption that the ‘Celts’ had a particular mythic system; we know that what we call Celts were varied people who though related through language and cultural similarities actually lived in a tribal setting and as the tribes had very different identities the mythic systems, though related, should be expected to have considerable variance between them.
From the surviving pieces of the myths of the tribes of Ireland we actually have a great deal of detail concerning the giving of form and the making of the cosmic world of the people. We see in the takings of Ireland a set of successive waves of habitation with each wave clearing more land, naming more places, building and establishing order.  We see a great deal of detail on the naming of places and the associations of families with mythic progenitors. We see the first poem, the first judgment and the first division of the land with each of these first things being the origin of a certain aspect of the order of the people. In fact, most of the material that we have preserved of ancient Irish myth is part of the creation stories on those tribes, telling us how the people came to live in this world and how the wildness was given order.
So when we hear or read where someone has opined that we have no examples of the Celtic creation myth, we know that this belief is primarily the result of a misunderstanding of the nature and structure of myth. We also know that this opinion results when the ‘expert’ has forgets one of the most basic principles to the interpretation of myth and has fails to view that myth and its meaning in the context of the culture from which that myth proceeds. We also know that despite this erroneous opinion there is in our possession a wealth of material from the ancient peoples of Ireland which concerns the making of the land, the coming of the people and the giving of order and this material is about creation and is a substantial creation myth.  

Cosmology/Theology:
From the center to the edge, our sacred world exists. There are seen symbols of the sacred center throughout the lands and peoples of Celtic identity. Be it a hill, tree, stone, pole or pit  the sacred center is present as the point of stability like the hub of a wheel holding it in place but allowing it to turn. This idea of centrality is pervasive in Celtic material, seen in the physical sites and present in the myths, even the idea of kingship and chieftainship is a manifestation of the sacred center as the chieftain stands at the center of the people.
Then there is the edge, the concept of liminality also seen present in physical sites and in myths. It is that which defines what is contained within the order of the people, telling us who belongs and where they belong. The edges where field meets forest, order meets wildness, the strand of rivers which mark the natural boundaries between peoples, the ridges and mountain ranges which are natural borders, all of these tell us where the land of the people extends. Ireland reaches out nine waves from the shore where the easily navigable seas meet the wild and dangerous ocean. In ancient Irish law we see definitions of certain types of family and how far that family extends and this too is a clear manifestation of the idea of liminality applied socially.
And so the world is established and defined, ordered and contained. A center to hold it fast and to give it structure and an edge to define it and tell us how far it extends. Our sacred world exists from the center to the edge. 

Spirituality/ritual:
Daily prayer or devotionals can be a wonderful part of the development of a personal spirituality and religious practice. A daily prayer or devotional can be as simple as a moment of silent reflection upon the sacred and ones relationship to the sacred, or it can be done in a very formal manner that is repeated each day. It may include a regular offering of some sort, or offerings may be occasional as the need is felt. The devotional may be performed in complete silence or may include chanting, singing, instruments or recorded music. Prayers may be memorized and repeated exactly the same way each day or they may be extemporized as inspiration directs. It is the regularity of turning the mind toward the sacred rather than the details of how it is done that is the most important factor; that it is done far outweighs the manner in which it is done. Our pluralistic view of religion allows that we can accept that there are many possible correct ways to worship and our daily devotions are built and changed as needed to sustain our own individual relationship to the sacred.
As individual as daily devotionals may be so may personal altars be very individualistic. Some people may have a small outdoor shrine of stones or an area under a tree while others have a space indoor which is devoted to worship. A shrine or home altar may be so simple as to not be noticed by a visitor or so complex and large that it cannot be missed. For some a shrine or altar is sparse and simple with few accoutrements and yet for others may be loaded with objects of spiritual significance. A shrine may contain a clear symbol of the center and perhaps a simple candle for flame. On some altars we may find statues and depictions of gods and ancestors while on other altars we find objects that are significant of the gods and ancestors but do not depict them. A personal shrine or altar, like a personal prayer or devotional is just that; personal and reflective of the spiritual relationships of the person. Again our pluralism teaches us that there are many options for the development of a home shrine or altar, limited to and guided by the inspiration of the individual or people of that home. That one has a place dedicated to ones own spiritual relationships and where one may go in order to examine and build those relationship is of far more import than where that place is, what it contains and how it looks. 

Self awareness:
Ontology is the study of being and concerns views of what it means to exist and the components of existence. When applied to humans, ontology concerns the parts of a person or the aspects that are consider to be the building blocks of a whole person. Among, at least some, ancient Celts, as among many ancient peoples, a person was seen to exist in a holistic manner where the person was a whole being made up of an assemblage of parts or aspects. By looking at language, law and myth we can see what some of the component parts are. Some of the component parts that we see are as follows: Body, the physical being which was actually covered in Irish law as a specific thing. Face, or social appearance, status and community standing which we also see treated as a separate thing in traditional law. Breath is the component that allows a body to be alive and so, is the quality of aliveness and seems also to be closely associated with spirit which is believed to be able to leave the body and appears to be seen as some type of double for the body. Mind is the ability of a person to think and to accumulate knowledge. Memory is the ability to recall the past. Soul is a component that seems to have been the primary part that goes on after death. Imbas or inspiration, also described as a fire in the head which appears to be the source for art and creativity. Heritage which concerns genealogy and who a person is related to and to a large extent the identity of a person was established by the identity of ancestors.      

World awareness:
A very important part of our lives concerns our home and our local community. During this month meditate on each of these things: Is my home solitary or is it shared and if shared what does that mean or what is the nature of my relationships with those with whom I share my home? How far does my local community extend, and how do I see it regarding the levels of my immediate neighbors, my neighborhood and then my town or city. What are my relationships with my particular neighbors? What is my relationship with my neighbors in general? What is the nature of my relationship with my neighborhood? What is the nature of my relationship with my city or town? What is my concept of family? Who is included in my family concept? How were my concepts of family, home, neighborhood and city developed? How many levels of community do I recognize myself as being part of? How much of my concept of local community is centered around humanity and to what extent does my concept of local community extend beyond humanity and its constructs?

Expressions:
Storytelling is an ancient art, as old as language itself.  The telling of tales is the oldest art of words, the mother of poetry and song. Imagine a time when there were no books to tell us about the past and our only link with what has gone before us is this flowing stream of sound, these stories. Winter night come early, long before sleep makes itself felt in the eyes the people leaving a long and wakeful evening. Driven inside by the dark and the cold the folk gather around the hearth for light and warmth, hands busy with small tasks. The darkness disturbed only by the light from the tongue of the fire and the words from the tongue of the storyteller. Words painting images across minds with only facial expressions, the body and shadows to illustrate the tale. 
We still feel excitement when a good story is being told. Words transport us to other worlds and times. We breathe at one with the characters of the tales living their lives with them. Their feelings and deeds become, for a moment, our own and we are as they are. And through these tales we learn and we glimpse what has been. May this art live on among our peoples so that we never forget this companion that has been with us as long as we have been ourselves.