Celtic Studies:
The question of who the modern Celts
are is a question that has many possible answers, which vary from only those people born in a Celtic country and of verifiable
descent to anyone who self identifies as a Celt. There are those who will assure you that Druidry is only available to those
who live in a specific Celtic land, generally the land on which that individual of that opinion lives. Some people will only
consider another to be Celtic if that person speaks a Celtic language as a first tongue. Definitions of who are the modern
Celts abound and unfortunately some of those definitions are based on nationalistic or racist motivations.
For Comhaltacht
Draiocht our definition of who we consider to be a Celt includes anyone who embraces a Celtic identity, spirituality or religion.
If an individual decides to self identify as a Celt and to live and act as a Celt then we as an organization consider that
person to be Celtic.
Druidry:
Here is an excerpt from a traditional Highland
Gaelic blessing translated below into English. Notice how the blessing focuses on powerful things of the world around us and
beyond the construction or fashioning of humankind. It seems that this blessing considers true strength to be found in the
elements of the world.
Yours be the might of the river, yours be the might of the ocean, the might of victory
on field, yours be the might of the fire, yours be the might of levin, the might of a strong rock, yours be the might of element,
yours be the might of fountain, the might of love on high.
Ethics/morality:
In the triad translated below we see
a view of wisdom which rests on a base of knowledge. Good ethical practice comes from wisdom because we use an ethically based
morality system rather than a legalistic morality. The difference is that in an ethically based system we learn principles
of right and wrong and then we use thought to apply those principles to any theoretical or actual situation while in a legalistic
system one learns a set of very specific rules for a variety of situations with no need for thoughtful consideration of the
specifics of any given situation. In an ethically based system of morality we also consider right and wrong to be qualities
of action and choices where one does right or wrong while in legalistically based systems of morality right and wrong are
often considered to be qualities of being through which one is right or wrong.
In our ethically based system of morality
we value knowledge because it informs us and allows us to use thought to examine any issue and choose the moral path based
on the wise application of thought and consideration to any situation.
Three things that ruin wisdom: ignorance,
inaccurate knowledge, forgetfulness.
Myth:
There are dying goddesses found in Celtic myth,
goddesses who are seen dying during the process of the giving of form. Some are seen to die after clearing a field where on
the people are able to live and the cleared field becomes the grave of the dead goddess who is then the goddess of that place.
Other goddesses are chased by a pool of water which had leaped from its boundaries and flowed to the sea forming a river and
the goddess is drowned in the river and becomes the river that she has formed. Still yet another goddess may be seen dying
as she gives birth to features of the land and then those features are associated with her and she becomes the goddess of
the area and of those who live there.
These dying goddesses are cosmogonic goddesses who create a specific feature of order
and in so doing they become that feature be it a plane, river or hill. They are at once the creator of the new place and the
spirit of that place with their identity becoming the identity of the feature created by and from them. These goddesses through
their self sacrifice move an area of the wild to order; from chaos to cosmos. Shape and form are given and the people are
provided for with order and form and the goddess giving this gift is honored and worshipped for her giving of herself.
Cosmology/Theology:
Animism is an ontological (ontology
is the study of the nature of being) position which holds that all things are invested with a spiritual quality or have an
associated spiritual nature. Trees, mountains, lakes, fields, the sea and wind are understood to have their physical manifestations
and to have an associated spiritual aspect. This spiritual can be only a loose barely organized spiritual quality or it cam
be a highly organized pattern that has consciousness and self awareness. While a small stone may not be complex in its spirit
a valley, mountain, river or tree may very well be spiritually self aware. Spirituality is seen to permeate all of existence
and to be able to be as organized or unorganized as the systems or objects of existence; spirit is as simple or complex as
the things and world around us.
Spirituality/ritual:
Praise poetry and songs have along
history among the Celtic peoples and have always been considered an act showing great honor to another. Often in rites we
see people who perform offerings of music, song and poetry. This type of praise offering is a ritual application of the creative
arts of word and sound. At times a poem or song will be written for a specific rite and only performed that one time and then
never given voice in this world again. This is a beautiful thing in that it happens once only, like a flower it lives once
and then it held in the memory. There is something special about pouring oneself into the creation of something for a rite,
speaking it once only and then leaving it hanging in the air echoing only in the minds of the listeners and in the winds of
the otherworld.
Self awareness:
What do we mean when we discuss our
health and what it means to be healthy? For many health is a purely physical quality; simply a state of body. But in the view
of many ancient peoples the concept of health involves the whole person and not just the physical body. We call this approach
‘holism’ and this holistic view of health strives for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being. Many
ancient healing methods conceive of illness as the result of imbalances or even pieces of a person being lost, and in fact
we see in modern medicine that mental and emotional health have serious effects on physical health with many physical illnesses
being found to be stress related. Also found in these ancient healing methods is the concept of restoring balance to
the person by restoring the problem part to health be that part emotional, physical, mental, or spiritual with methods for
addressing different source areas of illness.
This holistic view is of great value to our modern life because it
gives us a view of self care that is complete and not just focused on one area of life. To be truly healthy does not simply
mean to be physically healthy, and exercise and proper diet do not insure total health. To be sure taking care of the body
is of great import, since it is, after all, the physical vehicle of this life. But care should be taken to insure that we
take care of our emotional and spiritual well being. A healthy well order person strives to be physically healthy, and
to have ordered well balanced emotional interactions with other, to exercise the mind and to embrace a fulfilling spiritual
practice.
Now it is time to asses your own approach to good health. How well do you care for your body through diet, exercise
and stress management? Are there reasonable things that you could do to improve your physical health? How is you mental health,
do you exercise your mind through study and contemplation? How is your emotional life, is it well balanced? Are there things
that you can do to be more emotionally balanced? What about your social life, is it balanced and ordered? What does a balanced,
fulfilled spiritual life mean to you? Is your spiritual life meaningful and satisfying to you?
How well integrated these
areas of life are in the individual is also an issue of concern with whole health. To focus solely on one area and to let
other areas lose import or suffer is in itself an imbalance, not an imbalance of one are but an imbalance between those areas.
Just as each area should be addressed in order to keep it well maintained, active and sound, the relationship between the
various parts should be addressed as they pertain to the whole person. The ideal of a wholly healthy person, is one who endeavors
through reasonable practices to eat a well balanced, varied diet, get moderate regular exercise, engage in positive social
interaction, manage stress, create balanced emotional interactions and expressions, embrace a fulfilling spiritual practice,
pleasantly challenge the mind, and engage in some practice of personal expression. For those of us who are real people and
who do not live the ideal ordered life with sufficient time to manage all of our needs, we have to try and find the middle
of the road points where we can try and maintain a balance. But happily, balance in nature is a dynamic thing which shifts
a little back and forth between the extremes but not stay in the extremes. So at times we will find that we cannot get to
everything that we would like to but we keep trying with moderation and a reasonable approach to cover things as we can and
to lead a well balanced life which is healthy in all of its aspects.
World awareness:
Citizenship is an important concept,
we are citizens and we should each examine what that concept of citizenship means. As a citizen, each person has certain responsibilities
that accompany that citizenship. Citizenship comes in many levels there is the level of citizenship in the world community,
the community of humanity, multinational communities, nations, states, provinces, counties, cities towns, neighborhoods and
organizations. What responsibilities go with each level or type of citizenship?
Here is a citizenship exercise to be done
during this month: Take a blank piece of paper of computer screen and write your name in the middle of it now start to add
the different things of which you are a citizen, add them in no particular order just as they come to you and place them randomly
around the page. Each day choose one of those categories of citizenship and sit for a few minutes of contemplation on what
that citizenship means to you. In what ways can you be a good citizen of those various categories? Do you feel that
some levels of citizenship are more important than others?
Expressions:
Drawing, painting and related graphic
arts are wonderful ways to express oneself and the spiritual relationships that one has. Creating these wonderful works can
be a very moving experience and can wonderfully move others to share these experiences. To find wonderful paintings, pictures
and prints with which to decorate a sacred space or to express sacred relationships in the décor of a personal space is a
marvelous project. These sots of graphic expressions have a special ability to allow the observer to touch what is felt by
the artist, to feel the same things and to share the experience. At other times the meaning to the artist and to the observer
are two very different things though each may be powerful in the life of the person experiencing it.
Consider a rite to
which an artist brought several large beautiful canvasses and he took each canvas in turn and showed it to the people attending
and after each person has had a single look at the wonderful painting he placed the picture in the fire as an offering. Many
people present in this rite were moved to tears at this expression of creativity and the intensity of the offering being made.