The Nature of Humankind -

Celtic Ontology

Theological lecture series

By Robert Barton

            Good evening everyone, tonight our topic is going to be Human Ontology according to the ancient Celtic peoples, or as much as we know about it according to Celtic peoples. So what is ontology? In short, it is the study of the nature of being. Ontological speculation can extend in many directions from the standard research into the nature of the cosmos through the nature of the Divine to the nature of humankind and it can branch out to include every little spirit in the multiverse.

            But tonight we are going to engage in ontological discussion applied to people and looked at according to Celtic and related material where available. Unfortunately there has been very little research into this specific area in general Celtic studies and. But we are lucky in that quite a bit is known about human ontology in the related Norse/Teutonic/Germanic culture. It is from there that we take our map to use in researching this question in Celtic culture. A large portion of this research is based on comparative linguistic study. I am personally doing a project right now to find these concepts and terms in Celtic languages. This is a very important area of research and I hope that we see some material produced in this area relative to many ancient groups. The period of cultural development that we are looking at here is what we would call the period of culturally institutionalized Cosmic Religion. This period is prior to the primacy of universal religions like Christianity, Jainism or Buddhism.

            So to jump right in we will start with the obvious. The body is generally recognized in Cosmic religions as the physically manifest part of the soul-matrix of any person. The Norse call it the Lik  in Old Irish it is Colinn forms of which still survive in every Gaelic language. It is in short seen as a vehicle which is mortal, it may die and in so doing falls away from the soul-matrix but the loss of this does not destroy the individual it only removes one piece. The body can also be easily left behind by other components of the soul-matrix as they soul-journey. This is variously called OBE Out of Body Experiences, astral travel, bi-location or soul-journey. I personally prefer to speak in terms of bi-location to prevent confusion with the western mysteries traditions of astral travel. There is a simple division where parts of the soul-matrix divide with some parts left in one place while other parts journey to another place or world.

            Now let’s jump to the other end of the soul-matrix and get to that piece that seems to be the eternal part that goes on. In Old Irish this is Anim and versions of this survive in all modern Gaelic languages. It seems to relate to the Hamr of Norse tradition and is the animating force. This portion seems to be generally immortal though some believe that it to can suffer death or destruction. But the details of this soul-death are not clear enough to establish how widespread it is among various Celtic peoples or when it enters the beliefs of various cultures.  But the idea of something that is immortal or nearly immortal and which can go on beyond physical death is fairly well documented in Celtic material.

            Now we come to one that gets a bit sticky in the linguistic research and that is the animating breath. The sticky part is that some languages seem to have different though closely related words for soul and for breath while other languages seem to use the same word to indicate both. What this could mean is that the earliest Celtic concept may have been that the breath was the eternal part that left the body at death and went on. Or alternately it could just be a trick of the linguistics. My suggestion is for people to research it in their own hearth culture and go with what the specific linguistics indicate.  For my own hearth culture I see the Old Irish Anal which is obviously related to the word for soul and is present in every living Celtic language, Gaelic or Brythonic. That tells me that in all probability the word for breath is older and is most likely the source of the word for soul and that at one time they may have been one concept that divided. Personally, I deal with them as different parts of the soul-matrix.

            Moving right along we come next to the ghost, shade fetch and a whole lot of other terms. This seems to be a spiritual double of the physical body of the individual. This is also pretty well attested in Celtic materials. The Norse call it Fylgia while in Irish we see Taibhse or Scal.  This piece may facilitate soul-journeys and may account for bi-location stories where a person is known to be in one place and is seen in another. Most likely we have here a really old concept among ancient peoples, I’ve yet to see any arguments against it.

            Now we get into fate, destiny or gift. We are talking preordination of some aspect of the soul-matrix. The concept of there being an aspect of preordination that is given is a pretty solid Celtic concept: Irish Dan which can be fate or poem, Norse Orlog fate, Sanskrit dậ gift and there is a Latin version of this word also. So the idea of a talent or fate which is given is pretty solid as an ancient concept. However it seems to vary from culture to culture as to how it evolved, it can be as loose as a gift or talent or it can be as defined and sure as an absolute unavoidable fate. My suggestion here is to look very closely at the hearth culture which you deal with.  Now there are also question here which relate to exactly when the destiny is given or formed, but that could be a lecture all on its own and we are not going down that road today.

            The Norse have a clearly defined aspect of luck which may or may not also relate to the predestined or preordination questions of the previous section of discussion. But an interesting note is that they seem to have believed that aspects of luck could be passed down through families and could be facilitated by naming a person after an ancestor who was lucky. It was called Hamingja. When looking at Celtic cultures you need to consider that there may be a ‘luck’ concept that takes this form.

            Memory is another pretty solid concept as part of the soul-matrix. Old Irish calls this Menmae while the Norse call it Minni. If you go looking for ancient words in related languages that start with ‘M’ and mean memory you would be in luck. Is it a piece of the soul-matrix? How many times have we lost our memory or seen a person who has lost theirs? This is another one that would surprise me to see not treated as a piece of the soul-matrix.

            Hyde is an Anglo-Saxon term for the outer appearance or face of a person. This is not just physical appearance since it can relate to reputation and public image. Yes, I know the choice of Mr. Hyde for the alternate ego to the good Doctor was no accident. The ancient Irish had a face or blush price to be paid as a fine for unfairly embarrassing another. This brings a whole new view to the idea of Irish satire bringing a blemish on the ‘face’ of a person. This is really the view of a person as seen by others or by their community.

            Now we talked a little while ago about memory so we need to look at the mind as the thinking, intellectual piece of the soul-matrix. The Norse have Hugr while the Ancient Irish had Menmae.  We are not talking about the brain here, that is a modern convention that the brain is the physical organ of thought and as such the brain is part of the body. We are talking about the faculty of thought and thinking. Different peoples had different ideas as to exactly where thought was facilitated in the body. But the faculty of thought is the important thing here. It is generally seen as a piece of the soul-matrix.

            The Norse have a term Modig mood which seems to indicate the feelings or emotions. This area needs more research in Celtic cultures. We often associate this faculty with the heart which is fine but we must take care not to automatically confuse the emotional feeling faculty with the heart when researching this area in our hearth cultures. I can’t say a whole lot about this area as of yet. My opinion is that it is most likely widely recognized piece of the soul-matrix among ancient peoples. I have not sufficiently researched this question relative to Celtic myth and language to really claim this statement to have an authority beyond my opinion.

            The Norse have another piece that we should take a look at which is Manig which translates as will but seems to be a combination of intention and physical force. I mention it because it is present in this related group that we use as a jumping off point into this area of Celtic study. I can’t say with any authority to what extent this concept exists in Celtic groups. But when we engage in research of the subject of human ontology in related cultures we should be aware of these last two areas mentioned so that we will recognize information when we see it.

            I present this material in this very incomplete form in the hope that the various specialists will take up this subject and produce some material that examines many Celtic sources. But I think that it is the idea here that is important, and that is the idea of a soul-matrix with defined components. Theologically we need to examine this area very closely. I am focused on this material relative to Gaelic culture and hope that some of the others here are going to keep this stuff in mind.

            I would like to say that this has a lot of practical value in spiritual and mystical practice. Another area where it is very useful seems to be in the healing arts. Many ancient systems of healing involve finding and reintegrating lost soul parts into the individual in order to restore health. I must say that in pastoral counseling I find this to be a very helpful paradigm.  Eschatological questions abound and are closely tied to this area of research also.

            I would also like to add something about ontology and initiation in ancient cultures. If we look at very early tribal groups we see the idea of tribal initiations performing the function of changing the ontological state of the person. A child is often taught the sacred traditions during the initiatory phase and when the initiation is over they have become a full person and member of the tribe and so they have changed in ontological state. We also see the in the Shamanic phase of cultures these spiritual specialists had an initiatory event, often spontaneous or performed by the spirits themselves, and which changed the ontological state of the individual. As we watch cultures develop and become larger or more organized we see that a shaman begins to be trained by other shaman and a formal initiation conducted. By the time we see the Mystical Cults of later cultures we are looking at very large formal events that are designed to teach people a certain mystery and introduce them to it in a way that the special knowledge changes their ontological state. In looking at this material it becomes clear that in a cosmic religion people can hold any of a variety of ontological conditions, and that the performance of certain prescribed rites and the learning of certain material can facilitate the change from one ontological state to another. Cultural position or identity is considered to be part and parcel of the very state of being of the individual.

I think thats all for tonight, unless anyone has any questions.