WALKERS
BETWEEN WORLDS:
THE CELTIC MYSTIC TRADITION IN A POSTMODERN AGE
In the past quarter-century there has been a resurgence
of interest in things Celtic. From Thomas Cahill’s best-seller, How the
Irish Saved Civilization, to the music of Enya and the Chieftains
to Riverdance, Irish is in. The spirituality, philosophy, and “New
Age” sections of Borders features books by Caitlin Matthews,
John O’Donohue, Nigel Pennick, Nora Chadwick, and many others.
Tales from Celtic mythology and folklore are being retold in new
forms, and ancient characters have shifted their shapes and are morphing
into or influencing new beings from Tolkien to George Lucas. Even
Darth Vader has been given a Celtic realm over which to preside.
He is known as the “Dark Lord of the Sith,” which resembles
the Celtic word sidhe in its spelling. The sidhe are fairies who
are known as beings of light and renowned for their great beauty.
We will speak of the sidhe and the banshee (bean sidhe) later on.
To help us understand the Celtic mystic tradition and its impact
on our postmodern age, I will discuss the Celts, who they are and
where they came from, their religion and its assimilation into Christianity
and its influence upon German mysticism and the Pennsylvania Germans,
the Celtic spiritual tradition and the importance of the “thin places.” I
will be showing some slides of locations in Ireland and Scotland
as examples of those places where the veil between the physical world
and spiritual world is particularly thin as to enable enlightened
persons to walk between worlds.
Today there are six areas in which the inhabitants can claim a Celtic origin,
Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Isle of man, and Brittany. Of course, almost
every European can have a legitimate reason for celebrating St. Patrick’s
Day since the Celts moved from one end of Europe to the other over a thousand
year journey and left their mark upon the land and the cultures that would follow
them.
The true origins of the Celts lie deep in the mists of prehistory. They were
a loosely-knit group of tribes, with connective elements of a common culture
and a common language. There are early traces of the Celts in Anatolia. The Galatians,
to whom the apostle Paul addressed an epistle, were a Celtic people, and you
can see the common root of names like “Gael,” “Gaul,” and “Galatia.” A
dominant settlement was established at Hallstatt (c. 700-500 BC), which was based
in the area around Upper Austria and Bavaria. By the sixth century BC, Greek
authors wrote of a people called the ‘keltoi’ in southern France
and at La Tene in Switzerland (450 to 100 BC). Keltoi is not quite the same as
barbaroi (barbarians), but seems to have meant something like “the other” or “stranger.” They
never referred to themselves by this Greek term, but used tribal names which
appear in Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, names such as Belgi,
Veneti, and so on. Herodotus located them in the region around the Danube. In
time, their settlements stretched from Turkey and the Balkans right across to
western Europe. At the peak of their power, they were strong enough to sack both
Rome (386 BC) and Delphi (279 BC). The memory of these victories was soon eclipsed,
however, by the rise of the Roman Empire. Here, the lack of cohesion between
the various Celtic tribes proved fatal. One by one, they were overrun or expelled
from their territories. Eventually, they were pushed back to the western fringes
of the continent and then the migrations to the islands of Britannia and Hibernia
where they found a home.
Excavations at Hallstadt and La Tene revealed a distinctive Celtic art style
using swirling curves and geometric shapes in abstract designs. Animal and human
forms are stylized, unlike Greek and Roman art with its emphasis on realism.
Celtic art was not just a poor attempt to copy Greek art, but showed the Celts
had an entirely different way of looking at the world.
The Celts believed in an immortal soul, and that death was the passage into the “Otherworld”,
a world parallel and similar to this one. After a time in the Otherworld, a person
would be reborn into this one, and so the cycle would continue. The concept of
reincarnation was part of Celtic theology. It is interesting to note the proximity
of the Celtic center at La Tene to the Albigensian stronghold in the south of
France where a thousand years later this people were persecuted as heretics and
their belief in reincarnation condemned.
Also known as Cathars, this group followed a form of Manichism and Gnosticism
which many of the Celtic tribes had adopted. They also recognized the feminine
principle in religion and the preachers and teachers of Cathar congregations
were of both sexes. At the same time, the Cathars rejected the orthodox Catholic
Church and denied the validity of all clerical hierarchies, all official and
ordained intercessors between man and God. At the core of this position lay a
gnostic tenet - the repudiation of “faith,” at least as the Church
insisted on it. In the place of “faith” accepted at secondhand, the
Cathars insisted on direct and personal knowledge, a religious or mystical experience
apprehended at firsthand. These are practices that can be traced to early Celtic
religion and the Druids. (The Cathars and Reincarnation, by Arthur Guirdham).
Druids were a special caste of nobles, both men and women. They acted as judges,
priests and bards. Bards were like a living library, who would orally recite
knowledge of history, science and laws. The Celts were not illiterate and used
Greek letters for writing, but believed such knowledge was too important to write
down where anyone could read it. They also feared that such knowledge would have
a harmful effect on the people. The Celts believed that wisdom resided in the
earth, that trees and rocks, and streams, as well as animals retained a memory
of what was important to the tribe. However, because of the changing shape of
the landscape and migrations, and other forms of disconnection from the sources
of wisdom, the ancestors of the tribe would also be summoned for guidance and
encouragement. The Druids were able to make this contact with the ancient wisdom.
In fact, the name Druid derives from two words meaning “oak tree” and “wisdom.” The
correct translation therefore would be “wisdom of the oak” or more
generally speaking, “wisdom of nature.”
The Druids worked as priests, healers, clairvoyants and astrologers. Because
of their deep understanding of the phenomena of nature they had a lot of power.
The Druids knew about the healing effects of plants and kept contact with natural
beings. They considered trees and “power-animals” to be especially
important. They believed in unity of humans and nature and they taught that the
energy of nature had a great influence on our actions, our thinking and feelings.
The close connection to nature was due to the predominantly rural Celtic society.
In this context their worship of landscape, the earth and animals become comprehensible.
The presence of super-natural powers was part of their world. Worshiping their
ancestors was self-evident to the Druids and one of the Druid’s main duties
was the contact of otherworldly spheres and to mediate between the spiritual
world and the physical world.
The early Celtic religions were based on the worship of nature. They saw God
in the natural world, in rocks and trees, in animals and flowers. This world
was filled with spirits, elves, fairies, leprechauns, and other creatures who
inhabit the middle earth between the familiar and the magical, between our physical
dimension and the spiritual realm. This is the realm of the sidhe, the so-called “Good
People,” beings of light. This belief was once common throughout all the
Celtic countries, in localized forms. The Sidhe are considered to be a distinct
race, quite separate from human beings yet who have had much contact with mortals
over the centuries. It was believed that this race of beings had powers beyond
those of men to move quickly through the air and change their shape. They once
played a huge part in the lives of people living in rural Ireland and Scotland.
It was the Bean Sidhe (woman of the hills), a spirit or fairy who announced a
death by wailing or keening. She would visit a household and by wailing she warn
them that a member of their family is about to die. When a Banshee is caught,
she is obliged to tell the name of the doomed. The Bean Sidhe has long streaming
hair and is dressed in a gray cloak over a green dress. Her eyes are fiery red
from the constant weeping. When multiple Banshees wail together, it will herald
the death of someone very great or holy.
The religious leaders of the Celts were called file (fee-lyee), Irish Gaelic
for “vision-poets.” These were persons who were able to see beyond
this world into the spiritual world. They could contact the sidhe.
In other cultures we might use the word “shamanism” to describe the
practice “in which the interrelationship of the earth with other worlds
forms an interwoven fabric of physical and psychic being, affecting all forms
of life, both seen and unseen.” In shamanism, certain individuals are chosen
because of their ability to interpret the spirit realms. “Their task is
to explore these unseen realms by means of the spirit-journey, . . . to interact
with beings they encounter there and to retrieve knowledge, healing and advice
which may benefit the people.” (Matthew, Celtic Wisdom, p. 1)
The Celtic shamans were believed to have the power of shapeshifting, to morph
into any living creature in Middle Earth or in the Otherworld. This ability to
polymorph is similar to the mystic’s union with all creation. While the
mystic doesn’t seek to assume any form but his own, the Celtic shaman may
shift shape because the human form is a disadvantage, its energy alignment being
unsuited for the spiritual realm. One might compare this to the so-called “astral
body” or to the Apostle Paul’s discussion of the spiritual body.
The reason for the shamanic shapeshifting might be for several reasons: to learn
from animal guises, to hide by becoming invisible, to survive in dangerous places,
or to protect someone. The lorica, or verbal breastplate, was used to protect
the shaman on his spiritual journey. As with many other Celtic ways, Patrick
and other adapted them to Christian use, and the Christian lorica called upon
the powers of the trinity and the elements of creation to protect a person in
a perilous age.
The Celtic shamans were the gifted people or aes dana who could walk between
worlds with ease—the druids, poets and seers. After the adoption of Christianity,
the shamanic skills of the filidh and aes dana were assumed by the clergy, became
more formalized, and practiced less. A few individuals and families retained
this knowledge as their direct heritage.
The concept of the “walker between worlds” was not unknown in the
Roman culture. The high priest of the Romans was known as “pontifex maximus,” the
chief bridge-builder, the one who enables access to the gods. The title was later
assumed by the pope, who is often called pontiff, from pontifex, the maker of
bridges, in this case the mediator between human and divine.
The Rev. Tom Faulkenbury, who operates St. Brendan’s Ministries, has outlined
seven characteristics of Celtic spirituality as it was adopted into Christian
practices:
One of its prime characteristics is a love and respect for the natural world.
Celtic spirituality reflects a sense of wonder and awe at the divine residing
in everything. They were panentheists, seeing God in all things. Celtic Christians
often refer to God as “Lord of the Elements” and experience communion
with God in their natural surroundings. This deep respect for the environment
is manifested in a quiet care for all living things. There is a sense of wholeness
to the created order.
A second characteristic of Celtic Christianity is a love for learning. Commitment
of the mind to the study of Holy Scriptures and expanding one’s knowledge
of God and God’s world is prized as worthy and honorable work.
A third characteristic is an innate yearning to explore the unknown. The theme
of pilgrimage is one of the key elements of Celtic spirituality. To make a spiritual
journey for Christ—despite the hardships—brings blessings, increased
intimacy with God, and the healing of the body and the soul.
A fourth characteristic is the love of silence and solitude. Solitary places
and times of silence are valued and encouraged for reflection and spiritual shelter.
A fifth characteristic has to do with an understanding of time as a sacred reality
blessed and redeemed by God’s overflowing compassion. Time is a gift of
God and the present contains within itself both past events, which continue to
live on, as well as the seeds of future events waiting to be born. The Celtic
tradition lived more in kairos time rather than chronos time. Kairos time is
time that has meaning. An event occurs when it is ripe for it to occur, not when
an artificial calendar says that it should occur. It’s not that the Celts
didn’t recognize special days or seasons. They did. And they had special
days to mark the light part of the calendar and the dark part.
Samhain, November 1, was the Celtic New Year, marked the end of the harvest and
the beginning of the dark days. All lights were extinguished until relit by a
central bonfire. This day was a gap in time and consciousness, a thin time when
travel to the other world and through time was possible. Samhain was colored
in the Christian calendar by All Saints Day, when the ancestors drew close to
the living and could impart their wisdom.
Imbolc, February 1, became St. Bridget’s Day, marking the first day of
Spring. In the Christian calendar, Candlemas Day was celebrated with the dedication
of candles and the celebration of light. Of course, the Pennsylvania Germans
turned this into Groundhog Day when they consulted the wisdom of animals regarding
the appropriate time to begin their Spring planting.
Beltane, May 1, was the first day of the light part of the year, when cattle
were driven through bonfires to protect them and ensure fertility. So, too, young
couples would dash through the fire to obtain this fertility.
Lughnasadh, August 1, was the beginning of harvest and the celebration of the
god Lugh who sacrificed for the sake of humans and hung from a tree. Of course,
Lugh was similar to Christ and the holiday became a Christian observation, but
was too similar to Easter to survive in the Christian calendar.
A sixth characteristic is an appreciation of ordinary life. The daily, the routine,
the ordinary is valued. God is found not so much at the end of time when the
reign of Christ finally comes, but now, where the reign is already being lived
in God’s faithful people. God is worshiped in daily work and in very ordinary
chores. This is the mysticism of ordinary experience which Brother Lawrence described
in his little book, Practicing the Presence of God. Even in washing the dishes
one can feel the power and presence of the divine.
A seventh characteristic is the Celtic belief in the great value of relationships,
especially the spiritual ties of special Christian brothers and sisters called “soul
friends”—the anamchara. Each person should have a spiritual mentor
or guide—a soul friend who offers a compassionate ear or a challenging
word. God speaks to us, heart to heart, through our friends. Sometimes the anamchara
is not only a spiritual guide, but a spirit guide who accompanies us unseen through
life and helps us interpret the meaning of what is happening to us.
Thomas Cahill, in his book, How the Irish Saved Civilization, says that the Irish
monks who were just learning how to read and write themselves when Rome was being
sacked by the barbarian tribes, copied everything they could get their hands
on. They became the saviors of western civilization, the narrow conduit by which
the ancient world was able to flow into the medieval world. If it hadn’t
been for this forgotten role in history, there would be no western civilization
as we know it. When Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought of western civilization,
he replied, “I think it would be a good idea.” Thanks to the Irish
and their brief moment on the world stage, we would have none of the ancient
writings, including much of our scripture, that have influenced the modern era.
The Celts were “walkers between worlds” in this cultural sense as
well.
Each year during my pastorate in Kutztown, PA we have had a Celtic service celebrating
an aspect of Celtic spirituality, using music by the Shanachians, a ceili group,
and occasionally step-dancers. There are some who still believe that this is
an anomaly in a Pennsylvania Dutch culture, but I try to impress upon them that
much of their folk spirituality and even some of their German mystical traditions
derive from the time that the Celts inhabited the areas of southern Germany from
which many of the Pennsylvania German forebears emigrated.
When the Celts were driven out of Europe by the Romans, the Allemani descended
from the north and settled in southern Germany. The Allemani were influenced
by Celts, but of a different ethnicity.
Centuries later, along the Rhine, a group
of women mystics began to reclaim much of the Celtic lore and wisdom. These were
people such as Mechteld of Magdeburg and Hildegard of Bingen. Hildegard was a
true renaissance woman three centuries before it flowered in Germany. She was
an artist, musician, healer, mystic, theologian, philosopher, and church leader
who established an abbey at Bingen. The Brother Cadfael stories on PBS are patterned
after her.
Hildegard’s writings influenced many of the German mystics such as Johannes
Tauler, Jacob Boehme and Meister Eckhard, whom in turn influenced Martin Luther.
Luther’s followers as well as the spiritual descendants of John Calvin
and Ulrich Zwingli came to Pennsylvania where they mixed the Celtic wisdom passed
on through Hildegard with the wisdom gained from Native Americans to develop
their own Pennsylvania Dutch spirituality. This includes the healing arts using
natural herbs along with certain rituals as performed by the braucherei or “pow-wow” doctors,
the latter day Druids. It included the use of incantations and spells as found
in John George Hohman’s book, The Long-lost Friend. They also believed
in revelationary transcendentalism and looked forward to a time when they would
be able to transcend this earth and walk between worlds. Several of these esoteric
and mystical groups sprung up in the wilderness in the early 1800s.
Officially, the church did not have much use for Celtic spirituality. They embraced
it in order to win converts, but tried to suppress many elements of its mystical
nature. While many modern Celtic lands such as Ireland and Brittany are Catholic,
Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall are predominantly Protestant. Catholic Christianity
emphasized the meaning of ritual and wisdom passed on through tradition. Protestant
Christianity emphasized education and reason so one could interpret the inherited
wisdom. Both were dependent on other humans for the means of accessing the divine.
The Celtic mystical tradition emphasized the direct knowledge of God through
the natural world and through the gathered community. Mysticism is the unification
with the One or some other principle; the immediate consciousness of God; or
the direct experience of religious truth.
While Celtic spirituality has provided much of the paranormal esoterica, we must
not forget that there is also a rich tradition that is quite relevant to our
postmodern age. We are living in a time when definitions are subject to negotiation.
When Bill Clinton tried to parse his way out of his testimony by saying “it
all depends on what your meaning of ‘is’ is,” he was representing
the essence of postmodernism. There are no absolutes; truth is defined by its
context. How you see and interpret the world may be different from how I see
and interpret the world. What may be a UFO to you, may be a vision to me, or
swamp gas to someone else. Postmodernism does not have a world-view. It has replaced
knowledge with interpretation.
The Celtic mystical tradition provides a lens by which we can see and interpret
reality. It is not the only lens, nor is it necessarily a valid one. It is just
one filter that can help us make sense of our experiences and understand who
we are and why we are. It gives us a perspective so we can find meaning in our
existence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bradley, Ian, The Celtic Way (Darton, Longman, and Todd: London, 1993)
Cahill, Thomas, How the Irish Saved Civilization (Nan A. Talese: New York, 1995)
Chadwick, Nora K., The Druids (University of Wales Press, Cardiff, 1966)
Chadwick, Nora K., The Celts (Pelican: London, 1970)
Cunliffe, Barry, The Ancient Celts (Oxford University Press: London, 1997)
Ellis, Peter Berresford, The Druids (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company:
Grand Rapids,1994)
Joyce, Timothy, Celtic Christianity (Orbis: Maryknoll, NY, 1998)
Matthew, Caitlin, The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning
Year (Harper:
San Francisco, 1998)
Matthew, Caitlin and John, Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom (Element Books: Shaftesbury,
Dorset, GB: 1994)
O’Donohue, John, Anam Cara (HarperCollins: New York, 1997)
O’Laughlin, Thomas, Journeys On the Edge: The Celtic Tradition (Orbis:
Maryknoll, NY, 2000)
Pemberton, Cinta, Soulfaring: Celtic Pilgrimage Then and Now (SPCK: London, 1999)
Pennick, Nigel, The Sacred World of the Celts (Inner Traditions International:
Rochester, VT, 1997)
Pennick, Nigel, Celtic Sacred Landscapes (Thames and Hudson: New York, 1996)
Rabey, Steve, In the House of Memory: Ancient Celtic Wisdom for Everyday
Life (Penguin Putnam, New York, 1998)
Silf, Margaret, Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way (Paraclete Press: Brewster,
MA, 2001)
Yeats, W. B., The Celtic Twilight: Myth, Fantasy and Folklore (Prism: Bridport,
Dorset, GB, 1893).
Dr. Harry L. Serio
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