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From "Walking the Mist: Celtic Spirituality for the 21st Century" (adapted) by Donald McKinney, published August 2004 by Hodder Mobius. Click here to go to the Celtic Circle shop to purchase "Walking the Mist...".
Celtic
Spirituality is a rather dull technical term for something that was in
fact very fluid and alive. Indeed anyone, anywhere, can stand in nature
and feel the power of the land; can understand the magic of a sacred well
or spring. Anyone can marvel at the beauty of birds in flight or the delicateness
of a flower and be certain of the presence of spirit. Indeed if you know
anything of Native American spirituality of Australian Aboriginal teachings
or any other "indigenous" people, then you will recognise many
of these ideas. This should not be surprising as we all, after all, live
in the same world.
Celtic Spirituality merely reflects our own history and culture in the words we use; the images we cultivate; the ceremonies we create and the practises we undertake. If you come from a Western background then you should find the work here easy to relate to and understand. If your traditions or family background are different then what is revealed here should be of interest to you in helping to understand what makes us Celts tick!
The fluidity of Celtic Spirituality makes it hard to define with any emphatic certainty. I often get asked, "What is Celtic Spirituality?" and I used to reply with a technical answer talking about changing belief and social systems. However I always felt I was never quite hitting the nail on the head. After a long period of contemplation, I've come up with a radically different answer.
Imagine you are sitting around a wood-burning stove in an old remote cottage somewhere in the hills and the lights are dim. It's late at night and the slumbering red glow from the wood fire just reaches out to light up your friends' faces and you are all huddled in this intimate warm circle of light.
As the night has grown darker your conversation has inexorably turned to ghost stories and strange tales of the unknown. As each story reaches its climax, you feel cold goosebumps run up and down your arms. Somehow you become aware of the room and even the house around you. You sense in the darkness of the different rooms strange ebbs and flows that you don't quite understand. You are even a little nervous. Soon you will have to leave the safety of the fire and head off to bed.
Of course you know that really there is nothing to be scared of; in fact you are enjoying that childish fear of the unknown while at the same time feeling safe in the comfort of being with your friends. Equally it feels as if your senses have expanded and you are more aware than ever. And you have a strange feeling of awe that somehow we don't know as much as we think we do. All of that feeling is Celtic Spirituality.
Within the history of Celtic Spirituality there are three periods. The first, or Druidic period, runs up to around 450 AD. This was a time when the Druids were dominant in Celtic society. They were the bringers of religion; the advisors of kings; the news tellers; the guardians of clan history; the poets; the judges and law givers. Truly they were all powerful. However we know very little of what they believed or the religion they taught because they wrote nothing down. What little comes down to us comes from their enemies, like Julius Caesar who, in the mid first century BC, portrayed the Druids as blood thirsty savages. But then, we must remember that he was about to invade the Celtic lands of Gaul; it was in his interest to make them out to be barbarians needing Roman civilizing.
Celtic
Christianity is the second period of Celtic Spirituality and this emerged
in Ireland from around 450 AD and lasted until around 750 AD. Celtic Christianity
seems to have been a fusion of Druidism and Early Christianity, both Roman
and Koptic. The whole manner of how such a powerful caste as the Druids
converted over to Christianity has fascinated historians and theologians
for generations. There is no evidence of any conflict or civil war, yet
within a remarkably short period Celtic society went from being thoroughly
pagan; to being thoroughly Christian.
Nowhere is this seen clearer than in the symbol of this time: the Celtic Cross. This derives from the druidic symbol for life which was a plus sign "+" enclosed by a circle. This stood for the four elements of life: earth, water, fire and air surrounded by the eternal circle of life: the serpent eating its own tail. The arms of the plus sign were merely extended to make it more like a conventional Christian cross. Curious they should choose to do this rather than replace it with the internationally used traditional cross or crucifix.
Initially Celtic Christianity seems to have taken the awareness of the spirit world and the power of nature and added to it the teaching of Jesus and the apostles. From the Koptic Church in Egypt, it borrowed the idea of finding spiritual truth by rejecting the material world and Celtic monks would spend long periods of time, like the desert fathers, on retreat in remote places. St. Cuthbert, for example, retreated from Lindisfarne to a tiny cell on the island of Farne. St. Columba retreated to a small isolated hut on Iona and St. Kessog of Luss had a huge flat stone, still called St. Kessog's stone, where it was said he would sit and meditate for days without food or water. These remarkable monks, both men and women, dressed like Druids; carried out the same functions as Druids and even worshipped in the same way out in the forest and on the hill top.
Gradually however the power and influence of Rome spread and from 750 AD we enter the third period of Celtic Spirituality which existed up to around 1250 AD. This is a time where traditional ways gradually gave way to the centralizing unifying desires of Rome.
Even today however some echoes of the Celtic Druidic past remain in the systems and practices of the established churches. Ideas like Harvest Thanksgiving or the continued veneration of ancient holy wells and springs still exist throughout the churches both in rural and urban areas. For example, the holy well at the Church of Scotland's St. Trudiana's church in Edinburgh was, until recently, still popular with people suffering from eye problems.
Perhaps it is this mixture of pagan and Christian that makes Celtic Spirituality so interesting and so accessible today. For many the established churches have become too sterile and dead, trapped in their mausoleums of stone and religious diktat. It is easier to find spiritual truth in a sacred grove than a dusty half empty church hall. And I am sure that the absolutism and dogmatism that stigmatises much of modern Christianity alienates far more than it attracts.
Celtic Spirituality suffers none of these problems. This is not a religion, it is a series of beliefs and practices to help you become aware of the spiritual world around you and your place in it. Whether you find it suitable to work with Jesus, his apostles and the Celtic Saints, or Brigid, Mannán mac Lir and the Celtic Gods, it matters little. What matters is that your life is enriched; you are at peace with your innerbeing and that you become aware of the magic and incredible world that surrounds us all.
