The Dog Who Wears A Crown

Our relationship with dogs is sacred. They are the wolves that came to our fires, and taught us where to find food, in hopes that we would care for them, and be their pack leaders, strong and protective. They bowed to us, and held up the crown, and placed it upon our heads.

When a person harms any animal needlessly it is a tragedy and an affront to the Mother and to nature, and when they harm a dog especially, they are breaking a sacred trust, an oath given by our ancestors to be wise leaders, just and fair, and worthy, and compassionate.

You see, the dogs see themselves in us, and see us in themselves. To them, we are the same, and they are us and so, if we harm them, we harm ourselves. The soul we share is wounded, and frightened, and confused.

But we still have this crown they gave us. They placed our feet upon the Stone, and they heard the Stone cry out, and so they still honor that pledge.

Never forget, that we are the dogs who wear the crown, and that crown was given in love.

Be worthy of it.

Celtic Shamanism, by Tina Fields, PhD

 ‘Celtic Shamanism’: Pagan Celtic Spirituality

by Tina Fields, Ph.D.

Originally published in Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture  (Vol. 1, 469-478).  Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Neumann Fridman, Eds.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2005. Reprinted here with permission.

Introduction

The Celts in general and the druids in particular were averse to committing their own important lore to writing, and their formal memorized oral transmission was broken long ago. We therefore know very little about the pagan religions of the ancient Celtic tribes. In any case, it could not be strictly accurate to speak of ‘Celtic Shamanism’, as the words ‘shaman’ and ‘shamanic’ properly refer only to the Tungus people of Siberia. However, magico-religious elements which can be recognized as ‘shamanistic’ or reminiscent of shamanism, and which are furthermore common to many cultures, can indeed be found in the pagan Celtic spiritual traditions. Celts occupied a great deal of Europe by the 4th century C.E., but only in the British Isles did any substantial body of literature survive. This entry will therefore mainly focus on that area.

We do know that the Celts had a complete system of magic, one which was highly respected by the ancient world. Diodorus and Clement of Alexandria said that the Celtic priests of Gaul trained with Pythagoras in mystical philosophy. In the 1st-century A.D., Dio Chrystosom equated the Celtic Druids with the Persian Magi, Indian Brahmins, and Egyptian priests.

What we currently know about Celtic spirituality and magical practice is based on Greek and Roman descriptions, a few works by the early Celts themselves (mainly from Wales, Ireland, and Scotland), folk songs and fairy tales, and a great deal of imaginative invention. These sources prove troublesome due to their limitations. The Greek and Roman texts are mainly observations by invading armies from political encounters with the tribes of southern Gaul. Folktales may become changed by each storyteller. Some details of ‘Celtic spirituality’ as represented in numerous contemporary popular books were originally recovered through analepsis (spontaneous ancestral memory) and bardic creativity by more modern writers such as Iolo Morgannwg and Robert Graves. Finally, the historical story cycles and poetry originating with the Celts were recorded years later by Christian monks, who may well have felt hostility towards – or at least discomfort with – the pagan worldview.

Despite these difficulties, however, shamanistic elements can be easily discerned in the sources we have. These elements include descriptions of practitioners and patterns of magical initiation; magical practices such as spiritual healing, harming, and warfare; uncanny abilities such as enchantment, soul flight, distance viewing, shapeshifting, animal transmogrification, and understanding the speech of birds and animals; the employment of wise judgment through insights gained by trance, divination, and prophesy; the use of magical tools; the experience of deep mystical inspiration and understanding; and a pervasive theme of deep relational connection to all beings and the processes which tie them together.

Celtic Magic and Spirituality

Pagan Celtic spirituality perceived that the supernatural otherworlds lie so close to this one that the borders often cross, and that the magical numinous was present in every aspect of their lives and surroundings. Nature was keenly observed by the pagan Celts to obtain understanding of her deepest secrets in both the physical and metaphysical sense, without the aspect of torture, violence, penetration or dismemberment in order to get to it that we find in later western inquiries.

The land itself was considered animate and conscious, quite aware of human activity but of course quite ‘other’ in its needs and nature. The ceremony for investing a new Ard Ri or Irish High King involved marriage of mystical dimensions with the land as goddess, thus binding the people to the place through kinship. Should this relationship be betrayed – for example, through disrespectful tribal behavior towards the land, trees, water, etc., or lack of personal honor in such qualities as generosity, bravery, or beauty – he could no longer serve as king.

Folk stories collected between the 18th and early 20th centuries abound in which nothing is merely as it seems to the physical eye. Woods, wells, rivers, and trees all were sacred places that might house gateways into the otherworld, both glorious and dangerous. On an ordinary walk home, a person might fall into a fairy mound and spend years there which feel like mere hours. Stones speak; a stranger or a bird might be God in disguise; music has the power to kill or maim. The greatest knowledge in the world is held by a fish. The fairies or ‘good folk,’ leprechauns, and brownies are neighbors; and the latter, if treated well, might do your housework.

There is an intense practicality to the Celtic mystical worldview. Things tend to go  better in faery encounters for those who are generous with their labor, time, and material goods, and for good musicians. Irish scholar Jeffrey Gantz (1981, 1) observes that all Celtic art is characterized by a “tension between reality and fantasy.” It is “romantic, idealistic, stylized and yet vividly, even appallingly, concrete.” Further, there are no distinctions made between the transcendent and the immanent in their potential for holding divine wonders. These tales clearly suggest a shamanistic worldview, with no separation between the physical and the metaphysical aspects of life.

We can turn to indigenous Celtic languages for clues to their speakers’ thoughts about their magical arts. The noun used to describe a spell or spoken word of magic in both Scots and Irish Gaelic is bricht, which is related to the Icelandic bragr, ‘poetry or magical rhyme’. The word eolas, ‘knowledge’, is used to describe magical ability. And a Gaelic term for any sort of sorcery or magical act is druidheachd. From these words, we can glean that Celtic magic was practiced by Druids, that ‘knowledge’ implied something much more than factual data, and that poetic inspiration/expression through the voice was commonly employed as a magical tool.

Pre-Celtic Works

It is easy for a casual observer to confuse Celtic with pre-Celtic artifacts. Although the druids may have used the great megaliths such as Stonehenge, Dol, and Carnac, and the tumuli at Newgrange and Gavr’inis, they did not build them. Standing stones were the work of peoples who inhabited these regions long before the first Iron Age Celts arrived around 500 B.C.E.

However, if we take the patterns of later immigrations as an example, some pre-Celtic spiritual knowledge may have been passed down to, or appropriated by, subsequently arriving peoples. The Irish Book of Invasions describes a much later wave of ‘indigenous druids’ struggling with a newer tribe’s chief druid over the right to kindle a fire that was ceremonially important to both.

Many prehistoric sites are found lined up in rows. Five or more sites in a row are known as a ‘ley,’ and are believed by some to mark a natural earth meridian or channel of energy, similar to the ch’i-filled ‘dragon currents’ the Chinese recognize in feng shui. Modern mappers of these pathways, or ‘ley hunters,’ believe that certain special places where two or more ley lines cross are full of power which can be drawn upon in magical practice. Some researchers speculate that one such line colloquially known as the ‘Old Straight Track’ was a road map to be used from the air during soul flight. Others believe that the leys reflect zodiacal patterns, because elements of passage-grave construction posit strong evidence that the spiritual practices of Bronze Age Ireland and Britain emphasized recurring astronomical phenomena. A third hypothesis is that the sites lie over hidden underground springs of water, and that the particular spiral flow of these aquastats may serve as a healing force. Spirals do appear with extreme frequency in early Celtic art.

Spiritual Practitioners

The Roman historian Strabo lists three classes of learned Gaulish spiritual practitioners. The druids are described as philosopher/theologians concerned with both the immortality of the soul and with natural phenomena. Bards were poets, storytellers, musicians and singers who chanted histories, eulogies and satires. And manteis or vates were naturalists and experts in divination through auguries and sacrifices.

Before the first millennium B.C.E., however, all of these abilities were attributed to druids, as the separation between these specialized functions was not so absolute. For example, in the Tain bo Cuailnge it is noted that the bards or ‘sweet-mouthed harpers’ of Cain Bile were also druids of great knowledge. And in the Welsh tale of Gwion Bach as told in the Mabinogion, the witch Cerridwen is described as being a master of all three of the great arts: magic (the province of the druidic class overall), enchantment (a later specialty of bards), and divination (assigned to the manteis). Her facility in all three sub-branches of learned spiritual practice points to the fluidity of those categories. Some speculate that the separation into specialized functions occurred for political reasons involving the overall strength of the druidic class.

Despite the common portrayal of a druid with a flowing white beard, references to both male and female adepts can be found. Women were accepted in pagan Celtic cultures as military leaders, as queens in their own right, and as magical practitioners. Tradition refers to ‘sunset isles of women’ where groups of female druids lived apart from their families for parts of a year. Examples include the Ile de Sein off the coast of Brittany where a sisterhood of nine miracle-working healers worked, and the Isle of Avalon, which gained fame in the Arthurian saga as a training ground for sorceresses and healers.

Most scholars today agree with Pliny the Elder, who regarded the Old Irish name druid as originating with the Greek word for oak-tree, drus, combined with the Indo-European root word wid-, to know (Piggott 1985, 103). Druids held their spiritual ceremonies in open groves of oak, preferring these natural cathedrals to any human-built structure. Place names involving the Gallo-Britonic word nemeton, which means both a clearing in a wood and shrine/sanctuary, were very likely once the sites of druidic practice and education.

At one time, a network of formal schools for generations of druids crossed the Celtic lands, the most important of which was located on the Isle of Mona (modern Anglesey). According to Julius Caesar, a druidic education – which could easily take twenty years – encompassed science, law, practical religion, philosophy, and history. Because writing was mistrusted for storage and transmission of important information, all of this had to be memorized. Details of such education have unfortunately been lost, and we do not know how, or if, magical initiation was formally conferred.

Instead, we repeatedly find very human tales of somebody making an innocent blunder which turns out to have tremendous magical repercussions. The ordinary and the numinous sides of the world are so close together that they can shift places in a moment, and one small deed can catalyze great change. In the biographical tales of both the Welsh chief bard/seer Taliesin and the Irish tribal leader/warrior chief Fionn MacCumhaill, shamanistic initiation was not sought but came upon the recipient through terrifying serendipitous accident. Very little in the Celtic magical world seems to take place as planned through human volition.

Druidic and Bardic Powers of Enchantment

Inspired poetry, regarded as a vital skill of the pagan Celtic seer, fits in with the shamanistic tenet that one must bring back any information gained from the Otherworlds to benefit the people. One challenge to this is that visions wildly pouring forth while in deep trance can easily be forgotten during the return to ordinary waking consciousness. They are much more likely to be retained and recalled for later use when placed in some sort of pattern which the cognitive mind can hold onto. Through the uses of rhyme, alliteration, meter, repetition and tune to this end, the crafts of music and poetry became intimately connected with magical practice and otherworldly power and knowledge in the Celtic world.

Besides voicing deep and otherwise hidden wisdom gained while in an altered state, bards used sound to harm, heal, and alter moods and probability. Poetry and music were not considered beaux-arts to the pagan Celts, but tools of raw magical power. Scorching satirical poetry known as the briarmon smetrach was intended to ‘puncture’ and to publicly destroy reputations. Well-aimed, the poetic form known as glam dicin was used to drive out rats and to disfigure or even kill an opponent. The Irish cattle-rustling epic Tain bo Cualgne describes the bardic warfare employed by Queen Medb against her enemy Fer Diad:

Then Medb sent the Druids and satirists and harsh bards for Fer Diad, that they might make against him three satires to stay him and three lampoons, and that they might raise on his face three blisters, shame, blemish and disgrace, so that he might die before the end of nine days if he did not succumb at once (Kinsella 1969).

Bardic incantations could also be used to end hostilities. Diodorus Siculus observed this magical use of sound in the late 1st-century B.C.E.:

Frequently when armies confront one another in line of battle with swords drawn and spears thrust forward, these men intervene and cause them to stop, just as though they were holding some wild animal spellbound with their chanting. (Diodorus Siculus 31, 2-5, as cited in Ireland, p. 181).

Tacitus describes the effect of this weaving of enchantment against Roman invaders on the Isle of Mona in 60 A.D.:

On the shore stood the opposing army with its dense array of armed warriors, while between the ranks dashed women in black attire round the Druids, lifting up their hands to heaven and pouring forth dreadful imprecations, scared our soldiers by the unfamiliar sight so that, as if their limbs were paralyzed, they stood motionless and exposed to wounds. (Tacitus, Annals XIV, 30)

Finally, bardic powers could also be used to heal – as when a master harper restored speech to the dumb prince Maon through his music. The small harp was often employed by bards as a magical tool. Part of the Celtic harper’s toolkit was working knowledge of the Adbhan Trireach or ‘Three Noble Strains,’ attributed to the chants for childbirth sung by the god/spirit Dagda’s harp Uaithne. Each Strain was not only entertainment but a form of enchantment: ‘Sorrow-‘ or ‘Lament-Strain’, which could reduce listeners to tears; ‘Joy-Strain’, which could turn tears to laughter; and ‘Sleep-Strain’, which could soothe listeners’ hearts into deep sleep. Gaining songs of power from spirits is a common element occurring in many shamanistic cultures.

Shapeshifting, Glamour, and Invisibility

Trickery achieved through enchantment, or the shifting of seeming reality, is a theme commonly found in literature detailing observations about indigenous magical practitioners of the Americas. It is also replete throughout Irish texts and British/Gaulish Arthurian literature.

The magical manipulation of weather by druids appears prominently in Irish sagas, often employed as one weapon in the arsenal for ordinary tribal warfare. Strong winds and tempests were raised by the Tuatha de Danaan people to keep the first Milesian invaders from landing on shore, and the druid Mog Ruath sent storm-spells and magic fire against King Cormac and his druids in order to drive them out of the area. Weather could also be called up in order to conceal people or to get their enemies lost and confused. Heavy snowfalls, thick mists, dense fog, thundershowers, and sudden darkness were all employed.

Another commonly found druidic practice is the manipulation of events through magical impersonation. For example, the Irish warrior Cuchulainn was once deceived by a sorceress who took the form of a trusted lady in order to get near him and goad him onto the field of battle. Sexual themes are quite common. In the Arthurian cycle, the wizard Merlin enchanted Uther Pendragon so that he seemed to be the husband of Igraine so that she would gladly sleep with him. Merlin knew through augury that this mating would conceive the child who would later become King Arthur. One tool for accomplishing such shapeshifting was the spell known as fith-fath, used to transform one object into another and also to confer invisibility. Remnants of this are still with us in the shamanistic childrens’ story of Jack and the Beanstalk: “Fee-fi-fo-fum.”

A classic motif in Irish folktales is the nonhuman Fair Folk ‘casting glamour’ upon an unwitting passer-by, who thinks he is being invited into a grand home to enjoy a fabulous feast, a gift of gold, and a night of love with a beautiful woman. Instead, in the morning when he wakes, he finds himself lying an open field with the dew on his coat and a pocketful of yellow leaves, holding a rotting corpse in his arms. Such tales could be seen as illustrating spontaneous and shamanistic soul flight with otherworldly aspects of travel, uncanny beauties and terrors, encounters with strange beings, the element of later finding one’s body elsewhere, and great time discrepancies.

Animal Transmogrification

Ties with other animals are extremely strong in ancient Celtic tradition. The deepest wisdom in the world is held by the ancient ‘Salmon of Knowledge’. The appearance of crows forewarns the coming of the war goddesses Morrigan or Badbh. Gwyrhyr ‘Interpreter of Tongues’ exhibits the ability to communicate with wild animals.

We further find this shamanistic motif of mediating between human and other animal forms not only by observing them from the outside, but by transforming into them. The druid Uath was said to change himself into any form he wished. In a conversation with the ancient Hawk of Achill, Fintan describes his history of transformations into an eagle, a hawk, and a salmon. And instead of dying, Tuan MacCarell repeatedly finds himself alive and vibrant in a new young animal form. In the last days of his final human life, he relates the entire history of Ireland as witnessed through his many different eyes, most of them non-human, to the Milesian invaders.

These mystical biographies, and those of the bards Taliesin pen Beirdd, Oisin, and Amergin, comprise some of the most powerful examples of shamanistic elements in the Celtic world. Each changed into animals and other forms (waves, winds, a spear, a seed…), lived significant amounts of time in each form, then came back to the people with useful knowledge gleaned from their time spent in non-ordinary reality. Through dismemberment of the ordinary human form, the poet-seer gets to understand divine nature through many lenses, learns to wield natural forces, and becomes unafraid of death.

If we can take the oldest extant mythological cycles as evidence of worldview, practitioners were also considered to be able to change the shapes of others. The story of the Children of Lir describes their cruel transformation into swans by their jealous and magically adept stepmother. Beings in the Welsh Mabinogion such as the hunted boar Twrc Trwyth who was once a human king, and the lady Blodeuwedd who is actually an enchanted owl combined with flowers, were similarly changed without consent.

The Celts also live closely with beings who belong to both the human and other-than-human realms. Legends of seal-people or selchies abound in the outer islands such as the Hebrides. It is said that at certain times of the year such as the Solstices, these seals shed their skins and go dancing on the rocks as human beings. Some of them are captured or captivated by “real” humans and mate with them. There are families in these islands who deem themselves to be part seal-blood, from just such pairings. One benefit of this lineage is that these people seem to have better luck with the fishing and the waves: they have an intuitive “knowing” of where the fish will be, or when and how a storm will come. Their relatives below will also help them by herding fish towards their boats. Selchie legends comprise one of the most palpable variations of the shamanistic theme of transformation: both the human and seal people learn of another perspective, and mediate between the worlds of land and sea, by literally and metaphorically living in the other’s skin.

A personal connection through lineage could also determine behavior. Conary was forbidden to hunt birds since his father came to his mother Messbuachalla through the window as a great bird, who threw off his plumage to make love to her. Ossian was forbidden to eat venison, as his mother Saar gave birth to him while transformed into deer-shape. Cuchulainn, whose name literally means the ‘Hound of Culainn’, was under a geis or tabu against eating dog-flesh.

Such relational protection is a common thread in Irish tales, and may connect back to earlier tribal totems. There is clearly a tie with other animals that far exceeds romantic sentimentality or meat-thinking: this is an animistic view about one’s relatives. Early Celtic tribes were named after these connections: Epidii (Pictish “Horse People” in Kintyre and neighboring islands), Cornavii (“People of the Horn” in the British midlands), Brannovices (“Raven Clan” in transalpine Gaul), Taurisci (“Bull Folk” in transalpine Gaul). In early Celtic culture, the shamanistic elements do not generally center around individual human psychology as they tend to in modern neo-shamanism; instead, they illustrate the tribal relational stance with a magical, completely alive and sentient, world of nonhuman and spirit equals.

Mantic Powers of Divination & Soul Flight

Divination and prophesy were integral parts of the pagan Celtic druids’ or manteis’ repertoire. They divined to see deeply or travel into the ‘other nature’ of seemingly ordinary things. This could be done through ecstatic poetic trance, observation of natural forces for correspondences, or soul flight to other realms.

Giraldus Cambrensis describes the Welsh magical poetry specialists known as awenyddion (‘people inspired’) going into deep ecstatic inspirational trance with the body in frenzied paroxysms, chanting wildly. Cambrensis says that when the information came upon them, they roared mightily and that the listeners had to pick out the useful bits from the mass of unintelligible gibberish around it.  Both the Welsh awenyddion and the Irish poet/seers had to be violently shaken awake after their forays into this other state of consciousness. Cambrensis reports that the awenyddion felt as though they had sweet milk, honey, or writing poured onto their lips from the spirits.

The greatest-known magical practitioner from the Arthurian saga, the wizard Merlin, was so accustomed to soul journeys into non-ordinary realms where space and time are different that he was reputed to ‘live backwards in time’. It is said that he could prophesy easily because for him, this was not a matter of divination but of simply remembering the future.

Celtic prophesy was undertaken for practical purposes. In Irish sagas, we find the druids or manteis called upon to augur whether a particular day is auspicious for some important undertaking, such as births or battles. Mothers would sometimes artificially hold off delivery of their babies until a day the druids found would foster greatness in the child. The Irish druid Cathbad prophesied that whoever would take up arms on a particular day would have a short life with eternal fame. The young boy Cuchulainn seized the moment, and later went on to become hero of an entire cycle of Irish sagas.

The druids may have used a detailed divinatory calendar. Bronze calendar fragments found at Coligny in France form the oldest extensive document in a Celtic language, having been dated between the late first century B.C.E. to the early first century C.E.. Thought to be a product of the Gaulish druids, it uses Roman lettering but its content is distinctly different from the Roman calendar. Each month in it is marked by either the abbreviations MAT (good) or ANM (not good). Similar methods were used in Babylonian and Jewish calendrics, and can still be found today in Indonesia, where healer/seers and even everyday folk use them to plan events around particular days and even certain hours, due to their attributed characteristics.

Divination through Nature

Druids and manteis observed the patterns in nature for clues to the patterns surrounding human events. Fedelm in the Tain practiced crystal-gazing. Scottish Highland seers discovered meaning by throwing the scapula bones of sheep. The 1st-century historian Strabo reported that periodically, in earlier times, a particularly chosen human being was stabbed in the back with a dagger, to foretell the future from his convulsions. Smoke rising from a fire, the placement of the stars, the auspiciousness (or not) of particular days and hours, the placement and shapes of clouds – all could be looked to for advice. Asking non-human beings and the spirits of the beloved dead for help is, of course, a classic aspect of shamanic inspiration and practice.

Animal allies figured especially prominently in pagan Celtic divination. Parts of the bull could be eaten or worn to invoke divinatory aid.  In the 1st century C.E., the Iceni warrior queen Boadicea used a hare for foretelling and to help ensure her tribe’s victory against the invading Romans. The direction in which the hare ran off foretold to the assembled people whether or not the battle would go well. Many animals and birds were watched closely for clues, for it was deemed quite possible that some were actually humans or deities temporarily taking on that form.

Cave paintings by Bronze & Iron Age Celts which portray ravens speaking to humans were found in the Camonica Valley of northern Italy. Augury by ravens appears commonly in the British Isles. The system is remarkably like that found in contemporary Tibet. Ravens are watched for omens of luck, approaching visitors, and the like. Oral poetry collected in the 19th century Carmina Gadelica still includes tales in which approaching ravens are taken as an omen of impending death.  Observation of both the raven and wren involved their various cries, direction flying, and bodily position in the sky relative to the questioner. Diodorus Siculus observed that the early Christian saint Columba differed from his Druidic teachers in that he paid no heed to the voices of birds. The Welsh word for wren is drui-en, which means ‘druid bird,’ clearly alluding to its role as magical helper.

Journeys into the Otherworld

The definitive shamanistic act in many cultures is ‘soul flight.’ The shaman deliberately goes into trance, her soul temporarily leaving her body, in order to gain deeper knowledge, understanding, and power. The Celtic literature which has been translated to date describes other lands which are clearly not part of ordinary reality, seeing at a distance through both space and time, and details of methods used to leave the body.

The Vision of Rhonabwy describes seeking inspiration by going alone to a remote place and wrapping oneself up in a bull’s hide at night. The Gaelic name for such a bull-hide wrap was taghairm, which literally means ‘an echo,’ a response from a distance – in this case, perhaps from the otherworld. Lacking bull-hide cloaks, later generations similarly wrapped their plaids about their heads to cover their eyes in the dark, in order to see better.  The imbas-forosnai or ‘divination by holding the cheeks’ involved the seer eating the flesh of a white bull and then going to sleep holding onto his cheeks, with four druids continually chanting over him. In one imbas-forosnai, the dreamer had a vision of the man who was to be made king. He saw where the man was and what he was doing at that exact moment. This seems to be an example of distance viewing and prophesy, through the mechanism of soul-flight.

The historical/mythological cycles are richly embellished with episodes of shamanistic trance. A scene in the Red Branch cycle describes the druid MacRuith rising up with the fire into the air of the skies, dressed in his magical garb of a bullhide cloak and enchennach or bird-dress, and soaring above the heads of the opposing army to scout their position. A tugen or feathered cloak has also been mentioned as worn by certain Irish poet/seers. The wearing of feathers is common in many peoples’ shamanistic costumes intended to further soul flight, spiritual power, and magical insight or inspiration.

Tales involving travel into non-ordinary realms abound in the British Isles, such as Pwyll’s meeting with Arawn in the underworld; the surreal voyages of Brendan, Peredur, and Maelduin; Ossian’s return from Tir na n’Og after spending three centuries there; and Lancelot’s crossing of the Sword Bridge in search of the abducted Guinevere. Other classic shamanistic elements in the latter include Lancelot’s forgetting who he is and being confused as to whether he is alive or dead, his deliberate removal of his armor to cross the swords and his subsequently being cut up by them, and finally, the sudden disappearance of the fearsome leonine guardians he’d perceived guarding the far banks.

Shamanistic portals to other realms appear in Celtic tradition as they do in other cultures. Lancelot’s ‘sword bridge’ is a good example of an object which holds meaning in both ordinary and non-ordinary reality, and can serve as a literal bridge between the two. Descriptions of narrow bridges which initially defy the promised passage to a magical place also recur in Irish literature.

Trees, which appear worldwide in shamanistic practices as a means of reaching other spiritual realms, are of central importance to druidic magical practice. Pliny observed that the druids “perform no rites without the foliage of the oak,” and that they revere the mistletoe because “anything growing on oaks … is a sign that the tree has been chosen by the god himself.” (Pliny, Natural History XVI, 249-251, quoted in Ireland, p.183). Perhaps the presence of the mistletoe designated a particular tree as a gateway into the gods’ realms.

Certain hills in the British Isles are considered to be hollow inside, containing or leading to nonordinary realms called ‘Faerie.’ Such realms have their own rules of time and space, their own unique weather patterns and natural laws. The perception that both space and time work differently in non-ordinary reality is well documented cross-culturally. As in the case of Thomas the Rhymer, a traveler returning home from a journey of a day or two spent in the hollow hills of Faerie can find that in this reality, years have passed: their house has gone to rot, loved ones seen a few days ago as children have now long been dead, and nobody is left who knows him. In the Irish tale of Oisin who spent years in the ‘Land of Youth,’ the journeyer’s body has also been preserved in its original youthful state, but upon touching the mortal ground of this world, it suddenly ages to catch up with the years here, or even turns to dust.

Folk stories of adventures in Faerie give clues to avoiding dangers when journeying to the Otherworlds or accidentally coming upon spirits in this world. One should behave as befits a good guest: not stealing objects found in their homes; not intruding upon private dances or ceremonies; not playing bad music at their parties. It’s best to avoid accepting food or drink in the Otherworld, as this could mean becoming their prisoner. The Queen of Faerie has a reputation for stealing away mortals she finds beautiful, interesting, or useful. Brave attempts to retrieve beloved human souls from this thief involve trials by fire, shapeshifting terrors, riddles and other trickery, and the threat of dismemberment – all classic shamanistic elements.

Besides trees and hills, the Irish were also known to view certain waterways as entry portals to the Otherworlds. The Dinnshenchas describe many rivers being under the watchful care of particular female spirits or deities. Thermal springs in modern Buxton were once called Aquae Arnemetiae; the connection with the Brythonic word nemeton showing that these waters were once an important site of Druidic practice. Evans-Wentz recorded that the faerie realms could be reached by entering through a well:

It was by passing under the waters of a well that the S’dh, that is, the abode of the spirits called Sdhe, in the tumulus or natural hill, as the case might be, was reached (Evans-Wentz 1911, 431).

Wells were widely known to be sacred places, each inhabited by – or being itself – a spirit. Many Christian shrines found in Celtic lands today, including the great cathedral of Chartres, were built on the sites of druidic wells.

Influence on Celtic Christianity

Christianity entering the Celtic lands became heavily informed by the animistic spirituality and Druidic practices which preceded it.

Some argue that Christianity came in so easily because the tenets of Christ were the same as those already held by the Druids. Themes common to both Druidry and Christendom include the saints’ exhibition of healing abilities, the building of most churches over wells and facing east to greet the sun, the creation of monastic centers of learning, and the long teacher-student relationship in these monasteries. Monkish manuscripts like the exquisite illuminated gospels of Echternach and Durrow, which portray the four great Evangelists as animals (a bull, a lion, an eagle, and a man), reflect a deep syncretic correspondence between Ezekiel’s Biblical vision and Irish animism.

Druidism also left its unique mark on the incoming religion. Some of the earliest Irish Christian saints, such as the well-loved warrior/monk Columba, were trained by Druids in magical practice. Druidic themes incorporated into the Celtic Christian Church include the sense of filial intimacy between humans, other beings, nature, and the Divine; the emphasis on the Trinity, the uses of poetry and song, the zoomorphic and knotwork illustrations on their illuminated scrolls, the snakes found curling on the end of early croziers, and a sense of the sacred as immanent in all things. A lingering animistic sensibility can be seen in the distinctly non-Christian ornamentation found on many old Irish churches. These include images of the ‘Green Man’, whose beard and hair are made up of rich leafy foliage, and the ‘Sheela-na-Gig’, a grinning, naked, bald female figure gleefully holding open her huge vulva. Finally, the people have a pragmatic relationship with Jesus, God, Mary, the Holy Spirit, the angels, and the saints; and turn to them for practical aid with problems in their lives, just as they had done with previously known spirits.

As a result of this syncretism, Celtic Christianity differed significantly from the forms found in Rome and other places on the mainland. Ireland in particular remains unique, as it was the only part of the Celtic world which was never invaded by the Roman Empire.

Modern Movements

Many people across Europe and America still perform a vestige of pagan Celtic ritual every year through the celebration of Hallowe’en. The autumn fire-festival Samhain was considered a time when the veils between the worlds are thinner than usual, and spirits, including those of the dead, could move freely amongst the living.

The principles of modern Druidism were set down in the early 1700s, counting amongst its disciples one William Blake. It was then that groups of practitioners began the work of unearthing and reconstructing the tenets of Druidic practices and spirituality. These new groups, known as ‘groves,’ conferred a romanticist tinge to Druidry which can still be seen today.

Following in their footsteps, many contemporary Pagan, Wiccan and Celtic Reconstructionist groups are experimenting with a creative fusion of ancient and modern elements to create a spirituality that can work for people today. These vary widely in depth, intent, and authenticity; with creative output ranging from tarot decks with a Celtic slant to research into the possible uses of standing stones. Some serious ritual groups exhort learning Gaelic languages and planting trees as an integral part of their spiritual practice.

The Gaelic traits of ‘high imagination’ and of conscious relationship with the spirit and non-human worlds persist in these movements. Like the druids before them, many practitioners are now taking on the vital responsibility of serving as ecological mediators and spokespeople. As such, they are fulfilling a primary role of shamanic practitioners worldwide – to help their people, and the other-than-human world we all depend upon and are kin to, continue to live.

***

If you want more about pre-Christian/pre-Roman Celtic cultures,

check out Boadicea’s Last Stand:

How the Roman Conquering of the Iceni Marked a Phase Shift in Western Consciousness

and also posts like Power of Raven.

References and Further Reading

Ashe, Geoffrey, 1990.  Mythology of the British Isles. North Pomfret, VT: Trafalgar Square.

Bayer, C.W., 1991. The Historical Method of the Celtic Harp. Carson City, NV: Purple Mountain Press.

Carmichael, Alexander (ed.), 1992 (reprint). Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, Dying and Obsolete: Orally Collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and Translated into English. Orig.: Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, vols. I-VI. Repr.: Lindisfarne Books.

de Troyes, Chrétien, 1987 (reprint; originally written in the 1200s).  Arthurian Romances. W.W. Comfort, transl. London: Dent.

Devereux, Paul, 1992. “Shamanism and the Mystery Lines.”  The Ley Hunter, 116, 11-19.

Evans, J. Gwenogvryn (ed.), 1910.  The Book of Taliesin. Wales, UK: Llanbedrog.

Evans-Wentz, W.Y., 1911. The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. New York: H. Frowde.

Fields, Tina R. (1994).  “Boadicea’s Last Stand: How the Roman Conquering of the Iceni Marked a Phase Shift in Western Consciousness.”  Reno, NV: Celtic Connection: Journal of the Sierra Nevada Celtic Society, May – Nov (serialized).

The Mabinogi and Other Medieval Welsh Tales. Patrick K. Ford, transl/ed., 1977. Berkeley: University of California.

Gantz, Jeffrey (trans.), 1981. Early Irish Myths and Sagas. Middlesex, UK: Penguin.

Graves, Alfred Perceval, (n.d.).  The Book of Irish Poetry. Belfast, IR: Gresham.

Hutton, Ronald, 1991. The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Ireland, S., 1986.  Roman Britain: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge.

Jacobs, Joseph (collector), 1968.  Celtic Fairy Tales. (orig. pub. 1892). NY: Dover.

The Táin (The Cattle Raid of Cúailnge and other Ulaid stories). Thomas Kinsella, transl. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.

Lebor Gabála Érenn (Book of the Invasions of Ireland). R.A.S. Macalister, ed./trans. Dublin: Irish Texts Society, 5 volumes, 1938 -54.

MacCana, Proinsias, 1970.  Celtic Mythology. New York: Hamlyn.

Matthews, John, 1991.  Taliesin: Shamanism and the Bardic Mysteries in Britain and Ireland. London: The Aquarian Press/HarperCollins.

O’Rahilly, Thomas F., 1946.  Early Irish History and Mythology. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

Piggott, Stuart, 1985.  The Druids. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Rolleston, T.W., 1917 (repr.1990). Celtic Myths and Legends. NY: Dover.

Ross, Anne, 1967. Pagan Celtic Britain: Studies in Iconography and Tradition. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Tacitus.  The Annals of Imperial Rome. New York: Penguin, 1989.

Underwood, Guy (1972).  The Pattern of the Past. London: Sphere/Abacus.

Candle Magic Superstitions

I enjoy candle magic.  I find it very straight forward and very versatile. I don't hold much with certain superstitions attached to candle magic, however. I've always been of the opinion that the intent and level of respect is what counts. After all, if I blow the candle out, am I "blowing away" and wasting the energy, or am I sending the energy off to do my will upon my breath? Is it more rude to put out the candle with the air element (blowing it out) than it is with the earth element (using a snuffer)? Wouldn't snuffing (earth element) be like grounding, therefore dissipating the energy? See, I can create superstitions, too! :D

In terms of candle health, it's best to re-wax the wick after putting out the candle by dipping the wick into the pool of melted wax after you put it out, so that could be the origin of the superstition that the fire element and/or the spirits will be offended if you blow out the candle.  If the wick is not re-waxed, then it will have no protection from any moisture that gets on the wick, and an even slightly damp wick will have difficulty being re-lit. Even heavy humidity in the air can make a wick difficult to light.

Of course, using a snuffer doesn't automatically re-wax the wick, either. Some people just smash the snuffer down onto the candle, and that can sometimes re-wax it a little, but not much and not always. Others hold the snuffer just above the flame without it touching the wax so that it burns up the oxygen under the bell and goes out, basically suffocating the flame, which to me is the same as blowing it out. Also, using a snuffer in this way creates as much or more smoke as blowing it out.

My favorite candles to use are votive candles in glass votive holders. Once the candle gets going, the wax drips into the sides, creating a mini jar candle in a way. This helps the candle last longer. When I want to put it out, I'll just take a snuffer and use the handle end, or the handle end of a spoon or fork, and put out the candle by dipping the wick straight into the melted wax. This re-waxes the wick and also keeps the candle from smoking, which I tend to be allergic to anyway. Then, I'll use the handle to make sure the wick is standing upright again so it'll dry upright and be easier to light next time. There are also specialty tools for this that you can get from some candle shops, though any long, heavy gauge wire with the last 1/2 inch bent at a 90 degree angle works just as well.

All that is harder to do with taper candles unless they are of a large diameter, but you can still kind of do it by mashing the wick down onto the top of the candle, especially once it has burned down to the wider section, or else if it's the same diameter the whole length, like the stick candles we've nicknamed "witch sticks" that you can get from most new age shops and online occult supply stores
.

Secret Teachings

Very often, the seeker of spirituality is lured in by promises of secret knowledge, secret power.  Seekers come from all walks of life, but there are commonalities.  The empty, hollow feeling; the need for connection and meaning; the desire to know that there is more to life; the need for everlasting peace; the desire to control the direction of their lives; and upon the cold, wine-dark sea, they will grasp at whatever driftwood seems to promise those things to them.

Some seekers believe they have found what they were seeking after.  They gather knowledge.  They gather rituals.  They gather secret names, motions, and symbols.  Some begin to feel a bit special for all of this; Indeed, not many wouldn't.  As special beings, is it not up to them, therefore, to make sure the "lineage stays pure"?  Is it not up to them to make sure that those to whom they pass on this hard-won knowledge (i.e. usually the price of a few books of new age and/or acedemic provenance) are worthy of such?  So, make sure you stroke their egos.  Make sure you pay your dues, or your seminar fees, or your initiation fees, or your church tithes.  If you don't...maybe you'll find that you by chance aren't worthy of the secrets, of the rituals, the initiations, names and symbols.  You poor, spiritually undeveloped soul, you.  Maybe by next incarnation you'll have learned enough to be ready for the SECRETS....

It should be apparent from what I've written above that I most certainly believe that the knowledge should be available to all, and certainly not suppressed and yet, I suppose I'm in the camp that some would call "exclusionary" or even "elitist", but by observation, not by choice, decision, or mere opinion.  If everyone were meant to do it, it would work for everyone, but it doesn't.  How many people pick up some aspect of the occult, any aspect, and stick with it?  How many does it work for?  Those factors are just as much a part of the mechanism that keeps these things "secret" as them being deliberately kept secret, if not more so. In China, businesses have never *stopped* consulting a feng shui expert.  That doesn't mean everyone *practices* feng shui any more than taking communion makes every Catholic a priest.  Is the occult more accepted in the West today?  Sure.

But we don't have to keep secrets.  The secrets keep themselves.

The only real secrets aren't secrets at all, because they can be neither withheld nor doled out by any human. They are, and have always been, spirit-taught. The first shaman knew this, and so does anyone else with *actual* spiritual attainment.  Knowledge, power, peace and all the rest don't come from a book, or a seminar, or a teacher, or a church, or a secret society or mystery cult.  Anything else purported to be a "secret" is nothing more than culturally developed window dressing.  A good teacher can give you methods to get to the door leading to the experience.  A great teacher then gets out of your way so you can walk through the door.

But will you walk through it?  And once through it, will you stay on the path?  Or will you keep yourself from the secret?...

Advice and Counseling

The other day I was having a conversation with my wife about giving advice to friends, and the bewilderment, exasperation and even sometimes anger that can arise within us when our friend refuses to follow the advice we give. Then also today another friend expressed a similar bewilderment, so I thought that possibly others might benefit from what I told them. Take from this what you may.

I used to get upset when I'd give advice about what I say I would do (assuming when actually faced with that exact same situation that I would actually do that) and people didn't follow it.

Then I realized two things. First, it isn't about me. It's about them. A person can only ever do what they are capable of at the very moment of every decision they are faced with, and they will only ever choose the option that they are capable of choosing given the person they are at that very moment. A person will never "choose" otherwise because events in their lives have shaped them into the person that makes the choice they make, and no other. Speaking the truth as you see it isn't enough. You must also speak it without judgement, and without attachment to the outcome. To do otherwise creates suffering.

The second thing I realized was that, as much as I think I might understand another's life, situation and motivations, I really don't, because I didn't have their experiences exactly the way they did, and that furthermore, believing that I knew better was an illusion at best.

Now, when someone tells me about their problem, I listen first, and sometimes that is really all a person wants, to be heard not "fixed".

Then if I have an idea of how they might better their situation I will ask if they need advice first before giving it. Then, even if they say yes, I always assume that they might not have the will or desire to follow that advice because they feel they know their situation and capabilities better than I do...because they are correct. To do otherwise would mean that when someone else tells me to do something I feel will not work, that I should still do it and ignore my own warning bells.

The best advice I was ever given when dealing with *any* situation I got from a shamanic seminar I attended once, and can be summed up as follows:

1. Be present in the moment. Distress over the past and worry about the future do nothing but cripple our ability to live an authentic life of fullness and wholeness.

2. Know yourself. Your own experiences, prejudices and emotions play a larger role in how you relate to people and situations than you may realize.

3. Speak your truth without blame, judgement or criticism. Nothing destroys communication faster than a willful disregard for another's "placement".  Everyone fights their own battles.

4. Have no attachment to the outcome. Be open to the possibilities. Doing so will avoid worry over the future, as well as avoid suffering caused by too great a desire for specific outcomes.

Pendulum Energy Work

I study the phenomenon variously known as ley lines, faerie trods, or dragon line/paths/roads.  Though these can be described by different cultures in different ways, I will describe it thus:

Spiritual energy runs, swirls, and pools throughout the universe, throughout the world, and through and in all life in the Universe.  The Chinese might call this Qi or Ch'i.  The Japanese call it Ki, the Hawaiians would call it Mana.  It is the Prana of Hinduism and Buddhism.  The Anglo-Saxons called it Maegen, as in "might and main", i.e. physical and spiritual strengths. The Romans would have known it as numen, and the Greeks, Pneuma. Some traditions of Druidry call it Nwyfre.

This energy tends to run in veins across the earth, pooling in various "places of power", and it does the same thing in the human body, whence come the concepts of chakras, pressure points and acupuncture, etc.

To wit, here are some ideas for exercises one can do with a pendulum, a weight of natural material suspended on a thread or chain of natural material:

Pendulum exercises

SETTING UP YOUR PENDULUM:

• make it swing on purpose: clockwise, stop, counterclockwise, stop, back and forth, stop, left and right, stop
• show me neutral, show me yes, show me no, show me confusion/ wrong question
• always only ask yes/no questions

EXERCISES WITH AN ASSISTANT:

Have a friend set these experiments up so that you don't know ahead of time which is which, then use the pendulum, asking yes/no questions to determine which is which.

• 2 glasses of water, tap and bottled
• 3 glasses of water: plain, salted, sugared, find each mineral
• 2 coins, same date and denomination
• 2 coins same date, different denomination or vice versa
• 3 coins, 2 same and 1 different
• row of cards, find the red one, etc
• row of court cards, find the king etc
• 3 cups, find the coin
• 3 cups; 3 coins, find each coin
• friend thinks of object in house or yard, find out what it is
• friend hides an object in house, etc
• use maps to find things

USE PENDULUM TO DETERMINE DATE/TIME:

• use calendar and clock to find date something happened/ will happen by pointing to each date and hour.

ASKING A SPIRIT QUESTIONS:

• draw 170 degree fan charts with choices about a subject, such as the alphabet to ask spirits questions like a talking board, or two or more choices. A chart of 180 degrees or more could cause confusion about which letter the pendulum was swinging towards.

• hold pendulum over chakras to determine if out of balance/blocked. An clear chakra should cause the pendulum to circle clockwise, or sometimes counterclockwise, while a blocked or limited chakra usually causes the pendulum to swing in a straight line or to hold still.

FOR DOWSING:

• finding water, ley lines, oil, metals, lost objects, people, etc

~ divide an area into grids and pointing to each grid on a map, rule out each grid until you find the object
~ use triangulation to pinpoint
~ turn in direction of circular swings to face correct direction to find something
~ for depth start by standing over the spot; walk away until the pendulum swings (or stops swinging). The number of feet you've walked away from the spot is how many feet down the object is

• predict weather (National Weather Service is supposedly only 30% accurate)

• 4 elements:
Deosil - air, sanguine
widdershins - water, phlegmatic
horizontal - earth, melancholic
vertical - fire, choleric

•4 humors also, for diagnosis of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual ailments

The Purpose of Myth

Myths are truth spoken of by allegory, metaphor, and symbolism. Myths are illustrations of spiritual principles. They are not the principles themselves. They were created by those who had an insight to demonstrate those principles which such people already had some understanding of, not to become dogma themselves. 

I prefer to take the tack that what is, is. I enjoy reading the myths and folklore, but if they do not sync with my actual spiritual experiences well then, I am going to take my own personal experiences over anything else, because the sun is right there and it's the sun, and the ground is right here beneath my feet and it is what is.

I think the Gaelic and Brythonic myths of my ancestors as we have them are valuable, but I would never trust them enough to believe that they are automatically more correct than my own personal experiences, especially considering that they were still written down by Christian monks, and although the Bible is at least 1700 years old, I think it is pretty much wrong on most things of consequence to me, so appeals to written authority don't really hold as much weight with me.

I would rather study the myths of my ancestors, but translate into modern English words every thing or being my experience by using modern English to create epithets, etc. If I feel that my experience of a being coincides with the mythological descriptions of particular deities, etc. then great.

I think if more people would actually translate the names of the gods as much as possible into modern English so that we can really understand what the epithet meant, and use that modern English phrase instead of the deity's "name", then we might come to a better understanding of what our ancestors thought about them, because they were not for the most part using foreign language to describe their deities. They were using the everyday language that they intimately understood and were raised with. I certainly agree with the value of studying Celtic languages, I study Finnish, Norwegian, Old Norse, Old English, Welsh and Scottish Gaelic myself and have even studied at Sabhal Mor Ostaig, but we should never forget that it was our ancestors' actual experience with their own present that we are reading about. As a language teacher I can tell you it certainly can get in the way, especially a foreign and romanticized one.

Some may wonder what happens when one's personal experience is at great odds with a detail of the myths, and I suppose the answer would be complex and would depend on the specific discrepancy and it's degree, whether or not the discrepancy were covered by another related people to show a possible other interpretation that existed but didn't get attested, whether we know enough about that topic that there is absolutely no debate at all among scholars of the subject for there to be a "correct" interpretation or answer, etc.  I think though, that the fact that learned scholars can't agree on some things means in and of itself that no one view can be authoritative regarding those topics, and in a way would make every belief a kind of personally favored myth-inspired UPG. 

The Celtic and Germanic tribes are but two groups of many tribes descended from whom scholars typically name the Indo-Europeans and that their language, which all European languages but four descend from, is called by them Proto-Indo-European, and that many deity names are co-arisen from common PIE root names. I fully agree that different peoples came to understand the gods in their own unique ways, but no matter how long the centuries and the miles and the language slang innovations that turned into dialects and then separate languages, the sun each generation looked upon was the same, and they only ever taught their children a combination of what their parents taught them coupled with their own experience.

I also try to think about the individual and small community life experiences back then. I don't think most people's considerations of the gods extended beyond their experienced world.

If they had a concept of a deity that was everywhere and represented a certain set of powers, experiences, or what-have-you's, and they moved to a new area already populated, did that god come with them? Are they more intuitive than the indigenous population to detect a deity that was already there that the indigenous inhabitants didn't notice? Would they have said "oh, you call her that? Well, we call him this"? 

If they moved to an area where there used to be a people who worshipped a certain deity, but those people were long gone without a trace, would that deity cease to exist because the new people worshipped their version or whatever instead? Would they intuit that god there as different even though each culture considered their own deity present everywhere they were and used different names?

I'm one who believes there are many gods, but only so many, not a soft polytheist who believes that all gods are one god, and not a hard polytheist who believes that every mention of every single god name*has* to represent a completely separate being. You might say that I am an "al dente" polytheist, just soft enough, just hard enough, for my taste anyway. I think all things have their individual spirit, but that the gods are omnipresent in all things in the way that they are, that there is no part of anything that is not "of the gods".

I'm not 100% pure hard polytheist because then I'd have internal conflict trying to decide if Odin only created the first Germanic people while Zeus and Prometheus made the first Greeks. That's why I say that my experience weighs just as heavily for me as the myths, because for me the gods are so much more vast than any people in any time could have defined completely. The All Father is the All Father, not the Some Father.

If the creation myths can be assumed to be metaphorical without specifically telling us so, then how is it so easy to say that all people aren't talking about the same great powers as manifested through their own story telling and understanding?  Why would we feel free to take the myths as definitively saying that all the father gods of all the pantheons are different beings, but then be wary of taking the rest too literally?  In my opinion, it is simply better to take it all as metaphor, speaking a truth symbolically, rather than literally.

I am the same person, acting always from my same core, and yet my wife and my mother know me differently by the very nature of my interaction with them and their perception of my actions. If they didn't know each other, and described me to each other in the checkout line, would they possibly think they were talking about different people who happened to have *some* commonalities?

Myths are the lived experiences of a spiritual reality, not an objective observation of a spiritually lifeless universe. 

Myths may be the bricks and tiles comprising the walls and roof, the shape of which define a way or culture, but the principles that inform those myths are the same ground and foundation for everyone, and from which everything is born equally. 

Where Have All The Pagans Gone?

Where have all the actual pagans gone? Not the universalists. Not the its-all-the-same-mountain-ists, but the Actual Pagans™?

Where are the dirt worshipping heathens?
Who lights the bonfires anymore? 

Who beats the drum by moonlight? 

Who spills ale or mead or wine for the ancestors and the spirits of the trees? 

Who really crosses the hedge, not just claims it for ego and praise? 

Who slips inside the world through the roots deep underground? 

Who whistles up the wind anymore? 

Who rides the brooms and pitchforks among the clouds and the stars to the Meadow? 

Who takes up the runes, roaring?

Who dances the ring-dances and guises the People of Fur and Feather? 

Where are the shapeshifters? 

Who still has a fire in their head? 

Anyone? Anyone???

Weather Work

I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It is a great place to live, for the most part. An hour from New Orleans, a little more than that to Mobile. There is a quaint charm to my small town, and the French colonial culture still lingers, lending a rich history. The weather is pretty darn great, too. We have long summers to enjoy our beaches, ample rainfall without usually getting drowned out, and mild short winters. There are no blizzards. There are no mudslides. There are no earthquakes, volcanoes or tsunamis. Tornados typically do not form here in the 3 mile wide strip of land south of Interstate 10. But we do have hurricanes.

Back in 2005, we had the mother of all hurricanes come through. Katrina. That name will forever haunt an entire generation of coastians. You see, New Orleans may have gotten the coverage because their levies broke an hour after the storm had passed, but they were 40 miles from the eye of the storm, on its weaker west side, while my town was 20 miles from the eye on the stronger east side of the storm. So I know a thing or two about what weather is capable of doing.

One aspect of any "magical" path that is mentioned often is the ability to influence the weather. From the witches of Europe, to the shamans of Siberia and the medicine men of Native America, the ability to influence the weather for good or ill has been a common feature of sorcerers, magicians and shamans the world over.

We don't live in a vacuum. Everything we do, everything, has consequences, both good and bad, and this applies to our physical actions (and inactions) just as much as our "magical" ones. Our responsibility when working with the weather comes foremost in trying our best to determine what effect we will have on not only our community but also adjacent communities and indeed, the entire world.

With this in mind, one must think long and hard about performing weather work, and only doing so in situations of true need. But the responsibility does not end there.

While it should go without saying that to push a storm away from you and yours is unethical because it will mean pushing it towards others, I'd like to tell you about another unethical practice. I remember many years ago, when another hurricane threatened our shores, that one group of practitioners, and I don't remember if they were wiccans or druids or what they called themselves, decided for all the community that they felt *we* could handle the storm better than the Florida community to which the storm was apparently headed, so what did they do? They performed a rite to draw the storm to us! Thankfully, most practitioners were working to weaken the storm, so when it did arrive on our beaches it was not so strong.

Hurricanes are needed. They provide a release for the energies building up in the world's oceans. Without this release, things could get much worse. Hurricanes also bring much needed rain to land and they also help to cool the blistering summer in many places. These things are needed.

We should not try to avert weather conditions, in my opinion, unless lives are at stake, and I don't just mean human lives. We might save a human, and in the process kill thousands of marine and land plants and animals. If you think that won't create a debt for you, my personal belief is that you are sorely mistaken.

This past weekend we had another small storm come through, tropical storm Karen. I saw the usual rhyming spell passed around asking for the storm to be weakened, but I have recently been working more animistically on purpose, so I thought I'd take another approach.

The fox is an amazing animal, and it has much to teach one who would be open to receive its wisdom. Even studying the physical habits of animals will yield much wisdom that can be applied to one's daily life, as well as to one's spiritual practice. One thing the fox is known for is creating caches of food to save for later. Their stomachs are not very large compared to the rest of their body, so they kill or scavenge food and hide it, to return to it later when they have less luck.

I decided to utilize this to my advantage and at the same time, try to weaken the storm. After speaking to the spirit of the storm and asking to have some of its energy, I asked fox to nip away bits of the storm's energy and save it for later, to cache the bits away safely so that we could have use of them later. After the storm I did a divination to see how many caches of power she had acquired, and how powerful they were, and I am very pleased with the results.

You will never hear me being so pompous as to say that I am the reason the storm weakened before it came ashore, but I do feel that I contributed in some small part to make it safer for everyone, while also allowing the storm to take its course and expend its energy, while not taking too much.

How Speaks The Wind?

How speaks the wind, what doth it bring?

A beached fish gasp, in terror spent?

Its mind a ball of tangled string,

For fear and dread shall ne’er relent.

Or speaks it thus; an ancient knowing?

Like a stone upon a field of war,

Where men died, grain they now are sowing,

And banshee’s cry is heard no more.

Perhaps it whispers like a lover

To calm the soul with passion’s fire

Upon the skin, caress of clover

Aching dance of heart’s desire

For me, the wind a strange friend be

And I, too, stranger become

Full sails, slipping ‘pon the sea

Forever bound for home…

~Christopher Crittenden

My Inspirations and Training

I have been an animist for as long as I can remember.  I remember always feeling as though animals and plants, trees and rocks, cars and televisions could all understand me when I spoke to them, and could communicate back to me in their own ways.  My first experiences that I can remember happened during and shortly after I became extremely ill with strep throat for the first time of what would be two to three times a year, every year, from the age of 5 to the age of 15.  That first time, my fever spiked to 103, and I was delirious for some days.

I remember when I was very young, just after learning to read, sneaking the Encyclopedia Brittanica into my bedroom at night to read about the ancient Gods, without anyone ever having told me about them, much less telling me their stories or myths.  I would pray to them in the only way I knew how, on my knees by the bed.  My, how times have changed!

I began to identify as Wiccan at the age of 12, when I stumbled upon Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft while looking for role playing game books. The "New Age" section in Waldenbooks in the mall was right next to the role playing game section, and the cover caught my eye.  I immediately devoured it, eager to know more, and excited that there were actually others who felt like I did.  About this time I began to attempt meditation and trance work, through whatever methods I could find.  It was also about this time, when I began to have purposeful Otherworldly journeying experiences, that my 2 to 3 times yearly strep throat bouts ceased.

At age twenty, I became the de facto high priest of a coven (because I was the only male in the group at the time I joined) that saw many people come and go over the years.  The high priestess was like a second mother to me, and I learned a lot from her, about magic and about life. Ours was an eclectic group, and everyone seemed to have their own path, while also being able to find a common ground for a group practice.

  Since then, I have explored many different paths, from Buddhism and Hinduism, to Traditional Witchcraft, Celtic Reconstructionism, Druidry, Asatru, Religio Romana, Hellenismos, and Graeco-Egyptian Hellenistic practice. I am a member, or a past member, of various organizations such as the Troth, the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA) (1st degree),  Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) (Dedicant program completed), the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids (OBOD) (Druid Grade completed), Hellenion, Res Publica Romana, and the Society for Shamanic Practitioners.  I have also studied the journeying and extraction healing methods of core shamanism with Micheal Harner's Foundation for Shamanic Studies, after having read and put into practice his seminal book The Way of the Shaman years ago. 

Don't Forget The Hoop

Being a pagan immersed in British Isles lore, I have had to answer the question of the use of animal parts such as fur, hide, and bone.  Many feel that it is not ethical today to use such things in a practice that aims for healing and wholeness.

I have my own reasons why I continue to use animal parts, and this article, linked below, by a traditional drum maker highlights some of them.  I happen to have a synthetic drum, owing mainly to circumstance more than the ability to choose at the time, and my drum and I have been on many an adventure together, but I stand by the idea that animal parts can be and are used today in an ethical manner by many people worldwide.

Personally, I feel that the idea that there is *no* ethical way to use animal parts, is to denigrate my ancestors, their struggles, their wisdom, and their capabilities to balance the worlds of Life and Death, of the Seen and the Unseen, and I refuse to do that.  Some give me the argument that just because our ancestors did something, that doesn't mean we have to continue to do it.  It actually amazes me how often I hear this, as though the person thinks they are the first person ever to have the opportunity to tell me this, as though I've never heard it before, but I would rather follow the ways of my ancestors as closely as I am able, rather than have tons of fossil fuels burned on my behalf to bring vegetables to me out of season from the other side of the planet.

I also find that those of European descent from industrial Western cultures seem to be chastised for using natural hide skins for their drums and other ritual items more often than other ethnic groups, which could be taken as indicating some racism, because if white people "should know better" then shouldn't everyone else? If other ethnic groups get a free pass because they "don't know better" then that is both racist and well as insulting to their ancestral wisdom. If they get a free pass because of tradition, then that is yet another attempt at both romanticizing their culture, putting them in the "noble savage" role, as well as denying European-descended peoples their own ancestral, cultural traditions as shown in the archaeological record.

In the article linked below, the author requests of us, "don't forget the hoop".  Don't forget the circle of Life and Death.  Please take a moment to read the article. I also ask that you, now and in your daily life, not forget the hoop.  Ask yourself *exactly* from where come all the things that you use.  Are your shoes made of fake leather, manufactured from petroleum?  How many animals suffered a loss of habitat for you to acquire those synthetic shoes, shirts, belts, CD's and CD cases, strawberries out of season, etc.?  Find your balance. Be a guide, but be one without blame or judgment. Let others find their balance.  Get out of their way, because you can't force your balance onto another.  It just doesn't work that way.

Ethics of Hide Drums

The Truth of The Deathless and the Sacrifice of Life to Life

Life is a web, forever weaving and dynamic, not a mountain with a peak. Consciousness is a sphere, with all points equidistant to the center, not allotted more to some and less to others like some cosmic pyramid scheme. All things are alive, because all things are conscious. All things are conscious because consciousness pervades all things, and does so equally. All things are beings.

In all of Nature, life is taken to preserve life, all life is sacred, and all life is equal. All life is equally precious. All. From the largest of animals, to every person, down to every blade of grass and pebble and grain of sand, all life yearns to live. So should we all conceive of it. Such should be our perception as well.

This speaks to a great responsibility placed upon what we choose to birth into existence. Does that idea benefit life, or does it encourage needless death or suffering? Does that organization promote the good for all of life, not just for some individuals? Does that piece of plastic really need to be created?

When you can feel the loss, and the awe of the sacred immensity resounding in the depths of your soul, at the death of the tiniest green growing thing as much as you feel it for a human life or that of an animal, and when you can feel the certainty of the debt to life thus created, then you will only have begun to perceive the truth of the oneness of things, and the sacred equality of which I speak.

Understood this way, every moment becomes a sacred moment, with no escape into the "ordinary" to be possible, no escape to the belief that this-and-such a moment is profane and only that-and-such a moment is sacred, and every death becomes a sacred sacrifice and a promise to return a gift fully given. What will that sacrifice call forth for you?

Do the implications of this make you uncomfortable? Does your discomfort make it less true, just to make you feel better?

Fox Walking

Fox-walking.

The first time I heard this phrase, I was intrigued, as you may imagine given the name of this blog.  I was reading Tom Cowan's blog, Riverdrum, where he mentions it.  This is what he has to say:

"Fox-walking is a term for stalking in which you move extremely slow, I repeat extremely slow. You put your foot down on its outer edge and roll it over onto the ball of your foot, and lower your heel. You cannot walk fast doing this. This is more extreme than slow-motion scenes in movies. It will take perhaps five times as long to go wherever you're going to compare to your usual pace. But it is truly ecstatic. You're hardly moving so you feel like just another thing in the forest. Birds don't see you coming and fly away. Chipmunks don't bat an eye. And you notice everything. You see everything partly because you're spending so much time at each step you take, but also because you don't have to look down at the ground. When you Fox-walk, your foot feels the roots or rocks or dips on the earth, and you adjust your step accordingly. Fox-walking frees you up to keep your attention on the 180° scene in front of you. You can spend a lot of time looking at what ever you see."

So, of course, I had to give it a go. What I immediately noticed was that I am not nearly the ninja I thought I was when I was younger.  Eventually, once I figured out that I needed to open myself so that energy flowed into me rather than concentrating so much on noticing as much as I could that I was pumping energy out of me, the animals and birds no longer flew from my presence.

Once I became calm and open to the energies and consciousnesses around me, I immediately became "bigger".  That familiar connection and oneness, that I was formerly only used to feeling in meditative and sitting trance states, rushed into me more forcefully than I had ever previously experienced.  I began to make this as regular a practice as I could from then on, and I highly recommend everyone try it.

Smudging is not Stealing

I think some accusations of cultural appropriation are valid, and some are the result of the accuser's lack of knowledge, or possibly even racism or guilt over past or present racism.


For instance, often when someone is asked to give an example of cultural appropriation in the realm of spirituality and/or the occult in the modern day that is insensitive to the culture of origin, the example most often given is non-indigenous people continuing to burn sage as a spiritual purifier after being asked to stop doing so by *some* Native Americans.


Now, there certainly are many instances of cultural misappropriation in the world today, but that is not one of them, because Europeans have been smudging with sage for thousands of years. Sage (salvia officinalis) was burned and otherwise used by the Romans as a spiritual purifier and to ward off evil. White sage (salvia apiana), native only to the North American Southwest, is a related plant, and why in English it is called sage. Since white sage is only native to the Southwest of the United States, not even all Native Americans were using it across the continent, because it did not grow everywhere, just like tobacco does not grow everywhere and was therefore not used by *all* Native Americans.


Non-indigenous people are simply using another version of the same plant they were always using, that is at least a bit more native to where they are currently living than a plant from Europe. Besides that, "smudge" is a native *English word. It's the verbal form of the noun "smoke" and means "to apply smoke to something or make a smoky fire". That is why even today when smoke has been applied to something we can say that it has a smudge on it. It is such an old English word that it changes the vowel to change the part of speech, like changing "man" to "men" to make it plural, or changing the noun "road" into the verb "ride". In other words, it was in use before English speaking people were even aware of the existence of the North and South American continents. Most folks don't have a master's degree in linguistics as I do, but their ignorance doesn't make their opinion correct.

Personally, I don't mind if others want to use a word from my ancestral language to describe a practice common to many peoples across the earth, and I'll be continuing to use whatever words I want to describe what I do as well, especially if those words come from my own ancestral language, and I'm going to continue to use in an environmentally friendly way whatever plants that are local and/or ancestral to me that I feel appropriate. I actually prefer cedar/juniper/cypress, mugwort, birch bark, common sage, holy grass, rosemary and lavender, all of which are native to the European lands of my ancstors.


What does burning an herb for purification look like when its a Native American practice as opposed to a European or Middle Eastern practice, so we will know what not to do? Using an abalone shell to hold it and an eagle feather to swish the smoke around? My European ancestors held the eagle to be sacred as well. Eagle was depicted sitting atop Yggdrasil, the World Tree. And my ancestors lived much closer to the ocean, as I still do, to have access to shells than the Native American tribes that lived in the Southwestern desert where white sage grows. For any Native American tribe near the area where I live to use white sage and then say I shouldn't use it, would be like French people living in Paris and using a plant that only grows near Cadiz and claiming that's ok because its "European", and then saying that any Chinese who live in Paris have no right to it for their own traditional rituals that used a similar plant back in China because they are not of European ancestry. It is racism, pure and simple. Others don't have a right to your ceremonies, but they have all the right in the world to use the plant.

This same misconception applies to other items, aspects and cultural trappings that popular culture automatically associates with Native Americans. Sweetgrass is another example. It grows in all circumpolar regions, not only in North America, but also China, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, as well as the lands of my ancestors in Scotland, where it is called holy grass, and Scandinavia, where it is called sødgræs.

Additionally, we have actual archaeological evidence that the ancestors of Europeans wore skins and "moccasin" style shoes, wore cloaks made of colorful bird feathers (which in the Gaelic languages of the Celts was called a tuigen) and had bullroarers (dated to 18,000 years ago!) and skin frame drums, both for winnowing grain and playing. It was called a vétt in the Lokasena, and is called a wecht in Scots English, a dialect of English spoken in Scotland that was heavily influenced by the Norse (Clive Tolley, 2016).  The Irish bodhran is skin frame drum, and some very old sources describe the framed skin used for winnowing grain in Irish Gaelic as a "bodhran". In other words, if "white people" use drums and feathers and wear skins in their spiritual practice, they are not appropriating something that didn't belong to their very own ancestors, and having those things forced from them by political leaders who converted to Christianity is not the same thing as our ancestors having willingly given them up, so they are still our birthright.


How many other accusations are based on a similar lack of knowledge on the part of the accuser, and also of the accused to defend themselves and also align their practice with a cultural root of their own? Maybe not even most accusations, but these few examples still demonstrate that we need to be careful about how much we allow ourselves to be manipulated by our own emotions into attempting to place limitations on other people, and we need to truly educate ourselves on the full story of things, especially if they elicit an emotional response from us. Finally, we should never give up the customs of our own ancestors just to appease another's lack of knowledge or tolerance of our own cultural ancestry.