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“The Welsh are not like any other people in Britain, and they know how separate they are. They are the Celts, the tough little wine-dark race who were the original possessors of the island, who never mixed with the invaders coming later from the east, but were slowly driven into the western mountains.” ― Laurie Lee
There were two branches of the Celts: The P Celts and the Q Celts. The P Gaelic were the British/Welsh that evolved to become the Druids. The Q celts were the Irish, Scottish, Manx Gaelic. Each had their own language. And, it is important to note that being Celt does not mean blood line. It means to have their own organizations, their own myths and language. Their own arts. Being Celtic was a Cultural thing not a Blood Line.
‘Mabinogi” meant ‘boyhood’ to begin with but became synonymous with ‘tale of a hero’s boyhood” and then took on the meaning of Welsh ‘tale’. Some 6th century manuscripts were found that tell many stories/tales but there are four main stories and, in these stories, lies hidden mysteries and magic of the Celts. The stories’ main themes are about ‘Awen”, the divine spirit of inspiration. The stories were passed down as oral stories, then scribes began to write them down. In the cultures of Celtism were bases of magic. It was only the Christians that came and called the unexplained miracles and mysteries “Witchcraft” and labeled it negative.
What they call magic was simple ritual and ceremony to connect to the earlier ancients, and to help understand the natural world that ruled their lives. The wise women (and men) were those who knew and used the old ways of healing. They were valued members of the societies. They were called the ‘swyn’. There never was a ‘witch’ craze surrounding these healers. The healing ways have never been banished, nor burned, nor stereotyped due to the attitudes of the peoples themselves. Today, there continues the ancient practices of healing and connection to the divine. What might be called ‘magic’ is simply a way of understanding, ancient ways used to heal body, mind, heart and soul… a way to use phrases, words, herbs, totems, symbols to strengthen the connection. It has nothing to do with religion and all to do with personal and collective ways of connection, ways of stilling the body, mind, heart and soul in order to make such connections. A tribal connection, then... a connection to Celtic consciousness that goes back to heritage and locale of ancestors, their beliefs before Christianity imposed a totally ‘other’ cultural set of beliefs and ways of connecting.
For the majority of this month, I will be blogging about Celtism and, hopefully, help you understand how Celtism does not infringe on religious beliefs, in that we are merely expressing a more ancient way, a more simplistic, yet mysterious way of understanding purpose and healing from being down here on this hard earth without our deep cultural myth and legends and ways of healing and balancing and expressing our soul. I will be art journaling as I go into my own study and ways of understanding my own Celtism. It is through the study and in becoming more aware of the Celts, that the continuation of Celtism carries on into our present and future. We are sharing this experience together for I am as new to this as any, but I am a lifelong learner.
I hope you become more interested in your own ancient culturalism and ways of understanding, in an ancient way, life down here on earth where nature rules and why, deep inside, there are some mysteries within you that become clearer.
©Carol Desjarlais 11.6.22
* This art journal page was done with pastels and pen. There is an ancient Celtic map collaged in the right corner.
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