Like many other indigenous societies, Celtic society was structured and organized; everyone knew who they were because of the place they held within that structure. Our own society has structures that are just firm, but we barely notice them because they are so much a part of the lens through which we see reality.
Read MoreAt Samhain, the Celts honored and feasted their ancestors, not as the dead but as the living spirits of loved ones, the long line of kin who guarded the root-wisdom of the tribe. Samhain’s Eve was the night to remember and toast these beloved ones, for the veil between the living and the dead was thought to be thin, and communication was possible. These Celtic celebrations in many ways resembled the Day of the Dead festivities celebrated by Mexican Americans and other Hispanic groups—not a somber festival but a celebration, a joyful acknowledgement that death is not the end of our family ties, that kinship survives even death. Our modern Halloween celebrations don’t offer us that same connection with our ancestors.
Read MoreFor our Celtic ancestors, these last days of October and the first days of November were a holy time. For the ancient Celts, time’s cycle was truly a sacrament, a way to experience the sacred. Day and night, sun and moon, and the four seasons all carried profound spiritual messages.
Read MoreDragons have lived within the human imagination for thousands of years. Whether wise and wonderful, or monstrous and evil, these creatures are a part of us. In one way or another, we all dream of dragons.
Read MoreThe yearning we feel in the twenty-first century for all things Celtic is nothing new. In the 1700s, people in England became interested once again in the Druids and sought to bring druidry back to life. Later, in the nineteenth century, the poet William Butler Yeats was at the center of what is known as the Celtic Revival, a movement that sought to reaffirm a Gaelic spiritual heritage amid the encroaching British culture.
Read More
