I was reading a very good article that Erynn Rowan Laurie made in 1995, about the Celtic Path. And I want to share some reflections about that, about what each of these nine points mean to me, whilst following this path.
“The first is a reverence for the deities of the Celtic Pantheon" The Celtic pantheon, is mostly divided in gods of light (the Tuatha Dé Dannan) and of dark (the Formorians) I have read and learn stories about them, and every day I find a new one.
How ever, my theological point of view is a little different. I believe in One God, that is the creator of all things, and the perfection of all. It’s not male, nor female, but as a synthesis of these concepts it reflects in it’s perfect being, the neutral, that combines the two opposites.
But I do believe that there are individual spirits of the earth and universe, some call them gods and goddesses, some angels and saints; but the thing is that they are present all over the places. Some has some “areas of influence” since I strongly believe that they are individual spirits, not as some pagans believe that all gods are one god and all goddesses one goddess. So they may have influence in the forces of nature and in what it’s call magic itself.
“Second is a reverence of the ancestors and the spirits of the land”. In that I’m fully agree with the Celtic point of view, every land has it’s own spirit, and it’s own ancestors, and we have to be respectful about them, and even ask them it’s favour when walking it’s land, making a ritual, meditating, or just, walking around. But it’s also important to reverence our own ancestors and spirits that walk along with us, watching us, taking care of us.
“Third, poetry as intrinsic to the structure of magick” Poetry and music, and arts in general is something I find as important to learn as many of my scientific knowledge. Arts are the manifestation of our souls, as well as science is the manifestation of our minds. A human can not be full if not embrace this two, and in this two the spiritual growing of it’s being.
The word, the song, it’s one of the most powerful magic that human being has, it can change the world, it can change our world, if we let them.
“Fourth, a connection with the past" I find History as one of my passions, I firmly believe that we can’t understand our present, not making our future, if we don’t know about our past, that as individuals, and as a community. In every story, tale, myth, we can find the old ways, a voice that our ancestors, the ancestors of humankind, are speaking to us, they are teaching us so we can learn about the good and bad things that in their time passed. This lore, is how, we will be talking to our grandchildren in the future, and it’s a connection that has not to be broken.
"Fifth, a sense of early Celtic cosmology" as I say in a previous post, this is a very important topic that differentiates the Celtic Path from all other pagan path, and I dare to say, from all the other religions in the world. There were not dualities (good-evil, goddess-god, ying-yang) nor cosmologies of four, the four elements, were something that Celtic lore had not. And even directions, they add a fifth one, but actually they where three; since they were pairs north & south, east & west and from the union of this two pairs, it rise a new one, the centre. This triality it’s somehow difficult to understand for a modern point of view, and It gave me a lot to think about, and still does. Also the celtic virtues "strength, truth and generosity” These three virtues are really wonderful lore to me. In strength I find the motor that our will needs to walk in our journey of life.
Strength is not only of body, is not about having great muscles, is about our spirit, our mind, and yes also our body. We have strength of spirit when we open it to love, when we make our will strong enough to fight the problems, when we make it strong enough to be tender with others.
Truth, truth is a basic pillar of our lives, we need to speak with the truth, fill our tongues of it, not to make harm, nor to boast nor to flattery. And always in the search of knowledge, we also are seeking for the Truth, even if sometimes it goes apart in our journey, we must try to find it again.
Generosity, that is a value that as society have loose a lot, we need to recover it, it’s to share, to share our knowledge, to share our feelings, to help the one who needs and wants help, if every man think about it in this world, a lot of thing will change.
"Sixth, I think that inclusiveness is important" We must learn that we are in the same boat, we are just part of the same planet. There’s a lot of time wasting in finding our differences, than in finding our common ground. I like to consider myself as a world citizen, and in that, embrace a love for all.
"Seventh, respect for women" Respect for women or people who have different sexual preference of the ones we hold it's very important, we can no longer believe that there is a gender that is better or superior that the other, nor that certain "normal" preferences are just the right ones.
"Ninth, personal responsibility" Honour and responsibility, that are the basics of the sense of self. We must honour our omens, our dreams, our words. And also take full responsibility of our actions, there’s a need to be aware that every action we make affects the others, affects everything as a whole, it can affect another human being, or any part of the nature. If we are aware of that, and think twice, we’ll see that we have responsibility for ourselves.
So this small reflections I share with you, so they’ll be shared around the world, and hopefully give some clues, some little lights to others, finding their own paths.
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