This article refers to my new yearlong, interactive online course Celtic Studies: Myth, Tradition, Spirituality, which begins May 18, 2020. If you enrol before February 18, you have the option of paying in four monthly instalments (for an overall course fee of £250). You can find full course details at this link.
A storm is whipping around Ynys Môn, Mona, the Isle of Anglesey, as I’m writing. It’s raging back in Connemara, too, where I still have a foothold for a little while. Until the sale of our house there is completed, and we’ve returned to Wales for good. Meanwhile, I’m living a peripatetic life – lurching from Ireland to Wales and back again. It’s unsettling, but it brings right into my daily life a thing that I’ve always understood intellectually: that the two places are so profoundly connected in a myriad of different ways. And of course, there is folklore about a greater Wales which was separated from Ireland by a land-bridge or a shallow sea across which, in the Second Branch of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, Bendigeidfran (Bran the Blessed) walked.
It’s not as unlikely an idea as it might seem. During the Mesolithic age, sea levels around Britain were more than 100 metres lower than they are today. Britain wasn’t quite an island, then; it was connected on all sides. Not just to Ireland, but to continental Europe – and so it is that the name Doggerland has been given to a great plain which is now filled by the North Sea, but which once was inhabited by the last hunter-gatherers in Europe.
So it’s not surprising that we see so many similarities in cosmology, mythology and spirituality, as well as other fundamental aspects of culture, stretching out all along this wild Western seaboard of Europe. But instead of focusing on this common ground, and using it to forge a set of contemporary spiritual practices which we can all belong to, we sometimes have a tendency to revert, as we so often have done in the past, to focusing on all that seems to divide us. Who is ‘Celtic’ and who is not being one of those questions that sometimes haunts those who don’t know where, for example, ‘Celtic’ ends and ‘English’ begins.
That’s why my new yearlong interactive online course, Celtic Studies: Myth, Tradition and Spirituality, aims to blur those boundaries again, and find a way of reclaiming the traditions of our ancestors which all of us from these islands can embrace. Because the world has changed, and we need to change too. The old ways of doing religion and spirituality – which have, down the millennia, achieved little more than setting us against each other – usually into the ‘saved’ or the ‘not-saved’; God’s ‘chosen’ or his ‘not-chosen’ – have had their day. And we badly need not to make the same mistakes again, by forming exclusive ‘clubs’, or applying labels to ourselves which set us apart.
But that doesn’t mean we have to be cut adrift from our native traditions. Quite the contrary; we just need to learn to reclaim them in ways that are open and inclusive. And reclaiming an authentic, land-based spiritual practice is critically important; it is, I believe, the Great Work of our time. As our crumbling social, political and religious institutions continue to fail us, and as we watch the consequences of our own actions deplete, pollute and choke the planet, so many of us are looking for answers to the ever-more urgent question of how we should live now. And we’re finding those answers in the wisdom which all the old stories tell us can be found on the fringes, in the forest, in the wild thickets of the ancient hedge. In the rich and diverse native wisdom traditions of these islands – that deep ancestral lineage which is our inheritance. It’s time to reclaim those traditions, and weave them into an authentic, grounded practice for very different times.
The term ‘Insular Celts’ is used to refer to the peoples of the British Iron Age prior to the Roman conquest, and their contemporaries in Ireland. Once upon a time, all of these people would have spoken a Celtic language – from either the Brythonic (Wales, Cornwall) or Goidelic/Gaelic (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man) branches. And, as the oldest texts and folklore from these islands indicate, in these islands we had a rich native mystery tradition. And we practised an earth-centred spirituality, founded on a cosmology which had at its heart the requirement to live in balance and harmony, not just with the everyday physical world of our senses, but with the Otherworlds which overlapped and influenced it. Otherworlds which we could sometimes penetrate, if we were willing to put the work in, and complete the long apprenticeship. This was how our ancestors lived – until the time came when our indigenous culture and spirituality was overwritten by a wave of religious colonisations that severed us from our lineage and from our spiritual roots.
Roots are anchored in the land, and the land is our greatest teacher. We need to put our roots down deeply again into this ancient earth, and find our sense of the sacred there again. Because although the chain of our ancestral spiritual traditions has been broken, the land is still there as our teacher, and the Otherworld still penetrates it. They’re all still there – the old sacred sites, the rocks and stones, the mountains, the ancient trees, the Voices of the Wells, the gods in our places … they’re still there. Waiting for us to wake up again. Waiting for us to find our way back to them.
This course is all about finding our way back to them. And above all, my approach to the question of what makes an authentic contemporary spirituality for these islands at this time is to un-complicate it. Not to try to reconstruct something which we don’t have the knowledge for reconstructing, and which belonged anyway to a world which is two thousand years old, and a culture which has (for better or worse) moved on. That’s part of the old way of doing things; it risks becoming trapped in the old dogmas which got us into this mess in the first place. Rather, I want to explore all of the ways in which our ancestors in these lands – all of them – practised an Earth-centred spirituality which is identical in its foundations to the Earth-centred spiritualities practised by other indigenous peoples around the world today. To show how we all have that lineage, how we all have that inheritance. And to use that knowledge to discover contemporary spiritual practices which incorporate what our ancestors knew about these specific lands where our feet are planted (yes, wherever we came from) and which will inspire us to find the sacred in our places again, today.
These practices, on which my course is built, are about being fully embodied in our places. They’re about forging a connection to the land and the other-than-humans who share it with us. They’re about recognising the Otherworlds which overlap our everyday physical/sensory world, and finding ways to pierce the veil, and journey there. About honouring the ancestors, and working with authentic ritual and ceremony. About finding the gods in our places. About working with the myths and archetypal beings who inhabit this land. More than anything, it’s about falling into this land’s great dreaming.
This course is also about exploring how we can authentically carry those deities, stories and archetypes with us to new and distant places – to allow those who have ancestry in these lands but now live in North America, or Australasia, or other faraway places, to understand that this is their lineage and inheritance too. And to find ways of taking that knowledge to their home place and using it to find their unique sense of the sacred in the place where their feet are now planted.
This course, above all, is about studying up-to-date and accurate knowledge about our past – not only so that we can understand our present predicament, but so that we can consciously and accurately co-create our future, and uncover the new stories which will teach us how to live well on this beautiful, animate Earth.
This article refers to my new yearlong, interactive online course Celtic Studies: Myth, Tradition, Spirituality, which begins May 18, 2020. If you enrol before February 18, you have the option of paying in four monthly instalments (for an overall course fee of £250). You can find full course details at this link.
Good morning Sharon. I appreciate the above article and the construct of your offering. It appears to be a solid container for some good individual work. However, my question is and I apologize in advance for its loose boundaries; what about those who have no apparent ancestral attachment to the Celtic cauldron, have none to minuscule knowledge of their roots i.e. Germany, Romania, but are steeped in and grounded by Earth-centered spirituality, yet feel as if there is one foot in Earth centeredness and one in the Indigenous land upon where they live? I am a second generation Canadian in British Columbia who feels adrift of a solid identity such as those who are or have ancestral Celtic lineage do, but feel a bone and DNA connection to something. I also have a solid relationship to Elders of a First Nation here and a respectful sense of community in and on their reservation and their unceded traditional land. Its a feeling of dauntingly walking between two worlds not knowing my own skin. It’s a matter of re-connection, re-membering and re-claiming but feels like I’m treading water in the mire of a knowing and the unknown. My research has turned up nothing – personal genealogy really only begins with those ancestors who came to Canada on a boat at the turn of twentieth century. Any and all of those ancestors and immediate subsequent relatives have now passed. The tether is extremely short.
Given your extensive research, have you come across anything which would indicate earth-centered myth, story, history, spirituality, migrations that would be based in the above countries, regions, of which may be tied to or separate from the Celts, upon which I may find substance and peace? Perhaps this may be future fodder for another article or book. I would appreciate any insight, thoughts, you may have and I gratefully thank you in advance. (P.S I have had the pleasure of being a student in Sisters of Rock and Roots, and reading your three most recent books.)
Hello Reana – I’m only really familiar with my own native culture I’m afraid. But there’s clear evidence for sure that the countries you mention saw the world in similar ways. Best of luck in your searching.
Might I suggest Sharon’s work as a template for your own exploration of the cultures you mention? While Sharon specifically addresses the greater Celtic traditions there is nothing preventing you from your own deep explorations into the culture(s) which make up your own history. Just a thought!
Reana, I too sometimes feel that “treading water in the mire of a knowing and the unknown”. I’m of Welsh and German heritage (paternal/maternal respectively), and was born and raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I have always said I played in the same sand as the ancient Anasazi and the Navajo. I get from Sharon’s writings above, and from her books, that this is exactly what she is talking about. We have many roots into Gaia. And as the roots of trees and so much of this planet connect and communicate through the soil and water of Gaia, so do we rise from that soil, whether it be Celtic, or Welsh, or Maori or a like me, and apparently you, from the land of the Native people of North America. I love Sharon’s saying: “Because although the chain of our ancestral spiritual traditions has been broken, the land is still there as our teacher, and the Otherworld still penetrates it.” It would seem our heritage is no longer restricted to the land upon which we were born. Whatever the land from which we originated, we are still all the inheritors of the Nature-based spiritual traditions built throughout the world, now brought together precisely by our being such a mobile civilization. Thank you Reana, for giving me an interesting point to consider this morning. You have a blessed day, may the Snow Moon share with you her beauty and her wisdom. — Windborn.
Beautiful response.
Yes indeed, thank you, Windborn! I don’t think the land has ever much cared about race, or ever wanted us to present our DNA tests before it’ll speak to us 🙂 I’ve written elsewhere that the land doesn’t care where we came from, or who our parents were. It just wants us to show up. In this place, now. And Reana, it seems that’s precisely what you’re doing.
Signed up today and so looking forward to the course…your expertise and professionalism gives me confidence as there seems to be so much misinformation out there.
Your Reclaiming the Wise Woman course was such a gift to me. Thank you for the quarterly pay option.
Ah, thank you. Hope you enjoy it!
P.S.S. My supposed Ancestry.com genealogy indicates 44% German Europe, 31% Eastern Europe and Russia and 15% Greece and the Balkans.
I loved this article!! Thank you for sharing it! Three years ago, I had a powerful experience I cannot explain. A new (adult) Latino student kissed me on the cheek as is their custom, when he introduced himself to me and in that instant, I experienced a jolt of pure knowing. I looked at this man and knew his heart and soul. I thought to myself I would trust this man with my life.
I journeyed to try to understand how I could know what I so suddenly knew and had a series of journeys that placed us both in pre Roman Europe, what is now France. We were together, he the leader of our clan or tribe and me a healer midwife making herbal medicines from the roots and herbs of the forest. He died fighting the Romans as did most of our men. Women and children with a few men fled to the islands. This is my experience in non ordinary reality.
In ordinary life, I descend from the Celts as my mother and her parents were Scots. Deep in my bones, I relate to the Celtic ways and attribute my empathic qualities to my ancestry.
Your writing resonates with my centre and inspires my path. Again, I thank you!!
Hallo Reana! It seems to me that you can find a lot of German and East European traditional folklore substance in the original Grimm brothers collection of stories. Best regards anr greetings from Poland 🙂
Hello Sharon, women and earth and nature… and healing. How
Do you feel about the popular TV series Outlander, and the star character of a woman who is a master healer/herbalist/traveler through time, fully self possessed and courageous…. Although there is no personal heritage that I know of in Celtic traditions my Spirit has always been captured by films such as The Secret of Roan Inish, and series such as the Outlander. I have a strong watery 12th house moon (Pisces) … so I have always been drawn to The feminine and the mythical.
For a popular TV series Outlander seems to be fine enough, though I don’t much watch TV and haven’t seen much of it. There’s certainly a huge tradition of wise women in these islands.
Johanna, I loved your comment bringing these themes together. I am a big Outlander fan and have recently become interested in the Celtic ways.
Sharon, I have just finished The Enchanted Life and loved it!
Hi sharon I find and struggle with my heritage very much been born in northern ireland I always grew up feeling unlike by the Irish that lived in the south and unlike by the English because been from Ireland .Could be because my family has been politically involved.Since many generations. I somehow feel because I am from the north even though my mother grandmothers have filled my life with teaching and traditions .There is always the wound from the troubles and always the bottom line were so us from the north belong .? I hope this course will help me understand myself my family and begin to love Ireland my home again
Hi Helen – I think working with the land in the ways I’m proposing helps us to feel the greatest sense of belonging of all – to this beautiful Earth and the others who inhabit it along with us. The land doesn’t care who you vote for. As I said above, it just wants us to show up, now. I think it’s the greatest healer of all from political trauma. I hope you find it so.
Hi Sharon will this course be offered annually?
I’m not sure right now. Can’t guarantee it! But if you enrol you have lifetime access to the material so there’s no rush to do it all at once.
This sounds fabulous Sharon! As a 20 year scatterling, I’ve been feeling the deep call home for some time now. I’m originally from Newcastle with a lot of family history in Berwick & Scottish borders… will there be anything in the modules that cover this area.
Kind Regard,
Jayne
It’s not specifically regional but there will for sure be plenty on the Old Brythonic North, which covers southern Scotland and the borders, as well as northern England and North Wales. That sweeping region is where much of my own ancestry is based, so I have a strong interest.
Hi Sharon , I’ve read “If Women Rose Rooted” and “Foxfire, Wofskin “ (both wonderful !) and have been hanging out around the edges listening to podcasts watching your courses arise . I’m currently apprenticed to a journey back to my own indigenous nature – back to the land . This is a long term endeavour and quite loose in that there are long periods of time between my meetings with the lovely folks who are assisting me on that journey . So in the meantime I’d like to take one of your courses to root myself in this journey. I wonder if this is the one that is most relevant at the moment do you think? Also I want to thank you because after many years of searching through many traditions and dimensions of the “spiritual plane” , “If Women Rose Rooted” opened up the path for me to follow – which turned out to be – right here . It’s as if I unexpectedly encountered you at a gateway at the top of an old grassy path somewhere in Ireland and you opened the gate and casually pointed down that path , and I remembered “Ah this is the way “ Go raibh míle maith agat anam alainn
I’m an illustrator from Ballycastle and love your work and how you articulate old echoes but also those/ all life that surrounds us now, moss or bird, sea or seal and tree. I love this island the threshold looking over to the Mull of Kintyre thinking of stories to tell to my grandson leading him closer or him me through him, closer in. I LOvE the Killary where part of my family come out of. Had a big wish to bump into you walking along it’s shore but hear you are moving to beautiful Wales
Go raibh maith agat
I have signed up for the course and am looking forward to it.
I was struck by your use of “decolonising” in the title of this piece. As an indigenous welsh person (with the worthless? DNA to prove it) it hit a nerve.
I am in total agreement that we need to find a new way to be together in this world and that attempting to make full baked loaves from the crumbs of the old traditions that we have left is both impossible and undesirable. I also agree that the way forward includes listening through our roots – and we all have them, wherever we are planted. And yet, something in me balks at those not of this land staking a claim on something that they only know through stories spun by the colonisers (I do understand it, and feel compassion for them, often their own heritage is scattered and problematic). Perhaps I feel this way because Wales (and Scotland, and Northern Ireland) still today is colonised and claimed, forced into an arranged marriage that takes but does not give. The politics is etched into the landscape, without and within.
I see this in America and Australia too.
I hope this is something that I will make peace with during the course. I will not be causing any trouble. Your conversation with Gwilym Mous Baird resonated strongly with me.
Hi Jessica – I understand, and I’ve been all over the place on this. As someone with an entirely Scottish father and half-Irish mother, I grew up amidst stories of colonisation and rebellion. I’ve also spent a lot of time talking to Americans – native and colonisers – about how we repair the damage done. I think the way to repair the damage done is to insist that our stories are told correctly, whoever they’re told by. That’s why my work is so focused on going back to the original sources, so we know what those stories were; I’m tired of people making stuff up. So I suspect we will be discussing this a lot during the course. And I look forward to your input!
Thank you Sharon.
Hi Annette – I’d say it depends which way you want to go but either the ‘Celtic Studies: Myth, Tradition, Spirituality’ course I’m talking about here, or ‘Courting the World Soul’, which has a module on place. I suspect the first would be much more relevant to you.
Hi Sharon,
I love your work and would be interested in signing up for this course. I’m proudly rooted, both currently and by at least 250 years of ancestors, in the cotton town area of Northern England. I am seeking a way of using your approach to learn how to reclaim/ re-own a deeper connection with this incredible, but deeply damaged landscape. However, I am slightly ‘put off’ by the presumption that only the Celtic areas are worthy of this attention and it disturbs me greatly that there seems to be plenty of shame attached to ‘English-ness’. Do you think this course will be suitable for me?
Vicky – it has nothing to do with the ‘Celtic’ areas being the only ones worthy of attention. It’s simply that to cover the whole gamut of influences on Englishness would require several courses, and I only have time to offer one! – which is in the area of my personal expertise. The Anglo-Saxon world is a course in itself, as is the Scandinavian influence. So although we will talk a little bit about those threads, what I’m trying to do here is simply to go back to what we know before those influences came in. The North of England, the Brythonic ‘Old North’ was as Celtic as anywhere else in Britain before the Romans, Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons came along, and it’s really interesting to explore those roots. I think the shame you mention in Englishness can be resolved in good part by going back a little way and seeing how we all came from a fine, rich and earth-connected lineage. We can’t undo what’s been done over the past few hundred years, but we can pick up the threads again – if only we know where to find them.
Hi Sharon, thanks for your reply. I am aware of the celtic roots of this area of the country and it’s history prior to the influences you refer to. I just think that this is missed in most references to Celts – it is usually followed by Scotland, Wales and Ireland with no mention of England – this is what I find disappointing. It is on this basis that I am concerned about whether I will be able to relate to the course material. Although I know I have some Scottish and Irish ancestry I want to connect more deeply with THIS land that is currently beneath my feet, outside my door and because of it’s most recent history it is in desperate need of some appreciative recognition of it’s inherent value – just as it is. I am genuinely interested in unpicking my jumbled thoughts on this and am wondering if there would be exercises that would allow me to ‘pick up the threads’ more specifically to my region. If this is not a suitable course, which of your courses would you recommend?
Vicky, it’s really difficult for me to answer this question for you. All I can say is that this isn’t a course that can cover the stories of specific landscapes throughout Britain – there are too many. What it does offer is a general sense of lineage in that part of the country, and guidance of connecting with the land and its archetypal energies wherever you are.