Traditionally, in the Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) cultures, Samhain was a time – among other things – for honouring the ancestors. Samhain, as you’ll be aware, was a ‘thin’ time of year: a time when the veil between worlds thins, and the Otherworld is more accessible. Or perhaps when the Otherworlds are more accessible, because it’s entirely likely that (as in the Norse tradition, for example, which speaks of nine worlds) there would have been more than one Otherworld in those old cosmologies.
So I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my own ancestors, because I finally overcame scepticism, succumbed to curiosity, and did one of those DNA tests that most of my friends and colleagues seem to have had done years ago. Yes, I’m a little behind the times. And, as these tests almost always do, it shed some new light on some old things.
Looking at my immediate family, my very recent ancestry seems to be around 25% Irish (mother’s maternal side) and 50% Scottish (father’s side), with 25% that looked likely, from what we knew about the places my grandparents came from, to be a bit of extra Scottishness and a bit of far north-eastern English (the place where I was born). Genetically, this picture is compatible – 26% Irish, but all of the remainder localised around what can best be described as the old Brythonic north – incorporating the north of England, lowland Scotland (the Border country), Cumbria – and North Wales.
So that’s something of a perceptual shift for me, having focused for so long on the Gaelic traditions not just of Ireland, but of Scotland. With an MA in Celtic Studies – actually from the University of Wales – I’m well aware of the resonances between the Brythonic and Gaelic traditions, both of which were part of my studies – but I’m also very much aware of the differences.
As I slowly approach something resembling elderhood, I find myself thinking more about ancestors than I’ve ever done before. Wondering about the kinds of ancestors I had; wondering about the kind of ancestor I’ll become. Wondering always about belonging, and the strange resonances of certain places in my life. So, I’m going to be spending a little time focusing more on that Brythonic tradition which apparently represents 71% of my heritage. On the Old North for sure, but especially on Wales, which has a rich and fascinating literary and folk culture that, like the Irish tradition, is heavily focused around place.
Wales was a second home to me for around 30 years, from the many years of holidays and weekend escapes we took there during my teens, to the decades my mother then spent living there once I’d headed off to university, married to a native Welsh speaker for whom English was always a genuine struggle. Now, of course, I’m married to a Welshman myself, who is beginning finally (having mastered Scottish Gaelic, two dialects of modern Irish, and now being deeply immersed in Middle and Old Irish) to be curious about his own language and native tradition.
Samhain, for me, is many things – but it is above all a Trickster Time. A time when, if there’s a need for it, or even the slightest glimmer of an openness to it, I tend to be shaken out of my complacency and challenged in new directions. And I like that. Stasis has never had much resonance for me. I like the surprising things in life. I need to shift, to flow, to transform, and grow. So I guess all of that is why, over the next few years, I’m going to be spending some significant time in Wales.
All of which brings me to what I wanted to share today: a conversation, on my podcast, ‘This Mythic Life’, between me and the lovely Angharad Wynne, on the resonances between aspects of Samhain, and the Otherworld, in the Irish and Welsh traditions. I hope you enjoy it! You can listen via the usual podcast subscription channels, or here on my website.
Sharon,
The synchronicity of your mailing has struck me.
I, too, have recently discovered that my strongest ancestral line is in England and Wales (and not Ireland/Scotland, as I had thought….and been told). 95%!
It was an “aha” moment to discover this, as I have long felt a longing to visit Wales of all the British Isles countries.
I am eagerly anticipate word of your forays into this Otherworld in the future.
Your mailings and podcasts—and books!—continue to be deeply nourishing, and an inspiration for this aging soul.
Thank you!
Marcia
Diia dhuit ar maidin,
just last night, i had a reunion of sorts with some soul family here and was by chance asked if i had ever done that ancestry test (i haven’t). And i have just awoken from a powerful dream in which i took myself, compelled, across the water to Ireland. I may write about it on the fb page, but it was heavy with ancestors, and deep feelings of expressing how connecting with our homeland and them means so much to me.
My DNA has shown that I am 98% Irish and Scottish…..with a little bit of English thrown in….I have always had a yen to visit Scotland and now that I know I have Scottish DNA I will have to visit there…..The History of both Ireland and Scotland are so alike, that I feel I would fit right in.
Ancestral work is powerful and so needed. I’m glad you’re finding new balance with the DNA information. It really can shape the way you see yourself, and in many ways, your legacy.
Thank you for all you do!
Synchronicity indeed! I too have recently done the ancestry DNA test and the results were somewhat surprising. I always thought myself half Irish/Scottish on my father’s side and 3/4 Acadian French and a mix of Scottish and Indigenous on my mother’s. Finding my Celtic roots was much of the reason for doing the test. I have always felt Celtic. My dad’s Irish was not Celtic, that I knew. So it seems my roots grow in the same soil as yours Sharon with the addition of Brittany for the Celtic and Sweden and Denmark for Norse. And Wales! I never considered a Welsh connection. This winter will be spent digging deeper into the soil of my ancestors and in the case of my Inuit ancestors, the snow.
Thank you for this thoughtful reflection on this time of year and the importance of looking back as well as inward. I’m just now beginning to learn about my own ancestral roots, but have felt them for a very long time. Interestingly, although I was born in the Western United States, I have never felt this is my land, so to speak. I knew early on that my father’s side had an “English” branch and my mother’s a “Danish” one. I have had a strong, strong felt-sense pull to European countries, especially Briton and France. I was finally able to travel a bit in both countries a few years back and felt a subtle kind of “remembering” while traveling there. Not long after I returned I also did a DNA test and discovered that 88% of my DNA is from England, Wales and Northwestern Europe, with 5% from Norway, 5% from Sweden, and 2% from Ireland and Scotland. I’ve also been able to now trace my paternal line way, way back and oddly enough visited many the precise places that some of my ancestors lived before I discovered actual connections. I so look forward to traveling again in these areas and beginning to learn more about ways to more conscious connect with ancestors through cultivating an awareness of other times and places, along with their practices. Thank you so much for your writings and your workshops, they are a wonderful guide for me in this process.
I was given a DNA test for my birthday two years ago. Most of what was there ran true to what my maternal grandmother had told me. About three quarters southern Italian and a quarter Scots-Irish. But the surprises were the small dashes. Greek, Balkan, Middle Eastern. French, Spanish, Sardinian…as I looked at the map with its red lines and arrows, I found myself picturing a journey. A migration-map that led to a re-imagining of who I really am, who those ancestors were, and how I got here. Enjoy the thin time, Sharon, and thank you for a beautiful essay..
Amazing how many are having DNA tests and discovering that the wise ones are correct in believing we are all far more related than anyone suspected, really one big family of humankind derived from the one source as an aspect of Source. Is it possible this newly rekindled sense of belonging and oneness just might lead to greater world peace?? Now don’t you just know the ancestors would be laughing their trickster ancestral heads off right about now if that’s true? Happy Samhain, all. Love and Peace.
I did the DNA test with ancestry.com this time of year in 2016. Results indicated 82% Irish and Scottish with 17% England, Wales and Northwestern Europe, the bulk of which I have traced to Brittany. I always expected doing genealogical research to be dry and boring, but I found those ancestors coming so alive for me, feeling so much love for them and their stories and feeling their presence in my life. I likened the research to learning where the tiny puzzle piece that is me locks into the enormous jigsaw puzzle of humanity.
I’ve spent the last decade researching my ancestors who walked life’s path before me. I’ve been able to go back in time to the 1500’s on both the German and Essex, England branches and to the 1700’s for the Borders and 1800’s on the Welsh side. My children gifted me with an ethnic DNA test three years ago and it opened up a whole new line of inquiry when I found out that I have a good percentage of Norwegian and NE Scotland (specifically the Orkney and Shetland Islands). I’m attempting to solve some of the mysteries and find answers to so many questions. I’ve always believed in ancestral memory and feel blessed that something of my ancestors still courses through my veins.
A most beautiful and thoughtful piece on Samhain and its importance in the process of becoming. “Stasis has never had much resonance for me. I like the surprising things in life. I need to shift and flow, to transform and grow”. And this time of year offers the time to sit and contemplate and let the past seasons give up their deeper secrets of growth and inner shifts, like mushrooms in the dark. I was born to a family that held fast to the ‘normal’ and for whom ‘holding the status quo’ was the reason for living, and it always felt like a foreign land to me. So thankful to read your words Sharon, deep thanks.
I, like many other of your readers are drawn to my ancestors. I am half Romani Gypsy with Irish and Welsh ancestry. I did a dna test last year and what surprised me was finding out that I also had some Kurdish ancestry. Immediately I had visions of colourful dresses, women singing and dancing and of old, old customs and rituals. I write a lot about my Romani family and I often glimpse the larger family that we are all part of. Today I was performing in South Wales, my homeland for an oral history project called about the Gwent Levels in Newport and it was interesting to speak with people about Wales and the myths. I am keen to learn more about your next adventure Sharon. Kushti Bokt – Good Luck.
oh yummy, The Welsh connection!! I have been vacillating between Hedgewise and just parking myself in Wales for a stretch. Perhaps both??! The world tree recently filled in one of my maternal lines, Looks like I get to re-write my narrative all the way back to 100 BC. I have felt the pull and now see why,.. we be ancient Welsh, leaving for the New World in late 1600’s one of the first Families to settle in Gwynedd Pennsylvania. I have much to learn and experience. Time to migrate back?!
Please share all your musings!
Hi Sharon,
I am a student at Pacifica studying clinical psychology. I am doing a presentation on the Picts and Gaels. I was wondering if you could provide me with a line or any wisdom from your studies via email, regarding what would be the equivalent to ‘shamanism’ or medicine folk who channelled or journeyed to the Otherworld. It is hard to stick to the path and avoid the popularized versions of celtic shamanism. Many thanks, I love your work.
I so enjoyed your podcast with Angharad–though I was surprised at the mention that drums were not really part of Celtic/Welsh spirituality since they are almost universal worldwide.
DNA is fascinating, isn’t it? It’s a bit of a quantum shift from all you thought you knew about your family, your roots. I am less Irish than I thought, and sorry about that! But then it is always good to question our assumptions or have them questioned for us, and pry open our concept of ourselves. At 77, I am still doing that, and find it a worthwhile endeavor.
And looking forward to your new book!
I’m so happy I’ve stumbled across this post. Certainly a time of synchronicity. I fell down the DNA Rabbit hole a number of years ago and have taken 4 different tests. I always said I was 3/4 English and the rest Scottish and Welsh and I wasn’t too far wrong, however I’m about 90% Old Brythonic coming from Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire, Cumberland, Lancashire, Cheshire as well as North Wales and Ayrshire. I did a test with Living DNA that gives you a map broken down into counties and it overlays my paper trail almost exactly. I’ve come to accept recently the diversity in my female ancestors; I have many rebels, rule breakers and wild women, Gypsies, coal miners wives, canal folk and also the odd pious, pillar of the community. I’ve felt their presence strongly of late. I’ve had to learn to give thanks for all of them and honour their place in my lineage.
I have long known of my Scots/Irish ancestry and I believe it is this that has drawn me to Celtic spirituality on which I have several scholarly books that I have and continue to study diligently.
My Scots ancestors fell out of favor with Elizabeth when Mary was imprisoned and immigrated to Northern Ireland either being advantaged by Elizabeth’s efforts to rid her kingdom of Mary’s loyals with land grants in Ireland, or by a desire to keep their heads atop their necks. There is a town named after these ancestors on the western Irish coast. From there, they migrated south and from there, I imagine, to the US.
But before they made it to Ireland, they roamed the shores of western Europe northward from what is today northern Italy into the Germanic countries. All these, as you know, are Celtic background migratory paths.
I lived my life in the tropical USA in the unique culture of the US Gulf Coast and “place” to me is those beaches. I’m now land-locked just east of a mountain range and I feel forever alien to this land, but honor it nevertheless because it is now where I am. I go daily, in my mind, to the sands of the Gulf, though, and will always wish to be there.
Here, now, at the first of November, I look on the peaks and see the white hair of the Cailleach cascading down the slopes. I hear her breath as the wild winds howl past my window. I walk up the rise at the back of our property where there’s a secluded spot to sit and wait for deer and duck on a pond on neighboring property, and honor this land and its wisdom.
The ancestors have taught me well.