Reconnecting to Celtic Roots + Ancestors on Turtle Island

 I expect that this post will change over time and be added to and edited and items removed as they no longer fit or work within the context of reconnecting. I want to cement in writing and make sense of the ideas forming around this newly sprouted connecting to my ancestral Celtic culture.

I can only describe the reconnecting as a mystical experience.

My ancestors came in an unexpected flood of belonging and resonance with who I am; that I can only describe the reconnecting as a mystical experience.

With it came the understanding that I am reconnecting to ancestors and ancient culture where I am, as I am, in the time that I am. There is a sense of total welcome and acceptance of who I am in modernity and how my life and beliefs and world view have been shaped on Turtle Island.

This is an embodiment of ancestral Celtic cultural connection. It is the identification and expression of Celtic belief and wisdom through the lineage carried in the physical body I inhabit. It is the expression of universal soul through the culturally specific lens of a physical Celtic ancestry and identity.

That was a lot of words to say my ancestors are talking to me and telling me that who I am is Celtic and it's beautiful and magical and they recognize themselves in me. This is belonging.

This is being claimed by my ancestors. This is claiming them in return.

I loudly and proudly proclaim my Celtic identity. I am a Celt on Turtle Island and this is my path of reconnecting.

Pre-Christian or Bust

I can't with the Christianity.

It's just a big no for me. Not because the Christos is a problem, but because of all the myriad ways the Christian church has just been a giant motherfucker oppressor of extraordinary proportions and deliverer of massive trauma; individually, societally, culturally, nationally, globally.

Forget the Christian Church.

It is the most toxic institution on the planet. I said what I said and I'll say it again louder for the people at the back.

So, no. Hard pass on all that bullshit.

My Celtic culture is reconnecting to pre-Christian animism. No shade on you if Christianity is your vibe, I'm not going to yuck your yum. Do you, but I'm out. Christianity is not where I'm getting the goods.

No gods, thanks.

Celtic culture is rooted in gods of the land and landscape. They were a part of living a mythical existence and were believed to be our actual ancestors.

I don't resonate with the idea or presentation of gods and it's unlikely going to be a path of worship in my future, even if it is a Celtic spiritual and cultural tradition.

I hold the belief that gods are a placeholder.

They have value in directing focus and concentration for feeling and worship. Gods are representative of all things, or a particular thing and are helpful in getting the human mind primed to see divinity in the world.

We are the gods we have been waiting for.

Gods can also create division and fragmentation if we insist on seeing only the god form as holy and divine and not recognizing that everything is wholiness.

 Anamchara

My ancestors are connecting me to enduring root beliefs of Celtic culture that have persisted, and are true and real.

First and foremost is that spirit encompasses all things.

Anam means soul or spirit.

We all share anam and anam is in everything, so one particular god form or creek or well or grove may be identified as holy or be worshipped as holy, but that does not mean that all else stops being inspirited.

Celtic culture did not separate our lives into holy and unholy, with soul and without soul. All of life is immersed in a field of spiritual and mythical significance. Auguries and wisdom are everywhere and available to everyone at all times - we just need to be paying attention.

Empathetic Ways of Knowing

Celts believe that all of the world communicates with us at all times. Trees in particular hold wisdom because of their longevity and the abundance they provide - but all aspects of the natural world are sources of wisdom.

We can just as easily learn from the water and the sky and the mint and the cornflower and the chipmunk and the blue jay as we can from human teachers.

Prophecy and intuition and the acceptance of empathetic ways knowing are integral to Celtic culture. Direct communication with the natural world is accepted and expected.

Mothaitheacht is the feeling in our chest of our connection with the sentience of the natural world. Feeling is an integral part of wisdom and knowing in Celtic culture.

Ceolta na Cruinne means the Song of the Universe. It is how the sun light feels as it dances on our skin. This feeling song was translated into the Ogham alphabet, and some letters even represents trees.

These are my roots.