Popularity of Celtic Spirituality

Celts are an ancient tribe that inhabited most part ofsystem for celebrating Easter; closeness between
the Northern Europe between 800 BCE and 400 CE.natural and supernatural; importance of family and
Their unique culture has always attracted attention ofkinship. Celtic historical motherland is Ireland and
people. Especially interesting and popular is Celticterritories around it. The isolation of Ireland didn't
diversity - Celtic spirituality. Celtic religion isallow spreading Roman authority on it. Monasteries
appreciated and honoured by all Christians: Catholicwere the places of holly atmosphere and looked just
and Protestant. They are interested in different sideslike big tribal villages inhabited by all people: monks,
of this religion but it goes without saying that Celticslaves, freemen, usual men and women and
culture should be observed and analysed.priesthood. These people used to be representatives
Celtic spirituality has some distinguishing features, onefrom the one clan of relatives. Some monasteries
of them is its diversity: it combines polytheistic andwere situated in isolated places and others were just
monotheistic features, earthy rituals andthe crossroads of main towns.
transcendental mysticism. The appearance of CelticCelts also made invaluable deposit in the development
spirituality is dated back to first mythologicaland making of the educational system. They took
mentions. Second feature of Celtic spirituality is itspart in the spreading of the literacy among Ireland
natural character, ties with earth. The Celtic spiritualityand other Celtic lands and reservation of dogmas of
is contained in sky, earth, sun, and sea - in all nature.learning during "dark ages".
Celts believed in sanctity of nature and tried to takeCeltic liturgy started its existence in ancient times and
care of it. The third thing is mystical and relationalincluded components that are eternal and won't lose
directivity. Celtic diversity comes more fromits actuality with the further development of the
experience than from theological dogmas. Celts aresociety. Their main themes are monasticism,
looking for the religious origins in their hearts andcloseness between God and nature, importance of
souls; they don't accept philosophical substantiation ofthe family and kinship, storytelling, love and respect
the belief.of the Mother of the god, peace and justice,
Celts see the necessity of collaboration betweenhospitality and education. Irish monks are still famous
people and the earth, people and the spirits of naturefor their inestimable work as educators of Europe.
and the Holy Spirit that is the head of all livingMany modern seasonal festivals have Celtic origin.
creatures and is beyond all names. Celts believe inFrom a lot of sources we can find information about
existence of many gods and angels and image themassemblies of Druids but exact dates are not given.
as living beings, not just abstract creations. AccordingThe building of the Imperial temple at Lugdunum was
to the Celtic understanding of the world, these divineprobably dedicated to the feast of Lugh. The lack of
beings can communicate with people in their owndates makes it difficult to determine the origin of
mystical way.some traditions and feats that are rooted in the
Another interesting thing about the Celts is their loveCeltic culture.
to poetry, beauty and creativity. Celtic diversity,The invention of the Coligny Calendar is the oldest
which combines mysticism, love of nature and comesinscription in Celtic language and gives us the flavour
from the relational spirituality, is in natural harmonyof the development of Celtic civilisation. It was
with beauty and poetry. The development of Celticinvented between first century BCE and first century
culture is the way of unique, rich culture. EveryCE and contains reconciliation between two years.
religious and philosophical doctrine can find familiarAccording to this calendar the year is divided in 12
features just to itself but the understanding of Celticmonths with 29-30 days each. Every two years the
culture needs neutrality and objective sensation. Celtic13th month has to be added. By this calendar ancient
culture can be compared with a magnificent tree withCelts hold their feasts and every five years had a
a lot of branches. These branches got their furthergreat sacrifice. It was the first attempt to lock in the
development and now have become common values.changes of constant motion of nature and so of
The pre-Christian world was the world of Celts, whotime. This calendar became the foundation of the
worshiped nature. To the Celtic outlook, the land wasmodern one.
the main goddess, the rivers were her helpers andVotive offerings are a kind of Celtic worshipping that
they enriched the earth. Celts used to live in forests,helps us to dive deeper in Celtic outlook and
where they were close to the nature and could learnunderstand reasons and motives of these
the language of trees and wisdom of animals. Withceremonies. Workers and artificers were fastened to
the appearance of Christianity ancient Celts didn'tbig temples and produced special holy souvenirs and
disturb their close ties with nature, they connectedmass-produced offerings. They were usually made
their love to nature with the main principles offrom wood, later from clay and metal. The most
Christianity. Celtic monks lived in deep forests andpopular and common offerings were coins. Special
wrote their religious works for the gifts of nature.tiny coins were invented that could be used just for
The most important thing was to understand theofferings. For example, there were coins devoted to
divine origin of all things and god's existence in nature.the Goddess and were her properties. The number
Celts saw life as a constantly changing circulation ofof these coins is high and they can be find practically
life and death. Everything moved in a spiral andin every Celtic temple during diggings. The next
nature's observation gave a possibility to findvotive offerings were personal jewellery, such as
mechanism of development of the world. Nowadaysrings, bracelets, earrings, pins, and necklaces.
we have practically completely lost the awareness ofSometimes special rites of "killing" the personal spirit
spiral development and it's difficult to gain anof these things were hold before the sacred
understanding of the world.deposition. Even now we don't know the exact
Life of Celts is an integration of spirit, community andpurposes of this rite.
nature, and these concepts were a single whole andAnother type of offerings was creation of anatomical
couldn't exist separately that can be scarcelymodels and representation of diseases on the
imagined in our modern society. The returning tostatues of ancient Celtic gods. For example, Seguana,
these Celtic dogmas can help us understand who weGoddess of the River Seine was depicted with
are.models of eyes, limbs, heads and internal organs.
Celtic Christians strongly believed in Holy Trinity. BySometimes particular diseases that had pilgrims were
the Celtic outlook the world is created by the mainreflected on the statues these pilgrims worshiped.
god who surrounds the entire world with his twoCeltic spirituality is not just a form of ancient religion,
arms of love: the left arm is the spirit and the righteven now it has a lot of followers and is very
one is Christ. Christ is the supreme example ofpopular. The number of sources, which refer to Celtic
human life. Being close to the Christ means thecivilisation is great and you can find practically
understanding and getting of supreme and eternaleverything you want to know. The rebirth of Celtic
love and wisdom. Early Celtic Christians didn't go toculture is growing stronger and there are a lot of
church they preferred worshipping in smallgroups practising Celtic religion. One of the most
communities and sharing their food, money, workpopular religious groups, Neo-Pagan Druids of Ar
with the representatives of this small group. Theyn'Draiocht Fein takes the basis of the Celtic religion
saw Christ in their neighbour and shared everythingand combines them with main features of
with him.Indo-European cultures. Another groups such as
Celts had a lot of traditions and cults that were"Celtic Wicca", "Celtic Magic" and others try to render
directly connected with nature, animals and differentCeltic culture. Such popularity is explained by relevant
gods and spirits. Every family had special rites aimedand eternal principles of this religion.
to protect all the members of the family from evilSometimes modern follows can have nothing familiar
spirits. Feasts and banquets were one of thewith Celtic spirituality except of names of the gods.
components of ritual including special food andThe best method of finding your place among
atmosphere. During a feast a minstrel usually sangnumerous religions is to follow the summons of your
songs about deeds of famous warriors. After thevoice. You choice can be based on knowledge about
minstrel's songs his listeners began to boast of theirdifferent religions and but it's important to make own
own brave deeds. As they all had drunk too much,you conscious choice. Just basis on your own
they began quarreling and fighting and even someexperience can lead you to all mysteries and wonders
men could be killed. Early Celtic spirituality isof religious world. Following ancient kind of religion, for
characterised by animal divinity. Even now we canexample Celtic one, is a very important and
find statues of horses, bears, birds created by themeaningful choice. You should research and
Celts. Only later with the influence of Mediterraneanunderstand Celtic worldview.
culture it took anthropomorphic element. Not allAll the religions are good and unique. I think that
animals were thought sacred and this explains specificreligion is very personal choice and it should be made
sensitive attitude to horses and cattle.individually. The religious freedom is guaranteed by
Celtic hierarchy of Gods combined Christianity andthe Constitutional law and can't be limited or
Greek religion and at the same time developed itsneglected. The main aim of the Church is to unite
own peculiarities. Cernunnos is the god that ispeople, to bring peace to the earth. It's very painful
responsible for money and grain and is correlatedfor me that sometimes exactly religion is the reason
with variety of both domestic and wild animals. Thereof wars and conflicts. I have a strong determination
are also such Celtic gods as Jupiter Taranis, Sulisthat religion mustn't judge the representatives of
Minerva, Lenus Mars, Rosmerta, Mercury, Epona andother confessions. Celtic religion gained its popularity
other. Celts were polytheistic, so believed in manyamong people because of its generality and eternity.
gods. They thought gods to be inhabitants of theIt advocates main principles of humanity: love and
thickest and darkest parts of the forest. Such plantsrespect for family and kin; love of nature, poetry and
as mistletoe and oak-tree were considered sacred.other kinds of art. Celtic spirituality assumes
There is a big group of historians that think that thecommunication with god and spirits that are closely
Celts were headed by a class of priests called Druids.connected with nature. It combines natural and
Stonehenge was the temple of Druids. Druids' way ofsupernatural and pictures the god as a supreme
worshiping was rather cruel and proposed sacrificeshuman being with perfect intelligence and power.
of human beings to get god's pardon. The Druids putThe esoteric traditions of Celtic spirituality allow us
the men in huge baskets and burned them in thedevelop our inner capacities and contact many
presence of people. But this historical opinion isn't stillresources for healing and wisdom. We may develop a
improved or disapproved.relationship with Brigit, who used to be a goddess of
So, to sum up, Celtic spirituality is characterised bythe abundant earth and life-giving sun, later a Christian
love of nature, art and poetry; relationship betweensaint; or Morgan of the Isle of Avalon, known for her
saints and gods; respect for Mary and theskills in herbal medicine. Celtic spirituality is the way to
importance of Liturgy; union of secular and sacred;open supernatural powers for those who believe in
the power of abbots; monasteries; ancient calendarthis.