366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore

THE PATH OF MYTHOLOGY

In our modern efforts to understand the wisdom and lore of the ancient Celts, we have other resources besides just the stories of myth. A wonderful collection of “triads”—a literary form used as a tool for memorizing key information—provides glimpses into the lore of the ancients, as does a charming Irish anthology called the Dindshenchas (“the lore of prominent places”), which collects legends and poems that explain the names of natural features in the landscape. Many such names have mythical origins, and so the stories in the Dindshenchas provide as much of an insight into myth as into the history of names.

Finally, there is the vast body of folklore: oral (and more recently, written) traditions of tales, poems, and ballads, some of which have fascinating similarities to the old myths, all of which provide insights into how the Celtic mind works and how Celts, from ancient times to the present, have made sense out of the world in which they live.

Both Irish and Welsh myth come to us in fragmentary form, a frustrating matter for the modern seeker of wisdom. But remember what was said of the druids: “they speak in riddles … hinting of things and leaving a great deal to be understood.” In a way, the mythic tradition is the greatest riddle of all.

48

THE PATH OF MYTHOLOGY

Mythology lives. Sure, there may not be as many traditional storytellers as there were a century ago, and fewer people may speak the old Celtic languages, but the tales have a way of reinventing themselves or adapting for a new generation. Many Celtic authors, poets, and illustrators have reinterpreted the old tales in new ways, whether directly (as in the retelling of myths by Lady Gregory) or obliquely (as in the way James Joyce wove Fionn mac Cumhaill into his dark and puzzling masterpiece Finnegans Wake). Meanwhile, the explosion of interest in Celtic spirituality among the neopagan community has ensured that the old stories will continue to be told, perhaps with more feeling than has been the case for 1500 years. What’s important to remember is that the stories do not have to conform to a canon or critical edition of any sort. They are tales that live and breathe, and every storyteller who recounts these old adventures, whether aloud or in print, will put his or her own spin on how the tale is told. Details will change, plotlines will evolve, and characters will mature. It’s a mistake to worry about getting myth “right.” Far more useful is to continually ask, “What can this story tell me about myself, and my world?” For that is the mark of a true myth, even when the details are fuzzy.

49 (#ulink_22c5f7c6-ba4b-57ca-8c17-106e168d0ed1)

THE PATH OF THE SEER (#ulink_22c5f7c6-ba4b-57ca-8c17-106e168d0ed1)

A side from the druids and bards, the third kind of Celtic wisdomkeepers according to ancient tradition consisted of the seers, or ovates. Classical writers referring to the Celts of mainland Europe indicate that seers, bards and druids were three distinct communities; while in other areas these categories may have been more integrated. For example, in Ireland we find the tradition of the filidh, or visionary-poets—a kind of wisdomkeeper who combines the qualities of bards and seers.

What makes a seer? Begin with the word itself: one who sees. So the seers were the visionaries, the mystics and psychics who were able to receive information from the otherworldly realms. The seers were gifted at interpreting the signs of nature—the omens that could be discerned in the patterns of birds in flight or of clouds overhead. As diviners, the seers were gifted at scrying—the ability to tease meaning and wisdom out of the patterns of a burning flame or a convulsing sacrifice. Whatever the medium, the seer was responsible for receiving raw data, interpreting it, and communicating its meaning to others as messages from the spirit world.

50

THE PATH OF THE SEER

One gifted seer from Irish myth, the druid Cathbad, uttered a prophecy concerning the birth of a girl who would be named Deirdre. His gloomy prediction foretold of great suffering that would ensue thanks to her (or rather, thanks to stupid things the king would do in regard to her). Need I say that the Ulster Cycle tale known as “Deirdre of the Sorrows” is little more than a detailed recounting of how the seer’s prophecy came to be fulfilled?

Any competent seer possessed the ability to get out of the way of a message coming through from the spirit world. In other words, an essential part of the seer’s role in society entailed his or her ability to prophesy. Among the seers of old, such inspired information may have come from a variety of otherworldly sources—from ancestral or natural spirits as well as from any of a variety of gods or goddesses.

Prophecy is often understood as predicting the future, but that is only a small part of the prophetic function. The best prophecy is not about understanding the future so much as about living well in the present. Master the present, and the future takes care of itself. So even if a seer could predict the future, his primary value would still have been his ability to speak spiritual knowledge and wisdom, as it had more of an immediate use.

51

THE PATH OF THE SEER

Like Cathbad, at least some seers did enjoy a reputation for prophecy in the popular understanding of revealing the future. Two of the best-known prophetic seers, both from Scotland, were Thomas of Erceldoune (also known as True Thomas or Thomas the Rhymer) and Coinneach Odhar, better known as the Brahan Seer. Thomas lived in the thirteenth century, and according to legend was a bard whose skill with the harp caught the attention of the fairy queen. She approached the harper, beguiled him into being her lover, and whisked him away to the otherworld for seven years—and in return for his being a good sport, gave him the “gift” of an ever-true tongue (in other words, of being forever unable to tell a lie). Four centuries later, the Brahan Seer made a series of predictions about everything from technology to politics; but after telling a local noblewoman about her husband’s infidelity, he was repaid with accusations of witchcraft that led to his execution. Obviously, a seer’s life comes with its share of danger!

52

THE PATH OF THE SEER

A colorful assortment of seers dance through the world of Celtic myth. Merlin the Magician and Taliesin the Bard were both renowned for their prophetic gifts, while the Mórrígan—one of the most frightening of Celtic goddesses—speaks about a grim future in one of the most chilling passages of Irish myth. A seer named Finnéces spent years trying to catch and eat the salmon of wisdom thanks to a prophecy that a person named Finn would gain the world’s wisdom from eating the fish; unwittingly, he sets the stage for the prophecy to come true—only it would be his servant boy, Fionn mac Cumhaill, who would eat the salmon and gain the wisdom. Later stories recount one of Fionn’s comrades in the Fianna, Diorruing, as a seer gifted not only with prophecy but also clairvoyance that he accessed merely by closing his eyes. This gift was not always a blessing, however: once when Diorruing commented to Fionn about the one woman who would be a worthy mate for him, great tragedy ensued when she chose to give her love to another member of the Fianna.

Such prophecies could be in the myths only as literary devices—to help move the stories forward. But it’s just as easy to see in them how they indicate the importance of prophecy—and therefore, of the seer—in the world of Celtic wisdom.

53

THE PATH OF THE SEER

Especially in Irish tradition, the roles of the seer and the bard are closely related. In Irish society even after the arrival of Christianity, thefilidh or “seer-poet” provided both spiritual guidance and artistic vision to the community. Modern artists, whose work today is aimed at making people think, or inspiring revolution, or otherwise impacting society beyond the sheer aesthetic value of the work, are continuing this tradition of visionary creativity.

So when we consider the function of the seer in the world of Celtic wisdom, bear in mind that the seer’s role may extend far beyond the trade of psychics and soothsayers. Sure, you can visit your local metaphysical bookstore and book a session with an astrologer, clairvoyant, or tarot reader, and if the person has a whit of talent you’ll get an insightful and perhaps even healing reading. But they are not the only visionaries who embody the living tradition of the seer. You can cultivate the spirit of the seer within yourself even if you have no desire to practice divination or fortune telling. Perhaps in today’s societies, seers can be found everywhere: as schoolteachers, librarians, software designers, nurses, engineers … yes, even politicians and lawyers could be susceptible to the power of the spiritual world to erupt into their lives and provide guidance and insight into the direction best for them (and others) to follow.

54

THE PATH OF THE SEER

Among shamans of old, it was sometimes believed that a person didn’t opt to be a shaman, but rather became one when they were so chosen by the spirits. I think it may be wise to keep this in mind, and always allow for the possibility that the true seer is not made, nor necessarily even born, but is chosen.

Thanks to an ancestor, an angel, a spirit guide, or a fairy presence, we might find doors into eternity opened for us not of our own choosing, and signifying a path which no one else can see, let alone follow. Especially for a child or a teenager, such unfolding of visionary or spiritual talent can be unsettling and could be mistaken for madness. To become a seer requires not only a gift for spiritual insight (what has been called “second sight” or simply “the sight”), but also a mentor, a guide, who can help that budding visionary discern their singular destiny. This is not to say that one who desires to serve Spirit as a visionary might not also be called. If you should feel such a yearning, then it only makes sense to learn all you can about psychic and intuitive skill, to develop a meaningful, committed practice of prayer and meditation, and to develop your mental capacities to the fullest. All this, and then asking for spiritual guidance. In other words—perhaps you cannot choose to be a seer, but you can always ask to be chosen.

55

THE PATH OF THE SEER

One might well ask, why would anyone want to be a seer? Consider the life of poor Thomas the Rhymer: he could not say anything other than the truth. One hopes that he was gifted at keeping his mouth shut, for otherwise he would be forever getting into all sorts of trouble, by both frightening and angering those who may not appreciate the truthful words spoken by him. Such a person might not always make for cheerful dinner conversation, and could certainly gain a reputation as being dour and pessimistic! Of course, with the discipline of a well-shut mouth, he could learn to speak only about the good things due to happen, but even that would exact its toll—for, after all, we cannot always tell if something is good or bad, even as it happens, and perhaps not even for years afterward. A seer like Thomas could survive only by warning his listeners that, like a good referee, “he calls them likes he sees them”—and leave the value-assessment up to others.

The role of a seer is essentially social. There’s no point in visionary ability strictly for yourself (sure, there’s the idea of being able to clean up at the stock market, but what good is that, if there’s no one to share it with?). The only sustainable and meaningful reason to access hidden wisdom and spiritual vision would be to give it away.

56

THE PATH OF THE SEER

Scientific tests have revealed that if subjects who are familiar with a standard deck of playing cards are given a deck with a “wrong” card (such as a red ace of spades or a black queen of hearts), only a small number of those who examine the cards quickly will catch the mistake. Apparently, we are such creatures of custom and convention, trained to see what we expect to see, that even an erroneous playing card can slip by our powers of observation. So how many other anomalies or “paranormal” (beyond normal) events simply fail to catch our eye? Herein enters the true task of a seer: to be the one who sees the wrong-colored card at first glance, who notices the glitches and gaps that invite us into the places where “reality” is simply not so tightly sewn up as we might wish to believe. This function of the seer is not meant to foster chaos, but rather, liberation. We catch what Joseph Chilton Pearce called “cracks in the cosmic egg” so that we might be more truly faithful to things as they are—not as we might wish, hope, or be trained to believe they are.

57

THE PATH OF THE SEER

The concept of the seer ought not to be taken too literally. One might “see” mystical and extraordinary things, but there are many ways to approach the threshold of spiritual mystery. The French word clairvoyant is familiar to most people with an interest in psychic phenomena—it is basically the French equivalent of seer, meaning “clear watcher”—but there are also clairaudients (clear hearers), clairsentients (clear feelers), and even clairscentrists (clear smellers), clairgustants (clear tasters) and clairtangents (clear touchers, or psychometrists). Many ways to access spiritual information exist; and anyone who is chosen to be a seer may find that their guidance comes in any of a variety of (extra) sensory ways.

The key point here is for all of us—even if we have no concept of ourselves as “seers” or “psychics”—to remain open to receiving guidance and insight through intuitive means that can reach us in an almost endless variety of ways. Celtic wisdom reminds us that the spirit world is always nearby—and so, the ways of communicating with it are always within reach.

58 (#ulink_26f997cd-bc9f-5e67-b360-3d9fae2b5213)

THE PATH OF NEART (#ulink_26f997cd-bc9f-5e67-b360-3d9fae2b5213)

In MacLennan’s A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, the word neart is defined as “force, pith, power, might, energy, vigor; vast quantity; number, superabundance.” As the dictionary attests, it’s a wonderful word that represents how a variety of spiritually-meaningful concepts intersect within the Celtic mind. Neart represents the life-energy of abundance. It signifies the fundamental energy that flows at the heart of all things—an energy that not only keeps things going, but also fills everything with potential and possibility. If you want to look at it spiritually, it is the energy of Divine love. If you prefer a more non-theistic approach, neart could symbolize something akin to the impersonal “Force” of Star Wars fame. Except that there’s no dualism within neart—no “light side” and “dark side.” In the words of a new and delightful idiom that has surfaced in contemporary American speech: “It’s all good.” Neart is the energy of Celtic non-duality: it holds all things together in its flow of power and prosperity.

59

THE PATH OF NEART

In his book Where Three Streams Meet: Celtic Spirituality, Irish monk Seán Ó Duinn suggests that neart could be thought of as mana, the Polynesian concept of “life-force.” Which brings to my mind a variety of other ways of thinking about neart: it is reiki, the Japanese concept similar to mana—of “Universal Life-Force.” It is prana—a similar concept found in the Sanskrit tradition. Sure, it’s dangerous to draw sweeping parallels like this that blithely hop across cultures and their distinctive ways of understanding the cosmos—and yet, one of the treasures of neart is how it offers us both a sense of the energy that pulsates through all things, and how that energy is a source of plenty. In this way of seeing things, neart may not be exactly the same as similar concepts from other cultures, but it is close enough to celebrate common ground. We can leave it to the academics to split the hairs that separate reiki from neart, and so forth. In the meantime, Celtic spirituality can join numerous other wisdom traditions in affirming that the world we live in is not a place of scarcity and hardship—at least not essentially. No matter what material challenges we face, we are all custodians of immense spiritual wealth.

60

THE PATH OF NEART