Celtic Fae Witchcraft

Celtic Fae Witchcraft.

I have been sort of mulling over exactly what my spiritual and Craft path is.

Very early on I learned Wicca (Gardenarian Wicca to be precise). Then began my medium-ship, spirit and psychic training and then came study in the Faerie Tradition. At my core there is this overlap, a shamanic Celtic respect for the Five sacred things. A belief in the conciseness of the Universe. A belief in light and spirit and Goddess and Ancient Ones; rooted in the real world through magick and meditation.

I feel there are four circles in my Celtic Fae Witchcraft.

Annwfn

The Dreaming

The Land

The Pragmatic

These circles overlap in a ven diagram creating different shapes and symbols and blends in the 'tweens, as they should. They are not hard lines but blurred edges, like pools of light.


Annwfn:

The Otherworld. The Spirit Realms. The Summerlands.
The worlds and planes wrapped and merging with this one. Spirit worlds, planes and all the creatures and people, diva, and Fae that dwell therein. In Celtic culture these concepts were not "woolly ideals" but a complex blending that impacted their real lives everyday. Annwfn was just a breath away. A place you could stumble into or out of around any corner. Each forest, lake and river, each beach and mountain was connected to these other worlds.

The Land

"The land of my fathers is dear to me
Land of poets and singers, people of stature."

In Celtic traditions the land is a She. A mother, to her people. Celtic is a tricky thing. It is rooted in culture and identity, language and history but more than that it is rooted in the lands. The whole of Britain, Ireland France, Northern Spain and some of Germany can claim Celtoid roots and they certainly have an Indio-European common language, art style and similar beliefs. Yet they were and are a diverse group of tribes, warring and making peace. Borrowing and inventing ideas and technology. Many oppressed and displaced of Celtic origin moved all over the world, does that make them Celtic? Does someone who has Irish D.N.A  (of what ever percentage) living in the States have more or less claim than someone living in that culture today? In all honesty I don't know. I do know that having it "in the blood" is not enough. I know that living in a culture, feeling it's language on your tongue, getting the dirt under your finger nails, the rain on your skin makes for a very different Celtic experience than one reading about it under a Californian sun. Maybe it is just hiraeth.


The Dreaming

The Dreaming is not a fixed state in sleep, but the Mythic, symbolic places of ritual, music, poetry, story and song. Where this has multiple conflicting meanings and yet are at peace with each other. A tranformative and informative state that is healing and full of wisdom. The dirt and bones of the Celtic lands are made of stories and songs. In their names, and in their namelessness. In the gaps where our histories were destroyed and stolen the watery power of Myths and The Dreaming filled them finding new ways to reach the surface. A 'tween place and a gateway, to the land, and to Annwfn there is a collective memory. Our stories and myths have much depth and are still not as explored as their more recent Anglo-Saxon copies. Arthur, Merlin, Taliesin our Celtic stories and myths. Yet the Dreaming is not about the past, it is always rooted in the "now" no matter the echoes of what was before.

The Pragmatic

"Diwedd y gan y'wr geiniog" After the song comes payment.

The Celts have been abused and poor so long they wear it as a badge of honour. Generation after generation this breeds a sort of hardiness and pragmatism. Where they will eat things, drink things and cobble together things that work without embarrassment. They were often rural, and manual labourers, shepherds and miners, if they were lucky. They were also excellent smugglers, poachers and pirates The work ethic even in communities that simply don't have work still amazes me. There seemed to be only two states to me as a child, working or drunk. They are more comfortable travelling further, walking further, working longer and "doing" even while at "rest". Almost everyone I knew played something, or could sing. It may seem like a trope but work hard, play hard was just normal. Be it in the choir, pub or anywhere else.


While each "tribe" and each land from the counties of Ireland to the Cornish, Scottish and Welsh magicks, myths and beliefs are very different from one another the Mighty Isle once had a common language, had a similar culture to one another. These four circles were present in all of them. First as the Druid/ess caste, then they became a Bardic caste.  Their teaching becoming hidden in the plain sight of myths and songs, stories and ideas. While much of the modern Celtic magick stems from 19th Century English reconstructions it is possible to find a Celtic Fae path.
It isn't an easy one. It takes time and patience. It takes work and poetry. You have to walk through the Land, head through The Dreaming and brushing Annwfn bring it back to your waking living life.
It takes training and discipline. Many get lost or fixed in one of those places unable or willing to leave or explore the dark places between.

Bright Blessing xxx