|
|
|
All of the animals, forests, lakes, mountains, rivers, and trees were blessed and holy to the Celts and worthy of their utmost reverence. The Natural World inspired their imaginations and enlivened their art. The ancient Celts had deeply rooted spiritual traditions that included: Bards, Druids, Fairy Mounds, Healing Rivers, Holy Wells, Newgrange, Otherworld, Ovates, Sacred Groves, Stonehenge, and Tree Spirits. Fairy Mounds, the Wee Folk, Mineral Spirits, Hollow Hills, Leprechauns, Animal Spirits, Holy Wells, Sacred Lakes, Tree Spirits, the Sidhe. . . the Celtic world was alive with the vibrancy and the glittering glories of hosts of Fairies; of the elemental beings of fire, earth, air, and water; of the holy divinity of the land, the sea, and the sky. For the Celts, the Earth and the Realm of Nature was alive with sacredness and with the elementals of fire, earth, air, and water who were imbued with innate divinity and purposeful beingness. Three was a Celtic holy number which had many different meanings beside the most traditional of the representations, that of the three realms of land, sea, and sky.
The ancient Celts were
devoted to maintaining their spiritual balance and sacred connectivity with the
natural world by treating all things hallowed with the respect and reverence
they deserved. The living waters of rivers, springs, and wells were venerated
because they were believed to have both magical and curative powers.
During their rituals, the Celts often revered their ancestors who lived in a paradise that lied somewhere beyond the encircling sea. Their deep respect and abiding reverence for the Natural World Landscape was a hallmark of the Celts. Like the intricate, intertwining, interlacing, eternally connected knotwork of their art, the spiritual continuity of the Celtic traditions shined through their cultural mythos. For instance, the Celtic Goddess Brighid (who was associated with the cow) was featured in many heroic myths about sacred kingship and underworld quests. The fire festival of Imbolc honored Brighid as it ushered in the Spring. The Druids, who travelled widely among the Celtic tribes, were the keepers of the Celtic Calendar which corresponded the months with the Celtic Tree Alphabet and the vowels of the Ogham. For each of the months there was a corresponding tree from which an overall "Tree Calendar" emerged.
Even though the Celts were
highly skilled artists, builders, craftsmen, farmers, merchants, and smiths who
shared common customs and spiritual traditions, they were content to remain a
pastoral and agricultural peoples, living in harmony with the land and the
seasonal cycles...
Continue on
|
|
|