Winter Solstice ceremony

[Gwydion]

I thought I'd post this here, as it's mostly relevant to this forum. Apologies if it's too OT. I just received an email about a Winter Solstice ceremony at Djanbung Gardens Permaculture Centre in Nimbin from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd June.

Here's an outline. If you want to go, you have to book. Contact [email protected] or go to http://www.earthwise.org.au.

FRIDAY 21st June -YULE-EVE CEREMONY & BANQUET

(Fire Procession, Winter Solstice Ceremony, Banquet

SATURDAY 22 - CELEBRATION OF CELTIC CULTURE

Full day programme (10am-10.30pm) followed by late night Celtic jam

Workshops, performances and presentations:

Celtic Mouth music, Dance workshop, Druidic Wisdom & Spirituality, Bardic Circle, Storytelling, Poetry, Celtic music and song, Mediaeval demonstration, Stalls

Performers and presenters will include:

Steve Davies, Russell Hibbs, Daevid Alan, Duroyan Fertl, Robyn Francis, Maya, Cammilla, Leif, Tir-na-nog, Shammoway and others

SUNDAY 23 - CELTIC CIRCLE 10am-12.30

Informal discussion and sharing of insights

The event will raise funds to support permaculture projects in East Timor.

[This message has been edited by Gwydion (edited 06 May 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Gwydion (edited 06 May 2002).]

[This message has been edited by Gwydion (edited 06 May 2002).]

[anubian lights]

Sounds cool Gwydion. I love Celtic Magic. Been involved in a few rituals.. kinda a blend between ritual magic and paganism..

Still, a part of me believes that I am an ancient Druid from the Stonehenge Cycle.

[Gwydion]

Yeah, it took me a while to kick that one. It helped to have done several years of Celtic Studies at Uni, where the idea of modern 'druids' was washed out of me for good. {I'll explain it to yer some time. It'd take too long now}.

I've got problems with the ceremonies at Djanbung, because I'm a Celtic purist (and they're a bit eclecticky), but that's not stopping me from performing there. It's important to help build a sense of community (and provide impetus for further study and education).

If you want to contribute (workshop, or poem, or whatever), I think that there's still time to ask.

[anubian lights]

weird man, cause i had a friend teaching celtic studies at syd uni.

I can see were u are coming from with your purist visions, though its hard to really be a purist cause we are living in a different era that creates a mindset that interprets a spiritual path in a totally subjective culturally influenced way. (hence the reality of modern druids and stone worshippers) as well as stoned followers.

A sense of community is so needed to heAl our broken spirit and gatherings are special meeting places for like minded souls.

Maybe a historically accurate reality of a

druid is the shaman who walks out into

wilderness and has psychedelic visions and communion with nature.

Then communication with the stars..

[Gwydion]

Wow! Who was your friend? Was this recently, or a while back?

It's not so much a matter of "purist visions", as a simple fact. If you use the word 'celtic' for things which are obviously not 'celtic', then they are not. Finito.

It's not simply a spiritual thing, but rather a cultural one, and the strongest (and quintessentially defining) element of this is language. Not only is it the vital element in partaking in the culture, it is also the only way to understand how Celtic culture, and it's system of spirituality, works, and came to be in the first place.

People misappropriating bits of celtic spirituality devoid of any meaningful understanding of context are frequently doing more harm than good, in my opinion, given the immense pressure these traditional cultures and languages are under.

To put it in another context, doing a couple of things that you know Cofan curanderos to do doesn't make you either a curandero or a member of the Cofan. It would require a lot more involvement in the society itself, and a lot of study, because you are coming to it as an outsider.

This is not to say you can't have whatever spirituality suits you, but if it ain't Celtic, it ain't Celtic, as I said. (However 'real' a bunch of white-wimpled new-agers standing in Stonehenge might be).

As I said above, there is a strong linguo-cultural complex involved here. A 'druid', as they existed, were not simply a bunch of star-gazing psychonauts. They were the intillectual elite and backbone of *western* Celtic society. (Think lawyers, doctors, teachers, priests, counsellors, historians, poets, councillors, etc). What little connection there was between the druids and our concept of 'shamanism' only really applied to a small part of this "caste".

And historical reality would have to include human sacrifice and the 10X10 metre, 4 metre high platforms made out of human thigh-bones found in Belgium and France. ;-)

[This message has been edited by Gwydion (edited 08 June 2002).]

[Darklight]

Yep Gwydoin, a lot of that New Age We-Love-The-Goddess/ worshipping our femine gentle side stuff cracks me up.

Om Kali to that. The delusion that women are necessarily more nurturing/ responsible/ environmentally friendly is one that robs everyone of the opportunity to partake of the full opportunities offered by human behaviour.

One might be all soft and gooey, but don't blame your local female pantheon for that, historically I understand their behaviour and appetites to be as broadranging and voracious as anyone else's

[anubian lights]

thought provoking post Gwydion. Obviously you are very sincere about the preservation of celtic culture and its system of spirituality.

I do have an an idea of the role of the Druid within Celtic society and never intented to trivialise them as as "a bunch of star-gazing psychonauts" I guess at the time i was recalling a theory that behind the modern interpretation of Merlin

lay a pre-historic shaman like figure, like an original green man who lived in nature and could transmutate into different animals and elements.

Also I can never really get past the reality that all ancient cultures have such an affinity with the stars, and this represents some common ground as to the source of mythology. But hey thats just me..

I am Merlins black dog Anubis.

Darklight you arent reading the "white Goddess" again are you?

blessings.

[Darklight]

Nope, my copy got er- borrowed a zillion years ago I think I saw it on a mate's bookshelf last month...

[t st tantra]

i think most if not all true beliefs and practices of the druids have been lost,especially dealing with their use of psychotropics.

thus IMO there is no true/pure druidic or celtic practice.its all lost and its now just people trying to recreate it for them selves.

t s t .

[Gwydion]

I largely agree, tst, but only on the Druidic platform (pun intended). ;-)

Celtic culture and spirituality are still very much alive and 'in practice'.

Of course, it has all changed a weeny bit in the past couple of thousand years, but then, what culture hasn't. (Indian culture and Hinduism are almost NOTHING like they were two thousand years ago, yet no-one doubts their claims to validity).

Essentially, what it comes down to is understanding, and it's lack. {And a key to any understanding is language, of course;-)}

Truth be told, the living celtic cultures are pack full of ancient 'pagan' (or whatever) elements, but the whole idea of 'celtic' has been romanticised. This has actually been going on for as long as the celts have been known to history, even the greeks and romans did it.

What needs to be understood is that there are people living TRADITIONAL lifestyles (most often in a rural area) that go back thousands of years and are evolved from earlier aspects of the culture and it's religion, and wimpling yourself, strutting in stonehenge and calling that 'celtic paganism' is an insult to the term, and also threatens the well-being of these people, and their way of life.

A couple of decades ago, in Britain, the press got wind of communities with "Tradition Bearers" and well ceremonies and who knows what else, in the district around Manchester. (Not even technically 'celtic' any more, either). They broadcast a programme about it, and immediately hordes of 'pagans' were in the commmunity trying to join in the ceremonies (which are affirmations of local communities with their landscape) or utilise the sacred sites (as if you can just turn up and preach from the pulpit of any church you feel like). There are practices in Wales and Ireland too, as there are anywhere else.

Before I get TOO riled up (I spend some time on a few 'Celtic pagan' lists, and it sometimes gets my goat too much), I will stop, but if anyone has any interest in celtic spirituality or culture (traditional or reconstructed), ask me here or email me, and I can help you or put you in touch with those who can.

Phew! I was starting to foam at the mouth again! Gotta stop doin' that.

Oh, yeah, I was going to say:

Yes, there's actuality a great link between the celtic pantheon and the stars. The gods were even imagined to live in the milky way (well, some of them were).

I didn't mean to suggest that you WERE trivialising the druids, just warning you off it. A lot of people do, and it gets me feeling homicidal (have I told you guys about the human heads I have over my fireplace and door).

On Merlin, while there is definately some link to the 'Wild man'/ 'Greenman' folklines, it's actually a lot more complex. Leaving aside any native tradition in Wales, Merlin (or actually Myrddin, who is supposed to have given his name to Caermarthen) appears to be descended as a character from earlier Gaelic tales from North Ireland and Southern Scotland (The Dalriadic Complex) dealing with conversion to Christianity. There are actually 3 Merlins in literature, and 2 are associated with the North. Moreover, the association with animals and shapeshifting, whilst definately a pre-christian element, is used here to indicate the 'wild' side of Merlin in a different light- that of un-christian, insane, untamed, 'natural' power as an antithesis to the order and stability of society. The same arguments were used in the older material, but the merlin myths were created with this in mind, during a christian age.

OK, I will stop now. I've talked more about the celts here than I have done study about them in the past few months, and my thesis is calling me. :-(

Hwyl!