spiritman51 said:
I believe that a lot of knowledge can be recovered. I believe that connection with ancestor energy can truely give you a solid frame work.
I don't think this alone can give a person something truly solid to work with. The nature of visionary/dream work is very personal, and prone to fantasy. In CR, we refer to this kind of information (from any dream or vision source) as UPG, or "unsubstantiated personal gnosis." We do think of it as inspired, as imbas, but it needs to be backed up with history and research so that we don't have people with "past life memories" of neolithic "Celtic" ancestors practicing what looks for all the world like modern Wicca.
UPG can be very important, if others find they are getting the same type of information, and things are checking out with historical type sources. We're starting to get some of that here and there, as we compare notes. It's sort of a checks and balances system within the CR movement, though this really just starting. There is a difference between what we regard as useful for personal practice and what we regard as useful for the growing community as a whole.
I also believe you have to adapt to the modern world. If you pine away for the past you will lose the present and the future.
Absolutely. I have no desire to be an Iron Age Irishwoman living in a wattle and daub hut, thank you. I have no interest in human sacrifices, nor in trial by combat, or measuring wealth in terms of cattle or slaves. I'm quite fond of indoor plumbing and many forms of modern medicine, without which I'd probably have died in childhood.
I am interested in ancient visionary techniques, the folk practices that may lead us to a better understanding of the ways people may have worshipped the deities, ancestors and spirits, and in poetic, spiritual, and magical practices from pre-Christian times. I'm interested in the music and dance. I'm interested in early medical practices that also contained working with charms and verse, as well as herbal knowledge.
Over the years I have had many contacts ( read run ins) with The Keltic Reconstructionists mostly of the Scots flavor. I lived and traveled in Scotland for four years ... I loved Scotland and was very emotional when I had to leave. I felt a bond with the land which I can only call spiritual. But, it did not make me want to wear a clan kilt and badges I was not entitled to wear. It did not make me desire to invent an unbroken druid linage back to the pre Christian era. And it did not make me into an Anglophobe or want to speak mock Gaelic.
I have had a few run-ins with the same sort, possibly even some of the same individuals. There is an unfortunate racist current in some "Gaelic Traditionalism" and CR, but many of us are trying to express the original ideas we had for CR back in the 1980s and early 1990s, which included the idea that we can't and really don't want to be silly pseudo-Gaels, and that we are not interested in racism or bringing back the Iron Age. I am very firmly anti-racist, anti-homophobia, and anti-sexism.
I have no interest in moving out to some tribal homesteading complex where I have to bow down to some arrogant idiot warrior-king of the tribe. I don't like the idea of attempting to institute and force "castes" on people. I don't do well out in the country, and happen to like associating with people who don't do and believe the same things I do -- hence my membership on boards like this
I don't own a kilt, though I admit I'd like to for dress events (yes, I'd go in Guy Kilt Drag). I've seriously studied both Old and Modern Irish. I've studied a little Scots Gaelic and sung in a Gaelic language choir for several years, some of which included contact with native Gaelic speakers. I've gone as far as attending Celtic Studies conferences to learn from the acknowledged scholars in the field.
I'm very curious about what you mean by "pseudo-Gaelic" and would like to hear about your experiences with that.
I have no desire to be anybody's tribal chieftain, nor do any of the folks I regularly associate with. We
are interested in working with the past, with an eye to what Pagan Gaelic culture and religion might have looked like had it survived intact through Christianity. All Pagan cultures change with the times, as one can see very plainly when looking at Hindu India. The traditions have moved forward to include all aspects of modern life, while retaining the reverence for the deities, and daily practices and traditions that reach back into the far distant past.
Not one person I take seriously makes any claim to having some unbroken Druidic lineage. None of them. In fact, we regard people who make such claims with deep suspicion and generally disregard anything they have to say about "druidism." For the most part, I think I can safely say that our first reaction to such folk is to laugh at their claims, and our second is to debunk them as having any "unbroken" lineage to anything other than possibly some Druidic Revival material from the 1700s.
My "unbroken" lineage to Scotland goes back to my father's father, whom I can name. I don't even know the names of my great grandparents, who apparently originally immigrated to Massachusetts from Scotland -- but I don't even know if that is the case. They may have been born here too. What I can authoritatively state is that they were Catholic, thank you very much
Those of us who are seriously engaging in CR tend to study the language of the culture we're working with, whether that be Scots Gaelic, Old Irish, Gaulish, Manx, Welsh, or other Celtic languages. We go to the scholars and the original texts for our research. If we have the knowledge and skill, we attempt our own translations. Then we go to our own personal work, and compare notes with others as often as possible. We understand that we are creating something new, based as much as possible on old sources and ways, but intended for modern people living in a modern era. Those of us who are doing it in what I'd consider the "right" way are honest about what we draw from tradition and scholarly sources, and what we derive from our own comparative and internal work.
We're not Anglophobes, though we do have an understanding of what the English did to the Welsh, the Scots, the Irish, and other Celtic peoples. I don't hate or fear the English. The English folks I know tend to be quite pleasant and a lot of fun to hang with and talk to. We tend to talk about Science Fiction fandom for the most part.
Yet, I think it is possible to engage that ancestral energy. I think you can reconstruct a magickal system based on the ancestral energy. The magickal system you construct can then guide you into a meaningful and modern life.
Something based entirely on "ancestral energy" isn't a reconstruction, though. It's an exercise in UPG, and an eclectic path. This is very effective when designing a personal spiritual path for an individual -- but it's not "reconstructing" anything with an historical basis, or reference to any historical period. There is nothing invalid in creating ones own spiritual path through personal inspiration. In fact, it can be a wonderful, extremely powerful thing, and is much to be encouraged. I wish more people would, and that they'd be honest about the source of their material. I have immense respect for folks who say "yes, this is my own inspiration, and it works really well for me" instead of trying to lie and label it some ancient unbroken historical tradition back to the Paleolithic caves of Europe. I delight in their creativity and inspiration, and always wish them well.
CR isn't trying to be eclectic, though eclectic elements can and do make their way into it when there are gaps in historical knowledge that need to be covered. Many of those elements come from nearby and fairly closely related cultures, like the Norse. There is currently a lot of work being done by several people to incorporate group ecstatic work based on Seidhr and Afro-Diasporic models with Celtic deities and spirits. And yes, we're all well aware that this is not an authentic historical expression of ancient Celtic worship from anything we've yet been able to discover, nor are any of us trying to claim it is. We do think it can become a valid method for use in CR though.
Without being able to confirm any of what a person gets through interacting in spirit or dreamworld in other sources, there is no way to show any authenticity or relation to any actual historical path. I am in no way saying one is better than another. All I'm doing is trying to illustrate that there is a difference.
To put it in terms of well known modern work, Carlos Castaneda's books are a valid spiritual path. They discuss a methodology and philosophy that works well for many people. Unfortunately, he's been completely debunked regarding any contact or study with the Yaqui he was allegedly writing about. It was adequately demonstrated that Castaneda was a plagiarist, and that Don Juan never actually existed -- so while it is a valid path, it is completely unauthentic regarding Native tribal practices of the Yaqui or other Mesoamericans he supposedly is reporting about.
Conversely, human sacrifice may be an authentic practice in many cultures, but in a modern ethical and moral sense, it is an extremely invalid way to go about the practice of one's religion.
Going out to study with the Lakota elders and taking on the Red Road and the Sun Dance way through that contact and in a respectful, tribal way is an example of a path that is both authentic in what it claims to be and valid as a legitimate spiritual path.
What reconstructionists in general are searching for are ways to be as authentic as possible to a pre-Christian culture where sources exist, and valid as a modern spiritual practice as well. To that end, we study history and language and culture to find out what we can. Then we go to other cultures and to personal visionary work, that is then compared to what others are doing and the results we are all getting.
Once we (in CR at least) pare down the other culture material to something that seems to fit the patterns we've discovered through our research, we try to embed that into our work in as Celtic a manner possible and then compare notes on our results. If it works and gets consistent results, at least some of us will incorporate it. If it doesn't, we toss it out and try again with different materials.
We do the same with what we get through UPG, and what survives that comparative process in the community and works in a spiritual and magical sense in private and group ritual, eventually disseminates and becomes a shared pattern within at least some of the variants of CR. It's not like we're taking random material and tossing it in just because we like it or it sounds cool. Some of the really cool stuff just doesn't work in context, so we have to find other things that feel more authentic to us.
Doing reconstructionist religion tends to be a lot of work. Most people aren't really suited to it, but that's okay. You sort of have to be a bit of an academic by nature to really get into it, and that kind of time and effort isn't to everyone's liking. For those of us who do engage in it, we find it a deeply rewarding, challenging path. We tend to be folks who don't accept easy answers, and who are deeply curious and driven. We're fascinated by history and culture. We can be somewhat curmudgeonly. To be honest, most of us don't fit in well with the overculture, which is why we're seeking in the first place.
It's not a path where you can read one or two books and have a year's worth of ritual celebrations, and a convenient compilation of cosmologies, philosophies and theologies, or a list of deities and their properties to work with. People coming to us to have it all handed to them on a silver platter aren't going to find what they want. Most of us don't suffer fools gladly, though we're willing to share what we know and are learning with those willing to do their own work.
