Michele Burke December, 2008

Gaelic Healing Water Spell

Acquire equivalent portions of violet, rosemary, and lavender. After give power to them boil them in approximately one quart of water over a medium flame. Once the water has a rich color and the herbs begin to emit a scent throughout your kitchen, drain off the water off into a jar. An organic coffee filter works well for this. Leave the jar in the sunshine for an entire day to take in the glowing energies from the sun. (To add the healing powers of mercury to the spell do this on a Wednesday) Occasionally gaze into the jar to add your own energies to it.

Just prior to twilight bring back the jar from outside and clutch it tightly between your hands just beneath your naval. Feeling your yearning to be in good health filling the jar, with your mind’s eye envision the jar shimmering as brightly as the sun. Repeat this chant until you have filled the jar with such an overabundance of energy that it can hold no more.

By the sun and by the herb
wellness and I are now as one
spiraling energies now are merged.
Destructive energies now be purged…

Anoint the body where the infirmity lurks if you are uncertain as to where the foundation of them discomfort lies, pour contents into bath water.

Bibliography and Works Cited:

Davis, G. G. (1908). Celtic Healing Water Spell.  Retrieved from great grandmothers Book
Shadows.

Tags: celtic, correspondence, druid, realms, three realms

• Articles

Michele Burke November, 2008

Celtic Spirituality is and has always been based on the fundamental knowledge that all existence is born of cyclical nature and therefore, all existence whether human or from nature has a direct link connecting the otherworld to the realm of the material world. From the Druidic teachings handed down through the Welsh tradition we are shown that there is an unseen world that intermingles and affects our perceptible world.

Things are not always as they may seem. Everything that “is” exists on numerous synchronized levels. The human being, the cognitive creature that he is comprehends the world around him as having three dominions or levels as it were: the spiritual, the corporeal (physical), and the emblematic. Consequently, the Celtic culture became one with nature, thusly, expressing their beliefs through the varying possibilities of being. Moreover, Celtic religion has taught the appearance and manifestation of divine beings on Earth and reincarnation of the human soul.

The Celts saw every existing thing or being because being composed from the three realms of reality. These three realms overlie and interrelate with each other in magnificent ways.  The astrophysical chart of the primordial Irish people consisted of three realms or spheres (Ord Draiochta na Uisnech, 2003).

Known as the “Magh Mor (MOY-mor), Mide (Meath), and Tir Andomain (Cheer ANDO-vain.) In other words, the ancient Irish people “believed in the “Great Plain” of the upper realm of Sky, “Middleland” for the Earth (Land), and “Land-under-wave” for the lower realm of the Sea” (Ord Draiochta na Uisnech, 2003).

The Three Realms

The Realm of Sky (Magh Mor)

The Realm of the Sky represents the future and the spiritual. Many of the Gods and Goddesses reign over this realm, though it should be understood they transcend all three realms.

Correspondences

• Beltane Correspondences

: Gods/Goddesses, Other World, Spiritual.

The Realm of Land (Mide)

The Realm of the Land represents the present and the phyiscal. We are beings of this realm that we share with the animals and the nature spirits.

Correspondences

• Beltane Correspondences

: Present, Nature, Spirits, Our World – Physical.

The Realm of Sea (Tir Andomain)

The Realm of Sea represents the past and the mental and emotional aspects of existence. This is the dwelling place of our Ancestors, whom we wish to know and honor.

Correspondences

• Beltane Correspondences

: Past, Ancestors, Underworld, Mental/Emotional.

(Ord Draiochta na Uisnech, 2003)

The Makeup of the Irish people’s entire reality existed of these three realms, which in combination made up their entire reality. There were and are no boundaries extricating these realms of being, the realms overlap and intermingle into on another; forever shifting and changing within time and realities.

Just as the Druids of the past we continue our search to seek out the boundaries, holding the thresholds of time and place as powerful and above all sacrosanct. The lands of Tir Andomain (Sea) and Magh Mor (sky) each have influence and authority in our mortal domain the realm of Mide (Land), just as the succession of the seasons is the caused by the oscillation of the Moon and Sun the cycles of death and life are affected by the sphere of the Sea which manifests itself into the realm of Mide (Land) (Ord Draiochta na Uisnech, 2003). Moreover, both Goddesses and Gods hold authority in Magh Mor, Mide, and Tir Andomain. Furthermore, even the mortal realm Mide influences the two other realms, for the depths of the lochs, the burial mounds, and even the caves are entrances to the underworld to the underworld.

Bibliography and Works Cited:

Ord Draiochta na Uisnech, (2003). The Three Realms. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from

http://www.irishdruidry.org/publish/the-three-realms

Tags: celtic, metaphysics

• Articles

Michele Burke October, 2008

Ancient Samhain Rituals

2,000 years ago, the Celts who lived in the region now known as Ireland, Northern France, and the United Kingdom, celebrated their new year on the 1st. day of November. The New Year symbolized the end of the harvest and of summer and the commencement of the cold, gloomy, dark days of winter, oftentimes, this time of year was associated with death. The Celts believed the hours of darkness preceding the new year, was the time when the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest, and it was on this night October 31 that the Celts celebrated Samhain, at what time it was believed that the spirits of the departed would cross the veil and return to earth. The Celts believed that these ethereal spirits not only were the cause of crop damage and overall mischief but their presence aided the Druids in making prediction of the future. For the ancient Celts these predictions were a vital spring of “comfort and direction” throughout the long, mysterious winter. Enormous sacred bonfires were built by the Druids to venerate the event, where everyone would gather to offer animals and burn crops as offerings to the Celtic deities.
Celtic Deities Chart

During the festival of Samhain the ancient Celts wore ceremonial costumes, classically made from the skins and heads of animals, and “attempted to tell the fortunes of each other.” Samhain is also known as the butcher’s harvest. This was the time of year when livestock was slaughtered for food for the oncoming winter months. After the gala had come to an end, their hearth fires were re-lit (which had be put out earlier in an attempt to ward off otherworldly spirits) from the hallowed bonfire that was built to help protect them throughout the impending winter.
Traditions Combine
By the time of the Roman conquest of Britain (A.D. 43), the Roman Empire had dominated the greater part of the Celtic region. Over a span of four hundred the Romans ruled the Celtic lands; and as a result two festivals of Roman derivation were combined with the traditional Celtic festival of Samhain.
The first Roman festival to be integrated into the Celtic tradition was Feralia, traditionally memorialized by the passing of the dead; the Romans celebrated Feralia in late October. The second Roman festival was in honor of the Roman goddess Pomona, goddess of fruit and trees.
Pomona’s symbol is the apple and the integration of this festivity into Samhain most likely explains the tradition and or custom of “bobbing” for apples that still today is practiced in modern Halloween celebrations.
The Christian Influence on Samhain
By the seventh century, the wide reaching weight of Christianity had stretched into the Celtic lands. By this time, Pope Boniface IV designated the first of November as All Saints’ Day, a time to honor martyrs and saints alike. It is commonly thought in the present day that Pope Boniface was skillfully trying to replace the Celtic festival of Samhain with an associated and or more commonly related, but church sanctioned celebration. This festivity was also referred to as All-Hallowmas (from the English spoken between the 12th and the beginning of the 16th centuries) Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) or All-hallows as well as the preceding night before, and as such, the evening of Samhain, was in turn to be known as All-hallows Eve and ultimately, Halloween. Furthermore, in the ninth century, the church designated the second of November as All Souls’ Day, a set aside to honor the dead. Celebrated much in the same way as Samhain, with parades, big bonfires, and dressing in costumes as angels, devil, and saints. Collectively, the three celebrations and or festivals, All Saint’s Eve, All Saints day, and All Soul’s day, were known as Hallowmas.
For modern Pagans this is the Day of the Dead just as it was for the Celts so many years ago, a night to honor ancestors and remember deceased loved ones. Whether one celebrates Halloween or Samhain makes little difference as long as it is done in solemn remembrance of dead.
Now the Rite Is At an End
And now the rite is at an end, again we’re parting ways
May truth and honor be your friend and lucky be your days
I’ll hold you dearly in my heart; I’ll hold you in my mind
And though our branches grow apart, our roots shall be entwined.
~ Paul Kershaw and Marae Price (Ár nDraíocht Féin, 2008).

Bibliography and Works Cited:
Apple Warrior, (2004). Celtic Deities. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from
http://www.applewarrior.com/celticworld/celticdeities/atoc.html
Ár nDraíocht Féin, (2008). Now the Rite Is At an End. Retrieved September 17, 2008, from
http://www.adf.org/rituals/chants/recessional/now-the-rite-is-at-an-end.html
History.com. (1996-2008). The History of Halloween. Retrieved September 16, 2008, from
http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/viewPage?pageId=713

Tags: celtic, ritual, samhain

• Articles