Celtic Wisdom

Odin is considered the highest god in Norse mythology and Norse paganism. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex: he is god of both wisdom and war. He is also attested as being a god of magic, poetry, victory, and the hunt. His name is, in Old Norse, Óðinn. Although its precise meaning is debated, the name is thought to be related to the word óðr, meaning "excitation" or "fury". Worship of Odin dates to Proto-Germanic paganism, and the names Old English (and Old Saxon) Wōden; Old ...

Including:

Odin - Medieval reception

Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia - Odin

Celtic Wisdom: New Age Spiritual Dictionary on Cups

cups

1. Tarot suit associated with love and wisdom.

2. Cups possessing magic properties appear in Celtic legend. The Quadrangular Cup of the Fenians gave a person any drink he desired. Other magic cups cured dumbness, or brought good luck

(See also: Cups, Body Mind and Soul)

Celtic Wisdom: Spiritual Dictionary on Druidism

Druidism: Druidism is the cultural and spiritual heritage of the Celtic peoples, a polytheistic religion originating in the archaic proto-Indo-European past. It was carried into Western Europe by Indo-European tribes speaking Celtic dialects.

Druidism is a spiritual path in harmony with the natural flow of the cosmos. It is one of the many folk or “earth” religions that can brig us back into reverence for living things and the disciplines of hard work, productivity, physical strength and health. It beckons us to follow the wisdom of our ancestors.

(See also: Druidism, Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Celtic Wisdom: Pilgrimage in Ancient Europe - Megalithic and Celtic Sacred Space

For many thousands of years our ancestors have been visiting and venerating the power places of Europe. One culture after another has often frequented the same power sites and the story of how these magical places were discovered and used is filled with fairies and nature spirits, sages and astronomers, and enigmatic myths of world destroying cataclysms.

Celtic Wisdom: Why Wicca is Not Celtic Paganism

Why Wicca is Not Celtic Paganism

There are many out there who believe that Wicca and its related forms of NeoPagism are a type of Celtic Paganism (and vice versa), but this is simply not true. The following article is meant to be a comparison of Wicca and Celtic Paganism in order to demonstrate this, and to educate the public about Celtic Paganism. While Wicca certainly contains elements of Celtic mythology, folk magic and religious belief, its basic tenets and beliefs are radically different from those of Celtic Pagans.

Celtic Wisdom: Beltane - May 1 or May Day

Beltane is celebrated on May 1st and is one of the original Celtic festivals. Beltane or May Day is also known as the Lover's holiday. Beltane is one of the four Celtic Fire festivals, and is probably the second most important festival next to Samhain. Beltane is primarily a sun festival and was performed during the day. The most important part of Beltane was the kindling of the fires. The Irish Celts would extinguish their fires the night before and would eat a cold meal to insure that all fires were out. Then they would attend the ceremony, returning with an ember to once more start their fires.

Celtic Wisdom: THE PENTAGRAM

THE PENTAGRAM

The pentagram, or five-pointed star, may be the most misunderstood religious symbol around these days. Being the most common symbol of Neo-Pagan Witchcraft, it has nevertheless been denigrated by movie and publishing industries which seem 'hell-bent' on connecting it with Satanism and other malevolent practices. However, like the Roman Cross or Crucifix, it is only when the symbol is INVERTED that it alludes to negativity. And even then, there are exceptions, as we shall see.

Read more here: » Paganism: THE PENTAGRAM

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - Ceridwen

In Welsh mythology, Ceridwen was a magician, mother of Taliesin, Morfran, and a beautiful daughter. Her husband was Tegid Veol (Welsh:Tegid Foel), and they lived near Bala Lake in Wales. Morfran (also called Avagddu) was hideously ugly, so she sought to make him wise. Ceridwen had a magical cauldron that could make a potion granting wisdom. The mixture had to be cooked for a year and a day. Morda, a blind man, tended the fire beneath the cauldron, while Gwion, a young boy, stirred the concoction. The first three drops of liquid ...

Including:

Ceridwen - Etymology

Read more here: » Ceridwen: Encyclopedia - Ceridwen

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - Brigid

In Irish mythology, Brigit or Brighit ("exalted one") was the daughter of Dagda (and therefore one of the Tuatha Dé Danann) and wife of Bres of the Fomorians. She had two sisters, also named Brighid, and is considered a classic Celtic Triple Goddess. Brigid - Etymology. This theonym appears to be derived from Proto-Celtic *Brigantījā meaning "exalted feminine [spirit ]" (q.v. [1] [2] [3]). Some of her titles included: "Brigantia, Exaltedness of Inspiration" - patroness of poets ...

Including:

Read more here: » Brigid: Encyclopedia - Brigid

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - Celtic Christianity

This article is about the ancient form of Christianity in Britain and Ireland, which was addressed at the Synod of Whitby[citation needed] in 664 in an attempt to reconcile it with the Roman rite. The existence of a Celtic Church, or a Celtic Catholic Church (also known as "Culdee Church"), is generally agreed upon by Roman sources but highly debated among scholars. Celtic Christianity - What is Celtic Christianity?. Celtic Christianity, or The Celtic Church, is thought to be a form ...

Including:

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - Celtic polytheism

Celtic polytheism (also called Druidic polytheism) is the term for the religious beliefs and practices of the ancient Celts. Celtic polytheism - Extent of Celtic polytheism. As the religion of the ancient Celts, the shifts in the fortunes of Celtic Polytheism coincided with those of its people. The Celts, like other ancient Indo-European peoples, practised a form of polytheism, which reached the apogee of its influence and territorial expansion during the 4th century BC, extending across the length o ...

Including:

Celtic polytheism - Festivals

Celtic polytheism - Cults within Celtic polytheism

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - Christian Wicca

Christian Wicca combines Christian and Wicca beliefs, embracing reincarnation and worship of nature and fertility as key aspects. Christian Wicca - Principal Tenets. Christian Witches may follow either the Wiccan idea of "Harm none and do as you will" or typically the traditional Golden Rule. God (and sometimes angels) are the central focus. Mother earth is commonly viewed as the goddess in Wicca, which results in a conflict with traditional Christian monotheism. However, some of these same witches believe ...

Including:

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - Taliesin

For the studio established by Frank Lloyd Wright, see Taliesin (studio). Taliesin or Taliessin (c. 534–c.599) is the earliest poet of the Welsh language whose work has survived. His name is associated with the Book of Taliesin, a book of poems written down in the 10th century but which most scholars believed to date in large part from the 6th century. He is believed to have been the chief bard in the courts of at least three British kings of that era. In legend he attained the status "Chief Bard of Britai ...

Including:

Read more here: » Taliesin: Encyclopedia - Taliesin

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia - List of deities

This list of deities aims to give information about deities in the different religions, cultures and mythologies of the world. It is sorted alphabetically. There are also lists of deities by type; see the articles death deity, household deity, lunar deity, and solar deity. See also: List of fictional deities, List of people considered to be deities Related articles include Deva, Demigod, Divinity, God, God (male deity), Goddess, Mythology, Religion, Scripture. List of deities - Abenaki. Including:

List of deities - Abenaki

List of deities - African

List of deities - Anglo-Saxon

List of deities - Akamba

List of deities - Akan

List of deities - Ashanti

List of deities - Australian Aboriginal

List of deities - Ayyavazhi

List of deities - Aztec

List of deities - Bahá'í

List of deities - Bushongo

List of deities - Celtic

List of deities - Chinese

List of deities - Chippewa

List of deities - Christian

List of deities - Creek

List of deities - Dacian

List of deities - Dahomey

List of deities - Dinka

List of deities - Efik

List of deities - Egyptian

List of deities - Estonian

List of deities - Etruscan

List of deities - Finnish

List of deities - Ancient Greek

List of deities - Gnostic

List of deities - Guarani

List of deities - Haida

List of deities - Hindu

List of deities - Ho-Chunk

List of deities - Hopi

List of deities - Huron

List of deities - Ibo

List of deities - Incan

List of deities - Inuit

List of deities - Iroquois

List of deities - Islamic

List of deities - Isoko

List of deities - Japanese

List of deities - Judaic

List of deities - Khoikhoi

List of deities - Modern Western mythology

List of deities - !Xũ

List of deities - Kwakiutl

List of deities - Lakota

List of deities - Lotuko

List of deities - Latvian

List of deities - Lugbara

List of deities - Lusitani

List of deities - Mayan

List of deities - Mesopotamian

List of deities - Navaho

List of deities - Norse

List of deities - Pawnee

List of deities - Persian

List of deities - Polynesian

List of deities - Prussian and Baltic

List of deities - Pygmy

List of deities - Roman

List of deities - Salish

List of deities - Sardinian

List of deities - Semitic pagan

List of deities - Seneca

List of deities - Sikhism

List of deities - Slavic

List of deities - Sumerian

List of deities - Thracian

List of deities - Tumbuka

List of deities - Ugarit

List of deities - Yoruba

List of deities - Zoroastrian

List of deities - Zulu

List of deities - Zuni

Celtic Wisdom: Encyclopedia II - Human sacrifice - Viking Age sacrifice

According to Norse mythology, Odin hanged himself from the world-tree Yggdrasil for nine nights to attain divine wisdom. Medieval Christian sources refer to Norsemen sacrificing prisoners by hanging them from trees, but the true extent of this behavior is unclear. Norse warriors were sometimes buried with slave girls with the belief that the women would become their wives in Valhalla. A detailed eyewitness account of such a burial was given by Ahmad ibn Fadlan as part of his account of an embassy to the Volga Bulgars in 921. In his de ...

Jedi, Jedi - Origins of the Order, Jedi - Becoming a Jedi, Jedi - The Force, Jedi - Inspirations Behind The Force, Jedi - The Jedi Code, Jedi - Structure of the Order, Jedi - Jedi Ranks, Jedi - Jedi Types, Jedi - The Chosen One, Jedi - Grey Jedi, Jedi - The Pillars of Jedi Strength, Jedi - Political Organization, Jedi - The Lightsaber, Jedi - The Dark Side of the Force, Jedi - Recent history of the Jedi, Jedi - The Jedi-Sith conflict resumes, Jedi - The Dark Times and the Empire Return of the Jedi, Jedi - After the Galactic Civil War, Jedi - The New Jedi Order, Jedi - The Dark Nest, Jedi - Major Jedi, Jedi - Ancient Jedi, Jedi - Pre-Ruusan Old Republic Jedi, Jedi - Post-Ruusan Old Republic Jedi, Jedi - The New Jedi Order

Celtic Wisdom: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on QLIPHOTH, QLIPPOTH

QLIPHOTH/QLIPPOTH

Lit. "shells" (singular: qliphah). Shades of the dead whose names appear in the books of Dyzan or Thoth, or the Book of the Law (AL). They may contain formulae of magical powers. RAW calls them "souls of those who died insane... the tulpas of Tibet... avatars of Coyote, the American Indian prankster-god." RAW also identifies them with the Celtic "little people" or faeries. Some of the twenty-two qliphotic entities of the Black Tarot, as envisioned by Grant, are defined herein under separate entries, although strictly speaking, the qlippoth are the names of the guardians of the tunnels, not the tunnels themselves. To understand the qliphothic atus fully and to do them justice can be more deleterious to the artist or researcher than one might suspect. Conceivably, such complete understanding could result in the destruction of the ego without restoration in the Oversoul and therefore lead to actual madness. Dealing with the Qliphoth is the psychic equivalent of working with toxic wastes, dangerous animals or high voltage wires.

To invoke any force is to invoke automatically its opposite as well. In the more conventional sense, qliphoth are negative cosmic energies equating with the ten positive Sephiroth (e.g., Lilith is the evil counterpart of Malkuth). All positive aspects of divinity have their "excremental" sides, or demons: Beelzebub, Satanas, etc. The difference between metamorphosis and excretion is thinner than you might guess.

From the universal lexicon:

scall English scab

chale Cupeno husk, shell

skalli Icelandic a peeled head

geled Hebrew skin

kulit Malay skin

skull English the "shell" of the brain

azal Basque peeling

soale Hausa to peel off

scale, shell English

scalp< shell a Dutch M. schelpe Qabalah the of ?demons? or refuse? ?peelings, Qlipphoth discard husk, Hebrew qliphah husk peel; skin; to Malay kupas sheath English Middle>

In the waning years of Alchemy, occultists were fond of saying that the Philosopher's Stone was "that which all men despise" -- and this in turn led the puffers to experiment with various types of excrement in order to see if that substance, perchance, could possibly yield the Secret of the Ages, since nothing so far had succeeded in doing so. And of course all such experiments accomplished was to mark the nadir of human folly.

What is this word "excrement", after all? It's from Latin, excernere, "to separate." It is a separation, a peeling away, as when we peel away a scab or a blister, making it no longer a part of ourselves. German scheiden/schieden (divide, separate, divorce) is simply another form of the word Scheisse (Fr. chier, Engl. shit) or its Greek equivalent schizo, "to split."

Latin cutis (skin), we should notice, first of all, is a cognate of Greek skatos (dung). Like the snake, what we throw away begins with the "skin" -- a word which probably represents a form of one of the universal roots. Compare Peruvian kina (the bark, or tree peeling, whence we get quinine) and Malay sisek (fish scales). Perhaps even the Austrian Kakadu word, k…ngir meaning "skin" is distantly related. At any rate, k…ngir is almost certainly the origin of "kangaroo," particularly since the Australian Warramunga word, nguru, meant "foreskin." These two are clearly connected and the marsupial associations are plain enough.

The puffers didn't understand that excrement isn't exactly what all men despise. Or to be more precise, what matters isn't so much what is discarded and thrown away, but the value we place on the kept, as opposed to the trash. That faulty decision itself is where the problem lies. In fact, the Finnish proverb: Kulta kultainen v„lkkya roskatta, "gold glitters in what is thrown away", is a sentiment well understood by shamans, witches and other marginal people, who are drawn to the rubbish heaps and middens, much as the money-vultures circle the stock market.

What all men despise is "that out there," that is to say, the world. And they try incessantly to dissociate themselves from it. Yet, obviously, if we really were one with the world, then we'd have in hand "the universal solvent," we'd have immortality because the world is immortal. In the world's all-powerful Nature is the very secret of turning lead into gold. Instead man tries desperately to throw out everything that is not self.

Part of the problem is that the verb "to be" has two meanings (as in Spanish): one is an expression of permanent identity or equivalence to something else and the other an expression of a changing, on-going process. When we accept the error that we are not gods, we cease all self-examination, self-disciplines and self-improvement. We define god as an embodiment of "pefection" (or completion) instead of as the avenue of evolution and becoming. Only idols are perfect. Not even Odin ever thought of himself as perfect: he had to make many sacrifices in order to gain wisdom. Ditto Osiris, who was so far from being "together" that he was chopped up into little pieces. Granted, Jehovah is perfect, or thinks He is, but He is also a difficult God to respect, for that same reason. When you say we are not gods, you mean we are not idols. But an idol is precisely what modern man has made of himself. He worships himself, even though gods never worship themselves. Obviously, they don't have to. Only man worships himself, though not really as a god or potential god. He worships himself just as he is: as a fatted, golden pig wearing Gucci shoes.

The reason people push gods "outside" is the same reason they shove everything else outside, separating everything and calling it evil because it is unwanted. Anything which is not self, including the planet earth, is felt to be of no real value. In fact, matter is simply unwanted "dirt." Most of the self is thrown away, at least that part of the self which demands the most work or struggle. All that may remain is the momentary gratification of physical need: food, drink, sex, rest, entertainment. To put a god into that strait-jacket, even a minor one, is to disrupt the routine, to interfere with the direct line of ice cream to mouth. Besides, the puffing up of an imaginary personal ego is a thousand times easier than the expression of difficult, real Divinity. Standing far enough away from the world empowers objectivity to serve as the perfect defense of the ego. Here ego cannot be challenged and "Science" and "Reason" become the last refuges of Subjective Solipsism.

In the Qabalah this peeling away of the self, this separation or "excrement" is called a Qlipha (pl. qlipphoth). The qliphoth are the negative personifications. All the expressions of Divinity have their "qlipphoth": Samael, Beelzebub, Satanas, etc., as we've said. And, in truth, these are what people actually bow down to: these idols that are made up out of excrement. Divinity that lies outside of self is not divinity.

In contemporary Occidental man's desperate struggle to separate himself we would do well to remember Alan Watts' comparison of the self to an onion. You can peel and peel until there is nothing left.

(See also: QLIPHOTH, QLIPPOTH, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )