Excerpt from notes on the award-winning 2005 film,
"TIME AFTER TIME – a celebration of the great heritage of ancient Celtic, American and Australian peoples"

Part 1.
Who Were The Celts?

Part 2.
Notes on Celtic Culture

Part 1.
Who Were The Celts?
The name “Celtic” was first given to the peoples of the British Isles in the 1700s, by a Welshman, Edward Lhwyd.

”...a pioneering linguist, the Welshman Edward Lhwyd, who demonstrated that Scots and Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton and related languages were also related to the extinct tongue of the ancient Gauls. He chose to call this family of dead and living languages "Celtic". Soon it was being used as an ethnic label for living peoples, and was applied to ancient monuments too.”
- Simon James, 1999

The six modern-day Celtic nations, Scotland (Alba), Brittany (Breizh), Wales (Cymru), Ireland (Eire), Cornwall (Kernow), and the Isle of Mann (Mannin) share common bonds of culture, history, and language. In addition, two regions, Galicia and Asturias, in the northwest corner of Spain (Celt-Iberia) also claim a Celtic cultural or historic heritage. The roots of Celtic culture are not restricted to those parts of Europe traditionally regarded as 'Celtic'.

Archeological findings trace the people known as the Celts across Europe before 3000 BC. The name Celtic comes from the Greek word Keltoi, "the hidden people." For those who study Celtic heritage, it is a life-long and multi-dimensional fascination. The aphorism, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know” applies.

Our earliest sources of documentation on the Celts comes from Roman reports on the cultures of their victims. And, evidence of their great artistic skill is found all over Europe, in the weapons and ornaments that Celtic peoples buried with their dead. The Celts achieved a rich and sophisticated tribal culture long before the dawn of Greek civilization. They were united inter-tribally by their shared language and world view/philosophy. The Greeks knew them as “the first philosophers”. It appears their society was not hierarchal, but egalitarian.

According to Caesar’s reports, the Druids were their intellectual class, incorporating all the professions. So, their leaders were a spiritual people, not a materialistic people.

Scholarly reports have argued that Celtic culture successfully upheld a philosophy of social egalitarianism for thousands of years: acknowledging, upholding, and promoting 'personal sovereignty' for each individual, based on the concept of Free Will. This is unique in the history of later European societies, where patriarchal hierarchy gradually expanded from east to west. The lack of a centralized government structure amongst European Celtic nations made them easy prey to the centralized Roman Empire.

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In 1069, just three years after William of Normandy, the Conqueror, captured England, he launched the great “Harrying of the North”. This was the beginning of the “Highland Clearances” in Scotland, which nearly wiped out Scottish culture.

Since I am Irish, I tend to focus on my own part of this vast cultural heritage. To determine who the Irish really were one must study their myths and legends. The origins of Irish settlement are disputed to this day. During the twelfth century, Irish monastic scholars compiled the "Book of Invasions" (the Leahbor Gabhala), one of the earliest chronicles of mythical occupations of Ireland. It claims that the first settlers were relatives of Noah, through the coming of the Sons of Mil, the Milesians, from Spain, (who are also known as the Gaels, of Gaul). Many of these exceptional characters were believed to have magical powers, including the Tuatha de Danann, the "people of the Goddess Danu", who were said to be a race of Gods.

During the Dark Ages of Europe, Irish “saints and scholars” flocked to the Continent to establish teaching monasteries, reputedly “saving civilization” (Cahill 1995) by transcribing and teaching Classic Greek literature.

Ireland remained to a great degree isolated from Europe until the end of the thirteenth century. Civilization didn’t save the Irish when their ancient high culture succumbed to imperialist forces during the long war with England, which was intensified by 'war' between England and the Roman Catholic Church.

So, from the thirteenth century in Ireland, traditional life was disrupted by continuous waves of murderous cruelty, of a kind never before reported amongst their own peoples, but which had been par-for-the-course for Europeans under the ruthless expansion of the Roman Empire, and consolidated in the Inquisitions of the Holy Roman Empire.

During this European invasion Irish and Scots were evacuated from their traditional lands, as forests were cut down to make way for plantations and estates of the English Ascendancy.

Up until the seventeenth century, unlike the rest of Europe and England, Ireland's Bardic schools had an educational tradition outside the monastic and ecclesiastical schools, which turned out poets, historians, lawyers, doctors, etc. Legends speak of these schools reaching back, before the first millennium BC, to ancient Druidic schools throughout the Celtic world. The European Celtic libraries were destroyed during the expansion of the Roman Empire and, much later in Ireland, under the British Empire.

By the end of the seventeenth century, every aspect of traditional Irish culture was outlawed; their enlightened ancient language and Brehon Laws, their beloved sacred practices and their intricate music banned, sent underground, into hiding, while the old Irish aristocracy and defeated Irish Chieftains fled to the European continent, with the reminder of their tribes and armies, and were welcomed by the European aristocracy, leaving behind the long-suffering people of Ireland, amongst embattled ruins, still standing, to be ruled by a new “Irish” aristocracy, known as the Ascendancy.

Now, throughout the Celtic Diaspora, the rich and sacred heritage of Celtic culture is deservedly experiencing a widespread renewal of interest, but, as we see in the tragic controversy over the destruction of the Hill of Tara region by ruthless and blatently corrupt developers, not enough people are prepared to make an effort to protect their rich heritage.

"This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."
– Sigmund Freud (when asked about the Irish)

"I showed my appreciation of my native land in the usual Irish way by getting out of it as soon as I possibly could."
– George Bernard Shaw

"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."
– Sean O'Casey

Ancient Celtic culture promotes the concept of ‘personal sovereignty’ as central to a successful life’s journey. This way of life has little to do with where one dwells because, in the sense of our inner life, we are travellers in the imagination as well as on the physical plane, and our thoughts and feelings are our landing places. Kindred spirits are our companions, like the stars, which help us navigate through life.

Concepts that come out of the ancient wisdom archetypes are as powerful as the concepts that come out of the most up-to-date understanding: For example, the ancient concepts of yearning, journeying, infinity, eternity, heaven, magic, angels, spirits, luminous beings, enchantment, vision, divine, sacred and then the modern concepts, quantum consciousness, the speed of light, tachyonic sound, morphic resonance, electromagnetic fields.

True to tradition, most Irish people hold the arts and learning in high esteem. Bardic poetry has a following amongst those who speak Gaelic, but many people in Ireland cannot claim to be of Celtic heritage. Many other ethnicities have been assimilated by Irish society, over hundreds of years. The traditions were nearly lost when the people who really knew the old high culture were forced to leave Ireland from as far back as the thirteenth century. Especially large numbers had ‘escaped’ from the seventeenth century and into the nineteenth century. Millions died in the late 1840’s famine/genocide and the millions who were evacuated had lost touch with their 'ancient' cultural heritage by that time. A new mythology of ‘Irishness’ and modified forms of the traditions were created within a completely new socio-political structure.

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Origins of Celtic Christianity, personal sovereignty & shapeshifting

Coming to terms with tragedies of history has caused people from all nations to overlook the high level of civilization achieved by their ancestors. For example, how many people know that long before the European-wide establishment of the Roman Catholic Church and it’s concept of ‘original sin’, the Irish Celts embraced 'Christ Consciousness' because their ancient philosophy predisposed them to understanding concepts that represented the historical pinnacle of thinking and being. ‘Enlightened’ Irish understood that 'Christ Consciousness' referred to the evolution of consciousness. Since their own wisdom tradition upheld enlightenment through personal sovereignty, “the kingdom is within”, they naturally comprehended Jesus' example of 'Christ Consciousness' and his teachings that every individual could achieve enlightenment - aka 'Christ Consciousness'. Their interpretation and practice of Jesus Christ’s teachings evolved into Celtic Christianity and led to Ireland becoming known as the Isle of Saints and Scholars. This significant historical perspective deserves to be taken seriously today.

The concept of ‘Personal Sovereignty’ brings two opposite meanings together - ‘personal’ and ‘sovereignty’. Very simply, this refers to one's individual realm of being; where one has complete control, autonomy and responsibility; where one has the final word on defining or interpreting one's reality and place in the universe.

‘Personal sovereignty’ is a concept that can be traced through very ancient "Celtic" culture. It has similarities to ancient Yogic theories. Perhaps it is part of the tradition that gave form to the enlightenment expressed in the magnificent Indo-European Vedas.

Consciousness ‘in the body’ is a vast field of exploration with an amazing pedigree. In ancient Europe, as in India, knowledge through ‘body consciousness’ had realized a great height of wisdom.

Today’s science tells us that ninety-nine-point-nine percent of every cell in the body is empty space and that every thought affects the chemistry of the whole body. Every thought has a chemical attached to it.

In November, 2006, scientists discovered that human DNA is more inconsistent than previously thought. Leading scientists have discovered that 200 genes in our genetic code are borrowed from bacteria. In other words, most of the cells in the human body are actually not human, but made up of the same material that forms the earth. Researching DNA is a much like studying astronomy: the more we learn, the more we discover there is to learn.

Carl Jung believed the world is psychologically contained within each of us. He believed the health and wellbeing of the individual is intertwined with the wellbeing of the whole society.

Rupert Sheldrake’s theory is that memory and other information is stored within the microtubules of every cell. These are living, self-organizing and causal information systems called holodynes. The radical news is that we can learn to access them and transform them. Holodynes exist within a quantum field dynamic that creates a ‘morphogenic’ effect, which resists change. To transform these fields, we need to understand ‘field shifting’. Ancient Celts called it ‘shapeshifting’.

The ancient Celts believed, “we are all embryonic gods and goddesses.” We can achieve god-hood in our lifetime, which is our true purpose, and when we do, “we have a filial duty to assist our kith and kin.” It’s all about the individual’s capacity to interpret and develop his or her own unique 'sovereign realm' of reality.

The concept of ‘Anam Cara’ (Anam means ‘soul’ and Cara - or Chara - means ‘friend’) describes how we meet our soul friends through respectful interaction. It takes profound respect to know anyone in a significant way. We reach out to another and we realize that we are at the threshold of another being’s reality, and there is the vast, wondrous unknown. We give ‘energy’ or take it away by the attitude with which we approach others.

I think the relevant message for today, from Celtic heritage, is that love is made profound by knowledge. Celtic tradition emphasizes subtlety over obviousness. The 'hidden' is more important than the revealed in that it has greater prospects for interpretation of hidden possibilities. It draws us in deeply, whereas that which is obvious doesn’t require much imagination.

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Traditional dance as a metaphor

I use traditional Irish dancing to show how we can comprehend greater 'dimensions' of insight. This is an exercise for the imagination. While it would help to know how to dance the simplest form of jig, it doesn’t really matter if that isn’t possible. The dance can be imagined.

I'll explain: Prepare as you would to dance a simple Jig.
Close your eyes, and imagine yourself standing very straight and still.
Let your body feel very light and weightless.
Imagine you are bouncing up and landing back down on your toes,
just lightly enough to spring back up again.
Focus on the point where you body feels weightless,
at the point where you can imagine yourself springing up.

Continue to focus your imagination on feeling weightless, until you experience a fresh, heightened awareness of your body.
Maintaining that focus is the key.
You will become aware of the field of energy flowing around and through your body.
Imagine being held up from the Medulla Oblongata, at the base of the brain (top of neck), the first entry of the nervous system into the embryo.

When there is an opportunity to actually dance to the music with someone else, it is really great if both people have done the 'imagination exercise' first. Then, when you move toward the other person in the dance, you will feel their energy field touching yours as you move closer to each other.
It is a thrilling sensation to notice how our ‘energy’ and attitude affects others, and likewise, how the presence of others affects us.