Insular speculations

 

A scholarly video on YouTube concerning the languages of pre-Celtic Britain and Ireland. Or rather speculations about what they could have been. 

One rather obvious idea is that the pre-Celtic populations of the British Isles spoke non-Indo-European languages, the Celts being the first Indo-European people(s) to reach the area. Pictish may have been a late survival of these non-IE tongues. Another speculation is that there was an earlier Indo-European migration to the isles. This branch of the IE language family would be long extinct.

Perhaps more attested is the notion of a vast Sprachbund regrouping Celtic, Berber and Vasconic languages, perhaps also West African ditto. Linguists have long noted peculiar grammatical similarities between the Celtic and Berber languages, yet they don´t seem closely related and are placed in entirely different language families.

It also struck me when watching this video that all of this is really "luxury knowledge" of interest only to a very narrow group of specialists or nerds. Throughout most of human (pre)history, people simply spoke whatever language they happened to have and got on with their lives (or migrations) rather than analyzing its syntactic structures...

We are WEIRD. And not a little insular!

Bell-beakerish

 

I just learned a new word: "Avidic". It´s so rare that even ChatGPT failed to identify it (before I gave it some rather obvious clues). Good luck with your own research!

Flagged

 

An interesting "unofficial" flag, actually. 

Flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon

See also here (more ironically):

Identity crisis

An ancient god

 

This is supposed to be "Pashupati" (the Indus Valley Civilization deity) in a rainy northern forest. I suspect Copilot might have gotten some inspiration from Cernunnos, though. Note the coy wolf (pun intended) and the squirrel?! The bird is probably a quail. 

Current mood? 

Holarctic Pashupati?

 

So I wanted a picture of the proto-Shiva deity from the Pashupati seal, but in a naturalistic setting, walking around among birds. This was the closest thing I could get Bing AI to generate. Probably freely based on Cernunnos, but no hard feelings. I mean, the similarities between "Pashupati" and the Celtic god are staggering. 

Then it struck me that all the birds shown are either European or North American (the ones I could make out), so I suppose we could see this as a truly Holarctic Pashupati!

Be careful what you wish for

 

- Halloween nu igen? Nej, jag är inte
inblandad där, kontakta Cerunnos!

Småflickorna fortsätter att gnabbas. Fast jag frestas nästan säga: "Be careful what you wish for"!

Snälla Busch, kulturkriga mot Halloween istället

Trovärdiga källor

 

*Lite* oklart om detta keltiska samhälle verkligen var kvinnodominerat, men jag håller med om att det åtminstone något stärker de romerska källornas tillförlitlighet. Detta apropå den första länken. Den andra artikeln har jag redan länkat till en gång tidigare, but here we go again...

Keltiska kvinnor hade makten i stort järnålderssamhälle

Mystiskt forntida samhälle var kvinnocentrerat

Told you so

 

Sicilian history nerd "The Metatron" discusses whether or not female warriors existed in ancient times, based on ancient sources and archeology. He reaches the conclusion that most such warriors were mythological, fought under extraordinary conditions, or weren´t really warriors but female rulers (not the same thing). 

However, one ethnic group does stand out: Scythians and their subgroup the Sarmatians. *They* had female warriors. This is confimed by both written sources and archeological digs, so it´s a settled question. Especially significant is the female "Roman" soldier found in Britain, probably a Sarmatian. It´s *very* unlikely that she was buried as a soldier for purely symbolic reasons, if he she was just the in-keeper...

No surprise there.

The Metatron ends by pointing out that there were also female warriors in Africa, but says very little about this. Maybe next time?  

The patriarch of Glastonbury?!

 

Some other dude 

Is this even a true story? But it probably is. A bunch of most endearing British excentrics formed a Neo-Celtic Church supposedly in union with the Oriental Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch in Syria, and then proceeded to declare the Patriarch unseated (!) when he disavowed all the weirdos in the Western world claiming his mantle (or was it the robes). LOL. 

The Neo-Celts had amazing titles and names, too, such as "Patriarch of Glastonbury, Abdullah III" or "Abba James, Archbishop Titular of Caerleon-upon-Usk". There was also a Patriarch of Malaga! Not to mention an Eparchy of all the Turanians, with claimed jurisdiction over Finland, Hungary and Turkey...

This sums it up well:

>>>If the truth must be told, those so-called 'extensions' of the Antiochene Patriarchate were a chimera, based on the tradition handed down from the eighteen-sixties that the apostate French Dominican, Julius Ferrette, having been consecrated Bishop of Iona by Mar Bedros, Bishop of Emesa (Homs), had been appointed by the Jacobite Patriarch as his Legate in Europe, with the specific purpose of erecting an autocephalous British Patriarchate. 

>>>To the objective observer, the so-called Council of London and its Acts are the stuff that the dreams are reminiscient of, an Arabian Nights tale. For none of the prelates who took part in its brief session could claim jurisdiction over more than perhaps a dozen followers, and some of the Churches had only a paper existence. They did, on the other hand, take themselves quite seriously. 

If another Wiki entry is to be believed, one faction of the ex-Catholicate actually managed to affiliate with the Coptic Church in Egypt for a number of years, but surely *that* can´t be true... 

Catholicate of the West

Das Kleinod von Babylon

 

“The Occult Roots of Religious Studies”, edited by Yves Mühlematter and Helmut Zander, is a scholarly volume published in 2021. It´s interesting, to be sure, but the title is (frankly) click bait. (The subtitle is more correct: “Influence of Non-Hegemonic Currents in Academia around 1900”.) The contributors don´t really prove that religious studies have occult roots, and frankly don´t even try. I get the impression of a comfy scholarly conference where everyone made a presentation on their favorite obscure topic, had a quick snack in the bar, and then went home to Paris, Heidelberg, or wherever these people have their domicile! What the book proves is simply that many scholars of religion had “non-hegemonic” side interests. In plain English: they actually believed in Spiritualism, occultism, and the like. But that´s hardly news today. A more edgy volume (which will have to wait another 50 years) would detail which scholars *today* have religious connections and how that influences their academic research (Tibetology cough cough). It´s also somewhat weird that the two biggest fish in the occult/religious studies interface pond are hardly even mentioned. Yes, that would be Carl Gustav Jung and Mircea Eliade. Oh, and what about Henry Corbin?

But sure, “The Occult Roots of Religious Studies” isn´t bad, if you take it in the right spirit (pun intended). The chapter on Britain shows that both the Victorian and Edwardian periods were steeped in occultism, indeed, occultism (at least in the broad sense) was near-respectable. Even after the separation of science and “superstition”, many scientists were interested in Theosophy and Spiritualism on a purely personal level. So nah, Alfred Russell Wallace wasn´t unique. Chances are *Darwin* was! One thing that surprised me was that some Theosophists were members of the SPR even *after* the latter´s conflict with Madame Blavatsky. And SPR´s social base was near-upper class! The scientist Sir William Crookes, inventor of the TV tube and discoverer of Thallium, was a President of the SPR, a former President of the Royal Society and…a member of the Theosophical Society. He is even mentioned in the Mahatma Letters! It was also interesting to note that US philosopher William James was more into Spiritualism than I had expected, and that he was the son of a Swedenborgian minister…

One interesting chapter deals with John Woodroffe alias Arthur Avalon. Or perhaps not, since “Arthur Avalon” was really a collective pseudonym, encompassing both Woodroffe and a number of Bengali intellectuals. I never read Avalon´s works (an unfortunate lacuna, I know), but we´re apparently talking about a very late “reform” Tantra, paradoxically proposed to save India and Hinduism from modernity, while simultaneously claiming to be “scientific”. And speaking of India: one contribution deals with W Y Evans-Wentz, the man behind “The Tibetan Book of the Dead” and a lifelong Theosophist, who never left his occult ideas very far behind. He even saw evidence of reincarnation and other Theosophical doctrines in Celtic fairy lore!

The most intriguing section isn´t even about a scholar of religious studies sensu stricto: the famous German archeologist Walter Andrae. It turns out that his Babylonian exhibition at the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin (the one featuring the Ishtar Gate) is inspired by Anthroposophy! Apparently, Andrae both arranged and interpreted the exhibition according to doctrines he picked up from the Christian Community, the Anthroposophical “Church” founded by Friedrich Rittelmeyer under the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner. Apparently, it´s supposed to resemble an initiatory path. This also explains a weird anomaly in the exhibition: its two sphinxes aren´t Babylonian but Hittite. Yet, Andrae assumed that there simply must have been sphinxes present based on some hard-to-understand Anthroposophical doctrine. Indeed, Andrae believed that the Babylonians were carrying out a ritual created by a certain Zaratos, an earlier incarnation of Zarathustra, and the spiritual teacher of Nebuchadnezzar II. There are also speculations that the exhibition halls were painted according to Anthroposophical principles, Steiner having a complex theory of color supposedly derived from Goethe. While this is all very interesting, what conclusions are we supposed to draw from it? For instance, why did Andrae get away with it? Was it *only* because of his elevated position at an important institution, or did his take on ancient Babylon speak to some more widespread Zeitgeist?

The introduction to the volume does make some points worth pondering. For instance, it asks whether esotericism or occultism is really “non-hegemonic” to begin with? If a worldview is widely shared and discussed in elite society, isn´t it really hegemonic? Further, the introduction points out that the nouns “occultism” and “esotericism” are modern inventions and become common during the late 19^th century. Why? What made it necessary to distinguish occultism/esotericism from everything else during that period? Many of the ideas co-existing under those headers are, after all, much older. Protestant theologians apparently started denouncing esoteric ideas much earlier than Catholics. It struck me that this may explain why many esoteric groups are drawn to Catholicism and even end up creating a kind of pseudo-Catholicism themselves. Conversely, there doesn´t seem to be any esoteric groups obviously drawn to Protestantism, albeit more Protestants than we imagine may have been influenced by “heretical” esoteric ideas.   

With that observation, I close this little discussion.    

The Barbara Streisand Bible

 

I have to get these four translations....

Vernal apocalypse

 

So I asked Copilot to generate a picture of Druids celebrating the spring equinox. The above was the most dramatic proposal. Looks like they are greeting a hurricane! Or ardently wishing for a vernal apocalypse.

Be ´fraid, ye Wiccans and Crowleyans, be very ´fraid!  

From darkness, darkness comes

 

A short clip about "Celtic Christianity", not the ancient Church organizations in the Celtic lands, but rather the modern phenomenon. 

Proponents of *this* Celtic Christianity are often "inclusive", pro-ecology and feminist. They want to believe that there was an independent Celtic Church during the Early Middle Ages, different from the Roman Church.

Not so, argues the theologian/historian interviewed in the clip above. The liturgical language of the Church in the British Isles was Latin, and it always recognized the Pope as the Patriarch of the West. The two most important contributions of the "Celtic Church" to Christendom were a codification of the canon law and a penitentiary system. In other words, the Celtic Christians were just as legalist and sin-obsessed as the Roman ditto! 

Yet, it´s precisely this kind of Christianity the modern new agey "Celtic Christians" want to get away from...  

Suspicions confirmed

 

This is the video I´ve been waiting for all year. Now, can we *finally* lay to rest all the manufactured controversies surrounding Halloween? 

Short form: no, it´s not Samhain. Nor is it All Hallows Eve. It is...modern American! 

No surprise there. I long suspected that most "ancient traditions" or "pagan survivals" aren´t older than the Middle Ages, and that many are in fact very new. Halloween is no exception. While the presenter tries to be as objective as possible, my impression is that there is very little real evidence for a connection to Samhain. Rather, we are dealing with folk customs that can only be documented from the 14th century onwards. The "evil" reputation of All Hallows Eve seem to come from Protestant propaganda during the Reformation, directed against witches and Catholics.

During the 19th century, this older form of Halloween pretty much died out on the British Isles, but got a new lease of life in the United States. Indeed, most of what we associate with Halloween today is American and comes from the 19th or 20th centuries. Originally a children´s holiday (this version peaking during the 1950´s), Halloween was recast during the 1970´s into a kind of horror film/pop culture variety more suitable for adults. 

And here we are. The presenter, who speaks English, is actually Swedish and he is quite right that Halloween (in its modern American form) is celebrated here, as well. I think it began at some point during the 1990´s and gradually spread pretty much everywhere, even to kindergartens and schools, were kids dress up as skeletons or what have you. Pumpkins and jack-o´- lanterns are also part of the picture, but I haven´t seen a "Scream" mask for years. 

What´s less clear is when the damn thing is supposed to be celebrated. Both Swedish Wiki and a Church of Sweden website (sic) proposes October 31, but I´m old enough to remember that American Halloween was originally celebrated in Sweden on the same day as All Saints´ Day, which drew more conservative Christians mad, as Swedish TV would show tons of horror flicks on this solemn Christian holiday! In Sweden, All Saints´ Day is always commemorated on the Saturday that falls between 31 October and 6 November, so the two occasions can still collide, but not as often. Besides, I get the impression that Swedes today celebrate Halloween pretty much when they feel like it, albeit in the general timespan of late October/early November. 

All that being said, it would be fascinating if people 500 years from now would celebrate American 20th century Halloween in the belief that it´s a pagan survival from a time truly primordial...   

Oh no, not this shit again

 

Credit: Anthony22

Bracing myself for next week´s annual ritual: Pseudo-Celtic Neo-Pagans and ditto Christians arguing whether the Christian Church stole Halloween from the Pagans, or the Pagans stole it from the Christians. A debate crashed by some hardcore fundamentalist, who will argue that Halloween is evil so let the damned Pagans have it...and Satanists going "No problemo". 

I admit that I can´t imagine anything more boring than this. Except a similar debate about Walpurgis Night...or Xmas.

But sure, if Halloween revelers dress like Hamas terrorists (or the Q Shaman), I suppose things could get a little bit trick-and-treatie!   

There is no Celtic race

 

Some musings from old boy Thomas Sheridan, still going strong as a decidedly non-controlled opposition on YouTube. 

Somewhat surprisingly, he mostly criticizes fringeys and Truthers in these clips. Even more surprisingly, Sheridan (who is Irish and interested in the ancient Druids) denies that "Celts" even is a thing (he might have a point, actually). 

In the second clip, he tries to take a balanced view on conspiracy theories and alternative history. I haven´t double-checked all the claims, but they are interesting. (Another true alternative fact is that most Blacks supported the British during the American War of Independence!)

Could be interesting on a boring summer night, when I write this...

What Cernunnos doing?

 

What´s Proto-Shiva doing on a Celtic Iron Age artifact found in Denmark? Asking for a friend named Pashupati...

The secret of the bards of Wales

We all stand on the same rock, we all look in the same direction, we all see the same things. The difference between us is that some are better at singing songs about what they see. Or rather don´t see...

Or talk a whole lot of bullshit about it!

Check Stonehenge at the door, please

 

Credit: garethwiscombe

“The Druid Path: A Modern Tradition of Nature Spirituality” is a recent book by American author John Michael Greer (JMG). There are omnivorous readers, but I´m not sure what to call JMG. Omnivorous writer? “The Druid Path” is a relatively short book, introducing JMG´s personal take on the Druid Revival, a rather heterogenous spiritual movement that goes back to the 18^th and 19^th centuries, when a number of eccentric Britons decided to “revive” the traditions of the ancient Celtic Druids and rather inevitably spawned an entirely new tradition instead. Throughout the book, JMG depicts the Druid Revival as highly individualist, non-dogmatic and non-political. It´s not even a “religion” sensu stricto, but rather a craft (“Druidry” rather than “Druidism”) which can be combined with many different religions. Thus, many early Druid revivalists were Christians, one of the earliest even being an Anglican vicar!

Every Druid is called upon to follow his or her (yes, there are female revival Druids too) Awen or unique individual destiny. If there are any dogmas at all on the Druid path, it´s the firm conviction that everything in the universe is a manifestation of the One Life, and that nature should be at the center of spirituality. This pantheist idea can be combined with both polytheism and monotheism at higher elevations. JMG´s book emphasizes practice rather than theory, and is mostly geared towards solitary practitioners of Druidry, who for one reason or another don´t want to join a local “grove”, let alone a national organization.

One important Druid Revival practice is the mere observation of ordinary nature, including the animals and plants that surrounds us even if we live in suburban or urban settings. Procuring a field guide to the local fauna or flora thus turns out to be a basic Druid activity. Discursive meditation (which is different from Eastern meditation) and various rituals are also important, and so is divination. One purpose of the practice is to connect with the two main energy currents within the One Life, the solar current from above and the telluric current from the bowels of the earth. The divination is based on the otherwise unknown Coelbren alphabet, but another system uses the more famous Ogham. The book ends with a chapter on self-initiation.

There´s relatively little on the almost-annual Druid Revival gatherings at Stonehenge in “The Druid Path”, perhaps ironically, since this decidedly non-solitary ritual is what constantly propels Druidry into the public limelight. I heard of modern Druidism already as a teenager, both because I read a book on occult topics featuring – guess what – a photo of bearded guys with funny banners at Stonehenge, and because some high school buddies had visited the place and reported on the constant three-way clashes between Druids, hippies and the British police which supposedly took place there during the 1980´s. It´s probably still kind of rowdy there even today, with the hippies being replaced by techno-rave fans! But OK, if solitary practice is your goal, it might indeed be better to conduct your rituals and observations in some less crowded setting closer to your domicile…

Another thing *not* mentioned in JMG´s book is Wicca, since – ahem – meso-pagan Druidry isn´t, you know, Wiccan. Don´t worry, though: the same publisher who kindly gave us “The Druid Path” has also published assorted books on Wicca, dutifully promoted at the back cover of JMG´s volume! Funny detail: apparently, the Wiccan founder Gerald Gardner once shared a ritual sword with a prominent Druid revivalist, the two men even making a schedule on when each of them would use it. Or is that just a Druid urban legend? Or perhaps a *Wiccan* urban legend? Hmmm…

Modern Druidry is very niche, so it´s difficult to know who might be interested in a dead-serious introduction to it, but if you are, this could be a good little gateway to this particular form of nature spirituality.

Welsh - wait for it - Israelism?!

Credit: ThKraft

Can´t help sharing this little gemstone from John Michael Greer´s blog. I never heard of this particular sect before, probably a sub-set (or sub-sect?) of British Israelism or Christian Identity. (There used to be a group in Sweden which claimed that the Swedish working class specifically was the lost tribe of Ephraim, but that´s another show!) 

>>>

Copper, good heavens — now there’s a blast from the past. My wife’s maternal grandfather was a Welsh Israelite of the old school, who insisted that the Welsh were one of the lost tribes of Israel — I forget which one — and made a living during the Depression preaching at Welsh-language churches in upstate New York. I didn’t know the movement was still around. Raymond Capt is a name I know from a different context: he wrote a book purporting to prove that Stonehenge was built by ancient Freemasons, which most Masons find very funny. As far as I know, there’s zero basis to any of it — a lot of European cultures have fringe groups claiming “We’re the Chosen People, and the Jews aren’t!” I’ve always put that down to a kind of spiritual status envy.

>>>