Auraicept / Primer
Gaelic Polytheism Today
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look back to their ancestors. — Edmund Burke
Many people who are attracted to reconstructionist traditions in general and Gaelic Polytheism in particular often have become dissatisfied or disillusioned with the Judaeo-Christian conceptions of the world. More often than not these people are primarily motivated by factors such as ancestry and cultural heritage to rediscover a worldview that accurately and meaningfully expresses who they are as persons.
For people of Irish, Scottish, or Manx heritage, Gaelic Polytheism provides a framework for understanding and experiencing the world that is rooted in the wisdom, customs, thought, traditions, ethics, and character that formed the ancient yet timeless worldview of our Gaelic forebears. Gaelic Polytheism is not a romantic nostalgia, but rather it is the preservation of, and return to, an holistic lifestyle that expresses and embodies the Gaelic ethos; it is a celebration of our historical, cultural and spiritual heritage, and it is the re-establishment of the ancient contract that binds the Gael with their divine patrons and progenitors.
Many pre-Christian religious traditions and practices were lost or fragmented, however, by the Christianization of the Gaelic lands and subsequent religious disputes, various invasions, and the general passing of time. Though still much is to be found in the continuity of cultural traditions, where pre-Christian customs were given a Christian veneer. Due to these now inevitable circumstances, a reconstructionist methodology is employed to rebuild what was lost and to develop a fuller picture of pre-Christian Gaelic Polytheism. Reconstructionism is a method for restoring historical, pre-Christian polytheistic traditions within a modern context, and uses as reference manuscripts of early Irish literary tradition, law tracts, mythology and folklore, archaeological records, folk-traditions and beliefs, and language. Of course, this requires a fair amount of self-study and discipline, which makes it somewhat of a difficult track to tread, but the rewards of such are beautiful contributions towards the restoration of our ancient heritage and spiritual traditions.
A World Full of Gods
Three fires that illuminate the world: the excellent gods, the kindly fair-folk, and the beloved dead.
Gaelic Polytheism recognizes and acknowledges the multiplicity of divinity that manifests itself throughout nature, and it is from nature that knowledge of the gods and spirits comes to man. It is in the hearth fire where one encounters radiant Bríde; in the waves that massage the shore, the race of Manannán’s stallions is observed; in the walls of our homestead, the voices of ancestors can be heard; and it is among the hills, trees, springs, and standing stones that the Good-Folk find their abode. Known by many names – Na Trí Naomh (The Holy Three), the Excellent or Immortal Three, or the dé ocus andé (‘the gods and ungods’)—the gods, ancestors, and land spirits are the immortal entities with whom we share the world. They influence and supervise the processes and functions of nature, harmonizing and animating the world.
The institutions of clientship and kinship form the basis of relationships and interactions with the dé ocus andé, and these relationships are established through contractual arrangements that are legitimized by the reciprocal exchange of hospitality. Thus one approaches the dé and aes sídhe like lordly patrons and hosts, but also in the spirit of kinship, like one’s beloved ancestors, as the dé are the mythical divine progenitors of the Gaels.
In De Gabail In tSida, it says that the dé of the Tuatha Dé Dannan and the Gaels were in disharmony with one another after the conquest of Ireland with the former poisoning the crops and cattle of the latter. When the two parties came together and formed a cairdes (a pact or contract), the gods allowed the Gaels to harvest their wheat and drink the milk of their cows and, in turn, the Gaels honored and gave tribute to the gods, thus peace and harmony was established between the gods and man, and the worlds they inhabit. By extending to the dé ocus andé hospitality, respect, and honor one maintains his/her “bargain” (and therefore, maintains honor) of the ancient and ancestral contract (cairdes), and by doing so, the gods too are obliged to honor their part of the contract. By this reciprocal relationship, the peace and balance between the two worlds is preserved.
The dé (gods) include members of various tribes that, in the lore, are said to have invaded Ireland—Tuatha Dé Danann, Fir Bolg, Fomori, the people of Partholón and Cessair, and the Mílesians (the mythical ancestors of the Gaels). The dé of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the most excellent of the dé, are often the most widely honored among Gaelic Polytheists, though the others are not neglected. Gaelic Polytheists also propitiate the Fomori, who are of the chaotic and untamed aspects of nature. While the Fomori are somewhat opposed to the Tuatha Dé Danann (whose nature is more civilized and ordered), and they engaged in battle with one another, they are not rival enemies who share great enmity. Gaelic Polytheists seek peace and harmony with these “outsiders,” and if peace cannot be reached, to make treaties of non-interference.
The sinnsear (ancestors), the cherished dead and heroes, are those who gave life or greatly influenced or shaped lives by being models of action and behavior, whether they be of blood or of friendship, and they are those who grace and guard family lines today. By honoring and remembering ancestors, one not only keeps alive their being and presence, but also honors and gives dignity to who one is.
The aes sídhe (Good-Folk, Gentry, “people of the hills”) are the spirits who populate the land and its features, our homes and surrounding regions. They may be hostile or benevolent or indifferent, but like hospitable neighbors we extend our kindness towards them in a gesture to create peace with them, and in attempt to live in harmony with the forces and beings of the land that we inhabit.
Also important to honoring the local spirits of place is to become acquainted with and to honor the land and its goddess. This begins with a familiarity with one’s natural surroundings, its flora and fauna, seasonal cycles, and natural features such as rivers and mountains, in which one can begin to ascertain things about the pervading spirit of the land–its goddess, she who animates and sustains it. She may be associated with a particular feature such as a river, hill or mountain, or forest. A person’s or community’s conception of her may be unique, based on their experiences with her over time.
The Cosmos
Three columns that support the world: the blue sky, the beautiful sea, the ever-present earth.
It is so that the cosmos is partitioned according to the lore: nem nglas, muir mas, talam cé—the blue sky, the beautiful sea, the ever-present earth.1 These three realms are the three planes of existence and of life, and are the three columns that create the framework of the cosmos. They support and encompass the totality of nature, thus they are symbolic of cosmological wholeness and order.
The Otherworld (Saol Eile) is the realm that is generally not visible to man under normal circumstances, except by those with the ‘sight,’ and it is in the Otherworld that the gods and spirits are said to dwell according to the lore. It is accessed through the sid-mounds, under lakes, below the sea and land, and through sudden mists. Encounters with the Otherworld take place at areas of boundary or liminality such as the sea shore, territory or property lines, and where civilized territory ends and untamed nature begins. There, in the Otherworld, the conception of time is said to be inverted from the time here–while it is summer in this world, it is winter in the Other; when it is day here, it is night there. In the Otherworld there is said to exist many different plains and islands where Otherwordly inhabitants dwell, e.g Tech nDuinn, an assembly place for the dead, and Tír na n’Óg where there is eternal youth and feasting among the gods and heroes of old. Just as there is no segregation of the sacred and secular, there is no segregation of this world and the Otherworld–the two are entwined to form the fabric of reality.
One popular cosmological model among Gaelic Polytheists utilizes the Bile Mór (“Great Tree”) as the object that extends through the realms and worlds to connect or bind them, weaving all existence together. Before the Bile Mór lies the Tobar Segais (“Well of Segais”) that holds the primordial waters of life, and from which flow the five streams of sensory experience. The waters of the well nourish the tree so that it remains firm, engendering vitality and life into the world, and into the well’s waters the tree drops its nuts bearing imbas—the unmitigated truth of nature—and infuse the waters with it. It is a symbolic model intended to express a natural order where chaos or change are structured, life is interdependent, and the past informs and conditions the present and future; and that the principles of reality are knowable to those who drink from five streams.2
Ethics and Values
Value repays virtue,
waste repays wickedness,
gain repays goodness.3
Gaelic ethics can be described as a system of ‘virtue ethics’ in which certain habits and dispositions cultivate and nurture a person’s flourishing. Central to the moral order is Fír, the cosmic principle of rightness and justice that governs the natural order, social institutions, and interpersonal relationships. It is that which Gaelic Polytheists seek to preserve and emulate in their behavior. A life lived in accordance with fír fosters happiness, health, and good order; and it is through traditional Gaelic values, virtues, and ethics that a Gaelic Polytheist comes into accord with fír.4
Important virtues and moral distinctions include justice, honor, hospitality, the preservation of fír, courage, artistry, knowledge, excellence, oath-keeping, loyalty, personal responsibility and a sacred regard for tradition, precedent, and the law. Further insight, elaboration, and examples of these ancient values can be found throughout Gaelic lore, but most notably in gnomic texts such as the Audacht Morainn (Testament of Moran) and the Tecosca Cormaic (Instructions of Cormac), Fionn’s Instructions to Mac Lugach, and Bríathra Flainn Fína (The Sayings of Flann Fína).
Practice
The religiosity of Gaelic Polytheism, while based upon shared ethics, values and principles, is largely defined by shared practices—a collection of common rites, rituals and observances that celebrate Gaelic culture and strengthen communion with the Otherworld. Beyond the basic shared beliefs, specifics of theology may vary between groups and individuals. Emphasis is placed on actual practice, participation in rituals and ceremonies, upholding Gaelic virtues, and on right behavior in community. It is through ritual and correct social observances that one avoids neglect of the Otherworld and honors Na Trí Naomh. Ritual, prayer and ceremony are the medium through which Gaelic Polytheism becomes a living and integral aspect of everyday life.
Important rituals in the lives of Gaelic Polytheists include the daily devotions or obligations—rituals performed in the morning and the evening to formally commence the day and night, and to give honor to the dé ocus andé by prayer and offerings. In Gaelic tradition, the hearth functions as the household’s physical as well as spiritual center. At the hearth (or somewhere else, depending on the structure of the house) a shrine or altar is erected to accommodate Bríde, bandé (goddess) of the hearth and home, and/ or the dé ocus andé, with fire as its central focus, vessels to hold offerings, and perhaps physical or symbolic representations of deity and family ancestry or history. The hearth altar is a unique expression of the household it serves. It is at the hearth altar that the Gaelic Polytheist performs his/her daily devotions and other important ritual activities. Families or individuals who have a close affinity to individual deities, land spirits, or ancestors may wish to erect individual shrines inside or outside the home to accommodate them as well.
Hospitality is a core virtue in Gaelic Polytheist ritual, involving comporting oneself to the standards of a good host and providing well for those who are present, both persons and dé ocus andé, or it could mean comporting oneself as a good guest. Hospitality, then, consists of mutual obligations and gestures of respect dependent upon the occasion and space. Expressions of hospitality include providing a clean (physically and ritually) space for the dé ocus andé, and presenting gifts or offerings in their honor or in expression of gratitude. Traditional offerings include milk, butter, ale or mead, water, fruits, bread, candlelight, products of artistry or craftsmanship, poetic construction, and corn (as in grains not maize), but one should remember to give as one can. Offerings are usually accompanied with a prayer or blessing and then left on the altar or shrine to sit for a short duration of time, when it is later disposed of outside, in a pit, or in a ritual fire. It is important that offerings are not irreverently disturbed or, if food, consumed; once something is given to the dé ocus andé, its toradh (productive or consumable essence) is removed and is considered unhealthy or inutile.
The Lore
The lore is the body of traditional knowledge of the Gaelic peoples and consists of mythology, folktales, conventional beliefs, folk-history, poetry, and songs. To know the lore is to know something about the Gaelic ethos, for it embodies and transmits a worldview, values, beliefs, and principles. The lore stimulates the mind and the soul, aiding one to recognize the truths of humanity and spirituality revealed through the experiences of the Gaels. It is said that “the lore of the past sustains a man,” and this is true, for the lore is an inheritance from generations passed to impart meaning and value and imagination in the lives of present generations so that they may make their future.5
Feast-Days
The Gaelic folk calendar is divided into two seasons, gered (winter, the ‘dark-half’) and samrad (summer, the ‘light-half’), and between these seasons are four Quarter Days that were largely based in the pastoral, agricultural, and solar cycles and events that were of social, economic, and religious importance:
- Oíche Shamhna / Samhuinn / Oie Houney (OI: Samain) – October 31/ November 1; the end of summer, the beginning of winter; a time to honor ancestors and other dead; a primordial time when the Otherworld is most active.
- Lá Fhéile Bríde / Là Fhèill Brìghde / Laa’l Breeshey (OI: Oimelc) – February 1; ‘the feast day of Bríde’; a celebration closely associated with the hearth, home and family; the stirrings of summer (or spring).
- Lá Bealtaine / Bealltuinn / Laa Boaldyn (OI: Beltaine) – May 1; the end of winter, the start of summer; a time when the Otherworld is particularly active again; a time for purification.
- Lá Lúnasa / Lùnasdal / Laa Luanys (OI: Lughnasad) – August 1; a harvest festival instituted by Lugh in honor of his foster-mother Tailtiu who died whilst clearing the land for cultivation; celebrating Lugh’s release of the harvest.
Traditionally, these quarter days are occasions for family and communal feasting and celebration, and activities often included story-telling, the recitation of poetry, competitive sports, and seisiúns or céilidhs. Because of the Quarter Days’ intimate association with the cycles of the land, one should mark the celebration of the Quarter Days in accordance with one’s own local, natural seasonal indications, fostering greater awareness of one’s natural surroundings and their relationship with the ritual cycle. The pastoral and agricultural elements of the Quarter Days may not be relevant or meaningful to those Gaelic Polytheists who do not cultivate their own food or raise cattle and livestock, so an emphasis on the more mythological elements that are associated with the Quarter Days might be more appropriate at these times.
Endnotes:
1. Liam Mac Mathú na, “Irish Perceptions of the Cosmos,” pg. 181.
2. The surviving lore leaves no account of an overarching creation myth or cosmological model, so the above model is a modern creation informed by the presence of sacred tree and wells in the lore that appear to have cosmological associations.
3. D.A Binchy, “Cethairshlicht Athgabálae” in Corpus Iuris Hibernici ii 408.13f.
4. While fír is ubiquitous in Irish wisdom texts and lore, the concept as has been elaborated above is modern interpretation of its meaning and significance, and has been largely abstracted from the fír flathemon.
5. John Carey, “The Book of Invasions,” The Celtic Heroic Age, pg. 271.