Celtic Primal Mythology Tradition

 In my last blog, Looking deeper, we talked about sacred geometry. Now, of course, that is all in regards to the human experience, but the Celts have an understanding of this, too, especially the Druids. The Druids believe that there were three circles of transmigration of human evolution. That was the Circle of Abred, the Cirlcle of Gwynvd, and the Circle of Ceugent. 

The Circle of Abred represented the material or earthly nature, it also represented choices and trials of the human experience. This is where mankind dwelt, and where good and evil existed an equal measure.

The Circle of Gwynvd represented union with God. It represents a place of reconciliation, as well as justification, and it represented the end of the human experience or the trial of Abred. 

The Circle of Ceugant, associated with the constellation Cygnus, is the place where God exist. 

Now let’s look into the microcosm. 

To the Celts, Earth was their foundation, as they (and other ancient people) sole nature as a living entity. The spirits that dwelled up on the land were real and living, gods, and goddesses, who lens and rivers were named after we’re also forms of manifestation of the living land. And we can’t exclude the solar system, if our planet is living than the others are as well, and they also included the stellar universe as well.

They believed that all beings that lived upon Mother Earth were connected. They’re primal deity was the Earth Mother and as they travelled from region to region each area received its own local Goddess, specifically named to adher to a specific place. It is in the Romanized Britain and Gaul regions where there were Matres (Mother) inscriptions found. It was mostly in Ireland we see the triple fold Goddesses. Since Ireland wasn’t Romanized we can conclude that this was common from the Celtic traditions. 

The Celts also believed that there were three worlds:

1. The Stellar World - Constellations 

2. The Solar World - Sun and planets

3. The Lunar World - Moon and Earth

The number three is very important in the Celtic traditions, and you will see it used a lot. The goddesses and gods appear, and the three worlds, or aspects of them, and the patterns of the three worlds are found in the Celtic mythology, the ancient traditions, as well as magic. 

The sky world is first and it  is where the goddesses and gods that are related to major cycles and visible patterns in the sky reside. This is the realm of the highest seer ship, or where Druidic or shamanic magic practice of the spirit flight takes place. It is the earth world where things get quite interesting as it is divided into three zones. The earth world contains animals, plants, humans, nature, spirits, including gods, and goddesses that are connected to the power of the land reside. 

In Primal Mythology and magical traditions and what is inherently found in Celtic traditions we find the. Chthonic Pattern. 

1.  Sky World - this world is related to major cycles in patterns that happen above the horizon, within the sky. It’s symbolized by the sun, the moon, the stars, and is where the gods in goddesses that are related to these major cycles, our patterns reside. This is also the realm of the highest seer ship.

2. Earth World - this is where the humans reside, as well as animals, spiritual earth entities, as well as the goddesses, and gods that are related to nature are certain regions of the land.

3. Underworld - this is where the mysteries of death, life and rebirth reside. This is the land of ancestral beings, or ex humans. It is where gods and goddesses that are linked to the death life and rebirth mysteries reside. The underworld is also harmonically related to the stars and certain underworld goddesses and gods that play a stellar role

Now let’s look at the three zones within the Earth world. 

First we have the upper zone, and that contains the forces of seers ship, magic, this is where the spirit flight practice that is common in the Drudic and shamanic practices of magic take place. This is also where the forces of weather operate.

Next we have the middle zone, and that is where the four elements reside; north east south and west. This is the realm of humans, of plants and animals, basically the general territory of the consciousness in humanity. This is the prototype of the sacred land, which is defined by the tribal territory are the location and where they were sad.

Next is the lower zone, and that takes us to the underworld. This includes the healing springs and wells in lakes and caves, sacred burial grounds and chambers thst are considered sacred. This is also the realm of the fairies, as well as the elder goddesses and gods, this is also the dimension of dark magic. This zone relates to the dark aspect of the goddess, or the krone, as it is commonly called now. 

That just covers the three zones within the Earth world, so that is a lot of information to take in. 

Nowadays we do not look at the earth that way. The earth is mainly seen as a commodity, something that we just use.

One final note that I do want to make is that these three worlds seem to overlap each other, while the middle one, the Earth World, shows that it is half in the Sky World and half in the Underworld, with the Underworld and the Sky World edges meeting. This shows how the goddesses and the god had a triple expression, how their roles are, powers, manifested in different ways within each world… Yet remaining and changed. 

Unfortunately, just about all of the Celtic mythology comes from second and third hand sources. Many sources that give us insight into the Celtic mythology are the monastic records that were kept by the early Irish Christians. This included tales, poems, Saugus, or different cycles of legends. These were mostly preserved by pagan Celtic poets, who were either Christian monks themselves to preserve their history, or it was a monk that wrote them down for the poet. We have to understand that at those times many of the traditions were oral and writing was seldom used. 

A good book that I recommend that contains a considerable amount of evidence of Celtic mythology, magic, and other Pagan lore the Mabinogion. 

Until Next Time,

Sirona Rose