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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Pre-Christian European & Mediterranean religions > Ancient Celtic religion
This pocket-sized informative travel guide is a companion to the
principal Celtic sites in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Comprehensive both in content and detail, the places featured
include: Scotland - Iona, Whithorn, Melrose; England - Lindisfarne,
Whitby, Jarrow, Ripon, Lichfield, Old Sarum, Glastonbury, Tintagel,
Canterbury, Lullingstone; Wales - Bardsey and the Llyn Peninsula,
St Winifred's Well, St David's, Lantwit Major; and Ireland -
Skellig Michael, Glendalough, Kells, Kildare, Slane Hill and Tara.
The stories of the saints associated with these and other places
are retold for today's visitors and pilgrims, along with
quotations, prayers and readings from the Celtic era. Practical
information is also given, plus maps, illustrations and suggestions
of other places to visit nearby. An introduction explains the
significance of pilgrimage to these places both in Celtic times and
in the present day.
Everyone possesses the spiritual, psychic, and worldly potential of a Goddess or God. In this breakthrough book, Francesca De Grandis brings years of experience as a shamanic counselor and traditional spiritual healer to reveal how you can cultivate and celebrate the secret, magical side of your nature. This month-to-month program of many practical exercises, rituals, and prayers will help you: - Discover your innate wisdom
- Heal inner blocks to happiness and meaningful action in your life
- Achieve your goals and feel energized, strong, and capable
- Unleash creativity and passion for living
- Celebrate a vibrant and healthy sexuality
Based on traditional Celtic culture and the author's own successful and unique Third Road teaching, this enriching journey deep into the heart of shamanism and Goddess Spirituality will appeal to all seekers, not just Wiccans. A lyrical sourcebook of rituals, spells, mysticism, and mirth, Goddess Initiation is designed for everyone who wants to integrate commonsense Spirituatity -- and a bit of Faerie dust! -- into their everyday lives.
A collection of wonderful Druidic tales. Contents: The Druid Path;
The Enchanting of Doirenn; Liadan and Kurithir; Dervail Nan Ciar;
Randuff of Cumanac; The Dark Rose.
Myths and Legends of the Celts is a fascinating and wide-ranging
introduction to the mythology of the peoples who inhabited the
northwestern fringes of Europe - from Britain and the Isle of Man
to Gaul and Brittany. Drawing on recent historical and
archaeological research, as well as literary and oral sources, the
guide looks at the gods and goddesses of Celtic myth; at the nature
of Celtic religion, with its rituals of sun and moon worship; and
at the druids who served society as judges, diviners and
philosophers. It also examines the many Celtic deities who were
linked with animals and such natural phenomena as rivers and caves,
or who later became associated with local Christian saints. And it
explores in detail the rich variety of Celtic myths: from early
legends of King Arthur to the stories of the Welsh Mabinogi, and
from tales of heroes including Cuchulainn, Fionn mac Cumhaill and
the warrior queen Medb to tales of shadowy otherworlds - the homes
of spirits and fairies. What emerges is a wonderfully diverse and
fertile tradition of myth making that has captured the imagination
of countless generations, introduced and explained here with
compelling insight.
Diana Beresford-Kroeger - a world-recognised botanist and medical
biochemist - has revolutionised our understanding of the natural
world with her startling insights into the hidden life of trees. In
this riveting memoir, she uncovers the roots of her discoveries in
her extraordinary childhood in Ireland. Soon after, her brilliant
mind bloomed into an illustrious scientific career that melds the
intricacies of the natural world with the truths of traditional
Celtic wisdom. To Speak for the Trees uniquely blends the story of
Beresford-Kroeger's incredible life and her outstanding achievement
as a scientist. It elegantly shows us how forests can not only heal
us as people but can also help save the planet. AUTHOR: Diana
Beresford-Kroeger is a world-recognized botanist, medical
biochemist, and author, whose work uniquely combines western
scientific knowledge and the traditional concepts of the ancient
world. Her books include The Sweetness of a Simple Life, The Global
Forest, Arboretum Borealis, Arboretum America, Time Will Tell, and
A Garden for Life. Currently she is advocating on behalf of an
ambitious global bioplan that encourages ordinary people to develop
a new relationship with nature and to restore the global forest.
The primary aim of New Directions in Celtic Studies is to focus on
contemporary issues and to promote interdisciplinary approaches
within the subject. Written by international scholars and
practitioners in fields such as folklore, ethnomusicology, art
history, religious studies, tourism and education, the book brings
together in one volume a wide range of perspectives. It responds to
the recent questioning of the viability of the notion of
'Celticity' and the idea of Celtic Studies as a discipline and
points to a renewed vitality in the subject. New Directions in
Celtic Studies is divided into four sections: popular culture and
representation; commodities and Celtic lifestyles; contemporary
Celtic identity and the Celtic diaspora; Celtic praxis.
The teachings of Zen Buddhism combined with the earth-based
tradition of Druidry can create a holistic way of life that is
deeply integrated with the seasons, the environment and the present
moment. In soul-deep relationship we can use the techniques and
wisdom from both traditions to find balance and harmony within our
own lives. In this text we explore the concepts of the Dharma (the
Buddha's teachings) and how they relate to the wisdom of the Druid
tradition. We also look at the Wheel of the Year in modern Druidry
with regards to the Dharma, incorporating the teachings into every
seasonal festival in an all-encompassing celebration of nature. We
explore meditation, mindfulness, animism and integration with
nature, learning how to find sustainable relationship in the work
that we do, opening our souls to the here and now and seeing the
beauty and wonder that enchants our lives in every waking moment.
Step into a new life, fully awake and aware to the beauty of the
natural world.
Using story, scripture, reflection, and prayer, this book offers
readers a taste of the living water that refreshed the ancient
Celts. The author invites readers to imitate the Celtic saints who
were aware of God as a living presence in everybody and everything.
This ancient perspective gives radical new alternatives to modern
faith practices, ones that are both challenging and constructively
positive. This is a Christianity big enough to embrace the entire
world.
The universe is filled with countless gods, goddesses and nature
spirits. Many made themselves known to the Druids of ancient
Northern Europe. How can modern day Druids make contact with these
age-old Beings? "Old Gods, New Druids" offers a series of twenty
humorous and informative lessons that can be used for group or
solitary study and is ideal for people interested in Druidry and
the Pagan spirituality of ancient Britain and Ireland. Learn about
the ancient Gods and other spirits, along with methods of honouring
them through ritual, mysticism, poetry and storytelling. Find a
spiritual discipline that embraces responsible hedonism whilst
venerating the Land and all her children. The growing worldwide
interest in the old polytheist religions has lead people to attempt
to reconstruct the shattered traditions of earlier times. This book
provides a model for recreating a working, coherent theology for
anyone wanting to commune with their Gods and the Living Land,
regardless of their origins or heritage.
The Mary of the Celts is essential reading for anyone interested in
the reality of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Celtic
spirituality. The book explores themes and images associated with
the Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, and Assumption, as also
the Blessed Virgin's Joys and Sorrows, through a detailed study of
poetry on Mary from the Celtic regions of medieval Britain and
Ireland. There are haunting images such as the Blessed Virgin Mary
as daughter of her Son and as the chamber of the Trinity, with her
virginity remaining as unstained and pure as glass pierced by a
beam of light, as well as references to popular apocryphal legends,
including those of the Instantaneous Harvest that grew while Mary
and her child were fleeing into Egypt from Herod's men, and of the
girdle thrown down by the Virgin to St Thomas at the Assumption.
Amongst the many poets encountered are Muiredeach Albanach, a
thirteenth-century Irishman who established a dynasty of poets in
the Western Isles of Scotland, and his Welsh contemporary Brother
Madog ap Gwallter, whose poem on Mary and her child at Bethlehem
has been praised for a Franciscan simplicity and freshness. Taking
the original verse in Middle and Early Modern Irish, Middle Welsh,
and Middle Cornish (from medieval Cornish drama), Andrew Breeze
relates their characteristic images to patristic material, other
vernacular poetry (especially in Old and Middle English), Latin
hymns, and medieval painting and sculpture. Indeed, The Mary of the
Celts has been written as a guide to Marian iconography. It will be
useful for students of medieval European literature and art, as
well as for specialists in early Irish and Welsh, all of whom will
find in it much that is new. It should make readers aware of the
wealth of Marian material to be found in Celtic Ireland and
Britain, not all of which has had the attention it deserves beyond
the Celtic lands. In reviewing Andrew Breeze's Medieval Welsh
Literature, Dr Jerry Hunter of the University of Wales wrote in The
Times Literary Supplement, 'he has succeeded where generations of
scholars have failed'. The Mary of the Celts is likely to have a
similar warm welcome from all those concerned with the Marian
devotion of the Middle Ages in the Celtic lands and beyond. Dr
Andrew Breeze (b. 1954), FSA, FRHistS, was educated at Sir Roger
Manwood's Grammar School and the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge. Married with six children, he has been lecturer in
English since 1987 at the University of Navarre, Pamplona. Besides
numerous research papers on philology, he is the author of the
controversial study Medieval Welsh Literature (Dublin, 1997) and
co-author with Professor Richard Coates of Celtic Voices, English
Places (Stamford, 2000).
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