#Celtic Revival

[modark]

The Bardic Tradition

I made a long thread explaining in detail all the symbolism in this piece when I first posted it. That's lost to time now, thanks Elon. I'll try to rewrite it to the best of my ability in an abridged form.

The basic gist is that its a visual representation of the ancient Gaelic bardic tradition. Seated in the center is St. Colmcille, composing an old Irish hymn to St. Brigid, "Brigit bé bithmaith". He is holding hazel nuts, symbols of knowledge / inspiration in Irish legend. On the two pillars on either side of him are King David (left) and Orpheus (right), two famous poets from antiquity. Two legendary poets from Irish legend, Oisín and Amergin, are situated above each pillar respectively. The two fish are seen swimming "upstream" (as in the legend of the Salmon of Knowledge) toward a sheela na gig, a architectural feature / grotesque of early Irish churches which some consider to be symbols of femininity, meant to ward off evil. At the top of the image, hands from a cloud (representing God) release a white dove (representing the Holy Spirit) down to St. Brigid. She owes her angelic appearance to her being considered both a pagan goddess and Christian saint. She is guarding a flame, which symbolises poetic inspiration, and which can be seen floating above the heads of all the other figures.

[mary-maud]

John Duncan's Riders of the Sidhe

[abstraxia]

John Duncan (1913), Saint Bride

[fairylandblog]

Faeries and the Celtic Revival

A cultural movement known as the Celtic revival, which peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, aimed to revive interest in the folklore, mythology, and antiquated customs of Ireland and other Celtic countries. The fascinating realm of faeries, which greatly influenced its literature, art, and cultural identity, was essential to this Renaissance. The Aos Sí, often known as faeries, are ethereal creatures from Irish mythology that are frequently portrayed as supernaturally gifted nature spirits. These creatures came to symbolize the magical and otherworldly facets of Celtic culture during the Celtic Revival, signifying a romanticized and idealized link to a pre-Christian past. Faerie mythology was a source of inspiration for authors and artists, who used it to create stories that stood in stark contrast to the period's industrialization and modernization by inspiring awe and mystery.

Literature greatly influenced the Celtic Revolution, with faeries frequently appearing in the writings of significant authors like Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats. Yeats in particular was enthralled with Irish folklore, and faerie themes frequently appeared in his plays and poetry. He saw them as representations of the creative and spiritual depth of Irish culture, and he used their tales to examine nationalist ideas, identity, and the conflict between the old and the new. In addition to literature, the Celtic Revival's visual arts significantly incorporated faerie imagery. Artists such as John Duncan and George William Russell (Æ) combined old Celtic elements with contemporary techniques to create elaborate faerie images in their works. These artworks not only emphasized the artistic characteristics of faerie mythology, but also served as a form of cultural resistance against the homogenizing pressures of British rule by highlighting the uniqueness of Celtic ancestry. The Celtic Revival's faeries were also crucial to the era's larger political and cultural environment. As Ireland sought independence, the resurgence of Celtic mythology, including faerie tales, entwined itself with nationalist aspirations. Because of their mysterious and elusive character, faeries came to represent Ireland's spirit and tenacity. They provided a means of expressing pride and cultural identity, which sparked a resurgence of interest in the Gaelic language and traditional arts.

Furthermore, the resurgence of fairy tales was a dynamic process of cultural reinterpretation rather than just a nostalgic endeavor. Modern audiences reworked the Faeries, frequently emphasizing themes of change and metamorphosis. Because of its flexibility, the faerie tradition was able to stay entrenched in old traditions while keeping dynamic and current, addressing contemporary challenges. All things considered, faeries had a significant and varied role throughout the Celtic Revival. They represented the Celtic nations' rich cultural legacy by serving as links between the actual and the imagined, the past and the present. Faeries contributed to a Renaissance that involved an imaginative investigation of the magical elements of Celtic mythology as well as an identity reclamation through literature, art, and cultural expression. Their continued involvement in the Celtic Revival highlights their importance as cultural icons, personifying the complexity and continuing appeal of the Celtic spirit.

[saganssorcery]

𝗗𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Idad / Yew

It's likely that a past cycle is coming to a close. Idad holds strong ties to death, ancestors, and the elderly. We're likely in the transitional stage where something must die so the next steps can be taken. As we pass through this phase of transition we are being asked to look back on and respect the lessons we have learnt from our past experiences. We have likely matured a lot from where we once were and can use this knowledge to guide us in our next steps. From a more magickal perspective Idad could be drawing our attention to the long lasting traditions that stay lit within us that have been passed down from generation to generation. It would be very beneficial to study the past and the roots of all things on this day. Perhaps our ancestors know something that we do not.

©️Sagans Sorcery 🔥🖋️

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[77bears]

Angus Og, God of Love and Courtesy, Putting a Spell of Summer Calm on the Sea. (John Duncan, 1908) Oil on canvas / Chalk on paper

[princepsfianna]

Samhain is soon!

"My father loved his country

And sleeps within its breast

While I that would have died for her

Must never so be blessed"

Samhain will dawn, from the sunset or the 31st till the sunset on the 1st of November! How honourable a day it, when Celtic men are proud and glad of their hearth and kindred. But as we celebrate and invite spirits of all walks while warding off mischievous fairies we cannot forget in our mourning of them and the deeds they have done. For though Samhain blankets us with the year’s first frost, we must celebrate more than the end of the harvest or the spirits of our ancestors. For there are those who fought and died that we might live on more.

Our history is full of those who stood against colonial powers, and tonight, I light a candle for the brave souls who fought in battles and uprisings. There is no greater honour than to give ones life for their Celtic race. Brave men like William Wallace! Of course, not the Hollywood version played by Kiwi anti Semite but the real man who rallied a nation with grit and resilience. Or the fierce and venerable Gaelic women of Cumann na mBan who resisted in the fight for Irish independence and never surrendered. And how can I remove honour from who fought silently? Those that continued to speak our languages, customs, and beliefs when both state and society tried to erase them? The faithful elect who lived away for centuries in shame and dishonour? All for that hopeful promise that their country would survive and our fathers legacy would not be stained by the filth and the impure stain of collaboration?

Our race is going to survive. Despite everyone and everything her tongue and blood have endured. Despite England we are still here, Despite the Danes we are still here and despite the Romans we are still here and we will outlive them. What remains now of Rome? That great Empire which conquered the Brythonics but were taught rightly in the misty hills of Alba? It's now simply ruins while our people still live, while our race still beats high with hope. The Danes? What remains of the Viking hordes who were beaten by the Gaels of Eirinn and Alba? Or of the proud Saxon? Who was resisted, with varying fortunes, by all Celts bar our Vretoned brothers?

We are just one race, all of us. The seed of the Gael and Brythonics must join hands for Celtdom and Celtdom alone. No more foreign imposition and diktat which brings only misery nor internal petty squabbles but instead a single host. A single flag, a single race which will surely be glorious. Once the Celts unite you can be sure that the vile Saxon will abandon his post and lose his fighting spirit. Once the Celts unite we will again be prosperous, trade and wealth will flow freely between the nations. The Celtic Man is naturally industrious and an intellectual with great venerable attributes. Alas, sadly, who is pulled down by foreign impositions of vice like alcoholism, drugs and the like which has made our race weak. We have fallen asleep, a deep sleep of domestication, of being conquered, of sufferance and shame with great dishonour. Which infest every carpet or our society, but if the promised day comes and all the Celts awaken then the dogs shall become wild again! And the wild dogs will chase out the foreigner and the traitor and the Celtic spirit will never again be wrong to us. I guarantee a united Celtic nation would become a prospoerus Republic within ten years of unity. It would surpas the living standards within five and he comparable only to the Nordic lands within ten and would surely outgrow them. We are an industrious race of hard workers, of intelligent men and woman and a race deeply stubborn and proud and those are good things! If we work hard the Celts can achieve anything under the sun and we will obtain our dream of a prosperous, peaceful, stable and loving pan Celtic state from Scotland till Kernow till Vreton.

I have total confidence that this will happen, it's a divine promise. I've done some early divination for the year and I am certain it's due to happen. I can give no date but all the signs suggest that the lot awaited day is coming. I'm unsure if I should ever had the great joy of seeing it but probably not.

[hanssloane]

Angel in the city: The Awakening

Phoebe Anna Traquair

National Galleries of Scotland

Edinburgh

[lafaebrique]

Harry Clarke, detail from the Geneva Window.

[it-s-only-a-game]

[klessard]

Canadian Fiddler Ashley MacIsaac Photo Credit: Derek Shapton

Canadian Gaelic singer Mary Jane Lamond Photo Credit: Derek Shapton

Canadian singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt

1990's Celtic music revival: Celtic music is a type of music my mother did not mind me listening to and I became very interested in it in the 90s. There was a Celtic rock revival going on in Canada, and many Celtic artists had songs playing on mainstream radio such as "Sleppy Maggie" (Ashley MacIsaac and Mary Jane Lamond), "The Mummer's Dance" (Loreena McKennitt), "Ordinary Day" (Great Big Sea), etc.

[vivithewitch]

This ^^. I want to see my deities revered and loved, not in fantasy books or history texts, but in the groves and nemetons where they were meant to be worshiped. They deserve more than to be forgotten

I wish we still had places of worship accessible for everyone, instead we have to hope for glimpses of our deities in art and museums.

[sadbhkellett]

Last summer, I had the absolute privilege of discussing the elixir of feminism, Irish mythology, and Rossettian aesthetics that make up Katharine Tynan's poetic retelling of Tóraíocht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne at the Tate Britain. A highlight of 2023!

[abstraxia]

PHOEBE ANNA TRAQUAIR (1852-1936), Love, the Comforter of Night | Christie's

[saganssorcery]

𝗗𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗗𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Idad / Yew

It's likely that a past cycle is coming to a close. Idad holds strong ties to death, ancestors, and the elderly. We're likely in the transitional stage where something must die so the next steps can be taken. As we pass through this phase of transition we are being asked to look back on and respect the lessons we have learnt from our past experiences. We have likely matured a lot from where we once were and can use this knowledge to guide us in our next steps. From a more magickal perspective Idad could be drawing our attention to the long lasting traditions that stay lit within us that have been passed down from generation to generation. It would be very beneficial to study the past and the roots of all things on this day. Perhaps our ancestors know something that we do not.

©️Sagans Sorcery 🔥🖋️

[ Tip jar ] ✨🙏✨

Please check out my Ogam divination services below:

𝗢𝗴𝗮𝗺𝘀

• 3 Ogam spreads for £5 GBP

- Past, present, future

- Situation, action, outcome

- Overlook

• 1 Ogam readings for £2

For a full list of my services and disclaimer please see the featured post pinned on the Sagans Sorcery page.

All readings will be delivered as a photograph and a detailed write up in your inbox or to your email account.

I can usually fulfil requests within 72 hours.

All readings are completely private and confidential.

Please DM me for any information you may need to get your reading underway.

Thank you for taking interest in Sagans Sorcery ✨🙏✨

[princepsfianna]

"Ourselves alone!' Their battle cry, And freedom sang to the Easter sky! They were the men with a vision, The men with the cause! The men who defied their oppressors laws. The men who traded chains for guns. Born into Slavery, they were freedom's sons. That poet's (Pearse) dream, had sparked the flame. A raging fire, it soon became, And from that fire of destiny There rose a nation proud and free!"

May that flame blaze again, from shore to shore. May she whirl and shriek and with flames smore. Till she burns away the dreaded enemy throng. Arising then a free republic, proud and strong Scotland, my mountain home, my strength For you, greater than seas is my loves length. There where our flag once lied a bleeding, Now feel the pride once again a leaping! Higher and higher shall the saltire wave, Honoured and Gallant shall her be her name. Proud and high, may our noble race stand. Glorious and shrouded in victory, her noble band. The Féinne of old, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, his strong hand!

The Gaels are but one nation, I was reading this article not too long ago and felt immesurably distressed at the real experiences of those people who were lucky enough to be taught the authentic language of my country. "Older generations of highlanders were lied to as children, told in school that their language was useless and bygone, a dead weight which would only hold them back in life... This imposed shame resulted ni many choosing not teach Gaidhlig to their children... For the Young Gaels of today, that history endures, its bitter legacy reinforced by prejudice and an ever present awareness of our precarious future." Our country must survive, you could immediately cast down the butchers apron and raise high the Saltire outside every Scottish village. But if we do not cast down the chain of the language im typing in right now along with the imposed culture which it brings. The Gaelic nation needs to awaken to its past glory and its past honour and cast out the foreign occupation which has been imposed upon her. As our Vretoned brothers put it, "The domesticated dogs will become wild again, the domesticated dogs, the domesticated dogs, wild again shall they be!" And even better, later on. "Crushed under the yoke of a high nation, full of contempt and pride, we have lived shyly and humbly, for centuries in great shame! Through our forests and our lands, the wind of the reaper ravaged... Because if the logn awaited day comes ni her glory, if all the people (Celts) awaken, then the domesticated dogs will become wild again!"

We need to embrace the wild sort of sterotype about Scots, at least. Not the Tartan fool but rather the tartan warrior. We have lived meekly and our nation has been totally defeated, domesticated as the Vretons put it. Truly, we never stood a chance- or so they would have us think. The battle to domesticate Scotland, Alba, one might say was hard fought. It was bloody, long and we won more than we lost. But we died during the clearences, after traitors sold out our country and English speaking collaborators gladly guided the English army up north the Gaelic culture was erased in all but name. Reduced to but a few islands and unlike our Celtic brothers we have not yet rose up and restored her yet. But when all the people awaken, then the domesticated dogs shall become wild again. I'm quite sure of it, but when? Now shall we be silent? For how long will our race remain subjugated? For how long shall we watch our nation bleed and her remains humiliated? When will we just stand up for once in centuries and throw back the enemy back over the border? When? When? When?

Ardvreck Castle, Loch Assynt

Scottish Highlands