Working with Celtic Traditions

Elizabeth Barrette
Impressions by Elizabeth Barrette, PanGaia editor.

Working with Celtic Traditions
by Elizabeth Barrette

 

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Read these faint runes of Mystery,
O Celt, at home and o’er the sea;
bond is loosed – the poor are free –
The world’s great future
        rests with thee!
Till the soil – bid cities rise –
Be strong, O Celt – be rich, be wise –
But still, with those divine grave eyes,
Respect the realm of Mysteries.

—The Book of Orm

Hills of emerald under a sky of rolled gray wool, laughing creeks between banks of heather, deep lochs and shallow fens, ocean waves crashing against cliffs of white chalk, stone circles and hills full of legends — these are the features of the Celtic lands. For those of us who walk a Celtic path, by choice or chance, by blood or wanderlust, this terrain holds a special magic. It is here our hearts wander, even in our dreams. Some part of us remembers, and longs for this as home.

Along with the land come the people: sturdy folk and fey, dark and fair, wild and practical. They speak languages that murble like the running brooks and twist back on themselves like knotwork. Even in English you can hear the distant burr of water chuckling. The “wild geese” — emigrants and their descendents — often find themselves drawn back to the land and languages of their ancestors. Sometimes, too, the Old Religion resurfaces.

But what does it mean to be Celtic, or to be a Celt?

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Can’t Buy Me Love

Anne Newkirk Niven
On My Mind by Anne Newkirk Niven, PanGaia editorial

Can’t Buy Me Love
by Anne Newkirk Niven

 

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“My experience is what I agree to tend to; only those items I notice shape my mind.”
William James

As the editor of three magazines, I see a lot of spam. Entirely too much of it consists of a veritable sandstorm of press releases for bizarre, superfluous, and downright stupid products. Among the most egregious I’ve seen recently are the following notable examples:

At ShopLaTiDa.com (real name!) you can pick up fashion faux-pas fixers that erase unsightly bumps, lumps and imperfections. Products include Commandos no-undie undies, Hollywood Fashion Tape and Miss Oops Deodorant Sponges. At the advanced age of forty-eight, I’ll admit to plenty of “unsightly bumps,” but whatever “Hollywood Fashion Tape” is (I have visions of sparkly duct tape being deployed in, let us say, delicate locations) I am certain that I can spend the rest of my life happily ignorant of the finer points of acquiring and (gasp!) applying it.

Read more: Can’t Buy Me Love

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