Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Celtic Shamanism

I've just made some associations that really work nicely for me. I've been studying shamanism and animism for a while and I've always been interested in Celtic peoples and culture. Now I've remembered one authors connection of the two and made another similar connection. The authors idea was that Cernunos was sort of an archtype for a shaman. I can't remember how he laid out the details but it made sense to me. Of course this doesn't imply that Cernunos wasn't his own being as well, just that he also represented a possible role for humanity. He was an individual and also a symbol of a universal way of living. My connection came through the green man. He is my symbol for a plant spirit shaman. He is one with the plants, literally, and would be able to work with them. So now two paths of shamanry are laid out in a Celtic context: Cernunos and the green man. There is some deep meaning here for me. I now feel my Celtic inspired, but also local and bioregional, shamanism is developing nicely and that I am moving deeper into the great mysteries.

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