A revival of the ancient celtic warrior ways?

[DR490N]

i've heard of this on several occasions and am looking for more information. suffice it to say, i want in. i need to rediscover the ways i lived in many of my past lives, when being a human in body was still a good thing.  

[Starlock]

Not an area where I have much knowledge, but I do have a question to throw out. Do you think a revival of Celtic warrior ways is entirely appropriate for a modern setting? sweatdrop  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Join the army. Closest you'll get xd  

[DR490N]

im speaking philisophically and religiously. the modern ways of druidism are far too complicated and focused on ritual for my tastes. a revival of the warrior ways does not neccessarily mean that one goes out to do battle. one hones their body and mind in a similar way to that of the samurai.  

[blindfaith^_^]

To what purpose though? Celtic warriors did this (I assume as I have no scholarly basis in Celtic traditions) so that they could be honed into the best course for a battle or for avoiding a battle, what today would you use these skills for?

Depending on the ends you want these skills there are probably many more readily available traditions that could suit your purposes. Though I really have no idea if any of this is true or not as I really don't know anything about Celtic traditions.  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Keep in mind that the majority if info we have on the Celts comes from Christian monks.  

[The Bookwyrm]

The Celts were a particularly vain society; their chieftains and kings could only hold thier positions of power so long as they remain phsyically perfect. Cut off a finger, or main him horribly, and he was removed (be it willingly or by force). Celtic warriors trained to keep themselves in pique condition for one reason: to thwart rivals. In a society as copetative as that of the Celts, where the best food at a feast was given to the hero (thusly called the Hero's Portion), there was firce competition between the warriors. If you couldn't keep your rivals off your back, you were defeated and replaced.

Keeping yourself in good physical condition was not a trait found only among Celtic warriors, or even int he Celtic culture. And believe me, to compair the Celtic warriors with the samurai is like compairing apples and sushi; the two warrior classes had very little in common, and I would be very tempted to say that any similarities are by coincidence only.

You also don't have to follow a druidic path to have a Celtic faith; I'm certainly no druid, but I work quite well within that pantheon.  

[The Bookwyrm]

Nihilistic Seraph

Keep in mind that the majority if info we have on the Celts comes from Christian monks.

Actually, that's just their literature. What we know historically comes from the Romans and Greeks, before Chritianity. Writers like Julius Cesar and Plinny the Elder.  

[DR490N]

my purpose to this is mostly a pride in my celtic bloodline(campbell clan and another unknown clan as well as some irish(unknown)), as well as a desire to follow the ways that i feel i am meant to follow. I have found through my research that my own pre-existing beliefs match perfectly with those of the ancient celts, and as such have decided to seek a path in line with the religious and philisophic ideals of my ancestors. i've been looking all over the place, in books and on the web, for anything pertaining to the ways of celtic warriors, seeing as i can't recall much from any of my lives in the prechristian era besides the life or two i spent as a dragon.
as yet i've turned up little result besides the names of a few gods and goddesses and legends and tales surrounding them, most o which have a slightly christian spin on them, which pisses me right the hell off. the way i see it, the only way i could possibly find the old ways and mix them with my own path is to speak directly to someone who has had this knowledge passed down to them. its a shot in the dark, but one i see no problem with taking.

PS: i know that there isnt much of a comparison between the celtic warriors and the samurai, but i never said it was exact. just the best i could come up with on short notice.  

[The Bookwyrm]

DR490N

my purpose to this is mostly a pride in my celtic bloodline(campbell clan and another unknown clan as well as some irish(unknown)), as well as a desire to follow the ways that i feel i am meant to follow. I have found through my research that my own pre-existing beliefs match perfectly with those of the ancient celts

How do you know this? The exact beliefs and philosophies of the ancient Celts don't exist; they didn't write it down, and most of it has been wiped out. I can understand that you've found is appealing, but don't set our ambitions too high.

Quote:

as yet i've turned up little result besides the names of a few gods and goddesses and legends and tales surrounding them, most o which have a slightly christian spin on them, which pisses me right the hell off. the way i see it, the only way i could possibly find the old ways and mix them with my own path is to speak directly to someone who has had this knowledge passed down to them. its a shot in the dark, but one i see no problem with taking.

You're not going to find any such person, so save yourself some time and stop looking. You want some Celtic mythology? Get the Tain Bo; get the Mabinogion. Once I get back to my appartment, I'll give you some other books. I can also send you a huge list of gods and goddess, where they were from, and what they were worshipped for. Unfortunately, you're going to find the Christian influence in most Celtic lit; they weren't a literate people. They were founded on oral tradition, and the only people who were around to write down the tales were Christian monks. Whether it was intentional or done simply because the monks were confused about whom the bards were speaking of and replaced them familiar figures is uncertain, but there are collections out there with very little Christian influence. The old Finian tales (Scottish/Irish), the tales of CuChullain (Irish), and the Mabinogi (first four branches of the Mabinogion) do not have this influence.

Just be sure you're getting academic versions of the books, and not popular ones.  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Gypsy Blue

The Celts were a particularly vain society; their chieftains and kings could only hold thier positions of power so long as they remain phsyically perfect. Cut off a finger, or main him horribly, and he was removed (be it willingly or by force). Celtic warriors trained to keep themselves in pique condition for one reason: to thwart rivals. In a society as copetative as that of the Celts, where the best food at a feast was given to the hero (thusly called the Hero's Portion), there was firce competition between the warriors. If you couldn't keep your rivals off your back, you were defeated and replaced.

Keeping yourself in good physical condition was not a trait found only among Celtic warriors, or even int he Celtic culture. And believe me, to compair the Celtic warriors with the samurai is like compairing apples and sushi; the two warrior classes had very little in common, and I would be very tempted to say that any similarities are by coincidence only.

You also don't have to follow a druidic path to have a Celtic faith; I'm certainly no druid, but I work quite well within that pantheon.

Oh, so that's where you get the whole bit about Dian Cecht making a silver arm for Nuada?  

[Nihilistic Seraph]

Gypsy Blue

Nihilistic Seraph

Keep in mind that the majority if info we have on the Celts comes from Christian monks.

Actually, that's just their literature. What we know historically comes from the Romans and Greeks, before Chritianity. Writers like Julius Cesar and Plinny the Elder.

Oh? Thanks for the corection 3nodding  

[The Bookwyrm]

Nihilistic Seraph

Oh, so that's where you get the whole bit about Dian Cecht making a silver arm for Nuada?

Exactly. Nuada had to give up his leadership to Lugh until he could get a new arm because he was physically imperfect. ^__^

And no problem on the correction; it's an easy enough mistake to make.  

[DR490N]

a list of books would be quite helpful. coming up with a place to buy the books(online wont work), however, will be a huge problem. also, the celts, though having no written language of their own, did use the languages of others. runes from the vikings, latin from the romans, etc. some legends do survive in thier original form.  

[The Bookwyrm]

DR490N

a list of books would be quite helpful. coming up with a place to buy the books(online wont work), however, will be a huge problem. also, the celts, though having no written language of their own, did use the languages of others. runes from the vikings, latin from the romans, etc. some legends do survive in thier original form.

Depends on which group of Celts you're talking about using Latin; the Scots and the Irish never did, and they used runes when they were defeated. They had their own system of writing call ogham that the Druids used, but they didn't write down their stories. They were recorded much later, and by people other than the Celts.

I'll work on getting a list of books together for you, and you should theoretically be able to get your local book store to order in at least some of them.