If you are looking for a one-size-fits-all book to teach you how to be a Celtic Shaman in ten easy lessons this book is not for you. If you are looking for a book that asks you to think, to stretch your mind and your imagination, and help you discover new roads into the Shining Realms, you may find this book answers your needs.
The Celtic speaking peoples of Europe and the Western Islands did not leave any written records of their beliefs and rituals. All we know of their spiritual traditions and everyday lives we must piece together from disparate sources. Medieval manuscripts, the archaeological record, the testimony of folklore and superstition, and the blood in our veins are all that remain of our past.
I have spent the better part of my life trying to piece together a recognizable picture of the spiritual landscape our ancestors inhabited. All shamanic practice and belief is based upon the idea that the material and non-material realms intersect and interpenetrate one another. I know this is true for I have walked in the Shining Realms since early childhood. In that Otherworld there is no past or future, for all time is now. When we walk in those realms we may sometimes encounter what we call the past in remarkable ways. We may come face to face with our ancient ways. We may meet our ancestors and know that we are living their lives today as they live ours in the ever present yesterday.
When Theseus entered the Cretan labyrinth he was given a ball of yarn, called a clew, to help him find his way back to the entrance. As we enter the labyrinth of the past we need to look for clues that will lead us through the turnings into the spiritual centre of ancestral wisdom and back to the place where we began our journey of discovery. These clues may be plain and simple or they may be subtle and hard to see or interpret.
This book contains some of the clues I use to navigate the labyrinthine way. Most of it was written over a two year period, published as featured articles by the Society of Celtic Shamans (SCS) and appeared on their homepage. Others were written for Earthsongs: The International Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans. The rest were electronically issued as lessons for The Oak Grove, an on-line study group presented by the SCS.
Like Gaul, the book is divided in three parts. The first part is designed to help you experience the labyrinthine way, to enter the Shining Realms and begin your own search for ancient ways. The second contains clues that may help as you begin to piece together you own ancestral pictures. The third part examines some of the earliest stories that have been handed down from the times before our history was written, stories relating to the ever turning seasons, the labyrinthine way of eternity.
The geometric design of the labyrinth is ancient. The design is both elegant in simplicity and intricate in complexity. When we look at a labyrinth the twists and turns appear complicated. When we walk through a labyrinth we discover the path is simple.
The labyrinth looks like a maze but the way in and the way out rest within one another. There are no wrong turnings, no dead endings. Each turn may take us in a new direction but, eventually, the turnings lead us into the centre or back to the place where we began our journey.
Nowhere in this book will you find any chapter telling you what you must believe.
No definite conclusions are drawn. Many questions are asked and many answers proposed. This is your journey. This is your adventure in Looking-Glass Land. To begin, enter the labyrinth.
(From: The Labyrinthine Way: Walking Ancient Paths in a Modern World, Copyright © 2003 by Terrie Evans (Tira Brandon-Evans). All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, copied or reproduced in any way whatsoever, including Internet usage or other electronic means, without permission in writing from Elder Grove Press.)
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