Synergy to Synastry: Celtic Lore in Modernity (S3E11) Podcast Transcript
Welcome
Renee: You're listening to Synergy to Synastry, the podcast where two corporate girlies call to follow their intuition take you on a journey of self-exploration through metaphysical modalities.
Christine: I'm Christine, intuitive coach and clairvoyant.
Renee: And I'm Renee, psychic intuitive and astrologer.
Christine: We're excited that you're here and honored to be your spiritual guides.
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Renee: Now, let's get into the episode.
Introducing Celtic Lore in Modernity
Renee: Welcome back.
Renee: This is part two, Celtic Lore in Modernity.
Renee: If you have not listened to part one already, what are you doing here?
Renee: Go back and listen to that first because this in many ways builds upon the foundation of what we discussed in the last episode.
Renee: Today, we're going to be talking about how those stories are present in the modern day, the cultural impact on language and naturally pop culture.
Renee: We'll also touch a little bit on ways that you could engage with some of this lore in the present day without stepping too far onto the toes of our part three, which is about Celtic Lore in practice.
Renee: During that episode, in case you've missed the last two mini series, what I cover are the divination methods and tools used by this group of people, and then I test some out myself and report back.
Renee: So back to today's conversation, I wanted to start off with the impact on language.
Renee: We've talked about this in especially the Greek lore mini-series, and that's because there's a lot of words that have Greek roots.
Renee: When we talked about Roman lore, there's a lot of words that have Latin roots.
Renee: Here, we might think, I don't know how anything would trace back to Celtic lore, given that it's not, in the same way, a clearly defined nation.
Renee: It is a culture that traveled, that evolved, that did have a huge impact across Europe, to the point of it being a threat to gigantic empires.
Renee: And therefore, we should expect that there would be some language impact, but what exactly does that look like?
Celtic Impact on the English Language
Renee: This is not an exhaustive list, but I wanted to start with some really classic, laugh-worthy examples.
Renee: Shamrock, which is a clover, comes from the Celtic word shamrogue.
Renee: Next we have slew, used in a sentence.
Renee: There are a slew of divination methods people use across the world.
Renee: Definition, large quantity.
Renee: Slew comes from the Celtic word slewaw.
Renee: Next we have phony, meaning fake, artificial.
Renee: That comes from the Celtic word thawnia.
Renee: To get into more of the spiritual side, I was glad we had one here, banshee.
Renee: This is a screeching spirit.
Renee: We will be talking about this mystical creature later in this very episode.
Renee: That comes from the Celtic word banshee.
Renee: Lastly, we had galore, as in abundance.
Renee: Fun facts, pop culture references galore are on the way.
Renee: From the Celtic word galore.
Renee: As you can see, a lot of these are incredibly close.
Renee: There's just like an extra sound or syllable at the end, but they're pretty close direct translations into English.
Renee: Now, when you're walking around, you can know that you're using some Celtic words.
Examples of Celtic Lore in Pop Culture
Renee: Pulling together the different pop culture references in books, TV, movies was particularly fun because this felt like I could have just kept going and going and going.
Renee: And what's cool about it in contrast to the references that I spoke about for the Greek and Roman eras, is that those pertained mostly to gods and goddesses.
Renee: And while there were gods and goddesses in Celtic lore, they're not really the figures that have stood the test of time, and that are as visibly integrated into modern culture regardless of what country you are in.
Renee: And in part, it's because most of the figures that have stood the test of time are people or more of the mystical creatures.
Renee: Some key examples of Celtic lore present in movies and plays as well.
Renee: We have The Sword and the Stone and Camelot, connected to the story of King Arthur we discussed in part one.
Renee: We have The Sleepy Hollow, Outlander, The Lord of the Rings franchise, Conan the Barbarian, and the Disney movie Brave.
Renee: Still on my list, haven't seen it yet.
Renee: Honestly a shame.
Renee: Video games. In Assassin's Creed Vahala, there was an expansion pack called The Wrath of the Druids, which allowed players to quote, explore the haunted wilds and beautiful landscapes of Ireland as they battle a druidic cult known as the Children of Danu.
Renee: Now, I don't love the way that that description paints the Celtic Lore.
Renee: Because we talked about Danu in the last episode, what she represents as a goddess of fertility.
Renee: And there was nothing particularly associated with her that one was cult-like and two was so negatively charged or destructive in any way.
Renee: So I do question and wonder why in this video game they decided to make it so dark.
Renee: I understand there's an assassin, you're trying to battle people, but I don't know, it doesn't really paint them in totally the best light.
Celtic Lore and The Swan Princess
Renee: On a completely other angle here, I was really excited to share this one.
Renee: When I was initially reading about the Celtic lore, this example just flew right into my brain and I was so excited.
Renee: I was like, I can't wait until we get the modernity episode and I can talk about this one.
Renee: Remember in part one how we discussed the significance and symbolism of swans?
Renee: Well, we have to talk about the Swan Princess.
Renee: This was a movie, technically series, but let's just talk about the first one, where a princess was turned into a swan via a curse, almost like a reverse Little Mermaid situation.
Renee: Then the guy has to figure out that it's her, that she's the swan.
Renee: Really what this ties back to is the Angus lore story we discussed in part one.
Renee: What happened was, this woman, Aoife, turned her kids into swans because she was jealous of the attention they received from the king.
Renee: After Lear discovered it, the king turned Aoife into her worst fear, the North Wind.
Renee: In other words, now she screams in the wind, and the king made a decree that no one should kill swans because it's protecting his children, they're out there somewhere.
Renee: I won't spoil the Swan Princess, do with what you will in understanding that this is a series.
Renee: But I did love seeing this tie in right away of there being this relationship with people being turned into swans for good and bad, trying to rescue each other, trying to get them turned back, which in this Celtic lore story, they were unable to turn the children back into people.
Celtic Lore in Pop Culture: Shakespeare, Fairies
Renee: Related, unrelated.
Renee: Another work, King Lear, written by Shakespeare in .
Renee: Now we must clarify, there's a lot of different lears going on.
Renee: I just mentioned one in that Swan Princess story, L-I-R.
Renee: There's also a real king around BCE, King Lear, L-E-I-R.
Renee: The play, which is King Lear, L-E-A-R.
Renee: They're technically not all referring to the same people, but we have the name influence.
Renee: And the very important clarification is that Lear, L-I-R in Celtic Lore, was a sea god, a ruler, a god.
Renee: But the exact connection between that figure and the original king, L-E-I-R, is unclear.
Renee: L-E-A-R.
Renee: Now, we have to talk more about some of those mystical creatures.
Renee: Leprechauns, a figure that appeared in Celtic Lore, depicted in the classic Disney film, The Luck of the Irish, the Leprechaun franchise, which are horror movies.
Renee: Not watching those.
Renee: The Lucky Charms Cereal brand, and many, many other TV shows and films.
Renee: Then we have fairies, which is incredibly and intrinsically tied to Celtic Lore.
Renee: I read several different books in preparing for this mini series.
Renee: Fae or fairies comes up a significant amount.
Renee: The Irish word for fairy is she, spelled S-I-D-H-E.
Renee: That was a term that appeared in one of the books that I read extensively.
Renee: And classic examples of fairies are Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, Cosmo and Wanda in The Fairly Oddparents, the green fairy in Moulin Rouge, the fairy hybrids in True Blood, the entire Akatar series and many, many other book series, including Iron Fae.
Renee: And that's one of the many reasons that I've loved doing these mini-series.
Renee: I never would have known nor really had thought to look into the origin of fairies.
Renee: So now we'll know every time we see a fairy that is a modern representation of this spiritual being created and experienced by the Celts.
Renee: And lastly, to put a button on this pop culture section, we have the Banshee, the Banshee-ta.
Renee: There are classic appearances in lots of modern television and movies, some including Charmed, Teen Wolf, which was the first one that I thought of, I remembered that storyline extensively, Supernatural and X-Men.
Renee: Going into the Marvel Universe.
Engaging with Druidic Practices in Modern Times
Renee: To transition us into more of the modern experience, there are present day organizations and ways of experiencing and living through this culture.
Renee: It's a way that this culture stands out significantly from the other two, because we tend to view Greek lore and Roman lore, the mythology side, as ancient history, not something that people participate in now, which of course is not totally true, but it is kind of for the most part, other than the different rituals and practices and holidays that have transcended into modern day.
Renee: But there are entire communities and organizations where you can meet in person, where you can meet online, in order to be a modern day Neo Druid.
Renee: The Neo Druid Order was founded in by Henry Hurl, rooted in the US and the UK, which is part of the reason why when we think of the Druids, the Celts, we blend all of them together with the Irish.
Renee: And yes, there is some overlap.
Renee: But as we talked about in our first episode here, this was a way of being and living that could have been integrated into any number of existing nations.
Renee: But through the lens of history, we tend to box it in and think it only transpired or existed in this very, very small pocket of land and that all of the history is tied there, which is simply not true.
Renee: As I mentioned, you can find different communities where you are looking to participate.
Renee: I did read about one and I will link it in the description.
Renee: But there is actually a weekly live stream on Mondays on the YouTube channel, Tea with the Druid, where they do a meditation and explore a spiritual concept.
Renee: This would be a really cool way to access some of that community, get a little bit of exposure, see how these principles and practices are implemented in these modern times and using a very modern method.
Renee: Other ways that people can explore or follow the Druidic path, if you will, simply walking more, recycling and reusing what you have.
Renee: This is a respect for earth and nature, food and water conservation, not trying to produce a ton of waste.
Renee: These are all really simple acts that any of us could take and are often encouraged in, especially cities that are trying to create more green spaces, respecting nature, connecting with it, physically being out, walking through it and not endlessly producing and endlessly consuming.
Renee: If you want to give it a reframe, you are living in alignment with this culture.
Renee: Another simple method, if you wanted to use a chant, there is one, it's three syllables, it's spelled A-W-E-N, A-O-N.
Renee: This is a Welsh word that's associated with divine inspiration in the Druidic tradition.
Renee: Maybe you're already meditating, you could try that chant out.
Celtic Wheel of the Year: The Four Festivals
Renee: Something that came up repeatedly in the books that I read were discussions of the four festivals that are associated with the solstices and the equinoxes.
Renee: However, we have to kick off and include the New Year as well.
Renee: I have heard about this one because I've heard it in the spiritual communities.
Renee: Probably the first time was when I was doing my psychic development program for Nuurvana.
Renee: I think her opening ceremony was around Halloween.
Renee: So in the US, that's October 31st, and that is also.
Renee: The day of the dead, so we have all of these holidays literally back to back.
Renee: So regardless of what culture you are in, all of the signatures very much line up.
Renee: In Samhain, this is a day where you have the candles out, you're reflecting on your faults, and you're reflecting on the dead.
Renee: See how we have a theme here?
Renee: November 1st, again, Dia de los Muertos, that is the Celtic New Year.
Renee: So you can almost look at Samhain as the closing of the year.
Renee: It's that equivalent of a New Year's Eve.
Renee: We're reflecting back on the last months.
Renee: How did it go?
Renee: Where should I be applying reverence?
Renee: Where should I be going inward?
Renee: Soul work, spiritual work, rituals.
Renee: And then you prepare to start anew the next day.
Renee: And I love here that it is 111.
Renee: How perfect.
Renee: So that is our starting point.
Renee: And from there we have the four festivals that I mentioned.
Renee: I had only heard of one of them.
Renee: But maybe you are more educated about this topic than I was coming in.
Renee: So the first festival that comes up after the New Year, Yule is the wintertime celebration.
Renee: This is the solstice.
Renee: I actually did a winter solstice challenge on my social media this past year where I channeled different activities to do each day.
Renee: And so I wove in a bit of actual Yule history and rituals and spiritual practices as well as just other ones that I had channeled.
Renee: So this was kind of fun to have as a full circle situation.
Renee: If you want to go back and look at that, you can.
Renee: I do have to decide.
Renee: I could repeat it and maybe just make some little adjustments.
Renee: I also could do a totally different challenge this year.
Renee: And honestly, kind of got away from me.
Renee: I thought I would have done one already, but it was fun as an experience to do that and shift a bit of your daily practices and just check off that one thing.
Renee: Sometimes it was eating a certain type of food or connecting to nature, others related to nostalgia, inner child, quality time, etc.
Renee: So long and short, Yule is the winter solstice.
Renee: For the spring equinox, that's Ostara, spelled O-S-T-A-R-A.
Renee: For the summer solstice, we have Litha, L-I-T-H-A.
Renee: Then finally, we have at the autumn equinox, Mabon, spelled M-A-B-O-N.
Renee: Altogether, these four festivals give you the Celtic Wheel of the Year.
Renee: This is not a fully comprehensive list in that there are naturally other holidays, celebrations and checkpoints, but those are the four pillars plus the New Year.
Renee: Most notably and not mentioned here is Beltane, and that one happens on May 1st.
Renee: If you'd like more details on these or any of the other festivals, if you want to participate in any events that are near you, or if you want to devise your own rituals or practices in accordance with the elements, as an example, Yule is associated with the Earth element, Ostara is associated with the Air element, Lethe with fire, Mabon with water.
Renee: I'll include a link in the show notes that talk more extensively about all eight sacred festivals.
Renee: What's really nice about the timing of the release for this episode is that you have some lead time.
Renee: So if you want to head into that Celtic New Year and start practicing or participating in any of these festivals, we will have the autumn equinox between now and then.
Renee: If you want to participate in any rituals or practice for mobbing, then you can.
Renee: Otherwise, if you want to start fresh, you could just wait until Samhain.
Rhiannon: Where Fleetwood Mac Meets Celtic Lore
Renee: For our last topic of the day, let's talk music because we kind of skipped over all of that in the pop culture piece, and I wanted to close out on something fun and maybe to get a song stuck in your head.
Renee: When I was reading about the gods and goddesses in Celtic lore, I came across a name that I recognized, Rhiannon.
Renee: Of course, I have heard this name before because there is a very famous song, more than that, in a moment.
Renee: I looked her up and I was laughing because of course, this is the moon goddess, which you know I have to pay special attention to in every culture.
Renee: Rhiannon was also the goddess of sovereignty and horses, she is often depicted riding a horse.
Renee: She is typically associated with transformation and rebirth.
Renee: Love that, in part because my name literally means rebirth.
Renee: For the explanation here, when we are talking about the moon, there is a beginning and ending, there is a constant cycle, the death and rebirth of light.
Renee: It is no surprise that this is a signification.
Renee: Her story was recorded in the Mabinogion, which is a collection of the earliest Welsh prose stories compiled in the 12th to 13th century.
Renee: Rhiannon is depicted as a flower bride who becomes a mother and then has dominion over the life cycle.
Renee: Therefore, we have the maiden, the mother and the crone.
Renee: She was known for bringing sleep, dreams and sometimes nightmares, often accompanied by golden birds whose singing could call forth the dead or grant a peaceful sleep to the living.
Renee: In her story, she was promised to marry someone she didn't care about, wasn't interested in, and she'd actually fallen in love with a mortal man named Pwyll, spelled P-W-Y-L-L.
Renee: She ran off with him and they had a kid together who was later kidnapped by that initial betrothed, promised to marry.
Renee: So he was jealous, he was mad that she went off, married somebody else, had a kid with someone else, so he stole the child.
Renee: And that guy's nursemaids then spread a rumor and framed her by laying a bunch of bones out and claiming that she had eaten her own baby.
Renee: It took some time, but eventually she was vindicated when the truth came out.
Renee: And now that brings us to the very famous Rhiannon, written by Stevie Nicks as a Fleetwood Mac song.
Renee: And the lore there is that Stevie had just randomly picked up this book called Triad a Novel of the Supernatural by Mary Leader back in 1974.
Renee: Stevie has been interviewed about the origin of this song.
Renee: So I do have some quotes.
Renee: She said, It was all about this girl who became possessed by a spirit named Rhiannon.
Renee: I read the book but was so taken with that name that I thought, I've got to write something about this.
Renee: So I sat down at the piano and started the song about a woman that was all involved with these birds and magic.
Renee: This song became their second single off their self-titled album.
Renee: And members of Fleetwood Mac had explained that it became such a big song whenever they performed it at concerts.
Renee: And Stevie often felt like she had a spirit running through her in a nice fulfillment presence way by the spirit of Rhiannon while performing it.
Renee: I listened to this song a few times after having read the original lore, the interview on this topic.
Renee: What did Stevie actually put into the song?
Renee: Because of course, like, was she doing a retelling?
Renee: No, but she does have some key elements that do line up.
Renee: Ultimately, the song is discussing a woman who has a very powerful spirit.
Renee: Again, this is a goddess.
Renee: And the question is asked multiple times who will be her lover.
Renee: In Rhiannon's story, there is a decision that has to be made about who she will marry, who she's going to end up with.
Renee: As that free spirit, she makes that choice herself.
Renee: And there are also motifs of birds throughout the song, as well as the darkness of the moon, the transformational cycles, connection, and calling forward of the dead, of spirits through those songbirds.
Renee: This was a really fun little side venture to go into music analysis.
Renee: I know we had talked about Taylor Swift a little bit, so it's not the first time that we have done some lyrical analysis and discussion here, but again, was not expecting that.
Renee: I didn't know who Rhiannon was.
Renee: I just thought it was a Fleetwood Mac song.
Renee: When I saw it in one of my Celtic mythology books, I was like, oh, okay.
Renee's Reflections on the Celtic Lore Mini Series
Renee: This is exactly why I've so enjoyed doing this series.
Renee: I don't want to get premature here.
Renee: We still have one more episode before we close this one out.
Renee: But this one in particular, I read, as I mentioned, multiple books for this.
Renee: Omega did a bunch of research as well.
Renee: There was a lot that went into this series in particular.
Renee: And in some ways, it's because of all of the tie backs.
Renee: It's a perfect bookend on this season, while also delving into something that felt totally new and totally aligned and at home.
Renee: Like I felt really, really different reading these stories and looking through these books and rituals than I did for the others.
Renee: Maybe that's chalked up to some of the past life stuff we've talked about before.
Renee: My little place in some rocks at a tree situation, the astro cartography reading that I had done where the lines for past lives went through this general region, and other conversations and channeling that Christine and I have had and done during this podcast on this topic.
Renee: I hope you've been enjoying it as much as I have.
Renee: Stick around for our conclusion of this series, which will be the next episode in the queue.
Renee: I won't be keeping you in suspense with any bonus episodes.
Renee: The next one that comes out will be Celtic Lore in practice.
Renee: And then yeah, can you believe it?
Renee: This season is already almost coming to an end.
Renee: So crazy.
Renee: I appreciate you being here, listening.
Renee: Let me know if there are any pop culture references from Celtic Lore that I missed, or any that surprised you in this list that you had no idea were related to these stories at all.
Renee: Or if you're now going back to listen to Rhiannon with a whole new set of ears.
Christine: Thanks for listening.
Christine: If you'd like to learn more, the resources we used to prepare for this episode are listed in the show notes.
Renee: If you're curious to develop your intuition, we've partnered with the Nuurvana Be Light program to give our listeners a $500 discount on tuition fees.
Renee: Email us for more details and we'll connect you with the founder, Deganit Nuur.
Christine: Want to connect with us?
Christine: You can reach me, Christine, @ChanneledbyChristine with one L on Instagram.
Renee: And you can reach me, Renee, @_readbyrenee, or connect with both of us via email at synergytosynastry@gmail.com.
Christine: Keep your spirit curious and your aura sparkling.
Renee: We'll see you when the stars next align.
Outro
Renee: Okay, let's look up the pronunciation.
Renee: Let's see if we can get the audio out at all.
Renee: Pronunciation.
Renee: Ah, good luck to me.
Renee: Wait, that's how you say it?
Renee: What do you mean, new track created?
Renee: I didn't change my device.
Renee: All right, I'm pausing.
Renee: One second.
Renee: Ta-ta for now.
Renee: Ta-ta.
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