Synergy to Synastry: Celtic Lore (S3E10) Podcast Transcript

Aug 22

15 min read

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.

Christine: If you enjoy this podcast, make sure to subscribe, rate and review wherever you listen.

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Renee: Now, let's get into the episode.

Introducing the Celtic Lore Mini Series

Renee: I feel like the Michael Scott meme from The Office where he's looking around like it's happening.

I am so excited to announce we have arrived at our third and final cultural miniseries of Season 3.

This one is a long time in the making. I read multiple books for this, Omega did a ton of research on a lot of articles, and then I did some additional research.

There was a lot that went into this series.

I discovered very, very quickly that there are a ton of intersections with both the Greek and Roman lore, which I was not expecting. I thought going into this season that Celtic lore was going to be fully an outlier and wow was I wrong.

This is why we trust our guides because this really is the perfect ending to this season.

And before we start, I did my due diligence. I think this is the first time I've ever done this.

But I sat down and I looked up every single Celtic, Gaelic, Irish word to figure out the pronunciation so that I'm prepared and don't have to do what I normally do, which is pause, look it up, and then come back in. So I have all of my notes ready. There's a lot of words, and hopefully I can stick the landing on the first run. And I've made my notes clear enough.

As I've done with all of our Part 1 episodes of these lore miniseries, I'd like to place us in time, and this one was old. This is very old.

But then in other ways overlapping with the other two series, in order to grasp the actual culture here, we need to first figure out who we're talking about.

Because unlike the other two cultures, they're very straightforward. Greece is a country, Italy is a country, formerly Roman Empire. These are much easier to track historically and there's significantly more documentation.

Whereas when we're talking about the Celtics, this is more of a multinational, nomadic and organically spread phenomenon, movement, culture.

There was no fixed doctrine or unified belief system here.

Celtic Geography & Etymology

There are multiple classifications of people within the ranks, if you will, but you could have your own practices, rituals, focusing on certain deities versus others, or none at all, focusing on places or even natural elements in general.

Personal experiences and choice are central, and the exploration in and of itself is a way of establishing a connection with who you are. The oldest evidence of the Druids is 3200 BCE in petroglyphs, meaning images that were carved oftentimes in rocks or caves.

Otherwise, the majority of Celtic lore was passed through oral tradition or potentially lost entirely.

It wasn't until the Druids officially came on the scene that they started to really document and create scripts based on the trees and their magical properties in a body of spiritual work known as the Ogham.

I mentioned earlier that the Celtics and subsequently the Druids and other types of people, which I will talk about in a future episode, were seen as a force to be reckoned with throughout Europe.

The Greeks called them the Keltoi. Kel means to strike, in other words, implying that they're fighters, while the Romans called them the Gauls from Galli, meaning subservient.

And there is a lot of tense history and rivalry between the Celts and the Romans.

The Roman Empire was seeking to conquer as much of Europe, obviously, as possible and there are several periods of documented battles, huge face-offs between these two. Again, not nations. One's an empire and the other is just kind of a group that's spreading and existing.

It's really interesting to compare them because they were not the same, and yet were seen as so influential and a challenger to the Roman way of life, which we talked about in the last miniseries.

We can look back to 500 BCE where the Celts' presence was documented in Germany, 400 BCE where they were taking hold in Spain, Italy, the Balkans and Northern Europe.

And as you can see, this feels like a threat.

We're now fully in the time period that we were talking about for both the Greek and Roman eras.

And in 390 BCE, the Celts had "sacked Rome" as well as again in 280 BCE. Plus the Greeks were not spared.

They desecrated the temple at Delphi. This was in some ways an aggressive group, a dominant group.

But as you will hear more, they weren't just bold fighters. They were very attuned to nature, peace, compassion.

Celtic Gods & Goddesses

Similar to the Greeks and Romans, they were viewed as polytheistic and I'll go through just a subset of some gods and goddesses in Celtic lore.

To start, we have the larger umbrella of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which means the children of the goddess Danu.

This family wielded treasures and it was believed that many of the divine beings descended directly from this family.

Now we have to talk about who Danu is. First, she is considered the mother goddess and goddess of fertility. She's associated with fish, wells, seagulls, and flowing water.

As a side note here, I do love and appreciate how there is some sort of mother goddess in every single one of these cultures, and this type of divine being is not uncommon across way more than just these three. So let's give it up to the ladies.

Next we have Dagda, who was the god of Earth. The visual that I picture for him is the Emperor card in Tarot in the seat of power. Grounded, strong, confident. He's associated with the club. I saw a picture of this little drawing and rendering, and all it made me think of was Lucille in The Walking Dead. Not that it actually had barbed wire around it, but there were some spikes on the top.

And I was like, was this based on that? I'll have to look that up for our modernity episode.

And he's also associated with the cauldron, which we will talk about more later in this series.

Next we have Morrigan, who's partnered with Dagda and she is the goddess of water and fate.

Now we move on to probably the most famous one. I have actually heard this name before and there is a reason for that. There's two different pronunciations that I found.

The Irish version is Breege and the English version is Brigid, and she is the daughter of Dagda and Morrigan.

Brigid is the goddess of the fire and hearth. Sounds a lot like Vesta, right? But also included are art, prophecy, and healing.

Now her lore in particular is so impactful because she actually was adopted. There's a crossover here with the Roman lore because there is a St. Brigid and this is one of the many examples of the cultural impact on each other, all of these different communities blending.

She was such a strong and central figure that she ended up getting co-opted and woven into the Roman Empire influence.

Next we have Angus, who is the God of love and summer. He's like a combination of Cupid or Eros for the love side and then Astis or Tharos representing summer. Angus had shapeshifted into a swan to be with his love, who had been cursed into bird form.

The Legend of King Arthur

Now before we get into decoding some of the symbols I've plugged already, I wanted to sidebar into one of the most famous figures from Celtic lore.

The story of King Arthur goes that whoever pulls this sword from the stone is the rightful king of Britain.

Many knights and nobles tried and failed, but then a young boy easily removes the sword from the stone.

In this tale, we have Merlin, a powerful wizard with prophetic abilities who helped him discover his true identity.

Arthur later creates the Round Table, where all of the knights were considered equal. Many search for the Holy Grail, a sacred cup believed to grant spiritual wisdom and eternal life.

Queen Guinevere fell in love with Sir Lancelot. All really notable, prominent figures. There have been many, many retellings of all of these stories and I want to dive more into the symbolism.

But there was also a very notable end to King Arthur's tale, and it was that his son Mordred rebelled against him. There was a battle and he was able to defeat his son, but in turn was mortally wounded.

He was taken to a magical island of Avalon, where legend says he sleeps until Britain needs him again.

So picking apart this story just a little bit more, I wanted to highlight some really key Celtic principles.

Intuition is appearing with Merlin, the innate abilities and gifts.

The Round Table, where knights were considered equal, is also of significance for this culture.

In the books that I was reading, they kept repeating over and over again how men and women were not treated differently based on rank.

It was very communal, wanting everyone to come together and create balance.

So that's where we have the connection with nature, all beings of nature, and the Holy Grail. Of course, we have the Ace of Cups in Tarot, and across many cultures there's a similar idea. Well, if you just reach this, it's like Nirvana. You reach that and you get wisdom and can live forever. You can spiritually level up.

And finally, the dynamics of love and battle are very, very common throughout Celtic lore stories.

Symbolism in Celtic Lore: Trios, Circles, and Birds

Now let's talk about some more symbols here.

One that stood out for me was the number three. This comes up a lot: three parts, things in trios, sequences, shapes, visuals, all coming in threes. For example, we have the Holy Trinity: strength, eternal love, and unity, which contrasts but also overlaps and connects to Christianity and some of the Roman lore that we talked about.

That Holy Trinity is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In essence, the one-to-one comparison we have is strength as the Father, eternal love as the Son, and unity as the Holy Spirit.

Archetypally, we can see how that would make sense. There is crossover. There is a blending of these cultures during this time, but the representation, visuals, and practices, of course, were very different.

Other symbols that you'll see in Celtic lore are lots of circles everywhere. Lots and lots of circles. We'll talk more about that, including Celtic knots. These are incredibly famous. You've probably seen a variety of different symbols. They have circles, swirls, and intricate weaving of lines together where it almost looks like infinity.

You can't find exactly where all of the lines are going.

There are many instances where this type of imagery was actually infused into Christian documentation.

Pretty much above all, I've mentioned this a few times, but nature is so incredibly important and foundational. One of those being birds. This comes up a lot. I'll go through a few examples now of some birds with their corresponding meanings.

We have ravens that represent war and prophecy, cranes signifying goddesses and the supernatural world, and swans which reflect beauty, purity, and love.

I want to sidebar here because there are many, many Celtic stories featuring people getting turned into swans.

I couldn't believe it. I kept looking and finding another one. I thought I was mixing them up, but I was not.

They were all different stories, people getting turned into swans or turning themselves into swans.

The Angus example earlier is just one of many. And in his case, think about it. He was becoming the swan, which represents love, in order to be with the love of his life.

And this may still be true, but I was seeing in reports that it is illegal to hunt or kill a swan because they are so revered.

Last bird I want to talk about: owls. I think this is the third time I've discussed owls just this season, so this has been coming up increasingly all over the place.

Looking back at some etymology, here we have the Scottish Gaelic "Cailleach," which means old woman.

An owl in Gaelic is "Cailleach-oidhche," which means an old woman of the night.

Owls in Celtic lore were associated with the Crone.

This is another really significant trio: the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, also known as the Triple Goddess concept.

So this Crone, the old woman, is wise, and therefore the owl was believed to provide wisdom, specifically by unmasking people trying to deceive or take advantage of you.

Owls in Celtic lore are also depicted as guiding people to and through the underworld. Think about it like this. They've got really good eyesight, so that'll help. I think in reading about this interpretation and historical framework for owls, it does line up a bit with how I've used my Athena Greek owl, which is currently perched on my dresser in what I guess you'd call my altar area.

It's where I keep my oracle and tarot cards. When I draw for the day, I lay all of them out. For probably at least the last month, I've had my little Athena owl perched there facing my cards. Sometimes I'll be drawn to place it on individual cards, which I then try to look into at the end of the day.

Why did I do that? Was that one especially significant? Was there wisdom in particular coming from that? Not only is this owl representing Athena in Greek lore, wisdom, smarts, and strategy, but also honesty and clarity.

In some ways it represents the guides themselves, your supportive team of spirit guides there to direct you through the darkness that is life, spiritual awakenings, challenges, and helping you see your way through the chaos to find the light.

Renee's Memory of Rocks & Trees Linked to Celtic Practices

I am very much looking forward to talking about the next piece here. You can't discuss Celtic lore without talking about trees!

The Celts believed that trees could carry wisdom and also communicate with each other. And I was seeing that scientists have determined that trees can actually share water through their roots. So if one of them has received a little bit of extra water and there is a tree nearby that's a little parched from too much sun, it can pass some of that water through those tiny, tiny roots underground and share, which is so cool. So the Celts were right.

And I have to do a callback here before I go into all of the sacred trees. We have to revisit book club.

When I discussed placing rocks at the base of a tree in my yard as a kid, my mind was honestly blown when I started doing the Celtic research.

I was like, why did this random memory come through when I was reading this chapter?

All of a sudden I recognized exactly why it came to the surface because this is so Celtic.

It's like, okay, no wonder I have in my astrocartography chart some past-life lines going through this general region, as well as having insights through this podcast, dreams, and past-life sessions suggesting connections to Scotland. And I have literal ancestry from Ireland. So if we're talking about this general region, I already know I have some connection to it.

But to trace back thousands of years to this community, I was like, "Oh my gosh." I was a child and didn't know what I was doing, but I was doing something that is so Celtic.

I was gagged.

So there's a few things here. I was stacking rocks and putting them at the base of a tree. Back in the Roman lore updates episode, my mom believed it to be an oak tree. I've also heard it could have been a maple tree.

So either way, I'm going to explain both. For the maple tree, it's abundance, divination, grounding, love, and wisdom.

And can't we use a little bit of all of that?

Now, if it was in fact an oak, as my mom suspected and as I had initially thought, hello. That's the most sacred of all trees according to the Celts. Oak trees are associated with Zeus as well as the planet Jupiter. So we're covering both the Greek and Roman side and understanding this tree. It was a symbol of divine spiritual truth.

The Celtic word for oak is "door." In other words, the oak tree was a doorway to higher knowledge and divine power.

Rocks or stones symbolized a connection between the physical and spiritual realm. A practice of stacking stones was not uncommon and was viewed as an offering. And if you're making an offering at a tree, which is the most sacred, I mean, it's just crazy. It's crazy that I did it for whatever short period of time. It's like I understood them. The rocks don't come into the house, but I was identifying what felt special and that the tree was special and that I had to put them there. So it is completely brain-shattering to have forgotten I did this, to have it come up at the exact time it did just before doing this research, and then to realize this connection.

The Seven Sacred Trees

Looking at the sacred trees, so yeah, there's more than three.

Remember how there were sacraments? As I was reading, I kept finding all of these little connections. I'm like, what do you mean there's seven sacred trees after we just did a culture talking about sacraments? Why is the repetition? History rhymes.

So these sacred trees were the oak. That's the number one. That's the top, the pinnacle. And we also have the ash tree, apple, hazel, alder, not to be confused with elder, which is number six, and yew. Not only were trees an integral part of everyday life, they were worshipped.

Celtic Tree Astrology

They were connected to wisdom and divination. More on that in Part 2, but they were integrated into a whole other astrological system and framework.

If you look up Celtic tree astrology, you'll see that the lunar calendar associates each of the moon cycles with a sacred tree. The list is longer than the seven that I just said, but those are all included. This is all based on the date you were born.

I'll include a link in the show notes, and you'll see it's very, very simple. You look for one of the segments of the year during which your birthday falls, and that's how you get your tree.

For Christine, she has the vine, and what this means is that she seeks beauty in all forms, aspires to grow, is naturally generous and appreciates luxury, is charming, elegant, hardworking, and sometimes conflict-avoidant.

I had the alder tree, which is one of the sacred trees, which got me pretty pumped.

The alder tree represents a natural-born leader, someone who is driven, magnetic, and warm, able to connect with a wide variety of personalities, has an inner strength and self-assuredness, and is very time-oriented in authenticity.

The way I laughed, I laughed so hard. I can't disagree with any single word I just said about myself. That's completely spot on. And if you've listened to any of the book clubs, chapter 15 through chapter 19, I was specifically going on and on talking about time.

I have said and observed about myself that I can be friends with most anyone regardless of personality type.

I can usually find some way to connect with people. And I have been told that people can be drawn to me and that I am very warm, or that when I speak, my speaking voice is warm.

The whole natural-born leader thing, being driven, it's so Aries-coded it's not even funny. Which of course draws forth another question. These are all different divination tools.

With the many, many forms of astrology, how are they overlapping with each other?

If I'm looking at Christine's with the vine, Christine is a Virgo. But some of that definition sounds very, very Venusian. Which would be more of a Taurus or Libra trait. The aspiring to grow part is very Virgo. The elegance and hardworking pieces fit as well.

So I can see how some of the traits overlap with traditional Western astrology.

Christine feels like a combination of Virgo and Taurus, whereas mine looks like Aries for sure. Maybe even a little bit of Leo and a splash of either Virgo or Capricorn, which I feel like is pretty accurate.

Leave a comment if you're an alder tree and we're buddies. Let's be tree friends!

And here's your reminder in honor of the Celts! Maybe go hug a tree or sit in nature.

I'm very, very excited to continue this series. We'll have Part 2 coming out soon: Celtic Lore in Modernity. But coming up next in your feed will be the installment of the Soul Rising Book Club, during which I'm going to be talking about chapters 24 through 26. So make sure to get reading.

And if this episode has inspired you to read more about Celtic lore, please do write in with what you've learned and also let me know how I did on the pronunciation.

If there's anyone out there that knows Gaelic or speaks Irish...

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: Is that even right?

I feel like saying "speaks Irish" sounds wrong. I have to research this. I should know this.

I feel like this is a betrayal of my ancestry not to know.

So Gaelic leans a little bit more Scottish. So that's our difference here. The Irish language is sometimes referred to as Gaeilge, the name of the Irish language in Irish.

Love an educational blooper. It is cute. It's super cute. Chop, chop, chop.