Celtic reconstructionism

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism (CR) is a Neopagan religious movement. It is an effort to reconstruct, in a modern context, an ancient Celtic religious framework. Neopagan reconstructionists have been around since the 1970s but little of it has been specifically Celtic.

Many of the people who went on to establish CR were involved in Neopagan groups in the seventies and eighties. Often these groups contained many Celtic elements that eventually found their way into core CR practice. This period, and these groups, are often referred to as "Proto-CR". Later, with the establishment of the internet in the late eighties and early nineties, many of these Proto-CR groups and individuals came together online. This began a fruitful period of sharing of information and experiences, and led to a rapid growth of the movement.

CR does not make a claim to being a linear or direct descendant of any ancient Celtic polytheistic tradition. CRs acknowledge that many elements of their religious practice are modern creations. However, their tradition is based in and inspired by early Celtic beliefs as found in early texts and the work of scholars and archaeologists. CRs believe it is important to lay aside elements of ancient Celtic culture which are clearly inappropriate practices for a modern society. Some of those early societies practiced human sacrifice, slavery, and strongly patriarchal elements. CRs attempt to find ethical ways of integrating their historical findings and research with their daily lives.

CR is not only about scholarly research. CR practitioners and elders believe that mystical, ecstatic practices are a necessary balance to scholarly research, and that this balance is a vital component in determining whether a tradition is CR.

Not all people who make use of Neopagan reconstructionist techniques are entirely comfortable with using "Celtic Reconstructionism" as a name for their religion, seeing the term as describing a methodology rather than a system of belief, or seeing the term as being incorrectly descriptive. Others feel comfortable with the term CR, but have decided to name their CR sub-traditions so as to distinguish their practices from other sub-groups and flavors of CR. Some other names that people involved in CR-style religion have chosen to use include Celtic Restorationism, Neo-Celtism, Aurrad ("Member of the Tribe" in Irish Gaelic), Senistrognata ("Ancestral Customs" in reconstructed Old Celtic), Ildiachas ("Polytheism" in Irish Gaelic), Iol-Diadhachas (Scots Gaelic for "Polytheism"), Pàganachd (Scots Gaelic for "Paganism, Heathenism") Págántacht (Irish for "Paganism, Heathenism"), Liesdoueadegezh ("Polytheism" in Breton), or Amldduwiaeth (Welsh for "Polytheism").

First Modern Appearance of the Term and Other Historical Data

The first appearance in print of the term "Celtic Reconstructionist", used to describe a religious movement and not just a style of Celtic studies, was by Kym Lambert ní Dhoireann in the Spring, 1992 issue of Harvest Magazine (Southboro, MA, USA). ní Dhoireann credits Kathryn Price NicDhàna with originating the term “Celtic Reconstructionism”; however, NicDhàna credits her early use of the term to a simple extrapolation on Margot Adler's use of the term "Pagan Reconstructionists" in the original, 1979 edition of Drawing Down the Moon, and not to an attempt to name a tradition. Erynn Rowan Laurie also began using the name "Celtic Reconstructionist", independently of the other two, at around this same time. With ní Dhoireann’s popularization of the name in the Pagan press, and then the use of the term by these three individuals on the internet, “Celtic Reconstructionism” began to be adopted as the name for this developing spiritual tradition.

As the founder and/or moderator of PODSnet Celtic and other listserves in the early 1990s, and later the Nemeton list in 1994, Erynn Rowan Laurie is often credited as being the key person behind the development and spread of what we now know as CR. Initially only a few dozen people were involved on the Proto-CR and CR listserves, but over the 1990s many hundreds of individuals and groups gradually joined the process and the movement became more of an umbrella group, with a number of recognized sub-traditions.

An earlier key event in laying the groundwork for much Proto-CR practice was the Celtic workshops, discussions and rituals at the 1985 Pagan Spirit Gathering, in Wisconsin, USA.

Celtic Reconstructionism and Neo-Druidry

Though there has certainly been quite a bit of cross-pollenization between Neo-Druidism and Celtic Reconstructionist groups, and there is a large crossover of membership between the two movements, the two have somewhat distinct methodologies and goals in their approach to Celtic religious forms. CR practioners tend to look to the whole cultural matrix in which the religious ideas were formed, while Neo-Druids tend to prefer to focus on the specifically druidic functions. Some Neo-Druidic groups claim to be non-religious in nature, which is not the case with most CR groups. There are some CR philosophies which downplay the role of the druidic office specifically in preference to a more general view of Indo-European priesthood (making the argument that the Druids may simply have been a very successful school of priestcraft, and possibly not even completely pan-Celtic), or to the successors of druids such as the filí and seanachies.

This is not to say that there is no connection between Neo-Druid groups and CR. Some Neo-Druid groups (notably, Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), and Keltria) have similar methodologies of reconstruction, or have taken up CR methodologies recently. The ADF, in particular, have long used CR-type techniques, but many CRs criticize them for their pan-Indo-European focus, resulting in such oddities as Vedic Druids and Roman Druids.

Other differences between CR groups and Neo-Druid groups can include such elements as differing ideas on hierarchical structures and acceptance of Enlightenment-era druidic revivals. Some philosophical differences exist as well, especially in terms of what "Druid" means. Some Neo-Druidic groups call anyone with an interest in Celtic Spirituality a Druid, and refer to the practice of Celtic spirituality as "Druidry", while CR groups tend to look at the older definition, seeing it as an office that requires decades of training and experience and is only attained by a small number of practitioners.

Despite these differences, there are generally good relations between Neo-Druid and CR groups, with, as noted previously, a great deal of sharing of ideas and even memberships.

External links

• Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism