Celtic Spirituality: A Beginner's Guide

The Spiritual Road Not Taken

Two politicians accomplished more in minutes to shape the character of Christianity than Jesus achieved in his lifetime. Two towns separated by a mere 50 miles witnessed two of the most detrimental events in Christian history. Two spiritual roads diverged in the English woods, and we took the conciliatory route.

You’ve probably heard of the first event in York, England when Roman Emperor Constantine “converted” to Christianity. In a dream, he saw the symbol of a cross and heard: “In this sign conquer,” inaugurating Christianity’s now pervasive collusion with political power. Constantine didn’t so much convert to Christianity, he converted Christianity to imperialism. A stone’s throw away and three hundred years later, another political decision also devastated the Jesus movement.

In 664 C.E. in the Northumbrian town of Whitby, England, a synod was called by King Oswy to resolve a conflict between two competing forms of Christianity. In attendance were representatives from the Celtic and Roman missions. The former was a unique fusion of ancient Celtic indigenous customs, beliefs, and rituals mixed with the burgeoning Christian faith. The later was colonizer Christianity, and deferred their beliefs to Augustine and their rituals to the institutional church in Rome. As is typical of most religious movements, the dominators and colonizers won the day. King Oswy’s decision to favor the Roman mission at the expense of the Celtic mission sent the spirituality of the second into the shadows, and to the world’s detriment.

Today, little is known of this once wild faith that flowed freely through the western isles of Scotland and Ireland. King Oswy’s political expediency, the silencing of the Roman legions, St. Patrick’s spiritual colonization, Augustine’s abhorrent theology, and ultimately the Highland Clearances of 1750 combined to banish Celtic spirituality to the borderlands for almost 1,400 years. But a rebirth of Christianity, and a renewal of your spiritual quest might require a restoration of this once proud spiritual heritage.

Monasteries such as Lindisfarne and Iona continued to play important roles in preserving the subversive wisdom, spiritual traditions, and sacramental prayers of this once vibrant spirituality long after the Synod of Whitby, and elements of Celtic Christianity persist in the British Isles to this day. Though Celtic spirituality means different things to different people, here are just a few surviving insights that might be useful to you as you awaken your indigenous heart from dominator religion.