Celts

[Guest]

When your heroes are horses and the fox is your revered enemy and everything you wear is tweed and wool and organic and a dragon or the flag of st pirran or the la touche or the velka parduicka mean something or you dress your salad with whiskey and honey and you are scared in the city but happy in the dark woods and bottle feed dozens of lambs and can converse with people in Brittany or the czech republic feels like spiritual home o you have sat at a harp or you can taste the difference between rain and can trace your family back to the iceni and have your own tartan and know that the blood of glendowers hounds flows through those you ride with and you carry the banner of the Oriel into battle and can wrestle a hind to the ground with the Ward union and know what clonmel in January means and you know what king Artur was real and not some imaginary english victorian romance or some hippy mystic and animals are your entire spiritual and economic wealth THEN you know what it is to be a celt:

www.bbc.co.uk/cornwall/uncovered/storie ... ruro.shtml

 

is just one example that some of us are entirely different and culturally intact from the western popular urban culture.

 

I am not putting that down; just sometimes here I feel that some of us here feel fur/animal icons do have a spiritual meaning too and that it is valid. if we had an inuit or a yakut or a sami or a Navajo or a bedouin here they would tell you the same.

 

I felt compelled to explain that....it isnt putting anyone else's view/heritage down but my integrity has been called into question, so I thought I would explain myself.

Do I draw power from animals?I feel spiritually and energy drained when seperated from them yes. Can that be erotic? yes powerfully when fur is revered as it is; of course. And so I find many natural objects worn by women erotic...so native adornment is erotic. It IS intended to be....sexuality and spirituality are absolutely inseperable in most cultures.

 

So if a woman draws power from fur or scotsman from a sporran and tartan then that is what I am talking about.

 

And your fetishes will by definition sexually be rooted in your cultural experience.

Edited July 26, 2006 by Guest

[Mr Barguzin]

I seem tp recall in my youth (maybe yesterday) that there was a BBC program called "The Celts" and it also came with a book.

 

Maybe a trip to your local library will allow you to review this book.

 

(part Irish, Part Scottish, Part English, part Welsh {ah the Welsh National anthem, sung in full voice by the crowd at Cardiff Arms ... *SIGH*}, but all Australian.)

 

I remain,

[Guest]

Its funny how academics from England will tell you about celts though when they do not realise that actually we are still living a similar life as we did many years ago. You will not find many people round here without celtic tatoos, crosses etc but thats just one tiny part of it.

Fundamentally the celts worshipped horses. that remains with most of us.

 

Find me an academic who truly understands that. they get it mixed up with druidosm and stuff which is NOTHING to do with celts. Those b****ds killed hoses because they recognised them as powerful to the celts.

 

Some of the program was okay....but a lot of it was rubbish.

 

Steeplechasing was a celtic idea as was foxhunting. the normans embraced both but the Saxons still dont get it. Not a mention of that in the program on celts.

The czech republic, brittany, ireland, wales, scotland and the west country and the borders are the most powerful steeplechase nations/areas; they are all celtic. They have completely overpowered "Saxon" england this last few years.

 

Look at the horse names....celtic giant, Celtic Swing, celtic Shot, St pirran, Cornish rebel, etc etc and when we arent naming them that they get called Commanche Court and Apache flower. We are still the hunting horsemen we always were.

[Worker 11811]

I am, by no means, a great woodsman but I do enjoy being out in the forrest. When I was a kid, I used to go to scout camp and I know the rudiments of survival in the woods. If I had to, I'm sure I could survive in the woods, at least for a while.

 

It really BUGS me how urbanized many people have become and how they seem to have lost the ability to survive without electricity and food from the grocery store.

 

I was recently impressed (depressed) to find out that somebody I know is so afraid of insects that this person is petrified, even at the sight of a firefly!

 

We were sitting in a sidewalk cafe, downtown, drinking coffee and listening to a woman play guitar. It was just after dusk on a still summer night so the fireflies were coming out in force. One flew by this nameless person's head and I saw him/her duck out of the way and shriek.

 

"It's just a little ol' firefly!" says I. I reached out and caught it in my hand. Its bum flashed a couple of times as I displayed my catch. "Completely harmless!"

 

This person's eyes were glued on the bug in my hand as if I was holding a snake or something! I shooed the bug but it landed on the table. I was not about to squash it and leave a glowing, green pile of goop for everybody in the cafe to see so, for several minutes, my companion sat there staring at the bug on the table until it finally flew away.

 

When it was gone, I had to quickly finish my coffee so we could leave and go back indoors. This happened weeks ago and I'm still disgusted about it!

 

Yes, yes! I know that people can't control phobias. But, they aren't supposed to be afraid of the "good" bugs like ladybirds and lightning bugs! They're supposed to be afraid of hornets and fire ants and big, hairy spiders!

 

If we had to survive in the woods, this person would be a SERIOUS handicap to the survival of the whole group because so much of our time would be taken up in keeping this person seperated from all the bugs and creepy crawlies.

 

I'm not totally without my fears in the woods, either. Hornworms and "sweat bees" really creep me out but I don't let them get the best of me. I squash them or shoo them away or do something to put some distance between me and the offending creature. I don't sit there, paralyzed with fear.

 

I am seriously concerned that, if there was some kind of disaster where a major segment of the population was forced into a "primitive" lifestyle for any length of time, it would be a major catastrophe!

 

I think it should be a requirement that EVERYBODY spend 24 hours in the woods, alone, with just a sleeping bag, a flashlight and a knapsack full of supplies.

[Guest]

You are right worker. But on the plus side you dont get raped and mugged and turned over and ripped off by woodland animals. And well if i did thats part of the cycle. I am quite happy to die at the claws of a Leopard and be part of him. I am more concerned at being mugged or killed for a fiver outside the 24 hour spar shop by a junkie.

 

Hey...changing the subject....do you remember the rhyme?

 

If you go down in the woods today, be sure of a big surprise......

[Worker 11811]

From memory:

 

If you go down to the woods today, You're sure of a big surprise.

If you go down to the woods today, You'd better go in disguise.

For ev'ry bear that ever there was, Will gather there for certain, because

Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.

 

Looked this part up:

 

Recorded in the 1930's by BBC Dance Orchestra, led by Henry Hall.

Sung by Gilbert Russell (AKA: Val Rosing).

 

>> Teddy Bear's Picnic - MP3 - 2.7 MB <<

 

(Secret: That song can be quite cathartic for me! Shhh!! Don't tell anybody!)

 

If my wife and I are in a store and we get seperated, I whistle the first line of that song out loud. She instantly knows it's me and can will follow the sound until we find each other again.

 

Most of our Bears could survive a day or two in the woods by themselves without too much trouble. Just give them a place to stay out of the weather and they'll be OK. They'll probably find a few of their friends, the REAL bears, and have a grand time of it, catching up on old times!

[allfurme]

The problem is in this day and age, 'If you go down into the woods today you're sure of a big surprise' you can bet your life it won't be seeing a group of stuffed bears sitting on a sheet eating sandwiches and drinking tea!

 

Old Rhymes - Mary, Mary quite contrary etc

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie etc

Ring-a-ring-a-roses etc

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall etc

Jack and Jill went up a hill etc

[Guest]

A lpy of those rymes have meaning and cultural significance eg. ring a roses is about the plague.

 

Four and twenty balckbirds is an intersting one.

 

My great grandparetc used to eat magpie...baked in pies. They used to have "calling birds". because people do not do that any more magpies are now a serious threat to other birds. They eat the eggs in nests.

 

I think it would be cool to have a teddy bears picnic.

[Worker 11811]

The problem is in this day and age, 'If you go down into the woods today you're sure of a big surprise' you can bet your life it won't be seeing a group of stuffed bears sitting on a sheet eating sandwiches and drinking tea!

 

Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard went down to the woods, one day and THEY sure got a big surprise!

 

>>> The Grizzly Man <<<

[White Fox]

A close relative is married to a young gal who becomes nervous every time she leaves the big city. It is very obvious when she gets to a small town she is just on edge til she gets home. The misunderstandings of folks like that are beyond belief.

 

Indeed, if we do not find ways to begin to teach people to understand nature, we are in huge, huge trouble in this old world!

W

[Guest]

Seems people have been doing some homework on the Celtic people ........I'm impressed .

[Guest]

Its not homework though Crystalman; people in Wales, scotland, the west country and Ireland Brittany and the czech republic share a common way of rural life with horses and hunting at the centre of it still now after all these years.

People brought up in cities even with celtic roots get caught up in all sorts of romantic nonsense.

 

Its like a friend of mine is a spiritualist. He refers to an Indian spirit guide. I told a Navajo friend about this and he emailed this back to me:

 

 

"Hmmm. Funny how people are always intersted in what dead Injuns have to say. Never do they listen to real live ones".