from “Celtic Mysticism" by Revd Anthony Duncan
“There is nothing slight or sentimental about Celtic spirituality, it is grounded in a deep realism. It is quite wrong to romanticise it or to imagine that all things were at all times nothing but sweetness and light. Nor are all Celts necessarily natural mystics; true mystics are rare in any generation. What is distinctive about Celtic spirituality, as it has evolved through the centuries from paganism to a mature Christian faith, is its realism. It is close to nature and open both to intuition and reason. There is a sense of unity between all the elements of life: the angels, the saints, the farmer and his cow.
The Celtic world was shielded by force of historical circumstances from influences which over the years tended to obscure the Church's vision of this holistic approach. There is, for example, nothing of the disturbed and disturbing equation of sex with sin, or any implication that material creation is in some way imperfect, which have hung around the edges of the Church's mind, though wholly foreign to the teaching of the gospels. Celtic spirituality is essentially primitive and rooted in oneness with nature.”
“There is nothing slight or sentimental about Celtic spirituality, it is grounded in a deep realism. It is quite wrong to romanticise it or to imagine that all things were at all times nothing but sweetness and light. Nor are all Celts necessarily natural mystics; true mystics are rare in any generation. What is distinctive about Celtic spirituality, as it has evolved through the centuries from paganism to a mature Christian faith, is its realism. It is close to nature and open both to intuition and reason. There is a sense of unity between all the elements of life: the angels, the saints, the farmer and his cow.
The Celtic world was shielded by force of historical circumstances from influences which over the years tended to obscure the Church's vision of this holistic approach. There is, for example, nothing of the disturbed and disturbing equation of sex with sin, or any implication that material creation is in some way imperfect, which have hung around the edges of the Church's mind, though wholly foreign to the teaching of the gospels. Celtic spirituality is essentially primitive and rooted in oneness with nature.”
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