Why Wiccan Isn’t Inherently Celtic

Wow…that article is just beyond words….I can’t even seem to get to the topic. I’ve had to read it multiple times to make sure I was reading it right.

First of all the dates are way off for including Celtic Christians. BCE does not cut it. Even if this person meant CE…that still doesn’t make sense. If they meant BCE they’re backwards and end at post Roman conquest but pre-Christian acceptance.

Second this person is confusing regions with religions.

This person is basing their ideas on Wicca from “people they know” not on actual research into traditional/Gardnarian Wicca which has an extreme Celtic influence but is not in itself a Celtic religion. He/She has monstrously confused electic Wicca with Traditonal Wicca (a common mistake).

The Lakota Declaration of War is against anyone using anything deemed to be part of the Lakota culture without being documented as Lakota. http://puffin.creighton.edu/lakota/war.html. If you take a course on NA in college you’ve had war declared on you. It’s hardly a good reason for why Wicca isn’t the Celtic religion.

While I agree with the premise that Wicca is not a Celtic religion, this article proves nothing! The first half of the article is straight opinion which comes off misinformed.

In Celtic religion, there are three basic spheres. These are the Sky, the Sea and the Land. Each of these has a heavenly body that corresponds to them: for the Sky the sun, for the Sea the Moon and for the Land the Earth. This has been supported time and time again through many and varied historical sources, and even through the influences of Celtic Paganistic religion into Celtic Christianity.

::Blink:: Actually the ancient Celtic world view is that of World, Underworld and Otherworld. While there are certain myths dealing with sky, land and sea they are not the defining elements of the Celtic mythos. One specific example: If you travel by sea long enough you will reach the otherworld. None of this has to do with Celtic Christianity which is, despite it’s dogmatic differences still Christianity. When the Romans pulled out of Britain the Christians there lost contact with the main church in Rome. So they evovled in a different way such a different dates for Easter, women in the church and Monk hairstyles. It took a great deal of force and some clever conversion of kings to dispell Celtic Christianity which had merrily converted much of Northern Europe. He/She keeps mentioning it without any basis. Celtic Christianity has nothing to do with Wicca, or Celtic religion. The Celtic in Celtic Christianity is a regional name.

I’m not sure where this person gets dhuile. A google search brings up oil, linux and a varient which is the name for a month on the islamic calendar. No book that I’ve read, scholarly or otherwise has ever mentioned dhuile.

In Celtic religion the only requirement you need is to have a connection with the Celtic culture through family or study

The author contradicts themselves here. At the begining they say that you have to have a family connection to practice. This article is leads me to serverly question Celtic Reconstructionists as traditional Celtic praticioners. The religions don’t match.

The first source we get is Loretta Orion. While there are plenty of pseudo wiccans with no knowledge of history out there, I’d say this person is equally guilty in their lack of historical knowledge, and funky claims. He/she totally ignores wiccans who know what they are talking about.

Entymologistical is not a word. I’m sure they meant Etymological.

What really gets me is that the sources are mostly good ones. Did he/she read them? What about some of the current academic books or the annals or Bede?

They also use articles on that website that are not for redistribution from the Riders of the Crystal Wind BOS (note to self, get that author’s list done). This makes me wonder as well.

Sigh.