Maeve's Celtic Terminology

aés dana - The Tuatha de Dannan, most specifically, the keepers of the arts and magick.

Celts - The tribe of European peoples of Indo-European origin who migrated into eastern Europe about 6000 BCE from the crescent area between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. These people, originally called the Battle Ax Aryans, blended with the tribes already in Europe and developed a unique culture called "Keltoi" by the Greeks and Romans. The Celts later divided into two distinct groups:

Gaelic Celts - Those who migrated along a southerly route and settled in Ireland, Scotland, and France. The Gaelic Celts were also called the Chariot Warriors.

The Brythonic Celts - Those who migrated across Europe somewhat later on a more northerly route and settled in Wales, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man. The Brythonic Celts were called the Ox Cart Aryans.

Dragon - The symbolic representation of the alchemist's or magician's works of power. Also symbolic of the power of specific elements, places in Nature, or collective tribal energies. The shape and form of the dragon could hve arisen from ancient humans' discovery of bones and fossils of massive, prehistoric creatures.

Druid - The groups of highly trained priests and priestesses who practiced and taught the knowledge of healing, science, history, magick, natural laws, and universal wisdoms. The druids were divided into groups that specialized in various areas of knowledge. During the druidic revivals of the eighteenth century, these groups were given names to describe their roles. These names were derived from ancient oral traditions as well as more modern sources. These were:

Bards - Singers, poets, genealogists, "political commentators" and preservers of the Celtic oral traditions.

Druids(drui or draoi) - Those who observed and structured wisdom, and set up centers of learning called druidic colleges.

Equites - The keepers of the Brehon laws, natural laws, and moral philosophies. From the knightly or royal classes, the equites served the chieftains and kings.

Vates - Those who observed natural phenomena, and made diagnoses and divinations.

Faerie - "Fey Sidhe" or Otherworld beings derived from a blend of Old Ones or ancestors, tribal deities, and devic forces. Best understood as symbolic of humankind's conscious and/or sub-conscious connection withthe powers of Nature. The realm of faerie is a part of mystical or Otherworld consciousness, encapsulated in tribal memories and genetic structures. Inhabitants of this expanded dimension or realm reflect human images of them. They appear in several distinct categories:

Wise Ones/Old Ones - The elder mystical beings, some of whom inhabit the Otherworld realm, but are able to be accessed and communicated with by human beings. Also considered the spirits of the original ancestors or tribal deities of the Celts.

Lordly Ones - Most tangibly reflect humankind and ancient archetypal Celts in elemental aspects. Theses are the most regal and perfect forms, thus their image reflects as the lord or lady of air, fire, water, earth, or spirit. In Celtic myth, these are most closely linked to images of the de Dannan, and may indeed be best representative of that ancient, pure breed of mystical Celt.

Shining Ones - Also called the Riders or Riders of Sidhe. They are less tangible and more mystical thatn the other faerie, most liked representing realms of consciousness that are still expanding and evolving within the eternal present (that is, the past, present, and future). The Shining Ones are etheric and transcendent and reflect one's personal view of the many highly evolved dimensions of time and space.

Opalescent Ones - Most classically reflected as the gossamer-winged, traditionally defined "fairy." Even more etheric than the Shining Ones, the Opalescent Ones seem to represent the energies from within our finest human qualities, and are thus projected from and illuminated by our development of these higher aspects of human nature.

Faerie gifts(gifts of faerie) - The elemental gifts of the Tuatha de Dannan, symbolized by:

Fomorians - A tribe sometimes allied with the de Dannan, sometimes not. Probably a less mystical tribe of early Celts (or proto-Celts) that inhabited the Britich Isles, particularly Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Not to be confused with the Firbolgs, a much more primative form and possibly vestiges of Neanderthalithic cultures.

Genus locurum(geni loci) - The spirit of place or devic energy of a specific location in Nature. Sometimes seen to be attached to a certain tribe as a tribal deity.

Indo-European - Refers to the theory that the Celts and their ancestors originated in a region of what in now North India. Further connects the Celts to the ancient Siberian shamanic traditions.

Lord of Light - The Celtic god aspect who reflects the solar light or warrior king. Represented by Lugh, Nuada, and later by Arthur. The symbol of expressive and extroverted forces in Nature and humankind.

Lord of the Underworld - The Celtic god aspect who represents the mysterious, tanist wizard, such as in the Merlin, Taliesin, or the King of the Summerland. The symbol of the latent or introverted forces in Nature and human nature.

Matristic - A culture or philosophy that emphasizes the importance of Earth as the essential mother nurturer, the Earth as the Mother Goddess.

Ogham Script - A system of druidic writings, made up of a series of lines in various combinations, which further correlate with sacred trees and plants to have their own specific qualities or meanings.

Otherworld - Celtic term to describe the afterlife or the realm that paralleled the worldly realm. Considered to have been inhavited by mystical beings such as the Fey or faeries. Sometimes called the Summerland, the Happy Plain, Isles of the Blessed, the Mystic Isles, and other names.

Shamanic steed - A symbolic representation of the vehicle that carries the seeker from the worlds of consciousness into the realms of the Otherworld and mystery (the shamanic realms).

Sidhe(Shee) - Both the locations in which the oldest mystical and magical arts were preserved and the identity of the keepers of these locations. After the Milesian or Gaelic Celts entered Ireland, many of the de Dannan were given the regions considered most sacred and magickal. They were then blended in myth with the spirits of place in these locations. Therefore, the de Dannan became associated with the devic forces of Nature and the Otherworld. The Sidhe may be seen as being both the realm and its inahabitants, consequently under the dominion of Tuatha de Dannan.

Trois matres - The Celtic triple-aspected Goddess, traditionally, divided into Maiden, Mother, and Crone to symbolize the cycles of Nature as budding, growing, and fallow periods, as well as the cycles of a woman's life. Lunar traditions also relate the Triple Goddess to phases of the new, full, and waning moon times.

Tuatha de Dannan - The tribe or children of Danu, the Celtic Earth Mother Goddess. Often considered to be only mythic or mystical, the de Dannan were more likely the earliest tribes of Celts (or proto-Celts) that migrated into the British Isles. They were renowned for their phenomenal mystical and magickal skills.

Wyrd - A Saxon word meaning the web of life and the actions of the weavers or the Fates. Probably the original form of the modern English word "weird," which gives it an interesting aspect and defuses any negative connotations surrounding it.

Taken from the book Elemental Power by Amber Wolfe, ©1996, from Llewllyn Publications.