Celtic spirituality is based on a deep connection with the natural world. ‘God’ is not a distant concept, but a continual presence, manifest in the whole of nature and deeply embedded in the Celtic culture. For the ancient Celts life itself was a ceremony, the whole of which was spiritually significant and magical; they considered the natural world divine and sensed the presence of their gods everywhere - in trees, rocks, rivers, bogs, and mountains. These gods and goddesses were living forces of nature who reflected the earth’s majesty and expressed qualities such as inspiration, abundance and eloquence. The Celts worshipped their deities in woodland groves and near sacred water; the oak and mistletoe were most sacred and no ritual was held without them. Rituals were presided over by druids, the teachers of wisdom and morality. Celtic morality was rooted in honour, family, and the sanctity of everyday life.

Central to Celtic spirituality was belief in an immortal soul: death was but another state of being – a transformation. There was no hierarchy of souls, rather, the soul was in an endless cycle of rebirth whether that be into the body of man, woman or animal. The Celts believed that alongside the ordinary world there existed a magical and mysterious realm called ‘The Otherworld’, a kind of Celtic heaven - the abode of the gods and the land of the dead. According to Celtic folklore, it was the domain of a mythical race called the Túatha Dé Danaan (lit. the people of the goddess Danu) who were Ireland’s original inhabitants descended from Danu, the mother goddess.

Fairies (book illustration, left), Katherine Cameron, c.1907

The Otherworld was a land of enchantment and contradictions: a blissful place full of beauty, fine music and delight, and also home to supernatural beings and monsters; a place which held great treasures, and brought inspiration to mortals who visited it, but a dangerous place to linger too long. At certain times of the year, such as Samhain (Halloween), the veil that concealed one world from the other became very thin allowing both the living and spirits to cross back and forth between the two realms. According to Celtic folklore, the Otherworld was accessible through lakes, caves, and fairy forts or sidhe [shee] and the holy sites of the ancient Irish, such as the Hill of Tara and Newgrange, as well as being dwelling places for the Celtic gods, were portals through which humans could enter the spirit world.

J W Waterhouse, 'Midsummer Eve', c.1908 and 'The Mermaid', 1901

In the fifth century, a new religion arrived in Ireland in the form of Christianity. With its emphasis on love and individual salvation, the new faith - preached by Saint Patrick - appealed to the Celtic spirit. Christianity adapted and absorbed many elements of the local religion, allowing the Celtic people to embrace the new teaching while maintaining many of their ancient beliefs, customs and practices. The Celtic church was more loosely organized than its Roman parent and operated, in many respects, outside the authority of the Roman church. It avoided many of the conflicts and doctrinal wars that plagued Rome developing its own distinctive character - one that was more taken with the mystical.

A ‘golden age’ of Celtic Christianity arose. It flowered in the form of independent monasteries that sprang up all over Ireland, where monks could devote themselves to lives of study, work, and prayer. Celtic laws, annals and myths were preserved and disseminated by copying precious texts by hand thus rescuing them from oblivion. The writing of books and gospels grew to become an exquisite art. Irish monasteries became renowned far-and-wide as sanctuaries of learning, and Ireland, enjoying a relative peace, was transformed into ‘the land of saints and scholars’.

The Celtic goddess Brigid and Saint Bridget