By C. Lee Vermeers

There has been a tendency in the neopagan and new age literature to describe various practices among the Celtic peoples by recourse to the term "shaman". Specifically, the draoithe (or druids) have been described as "Celtic shamans"1, due, it seems, to their ecstatic practices such as imbas forosnai2.

While it is true that shamans and draoithe both make use of ecstatic practices, this does not mean that they can be equated in any meaningful sense. The differences are as telling as the similarities.

The most fundamental difference lies in the social nature of the two practices. The shaman makes use of his or her ecstasy in a socially-open fashion. Members of the tribe will participate in the shaman’s otherworldly journey in a fairly direct fashion, being involved in the supporting activities of the trance work: drumming, chanting, and so forth. During this time of trance, the shaman travels into the otherworld, achieves his or her objective, and returns to the tribe with the fruits of the journey3.

In the draoi’s ecstasy, as well as that of the fénnidi and gealta4, the tribe is not directly involved, and only initiates are typically present in the physical location that the draoi is practicing the trance work. Those initiates, in fact, are there in part to prevent any outside persons from interfering with the trance. In his or her trance, the draoi travels to the otherworld, achieves his or her objective, and returns to provide the tribe with the fruits of the journey.

Another instance of difference lies in something that is slightly more speculative, based on later practices in the areas that once were Celtic. European ecstatics would travel in the otherworld to gatherings of other ecstatics, such as the great battles fought by the Benandanti of Friulia5 and the werewolves of Livonia6, the Sabbats of the Irish7, French, Northern Italian, and Rhinelander witches8, or the fairy revels in Scotland9. Shamans do not, typically, gather in the otherworld, preferring to journey on very individual quests there.

This brings us to the "W" word, witchcraft. While there is extensive discussion available online about the differences between Celtic tradition and Wicca (see, for instance, "Why Wicca is Not Celtic Paganism" by Epona Perry), the connections between medieval and renaissance witchcraft and the Celtic tradition are harder to dismiss10. This poses no problem in connection with neopagan witchcraft, however, as there is little resemblance between the two forms of witchcraft. Wicca derives its formal structure from the 19^th century ceremonial magical tradition, which derives, in the main, from the works of Eliphas Lévi11. Lévi’s theories and ritual are not attributed in his books (except to a mysterious, and possibly apocryphal, teacher), and bear little resemblance to any previously-known system of magic. There is a secondary influence on 19^th century ceremonial magic from various renaissance- and enlightenment-era grimoires, as well as Dr, John Dee’s "enochian" system, but this has little significant bearing on 20^th century witchcraft and Wicca, which does not incorporate those elements in its main stream (though some fringe texts, such as Buckland’s Complete Guide to Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland, do incorporate some isolated elements of the enochian system).

In summary, Celtic practices seem to follow the normal European trend of isolated ecstatics journeying to gatherings of fellow ecstatics in the otherworld for various purposes, as opposed to the shamanic model of heavily supported ecstatics making individual journeys into the otherworld to quest for socially-desired results. Celtic and similar practices from surrounding cultures are probably the precursors of the practices that were demonized in the late medieval and early renaissance periods as "witchcraft", and could very well have been the source of the "Sabbat" phenomenon. Celtic practices show very little resemblance to modern Wicca and witchcraft.

Footnotes:

1 See, for instance, Caitlín and John Matthews, Encyclopædia of Celtic Wisdom, et al.

2 Nora K. Chadwick, “Imbas Forosnai”, Scottish Gaelic Studies 4, pp.97-135

3 Mircea Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy

4 Nora K. Chadwick, “Geilt”, Scottish Gaelic Studies 5, pp.106-153

5 Carlo Ginzburg, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

6 op. cit. pp. 29-31, and also in various sections of Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath

7 Specifically, the trial of Lady Alice Kyteler, for which I have few references to hand, but one brief description is in Alexander Kuklin, How Do Witches Fly?: A Practical Approach to Nocturnal Flights, pp. 3-4

8 For these last three areas, see Ginzburg, Ecstasies

9 Far too many references to cite, but see, e.g. W.Y. Evans Wentz, The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries

10 e.g. Ginzburg, Ecstasies, pp. 103-110 and 122-140

11 Eliphas Lévi, Transcendental Magic, et al.

Back

Index