Book review: A Modern Celt--Seeking the Ancestors (Mabh Savage)

A caution must be issued right up front about this book: this is not a book of lore or ritual/personal techniques. If that is what you are after, this book will not fit your needs. A Modern Celt--Seeking the Ancestors (Mabh Savage) is a "fire-side chat" book; it is a rather informal collection of the author's experiences, tales from her family, and accounts from her friends about experiences gained by coming into contact with the lore and deities of the Ancient Celtic people.

For those people who have experienced the fire-side chat mode, that time after a ritual or lesson when you are sitting around a bonfire (or in the case of lodge members--during the after-ritual dinner) talking to your teacher and fellow students and seekers, the style of this book will be familiar. It is a rather informal book, one that my professors in college and university would have imploded upon reading. It is a step above gossip, generally on the level of the stories that one tells when one's coven (study group or lodge) has became a familial unit of sorts.

This style may be strange to those who have been practicing and studying by themselves, or who have gotten involved in the "strict lodge" setting where students are forced to hang out only with others of their particular grade and degree of knowledge. Hint: the fire-side chat mode is the start of the oral traditions that one hears about.

This book is not heavy on knowledge or techniques. It is a retelling of personal stories. And it will be a comfort for those who have experienced similar events, and educational for those with open minds who have not. I think that the book is worthwhile reading, despite the lack of spoon-fed lore and techniques; but I imagine that there will be readers who take issue with the book because of the lack of information and detail in it (one cannot say that I did not try to warn them off).

Is the information that is given accurate? This is a hard question to answer, at least for me; I am not an expert in Celtic paganism. But I do have a benchmark to attempt to hazard a guess, and that is how the author treats the Celtic Tree Calendar. For those who do not know, the Celtic Tree Calendar was created almost completely out of thin air by Robert Graves during the "paganism has survived underground, and my wild theories is what the ancient pagans actually thought" mode of the pagan revival (the Golden Dawn of the 1880s and the Wiccan books of Gerald Gardner are other examples of that particular stage of the pagan revival). Basically, there is no evidence to indicate that the Ancient Celts used such a fixed calendar, not alone the one that Robert Graves expounded upon.

There are three modes of dealing with the Celtic Calendar: 1) insisting on the truth of it...mainly because one loves the idea that paganism survived underground clear up to the start of the pagan revival; 2) completely abandoning it...because only actual Celtic practices should be used; and 3) splitting the difference...acknowledging the fact that Graves made the Celtic Tree Calendar up, yet using the result because it serves a purpose.

Mabh Savage belongs to the splitting the difference camp. She acknowledges the fictional nature of the Celtic Tree Calendar, and then proceeds to gather some actual tree and plant lore from the Ancient Celts to illustrate that Graves was not pulling it completely out of thin air and that there might be a grain of usefulness in the Celtic Tree Calendar. As someone who belongs to a group that does much the same with the Celtic Tree Calendar, I like that approach (the group that I belong to uses the Celtic Tree Calendar because it needed a Celtic knowledge system that could be represented in diagram form...it is a lodge thing).

Overall, given the fact that book is meant to be, essentially a set of fire-side style stories about how modern Celts are interacting with the deities and practices of the Ancient Celts, I give it five out of five stars. (It would suffer a loss of at least one star if one decided to judge it based on lore or techniques--something that the book is not really about.)

[Disclosure: This review is based on a pre-publication version provided by the publisher.]

Ignorance or meddling

Over the last couple of days, I have noticed an upswing in amount of attention paid to the problem with groups being ignorant of the basics. Now, there is always a certain amount of concern surrounding this issue---it is one of those issues that is always present---the waxing and waning of attention paid to it is cyclic.

There are three things related to this I would like to address.

Concerning the Golden Dawn Knowledge Lectures: Someone pointed out that the Golden Dawn Knowledge Lectures seemed to be rather sparse. They are. The commentor felt that they should be more fully explained and just a list to memorize. They are right.

One of the problems with the Knowledge Lectures as we have them is that they are merely the list of what you need to know to pass the most basic test for advancement. What is missing is the oral (or written) lectures that the lodge member should be exposed to. It is things like this that contribute to people having a high Grade and having no idea what they are talking about.

Concerning how much concern we should have when we realize a group is being ran by someone ignorant: One of my friends on Facebook pointed out that many Wiccan and pagan circles are being ran by people ignorant of the basics---a problem that never *wink* occurs in Golden Dawn *chokes a little* Orders. A group being ran by someone ignorant of the basics does not alarm me as much as the unwillingness to admit ignorance.

I know a lot of people do not trust me because I use the following sentences: "This is my answer based on my current knowledge and understanding" and "I reserve the right to change my mind, and the answer I am giving, based on further thought and experience." The people who associate distrust with these sentences are looking for the ONE and ONLY CORRECT ANSWER---something that I have serious doubts actually exist.

I realize that our myths state that only Masters should be in charge and apprentices should be just students, but the truth is that Masters are still just students with added responsibilities.

Concerning the rewriting of Golden Dawn rituals: Yes, I am guilty of rewriting sections of the Golden Dawn rituals. I consider all the versions that we have to be just "working drafts." It is one of reasons that I shrug my shoulders whenever someone publishes a version of the rituals--I figure that any set of rituals that have been used for more than a decade is probably in need of a tune-up.

For instance, I added an unauthorized "third part" to the Zelator ritual to address the fact that the a section of the Golden Dawn community was now starting the study of geomancy in Zelator. And what I learned was that this third section had more oomph and flow than the official parts of the ritual did. This in turn is going to lead to a reworking of the rest of the Zelator ritual.

This will lead people to pointing out that I am meddling in things that I do not fully understand---that only an Adept Extemptus...or a Magister Templi...or an Ipsissimus has the knowledge and authority to change the scripts of the rituals. My answer to this is that I don't care that I am not of the proper Grade according to your understanding of the system...and that I am not even sure that we are working in the same system to begin with. I belong to a system that changes with the time and the experience of those involved in it---what was true a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, etc. is not exactly suitable for the modern student who is living in a different time and place than our ancestors did. If you think that the dawn of consciousness was the Golden Age, you need to move back into the caves with the bears.

Required Hebrew to advance to Zelator

The latest blog meme (those ideas and discussions that truly create a wildfire on the blogosphere as they hop from one blog to another) is Hebrew in the Golden Dawn. So far I have seen this meme on Dean Wilson's GD blog and on Tabitha Cicero's HOGD blog---both of them are taking about errors that crept into the system. And yes, I am jumping onto the band wagon; we are going to talk about Golden Dawn and Hebrew today. Before next week, I think we will see the topic crop up on at least two other blogs.

(Why? Because I rather talk about the Hebrew in Golden Dawn than try to explain how I can work with myths I do not believe in and end up insulting the weather gods in the process---some things you can see are going to end badly, even without looking into a cracked crystal ball. And I imagine other people will also jump on the bandwagon because it will be better than whatever topic that they were going to talk about instead; I have discovered that bad blog ideas can always wait until next week.)

Several years ago (2004), I cobbled together a list of the Hebrew words that one would need to recognize in order to pass the strictest test for advancement into Zelator. Or at least, the strictest test that the branch of the tradition I belong to would issue. I can't speak for the branches of the tradition that I have never been a part of.

When you join the Order (any Golden Dawn based Order to the best of my knowledge), you are not required to know any Hebrew. Can you read and write your local language? Yes? Ok.

(Occasionally, one does hear the rumor about the mythical GD/Freemasonic lodge that predated Isis-Urania #3---I have never seen enough evidence to confirm its existence from a historian's viewpoint. If that lodge existed, Hebrew might have been an entry requirement. A Golden Dawn lodge located in the Middle East today might also have Hebrew as the local language. But those two are only two examples I can think of where Hebrew would be an entry requirement.)

So Neophytes are not required to know Hebrew. From an officer's viewpoint, all Hebrew mentioned in lectures and documents must be explained and translated on the Neophyte level. Example: "The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph, ALPh, which mean 'ox.'"

It is on the Zelator Grade level, that a certain amount of the Hebrew ceases to be explained. Why? Because you were tested on it. If you have been tested on it, the officers of the system are no longer required to give the translation. Example: "One of the symbols of the 32nd path, the path between the sephiroth Malkuth and Yesod, is the letter Tav." At the level of this lecture, one should know what Tav means, and where it is located in the Hebrew alphabet; furthermore, they should know the location of Malkuth and Yesod on the Tree of Life as well as the meaning of the sephiroth names.

Now, I will admit that I am a cruel Praemonstrator (that is when I am in that office): I think that by the time a person reaches the Very Honored Grade of Adept Minor that one should have taken a semester of college level Hebrew. By the way, a single semester of college level Hebrew is not that much---it is about the same as taking a semester of French, Spanish, Latin, or whatever your poison of choice is. It is just enourgh to roll your eyes at some of the mistakes that have crept into the system, to be able to struggle with isolated sentences in the Old Testament, and to annoy your fellow lodge members.

Towards that end, I have occasionally threaten to write "Easy Hebrew for Adepts." But I would rather have someone else do the work---if you write it, I will buy a copy. I don't trust my own limited knowledge of Hebrew enourgh to attempt writing it myself.

The closest I have came to writing "Easy Hebrew for Adepts" is to write a few lists of words about the Hebrew one needs to recognize at the various Grade levels of Golden Dawn. The following list is the Hebrew I do not believe that I have to translate for you if you are a Zelator; it is the Hebrew that you should have learned in Neophyte and could translate if the words showed up on your advancement test. There are a few words in parenthesises (curved brackets for the non-English majors) that are optional---they are words or terms that I would prefer you to know because they would be really useful to know. Towards the end of the list are a few terms that I would suggest that the Zelator should also know. Furthermore, the list is divided into "logical" sections---one can see how I thought the words were grouped when I wrote out the original list.

So can you pass this section of the Neophyte test?

Aleph
Beth
Gimel
Daleth
Heh
Vav
Zayin
Cheth
Teth
Yod
Kaph
Lamed
Mem
Nun
Samekh
Ayin
Peh
Tzadi
Qoph
Resh
Shin
Tav

Final forms---which five letters

(Etz ha-Chayim)
(Ain Soph Aur)
Kether
Chokmah
Binah
(Daath)
Chesed
Gedulah
Geburah
Tiphareth
Netzach
Hod
Yesod
Malkuth

Atah
Ohlam
Amen

H-
V-
L-

QBL---Kabbalah

Sephirah
Sephiroth
(SPhR--Sepher)

YHVH
ADNI
AHIH
AGLA

Elohim
Eloah
Shaddai
El
Chai
Tzabaoth
Aretz

(Ash)
(Eth)
(Ruach)

Rapheal
Gabriel
Michael
Uriel

(Atziluth)
(Briah)
(Yetzirah)
(Assiah)

(Shevil)
(Shevilim)
(Nativ)
(Netivot)

Concept of the Three Pillars

Four Divisions of Kabbalah

(Abyss)

(Lightning Flash)

(4/40/400 World Theory and its' Relationship to the Grades)

(Neophyte Temple floor diagram)

(The Tree of Life mapped on the human body)

Interesting Middle Pillar Post

Frater AIT did a post on the Middle Pillar and the fountain circulation that Zelators might find interesting over on his blog: Heavens Within Earth.