A Filidh's Reading List

by Erynn Rowan Laurie

A few people have asked me what books I thought should be included as a part of the fili's training. Here are some of my suggestions. I don't have all of them near enough at hand to give complete cites, so I'll stick with titles and authors. Many of these are on the reading list that I post from time to time with complete cites. A net library search should turn up the publication info on most of the books here you might be interested in. Articles are of course a different story.

Poetry

There are a lot of sources here that would be useful. You'd need to talk about both traditional Gaelic and/or Welsh metres, as well as modern poetic styles. As in the Auraicept curriculum, this study would need to be spread out over several years of work.

• Albert B. Lord, The Singer of Tales
• Gerard Murphy, Early Irish Lyrics Eighth to Twelfth
• CenturyJames Travis, Early Celtic Versecraft: Origins, Development, Diffusion
• Kenneth Jackson, Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry
• Nora Chadwick, Poetry & Prophecy
• Robin Skelton, Samhain (poems in early Irish metres and their metrics)
• Lewis Turco, The New Book of Forms (modern poetic metrics)

The Gaelic Language

I agree that this is essential. Fortunately, tapes, books, and email lists are available to help teach Gaelic, whether Irish, Scots, or Manx. Alexei would have some good suggestions for texts to learn the various Celtic languages from.

Lore, Deities, Symbols, History/Myths
Heros/Heroines, Animal lore, Plant Lore

There are a lot of good, and not-so-good, sources for this kind of material. I'd avoid the Llewellyn authors at any cost, of course. A lengthy list of books and journal articles could be compiled to support this part of the study. The lore would need to be supplemented with rituals and meditations focused on the various entities and symbols to enhance the student's understanding. Devotional rituals and the research that leads up to them are particularly useful.

• H.R. Ellis-Davidson, Myths and Symbols of Pagan Europe
• Rees & Rees, Celtic Heritage
• C. Scott Littleton, The New Comparative Mythology, 3ed.
• Alexander Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (6 vol version if possible)
• Miranda Green, Animals in Celtic Life and Myth
• Miranda Green, Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art
• Miranda Green, Gods of the Celts
• Miranda Green, Celtic Goddesses
• Cross & Slover, Ancient Irish Tales
• Anne Ross, Pagan Celtic Britain
• Anne Ross, Folklore of the Scottish Highlands
• Maire MacNeill, The Festival of Lughnassadh
• F. Marian McNeill, The Silver Bough
• Lady Gregory, Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland
• Jeremiah Curtin, Myths & Folk Tales of Ireland
• John Rhys, Celtic Folklore, Welsh & Manx
• Daithi O hOgainn, Myth, Legend & Romance
• Barry Cunliffe, The Celtic World
• Proinsias MacCana, Celtic Mythology
• Joseph Nagy, The Wisdom of the Outlaw
• Patrick Ford, The Mabonogi and Other Welsh Medieval Tales
• Thomas Kinsella, The Tain
• de Santillana & von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill
• W.G. Wood-Martin, Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland
• John & Caitlin Matthews, The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom (read the tales, ignore most of the commentary)

Magical Practice, Meditation
Ritual Preparation of Tools

This, I think, will be one of the hardest sections for the reconstructionists to deal with. We have to work with fragments from the folklore here. Meditation has similar goals in all cultures, but the exact forms and mechanisms are different from place to place. I think that a study of Yoga would be useful, with the caveat that Yoga is not what the early Celts were doing. Reading and working to understand the Cauldron of Poesy text would be necessary of course.

• Nora Chadwick, Imbas Forosnai
• Liam Bretnach, The Cauldron of Poesy
• P.L. Henry, The Cauldron of Poesy
• Erynn Rowan Laurie, The Cauldron of Poesy (cites for the previous articles are in my article, which you can read through the link at the Nemeton site http://www.seanet.com/~inisglas/ )
• Erynn Rowan Laurie, A Circle of Stones: Journeys & Meditations for Modern Celts
• Mircea Eliade, Yoga, Immortality & Freedom
• Mircea Eliade, Shamanism, Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy
• Peter Redgrove, The Black Goddess and the Unseen Real
• Robin Skelton, Spellcraft
• Tom Driver, The Magic of Ritual
• W.Y. Evans-Wentz, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries
• Ralph Merrifield, The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic
• Dale Pendelton, Pharmako/Poeia
• Jonathan Ott, Pharmacotheon
• Erynn Rowan Laurie & Timothy White, The Red-Peaked Brother of Birch: Amanita
• Muscaria Themes in Celtic Legends (forthcoming, Shaman's Drum)
• R. Gordon Wasson, Soma
• Damian McManus, A Guide to Ogam

Some people may strenuously disagree with my inclusion of materials on entheogens, but I believe they are much more important to Celtic ritual than previously suspected. My study of the imbas forosnai ritual and Amanita muscaria has led me to considerably soften my stance on the existance of "Celtic shamanism." I still most manifestly do not believe that it looked like reductionist Harner shamanism (drum your way into the Otherworld for 45 minutes), and have always maintained that there were some shamanic elements in Celtic religion. I also still believe that rather than using "shaman" as a convenience, we should attempt to understand and use the Celtic names for various religious or spiritual practitioners.

Art, Music, Crafts,
Homely observances (recipes?),
Clothing and Adornment

A lot of this can be taken from the archaeological record, and from folk tradition, fortunately. I don't have a lot of suggestions for this section.

• Liam Breathnach, Folk Music & Dances of Ireland
• Sanger & Kineard, Tree of Strings Crann nan Teud: A History of the Harp in Scotland
• Megaw & Megaw, Celtic Art
• George Bain, Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction

There are of course dozens of other books that could and probably should be added to this list in each of the different sections. And there are other things that this suggested curriculum ignores, such as early Celtic law and ethics, for which some sources are available.