The Great Celtic Paganism Hoax?

What do we really know about the ancient Celtic religion? And what did Welsh literary forger Iolo Morganwg make up? Separate Celtic paganism fact from Celtic paganism fiction.
FYI: You can read a text-version of this essay over at IrishMyths.com: “Iolo Morganwg and the Great Celtic Paganism Hoax”: irishmyths.com...
00:00 Intro
02:19 The Many Forgeries of Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams)
04:20 Barddas: A Blueprint for (Modern) Celtic Paganism
06:45 The Bardic Alphabet Is Born
08:00 If You Build a Stone Circle, the Druids Will Come
09:52 Celtic Revivalism vs. Celtic Reconstructionism
11:11 What We Know for Certain(ish) About Ancient Celtic Paganism
15:54 Final Thought: There Was Never a Single, Universal Ancient Celtic Religion
Learn more about ancient Celtic druids:
“Who Were the Druids? Demystifying the Mystics of the Ancient Celtic World” irishmyths.com...
“What’s the Difference Between a Bard, a Vate, and a Druid?” irishmyths.com...
“Were There Female Druids?” irishmyths.com...
“Was Merlin a Druid?” irishmyths.com...
Learn about the most powerful druids from Irish mythology: • The Most Powerful Drui...
Learn more about megaliths from Irish and Celtic mythology: • Differences Between Do...
Learn more about the Celtic Otherworld:
• How Many Celtic Otherw...
Learn more about Celtic paganism:
• Celtic Cross-Quarter Days
Learn more about Irish monsters: • Irish Monsters
Learn more about Irish heroes: • Irish Heroes
Learn more about Irish gods: • Irish Gods
Books by me, I. E. Kneverday:
(Note: I may earn a small affiliate commission if you buy through the links below.)
-Neon Druid: An Anthology of Urban Celtic Fantasy: amzn.to/3BJE7yc
-Irish Myths in Your Pocket: amzn.to/3Qi5xjg
-Samhain in Your Pocket: amzn.to/3Bkp2D0
-Irish Monsters in Your Pocket: amzn.to/3SXQgFO
-Saint Patrick in Your Pocket: amzn.to/3ZWMWxG
Music by me (under my stage name Bard of Boston). Listen to “Duel of the Druids” wherever you get your music.
Spotify: open.spotify.c...)
Amazon: music.amazon.c...
Apple: music.apple.co...

[@LupinGaius-ls1or]

Wiccan history is a modern invention as well.

[@Alasdair37448]

Nothing wrong with that new religions are created all the time even Christianity was invented at some point in history it’s just important we don’t create historical forgeries as iolo did I’m would also like to see a Celtic revival in the form of the Gaelic language and culture but I want it done in a way that’s truthful and respects our history I accept that things won’t be exactly as they were nor should they be but to bring back the culture in a way that makes sense for modern people

[@souxcasa]

​​@@Alasdair37448 there ate qualtachts in Ireland where irish gealic is their first language. Celtic culture is historically comes from middle Europe, the last "celts" are in Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, the isle of white, Wales and Catalan. I'm sure I'm missing a place or two. The idea of celtic history that we have now in Ireland is pretty much a fabrication invented in the 20s when we gained independence and wanted something culturally to cling to. Most cultural history as told by the culture claiming it re fabrications based on ideas that we want to project. If we were to be honest about it there would e a huge amount of "we don't know"s

[@LupinGaius-ls1or]

@@Alasdair37448 I kinda want to agree with you, except many modern "religions" are thinly veiled sex cults.

[@KasumiRINA]

​@@Alasdair37448 the problem with fake ancient history is how it links to conspiracy nut and often far right pipeline and you get people radicalized because their brain is a mush of "tr00 kvlt trad ancient aryan" bull based on 19th century forgeries and NS propaganda.

[@ailishfarragher5994]

Ireland has 4 fire festivals and 4 solar festivals, pre-Celtic. We have megalithic archaeology and early Medieval writing to substantiate. Folklore substantiates the ongoing significance of our 8 indiginous festivals.

[@DEXTROBILL]

I love the Irish mythology, Those crazy Formorians coming out of the sea, Balors crazy eye. It's like Tolkien wrote that stuff. What are the festivals if you don't mind me asking? I could Google it I suppose, but somehow information obtained via a person is always more appreciated. UK here btw, Irish genetic haplo type, grandparents were Irish, so auburn, freckles and love fighting.

[@Mongruadh93]

⁠@@DEXTROBILLsolar festivals are the equinoxes and solstices, fire festivals are Bealtaine, Lughnasdh, Samhain and Imbolg. And hi Ailish long time no see ❤️

[@alanlancashire6784]

Having spent many years studying the Brythonic traditions, I wholeheartedly agree with the information in this video. Iolo Morganwg created a wholly fictitious "druid tradition", which has made the study of Brythonic mythology far more difficult. The contemporary sources regarding the Druids, e.g. Caesars "De Bello Gallico", the Annals of Tacitus, etc. are written from the point of view of the Imperial Romans, with the bias of someone who considers themselves superior to the peoples they are writing about.

[@nape1475]

This is a very good point. The way that Romans described the Celts was what we would call propaganda today and it could be argued that Romans more or less invented propaganda as a way to demean their enemies with written word, against peoples who mostly relied on oral tradition. So now, historians only have the Roman accounts to work with, and these do not paint an accurate picture. Julius Caesar's depictions of the Britons alone is so obviously false that it cannot be regarded as historically accurate.

[@bacul165]

I realize spelling isn't all important but you might want to correct the Annals

[@ChancePhilbin]

De Bello Gallico wasn’t only written with a sense of cultural superiority, it was also a piece which sought to justify even further Roman invasions beyond the Gauls, and simultaneously portray Caesar as a godlike figure while he was still a consul, in preparation for his ultimate goal of starting an empire. A three-pronged piece of propaganda like that is better than historical fiction, but not by all that much.

[@thatssoderek2188]

I had a brief interest in celtic reconstructionism a while back to kinda reconnect with history, but I got so frustrated with so many "factual" sources not really using facts at all. I even considered getting an Anwen tattoo. On one hand its sad to think that most of the stuff we know was invented by post-industrial nationalists, on the other hand the older more accurate information was just invented by regular people of the time. Still I would rather learn and appreciate whats true than what would make me feel better.

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

Yes, because everyone knows facts are subject to a specifc time period, and never existed before or after We can only learn truth according to words in books written by Gods But God themselves is incapable of anything 😂

[@rb98769]

Sadly it's most likely knowledge lost to time.

[@livrowland171]

I agree with Prof Ronald Hutton that spiritual practices don't have to be ancient to be meaningful. Nor do you really need to know all the history and origins of a practice to find it helpful. But it's fair enough to debunk claims of ancient origins where they are exaggerated or unsubstantiated. Plus many contemporary Pagan ideas are at least inspired by ancient cultures.

[@davideddy2672]

Prof Bullsheet with bugs bunny teeth - the man is a total W⚓️

[@willieclark2256]

Well said

[@cymrucat]

Except this stuff is ancient this is an American talking about things they know nothing about actually feel Welsh or Irish person about these matters not a globalist yank with an agenda

[@Fr.O.G.]

I'm proud to say my religion is new. The old ones just aren't doing it anymore, if they ever did in the first place.

[@cymrucat]

@@Fr.O.G. long story short this guy who makes the videos he writes a bunch of books it's all bulshit he's not a Celtic person certainly not Irish. I am a Celtic person many of my compatriots are scholars and academics within our culture these videos reflect nothing outside of American cultural appropriation. A American is not going to understand our people without a concerted effort in learning which a fantasy writer is not going to do. The information is out there to learn fantasy writers never bother they never bother learning the languages they never bother learning anything beyond the few tropes they can appropriate. I don't speak Japanese if I write a story about a dragon and a samurai it's gonna be s***do anybody who knows what they're talking about. Because the dragon will be European and the samurai will probably be a peasant that earned the position rather than a noble because I don't understand Japanese culture. Now you can argue well that doesn't mean I can't write a Japanese story accept it does that's exactly what it means it does mean that you would have to be f****** diluted to think otherwise. The sense of entitlement people to appropriate another culture they have not even bothered to learn the culture of will be criminal and it's people like the author of these videos that will have made it need to be prosecuted Rebecca Yaris JK Rowling there is a bunch of them they are all criminal in what they do.

[@Helliconia54]

As a Welshman? Good video. People need to know the truth.

[@irishmyths]

Thank you!

[@Jack-yz4ws]

I am Irish and i was once talking with an English celtic pagan and i was trying to help and give her some critical thibking advice and explaining to her ti try and be careful with her sources and double check everything and to really try and evaluate what and why shebwas beloeving these things. I really tried to hit hime that not every character in itish mythology was a god, and that many weren't technically speaking "real gods" as some were simply metaphorical characters, allegories, christian themes, or completely fictional and solely found in the stiries but were never actually worshipped and that many of the characterisations wr have today arent accurate or historical. And she fully turned to me and says don't worry i know which ones are real when I astral project to the fae realm. I mentioned again to be careful because a lot of stuff is genuinely false and lies. Abd this girl turned to me and says that i should stop disrespecting her religion and telling her it's not real and im sitting there like... Miss... Your religion is my culture? Like get to fuck?

[@Padraigp]

Eh you're irish not a celt. So no your culture is not her religion. And for heavens sake get a grip she's not a historian looking for facts. She's a spiritual seeker looking for enlightenment and drieing her weird. It doesn't matter if its lord of the rings Alistair Crowley or catholic catcheism its all made up and no bloody gods are real and some not. None are. Gods dont exist other than in the minds of people playing with stories so of course she can tell which ones are real and not by astral projection. If materialism is your religion and youve no sense of what shes on then you need somone to tell you what is written and what is not written what has an old book snd what doesnt. Not everyone needs some material verification for their rleigious or spiritual practice you're a good catholic perhaps and wait for the preists to point to the catechism or a passage in the bible to say the prayer lest you might do something heretical. Dont worry for other people that they will get lost if theyre not following your map.

[@adrianred236]

Also Irish. I remember the first time I saw footage on TV of a "celtic druid" chanting at stonehenge during the summer solstice and I just burst out laughing at the absurdity of the whole "show".

[@Padraigp]

@@adrianred236 yeah all religion is absurd. Its no more absurd than Catholicism.

[@adrianred236]

@@Padraigp I fully agree. What I found rediculous in that instance thought is that there is no written record of what pagan practices were and here's some fool chanting at the sky proclaiming to be a druid.

[@TheSarahJane33]

@adrianred236 I don’t understand the harm in reconstructing a lost practice, but it should be made known that it’s not all facts. Which the OBOD does in its introductory work. There are always going to be people who claim something without ever having done any real research or work in the field. Laughing at people who are trying to reconnect to their roots that were stolen and appropriated is cruel.

[@HunterCroswell]

I almost prefer knowing that it's not ancient. Just like most neopagan music is not meant to be accurate at all. Sadly, ancient celtic ways were shattered like most other tribal cultures around the world. But modern paganism is less about trying to live the old way and more about learning from the past to better the future.

[@irishmyths]

Very well said!

[@WordsOfARaven]

Einar selvik(lead singer of wardruna) even said his music isn't supposed to a accurate depiction of music from history.

[@gabhanachdenogla898]

The whole term 'Celt' is an Oxford myth in the first place, created by Edward Lhuyd a polymath keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, and popularised in a book called The Antiquities of Nations. “There never was a Celtic invasion of Ireland or Britain. The identity of a Celtic Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany dates back, not to the mists of time, but to 1707” (Just after the first Act of Union in fact). There is an Iron Age material culture that is evident in findings from northern Europe between Paris and Prague. It is named after a site in Switzerland called La Tène and is associated with what we call the Celts (there is no evidence that these people ever used the term or even identified themselves as a single ethnic group). And none of the things you would find if these people invaded or migrated to Ireland - their pots, their houses, their burial-sites, their coins, their horse-fittings - exist here. As Barry Raftery, one of the leading authorities on Iron Age Ireland, puts it of the presumed Celtic invasion, “It seems strange that a warrior aristocracy supposedly responsible for imposing so many aspects of its culture on the indigenous population . . . should have had almost no impact on the archaeological record.” In fact, what both archaeology and genetic studies show is continuity - broadly the same people who built Newgrange continuing to inhabit the island, speaking a version of the language of the Atlantic seaboard from which they had originated.

[@FaithfulOfBrigantia]

"Celt" is an Oxford myth, when applied to the inhabitants of the British islands. It absolutely was indeed applied to ancient people, and no it was not merely an exonym umbrella term for barbarian/foreigner, as many people seem to throw around, but an actual endonym, which some populations used to describe themselves. We have written evidence of the Gauls from Massalia (Marseille) calling themselves Keltoi, the Lusitani calling themselves "Celti" and Tartessian inscriptions calling Gallaecians "Calti". So indeed the Celts existed as an actual self-defined identity which spanned at least from West Iberia across southern France to Northern Italy (Which coincidentally is an area which clusters genetically) Now the real bizzare myth that continuously gets peddled is the assumption that the Iron Age culture of La Tene is standard for what "Celtic" means, or that it was the vector that spread the languages across Western Europe. As you quite correctly pointed out "the same people who built Newgrange continuing to inhabit the island, speaking a version of the language of the Atlantic seaboard from which they had originated".

[@dalaifox236]

Been saying this forever. Thank you. Now tell them how Babylonian zodiac signs are not Celtic for the people in the back.

[@JonCrs10]

Well, the Zodiac is the Zodiac. The point is 12 asterisms observed changing monthly along a very specific part of the sky. Granted, if the idea of Partholon being Greek had any accuracy, the Greek Zodiac could've influenced something along the line. And the Greek Zodiac was adopted from the Babylonian one. Granted that's a pretty Purple Monkey Dishwasher of a connection lol

[@ahopefor]

The only celtic writing system was Ogham, don’t know how anyone thought Babylonian Zodiac signs have anything to do with us lol.

[@Dovahkiin0117]

@@ahopeforliterally 😂 Who’s tying those together? Like the mythology? Lol

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

Says who? Are you God? Or just a Princess? Druid of Phoenicia* Aka Canaan Aka "Israel" Or Assyria Or Chaldea, like Caledonia, Scotland, named for the Scythians, and Albion, meaning White, like Albania, and Liban Lebanon meaning White. Hebrews were Iberian Celts, and have no connection to Master Race Insanity

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

​@@ahopefor and Hebrew Where do you think the got the Zodiac Einstein What do you think Stonehenge is for 😂

[@initial_C]

Iolo is much less reliable than the Ultima games would have one believe.

[@chimpcultsage4220]

I wonder how many times this was done in history for even older traditions and cultures.

[@megalictis9002]

Thank you for addressing the (questionable) contributions of Iolo Morganwg - and for adding much information I didn't know. I think my biggest disappointment with his attempt to recreate Celtic paganism to suit himself was his super-imposition of a monotheistic supreme being (Hu Gadarn I believe). And you raise a valuable point in differentiating between "recreationists" and "reconstructionists." I would have had much more respect for Edward Williams if he had been honest about which of these he was. The problem of reconstructing Celtic pagan religion lies both in the fallacy of a single, universal Celtic paganism, and that those collected beliefs did not change over the duration of Celtic ascendancy in Europe. Contact with various different cultures in different regions would have influenced local beliefs. Druids could never have exercised any central dogmatic authority over all Celts like some pagan predecessor to the Roman Catholic Church. And of course we have very little contemporary evidence.

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

So just happened to know about the Morgai of Dionysus, whose name is also found in Britain, where the Phoenicians aka Jews got their Tin And Asherah totally isnt a reference to Ellah The Celtic word for Oak

[@bobdrooples]

Yolo Swagging invented neo-celticism. Got it.

[@islandsedition]

Fun fact, "Hergest" was the mental health hospital in Gwynedd. Fun place.

[@disapearingboi]

The Gaulish month Samonios is usually equated with the start of summer similar to the Old Irish term cetsamhuin which became Céitemain/Ceitean - another name for May Day/Beltaine, the first (cet) day of summer (sam). Another Gaulish month Giamonios which comes exactly six months after Samonios shares a cognate with Gamain in Old Irish which was the name for the month we now call Samhain. Gamain was also known as Gamthos meaning beginning of winter. This fits better with the idea that Samhain comes from 'end of Summer'. So Samonios is not actually Samhain as counter-intuitive as it seems.

[@emptymannull]

Really great video! These reality checks are super important.

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

Infallibility fallacy isn't a reality check, its an exercise in Self Adulation, if you catch my drift

[@irishmyths]

Thank you! I like being in the reality-checking business (which can be especially tricky when talking about mythology!)

[@bernardmorgan2590]

Good video. However, let me challenge the idea that the four quarter days are Celtic in origin. As you mention, the 2nd century BC Roman Gaul Coligny calendar is only split into halves and not quarters, the later reflects the classical world from which Irish Christianity originated. The Coligny calendar is divided into the halves of Samonios (for summer) and Giamonios (for winter), which have cognates in Samain and Gamain, in Old Irish. Gamain is associated with the month of November, also called 'Mi Gam' or 'month of winter' (the Bible infers that the 9th month is the start of winter). Six months prior to 'Mi Gam' would be 'Mi Sam,' 'month of summer,' but it is actually called 'Cet Shamain,' '1st Samain,' i.e., the first month of summer. It also contains the Christian feast of All Souls, where in Irish texts on Samain, the forces of the maiden (aka summer) defeat the Cailleach (aka winter), that was moved to the first day of winter.

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

Yeah, except the Mounds in Bru Na Boinne Valley Ireland detail all the Key days of the Solstice Celandar, dating to before the Great Pyramids. For example Callendais, and Caledonia, like the Caledonian Boar killed by Hercules, King of Tyre, aka Jerusalem Caledonia being derived from Caldean, who also had the same calendar found at Calendais, hence Macdonald and Maceadonia, the Staff of Adonis Sooo

[@irishmyths]

Very interesting, I will look into this! Thank you so much for watching and for this thoughtful comment

[@aidanmcmillan-dx8lq]

Personally, I think that you are doing a good thing by doing this, but I think you should join Iolo in revitalizing Gaels and Celts. This should be done by shifting language concerning the religion. We deserve a folkish religion, and the idea that everything is lost or totally rewritten is bunk. Comparative mythology is showing more and more that the Indo-European world shared many commonalities. We are not fools - we can carefully move forward as we reconnect with the divine, in our own tribal way. We need this. Maybe you don't agree, but this is gonna keep going on. If you are like me and you hate wicca and neo-druid universalists, then you should focus more and more on being folkish, so that our folk can grow stronger in every way, not just debunking. We have been slacking on our relationship with the ancestors, nature, and the divine. A lot of the arguments used against having a folkish religion are weak - the divine is all around us, and our ancestors are the literal reason we are alive. It's time we study with open hearts and careful academic study to find something to work with that is real. It can work, you just need to keep looking brother! Fàilte buaidhe!

[@nape1475]

Germanic heathen here, and totally agreed. Nothing is every truly lost. It is the Christian way to seek spirituality in text, but it's in our blood and souls. I propose that we can regenerate all the lost ways in the same way that they were first created, which is with the gnosis of shamanism, meditation, communication with the gods, and observation of the cycles and wisdom of the natural world.

[@mmyr8ado.360]

What has been revealed could never be hidden again, and the gods had tasted blood, war and countless heads.

[@johnwright6706]

So he's like the father of modern Alt-history authors. And patron saint of fiction writers.

[@TheSarahJane33]

The OBOD makes it known that not everything within the course work or practice is 100 percent factual. What else are people to do to reconnect to their roots when the culture, identity, belief structures and practices of their ancestors were annihilated or appropriated?

[@Chris-gr7ll]

Honestly though, culture almost never evolved in a vacuum.

[@johnnzboy]

I'm really enjoying these longer videos, great work! I was expecting a Iolo/YOLO pun :)

[@irishmyths]

Hahaha definitely considered it! (And thanks for watching yet again!)

[@ArkadiBolschek]

Edward Williams really said "YOLO"

[@irishmyths]

I forced myself to pronounce it more like YAW-LO but definitely kept slipping into YOLO. So tricky

[@Dankness-e6i]

Ok but wait, the Celts came from the Gaels. The Gaels were the Fianna - Finician - Phoenicians. The word Phony comes from Phoenician for a reason. Dagda is Baal Sammin, Beal Samhan in Ireland. The Scythian Canaanites were the Irish Gaels. We know a lot about their religion. Read Charles Vallancey, Anne Wilkes, Conor MacDari, Comyns Beaumont.

[@gremlinnoodle]

very informative, thanks!!

[@irishmyths]

Thanks for watching!

[@mingthan7028]

Lolo is just a Metal welsh counterpart of Tolkien 💀💀💀

[@irishmyths]

🤘🤘🤘

[@joro-q7z]

first commenter! love your videos

[@irishmyths]

Thank you!!

[@sionnach.1374]

I have lived amongst the Welsh They are a strange peoples

[@PariahThistledowne]

Most European Pagan traditions are difficult to reconstruct, as most tradtions were orally transmitted. What written tidbits there are come either from Christian writers, or conquerors. This is why i stick mostly to an Animist Folk Heathenry, and do not bother myself much with Gods per se. More intuitive this way, and besides, i live in North America...not Europa.

[@Not-Ap]

I never really thought much of modern celtic neo-paganism or reconstructism. A big cornerstone of Celtic religious practice was divining. Whether it was missiltoe in trees, the trees themselves, wind passing through the trees, or entrails from sacrificed animals. Modern neo-pagans don't wanna do any of that yet that's was how the ancestors lived... in nature.. They even had a God of Nature Cernnunos. Beyond that they don't even acknowledge the significance of water in the old relegion. Springs, rivers, and bogs were seen as spiritual places. Springs and rivers seats of potential divinity. Lakes and bogs as gateways to the otherworld. It always seemed to me that by tossing dead bodies into the bogs they thought they were sending their souls into the otherworld. Yet nobody wants to resurrect these traditions as they seem creepy, strange, or evil. Despite the fact that the people there trying to emulate did not see it that way. Without Nemeta celtic relegion isn't really traditional celtic relegion. The celts thought it was strange the Greeks and Romans carved graven images of their gods. Yet modern celtic neo-pagans love using exactly that.😂 it's just very bizzare to cut whole mainstays out of relegion because you find it distasteful or bizzare... yet you claim to honor the memory of the people who believed profoundly in such distasteful things🤨🤣.

[@fairy8303]

Well some groups do sacrifice within the law, but only animals are allowed apparently and it is in mainly instances where sacrifice is better than the meat factories they claim. As for humans it would probably take religiously assisted euthanasia being legalized to be allowed I think. Even then in the past it wasn't just random humans. Mainly its reconstructionists and not the revivalists, just some of the more "Orthodox" reconstructionists are afraid of being ostracised if they publicly state their views or wanting religious euthanasia legalized. As for Cernnunos, nobody knows whether he was a "god of nature" or just the mediator between all opposites. "Distasteful" or not is really subjective in the end depending on opinion but all cultural perspectives should be respected.

[@lasejanus]

Hi there, fascinated about J J Toland, is this Toland of 'Christianity not Mysterious' 1670-1722? I never heard about his involvement but it makes a lot of sense!!

[@MohamedAmineTrabelsi-in4ke]

I knew you channel is learn Celtic mythology but can you please 🥺 do video about Merlin since after all his Celtic Briton

[@irishmyths]

Yes! I will definitely cover Merlin in the future. In the meantime, I've written about him pretty extensively over on IrishMyths.com if you're interested... -Was Merlin a Real Person? irishmyths.com/2022/06/01/merlin/ -Was Merlin a Druid? irishmyths.com/2022/06/05/merlin-druid/ -Was Merlin Inspired by Irish Mythology? irishmyths.com/2022/06/21/celtic-wild-man/

[@MohamedAmineTrabelsi-in4ke]

@@irishmyths thanks for considering my request 😀

[@Wicknews8100]

1962 topographic map of Ireland, it's the HOLY GRAIL, clear as day, no one else noticed the Pig King in the purple robe holding a golden skull with inscriptions on the mountains creating a Megalithic Biblical account?

[@kazmark_gl8652]

pre-christian Celtic tradition is really just lost to time. and the worst part is we have just enough to know that it's irrecoverable.

[@disdroid]

I think paganism in general is open-ended and allows for "ancient secrets" to be unearthed using dreams and visions. So the fact that he used laudanum proves the veracity of his teaching, even though the dates are a bit skewed.

[@adrianred236]

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@nape1475]

Most people aren't going to understand this, because they still cling to the notion that spirituality comes from text and not from direct experience.

[@disdroid]

@@nape1475 literature is so spartan that anyone who wishes to revive the spirit of ancient times has to rely on dreams and visions of some kind

[@disdroid]

there would never have been a cthulhu cult at all if a nondescript author hadn't had a nightmare.

[@nape1475]

@@disdroid Exactly. This is the only way to actually bring back the old ways, otherwise it just digresses into a kind of armchair intellectualism with no real spiritual substance. I'm a heathen and I left all heathen circles because of their constant obsession and restriction to a small handful of texts... no real form of spirituality can grow unless there are new elements, new perspectives, new works... We have to bring back shamanism in one form or another in order to actually reconstruct anything, or it's just gonna be obsessing over ancient texts and a past that's long gone instead of creating a new future.

[@niallmacceide4603]

Not as tedious as the KZbin BS channels clogging up the net.

[@WarDogMadness]

The name is I low. more gan youg . U said the last bit right. You said pembroke correctly.

[@eccoeco3454]

The wheel of the year is rougthly attested by cycles of real festivals but yes

[@irishmyths]

Yup I talk about the Celtic cross-quarter days in the second half of the video. More info on them here too if you're interested: kzbin.info/aero/PLoBFeQEuiBkxuz1i8vOLtb_poYZ0pjIaU&si=MeX3gCA0boDTi6VE

[@FaoladhTV]

"Vates" is pronounced either /vay-tees/ (the common English pronunciation), /wah-tayss/ (Classical Latin), or /vah-tayss/ (Liturgical Latin). All pronunciations are approximate due to the deficiencies of using the regular Latin alphabet to represent the sounds.

[@damionkeeling3103]

The Roman ones gave their name to the Vatican. The Irish ones ironically got called fáith.

[@WandererEris]

Your Welsh pronunciation is a touch off, at least as it's pronounced in English. I'm Scottish, but have been living in Wales for 25 years, so hearing Glamorgan and Morganwg pronounced like that made me turn my head.

[@tayrowell]

The Apostle Paul was just a first century L Ron Hubbard.

[@generalstrike7187]

It sounds like you pronounced 'Gorsedd' with a 'D'? A double d is a voiced 'th' sound, like in 'there'.

[@irishmyths]

Ugh, totally fudged that one. Sorry about that. Should "Barddas" be pronounced "Barthas" then? I kept going back and forth on that one

[@ophieb5046]

@@irishmyths yea double d is always a voiced dental fricative /ð/ sound in Welsh

[@ophieb5046]

@@irishmyths also, a w is more like a /oo/ sound like spooky, and have fun with the double L lol

[@xtramail4909]

The wheel of the year was around 2000 years ago the Celts had festivals at the midpoints between the solar events. The wheel of the year is ancient.

[@irishmyths]

re: midpoints, I talk about Celtic cross-quarter days in the second half of the video. Also got a lot of info on them here if you're interested: kzbin.info/aero/PLoBFeQEuiBkxuz1i8vOLtb_poYZ0pjIaU&si=MeX3gCA0boDTi6VE

[@disapearingboi]

There is no mention of the wheel of the year in any Celtic tradition. It was invented from the 1950s onwards. Having festivals at midpoints doesn't imply a wheel in any way.

[@xtramail4909]

@@disapearingboi because it was never called a “wheel.” The celts used an annual solar calendar. Actually most of Europe and beyond did. The Celtic festivals within the solar “wheel” calendar are Samhain, Imbolc, Lughnasadh, and Beltaine. Those 4 festivals placed into the circular annual calendar based on the 4 solar events makes an x-shaped cross. The Scottish saltire underwent syncretism, for example. Then the t-shaped cross in Britain is Litha, Mabon, Yule, and Ostara, the Germanic festivals. Those festivals are the calendar that forms the wheel within Britain and Ireland. The (sun) cross is ancient in Ireland and Britain and beyond.

[@disapearingboi]

@@xtramail4909 You're mixing two different traditions together. We've no reason to assume the Celts practised Germanic festivals.

[@xtramail4909]

@@disapearingboi where do you think the UK flag came from? The mixing of the two flags, the Celtic saltire, the Germanic English flag, the mixing of the two peoples. Syncretism. The Celtics x Germanics whom had to convert to Christianity to avoid persecution. The celts had the X-shaped cross and the Celtic cross (sun cross) before the Germanic peoples came. Just look at the chalk drums from Yorkshire, the Birds Eye view of Callanais standing stones, the internal architecture of Newgrange. The solstices were always important in addition to the midpoints. The midpoints are important for timing the farming (and that’s not even highlighting the spirituality of that timing, only practicality), and the solstices important for worshipping the sun. Making sure it will come back. Be reborn and bring us light, again, for the vegetation, for life.

[@hellajeff5613]

Source: it was revealed to me by a bottle of Laudanum

[@johnpurcell7525]

So He was an old 19thcentury Hippy Far out man Peace love Laudanam

[@irishmyths]

☮️✌️

[@christopherneufelt8971]

You need to really study ancient texts including philosophy and history to understand the views of the ancients. Honestly, most if not all pagan revival, is nothing more than the revival of abrahamic religions under the guidance of expectations and money (as always!). As far as I am concerned, since there is nothing left of value to sell these days, the selling of the past flourishes.

[@ryangreen1588]

Great work thank you

[@irishmyths]

Thanks for watching!

[@jeff61177]

Ok first off before I even watch the video. Pagans is a word the Christians called any other religion. so theres that.

[@landonlund3179]

Dan McClellan mention!!!

[@elihyland4781]

luvvvvvvvved this

[@irishmyths]

Thanks!

[@lashark06]

The druid tradition is to collect 3 boys about 10-13 they each will learn as much as possible. Laws, medicine poetry ect, this stems from the last reset so we can restart civilisation

[@Scottmiller1974ohio]

Thanks to the romans we have virtually no real information on the druids or at least nothing non biases...even with the best intentions and respect for the beliefs of the ancient pict ..its all neopagan guessvwork based on other shamanic practices. No one now is a ( druid ) nor should anyone claim that title . My family are scothirish and welsh im in the 25 % scotish ancestry that actually has the documented pictich haplogroup ...im not a druid...nor do i know with any more level of certainty how they actually practiced then anyone else ...sad but true ..celtic animist would b a more accurate term .

[@Scottmiller1974ohio]

Oh and for thoes of u that wanted to know thats R1b and J1c3

[@vandarkholme8548]

I always felt that slavs and celts are close, and I guess both loving to make stuff up about pre-Christian history is another similarity

[@DemonetisedZone]

3:36 GLAMOUR-GINN 🤭 GLAM-ORR-GAN

[@WarDogMadness]

Whats your sauce, i made it the fuck up 😂

[@joshuabessire9169]

Next you're gonna tell me the Freemasons don't date back to the 1st Temple.

[@eldraque4556]

codified without a codex, ironic?

[@FindTheFun]

So it's no more made up than any other religion today, got it.

[@S.J.L]

It's good to make distinctions and tell the truth but Abramists destroyed most of everything before them and any traditions had to go underground. Some understanding and context should be applied to reconstructionists. We should be honest about the evidence and texts that exist but we should still put the pieces together.

[@jacobparry177]

Fy nghlustiau bach Cymreig!

[@harukasuzuhara8491]

Just worship Galadriel

[@Sol-Amar]

Image credit at 12:23 please?

[@johnfogarty91]

The Druids: Bringing in the mistletoe

[@johnfogarty91]

By Edward Atkinson

[@Sol-Amar]

@@johnfogarty91 Thank you! 🌟

[@johnfogarty91]

@@Sol-Amar you're most welcome

[@irishmyths]

Thanks @johnfogarty91! And I'm sure you found it already @Sol-Amar but I get most of my images via Wikimedia Commons, including that one: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Atkinson_Hornel_-_Druids_Bringing_In_The_Mistletoe.jpg

[@pymarathon]

"Forger" seems awfully harsh compared to how authors writing before ~300ce got treated for doing the exact same kind of stuff... This guy could have rightfully titled himself a Saint! Get "Daniel" to vouch for him...

[@lococomrade3488]

~1500 years difference, bub.

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

​@@lococomrade3488 actually our earliest writings come from around the 3rd Century BCE, and we have none of the original Hebrew texts So you're referring to the Greek tradition of Sabazios Not Arkenaten

[@davideddy2672]

Still a fake f

[@lococomrade3488]

@@Uncanny_Mountain I don't think even you known wtf you're talking about.

[@pymarathon]

@@lococomrade3488 I mean... yes, obviously. But why should that matter exactly? If you're going to post-date and misattribute your work anyways what's a few centuries here or there between artists?

[@mattdavies8153]

glaMORgan

[@mattdavies8153]

morGANwg.

[@elihyland4781]

8:43 ☠🪦⚰🤣

[@irishmyths]

Note to self: make Spinal Tap references in every video...even if only a handful of people get it/appreciate it

[@elihyland4781]

@@irishmyths 🖤

[@jeff61177]

Welsh mormonism....is a way

[@goawaygosh]

Damn, neo-paganism is kinda pathetic. It’s just larping.

[@chicksandwich]

Wait till you find out what happens in pentacostal churches

[@galinor7]

Isn't Christianity a retelling of Babilonian myth? I mean maybe Iolo did what may religions do. Make it up.

[@innocentsmith6091]

The supposed connections between Christianity and paganism were invented by very Iolo-esque people. Many of the supposed parallels require tackling the question of whether rocks can be virgins.

[@TheSarahJane33]

Yeah where is the video calling out Catholic rites?

[@rb98769]

Not really other than the creation and flood myths.

[@rb98769]

​@@TheSarahJane33This is a channel about Irish Myths. There are countless channels out there calling out Christianity.

[@TheSarahJane33]

@rb98769 Fair enough.

[@inregionecaecorum]

Not to mention the Carr Gomm family, however what would I know I am only a Salicist and we outrank them :)

[@josephkanowitz6875]

ב''ה, funny how "tincture" has "CT" in the middle of it, says the born yankee

[@irishmyths]

Someone didn't stay for the post-credits...

[@YagaKimIsolda59]

Celtic will never reborn if not be attentive to folk practices, tales and beliefs the Popular Catholicism

[@AS-np3yq]

BC, not BCE.

[@adrianbelko7683]

BCE✔️ BC❌

[@irishmyths]

someday I will make a video on why I use BCE/CE. The short version: google "when was Jesus born according to the Bible?" and see what date pops up

[@off6848]

So much pagan cope in here this was a banger

[@SAT0R1.]

Its funny i was wondering recently if ancient gaelic irish paganism was all just made up and now this video appears on my feed 👍

[@JohnRavenwood]

I think you should remake this video so you could sound even more patronizing.

[@Loveportorchard]

I don’t think this comes off as patronizing. What struck you as patronizing?

[@lococomrade3488]

​@@Loveportorchard the parts they disagree with. 😉

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

​​@@lococomrade3488 But isn't that what you're doing? But you can never be wrong so Divine infallibility fallacy The irony of self annointed Academic Wannabes

[@Uncanny_Mountain]

​@@Loveportorchard _"Nothing you say is true cos I say so"_ Sums up the tone

[@lococomrade3488]

@Uncanny_Mountain Nope. Not by any means. My stance is laid out by empirical evidence. Not the little hopes and wishes you seem to be driven by. Go on. Show me a point I've made. Show me a stance that can be fact checked. O that's right. I didn't present any. You're off your rocker and clearly butthurt. Come back when you believe something factual.

[@psantini2968]

You could have learned how to pronounce Iolo's surname correctly, and if that was too tough, surely getting Glamorgan right shouldn't have been too hard? Or Tain? Pronunciations aside, good video. We all know Iolo was a forger, if an inspired one. Since no-one knows anything about the ancient Druids with any reliability, except a few fragments from the untrustworthy writings of Caesar, almost all Druidry stems from the Druid revival, John Toland onwards. Strabo, Pliny, Tacitus etc.. were not writing contemporaneously and never actually met a Druid. So every Druid is a neo-Druid, though "neo" goes back to the seventeenth century. We are in a tradition of weirdoes, eccentrics, scholars both amateur and professional, radicals, frauds, mystics, hippies, magicians and revolutionaries, all of us taking our spiritual inspirations and projecting them back onto the blank that is The Ancient Druids. There are those who study Iolo's system and work with it, while others place more emphasis on ecological concerns, or the arts. It's not so open and shut about the wheel of the year as you make out, though - yep, in its modern iteration it was jointly the work of Gerald Gardner and Ross Nichols, but the ancient Irish definitely celebrated the fire festival and there are monuments aligned to the other festivals, so whether they were celebrated or not, they were certainly significant.

[@irishmyths]

Thanks for the comment. Here's my reference pronunciation for Morganwg: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGPIepWqfc2miLssi=7A3UkVq78zbleEdp Here's my reference pronunciation for Táin forvo.com/word/t%C3%A1in_b%C3%B3_cuailnge/

[@psantini2968]

@@irishmyths can you not hear the difference etween your pronunciation references and how you actually pronounced them?

[@elliegreen4738]

Impossible to listen to this annoying, toneless AI garble.

[@irishmyths]

For the record, no AI was used in this video

[@vandarkholme8548]

​@@irishmyths I think this is the 3rd time I see a guy with a naturally monotonous voice being accused of being an AI. Cyberpunk is already here...

[@TheChronicChrome]

Unsubscribed 😂