Where the old stories of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall and the Isle of Man meet the worldwide revival of shamanic practice. Learn the methods, honour the sources, walk the land.
Free to join
Eight ceremonies a year
Monthly online journey circleFor tens of thousands of years, people in every inhabited land have drummed, sung and dreamed their way into the unseen worlds to bring back healing and knowledge for their communities. Since the middle of the last century that ancient way has been rediscovered across the globe, and today it is practised in living rooms in Dublin and Denver as readily as in the forests of Siberia.
At the same time, the Celtic nations have been reclaiming their own deep inheritance: the Otherworld tales, the seer-poets, the holy wells and stone circles, the fire festivals that still mark the turning of the Gaelic year. This site stands where those two streams meet. We offer a clear account of what shamanism is, an honest look at the Celtic tradition on its own terms, and a thoughtful guide to weaving the two together with respect.
Whether you are new to all of this or have been journeying for years, you are welcome at our fire.
About Our CircleI am a wind on the sea,
I am a wave of the ocean,
I am the roar of the sea,
I am a stag of seven combats,
I am a hawk on a cliff,
I am a tear of the sun,
I am the fairest of plants,
I am a boar in valour,
I am a salmon in a pool,
I am a lake on a plain,
I am a word of knowledge. The Song of Amergin, Lebor Gabála Érenn
Everything on this site gathers under four headings. Start wherever your curiosity leads.
What shamanism is, where the Celtic tradition comes from, and how the two are woven together today.
Start learning
Journeying, drumming, seasonal ceremony, ancestor work and pilgrimage, explained step by step.
Explore the practices
Online journey circles, eight seasonal ceremonies a year, and a growing network of local circles.
Join the circle
Essays on seer-poets and fairy doctors, keening and the harp, sovereignty and exile, and the well at the world’s edge.
Read the journalCeltic shamanism is a contemporary path. It takes the tried and tested methods of the worldwide shamanic revival and clothes them in the cosmology, stories, language and landscape of the Celtic peoples.
From the Evenki of Siberia to the Andes and the Amazon, from the Sámi of the north to the healers of Korea and Nepal, people have long entered altered states to work with helping spirits for the good of their communities. Since the 1960s this way has returned to the modern world.
What is shamanism? ›The Celtic nations kept an Otherworld within reach: beneath the mounds, across the western sea, through the mist. Their seer-poets sought imbas, their heroes shapeshifted through stag and salmon, and their year turned on four great fires.
The Celtic tradition ›Weaving the two means being honest about what is old and what is new, naming our sources, and letting the land itself be the teacher. We map the shamanic Three Worlds onto Land, Sea and Sky, and the drum onto the chant.
How the weaving works ›I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread. W. B. Yeats, The Song of Wandering Aengus (1899)
The Gaelic year turns on four fire festivals, with the solstices and equinoxes marked in stone at Newgrange and Loughcrew long before the Celts arrived. We gather online for each of the eight.
Essays and teachings from the circle, written for both the newcomer and the long-time practitioner.
The fairies gave a blue bottle to Biddy Early’s son to carry home to her. What the healers of the parish can teach the modern practitioner, and what they warn us against.
Read the essay
Brigid raised the first keen for her son. How the keening women sang the dead across, why the art was lost, and how a grieving circle can learn from it.
Read the essay
The Dagda’s harp made a host weep, laugh and sleep. Fionn said the finest music was the music of what happens. Sound as a door between the worlds.
Read the essay
Millions far from Ireland and Scotland feel the pull of a homeland they have never seen. What to do with that longing, beginning with the ground under your feet.
Read the essayThe Celtic lands are thick with thin places: passage tombs that still catch the solstice sun, royal hills, island sanctuaries and stone rows older than the pyramids. Pilgrimage has always been part of this path.
Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. At the winter solstice the rising sun threads a stone passage built five thousand years ago.
A cross of stones on a Hebridean moor, aligned to the moon’s long cycle. Local lore calls them the false men, giants turned to stone.
Colum Cille’s island, where a saint trained by the poets met the Atlantic. A thin place by any measure, Christian and older than Christian.
We name our sources, distinguish the ancient from the modern, and never claim an unbroken lineage we do not have.
The land is the first teacher. Our practice begins with the hill, the well, the shore and the weather outside the door.
Shamanism belongs to Indigenous peoples first. We give thanks, give back, and do not borrow what is not freely offered.
You do not need Celtic blood to love these stories and this land. You need respect, patience and a willingness to learn.
A monthly online journey circle and eight seasonal ceremonies a year, one for each turning of the wheel. No noise, no selling. Membership is free.
Join the Circle
