A Fire in the Head: Poetry as the Celtic Technology of Trance
The filidh of Ireland lay in darkness with a stone on the belly to compose. What did they know about altered states that we are only now remembering?
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Welcome to celticshamanism.com
Ancient Roots, Living Practice
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 circle
A Welcome from the Circle
Two Streams Meeting at the Well
For 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
Find Your Way In
Four Doors to the Path
Everything on this site gathers under four headings. Start wherever your curiosity leads.
Learn
What shamanism is, where the Celtic tradition comes from, and how the two are woven together today.
Start learning
Practice
Journeying, drumming, seasonal ceremony, ancestor work and pilgrimage, explained step by step.
Explore the practices
Gather
Online journey circles, eight seasonal ceremonies a year, and a growing network of local circles.
Join the circle
Journal
Essays on the fire in the head, the three realms, the thinning veil and the well at the world’s edge.
Read the journal
What Is Celtic Shamanism?
A Global Phenomenon, A Particular Land
Celtic 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.
I
The Global Phenomenon
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? ›II
The Celtic Thread
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 ›III
The Integration
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 Turning Year
The Wheel of the Year
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.
From the Journal
Recent Writing
Essays and teachings from the circle, written for both the newcomer and the long-time practitioner.
Land, Sea and Sky: Mapping the Three Realms onto the Shamanic Three Worlds
Core shamanism travels up and down a world tree. The Celts swore by land, sea and sky. The two maps overlap, but not perfectly, and the gaps are instructive.
Read the essay
Samhain and the Thinning of the Veil
Nera walked out of Cruachan on Samhain night and returned a year later with a bundle of summer fruit. A guide to honouring the ancestors at the turn of the year.
Read the essay
The Well at the World’s Edge: Hazel, Salmon and the Source of Wisdom
Nine hazels drop their nuts into the Well of Segais and the salmon grow wise on them. Why the well is the most Celtic of all doorways to the Otherworld.
Read the essay
Places of Power
The Sacred Landscape
The Celtic lands are thick with thin places: passage tombs older than the pyramids, royal hills, island sanctuaries and stone rows that still catch the solstice sun. Pilgrimage has always been part of this path.
Co. Meath, Ireland
Brú na Bóinne
Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth. At the winter solstice the rising sun threads a stone passage built five thousand years ago.
Isle of Lewis, Scotland
Calanais
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.
Inner Hebrides, Scotland
Iona
Colum Cille’s island, where a druid-trained poet-saint met the Atlantic. A thin place by any measure, Christian and older than Christian.
How We Walk
What We Stand For
Cultural Integrity
We name our sources, distinguish the ancient from the modern, and never claim an unbroken lineage we do not have.
Rooted in Landscape
The land is the first teacher. Our practice begins with the hill, the well, the shore and the weather outside the door.
Honouring the Sources
Shamanism belongs to Indigenous peoples first. We give thanks, give back, and do not borrow what is not freely offered.
Open to All
You do not need Celtic blood to love these stories and this land. You need respect, patience and a willingness to learn.
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Eight letters a year, one for each turning of the wheel, with ceremony notes, new essays and news of gatherings. No noise, no selling. Membership is free.
We write only when the wheel turns. Unsubscribe any time.