Celtic Source

Get the short guide 'The 5 Keys of Celtic Myth' here: https://celticsource.online/the-5-keys-of-celtic-myth/The story of Elidyr and the Tylwyth Teg is the oldest Welsh fairy tale on record. It tells of a boy's journey through ancient liminal spaces, encountering a deep realm of where the fairies have their own high ideals and ethics. But what does this story actually mean? What does it tell us about encounters with the extraordinary, about truth, childhood, and lost wisdom? If you want to follow a course on the Celtic myths of the Mabinogi, start here https://celticsource.online/mabinogi

Get the short guide 'The 5 Keys of Celtic Myth' here: https://celticsource.online/the-5-keys-of-celticmyth/Calan Mai (Beltane) is a time of flowers, birdsong and sunshine, but Welsh myths set at this time tell of conflict, horrific violence and monstrous threats to the very fertility of the land and the people. What does this mean? What's at the heart of this contradiction?If you're interested in following the Mabinogi course, you can find more information here: https://celticsource.online/mabinogi-the-first-branch/

Two thousand years ago, an unstoppable empire met an immovable people. Rome’s mighty legions had conquered most of Celtic Britain . . . except for the tribes of the far north. We have little direct evidence for Pictish culture, but there are strong suggestions that long before Christianity reached Scotland, the early Picts were using Neolithic sites built with mathematical precision — not just to honour their gods, but to track the stars and planets across the heavens. And what they left behind is more than just stone — it’s a prehistoric observatory that still works to this day.The Picts course is course on the website: https://celticsource.online/courses/the-picts/To receive a series of videos from the Celtic Source archive, please sign up to the mailing list: https://celticsource.online/mailing-list/David Nance's original paper: https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2164/18401/Nance_SGJ_Investigation_Aberdeenshire_Ritual_VOR.pdf?sequence=1

Saint or goddess? Christian feast or pagan festival? The story of Saint Brigid and Imbolc has puzzled scholars for quite some time now. So what do the actual Irish sources tell us?To get the file of sources and other research, including web links, please visit: https://celticsource.online/imbolc-and-brigid/If you're interested in following the The Celtic Rites course, please visit: https://celticsource.online/courses-page

The Wheel of the Year, the cycle of seasonal festivals that have been observed across the world, is one of the key features of historical Celtic culture. In many ways, the wheel embodies both a practical and mystical knowledge that was pertinent at different stages of the year. So what was this knowledge? What were the foundational themes common across the different Celtic regions?To join us on the course, please visit: https://celticsource.online/courses-page/To receive a series of videos on similar topics, pleas join the mailing: https://celticsource.online/mailing-list/

The older Welsh myth of Arthur is often overshadowed, both by the obsession with the chivalric Arthur of medieval Europe, and then more recently by the search for the historical Arthur. These subjects can be interesting in their own right, but they rarely ask the important questions: how did a Welsh figure become the centrepiece of an elaborate and profound mythology that’s still popular across the globe? What does this older Arthur embody? What ancient Celtic beliefs are preserved in his myth? This video is an introduction to 'The Arthur of the Welsh' course, and also sets out how the Arthurian myth connects other courses on the website. You can find out more here: The Arthur of the Welsh: https://celticsource.online/courses/the-arthur-of-the-welsh/ The Native Tales: https://celticsource.online/courses/the-native-tales-of-the-mabinogion/ Taliesin Origins: https://celticsource.online/courses/taliesin-origins/ Taliesin Origins is also a book that you can purchase here: https://celticsource.online/taliesin-origins-2/

This is a new podcast my wife and I will be making over the next few months. If you want to hear more, please search for the Myth Mountain podcast on your favourite platform and subscribe. You can find us on Spotify here. This podcast explores many of the ideas behind the Myth Mountain programme that you can find here. "Join Lucy and Gwilym as they unpack why we are compelled by myths, what role they play in enriching our lives, why we are drawn to the myths of our ancestral lands and how this gives us a sense of the sacred. Sharing personal stories and their experience of being in the wild, vision quest and connection to place."

Connecting the different incarnations of Brigid, from Iron Age goddess to early Christian saint.

The Book of Taliesin is one of the great treasures of Welsh culture, but who wrote it? In truth, it's an impossible question to answer, but there are some very interesting theories about who composed some of the most famous poems in the manuscript . . .

The Welsh Bardic Triads ('Trioedd Ynys Prydein') provide an index to the oral storytelling tradition of medieval Wales. They were used by bards across the centuries not only to help them remember the vast network of traditional myth and lore, but also to present a distinct vision of the ancient past.​

How did Taliesin transform his patron through the bardic power of myth?

In the Taliesin myth, awen plays a central role in creating symbolic reality. This leads naturally on to an  outline of some of the symbolic meanings that can be found in the great mythic cauldron of the Celts.