A Tradition for Both Yesterday and Today

The early Celtic Spiritual Tradition was rooted deep in the land, in a time and culture where Nature was seen not as a state from which we needed to escape, but as a part of God.

When Christianity first came to the British Isles, it took on a distinctly Celtic flavour, characterised by a continued reverence for Nature as the face of the Divine. The One God spoke simply in the solitudes of wind and woodland, sea-wave and mountaintop... and for centuries, the old Gods and Goddesses – the many faces of The One - continued to have a place in the hearts and holy days of the people.

Today, the Living Celtic Spiritual Tradition of Céile Dé is a moving and intelligent Christ-centred Path that has inherited much from the ancient wisdoms that preceded it: for Christ "came to fulfil the Law... not to abolish it".

It is a path that honours our time upon this Earth as the Womb of mystical experience; where a life lived in holy embrace of both the imminent and the transcendent Divine graces us, we pray, with Union with God, who is One and cannot be separated from Matter.

This consciousness, that waits to be born from out of the deepest heart of us all, works in the world as a force that reconciles all dualities.

Sometimes we call that force Love, sometimes we call it Christ.

To give it life in us is to become fully Human.

Céili Dé

In the Past ~

Ask most Gaels in Scotland or Ireland about the Céili Dé (plural) - sometimes Anglicised as the Culdees - and they will tell you about a time when early Celtic Christianity first emerged, without martyrdom, from out of its Druidic past; when the histories lovingly recorded in monastic manuscript blurred into myth-stories, in which their first saints often took on the attributes of the earlier Gods or Goddesses...

Some legends say that some Druids foresaw the coming of Christ and welcomed Rìgh nan Dùil, The King of the Elements, into the world, long before the first missionary ever set foot on British soil.

The Rule of Céili Dé was - and still is - built upon the indestructible foundation of "listening for and obedience to the voice in the deepest part of every heart - the Christ within".

Céili Dé

Today ~

The 21st Century Céile Dé Tradition, inspired and guided by those who came before us, draws from that mytho-poetic, heart-centred relationship with the Divine that as always been the hallmark of the Celtic Soul.

Today, we honour our spiritual past by protecting the integrity of our tradition, whilst also offering it in a form viable for anyone who is ready, willing and able to be part of a dedicated community, called the Caim (the “Circle of Grace”). Supported by each other and by Elders on the Path, “caimeachs” (members of the Caim) meet in groups, seeking together for the only Heaven there is; the one that must first be found hidden within, so that they may learn to live from there and call it home.

The Caim is for sincere seekers who long to be part of a close and committed spiritual circle whose embrace can hold both Heaven and Earth and whose prayers sing with the voice of the Gael. It is for men and women who are prepared to be stretched by a disciplined path and released into mystical union. It is for those who understand the spiritual life is not about being bound by belief, but about being touched, surrendered, moved and transformed by the experiences with which we have been graced and lifted, beyond the boundaries of conditioned thinking, toward the infinite, unitive consciousness that Illuminates the innermost heart of all religion and all life.

Céili Dé