Frequently Asked Questions

It is a contemporary spiritual path that uses the methods of the worldwide shamanic revival, above all the drum journey to the Three Worlds in partnership with helping spirits, within the cosmology, stories, landscape, languages and seasonal calendar of the Celtic peoples. The methods are universal and were learned from Indigenous teachers; the dress is Celtic; the synthesis is about forty years old. We think it is a good and honest path when it is honest about all three of those things.

The materials are ancient. The practice is modern. There were certainly people in the Celtic world who did what shamans do: the filidh who sought vision in darkness, the druids who raised mists and shifted shape, the wise women who went to the fairies to bring back the taken. But no unbroken line of training reaches us from them. What reaches us is literature, folklore, place and language, and a method of journeying learned from elsewhere. We say this plainly on every page because the tradition deserves honesty more than it deserves flattery.

No. The Celts were a family of languages and ways of life, not a race, and they absorbed newcomers wherever they went. What the path asks is respect, patience, a willingness to learn the languages a little and the stories a lot, and an honest relationship with the land you actually live on. People of every ancestry walk with us. If you do have Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish or Breton roots, the path may feel like a homecoming; if you do not, it may feel like a welcome. Both are good.

Shamanism is a method, not a creed, and the Celtic tradition has lived for fifteen hundred years inside Christianity without losing its soul. The wells became saints’ wells and people kept walking the rounds. The Carmina Gadelica blesses the fire in the names of Brigid and Christ in the same breath. Many in our circle are Christians, some are Pagans or Druids, some are Buddhists, many are nothing in particular. We ask no one to believe anything. We ask them to journey, and to see.

It can be, in two directions, and we work to avoid both. Towards Indigenous peoples: we use their universal methods with acknowledgement and we do not take their specific ceremonies, songs or objects. Towards the Celtic nations: we treat Irish, Welsh, Gaelic, Breton, Cornish and Manx as living cultures, learn the words properly, credit the sources, support language and heritage work, and do not sell the culture as a costume. Read our full statement on ethics. The short test is this: would the people whose tradition it is recognise what you are doing and feel respected by it?

No. Our circles use the drum, the voice, darkness, breath and the land. There is no evidence that the ancient Celts used psychoactive plants in ritual, and we do not borrow the plant ceremonies of other peoples. We are not against the serious, legal, supervised use of such medicines elsewhere; it is simply not what we do.

You lie down in a darkened room with a cloth over your eyes. You set a clear intention, for example to go to the Lower World and meet a helping spirit. A drum begins at a steady beat of around four to seven strikes a second. You picture a real place you know where the earth opens: a well, a hollow tree, the entrance of a mound. You go in and down, and then you let what happens happen, meeting what you meet and asking what you came to ask. After fifteen to thirty minutes the drum changes rhythm to call you back. You return the way you came, open your eyes and write it down. Most people experience something on their first try; most find it deepens with practice.

There is a great deal of overlap and much friendship. Modern Druidry draws on the same Celtic sources and shares the eightfold year, but centres on bardic, ceremonial and philosophical practice rather than the drum journey. Wicca is a modern religious witchcraft with its own liturgy, deities and coven structure. Celtic shamanism is narrower and more practical: it is about journeying and healing within a Celtic frame, and it can sit comfortably inside a Druid grove, a Wiccan coven, a Christian parish or none of the above.

For most people the shamanic journey is a gentle, controllable and refreshing practice. It is not recommended for anyone in acute psychiatric crisis, actively psychotic, or in the grip of severe dissociation, and it is not a replacement for medical or psychological care. If you are in treatment, tell your clinician what you are doing. In circle we keep journeys short, set clear intentions, return deliberately, share afterwards, and never leave anyone alone with a hard experience. Anyone may stop at any time. Read the safe practice section.

Start with the online circle, which is free and open. For in-person training in the core methods, the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, the Shamanic Teachers directory and the Society for Shamanic Practice list reputable teachers worldwide. For Celtic depth, read the books of Tom Cowan, John and Caitlín Matthews and Frank MacEowen in our Library, and seek out teachers of the Celtic languages and of local folklore. Be wary of anyone claiming an unbroken druidic lineage, charging large sums for initiation, or selling Indigenous ceremonies.

Yes. Go outside and learn the name of the nearest hill and the nearest water. Read one tale from the tradition. Find a drumming recording of about twenty minutes; the Foundation for Shamanic Studies offers Michael Harner’s free of charge. Then follow the first journey instructions. Write down what you see. Do it again next week. In a month you will have begun.

We would rather you did not, and we do not. The word belongs to the Evenki and, in common use, to people recognised by their own community as spirit-workers after long training. “Shamanic practitioner” is honest. The old Celtic words are better still, if you have earned them from a community that uses them: file, bean feasa, draoi.

A recording works perfectly well to begin, and many experienced practitioners journey to a recording for years. If you want a drum, a frame drum of fourteen to eighteen inches is the usual choice. The bodhrán of Irish music is a frame drum and works, though its use for trance is a modern adoption rather than a tradition. A rattle, your own voice or a steady chant will also carry you.

Everything here is free: the writing, the glossary, the monthly online journey circle, the eight seasonal ceremonies and the letter. We sell nothing and take no advertising. If you want to give something back, give it to the sources: a language class, a heritage trust, an Indigenous-led organisation.