DeDanaan

Early Irish Astrology: An Historical Argument
by Peter Berresford Ellis

In all histories of western astrology there is a curious omission. There are no references to early Irish, nor - indeed - ancient Celtic, astrological practices. In fact, the only serious scholarly study on Celtic astrology was published in a French academic journal in 1902. [1] This dissertation, in the light of modem research, is open to debate.

The major reason for this neglect of the subject, at least during the last fifty years, has undoubtedly been the insidious influence of Robert Graves’ The White Goddess (1949). This book has done singular disservice to those who seek to study the realities of Celtic cosmology and, especially, the practice of astrology. Graves was not a Celtic scholar. His highly imaginative inventions of the so-called ‘tree calendar’ and ‘tree zodiac’ inspired an outpouring of books purporting to be on ‘Celtic astrology’. Graves and his acolytes have, unfortunately, seized the popular imagination but their ‘tree zodiac’ has nothing at all to do with the realities of the ancient Celtic world.
(Continued)

Celtic identity is a chronically vague and indefinable concept, but also one of special importance at the present stage in our history and understanding of where we came from. To a great extent, our understanding of the proper place and status of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany - as nations in Europe and as parts of the world - depends on the significance one attaches to ‘Celticity’. Even so, Celticity today remains a subject of profound uncertainty and over-heated debate amongst both the public at large and the academic specialists. James P. Mallory of Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland, is a world-renowned archaeologist and a prolific writer on the subjects of Ireland in the Bronze and Iron Ages, Indo-European Studies, and the saga literature of medieval Ireland.

In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth by JP Mallory : This book takes a multidisciplinary approach in the quest to find the origins of the Indo-Europeans with the main focus on the extrapolated language of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and archaeology. Some of the basics of Indo-European theory are presented, and while no direct proof exists that a Proto-Indo-European culture existed, it is the only cohesive theory which explains the similarity in languages, cultures, and myths throughout Europe and Asia. Mallory suggests paleolinguistics supports the idea that the languages of Europe and Asia which resemble each other did not spring up independently of one another and it is not likely that the civilizations that sustained them did either. The fact that most of the languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India are linked has been established on a pretty solid basis.

Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. They were spoken across western Europe in ancient times, but are now limited to a few enclaves in the British Isles and on the peninsula of Brittany in France. There are four main groups of Celtic languages, of which the first two are now long extinct:

*Gaulish and its close relatives, Lepontic, Noric, and Galatian. These languages were once spoken in a wide arc from France to Turkey and from the Netherlands to northern Italy.
*Celtiberian, anciently spoken in Aragon and elsewhere in Spain.
*Goidelic, including Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, and Shelta.
*Brythonic, including Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Cumbric, the hypothetical Ivernic, and possibly Pictish.

The separation of these groups probably occurred well before 1000 BC, possibly with an early split of an Insular Celtic branch. The early Celts are commonly associated with the archaeological Urnfield culture.

Indo-European, family of languages having more speakers than any other language family. It is estimated that approximately half the world’s population speaks an Indo-European tongue as a first language. The Indo-European family is so named because at one time its individual members were prevalent mainly in an area between and including India and Europe, although not all languages spoken in this region were Indo-European. Today, however, the Indo-European languages have spread to every continent and a number of islands. It should be stressed that the term Indo-European describes language only and is not used scientifically in an ethnic or cultural sense. The languages classified as Indo-European are sufficiently similar to form one major linguistic division.

The characteristics Indo-European languages share with respect to vocabulary and grammar have led many scholars to postulate that they are all descended from an original parent language, called Proto-Indo-European, which is believed to have been spoken some time before 4000 B.C., perhaps before 8000 B.C. or earlier. Since there are no written records of Proto-Indo-European, it apparently was in use before writing was known to its speakers. Even its existence is an assumption, although a plausible one and the only really satisfactory explanation of the common features of the modern Indo-European languages. There has been much speculation as to the region where the speakers of Proto-Indo-European first lived and the nature of their culture, but nothing definite is known. One theory of the origin of the individual Indo-European languages suggests that as the ancient speakers of Proto-Indo-European migrated or moved away from each other, losing contact, their language broke up into a number of tongues. These tongues later also split up still further, eventually giving rise to the many modern Indo-European languages.” - The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Of course, language and “race” aren’t necessarily connected at all, i.e. the Indo-European group in western China was the Tocharians. Tocharian is an extinct Indo-European language which stands by itself as one of the twelve major groups in the IE language family. It was not discovered until the turn of this century, as a result of archaeological expeditions to Chinese Turkestan. There is evidence both from mummies and Chinese writings that many of them had blond or red hair and blue eyes. This suggests the possibility that they were part of an early Indo-European migration that ended in what is now the Tarim Basin in western China. (Asian scholars tend to think the migration happened in the other direction, towards the west.) The Tocharians, living along the Silk Road, seem to have played a part in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China as they had contacts with the Chinese and Persians, and Turkic, Indian and Iranian tribes. [Aside: I’ve also noticed that many Tibetan depictions of Buddha show a blue-eyed figure, and I had always wondered about this.] Mallory has also written a book about these people : The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, which you might also consider getting your hands on.

In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth is a valuable contribution to a fascinating field. This book is a must for anyone wishing to gain insight into the subject. You will learn something from this book, no matter how much you know or don’t know. Just don’t expect to learn it all on the first run.

The Celtic Art Coracle Volume 1 Issue 9

DE DANAANS IN AMERICA

The idea of “First People”, such as applies to the Anasazi ancestors of the Hopis, can be compared with Irish traditions concerning the De Danaans. The legends suggest a colonization of Ireland by people of the Near-East, the Milesians, the Sea People, led by “Mil of the Ships”. Presumably the author of the Irish tale had heard of the Phoenicians, whose capitol was Miletia.

Out of Miletia, also, sailed the ships of Tarshish which are thought to have colonized all along the southern Gulf Stream to Mexico, according to James Bailey, the author of Godmen and Titans, who suggests that many of the tales of culture bearers around the Atlantic rim may relate to Bronze age prospectors seeking tin by secret routes. Knowledge of such a route may have originated the legend of Atlantis. Plato’s directions tell how to get to Atlantis: go out through the gates of Gibraltar, turn left, straight down the coast of Africa a couple of days, turn right a couple of miles, and you hit “the river with no banks” upon which you can pull up you oars, or roll up your sails, and the current will take you to “Atlantis” in a couple of weeks. The scene that greets the eyes when you get to Atlantis, as described by Plato, could well be a description of a Middle-American metropolis modeled on an Egyptian plan.

If such routes were indeed travelled in the Bronze age, this might explain some tantalising correspondences between traditions on both sides of the Atlantic: Quetzlcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, was also known as Kukulcan. This name, as James Bailey pointed out sounds tantalizingy like the name of the Ulster hero, Cuchulain. Another Ulster tale concerns the son of Finn MacCool, Oisin, who was taken away to the Land in the Remote West, where he stayed 300 years. After this time, he pined for home and returned. A similar tale is told of Kukulcan, that he came from the land of in the east, across the ocean, by way of stepping stones, stayed for 300 years, and went home, to attend to a crisis in his native land.

The tale of Kukulkan is from the Popul Vuh, sacred writings of the Zapotek culture. Intriguingly, a carving in a temple there resembles very closely a similar design found in Celtic art, as for instance in the Book of Lindisfarne.

© Aidan Meehan 1983

A Royal by Any Other Name?
by Peter Berresford Ellis

Peter Berresford Ellis explores the origins of the fake House of ‘Windsor’ and highlights some of the more questionable links between the British royals and their German family counterparts.

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NOW WE are heading for the jubilee of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, ‘Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth’. And there’s not a protocol cloud in the sky.

I’m told that the departure from the cares of this world of the Queen Mother came as somewhat opportune for the royal protocol watchers. Any later departure might have resulted in the cancellation of the jubilee celebrations. It was rather like the relief that was expressed when old Queen Mary died in 1953 at an appropriate time for the mourning to have finished in order to allow the coronation celebrations to take place in June. Tricky stuff, these royal protocols.

Perhaps I should not mention my political views on the subject of that family as the Treason Felony Act of 1848 is still in force in the United Kingdom. This means that if anyone advocates the abolition of the monarchy, even by peaceful means, they can wind up being imprisoned for life.

Last October, in the House of Lords no less, Lord Greaves asked Lord Rooker, minister of state at the Home Office, whether the government planned to repeal that outmoded piece of legislation and was told: “We have no plans at present to repeal the Act�.

Kevin McNamara MP tried to introduce a bill last year in the House of Commons, which sought to amend section three making it no longer a criminal offence to advocate the abolition of the monarchy by peaceful means. He failed. And when The Guardian newspaper tried to get a judgement on the matter in the High Court they were told that Britain still maintains the right of punishing people with life imprisonment for advocating a republic, whether in writing, broadcasting or through other means.

People in these islands are generally confused about this family who so affects all our lives. Most people even believe that the current royals are direct descendants of every monarch that has sat on the throne of England. It’s interesting that the ‘English monarchy’ has rarely been English but it is amazing how jingoistic the English are about these economic-immigrants that reign over them. (Continued)