Celtic Song and Spirit
by Sirona Knight & Michael Starwyn From Magical Blend Magazine Issue #59 March 1998

Everyone familiar with the original Star Trek series remembers the plight of the half-human, half-Vulcan, First Officer Spock, as his Vulcan roots constantly influenced his behavior patterns in sometimes unforeseen and mysterious ways. Akin to a biological need implanted in Spock's genetic coding, he symbolically expressed the primal motivation planted within each of us to connect back to our ancestral roots, which in essence, makes us whole again. Integrating our past into our present is part of the process of evolving into the future.

Whether because of ancestry or evolution, recent surveys report over forty percent of people in the United States have Celtic roots. These figures are particularly significant when you realize most of the people living in this geographical locale are living in places that are not an extension of their ancestral history, often leaving people with a feeling of rootlessness and disconnectedness from the land. In this light, the need for a large section of the population to reconnect, identify, and integrate who they are becomes even more urgent. This need is being expressed in the current Celtic resurgence, which continues to grow and gain momentum, not only in the United States, but throughout the world.

We recently spoke with five Celtic-influenced composers and recording artists-Loreena McKennitt, Alan Stivell, Maireid Sullivan, Steve McDonald, and Aine Minogue-who offered their personal experiences and insights into the current Celtic resurgence and how it has affected their musical and creative process.

Canadian singer songwriter Loreena McKennitt traces her Celtic roots back to the 1830s, when her ancestors immigrated from Ireland to the Manitoba area of Canada. Loreena commented that "Celticness" played little part in her upbringing. She did not encounter Celtic music until later, in a Winnipeg Folk club. She told us, "There is something quite powerful and infectious about Celtic music. I succumbed in 1978 or 1979, and it was an instinctual attraction. Something in the sound was like love at first listen, and the wonderful thing is that the attraction has never left."

On her new recording, the book of secrets (Quinlan Road/Warner Bros.), Loreena continues to expand the boundaries of Celtic music, simultaneously developing her own eclectic blend of music. She explained, "Once into Celtic music, I then became fascinated by the history and culture, which has led me far from Ireland, to other parts of the globe and other times and connections that are fascinating as well. My music and songs, like travel writing, chronicle these adventures to different places. Sometimes the Celtic road has been a conduit to something else-like the Sufi influence in the song 'Marco Polo,' which reflects my experiences in Turkey."

Considered "The Master of the Celtic harp," Grammy Award-winning Alan Stivell's new album is called Zoom (Dreyfus Records/Keltia III). Stivell carries on the tradition of his father, Georges Cochevelou, who built a prototype of the Breton Celtic harp out of a Fender Stratocaster guitar, at a time when the Breton harp was dying in Brittany. Stivell attributes the recent Celtic resurgence to a cyclic pattern that has been going on for the last 2000 years, since the Celtic culture was submersed in other Western cultures, with each new resurgence becoming stronger. In a recent interview he said, "Celtic spirituality is something universal, where everything is together, with no lines or separation between people and things."

When asked about his Celtic roots and how they play into his creative process, Stivell commented, "Since age ten, I have envisioned making new Celtic harps, in fact harps for the future of the Celtic Nations. The one I used on my last tour of the U.S. was made of plexiglass. In one way, I love the purity of the Celtic harp as it was naturally and acoustically meant, but at the same time I like the electric, and want a harp with a very crystalline sound that can also be used with electronic effects. I use nylon and steel strings to express different feelings. Artistically, I'm eclectic and like the two extremes. The soul has something very pure inside, but I also like the explosive quality of rock music. For myself, I need both. They are a part of me, and I need to express both."

Since her childhood in West Cork, Ireland, Maireid Sullivan has been integrating her Celtic roots into her love for singing. As a subsequent resident of Australia, now residing in California, Maireid sees the Celtic resurgence as a reawakening of the sleepers, who have remained dormant until now. Her recording Dancer (Lyrebird Music) uses Celtic melodies and rhythms to propel the listener beyond this reality into a world of connectedness. When asked her views on the appeal of Celtic music, she replied, "The most distinguishing feature in Celtic music is that hint of enchantment, which has come down from ancient wisdom. To me as a human being, this confirms we are evolving from the microcosm to macrocosm. It is a time to begin the great quest, a time of personal sovereignty and self-realization, both expressions of individual freedom that are contrary to the dogma of modern western society."

Sons of Somerled composer, Steve McDonald, whose new album The Stone of Destiny (Etherean Music), is named for one of the famous "King Stones" of antiquity, which was taken from Scotland by King Edward in 1296, and has just recently been returned to its rightful place. Steve was born and raised in New Zealand, and because his family immigrated to New Zealand during the clearings of Great Britain, when families killed and drove out their own kin, he didn't connect with his Celtic roots until a friend sent him information all about his McDonald family name. At that point he contacted people on the Isle of Skye, who sent him back a mountain of information regarding his ancestry that, to his surprise, included fourteen Viking kings, dating back to 362 AD, to both Northern Ireland and Scotland. In his words, "It was a spiritual quest, because I felt drawn to it. I was fascinated by the history, but also internally there was something going on. This was when I started writing the music for my album Sons of Somerled, not knowing whether the instrumentation I was using was accurate because I knew nothing about the music of Scotland. It was only later when I went to Scotland that I found everything I had done was accurate."

In her recording Between the Worlds (BMG Music), singer, songwriter, and harpist Aine Minogue alludes to the journey we all take in life, while balancing the polarities of existence. Often using major and minor keys as metaphors for light and dark, she writes songs intended to connect people back to the spirit in the land, and in turn, their Celtic roots. As someone born in Ireland, who is now living the United States, she offered unique insights as to why the Celtic resurgence is happening at this time. She said, "The world is coming to a more circular way of thinking, where before it had been linear. This corresponds to the Celtic world, where everything has a circular and less linear slant to it. In the 'I think, therefore I am' past, all the symbolism didn't make sense, and everyone used to feel if you had a huge reverence for nature and the natural world, you were almost barbaric. Now more people are coming around and realizing this immense connection we have with nature, an idea prevalent in the bardic tradition and Irish way of thinking, which is 'I am the wave, I am of the Mind' type thinking. This means we're all coming around on a global level."

Whether it is a reflection of each of us acting out or discovering something in our genetic coding, and/or a global movement to a more evolved, cyclic, and connected way of thinking, the recent Celtic resurgence has inspired much of the population to begin rediscovering their Celtic roots. Like Mr. Spock, we are driven by sometimes distant and often subtle forces, influencing our lives in unforeseen ways. Music and creativity are ways these energetic forces manifest themselves. So next time you feel compelled to dance an Irish jig or find yourself humming a few bars of "Loch Lomand," go with it. You may be simply rediscovering your Celtic heritage and tapping into the consciousness of the Priestess Queens and Sleeper Kings.

Sirona Knight, M.S., C.H.T. is Contributing Editor for Magical Blend, creator and co-author of The Shapeshifter Tarot, and author of The Pocket Guide to Celtic Spirituality, Greenfire and Moonflower, with her work appearing in Solstice Shift. Michael Starwyn is a composer and author who writes regularly for Magical Blend, New Age Retailer, and Aquarius magazines. Contact them at (530) 534-3173, P.O. Box 2032, Chico, CA 95927,
e-mail: [email protected]
Please visit the web site of Sirona Knight and Michael Starwyn at http://www.dcsi.net/~bluesky