Hey, I'm new here and really open to a lot of stuff. However, I'm Scottish by blood and I know about trees and birth dates but not so sure about anything else. Anyone know how to help?
The book Celtic Magic by DJ Conway is a really good place to start. The Celtic Golden Dawn by John Michael Greer is another, though it concentrates mostly on Irish and Welsh Druidic study. The 21 Lessons of Merlin is another really good book, though it concentrates on a mix of Celtic and Anglo with a focus on Arthurian myth.
I'm Irish by blood, myself, and have all of these at home.
The book "Celtic Magic" by D.J. Conway is a horribly inaccurate book full of misinformation. I would personally never recommend it to anyone seeking to learn about the Celts.
The association of trees with birthdates is a modern one and there is no evidence that the Celts used this at all.
The problem with trying to learn about what the Celts did spiritually and magically is that they left no written records. The vast majority of what we know about them was passed down to us by their enemies.What you find in most books about the Celts in books in the popular press is drawn heavily from modern practices such as Wicca and would likely seem completely foreign to an ancient Celt.
Some books on the Celts that would be useful if you want to approach it from a scolarly sound basis would include:
"The Pagan Celts" by Anne Ross
"Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles" by Ronald Hutton
"Blood and Mistletoe" by Ronald Hutton
"Dying for the Gods" by Miranda Green
"The Druids" by Peter Berresford Ellis
And two reasonably good books on Celtic practices that I would suggest are
"The Apple Branch: A Path to Celtic Ritual" by Alexei Kondratiev
"Glamoury; Mysteries of the Celtic Green World" by Steven Blamires
Oh, and also avoid the "21 Lessons of Merlyn" as well. Horrible book that claims that all Druids were vegetarians and that a female Druid was called a Dryad when Dryads were Greek tree-spirits. Blech!
I never read that in the 21 Lessons. Perhaps you're thinking of a different book?
As to DJ Conway's Celtic Magic, the mythology found in the book is sound, as I've found found the same information just about everywhere, and that's all I keep that book for. Perhaps you found issue with it, and that's fine, but that doesn't make my advice bad.
But why buy a book if it only has one good part? There are plenty of good books about Celtic mythology out there, and you don't have to deal with the fluff.
