{a quick post for the Pagan Blog Project}
Ok, I know that I have been a tad ranty lately on here. My apologies. Maybe I should ignore things that irritate me. ANYHOW....
I got a spam in my email about some "Celtic Reiki" courses and I was wondering what the hell that was supposed to be. I know what Reiki is; I took my Level 1 for it back in the late 90's. But Celtic Reiki? I had no clue.
Apparently I have been living under a rock or something because it has been around for a few years, and there is even a flashy official Celtic Reiki website.
According to these folks,
"Celtic Reiki was created by Martyn Pentecost and employs symbols derived from the Celtic ogham (the ancient alphabet used by the Druids). The Reiki energy mimics the frequency of various trees and plants so as to work in accordance with channeled and Celtic wisdom.Ah, I see.
This unique style of Reiki beautifully combines the healing energy of Reiki with the ancient wisdom of the Celts and can be used for both healing purposes and goal manifestation. It contains a variety of new techniques based on Celtic ritual and diverse frequencies of energy, which offer the ability to tackle a range of everyday issues such as health, prosperity and finance, work, love and relationships. "
Add one part cool and "exotic" tradition; slap in some "ancient Druidic wisdom" that can be found in a myriad of Llewellyn books and *presto* you have yourself a new "Celtic" tradition!
People mashing different religious and cultural practices together to make a buck. Sounds familiar.
I am curious what the next fad will be. Wear tartan while doing a downward dog and you have Scottish Yoga? Maybe I should get on that! ;)
Sláinte!
Laurel
5 comments:
LMAO!!!!!! SCOTTISH YOGA!
Love it! :)
While funny, and, while indeed some people use the superficial cultural practices of ages past for plain old profit....
I know that the topic is very polarized, but I do in my heart believe it's perfectly OK to follow a path that is combining traditions all over the world. We are connected as humans and through the same Divinity... so in essence, all traditions, all beliefs, all cultures go back to simply "human" which is something we can all share. But that’s just my nature to think this way.
Ultimately, I would be totally front-in-line to do Scottish Yoga (still hilarious!!)… I think in combining we may be finding missing links and hidden keys to uplift us even more – taking the best of everything and making our lives better because of it.
Anyway that’s just my personal opinion! :D xoxo
I would argue that almost all of modern Paganism is culture-mashing. Check out Pagans' treatment of Celtic material - you'd think the Celts were some homogeneous (both in time and geography) group of bonfire-dancers and knotworkers. Eye roll...
I agree all this cultural appropriation is getting way out of hand. It does seem though that many more people in the pagan community are becoming mindful of this.
I'm not sure I'd want to be standing behind the guy in the kilt doing downward dog. TMI, you know?
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