Читать книгу 366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore - Carl McColman - Страница 29

Perhaps the single most attractive element of Celtic wisdom and spirituality is its link with nature. Celtic mysticism is the mysticism of the earth. This crosses religious lines—Christians embrace the Celtic love of nature as fully as do neopagans. From the windswept islands of the Hebrides, to the lush verdant fields in Ireland, to the panoramic coastlines of Cornwall, the Celtic world is brimming with the majesty of nature—and this has, from the beginning, shaped the Celtic soul.

The sense of nature as divine or holy is hardly unique to the Celts. Native American wisdom is clear in its respect for Mother Nature and insistence that a balanced life means walking in harmony with the environment. Similar themes may be found throughout primal and shamanistic cultures worldwide. For that matter, the Jewish tradition has a strong history of insisting that the earth be cared for—the commandment to remember the Sabbath is not just a religious directive, but also implies that society needs to refrain from over-working the land.

So the Celtic tradition of venerating nature is not alone. Which is another way of saying that the profound earth mysticism of the Celts is, ultimately, of universal importance.