Читать книгу 366 Celt: A Year and A Day of Celtic Wisdom and Lore - Carl McColman - Страница 57

One gifted seer from Irish myth, the druid Cathbad, uttered a prophecy concerning the birth of a girl who would be named Deirdre. His gloomy prediction foretold of great suffering that would ensue thanks to her (or rather, thanks to stupid things the king would do in regard to her). Need I say that the Ulster Cycle tale known as “Deirdre of the Sorrows” is little more than a detailed recounting of how the seer’s prophecy came to be fulfilled?

Any competent seer possessed the ability to get out of the way of a message coming through from the spirit world. In other words, an essential part of the seer’s role in society entailed his or her ability to prophesy. Among the seers of old, such inspired information may have come from a variety of otherworldly sources—from ancestral or natural spirits as well as from any of a variety of gods or goddesses.

Prophecy is often understood as predicting the future, but that is only a small part of the prophetic function. The best prophecy is not about understanding the future so much as about living well in the present. Master the present, and the future takes care of itself. So even if a seer could predict the future, his primary value would still have been his ability to speak spiritual knowledge and wisdom, as it had more of an immediate use.