Fire, the Celts, and the gift of the Ampersand
This last Wednesday was Feast of Saint Brigid, both a Celtic pagan festival and a Saints Day for the Irish Catholic Church. “Rites of initiation and installation, then, teach the lesson of the essential oneness of the individual and the group: seasonal festivals open a larger horizon;” [1]. This feast day and festival is for St. Brigid of Kildare, one of my personal heroes and mentors in my faith journey. And the celebration of her feast day reminds me of greater horizons. She holds in her story what I believe Joseph Campbell describes as the Hero’s journey in his Book the Hero with A Thousand Faces. Let me explain a bit more about my studies into the Celtic Christian tradition. I studied at the Sacred Art of Living Center in Bend, OR. In these 3 years of study, I became an Anam Cara Apprentice which is a Gaelic phrase for “Soul Friend” and tapped deep into the well of traditional Celtic Wisdom. “The Celtic spiritual tradition is one that has long emphasized an awareness of the sacred essence of all things” [2] The Celtic pagan tradition is all about legends and myths, and like Campbell writes, this deep understanding of story and myth served this tradition well when Christian missionaries arrived in Ireland and Scotland. The Celts sat by the fire listening to the story of Jesus and the Bible and instead of turning away from their deeply embedded culture and stories they found parallels to their own stories. Utilizing this story telling allowed them not only to accept this new understanding of Spirituality it also allowed them to live into the &; both were acceptable, they were able to hold the balance between traditions and culture & embrace the new. This study of Celtic tradition has helped me on my reconstruction of my faith journey. I can hold my childhood faith and not throw it out with the bathwater but keep it in the same container with a threshold knowing that my beliefs are tremendously different. It is not an either or, it’s an &.
A little education on St. Brigid. St. Brigid is known as the Fiery Arrow. She was fierce, she was compassionate, she stood up against patriarchy and became an abbess over men and women studying the faith. She was said “to have been born just before the sunrise, in the twilight of the early morning, in the time governed neither by the sun’s light nor the moon’s light, but by the two lights, the twi-lights. So, her birth signals that she is in the liminal space between two worlds.” [3] She represents so much to both the pagan Celtic world as well as the Christian world. She has also been told to turn water into ale [4] (sound familiar) and was said to have been the midwife to Jesus’ birth[5] The Celts didn’t care she was centuries after Jesus, as true faith is not limited to time and space. In Edinburgh Art Museum there is a painting of 2 angels carrying St. Brigid from the Island of Iona to Jesus Birth. I was blessed to have gone on a Celtic Christian Pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona in Scotland last April and was able to take a picture of this painting.
“St. Bride”
By John Duncan (1866-1945)
My spiritual journey into Celtic Christianity has been a tremendous grounding gift to me as I work through feminine theology and my place as a Leader in this world. I am a daughter of St. Brigid, and I sit in the warmth of her eternal fire that is still lit today.
Saint Brigids Well
Isle of Iona, April 2022
As I looked deeper into all the other ways of understanding Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, I found that I connected to the need to also find The Heroine’s journey: Women’s Quest for Wholeness by Maureen Murdock especially enlightening. She too found that there was a need to start naming and expressing the feminine voice. She tells of all our “need to find the duality of the feminine and masculine, to find our balance, our Ying and Yang,” as summarized by the website www.mythcreants.com. I have mentioned my deep desire to elevate women in the world of leadership and on a personal level doing so within the Church walls in previous posts and I’ve mentioned the struggles myself and other women have had. I find it refreshing that John Campbells work can be stretched and expanded into new ways of understanding and do so without diminishing his work, but to enhance it and hear it from other voices and global perspectives. As a female clergy in a man’s world, as a mom, as a wife, as a whole and complete person, I find resonance in the & symbol. We don’t have to choose between feminine and masculine, we don’t have to choose our own traditions and new threshold horizons, we don’t have to choose to leave our culture in order to embrace a new thought or way of being or belief, we don’t have to leave our faith even if we’ve left the church and we certainly can go back, and that is living in the &.
As a celebration of St. Brigid’s Feast Day, I leave you a beautiful video gift for all of you. Happy St. Brigid’s Day! [6]
A beautiful dance honoring St. Brigid and the Divine Feminine by Kirsten Newell, filmed in the Orkney Islands. The Gaelic song being sung by Mischa Macpherson is based on John Philip’s prayer from Sacred Earth Sacred Soul:
Awake, O my soul,
to the beauty of the divine deep within you
and awake to its fragrance in the body of the earth.
Know its strength of attraction
and its grace to heal what has been torn apart.
Awake, O my soul,
to the beauty of the divine deep within you.
Awake, O my soul.
Awake.
[1] Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces, (Novato, CA: New World Library, 1949), 331
[2] Newwll, John Phillip. Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World, (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2021), 2.
[3] Ibid, 46
[4] Ibid,58
[5] Ibid, 47
[6] https://youtu.be/jkJ4JVG5QUQ
About the Author
Jana Dluehosh
Jana serves as a Spiritual Care Supervisor for Signature Hospice in Portland, OR. She chairs the corporate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging committee as well as presents and consults with chronically ill patients on addressing Quality of Life versus and alongside Medical treatment. She has trained as a World Religions and Enneagram Spiritual Director through an Anam Cara apprenticeship through the Sacred Art of Living center in Bend, OR. Jana utilizes a Celtic Spirituality approach toward life as a way to find common ground with diverse populations and faith traditions. She has mentored nursing students for several years at the University of Portland in a class called Theological Perspectives on Suffering and Death, and has taught in the Graduate Counseling program at Portland Seminary in the Trauma Certificate program on Grief.17 responses to “Fire, the Celts, and the gift of the Ampersand”
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Jana, I’m so glad that I got up this morning and read your blog post with my morning coffee. I didn’t know anything about Celtic Christianity. Thanks for teaching me a bit about it! In addition, I resonate with your thoughts about living in the “&” space in many ways. It makes me wonder who around me is also living in that uncertain space, feeling torn between two (or more!) realities.
Yes, I think a lot of us can resonate with living in the & place. I think that is what speaks to balance and sometimes it’s “a good enough” space. I have had to really lean into my & as I encounter a learning and being graded environment. I want an “A” and put that kind of pressure on myself, however, I don’t believe I want to give up some of my other responsibilities to do so. Meaning I will always choose my family first and if that means I get a good solid “B” doctorate, I’m good with that! Thank Kim for your comments. It’s always reassuring after you hit “publish” that someone else appreciates what you put out there in the world!
Thank you for sharing about some of the Celtic practices. What a beautiful dance to John Philip’s prayer. When thinking about elevating women in a world of leadership within the church walls and some of the struggles women have had, it is critical to consider this in light of who we are but more importantly, Whose we are (women of God). Help me to understand the struggle. A little background. . . I serve in a denomination that ordains women and men. In our history, Emma Ray, Phoebe Palmer, and Ellen Roberts, were some of the few who served and I am thankful for the historical significance of their leadership. In a series of professional development sessions that I participated in with Dr. Yolanda Sealey -Ruiz, professor at Columbia University, she shared about an archaeology of self. She shared about critical love, critical humility and other facets of her work with the Arch of Self (https://www.yolandasealeyruiz.com/).
Dr. Sealey-Ruiz also talked in length about the idea that when we elevate one factor of an identity over another, we can inadvertently downgrade or demote the other, such as gender, class, race, social status, etc. She challenged district leaders that our goal isn’t to promote one race or gender over another but to have critical love and humility, mutually valuing one another. This got me thinking and pondering, as leaders who identify as followers of Jesus, first and foremost, and women, how might we best promote and embrace the idea of women and men as co-laborers in the work of the Kingdom?
Hi Cathy, I really appreciate your question! I realize I’ve really taken on a feminist bend in my blog posts. I’ve been reflecting on that and realize my experience has been one of many road blocks so for the first time since leaving ministry within the church, I am stretching my theological chops. I’m using my voice again for the first time within the church system through this doctorate, even though it isn’t a DMin, it kind of feels like it is. So the gender roles is just an entry point for my theological standing for inclusiveness within God’s kingdom. I was hoping I communicated that I do not want to elevate one gender over another, I am aware that can be the outcome even when not intending to, I’m not sure I stated that very clearly in my blog and I appreciate you bringing this important outcome to light! I also believe in order to gain true equality, voices must be elevated, not in an effort to squash dominant voices down, but to bring marginalized voices to the light. I am thankful at how many people within this cohort are part of denominations that fully include women in ordination and leadership. I have experienced over and over again many denominations that don’t fully do so. In my work I encounter every kind of Christian and non-Christian you can imagine.. as we all die. Just this last Friday I was doing a consult to bring a sick woman onto Palliative care and was explaining her access to our Social Worker and Chaplain. I had introduced myself as a Chaplain earlier, though I wouldn’t be her assigned Chaplain. She said, women can’t be pastors and how important it is to have a man as clergy. It is this that I run into often. My agenda is not to change her mind. That is not my job, but I sure am going to continue to use my voice in other arenas:). Thank you Cathy for using your voice in this world!
Love your post Jana! What a great way to connect the dots here Jana. The universal stories in so many human hearts do not have to compete with one another but point to something significant. You said “The Celts sat by the fire listening to the story of Jesus and the Bible and instead of turning away from their deeply embedded culture and stories they found parallels to their own stories.” This is such a beautiful picture.
It’s comforting to know that God has been speaking in the hearts of men and women all around the world while Judeo-Christan history was still forming and inaccessible. I can’t swallow that God only cared about one small segment of the world in Mesopotamia and left everyone else grasping in the dark. These parallel stories are beautiful and very revealing. I think you would enjoy “The Universal Christ” by Richard Rohr. Not that you need another book! Thanks for another great posts!
Thank you Adam for seeing how I was using the Celtic story in relation to the reading! It was such a thick and meaty book I was afraid this connection of story and myth and the beautiful opportunity we have to utilize this learning as a way to encounter the “other”. By the way, I love Richard Rohr. I have read bits and pieces of that book and have intended to read more so thanks for the reminder! It will have to wait until this summer:) or the summer of 2025:)
I had to read your entry twice. By the second or third paragraph I forgot that I was supposed to be replying to your post and was enjoying reading it for entertainment. The second time through, I kept my critical eye turned on, however.
I listened to a podcast about four years ago on the early Christian missionaries to Scotland and Ireland and I found it fascinating then to learn about what you described: instead of fighting and war there seemed to be conversation and listening. I think your description of the “both, and” is beautiful here.
I have a couple of questions:
1. in what ways do you most often find others do not acknowledge the wholeness of you are in a church environment – or that because you are a woman they aren’t accepting you as both, and?
2. You are on a date and the waiter says to you, you can either turn this water into wine or ale, make your decision. Which do you choose (please be as specific as possible).
Mathieu, thank you for your response. I’m glad it brought you entertainment and joy. I am not sure I can fully answer your first question on my not experiencing the wholeness of who I am in church. All I can say is that I have experienced wholeness in a church environment so I never want to say it has never happened. I honestly think I don’t have the space here to tell my story, which is coming out in bits and pieces through the blog. All I can really say is that it’s not just about my wholeness not always being recognized but it is also all the ways I’ve seen God’s creation not fully accepted or brought into wholeness through the church. This applies to gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity. I feel very called to use my privilege to give voice to the marginalized, so my experience is an important small piece of the puzzle that compels me to be ally to those marginalized. Did that kind of answer question 1? As for question 2, maybe that is even harder…it depends on the restaurant and the meal, right? Some need to be a great pilsner or kolsch, and other’s I’d ask for a good Red wine:).
Jana,
Thank you for your beautiful post! I am envious of your trip to Iona! It’s on my bucket list. Some day…The dance was beautiful and reminds me that dance is a fully embodied expression of worship. Why don’t I dance more? I have done some reading on St. Brigid. Do you have a favorite book you could recommend?
I have three ampersands in my office. They serve as wonderful reminders of the tensions we live with as we journey through life and helps us hold them together in the same space or container as you described it. In your work, you are tending to others in threshold spaces of tension and change. How do Celtic Christian practices and theology help you hold those spaces with others?
Jenny, we may be kindred! My house and office is full of Ampersands. I even got an & tattooed on my wrist in December:). It serves as a reminder that I have a lot of gifts to give and a lot of gifts given to me (children, husband, etc). My & is my balance symbol.
My trip to Iona was amazing! It was this trip and living out an adventurous dream that I felt drawn to this degree at George Fox. I did not want a DMin, and hesitantly spoke to a recruiter about the DMin and had never heard of this degree and it screamed “YES” to my travelers heart. I applied in July! Anyway, I cannot recommend Iona enough to those who want to experience a Liminal space on earth or “thin place” where the curtain between God and us is at its thinnest! It was holy and I loved every minute I spent on that tiny island and all the ways I had to travel to get there! Planes, multiple trains, buses, and multiple ferries! You sometimes have to work real hard to find these sacred spaces. I suppose that is what makes it sacred…the journey! Glad to be on this journey with you!
Iona/St.Brigid book I’d recommend is the one from this post Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul, by John Phillip Newell.
John O’Donohue’s Anam Cara…any of his books really.
I’ve encountered mostly through learning opportunities so don’t have a specific book just for her.
Thank you! I have Anam Cara but haven’t done a super deep read of it yet. Looking forward to pulling it out again. I will look into to the one you wrote about too!
Jana, thank you soooo much for sharing about St Brigid of Kildare. I was not familiar with her until you mentioned her. Then I paused reading your post to find out more about her. You opened my eyes to another important person in this world and I am grateful for it. My question is how did she mentor you in your faith. Even though I’m waiting on the edge of my seat for an answer, please take your time.
I’m so grateful my Blog on St. Brigid is being received this way! She has a myth (or fact?)about her that I absolutely love that as ” Abbess of Kildare, she had episcopal status in the Celtic world. A later account, not knowing what to make of a woman in this role, said that her consecration as bishop had been “accidental”. Bishop Mel, who was consecrating her, had read from the wrong service book, it claimed. The bishop had been to “intoxicated with the grace of God” that he had not know what he was doing! ” (Newell, pg. 54). I was working really hard on my ordination within the Covenant Church as I served as co-pastor with my husband in a dying church. They could only pay me for 10-15 hours a week as youth and children’s pastor though I worked many, many more hours than that. I needed to have a ministry license for 2 years to go for ordination, and the committee (of which one of the interviewers fell asleep during my interview) gave me a bi-vocational license that took me out of ordination track because I didn’t work enough hours. This is were structure and rules absolutely get in the way. I guess I relate to Brigid being put into leadership positions even when the structure says it’s impossible. I may not be ordained, but I find my way to leadership through back doors:). This was within a denomination that affirmed and ordained women. Saint Brigid did not play small, she kept her fire lit to do the work of God, and I guess I can relate to that!
WOW! Jana! This is incredible how your lives are so much a like. You definitely have fire in your eyes 🔥! You’ve had to go through the fire to get where you are! I bow to you, Jana! Your resilience is so encouraging!
Jana… What a beautiful post. I have some believing friends who are myth-tellers (of the superhero variety) to the wider culture who will identify with this narrative of missionaries who engaged culture and found commonality, instead of fighting against it. I think this post will encourage them deeply, and I plan to share it with them this week.
Yay Tim! I love and feel so honored that you will share my post! Thank you!
Hi Jana, I was in Walmart the other day, and for better or worse, I make eye contact with people. Some see this as an invitation for conversation (which I don’t mind). On one particular incident a man asked me if I believed in God, I said “yes.” He proceeded to tell me about God – the mother. I listened for quite a while and then told him that I appreciated his enthusiasm, but that I don’t believe in God the mother. What are your thoughts?