Modern Celts: Laurie on Poetry, Madness, and Healing

I've had people walk away from workshops I've taught on filidecht, thinking you had to be broken or crazy as an occupational requirement, and that has never been what I've said. It's really a misinterpretation of the message. Geilt is a side effect that sometimes happens, or it's a way in which a really damaged person may find their way into the poetic tradition in an attempt to work on their healing. In discussing geilt, I can then go on to the filidecht book and say "this is what the socially-sanctioned part of the tradition looks like" as opposed to what I'm often doing, which is the personal healing work that was being attempted by people who were marginalized and unable to be a fully functional part of mainstream society.

There is definitely an idea in the Gaelic tradition that poetry is dangerous. Anything powerful can be dangerous, particularly if it's misused. Any initiatory experience has the potential to go wrong and damage rather than initiate the recipient; I think that's an issue that gets far too little attention in our communities. Yet the fire that burns down buildings is the same basic fire that warms us and cooks our food. The key is learning responsibility and control, which reduce the chances of accidents happening. It's important to understand that, even under the best of circumstances and with the utmost care, an accident can still happen and people can be hurt or killed because of it. Spirituality that doesn't address danger and failure doesn't address the whole of human experience.

I do think it's possible that overmedicating people can destroy or seriously mute their creative impulses, but I believe the same thing about overworking people so that their lives consist only of working, eating, sleeping, and going back to work. There has to be a certain amount of room in society and in individual lives for creativity, for time to think, for time to learn and explore.  Looking at madness as necessary for the creation of poetry is like looking at breaking your leg as necessary for taking a day off of work. They can certainly bring those results, but it's not the most desirable way to go about getting there. I work with what I have, which means I deal with filidecht through the lens of the geilt most of the time. It can often be as much a hindrance as a help, but it does make me work harder at my art to try to make things communicable to others.

Read Part One of the conversation with Erynn in which she discusses her own journey and the development of Celtic Reconstructionism.

Erynn Rowan Laurie is a poet and writer who lives on Puget Sound. Animist, polytheist, and centered on the pre-Christian spirituality of Ireland and Scotland, she is the author of Ogam: Weaving Word Wisdom and has occasionally been known to have a few things to say about Pagan religions. For more information on Erynn and her writing visit The Preserving Shrine.

Star Foster is a Pagan numbers-geek roaming the wilds of the North Georgia mountains. She enjoys bluegrass, RPGs, war novels, and keeping abreast of the wild, wonderful world of Modern Paganism.