DEATH IN THE CELTIC TRADITION

DEATH IN THE CELTIC TRADITION

The Celtic tradition had a refined sense of the miracle of death. There are some beautiful prayers about death in Celtic spirituality. For the Celts, the eternal world was so close to the natural world that death was not seen as a terrible destructive or threatening event. When you enter the eternal world, you are going home to where no shadow, pain or darkness can ever touch you again. There is a lovely Celtic prayer on this theme:

I am going home with thee, to thy home, to thy home,

I am going home with thee, to thy home of winter.

I am going home with thee, to thy home, to thy home,

I am going home with thee, to thy home of autumn of spring and of summer.

I am going home with thee, thy child of my love to thy eternal bed to thy perpetual sleep.

(trans. A. Carmichael)

In that prayer the whole world of nature and the seasons are linked up beautifully with the presence of the eternal life.

In Connemara the people say: 'Ní thuigfidh tú an bás go dtiocfaidh sé ag do dhorás féin,' i.e. You will never understand death until it comes to your own door. Other phrases they have are: 'Is fear direach é an bás, ní chuireann sé scéal ar bith roimhe,' i.e. Death is a very direct individual who sends no story before him. Another phrase is, 'Ní féidir dul i bhfolach ar an mbás,' i.e. There is no place to hide from death. This means that when death is searching for you, it will always know where to find you.