Embrace Your Inner Celtic Woman

Celtic woman have inspired me my entire life. Perhaps I have a romanticized view of them from movies and books, but from what I know from Celtic history, Celtic myths, and even Celtic religion, women were a force to be reckoned with.

Women are some of Gods most incredible creations. We have endured pain, suffering, inequality, rape, torture, childbirth, and we still hold our heads up high. Women have fought in wars, defended their tribes, defended their homes and their children. Females are seen as weaker than a man physically, but our strength is immeasurable.

A great way to see the way women were viewed in the ancient world, and even our world today, is to look at the mythology from the area. Celtic mythology has an incredible role for women. Think of Brighid, the Celtic goddess of motherhood and war. Brighid was both a life-giver and also a life-taker. The Celts recogized that a woman has the softness and nurturing nature of a mother, yet they had a deadly fire in them that would unleash if you threatened what they loved.

Another Celtic legend is that of Macha. Macha had the ability to run as fast as a horse and she shared this secret with her husband and told him not to tell anyone. Her husband, however, told the king of Ulster. Impressed by this, the king forced Macha, while she was 9 months pregnant, to race his horses. At the finish line, Macha tripped and fell and lost her unborn child. Furious with the man and the king, Macha stood and placed a curse on the men of Ulster. Legend has it, in Ireland, that Ulster is still cursed by Macha's wrath.

These are ancient myths from a people who saw the strength of women. Boudicca, the woman pictured at the top of the blog post, was a Celtic queen who reigned alone when her husband was killed in battle. She was killed around 70AD when the Romans came to Britain, raped her daughters, and battled Boudicca, her warriors and her Druids. However, Boudicca remains a hero in Wales today for her strength against the most powerful army in the world. "Boudica exhorted her troops from her chariot, her daughters beside her. Tacitus gives her a short speech in which she presents herself not as an aristocrat avenging her lost wealth, but as an ordinary person, avenging her lost freedom, her battered body, and the abused chastity of her daughters. "- source

Women are a yin and yang, a balance of both softness and strength. It is terribly sad that so many of us only learn about the days when the woman was seen as a second-class citizen but we dont hear about the days when the power of a woman was recognized and cherished. The Druid, the priestly class of the ancient Celts, could be both a man or a woman. The Druid was so powerful that they were topped in the social class system only by the nobles. This powerful position could belong to a female. A Druid had the ability to walk onto a battlefield and end the battle entirely. For an ancient world where war was an everyday threat, this amount of power was amazing.

Don't forget the incredible fact that Prophet Muhammads wife, Aisha, came with Muhammad when he fought in his wars. Aisha was directly involved in war in both the days when she was married to Muhammad, and even after his death when she fought against his cousin, Ali, in the Battle of the Camel. Aisha's discourse with Ali is very controversial within Musilm circles, but whether or not you agree with Ali or with Aisha, the fact remains that a woman in the ancient world was a defender of what she loved, and had the power to control an army. This type of status for a woman seems impossible when we hear of the suffering that women have gone through. (Peace and blessings upon Muhammad, Aisha, and Ali.)

Therefore, I would like each woman to embrace her inner Aisha, or her inner Boudicca. Understand your strength and your ability to make change when you put your heart into it. 91% of rape victims in the United States are women and 1 in 6 American women will be the victim of rape sometime in their life. Forced rape is a tool that has been used throughout human history to express domination of one group over the other. Even the strongest women have been sexually abused. Boudicca stood tall against the strongest army in the world and she experienced the mass rape of her two daughters by Roman soldiers. Victims of rape are not victims because of weakness. The violation of your own body is one of the most horrifying experiences that any person will go through. The simple fact that a victim of rape can endure such a horrific experience makes them an incredibly strong individual.

My mother shared a story with me that shows the inner warrior of a woman. When I was a baby, my mother took me with her to the grocery store. As I was laying in my stroller, two gangs of men showed up in the store and started provoking each other. One of the gangs of men had on blue bandanas, the others were wearing red. My mom and I were unfortunately located in between these two groups. One of the gang members stepped forward to confront the other gang and, without watching where he was going, he pushed my stoller aside to pass by. My mother stood up, got in the gang members face, and told him that she would kill him if he ever touched her baby again. My sweet mother, the woman who has never been in a physical fight in her entire life, was face to face with a gang banger and she stood up to him automatically, without thinking, because he threatened her child. This is the nature of a woman, of a mother. A mother, without a second thought, would fight even the strongest battle to protect what she loves.

Another inspirational story is that of a friend of mine from a long time ago. She was standing in the kitchen washing dishes while her children were in the backyard playing. Suddenly, a strange feeling came over her, as though she needed to get to her children immediately. Her heart was feeling that one of her kids was in danger. She couldn't explain it, but she ran outside to the backyard just in time to see her young child reaching towards a poisonous snake who was sneaking around in the grass. The gift of intuition is just one of the many gifts that God gave to women.

Intuition is another thing that my mother was given from God. I remember, while I was in middle school and was going through some identity struggles (being a young girl in middle school is a cruel time), I was upstairs in my bed and I was crying quietly to myself. I felt like I didn't have a friend in the world. My mom was downstairs watching tv. Suddenly I heard a soft knock on my bedroom door and my mom came in and simply said that she felt like she could hear me crying. There is no way that my mother could have heard my tears from all the way downstairs. She simply knew that her child was sad.

Sharing stories of the warrior women from history and in books was my hope to inspire the hearts of all women, the same way they inspire my heart. I am not a violent person and would probably be driven to tears if I was ever even yelled at by an officer at bootcamp. However, I do have the heart of a warrior when I witness injustice. Whether you are standing up against bullies at school, facing the Roman army, or face-to-face with gang bangers who pushed aside your sleeping child's stroller, we all feel the natural flare of the protector when we witness injustice. This is our inner Celtic warrior. We don't need to take up swords and sheilds and take to the streets to be a warrior. We can simply hold our heads high when we have been victims of abuse, or we can protect the bullied child, or protect our own family and other families from harm.

I wanted to include a beautifully made video of one of my favorite Celtic women: Guinevere from the King Arthur tales. This particular version of King Arthur depicts Arthur as a British soldier in the Roman army when he meets Celtic warrior, Guinevere. Whether this is a more historically accurate representation of who they may have been in reality (whether they lived at all), I don't know. All I know is that Guinievere in this movie is both yin and yang, soothing and ferocious, hard and soft. She is both the lover and the fighter. I hope you enjoy: