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Celtic Visions: Seership, Omens and Dreams of the Otherworld
Through prayers, chants, and practical exercises, Celtic Visions teaches readers how to tap into their inner spiritual power, enabling them to experience heightened perception and open portals to other realms of existence. Drawn from ancient Gaelic and Welsh sources, this visionary guide reveals the truth behind the prophetic visions of the druids and seers. It explains their methods for communicating with the Otherworld through omens and fairy lore and explores the Celtic gift of “second sight”--the ability to perceive both the visible and the invisible aspects of reality.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
27 people are currently reading
178 people want to read
About the author
Caitlín Matthews
146 books190 followersCaitlín Matthews is a writer, singer and teacher whose ground-breaking work has introduced many to the riches of our western spiritual heritage.
She is acknowledged as a world authority on Celtic Wisdom, the Western Mysteries and the ancestral traditions of Britain and Europe. She is the author of over 50 books including Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, a study of Divine Feminine in Gnostic, Jewish and Christian thought and King Arthur’s Raid on the Underworld, a new translation and study of the Welsh poet Taliesin’s extraordinary poem, itself a major cross-roads of British mythology.
Caitlín was trained in the esoteric mystery traditions through the schools founded by Dion Fortune, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and Gareth Knight. Her shamanic vocation emerged early in her ability to sing between the worlds and to embody spirits. She has worked in many of the western traditions with companions upon the path including R.J.Stewart. Like him, she teaches the many strands of the ancestral European traditions. She specializes in teaching traditional European spirit-consultation oracles where the diviner draws directly upon the spirits of nature for answers and in the use of the voice to sound the unseen. Caitlín has been instrumental in revealing the ancestral heritage of the Western traditions through practical exploration of the mysteries as well as through scholarly research. Her teachings are couched in a firm historical and linguistic framework, with respect to the original context of the teachings, but never loses sight of the living traditions of these teachings which can be explored through direct application to their spiritual sources.
Trained as an actress, Caitlín is in demand as a storyteller and singer. She appears frequently on international radio and television, and was the song-writer and Pictish language originator for the Jerry Bruckheimer film King Arthur. With John Matthews, her partner, who was historical consultant on the film, she shared in the 2004 BAFTA award given to Film Education for the best educational CD Rom: this project introduced school-children to the life and times of King Arthur. She and John are both concerned with the oral nature of storytelling and its ability to communicate the myth at a much deeper level than of the commercial booktrade. This is apparent in their forthcoming project, The Story Box. For Caitlín, her books are merely the tip of a much bigger oral iceberg which is her teaching.
With her partner, John Matthews, and with Felicity Wombwell , she is co-founder of The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the sacred arts that are not written down. Their FíOS shamanic training programme teaches students the healing arts as well as hosting masterclasses with exemplars of living sacred traditions. Caitlín has a shamanic practice in Oxford dedicated to addressing soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation, as well as helping clients find vocational and spiritual direction. Her soul-singing and embodiment uniquely bring the ancient healing traditions to everyday life.
Caitlín’s other books include Singing the Soul Back Home, Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, The Psychic Protection Handbook, and Celtic Devotional. She is co-author, with John Matthews, of the Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom and Encyclopaedia of Celtic Myth and Legend. Her books have been translated into more than nineteen languages from Brazil to Japan.
The author lives in Oxford with her husband and son in a kind of book-cave or library, whichever you will. They share their home with a white cat and a black cat.
She is acknowledged as a world authority on Celtic Wisdom, the Western Mysteries and the ancestral traditions of Britain and Europe. She is the author of over 50 books including Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom, a study of Divine Feminine in Gnostic, Jewish and Christian thought and King Arthur’s Raid on the Underworld, a new translation and study of the Welsh poet Taliesin’s extraordinary poem, itself a major cross-roads of British mythology.
Caitlín was trained in the esoteric mystery traditions through the schools founded by Dion Fortune, Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and Gareth Knight. Her shamanic vocation emerged early in her ability to sing between the worlds and to embody spirits. She has worked in many of the western traditions with companions upon the path including R.J.Stewart. Like him, she teaches the many strands of the ancestral European traditions. She specializes in teaching traditional European spirit-consultation oracles where the diviner draws directly upon the spirits of nature for answers and in the use of the voice to sound the unseen. Caitlín has been instrumental in revealing the ancestral heritage of the Western traditions through practical exploration of the mysteries as well as through scholarly research. Her teachings are couched in a firm historical and linguistic framework, with respect to the original context of the teachings, but never loses sight of the living traditions of these teachings which can be explored through direct application to their spiritual sources.
Trained as an actress, Caitlín is in demand as a storyteller and singer. She appears frequently on international radio and television, and was the song-writer and Pictish language originator for the Jerry Bruckheimer film King Arthur. With John Matthews, her partner, who was historical consultant on the film, she shared in the 2004 BAFTA award given to Film Education for the best educational CD Rom: this project introduced school-children to the life and times of King Arthur. She and John are both concerned with the oral nature of storytelling and its ability to communicate the myth at a much deeper level than of the commercial booktrade. This is apparent in their forthcoming project, The Story Box. For Caitlín, her books are merely the tip of a much bigger oral iceberg which is her teaching.
With her partner, John Matthews, and with Felicity Wombwell , she is co-founder of The Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies, which is dedicated to the sacred arts that are not written down. Their FíOS shamanic training programme teaches students the healing arts as well as hosting masterclasses with exemplars of living sacred traditions. Caitlín has a shamanic practice in Oxford dedicated to addressing soul sickness and ancestral fragmentation, as well as helping clients find vocational and spiritual direction. Her soul-singing and embodiment uniquely bring the ancient healing traditions to everyday life.
Caitlín’s other books include Singing the Soul Back Home, Mabon and the Guardians of Celtic Britain, The Psychic Protection Handbook, and Celtic Devotional. She is co-author, with John Matthews, of the Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom and Encyclopaedia of Celtic Myth and Legend. Her books have been translated into more than nineteen languages from Brazil to Japan.
The author lives in Oxford with her husband and son in a kind of book-cave or library, whichever you will. They share their home with a white cat and a black cat.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 27, 2013
I love Caitlin Matthews' scholarship. She does not approach the topics of Seership, Omens, and Dreams from a purely woodgies standpoint, but gathers as much information from the historical texts and shares them with the reader. Reading her books the seeker receives the information necessary to continue their own scholarship on these subjects.
In addition to sharing the acquired knowledge beautifully, and in a well organized manner, she adds in exercises for the reader to explore and bring into the 'modern' ancient techniques used by the Celts.
In addition to sharing the acquired knowledge beautifully, and in a well organized manner, she adds in exercises for the reader to explore and bring into the 'modern' ancient techniques used by the Celts.
January 8, 2019
This is a brilliant combination of referencing books of old and learning pagan history while also learning practices and how to make them modern. This is incredibly well written and embodies so much magic. I adore this book.
December 15, 2018
A nice book.
September 13, 2014
This is a well organised and thoughtfully written book of Celtic beliefs and wisdom, including general omens and dreams.
If you have an interest in Celtic lore, you can't go wrong with a Caitlin Matthews book. As a foremost leader in Celtic knowledge, she is a trusted source for information on the subject and her books are a lot of fun to read.
I liked this book for the most part. Her suggested exercises for seership and interpretation of omens were easy to follow and require little more than concentration and a few minutes of peace and quiet to perform.
The portions of the book that deal with seership are complex and a lot of references to Celtic history are used, so this may not be the best book for beginners if you have no familiarity with the culture and the subject matter. For those who do, there are interesting tidbits in this book that I have not seen in many others, so it was a good place to go to find new information.
I liked that she used a combination of general research as well as old tales, poems and texts to tie the information together. This book isn't monotonous and boring as some such books can be. She also uses a personal voice throughout, so you feel as if you are getting her ideas and feelings about things rather than just reading instructions or recounts of earlier events.
In the end, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more information on dream interpretation and ways of deciphering particular omens, but excited that I learned new things and agreed with much of what I read about divining.
Overall, I thought this was a good book on the subject and would recommend it to others.
If you have an interest in Celtic lore, you can't go wrong with a Caitlin Matthews book. As a foremost leader in Celtic knowledge, she is a trusted source for information on the subject and her books are a lot of fun to read.
I liked this book for the most part. Her suggested exercises for seership and interpretation of omens were easy to follow and require little more than concentration and a few minutes of peace and quiet to perform.
The portions of the book that deal with seership are complex and a lot of references to Celtic history are used, so this may not be the best book for beginners if you have no familiarity with the culture and the subject matter. For those who do, there are interesting tidbits in this book that I have not seen in many others, so it was a good place to go to find new information.
I liked that she used a combination of general research as well as old tales, poems and texts to tie the information together. This book isn't monotonous and boring as some such books can be. She also uses a personal voice throughout, so you feel as if you are getting her ideas and feelings about things rather than just reading instructions or recounts of earlier events.
In the end, I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't more information on dream interpretation and ways of deciphering particular omens, but excited that I learned new things and agreed with much of what I read about divining.
Overall, I thought this was a good book on the subject and would recommend it to others.
June 27, 2012
Fascinating background information, but I thought the exercises could use some work.
May 7, 2015
An interesting history of Celtic, Irish, Druid, and Gaelic spirituality. A bit dull, considering its content, but fascinating nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews