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Waeccan Means to "Wake Up"

8/10/2020

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PEGI EYERS ~ Author of Ancient Spirit Rising


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What inner promptings or outer circumstances guide us along the path of ancestral connection?  In my own case as a life-long animist, at times I had felt drawn to a few practices in the New Age world, due to the plethora of books and products in metaphysical bookstores and fairs, and also for the social life and connection offered by local community.  For many years I was non-judgmental on the more bizarre manifestations in New Age going on around me, such as cult-like hierarchies, the guru complex, "ascension," fake shamans and healing circles led by abusive and harmful people. But eventually it dawned on me that the New Age practice of constantly picking up new books and modalities was not sustainable, and was deeply hypocritical by being connected to capitalism, consumerism and the addiction to shopping.

When the absurdities, contradictions and outright lies in my local New Age community finally became clear to me, I disconnected myself from those people and activities. And at the exact same moment in time, the beauty and wonder of my own roots, and the hard work of the Celtic Reconstructionists that came before, quickly came into view. Why hadn't I seen it before? Beguiled by the "next shiny thing" and the aggressive marketing of New Age, finding my own heritage as a "soft landing place" and the source of connection I was seeking, was deeply and truly empowering. Here is a poem that I wrote from that time.

“I leave behind the person I once was, who cared so deeply for so many
wonderful people, places and things, finding it was all dust.
 
Then, moving down the trail I am met by everyday magic,
as I stir my solitary dust into the sacred cauldron we call life.
Newly awakened, or waeccan, to my Celtic roots,
kissed by the sun and blessed by the moon,
I am infused with an inexplicable desire to SPEAK OUT
 ~ on behalf of our Mother the Earth,
and all those who would live in harmony with Her.”
 

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A deep love for our Sacred Earth is contiguous with Druidry and Celtic Spirituality - no wonder that connecting to one's heritage brings such joy!  What have been your own experiences of disillusionment with the world of New Age Spirituality?  And what has prompted your own return to your Ancestors?  I  would love to hear your stories!

                                                  BACKSTORY
My own spiritual journey was deeply informed by Indigenous Knowledge, and this process is described in Chapter 2 "I Am Interloper" in Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community.


                                                   WAECCAN
“Waeccan” or “to be awake” in Old English simply means to be in tune with the presence of the mystery in nature, and I use it to align with my earth-wise Ancestors. When we are waeccan, our heart, mind and soul are open to the beauty in ourselves and all of creation.   The term “waeccan” may be the root for “wicca” or “witch,” but  I do  not  practice  wicca  or  witchcraft.   Drifting  far  from  respectable  roots  in  Old  English  and Germanic paganism, the etymology of “wicca,” “wiccan” and “witch” became progressively dire as a result of Christian oppression. Today, the brave tradition established by feminist foremothers Starhawk, Z Budapest and others to reclaim and embody the term “witch” as a valid, empowering and positive contemporary identity is admirable, and many have been able to disconnect the identity markers “wicca,” “wiccan” and “witch” from their negative associations.

                                FEMINIST GODDESS SPIRITUALITY
Many aspects of Feminist Goddess Spirituality have been entwined with New Age, but I continue to embrace Matriarchal Studies as an honorable direction for cultural transformation.

                                                  RESOURCES
A curated collection of resources for those awakening to their Celtic Roots can be found here: www.stonecirclepress.com/celtic-reconstruction.html
                           

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Pegi Eyers is the author of  Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies for intercultural competency, healing our relationships with Turtle Island First Nations, uncolonization, recovering an ecocentric worldview, rewilding, creating a sustainable future and reclaiming peaceful co-existence in Earth Community.
Available from Stone Circle Press or Amazon.


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    ~ BLOG ~
    Ancient
    Spirit
    ​Rising

    Pegi Eyers

    Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community


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    The recovery of our ancestral roots, and the promotion of social justice & environmental activism as interwoven with our spiritual life. Engaging with the interface between Turtle Island First Nations and the Settler Society, rejecting Empire and embodying the paradigm shift to ecocentric society.





    Ancient Spirit Rising
    is the recipient of a
    2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award
    in the Current Events/ Social Change category!
     

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    ARCHIVES

    Between Worlds
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    ​Holders of Staff and Bone

    ​Passage to Dartmoor

    ​Oceans Divide Us

    ​Ancestral Motherline ~ Guided Meditation

    ​The Life Force: Restoring Sacred Myth
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    Eco-Soul

    Shifting Borderlands of Tame and Wild

    ​Ancient Spirit Rising is Recommended Reading-!
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    ​Earth First 

    The World of Small

    Resilience, Renewal and Love

    European Roots ~ A Call for Leadership

    Settler Re-landing: Reclaiming Patterns of Connection

    Waeccan Means to "Wake Up"

    Initiation Now: Rethinking the World as Alive

    Dangerous Women

    Ancient Covenant

    "Earthing" in the Garden

    The Promise of Ecopsychology

    Kinomagewapkong ~ The Teaching Rocks

    The Ecomystic Experience

    Controversies in the Ancestral Arts

    The Sacred Balance

    Uncolonizing the “Bounty of the Land” Narratives

    We Live in a Death Culture

    Customary Law

    Earth Love


    The Green Burial Movement: In Conversation With Emma Restall Orr

    Letters to the Earth

    I Walked and Walked

    Sacred Tears

    Taking Issue With "We Are All One"

    Dear Greenmantle ~ Review Rebuttal

    Finding Our Long-Lost Ancestral Traditions

    Ancestor Quilt

    Our Struggles Are Not the Same

    Ally Mistakes - Oops ~!

    Love from the Earth

    The Problem with Far-Away Ecotherapy and Nature Connection Retreats

    Earth-Emergent in the City

    Voices of Earth ~ Archaic Whispers

    Good Allies 
     

    Song of the Ancestors

    Decolonization ~ Meaning What Exactly?

    Animism Unbound

    More Settler-Colonialism: Boomers and the Rez (True Story)

    What is Cultural Appropriation?

    The Story Behind the Story

    Cultural Appropriation in Goddess Spirituality and Matriarchal Studies

    Climate Disaster & Massive Change 

    We Are the Ancestors of the Future

    Earth Mother Magic

    True Reconciliation Requires Restitution 

    Are White People Indigenous?

    Full Disclosure/My Positionality on New Age!

    Allyship and Solidarity with First Nations

    First Nations on Ancestral Connection

    Pagan Values - "Know Thyself" 

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