Myth or Fact?

Many years ago I spent two weeks traveling around Ireland visiting sacred goddess sites with a present-day Druid.

Michael looked like a cross between an old Irish farmer and a leprechaun. And he told wonderful stories! Small springs, back-country hillocks, stone cairns off the beaten track – all had a story attached to them. He recounted the old legends of Queen Maeve and the red bull of Ulster while we walked in and around a stone pen dating from the Iron Age that was reputed to have housed that very bull.

Were the stories myths or historical fact? It didn’t really matter. Our earliest ancestors throughout the world made no distinction between story and “reality.” In fact, they would have considered our distinction arbitrary and limiting and would have felt sad for their descendants.

As Laurie Fadave says in her book, Celtic Myth and Legend: “The ancient Celts viewed the tangible world (i.e., This World) as a physical manifestation of the Other World. The two are interdependent parts of one whole that together comprise ‘Reality.’ Without meaning to be too superficial, if one were asked where the Celtic ‘Other World’ is believed to be situated (akin to ‘heaven is up, hell is down’), one would say ‘you’re in it!’”