Coming Back to the Source of our Creativity
Fáilte, Welcome
To The Celtic Creatives
(Formerly Celtic School of Embodiment)
A mythic village where we learn about creativity from Celtic mythology and invite this ancestral relationship and wisdom into our lives to enrich our sense of belonging and our wellbeing.
The People of the Arts
Many wisdom traditions believe that infused into nature (including us) like salt in the sea, is a higher creative intelligence that connects all of life, what the ancient Greeks called the anima mundi, the soul of the world. Our forebears, the Áes Dána, the ‘People of the Arts’ in ancient Ireland curated their tuatha (tribes) around this belief. Passing down myths and folktales of voyages deep into the fairy mounds and mystical islands of the Celtic Otherworld, where one could learn from this mysterious intelligence through their Creative Ancestors—the Celtic goddesses, gods and otherworldly beings—and bring this sagacity back in service to their lives and communities.
You are invited into this world…
‘What is so strange is that before we sought it, the Grail sought us. Also, before we sought it, the Silver Branch sought us. We are being sought. But, given the noisesphere of our own creation that we live in, we are making it almost infinitely difficult to be found.’
-JOHN MORIARTY
What are you seeking?
What is seeking you?
The Celtic Creatives is for you if you sense creative treasures within you yet to be discovered. This work will provide a map to these riches and in doing so gift you with the boon of the Celtic Otherworld—a natural and abundant source of creativity and belonging.
mEET jENNifer
I’m Jen, an Irish mythologist, anthropologist and creative dreamer. A Dubliner born and bred, my apprenticeship to following my soul’s breadcrumbs over the past twenty years has guided my work and formal studies in Medieval Irish and Celtic Studies, Anthropology and Development, Creativity and Innovation, and Jungian Psychology and Art Therapy.
I have supported thousands of people in the Irish Diaspora to reconnect with their ‘Creative Ancestors’, the goddesses and gods of Celtic mythology, and come back to the source of their creativity. Using ancient wisdom to inform modern life through myth, dreamwork, imagination and the body, my work to date has emphasised a reclamation of the Irish mythic feminine.
I am forever grateful to my grandmother Frances O’Sullivan who from the time I could talk, filled my ears with Irish myth and folklore fuelling a now 40-year fascination with the stories of my lineage.
OFFERINGS
Three Cauldrons
My work is brewed in three cauldrons inspired by the ancient Irish wisdom tract, The Cauldron of Poesy.
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‘“The noble womb in which boiled the basis of all poetic knowledge.”
I believe that a creative life is not for the elusive few, we are all naturally creative. We are all made from the evident and yet mysterious force of creation itself on this planet—from nature. This same creative juice flows through each one of us. Being in nature helps us to feel well because it cloaks us with its creative lifeforce. As within, so without, nature mirrors back to us the evident and yet mysterious pulse that’s within us. Our body is the “noble womb”—the vessel—that connects us to nature and our creativity.
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“For the origin of poetry and knowledge is in everyone physically, but in every second one it does not shine forth. In another it does.”
This quote from the 8th century warns that many creative lives remain unlived. We see this today. We have separated ourselves from nature and the ‘primitive’ teachings of our ancestors and in doing so, cut off our creative potential. We are creatively unwell. 93% of people feel creativity is important to their wellbeing, yet 75% feel it is underutilised. In Ireland, 90% of creative professionals feel that Irish culture and our environment contribute to the quality of their creativity. This ‘quality’ is due to two (unconscious) ingredients: a cultural psyche that holds the skeletal remnants of our Creative Ancestors, and nature.
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“My fine cauldron… has given me from out of the mysterious elements, noble decision that magnifies the womb which pours forth the oral language of poetry [poiesis].”
Before our soul enters our body and we are birthed into this world, a rare magical gem is buried inside of us that only we can gift to the world in our unparalleled way. In Western mysticism, the Greeks called the art of bringing this inner-treasure into being, poiesis, the progenitor of the word, ‘poetry’. It means ‘to make’, ‘to bring forth’ that which is within us. The soul loves to create because our creativity guides us towards our Calling.
JOIN THE CELTIC CREATIVES
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JOIN THE CELTIC CREATIVES 𖦹
The Celtic Creatives Membership is a community on Substack where we gather together to learn about creativity from Celtic mythology and invite this ancestral relationship and wisdom into our lives to enrich our sense of belonging and our wellbeing. You can subscribe for free.
What People Say…
“Jen's work is a living being, an enchanted place and a work of art all in one; woven together to support and surround you with love and possibility.”
Shannon, USA
“The stories, archetypes and connection to this land and my ancestors will forever be with me, shining a light to keep guiding me along this meaningful and energetic path. What Jen has created is pure draíocht [magic] that I adore being part of.”
Siobhán, Ireland
“Jen’s diverse life experiences, academic and research grounding, along with her experience as an embodiment coach gives her work an authenticity, depth, breadth and flexibility that is rare.”
Irene, USA
“This is the best of academic research and mystical teaching and transmission from the heart of the motherland.”