January Chapter One - Week Three - Celtic Myth and Magick Study 2016

This week we will be touching on many of the pivotal creative portals that I use in Celtic Magick and creative expression. I look forward to hearing how you have walked natures cycle with the wise animals, what music and artist inspire you and am excited to share a few pieces of poetry with you, as well as encourage you to do the same.

Writing has always been one of my greatest passions in life. Being able to connect that with a historical, mythical, magical and ancestral element alongside walking the path with sacred animals is one of the main reasons that I was drawn towards the Celtic Pantheon. My experiences with storytelling, dream time, dancing my emotions and power and connecting with the land as I listen to the messages of the wonderful animals has empowered me as an artist, healer, and witch.

I hope that you find something nourishing within the text. May you find you meditate with the animals, find inspiration and emotion in music that takes you back to the life of the Celts and merges modern with ancient, and dance the spiral dance of life and its powerful creative mysteries.

This week the Sub-chapters are:

Celtic sacred animals
Celtic Music
Celtic Poetry and Verse
Traditional Celtic Dance

CHARACTER PROFILE TECHNIQUE – USING CELTIC TAROT CARDS

(Druidcraft - Artwork (c) Will worthington)

Last week I shared a Celtic challenge to create a character profile based of a card from my Druidcraft deck & how I would go about doing that.

For this example I broke it down into four sections and pulled from the meaning and the image to create a profile that I can begin to work from and weave through my writing. By knowing these pieces about my character and having as visual pulling them together and teasing them in the unique writing process I had fun engaging with the themes and energy of the card.

Using the card in this way teaches you to look beyond the cards and deeper to question humanity and characters as an energy and entity.

Character

Commander Liam is a leader in a Military compound. He comes from a wealthy family, connecting with the monarch of the the world in which I am creating. His link means prestige, it means entitlement and while he has worked hard to gain his position as a 'knight' it is more though logical, calculated and manipulative intelligence that he maintains his position now. Confident that he can walk through his world with his mask off he maintains his position as head of the team, and leads them on a journey for a mission set by someone higher up in position then he is, a maverick, a magician and the fallen hand of the wise. He is the King of Swords gone rogue.

Age

By what I know about the Knights and by looking at the image I can gage that his age is in the vicinity of late twenties -forty. In my story he is in his mid-thirties. He is older than a lot of the other characters in their twenties and while he holds the commanding position he still walks the archetype of the knight : as he is in a Military position.

Internal Conflict: Shadows

His story has shadows. I found his main shadows that are excellent for internal conflict in the reversed or shadow aspect of the card here are a few that stood out and resonates with what I know about my character already :

Cruel and bullying behavior
Is easily corrupt or corrupted by authority
Pride and arrogance walk side by side
Lack of compassion in his position and for his team

External : Positives

These are the more outwardly focused and noticed aspects of my character that help him to front up and move through the world. As a Commanding officer of the team he does show conviction in being a leader, is compulsive in his hunt for the truth and is able to independently make decisions for himself and the team without the need for guidance.

Independent and assertive [active]
Tenacious in seeking the truth
Strong logical convictions and fact seeker
Good leader and communicator

Lastly I take a look at the card and match it with what I know about Celtic Clothing from reading the Celtic Myth and Magick. This is just a brief observation. You could go deeper, and don't be afraid to take an image and brainstorm with it. As you can see you can turn any symbol and energy into conflict and characteristics within a story.

* He is wearing Blue Tartan which distinguishes him from the other suits. In Scotland, wearing Tartan was a way of showing ranking.

He is also wearing a Mantle which were one of the most prized pieces of clothing in the culture. Since he is the Prince/Knight I imagine that he wouldn't have to look far to find someone to sew it for him, but did he have to pay for it or did someone else?

If his family paid for it, would it mean as much to him as someone of lower ranking who had to save their money to purchase it? This could tell great detail about the kind of man that he is and if he respects where he comes from, honors his privilege and what he has or takes it for granted.

There is a brooch attached to his Mantle encrusted with a jewel. The same jewels that are embedded into his shield. How can this be used in a story? To add emphasis on his crisis or conflict you could have him removing them from the shield to sell to make his way through a different land – have them stolen – or have him hide them so not everyone knows his status prince. Maybe he wants to keep that secret.

Looking further down we can see that he has a Horse and that he even his Horse is well guarded, suited and protected. If we see the way that it is adorned to match his own clothing choices we can see that status is important to him. He cares what other people think about him, his family and lineage. He is proud of it. He wants people to know that even his property reflects the image he is trying to project.

Does he love his Horse though? Stripped of all the protection would he see it as another Horse and just a mode of transport? Start thinking about the emotional relationship a Prince of Swords who is logical and analytical would have with items, people and himself and how that would affect his connection with money, emotions and the land.

The color blue is also associated with the suit of Swords & denotes: healing, mental emphasis, sadness, positivity, sky high - this can further me used to reflect on his internal and external personality.

Those are a few key points that you can use to develop some provoking questions to ask of your character. If you were writing a contemporary story you could change the character into a CEO or someone of higher employment ranking. You can also change your characters gender, age and both internal and external landscape building upon what you know about the card, and the characteristics of people you do know personally and admire in society. I hope you find this a helpful technique for starting to think about both the Tarot in a different way and creating your characters as a writer.