Reprinted from Sagax Research Quarterly,
35, pp 67-8.
Armorica, a land that stayed
free of the Romans. A land that welcomed the oppressed Britons as
they fled Roman occupied Brittania, thus giving the name, Brittany.
They maintained independence until
the 16th century when, unable to resist the tide of feudalism, they begrudgingly
entered the French Empire as an autonomous nation.
They kept their autonomy until 1790
when Napoleon waged a protracted war of annexation. By that time
however, Armorica's traditions of Celtic democracy, social well-being,
kindness to immigrants and fierce independence had been taken up by another
nation sprung from the stock of the Britons. The nation of states
loosely banded and newly separated from the English Empire, forged a new
way of life in the familiarly named land of America.
But how new was it? Paralelling
the ancient Celtic traditions of lands like Armorica, America elected
its chief rather than relying on Germanic primogeniture. The tribes
(states) acknowledged a High King (The President) recognised by the agreement
of all tribes.
Why this coincidental formation of
a paralell state? The two most migratory peoples of Europe were the
Germans and the Celts. However, the Germans were land-locked and
still but loosely confederated under the Holy Roman Empire. The remaining
Celts lived under seafaring powers in France, England & Spain. The
Celts of Britain being twice conquered (Anglo-Saxons & Normans) and
having sunk down into the lesser sections of their respective classes were
drawn to migrate to the New World. After all, it was the first chance
of migration since the Celts first sailed to Britain and Ireland.
There are two difficulties in explaining
the rise of the Celtic state in America. First, slavery which was
anathema to Celtic law. And second, puritanism, which was very repressed
and stiff compared to the natural Druidic religion of the Celts.
Let us deal with these difficulties
separately. First, slavery, instituted by landowners in the southern
states. The thorny problem rests in the Celtic laws which at worst
took away civil rights and freedom to leave tribal land, but never enslaved.
Add to that the philosophioes of the American revolutionaries such as Jefferson,
which were compatible with the Celtic system yet complicated by thesesame
revolutionaries holding slaves while objecting to the practice. One
can note that the few Anglo-Normans that came to America usually resided
in the south and perpetuated the plantations which encouraged slavery.
The Celtic south was extremely guilt-ridden by the practice of slavery
but economically hand-tied by the Anglo-Norman plantations.
Puritanism on the other hand is not
so hard to resolve. Puritanism can best be explained by the reaction
of Celtic Druidic practice to the intense pressures of repressive Christianity.
The Celts, unable to deal with the double standard of most of Christian
life, pursued a strict adherence to the laws of the Bible.
Additionally these Celts struggled
against their own Celtioc Druidic tendencies, which violated much of the
Christian law. Had these been another people the duality of holding
up a law and breaking it would not have been a stressor. But to honor-bound
Celts, by tradition Christian yet by character Druidic, it was more than
they could take. The Scarlet Letter is a perfect exposition
of the neurosis caused by this conflict.
Today the Celtic Empire in America
drifts under the sway of many different cultures as a result of the Celtic
tradition of aiding neighbors in need. The same tradition that caused the
downfall of Post-Roman Celtic Britain is affecting America today.
Where the Britons invited the Anglo-Saxons to their island and were eventually
conquered by them, the Americans are now under the influence of a large
Germanic population centered in the Midwestern States.
Slowly, the American culture has lost
some of its free-flowing Celtic attributes and taken on a more orderly
Germanic character as evidenced by the increase in emphasis on law over
honor and system over family and tribe. It is also evident in the
increase of reluctance to aid neighbors and help immigrants. We wait
to see if the pattern of invasion will once again subsume the Celtic culture
and whether it will perhaps rise again in the next frontier, possibly the
Moon or Mars.