39. The Pretanī Witches are on Turtle Island
Would you like to talk with me about Land + Spirit?
39. The Pretanī Witches are on Turtle Island
I feel like this title needs an explainer.
Pretanī is a more accurate title for the people and land of the original indigenous “Celtic” nations of Britain and the UK. Ireland has a different name, maybe Cruine (Kroon-ya). Apparently, “Celtic” was a term applied to the people in the 18th century to differentiate them from Anglo oppressors .
Click image for source.
Connect to Roots + Spirit
Desiring a greater connection to Spirit means paying attention to what roots us in identity and Place. “Celtic” descendants will gain from rooting into our Ancestry and how that is revealed on Turtle Island.
We talk Witches and Witchcraft as the remnants of our “Celtic” cultural and spiritual heritage + why I don’t resonate with Wicca. I share what I think are the 2 most important tasks asked of us to become Authentic Expressions of Soul at this time.
This is part I of II - stick around for the second part.
Transcript
Lezley (00:00):
How long is this Jesus. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is 39 minutes.
Lezley (00:21):
Hi folks. It's Lezley with Beloved Presence, and today I want to talk to you about, this has been a long time coming. Basically the foundation of beloved presence, the origin story of vocation here that just happened recently. I honestly feel like this has been 45 years of uncovering to finally root and connect to what I feel is my purpose for being here and what that means for you. I've been on a Celtic reconnecting journey for a couple years. There is in Celtic culture, a word called tour, and it is Irish for prophecy, for wisdom, for generally speaking though it means knowledge coming from the world, coming from spirit through the world. And the beautiful thing about tour is that it isn't restricted to any one class or type of person or group of people. It's for everyone. Everyone in Celtic culture is believed to have connection to spirit, connection to land and the world.
Lezley (01:43):
There's connections. So everyone is available to receive messages and wisdom directly from spirit, directly from spirit expressing through the natural world. In Irish, it's feta futa and it means deeply intermingled. It actually means in Irish woven and sewn, which means that spirit and the world of form the dead and the living are intimately connected, that they are woven and sewn together and can't ever be separated. So we have the ability to learn through everything because everything everywhere, all at once, everything this is that thou art, that everything is expressing through everything. I know that's very esoteric, but it's within the belief of the cultures that knowledge and wisdom was available through everything and could come in any way through water, through flights of birds, through animals, through trees, through plants, through wind. Everything was communicating with us at all times and messages are available everywhere.
Lezley (03:10):
So I just found out from this creator on TikTok, something that I've never known before, there's an indigenous prophecy. I just also found out that the word doesn't mean prophecy. It means something else, and I suspect it's probably like this, like Thor, it's messages from the world vision, vision, possible possibility is, but that's me projecting. I don't know for sure that that's what it means, but that's what I think it means based on my own experience in relationship with land and spirit. Anyways, there is a prophecy in a certain indigenous culture that there will come a time when the white children will reach out to indigenous knowledge keepers to be taught. That is 100% what is happening for me right now that my reconnecting to my Celtic roots necessitates me reaching out to indigenous knowledge keepers, those who are willing to share and the resources that are freely available that are shared to learn how to root and be an honorable relationship with the earth.
Lezley (04:35):
It is required as part of Celtic cultural connecting. It is required for you for us to be honorable Celtic descendants. We are required to learn from the land as first teacher, learn directly from the land and learn from the peoples that have been here for thousands of years in honorable relationship with the land since the beginning. I know it's just, oh my God, it's so shocking. Imagine there's a book called Speaking with the Trees, speaking for the Trees to Speak For the Trees by Diana Barford Kroger. It's very shiny. This is, if you've read Braiding Sweet Grass, this is the Celtic equivalent of braiding sweet grass. I'm not even shitting you. They sit together on my bookshelf because they're literally like the Holy Books, the spirit books of guidance. For those of us that are pagans and Wiccan, maybe not Wiccan because that's an actual religion. Pagans and witches, these are,
Lezley (06:05):
If you're a pagan or a witch, these go together. It's the same knowledge or I mean different. They're the same, and I don't mean to lessen either of them for what they offer and what they bring, but it's the same message. So Diana Barford Kroger, in the end of this book, she talks about going to see a psychic in Ireland. I didn't realize this, but I mean that is just natural. It's just what you did in Irish culture and it still carries through. But of course that church was a little bit on it, right? Because God forbid you got your wisdom directly from the living fucking world.
Lezley (07:06):
So anyway, she went to have a psychic reading done and she was told that her wisdom to not, I guess not waste her time delivering it to the youth of Ireland, to the young people in Ireland because they weren't interested, which is sad, but she was told, and it was prophesized that her wisdom, that this wisdom of rerouting and reconnecting to old ancient Celtic wisdom, I'm going to cry, is growing on Turtle Island. She called it North America, but it's growing on Turtle Island and yeah, yeah, like a hundred percent. That's what's happening and that is what my vocation, what I'm called to spiritually share what I'm spiritually called to share is Celtic rooting on Turtle Island. So that's reconnecting to Celtic, pre-Christian Celtic culture and spirituality and rooting it here on Turtle Island, which changes it now. It becomes a partnership and a relationship with the existing accord, the existing relationship that this land has with indigenous people and has had a beautiful, harmonious, mutually reciprocal, loving relationship for thousands and thousands of years.
Lezley (08:57):
Our cultural roots, our Celtic cultural and spiritual roots resonate with that strongly. It's not something different. It is the same and we are required to come into relationship with that. If I had known that there was this prophecy in certain indigenous nations, I would not have what things happen when they happen. But if I had known that there was an expectation that white children would be coming to learn from indigenous knowledge keepers, I would not have waited so long to reach out because I have started to reach out and I'm beginning conversations with indigenous knowledge keepers and so far by and large, they have welcoming and engaged in this conversation. I'm on a path of confusion. There's deep, deep clarity and connection myself about what I'm doing. I'm just confused about, I'm a little scared about being rejected. I got to be honest.
Lezley (10:17):
But that's life. That's life. Not everyone's going to want me asking questions. Not everyone's going to want to share with me. Not everyone's going to trust that I'm coming with honor and respect and open-heartedness. That's okay. We can just ask, right? Just ask to be taught. So I didn't reach out. I've had the inclination and the desire and the guidance to learn from indigenous knowledge keepers for years, for probably 15 years, but I haven't done anything about it because I was afraid of being rejected. I was afraid of doing something wrong and offending someone or harming someone because of my own ignorance, which might still happen. Unfortunately. I'm very nervous about that too, and I hope I'm okay because that's going to happen. Probably something is very emotional.
Lezley (11:35):
So I assumed that when I was ready, a teacher would come and a teacher did when I was ready. And I think it's really important to say that as European descendants, we are not ready to with indigenous knowledge keepers and engage with indigenous accord, with land and spirit until we have connected with our own roots truly and deeply and heartfelt Spirit League connected to our own roots and our own cultural and spiritual ancestors. And the reason I think it's not suitable for us to engage with indigenous knowledge keepers and indigenous cultural land and spirit traditions and land and spirit relationship is because there's too much of a tendency for us to appropriate as opposed to coming into equal relationship with that cultural practice and that knowledge and that understanding because whiteness, our ancestors who were Celtic, were colonized, they were oppressed, and our cultural and spiritual practices were by and large eliminated and replaced with Christianity.
Lezley (13:07):
We were paid to not teach our children Irish and Gallic. We were colonized and oppressed and it was painful and it was never really healed because you can't heal when you continue to be dominated. And that's what's happening on Turtle Island is Celtic peoples that came over here, the Celtic peoples that immigrated even long after their conversion to Christianity and their acceptance of dominant culture. They came over, cut off and broken hearted, okay? Our ancestors were broken hearted and cut off from the roots of nurturing culture and spirit, which is why a lot of our ancestors turned around and oppressed and dominated the indigenous peoples here. You may have been attracted by the title, I'm not sure what the title of this is going to be, but it's probably going to be The witches are on Turtle Island. It may be the K are on Turtle Island, which is more specific to me, but all the witchy shit, all the magic witchy shit that we're attracted to, that we resonate with that we love, that's delicious. That and spooky, and that's Celtic. That is what's left of our traditional Celtic cultural spiritual practices and resonance.
Lezley (15:00):
And I denied it myself when I was 20. I played around with being identifying as a witch. I don't resonate with wca. I'm not sorry, I don't, don't resonate with wca. I saw on TikTok once or somewhere in the comments where someone said, all wiccans are witches. Not all witches are wiccans, and that is accurate. I'm definitely a witch. I've been a witch my whole life. When I was in my twenties, I dabbled around with referring to myself as a witch a couple times, and it was quickly and immediately repressed and questioned and resulted in shock, and I have not been great in my life with standing for my truth and my identity in the face of rejection. So I dropped that really fucking quick, not a witch, except that I've only been baptized once in my life and I was baptized as a witch in the woods at the four corners in the elements in a circle of light. So
Lezley (16:18):
Sometimes things happen and they're going to happen whether you are in control or understand really what's happening at all. So I am coming to accept my identity as witch, and I prefer the term I like witch. I do. I like witch. It's got a lot of baggage. I'm also not a fan of Alistair Crowley and his whole thing. A lot of that stuff doesn't sit with me. That's why I don't resonate with wca. No, I'm not going to yuck. You're young, you're wick and cool, do you? It's not for me. I prefer the term Kelly. Part of the reason I prefer the term KA is because it's Gallic and it's Irish and it means witch, but it also means hag, an old woman, and it also is related to the land and is our ancestor. Ka is the symbol of, it's called the veiled one, but it's a symbol of our earth, goddess, ancestor, mother, witch, hag,
Lezley (17:32):
Love it. Plus Kelly, like say that and you start to feel around in that gallic that happens. I love Gallic. I do. I really enjoy Irish as well, but Gallic gives me more opportunity to have that. I've got to roll throat thing that doesn't exist in English at all. So practice with me and I think I've got a Canadian accent, but that's fine. So what I think is happening on Turtle Island right now is, and basically by the way, I'm open to correction. I'm fucking struggling myself with the language on Google Translate and learn Gallic Scott, and I'm struggling with it. I struggle with my pronunciation. I am open to being corrected, but please understand that if you're going to correct me, you need to make it possible for me to replicate the sound. So you need to leave me a video or direct me to an audio.
Lezley (18:51):
You can't just write it. If you're going to write it, please write it phonetically so that I am able to ncee it. If you're not willing to do that, don't bother correcting me. I'm not interested. If you're not going to help me say it properly, I'm not interested in your correction, which basically means the are on Turtle Island, and that's what's happening. There is a growing number of Celtic descendants who are on Turtle Island reconnecting to roots and they're reconnecting to the earth and is here. Kelly is growing on Turtle Island, the KA are on Turtle Island, and as a result, we are coming into relationship with land as first teacher. We are Celtic descendants, rooting pre-Christian Celtic culture and spirituality on Turtle Island, and two things are required. Okay? Two things are required for that. The first is we are required to connect to ancestral roots and do ancestral healing.
Lezley (20:12):
I have been actively working on ancestral healing for two years or more. There's a lot of different ways you can do it. I don't know. You can find your own way, whatever resonates with you. I have done actual an ancestry healing course with ICU, which is the online school that I've been learning transpersonal healing and coaching with for the last two years, two and a half years. Anyway, they had an ancestral healing course. It was fantastic, but that was also on top of two years of spiritual emotional healing work that had to do with family of origin. So I'll give you a couple directions that you can go to start on your ancestral healing journey, but reconnecting to your roots as a kelt is required on Turtle Island. If you're a Wiccan or a Pagan or some sort of Norse practicing, well, I guess it's Pagan, but if any of those and you're a witch, these are two things that I think are mandatory and one is ancestral root connection and healing.
Lezley (21:46):
Connect to your original language, connect to pre-Christian, pre-colonial pre capitalist culture and spirituality. Connect to those ancestor roots. Do a DNA test, do a genogram. Look into Bowen family systems theory and do a genogram. I started my ancestral reconnecting journey, doing the Bowen's family systems theory, doing a genogram, then doing an ancestral healing workshop, also doing dumb supper. Thanks Bambi. Pew, pew, pew, Bambi's, the one that directed me to dumb supper. That was the first time I did dumb supper, and that was really a door open to a whole other world literally, but also introduced me to Warren. Warren is my particular ancestor connection. I guess she'd be my ancestor guardian, and I cannot say Warren is my ancestor without her saying, we're all ancestors and I try to normally refer to them as them because something happens on the other side, especially with ancestors, is by the way, ancestors aren't like your grandparents or even your great grandparents.
Lezley (23:08):
Ancestors are literally, they feel like an amalgamation of ancient generations previous that are also connected to ancient generations still to come. That's what ancestors feel like to me. It is both the infinite past and the infinite future. They're massive, which is why Morin is always saying you're connected to all ancestors. Everyone's your ancestor. I mean, literally. That's true. Literally, that's true. So learn the stories and the language of your own indigeneity. There are a ton. I'm speaking to Celtic, reconnecting in particular. That's what I know. I don't know anything else. Celtic source is a great one.
Lezley (24:03):
Gwilym is so gentle. I don't know if you'd like that. Anyway, Gwyilm's great. I really enjoy his podcast. He has a very extensive online education system as well, so you can really deep dive into it, but you can also read The Magi and the four Cycles of Celtic Myth through the Fenian Cycle, the Ulster Cycle, and there's 2 more that aren't coming to mind. Read the Celtic Myths Druids. I have a list of books that every book that I read that's about Celtic reconnecting. I have on my website beloved presence.ca under Celtic source, so check that out. I also upload a bunch of my audio. I am learning the language in a like not thorough way. I literally learn Gallic and Irish based on things I want to say in the world like Lan, which means the are on Turtle Island. As far as I know.
Lezley (25:15):
It means that. But the words that I've learned to say came originally from this book, and it expanded from there because the words that Diana Barford Kroger teaches in her book are words of heart, connection to earth, and it is a powerful bridge to bridge you back to your Celtic roots through the love of earth and the love of land and spirit. Mo was the first Irish word I ever learned, and it means sensitivity or basically deep feeling in reference to the earth. The Gallic word is, I love saying that connect to the language. It will start to change your brain. It will start to change who you are and how you relate to the world because our voice is our spirit expressing into the world of form, and your spirit will resonate with the language of your ancestors. My ancestors are thrilled to bits. Every time I speak Gallic or Irish in the world, they are thrilled and they are healed to hear the language continue, even in my pathetic little broken way of saying it.
Lezley (26:53):
And that is one thing that happens is ancestral healing heals the whole chain. I am claimed by my ancestors and I claim them in return, and I claim and live and express into the world a part of them that they had to deny. I can express my wild Celtic witchy call self in the world, and I can practice my ancient Celtic spiritual beliefs in the world, and I can speak them and I can share them like this with you right now, which heals them. It heals them, and it opens that up for the future generations to live that fully live our authentic expression of spirit in the world without fear. That is not a small thing. I'd like to tell you a little story about Morin there. There's a story about Lebon in Irish, and it's the story of a mermaid. Warren is a mermaid, Lebon is a woman.
Lezley (28:09):
She was actually a princess. She was a daughter of one of the chief kings in Ireland, and there was apparently a big flood. This is also the creation story for Lani in Northern Ireland, which is where all my people are from Northern Ireland and all the people that, no, they're in Scotland. It's like basically, honestly, all my people come from what was traditionally known as do Riata. They're all Northern Ireland, Southern Scotland do riata. Anyways, so ban was, which means pretty woman, so patriarchal. Anyways, ban was the princess of a king. I don't know who, but there's a great flood. A great flood came and killed everyone in the county and made a big lake, and Lebon was trapped in a cave, and the bottom of this lake survived, I guess in a fucking water bubble. I don't know what happened. And her only companion was her dog.
Lezley (29:14):
The story goes, she was lonely and she saw the salmon swimming. She saw the fish and the salmon. Salmon are really big, by the way, to the Irish and to the Scottish Salmon are key, which again connects us with indigenous nations on Turtle Island. Salmon also important. Anyway, so she watched the salmon and she was so bored and lonely that she prayed. She prayed to the Tua Danon that she would be turned into a fish so that she would at least have companionship. She was turned only half, only half into a fish, her bottom half, she became a mermaid. She was only turned half into a fish. So she lived like a mermaid for 300 years just in Lne all over the place. I guess in the ocean too, I'm not sure. Anyway, at some point, a priest, a monk came Connell. I think it was Connell all.
Lezley (30:14):
Put the proper monkey name here, Connell, because I'm not a big fan. I don't know if it's apparent. Not a big fan of Christianity, don't want to yuck your yum, but it's a constant kind of friction to me. Saw Lee Bon, this beautiful woman, and the story goes that he baptized her and she accepted the Christian faith and was baptized and miraculously turned into a human woman and named Marin or Warren or Marin, or there's a lot of different versions of the name, but it basically means from the sea or white from the sea, or fair from the sea. It means all kinds of things, but always from the sea. And so she was transformed into a woman and died.
Lezley (31:12):
And the story is so, oh, wonderful. Christianity took her away from her wildness from the earth and her ability to live in harmony with the water and turned her back into her rightful self as a female and then died. Sounds kind of sucky to me, to be honest, and is to me a example of how Christianity took previously powerful stories of connection with earth, land and spirit connection, specifically with powerful women, women being on their own and and in communication with their own divinity and living in harmony with the earth. And they encounter Christianity and what's her fucking name? Pretty woman, not smart woman, not independent sovereign woman, but pretty. And God forbid that the church sees a woman who doesn't have a man controlling her. She needed to be baptized and changed into a docile controllable woman, renamed, renamed because we have power over that, which we can name. And then she died. And to me, the actual story is probably she was a chief in her own right, a leader, sovereign, wild, connected with the earth, and the church needed to control and dominate her and they killed her. That's the more likely story, and that is who I have as my ancient ancestor, guardian Warren, thank you. So I'm not surprised that that is my ancient guardian because I have struggled my whole life, not only with Christianity, but with being an unmarried. I have a mother obviously, but I do not have biological children of my own. I'm unmarried, technically civil union now, but I have been independent and sovereign and have struggled my whole life with societies inability to accept that as being suitable. There's always some fucking pushback about it.
Lezley (34:09):
We're going to put a stop to this. This got way, way too long, and I will hit you for part two. I'm not done yet. Is anyone surprised? I am not done yet. And I'm also, I'm not changing my clothes, so I'm going to look exactly the same because I'm going to record this in one minute from now. Thank you for watching. Please click subscribe, and if you like this kind of stuff, check out beloved presence.ca for all the other things that I offer. Yeah, thanks for being here. Please share this. If you like it, that helps because right now no one gives a shit, which is fine. All right, so next time, I'll catch you next time. I really struggle on that one. Still see you soon.
You might also like…
I feel like this title needs an explainer.
Pretanī is a more accurate title for the people and land of the original indigenous “Celtic” people of Ireland and the UK. Apparently, “Celtic” was a term applied to the people in the 18th century to differentiate them from Anglo-English.
Desiring a greater connection to Spirit means paying attention to what roots us in identity and Place. “Celtic” descendants will gain from rooting into our Ancestry and how that is revealed on Turtle Island.
We talk Witches and Witchcraft as the remnants of our “Celtic” cultural and spiritual heritage + why I don’t resonate with Wicca. I share what I think are the 2 most important tasks asked of us to become Authentic Expressions of Soul at this time.
This is part I of II - stick around for the second part.