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Bzq (1), the footprints of the Celts and the distribution of their tribes once spread all over most parts of Europe, even as far away as Asia Minor in southern Russia. It is estimated that the Celts in the British Isles first migrated from the European continent around 800 BC (Greg Tczap, 1997).

Of course, a great nation doesn't have to have ancient China characters or mummies on pottery fragments thousands of years ago. Their success is unique. Moreover, ancient civilization does not guarantee that its founder will always be young. The fall of ancient Babylonian civilization and the rise of Anglo-Saxons in modern history can fully illustrate this point. However, the Anglo-Saxons in the British Isles and the North American colonies were not satisfied with their success. They began to explore the history of their own civilization and wanted to set up a monument for their ancestors. Since the last century, on the one hand, they have produced a large number of rootless and contemporary popular cultural works by using the communication technology of modern media, and on the other hand, they have tried to find their roots, which set off a "Celtic" cultural craze in the 1980s and beyond.

So what is a "Celtic"? It is said that in the Neolithic Age, about 800-600 BC (some people say it was BC 1200), a "Celtic" with a unique culture appeared in Central Europe. They have begun to use iron. This statement has been proved by archaeological excavations in Austria, Switzerland, France and Germany (Michael Wangbickler, 1997). It is said that the Celts even used silk made in China. The name "Celtic" was first seen in the works of Greek historians in Rome around 500 BC. Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, and other ancient Greek writers have long mentioned this nation. The name Kairto Yi he used, as well as other different names later, all meant "barbarian" without exception, and later evolved into Celtic or Celtic. However, these Celts did not leave any words about their origins, nor did they have any historical records about their living and working in Britain for more than 1000 years (it is generally believed that Celts immigrated to the British Isles from 700 BC). In 400 BC, this migration reached its climax. Their culture relies solely on the knowledge and memory of "bard" or "prophet" and is passed down from generation to generation. It was not until the first century AD that the earliest writing (Ogham) appeared among the Celts in Ireland (also called "Kiel" or "Gael"), and later it evolved into "Kiel" or "Gael". At the same time, many Celts began to learn the Latin script brought by the Ninth Legion of Rome. Under the rule of the Roman Empire (which landed in the British Isles in 50 BC), the Celts, especially those in the British Isles, had a great change in their way of life and accepted Christianity from Rome. It is worth mentioning that the Celts actively mixed their natural religion or witchcraft traditions into Christianity and localized Christianity, thus dramatically inheriting a large number of pagan traditions in the Christian system.

As a race, the Celts of the British Isles were once thought to have disappeared in the Anglo-Saxon invasion from 400 to 500 AD. But in fact, those invaders from Germany and Denmark, in most areas outside Ireland and Scotland, drove the local Celts to Wales and Cornwall and lived by the sea. Obviously, the Celts in the British Isles will soon be basically assimilated by a new wave of Anglo-Saxon immigrants, but a few people who can also be called Celts may stay. In particular, the Celtic ancient culture preserved by the Celtics on the island of Ireland should be the most complete. After the 9th century, the inhabitants of the British Isles were frequently robbed and invaded by the Vikings, and the influence of the Roman church was also hit, which provided an unexpected advantage for the survival of the Celtic tradition. Of course, a few descendants of Norman and Scandinavian pirates from the European continent also joined the British Celtic lineage. According to some western Celtic experts, in Brittany, France and parts of Spain, some Celtic cultural traditions and even ethnic origins and their languages have been preserved. In other parts of the world, the fate of the Celts is unknown.

The truly well-preserved Celtic culture seems to still exist on the island of Ireland. Ireland first escaped the Roman rule for 400 years, and then survived the Anglo-Saxon conquest of Germany. Today, about 700,000 people in Ireland (20% of the total population) speak modern Kiir, which is a language developed from ancient Celtic and one of the official languages of Ireland (the other is English). Therefore, today only Irish people are truly qualified to say that they are the inheritors of ancient Celtic culture. However, the most powerful voices about Celtic tradition today come from Anglo-Saxon countries, the United States and Britain. This is somewhat puzzling. Can cultural traditions be usurped like the throne or economic dominance? Some experts clearly pointed out that "Ireland is the only remaining Celtic nation-state in the world." (Frank Delaney, 1999)

But in any case, Celtic culture is the oldest culture in Europe except the ancient Greek and Roman culture we know today. We can call it "Celtic civilization". But whether it is Irish Celtic or Anglo-American Celtic, Celtic is Celtic. To this day, there are still some British residents (and their overseas descendants). These overseas descendants are mainly Kiel farmers in parts of Ireland and Scotland. After the brutal and bloody war in the late Middle Ages and the "enclosure movement" that happened shortly after, they immigrated to North America in large numbers with scars and psychological trauma. Today, when we talk about Celtic tradition, we can probably quote some things with distinctive features: as a symbol of Celtic bravery and good fighting, traditional two-wheeled chariots (in ancient times), exquisite necklaces and other jewelry crafts full of pagan colors, spiral patterns showing the immortality and continuous development of life, extremely complicated and beautiful knots, which are said to show Celtic's understanding of life and symbolize the belief in natural gods, but now the so-called "Celtic" is mine. In the 1990s, this Celtic music was once popular all over the world. His famous works, including The Lonely Shepherd and My Heart Is Eternal, finally resounded all over the world. Some contemporary western musicians have integrated the traditional music circulating in Cape Brittany into the Celtic music tradition. There is no doubt that the main body of Celtic tradition is its witchcraft culture which originated from ancient times-Neolithic Age.

(2) There are some unique, beautiful and meaningful cultural cores in Celtic tradition. Celtic witchcraft can make its spiritual rituals artistic to a mysterious and beautiful realm like poetry and song. This is very different from the concept of witchcraft that we usually form. Celtic culture has a very unique position in the history of western civilization. Although there are some similar cultural forms in the ancient Greek tradition, such as the religious philosophy and literary system of polytheism, they have not been systematically inherited. In the process of religious conversion in ancient Rome and the large-scale change of Greek ethnic origin, the polytheism system in ancient Greece completely disappeared, leaving only some institutional symbols floating in historical documents and documents. The difference is that in the long historical years, the Celts, with their perseverance to survive, have gone through hardships and preserved a precious and still vivid prehistoric heritage for mankind. This kind of heritage is rare, but it is exquisite and still lives in people's daily life. Probably it is precisely because of its unique exquisiteness and preciousness that it has gained extraordinary vitality. After 400 years of Roman rule, brutal invasion and plunder by Anglo-Saxons, Normans and Vikings, 700 years of cruel oppression by Christianity, and the suffering of modern bloody industrial revolution, Celtic culture continues to maintain its roots of life and its ability to flourish. This is related to Celtic's endless lineage inheritance, strong national cohesion and their polytheistic cultural tradition. In the history of religious development, polytheism is closely related to witchcraft culture. The polytheism and witchcraft cultures all over the world even learn from each other, merge with each other and evolve with each other, resulting in a strange phenomenon without discrimination and prejudice.

About Rowling's novel Harry? In the review of Potter and its film of the same name, one author mentioned the persecution of witchcraft by Christian churches in medieval Europe. What people don't know is that the sorcery mentioned by the commentator is Harry? Porter's theme is the main core of Celtic traditional culture. We might as well call it "Celtic witchcraft culture".

Before seriously talking about Celtic witchcraft, it is necessary for us to have a new understanding of witchcraft.

First of all, witchcraft is a kind of culture, which is ubiquitous in human prehistoric civilization. Secondly, its origin is the prehistoric life style of human beings. This way of life in harmony with nature has increasingly become a powerful weapon against excessive industrial civilization. Thirdly, witchcraft is a primitive religion and a direct spiritual product of human life. And its various beliefs and taboos are not constant, because our way of life is not constant. Fourthly, many primitive witchcraft cultures have been refined and sublimated, and gradually formed a well-developed polytheism, such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Finally, it is obvious that witchcraft, as a primitive way of life and one of the main components of our nature, has long been deeply rooted in our blood. Finally, witchcraft culture represents our original concept and way of life. The polytheism of all nationalities in the world can have many different external forms, but its basic spirit is highly consistent. In the field of human thought and spirit, the consistency and high compatibility of this system are unparalleled throughout the ages. We are re-recognizing the whole process of industrialization, and we are re-evaluating all the forms of civilization we created in the past dynasties. However, the value of witchcraft as a heritage to the future destiny of mankind is still extremely unpredictable. From the rise and fall of Celtic witchcraft culture, we can see that witchcraft culture is deeply rooted in human life, and the development of modern and future human civilization can never completely get rid of the power of witchcraft culture.

Celtic witchcraft culture contains a huge human knowledge system. We must not take it lightly. Its animistic philosophy and belief system, its seemingly secular technical means system of communicating with God (witchcraft) and its complete lifestyle system adapted to the natural environment have recovered quite well after being excavated and spread by experts in recent decades. This is the basis of the revival of contemporary witchcraft in the west, and it is also the basis of Harry? The premise is that Potter can freely create a complete literary image. The novel and its film Harry? The magnificent witchcraft life scene in Potter is full of Celtic witchcraft culture factors everywhere. In the novel, all kinds of talking and spiritual animals and plants are the image expressions of natural religion. On the other hand, the impressive "whomping willow" is not just a prop to add fun. If we look at the related materials of Celtic witchcraft, we will know that willow has some special meanings: it is a feminine plant, belonging to the moon and water; Willow can be made into an instrument stick (wand) to treat diseases; Willow growers or owners are expected to get its reward-bring them the blessing of the moon god; Willow branches are also often used as witches' brooms; Willow branches can also be used for water witchcraft, such as extinguishing flames (Herborist index, Hearn, Elspeth and Snip). You see, how similar this description is to China's Compendium of Materia Medica! There is no doubt that human knowledge about plants, although some of them have obvious imaginative elements, is one of the basic knowledge systems on which human beings depend, and its importance is self-evident. Other plants appearing in the book, such as the famous Mandrake, are an important part of the knowledge about herbs in Celtic witchcraft culture. The ghosts of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry are of great significance to the Celtic tradition of the concept of life cycle. Celtic culture is completely consistent with Hinduism, Buddhism and other ancient religions, such as Shamanism and Druids, about the ancient concept of life cycle.

In fact, in the Middle Ages of Europe (even until1late 8th century), the persecution of Celtic witchcraft by the Christian church for 700 years was Harry? The root of the separation between the witchcraft world described in Potter and the so-called Muggle world. Religious thoughts, like any other spiritual and cultural products of mankind, need to have their own market. In order to compete with the traditional grass-roots religion for the secular market, the emerging Christianity has adopted various bloody and brutal means, such as framing, demonizing, torture and indiscriminate killing. It is said that about 700 years before and after the Middle Ages in Europe (some people think that it was mainly 16 and 17 centuries), * * * about 5 million to 9 million non-witches in witchcraft or injustice cases were killed, most of whom were witches or middle-aged and elderly women. Even in the "new world" like the United States, which prides itself on "freedom of belief" and "freedom of religion", there have been cruel persecution of people related to witchcraft in history. The most famous case of "Salem hysteria" in Massachusetts can execute more than 20 people (mostly women) at a time. It was the eve of the so-called scientific and rational era of the industrial revolution (1692). However, according to the research of the Ontario Center for Religious Tolerance, the persecution of witches in North America continued until the19th century. It is said that the last witch on the European continent was brutally executed in Switzerland on 1782 (the terrible medieval "stake" theoretically lasted until 1792-mary wollstonecraft,1792). The persecution of witches comes not only from the society, but also from the families of some witches, which shows that the ruling consciousness of Christianity has been seriously violated. Due to the demonization of Celtic witchcraft culture by Christianity, the western society has gradually formed a mentality of fear, hatred and disgust towards its own witchcraft culture. Not surprisingly, in such a social environment, witchcraft culture and its successors have to turn their lives into an underground state.

Let's take a look at a typical witch image on facebook-they are so disgusting: they are generally thin (people with extremely bad ideas look thin), very old (which makes their malice even more elusive), and their faces are covered with deep wrinkles (disgusting! )。 They have good facial features (as if they hooked people's souls with charm when they were young). The skin is black and dirty (black), and the nose is long and curved (there is even a tumor on the nose! It is particularly vicious, aggressive and stubborn), and the triangle eyes are full of cold, and the danger is hidden behind the eyes (always full of things! )。 Their chins are pulled down exaggeratedly, and the tips of their chins protrude forward (scary! ), especially vicious. They wore black pointed cone-shaped ribbed hats (pointed hats originally symbolized wisdom) and extremely dirty and gloomy robes. The hands of two dead people were exposed, with pointed nails, and they could always stretch out from their waist to perform magic (no compassion). If it is not a robe, the long skirt is also black, and the stockings and pointed shoes are all black. They either ride long brooms and fly around in the night sky with owls, or crabs live in a small house far away from the world and stare at a big crystal ball with rapt attention. Thinking about how to harm people. They always hate good people and hide in the dark to curse and hurt innocent people. They have magic power, sometimes turning themselves into beautiful girls to deceive and confuse credulous people, and sometimes viciously imposing diseases and disasters on helpless people, mercilessly retaliating against their small mistakes in the past and turning people into toads. Their magic enables them to see the future, thus setting all kinds of traps and traps for the future ... In short, they are often the embodiment and symbol of evil. In most European literary works after the Middle Ages, especially fairy tales, they act as the opposition force of mainstream morality. This is a masterpiece of the Christian church in the middle ages. This is not only the demonization of European women, but also the demonization of an ancient religion.

However, the fact is not such a demonized scene. Celtic witchcraft culture and its manifestations are very beautiful, and its ideological mainstream is naturalism and pacifism. As a way of life, Celtic witchcraft culture has extremely rich aesthetic significance. Out of animism, it believes in the existence of multi-dimensional world (plural) of gods, ghosts and supernatural beings, and believes in a law of life cycle, thus developing some lifestyle systems in the spiritual field; It advocates vegetarianism that advocates nature, thanks all the food and daily necessities given by Mother Earth, and absolutely opposes unnecessary waste. Ethically, it advocates respecting the equal rights of all people and prohibiting hurting others. Its most important motto is "As long as your behavior is harmless, do it freely!" ("An" does harm to others, but does whatever you want ") This definition of" harmlessness "extends to the whole physical and mental scope of people and themselves, even including inner intentions and due actions and omissions. Because of the belief in the law of regression, any harmful witchcraft is restricted. The novel and its film Harry? In Harry Potter, the first contest between Harry and Voldemort, as the main plot, is a strong manifestation of this law of karma. When Voldemort murdered Harry as a baby with the most powerful black magic, the spell bounced from Harry's forehead to Voldemort himself, and the murderer Voldemort immediately "fell into a half-dead state." "His magic has completely disappeared, and his life is fading away." According to the code of conduct of the Wiccans, the contemporary main inheritor of Celtic witchcraft culture, the law of retribution (mainly for harmful behaviors) stipulates that those who use witchcraft to cause harm to others will be retaliated by several times the harm.

It can be said that the novel Harry? Potter and its films of the same name have achieved the goal of integrating the Celtic deism tradition in the use of literary materials. Almost all elements of Celtic prehistoric legends and contemporary Celtic witchcraft culture are in Harry? They can be found in Potter-whether it is appropriate or not. Let's look at the so-called "house elves" first. This kind of elf actually refers to an elf race called "the elf in the forest" in Celtic legend. We usually call them "brown immortals" because they are said to have brown skin. It is said that they have been famous since Roman times. They are short, with unkempt hair, like to wear brown clothes and a belt around their waist to hang tools, dressed like poor farmers. Some people say that this is why they are called "brown immortals". They won't live with families with cats. Brown fairy likes to help people do housework and work in the fields. When the host's family is resting and sleeping, they look after the whole house and family. All they get is a bowl of cream or a cake. If the host doesn't like their meddling, he can give them clothes or reward them with some money. They will leave cautiously. Harry? Dobby, the "house elf" in Potter, was set free by following this ancient commandment. Different from the Celtic tradition we see today, in the whole group of "forest fairies", "brown fairies" never seem to play the role of slaves. Of course, if we understand it according to the common sense of historical development, it is also in line with historical logic that "Brown Fairy", as an indigenous ancestor before the Celtics invaded Britain and Ireland, was forced to become a slave after being conquered by Celtic immigrants. The fairies in the forest are a huge group of immortals and ghosts, whose main bodies are Celtic ancestors who originated in England and Ireland, and indigenous ancestors on the island of England and Ireland earlier. Later, they absorbed the ancestors and ghosts of other civilizations and became a grand family system of fairies in the forest. Harry? The fairy groups that have appeared successively in Potter are the "giant" tribe in northern Europe, the Tuat people in Danaan, Ireland, and the "mermaid" from the legend of Babylon (it seems that Britain also has one of their tribes! ), "Sagittarius" in ancient Greece and Rome, various elves (such as "Peeves") and so on. Harry? Potter's world is really a very lively Celtic elf world! But the fly in the ointment is that until now, in Harry? Potter's world still lacks its own deep and wonderful realm. My readers must remember many European fairy tales they heard as children. By the way, most of those fairy tales are fairy tales.

Not only that. There's another factor that makes Harry? Potter is full of fun. In this work with Celtic tradition as the main theme, the author mixes some important non-Celtic traditional themes. It is necessary to point out these, because this phenomenon itself may imply something to us.

From the five novels we have seen so far, I find that two non-Celtic traditional themes have played an important role in the development of the plot: the phoenix originated from Egyptian legend and the giant in Scandinavian legend. The former is the pet of Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and can also be called "the wizard/witch's animal elf assistant" in Celtic witchcraft. This phoenix is not only Dumbledore's majestic prop, but also plays a key role in the hero's desperate struggle with the evil Voldemort. I believe that its beautiful exotic shape has also left a deep impression on readers. And the latter, simply became one of the protagonists of this novel-Hagrid. Interestingly, Hagrid is a hybrid of human beings and the "giant" tribe. He has lost his uncivilized and savage nature, which is in sharp contrast with his "giant" relatives. Hagrid's image represents the moral strength of kindness and naturalism in Harry? Porter played an extremely important role.

Why did Rowling mix some important non-Celtic traditional materials into such a work to promote Celtic traditional culture? Phoenix is a symbol of immortality and eternity, but in Celtic tradition, this animal symbol is just missing. Although the tradition of phoenix was first seen in ancient Egypt, it was also introduced into ancient Greek legends very early. Although there is no direct blood relationship between ancient Greek civilization and Celtic tradition, they are very close in race (both belong to unconfirmed "Indo-Europeans" and early Eurasian race). It should be a matter of time before Phoenix is accepted and integrated into Celtic culture. The legend of "Giant" first appeared in Homer's Odyssey, then appeared in the legends of ancient Greece, ancient Germanic countries and northern countries, and finally formed a relatively complete system in Scandinavian Gnosticism tradition. The Legend of the North was written later, probably in the early Middle Ages, when Christianity had been introduced into Northern Europe. In the legends about "giant" in northern Europe, the "giant" component dominated by god occupies a major position, which constitutes the main characteristics of prehistoric legends in northern Europe. The story of the Celtics in Britain and Ireland about the "giant" is full of the plot of fighting the invaders "giant". Later, it inherited the Anglo-Saxon legends of the ancient Germanic tradition, and there were also rich stories about "giants". Now, all those eastern and northern traditions are integrated into Harry? Potter, together with students of different races such as China and Africa from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, formed a scene of "multi-witchcraft culture". Of course, the subject and center are Celts. Harry? The author of Potter seems to want to enrich the story and expand the connotation of Celtic witchcraft culture through these diverse plots and scenes. We can also see that the Celtic cultural tradition has become an open system and is developing into the mainstream witchcraft culture in the world.

(4) Rowling's cleverness lies in her correct choice of the main readers and the connotation and extension of the protagonist's life, which are closely related to the life of this reader group-the study life in her youth. Obviously, in the process of learning and growing up, all the traditional elements of witchcraft can be included in her story. In this way, Rowling gained unprecedented freedom when choosing to use her Celtic or non-Celtic themes. That's why Harry. Potter itself can be regarded as an all-encompassing teaching material of Celtic witchcraft culture.

It is a great pity that the author did not pay due attention to the philosophical core and beautiful essence of Celtic traditional culture, which made Harry? Porter shows some contempt for the revival spirit of contemporary Celtic culture. Harry? There are a lot of so-called "dark magic" plots and details in Potter and its films of the same name. While fully demonstrating the power of "black magic", it also describes in detail the operation process of many "black magic" and the shocking materials used. I'm not sure whether the west has just been liberated from the shackles of Christianity. What is the evaluation of Harry Potter and its movie of the same name, but I can imagine that this evaluation cannot be positive. Witchcraft societies in Europe and America have been severely oppressed and restricted for hundreds of years, and they have developed the habit of enduring discrimination and submitting to discrimination in an unfair political and social environment. Although this situation has changed in recent years, for example, some of them took to the streets, in their own way, to the American and British governments in the "9? 1 1 ",the global war aggression policy was protested, but it was still a silent group on the whole. I don't know, what does Rowling think of the Celtic witchcraft tradition she described?

Reminds me of "Harry?" Another evidence that Ms. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, has great doubts about Celtic tradition is Harry? The unsettling masculinity in Potter. Did we see it in Harry? In Potter, almost all the key figures are men. Harry? In Potter's series of works published so far, the most complete characters are men. As we all know, the main inheritors of Celtic tradition are women. This is a historical fact, an extremely important historical fact.

We know that in the early days of human society, probably before the Neolithic Age, the matriarchal social structure centered on women had a very long history. Witchcraft culture, as a primitive religion, is deeply branded with women as the center. For example, as the guardian of the family, women's rich knowledge of plants and herbs, women's professional ability in medicine once dominated. The position of "witch" in Celtic traditional witchcraft is still supreme. In medieval Europe, women were also the most persecuted by the inquisition. In the polytheistic traditions all over the world, women not only occupy half of the country, but also often occupy the main position in the family system of God. In Celtic tradition, female gods occupy an overwhelming dominant position. The goddess is far more important than the male god. In today's European and American witchcraft circles, mainly Celtic traditional witchcraft circles, the number of witches is far more than that of male wizards. The Celtic tradition dominated by women has brought gentleness and peace, beauty and tranquility to the world. People don't know that the modern feminist movement is closely related to the traditional female witchcraft and its more fundamental matriarchal social tradition. Many feminists claimed that witch hunting events throughout the Middle Ages in Europe were actually witch hunting events. Therefore, many modern feminists have paid great attention to the history of witch hunting and gained a lot of historical and humanistic resources about gender equality. Therefore, modern feminism naturally has a natural logical connection with the Celtic witch cultural tradition. Even if the feminist movement is not taken as a reference, the dominant position enjoyed by women in Celtic witchcraft culture, or at least the balanced arrangement of male and female roles and plots, should at least be respected. However, Harry? On the other hand, Porter unreasonably rejected the position of women in Celtic tradition. As the author herself is a Scottish woman, I feel very confused.

However, all these shortcomings and contradictions are not as serious as the lack of another major fact. In the Celtic witchcraft tradition, as the foothold of primitive religion, it transcends human beings-including those such as Harry? People like the hero in Potter, or "wizard"-the existence of higher life forms in general life and life experience, and the gods of all sizes. In Celtic tradition, the main natural gods include Mother Earth, Moon, Sun, Forest and Orientation. They are the object of Wicca and the logical source of witchcraft and witchcraft. In this belief system, all supernatural witchcraft can only come from the power of natural gods. However, what we are seeing now is Harry? In Potter's five novels, witchcraft is pure witchcraft, witchcraft is just a game, which has nothing to do with belief and its value system, and some just return to normal secular morality. With this serious defect, the worship and sacrificial ceremonies in Celtic tradition also disappeared. Based on these common secular morals, the author can never relate her witchcraft and witchcraft stories to the true Celtic tradition. I'm sorry to say that, Harry? Potter, because after all, its witchcraft form is completely Celtic.

Harry? Porter is still very popular. Celtic traditional culture is still reviving. It seems impossible to draw a conclusion about the relationship between the two. However, Celtic culture passed Harry? The spread of Harry Potter in China is bound to have an unpredictable and far-reaching impact. num90