okay someone help me out here. because i am interested in learning about celtic history and traditions from like an anthropological interest, and i am also interested in celtic traditions and spiritual practices as part of exploring cultural heritage. because i think it is important, especially for white westerners, to resist the colonial homogenisation of culture and rediscover and rekindle our cultural heritages instead of constantly appropriating others! i really do think the "re-indigenising" (as it's been called) of these heritages and traditions is an important part of decolonial work.
however
the celtic/pagan scene is absolutely chock-full of white supremacy and regressive ideologies packaged as feminist or anti-establishment practices. (istg if i have to see one more post about 'the divine feminine' i'm going to tear my hair out, you are literally doing bio-essentialism but make it edgy) not to mention like... just a whole host of ahistorical bullshit.
so it's hard to know where to start tbh. like i'm sure i can find some books that give me an interesting historical and anthropological perspective. i love reading about religious, spiritual and cultural traditions! especially the ways they evolve and change and split off over tine! but finding good sources for like... community, ideas, festivals, meaning-making, and modern practice feels impossible, without having to wade through a lot of ahistorical white-supremacist and white-supremacist-adjacent bullshit.
at best there's a very white feminist 'we are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn' vibe to a lot of stuff. like people got as far as hating christianity for it's toxic theology and colonial cultural monopoly, but haven't done any interrogation of colonialism beyond that. and there's a real air of like... pitching modern pagan practices as being similar to current indigenous peoples for their persecution which really rubs me the wrong way. at worst, you've got literal out and out nazis.
istg every december and spring i age 5 years for the amount of "christmas was stolen by christians from pagans!" or "easter is actually a pagan festival celebrating oestera!" posts i see. but i get so much shit for pointing out it's bullshit. like no, i'm not pushing back on that because i come from a christian tradition, janet, it's literally a myth from the 1800s that was popularised by nazis. i am literally begging you to learn about the complexity of cultural assimilation and cultural sharing over millennia. we are NOT comparing the evolution of local celtic practices to incorporate their traditions into their new religion after the christianisation of the UK to the genocide of the indiginous peoples of turtle island.
so like.... where do you even start?