from The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom
Those with the sight are accustomed to see the riocht
of the soul, which may appear like an astral body or else be so manifest
that the seer can barely distinguish between the two. The riocht or co-walker
is frequently seen as a presager of death, and its bilocation causes great
remark or fear. The modem Scottish seer, Eilidh Watt, speaks of visiting
her brother in her sleep by sending out her own coimimeadh ;
the next moming, her sister-in-law phoned at the behest of her brother who,
on having seen and spoken with his sister's riocht,
determined that she must be dead and was most distraught.
Few people are so skilled as this seer, able to send forth their double
at will; only a great shock or the approach of death itself will cause their
riocht to be manifest to others. This is brought about by the sudden or
gradual loosening of the ties of life upon the soul, causing part of it
to fragment out. In the presence of a person who is agitated or grieved,
I have discerned the riocht as an identical shape imperfectly
superimposed upon the body itself. Here we touch upon the manner in which
the soul 'escapes the body' when danger threatens, a factor we will explore
further below.
Side by side, and often-entangled, with the idea of the double, is the animistic
notion of the hidden or exterior soul. The hidden soul is exterior to the
soul-shrine and its contents; its existence is usually bound up or shared
with another fomm of life. This brings us into the area of shamanic spirits
as helpers or life-companions. A child's soul life is often parallel with
that of another being - often animal or tree. While the animal or tree lives,
the child lives; but their fates are inter twined, and if one suffers damage
or death, the other is also wounded or killed. Thus, the life of Diammuid
O' Duibhne is fatally entwined with that of his half-brother, who was saved
from death by being tumed into a boar. When Diammuid slays this boar, his
own life seeps away. Individuals who have such a shared or hidden soul are
usually obliged by geas never to harm the parallel animal or tree, as was
the case with Conaire and his bird kindred (see chapter 8).
There are numerous cases of the soul's double or spirit-helper being seen
just before death. A common death-herald is the bird. Many Irish people
express great dread of unusual bird activity near or in their houses, since
they recognize this as a death-omen for one of their family The death-herald
or way-shower may appear as a bean sidhe, a faery woman who
bewails impending death in certain families who have relations or soul-friends
with the local faery-kind. Faery alliances are commonplace in Celtic lore,
a reciprocal arrangement whereby faery and mortal parties enter into agreements
for mutual benefit, service being required by one from the other. The work
of R.l. Stewart to re-establish such contracts between faeries and modern
practitioners is based upon the identification of co-walkers as faery allies
and animal spirits. (See R.l. Stewart, Earth Light.)
The many stories of transmigration or shapeshifting that occur in Celtic
tradition relate to the shamanic ability to send the soul into any shape
- only one who is most skilled can track and catch the hid den or shapeshifted
soul. The shamanic ability to take the feth fiada or 'deer's
aspect' upon oneself, brought one within the otherworld, making one invisible
to others. In Celtic shamanic practice, the soul's shrine is hidden or wrapped
up in many levels of protective lore. The home of the soul is strictly guarded
and never divulged. Celtic folk-story retains the memory of druidic practice
in numerous stories relating to a series of titanic beings or giants. Possessed
of primordial skills which are druidic in origin, the giant can only be
overcome if his soul is discovered. Needless to say, like any skilled shaman,
he disperses his soul into many different elements, places and animals,
so that no hiding place can result in soul-loss. His soul leaps from shape
to shape, changing nightly like a password in a stronghold, so that no one
can catch him unawares.