My ancestry is very interesting and a little mysterious. I am a Celtic Romani or a Romani Celt, depending on how you look at it.
On my father’s side, I am 1/4 British and 1/4 Scotch/Irish. My grandmother (the Scotch/Irish) often showed signs of having “The Gift”. She would often have these gut feelings that turned out to be true. She seemed to know things about what happened at home with before anyone could tell her. And she could read people better than I can read a book. I wish I could bring back specific instances. But my memory has decided that 45-year-old events are no longer important. I also have a cousin on this side who is phenomenal psychic. She has done a few readings for me lately with nearly 100% accuracy. She predicted my change of heart with my career. She also hinted at my spiritual name, telling me I was walking in both worlds. It was revealed to me that my grandmother was of Celtic ancestry during a meditation. I had images of ancient Celtic Scotts practicing their craft, and then my grandmother’s image flashed into my head. It kept going back and forth between the two images. A voice told me, “This is part of where you came from.” I believe this is where my connection to Druidry begins.
My mother’s side is a little more mysterious. The story I was told was that one of my ancestors was a guard to the last Russian Czar. And protected him as he fled Russia. He then went off into the new land, and married, and kept on traveling. This traveling somehow managed to pick up 14 different European nationalities. When I got older, I realized the math didn’t add up. I calculated that it would take at least 600 years to get that many nationalities. But the last Czar was sitting on his throne 150 years ago. It hit me one day, I’m Romani! This was not during some meditation or any other spiritual activity. I was questioning my mother about the story when the realization came to me. After doing some research and looking into Romani history, the numbers started to make sense. There was a large population living in Russia 600 years ago. They became persona non grata and were basically driven out. They fled across Europe. They went into many of the countries that I’m told are part of my ancestry. These include Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, etc. I believe that one of my ancestors left the Romani when they fell in love with a local. They wanted to hide their true heritage. So, they invented the story of fleeing Russia to fit in with the local people.
With all these magical ancestors, it was inevitable that I find myself on a magical path. For decades, I kept that part of me hidden, even from myself. I was told by the church (and my parents) that divination, magic, pagan practices were evil. Just admitting I had a premonition got me a lecture on how I was going to go to hell. After being on my own, I pursued my true nature. I have come to realize that the exact opposite is true. It is about what you do with your power, not where your power comes from. Wicca, Paganism, Druidry are not bad, unless you use them to hurt people. The same can be said of Christianity, Judaism and Muslim. I finally have come to accept who I am and what I can do. May God, Spirit, The Universe grant me the ability to only use it for good.
Kestrel the Druid 