I am fascinated with the concept of The Other World. The Other World could not be seen by humans and it is where the faeries lived. Does anyone have any other information about The Other World?
I don't know much. There is a good series about Merlin, though, in which the Otherworld does play a significant part, albeit mostly in book two. Do you know The Lost Years of Merlin, T. A. Barron? A few of the Celtic gods are mentioned throughout, as well.
That sounds so fascinating to me and I have often wondered about it. Does it exist, what's it like and so many questions. I'll have to get that book series.
Though technically meant for younger readers, it's a good one. And all that really means is that the books are fast reads. One week each, tops.
According to one book, scholars are now using the term Otherworlds rather than the general Otherworld. Apparently they can be very different from each other. Some can be dangerous, with very frightful beings, while another can be like a paradise. The entrance to an otherworld can be through a particular cave or hill, or a lake. It is believed now that many of these entrances to the otherworld can be identified as real places. The Aran islands off the coast of Ireland is an example, many otherworlds were thought to be out in the Atlantic. The most famous megalithic structure in Ireland is Newgrange. It is an artificial hill with an entrance. It was long associated with the locals with the supernatural. In Irish myth it is typically home to the Irish god of love: Angus Og. It is older than the pyramids and built by preceltic peoples. It is built in such a precise manner that sunlight enters the cave only on the winter solstice, plus two days before and two days after. I stood inside it when I visited Ireland some years ago. It was quite a feeling standing in something that was seen as a type of portal to another realm. Heroes usually have dealings with the denizens of the otherworld. Sometimes these inhabitants need help from mortal heroes. The inhabitants are sometimes pictured as members of the Tuatha De Dannan: the gods who inhabited Ireland long before the arrival of the mortals. It is claimed that we age differently when we are in an otherworld. The most famous example is the story of Oisin (Usheen). He married a beautiful woman from Tir na nog, the land of the young. He could have stayed there forever, but as with most of these types of stories, he got homesick and went back home. He was only with his wife for a few years, but back in the mortal world 300 years had passed. He suddenly became old, blind and feeble. (He was lucky, some people burst into dust when they find out how much time passed.) He met Saint Patrick, who told him that all of his friends are dead and in hell now since they were not baptised. (I'm sure that made him feel much better.) He told Patrick that he would rather be in hell with his old companions that with a god that would not let them into heaven.
Is the other world like the one where Harry Potter studied, where Hogwarts is located? I wish I could go into such place and see it for myself.
I like to think that there is a similarity. Harry Potter and other magical folk live in an expanded world that includes the mundane one of the Muggles, and the magical one filled with magical beings such as unicorns and hypogryffs. The Celtic otherworld is also where you will find many magical beings as well, such as the fairies. One way of entering these worlds include entering a doorway on the side of certain enchanted hills on certain times of the year, most likely Samhain (Halloween). Or standing in a fairy ring. (A mushroom ring) But as far as I know, there is no learning academy in the Celtic otherworld. lol
I had never thought about the Otherworld. This topic intrigues me, too. Can anyone wonder into a portal and visit, or are there special circumstances? I would love to visit the Otherworld, I bet it is scary and beautiful!
I think the Otherworld is Celtic myth's world of the dead. Other lands, like Fianchuive and Tir na nOg, are more like parallel worlds to ours. And sometimes they serve as a bridge between our world and the Otherworld (like Fincayra in The Lost Years of Merlin).
Yes there are stories of people wandering into Otherworlds, sometimes accidentally. If they stay in this otherworld things may actually go well. There is feasting and luxury and you may never grow old. But just like in the movie Cocoon, people get homesick. And when they return to the mortal world, they find that time has moved on faster in the this world than in the otherworld. When they realize that hundreds of years have gone by they may suddenly find themselves turned to dust!
I remember when my son was about two years old and he had an invisible playmate who invited him to join him "to somewhere far, far away". I was really rattled and told him to refuse... Is it something like that?
To some extant I think the otherworld can be envisioned as somewhere far, far away. You can't simply visit it like you would another country, but once you find yourself there, it is like nothing experienced in the normal world. It can be a beautiful place where there is no death or decay, or a frightening place filled with strange monstrous beings.
Basically it would be like Heaven or Hell, good or bad, magnificent or horrendous? Bright or dark? Does it depend on your view of it, or is it something else entirely that affects how it is experienced?
I do not think that the Celtic otherworld has that type of extreme dichotomy that you find in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Nor do I believe that it depends on your view of it. I'm not an expert, but considering what I've read, it just seems to be a place, or places that various heroes from myth have found themselves in. What they find there depends on what is relevant to the story. For example, when Cuchulainn was asked to visit the otherworld in order to help a fairy woman in a battle, he not only went over the sea to reach it, but he helped her win the battle. This does not mean that the otherworld is a place of warfare, it just means that warfare can be a feature of it sometimes, depending on the story. A place for the dead is also one of its features. Or, according to one author, it is a feature of one of the many otherworlds. There is a small island off the coast of Ireland called the place of Donn. He is a god of the dead and his island is thought to be where the dead go. Or at least according to some traditions. The dead lived a life I believe somewhat like this one. One writer I remember saying that it is a happier place. But you do not remain there. There is a constant exchage of souls between this world and the otherworld. If somebody dies in this world, then that person is reborn in the otherworld. One who dies in the otherworld, is then reborn in this one. So to the Celtic minset, it is apparent that no one really dies in the first place; you go off to the otherworld and you can die there too. A little confusing, but that is the dreamy Celts for you.
I agree with Joe. It is not really comparable to the heaven/hell concept, which originated in a part of the world which was far removed from the Celtic culture.
I get the idea that depending on how you behave in your life, the trip to the Otherworld can be a long one (if you lived a life of evil) or a short one (if you lived a life of good will).
George MacDonald (a Scotsman) wrote of a similar concept in his book Lilith—fantastic book, if you have not read it. Perhaps these two quotes from Mr. Raven will partially help in explaining his cosmology: "I tell you, there are more worlds, and more doors to them, than you will think of in many years!" "Ah, the two worlds! So strangely are they one, And yet so measurelessly wide apart!" The easiest way to explain MacDonald's cosmology is that there are multiple worlds existing simultaneously within the same fundamental elements and constituents that make up our world—parallel, yet coexistent. When the protagonist of MacDonald's novel enters the world (perhaps plane would be a better word), he first gains passage through a mirror, and he is told by Mr. Raven (ostensibly a talking raven that also shapeshifts) that there are ways of getting back to his home, through portals which resemble mirages. Mr. Raven proceeds to tell him that a large rock is the stove in his kitchen, and the tree behind it is the stovepipe. The reason I bring this up is that quite possibly the Otherworld exists side by side (or layered as a cabbage) with this world.—this might also explain how someone can visit the Otherworld for a few weeks, but find they had been away from home for a hundred years; what with the fabric of time being curled and twisted about in that scenario.
Did anything strange or "Otherworldly" happen to you when you stood inside this pyramid? Where you given any insights into the unknown? How cool would that be?
What was truly amazing about standing in Newgrange was the thought of being in this small space that was built thousands of years ago! It was considered a holy place by countless prehistoric and historic peoples. Apart from that, it was fairely prosaic: no amazing insights or anything like that. It's not a pyramid, but more of an artificial hill with an opening on one side leading into a passage and a small chamber.
