“the Celtic mind was neither discursive nor systematic. yet in their lyrical speculation the Celts brought the sublime unity of life and experience to expression. the Celtic mind was not burdened by dualism. it did not separate what belongs together. the Celtic imagination articulates the inner friendship that embraces nature, divinity, underworld, and human world as One. the dualism that separates the visible from the invisible, time from eternity, the human from the divine, was totally alien to them. their sense of ontological friendship yielded a world of experience imbued with a rich texture of otherness, ambivalence, symbolism, and imagination. for our sore and tormented separation, the possibility of this imaginative and unifying friendship is the Celtic gift.
the Celtic understanding of friendship finds inspiration and culmination in the sublime notion of anam cara. anam is the Gaelic word for soul; cara is the word for friend. so Anam Cara is Soul Friend. the anam cara was a person to whom you could reveal the hidden intimacies of your life. this friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. when you had an anam cara, your friendship cut across all convention and category. you were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul. …. the Celtic imagination loved the circle. it recognized how the rhythm of experience, nature and divinity followed a circular pattern.” (c)-john o’donohue, anam cara
