A while back, I decided to take a bit of a longer look at who I am, where I am from, and to explain a draw towards Druidry, and an Irish Goddess of the forest that has started to be a part of my daily spiritual practice.

The truth of it all is that a lot of this started with the trip I took to the UK last year. It took about ten minutes for me to fall completely in love with Edinburgh, enough to the point that I could easily envision myself living in this small city. The pull got stronger with a trip to the British Museum in London, where I visited The Celts exhibit; as well as wandering London through the tube system and a visit to the lovely Treadwell’s bookshop (very near the British Museum, I might add). While Scotland and England are both foreign countries to me (as an American), I felt more at home during my nine days there than I ever have here in the United States. Granted, I grew up a military brat, and became accustomed to the constant moving from one location to another. But none of that really explained any of the above.

One evening, I was watching a show on BBC-America, and a commercial came on about researching one’s DNA through Ancestry.com. So, I created an account on the site, and ordered the DNA kit. When it arrived, I was mortified at the amount of spit I was to provide. But I eventually complied and sent in my result. Well, this evening – July 3rd – my result has been returned to me. And I am a bit shocked at the result.

I was not shocked at the Europe West, although I always assumed that the percentage would be much higher than 39%. Nor was I shocked at the Great Britain or Scandinavia results, although I had always assumed the percentages would be much lower. The Ireland and Italy/Greece percentages are a lot higher than I had assumed. No, it’s the Europe percentage at 100% that was the complete shock to me. But at the same time, it explains an awful lot to my mind: the interest in the Celts, my focus on the history of the Roman Empire in the Germanic frontier, why Druidry calls so strongly to me, and why I feel so at home in a “foreign” country, while feeling so out of place “at home”.

The next step for me is to locate a DNA test for the Celtic DNA strains. I know there is one, because I saw an intriguing display of it at The Celts exhibit. And much of this begins to explain the “Why Fliodhas?” musings that I have had. Certainly, there’s a lot more to cover in this exploration, but these initial steps are definitely reshaping some of my own internal self-identification.