Celtic Power Animal and Symbolism – North Atlantic Gray Seal

Jul 23, 2010
Jill Stefko

Celtic Power Animal and Symbol – Gray Seal - rchall

Ròn, the Celtic seal, is considered to be a magickal animal and is symbolic of many positive qualities and also to be the selkie, a shapeshifting creature.

It’s the north Atlantic gray seal, Ròn, who is the Celtic power animal. The Dan nan Ròn, Song of the Seals, is haunting and mournful, a call from the sea that beckons people to explore the depths of their subconscious and feminine nature, reminding them to listen with their hearts, not just their minds.

Considered magickal by the Celts, these gentle animals are the legendary selkies, who can shapeshift into human form with their sealskins, in Scottish folklore.

North Atlantic Gray Seal – The Animal

North Atlantic gray seals are carnivorous pinnapeds that belong to the Phocidae family and are native to the north Atlantic Ocean regions. They live on sandbars, rocky islands and coasts, icebergs and shelves. Gray seals eat fish, sand eels, octopus, squid, shellfish and seabirds.

These impressive hunters, with excellent vision and hearing, can dive as deep as 1,560 feet to capture their prey. Their predators include orcas, sharks and humans, which are the most dangerous. In addition to being victims of illegal shooting, gray seals have been captured by fishing nets and are victims of boating accidents, oil spill exposure, chemical contaminants and being trapped in marine debris.

Celtic Gray Seal Symbolism and Lessons

The sea that surrounds their land was a place of mystery and awe to the Celts. The seal was regarded as a magickal animal for its ability to vanish beneath the waters, barely a leaving a ripple behind it. The seal’s keynotes are creativity, imagination and lucid dreaming. Her cycle of power is year round.

Ròn symbolizes longing, dilemma, love, intuition, protection, compassion, serenity, sensitivity, creativity and happiness. She enables people to connect with their inner child and reminds people that, by opening themselves to their subconscious, dreams, yearnings and feminine nature, they will achieve transformation and healing. Ròn teaches people how to use spiritual beliefs in their daily lives.

Orkney Island’s Legend of the Selkie Seal

In Orkney Island folklore, which has various versions, selkies (also called silkies) were seals who shapeshifted into beautiful human males and females when they doffed their magickal sealskins after they emerged from the sea. When they donned the sealskins, they shapeshifted into seals and returned to the water.

There are families in the Hebrides and Orkney Island who claim to have selkie ancestors. The Mackay clan is known as Sliochd an Ròn. According to their legend, one of their ancestors, a laird, hid a selkie’s sealskin and forced her into marriage. When she finally found her sealskin, she returned to the sea, leaving her husband and child behind.

Selkies were gentle creatures who, once in human form, danced on lonely moonlit shores or basked in the sun on skerries, small rocky islands. If the sealskin was lost or stolen, selkies were destined to remain in human form until it was found. When they were disturbed on land, selkies grabbed their sealskins and shapeshifted into seals before returning to the haven of the sea.

It's said that selkie females were attractive to human men. The most common folklore theme is the one in which a man acquires, by deception or theft, her sealskin, preventing her from returning to the sea. The only option for the selkie was to marry him.

Selkie men were notorious for their encounters with human women who were single and married. According to folklore, they doffed their sealskins, hid them and went to find women.

If a human woman wanted to meet a selkie, there was ritual to be followed. She had to go to the sea at high tide and shed seven tears into the waters. The selkie would swim to shore, doff his sealskin and have a romantic encounter with her.

The stories usually ended tragically. According to one version, a selkie male, before he returned to the sea, told the mother of his child that she would marry a fine gunner who would kill him and their son. When the selkie returned for their child, he donned his sealskin and put one on the boy which returned them into seals. The husband shot and killed both of them.