Beyond Fear and Control:

​Celtic Monasticism as a model for Destituent Power

by: ​Daniel Wolport

I’m writing this article from Ireland where I am on sabbatical, staying in Glendalough, the site of a monastic and contemplative tradition reaching back at least 1,500 years. When I came across the call for articles on Destituent Power in Rock! Paper! Scissors! I had been spending time reading the lives and practices of these ancient hermits and realized that their life’s work was devoted to the ‘rediscovery of a form of life’1 which, all these years later, this very modern term, destituent, is trying to describe.     

‘Destituent’ is such a new word that my spell check doesn’t recognize its existence. Giorgio Agamben’s article in 2014, ‘For a Theory of Destituent Power’2 brought this term into existence, or at least into our wider consciousness. The idea of destituent power comes into being out of a need to describe some form of life, practice, and political consciousness that stands outside of the process of power and revolution that flows from a way of life described by ‘constituent’ and ‘constituted’ powers. The cycle of oppression, law, and revolution that he reflects upon is one that many have been aware of, and was even popularized in the 1971 song by The Who, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again,’ which ends with the lines: ‘Meet the new Boss, Same as the old Boss.’

When constituents rise up to assert new needs or rights, and do so within the system of law and power created by those who constitute such systems, the resulting new social configuration is simply a replication of the old power structure with new laws added into the mix. Those of us who have spent years in the field of activism have seen this process repeated ad nauseam; causes co-opted by the powers-that-be only to have the basic social structure unchanged. What begins as a revolutionary movement, for example LGBTQ Pride Week, over the years becomes something sponsored by Target and Coca Cola. Destituent Power, as a concept, is trying to describe a stance outside this cycle where “sovereignty (instead of being recreated) is suspended, deposed, de-instituted.”3 

​In order to get a glimpse of what such a new power might look like we first need to understand why the repetition of established sovereignty continues. Fear and will to power and control are the two driving forces behind this endless karmic wheel of death and rebirth. People both desire power and are afraid of being forced out of their social spheres and systems of comfort and support. These two deeply imbedded motivators are at the heart of what spiritual systems describe as the ego process. If I am afraid of losing my social standing, or of being cast out of my clan, I will capitulate to the power of the law. Furthermore if I desire wealth, power, social standing, and the ability to control others, then I will always strive to enter into the constituted power of society. From the perspective of both fear and control, the idea of becoming ‘ungovernable,’ one of the defining definitions of destituent power, of existing outside of this cycle, is unimaginable.

This is where our Celtic friends come in to help us. Society in 6th Century CE Ireland was organized around clans with local tribal kings. While terms like ‘socialism,’ ‘anarchism,’ and ‘capitalism’ were hundreds of years off, nonetheless that society had constituents and the constituted.  Those of royal lineage would ascend to the throne, taking oaths at sacred sites to maintain traditions and power, while the other members of the clan all knew their place in the order of things. At the same time, these were peoples that were keenly aware of the power of both nature and the spirit world.

In the mid 6th Century a man we know as Kevin, embarked upon a pilgrimage to the Glendalough Valley, seeking a cave within which to be a hermit.  

---

What is the ‘job’ of a hermit? It is to live a life that transcends the fear and will to power that characterizes much of human society. It is to align oneself with that power that lies outside of human ego process so one is indeed free and ungovernable. Inspired by a similar movement in Egypt we know as the Desert Mother and Fathers, the stories of these hermit’s lives all point to the process of gaining that freedom. If I live in a cave on roots and berry, or in one case grass and water, if I can stand in a freezing lake for hours and sleep on a bed of rock, if I can perform miracles of healing and the creation of food from nowhere, if I can befriend all the creatures around me, or if, like Brigid, I have a magic white cow, then I am no longer a prisoner of the karmic cycle of death and rebirth, of constituents and constituted. Of course we must assume that many of these tales are not literal. However they clearly describe a state of consciousness that has tapped into destituent power.

Furthermore, these hermits did not exist merely for themselves. While they lived much of their lives in isolation and prayer, they also became the founders of a set of monastic communities all across Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. These monasteries were ‘schools’ for the practice of freedom from the powers of sovereignty; and from the 6th to the 10th century, Celtic monasteries were different in form to the monasteries on continental Europe, which were highly organized and often quite set apart from the rest of society. Irish monastic communities became surrounded by villages and built stone walls in concentric circles with the monastery occupying the most inner ring. 

​Life in the village flowed among and between these different circles but there was a social awareness that the central sacred space existed in its own realm, outside of the law of the clan’s king. Thus a criminal, or another outcast, taking refuge within the monastery walls couldn’t be removed by the king and was now subject to the penitential spiritual law of the monastery. Furthermore the hermits of these monasteries were the only ones in society who were able to scold and correct the kings and clan leaders, as they stood governed not by the clan but by God.

In a very real way, the space inside the monastery was indeed the space of the ‘ungoverned’ who were trying to create a society based upon personal responsibility, love, and an attention to the power of the Divine using the tools of the spiritual life; what we would call prayer practices. It was literally an ‘anarchic’ community in the sense of being without a human king. And while this ideal was always being challenged by the powerful clan families who regularly made efforts, often successful, to seize power within the monasteries; the vision and practice within the monastery was that of a destituent power arrangement.

​The Celtic hermit vision for human existence was not unique to that movement. As mentioned, they were inspired by the desert spirituality of Egypt, which had extended East into Syria, and within every spiritual tradition there are teachings that point towards liberation from fear and social control. Humanity has always recognized the value of a power beyond ‘normal’ social power, but freeing ourselves from the gravitational pull of the social systems we’re born into is not an easy task, and few are willing to undertake that journey. In the modern age the United States is littered with the legacy of failed intentional communities and the decline of spiritual community in general. We can clearly see the challenge before us.     However if we are interested in living beyond the cycle of revolution and domination, we must face such a pilgrimage. The paradox of the spiritual life is that it is simple but not easy. Luckily, we do have models and teachers who’ve gone before us, who can help encourage us and point the way to the possibility of an ungovernable life of destituent power.

Notes:

1. Agamben, Giorgio: ‘For a Theory of Destituent Power,’ 5 Feb 2014. Accessed here on 11/28/21: https://criticallegalthinking.com/2014/02/05/theory-destituent-power/
2. Ibid.
3. Newman, Saul: ‘What is an Insurrection? Destituent power and ontological anarchy in Agamben and Stirne.’ p. 7.  Accessed here on 11/28/21: https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/18779/1/What%20is%20an%20InsurrectionPoliticalStudiesrevised.pdf​

---

Daniel Wolport

a healer and student of the spiritual life, has taught and led retreats in the fields of psychology, integrative medicine, and spiritual formation in numerous settings over the past 30 years. Co-founder and Executive Director of the Minnesota Institute of Contemplation and Healing, a Spiritual Director, and Presbyterian pastor, he is also the author of several books and multiple articles on spiritual life, leadership, and healing.  ​