DeDanaan

by Aine MacDermot

These are good times for some perceptual changes in human systems of belief and thought, and the general human frame of mind. We can start by recognizing the beautiful open-minded holistic feminine goddesses whose existence in pre-Indo-European cultures precedes that of the patriarchal “old men” - the old white bearded masculine gods.

It is wrong to say that this is just a woman’s culture, that there was just a Goddess and there were no Gods. There is a balance between the sexes throughout, in religion and in life. In all mythologies, for instance in Europe, Germanic or Celtic or Baltic, you will find the Earth Mother or Earth Goddess and her male companion or counterpart next to her.

However, more than ninety percent of the Neolithic figurines found in Bulgaria are female. Of the two hundred fifty figurines from Marija Gimbutas’ excavation at Sitagroi, northern Greece, “not one can be clearly identified as male.” Interestingly, before cemeteries came into use, c. 5000 BC, adult male burials are conspicuously rare in settlements in southeast Europe during the Early Neolithic period (7th-6th millennia BC), though women and girls have been found buried in the floors of their homes. Houses, therefore, functioned as abodes for the living as well as for the ancestors.

This is not feminist bias seeping into non-scientific neopagan goddess-centered archaelogy; this is the evidence we have at hand.
(Continued)

by Erynn Rowan Laurie
Copyright © 1997 Erynn Rowan Laurie
All Rights Reserved

May be reposted as long as the above attribution and copyright notice are retained.
 
 
 
One of the primary functions of sacrifice is the renewal of the cosmos. In Norse myth, we have, if I recall correctly, the giant Ymir who is killed and whose body creates the cosmos. This is paralleled in Hindu cosmology, where the sacrifice by the Brahmans reenacts the death of a divine, cosmic being whose body creates the cosmos. Although we do not have a Celtic creation myth preserved in the corpus of written and oral materials, I think it would be reasonable to think that their myth might follow this pattern as well.

If creation requires death and dismemberment to occur, then it would follow that only the sacrifice of something living will do to fulfill a cosmological sacrifice. This is not to say that monetary and other sacrifices cannot be made under other circumstances. They obviously were, and from what other folks here have said, this method is still being used, although it is in the context of a gift to the Gods rather than of cosmic renewal. Mauss would say that this sort of sacrificial gift creates a mutual relationship between the Gods and the human community that requires a reciprocal gift from the Gods of continued food, shelter, and other necessary survival substances. But as I’ve said, these gift exchanges do not renew the cosmos in a theological sense. They serve instead to renew community bonds. An important task to be sure, but not the point of cosmological sacrifice.

Some anthropologists and historians have speculated that the sacrifice of animals followed a period of the sacrifice of humans as the vehicle of cosmic renewal. We do know that the Celts sacrificed prisoners of war and occasionally other humans in some rituals, so they had not left that phase of sacrifice behind them entirely. I think that in this case, what we may be looking at are gifts to the Gods, or an exchange of life for life on the battlefield in the case of prisoners of war. Hypothetically speaking, the warriors of “our tribe” were successful and few were killed, but war is an arena of death and certain loss of life is expected or perhaps vowed as a part of the victory celebration, so prisoners from “their tribe” are sacrificed as a substitute for “our” warriors or as gifts to the deity of warriors. Other human sacrifices may serve as messengers to the Gods, carrying requests and information that cannot be trusted to lesser gifts. A human sacrifice, particularly as a foundation sacrifice, may serve as a spiritual guardian for the structure being built. But at some point, animal sacrifice was apparently substituted for human sacrifice in cosmic renewal ceremonies, as well as in other kinds of sacrifice, and so there would seem to be precedent for considered changes in this kind of ritual. We are not, then, looking for “an excuse to stop performing the sacrifice” but rather a theologically valid way to transform the sacrifice while maintaining its focus and impact, as was done in the alleged transition from human to animal sacrifice. I believe that we can argue for a theologically valid substitute for the body and soul of an animal.

We know from the story of Miach and Airmid, and from Alexei’s account of Breton herbalism, that herbs are associated with different parts of the body — an herb for every joint and sinew, as it were. We might say that the body could be created, built of herbs. Blodwedd is an example of a living human being magically created from nine kinds of herbs. We also know from a Welsh medieval medical text, and from Irish tradition, that the body is related to the cosmos in Celtic thought. The eyes may be the stars, sun be the face, breath be the wind, stone as bones, water as blood, soil as flesh, etc. I would argue that through these associations, a living “human” body could be created of certain ritually appropriate plants to serve as the vehicle of cosmic renewal. In this way, the death and dismemberment of the “herbal body” would serve as the living force that is the source of cosmic creation.
(Continued)

by Seán Ó Tuathail
Copyright © 1993 John Kellnhauser
May be reposted as long as the above attribution and copyright notice are retained
 
 
 
Introduction

While the ancient Irish tales abound with warriors and kings (not to forget Queen Medbh!), another figure at almost every turn emerges to out- rank them. Usually referred to as the “druid”, this person upon closer inspection is seen to be not any stereotypical wizard with his potions and paraphernalia, but a poet who, instead of having to memorize rote “secret spells”, produced spontaneous verse often in a deliberately archaic diction. A lengthy essay on the philosophy and practise of Irish druids is beyond the scope of this book, but given the misrepresentation of druids in the popular media, a few summary remarks are in order.

In the ancient Irish tales Irish druids are frequently depicted in detail. They bare no resemblance at all to the white-robed oak- worshippers of Julius Caesar. Irish druids wore, not white hooded robes, but rainbow capes, often feathered tunics and head-dresses (note, in the kast roscin this collection, how the druids mock the monks’ hooded robes!). The important trees were rowan, yew, and hazel, and mistletoe was not found in ancient Ireland. While they occasionally carried magic wands and stones, in the far great majority of cases druids’ only magic “tool” was their voices. They were, emphatically, not “pagan priests” and most of what we think of as priestly functions fell to the local king or tribal chief. They were sages, advisors, “wizards” - their closest modern equivalents would be scholars sometimes called upon to be government advisors, although in many cases they were unaffiliated with the rulers and conducted what we nowadays would call “private practice”.

But over all else, they were “poets”. The word is placed in quotes because above all other cultures and societies in the history of the world, ancient Ireland accorded poets what can only be termed nearly divine rank. Poets paid no taxes and were exempt from military service. They had a freedom of movement to cross political borders denied even kings, and wherever they traveled they were entitled to the best of available lodging. And woe to anyone who harmed, or even offended a poet! One can do no better than simply cite the story of Cairbre whose satire is included in the present collection: a wandering poet visits Tara in the days when the gods themselves ruled there, and is denied what he considers suitable food and a fine enough bed. The next morning he enters the throne room at Tara (which was, by the way, named not after the king but called “Réalta na bhFile”, “Star of the Poets”!), and recites five spare lines of verse, whereby the King of the Gods himself is toppled from his throne. In a second example, also included here, Ireland herself is conjured up, out of the magic mists, by a “poem”. (The word “rosc”, plural “roscanna”, is a rhetorical, usually magical, chant, and this word will be used throughout this book to distinguish a “poem” that can topple gods or conjure whole nations from the modern less potent variety.)
(Continued)

Copyright © 1985, 1986, 1988, 1994 Cainteanna na Luise
May be reposted as long as the above attribution and copyright notice are retained The following presents a reworking and combining of articles which previously appeared in Cainteanna na Luise, with the addition of new material in the “examples” section.
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION

In Irish druidism “power” in the landscape is conceived by rather different ontological parameters than in Hermetic Magic or in systems using “leys”.

There are, first, two types of “power” (there are, in fact, three, but the first is simply that by which a thing exists at all - X has it, and exists, or X does not have it (is functionally self-contradictory, etc.) and doesn’t exist. There is no “amount” to this and so it cannot be “patterned”). The two types (which can be patterned) are:

Brí - intrinsic, inherent power. This may be “developed” or “atrophied” but can not, substantially, be changed in potential amount.

Bua - power that is gained or lost, depending upon actions.

Landscape has, as does everything else, both types. Skipping, for the moment, that these may be “keyed” to certain affinities, in summary a place’s brí is linked to it’s basic nature. Isolated hills, sea cliffs, etc., have higher intrinsic brí. A place’s bua is determined (and changed) by what occurs there (a major battle, etc.). In fact, it is more complicated because humans deliberately pick high-brí places for their religious and, less often, political centers, thus layering bua over the already existing brí. While usually this occurs so that the bua develops the brí, the opposite can occur. The Mallacht Dhealúis, great curse of bareness, laid upon Teamhair by a coven of 13 Irish saints is an example. In this case, the saints’ own brí-empowered bua was used to drain and ward-restrict the bua of “Tara” and hinder its bua. The site once had a great deal of both, but it now has fairly low bua, while retaining brí in a form difficult, but not impossible, to access.

Brí may be “keyed” by its basic nature, but bua is far more likely to be keyed because it is gained or lost by specific actions. Personally keying may involve not only one’s own bua being compatible but season, time of day, and so forth, since such bua is highly contextual.

Brí, and far more often bua, may become “keyed”, that is it may gain affinity or malevolence toward other types of brí/bua (some people may, for example feel “at home” in a place that others will feel uncomfortable in). In a few cases, a place will have general malevolence (the term frithbhuachán is used for either a place or thing that drains bua and assaults brí. (see also the note on Drombeg below.)

Taking brí and bua together, no man-made-like grid patterns these powers. The “map” of a country’s power does not resemble a geometric human network, but a naturally occurring one, resembling maps showing rainfall or physical elevation. That is, there may be sharp demarcations, or gradual ones. Entire areas may be low in both bua and brí (except in small limited areas, a high bua level is unlikely to occur without at least moderately high brí, although the reverse is not true: indeed the feeling of “awe” experienced at some natural “wilderness” sites results from them having quite high brí, although they may have only minimal bua.
(Continued)

by Alexei Kondratiev
Copyright © 1997 Alexei Kondratiev
All Rights Reserved

May be reposted as long as the above attribution and copyright notice are retained [Originally published in An Tríbhís Mhór: The IMBAS Journal of Celtic Reconstructionism, volume 2, issue 1/2, Samhain 1997/Iombolg 1998.]
 
 
 
As the nights lengthen and the leaves take on their autumn colours, many of our cities prepare for a seasonal festival dominated by dark and frightening imagery. Ghosts, skeletons, hags, nocturnal creatures such as cats and bats, and grinning monster faces peer out at us from shop windows. Much of it is just commercialism, yet there is no denying that the atmosphere of the holiday still has a profound effect on the modern psyche — as we can see from the spontaneous outrageousness of Hallowe’en parades, the creative expressions of death-related themes, and the general surge in mischief-making. All these customs, however, are a diffuse reflection of the beliefs and practices of the Celtic populations of Europe, for whom this feast was a crucial turning-point in the flow of time.

The earliest record we have of the festival of Samhain in the Celtic world comes from the Coligny Calendar, a native Celtic lunar calendar inscribed on bronze tablets and discovered in eastern France a hundred years ago. The calendar — dated, through epigraphic evidence, to the 1st century CE — is written in the Latin alphabet and was found in conjunction with a Roman-style statue (identified by some writers as Apollo, by others as Mars), but the language used is Gaulish and the dating system itself bears little resemblance to Roman models, implying that it represents the survival of an indigenous tradition maintained by native clergy. A detailed discussion of the calendar lies outside the scope of this article, but for our purposes it will be enough to point out that its year consists of twelve regularly recurring months that fall naturally into two groups, one headed by the month that is labeled SAMON (for Samonios) and the other by the month GIAMON (for Giamonios), and that the names of these two months are clearly related to the terms samos “summer” and giamos “winter” (cf. Gaelic samh(radh) “summer”, geamh(radh) “winter”; Welsh haf “summer”, gaeaf “winter”). The date of SAMON- xvii is identified as TRINVX SAMO SINDIV, which can be readily interpreted as an abbreviation of Trinouxtion Samonii sindiu (”The three-night-period of Samonios [is] today”). This is one of the very few dates in the calendar that is given a specific name, testifying to its importance as a festival; and since Samoni- is obviously the origin of the modern name Samhain, it is reasonable to equate the Trinouxtion Samonii with the feast that is still one of the most important dates in the Celtic ritual year.

We should note, however, that since the Coligny Calendar gives no indication of how its months relate to those of the Roman calendar, we have no conclusive evidence that would allow us to fit it into the framework of our own year, and scholars are still very much divided on the issue. The most confusing element, of course, is that Samon- refers to summer, and so would naturally lead one to think that a month with that name would head the summer half of the year; and many of the earlier interpretations of the Coligny Calendar take this for granted. In living Celtic tradition, however, the festival of Samhain, despite its name, is definitely the beginning of winter. Though such evidence doesn’t necessarily exclude the possibility that Continental Druids used a completely different terminology, many scholars now accept the authority of the living tradition and place the Samonios month in October/November.

What does the name of the festival mean, however? Here, again,we run into controversy. The traditional interpretation — first put forward in the Mediaeval glossaries and still held to by native speakers — is that it means “summer’s end”, being a combination of samh “summer” and fuin “ending, concealment”. This is obviously a folk etymology, since we know that the earliest form of the word (Samoni-) had a different structure, but its importance to the living tradition should make us wary of dismissing it too lightly. Although philologists have been unable to find a plausible Indo-European explanation for a suffix -oni- meaning “end of” (the suffix, by the way, occurs in at least three of the other Coligny months), this is not conclusive in itself: there are quite a few other derivational suffixes attested in Old Celtic that resist an easy Indo-European etymology, although their meanings are uncontroversial. What should be kept in mind is that in the ritual context of the Celtic Year, Samhain is strongly identified with the “end” or “concealment” of Summer, the Light Half of the year. In the modern Gaelic languages the festival is called Samhain (Irish), Samhuinn (Scots Gaelic), and Sauin (Manx). The night on which it begins (Oíche Shamhna in Irish, Oidhche Shamhna in Scots Gaelic, Oie Houney in Manx) is the primary focus of the celebration. The Brythonic languages call the feast by a name meaning “first of Winter”, borrowing the Latin term calenda which designates the first day of a month (Welsh Calan Gaeaf, Breton Kala-Goañv, Cornish Kalann Gwav), but the beliefs and practices associated with it are consistent with what we find in the Gaelic countries, and will help us discover a pan-Celtic theology of Samhain.
(Continued)

Drag the Archaic into our Present
for the sake of a Future
17 Oct 2000

0

We Irish, born into that ancient sect
But thrown upon this filthy modem tide
And by its formless spawning fury wrecked
Climb to our proper dark, that we may trace
The lineaments of a plummet measured face
- W.B. Yeats, ‘The Statues’

Since we have been given the admonition to avoid the conquest, as there will be sorra’ galore soon enough, I will instead contain myself to elucidating the archaic qualities of the Irish, which for me represent examples of a world-view worth conserving and transplanting. First we will look at the Megalithic culture of the Atlantic coast of Europe and contrast it with the Iron age Celtic culture as seen in the Táin Bó Cuailnge. The most vital bit of information I discovered in Every Earthly Blessing relates how the saints were associated with the Druidic and Poetic schools, and consequently often used the leitmotifs, of these ancient ‘technicians of the sacred’ in their own hagiographic constructions. This consequently makes the Irish church and its patrons much closer to the Indo-European Paganism eradicated on the Continent by the Roman Church. The survival of this religious caste and its corpus into the 17th century, in both the manuscripts of the Irish Monasteries and the poetics of the Bardic Order, gives us an opportunity to reconstruct aspects of the Gaelic world-view prior to it being tossed in the boiling cauldron of the European Nation States. Much of the material we have on the religious castes of Ireland comes through the less then objective lens of their conquerors and would-be conquerors. Consequently we have a shadowy and biased view of them, especially the much-maligned final leg of their tripartite organization, the Vates or Seers. Yet in looking at them we can discern both the reason for their dismissal and their importance in the transition from archaic shamanism.

I

Isle a ho boys, let her go boys
swing her head round into the weather
Isle a ho boys, let her go boys
sailing homeward to Mingulay
-traditional (Casey Neill Trio), ‘Mingulay Boat Song’

Along the Atlantic seaboard of the European continent from Ireland to the Mediterranean islands of Malta are megalithic structures, which mark the steps of a migration of people from the cradle of civilization to the very periphery of the farthest Western shores. The purpose of these monuments, often described as communal burial tombs, remains an ambiguous assertion. Some call attention only to their contents of bones and material remains and maintain they were tombs for an elite social order. While others interpret their placement and architecture and suggest they are astronomical observatories designed to measure the solar year and thus act as an agricultural calendar. Some suggest that their purpose was more religious and the Winter Solstice ritual at Newgrange, or Brugh na Bóinne, in the interaction of dark and light, cave and sunbeam, the sacred marriage of the chthonic: feminine earth and the luminescent masculine sky is enacted.
(Continued)

The following is from my friend, Mr Vincent Salafia, who is trying to keep a roadway from being constructed through our most sacred landscape, the Hill of Tara. I am so proud of what he is doing, and I hope and pray that this construction is stopped, once and for all… for the sake of our Ancestors and our children’s children. - Áine

Salafia drops Supreme Court challenge to M3 motorway
Unison.ie (registration req’d)
13:43 Tuesday October 3rd 2006

Heritage campaigner Vincent Salafia has agreed to drop his Supreme Court case against the route of the M3 motorway in Co Meath. Mr Salafia was planning to bring the case to the highest court in the land after having his challenge dismissed by the High Court earlier this year.

However, he has now agreed to drop the action on condition that he will not have to pay the €600,000 costs incurred during the High Court hearing.

The M3 is due to pass alongside the historic Hill of Tara and Mr Salafia had claimed the directions given in relation to archaeological digs along the route were unconstitutional.

Mr Salafia’s move to drop his objection clears the way for construction of the road to get underway, but he said it would not be the end of the campaign against the motorway.

He said he had taken the decision on legal advice which said dropping his case would clear the pathway for fresh proceedings to be taken by other people.

PRESS STATEMENT

3 October 2006

Settlement of the Hill of Tara / M3 case

Today I am pleased to announce that a settlement has been formalised before the Supreme Court in my case against the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government; The Attorney General; Meath County Council; and the National Roads Authority, regarding the excavation and planned construction of the M3 motorway through the Hill of Tara archaeological complex.

I have accepted an offer from the Defendants to settle these particular proceedings after receiving legal advice from my Senior Counsel, Mr Ger Hogan SC, and Mr Frank Callanan SC, that it was in the best interests the campaign to preserve the integrity of the Tara complex. Thus, I have withdrawn my Supreme Court appeal in return for their agreement not to pursue me personally for costs, estimated in the region of 600,000 euros. The path is now clear for fresh legal challenges to the M3 at Tara by independent third parties, one of which is understood to be under way.

I took judicial review of the May 2005 decision of the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, within the 8 week time limit, and was granted leave by Justice Peart in July 2005. But the hearing was postponed by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Joseph Finnegan, in anticipation of the then pending Supreme Court ruling in the Carrickmines Castle / M50 case. Finally, the hearing went ahead regardless in January 2006, after the Carrickmines ruling was postponed for a third time.

From the very first day of trial my case sank into a procedural quagmire, when Mr Justice Tom Smyth refused to accept affidavits and threw them back over the bench at us. The case then unravelled when he refused our motion for oral cross-examination of witnesses, and critical evidence, was excluded. The excluded evidence went to the heart of the case, and we were unable to legally prove that new national monuments had been discovered.

Expert evidence from Discovery Programme Experts, Conor Newman, Joe Fenwick and Edel Bhreatnach, alleged that many of the newly discovered 38 sites between Navan and Dunshaughin are national monuments because they lie within the Tara complex. In addition, they alleged that 2 particular monuments, at Baronstown and Collierstown in the Tara/Skryne valley, are national monuments in their own right. However, at the commencement of proceedings they decided not to support an application for an injunction, but rather let the matter go directly to full hearing on the merits, in order not to hold up the M3 unnecessarily.

With these national monuments now under imminent threat of demolition, and excavations due to end in early 2007, time is of the essence. The best result we could have hoped for in the Supreme Court in my case was a rehearing in the High Court, followed by another Supreme Court appeal. However, any new Plaintiff would be able to make an application for an injunction immediately.

The substance of my case will now be brought directly to the Environment Directorate of the European Union and I am petitioning the EU to take legal action directly against Ireland for breaches of EU law. The evidence will show how the NRA has systematically underplayed the extent and significance of the Tara archaeological complex, in light of the fact that the Environmental Impact Assessment only identified 5 out of 38 sites.

The campaign will cotinue in earnest and I will remain Legal Affairs spokesperson for TaraWatch and continue to seek a political solution, as well as a legal solution, in light of the upcoming General Election and the fact that 70% of voters surveyed last year wanted the M3 rerouted.

TaraWatch has recently been contacted by the World Monuments Fund, a New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting endangered ancient and historic sites around the world. They want us to make a submission with a view to putting the Tara complex on the list of World’s 100 Most Endangered Sites list. We are also in direct contact with Europa Nostra, the administrators of European Heritage Week, who are considering launching an investigation into the Tara affair.

TaraWatch will also participate in a series of public demonstrations, the first of which will be held in Navan on Saturday, 4th November, starting at 3pm. We are also producing an album with bands like The Waterboys, Paddy Casey and Kila having offered songs.

On a personal level, I took this case because I truly believe the current M3 plan to be illegal, immoral and unethical and I still hold that view. The route of the M3 is ‘the fruit of the poisonous tree’, to use a legal expression. The roots of that tree are deeply embedded in Leinster House, where later today the Irish people will be officially informed, in essence, that black is in fact white.

The branches of this ‘tree’ extend well into County Meath, where recent by-election campaign saw the withdrawal of the Fianna Fail candidate after it was disclosed that he co-owned land with Frank Dunlop outside Dunshaughlin, not far from the M3. This was the same candidate that informed RTE’s Prime Time that nothing had been discovered by the NRA at Tara except “pots and pans”. An article in Ireland on Sunday called ‘Tara Tycoons’, (10-09-05) shows how major Fianna Fail contributors stand to make millions from developing lands in and around the 50 acre junction planned for Blundelstown, 1,000 metres from the crest of the Hill of Tara.

Recently, the NRA and indeed the Taoiseach have followed this lead and falsely and maliciously alleged that my case has cost the taxpayer 70 to 150 million euros in delays, as well as the lives of accident victims who had to drive on the old road. The obvious truth is that my case has caused no delay in the M3, as excavations are not even due to end until early 2007. There has been no delay in construction and no injunction in place, by my own design.

Finally, I did ask that this matter be handed over to binding arbitration, which would entail an independent third party assessment by a mutually acceptable qualified archaeological consultancy company. All legal consequences would flow from the determination of the core issues of law and fact: (a) Does the M3 pass through the national monument of Tara? and (b) Have new national monuments been discovered? This would be quickest and most effective means of bringing finality to the issue and certainty to the M3 project. The authorities rejected this proposal, which means that fresh legal proceedings are likely, along with a dramatic escalation of protests.

There are many other problems with the M3, besides the purely heritage issues. The current route is a waste of taxpayers money because it actually veers 3.5 km off path between Navan and Dunshaughlin to go through the Tara complex, and crosses the N3 in two places within 8 miles, where there is no population density. If it were to go 3.5 km westwards instead it would not need any N3 crossovers and would service Trim, as well as saving approximately 50 million euros.

While TaraWatch is mainly concerned with saving Tara and is not an anti-motorway lobby, we do note that the Al Gore film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ shows that global warming is happening much faster than we imagined and that drastic measures are necessary to reverse the trend. The M3 represents 1970’s technology in terms of fuel efficiency. Even the NRA itself is touting 2+1 schemes as much better options in terms of safety and efficiency per taxpayer euro. Meanwhile, there is no sign of the Navan to Dublin railway being opened, giving commuters an opportunity to get out of their cars and avoid the inevitable traffic jam at Blanchardstown, which will happen even if the M3 is built as planned.

Sooner or later this Government, or the next, must accept the inconvenient truth that the approval of the M3 route is one of the worst ever planning decisions in Ireland, and that it must be revisited in light of current knowledge and common sense.

ENDS

Vincent Salafia

This is an excerpt originally from: Galileo and Einstein: Early Greek Science: Thales to Plato
A lecture by Michael Fowler, UVa Physics Department
[Additional links and annotations by Áine MacDermot]

The Milesians

The first recorded important contributions to Greek science are from the city of Miletus, near the coast of what is now Turkey, beginning with Thales in about 585 B.C., followed by Anaximander about 555 B.C., then Anaximenes in 535 B.C. We shall argue below that these Milesians were the first to do real science, immediately recognizable as such to a modern scientist, as opposed to developing new technologies.

To see where Miletus is, click here.

The crucial contribution of Thales to scientific thought was the discovery of nature. By this, we mean the idea that the natural phenomena we see around us are explicable in terms of matter interacting by natural laws, and are not the results of arbitrary acts by gods. An example is Thales’ theory of earthquakes, which was that the (presumed flat) earth is actually floating on a vast ocean, and disturbances in that ocean occasionally cause the earth to shake or even crack, just as they would a large boat. (Recall the Greeks were a seafaring nation.) The common Greek belief at the time was that the earthquakes were caused by the anger of Poseidon, god of the sea. Lightning was similarly the anger of Zeus. Later, Anaximander suggested lightning was caused by clouds being split up by the wind, which in fact is not far from the truth.

[Note : Modern commentators assume that Thales regarded the earth as flat, thin, and circular, but there is no ancient testimony to support that opinion. On the contrary, Aristotle may have attributed knowledge of the sphericity of the earth to Thales, an opinion which was later reported by Aëtius (Aët. III. 9-10) and followed by Ps.-Plutarch (Epit. III.10).]

The main point here is that the gods are just not mentioned in analyzing these phenomena. The Milesians’ view is that nature is a dynamic entity evolving in accordance with some admittedly not fully understood laws, but not being micromanaged by a bunch of gods using it to vent their anger or whatever on hapless humanity.

An essential part of the Milesians’ success in developing a picture of nature was that they engaged in open, rational, critical debate about each others ideas. It was tacitly assumed that all the theories and explanations were directly competitive with one another, and all should be open to public scrutiny, so that they could be debated and judged. This is still the way scientists work. Each contribution, even that of an Einstein, depends heavily on what has gone before.

The theories of the Milesians fall into two groups:

(1) theories regarding particular phenomena or problems, of the type discussed above,

(2) doctrines of general cosmological import.

A spectacular example of the second type of theory was Anaximander’s suggestion that the earth was actually a cylinder, and the sun, moon and stars were located on concentric rotating cylinders. This is the first recorded attempt at a mechanical model of the universe. He postulated that the stars themselves were rings of fire. Again, this was a revolutionary suggestion, as all heavenly bodies had previously been regarded as living gods.

He also considered the problem of the origin of life, which becomes more difficult to explain if you don’t believe in gods. He suggested that the lower forms of life might be generated by the action of sunlight on moist earth. He also realized that a human baby is not self-sufficient for quite a long time, so postulated that the first humans were born from a certain type of fish known at that time.

All three of these Milesians struggled with the puzzle of the origin of the universe, what was here at the beginning, and what things are made of. Thales suggested that in the beginning there was only water, so somehow everything was made of it. Anaximander supposed that initially there was a boundless chaos, and the universe grew from this as from a seed. Anaximenes had a more sophisticated approach, to modern eyes. His suggestion was that originally there was only air (really meaning a gas) and the liquids and solids we see around us were formed by condensation. Notice that this means a simple initial state develops into our world using physical processes which were already familiar. Of course this leaves a lot to explain, but it’s on the right track.

The practice of hunger-striking has deep roots in Irish culture. The Celts would use self-inflicted starvation as a means of discrediting someone who had done them wrong, as would unpaid poets or tradespeople who would camp outside the home of an uncaring patron and begin a hunger striking ritual until their wrongs were righted or their debts paid.

The Irish words “troscad” and “cealacha” appear in some of the earliest written records during the medieval period in Ireland, even written into the legal civil code: the Feineachas (the laws of the Feine or Feini (fainyeh)), which are now called the Brehon Laws. Dlighthe Feine is another name for the laws, with the same meaning. The Anglo-Irish word “Brehon” is derived from the Gaelic word Bret hem (judge). Troscad and Cealacha roughly translated, they mean: “fasting on or against a person” and “achieving justice by starvation.” As far as can be understood, it consisted of fasting on the doorstep of the person or institution accused. The troscad was the means of compelling justice and establishing one’s rights, and it was open to all members of Celtic society. It is not unreasonable to suppose that when a woman performed the ritual hunger strike, that her action recalls a former age when women, as sorceresses, witches, and even in connection with the goddess-oriented pagan religion, were able to compel a redress of their grievances by ritual, religious, and magical means. If the hunger striker died, the accused would suffer societal ostracism and would have to pay compensation to the dead person’s family. The law said “he who does not give a pledge to fasting is an evader of all; he who disregards all things shall not be paid by God or man.” If a plaintiff having duly fasted did not receive within a certain time the satisfaction of his claim, he was entitled to distrain as in the case of an ordinary defendant, and to seize double the amount that would have satisfied him in the first instance.

In ancient times, the troscad was one of the most effective means of someone of lesser social position to compel justice from someone of higher social position. Thus Druids could fast against a King, or even a man or woman in one of the lower orders of society could fast against a Chieftain. To refuse to submit to fasting was considered indelibly disgraceful, and was one of the things which legally degraded a man by reducing or destroying his honor-price.

In the play The King’s Threshold, William Butler Yeats portrays the poet on political hunger strike against a king who takes away poets’ rights to sit on the king’s council. Yeats was a founding member of the Abbey Theatre.

Persuade him to eat or drink? –
While he is lying there, Perishing there, my good name in the world
Is perishing also. I cannot give way.
Because I am king; because if I give way,
My nobles would call me a weakling, and, it may be,
The very throne be shaken.

- William Butler Yeats, The King’s Threshold

Additionally, fasting and the Catholic credo of self-sacrifice, are also part of Irish culture and viewed as a means of self purification that added power to one’s prayers. Troscad is at the same time also aíne frithaire, Christian ascetic, penitential fasting aimed at influencing God. We can see here a subtle medieval blending of both the old pagan ways and the new Christian faith, a compelling of God’s aid to the devotee who fasts as well as a reliance on the older Brehon laws.

There was a spiritual penalty to be paid as well, for at this time there was great social and moral regard for hospitality among the Irish people, which extended even to strangers at one’s door. To allow someone to starve to death at one’s doorstep was a profound disgrace.

That it was an ancient ritual can be demonstrated by the fact that it bears almost complete resemblance to the ancient Hindu custom of dbarna. This custom is not only found in the Laws of Manu but as prayopavesana (’waiting for death’) it occurs in ancient Vedic sources. Dr. Joyce saw the troscad as ‘Identical with the eastern custom, and no doubt it was believed in pagan times to be attended by similar supernatural effects’; that is, that if the one fasted against ignores the person fasting then they would suffer fearful supernatural penalties. — Ellis, P.B.

The troscad was never entered into lightly and always with full knowledge of the seriousness of the final intent. Even after Christianity displaced the pagan religion, the troscad continued in Irish society even up to recent times where it has been used by political prisoners trying to gain rights to such things as sanitary conditions in the prisons and humanitarian treatment of the prisoners.