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 Nicholas Wade
International Herald Tribune
Published: March 5, 2007

Britain and Ireland are so thoroughly divided in their histories that there is no single word to refer to the inhabitants of both islands. Historians teach that they are mostly descended from different peoples: the Irish from the Celts and the English from the Anglo-Saxons who invaded from Northern Europe and drove the Celts to the western and northern fringes.

But geneticists who have tested DNA throughout the British Isles are edging toward a different conclusion. Many are struck by the overall genetic similarities, leading some to claim that both Britain and Ireland have been inhabited for thousands of years by a single people that have remained in the majority, with only minor additions from later invaders like Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Vikings and Normans.

The implication that the Irish, English, Scottish and Welsh have a great deal in common with each other, at least from the geneticist’s point of view, seems likely to please no one. The genetic evidence is still under development, and because only very rough dates can be derived from it, it is hard to weave evidence from DNA, archaeology, history and linguistics into a coherent picture of British and Irish origins.

That has not stopped the attempt.

More here.

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)

Gilla Mo Dutu ua Casaide 1147
Book of Leinster ca. 1170
translation: Margaret C. Dobbs, Revue Celtica

The mother of Aed Findleith was fair Gormlaith of
the dazzling white complexion; daughter of Dondchadh.
Embroideries were no difficulty for her.

Good Mael Muire was daughter of Cinaed son of Alpin,
a Scotch noble, and mother of Domnall son of daring
Fland and of white-toothed active Nialll Glundubh.

The daughter of Muredach son of Eochu, sole king of
Ulster, was harsh Gormlaith. I do not conceal her
child, Cumascach, son of tall Ailill, [the noble
prior of Armagh was generous. There never was a
condemation of pets] and Domnall son of generous
Aed Findleith. His rank did not give a king’s protection.

Derbail, the good grand-daughter of Aed Ordnidi, was
the youthful wife of placid Lannacan. she was certainly
daughter of Mael Dun who ruled servile Cul Dremni of the
multitudes. Her children were Cellach and Mael Findna.
It was a family of adventurous lads. The husbands of
Eithne daughter of Aed Findleith were Flannacan and Fland.
Her sons were Mael Mithig of the mead-feasts and Mael
Ruanaid of yon assembly.

The mother of warlike Domnall U Neill was shining Gormlaith
of affectionate ways, the progeny of Culenan son of Mael
Brigte, (till then the most certain stream of all) child
of the king of the Conaille of embroideries. Their anger
and their contests are terrible.
(Continued)

Pages: 1 2

(author unknown)
compiled by Donnchadh Ó Corráin
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College, Cork, College Road, Cork, Ireland. (2005)

The edition used in the digital edition:
Donnchadh Ó Corráin, Early medieval law, c. 700-1200 in Angela Bourke, Siobhá¡n Kilfeather, Maria Luddy, Margaret Mac Curtain, Geraldine Meaney, Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha, Mary O’Dowd and Clair Wills (eds.), The Field Day anthology of Irish writing, Volume 4, New York and Cork, Cork University Press in association with Field Day (2002) page 6-44: 22-26.

Republished in 36 Sections for Educational Purposes.

section 1

Exempt from legal suit for each is what each may have used or have consumed as against the other, except what lien, obligation or loan may have imposed, or what one of them may have mis-appropriated from the other. Exempt from legal suit is everything useful to the partnership, everything done in good faith; liable to legal claim is everything done in bad faith in the law of the couple.

section 2

Question: How many pairings are there in Irish law?
Answer: Eight: a lord and his base clients, a church and its tenantry, a father and his daughter, a girl and her brother, a son and his mother, a foster-son and his foster-mother, a teacher and his pupil, a man and his wife.

section 3

Equally exempt from legal suit for each is whatever one of them may have given the other, whatever one of them may have used as against the other, without violent crime, without stealth. Everything taken without permission, that is complained about, is repaid by simple replacement of the object until the matter goes as far as the legal remedy of fasting, except in the case of the church. Repayment, by simple replacement, of what is taken without permission and complained about is all that is required until there is evasion of the legal obligations that arise from fasting, or legal default. Anything taken by stealth, by violent crime, anything taken without permission, that is complained about and ignored, is levied with its penalty fine.

section 4

Question: how many couples of cohabitation and procreation are there in Irish law?
Answer: ten -

1. union of common contribution;
2. union of a woman on a man’s contribution;
3. union of a man on a woman’s contribution with service;
4. union of a woman who accepts a man’s solicitation;
5. union of a man who visits the woman, without work, without solicitation, without provision, without material contribution;
6. union by abduction;
7. union of wandering mercenaries;
8. union by criminal seduction;
9. union by rape;
10. union of mockery.

section 5

(1) Union of common contribution: if it is a union with land and stock and household equipment, and if their marital relationship is one of equal status and equal propriety-and such a woman is called a woman of joint dominion-no contract of either is valid without the consent of the other, except for contracts that benefit their establishment. These are: an agreement for common ploughing with proper kinsmen when they do not themselves have a full ploughing team; paying for the leasing of land; getting together food for a coshering; getting food for feast-days; paying stud fees; fitting out the household; making an agreement for joint husbandry; the purchase of any essentials that they lack. Every contract shall be without neglect, an advantageous contract, conscientious, in accordance with right and propriety, with acknowledgement on both sides that the ownership of what is acquired belongs to the person whose property was alienated to acquire it.

section 6

Anything, the lack of which brings loss on the household, cannot be sold without common counsel, consultation, and mutual concession. For the impairment of the joint economy in a union of common contribution is not proper without mutual concession.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6