DeDanaan

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.

Early Irish Astrology: An Historical Argument
by Peter Berresford Ellis

In all histories of western astrology there is a curious omission. There are no references to early Irish, nor - indeed - ancient Celtic, astrological practices. In fact, the only serious scholarly study on Celtic astrology was published in a French academic journal in 1902. [1] This dissertation, in the light of modem research, is open to debate.

The major reason for this neglect of the subject, at least during the last fifty years, has undoubtedly been the insidious influence of Robert Graves’ The White Goddess (1949). This book has done singular disservice to those who seek to study the realities of Celtic cosmology and, especially, the practice of astrology. Graves was not a Celtic scholar. His highly imaginative inventions of the so-called ‘tree calendar’ and ‘tree zodiac’ inspired an outpouring of books purporting to be on ‘Celtic astrology’. Graves and his acolytes have, unfortunately, seized the popular imagination but their ‘tree zodiac’ has nothing at all to do with the realities of the ancient Celtic world.
(Continued)

A Royal by Any Other Name?
by Peter Berresford Ellis

Peter Berresford Ellis explores the origins of the fake House of ‘Windsor’ and highlights some of the more questionable links between the British royals and their German family counterparts.

———

NOW WE are heading for the jubilee of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, ‘Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth’. And there’s not a protocol cloud in the sky.

I’m told that the departure from the cares of this world of the Queen Mother came as somewhat opportune for the royal protocol watchers. Any later departure might have resulted in the cancellation of the jubilee celebrations. It was rather like the relief that was expressed when old Queen Mary died in 1953 at an appropriate time for the mourning to have finished in order to allow the coronation celebrations to take place in June. Tricky stuff, these royal protocols.

Perhaps I should not mention my political views on the subject of that family as the Treason Felony Act of 1848 is still in force in the United Kingdom. This means that if anyone advocates the abolition of the monarchy, even by peaceful means, they can wind up being imprisoned for life.

Last October, in the House of Lords no less, Lord Greaves asked Lord Rooker, minister of state at the Home Office, whether the government planned to repeal that outmoded piece of legislation and was told: “We have no plans at present to repeal the Act�.

Kevin McNamara MP tried to introduce a bill last year in the House of Commons, which sought to amend section three making it no longer a criminal offence to advocate the abolition of the monarchy by peaceful means. He failed. And when The Guardian newspaper tried to get a judgement on the matter in the High Court they were told that Britain still maintains the right of punishing people with life imprisonment for advocating a republic, whether in writing, broadcasting or through other means.

People in these islands are generally confused about this family who so affects all our lives. Most people even believe that the current royals are direct descendants of every monarch that has sat on the throne of England. It’s interesting that the ‘English monarchy’ has rarely been English but it is amazing how jingoistic the English are about these economic-immigrants that reign over them. (Continued)

Long before Machiavelli’s The Prince, The Japanese Book of Five Rings, and The Fifth Discipline, there was the indispensable, bare-bones advice of the great Irish king, Cormac, who imparted essential lessons on how to be a great leader and how to live a life that was both productive and fulfilling.

Cormac MacAirt on “Leadership”

Be not too wise, nor too foolish,
be not too conceited, nor too diffident,
be not too haughty, nor too humble,
be not too talkative, nor too silent
be not too hard, nor too feeble.
for:
If you be too wise, one will expect too much of you;
if you be too foolish, you will be deceived;
if you be too conceited, you will be thought vexatious;
if you be too humble, you will be without honor;
if you be too talkative, you will not be heeded;
if you be too silent, you will not be regarded;
if you be too hard, you will be broken;
if you be too feeble, you will be crushed.

“It is through these habits,” adds Cormac,
“That the young become old and kingly warriors.”

Cormac, portrayed by Irish poets and historians as one of the greatest of the Irish high kings, is particularly famed for his achievements in culture and for the personal qualities he brought to governing. In the words of a later historian he was, “wise, learned, valiant and mild, not given causelessly to be bloody as many of his ancestors were; he reigned majestically and magnificently.” Thomas Cleary’s highly readable contemporary English translation of The Counsels of Cormac brings the legendary king’s sage advice to present-day readers. From a to-the-point chapter outlining the “traditional prescription for a chieftain” to a charming discourse on “what is fitting for a chieftain and an alehouse” (a Celtic version of how to create a productive and pleasurable workplace), The Counsels of Cormac is perfect for those seeking to enhance their own leadership abilities, learn from the wisdom of the past, and connect with the roots of Celtic civilization.

The Cauldron of Poesy
by Amirgen White-knee

My true Cauldron of Incubation
It has been taken by the Gods from the mysteries of the elemental abyss
A fitting decision that ennobles one from one’s center
that pours forth a terrifying stream of speech from the mouth.

I am Amirgen White-knee
pale of substance, gray of hair,
accomplishing my incubation
in proper poetic forms
in diverse color.

The Gods do not apportion the same to everyone –
tipped, inverted, right-side-up;
no knowledge, half-knowledge, full-knowledge –
for Eber and Donn,
the making of fearful poetry,
vast, mighty draughts of death-spells
in active voice, in passive silence, in the neutral balance between,
in the proper construction of rhyme,
in this way it narrates the path and function of my cauldron.

I sing of the Cauldron of Wisdom
which bestows the merit of every art,
through which treasure increases,
which magnifies every common artisan,
which builds up a person through their gift.

I sing of the Cauldron of Motion
understanding grace,
accumulating knowledge
streaming poetic inspiration as milk from the breast,
it is the tide-water point of knowledge
union of sages
stream of sovereignty
glory of the lowly
mastery of words
swift understanding
reddening satire
craftsman of histories
cherishing pupils
looking after binding principles
distinguishing the intricacies of language
moving toward music
propagation of good wisdom
enriching nobility
ennobling non-nobles
exalting names
relating praises
through the working of law
comparing of ranks
pure weighing of nobility
with fair words of the wise
with streams of sages,
the noble brew in which is boiled
the true root of all knowledge
which bestows after duty
which is climbed after diligence
which poetic ecstasy sets in motion
which joy turns
which is revealed through sorrow;
it is lasting power
undiminishing protection
I sing of the Cauldron of Motion

The Cauldron of Motion
bestows, is bestowed
extends, is extended
nourishes, is nourished
magnifies, is magnified
invokes, is invoked
sings, is sung
preserves, is preserved
arranges, is arranged
supports, is supported.

Good is the well of measuring
good is the dwelling of speech
good is the confluence of power
which builds up strength.

It is greater than every domain
it is better than every inheritance,
it brings one to knowledge
adventuring away from ignorance.