Brighid – Celtic Triple Goddess for the Ancient and Modern World

My essay containing some of the latest research on my matron deity for my Goddess Mythology, Women’s Spirituality, and Ecofeminism course.

Figure 1. Four arm version, and most commonly known, St. Brigit’s Cross from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid's_cross

Though the standardized spelling of Her title in English is now Bridgid or Bridgit, and in oral narratives as Bride, this ancient Goddess is known in Gaelic languages as Brigit, Brighit, Brid, Briid, Brigid, Brighid, usually pronounced “Breed”; all stemming from the root of the ancient word Brig meaning “exalted”, “high”, “fire”, or conveying power or authority. Her name is usually translated as some form of “The Exalted One”, “High One”, “Bright One” or sometimes “Bright Arrow”.  Not simply an Irish Goddess, as She is currently known, Her influence is felt all over what was known as the Celtic world. She has been linked with Ffraid in Wales, Brigindo amoung Gauls, Brigandu in Celtic France, and Brigantia in Britain, and therefore the symbol of the island as Britiania itself. The Celtic tribe of Brigantes took their name from Her, and all over the ancient world, even surviving to the modern era, hundreds of places, wells, rivers, and centres of worship bear the remembrance of Her name or symbolism.

Brighid is rather unique in that She has survived relatively intact and still worshiped in the modern era. To that we must owe, ironically, the canonization and popularization of Her as a Catholic saint. In 633 CE, in Leinster, a new sept, Ui Dhúnlainge, rises to power. Its leader, Faolán mac Colmáin, was brother to the Bishop of Kildare and commissions the Vita Brigitae, or the Life of Bridgit, around 650 CE. This saint’s supposed biography is compiled a century after her alleged death by the monk Cogitosus, and is the “oldest surviving biography of any Irish saint”, according to Ó hÓgain, D. (1985). Focusing largely on her miracles, “a skillful combination of pagan and Christian elements”, it has very little real information about the historical Brigit, and is largely concerned with the claims of her church’s and therefore the sept’s power and jurisdiction. It succeeds brilliantly. In less than 50 years, Kildare reigns supreme in matters spiritual and secular, and the Fotharta, which claimed Bridgit as originally a member of their sept, retained power. However, we do owe a great deal of thanks to these machinations. The pronoun "Kil" or "Cil" indicates a sacred shrine in many parts of the Celtic lands and Kildare, or ‘Cill Dara’, meant Church of the Oak Tree, was already associated with the pagan Goddess for centuries earlier. Drawing extensively on extant legend and contemporary practices, the Life of Bridgit gives us a snapshot of some of the authentic beliefs, rituals, and stories of Her worship.

Domains of Influence

Bridgid is a triune, or triple Goddess, but not a typical Maid, Mother and Matron trinity, since aging is not a feature. Instead, as Monaghan, P. (1997) points out, Brighid and her sisters “were never construed as separate goddesses but as aspects of one divinity…they were identical”, linked in the symbolism of fire in what many propose as a remnant of a primary Neolithic Sun deity. However, one can make the argument that She did in fact represent the Creatrix, Preserver, and Destroyer sequence. As Creatrix, She was the Bright Lady of Flame, or Inspiration of poets and bards. Her symbol in this aspect was the caldron. Most other crafts are under Her auspices as well. As a Spring deity, She was also most associated with fertility (an aspect hard to overcome for the Catholic saint). She was responsible for agriculture, such as crops and cattle, and healthy babies. She was literally the Bride; the wedded one. As the Preserver, She is a Mother goddess and associated with healing and medicine, especially in midwifery, “who in Ireland was honoured for her ‘protecting care’”, as Ó hÓgáin, D. (1991) reports. As the “Bright Flame of Love”, Her sway was over sexual fertility and erotic love. Her specific totem plants were the mountain ash tree, the holly berry, and the shamrock, as a symbol of Her triple aspect. As the Destroyer, in another facet of fire, Brighid is matron of smithcraft and of smiths. Her symbol in this aspect is the forge. Although at first blush this seems to be related to Her creation and craft aspects, this is the one of the only crafts that is directly mentioned in stories. Some have gone further to associate Her further with war[1], the legendary female fighting arts trainers in Celtic lore, and brigands or medieval fighters outside Christian law, as Walker, B. G. (1983) notes. Her epithet of “Bright Arrow” lend support to this claim. The connection of “the fianna, a legendary group of warriors from Celtic mythology”[2] to St. Brigit’s primary seat of Kildare and whose symbol is a harp, one of the bardic instruments, who Brighid is matron of, also indicates that might be the case. If further investigation of these links yield more results, Brighid is also a warrior Goddess, in the manner of the triple Morrigan, with smithcraft as representative of Her solar fire on earth as well as Her patronage of warfare and the martial arts.

In all Her aspects, She is most associated with fire and light; and with healing or ‘lucky’ wells, especially wellsprings, thermal waters, and most particularly milky artisan wells; especially in Her physical places of worship.

Festivals and Rituals

Festivals

Brighid’s main festival is Imbolc; also spelt Imbolg, Óimelc, Oimelc, and Oimelg, on Febuary 1^st. A pastoral festival, it is best translated as “parturition”, the usual explanation relating to the dropping of lambs. Even in Britain, however, spring would not yet be fully evident, so the signs of spring, such as animal births and generation of milk, do not strike our unagrarian eyes as sufficient reason for a fertility festival. Mac Killop, J. (1998) suggests that “the visibly perceptive lengthening of the light, and therefore the anticipation of spring” is a more satisfying explanation, but there is another. Imbolc, as one of the four Great Celtic high feasts, is also on the opposite end of the calendar from Lammas or Lughnasa, or First Harvest festival on August 1^st. In the four quarter solar symmetry of the Celtic world view, all of these reasons together would be more than enough to denote a sacred time and appropriateness of spring worship.

In the Christian attempt to claim of the power of Brighid as a saint, they renamed the festival “Candlemas’, meaning “Mass of the Candles”, including therefore the symbolism of the coming of light. Some modern traditions retain the link to the holiday only through the Saint, such as the Scottish Gaelic name of  Lá Féill Bhríde, and the Irish Lá íl Bride, but others are completely converted to the Candlemas form and associate it with the Christian Mother of God. There is some logic to this. Brigid as Mother Goddess never truly lost her supremacy in her native lands and St. Brigit is widely known as “Mary of the Gaels”, with many stories associating Her with the Christian Blessed Mother and Son. Sometimes St. Brigit is seen directly as Mother of the Savior, sometimes as midwife at the Nativity and foster mother of the Christos, sometimes as compatriot and assistant to Mary. In fact, the Festival of the Purification of the Virgin, which takes place 40 days after Christmas, is on February 2, the day after Imbolc. It celebrates when the Blessed Mother is Churched, or purified after the spiritual pollution of giving birth, so many stories, explanations, and confusion of the holidays, as well as the two figures, abound.

Rituals

Current traditions of Brighid in Her native lands are largely in the context of St. Brigit, though obvious parallels to Her original Goddess origins can still be found in past and extant examples. Origins of Her fertility cult and Mother aspect were notable in practices and legends. Men were originally banned from coming past the hedge at Her shrine at. Even when Christianised, Her orders retained many traditions from Her former incarnation.  St. Brigit’s bishops,  Monaghan, P. (1997) reports, had to be practicing goldsmiths, an unusual requirement, harking to Brighid’s domain of crafting, smithing, and embodiment of Fire.

One of the most telling ancient practices was the sacred Fire at Kildare itself. Cultural archeology and folklore has produced intriguing evidence of practices that indicate the Fire may have continued for centuries before St. Brigit is alleged to have lived, tended by the original pagan nuns occupying the shrine far in advance of the advent of Christianity. Reported in the Life of Brigit as already being old, it was still being maintained in 1184, as Giraldus Cambrensis records the “inextinguishable vestal fire tended by nuns”. Even at this time, men were still not allowed near the fire itself. It was also considered miraculous, in that it produced no ash in the centuries it had been burning. Contemporary accounts number nine or, more usually, nineteen priestesses tending the Fire. Both are sacred numbers of traditional Goddess worship – nine being the Triple Goddess tripled, such as the Muses, and 19 representing “the cycle of the Celtic ‘GreatYear’” – the mating of the solar and lunar calendars, as Walker, B. G. (1983) explains. Each nun was responsible for tending the sacred fire for one day at a time, and on “the eve of the twentieth day the last nun would place logs by the fire with the prayer: ‘Brigid, guard your fire, this is your night.”… In 1220, some forty years after Gerald’s visit, the Norman-appointed Bishop of Dublin grew angry at the exclusion of men from the Abbey at Kildare, as well as the obvious paganity of the sacred flame[3] and demanded they open the Abbey, claiming nuns were subordinate to priests. After their refusal, his men forced their way into the Abbey and extinguished the fire. Under Henry VIII’s Reformation, the archbishop George Browne of Dublin ensured that the flame stayed dead. However, in “1993, the flame was re-lit by Sister Mary Teresa Cullen, then the congregational leader of the Brigidine Sisters” [4], ensuring a modern order of nuns to again take up the duties and mantle of their ancient sisters.

Along with Her main shrines, such as the one at Kildare, hundreds of ancient healing wells and sacred spaces dot the landscape all over Ireland and many other parts of the Celtic world that are associated with Her name or titles. They are so numerous that many are largely unknown, except by locals, and attempts are being made to catalog them all. Many are still visited and favours are still sought in traditions that clearly go back centuries. Most closely linked with the milky white artisan springs, invoking Her as lactating Mother; other forms can include wells and caves with pure water.

The most well known ritual of St. Brigit is of course the “Cros Bhride” or Brigit’s Cross. Traditionally made out of reeds or straw, again harkening to Her fertility and agriculture patronage, it is become the most popular and recognizable symbol of the saint, and used in most ceremonies, invocations, and even heraldry.  It was “placed under the rafters of the dwelling house so as to ensure health and good fortune”, and occasionally in the cow byre to protect the animals, according to Ó hÓgáin, D. (1991).  Though the most common versions are based on the solar number of four or a lozenge shape, an authentic version is also a triskelion, harkening to Her trinity aspect as the Goddess, as demonstrated by Matthews, C. (2008). The lozenge and triskelion shapes indicate that the Cross pre-dates the Christianized saint and is an ancient symbol and rite for Brighid.  

Figure 2: How to make a Brigit’s Cross from: http://www.earthwitchery.com/makeacross.html

  

Major Stories

With such an early medieval emergence of the saint with the ancient Goddess, many stories have clearly been Christianized. However, we do have some very obvious indications of the traditional domains, attributes, and original responsibilities of the Goddess through less altered or edited versions.

One of the most famous oral tradition stories points to Her most ancient form. Brighid, in her guise of Bride, in a trial of servitude and cunning, defeats the Old Woman of Winter, the Cailleach, by turning Her to stone. Bride also steals the secret of Immortality and Youth, by using a triskelion cross of rushes in a well, and uses it to revive the land from winter, invoking all her traditional symbolism and ritual. Bride is also assisted by a druid in the form of a bird, specifically an oystercatcher, known as Gille Bridhid, or Bride’s Servant, much like a totem animal. She also obtains a birch wand and vows to use it assist any who need Her help, instructing listeners to invoke Her when they require Her aid. In this story, Bride is in essence Spring itself, which is perfectly in line with Brighid’s sacred day of Imbolc and indicates Her extreme antiquity as a representation in the wheel of the seasons itself. However, the Cailleach is also portrayed as much older, and originally one of a sisterhood herself in her youth, indicating that, as ancient as Bride is, She is still a more recent incursion.

Figure 3:  Triple armed Brigit’s Cross

Since the Church was almost exclusively responsible for literature for nearly 1000 years, the written stories are almost entirely about the Christianized St. Brigit. However, even with those, we are given insight into the previous Goddess incarnation. St. Brigit is said to have invented both whistling and the death keening, easily linked to a Goddess of bards and warfare. Her father is demoted from the Dagda, and becomes the druid Dubthach. The saint herself is reduced to founding the Abbey at Kildare and therefore made its patron. She is still portrayed, however, as having the ability to multiply “butter, bacon, and milk, to bestow sheep and cattle, and to control the weather”, as Ó hÓgáin, D. (1991) tells us. Most of her stories involve healing, or generosity in the form of giving food and cows to the needy. Some involve the dispensing of justice, especially as a trick to the wicked. As ancient protectoress of her people, St. Brigit was said to favour Lienstermen in time of war. There were said to be nineteen churches dedicated to her all over the British Isles on the eve of the Reformation, harkening back to the traditional number of priestesses at Her shrines.

One of the most well known Christianized tales pertains to the founding of her abbey. When St. Brigit asks for land for her convent, a powerful local bureaucrat, usually a chieftain or a bishop, refuses to give her any more land than her cloak will cover. In response, she lays out her cloak on the ground and it begins to spread, taking up so much land that he begs her to stop before he loses everything. In another version, she takes apart the weave of her cloak and encircles the area with the thread. In either case, it offers the spiritual and physical foundation for her abbey. In form, it is from a traditional Irish folk tale, where the trickster makes oxhide into strips to draw out a large area of land.

We also run into the problem of the confusion of the pagan Mother Goddess, the subsequent saint, and the imported Mary, Mother of God. Not only are their feast days equated, but many stories justify that association. In one story, Mary confesses that she is ashamed to be churched after the birth of the holy child and doesn’t want to be stared at. Brigit eases Mary’s fears by taking it upon herself to don garish attire, making it impossible for anyone to look at anything else, and precedes Mary down the aisle. Mary is so grateful that she permits Brigit’s feast day to precede her own ever after. There are similar stories to justify the order of the feast days, and they usually involve Brigit in her Sun deity aspect – lights in her hair or headdress, or garb that no one can look at, or can stare only at her.

Later versions are more problematic, however. St. Brigit, in her association with the sun, light, fire, and other pre-Christian attributes, manages to become entangled in symbolism from other saints from the Continent, largely Christianized deities themselves, complicating the problem of what ancient Brighid would have actually represented to Her people. We can make some educated guesses, however. St. Lucy, in particular, as the original Goddess Lucia of the reborn Light at Solstice, has her properties intermingled with the stories of St. Brigit as each of their cults gain influence. Lucy, as the Sun, becomes patron saint of eyes and eye diseases, and many of her stories and attributes are reflected in later Christian miracles of Brigit. She, like Lucy, plucks out her eyes to be less attractive to a suitor, though her healing aspect later restores her sight. Her mother is said to have an eye disease, and several of her stories feature eyes and sight, including actually giving eyes to a ‘flat faced man’. The lighted headdress mentioned in some stories, and occasional rituals for Brigit, especially seems to come from traditional Lucia worship.

Narratives also include St. Patrick, or the Father god. Though he is often dependant on Brigit’s perception, trickster qualities, mercy and justice, he is still able to instruct her, to demonstrate his pre-eminence.

Significance

Possible IndoEuropean roots

In Kildare, and in other sacred shrines of St. Brigit, the order of Brigantine nuns that tended the eternal flame were called kelles or Calliechs.   The term kelle, Kelly as a first name, O'Kelly as a last name and Kelly Green as a clan colour has also been linked (for they are often interchangeable with various forms of Calliech in the old records) as is The Book of Kell(e)s itself. The term "kelle' is still used in India in the meaning of "prostitute', and in conjunction of Mary Magdalene, often described as a temple prostitute. Like the holy houris of the ancient world, the 'kelle's may have performed a similar role. These primary priestesses would have remained unmarried to mortals and their children therefore were gifts of the Goddess and could only be of the Kelly clan, or O'Kelly, in a practice very similar to the Indian Goddess Cunti, who gave children as a gift without requirement of wedlock. It would explain why the O'Kellys were the spiritual, financial and sole caretakers of the shrine at Kildare and other shrines until fairly recently. Many scholars have linked these practices to the Indo-European shrines and temples from which they may have been imported. [5]The similarly of language and concepts cannot be overlooked, and could possibly lead to further depth of understanding.  In particular, Goddess worship in the Indus Valley and Fertile Crescent areas and highly probable links to the Calliech and Kali Ma are numerous, as are the practices and structural organization of Her Priestesses.

 

Original Contexts

Brighid was clearly a trinity Goddess of great antiquity, with shrines and cult centres all over the ancient Celtic world. In the earliest written records, we find Her aspects associated with Minerva and Vesta. With links to the Indo-European Goddesses, She is slightly younger than the deities already occupying the British Iles, but She is readily embraced as the approaching Sun, the Spring, the Healer, the fertile Mother, and even as consuming and just Death, as She takes over some of the aspects of the Old Woman herself, the Cailleach. Brighid is appealed to for aid, with the expectation of assistance, bestows generosity to those who require it, and unlike most other trickster figures, does not vindictively punish Her enemies, displaying kindness and mercy. Even as a trinity, She is the young and vigorous Mother from which all good things came, such as the technology, knowledge, and culture Her people needed to survive and thrive. She symbolized the land itself; and its people saw it as good, healing, warm, generous, just, and with enough for all. She also embodied Her people, as is shown by some tribes actually taking their name from Her.  Perhaps, then, that we can conclude that the peoples who embraced Brighid as their Mother also saw the world as a beautiful, bountiful place, worth celebrating, with kindness and justice as ideals that could be manifest in each other, offering a death with peace or righteously fighting to achieve it.  

Contemporary Women

Modern Irish women in particular are embracing Brigit as their matron saint, but also with echoes of the earlier Goddess being deliberately included. In 2014, in one of the many ceremonies at Imbolc, for example, Louth County celebrated the 7th Brigid of Faughart Festival. Incorporating the Goddess’s traditional symbolism and aspects such as bard and protectress of the land, workshops in Brigit’s cross making, circle dance, poetry, painting and organic gardening took place, as well as a professional bardic night.[6]  Healing pilgrimages and more Christianized activities also featured, demonstrating the fluid nature of the Celtic Goddess with Her saintly counterpart in the eyes of many of Her worshipers.  With modern nuns and lay orders such as Cháirde Bhríde or “Heart of Brigit” taking up the care of her sacred flame, shrines and wells are now being attended, decorated, and maintained by a new generation of Celtic women.

Wiccans, a very recent and highly popular neopaganism tradition, have embraced Brighid and Imbolc especially. As one of their Eight Great Sabbats, Imbolc is viewed as the quickening of Inspiration, new ventures, and cleansing of energies and preparation.

With Her warmth, strength, justice, bounty and independent power as a Mother and a woman, She is a model that is in sore need in an era of patriarchy, war, capitalism, and ecodestruction. Brighid still has the ability to inspire women today. As one attendee said of Her ceremonies: “I have never felt more Irish than I did that night. I felt an atavistic sense of blood connection, an awareness that I was celebrating in ways that had been part of my heritage for generations and generations. I felt as though my body were temporary, almost illusory, existing only to trace ancient sunwise paths around a holy place. As though my body reflected, like wellwater reflecting countless candles, the bodies of others -- women of Irish blood, women like me -- who had celebrated at that very place, on that very night, down through the centuries.”[7]

References

Budapest, Z. (1989). The Grandmother of Time: A Woman's Book of Celebrations, Spells, and Sacred Objects for Every Month of the Year. HarperOne
Campanelli, P. (1989). Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life. Llewellyn
Ellis, P. B. (1992) Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Constable & Robinson Limited
Green, M. J. (1997). Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. Thames & Hudson
Jordan, M. (2004). Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Second Edition. Facts on File
Mac Killop, J. (1998). Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford Univ Pr.
Matthews, C. (2008). Tales from Celtic Lands. Barefoot Books
Monaghan, P. (1997). The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines . Llewellyn Publications
Ó hÓgain, D. (1985). The Hero in Irish Folk History, Gill & MacMillan
Ó hÓgáin, D. (1991). Myth, Legend and Romance: An Encyclopedia of the Irish Folk Tradition. Prentice Hall Press
Ó Súilleabháin, S. editor (2012). Miraculous Plenty: Irish Religious Folktales and Legends, Comhairle Bhealoideas Eireann
Walker, B. G. (1983). The Woman's Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets. HarperCollins Publishers
Walker, B. G. (1988). The Woman's Dictionary Of Symbols And Sacred Objects. Harperone
Wilson, K. M., Margolis, N. editors (2004). Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia, Volume I, A-J. Greenwood
Zucchelli, C. (2007). Stones of Adoration: Sacred Stones and Mystic Megaliths of Ireland. Collins Press

Appendix I

Websites consulted:

http://monasticmatrix.osu.edu/commentaria/st-brigit-ireland

http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Places/Place/490534

http://www.unicorngarden.com/brigid.htm

http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Article/489836

http://awitchintime.wordpress.com/2010/01/06/wednesday-whatever-imbolc-path-working/

http://houndofhecate.blogspot.ca/2012/11/commentary-on-charge-of-goddess-14-bride.html

[1] “In the past twenty years, scholars have cast Brigit as a pre-Christian tripartite hospitaller, lawgiver, and warrior based on the British goddess Brigant” http://monasticmatrix.osu.edu/commentaria/st-brigit-ireland

[2] http://www.ngw.nl/int/ier/counties/kildare.htm

[3] http://www.unicorngarden.com/brigid.htm

[4] http://www.brigidine.org.au/about-us/index.cfm?loadref=36

[5] "Sergeant Vithana beat her with a baton saying, "Go, prostitute girl, find your brother" ('Palayan vesa kelle, ayyawa gihin hoyapan')."  http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2002/280/  Sri Lankan language. 

[6] http://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/entertainment/busy-festival-to-celebrate-saint-brigid-29939042.html

[7] http://www.matrifocus.com/IMB04/earth.htm

"Irish Witches" by John Hurley (Unabridged)

This is one of my favourite articles on the topic. It's now very hard to find on the 'net, and so it is with the greatest respect to the author that I host it here so that it will not be lost to the public. It is essential reading for all those practioners of the Celtic inclination as an overview of Irish culture and Druidic practices including how it relates to witchcraft, magic and paganism.  I have included the complete bibliography and Gaelic words. If the copyright holders object, please let me know!

Looking up witch-and-seeress names in Irish, found this page in Kuno Meyer's old Contributions to Irish Lexicography. He shows three different phrases for a band of women: ban-graig; ban-lorg, and ban-trocht or -tracht. From Suppressed History Archives

Irish Witches

"One of the problems facing many modern "neo-pagans" is their inability to successfully describe their own personal spiritual paths to people outside their path. Finding terms that are readily understood by others not of the same path is often difficult, so many pagans settle for recently coined or popularly understood terms, such as "witch", "wiccan", "druid", "shaman", etc. Many pagans know that these broad terms do not fully express their own path, and many add ethnic or cultural adjectives to add to the meaning of the word chosen. They are "Celtic Witches", "Native American Shamans", "Family Trad. Druids", etc.

These terms certainly help the outsider get a feel for where the particular practitioner in question is coming from, however, more and more pagans are searching for better terms from within their own traditions. Many pagans feel that using archaic terms or terms from a non-English language to describe their paths is too exclusionary and simply alienates others from their paths. Charlatans can, all too often, find easy refuge behind impressive sounding, archaic terminology. But there comes a time when watering down one's path - even if only in name and even if only to make it more palatable to others - weakens that path, making it somewhat bland and conformist.

In this article I will discuss some terms that can be used in one of the more frequently used paths, popularly known as "Irish Witchcraft", or "Celtic Witchcraft".

Now before we get to the word "witch", let's discuss the terms "Celtic" and "Irish".

The term Celtic is used to describe the civilization, peoples and language family, of certain peoples who dominated Western Europe north of the Alps for about 1000 years before the rise of the Roman Empire. Celtic civilization continued on through the rise of Rome, and today there are six Celtic Nations, each with their own unique but related, language and culture.

Linguists place Celtic in its own language family, distinct from other European languages, but stemming from the same theorized "Proto-Indo-European Mother Tongue". The Celtic languages are divided into two branches, generally called "q-celtic" and "p-celtic" or Goedelic and Brythonic respectively. Goedelic, q-celtic, is comprised of the Gaelic languages of Irish, Scottish-Gaelic, and Manx. Brythonic, p-celtic, is comprised of Welsh, Breton and Cornish. (Both Manx and Cornish are now considered dead languages). Goedelic, q-celtic is considered the older of the two branches, and is characterized by a harder consonant sounds with regard to the letters c/k/ch/q. In q-celtic, the word for "son of", "mac" is pronounced with a hard "q" sound, "maq". In p-celtic, the same word is spelt and pronounced "map".

The term "Irish" is of Norse origin, as is the word "Ireland", the Native Irish words being "Erinnach" and "Erin" respectively.

The ancient Irish, were composed of what they considered to be many different races; some Celtic, some not. But just as today's Americans have various ethnic backgrounds and are all, at the end of the day, Americans, so the Irish eventually came to see themselves and their tribes as a unique Irish Nation in the modern sense of the word. The modern Irish people are a racial mixture of Celtic Gaels, Norse; Danes, Welsho-Normans, and Saxons. However, the tradition in Ireland has always been that the dominant and original Gaelic culture - the touchstone of Irish Civilization - absorbed all newcomers to the Island. The Norse, Danes and Welsho-Normans who came to Ireland all adopted Gaelic Irish language and culture as their own. Hence, the Celtic culture of the Gaels is not based on one's racial origins and never has been; it is based on ones involvement in, and promotion of, the traditional culture of the island. (This question of absorption into the traditional culture is at the very heart of the modern war in Northeast Ireland). It is important to remember all this when we start using "Irish" as an adjective to describe something, especially our own spiritual path, because it is such a battered term, implying different things to different people.

"Witch" is a non-Celtic, Anglo-Saxon word meaning "to bend" or "to know". In the popular mind, the term has many other connotations as well, most of them negative. Since it is not an Irish word - and indeed since it is a word associated with the very peoples who have wreaked so much havoc on the traditional Irish pagan paths - many modern Irish pagans would prefer to use an Irish word to describe their path, and dispense with English words altogether.

One of the problems with coming up for a good word in Irish for "witch", is that there are quite a few words to choose from, each with very subtle differences in meaning, depending upon the original context in which the words are said. The Irish is an extremely flexible and creative language and taking isolated words out of their context in conversation can be a very misleading and self-deluding enterprise. On the other hand, the ancient Irish were never very strict in their use of words, preferring to let the oral usage of a word dominate over a formal, "standardized" definition of it.

Another problem is that there is simply alot of disagreement over the very nature of pre-Christian Irish and Celtic religions. Some people would describe all Irish spirituality as coming from the Druidic Order, and hence would describe any pagan Irish beliefs as being "druidic". Others would say that there were probably a few different pre-Christian religions within Irish society at any given time, so the druid tag simply wouldn't and couldn't apply to all paths. To complicate matters, there were different types of religious communities (priests/priestesses, monks/nuns), within these various religions, AND some of these religions may also have been pre-Celtic in origin!!!

I'd like to briefly discuss what we *do* know about these various Irish religious paths, so that the words we use in Irish to describe some of them are better understood.

First, the Druids. Much has been written about them; most of it nonsense. Most neo-pagans accept the Victorian notion of Druids as bearded old men, dressed in white, who constituted a patriarchal, Aryan-Celtic Priesthood. One of the oddest descriptions about them is that they were all pacifists and even vegetarians.....odd when one considers some of the Gods and Goddesses who were supposed to patronize the Order!! They were, in reality, the "Aes Dana" or "Men of Art", or learning. They were the Celtic "Intelligentsia", and hence would have simply been the people with an education within Celtic society. The religious connotations regarding them stem from the fact that in Irish culture, all learning was done through the art of poetry, and poetry was the measuring stick used to judge ones educational level and intelligence. Anyone with an education was schooled in poetry, but the most educated had literally memorized the most poems about a particular subject. Poetry was always considered to be a magical art, and thus those with the most poems had the "most magic", and would be considered to be someone who was close to the gods or Sidh.

Luckily, much more is known about the *Irish* branch of Druidic Order (as opposed to the Gallic and British Orders), because the Irish Order survived as an institution until the 17th century, right up to the destruction of the Gaelic Nobility which supported it, and even beyond that. After the coming of Christianity to Ireland, certain factions of the Druidic Order struck a bargain with the druids who had adopted the Christian teaching and gave up some of their religious ritual functions. (This bargain could have been struck consciously at an historical point, or evolved slowly over a long period of time, but it might be attributed to the Christian saint and druid, St. Columba, who later Irish Bards revered as having saved their Order after an attempt to banish it). Other Irish druids never did give up their power or officially convert. At some point the druid-Christians took over the officiating at religious rituals, but for a very long time, Bishops and Druids officiated together. Even after the Christian Bishops dominated ritual events, the druids continued their educational and magical traditions as bards. The Irish definition of what is "magical" or what constitutes a ritual is simply broader in its view than Christianity. Hence in many ways, it was business as usual for the druids of Ireland.

The Druidic Order as it is popularly understood today was supposed to be divided into three sections of Bards, Vates and Druids. Now this would mean that *all* members of the Order were considered Druids, with the Order having "Bardic-Druids", "Vatic-Druids", and "Druid-Druids", all performing somewhat different functions, but all being equal as Druids, and all having overlapping duties. (Again, the Irish were never very strict about their institutions). Over time, the Order in Ireland became identified almost exclusively with the Bardic section of the Order, and that has had an immense influence on what is considered "magical" in Irish culture, and hence in the Irish language, even today.

The Bardic division of the Druidic Order became more powerful and people who wanted to become druids and NOT Christian priests now simply became bardic-druids. In this way, they continued their magical practices, yet made room in Irish society for Christianity, and it is that ability (or inability) to compromise and make room for newcomers to Ireland which is a central part of the Irish experience. In medieval times, a King's "Chief Poet", had a higher ranking than the King's (Christian) Bishop. One of the last great Irish "Official Poets", as they were called, was Eochaidh O hEoghusa, who served three successive Maguires, The Lords of Fermanagh, from 1586 to 1602. O hEoghusa retained the traditional rank of the "Ollav", or Kings' Poet, and in most ways, he differed little from his ancient Druid predecessors.

There were also definitely Female Druids as well, and it would seem that, as in most cultures, there were priests, priestesses, monks, nuns and hermits all within the Irish pagan spiritual milieu.

So, would Irish Druidesses be considered "witches" as we understand the English term "witch" today? Probably, but again, there are many different functions for many different types of clerical vocations, and one word used for one period of Irish history, may not mean the same exact thing as applied in a different period of Irish history. An Irish "Wise Woman" and healer/herbologist from the 19th century, like the famous Biddy Early of Clare, may not have been a card carrying member of the Druid Order and hence a "Ban-Draoi" (Druidess), but she certainly was a witch and, in a way, a "priestess" of The Sidh. Was she a healer, a "Fairy Doctor"? Certainly. Was she a Seer? Definitely. Was she a Prophetess? At times. She was mostly known for her healing abilities however, and what becomes clear when looking at the various words used to describe various Irish pagans is that no matter what their varying abilities or educations, they eventually were best called by whatever term best described their most popular ability. Therefore, for someone like Biddy Early, better terms than "Bandraoi" would be: "Fáidhbhean" or "Fáidhmhná"; "Cailleach", Cailleach Feasa", "Cailleach Phiseogach" or "Cailleach na gCear". All of these terms can mean "wise woman" or "witch".

Another problem in choosing terms is that many modern neo-pagan Celtic Witches don't equate Irish "Druidism" with Irish, female oriented "witchcraft". But the problem here is that in the Irish language, they often do!! It's that simple. Because the term in Irish which means Druidism, "Draíodóireacht", has a much broader definition than its modern English counterpart. The Irish worldview of magic, art, poetry and in particular, women, is much more complicated than the view held by the rest of Europe, and this would include their view of witches. There were no witch trials in Ireland, for example, until the Normans came. This doesn't mean there were no Irish witches prior to that, it just means there was no persecution of witches in Irish society, until the foreign, Euro-Normans invaded. Irish society was not as rigidly "categorized" as we today - thinking of it in abstract, historical terms - would like it to be. Since Irish society was so flexible, its views of many things overlap each other in ways which simply don't occur in the modern/neo-pagan/Anglo-centric world, in which we all have to live.

In Irish, there was and is no specific gender based split between male and female magic or magicians, period. "Draíodóir" for example, is an asexual word, *but* more often than not, words in Irish which are associated with creativity, poetry, craft, the supernatural, spirits or magic, have an inherently feminine connotation in them. This is because it was thought that these things all had their source with the Goddess Aíne, also called Anu, Ana and hence "Dana". Aíne is the "Mother of all the gods" and hence the Queen of Magic. The "Tuatha Dé Danann" are literally all Aíne's children. (Tuatha Dé Danann = The Children/Tribe/Family of Dana).

In ancient Celtic cultures, anyone one who had a special skill or "craft" was considered capable of/an inherent practitioner of magical powers. Scáthach, the trainer of CúChullian, was a "martial-witch", I suppose, or at least was clearly a woman practicing magic, mostly through the craft/trade of martial arts. When deciding who is a witch and who isn't in Irish Literature, a dead giveaway is any one characters use of incantational poetry, such as the sort Scáthach composes upon CúChullian's graduation from her Academy.

Which brings me to my next and final point. I mentioned earlier about the Bardic Order. In the older Irish sagas, the terms for poet (fíle, bard, licerd, aes dana, etc), druid (drui), and seer (fáith) are freely mixed and constantly exchange functions. The Irish "world field" concerning poets, seers, druids and magicians (of both genders), are, Irish scholars are coming to realize, virtually interchangeable.

Now, the actual terms themselves....

The most common Irish-English/English-Irish dictionary available in the United States, the "Foclóir Poca" (by An Gum, the state sponsored Irish language publishing house), lists "witch" as: "cailleach, draíodóir mna". "Mna" is a feminine prefix/suffix in Irish like "ban" or "bean" is. The same dictionary defines "witchcraft" as: "draiocht, an ealain dhubh". "ealain" is: "art; science, skill; workmanship, craft". It can also have an underlying feeling of "trickery". So "an ealain dhubh" equals "the black arts", or "the black craft".

The following terms relating to Irish witchcraft and paganism were culled from the Irish-English dictionary "Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla", by Niall ó Dónaill, An Gúm, 1992.

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draíocht, f. (gs. & pl. ~a). 1. Druidic art, druidism. Lit: draíochta druadh, druidic arts. 2. Witchcraft, magic, charm, enchantment. Briocht, cochall, clat, ceo ~a, magic spell, cloak, wand, mist. Ceol draíochta, magical, entrancing music. Luacht draíochta, magicians, enchanters. Le draíocht, by magic. draíocht a bheith agat, to have magical powers. draíocht a bheith ort le rud, to be entranced with something. Tá draíocht ar an áit, the place is bewitched. Duine, rud, a chur faoi dhraíocht, to cast a magic spell someone or something. draíocht a chur ar dhuine, to enchant someone. Bheith faoi dhraíocht, to be under a spell. draíocht a chur do dhuine, to cast a charm for someone.

draíodóir = Magician

draíodóir fir = wizard

draíodóir mná = witch, enchantress (also, crafty, sly, person; rogue, hypocrite, trickster; Secretive person)

draíodóireacht = Practice of magic; Sly cunning, hypocrisy, trickery; Secretiveness.

draoighonta = Bewitched, enchanted

draoi = Druid; Wizard, magician; Augur, diviner; Trickster

bandia = Goddess

bandraoi = Druidess

bandraíodóir = Enchantress

banfháidh = Prophetess

banfhile = Poetess

bansagart = Priestess

other "ban" words for your perusal:

banlaoch = Female warrior; heroine

banoide = Tutoress, lady teacher

banfhlaith/banphrionsa = Princess

banríon = Queen

bansióg = Female fairy

banchuire = Band, group, of women

banchosantóir = Protectress

bandáil = Company, assembly, of women

banaltra = Nurse

banchealgaire = Seductive woman, siren


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

anam = Soul

anamchara = Spiritual advisor

anamachas = Animism

anamimirce = Transmigration of the soul

briocht = Charm, spell; Amulet.

briocht sí, briocht draoi, briocht suain, - fairy, druidic, sleep, charm

briocht a chanadh = to chant a spell

cailleach = Old woman, hag

cailleach feasa = wise woman, fortuneteller

cailleach phiseogach = sorceress, charm-worker

cailleach na gcearc = hag, witch

Leigheas (na) cailli = old woman's remedy

fáidh = 1.) Seer, prophet. 2.) Wise man, sage. 3.) The Fates.

fáidhbhean = Prophetess; wise woman......Another variation is "fáidhmhná"

fáidheadoireacht = Prophesy, prediction.

ealaín = Art, science, skill; craft

An ealaín dhubh = black art

Tá (an) ealaín dhubh aici = she has black magic

Chuir sí an ealaín dhubh air = she bewitched him

piseog = Charm, spell; Superstitious practices, superstition

An déanamh piseog = compounding charms, casting spells

piseogacht = Superstitious practices

piseogaí = Charm-setter, superstitious person


amaid = 1.) Lit: Witch, hag. 2.) Foolish woman. 3.) Simpleton, idiot.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Words associated with poetry and magic:

aos = People, folk

aos dána = Poets

aos ceoil = Musicians

aos treafa = Husbandmen

aos eagna = Intelligentsia

bard = Poet (of certain rank), bard

crosán = Mimic, jester; satirist, scurrilous person

dámh = 1.) Lit: Bardic company; party, retinue. 2.) (With article) The literary caste, followers of the arts. 3.) Faculty.

dámhscoil = Bardic school

dámhchuire = Band of poets, of artists

dán = 1.) Gift, offering. 2.) Craft, calling; allotted task. 3.) Art, faculty; art of poetry. 4.) Poem. 5.) Lot, fate.

dán draíochta = druidic art

dán ceoil = art of music

Fear dána = minstrel, poet

dán diaga = sacred poetry

dán direach = Irish syllabic poetry

dán a chumadh = to compose a poem

fíle = 1.) Poet. ~ ceoil, amhrán, songmaker, lyricist. 2.) Satirist, scold. ~ mna, scolding woman.

ollamh = 1.) Lit: (a) Master-poet, ollave. (b) Master, expert, learned man. ~ seanchais, le seanchas, chief historian. ~ cearda, master craftsman. 2.) Professor. ~ ollscoile. university professor. ~ Gaelige, professor of Irish.

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Footnotes

Incidentally, Biddy Early was a native Irish speaker who spoke English; however, the vast majority of her patients were, like her, Irish speakers. They referred to her as a "Wise Woman", a common euphemism for a "White Witch". Biddy constantly admitted that she trafficked with the faeries, and as such, the faeries acted as her "familiars" when she was healing people. As you'll see below, the terms "fáidhbhean", "fáidhmhná" and "cailleach feasa" are all interpreted as "Wise Woman".

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Sources:


For general Pagan beliefs of the Irish:

The Fairy-Faith In Celtic Countries, W.Y. Evans Wentz;

The Middle Kingdom: The Faerie World Of Ireland, Dermot Mac Manus;

The Holy Wells Of Ireland, Patrick Logan; (Also by Logan, Irish Country Cures)

Time Travels Of An Irish Psychic, Sheila Lindsay;


For other accounts of Irish Witches:

Biddy Early: The Wise Woman of Clare, Meda Ryan

Witchcraft In Ireland, Patrick F. Byrne

The Táin, translated by Thomas Kinsella (with only incidental accounts of Irish witches though)


For information on some of the magical folk beliefs (especially witchcraft practiced by women) and practices of the Irish, written by people of the period and not Neo-pagan Americans:

The Farm By Lough Gur, Mary Carbery;

Traits And Stories of The Irish Peasantry, Vol 1 & 2, by Willam Carleton;


For information on the continuation of the magical practices of the Druidic Order through the Bards:

Satirists And Enchanters In Early Irish Literature, Fred Norris Robinson;

The Hidden Ireland, Daniel Corkery;

Medieval Irish Lyrics with The Irish Bardic Poet, James Carney;


For an account of warmongering Druids, medieval tax evaders and an Irish version of an ATF raid, (all of which completely contradicts the mindlessly accepted concept that the Druids were pacifists who never, ever participated in warfare), read:

Forbhais Droma Dámhgháire: The Seige Of Knocklong, Seán ó Duinn; (This same story was also butchered and lied about in the Matthews "Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom", a worthless book if ever there was one.)


For books on the continued paganism inherent in the Irish expression of Roman Catholicism, read:

The Year In Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs, Kevin Danaher;

Occasions of Faith: An Anthropology of Irish Catholics, Lawerence J. Taylor;

Mythic Ireland, Michael Dames;

Renewing The Irish Church, Joe McVeigh;

A Wounded Church, Joe McVeigh;

On Lough Derg, Purcell & Blake;

Saint Patrick's Purgatory, J-M. Picard & Y.de Pontfarcy;

Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, by Carleton (again);

Wisdom Of The Celtic Saints, Edward C. Sellner; (Ed is an acquaintance of mine and is a college professor in Minnesota);

Celtic Christianity Ecology And Holiness, Ed. Christopher Blamford and William Marsh;

The Celtic Alternative: A Reminder of the Christianity we lost, Shirley Toulson;

Celtic Inheritance, Peter Berresford Ellis;


For the Celtic roots of the medieval, Continental European witch cults:

Ecstasies: Deciphering The Witches Sabbath, Carlo Ginzburg;

The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarain Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Carlo Ginzburg;

Forest Rites: The War of the Demoiselles in Nineteenth-Century France, Peter Sahlins;

Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, Jeffrey Burton Russell (this is about European witchcraft in general, (not Celts) and the religious/political semantics at work in the period.)


For Irish shamanistic traditions:

Sweeney Astray, Seamus Heaney;

All Silver And No Brass: An Irish Christmas Mumming, Henrie Glassie;


The earlier books I mentioned about Lough Dearg and the Sidh/Faeries;

A Celtic Quest: Sexuality and Soul in Individuation, John Layard.


Other good books on shamanism are:

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques Of Ecstasy, Mircea Eliade (the ultimate Shamanism reference book);

Shamans, Healers and Medicine Men, Holger Kalweit;

Dreamtime & Inner Space: The World Of The Shaman, Holger Kalweit

The Way Of The Shaman, Michael Harner;

The Death And Resurrection Show: From Shaman To Superstar, Rogan Taylor;

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Other books of interest:

A Guide to Irish Mythology, Daragh Smyth;

Myth, Legend & Romance: An Encyclopaedia Of The Irish Folk Tradition, Dr. Dáithí O hOgáin;

Medieval Ireland The Enduring Tradition, Michael Richter;

The Irish Mind: Exploring Intellectual Traditions, Ed. Richard Kearney;

The Irish Countryman, Conrad Arsenberg;


For concise information on the history of what the British government has actually been doing in Ireland for all these years read:

British Brutality In Ireland, Jack O'Brien;

The Unionjacking Of Ireland, Jack O'Brien;

The Cultural Conquest Of Ireland, Kevin Collins. "