Modern Diaspora Irish Polytheism blogging

main @am8zing | religious digi-space 

[toyastales]

Antique Greco-Roman Style Harp, Dublin, Ireland

[retro7wonder4reverie]

[classicwoodie]

Heather in bloom in Scotland Highlands. An amazing sight.

[barbucomedie]

Stone Spearhead excavated from Cloonarragh, Republic of Ireland dated between 4300-3900 BCE on display at the National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology in Dublin

Photographs taken by myself

[snototter]

A common raven (Corvus corax) perches on a wall in Scotland, UK

by Iain H Leach

[free-my-mindd]

[letsgopanthers-remade-deactivat]

uh oh... panthers pp... im scared

[letsgopanthers-remade-deactivat]

im going to kill them all

[studentofstorm]

hands u my knife

[mothmansbuttquack-deactivated20]

This popped into my head the other day.

[studentofstorm]

4 = literally me and it's such a relief that it's not just me

[previously-littlelilacfox-deact]

Reposting an Old Resource List of Mine

This is an incomplete list of resources I’ve personally collected throughout my research into Irish Polytheism. Most of it does not include topics which one would generally think of as “relevant” to an IriPol practice, but I feel it’s important to learn about both Early and Modern Irish Culture in order to have a better understanding of the religion. Furthermore, a link’s appearance on this list does not necessarily mean that I agree with the contents of that link.

Unspecific Resources:

Celtic Art cultures

Na hÉireanneach

The Irish Ulysses

A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland

Washing and Bathing in Ancient Ireland

The Irish Potato Goddess- or Why Paganism Annoys Me

A Consideration of Villages in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland

Religious Beliefs of the Pagan Irish

When History Adds to your Modern Practice

Fulachtaί fia and Bronze Age cooking in Ireland: reappraising the evidence

Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History: Delivered at the Catholic University of Ireland, During the Sessions of 1855 and 1856

Irish Language Resources:

Introduction to Old Irish

Fuaimniú & Litriú na Gaeilge: Sounds and Spelling of Irish [Video]

Pronunciation guide

Guide to pronunciation of Irish mythic names & places

Irish Mythology Names

Myths and legends: pronunciation guide (Modern Irish)

A Beginner’s Guide to Old Irish Pronunciation

A concise Old Irish grammar

Law Specific Resources:

Irish Legal History: An Overview and Guide to the Sources

The Brehon Laws Text  (Fénechas / Senchus Már)

The Ancient Brehon Laws of Ireland

Judgements Concerning Privileged Persons (Bretha Nemed toísech)

The Law of Adomnán (Cain Adamnáin)

Medieval Irish Law Texts

The Lost Legal System: Pre-Common Law Ireland and the Brehon Law

List of Early Irish Law Texts

Books About Early Irish Law

Medieval Irish Law Text and Context

An analysis of the early Irish law text Uraicecht Na Riar

Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law

The Brehon Law Academy

Female Specific Resources:

The Lives of Ancient Celtic Women

The Legal Status of Women in Early and Medieval Ireland and Wales in Comparison with Western European and Mediterranean Societies

The Power of Women in Celtic Society: Female Druids

Discovering Women in Irish History

Women and the Law in Early Ireland

The Representation in Old Irish Law Texts of the Legal Position of Women in Early Medieval Ireland as regards the Ownership of Property

Eighteenth-Century Women’s Poetry in Irish

Gender, Nationality and Cultural Representations of Ireland

Women and Slavery in the Early Irish Laws

Women in Early Modern Europe and Ireland (Auto Download)

Clothing and Dress Resources:

Irish and Scandinavian dress in Viking-Age Ireland

Viking Age head-coverings

Irish Viking Age silks and their place in Hiberno-Norse society

Women’s Head-coverings in North-Western Europein the Viking Age

Re-Examining the Evidence: A Study of Medieval Irish Women’s Dress from 750 to 900 CE

Irish and Scots Clothing in the 16th Century

2.2.6 Dress - Discovering Women in Irish History: Dress

A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland: Dress and Costume

Marriage, Sex, and Children Specific Resources:

Polygyny and Multiple Marriages in Later Medieval Ireland

Marriage in the Celtic World

Sexuality in Ancient Ireland

Children in Celtic Law

Fosterage

Fosterage; child-rearing in medieval Ireland

Section II: Fosterage in Ancient Ireland

Fosterage, Kinship, and Legend: When Milk Was Thicker than Blood?

Foster care in ancient Ireland was an established and beloved tradition

Fosterage (Medeival Ireland)

Raising Children: The Path to Peace in Early Ireland

Foster care in ancient Ireland was an established and beloved tradition 

Celtic Fosterage: Adoptive Kinship and Clientage in Northwest Europe 

Unknown / Untitled Essay by Peter Parkes

Child Centered Law in Medieval Ireland 

A Mac Fhlannchadha Fosterage Document, c.1580: Notes on the Síol Fhlannchadha of Tradraighe1

Muddy Waters and Muddier Bloodlines: Fosterage in Early Ireland (Personal)

Medicine Specific Resources:

Herbal medicine: A relic of the past or a signpost of the future?

10 Irish folk cures, spells and superstitions to cure all ailments

The Medical Mythology of Ireland

Mythology behind Irish Herbalism

Ancient Celtic Myth, Magic, and Medicine

Deity / Entity / Figure Specific Resources:

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore

Pagan Portals - Gods and Goddesses of Ireland: A Guide to Irish Deities

The Legends and Lands of Ireland

Celtic Myths and Legends

Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha De Danaan and of the Fianna of Ireland

Pagan Ireland: An Archaeological Sketch: A Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Antiquities

The Morrígan and her Germano-Celtic Counterparts

The Cailleach in Irish Megalithic Traditions

Brighid’s Epithets

The Role of the Morrigan in the Cath Maige Tuired: Incitement, Battle Magic and Prophecy

Caithreim Cellachain Caisil: The Victorious Career of Cellachan of Cashel

Resurrecting the Irish Gods: Fliadhais (Personal)

About Fliadhais (Personal; Brief) 

Flidais Foltchaoin

Flidais: Is She a Goddess?

Flidais: A Chariot Drawn By Deer

About Manannán (Personal; Brief)

The Place of Manannan Mac Lir in Irish Mythology

Manannán mac Lir

Better Know a Celt: Manannán mac Lir

Manannan Mac Lir: God of the Sea and Guardian of the Afterlife

From A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland: Chapter 5

Great Gods of the Celts: Manannan mac Lir

Gods and Fighting Men

Manannán’s Land: Irish Myths of the Sea

The Waves of Manannan Mac Lir: The Irish God of the Sea

Manannan mac Lir: Lord of Mischief and an Saoghal Eile

About Clíodhna (Personal; Brief)

Guide to Gaelic Polytheism Entry: Clíodhna

Bard Mythologies: Clíodhna

About Airmedh (Personal; Brief) 

Goddess of the Growing Green: Airmid of Ireland

Mythical Women 04: The Story of Airmed

Revisiting Mythical Women. 4: Revisiting Airmed

Guide to Gaelic Polytheism Entry: Airmed

Irish Magic and Mysticism Resources:

Druids, Deer, and Words of Power: Coming to Terms with Evil in Medieval Ireland

Geis: The Curse in Irish Mythology

Rhetoric of Myth, Magic, and Conversion: Ancient Irish Rhetoric

The Rosc - Spoken Spells in Druidic Magic

Ritual in Late Bronze Age Ireland: Material Culture, Practices, Landscape Setting and Social Context

Virtue and Value Specific Resources:

An Irish Mythic Model for Celtic Virtues, Part 1 of 6

The Threshold Covenant

Hospitality in Gaelic Polytheism 

Hospitality and Charity in Early Ireland (Personal)

Beauty Among the Irish Celts

Advice from a Princely Inlaw: Wisdom Texts in Old Irish

Values: Part One (multi-part series)

In Defense of Beauty as a Modern Spiritual Virtue  (Personal)

Febas and the Housewife (Personal)

The Triads of Ireland (Trecheng Breth Féne)

The Instruction of Cuscraid (Tecosc Cuscraid)

The Colloquy of the Two Sages (Imcallam in da Thurad)

The Word-Teaching of Cú Chulainn (Briatharthecosc Con Chulainn)

The Sayings of Flann Fína (Bríathra Flainn Fína)

The Testament of Morann (Audacht Morainn)

The Instructions of Cormac mac Airt (Tecosca Cormaic).

Warriorship Specific Resources:

Poetic Ways: Cultivating the Practice of Filidecht

Warriors and Warfare: Ideal and Reality in Early Insular Texts

Local Cultus (Non Specific but helpful)

Gaelic names of beasts

Localizing Dieties

Local Cultus

Searching for Local Gods

Spirits of the Land

Connecting with Land Spirits: An Alternate View

Super Local Polytheism

Place, Power, and Persons

Where the Gods are Found

Local Cultus

Local Cultus- What is it and How do I do it?

On the Intent of Local Cultus

Interesting Commentary on Tumblr

Local and Aspect Cultus

Local Gods Part 1

Local Gods Part 2

Local Cultus: Hero Worship

Walking the Worlds: A Biannual Journal of Polytheism and Spiritwork

Land Spirits, Ancestors and Gods, Oh My!

On Being Oklahoman, Walks, and Local Cultus (Personal)

This list is for personal use and will be updated to reflect additional sources as I find them; it is meant as a quick reference post so that I may more easily access the sources I quote, or otherwise use in my research. It is not meant to be anything other than that- though you may use it as your own reference as well if you wish.

[maeve-an-bhanchainti]

another interesting bit from "The Brehon Laws: A Legal Handbook" by Laurence Ginnell, 1894

"Bees and honey are so frequently mentioned in the laws that the editors remark that from the Brehon Laws alone a code on the subject of bees might easily be gathered. A curious code it would be too. An owner of bees was obliged to distribute every third year a portion of his honey off among his neighbors, because the bees had gathered the honey off the neighbors' lands."

[studentofstorm]

This is especially interesting to me because I arbitrarily chose bees when asking for a 'comforting/acknowledgment' symbol.

[Personal: Yes I realize the problem with having felt the need for such a thing.]

[kamccafferty-deactivated2021101]

Dubheannach watercolor, ink, gouache, gold leaf, 5x7″

[bean-chaointe]

I am LOSING MY GODDAMN MIND and I can't move on until I scream about it.

So I'm reading Marc Drogin's Biblioclasm: The Mythical Origins, Magic Powers and Perishability of the Written Word, because I'm back on my calligraphy bullshit and I've always been a slut for matters related to the written word anyway.

But in the very first chapter, there's THIS paragraph, and only this paragraph, on Irish myth regarding alphabet development:

[Pictured text: "The Irish spoke of the invention in the third to fifth century of their earliest alphabet, called Ogham. It was attributed to the Celtic fertility god Lugh, who made seven strokes on a birch branch, (or five straight lines in conjunction with an intersecting line). Ogham was a clumsy creation, which the Irish happily abandoned as soon as they became aware of the Roman alphabet. They also became aware of Christianity, and abandoned Lugh, too -- a sad state of affairs for a fertility god once so famous that the cities of Lyons and Vienna were named after variations of his name."]

Classic misuse of 'Celtic' which is irritating but is actually the most mild of the sins here

"fertility god" oh no the Victoriana got to him

Lugh as a fertility god???????

LUGH INVENTING OGHAM?????? Ogma is RIGHT THERE

Ogham wasn't a "clumsy creation" you condescending fucktruck it was a convenient way to communicate basic info like place names because THAT'S ALL THAT IT WAS NEEDED FOR AT THE TIME IN A CULTURE THAT RELIED PRIMARILY ON ORAL TRADITION. A TOOL THAT SERVES EXACTLY ITS PURPOSE IS NOT LACKING.

"which the Irish happily abandoned" or MAYBE it was a shift in cultural norms as the influence of Christianity -- and its reliance on written text -- meant a change in social need and reliance on oral tradition, and so it's entirely pragmatic to switch to a tool that already exists to address a particular need when that need arises, omg, the Irish aren't children dropping shitty toys when shinier new ones show up

"became aware of Christianity, and abandoned Lugh too" is just...the most reductive characterization of major cultural shifts I've ever seen, wow, he's lucky Ireland's conversion is generally considered a peaceful one because the alternative would make his hot fuckin take even more Awkward

Lyons is possibly named for Lugus, who may be etymologically related to Lugh, except that's about Gaulish stuff, and you may be surprised to learn that "Gaulish" is not in fact synonymous with "Irish"

....Vienna being named for Lugus is a new one for me but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise by scholarship

And like, some of this I'm willing to give folks a pass on when they're clearly not intending to build a whole thesis on it, this is just a random paragraph in passing, but the rest is like...my guy, even WIKIPEDIA got Ogma right! And Wiki, god bless its soul, is often very inaccurate on mythology and folklore!

But really, the worst part is the utter patronizing flippancy.

YOU SUCK AT THIS, MARC DROGIN THE AMERICAN ILLUSTRATOR AND CALLIGRAPHER

[studentofstorm]

Did this guy even try? Looks like he made claims without even Googling to see if any information existed.

[amylouioc]

Father and Son, Lugh & Cú Chulainn || Justice & Strength

[mask131]

Cold winter: Cailleach

CAILLEACH

Category: Gaelic mythology

The Cailleach is a very famous winter figure part of the Gaelic beliefs. “Cailleach” is a Gaelic word meaning “hag” or “old woman”, and it is the most common term to designate this entity – but in the details, she exists split between the two main Gaelic nations. In Scotland she is “Beira, the Queen of Winter”, while in Ireland she is the “Hag of Beara” (An Chailleach Bheara) ; both were originally one same divine figure, but who evolved in two different ways.

I) The Irish Cailleach

In Ireland, the Cailleach is called by some the Hag of Beara because it was said she lived in the Beara Peninsula (County Cork) ; some also call her the “Old Woman of Dingle” because it was said she was born in the city of the same name (County Kerry), at “Teach Mor”, the “Great House”, said to be the house at the further western point of Ireland, on the Dingle promontory. A third of her Irish name is “The White Nun of Beara”, due to a literal reading of “cailleach”, which means “hooded one” or “veiled one” – this gave birth to a legend according to which the Hag wore a veil for a hundred years that had been given to her by Saint Cummine. Appearing in many pieces of Irish literature, the Hag is said to be an ancient entity – though not as old as Ireland itself, but still much older than most living beings – who actually regularly ages and then de-ages before aging again. It seems she always start as a youthful maiden, who “drinks mead and wine with kings”, before becoming a “wretched, shriveled old hag” – usually this aging process is tied to the May Day, implying that it might be a yearly process, as the Hag is young when winter is young, then ages until she becomes a sorrowful, lonely, rag-wearing hag by May Day (aka the end of the “dark season”/winter and the beginning of the “bright season”). But against this “yearly aging” is opposed another tradition that presents the Hag’s successive youths as being actually successive lifetimes – she ages like a regular human, but never dies and keeps regenerating herself. According to this tradition, the Hag is depicted as either the mother or the foster mother of the ancestors of today’s most prominent clans of Ireland: the usual numbers claim that she had fifty foster-children that she raised in Beara/Beare, that she lived seven human lives successfully, saw all of her husbands and lovers die of old age, and that she considers all the “tribes and races” of Ireland her “grandsons and great-grandsons”.

A notable landmark associated with her is a rock by the seashore, at Beara: this rock, called the “Hag of Beara” or the “Hag’s Chair”, is said to mark the location where the Hag waits for the return of Manannan mac Lir, the Irish god of the sea, who is for some her husband, for others her father. But people are conflicted as to what the rock actually is: for some it is the chair the Hag sits in while waiting for Manannan, but for others it is rather the fossilized remains of her body – she waited for so long that she turned to rock.  Numerous other locations in Ireland are associated with her, from the “Hag’s Head” (a bizarrely shaped rock on the Cliffs of Moher) to the “Calliagh Beara’s House”, the top of Slieve Gullion. In fact, a legend claims that there she tricked the mythical Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill: as he was climbing the Slieve Gullion, he found a beautiful young lady crying by the shore of a lake, she claimed her golden ring had fallen into the lake – Fionn, being a true Irish gentleman, jumped into the lake, retrieved the ring and brought it back to the maiden… who had turn into an hideous laughing old hag – she was the Calliagh Berra, a wicked witch, and as Fionn came out of the lake, he saw that he too, from a beautiful young man, had turned into a withered old man. No one in his clan recognized him when he returned – only his faithful hounds recognized his smell, and as the clan realized who he was, they hunted down the witch and forced her to restore his youth. But ever since, Fionn kept his hair white, and it is said that anyone who bathes into the lake will have the same aging curse the hero suffered from.

Various texts give her various names: for some her true name is Digdi/Didge, for others she is Milucra, a third calls her Birog… And one story, “The Hunt of Slieve Cuilin” declares that she has a sister, who is none other than Aine, the Irish goddess of summer and the sun. Finally her association with witchcraft is reinforced by the fact that sorceresses are called “cailleach phiseogach”, while “wise women/fortune-tellers” are “cailleach feasa”.

2) The Scottish Cailleach

While the Irish Cailleach is a more diffuse, unclear and mysterious figure scattered throughout poetic and literary works, the Scottish version of the Hag is much more defined thanks to folklorist work.  

Called “Beira” or “The Queen of Winter”, she is here depicted as a one-eyed giantess with white hair, a dark blue skin, and teeth the color of rust: it is said she brought to existence many of the mountains and hills of Scotland, either by accident (she carried stones in a creel or wicker basket, and they fell out), or willingly (so that she could use them as stepping stones ; and it is said she carries with her a hammer to shape the hills and valleys). Said to be the mother of all the Scottish gods and goddesses, she is an embodiment of winter who has her own herd of deer and owns a staff that is able to freeze the ground it touches. She causes winter by going to the western coast of Scotland and washing there her great plaid in the Gulf of Corryvreckan (which is literally the Gulf of the Cauldron of the Plaid): it takes her three days to wash her plaid, and during these three days the roar of an incoming storm can be heard. After the three days, her plaid is freshly white: she covers the land with it – it is the snow. Another very important day is “La Fheill Brighde”, the 1st of February, Saint Brigid’s Day, halfway between the winter solstice and spring equinox: on this day, Beira gathers her firewood for the rest of winter, so if she plans on having a long winter (because she is the one who controls it), she will make the 1st of February a bright and sunny day so that she can gather a lot of firewood, to keep herself warm ; but if the weather is bad on Saint Brigid’s day, it either means that she knows the winter will soon be over, or that she overslept and due to the lack of firewood will shorten winter.

Her presence on Saint Brigid’s day is extremely important, as Saint Brigid is the Christianized version of an older Gaelic deity, Brighde, with who the Cailleach/Beira was associated: whereas Beira ruled the world during the “dark season”, between Samhain on the 1st of November (first day of winter) to Beltaine (1st of May, first day of summer), Brighde/Brigid ruled it during the “bright season” of summer. For some, the two entities are separate goddesses, and the Winter Queen “pass on” her power to her summer counterpart between Saint Brigid’s Day and Beltane (1st of May) ; some versions rather claim that at the end of winter, the Cailleach turns to stone, as the petrification of the divine hag is the only way to let summer come. But a different tradition rather claims that Beira and Brighde are two faces of one same goddess, who changes name and appearance depending on the season: according to this tradition, on the winter solstice (also known as “the longest night”), the reign of Beira as the Queen of Winter stops. She goes to a magical Well of Youth and drink its water – from then on, as the days grow longer, Beira will grow younger, until she finally becomes again the maiden Brigid and the Queen of Summer. But as the summer months go by, Brigid will age again – and when she is an old hag again, it is time for Beira the Queen of Winter to return.

The Ben Nevis mountain was said to be the throne of Beira, while the two mountains of the Isle of Skye were named the “mountains of the Cailleach” because strong rains and brutal storms regularly descended from them onto the lands below. She is also associated with Ben Cruachan, to the point she is sometimes called “Cailleach nan Cruachan”, “The Hag of Ben Cruachan”. She also apparently created by accident the Loch Awe: tired after a long day of herding deer, the Cailleach fell asleep on the Ben Cruachan, and a well she usually took care of overflowed during her nap and flowed the valley nearby, creating the loch.

A final point: some Scottish legends multiply the Cailleach into the “Cailleachan”, the Old Women/the Hags – also called the Storm Hags. These destructive spirits of nature were said to be responsible for the violent windstorms of spring.

- - - - - -

There is also a tradition, shared by both Scotland and Ireland, according to which the first farmer finishing the harvest of the grain has to make a corn dolly. This corn dolly is supposed to represent the Cailleach, and is sometimes called the “Carlin/Carline” (a word from the Lowland Scots, meaning “old woman” or “witch”, and which itself is derived from the Gaelic Cailleach). Made out of the last sheaf of the crop, this “Old Woman doll” is then tossed into the field of another farmer who hasn’t finished his harvest of grain: when the farmer is done, he promptly has to toss it into the field of another one who hasn’t finished – and so forth until the last to finish his harvest gets stuck with the doll. This poor farmer will be forced to take the “Old Woman” into his home and to take care of the doll for the entire year – which is literally housing, feeding and treating as a guest the witch/hag during the entirety of winter. (Given the hag herself is supposed to embody winter… not a great thing). It was a true competition among harvesters, all wanting to avoid the punishment of having to invite the witch of winter into their house.

[raatopaikka]

Children of Lir illustrations made for an illustration course in university (2016)

[maeve-an-bhanchainti]

I wrote a short story about what Boann and the Dagda might have gotten up to while the sun was stopped after Óengus was conceived ♡ this was for a competition held by Irinn Sculpture, who also edited the story beautifully for seasonal accuracy.

A Winter Solstice Tale - The Birth of Aenghus — Irinn

The Dagda and Boann wait through one endless winter's day at Newgrange

[studentofstorm]

I always assumed that Aonghus was conceived & born on the summer solstice, that being the longest day of the year, though clearly that doesn't match up with the construction of His dwelling.

Separately, I always wondered how nobody noticed that that one particular day took nine months! I appreciate that the birds, at least, noticed in this telling.

[wanderinghearth]

if you find prayer difficult or unengaging, consider keeping a "destroy this book" style free writing journal.

You "pray" by writing, scribbling, drawing, practice automatic writing, sigil making, etc, and then dedicate the page to your desired entity by anointing it with oil and herbs, sealing it with wax, staining it with coffee or tea, pressing little scraps of things into the hot wax on top of your prayers, etc.

it's basically a practice of free intuition that feels very very good, better for me than sitting in a dark room with a candle and speaking in a formal tone.

As an added benefit, once you fill your book, if you feel like labeling the pages (I didn't, lol), you have within your possession a lumpy, bumpy, messy compendium of beings you can use to summon that absolutely no one else will know what to do with.

[studentofstorm]

I think I am going to try this! Going back to my Xtian upbringing I have always struggled with praying; it's always felt silly to mumble to myself, and if I kept the prayer just in my head it didn't feel like it was "going" anywhere.

[tinyrosemarysparrows]

Find the gods in the everyday.

Find Them in the first sip of hot coffee that doesn’t quite burn. Find Them in the rising sun and the safety of warm sheets. Find Them in the silver light that heralds the sun.

The gods are not kept to shrines or grand things. They are vast and wonderful and you can find Them in the smallest of things. Whisper prayers into the steam of your tea. Mutter praises under your breath when no one else knows you’re awake. Those moments-right before you sleep and just after waking-are the most intimate.

[missimidnite]

This is so beautiful ♡