The Three Mother Goddesses …

All over Britain there are references to the Deae Matres, meaing “The Mother Goddesses“.  It is not always clear whether these were a specific group of beings, or whether it might have just referred to all Mother Goddesses in general.   These unnamed figures are usually shown in a triple form, which was considered by the Celts as being a very potent form.  The Deae Matres is usually shown bearing fruit and bread, thus indicating their bountiful nature.  In some instances we find that their motherly function is highlighted through the depiction of an infant on some of the images too.

These triple mother images were often associated with another group of “unnamed gods” namely the Genii Cucullati.  Their name means “Hooded One” and refers to a range of Celtic images found in Britain and Europe of small figurines shown wearing large hooded capes known as cucullus dating to the 1st through to the 5th century CE.  In Britain these figures were particulary popular in north and western England.  In one such example from Lower Slaughter (Gloucestershire) the three genii cucullati is shown with a warrior and a raven, and in one from Bath they are shown with a horned God and seated Goddess.  There are also examples linking them with a ram and at least one showing a singular figure.  The gender of these figures are also sometimes not completely clear and there are suggestions that instead of being male, they might be female.  Whatever their gender, they are usually shown in the context of prosperity and fertility, sometimes carrying eggs. 

Another example of a mother goddess whom very little is known about is the Dea Nutrix, or “Nursing Goddess”.  This is an unnamed domestic goddess depcited bearing one or two children, very reminiscent of the Lares (household gods) of the Romans.  Clay figures of such seater goddesses have been found across Europe in graves, temples and domestic sites.

The Deae Matres does not seem to have retained their high status amongst the revivalist traditions of paganism today, regardless of their widespread importance in the ancient world.  It is probably due to the lack of literary tradition in regards to them, which means we have no strong myths and stories through which to engage with their mysteries, instead all we are left with is the strong imagery and the universal language of symbolism through which to interpret it.  Are the mysteries of these figures lost to us forever, or will there be a time again when it will re-emerge into the modern world and inspire a whole new generation?

For those readers interested in finding out more about the deities of ancient Britain, you may find The Isles of the Many Gods of interest, this is an A-Z in which David Rankine and I brought together our research into the gods and goddesses who were worshipped in ancient Britain through to the middle ages.

Example of a Deae Matres depiction from Gaul

Of course the triple motif is interesting not just for its multiple levels of symbolism, but also because of its similarity to Hekate in her triple form which appeared around the 3rd century BC.

More about Modron

My post on “Mabon is not the Equinox” sparked a huge debate on facebook (where my blogs are networked to).  It has also caused at least a couple of people to contact me and ask for more information on the Goddess Modron, who described as the mother of Mabon.

David and I have written about Modron both in our book The Guises of the Morrigan and in our subsequent The Isles of the Many Gods where we researched the deities with a history of worship in the British Isles.  Modron is generally thought of as a Welsh Goddess, her name simply means “Mother” and is derived from Matrona (“Great Mother”) who it has been suggested was a goddess of sovereignty.  Her name is used by some as an alternative for the confusing modern attribution of “Mabon” to the Autumn Equinox in the exoteric traditions of Wicca and the Pagan traditions which have been influenced by it.  Though as with “Mabon” it is not the name of a historical festival, the symbolism of “mother” to the Autumn Equinox is more appropriate and as such is a better choice, though still confusing from a historical perspective.

In the Red Book of Hergest we find that the children of Modron and her husband Urien were Owein and Morfydd, the former Owein is best known for his game of chess with King Arthur in the The Dream of Rhonabwy.  It is during this chess game that Arthur’s men starts slaying the ravens of Owein, but as the game proceeds the tables are turned and the ravens slay many of Arthur’s men.  This otherworldly raven motif is of course a familiar one in British mythology.

In the Welsh tale of The Ford of Barking (Rhyd y Gyfartha) many of these characters are also brought together.  In this tale the hero Urien Rheged goes to theford to discover why the dogs have stopped barking.  He finds a woman washing there, and he has sex with her, who tells him that she is the daughter of the King of Annwn and if he returns in a year she will present him with a child.  He is on his return presented with the twins, Owein and Morfydd.  This is of course very reminiscent of the union of the Daghda and the Morrigan, in the Washer at the Ford myth).

More information on Modron (as well as Mabon!) can be found in The Isles of the Many Gods, and on Modron in The Guises of the Morrigan.

Faery Birds

With the coldness of winter slowly creeping nearer, I often find myself reflecting a lot more on the myths of the landscape and its animals, trees and other creatures which exists in the shadow of the Celtic sky.  There are many birds which visit our garden and this vicinity: Raven, Crow, Black Bird, Red-tailed Kite, Buzzard, Falcon, Magpie, Blue tit, Sparrow, Wren, Starlings and many more.

This morning as I was watching the comings and goings of a few corvidae feasting on the insects who are devouring  windfall apples which came down in the last few days, I was reflecting on the theme of “faery birds” which appear in some of the Celtic myths, especially those featuring the hero Cu Chulainn.  The following is an adapted extract from the first book I co-authored with David entitled “The Guises of the Morrigan” :

In the Conception of Cu Chulainn (Compert Con Culainn)( a flight of faery birds lay waste to the plain before Emain Macha, and are pursued by the druid Conchobar and his daughter (wife?) Deichtine. 

“The flight of the birds, and their song, captivated the Ulstermen with their beauty.  there were nine score birds in all, with a silver chain between each pair of birds, and each score flew its own way.  And two birds flew out in front, a silver yoke between them.”

[Compert Con Culainn, from the Book of Druimm Snechta]

The birds eventually lead the party to a house where they feast, and the God lugh appears to Deichtine in her dreams and tells her she will bear his child.  The child is of course our hero Cu Chulainn.

There are different versions of this story, in one Deichtine and fifty maidens are transformed into the faery birds, after three years of searching the men of Ulster fidn the maidens at a faery house, and Cu Chulainn is born there.

The theme of otherworldly birds also appears in the Wasting Sickness of Cu Chulainn (Serglige Con Culainn).  The men of Ulster and their wives have gathered at the Plain of Murthemne to celebrate Samhain, when a flock of beautiful birds land on a lake nearby to them.  All the women want a pair of the birds, but argue about who is worth of owning them.  Cu Chulainn catches them all and distributes them, but when he finishes giving them out he realises there are none left for his wife (who in this particular text is named as Ethne, rather than her usual name of Emer).  She is angry at being left out (understandably!) and Cu Chulainn promises her the next pair of birds to arrive. 

A pair of birds joined together by a chain arrives.  Recognising their otherworldly nature (the connecting chain symbolism) his wife and charioteer urge him not to use his sling on them.  Cu Chulainn ignores them at on his third strike hits one of the birds on the wing. 

Cu Chulainn subsequently falls asleep sitting against a pillar of stone and has a dream where two beautiful women laught at him and beat him ferociously with a whip.  When he wakes he is unable to speak and lies sick in bed for a year.  Such is his punishment for attacking the faery women, after ignoring the omen of missing them twice when he threw the stones.  The fact that he had never previously missed a throw in his entire life should have made him realise that his misses were for a magical reason.

The magical and otherworldly nature of the women is subsequently revealed when Cu Chulainn is invited to the faery realms to fight for one of the women in battle, with the promise of her favour.  He does so, but the subsequent tryst is prevented by his wife, who intervenes and holds his favour by strength of words and personality.

————————-

If you are interested in finding out more about this myth, as well as Faery Ravens, you may find The Guises of the Morrigan of interest.

Earth’s Wisdom

Within the British landscape there is no Goddess which stands out more for her sheer primordial power and magic than the Cailleach. Her name means “hag” and she is both the benevolent giantess who shapes the land and the harshness of winter. Christianity didn’t know what to do with her, so they both demonised and canonised her in the last twelve hundred years or so. Her origins stretch back into history and traces of her can be found not only in Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales as one may suspect – but all over Europe. When we explore her history we are transported back in time through the writings of Herodotus, Strabo and Pliny suggesting that she was the Celtic tutelary Goddess on the Iberian peninsula of Spain two and a half thousand years ago. In fact, if we focus on the motifs associated with her there is a strong argument that she originates on Neolithic Malta as the mysterious Maltese giantess Sansuna, credited with building the oldest religious structures known to mankind!

For those of us who today seek to understand the Earth and the cycles of nature, who seek to work with the power of the land to weave our own magic of transformation can all benefit from studying the Cailleach. In the last few years there has been a resurgence in the study of “local gods” though often little information can be found in regards to the names which have been preserved through history. The Cailleach is different, clues of her can be found in so many places, but most of all we find her in the land itself.

“Determined now her tomb to build,
Her ample skirt with stones she filled,
And dropped a heap on Carron-more,
Then stepped one thousand yards to Loar,
And dropped another goodly heap,
And then with one prodigious leap,
Gained carrion-beg, and on its height,
Displayed the wonders of her might”

[Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745]

So many features of the British landscape has been named after her, that the Cailleach cannot be ignored when exploring the native traditions and magics of this part of the world.  The story of the giantess with her apron of stones shaping the land comes to us from every part of the countryside.  In Scotland we find the island of Ailsa Craig to have been formed by the stones from the Cailleach’s apron – when she dropped it out of surprise when a French sailor sailed his boat between her legs and brushed against her inner thigh!  Loch Awe combines a number of motifs associated with the Cailleach – she has a herd of goats, she guards a well and she turns into a stone after accidently causing the formation of the loch. 

We also find the Cailleach in many other Scottish earth shaping myths, including the formation of the hills of Ross-shire, the formation of Loch Ness and the placement of stones such as the Carlin Maggie and the other Carlin stones.  The same is true of Ireland where there are fewer, but better known stories of how she shapes the land.  These includes the wonderful story of the fight between two Cailleachs engaged in a territory war in the parish of Magh Cuilinn; the story of how the Cailleach Bearra formed the cairn complex near Loughcrew in County Meath known as the Sliabh na Caillighe (The Hill of the Witch) by dropping stones from her apron.  One of the stones, known as the “Hag’s Chair” is probably the best known, it is shaped like a giant throne.  And the same motifs are to be found in England, the Isle of Man,  Wales, Jersey, Brittany, Norway and Zealand – not always with specific reference to her name, but always the stories are the same, even if the location and the details differ. 

These myths which connect  her with the shape of our landscape, also connects her both to the Earth herself, as well as the guardian of the mysteries of the Earth.   Now as we stand on the threshold of Winter, it is probably a good time to reflect on the mysteries of the Hag of Winter!

For more information:

http://cailleach.avalonia.co.uk

Serpents ~ ssssssss

There is something amazingly powerful about the simplicity and power inherent in the snake.  So much so that the serpent motif can be found in almost all the world religions, symbolising magical and sexual power, sometimes the serpent was reverred and adored, and sometimes reviled and feared. 

Ophiolatreia is the name giving to the worship of the serpent and it is one of the most enduring religious motif found throughout the world, possibly even more so than that of the importance placed on the phallus.  Remarkable if you think how simple a creature in many ways serpents are, that they should become a symbol of so much power.

From the serpent temptress in the Garden of Eden, to the serpent power ascribed to the Egyptian Goddess Aset (Isis) and the shapeshifting power of the Malay Kris knife, the healing power of the serpents of Asclepius – the serpent is to e found everywhere. 

But what is the serpent, and what is the power of the serpent today?  Is it merely symbolic, or is there something more to it?

In the first of the books of the Bible, Genesis we encounter the serpent, in what is possibly the most famous of serpent tales known in the West:

“¹Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 

 ²And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 

 ³But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

⁴And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

 ⁵For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

 ⁶And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

 ⁷And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. ”

[Genesis 3]

Could this story be the root of the fear felt by many when they first encounter a snake?  An irrational fear which is rarely equalled by the power the physical creature may exert over them?  Or is there something deeper and far more deeply rooted in our psyche which is at the heart of this fear?

When examining the creation myths from around the world, we find that there are quite a few in which the serpent plays an important role, not just that of the biblical Genesis.   For two completely unrelated examples see the creation story of the Aboriginal people of Australia (http://www.indigenouspeople.net/legend.htm ) and that of the Aztec people (http://www.crystalinks.com/azteccreation.html ) in Central America.  Could our fear be related to something which formed part of our own origins?

Yet serpents also played an important role in religious rites around the world, often as the object of veneration.  The mystic serpent which played such a central role in the Baccic orgies, the head of Medusa entertwined with serpents, the Pythia of Delphi whose name derived from the Python of Delphi who once held power there, before being defeated by Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, the dragons of the Arthurian myths are also a form of fiery serpent. 

What power do these creatures hold over us that we take so much note of their presence, and why?

Mabon is not the Equinox!

One of my greatest concerns for the modern Pagan movement is the repetition of mistakes, even by academics and scholars who should know better than to accept something without question.  One of the unfortunate examples of this manifests each year at the Autumn Equinox when many people wish each other a “Happy Mabon”.  The name Mabon seems to have become used for this festival a few decades ago, but usually only by people who don’t understand the meaning of the name “Mabon” nor of the symbolism inherent in the festival of the Autumn Equinox in relation to the “Wheel of the Year” cycle; or people who have been told that this is an alternative name and who have simply gone on to use it.  I myself had been guilty of this many years ago, so I know that its easily done.

So who or what is Mabon?

The word is used for a Welsh God mentioned in the White Book of Thydderch, his name means “Son” and he is described as the son of the goddess Modron.  When he was three days old he was stolen from his mother and is curiously unknown to the oldest of men or beasts living on Earth.  He is eventually rescued following the revelation of his location by the Salmon of Llyn Llyw.

Mabon helps Kilhwch in the tale of Kilhwch and Olwen as he is the only huntsman who can handle the dog Drudwyn and he retrieves the razor and comb needed by Kilhwch from between the ears of the magic boar Twrch Trwyth.  In the Dream of Rhonabwy he is also described as one of the counselors to King Arthur.

A further passing reference is made to Mabon in the poem “What man is the Gatekeeper?” in the Black Book of Carmarthen where he is described as a Wizard, as well as a few other later references.  Ruabon in Denbighshire is named after him, being a corruption of Rhiw Fabon, meaning Hillside of Mabon.

When we researched our book “The Isles of the Many Gods” David and I did quite a lot of digging to see if we could find any symbolism linking Mabon to the Autumn Equinox, but none whatsover surfaced.  Likewise with Modron, the goddess named as his mother.  Neither have direct association with this festival, or the agricultural activities in Wales at this time of the year, so the conclusion has to be that these names being attributed are completely inappropriate and confusing.  If either name is to be used, Modron by being the “mother” would at least have nearer to correct symbolism, though it would still not equate in any way directly to the festival or what is essentially a solar event.

So, next time you hear someone say “Happy Mabon” or saying that they will be celebrating “Mabon” – ask them what they mean.  Pagans are known to be independent and intelligent thinkers throughout history, our generation should aspire to be the same surely!

… unless of course Mabon is a powerful Wizard who is mind controlling us all into using his name so widely every year, without understanding the meaning or origins thereof!  That would be a very powerful bit of magic indeed, immortality without a doubt!