Temple Illuminatus
2024-03-29T00:59:33Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
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The Old Tribes of Ireland From after the Biblical Flood
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2018-12-17:6363372:Topic:3449525
2018-12-17T21:59:49.644Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p style="text-align: center;"><span><em><strong>The Old Tribes of Ireland From after the Biblical Flood</strong></em></span></p>
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<p><em><img alt="In Irish-Celtic myth, Ogma is the god of eloquence and learning. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he may be related to the Gallic god Ogmios." class="align-center" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/4c/c1/b8/4cc1b834295de8e099972c4573d945cc.jpg"></img></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Ogma ~ The god of eloquence and learning, inventor of the Ogham alphabet. (Pronounced OM)</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This is a very abbreviated summary of the ''pseudo-history'' of the Invasions of Ireland. Much of it is…</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span><em><strong>The Old Tribes of Ireland From after the Biblical Flood</strong></em></span></p>
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<p><em><img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/4c/c1/b8/4cc1b834295de8e099972c4573d945cc.jpg" alt="In Irish-Celtic myth, Ogma is the god of eloquence and learning. A member of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he may be related to the Gallic god Ogmios." class="align-center"/></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Ogma ~ The god of eloquence and learning, inventor of the Ogham alphabet. (Pronounced OM)</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This is a very abbreviated summary of the ''pseudo-history'' of the Invasions of Ireland. Much of it is allegorical.</em></p>
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<p><em><img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/be/ec/32/beec32e7df8aeb6097b9e9c47bb9e27d.jpg" alt="In Celtic mythology, Danu had a wide variety of responsibilities… Or a lot of differing opinions, rather. Danu was one of the oldest goddess of Celtic mythology. She was said to be “mother earth”, a river goddess, a mother goddess… the list goes on. One connection she has with more popular myths are the Tuatha de Danann, which literally are, “the people of Danu.”" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>Danu</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>The Partholonians.</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Named after the Greek King Partholon. Said to have 24 males and 24 females who landed on May Day, settled and ''expanded'' the land, presumably by cultivation. They lived in Ireland for 300 years, became a population of 5000, and then were all wiped out in a plague in the course of one week.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>It is said Partholon was a great-grandson of Noah. One man, Tuan Mac Cairrell, survived to tell the tale of the Partolonians. He went through many transmigrations as animals,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Finian questioned Tuan and Tuan told his story of how he had become a stag, a boar, a salmon and a hawk/eagle. During these incarnations he witnessed the various Invasions of the land by new tribes.</em></p>
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<p><em><img src="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/dd/00/ff/dd00ff11c37c9591be49467aaa8d850e.jpg" alt="Lugh the il-Dana, Jim Fitzpatrick, 1979. I have an original print on the wall over my desk."/></em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em> The Nemedians.</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This tribe arrived 30 years after the extinction of the Tribe of Partholon. Nemed was also associated with Noah. His wife was Macha, one of the early Earth Goddesses. Nemed and his clan had to fight many battles with a dark tribe known as the Formorians, variously described as pirates, or as the dark forces of the earth. Some describe them as one-eyed, one-legged Giants who lived on the northern island of Tory and who persecuted the Nemedians for all of their occupation of Ireland. For example the Formorians insisted that the Nemedians deliver for sacrifice two thirds of the children born in any given year.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em> Nemed means ''holy person''. Mide, the chief Druid of the Nemedians, lit the first holy fire on the Hill of Uisneach, a place that is known to this day as the sacred heart-land of Ireland. They further advanced agriculture and working with metals, and developed trade abroad. The Nemedians eventually left after a grave defeat which left their tribe decimated, and they settled in places like Scotland and Greece. It was some of these Greek descendants that returned to Ireland later as the Fir Bolg (the men of the Bag, so named because they carried animal bladders). They were led by Semian. A further group of Nemed's descendants would later also return as the famed godly race known as Tuatha de Danann. They were led by Beothach.</em></p>
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<p><em><img src="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/24/7a/52/247a52ac36a9a4d87da385a52b07f0d9.jpg" alt="Invasions of Ireland. 'MACHA and NEMED' by Jim FitzPatrick. NEMED was the leader of the third invasion of Ireland, his wife is known as the 1st MACHA, she prophesies the battle between Ulster and Connacht over the brown bull of Cuailnge (Tain Bo Cuailnge) this apparently makes her so sad that she dies of a broken heart." class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(Macha and Nemed ~ Jim Fitzpatrick)</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>The Fir Bolg.</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The Fir Bolg, survivors of the wars between the Formorian Giants and the Nemedians were enslaved by the Greeks for several hundred years, but they eventually built themselves up again as a tribe and left to return to Ireland. They only lasted four decades ruling Ireland before the arrival of the Tuatha de Danann. When they are defeated by the Tuatha at the great Battle of Moytura they are offered one quarter of the land, in Connaught, the most westerly quarter, which is more barren and undeveloped. Thereafter they disappear in the myths. The later tribes regarded the Fir Bolg as somehow diabolical and uncouth. They were often depicted as swarthy, small, peasants, who were uncultured. They were known for their bad temper and aggressive ways. But they were very hard-working.</em></p>
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<p><em><img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/b5/42/dc/b542dc4eb4fea37415b82e0468c2304f.jpg" alt="In Irish mythology the Fir Bolg were one of the races that inhabited the island of Ireland prior to the arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann." class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(Fir Bolg)</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em>The Tuatha de Danann</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This tribe provides the names of the best known Irish gods and goddesses in the Celtic Pantheon. They are said to have come out of the mysterious North (to where they had fled as defeated Nemedians) and to have been tall and fair-skinned. They were skilled in poetry and magic. They lived in four great cities called Findias, Gorias, Murias and Falias, where they studied their many skills. From Findias came the magic sword of Nuada, which could never be defeated in battle. From Gorias came Lugh's spear, which was likewise indefatigable. From Murias came the Dagda's great cauldron which was never empty of food, and from Falias came the fabled Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny which would cry out when stood upon by the True King. (Stone of Scone? Holy Grail? Who knows?)</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>They were also said to have descended from the sky in a dense mist. They sent fiery showers down upon the Fir Bolg who had to go underground for 3 days and 3 nights. In the battle between he Tuatha de Danann and the Fir Bolg, Nuada, king of de Danann, had his hand cut off and later it was replaced with a silver hand. Diancecht was the famous physician of the Tuatha de Danann who made this impressive hand, apparently with movable joints. Diancecht had the help of the magical blacksmith Goibniu in this task.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em> However a king must be without blemish and thus Nuada had to be replaced. Bres was chosen. He was the son of Eriu, but was unsuited to kingship. He forced two of the most noble Tuatha de Danann -the great gods Dagda and Ogma - to do manual labour. Eventually he was deposed by the will of the people and Nuada of the silver hand was reinstated. However Bres then made an alliance with the dark Formorians and battles resumed between the dark and light gods. The Formorians had Balor, the one-eyed giant on their side. The Tuatha de Danann were in need of a hero to save them</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The hero was born in the form of the solar god Lugh, whose name means Light. He was known as Lugh Ioldanach, which means master of all trades. He eventually led the Tuatha de danann to victory and became High King.</em></p>
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<p><em><img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/76/0f/68/760f68316f764cf2ab8f81de3ceefdd0.jpg" alt="JIM FITZPATRICK" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(Lugh by Jim Fitzpatrick)</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>The Tuatha de Danann thus reigned until the coming of the Milesians, the sons of Mil, from Scythia via Egypt. They came to avenge the death of their father by the Danann kings. They were given permission to land by the wives of the murderous kings; these women were Banba, Eriu and Fodla, which are traditionally old poetic names of Ireland. Most notable among the Milesians was their great poet Amergin, who fought against a magical wave the de Danann had conjured to prevent the Milesians landing. To break the spell he sang…</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a stag: of seven tines,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a flood: across a plain,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a wind: on a deep lake,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a tear: the Sun lets fall,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a hawk: above the cliff,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a thorn: beneath the nail,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a wonder: among flowers,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a wizard: who but I</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Sets the cool head aflame with smoke?</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a spear: that roars for blood,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a salmon: in a pool,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a lure: from paradise,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a hill: where poets walk,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a boar: ruthless and red,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a breaker: threatening doom,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am a tide: that drags to death,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am an infant: who but I</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Peeps from the unhewn dolmen, arch?</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am the womb: of every holt,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am the blaze: on every hill,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am the queen: of every hive,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am the shield: for every head,</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>I am the tomb: of every hope</em></p>
<p><em> <img src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/83/0e/89/830e89e10a6e30c03d5ccf053d62a8ce.jpg" alt="Amergin" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(Amergin)</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>After their defeat by the Milesians, the Tuatha de Danann became invisible and immortal, retreating to become the magical Sidhe. Or fairy folk.</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Some of the gods and goddesses of the Tuatha de Danann ~</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Aenghus ~ the beautiful god of Love</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Cian ~ the father of Lugh</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Dagda ~ known as ''the good god'', the father figure and protector.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Diancecht ~ the magical healer</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Goibniu ~ the skilled and magical smith</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Manannan Mac Lir ~ god of the Sea</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Aine ~ the goddess of Summer</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Anann ~ associated with the Morrigan, the goddess of the battle field and death</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Boann ~ goddess of cows and river Boyne</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Brigit ~ goddess of fire and inspiration</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Danu ~ the mother goddess</em></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>See also ~<span> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_mythological_figures">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Irish_mythological_figures</a></em></p>
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<p><img src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b4/53/95/b4539503f65e19582c84f4043cd3815e.jpg" alt="Image result for god Neachtan" class="align-center"/></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(Neachtan ~ guardian god of the Well of Wisdom where lived the Salmon of Knowledge fed on the hazelnuts from the Tree of Knowledge)</em></p>
A magical vision is hidden in the Irish language – we need to rediscover it
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2018-12-17:6363372:Topic:3449723
2018-12-17T21:52:37.579Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p class="no_name selectionShareable"><em><img alt="The Irish language derives from a world in which the unseen is as real as the seen. Photograph: Istock" class="align-center" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3558111.1531064084!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg"></img></em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em><span><strong>'A Magical Vision is Hidden''</strong></span></em></p>
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><div class="comments-text entry-content"><div class="article_bodycopy"><h2 style="text-align: center;">A single word can unlock the richness in our lives, landscapes and ways of seeing…</h2>
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<p class="no_name selectionShareable"><em><img src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3558111.1531064084!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/box_620_330/image.jpg" alt="The Irish language derives from a world in which the unseen is as real as the seen. Photograph: Istock" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em><span><strong>'A Magical Vision is Hidden''</strong></span></em></p>
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><div class="comments-text entry-content"><div class="article_bodycopy"><h2 style="text-align: center;">A single word can unlock the richness in our lives, landscapes and ways of seeing</h2>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>What if we’ve been looking at Irish through the wrong lens all these years? Rather than it being a subject that causes heartache in schools might it actually be a periscope into our psyche and our souls? A path towards an entirely fresh way of seeing reality, transforming existence from a predictable and quantifiable 3-D dimension into a vacillating, multi-dimensional realm with the potential of bleed-throughs from other parallel worlds.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>First, there are some truths about the language that need to be acknowledged, though the grammarians and language academics might not agree. 1 Irish derives from a world in which the unseen is as real as the seen; 2 it acknowledges the existence of other dimensions; 3 it is based on an understanding that nature and the land are vibrant, sentient beings; 4 at its most potent can be a language of incantation, meaning that it has (or might have) the potential to summon up wishes, behaviours, people and things.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>These are bold claims, I realise, and whether any lofty academic linguist would agree is debatable, but let me explain with some examples of the many Irish words and phrases that can upend your way of seeing reality. Words like sclimpíní, for example, which conveys the effect of lights dancing before one’s eyes – either real light or the supernatural; those glimpses we get through the veil of what lies beyond. A single word like this can shift one’s frame of reference radically, to question all one’s assumptions and offering the potential of a more holistic and limitless way of thinking and being.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Cáithnín is another fine example of how a single word can unlock the hidden richness in our lives and landscape. It means a speck of dust, a husk of corn, a snowflake, a subatomic particle and a miniscule smidge of butter, or anything tiny that gets into the eye and irritates it. But, most evocatively of all, it also means the goosebumps you feel in moments when you contemplate how everything is interrelated and how tiny we are in relation to the whole, like that feeling when you realise, or, maybe, remember, that we are all one – all unified.</em></p>
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<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>In this way, cáithnín, becomes like a koan or mantra – a single word that brings you right around the universe from the infinitesimal to the infinite. It becomes a reminder from our past about how we once related to our environment and community, and how we might do so again.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Another example is scim, which means a thin coating of tiny particles, like limewash on a house or dust on a mantelpiece. These are good practical, pragmatic meanings that any lexicographer would be comfortable with, but there are other more nebulous ones which might prove more challenging for the limited claustrophobic way of thinking that we now ascribe to in this age of empirical reasoning and narrow-mindedness. For example, scim can mean a fairy film that covers the land, or a magical vision, or, best and most alluring of all, succumbing to the supernatural world through sleep.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Just consider that notion for a while and you get a sense of the gateways, wormholes and rabbit warrens that the Irish language allows us access to, should we dare open ourselves to it. Might our world in its current state benefit from a language that allows for fairy films that cover the land, a language that offers the potential of being whisked away to the supernatural world through sleep?</em></p>
<h4 class="crosshead" style="text-align: center;"><em>Alternate dimensions</em></h4>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Surely children would be more intrigued if, as well as teaching them that ceantar means region or locality, we also teach them its equal and opposite, altar, which means the other realm, the netherworld. After all, this way of seeing the world is instinctive to the young, who have no problem accepting the potential of the alternate dimensions of Narnia beyond the wardrobe or Hogwarts beyond platform 9 ¾ of Kings Cross Station.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Consider the word crithir: its basic meaning is a particle or a spark of flame or light, or the tiniest portion of something, but it has other meanings that can act as a wedge to prise open perspectives that would otherwise remain hidden. For example, it can refer to the vulnerability and insubstantiality of solid objects; such as a swamp, or the trembling of the land in an earthquake, or the crumbling surface of ploughed land when dry after rain. Crithir means all these things.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>This notion that our world is not as rigid or dense as we like to believe, has become more relevant with our growing awareness of quantum physics and how electrons are forever materialising, then dematerialising and reappearing somewhere else. All we really know is that our bodies, fields, mountains and stars are elementary particles, vibrating and fluctuating constantly between existence and non-existence – swarming in space, even when it seems that nothing is there. The fact that any solid, dependable mass that starts to quiver or falter can be referred to as crithir makes it an ideal term for the unpredictable and infinitesimal particles that we have delineated as the building blocks of all life.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>These concepts are a bit bamboozling to all of us, but they might be easier to an Irish speaker who is already comfortable with the notion that a word like púicín can mean a supernatural covering that allows otherworldly beings appear unseen in this reality (as well as being a blindfold, a goat muzzle and a tin shade put over a thieving cow’s eyes). As an aside, the Irish for bamboozling is meascán mearaí, which also means going astray into other dimensions.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Now, with regard to this incantatory quality that Irish may possess, the best way of seeing it is through the first words ever composed by an Irishman, The Song of Amergin, which our chief poet and druid, Amergin, is said to have recited upon arriving in <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news">Ireland</a> on the 1st April 700BC. He immediately begun uttering an incantation, summoning up the world that we intended to create here through his words. Ancient languages, when spoken by shamans and sorcerers, seemingly had this ability to not only describe an item, but help condense it from a parallel amorphous world of potential into a tangible, crystallised reality.</em></p>
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<h4 class="crosshead" style="text-align: center;"><em>Language of unity</em></h4>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Amergin’s first stanza “Am gaeth i m-muir, Am tond trethan, Am fuaim mara”, (I am wind on sea, I am ocean-wave, I am roar of sea) clarified the interrelation between this world and all other planes of existence – physical and spiritual. It was a declaration of the unity of all things and it’s what, more or less, everything in our lives has been based upon ever since. We’re all here because of Amergin – his incantation summoned us into existence, or at least propelled us forward. And ever since we’ve been here – farming, fighting, mating and, eh, baking.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>Yes, baking. As a way of delving deeper into these issues I’ve created a show called Arán agus Im, in which I summon the powers of wild yeasts and invisible bacteria to perform alchemy on milled grain and water, transforming them into bubbly universes of sourdough bread. In the show, which the <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_organisation=Abbey+Theatre">Abbey Theatre</a> is touring to <a class="search" href="https://www.irishtimes.com/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_organisation=Limerick">Limerick</a>, Cork, Galway and Dublin this summer, I’ll be baking bread and delving deep into language issues, while the audience get to perform their own alchemy, creating butter from cream to spread on my fresh bread made of grains grown in Ireland.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>The Abbey will also be touring my show Gaeilge Tamagotchi in which I bestow rare and endangered words upon members of the public who agree to nurture and nourish them, words like lóipín, the cloth fixed on a hen’s claws to stop it scratching the earth or the pieces of jute put on a donkey’s hooves to keep them from slipping on frost. Or seithreach, the wistful voice of a mare calling for her foal, or the sound horses make when they meet after an absence.</em></p>
<p class="no_name selectionShareable" style="text-align: center;"><em>The truth is that Irish is an ideal tool to help reorientate us back to what we have forgotten about our connection with the world around us. Its arcane structures and lack of clear rules can make it feel chaotic and uncontrollable, but therein lies its power. If we dare to dive in and escape the grips of its more pedantic gate-keepers and spirit-crushed naysayers, there are worlds of new perspectives and experiences awaiting.</em></p>
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<div class="comments-actions cf" style="text-align: center;"><strong><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/a-magical-vision-is-hidden-in-the-irish-language-we-need-to-rediscover-it-1.3558112" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source:</a></strong></div>
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<div class="activityFeed-detailContent"><h1 class="title entry-title" style="text-align: center;">Raven Born & Wolf Singer: Some Old Irish Names from Ogham Stones...</h1>
<img src="http://irisharchaeology.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Ogham-stone-kerry.jpg" class="align-center"/></div>
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<div class="activityFeed-detailContent"><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><span>The monoliths (inscribed with Ogham script) generally commemorate named individuals and it is likely that the stones originally marked burials spots or tribal boundaries. Most of the ogham stones were erected between the 5th and 6th centuries AD, a period when Ireland was only gradually becoming a Christian country. This is reflected in the personal names found on the stones, some of which contain references to pagan gods and totem animals/trees.</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>These early Irish names are taken from the country's corpus of ogham stones. Many are influenced by an older tradition and contain references to pagan/shamanic names</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>from elsewhere in the world....</em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Cunanetas ~ Champion of Wolves</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Island/300._Island/300._Island_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Brusccos ~ Thunder</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Emlagh_East/180._Emlagh_East/180._Emlagh_East_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Branaddov ~ Black Raven</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(No Image available)</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://www.transceltic.com/sites/default/files/images/alastair/raven.jpg" alt="Image result for Ogham stone with black raven" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Cattuvir ~ Battle Man</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Dromore/268._Dromore_III/268._Dromore_III_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Segamo ~ Champion of the God</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Ardmore/263._Ardmore_I/263._Ardmore_I_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Maqi - Carattinn ~ Devotee of the Rowan Tree</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Cloghanecarhan/230._Cloghanecarhan/230._Cloghanecarhan_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Quanacanos ~ Wolf Singer</em></p>
<p><em><img src="http://www.irishmegaliths.org.uk/zBracklaghboy.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Lugudeccas ~ Respecter of the God, Lugh</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>(No image available)</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://d3jjg4nf4bbybe.cloudfront.net/u/233867/690517e6b8eed5b423fee2cf152b24ac05cf2fa8/large/lugh-2.jpg" alt="Image result for Lugh" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Ronnan ~ Little Seal</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Arraglen/145._Arraglen/145._Arraglen_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Bivodon ~ Living Fire</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/National_Museum/285._Kilbeg/285._Kilbeg_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Branogenos ~ Raven Born</em></p>
<p><em><img src="http://www.megalithicmonumentsofireland.com/images/image.gif" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Cunogusso ~ He Who Has the Strength of A Wolf </em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/National_Museum/70._Ahalisky_II/70._Ahalisky_II_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Degos ~ Flame</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Coolmagort/197._Coolmagort_I/197._Coolmagort_I_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Lugnagappal ~ Winter Wolf</em></p>
<p><em><img src="https://ogham.celt.dias.ie/resources/sites/Lugnagappul/191._Lugnagappul_II/191._Lugnagappul_II_thumb.jpg" class="align-center"/></em></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><a href="http://irisharchaeology.ie/2017/03/raven-born-wolf-singer-some-old-irish-names-from-ogham-stones/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source:</a></em></strong></p>
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Samhain
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2017-10-08:6363372:Topic:3339007
2017-10-08T22:23:11.238Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p><em><a href="http://www.powerstownet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/happysamhain-jpg.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.powerstownet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/happysamhain-jpg.jpg"></img></a></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><em>by Susa Morgan Black (Druid, FSA Scot)</em></p>
<p>To the ancient Celts, the year had two "hinges". These were Beltaine (the first of May) and Samhain, (the first of November), which is also the traditional Celtic New Year. And these two days were the most magical, and often frightening times of the whole year.</p>
<p>The Celtic people were in…</p>
<p><em><a href="http://www.powerstownet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/happysamhain-jpg.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.powerstownet.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/happysamhain-jpg.jpg" class="align-center"/></a></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><em>by Susa Morgan Black (Druid, FSA Scot)</em></p>
<p>To the ancient Celts, the year had two "hinges". These were Beltaine (the first of May) and Samhain, (the first of November), which is also the traditional Celtic New Year. And these two days were the most magical, and often frightening times of the whole year.</p>
<p>The Celtic people were in superstitious awe of times and places "in between". Holy sites were any border places - the shore between land and water (seas, lakes, and rivers), bridges, boundaries between territories (especially when marked by bodies of water), crossroads, thresholds, etc. Holy times were also border times - twilight and dawn marking the transitions of night and day; Beltaine and Samhain marking the transitions of summer and winter. Read your myths and fairytales - many of the stories occur in such places, and at such times.</p>
<p>At Samhain (which corresponds to modern Halloween), time lost all meaning and the past, present, and future were one. The dead, and the denizens of the Other World, walked among the living. It was a time of fairies, ghosts, demons, and witches. Winter itself was the Season of Ghosts, and Samhain is the night of their release from the Underworld. Many people lit bonfires to keep the evil spirits at bay. Often a torch was lit and carried around the boundaries of the home and farm, to protect the property and residents against the spirits throughout the winter.</p>
<p>Many Irish and Scottish Celts appeased their dead with a traditional Dumb Supper. On Samhain Eve, supper was served in absolute silence, and one place was set at the head of the table "for the ancestors". This place was served food and drink without looking directly at the seat, for to see the dead would bring misfortune. Afterwards, the untouched plate and cup were taken outside "for the pookas", and left in the woods. In other traditions, this is the night to remember, honor, and toast our beloved departed, for the veil between the living and the dead is thin, and communication is possible on Samhain Eve</p>
<p>Animals and food supplies needed special protection during this time, too. Samhain marked the time cattle, on which the Scottish Highland economy depended, were brought in from their summer grazing to their winter fold. The Gods were petitioned to protect the cattle during the long, hard winter. By now, the winter store of food had been harvested and stored.</p>
<p>Sir Walter Scott wrote:</p>
<p>On Hallowmas Eve, ere ye boune to rest,<br/> Ever beware that your couch be blest;<br/>
Sign it with cross and sain it with bread,<br/>
Sing the Ave and the Creed.<br/>
For on Hallowmas Eve, the Night Hag shall ride<br/>
And all her nine-fold sweeping on by Her side,<br/>
Whether the wind sing lowly or loud,<br/>
Stealing through moonshine or swathed in cloud.<br/>
He that dare sit in St. Swithin's Chair,<br/>
When the Night Hag wings the troubled air,<br/>
Questions three, when he speaks the spell,<br/>
He must ask and She must tell.</p>
<p>Samhain is also the night of the Great Sabbat for the witches (Ban-Druidh, in Scots Gaelic). On Hallowmas, all the witches of Scotland gather together to celebrate, prophesy, and cast their spells. Tradition has it that on this night, they can be seen flying through the air on broomsticks and eggshells, or riding black cats, ravens, or horses on their wild Hallowmas Ride. The rural people did not dare step outside their doors for fear this night. Some say the Queen of Witches is the Irish Morrigan (also called Morgan le Fay). In other traditions, the Blue Faced Hag of Winter - the Calleach - rules this night.</p>
<p>A good example of a Scottish Highland ghost story (as told to me by Clan Donald member, Kenneth Wiepert), is about Clan Donald's own witch. He told me the following tale:</p>
<p>" The MacDonald's of Glen Coe have their own witch. Her name was Sidiethe, and she was a Water Witch with fair skin and red hair. She was always seen in a white robe with a black cape. Sidiethe often sings along the banks of Loche Linhe, near Glen Coe and sometimes she is weeping. Shortly before the massacre at Glen Coe in 1692, she was seen washing clothes at the ford of the river while she wept. (Ed. Note: often the bean sidhe (banshee), attached to a great household is seen washing clothes or shrouds while she weeps, prior to a tragic death or catastrophe.)</p>
<p>Sightings of this ghost go back as far as the 1100's. She is also known as the White Witch of Glen Coe. Loche Linhe is reported to have a kelpie, as well!"</p>
<p>Faeries migrated from the summer hillocks to the winter barrows on Samhain night. If you had families that were captured by fairies that year, this was the one night you could win them back, be snatching them off their faerie mounts as they rode by. The famous Scottish legend, Tam Lin, is the story of a faithful young maiden that rescued her lover from the faeries on this fateful night.</p>
<p>Many of the traditions of Halloween derive from Pagan and Druid customs. It is a time of prophesies, of disguising oneself to avert evil, of performing rites of protection from the dead and Otherworldly spirits. The ancient Druid practice was to circle the tribal Samhain bonfire with the skulls of their ancestors, who would protect the tribe from demons that night.</p>
<p>In modern Scotland, children have inherited the ancient custom of disguising themselves in costumes. These "guisers" wear masks, or blacken their faces. They carve turnips in the shape of skulls and place a candle within, creating an eerie effect. The children travel from door to door, performing or singing for their treats. When they are not rewarded for their antics, they resort to tricks.</p>
<p>Those with the Second Sight (Taibhsear, in Scots Gaelic) were often sought this night for traditional Halloween fortune telling. These persons were invited to gatherings to entertain guests with their arcane arts. One method was to prick an egg and let the contents drip into a glass of clear water. The Taibhsear could read the shapes, much like a crystal ball, and predict the supplicant's future.</p>
<p>Apples were the fruit of the Other World, a land sometimes called Avalon or Avallach - the Isle of Apples. They are often used for magic and fortune telling. A young woman would peel an apple all in one paring, and throw it over her shoulder on Samhain Eve. The peeling would take the shape of the first initial of the man she would marry. Eating an apple in front of a mirror while combing your hair will conjure your true love's image in the mirror. Another tradition is "dunking for apples". Apples are placed in a tub or barrel of water, and dunkers will try to retrieve these apples with their teeth. Those who succeed will have good fortune the following year.</p>
<p>Hazel nuts were also used in matrimonial divination. Two groups of "Sweetheart" hazel nuts were placed within the hearth fire; one group was marked with the names of the village's eligible maidens, and the other with the eligible bachelors. As the nuts popped, the names of the pairs were romantically linked. On a more somber note, people sometimes placed a hazelnut with their initials on them in the hearth fire. If the nuts were missing the next morning, the unlucky person would not survive the year. Hazel is a sacred tree in Irish and Scottish mythology. In Ireland, nine hazel trees grew around the Well of Segais, where the sacred Salmon lived. This was the source of all wisdom. Using hazel nuts at Samhain availed seers of that sacred wisdom.</p>
<p>Tha gliocas an ceann an fhitich!</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-1"><em><a href="http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/samhain/deeper-samhain">http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druid-festivals/samhain/deeper-samhain</a></em></span></p>
Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2017-07-31:6363372:Topic:3312374
2017-07-31T21:28:18.420Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<h1 class="title single-title" style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis " src="http://www.ancientpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/fomorinstoryisland13.jpg"></img></h1>
<h1 class="title single-title" style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-6" style="color: #003366;">Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis</span></h1>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>According to the Old Irish “Annals of Clonmacnois”, ancient chronicles from…</em></span></p>
<h1 class="title single-title" style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.ancientpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/fomorinstoryisland13.jpg" alt="Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis "/></h1>
<h1 class="title single-title" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #003366;" class="font-size-6">Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis</span></h1>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>According to the Old Irish “Annals of Clonmacnois”, ancient chronicles from prehistoric times to the early 15th century, the Fomorians (or Fomorach) were giants who arrived to Ireland from over the ocean. They were direct descendants of Noah.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>The Irish annals described the Fomorians as a warlike race that represented “a branch of a clan that descended from Cham (Ham), the son of Noah, and lived by piracy and spoils of other nations, and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world.”</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>Their name derives from “fomor”, which means both “giant” and “pirate”. They were also called “mariners of Foe”.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>As we described in <a href="http://www.ancientpages.com/2017/05/20/fomorians-in-irish-myths-and-legends-race-of-demonic-giants-who-inhabited-ireland-and-scotland/"><span style="color: #008080;"><strong>our earlier article</strong></span></a>, “one Fomorian with stubby legs and long arms did not resemble another with a dwarfish right arm and a normal left arm, or yet another with two or even three heads and only one eye or three on his head…” It’s interesting to note that in some Irish myths and legends, they are described as malevolent giants, who functioned almost as machines with “eyes” that cast out a powerful beam that turned enemies into ashes.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>This race of gigantic, deformed, violent and extremely cruel people, not only looked like monsters but were also associated with the powers of evil.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>Many of them were footless and handless, which could mean they were Ophites or serpent-worshipers.</em></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ancientpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/fomoriansugglygiants16.jpg" class="gallery_colorbox cboxElement"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13251" src="http://www.ancientpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/fomoriansugglygiants16.jpg" alt="Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis " width="700" height="600"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>Among other descriptions of the Fomorians, there is one saying they had animal heads; however, most probably they had helmets or headgear shaped-liked animal heads or even more likely, they wore the head of animals over their heads. Most of researchers believe the Fomorians were humans and “dubh”, which in Gaelic means – black.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>Interestingly, the existence of the Fomorians has not been recorded in the “Book of Invasions” (Lebor Gabála Érenn), which describes how Ireland was conquered and settled. The “Irish Invasion Myths”, on the other hand, tells “there is no legend of the Fomorians coming into Ireland, nor were they regarded as at any time a regular portion of the population…”</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>It was believed that one of the leaders of the Fomore was the giant Balor, a terrifying creature with the evil eye. Balor was capable to send a powerful beam (“flux of energy”) across the channel between Tory Island and Ireland, to blast his enemies. His only eye could blast a whole army when he opened the seven eyelids protecting it.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ancientpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/lughagainstfomorians17.jpg" class="gallery_colorbox cboxElement"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13253" src="http://www.ancientpages.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/lughagainstfomorians17.jpg" alt="Fomorians: Supernatural Race Of Giants Who Came From Atlantis " width="343" height="500"/></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Lugh Lamfada led the Danann against the Fomorian tyranny. Lugh killed their last leader, Balor. Lugh was a sun god, widely worshiped throughout the Celtic world.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>Old tradition says that they erected the great Tower of Conan at Tor-Inis (Tory Island), They lived in a fortress off the northwest coast of Ireland. From there, they spread terror, oppression and tyranny until they were finally conquered by the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Fomrian greatest warrior, Balor, was also killed by his own grandson, Lugh Lámfhota, the Tuatha Dé Danann tough and brave champion.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>After the death of Balor, the Fomorians lost their power and control and they were soon driven into the sea and out of Ireland.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino; color: #008080;"><em>Some sources report that the few survivors were permitted to continue to live in Ireland and after many generations they eventually become assimilated into the Celtic population, after 600 BC.</em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #008080;">Written by<strong> – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com <br/></strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #008080;"><img class="irc_mi" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/The_Fomorians%2C_Duncan_1912.jpg" alt="Image result" style="margin-top: 96px;" width="533" height="337"/></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;">If you notice there is a creature in the forefront that looks like the creature in "The Lords of the Ring"!</p>
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Druid Tree knowledge
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2017-03-01:6363372:Topic:3279455
2017-03-01T03:46:02.197Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p><img alt="Celtic sacred trees Birch: " height="920" src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/6d/9b/c3/6d9bc3308bec77de2deab9b8d1f68b19.jpg" width="564"></img></p>
<p><img alt="Sacred celtic tree Beech: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8d/44/28/8d4428d5f33a2e7927b438f31ddc3c14.jpg"></img></p>
<p><img alt="Sacred celtic trees Elder: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/34/01/9e/34019e1fd0d017c71be95cc0b0342000.jpg"></img></p>
<p><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Yew: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/4f/52/36/4f5236f3b8fecba7c395090a9b7f6893.jpg"></img></p>
<p><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Elm: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/dc/32/70/dc32706b5266bf1ca4049ce64b2f3c70.jpg"></img></p>
<p><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Spindle: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ae/3f/ac/ae3fac2ffd8af72b322441fde8274255.jpg"></img></p>
<p><img alt="Celtic sacred tree - Cedar: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/db/e7/58/dbe75879220f4701a2eaeae7bfa5119b.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Pine: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/22/c8/c4/22c8c4271e59cdc479011cba69886bc7.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Fir: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/88/aa/f2/88aaf2b2bb0526552161fb17a4c5eeec.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Lime: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/42/b5/0c/42b50c4d9ade84af785e9dd635fb28f1.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic tree - Poplar: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/80/d9/43/80d9439a7a8c69b0d1ae7a5917b11be3.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic trees Holly: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/58/1c/6d/581c6d34e1aad1f99b3f7dc5e772a3d1.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred Celtic trees Oak: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ae/f5/c7/aef5c7ec837bb3fd8db1b64aeff0543d.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic trees Willow: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/69/ef/5f/69ef5f175a8f2c190199b185ff80d536.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Sacred celtic trees Alder: " src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/46/25/70/462570abc934a67e1c21837f1e311502.jpg"></img></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/6d/9b/c3/6d9bc3308bec77de2deab9b8d1f68b19.jpg" alt="Celtic sacred trees Birch: " width="564" height="920"/></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/8d/44/28/8d4428d5f33a2e7927b438f31ddc3c14.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree Beech: "/></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/34/01/9e/34019e1fd0d017c71be95cc0b0342000.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic trees Elder: "/></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/4f/52/36/4f5236f3b8fecba7c395090a9b7f6893.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Yew: "/></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/dc/32/70/dc32706b5266bf1ca4049ce64b2f3c70.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Elm: "/></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ae/3f/ac/ae3fac2ffd8af72b322441fde8274255.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Spindle: "/></p>
<p><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/db/e7/58/dbe75879220f4701a2eaeae7bfa5119b.jpg" alt="Celtic sacred tree - Cedar: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/22/c8/c4/22c8c4271e59cdc479011cba69886bc7.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Pine: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/88/aa/f2/88aaf2b2bb0526552161fb17a4c5eeec.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Fir: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/42/b5/0c/42b50c4d9ade84af785e9dd635fb28f1.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Lime: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/80/d9/43/80d9439a7a8c69b0d1ae7a5917b11be3.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Poplar: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/58/1c/6d/581c6d34e1aad1f99b3f7dc5e772a3d1.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic trees Holly: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ae/f5/c7/aef5c7ec837bb3fd8db1b64aeff0543d.jpg" alt="Sacred Celtic trees Oak: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/69/ef/5f/69ef5f175a8f2c190199b185ff80d536.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic trees Willow: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/46/25/70/462570abc934a67e1c21837f1e311502.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic trees Alder: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/20/30/b0/2030b0a61341510de2bb9dc9da53e260.jpg" alt="Celtic sacred trees Rowan mountain ash: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ee/1b/af/ee1baff25374f9a399ead329d9515e7b.jpg" alt="Celtic sacred trees Hawthorn: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/e2/a2/19/e2a2198675689ddc241a9990fb0cf531.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic tree - Apple: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/5d/db/d1/5ddbd14a94c6ce4fa11741e8f2de8191.jpg" alt="Sacred celtic trees Hazel: "/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/ba/a6/ce/baa6ce19ef464ec502115d82edddadd4.jpg" alt="Scared celtic tree - Blackthorn: "/></p>
Vikings Turn up in Force for Epic Up Helly Aa Festival
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2017-02-09:6363372:Topic:3274451
2017-02-09T05:08:49.310Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">Up Helly Aa is a yearly Viking festival that takes place in the Shetland Isles (a subarctic archipelago that lies 170 km north of mainland Scotland), on the last Tuesday of January. This epic festival, which has been an annual occurrence since the 1880s, features realistic Viking costumes, group chanting, marches, full-on ship burning, dancing, drinking, more drinking, and more dancing. This event takes place all over…</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">Up Helly Aa is a yearly Viking festival that takes place in the Shetland Isles (a subarctic archipelago that lies 170 km north of mainland Scotland), on the last Tuesday of January. This epic festival, which has been an annual occurrence since the 1880s, features realistic Viking costumes, group chanting, marches, full-on ship burning, dancing, drinking, more drinking, and more dancing. This event takes place all over Shetland, but the biggest and main one occurs in Lerwick, the capital.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/6e21a730-bd88-48d1-b5dd-df333237f15c.jpg" alt=""/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">The groups of "Vikings" are known as Jarl Squads, which are led by a Guizer Jarl.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/de0a38c2-5f48-484b-a848-047a30ac4657.jpg" alt=""/></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/f99cd451-480f-4ec1-a91b-7947ec640166.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">Up Helly Aa is such an important event to the Shetlanders that the Guizer Jarl and his squad begin their preparations in February, so that they are able to put plenty of effort into the production of their fantastic outfits.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/eb40ce9e-60e8-46ea-9211-9fa8cade43a6.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/95a8be30-287a-422e-95d3-dbfc70c1fcb3.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">In Lerwick, the Jarl squads spend the whole day marching through the town, and eventually they make their way to the waterfront, where they burn a large Viking ship with 1,000 torches.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/0c25d00d-3fe4-46bc-9fe7-f82206db53a1.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">Once the boat is burning nicely, they all retire to a town hall and drink and party until the sun comes up.</span><br/></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/372abda4-8889-496c-82dc-bef8545bd256.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/0a22c7db-bc48-4b1f-8ec4-59b54e9e459f.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">In fact, the day after is a public holiday in order to allow those who joined in the festivities ample time to recover.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/c64db294-8f5b-4ed5-af6c-b39ddecf8264.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/74881a1b-9eae-4660-bf0d-e2121d236e52.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">This festival is a cherished tradition in the Shetland Isles, which were invaded and colonized by Norse Viking settlers in the 8th century, and was a Norwegian province right up until 1472.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/2434f6f2-316c-4b81-b606-f0a41728e802.jpg" alt=""/><br/></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><img class="fancybox-image" src="http://en.bcdn.biz/Images/2017/2/6/b5b1ece6-0663-40cb-b1de-c749b4c3f0e6.jpg" alt=""/></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;">This left its impact on the now Scottish territory, which continues to celebrate its Scandinavian history.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 2.222222rem;"><iframe width="712" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iTqdRrYSOB0?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</span></p>
Druid Prayer Beads and Prayer
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2016-10-12:6363372:Topic:3239542
2016-10-12T22:54:23.112Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p>My prayer beads are made out of materials I had on hand...some glass beads from old bracelets, natural sandalwood beads from what used to be a Buddha Rosary, a pewter pentagram pendant, and a heron pendant.</p>
<p>At the bottom/beginning are four beads for the elements earth, water, fire, and air. From there I have a purple bead followed by 9 sandalwood beads, a blue bead followed by 9 sandalwood beads, another purple one followed by 9 sandalwood beads, and it ends with a blue bead. Now to…</p>
<p>My prayer beads are made out of materials I had on hand...some glass beads from old bracelets, natural sandalwood beads from what used to be a Buddha Rosary, a pewter pentagram pendant, and a heron pendant.</p>
<p>At the bottom/beginning are four beads for the elements earth, water, fire, and air. From there I have a purple bead followed by 9 sandalwood beads, a blue bead followed by 9 sandalwood beads, another purple one followed by 9 sandalwood beads, and it ends with a blue bead. Now to try to describe the prayer:</p>
<p>Bead 1 (for earth): "The earth supports me."</p>
<p>Bead 2 (for water): "The water surrounds me."</p>
<p>Bead 3 (for fire): "The fire arches over me."</p>
<p>Bead 4 (for air): "The air sustains me."</p>
<p>Bead 5: "I bind myself to the memory of the ancestors."</p>
<p>Beads 6-14: "Ancestors remember me as I remember you. Hear my prayer and accept my love."</p>
<p>Bead 15: "I bind myself to the fellowship of all earth spirits."</p>
<p>Beads 16-24: "Earth Spirits aid me as I aid you. Hear my prayer and accept my love."</p>
<p>Bead 25: "I bind myself to the power of the Supreme Beings."</p>
<p>Beads 26-34: "Supreme Beings honor me as I honor you. Hear my prayer and accept my love."</p>
<p>Finally, on Bead 35: "I bind myself to the love, guidance, and blessings of the Three Kindreds."</p>
<p></p>
<p>Being a fairly new student of Druidry, I hope this represents it well enough. The only thing I don't really have is a closing of some kind to end the prayer. I wasn't sure if one was needed or not, so I am open to advice or suggestions with that part. I would, of course, begin with some kind of grounding or meditation to begin my focus before beginning the prayer.</p>
<p></p>
<p>All of this was adapted, for the most part, from:</p>
<p> <a href="https://tressabelle.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/druid-prayer-beads/">https://tressabelle.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/druid-prayer-beads/</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>And there you have it! Thank you for this site, I love being a part of it!<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113418101?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/113418101?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a></p>
Worm Magic
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2016-09-08:6363372:Topic:3231270
2016-09-08T03:57:44.733Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/421671?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/421671?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="206"></img></a></strong></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>By Nimue Brown</strong></span></p>
<p><br></br><span class="font-size-3">To call someone a ‘worm’ is usually an insult. If you ‘worm your way’ into anything it tends to imply that you aren’t entitled to be there and that your method for getting in was dodgy. Linguistically, worms get a…</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/421671?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="206" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/421671?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="206" class="align-left"/></a></strong></span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><strong>By Nimue Brown</strong></span></p>
<p><br/><span class="font-size-3">To call someone a ‘worm’ is usually an insult. If you ‘worm your way’ into anything it tends to imply that you aren’t entitled to be there and that your method for getting in was dodgy. Linguistically, worms get a rough deal, but out there in nature they are tiny powerhouses and worthy of our respect.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">In terms of the life of the soil, worms are essential. They aerate it as they pass through. They help break down debris, alongside the micro-organisms and fungi also at work. Worms will draw plant matter from the surface down into the soil, eat it, poo it out as soil, and thus add to the fertility of the land.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Worms provide food for a lot of other beings. They are eaten by a number of birds – although I always think of blackbirds as the main worm eater. Moles of course eat worms, and so, more curiously, do badgers. Given the size difference, it may seem like an odd menu choice, but scruffluing up worms to eat is a big part of what badgers get up to of an evening.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Taken as an individual, a worm isn’t much. It’s just a squishy, mobile stomach. Things go in one end, and come out the other. One worm more or less doesn’t change anything much. Taken collectively, the value of worms to the rest of the living world is vast.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">As humans, we make up a lot of stories about the triumph of the lone individual. Most of us will never be the lone, standout hero, and condemn ourselves to a life of feeling jealous, mediocre, unsuccessful, irrelevant. We could learn a lot from worms. As with worms, small actions from large numbers of people have huge effects. Our one small bit, more or less, doesn’t seem very relevant, but what we do as a whole has considerable consequences. At the moment, those consequences are grim, but it need not be so.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If we all took ourselves a bit more seriously as one chewing worm amongst many, perhaps we’d be a bit more careful about what we put into the soil. If we learned to see the power of small things, like worms, we might better be able to see pour own power, and to use it effectively. We might be less afraid to worm our way in to places of power and influence rather than believing we don’t belong there. We might be less tolerant of the way those bigger humans, with power and resources, use labels like ‘worms’ to discount the masses. We might see the power in numbers, embrace our inner worms, and make some real changes.</span></p>
Morrigan
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2016-07-24:6363372:Topic:3217818
2016-07-24T21:27:05.087Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<p><strong>by Honor Johnson</strong></p>
<p>This article is about the Goddess Morrigan, whom archaeological evidence now tells us, dates back beyond the Copper age, and was the dominant Goddess of Europe called the Great Goddess. When I read the material about Morrigan, I suspected that there was more to her story, and that she was a transporter between life and death; a birth Goddess and a death Goddess in that she moved the soul through these cycles. Later writing seems to concentrate on her…</p>
<p><strong>by Honor Johnson</strong></p>
<p>This article is about the Goddess Morrigan, whom archaeological evidence now tells us, dates back beyond the Copper age, and was the dominant Goddess of Europe called the Great Goddess. When I read the material about Morrigan, I suspected that there was more to her story, and that she was a transporter between life and death; a birth Goddess and a death Goddess in that she moved the soul through these cycles. Later writing seems to concentrate on her connection to death, but comes to view her, as warrior societies often do, in a way connected to their own needs (power, energy, enchantment and warfare). Some writing of course does not, she is seen as a healer, the protector of the land and the person who brings Arthur to power. I went through literary accounts of her to give a fuller picture of her, one that is I think more meaningful to many people, including myself.</p>
<p>Stone stelae with sculpted breasts have been discovered at Castelucio de Sauri, some with only breasts and a necklace as a marker. They date back to the Copper Age c.3000BC. In Spain, France, Portugal and England statues, menhirs and stone slabs frequently also display her eyes, her beak and sometimes her vulva. Parts of her seem hidden, then appearing, so as one looks at the pottery artefacts there is more and more of her to piece together. She is a bird goddess, an earth goddess, and her breasts not only nourish the living, they also regenerate the dead. Her breasts were believed to form the hills in County Kerry called Da Chich Annan (the paps of Anu). She is the Irish Morrigan, Goddess of Death and Guardian of the Dead. She has in these early Celtic representations, a bird’s head (often a crow, raven or vulture) and breasts, and on vessels depicting her there is a symbol for the number three. Sometimes three lines are connected and depict a triple energy that flows from her body, as she is giver and sustainer of life. Very early she is under stood to be a triple goddess, a shape shifter, a three part person. Her names are plentiful and sound like her original name.</p>
<p>In Newgrange, Ireland, is her grand megalithic tomb-shrine. Within it are three stone cells, three stone basins, engravings of triple snake spirals, coils, arcs and brow ridges. Her signs appear on spindle whirls, altars, sacrificial vessels, vases, pebbles, and pendants. She is the chevron and V, the inverted triangle, the earth element. She is the triple source of power needed to regenerate cycles, to take one from life to death and from death to life. Figurines often pair sprouting seed and vulvas, fish in the ocean, and the female body as a passageway. Vultures and owls are associated with her; spirals, crows and ravens; lunar circles and snake coils. Female figures lock to form circles, fairy rings, and circles de fees. Her followers do energetic ring dances, dangerous to an intruder who tries to break in. Her circles transmit energy by the increased powers of stone, water, and mound of circling motion. She is the moon’s three phases, maiden, nymph and crone; the moon, new, waxing and old. She is the source of life giving, death and transformation, regeneration and renewing. Marie Gimbutas, the emeritus professor of European Archaeology - who has written extensively on her artefacts - believes that knowledge of her can lead the world towards a sexually equalitarian, non-violent, and earth-centred future.</p>
<p>Some writers claim that she did not have a consort, others that her consort was the horned god. It seems at least that if there were other gods they did not subordinate her in the beginning. This changed as the Celtic lands became less agrarian, and more dependent on a warrior class for survival. Robert Graves describes an aspectual division of the goddess into many kinds of females and powers as analogous to the battle of the trees, in which powers divided among the seasons, each one dominant at a certain time. Joseph Campbell and other Jungians might argue that the Copper Age understanding of Morrigan was a form of monotheism. I think there is another perspective that might also be taken by many Druids, that whatever enters this life to pull us out of Abred is fractured in our vision, and as we are spirits inside spirits, our visions are personal and come with our most meaningful experiences, and slip away when they are generalized too far. So we are polytheists, in this sense (I think both of these approaches are fruitful.) The female figures into which Morrigan is divided do not seem to be as powerful after the Amairgin invasion, at least in much of the literature which has been preserved. Often she is seen through the eyes of frightened men.</p>
<p><em>The Celtic Druid’s Years </em>by John King claims that Samhain was the mating time between Dagda ( the great God) and Morrigan. Lugh might also have been a consort, of the Morrigan who shared Bran’s totem animal, but who could also be a bear, so this is one of her aspects. Another is that she was one of the Banshee or Bean Nighe. There is a saying among the Irish and highland Scots that a woman who dies in childbirth better not leave the laundry unfinished, or she will have to come back and wash it until the day of her natural death. Washers at the Ford, if they are seen by any human, someone is to die soon. Bean Nighe dresses in green and has red webbed feet (bird feet?), one nostril and one tooth. Very prominent long breasts fall from her chest and if you can grab and suck one, you will be granted any wish. You can ask her three questions and she will answer but then you must answer three from her, and if you lie it is too bad for you.</p>
<p>We know that the banshee were shape shifters, and that they appear in Finnegan’s Wake, washing the laundry of Ireland as it grows dark (the Anna Liva Plurabella section is the Morrigan section). In early Celtic writing Morrigan, and her two war goddess sisters, could appear in the form of crows. Madness and Violence, Badb and Neiman were her sisters. She is tri-part and terrifying in the battle between Fin and Goll. One of Finn’s Captains rides a warhorse named Badb which is grey and black and has wings, so it’s like the hooded Royston or scarecrow, which most often devoured the dead in the British Isles. Its head is hooded like an executioner. Morrigan is defending Ireland, her three parts scream ‘KRAA KRA’, a sky ripping croak. Finn’s army has long horns which sound like calling ravens.</p>
<p><em>For the red mouthed Badh will cry around the house<br/> For bodies it will be solicitous<br/> Pale Badbs shall sheik<br/> Badbs will be over the breasts of men.</em></p>
<p>-from Bruiden Da Choca.</p>
<p>Notice this however: crows do not make people dead, they eat and transform bodies. Morrigan is not death itself, she is the keeper of death, and she is frightening. Sometimes enemies ran because of the fearful and magical appearance of the army.</p>
<p>In Ireland Morrigu (another name for Morrigan) and Badbs meld and can both take on the features of a human hag. This is the old age aspect of the Goddess. It has been theorized by some that it is men who most fear and sometimes disrespect older women. She represents the loss of power and finitude of lifespan, a realization not easy even for Finn. She represents her own power, reincarnation, rebirth and a point of view (wisdom in age) which can’t be banished.</p>
<p><em>Over his head is shrieking<br/> a lean hag, quickly hopping<br/> Over the points of weapons and shields.<br/> She is the gray haired Morrigu</em></p>
<p>-Annals of Leinster</p>
<p>Dusk grey cloud feathers and the gloss of midnight awaited Goll’s sunset army as he retreated into the arms of the terrible mother.</p>
<p>She has been called the Irish Kali, eating and being eaten. There is some similarity, she is frightening, She and her sisters can join into a horrible ring through which a warrior might disappear, one full of teeth and hair. But notice this parallel: Goll has another name, Crom Dubh. In Ireland Finn (the light) lives on one side of the Island and Crom or Goll ( maybe the God of Connan the Barbarian brought up from India or Summer) lives on the other. He is the dark spirit, the hidden who carried the corn mother on his shoulders. This has to do with the way of the light, the balance of the light and dark, and the sinking of the year. Goll sinks like the old sun into the ocean.</p>
<p>We should also note that the stories of Goll and Finn are not all alike, that in some, Finn does not kill Goll and in others Goll rescues Finn from the three hags of winter (Morrigan again.) And often in the tales, Goll is the more sympathetic figure, sensitive towards his wife, and tragic, while Finn’s temperamental bent is to great rage. Morrigan, I think is hidden like Goll. Finn is the bright edge of the sword, reason, and heroism.<br/> Three phantom spirits come out of the Kreshcorran, Devilish, three unsightly mouths, (long lips down to the knees.) Six unclosing white eyes, six twisting legs under them, three warlike swords, three shields, three spears.</p>
<p>It goes together with the tooth mother, the devouring goddess who chases Tailesin and devours him, and then gives birth to him. Being killed and devoured means entering the life cycle again, transported by a woman. Maybe the enemy of a hero is female realism, survival, death, devouring, madness, and decline with age. Heroic canons often do not include real moral dilemmas which no rulebook will settle: guilts that can never be mended; the unconscious parts and spirits of the mind; enchantment and survival needs; passage through cauldrons (stomach and uterus) to make life.</p>
<p>The Anna Liva Plurabella section in Finnegan’s Wake is a modern reconstruction of Morrigan. It starts with the demand to describe the river Livey. One overhears a blend of voices, describing the enchanting effects of human beauty, the nature of women, voices from Celtic Epics, woven together like threads from the Book of Kells. Irreverent-reverent history, and at the end at the Ford we hear the Bean Nighe, doing Ireland’s wash as the images of female archetypes wash, haunted, down into the night:</p>
<p><em>Ireland sober is Ireland stiff. Lord help you Maria full of Grease, the load is with me.</em></p>
<p>They mention Finn MacCool and state that Anne was Liva is and Plurabella is to be. The washerwomen bring unconsciousness in which stories fade from person into trees and stones:</p>
<p><em>My foos won’t move. I feel as old as yonder elm. A tale told of Shaun or She. All Livia’s daughter’ sons. Dark hawks hear us, night, Night, My ho head halls. I feel as heavy as younger stone. Tell me of John or Shaun. Who were Shem and Shaun the living sons and daughters of ? Night now. Tell me a tale of stem or stone. Beside the rivering waters of , the hithering and thithering waters of Night.</em></p>
<p>Finally in the Arthurian vision not everyone, but many Celtic Scholars, trace Morrigan and her two sisters here called Macha and Modron, to Morgan le Fay. She was the most beautiful of nine sisters, living on the Isle of Avalon. She was Fata Morgana.</p>
<p>In the Arthurian Book of the Days on the 13th of December ( a beautiful cycle and weaving of the Arthur tales, Lancelot also suffers at the hands of Morrigan ( Morgain, Morgan?) le Fay in the Valley of No Return, where he must face trials and tests in the shape of dragons and spectral knights, a wall of fire and a gigantic knight with an ax. In the same volume Morrigan plots to murder Arthur, and give his power to Accolon of Gaul, and she almost succeeds in this, since she had given Accolon Excaliber, but during the battle he loses control of it and the sword flies back to Arthur. So in an overview of the tales, Morrigan is a villainess and uses illusion to try to destroy Arthur although she fails. And yet the thirtieth of December according to the same source,</p>
<p><em>King Arthur awoke from his long sleep in which there were many fevered dreams, and he rose and looked about him. Deep bowered and fair, the green landscape stretched about him on all sides. Sweet apple trees grew by the banks of a shallow stream, and white blossoms was upon them like snow. But though the season should have been winter, the air was balmy and soft, and above, in the sky, the sun and moon shown forth together, and there were stars. Then Arthur knew that he was in Avalon, the region of the Summer Stars, where rain and snow fall not, and where the great ones of the world await a call to arms. Smiling, Arthur stretched his muscles and set off to walk by the stream, listening for the murmur that would tell him that the Round table was met again amid the trees.</em></p>
<p>Some tales say Arthur was taken to Avalon by Morrigan, and that as a transporter she is neither good nor evil; others that she is a particular corrupt spirit. Arthurian tales are more particular in their characters, than earlier more mythical sagas. I think the guardian-ship of the land by a pure human leader with no moral faults is the theme of Arthur. Natural but non-moral spirits attack him, but they also help him, and it is he (and the knight’s code) that gives them a man of perfect judgment to restore the land. So I am willing to think that Morrigan might have many aspects in these stories which are like her old Queen Role. Yet she no longer controls justice in these stories, even if Morgan the betrayer, Morgan the sister and The Lady of the Lake are one.</p>
<p>Morrigan and her sisters are shape shifters, transporters through the cauldrons that take one from life to death (crows, stomachs, human intestines, going under the ground, madness, degenerative change.) and from death to life (the midwife, the corn goddess, the earth, the moon-change). One should not see her as simply a daemon. Better to think of first female goddess, stronger than battle, and more hidden. She can fly; she can change her shape from old to young; she is kindly and well trained in medicine. She is Arthur’s sister, perhaps his soul sister, perhaps his double (as a doppelganger is a double).</p>
<p>According to the New Arthurian Dictionary her reputation gets better in poetry, worse in prose as the tradition goes on. In Vulgate cycle she envies Guinevere, and tries to undo her. In the prose Tristran, she gives Arthur’s court a drinking horn, which no one unfaithful can drink from. She becomes a mortal who has to hide her age. Perhaps the reason for this parallels the movement of the story from a dominant female perspective to a dominant male perspective. Guinevere threatens her anam cara relationship with Arthur, by being the realization of his desires, but not the same as himself, which makes Arthur dominant. This dominance is I think reflected in the term pendragon, which might mean the head dragon or it might mean the dragon’s head. Remember that Druidry is the white light, having more to do with that than the hidden. And that the hidden tends to be less cerebral, less connected with metal powers and heroism, and more connected with natural process.</p>
<p>Morgan should not be seen as an evil goddess, she is also birth, the midwife, the healer, and sometimes the moon. If you take the meaning of the head of the dragon, then Arthur is the white light of the dragon power; his intuition for justice and druid wisdom makes him able to give the dragon a head. I like this interpretation. Malory gives Morgan a bad reputation, but I am more willing to believe the first intuition, that she is Arthur’s sister. Modern women writers sense this I think and are eager to put her in balance. The belief in her as villain seems to me to be close to masculine fear of powerful women. To be too heroic is to cross the boundaries of what is natural: birth, helplessness, lack of power, vulnerability and death (I parallel this to Juliana Kristava’s work on horror, in which she points out that the intellect seems to be there, not so much for its owner, but to protect the body).</p>
<p>There are some good hidden questions here:</p>
<p>Why are there apples in the land of Avalon, which is after all, up in the Summer stars? Snow white is put to sleep by an apple, could it be then, an equation of apple and sleep. Or is this the place that holds the principle of apples; the rebirth of plants and self-sewn grains - this seems like a missing part of the puzzle. Apples with their pentagon- star-in -a -circle mystery; the love and life cycle. Apples are equated with earth.</p>
<p>Another missing part seems to be a story about possession. Does Morgan want to possess Arthur; in that her greatest power is to take him away from his judgement, to make him sleep?</p>
<p>The roles of women at the time depicted in the Arthurian Cycle have become less universal. When men and women defended their land together as they did earlier, strong survival bonds probably existed between men and women. By the time of courtly Arthur, tales only of men who went to war, sometimes for years, so those strong bonds formed in war existed only among men. Women are more likely seen as someone to protect, and admire for innocence and youth. Arthurian times are idealistic and inward, but they are more Patriarchal.</p>
<p>The Bean Nighe, the Washers at the Ford, along with the saying about getting the washing done first, sounds as if there might have been a rhetoric to push young women into menial tasks although I am pretty sure that Joyce’s intent is that they are the makers of history, the stitchers of the dream of life, although they do it cursing and gossiping and they clean the mind and set the soul loose.</p>
<p>These things jump out at me, and yet if they are tied together too closely the story wilts. But one thing is clear. Rationality and moral consciousness (love of justice) count in Druidry and so does the Animistic perspective. The Great Goddess is still powerful, as well as the Way of the Light.</p>
<p><span>Bibliography</span><br/> <em>Finnegan’s Wake</em> by James Joyce<br/> <em>The Arthurian Book of Days</em> by Caitlin and John Matthews<br/> <em>The Celtic Druid’s Year </em>by John King<br/> <em>The Encyclopedia of Celtic Wisdom</em> by Caitlin and John Matthews<br/> <em>The Language of the Goddess</em> by Marija Gimbutas<br/> <em>The Mists of Avalon b</em>y Marion Zimmer Bradley<br/> <em>The Once and Future Goddess</em> by Elinor W. Gadon<br/> <em>The White Goddess</em> by Robert Graves<br/> <em>Mythic Ireland</em> by Michael Dames</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-1"><em><a href="http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/morrigan" target="_blank">http://www.druidry.org/library/gods-goddesses/morrigan</a><br/></em></span></p>
Was Odin Human?
tag:templeilluminatus.ning.com,2016-06-06:6363372:Topic:3194655
2016-06-06T20:47:52.880Z
Poppy Whiteheart
https://templeilluminatus.ning.com/profile/JohnMichaelGill
<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-6" style="color: #003366;"><strong>Was Odin Human?</strong></span><img class="align-center" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G6HeSPx7dTc/VxJrh75QCAI/AAAAAAAACUw/CX7A_nZTR50xpAfpFtpQ-76f3fLtPgCvACLcB/s400/odin%2Bbadass.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Thor Heyerdahl and Per Lilliestrom believe they have found possible evidence for Odin being an actual human being in their work Jakten pa Odin (The Search For Odin). They…</em></span></p>
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<div class="discussion"><div class="description"><div class="xg_user_generated"><p style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-6" style="color: #003366;"><strong>Was Odin Human?</strong></span><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G6HeSPx7dTc/VxJrh75QCAI/AAAAAAAACUw/CX7A_nZTR50xpAfpFtpQ-76f3fLtPgCvACLcB/s400/odin%2Bbadass.jpg" class="align-center"/></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Thor Heyerdahl and Per Lilliestrom believe they have found possible evidence for Odin being an actual human being in their work Jakten pa Odin (The Search For Odin). They believe he was the chief of a people called the Asas in a region near Azov lake in Southern Russia. In their work, they also make a connection with China, believing the human leader to be a shaman, blessed with long life, and wandering the Earth. </em></span><br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>A synopsis of this work can be found here <a href="http://www.wilmer-t.net/fornnorden/AncientNordic/HumanOdin.html"><span style="color: #333300;">The Search For Odin</span></a></em></span><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Chinese lore is full of encounters with strange looking people with red beards who were quite tall. These were always regarded as fairy tales, as the possibility for such an encounter before the modern era was considered impossible. The 20th Century would prove that these were no fairy tales..</em></span><br/> <br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>In the early 20th Century, archaeologists stumbled upon an enigma; the mummified remains of a young man was found enclosed in a crude coffin. His attire was non-Asian, and the features of his ancient face seemed European. The team dismissed their discovery as unexplainable. Europeans in ancient China just seemed too fantastic. In 1979 an excavation team in Western China discovered a shallow depression containing strange pottery fragments. Layers of ancient logs were removed... they thought that if this was a burial, it was unlike anything they had ever seen. They had discovered the mummified remains of a middle-aged man. It was the skull of this mummy that startled the team; once they saw the low, wide-set eyes and strongly projecting nasal opening, they knew they were looking at an ancient Caucasian. There were many shallow depressions in the area. Archaeologists then hoped that hidden within these shallow graves were answers to a bottomless mystery; who were these people and why were they so far from their ancestral homeland?</em></span><br/> <br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>The fabrics on the mummified remains gives proof of their origin. Irene Good of the University of Pennsylvania was brought in to examine the fabrics. Good scanned a color photo of a cloth sample she was given into a computer. The scan enabled her to construct an image of how the fabric would've looked when new. Good stated, "I was awe struck. A twill weave is something we're all familiar with, it's the same weave found in denim. A twill weave is characteristically European... the patterns on the fabric are what we would call plaid, possibly part of some kind of tartan." The wool fibers were magnified hundreds of times. Good compared the fibers with indigenous Asian sheep. The type of wool wasn't found anywhere in the Asian sheep, but did match other samples from Iron-age Europe. The cloth was more than Western in design, it was Western to the very fiber. </em></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ae2CHJ6N3A0/VxJdsBlUwJI/AAAAAAAACTw/ojXqksPR-KMqPc0D8pr24b07LTDsJtNvwCLcB/s1600/Snapshot496.jpg"><span style="color: #333300;"><img src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ae2CHJ6N3A0/VxJdsBlUwJI/AAAAAAAACTw/ojXqksPR-KMqPc0D8pr24b07LTDsJtNvwCLcB/s400/Snapshot496.jpg" border="0"/></span></a></em></span></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>In 1985, archaeologists struck gold in Charchan Co. in the province of Xinjiang. Hundreds of well preserved mummies were found, the most astonishing were "Charchan man" (approximately 3,000 years old) and "Charchan woman" (approximately 3,200 years old). The two were so well preserved that they appeared to be more asleep than dead. It's interesting to note that both corpses had symbols painted on their faces, arms, and hands. </em></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-byz8fIwSdGs/VxJeIy_9e5I/AAAAAAAACT0/0GW82yROdEMHHRZ5FHCTd-mEM5Eg1lazwCLcB/s1600/Snapshot493.jpg"><span style="color: #333300;"><img src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-byz8fIwSdGs/VxJeIy_9e5I/AAAAAAAACT0/0GW82yROdEMHHRZ5FHCTd-mEM5Eg1lazwCLcB/s400/Snapshot493.jpg" border="0"/></span></a></em></span></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>"Charchan Man." Who was he? What was his true identity? Was he the Allfather himself?</em></span><br/></p>
<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x9BOKKa6H_Y/VxJfZk_UeUI/AAAAAAAACUE/SIZGJxh4JFEwqbNqAITXBY1aK-LEYv53gCLcB/s1600/Snapshot497.jpg"><span style="color: #333300;"><img src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x9BOKKa6H_Y/VxJfZk_UeUI/AAAAAAAACUE/SIZGJxh4JFEwqbNqAITXBY1aK-LEYv53gCLcB/s400/Snapshot497.jpg" border="0"/></span></a></em></span></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>"Charchan Woman." What was her true name? We can only imagine whom she might have been.</em></span><br/></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Pagan holy ground found near Loulan Co. Six mummified remains were discovered here, all Caucasian, the oldest some 5,000 years old. </em></span><br/> <br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><b>Now that we know for certain that Europeans inhabited a portion of Western China thousands of years ago, there is only one question left. WHY?</b></em></span><br/> <br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>At the edges of the Taklamakan desert in the Xijiang region, there are island oasis. Melting ice from the mountains helped to form lush landscapes of green pastures. The fertile land was perfect for agriculture and animal husbandry. The desert was apparently used for burying the dead, while the outer oasis occupied a thriving economy for the living. It is said that man became a master of time and space when he learned to ride a horse. And it's here we begin to answer some important questions. </em></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TPsKYGZLq60/VxJ-syb2L3I/AAAAAAAACVE/7h4EXt4-BIMzZI-UOSRkDFl1OzVh8SXhQCLcB/s1600/Snapshot503.jpg"><span style="color: #333300;"><img src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TPsKYGZLq60/VxJ-syb2L3I/AAAAAAAACVE/7h4EXt4-BIMzZI-UOSRkDFl1OzVh8SXhQCLcB/s400/Snapshot503.jpg" border="0"/></span></a></em></span></div>
<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Island oasis at the edge of the Taklamakan desert.</em></span><br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>There is evidence of long distance trade from the mountains to the Northern steps, all made possible through horseback riding. Though there is controversy as to the exact time frame when horses became domesticated for riding, the best estimate is that the first riders lived more than 5,000 years ago. It is believed they were first domesticated in Eastern Europe, with the domestication spreading West to Scandinavia, and East Toward Siberia, eventually making its way to Western China approximately 3,000 years ago. The European mummies are thought to have been traders; trading livestock, weapons, tools, even religious practices. These ancient nomads, like the ice-age hunter gatherers that came before them, would have had temporary housing near various trading outposts, enabling them to travel with some comfort between Western China and Eastern Europe.</em></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Odin's horse, Sleipnir.<br/></em></span> <br/></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Fertility rites carved into the mountain side, overlooking a lush oasis. Approximately 3,000 years old. These carving are nearly identical to those found in Bulgaria and the Ukraine some thousand years prior (pictured below).</em></span></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Odin is sometimes referred to as "The Wanderer", a title indicating a nomadic lifestyle. If there truly is remnants of a tribe bearing the name Asas, and it really is the foundation for the Aesir... then there is strong evidence supporting the claim. Odin may very well be buried somewhere in the Taklamakan desert, if he hasn't been found already.</em></span><br/> <br/> <span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif; color: #333300;"><em>Author Marc Rice is an Armanen Runemaster and Hermeticist. His books and videos can be found <a href="http://gumroad.com/runehealing"><span style="color: #333300;">HERE</span></a></em></span></p>
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