The Strength and Guidance of Amazing Celtic Goddesses
The Strength and Guidance of Amazing Celtic Goddesses
at the Seattle Highland Games Speakers Series in 2016
Greetings from the Celtic Goddesses that surround you to the Scottish Heritage Speakers Series! I am Linda Joy Anderson Stern and I’m the chair of the Series, so I hope you come back to hear some of our other fabulous speakers both days.
As an introduction- I am a minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary in Ballard where we honor all the paths that lead to the Divine. One of my areas of interest is the Divine Feminine face of Creator as She shows herself all over the world- now and in ages past, which includes Goddesses.
Also…. I am blessed to have Scottish heritage on both sides of my family- from different clans- two of which were in the American colonies before the revolutionary war. Today, I am wearing the Anderson Tartan, but I have ties with other clans that go back to ancient Scotland. When I first connected to my Scottish roots at the Highland games, I understood so more about my family. I have found that connecting to my roots really helps me to understand who I am. I hope your experience at the games does the same for you, in a new way each year.
So…. are you having a great time at the games today? One of the reasons you might be enjoying the experience is that this weekend for 1000s of years has been a Celtic celebration- called is Lughnasadh where we give thanks to Mother Earth’s for her beauty and abundance.
Lughnasadh was named in honor of the Celtic Sun God, Lugh, but it’s really a celebration of a warrior woman, Tailtiu, the last Queen of Fir Bolg. History is peppered with many Celtic warrior women, and she is one. For her people’s survival, Tailtiu single handedly cleared fields for agricultural use and then died from the endeavor. On Tailtiu’s deathbed, she asked those gathered to hold games in her honor- like the one you are at today. As long as these games were held, she prophesied that the area would never be without gratitude and there would always be happiness and song. And as you can see and hear at these games- that prophesy is true.
In Scotland, Ireland, and Wales we have always honored Lughnasadh and the first harvests……by making beer, ale, and the best single malt whisky on earth- Scotch! So perhaps later…. tip back a few to the festivals past and present, to the Goddesses that live in your life now and to celebrate Lughnasadh and our earth’s abundance with joy and gratitude! Slainte!
Looking around this tent, I would bet that most of us have at least some roots in Celtic Lands, as the Celtic lands were vast. And knowing about how our ancestors lived can perhaps give us a different perspective for our life now.
And 1000s of years ago, I know, that in our ancestors practiced Celtic spirituality, because it was an everyday approach to life. Celtic spirituality is tied deeply to the earth, to the cycles of the year and to the cycles of our own body. And Celtic spirituality acknowledges the spiritual world inside and outside of us, and that we are intimately related to all there is. The Celts did not form a single religious or political unity, like Christianity.
They were spread across a vast and diverse area and as a result there were 374 deities and most (300) are found once as a local deity. The Main Pantheon of Gods and Goddesses totaled 33, which is a sacred number in Celtic literature and religion.
So why did I choose to speak about goddesses of strength? Well, I think it is timely, as women the world-over are stepping into positions of responsibility. And women the world-over still have to deal with less than equal status. Also, as the Dalai Lama has said western women will lead the world to our healing. So, I hope that some of the stories of these goddesses might inspire you to embrace the strength found in you to make a positive difference in our world. You see, Goddesses, were a shining star to guide the path of Ancient Celts, as men and women alike revered Goddesses for their strength, intelligence, protection, healing, and many other ideals. You see, they were role models.
Many of the old-world Goddesses, encompass both light and dark and the Celtic people knew these as 2 sides of one coin-in balance. Strength comes in many forms, and this is true with Goddesses as well. Some of the Goddesses I will speak about today will seem rather dark, but these areas are just as real and important as areas of light and were needed for survival.
In times past, the ancient Celts knew the source of life, in themselves, plants and animals, was associated with females…. So, for them it was natural to feel that the creator of life was…. Female. And because…. the Celts saw the relationship of the goddesses and humans they respected women in their clans. Females were equal to males and held just as much power and responsibility and linage descent was most often traced through the mothers.
One more thing I want to mention to you to keep in mind as I talk, is that in the land of the Celts, sometimes a woman led such a spectacular life that she was elevated to a Goddess after her death. Similar to how the Catholic Church elevated a person to status of a saint. So was Tailetu, a woman or goddess? And many women were named after goddesses in tribute hoping to acquire some of her traits. As the information about the goddesses and Celtic spirituality is mostly spoken myths and legends- perhaps sometimes the line between goddesses and female historical figures gets blurred. Celtic women were very strong figures, and you have to think that the goddesses they worshiped had to be at least that strong.
So, as I speak about these Goddesses of Strength, see which ones you connect to. It may have nothing to do with the information I give you- it might be a spark of recognition or a blink of intuition. After I speak, please feel welcome to come up to the centers of fire, water and herbs and connect with these goddesses and ask questions. Off we go!
The first Goddess I want to talk about is the Goddess portrayed in the painting up here and her name is Bridget. The Goddess Brigit is a beloved Celtic Triple Goddess. Her titles are Goddess of Healing, Inspiration and Smithcraft but she is so much more. Her connections include…...and this is a large list so it shows you how revered she is….... Fertility, New Growth and Birth, Patroness of Poetry,
Inspiration, Healing, Goddess of divination, prophecy, Smithcraft, and smithcraft includes the arts connected to Fire and things having to do with a hearth found in a home, she is also a Warrior Goddess and a Protectoress of the people and the land.
So, to give you an idea of from whence she came into the world
I give….. Bridget’s Fire Birth Story.
A long time ago, at the first crack of a pink dawn,
near the waters of the magic well, the goddess Bridget
slipped into the world and into the hands
of 9 swaying and crooning sisters
who formed a great circle around her.
The waters of the magic well gurgled their joy.
Suddenly, up rose a column of fire out of Bridget’s head
that burned to the very heavens connecting the above with the below.
Then she reached up her hands and broke away a flaming plume
from her crown of fire and dropped it on the ground in front of her.
There it leaped and danced, leaped and danced.
The nine sisters hummed and crooned and swayed around her,
and the waters of the magic well began to tremble
as Bridget built a hearth, stone by stone around the dancing fires
again, uniting the above with below, and the inner with outer.
From this fire, Bridget used both her hands
to draw out a leaping tongue of flame and she swallowed it!
And she felt the fire burn straight to her heart.
There stood the goddess,
fire crowning her head!
fire shooting from her heart!
and fire dancing from her hands!
The Goddess Bridget was born!
Brigit is obviously associated with Fire as she is the Lady of the Sacred Flame. In fact, her name means, “Fiery Arrow or Bright One”. She is the Flame of Inspiration and the Flame of our Creative Consciousness. Bridget is associated with both the inner fires of the soul as well as the physical fires of the hearth and forge underscoring the wisdom that the inner and outer worlds live in unity.
She is celebrated on February 1 or 2. Her feast day celebrates Bridget returning light to the world for Spring, which she steals back, by the way, from another powerful Scottish goddess, the Cailleach Bridget is the Bringer of Light after the dark months of winter, she brings hope, renewal, and transformations.
In her Fire aspect we find the hidden and ancient mystery of Alchemy. Wisdom gained through the fire of life, strengthens, and transforms us. Bridget is teaching us, that sometimes we need to feel the fire, to react to the fire, to be changed and charged by the fire to walk our own life path. Fire is Light that burns brightly in us and in the dark to show the way.
Celtic Warriors appealed to her for the strength they needed to fight their battles with their swords and their spirit. In her aspect as a Warrior Goddess, Brigit is the Protectoress, she is a devoted and steadfast guardian to all who call upon her. Within the protective embrace of Brigit’s cloak, we feel safe and supported.
Here is a prayer for you in Scot Gaelic asking Bridget for her protection:
Which means Oh, Bridget, spread above my head your mantle bright to guide me. (Phonetically) A Bat Breed, share osh mo keon-Go vrat fion gom ankal
So…. there was a woman named after the goddess Bridget, who later is called St Bridget and she shares most of the aspects as the Goddess Bridget. So, this is an example of cross over between goddess and human and goddess and saint. There is so much more to say about her Bridget’s strength- she is limitless as we all are. But on to our next Goddess!
Our next goddess is one having the strength to travel to the land of the dead and come back unscathed. Her name is Skahthakh, and it means “She who strikes fear in others”.
She was a prophetess who taught from her warrior’s school on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides. At one time, she was thought to be mortal and as she was a great warrior and teacher, it was said the Tuatha de Dannan, the ancient Gods and Goddesses…. and transformed into a Goddess herself. So, this is another example of which came first…. the goddess or the human woman.
She is a Gaelic Goddess of the Dead, who accompanies souls slain in battle on their death journey like the Valkyrie of the Norse. She would search the battlefields for the souls of the slain and guide them along the Imrama na Anem or Journey of the Soul to Tir Nan Og, the Otherworld.
It was also the duty of Skahthakh to drop those who acted poorly in life, on a mystical island, in the Otherworld, where they pay their debts and learned their folly.
The greatest warriors of the land came to Skahthakh’s warrior school to be trained, and this included the Red Branch warriors and Cuhuleann. She taught martial arts, discipline, how to work iron and steel, healing, the ways of the seer, the art of love, and the deadly use of weapons. Like the Lady of the Lake in the Arthurian legends, she bestowed on her most deserving pupil a magical sword. So, it was to Cuhuleann, that she gave a sword whose thrust was fatal.
She was famous for battle methods such as the battle yell which was a used effectively by the Scots in battle and when the Scots came to this country the yell was past to the Confederates as the rebel yell.
As a Protectoress, her great battle shield was said to guard the barriers between the Otherworld and here. One night a year, her shield was lowered to allow access back and forth over the veil so the spirits of the dead could walk amongst the living. The dead could enjoy food and be entertainment and be honored.
Even in the world today, Skahthakh inspires people, as there is a group in BC, called the Order of Skahthakh. There they train women in her philosophies to make a positive difference in the world while being strong. Something we can all aspire to.
Next, we come to an ancient Goddess who predates even Celtic times but survived to be a part of the Celtic pantheon. Her story is all about the strength of leadership, perseverance, and new beginnings.
Her name is Cessair and she was a Partholan, which is thought to be one of the first groups to occupy Ireland and it is said she was a ruler. So, here is another story that maybe human woman or maybe Goddess. Her story goes like… when she and her people were denied a place on Noah’s Ark, Cessair leads them to escape the Flood by sailing to Ireland. They set out in three ships… a mystical number… and reach Ireland after a long journey. On the journey was Cessair, her husband, 2 other males and 150 mothers from….all around the world. She must have picked them up on the way there! The women on the voyage can be seen as creating a microcosm of the world's population, like Noah does on the arc. On this trip, two of the men died and her husband was left with all the women and eventually, he is unable to cope ….and so he flees by jumping into the ocean and turning into a mystical salmon.
This story shows how the people saw the Mother Goddess as a source of regeneration and strength. Cessair’s "I was here first" image was so strong, that the Christians, who came after her, could not eliminate her so they made her a relative of Noah. Cessair survives thru 1000s of years and at least 3 spiritual affiliations, and she is a role model of strength in leadership.
Our next Goddess is Calleeach, who is strongly connected to Scotland but also in Ireland and Briton. She rules over the weather, especially winter, and has unrelenting strength.
In Scotland she is the Mother of All, who created the earth with her hammer, who splinters mountains and raises weather. It is said that she made the mountains and hills to use as her stepping-stones to cross the great lands. She is strength uncontained.
The Calleeach rules Winter- freezing the ground with her staff and herding animals into protective lands. In partnership with the goddess Bridget -the Calleeach rules the winter while Bridget rules the summer. Calleeach, the Goddess of Winter, steals the light and brings the start of cold weather but she also leads us to our internal time, to learn and to grow in mind and spirit.
Farmers knew their dependence on the weather and had rituals that would appease her to have a longer growing season. So, the last farmer who completed their harvest was officially “the winner” family and had to watch over the Calleeach for the winter. So, they would provide her with offerings of food and rituals. And she always noticed and gifted her protection to this family.
She is in presented in the older wise woman phase. In some stories, a knight of the realm accepts her for who she is which transforms back to a beautiful young maiden. But we all know that wisdom and strength and beauty inside, win out over transient physical beauty and the Calleeach returns to her true state as a wise woman, which contains the strength, for which she is known. This is a lesson we all can take away- that our strength lies in being who we truly are.
Our next goddess is Macha who is a Warrior Goddess who started as a healer. She represents the cycle of life and death, sheer physical force, victory, wisdom, and enlightenment.
She is generally thought of as one part of the Triple Death-Goddess, the Mórrígan. All three sisters could take the form of ravens and fly over battlefields. In one form, as a screaming raven, she was the voice of the dead on the battlefield, which caused panic amongst the warriors. They could also cause fear and confusion in other ways. During one such battle, Macha, and her sisters, created clouds of mist and a furious rain of fire, giving their enemies no rest for three days and nights and causing them to lose the battle.
But after a battle, in respect for the fallen warriors, Macha and her 2 sisters would gather the souls of the fallen warriors in their wings and fly them to Tir Nan Og.
Macha started as a healer goddess but changed into battlefield warrior goddess. The sister goddesses changed when change was needed. Is this not the way of women?
Celtic women often fought in wars, and they needed a Goddess of the Battlefield as did the men– and so Macha, changed from a gentle healing goddess, who was depicted as a Sacred Cow, whose milk was the antidote to the poison of weapons, into a battlefield Goddess. So here is an example of the strength of Light and Dark together for survival.
For our last goddess today, we will look at Strength that comes in the form of intelligence with the goddess Airmid. Airmid was a member of Tuatha De Danaan, the most ancient race of deities and just as they did, she had great powers. She happened to be the daughter of the God of Medicine, who was the Chief Physician and Magician of their clan and their King.
One of the stories told about Airmid, is that when her kings’ arm was severed in battle, her father decided to replace it with an arm made of silver. Airmid did not like this plan and she went against her father’s idea, and she regenerated the King’s arm with her powers to perfect working order. Then her brother, using his renowned surgical skills, re-attached the regenerated arm to the King’s body. This was extremely important to the Tuatha De Danaan and the King, because according to its laws, no one could ever be king, whose body was not completely whole. So, she and her brother saved the King. Strength in sticking to what you know is right, is important.
In another story about Airmid, she and her brother and father, built the Well of Health. When it was complete, dead warriors could be brought to its magical waters, and not only did it restore them to life, but it returned the warriors to perfect health….so, they could immediately go to battle.
But the most important story about Airmid was that she knew the secret healing life of herbs. Her knowledge of this came out of grief, however.
It is told like this: Airmid’s dear brother had recently died, and she would frequently visit his grave. Watered by her tears of sorrow, all the healing herbs of the world sprung up on the grave of her brother. Surprised, Airmid collected the herbs in her mantle. And……. she found that as she listened, they told her their secrets of healing. She collected all the 365 herbs- one for each part of the body and each day of the year, and she organized them all, spreading them out on her cloak. But her father lashed out, and scattered the herbs, not wanting anyone to have the knowledge. However, Airmid could not be stopped, and she shared her knowledge of their sacred healing powers with the world. We can learn from her…. to share our gifts with the world to help healing- even if someone tries to step into our way.
These amazing Goddesses were blazing stars to guide the Celtic people. They were role models for the women and men. And sometimes, amazing women were elevated to the state of Goddess after they died, as may have been the case with Skahthakh, Cessair and Macha. And some women were named after the goddesses in tribute to acquire their traits, like Bridget. So, I thought I would share a few examples of historical women that became Goddesses.
During the 3rd century BCE, there was a woman named Marcia Proba who was a Celtic warrior queen who was elevated to a Celtic Goddess. Her laws, known as the Marcian Statutes, gave equal status to women and were thought of by some to lay the groundwork for the Magna Carta.
And there was Triduana, from Scotland. She is an example of a woman elevated into a Goddess who is also canonized by the Catholic Church. Triduana is said to have plucked out her eyes to eradicate her own beauty and presented them to a Pict king rather than submit to his advances. Celts admired her strength, and she became a healing Goddess for eyes using water found by oak trees. And she was canonization on the same principle, as people would pray to her for cures for their eyes successfully.
Sometimes the line is blurred between a human woman and a goddess. I believe that we all have that strength in us, the goddess strength in us, to do great works here in our time. So, may you gather strength from the stories that precede you and may you use your strength now to share your gifts with the world and inspire others.
I’m going to end with a Gaelic blessing and after the blessing, please come up to the centers of water, fire or herbs to connect with the goddesses- they are waiting.
May the blessing of light be on you,
Light from within and light from without.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
so that stranger and friend alike may come and be warmed by you.
And may the light shine out of your two eyes,
like candles set in the window of a house,
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.
And may the blessing of rain be on you,
and may it rain upon your Spirit and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there a shining pool
where the blue of Heaven is reflected
and sometimes a star.
Blessings to you all and I thank you for being here.