Carmina Gadelica: Hymns and Incantations

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Customs assume the complexion of their surroundings, as fishes, birds, and beasts assimilate the colours of their habitats. The seas of the 'Garbh Chriocha,' Rough Bounds in which the cult of Bride has longest lived, abound in beautiful iridescent shells, and the mountains in bright sparkling stones, and these are utilised to adorn the ikon of Bride. In other districts where the figure of Bride is made, there are no shining shells, no brilliant crystals, and the girls decorate the image with artistically interlaced straw. Herbs and roots, while harvesting them, are treated with great praise; they’re called ‘great renown’ and ‘splendid’. The intent of the charm was often told to the plant when it was harvested. The following yarrow charm is one such example. The aid-woman was held in reverence by all nations. Juno was worshipped with greater honour than any other deity of ancient Rome, and the Pharaohs paid tribute to the aid-women of Egypt. Perhaps, however, appreciation of the aid-woman was never more touchingly indicated than in the reply of two beautiful maidens of St Kilda to John Macdonald, the kindly humorist, and the unsurpassed seaman and pilot of Admiral Otter of the West Coast Survey: 'O ghradhanan an domhain agus an t-saoghail, carson a Righ na gile ’s na greine! nach ’eal sibh a posadh is sibh cho briagh?' 'A ghaol nan daona, ciamar a phosas sinne? nach do chaochail a bheanghluin!' 'Oh! ye loves of the domain and of the universe, why, King of the moon and of the sun! are ye not marrying and ye so beautiful?' 'Oh! thou love of men, how can we marry? has not the knee-wife died!' We might attach other herbal gods such as Airmid and Miach and their father the Dian Cecht to our Midsummer worship themes. As leeches(healers), they form an essential part of herb collection at this time. So they’re good deities of the occasion, and the relationship Miach and Dian Cecht have is reminiscent of that between Asklepios and Apollo (Kondratiev, 2003). Asklepios’ ability to resurrect people disturbed the gods and like Miach, he met a tragic end as a result. Most people think Dian Cecht is jealous of Miach, however, the myth says that Miach used a perverse or evil cure. Since Belenus’ association with henbane is called apollo’s herb, and Apollo and Asklepios share a relationship, then Belenus like Canta, just another name for Dian Cecht. So Bels fire is Dian Cechts fire. Bealtaine is the Leeches fire. Midsummer is also a leech’s fire. Both are about purity, healing, and blessing. If this isn’t the case, at a minimum we’re looking at a festival that is about the Thunder and his Children. Customs and Traditions Midsummer marked the beginning of safe swimming in certain rivers(Danaher, 1972, 135), and we’ll see later that water goddesses later turned spirits are the cause. Prayers to ancestors were never neglected for certain regional celebrations. Some midsummer practices took part in bonfires near holy wells and grave-yards. One custom is to collect hocus weeds from the river, strike your friends with them and then burn the hocus in the Midsummer Bonfire. Scattered on crop fields were ashes from the fire after it went out the next morning or day. Torches were carried through the field and then tossed onto the Midsummer Bonfire. If a home was built between Bealtaine and Midsummer, care was taken so that the first hearth fire was taken as coals from the community’s bonfire. This is shared in the local folklore in Golac in Čičarija, where on Midsummer’s Eve, water was offered to Baba, a stone goddess before ashes and embers were given next to the monolith, around which the fire was kindled. The treatment of the Baba procession resembles Gundarsson’s description of the Freyr procession that occurs at the same time.

While the Summer Solstice occurs on June 21st, Midsummer occurs around June 24th. The summer solstice is when the sun is the highest point in the sky and when the Northern Hemisphere sees its shortest night. Like Midwinter, the sun appears to stand still for three days while it is stationed at the highest point in its analemma. The date midsummer was most celebrated was St. John’s Eve(June 23rd) and St. John’s Day(June 24th) (Kondratiev, 2003). The main dish in Connaught for midsummer was called ‘goody’ which is hot milk with sugar and spices and bread all heated in a cauldron on the bonfire or a smaller fire nearby. Consumption of sweets and home-made whiskey called poitín (poCHEEN) and kegs of beer were appropriate for the season and were shared among the participants (Danaher, 1972, 143). Folks jump over the midsummer fire with the effigy and on the next day, it is stripped and thrown into a stream. If we squint and combine this with the plot of Midsommar, we can begin to get a sense of the original practice here of using a real person to preemptively mitigate the water spirits’ wrath. Horses were sacrificed at midsummer in both Germanic and Celtic paganism (Monaghan, 2004, 249)(Gundarsson, 1993, 99). Selected items from five 'Special and Named Printed Collections'. Includes books in Gaelic and other Celtic languages, works about the Gaels, their languages, literature, culture and history. One of the distinct beauties of this prayer is that it is unassuming. There is no assumption that one will simply awaken in the morning. The prayer seems to cede control to God. The person praying is stating that God alone will decide the fate of the person going to sleep. All the prayer asks for is that if it be the death sleep, that God would allow this person to hang onto his arm. The prayer states that either way, waking to life or death, that they will awaken into peace.

The Kupalo effigy is made of straw and dressed in women’s clothing, complete with jewelry and ribbons(Dixon-Kennedy, 1999). At Uppsala they’d plunge a man into the river and if he disappeared they’d draw a fortuitous omen(Allen, 1960, 230). Dagda seems to be Dyeus and *Perkwunos combined in the guise of Dago Deiwos and Succelus, or if you believe Celts From the West, they are offshoots of him. Originally a patriarchal religion, Indo-European and Celtic paganism are overseen in the household by the father. Even in medieval Irish homes, women sat on the prescribed left maintaining the fire and if it went out, the eldest Father of the family was to rekindle it if no embers were to be borrowed from a neighbor. But there is a ‘Father’ proper of all the households who is the Chief of the *Wiks(Village)(Serith, 2007, 102). The best reconstructable word for priest in Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ-(to become high, to elevate[like a hill or mountain]) from the root √bṛh (“to grow, swell”) from which Brighid’s name is derived. The Celtic Gods reflect this same structure. Being the Good God, able to match all the other gods in battle by himself, Dagda’s original place is Chief Father, Father among fathers. And therefore Priest of Household Priests, and eventually Druid of Druids(Priest of priests of household priests). Dagda is thus the penultimate magician over sacred fires. Noel Dermot O’Donoghue, The Mountain behind the Mountain: Aspects of the Celtic Tradition (T & T Clark, 1993). In onóir do Dagda agus do na nDéithe, agus chun toraidh agus chun tairvhe ar ár gcur agus ar ár saothar, in ainm an Tine agus an Tobar agus an Cránn Naofa, Bíodh sé amhlaidh.

Selected books from the Ossian Collection of 327 volumes, originally assembled by J. Norman Methven of Perth. Different editions and translations of James MacPherson's epic poem 'Ossian', some with a map of the 'Kingdom of Connor'. Also secondary material relating to Ossianic poetry and the Ossian controversy.Rees, Alwyn, and Brinley Rees. Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales . New York: Thames and Hudson, 1994. Print. In England, it was the Cam(river) at Cambridge. Milk and other offerings are placed for the Nokk so it will not choose its sacrifice. A Ukrainian effigy of the amorous Kupalo processed and burned or drowned, while in Greek areas it was the amorous Adonis that was washed on the 23rd(Burkert, 2006). A Scandinavian bread effigy would be plunged into the local river with flowers(Gundarrson, 1993, 90), also a sign of love, and now we know why the very pagan and vibrant midsummer festivals were associated by the church with Feast John the Baptist. Telban, Monika Kropej, Nives Sulič, and Valentina Batagelj. Supernatural Beings from Slovenian Myth and Folktales . Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, 2012. Print. of God; 'Bana-ghoistidh Iosda Criosda nam bane agus nam beannachd,' god-mother of Jesus Christ of the bindings and blessings. Christ again is called 'Dalta Bride,' the foster-son of Bride; 'Dalta Bride bith nam beannachd,' the foster-son of Bride of the blessings; 'Daltan Bride,' little fosterling of Bride, a term of endearment. Ritual lament or ‘keening’ at Highland funerals. The soundscape of death is a fascinating anthropological topic. Women could make themselves and their concerns heard at key moments while commemorating and bewailing the dead—although later Presbyterian practice restricted graveyard attendance to men.

Belenos’ association with Beltane through the name of the holiday, is extended into this herb harvesting lore and custom of Midsummer. Belenos is related to the hen-bane plant which used to be called belenuontion, bellinuncium, or bellenium. Interesting that this was also called Apollo’s Herb. Apollo has been related to several deities but most notably relevant here is Apollo Vindonnus which seems to be a healer figure we’d expect Belenos to be(Green, 1997). Giving these properties to our Bealtaine god of shining divinity: Dago-Deiwos or the Dagda is singularly appropriate to his household in Brighid because he is the Fire and Lightening God as his daughter is the god of hearth fires. Carmichael, Alexander. "Grazing and agrestic customs of the Outer Hebrides", Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners of Inquiry into the Conditions of the Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1884), pp. 451–82. Monaghan, Patricia. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore . New York: Infobase Pub., 2008. Print.

Find sources: "Alexander Carmichael"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( February 2012) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) In onóir do Dhia agus do Naomh Eoin, agus chun toraidh agus chun tairvhe ar ár gcur agus ar ár saothar, in ainm an Athar agus an Mhic agus an Spirid Naoimh, Amen. Carmina Gadelica—roughly translated, Gaelic Poems or Charms—is a six-volume anthology of sacred and secular songs mainly collected from the Western Isles. Carmichael was directly responsible for volumes 1 and 2; his notes were edited into two further posthumous volumes; while two final volumes were based on more modern research incorporating additions from later editors, in particular Angus Matheson, a native of North Uist, Professor of Celtic Languages and Literature of the University of Glasgow. The early volumes consist of hymns, prayers, and charms, spiritual material broadly Catholic in nature reflecting the needs of a rural population, for example in protecting cattle or ensuring safety in childbirth. Carmina Gadelica was primarily a literary curation of folk religion. A "caim" is similar to a lorica, being a type of protection prayer. The word "caim" possibly derives from Scottish Gaelic as listed in the Carmina Gadelica meaning "loop, curve, circle, or sanctuary". [4] [5] English lexicographer Edward Dwelly's dictionary of Scottish Gaelic lists "sf Stain, blot, fault. 2(AC) Loop, curve, circle, sanctuary, guard, imaginary circle described with the hand round himself by a person in fear, danger or distress." [6] Reconstructionists and folklorists who say that Dagda isn’t the All-Father because he not the father of all the gods miss that Zeupater(sky-father), Jupiter(sky-father), Varuna Ptr(covering/surrounding father), and the All-Father Odin are also not direct fathers of the gods. They quintessentialize godhood itself. That’s why God is a title of Odin which was given to the germanic priest as Godar/Godi and Dyeus/Dyaus is actually sourced for many of the names of the other gods including his daughter Usas by way of *Aeusos and is the source for the word deity.