My third attempt at translating a normally untranslated portion of the Cath Maige Tuired: this excerpt occurs during the battle itself when the Morrigan appears to incite the Tuatha De Danann to win the battle. The Irish text is from Gray’s 1983 version from the Irish Texts Society. The English translation is my own, with the usual caveat that I am not fluent but am offering my best understanding of the material. Usually it ends after “Kings, arise to battle….”
Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky
tolerance and acceptance
Last weekend I attended the Changing Times, Changing Worlds conference, an annual regional conference on metaphysics in the northeast United States. I’ve done workshops at the conference 4 out of the 5 years its run and I really enjoy attending. This year was no exception, with many good workshops and panels as well as excellent conversations with both attendees and other presenters.
One of the most interesting panels I saw was “When is it okay to tell someone they are wrong?”.
excerpt from my article The Witch, the Bean Feasa, and the Fairy Doctor in Irish Culture’
The following is an excerpt from my article ‘The Witch, the Bean Feasa, and the Fairy Doctor in Irish Culture’ published in the Lughnasa/Samhain issue of Air n-Aithesc, a peer-reviewed CR journal available here: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/779616?__r=486121
What is particularly worth noting though is the connection between Irish and Scottish witches and fairies, something that is shared with bean feasa and fairy doctors, as all three Irish folk magic practitioners are believed to gain their occult knowledge and some of their power from the Fair Folk. While the latter two use the knowledge they gain from the Other Crowd to heal or cure magical afflictions, the witch uses her fairy-given knowledge to harm. The witch knows how to use elfshot, and does so in ways that – according to the Scottish witch trial records anyway, which we must look to given the scarcity of Irish witch trials – seem to have been an attempt to use supernatural power where social power was lacking. What we find often in the Scottish trial records is socially marginalized women using fairy knowledge to curse or harm people in higher social classes or in positions of power (Hall, 2005). Often in these trial records we see witches confessing to making deals with or consorting with fairies, going to fairies for knowledge, and going to them to obtain elfshot (Hall, 2005). In the Irish we see witches, like fairies, taking the form of hares in order to steal milk from the cows and this may indicate another connection between the two (O hOgain, 1995). So similar was Irish witchcraft and fairy enchantment that one of the reasons to call in a fairy doctor was to ascertain which of the two was the source of ill luck or other magical problems so that the proper cure could be administered.
The terms bean feasa and fairy doctor are often used interchangeably and indeed there is at best a fine difference between the two. It is highly likely that the two terms, one in Irish one in English, originally were applied to a singular type of practitioner; however in the modern source material we do see a nuanced difference between how the two terms are used. The bean feasa is often called to find lost objects and discern through divination the cause and cure of ailments, from illness to butter failing to churn, whether the cause is mundane or magical (O Crualaoich, 2005). The fairy doctor, on the other hand, is called when fairy involvement is known or suspected, especially relating to afflictions caused by them, or when witchcraft is suspected, in order to discern the best cure (Wilde, 1991). The ban feasa was said to never teach her magic to others or preform her charms in front of people, while the fairy doctor could teach others, particularly passing her knowledge on to her child (Wilde, 1991; Locke, 2013). One might argue that the bean feasa is more of a general practitioner while the fairy doctor is a specialist, but both derive knowledge and power from their relationship with the Other Crowd.
Read more here
Dating the Holidays
Probably the single most consistent debate you can count on seeing in the Celtic Pagan community is about the dating of the four Fire Festivals. Like all such debates each side tends to hold its own view quite passionately. There are three main arguments: the dates of the celebrations were set astronomically; the dates were set using a calendar; the dates were based on agricultural signs. Each side has merit, but the truth is there is not enough solid evidence to ever know with certainty how the ancients timed their celebrations.
Celebrating Samhain with a Complex Child
Canann Badb.
feannóg guth
Garbh agus amh.
Canann Badb.
Tagann an gheimhridh
i sioc agus scáth.
Canann Badb
“Badb speaks
a crow’s voice
rough and raw
Badb speaks
winter arrives
in frost and shadow
Badb speaks”
I wrote the above poem this morning as I listened to a crow calling to me, perched on a tree outside my window. Today is the beginning of my three day celebration of Samhain, and tonight belongs especially to the daoine maith, the Good People. I’ve written several times over the years about how my family celebrates Samhain and about the history of the holiday so today I decided I want to tackle a more personal topic, that is celebrating this holiday with a child who has complex medical issues.
Translating the Untranslated – the Morrigan’s prophecy
So here’s another translation from Old Irish, this one is the Morrigan’s prophecy from the Cath Maige Tuired. The Old Irish text is from Sean O Tuathail’s version. The English is my own, as always with the caveat that I am not fluent but am offering my own understanding of the material based on the way I personally translate it.
Fáistine leis an Mórrígu
Sídh go neimh…
Why Worship the Gods and Spirits?
Recently John Beckett wrote an interesting blog about why he worships the Gods, which reminded me of my own recent guest blog on the Raise the Horns blog about why I worship the Morrigan. John’s post was part of a larger conversation in the blogosphere about the reality of the Gods and their ability to effect people which I have been following in bits in pieces. I find the conversation fascinating, as a so-called “hard” polytheist because it is offering insight into the different viewpoints that exist within today’s wide array of pagan faiths.
Translating the Untranslated
If you read the English version of the Cath Maige Tuired, whether its the Stokes or Grey translation, and you compare the English versions to the Irish version you will see that several passages have not been translated at all. It may be because these sections are more difficult to understand, or lacked a poetry that the translators were aiming for, or it may be that these sections – all dealing with prophecy and battle magic – were a bit too pagan for the translators. For modern polytheists studying the material I believe these passages do have great value and so I have undertaken to learn Old Irish and attempt to translate them myself.
For example in E. A. Gray’s translation of the Cath Maige Tuired there is a section she translates as:
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Lost in Mist and Shadow
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Mysticism and the Morrigan
I’ve always been of a more mystical bent, but its one of the most difficult things to discuss. Not because mysticism is so difficult to talk about but because mystical experiences tend to lose something in the translation. Also one of the first things most people ask is how do I do what I do, followed by how can they do it too, and the answer to some of that is simply…