Sea
Following on from our explorations of the element earth in the sacred Celtic triplicity of earth, sea, and sky, we now turn our attention to the element of water and sea that surrounds these lands, so often understood as a liminal access point to the Otherworlds and the spirits.
Water Magic
In the British Isles and Ireland, bodies of water, rivers and natural springs, wells and marshy liminal places on the landscape have been venerated since earliest times. Traces of ritual activity have been found to have occurred around bodies of water since the Neolithic era some six thousand years ago, dating to 4000 CE. One traditional practice was to make offerings to the spirit of the waters, such as stone axe heads and (later) bronze and iron swords, as well as other precious goods and items. Another common offering was items which took skill to prepare, such as large wooden containers of butter, known as bog butter. By the Iron Age, the spirits of the waters were considered to be female deities, with many rivers being called after their tutelary goddesses. It’s likely this tradition was already thousands of years old by this time. The practice of venerating water sources as places of ritual and spiritual significance continued—many natural springs became the holy wells of the Christian era, and many original goddesses became demoted especially in Wales, into female saints. Nonetheless, the tradition of honouring and visiting holy wells as a spiritual activity continues to this day in various forms.
Ways to Connect with the Water and Sea Spirits
Bless the water you drink and cook with. Seek out wells and natural springs. Limit your water pollution with ecological cleaning products. Limit wasting water. Gather rainwater for the garden. Swim. Seek out wild river swimming where safe. Walk in the rain. Donate and support water charities, and campaign to limit water pollution. Seek out rivers and follow their courses. Dowse for underground water sources. Weep with sorrow. Weep with joy. Visit the sea. Sing to the waves. Learn about the tides. Listen to your heart and your feelings. Make biodegradable offerings to the water, of flowers, crafts, and brewed or baked goods.
Sacred Springs and Water Deities
Sacred springs and wells have long held a special magic, as entrances into the womb of the land, and the Otherworld in its various forms. Like ancient flint mines that have been found dating back to the Palaeolithic era, they were likely honoured as places of Chthonic or earth energy; home for spirits, ancestors, and gods; and were likely treated with some measure of fear and trepidation. By the Iron age Celts, they were places of ritual divination, and possibly sacrifice. The life of the tribe or community was dependent upon its water sources, which could bring healing or disease. As such, the spirits of the waters had the power of life and death over the people. Our dependence on water in the Western world may feel removed now from our immediate landscape with the invention of modern plumbing, but the water spirits have as much power over our lives as ever. As the world and our climate change, periods of drought or excessive rainfall can have devastating effects on our lives, and pollution of our water systems can cause terrible damage to wildlife, our health, as well as our connection and relationship to the water and other nature spirits that surround us. If we disrespect our environment, why should the spirits inherent in our environment respect us?
Our relationship with the water spirits can be mended and vastly improved if we give them our care, respect. and return to the ancient practices of making offerings and observing bodies of water as sacred, liminal places.
Gods and Goddesses of the Waters and Waves
To the Celts of the Iron age and Romano Britain, pools, lakes and rivers were all host to their own spirits and residing goddesses—archaeological evidence has given us some of the names of these deities and hints about their worship. Later medieval tales, especially in Ireland, are likely to have preserved some of this oral lore and tradition and have furnished us all with some vivid mythology, folk tales, and mystery teachings. Here is a list of some of the more notable water deities.
Found in folklore and medieval tales most likely from earlier sources, Lir is most usually seen as an ancestral god of the sea, and is known best as the father of the sea god Manannán mac Lir who seems to have taken his place. Lir is also known in the tale “The Children of Lir,” where his second wife, Aoife, jealous of his children turned them into swans for nine-hundred years. Symbols of poetry and the bardic arts, swans are sacred animals in Celtic myths; this tale may have teaching threads within it related to inspiration—known as Imbas in Irish—found through contact with the sea and otherworldly voyages, as the Celtic otherworld is often described as being found across the ocean. The Welsh Llŷr features in the collection of tales known as the Mabinogion, as the father of Bran and Branwen, and is probably the same being.
Manannán mac Lir (Irish) Manannan mac y
Leir (Manx) Manawydan fab Llŷr (Welsh)
Manannán mac Lir features widely in Irish mythology as one of the Irish gods in the Tuatha Dé Danann, like his father Lir. A guardian of the Otherworld, he is said to posess a sea-borne chariot drawn by the horse Enbarr (“water foam,” lent to the god Lugh) and own a powerful sword named Fragarach (“the answerer”), and féth fíada, a cloak of invisibility. He is sometimes seen as a trickster and often leads characters through transformational experiences, especially in the tale of Cormac mac Airt. He is the king of the otherworldly “blessed isles” Mag Mell, and Emhain Abhlach, the Isle of Apple Trees, whose British equivalent is the isle of Avalon. On the Isle of Man, which is said to be named after him, he is seen as a god of the sea and as a trickster—a magician who was the first king of the island. He is also said on the Isle of Man to be the foster-father of the god Lugh.
Nechtan (Irish) Nuada (Irish) Nectan (British)
Nodens (Romano-British) Nudd (Welsh)
Nechtan features in Irish mythology as the god of the spring which is the source of the river Boyne, known as Nechtan’s Well, also known as the Tobar Segais, or the Well of Wisdom, around which nine hazel trees grew, imbuing the water with their magical knowledge. He may be the same as the king Nuada of the Irish gods, the Tuatha Dé Danann, although in the collection of texts known as the Dindsenchas, (meaning “the lore of places,” dating from at least the eleventh century) he is listed as the son of Nuada. Nuada is also known as Nuada Airgetlám (or Airgeadlámh, meaning “silver hand/arm”) after losing an arm in battle, which was replaced with one of silver. Nechtan features in many folk tales relating to bodies of sacred water. In Cornwall, the famous St Nectan’s glen, with its arch of stone and waterfall, was clearly a sacred place before the coming of Christianity, and St Nectan is most probably a version the same figure. In Wales, he is known as Nudd, and is the father of the god of Annwn, the underworld, Gwyn ap Nudd. He was worshipped as Nodens, the etymological source for Nechtan, Nuada, and Nudd, in Iron Age and Roman Britain, as a god of hunting, dreams and healing, and possibly fishing. A Romano Celtic temple to Nodens, at Lydney park, overlooking the Severn estuary between England and Wales, has been interpreted as a healing sanctuary, known as an incubatio—a place for pilgrims to dream of a healing remedy, or receive healing from the god via their dreams.
Boann
Boann is the goddess of the river Boyne in Ireland, and in Irish Mythology and the Dindsenchas, it relays that she was the wife of Nechtan, who forbade her to go to the waters of his well of wisdom. She broke his rule, walking around it counterclockwise, releasing the waters that became the river. Caught in the flood, she lost an arm, a leg, and an eye in the process—a particular disfigurement that is a recurring motif in Irish lore usually suggesting that the figure walks between the worlds and has otherworldly vision and ability, due to the other eye, arm, and leg being in the otherworld. In another version of the story, she drowns after washing herself in Nechtan’s well to hide her infidelity after sleeping with the god the Dagda and giving birth to their son, Oengus. Boann means “white cow” (Irish: bó fhionn; Old Irish: bó find), and she is also seen as an earth and fertility goddess. As a goddess of wisdom, she is also associated with the hazelnuts which hang over Nechtan’s well, imbuing it with wisdom. In the 2nd century CE, the Roman writer Ptolemy recorded that the river was called Bouvinda, which is derived from the Proto-Celtic Bou vind
, “white cow,” illustrating the great antiquity of her reverence at the site.20
Sulis
Sulis is the local goddess at the thermal springs at the city of Bath in Somerset, south west England. Her name seems to relate to both the Old Irish and Proto Celtic words for sun, and eye, súil. She is associated with healing, but also with cursing, as archaeologists have found a great many lead curse tablets thrown into her waters, asking Sulis (and her Romano-Celtic name, Sulis Minerva) for assistance in avenging perceived injustices. Her temple, the roman baths, were called after her Aquae Sulis, “the waters of Sulis.” Minerva, the Roman goddess with whom she was associated during the Roman occupation, was the goddess of wisdom and warfare, hinting perhaps at Sulis’s associations also at the time. The thermal waters of Sulis are still flowing today, and are highly beneficial for easing things like rheumatism, as well as a host of more subtle malaises of the spirit and the heart. There is evidence that people came to Aquae Sulis for all sorts of complaints; women visited the springs to heal female illnesses and to help with childbirth, small model breasts have been discovered, which may be charms for breastfeeding, and the springs were also important for healing eyes—eye ointment was available, and there were doctors and eye specialists on site to help pilgrims. This powerful goddess was so popular, that she seemed to thrive under the Roman occupation, and is still revered to this day.
Coventina
Coventina may have been the most important water goddess in the north of England, during the Romano-Celtic period. Her cult was centred near Hadrian’s Wall which separated what is now England from the kingdom of the Picts (now Scotland), at the northern limit of the Roman Empire. Her main site appears to be at Carrawburgh, where she was the personified spirit of a sacred spring and a pool fed by it. This was built up in 130 CE into a square walled enclosure that gradually gained more spiritual fame and significance over time, until the height of her cult in the third century. Her devotees tried to hide their worship of her, by placing flat stones over her shrine to hide and protect it in response to the Theodosian Edict of 391 CE, when Pagan rites were made illegal and temples were closed. Before this she was respected by the Roman empire and given the extra titles, Sancta and Augusta, Latin terms meaning holy and revered. Just as with the Cult of Sulis in Bath, Coventina received offerings of coins and also jewellery—rings, brooches, and interestingly, bronze face masks. There were also votive offerings of bone, glass, jet and shale. She is often depicted in stone reliefs as sitting with water nymphs or as a triple-aspected goddess. It is thought she was once a beneficent “all-rounder” goddess who oversaw many areas of concern, not just healing, but was a caregiver and protectress to all people from the various trials of mankind.
Practical 
Prepare an offering for the water spirits—something that took care and attention in its making, handmade and biodegradable, such as purpose made wicker sculpture, a bunch of flowers you have grown, or a wine or cordial you have made. Take your offering to a river, lake or the sea, whatever is nearest you, at dawn or dusk, liminal times of the day when the permeable boundary between the mortal and the spirit world is most accessible. Approach the shore and address the spirits—use your own words or try these to get you started. Something simple is fine.
“Spirits of the waters, please accept this offering, in friendship and respect.”
Cast your offering into the waters with care and reverence. Bow your head and thank them for their many gifts to the human race.
Practical
This exercise can provide the first steps into connecting with the spirit of a water source near you. Treat it as a simple map for your connection and feel free to adapt it as you wish, although it is better after you have followed this exercise as written a few times. After a while, you will have begun to develop a connection with the water spirits attached to your chosen site, and can perhaps commune with them in a more spontaneous way, letting the spirit version of your locality and the spirits themselves guide and teach you as to how they like to be approached. But for now, use this as a simple template to get you started and initiate your connection.
Try this exercise at the water’s edge, whether it be by a lake or spring or well, and sitting comfortably, close your eyes and take three deep breaths.
In your inner vision, or speaking aloud, call in your guides and allies to assist and accompany you, and announce your intention to meet the guardian water spirit of the place you are now sitting. Breathe deep and slow, feel your feet solidly upon the ground, and keep your back straight. Let your attention gently settle into your body, and then into the environment round you. What can you hear and feel where you are sitting? How does it feel physically, and more subtly, emotionally or energetically?
Now let your attention settle on the presence of the water around you in whatever form that is—river, spring, well, lake, sea, and so on. Can you hear the noises it makes, quiet or loud? Give it your full attention, just as if it were the voice of a loved one or a teacher. Trust that there is wisdom in its voice if you could but understand it. With your heart, in your inner vision, or (even better) out loud, call out to the spirit of the water and ask that you may meet the guardian spirit of the water. Say that you come in friendship and respect, stressing your good and respectful intentions and that you seek nothing but connection. Some bodies of water are places of resentment at least on the surface layers, so it is important to show your goodwill and respectful attitude. Slow down your breathing and wait.
After a while, you may sense a shift in your perceptions or get a physical sensation somewhere in your body. Look out for really subtle shifts, perhaps a whistling sound or a change of pressure in your ear … try your best not to get too stuck on how you imagine this connection to be, or how you think the water spirits should look—try to get out of your head and allow space for real connection to occur. This will take time and practice.
You may find images suddenly flash into your mind, or a feeling comes over you; equally, you may find your emotions shifting. If you are lucky you may get the clear sense of a presence, a being approaching you. Just as we can sometimes know when someone is standing behind us, if we are receptive enough, we may be able to sense their presence physically, don’t worry if this doesn’t happen to you quickly. Every person and every spirit is different, and it’s a mistake to make too many presumptions on how your connection will form, as this can take us away from being truly present to the experience.
Practical
Holy wells and springs have long been used for blessings, curing, and cleansing. In Ireland and the British Isles these were places associated with specific goddesses, powers of place, and local gods called genius loci by the Romans who reported on them. Over time they became associated with Christian saints, many of the old traditions becoming transposed into the new religion. Getting to know the spirits of the water source you are working with and its history and traditions if possible, is always important.
One long lasting tradition is that of hanging clooties, a dialect word referring to strips of cloth upon hawthorn trees which often grow alongside wells and springs. These clooties were used for healing and removing ill wishes from a person by dipping them in the water and laving the sick person’s body, after which they were draped upon the tree to take the illness or negative energies away. Hawthorn trees and holy wells often go together, and it is an interesting magical combination. Hawthorns are very good at working with the heart and our deeper feelings and their proximity to the energy of water as it comes out of the earth, literally emerging from the deep places, the liminal otherworldly places, into the light of day, means that they present a unique opportunity to seek deep healing and inner knowing. The hawthorn can help the healer, the person in need of healing, or any spiritual seeker to have greater knowledge of their own hearts, from which all transformation can begin.
Bathing regularly in fresh spring water, either at sacred wells and springs, or wild swimming where safe, are all excellent ways to draw the healing energies of the land and the waters into your body and soul, and to reconnect with your own sacred physicality. We are sensuous, vital beings, yet often the modern world locks us away from the intimate connection between ourselves and the land around us. Reengaging with water sources in a sacred way can return us to this blessed natural state.
If swimming in wild waters isn’t an option, remember water even from the tap is part of the whole water system of the earth. All water is sacred; with the use of filters and a conscious attitude, we can improve the quality of our tap water immensely. We can also access spring water in bottles fairly easily, in which case it should be done as ethically and consciously as possible. Beware of spring water in plastic bottles, another pollution problem. Spring water is far better than treated water straight from the tap, but even tap water can be improved with filters, prayer, and blessing.
With that in mind try filling a bath at least partially with spring or filtered water and a handful of sea salt for an energetic cleanse. You can add to this by blessing the water yourself. Try this or use your own words:
“Blessed waters, you have travelled the earth and the sky, from the deep places to the most high … I ask that you bring to me the blessings of nature, of the earth, the rain, the rivers and seas … hold me as a baby in the womb of the land and grant me healing.”
Gaze into the water; send it your love and care. In your inner vision, imagine its journey from rivers and seas and rainclouds till its time with you. See it as sacred. Scatter the sea salt and make another prayer, perhaps like this:
“May this be a bath of blessing and healing … thank you spirits of the waters!”
Well Dressings
Over time, the sacred wells of the Celtic pagan Iron-Age and Romano British period became Christian holy wells, usually associated with specific saints who may or may not have visited their associated sites. Many of these saints may have been adapted from the earlier gods and genius loci, the local gods associated with the area. Some wells or springs became associated with churches or monasteries, particularly in Wales where leaders of these religious organisations were often made saints after their death, but these places too usually had histories of sanctity long before the Christians came. The very fact that these sites have been in use for so long hint at their previous pre-Christian sanctity.
One traditional practice that probably pre-dates Christianity is well dressings—this is usually associated with Beltane or May day. A well or spring is decorated with flowers and other offerings, as well as candles, to honour the spirit of the well, which these days is usually a saint or the Virgin Mary. In the north of England, especially Lancashire, the practice of well dressing has become highly stylised with intricate designs worked out in flowers pressed into a large clay tablet. In this way the flowers stay fresh for several days, and they can be used to lay out a whole picture or symbol. The clay tablet in a wooden frame is then placed at the well as an offering. However, a more powerful practice is to build a relationship with the water sources in your own area over time and make smaller more personal offerings to its spirit—flowers are still good, but song and poetry as well as rubbish clearing are also poignant and something the spirits will recognise. In this way your connection can be simple, but heartfelt, and the act of pilgrimage to visit these water sources on significant times of the year, such as Beltane, continues this ancient practice without its modern Christian overtones.
Visits and pilgrimages at full moons or at times of personal crisis or crossroads are also important to build a close relationship between you and the spirits of such places. When we respect, remember, and reciprocate with the spirits of the sacred waters, we are not merely re-enacting an ancient practice—we are renewing it and continuing it with as much validity as at any point in the past.
Rainwater and Moon Water
In addition to spring water, we can also work with rainwater with a little care. Rainwater can be gathered in containers for use in gardens and a host of other things around the home. Often it is fine to drink, although this absolutely needs testing and checking first. Gather rainwater as well for use in blessings and magic, where it can be an alternative to fresh spring water, carrying the energies of the air and upper world rather than the earth. Rainwater is wild water—it has travelled far and brings messages from distant places, drawing from within us a reminder to be spontaneous, to surrender, and that nature will have its way and will always be stronger than us. Unlike river and spring water that we must travel to or seek out, rainwater comes to us, thrumming its insistent fingers on the window panes of our souls.
As well as its journey to us, where the water is gathered has great significance, and many Celtic and earlier sacred sites such as stone circles and high rocky outcrops in places like the Highlands of Scotland, and Dartmoor in England, have places where rainwater gathers and were probably used by those worshipping there from the earliest times. A common feature in British rock art is what are called cup and ring marks, small circular depressions cut into sacred stones, and it may be that these were sometimes places where water gathered and was used in a sacred manner, or the point of meeting where the water touched the stone made its own special magic. Not all of these type of rock carvings are positioned horizontally, but they often resemble the pattern of raindrops rippling upon the surface of water. At other places, depressions on the tops of standing stones and other features form natural bowls that gather water and charge it with their energy in a way that was surely intentional to those who constructed and originally used such sites.
Water is also charged and influenced by what is reflected in it. The light of the sun and stars, as well as the moon have a great part to play in water magic, and moon water especially is a powerful and useful wild potion.
Practical
The preparation of moon water is a traditional magical practice many paths have used since time immemorial. Moon water is used to bless and cleanse a person, space, or object; and it also serves as the basis for herbal potions and tisanes, vibrational essences, or any use that calls for water. It is also drunk to bestow or restore power, grant wisdom and psychic insight. Moon water is simply made but better when a strong spiritual connection to the moon has already been established.
Gather some fresh spring or rainwater and pour into a glass or pure silver bowl. Leave the water out where it will catch the light of the full moon overnight, with a prayer to the moon to charge and bless your work.
As with any magical working, your own spontaneity and relationship will serve you best should you include a prayer. What follows are my own words; you are welcome to use them in whatever manner you wish, until you discover your own.
“Lady of the moon, now your power is at its height, bless this water, pour your light upon it, lend your power to my magics …”
If I had a specific need in mind for the water, I would mention this now; otherwise, I would thank the moon, and leave the water out to be gathered first thing in the morning, and bottled in a dark glass container.
Sometimes rather than using a silver container to make your moon water, a piece of silver- perhaps a piece of magical jewellery so long as it is pure silver- is placed in the water instead. The energetic compatibility between water, silver, and the moon are well established, and the silver will give the water added purity and cleansing.
If you intend to drink your moon water, make sure it is from a safe spring, or filter it appropriately first.
Water Scrying and Wisdom Seeking
Ancient druids sought wisdom and healing dreams by sleeping or meditating next to running water. Spending time just listening to the flow of a river, the roar or a waterfall, or the thrum of raindrops on the roof is an excellent way to tune out the conscious mind and access an altered state of consciousness in which deeper knowledge or spirit connection may be found. Time spent just listening to the roll of the waves by the seashore has the same effect and can almost hypnotise us or lull us to sleep in such a way that we are never fully aware of ourselves and can be struck by bright and powerful vision and insights. Running water can be described as having its own voice, sometimes a roar, and other times whispers, laughter, or singing. The sounds water makes vary infinitely and are never repeated. This is an excellent tool for divination, and it can help us to access the voice of the land and the gods themselves.
Try wild camping next to a river or waterfall or by the sea. Before you retire for the night, go up to the water’s edge and make it an offering—a heartfelt gift perhaps of flowers, wine, or song. Call out specifically to the spirit of the waters present and ask it for its wisdom and connection. As you drift off to sleep, you may find you have sudden flashes of vision, or have significant dreams. Take care to write these down as soon as you wake and thank the waters for their gift.
Waterfall Initiation
Waterfalls especially have been used in the past as sites for initiation and rebirth- often the pools they create are called “cauldrons,” suggesting a link to this purpose that has survived over the centuries. Bathing in such places can be dangerous for various reasons, but if sensible precautions are taken and you know the place well, it is possible to enact your own initiation and rebirth at these places at various times in your life—when you feel an ending and new beginning are upon you, or when you wish to dedicate yourself to your wild path.
By surrendering to the waters and allowing their power to wash us clean of our past and previous patterns and incarnations, we may emerge from the waters blessed and renewed, charged with their elemental power to set us in a new direction.
Water and Sea Spirits
Water and sea spirits in the Celtic traditions of Britain and Ireland come in a vast array of forms, and to cover each in any depth would be a book in itself. However, some stand out as more common types of faery and nature spirits or have especially famous tales and folklore attached to them. Many of these beings may well have been honoured as gods in times past, and some may have been known only since the Christian era or were always known more as spirits and faery beings.
Traditional Tales
The Blue Men of the Minch (Outer Hebrides)
Legends from the Na h-Eileanan Siar, (Scottish Gaelic: the Western Isles, also known as the outer Hebrides) say that there are three main groups of faerie spirits. Some say they fell from heaven, but earlier than that they were said to be the children of the ancient Celtic crone goddess the Cailleach. These were the Nimble Men and Merry Maidens (also known as the Merry Dancers) who were giants who danced in the northern lights. The others were the fairies living beneath the earth in the faerie mounds, and the third, of the sea, known as the Blue Men. Sometimes also known as storm kelpies, the Blue Men of the Minch are traditionally mostly men, of human size with grey blue skin. The blue men favour the most dangerous waters, and delight in storms and wrecking ships. However, they were not always malicious; their leader, Shoney or Seonaidh, was given offerings of ale in return for the gift of seaweed to fertilize the fields. Seonaidh is Scots Gaelic for Johnnie, so what we have here is a generic or use name, as knowing his real name would have some measure of power against him, something the kelpies would never allow.
The Great Selkie o’ Suleskerry (Orkney and Shetland)
“AN eartly nourris 21 sits and sing,
And aye she sings, Ba, lily wean! 22
Little ken I my bairnis father,23
Far less the land that he staps in.24
Then ane arose at her bed-fit,25
An a grumly 26 guest I’m sure was he:
‘Here am I, thy bairnis father,27
Although that I be not comelie.
‘I am a man, upon the lan,
An I am a silkie in the sea;
And when I’m far and far frae land,
My dwelling is in Sule Skerrie.’
‘It was na weel,’ quo the maiden fair,28
‘It was na weel, indeed,’ quo she,
‘That the Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie
Shuld hae come and aught a bairn to me.’
Now he has taen a purse of gould,
And he has pat it upon her knee,
Sayin, Gie to me my little young son,
An take thee up thy nourris-fee.29
An it shall come to pass on a summer’s day,
When the sun shines hot on evera stane,30
That I will tak my little young son,
An teach him for to swim the faem.31
An thu shall marry a proud gunner,
An a proud gunner I’m sure he’ll be,
An the very first shot that ere he shoots,
He’ll shoot baith my young son and me.” 32
Selkies (Scottish)
Selkie is a dialect word for seal across Scotland and the Orkneys. It is also the name of the seal spirits, seal men and women who occasionally come to shore and shed their seal skins to dance upon the sand and sing beneath the full moon. In the old tales, Selkie men and women are always beautiful, and frequently fishermen fall in love with Selkie women and take them as wives. They hide their seal skins so they cannot transform again and return to the sea, but the selkie woman always finds her skin again in time, leaving her children and the forlorn fisherman longing for her return. Often the Selkie woman does return, but once a year, to see her children and teach them sea magic and healing potions.
Selkie men were said to be as handsome as the women and would entrance human women with their deep, dark eyes. Seal men would willingly leave their seal skins hidden and search for mortal women inland to seduce. At other times, women would seek out a Selkie lover by going to the shore at high tide and shedding seven tears upon the waves.
The Orkney antiquarian and folklorist, Walter Traill Dennison wrote a modern-day account of this practice in the Scottish Antiquary in 1893:
She went at early morning and sat on a rock at high-tide mark, and when it was high tide, she shed seven tears in the sea. People said they were the only tears she ever shed. But you know this is what one must do if she wants speech with the selkie-folk. Well, as the first glimpse of dawn made the waters grey, she saw a big selkie swimming for the rock.
He raised his head, and says he to her, “What’s your will with me, fair lady?”
She likely told him what was in her mind; and he told her he would visit her at the seventh stream [spring tide], for that was the time he could come in human form.
So, when the time was come, he came; and they met over and over again. And, doubtless, it was not for good that they met so often. Anyway, when Ursilla’s bairns were born every one of them had web hands and webbed feet, like the paws of a selkie.33
It was said that in Shetland, mothers would protect their daughters from the Selkies by painting a red cross upon their breast, and the selkies were feared, as were their almost identical cousins, the Finfolk.
The Finfolk
The Finfolk are another supernatural race living in the seas around Orkney and Shetland. They were said to be dark and terrible sea sorcerers who could come ashore and take human form at will. It was said they would steal away mortal young men and women to their homes at Finfolkaheem, their realm beneath the sea, or their magical vanishing island, Hildaland. The Finfolk had incredible seafaring skills and could control the weather to bring storms or calm upon the ocean with their magic. The traces of the Old Norse traditions may be seen in these tales, as the lands where the Saami folk lived in the far north used to be called the emark.
Sea Magic: The Tides and the Moon
Water and sea magic are closely connected to the cycles of the moon. This is due in part to an energetic resonance between the two. Water spirits have a great affinity to the moon and its shifting, subtle and mysterious energies, and they both have a strong effect on human emotions and psychic senses, the subconscious and our deeper intuitive awareness. Scientifically, we know that the movement of the tides, and by extension all bodies of water on the earth are affected gravitationally by the moon, and to a lesser extent by the sun. While scientifically the effects of the moon’s proximity to the earth—which creates the tides- have a miniscule effect on lakes and smaller bodies of water, including the human body- it is still something that many people can feel. Meanwhile, the moon’s effects upon the earth oceans is huge, causing energetic as well as physical tides that we can work with very effectively.
Loosely speaking, low tides can drain energy away from something—to banish, to cleanse, to lay to rest something which no longer serves us. We can also use high tides to bring in things- to bless, to make a project fertile, to draw in that which we wish to attract. It is useful to become aware of tide times in the seas nearest to our location (easily found online) as we needn’t be physically present at the seashore to work with this, although it does help. Equally, it’s worth noting that the period up to the seas highest and lowest points upon the shore will be the most effective time to perform magic—save the very highest and lowest turning points for things like spirit communion and divination or to overturn circumstances against you.
Practical
When the tide turns and begins to go out and the moon is waning, take a seashell. Holding it to your ear, see if you can hear the sea within it. If you can, you may tell the shell all that you would be rid of and transformed in the coming month, be it problems, difficult relationships, ill health, difficult bills, or inner qualities that you need to surrender such as anger, sorrow, or grief. When you feel you have told the shell all that you need to let go of, thank it, hold it to your heart for a moment to honour it, and cast it into the sea.
The opposite magic can be performed when the high tide is coming and the moon is waxing to full. Stand upon the shore and call out to the moon and the waves, all that you would bring to you for the coming month. Cast your arms wide and breath in the power that is rising all around you. When ready, take a small bottle or glass phial and gather a little of the sea water. Bow your head in thanks to the mother of the ocean and the spirits of the sea and carry the water—the power of the rising tide—with you for a full month. After a month has passed, return the water from where it was gathered with gratitude.
The Spring Tide and the Tidal Race and Tidal Bores
The spring tide, also known as the king tide, is named not for the season but from the idea that it is “springing forth” during the new and full moons, which makes the waves and the tidal reach slightly higher. The neap tide occurs in between, at the quarter moons, around seven days later with the opposite effect. This means that the low tide is slightly higher and the high tide is slightly lower, owing to the sun and moon being at right angles from our perspective on Earth and cancelling out each other’s gravitational pull. Needless to say, magic performed at the spring high or low tides will have added power than that performed during the neap tides, as we would be working with the natural rhythms. Therefore, the day or night before or (at latest) directly upon a new moon as the tide is going out or at latest near to reaching its lowest point is when to banish. The full moon high tide (or just before) is the ideal time to catch the rising energy or to attract. Meditating, journeying in your inner vision, or seeking spirit contact at these highest points at full moon and lowest at new moon is equally more powerful than during the neap tides in between.
A tidal race is when a high tide with a fast-moving current is forced through a constricted space and forms eddies, waves, and hazardous currents. A famous example is at the strait of Corryvreckan between Jura and Scarba off the west coast of Scotland. This tidal race flows over a series of underwater obstacles that combine to create the Corryvreckan whirlpool, the third largest whirlpool in the world. From the Gaelic Coire Bhreacain, corryvreckan means the cauldron of the plaid, said in folklore to be the cauldron of the Cailleach, the old woman of winter, who is said to wash her plaid within the cauldron before casting it over the land, creating a deep blanket of snow. The Corryvreckan is also said to be the home of the na fir ghorma, the blue men.
Working with tidal races and bores is highly powerful yet also quite chaotic—the forces of the sea are at their fiercest and have little interest in our concerns. Their reach is far and wide, however, so prayers and offerings for peace or healing for example cast (safely without risk of drowning!) into a tidal race may have a correspondingly far reach if the peace required is for a larger issue than an individual, such as the health of a community, or a prayer for the health of the sea itself. Casting magic intended for an individual’s circumstances into a tidal race is not something I would recommend—the sea will have her own way, and an individual’s needs may easily be lost in such power. The potential for a sympathetic magic kickback of a tidal race on one’s life would most probably not be desired! As for a selfless prayer to the lady of the sea, that may go well, if she is willing.
A tidal bore is when the leading edge of a rising tide is forced up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the rivers current. This happens especially at spring high tides, most notably at the spring equinox (another powerful bore can occur at the autumn equinox as well). A famous example of a tidal bore is that of the Severn estuary between Wales and England. Working magically with a tidal bore runs along the same lines as with the tides generally—give away your cares or illness to the retreating tide. Even though it has reached far into your life, it may recede equally far. Similarly, a life in great drought may be refreshed and renewed with the blessings of a tidal bore bringing new life and opportunity.
Magical Tools from the Shore
The shoreline and seaside are great places to forage for natural magical objects and resources. These objects may grow or live in the area, or they could be washed up by the waves, originating across vast distances. Such objects often have magical attributes which connect them to land or animal/ plant and the sea itself, as the ocean marks them as its own. Sea-washed magical objects have their own unique qualities and power, and just as the motion of the waves and salt can affect their appearances, so the sea water and its lunar based movements will add their own energies to the mix. Equally, magical items may be washed in sea water for a strong cleansing and banishing of any negative energies, but care should be taken lest the sea water damage them while imbuing its own powerful magic. The following is a list of commonly found magical tools from sea and shore.
Mermaids Purses
Mermaids purses are small, hard, roughly rectangular objects that are often found along the tide line along the seashore. They are usually a dark brown in colour and are the now empty egg sacks of various kinds of shark. These strange and charming objects have a long tradition of use among sea witches for protection, wealth and fertility magic, and as powerful natural talismans. Associated with mermaids, those powerful, beautiful, and treacherous spirits of the sea, these are thought of as distinctly feminine magic, though they may be used by anyone. If you bring a mermaid’s purse home with you, it’s important to give the sea a gift in exchange such as a silver coin, a bunch of flowers, or a song. Always be environmentally conscious when making natural offerings; gifts of poetry and song are preferable to physical gifts. Although physical offerings were common in times past, leaving them requires careful planning if we choose them today.
One traditional use of a mermaid’s purse was to bury it at the threshold of the home or bury one in each corner of one’s property. Another was to gather the purses with other items into a charm bundle for fertility with herbs and other charms such as shells and seeds. Carrying or meditating with one may help you to access the realms of the water spirits, mermaids themselves, or the deep powers of the sea.
Seashells
Seashells are wonderful magical tools, a combination of earth and water magic, they are often thought to correspond to ideas around fertility and love magic, as well as beauty abundance and goddess work. Shells can be fantastic for holding water in ceremonies and rituals, and as special bowls for offerings. They can also be useful parts of wild divination kits.
Beautifully symmetrical scallop shells are sacred to the goddesses Venus and Aphrodite and are useful in love magic as part of a ritual or spell, to wear as a talisman or as part of a magical bundle. A spiral shaped nautilus shell reveals astonishing sacred geometry; the nautilus does not shed its shell but increases its size as it grows. Its shell is useful for magic related to growth expansion and renewal, as well as working with time and shamanic journeying as in the sacred triple spiral of the Celts relating to birth, death, and rebirth. The pointy spiral shell of the auger, which comes from a predatory sea snail, is considered both masculine and feminine, and its pointy horn shape suggests a correspondence with the planet Mars and male fertility. These wonderful shells are highly protective and are useful additions to wands and ritual garb. The vulvalike shape of the cowrie shell by contrast is highly feminine and useful for sex magic as well as fertility and calling in abundance. They are also popularly used in divination.
Starfish
Starfish are powerful magical creatures from the sea associated with good luck and protection, as well as connection to the stellar realms above—a beautiful example of “as above, so below.” Starfish also serve as a sea witch’s version of the pentagram. Pentagrams also symbolize the planet Venus and are thus useful in love magic. As these creatures are able to regrow their limbs, they are also useful talismans for healing and overcoming trauma.
Seashells and Starfish
Pebbles and Water-tumbled Stones
Water has a powerful effect upon stone, and tumbled rounded pebbles from the sea shore or river bed are useful allies that can be tools for divination when inscribed with words, runes, or ogham sigils.34 They are just as powerful when felt and meditated upon as they have their own unique individual guidance. Tumbled pebbles can also be used to fill handmade rattles, and as decoration for your own sacred spaces and tools, carrying with them the energies of sea or river and earth.
One particularly useful stone found at the seashore is white quartz, which is often found amongst the other stones, and can be detected due to its glassier qualities than other white pebbles. This naturally smoothed crystal has often been found at Celtic and earlier Bronze Age archaeological sites, especially around graves or places associated with ceremony. Large versions of these were found liberally scattered around the Irish complex at Newgrange and have been used to restore its decorative entranceway. White naturally tumbled quartz has a very clear yet grounded energy that can be useful for scrying as well as healing; gathering a few stones when you come across them to give as offerings to sacred sites is a nice practice so long as it is done in moderation and with sensitivity.
Practical
Chant this traditional spell from the Western Isles to the new moon to ask for friendly seas and tides.
Hail to thee, thou new lit moon
I bend the knee, thou queen so fair;
Through the dark clouds thine way be,
Thine who leadest all the stars;
Though thy light e’en find me joy-filled
Put though flow-tide on the flood
Send though flow tide on the flood.35
Banishing the Whale (Shetland)
An extraordinarily clever technique was used by Shetland fishermen to scare away whales, which were also known as fjaedin or bregdie. These huge beasts of the sea were something the fishermen feared almost above all else, as their sheer size had the ability to destroy their small wooden boats and drown them all. However, the main protection here was not through magical means other than the good luck charm of a copper coin. Upon seeing a whale, the fisherman would hold the coin beneath the water, and scrape along its surface with the steel edge of his knife. It was believed that every boat so protected was safe from every whale, as they would waste no time in swimming as far away from them as possible as soon as this was done- due perhaps to the screeching sound of the metal upon metal having an unpleasant effect upon the whale’s sensitive sonar hearing.36
20. Thomas F. O’Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology, (Dublin, IE: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1946), 3.
21. Earthly breastfeeding woman, a nursemaid.
22. Ba, lily wean—howl, lovely child.
23. Little I know your father.
24. Staps—stays/ lives in.
25. Bed foot.
26. Grumly—troubled.
27. Thy bairnis father—your baby’s father.
28. “It was not well / good” said the woman.
29. Nursemaid’s fee.
30. Every stone.
31. Faem—foam—sea.
32. The Great Selkie (or Silkie) of Sulle Skerry was first collected from a woman at Snarra Voe, Shetland, published by Capt. F. W. L. Thomas in the 1850s. It was later recorded in F. R. Childs anthology as “Child Ballad 113.” (https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch113.htm.)
33. Scottish Antiquary 1893, vol 7. JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25516556?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
34. For more information, see Celtic Tree Magic: Ogham Lore and Druid Mysteries by Danu Forest (Llewellyn, 2014).
35. Kenneth Macleod, The Road to the Isles, (Robert Grant & Sons, 1927), reproduced in Graham King, The British Book of Spells & Charms (Troy Books, 2015), 251.
36bt. John Spence Jr., Shetland Folklore (1899) reproduced by AlbaCraft Publishing, 2013. Kindle edition, location 802.