THE MOTHER
It is probably the mother aspect of the Triple Goddess with whom we are generally most comfortable. We all understand the archetype of a creative, nurturing woman because we see this image almost daily. In modern cultures this nurturing mother aspect is often the only acceptable one for a woman to outwardly display—so long as she continues to look like the beautiful young virgin, of course. The media and many people in our lives relentlessly pound us with this daily message.
The mother Goddesses of the pre-patriarchal world hardly looked like the emaciated women of modern preference. Extant iconography shows us a radically different picture, one of women with pendulous breasts, bulging stomach, and ample lap, who proudly displays her physical self and never hides in shame. Because patriarchy was a fact of European life by the time the Celts came to power, Celtic iconography shows us more slender Goddesses, though many still cradle grains, children, or fruits in. their roomy laps.93 Thankfully, many statues and carvings from Romano-Celtic Gaul are labeled with the names of Goddesses, eliminating the guesswork as to the precise nature of the figures.
The mother Goddess often has two faces, that of a bright or light mother and that of the dark mother. These two figures represent the waxing and waning periods of the solar year, the waxing and waning of the moon, the change from motherhood to cronage, and the physical world and the Otherworld. The light mother symbolizes a period of growth, fertility, and action, the active powers of the warrior and queen; the other represents stagnation, barren, ness, and inaction, the powers of the Witch and priestess. They can also rep, resent the change from mother aspect to crone.94 A Celtic mother Goddess may also have three faces, being shown as a triple mother in whom one face represents the harvest, another birth, and still other menstruation.95
In most cultures a mother Goddess is featured in its creation myth, but the Celts are perhaps the only major culture in the world that does not have a known creation story. It is assumed that they had one once, either one of their own or one adapted from another culture with whom they made contact, but none remains today.96 There are several Celtic myths that contain images that might link them to the creation process; Goddesses who weave or spin, who emerge from water, who bring animals or fertility to the land, who birth great Gods and heroes, or who are clearly ancestral deities. Still, no single figure emerges as anything remotely resembling a primal creation Goddess.
One of the most definable Celtic mother Goddesses is Modron, whose name literally means “great mother.” She was the mother of Mabon, whose name roughly translates as “bright son.” He was stolen from her when he was only three days old but, in medieval legends, was restored to her by King Arthur who, in this instance, functions as her lover/consort and provides her with a child who is really a younger aspect of himself. In the Celtic tradition the lover/consort of the Goddess is almost always his own father. Throughout the cycle of the year he is born from the Goddess, mates with her, and then dies so that he can be reborn from her.
Another mother is Ireland’s Dana or Danu, whose eponym is found today throughout Europe in places the Celts inhabited, such as the Danube River Valley. Some Celtic scholars speculate that she is the most ancient of the Celtic deities of whom we have extant knowledge. The root dan in Old Irish means “knowledge,” offering us an important insight into her character. The name of the race known as the Tuatha De Dannan, who make up the majority of deities and faery rulers of the Irish Celts, means “people of the Goddess Dana,” marking her as their ancestral deity or “great mother.” The Welsh mother Goddess Don, and the Irish Otherworld God Donn, are both thought to be but other versions of Dana.97
Over time, Dana’s image merged with that of Brighid, one of the most widely worshiped Goddesses of the Celts. Brighid is viewed as both a virgin and mother. Even when this Goddess was transformed into St. Brighid of the Catholic Church, her images as virgin and mother blend and contradict each other. Because she is a protective Goddess, and this is a trait of the mother, and because she is linked to fire and the sun, other mother symbols, I feel this aspect of her is the strongest.
Brighid is also a deity of creative inspiration, another mother correspondence.98 She is credited with inventing the Irish art of keening (caoine), the distinctive mourning wail she was moved to produce when she cried for her slain son Ruadan. She is probably the origin of the faery ghost known as the banshee (beansidhe, or “woman faery”), whose keening can be heard throughout the countryside on the night before a death. The banshee is also considered to be a protective spirit of a clan, perhaps an ancestral deity—both clearly mother Goddess attributes. She has also been worshiped as a warrior, healer, guardian of children, patron of midwives, and sovereign.
One of the most interesting mother images is Macha of the Morrigan. The myth of “The Curse of Macha” is part of the Ulster cycle of Irish myths, and directly leads to events in the famous epic known as The Tain. In this myth, Maeve goes to war over an Ulster-owned bull, and these events in turn lead to the death of the hero Cuchulain. This is where Macha’s mother image merges with those of the crone Goddess. As a Goddess of death and destruction (crone attributes), she once guarded the mesred machae, the pillared gate on which the heads of conquered warriors were displayed at the Ulster fortress of the Red Branch warriors, Emain Macha. As a mother she was a horse Goddess whose husband, an Ulster king, declared that she could outrun any horseman who challenged her. He was dared to make good his boast, and the king asked Macha to complete a grueling race course. She protested that, since she was in the end stages of her pregnancy, she could not do this. The king was afraid of looking foolish or being killed for his boasting, so he ordered her to run the race. Macha turned to plead with the assembled warriors and asked, “Won’t you help me? After all, a mother bore each of you.”
Macha was given no reprieve. She completed the course victorious, but died at the end while giving birth to twins. As her life ended, she cursed all the bearded men of Ulster (meaning all adult male warriors) to have great labor pains whenever danger threatened so that they would be unable to fight. Only the famous warrior Cuchulain, who was famous for his baby face, was immune to the curse, but the rest of the warriors fell under the spell and were subsequently defeated by Connacht.99
Celtic Holy Wells and the Healing, Fertile Mother
Throughout the Celtic lands are a plethora of sacred or holy wells. Some of these are wells in the traditional sense, in that they provide a necessary water source for those living near them. Others are no more than small depressions in ancient stones that stand now, as in the past, at the center of sacred space. In Ireland, hundreds of these old wells have been adopted by the new religion and are today the focus of pilgrimages and special rites on Pattern Days, the feast days of specific saints for whom many of the wells are named.100 They are used for baptismal events, personal purification rites, and especially for healing, just as they were thousands of years ago. Women often approach the wells to cure themselves of infertility, again linking the well to the power of the mother Goddess.
Healing is an attribute of the mother. Some crones and virgins were also healers, but again this type of overlap is not unusual in a culture that views the feminine divine as a three-faces-in-one deity. Still, it is the mother who retains most of the healing power, and evidence exists at many of the wells today that links them to the mother aspect. St. Kevin’s Well at Glendalough, Ireland, sits cradled in a horseshoe-shaped mound of earth and is flanked by birch trees, both Goddess symbols.101 The wells that are not named for saints often bear the name of mother Goddesses, such as the often visited Tobar Brid (Brighid’s Well) in County Donegal. Many wells are named for Brighid, who became St. Brighid in the new religion. Both the Christian and the Pagan Brighid were very much linked with healing powers, and both had strong mother aspects. Many Celtic Pagans and Christian pilgrims still seek her out when they need healing.
The image of the well itself is archetypally one of birth. The long, narrow opening in the earth that leads from the surface to the life-giving water source below is a symbol of the birth canal, or vagina, of the Great Mother who is the earth. Coins and other offerings are still placed in holy wells, just as they were thousands of years ago, as a way to gain the favor of the mother and of the feminine water spirits who dwell therein. Wells have also been viewed as portals between the world of form and spirit, representative of rebirth and of the shamanic journey into the Otherworld and back again.
Irish mythology and folklore tells of many Goddesses and heroines who are linked to wells, and to the healing and fertile magick of wells. For example, Aibheaog is a fire Goddess from County Donegal—fire being an element of the mother Goddess in the Celtic myths—who is linked to a sacred well there named for Brighid, indicating that Aibheaog may be but another face of Brighid. The waters of this well are said to be very effective against toothaches, but the petitioner is required to leave a small white stone at the well to represent the decayed tooth. This is a form of magick known as magickal substitution, in which something unwanted is discarded or sacrificed for something similar in exchange. It is a popular feature of Celtic folk magick that is used liberally in places where Celtic ways still flourish.102
Other healing properties common to these wells are cures for headaches, backaches, mental illnesses, infertility, eye diseases, arthritis, and the healing of children’s ailments.103
Caolainn is a local deity in County Roscommon, and is the guardian spirit of a magickal well there. She is best known for helping pilgrims get their wishes, usually teaching in the process that the wisher did not really want what she sought in the first place. The teaching of tough lessons is sometimes a mother attribute, though this is more often the province of the crone. Again, we have the overlapping spheres of influence common to the Celtic Triple Goddesses.
Near the village of Brideswell (also meaning “Brighid’s well”) in County Roscommon is a well that was said to grant fertility to barren women.104 In many cases, just sprinkling one’s self with the waters was sufficient to gain their powers. At other times, a more elaborate ritual was needed. In County Sligo there is a well known as Our Lady’s Bed. Women who feared dying in childbirth would lie in this shallow well and turn over three times while petitioning the Goddess in the form of Christianity’s Mary that they would not die in childbirth.105 This may have been a form of “magickal substitution” in which one action or offering is made as a symbolic sacrifice in order to gain something else. In this case it may have been a form of mimicking death to lie in a shallow depression on the ground, a symbolic sacrifice of life so that the woman could hope to live through childbirth.
Stones or other objects found on or near the wells are often kept as fertility talismans by female pilgrims. This belief has precedents in Celtic mythology. Nessa, the warrior and scholar previously mentioned, refused to bear the child of the man who captured her, so she decided to impregnate herself by consuming two worms she found crawling over a holy well. When her son, the future High King Conor MacNessa, was born, he held two worms clenched in his tiny fists.
That these wells contained power forbidden to certain seekers is a recurrent theme in Celtic well mythology. Liban, a Goddess who is associated with water, reincarnation, and knowledge, was the guardian deity of Irish holy wells. One day, when she let down her vigilance, one of the wells gushed forth a flood that formed Lough Neath in Northern Ireland. Liban lost her Goddess status in Irish folklore and became a spirit doomed to reside in wells and rivers.
In folklore it is the Goddess of inspiration, Cebhfhionn, who can be found sitting atop the Well of Knowledge, from which she fills a bottomless vessel. Her intent is to keep this magickal water from humans for their own good. Like an overly protective mother, she feels we can neither handle nor appreciate true wisdom.
Another popular myth tells of Sionnan, for whom the River Shannon is named, and her haphazard approach to a well which turned out to be the Otherworld’s famous Well of Knowledge (or Well of Sagais), to perform some unspecified ritual. Her irreverent action so outraged the well that its waters rose up and sucked her down. For this action she was forever denied entrance to the peace of the Otherworld, and now resides in the waters of Ireland as the queen of its rivers.
This well of knowledge is sometimes identified as a well of wisdom, and here the lines between mother and crone blur. Bean Naomha is a County Cork Goddess who swims as a trout in the Well of the Sun (Tobar Ki na Greina). In her fish form she is a Goddess of wisdom, an oracle from whom answers are not easily obtained. To use her well for divination, local legend says you must crawl as you approach it, then crawl clockwise around its rim three times. With each pass you must take a drink and then place upon the well a stone the size of a dove’s eye. After you have done this, form a question in your mind and glance into Bean Naomha’s well for the answer.
Attributes and Correspondences of the Mother
The mother archetype sometimes overlaps with the virgin, though more often, when overlap occurs, it is with the crone. This makes sense in terms of our perceptions of linear time, in which the Goddess ages from virgin to crone. When reading through Celtic myths, legends, and folklore, the mother can best be identified by these clues:
Gives Birth to Animals, Land Features, or Plants
Examples are Bo Find and her sisters, who give livestock to Ireland by coming from the Otherworld to birth them there.
Possesses Fertility
The mother is often presented as pregnant, as giving birth, or as granting the power of fertility to others. She can also grant fertility to the land or to its animals. Sometimes she is capable of impregnating herself by unusual means, such as when Nessa used the worms found on the rim of a sacred well, or when Queen Etar swallowed a magfly and gave birth to Edain.
Represents Creativity and Inspiration
The mother not only has these powers herself, but can grant them to others. Brighid and the Irish faery/Goddess/vampire/mother known as the Leanansidhe both represent this aspect, and are often petitioned for aid by those in the arts. Another such Goddess is Saba, a woman who was turned into a deer before she bore her son, the poet and warrior Ossian, whose poetic talents were evident at birth.
Canola is thought to be one of the oldest of the Irish deities and is credited as the inventor of Ireland’s long-cherished symbol, the harp. Folklore tells us that she fell asleep outdoors while listening to the most beautiful music she’d ever heard. When she awakened she saw that the music was coming from the sinews of a gutted whale through which a strong breeze was passing. She fashioned the harp to recreate this sound and is said to be able to bestow her musical talents to others.
Is Given Leadership of Her Clan or Country
Queens like Maeve of Connacht were not uncommon among the Celts. Female succession into positions of power, queens and chieftains who were mother-figures just as kings were father-figures, were once popular.106 Any women with this position is likely to be an aspect of the mother Goddess.
Myths Containing Menstrual, Birth Canal, or Well Images
Nearly all the well Goddesses qualify as mothers, though some have crone attributes. Others have images linking them to the menstrual cycle, such as Wales’ Gwyar. Gwyar’s full Welsh name means “shedding blood” or “gore.”
Linked to Agricultural Cycles or the Harvest
The earth is the mother. In her womb is planted seeds, where they grow as crops, and from her body they are born to us at harvest time.
Unlike the Goddess in most other cultures, there are not as many Celtic Goddesses who clearly function as agriculture or harvest deities, though a few do exist. These are mostly from Celtic Gaul, where contact with the Romans led to the creation of many statues and icons of Goddesses bearing harvest symbols.107 One such Gaulish Goddess is Deae Matres, a triple deity whose name means “mother Goddesses.” Though none of her legends survive, many inscriptions and sculptures attest to her worship. In one icon she is seen as a robed trio bearing baskets of flowers (spring), grain (summer), and fruit (autumn), symbols that represent the three non-winter seasons in which agricultural events take place. Other icons of Celtic mother Goddesses hold cornucopias or harvest tools to link them to these events.
Has Solar or Fire Image or Links
In many other European cultures, the mother Goddess is linked to the full moon. The Celtic mothers are linked instead to the sun (see Chapter 18 for more on this phenomenon). The sun is an active force, whereas the moon is viewed as passive. The mother is also an active force, becoming pregnant, giving birth, and nourishing her offspring.
This active principle includes the Goddesses of hot springs, too, since these were believed to have been heated by a sun deep within the earth. Celtic sun, fire, and hot springs Goddesses with mother attributes include Adsullata, Aimend, Aine, Brighid, Lassair, Rosmerta, and Sul.
Is An Ancestral Deity
The great mother is the one to whom an entire race or tribe can trace its origins. The Tuatha De Dannan certainly had this in Dana. Another is Cornwall’s Elen, from whom all Cornish kings claimed descent. Elen’s children and grandchildren were blended into some of the Arthurian legends, with Elen occasionally being romantically linked to the magician Merlin.
Has Strong Protective Instincts and Powers
The mother seeks to protect those whom she loves, especially children. Often a mother Goddess will be depicted sporting a shield or wielding a weapon. At other times, only her myths and legends tell us of her protective nature, such as those of Caireen, an Irish champion and defender of youth, probably once a patron Goddess of children.
Has A Nurturing Aspect
Women who care for others are also good candidates for mother Goddesses. Those cared for do not have to be children but anyone for whom the mother feels responsible. The Goddess Airmid, who collected healing herbs that she grew on the grave of her beloved brother, has mother attributes.
May Have a Horse Aspect
Because the horse is linked to sovereignty, a horse Goddess is usually a virgin, though sometimes, as in the case of Macha, she is a mother. When white in color, the horse is a symbol of travel between this world and the Otherworld, the dream realms, sexuality, fertility, and personal power-the latter two being exceptionally strong mother attributes. So ingrained in Celtic thought was this link that Irish folk custom taught that white horses were not wel, come at funerals.
Symbolized by Caves or by Earth,Dwelling Animals
In many cultures the Goddesses who are seen as living in subterranean places are mother Goddesses, often reborn in spring as virgins. There is less of this imagery in the Celtic pantheon than in others of old Europe, but the image of the faery woman who lives beneath the ground and comes out to steal children for herself is certainly a popular one in Celtic lands. Other mother God, desses take on the form of earth-dwelling animals, like the Irish snake Goddess Corchen, who archetypally represents rebirth.
Symbolized by or Lives in Hillsides
Hills or burghs have been thought to be the homes of Celtic faeries for centuries, faeries who were once the powerful deities of the land. Two such God, desses are Scotland’s Momu, a deity of wells and hillsides, and England’s Magog, a four-breasted horse Goddess for whom two mountains are named. Magog became England’s St. Margaret.
Possible Links to Lost Creation Myth
Any Goddess whose imagery could possibly link her to lost Celtic creation myths is also likely to be a mother aspect. Two examples of these are Ireland’s lrnan, who could spin webs to entrap marauding enemies, and Wales’ Arianrhod, who is sometimes depicted as a weaver. In other cultures, Goddesses who are weavers, spinners, or otherwise make cloth are often tied to that cul, ture’s creation myths.
Linked to the Turning of the Wheel of the Year
The ever-spinning wheel of the year (explored fully in Chapter 17) is sometimes seen as being turned by the mother. The symbol of Brighid, the Brighid’s or St. Brighid’s Cross, represents this turning. It has four points, one for each of the major solar festivals of the year. It also represents the unity of the Goddess as a principle of the creative life force. One is male and the other female, and their union creates all things. The Cross is also a glyph for the earth that she rules and loves as its mother.
Questions About the Mother For Celtic Women
The following questions may be asked of yourself at any time in your exploration of the mother aspects. Whether you have been involved in Celtic Paganism for a long time, or whether you are just beginning to explore it, the mother has something to teach you.
What images or ideas does the word “mother” conjure up in my mind? Do the words “nurturer” or “healer” conjure up any special images? How do I feel about the mother Goddess?
Do I feel the mother has any relevance to my life now? Why or why not? Do I feel a kinship with the mother or am I at odds with her?
Does the mother make me feel jealousy? Anger? Happiness? Why? Am I comfortable with the mother archetype? Why or why not?
How do I imagine that the men in my life feel about the mother Goddess?
Does any aspect of their feelings threaten or comfort me?
What do I hope to get out of working with the mother Goddess? What do I think or expect her to give to me? What can I offer the mother in return?
What do I not expect the mother to be able to do for me?
Can I easily relate the mother aspect of the Goddess to her other two forms?
What mother aspects do I possess or not possess? Which of these would I like to change if I can?
Mother Meditation and Exercise
Set aside a block of time when you can be the mother. This can be a few hours or an entire day. During this time, allow your thoughts and outward actions to be those archetypally belonging to the mother. Allow everything you do or plan to do during this time to have nurturing or protective qualities; work in your garden, walk in the woods, give some extra care to family or other loved ones, allow your creative self to flourish, or finish (“give birth to”) a project on which you have working.
During this period you must be able to interact with at least one other person who is unaware that you are indulging your mother side. If you can interact with more, all the better. This contact will allow you to gauge the reactions of others to your mother self.
As soon as possible after this exercise, find some private time to meditate on the qualities of the mother Goddess and how those are and are not manifest within you—regardless of your chronological age. Be sure to write down your impressions in a Book of Shadows or magickal diary for future reference.
Rituals of Creation: Celebrating the Mother
Women are natural creators, not just because we possess a womb but because we have had to nurture our creativity to survive with sanity intact for centuries in a world that has sought to repress or vilify women’s natural talents. Creativity has allowed us to express ourselves in ways that have been meaningful to us while not threatening the patriarchy. It is no accident that tapestry and needlework from the past is so exquisitely lovely; it was one of the few creative outlets allowed to women and, in the name of the church or of teaching their children, they made the most of the opportunity.
Times you may especially want to celebrate, honor, or petition the mother through ritual are:
• When you are trying to become pregnant
• When you have given or are about to give birth
• When leading a Wiccaning/Paganing ceremony for a newborn (this is a ritual dedication in which the parents present their child to the deities and ask their blessing upon the infant)
• When you wish to give thanks for your “children” (children in this case refers to any of your babies: projects seen through to completion, favorite activities that are successful, pets, organizations, and so on, as well as your own offspring)
• When you wish to offer thanks for your own talents and achievements
• When you are doing a land or garden blessing
• When you are healing or being healed
• When you need a creative boost
• During fertility rituals
• When doing divinations pertaining to creativity, fertility, childbirth, children, or matters of the home and heart
• When the sun is strong in summer
• When the fields are rich with growing crops
• During the full moon
In Celtic mother rituals the featured color should be red. You may want to find one of those thick pillar candles that boast three wicks for use in your ritual. A red one can be used to honor the mother, while still acknowledging her other two faces who are present but unseen. Summer-related libations are best for the mother: grains, eggs, and fresh meats.
A variation on the ritual circle appropriate to a mother ritual is to divide the primary circle into the three smaller sections, similar to a triskele pattern. Name one for each aspect of the Triple Goddess, for the three levels of the Otherworld, or for any other triple Celtic aspect you choose. Work the main part of your mother ritual within the circle most closely related to her attributes. (See Appendix C for step by step methods for circle castings.)
93. For photos and discussion of some of the icons, please see Miranda J. Green’s Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1992), 34, 191.
94. Janet and Stewart Farrar’s The Witches’ Goddess (Custer, Wash.: Phoenix Publishing, Inc., 1987) devotes a brief chapter to this dichotomy (Chapter III, 18–23).
95. Green, 191.
96. Matthews, Caitlin. The Elements of the Celtic Tradition (Shaftsbury, Dorset: Element Books, 1989), 8.
97. Stewart, R. J. Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses (London: Blandford, 1990), 64.
98. Matthews, 50.
99. Other interpretations of the meaning of this myth can be found in Mary Condren’s The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), 33–36. Condren speculates that men may have imitated the birth pangs of women when going to battle so that the Goddess who protected women in childbirth would protect them as well. This theory seems to have holes in it since the purpose of Macha’s actions was clearly to curse the men, not to help them.
100. For a full discussion of these wells and their uses in Ireland, see Patrick Logan’s The Holy Wells of Ireland (Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire: Smythe, 1980).
101. Rodgers, Michael and Marcus Losack. Glendalough: A Celtic Pilgrimage (Blackrock, Co. Dublin:The Columba Press, 1996), 117.
102. For a detailed look at this type of Celtic magick as it remains today in southern Appalachia, please see my work Mountain Magick: Folk Wisdom from the Heart of Appalachia (St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 1995).
103. For more detail, see Logan, Chapter 6.
104. Logan, 83.
105. Ibid, 82.
106. Markale, Jean. Women of the Celts (Rochester, Vt.: Inner Traditions International, Ltd., 1972), 99.
107. Green, 31 and 34.