A story from
Ulster
The Goddess Fires of Candlemas
by Jani Farrell-Roberts of
Ulster,
Raised with the rebel
songs by a mother
whose father was born on
Falls Road, Belfast.
(Footnote -also known as Jani Roberts, she uses here her
longer birth-name as it includes her maternal Irish ancestry)
Imbulc, or Candlemas, is the ancient feast of Brigit - so
what better way to celebrate the Goddess of Bards, than with a poem.
0 Macha,
1 Once it was written of you in
Ulster
2 that you were Grian - "the Sun
of Womenfolk".
3 Your spirit lived in hills and
moors
4 our rugged headlands, sweeping
shores.
5 Every feastday we would thank
you
6 for the harvest of mast that
fed us,
7 While you ran our
skies,
8 A White Mare Sun
Goddess
9 Few Stallions would dare mount.
10 But then came the savage men,
eager to replace you,
11 who could not tolerate a
Goddess they could not tame,
12 who would not respect a
mother's pains.
13 Whose king at a Samhain
gathering,
14 challenged you to outrun his
horses,
15 thinking you would be slow
when pregnant.
16 Thus he set out to overthrow
the mother.
17
18 We share your pain as you were
forced to plead:
19 "Help me, for a mother bore
each one of you.
20 Give me King but a short delay
until I am delivered."
21 He would not delay for the
mother he thought defeated,
22 and so you cried: "My name and
the name of that which I will bear
23 shall forever cleave to this
place of Assembly for I am Macha".
24 And with that she out raced
the king's horses
25 before giving birth to
twins.
26 Then she cursed the men of
Ulster: "From this hour the shame
27 you inflicted on me rebounds
to each one of you.
28 When a time of oppression
falls upon you,
29 each one of you will be
overcome with weakness,
30 Like that of a woman in
childbirth,
31 and this will remain upon you
for five days and four nights,
32 to the ninth generation it
will be so."
33 And the cursed men still did
not respect the mother of all life,
34 they tried instead to curse
her by saying she was but the goddess of
their wars.
35 On days when Macha's gifts of
harvest were celebrated,
36 these savage men brought to
the feast
37 the heads of enemies, calling
these "the mast of Macha"
38 in savage mockery of her
harvest.
39 They claimed that life came
from the head not from the womb
40 And, holding severed heads
between their thighs,
41 Boasted gleefully they
possessed the source of life.
42 And the magic of the wombs
that bore them.
43 But when the time came for
Ulster to be oppressed,
44 When foreign princes rode
their northern necks,
45 Then Macha with her sisters as
the dreaded Morrigan
46 took care of the dead and
wounded from the fighting
47 and with magic fierce opposed
the wars of men
48 with all the power of the
threefold spiral.
49 While the men who feared the
Goddess sung
50 Of her taming and her rape at
the hands of brutish men.
51 So other forms the Threefold
took.
52 In the songs of Bard and
Druid,
53 Of Exalted Brigit they now
sung,
54 Fading the ancient image of
the Crow.
55 They spoke of her inspiring
Awen breath,
56 Of her as Mistress of poets,
of smithery and of healing
57 Thus they reshaped the triple
Goddess for an Ireland of high art,
58 Then with ancient strength,
renowned through Europe
59 As swift as the Fire Arrow
Breo-saigit,
60 She came against a triple God
of men
61 Who for Patrick was the only
source of magic.
62 Thus he fought her the serpent
mistress of high magic
63 Goddess of the fire tended by
priestesses
64 Where swords were banned from
beneath the sacred oak,
65 Where centuries after Patrick
death still burnt the fires of Brigit
66 Watched by "She who reversed
the streams of War"
67 In the sanctuary of Kildare,
Cill Dare, the Church of Oak
68 But Patrick's clergy also
served the women
69 For the Mothers used them
against the murderous kings
70 who in savage wars sought
female heads above all others.
71 Thus a mother, Smirgat of
Tara, bound Saint Adamnan.
72 Before another crumb he ate,
to seek the freedom of all women,
73 So with threat of curse
against the kings he freed the women
74 From kings but not his church
for he demanded in return that
75 Women pay his listed fees less
cursed be their children,
76 And thou' the churchmen
promised that Brigit as a saint would be honoured for all
time,
77 They hoped in God the Father's
name, we'd forget her divinity.
78 But in memory true at
Candlemas, with candles lit,
79 We honour still the fiery
course of Brigit,
80 And thus this ancient Imbulc
day
81 We invoke the Sun Mare
Goddess;
82 Our Crow, our Cow, our
Serpent
83 Our Brigit, our Morrigan, our
Macha.
84 Come oh never forgotten
Goddess
85 Come oh Fiery Sun,
86 Giver of heat and of
health
87 Chantress of our Sacred
Earth.
88 Breath your life into the
earth,
89 In Winter's Cold Dark we call
You,
90 Come oh Mare from the Night
bring Day,
91 We your people
call.
By Jani Farrell- Roberts - c98.
Notes on the Poem.
Over the ages our mental picture of the Goddess has
evolved to meet our changing needs - and in particular the changing
needs and status of womenfolk.
LINES 1-9
In the days of hunter-gathering and in the early days of
agriculture, the prevalent divine image seems to have been that of
the Goddess of fertility and of harvest. In Ulster this Goddess was
known as Macha. Macha was also the Sun, warming the earth, making it
fertile, bringing us our food ("mast" meant the food of both humans
and animals). In other places the Sun Goddess was known as Epona. In
this time the Goddess shone in her own right as the Sun, - and so too
did the women stand in their own right without need for men to give
them status.
(This for me is also reflected in the customs of the
hunter-gatherer Aboriginal Tribes of Central Australia, where I once
lived. There, in customs formed in similar economic circumstances to
those prevailing in the early days of Macha, women and men have their
own sacred laws and are of equal status.)
The kings of Ulster in what seem to be the oldest legends
had to honour the rights of women. They had to pledge that the
harvest (mast) should be provided every year, that there should be no
lack of supplies to the women cloth dyers and that no women should
die in child birth. Women could also be the ruler. A legend about
Macha of the Red Hair told how she defeated the king's son to become
the ruler herself.
The memory of Macha is still alive in Ulster. Armagh is
named after hills dedicated to the Goddess Macha. An image of Macha
is still preserved in its cathedral. Epona who was similarly imaged,
may be depicted in the images of a running white horse found cut in
the turf on English chalk hills
LINES 10-32
The story of how Macha outraced the King's horses then
cursed the men of Ulster is from an ancient Irish legend known as
"Pangs of the Men of Ulster." This is part of the preamble to
Ireland's epic saga the "Tain". This story arose around the time when
the ancient Goddess was being challenged in her role by the rising
class of warrior Celtic men. Macha demonstrates in it that she is
still supreme in speed, magic and skill but the very fact that a king
could force her to race shows that her position in society (and that
of women) was becoming weaker.
LINE 25 - 32
She was made to share some of her female knowledge with
men by being forced into giving birth in public. The curse suggests
that taking over female knowledge (and taking from the women the
respect they are due as mothers) will weaken the men. The time given
for men to feel weak is roughly equivalent to the length of a
menstruation period.
LINE 41-42
The male warriors now were collecting the severed heads of
enemies and would sleep with a head placed between their thighs in a
crude imitation of the role of a woman in childbirth - they may have
seen this as giving them than the power of the mothers.
LINES 45
Women often had to fight in the wars. They needed a
Goddess of the Battlefield as did the men (thus their talk of heads
being "the mast of Macha) - and so grew the myth of the Morrigan into
which the kinder harvest Goddess Macha was subsumed as part of a
triple Goddess with her two sisters, Badb and Morrigan. In Britain
she was probably Morgan. The Morrigan however came to be hated by men
who dreaded the female power she represented - so men tended to
depict her as a hag - or as three hags (perhaps as reflected in
Shakespeare's Macbeth).
LINE 46
But in the old sagas her role is much more that of the
healer of the wounded and of the taker of the spirits of the dead
into the next world. For example, Macha is depicted in these myths as
the Sacred Cow whose milk is an antidote to the poison of weapons.
She had become the Mother on the Battlefield.
LINE 47-48
The Morrigan does not normally use the normal war weapons
of which the Gods were so proud, but instead uses the powers of
magic. These powers were usually deployed to defeat the plans of the
men of war, to trick them into doing the will of the Goddess, to
demoralise the armies or to force an army to kill its own men. She
never fought alongside the men as far as I can see.
LINE 49-50
Irish myths of this period are full of accounts of
Goddesses that have been tamed - and even raped. The Goddess Tlachtga
was pack-raped by the three sons of a man she had gone to in order to
learn magic - and she then died giving birth to male warriors. The
Goddesses are described as the wives or sisters of Gods and as
inferior to these Gods. In one story Macha is demoted to being the
wife of Nemed and is powerless to prevent the slaughter that she has
foreseen. As part of the Morrigan she is of even lower status as a
daughter of the son of the god Neid rather than his consort. This
demotion probably went along with the lower social status of women at
this time. Some say women lost their status as mothers partly because
men had a great difficulty in coming to terms with their own
fertility. All women knew who were their own children - but the only
way for men to be certain of who were their children was to take away
the freedom of women to move around and love whom they will.
LINES 51-57
Brigit, or Brighid or Bride, then replaces the earlier
image of the triple Goddess of the battle field. This image is more
appropriate for an artistic society where Bards sung at courts. The
three aspects of Brigid are all known as Brigit . They are Brigit,
Goddess of Poets; Brigit , Goddess of Smithwork and Brigit, Goddess
of Healing.
LINE 58
Her fame becomes international - as needed by a more
interlocked international society - that has to defend itself against
more widespread dangers such as that posed by the legions of Rome.
The Brigantes of Gaul called themselves after her sons. Julius Caesar
called her the "Gaulish Minerva".
LINE 62
Brigit is not just the White Mare and Cow. She is also the
Crow, mistress of foretelling, and the Serpent. The Serpent with its
shedding of its skin, was for long a very sacred image signifying the
circle of life. When St Patrick is said to have driven all snakes
from island, this is a boast that he has driven from Ireland the
power of Brigit. (Likewise in England St George kills the
serpent-like dragon.)
LINES 63- 64
Brigit as the Sun Goddess was honoured at sanctuaries
where priestesses minded an everlasting flame. Brigit was also linked
to the oak - a Sacred Oak stood by the fire sanctuary.
LINE 64
The anti-war role of the Goddess continued at this
sanctuary. All weapons of war were banned from the vicinity of the
Sacred Oak. It also became a boast of the sanctuary that Brigit had
forced the dismantling of a nearby warlike centre Dun Ailinne
"Ailinn's proud citadel has perished along with its warlike hosts.
Great is the victorious Brigit"......
LINE 67
Brigit's fire sanctuary was in the City of Brigit now
renamed Kildare in honour of her sacred oak (from Cill Dara meaning
the Church of Oak ) Kildare remained a major spiritual centre for
centuries after the arrival of Christianity. From it Brigit was said
to rule the women, leaving the men to Patrick. Brigit was declared
the patron saint of Kildare while Patrick became that of Armagh.
Today there are many more places named after Brigit in Ireland than
there are named after Patrick.
LINE 65
After the rise of Christianity in Ireland, Brigid was even
said to have been made a Bishop - that is Christian monks in their
accounts of Irish history accorded her a rank that made her not a
Goddess but a priestess with power equal to that of the Christian
authorities. She was reported to be frequently visited by bishops and
to appoint the local bishop. This probably reflects the high power of
the Abbess and Nuns who seemingly took over the role of her high
priestess and priestesses (or who were the same women with a new
title). These stories of female bishops show that women in the name
of the Goddess had a higher sacred role here than in any other part
of Christianity.
LINE 65 to 67.
The Kildare nuns tended the everlasting flame of Brigit
while banning the sight of the flame from all men - as had Brigit's
priestesses. Their abbess also kept the ancient anti-war aspect of
the Goddess alive for among her titles was "She who turned back the
tide of war." It was only about 500 years later that the fall of the
Abbess from power was marked in the horrid ancient fashion also
suffered by Goddesses by her being raped by a soldier in 1132 to
render her unfit for office so she might be replaced by a woman
chosen by the local king.. But the fires of Brigit in Kildare carried
on being tended into the 13th Century. When in 1220 the Papal envoy
Henry of London ordered the extinction of the fire, the enraged
population forced the Bishop to order the relighting of the flames.
This was not long after the English pope Adrian IV had granted
Ireland to England.
Although the sanctuary and convent of Brigit at Kildare
survived until 1540-41 when Henry VIII closed the monasteries, images
of Christ's mother Mary showed her having a crushed serpent beneath
her feet - i.e. to have triumphed over Brigit and the old magic. But
in reality Mary took on aspects of Brigit and became the protective
female spirit to whom people liked to pray, asking her to intercede
for them with the all powerful and somewhat forbidding judgmental
God.
LINE 70
Female heads at one time were a favourite trophy for male
warriors. Some 7th century accounts depict the women as being forced
to battle as warriors for the kings. The initiation ritual for kings
of Ulster came to include the slaying of a white mare, the emblem of
Macha. The king had to bathe in and drink of the blood of this mare.
LINES 71-73
The status of women at this time was depicted in an
account of the 7th Century Saint Adamnan entitled Cain Adamnain (The
Law of Adamnan) in which pre-Christian and Christian beliefs are
melded and mothers are shown as powerful. In this story Ronnat, the
mother of Adamnan, tells him of his duties; "you should free women
for me from encounter, from camping, from fighting, from wounding,
from slaying, from the bondage of the cauldron." They go together to
view a battlefield where the bodies of women lie heaped. Ronnat
commands him to raise one of these from the dead. He raised Smirgat,
wife of the king of the Lunigni of Tara, who immediately binds him: "
Well now, Adamnan, to thee henceforward it is given to free the women
of the Western world. Neither drink nor food shall go into your mouth
until women have been freed by thee." His mother then, to make sure
he keeps this binding, puts a chain around his neck and a flintstone
in his mouth. When he still had not succeeded after 8 months he is
instead locked inside a chest. After several years of this, he is
freed and goes to the kings to free the women - who at first refuse
saying they will kill anyone who says that women should not be "in
everlasting bondage to the brink of Doom" But Adamnan instead
threatens the kings and gets his way.
But in return the Law of Adamnan lists the payments the
women must make to the church (LINE 75). Queens were to deliver
horses every three months and others tithes of harvest or of money.
If they failed to deliver, the saint threatened "the offspring ye
bear shall decay." In another story an angel instructs Adamnan to
establish a law in Ireland and Britain "for the sake of the mother of
each one." This echoes the plea made by Macha to the king of Ulster
because "a mother bore each one of you."
LINES 78 - 88
Brigit has had a long association with the festival of
Imbulc. On this day, the first of the Celtic spring, she was said to
"breathe life into the mouth of the dead winter." As the serpent
Goddess, she was also linked to the serpent. An old poem stated;
"Today is the day of Bride, The Serpent shall come from the hole." An
effigy of the serpent was often honoured in the ceremonies of this
day.
(Author's note - in this account I am greatly indebted to
Mary Condren for sharing her research in her highly recommendable
book : "The Serpent and the Goddess: Women religion and power in
Celtic Ireland", Harper Collins 1989.)
END
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