#Celtic#MythologyMonday: Parthelon and his people invaded #Ireland and fought a magical battle in which they were successful against the Fomori people by using the one-legged crane dance (corrghuineacht) which involved all the warriors standing in positions of power on one leg, with one arm behind their backs and one eye closed.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack https://x.com/MJDougherty33/status/666174804815249408
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: The Morrigan used the one-legged crane dance (corrghuineacht) when she forecast Cormac’s doom in Togail Bruidne Dá Choca.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: The #Irish ritual of the one-legged crane dance curse (corrghuineacht) is a form of magic-working, the power of which is intensified when practised standing on one leg, with one arm outstretched, and with one eye closed like a crane (ir. corr). The ritual position itself is known as glám dícenn (meaning ‘satire which destroys’). It was thought that the open eye was able to look directly into the magical #Otherworld, whilst standing on only one leg indicated being present in neither one world or the other.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#MythologyMonday: Prior to the Second Battle of Moytura, #Lugh, God of Lightning, was heartening the men of #Ireland by the crane dance curse (corrghuineacht). He chanted as he went leftwards round the men of Erin, on one foot and with one eye closed.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: „The crane (or perhaps the grey heron) was thought to have associations with the moon, and was sacred to the Triple Goddess. It was thought to represent magic, shamanic travel, learning and keeping secrets, reaching deeper mysteries and truths.“
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: „Once, the cat was much admired for its independence, stealth and hunting prowess. In medieval times, this love of cats, particularly black cats, was considered a sign of witchcraft, and the cats were burned alive, along with the women who owned them, or were thought to own them.“
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: „The mythical Cait Sidhe is a large black cat said to be the size of a dog. It was thought that witches could transform themselves into a Cait Sidhe eight times, but that on the ninth, they would remain in their cat form. Thus we have the origin of the cat with nine lives, and the fear of black cats and their associated witchy owners.“
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: Ancient pagan religions were matriarchal; they believed in the Goddess and Mother Earth, and venerated the ability of the female to bring forth life. The year was counted by lunar cycles, unlike today’s Gregorian calendar, of which there were thirteen, and also thirteen menstrual cycles in a year.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FolkloreSunday: The moon is associated with the divine feminine as the female cycle was linked to the phases of the moon. In #Ireland, #Aine was Goddess of love, growth, cattle and light. Her name means “bright” as she lights up the dark. Although the origins of this superstition cannot now be traced, some say it goes right back into our distant pagan past.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
Senchán Torpéist gathered all his poets to see which one of them could recite the whole of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, also known as the Cattle Raid of Cooley, but none of them could. His son, Muirgen, was said to have gone to the grave of Fergus mac Róich (King of Ulster and Queen Medb’s ally and lover), where he fell asleep, and thus learned the true story in a dream from Fergus’s ghost.#Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
Fionnbheara, King of the Munster Sidhe (don’t let them hear you calling them ‘fairies’) was so enamoured of a mortal woman named Eithne, that he cast a spell which sent her into a deep sleep. In her dreams, she was able to visit him in the Otherworld. This has implications of shamanism, in which the shaman enters the Otherworld through dream or vision in order to communicate with ancestors, the Gods, or other spirits.#Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
The Aisling is a dream or vision in which a poet meets a beautiful, magical woman, probably a woman of the Sidhe, symbolising #spring, the bounty and beauty of nature, and love. During the troubles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Aisling developed into a patriotic poetic genre in #Irish language poetry, in which the fairy woman became a Goddess representing #Ireland’s sovereignty.#Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
Bran mac Febail fell asleep after hearing fairy music, and in a dream he saw a beautiful woman of the Sidhe who told him to seek her at the Isle of Women. He journeyed across the sea for a long time, having many adventures before finally arriving at his destination, where he was reunited with the woman of his dreams.#Celtic
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#FolkloreThursday: In #Scotland cattle were preserved from the influence of witchcraft by placing garlands of rowan and honeysuckle around their necks. Red threads tied in their hair or woven into the wreaths likewise protected dairy cattle from milk-stealing witches, who were especially active on #Beltane.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/Fiona_m_Byrne/status/1454888042649559045
#Beltane was a night when evil could strike cattle, drying up their milk and causing them to sicken and die. Thus many Beltane rituals, including hunting hares (shape-shifted witches), and speaking charms over butter churns, have a basis in the belief that agricultural produce is particularly vulnerable at this time of year.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
Hares seen in unusual places, including in regions where they were not typically found, were believed to be disguised witches. If pursued, such hares would run into houses, revealing the witch’s habitation. If one found a group of hares together, it was clearly a gathering of a witches’ coven.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#Celtic#FolkloreThursday: „A local man had caught a Leprechaun. Because it didn't help him find a treasure, he put it in an oak chest. On the evening of the 10th day, the farmer claimed: "Darragh Fort is on fire!" Only then did the "gankeynogue" (= little man) promise him a treasure if he let him out to save his family.
When the Leprechaun saw the deception, he took the opportunity to disappear. However, the farmer later overheard the "gankeynogue" tell his wife where the treasure could be found: under a stone in front of the farmhouse, where the farmer's wife had stumbled over it this morning and spilt a bucket of milk.
And right there the farmer discovered a beautiful treasure of gold.“
Source: Derryragh - Wikipedia
“A wine made from honey, #mead figures in a number of #Celtic myths and legends as a drink favored by warriors. Its most consistent mythological association is with the goddess/queen whose name is the same as the drink, #Medb, and who represented the intoxication and danger of kingship.”
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
The sister of the better-known heroine Sadb, Daireann took a fancy to the great warrior #Fionn mac Cumhaill, who did not return the interest. In revenge, she poisoned him—not with a death potion but with an enchanted elixir that drove the great man insane. Most of Fionn’s followers, the Fianna, abandoned him during his insanity, but they returned when his wits did. Daireann’s pride took another blow when Fionn had a child with Sadb, who became his favorite follower, the poet Oisín.
Source: Patricia Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and Folklore
Like Cáer and Angus, Midir and Étain shape-changed into swans, circled the area and then disappeared into the mound of the #Otherworld.
Source: Helen Benigni/Barbara Carter/Eadhmonn Ua Cuinn „The Myth of the Year“ #Celtic
„One of the most famous stories of Úna, the #fairy queen of #Munster, tells how, annoyed by a drunken piper, she turned herself into a calf and, with the piper clinging to her back, made a massive leap to the shores of the Shannon River. When the piper appeared undismayed by his calf-assisted flight, Úna forgave him his bad piping and returned him to the place from which she had stolen him.“
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: After their victory over the Tuatha de Danann, the land was divided between Eber and Eremon. Eremon took the north, and the younger brother, Eber took the south. They ruled their respective areas peaceably for a year, but Eber was not satisfied; he wanted it all. The two brothers fought a battle, and Eremon won, becoming High King over all of #Ireland.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
#Celtic#FairyTaleTuesday: #Mannanán Mac Lir's children were Aed, fire, Fionguala, white swan, and Fiachra and Conn, the twins. The myth stresses how Lir, the god of the sea, rose at dawn to play with his children and retired at night to his home in Emain Ablach, the Land of Promise.
Source: Helen Benigni/Barbara Carter/Eadhmonn Ua Cuinn „The Myth of the Year“