Though the Romans equated their war god Mars with the Greek god Ares, they portrayed him as very different. Mars was also a god of agriculture and a father to the Romans, who used war to create lasting peace, while Ares was only interested in slaughter and chaos.
In one Welsh legend, King Arthur discovered an altar floating in the ocean, and unsuccessfully tried to use it as a table. When Arthur realized the altar belonged to St. Carannog, he returned it in exchange for the saint ridding the land of a troublesome dragon.
In British legend, when Merlin saw a comet that resembled a dragon in the sky, he knew it meant his king, Ambrosius, had died, and Ambrosius' brother Uther was now king. In honor of this comet, Merlin dubbed the new king Uther Pendragon (Uther "Dragon's Head").
#Celtic#TempleThursday: The #Pictish#druid#Drostan recommended pouring the milk of 3x50 white cows without horns (bo mael fin) into a hole in the middle of the battlefield to cure the soldiers from the poisoned arrows of the British.
Source: Guyonvarc'h/Le Roux Die #Druiden
#Celtic#TempleThursday: Throughout the British Isles it is #Brighid who revives the “dead” landscape in #spring from its winter slumber with her white wand of birch wood.
Source: Wade MacMorrighan „Rekindling the Rites of Imbolg“
#Celtic#TempleThursday: The Book of Lecan relates that milk could antidote any injury caused by a poisoned dart and that milk was also poured in the battlefield furrows of Eremon presumably to cleanse them; even the pan-Celtic goddess-turned-Saint Brighid was notorious for her inability to consume any impure food, as a result she was entrusted to the care of an Otherworldly red-eared white heifer whose milk nourished her.
Source: Wade MacMorrighan „Rekindling the Rites of Imbolg“
#Celtic#TempleThursday: The red-eared white #cow is a magical creature which features in many Irish stories, and up until 1935, still roamed the #Irish countryside. Lisa Lawrence claims it may have been the preferred animal sacrifice to appease the Gods in pre-Christian times when bad events occurred, such as when crops failed. The Goddess #Brigid is associated with cattle, and so is the Saint Brigid; as an infant, she was fed solely on the milk of a white, red-eared #cow, as she was too pure to consume regular food sources. Here, as in Corc's story, the cow is tended by a woman, but not just any woman, a pure and virtuous virgin. As Lawrence describes it, 'the white red-eared cow has ceased to nourish sacrificially devotion to the goddess Brigid, and begun to nourish symbolically devotion to Saint Brigid'.
Source: https://aliisaac.substack.com/
White (and, to a lesser extent, gold) is the colour of the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Thus, Welsh fairies are generally pale and wear white clothes inlaid with gold, while various fairy animals (especially hounds and stags) and magical items are white.
🎨 Roger Garland #TempleThursday
#Celtic#TempleThursday: "In the belly" is one of the (popular) interpretations for #Imbolc. Spring grows in the "belly of winter", like the lambs that are born from #Imbolc onwards. This was significant for the diet of the rural population, because from now on sheep's milk was available again.
In the "Divine Comedy: Paradiso," Dante sees the blessed souls in Heaven arranged in the shape of an immense white rose that shines with God's light. The queen of the rose is the Virgin Mary, who in Catholic symbolism is often represented by a rose herself.
🎨 Gustave Dore #TempleThursday
#Celtic#TempleThursday: Beira, the queen of winter, had Bride imprisoned at Ben Nevis. When Angus Og, the God of Summer, found her, winter had to give way to #spring. The painting ´The Coming of Bride` by John Duncan is full of spring flowers: primroses, azaleas, laburnum, lilac, tulips and grape hyacinth. #Imbolc
Source: Angus and Bride - Folklore Scotland
#TempleThursday: The #Celtic feast of #Imbolc is a liminal time. Winter is still here, but spring is already making an appearance. The seeds are still resting in Mother Earth's womb, but the first harbingers of spring are already tentatively appearing in our latitudes. And yet the seeds have been sown to allow nature to blossom in the warm season and provide all living creatures with an abundance of food.
#Celtic#TempleThursday: „On Brighid’s Eve, the elder women of the home—clearly intimating the role of midwives—fashioned the leaba Bríde (“Brighid’s bed”) in the shape of an oblong basket after the form of a cradle and adorned it with early-blooming flowers such as snowdrops, daisies or primroses. Brighid was called in. The customary brídeóg and a white wand, made from sacred wood like birch, broom, blackberry or white willow that had been carefully stripped of its bark were placed in the bed. Carefully the ashes of the hearth were raked evenly before bed, and the next morning, the ashes were checked for signs of Brighid’s presence. A sign of Brighid’s wand or her footprint (lorge Bríde) signified blessings for the year. If no sign was found, it was believed Brighid may have been offended, leading to offerings and prayers.“ #Imbolc
Source: Wade MacMorrighan „Rekindling the Rites of #Imbolg“
#Celtic#TempleThursday: CúChulainn was weakened when he violated his geis or sacred vow never to eat dog meat, this made him defeatable and was his doom.
#Celtic#TempleThursday: In their combat, Pwyll mortally wounded Havgan with a single blow and although Havgan beged Pwyll to finish him off, Pwyll would not because he had vowed to Arawn not to do so. Pwyll's faithfulness to Arawn's request might be seen as an effort not to entirely destroy Havgan as he is a representation of summer. Pwyll's fate was to merge the two kingdoms and not destroy the one.
Source: Helen Benigni/Barbara Carter/Eadhmonn Ua Cuinn „The Myth of the Year“
In the Welsh Arthurian legend of Peredur (Sir Percival), he falls in love with Angharad Golden-Hand, and swears he will never speak to another Christian until he has proven his love. Ironically, Peredur is the most devotedly Christian of all King Arthur's Welsh knights.
🎨 Newell Convers Wyeth #TempleThursday
#Celtic#TempleThursday: One of the Dagda’s many children was Áed Minbhrec, who was killed in a jealous rage by a man named Corgenn. Despite his power, the Dagda could not revive his beloved son, but he put a sacred vow on Corgenn, forcing him to carry his victim’s body on his back until he found a stone the exact size and weight of the deceased. Only then could Corgenn rest. Thus the man hauled the body around #Ireland until he found a place for it: the ancient #hillfort of #GrianánAileach.
#TempleThursday: When #Conaire arrived at Da Derga’s hostel on the magical feast of #Samhain after breaking a series of sacred vows, he faced his doom within it. A hag came to him demanding entrance. When the king of Tara denied it, she stood on one leg like a crane and cursed him. Immediately, Conaire developed an all-consuming thirst, which no water from any source in #Ireland could quench, and died of it.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
The 6th-century British saint Cadog supposedly performed a miracle on the collar bone of the dead Pictish king Caw to bring him back to life. Caw claimed to have been suffering the fires of Hell, and so converted to Christianity. He later fathered St. Gildas. #TempleThursday#FolkloreThursday
The Three Wise Men who appear to Jesus are often named Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. Their ages are sometimes respectively 60, 40, and 20 (to represent the Three Ages of Man) and their places of origin respectively Asia, Europe, and Africa (to represent the known continents).
🎨 El Greco #TempleThursday
#Celtic#FolkloreThursday: The bloc na Nollaíg, a huge chunk of wood, would burn in the home’s central hearth for the duration of the Christmas festivities, about twelve days. It would be lit with a piece saved from the previous year’s log, thus continuing the cycle of the seasons and of the sun. It would smoulder until the end of the festival, when it would be extinguished. Its ashes would then be used to nourish the seeds of the new spring planting, and a sliver reserved to light the following year’s log.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack https://twitter.com/Focloir_RIA/status/1605871321992282115
#Celtic#TempleThursday#FolkloreThursday: Carol singing originated with the ancient pagans, and these songs were sung in celebration of the winter solstice. The word ‘carol’ derives from either the French carole, or the Latin carula. It means ‘circular dance’. These songs were probably sung as communities joined in dance around their huge celebratory bonfire, or sacred monuments. Believe it or not, caroling was actually denounced by the church for hundreds of years for being a sinful remnant of heathen practice.
Source: Ali Isaac | Substack
The ruins of various buildings from many time periods have been found on Glastonbury Tor, England. Famously, two coffins were allegedly uncovered in the 12th-century that claimed to be those of King Arthur and Guinevere. Some people claim that the Tor inspired legends of Avalon. #FolkloreThursday
#LegendaryWednesday: On the #IsleofMan the goddess of winter is called Caillagh ny Groamagh (“gloomy old woman”).
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
Photo: Cronk yn Irree Lhaa is traditionally her usual home.
#Celtic#TempleThursday: The unique „Temple“ at Emain Macha was 40m wide and consisted of 280 large oak posts. Three parallel aisles led up to and around a large, 12m high post (felled 95BC) placed at the centre of the building. Soon after its construction, the timber building was filled with thousands of limestone boulders to form a large flat-topped, 2.8m high cairn, and set alight. Immediately after the fire died down, the cairn was covered with a 2.5m high mound of carefully layered pieces of turf, soil and other deposits.
Source: Information boards at Navan Fort