Sheela's Day ~ March 18

Today is Sheela's Day, which anticipates the end of the stormy season and the start of Spring. Although recent lore often says she is the wife, sister, or even housekeeper of Patrick, her origins may well be much older.

While there was a time when St. Patrick's day was a political and cultural celebration in the diaspora, or a quiet spiritual day in Ireland, many contemporary polytheists are not that keen on a day for Patrick. While we have made efforts to reclaim the day as a cultural celebration, and this has gone very well in areas with large Irish and Irish-diasporan populations and cultural options, for others an alternative celebration is more fitting.

In welcoming spring on Sheela’s Day, it is traditional to wear a fresh shamrock, which is then “drowned” in a glass as the day draws to a close. Perhaps this is the origin of the dreaded green beer, which most of us shun, along with the other plastic paddyisms of the season, preferring instead to bless and share water from a sacred spring, or milk, or other traditional fare.

Activities traditionally observed for the Hag in Scotland later in the month may also be appropriate at whatever time you welcome spring, such as climbing a hill and shouting poetry.

Our Là na Caillich video has more on this. Here it is, along with our Day of the Hag playlist.


For more info see:
http://www.bandia.net/sheela/
http://tairis-cr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/sheelahs-day.html
http://www.gaolnaofa.com/articles/patricks-day/

For more on the particular sheela images used in this collage:
http://taramc.tripod.com/kilsarkan.html
http://www.irelands-sheelanagigs.org/sheelas/kilsarkan-church/
http://www.sheelanagig.org/wordpress/romsey/

Gaelic Polytheist Videos - Lá Fhéile Bríde, Là na Caillich, Bealtaine, Áine agus Grian, & Manannán

We've been busy at Gaol Naofa! Along with all the usual activities of summer, we've made some more videos. Here are five more in the series, focusing on the seasonal and local festivals.

We had fun making these, and hope they can provide a brief intro to the subject for those less inclined to read a 90 page article or scholarly book. Additionally, we've dedicated our efforts to capturing the essence of each topic in visuals and music in a way bare words cannot. After all, the lore says we must drink from all five streams of knowledge, and engage all the senses in absorbing the sacred.

Images are mostly of the sacred sites and activities associated with each of the deities, spirits and festivals. Music is either an old, traditional song on the topic, or a contemporary version of traditional lyrics and tunes. Traditional prayers are included. Some of these images are old, archival photos, others were taken very recently by our members in the Celtic Nations and diaspora (in some cases photographed expressly for this series). Much gratitude to all our friends and relatives who went trekking with their cameras in tow!

Feel free to share!

Lá Fhéile Bríde — The Festival Day of Bríd
As the sun sets on the last day of January, the goddess Brigid walks the land, bringing the first stirrings of spring. Even if the ground is still covered in snow, the earth begins to stir from her long winter sleep.



Là na Caillich — The Day of the Hag
Spring is starting to happen around us, and the Clumsy Old Woman who Shapes the World is stirring up the last of the winter storms, and considering lying down for a bit of a nap. Sometimes when she does this, she accidentally creates a river or loch. Other times she drops stones she's carrying and, Ooops, another mountain range appears. She's had a lot on her mind, and wants to take a break. 



Bealtaine
In the Celtic lands, the summer is here. When the hawthorn blooms, it's warm enough to move the flocks and the herds, and hold bonfires welcoming the light half of the year. Readers of this blog will recognize the song here. 



Midsummer — Áine agus Grian
The Celts do not have a "sun deity" in the way Classical mythology would frame it. Instead, our deities and spirits are multifaceted, with full personalities, like the people they watch over, like the ancestors some of them once were. (And still are, for many of us.) In the Gaelic areas, as in most Celtic cultures, the fire festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine and Lúnasa are the major festivals. Activities and beliefs connected with the solstices and equinox tend to be based either on older, pre-Celtic remnants that survived in some form as local festivals, or on imports that came with the Norse and were syncretised with local beliefs and customs. Not all communities acknowledge these solar phenomena, at all, but those that do tend to associate them with beloved local spirits, often those of sovereignty.



Manannán — Paying the Rents at Midsummer

Mac Lir, son of the sea, patron of the Isle of Man, guiding spirit of Gaelic Polytheism. Well, one of them. But Manannán has shown an especial interest in the development of Celtic Reconstructionism, and I am happy to have this lovely video about him and his work, an homage and thank you for the guidance he's provided us over the decades.

Là na Caillich, 2014

  Day of The Hag   
photo montage copyright ©2014 Kathryn NicDhàna 
from images of the Romsey Sheela and the equinox illumination of Sliabh na Caillí, Éire

Whether as early as March 18, Sheelah's Day

in Ireland, or April 6, Là na Caillich by

the old calendar in the colder climes

of Scotland, or somewhere in between,

when the Equinox sunrise illuminates

the chamber at Sliabh na Caillí, this

is the time of year when the Hag

renews herself. And as she does so,

she brings life to the land.

She waves her branch to raise the winds,

to bring the last snow of the winter,

to turn the seasons of the year. 

Until Samhain when she ushers in the

winter again by washing her great plaid

in the whirlpool of Coire Bhreacain,

bringing the snow to cover the land.

~~~~~~~~~

We still have more in the works for the season, including an overhaul of the Sheela website with new content, and additional Gaol Naofa videos. But sending you all greetings today, since the 25th is the modern calendar date of Là na Caillich. Hope everyone's having a good Spring! Slàinte Mhath!