Le Regard des Elfes: A collaboration with Celine Grandidier
http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xo6dl5
I am pleased to share with you this nice rendering of my french friend Celine Grandidier,from Provence. of whom I have already published one of her works regarding the Moon Goddess on on my Facebook Page “Love of Rhiannon – The Celtic Moon Goddess”…
Her favourite visual artists are Arthur Rackham, and Pre-Raphaelites . Other Interests Art, poetry, photography.
She is a confessed fan of Fairies, cats, pagan religions and mythology.
The music that accompanies this awesome is written by myself upon a traditional arrangement of the renowned Irish tune “the Star of the Countgy Down”. It’s called “La Dame Verte” from the “Awen” album recorded along with the celtic band BRAN .
The belief on enchanted groves had always allured me very much. Even more when I read about certain faerie ‘Green Ladies’ hidden behind trees , expecting for wandering pedlars eager for elven dance. I felt that the theme of the Irish song ‘Star of The County Down’ made a nice set with my own. Hereby the quoted lyrics of this song:
“STAR OF THE COUNTY DOWN” (trad.irish)
Near to Banbridge town in the County Down,
one morning in July,
down a boreen green came a sweet coleen
and she smiled as she passed me by.
Oh she looked so neat from her two white feet
to the sheen of her red hair,
sure the coaxing elf, I’d shake myself ,
to make sure she was standing there.
Oh from Bantry Bay to the Derry Quay,
Oh from Galway to Dublin Town.
Ne’er a maid I’ve seen like this sweet coleen,
that I met in the County Down.
Cocidius, the Cumbrian god
A brithonic deitiy… no doubt ofit!—It is funny to note that the inscription discovered at Carlisle was to Mars“Toutates” Cocidius … Teutates is another well-known Celtic deity,mostly cited by Julius Caesar and Lucan. Etymologically this deity’s name canbe interpreted as: ‘He who belongs to the Tribe’ comprising also the concept”Father of the Tribe”. Could there be a so called celtic tribe then?…Maybe a kind of Wood Settlers under this deity’s regency?.
As cited by the authorof this review, probably the woodwoses painted in 1499 by Albrecht Durerare closely related to them!… Thus, I am pleased to share with you thisexcelent article written by DianeMcIlmoyle and reposted under her kind permission. All rights reserved by theauthor. © Diane McIlmoyle 30.01.12
- Cocidius altar, Tullie House, Carlisle
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there were people here before the Romans. But they were here, leaving echoes of their lives and beliefs through place names,
5,800-year-old tools and
2,000-year-old weapons. When the Romans first encountered us 2,000 years ago, they wrote down some of the things they discovered. They said that there was a people in northern Cumbria called the Carvetii,
‘the deer people’, who were a sub-group of a large northern tribe called the Brigantes – at least that’s what the Romans called them; we don’t know what they called themselves – and we had a number of local gods.
The Romans had an impressively egalitarian approach to the religions they encountered as they travelled the world. They believed the same set of gods was present everywhere but just known by different names. When they came across a native god, they looked in their own pantheon for the Roman equivalent, which is how
Lugus – after whom Carlisle is named – came to be seen as a different name for their own god, Mercury. Every native god in turn was partnered with its Roman equivalent and this is how we get to hear about the northern British god, Cocidius.
There are no less than nine carved images and 25 inscribed dedications to Cocidius on Hadrian’s Wall, some from Netherby and Carlisle and others found by Cumberland Quarries (exact site unknown). There are no less than six inscriptions from Bewcastle fort in Cumbria, where he is described as ‘Mars Cocidius’, which means the owner of the altar believed that Cocidius was the native name for the Roman god of war, Mars. Two silver plaques found at Bewcastle show Cocidius wearing a helmet and holding a shield and a club or spear.
The Ravenna Cosmography – a 7th-century summary of all towns that had been in the Roman empire – mentions Fanum Cocidius, which means Cocidius’s Temple. It says that it was between Maia (Bowness-on-Solway) and Brovacum (Brougham). Given this description and the number of inscriptions found, it’s tempting to believe that this site was Bewcastle.
At the eastern end of Hadrian’s wall, Cocidius is linked to forests, and hence to hunting. In an inscription at Ebchester in County Durham, he is ‘Cocidius Vernostonus’ – Cocidius of the alder tree – and at Housesteads Fort and Risingham, he is ‘Sylvanus Cocidius’. Sylvanus was the Roman god of wild forests. An intaglio found at Habitancum Roman Fort on Dere Street at Risingham shows Cocidius surrounded by leafy branches, holding a hare, accompanied by a dog. A further north-eastern image at Yardhope at the tantalisingly-named ‘Holystone Burn’ (the name pre-dates the discovery of the carving in 1980!) shows Cocidius with hat, spear and shield, legs akimbo, arms wide.
- Cocidius at Yardhope, Northumberland
There used to be another image, known as ‘Robin of Risingham’, but it was blown up by an 18th-century landowner who was fed up of people visiting it. I find it intriguing to think of people hunting out the carving in this period, and the name is suggestive: Robin Goodfellow is a name from folklore linked to forests (think Robin Hood) and impish creatures (Shakespeare’s Puck). It may be too much to suggest that the 18th-century people knew that the carving represented a pagan deity but they may have thought there was something otherworldly, even magical, about it. A half-size carving based on a drawing of the original was erected in 1983.
As is often the case with Celtic names, the etymology is frustrating. It could derive from ‘cocco’, the Brythonic word for red, or it could be ‘coit’, the root of the modern Welsh word, ‘coed’, which means woods or forest. Supporters of the former interpretation point to rare references to an Irish Gaelic god, Da Coca, ‘the Red God’, suggesting he is just another version of the same deity, in the same way that Carlisle’s Lugus is the Irish Lugh (and the Welsh Lleu). The colour red is readily associated with Mars and war-like qualities (although this is often overstated) and Cocidius is portrayed with a weapon and a shield. Supporters of the forest interpretation point to the inscriptions identifying Cocidius with Sylvanus, the forest god, and the hunting images. To confuse or elucidate matters – take your pick – the alder tree – as in ‘Cocidius Vernostonus’, Cocidius of the alder tree – was well-known for oozing bloody-red sap when freshly cut. Perhaps it’s not so mad to combine the two, and Cocidius in his original Celtic form was a hunter of both men and animals.
- Sylvan Men by Albrecht Durer, 1499
And there I would have ended the story of Cocidius, the northern British god, if I hadn’t come across this image, painted in 1499 by Albrecht Durer. These wild men, legs akimbo, arms aloft, carrying a shield and a club, are the very image of Cocidius. They are a conventional medieval Germanic portrayal of woodwoses – a concept known to medieval English as the ‘wodwos’ of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (c. 1390) – and possibly cognate with the medieval Green Man*, an image seen in British cathedrals from the 11th century onwards. Other woodwose-type wild men are found in other European cultures; in Lombardy, they’re known as ‘salvangs’ – wild men derived from the name of Sylvanus.
I don’t know, and suspect that no one knows, whether these deities and wild men are all ultimately the same. Perhaps they all just answer a need felt throughout history to personify a wild, dangerous aspect of nature, which was a threat to man and beast alike. Whatever the case, Cocidius was Cumbria’s very own.
* I should point out that there are two inscriptions to a native god, Viridios – which literally means ‘green man’ – found in Lincolnshire.
Celtic Symbolism: The Celtic Hounds "Bran and Sceolan"
As i commented on a previous post, it is very common to find on Irish and Welsh medieval literature references to courageous warriors and brave dogs respected by their loyalty, and often given as a gift to them. Many argue Celtic hounds to be either the
Greyhound,
Scottish Deerhound,
Irish Wolfhound or even a mix of all these breeds.
A very particular case is the one related to the The Fionn Cycle , also known as the Fenian Cycle–for Fionn‘s warrior band, the Fianna–the “Fionn Cycle” traces the exploits of Fionn mac Cumhaill, the wandering, woodland warrior of Irish myth. They were popular in both Ireland and Scotland, each country producing numerous narratives and poems on the subject.
Fionn may have originally been a sort of zoomorphic god, a type of
Cernunnos, the deer-horned god in Gaul. Moreover, it is Fionn who contributes important elements of Celtic belief in wisdom through his eating of the salmon of wisdom, and it’s related theme of imbas forosnai. Moreover the mother of Bran and Sceolan was Tuiren, and was Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s aunt, transformed into a hound by a fairy.
Fionn met his most famous wife,
Sadhbh, when he was out hunting. She had been turned into a
deer by a druid,
Fear Doirich, for she had refused to marry him. Fionn’s hounds, “Bran” and “Sceolan”
(Sceolan, pronounced Sky-O-Lawn or Ska-Lawn), who were once human themselves, recognised she was human, and Fionn spared her. She transformed back into a beautiful woman the moment she set foot on Fionn’s land, as this was the one place she could regain her true form. She and Fionn married and she was soon pregnant. However, Fear Doirich (literally meaning Dark Man) returned and turned her back into a deer, whereupon she vanished. Fionn spent seven years searching for her, but to no avail. Fortunately, he was later reunited with their son,
Oisín, who went on to be one of the greatest of the Fianna.
It is usually assumed that Bran and Sceolan were Irish Wolfhounds, since this breed was used to hunt Wolves and Deer, but they were also used as war dogs to attack men on horseback and knock them from their saddles to be killed by others.
Bran and Sceolan are monstrous dogs, wonby Finn from a kind of Celtic version of the monster Grendel inBEOWULF, who had been stealing babies from a young champion’shouse. Like their mother, they are gifted hunters with a strange mixtureof colours and great savagery in other versions.
Bran is described in Bardic legends as A ferocious, white-breasted, sleek-haunched hound; standing as high as mid-chest of a full grown man; fiery, deep black eyes that seemed to swim in sockets of blood. Sceolan was described as Slightly smaller than the black beast, small headed, having eyes of a dragon, the claws of a wolf, the vigour of a lion; and the venom of a serpent.
These narratives can be found in both Ancient Irish Tales, translated by Cross & Slover, and Old Celtic Romances translated by P.W. Joyce.
Aside from these narrative tales, there were also poems annonymously composed and put in the names of several characters; it was translated as Duanaire Finn–The Lays of Finn in two volumes: the first in 1908 by Eion Mac Neill, and the second in 1933 by Gerard Murphy. These poems are taken from a single manuscript written in about 1626, but drawing on older material.
Bran is a great figure in all the legends of thistime, and he is described thus in the poem « Bran’s Departure from theFenians » :
Two white side hadBran
and a fresh crimsonshining tail.
His crimson haunchwas well apportioned,
stretching from histail to the end of his back.
He had a fierce eyein his shaky head.
It was impossible tocontend with him.
Beautiful and lovelywas his fame.
He was swifter thanall hare-hounds.
The tallest of theFian dogs would pass
beneath his groinwithout stooping :
His head (it was acunning distribution)
was as high as myshoulder.
Related Sources:
http://www.maryjones.us/jce/fionncycle.html
http://www.eiwc.org/pdf/doc/OCDanglaisrev..doc
Lunar Calendar : The Candle Moon (January 23rd to February 21st)
This is a time for Divination.
In the calendar system we have provided as an example, this moon is typically named the Candle Moon. this name refers to the light of the candles which (in many traditions) serve as a representation of the celebrations of Imbolc, Candlemas, The Festival of Lights, and Brigantia, to name but a few of the many fire festivals celebrated on or around February 2nd to celebrate and encourage the return of the sun and with it, the renewal of hope.
In many other belief systems there are already time-honored traditions for the establishment of a calendar. We have encluded a few examples here for you to consider.
In the Celtic Tree Calendar the name of this moon is Luis (Rowan) which runs from January 21st to February 17th.
The Runic Calendar of Nordic traditions, (which is governed by half months rather than full months), divides this moon of the year by Sigel (sun) from February 12 through February 26th, and Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) from February 27th through March 13th.
The Goddess Calendar names this moon of the year after Bridghit and runs from January 23rd through February 19th.
The American Backwoods Calendar refers to this moon of the year as the Snow Moon and is determined by whichever full moon falls in February.
This is a time for awakening. This is the time when the slow energy of the winter quickens and our thoughts turn towards beginnings… The beginning of the thaw… the beginning of a new cycle of growth… the beginning of that which is to come after the prolonged rest of the winter darkness.
In history this moon brings the fever of love and is named after the Roman goddess Juno Februa, patroness of the passion of love. To this day February 14th is celebrated as a day of love and dedication throughout much of the world.
Whether you know this as the Sap Moon, Rowan Moon, Candle Moon, or the Worm Moon, you know the best use of this newly awakened energy is purification and preparation for the rebirth promised in the noticeable lengthening of the days. However this moon is named, it speaks to the rituals of purification and preparation for the return of the sun.
Today these rituals of purification and preparation are reflected in traditions of “Spring cleaning” the self denial of the lenten season, and even the lighthearted prognostication of “groundhog day”, all of which are aimed at planning for future growth and fertility through present preparation.
So, with all that information to guide you, think of this moon as the perfect opportunity to prepare the path you would like to follow for the rest of your own personal year and observe it with the things that represent a dedication, (or a re-dedication), to your chosen path.
If you select a personal name for this moon, this name too, should correspond to whatever reflects re-dedication to your chosen path for you.
Related Source:
(all rights reserved by the author and reposted under her kind permission)
Divinations for the Candle Moon (1-23-12 to 2-21-12)
This is a time for Awakening
This is the time when the slow energy of the winter quickens and our thoughts turn towards beginnings…
The beginning of the thaw…
The beginning of a new cycle of growth…
The beginning of that-which-is-to-come after the prolonged rest of the winter darkness.
These celebrations have different names like Imbolc, or Candlemas, or Lupercalia, but they share a purpose. They are a reminder of the first seed of springtide as the Lord of the Forest walks the land to awaken the sleeping plants and animals with an acorn wand.
Whether you know this as the
Snow Moon, the
Rowan Moon, the
Candle Moon, or the
Horning Moon, you know the best use of this newly awakened energy is purification and preparation for the rebirth promised in the noticeable lengthening of the days.
This is what I’m saying SweetPea… it’s like the whole universe has just yawned and stretched and rubbed her eyes to a brand new morning. What do you usually do with a morning? Wake up, wash up, and wind up to start the whole rest of the day.
So, what needs to awaken in your life?…
Compassion?…
Passion?…
Joy?
Whatever it is… roust it out and splash a little cold water on it. There is no better time than the fresh start of a whole new cycle to re-dedicate yourself to those things that are of the utmost importance to you… so…
Gather your hopes and dreams together…
Sift through them…
Let them run through your fingers like glittering gems while you decide which ones are ready for revival. When you have the ones that offer the biggest and brightest promise for this cycle of regeneration and renewal, haul them out to a place of prominence in your future plans and take the next step, (whatever it may be…), toward achieving these hopes and dreams. Maybe you will need to make a call for more information. Maybe you will need to seek out advice and guidance from others. Maybe you only need to acknowledge their importance by elevating them from dreams to goals. Whatever that “next step” actually is… this is a great time to actually take it.
You awake now?
You sure?
Good!
Related Source:
(all rights reserved by the author and reposted under her kind permission)
