DVDSMTH

"Healing and Traditional Magic. I’m currently reading Catherine Nixey’s new book, Heresy: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God. It’s a fascinating work, and one I highly recommend. I was struck by something she mentions in it regarding offerings left at ancient Greek temples which I thought people here might be interested in. Amongst the archaeological findings at these places, thousands of tiny models of body parts have been discovered. As Nixey writes, “...legs, and wombs and breasts and feet and eyes-formed out of stone and clay: offerings left in the hope that the temple’s divine inhabitants might see the troubles of this mortal clay and mend them.” As she goes on to write, many people do not notice the connection between ancient belief systems and health. This is interesting in relation to folklore and witchcraft, in particular. Let me clarify that witchcraft is, of course, a more modern term, but pagan healing practices, pleas to the ancestors and spirits, and spells and rituals to gain their attention and help is what I mean. One of the more obvious examples of this type of magic is tying objects to a hawthorn tree. In fact, this parallels the clay body part offerings at temples. This type of ritual falls under the term of correspondence or transference magic. This was when to get rid of an illness it was transferred to an inanimate object and then as the object wears away so should the sickness. To explain it simply, a person might tie a piece of clothing, for example, belonging to a sick person to a tree. Then, as the clothing becomes worn down over time, this hopefully will happen to the sickness, too. In the case of the clay body parts in Greece, the hope was that the various gods and deities would intervene and take away the afflictions that corresponded to these offerings. In Ireland, it was usually the wise-woman, the Bean Feasa, who held the knowledge of healing plants and herbs. There is a theory that one of the reasons why Ireland had so few witch trials was because of this. While these women were indeed often persecuted and blamed for various episodes of bad luck, they were also the people that pregnant women turned to when the time came to give birth. They were the women who might be able to discover whether a person’s household had been cursed, and, of course, they were the women a person could turn to in order to commune with the fairies and gain good fortune, as Biddy Early’s life demonstrates. I won’t go into the life of Biddy in much detail here but it is worth noting her reputation for healing with the help of fairies, for this post. Biddy was quite remarkable in that she, in my view, at least, bridged the disciplines of the bean feasa and fairy doctor, much like the 'fairy magicians' of Eastern Europe. In this regard she could heal the sick, as well as livestock, but not only in relation to worldly ills, but those caused by supernatural means and injuries inflicted by the good folk. There are many accounts of Biddy's cures and exploits in the duchas archives. Another example of old Irish beliefs and health is All Heal. I have written about this practice before, but basically this is an old Irish custom which took place on the evening of six days following a full moon. In this tradition, it seems that the sixth night following a full moon is regarded as particularly magically potent. If a person was sick they would be brought to the shore of a lake in order to bathe, but not in the water, and instead in the reflected light of the moon upon the lake's surface. This tradition also has parallels with some Bealtaine customs and the warding of malevolent forces. In that case it is moonlight in the morning dew which is said to both repel evil influence as well as bestowing beauty and health upon those who wash their faces in the dew at dawn. The twist to 'All Heal', and its cure, though, was that if you did not get well after two or three nights you would then be visited by the banshee. However, the aforementioned twist is that her song would be one of comfort for those about to die as opposed to one which instils fear. In this case, the Bean Sidhe is identified as Áine who is sometimes considered both a fairy queen and, according to some, a potential Irish moon goddess. Speaking of fairies and healing, the fairy mist appearing at holy wells is something which often turns up in the Irish folklore archives. As this example demonstrates, even after the Christianisation of a 'Holy Well' the fairies are still able to draw down a mist or fog upon unsuspecting visitors. "In the parish of Carndonagh there is a mountain called Sliab Sneace and on the top of it there is a well called 'Tobar na súl', and it is said that if anyone goes up to the top of the mountain and stirs the well, a great mist will arise, and that the unfortunate person will have great trouble in getting down from it again." Some also note the relationship between healing Holy Wells and so termed ‘sweathouses’. In an article entitled, Cleansing Body and Soul, James Eogan, a senior archaeologist at Ireland's NRA, writes that sweathouses were located at liminal places such as lakesides, and at the edges of streams and forests. The immersion into water was ethnographically associated with individuals believed to have access to specialised and restricted knowledge, usually associated with the otherworld and magic. So, we can see the connection between the ceremonial use of both holy wells and sweathouses here. Although holy wells are accepted as ancient places of pilgrimage and ceremony, Eogan postulates that Ireland's thousand's of ancient burnt mounds and sweathouses might also be considered in this context. Today, we at least are beginning to understand that alongside the more colourful folk cures there is also a wealth of indigenous plant and herb knowledge, as well as the relationship between physiology and the natural landscape. I would argue that this is evidence of authentic and very old traditions most likely extending much further back than previously acknowledged." (C.) David Halpin. Photo: Hawthorn at dusk at Castleruddery stone circle. #irish #folklore #fairies #faeries #wicklow #megalith #witchcraft #shaman #animism #indigenous #ancestors #healing #druid #celticmythology #goddess #wisewoman #cunningfolk #pagan #holywell #witch #shamanism #occult #magic #FolkloreThursday