Tobar-Na-Áine

divinity and deity

“For all Gods are one God, ” She said to me then, as she had many times before, and as I have said to my own novices, many times, and as every priestess who comes after me will say again, “and all Goddesses are one Goddess, and there is only one Initiator. And to every man his own truth, and the God within.”

And so, perhaps, the truth winds somewhere between the road to Glastonbury, Isle of Priests, and the road to Avalon, lost forever in the mists of the Summer Sea. But this is my truth; I who am Morgaine tell you these things, Morgaine who was in later days called Morgan le Fay.”

— Marion Zimmer Bradley ‘The Mists of Avalon’ (published by Ballantine Books, 1982), as quoted in this Witchvox article.

Leabthacha Dhiarmada is Ghrainne

 

“Giants’ Graves are also known as court cairns or gallery graves and were constructed in the neolithic period. They generally consist of a long gallery, subdivided with a forecourt at one end and are composed of and capped by enormous stones. The layout of the tombs often bears a striking similarity to the human body, chambers and walls designed such that the tomb becomes an symbol of the god or goddess. To enter the tomb is to return to the cosmological world.

The drama of Finn, Diarmuid and Grainne is compelling and the myth was carried forward into the later tale of Tristan and Isolde and the still later lore of Arthur and Guinevere which survives to the present day. However, according to scholar P. MacCana, the Fenian story is itself an echo of the earlier proto-Celtic relationship between the dark, underworld god Diarmaid Donn and the sun goddess Grainne, who is another aspect of the goddess Áine. The bright Grainne embraced the dark under-earth and the product of their union is the golden, singing swords of wheat which stave off the hunger of mankind.

The hilltop sidhe home of Diarmaid Donn is found in County Limerick, Ireland, about 12 miles from Lough Gur at Cnoc Firinne. Áine, the goddess of Ireland, resides at Lough Gur and whispers of her can still be found there in the plentiful neolithic monuments. In her bright aspect she is Grainne whose sidhe home is Cnoc Greine, also in the vicinity of Lough Gur.

Dating from approximately 2600 BC, a Giants’ Grave known in the locality as “Leabthacha Dhiarmada is Ghrainne” (the bed of Diarmaid and Grainne) exists near the south shore of Lough Gur.”

— Old Ways Return Again in Place Names of the Celtic World By C. Austin

A Sleepy Song

[Grania Used to Be Singing this over Diarmuid the Time They Were Wandering and Hiding from Finn]

Sleep a little, a little little, for there is nothing at all to fear,
Diarmuid grandson of Duibhne; sleep here soundly, Diarmuid to whom
I have given my love. It is I will keep watch for you, grandchild of
shapely Duibhne; sleep a little, a blessing on you, beside the well
of the strong field; my lamb from above the lake, from the banks of
the strong streams.

Let your sleep be like the sleep in the North of fair comely Fionnchadh
of Ess Ruadh, the time he took Slaine with bravery as we think, in
spite of Failbhe of the Hard Head.

Let your sleep be like the sleep in the West of Áine daughter of
Galian, the time she went on a journey in the night with Dubhthach
from Dorinis, by the light of torches.

Let your sleep be like the sleep in the East of Deaghadh the proud,
the brave fighter, the time he took Coincheann, daughter of Binn, in
spite of fierce Decheall of Duibhreann.

O heart of the valour of the world to the west of Greece, my heart
will go near to breaking if I do not see you every day. The parting
of us two will be the parting of two children of the one house; it
will be the parting of life from the body, Diarmuid.

The Kiltartan Poetry Book; prose translations from the Irish by Lady Augusta Gregory, 1852-1932

Avalon | Emhain Abhlach

Old sagas tell of heroes crossing the western sea to find this wondrous country, known in Ireland as Emhain Abhlach, in Wales as Ynys Afallach, and in Britain, Avalon, the Isle of Apples. Avalon is also said to be the place where the body of King Arthur is buried. Arthur was supposedly brought on a boat to Avalon by Arthur’s half-sister, Morgaine Le Faye. According to some legends, Arthur sleeps there merely to awaken at some future time.

The Fisher King [roi pêscheur] of Arthurian legend is the god of the sea [in Wales called Bran, in Ireland Manannán; both are sons of Ler, Leir, Lir, or Llyr meaning “the sea”]… he rules over the fishes and other seafood, which related to both sustenance and agricultural/crop fertility. Manannán Mac Lir’s realm encompasses the historical sea fortresses of Emhain Abhlach [The Isle of Arran] and Inish Falga [The Isle of Man].

There are four objects which are at the heart of the Arthurian legend’s quest, all of which have lost their deeper meaning in Malory’s Le Morte de Artur: the Grail, the Lance, the Sword, and the Siege Perilous. Their origin may derive from the Four Treasures of the Tuatha dé Danaan: the cauldron of the Dagda, the lance of Lugh, the sword of Nuada, and the Lia Fail [Stone of Destiny]. The Grail symbolizes the feminine aspects of the fertile land—a receptacle, a womb, a cauldron of rebirth.

How does this mesh with the idea that Avalon was the Isle of the Dead? Rather than Isle of the Dead, Avalon may be looked upon as the Isle of Immortality or the Ever-Young. The idea behind this is, of course, that gods and heroes never die. Their life continues forever in the Otherworld, unless they choose to transmigrate to this earthly world. As far as the apple is concerned, I have the impression that the apple has had an important role to play as a symbol of knowledge, or perhaps hidden knowledge in the magical arts.

It is Manannán who rules over the many Isles of the Otherworld: Tír na mBean (the land of women), Tìr fo Thonn (the land beneath the waves), Tìr Tairngiri (the land of promise), Tír na nÓg (the land of youth), Magh Mell (an afterlife paradise), and Emhain Abhlach. Manannán has strong associations with Emhain Abhlach, the Isle of Apples, where the magical silver apple branch is found. For the Celts, the Isles that lie beyond the sea are the gateways to the Otherworlds, where the soul [anam] journeys to, usually after death, though there are tales of journeys to these places while still alive. Manannán is the guardian of these gateways between the worlds. He is the Ferryman, who comes to transport adventurers through the veils between worlds.

According to the Táin Bó Cúailnge [the Cattle Raid of Cooley], Manannán’s wife is the goddess, Fand [“Pearl of Beauty” or “A Tear” - later remembered as a “Faery Queen”, though earlier mentions point to her also being a sea deity]. Other sources say his wife was the goddess Áine, though she is at other times said to be his daughter. As the Celtic concept of ‘marriage’ was not necessarily monogamous or permanent [or even heterosexual], both goddesses could have been his ‘wives’, and he is connected romantically with many others as well.

Manannán had many magical items. He gave Cormac mac Airt[**] his magic goblet of truth; he had a ship that did not need sails named “Wave Sweeper”; he owned a cloak of mists that granted him invisibility, a flaming helmet, and a sword named Fragarach [“Answerer” or “Retaliator”] that could never miss its target. He also owned a horse called “Enbarr of the Flowing Mane” which could travel over water as easily as land. In some sources he is described as driving his chariot over the sea as if over land, and through fields of purple flowers.

…

Arthurian Source Material:

• Chretien de Troyes, Conte del Graal (c. 1160-1180)
  
• Wauchier de Denain, First Continuation (c. 1180-1200)
  
• Robert de Boron, Didot-Perceval (c. 1191-1202)
  
• The Mabinogion, Peredur (c. 1200)
  
• Perlesvaus, The High History of the Grail (c. 1200)
  
• Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival (c. 1217)
  
• The Quest for the Holy Grail
  
• Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur (c. 1470)
  

Currently looking at:

http://www.uidaho.edu/student_orgs/arthurian_legend/grail/fisher/

…

Still in progress, so this is a bit sketchy… still researching.

But here’s a thought: If Morgaine is the sister of the Fisher King, and Áine is his wife - that means they are sisters-in-law. Care for some tea? (That’s tae in Irish.) ;)

[**Note: Cormac Mac Airt is an ancestor of the MacDermots.]

Manannán Beg Mac y Leirr

[Translated from the Manx, traditional song]

If you would listen to my story,
I will pronounce my chant
As best I can; I will, with my mouth,
Give you notice of the enchanted Island.

Who he was that had it first,
And then what happened to him;
And how St. Patrick brought in Christianity,
And how it came to Stanley.

Little Manannán was son of Leir,
He was the first that ever had it;
But as I can best conceive,
He himself was a heathen.

It was not with his sword he kept it,
Neither with arrows or bow,
But when he would see ships saving,
He would cover it round with a fog.

He would set a man, standing on a hill,
Appear as if he were a hundred;
And thus did wild Manannán protect
That Island with all its booty.

The rent each landholder paid to him was,
A bunge of coarse meadow grass yearly,
And that, as their yearly tax,
They paid to him each midsummer eve.

Some would carry the grass up,
To the great mountain up at Barrool;
Others would leave the grass below,
With Manannán’s self, above Keamool.

Thus then did they live;
O l think their tribute very small,
Without care and without anxiety,
Or hard labour to cause weariness.