Alright folks, I'm starting a newsletter for all my #IrishMythology and #CelticMythology work. If you're into #Celtic and/or #Mythology, or #Paganism / #Heathenry then you may be interested to sign up:
buttondown.com/godsandcroziers
I'm using comparative methods to reveal the true identities of the Celtic-Christian Saints. I've discovered that nearly all of them are simply Celtic gods re-branded. It's new ground, there's a lot to learn and apply elsewhere.
Sign up and share widely. It'll be fun!
The Gods and their Croziers
The Gods of the Celtic pantheons have long resisted accurate identification alongside their famous counterparts in the Norse, Mediterranean, and Indo-Iranian religions.buttondown.com
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Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •* Major blog platforms are fairly fully enshittified.
* Self-hosting a blog is, for now, complicated by the massive DDOS being run by the chatbot platforms against every site on the 'net.
* I fancy the idea of dropping material about the saints in the run-up to their feast days - these holy days were in many cases probably originally the holy days of the gods themselves, after all.
* A Newsletter format might encourage me to post on a healthier schedule? IDK :)
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •Looking at January for the Saints I have godly identities for, and it's gonna be a doozy: Íta and Maedóc are both there, and they're both big saints and big gods.
Íta in particular will be hard to fit in just one newsletter: She's the #Morrigan, through and through. There's nearly more Morrigan in Íta than we ever see in the "official" Morrigan!
Maedoc will also be tricky. He appears to be the biggest version of the Fire deity besides Molaisse, but his aspect, his role, is mysterious.
Seachaint
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in reply to Seachaint • • •OK I've got the email scheduled for Saint Fáelán, for January 8th - the day before one of his feast days. That was harder than expected.
It explains which god he is, and gives some, but not all, of my datapoints - hopefully 'just the right amount' to avoid needlessly outing the whole pantheon day 1!
I also put up the first 'email' that's configured as the welcome email, but wasn't showing in Archives. It's here, for anyone who might like a glance:
buttondown.com/godsandcroziers…
#Mythology #Celtic
Introducing: The Gods and their Croziers
The Gods and their CroziersSeachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •The first Issue of my newsletter on Saints and #Celtic #Mythology just went out. It's about (Saint | King) Fáelán, who appears to be Lugh as a child, perhaps before he earns his adult name.
I played around with this one a lot, trying to find a format for the newsletter that gave me flexibility and structure - I hope I succeeded in presenting it clearly. Very open to feedback!
buttondown.com/godsandcroziers…
#CelticMythology #CelticPaganism
January 8th - Saint Fáelán, the Child Lugh
Cathal Garvey (The Gods and their Croziers)Seachaint reshared this.
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •The issue on Saint Íta and the Mórrígan goes out tomorrow. Next issue after that, Saint Féichín of Fore, who bears the main "divine punishment" myths of plague and flood (and is also amusingly petty).
Currently working on: Maedóc of Ferns, one of the Fire Gods bearing part of Manannán's myths.
Immediately thereafter, Brigid's Artemis myths, for Imbolg.
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •An amusement of mine regarding Maedóc: Manannán as the Fire god is close to the smith-god and he functions as an equipper, bearing loads of wonders that he provides to other gods as needed. So he carries a bunch of stuff around in his Crane Bag.
In Saintly versions, the gods' weapons seem to usually become Croziers, while instruments or vessels become Bells.
Maedóc has, for no good reason, two or three croziers, and about 5 bells. It's too many. People should have at most one bell.
Kevin
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in reply to Seachaint • • •Did you know, that one of Ireland's chief saints is "Brigit", and her actual historicity is in serious doubt? It is increasingly assumed that she in fact derives from the Goddess Brighid, and that the Saint may have never existed.
Well, ICYMI, today I published an article asserting that another of our Saints, Íta, likewise was a full euhemerisation of another famous #Irish goddess: The #Mórrígan. A revealing one.
buttondown.com/godsandcroziers…
Share and enjoy, friends :)
#irishpagan #pagan
Jan 15th - Saint Íta, The Mórrígan
Cathal Garvey (The Gods and their Croziers)Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •It's interesting how we've had half the issue in discussion for years, namely:
"the lives of Brighid, Patrick, and many others are ahistorical and riddled with blatant anachronisms, and some of them might be fictitious"
..and never went as far as asking:
"If these saints supposedly interact tightly with one another how can some of them be just plain fictitious and not their contemporaries, too?"
Because it turns out, they didn't either, no. Mostly.
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •We have evidence that Saint Patrick was a real person, for example. And in his "Confessio" we get a revealing glimpse into how his life actually worked. Guess what? It's entirely different to what his "Lives" report. In fact, if you look for a better match for the person and his relationships that you see in the Lives and Folklore of Saint Patrick, yunno who you get?
Lugh, the late-arriving Sovereign of the Gods. The guy who wins the harvest from the out-of-control Sun-God at Lughnasa.
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •Íta is like that, but for Mórrígan.
She's a prophet of battle who gives her favour only on request, she's a mother-goddess who associates in some way with two of the Saints forms of An Dagda (Erc and Declan), and her names tie her to suspiciously morrigan-like figures in the Ulster Cycle, and directly to Macha.
Her sons include at least one Saint who's secretly a canonical son of Dagda, Midir, and whose role may tie into a mysterious relationship to Cosmic Water and the Illusion of Duality.
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •People might wonder if I'm picking random saints and trying to match them to gods, which would lead to cherry picking and inaccuracy.
No - generally I'm finding the most obvious saints by their stories and acts, and then tracing their relationships.
I found St. Íta as Mórrígan because I knew Brendan was Midir and Erc was Dagda. And I knew St. Brendan was Midir because I found St. Moling to be Aengus. Erc, meanwhile, acts as a father figure to Brendan and Brigit - Dagda being father to both.
Seachaint
in reply to Seachaint • • •The way that these people and relationships work is an often uncanny match for the Irish mythological canon. And I've got lots of firm identifications yet to share.
But given how beloved Mórrígan is to pagans worldwide, I'm very excited about St. Íta. And I'm excited about the links to her throughout the Ulster Cycle that the Saint helps reveal - making the drama of Mórrígan's obsession with Cúchulainn all the more interesting.