Badger
Equipped by nature for digging, badgers build extensive underground dwellings called setts, typically covering a thousand square feet. Some setts are hundreds of years old, and are passed on through the family, giving badgers the title 'the oldest landowners in Britain'. The badger is still called brock in many parts of Britain; a nickname derived from its old Gaelic name of brocc (or broch in Welsh). The seventh century Life of Columba refers to Pictish Druids as Brokan or Broichan meaning 'badgers'. This is probably because the badger lives under the ground, or is associated with prehistoric mounds, the dwelling place of gods and ancestral spirits. The badger is one of the sacred animals of the goddess Brigantia and a totem of the Imbolc festival when Celtic women gathered together to celebrate the rebirth of the spring, symbolised by the badger emerging from beneath the earth, just as new growth emerges from the ground. The Celtic shaman knew that the underworld was the source of wisdom. In the Welsh tale of Pwyll's courting of Rhiannon, a badger is mentioned as a guide during dreaming. Because of the badger's innate power and courage, Celtic warriors thought that badger grease made the best cure for wounds, working by a kind of sympathetic magic. Similarly Scottish clansmen wore sporrans made from badger skins and the MacIvor Clan wore badger heads and skins to invoke the beast's strength in battle.
Badger is single minded, dogged and determined, patiently removing obstacles that fall on the path he is accustomed to walking each and every day. He reminds you that these qualities are needed to progress or complete a task. Hard, mundane work will be needed to turn creative dreams into a reality. Badger is one of the strongest woodland animals and even when set upon by several dogs can hold his own against them. His defences are his fortitude and his indomitable will, even against overwhelming odds. He doesn't waste time on blame or regret, but stands his ground, tenacious and unyielding. If you feel powerless and angry, stop blaming other people: they can only make you feel what you allow them to. Go within yourself and find the power of Badger, centred, grounded and unshakeable.
Bear
The bear cult is maybe the oldest religion in existence, featuring in the lore of all the countries of the north and far older than the type of shamanism of the cave temple period, which is reflected in the cave paintings of France and Spain. Alpine grottoes have been discovered, dating from around 100,000 BCE, which contain cave bear skulls and ceremonial hearths. It was often thought to be a god incarnate, a visitor from the realm of spirits, and the killing of a bear was a ritual act. The Celts certainly venerated the bear, and had several bear gods and goddesses. The words art and artos or math and matus mean 'bear' in the various Celtic languages. Thus we find the goddess Andarta (‘Powerful Bear’) and Arthur (from the Welsh Arth Vawr meaning ‘Great Bear’). As the bear is a fierce and powerful fighter, its name was also adopted by kings and warriors, while other legendary characters were designated 'son of the bear', implying that they had bear-like power, or perhaps that they were descended from a bear god.
The bear hibernates in the winter, entering a cave or some quiet, secluded place. It emerges in the spring, with the female often having given birth in the meantime, and appearing with cubs in tow. This led to the bear being associated with regeneration and rebirth, adopted as a solar symbol. The ancients believed that the sun sickened as the winter progressed, getting weaker and weaker as the hours of daylight diminished. Finally, at the winter solstice (the shortest day) it died and went into the underworld. At dawn it was reborn, emerging from the womb of the Mother Earth via a cave mouth, then growing stronger with each passing day. Many sun gods are said to have been born in a cave at this time. It seems likely that Arthur was originally a sun/bear god, with the solstice being called Alban Arthur or 'Arthur's Time' by modern Druids. The constellation of the Great Bear is known in Wales as 'Arthur's Wain' i.e. Arthur's wagon. The seven main stars of the Great Bear look rather like an old fashioned plough (which gives it its alternative name) with a crooked handle. The right hand side of the plough has two stars that point to the pole star Polaris, the last star in the tail of the Little Bear, and these are called 'the Pointers'. The Pole Star was used as an aid to navigation by travellers on both sea and land as the nearest star to the celestial 'north pole', around which all the constellations appear to turn. Following the Great Bear is the constellation of Boötes, the herdsman, with its brightest star Arcturus meaning 'Bear Keeper', a star held sacred by the Celts. When it first rises over the eastern horizon in January, it is a sign that spring is on its way. Arcturus is known as 'The One who Comes', rising not long after the winter solstice each year, just as Arthur is known as the 'Once and Future King' who sleeps until the day of his promised return. The Celtic goddess Brighid was styled 'daughter of the bear', because her spring festival of Imbolc follows the rebirth of the sun and rising of Arcturus.
The mythology of the bear is thus inextricably linked with its winter retreat into hibernation, going into the underworld, and its apparent renewal in the dreaming darkness. The bear seems to have been considered a protective spirit in the Otherworld realms of dreams and death. It is in the winter, in the gloom, that she finds renewal, just as it is during the most frightening and blackest times of our lives that the greatest spiritual growth occurs. Only then do we truly become aware of the infinity of possibilities that lie within us. When logical thoughts provide no answers, the path of inner knowing is illuminated. Remember that all life emerges from the darkness, as the seed grows form the earth, the child from the womb, and the creative idea from the unconscious mind. Bear protects travellers on the road to wisdom. She teaches the value of stillness and silence inside, where all true knowledge begins. The lesson of Bear is that strength comes from within- not from what you own, what you wear, what you say or even what other people think of you.
Boar
Wild boars once roamed freely through the forests of Britain and Ireland, and a legacy of this remains in the many places named after them such as Boarshill, Boarhunt and Wild Boar Fell. They became extinct in Ireland during pre-historic times, but not in England and Scotland until the seventeenth century. Today, they have been re-introduced in some counties.
Representations of boars in Celtic art tend to emphasise the erect bristles as a sign of aggression; indeed, the bristles were viewed as the seat of the creature's power and thought to be poisonous. The wild boar is tremendously strong, with a tough hide and curving tusks from both upper and lower jaws. It is capable of short bursts of high speed and has been known to attack pursuing horses, dogs and humans. Boar hunts were therefore very dangerous, a test of both skill and courage. Most Celtic tales of boars concern a hunt where the bravery and resources of the hero are challenged to the utmost, and during which he may be led into the Otherworld, or meet a supernatural character who demands his help.
A boar hunt is featured in the story of Culhwch, which means ‘Pig Run’. He had a geis (taboo) upon him that he should only marry Olwen, the daughter of the giant Yspaddaden ('Hawthorn'). Her father knew that when his daughter married, he would die, so he resolved to set the young suitor several impossible tasks before he would consent.One of these was the capture of the comb and scissors that lay between the ears of the monstrous boar Twrch Trwyth. After many adventures, the boar was forced into the River Severn where the comb and shears were taken from him. The magical ogham alphabet the comb and scissors are a cipher for spiritual knowledge and transformation. This is perhaps clearer in the Irish version of the story, in which the boar is called Torc Triath, the King of Boars, and is the companion of Brighid the goddess of poetry.
Boars were officially hunted in October, the fall of the year, associating them with dissolution and death, and the turning of the season into winter. In many legends it is a wild boar that kills the summer vegetation god: in Egyptian myth Osiris, lover of the goddess Isis; in Greek myth Adonis, the lover of the goddess Aphrodite; while in Irish myth a boar slew Diarmuid, lover of Grainne, the betrothed of Finn. Together they eloped, but the enraged Finn gave chase across the length and breadth of Ireland. Eventually the gods interceded, and Finn pretended to forgive the pair. Then one day he saw a means of exacting revenge, and invited Diarmuid to join him in a boar hunt at Samhain (October 31st). The boar they killed was Diarmuid's half brother, so the young man was doubly damned. Finn asked Diarmuid to pace the length of the beast, and in doing so, the young man stepped onto a poisoned bristle which pierced his heel, killing him. Note the time of year- Samhain, the start of winter when the vegetation god is destroyed by the forces of winter, represented by a wild boar.
The Celts venerated the boar and the pig as sacred animals connected with prophecy and magical powers; swineherds were considered magicians and were highly honoured. King Bladud himself tended a herd of pigs that led him to the healing springs at Bath in southern England, where he founded a city. Some grades of Druids were called 'pigs' and the flesh of certain red pigs was chewed in a divination rite called Imbas Forosnai.
Though pork or boar was the favourite meat of the Celts it was not part of their everyday diet, but seems to have been reserved for special feasts, especially winter festivals like Samhain and Yule. In Scotland, it was rarely eaten, and some tribes would not eat it at all. This may have been because of its association with death and the underworld; joints of pork were buried with nobles for use in the afterlife. The first herd of pigs was a gift from Arawn, the king of the underworld. There are many accounts of pork being served at feasts in the Otherworld, with magical beasts being killed, roasted, eaten and found alive the next morning. The 'good god' Dagda carried two pigs, one alive and one roasted, which never decreased in size, no matter how much was eaten. The sea god Mannanan had a whole herd of pigs that could be served in a similar manner. He explained that the meat would not boil in the cauldron until a truth was spoken for each quarter. Whoever ate them gained immortality. Thus, the boar was associated with truth, spiritual sustenance, resurrection and immortality.
Boars are ferocious, strong and courageous, so much so that only the bravest and most skilful hunters could kill them. When a boar appears in a Celtic tale, the hero is always presented with a challenge: a task that must be accomplished. He must be able, clever and brave- all the qualities of the boar itself. Boars prefer to run in straight lines, going straight for their goal without veering to the right or left. They are capable of bursts of great speed, short-lived, but incredibly powerful while they last. They don’t vacillate, but go straight to the heart of the matter and tackle it head on.
In the story of Mannanan's pigs, the meat will only cook in the cauldron if a truth is spoken for each quarter. The cauldron is a vessel of transformation, and the pork is spiritual sustenance, which can only be gained through truth. To lie or take the easy option is not the path of the hero, who must show both personal and moral courage when faced with a difficult trial.
Bull
For many ancient societies, the strong and powerful bull was the supreme symbol of earthly might, vitality and fertility. Though it can be combative, the mythological bull it uses its aggression against the forces of negativity, barrenness and winter. In Celtic symbolism, horns always represent power. There are even images of bulls with three horns, possibly indicating supernatural power, including one on a bronze mace discovered Willingham Fen in Cambridgeshire, showing a god with a wheel accompanied by the head of a three horned bull. Several others have been discovered at healing shrines both in Britain and on the Continent.
The solar deity Beli was called 'the loud roaring Beli', indicating bull-like attributes. In Celtic myth, the cart that pulled the sun across the sky was pulled by three oxen. The Druids revered the sky god as the potent father bull because he showered fertilising rain upon the earth mother, visualised as a nurturing mother cow. These concepts are paralleled in other mythologies. The Canaanite Baal took the form of a bull to mate with his sister who was in the form of a cow, while the Greek Zeus took the form of a bull to mate with Io, transformed into a bovine form. This association of bull and sky god goes further, with the sound of thunder supposed to be the hoofed feet of the god storming across the heavens.
Like the bull, the oak tree was sacred to sky divinities all over Europe, especially those who had control over thunder and lightning, such as the Celtic god Taranis. The sky god seems to throw his lighting at the oak more than any other tree, so many old oak trees are known as 'bull oaks'. When the Druids cut the mistletoe from the sacred oak at the Winter Solstice, they sacrificed white bulls. They believed that when the leaves fell from the oak in autumn, all of its power was transferred into the white mistletoe berries that represented the potent seed of the god.
The bull symbolises the masculine, solar, generative forces of the sky gods, and their earthly representative, the true king. The emblem of the bull is intimately bound up with the rites of kingship. A bull ceremony figured in the choosing of a king in ancient Ireland. At the tarbhfheis (‘bull-feast’) a white bull was killed then a Druid consumed some of its meat and soup, and went to sleep. Four other Druids sang a charm of truth over him to enable him to dream of the man who was to be the rightful king. For example, on the night before she was to marry the king of Tara, the princess Mes Buachalla was surprised in her bedchamber by the arrival of a bird. She was even more amazed when the bird threw off its feathers and became a man who made love to her. She married the king as arranged, but gave birth to the son of the bird-man. The child was called Conaire and put out to foster parents. When the king died, the Druids held a bull-feast to discover who should be the new king. They received a vision of a naked man at daybreak on the road to Tara, holding a sling with a stone ready in it. Meanwhile, Conaire's bird father appeared to him and told him to go straight away to Tara, not even delaying to get dressed. The Druids discovered him on the road and hailed him as the true king.
The change from nomadic hunter-gatherer to a settled agricultural lifestyle began in the Age of Taurus, from 4000-2000 BCE. This seems to have led to an association of the bull with vegetation deities. In earlier times, Taurus and not Aries was the first sign of the zodiac. Virgil said that 'the white bull with his golden horns opens the year', making the bull a symbol of the springtime. In the Northern Hemisphere, the constellation of Taurus disappears from the midnight sky from March to August (Old Lughnasa 12th August). The latter is a time associated with several vegetation gods with bull attributes, such as the Sumerian Dumuzi, the Wild Bull who is sacrificed and dies for his people, and the Egyptian corn god Osiris, and the 'bull-footed' Dionysus, the Greek vine god. A bull was certainly concerned with the Celtic Lughnasa festival, which marked the start of the harvest. At Loch Maree in Scotland, and Cois Fhairrge in Ireland, bulls were sacrificed at Lughnasa in honour of the ancient god Crom Dubh ('Dark Crooked One') as late as the eighteenth century. The hide of the bull would be preserved after the sacrifice, and sleeping in it was a rite of divination according to several Irish and Scottish accounts.
There appears to be a hidden meaning concerning a fertility or corn god in a tale which occurs in the Irish Ulster Cycle there the story of two bulls (actually two transformed men) over which a great war was fought. They met in battle with the dark one killing the white one and scattering its remains by dropping the parts from its horns. This recalls the scattering of the parts of the dismembered corn god. The Romans would sacrifice a bull and send the parts to different parts of the land
In Celtic myth, the bull is a creature of masculine power and potency, symbolic of the return of springtime and the fertility of the land. The bull is a creature of earth; he is grounded in the physical world, and acts powerfully within it. The bull knows who is he, where he has been, and where he is going. He sets off on his path with determination and energy, pursuing his goals until they are achieved. This sense of self and physical presence gives him his power. His stance is firmly rooted on the earth, feet spread wide, giving him unshakeable strength and stability. The bull is no follower of the herd, but a determined leader. He goes his own way.
Bull is a masculine influence in counterpoint to the feminine influence of the cow. He typifies fatherhood in all its aspects, perhaps especially in the sense of the guidance or mentoring.
Butterfly
Butterflies and moths both belong to the order of insects known as lepidoptera, a Greek word meaning 'scaled wing'. Lepidoptera have a five-stage life cycle: first an egg, then a caterpillar, followed by a pupae that matures into a chrysalis which, after a dormant period, breaks to reveal the butterfly. The ancients marvelled at the amazing transformation from a crawling worm-like creature that seems to 'die', become entombed, and then emerges as a glorious butterfly that spreads its wings and flies. Perhaps it isn't surprising that the life cycle of the butterfly, with its many transformations, became an allegory for the existence of a human, who at first crawls on the earth, dies, and emerges from the mortal shell as a transfigured soul. Depicting a creature with butterfly wings marked it out as a creature of spirit, and this is why angels and fairies are often depicted with butterfly wings.
The Celts suspected that butterflies might be human souls in actuality, and wore butterfly badges as a mark of respect for their ancestral spirits. It was said that the soul of a newly dead person could sometimes be seen hovering over the corpse in the form of a butterfly, and this was a good omen for the fate of the soul. However, in some cases the butterfly might be the soul not of a dead person, but of a dreamer or shaman, flying free while the body slept, and some say the soul-butterfly's ability to leave the body in sleep accounts for dreams. In any case, it was taboo to kill a butterfly, since it might mean destroying a human soul. The Celts saw the butterfly as symbol of renewal and rebirth. At the festivals where all torches and lights were extinguished and re-lit from a central bonfire (such as Samhain or Halloween), the brand was called a 'butterfly'.
Butterfly never appears as a personal power animal, but can be a wonderful spirit helper that shows the way to personal growth. She indicates a total transformation in your life. This might be very frightening, as we tend to cling to what is known, what feels secure. However, movement and development are necessary if you are to grow beyond what you are at this moment in time. If the caterpillar did not surrender itself to a painful change (paralleled by the shamanic crisis), it could never achieve its ultimate glory as a butterfly and take flight. You should not try to remain in any life phase forever, but recognise when the time has come to move on. It is important to accept that life has cycles and stages, some active and expanding, some passive and contracting. Sometimes you might experience rapid change, at other times nothing may seem to be happening but it is important to realise that, as deep within the chrysalis, radical alterations are taking place, even though you can't see them. Remember that it isn't possible to have everything at once, but each thing comes in its own time and season. Every stage of your life has its purpose and its own rewards. You need to understand what this phase is teaching you, and how you can use that knowledge to progress. You are not only sum of your life experiences, but also of how you have used the knowledge with which they presented you.
Cat
Cats were not usually sacred animals for the Celts, though there are numerous references to them in stories. But don't be fooled, these tales do not relate to the domestic moggie, which only arrived in Britain with the Romans, but to the wild cat, a larger and more aggressive creature with tabby markings that prefers to live in dense forests, hills and moor land. Though wild cats had become extinct in England and Wales by 1850, they are still found in the Scottish Highlands. We still use one of the Irish Gaelic words for cat, or 'puss'.
In Celtic narratives, cats are mysterious, often supernatural, and usually ferocious. The most powerful was Cath Palug, born in Anglesey of the magical white sow Henwen (an aspect of the hag goddess Ceridwen). It wreaked havoc about the land until King Arthur and his foster brother Cei destroyed it. Even now unearthly cats appear all over Britain, with newspaper reports of large cats frequently frightening the population.
Legendary cats often hail from the Otherworld. The Knowth fairy mound was the home of Irusan the King Cat, who was as large as a plough-ox and once bore away the chief poet of Ireland in revenge for a satire against him. The Celts held that looking into cat’s eyes would enable you to see the fairies, or see into the Otherworld. This strange supernatural reputation of felines may arise from their association with the moon. Cats' eyes change according to the levels of light, imitating the waxing and waning of the moon. Along with their nocturnal hunting habits, this made the cat a creature of the moon goddess. The Roman naturalist Pliny said that a she-cat would bear a total of twenty-eight kittens during her lifetime- the same number as the days of a lunar cycle.
Cats are sometimes the guardians of Otherworldy places. Maeldun set sail with several companions to avenge the death of his father. After many adventures, they arrived at a small island. Everywhere was deserted, but as they entered a house, they discovered a table set with wine and roast meat, piles of clean clothes and comfortable beds with warm coverlets. The only occupant was a little cat who played on top of four pillars. Maeldun saluted the creature, and asked if they could eat and drink, but the cat ignored him, making no sign as they ate their fill, and lay down to sleep for the night. Then, just as they were about to leave in the morning, Maeldun’s foster-brother helped himself to a piece of jewellery from the wall. Instantly, the cat transformed into a fiery arrow which pierced right through the man, turning him to ashes in seconds. Maeldun was careful to apologise to the cat for his brother's churlish and ungrateful behaviour, which ran contrary to all the laws of hospitality, and returned the jewellery to the wall. The cat's house was plainly in the Otherworld from which nothing should ever be removed if the inhabitants are not to be angered.
Because cats had a connection with the powers of both the moon and the Otherworld, they were considered oracular. At Clogh-magh-righ-cat in north western Ireland there was a shrine where a black cat lay on a throne of silver, uttering prophecies. The Irish Druids performed a ritual known as Imbas Forosnai, in which the raw flesh of a cat was chewed. Even today, old country folk view cats as predictors of the weather: if a cat washes its ears or sneezes, it is sure to rain
Cats have two associations with fertility. Firstly they can produce several litters a year, and secondly they prey on the rodents that can devastate the pantry or grain stores, thereby protecting both the home and the harvest. In some places, the cat was a representative of the corn spirit, and children trampling cornfields were warned the phantom cat would get them.
The cat was a totem of several Celtic and pre-Celtic clans and individuals. The Highlands was the centre of two Pictish clans, the Orcs (boars) and the Kati ('cat people') who lived in Kataobh ('cat country'), which is now called Caithness. The Mac Pherson clan is descended from cat clan ancestors and the chief's crest shows a wild cat with claws ungloved and the motto 'Touch not the Cat but a Glove'. In this case 'but' is a contraction of 'beout' - a warning not to touch the dangerous cat without a glove. The Chieftain of Clan Chattan is called Mohr an Chat ('the great cat') and there are many places in the Highlands that take their name from cats. One Irish King was called Cairbre Caitheann (Cathead) and ruled over the Milesians who were the Celtic invaders of Ireland. He was said to have the ears of a cat, which may mean that he had a cat totem, or wore a helmet or hood of cat skin. There is an Irish legend of an island inhabited by men with cats’ heads. The hero Finn mac Cumhail fought a clan of "cat-headed" (or cat hooded) people.
The cat is a creature long associated with magic, from the sacred cats of ancient Egypt to the archetypal storybook witch with her cat familiar. Aloof, knowing and mysterious, the cat’s eyes seem to promise secrets- no wonder the Celts thought you could see fairyland by gazing into a cat's eyes. We all need a little magic in our lives.
Cat is a paradoxical creature, capable of intense concentration when stalking her prey, but who also knows how to relax completely, curling up before the fire and falling asleep in seconds. She is a wild and bloody huntress, but can be playful and kittenish, a home loving lady who insists on high standards of personal hygiene. She is a sensuous creature who might purr at your feet or turn and scratch you. You might as well try to fathom the enigma of the moon goddess who is both virgin and crone, who creates and destroys, or understand the eternal mystery of woman, who is all of these things and more. She is much more than she seems. Cat reminds you that deep within you is a secret self, untamed by the world and its experiences, complex, individual, and needing to be fulfilled.
Whatever it is that you are hunting, whether it is a job, a lover, or knowledge itself, you can learn from Cat. She does not waste energy chasing here, there and everywhere- she might miss the clues that reveal her true target. She listens to every whisper on the wind, sniffs the air for every scent, and watches carefully for the slightest movement. She waits quietly until she sees what she really wants, and when it is within her grasp, she moves like lightening, and with one graceful pounce clasps it within her paws. Cat tells you that there is power in stillness, and beauty in dignity.
Cock
Introduced into Britain by the Romans, cockerels were quickly adopted into the mythology of the Celts. Julius Caesar reported Celts would not eat hare, geese or chickens as these were considered sacred animals. The name of ancient Gaul itself is derived from the Latin gallus, which means 'cock'. This designation was probably bestowed on the Gallic Celts because they were as fierce and aggressive as fighting cocks. The cock is still the emblem of France.
The magic of the cock lies in its famous dawn call. As well as being a kind of natural alarm clock signalling that it was time to wake and begin the business of the day, it was believed to chase away darkness, ghosts and the hidden powers of the night. This theme is echoed in many folk songs and stories where the cock-crow drives away visions of a dead lover, nightmares, magic spells and mischievous fairies such as the Welsh Tylwyth Teg. The Celts held their festivals from dusk until cockcrow, indicating that during the hours of darkness occult powers were strongest, and dispersed by daylight.
This ability to drive away evil made the cock an emblem of protection. The traditional weathercock represents a vigilant cockerel spirit placed on the highest part of the roof. To safeguard the newly harvested corn, a straw figure was fashioned in the shape of a 'corn cock' and placed on top of the rick. At harvest time a cock was killed with a sickle and buried in the fields to ensure the survival of the corn spirit, and its blood was mixed with the new seeds.
Because it is credited with the power of driving out harm, the cock was also believed to have healing abilities and was associated with healer gods, particularly when those gods were also solar deities. It was held that a cockerel rubbed on the body and then cast out of the district would take the illness with it. Until quite recent times in many parts of Britain, medicine taken at cockcrow was believed to be more effective, showing the persistence of Pagan ideas.
Julius Caesar wrote in The Gallic Wars that the Britons kept chickens for sport, rather than meat. Despite its small size, the cock is a fierce and aggressive fighter (we still call slightly built boxers 'bantam weights' after a species of chicken). Put two cocks in a pen together and they will fight for dominance. Cockfighting was a popular pastime over most of the ancient world, with birds being specially bred for aggressive qualities. It was a cruel pastime, with sharp artificial spurs or small knives often attached to the birds' legs before the contest.
The sacrifice of a cock and a ritual cockfight was part of the Imbolc (2nd February) festivities in honour of the pan-Celtic goddess Brighid. Cockfighting was a part of the West Highland's celebrations at Candlemas (the Christianised version of the festival) well into the nineteenth century. Boys would take cockerels (called stags) to school and Coileach Buadha or 'victorious cock' was elected Candlemas King. The cock and hen seem to have been paired at the early spring festivals with the solar cock sacrificed at Imbolc to disperse the powers of winter and darkness, while at the vernal equinox hen's eggs were dyed red represented the new dawn sun.
As a solar creature the cock is also a bird of augury - daylight uncovers hidden secrets. A number of omens were derived their behaviour: if a cock behaves unnaturally, it is a very bad omen. If a cock crows early in the evening it means bad weather; when a cock crows at midnight a spirit is passing; in England it is a death omen if one crows three times between sunset and midnight. Crowing at other times is often a warning against misfortune. If a cock crows while perched on a gate, or at nightfall, the next day will be rainy. Cock is a solar animal, greeting the dawn, banishing night, and uncovering all that the darkness has concealed. He is a herald of healing, renewal and the positive energy of the light. His magic is a powerful force against negativity, whether this comes in the form of bad luck, depression or ill health; hidden secrets, worries and grievances brought into the light lose their power and become easier to deal with. With a determined yell, he shakes his feathers in the sun, calling upon you to recognise that a new era has begun and that it is time wake up and to get on the business of life, to move forward and embrace the future with enthusiasm.
The cock is definitely not a team player, he is arrogant, noisy and aggressive, and demands that he should be the one and only male within his territory; two cocks in a pen together and they will fight to the death. He is the epitome of the macho man, whom we still call 'cock of the walk'- just watch the way he behaves among his own private flock of hens. Remember too that we use the phrase 'cocky' to describe someone who is over confidant and heading for a fall.
Cow
In Britain, before the coming of the Romans, the main tracks across the country were cattle droves. When ancient peoples abandoned a hunter-gatherer life for pastoral and agrarian practices, cattle became immensely important. They played a vital role in the economy of the Celts as the source of meat, milk and cheese, of hide, bone and horn, while oxen pulled wagons and ploughs. Cattle were a measure of status and wealth, with the bride price and the price of slaves being set in cows. In Britain and Ireland, cattle raids were a common way of ensuring riches and power, and were not even considered wrong, but rather something of an occupational hazard. The Dagda ('Good God') had a cow called Ocean who could call all the cows in Ireland to follow her, which enabled his people, the Tuatha de Danaan, to recover all their stolen cattle.
The two great Celtic festivals of Beltane and Samhain centred around the needs of cows. At Beltane (May Day) cattle were driven through the ashes of the Bel fire to purify and protect them, before being taken up to their summer pastures. At Samhain (Halloween), they were brought down to sheltered winter feeding grounds, and any surplus animals were slaughtered, with black puddings and oatcakes made from the blood. Beltane fell when the seven stars of the Pleiades rose in the constellation of Taurus the Bull, and Samhain when the Pleiades set below the horizon.
For the Druids the bull represented the fertilising power of the heavens, while the cow was the productive abundance of the earth. The cow is a symbol of plenty, nourishment and nurture and is an attribute of many mother goddesses. Even the stars in the sky were thought to be droplets of milk from the Mother's breasts; in Lancashire the Milky Way is called 'the Cow's Lane'. In Welsh myth, the great mother was Madron, often depicted as a matronly woman holding a cornucopia (cow's horn) filled with fruit and grains. A Gaulish goddess called Damona ('Great Cow') was a mother goddess of healing and fertility. She seems to have had two husbands, Borvo and Moritasgus, both gods of healing springs.
In Ireland, the cow was connected with the water goddess Boanne (‘She of the White Cattle’), and was one of the four sacred animals of Brighid (the others being a wolf, a snake and a bird of prey). Brighid was a goddess of inspiration, healing, craft and fertility, with a cult centre in Kildare. She was born in the house of a Druid and raised on the milk of fairy cattle. Her cows were milked three times daily, providing an endless supply of milk. To invoke the female power of regeneration at Brighid's festival of Imbolc (2nd February), an image of a cow was made, and the person to be 'regenerated' (i.e. given spiritual or physical healing), was enclosed inside the image, later emerging from it in a ritual act of rebirth. Brighid's Christian replacement St Brigit was the patroness of cattle and dairy work, and is still prayed to for fertility and healing.
The Great Mother is also the harvester, the goddess of death, and the cow is also sacred to her death aspects. The Irish battle Morrigan once took on the form of a red cow to approach the hero Cuchulainn. She again appeared to him in the guise of a hag milking a cow with only three teats, and as a female charioteer dressed in red, driving a cow before her. In all these guises, she heralded his death, signified by the colour red, an emblem of the Otherworld. The cow is sometimes a psychopomp (a being that conveys souls into the Otherworld). Some believed that if a man gave a gift of a cow to the poor, at his death the spirit of the animal would return to guide him to the Otherworld.
According to Irish myth, the first cattle came from the Otherworld, the Land of the West. Otherworldly cattle are also common in British lore, recognised by their red or round ears. Sometimes a fairy cow would join human herds and would supply amazing quantities of milk, unless it was offended by some mortal slight, in which case it would return to the sea or lake from which it came. Cattle formed the dowry of the fairy lake maiden of Llyn-y-Fan-Fach in Wales, who married a poor shepherd. When he lost his temper and struck her, she returned to the lake taking all her cattle with her. However, the sons of the marriage became the legendary physicians of Myddfai, so here again we have the connection of cattle, healing and water.
Like her mate the bull, the cow is also associated with divination and prophecy. In the Mabinogion tale of The Vision of Rhonabwy a sleeper saw a vision of the court of King Arthur whilst lying on the skin of a yellow heifer.
In Celtic lore the cow represented Mother Earth who provides everything her children need- nourishment, love and protection.
Crane
The Crane was an important bird in Celtic mythology. Sadly, it no longer lives in the British Isles as it was hunted out of existence in the seventeenth century. The stork and heron share much of the lore of the crane, but only the heron is still found in Britain.
The Celts associated marsh birds with the supernatural; dwelling as they do in a misty 'place between places' that is neither land nor water. Liminal sites were deemed possible entrances to the Otherworld, such as Bri Leith, the fairy mound of Midir, where three cranes warned travellers to 'keep out'. They were sentinels at the castle of the sea god Manannan on the Isle of Man. It was commonly believed that the crane was the epitome of vigilance, standing on one leg and holding a stone in its raised foot; if the bird fell asleep, the stone would drop, waking it. The one-legged stance is also associated with shamans in Celtic lore.
Standing on the threshold of the Otherworld, cranes were counted birds of augury, foretelling events and heralding storms and rain. They were emissaries of the gods of death and might summon a human soul to enter the Otherworld. On church carvings, they were portrayed as sucking the breath (or spirit) from the dying. In Welsh legend Pwyll, the Lord of the underworld, took the form of a crane. Cranes were sacred to gods and goddesses who presided over the mysteries of death and re
Flying cranes are sometimes said to be the souls of the dead, or mark the death of the old year. The mating dance of cranes was once thought to be a magical ritual and the movements were imitated by human dancers. It was performed round a horned altar and represented the labyrinth- the twisting path into the Otherworld. In Greece, the crane dance marked the start of the New Year and the death of the old.
Cranes are solar birds, and when they returned in springtime, they were thought to bring the sun back with them. Standing by the waters, cranes and herons are among the first birds to greet the dawn. They catch many small fish to feed their young, and have the curious habit of laying them on the bank, tails together, in the form of a wheel. The wheel is the symbol of the sun and its passage through the year.
Cranes were very much associated with the hag goddess and her hoary wisdom. Miadhach, daughter of Eachdhonn Mor, was transformed into a crane. She lived to become one of the oldest animals who possessed all the ancient knowledge between them. In the tale of the ‘Hag of the Temple’, an old woman appeared with four cranes, the Cranes of Death, her sons transformed. They could only be released from the enchantment by the blood of a bull owned by the Cailleach Bheara (‘Hag of Beare’), a harvest goddess. Only the power of the Taurus the Bull and the return of spring could transform the Cranes of Death.
This association of the bull and crane is a common thread in Celtic mythology. A monument from Paris shows a large bull that stands before a willow tree, with two cranes on his back and one on his head, pecking at his pelt. A woodcutter hacks at the willow. The inscription over the bull reads Tarvostrigaranus ('The Bull with Three Cranes') and above the man is Esus ('Lord'). The willow is the tree of the hag goddess, lady of winter and death; who sometimes takes the form of a crane, while the bull represents virility, spring and life. It is possible that the monument depicts a seasonal allegory, with the cranes diminishing the bull's power (earth fertility) in the hag's season.
Two girls called Aoife and Iuchra both fell in love with Ilbrec, the son of the sea god Mannanan. Iuchra deftly rid herself of her rival by turning Aoife into a crane. In this form, Aoife lived on the Isle of Man for two hundred years, and when she died, her skin was made into a bag for Mannanan. It became one of his most important possessions, as he kept five magical items in it. Some suggest that these were the five letters of the ogham alphabet. The Druids kept their ogham lots in a craneskin bag, from which they would cast them to perform rites of divination.
The Celtic god Ogma was said to have invented ogham after watching the flight of cranes, the shapes of the birds against the sky giving him the idea for the angular letters. The same story is told of the Roman Mercury, the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian Thoth; it is interesting to note that as well as being gods of communication and writing, all these gods have a role as psychopomp, conveying souls into the Otherworld after death.
Crane keeps the secrets of magical writing. For our ancestors, the act of writing was far removed from what it is today. To write a character was to connect with the thing that character represented, and to call it into being. Many early alphabets were angular in appearance, since they had to be carved into stone, or scratched onto bark. The legs of the crane in flight are said to resemble these characters. For the Druids Crane Knowledge referred to secrets of the ogham alphabet and all that entailed. Each character was assigned a tree, plant, animal, bird and colour, each embodying a wealth of lore and learning. The god Manannan owned a magical bag made from crane skin. It contained the shears of the king of Scotland, the helmet of the king of Lochlainn, the bones from Assails's swine, the hook of the smith Goibne, a shirt and a strip from the back of the great whale. These were the vowels of the ogham alphabet and the strip of the whale represented the horizon, the stave on which ogham was written.
In Ireland, the sudden appearance of a crane heralded the cessation of hostilities in a war. If a warrior on his way to battle chanced to see one, he was doomed, since the sight of it would rob him of his courage. For this reason, cranes were often engraved on shields and pieces of armour to strike terror into the enemy. The crane was a hallowed bird and its meat was forbidden. Breaking this taboo would result in ill fortune, the loss of courage, illness, or perhaps even death. This prohibition was preserved in folklore well into the seventeenth century when Scotsmen would get rid of unwelcome guests by inviting them to eat the flesh of cranes.
