Christmas Traditions, Paganism, and Some History

 Every year I see social media absolutely flooded with terrible misinformation about the 'pagan' origins of several Christmas traditions. I wrote about this in 2015, covering some of the main claims at the time but that was 8 years ago and its worth revisiting this one. There is a driving determination to claim that Christians stole absolutely everything from pagans which I think we need to seriously re-assess. History is rarely if ever so simple and as well we, as modern pagans, end up leaning into a victim narrative that is easily disproved and that doesn't help us. There are plenty of things to be legitimately angry with the Christian church(es) for but 'stealing' holidays and traditions from pagans isn't really one of them.

I do want to note before we dive into this and the angry comments begin that there are certainly some practices related to Christmas that do have older pagan roots, so I am not claiming that all things Christmas are not pagan, but on that same hand it doesn't mean that all things Christmas were originally pagan. As with most things its a blend, and that blend by and large occured organically over the centuries as converted people continued their own older traditions. While it is true that in some situations the Church did intentionally and with forethought co-opt pagan things - building churches on the sites of pagan temples being a prime example - in most cases with folk practices it was the people themselves who continued or adapted the traditions for themselves. This is a process called syncretization, which occurs when people try to combine or reconcile various, sometimes antithetical, beliefs or practices. A good example of this would the way that fairies were fit into Christian cosmology as beings who were between angles and demons. Usually the church authorities didn't support these practices or ideas and tried at various points to stamp them out as 'unchristian', efforts which by and large failed as people continued to follow the traditions anyway. 

I think we too often forget that the world we live in today isn't the world of 500, or 1,000, or 1,500 years ago. Christianity wasn't always the dominant religion - it began as a small religious sect in a pagan world, so its logical that pagan influences affected it. I think we also forget that not all practices and beliefs are ancient, humans innovate and create new things and beliefs and traditions. Its the nature of things. 

Now hold onto your butts, history incoming....

Christmas trees - probably the most common claim I see is that Christmas trees were pagan. They were not. There is absolutely no evidence that any European pagan culture cut down trees in the winter and brought them inside to decorate. There is a longstanding practice of bringing in boughs of evergreens, holly, and ivy to represent life overcoming winter but that is a far different practice than Christmas trees, and one that has continued to co-exist alongside Christmas trees even through today. 
     One major argument I see supporting stolen Christmas trees is people citing Jerimiah 10:3 and 10:4:
"3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter."
Now on the surface this may seem to possibly support the idea that the old testament (not Christianity btw this would have been written around the 5th century BCE) banned decorating trees brought into a home. However, the passage is being intentionally cherry picked out of context to create this illusion. It is actually banning the creation of idols which is clear if you look at the surrounding lines:
"2 This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them.
3For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
5Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."
    So if Christmas trees aren't pagan then where did they come from? The answer is 15th century Germany and what were originally called 'paradise trees', trees that were decorated outdoors in conjunction with paradise plays, in honor of the feast day of Adam and Eve on 24 December (Tikkanen, 2023; Waxman, 2020). The trees would be decorated with apples to represent the Tree of Knowledge in the garden of Eden, as part of the retelling of that story; later paradise tree decorations expanded to include tinsel, wafers, gingerbread, nuts, straw, and thread (Waxman, 2020). By the 17th century these paradise trees were being set up inside homes, decorations included candles, and they had come to be known as Weihnachtsbaum [Christmas trees] establishing the tree as we know if now (Tikkanen, 2023; Waxman, 2020). As Germans emigrated out to other places they brought the Christmas tree tradition with them, most notably spreading the practice to England in the late 18th and 19th centuries through the German spouses of King George III and Queen Victoria (Tikkanen, 2023). 
    Christmas trees have a very explicitly Christian backstory which isn't in any way pagan. They were outdoor church decorations celebrating a story from Genesis which eventually was taken indoors in people's homes. Its pretty straightforward. 

December 25th - There are several things that float around claiming that Christians intentionally placed Christmas on the winter solstice to co-opt pagan celebrations. The truth is, as usual, more nuanced than that.
   Basically the dating of Christmas, aka Christ's birth, was based on two key factors: the belief that Jesus died on the same day he was conceived reflecting the idea that his life, like other saints and prophets, was 'perfect', and the idea that he died on the vernal equinox (Henry, 2021). If he died on March 25th, the Roman official equinox date*, then they logic went he must have been born nine months after that date on the solstice, December 25th** (Henry, 2021). This was all established during the 3rd and 4th centuries CE, so fairly long after Jesus' life but also fairly early in Christianity's existence, so while we might side eye the use of equinoxes and solstices to anchor these dates we have to also remember that the Christianity of that period was a product of its time and that solstices and equinoxes weren't understood as 'pagan' holidays but as significant cosmic events. The dating of Jesus birth in December wasn't based on any winter pagan holiday but on this idea that he died and was conceived on March 25th and ergo was born nine months from that date. The fact that it happened to be on the winter solstice just reinforced, for the people doing these calculations, that he was in fact hugely significant and a prophet. To quote Dr Andrew Mark Henry: "Though, rather than outright “stealing” between Christians and pagans, scholars see this as everyone (pagan, Christian, and otherwise) having a vested interest to link their god to a day already considered cosmologically important for half a millennium: the Winter Solstice." (Henry, 2021). 
  In other words, Christians didn't steal the date of Jess birth from pagans but arrived at the idea through their own calculations, however the fact it aligned with the winter solstice was a bonus that reinforced the idea there theory must be correct. 

Mistletoe - it has become absolutely ubiquitous to claim that kissing under the mistletoe is pagan, to the point that even generally reputable sources like the History Channel or Smithsonian include the allegedly Norse myth of Loki trying to kill Baldur with Mistletoe only to have Frigga cry over it, her tears turning to berries and reviving Baldur - which is of course not a Norse myth at all but a Victorian rewriting of the actual myth. In the story's non-Victorian version Baldur is killed when his brother Hodur throws a mistletoe dart at him, and Hel offers to release him if everything in the world cries for him, however one giantess (possibly Loki in disguise) refuses so he stays in Helheim.  A much less romantic mistletoe story to be sure.
  The truth is that kissing under mistletoe as a folk practice began in 18th century England, being noted in print for the first time in 1784 in the lyrics to a song (Moon, 2018). There are no references to the practice prior to this in any text, including those that specifically included superstitions about the plant, nor does it appear in any songs before the 1784 example (Moon, 2018). Exactly how the practice originally began is a mystery but we can be certain of where it started and in what century, and there's no evidence that it was pagan or had any pagan influences. In point of fact it is likely that the later Victorian story of Frigg and the mistletoe was created at that time to explain the existing practice of kissing under it, not the other way around. 

Puritans Banned Christmas Because it Was Pagan - another thing that floats around as 'proof' of Christmas's pagan origins is the fact that puritans in New England banned the celebration in the 18th century. It is true that the puritans, a breakaway protestant sect that emphasized extreme piety, banned Christmas celebrations in 1659 because they said such celebrations distracted people from proper religious discipline and de-emphasized the holiness of every day, however it should also be noted that they banned all holidays, including Easter, for similar reasons (Tourgee, 2021). They didn't believe in celebrating any holiday and saw them as excuses for drunkenness and bad behaviour. In fact they directly called such holiday celebrations superstitions which offended God and related them to the popular Christianity they had left behind in Europe (Tourgee, 2021). It is also likely that the 'pagan' roots of Christmas decried by the sources were actually Catholic, as Catholics were and still are referred to as pagans by some protestant churches and groups who feel that veneration of Mary and saints, in particular, isn't a true Christian practice.
   So basically, puritans did ban Christmas, not because it was pagan but because it was too much fun and might make people forget to seriously focus on God 24/7.  

Let's talk about this:

    Since this particular meme is showing up everywhere this year I also want to note that while people in Western civilization like to assume the Christianity is the dominant force everywhere in everything, that is untrue. It is a major world religion, no doubt, but not the only one. So a meme claiming that Christmas is when 'all faiths' put aside their own beliefs to be pagan is not only grossly inaccurate but also quite frankly offensive to all the other non-Christian faiths out there who don't celebrate Christmas in any way. 

      There are many things we can and should be angry at the various flavours of Christianity for, including current issues from purity culture to abuse to LGBTQ persecution. But stealing traditions that are patently not stolen isn't on that list. Let's focus on fighting against the things we should care about and can do something about, and worry less about trying to create narratives that suggest everything Christians do was stolen from pagans, especially when its clear that these things were not. Maybe its easier to be angry at injustices that supposedly happened hundreds or thousands of years ago but we need to focus on what's happening now.

End Notes
*this wasn't the actual equinox date but the date to was observed by Romans. 
**again not the actual solstice but the official Roman celebration date. This is why we don't use the Julian calendar anymore. 

References

Henry, M., (2021) Twitter thread Retrieved from https://x.com/andrewmarkhenry/status/1465979583384195076?s=20 Moon, K., (2018) Why We Kiss Under the Mistletoe. Retrieved from https://time.com/5471873/mistletoe-kiss-christmas/ 
Bible references sourced from https://web.mit.edu/jywang/www/cef/Bible/NIV/NIV_Bible/JER+10.html#:~:text=For%20the%20customs%20of%20the,shapes%20it%20with%20his%20chisel.&text=They%20adorn%20it%20with%20silver,so%20it%20will%20not%20totter. 
Tikkanen, A., (2023) How Did The Tradition of Christmas Trees Start? Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-tradition-of-christmas-trees-start#:~:text=Whether%20that%20tale%20is%20true,day%20of%20Adam%20and%20Eve. 
Waxman, A., (2020) How Christmas Trees Became a Holiday Tradition. Retrieved form https://time.com/5736523/history-of-christmas-trees/ 
Folkard, P., (2015)  Plant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics Embracing the Myths, Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore of the Plant Kingdom
Tougree, H., (2021) How the Puritans Banned Christmas. Retrieved from https://newengland.com/yankee/history/how-the-puritans-banned-christmas/ 

Review: Celtic Goddesses, Witches, and Queens Oracle

 

I have always had a weakness for tarot and oracle decks because I love to see the different artistic interpretations applied to each card. But, as anyone who is interested in them knows, the market has become really glutted with decks over the last few years, to a degree that its hard to maintain any excitement for them (at least for me). There are a few exceptions to that though and this deck was one of them. When I first heard that Danu Forest and Dan Goodfellow were putting out a Celtic themed deck I was intrigued, in part because I have long been a fan of Goodfellow's art, and love his style. Because of how overstuffed the market is I wanted to do a short review of this deck today to give other people a better feel for what the deck is and why its worth getting. 

The deck came out at the end of October and is available from the usual sources, including amazon. 

First let me just say that I was very impressed by the box the cards come in. That may seem like a strange place to start, but many companies have reduced the quality of the packaging for their decks, probably to save money, so its nice to get a deck that's in a really solid box. Usually when I get a deck I transfer it to a pouch if I intend to use it because I know the boxes will disintegrate in a bag or purse, but with this one I'm comfortable leaving it in the box.  Honestly I took this as a good sign before I'd even looked at the deck. 

The deck itself is comprised of 40 cards, each featuring a figure from myth from one of the Celtic language speaking cultures. The card stock is nice and heavy, the cards a good size for shuffling, and each image is distinct. The art is beautiful, and in my opinion captures the overall feeling of each being depicted in the cards, which includes a range from figures like Boudica and Melusine, to the Morrigan and Artio. If you aren't familiar with Dan Goodfellow's art you can check it out here. 

The deck comes with a paperback book, the same size as the cards, written by Danu Forest. Much more involved than the usual small booklet this runs 196 pages offering an in depth description of each card as well as a small section suggesting various spreads for divination.  Each entry has a full color depiction of the card,  the being's name, culture of origin, name pronunciation, a exploration of the figure it features in myth or folklore, suggested meaning in divination, and a short prayer.  Its a much more thorough and informational book than I usually find with these kinds of decks and I really appreciated that. The author obviously put a lot of effort into research and tried to give readers a real feel for who these beings were and are. 

Celtic Goddesses, Witches, and Queens Oracle is a wonderful combination of exceptional art and a thorough guidebook, making it an ideal divination option. The imagery is vibrant and evocative, allowing the cards to speak on their own, and the guidebook is a perfect compliment, expanding on the imagery and offering more depth to each figure. This deck could be used for various forms of divination but could also be an ideal devotional tool, helping people connect through story and prayer. The best option I've seen for this subject.

Book review: Bogowie

 Doing things a little different today, a book review of a subject I actually don't know much about. I thought it would be fun to dig into a subject that's new to me so today we're going to be talking about T. D. Kokoszka's book 'Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods'. This one is out through my publisher Moon Books.

Bogowie is a fascinating dive into Slavic paganism from an academic angle, covering a range of related topics from deities to folk magic. It may seem a little intimidating at first - at 430 pages its certainly not a light read and each chapter is thoroughly backed up with relevant sources, cited meticulously - but the writing style is straightforward and it includes retellings of various folktales which nicely break up the informational sections. I found the balance in the book was good and the material, while dense, was understandable and well written. 

Bogowie starts, quite sensibly I think, but discussing exactly who the Slavic people were and are  to establish the scope of the book. The author is also honest throughout that this area of study is particularly difficult in part because of the complex history of Slavic cultures and in part because of the scarcity of older sources. The author was honest that the subject gets little attention and is often dismissed outright because of the lack of written material focused around it. I appreciated having all of this covered because I felt that it gave me a good understanding of both the wider subject as well as the intentions of the author in writing the book, which appears to be a much needed addition to the existing material on the topic. 

With an Introduction and 14 chapters the book is well organized and through, but not as dry as one might expect. To start it explores various historic cultural connections between Slavic people and others, as well as laying out the development of the Slavs across history and various influences on that development. From that point the text goes on to look at specific mythic figures including Baba Yaga, Mokosh, Perun, Volos, the Zoryas, Svarozhichi, and Chernobog, while analysing deeper mythic concepts and exploring related cultural material. This includes Christian syncretism within the folk belief which I found especially interesting. The author also digs into beliefs around death and the soul, as well as exploring magical practices in the cultures and holy days. Its thorough but not, in my opinion, overwhelming, and manages to convey a lot of information in ways that hold a reader's interest. 

 The book nicely blends history, folk belief, and practice in a way that I think people will find interesting and digestible. The author does a good job of explaining the core principles and concepts he covers in ways that even people new to folklore studies will understand, while keeping the text interesting and engaging. I would recommend this for anyone who is particularly interested in Slavic paganism but also for anyone who enjoys folktales and is curious to learn something new. This one really covers all the bases.

Fairy Folklore in Coraline

In 2021 I had started a series of posts examining fairy folklore found in popular movies and shows. I've been on a bit of a hiatus from that but wanted to return to it with a look at Neil Gaiman's Coraline (the movie, not the book). Obviously I am not trying to argue here that the author's intention was to frame the story this way, although it may well have been, but what I want to do here is to highlight aspects of the movie which play into or seem to echo older fairylore. 

In truth this topic deserves a full paper and a full indepth analysis, but for our purposes here I am only going to be touching on the wider ideas in more general ways to give readers an idea of the subject. 

Spoilers ahead.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coraline.svg 

Coraline is a stop motion film which came out in 2009, based on the book by Neil Gaiman. 
A brief synopsis: The movie opens with a short segment focused on the making of a doll, which then floats, to all appearances, into the sky at which point we segue to a girl who looks exactly like the doll. This is the eponymous main character Coraline, who we learn has just moved and is terribly bored as her parents work from home on a catalog they are writing. Coraline uses a dowsing stick to try to find an old well. She wanders to a circle of mushrooms, covering the old well, and meets her landlady's grandson, Wybie, who she says talks too much and doesn't listen. Wybie gives her the doll version of herself, saying that he had found it in his grandmother's trunk and its very old. Returning home she explores her new house, an old Victorian which has been turned into three apartments. In her home she finds a small hidden door which has been sealed off and locked, but open opening it with a very distinctive key sees only a bricked up wall. Later that night Coraline wakes from her sleep to see a jumping mouse (belonging to one of her neighbors) which leads her down to the secret door, now opening to a strange glowing tunnel. Crawling through this Coraline emerges into another world that mirrors her own, complete with alternate versions of the people she knows including her parents; they identical to the real world versions except they have buttons for eyes. The feral cat that Wybie had befriended is there as well, without button eyes but with the ability to speak. Waking up in the real world the next day she wonders if she was dreaming, so the following night she lures the mouse back and follows it a second time. The alternate world is a place that offers endless entertainment and her 'other mother' is attentive and generous in contrast to Coraline's own, busy mother. On the third day Coraline enters the secret passage while she's awake because she wants to return to the seemingly perfect world, only to find that it isn't as perfect as she'd thought. The Other Mother tells her she can stay forever if she accepts her own set of button eyes and Coraline finds herself in a battle for her own freedom and the freedom of three ghost children who had previously accepted the Other Mother's deal. Escaping home she finds that her parents have mysteriously disappeared and realizes the Other Mother has taken them prisoner to force her return. She does so and finds herself playing a game to win her freedom, the ghost children, and her parents.

Folklore in Coraline:

- doll as changeling. The main folkloric theme that might be found in Coraline is the changeling motif, or variations of it. The doll is reminiscent of the inanimate objects found in some changeling stories which are swapped for a human when they are stolen into Fairyland. The wider plot of Coraline also works with this, showing the attempts by the Other Mother to seduce her into the Other world, and ultimately to force her into it. One of the three ghost children was the sister of Coraline's landlady who disappeared many years ago; the landlady refers to her as 'stolen' which again echoes changeling folklore. The entire concept of something Other Worldly trying to lure a child away to steal them from the human world is, of course, the basic premise of changeling folklore.

-Other Mother as fairy. Another strong theme throughout the movie is that of the Other Mother as a fairy. While in the story she is more explicitly tied to spiders one can read her depiction as reflective of wider fairylore. She is initially identical to Coraline's mother, but with button eyes, but when Coraline begins to defy her she loses that form, transforming into something monstrous and only loosely resembling a human. Both the cat and the ghost children warn Coraline the the Other Mother is powerful but inhuman, having created everything that Coraline sees in the Other World to trap her (and the other children) but who is incapable of love. Her attempts at mothering are monstrous, marked at first by excess and then by cruelty as she alternately seeks to endear Coraline to her then to force her affection. The ghost children also tell Coraline that once they had given in to her the Other Mother consumed their lives, reminiscent of stories of the more predatory fairies. It is also clear as the movie progresses that the Other Mother is un control of her world and her punishments for those in that world who disobey her are harsh. 

- 'other' world. The existence of the other world is also strongly reminiscent of fairy folklore, which suggests the existence of both the human world that we are familiar with and another world which is adjacent to but separate from the human world, which is more magical and follows different rules. The other world of Coraline is a place of wonders and impossible things, but it is a world that follows rules. As with the folkloric Otherworld it can only be reached in very specific ways (unless you are a cat) and is best reached with a guide. The other world as its created by the Other Mother caters to Coraline's desires, including a Wybie who can't speak and must listen. 

- fairy ring. The movie begins and ends with Coraline stepping into a fairy ring; initially right before she receives the doll/changeling and then ultimately as she banishes the remnants of the Other Mother and the only key to the secret door. In folklore fairy rings - rings of mushrooms - are seen as a sign of fairy presence and is believed that stepping into one can be dangerous and in some folklore that it can open a person to being stolen by the fairies. 

- mice as guides. The mice are fascinating characters in the story, owned by Coraline's neighbor who has a 'mouse circus' but acting seemingly at the behest of the Other Mother and possibly created by her or influenced by her. They act as Coraline's initial guides into the other world, but later in the story an 'other' mouse nearly betrays her, showing that they are not truly on her side. 

-cat as guide. The cat also acts as a guide, but one who is more clearly aligned with Coraline than the mice. His reasoning for helping her is unclear although he tells her very early on that the Other Mother hates cats and that the two have an antagonistic relationship. The cat offers Coraline advice and directly assists her in her 'game' against the Other Mother; he helps her in both her world and the other world.

- offer of food. The first thing that happens when Coraline meets her Other Mother is that she is offered food. In folklore eating this food would trap a person in the land of Fairy which doesn't happen in Coraline, but it still seemed noteworthy that this was her first significant interaction with the Other Mother and to me hints at the dangers of the place she is in and the subsequent attempts by the Other Mother to steal her or trap her in the other world.

- green. The colour green, strongly associated with fairies in folklore, appears in a few significant places in the movie. Coraline's downstairs neighbors advise her not to wear green, they later give her a green holed stone/planchette, and when Coraline is trying to beat the Other Mother by finding the missing souls the full moon of the other world slowly turns green (and button like). 

- eyes. There is a lot of complicated folklore around eyes even through a fairylore lens. The button eyes in Coraline seem to represent belonging to the Other Mother but may also relate to losing humanity to stay in fairy. It is interesting to note that in the ballad of Tam Lin the fairy queen tells Tam that had she known he would betray her she would have replaced his eyes with knots from trees, implying that he would have stayed loyal had she taken his eyes. In the movie this may also play into the eyes as window of the soul and the idea that taking the eyes and replacing them symbolized taking the soul. Any of these theories would play into various fairylore about stolen humans being turned into fairies or otherwise trapped in the world of Fairy. 

- passage of time. Although not a major aspect of the movie time seems to flow differently for Coraline when she is with the Other Mother. Her visits often involve more time passing in the other world than appears to pass in the real world, except when she goes through on her own and escapes, after which it seems like she has been gone for a longer period of time in the real world than had passed in the other (based on the rotting groceries on the table). When her parents are stolen and won back they are unaware of how much time has passed while they were gone. 

- holey stone. Although it may just as arguably be a planchette (a tool used with ouija boards to help communicate with the dead) the triangular green object given to Coraline by her neighbors has always reminded me of a holed stone. In folklore a holed stone is protective and also can be used to dispel fairy illusion if one pears through the stone. Coraline uses it for both purposes and her neighbors, arguing over its purpose, suggest it is good for finding lost things and also for keeping away bad things. 

- dreams as gateways. A final and subtle nod to some fairy folklore is the way that Coraline passes into the other world in her dreams the first two times she visits. While we have abundant stories of people traveling to Fairyland in physical form (as Coraline does later on) we also have stories of people going via trance or dreams. 

This has been a short list of the most prominent fairy folklore within Coraline. I hope that readers have found this interesting and that this may offer a different perspective next time you watch the movie. While not positioned as such I think there's an interesting argument to be made for Coraline as a modern changeling story. Perhaps I'll write a full paper on it one day. 

7 Things About Irish Mythology

 Today I thought it would be good to cover some points about Irish mythology that are important for people interested in the subject to know. These include common confusions as well as helpful tips and I hope people will find it all interesting. Of course for some readers this won't be new information but for others it may be the first time they're seeing these ideas, so I'm trying to cover a range of things from common to more obscure.

1. Irish Mythology Doesn't Equal Celtic Mythology - mislabeling of Irish mythology as 'Celtic' is a pretty common problem. Its true that Irish falls under the umbrella of Celtic culture but Irish myths are very specific to Ireland and when we do find pan-Celtic deities in different Celtic cultures their stories will be different. In other words the Irish Lugh may be a cognate of the Welsh Llew but Irish myths about Lugh are very different from Welsh stories of Llew. Calling it all Celtic and lumping it together can give people the idea that it was all much more homogeneous than it actually is. This also contributes in my opinion to the common misconception that Irish and Celtic are synonymous, rather than an understanding that Celtic is descriptive of a group of related but distinct languages and cultures. 
2. Older Versions of Myths Aren't Identical to Modern Retellings - This isn't to say that one is better or worse or more genuine or whatever, but its important to note that there is a difference between a modern retelling of a myth which often takes liberties with the story and adds or subtracts details and the myths as they are found in manuscript sources. This is important because if someone says something is 'known in Irish mythology' then quotes a retelling from the 1980s that varies wildly from actual recorded mythology it gives readers a false impression of both antiquity and cultural validity. This has also often led to people outside Irish culture rewriting Irish mythology in ways that make it appear they are presenting older material accurately when they are not (looking at Peter Berresford Ellis here). We just need to be honest about sources. 
3. There Isn't Any Single Source for Irish Myths - the older mythology we have which was recorded*, generally, from the 9th through 18th centuries (I'm being a bit generous with the end date) do not represent a single cohesive body of myth but rather a wide array of variations based on region, time period, and cultural influences. This gives us in many cases a variety of stories which exist in different versions which may have significantly different details - for example in one version of the Táin Bó Cuailigne it is Badb who warns the Donn Cuailigne, contests with Cu Chulainn and so on while in others it is the Morrigan who does these things. For another example the famous encounter between the Morrigan and Cu Chulainn where she appears in disguise as a princess is found in only a single version of the Táin Bó Cuailigne; in all others that episode isn't present. 
4. Cultural Context is Important - I don't mean a vague 'Irish Culture' here but rather the culture of the time and place the story was written or told. For example its generally understood that the Oidheadh Chlainn Tuireann likely reflected the human political landscape of the time, an influence which shaped the story away from the Cath Maige Tuired (both describe the battle with eth Fomorians) and reflected the 200 years that likely existed between the composing of the Cath Maige Tuired and the Oidheadh Chlainne Tuireann. In the same way to understand several stories it would be helpful, even vital, to understand the importance of cows within the contemporary culture. 
5. Translations and Translators Matter - this is a hobby horse of mine but it is true. There are versions of stories where the translator added their own material and versions where entire passages were edited out or not translated, and it is vital to realize this. We should not treat a translation of an Irish myth as a written in stone, word of the Gods version because the hand of the translator can profoundly effect the text we read. A great example of this is Whitley Stokes choice to omit the entire encounter between the Dagda and the Fomorian princess in the Cath Maige Tuired because he found it unfit for Victorian sensibilities or his decision to call the Morrigan a lamia in a different passage although the original text never uses that term or describes her with anything similar. Treating Stokes version as literally accurate will give a reader misconceptions about the material that will change how they understand the subject. 
6. Not Everything Labelled Irish Mythology Actually Is - Misinformation is a problem, especially because of the popularity of Irish myth. Now its possible for something new to be absorbed into folk belief but often we find ideas outside Irish culture that are labeled as both Irish and historic and that causes problems. The Bean tighe fairy for example was created outside Ireland in the early 21st century, and the 'Irish' goddess Cana Cludhmor or Canola was invented by an American author also in the 21st century. Both of these can be found online presented as genuinely older Irish myth or belief. So its important to have some discernment before believing things you may run across. 
7. Irish Mythology Is Still Evolving - we tend to think of mythology as historic material, and the bulk of what we have is older. But these are still living beliefs and they continue to evolve across the older myths and into modern living folk belief. We see this in the way the Lugh of mythology became the Lugh of folk belief, or the way Áine went from one of the Tuatha De Danann to a fairy queen to a human woman but all while retaining a place in folk belief. Irish culture is alive, Irish story telling is alive, and so the stories themselves are fluid and adaptable. We can (and should in my opinion) be clear about what is or isn't older belief or recorded myth but we also have to be aware of modern concepts and ideas within the living culture that include mythic concepts and beings. 

*we do not necessarily have manuscripts which have survived from the earlier dating periods but we have later copies of those manuscripts which can be dated to those periods based on the language and style used. 

Freya's Cats

 The subject of Freya's cats came up recently on social media, so I wanted to share this excerpt from my forthcoming book Pagan Portals Freya. I hope this may clarify some points, as this summarizes the information we have from the older sources and may help people differentiate between new ideas and stories and the older beliefs. 

Cats – Freya is said to travel in a chariot pulled by two cats, probably wild cats. The Grimnismal doesn’t tell us or even hint at what kind of cats they may be, saying only “Whenever Freya travels, she sits in her carriage which is drawn by cats”.  The Skáldskaparmal refers to them as ‘gib-cats’ an antiquated term for male cats, possible neutered. The actual term used in the original language for the animals is vague and they have been depicted in art as everything from small house cats to wild cats, although in modern folklore and belief they are usually envisioned as large cats.

Her ownership of these cats[1] has been the source of much speculation among scholars. O’Donoghue suggest they may represent chaos as a chariot pulled by cats would seem to be a difficult option. Turville-Petre sees the cats as representing lust, saying: “The cat, as the Norse pagans must have known, is the most lascivious of beasts.” (Turville-Petre, 1964). Ellis Davidson takes the most benevolent view and ascribes the cat association to Freya’s connection to seidhr and the cat’s reputation as a supernatural animal.

In the older sources these animals are never named, however Diana Paxson in her 1984 novel ‘Brisingamen’ chose to name the cats Bygull (Beegold) and Tregull (Treegold) as modern poetic kennings of Honey and Amber[2]. These names have gained popularity across modern pagan books and can be found in several such texts given as if they are the original mythic names of the cats.

While it is generally assumed today, and has been across artwork for many years, that the cats are indeed cats there is some question around the original word used. Older translators have no hesitation to give the word as cats or tom-cats, but Grimm in Teutonic Mythology questioned whether bear wasn’t the intended term and an assortment of other animals, including weasels, have also been suggested. Despite this there is reasonable evidence that some form of either wild or domestic cat was meant and would have been understood by the contemporary audience.

page 42, Brisingamen by Diana Paxson, 1984

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[1] If one can ever be said to own a cat

[2] I was told that this was a personal choice in an online correspondence with the author, however it is also publicly referenced in Our Troth, vol 1, page 373. 

All of My Fairy Writing

  I've been asked several times about what I've written on fairies by people looking into my writing on the subject. I finally decided it would just be easier to write a quick bit here about it. I'm including articles, presentations, and books. I am not including the range of my blog material on Living Liminally or on Patheos Agora: Irish-American Witchcraft or Witches&Pagans On the Fairy Road. 

(updated from 2020)

Articles

      “The Witch, the Bean Feasa, and the Fairy Doctor in Irish Culture”. Air n-Aithesc, vol. 1 issue 2, Aug. 2014

“Fairy Witchcraft Master class”, Spirit & Destiny, July 2016

“Enchantment in the Modern World”, Mystic Living Today ezine July 2016

“Scottish Fairies and the Teind to Hell”, Pagan Dawn, Spring 2017

“Fairy Witchcraft: Old Ways in New Days” Watson’s Mind Body Spirit Magazine, Spring 2017

“Fairies, Word and Deed” Watson’s Mind Body Spirit Magazine, Autumn 2018

“Fairy Queens and Witches” Pagan Dawn, Lammas 2019 no 212

“Queens of Fairy” The Magical Times, Oct 2019 – March 2020, issue 27

“Conceptualizing Fairyland” Pagan Dawn, Imbolc 2020 no 214

“The Power of Transformation”, Witch Way Magazine, Midsummer special issue 2020

“Fairies and the Stars”, Pagan Dawn, Lammas-Autumn Equinox 2020, no 216

“Sexuality and Gender Among the Good Neighbours: the Intersection and Inversion of Human Norms in Fairylore”, written for Revenant Journal 2020, cut, posted on academia.edu; FIS newsletter 2021

“Queens of Fairy” Watkins Mind Body Spirit Winter 2021

“Imagining Fairyland”, Pagan Dawn, Imbolc issue, 2022 no 222

“The White Elephant in the Room: Racism and Diversity in Fairy Belief”, Witches & Pagans Magazine, issue 39, 2022

“Fairy Queens and Witches”, Pagan Dawn, Beltane Issue, 2022, no 223

“Finding the Aos Sidhe”, ev0ke magazine, June 2022

“Marriage and the Otherworld”, FIS newsletter, 2023

“The Aos Sidhe: The Good Folk of Ireland”, Pagan Dawn. Beltane issue 2023. No 227

 

On Academia Edu

(Conference Presentations)

"Álfar, Aelfe, and Elben: Elves in an historic and modern Heathen context", HWU conference 2019

"Evolution of the Fairy Courts: from Scottish Ballads to Urban Fantasy", OSU Fairies and the Fantastic Conference 2019

“Unseely to anti-hero: The Evolution of Dangerous Fairies in Folklore, Fiction, and Popular Belief” Hertfordshire University’s ‘Ill Met By Moonlight’ conference, 2021

"Fairies as 'Other': Gender and Sexuality Across Western European Fairy Belief" Folklore Open Voices: folklore for all, folklore of all conference, 2022

https://independent.academia.edu/MorganDaimler

 

Books

A Child’s Eye View of the Fairy Faith, 2012 (out of print)

Pagan Portals: Fairy Witchcraft, 2014

Fairycraft 2016

Fairies: A Guidebook to the Celtic Fair Folk; 2017

Travelling the Fairy Path 2018

Pagan Portals Fairy Queens 2019

A New Fairies Dictionary 2020

Pagan Portals Living Fairy 2020

Pagan Portals Aos Sidhe 2022

Pagan Portals 21st Century Fairy 2023