Cailleach
Art by Carmon Deyo
Story
by DeborahAnne Mac Gillivray
Cailleach
(Call y' ach) is the Gaelic word for old woman, but used in a
most generic term to represent the third face of the Goddess.
She is called Carlin in the Lowlands of Scotland, Hag of the
Beare or Cailleach Bhuer (Blue Woman) in the Highlands, Cally
Berry in northern Ireland, Black Annis in England (Annis also
being a name for a Celtic Water Goddess predating the invasion
of Scotland by the Gaels from Dalriada) and Cailleach ny Groamch
on the Isle of Man, with many, many variations. She is also called
the Stone Woman, but I believe this to be an incorrect translation
and should be the Woman of Stones, referring to the many stone
circles throughout Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales. Her
name is in Scottish and Welsh Triads, even faery stories speak
of her as the final phases of the Triple Goddess, as the old
woman who dies at Samhaine, only to be reborn in the form of
the maiden/bride at Beltaine. The Book of Lecan
stresses this continual cycle by saying she had seen seven cycles
of life, death and rebirth, and has had seven mates. Seven is
considered a sacred number, the symbol of perfection attained.
She was thought to control the Seasons and the weather. The once
all-powerful Goddess, Queen of Samhaine, has been stripped of
her role in the pagan drama of life, death and rebirth, reduced
to the evil blue-faced faery, giant, with green fangs and dirty
white hair, who brings death and Winter, or the feeble crone
who sits by the fireside and protects the family and their cattle,
only wanting a cup of milk. Worse insult, is the depicting as
the cackling, black-clad, green-faced, cartoonish, broom-riding
witch of commercialized Halloween. Despite this terrible perpetuated
misrepresentation, She was thought never to grow old, but remained
ageless, womanhood fully realized, beauty and wisdom at its peak.
She is
shown riding a gray stallion and ravens, crows, the waning moon,
Winter, turnips (Scots for pumpkins - in Scotland a turnip is
a neep!), harvests and apples are connected to her, as well as
the number seven.
36"
X 36" one of a kind handpainted silk wallhanging. Winner
of the Mythology Division at the 2000 North Texas Irish Festival
Celtic Art Competition.
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