(Images labeled by Gypsy Scholar)
Celtic Wheel of the Year & Calendar
“The Celtic Wheel of the Year” was quartered by the solar events with which we are familiar—the solstices (“sun-standing”) and the equinoxes (“equal-night”)—and then it was quartered again at the midpoints between the solar events, the “cross-quarter days.” The result was that the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, was midsummer’s day, not the first day of summer as we observe it. The same goes for the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the middle of winter in the old system. The true cross-quarter dates are calculated based on the position of the earth in its elliptical orbit (or the sun’s “ecliptic longitude” as seen from earth) and are actually a few days later than the traditional dates of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh. The major solar events occur at the 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° points with respect to the Vernal Equinox; the cross-quarter dates are placed at the 45° points between them, which may be up to 12 hours away from the midpoint between the calendar dates. The position of the moon is indicated as well; it will be adjacent to the sun when new, and opposite when full. The names of the zodiac constellations indicate their true sidereal positions in the sky. Accurate sidereal and solar times require knowledge of the observer’s longitude. Time zone is used by default as a rough estimation, but in some parts of the world it can be two hours off.
“The Celtic Wheel Horologium” indicates the current date with respect to the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days, as well as the positions of the sun, moon, and stars. The view is that of an observer looking down at the solar system from above the earth’s North Pole. The vertical blue line is the meridian, the line passing from the north to the south celestial poles through the zenith of a terrestrial observer. Times and dates are local based on the user’s system time.
“The Gallic Coligny Calendar” year (lunisolar, based on lunar months) began with Samonios (November), which is usually assumed to correspond to Old Irish Samhain eve (October 31), giving an autumn start to the new year. It shows that Samhain was celebrated “three days before and three days after” the Novemeber 1 date.
As to the timing of Samhain, a “cross-quarter” day on the Celtic/Neopagan Wheel of the Year, it is traditionally celebrated on October 31, the eve of November 1. This is known as the “Fixed Date.” However, there are two other dates on which it is celebrated; the astrological and the astronomical dates, which go by a lunisolar calendar. The “Astrological Date” is when the Sun is at the 15th degree of Scorpio on November 6-7. The “Astronomical Date” is the cross-quarter day approximately the midway point between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere). Astronomical time is based on the meridian overhead, not midnight, so the actual position of the sun in the sky is opposite that of solar time. These two dates are sometimes referred to as “True Samhain.”
Celtic Festival of Samhain
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
Celtic New Year Mandala
I shall be Autumn
this Halloween,
with leaf draped skirt,
and folds of
boysenberry velvet wine
flowing to the ground.
Brown stained face,
eyes rimmed in gold,
nails dripping sunset,
a crown of twigs
to cover my head.
You may gather from me
the spring of my youth,
my summer of maturity,
and hold onto with me,
the solace of these days
of remembering
before the frost.
~ Judith A. Lawrence, “Autumn Offering”
October brings us panoramic scenes
Picassoesque impressionistic style
From reds to browns and earth tones in between
When nature paints those landscapes that beguile
The helpful sun provides hot yellow paint
Which bleeds and blends from mountains to the seas
There are no signs that nature shows restraint
As hues are scattered by the autumn breeze
Yet with her madness comes a masterpiece
The reason for spring's jealousy of green
Before her creativity has ceased
Her orange and black spills on Halloween
October means peace, love, and harmony
Get with your friends, enjoy fall's scenery
~ Daniel Turner, “Painting Autumn”
Even now this landscape is assembling.
The hills darken. The oxen
Sleep in their blue yoke,
The fields having been
Picked clean, the sheaves
Bound evenly and piled at the roadside
Among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:
This is the barrenness
Of harvest or pestilence
And the wife leaning out the window
With her hand extended, as in payment,
And the seeds
Distinct, gold, calling
Come here
Come here, little one
And the soul creeps out of the tree
~ Louise Gluck, “All Hallows”
“The perfect weather of Indian Summer lengthened and lingered, warm sunny days were followed by brisk nights with Halloween a presentiment in the air.” ~ Wallace Stegner
“October proved a riot a riot to the senses and climaxed those giddy last weeks before Halloween.” ~ Keith Donohue
In the season leaves should love,
since it gives them leave to move
through the wind, towards the ground
they were watching while they hung,
legend says there is a seam
stitching darkness like a name.
Now when dying grasses veil
earth from the sky in one last pale
wave, as autumn dies to bring
winter back, and then the spring,
we who die ourselves can peel
back another kind of veil
that hangs among us like thick smoke.
Tonight at last I feel it shake.
I feel the nights stretching away
thousands long behind the days
till they reach the darkness where
all of me is ancestor.
I move my hand and feel a touch
move with me, and when I brush
my own mind across another,
I am with my mother's mother.
Sure as footsteps in my waiting
self, I find her, and she brings
arms that carry answers for me,
intimate, a waiting bounty.
“Carry me.” She leaves this trail
through a shudder of the veil,
and leaves, like amber where she stays,
a gift for her perpetual gaze.
Annie Finch,“Samhain”
For "Halloween" poem by Robert Burns, click here
Autumn Fairy Tree
Autumn Witch
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
King and Queen of the Samhain harvest
Thematic Memes for Samhain Basics
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
click arrow on right to advance images and click on image to expand.
Thematic Memes for Samhain Blessings
(most memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Memes for Samhain
(all memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
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Thematic Artwork for Samhain
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Samhain (Fitzgerald)
Samhain Celtic Reaper
Thematic Images for Samhain & Halloween
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Samhain-Halloween (Skaggs)
Thematic Images for Samhain/Halloween ""Feast of the Dead"
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
Féile na Marbh ritual
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
Spirit of Samhain communing with the ancestors
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images for Samhain & Halloween Night
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Thematic Images for Samhain/Halloween "Mischief Night"
Samhain, like Halloween, is notoriously known as “Mischief Night,” with its main feature being what social anthropologists identify as “rituals of social inversion,” wherein the social hierarchy is “turned upside down” for the duration of the festival; for instance, masters become slaves and slaves masters. Thus, this social misrule during the festival qualifies as what social anthropologists also identify as “carnivalesque,” the idea of a “transgressive” phenomenon, one that first manifests in the popular festivals of the common people during the medieval and early modern periods when they gathered to experience “Collective Pleasure.”
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"Samhain - Trick or Treat"
For article, "Mischief Night: A Dark Autumn Tradition Best Left Forgotten?", click here
For article, "Mischief Night: What is the anarchic celebration of lawlessness and what is its history?", click here
Thematic Images for Samhain & Halloween Night Witches
Classic Artwork of Witches
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Contemporary Artwork of Witches
Airmid, Celtic Goddess of Witchcraft
Thematic Memes of Witches
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images for Hecate, Goddess of Witches
Hecate (or Hekate) as “Queen of Witches and Night” and the crossroads greeter of souls after death, can be understood as the proper goddess of Halloween. But, Hecate's magic was not just about death and the underworld. As healer, she helped ease the transition of the dying, and she was also associated with sacred plants, wilderness, childbirth, protection, and growing and harvest through her connection to the phases of the moon. A goddess of magic, witchcraft, the moon, nighttime, ghosts and necromancy (communicating with the deceased), you will sometimes see Hecate holding keys to open the gates between the worlds. Hecate is a liminal (threshold) goddess who was present at all the boundaries and transitional moments in life. It can also be understood that Halloween “Trick or Treating” has its roots in the myths of Hecate, the Greek goddess of the crossroads. Known as a triple goddess of earth, sky, and sea, in mythological art and religious iconography, Hecate was sometimes portrayed as three separate figures, for example the Celtic Triple Goddess aspects of Maiden, Mother, Crone.
The end of summer and the beginning of winter was the time of year when the “veil between the worlds” was thought to be the thinnest and most easily penetrated, a time when the laws of space and time were temporarily suspended, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. This was when Hecate made her “nocturnal wanderings.”
Thematic Images for Samhain Faeries (Fey, Fae, or the Sidhe)
Titania: Queen of Celtic Fairies
Faery Queen of the Golden Wood
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Titania
Fairy Queen
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Queen Mab
Fairy Queen Medb (Meaohoh) of the Sidhe
Fairy Queens
Fairies
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The Fairy Host
Arthur Rackham Illustrations of Fairies
Oberon Meets The Fairy Queen
The Fey (or Fae) are known by many other names, with their common title “fairies” taken after their homeland, the Otherworld, the world of fairyland. Other than faeries, fey (or fay and fae) and Fair Folk, they are also known as the Kind Ones, Little People, Good Neighbors, and some other euphemisms, partly because of their enormous variety and partly because of age-old superstitions about invoking them by name. The Fey of folklore were blamed for all manner of mischief, such as leading travelers astray at night.
Fey, or “Fairy-Folk,” were said to have inhabited the spiritual realm before humans ever set foot on Earth, or perhaps even before humans were created as a whole. Their true origins is largely shrouded in mystery as even a majority of the fae themselves are unsure of where they came from or who created them, although one prominent belief is that they came from the Tuatha Dé Danann, a race of gods who invaded Ireland on flying ships surrounded by dark clouds. After being defeated in battle with another invading race of gods, the Milesians, they retreated to the underworld, where, over time, they became known as the “People of the Sidhe” (a word that literally means “a mound”).
Some say the Fey are spirits of the dead, elementals in alchemy, demoted angels, demons, pagan gods, a type of human, and more. They are known as the opposites and enemies of the Creatures of the Night and Demons, which also indirectly makes them the allies of the Angels. They are led by Oberon, the High King of the Fey and arch-enemy to the vampire god Absalom.
"The Cauldron of Inspiration" in Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld of the Faery
"The Song of Amergin"
'The Song of Amergin" is a riddle about the very force of creation, that mysterious force from the Otherworld, of Annwn, that permeates every single aspect of our world and brings it into manifestation, the great mystery itself.
I am a wind across the sea
I am a flood across the plain
I am the roar of the tides
I am a stag of seven tines
I am a dewdrop let fall by the sun
I am the fierceness of boars
I am a hawk, my nest on a cliff
I am a height of magical poetry
I am the most beautiful among flowers
I am the salmon of wisdom
Who but I is both the tree and the lightning that strikes it
Who but I is the dark secret of the dolmen not yet hewn
I am the queen of every hive
I am the fire on every hill
I am the shield over every head
I am the spear of battle
I am the ninth wave of eternal return
I am the grave of every vain hope
Who but I knows the path of the sun or the periods of the moon.
For music video of "The Incantation of Amergin," click here
For music video of "The Song of Amergin," click here
For music video of "Aimhirghin's Song- An Invocation of Ireland," click here
For video of "Amergin's Incantation & Song of Triumph" from Ancient Irish Mythology, click here
Thomas the Rhymer & The Fairy Queen
Thomas The Rhymer Meets The Fairy Queen of Elfland
Thomas the Rhymer and the Fairy Queen
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Thomas Rhymer & Queen of Elfland :
"Under the Eildon tree Thomas met the lady."
The Queen of Elphame of Fairyland (of Scottish legend) appears in the legend of Thomas the Rhymer (c. 1220 – 1298.) He was said to be a laird and sort of a local prophet, who lived in the Borders region of Scotland. The tale described a man who was helped by the Queen of Elphame and returned from his time with her with the gift of prophecy. In one version of this text the mystical being is the queen of a nameless kingdom. In a translation of the traditional ballad, "Thomas the Rhymer," by poet Robert Graves the fairy queen, who Thomas mistakes for the "Queen of Heaven," says:
''I'm not the Queen of Heaven, Thomas,
That name does not belong to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elphame
Come out to hunt in my follie.''
In the lyrics to the traditional ballad, the Fairy Queen rides away with Thomas:
"She mounted on her milk-white steed,
She's taen True Thomas up behind,
And aye wheneer her bridle rung,
The steed flew swifter than the wind."
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Faery Queen Elfland and Thomas the Rhymer
The legendary Faery Queen is called by many names in the folklore, Queen of Elphame (also Elfame and Elfhame), Queen of Elfland, Queen of Elfin (also Elphin), Queen of the Faeries, Queen of Faeryland, and Queen of the Seelie Court specifically. However, it should be noted that she is never been given a specific name in the folklore itself. Yet, it should also be noted that in the Celtic folklore an association between the original Queen of Elfhame and Queen Mab of Connacht. In Scottish and Northern British folklore the name ''Queen of Elphame'' means ''Queen of Fairyland." It is unknown when she appeared in history or legends for the first time, but she was mentioned in several old folk stories. (She even made her appearance in and documents of witch trials. This has to do with the fact that the Queen of the Faeries is a major spirit in earlier witchcraft lore of Europe and Great Britain, but during the early modern period the focus of the leader of the witches shifted to simply the Devil.). She is associated with magic, childbirth, and healing. She has also been described as a young and beautiful woman who could steal the heart of any man. The legend of this Faery Queen became an inspiration for many famous artists and writers, and also appeared in plays by Shakespeare and his followers (as "Queen Mab"). All of the faeries they presented in their texts may be associated with the Queen of Elphame. With the growing popularity of fantasy novels and movies, descriptions of the Queen of Elphame and her court started to appear even more often.
The famed ballad of "Thomas the Rhymer" or "True Thomas" tells the tale of a young man taken by the faeries and living in the court of the Queen of the Faeries (or Queen of Elphame) where he lived as her lover. There are many variants of the traditional ballad (collected by Francis James Child and published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898.) In most variants of the ballad Thomas is contracted to being a lover and consort of the Queen for seven years ( a magical faery number), and afterward, he will be allowed to return to the human world. He has attained much wisdom, knowledge, insights, and great inspiration to be a blessed poet and bard. That is where the alternate name of the ballad "True Thomas" comes into play, because the name "Thomas the Rhymer" is in reference to his gift of prophecy coming in the form of poetry. (It was a very common belief that if you spent the night sleeping on a Faery Mound or in a Faery Circle you would either depart a poet or go mad.) It is far from uncommon in folklore and faerylore to have a man become a bard and poet after an encounter with a Faery Queen or Faery Goddess. For instance, Taliesin became a wise bard and poet in Wales after his encounter and famed chase with goddess Cerridwen. Also similar is the Irish Faery woman the Leanan Sidhe blessing artists, poets, and bards with talent via sexual congress. The idea of Faery blessings in Celtic folklore can be found in accounts of special humans blessed by Faery magick to gain the Sight and other gifts. Altogether, we can see the blessing of Faery gifts of bards and poets all through Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
Tam Lin & The Fairy Queen
Tam Lin & The Fairy Queen
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Tam Lin & The Faerie Queen
Janet holds Tam Lin through his animal metamorphosis
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Tamlin
Tam Lin Reborn
Tam Lin & Janet
Tam Lin & Janet
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Tam Lin & Janet
parts of the illustrated story of Tam Lin
Faery Music
(Memes made by Gypsy Scholar)
Thematic Images for Celtic Gods, Goddesses &
Legendary Figures for Samhain
Cernunnos, primordial Celtic horned god
Celtic horned god of Samhain
Eochaid Ollathafr or Dagda, the principal god of the Old Irish tradition
The Dagda
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Queen Maev (Leyendecker)
Medb, Queen of Connacht
and Goddess of Sovereignty
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Medb (Maeve), Queen of Connacht (FitzPatrick)
Thematic Images for the Cailleach Bheara (Bheur)
The Cailleach Dark Goddess
From the earliest times, the Cailleach Bheara (or Bheur) has been venerated as a mother Goddess of Ireland. She is often referred to as the Hag, the Crone, the Wise Woman. Her energy is deeply rooted in the late autumnal and winter time of year. Her season begins on October 31st, the Samhain festival. Sometimes known as the “Veiled One” or the “Queen of Winter,” the Cailleach is said to control the weather and the winds as well as determining the length and harshness of winter. Her most prominent title was Cailleach Bhéara, revealing her as master of winter and strongly associated with storms and thunder. The “Veiled One” was a creator deity that shaped much of the known landscape. Her tools of creation and destruction included her hammer, with which she was able to control storms and thunder. As both divine hag and creator deity, she remains a popular topic for poets and writers. . (Cailleach is a common word in both Scottish and Irish Gaelic meaning “old woman” or “hag.” This current word was derived from Caillech, a term meaning “veiled one” in Old Gaelic.)
I Am The Crone
I am the Oldest of the old, Wisest of the wise, the Power behind power.
I am Hecate, Heqt, Cerridwen, Kali, Caillech, Hel, Cybele, Morrigan, Ala, Mara,
I am the Old Hag of many names.
I am the light in the dark and the dark of the moon.
I am the One behind the veil, the Threshold to be crossed.
I am the dealer of Death, giver of Rebirth.
I am the greatest of Teachers, with the deepest of lessons.
I am Transition and Connection, the spider in the web.
I am Dusk, Midnight, and the dark before Dawn.
I am Surrender when you need to let go.
I am the chill wind in Autumn, the whisper of Winter.
I am the Three-Way Place, the center of the Crossroads.
I am the all-seeing Owl, the Frog under the mud, the flesh-eating Vulture, the Raven and the Wolf.
I am the Destroyer, and your Protector as well.
I am the One to lead you through the Dark, through the Fire, into a new day.
I am the Crone, Oldest of the old, Wisest of the Wise, the Power behind power.
Cailleach, "The Veiled One"
I am Cailleach, the meager blue hag.
My face is blue
My teeth are red
And I have only one eye.
I am the Winter Queen.
My name means "dark of the sun".
I am ruler of the "Little sun of winter."
The summer of youth where we were has been spent along with its harvest; winter age that drowns everyone, its beginning has come upon me.
"The Hag of Beare" (translated by Lady Gregory, 1852-1932)
A music video, "Cailleach's Whisper"
Halloween Song from 1600s - "The Hag" by Robert Herrick
A music video on the gods of Ireland: "Tuatha De Danann"
The Original Dark Goddesses
The dark goddesses, such as Ishtar, Isis, Athena, Diana-Artemis, Cybele, Rhea, Ceres, Demeter Melaina, and Kali, were black, the color characteristic of goddesses of earth’s fertility. These dark goddesses, who represented fertility, also represented pagan erotic energy and were associated with the moon and the underworld. These "black goddesses" reflect the dark earth of their origins and the original, primordial Black Mother of Africa. Research into them today has revealed that these dark goddesses are also an image of much needed psychic wholeness.
"The Black Goddess is so far hardly more than a word of hope whispered among the few who have served their apprenticeship to the White Goddess. She promises a new pacific bond between men and women, corresponding to a final reality of love . . . She would lead man back to that sure instinct of love which long ago forfeited by intellectual pride." Robert Graves, The White Goddess.
"The Black Goddess: what symbol of transformation could be more appropriate than the rich darkness, the black earth of Isis . . . ." ~ Peter Redgrove
(For more information, see Lucia Birnbaum, Dark Mother: African Origins and Godmothers.
Martin Bernal, Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, vols. I and II . Peter Redgrove, The Black Goddess and the Unseen Real. Carolyn Baker, Reclaiming The Dark Feminine.)
The Mesopotamian dark goddess Ishtar (or Inanna), known as "Queen of the Night"
and featured at the conclusion of the Gypsy Scholar's musical essay series, "The Samhain Festival Season & The Dark Goddess."
The Christian Heterodox "Black Madonna"
The term "Black Madonna" or "Black Virgin" tends to refer to statues or paintings in Western Christendom of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, where both figures are depicted with dark skin. Examples of the Black Madonna can be found both in Catholic and Orthodox countries.
The paintings are usually icons, which are Byzantine in origin or style, some of which were produced in 13th or 14th-century Italy. Other examples from the Middle East, Caucasus or Africa, mainly Egypt and Ethiopia, are even older. About 400–500 Black Madonnas have been recorded in Europe, with the number related to how they are classified. They are dated back some 1100 years.
The Christian "Black Madonna" or "Black Virgin" statues are considered heterodox objects of worship because of their black skin. They were generally ignored by historians of religion until very recently. And, with their so-called "discovery," research into the Black Madonna phenomenon remained limited, the first research starting in in the 1950s. Recently (in the late 20th century), however, interest in this subject has gathered more momentum, and today there is considerable interest among feminist scholars of religion and laymen alike in this revelatory discovery of the "Black Madonna." (Of course, this has been meet with disparagement from orthodox Christian scholars, who deny that the blackness of these madonnas has anything to do with actual skin color or, for that matter, any alternate theological worldview, dismissing their black color as merely years discoloration or due to gathering dirt.) Since the 1980s, several books have come out examining the "Black Madonna" phenomenon, which extrapolate on their meaning today, from their religious to their psychological significance. (For a far-ranging and more esoteric take on the phenomenon, see Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin, 1985. For example, Begg links the refrain from the Song of Solomon, "I am black, and I am beautiful" to the Queen of Sheba.
The Gypsy Scholar's take on the resurgence of the Black Madonnas in our Western spiritual consciousness (as presented in his last Samhain musical essay ("The Samhain Festival Season & The Dark Goddess") is that they are not religious originals; that these Black Madonna figurines and icons are a late heterodox, underground manifestation of a long line of the pre-Christian dark-feminine, chthonic goddesses. In other words, the Black Madonna has her roots in dark, or black, pagan deities, such as Ishtar, Isis, Athena, and Diana. Furthermore, they are part of the 20th-century phenomenon that has been registered by feminist thealogians as "the Return of the Goddess" (in psychoanalytical terms the "return of the repressed") in Western patriarchal civilization; the Great Mother Goddess and her culture that was overthrown and exiled with the establishment of a new patriarchal order. (The "Great Goddess culture" of the Neolithic period refers to the hypothesized widespread worship of a single, primary female deity, often called a "Mother Goddess," across various regions of Europe and the Near East during the Neolithic era, believed to be associated with fertility, life, and the earth, with evidence primarily found in the form of female figurines like the "Venus of Willendorf.") The discovery of Black Madonnas is timely, since they (a) inevitably lead back to the more profound discovery of the prototypes of the pagan "dark goddesses" and their significance and (b) these original dark goddesses offer (over and above the return of the white goddesses) a much-needed rebalancing of the light and dark halves of the human psyche and thus not only a reclaiming and revaluing of "darkness" in general but also holding the promise of the integration of that which C.G. Jung identified as the repressed "Shadow," which is necessary for psychic wholeness. The magnitude of such a project in healing the Western psyche--and therefore the Western world--is why the GS has seen fit to present his research into the phenomenon of the original dark goddesses. Therefore, his interest in the Christian "Black Madonna" is only secondary to his interest in the pagan dark, or black, goddesses, since the Christian ones lead to the revelation of the universal pre-Christian ones.
Thematic Images for Samhain's Wild Hunt
The “People/Phantoms of the Night” are roughly equivalent to the Celtic “faery folk” of the Otherworld. Associated with the medieval “Witchcraft” phenomenon, other magical elements accrued themselves onto this folklore complex of the “People
/Phantoms of the Night,” such as: (1) the pan-European legend of the “Wild Hunt” of the “night-riders” (sometimes led by Herne the Hunter), who could be heard thundering through the countryside on horseback just above the ground or in the sky; (2) the legend of the pagan goddess of the Hunt, Diana (or “Holda”), who lured women to “night flying,” or nocturnal travels of riding upon wild beasts— “the game of Diana.”
There is an old tale goes, that Herne the Hunter
(Sometimes a keeper here in Windsor forest)
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg’d horns,
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
The superstitious idle-headed eld
Receiv’d and did deliver to our age
This tale of Herne the Hunter for truth.
~ Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
Herne The Hunter
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
The Wild Hunt is an ancient folk-myth that is prevalent in all regions of the Boreal Forest (a circumpolar forest that rings the Northern Hemisphere, mostly north of the 50th parallel); in other words, across Northern, Western, and Central Europe. Some folklorists contend that it may be as old as mankind itself.
There are many legends of the Wild Hunt, depending on where they originate. Besides Ireland, the Wild Hunt is known from the post-medieval folklore of Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The story of The Wild Hunt is a tale found throughout both Celtic and Norse folklore. In Welsh mythology, Arawn or Gwynn ap Nudd is the leader of the Wild Hunt. In all the tales, the Hunter-god and hunters are generally the same: a phantasmal, spectral group of huntsmen with the accouterments of hunting (horns, whips, bow and arrow, etc), with horses and hounds in mad pursuit across the wintery and stormy night skies or just above the ground. The retinue wild hunters may be the dead or the fairies. Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or death of the one who saw it. Mortals getting in the path of or following the Hunt could be kidnapped and brought to the land of the dead or into the realm of the Fae.
Thematic Images for Witches' Sabbath & Wild Hunt
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Witches Sabbath (Johfra 1977)
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Witches Going to Their Sabbath (Falero 1878)
Witches Sabbath (Falero 1880)
Depart pour le Sabbat (Penot 1910)
Hecate of Wild Hunt
Hecate's Nocturnal Wanderings & The Wild Hunt
Often seen roaming around the countryside with her following of ghosts, Hecate was both honored and feared. As a moon-goddess, when the moon was full, Hecate became the leader of the Wild Hunt on the night of the “Witches Sabbath.”
When the pale white moon is climbing slow,
Through the stars to the heavens height,
We hear Thy hooves on the wings of night!
As black tree branches shake and sigh,
By joy and terror we know Thee nigh.
We speak the spell Thy power unlocks,
At solstice, sabbat and equinox.
Word of virtue, the veil to rend,
From primal dawn to the wide world's end!
Thematic Images for The Cailleach & Wild Hunt
(Image made by Gypsy Scholar)
The “Hag” or “Cailleach” as the Leader of the Wild Hunt
Traditionally, the "Hag" is a wizened old woman, or a kind of faery or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Celtic figure of Morrígan or Badb, who are seen as neither wholly beneficent nor malevolent. In Irish and Scottish mythology, the "Cailleach" is a Hag-goddess concerned with creation, harvest, the weather and sovereignty. Hags, as sovereignty figures (e.g., "Sovereignty Goddess" or "Lady Sovereignty," who the king must wed to insure the fertility and adundance of the land), abound in Irish mythology. The most common pattern is that the Hag represents the barren land, who the hero of the tale must approach without fear, and come to love on her own terms. When the hero displays this courage, love, and acceptance of her hideous side, the sovereignty hag then reveals that she is also a young and beautiful goddess.
The Cailleach is a seasonal goddess who is seen as ruling the winter months. As the "Queen of Winter," the Cailleach is said to control the weather and the winds as well as determining the length and harshness of winter. In Scotland, a group of hags, known as "The Cailleachan" (The Storm Hags), are seen as personifications of the elemental powers of nature, especially in a destructive aspect, thus giving rise to the phenomenon of the "Wild Hunt." They are said to be particularly active in raising the windstorms during the period known as "A Chailleach. Her most prominent title was "Cailleach Bhéara," revealing her as master of winter and strongly associated with storms and thunder. The Cailleach's tools of creation and destruction included her hammer, with which she was able to control storms and thunder.
Thematic Images of Annwn, Gwyn Ap Nudd & The Wild Hunt
The Steps of Annwn
Annwn map
In Welsh mythology, the Wild Hunt is lead either by Arawn, who is Arawn is the lord of the realm of Annwn, the Otherworld, and a great hunter and magician, or Gwynn Ap Nudd, who is both the King of the Fairies and the King of the Dead. They are accompanied by the fierce Cŵn Annwn, who are the spectral red eared, white colored dogs of the Wild Hunt.
Arawn is one of the Welsh kings of the Underworld, his kingdom known as Annwn or Annwfn, which was the paradise of peace and plenty, where euphoria is abundant. It was said to be full of eternal bliss and joy, with fruits being abundant and disease being non-existent. Arawn is also the Keeper of Lost Souls and is well known for riding his horse alongside his white, red-eared hounds through the autumn, winter and early spring skies, hunting for wandering otherworld spirits or perhaps Fey. Stories tell that the baying of the hounds sounded a great deal like the cries of wild geese during migration so that is probably how the legend began. Arawn’s rides to collect the wandering spirits was redefined into something dark and terrifying. “Later the myth was Christianized to describe the ‘capturing of human souls and the chasing of damned souls to Annwn’, and Annwn was equated with the ‘Hell’ of Christian tradition.” In later times it appears that the leadership of Annwn was transferred to another figure who went by the name of Gwyn Ap Nudd. He was known as the ruler of the Tylwth Teg (Fair Folk) and was the king of Annwn. His name translates to “White Son of Nudd.” Gwyn is also known for leading the British version of the Wild Hunt. In other areas of Europe other psychopompic figures such as Odin lead this march.
Annwn, Annwfn, or Annwfyn is the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Ruled by Arawn, it was essentially a world of delights and eternal youth where disease was absent and food was ever-abundant. It became identified with the Christian afterlife in paradise. (Etymologically speaking, the word Annwn is thought to mean “Un-world.” Annwn, also spelled Annwfn, is thought to derive from the word dfwn, which means “deep.” So it is also possible that it means “deep place.” )
Arawn, the Wild Hunter tapestry
Thematic Images for "The Hosting of the Sidhe & Wild Hunt
Samhain Faerie Wild Hunt
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
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Riders of the Sidhe (Duncan 1911)
Celtic Otherworld of the Sidhe
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William Butler Yeats' poem "The Hosting of the Sidhe"
The host is riding from Knocknarea
And over the grave of Clooth-na-Bare;
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away:
Empty your heart of its mortal dream.
The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,
Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound,
Our breasts are heaving our eyes are agleam,
Our arms are waving our lips are apart;
And if any gaze on our rushing band,
We come between him and the deed of his hand,
We come between him and the hope of his heart.
The host is rushing 'twixt night and day,
And where is there hope or deed as fair?
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away.
See video of "The Hosting of the Sidhe," put to music by the band Primordial
For William Butler Yeats' poem referencing the Wild Hunt, "Under Ben Bulben," click here
For poem on the Wild Hunt, "Åsgårdsreien," by Johan Sebastian Welhaven, click here
Thematic Images for Samhain (Neopagan) Sabbat Rituals
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The Sabbat (Byington)
The Witches' Sabbat
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
(Meme made by Gypsy Scholar)
