Welcome to Goddesses
in the Grove -

Celtic art and literature celebrates the Celtic tripartite Goddess in superlatives.

Presented here are moments in myths and literature where an insight into the her nature is gained. By one name or by many, alone or in three, her divinity is celebrated, and her presence, both past and today, acknowledged.

She has the six gifts, She is the most beautiful woman of all, and She is mother and She is nature. Her life-giving sustenance reflects in her role as Mother of Mabon and title of Great Queen.

Enlightening and inspirational are these songs amongst the oaks of the Grove!

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Brigit
Brigit was 'the goddess whom poets worshipped, for very great and very noble was her superintendence, therefore call they her goddess of poets by this name, whose sisters were Brigit, woman of smith-work, and Brigit, woman of healing, namely goddesses - from whose names Brigit was with all Irishmen called a goddess'. Thus is described the daughter of the Dagda in Cormac's Glossary, and the Three Brigits represent the Celtic Tripartite Goddess. Cormac's Glossary derives her name from breo-shaighit, 'fiery arrow', with the meaning of poetic inspiration being like fiery arrows. Brigit's nurturing aspects continued in Christian tradition, celebrated through St Brigid of Kildare.

Brigid and her cloak,
Mary and her Son,
between us and every evil.
More concerning Brigit is presented on Caer Australis in: Oimelc / Brigid - Flame of Springtime
The Bodensee, the natural reservoir source of the Rhine river in the Celtic homelands of Europe was in Gallo-Roman times entitled Lacus Brigantinus, reflecting the ancient, nuturing aspect of the goddess.
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Isis Queen of Heaven
I am the mother of all things,
Mistresse of all the Elements,
Queene of heaven,,
Principall of the Gods celestiall,
The light of the goddesses.
My divinity is adored throughout the world;
By proper ceremonies call mee 'Queene Isis'.
Written c.AD155, 'The Golden Ass' by Lucius Apuleius holds in it one of the greatest manifestations of the religious syncretism of the ancient world, whereby the many deities began to be seen as the localised persona of but a few, perhaps even one. In the eleventh book, Isis appears to Lucius, and reveals to him that She is in truth all goddesses, the excerpt of which follows:

By and by appeared unto me a divine and venerable face, worshipped even of the Gods themselves. Then by little and little I seemed to see the whole figure of her body, mounting out of the sea and standing before mee, wherefore I purpose to describe her divine semblance, if the poverty of my humane speech will suffer me, or her divine power give me eloquence thereto.

First shee had a great abundance of haire, dispersed and scattered about her neck, on the crowne of her head she bare many garlands enterlaced with floures, in the middle of her forehead was a compasse in fashion of a glasse, or resembling the light of the Moone, in one of her hands she bare serpents, in the other, blades of corne, her vestiment was of fine silke yeelding divers colours, sometime yellow, sometime rosie, sometime flamy, and sometime (which troubled my spirit sore) darke and obscure, covered with a blacke robe in manner of a shield, and pleated in most subtill fashion at the skirts of her garments, the welts appeared comely, whereas here and there the starres glimpsed, and in the middle of them was placed the Moone, which shone like a flame of fire, round about the robe was a coronet or garland made with flowers and fruits.

In her right hand shee had a timbrell of brasse, which gave a pleasant sound, in her left hand shee bare a cup of gold, out of the mouth whereof the serpent Aspis lifted up his head, with a swelling throat, her odoriferous feete were covered with shoes interlaced and wrought with victorious palme. Thus the divine shape breathing out the pleasant spice of fertill Arabia, disdained not with her divine voyce to utter these words unto me:

"Behold Lucius I am come, thy weeping and prayers hath mooved mee to succour thee. I am she that is the naturall mother of all things, mistresse and governesse of all the Elements, the initiall progeny of worlds, chiefe of powers divine, Queene of heaven, the principall of the Gods celestiall, the light of the goddesses: at my will the planets of the ayre, the wholesome winds of the Seas, and the silences of hell be disposed; my name, my divinity is adored throughout all the world in divers manners, in variable customes and in many names:

For the Phrygians call me the mother of the Gods: the Athenians, Minerva: the Cyprians, Venus: the Candians, Diana: the Sicilians Proserpina: the Eleusians, Ceres: some Juno, other Bellona, other Hecate: and principally the Ethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Egyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustome to worship mee, doe call mee Queene Isis.

Behold I am come to take pitty of thy fortune and tribulation, behold I am present to favour and ayd thee, leave off thy weeping and lamentation, put away thy sorrow, for behold the healthfull day which is ordained by my providence, therefore be ready to attend to my commandement".

The full text of Adlington's 1566 translation may be viewed at: http://books.eserver.org/fiction/apuleius/bookes/eleven.html/.
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Minerva of the Gauls
Two hundred years before Lucius, in 53BC, Julius Caesar described the Celtic divinities in his war commentary 'De bello gallico' (Gallic Wars). In Book 6, he describes the Celtic Goddess in a manner akin to the description provided ten centuries later in Cormac's glossary, for he says she 'imparts the invention of manufactures', which is the same as Brigit's superintendence of poetic inspiration, smith-craft and the arts of healing. Caesar names the Celtic deities by Roman titles, displaying early syncretism but also as a means for his audience to comprehend his statements. Caesar records,

[6.17]They worship as their divinity, Mercury in particular, and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts, they consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions. Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Minerva; respecting these deities they have for the most part the same belief as other nations: that Apollo averts diseases, that Minerva imparts the invention of manufactures, that Jupiter possesses the sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that Mars presides over wars.

The full text of W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn's 1869 translation of De bello gallico may be found from:http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Caesar/CaesarGal06.html.
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Modron mother of Mabon
The great Celtic story of Mabon ap Modron focusses upon the nativity of Mabon at Beltaine. The story of the hero Mabon follows his disappearance at birth, his discovery and rescue, his courtship of the fair maiden and winning her hand. It is a story followed in the myths of Mabon, Gwri, Lleu, Setanta, Mac Óc, Culhwch and many other young heros who triumph, sometimes obtaining manhood names such as Pryderi and Cu Chulaind and Angus. They are the Divine Mother and her Son, since 'Mabon' simply means 'Son', found in Gaulish as Maponos, Welsh as Mabon and Irish as Mac Óc; and Modron means 'Mother', the Celtic tripartite Matronae.

Devotional shrines, such as shown from Cirencester, sacred to the triple Mother Goddesses are found at many springs and rivers in Britain, Gaul and the Rhineland from times of Roman rule. They carry symbols of fertility such as baskets of fruit and often have Mabon at their breasts. Celtic myth reveals the triple goddesses of Ireland, such as those of Morrigan, those of Brigit and those of Eriu.

Modron's fertility is strongly associated with rivers, and across the Celtic realms she is the river, and known by her names Danu, Sequana, Marne, Rhine and Rhone, Lake Brigantia, Tamesis, Sulis, Coventina, Bile Medb, Siann, Boand and countless others. Her life-giving sustenance reflects in her role as Mother of Mabon and title of Great Queen, Rigan, found in Rhiannon and Morrigan.

The image source is from the informative http://whitefiles.org/b2_h/1_celtic_museum/zcm/cm5/5_mzlgy.htm , and further reading on Caer Australis may be found on The Gorsedd - Mabon ap Modron, The Fair Maiden and The River and the Well.
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Mary mother of Christ
The pure pentangel and the heven-quene
from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight:

Then thay schewed him the schelde,
With the pentangel depaynte of pure gold hewes;
a syngne that Salamon set in bytokenyng of trauthe
For hit is a figure that holdes fyve poyntes,
hit is endeles: the endeles knot.

To this knight for faythful in fyve,
Gawayn was for good knowen, with vertues ennourned;
Forthy the pentangel newe,
He bere in schelde and cote,
And gentylest knight of lote.

And as the crede telles -
The fyve woundes that Cryst caght on the cros:
His thoght was in that thurgh all other thinges.
fautles in his fyve wyttes;
fayled never his fyve fyngeres;

At the fyve joyes that she
That heven-quene had of hir childe -
At this cause the knight comly had
In the inore half of his schelde:
Hir image depaynted.

The fyve Gawayn used; these pure fyve:
Fraunchyse and felawschip forbe all thing,
Clannes and cortaysye, and pity, that passes all poyntes -
Upon fyve poyntes that fayled never, withouten ende,
Therfore on his schelde schapen was the knot.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an Arthurian Christmas story that delves deeply into virtue as personified in Gawain; lines 619-664 tell of the holy pentangle, whose endlessness and its five sides and five cardinal points epitomise Christ's pain on the cross and Mary's joy for her child. The virtuous Gawain held the pentangle on the outer side of his shield, and a depiction of Mary on its inner side.
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Pisces' Babies
"Some call her Strange lady from the mountains,
and others say she's not really real"
- Stevie Nicks, Lady of the Mountain.
The conquerer of Gaul in the first century BC described the Celtic deities in terms of his own Roman gods, who were closely allied to those of the Greeks, and the many goddesses known throughout the Mediterranean came under the title Queen Isis in and following the first century AD, Modron, especially Brigit, came to be associated with Mary mother of Christ; Overall, the many goddesses came eventually under one divine title, and they then lost their godhood. In an age as we have it, in which no goddess is worshipped in the formal religions of the West, alternate means are required to acknowledge her. To represent this, a song devoted to Nature, to whom feminine divine attributes are provided, has been selected. It comes from 1975, a time of tumult in the West, as indeed ever it is; a particular time of an active re-evaluation of virtues and when explorations of older religions of European tradition were becoming manifest. The song Pisces' Babies addresses us - we who live today. It implores us to remember the true order of the world.

Pisces' babies come and sail the river,
Let your hair fly in the sunshine!
Pisces babies see what made you:
Sister Nature is still your teacher.

Green river glistening in the morning haze,
Watching me watching her flow;
People around Jacob's Square don't know you exist,
They've only seen you on their video.

Pisces' babies get a forest visa,
Let your feet fly in the rainfall;
Pisces' babies see what made you:
Sister Nature is still God's creature.

Spiritual leader computerized -
Your guiding light is losing power:
All your teachers and healers and leaders with soul-less eyes
Soon will fade like Venice flowers.

Pisces' babies come and sail the river,
Let your hair fly in the sunshine!
Pisces' babies see what made you:
Sister Nature is still your teacher.

Get aboard the time machine, get aboard!
Sail away the Anne Boleyn, get away!

Pisces' babies get a forest visa,
Let your feet fly in the rainfall;
Pisces' babies see what made you:
Sister Nature is still God's creature!

Pisces' Babies come and sail the River,
Let your hair fly in the sunshine;
Pisces' Babies see what made you:
Sister Nature is still your Teacher.

Pisces' Babies (1975) by Kenny Young, performed by 'Fox' is available to listen to at: http://mp3lemon.org/listenalbum/29083/.

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     "Grows an oak upon a steep,
       The sanctuary of a fair lord;
       If I speak not falsely,
       Lleu will come into my lap"
              - Gwydion, Mabinogi of Math ap Mathonwy

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