Oh, my dear Ali, thank you so much for weaving my Sheelah into your gorgeous mid-March Cailleach tapestry! I've had the tab open for days, and am finally finding the quiet morning (and the full enough cup of coffee) to spend time with your words.
And thank you for the bit about the Keshcorran caves! I'm not sure if I mentioned my visit there last year... I dreamed them long before I saw them, and I was actually planning on diving deeper into my cave story today. I was thinking of the wolf who took Cormac mac Airt to be raised there for a while and had forgotten about the three hags. Surely they'll have something to say!
Thank you for reading, Marisa, and for sharing your reflections. That story about Cormac being raised by a she-wolf is certainly an intriguing one. As always with Irish myths, there is a certain amount of reading between the lines to figure out what is really going on. Be interested to see what you think. And those Hags... they were described as monsters, but I think they were mighty, a topic worthy of study in themselves. 💕
I love this article, as I have loved so many that you have written over the years, Miss Ali. I do believe that many grandmothers have provided love and comfort to children that parents either didn't have the time or the patience to provide. I've often heard well-known men and women say that their granny was their saving grace. But how would the world have survived without the midwives, the herbalists, and the seers down through time? To my way of thinking, we elders have so very much wisdom to offer in many ways.~ While I enjoyed your storytelling friend, and thought she was fabulous, I have a hard time comparing the powerful Sheela with the self-important rascal, Patrick. Each year, I look forward to March 17, as I get to hear lots of live Irish music around town, but not due to a blown-up version of some supposedly special Christian with a questionable back story.
I love to hear that, Noelle! Why do we have to be tied to reproduction? We can love our grandchildren and still pursue our own unique meaningful lives, can't we? Thanks for being here. 💕
I had no idea that priests' celibacy was only introduced in the 12th century! Thank you for that information. Regardless, I still find the co-opting of Sheela/Sheelanagig as Patrick's wife more than a little suspicious, but that's just another attempt at making her palatable, isn't it?
That's a good point, Annette, yes, maybe they were trying to make her more palatable. In the end though I suspect it was easier to just erase her. Patriarchy is good at that.
Brilliant piece, Ali! I was hoping you'd have a theory about where exactly the Sheela na gig originated. If the Normans brought it, why? And it's true that the carvings look much older and cruder than 12th Century stone-masonry. Maybe the church-builders did incorporate old pagan sculptures because they were into misogyny. We've lost such a lot of wisdom by betting entirely on Barbie bimbos.
😂 I always have a theory! I think there is a comment on that post by the late John Wilmott saying that when he worked with stone masons on Iona, they told him that they had their own myths and traditions in which early stonemasons carved the sheelanagig into the churches they were employed to work on as pagan idols, but they told the priests that they represented Christian values. It was something like that, anyway. So they were surreptitiously subverting the buildings they were working on, and superimposing their beliefs and deities onto the houses of the new dominant religion, and I absolutely just love the quiet rebelliousness of that idea!
I don't believe I've ever read that John had said that, but John managed to pick up a lot of hidden information. This makes more sense than any other explanation I've heard.
Yes, I like that idea too. I also like the theory that the masons who built the Norman churches stuck pagan fertility carvings into the stonework and let the churchmen interpret them as they liked. Funny that they were found all over Europe and that they turn up on Norman churches. The Normans had nothing to do with anything Celtic. I wonder if that wasn’t the point. It was a gesture in defiance of the foreign religion.
That is how I choose to interpret it, but we're unlikely to ever find out for sure. In their place, though, it's just the kind of thing I'd do, if I could get away with it!
Oh, my dear Ali, thank you so much for weaving my Sheelah into your gorgeous mid-March Cailleach tapestry! I've had the tab open for days, and am finally finding the quiet morning (and the full enough cup of coffee) to spend time with your words.
And thank you for the bit about the Keshcorran caves! I'm not sure if I mentioned my visit there last year... I dreamed them long before I saw them, and I was actually planning on diving deeper into my cave story today. I was thinking of the wolf who took Cormac mac Airt to be raised there for a while and had forgotten about the three hags. Surely they'll have something to say!
Thank you for reading, Marisa, and for sharing your reflections. That story about Cormac being raised by a she-wolf is certainly an intriguing one. As always with Irish myths, there is a certain amount of reading between the lines to figure out what is really going on. Be interested to see what you think. And those Hags... they were described as monsters, but I think they were mighty, a topic worthy of study in themselves. 💕
I love this article, as I have loved so many that you have written over the years, Miss Ali. I do believe that many grandmothers have provided love and comfort to children that parents either didn't have the time or the patience to provide. I've often heard well-known men and women say that their granny was their saving grace. But how would the world have survived without the midwives, the herbalists, and the seers down through time? To my way of thinking, we elders have so very much wisdom to offer in many ways.~ While I enjoyed your storytelling friend, and thought she was fabulous, I have a hard time comparing the powerful Sheela with the self-important rascal, Patrick. Each year, I look forward to March 17, as I get to hear lots of live Irish music around town, but not due to a blown-up version of some supposedly special Christian with a questionable back story.
I love to hear that, Noelle! Why do we have to be tied to reproduction? We can love our grandchildren and still pursue our own unique meaningful lives, can't we? Thanks for being here. 💕
i did enjoy it, and as my children are up and grown. expectations for myself have definitely changed!
I had no idea that priests' celibacy was only introduced in the 12th century! Thank you for that information. Regardless, I still find the co-opting of Sheela/Sheelanagig as Patrick's wife more than a little suspicious, but that's just another attempt at making her palatable, isn't it?
That's a good point, Annette, yes, maybe they were trying to make her more palatable. In the end though I suspect it was easier to just erase her. Patriarchy is good at that.
I also love the opening of your post. Fuck that, indeed!
Haha! Fuck that indeed, with a capital F, Annette! 🍀🍀🍀
I love that the word "hag" comes from the Greek "hagia" (holy). A hag is/was a holy woman.
Thank you, Ellen, I did not know that, but it makes such sense to me. 💕
Brilliant piece, Ali! I was hoping you'd have a theory about where exactly the Sheela na gig originated. If the Normans brought it, why? And it's true that the carvings look much older and cruder than 12th Century stone-masonry. Maybe the church-builders did incorporate old pagan sculptures because they were into misogyny. We've lost such a lot of wisdom by betting entirely on Barbie bimbos.
😂 I always have a theory! I think there is a comment on that post by the late John Wilmott saying that when he worked with stone masons on Iona, they told him that they had their own myths and traditions in which early stonemasons carved the sheelanagig into the churches they were employed to work on as pagan idols, but they told the priests that they represented Christian values. It was something like that, anyway. So they were surreptitiously subverting the buildings they were working on, and superimposing their beliefs and deities onto the houses of the new dominant religion, and I absolutely just love the quiet rebelliousness of that idea!
I don't believe I've ever read that John had said that, but John managed to pick up a lot of hidden information. This makes more sense than any other explanation I've heard.
Yes, I like that idea too. I also like the theory that the masons who built the Norman churches stuck pagan fertility carvings into the stonework and let the churchmen interpret them as they liked. Funny that they were found all over Europe and that they turn up on Norman churches. The Normans had nothing to do with anything Celtic. I wonder if that wasn’t the point. It was a gesture in defiance of the foreign religion.
That is how I choose to interpret it, but we're unlikely to ever find out for sure. In their place, though, it's just the kind of thing I'd do, if I could get away with it!
You do surprise me xx
Hahahaha! And I'd be right there beside you!
This is a really enjoyable read, Ali. Loved it all!
Thanks so much, Kelly, I'm so happy you were here, and thanks also for sharing it on Notes 😘
Always a pleasure. I enjoy your words so much, Ali. They really are a gift to us x