Revelation, a question of morals and ethics

If a magical creature, one of legend or the lore of (y)our ancestors, were to reveal itself to you, would you tell others; or would you keep the revelation to yourself?

Angry people

This may not have much to do with the Cailleach; but it is an issue that has recently come up in my life, and since it blindsided me more than any storm ever has, and has to do with an ending, maybe it does have some remote relevance to the Cailleach. Either way, I would post two little pieces of advice here ….

One, in life there are going to be angry people who will set out to hurt you. Sometimes these people are simply confused about something, and are lashing out. Sometimes they are simply trying to distract themselves from their own inner torment by trying to bring pain to others. Neither situation excuses the behavior, it simply explains it. How you react to this will be for you to choose, not them.

Two, don’t make the mistake of letting your own negative reactions to such people blind you to those in your life who would not deliberately hurt you. In doing so, you award a victory to someone who would hurt you, and a loss to someone who would not. And you run the risk of doing to someone else what was just done to you – perpetuating their anger is not the solution.

Time

I was doing some reading the other day, when I read about a group in Scotland who were attending a workshop of sorts, and got to talking about medicine wheels. While I am not aware of this concept being native to the Isles, at least not in the the way it was described where I read, this caused a breeze to blow through my grey forest, bringing down a few interesting leaves of thought. Close in shape as well as function to some medicine wheels (accepting that some, but not all, medicine wheels align themselves to astronomical events) are places like Stonehenge. As with medicine wheels, these places in the Isles seem to have been built up and used for different purposes by succeeding generations.

Divine form

Despite the graphic I cobbled together a day ago, I actually do not approach or perceive any of the gods in a human form – at least not in their natural state. I believe the gods are capable of assuming human form, as well as other forms; but I do not consider deities as having a default human form. I see the gods in the main as sentient energy. I do not actually see a dancing hag, dropping stones from her basket as she moved through the countryside to form the mountains. I see the description as important; yet I do not take it literally. I see the Cailleach, as I do any other god, as being an energetic force that acts in this world (as well as others – this is a post for another day, though). I do not need to see her operating in a human form to envision her actions and interactions – for me, sensing her energy is enough.

Women of power in the Viking Age

One of the things about trying to understand the Cailleach is an attempt to understand the role of women in ancient societies that may have had something to do with the Cailleach. Thus, this article, written by Marianne Moen and titled, “Women in the Viking Age then and now,” caught my attention rather quickly. The article, to briefly summarize, suggests that perhaps the greater degree of sexist and chauvinistic thinking toward women exists now, among archaeologists (and thus the cultures they operate from and within), rather than during the Viking Age. Moen raises some very valid examples of how many are misinterpreting the available evidence in order to fit Viking Age Scandinavian society into a gender framework that it quite likely doesn’t belong within.