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Deck: The Druid Oracles
Spread: Card of the Day
Date: Tue Jan 29 11:50:14 EST 2019


Today's Card
Sow

Muc

Pronunciation: Mooc

keywords
Generosity • Nourishment • Discovery

The card shows a sow with her piglets. In the fields behind her we see wheat and barley, said to have been brought to Wales by the divine sow Henwen, the "White Ancient." On the horizon we see the Hill of Tara, in Ireland, which was once known as Muc Inis, Pig Island, when the Tuatha De Danann changed it into the shape of a pig. In the foreground to the right grows sow-thistle, and to the left deadly nightshade, which—it is said—pigs can eat without harm. On the ground lies one of the favorite foods of pigs, the nuts of the beech tree.

Upright Meaning   Muc, with her large litters, symbolizes abundance and fertility. Drawn upright, this card may mean that you are called upon to be generous. Feeling connected to the love of the Goddess for all her creatures, you are able to give freely, knowing that you, in turn, are nourished and sustained by her. Choosing this card, you can open yourself to the abundance that exists throughout nature. You can allow yourself to accept this abundance, knowing that life perpetually renews itself, and that you need not worry about ever being disconnected from it. Allow yourself to feast on life—to enjoy its beauties and its sensual delights. The Goddess is generous, giving to all and renewing all.

Reversed Meaning   You may need to revise your image of yourself. There is an old saying in Gaelic: "When you thought you were on the sow's back, you were beside her in the puddle." Although the sow symbolizes nourishment, fertility and giving, she can also represent greed and "pig-ignorance." You may need to work toward a greater understanding of the subtleties of life, rather than relying simply on your looks or physique. Without wisdom even beauty can be unattractive, as another Gaelic saying indicates: "As a golden jewel in a pig's snout, is a fair woman without sufficiency of understanding." Pigs' bristles were used for centuries for artists' brushes, and the leather of pigs is exceptionally soft—appearances can be deceptive, so judge people or propositions on their true merits and intrinsic worth rather than their outward appearance.

The Tradition of the SOW

The pig that I killed last year
Has produced young this year
Traditional riddle

Much of the ancient wisdom has entered our everyday world through traditional sayings. Riddles, particularly, were used by the Bards to convey ideas with humor and to test the wits of their audience. The riddle of the pig that produces young, even though killed, refers to a coppiced tree—which appears to have been cut down, until its new shoots are seen in the spring. But beneath this straightforward answer lies a clue that directs us to the symbolic and totemic meaning of the pig in the Druid tradition. The pig is sacred to the Goddess, the providing and nourishing aspect of divinity, and as such it is often depicted in the old tales as a magical beast, which is constantly reborn however many times it is eaten. In Ireland, at each of the hostels of the Otherworld gods, there would be great cauldrons filled with boiled or roasted pork, supplied by pigs who were continually reborn after each slaughter. In the father-god Dagda's sidh, or fairy mound, there was an unending supply of drink, three trees which perpetually bore fruit, and a pig that was always alive to provide food.

The Pig as Nourisher

The pig as a gift from the gods or the Goddess to nourish human-kind was clearly recognized by the Celts. They farmed pigs to such a degree that, the classical writer Diodorus Siculus noted, "they have such enormous herds of swine that they afford a plenteous supply for salt meat." These herds were allowed to forage in the woods, keeping down unwanted shrubs and undergrowth. In the spring and autumn they were turned on to the fields to manure and break up the soil.

Because of the pig's importance to the Celtic way of life, it was honored and respected, and was also used ritualistically

. At the late Iron Age shrine at Hayling Island in Hampshire, large numbers of pigs have been found buried, and the shrine at South Cadbury in Somerset is connected to an avenue of burials of young pigs, calves and lambs. At the burial site of Skeleton Green in Hertfordshire male pigs were found buried with the men, while the women were buried with birds. A similar connection between male burials and pigs has been discovered in France, and the four columns of the inner sanctum of the Romano-Celtic temple at Hockwold in Norfolk rested on pig and bird bones—perhaps echoing this association of male with pig and female with bird. At the great Druid center of Chartres in France a young pig has been found ritualistically interred in a pit, and at Winklebury in Hampshire a pig and a raven were found buried together in a ritual shaft.

These pits or shafts were used to make thanksgiving offerings and were symbolically associated with the Underworld. The pig as a primary source of nourishment meant that it was a central feature of both the earthly Celtic feast and the Underworld feast too. Many chariot burials in both Britain and France include entire pigs—undoubtedly to ensure the soul's nourishment beyond the mortal realm.

Grandmother Pig

As a source of nourishment, the pig represents the Goddess, and in parts of the Scottish highlands a brood-sow is termed Sean-mhair—grandmother. As evidence that Druidry was perhaps originally Goddess-centered, Druids were referred to as "piglets" and the Goddess was sometimes pictured as a sow. One of the early Welsh Triads, The Three Powerful Swineherds of Britain, talks of the sow Henwen, the White Ancient, who gives birth to a wolf-cub, an eagle, a bee, a kitten and a grain of wheat. Henwen was said to possess great wisdom, having eaten the nuts which had fallen from the beech—a sacred tree of the Druids symbolizing ancient knowledge and tradition. Also within Welsh mythology, Ceridwen, responsible for the initiation and transformation of Gwion Bach into the magical bard Taliesin, is known as the goddess of pigs and barley. She manifests sometimes as a pig, her neophytes being addressed as piglets, her worshipers as swine, her Druid as boar or boar of the trees and her Hierarch as swineherd.

A pig is completely omnivorous—it will eat virtually anything it finds. But this lack of discrimination is balanced by the pig's ability to find hidden treasure, and pigs have been used to discover truffles and other fungal delicacies for centuries in Britain and Europe.

The ability of pigs to discover the earth's secrets is one of the reasons why the pig is so important in the Druid tradition. Both male and female pigs are sacred to the Goddess—the sow representing her life-giving aspect, the boar symbolizing her life-taking aspect. To fully understand the role of the pig as a totem animal we must study and work with both sow and boar.



Presented by The Druid Oracles app from The Fool's Dog.

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Deck: The Druid Oracles
Spread: One Card
Date: Tue Jan 29 11:51:02 EST 2019


Your Card
Hind

Eilid

Pronunciation: Elij

keywords
Subtlety • Gracefulness • Femininity

The card shows a white hind in the forest in late summer or early fall. Acorns hang heavy from the oaks. The hind calls us to follow her deeper into the forest. Standing in a shaft of sunlight, she appears so elusive we are not even sure if she is of this world.

Upright Meaning   Eilid brings us the gentleness and grace of the feminine principle. Whether you are male or female, opening to the qualities of the hind will enable you to achieve a greater degree of sophistication, subtlety and elegance—in the best possible senses of these terms.

Deer, and the white hind in particular, call to us from the Otherworld, from the realm of Faery, and invite us to look beyond the material, beyond the superficialities of life, toward the heart of things, toward the realm of causes rather than effects. Poised in moon or sunlight, Eilid invites us to begin an exploration of the Otherworld, of the spiritual dimension of life.

Reversed Meaning   This card may be advising you to be less self-effacing. Rather than adapting yourself, like a chameleon, to the perceived demands and expectations of those around you, you may need to become more assertive. You may also need to be wary of becoming preoccupied with the Otherworld. Our psychic life has its seasons, and at times it is good and balancing for us to explore the inner mysteries, but at other times it is important for us to focus our awareness on everyday life. You may have reached a time when an interest in the esoteric needs balancing with a period of outer activity. Do not worry that you will lose touch with the Otherworld, for the magical white hind will always be waiting for you at the edge of the woods, ready to guide you into the heart of the forest.

The Tradition of the HIND

The clear voice of the red-backed deer
Under the oak tree, high on the summit
Gentle hinds and they so timid
Lying hidden in your well-wooded glade
From "Deirdre Remembers a Glen," Irish fourteenth century

A female red deer is known as a hind, and this graceful animal was considered especially sacred by the Celts and Druids. In Scotland they are called "fairy cattle" and it is said that they are milked on the mountain tops by the fairies. Others believe that the hinds themselves are fairy women who have taken the form of deer.

There were at least three great hag-goddesses in Scotland who cared for these fairy cattle—one, called the Cailleach-mor-nam-fiadh, lived in the mountains on Jura, another, known as the Cailleach mhor Chlibric (The Great Hag of Clibric), protected the deer from hunters, and the third, the Cailleach Beinn-a-bhric, herded and milked them in the hills and forests. Verses of her milking song are still known to this day.

Lugaid and the Hag

The connection between hind and hag is also found in Ireland, in the story of how Lugaid became king. His father King Daire was told that whichever son of his was named Lugaid would inherit the throne. Because he could not bear to favor one of his five sons over the other four, he named each of them Lugaid. A Druid then told him that the son who caught a young hind would become the king. The five brothers set out hunting and eventually managed to hunt and eat a fawn. They then got lost in a snowstorm, and came upon an extraordinary house occupied by an ugly hag who asked each of the brothers to have intercourse with her. Four of them refused, but Lugaid Laigde, who had killed the fawn, agreed, and as he made love to her she turned into the most beautiful of women—symbolizing the goddess of the sovereignty of Ireland.

The Irish goddess of wild things was known as Flidhais—probably a divine huntress like Diana. Like the Great Hags of Scotland, she cared for deer cattle, and is known to some as the deer goddess.

Fairy women could be turned into deer by their rulers—a hundred sidh (fairy) girls met this fate when their queen had a fit of jealous rage. Mortals could become deer too:

in the Fionn Cycle of tales from Ireland a Black Druid turns Fionn's future wife into a fawn. In the Welsh tale Math, from the Mabinogion, the brothers Gwydion and Gilfaethwy are turned into a stag and a hind for one year as a punishment. And in both the Scottish and Irish tradition, the mother of Ossian was turned into a hind through enchantment before she gave birth to the hero-poet.

"Three Ages of Man, Age of Deer, Three Ages of Deer, Age of Oak Tree"

In the world of the Celts the deer was treasured for its hide: the skin of the hind was used to make women's clothes, and in the Irish Cattle Raid of Cooley, Cu-Chulainn's charioteer is described as wearing a "skin-soft tunic of stitched deer's leather, light as a breath." Archeologists conclude that the deer was probably the most common wild and hunted creature to be buried in the British ritual pits. At the major ritual site of Winklebury in Hampshire a pit containing a red deer surrounded by twelve foxes was unearthed, showing the importance the Celts attached to both these creatures.

The hind in particular was seen as a magical animal, capable of affecting men's lives and ways. The Scottish Lord of Kilmersdon's life was changed when he followed a magical white hind through the forest. After a mile or so it vanished, but such happiness came into his life from that moment that he built a Lady Chapel in the local church in gratitude. Another enchanted hind appeared before a hunter in the Highlands as a beautiful woman, holding the arrow he had just loosed. "I am the leader of my herd," she told the astonished hunter, "I am under Fith Fath (enchantment) and you must promise only to shoot at stags, not hinds." As he made his promise, the woman vanished, singing gently of her deer herd.

Further evidence of the way fairies protected their animals is shown in another Scottish tale of a hunter's dog who chased a white fairy hind grazing near Loch Ericht. The hind eventually led the dog into the waters of the loch, a gateway to the Underworld, and neither was ever seen again. In Ireland the story is told of Fionn mac Cumhaill who hunts a deer to the edge of a lake. Suddenly she turns into a beautiful girl who drops her ring in the water and asks Fionn to retrieve it. As he does so, he turns into a withered old man.

The Goddess, too, protects her deer. In another Irish tale, the Fianna were at one time hunting a fawn that led them to Slieve-nam-Ban, the Hill of the Woman. There she put down her head and vanished into the earth.

If our intention is to harm the animal realm, we should beware. But for those of us who hunt for knowledge, and not to kill, the shape-shifting hind will lead us ever deeper into the heart of the forest, ever deeper into encounters with the Otherworld, and with the realm of Faery.



Presented by The Druid Oracles app from The Fool's Dog.

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Deck: The Druid Oracles
Spread: One Card
Date: Tue Jan 29 11:51:38 EST 2019


Your Card
Owl

Cailleach-oidhche

Pronunciation: Kal-yach oiche

keywords
Detachment • Wisdom • Change

The card shows a tawny owl in an oak tree covered in ivy. A full moon shines between the winter-bare branches of the trees. Hung on the tree are votive offerings to the Cailleach (crone or hag-goddess) of a Celtic head and the spiral of death and rebirth.

Upright Meaning   Cailleach-oidhche teaches us the wisdom of turning a disadvantage into an advantage. For most birds, the coming of darkness renders it impossible for them to feed, but the owl's exceptional hearing enables it to pick out and swoop on unsuspecting prey during the night. Twilight has been described as owl-light, and going for a quiet walk in the woods at this shimmering time of twilight is an excellent way to develop a sensibility to the Otherworld and the inner soul of Nature. You may feel drawn to a study of esoteric lore or clairvoyancy. Working with the owl as your ally will help you to do this.

Reversed Meaning   You may need to be wary of withdrawing too much from the world. An ability to be detached and discerning is an asset, unless it becomes a defence against being fully alive with all the vulnerability this entails. Perhaps there is not such a need for secrecy or holding back. The owl can signal a time of change, of initiation, of new beginnings. It can portend the death of one thing, but also the birth of another. An old Sussex saying is "When owls whoop at night, expect a fair morrow." Expect a bright dawn and it will surely come.

The Tradition of the OWL

I am coeval with the ancient oak
Whose roots spread wide in yonder moss,
Many a race has passed before me,
And still I am the lonely owl of Srona
Domhnull Mac Fhionnlaidh

The Bardic colleges survived in Scotland until the beginning of the eighteenth century. A collection by Maclean Sinclair entitled Gaelic Bards from 1411 to 1715 includes the poem "The Hunter and the Owl," one of whose verses is quoted above.

The idea that the owl is ancient—that "many a race has passed before me"—is also found in Welsh tradition. In the story of Culhwch and Olwen, the earliest of tales to speak of King Arthur and his knights, Gwrhyr Interpreter of Tongues—a man who could speak the languages of birds and beasts—together with three others, goes on a journey to seek the Oldest Animals, in the hope that they will know where the Divine Youth Mabon can be found. They come first to a blackbird, who directs them to an older animal still—the stag. The stag leads them to one who is even older—the Owl of Cawlwyd. Gwrhyr speaks to the owl, saying, "We are King Arthur's messengers. We have come to you since we know of no animal older than you. What can you tell us of Mabon?" The owl replies, "I know nothing of Mabon, but I will be your guide and will lead you to an animal that God made before me." The owl then leads the party to the Eagle of Gwernaby, who in his turn leads them finally to the oldest animal of all—the salmon, who takes them to the castle where Mabon is imprisoned.

The Bird of Wisdom

The owl is shown in this story as one of the five totem animals central to British tradition. Arthur's party encounters first the blackbird Druidh Dubh and then moves ever closer to the source of wisdom—the salmon. As a fish, the salmon swims in the River of Life, the Ocean of Being—his wisdom comes from an intimate participation in life. The owl imparts a different wisdom—one of objectivity and detachment. Like the figure of the Hermit in the Tarot, the owl watches and waits—in ruined castles, in church towers, in barns, in ivy bushes. Adept at disappearing from view and favoring the night, the owl is the animal that symbolizes esoteric wisdom and secrecy.

Because the owl is sacred to the Goddess in her crone-aspect, one of its many Gaelic names is Cailleach-oidhche (Crone of the Night). The barn owl is Cailleach-oidhche gheal, "white old woman of the night." The Cailleach is the goddess of death, and the owl's call was often sensed as

an omen that someone would die. It was seen as a bird that calls for the soul, or that catches or takes it away. From Berne in Switzerland there comes a belief that the screech of an owl foretells either the birth of a child or the death of a man—pointing to the owl as a bird of the Goddess who is both taker and giver of life.

Knowing of an impending death or birth suggests that the owl is able to foretell the future, and the owl is indeed the totem bird of clairvoyance and astral travel. The veils which surround the normal boundaries of space and time can be pierced, if you take the owl as ally.

The Secret Faith

In later times, all that was sacred to the Goddess and the "Secret Faith" was denigrated and labeled as evil by the Church in an attempt to convert people from their traditional ways. We see this process of denigration clearly in the folklore of the owl. Originally a sacred bird embodying wisdom and discernment, it gradually came to be seen only as a bird of ill-omen. Farmers would nail their bodies to barn doors or walls; the fern owl was named "Puck" or "Puck-bird"—an old word for the devil; and owls in general were called "constables from the dark land." It became a common saying that the owl was a transformation of one of the servants of the ten kings of hell.

The owl features strongly in the Welsh story from the Mabinogion, Math, Son of Mathonwy. Because it was written down from oral tradition in the twelfth or thirteenth century, it is hard to disentangle the pre-Christian from the Christian influences. Certainly in this tale the owl is considered an unfavorable bird. Arianrhod, the mother of Lleu Llaw Gyffes (the Bright One of the Skillful Hand), swears that Lleu will never take a human wife. But, eager for a companion, Lleu and the magician Gwydion fashion from the flowers of oak, broom, and meadowsweet, a woman called Blodeuwedd. A while later, Blodeuwedd falls in love with a hunter, and together they attempt to murder Lleu, who escapes in the form of an eagle. Gwydion eventually finds the eagle and, striking it with his wand, returns Lleu to human form. He then pursues Blodeuwedd, and rather than killing her, transforms her into an owl, saying: "And because of the dishonor thou hast done to Lleu Llaw Gyffes thou art never to dare show thy face in the light of day, and that through fear of all birds; and that there be enmity between thee and all birds, and that it be their nature to mob and molest thee wherever they may find thee; and that thou shalt not lose thy name, but that thou be for ever called Blodeuwedd."

The owl is a bird set apart. She stands on the threshold of the Otherworld, reminding us of the ever-present reality of death. But death is the great initiator and as the owl hoots to us from the trees we may come to realize in the depths of our being that our death in reality marks a beginning and not an end.



Presented by The Druid Oracles app from The Fool's Dog.

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Deck: The Druid Oracles
Spread: One Card
Date: Tue Jan 29 11:52:34 EST 2019


Your Card
Plantain

Slan-lus

Plantago sp.

upright
Assertiveness • Calm • Resilience

reversed
Healing • Strength • The secret source of power

leaf

Plantains are small inconspicuous perennials found in about two hundred species all over the world. Greater Plantain (Plantago major) has survived three ice ages in Britain, but only really began to flourish in the wake of human settlement. In long grass it grows directly upwards reaching as high as 30 cm (1 ft) above ground, but on grazed land it hugs the ground to avoid being eaten and becomes a menace on lawns, cannily avoiding the lowest mower blades.

The card shows Greater Plantain in the Summer, with its flowering spike reminding us of one of its popular names, Rat’s Tails. In the distance an old track leads beside the stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.

Upright Meaning   Plantains are extraordinarily resilient. If you have chosen this card, it may indicate that you are being called upon to display a similar characteristic. Although Plantains may drive gardeners mad, they can’t help admiring its tenacity – the way it hugs low to the ground and refuses to budge. Maybe that’s what you need to do. You just need to be aware of the difference between being a ‘doormat’ and a Plantain. If you let people ‘walk all over you’, you need to look at becoming more assertive and defending your boundaries more robustly. If, however, you just know you must stand your ground, even if it means putting up with difficulties and criticism and perhaps keeping a low profile, then you are acting like the Plantain.

Remember that, however many times the Plantain is trodden on, within its leaves lie soothing ingredients. Regardless of how tough life is, in the end the real healing comes from within.

Reversed Meaning   When life gets difficult, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking like a victim or martyr. We all have spells when we just seem to suffer one problem after another, and it feels impossible to break out of the cycle. If you have drawn this card reversed, it may suggest that you need to understand your situation in a different way. Imagine that what you need is way down beneath you – in the earth – and deep down inside you. Instead of reaching out to be ‘saved’, by looking for someone or something that can rescue you, try reaching in. ‘Hunkering down’ then becomes not resignation and fatalism, but the act of drawing on your secret source of power. Weakness turns into strength and the wheel will turn.

leaf

Plant of Healing

One of the Gaelic names for Plantain is ‘Slan-Lus’, which means ‘Plant of Healing’, and shows how much it was revered for its considerable healing powers. The Maoris and Native Americans have called it ‘Englishman’s Foot’ because of its propensity to spring up wherever the white man travelled, and, in Britain, as well as being called Rat’s Tails, it was known as Angel’s Harps, since when the leaves are pulled apart the fibres can be seen in a harp-like formation.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans wrote of its medicinal properties, having such faith in its healing powers that they believed it could cure mad dogs. Similar hopes were pinned on the plant by Native Americans who called it Snakeweed, believing it could counteract rattlesnake poisoning. Modern research shows that Plantain contains compounds that are anti-inflammatory and antibacterial, and which stimulate the immune system. The plant contains mucilage, which is soothing to the intestines, and the seed husks of Sand Plantain (Plantago psyllium) have recently become popular in detoxing regimes.

Plantain leaves contain tannins, which are astringent and antiviral – making them ideal for applying directly to wounds. These properties can be released simply by chewing the fresh or dried leaf, which can then be put straight onto the affected area. It is no wonder that the plant was quickly adopted into Maori and Native American herb lore.

By the time herbals were being written by the Greeks and Romans during

the time of the Ancient Druids, Plantain’s healing properties were well known. The Anglo-Saxons, who merged with the earlier peoples in Britain, recognized the plant’s power and called it Weybroed (Waybread) and included it in their Nine Herbs Charm, along with Mugwort, Lamb’s Cress, Cockspur Grass, Chamomile, Nettle, Crabapple, Chervil and Fennel.

The Physicians of Myddvai used Plantain to draw out splinters, and in plasters for bruises, and made a lotion of it with Honeysuckle, white Rose and camphor to soothe inflammations.

Ripe seed-rich Plantain spikes were once picked commercially as food for caged birds around London, and herbalists recommended the seeds as a substitute for linseed. Today, extracts of the plant are used to treat bronchitis and coughs, as it is antispasmodic and has been found to dilate the bronchi. The combination of its astringency and its soothing mucilage also makes it ideal for treating ulcers, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and haemorrhoids. The renowned herbalist Mrs Grieve said, ‘Decoctions of Plantain entered into almost every old remedy.’ Now we understand why.



Presented by The Druid Oracles app from The Fool's Dog.

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