CAILLEACH BHÉARA – WISE WOMAN

The Cailleach is an Ancient Chthonic Power.

She was here, long before the Folk, long before the People, long before the Strangers landed on our shores.

How do we say her name?

“QUILL-OCH” (-och like the Scottish “Loch”)

It is fitting, is it not?

They often say her name means “Crone” or “Hag” ; it is the word for “Witch” in Modern Irish.

However, it does not mean that.

The name means “The Veiled One”.

Beara is a her place, a wild pennisula at the limits between Cork and Kerry, between Thisworld and the Other.

In the little village of Eyries, they say her Cult began, in Time out of Mind.

And though it would be sweet to think of Eagles here, it is just an anglicisation (isn’t everything?) of the Old Name :

Na hAoraí. From Aoradh (singular) ….

It means, THE ADORATIONS.

And that seems fitting. And Beara is the name of the place, and so she is Cailleach Bhéara, the “Hag of Beara”.

But Beara has a meaning too, if you look into it. It is a “Pointed Rod or Shaft” ; it is “a Binding”.

She is Veiled One, of the Sharp Rod, the Needle; of the Tight Binding, the Winding Sheet, the Swaddling Cloth.

She is the Midwife, and She is the Layer Out.

She is the Veiled One.

These are my Adorations ….

Cailleach Bhéara 

I have been too long questing; my horse died under me.  

You stopped the blood.  

My lance held high, tilting at everything that passed, 

A whiff of Odyssey, the shadow of a sail.  

Your forebears carried bags, you said.  

Forbearance is a mother’s love.  

Lay down your weapons at the shrine 

And go to where the waters meet.  

The rushing glen, the sylvan glade.  

There is a place for you, if you know how to look.  

Half-close one eye and tilt your head: 

The overgrown meadow is a labyrinth, 

The stone a face;  

Remember, when you were a child, 

How far away the bottom of the garden, 

How endless Summer afternoon? 

You must learn to see that way again.  

Pour your libation, pour it on the ground,  

‘Til not a drop is left.  

The thirsty Earth will ask for more.  

Yield, bend, never break, supple as the reeds.  

Don’t ever shape it in your own image; 

Only see what’s there.  

Give everything, 

Point your ship towards home.  

Go now, it’s time.  

Go to work.