I plan on transcribing all the religious research I’ve done into a hand-bound book as a devotional act. I grew up in Wicca, and in Wiccan practice such a book is usually called a Book of Shadows or a Grimoire, but now that I’m pursuing a somewhat more Celtic reconstructionist path, I’m sorta at a loss as to what to call it.

I know this is sort of a silly question, and ultimately it doesn’t matter what I call my book, but I find what language I use to be a helpful way of centering my thoughts and grounding me in my faith, so I thought I’d ask in case there’s a more appropriate word or term I could be using. Thanks!

EDIT: To be clear, this isn’t a book I’d be publishing, just a religious tool for personal home use

At Lunastal (Irish: Lunasa or Lughnasadh), we often focus on Lugh or perhaps his foster mother Tailtiu, and maybe his half-human son, the Irish hero Cuchulainn. But at this time of year, I like to focus on a Scottish character who plays a significant role in the Cuchulainn stories: the warrior queen Sgàthach.

According to accounts, Sgàthach, lived some time in the centuries on either side of 200 BC. She was a was a legendary warrior queen and martial arts master, who also possessed powers of prophecy and maintained magical defenses around her fortress & school. Typical of Celtic tales, she lived in some grey, shadowy area between a goddess and a human.

Indeed, her very name Scáthach means "Shadowy" in Gaelic, and her fortress (Dun Scaith) was on the Isle of Skye – the Isle of Shadows. She is mentioned in the Red Branch Cycle, a collection of medieval Irish heroic legends and sagas that forms one of the four great cycles of Irish mythology. She appears in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology on a manuscript entitled Tochmarc Emire (the “Wooing of Emer”), which tells the story of how the Ulster hero Cú Chulainn won his wife Emer. There are at least 8 manuscript sources for Tochmarc Emire.

In short, over in Ulster, Cu Chulainn seeks to woo Emer, but her father, Forgall was not supportive. He agreed to their marriage only if Cu Chullainn would agree to perfect his warrior training at Sgàthach’s school, believing he would never survive the ordeal. He agrees to the challenge.

As Cu Chullain approaches her fortress, he learns from a youth that it was guarded by the Plain of Ill-Luck:

“On the hither half of the plain the feet of men would stick fast. On the further half the grass would rise and hold them fast on the points of its blades. The youth gave him a wheel and told him to follow its track thence across one-half of the plain. Then he gave him an apple, and told him to follow the ground where the apple would run, and that in such wise he would reach the far end of the plain. Thus Cuchulainn went across the plain…”

On his approach, he learned that he would need to cross a bridge that would throw back anyone attempting to cross it.

“Cuchulainn then tried three times to cross the bridge, and could not do it. The men jeered at him. Then he grew mad and jumped on the head of the bridge, and made the hero's salmon leap so that he got on its midst. And the other head of the bridge had not yet fully raised itself when he reached it, and threw himself from it, and was on the ground of the island.”

Sgàthach agreed to train Cuchulainn, and ended up sleeping with him (as did her daughter, and her enemy Aife), at which time she prophesied his future:

“When you are a peerless champion, Great extremity awaits you, Alone against the vast herd. Warriors will be set aside against you,

Necks will be broken by you, Your sword will strike strokes to the rear against Sétanta’s [Cuchulainn’s birth name] gory stream. Hard-bladed, he will cut and conjure the trees by the sign of slaughters, by manly feats.

Cows will be carried off from your hill, Captives will be forfeited by your people; Harried by the troop for a fortnight, Your cattle will walk the passes.

You will be alone in great hardship against the host. Scarlet gushes of blood will strike upon many variously-cloven shields.

A band of parasites that you will adhere to will bring away many people and oxen.

Many wounds will be inflicted upon you, Cú Chulainn. You will suffer a wound of revenge in one of the encounters at the final breach.

From your red-pronged weapon there will be defeat, Men pierced against the furious wave, against the whale equipped for exploits, a whale performing feats with blows.

Women will wail and beat their hands in their troop, Medb and Ailill boast of it. A sick-bed awaits you in the face of slaughters of great ferocity.

I see the very glossy Finnbennach in great rage against Donn Cuailnge.*

(P.L. Henry, published in the paper “Verba Scathaige“, Celtica 21, pp 191-207 (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1990).

In essence, Sgàthach is foretelling the entire tale of the Tain bo Cualigne, the Cattle Raid of Cooley.

She teaches him an entire litany of warrior feats, which are listed in the lore: the apple-feat, the thunder-feat, the blade-feat, the wind-feat, the spear-feat, the rope-feat, the body-feat, the cat's feat, the salmon-feat of a chariot-chief, the throw of the staff, the jump over, the whirl of a brave chariot-chief, the spear of the bellows, the boy of swiftness, the wheel-feat, the would-feat, the breath-feat, the hero's whoop, the blow and the counter-blow, running up a lance and righting the body on its point, the scythe-chariot, and the hero's twisting round the points of spears.

Her fortress can be visited today in Torskavaig. The roads are narrow and twisting, and there are no glitzy tourist facilities at the site or along the way. To access the site, one has to walk across a grassy flood plain, and when I did so last August, I couldn’t help but think of the “Plain of Ill-luck.” In the 14th Century, a small castle was bult on the site, which now lies in ruins. To access the main site, one has to cross where a drawbridge one stood: it has since rotted away, and only those willing to inch along a 5-inch ledge can actually get across. Not quite the 'salmon-leap,' but reminiscent nonetheless of the story.

At Lunastal, I cant help but think back of the legend of Sgàthach, and her magical presence on the rocky island that was the seat of her power…and of a genuine Scottish figure in the ancient Celtic lore.

Romano-British?

Do y’all have any resources on starting out with Romano-British polytheism? Or anything with Brythonic polytheism in general (Scotland, England, and Wales)

In many online pagan groups, there can be tension between followers of the Norse pantheon and Celtic Reconstructionists, who will quickly point out the differences in practices and deities between the two groups. For those who are openly ‘eclectic’ this hardly matters, but for those looking to historic practice, there is often a reluctance to “embrace the other.” But the reality is that in Celtic Scotland, these two systems did historically influence each other, and in fact did syncretize to a degree, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. There is a tendency to believe that Norse lore somehow ‘froze in time’ when Snorri wrote the Prose Edda from his Icelandic perspective; but in fact, Norse lore continued to evolve in the Nordreyjar and Sudreyjar (the Norse Island Kingdoms from the Shetlands south through the Inner Hebrides) and even on the Scottish Mainland for centuries. As late as 1716, George Henderson recounts in his “Description of the Western Isles” an ‘ancient custom’ on the Isle of Lewis of carrying a fire around a homestead to consecrate it, no different than the same custom described in the 13th Century Norse Eyrbyggja Saga.

I could write a book (well, in fact, I did…) recounting some of the evidence of cross-over Norse-Gael lore, but for this post, I will just enumerate some of the most significant ones.

1. The Orkney tale of Assipattle is the story of a ne’er-do well young boy who plays in the hearth ashes all day; his very name is the Scots translation of a Norse folktale character names Askeladd (The Ash Lad.) In this story, Assipattle kills the “Stoorworm,” a gigantic sea serpent who terrorizes the oceans, remarkably similar to Jormungandr. The beasts writhing, burning body is how Iceland is created in this tale. He is rewarded by a local king with a sword named Sickersnapper – a gift from Odin.

2. In Thrymskvitha, Thor, dressed as Freyja, kills the giant Thrym. But in the Scottish version of the lore, Thrym can not be destroyed, and returns to life in a tale near Applecross. According to the tale, he was thrown out of Jotunheim after a series of temper tantrums after Thor’s successful retrieval of his hammer, and wreaks havoc on Scotland. The Scots attempt to kill him, and, like Thor, find themselves only temporarily successful.

3. The Orkneyinga Saga and Njal’s Saga both tell the tale of Sigurd Hlodvirsson, whose mother, a volva, make a magical raven banner to bring victory. When Sigurd and his men die in battle, they disappear into the Otherworld by walking, as ghosts, through a liminal space on a cliff – a clear example of Celtic lore (liminal spaces) rather than the Norse theme of Valkyries and Valhalla. A later Scottish tale speaks of how the Sith (Sidhe in Irish), creatures of the Otherworld, pass the flag along to the MacLeod Clan for use in battle. The threadbare remains of this flag are on display at Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye.

4. In the Orkney tale of the Lady Odivere, the namesake’s husband is an open worshipper of Odin, and makes oaths to him. She falls in love with a Selkie, a creature that exists in both Norse and Celtic folklore which takes the form of a seal but can change into a human on land.

5. The Cam Ruadh, a Scottish hero of the Highlands, has feet as swift as skis and is a perfect archer. He has one eye, and seems to combine elements of both Odin and Ullr.

6. Loch Pooltiel, in Glendale on the Isle of Skye, is directly named for Tiel Hakonsson, a Viking heir who is buried in a cemetery in view of the loch. The growth of a tree in the cemetery, from which many mysterious stories develop, combine elements of Celtic and Norse cosmology.

Anyone know what happened to the tairis website? I can find the old blog site but all links to tairis.co.uk just say that the site cannot be reached.

Sad to see it gone. It had a lot of useful information and was the site I sent to people new to Scottish based paganism.

The Silver Bough — F. Marian MacNeil, vol i

I can only find one but thats for kindle from amazon and I typically try to avoid supporting that site as much as I can. Ive been able to find the other three volumes but this first one has been a nightmare to track down.

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Am wondering if there is evidence of the Morrigan being worshipped in Scotland? I'm aware there's the bean nigheachain and also previously mentioned a ritual at Bealtainn which could be connected to her. Thanks.

I've read that celtic pagans dont usually meet in congregations like christians and im wondering what is an ideal way to worship the gods?

Hi, just wondering if Brigid has a place w/in Scottish paganachd. All I can find is that she’s an Irish goddess. Thanks! :~)

Im new to Celtic paganism and im curious on how others celebrate yule and other holidays

Is there any known creation story in celtic paganism?

I try to use the Scottish names for these kinds of things (it just kind of makes me feel more connected I guess) and I can't find one or any info that isn't about the modern gatherings at stonehenge. I was wondering if there's a different word that might be a bit more accurate. I was also wondering if anyone had any useful info about Litha in general.

Thanks!!

Does anybody have any book suggestions that are good for an absolute beginner? Or any sources in general? Also, when I’ve looked into sources, it seems that a lot of them cover Celtic paganism as a whole and do not distinguish between Scottish and Irish. Is there much of a difference between the two or is it more nuanced?

Do Scottish pagans have dietys and do they have a oral tradition of some kind?

* If this link is not allowed, I apologize. Please feel free to delete it*

Hi all, my name is Lindsey. I have been practicing Paganism for about five years now. I am also a psychology doctoral student. My doctoral research is on our community and our experiences as Pagans. Below is a link to my survey. It takes about 20 minutes and is completely anonymous. If you could please take it, I would greatly appreciate it. You are welcome to participate if outside the US, but will need to put your country instead of state.

https://marshall.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1CaWYyRUIbgGLWu