Equinox balance

The land appears to hold her breath,

awaiting the tip towards Bealtaine.

Here and there a yellow sigh escapes

in moss

gorse

and catkins.

The Dagda’s harp brings in the greening.

There is a gentle green that hovers like mist about the trees.

Leaf buds prepare to burst forth, birdsong fills the air and Ireland has awakened.

In Irish mythology the land, its’ sovereignty and fertility, were the province of the Goddesses 

but The Dagda, the Good God, also played his part in providing for the people.

AN DAGDHA - more HERE.

We are told that he possessed two great treasures; a magical harp and the cauldron, Undry, which contained endless bounty "from which none returned unfulfilled".

'The Cauldron of the Dagda' by Paula O’Sullivan 

which stands in Tralee’s Sculpture Garden of the Senses. 

As leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann, he used his strength to clear twelve plains overnight, then created twelve rivers, to provide fertile, agricultural land and streams which brought “produce from the sea to tribes and kindreds.” 

A symbol of his virility was described by the antiquarian John Garvin in 1940’s as Bod a'Daghda,  the Dagdha's Penis.

The phallic Dagda's Stone, known by some as ‘the Dagda’s Dick, 

in the Bricklieve Mountains.

Photo © Martin Byrne courtesy of Carrowkeel.com

In Ardmore, Co. Waterford was the Cloch Daha, a stone which may also have been associated with the Good God. 

It was described as having a trough-like shape with a oval hole at the centre. 

Drawing of the Cloch Daha. 

The folklore of Ardmore tells of a tradition where the young unmarried men of the village inserted a pole into the hole of the Cloch-Daha then fixed a rope onto the top. 

Local single women would dance around the stone holding the rope so that the pole spun around. 

The custom ended with the young men pulling the women through the village seated on logs of wood. Owing to the sexual overtones these rites were stopped, the stone removed by the clergy then buried in the last century. 

The Cloch-Daha is thought to have been found and sits in the grounds 

of Monea House, Ardmore.

Only a few symbols of male fertility can be seen in the landscape.

Maghera, Co. Down.

Pic courtesy of Beyond the Pale

The Ballygilbert stone, Co. Antrim. 

Pic courtesy of Megalithamania

Male exhibitionist figure known as the Sean-na-Gig part of a gatepost, 

Ballycloughduff, Co. Westmeath.

However, The Dagda, it is believed controls the crops and harvest from his Otherworld home. 

Whilst, unheard by mortal ears, his magical harp plays on, calling forth the greening of the year.

Information about Ireland’s phallic stones can be found HERE and male exhibitionist carvings HERE 

Spring & The Three Hags.

Cailleach Bheara - a commission for a resident living near the Bheara Peninsula, Co.Cork.

At the Spring Equinox, when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal, it feels that we are held
at a place of balance between Summer and Winter.
Here the past few days have been full of sunlight and gentle warmth as the crows build their
nests and the trees begin to green but this morning saw a frost return to the land.

In Ireland we have no evidence or folklore to support the idea that the Celts celebrated a festival
at this point in the year, however an old story from Coolea, Co. Cork tells of the three Cailleach,
Old Women or Hags, who are responsible for the development of growth during March.
The tale begins on Brigid's Day at the start of February when one Hag, described as
a 'veiled one', stands under the ground attempting to push up the vegetation whilst the two other
Hags stand above ground to keep it down.
After the middle of March the single Cailleach below is joined by another and both push up the
plants together whilst one Hag remains above ground to resist.
By the end of the months all three Hags are beneath the land pushing up the new growth for Spring.

In a time before the Celts, the Neolithic people were aware of the Equinoxes and
this knowledge of astronomy and the landscape can be seen at many sites across the island.

 Spring Equinox solar alignments at Grianán of Aileach, Co. Donegal & Gossan Stones, Co. Wicklow.

The most well known of these sites is probably Cairn T on Sliabh na Caillí, "the hag's mountain"
in Co. Meath, part of the Loughcrew Megalithic complex. 
The sun's rays at the Equinox sunrise shine down the passageway of the cairn to illuminate an 
inner chamber.
Slowly the light travels across the rear stones shining on the megalithic stone carvings...

© Clare Tuffy

bringing the sun into the body of the land and into the place of the ancestors ...

The Cailleach painting : here

until the home of the Cailleach returns to darkness once more.

To see this special event please watch Michael Fox's video below :

For more information on the Grianán of Aileach please visit the Unknown Swilly blog HERE
The Gossan Stones can be found HERE