THE TUATHA DE DANANN
The Tuatha Dé Danann were supposedly descended from
Nemed, the leader of a previous wave of inhabitants of Ireland who were said to have come from Greece and had been defeated and enslaved by the Fomorians, a race of fearsome giants of hideous appearance and abhorrent cruelty who occupied Ireland in ancient times. The Tuatha Dé Danann came from four cities to the north of Ireland - Falias, Gorias, Murias and Finias - where they taught their skills in the sciences, including architecture, the arts, and magic, including
necromancy.
According to the
Lebor Gabála Érenn (see below), they came to Ireland "
in dark clouds" and
"landed on the mountains of the Conmaicne Rein in Connachta" (Connaught), otherwise
Sliabh an Iarainn, "
and they brought a darkness over the sun for three days and three nights". One source claims though that they immediately burnt their ships "
so that they should not think of retreating to them, and the smoke and the mist that came from the vessels filled the neighbouring land and air. Therefore it was conceived that they had arrived in clouds of mist."
A poem in the
Lebor Gabála Érenn says of their arrival:
It is God who suffered them, though He restrained them
they landed with horror, with lofty deed,
in their cloud of mighty combat of spectres,
upon a mountain of Conmaicne of Connacht.
Without distinction to discerning Ireland,
Without ships, a ruthless course
the truth was not known beneath the sky of stars,
whether they were of heaven or of earth.
According to Tuan:
“
From them are the Tuatha Dé and Andé, whose origin the learned do not know, but that it seems likely to them that they came from heaven, on account of their intelligence and for the excellence of their knowledge.”
However, before the Tuatha Dé Danann landed in Ireland, another group of invaders, the
Fir Bolg, had settled in Ireland and had subdued the Formorians, going on eventually to live in peace with them. According to ancient Irish sources, the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fir Bolg were both descendants of the same people, the
Nemedians, who were said to hail from Greece. This is interesting given that Hagar/Kore/Tara was supposedly the last of the Perseid line who was therefore descended from the lineage of Perseus and his mother Danae. It was the hero Perseus with his wife Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopaea, who together established the Perseid dynasty in the city state of Mycenae in Greece.
According to Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn in their book ‘
The Shining Ones’, the Nemedians had all but been destroyed by the giant Formorians and the remnant had fled abroad, some back to Greece from where they later returned to Ireland as the Fir Bolg and some to the ‘
northern islands of the world’ where they acquired great supernatural knowledge and skill in all the arts. This makes me wonder whether the Tuatha Dé Danann may have gone to Britain first before invading Ireland. The Fir Bolg would therefore have been their cousins. However, these authors also claim that the goddess Danu was the feminine version of the Mesopotamian god Anu of Annunaki fame. Although I can’t rule this out, I think it more likely that Danu derives from Danae. The Mesopotamian pantheon did contain female goddesses, like Inanna, but none were called Danu. It is more likely that Danu is connected to the Greek people known as the Danaans, who were originally Scythian Celts and may have become the Danites or tribe of Dan. Danu is also known as Dana and Anu among Irish and European Celts and as Don to Welsh or Brythonic Celts (think of Doncaster). She is sometimes described as the mother of the Daghda (see below) or his wife and possibly as the mother of
Dian Cecht (or Cec) and
Nuada of the Silver Hand (this name may mean ‘
cloud maker’).
Please note that I have relied on quite a few sources to write this article but when it comes to the Tuatha Dé Danann, I have particularly relied on Martyn Whittock’s -
A Brief Guide to Celtic Myths and Legends published in 2013.
The Battles of Magh Tuireadh, Balor’s Evil Eye and Nuada’s Arm
In order to subdue the Formorians and the Fir Bolg, the Tuatha Dé Danann had to fight two major battles. Led by their king
Nuada, they fought the
First Battle of Magh Tuireadh on the west coast, in which they defeated and displaced the native
Fir Bolg. In the battle, Nuada lost an arm to the Fir Bolg champion,
Sreng. Since Nuada was no longer "
unblemished", he could not continue as king and was replaced by the half-
Fomorian Bres, who turned out to be a tyrant. The physician
Dian Cecht replaced Nuada's arm with a working silver one and he was reinstated as king. However,
Dian Cecht's son Miach was dissatisfied with the replacement so he recited the spell, "
ault fri halt dí & féith fri féth" (joint to joint of it and sinew to sinew), which caused flesh to grow over the silver prosthesis over the course of nine days and nights. However, in a fit of jealous rage
Dian Cecht slew his own son.
Because of
Nuada's restoration as the leader,
Bres complained to his family and his father,
Elatha, who sent him to seek assistance from
Balor, king of the
Fomorians. Balor was known as ‘
Balor of the One Eye’ (
MJF: sounds a bit like a Cyclops to me) or ‘Balor of the Evil Eye’. It should be noted that
Dian Cecht had married Ethne, the daughter of Balor whose son was Miach. It may also be significant that the concept of the ‘
curse of the evil eye’, which is found in many cultures, was explicitly associated with the Formorians. The evil of Balor was apparently so pronounced that he killed with his one-eyed stare. So terrible and large was this killing-eye that it took nine men/attendants with hooks to lift the lid. This immediately indicates to me that we are looking at some sort of sophisticated weapon system rather than a man’s eye. The fact that it could kill with one stare, suggests that it may have been a large laser device or something of that nature. It was only the late arrival of Lugh who had been kept from the battle for his own safety that saved the Tuatha Dé Danann from destruction and led to the death of Balor of the Evil Eye.
Although Lugh’s weapon has been described as a spear (
sleg) it is also sometimes referred to as a ‘
slingshot’. Lugh’s slingshot knocked out Balor’s Eye, but even as it lay on the ground, its evil was so potent that it killed twenty seven of his own Formorian warriors who looked at it. Hence, we have the elements of an evil eye belonging to a giant that was knocked out by a man wielding a slingshot. Where have we heard that tale before? Was this story encapsulated in the Bible as the story of
David killing the giant Goliath with a slingshot hit to the giant’s head perhaps? After all, the C’s have said that the event depicted in the Bible had occurred long before the time of David and was merely an echo of an older story.
It is interesting that Martyn Whittock has also noticed a link between the Christian accounts of the Old Testament and the invasion stories of English and Irish legend, particularly the Israelite conquest of Canaan where the Anglo-Saxon accounts are concerned. He points out that in contrast, the Irish accounts clearly portrayed the protagonists as god-like but still provided them with a semi-historic setting, as if they were real actual invaders. This process of presenting real historical people, their cultures and events relating to them, as depicted in traditional myths, as being divine is called ‘
euhemerism’. He thinks these Irish accounts may have been influenced by the Old Testament models of conquest too, along with Greek and Roman traditions about the creation of their own civilisations having been founded by the arrival of their ancestors. Given what the C’s have told us about Abraham/Moses and Hagar/Kore, Whittock would appear to be bang on the money here. I have been reading the ‘
Book of Tephi’ in preparation for this article and it is very noticeable the correspondences between the story of this ancient Egyptian princess and her voyage to Ireland and the stories of the Old Testament and the Homeric tales of Troy. I will have more to say about this subject later since Tephi would appear to be an amalgam of Princess Scota and Princess Tara.
The use of high tech laser weapons makes me think also of the ruined vitrified forts found in Scotland and other parts of western and northern Europe and as far afield as modern Turkey that archaeologists have no explanation for. See:
Vitrified fort - Wikipedia. It is not clear why or how the walls were subjected to vitrification. Some antiquarians have argued that it was done to strengthen the wall but the heating actually weakens the structure. Battle damage is also unlikely to be the cause, as the walls are thought to have been subjected to carefully maintained fires to ensure they were hot enough for vitrification to take place. For our purposes, they have also been found in the Isle of Man (Cronk Sumark) and in
County Londonderry and
County Cavan in Ireland. Curiously few if any are to be found in northern Britain, excluding Scotland and then mainly in the far north of Scotland. Dating for these forts varies but some are thought to date back to the Iron Age or even the late Bronze Age, which would be in the right ball park for us. Here is another article on the forts that suggests a more recent provenance. See:
Vitrified Forts. However, my reason for mentioning these forts is that there is a reference to them in Morris Jessup’s book ‘
The Case for the UFO’, where the three gypsy commentators remarked that the vitrification of these forts had been caused by high tech weapons used by flying saucer occupants against ‘terran defenders’. If, as I suspect, the Tuatha Dé Danann were transported by flying saucers (dark clouds and golden rams anyone!) to Britain and Ireland, it would make sense that the occupants, particularly if they were STS orientated, would use high tech weaponry against local defenders in hill forts who threatened the Tuatha Dé Danann. I appreciate though that the two things may not be connected. However, flying saucers have been noted to fire particle beam weapons or lasers even in modern times, causing great harm to those they hit. Such instances have been recorded particularly in Brazil where they even involved the Brazilian army carrying out on the ground research into these occurrences as they were actually happening.
Apparently, the Tuatha Dé Danann had realised almost immediately that they had made a bad mistake in choosing Bres, as he showed himself to be a tyrannical king who reduced the Tuatha Dé Danann to slavery. One wonders if this has echoes in the story of
Moses where the C’s have told us that Moses was eventually deposed as he had become so tyrannical. However, Lugh spared Bres’s life in return for Brest teaching the skills of knowing when to plow, sow and reap, a typical correspondence to ‘nature god’ attributes. After this the Formorians were driven back to their
underwater fortress and forced to accept the dominance of the Tuatha Dé Danann over Ireland. I find it curious that the Formorians are linked here with underwater as opposed to underground fortresses. This makes one think of Poseidon and his underwater realm. There have been suspicions for a long time now that there may be undersea alien bases in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Ireland. Again the three gypsy commentators on Morris Jessop’s book ‘
The Case for the UFO’ mentioned the existence of a chain of large undersea cities that run along the Atlantic ridge. They might even correspond to earlier Atlantean sites now deep underwater. Since the C’s seemed to give credence to what the gypsies had to say in the book and recommended Laura should read it, we should take their comments seriously. It is a fact that large scale NATO naval exercises in the Atlantic have frequently been observed by flying saucers/UFOs for many decades now.
The Tuatha Dé Danann then fought the
Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh against the
Fomorians. Nuada was killed by the Fomorian king
Balor’s poisonous eye, but Balor was then killed by
Lugh Lamhfada (Lugh of the Long Arm or, literally, the ‘Long-Hand’), champion of the Tuatha Dé, and who took over as their king.
Again we see magical elements coming into play with Nuada’s prosthetic arm, which sounds like a modern piece of cybernetics to me, akin to Luke Sky Walker’s prosthetic arm in the second Star Wars film. Could
George Lucas have been inspired by this legend perhaps? It is interesting that in the fourth Star Wars film,
The Phantom Menace, the word “
Sith” is used to describe beings that use the dark side of ‘the force’. The Scottish-Gaelic word “
Sith” derives from and is a variant of the Irish word ‘
Sidhe’ meaning ‘
fairy’ (see more on this below). However, Lucas appears to have borrowed the name from
Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote the Tarzan stories and the Barsoom series of stories featuring John Carter from Mars, where the
Sith are depicted as poisonous insect-like creatures (the Praying Mantis like Minturians anyone?). However, the dark associations reflected in both Burroughs’s and Lucas’s use of the name probably came via the word “
banshee” (first recorded in 1771), which is a phonetic spelling of the Irish ‘
bean sidhe’ meaning ‘
woman of the elves/fairies’. The implication in the use of this term was that of a person who called on the spirits of the dead, a folklore tradition that no doubt derives from a much older pagan religious tradition involving necromancy – which the Tuatha Dé Danann were renowned for.
We also see a reference to Lugh as champion of the Tuatha Dé Danann and their new king. Could this Lugh (a Celtic sun god) be the same
Lug who appears in British history and would lend his name to
Ludgate in London?
Centuries later, Irish history records a third battle fought against a subsequent wave of invaders, the
Milesians, from the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula (present-day Galicia and Northern Portugal), descendants of
Míl Espáine (who are thought to represent the
Goidelic Celts or
Gaels). The Milesians (sons of Mil) first established a beachhead in County Kerry and from there struck in land to Tara, the royal centre. There they encountered three Tuatha Dé Danann goddesses,
Ériu,
Banba and
Fodla (
MJF: a triple goddess theme again), who asked that the island be named after them; Ériu is the origin of the modern name for Ireland ‘
Éire’, and Banba and Fodla are still sometimes used as poetic names for Ireland.
Their three husbands,
Mac Cuill, Mac Cecht and
Mac Gréine, were kings of the Tuatha Dé Danann at that time, and asked for a truce of three days, during which the Milesians would lie at anchor nine waves distance from the shore. The Milesians complied, but the Tuatha Dé Danann created a magical storm in an attempt to drive them away. The Milesian poet
Amergin calmed the sea with his verse, then his people landed and defeated the Tuatha Dé Danann at
Tailtiu (today’s Meath). A second battle was then fought Druim Ligen (Donegal) and won again by the Milesians. When Amergin was called upon to divide the land between the Tuatha Dé Danann and his own people, he cleverly allotted the portion above ground to the Milesians and the portion underground to the Tuatha Dé Danann. The Tuatha Dé Danann were then
led underground into the
Sidhe mounds by
Manannán mac Lir and Tir na nOg onto a flowery plain/plain of honey attested to in the Voyage of Bran. Many think these Sidhe mounds are the ancient long barrows and circular mounds found all over Ireland today including Newgrange.
Again we see a reference to magical powers being deployed on both sides. The calming of the sea by chanting verse reminds one of the stories of Orpheus and his magic lyre. The creation of a storm to destroy the Milesian fleet makes one think of John Dee, whose magical powers were supposed to have caused the storm that helped to defeat the Spanish Armada. However, the problem with that legend is that Dee was not even meant to have been in England when the Amada was defeated. What is true though is that Roman soldiers genuinely feared the druid priests of the Celts who were often seen chanting invocations or spells on a nearby hill overlooking the battlefield.
Is there any archaeological proof for this Spanish/Milesian connection to the invaders that may predate the twelfth-century compilers of the Irish
Book of Invasions from which these invasion accounts are drawn? Well there is. Once the Bronze Age became established about 2200 BC in Ireland, the country became a part of a trading network that connected it to Britain, Amorica (Brittany) and the Iberian Peninsula. Additionally, there is some evidence to connect traditions of Bronze Age rock art in Ireland and Spain. Whittock thinks that these Iberian connections may be an echo of real events that were dimly remembered in oral traditions from pre-history, which were then woven into themes and divinities from Irish mythology and structured by later writers seeking to exploit analogies with the Old Testament.
It is also interesting that Irish
Tuatha Dé Danaan characters such as
Lugh, Nuada and Ogma are also local versions of the Gaulish divinities
Lugus, Nodens and Ogmios, This suggests cultural ties between the two countries but were these characters transferred from Gaul (France) to Ireland/Britain or the other way around?
Hence, we have learned that the Tuatha Dé Danann, or “
people of the goddess Danu”, were an ancient race of supernatural beings who were said to have arrived in Ireland in mysterious ships and had magical powers. When they were defeated by the Milesians legend states that they were allowed to stay in Ireland but were forced underground. They then became known as the
Faery People, or people of the Sidhe, and can be found in the faery mounds that still exist in Ireland today such as the Brú na Bóinne, otherwise known as Newgrange.
As to their magical powers, the Tuatha Dé Danann were meant to have brought
four magical treasures with them to Ireland, one apiece from their Four Cities in the north.
It is interesting that the Greeks and Romans also had mythological traditions of magical talisman that reinforced the possessor’s authority. In contrast to the Greeks and Romans whose talisman often came by falling from the sky, the Tuatha Dé Danann arrived with their talisman/treasures on dark clouds.
| City | Poet | Item | Properties |
| Falias | Morfessa or Fessus | Stone of Fál (Lia Fáil) | It would cry out beneath the king who took the sovereignty of Ireland. It was supposedly located near the Hill of Tara in County Meath. |
| Goirias or Gorias | Esras | Spear (sleg) of Lugh | No battle was ever sustained against it, or against the man who held it. |
| Findias or Finias | Uiscias or Uscias | Sword of Light (claideb/claiomh solais) which belonged to Núada | No one ever escaped from it once it was drawn from its sheath, and no one could resist it. The sword is also described in the Tain legend as "Nuadu's Cainnel"—a glowing bright torch. |
| Muirias or Murias | Semias | Cauldron (coire) of the Dagda | No company ever went away from it unsatisfied (also known as the Coire ansic). |
A. C. L. Brown and
R. S. Loomis equate Lugh's spear with the
Lúin of Celtchar, which in
Togail Bruidne Dá Derga is said to have been discovered in the Battle of Mag Tuired. There is however no sign of a literary tradition which connects the two weapons. A different spear belonging to Lug is the so-called
spear of Assal in
Oidheadh Chloinne Tuireann. It was brought back to Lug by the
sons of Tuireann in atonement for their killing of
Cian.
Was the
Spear of Lug, which never missed its target, really a high tech weapon emitting deadly plasma discharges? Moreover it seems to share a great similarity to Odin’s famous spear
Gungnir – the swaying one - see
Gungnir - Wikipedia. The spear is described as being so well balanced that it could strike any target, no matter the skill or strength of the wielder. In turn the spear may also be linked with the
Gáe Bulg (also
Gáe Bulga,
Gáe Bolg,
Gáe Bolga), meaning "spear of mortal pain/death", "gapped/notched spear", or "belly spear", which was the name of the spear of
Cúchulainn in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology.
One might ask whether the
Sword of Light belonging to Nuada – described as a glowing bright torch – was really a laser weapon akin to the light sabres in Star Wars perhaps?
Note also that the
Cauldron of Dagda is sometimes called the
Coire [Kore?]
Ansic. From this magical cauldron a constant supply of food would come forth. Cauldrons are a popular device in Celtic mythology and folklore. I will have more to say about this particular cauldron when discussing the personage of the Dagda below, suffice to say that what we may be looking at here is the Holy Grail or at least something with very similar properties.
The
Stone of Fal would appear to be
Jacob’s Stone or the
Stone of Destiny. This device has, of course, been discussed in a previous post. In Irish mythology it was meant to scream whenever a true king of Ireland would place his foot on it. The Scottish claim that the stone ended up in Scotland as the Stone of Scone (linked with Scotia) but the Irish would appear to vehemently disagree.
It is also worth noting that in Irish mythology,
Tara is said to have been the capital of the Tuatha Dé Danann but when the Milesians (the first Gaels) arrived, Tara became the place from which the
kings of Mide ruled Ireland.
We still have the issue of Princess Tara and Princess Scotia to resolve and which one should be linked to Hagar/Kore. Please note that I have discovered some new information which may clinch it but this will have to wait until part two of the article.
The Dagda
The Tuatha Dé Danann are surrounded by myth and legend. Ancient manuscripts depict the Tuatha people as real-life kings and queens though. However, they exhibit many ties to the pre-Christian deities of Ireland. The Tuatha Dé Danann included great heroes and deities, including
Lugh,
Danu,
the Dagda,
Brigid,
Áine,
Oghma, and
the Morrígan.
The Dagda (Irish:
An Dagda) is an important god in Irish mythology. As one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the Dagda is portrayed as a father-figure, king, and druid. He is associated with fertility, agriculture, manliness and strength, as well as magic, druidry and wisdom. He can control life and death, the weather and crops, as well as time and the seasons.
He is often described as a large bearded man or giant wearing a hooded cloak. He owns a magic staff, club, or mace (the
lorg mór or
lorg anfaid), which kills with one end and brings to life with the other, a cauldron (the
coire ansic) which never runs empty, and a magic harp (
uaithne) which can control men's emotions and change the seasons (
MJF: this makes me think of HARP and mind control as mentioned by the C’s). He is said to dwell in
Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange). Other places associated with or named after him include
Uisneach,
Grianan of Aileach, and
Lough Neagh. The Dagda is said to be husband of the Morrigan and lover of
Boann (see more below on this connection). His children include Aengus,
Brigit, Bodb Derg, Cermait, Aed, and Midir. Aengus, Cermait, and Aed are often called the three sons of the Dagda.
The Dagda's name is thought to mean "the good god" or "the great god". His other names include
Eochu or
Eochaid Ollathair ("horseman, great father" or "all-father"),
Ruad Rofhessa ("mighty one/lord of great knowledge") and
Dáire ("the fertile one"). The death and ancestral god
Donn may originally have been a form of the Dagda, and he also has similarities with the later harvest figure
Crom Dubh. Several tribal groupings saw the Dagda as an ancestor and were named after him, such as the
Uí Echach and the
Dáirine.
The Dagda has been likened to the Germanic god Odin, the Gaulish god Sucellos, and the Roman god
Dīs Pater, god of the underworld equivalent to the Greek god
Hades or
Pluto.
The Dagda is said to be husband of the Morrigan, who is called his "
envious wife". He is said to have two brothers, Nuada and Ogma (see more below on Ogma) but this may just be an instance of the tendency to triplicate deities. Elsewhere the Dagda is linked exclusively with Ogma, and the two are called "
the two brothers." In the
Dindsenchas, the Dagda is given a daughter named Ainge, for whom he makes a twig basket or tub that always leaks when the tide is in and never leaks when it is going out. The Dagda's father is named Elatha son of Delbeath. Englec, the daughter of Elcmar, is named as a consort of the Dagda and the mother of his "
swift son". Echtgi the loathesome is another daughter of the Dagda's named in the
Banshenchas (MJF: sounds like “Banshee” to me).
In linking him as husband of the Morrigan, who is called his ‘envious wife’, are we seeing the first signs of the Dagda being connected to the personage of Abraham perhaps?
Let us remember that Brigid is also the daughter of
Morrigan and
Kernunnos. Cernunnos, a Gaulish god, has aspects of a god of plenty, and in that way is similar to the Dagda. If Brigid is Hagar/Kore she was, of course, Abraham’s step daughter. It was through the Dagda that Brigid also had many siblings, including her brothers
Aengus and
Midir - could these perhaps be Ishmael and Isaac, the sons of Abraham, albeit that Ishmael was Hagar’s own son? In some traditions, Brigid married Bres, the High King of the Tuatha Dé Danann referred to above, and by him had a son, Ruadán. Again could Bres be Abraham and Ruadán be Ishmael?
The Irish writer Mary Condren thinks that ‘
Darlughdacha’ might be the original name for the goddess Brigid, presumably because she thinks that Brigid, meaning ‘
Exalted One’, is a title rather than a real name. Darlughdacha means '
daughter of Lugh', which would then equate Abraham, as Brigid’s stepfather, with Lugh as discussed above. Brigid as Bride, Brighid or Brighid of the De Dannans, was a member of those not immortal but for long ages ‘
deathless folk’ who to the Gaels were like the Olympians to the Greeks. Indeed, one wonders if the Greeks inherited their Olympian gods from the Irish and British Celts not the other way around.
Although we have touched on the characters of the Dagda, Lugh and Nuada, I have not dealt with the character of Ogma so far. Ogma or “Oghma”, the Irish god of warriors and writing, was the son of the Daghda and Dana/Danu. He specialised in the skills required for the successful pursuit of warfare. However, in a different source, Ogma is viewed as the brother of the Daghda and both are described as the sons of Eithne. Druid tradition claimed Ogma as the originator of the early medieval linear, twig-like writing used to carve words on stone, wood and bone that became known as Ogham.
In one version of the story of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Ogma, now known now as Oengus Óg, the Irish god of love, fell out with the Dagda over the sharing of land between the Dagda’s children. Oengus retaliated by tricking his father. He asked his father for the right to live in the Dagda’s home that was the Brú na Bóinne (the Palace of the Boyne otherwise known as the prehistoric mound at Newgrange) for the duration of ‘láa ogus oidhche’, which may mean ‘a day and a night’ or ‘day and night’ (i.e., forever). As a result, the Dagda lost his own home to his son. I don’t know about you but this story reminds me of how Jacob tricked his brother Esau (and his father Isaac) out of his father’s blessing, which given what the C’s have said about a false line of transmission and the trampled leaves of wrath, has more significance for us than a mere retelling of a familiar biblical story through an Irish legend or mythical story.
Ogham may also be tied to the legendary King Og of Bashan, a huge giant with an equally huge iron bedstead (9 cubits long by 4 cubits wide) who was supposed to have stowed away on Noah’s Ark and survived the Deluge or Flood, as well as the Sumerian god Ogma or Ugmash (related to Shamash the sun god - the equivalent of Lugh in Irish mythology) and linked with our Ogma (grian-aineach) of Irish mythology, which Gardiner and Osborn translate as ‘He with the countenance of the sun’ - the ‘Shining One’. There is also Ogmius the ancient Celtic giant deity and this in turn links with Gogmagog the only remaining British giant who Corineus fought on behalf of Brutus as related in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s ‘The History of the Kings of Britain‘.
In Irish mythology, the giants were actual gods who had fallen from heaven, like stars falling to earth (MJF: where have we heard that tale before?). In Norse and Greek legends, of course, the giants fought the gods. According to Greek mythology, the giants were the ‘sons of the earth’ like the Hebrew ‘sons of God’. In Greek myth, they were generated from the blood of the god Uranus from his castration by Chronos (time), Saturn to the Romans. The giants, as the Titans, would even become powerful enough to try to unseat Zeus and his fellow Olympian gods early on in their rule. With the gods victorious, the giants were said to have been imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld (Hades) or, alternatively, under the Earth. This is similar to Sumerian tales and to the story of the Watchers and the Nephilim in the Book of Enoch - the C’s advised only recently that we should look to the oldest version of the account of giants where all such giant legends derive from. These giants usually had long hair and often in sculpture they were depicted with the tails of serpents and as Cyclops with one eye - rather like the description of ‘Balor of the One Eye’ perhaps. Hence, we can see strong connections here between all these ancient myths of giants.
Boann the Mother of Oengus Óg
Boann was the wife of the river god Nechtan or Echmar and was particularly associated with the river Boyne, the same river where King James II would millennia later lose a pivotal battle against the forces of the Dutch Prince ‘William of Orange’. An account in the twelfth-century ‘History of Places’ (Dinnshenchas) explains the origins of her association with the river Boyne by showing how she visited the forbidden well of her husband, Nechtan, which was located in the fairy mound of Nechtan. Since she had broken the taboo, the waters of the well became a river that overwhelmed her, which led to her becoming synonymous with the river Boyne. In addition to this tale, there is another one in which Boann had an affair with the Dagda whilst her husband was away. As a result of an enchantment by the Dagda, her husband thought that his journey took one day and one night, where in fact it actually took nine months. During this time the Dagda concealed the pregnancy of Boann and the birth of a son Oengus Óg to her.
Why make mention of these two ancient stories involving Boann? Well, sacred wells are often connected in mythology to the Grail (we will encounter this later with Brigid). If we substitute the ‘taboo well’ she visited by a temple say at Heliopolis, the cult centre for worship of the sun god Atum, and then make Boann’s husband Akhenaten, do we see shades of the story of how Nefertiti helped to steal the Holy Grail from Heliopolis for Abraham? Were the waters of the Boyne overwhelming Boaan really a reference to the waters of the Nile becoming torrential after the eruption of the volcanic island of Thera? If we then substitute the Dagda by Abraham, do we see a distant echo of how Abraham stole Nefertiti (or possibly Kore) away and made her pregnant without Akhenaten knowing? Would the enchantment of the Dagda reflect perhaps the way in which Abraham may have swayed Akhenaten over to the sole worship of the Aten instead of the traditional pantheon of Egyptian deities?
The Dagda’s Cauldron
Some scholars believe that the Holy Grail may contain both tropes of the magical cauldrons from Celtic mythology with the Christian legend surrounding the Last Supper. It should also be noted that the Tuatha Dé Danann, as well as being called the ‘
Children of Danu’, were also referred to as the ‘
Ever-Living Ones’, which further emphasises their status as divine beings. It may also indicate a link to the power of the Holy Grail to sustain life or even resurrect the dead, which we will encounter below.
The Dagda owned many magical items, including his cauldron. This cauldron, known as the
Coire Ansic, meaning “
undry”, was so named, because it never ran dry. Dagda’s cauldron was therefore never empty and no one ever left it unsatisfied. Now that is a truly marvellous artefact worth seeking indeed. It also puts one in mind of the ‘
Horn of Plenty’ of Norse mythology, which never ran dry. Perhaps this link is no mere coincidence.
In dealing with the subject of magic cauldrons, I have drawn on Phillip Gardiner and Gary Osborn’s book ‘
The Serpent Grail’, in which the authors seek to link the Holy Grail with ancient serpent worship and the shamans who preserved the knowledge of the serpent that, once known and understood, would lead to the transformation of the individual by releasing the coiled up inner energy of kundalini (the inner snake), so as to produce an enlightened person (i.e., someone in an altered state of awareness or consciousness) whose mind and body would operate in perfect balance. As regards the motif of the cauldron in mythology, they start with the premise that the cauldron symbolises the Underworld (the Egyptian “
Duat” - which term may take on more significance when we come to look at Tara/Scota later in part 2 of this article), the magical realm to which many cultures believe souls go to when we die. I would point out that the Underworld or “
Sidhe” is also the place where the Tuatha Dé Danann were supposed to have gone after their defeat at the hands of the Milesian Gaels. In Irish mythology they were deemed to be very much alive when they entered the Sidhe and this place would subsequently become linked with the “
fairies” (
MJF: grey aliens anyone?) or the little people of Irish folklore, including the famous leprechauns and their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. One mythical aspect of such beings is their ability to shapeshift, which is an ability the greys and the lizzies have according to the C’s.
However, the two authors also point out that on another level of understanding, the cauldron symbolises the head, the place of enlightenment. They indicate that the word “
pen” in Welsh means “
head” as in Uther
Pendragon, King Arthur’s father. In Hebrew, the equivalent word is “
ben”, which means “first”, “original” or “head”. “
Ben” is also related to the ancient Egyptian word “
ben-ben” and to the
Bennu bird (a heron – the equivalent of the Greek phoenix bird). The ben-ben stone is the pyramidion or capstone that was placed at the top of sacred pillars and pyramids, structures that represented the shamanic World Pillar or World Mountain (like Mount Meru). To Gardiner and Osborn the obelisk or pillar also symbolises the upright spinal column, which is why the pyramidion capstone would have represented the head – or rather, something within the head. Now I think they make a good point here as they wish to link the Holy Grail with the enlightenment process, which we would call ‘kundalini’ that culminates in the head. However, given that I believe the Holy Grail is also a real physical object, the Merkhaba or Motherstone, I think this link between cauldrons and heads may be very appropriate, given the other aspects attributed to magical cauldrons in mythology. I would also point out in passing that the C’s have said that the ben-ben stone or pyramidion capstone of the Great Pyramid at Giza was in fact a laboratory, which was buried in the Sinai Desert. I will try to develop this point when returning to the Great Pyramid in a subsequent post but suffice to say for now that the word “pyramidion” has that word or suffix “
pyr” in it again, which signifies “
fire” in Greek and kundalini is, of course, a form of internal fire.
Gardiner and Osborn point out that our modern understanding of the Grail has been shaped by the late medieval addition of the idea of it being a ‘
chalice’ through the Arthurian legends. However, in the Celtic sources (Irish, Welsh and Scythian), which are assumed to form the origins of the Arthurian legends, the Grail is a cauldron, a symbol of both fertility and immortality. It brought forth marvellous and magical feats, revitalising and resurrecting great and powerful armies. This last aspect might also be linked, I think, to the resurrection or dry bones story in Ezekiel Chapter 37 of the Bible. Interestingly, the following chapter in Ezekiel deals with the war of ‘Gog and Magog’, which has a certain resonance for own time It is also curious that hills named “
Gog” and “
Magog” may be found just outside the City of Cambridge in England, where the C’s confirmed that the siege of Troy had occurred, as proposed by Iman Jacob Wilkens in his 1990 book ‘
Where Troy Once Stood’. This in turn may lead us back to the Holy Grail since it may well be the case that the besiegers of Troy were in reality trying to retrieve the Grail for Pharaoh, the story of the kidnapping of Helen being just a veil or cover story to hide the real purpose for the Trojan War.
The cauldron of the Dagda, as a healing or reviving device, is also refllected in the story of the Tuatha Dé Danann physician
Dian Cecht at the Battles of Magh Tuireadh. He knew the secrets of medicine and healing. In the war against the Formorians, he provided the healing waters in which the wounded members of the Tuatha Dé Danann bathed and were restored to health. He did so by dipping them into a ‘cauldron of regeneration’ to save them from death.
The idea of a cauldron reviving dead or dying soldiers may also link with what the C’s have told us about STS forces taking dead soldiers from battlefields and reviving them for subsequent use (see more below on this).
Arthur and the Cauldron of the Head of Hades
Gardiner and Osborn state that the Cauldron of Rebirth is a recurring theme in Celtic tales. For example, in the Welsh story of the Mabinogi, warriors slain in battle are put into it and emerge alive. In the old Welsh Arthurian material, King Arthur goes into the Underworld, Annwfn, to retrieve the same magic cauldron – this may represent the true origin of the Grail quest since the cauldron of Annwfn is also an inexhaustible source of food, as in the Grail. It is also worth recalling that the C’s have said that the Merkhaba or Grail was the ‘Gift of God’, capable of providing for all your material needs. Arthur, in essence, is therefore merely an updated version of the hero-god-king par excellence who sought the Grail but, who in doing so, was really seeking himself or his true self – think of Perseus, Jason and Odysseus and Joseph Campbell’s ‘the hero’s journey’ here.
The authors then point out that many writers and researchers have suggested that the Celtic cauldron of rebirth represents the Underworld or land of the dead as well as the womb of the World Mother – the Earth being the body of the archetypal female. Indeed, the Earth itself can be described in some ways as a huge vessel or cauldron with many labyrinthine sub-worlds and creatures that were supposed to live within the interior realms of the Earth known as Hades, which was renamed Hell by the Church.
Subsequently in their research, the authors found that the cauldron or Grail was also associated with the human head, and in particular the male head. They noted in Celtic mythology an item called the ‘Cauldron of the Head of Hades’ or head of the god of the Underworld or afterlife. This cauldron was to be found at Caer Pedryvan, the ‘four-cornered castle’ or ‘fire castle’. This castle was a special and magical place where the people were said to drink sparkling wine. The word “Pedryvan” or “Pedraven” means a ‘Newt’ or in Cornish a ‘Ewte’ – a lizard, serpent or dragon. This reference immediately makes me think of the fantasy game ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ for some reason. However, ‘Ewte’ also means a ‘resplendent mind’, which ties in with Gardiner and Osborn’s serpent shaman and ‘Shining Ones’ – another title of the Tuatha Dé Danann. They concluded from this that the cauldron of rebirth and the head of the archetypal resurrecting god symbolised the process of enlightenment (kundalini - reached through the hypnagogic trance state) through which one became transformed – reborn.
They thought that as these myths were describing an internal experience, the castle would seem to represent a physical gateway that can facilitate access to the mental gateway within oneself. This might signify a sacred temple or other construction of some kind that marks a specific location on the Earth, perhaps a neutral point or zero-node on the Earth’s surface, or a coordinate point in the Earth’s energy matrix of ley lines and positive and negative lines of force. However, they felt that this matter lay outside of the scope of the book but the clues given in the myths and allegorical fables seemed to point to this conclusion. At this point I would add that I think they are right. I would suggest that the location or zero-node they are looking for was once at Giza, where the Great Pyramid is located, as Giza was calculated by the ancient builders to have been at the centre point of the world in terms of land distribution and mass, and, long before the Greenwich Zero Meridian came into being, Giza was in ancient times viewed as the Zero Meridian. If the ancient alien theorists are correct, Giza also stood at the centre of a worldwide energy grid. Indeed, the Great Pyramid may even have been the Tower of Babel and Inanna’s Mountain of Stone (Zion). I will stick my neck out here and say that the Holy Grail/Merkhaba was once located in the Great Pyramid itself and there was a good reason why the C’s said that the Ben-Ben Stone that capped it was buried in the Sinai Desert long ago. I intend to develop these points in a subsequent post on the Great Pyramid in the near future.
Gardiner and Osborn then made an odd statement that brought in alchemy, a subject that Laura had a lot to say about in her book – The Secret History of the World. They indicated that Arthur’s journey into the Underworld (the Egyptian Duat and Greek Hades) to find the cauldron would seem to be connected with the Latin alchemical phrase – Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem – which means ‘Visit the interior of the Earth and by purifying, you will find the secret stone, the true medicine’. When using the initial letters of the Latin phrase, you find that it spells the word “vitriol”. The author’s took this phrase to mean the centre of the Earth was in one’s head. However, given what the C’s have told us about the inner Earth civilisation(s) and the Holy Grail being the Merkhaba Stone, then I might put a different spin on the phrase. In passing, I would add that the C’s also mentioned that at the very centre of the Earth is a crystalline structure that can only exist under the extreme gravitational forces found at the core of a planet.
The Head of Osirus and the Carvings at Abydos
The authors then made the observation that if you take the story of Arthur to be one of many Celtic versions of a far more ancient story, then you need to look towards Egypt for its origin, since everything ultimately tends to lead you back to Egypt or Mesopotomia. How true that seems to be. They then said that if the origins of the Arthur story do lie in Egypt, it could be that the head that Arthur is searching for is also the head of the ancient Egyptian god
Osirus, the archetypal shaman god-king – a resurrecting god associated with rebirth.
This is a very interesting observation on their part since
Seti I, the son of
Ramses I and a pharaoh of the
19th dynasty (spanning 1292–1190 BC), was one of the successors to Akhenaten. He rebuilt many of the temples and shrines that had fallen into decay or been damaged both during and after Akhenaten’s reign. Another important work of his was the memorial temple at
Abydos, which he dedicated to Osirus and six other deities and decorated with reliefs of great delicacy on which much of the original colour remains. However, behind this temple can be found a very curious building dedicated to Osiris. Called the
Osirion or
Osireon, it is an ancient Egyptian temple located directly to the rear of the temple of Seti I at Abydos. It is an integral part of Seti I's funeral complex and is built to resemble an 18th Dynasty Valley of the Kings tomb. The Osirion was discovered by archaeologists
Flinders Petrie and
Margaret Murray who were excavating the site in 1902–3. The
Osirion was originally built at a considerably lower level than the foundations of the temple of Seti, who ruled from 1294–1279 BC. While there is disagreement as to its true age, Peter Brand says it "
can be dated confidently to Seti's reign", despite the fact that it is situated at a lower depth than the structures nearby, that it features a very different architectural approach, and that it is frequently flooded with water which would have made carving it impossible had the water level been the same at the time of construction. The likelihood is, therefore, that it pre-dated Seti I’s reign and he merely rediscovered it and built his new temple in front of it.
Again I will stick my neck out here again and propose that in its guise as the ‘Head of Osirus’, the Merkhaba was once located at Abydos. This proposal deserves a post all of its own and I hope to do one in the near future but to whet the appetite, here is an article on the strange hieroglyphic carvings found at Abydos, which suggests either contact with aliens or people who were being shown a glimpse of the future, which perhaps may be our present.
Abydos carvings. It is worth recalling here that when Laura asked the C’s what the Egyptian ‘
Boat of a Million Years’ was, they said it was a time machine. See:
Solar barque - Wikipedia.
All this proves that there was something very strange going on in Egypt during the 18th and 19th pharaonic dynasties. Is it so incredible to suppose, therefore, given what we now know of alien or hyper-dimensional interference in humanity’s affairs over the millenia, that Hagar and her attendants may have been given a ride in flying saucers to ancient Britain/Ireland and it survived in folklore and mythology as “
they came down upon dark clouds” or she rode on a golden ram?
Before moving on to Hagar/Kore, we need to consider the story of Bran’s Head since it fits into the scheme of things that we have been looking at above. According to legend, Bran the Blessed, the son of Lyr, allowed his head to be cut off at his own bidding and buried beneath a tower on a white hill facing France to protect the people of Britain. Some think this means in London and specifically the Tower of London but London was named by the Romans as Londinium Nova Troya because of its associations with the ancient City of Troy where they believed the Roman people originated from. As we know, Troy was located near today’s city of Cambridge and was never rebuilt. Legend suggests instead that the new city was built at today’s Ilford, a suburb of present London. Whatever the truth, King Arthur subsequently came along and dug it up the head to show the people they no longer needed Bran’s protection now he was king. Gardiner and Osborn say that this head was known as ‘Uther Ben’ or ‘wonderful head’. The Celtic god Bran – the Shining One – is the Celtic version of the Egyptian vegetation and resurrecting god Osirus, making Arthur the Celtic version of Horus – Uther being Arthur’s father. In their view this indicates to them that everything seems to lead back to Osirus as if he is the archetypal Shining One. This fits well if the Head of Bran and of Osirus is in fact the Merkhaba or Holy Grail.
The most famous cauldron and the one most clearly linked with the Grail myth is indeed that of Bran the Blessed. The Welsh Mabinogion tells of Bran’s wondrous cauldron, which has the virtue of restoring health, even to the fatally wounded. There is also an exact parallel for this in the Greek story of Demeter, which we will see when considering Hagar.Kore/Brigid who is linked with Persephone and Demeter. Bran’s cauldron is said to date from ancient times and to have come originally from Ireland, a country which, according to Lorraine Evans in her book ‘The Kingdom of the Ark’, had close links with ancient Egypt. Bran’s Head could therefore be described as his cauldron if it contained or was the Grail. There also seems to be a strong correspondence here between the cauldron of the Dagda and Bran’s cauldron. Since ‘Bran’ is etymologically close to ‘Abram’ or ‘Abraham’, this suggests to me that if Bran is the Dagda, then the Dagda must be Abraham and the cauldron or Bran’s Head is the Holy Grail or Merkhaba brought from the Sinai Desert either by Abraham/Moses himself or by Hagar/Kore/Tara/Brigid.
The same elements of Bran’s story are repeated in the Welsh tale of Branwen Daughter of Llŷr (Branwen ferch Llŷr). It starts when Bendigeidfran son of Llŷr was crowned king over this island (Britain) and invested with the crown of London. This land was called ‘The Island of the Mighty’. Bendigeidfran’s name is derived from ‘blessed’ and Brân. Hence, we are clearly looking at the same character. Martyn Whittock points out that Bendigeidfran’s gigantic size, ownership of a magic cauldron and talking severed head suggest he was originally part of an independent myth. In the story, Bendigeidfran is shown in the company of Manawyddan his brother. This character is clearly the Welsh form of the Irish deity Manannán, the son of Lír, who was the god of the sea and married to Aife (Aoífe). However, there is no connection between Manawyddan and the sea in Welsh traditions. You should note though that Manannán is an important deity not only in Irish mythic traditions but also in those of the Isle of Man. I hope to do a post on him in connection with the Isle of Man, since it may serve to show what the C’s meant when they told Laura “part of the puzzle is there”. The only thing I would mention now is that Manannán, as god of the sea (like Poseidon/Neptune), drove a chariot pulled by two supernatural horses across the waves [MJF: sounds like a mythical description of a UFO to me]. More importantly, when the Tuatha Dé Danann were defeated by the Milesians, it was he that led them into their new Otherworld – or underground home. Traditionally, Manannán’s home lay on the Isle of Man but other traditions place it on Emhain Abhlach (i.e., ‘Emhain of the apple trees’). Apart from the fact that we cannot seem to escape references to trees on this thread, the reference to apple trees immediately puts me in mind of the ‘Garden of the Hesperides’ and the possible overlap here with Greek myths.
Curiously, when it came to the properties of Bendigeidfran’s cauldron, it would revive the dead but they would not regain the power of speech. This again makes me think of the resurrected soldiers the greys retrieve from battlefields. Do they return as zombies without the power of speech I wonder? As with the story in the Mabinogion, Bendigeidfran volunteers to have his head cut-off and it is buried at first in London. However, the story ties in with that of his niece, Branwen, and goes in other directions from there, which I won’t bore you with further.
Odin and his Cauldron - Odhrerir
Like the Celts, the Norse also have a strong tradition with a cauldron, in this case the
Odhrerir Cauldron. It was said to have contained a potion concocted by dwarves from the blood of the wise Kvasir. The potion imparted occult knowledge and ancient wisdom and was deeply coveted by the god Odin. He managed to get hold of it by turning himself into a snake (a shape-shifting ability evidently shared with the Greek god Zeus) and drinking the cauldron dry. He then took it to Asgard, the home of the gods, where he is said to have spat the potion into a vessel.
Cauldrons are not just the preserve of male deities though and in the next part of this article I will link Brigid and her Welsh counterpart, Ceridwen, to cauldrons and to sacred wells and springs and try and determine who was on first base, Brigid or Tara.
