Upon an Uneasy Seat Above Caer Ochren

In his 1st letter to Norman Gills, Robert Cochrane writes the following about the process of invoking the Goddess of the season:

"... invokes the Goddess through 'The dark of night and the evening star meeting together', which as you should know is brought about in the beginning by 'in an uneasy chair above Caer Ochren'."

Whatever interpretation of the above lines might be considered most accurate, we would like to offer *our* take on it.

Let's start with 'The dark of night and the evening star meeting together.' For reasons that are difficult to articulate clearly, we believe this is a reference to possession/channeling. I suppose the reasons are difficult to explain because they fall into the category of "Mystery." We can understand it, and even try to speak it, but will have some challenge in sharing its deepest meanings with you. We'll try, though, if it means helping others find the way to the Mysteries." Even Cochrane, later in the same letter, says that this process can't be taught in writing. Perhaps we should say that we aren't attempting to actually teach this process, but to shed some insight on this process and its significance to Craft practice.

I think perhaps it is easiest to say that the "dark of night" is a reference to the Self -- that internal place; the opening, yearning for something greater than what is known and seen. We all have it, this chasm that cries out for spiritual experience, for that which is beyond us.

The "evening star," then, is the Goddess who is being invoked. It could be any Goddess, though in our home-coven we only do invocations with the Black Goddess and the White Goddess (and Tubal Qayin, the Red God). We do these at their respective Sabbats, and we do this for the primary purpose of oracular communications from these Deities. We seek their advice and listen to the wisdom that they share throughout the year. We only use the method described above, though, -- the "uneasy seat above Caer Ochren" -- when we are doing oracle invocation with the Black and White Goddesses. (We use other methods with Qayin.)

The "uneasy seat" is perhaps a stellar reference, but we have interpreted it as something more practical. Caer Ochren, we believe, is a reference to the Spiral Castle. Certainly, Caer Ochren is one of the castles of Grail lore, and we believe it is Caer Sidhe itself. Some of this is just our gut instinct, but a little comes from an interesting linguistic find. "Ochren" means "sides." It could be easy to mistake "sidhe" (which means fairy) as "sides" -- or to intentionally muddy the waters by playing language tricks with these words.

So, now we have an uneasy seat above Caer Sidhe, the revolving castle, the Spiral Castle. For us, this is the center point of the compass -- and opens into all the sides. A seat above it, poetically, speaking could be the the starry point to which the central spire of the castle rises. The North Star, Tubelo's nail star, the iron hook.

It reminds us, too, of the oracle of Delphi sitting upon her tripod stand above the fissure within the temple's floor. The temple at Delphi held the omphalos, the world's navel, the center point. 

For us, we use a rocking chair as our tripod, as our "uneasy seat." When one of us sits in the rocking chair at Imbolc (the Black Goddess, Kolyo) or at Lammas (the White Goddess, Goda), we begin the process of ascending to the top of the Spiral Castle. It is the seat of wisdom, the seat of vision. By rocking back and forth as we work toward invocation (possession) we know that we are seething, which is a VERY effective way to alter consciousness.

So, while we can't exactly teach the art of possession, we know it to be one of the important arts or skills within Craft practice. Cochrane, then, is advising new practitioners to use seething as a tool to experience possession until other methods are easier at hand.  

 

Faces of the Black Goddess

Names
Kolyo, Cailleach Bheur, The Morrigan, (Morrigan, Badb, Macha, Nemain), Beira, Clíodhna, Nyx, Noctiluca, Bean nighe, Cleena, Mongfind, Hel, Hecate, Kali, Fata, Nicnevin, Gyre-Carling, Beira, The Moirae (Klotho, Lachesis, & Atropos), The Norns (Urdr, Verdandi, Skuld)

Station of the Wheel
North, Imbolc, February, Gate of Air, Storm Moon

Totems
Cat, Willow, Owl

Tools
Spear, Staff, Wand, Athame (Black Handled Knife), Scourge

Kolyo (meaning the "coverer" and "hidden") is Great Mother of All - Ubiquitous, Omnipresent, Immortal and Eternal. In Indo-European Paganism, it is She who drives the Divine Drama and gives birth to the Gods and Goddesses. The Supreme Spinning Goddess, She is the First Timeless Source who regenerates All. A Being and Power older than Time itself, Kolyo spins the threads of Fate.

The word cailleach (in modern Irish and Scottish Gaelic, 'old woman') comes from the Old Irish caillech ('veiled one'), from Old Irish caille ('veil'), most likely an early loan from Latin pallium ('cloak'). The word is found as a component in terms like the Gaelic cailleach-dhubh ('nun') and cailleach-oidhche ('owl'), as well as the Irish cailleach feasa ('wise woman', 'fortune-teller') and cailleach phiseogach ('sorceress', 'charm-worker'). Related words include the Gaelic caileag ('young woman', 'girl') and the Lowland Scots carline/carlin ('old woman', 'witch'). A more obscure word that is sometimes interpreted as 'hag' is the Irish síle, which has led some to speculate on a connection between the Cailleach and the stonecarvings of Sheela na Gigs.

The name may also be related to the Hindu goddess, Kali, who shares many similar characteristics

The Morrígan ("phantom queen") or Mórrígan ("great queen") (also known as Morrígu, Morríghan, Mor-Ríoghain, sometimes given in the plural as Morrígna) is a figure from Irish mythology who appears to have once been a goddess, although she is not explicitly referred to as such in the texts.

The Morrigan is a goddess of battle, strife, and fertility . She sometimes appears in the form of a crow, flying above the warriors, and in the Ulster cycle she also takes the form of an eel, a wolf, and a cow. She is generally considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with cattle also suggests a role connected with fertility, wealth, and the land. She is often depicted as a triple goddess, but also as a goddess with five or nine aspects. The most common combination of three is the Badb, Macha and Nemain, but other accounts name Fea, Anann, and others.

Clíodhna (Clídna, Clíodna, Clíona, but sometimes Cleena in English) is a Queen of the Banshees of the Tuatha Dé Danann. In Irish literature, Cleena of Carrigcleena is the potent banshee that rules as queen over the sheoques (fairy women of the hills) of South Munster, or Desmond. She is the principal goddess of this country. It is said the wails of the banshee can be heard echoing the valleys and glens at night, scaring those who hear as the wail of a banshee is potent and instills fear in good people.

In Irish mythology, Nemain (or Nemhain, Nemon or Neman) is the fairy spirit of the frenzied havoc of war, and possibly an aspect of the Morrígan.

Imbolc

(im-bulk or em-bowlk)
Also: Candlemas, Oiemalg, Bride's Day, Oimelc, Brigid's Day, Brigantia

Brigid Crosses

Imbolc, celebrated at the peak of winter around early February, is one of the four main fire festivals native to Celtic culture. The other festivals, commonly referred to in Neopaganism as the "Greater Sabbats" are Beltane, at the peak of spring, Lammas, at the peak of summer, and Samhain at the peak of autumn. Imbolc is usually celebrated on February 2nd and the night prior to it, although some celebrate the festival on its alternate date, astrologically determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees Aquarius.

Origins of Imbolc

The earliest recorded instance of Imbolc comes from the Irish epic poem "Tochmare Emire", a part of the Ulster Cycle, where Cu Chulainn is attempting to woo Emer. Challenging the hound of Chulain to go without sleep for a year, Emer names the major calendar days, including:

    "Imbolc, when the ewes are milked at spring's beginning."

The origins of Imbolc appear to be much older than the Ulster Cycle, however, as ancient inhabitants of Ireland built a number of Megalithic and Neolithic sites aligned with the sun on this day. Loughcrew burial mounds and the Mound of the Hostages in Tara, Ireland are two examples of these monuments. Here, the inner chamber of the passage tombs are perfectly aligned with the rising sun of both Imbolc and Samhain, so that the rising Imbolc sun shines down the long passageway and illuminates the inner chamber of the tomb.

Loughcrew Burial Mound

Etymology

Many neopagan texts state that Imbolc translates to "in the belly" or "in the mother" to signify the stirring and quickening of new life in the Goddess, but this is an incorrect translation. Although its linguistic origins are lost to time, Imbolc is thought to translate more accurately to "sheep's milk", or “in milk”. It is related to the Irish Celtic word folcaim, meaning “to wash”, and it is thought that Imbolc's Indo-European root word was related to both lactation and purification.

Themes

Purification is a reoccuring theme of this festival, and the fires associated with it. Saining, the process of ritually purifing something by exposing it to open flame, was common during this time, but in the form of small interior lighting, rather than the magnificent bonfires that were lept during Beltane.

Prehaps related to these purification aspects of the festival, or even the associations with a seed placed in the earth waiting to sprout soon after this time, Imbolc has become a traditional time for many neopagans to take oaths, or, in some traditions, undergo initiations.

Another aspect of the sacred fire highlighted during Imbolc is light. Imbolc takes place at the peak of winter, midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The days at this point in the year are growing noticably longer, and the return of this light, along with the promise of the spring it brings, is celebrated at Imbolc. This reverance for light was transferred to the lighting of candles when the church transformed Imbolc into Candlemass. Even today it is tradition in some parts of Ireland to light every lamp or candle in the house on the eve of February 2nd.

In addition to Candlemass, the Church called February 2nd the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was believed that women were impure for six weeks after giving birth. Since Mary gave birth at the winter solstice, she wouldn't be purified until February 2nd. Mary was supposed to have gone to the Temple at Jerusalem to make the traditional offering to purify herself. As she entered the temple, an old man named Simeon recognized the baby as the Messiah, and a "light to lighten the Gentiles." Thus the themes of light and purification were kept alive on Imbolc long after its Pagan origins faded.

The Goddess Brigid

Imbolc is also known as Brigid's Day and is associated with the Anglo-Celtic goddess Brigid, who was anciently honored throughout areas that now include Britain, Ireland, and Northern France. She was widespread and known by many name variations including:

Brighid by Hrana Janto

    Brighid (Modern Irish)
    Bríd (Reformed Irish)
    Bridget (Anglicanized)
    Brìghde/Brìde (Scotland)
    Ffraid (Wales)
    Berecyntia (Gaul)
    Brigan
    Brigandu (Gaul)
    Brigantia (Great Britain)
    Brigantis (Great Britain)
    Brigindo (Switzerland)
    Brigida (The Netherlands)

   

The goddess Brigid, presided over the hearth and the forge, over the inspiration and skill of sacred art and craft, and over the world of crops, livestock, and nature. In the Scottish Highlands every morning the fire was kindled with an invocation to Bride:

    "I will build the hearth
    As Mary would build it.
    The encompassment of Bride and of Mary
    Guarding the hearth, guarding the floor,
    Guarding the household all."

The 10th-century Cormac’s Glossary states that Brigid was the daughter of the Dagda, the “Great God” of the Tuatha de Danaan. It states Brigid to be a...

    “woman of wisdom... a goddess whom poets adored, because her protection was very great and very famous."

Since poetry was interwoven with aspects of divination Brigid was also seen as the inspiration behind divination and prophecy, marking Imbolc as a festival associated with prophecy.

Brigid the Bright One is said to have had two sisters: Brigid the Physician and Brigid the Smith, but it is generally thought that all three were aspects of a single triple goddess.

St. Brigit

The early Church could not very easily call the Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they opted to canonized her instead. She would become Saint Brigit, patroness of poetry, and healing. The church's explanation to the Irish peasants was that Brigit was actually an early Christian missionary, and that the miracles she performed misled the common people into believing that she was a goddess.

In some of the many legends about St. Brigit, there is a belief that she was the foster-mother of Jesus, Jesus having spent some part of his boyhood in Britain and Ireland, or that she was the mid-wife at his birth.

John Duncan's famous paining of Saint Bride

depicts two angels carrying her across the sea to nurse Jesus.

At her shrine in Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. In the twelfth century, Gerald of Wales wrote that when he visited the convent that there used to be twenty nuns keeping watch over the flame during Brigid's lifetime; but since her death, nineteen took turns, one each night, in guarding the fire. When the twentieth night came, the nineteenth nun put the logs beside the fire and said: “Brigid, guard your fire. This is your night.” In the morning, the wood was found burned and the fire still alight.

Brigid is honored on Imbolc, again by the kindling of sacred fires, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration.

Welcoming Brigid

On Brigid’s Eve, it was common during the eighteenth century to weave 'bride crosses' from wheat stalks, rushes, or straw, and place the weaving in a windowsill or from the rafters to give welcome to Brigid, who is said to walk the earth on this night. Ribbons were once tied to trees outside on Imbolc Eve so that they might be blessed by her wandering spirit to become powerful healing charms.

Corn Dollies

Welcoming Brigid was a common theme for Imbolc Eve, and even into the ninteenth century women on the Isle of Manx could be found weaving corn dollies into roughly human shapes, and dressing them in white lace and linen. These were then decorated with flowers, shells, ribbons, and crystals, with an especially bright bauble attached to the area over the doll's heart to signify the star over the stable in Bethlehem that led Bride to the Christ child.

These symbolic goddess figures would then be placed in a 'bed', usually a basket or small box, alongside a peeled and beribboned wand of birch or willow. The bed of Bride was then set near the hearth. One of the women would then open the door and call out softly, "Bride's bed is ready.", to which the remaining women inside would answer, "Let Bride come in, Bride is welcome." Together all would then chant "Bride, Bride, come in." The next day, divinations were made in the patterns of the ashes of the hearth. To see a "footprint" of Bride in the ashes was especially fortunate.

Groundhog's Day

Today February 2nd is a time of weather prognostication, and the old Scottish tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to Groundhog Day. Alexander Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica preserves the rhyme:

    Thig an nathair as an toll
    La donn Bride,
    Ged robh tri traighean dh’ an t-sneachd
    Air leachd an lair.


    "The serpent will come from the hole
    On the brown Day of Bride,
    Though there should be three feet of snow
    On the flat surface of the ground."

In addition to the promise of spring, and prognostication, other neopagan themes common to Imbolc include the transformation of the Goddess from Crone to Maiden (the Maiden is usually symbolized by wearing a crown of candles), the nursing of the young sun God, the completion of 12 labors by the sun God, the and the peak of the Holly King's power. These differ according to various traditions.

The Spiral Castle Tradition


In our tradition Imbolc is the time we honor the Black Goddess at her peak.  We see the Black Goddess as the Bean Nighe, the Morrigan, the Cailleach, and the weaver, spinner, and cutter of Fate's thread.

The Spiral Castle is turned to face the North Gate, place of Air, Winter has a strong hold on the earth in our area of the country, and the Lady of Fate, Battle, and Life in Death holds sway.  The Wheel is about to turn to the light half of the year, and there is rejoicing for that hope, along with mourning for the things we have lost in the darkness.

Deep peace of the running wave to you.
Deep peace of the flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the infinite peace to you.

~ Adapted from Ancient Gaelic

Correspondences

Colors: white, red, brown, pink, lavender, silver, and light yellow
Herbs: Gardenia, Rose, Basil, Violets, White flowers, Blackberry, Myrrh, Angelica, Bay, Wisteria, Crocus
Foods: Sunflower seeds, poppy seed cakes, breads, dairy products, peppers, wine, tea
Taboos: Harvesting of any kind, including picking flowers is not allowed on this day