Published in Issue 6 of Pagan Ireland (Winter 2022). Get a copy of this issue here: https://paganireland.com/buyissues
It was early morning, November 6th 2007. We had spent the night travelling over the Sea from the UK to Ireland. We were starting a new
chapter in our lives and were looking forward to what it would bring.
We had chosen to move to The Republic as my husband’s father was born there, as were most of his relatives and I had always wanted to learn more about the beauty of the country and its people. As I opened my eyes I saw before me in the distance the most perfect and biggest pair of breasts I had ever seen! The hills were literally in the shape of a woman’s breasts, complete with what appeared to be nipples on top! I rubbed my sleepy eyes and turned to my husband and said, ‘are you seeing what I am seeing?’. Yes, he replied with a smile.
As the road snaked around, I could still see her. When I looked closer I could see that the whole mountain range looked like a woman on her back, to the right of her breasts, I could see a slightly rounded stomach, which led into a pair of legs. One knee bent, but my eyes followed the line of her leg. At this point I couldn’t see her face or head, but as the road turned again, I could just make out a head that was turned sideways and appeared to be looking at me, with closed eyes. No that isn’t a mistake, her eyes looked closed. The words ‘sleeping Goddess’ came to mind.
I expanded my awareness further and felt that no, a sleeping Goddess was not quite right, she may appear sleeping, but she is very much aware of what is going on. Her name was Danu and she is the Mother Goddess of all Ireland. This was word for word the information that I picked up and it made me determined to find out more. At that point I knew nothing of the mythology that surrounded the Irish pantheon as I had deliberately waited until we moved there to learn. I always prefer to learn from experience than just reading books as although the books tell you a lot, you get so much more from physically experiencing the interaction with the spirits of a place than you do by just reading about them.
After settling into our new home, we went to visit friends. I mentioned the mountains/hills to them, and they confirmed that they were known as ‘The Paps of Anu’, I wasn’t sure who Anu was, but they told me that Anu and Danu were often inter-changeable as the name of a major Goddess in Ireland. I was delighted that I had got my information right and when we returned home I started to research her in more depth. I am not going into all that in this article, but will at some point in the future. Suffice to say, I felt as if I was on the right pathway and looked forward to learning more.
The next day we decided to do some sight seeing and get to know the local area. We had moved to a fishing town called Castletownbere in Co. Cork and that night we were going to attend a talk on Sea Eagles given by an organization that had spent the last few years trying to re- introduce them into Ireland as they had reached extinction in this country. As we were falconers the subject interested us very much. We had in fact moved over here with the intention of opening a falconry centre at some point in the future. During the talk that evening we saw some amazing slides of the Irish countryside and the immense beauty of it. We heard of the resistance the project was facing from some farmers who were convinced that the eagles would kill their lambs, even though they only eat fish. Suggestions were made for more education on the subject to be made available and help was always welcome. We also met some farmers who were in fact Pagans and learnt that many others were, they just tended to keep to themselves about it. This sparked my interest and we arranged to meet up in the future and discuss it further.
If you think about the word ‘Pagan’, it’s literal meaning is ‘ of the land’, so of course it stands to reason that farmers would know something of the way of life. They work closely with nature, they depend on the weather for their livelihood, if their crops fail, they lose money, if their animals become sick it costs them money. It soon became obvious that although they worked with nature, they were not what I would call practicing Pagans, they didn’t know the stories of Gods and Goddesses or the meanings. They did however have a strong interaction with what they commonly refer to as ‘the little people’ or ‘shining ones’. They do not believe that animals have souls and one even told me he could not live with himself if he thought they did, as that would make him a murderer of a sentient being. That was 15 years ago now and things don’t seem to have changed amongst the farming community at all. There are the dyed in the wool traditional farmers and then the more aware ones that have started small holdings and are growing more organic veg and fruits instead of bringing on animals to slaughter. There has been a movement to create kinder raised, grass fed lambs, but I know of a member or 2 that fattens them up on normal feed as they always have and then put them on grass for a month before slaughter, so that they still qualify. Is everything a lie? How can we reconcile what we believe to be true with what is actually true?
There are other types of Pagans in Ireland, the ones I would call true Pagan that live in the more accepted way. A lot of them are crafts people or creatives. They live in harmony with the cycle of the year and spend a lot of their time working to improve not only their own lives but the lives of others. They are the unsung heroes of this land. They bring awareness to people about what is really happening and actually do something about it rather than just disapproving and talking. They gather in groups where possible and during the lockdown had meetings on Zoom to discuss the more spiritual aspect of living in Ireland and to celebrate the wonder of living here.
There is a wealth of folklore and nature stories to be found here and although a lot of them are written in books there are still others that are told at meetings or casual get togethers where people meet up to discuss life in general.
Thus there are 2 very different kinds of Pagan. I would like to think that one day the two will meet and merge. Maybe the next generation of farmers will be more open to a different way of being: one that welcomes back the wildlife that has been lost and appreciates all the old stories and combines what is needed for the planet, with what is needed for the soul of the land.
Diane Howe (deceased January 2023).
