Photo from the book "The Celtic Image," by Courtney Davis and David James.
The month of March will recently passed us. With its arrival came those seasonal swift winds, cold nights, warmer days, and the occasional snow fall. I recall when tulips began popping their beautiful petals from beneath the ground's surface. The strange unpredictable weather changes have all but altered that where I live. There will be the college basketball season's championships called March Madness too. Of course we can never leave out St. Patrick's Day. I began wondering who was St. Patrick. The answer to this question is fascinating.
St. Patrick, who's real name was Succat as a boy, the son of Calpernius, a Magistrate, was captured by Niall of Nine, Ard-High (High King) of Irish warriors and sold into slavery. After enduring much cruelty he managed to escape some two hundred miles up the coast until he found a ship of Irish Wolfhounds and their boatmen to take him back to his country. During his enslavement he learned to pray and lean on God and would later become Patrick ,the missionary to Ireland. Because of his successful and difficult work of converting a then pagan nation into Christianity with little ease or comfort of his own he is thus hailed St. Patrick.
I find it odd that this holiday is commemorated by huge swarms of pedestrians making haste to pubs around Europe and the U.S to drink alcohol. But life is full of paradoxes. For example, another odd character of Irish folklore are the 'fairy people, elves, and pixies'. We see them in cartoons entering and exiting tree trunks with pots of gold, and of course who can forget those boys on the cover of those Keebler cookie packages? No one in the varied countries I have visited has ever met a fairy, elf, or pixie, or at least they are staying mum about it. Nonetheless their images are pushed upon us, and the media certainly makes them out to be creatures we all know who tend to show up out of nowhere on St. Patrick's day along with the shamrock.
Most of us pay little attention to the fact that in the world Irish peoples have had a large legacy in the development of what we know as Western Civilization. When Rome burned the books and essay's that had been saved by schools and scholars in Europe it is the Irish monks who are credited with initiating a movement to save many books and journals for posterity. You can thank your college liberal arts education to them. These monks risked their lives so that the future of education would be liberal, instead of rigid, technical and one sided. As a student who has attended two Jesuit universities I both love and frown upon my western education. It tears me apart, while giving me great joy. This is due to the fact that the 'Church" before the years of Christ greatly influenced what people were allowed to read, and even who would be King. To make this agenda successful the 'Church' had to remove facts and figures, and manufacture legend and folklore of important peoples in order to become so powerful. Therefore, we have this ironic holiday called St. Patrick, to celebrate a Christian man's efforts whereby we meet in bars and fill up on the nectar called ale. Christian teachers have always disdained intoxication. Since there are no real fairies and elves why are they used as cultural icons to represent 'things Irish? I've already given you some hints right here in the first three paragraphs of this article. But we cannot stop there. Oh-no! Strap on your oxygen tanks, face mask, and flippers we're going deep (see) diving.
You see folks you live in two worlds. I don't mean that in a literal sense, but the fact is for thousands of years now there are entities, organizations, brotherhoods, that have benefited by you 'believing' things as they would have you see them rather than knowing the absolute truth. The movie "The Matrix" is probably a very good metaphor for what I am talking about. Because in that movie, Neo (or 'One' backwards) is forced by the system to wake up and realize that the world he thinks is real is a world manufactured to the extent that his senses believe it is real. And he has been socialized to believe that since he was barely out of his Momma's womb. The truth shall set you free. I call out to all of you who need and want the truth so that you can sense freedom. Ever since entities learned that words can be used to manipulate and influence your world we have been subjected to a good deal of historic 'word-magic' that when exposed makes little sense at all.
To paraphrase Laurence Gardner's writings in his book "Realm of the Ring Lords: The Myth and Magic of the Grail Quest"; we look at the origins of the word 'fairy' and find that it is derived from ancient times from the word 'phare', and is of the same root 'pharo' (pharoah), meaning a great house and specifically referencing a kingly dynasty. Another maligned word is Celt or Keltoi, a Greco-Roman word which meant 'strangers'. In other words it made no difference whether you were Spanish, African, or French, if you were in their land you were Celtic. People of Britain (Bretons) would not have called themselves Celtics because they were not strangers to themselves. In fact, it isn't until the 18th century that certain French writings began to refer to the Bretons, along with the Cornish, Irish, Manx, Welsh and generally Gaelic speaking peoples, as Celts, which thereby enveloped them into a fanciful society that had never existed in history.
Britain's Industrial Revolution didn't improve the situation either. The burgeoning nouveau-riche emerged. Among the new breed of employers where those who spared nothing to equate their newly acquired chieftainship with an imaginary past Golden Age. By immersing themselves in a romantic Celtic illusion they venerated the one-time tribal priestess Britannia as an attempt to cement some worthwhile ancestral status to justify their dominant labor intensive regime. Gardner points out that it was during his time that the true nature of Gaelic and ancient British culture became rudely idealized to the point that we have inherited a thoroughly Celtic myth. (109)
The same misuse of facts was used by early U.S industrialist to justify slavery with Darwin's thesis 'only the strongest survive.' They misinterpreted the hypothesis to mean that 'the economically strongest people survive'. Darwin meant 'that the strongest and most desirable gene pools are more likely to survive over time!' An earlier example of a similar ploy was the publication of a paper by a man named Compte de Gobineau, which espoused the concept that the blonder blue-eyed race were the noblest. This paper presaged the European slave trade and helped would-be slave traders do their jobs without apprehension since anyone darker than they were probably sub-human. Ah, the power and magic of words.
Fortunately the popularized image of the noble Celt - the tall blond, blue-eyed warrior or the flaxen haired maiden are not Celtic at all. Those qualities are of Nordic and Caucasian stock. The red-haired, green or pale-eyed Gaelic types were of noble Scythian origin. According to Herodotus, the fairies of the Tuadhe d'Anu were identified to be the Royal Scyths.(110)
In national terms, although fairies present a widespread image, they are particularly associated with Ireland, where they are epitomized by the ancient people of the Tuatha De' Danann. This formidable King tribe was, nevertheless, mythologized by the Christian monks, who rewrote the majority of Irish history to suit heir own Church's vested interest in Eire. From a base of monastic texts, which arose onwards from medieval times, it is generally stated that these people were the supernatural tribe of the pre-Achaean agricultural goddess Danae of Argos, or the Aegean Mother-goddess Danu. But their true name, rendered in its older form, was Tuadhe d'Anu. As such, they were the people of Anu, the great sky god of Annunnaki. It is often said that, in strategically mythologizing the heritage of this noble BC race, the Christian Church was responsible for dubbing them 'fairies', but this is not strictly true. The Tuadhe d'Anu were always fairies in the Ring Lord tradition, but what the Church did was redefine the word 'fairy'.(31)
It must be remembered that the Romans never conquered Ireland (Eire). In life it seems that if a powerful entity cannot conquer another then it resorts to false reports or disinformation on a grand scale in order to diminish their problem. That way the problem seems less unsurmountable or harassing. This is what the Church did with the Tuadhe d'Anu; they reduced the problem by diminishing the significance of this ancient king tribe and, in so doing, portrayed them as minute little figures who were moved into the realm of mythology. This act caused a parallel diminution of this ancient Irish tribes history so that their proud legacy is lost from the stage of Western education. (31)
From the year 751, the Church sought all possible measures to diminish the status of any royal strain emanating from the original Ring Lords so that the fraudulent Donation of Constantine could be brought into play. From that time, only the Church could determine who was and was not a king. (32)
Settling in Ireland from about 800 BC, the noble Tuadhe d' Anu hailed from the Central European lands of Scythia, the Black Sea kingdoms which stretched from the Carpathian mountains and Transylvania Alps, across the Russian River Don. They were strictly known as Royal Scyths and their classification as fates or fairies occurred because they were masters of a transcendent intellect called the Sidhe' (pronounced Shee), which was known to the Druids as the Web of the Wise. Druid was a Gaelic word meaning 'witch'- an English form of the Saxon verb wicce (feminine) or wicca (masculine), meaning to bend or yield, as do the willow or wicker woods. The Scythian warlords of the Sidhe' were also called Sumaire and, in language of old Ireland to where many of the caste migrated, the word sumaire was related to a coiled serpent! A serpent is used in the U.S coiled around a cross with a spherical top for the medical professionals today, and called Hippocrates.
In Sanskrit holy language of India, the wisdom derived from attaining the highest state of transcendent consciousness was called Siddhi, while the powers said to manifest themselves as a result of that achievement have been dubbed siddhis - a term which has been associated with Witchcraft and sinister magic. Thus, Sidhe' and Siddhi are one in the same, while the Tuadhe d' Anu of Scythia were the original fairies of history; they were considered to be the world's most noble race, alongside the early dynastic pharaohs of Egypt. It is by virtue of two particular Scythian-Egyptian royal marriages that the Scot Gaels or Ireland emerged. The first occurred in about 1360 BC, when Niul, Prince of Scythia, married the daughter of Pharaoh Smenhkare (also known as Akenkhere or Cinciris). Their daughter, Merytaten-Tasherit, became a Princess of Scythia (Princess Sco-ta = Ruler of people). The second Princesses Sco-ta was the daughter of Pharaoh Nekau (Nechonibus, c610-595 BC). She married Prince Galamh of Scythia (a descendant of the earlier Scota marriage) and their son, Eire Ahmon, was the ancestral forbear of the Scots Kings of Ireland, a branch of which eventually founded Scotland in the north or Britain.(33)
*A recently published feature article in National Geographic, February 2008 issue titled, The Black Pharaoh's: Conquerors of Ancient Egypt, offers some interesting facts in light of our current subject. First, in 2003 statues of Nubian Pharaoh's were dug up from the Nubian capital of Kerma, in Sudan. They were smashed during Egyptian King Psamtek II's incursion south around 593 BC. They are now reassembled for public view and stand 10 feet tall. Second, King Piye was the first of other black pharaohs that ruled over all of Egypt for three quarters of a century during that country's 25th dynasty. Although he died around 715 BC the Nubians are credited with unifying a splintered country and perhaps saving Jerusalem by fighting off the bloodthirsty Assyrians. By 1500 BC, the Nubian empire stretched between the Second and Fifth Cataracts. Racism was non-existent from the standpoint of pigmentation in those times. (35-44)
In reviewing Gardner's dates with regard to the royal Scyth-Egyptian marriages from 1360 BC could the royal genes of the Nubian Pharaoh's Mitochondrial DNA (passed on by Egyptian princess daughters) have been a factor in initiating the early Scots bloodline? According to National Geographic's current article mentioned above the Nubians took to the Egyptian way of life and used it as their own. In royal Egyptian marriages Kings and princes were allowed to have two wives and both would probably be half-sisters because females carried the Mitochondrial DNA that pass forward the royal genes from generation to generation although a male offspring can carry the genes too. Royalty was determined by birth for many years. What Mr. Gardner is suggesting is that the 'church' obstructed these bloodlines from moving forward and ruling. Even if there is no grounds for this insight the fact remains that in Rome's attempt to squelch any other de jure Kingly bloodline from 751 onward the old Irish fairies were a powerful opponent that needed to be subjugated. And subjugated they were simply because those old Tuadhe d'Anu would never have allowed themselves to be suppressed into the Church's attempts to recreate royal lineages for their own sake.
You have heard of King Arthur. There are numerous stories being written about him. All of them different and all claiming their history offers the truth as to who the real King Arthur was. For example Lucius Artorius Castus, the 3rd generation successor to Cornish-born namesake Castus could perhaps be the historical King Arthur. This premise is due to the notion that the name Arthur is Latin and derived from Artorius. This is a complete misconception which has been fueled by those who endeavor to diminish the heritage of the native Bretons against that of the temporary Roman overlords. Going back to 356-323 BC during the Macedonian empire of Alexander the Great an attempt was made to cement the Greek, Roman, or Macedonian Imperialist dogma into the minds of their captives. Students of British schools were indoctrinated with the classical works of Homer and Virgil, and Greek and Latin languages. King Arthur and even Jesus were put forth as having been the sons of Roman officers in those times. (Realm of the Ring Lords, Gardner, 92-93)
You see, folk there were in fact two Arthur's which lived hundreds of years apart. One of them was very popular and the other was not, but in the literature that was published many years later the writers ended up combining both characters into one and thus we have this romanticized character, a King, a Warrior, a Savior, named King Arthur who epitomizes the very aspect of chivalry and leadership. At the same time there seems to be a good deal of confusion about his true origins and some misuse of his legacy for tourist attractions.
The name 'Arthur' is wholly Irish, emerging from he Scythian-Milesian 'Artur'. It was not derived from the Latin Artorius (meaning bear-like). The 3rd -century sons of King Art, for example, were Cormac and Artur. As pointed out the Romans never conquered Ireland and Irish names were not influenced in any way by the Romans. The root of the name Arthur can be found as far back as the 5th - century BC when Artur Delmann was King of Lagain. Long afterward Augustus Caesar established the Roman Empire in 44 BC. By AD 476 the Empire had crumbled to extinction in the West, nearly a hundred years before King Arthur of Briton was born.
In her best selling novel, "The Mist of Avalon", Marion Zimmer Bradley (deceased), wrote a story about the royal women in the life King Arthur. It is a tale of his mother and grandmother, Ygraine or Ugraine and Viviane del Acqs, who are considered to be fairy folk with strange powers like the 'sight'. From time to time they need to retreat to the Isle of Avalon. It is an island that is hidden by the dragon's breath (mist), and cannot be seen by 'ordinary folk', where they restore themselves from the onslaught of that new thing called "Christianity". These women have close contact with the Druid named Merlin and together use a mystical pagan rite of initiation for Ygraine's son Arthur when it is his time to be King. Although they are not dwarfs or miniature people these royal women are trained in the ways of the old dark-skinned 'fairy folk', which makes them outsiders despite their royal lineage.
The novel pits Arthur who was born of these royal women among the ancient people of Breton, and their need for him to protect their old pagan way of life from the oncoming changes the Christian world is forcing upon them. They have one problem, however. During the ancient ritual of initiation Arthur, who is dressed in a Stag costume unknowingly makes love to his estranged sister Morgana, who is also dressed in an foe costume. Morgana becomes secretly pregnant with the King's son, Modred. Arthur goes on to wed Gwenefyr who is infertile. For years he is unaware that he has a son named Modred because his mother, Ugraine, and Grandmother Viviane, feel uncomfortable telling him that he was used in an ancient ritual of consummation with his sister Morgana to keep the royal 'fairy' bloodline alive! For years he struggles questioning God as to why he has not had a son by his Christian wife Gwenefyr. Poor Gwenefyr, with her inability to bare-forth children feels useless and takes up a love affair with Lancelot who in real life was a descendant of the old 'fairy folk', and actually a relative of Arthur's'. Lancelot is called out for his indiscretions by other Knights of the Round Table and flees in shame. While Arthur continues his rule with a broken-heart.
Arthur, who was a great admirer of Jesus, was not raised by his true 'fairy' mother, but by another King in a distant country to keep him safe from his father, Uther the Pendragon's, enemies. With his Christian upbringing he never learned the meaning of his. ancient bloodline because as we know the old ways were considered 'witch-like or evil'. Despite their good intentions his mother, his grandmother, and Merlin put him into an untenable situation with his sister Morgana. Thus, as fate would have it Arthur and Modred, his son, war against each other rather than bond like father and son. Modred feels that the King has abandoned their people, his mother, and he. In his attempt to proclaim his rite to the throne Modred angers his father who doesn't realize that he is his son, but thinks him to be a young usurper with false claims. If only Arthur had known what it means to know the unseen.
While Mrs. Bradley's novel is fiction it nonetheless does a wonderful job of using allegory to paint a vivid picture the end of magical pagan world and the beginning of the Christian world. By virtue of Arthur and Modred's murder of each other we are left with the message that neither world can exist without acceptance of each other. As the character Merlin points out in the John Borman's movie, Excalibur: "Our ways are gone. It is the time of Man". Merlin explained to Arthur earlier in the film that in older times Man and Beast were one. But, now he and the Druid's are forced to give themselves over to the new times of one God. Which means that observing the ancient Egyptian rite of marriage or sexual relationships with half-sisters to bare heirs that would carry forth the 'bloodline' would be nothing less than incest.
You see, in the old Egyptian ritual to have princes and kings breed with half-sisters in order to carry forth the Mitochondrial DNA of their royal lineage was a practice that I think Mrs. Bradley (the author) was trying to reveal without elaborating on its origins. This is a novel I read it during my attendance at Loyola Marymount University, a Jesuit school. The power of her writing in this novel gave me the insight that a good deal of truth is being espoused in the form of fiction, while a great deal of fiction is being put forth as fact. Look at the first paperback edition cover of 'Mist of Avalon'. There is a female riding a white horse carrying Arthur's sword 'Caliburn', which is better known as Excalibur. Her skin is dark and her hair his wavy and black. She looks Latin, or Indian, or is she secretly meant to be a real representation of a 'fairy' as only Irish folk, ancient royal Scythians blended with the Pharoah DNA, would know? Those of you digging truth would do well to reexamine fantasies in literature such as Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", and the story of Dracula, by Bram Stoker, just to name a few.
By the early 'Church's diminution of the Tuahde d'Anu the succession of royal births by their custom probably became illegal or perhaps viewed as Satanic! Royal birth's by this manner would have become the target of attack rather than celebrated community events. The fact still remains, however, that it is impossible to forward royal DNA without making a child with a female that carries the gene. That complication has led to a good deal of nefarious activities, including assassination, for many years to come as the quest for King and Queen making continued.
Even though St. Patrick's Day may seem trivial to many of us throughout the English speaking world, the USA, Canada, and Great Britain, the fact is the Irish peoples throughout Christianity and before have a very deep and incredible history that has been diminished for reasons most of us were excluded from seeing. The true Fairies are not little magical people who live in a netherworld. But instead are descendants of a King tribe; a warrior people, who despite other's efforts have great traditions to uphold throughout time.
So as another St. Patrick's day comes around what will ye do? Will ye take the blue pill and continue to live in a realm of fantasy or will ye take the red pill and become a minority of awakened people with raised consciousness in the world? I took the red pill long before the Matrix movie came out. I swallowed it with the help of a pint of Guinness and good luck wish from the ghost of Macbeth! Now if only I were a wee bit smaller so that I could live rent free in a tree, with my magic bird, Fay-Wren, and a pot of gold, life would be just dandy.
Source Material
How the Irish Saved Civilization, by Thomas Cahill, published by Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, 1995
Irish Saints, by Robert T. Reilly, published by Wings Books, 1964.
Realm of the Ring Lords, by Laurence Gardner, paperback edition published by Fair Winds Press, 2003.
The Mist of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley, published by Del Rey/Balantine Books, 1982.
*The Black Pharaohs, National Geographic Magazine, by Robert Draper, February 2008
