Lugh Lamfhada

Lugh the Long Handed, skilled in many arts, the friece striker, the boy hero, son of Ethnenn.

Thus are the many names of Lugh, High King of Tara after the mighty Nuada.

As Lughnasadh approaches it seems fitting to contemplate the nature of one such as he.

He has become more of a regular in my circle of deities, especially in recent years when I find myself plagued with thoughts of branching out my hobbies, and the constant thought of "I can make that!"

Being one of the more documented, and thus popular god of the Tuatha De Danann, I will direct you to the stories he can be found (instead of reiterating them):

Stories of Lugh

And will instead speak totally from UPG (Unverified personal gnosis ) with him.

He is a very bright presence. And that is not quantified to only mean a shiny yellow light of sun, as is the general theory of him as a "sun god". It is just brightness in all it's forms, that sort of glare and shiny that is to such an extreme it has no color.

Which confused me at first, as the majority of books had him pegged as a "sun god", and while I will admit he does love gold and shiny, that doesn't quite equal sun god to me. Further research unfolded a new theory and debate with Lugh's name/meaning/association that is best simplified in the Wikipedia of all places:

Lugh's name was formerly interpreted as deriving from the Proto-Indo-European root *leuk-, "flashing light", and he is often surrounded by solar imagery, so from Victorian times he has often been considered a sun god, similar to the Greco-Roman Apollo. He appears in folklore as a trickster, and in County Mayo thunderstorms were referred to as battles between Lug and Balor, so he is sometimes considered a storm god: Alexei Kondratiev notes his epithet lonnbeimnech ("fierce striker") and concludes that "if his name has any relation to 'light' it more properly means 'lightning-flash' (as in Breton luc'h and Cornish lughes)".^[14] However, Breton and Cornish are Brythonic languages in which Proto-Celtic *k did undergo systematic sound changes into -gh- and -ch-. This change did not occur in Irish, so it is unlikely that Lugh derives from the root *leuk-, nor is it related to any other Proto-Indo-European root connoting luminosity.

And despite the on-going archaeological and entomology debate, "flashing light" makes more sense to me, personally.

It seems to me that Lugh is behind my needing to do or make something when the thought of it takes on that sort of brightness.

I may have lost some people with that so let me try and explain. I am a very visual person, and so most of my thought process is a combination of storyline, emotion and pictures. Some ideas are dull and get thought of once and then thrown to the circular filing cabinet of my mind. Other's, the ones I associate with Lugh, won't go away. In fact I can't think of anything else because it's so bright, burning every detail into my head.

It was like that with the painting, that is currently hanging over my mantle. I HAD to get it out. There was no way I couldn't paint it because there would be no other image in my head till it was on paper.

And that painting happens to be one I'm most proud of. It seems a culmination of skill I didn't know I had at the time and am unsure that I still have often now lol.

I will admit that I haven't spoken to him often, or really directly. Just more of a feeling of his presence occasionally when I make him offerings ( usually to facilitate creativity and my career )

Like all the Tuatha he has a heavy joking side, I'm happy to say that my brief interactions with him have been of a congenial light hearted nature. Almost an older brother prodding you to do better, to do this or that. Actually that's an excellent description of my interactions with him, a jovial prodding. lol

I would like to work more closely with the God of All Skills, as it seems to be my lot in life to constantly dabbling in various skills and crafts of my own. Whether he wishes to work more closes with me is yet to be seen, he is High King who defeated the Fomirans afterall and as such I imagine would call out to those who truly were impressive people.

It would be interesting to me to talk to some folk that deal more closely with him. I plan to do a ritual for and to him, for help/guidance/blessings in the upcoming CAYA Laughnasadh/Lammas ritual and will no doubt blog further if anything of import occurs.

I know that in general the CR community is pretty hush hush about personal experiences with deity, very afraid to state anything UPG. But I'm encouraging it lol, in fact it is one of the goals of this blog to encourage it.

If you've had some experience I want to hear it, no judgment as everyone experiences and sees differently.

Oh and if anyone was wondering so far my offerings for Lugh have been whiskey (my standard fare for any un-introduced Tuatha) and oddly enough butter cookies. For some reason he really likes butter cookies.

Slán go fóill

Branwen

Quick Notes Before Bed

A few quick notes, more of a list really, of things I need to think about/do.

• Plan an informal gathering at either Becketts or Starry Plough for a Celtic/Norse story telling/sharing night.
  
• Talk to Jack about Warrior Magic
  
• Contemplate what Warrior Magic would entail to me.
  
• Gather 3 rocks BEFORE Sunday (harder than it sounds)
  
• Talk to Rowan about various spiritual things
• Research John Barley Corn
  
• Make Gypsy Tent more gypsy like
  

Lughnasadh planning went wonderfully, I think you guys are in for a very good ritual if I do say so myself.

But no more will I say my lips are sealed ^_~

Slán go fóill

Branwen

THE Meeting

Well I had the meeting with Rabbit today. The big meeting that everyone no matter how cool they acted were secretly anxious about, myself very much included.

It was a sorta checking in point now that we've reached halfway through this year and a day initiation. As usual Rabbit was very calming, insightful, and in general a great big help more than anything else.

She put to rest a lot of the niggling little things that like to pop into ones head and torment you. Such as whether or not you're on the right path as far as deity goes, are you fitting into the group at all or just floundering around without any real magical talent.

So I'm not going to worry anymore, about whether or not I'm not being open enough and that's why I haven't gotten any real connection with new Deity, I'm going to stick to what I know and work on those relationships I've already established.

I won't worry that I'm not as obviously magical as my sisters and brothers, every star shines different and I just happen to be more salt of the earth in my ways. Besides who can really see what they look like to others anyways?

I will just keeping walking, for really I wouldn't want to do anything else lol. And continue to remember that these, my coven family love me, and see in me something I may not always see but will always be, and in that I can and will trust.

I will contemplate and meditate more seriously on walking down the Dianic path in Rabbit's initiation. We had a good talk and I now know more where she is coming from and trying to take that path, and it's not all that scary or different than what I believe. I think I'll still grapple with it, even when I start walking it, but in the end I think it would be good for me to be comfortable with whatever it is that makes me uncomfortable in a completely female situation. Especially since hearing Rabbit's thoughts it has put my mind to rest that, at least in the tradition she is mothering, women aren't thought above all merely for the fact that they are women. It seems to be a lot about being comfortable being yourself with real sisterhood, and that's something I could use some working on.

I will end this on the note that whilst I typed these affirmations of my path and self, I heard a hawk cry. I must say I've never seen a hawk in Berkeley and went out on my back porch in time to see it give a cry and fly in between my house and a neighbors.

That must be a good sign, hey? Hawks are generally though to be bringers of clarvoyance and clear-sighted-ness, especially in my tradition. I will take it as a blessing of those decisions I reached today and thank the Gods for sending it.

Till next we meet,
Branwen

A Cloudy day and a new start

As tends to happen on those wonderful gray days when the sky takes on a tint of blue and the greens looks so wonderfully green, I've been doing a lot of self reflection and with some inspiration from a coven sister of mine have decided to start a blog to help express my current spiritual path.

I suppose every beginning needs an introduction so here we go. My name is Branwen, I'm a Celtic Re-constructionist and a initiate in a wonderfully new and open Wildflower Tradition started by Rabbit with the CAYA Coven.

My Celtic roots span back to my childhood when my father gave me a storybook of the King Arthur Legend and needless to say it has stuck with me in almost all things in my life. I first learned about Celtic Recon in Highschool and realized "Hey! That's what I'm doing!" It appeals to my historic nature with all the active scholarly learning and reading as well as to the basic life lessons and codes that I grew up with in my Marine Corp household.

My first real "experience" with the Gods was about four years ago, till then I had just been paying homage, and soaking up as much information as possible without really worrying about whether or not I was being recieved. Well...recieved I was lol.

My mom was to be having some pretty major surgery and was very stressed at the time, she was convinced that her angels (She is a big angel spiritualist) where giving her ominous signs. Her figures where falling over and such, and she wants me to come over and see if there was a spirit in her house and in general keep her company.

Well...I felt no spirit other than the general energy of the house which can be somewhat spazzed because of my mothers natural energy, but that night I had a dream. In it was a stone necklace, I don't remember the particulars only that this stone necklace was important. Right before I woke up a voice, calm and melodic as if someone was whispering in my ear said:

"Remember Danubrite. Danubrite."

I woke up feeling nothing out of the normal rolling the word around on my tongue with the knowledge that this Danubrite was a stone I needed to have. The morning proceeded without incident, and as I set down to check my e-mail I thought I'd look up Danubrite, just to see if it really was a stone.

Danubrite : A highly spiritual stone that activates the intellect and higher consciousness, linking into the angelic realm. Excellent for facilitating change and for leaving the past behind. Helps people get along with others and to change recalcitrant attitudes. Stimulates the third eye, crown and the higher crown chakras and aligns the heart chakra to these higher crown chakras. Clarifies the Aura and promotes lucid dreaming. Brings patience and peace of mind.


When I related the story to my mum, she was insistant on finding herself a chunk of that stone lol. So we went off to Grass Valley where there are mineral shops abound and I convinced my mom to stop in at the Sacred Bee, a lovely pagan shop I had heard of but never gone.

With my highly dubious mother (she believes in Angels and anything Silvia Browne says but try and take her to a pagan shop and suddenly she looks at me funny) to ask the very helpful clerk about the stone. He hadn't had much experience himself but he looked online and it appears the stone has a habit of calling out to people, he also told me that I was pronouncing it a little off and that the scientific spelling was Danburite (dan-ber-ite).

That was what struck me, because I distinctly remembered the voice saying dan-oo-brite.

After getting over the shock of having a dream that made itself so tangible, and my brain kicked in I realized that it was a more than just the stone, but a message of whom it was from.

Danu is the mother goddess of the Irish gods that I had been paying homage to for years.

I take that incident as a sign that I am in fact on my correct path and that my efforts are appreciated.

I don't really consider myself extremely magically talented, especially when compared to all the wonderful people and friends that I have met in the last year with CAYA coven. I don't do spell work often, and my personal practices are usually incorporated into everyday things like cooking and sewing, my artwork ect.

But I feel that I am growing spiritually, I'm learning so much from my new coven family! It's all very new to me as I have not study much of the Wicca that the CAYA rituals are based on, but it's so very nice to have a community. And just to celebrate with other people brings such a depth to life that only adds to my own personal rituals.

Well this turned into a very long post lol. I hope to post more, I think it will help to put my thoughts down.

What I plan to use this blog for is reflection on my spiritual path in and outside of the Wildflower Collective, share my various rituals, spells/recipes and what not.

Till we meet again,

Branwen