BEALTAINE: THE BRIGHT FIRES OF LOVE

By Rev. Michael McGuinness, Druid of the Fellowship

 
Here in my neighborhood of Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan in New York City, I now see lush flowering trees which, I’m positive, only a few weeks ago were bare and covered with snow. Famously brusque New Yorkers are smiling and cheerful to each other up here, and especially so now, as the beauties of nature awake, here at the edge of the Hudson River, surrounded by wooded parkland. Just as in the times of our Ancestors, the bright fires of Bealtaine are warming the Land and the People, even in the big city. At Bealtaine, a new world is born that changes winter into summer.

Mythologically, Bealtaine is associated with many transformations, especially in the invasion myths that tell of the various gods, monsters, wizards and warriors that came to Ireland. Two of the most important invasions of Ireland happen at Bealtaine: that of the Tuatha De Danann who defeated the primitive Fir Bolg and the demonic Fomorians, and also that of the Milesians, who drove the Tuatha De Danann below the hills and over the sea to Tir na nOg. In a characteristic Celtic paradox, both tales, even though tales of battle, begin with friendship, peace and even unity.

Lady Augusta Gregory, retelling the story of the First Battle of Moytura between the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha De Danann in her book Gods and Fighting Men, tells us that the battle begins with a truce and an exchange of weapons:

It was in a mist the Tuatha De Danaan, the people of the gods of Dana, or as some called them, the Men of Dea, came through the air and the high air to Ireland.

It was from the north they came; and in the place they came from they had four cities, where they fought their battle for learning: great Falias, and shining Gorias, and Finias, and rich Murias that lay to the south… And they brought from those four cities their four treasures: a Stone of Virtue from Falias, that was called the Lia Fail, the Stone of Destiny; and from Gorias they brought a Sword; and from Finias a Spear of Victory; and from Murias the fourth treasure, the Cauldron that no company ever went away from unsatisfied…

It was on the first day of Beltaine, that is called now May Day, the Tuatha De Danaan came, and it was to the north-west of Connacht they landed. But the Firbolgs, the Men of the Bag, that were in Ireland before them, and that had come from the South, saw nothing but a mist, and it lying on the hills.

Then King Eochaid took counsel with his chief advisers, and it is what they agreed, to send a good champion of their own to see the strangers and to speak with them. So they chose out Sreng, that was a great fighting man, and he rose up and took his strong red-brown shield, and his two thick-handled spears, and his sword, and he set out from Teamhair, and went on towards the place the strangers were…

But before he reached it, the watchers of the Tuatha De Danaan got sight of him, and they sent out one of their own champions, Bres, with his shield and his sword and his two spears, to meet him and to talk with him.

So the two champions went one towards the other slowly, and keeping a good watch on one another, and wondering at one another's arms, till they came near enough for talking; and then they stopped, and each put his shield before his body and struck it hard into the ground, and they looked at one another over the rim. Bres was the first to speak, and when Sreng heard it was Irish he was talking, his own tongue, he was less uneasy, and they drew nearer, and asked questions as to one another's family and race.

And after a while they put their shields away, and it was what Sreng said, that he had raised his in dread of the thin, sharp spears Bres had in his hand. And Bres said he himself was in dread of the thick-handled spears he saw with Sreng, and he asked were all the arms of the Firbolgs of the same sort. And Sreng took off the tyings of his spears to show them better, and Bres wondered at them, being so strong and so heavy, and so sharp at the sides though they had no points. And Sreng told him the name of those spears was Craisech, and that they would break through shields and crush flesh and bones, so that their thrust was death or wounds that never healed. And then he looked at the sharp, thin, hard-pointed spears that were with Bres. And in the end they made an exchange of spears, the way the fighters on each side would see the weapons the others were used to. And it is the message Bres sent to the Firbolgs, that if they would give up one half of Ireland, his people would be content to take it in peace; but if they would not give up that much, there should be a battle. And he and Sreng said to one another that whatever might happen in the future, they themselves would be friends.

This episode reminds us that Bealtaine was not only the season for farming and love, but also the season of warfare and cattle raids. Nevertheless, the power of nature helps even enemies to become friends and exchange advantages with each other during the birth of summer.

Lady Gregory tells of the Milesians as well, according to legend the ancestors of the Gaelic families of Ireland, who arrive at Bealtaine to dispossess the magical Tuatha De Danann. Among their leaders is a powerful druid, a poet and magician named Amergin, who, upon landing in Ireland, composed this poem (slightly adapted from Lady Gregory’s version):

And Amergin was the first to put his foot on land, and when he stood on the shore of Ireland, this is what he said:

I am the wind on the sea
I am a wave of the ocean
I am a bull of seven battles
I am a hawk on the rock
I am a drop of the sun
I am a law of unity
I am a boar for valor
I am a salmon in the water
I am a lake in the plain
I am the power of Art
I am the point of a spear in battle
I am the god that kindles fire in the head
I spread the light in the mountains
I tell the ages of the moon
I reveal the secret resting place of the sun

The Song of Amergin, as this poem is known, is a prayer of unity with all creation. The poet invokes the fundamental elements of the Three Realms that make up the Irish Celtic universe: the rocks and mountains of the Land, the waves of the Sea, and the wind that blows over both all the way up to the Sky, which is the home of the sun and moon. Even in a modern urban environment such as New York City, I see and take strength from these elements every day.

Amergin also invokes powerful animal spirits that give life to hunting, farming and fishing cultures like those of our Ancestors. These animal powers recur throughout the whole of the mythological tradition: the bull, the symbol of power and life; the hawk, the high-flying and far-seeing bird of prey; the stag, symbol of sexuality and fertility; and the salmon, the symbol of wisdom. Although I’m not a hunter, a farmer or a fisherman by trade (unlike my grandparents and those that came before them), I know that my human nature is built upon and sustained by these same animal vitalities of nature.

Amergin ends with an invocation of the divine power that animates creation, and which lights the fire of inspiration in the head, the seat of the soul. This inspiration allows me to create good things in my life and to connect with the many Powers all around me and inside me for aid and comfort in times of trouble. And, like Amergin, it is this same power of inspiration that I invoke for all the People, that we all may enjoy peace and unity with the Land, the Shining Ones and each other during this joyful summer season.