Celtic Hags

Ril Gan Anam (The Three Merry Sisters of Fate) Abhainn, Avon, Afon, Aibhne, Awen, Avantia, Avenable, Auon, Aun, Aon, Au §Diana Abnoba, Autona (Flowing Essence, River) Anna Livia Plurabelle, Áine na gClair ní Manannan (River of Light, Beauty of the Wisps) Ainder ní Eithne, Ainnir ní Cristant (Young Woman) Aïn, Ain, Anan ab Maig Mygedwas (Bright River, Splendor) Danu, Danann ní Delbaeth Tuireann níc Ogma, Dana-Ana, Danae (Water from Heaven) Danucitra (Richness of Light) Anastastia, Ann, Anat ní Beth-El (Strength of Life) Ananke ab Tethys (Fate) Iath n’Anann (Wealth, Abundance) Iuchra (Key) Eurynome (Wide Wandering) Anghariad ab Lochlan, Ancgharad Tonfelen ab Rhydderch (River Womb of Waves from the Elder Tree) Aíbell, Aoibhell, Aeval, Ibhell (Most Beautiful Of the Shining Cheek) Abella, Abelle (Breath, Sigh) Abeille des Clarides (Bee) Aí, Aoi (Poetic Inspiration) Sadhbh ní Conn, Sabha, Száva, Sabina, Sequana (Sweet Goodness) Lígach, Líoch, Leah, Lia (Shining, Lusterous) Aíbinn, Oébfinn, Eavan (Beautiful Sheen) Finaine, Fionan, Fionnguine (Young Woman River, Wine River)

Where down the plain the winding pathway falls,
From Glen-field vill, to Lester’ancient walls;
Nature, or art, with imitative power,
Far in the Glenn has placed Black Annis’ Bower.
’Tis said the soul of mortal man recoiled
To view Black Annis’s eye, so fierce and wild;
Vast talons, foul with human flesh, there grew
In place of hands, and her features livid blue,
Glared in her visage; whilst her obscene waist
Warm skins of human victims embraced.
– John Heyrick

In November of 1897 fragments of a bronze calendar were unearthed in a temple near the town of Coligny, France (+/- 100 km north of Lyon) that lies alongside the la rivière d’Ain: Ain River in la vallée de l’Ain: Aine’s Valley. The river flows into the Rhône. The calendar’s months are: 1. Samonios (Halloween) 2, Dumannos (Catherine: Nov 24) 3 Riuros (Midwinter) 4.Anagantios (Imbolc) 5. Ogronnos (Mid-Spring) 6. Cutios (Karnaya/Arbor Day) 7. Giamonios (Beltaine) 8. Semiuisonna (Midsummer) 9. Equos (Epona/St. John’s: June 30) 10. Elembiu (Lúnasa: July 30) 11. Aedrinis (Mid-Autumn: Aug 28) 12. Cantlos (Bard/Michaelmass: Sept 28). 13. Quimon-Ciallos (Oct intercalc month). Trout fishing is very popular at this river.

Sisters: Trefina [Triple White One], Luaine [Moon], Gráinne [Little Winter Sun], Milucradh [Waters], Aífe [Radiant], Lyssa [Snake Woman], Uaine [Plant Life]

The Awen I sing,
From the deep I bring
A river while it flows,
I know its extent;
I know when it disappears
I know when it fills;
I know when it overflows
I know when it shrinks;
I know what base
There is beneath the sea.

– Hostile Confederacy, Book of Talesin

...After him reigned a blind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. In his reign the Ethiopians & Sabacos the king of the Ethiopians marched upon Egypt with a great host of men; so this blind man departed, flying to the fen-country, & the Ethiopian was king over Egypt for fifty years....I think in the town at Bubastis especially the earth was piled up. Then when the Ethiopian had gone away out of Egypt, the blind man came back from the fen-country & began to rule again, having lived there during fifty years upon an island which he had made by heaping up ashes & earth. Now the name of this island is Elbo, & its size is ten furlongs each way.– Herodotus: Account of Egypt Part V © 479 BC

The Danube [Danubío-Spain, Don-Donau-German, Дунав -Dunav-Serbo-Croatian-Bulgarian, Дунай -Dunay-Ukrainian, Johann Strauß II (1825-1899): An der shönen blauen Donau Lyrik], the Rhine, the Rhône, the Marne, the Moselle, the Seine, the Saône [Sequana], the Loire, the Garonne, the Vienne, the Thames, the Don, the Shannon & Boyne; all these names are, or are from, original Celtic names, & all these rivers define the lands of the Celts. In fact, the rise of the Celtic culture at the headwaters of the Danuvius coupled to the spread of the Celtic people & their language along the rivers of the north & west of Europe gives rise to an elegant impression that the Celts were the People of the Rivers. (33)

Caillech, Caillagh (Veiled One) Gwrachod: (pron. kai-leech) Celtic name for Hag. [Hagedises mean Triple Goddesses in Norse. Hagia Sophia in Istanbul] These are goddesses of the seasons. They are thought to have created mountains, earth & other natural formations. Hags can shapeshift into a variety of forms such as: old women, beautiful young girls, cats, crows, giorria: hares, dragons, pigs, or stones. An owl is called a caillech oidhche: night hag. Shapeshifting into a cat: grain protector can only be done nine times within a lifetime according to superstition.

In Wales it is commonly said that if you look steadily into the eyes of a hag you will see yourself “upside down,”.They have two pupils in their eyes. This is a symbol of the Otherworld which is the opposite of this one.

Caisleán na Caillighe: The Hag’s Castle at Loch Measca, Donegal & Tulach Cadhain [Tullokyne] Castle in Galway are her monuments. Caledonia: Land of the Cailleach

(pron. AY-vawn, ah-vehn-ah-bluh, EEN, BLAK ANN-niss, AWN-ya, aw-ne, au-nee, EHN, EHN-yuh, DAW-noo, AW-noo or AN-oo, UCH-ray, ou-reh’ no-may, a’-NANG-kee, ahng - HAHR - ahd , EE-vul, EE-val, EE, SAH-eve or SAYV, SE-va, SIVEm, SAV-han, SOV han, LEE-ach, EE-vin) Gaulish goddess of the Black Forest, the sun, smiths, healing springs, poetry, fertility, plenty, sovereignty, Eoghanachta: Yew. Fire Goddess of the Sequani. The French word An, year, is named after her. Aine is the womb of life & the seed of the sun. She is responsible for the spark of life that traverses the body every twenty-four hours. No bloodletting is done on days associated with her because the spark will go & leave the patient dead. Goddess of the Lily who turns into a rose when the blood flows to her cheeks, She is a beautiful, pale apple-blossom white, slender woman who smells of spice & honey, with an upturned nose, rowan berry red lips, blue eyes [others say green], black eyebrows, long thick glimmering golden hair that coils in streams around her neck & stretches to her slender feet. She holds magic in her fingertips & carries a moon bowl of pale gold with swans, dragons, & ogham letters which divines. She wears a golden crown accented with sparkling diamonds & holds 3 golden apples. Her speech is rainbowlike, her song is said to be sweeter than a lark. Those who hear her harp music will not live long. She is the faery queen of Cokaine: Cockaigne: The Land of Plenty. The entrance to her world is at Cnoc Áine: Knockany: Áine’s Hollow Hill, Thomond, Craig Liath: Grey Rock, Feakle-Killaloe, County Limerick, Ireland near Lough Gur: Enchanted Lake a.k.a Rath Aine: Aine’s Womb. Her golden castle on a glass hill lit by a thousand candles has a silver throne room & a throne made of glass. Her vast hall has an intricately decorated ceiling supported by marble pillars. She is invoked at Midsummer when torches are taken through the fields to bless growing grain with sacred fire. In the 19th century at Mullach an Triuir: 3 Graveyards on Alban Heruin: Midsummer Eve: St. John’s Eve villagers climbed Cnoc Áine hill with cliara: torches of hay, straw tied to poles, & prayers were said to ensure fertility & health. Locals then left the mountain in respect. She is Our Lady of Knock, Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. Her feast days are June 25th & Friday, Saturday & Sunday following August 1’s Lughnasa. Aine Cliach: Aine’s Harp [a.k.a Liffey River], Tobar-Na-Aine: Well of Aine [able to resore life at Dunany], Lios Aine: Aine’s Stone [Londonderry: A Lios is a stone ring fort], Chíoche Dhanann: Danu’s Two Breasts a.k.a. Dá Chich n’Anann: The Paps [Nipples] of Anu. [Irish word for breasts is related to hungry: ciocrach & craving: ciocras], Teelin, Donegal, Sava River [Bulgaria], Seine River [Shallion healing sanctuary dedicated to her. She wears diadem, standing on a boat shaped like a duck with her arms spread out], Rath Abbaidh: River Womb, Avon River [Shakespeare (1564–1616) is called the Bard of Avon & Bard of all Times. ‘The ancient Gaels thought that the soul of a dead hero could never be happy till a bard had sung an elegy over the deceased.’] dance, Ia-Dnan: Cyprus, Plain of Adana, Denmark: Kingdom of the Danaans. The Awenyddion go into trances to speak oracles. Books of Awen. §Roman Form: Mother of 7 sons: Ansirus, Perseus of the Danaids, Gourgy, Peredur,
The Grecian Danaids say her consort is the Titan Khronos, splitting the cosmic egg into earth, heaven & sea. She can change into a sow, horse, dog, weasel, red etin: red bull, Green Dragon of Erin who emerges from the White Bull’s Cauldron on Mayday & flies to Cheshire [Pelasgians a.k.a Ionians who ruled Greece until the Indo-European Achaeans of Syria invaded in 1900 B.C. & destroyed them are born from the teeth of the Cosmic Snake Ophion (pron. oh FY uhn) & the Great Goddess Danu of Olympus. King Ramses III in 1187 BC calls them Danuna on his temple walls], owl, young girl [Aíbell in the Story of Little King Loc, dressed in a red satin robe, stockings, ribboned satin shoes falls asleep by the river of the Undines, dreams of a crow who has a tiny man in his beak, & awakens to see bocans with white beards down to their knees. At their underground kingdom she plays a golden lute & is crowned princess of the gnomes. Abeille is honey-wine of immortality], white swan [female purity & motherhood], wolf, tigress, mermaid, or hag. She is called Belisama. She watered her brother Bel, the 1st Oak tree from the heavens, & gave life to the earth. 2 acorns became the God Dagda & the Goddess Brighid. She created the Túatha Dé Danann: The People of Danu, Children of Light from flowers. 10,000 of them Coraniaid: Crane People conquered 2 million Children of Darkness. Her sacred flower is hawthorn, herb: meadowsweet. The golden apple tree is guarded by an eagle.
Black Annis is a blue-skinned, nocturnal man-eating hag who guards a stone bridge; snatching ewes and babies from windows. Her grinding teeth are heard miles away. She reaches the local castle by underground tunnel in the flash of a frog’s tongue. [frogs are called loscann in gaelic] and can be killed by churchbells & bleeding. Her ancient temple, Black Annis’s Bower, is at a cave in the Danehills of Leicester. Her ancient iron age hill cemetery called a Barrow: Hollow Hill is by The 3 Queens Inn at Sewestern Lane, east of Croxton Kerrial (pron Crow-ston): the boundary between Leicestershire & Lincolnshire. At the Hare Pie Scramble on Easter Monday Dignitaries hunt hares at her cave. On Easter Monday it was the custom from early times to hold a drag hunt from Annis’ Bower to the Mayor of Leicester’s house. The bait dragged was a dead cat drenched in aniseed. (6) Anise is in the parsley family. Parsley was thought to prevent the plague. Her gatekeeper dog is Dormarth: Death’s Door.
Lebanese Ain-Zhalta River of ’Aine-Ghazal, 3000 BC. In Kemet, renamed Egypt by the Greeks, she is the triple goddess Ananke / Anuket [sisters Isat-am-Khenmu: Mother of Mothers & Satis] diety of the Nile, who wears a crown of reeds & ostrich feathers. The Crux Ansata: Nem Ankh symbolizes Eternal Life. The ancient Egyptian dead are referred to as ankhu. ANAÉKH means fate in Greek & is carved into the Notre Dame de Paris. The Elephantine papyri dating from the late 6th century BC indicate that Anat was 1 of the 2 goddesses worshiped at the Temple of Yahu (Yahweh) by the Jews on the island of Abu / Elephantine in the Nile. Anat adorns Herself with murex, purple dye made from a snail. An Egyptian inscription from Beth-Shan shows Antit with a plumed crown (very similar to the White Crown of Egypt). In her left hand is the Scepter of Happiness, & in her right the Ankh of Life. Tanis: Rameses II, shows Anat on a throne with lance, battle ax, & shield above an inscription reading, To Antit that she may give life, prosperity, and health to the Ka of Hesi-Nekht. Al Ain, Syria. In the Rig Veda Indra slays the 3-headed dragon, Vritra a.k.a Danava, son of the Goddess Danu, and releases the 7 rivers to flow into the sea. Mahruts, serpent gods whose father is Shiva are called Sudanavas. (13, 17, 45: 1, 45:2, 47, 48, 57, 58, 59, 60, 63, 64, 71, 72, 74, 76, 73, 77, 79,80, 81, 84 88, 89, 97, 105, 123, 107, 125, 128, 185, 207, 213, 230, 231, 232, 245)