Happy Halloween! Today is a busy day of work, exercise, appointments, and then cutting my jack-o-lantern before the trick-or-treaters show up. Since I love Halloween, I’m excited about my complicated pumpkin design and can’t wait to get started. Last year I made a basic scary pumpkin, but tonight I want to carve a more complicated one. I think I’m going to carve the profile of a witch, or more specifically a Cailleach.
What is a Cailleach? Technically, a Cailleach is a Celtic witch who appears in many old Irish folktales. Celtic witches are a bit different from those we see in movies. The Cailleach is descended from the world of fairies and practices rituals and rites based on Celtic mythology. The older stories from Ireland and Scotland talk about a Cailleach (which means Old Wife) who, on Samhain (our Halloween), descends from the high mountains and stays in and around villages until Imbolc (Groundhog Day). While she’s away from the mountain, she cares for the earth during its time of darkness and frigid temperatures and is worshipped as a goddess. Like Demeter in Greek myths, the Cailleach manages the seasons, with winter being her prime focus. With the wind, cold air, and shorter days under her control, the Cailleach is one of the more important figures in Celtic mythology so people in Ireland and Scotland spent a lot of time and effort to keep her happy.
The word Cailleach can also be translated as the “Veiled One”. She’s also known as the Blue Hag of Winter, Bone Mother, and more recently the Christmas Old Wife. She is a weather witch and bringer of destruction and death. But because the world of legends and folktales requires a balance, she’s not just a harbinger of dark days, she’s also considered a source of creativity and life – hence why so many more babies are born in September than any other month of the year.
One of my favorite stories about the Cailleach goes like this: One dark Samhain night, the Cailleach came down from a mountain and washed her large wool plaid in the Corryvreckan, a whirlpool, near the Isle of Jura. (it’s in Scotland). Anyway, once she finished her washing, her plaid was clean and white. As she shook out the heavy wool, she covered Scotland in snow. And as she walked around all winter long, she used her staff to tamp down any signs of growth. When she was tired of walking she rode on the back of a gray wolf. Then, one Samhain night she saw Brigid (a virginal young woman similar to Persephone – the Greek personification of Spring) walking around outside and took her prisoner. The Cailleach hid Brigid inside Ben Nevis. (A mountain in Scotland). Since one of the Cailleach’s sons, Angus (who is also the King of Summer), had been dreaming about Brigid, he asked the king of the Green Isle about Brigid’s whereabouts.
The King replied, “The fair princess whom you saw is Brigid, and in the days when you will be King of Summer, she will be your queen. Of this, your mother has full knowledge, and it is her wish to keep you away from Brigid so that her own reign may be prolonged.” (this is so similar to the Hades/Persephone myth–except for the summer versus underworld detail, and the evil mother who is mean to her son!)
So Angus went off to find Brigid to free her from his mother’s grasp. But he didn’t get there until the eve of Imbolc. Since The Cailleach had the gift of sight and knew what was about to go down, she allowed Angus to free Brigid but then chased them down and battled them all night long. She whipped up the wind and rain and snow, throwing all the bad weather at the lovers. Still they fought back against her. Finally, the Cailleach evaded her son’s fatal strike by turning herself into a standing stone. Now she maintains that form from Imbolc until Samhain, when she can free herself and bring winter back to the earth. Somehow, she also gets to imprison Brigid within the bowels of Ben Nevis during the winter. So while Brigid is the queen of summer, her mother-in-law is the queen of winter. But this also means that the cycle of light and dark, and all the seasons remain in perfect, continuous order.
In the old Celtic world, and up until the early 1900s, many households would find a piece of oak and carve the Cailleach’s face into it because she represented cold and death. On Christmas Eve, this piece of oak would be thrown into the fire and burned until the ashes were cold. This was done to ensure that the cold winter would eventually end and the warm days of spring would be sure to arrive. It also protected the members of that household from death during the winter when it was harder to bury them. And some say that lighting a fire keeps the Cailleach away, as she always prefers to move around in darkness.
While the Cailleach’s job is to ensure winter arrives, her position had an important purpose. For without winter, the earth’s fertility would suffer and anything that tried to grow in winter would never make it until spring which, in turn, would limit new spring growth. She is also knows as the Keeper of Seeds and infuses the sleeping earth with her life-force which ensures the fertility of the land in the spring and summer.
The Cailleach isn’t as scary as witches in some movies, but her story is as eerie as Halloween stories come. The really interesting about her is that her legend is found in all cultures throughout the world. Besides the Green Demeter, there is the Spanish Bruja and the Hindu mother Kali, to name a few. This idea of a mother crone witch who appears on Halloween and protects the earth until Imbolc is one of the oldest myths going. So tonight, as you eat/hand out candy (or hide in the house) throw a log on the fire (or light a candle) to keep the Cailleach away!
I hope you all have a Happy Halloween!
