my poem's mythology

loving      sounding the second note of our Spring

discovery of passion, discovery of love

This poem was written from a mythology story I was told about the Rowan igniting the fire of the dragon’s head that lays in every heart of every living being.

This mythology continues with the dragon’s tail growing longer through each of our ageing cycles, yet it still remains umbilically connected to the Womb of Creation.

This Womb of Creation has been revered using several names through several different traditions. Around the world this is often known as being the womb of a goddess that is the mother of all goddesses.

Bards through time have shared stories of Luis the Rowan feeding men with spirits of passion, strength, bravery, vision and focus that are required to inspire their destiny, action and achievement.

These stories have advised men to follow the practice of burning sticks of rowan within circles of sanctuary. They say this invites the spirit of the goddess to be present to cloak them, embrace them and ignite their passion and vision, during times of council, court, treaty, and alas, during times of declaring battle.

Some stories reminded us that under every Rowan berry fruit there is the image of the Star of Creation to confirm that its spirit, the goddess spirit, is always present throughout the Rowan tree.


If you have not read my Luis the Rowan story poem, please click here to indulge ...


about my Luis the Rowan story poem ...

A lot of mythology has slipped into my story poem here. I believe this poem is quite an Aisling  so I will attempt to reveal some of its visions to you. Please interpret these as you feel guided.

The main location that inspired this story poem is The Hill Of Tara, as I imagine it, at the time when Cormac mac Airt was the high king of Erin. From stories I have been told, it appears that this was a time when huge Samhain celebrations were hosted at Tara every three years to bring about unity among all of the chieftains around Erin.

Some stories tell of the main celebration being within a huge Banqueting Hall built on the long cursor that is still seen at the Hill Of Tara today. The finale of each triennial celebration was to burn down.the Banqueting Hall, which would eventually be re-built for the next Samhain gathering event three years later.

Stories also tell of circular courts being held in session around the Hill Of Tara hosted by clan chieftains before they could join the overall unifying celebrations. Remains of the henges of these courts are still there with Rath Grainne being the most pronounced, except for the High King's Court, of course.

The big celebration, The Feis, could not happen until all of these courts had smoothed out all of the current tensions between clans. It seems tensions were dissolved through trade agreements and through treaties that were bonded by arrangements to exchange goods, services, hostages and even marriages.

Within these court circles would be mainly men, or all men, arriving full of anger, unfulfilment, longing and other tense emotions. They would express themselves through lust, combat games, and engage in activities to attract attention from others to feel worthy. They would even carry a willingness to break loyalties to fulfil personal longings, even if this fulfilment was to be short lived.

Through this story poem, I do not speak it through Ogma's eyes, but tell the story of him being being a person attending one of these courts.

Ogma arrives at the Banqueting Hall where the Bards with their harps demonstrate their skills of playing the Three Strains that enchant joy, sorrow or sleep ... and they do send Ogma to sleep.

The Strain of Sleep is regarded as the entry into the Dreaming, the Aisling. For the rest of this story poem I invite you to decide for yourself whether Ogma did awake, or at what point he did awake, or was all of this story within his Dreaming, his Aisling?

We are now introduced to the Rowan, and from this point I have drawn on mythologies of our local Hill of Ceis Coarran, the highest point in Co. Sligo, and it's relationship between harps and Rowan wood. This may not seem clear as you read or listen to this story poem, but the relationship between the two is truly there.

High King Cormac mac Airt was born below Ceis Coarran here in Co. Sligo. I do believe that his daughter Grainne did return to the home of her father, that is well told through the epic legend of Dearmuid and Grainne. What intrigues me are several lesser known stories about Grainne and her life and times around Céis Coarran.

For example, some of these lesser told stories of Grainne speak of her returning to the triennial court and banqueting time at Tara. With these stories of Grainne in mind, and some Bards called her  Áine, I include her being at Tara with unseen feminine spirits accompanying her.

This story poem now truly enters into an Aisling as the leading goddess spirit, name not given, enters a circle of the men in court. As the scent of the Rowan blossom enchants the men present we may wonder who or what this woman spirit is as she connects with them?

As these men become enchanted, they see the image of a woman raise from the fire. At this point it is up to the reader, or listener, to decide if this is an image of Morrigu, more commonly known as Morrigan, or is this Bhride or Brighid rising, or even Grainne or Áine?. The white bronze at her feet has a similar symbolism as gold, a symbolism of the feminine spirit being fully present.

The men also become aware of several female spirits around them but this distraction causes them to ignore a Rowan tree nearby that breaks into blossom as the women spirits arrive.

The voices and chants of the women present are also in tune to the drones and music of the harps, that are played by Bards who are all men. These harps are made from frames of Rowan wood and their soundboxes made from Willow.

The enchantment of the women spirits present combined with the music from the harps dissolves away all of the anger within all of the men present and dissolves their anxieties, concerns and longings.

At that point the men fully embrace their connection to the feminine spirit.

Celebration of this union and spiritual copulation is celebrated by a vision of horse symbols appearing when passion, bravery, confidence and sensory warrior spirit of the men is restored.

When the new morning dawn arrives, each man is awoken with an invitation to confidently and clearly take on a quest.

With all that I have written in this story poem, it is entirely based on one very simple proverb that is shared all around the world.

That is, that behind every successful man ... is a good woman :-)



to read about to grow and care for your own Rowan trees, please click here