The Power of Myth and Storytelling: Part 6 Cailleach, Myth and Spiritual Activism
Sunday 9th August, 2009
“I know of the leafy paths that witches take
who come with their crowns of pearl and their spindles of wool
And their secret smile, out of the depths of the lake;
I know where a dim moon drifts, where the Danaan kind
Wind and unwind dancing when the light grows cool
On the island lawns, their feet where the pale foam gleams.
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind
No boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams”
– W.B. Yeats From The Withering of the Boughs
The traditional role of the local cailleach (pronounced “kylock”) as the wise woman could these days be seen in many ways as spiritual activism. Authentic aspects of her work are to motivate, encourage, facilitate transformation, and educate individuals and communities for their own spiritual pathways.
In so many places we have lost our communities and we are bereft of our stories – and many of us are calling for the wisdom of the indigenous peoples. Our ancestors number among those indigenous peoples and in the west of Ireland there are authentic living traditions that stretch back to time immemorial. The sean nós (“old style” or “old ways”) tradition of west Ireland, which includes art forms such as singing, dancing, and storytelling, is an authentic root of Irish culture that is alive.
Sean nós offers us deep insights into reestablishing community and a sense of belonging, purposefulness, and a way of life that brings the magic back into our daily lives. It keeps old ways alive whilst remaining relevant to the current moment as it passes from person to person, generation to generation, each individual embracing it with their own expression, slant on life, life experience, etc.
Within the sean nós tradition there are many facets which the community collectively and individually nurture and polish. These facets also link communities to each other in the greater web of life. It is these traditions which have kept the Cailleach alive and her story is inextricably interwoven within them.
Traditionally the Cailleach is sovereignty – creating and embodying the land. Personified as the wise woman, she is the one who knows the stories, past and present, as well as something of the future – as she sees the possibilities. The role of the storyteller or seanachie (traditional, seanchaí) is to pass on the stories and teachings of the culture by telling them from memory, oftentimes embellishing them to accommodate new events, new members of the community, etc. The Cailleach also uses stories, but in a different way.
The Cailleach knows the stories, especially in the moment – they come to her and this empowers her actions and work. She can dive into others’ mystical seas to interpret the story, navigate and guide the way to their ninth wave, the wave of possibility that is current for them. As a visionary she understands the individual’s placement in the now and can assist with the co-creation of a new vision. She has the “second sight,” allowing her to commune with the spirits of the Otherworld. There were men known to do this, but to be fit enough their feminine side must predominate, as it is the feminine power of what I know as the Radiant Dark that lights the way into these mysteries. And the Cailleach has the “wild wisdom” to usher individuals through their transitions and processes.
The Cailleach knows the stories, and meanwhile there are many stories told about the Cailleach herself.
A wise woman from Co Clare
Michael Gibbons, native of Connemara and renowned archaeologist and storyteller, tells about the local cailleach who lived there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: “Famous nineteenth century characters about the town of Clifden included Cailleach An Chlocháin, a powerful and feared woman who had the power of the curse and the cure. She was part of a common Irish rural pattern, perhaps a survivor of the earlier Irish traditions, and people flocked to her from all over the west.”
Cailleach An Chlocháin is still referred to by locals as Old Mother Clifden or the Cailleach. Erin Gibbons writes in Hidden Connemara that she should be viewed as a wise woman with an understanding of nature. Gibbons writes, “After Biddy Early [a wise woman from Co Clare] died (about 1870), even the people of Co Clare came to Clifden to visit ‘the Cailleach.’ She must have been a woman of great ability as she had a difficult act to follow in filling the shoes of Biddy Early.” 1)
These are living stories, from living memory, told by living mouths. The power of telling the story extemporaneously was illustrated to me by my granddaughter, Ruby, the other night. She wanted a story and I said I’d read one to her. She asked for the story about the bears – Goldie Locks who is really Ruby Niamh Locks. And then she said, “Tell it out of your mouth, Nan. Just think about it. Nan, that’s very beautiful.” Ruby just turned four years old in March.
“Let our stories be told in innocent ways that bring knowledge of the things that are not seen.” Lisa Gerrard
I think an important point about telling the story is that you aren’t confining it or imprisoning it by the permanence of recording it. Some stories should never be formally written down – they must be allowed to be subject to change without notice. In that way they measure where we are at the time, and that reveals a great deal to us about ourselves. The same thing applies to the work of the Cailleach as wise woman. She must be in the moment, present and available to the energy of the now. Then she is authentic and co-creates with the Divine, the unseen forces available to her.
Storytelling, as part of the sean nós culture, is a passion of mine. In the individual work I do with people storytelling has been integral. Myth is the powerful force beneath our feet and the Cailleach’s memory stretches back to time immemorial. Knowing the old stories roots us into the Earth and a healthy, balanced and harmonious approach to the way we live our lives.
There is also a need for new myths in these challenging and changing times. Myths that will help to provide safe boundaries and knowledge of mystical signposts, valuable information about the Otherworld and supernatural forces, as well as integrity and ethics in how one approaches life and guardianship of our planet. And the only real way to successfully have new stories is to be in the continuum of telling stories. Sean nós supports this as all of its forms are straight from the individual. So in part my work now is to help individuals to discover/recover their stories and how they can best express them in the healing light of myth. To get the continuum going again.
In fact, an integral part of the work I do is assisting individuals to transform their stories into their myth – thereby widening the opening of the door of life and shining the light of possibility into their heart. In this way we achieve the necessary distance for transmutation of our woundedness into our wisdom and hence the ability to proceed into the joy of life. For once our story becomes our myth it truly embodies the wisdom that has developed from the experiences.
The Cailleach An Chlocháin ( Clifden ) was sought after for cures, for advice, for matters concerning the law. Jim O’Malley from Bunowen, in the summer of 1984, shared the story he had of her: “I’m knocking down the old forge now and when it was being built the Cailleach was asked whether it was right to proceed with the building. She said it would be a lucky house and no one would ever die in it, and sure enough, no one ever has. It has been a forge for a long time.” 2)
Myth is a healing balm to individuals and to the community, an insightful way to see patterns and to be empowered by our experiences. To nurture our myths is to nurture our community, our sense of place and belonging. Myths offer us valuable insights into appropriate behaviour as well as pathways into the unknown, the uncertain, “the invitations we must all follow at some time,” as Joseph Campbell says. And therefore, inevitably we find our way home to ourselves and our sense of authenticity – or truth. Reaching deep into the vault of time, a storyteller will pull out jewels of past experiences and marry them with the present moment; here the Cailleach’s healing power presents itself as she is able to describe and work with the energy that is visible in the present moment.
Spiritual activism is a service to the mystical pathway – whatever yours may be.
For me, though, it is the pathway given to me by my ancestors, the Gaels. Theirs is my story, too, and out of that I have grown my own unique way. That has also been their gift, because the feeling and connection have always been there for me. It was the innate ability to take a leap of imagination into the spiritual that opened my door. This is my myth and that is how it works with the Cailleach energy. It is pure instinct. The ways of the Cailleach have long been the ways in my family, though much was lost or blurred through the long times of spiritual and cultural repressions, prejudices and struggle for dominance over aboriginal peoples. The old ways have survived, though, and perhaps the power of what was lost is the empowerment I have had to find to create a pathway that is not only sustainable but which serves the times I live in, especially for the descendants of my ancestors’ peoples. And it is the stories that have helped our connection to survive. The ways of the wise woman are my own ways and I am but a small twig on the tree of the great Cailleach. And her story will be told in due course.
References:
1) Erin Gibbons Hidden Connemara, Connemara West press 1991, pg 71
2) Ibid Gibbons pg 72