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Author Topic: Doing a little research  (Read 1327 times)

baduhmtisss

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Doing a little research
« on: February 25, 2015, 05:05:14 pm »
So, I'm doing a little research over Gaelic Polytheism, and I have yet to find a deity thats associated with night/moon/darkness? It could just be I'm off to a very poor start, or I'm looking in all the wrong places.

So, is there one?

Thanks!
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baduhmtisss

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Re: Doing a little research
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2015, 05:14:18 pm »
Quote from: Raine;171667
So, I'm doing a little research over Gaelic Polytheism, and I have yet to find a deity thats associated with night/moon/darkness? It could just be I'm off to a very poor start, or I'm looking in all the wrong places.

So, is there one?

Thanks!

I should ammend this and say male deities, because I know of female ones. I apologize.
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Sophia C

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Re: Doing a little research
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2015, 05:07:49 am »
Quote from: Raine;171667
So, I'm doing a little research over Gaelic Polytheism, and I have yet to find a deity thats associated with night/moon/darkness? It could just be I'm off to a very poor start, or I'm looking in all the wrong places.

So, is there one?

Thanks!

 
This is a difficult question to answer, because on the whole, Gaelic (and Brythonic/Welsh) deities aren't really gods *of* things. Associations can be very vague, and time has muddied them, so that uncovering original associations is next to impossible. There are some hints in some myths e.g. Arianrhod is considered a goddess of stars and the night and fate (and sometimes the moon) by some Druid traditions, and there's Blodeuwedd, but you're not looking for goddesses *and* they're not Gaelic, so that won't work.

But some ideas you could pursue, including some Brythonic just in case you're interested:

- Crom Dubh's name means 'dark crooked one' - maybe a reference to the dark moon.

- Donn, the Dark One, is lord of the dead.

- Aengus has winter solstice associations.

- Gwyn ap Nudd, the leader of the Wild Hunt in some British traditions, is described as having a dark face. He's associated with the underworld and there might be some darkness/night stuff there. OTOH, 'Gwyn' means 'fair' or 'bright', so that's tricky.

- Arawn, Welsh/Brythonic god of the underworld, might have some darkness associations. I like him (though I don't know him well).

- Mabon, the Brythonic Great Son of the Great Mother, may have winter solstice associations. Lleu Llaw Gyffes may be another version of him.
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baduhmtisss

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Re: Doing a little research
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2015, 08:34:31 pm »
Quote from: Naomi J;171696
This is a difficult question to answer, because on the whole, Gaelic (and Brythonic/Welsh) deities aren't really gods *of* things. Associations can be very vague, and time has muddied them, so that uncovering original associations is next to impossible. There are some hints in some myths e.g. Arianrhod is considered a goddess of stars and the night and fate (and sometimes the moon) by some Druid traditions, and there's Blodeuwedd, but you're not looking for goddesses *and* they're not Gaelic, so that won't work.

But some ideas you could pursue, including some Brythonic just in case you're interested:

- Crom Dubh's name means 'dark crooked one' - maybe a reference to the dark moon.

- Donn, the Dark One, is lord of the dead.

- Aengus has winter solstice associations.

- Gwyn ap Nudd, the leader of the Wild Hunt in some British traditions, is described as having a dark face. He's associated with the underworld and there might be some darkness/night stuff there. OTOH, 'Gwyn' means 'fair' or 'bright', so that's tricky.

- Arawn, Welsh/Brythonic god of the underworld, might have some darkness associations. I like him (though I don't know him well).

- Mabon, the Brythonic Great Son of the Great Mother, may have winter solstice associations. Lleu Llaw Gyffes may be another version of him.

 
Thank you! This is perfect, and much more then I hoped for. Though, I do have a question, how are the gaelic deities not exactly gods *of* things? I might have had this explained before, or there may have been a thread about it, but for the life of me I cannot remember. Would you mind answering this for me? Cause I'm kind of not understanding this.
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Sophia C

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Re: Doing a little research
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2015, 03:30:15 am »
Quote from: Raine;171809
Thank you! This is perfect, and much more then I hoped for. Though, I do have a question, how are the gaelic deities not exactly gods *of* things? I might have had this explained before, or there may have been a thread about it, but for the life of me I cannot remember. Would you mind answering this for me? Cause I'm kind of not understanding this.

 
Well, if we start talking about, say, Arianrhod as a goddess *of* the moon, we're being influenced by Greek and Roman mythology. People say Aengus is a god of love, but he's really not - that's a Romantic idea, based on him featuring in a story where he falls in love. The reason we're so used to gods *of* things is because of Greek and Roman ideas, where there's often a one-to-one, god-to-idea/thing association. Gaelic and Brythonic gods may be associated with natural features or social concepts, but they are more likely not to be. They just are.

F'ex, Lugh is a god with great skill, but he is not a god *of* skill. I say that Beara is a goddess of creation and chaos, but that's shorthand (and my own UPG) - she's not really a goddess of anything, except that she's the tutelary deity of the Beara Peninsula. Which is the point - Gaelic goddesses were often deities of particular lands and tribes, but not of very concrete things like 'the moon' or 'the sun'. And it gets even more complicated with the gods.

Um... does that make any sense at all?
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baduhmtisss

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Re: Doing a little research
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2015, 10:53:18 am »
Quote from: Naomi J;171835
Well, if we start talking about, say, Arianrhod as a goddess *of* the moon, we're being influenced by Greek and Roman mythology. People say Aengus is a god of love, but he's really not - that's a Romantic idea, based on him featuring in a story where he falls in love. The reason we're so used to gods *of* things is because of Greek and Roman ideas, where there's often a one-to-one, god-to-idea/thing association. Gaelic and Brythonic gods may be associated with natural features or social concepts, but they are more likely not to be. They just are.

F'ex, Lugh is a god with great skill, but he is not a god *of* skill. I say that Beara is a goddess of creation and chaos, but that's shorthand (and my own UPG) - she's not really a goddess of anything, except that she's the tutelary deity of the Beara Peninsula. Which is the point - Gaelic goddesses were often deities of particular lands and tribes, but not of very concrete things like 'the moon' or 'the sun'. And it gets even more complicated with the gods.

Um... does that make any sense at all?

 
Yeah, that's making sense to me. I understand now, thank you!
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Fier

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Re: Doing a little research
« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2015, 07:24:06 pm »
Quote from: Naomi J;171835
Well, if we start talking about, say, Arianrhod as a goddess *of* the moon, we're being influenced by Greek and Roman mythology.*snip* The reason we're so used to gods *of* things is because of Greek and Roman ideas, where there's often a one-to-one, god-to-idea/thing association. Gaelic and Brythonic gods may be associated with natural features or social concepts, but they are more likely not to be. They just are.

 
Wow. I did not know this. And I had no idea how much my definition of "deity" was attached to "deity of a thing" until now. :eek:

*wanders off to ponder*

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