Category: God/desses

Animism & Ai: Spirit in Stone, Spring, and Silicon

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Events, Evolution, Faeries, Giants, God/desses, Haunted Locations, Living Myth, Magic & The Occult, Media, News, Tales, Mythology, Religion

From the spirit-haunted caves of Homo habilis to the glowing circuits of techno-mystics, this groundbreaking work traces the evolving relationship between humanity and the unseen forces that animate our world. Drawing from a lifetime of mythic living and academic inquiry, shaped by the teachings of Anthropologist Bruce Grindal, the magical theories of Real Magic author Isaac Bonewits, and workshops attended with psychedelic visionaries Timothy Leary and Terence McKenna, author Thomas Baurley delves deep into the forgotten, the forbidden, and the freshly reawakened.

Three Thousand Years of Longing (R: 2022) Djinn, Folklore, Genies, Magic, and the Power of Wishes Explored

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Djinn, God/desses, Living Myth, Mythology

For viewers drawn to symbolism and the enduring power of myth, Three Thousand Years of Longing is more than a fairy tale. It is an invitation to see how every story; no matter how magical, holds a mirror to our own choices, wants, and dreams.

Hag of Beara Stone

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Cyclops, Faeries, Giants, God/desses, Living Myth, Mythology, Sacred Sites, Sidhe, The Fomorians, Tuatha de Danann

Driving the Ring of Beara in West Cork/County Kerry, Ireland I came across the infamous “Hag of Beara” stone – also known as An Chailleach Bhéara or the White nun of Beara, The Cailleach, “Hag”, “Old Crone”, or Old Woman of Dingle. In Irish lore, she is known as the Cally Berry or Cailleach Bheara.  

Manitou, the Great Spirit

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Giants, God/desses, Living Myth, Mythology

Manitou – the Great Spiritu

Article by Thomas Baurley, Leaf McGowan, Technogypsie Research

In the heart of the Ute and many Algonquian Native American groups, the closest equivalent to the Christian concept of “God” would be the “Great Spirit” or “Manitou”, A God of many names. It is the spiritual and fundamental all-knowing life force, omnipresent, all-seeing, all-existing, and the combined spirit of all organisms, their environments, and life events.

“Aasha Monetoo” – The Great Spirit, divided by “Aashaa monetoo – “The Good Spirit” and otshee monetoo – “the bad spirit”. It is S/he of no sex that gave humanity the land, the sky, and the sea to the people. It was a well-known concept amongst many tribes, especially within the Algonquian family groups, even pre-contact and pre-Christianization by Euro-American contact.

European explorer Thomas Harriot recorded in 1585 in his glossary of the Algonquian language Roanoke the term “mantoac” meaning “Gods”. “Gitche Manitou” in Algonquian refers to “Supreme Being” or “Great Spirit”. In Shamanism, “manitous” (aka “manidoog” or “manidoowag”) are connections that are connected to achieve desired effects such as buffalo manitou for a good hunt, plant manitous for healing, and manidoowag as an aspect of the Great Connection.

The derivatives “manituw” are underwater creatures that were appeased with offerings from hunters for safe passage amongst the Iynu. The Canadian province “Manitoba” is named after Lake Manitoba coming from “manitou-wapow” – the Straight of the Manitou, divine passage through the rocks by the Creator. Manitoulin Island, or “spirit island”, is a very sacred place to the Ojibway or Anishinaabe tribes where they have placed sounding rocks and created sacred sites.

Fox Indians believed the manitou lived in the grandfather stones of the sweat lodge. When one heats the rocks, the heat of the fire forces manitou to come out of its place within the stones. It is released from the stones when water is added, following the steam, and entering the human body. Once inside, it moves all over the body driving out everything that inflicts pain. Before it returns to the stone, it imparts some of its nature to the body. This is why “manitou” is seen from volcanic waters, heated waters, or mineral springs as carrying a ride within the waters, entering the human body when it is drunk, and then healing the body in the process. The Colorado village of “Manitou Springs” is named after the local tribes’ belief that Manitou – the Great Spirit blessed itself in the mineral waters that rise up from the karst topography as a healing spirit – once drank into the body, cleansing, purifying, and healing the body as it travels within.

Manitou is also called “Wakan Tanka” amongst the Sioux tribes, Gitche Manitou in Algonquian, and other names around the varying peoples. Even though there is much evidence that many tribes and peoples, mostly Algonquian, believed in this concept, and being before Christianity affected their belief systems, other scientists believe that not all tribes believed in a supreme being until after the 18th century. It was during the 18th century that many saw the “Great Spirit” an anthropomorphic celestial deity who ruled over the world.

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Wandjinas

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Aliens, God/desses, Living Myth, Media, News, Tales, Mythology

Wandjinas

Wandjini or Wandjina

For the People of the Land Down Under in Kimberley, the Wandjina are their representation of the “Supreme Creator”. They are also known as “The Sky Beings” or “cloud spirits”. They are the symbol to use for “fertility” and “rain”. Images of the Wandjina are painted in rock art throughout Western Kimberley and are not found anywhere else in Australia.

The Wandjina’s area is about 200,000 square kilometers of lands, water, sea, and islands in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia, dating back at least 60,000 years B.P. or older. The three Wandjina tribal groups are the Worora, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbul people. They are also called “Gwion Gwion” or “Gyorn Gyorn”.

They are amongst the most sacred of figures and extremely spiritual images to the Mowanjum peoples who comprise up the three language groups – the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbal. They are sometimes depicted in threes. The Wandjinias have large eyes on a face with no mouth. Legend states they have no mouths because that would make them too powerful. They have been said to have control over nature. One has been claimed to be the origin of the Milky Way. They have been known for their role in creating the world and universe. 

They sometimes are depicted with elaborate headdresses and each of these can symbolize a different kind of storm. Their eyes also represent weather storms. Their elegant elongated bodies featured in the Gyorn Gyorn images represent their long-ago ancestors before the Wandjinas who brought the laws of the land and can date upwards of 20,000 years B.C.E. These images can be found with Wandjinas over-painted on them with other imagery. When this occurs, they are sometimes called “Bradshaws”.

According to Aboriginal law, only Aboriginal people who went through the law are allowed to use Wandjinas and their representation. Only after years of initiation, ceremonies, and the tribal council can an Aboriginal artist win the right to depict Wandjinas in their art. Throughout Australia, modern art depicting the Wandjina can be found that is considered inappropriate art work.

It is especially inappropriate for a non-Indigenous person to depict Wandjinas without permission. Doing so is seen as mockery and denigration of the spiritual beliefs of the Worrorra people. Another inappropriate depiction of Wandjina was done in Perth around 2007 varying from stencil-work to spray painting of Wandjina driving a pink car. There were even Flickr blogs of people engaged in “Wandjina watching” documenting such graffiti found. The Wandering Wandjina really angered traditional indigenous people and a film called “Who Paintin’ Dis Wandjina” covers the Aboriginal reaction.

They are often seen as cloud and rain spirits as well. They were known to have created the landscape and its inhabitants of the Dreamtime, continually influencing both. When the spirits found the place for their death bed, they painted their images on cave walls and entered a nearby waterhole. These paintings were then to be refreshed by Aborigines as a method to regenerate one’s life force. Those who break the law of the land could see punishment from the Wandjina in the forms of floods, lightning, and cyclones.

The artistic style of Wandjina rock art appears from 3800-4000 B.C.E. It is said to have occurred after a millennium-long drought that gave way to a much damper and wet climate demonstrating more frequent monsoons. The depictions are often in black, red, or yellow and usually almost always on a white background. The Wandjina spirits are often depicted either alone or in a group, commonly of three, vertically or horizontally depending on the dimension of the rock being painted on, and sometimes found with figures or objects like yams or Rainbow Serpents.

Most of the time it shows large upper bodies and heads showing eyes and noses, without mouths. This is explained that they are so powerful they do not require speech and if they had mouths, the rains would never cease. The heads are often made of lines or blocks of colors with lighting depicted as coming out of transparent helmets. Each year, the paintings are repainted in December or January to insure the arrival of monsoon rains and some paintings at various sites can be seen as being over 40 layers deep. Newer images appear stockier and some even are painted with eyelashes.

Some modern theories and mythology claim that the Wandjina were ancient astronauts or aliens from outer space. They believe that extraterrestrial beings visited the Earth tens of thousands of years ago, had contact with the peoples living then, and some even believe they had a direct role in the creation of humans and the Earth. Some of these theories place Wandjina’s roles in the Dreamtime stories as proof.

The artistic depictions of aliens today and the Wandjina certainly have great similarities. The questions of why the Wandjinas were depicted with white skin instead of the Aboriginal black skin, why the eyes were dis-apportioned to the rest of the face with no mouth, and them being “sky beings” was another confusion that led to alien theories.

The “sky beings” or “spirits from the clouds” who came down from the Milky Way during Dreamtime and created the Earth and all of its inhabitants is certainly suspicious. The Wandjinas supposedly looked upon the inhabitants of Earth and realized the enormity of the task at hand so had to return home to bring more Wandjinas, with the aid of the Dreamtime snake, they descended and spent their Dreamtime creating, teaching, and being Gods to the Aboriginals whom they created.

They then disappeared, descended into the Earth, and have lived at the bottom of the water source associated with each of the paintings producing new “child-seeds” which are regarded as the source of all human life. Some returned to the skies and can be seen at night as lights moving high above the earth.

As a side note/observation, I once had a vision during a ritual of a group of white-robed white beings who only had eyes and noses (no mouths) (but they were normal human eyes and noses) who came and spoke to me about things … I could hear them like as if talking face-to-face to another human, but I heard them in my mind as they had no mouths. Curious if this could have been the wandjina?

 

References and Bibliography:

  • Ancient Origins n.d. “Mysterious Aboriginal Rock Art Wandjinas – Extraterrestrial or not?” Web site referenced 7/5/18 at https://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-folklore/mysterious-aboriginal-rock-art-wandjinas-extraterrestrial-or-not-00701
  • Creative Spirits n.d. “What Are Wandjinas”. Web site referenced 7/5/18 at http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/what-are-wandjinas
  • Poleshift n.d. “Wandjina Rock Art in Kimberley Australia”. Web site referenced 7/5/18 at http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/wandjina-rock-art-kimberley-au
  • Walia, Arjun 2019 “A 5000-year-old Aboriginal Cave Painting of the Wandjina Known as Sky Beings”. Web site referenced 3/18/2021: https://www.collective-evolution.com/2019/12/30/a-5000-year-old-aboriginal-cave-painting-of-the-wandjina-the-sky-beings/
  • Wikipedia n.d. “Wandjina”. Web site referenced 7/5/18 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandjina
  • Youtube n.d. “Wandjinas”. Web site referenced 7/5/18 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBUd_WIjN9g

Oweynagat Cave of the Cats

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Faerie Hills, Faeries, God/desses, Living Myth, Mythology, Sacred Sites, Sidhe, Tuatha de Danann

 

 
Oweynagat Cave - Cave of the Cats
Oweynagat Cave – Cave of the Cats

Oweynagat Cave – Cave of the Cats

– Gateway to the Underworld and the Morrigan’s Palace.
Rathcrohan / Roscommon, Ireland

GPS: 53.79677, -8.31038
Article/Research by Thomas Baurley/Leaf McGowan
Techno Tink Media and Research, 10 October 2017

One of my most favorite sites in Ireland is the “Cave of the Cats” underneath the realm of “Rathcrohan“. It is officially called “Oweynagat” and pronounced “Owen-ne-gatt”.

The Cave is also labeled “Uaimh na gCat”, Irish translating to “Cave of the Cats”. When I first visited this site we had a tremendously hard time finding it. We found where it was supposed to be, but it lay behind fencing on a farmer’s field. We knocked on the farmer’s door, and there was no answer. A neighbor saw us, asked what we were doing and who we were, and he showed us the entrance, giving us permission to enter.

It was a small hole under some Fairy thorn trees. The Site is actually a natural narrow limestone cave that hosts a man-made souterrain at its entrance. This is seen by all as the official entrance to the Otherworld and home to the Morrigan or Medh. In the Medieval Period of Ireland, it was labeled “Ireland’s Gate to Hell”. It is a particular sacred site for the Pagan holiday and festival of “Samhain” or Halloween.

It is said that during the Feast of Samhain, the dead, their God/desses, and Spirits, would rise from their graves and walk the Earth. This cave is one of the main places where Spirits and the dead associated with the Fae and/or the Morrigan, would re-surface including creatures, monsters, and the un-dead. There exists an Irish legend based on the “Adventures of Nera” where a warrior is challenged to tie a twig around the ankle of a condemned man on Samhain eve, after agreeing to get him some water would discover strange houses and wouldn’t find water until the third house. Upon returning him back to captivity would witness Rathcroghan’s royal buildings destroyed by the spirits. After this, he must follow the fairy host to the Sidhe where he meets a woman who tells him the vision he saw will happen a year from now unless his mortal comrades are warned. He leaves the Sidhe and informs Ailill of his vision who destroys the Sidhe in response.

Some believe the “síd” or the Sidhe of this tale is either the Mound of Rathcroghan or Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats. It makes the most sense that the Cave of the Cats is where the destructive creatures and fae emerged. There was a triple-headed monster called the Ellen Trechen that went on a rampage across the country before being killed by Amergin, father of Conal Cernach. There have been tales of small red birds emerging from the cave withering every plant they breathed on before being hunted to their death by the Red Branch. There are also legends of herds of pigs with similar powers of decay emerging from the cave until hunted and killed by Ailill and Medb.

The name itself, “Oweynagat” is believed to refer to the Magical wild cats featured in the tale of “Bricriu’s Feast” that emerge from this cave to attack the three Ulster warriors before being tamed by Cúchulainn. Some also claim that the cave was named after Irusan, the King of the Cats, who is featured in Irish fairy tales and hailed from a cave near Clonmacnoise (her home). Another tale from the 18th century CE tells of a woman trying to catch a runaway cow that fell into this cave (nevermind the entrance being too small) and followed it into this cave. It is said the cow and woman emerged miles away in County Sligo, near Keshcorran. There is also a legend of a woman that was told to have killed a monster cat in this cave, turning the woman into a great warrior, and this is why it’s called “Oweynagat”, Cave of the Cats.

The Birthplace of Medb

It is also believed that this cave is the actual physical birthplace of Queen Medb. The legend states that the Fairy Queen/Goddess Étain who was fleeing her human husband with her fairy lover Midir came here. Midir wanted to visit a relative named Sinech (the large breasted one) who lived in the cave. Within the cave was said to be a great otherworldly palace where a maidservant named Crochan Crogderg (“Blood Red Cup”) lived, and she had granted Midir and Etain entrance. It was here that Crochan was believed to have given birth to a daughter named “Medb“.

The Entrance

Nestled under a fairy tree in a farmer’s field (private property) is a small opening that really only looks large enough for a house cat to fit through. But if a human gets down on their hands and knees, can shimmy into this small hole, they will be presented with a small chamber that connects to a passageway that continually increases to a massive tunnel wider and higher than one could fathom. At the inner lintel of this entrance is an Ogham inscription that bears the words “VRAICCI…MAQI MEDVVI” translating to “FRAECH” and “SON OF MEDB”. Some also translate this to mean “The Pillar of Fraech son of Madb”. This is also seen as the birthplace of Medb. A second ogham inscription, barely visible, reads “QR G SMU” but has not been translated.

This beginning chamber is actually a man-made souterrain at the entrance to a natural narrow limestone cave. The souterrain was originally contained within an earthen mound that was later damaged by a road construction project in the 1930s. The souterrain is made of dry stone walling, orthostats, lintels, and stones that measure approximately 10.5 meters from the entrance to the natural cave’s opening.

Cave of the Cats antichamber

 

The Tunnel

After crawling on one’s hands and feet, the passage increases in width and height, eventually one can stand up, and eventually, the tunnel becomes wide and tall enough that a small Giant could move through it. This is the passage of the Fae and leads to the Morrigan’s Lair. As one continues down, they’ll find a caved in shamble that is behind a muddy pool of water. If one successfully climbs up and over it, the passage continues to another area that is caved in. Apparently, workers on the surface planted a utility pole that collapsed this section of the tunnel. Beyond this is believed to be the Entrance to the Otherworld, and the Morrigan’s Lair. This is actually a natural limestone cave that has been mapped approximately 37 meters deep.

The Morrigan

The Queen of the Dark Fae, the Goddess of the Underworld, of Darkness, and Battle, rules the world of the Fae from this place. It is believed that every Samhain, is pulled on a chariot out of the Cave of the Cats by a one-legged chestnut horse alongside various creatures such as those mentioned above. Some also say on occasion she leaves the cave with a cow, guided by a giant with a forked staff, to give to the Bull of Cúailgne. She is also known to take the bull of a woman named Odras who follows her into the cave before falling under an enchanted sleep upon awakening to see the Morrigan who repeatedly whispers a spell over her, turning her into a river, the same river that feeds the muddy pool at the shamble.

Apparently, the cave is seen as a portal through which the Morrigan would pass in order to work with Medb as Goddess of Battle. She drove her otherworldly cattle into the cave every sunset. The Morrigan was blamed to have stolen a herd of cattle who belonged to a woman named Odras, and upon following to Morrigan to retrieve them, was turned into a lake by the Goddess. As is the story of Nera, a servant of Medb who met a Fairy woman here in this cave. He married her, and she warned him of Medb’s palace being burnt to the ground next to Samhain by the creatures of the otherworld. Upon hearing this, Medb stationed her forces in the cave each Samhain to protect Cruachan from destruction.

Rathcrohan is the legendary burial grounds of the Kings of Connaught. The region covers approximately 518 hectares hosting more than 20 ring forts, burial mounds, megalithic tombs such as the Relig na Ri (burial ground of the Kings), Rath na dTarbh (For the Bulls), and the Rathbeg. The archaeological site is massive, with earthworks spread over the region with the Grave of King Dathi (Last Pagan King of Ireland) as a 2 meter high standing stone being one of the few physical landmarks left that can be seen.

This is also the site of the mythical battle of the “Tain Bo Cuailgne” that remains in the hearts, minds, and folklore of the people of Tulsk and Rathcroghan recorded in the Ancient Irish Epic of the Tain Bo Cuiailgne, the “Cattle Raid of Cooley”. The Tain Bo tells the story of Queen Maeve of Connaught and her armies that pursued the Grat Brown Bull of Cooley, the mighty warrior Cuchulain who does battle with the armies here, and his foster brother Erdia as he defends the Brown Bull and the province of Ulster. There are a “Tain Trail Cycling and Touring Route” that re-traces the journey that Queen Maeve and her armies traveled from her Royal Palace at Rathcroghan across Ireland to the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth, the home of the Brown Bull. Rathcrohan hosts over 60 National Monuments here.

Bibliography/References:

  • Druid School: Oweynagat Cave of the Cats. Website referenced January 2012.
  • Fenwick, J. et al 1977 “Oweynagat”. Irish Speleology 16, 11-14.
  • Hannon, Ed 2012 “Visions of the Past: Oweynagat Cave”. Website referenced 10/10/17 at https://visionsofthepastblog.com/2012/10/01/oweynagat-cave-souterrain-co-roscommon/.
  • Mulranney, R. n.d “Caves of Ireland: Oweynagat Cave of the Cats”. Website referenced 10/10/17 at https://cavesofireland.wordpress.com/home/caves/oweynagat-cave-of-the-cats-co-roscommon/.
  • Waddell, J. 1983 “Rathcroghan – A Royal Site”. Journal of Irish Archaeology 1.
  • Wikipedia n.d. “Rathcroghan”. Website referenced 10/10/17 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathcroghan.

 

Initial tunnel of the Cave of the Cats

 

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