Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Hope your vacation in the Bar Harbor/Ellsworth area was filled with fun and relaxation.
Of course we all know how beautiful it is here, but now the whole country knows! This morning on CBS “The Early Show”, weatherman Dave Price did a live segment from Bar Harbor, highlighting our town and Acadia National Park. And just a couple of weeks ago, the president’s daughter was engaged to be married here.
My favorite season is just ahead of us. If you’ve never been to Bar Harbor in the fall, you should put it on your “to do” list. You’ll have to come here and see for yourself. Don’t forget to check out my store in downtown Ellsworth, inside the Maine Grind Coffee Café.. Ellsworth is such a lovely town, however, most the time people just drive on through. Stop and smell the roses people, this is a real year-round Maine town with a strong sense of community.

This month’s Celtic email is about Sheelia na gig and The Banshee. But first I want to tell you briefly about two very special custom tours I’m offering. If you’re interested in either one of them, contact me for the full itinerary and details: linda@CelticRainbowGifts.com

If you don’t have a valid passport, apply now!! These tours will be a blast!!

St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland - March 12-20, 2008
Land Only Price: $1999. per person sharing twin rooms. Includes all local taxes, hotel service charges & porterage for one suitcase per person.
Tour Highlights: Reserved Grand Stand Seats for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin, Guided tour of Dublin, Guinness Brewery, “Quite Man” walking tour of Cong in County Mayo, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Old Jameson Distillery, Clonmacnoise, Knock Shrine, Biddy Early Brewery, Craggaunowen, Medieval Banquet at Bunratty Castle and more!
Overnights at: Temple Gate, Ennis(1 night), The Clayton, Galway Town (2 nights), Mont Clare-Dublin City (3 nights), Bunratty Castle Hotel, Bunratty (1 night)

Northern Ireland Tour – end of June 2008.
Full details & price will be available within two weeks, contact me to learn more.
This tour will be hosted by Maine musicans Julia & Fred of “Castlebay”. Julia is a harpist and her husband Fred plays fiddle and low whistle. Julia wrote a play and music about The Story of The Grand Design. In July 1741 a group of about 200 Scots-Irish Presbyterians from Northern Island determined to emigrate to Philadelphia ship wrecked off the coast of Grand Manan in Canada. “Castlebay” will perform “The Grand Design” at the Ulster-American Folk Park in Omagh, Northern Ireland. Some highlights of this tour includes: Dublin, Belfast, Derry, Giant’s Causeway, Donegal and much more!
To learn more about “Castlebay” go to their web site: www.castlebay.net


Sheela na gigs

Sheela na gigs are figurative carvings of the female form displaying enlarged or exaggerated genitals. They are often found on churches, castles, abbeys, convents, pillars and other structures in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. They come in many different shapes and sizes but all share the same characteristic of the most prominent, oversized genitals. Most date from the middle ages.

Interpretations generally fall into four main categories. Fertility icons, Warnings against sins of the flesh, protection from evil, and representations of a figure from the old Celtic Goddess trinity.

“Fertility Figure” is often anthropological shorthand for “don’t really know”. Usually applied to female figures about which insufficient research has been done.

The figures have undoubtedly been used in fertility contexts. There’s a story of an artist traveling around Ireland looking for Sheela na gigs. When she came to one town she was told by a local that it was “in use”. When she inquired as to what that meant she was told that when the local women were giving birth, they would place the figure behind their shoulders to ensure easy delivery.

Warnings against sins of the Flesh
This function is to alert the faithful as to the dangers of sin and lust. The emphasis on genitalia related to the churches teachings that sinners were punished in hell through the bodily organs by which they had offended.

Protection from Evil
Another theory holds that the Sheela images were erected to provide protection from malevolent forces, such as the evil eye. In his entry on “Yoni Magic” in The Encyclopedia of Sacred Sexuality, Rufus Camphausen notes that the Yoni (vagina) has been held by many cultures around the world as “imbued with protective and healing energies”. He goes on to say “Not only was flashing the yoni at the devil known as a fail safe method to hinder his approach, but more generally it was seen as a means to avert evil forces such as the evil eye. The high esteem in which the ancients—on quite a universal scale—held this “yoni power” is well documented.

As Goddess
Sligo artist Michael Quirk believes that the Sheela image is the third in the Maiden- Mother-Crone Goddess trinity. In her aspect as the crone she invites the hero back into her womb unto death. Through this stark figure we are reminded that we are all born of Mother Earth and we will all return into the earth in death, through the same “door”, the womb of the earth.



THE BANSHEE

The Banshee in history, mythology, and folklore is the supernatural death messenger of Irish folklore. A solitary being she heralds the death of a family member with her cry and was believed to have followed certain families. The Banshee tradition is said to derive from earlier traditions of a Goddess or ancestral guardian spirit. Usually heard and not seen she is still often depicted as an old woman seen combing her hair. Banshees are frequently described as dressed in white or grey with long fair hair which they brush with a silver comb. The comb detail is related to a century’s old traditional superstition that says if you ever see a comb lying on the ground in Ireland you must never pick it up, or the Banshees, having placed it there, to lure unsuspecting humans, will spirit you away.

The Banshee is an Anglicization of the Irish bean si; “Woman of the sid” or “Woman of the fairy mound”. The Scots Gaelic version of the name is usually Bean Nighe; Washer Woman

The banshee can appear in three guises, a young woman, a stately matron or a raddled old hag. These represent the triple aspects of the Celtic Goddess of war and death. She wears either a grey hooded cloak, or the winding sheet or grave robe, sometimes appearing be washing the blood stained clothes of those who are about to die. There are records of several human banshees or prophetesses attending the great houses of Ireland and the courts of Irish kings. In some parts of Leinster, she is referred to as bean chaoint (keening woman) whose wail is so piercing that it shatters glass. In Kerry, the keen is experienced as a "low, pleasant singing"; in Tyrone as "the sound of two boards being struck together"; and on Rathlin Island as "a thin, screeching sound somewhere between the wail of a woman and the moan of an owl".
The banshee may also appear in a variety of other forms, such as that of a hooded crow, stoat, hare and weasel - animals associated in Ireland with witchcraft.



www.celtnet.org.uk/images/sheela.gif
The Encyclopedia of Ireland
Wicpedia
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