Cuchulain & Scathach

The journey of Cuchulain and his training with Scathach.

I have now read a few versions of this myth of the hero and the great warrior woman. The one from the Order of Scathach is  the most different from the others. Maybe it is the modern translation or the authors interpretations. It seems to be the splicing together of a few of the Cuchulain myths.

I reference the following: 

• Táin (various translations)
• Celtic Consciousness (by O'Driscoll)
• Celtic Myths & Legends (by Ellis)
• Epics of Ireland (by Markale)

Most of the exploits of Cuchulain occur in his youth from his early childhood to his late teens. Then, like many heroic warriors, he is expected to find a master beyond his homelands. This is the role of all journeyman in any skill class. For this we move to the education of Cuchulain as he seeks worthy teachers. We read this journey in the Cycle of Cuchulain where he leaves for Scotland seeking training on the isle of Skye at Dun Scaith with one of the twin daughters of the Morrigan.


This is the traditional hero's tale of trials. Cuchulain is faced with various challenges to his physical strength, to his courage and will, and to his mind and wisdom. He faces plains, bogs, monsters, and even has to puzzle out a riddle of a magical bridge. All these things he overcomes to earn the right to train with Scathach.


Like all initiations, there are several stages. Training the body, the mind and the spirit. He must temper himself in all ways, like forging a fine blade, before he can move onto the next lessons. He even tries sometimes to skip ahead only to learn the hard way that he must step back and learn in sequence. We must all learn to walk before we learn to run. His education is not just about weapons and states of mind, not just about tactics, but also includes some understanding of magic and sorcery.




To be a warrior, one must know the self and know other. Knowledge is the key to wisdom.

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We have a ritual for Yule in honor of Cuchulain and Scathach.


In the center of a the temple upon the low altar  is the Need Fire, Brigid's Eternal Flame. 
The handmaiden to the ritual carries it and is in charge of it.
Each person is challenged at the edge of the circle then guided in by the priest/ess.
We declare ourselves warriors seeking Dun Scaith and further training on our path.
Within the circle, we all absorb some of this flame as we stand with our chosen weapons.
Then like sentinals, we turn our backs to face the darkness of the longest night beyond the circle.
Here we all sit, weapon's pointing out.
The handmaiden covers the Need Fire but does not put it out.
In the dark, we all listen to the tale of Cuchulain's educations, facing the challenges in spirit as he faced them. In the darkness, we face ourselves carrying only the light within our hearts.
Then we all turn to face the light once more. 
The handmaiden uncovers the light so it becomes bright once again.
We light candles from it and these candles refresh the energy of our personal sacred flames in our homes later.

Know Thyself

Most famously known as a phrase found in Greek philosophy, stated by Plato then by many others after. Yet has been found in earlier texts such as the Tao Te Ching.

GNOTHI SEAUTON

I would like to begin with a few quotes about "know thyself" as they have had some impact on how I see this phrase and how it has shaped me, my studies, and my teachings.

By learning to discover and value our ordinariness, we nurture a friendliness
toward ourselves and the world that is the essence of a healthy soul.
-- Thomas Moore

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there. 
-- Marcus Aurelius

To thine own-self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day.
Thou can'st not then be false to any man.
-- Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 3

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. 
-- Tao Te Ching

Being true to myself starts with knowing myself. I had been advised of this idiom by my mother, my teachers in school, but first read it in the Tao Te Ching and always considered it to be of Chinese origin. Plato also recounts the idiom in his words of Socrates.  Does it belong then to the Chinese or to the Greeks? I later heard from a Native shaman in my area that it has been part of their own warrior philosophy since the beginning of time. That was the first time I heard it referenced to the warrior class and was immediately corrected that warriors are first in battle with themselves before they can ever be trusted to be in battle with or for others. They must be able to face themselves, part of every boy's rite of passage. But much of that has been lost to contemporary Montreal society and maybe others to be sure. I find it quoted in so many cultures from the Greeks, to the Middle East, to the Plain Indians and Iroquois Indians, to England's Shakespeare, to the Chinese Taoists and Buddhists, to the Japanese Samurai.

It is part of my philosophy now.

I re-evaluate myself every year. I look at the person I have become and where I am going. I look at the mistakes I have made and how I have learned from them. I look at strengths and weaknesses and know them to be the same double-edged blades, tools in my toolbox of life. It is important that i maintain these blades as clean and sharp tools ready to be used when needed.

I have then applied this to the philosophy of my teachings of Wicca. One of the exercises I ask all my students to do is to start a journal (as I have here) or write in one they regularly maintain answers to the following questions:

• Who was I?
• What major changes have occurred in my life?
• What have I learned from them and how have they shaped me?
• Who am I now?
• What are my hopes and fears?
• Who am I striving to become?

A college professor first challenged his students of humanities to answer these questions. They were part of his midterm exam. Many students resisted this kind of internal review. Many still do. It is hard to look in the mirror of life and see our own in all of his perceived imperfections. It is too easy to see how ugly we think we are. Or too easy to allow an illusion of false beauty to color our view. In Japanese art, however, there is true beauty in the true nature of things. We are perfect because we are imperfect. And so the students challenged the teacher in turn demanding one question. WHY? Guess what. When they received their final exams, the page had but one question on it. WHY? If you answered with a long essay, you were graded according to how well you argued your various points, but never got batter than a "C" as a grade. If you simply answered "BECAUSE", then you  were graded with a "B". But, if you answered "WHY NOT?", then you got an "A". The students who tended to answer WHY NOT were also usually those who answered the mid-term. Those who recognized their fears of facing themselves and were determined to face themselves and learn.

I answered GNOSIS... knowledge. SOHIA... wisdom. They are not synonymous terms. but both star with knowing the self. Can we really and truly know ourselves? Can we have full gnosis of ourselves? Perhaps not, perhaps it is like perfection. Nothing is truly perfect except in its imperfections. So we try to know as much as we can of ourselves so we can understand who we are and why we are. These help us to understand where we are going and how we plan to get there. We can understand our limits and willingly challenge them and work with them or around them. We can find peace, love and acceptance within... which inevitable will be all around us.

As above, so below.
As within, so without.

Know Thyself.

New Beginnings

I swore a three-fold promise to the divine, long before I took any other vows:

Be True to Your Word

Be True to Your Path

Be True to Yourself

A few years later, I swore my first vows:

With Honor and with Love

Shall I Serve My Community

I have moved through various private and group, eclectic and traditional forms of Wiccan and Druidic training to reach where I am now. The most challenging and most rewarding of those experiences has been my training with Silver Ravenwolf's Sacred Order of the Black Forest (BFC: Black Forest Clan). It has also been my hardest for the reasons I find myself leaving it. I reached a point on that path where I either had to break the first promises and vows I made to the divine or break those I swore to BFC. After many months of struggling with this decision, I have chosen to break away from them. I pray my oathbreaking will be taken with mercy. I mean no harm to anyone and know that breaking away is better for us all. May they grow and prosper with honor and with love as i do, though now on separate paths. So mote it be.

My group now prepares as a new group: Katana Moon.

We are Irish Celtic Wicca & Witchcraft blended heavily with East Asian beliefs and practices.
We are Warriors in our own ways when the need should arise.
And we have started a new path of study in the Order of Scathach.

Sophia, Goddess of the Moon, ever-changing and flowing, guide me now as you have always guided me. Cernunnos, Stag Lord, Horned God, balancer of man and nature, help me find new balance on this path that I walk. Morrigan, warrior goddess, give me all the strength I need to serve you and this community.

I am true to my word: I will always speak my mind truly and defend my reasoning and listen to the reasoning of others.
I am true to my path: and should I stray from it or lose my way, I will always see the moon above and find my way again.
I am true to myself: for if I am not, how can I ever be served by and also to serve and be true to others?

New beginnings ... Are not about taking new paths... be they well-worn or roads less traveled... They can simply be renewing the original path... our own soul's personal path. Tread light. Tread free.