In 1988, on a Goddess Tour of the British Museum, I came face to face with a bronze statue of an Antlered Goddess. Though only three inches high she radiated strength and endurance.
Antlered Goddess © British Museum. Dated to 1st - 3rd century CE., this bronze statue of an antlered goddess in Romano- Celtic style was found at Besançon, France.
The Antlered Goddess was seated holding a dish and a cornucopia (horn of plenty), symbols of abundance and agriculture, nature’s harvest and the land goddess. However, her stag’s antlers hinted at so much more. She seemed to embody an earlier, ancient figure, a primeval force, a deity of wildness and raw nature. 30 years later, I began researching the folklore and mythology of The Cailleach in Ireland for my exhibition, 'Tales from The Cailleach’.
Over the intervening years The Old Woman had circled closer to me. I glimpsed her in path workings, in ritual and felt her presence in the sacred landscape. I knew that within the Neolithic cairns (built approximately 5,000 years ago) on Sliabh na Caillí, The Hill of the Hag, Loughcrew, many items composed of deer antler had been discovered during archaeological excavations. Red Deer have had a continuous presence here since the end of the last Ice Age and must have been vital to the life of early people providing food, clothing, tools and adornment.
Looking through excavation reports I came across photographs of intriguing artefacts discovered within cairn H, one of the Loughcrew mounds - 150 bone slips buried beneath two huge stones.
Decorated with La Tène style carvings, some originally formed combs whilst others were pierced at one end, possibly for hanging as pendants. Carbon dating suggested that they were produced in the Middle Iron Age, about 600 BCE, revealing that the ancestral mounds of the Neolithic people were still sacred to those who came later.
Fascinating though this was what really caught my eye was a damaged bone slip carved with a stag and the head of a doe considered to be ‘the earliest example of representative art in Ireland.’ Why were they commemorated?
Was it possible that our ancestors perceived the deer herds not merely as providers of food and clothing?
Perhaps the spirit of the herd was honoured or took the form of a figure, The Cailleach Béarrach, the sharp or horned Old Woman of Irish folklore?
Carved bone slips © Museum of Ireland Bone slip carved with deer - painting by Jane Brideson
Later, I read a translation of Buile Suibne, ‘The Frenzy of Sweeney’, an Irish tale first recorded in the 1629, about the mythical character known as Mad Sweeney. In it I came across a character called Lonnog, The Hag of the Mill, a cailleach responsible for the care of Suibhne.
During their time together Suibhne remembers his great adventures in the wild and tells the hag about his meetings with the famous stags of Ireland. He realises then that Lonnog is not all that she seems.
She is the ancient mother of Ireland’s great herds of deer.
“ O mother of this herd
thy coat has become grey,
there is no stag after thee
without two score antler-points.”
Reading these words I remembered the tiny Antlered Goddess in the British Museum from all those years ago.
The winter of 2017 was long and hard and darkness came early as I sat beside the stove in my studio thinking of the deer herds roaming the hills near my home.
As my mind wandered a voice, deep and old, whispered from the silence around me.
“ I come to you by stone, by antler and bone.”
The words were repeated until they grew to form a poem.
“ I come to you by stone
by antler and bone.
by crows feet of laughter
striations of tears
weathered contours of your body
a landscape of life.
I come to you by stone
by antler and bone
by power of wildfire rising
across your naked hills
howling lost love keening
long labyrinth of night.
I come to you by stone
by antler and bone
ancient rhythm of the women
and heartbeat of the herd.
I come to you by stone
by antler and bone
to lead you through the blackness
and return you to the light.”
I hurried to record the words then to sketch the image that was appearing in my minds’ eye.
The Cailleach, with her bone slip, hag stone and antler tine emerged from the shadowy mound offering her wisdom, holding out her hands to guide us through the darkness.
‘Stone, Antler, Bone’ by Jane Brideson
Weeks later, when the painting was finally finished, I lit candles and incense to honour her.
Sitting looking into her eyes I knew there was more work to be done.
The Antlered Goddess came to mind once again and slowly her image took root in my imagination, shifting shape until she transformed.
‘Mother of the Herd - Rebirth’ by Jane Brideson
She became The Mother of the Herd, ancient goddess of re-birth, who connects us to the cycles of wild nature, whose gaze challenges us to look deeply within.
From the The Antlered Goddess to the Mother of the Herd, the circle was complete.
However, my journey with The Old Woman continues.
***
Jane Brideson has been creating Sacred Art since the 1980’s. She lives in an old cottage in rural Ireland where she is inspired by the landscape, Irish mythology and folklore.
To read more please visit her blog The Ever-Living Ones, where you will find galleries of her paintings, stories of her travels in Ireland and more Tales from The Cailleach
