Today is March 18th, also known as Sheela na Gig. It is a day also known as 'Hag Day,' and by many other names, but it is also another day of 364 (depending on if there is a leap year involved) to celebrate the Divine Feminine. And this goes for our men as well. I don't think I have to elaborate on that!
For those not familiar with Sheela na Gig, she is typically seen as a carved stone image or painting of a seated woman displaying her vulva, usually quite oversized. This position is not because she is in any of her known phases (and we are talking about Earth Goddess now, not Hecate) but because she is ready to receive a new God to continue the Wheel which will, in turn, ensure our very existence.
Many of these carvings are very old, pre-Christian era, and found in several sacred sites carved into outcroppings of rock. Curiously, these images were often found on the south walls of churches, and even in graveyards, across Ireland and also in the UK. There is some evidence that the majority of these church instances are strongly aligned with the Norman influence in Great Britain and Ireland. Some Sheela na Gig imagery has also been found in Europe (France and Spain). Today, she is most strongly associated with Irish Celtic culture.
Sadly, in the last centuries, many of the Sheela na Gig images were destroyed. A condemnation of “obscenity”? A patriarchal reaction to feminine power? A fear of celebrating women? A fear of our sexuality?
I'd say the short answer to all these questions is 'Yes.'
Recently, there has been a movement by contemporary artists to reclaim and celebrate Sheela na Gig through Project Sheela. Per their website, “Project Sheela is a street art project founded by two Dublin-based artists to celebrate, commemorate, and commiserate with the history of women’s rights and female sexuality in Ireland.”
I invite you to visit their Instagram page to view the incredible imagery created in the Project.
Some say that the selection of March 18th as the date to acknowledge Sheela na Gig is due to a more recent association between Sheela na Gig and Saint Patrick, one of the patron saints of Ireland who is celebrated on March 17th. His wife (or possibly his mother!) was called Sheela, so the 18th became her celebration in Ireland (and, interestingly, in Newfoundland, Canada.)
But if we look at Sheela's association with sexuality and birth (also very strongly associated with death in medieval times, with the high mortality rates of women and children in childbirth) is this not akin to the worldwide cultural celebrations of birth-death-renewal associated with Spring, which arrives in the Northern Hemisphere around March 20th or 21st? Makes sense to me!
In the early 19th century, scholars started to study and analyze the images from an etymology perspective (the roots of the words) and the images themselves. The theories varied widely: everything from an ancient goddess (of fertility, childbirth, sexuality, death, even warrior) to protection against evil to a good luck charm to a warning against lust and everything in between. In more recent times, scholars have brought in a more feminist perspective linked to the ancient spirituality of Ireland.
Needless to say, many in the clergy were upset by the scholarly findings and deemed the imagery offensive or obscene — even though the art had been an integral part of their churches’ original design and build! — and removed the images to museums, who often hid them away, or destroyed them outright.
Even the origins of the name are somewhat lost in time, although most consider the name a variant of old Irish, such as:
Síle na gCíoch, meaning “Sheela of the breasts”
Sileadh na gCíoch, meaning “the shedding (of liquid) from the breast”
Síle-ina-Giob, meaning “Sheela on her hunkers”
Shila na Gigh, meaning “Cecily of the branch” (Síle being the Irish version of the Norman name Cecilia or Cecily, as well as the name Julia)
Síle na Gig, meaning “Hag of the branches” (did you know that stripped branches were also used as a fertility talisman?).a Gigh, meaning “Cecily of the branch” (Síle being the Irish version of the Norman name Cecilia or Cecily, as well as the name Julia)
There is so little written about Sheela na Gig and I wanted to learn more. I came across a fascinating book Sheela-na-Gigs: Unravelling an enigma by Barbara Freitag, a look at the scholarly interpretations and the cultural history of Sheela imagery, along with maps of the existing locations, and an analysis of the images themselves. An excerpt from Freitag's book:
“... the sculptures belong to folk art and a tradition, too important and too intimately bound up with the welfare of the common people to be disregarded by the Christian Church. Incorporated in a Christian context, but divorced from her roots in pre-Christian tradition, the Sheela-na-gig needs to be seen as some powerful manifestation of continuity with the past. The key to an understanding of her real meaning can thus only be found in a sympathetic appreciation of her medieval social context.”
Freitag goes on to explore some of the traditions associated with the imagery including those of fertility, birth, and mortality, and suggests that:
“Sheela-na-gig incarnates all those ideas connected with birth spirits formerly worshipped all over Europe. She is one of those ‘bald grandmothers’ invoked at birth. The deathlike upper part expresses fear and respect for the ancestral spirits, and the lower part suggests fertility and childbirth.”
A colleague of mine (a Druid I have known for many years) visited many of the sites of Sheela carvings and found that there were many common items amongst them: the presence of a holy well (a link to Brighid?), an association with cows and other fertility symbols, bushes and — in some places — a rag or cloutie offering. It seemed obvious to him that these were offerings for fertility, although he did not feel comfortable asking the locals what it all meant, so he asked me. Upon further investigation on my own, I found that women hoping to conceive would take a cloth, touch it to their private parts, and leave it attached to a bush near the carving.
On this, another Spring holiday we can observe ... celebrate all aspects of YOU!! And for the men out there, celebrate the women in your life, whether it be a wife, mother of your children (as in ex-wife?), girlfriend, 'just' a friend, or your mother (living or not). These women, all of them, have had an impact on your life, some of them are responsible for your even walking the earth, or your children's existence.
The Divine Feminine affects us all.
Darkmum
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