Priestesses of the Deer

Comparison of Gaelic oral tradition and Pictish symbols: extent of Deer Goddess
figures linked to Cailleach - Mother Goddess figure: significance of deer in myth,
legend and in the location of sacred sites in Britain.

PRIESTESSES OF THE DEER

Mackay - Beira -locale - continuity - deer priestesses in Mackay and Campbell -

the stripping scene - Pictish symbol stones - possible totemism - Donovan the
Diviner - Glen Esk.

Back in the 1930's J.G. Mackay published an article on Deer Goddess cults in
the Scottish Highlands in Folklore for 1932. He drew attention to the two
meanings of the Gaelic word Fiadh as deer and God. He cites numerous
examples of Highland tales which refer to the Cailleach associating with deer.
Mackay presents the Cailleach as the Hag or Witch but she is in fact the
Goddess in one of her three main aspects, and she is often presented in these
tales as being a giantess. To quote him-" The gigantic stature of these Old
Women, their love for their deer, the fact that their dealings are almost
exclusively with hunters and the fact that each is referred to as a bean-sidhe, or
supernatural woman seems sufficient warrant for calling them Deer Goddesses".
It was common for hunters who were after deer to pray to the Cailleach or
Cailleach Bheur before setting out. Mackay thinks that the Cailleach is an import
from Ireland but I think it is more likely that this goddess figure went from
Scotland to Ireland or at the very least was part of a common shared mythology.
After all we do know that people have been pasing back and forth between
Ireland and Scotland since the Stone Age - the similar megalithic traditions piont
to peoples who were very closely linked and the probability of trade,
intermarriage and exchange of ideas both technological and spiritual is obvious.
Beira also known as the Cailleach Bheur is associated with the mythology of the
seasons and was believed to have resided on Ben Nevis, the highest mountain
not just in Scotland but the entire British Isles.She is the aspect of the Mother
Goddess as Winter Hag and as DA Mackenzie shows in Scottish Folklore and
Folklife she was said to try and keep Bride, Goddess of Spring, imprisoned so
that winter would remain on the land. One interesting sidenote here is that the
original of the Corryvreckan is from the Gaelic meaning the Cualdron of the Plaid,
where Beira was said to wash her plaid and after the Corryvreckan was at its
fircest in late autumn the hills would be covered in snow, this being Beira's plaid
spread out to dry - a very old motif. We must remember that until just a few
centuries ago most people would not travel very far from their birthplaces -
possibly a few miles to summer sheilings and into the next glen or so on very
special occasions. Because of this the tales they told, the cultural cement of their
society would always be given local provenance. This by the way explains why
there will never be a definitive locale for Arthur, Fin MacCoul or any other
primarily legndary figure - the tales were told within the compass of the
audience's perceptions - the landscape within which they lived. The tales to
which Mackay refers therefore come from all over Highland Scotland and it is
interesting to note that the deer turns up in the story of St. Kentigern's stay in
Wales where he yoked a deer and a wolf together to pull a plough.

Another symbol on the Glamis Stone is the head of a deer. The deer plays as a
constant theme in Gaelic legend and myth in particular - there are strong
associations with fairies, deer being referred to as fairy cattle, the poet of the
Fianna is Finn MacCoul's son Oisin, meaning fawn, whose mother was changed
into a hind by a malevolent magician. This I think is reference to shape-shifting
an attribute of all the Goddess figures in Celtic mythology and also a common
attribute of the priestesses of the Goddess and a group who seem to have
succeeded them in some sense - the witches.

Mackay believes that tales of female figures associated with deer are sometimes
references to priestesses of the goddess rather than the Goddess herself and
says " The deer priestesses never appear in the tales as priestesses, but as
witches. They gave hunters blessings and charms to procure them success in
the chase, and afterwards shared the spoils of the chase with them. After all
witches are only fossil priestesses, the exponents of dead pagan faiths." Later he
makes the following point. "Some deer priestesses, because probably they had
wearied of paganism and the tedious yoke it laid upon its votaries, and perhaps
because they loved some hunters, appear in tales as the Alternating Deer-
Women, and marry their hunter lovers and live happily with then ever after." This
is a reference to more shape-shifting and Mackay suggested that stories of deer-
transformations " Are to be accounted for by the manner in which the priestesses
of a deer-cult attired themselves in the skins of hinds, suddenly discarding them,
or reassuming them while on the moors". There are incidentally instances of
similar if not identical shape shifting in Welsh tradition but Mackay was working
solely with indigenous Gaelic material. It is in this concept of the shedding of
skins I think we can see something else in the Pictish Symbols. The Deer on the
Glamis stone is simply a head but I have long thought of it as a mask. Here are
two others which I likewise suggest are masks from Ardross and Dunachton and
there is of course the strange shape that occurs on Rhynie stone and several in
Angus which I am here suggesting can be seen as a representation of the
priestess costume which Mackay refers to them donning and doffing on the
moors. Many other societies throughout the world use animal costume and in
European terms this habit can be traced back as the cave-painting at Lascaux ,
though there the figure is patently male. The occurrence of the deer motif on
early Pictish stones I suggest is directly liked to Mackay's Deer cult as one
aspect of the Goddess and it is interesting to note the continuing significance of
the deer as the quarry in the hunt scenes on later, Christianised Symbol Stones.
They are possibly a status symbol reflecting some sort of continuity of the
importance of the deer. But could they also suggest the harrying of the deer as a
motif for the destruction of the old religion? After all symbols have multifarious
meanings. This is of course also a Deer figure on Mormond Hill even though it
has been overshadowed by the much more recent horse figure. As a further
reflection of the importance of the deer a dowser in south-west England known
as Donovan the Diviner suggested on tv a couple of years ago that the earliest
stone circles were built on the sites of deer-rutting stands. He says that in
dowsing such stands and stone circles he discovered almost identical patterns. It
makes sense that if the deer was seen as an aspect of the goddess the places
where they mated would be full of particular fertility magic. Whether the deer are
creating the lines or attracted by them is an interesting point but the significance
of the association with fertility is self-explanatory.

1 Mackenzie DA, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life ,Blackie and Son, Glasgow
1935

p 204 "On milk of deer /I was reared/In milk of deer was nurtured/On milk of deer
beneath the ridge of storms,/On crest of hill and mountain."

2. Markale,J Women of the Celts, Inner Traditions, Vermont 1986

p107 from Chretien de Troyes The Hunt for the White Deer

“ At Easter, King Arthur,who was holding court at Cardigan, announced that he

wished to hunt the white deer" in order to revive the custom". Gawain, who was
not in complete agreement, declared "We all know about the custom of the white
deer. He who kills it must give a kiss to the most beautiful woman of your court."
Interpret.

3. Markale ibid

p107 " Geraint and Enid Mabinogion

“ At Pentecost King Arthur held court at Caerleon-on-Usk a knight arrived and

told the king he had seen in the forest "a deer such as I have never seen
before....it is all white and out of dignity and pride in its kingship, it does not run
with any other animal." Arthur decided to go and hunt the white deer, and
Gwalchmai (Gawain) suggested that he "allow whoever saw the deer during the
hunt, whether horseman or foot-follower, to cut off its head and give it whomever
he wished, whether his own mistress or his companion's".

3a. Swire,O Skye: the Island and its Legends, Blackie, Glasgow 1961

p193. " He (Fionn) searches for her for many years, but he has been sent to run
with the deer in lone Glen Affaric and he never finds her. Twelve years later,
when the Fiennes are hunting, their hounds pick up a scent and follow it to a
small copse; Bran, who is leading, is the first to enter it, whereupon, to the
surprise of all, he turns at bay, teeth bared against the Fiennes and his fellow
hounds of the pack and will allow no one but Fionn to pass him. Fionn finds him
guarding a wild boy, with long hair and wild, beautiful, frightened eyes, who can
only make such sounds as deer make. Fionn adopts him and teaches him human
speech. Needless he is Grainnhe's son, but Grainnhe, the beautiful white hind of
who her son talks, is never found. After her death the Grey Magician permits her
son to take her body, once more that of a woman, for burial, and the Fiennes
make her a grave on the summit of
Bein na Caillich, where once she ran as a hind."

4. Markale ibid

<:#2845,9360>p111 <+">" Ultimately everything leads back to the story of

Sadv(Grainnhe), the hind in the woods who was pursued so fiecely by the Black
Man(Druid), the Druid who represented the social and religious order, but
protected by Fionn and the Fianna, the last champions of Our Lady of the Night.
For Finn's real name ( Finn,"handsome", "white", or "fair", being a nickname) was
Demne, which suggests an ancient dam-nijo (small Deer); his son was Oisin,"the
Fawn"; and Oisin's son was called Oscar, which means hew who ovs the
deer.....Indeed the whole epic cycle of Finn, or of Leinster(?), is placed under the
symbolic patronage of the deer......All this is enough to make Sadv (Grainne)and
the story of Oisin particularly significant; for the hind goddess, or goddess of
hinds is related to the most ancient image of Artemis -Diana, the sun goddess of
these people who came to Western Europe before the Indo-Europeans
" Comment.

5. Mackenzie ibid

p204 "Deer are spoken of as "the cattle of the fairies", being milked by the. ,cf1

6. Ibid
p243 " It was firmly believed that ghosts could appear in many different forms,
sometimes in human shape, at other times in the the shape of dogs, cattle and
deer." Otherworld

7. Markale op cit from the Vita Merlini

p 107 " When Merlin had gone mad, he went to live in the Kelyddon Forest, and
even said that his wife Gwendolyn could remarry on certain conditions. He
learned of her impending marriage and arrived riding on a deer driving a whole
herd of the animals before him. When he called to her, Gwendolyn appeared at
her window and was greatly amused at the sight of him. When her future
husband also came to look, Merlin tore out the antlers of the deer he was riding
and hurled them at him, smashing his skull. Then he went back to the forest, still
on his strange mount."
8. Mackenzie op cit

p166 "A gamekeeper at Corrour Lodge, Inverness-shire, told my friend Mr

Ronald Burn, in 1917, that the Cailleach of Ben Breck, Lochaber, had cleaned
out a certain well, and had afterwards washed herself therein, in that same year.
And in 1927 the late Dr Miller of Fort William, Lochaber, informed me that the old
Cailleach is still well-known there. "cf Cailleach/Bride

9.Mackenzie op cit

p150 The gigantic stature of these Old Women, their love for their deer, the fact
that their dealings are almost exclusively with hunters, and the fact that each is
referred to as a bean-sidhe, or supernatural woman, seems sufficient warrant for
calling them Deer-Goddesses....They are all creatures of the wild. This is very
significant, and suggests a very great antiquity."

10. Mackay JG The Deer-Cult and the Deer-Goddess Cult of the Ancient
Caledonians, Folklore 1932 p 144f.

p159 The Jura Deer-goddess would without remorse, kill a man from the
neighbouring island of Islay, as soon as he set foot in Jura. But she greatly
regrets defeating a Jura man, a native in her own island Her interest suggests a
long-standing interest
in the country, and a rooted attachment to the soil, natural to an aboriginal
goddess."

11Ibid
p167 “ B (1)..from among the welter of primeval pagan usage certain customs
began, at some undated stage of development, to assume more defiite and
importamnt character than others. (2) That these customs developed into a
considerable ritual, of a religious character.(3) That the performance of them was
allotted to special groups of women, or priestesses, as a result of the tendency
towards specialization."

12.Ibid

p168 E. The deer-priestesses never appear in the tales as priestesses, but as

witches. They gave the hunters blessings and charms to procure them success
in the chase, and afterwards shared the spoils of the chase with them. Afetr all
witches are only fossil priestesses, the exponents of dead pagan faiths ."
Or not.

13 Campbell,JF Popular Tales of the West Highlands vol 2,Birlinn, Edinburgh

1994(repr)
p 62. The Widow's Son " ..he went out on three successive days. On the first,
when he aimed, he saw over the sight a woman's face and breast, while the rest
remained a deer." Don't fire at me, widow's son," said the deer; and he did not,
and went home and did not tell what had happened. The next day when he
aimed, the woman was free to the waist, but the rest was still deer; and on the
third she was free; and she told the hunter that she was the king of Lochlann's
daughter, enchanted by the old man, and that she would marry the hunter if he
came to such a hill."

Campbell JF, More West Highland Tales vol 1, Birlinn Edinburgh 1994

p397 The Weaver's Son " The first night he went out, he saw the deer, but just
when he was about to fire, it turned into a woman. He went out the next night,
and saw the deer, but when about to fire it turned into a woman. He went out the
third night and
saw the deer, but it turned into a woman as usual when he attempted to fire."

14. Mackay op cit

p 156 " In these tales of a deer becoming a woman, and reverting again to deer-
shape, and doing this the customary three times, I see a folk memory of a pagan
ritual, during the course of which, the deer-priestess would don and doff her
official canonicals or vestments, the hide of a deer with antlers and hoofs
attached. In remote times , when such deer-ritual was practised, story-tellers
would naturally have spoken of the deer priestess as becoming deer or woman
alternately, without fear of being misunderstood. In later times, when the deer
cult had died out, story-tellers, always conservative, would have used the same
metaphors, but would now have been understood as referring to ordinary(sic!)
shape-shifting. However the deer-priestess has clearly been photographed in the
folktales in the very act of performing her ceremonies, and bears a close
resemblance to the figure of a person prancing about in a deer's hide in the
famous prehistoric drawing in the Grotte des Trois Freres. The figure in that
drawing is usually said to be that of a conjuror or magician. But the face as no
beard and the eyebrows are semi-circular. It seems to me to the face of a
woman." DROP?

15. Ibid

p161 "Island of Eigg. Still called "Eilean nam Ban Mora" i.e. the Isle of the Big
Women. A little loch, with some prehistoric building or crannog constructed in it,
is called "Loch nam Ban Mora"....The crannog was inhabited by women of such
unique proportions that the stepping stones by which they gained their home
were set so far apart as to be useless to any one else. Thus says one tradition.
Another tradition says that St. Donann was martyred by the "Amazon Queen"
who reigned in the island; the Queen in question can hardly be anything but the
condensation of a group."
16. Ibid

p162 " A group called the Seven Big Women of Jura occur in two of Campbell's
tales........ I have already referred to a tale, probably from Badenoch, where a
witch refers to the cruelty of her "sisterhood." Such a sisterhood or group of
witches can only be a group of deer-priestesses, and they imply a corresponding
group of goddesses (sic), whose official representatives they were. "

17. Ibid

p 166 " There are several incidents in Scottish (and Scots) Gaelic folklore, which
suggest, but not in any way definitely, that deer -priestesses retired or resorted to
distant islands."

18. Spence, L The Magic Arts in Celtc Britain, Constable, London 1995(repr)

“ Strabo tells us that there was a community of women dwelling in an island at

the mouth of the Loire who were devoted to a secret cult. No man was permitted
to set foot on their domain. Pomponius Mela, who flourished in the first century,
speaks of another such island, that of Sein, or Sena, off the Pont du Raz, on the
western coast of Brittany, not far from Brest. Its virgin women. known as
Gallicenae or Gallizenae, were nine in number, and could raise winds and
transform themselves into animal shapes."

Bibliography

Campbell JF, More West Highland Tales vol 1, Birlinn Edinburgh 1994

Campbell, JF Popular Tales of the West Highlands vol 2,Birlinn, Edinburgh

1994(repr)

Mackay JG The Deer-Cult and the Deer-Goddess Cult of the Ancient

Caledonians, Folklore 1932 p 144f.

Mackenzie DA, Scottish Folk Lore and Folk Life ,Blackie and Son, Glasgow 1935

Markale,J Women of the Celts, Inner Traditions, Vermont 1986

Spence, L The Magic Arts in Celtic Britain, Constable, London 1995(repr)

Swire,O Skye: the Island and its Legends, Blackie, Glasgow 1961

What of Jacobson?