Fiongalla (Irish)

In Myth: The name of this Goddess of southwestern Ireland means "one with fair cheeks." She was placed under a spell by an Ulster Druidess named Amerach so that she would never grow a day older. Amerach extracted a vow from her that she would sleep with no man until he presented her with yew berries, holly boughs, and bouquets of marigolds from a magickal spot. A man named Feargal managed this feat and the geise was released.

The three items requested represent the Samhain, Yule, and Midsummer Sabbats respectively; this, and her agelessness, indicate that she was a regional Triple Goddess and the Feargal was her region's sacrificial God/king.

In Magick and Ritual: Call upon Fiongalla for seasonal rites. Bring her her required items to evoke her presence (but not if pets or children will be in attendance, as those items contain toxic properties).

Fionnuala (Irish)

In Myth: Her name means " the fair-shouldered one." She plays a leading role in one of the "Four Sorrows of Erin" in Irish mythology.

Fionnuala and her three brothers were the children of Llyr and Aebh. After Aebh's death, Llyr married Aife, who was so jealous of Llyr's love for his children that she turned them into swans for a period of nine hundred years.

Fionnuala took care of her brothers throughout their exile and taught them to sing. They learned to sing so sweetly that all Ireland was enchanted by them. At one point she feared she'd lost her brothers in a storm. Before she found them again she was credited with one of the most beautiful laments ever known. An English language version of this, Silent O'Moyle, was written by Thomas Moore.

They were freed by Druidic magick, but once released from their enchantment, fell dead from old age.

In Magick and Ritual: Fionnuala can be invoked to give us the strength to aid our family and keep them together.

Correspondences: Water birds, the throat, the nonagon.

Fithir (Irish)

The youngest daughter of a High King whom the King of Leinster wished to marry. Because she had an unwed older sister, Darine, the High King said no to the match. In retaliation for the rejection, the Leinster king kidnapped Darine, claimed she was dead, and subsequently married Fithir. When Fithir came upon Darine years later she died of shock and Darine died of heartbreak.

Finchoem (Irish)

In Myth: Finchoem swallowed a worm she found crawling over a magickal well in hopes of conceiving. She was successful, and the child born to her was Conall of the Victories.

Archetypally she is a well guardian, wells being associated with the birth canal of the mother earth Goddess.

Compare her story to that of Nessa.

In Magick and Ritual: Fertility magick.

Findabar (Irish)

In Myth: Also Findbhair. Findabar's name comes from the same roots in the Giodelic language as Guinevere does in the Brythonic. Both approximately mean "white shadow" or "fair eyebrows."

Findabar was a Princess of Connacht, the daughter of Queen Maeve and her ineffectual consort, King Ailill. Ailill opposed his daughter's choice of a husband and sought to halt the marriage, wishing her to wed Ferdia instead. Findabar, showing the same spirit and determination as her famous mother, married Froach anyway.

She helped her lover slay a water demon, a synonym for battle with the Formorians.

In Magick and Ritual: Females can align with her to have the courage of their convictions and help them to be strong enough to have and live with their choices. Men can pair themselves with her to have a strong partner for overcoming adversity.

Finncaey (Irish)

Her name means "fair love." She was a minor Princess among the Tuatha De Danann, perhaps a Goddess of love or beauty.

Fedelma (Irish)

In Myth: Fedelma was a faery queen from Croghan in Connacht who prophesied to Queen Maeve of her victory over Ulster and the death of Cuchulain.

She is described as having yellow hair falling below her knees, wearing a golden dress and a green mantle, and carrying a chariot pole.

In Magick and Ritual: Invoke her to increase your own psychic abilities.

Correspondences: Glass.

Feithline (Irish)

In Myth: An emissary from the Otherworld who appeared to Queen Maeve to foretell her of her death. She may be a faery figure, as many of them are recorded in Celtic legends as portents of one's demise. She appeared in a white gown with a gold crown and seven golden braids, and is likely another form of Fedelma who foretold to Maeve the downfall of Ulster.

In Magick and Ritual: Call on her for divination and aid in spirit contact. She can also tell you the time of your own death, if you really care to know.

Correspondences: Nightshade, yew.

Fial (Irish)

The older sister of Emer whom Emer wished to have marry before her. She offered Fial to Cuchulain, but he refused the offer.

Fachea (Irish)

In Myth: A Goddess of poetry and patron deity of bards.

In Magick and Ritual: Invoke Fachea to inspire creativity in yourself or others.

Fand (Irish, Manx)

In Myth: Fand, a faery queen, was once married to the sea God Manann. After he left her, she was preyed upon by three Formorian warriors in the battle for control of the Irish Sea. Her only hope in winning this battle was to send for the hero Cuchulain who would only agree to come if she would marry him. She reluctantly acquiesced to his wishes, though when she met him, she fell as deeply in love with him as he was with her.

Manann knew that the relationship between the human world and the world of faery could not continue without it eventually destroying the faeries. He erased the memory of one from the other by drawing his magickal mantle between them.

Fand was also a minor sea Goddess who made her home both in the Otherworld and on the Isle of Man. With her sister, Liban, she was one of the twin Goddesses of health and earthly pleasures.

Some scholars believe she was a native Manx deity who was absorbed in Irish mythology.

Her nickname was "Peal of Beauty."

In Magick and Ritual: Call on Fand for healing, and for the assurance that you can have pleasure without guilt if you act responsibly. SHe can also aid you in making faery contact and water magick.

Correspondences: Sea salt, pearls, mother-of-pearl, aquamarine, coltsfoot, maidenhair.

Fea (Irish)

See also the Morrigan. This war Goddess, whose root name means "the hateful one," is a subordinate deity of the Morrigan. She is the daughter of Elcmar and Brugh.

Etan (Irish)

A daughter of Diancecht who married Oghma.

Etar (Irish)

The woman who drank Edain when, as a butterfly, she fell into Etar's ale. She later gave Edain rebirth in human form.

Ethne (Irish)

In Myth: A daughter of a servant of love God Aengus MacOg. When Aengus tried to rape her, she escaped him by becoming a being of pure spirit or light. When she vanished from humanity she took with her the Tuatha's Veil of Invisibility which had protected them from the invading Milesians.

In Magick and Ritual: Her powers of invisibility are usually a metaphor for astral projection (though there is a tradition of utilizing other types of invisibility spells in Celtic magickal practice). Call on her to aid you in this endeavor, or invoke her when you wish to go about unnoticed.

Ernmas (Irish)

In Myth: The granddaughter of Nuada of the Silver Hand who was the mother of several Triple Goddesses depending upon which story one reads. Her name means either "murderer" or "she-farmer," again depending on which version of Old Irish etymology one embraces. Her reputed children were Anu, Badb, and Macha, The Morrigan or Banbha, Eriu, and Fodhla, all fathered by Delbaeth. She was also the mother of Fiacha, her only son.

In Magick and Ritual: "She-farmer" relates her to fertility rites, and the "murderer" to the dark mother. Use her energy for fertility and earth magick spells.

Correspondences: Virgin earth, blood.

Ess Euchen (Irish)

In Myth: This powerful woman had three sons who were all killed by Cuchulain. She listened to the worst gossip about their death experience and allowed herself to believe she was justified in seeking vengeance. Turning herself into a crone, a symbol of power and retribution, she waited for Cuchulain on a lonely, narrow mountain path. When he approached, she stepped in front of him and demanded that he step aside and let her pass.

Cuchulain stepped to the very edge of the dangerous path where Ess Euchen intended to push him to his death. But using one of his teacher's, Scathach's, magickal leaps, he jumped up and killed her instead.

In Magick and Ritual: Align with her to understand the need for and pitfalls of vengeance. Flying off the handle and seeking to do someone else bodily harm may have been an idea prized by Celtic warriors, but it s hardly sound practice for modern Pagans who - hopefully - have evolved into beings able to reason out differences. Pathwork with Ess Euchen to change the outcome of her story and to learn to overcome the temptation to engage in or listen to gossip.

Etain (Irish)

See Edain.

Erce (Anglo-Celtic)

In Myth: An earth mother and harvest Goddess symbolized by a womb or by an over-flowing Horn of Plenty who is believed to be Basque in origin.

In Magick and Ritual: Ask Erce to your harvest festivals, and allow her to lend her aid to earth magick.

Correspondences: The cornucopia.

Eri of the Golden Hair (Irish)

In Myth: Eri was a virgin Goddess of the Tuatha De Danann. One day she was at the bank of a river when a man in a silver boat floated down to her on a beaming ray of the sun. Eri was so overcome with emotion at the sight that the two of them fell into the boat and made love. The man, probably an unnamed sun God, left Eri pregnant with Bres. He also left her a golden ring (a sun symbol) to remember him by.

In Magick and Ritual: Utilize Eri's energy as the feminine principle of creation. As the mate of the sun she can be linked to moon mother images.

Eriu (Irish)

See Eire.

Enid (Welsh)

In Myth: Enid is one half of a famous romantic couple in Welsh legends, her name eternally paired with her lover Garient. They met when Garient was poised to fight Edern Ap Nudd for deliberately insulting Queen Guinevere. Guinevere, not really caring for the fight over her honor, took pity on Enid and kept her under royal protection during the battle.

Garient won his fight and married Enid, but soon came to distrust her feelings for and loyalty to him.

Also a part of the Enid/Garient tale is the legendary White Hart, an all-white deer archetypally associated with messages from the Otherworld. King Arthur kills the beast, as is his right as a member of the royal Pendragon clan, in the middle of their story which always heralds a major change of Otherworldly proportions within the lives of the people whose tale is being told.

Their tale appears both in the Mabinogion and in Chretien de Troyes' Erec and Enid.

In Magick and Ritual: Cultivate her aid in couples work, sex magick, romantic love spells, and when issues of fidelity are involved.

Correspondences: Rosemary, striped agates.

Eostre (Pan-Celtic)

In Myth: Eostre is an Anglo-Saxon Goddess, the one for whom the Ostara Sabbat is named. When the saxons invaded Britian, they brought this vigorous Goddess with them and she was eventually adopted into the Celtic pantheon.

She is seen as spring personified, a Goddess of rebirth, new beginnings, and fertility. The word for animal menstruation, "estrus," meaning "fertile period," is derived from her name, and as such, she is also a Goddess of animal reproduction. The Christian holiday of Easter is also her namesake, and the concept of the Easter Bunny came from another of her legends.

In Magick and Ritual: Call on Eostre for assistance in your Ostara rites, in the Great Rite, in fertility matters for you or for your pets and livestock. Her association with spring makes her energy compatible with blessing new ventures or for celebrating reincarnation and new life.

Correspondences: The equilateral cross, the egg, the rabbit, baskets.

Epona (Pan-Celtic)

In Myth: With roots in Celtic Gaul, this horse Goddess was vigorously adopted by conquering Pagan Rome whose cavalry called upon her to aid them. She is the only Celtic deity known to have actually been enshrined and worshipped in Rome where they made her a triple deity known as the Eponae.

Her Irish name is Mare, and there she is the bringer of dreams both good and bad. The English word "nightmare" is derived from her Irish name. So ingrained was her horse image with night terrors that English artist Henry Fuselli incorporated her more disturbing images into the famous painting, The Nightmare.

She is rarely depicted as being the white horse itself, but as reclining or sitting upon it, often carrying a serpent, with a dog riding at her side, and with corn in lap. These images tell much of how she was seen. She was also a Goddess of fertility and abundance, and because white horses are symbols of spiritual mastery, that her mounting of the beast indicated her high rank among the deities. The horse, particularly male horses, have always been seen as potent sexual symbols. Epona's sitting astride the animal links her to unlimited sexual performance.

Epona was also a Goddess able to bestow sovereignty on Celtic kings, and old rites existed marrying the kids to her. Ulster kings once had to declare their own sovereignty by mating with a horse which was killed afterwards - says thirteenth century Welsh writer Giralus Cambrensis. In other incidents the horse, as her totem animal, was used as a mate by a God in order to gain rulership from the sovereign Goddess.

Jean Markale, author of the superb work on Celtic Goddesses, The Women of the Celts, believes she may have been the first mother Goddess of Celts, even predating Dana.

The ancient hill-cut drawing of a horse at Uffington, England, is thought to be an ancient shrine to her, as is a chalk cutting at Cambridge depicting a woman with four breasts.

An interesting folk custom survived in western Ireland, until the early twentieth century. Legend said that if you sat in a perfectly oriented crossroads just before dawn, lit fires at the four quarters leaving room for a rider to pass between, rode three times around the intersection on a besom, then sat to wait, one would see a dark woman in black upon a white horse fleeing west at the approaching rays of the morning light. This is probably a survival of the Epona legends in her guise as the bringer of nightmares in the realm of night.

In Scotland she is referred to as Bubona, and in England Lady Godiva is thought to be another version. Carvings of Epona also appear in Germany, and the Anglo-Saxons may also have adopted her in the form of their horse Goddess, Horsa. Other horse-associated Goddesses such as Macha, Edain, Rhiannon, and Maeve may have grown out of her myths.

The pervasiveness of Epona worship has been cited as a possible reason for the British reluctance to eat horse meat, a revulsion which was passed on to the cultures of her colonies.

In Magick and Ritual: Call on Epona for dream work, fertility, war, use her to help banish nightmares in children. As a self-triplicity she can teach women the needed lesson of being whole and complete within themselves, and to be sovereign. Men can "mate" with her to help attain similar strengths. She is also compatible with sex magick and divination.

Correspondences: Horses, azurite, purslane, vervain, oats, valerian, and the colors white and black.

Elen (Cornish)

In Myth: SHe is the daughter of King Eudaf from whom all the Cornish kings claimed descent. Her children melded into the Arthurian legends, with Elen herself sometimes linked romantically to Merlin. Her charitable work on behalf of her people caused her to be merged with Christian legends in the region.

In Magick and Ritual: Invoke her to gain her qualities of leadership and compassion.

Elphame, Queen of (Scottish)

In Myth: Also Elphlane and Elphane, which some claim is a corruption of the world "elfland." She is a Goddess of death and disease who is often equated with the famous Greek crone Goddess Hecate. As the crone image began to deteriorate in Europe with the coming of the Church, she became a Goddess of "the witches" and of evil. In Robert Graves' classic, The White Goddess, he tells of several sixteenth century Scottish witchcraft trials in which accusations of having "dealings" with the Queen of Elphame brought the death sentence.

In the past few hundred years the Queen of Elphame has been seen as a Scottish faery queen and associated with Beltane. Thomas the Rhymer always maintained that she appeared to him on a May Eve all dressed in diaphanous green silks and riding a white horse with fifty-nine silver bells tied in its mane (an odd association since Celtic faeries have always been thought to shun the ringing of bells).

In Magick and Ritual: As a potent crone Goddess her energies are associated with death, destruction, plague, battle, and the Otherworld. By extension, her Beltane associations link her to concepts of rebirth. Respectfully harness her powerful energy as you would any crone's. Also call upon her as a May Queen and for aid in faery contact.

Correspondences: The moon, silver, the number five, vetivert, rue, the pentagon, primrose, cowslip.

Emer (Irish)

In Myth: A heroic woman of great pride in all she accomplished, which was considerable. She was beautiful, intelligent, witty, and multi-talented, all traits of which she well aware. Cuchulain became fascinated with her, but before he could court her she demanded of him a string of heroic and dangerous exploits in order to prove himself worthy of her.

In a dream Cuchulain saw her burning body being tossed from his fortress of Emain Macha. He rushed there to reassure himself. He found Emer to be well, though she told him he must not go out again, for what he was was really a prophecy of his own end. She begged him to remain at the fortress, but he left, and Emer's prediction of his demise came true.

In Magick and Ritual: Ask Emer's help when you need a boost of self-esteem and self-pride. It really is all right to blow your own horn occasionally. She can also help you to release your own creative spirit and aid your mental prowess.

Eile (Irish)

The sister of Queen Maeve of Connacht.

Eire (Irish)

In Myth: The dative form of her name, Erinn or Erin, has been the poetic name for Ireland for centuries.

Eire has been worshipped by Irish Pagans as the Goddess/protectress of their island.

She was a daughter of the Dagda and Delbaeth, the maiden/spiritual part of a triplicity with Banbha and Foldha, and was the third of the three to be approached by the Milesian invaders. Eire's magick was so potent that she was able to toss mud balls down on her enemies whereupon they turned into hundreds of fierce warriors when they shattered. Eire won the battle, but lost the island. However, out of respect for her display of power, the Milesians agreed to name the island Eire in her honor.

She was the wife of MacGreine whose name means "son of the sun," indicating that she may once have been part of a creation myth.

In Magick and Ritual: Call on Eire for her qualities of leadership, to aid you in keeping memories as in keeping one's name alive, and for finding creative ways to overcome enemies.

Correspondences: The harp and shamrock, the age-old symbols of Ireland. Also the color green.

Eithne (Irish)

In Myth: Also Ethleen, Ethlinn, and Ethniu. Her name means "nutmeat." She is an old Goddess whose original form likely traveled with the Celts across the continent over many generations from the Middle East. These legends say she lived off nothing but the milk of a sacred Indian cow and was protected by a spirit who chased away all would-be suitors.

When she fell in love with Cian, she was locked in a tower by her father who believed her sons would kill him. Here the father represents a sacrificial God not wanting to do his duty and allow the new God/king, who is only another aspect of himself, to come to power. In this version of her myth all her children were killed as infants by their grandfather.

She is sometimes thought to be one and the same as the Goddess Ethne, who is one of the several women credited with being the mother of Lugh.

Her last pregnancy ended along with her life when she was drowned by her jealous sister, Clothru.

She was also a minor fetility and moon Goddess - equated with the Welsh Arianrhod.

In Magick and Ritual: See Arianrhod for full discussion of Eithne's attributes.

Correspondences: Silver.