Celtic Dreaming: The Star Hag
Imbas Dispatch #21
A Chairde, Friends,
Today, I share from our rich dream lore, the tale of a star. The archetype of the star has felt incredibly alive within me of late; it has become an essential guide for my creations.
Before we delve into star lore, I have spaces available in one of these creations, my Celtic Soul Garden live course beginning at the end of April, where we will work with the ancestral framework of the Celtic seasons to guide our creative process, and indeed our lives (as these two fields aren’t always separate). A feature of this course will be Celtic Dreaming and how working with our dreams over time can become a profound ally in our creative process.
We’ll also explore the symbolism of alchemy to alchemise our creative challenges into new potential, how to create an ecosystem for a creative project, and loads more inspo including tools from my past life where I led the innovation programme in an Irish global justice organisation. This would benefit anyone who desires to generate their own way of working inspired by nature, archetypes, alchemy, dreaming and innovation rooted in the Celtic tradition.
(Remember if you are a member of The Celtic Creatives, you can still avail of the early bird discount).
Now onto the star…
The Star
‘The Star Woman shows, how through our creative imagination, we can be freed from bondage to a cyclic pattern each to live out his individual potential. Like the planets, we are all held within a specific orbit by a power beyond our control, but within our own prescribed boundaries, each of us destined to shine forth in a way uniquely our own.’
Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey
What do you feel when you dream into the image of the star? The symbolism that the star holds for us is as vast as the cosmos itself. Unlike the sun, our earth star, which we have an immediate connection with—it provides us with life, and can also scorch us—the stars of the night hold a different resonance: softer, more ethereal, and ancient in ways, as they connect us to the transcendental. The starlight that glows in the night sky began its journey to us millennia ago, illustrating to us the endurance of its creativity, its destiny.
Our ancestors gazed upon the same stars as we do, and worshipped them. The great megalithic star-temples scattered across this island are testament to this. There are many myths across many cultures about stars. One of the most well-known is of Gilgamesh, the semi-divine Sumerian King, who has a dream of a star falling from heaven, which his mother, Ninsun, the cow goddess, interprets for him and tells him that she herself created the star—it is a gift from the divine.
In Jungian psychology, the star is often associated with the archetype of the Self, the symbol of wholeness. The path towards the self in this sense is the path to becoming. As the saying goes, we are made from stardust; it’s already within us. Dreams of stars can allude to the symbolism of the star as new awareness, of following our inner compass, of renewal and soul-growth.
Today, it’s interesting to reflect how light pollution can obscure our view of the stars, how we have created artificial light especially in societies where the conscious, logic, rational approach to life is glorified. Whereas stars and the dreaming time are eternal wayshowers into the unconscious, into our inner treasures.
Star Hag
As it can be difficult to find material on Celtic Dreaming, I’ve been rooting around sources for the past while where I’m finding a trove of dreaming lore. One such example is a folktale I found on Dúchas, our national folklore collection.
In the story, which is said to have transpired not very long ago, a woman dreamt of a star that fell from the heavens. Where it landed pointed to a place near an old church, a holy site, a resting sanctuary of the ancestors. The dream repeated itself for another night, and yet another—three nights in total, a sacred triplicity of dreaming about this star. On the last night, the woman heard a disembodied voice, a dream whisperer say, “A treasure of gold and silver is there.”
And so, she told the menfolk, who, eyes-wide, conspired to go to this spot near the old church at the dead of night, spades over shoulders, and begin to dig for this star treasure. When they arrived at the site, a storm of owls, the Cailleacha na hOíche, the ‘Witches of Night’ in their native tongue, and leather-winged bats, descended upon them, until they found themselves in a dark tunnel.
Out of the darkness, appeared an old hag, holding starlight in her hand. All about their feet lay glistening golden chests and ornaments of silver, as the dream whisperer had spoken of. But they could do nothing with these treasures as they were prisoners of the hag. They could do nothing but remain as they were until daylight broke, drawing them out of the tunnel. They found themselves far from home, in another part of the land, unknown to them.
The tunnel was never found again, and all in this tale have passed, but the star still beckons to another spot where this treasure can be found.
This tale is rich with imagery we can work with for our own inner-journey and I invite you, if you feel inspired, to really bathe in this for yourself.
In this tale, a numinous dream is bestowed upon this woman, who then gives it away to the menfolk. They go into the night, into the unconscious, into the Otherworld, armed with their spades, with their materialistic intentions. The guardians of this sacred place descend upon them in the form of the owl, the bat, the hag who holds the light. She is a bean feasa, the keeper of this otherworldly knowledge.
They become disoriented in her world as they have approached without pure intention; the inner-riches are at their feet, but they can do nothing with them. They have to wait it out until daylight comes. They find themselves in new territory, so something has been initiated, but they must find their way back not through the waking world of the seen, of consciousness, but through the unseen realm of intention and intuition. Still, the star shines eternal, beckoning whoever follows to walk its starlit path home.
The image of the Star Hag also reminds me of the sovereignty goddess in Irish mythology, who appears as a hideous old crone who can transform into a starborn goddess when she meets a king worthy of her divine wisdom. He must recognise the value of both shadow and light.
Journal Prompt
What does the star symbolise for you? Draw a star and create a constellation of meaning around your star to elucidate its deeper power for you on your life’s path.
Do please share your star symbolism or star dreams in the comments, nurturing a feed of inspiration in a time when we need the optimism of the star.
‘Heaven above
Heaven below
Stars above
Stars below
All that is above
Also is below.
Grasp this
And rejoice! ‘
Carl G. Jung, using a quote from classical mysticism
Croí isteach,
Jen x
Sources:
Sallie Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey: The Jungian Path from Darkness to Light
Carl G. Jung, Symbols of Transformation, Collected Works, Vol. 5, paragraph 77
This is so beautiful thank you for sharing
Love this!