Goddess & Fairy Queen Áine, Bringer of Destiny
New Creative Ancestor for your eBook
Hello Creative Souls,
As we have just passed through the portal of Grianstad an tSamhraidh (‘Sun Stop of Summer’), the Summer Solstice, a time when Goddess and Fairy Queen Áine (“Awn-yah”) radiates forth, let’s invite her in as our Creative Ancestor to profile this month.
You can read on or download your Creative Ancestor Profiles eBook at the bottom of this post.
The name Áine means brightness, lustre, glow, radiance, splendour, brilliance, wit, glory… in Old Irish. You also see Áine as an epithet (an adjective that speaks to characteristics of a person e.g., “X the Bright”) for male figures in the mythology.
Today, we’ll explore her as a bringer of life, a bringer of sustenance, a bringer of summer, a bringer of destiny and a bringer of cosmic magic.
Supernatural Lineage
Áine is a Goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Her familial ties are a little confusing with her father (or sometimes her brother) said to be the harpist Fer Fí, a red-haired little fairy man who is seen playing his magical harp in a yew tree above a waterfall to conjure enchantment with its music. Another potential father is Éogabal, meaning ‘tree fork’ or ‘tree gable’ (perhaps an old tree god), who is the foster son of the sea god, Manannán Mac Lir. Manannán himself is named in various sources as Áine's father, or as her husband, or her lover. He is thought to be older than the Tuatha Dé Danann so this association hints at how arcane Áine may be. As we will see, she holds a primordial mother energy.
Sun Goddess: Bringer of Life to the Tribe
Áine is very likely an old sun goddess, our bright star who gifts us our lives. She is said to have a sister, Grian, the Irish word for ‘sun’, which explains Áine's intense association with the summer months. Like where you see triple goddesses in Irish mythology, these could be individual sisters or different aspects of the same goddess expressed. The sun is a feminine noun in the Irish language, yet the sun as a feminine or masculine deity is fluid in our tradition. The god Lugh potentially descends from a sun god archetype as a divinity associated with light.
Paps of Anu: Bringer of Sustenance to the Tribe
Áine is deeply rooted in the immemorial landscape of Mumu, Munster, one of the five provinces of ancient Ireland. She also has several important sacred sites named after her in the north of Ireland. She is considered by some scholars to be the same goddess as Ana, Anu, Anann, or Danu, all names for the Great Mother Goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann (meaning ‘Tribe of the Goddess Danu’ or ‘Danann’ or ‘Anann’). The Paps of Anu (Dá Chích Anann), two breast-like mountains that swell from the land in Co. Kerry with cairns for nipples, are said to be her earthy breasts from which the gods were nursed.
