Lugh, our Shining One
Your Ancestral eBook for May
A Chairde, Friends,
The doors of the kingdom of Tara have opened and Lugh, the ‘Shining One’, has crossed the threshold into our consciousness. It is the light of Lugh that will guide us in the month ahead. Today’s new moon in Gemini offers us the opportunity to ‘reset’—a threshold for new beginnings—and Lugh brings the illumination that will shine the path forward.
There is so much to say about Lugh, so today is just the beginning. We will also honour him again at Lughnasa or Lúnasa, the Irish word for the month of August, which bears Lugh’s name, but in truth is an honouring of his dear foster-mother, Tailtiu, Queen of the Fir Bolg.
Shining Name
Lugh (pronounced “Loo”, rhymes with “True”) is thought to come from the proto-Celtic ‘bind by oath’ or ‘light’. It is also a cognate of the Latin ‘lux’, meaning ‘light’. He finds kinship of name in gods like Lugus, who was worshipped by the Continental Celts, and Lleu Llaw Gyffes in Welsh mythology, whose name means ‘light’ or ‘shine’.
Lugh is also compared to Mercury in the Roman tradition, or Hermes in the Greek tradition, mainly because Julius Caesar, speaking about the Celtic Gauls (now modern-day France and a chunk of north-western Europe), says:
‘They worship as their divinity Mercury in particular, and have many images of him, and regard him as the inventor of all arts; they consider him the guide of their journeys and marches, and believe him to have great influence over the acquisition of gain and mercantile transactions.’
Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars
For me, although I can see the comparison here with Lugh as he is a god of all of the arts, Mercury and Hermes feel more like Lugh’s foster-father Manannán MacLir, who is mercurial in nature like quicksilver and is described as a merchant. Personally, I make more cross-cultural meaning with Lugh and Apollo (more on this to come at Lughnasa).
Lugh also has a prominent epithet, ‘Lámhfhada’, meaning ‘of the long hand’ or ‘arm’. One of the reasons for this is that he is the sacred keeper of the Gae Assail (‘Spear of Assal’), which comes from one of the mystical islands, Goirias (or sometimes Findias), which are described as being north of Ireland and where the Tuatha Dé Danann learnt all of their magic before arriving on this island. The spear is a lightning weapon like Mjölnir, Thor’s enchanted hammer in Norse mythology. Similarly, it always returns to Lugh’s hand after it has completed its mission—usually death—as it never misses its target.
Master of the Arts
Another epithet for Lugh is ‘Samildánach’, or ‘Ildánach’. If we break this down in Old Irish, sam means ‘joint’ or ‘united’, il means ‘many’ or ‘numerous’, and dán means your soul’s calling, your artistic skill, a gift you are endowed with—your creative destiny. So Lugh’s energy is able to unite a multitude of soul’s gifts; he is a master of creative destiny.
We see this play out in the myth, Cath Maige Tuired (‘Second Battle of Mag Tuired’), where Lugh, after being fostered by Manannán MacLir in the Otherworld, returns to Inis Fáil, the ‘Isle of Destiny’, or what we know as Ireland. He arrives at the citadel of Tara where he looks to gain entry to the court of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The gatekeeper refuses to allow him entry unless he can prove that he possesses an art, that he is living into his creative destiny. Here is an excerpt from my own retelling:
Approaching Tara with his band of warriors, Lugh asked the gatekeeper to announce their arrival. The keeper responded, ‘Who should I announce?’
‘I am Lugh Lámhfhada, Lugh of the Long Arm.’
‘What art do you practise?’ enquired the gatekeeper, ‘for no one without an art enters Tara.’
‘I am a master builder,’ Lugh declared.
‘We don't need you so; we already have a builder,’ responded the keeper.
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a smith.’
‘We already have a smith.’
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a brazier.’
‘We already have the best of those who tend to the hearth.’
Determined, Lugh pressed on.
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a cupbearer.’
‘We already have the most honeyed of pourers.’
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a healer.’
‘We already have a physician of leechcraft,’ the keeper sighed.
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a champion warrior.’
‘We already have a celebrated hero.’
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a harper.’
‘We already have a harper, chosen for mastering the sweet music of the fairymounds.’
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a poet-seer.’
‘We already have a poet, a scholar of the lore, and a historian,’ the keeper shook her head.
‘Ask me again then, gatekeeper, for I am a wizard.’
‘We already have wizards. We are many in our druids and magical powers.’