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First, we will get acquainted with the female deities of the ancient Celts. The fact is that all the goddesses of Celtic mythology go back to the cult of the Mother Goddesses, which is based on the most ancient image of most religions and mythologies - the Great Mother Earth. Even before the rise of the earth myths, the very existence of the earth as soil was of great importance in the religious sphere.

To primitive man, the Earth seemed to be the foundation of the Universe: its immensity, variety of landscape and vegetation were felt as a living and active cosmic unity. “When the religious significance of the Earth was first realized,” wrote M. Eliade, “it was not“ separate, ”that is, sacredness did not overshadow the earth as such, but all of nature: earth, stones, trees, water, shadows - everything around The initial intuitive perception of the earth as a religious "form" can be expressed as follows - "Cosmos, the repository of abundant sacred forces." In agricultural cults, the ancient Mother Earth is transformed into the Great Goddess of vegetation and harvest.

This transformation is clearly manifested in the Homeric hymn "To Gaia, Mother of All":

I begin to sing about Gaia the all-mother,

durable,

Ancient, to all that lives, sustenance

giving abundantly ...

You are fertility, queen, give and give

fertility,

Can you bestow life on a person

and you can go back

Take it if you want.

That the Earth bears and gives birth to living things is a common belief. In many languages, a person is called "born of the Earth." Associated with this is the idea that the woman-mother is only a particular embodiment of the Great Mother Earth.

Throughout the Celtic world, a cult of female deities called Mothers or Matrons was widespread. Many dedications to these goddesses have been found in different areas inhabited by the Celts. The cult of the Mothers was also widely practiced by the Germans, therefore, initiations originating from the Rhine region are difficult to unambiguously attribute to the Germanic or Celtic culture. The sculptural images of the Mothers, which in Roman Gaul have retained their Celtic flavor, contain symbols of a double gender. Sometimes goddesses carry symbols of earthly fertility: a basket of fruits, a cornucopia or a bowl that provides food. Sometimes they are depicted as women with babies. For example, in a bas-relief from Vertaud (Cote d'Or; France), one of the mothers is holding a swaddled baby in her arms, the other unfolds the diaper, the third holds a vessel of water and a sponge.

Numerous female deities who patronized the rivers of Gaul belong to the Mothers. The goddess of the Seine was Sekwana, whose sanctuary was at the source of the river, the goddess of the Marne was Matron, the goddess of Yvonne was Ikaunis, who was revered in Auxerre. The sources also had their patrons. These are Aquionne - the goddess of the Etuve spring in Fleury near Orleans, Attesmert in the Corjeben forest (Upper Marne), Aventia in Avanches (Vaud), Urnia - the Urn source in Saint-Felix-de-Palliere (Garde), Vezunna - the Saint-Sabine source in Perigueux. Many sources bore the name of Devon, "divine" - in Bordeaux, in Cahors, in Lodun (Gard), in Toner. Sometimes, according to the figurative expression of K. Julian, two or three goddesses united to give birth to one source. For example, the sources in Bussy-Albier and in Fer (Loire) had two patrons at once - Dunisia and Segetu. Julian called such goddesses "water-Mothers" and directly attributed them to the cult of Mothers.

Indeed, the maternal meaning of water is one of the clearest mythological symbolic interpretations. The ancients believed that life arises from water and the sea is a symbol of birth. Water flows, it is "alive", mobile; she inspires, heals, prophesies. And in every source, in every river, all the amazing properties of water were manifested. The cult of waters (especially springs that are considered curative) are remarkably stable. In the middle of the century, the church tried to ban this cult; however, in the end she herself accepted it.

In some places, the cult of the source has continuously existed from the Stone Age to the present day. For example, in the hot spring of Grisi (the commune of Saint-Senforien-de-Marmagne; France), Neolithic and ancient Roman objects were found. Traces of a Neolithic cult (pieces of flint, the shape of which testifies to their votive purpose) were discovered in a source now called Saint-Sauveur (Compiegne Forest; France). Rooted in the prehistoric era, this cult was inherited by the Gauls, then by the Gallo-Romans, from whom it was adopted and assimilated by Christianity. In the commune of Bertinoro (province of Forlì; France), cult objects of the Bronze Age are found near the chloride-salt source that still exists today. In England, near the mounds of prehistoric origin and megalithic monuments, there are sources that the local population considers miraculous or healing.

Nymphs also belong to the category of "Mothers". Many of the nymphs were also deities of streams and springs: they were created by the magic of a living stream of water. Sometimes they lived in caves and grottoes near springs, ponds and lakes, sometimes in mountains and forests. Numerous dedications to nymphs are found almost everywhere in areas inhabited by Celts: the nymphs Caparences in Spain, Griselique in the Lower Alps, Perkernes in Vezon, Proxum in many places in Narbonne Gaul (Nimes, Bocker, Orange, Vezon, Avignon, etc.).

In Gaul, there are also warrior goddesses who also represent another category of Mother Goddesses. This is Andarta - the goddess of the Voconti tribe, who resembles the British queen Boudicca, who led the anti-Roman uprising of the Britons and fought the Romans on a par with men, or Nemeton, who can be compared with Nemein, one of the three Irish goddesses of war. The analysis of the mother archetype and the symbols associated with it, carried out by Carl Gustav Jung (one of the best psychoanalysts of the 20th century), allows us to understand why the goddesses of war are classified as Mother Goddesses. For this analysis, Jung used mythological material and the dreams and fantasies of his patients. This approach seems to be quite legitimate, since, as Eliade noted, at present the structures of the sacred (divine characters, actions that serve as examples) are found at the deep levels of the psyche, at the level of imagination and dreams.

The Great Mother encompasses many different types of the Mother Goddess. By itself, this concept is not directly related to psychology, but this image is based on one of the main archetypes of humanity - the mother archetype. It should be viewed from the point of view of psychology. Jung noted the duality of the mother archetype. Associated with this archetype are qualities such as maternal concern and compassion, the magical power of a woman, wisdom and spiritual exaltation - anything that brings kindness, caring or support and promotes growth and fertility.

Mother is the dominant figure in transformation and resurrection, as well as in the underworld with its inhabitants. On the other hand, the mother archetype can mean something secret, mysterious, dark: the abyss, the world of the dead, everything that absorbs, tempts and poisonous, that is, that which inspires terror. Jung expressed this duality with the formula "loving and terrible mother." Thus, the Gaulish goddesses of war, embodying destructive forces, demonstrate the negative aspect of the mother archetype and can also be attributed to the category of Mother Goddesses.

In inscriptions and on sculptural monuments, Gallic goddesses are often paired with male deities, in all likelihood, depicting their spouse. There are many examples: Sucell and Nantosvelt, Mercury and Rosmerta, Borvo (Bormo) and Damona, Bormanus and Bormann, Apollo Granus and Sirona, Mars Lucetius and Nemetona, Mars Vizukiy and Vizukia, Albius and Damona, Luxorius and Brixia, etc. such pairs can have various explanations.

In a Celtic context, it can be a combination of the patron god of the tribe and the Mother Goddess. In the broader context of Indo-European mythology, these couples can be compared with such pairs of Indian deities as Vishnu and Lakshmi or Shiva and Devi, in which the goddess is the embodiment of the feminine energy of the god (shakti). In agricultural cultures, the Great Goddess, who plays a dominant role in the beliefs and rituals of fertility, has a spouse, because fruiting is preceded by a sacred marriage (hierogamy). The ancient Anglo-Saxon conspiracy against the sterility of the soil shows what importance the farmers attached to this sacred marriage: "Hey, Earth, Mother of man, conceive in the arms of God, be filled with fruits for the good of man." And finally, the divine couple - Heaven and Earth - is one of the leitmotifs of mythology in general. In many mythologies, where Heaven plays the role of the Supreme Deity, the Earth acts as his companion, and Heaven is present almost everywhere in the religious life of primitive society.

There remains one more mysterious goddess, whom Caesar attributed to the greatest Gallic deities. Giving all of them Roman names, Caesar calls this goddess Minerva, describing her as follows: "Minerva conveys the principles of arts and crafts." The problem, however, is that we know of the Gallic female deities of the waters and forests, the goddess - the nurse and patroness of animals, the warrior goddess, but we do not know a single Minerva, the patroness of crafts and arts.

At the same time, a similar goddess must have existed in Dorian Gaul. The Irish had their own "Minerva", the functions of which, however, were much broader than the patronage of the craft. This is the triple Brigid, which was revered by poets, soothsayers, blacksmiths and doctors. Moreover, for the Gauls, excellent artisans, it would be natural to worship a working goddess who resembled Athena Ergana. Therefore, according to Caesar, the one who invented arts and crafts was considered the most revered of the gods among the Gauls. The goddess kept their secrets and could give this knowledge to people. Obviously, Caesar considered it necessary to mention her next to the god - the inventor of the arts because of her special significance.

During the era of the empire, the Gaulish patroness of arts and crafts, merging with Minerva, continued to occupy a special position in the Gallo-Roman pantheon. Among all the western Roman provinces, it was in Gaul that Minerva was most revered.

And this worship was connected not so much with the fact that Minerva was a member of the Capitoline Triad, but with the fact that she was the patroness of ordinary people, a real folk deity. So, near Angers, fragments of silver dishes brought as a gift to Minerva were found, on which the slightly romanized names of the Gauls were written.

The patroness of arts and crafts in pre-Roman Gaul could be one of the Mothers or a goddess known to us in some other hypostasis. This is quite plausible, since every useful, creative and fruitful work that this goddess personified belongs to the positive aspect of the mother archetype, which underlies the cult of the Mothers. This assumption is confirmed by inscriptions from Gaul of the Roman period, where Minerva is called "Sulevia" (an epithet of one of the Mother Goddesses revered in Narbonne Gaul).

K. Julian believed that the great Gallic goddess mentioned by Caesar was not only the goddess of arts and crafts, but also the goddess of war. "Depending on the development of events," wrote Julian, "she was like Bellona, \u200b\u200bVictoria, the warlike Minerva, or the Minerva of peaceful work." He came to this conclusion, because in all Celtic countries, a great female deity was revered, who is called Minerva, Bellona, \u200b\u200bVictoria in the texts and inscriptions. Julian's conjecture, confirmed by sources, once again introduces Minerva Caesar into the circle of the Mother Goddesses: in his interpretation, she combines the creative and destructive aspects of the mother archetype, demonstrating its duality.

It is believed that all Irish goddesses can also be classified as Mother Goddesses. They have a lot in common with the Great Goddess, Mother Earth, we will accept not only as the patroness of plants and the giver of fertility, but also as a cosmic integrity that keeps abundant sacred powers. One of the earliest Irish goddesses was Anu, or Ana, "Mother of the Irish gods", about whom one medieval Irish text says that "she feeds the gods well." Anu was the goddess of prosperity, and the province of Munster, where she was revered, owed its wealth and fertility to her. At the same time, this ancient goddess, apparently, took part in the formation of the physical appearance of Ireland. In Munster, two twin mounds were named after her: "Anu's two nipples." She is often confused with another "Mother of Irish Gods" goddess Danu, who was the progenitor of Tuatha De Danann, or the Tribes of the Goddess Danu. The gods of Welsh legends, who, like the Tuatha Dé Danann, are sages with supernatural knowledge and skills, are descended from the goddess Don (the Welsh equivalent of the Irish name Danu).

The closeness of the Irish goddesses to the ancient image of Mother Earth and their participation in the Irish cosmogony is evidenced by their close connection with the land of Ireland as a whole or with individual areas, in the formation, design and decoration of which they participated. Thus, the area of \u200b\u200bTailtiu (in Ulad) was named after Tailtiu, daughter of Magmor from the Fir Bolg race. When the Tuatha De Dannan defeated Fir Bolg, Tailtiu became the wife of the Tuatha chief. With her ax, she uprooted the forests of the virgin lands of Ireland. She turned the forested area of \u200b\u200bBrega into a field of blooming clover. This great work undermined Taltiu's strength, and she died. The people of Ireland mourned her death, and the god Lug, to whom she was a nurse, arranged a Tailtiu festival in her honor, which lasted a whole month - fifteen days before and fifteen days after Lugnazad. The first assembly of Ireland was held at her grave:

Assembly with gold, with silver,

with games, with chariot music,

with adornment of body and spirit,

knowledge, eloquence ...

Assembly without reproach, without cunning,

no offense, no shame,

no quarrels, no arrests,

no thefts, no ransoms.

And while they celebrate the Tailtiu holiday, "in every home there will be bread and milk, peace and wonderful weather during the holiday." The word "Tailtiu", which was formerly the name of a place in Ireland, legend has made the name of the goddess. In the Irish epic, Tailtiu is one of the names of Ireland.

The name of the area Karman (in Leinster) also comes from the name of the eponymous goddess. Karman, "an experienced leader in numerous battles," was the mother of three sons: the Fierce, the Black and the Bad. All four devastated Ireland: Pocket with their charms, which "destroyed the juice of sweet fruits," and her sons robbed the inhabitants of the island. The Tuatha De Danann put an end to their atrocities. The defeated sons of Karman were forced to leave Ireland, leaving behind a pledge of their mother and "seven things they used." Karman died of grief in captivity, asking that a celebration be held in her honor. The feasts took place in a sacred place, where there were many princely graves, the main of which was the Karman grave. At the festival, which was attended by all the inhabitants of Leinster, kings and their warriors were sure to be present. Just like the Tailtiu Assembly, the Karman holiday was celebrated on August 1, the day of Lugnazad. The difference was that the Tailtiu assembly took place annually, while the Karman assembly took place every three years. At the festival, under the leadership of the king, games were held, which were considered funeral games in honor of Karman. During the celebration, friendship, peace and abundance reigned everywhere.

And finally, Eminem Maha, the capital of the Ulad state in Ulster, also has a name derived from female name "Mach". We have already got acquainted with the story of this Mahi, fairy or queen of the Other World in the section devoted to the image of the divine horse. Pregnant Maha overtook the royal horses, immediately died of overwork, giving birth to two twins. In honor of this event, the capital was named, because in Irish "Eminem Maha" means "The Maha Twins".

The creation of many of the mountains, lakes and islands of Ireland and Scotland is credited to Kylech, the Old Woman of Berry. The paving stones - the cairns - are considered stones that fell from her apron. The peninsula in West Munster is also named after Berry. All this testifies to the close connection of Kylech with the Earth and is in good agreement with her traditional depiction of the divine progenitor of numerous offspring, who lived an extremely long life. Kaillech lived her youth seven times, so she had many husbands and each lived with her his own age until old age, and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren made up entire tribes.

While Thailtiu, Karman, Maha and Kaillech were associated with separate, specific areas, then Banba, Fodla and Eriu, the queens of Tuatha Dé Danann, embodied the whole of Ireland as a whole.

One of the Irish goddesses is identified with the Gaulish Minerva of Caesar. This is the daughter of Dagda, the triple Brigita, who was worshiped by poets, blacksmiths and doctors. It is characteristic that the place of the goddess Brigid, who was the Mother of all gods (like Anu and Danu), was subsequently taken by Saint Brigid, revered by the Irish almost on a par with Saint Patrick. The saint kept almost everything character traits goddess. Since in the pagan past Brigid was the Mother Goddess, Saint Brigid patronizes childbirth: modern folklore even makes her “the midwife of the Mother of God”. In the cult of Saint Brigita, survivals of the veneration of the triple goddess have been preserved: a chicken is sacrificed to her, buried in the ground alive at the confluence of three streams. “Thus,” writes one French researcher, “the enduring character of the cult of these great goddesses is confirmed: religions replace each other, gods die, myths about them are forgotten, but a peasant in a remote area continues to worship these powerful forces with some strange ritual for thousands of years. older than the Gods. "

Saint Brigit's Day falls on February 1 - the date of the Irish pagan holiday of Imbolca, which was under the patronage of the goddess Brigit. We can draw a conclusion about the essence of Imbolc on the basis of two facts. The first is the very meaning of the word "Imbolc" - "cleansing", when after the end of the winter cold, people are washed from the winter dirt. The second fact is that the ability to fertilize and give birth to offspring belongs to nature itself, which patronized the holiday of the goddess Brigit (as, indeed, any female deity). Thus, Imbolc was a celebration of purification and fertility.

F. Leroux and K. Gionvark consider Brigita the only female deity in Celtic mythology. They write: "In Ireland we have always met Brigid under a wide variety of names, such as Thailtiu (" Earth ") or even Eriu, Banba, Fodla, different names of Ireland, in accordance with the aspect of the myth in question." Perhaps they are right, but we will consider separately the Irish goddesses of war, the goddesses who embodied the royal power, the goddesses of the Other World, etc., even if in reality they are only different hypostases of one great goddess.

In Irish mythology, the goddesses of war formed a triple alliance. It included Morrigan ("Queen of the Ghosts"), Badb ("Crow"), which were joined by Nemein ("Panic"), then Maha. Since they are often identified with each other, we can conclude that in reality they appeared as a result of the tripling of the same deity (like the triple Brigid), especially since in myths from time to time there are references to three Morrigans.

Morrigan often takes the form of a young beauty. In this form, she appeared to King Nuad during the first battle of the Mag Tuired and to the hero Cuchulainn in the "Abduction of the Bull from Qualnge" saga. Before Dagda, on the eve of the second battle of Mag Tuired, Morrigan appeared as a woman with one foot on the south and the other on the north bank of the Unius River (in Connacht); nine strands of loose hair fell from her head. The place of their meeting began to be called the "Marital Lodge".

Despite her beauty and loving nature, Morrigan is a formidable goddess of war, capable of taking on a frightening appearance; her beloved are great warriors whom she helps to win the battle. So, she instilled in the heart of Nuada a great military rage, and then flew around the battlefield, taking the form of a crow. Morrigan, who rejected her, Cúchulainn, threatened that when he fought at the ford, she would appear in the form of an eel and wrap herself around his legs, or turn into a gray she-wolf, which will chase a herd of cattle, or, finally, attack him in the form of a red heifer , leading many angry cows. In response, Cuchulainn promised the woman to crush her ribs, gouge her eye out of a sling with a stone, and break her leg with a boulder. Cuchulainn also warned her that she would remain crippled until she was blessed three times. Morrigan carried out her threats. But Cuchulainn did not remain in debt: he shattered the ribs of an eel, knocked out the eye of a gray she-wolf and broke the leg of a red heifer. Soon the hero met a hunched, lame and blind old woman who was milking a cow with three breasts, and asked her for milk. She gave him milk from each of the three breasts, and each time he thanked her and blessed her. After the first blessing, she straightened, after the second she regained sight, after the third, her crippled leg healed. It was Morrigan, and Cuchulainn healed her with his blessings.

Morrigan, like other goddesses of war, does not enter the battlefield with weapons in hand. It influences the course of the battle with the help of magic. For example, before the start of the second battle at Mag Tuired, she promised Dagda to destroy the enemy leader, "draining the blood in his heart and taking away the kidneys of valor." About another goddess of war in The Abduction of the Bull from Qualnge says: "Nemein, that is, Badb, caused such confusion among the troops that four Irish provinces killed each other with their own spears and swords, and a hundred soldiers died of terror that night."

Badb, the goddess of war, not only takes on a fantastic appearance, but also brings with him a mysterious companion. In the saga "The Abduction of the Cow Regamna", it is said that one night Cuchulainn was awakened by a terrible cry. The hero rushed out of the house, got on the chariot and rode off to shout. Soon he saw an approaching chariot, harnessed by a one-legged red horse. The breath of the chariot pierced it through, so that its end came out of the horse's forehead and held there.

On the chariot sat a woman with red eyebrows, in a red cloak and red dress. Her cloak hung between the wheels and chalked the ground. A tall man in a red robe walked beside the chariot. He carried spears and pitchforks on his shoulder and drove a cow in front of him. Cuchulainn, whose duty was to guard the cattle of the Ulad kingdom, demanded the return of the stolen cow. A woman entered into conversation with him. "Why is a woman and not a man answering me?" - asked the hero. “This is not a man,” the woman replied. "Of course, he cannot be called a man," Cuchulainn said, "because you are answering me, not he." Then he inquired about the names of the strange companions. “This man's name is Strong Cold and Wind, High Reed,” said the woman. "The woman you are talking to," the man said, "is called Sharp, Thin Lips, Short Hair, Deep Splinter, Great Terror." In the end, irritated by the woman's sarcasm, the hero jumped on her chariot, and then the whole carriage disappeared, leaving only a black bird - the goddess Badb.

In other mythical stories, the same pair is found, which are given even more pronounced demonic features. In the "Destruction of the House of Da Derg" saga, King Conayre met a one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed man with black, needle-like hair and a very long hooked nose. This man held a forked pole in his hands, and on his shoulders carried a black singed squealing pig. Behind him stood a wide-mouthed, huge, sullen, ugly woman with the same nose as her companion, and with her lower lip hanging down to her knees. In the evening of the same day, a woman very similar to this one knocked at the king's house and asked for hospitality: “Her legs were as long as a weaving beam. The woman was wearing a wavy gray cloak, her hair drooping down to her knees, and her lips hanging down one half of her face. When asked what her name was, she, standing on one leg, chanted a spell containing thirty-one names, among which were Nemain and Badb.

War goddesses often mingle with one another. So, the name Nemain turns out to be one of the names of Badb. Although, as a rule, during the battle, it is Badb (whose name means "battle raven") appears in the form of a black crow, but on the field of the first battle of the Mag Tuired, Morrigan appears in this guise. And in the "Rape of the Regamna Cow" saga, Badb threatens Cuchulainn to attack him in the same guises as Morrigan in "The Abduction of the Bull from Cualnge."

As already mentioned, in the group of three goddesses of war, instead of Nemein, Mach sometimes appears. Three Mahas are mentioned in Irish myths. They are all eponymous goddesses. The first of them was the wife of Nemed, the leader of one of the first races of mythical settlers to Ireland. Her name is that of the 12 valleys cleared by Nemed, where Maha died. We are already familiar with the other two Machs. The second is Maha with a red mane, who fought for supreme power in Ireland: she fought her rivals, seduced them with magic, married them, enslaved them, and eventually forced them to build a royal fortress. The third is the wife of the peasant Krunhu, who came from the Other World, who competed in the race with the horses of King Conchobar.

Thanks to her, the capital of Ulad got its name - Eminem Maha.

All three Mahas took part in creating the physical appearance of Ireland and in shaping the beginnings of civilization in the country. At the same time, they are all goddesses of war. The first Maha was the wife of a military leader. The belligerent nature of the second Mahi manifests itself very clearly, and, like a real goddess of war, she acts on her enemies with the help of a spell. In the image of the third Mahi, the wife of Krunhu, the features of the goddess of prosperity and fertility, who patronized childbirth, appear most clearly. However, there is one episode in the legend about her that is directly related to the war. While dying, Maha cursed the men of Ulad, who forced her to take part in the fateful competition for her: “For the harm done to me, every time enemies attack you, you will experience torments similar to those of birth. And they will last four days and five nights or five days and four nights - and so - nine generations. " The curse came true - the soldiers of Ulad were struck by the so-called "ailment of the Ulad" For example, when Connaught's troops, led by Queen Medb, approached the borders of Ulad, his defenders, suffering as in childbirth, lay exhausted. And only Cuchulainn, not susceptible to "ailment", was able to defend Ulad.

The female deities of Irish myths embody one of the main ideas of the Celtic religious and mythological tradition - the idea of \u200b\u200bthe supreme royal power. The residence of the High King of Ireland was Tara, located in the central Irish province of Meade (the emblematic center of Ireland), which was surrounded by four other provinces - Ulad, Connacht, Leinster and Munster. Their kings were more or less voluntary vassals of the high king. The division of Ireland into four kingdoms with the addition of the middle region, the residence of the supreme leader, is associated with the traditions of hoary antiquity. This is a cosmographic scheme, parallels to which can be found in other ancient traditions. Ireland was called "the island of the four lords." The memory of this "island of the four lords" is preserved even in the Chinese tradition. The Taoist text reads: "Emperor Yao considered himself an ideal ruler, but after visiting the four lords on the distant island of Ku-shi (a mythical island inhabited by cheng-jen -" true people "who returned to the" pristine state "- N. Sh.), he admitted that he was far from them. After all, the ideal is the indifference of a true person turning the cosmic wheel. " These "four lords" correspond to the four cardinal directions and the four elements. The fifth, supreme Lord, reigning in the center, on the sacred mountain, symbolizes the ether, that is, the primary element from which the other four come. This Chinese legend shows how deep, ancient symbolism was inherent in the figure of the supreme Irish king who reigned in Tara.

In mythical times, the most important political meetings and religious ceremonies were held in Tara, and the famous "Feast of Tara" took place, at which the ritual marriage of the king with his kingdom was celebrated and thereby the power of the newly elected king was confirmed. The Irish sagas tell of several ritual tests to which the claimant to the royal throne was subjected. As we already know, on the hill of Tara stood the stone Fal, which cried out under the foot of the true king. Only a worthy contender for supreme power could put on the royal mantle, climb on the royal chariot and ride it between two closely standing stones, which parted when he approached.

There is a tendency in Irish texts to shield the legitimately elected king from the dangers of the profane (non-religious) world and to regulate his behavior down to the smallest detail. There were a number of magical prohibitions (geis) that were imposed on the king simply by virtue of the fact that he was the bearer of royal power. The meaning of gays is for the most part obscure: if some hint at circumstances that once turned out to be dangerous for one of the kings, then others seem to be chosen completely arbitrarily. For example, in "The Destruction of the House of Da Derg", the geisses imposed on King Conayre are listed: when returning to his home, he should never turn the right side of his carriage towards Tara, and the left side towards Brega; he cannot hunt the beasts of Kerna; he has no right to leave Tara every ninth night; also he should not spend nights in a house where the fire shines outside after sunset and is visible from the outside, etc.

A wise, kind and just king brought peace and prosperity to his country. On the contrary, anything unworthy or simply inappropriate in the behavior, character or physical condition of the king foreshadowed misfortune and hardship for the country. Therefore, Bres was deposed, completely devoid of royal generosity, and Nuadu renounced the royal throne, having lost his hand in battle. During the reign of Kaybre Kaithenn, who seized royal power by force, there was only one grain on each ear, one acorn on each oak, there were no fish in the rivers, and the cattle had no milk.

The king of Ireland could only become with the consent of the goddesses who embodied royal power. This is best described in the saga dedicated to the wonderful adventure of King Tara Conn, the ideal “good king” of Irish mythology, who brought prosperity to his country. One day, Conn, with his three druids and three phylids, went before sunrise to the royal fortress of Tara. Suddenly, a large cloud fell on them and complete darkness fell. After that, a horseman appeared and threw a spear at them three times. "This is truly a royal wound," said the druid, "whoever it was who struck Conn of Tara." Then the rider rode up to them, greeted Conn and invited him to his house. The king and the druids soon rode out into the clearing. There they saw a royal fortress, at the entrance to which a golden tree grew, and a beautiful house with a white bronze roof. They entered the house, where they met a beautiful girl with a golden diadem on her head. Beside her stood a silver cauldron with gold handles, full of red beer, and next to it was a gold goblet. They saw the warrior himself, sitting on a golden throne. There would not be a person in Tara who would surpass him in height and beauty.

He spoke to them: “I am not a warrior in reality, and I will reveal to you my secret and my glory: after death I came, and I am from the race of Adam. This is my name: Lug, son of Ethlenn, son of Tigernmas. I will reveal to you the fate of your own supreme power and all supreme power in Tara. " The young girl who stood at the throne was the eternal supreme power of Ireland. She began distributing gifts and asked, "Who will be given this cup?" The Warrior replied that starting from Konn and forever and ever, the supreme power will be appointed. At the same moment, Lug and his palace disappeared, and Konn was left with a golden cup.

Thus, the ceremony of royal initiation took place in the Luga Conn Palace. The palace belongs to Another World, but at the same time it is real, as Conn receives royal talismans there. Meadow in this case is the god-king, on whose behalf the supreme power acts, distributing the drink of supreme power and immortality - red beer. The supreme power itself, in the form of a young girl with her golden diadem, silver bowler hat and gold goblet, resembles a “princess” from a luxurious princely burial in Viksa. "The supreme power in Ireland is very feminine," write F. Leroux and C. Gionvark, "and this, in the final analysis, is a pleasant dowry."

The story with Konn presents an ideal and somewhat abstract image of royalty. Another heroine of Irish myths, who also embodies the supreme power, is endowed with a bright personality. This is Queen Connaught Medb. It was because of her exorbitant ambition and desire to surpass her husband, King Ailil in everything, that the allied army of the four Irish provinces (Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Meade) was assembled and a war began with the Ulads for a bull from Kualnge, which belonged to a resident of Ulad. In addition to ambition and cruelty, Medb is characterized by an extraordinary love of love. She had many husbands and lovers, including the great hero Fergus. The daughter of the supreme king of Tara, she married King Conchobar, but “out of pride” she left him. After that, she married alternately with Tinde, the son of Connra Cas, with Eohyde Dala, and with Ailil, the son of Math, and all her husbands became kings of Connaught.

The Queen of Connaught's counterpart is the Queen of Leinster Medb Letderg ("half red" or "red on one side"), daughter of Conan of Kula. She was alternately the wife of nine kings of Ireland, including Father Conn, his son Art, and Cormac, son of Art. "The strength of Medb over the men of Ireland was great, for he could not become king of Tara, whose wife she was not." So when Art died, his son Cormac could not become king of Ireland until Medb merged with him. Thus, Queen Medb (in both versions) is the personification of the supreme power. The very name "Medb" means "intoxication": obviously, it means intoxication with power. According to Medb of Connaught, the king must be "free from fear, envy and stinginess." The queen is never "without a man." At the same time, kings replace each other, and the supreme power is as eternal as the principle that it represents and embodies. However, royalty also needs a king: being an allegory of the land of Ireland with which the king entered into a sacred marriage, she suffers without a spouse. As the land lies barren and abandoned without its rightful owner and quickly returns to life with his arrival, so the goddess personifying the kingdom often appears ugly and poor, and then, uniting with the ruler intended for her, turns into a beauty. A similar story happened to Niall of the Nine Hostages. He and his four brothers (Brian, Fiachra, Ailil and Fergus) went hunting. Lost in the forest, the young men made a fire and began to fry the killed game, and Fergus was sent in search of drinking water. He went to the well, which was guarded by an ugly old woman, and asked permission to draw water. In response, the old woman said that she would be allowed to do this only in exchange for his kiss. The young man refused and returned to his brothers without water. The rest of the brothers took turns going to get water, but they refused to kiss the old woman and returned with nothing. Only Fiachra agreed to an "innocent kiss." Then it was Niall's turn. Facing the same choice, he not only kissed the old woman, but also shared a bed with her. And immediately she turned into a young girl, whose beauty shone brighter than the sun. "Who are you?" Niall asked. “I am Power,” she replied. "From this time on, power will remain with you and your offspring forever." According to her, the exception will be two descendants of Fiahra - as a reward for a kiss.

In the story of the other five brothers, the sons of King Dare, Power also appears in the guise of an ugly old woman and turns into a beauty in the arms of the one who is assigned to become king. It was predicted that Dare's son, Lugaid, would receive sovereignty in Ireland. King Dare gave this name to all five of his sons, but the druid told him that only the one who caught the golden deer that appeared in the assembly hall would rule. When the deer appeared to the people, a magical fog fell on the five brothers and on the others present. Only Lugaid Laigde managed to grab the deer, and he had to later share the bed with the old woman, who personified Power. Thus, this is a fairly common motive in Irish mythology: the country before the marriage to the king is an old or insane woman. After the conclusion of a sacred marriage, her appearance changes: she becomes like "a scarlet lichen on the rocks of Leinster"; "Her curls are like Bregon's buttercups, and her green coat is flawless."

In Irish mythology, all female deities are associated with the symbolism of supreme power - even the ancient goddesses, the organizers of the World, close to the image of Mother Earth, for example, the already familiar Kylech (Old Woman from Berry). In the VIII or IX century. a monk from among the scribes of Irish legends took advantage of the ambiguity of the word "kayllech" and wrote a poem that in the waning days of Kayllech put on a monastic veil (kayleh). The heroine of this poem, an old, impoverished and feeble nun from Berry, recalls the glorious days when she, young, beautiful and rich, was a friend of kings:

Beautiful chariots

and fast horses, -

i once had so many of them!

God bless the King who gave them.

My body strives to find its way

to the House of the Court;

when the Son of the Lord decides the time has come

let him take what he loaned.

My hands now

bony and thin;

once they were engaged in fine art -

hugged kings ...

I don't envy anything old

except Femchen Plain.

My thick hair turned gray from old age

and the crowns of Femchen's trees are still golden.

Stone of the Kings in Femhen,

ronan's fortress in Bregon -

a very long time ago

first touched them,

but their cheeks did not fade ...

I spent my days with kings

treating yourself to honey and wine;

now i drink whey and water

among old, shriveled witches ...

Tidal wave

and fast ebb;

what the tide brings you,

the low tide takes away from your hands ...

Happy island on the high seas

because the tide comes there after the ebb tide;

i'm not waiting

new tides.

In fact, this poem deals with the deep incompatibility of Christianity and the world of pagan beliefs, the inevitable results of which were the victory of Christianity and the impoverishment of the Irish religious and mythological tradition. It is important for us that the monastery poet, to reveal this topic, chose the legend of Kylech of Berry, the organizer and guardian of the land of Ireland and at the same time the wife of kings.

Beautiful goddesses also inhabit the happy Other World of the Celts. A beauty comes to Kondla, the son of King Konn of the Hundred Battles, who is "not threatened by old age or death," and takes him to a delightful country where "only women and girls live." The Goddess of Another World, Kliodna, appears to Tadgu, the son of Kian, in the form of a noble woman, the most desirable in the whole world. She is accompanied by three birds with bright plumage, which feed on apples from the apple tree of the Other World and sing so sweetly that they immerse sick people in a healthy sleep.

In the saga "Cuchulainn's Disease", the cruelty of the beautiful messengers of the Other World, Fand and Liban, testifies to the fact that the charming goddesses Sida are related to characters such as Maha or Medb. One day Cuchulainn was trying to catch two magic birds for his wife. Having failed, the distressed Cuchulainn fell asleep, and in his dream two women appeared to him, who began to lash him with whips. They beat him half to death. After that, Cuchulainn lay in bed for a whole year without uttering a word. Exactly one year later, one of his beautiful tormentors, Liban, came to him and persuaded him to help the king of the sid defeat his enemies. Cuchulainn followed her. The hero's reward for valor was the love of Fand, Liban's sister.

Etain is close to the goddesses of the Other World. Once Midir, who ruled in the side of Bree Leith, wished to marry the most beautiful girl of Ireland - Etain Ehreide, daughter of Ailil, King of Ulad. He sent his adopted son Mac Oak to get himself a bride. He went to Ulad for the girl, but her father, not wanting to just give up his daughter, gave him three tasks: to clear twelve meadows, drain the land by laying channels for twelve rivers, and give as a ransom as much gold and silver as it weighs. girl. Mak Ok's father, the god Dagda, helped complete all the tasks in one night, and Mak Ok took Etain to Midir.

A year later, Midir brought Etain to his place at Bree Leith. But his first wife, the insidious sorceress Fuamnakh, met the girl with hostility. She hit Etain with a cane of red rowan and turned him into a puddle of water on the floor. After that, Fuamnakh went to her adoptive father, the magician Bresal, and Midir “disappeared from the house without touching the water that was before Etain. And since then Midir did not have any more wife. "

Meanwhile, the water in the puddle turned into a worm, and the worm into a wonderful red fly. “This fly was no less than a warrior's head, and it was not more beautiful to find it in the whole world. Sweeter than the songs of bagpipes, harps and horns was the sound of her voice and the hum of her wings. As if gems in the twilight her eyes sparkled. Any weakness, illness and disease would be cured by the drops that flew from her wings onto a person. " In this guise, Etain became Midir's inseparable companion. She lulled him with her buzzing and woke him up when someone approached him with malicious intent.

Upon learning of this, Fuamnakh sent a magical wind to Etain, so that for seven years Etain did not know peace and could only sit on the rocks and waves of the ocean. Finally, exhausted, Etain flew to MacOck. He took her home and placed her in a special cage that followed him everywhere.

Fuamnakh, learning about the love and honor with which Mak Ok surrounded Etain, pretended to want to reconcile her husband with his adopted son, and persuaded Midir to invite Mak Ok to her. She herself expelled Etain from her cage with the help of a magical vortex. In the end, already during the reign of King Conchobar, Etain sank onto the ridge of the roof of a house where the Ulads were feasting, and fell into a golden bowl that stood in front of the wife of the hero Ethar. The woman swallowed it with her drink, and so Etain was conceived a second time; in due time, Ethar's wife gave birth to her. This happened 1012 years after Etain's first birth.

Years passed and Etain became the wife of King Eohyde Ayrem of Ireland. But one day, at a festival in Tara, the king's brother Ailil Anguba saw her. He fell so deeply in love with Etain that he fell seriously ill. The royal physician immediately realized that Ailil had one of two deadly ailments that no one can cure - the pangs of love and the disease of jealousy.

Eohyde meanwhile set out on a trip to Ireland, while Etain left with the dying Ailil, so that there would be someone to perform the funeral rites and pay him the last honors. But Ailil, meeting with Etain every day, began to recover. Then he opened up to her in everything, and she invited him to secretly unite with him for the final healing. Etain came to the designated place three times, but each time attacked Ailil deep dream, and he did not manage to appear at the place of appointment. However, instead of him, a certain husband in the guise of Ailil came on dates three times, who told Etain that his name was Midir from Bree Leith, and before, when she was called Etain Ehreide, he was her husband. It was he who sent love sickness to Ailil, and then a dream to meet her. He then invited Etain to run with him, but she could not leave without her husband's consent.

Once, on a clear summer day, King Eohaid Ayrem ascended the hill of Tara to admire the Mag Breg. Suddenly he saw in front of him an unfamiliar warrior in luxurious clothes. The king was quite surprised by this, because he knew that the gates of the fortress had not yet been opened. The stranger identified himself as Midir of Bree Leith and said that he had come specially to play Fidhell \u200b\u200bwith the king. Eohyde replied that the game board was in the queen's bedchamber, and she had not yet woken up. Then Midir took from the bag his own silver plaque with figures in red gold and white bronze. In the event of his defeat, Midir promised to give the king fifty dark gray horses with enamelled reins. Midir lost, and the next morning Eochaid found fifty dark gray horses near his house. Soon Midir again appeared before him and offered to play, promising even greater wealth. But the cautious Eohaid gave Midir daunting tasks: to clear the stones of the Midir, to lay the gate through the Moin Lamraige and to plant Brefne in the forest.

Midir agreed to do all this on condition that wherever the king's authority is recognized, neither man nor woman leaves the house until dawn. Eochaid accepted the condition, but sent his shepherd to keep an eye on Midir. And then the shepherd saw that people from all over the world had come down to the swamp and made a mound of their clothes there. Then, under the direction of Midir, they covered the swamp with trunks and branches of trees. The next morning Midir again approached Eochaid and began to reproach him for the unreasonable complexity of the tasks entrusted to him. Eohyde agreed to make concessions, and they sat down to play Fidhell \u200b\u200bagain. "What will be the stake now?" Eohyde asked. “The one that each of us desires,” Midir replied. "What do you want?" Eohyde asked. "Hug Etaine and receive a kiss from her," Midir said. Eohaid paused, and then made a promise: "Come back in a month, and then you will get what you want."

On the appointed day, Eohyde locked the gates of Tara and placed the best warriors of Ireland around the fortress. Etain herself served drinks to the noble Irish that night, for it was one of her great skills. To the amazement of the owners, Midir suddenly appeared right in the middle of the banquet hall and demanded what was promised. When Eohyde began to evade an answer, he announced that Etain herself had promised to leave with him if her husband agreed. At this, Etaine blushed. “Don't blush, O Etain,” Midir said, “for there is nothing unworthy of a woman here. For a whole year I promised you the most beautiful gifts and all the treasures of Ireland, but I could not take you away without Eochaid's consent. Truly I had to conquer you! " "No, I will not give you up," said Eohaid to his wife, "but let him embrace you where you stand, in the middle of the house." Then Midir, taking a weapon in his left hand, grabbed Etain with his right and flew out of the house through the hole in the roof of the house. Shocked, the warriors surrounded their king, and saw everything in the sky over Tara two swans that flew towards Sid Femun.

Then the Irish decided to excavate and destroy all the magic hills on the island in order to find and return Eochaid to his wife. For a year and three months, Eohaid and his warriors dug, but everything that they could dig in a day returned to its place by morning. Then, after learning some magic tricks, they set about destroying Bree Leith's seed. Midir, the master of the seed, had to promise that if the warriors stopped destroying his domain, Etain would return to her husband's house at 3:00 AM the next day. At the appointed hour, the warriors saw fifty women indistinguishable from Etain. The soldiers fell silent, and the maid standing in front of the girls said to the king: "Now find your wife or take any of them, for it is time for us to go home." Eohyde recalled that no one in all of Ireland served drinks better than his wife. Then they put twenty-five girls on one side of the house and twenty-five on the other, and between them a cauldron of drink, and all the girls in turn began to serve the drink to the king. Finally there were only two left. When the first of them approached the cauldron, Eohyde said: "Here is Etain, although she did not serve the drink exactly like that." In the same instant, all the other girls disappeared.

However, the story did not end there. Once Midir came to Eohaid and told that when he took Etain to his house, she was pregnant, and she gave birth to a daughter in due time. And Midir revealed to Eohaid that the king of fifty women had not chosen his ex-wife, but his own daughter. From this unintentional incest was born one of the legendary Irish kings of the Irish legend - Conayre More.

The heroes of this saga act both in our and in the Other worlds, moving between them. Eohyde is a mortal forced to fight for his wife with a supernatural rival. And in this case (as is generally typical for the Irish tradition) a mortal can rise up against the gods and defeat them with the help of force and magic - a powerful tool in any hands, before which even the gods sometimes retreat.

Although for King Eochaid, the wife was the daughter of the hero Ethar, and not a goddess from Another World, the history of Etain's previous life and rebirth makes her as mysterious as the women of Sid. And being the wife of the god Midir and living with him in a magic hill, she herself was the goddess of the Other World.

In addition, Etain has another divine function, which is referred to in the Love for Etain saga. After becoming king, Eohyde summoned the Irish to the Feast of Tara, in order to assign tributes and duties to all for six years in advance. The Irish replied to him that they would not come to a king who had not chosen a queen. After that, Eochaid tracked down Etain and took her as his wife. In the context of the Irish tradition, the reason for this disobedience of subjects to their king and Eochaid's further deeds is clear: although he became king, his power was not recognized as legitimate until he was married to the goddess of Supreme Power, which in this case is Etain. Thus, we once again made sure that all Celtic goddesses are involved in the symbolism of supreme power, and they all go back to one great prototype - the ancient Mother Earth.

It has long been noticed that in Celtic mythology there is no goddess of love and beauty, like the Greek Aphrodite or the Roman Venus. Despite this, it contains poetry and tragedy narratives about the selfless female lovestronger than death. With one such narration, we will end our acquaintance with the female characters of Celtic myths, descending for this from the divine level to the human, since in the Irish tradition passionate love and fidelity is the lot of mortal women.

This is the saga "The Expulsion of the Sons of Usnekh", one of the earliest monuments to the epic of love created by the Celts. It is in many ways reminiscent of the tale of the love of Tristan and Isolde, the source of which, also Celtic, has not survived. The saga tells that one evening King Conchobar and the other settlers gathered for a feast in the house of Fedelmides, the king's storyteller, and at the table they were served by the owner's pregnant wife. As they were all about to leave, the baby in her womb suddenly let out a loud cry. The druid Katbad predicted that Fedelmid's future child is Deirdre, a girl of unprecedented beauty, who will bring a lot of grief to the Ulads. The Ulads wanted to kill her immediately after birth, but Conchobar ordered her to be raised as his bride. No one, except her adoptive parents and the exorcist Leborham, who could not forbid anything, was allowed into the house where Deirdre lived. And there, hidden from the eyes of men, she grew up and became the most beautiful girl that was ever born in Ireland. One winter day, seeing her adoptive father skinning a calf in the snow, and a black raven drinking the blood that had spilled on the snow, she told the Leborham that her lover would have raven-colored hair, a snow-colored body and blood-colored cheeks. Leborham told her that this is exactly what Nice, the son of Usnekh, looks like, and from that day the girl began to look for a meeting with him.

Usnekh's sons, Naysi and his two brothers, were glorious warriors, equal in valor to all the Ulad warriors put together, besides, they ran so fast that they struck the beast on the run. One day Nicey walked along the rampart around Emine and sang. Deirdre slipped out of her house and ran after him. "Beautiful," he said, "the chick that walks beside us." “Heifers remain heifers if there are no bulls next to them,” Deirdre said. "There is a mighty bull next to you," he said, "the king of the Ulads." She told him that she preferred a young bull like him, and demanded that he take her with him. Hearing a refusal, Deirdre rushed to him, grabbed him by the ears and shouted: "Let them be ridiculed and ashamed, if you do not take me with you."

Nicey called the brothers, and they decided to leave the country with him and with Deirdre, although they understood that this would bring them only grief. For a long time they wandered around Ireland, pursued by Conchobar and his warriors, then crossed over to Scotland, where they first lived in the forest, and then entered the service of the king. Soon, however, their lives were again in danger, because the king of Scotland, seeing Deirdre, burned with great love for her. Upon learning of this, the Ulads persuaded King Konchobar to call the sons of Usnekh back under their protection. The Ulad heroes Fergus, Dubtakh and Cormac, the son of Conchobar himself, became their guarantors. But when Nice, his brothers and Deirdre landed in Ireland, all the guarantors, at the instigation of Conchobar, were summoned to a binge. And near the walls, Emine Mahi Naysi was killed by Eogan, the son of Durtakht, also on the orders of Konchobar. Deirdre, with his hands tied, was led to the king. When Fergus and his comrades heard of this betrayal, they waged a great massacre in Emine Mahe, and then went into exile to Ailil and Medb in Connacht, from where they raided the Ulads for sixteen years.

Deirdre spent a whole year at Conchobar's house, and not once in the whole year did a smile touch her lips. She ate and drank little and never raised her head. When singers and musicians were sent to her, she recalled her life in the forest:

The taste of honey seems to you sweet

In the house of Conchobar, son of Ness,

To me in that distant time

My food tasted sweeter.

There was a flame in that glade

The fire that Nicey kindled

And it seemed to me sweeter than honey

Hunting for the son of Usnekh.

The gentle Konchobaru seems to be singing

All these pipes and flutes

I am more familiar with the music:

Singing of the three sons of Usnekh.

Conchobar asked Deirdre whom she hates more than anything else, and she replied: "You and Eogan, son of Durtakht." "Then," he said, "you will spend a year at Eogan's house." The next day, as Eogan drove her in a chariot to his home, Deirdre threw herself on the rock they were passing by and died.

In another version of this saga, it is said that King Conchobar ordered the lovers to be buried on opposite shores of the lake so that they could not unite after death. Then a pine tree grew on each grave, and their branches stretched across the lake towards each other. Conchobar ordered the pines to be cut down, but the Ulads did not obey him and protected these trees until the king's death.

To primitive man, the Earth seemed to be the foundation of the Universe: its immensity, the variety of landscape and vegetation were felt as a living and active cosmic unity. “When the religious significance of the Earth was first realized,” wrote M. Eliade, “it was not“ separate, ”that is, sacredness did not overshadow the earth as such, but all of nature: earth, stones, trees, water, shadows - everything around The initial intuitive perception of the earth as a religious “form” can be expressed as follows - “Cosmos, a repository of abundant sacred forces.” With the emergence of agriculture, among the various properties of the Earth as a cosmic unity, its “motherhood”, its inexhaustible ability to bear fruit, came to the fore In agricultural cults, the ancient Mother Earth is transformed into the Great Goddess of vegetation and harvest.

This transformation is clearly manifested in the Homeric hymn "To Gaia, Mother of All":

I begin to sing about Gaea, the all-mother, stable, Ancient, to everything that lives, giving abundantly food ... You are fertility, queen, you give and give fertility, You can give life to a person and you can take it back if you want.

Throughout the Celtic world, the cult of female deities called Mothers or Matrons was widespread. Many dedications to these goddesses have been found in different areas inhabited by the Celts. The cult of the Mothers was also widely practiced by the Germans, therefore, initiations originating from the Rhine region are difficult to unambiguously attribute to the Germanic or Celtic culture. Sculptural images of the Mothers, which in Roman Gaul have retained their Celtic flavor, contain symbols of a double gender. Sometimes goddesses carry symbols of earthly fertility: a basket of fruits, a cornucopia or a bowl that provides food. Sometimes they are depicted as women with babies. For example, in a bas-relief from Vertaud (Côte d'Or; France), one of the mothers is holding a swaddled baby in her arms, the other unfolds the diaper, the third holds a vessel with water and a sponge.

Numerous female deities who patronized the rivers of Gaul also belong to the Mothers. The goddess of the Seine was Sekwana, whose sanctuary was at the source of the river, the goddess of the Marne was Matron, the goddess of Yvonne was Ikaunis, who was revered in Auxerre. The sources also had their own patrons. These are Aquionne - the goddess of the Etuve spring in Fleury near Orleans, Attesmert in the Corjeben forest (Upper Marne), Aventia in Avanches (Vaud), Urnia - the Urn source in Saint-Felix-de-Palliere (Garde), Vezunna - the Saint-Sabine source in Perigueux. Many sources bore the name of Devon, "divine" - in Bordeaux, in Cahors, in Lodun (Gard), in Toner. Sometimes, according to the figurative expression of K. Julian, two or three goddesses united to give birth to one source. For example, the sources in Bussy-Albier and in Fer (Loire) had two patrons at once - Dunisia and Segetu. Julian called such goddesses "water-Mothers" and directly attributed them to the cult of Mothers.

In some places, the cult of the source has continuously existed from the Stone Age to the present day. Thus, in the hot spring of Grisi (the commune of Saint-Senforien-de-Marmagne; France), Neolithic and ancient Roman objects were found. Traces of a Neolithic cult (pieces of flint, the shape of which testifies to their votive purpose) were discovered in a source now called Saint-Sauveur (Compiegne Forest; France). Rooted in the prehistoric era, this cult was inherited by the Gauls, then by the Gallo-Romans, from whom it was adopted and assimilated by Christianity. In the commune of Bertinoro (province of Forlì; France), cult objects of the Bronze Age are found near the chloride-salt source that still exists today. In England, near the mounds of prehistoric origin and megalithic monuments, there are springs that the local population considers miraculous or healing.

In a Celtic context, it can be a combination of the patron god of the tribe and the Mother goddess. In the broader context of Indo-European mythology, these couples can be compared with such pairs of Indian deities as Vishnu and Lakshmi or Shiva and Devi, in which the goddess is the embodiment of the feminine energy of the god (shakti). In agricultural cultures, the Great Goddess, who plays a dominant role in the beliefs and rituals of fertility, has a spouse, because the sacred marriage (hierogamy) precedes fruiting. The ancient Anglo-Saxon conspiracy against the sterility of the soil shows the importance the farmers attached to this sacred marriage: "Hey, Earth, Mother of man, conceive in the arms of God, be filled with fruits for the good of man." And finally, the divine couple - Heaven and Earth - is one of the leitmotifs of mythology in general. In many mythologies, where Heaven plays the role of the Supreme Deity, Earth acts as his companion, and Heaven is present almost everywhere in the religious life of primitive society.

At the same time, a similar goddess must have existed in Dorian Gaul. The Irish had their own "Minerva", the functions of which, however, were much broader than the patronage of the craft. This is the triple Brigid, which was revered by poets, soothsayers, blacksmiths and doctors. Especially for the Gauls, excellent artisans, it would be natural to worship a working goddess who resembled Athena Ergana. Therefore, according to Caesar, the one who invented arts and crafts was considered the most revered of the gods among the Gauls. The goddess kept their secrets and could give this knowledge to people. Obviously, Caesar found it necessary to mention her next to the god - the inventor of the arts because of her special significance.

K. Julian believed that the great Gallic goddess mentioned by Caesar was not only the goddess of arts and crafts, but also the goddess of war. "Depending on the development of events," Julian wrote, "she was like Bellona, \u200b\u200bVictoria, or the warlike Minerva, or the Minerva of peaceful work." He came to this conclusion because in all Celtic countries a great female deity was revered, who is called Minerva, Bellona, \u200b\u200bVictoria in texts and inscriptions. Julian's conjecture, confirmed by sources, once again introduces Minerva Caesar into the circle of the Mother Goddesses: in his interpretation, she combines the creative and destructive aspects of the mother archetype, demonstrating its duality.

The closeness of the Irish goddesses to the ancient image of Mother Earth and their participation in the Irish cosmogony is evidenced by their close connection with the land of Ireland as a whole or with individual localities in the formation, design and decoration of which they participated. So, the area of \u200b\u200bTailtiu (in Ulad) was named after Tailtiu, daughter of Magmor from the Fir Bolg race. When the Tuatha De Dannan defeated Fir Bolg, Tailtiu became the wife of the Tuatha chief. With her ax, she uprooted the forests of the virgin lands of Ireland. She turned the forested area of \u200b\u200bBrega into a field of blooming clover. This great work undermined Taltiu's strength, and she died. The people of Ireland mourned her death, and the god Lug, to whom she was a nurse, arranged a Tailtiu festival in her honor, which lasted a whole month - fifteen days before and fifteen days after Lugnazad. The first assembly of Ireland was held at her grave:

Assembly with gold, with silver, with games, with chariot music, with adornment of body and spirit, knowledge, eloquence ... Assembly without reproach, without cunning, without insults, without shame, without quarrels, without arrests, without thefts, without ransoms ...

Finally, Eminem Maha, the capital of the Ulad state in Ulster, also has a name derived from the female name “Maha”. We have already met the story of this Mahi, the fairy or queen of the Other World in the section devoted to the image of the divine horse. Pregnant Maha overtook the royal horses, immediately died of overwork, giving birth to two twins. In honor of this event, the capital was named, because in Irish "Eminem Maha" means "Twins Maha".

The creation of many of the mountains, lakes and islands of Ireland and Scotland is credited to Kylech, the Old Woman of Berry. The paving stones - the cairns - are considered to have fallen from her apron. The peninsula in West Munster is also named after Berry. All this testifies to the close connection of Kylech with the Earth and is in good agreement with her traditional image in the form of the divine progenitor of numerous offspring, who lived an extremely long life. Kaillech lived her youth seven times, so that she had many husbands and each lived with her his own age until deep old age, and her grandchildren and great-grandchildren made up entire tribes.

While Thailtiu, Karman, Maha and Kaillech were associated with separate, specific areas, then Banba, Fodla and Eriu, the queens of Tuatha Dé Danann, embodied the whole of Ireland as a whole.

Saint Brigit's Day falls on February 1 - the date of the Irish pagan holiday Imbolca, which was under the patronage of the goddess Brigit. We can draw a conclusion about the essence of Imbolc on the basis of two facts. The first is the very meaning of the word "Imbolc" - "cleansing", when after the end of the winter cold, people are washed from winter dirt. The second fact is that the ability to fertilize and give birth to offspring belongs to nature itself, which patronized the holiday of the goddess Brigit (as, indeed, any female deity). Thus, Imb olk was a celebration of purification and fertility.

Despite her beauty and loving nature, Morrigan is a formidable goddess of war, capable of taking on a frightening appearance; her beloved are great warriors whom she helps to win the battle. So, she instilled in the heart of Nuada a great military rage, and then flew around the battlefield, taking the form of a crow. Morrigan, who rejected her, Cúchulainn, threatened that when he fought at the ford, she would appear in the form of an eel and wrap herself around his legs, or turn into a gray she-wolf, which will chase a herd of cattle, or, finally, attack him in the form of a red heifer. leading a lot of angry cows with the wallpaper. In response, Cuchulainn promised the woman to crush her ribs, gouge her eye out of a sling with a stone, and break her leg with a boulder. Cuchulainn also warned her that she would remain crippled until she was blessed three times. Morrigan carried out her threats. But Cuchulainn did not remain in debt: he shattered the ribs of an eel, knocked out the eye of a gray she-wolf and broke the leg of a red heifer. Soon the hero met a hunched, lame and blind old woman who was milking a cow with three breasts, and asked her for milk. She gave him milk from each of the three breasts, and each time he thanked her and blessed her. After the first blessing, she straightened, after the second she regained sight, after the third, her crippled leg healed. It was Morrigan, and Cuchulainn healed her with his blessings.

As already mentioned, in the group of three goddesses of war, instead of Nemein, Mach sometimes appears. Three Mahas are mentioned in Irish myths. They are all eponymous goddesses. The first of them was the wife of Nemed, the leader of one of the first races of mythical settlers to Ireland. Her name is that of the 12 valleys cleared by Nemed, where Maha died. We are already familiar with the other two Machs. The second is Maha with a red mane, who fought for supreme power in Ireland: she fought her rivals, seduced them with magic, married them, enslaved them, and finally forced them to build a royal fortress. The third is the wife of the peasant Krunhu, who came from the Other World, who competed in the race with the horses of King Conchobar.

Thanks to her, the capital of Ulad got its name - Eminem Maha.

E of a true man turning the cosmic wheel. " These "four lords" correspond to the four cardinal directions and the four elements. The fifth, supreme Lord, reigning in the center, on the sacred mountain, symbolizes the ether, that is, the primary element from which the other four come. This Chinese legend shows how deep, ancient symbolism was inherent in the figure of the supreme Irish king who reigned in Tara.

About the arrival, so the goddess who personifies the kingdom often appears ugly and poor, and then, uniting with the ruler intended for her, turns into a beauty. A similar story happened to Niall of the Nine Hostages. He and his four brothers (Brian, Fiachra, Ailil and Fergus) went hunting. Lost in the forest, the young men made a fire and began to fry the killed game, and Fergus was sent in search of drinking water. He went to the well, which was guarded by an ugly old woman, and asked permission to draw water. In response, the old woman said that she would be allowed to do this only in exchange for his kiss. The young man refused and returned to his brothers without water. The rest of the brothers took turns going to get water, but they refused to kiss the old woman and returned with nothing. Only Fiachra agreed to an "innocent kiss." Then it was Niall's turn. Facing the same choice, he not only kissed the old woman, but also shared a bed with her. And immediately she turned into a young girl, whose beauty shone brighter than the sun. "Who are you?" Niall asked. “I am Power,” she replied. "From this time on, power will remain with you and your offspring forever." According to her, the exception will be two descendants of Fiahra - as a reward for a kiss.

Tidal wave and fast ebb tide; what the tide brings you, the ebb tide takes away from your hands ... Happy is the island in the open sea, for the tide comes there after the ebb tide; I'm not expecting new tides.

Etain is close to the goddesses of the Other World. Once Midir, who ruled in the side of Bree Leith, wished to marry the most beautiful girl of Ireland - Etain Ehreide, daughter of Ailil, King of Ulad. He sent his adopted son Mac Oak to get himself a bride. He went to Ulad for the girl, but her father, not wanting to just give up his daughter, gave him three tasks: to clear twelve meadows, drain the land by laying channels for twelve rivers, and give as a ransom as much gold and silver as it weighs. girl. Makok's father, the god Dagda, helped complete all the tasks in one night, and Makok took Etain to Midir.

Meanwhile, the water in the puddle turned into a worm, and the worm into a wonderful red fly. “This fly was no less than a warrior's head, and it was not more beautiful to find it in the whole world. Sweeter than the songs of bagpipes, harps and horns was the sound of her voice and the hum of her wings. Her eyes sparkled like jewels in the twilight. Any weakness, illness and disease would be cured by the drops that flew from her wings onto a person. " In this guise, Etain became Midir's inseparable companion. She lulled him with her buzzing and woke him up when someone approached him with malicious intent.

Then the Irish decided to excavate and destroy all the magic hills on the island in order to find and return Eochaid to his wife. For a year and three months, Eohaid and his warriors dug, but everything that they could dig in a day returned to its place by morning. Then, after learning some magic tricks, they set about destroying Bree Leith's seed. Midir, the master of the seed, had to promise that if the warriors stopped destroying his domain, Etain would return to her husband's house at 3:00 AM the next day. At the appointed hour, the warriors saw fifty women indistinguishable from Etain. The soldiers fell silent, and the maid standing in front of the girls said to the king: "Now find your wife or take any of them, for it is time for us to go home." Eohyde recalled that no one in all of Ireland served drinks better than his wife. Then they put twenty-five girls on one side of the house and twenty-five on the other, and between them a cauldron of drink, and all the girls in turn began to serve the drink to the king. Finally there were only two left. When the first of them approached the cauldron, Eohyde said: "Here is Etain, although she did not serve the drink exactly like that." At the same moment all the other girls disappeared.

It has long been noticed that in Celtic mythology there is no goddess of love and beauty, like the Greek Aphrodite or the Roman Venus. Despite this, it contains poetry and tragedy narratives of selfless female love, which is stronger than death. With one such narration, we will end our acquaintance with the female characters of Celtic myths, descending for this from the divine level to the human, since in the Irish tradition passionate love and fidelity is the lot of mortal women.

That her lover will have hair the color of a raven, a body the color of snow and cheeks the color of blood. Leborham told her that this is exactly what Nice, the son of Usnekh, looks like, and from that day the girl began to look for a meeting with him.

The taste of honey seems sweet to you In the house of Conchobar, the son of Ness, But at that distant time, my food seemed sweeter to me. In that glade, the flame of the Bonfire was glowing, which was kindled by Nisi, And it seemed to me sweeter than honey The hunting harvest of the son of Usnekh. Gentle Konchobaru seems to be singing All these pipes and flutes, But I know the music more tenderly: Singing of the three sons of Usnekh.

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Female deities

The abundance of female deities in the ancient mytho-ritual complexes and religions of the peoples of the world is immense. Their diversity is striking both geographically and chronologically. In the primitive archaic, the image of the Mother Goddess was central in ritual actions. Professor of religion at the University of London E.O. James considered this image to be the oldest manifestation of the concept of deity, and its symbolism - the most constant feature in the archaeological materials of the ancient world.

In the religions of ancient civilizations, which inherited many views of primitiveness, female deities were revered as involved in the act of creating the world, which was often interpreted as an act of intercourse and (except ancient egypt) fertilization of Mother Earth by Heaven-Father. The combination of different gods and goddesses in the course of the cosmogonic process began to be perceived as a prototype and a role model for all love connections and marriages in general.

Due to their creative function, the goddesses participated in the creation of not only the world, but also the creatures inhabiting it: gods, people, animals, monsters, etc. Creators and keepers of space, mother of gods and heroes, goddesses ruled at different cosmic levels, commanding the forces of fertility of the earth, waters, the moon, etc. As involved in life, death and immortality, they were often associated with the mysteries and secret cults, whose adherents hoped for eternal life.

The cult of the Mother Goddess in different regions of the world and in different historical periods testifies to the amazing uniformity of the functions attributed to her. And the Babylonian Ishtar, and the Phrygian Cybele, and the Sogdian Anahita, and the Indian Kali-Durga - all of them, like many others not named here, primarily patronized nature with its change of cycles, magically contributed to the multiplication of flora and fauna and the prolongation of the human race ...

Numerous local deities acted as hypostases of the great goddess. Their cults were associated with the seasonal revival of nature and related agricultural work. Their cults concentrate a rich anthropoecological experience and accumulated knowledge about cosmoplanetary rhythms and cycles for millennia.

In the religions of ancient civilizations and later, in some national religions, goddesses became the patrons of culture, especially cities, laws and secret knowledge. Their functions often seem contradictory, dual, since they are associated not only with creation, but also with destruction (goddess of war, disease, patroness of various monsters). Thus, they personify the forces not only of space, but also of chaos.

From the ancient Paleolithic Venus to the modern goddesses revered by many peoples of the world - such is the unusually wide range of female religious images.

M.F. Albedil

The popularity of Tara, the Savior, cannot be overstated. Her cult dates back to the veneration of the mother goddess, the universal protector who protects all living things. At a deep level, a sign of the protective hypostasis of the mother goddess is duality (in ancient art, her symbol is two curls), therefore it is natural that Tara is present in the parivar of deities, usually in both her hypostases - White and Green. Note that she is the only deity in Tibetan Buddhism who regularly is present in the paintings simultaneously in two forms, for the rest of the deities the image of several of their forms in the parivara of another deity is extremely rare.

Tara is addressed as “the Savior who helps us to go to the other side of the ocean of being to pure Enlightenment, which soothes fear and brings fulfillment of all our desires.” Her name comes from the Sanskrit root "tar" - "to go through", and therefore she is associated not only with the crossing of the ocean of samsara, but also in modern buryat culture it helps the deceased to find a good new incarnation, and therefore the Buryats will certainly bring the image of Green Tara to the house where the deceased is, if it was not there (the author happened to witness this custom).

According to myths, she was born from the tears of Avalokiteshvara. Her favorite abode is Mount Potala, from the heights of which she sees the suffering of this world.

Over time, many goddesses of the Hindu pantheon entered the Mahayana religious system, who, on the rise of a powerful wave of religious syncretism, were declared various forms of Tara. She began to be perceived as a universal deity, “Mother of all Jin” (“Jina” - Skrt. “Winner”, an epithet of a Buddha). Then Tara incarnates in the hypostases of the five sacred flowers; about which the Kashmiri poet Sarvajnamitra writes with admiration that a merciful goddess can be red like the sun, blue like sapphire, white like ocean foam, and sparkling like the glitter of gold. “Your universal shape is like a crystal that changes its appearance when things around it change,” he writes. At the same time, a more complex iconography of Tara appeared in twenty-one hypostasis.

In Tibet, images of one hundred eight or even a thousand Tars are very common, where a large central image is duplicated by a host of identical ones. Artists willingly paint such pictures, since the creation of many images of the goddess leads to an increase in spiritual merit, helps to overcome obstacles and achieve a better rebirth. In general, the images of Tara serve as a kind of magical shield for man.

The practice of Tara appeared in Tibet with the first preaching of Buddhism and became especially widespread with the activities of Atisha in the 11th century, for whom Tara was his meditation deity.

One of the legends about Tara says that in immeasurably distant times she was a princess known for her piety, making offerings to Buddhas and bodhisattvas, giving gifts to monks and nuns for a thousand billion years. And the great monks told her that they would pray that in her future incarnation she could become a man in order to preach the Buddhist Teachings. She replied that from the point of view of the highest reality there are neither men nor women, but that she would prefer to be reborn as a woman, in order to thereby visibly prove the equality of men and women on the path of Enlightenment.

The two wives of the famous king Srongtsen Gampo were considered the incarnations of Tara. The Nepalese princess Bhrikuti is Tara in the green guise, and the daughter of the Chinese emperor Wen Chen is Tara in the white guise.

symbolizes exceptional purity and transcendental wisdom, and is also the goddess of long life. The Tara Tantra dedicated to her is included in the Kriya Tantra system. The practice of White Tara, which contributes to spiritual growth and prolongation of life, in general terms is as follows.

There is a firm belief that in order to achieve longevity, initiation into the practice of White Tara from a high lama, preferably seventy or even eighty years of age, is necessary. The practice is preceded by fasting, excluding meat, fish, eggs and some other foods, cleansing the place of meditation and one's own body, as well as offering to the goddess.

At the beginning of the ritual, the practitioner pronounces the formula of Refuge and repeats three times that his aspirations are pure and that he is performing the ritual not out of selfishness, but for the good of all living beings. Next comes the visualization of various sacred syllables, the five dhyani-buddhas, celestial maidens, who pour water on the meditator's head, eliminating all evil and evil thoughts. Then the person mentally presents Tara with seven offerings - water for ablution, water for drinking, flowers, incense, light, aroma, food and music, reads her mantra OM TARE TUTTARETURE MAMA AYUR PUNYE GYANA PUSH KURUYE SWAHA and prays for the prolongation of life and the growth of spiritual merits ... All the phenomena that a person visualizes should be imbued with rays of white light.

White Tara is always depicted with seven eyes of wisdom (three on the face, eyes on each palm and foot), her triple lotus symbolizes either three stages of knowledge (bud ( avidya) - ignorance, half-opened flower ( vijnana) - logical knowledge, blossomed ( prajna) - intuitive knowledge), or buddhas of the past, present and future.

in Tara Tantra she is called the Mother of the Buddhas of three times; she is the personification of the divine energy of the Enlightened entities. She is portrayed as a sixteen-year-old girl who lowered her right foot from the throne as a sign of her desire to come to the aid of people. Her right hand in the mudra of generosity (varada), at the left, raised to the chest, the thumb and forefinger are connected in the mudra of instruction (vitarka) and hold the stem of the lotus, and the three raised fingers symbolize the Triple Refuge. The goddess often holds lotuses in both hands.

One of the most interesting iconographic subjects is the Green Tara, which saves from eight misfortunes and eight defilements. Her mantra is OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA.

Around the large central image of Tara, we see eight small ones, next to each of which there is a person and a symbol of the misfortune from which the goddess will save him. The help of the goddess takes place on two levels - physical and spiritual. Here is what Tibetan sources write about this: “There are eight internal and eight external obstacles, which are grouped in pairs: attachment like a river, anger like fire, ignorance like an elephant, envy like a snake, pride like a lion, stinginess like an iron chains, false views like a thief, and doubt like a cannibal. " Ignorant people appeal to Green Tara with a prayer for protection from these physical calamities, spiritual people hope for her help in overcoming these inner defilements. We present the thangka by N.N. Alvdis. Rutien; the picture was painted using the nagtan technique (on a black background), and the figures of Tara are completely painted in color. This is a very rare case of depicting a merciful deity in a nagtan.

The iconography of the twenty-one forms of Green Tara is the embodiment of the "Prayer to the Twenty-one Tara" included in the Tara-tantra, where each image personifies each verse of the prayer. Seven verses (and seven Tar) are associated with her legendary qualities, seven - with her wrathful hypostases and seven - with her higher Enlightened abilities. Here is this prayer.

Goddess Sitatapatraparajita should be considered as the hypostasis of Tara, corresponding to that incarnation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, which is called the "Lord with a white umbrella."

The white umbrella held by the goddess is one of the eight good emblems. According to legend, when Shakyamuni was still an ascetic and was terribly exhausted, a woman named Sujata offered him milk, and the future Buddha saw on its surface the reflection of eight symbols (Wheel of the Law, lotus, endless knot, white umbrella, standard of victory, goldfish, shell and vessel) and realized that this was a sign that he was close to his goal. A white umbrella destroys the heat of sinful desires. This umbrella is the main attribute of the goddess in her various forms: from one-headed two-armed to a thousand-headed, thousand-armed, thousand-legged.

In this form of exceptional complexity and beauty, its many heads are successively red, yellow, white, green and red, and above - angry blue; the colors of the heads symbolize her power over the five cardinal points, including the center. All her left hands are holding an arrow, all her right are the Wheel of the Law. She tramples with her feet the host of demons, demigods and dragons. Images of countless eyes cover her body as a symbol of her omnipresence. She holds the Wheel of the Law, a white umbrella and an arrow in two hands, joined at her chest. In her diadem is the image of a thousand Tathagatas.

Yu.N. Roerich brings a hymn to her, composed, according to legend, by Tsongkhapa. The hymn uses the Tibetan name of the goddess - Dukkar.

- “The Conquering Ushnisha” - embodies the enlightened thought of all Buddhas. She is considered an emanation of either Amitabha, whose image she holds in her upper right hand, or Vairochana, whose image is placed in her hair. She belongs to the Kriya Tantra.

Her central face is white like a white lotus, her right face is the color of gold, and her left face is sapphire blue. The expression on her faces is slightly angry. Her lower right hand is in the mudra of generosity, the left is at the chest in a sign of fearlessness, the upper left is in the mudra of threat, the lower left is in the mudra of contemplation holding a vessel with the elixir of immortality. Her attributes (other than those mentioned) are a bow and arrow, visvajra, hook and loop (the latter are an attribute of angry deities, which is associated with some anger of the goddess herself).

During meditation, she is visualized with a white syllable OM on her forehead, a red AH on her throat and a blue HUM in the center of her chest or heart, with the image of Vairochana in her hair.

The goddess is considered to have conquered death and is included in the triad of the gods of longevity.

THE HEART OF ARYA PRAJNYAPARAMITA

, discriminating thoughts, energies and consciousness are empty.

Now we will lightly touch on the angry goddesses.

Many dakinis are prajna idams, such as the one already mentioned Vajravarahi, "Diamond Pig", is Samvara's prajna. Her Sanskrit names are Vajrayogini or Vajradakini. She dances on the outstretched body of the deity of delusion. To the right of her anthropomorphic head is the head of a pig. This is an extremely important element of symbolism, since the pig personifies delusions, and the inclusion of the symbol of delusions in the iconography of the goddess means that, overcoming his erroneous views, a person must not only cut them off from himself, but, on the contrary, transform them into the power of compassion and pure good.

Dakinis are usually portrayed as beautiful naked women or ugly old women, as well as women with animal heads. The attributes of the dakinis are the khatwanga rod, grigug and gabala. They wear a crown and necklace of skulls, and their bodies are covered with countless necklaces of human bones.

Numerous legends about dakinis are collected in the book of A. David-Neel "Mystics and Magicians of Tibet".

(“Air spirits”) are often local goddesses assimilated by Buddhism. The main type of legends where they appear are stories about how dakinis appear to a meditating hermit and reveal to him the essence of spiritual practices. For example, dakini Naro (Skrt. Sarva-Budha - "All-Enlightened") is associated with Mahasiddha Naropa, who received spiritual knowledge from her and created a ritual of her worship. She is the patroness of the famous Sakya monastery.

Oh Shariputra! Therefore, all dharmas are empty and devoid of signs, do not take birth or disappear, are not polluted or pure, do not increase in number and do not decrease.

Oh Shariputra! Therefore, in emptiness there is no form, no feeling, no discriminating thought, no energies, no consciousness, no eyes, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no visible, no sound, no smell, no taste, no tangible, there is no dharma element ... No dhatu of vision, no dhatu of consciousness. There is no ignorance, no cessation of ignorance, no old age and death, no cessation of old age and death.

Similarly, there is no suffering, there is no arising of suffering, there is no cessation of suffering, there is no way to stop suffering, there is no wisdom, there is no achieved and there is no unattained.

Oh, Shariputra! In accordance with this, there is no achievement for bodhisattvas, relying on this deep transcendental wisdom and abiding in it, they do not have obstacles and delusions, and, having escaped delusions, they will achieve complete liberation, nirvana.

Based on this profound transcendental wisdom, all the Buddhas of the three times attained the highest and perfect full "enlightenment."

In accordance with this, the mantra of transcendental wisdom, the mantra of Great Knowledge, the highest mantra that equalizes the unequal, the mantra that completely soothes all suffering, not false, must be truly cognized.

The mantra of transcendental wisdom is:

OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA!

Oh Shariputra! So bodhisattva-mahasattvas should practice deep transcendental wisdom. "

At this moment, the Victorious One came out of his samadhi and expressed his approval of the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva Avalokiteshvara: “Fine, fine, son from a good family. in a similar wayas you preached it, one must practice deep transcendental wisdom. And by this you will bring joy to all Tathagatas. ”Thus said the Victorious One.

And the venerable Shariputra, bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, all the monks who were around, gods, people, asuras rejoiced at the words of the Victorious One and glorified his preaching.

Prajnaparamita, neither speech nor thought unspeakable,

The unborn, unceasing suchness of space,

The object of the practice of discriminating-self-knowing wisdom,

Mother Jai of three times - I worship!

This is what I have heard: once Bhagavan was staying in Rajagrih on Mount Gridhrakuta with a great community of monks and a great community of bodhisattvas. At that time, Bhagavan immersed himself in samadhi called "Abyssal Radiance."

And at the same time, Arya Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva-mahasattva, practicing contemplation of the deep wisdom that leads beyond, saw that the five skandhas are by nature pure and empty.

Then, prompted by the magical power of the Buddha, the venerable Shariputra asked the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara: "Those sons and daughters from a good family who want to practice deep transcendental wisdom, how should they study?"

Bodhisattva-mahasattva Avalokiteshvara replied to the venerable Sariputra: “O Sariputra! Those sons and daughters from a good family who wish to practice deep transcendental wisdom should contemplate and see, therefore, that the five skandhas are inherently empty.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. There is no form other than emptiness, there is no emptiness other than form. So are the feelings

I bow before the seven million Jin, the assembly of arhats, before all the rishis who are proficient in mantras, before Brahma and Indra, before Mahadeva (Shiva) and Narayana (Vishnu), before the ten Sugatas and all the worshipers. From the crown on the head of the sugata, the word of the spell arose, thanks to which we sing the prayer of Saint Dukkar, who commands a large retinue.

Her, noble, emerging from the top of the Ushnish of the Lord Shakiev, living in sacred world gods, irresistible by the knowledge of demons, driving out all enemies, we call her Ushnisha-Sitatapatra, invincible by anyone.

I salute you, Enlightened One, Jin's only mother of the past, present and future, you, whose glory permeates throughout the three worlds.

I salute you, saving you from the evil influences of demons and planets, from untimely death and bad dreams, from the danger posed by poison and weapons, fire and water. The mandala of your essence is huge. You have a thousand heads full of countless thoughts, a thousand hands holding countless attributes.

The ruler of all mandalas in the three worlds, acting with the help of twenty-two terrifying mudras, omnipresent, taming evil entities, I salute you, the goddess of enchantment, casting demons to dust.

In you I find refuge from the fear of untimely death, of illness, of the fear of people and demons. I implore you to protect me from all fear forever.

I beg you only when remembering your step to free me from the gods, nagas, snakes, nagas, asuras, demons and those evil entities that steal the light, snatch the child from the mother's womb, feed on raw meat and blood.

If thieves can enter through any door and deprive us of our goods, destroy them, strike them with a flaming dagger.

Since I find refuge in you, the Enlightened One, who is inherent in many mudras, since I say my prayer and live peacefully, may all my desires be fulfilled.

You, the goddess Dukkar, born from the crown on the head of Sugata, plunging the host of demons and evil spirits into the dust, do so, O wondrous Enlightened One, so that the Teaching spreads. Make it so that we receive a blessing from Demchog Dukkar, born from the Ushnish of the Merciful Sugata, who destroys all who prevent the spread of the Good Law, which brings happy fruits.

Ushnishavijaya

Om! I prostrate before the beautiful transcendental Redeemer!

Praise Tara, fast and fearless,

Whose eyes shine like lightning

Born from a lotus in an ocean of tears

Avalokitesvara, protector of the three worlds.

Praise you, whose face is like

A hundred autumn moons gathered together

And shines with a blinding light

Like a thousand constellations.

Praise be to you born of a golden blue lotus

Whose hands are decorated with lotus

The scent of giving, effort and good deeds,

Patience, concentration and wisdom.

Praise to you who crown all the buddhas

Whose influence conquers everyone without exception,

Has reached full perfection.

Buddhas and bodhisattvas rely on you.

Praise be to you, whose TUTTARE and HUM

The kingdoms of passions, form and space pierce.

You cast seven worlds at your feet

And you have the power to summon all the powers.

Praise to you, who is worshiped by Indra,

Agni, Brahma, Vayu and Ishvara,

With many spirits singing prayers

Smell-eating demons and yakshas.

Praise be to you, whose TREU and PEU

Destroy outer magic circles.

The right leg is lowered and the left is extended.

You sparkle with a fierce flame.

Praise be to you, whose TURE destroys

Great fears, the power of demons.

With furious eyebrows knitted across his lotus face,

You kill all enemies without exception.

Praise you, beautifully decorated

By the gesture of the Three Jewels at the heart.

Your halo shines in all directions

Lots of swirling light

Praise to you, radiant and joyful,

Whose crown emits a crown of light

You laugh the syllables TUTTARA

You conquer the demons and rulers of the world.

Praise you, who has the power to call

Many spirits - guardians of the area.

With furrowed eyebrows and uttering HUM,

You bring freedom from all needs.

Praise be to you, crown of the crescent

Illuminating brightly all who worship you.

In the knot of your hair Amitabha

Eternally shines with great rays.

Praise to you living in a dazzling circle

Like the flames of the end of this era

Your right leg is outstretched and your left leg is down.

Joy surrounds you, conquering crowds of enemies.

Praise be to you, whose foot is on the ground

And whose palm hits the ground next to you.

With an angry look and the syllable HUM

You subdue all seven steps.

Praise is good, virtuous, peaceful,

The object of spiritual practice, the calmness of nirvana.

Perfectly gifted with the syllables SVAHA and OM,

Overcoming all great troubles.

Praise to you, accompanied by a joyful retinue.

You completely subdue all hostile forms.

The ten syllable mantra adorns your heart

And your HUM-knowledge gives liberation.

Praise to TURE, stepping foot,

Whose essence is the original syllable HUM.

You make Meru, Mandara and Vindju

And all three worlds tremble and tremble.

Praise to you holding in your hand

Moon-like sacred lake.

Saying TARA twice and the syllable PEU,

You destroy all poisons without exception.

Praise be to you, for which deities,

Gods and all spirits trust.

Your armor radiates joy to everyone

You calm conflicts and horrors.

Praise be to you, whose eyes are the sun and the moon -

Emit pure, brilliant light.

Pronouncing HARA twice and TUTTARA

Destroys the most terrible epidemics.

Praise to you, adorned with three essences,

Perfectly gifted with peaceful power.

You destroy demons, death spirits and yakshas,

ABOUT TOUR, the highest and most majestic.

This is how the root mantra is glorified

And twenty-one praises are lifted up.

Green Tara

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