The Sacred Wedding
Set in ancient Ireland between 1000 BC — 10 AD, this ancient story about relationship, society and land beautifully illustrates how government, power, ecological wellbeing and spirituality are completely enmeshed as one thing, transcending the very narrow container that land ownership is contained and restricted to in public discourse today.
The magnificent Hill of Tara, was the site where the leading people of ancient Ireland would meet every 3 years for the most important of the ancient assemblies, known as the ‘Feis of Tara’. These people were made up of kings, potential kings, nobles, warriors, Brehons (judges), chief poets and druids. Irish people continue to gather here today to celebrate events such as the Summer Solstice on the 21st of June when the sun is at its highest point in the sky at this location.
Background
Before literacy arrived to Ireland via Christianity in 5AD, the laws and customs of the society were held and passed down, by the oral traditions through story and myth. The Celtic druids held this responsibility.
Relationship was at the heart of society and religion.
Justice was based on and derived its authority from an appreciation of right relationships, not from legalism — which is the excessive adherence to law or formula.
To live well required that one had to be in right relationship with oneself, with other people, with the earth, with all the worlds, and with the Divine.
“For these Celtic people, the natural world was the ground of their being, the only place where they could have a physical existence. They perceived themselves and their lives to be inextricably linked with the natural world” — Dolores Whelan
When an honourable relationship was deprived or lost, this was deemed to be a violation of justice.
Resolving the issue involved an acknowledgement of the violation and taking action that led to a return to an honourable relationship.
Relationship, Power and the Land
For the Celts and pre-Celtic people, sovereignty encompasses both authority and rulership with the fertility of the land. They were one and the same.
The root meaning of the word ‘authority’ is “to author life”.
The spirit of sovereignty was represented as a feminine principle, and was often named as a particular goddess, who reflected the divine nature held in the land in a specific location, eg The Goddess Ériu was the chief goddess of Ireland in Irish mythology. The English name for Ireland comes from the name Ériu and the Germanic word land.
Sacred Wedding
When a king was chosen to rule, part of his inauguration ceremony was a ritual marriage to the local goddess who represented the divine life giving force of the land. It was through this marriage that he could claim his right to rule, his authority.
The word inauguration does not exist in the Irish language.
The kingship ritual was known as ‘Bainis Rí’; the sacred wedding of the king with the goddess of the land.
If the reign of the king was a just one, then the goddess of the land gave forth in abundance. If the king acted unjustly during his rule, then the land withheld its bounty and, consequently, the king’s rule was seen as unsuccessful, and he was deemed unfit to remain in the role of the king.
“If the fertility and life-giving force of the land was compromised, the king lost his authority and his right to rule” - Dolores Whelan
The king has now publicly taken on the role of serving the ‘Túath’.
A Túath in Old Irish means both ‘the people’, as well as ‘territory, political and jurisdictional unit of ancient Ireland’ made up of around 9000 people which was 300 household dwellings.
Prior to literature and written legal deeds, the public wedding ceremony, is itself, the mechanism for the establishment of the contract between the land, the people and their chosen ruler.
References:
Dolores Whelan | Ever Ancient Ever New Celtic Spirituality in the 21st Century
