Today's Oracle 29th May 2021

Sun god (god of the Sky)

The power and return of the sun has been acclaimed and honoured for thousands of years. The warmth and light of the sun kindles the life-giving potential of the earth's biosphere. The sun's qualities are majesty, radiance, fertility, and beauty.

Invoking the Qualities of Power and Radiance.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are sensing a fiery power emanating toward you or IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE from within you. You marvel at the majesty of the sky world and the delicate fabric of life stirred by sunlight. You cannot seem to get enough sunlight. The brilliance of light attracts you. You may want to wear bright jewelry, or even be attracted to precious gems, especially diamonds.

The power of the sun to give light and warmth and its return each day have been revered for thousands of years, from the time of the Bronze and Iron Age Celts. Portrayed as a spoked wheel or swastika, the sun rolls across the firmament pulled by a chariot and team of horses. Among the Romanised Celts, a powerful sky god brandishes his solar wheel as a shield as he crushes the head of a monster with his foot or hand. The sun god signifies majesty, power, radiance, fertility, and beauty.

The sun gives warmth, light, and cycles to the year and is therefore associated with the giving of life, fertility of the crops, and the conquering of menacing forces. Complementary to the earth's primal power over life, the sun touches the earth and sparks the life already there. From archaeological evidence from the Bronze and Iron Age through the mythological period, the allusion to sexual coupling is obvious: the warmth of the sun enters the moist interior of the earth where life begins. Solar images adorn the bodies and are conveyed by goddesses and gods alike. In the Camonica Valley in northern Italy, the Celts of the late Bronze and Iron Age carved on cave walls solar images, round disks or spoked wheels held aloft or volleyed by human figures. The Gundestrup Cauldron bears the image of a magnificent sky god portrayed as being upheld, perhaps conveyed, by a wheel. Small clay figures of young goddesses are affixed with sun wheels surrounding their bodies or adorning their breasts, bellies, and thighs. Images of the sun and earthly abundance appear to harmonize in the Celtic imagination. Though sun images are primarily associated with male deities and images of earthly abundance with mother goddesses, it is not uncommon to find goddesses associated with sun wheels and gods carrying cornucopias and signs of a prosperous harvest.

Images of the sun wheel and swastikas, sometimes accompanied by a chariot and horse, on cave walls, coins, and armour, distill in imagery the mythic portrayal of the sun conveyed across the sky by a chariot and a team of horses. Perhaps only an animal as prestigious as a horse could accompany the sun. Epona, the horse goddess, is sometimes accompanied by solar imagery.

Solar deities in the Roman period, however, became increasingly masculine and fierce, though benevolent toward those they protected. Borrowing some of Jupiter's appearance from the Romans, the Celtic Jupiter is a powerful god, portrayed as standing and holding his solar wheel authoritatively. He frequently appears as a victor and as a god of generous mien and majesty, mounted on a horse and brandishing his (entirely Celtic) solar wheel like a shield against the enemy. Beneath him, pressed down by his foot or hand, is a monstrous, serpent like creature. The Celtic Jupiter is a warrior god, conquering the hideous forces troubling human life.

Two of the great fire festivals of the Celtic world, Beltaine at the coming of summer (May 1) and Lughnasa at the coming of the harvest (August 1), ritualise fire as the sun's semblance on earth. The cycles of the sun bring life. Celebrated into the nineteenth century, a midsummer celebration in Germany, for example, involved setting a wheel of straw on fire and rolling it down a mountain into the Moselle River. If the wheel reached the river still ablaze, a good wine harvest was foreseen. Similarly, the great fire festival of the Christian year, Easter, became associated in time with the sun. On Easter, the country people in Ireland rose early in the morning in hopes of seeing the "sun dancin' in the sky."

Drawing this oracle suggests that you have an opportunity to attract majesty and radiance to your character and attitude toward life. This is your time in the sun, a time to shine, bringing a sparkling quality to your own life as well as to others'. If you are attracted to a spiritual path, you may sense an inner light that propels you to focus more intensely on your meditations, prayers, or practices toward gaining enlightenment.

The sun's constancy and radiance invariably help to instil confidence and assurance. Positioning your life within the sun's beneficence brings balance to the flow of ordinary life events. In sensing the constancy of movement beneath change, hard times will bestow resilient and bountiful times, steadiness, and hope. By mindfully drawing closer to the sun's radiance, your life will seem more buoyant, majestic, powerful, and inspiring.

Today's Oracle 28th May 2021

Triple-Mother goddess (Magnificence)

The Triple-Mother Goddess, commonly manifesting as maiden, mother, and crone, signifies the magnificence of Mother Earth in giving life. Expressing herself in all aspects of life, she encompasses all ages, polarities, and. expressions. Her qualities are majesty, generativity, and an inner connection with the life-giving sovereignty of the earth.

Invoking the Qualities of Majesty and Generativity.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are invited to bring authority, stability, and vitality into your personal life and affairs. Your expression and activities may need to realign with the abundance of the Triple-Mother Goddess, the life-giving and sustaining power of the earth. Her powers are sublime and primal, rooted in the earth.

The Triple-Mother Goddess signifies the magnificence of mother earth in the giving of life. She presides over giving birth, the fluorescence and fruitfulness of plants, generativity at all ages, and the splendour of earthy and womanly wisdom. Though the mature wisdom of the aged woman is especially revered, she encompasses all ages, polarities, and expressions. Her qualities are majesty, generativity, and an inner connection with the life-giving sovereignty of the earth.

According to mythic history, when the Celts arrived on the shores of Ireland, they encountered the three sovereign mother goddesses, Ériu, Banba, and Fódla, who shielded and protected the land from harm. Each required the invaders to promise that if successful in occupying the land, the land would forever bear her name.

"They had colloquy with Ériu in Uisnech. She said unto them: Warriors, said she, welcome to you. Long have soothsayers had [knowledge of] your coming. Yours shall be this island forever; and to the east of the world there shall not be a better island. No race shall there be, more numerous than yours. good is that, said Amorgen; good is the prophecy.... A gift to me, ye sons of Mil, and ye children of Breogan, said she, that my name shall be on this island."

The Triple-Mother Goddess gives life to the land and its people. She preserves them from misfortune, injury, and danger. In her fiercest aspect, she is a warrior goddess wreaking havoc and death on intruders. Her motherliness more typically presides in the birthing of new forms of life and the nourishing and germinating of the land's flowers and vegetation. In locations as distant as Scotland and Hungary, and especially prevalent along the Rhone, Mosel, and Rhine river valleys of central Europe, carvings and sculptures of the Triple-Mother Goddess are remarkably alike. Typically she carries children, fruit, wine goblets, cornucopias or trays loaded with the fruits of the harvest.

Often the Triple-Mother Goddess manifests as a maiden, mother, and crone. One or two of the goddess figures is youthful with smooth skin and rounded cheeks and another is aged with creased cheeks and a wrinkled neck. At other times, their ages are much alike but their faces different in temperament. In the Roman-occupied areas of Germany, the three mother goddesses were consistently portrayed as a central goddess who is young with long, flowing hair, carries fruit, and is surrounded on both sides by older goddesses with large, circular headdresses made of supple willow branches covered with linen. With obvious dignity and stature, she gives the impression of unquestioned authority and magnificence.

In some ways you may feel uprooted, disconnected from the spontaneous fruitfulness of the natural world. The generative powers of the Triple-Mother Goddess will help lend a sense of majesty, authority, and ease to your intentions and actions. In aligning yourself with her spontaneous outpouring of energy, you will begin to reconnect your own life force with her expressions in others around you. Since the Triple Goddess faces in all directions, Her qualities are especially abundant in the natural environment and in the creatures that inhabit the earth. Spending time outdoors in nature enjoying her manifestations will help you to recharge.

Today's Oracle 27th May 2021

Wondrous Child (Promise)

The wondrous child represents promise, hope in the future, and the rekindling of spiritual life. The new life is innocent, potential, and incomplete. The qualities of newborn innocence and inner development require safety and long stretches of unencumbered time.

Invoking the Qualities of Hope and Trust in the Future.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are urged to cherish and develop a talent or skill that is latent within yourself or in someone you love. It may be a child, a friend, a partner, or even a teacher. Whether you need to attend to yourself or someone else, the talent in question is extraordinary in some unique way. If the talent is within you, you will need to create an environment that allows for long stretches of unencumbered time to practice or cultivate the essential skills. Garnering unencumbered time in modern life may require major reordering of priorities. If you are in the role of supporting another, you are in the role of an assistant and supporter who makes time and more supportive environments possible. Either way, you are a great encourager of self or another.

The Wondrous Child conveys promise and the rekindling of hope and trust in the future. In Irish legend, the wondrous child is Cú Chulainn. As a boy of seven, he was already the greatest combatant in the court of the king, Conor Mac Nessa, and he grows up to defend all of Ulster single-handedly. Taliesin, the great bard of Wales, is another wondrous child. When as a child he is discovered in a leather bag in a salmon weir, he composes poetry recounting the feats of his fabulous origins.

Throughout the world, the birth of exceptional children is a sign of hope. In Celtic lore and legend, the origins and childhood of great poets, saints, musicians, and warriors are often miraculous in character. Cú Chulainn, the great hero of the Ulster Cycle, was the son of none other than the god Lugh of the Long Arm of the Tuatha De Danann and Dechtire, sister of the King of Ulster, Conor Mac Nessa. Oengus, the youthful champion, was the son of the river goddess Bóinn and Daghdha, the Good God.

Taliesin, the incomparable bard of Wales, had once been a boy called Gwion Bach. Upon "accidentally" acquiring knowledge of all there was to know, he incurs the wrath of Ceridwen the Hag, who chases him as a greyhound when he is a hare, as an otter when he is a fish, and as a hawk when he is a bird. Finally, as a hen, she eats him when he is a grain of winnowed wheat on the floor of a barn. The grain of wheat passes into her womb, and in nine months she gives birth to a son so fair and beautiful that she cannot bear to slay him. So she puts him in a leather bag and watches him while he shape-shifts into a hare, a fish, a bird, and finally into a grain of wheat. Immediately, Ceridwen eats him and the seed goes into her womb. Nine months later, Taliesin is born once again as a boy so fair and beautiful that Ceridwen, unable to kill him, places him in a leather bag (in some versions a basket) and sets him to drift on a river on the eve of Beltaine.

Meanwhile, the son of a nobleman, called Elffin, known for his terribly bad luck, is sent by his father to a favoured salmon weir. Every May Eve, the father was accustomed to taking salmon of great value from the weir, but Elffin finds nothing but a plain leather bag. When Elffin slices the bag open, he sees a bright forehead, and cries, "Look, a radiant brow (taliesin)." Elffin is despondent over the bad luck of returning to his father's court with nothing but a child. But the boy astride Elffin's saddle begins at once to compose a poem for him. Amazed, Elffin asks him how he could possibly compose such poetry, being so young. Taliesin replies with another poem, known as "The Consolation of Elffin":

"Elffin of noble generosity.
Do not sorrow at your catch.
Though I am weak on the floor of my basket, there are wonders on my tongue.
While I am watching over you, no great need will overcome you ..."

New life in all forms is invariably innocent, potential, and incomplete. The role of encouraging, supporting, and providing safety are essential to its secure development.

Today's Oracle 26th May 2021

The Sacred Three (Seeing in All Directions)

Odd numbers, multiples of three, and the triple spirals are sacred symbols in the Celtic world. Triplication of divine figures signifies the all-seeing and unifying presence of the spirit world. Look for the wider circumstances behind events.

Invoking Awareness of the Spirit World.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are focusing too narrowly on the immediate circumstances rather than looking at the larger context and possibilities for the future. The all seeing vision of this oracle invites you to step back from the immediate situation, to scan events as though you were looking at them from a distance, and to imagine how possible outcomes might look from a future date. This enlarged perspective will inspire confidence, focus your intention, and simplify your actions.

The tripling of supernatural figures and sacred attributes signifies the all seeing and unifying presence of the spirit world. Triplication reaches its height in the images of the Triple-Mother Goddess. Tripling the image gives an air of magic and fervour to gods, heads, horns, phalluses, horses, and faces of supernatural figures. The image of the Tricephalos appears to look out in three directions simultaneously from a single head.

The image of the Sacred Three pervades Celtic iconography and story from the pre- Roman period on through to the predominance of the Trinity in Celtic Christianity. Sublimity and power are linked to the tripling of images and attributes. The well-known Triple Spiral was carved on stones at Newgrange by the Stone Age ancestors of the Celts. Images of the Triple-Mother Goddess abound in the pre-Roman and Roman-Celtic period. By tradition, when the first Celts invaded Ireland, they were met by the three goddesses who protected the land. Brigit is sometimes triplicated or represented as three sisters. Powerful attributes such as horns and phalluses are triplicated.

The well-known Triple Spiral was carved on stones at 

Newgrange by the Stone Age ancestors of the Celts.

Of particular significance in this image of goddesses and gods are the triple-faced or triple-headed images from northeastern Gaul, near modern Reims, as well as a few images from the south and west of Gaul and even from as far north as Scotland and Ireland. A triple-faced image may appear as a single head with three distinct faces, sometimes blended with one dominant face and two in profile. Occasionally, the heads in juxtaposition may vary in age, one old and two representing youth, and less frequently male and female faces may be combined together. Images from modern Trier and Metz portraying the Triple-Mother Goddess appear to trample on the tricephalos (triple-headed) god beneath, suggesting the dominance of the mother goddess over the triple-headed god.

The Celts, already linking the supernatural with the Sacred Three, took naturally to Trinitarian formulations in the early Christian period. In the Carmina Gadelica, Alexander Carmichael chronicles the hymns, runes, prayers, invocations, and customs of late-nineteenth-century farmers and crofters of the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. One of the loveliest rituals invoking the Trinity is an evening ritual known as the "smooring of the fire," performed by the woman of the house:

"Peat is the fuel of the Highlands [of Scotland] and [the Outer Hebrides] ... Where wood is not obtainable the fire is kept in during the night. The ceremony of smooring the fire is artistic and symbolic, and is performed with loving care. The embers are evenly spread on the hearth - which is generally in the middle of the floor and formed into a circle. This circle is then divided into three equal sections, a small boss being left in the middle. A peat is laid between each section, each peat touching the boss, which forms a common centre. The first peat is laid down in name of the god of Life, the second in name of the god of Peace, the third in name of the god of grace. The circle is then covered over with ashes sufficient to subdue but not to extinguish the fire, in name of the Three of Light. The heap slightly raised in the centre is called "Tula nan Trí," the Hearth of the Three. When the smooring operation is complete the woman closes her eyes, stretches her hand, and softly intones one of the many formulae current for these occasions.

The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround,
The hearth,
The house,
The household,
This eve,
This night,
Oh! this eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.
Amen."

In a larger sense, the Sacred Three reminds you that the multiplicity of forms and events before you are actually unified, if you were to see your life from an expanded perspective. The Triple Spiral expands in all directions. The tricephalos sees in all directions. The Christian Trinity represents the fullness of the Divine. By cultivating a wider vision, you will come to savor a grander unity beyond all the myriad forms and events in life. Your actions will become simple and efficient as you see the interrelations in your life.

Today's Oracle 25th May 2021

 Green Man (Renewal of the Earth)

The face and features of the Green Man are formed of leaves. He represents the masculine role in sexual coupling and fertility and the flowering of life and talent. Progress is uncluttered and easy. His qualities are innocence, success, and easy progress.

Invoking Innocence, Easy Progress, and Success.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are attracting youthful, zestful energy into your life. In the manner of the greening of spring, easy progress is ahead of you. Ideas and actions will seem innocent and spontaneous.

In conveying the fertility of the forest and plants to people and livestock, the Green Man is the consort of the mother goddess, assisting in the greening of spring and summer and the fruitfulness of the earth. The Green Man's face and features are formed of leaves and vines. Deriving his prowess from the earth, he represents the masculine role in sexual coupling, fertility, and the flowering of human life and talent. He signifies innocence, easy progress, and success, especially in initiating new activities.

Throughout Celtic history, mother goddesses have various consorts. Often goddesses and gods, such as Nantosuelta and Sucellus and Rosmerta and Mercury, are consistently paired as divine partners or lovers. The Green Man is one such consort, a precociously sexual and youthful consort conveying fertility wherever he goes.

The virility of the antlered god Cernunnos and the Green Man are interrelated, so much so that the Green Man might be considered a variant of Cernunnos. From the earliest evidence left by Bronze and Iron Age Celts, Cernunnos presides over the forest, wearing the branching antlers of a stag. His imagery is potent and powerful, assuring the fertility of the natural world in human life. Similarly, in a carving from Germany known as the St. Goar pillar, vegetation grows from the Green Man's head and forms his beard. On the Gundestrup Cauldron, the head of a male is covered with the stylised hair formed of intertwining leaves. As in so many Celtic images the power resides in the head.

Images of the Green Man adorning European cathedrals and churches portray his head and especially his hair, beard, and mustache as a composite of leaves, branches, and vines. Long leaves may stem from his mouth to form an exaggerated beard or mustache. Grapevines, sometimes bearing grapes, run out of the sides of his mouth encircling his head as stylised hair and beard. A mass of leaves may surround his head. His image on the facades and interiors of churches artfully combines the Green Man's foliate persona with figures from the Christian gospels. His appearance is typically placed as though he were an unnamed guardian, as in the Gothic spire of the Münster of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Largely hidden from view from below, heads of the Green Man look down from the open fretwork spire in grief and sorrow at the crucified Christ on the cross below. In a Romanesque carving from Exeter, the Virgin Mary holds her child supported by the foliate head of a Green Man, his eyes closed as though in ageless invocation.

In contrast to the subtle fertility imagery of church art, the explicit, sexual imagery of a youthful consort is boldly portrayed in Irish myth and legend. Like the land itself, Irish legends are rich and moist with youthful sexuality. Much lighthearted phallic humour, for example, quickens the narrative of the Irish epic Táiin Bó Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley). As a responsible sovereign, Queen Medb (often thought to be a personification of a goddess because Celtic tribes did not necessarily have queens) tests the prowess of her many consorts. In their encounter in the wood, Fergus fails to meet Medb's expectations and he "loses his sword." Similarly, Imbolc, the Feast of Brigit celebrated on February 1, is marked with sexual overtones evocative of an older agrarian perspective that linked the fertility of crops, livestock, and humans. According to one folk tradition, the man of the house enters the household in the name of Brigit and "those within ... go on their knees, open their eyes and admit Brigit," an overtly sexual reference to mating on Imbolc as a means of invoking the blessing of the goddess on the fertility of the household. The robust and fertile image of the Green Man is continued in the Irish Strawboys, the "masked and straw-costumed well-wishers who graced with their presence the house-parties of Irish country weddings."

However, your success is limited by natural circumstances beyond your control. Though appearing in many guises through the centuries, the Green Man is always younger and less experienced than the mother goddess, the sovereign Mother Earth. This youthful innocence can accomplish many ends, but you will need greater strength, confidence, and maturity to fully accomplish your goals. By accepting the limits of the situation, you will find much personal satisfaction and ready success. On the other hand, if you overextend your energy or ambition or brashly push ahead, the situation may turn from success to disappointment, and even ridicule.

Today's Oracle 24th May 2021

Hammer god (Scepter of Authority and Choice)

The Hammer God is primarily a tribal father god, wielding his hammer or mallet as a symbol of authority and command. He is mature and kindly, yet his presence signifies the need to consider options wisely and make sound, discriminating decisions.

Invoking the Qualities of Wise and Just Decisions

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you need to make wise and careful decisions regarding your own resources and activities, and perhaps those affecting a large number of people, such as your extended family or community. Others are looking to you for guidance, leadership, and support.

The Hammer God is primarily a tribal father god, wielding his hammer or mallet as a symbol of authority and command. Of mature age and kindly disposition, he is the most good-natured and benevolent of the major male deities. Frequently holding a pot or goblet or standing near wine barrels, he is also linked with the inexhaustible cauldron of the Otherworld. His Celtic name is Sucellus, meaning "The Good Striker," and his presence brings wise and judicious decision making, especially in community affairs.

The Hammer God had widespread influence throughout the Rhineland and ancient Gaul, extending southward to the mouth of the Rhone. Over two hundred stone and bronze representations have been found, largely along the Rhine and the Rhone River valleys. His mature and kind appearance lends a benign and fatherly presence. In the image he not only carries a large club but his erect penis depicts power and robust fertility. He holds a hammer or mallet, his signature attribute among many Celtic tribes. Often the hammer is crudely carved; sometimes it is realistically portrayed, with a long-shafted handle and metal blade. Occasionally, a double-ax, suggestive of unlimited authority, is present along with the hammer. The Hammer God is so ubiquitously associated with the hammer that sometimes his presence is marked by the symbol of the hammer alone.

The most prominent father-god of Irish mythology is the Daghdha, meaning "the good god." He is one of the Tuatha De Danann, the people of the goddess Danu. Like the Hammer God, he wields an enormous club, suggestive of authority, fertility, and perhaps its role as an agent of renewal. Another of the Daghdha's attributes is his possession of an enormous, inexhaustible cauldron, also associated with the otherworldly powers of the mother goddesses.

In a similar manner, the Gaulish and Rhineland Hammer God is also associated with pots, goblets, and wine barrels, particularly in wine-producing regions like Burgundy. Though always signified as holding a hammer or mallet over one of his shoulders, he sometimes carries a pot or goblet as well, or stands with wine barrels at his feet. This association assumes his protection of the grape harvest and the production of wine.

You must consider the situation perspicaciously, carefully examining the circumstances and options, as well as the possible outcomes of your present actions. You may need to be very patient, waiting for information to form a discernible pattern. Only then can you make prudent decisions. The fatherly presence of the Hammer God signals an auspicious opportunity to better your own circumstances and the circumstances of those for whom you are responsible. If you take sufficient time and care to listen to all sides of the discussion and weigh all the possible outcomes, you will not only be successful but garner the esteem of your family and community.

Today's Oracle 23rd May 2021

Water Horses (Magical Encounters)

Water horses, are magical horses riding over the seas or appearing from the depths of inland lochs. Water horses appear magically and swiftly. Their presence signifies masculine strength and beauty.

Invoking the Union of Strength and Beauty.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are called to renew some aspect of your life with the joining of beauty and strength. Perhaps your life now feels too familiar, routine, conforming, or emotionally flat. Your daily activities may lack spontaneity and vigour. Male or female, the depths of your masculinity may long for opportunities to explore new strengths and capacities. You may wish to express your outward authority, mastery, and leadership in tender and gracious ways. If so, new challenges and experiences may be drawing close. Your judgment and skill will be tested. Opportunities to explore the unknown may enter your life. By joining beauty to strength, you have the opportunity to break out of the overly familiar and experience vigorous and harmonious ways of living and acting.

Water horses appear riding across the seas or arising from he depths of lochs. Like sky horses drawing the sun's chariots across the skies in prehistoric drawings, mythic water horses convey the chariots of the god of the seas, Manannán Mac Lir, and his entourage across oceans. In folk stories, swift and radiant water horses arise from the depths of inland lakes to bring prosperity to those who respect and provide for them. The water horse represents strength and beauty crossing into our lives.

Crossing the seas or arising from the depths of inland lochs, water horses bring a bright union of strength and beauty. Glistening in the sun, they combine the strength and vigour of a horse, the radiance of sun in swift flight, and the mystery of its origins beneath the sea. In The Voyage of Bran, a mythical sea horse conveys the chariot of the god of the seas, Manannán Mac Lir, and his company to meet Bran and his sailors, who are in search of the enchanted isle. As Manannán comes closer to the boat he begins to sing:

"Bran's boat shims over calm waters.
Bran's ship is revelling in a clear sea, but to me, in my chariot, it is a flowery plain.
In my gentle land, the home of Manannán Mac Lir, sea horses glisten in the sun, and rivers pour forth honey.
Flowers are growing where Bran sees waves....
Row steadily, Bran, row steadily over my kingdom and you will reach the Land of Women before the setting of the sun."

Manannán and his chariot disappear beneath the waves and Bran and his sailors row on.

Water horses radiate strength and beauty in popular tales from Ireland and Scotland. Many of the stories tell of a poor farmer whose farm is near a lake or the sea. One day he discovers a foal in his field and she grows into a magnificent mare. She is beautiful, of "fine limb and graceful form" and as "swift as the wind and had no equal." Many years later, he mistreats her and she disappears with her foals back into the sea. In a typical story from County Sligo in Ireland, a poor farmer encounters a foal grazing on the shore near his small house:

"One morning when he got up he went out to the well for a can of water for his tea. To his great surprise, he saw a young foal on the shore. He went down to the shore and brought the foal in. The foal grew to a mare and every year she had a foal. This continued for seven years and after some time he was a rich man.... But one morning a strange thing happened. The man went out to the stable to let out the mare. When he was letting her out, he hit her with her bridle. As soon as he did, the mare neighed seven times and the seven foals came galloping up to her. They all turned in the direction of the sea and swam out into the water. They were never seen again."