Civilization extending back nearly four thousand years accounts for many Irish beliefs and customs connected with the supernatural. Bullaun and other basin-stones are very ancient stones with an artificial hollow, or two hollows, in which water accumulates. The artificial hollows, it is said, may have come through ceremonial attrition. Near Clonegal Castle is a bullaun stone, which is said to cure warts - though I have never had reason to try it. Offerings of pins and coins are often made in bullaun stones, and some have been used as fonts in early Christian churches.

On ancient sites of early Irish settlement there is often a holy well. Holy wells, like venerated stones and thorn trees, are probably megalithic in origin, the megalithic religion having been brought by early invaders from the Mediterranean. There are about three thousand holy wells sited all over Ireland: there is a local one in most districts. We have a fifteen foot deep well inside Clonegal Castle springing from rock, and at its outlet in a field nearby is the Wart Stone. I remember one old lady persuading her doctor to bring her some of our well water in a bottle for some complaint or other.

Not only are the wells venerated through the earlier religions, but also through connection with some Saint. In County Waterford I was taken to such a well, a holy well blessed by the local Saint. My companion showed me the ritual. I drank the water, wished (the wish must be kept secret by custom), walked round the well three times sun-wise, and then had to tie some offering on a nearby tree. I had nothing to add to the collection of colorful fluttering rags tied to the branches, until I thought of a hair-grip, which I carefully fastened to a twig. This well was beautifully kept, surrounded by scythed grass, with a neat fence to preserve it from cattle.

One ancient disused well I used to know as a child. It was by a wildly overgrown bank of the river Slaney, nearby a giant boulder erected upright with a naturally formed mica cross on its surface. This was a pre-Christian site, and an old granite altar was silhouetted against the sky, high above well and rock. The bank faced east, and here the ancient people were said to have bathed in the river, drunk from the well, and awaited the rising sun coming over the rocks across the river. In India it is still the custom to have a temple with steps leading to a river, in which the worshippers wash ceremoniously.

Some holy wells are connected with healing. Strings of beads, rags or bits of clothing are tied to the holy tree which often overhangs the well, so that it may bear the officers’ ailments. During the ritual round of the well the sick make the sign of the cross with pebbles on certain stones which are worn into grooves by this ceremony. Pre-Christian wells have cup marks probably made by this ritual. After the round is made, if the sick person is to recover he will see the mysterious trout within the well, that only shows himself to the lucky person who is to be cured. These wells are said to be particularly useful for the cure of eye-trouble, toothache, lameness and barrenness. The first Sunday of each quarter of the Celtic year is generally the visiting time.

[One of these is Beltane, or May Day.] On May Day cattle were numbered, and the young crops were visited with torches and the cattle blessed before being driven to summer pasture, and hilltop fires were lighted. Celtic ‘Beltane’ fires used to be lighted by rubbing two pieces of wood together. All hearth fires were extinguished on May eve, and re-lit from the sacred fire. Even today it is regarded as unlucky to give away fire on May Day, which would be to give away your year’s luck. Again, as with Holy Wells, dancers circle the fire sun-wise. (*)

Interweaving with the ancient Celtic festivals invoking supernatural aid for life through the seasons, are the great church festivals of Christmas, Easter, Whitsun and Corpus Christi. Past and present, old ceremonies and new, all make an elaborate pattern of life that weaves the miraculous with the earthly, the St. Brigid’s Cross with the byre: through an intuitive understanding of the miracle of nature.

About the Author: The Hon. Olivia Robertson studied at Heathfield School, Ascot, and later at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London. During her years of study she was awarded the Purser-Griffith Scholarship and received her Diploma as a graduate in the study of European Art History from the National University of Dublin. The first exhibition of her art was held when she was only 21 years old. During the 1940s and 1950s she enjoyed a very successful career as a novelist. In 1976 Olivia co-founded the Fellowship of Isis along with her brother Lawrence Durdin-Robertson and his wife Pamela Durdin-Robertson in 1976. She still travels extensively, and provides lectures, rituals, and oracles that enrich the Goddess Community. She is very active as FOI co-founder, Global Advisor and Overseeing Consultant to the many branches of the Fellowship of Isis. Olivia celebrated her 91st birthday on April 13, 2008.

(*) Note: 'sun-wise' = clockwise

Article, "Pattern of Life: An Intuitive Understanding of Nature" and original art © Olivia Robertson. Used by permission. Brigid's Well photo is copyrighted ©. Used by permission of Olivia Robertson, all rights reserved.