Episode 13: What Can You Do? 

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This episode introduces Lugh, the figure of the Túatha Dé Danann whose name the festival of Lúnasa carries. Drawing on Cath Maige Tuired, where Lugh wins entry to Tara by naming each of his skills until he is known as Samildánach, the one skilled in many arts together, and on Mark Williams's Ireland's Immortals, it looks at what the texts actually say about him and what later readers got wrong, including the common claim that he was simply a sun god. It also follows the thread, debated though it is, that ties him to the festival through his foster mother Tailtiu.

✨ Lúnasa Resources -  https://irishpagan.school/lunasa  

This Episode's Practice: Naming Your Skills

You do it aloud, with your own voice. Stand on your own two feet, somewhere you will not be overheard if that helps. Bring to mind the things you can actually do, the real skills you carry and have earned, not the ones you wish you had. Name them aloud, one after another, the way Lugh named his at the gate of Tara: I can do this, and this, and this, the practical and the small and the unglamorous all counted in. Let the list build, and take your time. When you have named them all, stand a moment with the whole of it gathered into the one person standing there, and say, all of these together, in me. Close with Beir Bua (pronounced: BARE BOO-ah). This is a claiming, not a request. You are not asking Lugh for anything and not pretending to be him, so name only the true skills, the ones that will hold.

Irish Terms in This Episode

Lugh (LOO): a prominent figure of the Túatha Dé Danann, skilled in many arts; the festival of Lúnasa carries his name.

Samildánach (SAM-il-DAW-nakh): 'skilled in many arts together', the name Lugh earns at the gate of Tara.

Cath Maige Tuired (KAH MOY-uh TUR-uh): 'The Battle of Mag Tuired', the tale in which Lugh leads the Túatha Dé against the Fomorians.

Túatha Dé Danann (TOO-aha DAY DAN-an): the divine race of Irish tradition, the people of the goddess Danu.

Fomorians (foh-MOR-ee-uns): the hostile, raiding people opposed to the Túatha Dé in the tale.

Balor (BAL-or): the Fomorian with the destroying eye, brought down by Lugh.

Tailtiu (TAL-tyoo): Lugh's foster mother, in whose honour the tradition says he founded the assembly.

Beir Bua (BARE BOO-ah): take victory; the closing phrase of the practice.

Sources

• Cath Maige Tuired: The Second Battle of Mag Tuired, ed. and trans. Elizabeth A. Gray (Irish Texts Society, 1982); also the bilingual translation by Morgan Daimler.
• Mark Williams, Ireland's Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), on Lugh, Tailtiu, and the debated foundation of the assembly.

Living Irish Witchcraft is hosted by Rev. Lora O'Brien, MA. Find more at irishpaganschool.ie