Breath of the Sorcerer
The Breath of the Sorcerer is based on Celtic mythology and tells the story of a young woman who is unexpectedly chosen as the leader of her people. She’s immediately thrown into a battle for her life and of her people as a dark Sorcerer sets out to destroy her world and a new people come.
The book takes place around 400 AD. It was a time when the world was rapidly changing. Airmid’s people were descendants of the Tuatara de Danann, a supernatural race who were imbued with supernatural powers. They were simple people-farmers, druids, bards, warriors, heroes, healers, and craftsmen. The ‘new people’s ways conflicted with the ways of Airmid’s people. Airmid and her people were a matriarchal society that was based on healing, faeries, herbal plants, and spiritualism. The new people were quick to join the druid’s society and no longer allowed women to participate. So, Airmid now had an evil Sorcerer to contend with and those who were intent on destroying her people’s ways and beliefs.
The Sorcerer is spreading a blight over the trees and plants in the forest and they are dying, as are the faeries who care for them.
It has taken me many years to write this book and as it evolved, I realized that the simple story I started with soon became laden with core issues we face today. Are keeping traditions and knowledge important? Is global warming going to be our demise or our turning point when a solution is found and implemented? And, how do we stand up for ourselves when there is no light at the end of the tunnel?
Airmid faces these challenges and nearly dies as the hideous monster tries to kill her and all those that she loves. What will it take for this young woman to triumph and leave the dark behind? And the core question; will the dark ever be truly gone?
Who is Airmid?
Airmed or Airmid, is the Celtic goddess of healing and herbs. Although she is seen as a minor goddess in Irish mythology and folklore, I think she should be celebrated and known more than she is.
She is the Irish equivalent to healing goddesses like Eir in Norse mythology, revealing how important women were in ancient tribes.
Airmid, the goddess of healing, is a member of the Tuatha de Danaan, the ancient Celtic gods and goddesses. She is also the daughter of Dian Cecht, one of the Irish mythology gods, and the brother of Miach, the alchemist. In Irish Celtic mythology, she is mentioned in Cath Maige Tuired as the one who assisted in healing during the Battle of Maige Tuired.
AIRMED IN IRISH MYTHOLOGY
Her story in Irish mythology centers around the jealousy of her father, Dian Cecht.
When King Nuada’s arm was severed from his body in battle, he called upon Dian Cecht as his Chief Physician. Dian Cecht wanted to replace the King’s arm with he fashioned from silver, however, Miach had a different plan. Miach was able to create an arm from flesh, and Airmed used her healing knowledge to bring the arm to life. Their father became so enraged that he murdered Miach and buried him on the battlefield.
Airmed rushed to the grave and was so distraught that from her tears where her brother was buried, 365 herbs grew. There were 365 herbs that grew from her brother’s grave, one for each of his joints and sinews and one for each day of the year. Airmed then spread her cloak across the herbs to gather them up.
Dian Cecht also became enraged by this and mixed the herbs up, casting them across the earth. This is why they say to this day nobody knows all the herbs and their healing properties, only those that are touched by Awen or intuitive knowledge can know.
WHAT IS AIRMED THE GODDESS OF?
“Miach was buried by Dian Cecht and three hundred and sixty-five herbs grew through the grave, corresponding to the number of his joints and sinews. ”
— Cath Maige Tuired
The goddess Airmed is skilled in the healing arts. The mythological tale tells us first of all that Airmed is a skilled Celtic healing goddess because she knew exactly the amount of joints and sinews in Micha's body. The 365 herbs represented the number of joints and sinews in the body, according to the lore.
Remarkably, with our modern medical knowledge today we know that the human body varies in the number of joints from person to person. It is estimated that the human body generally has between 250 - 360 joints.This part of the mythology tells us that actually, our ancient ancestors knew approximately how many joints and sinews the body had. This would have assisted them in their healing practices.
This first part of the story clearly shows that Airmed is in fact the goddess of healing in a bodily sense. She has deep knowledge about the body, how it works, and how it can be healed.
AIRMED IS A MASTER DRUID
The second part of the story is quite multilayered and interesting. When Airmed is collecting the herbs, she counts 365, one for every day in the year. This symbolizes her knowledge of all the herbs on earth, and all the cures for every ailment under the sun. The mythology tale ends with the narrator telling us that no one on earth has this knowledge because Dian Cecht hid it by scattering the herbs.
The story can also be interpreted slightly differently. Airmed herself conceals the true knowledge of the herbs, gathering them up and placing them under her cloak. The cloak symbolizes hidden wisdom that can only be known through intuition.
In this way, Airmed can be seen as a master druid; one who knows the cures of healing herbs from her ability to sense the life force within the plant. Druids honored the spirit within plants and trees to gain their knowledge. The belief that plants had souls is an ancient animistic belief found in ancient traditions around the world, including one of the most ancient religions, Jainism.
That is why it’s said that no one can know the cures in their totality except for those “touched by the Holy Spirit” or in the non-Christianised version “one touched by Awen” or the Celtic notion of indescribable wisdom.
Nature is Divine and Sacred
Druids, Celtics and many other cultures through time have come to rely on nature as their source for healing, direction, farming, animal husbandry and life in general. Nature has always been seen as divine and sacred and the belief most commonly held over time, is that every part of Nature holds the answers we may have about everything in our lives. The core belief is that humankind is only one part of the wider web of life. Animals, plants, rocks, trees, all people-each is a part of the whole and each has a gift for all and no one creature or aspect has supremacy over any other part of the whole.
Plants carry an intelligence that is so beyond what we as people can comprehend. They know when to grow, when to die back, how to talk to others in their ecosystem, how to preserve energy and so many other things.
I enjoy choosing a place in nature that feels sacred to me and I like to go there many times during the year, visiting it as I would an old friend. One year I choose a place in the Sandia Mountains, located in New Mexico, close to Albuquerque. I got in my reliable Jeep and ventured up the mountain to a place that really spoke to me. I love to walk a bit and then find a nice place to sit and observe all that is around me-the plants, the insects, the earth, the sky, the clouds and so on. I was completely surprised and a bit sad to find that there were hardly any wild flowers to be seen. There had been a drought and the plants hadn’t bloomed.
Several weeks later I returned, soon after a few rain showers had fallen. Sure enough, the hillside was scattered with red, blue, pink, yellow, white-all colors of flowers. Their little heads blew gently in the breeze and it made me think how brilliant they were to wait until they showed themselves. Did the red one on insist on being red? Did the blue one fight to be blue? For me, it was a sacred moment when I realized that none of them had declared what they were going to be, they simply were what they were and they came to exist when it was time for them to.
This is certainly a different approach that we humans have. Right now, it’s so hot outside but I’m very comfortable in my airconditioned home. I didn’t have to go kill or collect my food for the day, I simply went to the store and got it or went to a restaurant where someone else prepared it for me. Our clothes, our everything is available for us all the time and I think that because of that, we’ve lost our own innate intelligence-that connection with what is divine and sacred.
Airmid, the main character in my book, has to struggle with these issues. It is going to be up to her to preserve the ways of her people and make sure that the healing knowledge she holds isn’t lost as the ‘new ones’ come to her land with their ‘new ways’.