Taghairm

Last updated

Taghairm, sometimes interpreted as "spiritual echo," or calling up the dead, was an ancient Scottish mode of divination. The definition of what was required varied, but often involved torture or cruelty to humans or animals and sometimes included animal sacrifice.

The Scottish writer Màrtainn MacGille Mhàrtainn describes three different ways of consulting spirits common in the Scottish Hebrides in the 17th century. All involved acts which were supposed to summon spirits or demons in the form of animals which would answer questions concerning the future. [1]

In one version of the taghairm said to be one of the most effective means of raising the devil, and getting unlawful wishes gratified, the ritual included roasting cats alive, one after the other, for several days without tasting food. This version of the taghairm supposedly summoned a legion of devils in the guise of black cats, with their master at their head, all screeching in a terrifying way. [2] The ritual is described in Gustav Meyrink’s book on John Dee, The Angel of the West Window. [3] [4]

An 1825 text described a different technique:

The divination by the taghairm was once a noted superstition among the Gael, and in the northern parts of the Lowlands of Scotland. When any important question concerning futurity arose, and of which a solution was, by all means, desirable, some shrewder person than his neighbours was pitched upon, to perform the part of a prophet. This person was wrapped in the warm smoking hide of a newly-slain ox or cow, commonly an ox, and laid at full length in the wildest recess of some lonely waterfall. The question was then put to him, and the oracle was left in solitude to consider it. Here he lay for some hours with his cloak of knowledge around him, and over his head, no doubt, to see the better into futurity; deafened by the incessant roaring of the torrent; every sense assailed; his body steaming; his fancy was in ferment; and whatever notion had found its way into his mind from so many sources of prophecy, it was firmly believed to have been communicated by invisible beings who were supposed to haunt such solitudes. [5] [6]

A similar description was given for taghairm in Trotternish in a 1772 account of the region, [7] and a number of closely matching accounts with hides and waterfalls can also be found, with some additionally including the diviner being beaten for a while with a pole or a staff after being covered by the animal skin. [8] [9]

Scottish historical novelist Sir Walter Scott scornfully described a third method in a footnote to his influential poem Lady of the Lake . He further adds that it could involve another situation "where the scenery around him suggested nothing but objects of horror." However, Scott could not speak Scottish Gaelic and his concepts of Gaelic culture were sometimes distorted.

Other variations practiced have been recorded, and the same name has also been applied to other ritual customs. One variation of the ritual was said to summon a demonic cat called Big Ears, who would grant the summoners answers to their questions and fulfill their wishes. The last ceremony of this kind is said to have been performed on the island of Mull in the beginning of the seventeenth century, and was recorded in the London Literary Gazette of March 1824. [10] [11]

Other regions

The animal skin and waterfall method of divination was also known in Wales. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samhain</span> Gaelic festival marking the start of winter

Samhain is a Gaelic festival on 1 November marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. Celebrations begin on the evening of 31 October, since the Celtic day began and ended at sunset. This is about halfway between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals along with Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lughnasa. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland, Galicia, and the Isle of Man. A similar festival was held by the Brittonic Celtic people, called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall, and Kalan Goañv in Brittany.

<i>Aos Sí</i> Supernatural race in Irish and Scottish mythology

Aos sí is the Irish name for a supernatural race in Celtic mythology – daoine sìth in Scottish Gaelic – comparable to fairies or elves. They are said to descend from the Tuatha Dé Danann, meaning the "People of Danu", depending on the Abrahamic or pagan tradition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Necromancy</span> Magic involving communication with the deceased

Necromancy is the practice of magical sorcery involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions for the purpose of divination; imparting the means to foretell future events; and discovery of hidden knowledge. Sometimes categorized under death magic, the term is occasionally also used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft as a whole. In fictional settings such as Dungeons and Dragons or fantasy video games it is associated with the reanimation of corpses often meant to be used as weapons.

Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or occultism. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may be nonhuman, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, several African groups, and others. The Islamic jinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls. At the same time these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g. diseases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black magic</span> Magic used for evil and selfish purposes

Nigromancy, meaning black magic together with six associated practices of black divination, has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes, specifically the seven magical arts prohibited by canon law, as expounded by Johannes Hartlieb in 1456.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Familiar</span> Spiritual entity in European folklore

In European folklore of the medieval and early modern periods, familiars were believed to be supernatural entities or spiritual guardians that would protect and/or assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic. According to records of the time, those alleging to have had contact with familiar spirits reported that they could manifest as numerous forms, usually as an animal, but sometimes as a human or humanoid figure, and were described as "clearly defined, three-dimensional... forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound", as opposed to descriptions of ghosts with their "smoky, undefined form[s]".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boobrie</span> Mythological shapeshifting entity in Scotland

The boobrie is a mythological shapeshifting entity inhabiting the lochs of the west coast of Scotland. It commonly adopts the appearance of a gigantic water bird resembling a cormorant or great northern diver, but it can also materialise in the form of various other mythological creatures such as a water bull.

Evocation is the act of evoking, calling upon, or summoning a spirit, demon, deity or other supernatural agents, in the Western mystery tradition. Conjuration also refers to a summoning, often by the use of a magical spell. The conjuration of the ghosts or spirits of the dead for the purpose of divination is called necromancy. Comparable practices exist in many religions and magical traditions and may employ the use of mind-altering substances with and without uttered word formulas.

<i>Daemonologie</i> Book by King James VI/I of Scotland/England about demons

Daemonologie—in full Daemonologie, In Forme of a Dialogue, Divided into three Books: By the High and Mighty Prince, James &c.—was first published in 1597 by King James VI of Scotland as a philosophical dissertation on contemporary necromancy and the historical relationships between the various methods of divination used from ancient black magic. It was reprinted again in 1603 when James took the throne of England. The widespread consensus is that King James wrote Daemonologie in response to sceptical publications such as Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft.

A bidding stick is a term for a wooden object, such as a club or baton, carried by a messenger and used by Northern Europeans, for example in Scotland and Scandinavia, to rally people for things (assemblies) and for defence or rebellion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Croft (land)</span> Small area of agricultural land

A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birlinn</span> Middle ages Scottish ship

The birlinn or West Highland galley was a wooden vessel propelled by sail and oar, used extensively in the Hebrides and West Highlands of Scotland from the Middle Ages on. Variants of the name in English and Lowland Scots include "berlin" and "birling". The Gaelic term may derive from the Norse byrðingr, a type of cargo vessel. It has been suggested that a local design lineage might also be traceable to vessels similar to the Broighter-type boat, equipped with oars and a square sail, without the need to assume a specific Viking design influence. It is uncertain, however, whether the Broighter model represents a wooden vessel or a skin-covered boat of the currach type. The majority of scholars emphasise the Viking influence on the birlinn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oxgang</span> Old English and Scottish land area

An oxgang or bovate is an old land measurement formerly used in Scotland and England as early as the 16th century sometimes referred to as an oxgait. It averaged around 20 English acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, and so could be as low as 15.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adder stone</span> Naturally-occurring stone with a hole through it

An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones, which usually consist of flint, have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt. Commonly, they are found in Northern Germany at the coasts of the North and Baltic Seas.

In Scottish folklore, a Lavellan, làbh-allan, la-mhalan or la-bhallan is a creature from northern Scotland.

The caoineag is a female spirit in Scottish folklore and a type of Highland banshee, her name meaning "weeper". She is normally invisible and foretells death in her clan by lamenting in the night at a waterfall, stream or Loch, or in a glen or on a mountainside. Unlike the related death portent known as the bean nighe, the caoineag cannot be approached, questioned, or made to grant wishes.

Ceirean, Cirein-cròin or cionarain-crò was a large sea monster in Scottish Gaelic folklore. An old saying claims that it was so large that it fed on seven whales: Local folklores say this huge animal can disguise itself as a small silver fish when fishermen came in contact with it. Other accounts state the reason for the disguise was to attract its next meal; when the fisherman would catch it in its small silver fish form, once aboard it changed back to the monster and ate him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claymore</span> Two-handed sword

A claymore is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed sword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sloping quillons with quatrefoil terminations and was in use from the 15th to 17th centuries.

The water bull, also known as tarbh-uisge in Scottish Gaelic, is a mythological Scottish creature similar to the Manx tarroo ushtey. Generally regarded as a nocturnal resident of moorland lochs, it is usually more amiable than its equine counterpart the water horse, but has similar amphibious and shapeshifting abilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue men of the Minch</span> Scottish mythological creatures

The blue men of the Minch, also known as storm kelpies, are mythological creatures inhabiting the stretch of water between the northern Outer Hebrides and mainland Scotland, looking for sailors to drown and stricken boats to sink. They appear to be localised to the Minch and surrounding areas to the north and as far east as Wick, unknown in other parts of Scotland and without counterparts in the rest of the world.

References

  1. Martin, Martin (1716). A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (2nd ed.). pp.  110–113.
  2. "taghairm". Am Faclair Beag. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  3. Meyrink, Gustav (1927). Der Engel vom Westlichen Fenster[The Angel in the Western Window] (in German). Translated by Mitchell, Mike (2nd ed.). UK: Dedalus Books. pp. 67–71. ISBN   9781903517819.
  4. Meyrink links the ritual to perhaps a fictional goddess, “the Black Mother, Isaïs.” Meyrink, p. 70.
  5. Armstrong, Robert Archibald (1825). A Gaelic dictionary in two parts. To which is prefixed, a new Gaelic grammar. London: James Duncan. p. 535. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  6. Dwelly, Edward (1918). Dwelly's Illustrated Gaelic Dictionary. Fleet: Dwelly. p. 920.
  7. Pennant, Thomas (1774). A tour in Scotland, and voyage to the Hebrides, 1772. Chester: John Monk. p. 360. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  8. Ramsay, John (1888). Scotland and Scotsmen in the eighteenth century. Edinburgh: Blackwood. p. 460. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  9. Wiseman, Andrew (2010). "Caterwauling and Demon Raising: The Ancient Rite of the Taghairm". Scottish Studies. 35: 174–209. doi: 10.2218/SS.V35.2694 .
  10. Briggs, Katharine (1976). An Encyclopedia of Fairies. Pantheon Books. pp. 23 ("Big Ears"), 388-9 ("Taghairm"). ISBN   0394409183.
  11. The London Literary Gazette March 1824, p. 172.
  12. Trevelyan, Marie (1909). Folk-lore and folk-stories of Wales. London: Stock. p. 5. Retrieved 24 January 2023.

This article incorporates text from Dwelly's [Scottish] Gaelic Dictionary (1911).