The Dark part of the year.

I find myself repeating this over and over. I am always a little unnerved by the days between now and the Winter Solstice. All necessary and nothing to fear, but unsettling all the same. This is also part of this years Revels show which I find both strange and comforting. It's just another one of those powerful places where Paganism and Christianity intersect. The Lorica from which this comes is the story ( often attributed to St.Patrick) of how St.Patrick and his followers were turned into deer in order to protect them from the King's men. If that isn't a seriously pagan story then I don't know what is. St Patrick who drove the snakes from Ireland, the snakes of course, being my people. The pagan farmers and peasants of Ireland. So it's complicated this thing. This prayer attributed to the the person most associated with stamping out the religion of my ancestors. This prayer that sounds so very pagan coming from the mouth of someone so revered and so very Christian. Complicated. Like this season between Hallowe'en and The Winter Solstice. When the light is darkest, and the days are short. Complicated and beautiful.

The Rune of St Patrick.

The Faedh Fiada; or, "The Cry of the Deer."

At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By The Gods almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

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This is called the Rune of St. Patrick, a variant on the much longer Lorica. It is used as a prayer/spell in Madeline L'Engle's A Swiftly Tilting Planet.