Colm Cille is the Summer-King, an emanation of the Creator-Deity reflecting the growth and increase of Summertime. Usually presenting as a beloved King, he is born mid-winter and dies with the peak of Summer.

Today's issue concerns one of the most well-known saints in Ireland. In many ways, he closely resembles Patrick (who is principally Lugaid, Lugh), as a widely-roving, strongly Solar-aspected hero. In other ways, he's clearly distinct. Colm Cille, and the many Colmáns and Cainneachs and Mocholmócs and so on, are expressions of an archetype that's actually two steps down from Lugaid / Patrick: that of Cormac, or Conchobar, or Cairbre, the Summer King.

Though, as will become clear, there is a lot of trait-slippage between the Cosmic-Person, the Demiurge, and the lower emanations of the Demiurge such as Cormac/Colm/Cairbre. These archetypes represent continuations of the same Cosmos-Creating essence of increase and generativity. They are distinct, but linearly related.

No space for a "Patterns" this issue, either! Also, sorry it's a day and a half later than scheduled. Life happens.

Miniaturisation of the Cosmic

If Colm Cille is an emanation of the Demiurgic Creator, we should be familiar with what the Creator is and does. Let's recap the Creation-Myth reconstruction I've alluded to previously. There are fragments in the issues for Íta, Patrick, Cíarán, Brychan, and Conall.

I haven't yet made a cogent outline of the whole myth as it currently appears to me; I won't here, either. Sorry! I will link to Taliesin's Maps' videos on various stages; my own model is still in general agreement with his.

The world begins with an Absolute - that's the clearest conclusion that can be drawn from J.Dolan's work on the various names of the Celtic Absolute and the (mythically and linguistically) cognate parallels to the Hindu Absolute, Brahman.

After this, some Pre-Cosmic Gods act in unison as a Cosmic Person, named Delbáeth (or Lugaid) (TM refers to them by the Hindu name "Purusha"). They may be "kindled" into this form by the action of the Cosmic Air/Wind, Dáire - AKA the Dagda. Creation commences with/upon the Cosmic Waters, who may be the Mórrígan or one step above her cosmogonically (perhaps Cessair?).

An area of solidity is created from the water (By Dagda/Dáire): the Axis-Mundi. On which, the Shell of the Cosmos is created, and in this shell is created an emanation of the Cosmic Person, the Demiurge (TM uses the Hindu name "Prajapati") - In Irish myth, the Demiurge Creator-God is Cíar or Bile, in Welsh myth one name of the Demiurge Creator-god is Brychan.

The "shell" is broken into Sky and Earth, by the action of a fierce emanation of the Demiurge, the Destroyer-Deity; in Irish legend this is a Fionn-type, and represented in the Battle of Maigh Tuired in triune form as Amergin/Eber-Finn/Eremón. The Earth and Sky are held apart by "Pillar" Axes-Mundi, which appear widely in Gaelic myth and likely represent the same god as the sacred trees: Bíle.

The Creation is 'done', but it's not the end of Creator-emanations. The Cosmic Person can emanate within the world (As Lugh/Lugaid), and it appears that even the Irish Absolute can be personified and appear within the world, somehow. But, of course, the Demiurge as the "Creator-within-the-world" readily manifests and emanates further, and that's today's issue.

Lower Aspect

In Cíarán's issue we met some of his "animal monks", and I said that some are clear recurring characters in Irish myth: Badger, and Fox. Under Old Irish names Tadg and Crimthann, we find these characters alongside other Demiurgic emanations in the Cycle of Kings and elsewhere. Indeed, today's saint, Colm Cille, has a different name at birth: Crimthann (Fox).

"Fox" was an errant monk, who chewed one of Cíarán's possessions and ran away. Cíarán sent badger to bring him back, and he atone and became good again. If "Fox" is ultimately faithful to the Demiurge but prone to prideful, avaricious, or lustful temptation from righteousness, then that matches the "Summer King" archetype Colm Cille (née Crimthann) belongs to. This also includes the similarly intemperate Conchobhar and Cormac mac Airt. Not all Summer-Kings show the same tendency: Art mac Cuinn and Cairbre Lifechair seem generally more sensible.

Flaws aside, this god is principally a celebrated and beloved king - their flaws are rarely presented as the main focus of their tales. If they are, it's likely to be a "Cairbre" or "Coirpre" - a name that seems to follow Summer Kings who are presented as rivals or antagonists of the "main character" of a story.. even when they're kinda the good-guy, like Cairbre Lifechair.

It's key to note: this archetype is only partially the same as the Demiurge themselves; they're an emanation. The Demiurge is the (inner) creator of the cosmos, and they often appear aloof or undesirous. Bile doesn't take any real part in the Milesian Invasion, both Cíaráns spend most of their time at home reacting to things, etc.. But the Summer-King is active in the world, with the normal range of desire and ambition, bringing all the dramatic conflict that entails.

Summer King, Winter King

I introduced this conflict in the previous issue, on Conall, so I won't go deeply into it here. This is the conflict representing the turning-over of seasons, from Winter to Summer. It can be a literal yearly transition, or it can represent transition from Cosmic Winter to Cosmic Summer; hard times to good, perhaps.

This conflict pits the Summer King against a "Winter King" from the Fionn-type group (1), usually in a dispute over a woman. This includes Fionn, Fiach[rn]a, Fintan, Finnian, Amergin, Mongán, Conall, Cét.

So, does Colm Cille have such a conflict? Indeed he does - his famous conflict with Finnian over a copied book (a female one?) leads to Colm's exile. Usually, the Summer King dies in these conflicts, but perhaps not when he's the protagonist of the story - Colm Cille instead starts anew in Alba/Scotland and Iona.

As a "King of Summer", this archetype seems to be born in midwinter, and while he lives the power of the Sun increases - both Colm and Conchobar are born in midwinter. Conchobar dies simultaneous with Jesus (so, late Spring), Colm dies around Midsummer. The parallel Welsh figure, Gwythyr, battles Conall on Calen Mai - May Day, in between Conchobar and Colm Cille. Why the variation? We'll get to it..

Freshwater Maternity

I first explored this archetype while chasing the names "Coirpre" and "Cairbre". I had observed Dolan's "Daksha/Cernunnos" pattern in the story "Lomna's Head", where the "Summer King" is so named. I noticed pretty quickly while examining the Coirpres and Cairbres: they usually have a mother named Eithne.

Eithne, later known as Boann or Fidelm, is mother to Lugh and also Aengus mac Óg. Which raises an interesting and obvious question about Cairbre, Colm Cille, and Lugh.. but I'll return to that.

Eithne/Boann belongs to an archetype of Poetic-Wisdom, Groundwater/Freshwater goddesses. When they're given conception or birth myths for their offspring, water usually figures significantly somehow. The association with Poetry, Prophesy, and Water suggests an esoteric relationship to the Fionn-types: It's from (the river) Boann where Fionn gains his wisdom, after all.

Another goddess who aligns closely to the same archetype is Ness, mother of Conchobhar. Like Boann, her key attributes are Wisdom, Water, Maternity, and a Fenian connection; in her case, she becomes a fian herself. Conchobar is conceived in a watery myth, and she gives birth to him at a river, in fact directly into the river. Her name is attached to a significant and mythically rich waterway in Scotland: The Ness.

A Fraternity of Summer Kings

Examining Conchobhar, one finds a fairly clear blend of traits that suggest a Summer King archetype, as discussed in Conall's issue. Yes, there's a bit of "Sky Father" in the mix, but his personality and much of his mythos expresses the same archetype as Colm Cille. But looking closely, you find even more traits that align with other Irish kings, including Cormac Mac Airt.

Both Conchobhar and Cormac marry a Medb and an Eithne. Both war immediately with a Fergus upon becoming become king. Both have at least one son who has a Summer-King name themselves, though Conchobhar's son Cormac overall looks much more like the related-but-distinct Conaire/Donn/Diarmait type. Cormac's son Cairbre, meanwhile, appears basically like a continuation of Cormac.

Cormac's father, Art mac Cuinn, appears himself to belong to a closely related, if not identical, archetype. His father, Conn Cétcathach, appears to be a Lugaid-type, and Art also marries a Medb - the same Medb as Cormac, in fact. Right before his death, another of Art's consorts, Achtan, dreams of two trees (a recurring symbol of the Axis Mundi), and Art interprets them as his son Cormac, and his grandson Cairbre. The name "Art" is likely cognate with "Arthur", as in the famous Welsh king, Arthur. Arthur's precise archetype is similarly ambiguous to Art's: he has parallels with Lugh's birth-myth, and Conchobhar's general vibes.

This reveals a curious parallelism between Conn Cétcathach and Lugaid mac Con, and between Art and his own son Cormac. They are playing out two syncopated successions of Incarnated Cosmic Person and Incarnated Demiurge, overlaid. The result is a more complex and interesting myth with tie-in to the Ulster, Fiannaíocht, and Eoghanachta mythic cycles: full marks.

Why So Cryptic?

Outside of the Hindu tradition, with an explicit and persistent creator-deity in Prajapati or Brahma, most other Indo-European religions seemed to lack a Demiurge who..sticks around. Some sects of Greek religion (e.g. Orphism) had Protogonos (AKA Phanes), but they seemed not have much relevance after the act of creation, except in their esoteric identity with Zeus and Dionysus. Looked at another, way, Zeus and Dionysus are the persistence of the Demiurge in Orphic myth. We'll explore that more below.

Yet, it's also possible that the traces of this Demiurge were widespread, but more aggressively purged by Christianity in the West. This is the Creator-God, after all, the main rival to Abrahamic El/Yahweh. This purge was apparently less successful in the Mediterranean for a variety of reasons, but we know that most pre-Romanisation traces of native religions in Germanic and Celtic regions were quite successfully destroyed, and recorded later only as redacted to suit Christian mores: by casting the more contentious gods as saints, maybe.

I've argued that Cíarán matches the archetype of the Demiurge in Irish myth. I accidentally found that Brychan matches the archetype for Welsh myth (while researching for what I thought was the Welsh parallel to Breoghan/Brahman - c'est la vie..). It appears the Insular Celts, at least, did have a persistent and venerated Demiurge, like in Hinduism. Perhaps there is one yet to be rediscovered in Germanic myth, too.

As to the Summer-King, the lower-emanation of the same god-type, it was far easier to deal with that character; just fully Euhemerise them into a Human King. But I don't want to say for certain that that's the only reason that Art, Cormac, Conchobhar, and Cairbre are human - it's also plausible that regional tradition was prone to euhemerising god-myths into their own founder-kings anyway. After all, the Just and Proper King in Celtic myth was probably seen as being possessed (2) by the Demiurge or Summer King: having prophetic speech, bringing increase and fruitfulness to the land, making supernaturally perfect judgements.

Either way, further embedding the god-myths into the god's incarnations or manifestations is too easy not to do, if it makes your dynasty look good and gets the Christians to stop stabbing you. So, Midas and Labraidh Loingseach both share a lot of myths, but probably because they are both templated from a cognate god-archetype. And both kings may have been viewed all along as semidivine dynastic founders. I can say that they're "incarnate Cosmic Persons", but this may not have been visible to the people associating their national identity with these storied kings. Unlike a "Lugaid" or a "Delbaeth", whose divinity would have been clear to a listener by his name, it's possible that "Labraidh" was just seen as a really great legendary King.

Lugaid's Successor, or Fionn's, or Fergus'?

So, the Demiurge succeeds from the Cosmic Person (Lugaid), and the Summer King is sort of a more active, world-embedded echo of this Demiurge. We'd expect his father figure(s) to usually be a Lugaid, then, right?

Sometimes, this is the case: Art's father Conn Cétcathach does seem to be a Lugaid-alike. But other times, not - Cormac is son of Art, another possible Summer King. Cairbre Lifechair descends from Cormac. At least Cormac gains the throne from a Lugaid. And Cairbre might be a sort of continuation of Cormac to "take the fall" from Fionn's Fianna without having crowd-favourite Cormac die as an antagonist.

But, lots of these figures nevertheless have non-Lugaid fathers, like Conchobar and also many Colmáns. Some of their fathers can be read as participles of Lugaid, like Cathbad, an exculpation I explored in Caoimhín's issue. But many have Fionn-type parents, which seems a little harder to write-off. Yes, the Fionn-type is present in the Pre-Cosmic, and probably part of Lugaid.. but of all the participles to make father of the Summer King, why that one?

Even Conchobar's alternate father, Fachtna, seems to be a Fionn-name. And so does Colm Cille's father, "Fidlimid". Taking a wide view, there are Colmáns descending from Amergins and Fionáns just as often as from Lugaidhs and Crimthanns and Baodáns. Some, like Colmán of Clonpriest, have a parent "Lugaidh" and a teacher "Finbarr", just to confuse matters.

It's not the only hint we have, that there seems to be an active Fionn-type somewhere in this pre-cosmic Milieu. My guess is that this is Fintan, flaky partner to the perhaps Early-Cosmic-Waters goddess Cessair and later student of a possibly incarnated form of the Absolute Deity. I believe the Saintly form of Fintan is Finnian, the name given to two of Colm Cille's teachers, as well as to the Fionn-type he conflicts with. It seems that this peri-Cosmic Fionn is a sponsor, preceptor, instigator, of the Demiurge, and this shines through in his incarnations.

But there's one other oddity; Conchobhar and Cormac both war with a Fergus upon attaining the kingship. What's that about? Fergus/Dagda is the Wind-God, having a probable precosmic role as the "kindler" of the coalescing Lugaid. So he's kinda the grand-daddy and father of the Demiurge. But Fergus is also the Sky-God, probably represented by the upper part of the "Material Shell" (perhaps an eggshell) that the Demiurge-Cosmos must "hatch" from, an act performed by the Fionn-type aspect of the Demiurge.

So, under TM's model, it's the Fionn-type who separates the Sky from the Earth (c.f. Cronus separating Ouranos and Gaia), but the Demiurge-kings Cormac and Conchobar are the ones who war with Fergus over the Kingship (kind of literally the marriage to the Earth). It's possible that this is just them cementing their rule against a resentful Sky-God.

International Parallels..

So, obviously we can compare the Celtic Demiurges Cíar/Brychan to the Hindu and Greek cases, respectively Prajapati and Phanes/Protogonos. I've done so in previous issues, such as Cíarán's and Brychan's. Taliesin's Map models Búri as the Norse form of the Demiurge, but there are few stories surviving to give us an idea of Búri as a character.

But we're talking about a "lower" emanation of the Demiurge, here, in Cormac/Colmcille/Conchobhar. In the Norse as in the Irish, it's likely that this character is only clearly present as a fully-euhemerised character, presented as a human King or a Saint. But in other religions, there are still gods who represent this archetype.

The Hindu Creator-god Brahma, while officially a latter-day renaming of Prajapati, does seem to have a more intemperate personality in much of his portrayal, but he's still officially the Creator-god himself, and he's still fairly aloof - people come to Brahma with problems, and he perhaps helps. Of the lower Prajapatis, it's Daksha who seems to fit this archetype best, as explored by Taliesin's Map in his videos about Daksha and Cernunnos. Brahma's consort is Saraswati, though, who would be the clearest parallel to Eithne, consort of Cormac and Conchobar and other Summer Kings..

In the Greek case, the most obvious example would be Zeus himself, who's connected in the Orphic sect to Protogonos, and who in some myths devours Protogonos in order to become one with him (as he does a few other things). Zeus' personality certainly resembles the beloved, fruitful king of sun and summertime, including the intemperate and lustful flaws of the same. But of course, Zeus defeats his Fionn-type opponent, Cronos - and overall, Zeus more closely resembles the victorious solar-saviour king, Lugh. Dionysus is also equated to Phanes in some hymns, as he is also to Zeus, and the Irish material similarly presents the Moon-Immortality God Bréanainn and Baoithín as shadows of the Demiurge Cíarán and the Summer-King Colm/án.

But, if Zeus ~= Lugh, and Dionysus ~= Bréanainn, but Zeus is also maybe the Greek "Summer King", and Lugh/Lugaid and Midir/Bréanainn don't hang out as much.. It's only half lining-up for Lugh and Colm. What's up?

Is Lugh a Summer King?

Why shouldn't Colm Cille or Cormac be read as expressions of Lugh rather than some distinct archetype? There are certainly strong connections (even ignoring the international hints, e.g. Zeus). Obviously, Lugh shares a mother with Colm Cille, many Cairbres, and (as "Ness") with Conchobar. Colm Cille has strong Solar mythemes and vibes matching Lugh, frequently described as too radiant to look upon, or illuminating the area like a Midsummer Day Sun. And, Lugh conflicts with a character who appears to be a demonised Fionn: Balor.

But there's the big difference. Lugh defeats Balor, in a myth that aligns him with Dumézil's Mitra-type heroes (such as Zeus and Perseus) all over the Proto-Indo-European world. He reigns long and fruitfully - at the very least, past Lughnasa. His death isn't a Summertime conflict over a woman by a Fionn-type, but a revenge-killing in a sacrificial style, similar to other Lugaids.

The death-days of the Summer Kings vary quite a bit. Probably, their deaths symbolically represent the beginning of the decline of Summer. So, do their various deaths correspond to variation in the peaks of Summers? If he dies on Mayday or even before, then surely the Summer will be poor, but if he dies Midsummer it'll be average, and if he dies later it'll be great?

Lugh's victorious defeat of the Demonic Fionn-type Balor is congruent with a victorious harvest at Lughnasa. Perhaps he embodies not only a good Summer, but literally the best possible Summer; the unconquered Summer King.

But Still Though, About Lugaid-

But yes, it's still confusing: Lugh seems to be identified in his name and his mythos and death with Lugaid, who seems to incarnate the Cosmic Person Delbáeth - the forerunner to the Demiurge. Whereas, the Summer Kings seem to (re)incarnate the Demiurge, Bíle/Cíar.

And, the international parallels seem to follow the latter pattern: Daksha is called Daksha Prajapati, not Daksha Purusha. It's hard to interrogate the Greek and Roman matter, because they don't seem to have a Cosmic Person in their theogonies.

Therefore, it seems as if the idea of the Victorious Summer King being the Cosmic Person rather than Demiurge is peculiar to the Irish, possibly Celtic, branch. Or, is it?

The Cosmic Person is the creator of the material shell of the Cosmos, and the Demiurge within it. But the Cosmic Person may also literally be the Cosmos in and of themselves - Purusha's body becomes the Cosmos. So, the Demiurge and the Universe would be within the Cosmic Person, right? Well, in Greek myth, we do have a fragmentary myth of Zeus consuming Phanes, and the wording indicates that Zeus therefore contains the Universe within himself. In effect, it's as if Zeus, whose archetype resembles a Summer King and a Lugh in one, has retroactively made himself into a Cosmic Person.

Looking again at Lugh vs. other Lugaids, it's clear that Lugh is a bit special - he's born like an emanation of the Demiurge, battles like a Summer King but wins, and dies like a Cosmic Person. The other Lugaids don't share this Zeus-like arc of "later upgrade" from Demiurge-incarnation to Cosmic-Person-Incarnation.

In any case, if this ambiguity between the emanations/incarnations of the Cosmic Person and the Demiurge is particular to Gaelic myth, it's not too out-there. The Demiurge is sort of an in-world aspect of the Cosmic Person. Whatever Lugh and Colm/Conchobar/Conor are, they're the incarnations of related Creator-Gods in Kingly form. Lugh brings the Victorious Summer in the Golden Age of the Gods. Colm/Conchobar/Conor don't, but that's fine too. Not every year can be perfect.

Wrap-Up

Essentially all of today's names are still current! Cormac, Colm, Conor (the modern form of Conchobar), and Art/Arthur are all in widespread use. Plenty of surname forms are also still current, particularly Ó Connor.

A note on "Col[u]m" - officially this is from Latin "Columba": "Dove". However, many manuscripts don't use this etymology: in the Life of Colmán of Luachan, para.4 gives various etymologies and none are "Dove". Instead, the main one is "a precious column upholding the firmament". This is the Axis Mundi, a symbol that keeps popping up around the Demiurges and their manifestations in various mythologies. So, could Colum be a native Gaelic theonym? I think so: "Colum" also appears in Old Irish as a word for "Column".

There are too many locations and places tied to Colm Cille to mention. And I'm not even sure that the "canonical" sites for Colm Cille himself should be interpreted as any more significant than sites of the many, many regional Colums. However, the Island of Iona seems to have been the most sacred associated site. Besides, that is, Émain Macha and Tara!

Foxes are of course an animal for a God-Saint called "Crimthann". But, White birds such as swans, cranes, and doves is also very recurrent - whether this was a late addition after the name "Columbanus" (Dove) was assigned to this god, is hard to say, but one of TM's recent theories does propose that White Birds are associated with the Creator-Gods.

Footnotes

1. These characters are often referred to in Neopagan circles as the "Holly" (Winter) and "Oak" (Summer) Kings - I use the seasonal names to be more clear to people unused to this idiom.
2. "Possession" might seem negative to an Abrahamised readership, but divine possession is divine, a sublime honour. It doesn't imply loss of agency, but a merging with a god's essence. A society whose king is possessed by the deity of fruitfulness and just-action can expect good times.
3. Alongside the other Axis-Mundi symbols, the Hill, the Tower and the World-Tree. All four symbols appear in Gaelic mythology.

Bibliography

• Adamnán's "Life of Saint Columba", tr. William Reeves (ed), UCC Celt
• "Life of Colmán of Luachan", UCC Celt

Coming Up

• 17th June: Moling Luachra - Saint-form of Aengus mac Óg, followed the same day by;
• 17th June: Nectan of Hartland - Boann's husband Nechtan, God of the Well of Wisdom
• 21st June: Suibhne/Comhgan, Merlin, the Mad/Ecstatic Sage
• 6th July: Eithne, Goddess of Wisdom and Deep Waters, Mother of Heroes, Cosmic Dreamer.