St. Patrick (the character) is Lugh.. but today we'll explore how he's also Lugaid: the related cosmic "book-end" character who prefigures the ages and arrives again later to close them out.

It's been a month for the peri-Cosmic Gods: Cíarán the Demiurge, his very close affiliate Cían/Caoimhín the God of the Wild Marches, and a lot of allusions to the character that precedes it all: Lugaid, the Cosmic Person.

Saint Patrick mostly appears as Lugh, the late-arriving "perfect king" who brings victory and law and outdoor parties. I mean, of course he's Lugh: Lugh was the "saviour" of Irish myth, the perfect figure for a Patron Saint. But Lugh-type gods seems to represent the in-world incarnation of a cosmic personage, and this seems to figure in some of Patrick's mythos, too.

There aren't many obvious Myths where Patrick fulfils this Cosmic role, but I believe they're nonetheless there. As Patrick appears a lot, I would like this aspect to be understood. Don't worry, Patrick-As-Lugh will also get attention in his various cameos, and particularly at Lughnasa, the festival named for Lugh but celebrated for Patrick - funny that.

Much of the comparison I'm drawing today concerns a kind of god who seems largely side-lined in European tradition: called "Purusha" in Hinduism. It seems this God was prevalent in Irish tradition, though!

Preamble: So, Patrick Wasn't Real Either?

Actually, Patrick is one of the few saints of this period that I believe was real. There you go. The trick is to realise that the "real" Patrick is only a small part of the "character" Patrick we meet in the Hagiographies. If you want a taste of what the "Real" Patrick's life in Ireland was like, according to him at least, read his "Confessio".

No, the "Patrick" we're interested in is the hagiographical one, the one that's a blend of the "real" Patrick's grounded account of himself, and of a much more bombastic character, who rolls unstoppably through Ireland, miracle-ing anyone who gets in his way, stabbing kings in the feet, preaching to crowds in their thousands who flock to be baptised en-masse.. it's not the same story as the Confessio Patrick. It's not (entirely) the same guy.

I'm interested in the "Patrick" that was written for the hagiographical tradition. Especially when he appears cameo-ing in other Saints' lives, which I think reflects most faithfully the original mythos, freer from the influence of the real-life guy's biography. This is the Patrick who brings the Sun back from the West in the story of Berach, for example: classic Lugh stuff.

Before I explore the hints of a "Cosmic Lugh" that bleed-through in Patrick's hagiography, I need to introduce the god-type we're looking for: Purusha.

The Purusha, Dolan's Reconstruction in Summary

The Purusha is a complex concept in Hinduism, combining a symbolic understanding of the human body and soul, with a mythic primordial god, a Cosmic-Scale Person whose body and soul represent the totality of all things. Let's focus on the latter, without forgetting that there's an esoteric side to Purusha that's relevant to a person's life and health.

The Purusha is a "Cosmic Person" god present at the pre-primordial scene, appearing to "coalesce" from a generation of sometimes highly abstracted or sometimes clearly-identified Precosmic Gods just one generation up. These gods may be represented as "cosmic airs/fires" that unite into one. These Precosmic Gods may either then fan-out from the Purusha when the job is done, or be "children" of him, or they may simple reappear without explanation. The Purusha is like Voltron, or Megazord.

Although a distinct character of his own, it's important to note that the later class of gods that align with Lugh (Mitra, Tŷr, Lleu, Lugh, Zeus, Jupiter, Batraz) may be seen as emanation-incarnations of the same cosmic person within the world. This seems strongly implied in the Irish example.

In his immediate situation, the Purusha can appear to blend with the demiurgic character "Prajapati" (Cíarán, Bile, Conchobhar..). But, Dolan's reconstruction suggests (and Irish material agrees) that the Purusha generally precedes the Prajapati type, and has a number of distinctive mythic tropes not usually found in the Prajapati gods. Dolan's reconstruction suggests that the Purusha creates the material cosmos, and embeds his successor Prajapati within it. The cosmic-creation narrative then usually follows the Prajapati thenceforth.

Finally, the Purusha is not only associated with generativity and life like Prajapati might sometimes be: Purusha also is associated with death, being a measurer of cosmic time and at times he strikes mortal fear into the gods themselves. Perhaps relatedly, the Cosmic Person may turn up at the Apocalyptic Scene or the End of the Age, to finish the universe (in religions that imagine a final apocalypse) or to finish the age (in religions that view things cyclically). In this role they might appear metaphorically in their incarnated form, like Lugh, or they might appear bluntly like a striding giant of destruction, like Surtr.

Purusha, Surtr, Zeus, Llassar.. The International Cases

I don't want to fully re-hash the fascinating comparative work already provided by the Taliesin's Map folks. It's too much for a newsletter, and his own work is right there. If you'd like to catch up on the comparisons I'll be summarising below, I recommend their video "The Purusha Explained".

Suffice it to say that this being leaves traces in Norse myth as the fiery airs of Muspelheim at the creation-scene, and the fiery giant of Muspelheim who appears at Ragnorok: Surtr. In Greek myth, as the fiery airs of "Aether", present at the creation-scene and associated sometimes with Zeus, and in the later behaviour of Zeus in the Orphic Greek religion when he devours progressively greater gods until he becomes understood as super-cosmic in scope (1).

These two non-Celtic European mythologies already have a few commonalities: fiery representation at the creation scene, late-coming "Cosmic Giants". The Greek/Roman mythologies don't seem to have shared the Norse or Hindu notion of cyclical apocalypses, though, and this cycle of ages seems more relevant in the Irish (maybe generally Celtic) case.

Per Taliesin's Map's reconstruction, we can see that the Welsh case shows another sort of alignment with the Hindu Purusha: the Giant who is sacrificed, but who emerges more powerful after it. Llassar Llaesgyvnewid (3) is a Giant who the king's people fear, so they build a huge metal house, provide him and his family with a feast there, and try to roast them all within (a scene that we'll see a parallel to in Irish example, too). But, Llassar and his wife escape, bringing with them the cauldron that so influences the events of the Second Branch of the Mabinogi.

Delbáeth, Lugaid, Labraidh

However, it's the Irish cases that provide the greater share of detail on the Celtic Purusha. Firstly, Dolan looked at Delbáeth ("Form-Fire"), the progenitor of a number of the Irish Tuatha Dé and Fomoire (2). He found that, in addition to having a number of offspring you expect of a Purusha-Prajapati, and in addition to the expected pattern of Voltron-like supernumary parentage, the name also lead him to another Delbáeth mentioned in the Metrical Dindshenchas.

This Delbáeth starts out named Lugaid mac Táil, and has five sons, all named Lugaid. He kindles a magical fire at Loch Lugborta, a site close to Uisneach, which is also where Lugh Lámhfhada died. The other Lugaids bring the fire outward from there. This reads like a new beginning, at the heart of Ireland and right at the site where a previous age's form of this deity "ended".

Chasing this new epithet of the Irish Purusha, Lugaid, we find a whole cluster of colourful characters who collectively seem to fit the prototype established by the Hindu Purusha. Better still, they seem to establish a cluster of behaviours and tropes that are all their own: we're no longer relying on the Hindu exemplar.

For example, like the above Lugaid mac Táil, we have another multi-Lugaid brotherhood surrounding Lugaid Loíghde, where one of the brothers Lugaid comes out on top in a contest to catch a deer, and is granted kingship of Ireland. The father of these Lugaids is "Dáire", another name for our Wind/Thunder/Sky deity The Dagda.

Colourfully, there's a Lugaid Riab nDerg who, on account of his supernumary parentage by Clothru with her three brothers, has stripes along his body dividing him into three parts; one for each father. His mother is Clothru and he kills an aunt named Eithne - an oddly common trope as we'll see. Cúchulainn fosters him.

There's another Lugaid who conflicts with Cúchulainn: Lugaid mac Con Roí, the man who ultimately defeats and beheads Cúchulainn but is maimed in doing so. He goes on to be chased down by Conall Cernach (a Fionn-type) and killed in revenge for Cúchulainn (Divine Twin).

Lugaid Mac Con & The Battle of Magh Mucrama

The most narratively rich Lugaid is Lugaid mac Con. He's raised but later exiled by Aillil Olom (neé Aengus), who appears to be a demonised Divine Twin (another possible Aengus->Aillil transition was also mentioned in Cíarán of Saighir's issue).

After some time in exile, including a scene where he's forced to eat a mouse by his host, he returns to claim the Kingship. He fights the battle of Magh Mucrama against Art mac Cuinn and his own half-brother Eoghan Mór (nb: Eoghan may be a peaceable Divine Twin).

In the battle Eoghan avoids combat (like a Peaceable Divine Twin) but is killed dishonourably: Dolan compares this to the killing of unarmed Freyr by Surtr at Ragnorok. After the battle, Lugaid mac Con goes to make peace with his foster-father, Aillil, but Aillil (grieving Eoghan, his son) bites him with a poisoned tooth, and sends his poet-warrior Ferchess (who resembles a fierce Fionn, like a Fiachra) to slay Lugaid; he finds him standing against a standing-stone, and kills him with a spear-throw.

But, rewind a minute: Aillil was previously "Aengus". This suggests a Divine Twin god. That's two divine twins, one "good" (Eoghan) and one "evil" (Aillil), who are involved in Lugaid mac Con's story from childhood to death. In fact, the regular presence of Divine Twins as allies and as lethal foes seems to follow Lugaids around..

Lugaid mac Con has the right name and enjoys some myths that resemble Surtr, but also consider his successor king. Given a Lugaid, we're expecting a Conchobhar/Cíarán/Bíle, and we get traits of all three in Cormac mac Airt. He's prophesied by a dream of a tree, evoking Bile. He has to oust a "Fergus" who precedes him in the throne, like Conchobhar. Like Cíarán, he gets martial support from a "Badger": Tadhg. If we expect a Prajapati to usually follow a Purusha, Cormac cinches it for us.

He Speaks: Labhraidh

Based on the commonalities of these Lugaids, another character pops out: Labhraidh Loinseach. A lot of his story bears hallmarks of Cairbre, who usually seems more of a lower emanation of Cíarán. But his broader mythos also resembles that of Lugaid mac Con, down to having a father figure named Aillil, a period of exile before taking kingship, and the oddity of being forced to eat a mouse. He's even got the "L" alliteration in his name, common among Lugaids.

Labhraidh also has a myth of a 'Metal House Where Feasting People Are Sacrificed By Roasting', but curiously it isn't Labraidh himself who is sacrificed, but rather it's an act of revenge that also costs him his mother and his jester. Hang on, Jester? In his first abortive battle with Eoghan Mór, Lugaid mac Con sent his Jester in his place.. Is it a thing for this god to send his Jester as a proxy for unpleasant things?

The childhood name of Labraidh is Maon - similar to one of Patrick's childhood names, Maun. It's not clear what his Mother's name was - though I suspect it was Eithne, for reasons explained below.

Ally or Foe of the Divine Twins

Lugaid Mac Con is half-brother to an Eoghan who might be a duplicate of Aengus. His foster-father is Aillil, previously known as Aengus before he became demonised after he raped Áine. He later battles and kills a Divine Twin, Eoghan, and is weakened by Aillil (a Demonic Divine Twin) so he can be killed by a seeming Fionn-type, Ferchess.

Lugaid mac Con Roí is son of Cú Roí mac Dara, making him a descendent of Dáire (This descent from Dáire is shared by Lugaid Loígde). This Lugaid seeks revenge on a Divine Twin, Cúchulainn, and kills him - but is weakened by Cúchulainn (by losing his hand) so that he can be killed by a Fionn-type, Conall Cernach.

Cúchulainn fosters "Lugaid Riab nDerg" - possibly he and Lugaid mac Con Roí are identified, which would make the story-arcs of Lugaid mac Con and the Ulster Cycle Lugaids nearly identical: A Lugaid is raised by a Divine Twin, later wars with and kills one, but is weakened by the same or another Divine Twin enough that he can be slain by a Fionn-type.

Labhraidh Loinseach is also son to an "Aillil", something he shares with Lugaid mac Con.

As explored below, there seems to be a duplicated myth where "Patrick" "kills" an Eithne who's the fosterling of Aengus (or Moling) and Manannán (or Maedóc) - in the Fosterage Aengus begs Patrick to return Eithne before she is "sent to heaven".

It seems a lot of these Lugaids are sons or foster-sons to possible Divine-Twin characters, whether to our well-known Warrior Twin, Cúchulainn, or the possible Demonised Twin, Aillil. They may alternately enjoy a close relationship with a brother-figure Twin (e.g., Lugh and Aengus, both sons of Eithliú/Boann), but it seems they can later become deadly rivals after a dispute over someone: a musician or a fosterling. A Twin may weaken them in the end, leading to their death at the hands of a Fionn-type.

This is an interesting and difficult dynamic. Is it unique to the Irish? I have a feeling it is not: we already know that Surtr comes at Ragnorok to battle Freyr, who closely parallels the Irish Aengus. But there's another significant figure there: Loki. Loki has many mythemes suggesting that he's a fire god, but many others suggesting that he might also be, like Aillil, a demonised Divine Twin. Though Loki himself doesn't do much directly at Ragnorok, his offspring and especially Fenrir do. In Ragnorok he doesn't rival Surtr but rather assists him; different from the Irish case.

But then, at Ragnorok Surtr isn't killed, and the world gets hard-reset. Whereas the Lugaids are weakened or killed with help from the Divine Twin(s), and the ages turn over without cosmic incident. Is this the difference? Whether the Divine Twins and Fionn-types defeat Lugaid, or not?

What's All This Got To Do With Patrick (et al)

As mentioned, Patrick is mostly Lugh-aspected. He swans around on a Chariot, hosting great assemblies, bringing or codifying or enforcing law, smiting people, and claiming religious-sovereignty from the pre-existing kings.

But Patrick also prefigures things like the Purusha-types do. In particular, it is Patrick who dispatches Cíarán of Saighir to Ireland, the "first Irish Saint" and the one who acts the most like Purusha's immediate successor in-the-world, Prajapati. Patrick also dispatches a number of saints to areas of Ireland ahead of his later arrival; the set-up allows Patrick to be the "late-arriving perfected sovereign" of the saints, but it may also indicate the role of the Purusha as the pre-figurer of the new age.

Another curious commonality between Patrick and Lugaid is the lethality towards Eithnes. Whenever Patrick meets people named "Eithne", they seem to snuff it. In the "Fosterage of the House of Two Pails", the Tuatha Dé woman Eithne (fostered by Aengus and Manannán) ends up becoming a Christian and "going directly to heaven" by Patrick's intercession.

When Patrick meets the sisters Eithne and Fidelm (both epithets of Boann) he also "sends them to heaven". In both cases, these Eithnes are found near water - the name Eithne in general seems to be a Water-Mother name. There is a third Eithne who associates with Moling and Máedóc; that is, Aengus and Manannán, who doesn't meet Patrick and doesn't die. But she's probably the same Eithne, because if you combine the two saint Eithnes, you simply get the story of the Fosterage: An Eithne, who associates with Aengus and Manannán, gets 'sent to heaven' by Patrick.

What gives, Patrick? Why are you killing all these Eithnes? Is this related to Lugaid Riab nDerg killing his aunt Eithne (4)? Or Labhraidh cooking his unnamed mum (who, by comparison we might assume to be Eithne)?

What's all this about Ages, then?

Given all the above, you can see a deity who turns up at the margins; the beginning of a cycle, or the end. Sometimes he's a character who takes full part throughout. But his death often marks either the end, or the beginning of the end, of a cycle.

Cúchulainn's conflict with a Lugaid brings his sacrificial-seeming death, and the beginning of the end for the Ulster cycle. In this, Cú acts like his father, Lugh. But Lugaid isn't dead yet - his weakening by Cú and his killing by Conall is the "real" beginning of the epilogue-stage for the Ulster Cycle.

In some versions, when the Tuatha Dé land in Ireland (the world), Nuada orders the ships burned to prevent Lugh from following. But.. Lugh hadn't been born yet, surely? Lugh turns up later, has his arc, then falls from grace and dies. His death is the last narratively consequential part of the Tuatha Dé cycle, bar the journey of The Dagda to revive his son. Everything after that is epilogue.

But, it's not the apocalypse, it's not like Ragnorok. The Irish myths seem to follow cycles, where the same patterns of engendering and rebirth happen repeatedly, followed by similar patterns of conflict, victory, decline, and denouement. And Lugaid is a recurring linchpin of these cycles - sometimes at the outset, sometimes at the end, sometimes both.

Patrick's story is a mash-up of the claimed biography of a historical figure, and a mythological one; his death isn't apparently as consequential as that of Lugh. But his prefiguring role for the new age (of Christianisation in this case), seems to have survived into his Hagiography.

Final Note, on Gender, Cosmic Feminine, and Speech

While the Purusha is generally referred to with male pronouns, that doesn't mean much at this stage. Unless, that is, your tradition has more than one Cosmic Person, implying a mated pair.

In the genealogies of the Tuatha Dé, we observe that the earliest male deities emerge from Delbáeth, but female deities from "Ernmas". She appears to be basically the same theological entity, reflecting the "feminine" Cosmic Person, possibly also Cosmic Waters.

The Cosmic Waters form of Neasa/Ness seems to have parallel in the Hindu goddess Vāc, who is associated with Cosmic Speech. Interestingly, Ness' parallel Boann/Fidelm is a goddess of inspiration and poetry, and 'Eithne' is given as a poet or satirist in the Battle of Magh Tuired. Labhraidh gets his name when he "speaks". Divine or Inspired Speech seems to be a part of Lugaid's layer of the creation, similar to the Abrahamic religions.

Wrap-Up

Patrick has a number of names, some of which seem to be native names such as Maun. Patrick itself is generally assumed to derive from "Patricius" and not from a native Irish name or word.

On places, I'll again defer to wikipedia. Note that many of these sites are famous for mythic-Patrick and were probably originally associated with Lugh, such as Croagh Patrick (Which isn't its original name).

If you've ever been forced to eat a mouse by a king, you may be favoured by the god Lugaid. The Hindu Purusha is sometimes represented instead as a bird, and Lugaid mac Con's successor is "Cor-mac" - Crane-son. There are a few other hints of a possible association with noble birds.

Footnotes

1. This "unifying essence" is also visible in Lugaid's later incarnation as Lugh, who masters all the arts of the other gods, becoming known as the "Ildánach" - "Pluri-Craftsman", maybe. Lugh is the "condensation" of other intra-cosmic gods in the same way that Lugaid / Cosmic Person is the "condensation" of the pre-cosmic gods.
2. Delbáeth appears to have too many listed parents and some of these parents are also his children, so the Tuatha Dé family tree, when interpreted literally like a human family, is peppered with duplicate Delbáeths. See the "Patterns" section for a look into this phenomenon.
3. Considering how much the Purusha gods seem Fiery, note how Welsh Llassar's name is suspiciously similar to Fire Saints introduced in Máedóc's Issue: Lasrén or Lassair.
4. The son Lugaid cuts from Eithne's womb is Furbaide Fer-Bend, who I hope to cover in a future issue on the moon-immortality-god, Midir. The identities of the sisters Clothru and Eithne (and Medb!) relative to one another is messy already in the Ulster Cycle material. It's possible they reflect a triad of Water-Mother deities, and Lugaid's involvement doesn't clarify things: Lugaids can already be the child, and consort, and apparently killer, of the same water-mother. Clothru & Eithne could well be the same person.

Coming Up

30th Mar: Crónán (AKA Mochua) - the Healer of the Gods, Dían Cécht. 6th Apr: Brychan/Broccán, an unusual instance of the "Absolute", Breoghan, as an actual person. 15th Apr: Ruadhán of Lorrha, apparently the Irish Prometheus. 23rd Apr: Ibar mac Lugna, a mysterious pre-Patrick character, possibly representing the earliest terrestrial Fionn-type.

Patterns in Celtic Comparativism, #10: The Children of the Cosmic Voltron

I promised in previous issues that I'd try to address the confusion of parentage around the Cíaráns and Cíans. That is, why do they seem to share such a broad pool of fathers? Surely it matters whether the father of the Demiurge is a Divine Smith, or a Divine Preceptor, or a Divine Healer, or..

Hopefully from this issue it is now clear, that the Irish material had a concept of a "Cosmic Person", formed of a number of immediate predecessors, and that this idea appears to be in-common with the Hindu Purusha.

If we examine the Hindu Purusha, the Gods of the "Vital Airs" that coalesce into him are sometimes named, and they actually correspond well to the Non-Lugaid parents we see for Cían and Cíarán: Divine Smiths or Preceptors or Healers. They are directed or "Kindled" by gods of Divine Air and Lightning. Again: Dolan has done a good job explaining how The Dagda / Dáire may parallel these Hindu precosmic gods.

When we see offspring of the Purusha/Lugaid being given discrete fathers that are either "Lugaid" or one of the possible pre-Lugaid Gods, it may reflect this aggregation. A "child" of Purusha might mythically emerge from Purusha's eye; you could then call the child either "of Purusha" or "of the god who became Purusha's eye".

Meanwhile, the female principal of this precosmic era seems to be more stable, as a "Cosmic Water-Mother", and so the mother of Lugaid, and also Bile/Cíarán, seems more stable - Ness, or Eithne, for example.

Put another way: if Voltron had a baby with Godzilla, it would be easy to say that Godzilla was the mother. But would we assign paternity to the whole Voltron, or to one of the Lion-Robots who were part of Voltron at the time?

This pattern also plays out in reverse, in some cases. Because the "Vital Airs" precosmic gods coalesce into the Purusha/Lugaid figure, and also maybe fan out from the same composite deity, we can end up with situations where a character can seem to be both the father, and son, of Delbáeth. This makes a mess of euhemerised genealogies, but when scribbled out with Delbaeth / Ernmas as states of being that others "pass through", it makes more sense.

..To me, at least.