The Three Illuminations

Made a deal with the devil on a dark moon night. What did I expect? What did I expect? 

Put my soul in a shadow on a dark moon night. Where did it go? Where did it fly? 

Put my heart in a tree, put my heart in a stone. 

Don't take away the pain. Don't take away the fear. 

I was just an empty vessel waiting to be filled. Fill me with the poison. Fill me with the shade. Made a deal with the devil and this is what I get, death is the gateway to eternal life.

Above is an example of Imbas Forosonai is the druidical and bardic practice of seeking answers through free-form, extemporaneous poetry. I was trying to determine why I seemed to be in a state of spiritual crisis and how to resolve it. Through this I determined that I was in crisis as a result of my recent initiation, a natural byproduct of the shift. Though it may seem dark and ominous on the surface, it actually tells me that this is all part of the process of assimilating this new power and learning to use it and even gives me thinly veiled instructions about how I should proceed. I was a  druid before I was an obeahman so I fall back on familiar skills when I can. There is certainly nothing that says I can't be both, after all. At any rate this little epiphany prompted me to make this little blog post so here we are.

Imbas forosonai has served me well in some of my most difficult predicaments. This is one of the three magical divinitory skills an initiate is expected to master before the rank of bard is bestowed. The others are dichetal do channeb, which involves a rhythmic drumming of the fingers, and teinm leidha, which involves ritual animal sacrifice. All but dichetal do chennaib were banned by St. Patrick who forbade any practice which involved invocation of pagan deities or "making offerings to demons" on pain of death. You will find different descriptions of the three illuminations in different books and there seems to be some confusion as to which ones refer to which practices. I did some research into the roots of the words and think I have a pretty good handle on it.

Tenim leidha means something like "breaking open the pith" or "sucking the marrow" so it seems fairly clear it is the one dealing with animal sacrifice. The ritual calls for a dog, cat or pig, all animals sacred to the underworld. It is ritually slaughtered and cooked and the bard then eats a mouthful and offers some to the spirits by placing it on a stone. The bard then lays down as in death with their head on the stone and enters a trance. The spirit of the animal becomes the vessel or guide into the underworld where the bard then obtains the prophecies.

Dichetal do Chennaib is "knowing through the fingers" and has been equated with the psychic skill of psychometry or transmision of information through touch. A viable hypothesis, but does not fully account for the description of drumming the fingers rather than just holding the object. I rather think of it like the unconscious nervous drumming we all have probably done at some point but put to a more focused use. Rhythm is a well known vessel for shamanic travel and tapping into other levels of consciousness. It is my belief that the bards may have studied rhythm and its relation to the various levels of consciousness and would have been able to utilize them at will. We read of bards using music to cause all who hear it to cry, laugh or sleep in some of the most ancient lore so it is clear they were thinking about the way sound effects the mind and emotions even then.

Imbas Forosonai is "inspiration of the word" was also banned, but it is unclear why as the only thing we know for sure is that it involves impromptu verse. It may be that Patrick witnessed a poet singing praises and asking the gods for guidance or making an offering before he started to speak his verse. Whatever the case when performing imbas forosonai the words are the vessel. Sometimes they come out as random gibberish or glossolalia. Other times it may be beautifully structured rhyming verse. It may also start in one form and then fade into another. The point is to keep talking without thinking and let the answers present themselves. 

I can't say that I have ever performed tenim leidha or it's more advanced relative the tarbh feis or "bull feast" which calls for a grey speckled bull to be sacrificed instead of the cat, dog or pig, and in addition to sharing a meal with the spirits the druid will also wear the skin of the animal. This latter was supposed to impart great powers of astral travel, remote viewing and influence over the elements. Only druids performed the tarbh feis while the bards only did tenim leidha. I have not mentioned the other class of filid, the vates or ovates though prophecy was actually part of their standard duties as well. The vates practiced augury and casting of lots. They would read omens and signs in the natural world. Bards were masters of the word and, therefore, the three illuminations belong to them. The druid is the priest and teacher, the scholar and philosopher. Their function is in dispensing the sacrament and sustaining traditions. When it comes to draiocht or druid magic their powers are always closely tied with the heavens and the upper worlds. In other words, druids were not typically concerned with prophecy but with action. These days, unless we are lucky enough to have a working grove or druidic commune we have to be more versatile and do a little of everything.