Birthc

Birth Customs

by Tara NicScotach bean MacAnTsaoir

There are a number of places where we can go to find the old Gaelic customs surrounding
birth and death. A great number of them have been recorded in places that through the
years, by the Church's own admission, were less firmly touched by the hands of Christianity.

One distinct item comes to us from the realm of the old lore, the rest from folk practices.
The customs listed herein are commonly held by anthropologists to be carry overs from our
traditional pagan ancestors. The number of them carried on in folk practice were recordedby
people such as Carmichael and MacLeod. Many are still in practice in the old countries.
These, with the one found in lore, are enough to piece together the sequence of events
surrounding the birth of a child. What we can put back together would well serve anyone
researching their ancestral spiritual roots as well as any who sought to revitalize those ways.

In addition to the mother, the midwife and a nurse, who was called banghluin were also
present at the birth of a child. It would appear by carefully looking at all of the texts that the
father was also present at the birth.

Immediately after the child was born the mid-wife placed three drops of water on the
newborns head. While doing this, she would recite an incantation which is only thinly
Christianized. We can approximate the original verse by studying the old lore and coming to
a firm understanding of the ancient Triune logic wherein the Three of Power were
recognized as the Sky, the Land and the Sea. In the following the God the Father, Son and
Spirit are replaced would have been used in those earlier times.

"The little drop of the Sky
On thy little forehead, beloved one.
The little drop of the Land
On thy little forehead, beloved one.
The litle drop of the Sea
On thy little forehead beloved one.
To aid thee from the fays,
To guard thee from the host;
To aid thee from the gnome,
To shield thee from the spectre;
To keep thee for the Three,
To shield thee, to surround thee;
To save thee for the Three,
To fill thee with the graces;
The little drop of the Three
To lave thee with the graces."

The nurse then administered the baisteadh breith; or birth baptism. This was done as a
part of the child's first bath. The bath water itself invariably had placed in it either a silver or
gold coin, as these relate to the powers of the Moon and Sun respectively. Holding the child
over the bath, the nurse would fill her palm with water nine times and rub it over the child
while singing the incantation of the birth baptism. (There are indications the the water used
was spring water.) While several versions of the blessing given during the birth baptism can
be found in a couple of different places, they all address the ancient concept of "the Nine Waves".
A typical one might read:

"The little wavelet for thy form,
The little wavelet for thy voice,
The little wavelet for thy sweet speech.
The little wavelet for thy means,
The little wavelet for thy generosity,
The little wavelet for thine appetite.
The little wavelet for thy wealth,
The little wavelet for thy life,
The little wavelet for thine health.
Nine little palmfuls for thy grace
(in the name of) the Three of Power."

It is common when reading the various versions to handily see where later Christians made
additions onto the base verse.

Then the child was handed back and forth across a flame three times, from the mid-wife to
the father. Prayers for blessing were then made under the breath to the Power of the Sun
by the midwife.The child was then carried deosil around the flame three times by the father.
The next thing done is found in Scela Eogain, which is found in the Irish Texts Society
volume Cath Maige Mucraime. It tells of how when Cormac was born, Olc Aaiche , put
five protective circles about him. They were against wounding, against drowning, against
fire, against enchantment and against wolves. The 5 concentric circles theme shows up
consistently, from the floor plan at Emain Macha (evan mah) to the 14th century feige find
glyph in the Book of Ballymote. This was an approach to protecting against every evil.
Erynn Laurie, the well known student of Irish texts and and their symbolism interprets these
as:

wounding = danger in battle
drowning = danger in travel
fire = spiritual dangers
enchantment = magical dangers

Up to this point the movement of the child has been lateral or horizontal, that is,on the same
plane as the horizon. A newborn was never, ever moved downward, as in going down stairs
as the first direction of movement. Instead, the child was taken upward the first time it was
taken out of the mother's room. If there were no stairs or such, then provision was made to
accomodate this movement. Sometimes the accomodation to overcome a lack of stairs
upward, was for the nurse to simply use a chair to step "up" on. If this was not done then it
was thought to doom the child to always remain lowly in the world and never to be able to
rise to distinction or be able to gain riches.

As soon as the mother was able, she gave the last of the set of three initial blessings by
touching the child's forehead to the ground and reciting an incantation. This last blessing was
called "the old Mothering". A portion of a book by Fionna MacLeod dealing with this
practice is to be found at the end of this article. We are adding it because that text is so
hard to find.

After a child was born the mother didn't leave the house until after she had been 'kirked.'
While this had taken on definite Christian meanings in later times, it perhaps goes back to a
time when appropriate cleansings and blessings were given to her. If a child was stillborn,
the body was taken out during the night and buried in some out of the way place. The grave
site was marked only by some small stone. The father was never present at the burial of a
stillborn child as he risked not being able to have any more children because of his presence.
The stillborn child was considered to have been in possession of a spirit but not a soul. Even
into the modern era it was believed that the spirit (taran) went into the rocks. In this can be
seen the more ancient belief that the spirit went into sid/he.

It was considered that Sunday was the best day upon which to be born. In this it needs to be
remembered that the Christian sabbath is actually Saturday (the seventh day). The original
meaning of the day, 'Sunday', relates to just what the name implies. Sunday is the day of the
Sun. In some areas it was believed that those who were born at the "chime hours" would
have the second sight.

Other ideas which reach back into antiquity state that a baby and a cat cannot live together
in the same house. This idea has a basis in fact as babies have been known to be smothered
by a cat which had lain across a baby. With equal basis in fact is the idea that it is unlucky
for a child to sleep on "the bones of the lap". This comes from the need for support along
the whole of the spine. There was also the Highland prohibition against rocking an empty
cradle, for to do so would make certain that a new born so filled it. A very ancient custom,
derived from the thought that OtherWorld beings couldn't cross iron was the placing of iron
fire tongs (opened into a 'X') across the top of a cradle.

Concerning the practice of baptism: It is a practice that originated with the original
Indo-Europeans. The practice was carried into places as far flung as India where it still
resides today through the Brahmin Hindu. It was, perhaps, carried into Christianity by Celtic
people, like so many other things (flamin, concept of the Trinity, Holy Water, etc). When
looking at the phenomena one cannot help but look at the importance placed upon this
ancient rite, both at the birth, and during the washing of a body after death. One can't help
but notice that the birth baptism is to seal the gate between the previous world and this one.
Likewise the washing of the body (baptism) at death, can easily be seen to seal the gate
once again after the spirit has been born into Otherworld. Celtic philosophy on going back
and forth between life, death and life is well attested to. We see it in traditional lore as well
as in the commentaries by the so called "classical historians". Perhaps the most eloquent
phrasing of Gaelic Celtic ideas concerning the transition written in the modern era was by
George MacDonald as carried in The Silver Bough by MacNiell:

" On either hand we behold a birth of which, as of the moon, we see but half.
We are outside the one, waiting for life from the unknown; we are inside the
other, watching the departure of a spirit from the womb of the world into the
unknown. To the region whither he goes, the man enters newly-born. We
forget that it is a birth, and call it death. The body he leaves behind is but the
placenta by which he drew his nourishment from his mother earth. And as a
child-bed is watched on earth with expectancy, so the couch of the dying, as
we call them, may be surrounded by the birth watchers of the other world,
waiting like anxious servants to open the door to which this world is but a
wind-blown porch."