Myth is like great theatre holding endless wisdom and insight. To quote the Irish poet Eavan Boland, from her poem, The Pomegranate, “And the best thing about the legend is/ I can enter it anywhere. And have.”
Here she speaks about the Greek myth Ceres and Persephone. In the poem she shows how that same myth held her experiences as the mother of a daughter through the many stages of her mothering.
That is how I understand myth. Over my life, along with my journey as a psychotherapist, myth has harrowed me, taught me, accompanied me and held me.
Typography by Ruby Henderson
To explain my process as a re-teller of myths I will start at the beginning with Aoife from The Children of Lir. This is not a story from the Táin but from the Irish Mythological Cycle, but I will start here because it is the beginning. I remember the moment; I had already fallen into a myth because I had just spent a week at The Bard Summer School with The Children of Lir, that same story that is so well known in Ireland. I knew it as a child. A king left all alone with four children after his wife Aoibh had died and so, High King Bodhbh Dearg gave King Lir another one of his foster daughters Aoife, to be his wife. She who was Aoibh’s younger sister.
Lir adored his children and missed Aoibh terribly and it would seem that his new wife Aoife, was in the way. It is said that he slept with the children in his bed while she slept in a cot. Unfortunately, Aoife’s jealousy ran away with her. She found a spell and cast it to banish the children so they would live in the shape of swans for nine hundred years. It is told their suffering was harsh until they fell into the comfort of death. However, Aoife’s punishment was never to end. She was cast by King Bodhbh to the four winds forever. I remember as a child hearing it said and believing, that she could still be heard wailing on a windy night in Ireland.
So back to that moment, just home from the Bard. I was still processing the story and I was angry. I began to suspect that it was on Aoife’s behalf or, maybe it was she who was showing me my own anger. For me that is how myth works and from there l wrote Aoife's perspective. I wanted to give her a voice, bring her to ground for good or for bad. To me she represented an aspect of the darker side of the feminine or might it have been feminine power gone bad? What happens when a woman’s power is repressed, when she can see no place to go? There is so much to being a human being, so much potential, vibrancy, ability to love. If all that is repressed then where does it go? Maybe some of it is still wailing on a windy night in Ireland.
Macha by artist Kathy Tynan
Since that fateful day I have written many more retellings. Not one of them has answered me or satisfied me fully. I am always left with questions and hopefully an openness to the next conclusion. To me that is the gift of myth.
My first book is called Táin: the women stories, which is from the Ulster Cycle. Táin aspires to give a sense of the great epic tale, the Táin Bó Cúailnge from the perspectives of the women. Táin means raid and the raider in this case is Meadhbh Queen of Connacht or maybe she is Meadhbh the goddess!
As I said the contract for me in engaging with these myths means there will be a process. Firstly, I have to get to know the myth very well. That is not as easy as it might seem. It resembles a dream which means it will be difficult to remember so it has to be read, re read, even dreamed. John Moriarty one of the regular speakers at the Bard summer school would have said, myth must be harrowed.
Macha, the goddess associated with horses sets the scene for the fate of Ulster. She comes into a widower’s house one evening and begins to do his domestic chores, ‘women’s work’ as it is often put. But, it would seem that she and he knew that her wildness must not be known in the world outside. The seal woman story has a similar motif. She who can change her shape from seal to woman who, to marry a man must leave her seal skin in the attic. One day a drop of seal oil falls through the ceiling and onto her tongue. She then remembers her seal nature and so she must choose. The story is a tragic choice is between her children and her true nature.
Fand by artist Kathy Tynan
It is similar with the story of Macha. Her man, who is obviously delighted with her, boasts at a horse fair at the king’s court that his fine wife could outrun the lot of them. The ending is bad. She is forced to race the king’s horses while heavily pregnant with twins. She wins the race but dies after giving birth but before she goes, she curses the men of Ulster, to be struck down with the pains of childbirth in their hours of greatest need. That is the reason why Cú Chulainn, not quite a man yet had to fight the whole of Meadhbh’s army singlehandedly, until the men of Ulster could awaken from the curse.
I wonder why Macha and the seal woman couldn’t have had both wild nature and domesticity. What would that look like? Have we figured out how much of ourselves we repress? I have no answers, only questions and I don’t think that finding an answer is only women’s work. As the Bard’s great friend John Moriarty would say, “Let’s not replace 2,000 years of men talking to men with women talking to women, let’s talk to each other.”
So what about Queen Meadhbh of Connacht? There are many stories about her. She has been characterised, given a personality. She is, ‘She who intoxicates.' She is also the great manipulator. It is easy to see how attributes such as these would suffer from projections from both men and woman over the centuries but maybe there is another way to look.
When I went to write her, I found it difficult to find her. I struggled and no matter how much I tried I still wasn’t able to see such promiscuousness and hedonism in myself that I could write about. It wasn’t until I realised that it is mother nature herself who is the most promiscuous and hedonistic of all. I marvelled at how I had been able to suspend disbelief when it came to a woman changing her shape from horse to woman. Strangely I could relate to that but when it came to such a force as Meadhbh, to such female entitlement, with an ability to manipulate for her own end, it is safe to say I was sorely lacking or maybe I was unable to own the great manipulative skills I already possessed but the good thing was, I was being harrowed.
Meadhbh by artist Kathy Tynan
As a 20th/21st century woman I am still being harrowed by Meadhbh. Inspired by her I see manipulation is a great skill and only sometimes used for bad. I thank the myth of Meadhbh, not so much for giving it to me as I already had that skill. We all do, but I thank it for my consciousness around it. I thank her so that, to me, ‘Manipulative woman’ is now a quality to be admired and not the skill of an evil witch.
For me Meadhbh goes beyond equality. She defies all identities given to her. She is equal to herself before being equal to anyone else. She has the power to awaken and name the great might of the feminine, dark and light and she is also more than that duality.
Another way to look at her could be as the land itself. In one of the stories about her she is violated, in another she uses her daughter to get what she wants. It would seem she is fighting for herself but maybe she is fighting for something greater? If so what is that? How do we look at these myths? These are merely my perspectives. There is room for everyone when it comes to myth because myth can hold us all.
Karina is an author, playwright and psychotherapist. She cites that unearthing a love of myth and a desire to find their underlying contemporary meanings, came from her participation and association with the Bard Summer School which was a turning point in her life and in her creative career. Since then, inspired by the Irish myths and over 25 years of exploration, she has written back the women’s perspective. The Táin; from the Ulster Cycle is her first collection to be published. www.karinatynan.com
Order the book TÁIN: The Women’s Stories on Karina’s website and follow her on Instagram.
If you missed the book launch of TÁIN: The Women's Stories by Karina Tynan you can watch the recording now on #Herstory's YouTube Channel.
