BeanSidhe Dreams: Goddesses of the Celts

BeanSidhe Dreams:
Goddesses of the Celts

BeanSidhe, pronounced "banshee", as in "screaming like a...". When we hear the word "BeanSidhe", we think of a terrifying harbinger of death, screaming bloody murder-literally--in some old movie. But in fact the name simply means "woman faery"--and the reason she weeps is because she is sad that a favored mortal is dying, not to scare the bejesus out of people.

My name is Kethlenda, and this web site is my offering to the faery women and goddesses of the Celtic lands. The Celtic myths contain some of the most dynamic and complex female figures in world folklore--stubborn queens, tragic adulteresses, shapeshifting brides, and sorceresses good, bad, and ambiguous.

This page will primarily consist of a set of ramblings...I hope to have a page up, eventually, for every Celtic goddess I work with or am fascinated by. My writings are based on many kinds of sources--scholarly books, New Age/Pagan books, fiction, and personal meditation. This is a disclaimer of sorts--don't quote my page in your term paper or anything, because some of this material can't be proven. To read more about the Goddesses, see the Sources at the bottom of each page.

Another disclaimer: I have used fine art to illustrate my goddess pages. In some cases, there is nudity. In my opinion, the nudity is beautiful and tasteful, not trashy. However, if you are offended by the little lady on the rock at the top of the page, you might want to skip the following pages: Loch Ness, Tlachtga, Melusine.

Musings on the Celtic Goddesses

"'We are not women but that from which women are spun. We're images of dream, creatures of the mind. Through us do human minds perceive all. Through us, the mold and form of female reality, do human minds see the force like a womb that, within the universe, spins all that's female in the world of men,' the maiden says. 'We were created before man was man, from the dim minds of brutes in their caves, and since then have we been in human minds and actions and dreams. Our presence the more real for being illusory, our power the more true for being imagined, encompasses all and shapes all. Thus does the imagined mold the real and the real the imagined again.'"

--Sarah A. Hoyt, All Night Awake