Click here to listen to Drinking the Waters of Life and the five sons of King Eochaid in the season 2 archives on buzzsprout
You and I are living through huge changes. My day to day is a roller coaster ride through grief and fear of loss, to joy at the birdsong, gratitude, inspired resolve, and anxiety. I’m energized and exhausted at the same time. Maybe you’re riding a roller coaster too.
It’s tempting to devote all energy to practicalities and logistics, to the newsfeeds and the search for distractions, or to disconnect and retreat into your private world. But we’re needed. You and me. Right now.
So how do we ride the roller coaster? And how do we participate with our gifts and wisdom?
By making space for reflection on the bigger meanings, including our vulnerability. To stop and breathe and let that in.
This can be hard to do in the best of times. How do you slow down to approach these realities with gentleness, and bring heart and mind together in awareness?
Sitting with the old stories helps me. This old Celtic story of competition and tests of character can guide reflections on the source of true strength and the deep meanings of this time.
Transcript of Drinking the Waters of Life, and the five sons of King Eochaid
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Myth Matters, storytelling and conversation about mythology, and why myth matters to our lives today. I’m your host, and personal mythologist Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours, you are part of this story circle.
Well, I think in the last podcast, I started off by saying that an awful lot can happen in two weeks. And, well, an awful lot can happen in two or three weeks. I do hope that wherever you are, you are safe and healthy and taking good care of yourself.
Today I want to tell you a story from Celtic mythology, about the five sons of a king named Eochaid. Now I invite you to relax and listen to the story, and take note of the detail that catches your attention, as it’s an opening into the meaning that the story might hold for you right now.
The Five Sons of King Eochaid
(you can find variations of this story by searching for Eochaid or for Niall)
Eochaid had a beautiful wife and queen named Mongfinn, and he had four sons with her. But he fell in love with another woman named Cairenn, who was the daughter of a distant king and had been brought to serve the household, and she became pregnant. Mongfinn the queen, knew about this liaison and she knew about this pregnancy and she was not happy about it. So she made it known to all of the other servants and members of the household, that they should not do anything to assist Cairenn. She also loaded this woman up with a lot of hard work in the hopes that the physical strain of it might compromise the pregnancy.
Well, that didn’t work, but it did so happen that Cairenn was out in the fields carrying heavy buckets of water back from the well to the hall when her own waters broke, and she ended up giving birth all alone out in the green grass. She was exhausted. She looked at the baby and noted that it was a boy, but she was so afraid of Mongfinn’s wrath that she she left the baby laying there, exposed to the elements. A couple of people came by and saw the baby, but they were also afraid of the queen so they left him lying there. But happily, not long after, Torna, who was one of the most famous poets in the land, came across the green. He saw the baby laying there and he picked up the boy and took him home to raise him. Torna named the boy Niall.
Well, after a while Niall of course, grew up, and Torna told him who his real father was and encouraged him to go to the King to claim his birthright. Niall did this, and when he came near the palace he saw Cairenn, his mother, carrying heavy buckets of water. He knew that this was his mother. He stopped her and said, “This is not fit work for my mother,” and picked up the buckets and carried them back to the palace for her. When they got there, the king was overjoyed to discover that he actually had five sons. Mongfinn the Queen was not so overjoyed, and she felt that the king should name his successor.
Of course, she wanted him to name one of her sons, so she started pressuring Eochaid to give the throne to one of their legitimate children. She also started creating circumstances and interactions between the five young men, designed to try and stir up some trouble that might shed negative light on Niall or put him into some kind of danger. Well, none of this worked and the king has told her that he really didn’t want to pass judgment. He didn’t want to choose among his sons.
So, he asked the wizard, one of his close advisers, to do this for him. The wizard called the five young men together and told them to go into the forge and each make a weapon for himself. Once they all went inside though, he closed and bolted the door and set the forge on fire. Each one of them eventually made their way out, carrying something that they had saved from the burning building. It was the things they chose to save that the wizard interpreted.
Niall came out with the anvil. “Niall is the foundational strength,” the wizard said. Brian came out next, and he was carrying all of the sledgehammers. “This means that Brian will be the fighter,” said the wizard. Then Fiachra came out bringing a pail of beer and to the bellows, and the wizard said “This means that the beauty and the science of the kingdom will rest with Fiachra.”
Then came out Ailill, and Ailill was carrying the chest that had all of the weapons that were stored in the forge in it. “Ailill,” said the wizard, “will be the one to avenge wrongs.” And then lastly, out came the youngest, Fergus, and he was carrying a bundle of dry wood. “Well,” said the wizard, “Fergus will never produce much of value.”
Mongfinn didn’t really know how to accept these interpretations and she said that there should be another test. So, this time the wizard said, “Take your weapons and all of you go out hunting together and see what you can find.” The five sons of Eochaid went out into the woods together, and they traveled for a very long time. They traveled so long, and they went so far, that they got lost. So, they stopped, kindled a fire, and cooked some of the game and ate it.
Then they were very thirsty. They looked around the area just a little bit and they didn’t see any springs or streams. They sat down in the shade and their thirst grew and grew. Finally, Fergus, the youngest, said “One of us should go and look for water and I’ll go.” He got up and went to look for water.
After a time, he saw a well, a clear spring bubbling up through the rocks. He approached it and an old woman stepped out from the shade of the trees. She was very old and very ugly. In fact, you would have to say that she was a hag. Every joint and limb in her body was bent and deformed. Her hair was scraggly and long and matted. Parts of her head were bald. Her fingernails were so long and yellow that they curled around into her palms. Her clothes were tattered and greasy, and you don’t want to know how she smelled. “Are you guarding and the well?” Fergus asked. “Yes, I am,” she said. “Uh, well, I would like to take some of the water,” said Fergus. “Oh, well, you can. You can have some water,” said the old hag, “as long as you come here and give me a kiss on the cheek.”
“Oh my God, absolutely not,” said Fergus, and he recoiled in horror. “Then I’m not going to give you any water,” she said. Well, he drew himself up in a huff and said, “I’ll tell you, I would rather die of thirst, then give you a kiss.”
And with that, Fergus turned around and he went back to the place where his brothers were waiting under the trees and said, “I didn’t find any water.”
Well, now their thirst was beginning to be a quite pressing need and Ailill decided that he would go and look for water. After some time, he also found the well and the spring bubbling up between the rocks, and as he approached the water, the old hag stepped out from the shade of the trees. “Are you guarding the well?” he asked her. “Yes, I am,” she said. “Would you permit me to take some water back for myself and for my brothers?” he asked “Why, most certainly,” she said, “as long as you give me a kiss on the cheek.” “Oh, I couldn’t possibly do that,” said Ailill. He, too, decided that he would rather die of thirst than kiss the old hag and went back to his brothers. He said, “I’m sorry, but I didn’t find any water.”
Well now Brian, who was the eldest of the sons, went out to seek water and he chanced upon the same well, had the same conversation, refused to kiss the old woman, and returned back to the group waterless. Like his other brothers, he said nothing but that he hadn’t found any.
Then Fiarcha went, and he also found the well and the hag, and he asked her for water. When she said, “Well, I’ll give you some if you give me a kiss on the cheek,” he said, “Well, I I actually might give you a kiss for it.” He thought and then decided that he might not be quite thirsty enough. He, too, went back to his brothers and took his place in the shade without telling them about the well or the old hag.
At this point, all five of them were really starting to feel some distress from their thirst. And so, Niall went seeking water, and he happened upon the same well. He saw the clear spring bubbling up between the rocks, and as he approached the water, the old woman stepped out from the shade, and she offered him the same bargain. “I will give you some water, but first you must give me a kiss on the cheek.” “Well,” said Niall, “I will give you a kiss. In fact, I will give you a kiss on both cheeks, and a hug.” Then he gave her a kiss and a kiss and hug, and lo and behold, when he released her, she was no longer an ugly old hag but a gloriously beautiful woman, with soft, smooth, pure skin and limbs. Gorgeous, long, dark hair, shining eyes, rich clothes, pearly teeth, lips as red as berries. “Oh, my!” said Niall. “Yes,” she said, “I am the sovereign of this land. Now go back to your brothers and take the water with you. Have them give you an oath of allegiance and know that you will be king.”
Now, there’s more than one way that you can read this story, and there are lots of images and metaphors here that are relevant to our current situation. What I have found myself thinking about, is the kissing of the old woman and what it is that might prevent us from doing that. When you listen to the story it seems really obvious that the other four brothers are fools, are cowards or missing an opportunity of some sort. But of course, that’s the benefit of listening to the story. When you’re living this story, those things might not be quite so obvious. So, what are some reasons why they were unwilling to make that bargain and chose instead to be thirsty?
One thing that occurs to me is arrogance. I mean, it seems there’s a certain amount of arrogance, a sense that they’re better than she is, and so they shouldn’t have to submit to any of her demands. She’s not their equal, and so she doesn’t have the right to try and strike any kind of a bargain. Along with that, then, is the sense that they deserve better. This arrogance is connected to a kind of entitlement, an expectation that because I am who I am, and need what I need, it should be made available to me, and I shouldn’t have to question myself or make any sacrifices or do anything that might be difficult.
Which leads me to another possibility. This notion that it was difficult somehow, because she was so ugly. And let’s face it, she sounds like she was pretty repulsive. But they just couldn’t bring themselves to overcome, for even a moment, the revulsion that that might have generated in them. This seems indicative of an inability to see past the surface to the truth, to get beyond a momentary dissatisfaction in order to possess something of lasting value. I find myself thinking of Kali, the Hindu goddess.
Kali often appears to her devotees in her awesome, that is her terrible and horrific, aspects. Kali is the personification of life and death, and she teaches the relationship between those two things. So, she is the mother of all and yet she’s most commonly portrayed as this really gruesome creature, with long, bloody fangs and nails and a necklace of skulls, dancing around on the bodies of the dead. The purpose of keeping this image of Kali in front of you is to help you develop the capacity to look beyond what appears to be ugly and difficult and frightening, to grasp an inner truth. I think this old hag, a figure commonly called the Loathly Lady in stories from the 12th to let’s say 15th or 16th centuries, is very similar to the goddess Kali.
But then there’s another thing that occurred to me, because I noticed that none of the brothers told the others about the well. Maybe that struck you, too. I mean, it’s kind of interesting that they go and they look and then they come back and they say, “Oh, I didn’t find anything.” They didn’t want to admit that there had been a test that they couldn’t pass. They didn’t want to admit that there was a test that they couldn’t pass, and that suggests to me a certain amount of competitiveness. You know, if I go and try something and I can’t do it, and I come back and I tell you that I couldn’t do it, then that’s going to encourage you to go and try and beat me. Try and succeed. So there’s this unhealthy competition, a competition for which they’re willing to risk their lives, and the lives of the other brothers because we’re talking about water here. They all need water. And yet, rather than be shown up, they stay silent.
I see something behind that, too. It seems they are unable to grasp and accept their interdependency. And in that way, they’re unable to see themselves as part of life and the life project. All of these things that prevent the other four brothers from kissing the hag: the arrogance, the entitlement, the inability to get past the surface and momentary discomfort to the truth, to the lasting value, the unhealthy competition and the inability to see the interconnectedness and the interdependencies, to see oneself as part of a web of life–all of these things are part of the delusion of Western culture that we’re dealing with right now, don’t you think? And you may well have come up with some other reasons and interpretations. If you have, if you do, I hope that you will email me and share them with me.
In a very real way, we have created the conditions for this virus, and those conditions have everything to do with our disrespect for the source of life and our alienation from who and what we really are. I want to say a couple more things about this image of the old hag, of the Loathly Lady. In Celtic mythology specifically, this figure is one of the many faces of the land, of the earth that is life, both the source of life and the life force. We have a woman, a female, a metaphor built on the literal existence of a womb and the birth process, and she’s guarding water, water that is literally and metaphorically, the source of life, that which sustains life.
In Celtic mythology, stories like this told a fundamental truth about the legitimate source of power. In stories like this, the people reminded themselves that any leaders, anyone who would rule, needed to have the proper relationship to the land, that is, they needed to be custodians of life. And we see here, in this bargaining that she does, that the test is whether or not you’re able to accept all of it, to join the dance, to grasp the gift of life and honor it, all the bits. Everything. The good, the bad, the ugly, until the end, knowing that that end is also a beginning.
In the last podcast, we talked about having the ability to participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world, and I said that that begins with knowing that you belong. This belonging is not something that you earn. It’s something that we have by virtue of being here. But how do you accept that belonging? Well, maybe it’s a matter of kissing that hag. As I’m watching the conversations (online of course, from a safe distance) about our current shared situation, I see a lot of people talking about fear and anxiety, and exchanging ways to meet the challenges and deal with the uncertainty of our situation, how to stay or get grounded, how to find that clarity that comes from being in your center, the strength, the peace and the knowledge of true priorities. When you’re grounded, you know what really matters, and there’s a willingness to let go of all of the rest, to tune out the noise.
Well, this notion of “grounding,” the metaphor of “ground,” of course comes from the ground, the earth. The earth is the first and essential source of this state, of this clarity, of this willingness, of this strength, of this peace. There is no support or ground that precedes the Earth, my friends. I am so lucky to live where I do, here in the desert where I have a lot of opportunity to be with the earth, and I recognize that you may not have the kind of access that I do. And yet, each of us does have the opportunity to connect with the earth, to get in touch with the ground that is grounding.
In the last podcast, I shared an experiment with you, and I want to mention it again with encouragement that you try it because if you haven’t, I think you’ll be very surprised at how powerful it is. It’s very simple. If you can go outside safely then do that. If you can’t and you have to stay in, you can open a window, you know, do that. Whatever you can do. Whatever form this has to take. Then, choose something in the natural world: a cloud, a birdsong, a plant, the ground, a rock– and give it your complete attention.
Give it your complete attention. Make note of its qualities. Take the time to be with it and note its qualities. Maybe write them down. This is especially helpful if you have a hard time staying focused. Really study, really study this thing. Is it hard? Is it soft? Is it big? What color is it? Is it quiet? Allow yourself to investigate all of these qualities as thoroughly as you can, and do it without comparing it to anything else. Don’t say it’s “like” anything else. Let it be what it is and make as thorough an observation as you can see. See what effect this kind of attention and observation has on you. Try and do this for 10 minutes. I’m not going to predict an outcome for you. It’s an experiment, but try it and maybe try it a number of times and see what happens.
I want to end today with a poem by Mary Oliver that my friend Carolyn sent to me recently. Mary Oliver spent her whole writing life investigating and articulating this experience of belonging and the richness of that experience. This poem is called “Today.”
“Today I’m flying low and I’m
not saying a word
I’m letting all the voodoos of ambition sleep.
The world goes on as it must,
the bees in the garden rumbling a little,
the fish leaping, the gnats getting eaten.
And so forth.
But I’m taking the day off.
Qquiet as a feather.
I hardly move though really, I’m traveling
a terrific distance.
Stillness. One of the doors
into the temple.”
It’ll be a long time my friends, before we really know the significance of the events that are unfolding, and it’ll be a long time before all of the meanings we attached to it are shared and sorted and unraveled. In the meantime though, you know and I know that a big change is taking place. As difficult as it may be to stay home, to suspend your normal activities, to be alone, perhaps more than you’re used to, there’s a gift here in terms of the space that’s made for reflection and introspection. This could be a very creative time if we seize the opportunity to make it so, if we take a breath and touch the earth and find our way back into that essential belonging.
And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. I invite you to email me with your comments and questions. Please let me know what you heard in this story, and I’d also love to hear your experience with the little experiment. If you are new to Myth Matters then please head over to the mythic mojo website, where you can subscribe, learn more about the podcast, and also learn about other ways that you can work with me to explore the mythic dimension of your life.
Welcome, welcome, welcome to all of the new subscribers and a special shout out to Dean Diomedous and Ana Reyes, both of whom became patrons of Myth Matters on Patreon. Thank you so much, Dean and Ana! And a big thank you to Donna Santoro for her generous check in support of this podcast. If you’re finding value here and you have the means to support Myth Matters financially, I would very much appreciate that right now. Your $5 or $10 a month contribution to Myth Matters on Patreon goes a long, long way.
We’re standing together at a crossroads, my friends. I hope that the time we spend together investigating story, helps you decide which way to turn. Thank you so much for joining me. Please tune in next time and until then, happy myth-making and keep the mystery in your life alive.
