Happy Mothering Sunday

Today is Mothering Sunday, or Mother's Day, as celebrated in the UK and Ireland. Other countries also celebrate Mother's Day but during the Summer later on. Today is also the day which is the fourth after Lent. All this we have to be thankful and appreciate our mothers and grandmothers, whether biological, adopted or simply a role model, a nurturing mother is a gift. 

We can also thank the lady Constance Adelaide Smith for if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have a Mother's Day. She wanted a special day honouring mothers, and she revived the modern version of a Medieval observation. Constance wanted to recognise the Virgin Mother, Mother Nature and all "mothers of earthly homes". 

Happy Mothering Sunday!

Storm Valkyrie

Protection stones

 

There is a bunch of minerals and rocks that are able to ward off evil spirits but may have something interesting about them too. I shall mention it later on.  

Zircon is one of the most beautiful lustrous stones that can do this. It can also help with calm deep sleeps, for those who have insomnia they can slip a zircon under their pillow at night. It's believed zircon the gem is said to help those mental illness and to become energised, calm and clear headed. Zircon is associated with wisdom and good luck. In Medieval times, zircon was believed to protect against illnesses so people carried the stone with them on their travels. 

Tourmaline is a gemstone with many healing properties. It can influence a person's mindset and energy, helping to elevate a sense of self esteem, bringing stronger feelings of confidence. Therefore it's considered a stone used for bringing positivity, protection and can ward off evil spirits. Black tourmaline is the one that guards against negative energy. Green tourmaline heals the body and represents wood. 

Amethyst is a purple coloured stone that lowers anxiety and helps relieve emotional stress. It's used to protect against evil spirits. There are many healing properties in amethyst including helping someone to sleep well, improving mental illness and for emotional wellbeing. It wards off pain and it's able to reduce headaches. 

Smoky quartz is a good stone for emotional stability, as well as warding off evil spirits. The stone can help in building ones own confidence, feeling calm and relaxed, a focused mind, clear understanding and better inner peace. It's often used as a healer for multiple things from pain relief to fertility. 

Quartz is a crystal that looks stunning like ice and also can resemble a diamond. This is the most powerful healing stones, it can clear away negative energy, strengthen calmness of mind and body, spiritual growth, calmness and focused mind. It's used for mental and emotional stability, balance and calm. It purifies the body, getting rid of evil spirits and enhancing spiritual insight and clear meditation.

What these gemstones have in common is their significance to being popular healing stones with magical uses. They're used as relics, talismans and even protection against evil spirits. Surprisingly though they are all naturally radioactive. These gemstones have very tiny low level amounts of radiation that happened when they were formed deep in the ground which doesn't cause any harm. 

There are dangerous harmful gemstones that include samarskite (it contains uranium), autunite (also with uranium) and ekanite (it's got thorium. Also it aparrently wards off evil spirits!).  

Storm Valkyrie

No snakes in Ireland

 

There is a story that Saint Patrick removed all of the snakes in Ireland. Some believe there never were any snakes in Ireland to begin with, and saying all of it is legend and nonsense. Let's see. It all began with the myth of Saint Patrick (shortened to St. Patrick), stood on top of a hill and sent all of the snakes into the sea. This was a turning point and symbol of the Christianisation of Ireland. Today St. Patrick is a patron saint of Ireland and they celebrate St. Patrick's Day. 

Ireland is an island separate from Britain, although they were once joined geographically. In the last Ice Age, there was a land bridge connecting both islands. By 12.000 BC that particular bridge had gone after rising sea levels, then it separated both islands. Long before then, both Ireland and Britain were connected to the main continent of Europe until about 6,100 BC. 

Many say that Ireland isn't the right place for snakes to live in due to the climate and temperature. However, Britain has got a native snake population. They believe snakes got there when both Ireland and Britain were joined physically to the bigger European continent. So one would wonder if snakes went to Britain, they would've gone to Ireland too, or did they? They also say that Ireland broke away from Europe before Britain did, which didn't give snakes a chance to colonise it. Britain and Ireland were also joined back then when it broke off from the main continent. Britain fell away from Europe in 6,100 BC according to The Conversation. Then Britain broke apart, one became Ireland, this happened 12,000 BC. 

There is no archaeological evidence of snakes ever living in Ireland. No snake fossils have been found there, which means Ireland didn't have any snakes to begin with. St. Patrick didn't send them away. This is what scientists have said. But Ireland has got a native reptile, a common lizard. Other types of reptiles found on fossil record in Ireland are two species of dinosaurs, Megalosaurus and Scelidosaurus. These bones were found on Ireland's Jurassic Coast or Antrim Coast. There's now even a dinosaur park in Kilkenny. 

What I will suggest is the connection of snakes in the St. Patrick myth to the old legends of dragons, as there are many in Irish mythology. The story of St. Patrick is symbolic of Christianity removing the old Pagan religion. Snakes have always been associated with evil in Christianity. Dragons in Irish myth include Cliodhna queen of the banshees and much more. 

Read Dragons of Ireland at The Circle of the Dragon. 

Ice Age Animals of Ireland at Bird Watch Ireland 

Storm Valkyrie

A lion with rabies

There is nobility amongst animals of the wilds. Among them, the lion always seems the one with a pride and golden roar. Take it or leave it. Heraldic lions and symbolism of lions from godlike Aslan from the Chronicles of Narnia, to the friendly Cowardly Lion in the land of Oz, to the Simba family of "The Lion King", the monstrous Nemean lion and to the ones beaten by Heracles. 

There are the Chinese guardian lions, also called lion dogs or foo dogs. Guardians of imperial palaces and homes, made of stone, often in pairs to symbolise yin and yang. There are similar guardian lion duos called Shisa from the Ryukyu islands, and also the Komainu guardians of Japan. 

Sphinxes have lion and humanlike features, found in Egyptian as well as Greek mythologies. Magical lions tend to look more bizarre, such as the winged lions of myths from many places such as India, Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Mesopotamia. Such winged lions are even found in stories of the Book of Daniel. The winged lion is a symbol of Saint Mark. 

Other weird looking lions are the griffin, chimera, sphinx, manticore, merlion, Pixiu, Yali and much more. Some are good and some are bad, others are neither. 

Evil lions as figures in folklore and fiction tend to be demonic. There is Ugallu the lion demon made by Tiamat. In today's culture she's associated with dragons as she's got many heads of dragons but in ancient Mesopotamian myth she was primordial goddess of the sea. In fiction there is the Lion of Night in A Song of Ice and Fire book series that brought the dreadful long night. 

Lions with rabies tend to be more aggressive and frightening to come across. They try to eat car tyres to get at passengers within. A pride of lions will be severely affected when its leader has got rabies.  

Storm Valkyrie