Modern Day Bile Tortain

Strange weather we are having.  A local man saw a bright orange light in the garden and later found a magnificent cedar (actually a Monterey Cypress)  tree split in two. This particular cedar was a massive tree a few hundred years old growing in Ardbraccan, Co. Meath.  Maud Gonne would certainly have known about this particular tree and was keen to revive the ancient practice of Tree Worship in the area . Whether it just split in two or was hit by lightning or a meteorite remains to be determined. However,  a few centuries ago in the same area stood the Bile Tortain , one of the five sacred trees of Celtic Ireland.  A tree of special significance and imbued with magical properties, even mentioned by Columb Cille.  Bile meaning sacred tree and Tortain a tribe in the area.  Bile was also the Irish god of life and death and from the same root word we get Bealtaine -our season of life unfettered.  It was considered a national land mark and associated with the sovereign reign of  kings.  Indeed the King was often seen as a tree with branches outstretched protecting the people.  When ever a Bile fell  it was followed with a catastrophic change in the world order. Circa 763AD the Bile Tortain fell and with it the reign of the sons of Aed Sláne. Archetypal  trees are central to many world cultures and are often depicted as an axis mundi, the centre around which all life revolves.  Damage to the tree is typically met with  tragedy.  In the bible, for instance,  there is the story of the  fall from grace for eating off the tree of knowledge which was in the centre of the garden of Eden. How strange then that this magnificent Cedar which is a modern day contender for the role of Bile Tortain and would have seen the rebirth of Sovereignty in Ireland in the early 1900s has seen the end of our economic sovereignty less than a century later. Might we guess what happens next. History may hold a clue. Pictured split in two and frozen in snow the modern day Bile Tortain.  Art imitating life?

The Bile Tortan near Ardbreacan

From: Survivals in Belief Among the Celts, by George Henderson, [1911]

"The Bile Tortan stood in Magh Tortan in Meath, near Ardbreacan, and was blown down in the reign of the sons of Aedh Slaine, about the middle of the seventh century. This tree was one of the three wonderful trees of Eirinn, and had stood at the time of the Milesian conquest, more than a thousand years." 

"Bile Tortan, Eo Rossa, Craebh Mughna, Craebh Dathi, Bile Uisnigh were five ancient trees which sprang up in Erin in the reign of Conaing Begeglach (Anno Mundi 4388).Conaing held a certain assembly at Tara . . . and they saw coming towards them from the west a man of wonderful size, carrying in his hand a branch of a tree bearing apples, nuts, acorns, and berries. . . . He told them he had come from the place of the sun's rising in the east to the place of its going down in the west, to know why it had stood still for a day, and having obtained the cause of this irregularity that he was now on his return again to the east. He shook the produce of this branch on the ground; and these being taken up by various persons and planted in various localities, produced these wonderful trees which were all blown down in the seventh century.

ILLUSTRATED TALK

Using photographs of nature, local heritage sites, charts and diagrams, we share an overview of how the annual Cycle of the Year is expressed in the natural world, myth, local archaeological sites and in our own lives.

email@nativespirittours.com

HILL OF TARA guided tour

Connect the threads of archaeology, anthropology, history, myth, earth energies and the mystery and magic that make Tara a special place.

Tours by appointment - approx. one and half to two hours adults 15 euro / family and group discounts

Your tour guides: www.NativeSpiritTours.com

Previously presented to Dunshaughlin Historical Society, Hill of Tara at Summer Solstice 2010 and Saltwater Scribblers at Drogheda Arts Centre.

If your club, society or group would be interested in this please contact us: