The Mysterious Ballachulish Goddess

    All hail the Ballachulish Goddess!!  This morning I saw an amazing photo posted on Facebook by one of my favorite authors and Goddess thealogy scholars, Patricia Monaghan, of an ancient Goddess statue.  The Ballachulish Goddess was discovered in a peat bog near Loch Leven, Scotland  in 1880.  Her delicately carved four foot tall oak body, with inset quartz stone eyes was perfectly preserved for more than 2500 years in the "tomb" of peat.  Carved between the years of 730-520 B.C.E, and encased in a shrine casing of wicker; she was buried at an important, yet dangerous crossing.  I have never heard of Her, and I have many questions.  Who buried her? Was she ritually buried or perhaps hidden?  There is more mystery surrounding her, than facts.  I could not resist writing about a good mystery!!  This rich landscape of Loch Leven would probably have been able to support an agricultural society 4000-6000 years ago.   Ancient depictions of the Divine Feminine have been found on every continent, except Antarctica; and the Ballachulish Goddess is the oldest human-like figure uncovered in Scotland.  She is presumed to be a fertility figure, as many of the feminine statues are in this patriarchal age.  I did an internet search, and other than an account of the excavation, including some Christian rhetoric from 1880, there is little information.  I intend to do some more research soon.
     Another mysterious Goddess roamed these lands, the Celtic hag, the Cailleach, meaning veiled one.  A nearby mountain, Beinn a' Bheithir is named for Her.  The Irish and Scottish lore surrounding the Cailleach are marvelous.  She was a crone Goddess, manifesting winter wind and snowstorms.  She farmed and was a spinner, and challenged people to out-do Her in the fields or at the wheel. She was the winner in these contests, and collected many young lovers, and offerings of wool laid on hearths all over the land. She was born old at Samhain and became young by Beltane, or shape-shifted into a moist boulder.  In some stories she was replaced  by the maiden Goddess, Brigit in the spring season.    As the wheel of the year turned, the Cailleach was once again, riding her wild pigs, and wolves, navigating through blinding snow-storms with only one eye. She often carried a magical slachdan made of aspen wood, similar to a shaman's staff, to challenge hunters for Her deer, bring frost over all the land and to both heal and curse.  In some stories it was made of iron.  She dropped boulders from Her apron, creating mountains and there were numerous man-made and natural shrines to her.  She was also Sovereignty, and kings had to lie with an old hag, seeing through to Her inner beauty, and power, to prove they could reign.
    In one of the legends, she forces a hunter to tie up his hunting dogs with one of her hairs.  She then attacks him and says, " Long have you been the devoted enemy of my persecuted sisterhood." Such is the struggle between crones, and man, for all time.  The Cailleach was thought to be as old as time, She was Creatrix of the landscape, and her very breath was the wind. The Celts took up worship of Her, already an ancient Goddess, when they came to the area now known as Scotland and Ireland; but it is unknown how long She was worshiped before that. The Christian Church attempted to wipe out worship of the Divine Feminine, but the Crone was too big for that!  Even into the 19th century, the Cailleach was said to bring the end of winter snow squalls, save young boys that slipped from the mountains, foil hunters in their chase, and sing to people nearing death. 
    So I wonder, is the Ballachulish Goddess really a maiden or mother Goddess, holding a phallus near her womb?  Or is she wielding, a slachdan?  Perhaps, she is the even more ancient representation of the Crone Goddess; power and wise fierce beauty, lifted from her dark grave, so we can once again share in Her many mysteries!!!

The Ballachulish Goddess currently resides at The National Museum of Scotland, in Edinburgh

Four foot tall and deteriorated since discovery

Sources: The Goddess Path, Patricia Monaghan, and Max Dashu's Crones at http://www.suppressedhistories.net/secrethistory/crones.html