It’s a not uncommon belief that the women of Ireland in the ancient days were quiet and kept to themselves, letting the men do all the great deeds and win all the fame but nothing could be further from the truth!

From that day to this Irish women were and remain wild and fearless, willing to go to lengths as great as any man for victory, or even greater in some cases.

And such a woman was Tlachtga of the fiery hair, pronounced in English clock-da. She was born of the blind Druid prince Mogh Ruith who became the mightiest of all Druidesses.

She was born and grew up on Valentia island in County Kerry in the southern part of Ireland, learning from her father all that he knew, such as the arts of growing to enormous size, how to turn men to stone, and how to raise a thunderstorm with her breath.

But she was not satisfied with this knowledge, as eldritch and miraculous as it might seem to us today! For she knew there was much more to be learned in the wide world, more even than was known by those who dwelt beneath the hill, and more than the Druids of Ireland whispered into their beards for fear the unlearned might come to harm by overhearing their secrets.

She had looked into the shimmering moon-pools nestled in the hidden bones of the earth and witnessed their wonders which had been and wonders to come, and by watching them divined much of the art and science of their operation, as one might learn a language by listening, without ever being taught a word.

When the time came that Tlachtga of the pale skin unblemished grew wise beyond the bounds of Eriú, she took her father who had been ancient before one Roman stone was laid upon another, whose life had seen nineteen kings born and buried, and went travelling to many places.

To the purple mountains of the farthest east where the sun rose they went, among the masters of bronze deserts in their caskets of gold, into the never-lit worming nightmare tunnels twisting through the earth’s bowels, to seek the wisdom of the old serpents that dwelled and dwell yet within them, and across trackless oceans they wandered.

No easy journeys would these be even today, let alone in those wild and lawless times! So Tlachtga made the roth rámach for their travels, a wonder among wonders. This was the oared wheel, a fiery flying machine which travelled with great speed across the sky.

However, it had been created, to gaze upon it was to be blinded and it turned night into day, it deafened all who came too close, and slew all who touched it.

It was made from sacred rowan, driven by two oxen yoked with poles of electrum, and had sides of glass. Saint Columba is said to have prophesized that before the Last Judgement, the roth rámach would once again arc across the skies of Europe, laying waste to every nation that gave disciples to dark wizards.

At last, they followed the footsteps of the Tuatha Dé Danann to find the Druids Mórfheasa who was in Fálias, Easras in Goirias, Uiscias in Fionnias, and Séimhias in Muirias, the four wisest and craftiest in those ancient lost cities, but they never reached their destination, instead arriving in Jerusalem where they had divined the mightiest of mysteries was to be revealed.

There Mogh Ruith met with Simon Magus, Simon the seven-splendoured, and great was his delight in the company. He settled down to his studies and they sent Tlachtga away to travel and learn more for herself, but to their dismay, when she returned, they found she had learned more and grown more powerful than either of them!

She returned with the wise words;
She brought the moving wheel,
The perfect stone of Forcarthu she brought,
And the pillar of Cnamchaill.
Whoever sees her will become blind,
Whoever hears it will become deaf,
And anyone who tries to take a piece
From the wheel with the sharp spokes will die

Simon magus, for whom is named the sin of Simony, had a fell reputation even then before the wicked blackness of his heart was recorded in the Scriptures, and he conspired in jealousy with his three sons, who burned for Tlachtga, to do her harm. PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES

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