We bring you a Beltaine issue full of sex and Celtic magick.
The connection between the two is obvious… isn't it? Perhaps not. Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, an Irish poet discussed elsewhere in this issue, writes:
I was at a reception at the American Embassy in Dublin…. An Irishwoman across from me asked what I did. Before I had time to open my mouth her partner butted in: "Oh, Nuala writes poetry in Irish." … This was beginning to get up my nose, and so I attempted simultaneously to deflate him and to go him one better. "Actually," I announced, "I think the only things worth writing about are the biggies: birth, death and the most important thing in between, which is sex." "Oh," his friend said to me archly, "and is there a word for sex in Irish?" (from "Why I Choose To Write in Irish," The New York Times Book Review, January 8, 1995.)
As it turns out, there is:
Because of a particular set of circumstances, Irish fell out of history just when the modern mentality was about to take off…. One consequence is that the attitude to the body enshrined in Irish remains extremely open and uncoy. It is almost impossible to be "rude" or "vulgar" in Irish. The body, with its orifices and excretions, is not treated in a prudish manner but is accepted as "an naduir," or "nature," and becomes a source of repartee and laughter rather than anything to be ashamed of. Thus little old ladies of quite impeccable and unimpeachable moral character tell risqué stories with gusto and panache. Is there a word for sex in Irish, indeed! Is there an Eskimo word for snow? (from "Why I Choose To Write in Irish.")
Of the thousands of Celtic manuscripts, medieval and earlier, in the department of folklore at University College, Dublin, Ní Dhomhnaill writes, "Many items of enormous psychological and sexual interest, for example, are described with the bias of the last century as `indecent and obscene tales, unsuitable for publication.'"
It's in this spirit and in honor of the ancient Celtic feast Beltaine, which pagans today celebrate as the coming together of the God and Goddess, that we put out an issue full of sex, magick and Celtiania. And if you can't say sex in Irish, please feel free to demonstrate.
Slainte!
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