Signs of spring as Beltaine draws near

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. The hummingbirds are visiting my feeder, the quail babies hide in my yard while their parents stand guard. I love spring and the new beginnings it brings. This is the light side of spring, one I would rather embrace.

But there is a dark side. Spring was important to the ancient Celts. Beltaine was a vital time of the year, signaling the end of a long, cold, dark winter. It was also a time tinged with sadness because battles were fought in the spring.

One of my books, Beltaine's Song, is filled with spring themes, including battles fought between the Irish and the Picts in the sixth century of what is now called Scotland. There were women warriors among the fighters. My heroine was one of them. What puts the warrior in the heart of a woman? This is one of the themes I explored in this trilogy.

Among the beauty of spring, there was the ugliness of death.

Excerpt from Beltaine's Song:

The armies clashed below on the peninsula, staining the green earth with bright red blood. Heartrending screams from the dying broke the calm, silencing the seabirds with fear. War is ugly. Is the Christian Hell like this?

Surrounded on all sides by the churlish sea, islands emerged from the mist, brooding in the distance, witnesses to the horrible bloodshed. Fresh sea air swallowed some of the detestable smells of battle, filling her lungs with the scent of briny air, but the faint scent of blood set her pulse racing. With a heavy heart, she thought this battle particularly ugly because blood fought against blood, dividing the clans.

Domelch sensed something foul in the air around Dunadd, treachery lurking in the darkest corners. She thought back to the day she saw her brother riding hard to Dunadd—from the south. She knew Aedan sensed the foulness of treachery for the archers' positioning had been kept secret from all the commanders. If he suspected Galan, he had kept that to himself.

Gathering her archers, they positioned themselves in the hill's crevices, waiting for Aedan's army to lure the enemy their way and give Domelch the signal from the battle horn.

Crouched in a painful position between two rocks, Domelch nocked her arrow and waited. “Fire at my signal,” she ordered her archers.

Quiet, the archers became one with the craggy hill dressed in gray and green tunics, blending into the gray moss-covered hills. The cold, damp stones pressed painfully into Domelch's sides. Keeping her muscles still, she ignored the pain, her mind focused on the battle array below.

Clashing spears and swords against war shields splintered the air, drowning out the sea tides. War cries and yelps of pain mingled with horses' neighs and bursts from battle horns. She waited for the three short bursts of the battle horn, her heart racing with each passing moment as the battle neared their position.

Three short blasts from the ox-horn echoed through the hills, a fearsome sound like the trumpets of the Underworld calling home the dead. Domelch shuddered at the thought. We will send the dead home, she thought. “Loose your arrows,” she commanded, gathering her courage and battle fury.

Kelley Heckart

Otherworldly tales steeped in myth & magic.

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

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A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse… 

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in Dark Age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html

The Goddess Brigid/Brigit

In honor of Beltaine, which arrives on May 1st, I decided to write a post about an important Celtic deity that is associated with spring.

Brigid is the most enduring of the Celtic goddesses. She has survived to this day as St. Brigid. She is part of the Irish gods and goddesses called Tuatha de Danaan who were originally a sea-faring race called Pelasgians that lived near the Aegean Sea. Considered a magical race, the Danaans possessed the knowledge of blacksmithing. According to the Book of Invasions, the Tuatha de Danaans were driven northward from Greece as a result of invasion from Syria, and eventually reached Ireland.

This popular goddess is also worshipped in Scotland (Bride), Britain (Brigantia) and Gaul (Brigandu) where a celebration in her honor takes place on February 1^st on Imbolc when the first signs of spring appear, usually when the ewe’s become pregnant. Brigid is a giver of plenty, and is loved and respected by ordinary people. Brigid also is a deity of learning, culture and skills, which equal the Greek Athena. Brigid is the daughter of the Dagda in some tales. A triple goddes, she is the goddess of poetry, inspiration and divination.

Brigid may once have been Brizo of Delos, a moon goddess, whose name is derived by the Greeks from the word, “brizein” meaning ‘to enchant.’ But as Brigid she is seen as a sun goddess, her name “Breosaighit” means ‘fiery arrow.’ It is not known how this change transpired. Maybe as a moon goddess, she was seen as a death aspect, and feared by humans so she was transformed into a sun goddess, a giver of life, to win the love of the humans. She may have been a goddess of metalworking as well. It is thought that she has a face that is beautiful on one side and ugly on the other.

Brigit has appeared in some form in a couple of my novels. In Beltaine’s Song, she is part of an ancient Celtic legend that revolves around the festivals of Beltaine and Samhain. Brigit represents the lighter half of the year, Beltaine. She awakes at Beltaine and sleeps during the darker half of the year, which starts on Samhain.

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in Dark Age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html

Past Lives

I believe that we have more than one life, that somehow Karma plays a role in our chance to live again.

The ancient Celtic druids believed in the immortal soul. The end of a life was only a new beginning. Celtic warriors possessed a fierce courage in battle and I wonder if it was because they had no fear of death.

In Greek mythology, the souls of the dead waiting to be reborn drank from the River Lethe to forget their past lives.

Do we carry imprints from those past lives? For me, I have always been fascinated with ancient history, swords and castles. Sometimes I feel disconnected from modern times. My husband can’t stand wearing anything tight around his neck. Does this mean that in a past life he was hanged? Speaking of my husband, when we met, I was so comfortable with him it was like I already knew him. It was the same for him. I felt like he was my soul mate. I’ve always felt that we knew each other in a past life.

My Past Lives series explores the idea of two people that share a past life, one filled with tragedy and cursed by the gods. The third book in this series was just released in July 2012. Daughter of Night is the story of when my hero and heroine first met. When I was writing Of Water and Dragons (Book 1), I had an idea for past lives for my hero and heroine, but they couldn’t remember their former lives. I used the idea that souls ready to be reborn drink from the River Lethe and don’t remember their past lives. In Ravenwolf (Book 2), Nemu is forced to remember her past life and this is the set up for Daughter of Night.

Question for all: Do you believe in past lives? Please share any experiences you may have had.

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Excerpt from Daughter of Night:

With the servant's help, they dressed Inaras in a warm tunic. He carried her to bed and covered her with warm blankets, stroking her cheek. She closed her eyes, falling asleep. He left her side and sat near the fire to dry his wet clothes, shifting to accommodate his aching balls. The kick she had delivered to his sensitive man parts had been like a kick from an untamed horse. He could not help smiling at her unbridled spirit. The smile faded and he stared into the fire, brooding.

“My lord, I found the pipe.” Zunia handed it to him.

“You may go now, but return at daybreak.”

“Yes, my lord.” She left the room.

He held the smooth clay pipe, feeling rage at the instrument that threatened to destroy the one he loved, but he knew the pipe was not his true enemy. Whatever had driven Inaras to hide behind the poppy demons was the true enemy. Clutching the pipe in his fist, he threw it into the fire. The pipe broke in two pieces. He watched with satisfaction as the flames consumed the evil pipe, crackling and spitting.

Inaras called out his name. He helped her from the bed.

“I feel as if I am going to be sick.” Shaking and sweating, she leaned against him, groaning. Holding her up, he half carried her to the bathing room and to the squatting hole. Retching violently, she emptied her body of the demon poppies. He held her hair back from her face and when she finished, he held her trembling body. He wiped her sweating forehead with a wet cloth and dripped cool drops of water into her mouth. Carrying her back to bed, he realized how much weight she had lost, how fragile she had become. He covered her with blankets, staring down at her sleeping face.

In sleep, her face looked so innocent. He realized that he knew very little about her, but he had seen her tender side when she calmed the mare with her beautiful, enchanting lullaby. It was difficult for him to comprehend that such an innocent looking woman could be capable of killing four armed warriors with her bare hands. Had she commanded the King Horse? A dread feeling came over him that Ninuba could have been speaking true about Inaras when she called her a sorceress of black magic.

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Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

New Release! Two mortals are caught up in the battle between the Titans and Olympian gods.

Buy links on author website: http://kelleyheckart.com/daughter_of_night.html

Imperfect Heroes

Does a hero have to be physically perfect? One of my favorite fairy-tales is Beauty and the Beast. I just read a book titled The Snow Bride based on this fairy-tale and fell in love with the hero who was far from looking like a Prince Charming. This hero had other qualities that made him loveable besides perfect looks. He treated the heroine with respect and risked his life to protect her.

I’m working on a story right now that has a hero with a crippled leg. A former warrior and king, his injury has left him bitter and filled with revenge. The heroine works with him to heal his physical and mental wounds. In another story I am working on, the hero has a brutal scar on his face that marks him as a traitor. In Of Water and Dragons, my hero has a scar from a battle wound that injured his eye so that he could no longer serve in the Roman army.

Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Those who can see past physical imperfections and into the heart of the person are truly gifted. In Celtic lore, a king had to pass certain tests to be king worthy. One of those tests was seeing past an old woman’s visage to the beauty within. A Celtic king had to be able to see beyond what others would see and not be fooled by appearances. But the Celts revered physical perfection in their kings—they had a law that stated the king had to be whole in body and mind. Proof of this is in the story of Nuada of the silver hand in Tuatha de Danaan legend. He could only keep his place as king by receiving a silver hand to replace the hand he lost in battle.

In modern society, we focus too much on perfect looks. It’s refreshing to see or read about a hero that isn’t perfect. If I had a choice between a selfish handsome hero and a caring scarred hero, I would choose the Beast over Prince Charming without hesitation. What’s inside a person is more important. Looks eventually fade anyway.

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/ Check out my long hair hotties!

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse…

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in dark age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html

Crow and raven women in fiction

A common theme keeps popping up in my stories—crow or raven women. I’m not sure why this is happening, but my fascination with these beings probably has something to do with my love of Celtic myths. The Irish hero Cuchulain had many encounters with the Irish battle goddess, Morrigan. She is his nemesis. Ravens and crows are prevalent in Celtic myths. They are associated with battlefields and death, prophecy and the Otherworld. In some versions of the King Arthur myth, upon his death, Arthur turns into a raven. Crows and ravens play an important part in the lives of the ancient Celts.

Celtic goddesses embodied war and fertility and had a fierceness and danger that other goddesses lacked. Even the serene Brigit had her hand in warfare—she inspired blacksmiths that created farm tools as well as weapons. The aspects of the Celtic goddesses reflect what we know about Celtic women. Roman writers called them more fearsome than even their men.

Since I write a lot of Celtic-themed stories with warriors and otherworldly creatures, the crow and raven women that appear in my tales are important to the story. Though different incarnations of the battle goddess, my crow and raven women have some similarities. They are neither good nor evil, but they are unpredictable and make trouble for my hero and heroine. They can change their shape into a crow or raven or have feathered wings.

I am doing something a little different in a story I am working on with one of my crow women. She is not a Fae or goddess, but was human until dark magic transformed her. This is also the first time one of my crow or raven women is the heroine. And the story is set in ancient Greece, not one of my usual Celtic settings. I draw on Greek mythology for this tale, which also has its share of crow and raven myths.

Authors, do you have a favorite theme that appears in most of your stories? Readers, do you have a favorite theme in the books you read?

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author

Captivating...Sensual...Otherworldly

http://www.kelleyheckart.com

http://kelleysrealm.blogspot.com/ Check out my long hair hotties!

http://twitter.com/CelticChick

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelley-Heckart/111838455604

A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse…

All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in dark age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.

http://kelleyheckart.com/BookShelf.html