In this essay from my NOD course, I am looking at the Irish Myth the Battle of Magh Tuireadh and specifically at the way that the themes of Light Vs Dark are used within it. It also looks specifically at the Irish God Lugh, who is the Hero of the story. This image is an artist's depiction of this famous Celtic Sun God.
The Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh
How do the themes of Light Vs Dark, Order Vs Chaos feature into this story?
This beautiful Irish Legends asks us to look at the reality of life, and the Nature of reality: That everything has an opposite and a balance.
Just as there is man, there is woman, night and day, summer and winter, light and dark, order and chaos, war and peace, good and bad... the list of Balance goes on!
This Myth reflects that throughout its telling.
Firstly, you have the very clear divide:
The Tuatha De and the Formorians.
The Tuatha represent the Light, the Order and the 'Goodies' if you will.
You then have the Formorians... often Monstrous in their depiction, who represent the 'Dark Side' of the (Life) Force... the dark, the chaos and are the Villains of the piece.
They are the archetypes which represent these sides to life.
The Tuatha are the ordered, organised band of Irish Gods and their followers.
They have the 'Heroes' of Nuada, Dagda, Ogma and Lugh.
In the opposite corner you have who have Bres (both of Tuatha and Formorian ancestry, who ruled the Tuatha after Nuada lost his arm, but who was deposed for unfairly ruling his Kingdom) who runs to the Formorian King (his own Father Elatha) and demands that they help him to regain his power over the Tuatha De.
Elatha refuses and so enters the 'Big Bad' of the story, Balor of the Evil Eye!
Doesn't he just sound lovely?
So far, so Dark.
The Tuatha want to be ruled fairly by a just King, but the deposed Bres runs off to the Formorians and raises a huge army.
Meanwhile... Nuada has his arm grown back for him (by the son of the Physician God Dian Cecht, who gets so jealous of his son's healing gifts he kills him...several times...) and becomes King once more. At Nuada's court, a young man arrives, possessed with every single possible gift, skill and talent. This young man is Lugh.
Lugh, like Bres, is of both Tuatha De and Formorian descent. But he chooses to align himself with the Tuatha De Danann.
To liken it to a modern myth, Lugh is Jedi and Balor is Darth Vader.
Within the Tuatha they have warriors who represent Good. The Dagda represents strength, and is known as the 'Good God', Ogma is athletic and brings wisdom (the Ogham alphabet was said to be invented by him) and Lugh is skilled in EVERYTHING.
Together, with the added Magic of Morrigan, they represent a force for 'Good' fighting against tyranny, chaos and evil.
Lugh eventually kills Balor of the Evil Eye, and the Tuatha De Danann are victorious.
Lugh who is both Tuatha and Fomoire.
By having the overall Hero of the piece being an amalgamation of both good and bad, evil and good (again think Skywalker and Vadar) there is a very clear message within the Myth.
The message is that in order for us to truly understand ourselves... for us to truly live a life of balance... for us to truly understand our very Nature... we MUST address the dark and light that exists within all of us.
We all have positive and negative aspects of our personalities. We are all capable of good AND bad deeds.
By acknowledging this, and understanding it, we can come to a greater understanding of our Souls, and choose to live our lives the way we want to.
By coming to terms with the 'ugly' or 'formorian' sides of our personalities, we can come to accept them...we can take responsibility for the decisions we make, and we can live a truly more enlightened life.
If we deny, repress, ignore or 'feed' this side of ourselves, we will find only unhappiness.
To truly be victorious, to truly live our lives as we want to live them we must see the dark side of ourselves and make changes.
Like Lugh, we must take action and use the light to fight the dark- the order to fight the chaos.
If we cannot acknowledge the darker aspects of our personalities, and make action to move beyond them, then we won't learn!
Or at least, that is what I have taken from this Myth.
I truly believe that these kinds of Legends hold up a Mirror for you to look within and get a better understanding of your own personality, your own soul, and your life.
Nature has Balance throughout it, and this Legend is reflecting that balance... showing us that ultimately the Good guys DO win, but only if they can embrace and understand their dark sides but then use the light to overcome them! Just Like Lugh!
Hmmm. I have found it very interesting to deconstruct this Myth And I hope my waffling makes sense!!
Brightest Blessings,
Breaca
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