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Mother of the Isles

by Alison Dhuanna, UK Astrologer

I share this story as a transmission for this moon cycle which began with New Moon conjunct Ceres and will reach fruition on the 24th/25th October with Full Moon in earthly Taurus. This coincides with Venus reaching Inferior conjunction with the Sun and beginning its journey into the underworld. This moon cycle is a very good time to break destructive patterns as it represents in spatial time the 40 days and nights Christ spent in the desert.

The Sabian Symbol for this Full Moon is on Taurus 2: AN ELECTRICAL STORM ILLUMINATES THE HEAVENS AND THE FORESTS and Venus is retrograde on Scorpio 5: A MASSIVE, ROCKY SHORE RESISTS THE POUNDING OF THE SEA. This story is also a transmission of the outpouring of Holy Grail waters from the conjunction of Astraea, Hygeia, Neptune and Chiron in the early part of Aries. Chiron has moved back into Pisces to a powerful point of endings and beginnings in the zodiac.

Mother of the Isles

I tell this story of the Mother of the Isles with the tongues of seals for they are far older than us humans and remember the stories of the Earth well.

55 billion years ago these rocks upon which I stand were part of Greenland. Their story has poured from the fissures of fractured Lewisian gneiss, arrived as a stampeding herd of white horses on the violent spray of Atlantic waves rolling in and gales the likes of which I have never known. I have pitted my wits towards the raw power of the elements, I have come to know myself as both immortal and insignificant, allowed it to blast away all irrelevancy to be left with this one clear thought.

In the great tearing apart of Gondwanaland into many pieces, which happened over countless aeons of time, these rocks anchored here in the shape of a face called the Mother of the Isles * or the Outer Hebrides as it may be located on the world map.

Through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions beneath the ocean she metamorphized. She was transformed also by the great meteor which hit earth and formed the volcanic island of Skye. She has twice been swallowed whole by the Earth, and her unique strata with flesh coloured intrusions which form her rosy hue arose once more to reach for the sky. In her third rebirth she was cloaked in ice for thousands of years which carved her shapely form as we know it today. Always she is changing, battered by the elements, and yet also unchanging.

It is said that St Rodin arrived here in the 6th Century with the mysteries of Christ, riding upon the back of a whale and founded the Church of St Molua’s with its sacred well that cures madness. It’s unusual ground plan of a t-square connects it to an ancient Norse church at Gardar in Greenland. The dedication of the church may be connected to the Sea God Lug from the “Iua” syllables of Molua. In the olden times people brought home brewed beer which was offer to the sea god “Shony” at Samhain, asking for fertility for the land through the gift of a special seaweed washed up by winter storms. St Molua’s church sits in the ‘crown’ of the Mother.

A church of identical ground plan was dedicated at the southern tip of Harris in Roghadal. Here there is a strangle tale indeed. A bardic poetess Mairi Ruaidh born approximately 1615, who was part of the Macleod clan, is buried here. She is buried face down to the ground at her own request. Mairi’s power as a songstress was marred by being accused of hurting the children of the clan leader through her songs of love to them and she was for many years banished to Mull. Her story is a tragic one, and truly the story of so many of the women (and men) of these islands whose creative life has been silenced.

In this St Clements church are many mysterious carvings such as the meeting of Sun gods of `European and possible Mayan descent and a man of `Mongolian appearance holding a skull, the symbol of the `Holy `Grail’. There is also a `Sheela-na-gig of graceful beauty given birth to a seal. The sacred relationship to the Selkies and the creatures of the sea, their infinite wisdom has been left here as a message in the stone and into the fabric of the coming Christ Consciousness birthed from the Earth herself.

The Isles of Bernera, North and South Uist, Eriskay and Barra form the remainder of the face of the Mother of the Isles and how I long next spring to be a pilgrim there. I caught sight of a postcard of Our Lady of the Isles with Christ in her arms at South Uist and it set my heart alight.

Let me speak now of the Earth dragon leys to which we have been shown which flow in from the sea where the seal colony live and form a first portal at St Molua’s church. These two lines of great telluric power sweep through the front and back of the head of the Mother. The feminine line, which I will name Mairi, after the poetess and the Lady of the Isles (Gaelic Mary) sweeps down the west of the Outer Hebrides (front of the face).

The male line which I shall name Columba, as he passes through at least 3 churches dedicated to this seafaring saint, runs down the east of the isles and the back of the head. Thus, Mother of the Isles embodies both genders, as do all life forms.

The second portal of the telluric lines is in Callanish I, II and III which lie close together in front of the Calleach mountain known as Sleeping Beauty where the moon rises and infuses her silver light upon this holy mountain every 19 years. This central point of Callanish would broadly coincide with the pituitary gland in the human head in location. Here the telluric line is like a great river running across the land, the largest I have experienced even at Avebury and such major sites. There has of course here been less interference from people in subduing the power of the land. In some ways it’s a blessing the Church believe all this to be nonsense. Callanish, where Mairi and Columba meet, is the place where the passions and desires are tamed and brought under control of the indwelling Christ consciousness and the heart. When we reach this place of love and understanding of the negative impact of pandering to our desires on self and others, we want to stop of our own accord.

My prayer is for the birthing of the Christ Consciousness to bring peace upon this land and all peoples of the Earth. May the love which is our birth right arise from this ancient Mother, the Mother of the Isles and in all the mountains and rivers of the Earth where pilgrims walk and sing their songs. My gratitude is to her in showing me her story, the ways of her changing. In this huge turning of Europe, Britain, USA and the whole world may love and more love prevail. Amen.

  • Mother of the Isles by Jill Smith. The term was first coined by Goddess researcher and artist Jill Smith who lives on the island when she noticed an image of the Outer Hebrides from a satellite image. The image is hers based on a satellite image.
  • A Mini-Guide to Europie Teampull: Isle of Lewis by Gerald Ponting
  • Scottish Gaelic Texts No 22: Mairi nighean Alasdair Ruaidh Songmaker of Skye and Berneray edited by Colm O Baoill

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