The story says that she was the daughter of the King of Spain who traveled to Ireland to wed the last Fir Bolg High King. The Fir Bolg were descendants (or slaves?) of Scythians (or Spaniards?) who had come to Ireland in ancient times, got kicked out, lived in Greece (!?), and then returned to Ireland!
(I think that the mention of Spain, in these cases, might have been a codeword for Atlantis or perhaps Egypt or Ethiopia.)
At this time, the Fir Bolg had fought for, and won, their share of the land from the Fomorians, who were basically Sea Raiders. There were still some Fomorians living in Ireland, however.
Now....it was actually mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible (Jer 41:10) that the Prophet Jeremiah went to the Egyptian city of Tahpanhes with his scribe Baruch, Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, and with “Tea Tephi and her sister.” As mentioned, “Tea” is another name for Tailtiu, and Tephi is used interchangably for her sister. (There may be a connection with the Chaldeans, also.)
Sometimes Tea and Tephi are featured in a story that is credited to Masonic tradition, traced to an introduction into popular culture during the nineteenth century (“The Book of Tephi” by J.A. Goodchild, 1897) and credited as a reference in several printed sources thereafter. According to this account, the biblical prophet Jeremiah left Egypt with King Zedekiah’s daughters whose names were 'Tea Tephi ' and ‘Tamar Tephi’ and a scribe, Baruch. He boarded a ship in Tarshish with Tea Tephi, whose sister Tamar Tephi chose to stay behind. Jeremiah took the remaining daughter to Ireland (some say “by way of Gibraltar) to found Tara. The story goes on to say that the two mounds of earth on the Hill of Tara were then named "The Mounds of Tea Tephi" by Jeremiah, and that Tea Tephi married the King of Ireland.
http://mirrorofisis.freeyellow.com/id291.html
It has also been said that Tailtiu was “the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh Bachtir Mac Buirech,. It is said she came from Thebes. Her sister is Scota Tephi, the bright, who is crowned with feathers, has a staff and brooch.” Other stories have the sisters as daughters of king Zedekiah of Jerusalem.
http://www.tartanplace.com/faery/goddess/teamhair.html
Most accounts of Irish mythology say that Tailtiu was married to Eochaid mac Eirc, the last Fir Bolg king, “an ideal ruler during whose reign only truth was spoken in the land, which bore abundant crops under fair skies.” However, some believe he had taken Tailtiu from her father in Spain. (At that time, the power of Goddess Culture was still strong, and I believe he married Tailtiu in order to gain her favor with the spirit of the Land.)
Eochaid was killed at the first battle of Mag Tuired, when the Fir Bolg battled the magical invaders, the Tuatha De Danann. “Thereupon Tailtiu married Eochaid Garbh, who despite the similarity of name to her first husband, was a member of the victorious Tuatha De Danaan.”
Early Irish kingship was sacred in character. In the early narrative literature a king is a king because he marries the sovereignty goddess, is free from blemish, enforces lucky actions and avoids unlucky ones. Perhaps there is a forced cultural merging, as the triumphant (male) leader in battle marries the widow of the killed vanquished leader. Tailtiu, in her role as Queen/Priestess, was representative not only of the Goddess, but of the Land Itself. And the new “King” must be “married to the Land,” or else was not recognized to have any true authority by the people.
Now, the new ruling group of Ireland, the Tuatha de Danaan, had all kinds of intrigues and strange things about their own family relationships. For instance, the Tuatha de Danaan man, Cian, was the son of Dian Cécht and Danu. He had a “magic cow” that gave an endless supply of milk. However, the Fomorian Balor tricked him out of the cow!
Cian took revenge on Balor by seducing his daughter, Ethlinn. (That seems a strange way to get revenge!) Ethlinn bore Cian three sons: triplets.
It was prophecised that Balor's grandson would one day kill him. Because of his fear, Balor had his daughter Ethlinn imprisoned in the tower. When her sons (triplets) were born, Balor threw each son from the tower into the sea. Only one infant was saved by Manannán (the Tuatha de Danaan Sea God) and a Druidess named Birog. Birog brought the child to his father, Cian. Cian put the child, whom he named Lugh, into the care of his brother Goibhniu (a Master Smith of the Tuatha).
Now it gets a bit confused, but the gist of the story is that Lugh had many “foster-fathers” (including the Smith) who taught him all the skills in the world. AND (most importantly) he was given to Tailtiu as his foster mother.
Lugh, of course, became a legendary leader and a kind of “God” in his own right. But his love for his foster-mother Tailtiu was also legendary. And, as his “foster mother,” she must have taught him much.
Now Tailtiu is very interesting to me, because she is the one who caused the “Hill Fort” (or “Ring Fort”) to be built on the Hill of Tara. And this is how it happened:
“In Spain (Egypt? Ethiopia? Atlantis?), Tailtiu had chanced to see the Rampart of Tephi. When with her people, she begged her husband to give her the ridge, now called Tara, but then Druim Cain, ‘The Fair Ridge', the wish was granted. Tailtiu built a wall round the ridge in imitation of Teipe-mur (the Wall of Teipe or Tephi) …" Tephi, again, was Tailtiu’s sister.
“Tailtiu lived in her palace on Ráth Dubh and she led her people in the clearing of the forest of County Meath, some of Ireland's best farmland. But the work of clearing proved so onerous as to break her heart, in the words of the text.”
Now, I doubt if she tried clearing that land all by herself! So the text puzzles me. She certainly had many stout followers to help her with the clearing of the land.
My own opinion is that Tailtiu, in spirit, was so entwined with the Land, that the felling of the ancient trees of the dense forest did indeed break her heart. Yet, she felt she needed to do this so that her people could survive by planting what they needed, and tilling the land. So she sacrificed herself (and the trees) for her people!
As for the building of a hill-fort, this is also puzzling to me. There are many remnants of hill-forts around Celtic Britain, but archaeologists are doubtful that they were for military defense. It seems that, in the transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age, the climate changed, and people had to band together to survive the harsh weather. They needed seasonal enclosures for their animals and to protect their plants and store their grains. IF Tailtiu came from Ethiopia or Chaldea, she was aware of the utmost importance of her people being able to cultivate the fields and vineyards, and thus lay the foundation of security.
As she died, she asked that her funeral go on forever, with horse racing and games and festivities. And so her foster son, the god Lugh, established the August festival that, strangely, bears his name (Lughnasa) rather than hers.
“On Her deathbed Queen Tailte (Tailtiu) asked that funeral games be held annually on the cleared ground. King Lugh came from his great palace at Nas (now Naas, in Co. Kildare), and had Tailtiu interred in Her ‘green circle on the distant hills.' Legend says She was buried in a royal state, with impressive druidical rites, on the side of Caill Cuain (now called Sliabh Caillighe), in what is known now as ‘Cairn T.’”
Lugh lead the first funeral games at the time of Lughnasa (1 August; Lammastide, now Lammas), which consisted of hurling, athletic, gymnastic and equestrian contests of various kinds, and included running, long-jumping, high-jumping, hurling, quoit-throwing, spear-casting, sword and-shield contests, wrestling, boxing, handball, swimming, horse-racing, chariot-racing, spear or pole jumping, slinging contests, bow-and-arrow exhibitions, and, in fact, every sort of contest exhibiting physical endurance and skill. A universal truce was proclaimed in the High King's name, and all feuds, fights, quarrels and such-like disturbances were strictly forbidden and severely dealt with; and all known criminals were rigorously excluded from both the games and the assembly.
In addition, there were literary, musical, oratorical, and story-telling competitions; singing and dancing competitions, and tournaments of all kinds. Also, competitions for goldsmiths, jewellers, and artificers in the precious metals; for spinners, weavers and dyers; and the makers of shields and weapons of war. The fair lasted for a fortnight.
One common feature of the Games were the ‘Tailtean marriages,” a rather informal marriage that lasted for only ‘a year and a day’ or until next Lammas. At that time, the couple could decide to continue the arrangement if it pleased them, or to stand back to back and walk away from one another, thus bringing the Tailtean marriage to a formal close. Such trial marriages (obviously related to the Wiccan ‘Handfasting’) were quite common even into the 1500s, although it was something one ‘didn’t bother the parish priest about.’ Indeed, such ceremonies were usually solemnized by a POET, BARD, or SHANACHIE (or, it may be guessed, by a priest or priestess of the Old Religion).
http://www.crystalwind.ca/find-your-way/neopagan-path/wheel-of-the-year/3425-lammas
This Festival was celebrated annually in Tailtiu’s honor, lasting the whole of August. For generations it was celebrated, complete with mercantile fairs and sporting events; even into the medieval times Tailltiu's festivities were held. Eventually, they died out, but in the early part of the 20th century the Tailltean Games – the Irish Olympics – were revived in an attempt to restore Irish culture.
The Equestrian events and Horse Racing were especially loved by the Irish people. Again, there is a Sacred connection.
Edain Echraidhe is her Gaelic name; her home is the high valley between the hills of Tara and Skryne in the Royal City of Celtic Ireland. This high valley holds a sacred stream called the Gabhra (pronounced gow-ra), which means the white mare. The Gabhra Valley was free range for the White Mare of Celtic ancestors who came from northern Spain.
https://www.celticdruidtemple.com/
The Celtic Druids of Ireland (see above link) have written the following:
Now that Edain Echraidhe has returned to our attention; may she gather to her the desire dreaming of her people from over the whole world to shatter the illusions and reveal the Light.
Tara's Celtic Goddess Dreaming
- a suggested midnight visualisation located in the high valley of Tara -
"Tall leafy trees behind a Lady in White sitting on a White Mare; she leans forward offering a branch of thirteen leaves to three Celtic Women who open their hands to receive and reflect the old ways again. Eight Celtic Men form a semi circle around the three Celtic Women facing the Horse Goddess who emits a gentle white Light. Peace and Calm. Then, the neighing of a wild horse and the thunder of many hooves and the White Mare lifts her head to the gallop responding to the call to run free in the sacred valley... The 'Three Ladies and the Eight Men' of Tara step back enraptured in the graceful movement of the herd. This Fairy Host gallops along the entire Valley of the White Mare and down to the River of the Cow Goddess and back again, no fences or gates - just lush rolling grasslands edged by forest and overlooked by Rath Lugh and Rath Miles. Their free raw energy bursts through the mask of illusions every night at midnight. Light and freshness evolves in their space."
My own feeling about Tailtiu is that she was an Avatar of the Earth Goddess.
It is said that Tara and Glastonbury are “sister sites.” There is an ancient tradition of “The White” and “The Red” that activate their connection. The main well at Tara (there are at least 6 others) is called “The Well of the White Cow,” and like the spring at Glastonbury, is said to hold healing water.
“While studying the sacred landscape of Tara and Glastonbury and the Goddesses associated with them, there is a demonstration, yet evident in place names and imagery of an ancient tradition - a pairing of two Goddesses as Sisters of the Gateway, perhaps a remnant of a very ancient dual system of matrilinear descent. Red is the seen and white the unseen. We have found the symbolic use of color, red for life, kingship, vitality, the ‘life of the land’ in the physical world; and white for the shining light of truth in the spiritual world, the light life force or spiritual energy that fuels creation. To be truly effectual, we must cultivate our understanding and connection to both.”
http://mirrorofisis.freeyellow.com/id291.html
Tara is the Goddess of mountains and hills all over the world. A hill, whether Nun of Egypt, Mount Meru, Olympus, Mount Leinster, Mount Shasta, Glastonbury Tor, is based on earth, and is the place of Tara where earth meets sky. We need to climb our own hill to the sky; yet not forgetting where we came from - the earth.
–Lady Olivia Robertson, founder of the Noble Order of Tara
I will end with an excerpt of a story by William Butler Yeats, a great poet/bard who understood the Celtic Mysteries, of what happened to one young man by the name of Red Hanrahan who decided to follow the cry of the hounds and go out to a sacred place in Ireland, on Samhain Eve:
And he could walk no longer,but sat down on the heather where he was, in the heart of Slieve Echtge, for all the strength had gone from him, with the dint of the long journey he had made.
And after a while he took notice that there was a door close to him, and a light coming from it, and he wondered that being so close to him he had not seen it before. And he rose up, and tired as he was he went in at the door, of and although it was night time outside, it was daylight he found within.
And presently he met with an old man that had been gathering summer thyme and yellow flag-flowers, and it seemed as if all the sweet smells of the summer were with them. And the old man said: 'It is a long time you have been coming to us, Hanrahan the learned man and the great songmaker.'
And with that he brought him into a very big shining house, and every grand thing Hanrahan had ever heard of, and every colour he had ever seen, were in it. There was a high place at the end of the house, and on it there was sitting in a high chair a woman, the most beautiful the world ever saw, having a long pale face and flowers about it, but she had the tired look of one that had been long waiting. And there was sitting on the step below her chair four grey old women, and the one of them was holding a great cauldron in her lap; and another a great stone on her knees, and heavy as it was it seemed light to her; and another of them had a very long spear that was made of pointed wood; and the last of them had a sword that was without a scabbard.
Red Hanrahan stood looking at them for a long Hanrahan-time, but none of them spoke any word to him or looked at him at all. And he had it in his mind to ask who that woman in the chair was, that was like a queen, and what she was waiting for; but ready as he was with his tongue and afraid of no person, he was in dread now to speak to so beautiful a woman, and in so grand a place. And then he thought to ask what were the four things the four grey old women were holding like great treasures, but he could not think of the right words to bring out.
Then the first of the old women rose up, holding the cauldron between her two hands, and she said 'Pleasure,' and Hanrahan said no word. Then the second old woman rose up with the stone in her hands, and she said 'Power'; and the third old woman rose up with the spear in her hand, and she said 'Courage'; and the last of the old women rose up having the sword in her hands, and she said 'Knowledge.' And everyone, after she had spoken, waited as if for Hanrahan to question her, but he said nothing at all. And then the four old women went out of the door, bringing their tour treasures with them, and as they went out one of them said, 'He has no wish for us'; and another said, 'He is weak, he is weak'; and another said, 'He is afraid'; and the last said, 'His wits are gone from him.' And then they all said 'Echtge, daughter of the Silver Hand, must stay in her sleep. It is a
pity, it is a great pity.'
And then the woman that was like a queen gave a very sad sigh, and it seemed to Hanrahan as if the sigh had the sound in it of hidden streams; and if the place he was in had been ten times grander and more shining than it was, he could not have hindered sleep from coming on him; and he staggered like a drunken man and lay down there and then.
When Hanrahan awoke, the sun was shining on his face, but there was white frost on the grass around him, and there was ice on the edge of the stream he was lying by, and that goes running on through Daire- caol and Druim-da-rod. He knew by the shape of the hills and by the shining of Lough Greine in the distance that he was upon one of the hills of Slieve Echtge, but he was not sure how he came there; for all that had happened in the barn had gone from him, and all of his journey but the soreness of his feet and the stiffness in his bones.
http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/2535/
Resources:
The Goddess Tailtiu
https://journeyingtothegoddess.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/goddess-tailtiu/
The White and the Red (Tara and Glastonbury)
http://mirrorofisis.freeyellow.com/id291.html
Writing by: By Linda Iles, ArchDrs.
Grove of Elen of the Ways and Llew of the Silver Hand
Irish Tourism: Tara
http://www.meath.ie/Tourism/MeathsTownandVillages/Teltown/
http://www.meath.ie/Tourism/Accommodation/AccommodationListing/Title,4156,en.html
http://www.sacredireland.org/
http://www.goddessalive.co.uk/issue-18-home/tailtiu-harvest-goddess/
http://www.goddessalive.co.uk/issue-18-home/tailtiu-in-cornwall/
http://www.goddessalive.co.uk/issue-18-home/the-goddess-in-the-fields-2/
Noble Order of Tara
http://www.fellowshipofisiscentral.com/noble-order-of-tara---a-link-between-heaven-and-earth
http://www.fellowshipofisiscentral.com/noble-order-of-tara-1
Tephi, Queen of Tara and Gibraltar
http://jahtruth.net/tephisum.htm
Tamar/Tea Tephi, Daughter of King Zedekiah
http://www.obrienclan.com/seanchas-old-lore-blog/tamarteateiatephi-hebrew-princess-queen-of-ireland
The Tailteann Games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailteann_Games
Wells of Tara (Holy Wells)
http://irelandsholywells.blogspot.com/2011/10/well-of-white-cow-tara-hill.html
http://www.megalithomania.com/show/site/482/the_well_of_the_white_cow_holy_well.htm
http://www.irelandtravelkit.com/exploring-the-hill-of-tara-sacred-well-sheela-na-gig-and-sloping-trenches-tara-co-meath/
http://www.druidry.org/library/sacred-waters-holy-wells
Lebor Gabala Erenn (11th century book which tells the ancient history of Ireland)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebor_Gab%C3%A1la_%C3%89renn
High Kings of Ireland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_King_of_Ireland
Timeline of Irish Myth and Legend
http://www.legendarytours.com/dates.html
Gaelic Polytheism
http://www.tairis.co.uk/values/gessi-and-buada/
Celtic Deities
http://www.angelfire.com/wizard/celticdeities/
Book: The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power
by Vicki Noble
Geneology of Tamar Tephi
http://www.genealogy.com/ftm/h/a/r/Richard-Allen-Harper/GENE3-0001.html
