Your True Name

One of my favourite articles by Lunaea Weatherstone is "Your True Name," which she wrote several years ago for SageWoman magazine and which is now found here on her website. She discusses the Celtic bardic tradition of ceremonial self-naming -- "a poetic interpretation of their names, which can be used as prayer, meditation, affirmation or spell." Several examples and styles of such poetry is given, but its purpose is always the same -- to express the soul of the named one in a grandly mytho-poetic sweep of words. As Lunaea wrote, "Such a rune of naming can be used to enlighten or (conversely) confound those to whom it is spoken." The bardic style can sound pretty over the top to our modern ear, but it is nevertheless oddly compelling.

Inspired by this article, in 2002 I wrote my own "true name" poem in the bardic style, which I'll post tomorrow.

[Collage by Lunaea Weatherstone]