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#Prayers to Gaulish Gods
silverthornwitchery · 6 months
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To Apollon
Hail Apollo! Beloved from Greece to Rome to Gaul, And of Gaul I do Honor thee, And all your faces! Shining Belenus, the sun who shines upon my skin, The healing Grannus, who tends to the sacred springs, To Maponos, the beloved bard, and keeper of the autumnal sun. O Apollon, Sanavolos I call thee, When I see your raven, I see you, When I feel the sun warming my flesh, I feel you, Bearer of the light, I adore thee!
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paganpillar · 2 years
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Thank you for the winds which carry your powerful paroxysms .
Thank you for the rain which strengthens and nourishes my home.
Bring the heavy rains which soak our ground with you almighty power.
Blow the winds and spread the seeds of life to regenerate what we have destroyed.
Awaken us with your commanding call and announce your undeniable presence,
So that we may remember again.
Thank you Taranis of the Sky, for this beautiful gift you have given me today.
May you continue to grace us with what we so desperately need.
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Taranis
Gallo-Roman God of: Thunder, lightning, thunderstorms, the spoked wheel, and protector. Sometimes attributed to Jupiter.
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mask131 · 2 months
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The gods of Gaul: Introduction, or why it is so hard to find anything
As I announced, I open today a series of post covering what some can call the "Gaulish mythology": the gods and deities of Ancient Gaul. (Personal decision, I will try avoiding using the English adjective "Gaulish" because... I just do not like it. It sounds wrong. In French we have the adjectif "Gaulois" but "Gaulish"... sounds like ghoulish or garrish, no thank you. I'll use "of Gaul", much more poetic)
[EDIT: I have just found out one can use "Gallic" as a legitimate adjective in English and I am so happy because I much prefer this word to "Gaulish", so I'll be using Gallic from now on!]
If you are French, you are bound to have heard of them one way or another. Sure, we got the Greek and Roman gods coming from the South and covering up the land in temples and statues ; and sure we had some Germanic deities walking over the rivers and mountains from the North-East to leave holiday traditions and folk-beliefs... But the oldest gods of France, the true Antiquity of France, was Gaul. And then the Roman Gaul, and that's already where the problems start.
The mythology of Gaul is one of the various branches of the wide group known as Celtic mythology or Celtic gods. When it comes to Celtic deities, the most famous are those of the British Isles, due to being much more preserved (though heavily Christianized) - the gods of Ireland and the Welsh gods are typically the gods every know about when talking about Celtic deities. But there were Celts on the mainland, continental Celts - and Gaul was one of the most important group of continental Celts. So were their gods.
Then... why does nobody know anything about them?
This is what this introduction is about: how hard it actually is to reconstruct the religion of Gaul and understand its gods. Heck we can't ACTUALLY speak of a Gaulish mythology because... we have no myth! We have not preserved any full myth or complete legend from Ancient Gaul. The pantheon of Gaul is the Celtic pantheon we probably know the least about...
Why? A few reasons.
Reason number one, and the most important: We have no record of what the Gauls believed. Or almost none. Because the people of Gaul did not write their religion.
This is the biggest obstacle in the research for the gods of Gaul. It was known that the art of writing was, in the society of Gaul, an elite art that was not for the common folks and used only for very important occasions. The druids were the ones who knew how to read and write, and they kept this prerogative - it was something the upper-class (nobility, rulers) could know, but not always. Writing was considered something powerful, sacred and magical not to be used recklessly or carelessly. As a result, the culture of Gaul was a heavily oral one, and their religion and myths were preserved in an oral fashion. Resulting in a great lack of written sources comng directly from the Gallic tribes... We do have written and engraved fragments, but they are pieces of a puzzle we need to reconstruct. We have votive offerings with prayers and demands inscribed on it - and while they can give us the names of some deities, they don't explain much about them. We have sculptures and visual representations of the deities on pillars and cups and jewels and cauldrons - but they are just visuals and symbols without names. We have calendars - but again, these are just fragments. We have names and images, and we need to make sense out of it all.
To try to find the explanations behind these fragments, comparisons to other Celtic religions and mythologies are of course needed - since they are all branches of a same tree. The same way Germanic mythology can be understood by looking at the Norse one, the same way Etruscan, Greek and Roman mythologies answer each other, the mythology and religion of Gaul has echoes with the Celtic deities of the Isles (though staying quite different from each other). The other comparison needed to put things back into context is reason number 2...
Reason number two: The Romans were there.
Everybody knows that the death of Ancient Gaul was the Roman Empire. Every French student learns the date of Alesia, the battle that symbolized the Roman victory over the Gallic forces. Gaul was conquered by the Romans and became one of the most famous and important provinces of the Roman Empire: it was the Gallo-Roman era.
The Romans were FASCINATED by Gaul. Really. They couldn't stop writing about them, in either admiration or hate. As a result, since we lack direct Gallic sources, most of what we know about Ancient Gaul comes from the Romans. And you can guess why it is a problem. Some records of their religion were written in hatred - after all, they were the barbarian ennemies that Romans were fighting against and needed to dominate. As such, they contain several elements that can be put in doubt (notably numerous references to brutal and violent human sacrifices - real depictions of blood-cults, or exaggeratons and inventions to depict the gods of Gaul as demonic monstrosities?) But even the positive and admirative, or neutral, records are biased because Romans kept comparing the religion of the Gauls to their own, and using the names of Roman deities to designate the gods of Gaul...
Leading to the other big problem when studying the gods of Gaul: the Roman syncretism. The Gallo-Roman era saw a boom in the depictions and representations of the Gallic gods... But in their syncretized form, fused with and assimilated to the Roman gods. As such we have lots of representations and descriptions of the "Jupiter of Gaul", of the "Mercury of Gaul", of the "Gallic Mars" or "Gallic Minerva". But it is extremely hard to identify what was imported Roman elements, what was a pure Gallic element under a Roman name, and what was born of the fusion of Gallic and Roman traditions...
Finally, reason number three: Gaul itself had a very complicated approach to its own gods.
We know there are "pan-gallic" gods, as in gods that were respected and honored by ALL the people of Gaul, forming the cohesion of the nation. But... Gaul wasn't actually a nation. It was very much like the many city-states of Greece: Ancient Gaul was unified by common traditions, a common society, a common religion and a common language... But Gaul was a tribal area divided into tribes, clans and villages, each with their own variations on the laws, each with their own customs and each with their own spin on religion. As a result, while there are a handful of "great gods" common to all the communities of Gaul, there are hundreds and hundreds of local gods that only existed in a specific area or around a specific town ; and given there were also many local twists and spins on the "great gods", it becomes extremely hard to know which divine name is a local deity, a great-common god, a local variation on a deity, or just a common nickname shared by different deities... If you find a local god, it can be indeed a local, unique deity ; or it can be an alternate identity of a shared divine archetype ; or it can be a god we know elsewhere but that goes by a different name here.
To tell you how fragmented Gaul was: Gaul was never a unified nation with one king or ruler. The greatest and largest division you can make identifies three Gauls. Cisalpine Gaul, the Gaul located in Northern Italy, conquered by the Romans in the second century BCE, and thus known as "the Gaul in toga" for being the most Roman of the three. Then there was the "Gaul in breeches" (la Gaule en braies), which borders the Mediterranean sea, spanning between the Alps and the Pyrenean mountains, and which was conquered in the 117 BCE (becoming the province of Narbonne). And finally the "Hairy Gaul", which stayed an independant territory until Cesar conquered it. And the Hairy Gaul itself was divided into three great areas each very different from each other: the Aquitaine Gaul, located south of the Garonne ; the Celtic Gaul located between the Garonne and the Marne (became the Gaul of Lyon after the Roman conquest) ; and finally the Belgian Gaul, located between the Marne and the Rhine. And this all is the largest division you can make, not counting all the smaller clans and tribes in which each area was divided. And all offering just as many local gods or local facets of a god...
And if it wasn't hard enough: given all the sculptures and visuals depictions of the gods of Gaul are very "late" in the context of the history of Gaul... It seems that the gods of Gaul were originally "abstract" or at least not depicted in any concrete form, and that it was only in a late development, shortly before the Roman invasions, that people of Gaul decided to offer engravings and statues to their gods, alternating between humanoid and animal forms.
All of this put together explains why the gods of Gaul are so mysterious today.
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blesscernunnos · 2 years
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If you don't mind me asking, what was your first experience with Cernunnos?
I'm so sorry if this has been in my inbox for a long time, life and death caught up to me and wowie, I got busy!
My first experience with Cernunnos came through Wicca. I'm not Wiccan anymore, but Wiccans tend to venerate the Mother Goddess and Horned God.
A lot of people think Cernunnos and the Horned God are separate because there are a lot of differences between them. However, my experience was that the Horned God is just another facet of Cernunnos, a way for Him to connect with modern people. After all, we are much different from the Gaulish worshippers of old! Change is natural...
So I worshipped mostly the Mother Goddess for quite some time but then I started to get a feeling that I should worship the Horned God more. His presence was amazing and beautiful. As I left Wicca and became more of a "non-denominational" pagan, The Horned God came to me more and more as not a nameless title but as Cernunnos. As I read about Cernunnos in the Gaulish context I realized that this was absolutely Cernunnos, and His consistent presence, acceptance of offerings, acceptance of my prayers, and the peace I felt reading about Him confirmed that.
I don't have a first experience as in a specific event, it's more of a timeline of experiences that lead to this point.
Hail Cernunnos!
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druidicentropy · 1 month
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*H₂eryo-men
* H₂eryo-men is the fictitious name for a deity in Proto-Indo-European religion, linked to healing, the formation of marriage, and the construction and maintenance of roads or paths. The deity is believed to be responsible for community well-being.
The noun *h₃eryos, which means "a member of one's own group" or "someone belonging to the community," as opposed to a foreigner, is the source of the term *h₂eryo-men. Further derivatives of this root are the Indo-Iranian *árya, "noble, hospitable", and the Celtic *aryo-, "free man" (most notably as aire, "noble, chief" in Old Irish, and as arios, "free man, lord" in Gaulish).
Xaryomen is another spelling of his name.
The Vedic god Aryaman, who is mentioned in the Vedas for his ties to social and matrimonial ties, is one of the descendant deities in later traditions. Similarly, the Iranian god Airyaman, mentioned in the Gāthās, is invoked in prayers to ward off illness, sorcery, and evil. He represents the larger tribal community or alliance. The legend that tells the story of Ireland's founding names the hero Érimón as the first king of the Milesians, the mythical people who inhabited the island after it was taken from the Tuatha Dé Danann. This legend also addresses the roles that  *h₂eryo-men played in marriage by giving wives to the Cruithnig, the mythical Celtic Britions or Picts. The influence of the deity is further demonstrated by the Gaulish name Ariomanus, which means "lord-spirited" and was frequently used by Germanic chiefs.
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jasper-pagan-witch · 2 years
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(Photo by Livin4wheel on Unsplash)
O Cernunnos, He of Liminality
Horned One, Keeper of Riches
The one who dwells both sides
Bridge and guide from one state to another
Thank you for your aid, your guidance,
Your wisdom, your knowledge
O Cernunnos, He Who Sits At Crossroads
We thank you
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fernthewhimsical · 2 years
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You stand tall within your sacred grove,
The sun's rays shining through your antlered crown
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You stand rooted deeply within the Earth,
Connected to all things living and passed,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
You lead the dance ‘round the blazing bonfire,
The drums echoing the beat of your heart
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You lead the hunt through forest deep,
The spirit of hunting wolf and hunted stag both,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
You stand firmly ‘pon the threshold,
The liminal of body and time and place is yours,
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You sit cross-legged between the standing stones,
The power of tree and root and fur and fang is yours,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
You wear the torc of sun-bright shining gold,
The wealth of coin and wealth of life are yours to give,
I feel your call, oh, Cernunnos
You hold the horned serpent within your grasp,
The keeper of ancient knowledge and lore long forgotten,
I hear your call, oh, Cernunnos
[Poem/prayer by Marjolijn Ashara, a.k.a. me]
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apples-and-seagulls · 2 years
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prayer for an evening shower
Braton tei, Apollo Grannus,
Braton tei, Sirona,
For this water that I use this evening,
And its cleaning effects,
I praise you!
.
And I praise the many others,
Gods, spirits, and my fellow humans,
Who helped to bring this water here from far away.
Braton tei!
.
May this water cleanse my body of filth,
That I might be clean, comfortable, and healthy
And that I might avoid causing others around me to fall sick.
.
May this water cleanse my soul of filth,
That I might sleep peacefully
And greet the new day with happiness
And with the energy to do my duties.
.
Braton tei, Apollo Grannus!
Braton tei, Sirona! 
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Link
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hearthfirehandworks · 5 years
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Prayer to Borvo, Gaulish Celtic god, worshipped at healing springs.
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blackwattlenemeton · 2 years
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Morning Prayer
Having moved away from Norse Heathenry, I no longer use those excellent passages from the Sigrdrífumál as my morning prayer. They don’t feel right anymore. So I’ve written something else. The first version was just okay, but didn’t feel quite right after road-testing it for a little while, so I took out the Gaulish, Slavic, and Anglo-Saxon words, and instead asked myself what I really wanted and felt. The current result is simple, snappy, and has just a little spice of other languages. Here it is.
Salve!
To the rising of the ancient sun
And the shining of the bright day.
May your light fall upon me
And keep me safe and whole.
Slava!
To the wheel that turns overhead
And the earth that lies underfoot.
May I be honoured by my place
Within your vast cycle.
Sāli!
To the gods who surround us
And the ancestors who witness us.
May I be guided by your wisdom
And face the world with courage.
I wanted some words to represent the Celtic, the Slavic, and the Germanic parts of my current practice. ‘Salve’ is a Latin greeting, but would have been used in the Roman Celtic world. ‘Slava’ is used in Slavic paganism and means roughly ‘glory’. ‘Sāli’ is, technically, reconstructed Proto-West-Germanic (at least, according to Wiktionary…) and means something like ‘joy’, ‘happiness’, and wellbeing. I picked this word because I wanted a Germanic word of roughly the 100-500 CE period that could be used as a greeting or interjection, and ideally started with an ‘s’ to match the rest of the words. I didn’t use ‘hail’, which would have been easy, or any of its older variants, ‘hāl’ (Old English), or even ‘*hail’ (Proto-West-Germanic), because it doesn’t feel right – reminds me too much of Norse Heathenry. ‘Sāli’ may not have been – and probably wasn’t – used as a greeting, and might not even be appropriate, but I can’t time travel and I’ll never know. But for now, it sounds and feels good, so I’m gonna use it.
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paganpillar · 2 years
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"My thoughts arise. May good things be thought by me today.
I open my eyes. Let good things be seen by me today.
I open my lips. Let good things be said by me today.
The grace of the Gods upon this day. I walk with the Gods."
Gaulish Prayer by Ceiswr Serith
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Some good books about Gaulish paganism - a review
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In English: The religion of the Ancient Celts; MacCulloch
Is this book actually dedicated to the cults of the Gaulish people? Yes and nope. MacCulloch try to write about the idea of the religion of the ancient Celts, insular and continental one, and for that reason I felt the necessity to advise this text.
But for what reason we must read a book that speak also of the insular Celtic Deities? Druids were literally an "association" of erudites and scholars, and the ones who was want to study for became a priest/priestess (but also a poet, or a doctor, or a judge) must to start a travel. A travel in the insular Celtic region. Taking it lightly, it was an Erasmus.
In this book we learn something about the spiritual dimension of the Celts, starting from historical sources, more "modern" like the Irish mythology and more old like archeological finds (sites generally in Gaul). You will learn something about the pan-celtic Gods (that are the Ones who we can find in all the ancient Celtic world) and about some rites and believes of the time.
The author try to be the most objective as possible and his theories are reported as what they are - theories.
For me, this is one of my favourite books on the argument - and now I started to read so much more! Stay tuned.
Index.
- Introduction
- The Celtic people
- The Gods of the Gaul and of the Continental Celts
- The Irish mythological cycle
- The Tuatha dé Danann
- Cuchulain saga
- Fionn's saga
- Gods and men
- Cults of the dead
- Primitive cult of the Nature
- Cult of the Rivers and the Springs
- Cult of the Trees and Plants
- Cult of the Animals
- Cosmogony
- Sacrifice, prayer and divination
- Taboos
- Festivities
- Weapons of the Cult
- Druids
- Magic
- The condition of the dead
- Rebirth and transmigration
- The "Elisio"
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chronarchy · 7 years
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A simple prayer to a deity that speaks to me.
Photo taken in the Musée de Cluny | musée national du Moyen Age, Paris, France.
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dimancheetoile · 2 years
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hi! i was hoping to connect over the goddess damona. i came across your post regarding her. i was hoping to find out if you knew of resources regarding her / ways to honor her and offer her??
Oh absolutely, she's one of the Goddesses I'm Dedicated to. In case you're unfamiliar with the concept, in certain Druidic Circles and Celtic/Gaulish traditions, people who are in training in the Bardic, Vatic and Druidic ways as well as fully in place in those roles can Dedicate themselves to a number of Gods and Goddesses. It means you worship them regularly, you're able to lead ceremonies and rituals in their honour, you can guide worshipers in their prayers or guive guidance in ways to connect to the deities, etc. It's a pledge, and oath to do right by the deity and always put them above all, to respect them and Know them so that the rest of the Tribe can rely on you to do the brunt of the religious work while they can simply honour the Gods in their own ways.
There are tons of resources I could give you but I'm unsure how interested the people who follow me are regarding witchcraft and Gaulish tradition, so I would instead offer that we chat privately. That way I can answer all your questions instead of going through asks.
(and if I'm mistaken and you lovely people are actually interested in this stuff, you can always manifest yourselves and I'd be more than happy to talk about this side of my life)
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Master Raymond takes Claire under his wing; he reveals secrets about the stones and the people who can travel through them.
No Fate But What We Make: Chapter 1 || Chapter 2
There is something comforting about huddling around afire with your clan.
I remember learning by firelight when I was a boy.
My father and grandfather patiently taught me the spellsof pain, fire, fertility, and healing. They opened my eyes to a world full ofspirits and demons and angels. They taught me the difference between red andgreen and orange and blue auras.
Together on the sun feasts and fire feasts we would chantin the stone circles. Dance around bonfires. Leave gifts for the spirits. Andwalk through time.
I remember huddling with my wife around the hearthfire ofour own small dwelling, during the single blessed decade we had shared as Romaninfluence waned in Gaul. Cradling our children. Teaching them the secrets ofplants, and incantations in my father’s dead language, and the joy and dangerof our gifts.
Claire was a direct descendant of my union with Leuca. Perhapsit was Claire’s name that had drawn me to her at first – for Leuca’s name wasderived from the Gaulish leucos, meaning bright or clear. The two womenwere separated by a millennium and a half. But the more I knew Claire, the moreI could see my beloved in her face, in her tenacity, and in her heart.
Tonight, gathered around the blazing hearth in thebackcountry of North Carolina, I watched the firelight play on Claire’s face.And the faces of her husband, and daughter, and son-in-law, and granddaughter,and grandson. The blue glow surrounding each of them was almost as bright to meas the fire that warmed us.
I watched Amanda quietly toddle over to me from her spotsnug between her parents. She rested her small hand on mine.
You’re like us.
Her dark eyes blazed up at me.
Yes, mon petit. I too can travel through the stones.
Across the room, Brianna stirred. Claire rested a steadyinghand on her shoulder. I knew their eyes watched me, but I couldn’t tear my eyesaway from this very special little girl.
Why can we do it? Mama says it’s because Grannie cando it.
I caressed her soft cheek. Because we carry within usa gift that many people forgot, a long time ago. It is our responsibility tounderstand and cherish this gift.
Amanda pursed her lips, thinking. Then she turned away –but kept her hand on mine.
“Mama?”
Brianna cleared her throat. “Yes, lovie?”
“Raymond says we’re special.”
Roger wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulder.
“Of course we’re special, honey. That’s why we were ableto come here. That’s why Grannie was able to come here first, before I wasborn.”
Amanda turned back to face me. This time she spoke aloudfor everyone’s benefit. “But why, Raymond? Why can we?”
The fire crackled in the hearth.
From the mouths of babes.
“A long time ago, Raymond – before I came to France – I metRoger’s ancestor, Geillis Duncan.” Claire gazed into the fire, one hand curledaround a glass of whisky, her other hand entwined with Jamie’s. “I found outshe could travel. She said we had the ability to travel, so that we couldchange things.”
She took a long sip of whisky. “When Jamie and I met youin Paris, we were trying to change things. We failed – miserably. In fact, I’veoften thought that our actions actually helped events take place.”
“Claire – ” Jamie interjected.
Her next words came out all in a rush. “I don’t want youto think I’m ungrateful for the life I’ve had. Because I’m not – certainly not.I found the other half of my soul. Against the odds I made a family with him.And here we all are, together. Because, in part, of you, Raymond.”
She sighed. “I know why I fell through time – it was tofind Jamie. But that’s the reason specific to me. Surely there must be anexplanation for all of it – for all of us.”
Carefully I lifted Amanda to my lap. One by one, I lookedat the faces of my family.
“I asked my father that same question, the first night wewalked together through time.”
“Ye learned it from yer Da?” Jeremiah gaped.
“And he from his father before him. I wasn’t much olderthan Amanda. It was the summer solstice. Father chanted the prayer, then lay myhand on the stone.”
“Where was this?” Brianna asked softly.
“The Romans called it Gaul. In your time you know it asFrance. Near what is now Verdun, to be specific.”
“And when was this?”
I considered how to answer. “We kept track of time differentlyin those days. By my calculation, about four hundred years before Jesus ofNazareth.”
“Christ,” Jamie breathed.
“What about your father?” Roger sat up a bit straighterbeside his wife. “When was he from?”
“I do not know the year. But he did tell me how he andhis clan would paint inside caves, and perform rituals there. I visited once,when I spent some time in Lascaux in the 1980s.” I cleared my throat. “Anyway –when we passed through the stone, I could see what I now know to be wagons andcarts. Hundreds of men running in all directions. Loud explosions. The eartherupting in flame.”
“The First World War.” Roger rubbed his face with hishands. “Holy God.”
“Father and I returned immediately, of course. I rememberresting against another stone in the circle, terrified. I was shaking veryhard. But I’ll never forget what he told me.”
I paused. Memory was a funny thing – one does not thinkabout an event for years, and all of a sudden every small detail floods back.The way the clouds caught the sunset. The sharp tang of crushed grass beneathmy shoes. The cool sweat trickling down the back of my neck.
“Father said that ours is a heavy burden to bear. For we touchthe pulse of time. But that in exchange for this burden, we have a gift thatcannot be matched.”
“Which is?” Claire’s voice lifted in anticipation.
“To change things.”
Her brows furrowed. Skeptical. “But –”
“I have enriched the lives of those I care for. I savedyour life. Did I not change things? What about the hundreds of people you havehealed – have you not changed things?”
“Ye told Jenny to plant potatos at Lallybroch.” Jamie’svoice was so gentle. “Did ye no’ change things for our family – helped themstay alive?”
“But just because we can change things, doesna mean weshould.” Roger crossed his legs. “Before Bree and I came back – I visited Jamie’shome in Scotland, not long before his father died. I could have warned him ofwhat was to come. But that would have changed things – and perhaps Jamie wouldnever have met Claire.”
“But you do not know that for certain,” I gently chided. “Yesof course you could have changed that course. But you could also have setanother course which would have led to the same conclusion. You will neverknow.”
I shifted Amanda to my other knee. “We have all changed things.I could have chosen to not heal you, Claire – and yet, here you are. You couldhave chosen to not return to Jamie – and yet you did, and one would argue youhave these two beautiful grandchildren as a result.”
Claire sighed.
I closed my eyes. “Father said it was my responsibilityto change the lives of my family, and those within my care. I hope I have livedup to that responsibility.”
The room settled into silence. Images from eightcenturies flashed in my memory. As did my visit to this same home, a centuryhence, in the aftermath of yet another war.
Amanda patted my hand. “I like being your family.”
I kissed the top of her head. “As do I, petite fille.”
“As do I,” Claire echoed, crossing the room andenfolding me in her embrace.
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