A gentle creak and soft footfalls within the darkness causes fear to grasp and paralyze you. Your mind tries to identify the cause of the sounds. Quickly it runs through every scenario possible. A cat, a mouse, your sister, or your spouse…

 

Tap, step, step…

Creak…

Tap, step, step…

Oh what could it be?

 

In the darken night, she comes. There is no need to fear her for she is a crone, an old woman who walks with a stick. With hands of bone and skeletal feet of bare, she gives a slight grin – of beware…

 

The Cailleach

(Cal-ee-ack)

 

No one knows exactly where she comes from, but most claim she is of Irish decent. From the void she comes and it is the void she shall return, when her time ends upon this earth.

 

She is the maiden, the mother, and the crone – the ancient one. Beneath her cloak of grey, she holds the stories and the memories of all today and yesterday.

 

She is not to be feared, she is to be revered. She is the goddess and the Bone Mother wrapped in one.

 

Her time comes when Samhain has passed. She walks the earth laying down her grey cloak across the land, for some to sleep and some to die. Within death we take our rest. Her time comes to an end at the time of Imbolc as life begins again.

 

Tap, step, step…

Creak…

Tap, step, step…

“Oh child of mine, do not fear me. I am not the monster you imagine me to be. For I am only here to tuck you in…

for a long winter’s sleep.”

- The Cailleach

The Cailleach