Why Do Pagans Hate St. Patrick's Day?
With fun facts re: mythological snakes, the Minoan snake goddess, dueling Druids, green phobia, pagan St. Patrick's Day alternatives, and snake-y writing prompts!
The Cauldron features artful nudes from SF-based photographer and mysterious gentleman Jose de los Reyes. See more of his work on Instagram.
St. Patrick: the man, the myth, the snakes
St. Patrick was born somewhere around 370 C.E., most likely in Wales or Scotland. (That’s right, he wasn’t Irish by birth.) As a teen, he was captured and sold off by Irish slave traders. The future saint then spent the next six years herding sheep on the Emerald Isle.
The myth of St. Patrick chasing snakes out of Ireland begins with a 40-day fast, during which time he is attacked by snakes, whom he then herds into the sea. Obviously St. Patrick didn’t literally eliminate snakes from Ireland. (There really weren’t any to wipe out, since Ireland is an island.) Instead, the “snakes” are widely understood to mean “pagans,” as snakes were sacred to the high ranking members of Celtic pagan society. The symbolism does not flatter the Celts.
In Christian thought, the role of the serpent in the Garden of Eden renders the animal forever a symbol of lies, deception, temptation, and evil. This is a 180 from the pagan perspective, where snakes, who lay eggs and shed their skin as they grow, are symbols of fertility, rebirth, renewal, transformation, and immortality.
Perhaps the most famous symbolic snake is the ouroboros, an emblematic serpent from ancient Egypt. The snake—or sometimes dragon—forms a circle, eating its own tail.
St. Patrick employed his knowledge of Irish language and culture to blend in Christianity with pagan practices. For example, he encouraged Easter bonfires, which weren’t traditional, but pagans do love fire and include the element in all kinds of cultic celebration.
St. Patrick and the Druids
Yet many still believe St. Patrick drove the Druids out of Ireland, at sword-point no less. There are even tales of St. Patrick dueling with Druids: one legend from around 700 A.D. claims Druids insulted Patrick, attempted to poison him, and challenged him to magical duels where storms and fires were invoked and sacred texts were mutually destroyed. (There are also tales of St. Patrick burning Druids’ books. Except the Druids maintained an oral tradition—there were no books.)
Supposedly, a Druid committed blasphemy against Christ and St. Patrick sent the tree-lover flying, resulting in a broken head.
As The Mary Sue puts it, “The story of Saint Patrick’s Day is really a story about stories themselves, how they change and evolve, and how one story or figure can become something different for different generations and eras.”
In Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, the naga are semi-divine human-cobra hybrids who can also shapeshift. Buddhist depictions often portray the naga as protectors of the Buddha, aka Siddhārtha Gautama. In the dharma, they are both powerful and dangerous.
The Minoan Snake Goddess
The conversion process in Ireland took hundreds of years. So there were lots of pagans before St. Patrick arrived, and plenty after. Nevertheless, this one man became a potent symbol for the burial of nature-based, pagan ideology, including the divine feminine.
In Initiated: Memoir of a Witch, Amanda Yates Garcia draws a direct line between the defeat of snakes and the erasure of the goddess:
What the myth really meant was that [St. Patrick] drove the goddess-worshipping pagans out of Ireland. When the bards of patriarchy say snake, what they really mean is goddess. As when Saint George killed the dragon. Or when, in Mesopotamia, the hero Marduk killed the dragon goddess Tiamat.
Looked at this way, the story becomes about the exile of the goddess and the shift away from female power and influence.
Known as the Plumed Serpent, a feathered serpent god, Quetzalcóatl is a Mesoamerica deity (roughly 3rd-8th century C.E.) of winds and rain. He’s also the world’s creator and the patron god of priests and merchants, as well as the arts, learning, science, agriculture, and crafts.
In 1903, fragments of tin-glazed statuettes were discovered in Knossos, a Cretian island. These statuettes were feminine in form and were believed to represent a goddess or goddesses with snakes in their grasp. Often known as the “goddess with upraised arms,” the revelation of these figures got a lot of people excited, and became a widespread symbol for Minoan culture.
The predominant theory is the statuettes were made in the image of a goddess honored in Crete around 3000–1100 B.C.E. Shrines containing these statuettes have been found in public and domestic spaces, suggesting widespread worship. But, as evidence is limited, no one really knows who or what these figures represent. Are they goddesses, or priestesses? Or both? Are they fertility symbols?
For some witches, the Minoan snake goddess is evidence of a pre-patriarchal religion that was absorbed by the toxically masculine Greek pantheon led by Zeus, a rapist and womanizer.
Medusa
Perhaps the best-known serpentine figure from Greek mythology is Medusa. Medusa is a mortal beauty who is raped by the sea god Poseidon within the sacred space of Athena’s temple. So, naturally Athena punishes the rape victim by turning her into a monster with snakes for hair. Medusa winds up alone in a cave, surrounded by the petrified remains of the many cocky young men who come to slay her. Finally, one succeeds, by showing her her own reflection (at Athena’s suggestion no less). Then he carries her head around in a sack so he can use it as a weapon, or a party trick.
(For an amazing short story about Medusa, see Jen Fawkes’ collection Tales the Devil Told Me.)
One Christian text stands out for employing snakes as symbols of Christ’s resurrection: in the Book of Kells, snakes “weave their way through the decoration.” The text was written in Latin around 800 C.E., approximately 400 years after St. Patrick started sharing Christianity with Ireland.
St. Patrick Today
To many Americans, St. Patrick’s Day is a big green party, synonymous with pub crawls and hangovers. Yet the event is also an important celebration of Irish pride. Many scholars claim Britain used Ireland as a template for further colonization and expansion of its empire. In the 1600’s, Protestant settlers were entitled to take over lands belonging to Catholic residents. When poverty and famine led to fraught journeys to the US, Irish immigrants were met with intense prejudice. In other words, Irish Pride is a BFD to a lot of Americans, who inherited the trauma of their ancestors.
Prasinophobia is the fear of the color green. An unusual, but quite compelling reason to avoid St. Paddy’s Day.
March of the Pagans
Instead of—or in addition to—St. Patrick’s day celebrations, consider two sabbats that represent the merger of Celtic paganism and Christianity: Imbolc and Ostara/Easter.
St. Bridget or Brigid started out as a Celtic goddess of fire and fertility who, in the neopagan tradition, is honored at Imbolc on February 1-2. Imbolc, meaning “in the belly,” marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox (Ostara). Imbolc is a dairy-rich holiday, as it occurs around the time many herd animals would give birth and produce milk. Hence the association between St. Brigid and dairy, mothers, and nursing babes.
In my case, on this St. Patrick’s Day, I’ll celebrate Ostara a little early!
The word “Ostara” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “Eostre.” Some claim Eostre/Ostara was the goddess of dawn, fertility, and rebirth, but there’s scant supporting evidence. You can find Eostre the deity mentioned in the writings of the 8th century monk Venerable Bede, also known as St Bede, a respected historian of his age. Bede reported that pagan Anglo-Saxons in medieval Northumbria held festivals in Ostara's honor during the month of Eostremonath. However, some have speculated that he was inventing, or at least embellishing a bit.
Regardless of whether or not Ostara was ever specifically worshipped as a goddess, the transition to spring has always been cause for revelry. In our times, Easter lays claim to the spring equinox. Eggs, bunnies, and flowers—all pagan symbols of fertility—now accompany the celebration of Christ’s resurrection.
Writing Prompts
The book of snakes.
The loneliest snake in Ireland.