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Yule E1: The Winter Crone · Wild Kin: A Celtic Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, friend.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Wild Kin.
• 0:11
  Come sit by the fire as we reconnect the Celtic myths,
• 0:15
  one story at a time.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host,
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jess,
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  SPEAKER_00: and today we're stepping into the world of the Kalyuk,
• 0:22
  an ancient crone that commands winter storms and guides the
• 0:26
  world through this dark
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: season.
• 0:30
  So let's step back in time as frost begins to creep across the
• 0:34
  wilderness and a
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: lone hunter moves through the cold.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The air tasted of snow, though none had fallen yet.
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  It was light and sharp on the man's tongue as he pulled his
• 0:58
  furs tight around him,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: trudging deeper into the mountains.
• 1:03
  This would be the last hunt on dry ground before frost
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  enveloped the valley.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was tracking a herd of deer,
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  picking up their trail near a stream as they meandered through
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  the brush in search
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  SPEAKER_00: of their own winter stores.
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  SPEAKER_00: He slowed,
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  SPEAKER_00: easing behind an outcrop as he peered at the herd spread below him,
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  SPEAKER_00: a mass of twitching tails and quiet nibbling on stalks of grass.
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  They were resting in the shadow of the Hag's Mountain,
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  mist drifting down from its snowy peak.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: He dropped into a crouch,
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  quick and practiced as he pulled his bow from behind his back
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  to notch an iron
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  SPEAKER_00: arrow,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: one of many his wife had crafted for him that summer.
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  SPEAKER_00: He slowed his breath,
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  turning back toward the herd with relief that he would be able
• 1:55
  to feed his family
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: for the cold,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: dark months ahead.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the deer were no longer alone.
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  An old woman stood among them,
• 2:06
  as if the frost had formed her from the surrounding mist.
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  Her white hair streamed down to her knees,
• 2:14
  skin blue with cold as she leered at him.
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  Her spindly hand appeared from her cloak,
• 2:21
  gesturing in a sharp motion for him to approach.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: The hunter stood, for no man would refuse the Kalyuk.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: The herd lifted their heads at his movement,
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  SPEAKER_00: yet they remained completely still,
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: ears erect as they watched him approach from the hill.
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  SPEAKER_00: The rocky slope gave way into the dry grass,
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  only the sound of the brittle stalks whispering against his
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  legs as he stepped
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  SPEAKER_00: among them.
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  Snow began to fall,
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  flakes settling on the deer's lashes as they watched him,
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  unmoving.
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  Then they stepped back,
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  parting for him to make a path to their protector,
• 3:05
  their queen.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: The old woman stood patiently,
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  SPEAKER_00: her piercing eyes never veering from the man,
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  SPEAKER_00: as he knelt before this goddess of the wilds.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Snow landed on the back of his weathered hand,
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  SPEAKER_00: melting instantly from the heat of his racing heart.
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  SPEAKER_00: He bowed his head,
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  SPEAKER_00: awaiting her judgment,
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  SPEAKER_00: for she was the ruler of this wintry world,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: the decider of death and fate,
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  SPEAKER_00: including his own.
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  But after a moment,
• 3:37
  instead of pain,
• 3:39
  the hunter felt a soft nibble against his ear.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: A curious fawn had come near, gazing at the man.
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  Their soft muzzle brushed against his cheek as they shifted on
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  awkward legs,
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  SPEAKER_00: still new to this world.
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  SPEAKER_00: The man turned toward the Kalyuk,
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  SPEAKER_00: surprised and unsure,
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  SPEAKER_00: as the queen raised an expectant eyebrow.
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  SPEAKER_00: No words were needed.
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  SPEAKER_00: He must respect the herd or face the consequences.
• 4:12
  The hunter nodded,
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  and when he lifted his eyes,
• 4:15
  the winter queen was gone.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: But in her place stood a magnificent old stag.
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  SPEAKER_00: His antlers stretched wide from years of wandering these hillsides,
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  SPEAKER_00: each point a testament to his strength.
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  SPEAKER_00: His coat had dulled,
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  yet his solemn presence carried wisdom as he stared down at the
• 4:36
  man in quiet
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  SPEAKER_00: contemplation,
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  SPEAKER_00: The herd began to make their way toward shelter for the night,
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  SPEAKER_00: leaving both man and beast alone in the field.
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  The stag gave the hunter one last glance before bowing his
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  great neck and turning
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  SPEAKER_00: to walk slowly into the darkness.
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  SPEAKER_00: The man hesitated for just a moment,
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  SPEAKER_00: his heart gripped in sorrow before he notched his bow once more.
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  gratitude woven through his grief for the stag's offering and
• 5:10
  the weight of what
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  SPEAKER_00: now must be done.
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  SPEAKER_00: Yet both understood their part in this cyclical world,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the darkness will come and death will always find us.
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  SPEAKER_00: There was a time when someone could look out at the steep,
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  SPEAKER_00: rugged expanse of their homeland,
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  SPEAKER_00: and not just see the terrain itself,
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  SPEAKER_00: but the old woman who shaped it.
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  A winter hag,
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  fiercely protective of her wilderness as she rode on the
• 5:45
  freezing wind.
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  An ancient goddess that has been moving mountains since the
• 5:51
  Neolithic age,
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  SPEAKER_00: known today as the Kalyuk.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: in Ireland,
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  SPEAKER_00: there is a range of hills called the Mountain of the Calliak,
• 6:00
  where she's believed to have built the cairns by dropping giant
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  stones from her
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  SPEAKER_00: apron.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Argyle,
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  SPEAKER_00: Scotland,
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  the most prominent peak is considered to be the winter
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  goddess's primary abode,
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  SPEAKER_00: and on the Isle of Skye,
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  it's believed she leaps between a cluster of mountain summits
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  during winter storms.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are countless more legends across Ireland and Scotland,
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  SPEAKER_00: as each region seems to have their own story of this powerful elder,
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  SPEAKER_00: the creator of their beloved geography.
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  With evidence of her existence dating back to ancient sites as
• 6:35
  far as 5,000 years
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  SPEAKER_00: ago,
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  SPEAKER_00: she is truly the bones and perhaps the bedrock of this world.
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  The name Kalyuk isn't ancient,
• 6:46
  though it's derived from Old Irish,
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  cal meaning veil or hood.
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  The figure we now call THE Kalyuk isn't a single goddess from a
• 6:55
  unified myth,
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  but an archetype applied to many spirits and winter women whose
• 7:00
  stories have
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: gradually braided together.
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  SPEAKER_00: Her distinction as an old crone carries across time and cultures.
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  SPEAKER_00: Though modern stories often tie old women to witchcraft,
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  SPEAKER_00: which in turn implies fear and untrustworthiness,
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  SPEAKER_00: for centuries she was seen as the epitome of feminine power.
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  SPEAKER_00: We can see this in the stories recorded about her in the Middle Ages,
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  SPEAKER_00: where she appears in manuscripts written by monks,
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  SPEAKER_00: tales that her people had been sharing for generations.
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  SPEAKER_00: In a poem dated between the 8th and 10th century,
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  SPEAKER_00: called The Lament of the Old Woman of Bera,
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  SPEAKER_00: we get a glimpse of the Kalyuk's ancient roots.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the poem,
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  a woman shares her grief and sorrow as she was once courted by
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  kings and filled her
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  SPEAKER_00: life with pleasure.
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  Now she watches as those same dynasties she helped form
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  collapse around her.
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  Scholars point out how this elderly woman is actually a
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  personification of the land.
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  SPEAKER_00: Her sovereignty rises and falls with both the kings and the seasons.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the goddess's youth,
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  SPEAKER_00: there is abundance and vitality,
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  but this shifts into a fallow season as the world declines
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  political strife.
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  In a broader sense,
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  she's grieving the old pagan world as it fades into this new
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  moralistic age.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: As Christianity took hold,
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  SPEAKER_00: the pagan identity of the Kaliuk faded into a cautionary figure,
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  SPEAKER_00: moving from a fearsome goddess into a wandering old hag.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Kilcatherine,
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  SPEAKER_00: Ireland,
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  there's a stone figure known as the Hag of Bera who sits
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  staring out at the sea.
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  It's said that centuries ago she stole a saint's prayer book
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  and so he turned her
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  SPEAKER_00: to stone on the same spot where she remains to this day.
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  There are versions of a later folktale of an old woman who
• 8:55
  comes knocking during
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lent,
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  SPEAKER_00: a time of purity while avoiding temptation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Cold and frail,
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  SPEAKER_00: she asks the Christian household for shelter,
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  SPEAKER_00: but the family refuses her,
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  SPEAKER_00: for she is a creature of the old times.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so the woman wanders off and eventually dies of exposure.
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  SPEAKER_00: There are many stories meant to belittle this figure who once was seen as
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: incredibly powerful,
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  SPEAKER_00: but if you step into the woods,
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  SPEAKER_00: this old woman of the world still rules the wilderness.
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  Throughout the ages,
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  versions of the Kalyuk have been seen as protectors of wild
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  animals.
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  SPEAKER_00: She has an especially strong association with deer,
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  likely one of her oldest mythological roles going back
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  thousands of years.
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  Deer bones have appeared prominently in archaeological digs of
• 9:45
  ritual sites,
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  as well as carved and painted symbols of antlered women in
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  prehistoric art.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the highlands and Hebrides,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Kalyuk was known as the Deermother,
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  SPEAKER_00: or the Mistress of the Herds.
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  SPEAKER_00: Stories tell of hunters who would follow a doe through a winter storm,
• 10:02
  only for the creature to turn and reveal the blue-lined face of
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  the goddess
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  SPEAKER_00: herself.
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  Villagers would speak of seeing an old woman riding a wolf
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  along the mountain's
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  SPEAKER_00: ridgeline,
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  SPEAKER_00: deer flocking behind her like sheep.
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  and with this guardianship brought the task of managing the
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  balance of nature.
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  SPEAKER_00: In winter,
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  SPEAKER_00: the survival of the deer determined the survival of the people,
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  SPEAKER_00: and so the Kalyuk became the guardian of both.
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  SPEAKER_00: She would decide which animals would live,
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  SPEAKER_00: where they'd migrate for food,
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  SPEAKER_00: and ultimately decide each hunter's fate.
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  SPEAKER_00: We know this from stories found in the 18th and 19th centuries,
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  SPEAKER_00: passed down from highland oral traditions.
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  They were meant to teach hunters how to honor the Kalyuk by
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  leaving out portions of
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  SPEAKER_00: meat for her or speaking charms and prayers,
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  SPEAKER_00: ensuring their hunt would be safe and successful.
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  SPEAKER_00: If a hunter didn't respect the wild,
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  they risked coming home empty-handed or getting caught in
• 11:03
  violent storms and
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  SPEAKER_00: suddenly finding themselves lost in the woods in the depths of winter.
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  SPEAKER_00: And winter does seem to be a theme that grows within these hag legends.
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  SPEAKER_00: In Scotland,
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  SPEAKER_00: she's often known as the Queen of Winter,
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  SPEAKER_00: with a far more fearsome persona of blue skin,
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  SPEAKER_00: white hair,
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  SPEAKER_00: a bent spine,
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  SPEAKER_00: and gnashing teeth.
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  SPEAKER_00: In some tales, she only has one eye in the middle of her forehead.
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  SPEAKER_00: But across every version of her legend,
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  SPEAKER_00: it's clear that as autumn slips away,
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  SPEAKER_00: the Kalyuk steps into her power.
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  SPEAKER_00: like a story from the coast of Jura,
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  SPEAKER_00: where you can find one of the strongest whirlpools in the world.
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  SPEAKER_00: It's said as the season turns,
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  this queen of winter wades into the churning waters to wash her
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  great plaid,
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  SPEAKER_00: full of centuries of dust and age.
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  She cleans the cloth,
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  then spreads it across the mountains to dry under the cold,
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  bright sun.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: It turns the hills white as snow, signaling the beginning of winter.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: In another tale,
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: the sharp old woman is out blasting cold across the hillsides,
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  SPEAKER_00: riding the winter winds as she hammers frost into the ground.
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  SPEAKER_00: Through these stories,
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  SPEAKER_00: we see the Kalyuk as the storms,
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  SPEAKER_00: sleet,
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  SPEAKER_00: and snow that falls across the world,
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  SPEAKER_00: not as a destructive power,
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  SPEAKER_00: but a necessary cleansing,
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  SPEAKER_00: to prepare the natural world for the next cycle of growth.
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  And though this change often comes with death,
• 12:34
  it's required to be a part of life.
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  SPEAKER_00: Untamed, harsh, and yet inexplicably true.
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  SPEAKER_00: Through the landscape she shaped and the season she rules over,
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  the old woman of the world reminds us of the power and wisdom
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  found with age.
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  SPEAKER_00: Though she has been dismissed for the last thousand years,
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: society is finally catching up to what the old hag has known all along.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: When a person moves into their season of winter,
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: be it through age or just a time of darkness with loss or hardship,
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: the Kalyuk can be there as our guide.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Many Jungian analysts highlight her as the archetype of deep intuition,
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: boundary setting,
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  SPEAKER_00: and shadow work,
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  SPEAKER_00: with wisdom that only comes from lived experiences.
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  She is the psyche's integration of shadow and light as we step
• 13:28
  into our inner authority.
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  SPEAKER_00: By reclaiming her,
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  we have the chance to move through these dark moments of life
• 13:36
  with a greater sense
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: of self.
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  SPEAKER_00: For so long,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: age in American society has been seen as something to avoid,
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: conceal,
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  SPEAKER_00: or fix at all costs.
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  Yet the respect and embodiment of the old woman archetype might
• 13:51
  just be the antidote we need.
• 13:54
  In evolutionary anthropology,
• 13:56
  there is a cornerstone theory called the grandmother
• 13:59
  hypothesis.
• 14:01
  It describes how humans are one of the very few mammals where
• 14:05
  females live long
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: after their reproductive years end.
• 14:09
  This is only found in five species in the world,
• 14:12
  including orcas and pilot whales.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 14:17
  Older female orcas are the leaders of their pods as they know
• 14:20
  the way to their
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: feeding grounds and they protect younger whales when food is scarce.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: In humans, post-menopausal women are our memory keepers.
• 14:30
  They gather us together to share food,
• 14:33
  stories,
• 14:33
  and connect their communities.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: They are the protectors of grandchildren,
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: the support system for mothers,
• 14:40
  and their families' guides as they navigate the world with
• 14:43
  empathy and insight.
• 14:46
  In short,
• 14:47
  our women elders are biologically necessary for our species'
• 14:50
  survival.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: which, of course, the Kalyuk knew all along.
• 14:56
  She had her time of taking lovers and crowning kings amidst the
• 14:59
  shaping of mountains.
• 15:01
  Now,
• 15:01
  in her winter years,
• 15:03
  she takes her throne to command this wild,
• 15:06
  stormy season.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: She is always there to guide us through the darkness,
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: to strip the world bare of everything but the truth,
• 15:16
  that often it is only in the cold and the quiet that we can
• 15:20
  truly meet ourselves.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Wild Kin.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like more Celtic-inspired stories and resources,
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: subscribe to the RTO Journal on Substack.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Link is in the show notes.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So glad you could join me by the fire, and we'll meet again soon.