Latest / Old Ways New Days / Snakes, Saints, and Shadows: The Untold Story of St. Patrick’s Day

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Snakes, Saints, and Shadows: The Untold Story of St. Patrick’s Day · Old Ways New Days

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's early morning on March seventeenth.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: The streets are still quiet, but already you can see the green creeping in.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Shamrocks in storefront windows, glittering beads hanging in pub doorways, plastic hats waiting to crown the day's revelers.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: By nightfall, the world will be awash in emerald.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: But beneath the green there is another story.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: A story older than parades, older than pub pub crawls, older even than the saint himself.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: It is the story of a land once woven with sacred wells and oak groves, a land where poets were priests and fires were lit in honor of the returning sun.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: A land where the word snake may not have meant what you've been told.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Today we peel back the glitter and green dye to ask, what was St.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick's Day before it became a party?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And who paid the price for its mythology?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, witches, pagans, heathens, spiritualists, and anyone interested in living sustainably.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is Old Ways, New Days, where the old ways meet the good dirt.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Kayla, and I'm Nell.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And each week we explore the sacred art of living close to the land.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: From compost to covens, chickens to charms, we're reclaiming self-sufficiency, seasonal living, and ancestral wisdom.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you're stirring your cauldron or your soup pot, this is a space for wild-hearted folk walking the homesteading path with intention, magic, and muddy boots.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I kind of wanted to do our own thoughtful honoring of it.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of my uh favorite movies is uh Boondock scenes.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: I tried watching it the other night.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the fiance wanted, he's like, You've never seen this?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we got like 20 minutes in, I'm like, not for me.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's so good.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: It is so good.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I'll try again.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's so good.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm one of those uh thriller kind of girls.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, so am I.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And he's not, he's the he he loves the romantic.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's the rom-com.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: He's the rom-com, and I'm the thriller horror.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know why you wouldn't like it.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: I I maybe I just didn't catch my attention in the first 20 minutes.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I watch it every St.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Patrick's Day.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's your St.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Patrick's Day movie?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: I have it on DVD and I watch it every year.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then right after that, I'll watch All Saints Day.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there you are.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, handsome boy.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Come here, little man.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, who is the real Patrick?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is it history versus legend?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Saint Patrick was not Irish.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I did, yes.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well yeah, of course you did.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: She's the one that wrote this.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I knew beforehand anyway, but.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So Saint Patrick was not Irish.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: He was a Romano-British Christian, kidnapped at 16 and enslaved in Ireland.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: After escaping, he later returned as a missionary.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Historical records, including Patrick's own confessio, show he worked to convert the Irish to Christianity.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: The famous legend says he drove the snakes out of Ireland.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the truth.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Ireland never had snakes after the last ice age.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So what were the snakes?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Many historians and folklorists interpret the snakes as symbolic, representing pagan spiritual leaders, druids, and indigenous religious practices.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Christianity didn't simply coexist with Irish spirituality.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Over centuries it replaced it.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sacred wells were redicated Rededicated.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Sacred wells were rededicated to saints.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Goddesses were transformed into holy women.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Seasonal fire festivals were reframed as Christian holidays.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't an overnight purge, but it was a cultural conversation that reshaped a people's spiritual identity.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: And even though I don't go into it, it was um convert or die.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna do this.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, bye.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not it's not a happy history.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: So while Patrick himself was not a witch hunter, the widespread European witch hunts came nearly a thousand years later.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Christianization laid the theological groundwork that would eventually criminalize pagan practices.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: Between the 15th and 18th century, tens of thousands across Europe were executed for witchcraft.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: These persecutions were fueled by religious doctrine that framed folk magic, herbalism, and pre-Christian spiritual practices as diabolical.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Ireland experienced fewer witch trials than places like Scotland or Germany, but the cultural shift away from pagan identity had long-term effects.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: When saints replaced spirits and miracles replaced magic, those who keep the old ways often became suspicious figures.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: And suspicion in certain eras becomes deadly.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: For many modern witches and pagans, Saint Patrick's Day represents not just a saint, but a symbol of spiritual erasure.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So ironically, the day meant to honor a Christian missionary became globally known for public intoxication.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: The modern American version of Saint Patrick's Day evolved largely to the modern American version of St.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Patrick's Day evolved largely in immigrant communities.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: In cities like New York and Boston, Irish immigrants used parades to assert pride in the face of discrimination.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Over time, commercialism amplified the celebration.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Green beer, pub crawls, plastic shamrocks, kiss me, I'm Irish slogans.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ireland itself once observed March 17th as a solemn religious feast day.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Pubs were even closed historically.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until the late 20th century that tourism campaigns helped transform it into the global green spectacle we know today.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: What began as a day of religious remembrance and cultural pride became a marketing machine.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: The saint who drove out snakes now presides over drinking games.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I'll get flack for it, but I'm kind of glad.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: With my, you know, I have Irish history, ancestry, so.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Me too.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, as does my my fiance.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I have a wee bit, Irish.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: For witches, pagans, and earth-based practitioners, March 17th can feel complicated.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: It marks the symbolic suppression of indigenous spirituality, the long arc of Christian dominance over European folk practices.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: The cultural myth that snakes were often symbolic of wisdom and rebirth, are evil.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: But we do not have to engage in bitterness to acknowledge harm.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, some modern witches chose reclamation.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Rather than green and gold, symbols of the commercial holiday, somewhere red and black.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Red for the blood of those executed during witch hunts, black for the shadowed histories erased or rewritten.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Together they honor resilience.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: March 17th can become a day of ancestor remembrance, a candle lighting ritual for those lost to persecution, a moment of education and truth telling.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: It becomes not a reflection of Irish culture, but a remembrance of what came before forced conversion.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So here are ways witches might mark march seventeenth was with intention.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Wear red and black as quiet solidarity.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Light a red candle for persecuted ancestors.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Research local witch trial histories, honor Celtic deities and pre Christian Irish spirituality.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: Visit a natural place, a well, a grove, a river, and leave biodegradable offerings.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of drowning in green beer, you rip into red earth.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of celebrating conquest, you celebrate continuity.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: The old ways were never truly extinguished.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: They adapted.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: They survived in the kitchens, in whispered charms, in garden rows, in lullabies.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And now they rise again.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: So while history is rarely simple, Saint Patrick was likely a complex human being, not a villain in a cloak.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But the milk built around him has been used to symbolize spiritual conquest.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And every conquest leaves shadows.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: March 17th doesn't have to be a day of resentment, it can be a day of remembrance.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: A day when witches stand not in opposition, but in truth.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Green may fill the streets, but red and black carry memory, and memory is powerful magic.