She is the blue spark in every frigid snowflake. She is the smothering white veil of the blizzard. She is the mountain and the whirlpool, the deep black slumber and the blinding reflection. She is your own bones, blanched by the unfathomable power of Time.

She is The Cailleach.

∞∞∞

The Cailleach Tango

Words, music, vocals, piano, and ratchet by Diane Laura Rains. Hammered dulcimer and concertina by Stu Janis.
Copyright © 2020 by Diane Laura Rains. All Rights Reserved.

∞∞∞ LYRICS ∞∞∞

I’m The Cailleach, Cailleach Bhéara.
I walk the earth and make it snow.
I’m the Crone who’s sleeping on your doorstep
in the deepest dark you’ll ever know.

I’m the crack of ice beneath your footfall.
I’m the Cockerel crowing Winter morn.
In my lap I foster generations.
Seven tribes my wrinkled back has borne.

I rule the lightless!
I drop stones to raise mountains high.
I bring the wind and the storm.
I spot the Truth with my all-seeing eye.

When the Hag comes scratching at your window,
when the Bean Sídhe wails outside your door,
do not fear the singing of the night wraith.
Come outside and walk the windy moor!

I have no beginning;
count your own bones to figure my age.
I am the Stonehearted Sage.
The sleeping land needs my comfort
and my rage!

I was born old,
and young I’ll die again and again!
The delicious cold inside of me
hates the warm time that signals my end.

I wail and I rage at the close of each age,
as the skin on my hands starts to crack.
My facade peels away and I’m lost to bright day.
The Spring Maiden steals my power,
until I take it back!

The Singing Grove

The Cailleach Tango

Buy the album

Ceol Sidhe is the married musical duo of Diane Rains (aka Crow Bard) and Stu Janis. [How do you say our name? "Kyohl SHEE"]

The Irish Good Folk (known also as "fairies") make astonishing music, called "ceol Sidhe" in Gaeilge, the Irish language. Bewitching, alluring, sometimes a little dangerous! It travels on the wind and lands where it will.

The music of Ceol Sidhe duo explores and celebrates the beauty and mystery of fairy music. We sing of the vast splendor of stars. Of an enchanting island hidden in magical mist. Of ancient goddesses and the alluring realm of Fairy. We sing of hearts both human and Fae.

∞∞∞


Header art: Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the Sea, by Frederic Leighton, ca. 1871