In Celtic/Gaul folklore, Belisama is goddess...
She is connected with lakes and rivers, fire, crafts and light.
Belisama was identified with Minerva/Athena and has been compared with Brigid.
Her association with Athena and Minerva also brought her recognition as a Goddess of wisdom, as shown by the frequent depiction of a serpent at her side...
She has been claimed to be the consort of Belenus, with whom she shared certain attributes.
A Latin inscription from Saint-Lizier, Aquitania (in antiquity, Consoranni) associates her with Minerva.
The exact meaning of her name is uncertain, but one possible interpretation is "Very Strong", "Summer Bright", "Most Shining One", or "‘Most Mighty Queen"...
In terms of crafts, Belisama has inspired a good deal of creative writing from the poems of Richard Dugdale (the Bard of Ribblesdale 1849), James Flockhart’s ‘The River’ (1854), Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ‘Ribblesdale’ (1876) and John Heath-Stubb’s ‘The Green Man’s Last will and Testament’ – ‘the cruel nymphs / Of the northern streams, Peg Towler of the Tees / And Jenny Greenteeth of the Ribble, / Sisters of Belisama, the very fair one’ (1973).
Interconnectedness of air
and trees and layers of sun lacerate
the holes in your being, crucifying,
peeling back skin,
exposing deep, dark secrets,
a succession of broken blossoms
falling from open hands,
words spilling from your mouth,
their meaning drowned in the coruscating
diamond rush of
tears crushed from eyes
dazzled by the numinous wonder
of Belisama
©Doreen Hopwood, 24th April 2010
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