Cliodna
Pronounced: Clee-na
CLASSIFICATION:
Tuatha Dé Danaan
ORIGIN:
Ireland
Cliodna, goddess of love, beauty, healing, and death, presides over an afterlife paradise where age, death, pain, illness, and decay do not exist, only beauty. Just fragments of her myths survive; presumably once upon a time, there were more. Manannan, King of the Sea, fell in love with Cliodna and sent a magical wave to sweep her into his undersea palace. She is a shape-shifter, allegedly incarnate in every ninth wave that breaks on Ireland’s shores.
Cliodna is now identified as a Queen of Fairies. As a goddess, she lived in a beautiful, lavish underwater palace in Loch Dearg; as a Fairy queen she lives in a barrow near Mallow, County Cork. She reputedly lures human lovers into Fairy Land, from which they never again emerge (perhaps because they’re living happily ever after).
MANIFESTATION:
Cliodna is a beautiful woman accompanied by her trio of songbirds.
Sacred birds: Cliodna’s three vividly plumed magical songbirds eat the apples of the Other-world. Their voices are so sweet, they lull ailing people to sleep. When they awaken, they are healed. One bird is blue with a red head; one is red with a green head; and the third is a speckled bird with a golden head.
Numbers: 3, 9
SEE ALSO:
- Aibheall;
- Fairy;
- Fairy Queen;
- Manannan;
- Rhiannon;
- Sidhe;
- Tuatha Dé Danaan
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses– Written by :Judika Illes Copyright © 2009 by Judika Illes.