#for luis

The name "Luis" is derived either from luise/loise "flame" or lus "herb"; from the PIE root of leuk- "to shine" or leudh- "to grow," respectively. Or possibly, as I believe, it is an allusion to both words.

Loise can also figuratively mean "glory, splendour, fame, brilliance" or "prosperity, worldly splendour." While lus/luth can mean either herb or vegetable enterchangeably. Other possible meanings are "swarm" or "great many".

My personal understanding of Luis is that it encapsulates an understanding of "energy," "vitality," and "magic." Using fire to transform metal was seen as a magic in-and-of-itself, and herbs are very commonly used in spells and healing. Magic harnesses energy and potential, using it to work towards your own gain. Not only are witches capable of working magic (and symbolically tied to flames and rowan), but so are healers, using herbs for healing potions and magical poetry to declare intent.

Rowan

Rowan trees (caorthann) being associated with Luis further develops this idea. It was widely known that rowan was powerful in the hands of good or evil. Near Bealtaine, livestock would be thoroughly checked for signs of magic, often a rowan twig, which would be removed and replaced by a rowan twig or cross of their own. Rowan could be used for witchcraft (meaning: destructive/stealing magic), or for protection against those forces. Rowan branches or crosses were hung over the thresholds of Gaelic homes, placed there during Bealtaine for protection from the turbulant nature of that time.

Rowan berries were said to be the food of the Daoine Maithe ("Good People", a euphemism for the Sidhe), and eating them was said to add a year to a person's life. The berries of the Quicken Tree of Dubhros gave the satisfaction of rich food, the exhilaration of wine, and protection from sickness or disease when three berries were eaten—all of these effects encapsulating both sustenance and life-energy. If a 100-year-old person ate of the berries, they found themselves suddenly 30-years-old. There is also the rowan tree from Táin Bó Froích ("The Cattle Raid of Fróech") whose berries prolonged life and healed sickness.

Rowan seems to have had very strong and old connections to fire in general. Rowan spits were used for roasting meat over a fire; Cú Chulainn was offered dog meat cooked on rowan rods, which lead to his doom. Keeping some rowan in the house was known as a protection against fire. St. Patrick was said to chase and defeat a fire-breathing monster named Caorthannach (derived from the Irish word for rowan, "caorthann"). In Forbhais Droma Dámhgháire ("The Siege of Knocklong"), on both sides of the battle, druids ritually made fires of rowan, speaking incantations over them to influence the other side. Divining the outcome was done by gazing into the smoke and flames.

Rowan wood was commonly used for the sacred fires used to cook ceremonial cakes on Bealtaine and the teinn'-éiginn ("need-fire"), a sacred fire created using only friction. This flame was used as protection against many maladies, including the Evil Eye. It required a lot of energy and effort on the part of the community, the strongest working together to create enough friction to spark a flame. This fire would then be used to relight the fire of each home's hearth, protecting the entire community from harm.

This all seems to point to rowan being a symbol of energy, power, and life.

Herbs + Flame

The combination of both meanings of flame and herb points to the burning of herbs as a fumigate (tied to cleansing and protection magic), and more broadly, to cooking food. First off, fumigates were used for banishing negative entities, and for healing the body. It could even be said that the color for Luis being liath, "grey," is an allusion to the smoke arising from the burning of herbs. The genealogy of St. Brighid has a reference to luaths-luis, stating, "It will not harm me." Luath is either "quick, fast" or "ashes," so this could also be a reference to fire turning things to ash.

Not only does herb + fire = ash or smoke, but the combination also commonly releases scent. The Abrahamic saw the scent of the burnt offering as the actual sacrifice. This could possibly point to an older symbol of energy spent.

Secondly, Fire is how food goes from raw to cooked, unlocking different and more nutrients, giving us energy to develop our brains, and therefore, society as a whole. J. F. Nagy has a strong working hypothesis about raw food being linked to the Otherworld and cooked food to this world. Luis could point to the methods we used to cook ourselves out of the Otherworld and into this world, as a creation of society.

A fellow Oghamist pointed out to me that rowan berries are inedible when raw, only able to be ingested while cooking. This is particularly interesting, given the references in lore of rowan berries that give prolonged life and complete sustenance.

This raw vs. cooking concept can be further developed through the idea of the "spark of life." Toradh is both an Irish and Scottish Gaelic word (torad in Old Gaelic) that means "fruit, produce, effect" or "result, profit." This was the essential aspect of offerings that the Daoine Maithe (or other spirits) consumed. It was seen as unhealthy to eat food that had the toradh removed from it, hence why offerings were never to be consumed after being offered. If toradh is the essential "goodness" within food (or the effect of food), it stands to reason this would also be the part of food that energizes and brings life to the one that consumes it. Boiling this down, toradh is, or gives, the spark of life.

Sun

Cú Chulainn's Bríatharogham is lí súla, meaning "lustre of the eye." There are many possible interpretations of this phrase, but one I've never seen discussed is relating it to the sun. The word súil (súla is the genitive form of súil) means eye, and is often used when referring to the Evil Eye, a belief connected to the magical power of the eyes. The word súil comes from the proto-Celtic pluralized word for sun, most likely pointing to a belief in the sun as the eye of the sky. In Tenga Bithnúa ("The Evernew Tongue"), a medieval Irish tract about the mysteries of the universe, specifies that the matter of the sun and stars is what makes the color and light of a person's eyes. All of this seems to point to an esoteric meaning baked into the Bríatharoghaim of Luis, that the greatest flame of all, the sun, is inherently linked.

A great many herbs were meant to be harvested at Midsummer to have their full magical and medicinal effectiveness. This is likely because the sun is giving the plant energy. Maybe the flame of Luis is the sun, seeing as there is an obvious inherent link between sunshine and plants. I'm sure our ancestors understood photosynthesis, or at least that the sun is necessary for plants to grow.

It's easy to see how the concepts of the sun, fire, vegetation, and the magic qualities of both eyes and rowan could all be linked in the medieval Irish mind. Each of these symbols all inherently relate to life, and the energy that keeps the flame of life flickering.