Every winter has a presence, something beyond the cold. Something old, massive and unmistakably felt. In Scottish and Irish folklore, that presence is the Cailleach. Translated this means ‘the veiled one’, ‘the old woman’ or ‘the hag’.
But who is she?
She’s winter’s architect and keeper.
The Cailleach is not a ghost in the traditional sense. She’s something far older. Something vast. A spirit of the season itself. Folklore says she shaped mountains by dropping stones from her apron, carved valleys with her staff and gathered storms around her shoulders like shawls.
She might be ancient, but she’s never frail. She’s indifferent, immense and necessary.
The Cailleach is said to rule from Samhain (31st October) to Beltane (1st May), and what I especially love about her is that, despite how it seems, she’s not a villain. She doesn’t torment out of cruelty and doesn’t freeze the land to punish us. She’s simply the embodiment of the truth we often resist, that before renewal and growth must come endurance.
So if you’re feeling the weight of the long, dark nights, and the cold has crept into your bones, listen closely because you just might hear her whisper:
You’re small, but strong. Keep going.
R. H. DIXON 