Geas

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

A geas (the plural being geasa) has two interpretations in Gaelic mythology and folklore.

First, it is a vow or obligation placed upon a person (usually a hero, such as Cuchulain in Irish mythology). Traditionally, the doom of the hero comes about due to his violation of such geasa, either by accident, or by having multiple geasa and then being placed in a position where he has no option but to violate one geas in order to maintain another.

Later, a geas took the aspect of a taboo or prohibition. A geas can also be compared with a curse or, paradoxically, a gift. If someone placed under a geas breaks it, the infractor will suffer dishonour or even death.

There is a considerable similarity between geasa (which are a phenomenon of Gaelic mythology) and the foretold deaths of heroes in Welsh mythology, hence the Welsh phrase tyngu tynghed - that is, to swear a man his destiny, to lay upon him predictory prohibitions that he might not break without results, definitely fatal. This is not surprising given the close origins of many of the variants of Celtic mythology.

Geas is the Scottish Gaelic spelling, whereas in both Early and Modern Irish it is spelled geis. The Irish geas is derived from the word guidh, meaning 'to entreat', which suggests that its original association was with notions of prayer and supplication. Lewis Spence, in his book 'The Magic Arts In Celtic Britain', argues that geas is thus an appropriate word for a spell in the Gaelic or Irish tongue, and that the taboos surrounding the eating of certain meats etc were remembrances of a totemic belief.