“To find the Roebuck, you must search the Thicket. To find the Thicket you must not be misled by the Lapwing, and to approach the Thicket you must Master the Dog. The Roebuck is hidden where the Lapwing’s deceptive path originates, just as the true path through the Thicket lies just beyond the Dog.”

In “The White Goddess,” Robert Graves tells us that Dog means “guard the secret,” Roebuck means “hide the secret” and Lapwing means “disguise the secret.”

Ultimate we must ask the question, “what is the Secret?”

Robert Graves suggests that under guise of the name changes of a central deity because of patriarchy, goddess changed to god, the closely guarded secret of the Druids was Danu, Mother of Life, Herself.

Danu is the gentle mother of Ireland. She is also known as Danann, the Irish Dana, the Greek Dione, the Welsh Donn, and Anu. She is also called Mother of Gods, Great Mother, and Moon Goddess. Her name means teacher and wisdom.

It is also said that Danu is the power that is the land, never to be overcome by mortals. Her power is in the imagination of those who see magick in the twilight mist between the worlds. Her powerful presence can aide you in achieving anything you desire, especially motherhood, fertility, healing of children, and magick, and anything creative.

Mother of the Tuatha De Danann, the 4th peoples that arrived in Ireland, prior to the Sons of Mil. The Tuatha De Danann (the people of the goddess Danu) became the gods and goddesses of the Sons of Mil upon the arrival of Amergin who claimed the land and formed a truce with the Tuatha De Danann. The Tuatha De Danann became known as the faerie or fey, and were said to inhabit the Sidhe. The Sidhe (shee) is a magickal place beneath the large mounds in Ireland. Danu is known as the Faerie Queen. She is also goddess of Water with her name appearing across Europe and other continents.

In the beginning, it is said that She watered the first Oak tree from the heavens, and granted life to the Earth. From that tree fell two acorns, which grew to be Dagda and Brighid.

Danu has been known to appear in the form of a swan, representing the purity of the female and gracefulness in motherhood.The Hawthorne is Her tree, and She is especially honored at Beltane.

In county Kerry, Ireland, there are the “Paps of Anu,” connecting Danu to the land in a very ancient way. The “Paps of Anu” are two mountains outlining our Gentle Mother’s breasts ~ “from earth and rock they erected mounds and cairns, positioned as anatomically correct aureoles and nipples. In the process, they transformed the wild landscape into a gigantic sculpture of a woman’s body, immobile under the moving sky.” Patricia Monaghan, Goddess Alive