Airmed, The Celtic Goddess of Healing
Airmed or Airmid, is the Celtic goddess of healing and herbs. Although she is seen as a minor goddess in Irish mythology and folklore, I think she should be celebrated and known more than she is.
She is the Irish equivalent to healing goddesses like Eir in Norse mythology, revealing how important women were in ancient tribes.
Who is Airmed?
Airmid, the goddess of healing, is a member of the Tuatha de Danaan, the ancient Celtic gods and goddesses. She is also the daughter of Dian Cecht, one of the Irish mythology gods, and the brother of Miach, the alchemist. In Irish Celtic mythology, she is mentioned in Cath Maige Tuired as the one who assisted in healing during the Battle of Maige Tuired.
Airmed in Irish Mythology
Her story in Irish mythology centers around the jealousy of her father, Dian Cecht.
When King Nuada’s arm was severed from his body in battle, he called upon Dian Cecht as his Chief Physician. Dian Cecht wanted to replace the King’s arm with he fashioned from silver, however, Miach had a different plan. Miach was able to create an arm from flesh, and Airmed used her healing knowledge to bring the arm to life. Their father became so enraged that he murdered Miach and buried him on the battlefield.
Airmed rushed to the grave and was so distraught that from her tears where her brother was buried, 365 herbs grew. There were 365 herbs that grew from her brother’s grave, one for each of his joints and sinews and one for each day of the year. Airmed then spread her cloak across the herbs to gather them up.
Dian Cecht also became enraged by this and mixed the herbs up, casting them across the earth. This is why they say to this day nobody knows all the herbs and their healing properties, only those that are touched by Awen or intuitive knowledge can know.
What is Airmed the goddess of?
“Miach was buried by Dian Cecht and three hundred and sixty-five herbs grew through the grave, corresponding to the number of his joints and sinews. ”
The goddess Airmed is skilled in the healing arts. The mythological tale tells us first of all that Airmed is a skilled Celtic healing goddess because she knew exactly the amount of joints and sinews in Micha's body. The 365 herbs represented the number of joints and sinews in the body, according to the lore.
Remarkably, with our modern medical knowledge today we know that the human body varies in the number of joints from person to person. It is estimated that the human body generally has between 250 - 360 joints. This part of the mythology tells us that actually, our ancient ancestors knew approximately how many joints and sinews the body had. This would have assisted them in their healing practices.
This first part of the story clearly shows that Airmed is in fact the goddess of healing in a bodily sense. She has deep knowledge about the body, how it works, and how it can be healed.
Airmed is a master druid
The second part of the story is quite multilayered and interesting. When Airmed is collecting the herbs, she counts 365, one for every day in the year. This symbolizes her knowledge of all the herbs on earth, and all the cures for every ailment under the sun. The mythology tale ends with the narrator telling us that no one on earth has this knowledge because Dian Cecht hid it by scattering the herbs.
The story can also be interpreted slightly differently. Airmed herself conceals the true knowledge of the herbs, gathering them up and placing them under her cloak. The cloak symbolizes hidden wisdom that can only be known through intuition.
In this way, Airmed can be seen as a master druid; one who knows the cures of healing herbs from her ability to sense the life force within the plant. Druids honored the spirit within plants and trees to gain their knowledge. The belief that plants had souls is an ancient animistic belief found in ancient traditions around the world, including one of the most ancient religions, Jainism.
That is why it’s said that no one can know the cures in their totality except for those “touched by the Holy Spirit” or in the non-Christianised version “one touched by Awen” or the Celtic notion of indescribable wisdom.
The Celtic healing goddess Airmid
Airmed or Airmid is one of the Celtic gods that demonstrates her incredible healing powers without the want of reward. She is portrayed as a gentle, caring woman that genuinely wants to help heal those around her. As the daughter of Dian Cecht, this contrast between healing for selfish glory and healing for altruistic means really shows as a goddess how she was worshipped and thought of.
Celtic druids always favored doing what is morally right, because this helps maintain the cosmic balance of the world. To an ancient Celtic audience, this tale would have shown how greed for glory only brings misery and stands in the way of helping others.
