What a wonderful vision of bold pagan rapture! stand back and make way, it’s… Sheela Na Gig! The old Hag of the Celts. Sheela Na Gig was very popular during the medieval era carvings and sculpture’s of her image would adorn sacred places and entrances to churches and castles. The shrivelled up body of this very vivid hag with her dried sagging breasts and pronounced rib cage offers much to our collective consciousness with her sacred imagery of wizen ancient goddesses!

Sheela straddles the portal or gateways to death and rebirth and has embodied herself with the wisdom of all cycles. To pagans she is the blessing and protective watcher over the entrances that we pass through, be it a special place or a life season or passage. She crouches down conjuring in our imaginations curiosity, is this ancient crone in a birthing position while her grandmotherly hands open wide her Yoni?

Sheela sure is stretching it for all too see the magnificent passage and gateway of power. In ancient times and to present day pagans it is commonly accepted that to touch Sheela’s privates when passing her by is a lucky blessing. History suggests that Sheela’s image was carved and hung up in sacred places to ward off evil a bit like how gargoyles and grotesques can be found on old churches today.

Sheela and her ancient wide opened yoni has a myriad of symbolism and we believe that it’s linked strongly to the voidal impasses where old hags like Sheela so readily reside. The void is widely respected and associated magickally as the place of origin power from where all things come forth. Therefore, the void magickally can offer transformation of situations and negativity to be transmuted and reformed through change. The pagan belief that Sheela offers protection by way of the symbolical act of touching her blessed yoni – the touchstone or doorway to the great creative voidal power- we think makes total sense. If you want to bring more luck into your life, magickal protection and you love the wild hags pose and frankness as much as we do you can purchase Sheela’s Na Gigs on line and hang her up at the entrance of your dwelling. We have our Sheela ‘inside’ our doorway because we got tired of explaining her gorgeous symbolism to our freaked out neighbours. When you love and admire an old Hag sometimes you just don’t want to justify or explain. When we arrive home it’s nice to greet Sheela and ask her how her day has been. She has been protecting our house and blessing us every time we walk past her and touch her yoni for many years now; we feel it’s only polite to take the time to talk to this great ancient crone.

Many original carvings of Sheela Na Gig still survive in Ireland, Wales and the United Kingdom today. Unfortunately, a lot were destroyed with the shift of palate in religious taste. This great ancient hag has endured the dizzy heights of public love and recognition in past eras and great lows in the fickle popularity stakes of humanity destroying and defacing her sacred images in the present day. Public popularity never bothers an old crone like Sheela, she is alive and well and stretching her magickal creatix yoni wide as she can.