Reclaiming Corra:The Irish Serpent Goddess They Tried to Bury

Sisters, feel that fire in your belly? 

That wild, coiling energy that no man, no saint, no colonizer could ever chain, or bury? 

That’s Corra calling you home. She’s the Irish Celtic serpent goddess of raw earth power—fertility, wisdom, death, rebirth—all wrapped in shimmering scales. Before the cross-wielders rewrote her as a demon, Corra ruled Ireland’s sacred waters and mountains as the ultimate oilliphéist, that fierce dragon-serpent flowing through the depths of loughs and rivers. Yet, there were no “actual snakes” in post-Ice Age Ireland? 

No snakes. Exactly. HER “banishment” was code for the patriarchy weaving through religious dogma, stomping out Goddess and Earth worship throughout Éire - now known as Ireland.

Her Untamed essence being vilified, demonized, stripped of her power, purpose, and true nature. The feminine isn’t all softness and submission. She is the portal of life and death, of monthly shedding, cycles of upheaval and calm - just like nature. Therefore, the darkness must be HER as well. The Dark feminine a force of unyielding creative power - where all life begins, and where we must descend to die over and over again, as life shapes our human journeys, and our soul calls forth the lessons to evolve our lineages, and humanity.

Corra embodies the primal cycle: shedding skin like we shed outgrown identities, purposes, lives. She is a Protectress - guarding ancient mounds and more. She’s mother-monster, birthing destructive forces in one breath, renewal in the next—think the Crone, An Cailleach, hag-wildness meets Caoránach’s chaos. Her mythology is linked to Lough Derg’s red waters in Donegal and Lough Na Corra beneath Croagh Patrick in County Mayo. These sites - HER original sites pulse with pre-Christian feminine fire and water. Modern Awakening Women - We’re here, as part of HER resurrection.

We ARE the Goddess Reclaimed in her honour, among many others Goddesses like her, and the Earth Herself. 

So, you’ve no doubt heard that St. Patrick banished all snakes from Ireland, yes? 

Is there an unsettling feeling unlocking in your being at this moment, as you read?

Here is some of the “history” related to this claim.

441 AD: Saint Patrick was stated to have observed a Lenten Fast atop “Croagh Patrick” Mountain, for 40 days and 40 nights. This mountain already had a name and living energy, before this occurrence. It was a sacred mountain to pre-christian Ireland, reported to have a “golden” frequency within it, a Neolithic settlement site, and a name “Eagle Mountain”.  The local colloquial name is “the Reek”, which refers to a poetic description akin to “a pile of stones resembling a haystack”. There’s more to the name but let’s stay with Saint Patrick and Corra.

During his Lenten fast, it was said that Blackbird “demons” swarmed him. He then clanged his Finn-Foya bell, banishing them to Lugna Demhon, “Lake of Demons”. (ps. Birds are also revered as sacred messengers from the spirit world by many pre-christian druidic traditions). 

Enter Goddess Corra, erupting as a fiery serpent in Lough Na Corra below, raising up into the sky. He hurls the bell, crashes her down from the sky, and floods the lake. She bolts northward. Saint Patrick chasesher on horseback. Corra is accused of poisoning wells along her path in attempts to thwart St.Patrick - or so the “his-tory” goes. 

They battle at Lough Derg, where she swallows him whole—remaining two days in her womb-dark belly. He slices out through her womb with his crozier’s iron point - the hooked staff carried by Catholic Bishops. Her blood dyes the lake red; her body petrifies into what are now referred to as “the penance islands” near Saints Island, which become pilgrim stations. From this tale, with Corra’s death, all snakes/serpents are also “banished”, from Ireland by Saint Patrick.

What is this really? 

It's an allegory. It’s Christianity gutting the Goddess revering Druidic serpent power from an already thriving earth honouring, matrifocal culture. It is religious oppression and colonial over culture distortion in order to gain control over the populous. The most powerful essence of life - the Feminine.

There are variants of this mythology, yet they all lend to the same core themes - demonization of the sacred feminine, control, oppression, and manipulation of pre-christian spirituality.

Many thousands of people flock (pun intended) to the Reek each year, as a pilgrimage to St. Patrick and visit the various prayer stations along the pilgrims path to the top. Where a church was erected, over top of a pre-existing Neolithic settlement site. Perhaps, it’s time for a feminine pilgrimage to walk the same steps, returning the Sacred Serpents womb wisdom back to its place of origin, in the bodies of women. Honouring the dark feminine’ vital role in the cosmology of life, bringing HER back to life after patriarchal attempts at erasure.

Modern society knows the Lough (lake) that sits at the base of the Reek, as Lough Murrisk. A long narrow lake, sitting northeast, along the road towards Westport town. In truth, this is more aptly named “Lough Na Corra”, where the Serpent banishment occurred.  Perhaps it’s time for women to gather here, to honour HER and meditate on her renewal, her Reclamation. There are also the “Cloghacorra Stones”, believed to be petrified bits of Corra’s body strewn on the Reek’s slopes near Murrisk. Small cairns along the “pilgrims path”, collections of her primal essence still visible today. The serpent coils woven into the early christian monk celtic tapestries, and the Celtic knot, keeping her essence alive despite her banishment.

As part of the path of the UNTAMED feminine, I offer women a pathway to honour their light and dark, their cycles and otherworldly nature - as much as the earthly sacredness and joy in everyday life.

A bridge to this new phase of UNTAMING is gathering in Westport, Co. Mayo, to re-awaken, re-member, re-store and re-claim your fullness as Goddesses walking the earth - now. In honour of your own path of transformation, in honour of all the women who have walked before you - and the Goddess alive still in all of the natural world. Corra, Cora, Caorthannach, Caoránach - we witness you, we honour you, we SEE YOU - we call you to return.

Rise with Her: Join the Goddess Reclaimed Retreat 2026

Corra’s not defeated—she’s dormant, waiting for your presence in our Goddess Reclaimed Retreat. This sacred nine-day arc of feminine exploration is your portal: we climb the Reek together, bringing the serpents back to the mountain where they were banished. Day by day, we coil her spiral-energy through sisterhood circles, feminine rituals, visits to other sacred sites reconnecting her to the multifaceted feminine - Knocknarea, the Caves of Keshcorran, Achill Island and more. From your home hearths to Irish peaks, and waterways, we invoke her, in sisterhood. 

Feel her truth in your bones, living in the landscapes, and weaving among us as women returning revitalized, sovereign, valued, and respected.

We snap internalized patriarchy and misogyny with arrow breaks, keen ancestral grief in traditional ceremony, firewalk her venom into power, and dance Maiden-Mother-Crone through an incredible week of sisterhood joy 

Spots limited—claim your wild return now at amanda-ring.com/retreats. 

Untamed Women, the mountain and lough awaits.

BLESSINGS SISTARS !

XO Amanda

IMAGE: Artist Julia Cellini