As far as scholarly stuff goes, there’s not a ton out there for
Manannán
specifically beyond the primary sources.
Charles William MacQuarrie‘s unpublished thesis “The waves of Manannan: A
study of the literary representations of Manannan mac Lir” has some
good stuff, but you’re going to either have to ILL that from UW or
obtain it through ProQuest at a frustratingly expensive price.
As far as primary sources go, Mary Jones and CELT have an extensive collection of public domain translations of the myths.
If you need a bit more cultural context than what the manuscripts give
you you could check out Lady Gregory’s retellings. The stories he’s featured most prominently in are The Voyage of Bran, The Conception of Mongan, The Kern in Yellow Stripes (called Manannan at Play in Lady Gregory) Emer’s Only Jealousy,
The Tales of the Ordeals (the cup section, His Three Calls to Cormac in Lady Gregory), and The Fosterage of the House of the Two Milk Pails.
Sacred Texts also has bits and pieces in its Manx section.
But I’ve mostly turned up small sections of more general books on Gaelic polytheism. The Gaelic Otherworld
by Ronald Black and John G. Campbell is probably the most useful read
I’ve found in terms of pre-Christian practices surrounding him. It’s also one of the better Scottish sources in general.
Beyond that, the CR FAQ reading list
has some solid book recommendations, even if some of the people
involved in writing the FAQ itself have issues with inclusivity.
Regarding my own personal experience (along with a bunch of basic info and a smattering of linguistics), this 30 Days of Deity Devotion series I did last year is probably the most concise summary I have. The day 30 topic is actually about advice for newbies, though I don’t claim to be the ultimate authority or anything. I also did a Noncorporeal Consort series on him last year, which may or may not be of interest to you, but hey, it’s there.
In terms of devotional stuff…Leanne O’Sullivan’s Cailleach: the Hag of Beara is about an Cailleach Beara (obviously) but includes some poems about her relationship with
Manannán. Usha Kishore’s On Manannan’s Isle isn’t devotional per se but gives me devotional feels nonetheless. Like I said, not much out there.
My Manannán tag. Very UPG heavy. Somewhat NSFW. Occasionally NSFAnyone.
Hope
that helps somewhat. If there’s anything in particular you need help
finding sources on let me know and I can try to point you in the right
direction.
This night I am the shape changer, too, and I ask for your guidance,
You, for whom the ocean is a meadow of purple flowers,
You, who is lord of the Land of Youth and Isle of Women,
You, who have always walked between worlds,
I ask for your guidance on my path.
Manannán, I am walking between worlds and I need your help,
This is natural for you and natural, but frightening for me,
Guide my hand and give me strength
Guide the needle and support my faith in myself and my gods,
As I walk between worlds and find my place,
Grant me a place in your isles and your eternal lands,
Give me strength to lake that place back home
That I might show my true self in this hard world.
Beg Manannán, I thank you.
For all the frisson of genuine mystery that attends his double vision and account of a sinless paradise, the sea-god [Manannán] can hardly succeed as a ‘type’ of God himself. It could be argued that the correlation, through its sheer incongruity, focuses the mind on the uniqueness of the Incarnation. Despite the exquisite and eerie imagery of the first half of Manannán’s poem, which can be taken in a natural enough way to have some bearing on the world of the spirit, the god confronts us with the cheerful–almost Ovidian–physicality of Mongán’s conception. No being conceived of the Holy Spirit here: for this god, ‘energetic sex’ (lúthlige) with another man’s wife is the order of the day.
Mark Williams, in Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth (via edderkopper)
“The Tides of Manaunaun” [sic], composed by Henry Cowell, performed by Ralph van Raat
If you listen closely, you can tell that the melody is based around the folk tune “Slane”, aka “Be Thou My Vision”, but made a lot more raw and primal.
Sorry it took awhile for me to get around to this. It was kind of a struggle, since my initial response was, “How don’t you?” As someone who’s landlocked at the moment, that aspect is so central to my practice that it was difficult to step outside of it to analyze.
So, Manannán is a shapeshifter in the traditional sense. In the myths, he turns himself into a hare and a heron and humans of various appearances. I’ve heard a few people take it further and speculate that he swaps gender as well, hence the female messengers various figures meet, and him being king of the Isle of Women for some reason.
And that is compelling on its own, in that it illustrates the concept of divinity transcending gender and species. But given how common that stuff is in Irish myth, I’m not sure I’d say it’s a compelling reason to work with
Manannán
specifically. After all, people getting reborn as a salmon or fly or something is pretty much how things roll in Irish myth.
For me, his being born of the ocean is more interesting here.
Water is mutable by nature. As the liquid we typically think of, it conforms to whatever container its put in, or whatever object’s put into it. It also changes states pretty easily compared to most other substances. At the typical range of temperatures humans live in, it shifts between liquid and solid and gas like it’s no big deal.
Yet that softness and receptivity is powerful. It can wear away stone. It can sneak into impossibly tiny places (to our electronics’ chagrin.) It can transform rather than be destroyed. And that, I’d say, is at the heart of most of the lessons
Manannán
teaches in the myths: strength through gentleness and mercy, survival through change.
The sea was also important to the Gaels as a means of transportation. I mean, they lived on islands before modern roads were a thing. They also got a good deal of their food and income through fishing and maritime trade. This, naturally, got translated into their myths in a metaphorical way. There’s a whole genre of Old Irish literature called Imramma where people make allegorical voyages to the Otherworld. In the one that draws most explicitly from pre-Christian myth, The Voyage of Bran, it’s
Manannán
himself who summons the titular hero to journey.
Manannán transports various other figures to the Otherworld in other myths, and later on acts as a sort of psychopomp.
So he’s a figure that facilitates journeys, physical and spiritual. A call to seek long-term prosperity over immediate safety. A lot of GaelPols call upon him specifically to facilitate trancework. For the reasons mentioned elsewhere in this post, I think it’s appropriate to extend that to personal growth in general.
Finally, water was associated with wisdom in Gaelic culture. There’s
the Salmon of Knowledge, for instance.
Manannán watches over the Well of Five Streams, from which humanity
draws all of its knowledge. So there’s a message to be had about
learning being transformative as well (as well.)
Through study,
Manannán is able to do all his famed sorcery stuff, like the Feth Fiada,
which hides the Tuatha Dé from view. And is also a pun, which are themselves the very best kind of transformation.
Basically, no matter how you approach him, you’re going to run into something related to change, in aspects that are varied enough that I can’t really advise you to go about it in a particular way. It really depends on what in particular you’re looking to work on and how you relate to him.
He’s generally known to be really easygoing and approachable, in a “weird uncle” sort of way, so my advice is to just go for it and ask him. Maybe bring some tea. Or puns.
Ocean's Meadow 