Author Archives: Lairbhan

Priesthood in Service to the Other

Recently I’ve seen a lot of discussion about what exactly pagan priesthood is and should be, which is a good thing. This is a topic that needs to be discussed more often and more thoroughly in a community where many people clamour for the title but fewer are perhaps willing or equipped to do the actual work. John Beckett has written about pagan priesthood in several blogs including ‘Preparing for…

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Why Do We View Fairies As Nature Spirits?

It’s a widespread idea at this point particularly in modern paganism and popular Western culture that fairies are nature spirits, that is that they are intrinsically bound to our natural world in some way. This idea is often simply stated as fact, implied to have always been true, or even argued as the older or more legitimate belief. In paganism its one aspect of a current trend I’m seeing to…

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2018 in Review

Its hard to believe we’re already wrapping up 2018. Inspired by Benebell Wen’s ‘My 2018 Year in Review’ post linked on social media I thought I’d do my own version here.
So, my 2018.

I travelled a lot this year!
In April I went to Ireland, visiting Ardagh, Sligo, and the Beara Peninsula. Part of that was for a Land Sea Sky Travel tour and it was a great experience.

June I was back for another…

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Witchcraft, Acceptability Politics, and Defiance

I’ve often said that I think witchcraft, specifically American neopagan witchcraft, is a victim of its own public relations. This is something we can see more and more clearly as different divides appear within the wider community, often over core issues of inclusion or exclusion. Why do these things happen in witchcraft which is at its core something that should be amorphous enough to hold a…

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Kionan’s First Solstice – A Between the World’s Short Story

In canon short story from my Between the Worlds series. Taking place after the events in book #7 Desire and Ashes this is a a solstice story in the spirit of the stories in the Fairy Gifts anthology.
It was written initially for a few friends and shared with a social media fan group but now I’d like to share it here for anyone who follows my blog and enjoys my fiction. It runs around 3700 words….

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The Selkie Resistance Agenda

Today’s post is meant just for fun (mostly) and is based off something a few of my friends came up with a while ago, the Selkie Resistance, which is in part about loving the ocean and hating modern society’s aesthetic standards.
I’m trying to keep this humorous, hence the format, and what follows is entirely my own opinion. I do not speak for the entire Selkie Resistance ;) And yes I realize this…

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Evolution of My Spirituality

I was asked on social media to talk a bit about my personal practice, so I thought a short blog about it would be a good approach. I’ve been pagan now for nearly 30 years and in that time my approach to everything has changed drastically more than once so its interesting to answer this question now, knowing what I say will be different than what I would have said 10 or 20 years ago and what I…

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Celebrating a New Holiday

When I was in Iceland I had an intense personal experience, shared with several friends, which later had me reassessing the way that I approach celebrating holidays and the entire cycle of holy days in the year. This has led me to trying an experimental year where I am celebrating times that are especially in sync with the Pleiades because I believe these times are more important to the…

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Cowalkers, Fetches, and Fylgjas

I often see a lot of confusion in modern paganism between three related but distinct concepts: the co-walker, fetch, and fylgja. These three concepts come from different cultures and can be described by some contemporary writers as equivalents however when we look more closely at the concepts within the root cultures it becomes clear that they are not so much equivalents as loosely similar…

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Personal Gnosis and Research

I am asked on occasion how I balance out personal gnosis and research.

Honestly for me I see the two things as complementary so they just go together naturally for me. I know that there can be a perception that gnosis and existing mythology or folklore don’t get along or aren’t necessary to each other but for me I can’t imagine having one without the other. The corpus of existing beliefs and…

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