I little while I go I started feeling a nudge to create my own divination system with bones. I was driving home and the idea came to me, and I tried to push it aside because it seemed too complicated for me to take on right now, but the idea just kept lingering. I kept getting the idea of using rabbit bones* for this purpose and it just wouldn’t go from my mind. I finally asked for some kind…
Author Archives: Lairbhan
Miscellaneous Q & A
I thought it would be fun to do another question and answer blog today so I asked for questions on social media and here they are along with my answers:Rei asks: On the subject of fairies, do you think there are wildly different beings in different parts of the world with different ‘rules of engagement’ as it were? I’ve had some experiences here in Appalachia that do not seem to hold to the same…
Two Book Reviews: The Winnowing of White Witchcraft and British Fairies
Today I’d like to offer two short book reviews of texts I’ve recently read that I enjoyed very much. They are extremely different books, but both valuable I think in their own ways.
The first book I’d like to review today is ‘The Winnowing of White Witchcraft’ by Edward Poeton, with an introduction by Simon Davies.
The book is a new release of a 17th century book that had never been…
What Is a Fairy Court?
It was recently brought to my attention on social media that not everyone may understand exactly what a royal court is or how one functions, and specifically how this relates to the fairy courts. Today I want to address this issue and try to offer some clarity on the subject for anyone who is curious.
‘Riders of the Sidhe’ by John Duncan
It’s important to understand that when we talk…
The Elfin Knight: an Excerpt from ‘Travelling the Fairy Path’
The following article is an excerpt from my forthcoming book ‘Travelling the Fairy Path’. It looks at material from the ballad ‘The Elfin Knight’ and what we may learn from it as people interested in fairylore. I find it particularly valuable in what it may teach is about the importance of consent for witches when dealing with the Fair Folk in certain situations, particularly sexual ones. We see…
Reconstructing Early Modern Witchcraft Resources
I draw on a lot of resources for my own practice of witchcraft, and at this point I’ve moved away (for the most part) from looking at how other modern practitioners do things and instead draw on ideas about how historic witchcraft was likely done. I combine that with folk magic practices and the Fairy Faith to create the practical system that I use for my witchcraft.
Here is a list of some of…
Fairies and the Dead part 2
So I’m recently running into this idea that all fairies are the human dead.Let’s unpack that because its complicated.
I have written about the intertwining of fairies and the dead before in a blog that was an excerpt from my book ‘Fairies’. The subject is very convoluted and there really is no direct answer to the question “Are the fairies human dead?”. Ultimately we would have to say yes, no,…
Fairy Priestessing: When Your Spirituality Swallows You Whole
In a lot of the pagan community I see an approach to spirituality that is a bit like a video game: you start and you achieve different levels as you go, until you beat the game and win. This bothers me on a couple levels which I’d like to address before I get into the meat of today’s blog which is going to be about my own experiences of living as a priestess of the Good Folk. Firstly the idea…
Mystic South 2018
This past weekend I flew down to attend the second Mystic South conference in Atlanta Georgia. As I understand it the conference is focused on an appreciation of uniquely southern magic and practices but also open to looking at the wider pagan community, and includes a special track for academic presentations. Quite frankly they had me at the idea of academic material because that isn’t something…
Remembering Uaimh na gCat
The entrance is in a field, beneath a hawthorn.
It is an unassuming opening into the earth, but there is something intimidating about it. The darkness beyond the stone and grass is deep and full. It invites you in at the same time that it warns you away. But this is why you have come to this place, seeking this cave, seeking this darkness, and you won’t be deterred now.
You move into the…