Today is Bron Trogain, better known by most pagans as Lughnasadh (Lunasa) or Lammas. Its a multifacted holiday for me, with Irish aspects as well as Fairy aspects. But I like the layers and complexity and I like that it isn’t something simple, something easy to sum up in a quick ritual and move on from.
I always know when we are approaching this holiday, simply by watching the world around me…
By many accounts the beings of Fairy are divided into two courts, the Seelie and Unseelie. This is often simplified as the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fairies, or as F. Marian McNeill says the ‘gude wichts’* and the ‘wicked wichts’ and was initially a Lowland Scottish belief that later spread (McNeill, 1956). I think we lose the nuances between the two when we try to reduce them into such blunt terms as…
There is a long tradition in folklore of various fairy markets, places that humans sometimes stumble across and that can be perilous or provide opportunities for trade, depending on how the human behaves. Many stories of these markets or fairs appear in collections of folklore from the last several hundred years, when writing down such stories became fashionable, and often reflect similar themes….
Newgrange from the air. Office of Public Works (OPW), date unknown This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Tomus tighe mec ind ÓccTomus tighe mec ind Ócc,fót cen bine buidnib sét,etir dá fraigid rosícht,mó secht traigid, mó secht cét.Cethri dorais ind cen brón,bith oc ól tria bitha sir,turib ciprib, úair is caem,cóel fo tuighib d’itib én.Dabuch…
Like a shadow, shifting, seeking
what I’ve found yet still must find,
wrapped in motion, wrapped in time,
bound yet still compelled to bind
echoes like ripples of each action
as here and there merge in my mind
spirit balanced in the eager edges
Wandering the Otherworld is chancy
though the fairy road is always near
tempting and teasing and tangling
touching this to that, and there to here
a bare…
In both Irish and Scottish fairylore ‘elfshot’ or ‘elf arrows’ are a type of small weapon used by the Good Folk, and in Scotland also by witches, against people and livestock. The ubiquitous weapons of the Fey, elfshot caused a variety of maladies to those struck by them.The arrows themselves when found on the ground are small, neolithic flint arrowheads but when used by the Gentry are…
Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar – touching them is a mistake. Their hair causes allergic reactions and their barbs can cause serious injuries to the eyes. They are pretty though.
I suppose its fair to say that I’m more than a tad bit cynical. This isn’t so much a matter of age as personality, I think – cynical is my natural default setting and always has been. Chalk it up to some very…
There’s an interesting tidbit of folklore in Scotland which says that the Good Folk must pay a teind (tithe) to Hell; this idea appears first in writing in two poems and seems from there to enter the wider lore particularly in the modern period. The teind is an interesting folkloric belief because it is not found in Ireland, nor was it a belief throughout Scotland until a much later period,…
Offerings are a word that gets thrown around a lot in modern paganism and polytheism, particularly in the corners of it that I lurk in. Earlier this month at the Morrigan’s Call Retreat I had a good discussion about offerings with another speaker at the event, Lora O’Brien, and she recently wrote a blog ‘Working as a Spiritual Fixer in Ireland’ which I highly recommend reading. As I’ve been…
The second part of the text on raven and wren augury. Original text followed by my translation.DreanachtMad congaire an ceanandan duit anair turus daine craibtheach cucad co n-agairbe fort. Madh anairdes gaires an drean druith uallcha doroith. Mad aniar esurraidh dobi cucaib. Mad anairtuaidh goires aes lasa mbi cele fesa no mna tic and. Mad atuaidh is inmuin leat anti tic and. Mad aniartuaidh tic…