Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky

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…

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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…

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Fairies and Aliens: an Opinion Piece

To begin, nothing I am going to say here is groundbreakingly original. But this is a topic that comes up from time to time and I want to address my own opinions on it, as within the community of people who believe in the Good Neighbours there tend to be a couple schools of thought. Suffice to say that the people who hold the opposite opinion to mine use the exact same evidence but argue the other…

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Why Fairy Doctor Shouldn’t Be the New Trendy Title

I’m seeing an upswing in ads online for fairy doctor courses. It’s a simple premise and one that we see in other practices and spiritualities as well: pay your money and get certified as a fairy doctor.I have some problems with this, and it bothers me enough that I feel that I should probably say something about it here.
My usual caveats stand: I am not telling anyone what to do or what terms to…

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Book Release – Desire and Ashes

I’m excited to announce that the 7th book in my Between the Worlds series ‘Desire and Ashes’ is out today in paperback and on ebook. From the back cover:Bookshop owner Allie McCarthy is settling into life as a new mother along with her two spouses. She’s got her hands full with an infant and a business to run, trying to walk a fine line between the human world she considers her home and the…

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Good Fairy Fiction

I often talk about my concerns with modern fiction and its portrayal of fairies, particularly the way the end up being humanized. While I understand why this happens and I can even appreciate it when reading it I see a lot of material from fiction that is clearly purely from an author’s imagination making its way into modern pagan belief as if it were genuine folklore. Obviously that’s a concern…

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Fairy Donuts are Off Limits

Recently I had written a blog about viewing Fairyland as modern and reassessing our conceptions of it and its inhabitants. Following on that I saw a post by Chas Clifton on his blog at Letters from Hardscrabble Creek ‘In the Land of Fairy Don’t Eat the Pentagram Pizza’ which touched on my blog as well the post by John Beckett that had inspired mine, but Clifton also went further to talk about…

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The Morrigan’s Call Retreat 2018

 The beginning of June, for the fifth time, I headed off to the Morrigan’s Call Retreat to share in fellowship with other people who honour the Great Queens. Every year I teach workshops at the Retreat and help in the rituals; I see old friends and make new connections with people. My experiences over the years have been good ones and I always write about them when I get back.

Bridge entering…

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Modern Fairyland, or Experiencing the Otherworld as a 21st Century City

John Beckett recently wrote a blog which tangentially touched on two things I want to expand on here: the way neopagans Romanticize the world of Fairy and experiencing a place in Fairy that seemed much like modern America. I think that both of these points deserve some discussion and that they tie together so it makes sense to tackle them together. I do want to preface this by saying that while I…

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Verba Scáthaige – a translation

Today I am going to offer a translation piece I did from the Ulster Cycle, a look at Scathach’s words to Cu Chulainn when he left her training to return to Ireland.

Incipiunt uerba Scathaige fri Con Culainn oc scarad doib isna rannuib tair. Ro scaith do Choin Culainn lanfogluim in milti la Scaithaigh. Do aurchechain Scathach do iarum ind ni arad m-biad, con-eipirt friss tria imbass for ossna….

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