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…
Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky
Two Short Translations
"Is Acher in Gáith Innocht"
Is acher in gaíth innocht,fu-fúasna fairgge findfolt:ní ágor réimm mora minndond láechraid lainn ó Lothlainn
Fierce is the wind tonight
Agitating the ocean’s white hair;
I do not fear advancing across the sea
Eager dark warriors of Norway
Quatrains on Festivals
Atberim frib, lith saine,ada buada belltaine:coirm, mecoin, suabais serig,ocus urgruth do…
Popculture Fairies, Kids, Contradictions, and Conversations….
Or I could have titled this one ‘teaching my kids about the Good Neighbors in a post modern world’ but that wouldn’t have been any shorter, would it?
So, as I’ve mentioned, probably ad nauseum at this point the main focus of my actual day to day, rubber-hits-the-road spirituality is the Otherworldly spirits and land spirits. I also, as I am sure I’ve not often mentioned but you may have caught…
Spirituality, Community, and Diversity
Anyone who’s been in the modern pagan or polytheist community for more than, say, 5 minutes will probably have noticed that we’re a pretty contentious bunch. We are, in point of fact, usually much better at splitting hairs than at building bridges, something that I’ve written about more than once. You see I’m of the opinion that we should worry less about whether or not the person next to us…
10 Questions About My Fiction
And now, as they say, for something completely different….
I thought it would be fun to switch things up a little bit and do something for people who enjoy my fiction. For those unfamiliar I have a four book series called ‘Between the Worlds’ which is something between an urban fantasy and paranormal romance with a lot of Celtic mythology and folklore thrown into an alternate reality mix. Its…
Lugh the Many-skilled
One
of the most well known of the Irish Gods is Lugh, Lug in Old Irish, who is given
several epithets including Lamhfada [long arm], Ildanach [many skilled], and
Samildanach [many joined skills]. He is also sometimes called either Mac Céin,
son of Cian, or Mac Ethlenn, son of Eithne (MacKillop, 1998). One of the epithets applied to him in the Lebor Gabala Erenn is ‘rind-agach’ which Macalister…
Raven Lore – translation
There’s a fascinating bit of text called ‘Fiachairecht ocus Dreanacht’ or, roughly ‘Raven Augury and Wren Augury’ that outlines in detail what exactly omens with these birds mean based on where they are when the omen is received. I’ve decided to do my own translation of this work by dividing it up into sections, starting with ‘Fiachairecht’ (Raven Augury). As usual I’ll give the original Irish…
The Value of Anecdotal Evidence, Older Books, and Modern Experience
Generally speaking when you start to look for books on paganism one of the first pieces of advice you might get is to avoid things published prior to and during the Victorian era*, or books that rely too much on these as sources. Generally speaking this is good advice as this period was a time when scholarship was heavy on unsupported supposition and opinion and short on factual evidence. There…
Robert Graves Influence on Modern Paganism
I won’t lie – I’m no fan of Robert Graves and I doubt you’ll find many Reconstructionists who are. Writing in the 1940’s Graves still had the Victorian mentality that said it was perfectly fine to invent history if the story you were spinning seemed logical to you. And in fairness Graves was no scholar but rather a poet and his work is the work of a poet. There is an excellent book by Mark…
Two Views of the Leannán Sí
Of all the beings in Irish – and more generally Celtic – folklore one of the most interesting may be the Leannán Sí. The name literally means ‘fairy lover’* and we see two distinct pictures emerge in mythology and folklore of this type of being, very different in nature although both perhaps equally hazardous in various ways.
‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ by John Waterhouse
The most well…