Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky

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…

Continue reading…

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…

Continue reading…

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…

Continue reading…

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…

Continue reading…

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…

Continue reading…

The Doom of Otherworldly Love

I know you have loved mesince before I was worth lovingA shadow in dreams, a glimpseof a fair form in daylight.You who are part of a worldnot my own, yet somehowbelong to me as much as Ibelong to you, inexplicably.A constant presence in my lifeA guardian, a guide, a lover,Never more than a thought away.Perhaps my heart was alwaysyours before it was even my ownAnd so I will send my heart to youas…

Continue reading…

Bealtaine and the Other Crowd

"Being associated with a ceann féile (cheif festival), May Eve and May Day were supposed to be times of greater than usual activity among supernatural beings, Every lios ("fairy fort") in Ireland was said to be opened that night, and their inhabitants moved abroad in great numbers, often changing residence at that time." – Seán Ó Súilleabháin, ‘Nósanna agua Piseoga na nGael’

Hawthorn in the…

Continue reading…

Following Personal Gnosis

   I write a lot on my blogs and various other places about a more academic view of my spirituality – facts, myths, translations. Hard, verifiable, provable things. Sometimes I think this may lead people to think I don’t get as much into the experiential side of things although I do try to write about that as well – its just harder to talk about the more personal end of things. In reality…

Continue reading…

Wishes – a poem about fairies

  This was inspired by two things – a story called ‘A Guide for Young Ladies Entering the Service of the Fairies’ and a poem by my friend Jennifer Lawrence called ‘Tam Lin’s Garden’. Both are brilliant pieces of writing and you should read them immediately.

   People talk about wishes now as if they were cheap things
   Spending their desire on casual words and wants that are
   lost between one…

Continue reading…

Cétnad nAíse ~ Poem of Restoration

Doing this one a bit differently – going to alternate the lines instead of doing separate text.I hope you enjoy it. 

Cétnad nAíse ~ Poem of RestorationAd-muiniur secht n-ingena trethan 
I invoke the seven daughters of the stormy seadolbtae snáithi macc n-áesmar. 

shaping life’s thread from boyhood to ageTri bás flaimm ro-ucaiter, 

Three deaths be taken from metri áes dom do-rataiter, 

Three…

Continue reading…