I’m a bit behind on blogging and translations because I’m in the middle of a new book draft for Pagan Portals: Brigid. The idea of doing more goddess-themed Pagan Portals was suggested by someone on my Facebook author page and my publisher really liked it, and asked if I’d be interested in writing about Brigid. I’m about 14,000 words into the 25,000 word draft and its about …
Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky
The Morrigan is Not My Mother and Other Personal Truths
This idea for this blog was actually started in a conversation about the Morrigan as a mother goddess and I want to say right at the off that I have nothing against people who believe that she is. Modern worshipers see the Morrigan in diverse ways that are often deeply significant for each individual and I am in no way trying to argue against those views. You can have whatever personal…
De Chophur in Da Muccida – The Struggle of the Two Swineherds
De Chophur in da Muccida
Ceist cid dia dá Cophur na Muccide. Ni handsa. .i. muccaid Ochaill Oichni. & muccaid Boidb rig síde Muman. alaile rí síde Connacht. Síd mBoidb iss ed Síd ar Femun. Sid nOchaill iss ed Síd Cruachan. Ro boí dí cairddes eter ríg síde
Muman. & ríg side Connacht. Ro batar dano da muccaid ocaib .i. Friuch & Rucht a n-anmand .i. Friuch muccaid Boidb. Rucht muccaid Ochaill.
Witches, Mná Feasa, and Fairy Doctors, oh my!
A peer reviewed version of this article can be found in the 2014 Lughnasa/Samhain issue of Air n-Aithesc here
Waterhouse, The Mystic Wood, 1917
In modern American terms we tend to call anyone who works with low magic or folk magic a witch, however from an Irish perspective such people actually fell into roughly three groups: witches called caillí (singular cailleach) in Irish, fairy doctors
The Morrigan and Personal Sovereignty
The Morrigan’s most well-known, and arguably main, aspects may be battle, death, and war but she also has other purviews including sovereignty and that is what many of her followers today seem to connect most strongly with. In our modern world many people feel disempowered in their live, making the idea of reconnecting with personal power an alluring one, and something that…
Personal Boundaries, Sovereignty, and Consent Culture
I was recently reminded of an older blog post by John Beckett about boundaries and it got me thinking. We all have personal boundaries, of course, but I think too often in interacting with others there is a default assumption that others share either our personal boundaries or else wider cultural boundaries. To me, when we talk about personal boundaries I immediately think about consent…
Excerpts from Cóir Anmann
Just as the Banshenchus can give us some insight into the different Irish Goddesses, the Cóir Anmann can give us insight into a few of the Gods. Below is an excerpt of the relevant original material which is mostly Middle Irish and a bit of Latin followed by my translation:
the Slua Si
Whenever the subject of the fairies comes up it is best to remember that they are not the twee little things of pop culture. Even among the diverse groups of fairies though some deserve more caution and respect than others. One group that was particularly feared is the slua sí, the fairy host.
Tech Duinn
For many people Donn is seen as the first ancestor and ultimately the God of the dead in Irish paganism. There is a lot of folk belief behind this and I’ve previously written about Donn elsewhere but today I thought it might be interesting to take a look at two passages in Old Irish which mention Donn and the story of how Tech Duinn got it’s name.
Read All the Things!
Those of you who enjoy my translation efforts, don’t worry I have some interesting bits about Tech Duinn and Donn coming out tomorrow, but today I wanted to shift back a bit into a more discussion style blog. I’ve noticed a trend lately of people asking for opinions about books and getting some strangely territorial responses. What I mean by that is responses which seem to assume there is one – and only one – book worth getting on a particular subject. It can get very Highlander-esque (“There can be only one!”) with people advocating for one book and putting down others like there was some sort of epic prize to be won.