So Friday is my birthday. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, and about something that was posted in a group today about the variety of witches out there:
internet meme; anonymous
There are many, many approaches to witchcraft and some are completely different from others, but it is true that the vast majority of witches in the Western world seem to follow what is generally termed a …
Tochmarc Étaine[starting after gap] a thaigi ocus a gríanan co senistrib solsib fri techt ass ocus tobreth tlacht corcra impe ocus imchuirthe in gríanán sin lasin Mac Óc cach leth no théged ocus ba and contuiled cach n-aidchi occa chomaitecht do airec menman conda tanic a sult ocus a feth. ocus no línta in gríanán sin do lubib boladmaraib ingantaib combo de forberedsi di bolod ocus blath na
Although there’s no solid historical basis for using ogham as a divination tool its certainly popular to do so today and there is more than enough material to make it a viable system. Much like tarot, actually, there is so much that it takes a while to learn to really read ogham well. I highly recommend checking out the original source material, the Auraicept na n-Eces as well as …
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 …
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
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.
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’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…
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…
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: