Probably the single most consistent debate you can count on seeing in the Celtic Pagan community is about the dating of the four Fire Festivals. Like all such debates each side tends to hold its own view quite passionately. There are three main arguments: the dates of the celebrations were set astronomically; the dates were set using a calendar; the dates were based on agricultural signs. Each side has merit, but the truth is there is not enough solid evidence to ever know with certainty how the ancients timed their celebrations.
Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky
Celebrating Samhain with a Complex Child
Canann Badb.
feannóg guth
Garbh agus amh.
Canann Badb.
Tagann an gheimhridh
i sioc agus scáth.
Canann Badb
“Badb speaks
a crow’s voice
rough and raw
Badb speaks
winter arrives
in frost and shadow
Badb speaks”
I wrote the above poem this morning as I listened to a crow calling to me, perched on a tree outside my window. Today is the beginning of my three day celebration of Samhain, and tonight belongs especially to the daoine maith, the Good People. I’ve written several times over the years about how my family celebrates Samhain and about the history of the holiday so today I decided I want to tackle a more personal topic, that is celebrating this holiday with a child who has complex medical issues.
Translating the Untranslated – the Morrigan’s prophecy
So here’s another translation from Old Irish, this one is the Morrigan’s prophecy from the Cath Maige Tuired. The Old Irish text is from Sean O Tuathail’s version. The English is my own, as always with the caveat that I am not fluent but am offering my own understanding of the material based on the way I personally translate it.
Fáistine leis an Mórrígu
Sídh go neimh…
Why Worship the Gods and Spirits?
Recently John Beckett wrote an interesting blog about why he worships the Gods, which reminded me of my own recent guest blog on the Raise the Horns blog about why I worship the Morrigan. John’s post was part of a larger conversation in the blogosphere about the reality of the Gods and their ability to effect people which I have been following in bits in pieces. I find the conversation fascinating, as a so-called “hard” polytheist because it is offering insight into the different viewpoints that exist within today’s wide array of pagan faiths.
Translating the Untranslated
If you read the English version of the Cath Maige Tuired, whether its the Stokes or Grey translation, and you compare the English versions to the Irish version you will see that several passages have not been translated at all. It may be because these sections are more difficult to understand, or lacked a poetry that the translators were aiming for, or it may be that these sections – all dealing with prophecy and battle magic – were a bit too pagan for the translators. For modern polytheists studying the material I believe these passages do have great value and so I have undertaken to learn Old Irish and attempt to translate them myself.
For example in E. A. Gray’s translation of the Cath Maige Tuired there is a section she translates as:
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Lost in Mist and Shadow
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Mysticism and the Morrigan
I’ve always been of a more mystical bent, but its one of the most difficult things to discuss. Not because mysticism is so difficult to talk about but because mystical experiences tend to lose something in the translation. Also one of the first things most people ask is how do I do what I do, followed by how can they do it too, and the answer to some of that is simply…
Random Life Notes and Some Writing Tips
I realize I’ve been neglecting the blog of late, and I apologize for that. I do hope to be back on a regular schedule soon, but I’ve been dealing with a variety of pesky real life issues that take enough of my attention that I just don’t have the time to get any nice juicy blogs done. Bear with me and it’ll get better. Some of this has to do with an increase in the amount of writing I am doing elsewhere, and some of this has to do with child related things, but the end result is not enough blogging time.
To fill you all in on what I’ve been up to in general.
Samhain Poem to the Morrigan
I dreamt last night of honoring the Morrigan at Samhain. In the dream I chanted the following, as if it were a song or sacred prayer:
Experiencing the Other Crowd
One complaint that I see often in the wider pagan/polytheist community is that people of a more reconstructionist bent, such as myself, don’t share enough personal experiences. That’s actually a fair criticism generally speaking. For my part I have been trying to share more, although I have so far found it easier to share numinous experiences, especially those involving the Gods, through poetry. Today I wanted to share a little bit of my experiences with the Good Neighbors. Although everything to do with themselves is tricky, and often carries specific prohibitions about what can and cannot be shared, there are certain experiences that happened which involved more than just myself or which I know its okay to talk about. these are an array of things and involve, naturally, a variety of different kinds of spirits, but nonetheless I’d like to share some here. Hopefully it’ll give people an idea of what these things can be like.