There are a collection of healing charms which include some fairly overt pagan references found in the Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus grouped under the heading of St. Gall’s Incantations. Below I’m including three of the originals and my own modified and updated versions.
Category Archives: By Land Sea and Sky
"I am Guarding Your Death"
Saturday morning I was home, getting ready to head over to my friend’s store when my mother called me. She and my oldest daughter had gone over to my grandmother’s apartment, a few minutes drive from my house, to check on her. My mother’s voice on the phone was small and hesitant, “Morgan, your grandmother’s died. What do I do?”
A Dream of Lughnasa
I had a strange dream last night about a ritual at Lughnasa. In the dream the people had gathered to honor Macha and Nuada at the harvest, which they were calling Brón Trogain. Everyone had met at a recently harvested field, the earth exposed with only a stubble of stems left jutting up in ragged rows. Two horses had been harnessed together with someone walking behind them, driving them. Two older girls walked in front and to each side of the horses tossing handfuls of straw in their path. The horses were driven over the straw as someone prayed to Macha to bless the earth and Nuada to ward it. I do not remember all the words of the dream prayer, only this part – “…walking, may your steps be sacred steps, walking, may Macha, raven of fierceness, bless this earth, walking, may Nuada, hound of battle, ward what we hold dear…”.
Poem for the Morrigan
[For the sake of the author’s post, no except will be given, just a not so subtle nudge to click to the post on the author’s website.]
The Morrigan’s Call: A Retreat Dedicated to the Great Queen
I spent the last weekend at Temenos retreat center in Massachusetts, participating in a spiritual retreat dedicated to the Morrigan. The retreat itself ran from Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, but a lot was packed into that short amount of time. There were workshops, rituals each day, and a concert by Jenna Greene. We set up a temple in a screened in space at the top of a hill, and our temple had altars for an Dagda, Badb, Macha, Anu, Nuada, and the land spirits, as well as a large main Morrigu altar.
Random Morrigan Shenanigans
Recently a new book was released: By Blood, Bone, and Blade, a tribute to the Morrigan. This is an interesting work with an assortment of material from many different contributors and like all anthologies some of the material is really good and some is less so. I personally have an essay and several prayers in the book.
On another Morrigan related note I will be at a Morrigan Retreat in Massachusetts this weekend teaching workshops, helping with rituals, and generally honoring the Great Queens. I’m excited for this opportunity to honor Her/Them and to spend time with other people who honor Her. My workshops look at the Morrignae in the Lebor Gabala Erenn and what that tells us about Them, the Morrigan as a goddess for difficult times, and the Morrigan in relation to the daoine sidhe.
When I get back I’ll share my experiences here.
Ethics of Divination
In most modern pagan paths divination plays an important role. This is true in modern witchcraft and in Druidism, where divination might be used in ritual to predict a group’s immediate future or to tell if offerings were accepted. Divination in witchcraft might be used before or after spellwork or more broadly to help a person find guidance or communicate with the Gods and spirits. In Heathenry we see divination used sometimes at baby blessings or namings, where a rune might be drawn to predict the child’s luck, or as part of some rituals by adult participants for a similar reason. Besides ritual applications divination is also used more broadly by people seeking answers and looking for insight.
Wellspring 2014
I returned home yesterday from my first national festival, Wellspring, an event put on by ADF. This is ADF’s 30th year, and although I’ve been a member since 2001 I’ve never attended an ADF gathering before. This year though I was asked if I’d be interested in doing a few workshops at Wellspring and after discussing the logistics with my Kindred sister, decided that it would be fun to go and bring the kids. I put in proposals for a selection of workshops and was set to do three: honoring the Other Crowd as a modern pagan, living Celtic Reconstructionism, and the Hidden Folk in Norse and Irish culture.
Berchta – the White Lady
Berchta, also called Perchta, is a goddess of southern Germany and Austria who later became known in folklore as a kind of boogeyman who would frightens children. Modern Heathens look to a variety of sources to understand her as a goddess and so the understandings of her can vary widely.
Something Witchy for my UK friends
Something for my UK friends to check out – Rachel Patterson has written some interesting books and teaches workshops in southern England
