Category Archives: Random pagan and recon. ramblings

book review – The Nature of Asatru

 Time for another book review. This time I decided to update and share a review I did 5 years ago in the journal Idunna for a book by Mark Puryear called “The Nature of Asatru”. If you have read and liked this book don’t even bother reading this review, because I can summarize(…)

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Pregnancy folklore and traditions – Irish

   I decided it’s time to blog about folklore and traditions relating to pregnancy, partially because I haven’t had much luck finding any info online myself and I think it should be out there and partially because its an interesting topic. There is a plethora of available(…)

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Book Review: The World of the Druids

  I haven’t done a book review since last month so I thought it was about time to do another. This review will look at Miranda Green’s book The World of the Druids, which was published in 1997. The book is ided into 10 sections that cover everything from what we(…)

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A children’s prayer before sleep

There’s a children’s bedtime prayer making the facebook rounds and I liked it, but wanted to adapt it to better fit my own recon-ish approach. So here are several alternate versions….<br(…)

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Thoughts on the Colloquy of the Two Sages

     One of the most important texts for modern druids to study may be the Colloquy of the Two Sages, the tale of a confrontation between the esteemed Druid Ferchertne and the recently graduated student Nede. The tale, on its surface, is a simple(…)

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Modern Ethics for a Modern Druid

   Recently the discussion had been brought up about modern Druidic ethics and how – or even if – the concept of “harm none” fits in to a Druid’s ethics. Some people feel strongly that a modern Druid should adhere to an ethical view that avoids any harm to others, although(…)

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Thoughts on the article "the Excellence of Ancient Word"

     The Excellence of Ancient Word by Sean Tuathail is a work which should be essential reading for any Druid or anyone studying Druidism.  This work is essential on several levels: it gives us a description of a Druid based on Irish sources,(…)

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A Modern Lughnasa Prayer

This is a version of a prayer taken from volume one of the Carmina Gadelica, modernized in language and content and made pagan. I have modefied this one more than I usually do to make it applicable to anyone in an urban or suburban setting (as opposed to the normal agricultural(…)

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Manannán mac Lir

   One of the deities that can be found in the mythology of several different Celtic nations is Manannán; called Manannán mac Lir (son of the sea) in Ireland, and Manawydan to the Welsh. His home was said to be the Isle of Man, called Manaw in Welsh and(…)

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Feeling crafty – an alternative Lughnasa

So it’s getting close to Lughnasa again and this year I am trying something a little bit different. Usually my Lughnasa involves a family picnic and either some hiking and plant collecting or some age appropriate physical games. This year though we are facing health problems on several fronts that make an active outdoor Lughnasa much more complicated so I decided we needed  a back-up plan. I noticed several people talking about Lughnasa as a time for both the traditional activity of bread baking and also of crafting, and I thought maybe this would be a good direction to go in.

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