Describing Fedelm in the Tain Bo Cuiligne

A bit of descriptive translation for today from the Táin Bó Cuiligne of Medb’s first view of the seeress Fedelm:

Impáis in t-ara in carpat ocus dothaét Medb for cúlu, co n-accai ní rap ingnad lé, .i. in n-aenmnái for fertais in charpait na farrad ina dochum. Is amlaid bói ind ingen: ic figi corrthairi ocus claideb findruini ina láim deiss cona secht n-aslib do dergór ina dessaib; bratt ballabrecc uani impi; bretnas torrach trencend sin brutt osa brunni; gnúis chorcra chrumainech lé; rosc glass gairectach le; beóil derga thanaide; dét niamda nemanda, andar let batar frossa findnémand erctais ina cend; cosmail do nuapartaing a beóil; binnidir téta mendchrot aca seinm allámaib sirshúad bindfogur a gotha ocus a cáinurlabra; gilidir snechta sniged fri oenaidchi taidlech a cniss ocus a colla sech a timthach sechtair; traigthi seta sithgela, ingni corcra córi cruindgéra lé; folt findbudi fata forórda furri; teora trillsi da fult imma cend, trilis aile co m-benad foscad fri colptha.
Irische Texte Mit Ubersetzungen, Windisch (1905.)

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What Makes A God?

I’m going to start out by saying clearly, I don’t have any answers to this question and I don’t think there is an answer. It’s a question that inevitably leads to more questions. And I think that’s a good thing – we should question this, we should ask ourselves the hard things like this. Without the hard questions there will never be any real growth or deep theology.

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17 Year Cidadae

So the big thing this summer is that the 17-year cycle cicadas are hatching. They’re big, red, noisy bastards, and a type of bug I’ve always disliked. I’ve never been big on bugs, and having insects that large that fling themselves at you unpredictable while making an awful buzzing sound is a sure-fire way to […]

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On Being *That* Guy

Everyone knows that guy*, the person who is always one of the first ones to speak up about paganism or polytheism, even though they don’t really know that much about it. … No one gets less sympathy than that guy.

The thing is – we were all that guy…

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Green Water of the Mountain

Some of what I gather is going to become spirit food, made by hand from the herbs I was compelled and directed to gather.  The flowers all have very specific and unique properties and are all under the guardianship of the great old mountain god, Takoma, who makes the waters that feed the valley meadows where I hunt at the base.  The mountain is home to deer gods and river goddesses, to bear spirit and eagle.  Powerful place, deserving of respect, I collect my herbs from the riverside and old-growth moss covered wetlands where the grandfather waters provide all the nourishment of those who forage in the shadow of the peaks.

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Big Ritual

I’ve been doing ritual magick in some form since I first bought Don Kraig’s Modern Magick 20 years ago. Much of that was based in Golden Dawn derived ritual, performed alone for my personal benefit in the dark corner of wherever I happened to live. Early group rituals were largely impromptu, and with small groups […]

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Thoughts from Heartland Pagan Festival 2015

Big rituals are a way different experience when you’re on center stage I don’t mind bugs as much as I did a week ago (although I’m still not fond of them) Sometimes you really do need a break from those you love the most The camaraderie you get from being a part of a diverse […]

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Macha, Mesrad, and Heads

It’s become an increasingly common thing for me to see people confidently stating that severed heads are the Morrigan’s acorns or her acorn crop. Sometimes people do correctly identify the “crop” in question as belonging to Macha, but nonetheless keep on with the acorn part of it. In some cases, including some popular books, people get quite elaborate with this, adding in some poetic details or layering on deep spiritual significance.

Alright, well, let’s take a look at the actual material from the mythology, or to be precise the glossaries, because there is no mythic story of head taking or reference to such. So what do we actually have?

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Some Crooked, Some Upright

My last entry on the three different spells I was working on at the time got me thinking about the roots of those magics and how even though they are all spells, they’re ruled by a different school of practice that is often the singular focus of devotion by some witches, myself included.  Even though two of those charms featured a form of black and red magic, they were still done in my way; the green way.  This got me thinking on the different kinds of paths that exist, sometimes simply categorized into good or bad, high or low, ceremonial or natural, but sometimes they are categorized by their intention and the practices which benefit those intentions.  In traditional witchcraft, this can be construed as the separation of black magic from green, red and *white* magic.  I don’t know if “magic” is the right word, I never really know how to describe what I think is going on here, but I will use the term magic to mean one’s spiritual and mystical influence in the world and upon other living things.

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Unemployment!

Blessings, Darlings!

This last Sunday, May 17, at 3 pm, Corporate locked the doors at the restaurant Spawn and I worked at, closing the store.  No official advance warning, just a notice of a mandatory meeting about ‘food safety issues’.  Oh, okay – for those who Googled the company, there was this announcement last month that they would be closing a bunch of restaurants.

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