Last year was a very busy one for me.
Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015
Last year was a very busy one for me.
place the blame where it belongs
I’m going to try to end the year with getting rid of baggage. It’s been stuffed in my personal closet for way too long. The news is filled with two men who garnered the respect and admiration of millions everywhere as the ultimate father figure. Bill Cosby and Stephen Collins. One denies his victims […]
Oiche Sidhe – a poem
[Out of respect to the author, no mangling excerpt of the post will be made. Please click through to the author’s site to view the entire post as intended.]
Yule 2014
I’ve mentioned before in other December blogs that I celebrate Yule as a Heathen holiday with 12 days of celebration. This year is proving quite challenging and hectic, but since editing the new novel has my blogging limited I thought I’d touch on how yule is going.
The Morrigan – Meeting the Great Queens
Author: Morgan Daimler
Series: Pagan Portals
Publisher: Moon Books
Published: 2014
ISBN: 978-1782798330
Pages: 79 including a bibliography and endnotes.
Synopsis:
On shadowed wings and in raven’s call, meet the ancient Irish goddess of war, battle, prophecy, death, sovereignty, and magic. This book is an introduction to the Morrigan and several related goddesses who share the title, including Badb and Macha. It combines solid academic information with personal experience in a way that is intended to dispel the confusion that often surrounds who this goddess was and is. The Morrigan is as active in the world today as she ever was in the past but answering her call means answering the challenge of finding her history and myth in a sea of misinformation, supposition, and hard-to-find ancient texts. Here in one place, all of her basic information has been collected along with personal experiences and advice from a long-time priestess dedicated to a goddess who bears the title Morrigan.
Review:
Fairy Horses
Fairy horses are well known in Ireland and Scotland, where there are two main kinds of fairy horses seen in stories: the Kelpie and the Water Horse. The Water Horse is also called Aughisky and Each Uisce (Irish Gaelic for water horse). In Orkney, they are called Nuggles, in Wales Ceffyl Dwr. In Shetland, they are Coofiltees, and on the Isle of Man they are called Cabbyl Ushtey or the Glashtin. Water Horses and Kelpies are seen in all parts of the Celtic world under these different names and also in parts of the Norse world. In Scandinavian folklore they are called Bäckahästen or “Brook horses,” ; in Norway they are Nokken and in Iceland they are called Nykur. It is likely that that Water Horses and Kelpies, like other European fairies, have followed the people who believed in them to new countries so that they can be found all over the world now.
Translating the untranslated part 4 – Lugh’s battle incitement
This is my fourth installment of translating often untranslated material from the Cath Maige Tuired and I’d like to start with a little more background on the CMT itself. I recently read the transcript of an utterly fascinating lecture by John Carey called “A London Library, An Irish Manuscript, A British Myth? The Wanderings of ‘The Battle of Moytirra'” in which Carey traces the history of the only extant manuscript containing this vital Irish myth. One of the most important points in Carey’s lecture for the purposes of my translation project is that the manuscript for the CMT is believed by scholars to have been written by a younger scribe and one who was fond of intentionally obscuring his writing with:
Archaeology and Celtic Myth: An Exploration
Author: John Waddell
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Published: 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84682-494-4
Pages: 203 including index and bibliography.
Synopsis: In this book, author John Waddell contends that elements of pre-Christian Celtic myth preserved in medieval Irish literature shed light on older traditions and beliefs not just in Ireland but elsewhere in Europe as well. Waddell mainly focuses on aspects of the mythology associated with four well-known Irish archaeological landscapes: Newgrange and the Boyne Valley, the royal sites of Rathcroghan in County Roscommon, Navan in County Armagh, and Tara in County Meath. Their mythological associations permit the pursuit of the archaeological implications of several mythic themes, namely sacral kingship, a sovereignty goddess, solar cosmology, and the perception of an Otherworld.
Review:
Lives Matter
There has been a trend in American society that is sending a message – a disturbing message – that some lives are more valuable than others. That some people matter more. I could point to specific cases but really there are so many examples its hard to choose which ones to include and which ones to ignore. And I don’t want this to become a debate about the details, the minutia, of one example. Because I’m not talking about just one thing here. I’m talking about all of it.
Offerings and "Elves"
Last month I taught several classes about the Daoine Maith (Good People) at the Changing Times, Changing Worlds conference and one of the most common questions I was asked was about offerings. I thought it might be helpful here to blog a bit about the most common traditional offerings and the way they have been historically understood. Probably the most common offering is …