Tag Archives: ireland

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Light the Fires, Drink the Dews

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It is May Day, Bealtaine. Where has the year gone?

I have been too busy to observe, but I have felt more connected than most years.

I have learned how very much I rely on these callings from my bloodline. My history, my faith, and they have given me strength and peace this year. I am happy. I am productive. Goals are in my sight – and it is inspiring and motivating.

Light the Fires in this Season – protect yourselves from the harm that can bombard you daily. Forget the hindrances of the past, and move on, move forward, into your new, bountiful self.

Drink the Dews run over from the Springs, let them wash out your doubt and your weariness. Let them feed your spirit, your mind, and take their renewing vigor and make much of their gift to you in this waning half of the year.

Too Soon Darkness will descend and the Sun will slumber beneath the bough.

Too soon, another year will come to close. Let this Season flourish while the bounty is still ripe and full.

Bless the Blood.

~MM~

The Harpy

Is Celtic Birdlip Grave the Final Resting Place of Queen Boudicca? | Ancient Origins

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Is Celtic Birdlip Grave the Final Resting Place of Queen Boudicca? | Ancient Origins

Though it’s all speculative – still a neat read and an exciting theory/possibility for all my fellow celts / pagans / irish bretheren out there!

The Humonculous

It’s Beltane…and it’s not what you think.

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The obligatory Beltane / May-Day post.

Well wishes, happy harvests, and bountiful blessings for everyone this season – as it should be (or hoped to be) every season.

But, I can’t say that it is a warmly welcomed season so far. Every holiday / harvest day / celebration that comes around – I am bombarded with article after article and post after post from pagan communities, blogs and centers from all over blaring out, and sharing, and reposting on histories and traditions…….that just aren’t true. Or misconstrued, greatly.  And it’s disheartening. 

Now, if you are a Neo-Pagan, and you follow these modernized traditions – then you go for it.  BUT, when we are discussing histories and traditional ideology of where the celebration is rooted – that’s a much different discussion than simply talking about personal practices or customs. 

I’m sure you’ve all heard all the discussion of the sexual prowess of Beltane, and the Great Rite, and the copulation of the God and Goddess and the marrying of the Land and great orgies by bonfires for the sake of fertility.

And frankly, in my own opinion – that is all blasphemy. And insulting.

Beltane is a harvest festival. That is all. It is the celebration of the bounty of Spring, and welcomes Summer. Traditionally, it marked the “beginning of summer” and was a time that they would reap harvest, turn fields, begin the breeding season of certain livestock, and send the cattle out to pasture, and hope / pray for the fertility and ripeness of the land. 

As a celebration of summer, and the over-turning of the seasons, it was thought to be one of the pinnacle points of the year when the spirits were most active, and the veils between worlds was the thinnest – allowing the influence of the gods / spirits to be at a peak. They would make offerings to the gods for their blessings for the upcoming season, and they would perform special rites to purify and protect their livestock, land, and even the people themselves. 

It’s basis was centered around a sense of renewal, blessings, optimism and hope. Not a sex fest as modernism seems to have turned it into.  And yes, arguably – you can say that the idea of the rebirth of the land, and it’s heavy focus on fertility *could* be interpreted in a sexual and symbolic manner. Yes. That could be argued – but that interpretation and ideology has developed over the modern era, and was not *traditionally* what Beltane was about at all. 

Beltane is rooted in Celtic Ireland, and can be read about in some of the oldest, most influential Irish mythos – and has been well documented throughout the medieval era all over Celtic Europe.

We, of course, don’t know everything, in every detail about the very first traditions and customs of those first Beltane rites – but the fact that they had survived for so many centuries, and had been documented by many different cultures throughout the region leads us to a pretty clear picture of what exactly this Season, and celebration, meant to them. And to imply otherwise, or to perpetuate wrong-information as fact – or to state that modern interpretations and rituals as “traditional” is ignorant, and doing a disservice to the culture – regardless of if you try to walk a traditional path, or modern one. 

There is a reason why we are often looked at in society today as being little more than a bunch of free-lovin-hippy-cult-revival of over-sexualized debauchery – or why certain circumstances of criminal acts seem to be so scrutinized, and impactful to our community – because the community continues to influence the idea that our culture, and history, is rooted in nothing more than a prominent sexual overtone. Which is a very shallow, cut-and-dry image to paint to a culture that has so many depths and histories within it. 

We are much more than a Sex-cult. So on these days, lets try to share some of the proud, deep rooted histories of our people and customs so that others may see a different, and hopefully insightful, side to the people we really are. 

The Humonculous

A disappointing read

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Gods & Fighting Men – Lady Gregory

though I have read most of the tales dozens of times over, I had always wanted to read this collection. I was excited to start, but after weeks of scattered reading I finally had to give it up. This is such a disorganized rendering of these tales I just couldn’t follow it – and that’s saying a lot for someone who *already knows these tales*. I don’t know if it was the fact that I was reading it via ereader – as i’ve found it is much, much harder for me to follow, and retain via an ereader than an actual book, or if it was a combination of that and the language. I just found this so scattered and incohesive, with over exaggerated language, usage and run on sentences that cover half a dozen topics / people/ places all in one thought process that span entire paragraphs and excerpts. This is just plain bad writing. There are hundreds upon hundreds of stories or anthologies written in this same era, and earlier, that retain their original language paired with romanticized lyricism that are beautiful and amazing works of visionary word. I feel like this is what she was trying to capture, but did not fully understand it – and therefor left the collection empty, hard to navigate, and just plainly confusing and hard to read. Perhaps one day I will pick up a hard copy of this book, and try again with a physical copy in hand. Perhaps that will make all the difference in the world…but until then, absolutely no. I cannot finish this. It is not worth the time nor the headache, especially when there are so many other wonderful presentation of these tales.

Read this review in Goodreads

The Humonculous

The Christmas Tree and the Dregs of Winter

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In the olde faiths, the Irish Celts (and much of their brethren) would light candles and lanterns and hang them in the trees to illuminate their path and spirits through the Dregs of Winter – the 12 darkest days of the year leading up to the Winter Solstice – And in memoriam, as a Vigil, to the spirits of the Earth that dwindled and died in the bleak Winter Months. 

The Solstice itself culminated the Dregs of Winter, and was celebrated not only because it marked their end, but also the return of the Light beginning the waxing of daylight hours towards the Summer Solstice. 

Because of this, the Solstice was celebrated with many rites, rituals, feasts and celebrations. They would light all the previous candles and lanterns lit through the dregs, in honour of the returning light – and would garland the trees with sweet treats, heady foods, and lush offerings to the Gods to bless them for the upcoming year, and to ensure the return of light, life, fertility to the lands and abundant harvests for the growing seasons that laid ahead, and the rebirth of the Land and Earth that had been slumbering through the season. 

They would do this as they believed the spirits of the Earth and the Gods lived in the Trees, and by placing the blessings and offerings in the trees, they would be handed directly to the Gods and Spirits of the Earth themselves. 

As time went by, and the New Faith spread across the lands, and crossed the Sea to the Isles, the faiths became mingled. As the Celts did not fear or resent change as many people do – they accepted it, and honoured it. They were very easily converted to the New Faith because of this acceptance to change, and their easy and willing natures to grow and evolve as Time and Earth ever does – but because they were also a people of great respect, pride and integrity – They never, completely, let go of their olde ways or beliefs, and continued to observe certain sacred traditions and rituals, integrating them together with their new Faith, growing and evolving them both into something new – something unified together. Just as is their nature, until eventually we forgot about the Yule tides of the Northmen and their relative Tribes, or the Festival of Lights of the Gauls and Galacians, or the Midwinter rites of the insular tribes of Celts, from Goidelic, Manx, Picts and Brythons. 

Until these were all blended together with the new reigning faith, and as their empire grew they adopted it and defined it as their own, and slowly over years and years of exaggeration with new tradition built ontop of new tradition it has grown into modern times – but nonetheless, we are all each tied to our distant past in a least expected way. 

Each time you decorate your christmas tree.