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The heART of Ritual

musings

Welcome to the MUSINGS room in our digital nest! Here you will find an extensive selection of articles, poetry, prose, videos, recipes, and tutorials that journey the natural cycles, seasons, elements, and archetypes in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, as well as our Irish indigenous festivals, folklore, and customs.

This is lovingly provided as a free community resource, however it is copyrighted content. As such, we respectfully ask that if you share this content outside of this dedicated space, either in whole, in part, or paraphrased, that you credit the author and source. Thank you.

The Path of Life and the Changing Year

One of the more interesting observations I have noticed when I write about the changing seasons and the turning of the year is how many...

The Strange Wonder of Fairy Light

We often find that accounts of people encountering fairies at night begin with a strange and unusual light near a rath, stone circle or...

When We Are No Place at All

"The middle-despite the common use of that word-is not halfway between here and there, beginning and end, birth and death, right and...

The Owl Woman

As we enter the darkness of the falling year and the coming of the Cailleach, it is interesting to note the various roles the owl plays...

How to Recapture Your Imagination

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom under the grip of a spyglass. If you had the spyglass, you could see anything in the world. If you...

The Women Who Walk Between Worlds

I was chatting to somebody about hypnosis recently, a subject I know very little about, to be honest. I do know that it is used in...

Samhain and the Cailleach

Samhain, the astronomical moment of liminality, is drawing closer. Although Halloween will be celebrated on the 31st of October, the...

Customs and Folklore of the Autumn Equinox

The Autumn Equinox takes place on the 22nd of September here in Western Europe. This is the moment in the year when the hours of daylight...

The ancient roots of 'Valentine's Day'

Although the heart is probably the symbol most associate with Valentines Day, it might surprise people that the wolf can also lay claim...

Spring, the Air Element, and the Silent Extinction of Words

Imbolc marks the first day of Spring in Ireland and the Celtic Wheel of the Year. The principal element of Spring is Air, and this...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'A Morning Offering', by John O'Donoghue

I bless the night that nourished my heart To set the ghosts of longing free Into the flow and figure of dream That went to harvest from...

The Feast Day of Brigid (Lá Fhéile Bhríde) and the ancient Irish festival of Imbolc

If you're Irish like me, you will know that today (February 1st) is the feast day of St. Brigid (Lá Fhéile Bhríde), a fixed date holiday...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Thing Is', by Ellen Bass

To love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,...

On Imaginal Cells and Trusting the Process

To better understand the opportunity hidden in today’s crises, consider the tale of another world in transition. Imagine you are a single...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Ancient Language', by Hannah Stephenson

If you stand at the edge of the forest and stare into it every tree at the edge will blow a little extra oxygen toward you It has been...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Sojourns in a Parallel World', by Denise Levertov

We live our lives of human passions, cruelties, dreams, concepts, crimes and the exercise of virtue in and beside a world devoid of our...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Learning from Trees', by Grace Butcher

If we could, like the trees, practice dying, do it every year just as something we do— like going on vacation or celebrating birthdays,...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'On Pain', by Kahlil Gibran

And a woman spoke, saying, Tell us of Pain. And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Wild Geese', by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let...

The Solace of Open Spaces

“There is nothing in nature that can’t be taken as a sign of both mortality and invigoration… Everything in nature invites us constantly...

The heART of Ritual

musings

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