Musings

The heART of Ritual

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.

Spring Equinox & The Fairy Hunt

"And beyond them, almost hidden by the moon shadows, were the Lords of the Ever-Living Ones: the antlered helmets of the Wild Hunt, the...

The Fairy Wind

Some believe that the Good People travel within a 'Fairy Wind' to move from one place to another, this is why must never interfere with a...

Blúiríní Béaloidis 08 - Wind & Storms In Folk Tradition

Owing to their impact on human affairs, weather occurrences of all sorts were a source of preoccupation for our forebears, who would look...

Blúiríní Béaloidis 12 - St. Patrick In Folk Tradition

The 17th of March sees countries the world over celebrate Saint Patrick's Day - a day which is commonly marked with large parades and...

Fairy Paths and Ghost Roads

A few posts back I wrote about the secret fairy-paths of the air, and how a person might inadvertently get whisked away being caught up...

Blúiriní Bealoidis 28 - Land & Language

Our guest for this edition of Bluiríní Béaloidis is writer and documentary maker Manchán Magan, whose recent book 'Thirty-Two Words For ...

A Guide to Sustainably Gathering and Weaving with Tree Bark

Would you like to have a go at making a woven bark sheath, or perhaps try you hand at some basket weaving? Getting hold of traditional,...

Witch Bottles and Irish Folk-Magic Protection

I recently read Andrew Michael Hurley's novel, The Loney, which is a tale of folk-magic and superstition, as well as a dark coming of...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Darkling Thrush', by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled...

The Irish Keening Tradition: Singing the Soul Home

Keening, which was once an integral part of the Irish grieving process, began to vanish from before the 1880’s. In many academic papers...

The Sheela na Gig - An Ancient Fertility Goddess?

Sheela na Gig’s are stone carvings of women exposing their genitals which are found mostly on church buildings associated with the...

The Folklore of Daffodils and the Return of Spring

I noticed that the first daffodils are beginning to emerge on our local fairy fort, Rathvilly moat, so I wonder if this is a sign of...

Tír na nÓg & The Irish Otherworld

Where, or even what, is Tir na nÓg? Being a Fortean writer who happens to be Irish, as opposed to being an invested scholar or advocate...

Brief encounter with a strange sea creature in the waters off Inis Meáin

"My father was out fishing one night and something came beside the boat, that had eyes shining like candles. And then a wave came in,...

The Secret Fairy-Paths of the Air

In previous posts I wrote about the argument that a person today is so embedded in contemporary life that they have little chance of a...

How can an Owl catch a Mouse underneath a foot of snow in total darkness?

Owls do have excellent vision, but one would need either infrared or x-ray vision to see a small mammal under snow. Instead, owls do much...

An insightful description of the Leprechaun

The Leprechauns are merry, industrious, tricksy little sprites, who do all the shoemaker’s work and the tailor’s and the cobblers for the...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Man who Trod on Sleeping Grass', by Dora Sigerson Shorter

In a field by Cahirconlish ⁠I stood on sleeping grass, No cry I made to Heaven ⁠From my dumb lips would pass. Three days, three nights I...

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