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.

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Warm Glow of Home', by Michael Traveler

I see it in the distance the warm glow of home As the dampness in the air sinks down beneath my clothes As the coldness tries to reach my...

The origins of Santa?

Let’s take a trip to the snow-covered fields of Lapland and Siberia, where the legend of Santa Claus may have originated. Hundreds of...

The Winter Solstice and the Birth of Sol

We have almost arrived at the winter solstice, the moment when the most northern point of the earth is tilted furthest away from the...

The Long Night

The ‘Long Night’ feels true of our wider collective experience. Layers of underworlds. Journeys through grief, fear, loss and sickness...

European Winter Solstice costumes; a ritualistic expression of Shapeshifting and Protection

These images of ritual and ceremonies from old indigenous customs in Europe from around the winter solstice, show a time when we were...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Mistletoe', by John Bannister Tabb

'To the cradle-bough of a naked tree, Benumbed with ice and snow, A Christmas dream brought suddenly A birth of mistletoe. The shepherd...

Perspectives on Death and Dying

This months BIOPHILIA Mentorship focused on themes of death, funerals, grief composting and trauma amongst other earth element...

The Deer Mother: Earth's Nurturing Epicenter of Life and Death

The animal mother is one of the most ancient images of birth-giving goddess, spanning continents, millennia, and cultures. Marija...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Everyday sort of Magic', by Charles de Lint

"I do believe in an everyday sort of magic, the inexplicable connectedness we sometimes experience with places, people, works of art and...

The unearthing of Ireland's ancient Sweathouses

The sweathouses of Ireland date back to the 9th century and earlier. Now known as Bronze Age sweathouses, these ritual spaces were...

Ritual Headdresses in Celtic Europe

Wearing deer antlers as part of ritual has ancient roots in Celtic Europe – this antler frontlet was made 11,000 years ago probably for...

The Edge You Carry With You

You know so very well the edge of darkness you have always carried with you. You know so very well, your childhood legacy: that...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Snow Song', by Frank Dempster Sherman

Over valley, over hill, Hark, the shepherd piping shrill! Driving all the white flocks forth From the far folds of the North. Blow, Wind,...

Labyrinths and Mazes

Labyrinths and mazes are well documented in Ireland and western Europe in general, also in the Mediterranean, but lesser known are the...

Find Your Biophonic Niche

You flicker from tree to tree, splaying your rump feathers, curling your toes around a maple branch, flushing green and flexible after...

On Being (T)here

In moments of transition and liminality, the movement from 'here' to 'there' can be washed away where only pure wonder remains. The...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'A Winter Scene' by Henry David Thoreau

The rabbit leaps, The mouse out-creeps, The flag out-peeps ⁠Beside the brook; The ferret weeps, The marmot sleeps, The owlet keeps ⁠In...

Mycelium & Myth

Some 416 million years ago plants made it onto dry land. But these plants were not the plants you and I know as sturdy trees and...

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The heART of Ritual

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