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Finding Strength
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” Martin Luther King Jr. So there I was yesterday, cycling into the wind, the hail in my face making it very hard to see where I was… Read more
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Herb of Remembrance: Rosemary
“Down with the rosemary, and so, Down with the bays and mistletoe, Down with the holly, ivy, all, Wherewith ye dressed the Christmas hall, That so the superstitious find, No one least branch there left behind, For look, how many leaves there be, Neglected there (maids, trust to me), So many goblins you shall see.”… Read more
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A Druid’s Pilgrimage to Brittany continued: Honouring the Path at Kergadiou’s Menhirs
Plourin is a liner village on the western most coast of France. It is picture postcard pretty and has a history that spans from the Bronze Age evidenced by the menhirs of Kergadiou, one of which is the second tallest megalith anywhere, to the 21 st century windmills which sit on the headland and much… Read more
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Into the Darkness
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.” Carl Jung I thought I was aware of the cycle of the seasons. I thought I knew about the changing levels of light we enjoy in the UK. I am learning that I had no idea. Until this winter,… Read more
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A Summary of Irish Spell Craft
“Fear cannot be where knowledge is. There is no danger where there is light.” James Stephens
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Ancient Irish Star Lore: The Pleiades, Fairies and the Ancestral Dead
All art by Samuel Palmer “Things don’t always look as they seem. Some stars, for example, look like bright pinholes, but when you get them pegged under a microscope you find you’re looking at a globular cluster—a million stars that, to us, presents as a single entity.” Jodi Picoult When it comes to ancient Ireland,… Read more
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Samhain and the Cailleach
Cover art by Jurga Creations “I feel the nights stretching away, thousands long behind the days, till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor.” Annie Finch Although Halloween was celebrated on the 31st of October, another anciently acknowledged ‘thinning of the veil’ and, for many, the changing of the year, will not… Read more
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The Fruit of the Otherworld: The Apple Tree
“Seven deer by Slieve Bloom was Finn’s first chase,—a brave and stout exertion— at the end of seven years crowned with honour, at the famous Apple-tree of the fiana. A vessel full of gold, of glorious silver, the woman out of Slieve Slánga gave to him; we know for certain that this was the first… Read more
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A Druid’s Pilgrimage to Brittany continued: Honouring the path at the Buried Dolmen of Saint Gonvel
On the western coast of D’Iroise in Finistère between Argenton and the village of Landunvez sits a dolmen known locally as “Men Milliget” – The Cursed Stone. It is in fact the Dolmen of Saint Gonvel, not that the so called saint is interred here for this monument is a couple of a thousand years… Read more
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The Truth About Wicker Men
“Don’t you see that killing me is not going to bring back your apples?” Sergeant Neil Howie, The Wicker Man, 1973 One of the historical accusations made against the Celts and Druids was that they burned sacrificial victims in giant wicker men. Victims would be live, and both human and animal. The imagery is powerful,… Read more
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The Sacred Center in Ritual Continued
“If you have been in the vicinity of the sacred – ever brushed against the holy – you retain it more in your bones than in your head; and if you haven’t, no description of the experience will ever be satisfactory.” Daniel Taylor
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Autumn Arrival: Customs and Folklore of the Equinox
“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.” John Donne We are fast approaching the equinox and the moment of astronomical autumn which takes place on the 23rd of September here in Western Europe. In the meteorological definition, though, autumn began on September 1st. So, for those… Read more
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Watermint: Mint of the Druids
“When Summer strews its cloak of hues, Then the dells, Yield earth nuts, mint and marjoram And fragrant smells.” George Sigerson, Bards of Gaeilge, 1925
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Dreaming with Mugwort
“On this eve, too, was gathered the Bollan-Feaill-Eoin “John’s Feast-day wort ” (mugwort), which was made into wreaths to be worn on the heads of man and beast to protect them from witchcraft.” A.W. Moore, The Folklore of the Isle of Man 1891 Mugwort is an ancient plant ally which has been held sacred in… Read more
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Ravens in My Garden
“On the road to wisdom, behave like a raven and observe everything carefully!” Mehmet Murat Ildan There are two glossy black Ravens in my front garden. I’m fascinated. They are picking tufts of recently mown grass into their beaks, and it surprises me how much they can gather altogether. They must be nesting near. I… Read more
The Druid's Cauldron
An Online Journal