Musings

The heART of Ritual

Welcome to the MUSINGS room 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 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 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,...

Seeking to walk beautifully on the Earth - A talk from Irish writer and philosopher John Moriarty

Recorded in the early 1990's, this incredible recording gifts magical insights into the fertile ground that is the mind of the late great...

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 Science of How Alive You Really Are: Alan Turing, Trees, and the Wonder of Life

When the young Alan Turing (June 23, 1912–June 7, 1954) lost the love of his life, Christopher, to a bacterium contracted from cow’s...

Navigating the Mysteries, by Dr. Martin Shaw

As we walk our questions into a troubled future, storyteller and mythologist Martin Shaw invites us to subvert today’s voices of ...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Mistletoe', by Walter De La Mare

Sitting under the mistletoe (Pale-green, fairy mistletoe), One last candle burning low, All the sleepy dancers gone, Just one candle...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'Hoar Frost', by Moira Cameron

In icy cover of the dark- too cold, the Arctic air can’t muster up the will or care to gust- strange magic thrives in stillness stark:...

Keening Traditions and the Irish Wake

When looking at the lifecycle in terms of folklore it cannot escape ones notice that many aspects of the life cycle have clearly defined...

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