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The Bog Shaman: An Invitation to Intimacy, Wonder, and Place at the home of the Cailleach Bhéarra
On the Beara Peninsula, winter enters quietly through the bog. It always has. This is the land’s first threshold, the place that feels the shift long before the rest of the world takes notice. Winter comes on the scent of damp earth and peat, in the faint metallic clarity of cold air, in the soft resistance beneath your boots as you step onto the dark, springing ground. Before frost etches its fine geometry across stone and heather, the boglands are already turning inward. Mo


Elemental BEing and the Language of Nature
A reflection on returning to the elemental language of being, where the states we move through are not problems to fix but seasons to honour. If we began to describe ourselves through the language of nature, we might find a gentler way of understanding who we are. So much of the modern world teaches us to define ourselves by what is wrong, to diagnose, to categorise, to measure. But the earth doesn’t work like that. It changes by relationship, not by rule. The oak doesn’t apo


At the Waters of the Equinox
At the edge of the valley, the mountain rises in stone and shadow. At its foot the lake lies still, receiving the whole mountain into...


The Womb, The Waters, And The Memory Of The Blood
This is an essay on blood, water, and memory – and the rituals that once wove body and land together from first bleed to last. To tend...


The Mythic Tapestry of West Cork and Munster
Munster is a land of stone and tide, of folded green hills and winds that come salt-laden from the western sea. To those who walk its...


The Body of a River, The Body of a Human
The magical Esknamucky Waterfall. Photograph by Nigel Wheal A river is never still, even in its seeming quiet. Beneath its skin lies a...


The Arc of Fire, and 'Emotional Kintsugi'
In Ireland, we say that story is medicine. Our indigenous oral traditions do not treat story as unburdening, but as offering – something...


Beauty and the Shapeshifter
What does it mean to live in a world where beauty is everywhere and yet nowhere? Where our eyes are flooded with polished images, but our...


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


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...


The Hazel Tree in Irish Magic, Witchcraft and Folklore
The hazel tree was held in high and mystical regard by the ancient Irish people. In Irish mythology the hazel tree was said to bestow...


The Amadán - The Most Dangerous Fairy of All?
The Amadán is a denizen of fairy said to be most active during the month of June and a fairy being sometimes linked to the solstice...


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...


St Brigid: Dove Among Birds, Vine Among Trees, Sun Among Stars
Starting next year, we’ve been given a new National Holiday! February 1 is celebrated as St Brigid’s Day in Ireland and to honour our...


Brigid: The Pagan Goddess(es) of Ireland?
Imbolc is a celebration of the returning light and Brigid herself is believed to be an incarnation of a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess,...


The Goddesses of January
As we approach Women's Little Christmas on January 6th, or 'Nollaig na mBan' as it is known here in Ireland, it is worth noting that...


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...


Mothers Night: The Ancient Pagan Origins of Santa?
An ancient winter festival which stems from at least the Iron Age is Mothers Night or Modraniht. This celebration took place on what is...


The Time of the Cailleach
It is again a time of seasonal change and the Cailleach has stepped through the veil and into our world. The fields are bare and the wind...


Blúiríní Béaloidis 33 - Death
In life, there is much which seems uncertain to us. Concerning death however, there can be no doubt. It was an honour to speak with...
