Death | The heART of Ritual

The heART of Ritual

musings

Welcome to the MUSINGS room of our digital hearth.

This is a living archive – a gathering of writings, poems, stories, recipes, videos, and handcraft tutorials. Each one is woven through the rhythms of nature, the turning of the Celtic Wheel, and the elemental and archetypal movements of the Irish year. Rooted in the cosmology, indigenous festivals, folklore, myths, and seasonal customs of Ireland, these offerings speak from the old ways into the now – and are gathered here as both an honouring of those who have gone before us, and a lasting reference for those who are to come.

This collection is freely shared as an ongoing gift to the community – yet each piece is the fruit of long attention and handcraft. If you carry it onward, please do so with integrity and give proper credit to the author and source, so the lineage remains unbroken.

Go raibh maith agat.

Singing the Soul Home: Keening, Wake, and the Old Irish Lament

In the hush between life and death, the Irish keening tradition once rang out with an untamed cry. A sound that split the air, carrying grief into the marrow of those who heard it, and carrying the soul of the departed into the unseen. Keening was not mere weeping. It was ritual, fierce in its necessity, a cry that acknowledged death’s arrival and accompanied the journey beyond. Caoineadh, from caoin meaning to weep or lament, was both song and wail, both word and wordless c

When the Wheel Stands Still: Death, Despair, and the Starry Kin

There comes a moment in the turning of the year when the wheel itself seems to halt, pausing in breathless stillness. Time hangs heavy. Shadows lengthen, and the breath of the land draws in upon itself. In Ireland, this moment stretches between the dark of Samhain and the first trembling light of the Winter Solstice – a season where the dead walk amongst us, and the living seek fire, food, and fellowship to keep despair at bay. The old folk knew these weeks as a haunted pause

Opening the Window: Death Customs and Soul Beliefs in Irish Tradition

In Ireland, death has never been a hidden thing. It moves through the home, the community, and the land as something to be honoured, witnessed, and spoken of. Death is not treated as an abrupt severing, but as a threshold that involves the living and the dead in a shared passage. In rural Ireland, particularly, these thresholds have traditionally been marked through a series of household rituals, communal practices, and seasonal observances that bind the fate of the soul to t

When We Are No Place at All

"The middle-despite the common use of that word-is not halfway between here and there, beginning and end, birth and death, right and...

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,...

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...

Reincarnation, the ‘Interlife’, Universal Consciousness & the Holographic Soul

Modern studies repeatedly suggest that a significant proportion of people in the Western world now believe in reincarnation. Although...

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...

Perspectives on Death and Dying

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

The Turn of the Seasons

I was reading about a white stag shot by police in England today and I was reminded of both this image by Vexim and the almost archaic...

Samhain and the Return of the Dead

As we begin to approach Samhain, and the astronomical cross-quarter, I though I'd begin to post some traditions associated with this...

Samhain and the Seed

I recently finished Andrew Micheal Hurley’s excellent folklore novel, Starve Acre. Without spoilers, the protagonist discovers the bones...

Taboo Folklore in the Irish Record: Sex, Death, and Dark Magic

Recently, I read posts from two different people arguing for opposing views of how Irish folklore should be treated. The first person was...

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...

Symbolism and the Alchemy of the Archetypes

It may not look like it, but on my hands I carry the remains of two guns. The blood red color is a blend of iron oxides derived from...

Ireland's First Witch Burning: Petronilla de Meath

There is a famous Jonathan Swift quote about how the law impacts upon the rich and poor in unequal measure which reads, “Laws are like...

On Grief

It's okay to be sad, to feel a bit shaky and uncertain, melancholic, to lament, and to grieve. Despite a collective disembodiment to...

The Death Goddesses of Samhain and Winter.

Summer feels very far away now, and the surrender to the coming winter seems to hold more doubt and uncertainty for many than usual....

On Being Present with Death

"Expected Death - When someone dies, the first thing to do is nothing. Don't run out and call the nurse. Don't pick up the phone. Take a...

Blúiríní Béaloidis Episode 22 - Invisible Worlds (With Eddie Lenihan)

Our lives are built on the stories we tell. At both an individual and a communal level, they orient and mould us, shaping our...