Personal Development | 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 a 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.

The Work of Winter: Touch and the Remembering of the Body

Touch. The first sense. The first language. Before sound, before sight, before any word was formed, there was the meeting of skin with world, a quiet dialogue between body and existence. Through touch we learned that we are here, that there is ground beneath us, that life can be met and known. It is the oldest way of saying yes. Many speak of five senses, yet if we listen more closely, there are many, many more, each opening a doorway between head, heart, and hands. At the fo

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...

To Rise Like a Tide – On Resisting Hopelessness in a Time of Unmaking

It would be tempting, these days, to curl into the dark – to say the work is too great, the damage too deep, the hunger too vast. That we...

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...

Reclaiming Enchantment After Exhaustion

There are times when the marrow of life feels spent. We arrive at the edge of our own strength and find only hollowness echoing back....

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: '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: '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...

Ten Love Letters to the Earth, by Thich Nhat Hanh

In honor of the passing of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, we are sharing his Ten Love Letters to the Earth. These meditations are an...

Wintering, and how Trees illuminate the Art of Self-Renewal in difficult times

“Wintering… is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and to commit to healing them the best we can. Wintering is a...

On Smoke, Mirrors, and Shadow Play

One of the interesting qualities of being human is, by the look of it, we’re the only part of creation that can actually refuse to be...

The Miracle that is the Earthly Vessel

The earth element/winter season relates with, amongst other themes, the physical body and your relationship with it. So as a little...

Vision

If we will have the wisdom to survive, to stand like slow growing trees on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it... then a long time...

Fear and the Earth Element within

Fear is one of the themes that destabilizes our root, the earth element within us. Here are a few powerful words to consider on fear, and...

The Cycle of Form and Formless

We are taken into winter, when the leaves are fallen from the trees and the branches are bare. Winter is this barrenness that belongs to...