Samhain | 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

The Path of Life and the Changing Year

One of the more interesting observations I have noticed when I write about the changing seasons and the turning of the year is how many...

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...

Samhain and the Cailleach

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

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,...

Ancient Irish Star Lore: The Pleiades, Fairies and the Ancestral Dead

When it comes to ancient Ireland, star lore is conspicuous by its absence. There are some theories that the Celtic stories of Gods,...

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...

Mirror Folklore at Samhain: Reflections of The Otherworld

Although the following custom is considered romantic, I must admit that I've always found it slightly eerie and disturbing. There are a...

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...

The Elder Archetype and the Earth Element

'Remember, the ugly, old woman/witch is the invention of dominant cultures. The beauty of crones is legendary: old women are...

Ancestralizing the Dead, by Malidoma Patrice Somé

Dagara people’s main job is to look the dead in the face, to treat their bodies not as remains but as temples of grace and beauty ...

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...

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....

Divining the Future at Hallowe’en

The future, in its cloak of fog and mystery, has long been the object of curiosity and worry, urging us to grasp at the unknown and...

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...

Blúiríní Béaloidis 13 - The Soul In Folk Tradition

The idea of the existence of a soul or life-force which exists independently of the body is of considerable antiquity. In folk tradition,...