Spring | 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.

When Perception Loses The Other

Modern life no longer suffers from invisibility so much as from a saturation of attention. Images, voices, opinions, and selves circulate constantly, soliciting response and recognition, asking to be seen. Beneath this glare of visibility, however, something quieter has begun to fail. Perception itself, once rooted in encounter, has become unmoored from the world it claims to apprehend. For most of human history, perception arose in friction with what resisted us. Ground had

On Inactivity, Stillness, and the Radiance of Life

Spring sharpens our awareness of time. Not clock time, but lived time – light edging earlier across walls, mornings opening a little wider, the air carrying more movement than warmth. In Ireland, spring has never been understood as sudden arrival. It is a season of watching. Of waiting. Of knowing that movement does not mean readiness. The land teaches restraint before it teaches growth. Modern life has lost this literacy. We have been trained to equate intensity with activit

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 Elf Stone

"The 'Elf-stone' (aka Elf-shot) is described as sharp, and with many corners and points, so that whichever way it falls it inflicts a...

Bluebell Folklore

The bluebell thrives at the start of the warmer weather but will die off from mid-June, when the trees have their full compliment of...

Spring Equinox & The Fairy Hunt

"And beyond them, almost hidden by the moon shadows, were the Lords of the Ever-Living Ones: the antlered helmets of the Wild Hunt, the...

The Fairy Wind

Some believe that the Good People travel within a 'Fairy Wind' to move from one place to another, this is why must never interfere with a...

Seasonal Poetry & Prose: 'The Darkling Thrush', by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled...

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...

The Folklore of Daffodils and the Return of Spring

I noticed that the first daffodils are beginning to emerge on our local fairy fort, Rathvilly moat, so I wonder if this is a sign of things about to change for the better? Obviously we need the winter and darkness as it is all part of the cycle of things but you do reach a point when the brighter days are very welcome again. Within many folklore traditions the area where daffodils grow wildly is considered to be a magic place and this is certainly the case with Rathvilly moat