… of an Irish mind.
The Irish have a great tradition of pilgrimage – to take sacred excursions into nature, walk around a holy well, visit a blessed lake, gather at a venerated tree or woodland, climb a sanctified mountain. One such sanctified mountain is Croagh Patrick, in Mayo which is locally nicknamed the Reek and has been climbed as […]
MoreThe keen is a function performed at an Irish wake. Performed is the correct word, for the caoine or caoineadh is a mourning ritual in the form of a prolonged vocalised cry or wailing of grief. Most often it is a chorus of lamentation conducted by a group of women, mixed with the air of […]
MoreWalking around holy wells and up sacred mountains was and is an important part of pre-Christian and Christian traditions in Ireland. Walking is a form of intentional prayer, a sacrifice of movement, a dedication of energy. Pilgrimages the world over in all faiths demand/require movement, the physicality of journeying mirroring the desire for spiritual movement, […]
MoreToday is the vernal equinox. It marks the juncture at which the earth starts to align an angle with the sun, which will bring some extra nurturing warmth and a stretch in light levels. Bringing the two factors conducive to more consistent plant growth into play. It is as such a feast day to the […]
MoreOk, we know the story; St Patrick the snake banisher with his possible Stockholm syndrome-induced love of the Irish, came back to his former hostage place and explained the holy trinity through this little plant, thus freeing us from our pagan ways of mutual respect, female deities and nature worship to a different system altogether […]
MoreToday is the 1st of February. To some that means Lá Fhéile Bríde or a Christianised ‘Saint Brigid’s day’ and to others it is Imbolc. To everyone in Ireland it is the first of Spring – not having succumb to Roman invasion, we kept our birth of spring with the birth of lambs and the […]
MoreOur oldest traditions carry with them respect and appreciation for trees. Ireland to its first human dwellers was a deeply forested place. And trees are still deeply significant to the mythology and culture expression of the Irish psyche. Our national sport is played with hunks of ash tree and the proficiency with a Hurley is how Cúchullain […]
MoreBealtaine is both the month of May (Mí Bhealtaine) and a very specific day – the 1st of May – the day of protection. ‘Bealtaine’ translates as the bright fire; a festival of light, when the fires of purification were lit. An agricultural festival marking the start of summer and a return to farmable weather. […]
MoreThere was an old custom, particularly in county Cork and one or two other places around Ireland that May Eve (April 30th) was celebrated as “Nettlemas Night”; nettles may be gathered for making soup and the children would play stinging games with a wand of nettles – stinging their friends and passers-by. To that I […]
More“There are seven herbs that nothing natural or supernatural can injure; they are vervain, John’s-wort, speedwell, eyebright, mallow, yarrow, and self-heal. But they must be pulled at noon on a bright day, near the full of the moon, to have full power.” -ANCIENT LEGENDS, MYSTIC CHARMS, AND SUPERSTITIONS OF IRELAND WITH SKETCHES OF THE IRISH […]
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