New video: New moon

This month's new moon is apparently a "Black Supermoon." The supermoon part means it's going to appear bigger than usual (more noticeable as it rises), the "black" part means that it's either the second new moon in a calendar month (like a blue moon), or to the third new moon of a total of four within a single season period. In this case, it's the latter.

So that's pretty cool. The new moon was on Wednesday or Thursday this week (depending on where you are in the world), but as yet it's been too cloudy to spot it in these here parts. In Gaol Naofa, we observe the new moon, or Gealach Ùr, with a simple ritual to welcome the first sighting of it and honour An Trì Naomh. Since our membership is spread pretty far and wide, it's a way for us to do something together and share in the experience, wherever we might be (if members so wish; participation's completely optional). We generally co-ordinate the observance of this rite for the third day after the new moon, to maximise our chances of being able to catch sight of it.

After our series of videos on the festivals, we decided to focus on other areas of practice, and the first video for this is on the new moon:

Like our other videos, we take a look at the history and lore we find in Gaelic tradition, and then take a brief look at how that informs Gaelic Polytheist practice, and we give an example of a prayer at the end -- this one from the Carmina Gadelica, and translated by Kathryn. There are some more useful links posted in our post on the Gaol Naofa front page, which are worth a read, and we have another announcement there too! 

Moving forward, we're working on some updates and new material for the Gaol Naofa website, which we're aiming to get ready to go in the next month or so. We'll keep you posted!