An update for Tairis with added plagiarism (again...)

Là Fhèill Brìghde arrived, and our little household welcomed in Brigid, and the Spring with ceremony and feasting. Rosie did the honours with making our dealbh Brìde this year, which now takes pride of place on the shrine in the kitchen, and she also took charge of inviting her to come visit us. Brigid was welcomed with the words of a very shy, but excited, ten-year-old.

As I posted a while ago, last year, I bought a mould with the idea of making some small candles, and I finally got around to having a go at them. For a first effort they came out pretty good, I think, in spite of the bubbles (I need to regulate the temperature of the wax better, I'm guessing is the problem). I tried out a few colours and the kids are still debating which ones they like the best. I think Rosie did a fantastic job with our Brigid doll – she made several and then picked out the one she thought was most appropriate for the occasion, which she kept under wraps until the big reveal:

We also put out our brat for Brigid to bless, and Rosie chose to put out a necklace she got for Christmas this year, so she has something she can carry around with her.

I made a few crosses while the kids were at school, and then when Rosie got home she decided to join in. I helped her make a three-armed cross out of rushes, and then she had a go at some more out of pipe-cleaners. They really are easier for kids to work with, though I have some reservations about the metal in them. If it contains iron, it kind of defeats their purpose, you know? But still, they weren't the only ones we made, so it's OK. The different colours helped Rosie keep track of where she was, as she tried her hand at a four-armed cross for the first time:

I felt like mixing things up a little so decided to try my hand at something new this year. I've made three- and four-armed crosses most years, as well as the "diamond" type crosses I grew up with, so this time I figured I'd try making a style of cross I've never made before. I settled on the "interwoven" type, which is when, during some searching for images I could work from as a guide, I found a web page that's plagiarised my own page on making the cros Bríde (or crois Brìghde, if you want to Gaelic it up). So that's nice.

On the plus side, it helped me realise that the type of cross I was looking to make was wrongly described on my own page, which has followed through on the plagiarist's page and had a knock on effect in wrongly describing other crosses as well (the Bogha Bríde is a cross inside a circle; they've shown the interwoven type as a Bogha Bríde instead). So I've corrected my own page and I apologise for the confusion, folks. My bad – I think an older source I looked at used the same term to describe an "interwoven" cross (referring to multiple crosses woven together) as other sources did to describe something else (the type of cross I was actually looking to make).

On the negative side, I'm a tad bit annoyed that once again someone is using my words to sell their own religion... I mean, come on. If you want to write about something, use your words! Do your own research! I suppose they at least acknowledge the original source this time, and haven't gone so far as to prevent other people from copying text on their own web pages because they don't want people to do to them what they do to others themselves. Like my previous plagiarist did. Twice.

It's still frustrating, though. And fucking rude. I could report the page with a DMCA takedown notice, but that requires giving my personal details, including home address etc, which is then publicly available online, and that sucks. You can be sure that negative comments to the blogger herself are ignored.

Still. Besides updating the original page, I've also added a new page on Tairis with a guide for making the interlaced or interwoven cross. It's an easy cross to make, with a little bit of preparation, and Rosie had a go at making one, too. I tried a simple version with only three strands along the horizontal and vertical (as did Rosie – in the picture below), and then I tried a bigger one with five strands each – that was all I could fit in, based on the length of the rushes.

From what I've read, these are common to Co. Cork, where much of my nan's side of the family come from. The three-armed crosses are common to Co. Antrim, where most of my husband's family come from.

Catching up

We're well past Là Fhèill Brìghde and Là na Caillich but neither went unnoticed for us here. Although given the weather it seems the Cailleach didn't go to her rest without a fight this year...

Since near the end of last year I've been struggling a lot more with chronic pain issues and I'm awaiting the results of another MRI to see if scar tissue from my previous surgery is the problem, or if the disc has just gone caput again (or maybe something else is up...) and will be attending a group physio session, that's intended to help me live within my limitations a little better, in the coming weeks.  All of this – and being busy with other work and some ongoing projects – means I haven't been up to much here on the blog, and celebrations have been scaled back to just about the bare bones lately. As I've written about before, when it comes to being somewhat challenged in the mobility area, it generally means that my devotions are dictated by how much I can handle at the time. I do, but I only do if I can, and as much as I can. And I'm OK with that.

So Là Fhèill Brìghde was pretty low key, although Rosie joined in with enthusiasm and gusto because this is her favourite time of year. I bought a new doll-making kit for us to make our dealbh Brìde with, and invited the kids to join in. Tom wasn't so keen – he's less interested in crafting than Rosie is – so it was just me and Rosie this year. As usual we made a few dollies and picked the one we thought worked best, and this is what we ended up with:

We feasted and sained, and lit some candles for Brìde to put in the window. I offered the honours to the kids, if one of them wanted to the lighting, but they both wanted to do it so we ended up deciding they should do a candle each; they lit, and I said the prayer, then went to invite Brìde in. Rosie was very excited to put our dealbh Brìde to bed, and Tom joined in by arranging a cow next to her.

Then we picked out a few pieces to put out for Brìde to bless on her nighttime rounds – this is serious business for Rosie, because she's taken the idea to heart. Ever since we left her favourite blanket out for Brìde to bless, she's insisted on having it on her bed every night so "Brìde will keep the bad dreams away." The blanket must go under the duvet so it's touching her directly; this is important. So important, in fact, that she didn't want to let go of the blanket for even one night, and even though I told her it's traditional so Brìde can bless it again. In the end we left out a different blanket instead.

The weather was pretty nasty so I put them in the shed, which I left propped open a little, so they'd stay put, but as it happened Mr Seren's plaid ended up on the opposite side of the garden by morning. It was only thanks to the fence post that it didn't get blown away entirely, and Mr Seren was pretty bemused to find his plaid flapping around. I guess it was a good job it wasn't his underwear...

A little later on in the month we went on a big long walk up to the forest I took a walk to last year at Là Fhèill Brìghde. This time I took the kids as well as the dogs and we got there right at the golden hour:

It's been a pretty mild winter but spring seems to have got off to a slow start in spite of the fact that a lot of trees started blossoming even before Hogmanay. Nature seems a little confused lately, and we didn't see many signs of spring on our walk. Plenty of mud, though:

For Là na Caillich we had a pretty vicious storm so we had to hold off on our usual a visit to the beach for the few days, but we got there in the end and made our offerings to the Cailleach and the Cailleachan. Now I'm just waiting for a bit of a dry spell so I can get out in the garden and start tidying things up (though I might have to get a gardener in this year, just to keep on top of the lawn). It's been such a wet winter that the lawn is more bog than anything at the moment and it's going to need resowing in places. Some of the plants I put in around the new pond are going to have to be replaced, too, because they just weren't able to cope with all the rain – I was worried that might happen. I have a gooseberry bush to put in, though, which I'm pretty pleased about (we'll hopefully be able to pick them for Lùnastal, as is traditional, though I'm not anticipating a crop for a while yet), but so far that's it. I haven't thought about what else I'm going to put in but I'm thinking about expanding the containers – bigger ones so I can maybe put a small fruit tree in, too.

So spring is officially here and a quarter of the year is gone already. Hopefully next week I'll be going to Edinburgh to see the Celts exhibition (again).

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar gys my thie...

A little bit of a late start to this year's blogging but better late than never, eh?

While I have a wee rest and – finally – a bit of a sit down before I go and welcome Brigid in, I just wanted to share this video (which I saw posted over on The Ever-Living Ones). It's beautifully sung, and timely too:


The lyrics are a traditional invitation to Brigid, which is sung (or recited) on the eve of Laa'l Breeshey (Imbolc) so that she might visit and bless the house and household at night. The original Manx, with translation are:

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar gys my thie, 
Tar gys y thie aym noght.  

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar, o tar,
Gys y thie aym noght.  

O foshil jee y dorrys da Vreeshey,
Lhig da Vreeshey çheet stiagh. 

Vreeshey, Vreeshey, tar oo
Gys y thie aym noght.

Bridget, Bridget, come to my house,
come to my house tonight. 

Bridget, Bridget, come, oh come,
To my house this night. 

Open the door to Bridget,
and let Bridget come in. 

Bridget, Bridget, come to my house,
come to my house tonight.

As Manx As the Hills posted a version of this a couple of days ago, and included the sheet music and a sound file to help with pronunciation if you'd like to learn it yourself.

Whatever you're doing, and whenever you're celebrating, I hope you have a good one!

Tairis has (finally) been updated...

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I was hoping to – finally – get on with fixing Tairis. It was obvious, by this point, that "fixing" it meant basically starting from scratch, and (ta da!) that's exactly what I've had to do.

Over the last two or three weeks (I've honestly lost track...) I've been moving everything over onto a brand new Wordpress. The new site is now live and you should find the following fixes and improvements:

Front page blog

Instead of a static home page I've decided to use a blog format so I can post and keep track of any updates as necessary. You'll find a bit of waffle about the changes I've made there, too. I'll still do my main blogging here, though.

New pages and some overhauled/re-written pages

It's hard to resist fiddling about with stuff, especially given the fact that some of the articles were first written almost ten years ago now. In those ten years I've had a bit more practice at writing, learned a whole lot more about Gaelic Polytheism, and the internet has opened up a huge amount of resources that I didn't have at my fingertips way back when. Because of that, some of the pages have simply been smoothed out and given a bit of spit and polish – editing out the clunkier bits of writing – while others have been almost completely rewritten or at least majorly overhauled. Some of the pages I feel could still do with scrapping and starting again but I just don't have the time to tackle them given everything I've got going on. Maybe that will happen in future.

The major overhauls/rewrites that are worth noting:

• The Celebrations section has been majorly rewritten
• As has the Offerings page
• The Types of Offerings has been overhauled
• The Gaelic has been added to the prayers in the Daily Practices section (and the 'thees and thous' removed from the translations)
• Updates have been made to the liturgy outlined in the Practices section, too

New pages include:

Making a cros Bríde – including an overview of the history and practices associated with them
Celebrating Yule – now in addition to Hogmanay

For the cros Bríde page, this includes an example of an Irish prayer that's traditionally used in hanging up the crosses, which I was pretty excited to find in an article I stumbled across. Before now I've only seen such prayers referred to in passing, with no specific examples given.

I've also removed the Article Downloads page from the Resources section. Given the fact that Google Scholar and JSTOR have opened up so many more articles than I can ever keep up with, it seems pointless to maintain this one.

Slightly different ordering and new sections/names

This one's fairly minor but I've changed around the order of some of the sections. The section on Life Passages comes after Festivals and Celebrations now (I feel like it flows better, from the day to day stuff, to the seasonal stuff, to life events), and the section named Gods is now called An Trì Naomh to reflect the fact that it encompasses not just the gods but also the spirits and ancestors.

I've also added in a completely new section – Values – where I've moved the four-part article on Values, and the article on Gessi and Buada. These were originally housed in the Cosmology section, but that was rather large and unwieldy so splitting things up seemed to make more sense. The Values section now follows on from Cosmology.

Fixed footnotes

Updating the site has been a big job, mainly thanks to the huge amount of footnotes I've got on there. While I'd rather err on the side of caution and make it easy for people to look up stuff if they want to (never take my word for it, right?) there are a lot of footnotes. Which is never more apparent than when you're having to code every single one by hand. Now, however, in addition to actually working again, you can also hover over the footnote number and you'll get a preview of what the footnote says below. You'll still have to click down for any links there, but it should be a lot more convenient now.

A more consistent focus

Seeing as it's been nearly ten years since I started the site, a lot's changed in that time. In particular, identity politics and labels have evolved within the wider Celtic Reconstructionist community and those labels are something I struggled with in the beginning. To start with, when I first began writing stuff for Tairis, I used "CR." Then I began to use "Scottish Reconstructionism" as well as CR because I wanted to be more specific. And then, when Gaol Naofa was founded and they began using "Gaelic Polytheism," I came to feel that was the better term and switched to that. Apparently I didn't change everything on the site to make it all consistent, though, so I've gone through everything and tweaked the bits that needed tweaking: Gaelic Polytheism it is.

New links

Unfortunately this isn't an improvement per se, but it is a necessity. Moving the site over to Wordpress means that all the link paths are different now, so if you link to any articles on the site I'm afraid they're going to be broken now. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience!

*   *   *   *

I hope you find these changes are (mostly) for the better. If you don’t, older versions of the site can be accessed on archive.org, where you’ll be able to find the original versions of rituals or articles. So there's always that...

There's still a bit to do, however. I'm not entirely happy with the menu system, but with almost 115 articles on the site there are just too many to make the current menu bar house them all with drop-down sub-menus. I think it cuts off after a hundred articles, and then it shows everything in alphabetical order instead of the order I want to appear in (and it does with several themes I've tried so I think Wordpress is basically telling me that I talk too much). So my resident webmonkey husband is looking into finding a widget or something that might help with that. In the meantime, I'll work on putting up a site map.

Accidentally walked up a mountain (and other fun stuff)

Our celebrations for Là Fhèill Brìghde are kind of ongoing here, but we've got the major stuff done. The evening itself was pretty low-key, mainly because my back wasn't up to much and Rosie had got back from a sleepover she'd had at a friend's house and was extremely tired (they were up until 1am and then got up in the morning at around 6am, and for a Rosie who likes her sleep that was just too much), but nonetheless I think it was a success.

Luckily we'd already made our dealbh Brìde last weekend, and I'd bought a beeswax candle-making kit so we could make our own candles to light up the house, too. The instructions came with a few suggestions for different styles of candle, and considering the spring theme, we decided on making some flower-shaped ones. Tom made a water-lily, while Rosie made the rest. ALL OF THEM. She was extremely enthused by the project (Tom was still feeling pretty ill at that point so tired out quickly) and I was too busy helping out to make my own, though I might still have a go with what's left over.

For the icons, Rosie and I made one each -- Tom had wandered off by that point -- with a kit I'd bought, and she spent the next few days making more. She gave some to her friends after taking them in to school so we ended up with two to choose from for the evening itself. In the end Tom decided not to bother having a go at making some this time round.

On the evening, with the house all set in order and a takeaway enjoyed for our feast, we lit the candles with a little ceremony, and then I suggested the kids could go and get ready for bed. Rosie was too tired to be doing much, so I made offerings and got things ready while they were changing. The candles were burning quickly and seeing as I had some time (they take forever to get changed...), I decided to take some photos before all of the candles were gone:

The white one at the back replaced another candle Rosie had made, which burned out too quickly to get a picture of.

Once they came back down I asked the kids to pick which icon we were going to use; Rosie immediately decided on the one she'd made, because the bright orange was more apt for the occasion, so I invited her to take it to the door so we could invite Brìde in. I made the call, inviting the kids to repeat after me if they wanted to, and I repeated each line in English so they knew what I was saying. The weren't too sure about joining in, so I suggested that perhaps they wanted to say something in your own words instead. Rosie couldn't think of anything to say, she was just too tired, really. Tom was a little unsure of himself so he checked to make sure that he had the right idea of what all of this was about, and then he stepped up to the threshold and told the night sky that Brìde is lovely. That is all. I agreed, and added my own words, too.

Then we put the icon to bed on our shrine, and I placed the slatag (wand) beside her. Tom got excited and ran around the kitchen zapping stuff to make the green shoots appear while Rosie leaned in for a cuddle. It was well and truly time for bed, so we didn't do too much more together. Usually I'd do a little story telling and stuff like that, but it just wasn't going to end well this time if I tried too much.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. I took some time to make my own devotions before I went to bed, and left some food and drink out for refreshment. Just before I went to bed I put some items out for blessing -- one for each of us, and a towel I use for the animals.

The next morning I got up to find some of the food I'd left out overnight -- well out of the way of sticky fingers or snuffling noses -- had gone, so I'm taking that as a positive sign that we were visited. It was a beautifully bright and sunny day (winter will be with us a while longer, it seems) so I decided the dogs could do with a good long walk. I was going to go to our new favourite spot by the waterfall, but after I got some offerings ready to take with me and I set off I decided to maybe make an adventure of it, so I headed towards the woods where the waterfall is, but kept going up alongside it. We passed some sheep, who I'm guessing are quite heavily pregnant by now:

No lambs yet, though.

I spotted a signpost to a forest (which is news to me), so decided to head that way. Up and up the hill we went, until eventually we got onto a path that took us into a field. There were more sheep there so I kept the dogs on the lead and we kept walking up the hill some more. We've had some snow that's only melted a little -- it's mostly frosted over, really -- so as we got higher up we encountered more and more snow. The forest didn't seem exactly... foresty. So we explored a bit before turning back to take the path to the forest itself, through another gate. There wasn't going to be any livestock here so I let the dogs off and we went along the wide path that cuts through the forest. There are dense bits:

And then heavily deforested bits that give a good view of the area.

And on we went, higher and higher. I'll just see what's around this corner here, I kept thinking, as we went up and up, until soon enough we were right at the top. I couldn't really say if it's an actual mountain, but if it isn't then it must be close. Not quite intended though it might have been, it seemed apt in a way, considering Brìde's name may mean something like "High (Exalted) One." We went pretty high up indeed...

In spite of the frost and snow, there are signs of spring around. Before it snowed the dandelions were starting to wake up around the village, and up on the trail we took there was a lone daisy smiling out at us:

Eventually I decided it was time to turn back seeing as I had no idea where we were going. I left offerings in a few spots on our way back down, and we'd been out so long that it was turning to dusk now so I didn't linger. As we got back to the field the moon had just started peeking out over the hills:

I'd intended to make some crosses with the kids when I got home -- we hadn't managed it the day before because Rosie had been so tired -- but it was a much longer walk than I'd anticipated and I needed a good sit down once I got home. By the time dinner and everything else was done after that, it was too late to be doing much, so for now I've made some myself, and I'll see if the kids want to make some later.

At Midsummer I realised that I had rushes growing out the front of the house, which I used as part of our paying the rents then. They're also perfect for making a cros Bríde, though I don't usually make them like this (lollipop sticks and wool are my go-to materials of choice). But seeing as we have them handy I decided to have a go at making one of the more iconic crosses, like the one I brought back from our trip to Ireland last July. I'd tried making ones like this before out of other kinds of material and I'd found it difficult, so I was anticipating that it might not go so well. As it turned out, it was way less fiddly than I thought it would be:

Although still a bit fiddly, for the tying off, especially (I used the slideshow I linked to in my last post as a guide but didn't have elastic bands as suggested there). But still, it came out OK so I decided to try a three-armed 'triskele' version as well:

I haven't seen any instructions for how to make them but I figured it would be about the same method as the four-armed version, except you'd bend the first rush in half instead of keeping it straight. Things started off a little messily but it came together a little better as I added more rushes and the cross became a bit sturdier.

There are I some things I wanted to do as part of our celebrations but wasn't able to -- there was no double cream at the shops so we couldn't make our own butter, for one -- but I might make a week of it and stretch things out a little so we could do that later.

I'd like to get back into the garden again this year but we'll see how it goes. As the spring wears on I'm going to try and plant some veg, at least, but for now there's going to be a bit of a respite until the ground defrosts... Either way, Brìde is here. And Brìde is most definitely welcome.

Là Fhèill Brìghde links and stuff

Taking a break from getting the house ready for the celebrations this evening, I thought I'd do a quick post with some links and stuff. Last year Gaol Naofa made a video series on the festivals, but the video for Là Fhèill Brìghde came out some months after the fact, so it seems like a good time to repost:

The song we used for this one is a version of Gabhaim Molta Bríde ("I Praise Brigid"), and we have the lyrics on the Gaol Naofa website in the Music section of the Library. When we were making the videos we tried, where possible, to use songs that fit in with the festival or the themes/season, at the very least, and this song is perfect. Another song, if you prefer your songs in Gaelic rather than Irish, is Tha Bainn’ Aig Na Caoraich Uile (All the Sheep Have Milk), which is a puirt a' beul song that ties in with the theme of lambing and sheep's milk at this time of year (traditionally, anyway; most farmers have their sheep lamb a little later, around Easter, these days). The BBC has a video of it being sung from the Mòd Nàiseanta Rìoghail last year.

The video has some ideas for things to do, but if you're looking for something more in depth then there's always the stuff I've done over on Tairis:

Là Fhèill Brìghde
Celebrating Là Fhèill Brìghde (edit: Now available in Portuguese)

And I've also updated the pictures on my Creating a Dealbh Brìde page. We've already made some for tonight, and once we've decided which one we're using we'll be welcoming Brìde in with a traditional call.

For more creative stuff, you could try making a cros Bríd. We usually make ones like this:

Which are pretty simple to make and are in the style of the ones I made as a child. If you want to go for a more traditional style of cros, then there are some good websites and video tutorials around, like:

• How to make a St Brigid's Cross (slideshow)
• How to make a St Brigid's Cross (static page)
• Making a Cros Bríd (video)

And Jane over at The Ever-Living Ones has some fantastic pics of other styles of crosses, too.

Marsaili wrote up a tutorial for some woolly sheep decorations (they're so good!) on her blog that I wanted to try out with the kids. I haven't got round to it yet, having had an unexpectedly busy week, but we'll give them a go at some point I'm sure. We did make some beeswax candles last weekend, which Tom and Rosie did a brilliant job with. We're going to light them tonight, before they go to bed.

With the start of Spring comes the start of the gardening season. We've had snow here recently that's kind of frosted over so I won't be turning over any soil or sowing anything just yet, but once it's time I'll be consecrating the seed in preparation for sowing. Laurel has shared how she does it over on her Unfettered Wood blog.

For food, I'll be churning some butter in a little while with a traditional churning song, and I'm planning on using some of it to make a potato apple cake. The butter milk that's left over from the churning will go towards some drop scones for breakfast tomorrow.

If you're looking for a festive tale to tell, then The Coming of Angus and Bride is always a good one!

Tairis is down (for now)

Taking a break from my mini-travelogue for a second...

I've been getting some concerned messages from folks about the Tairis site, so I might as well post about it here - unfortunately Tairis is currently offline while it's undergoing some essential maintenance. It's a bit of a pain, but I'm hoping that it won't be offline for too long. In the meantime you can access it via The Wayback Machine at archive.org.

Seeing as Lùnastal is almost upon us (for those of us in the northern hemisphere), you can find the articles on it here:

• Lùnastal
• Celebrating Lùnastal

For those of you in the southern hemisphere, you may be interested in:

• Là Fhèill Brìghde
• Celebrating Là Fhèill Brìghde

And for a brief introduction to the subject, you might want to watch:

There's also a brief overview of the festivals at the Gaol Naofa site, and some practical ideas on what to do in our Ritual within Gaelic Polytheism. Our article on Children and Family in Gaelic Polytheism will also be useful too (even if you don't have kids, honest!). The festivals section starts on page 32.

Kildare

Ever since our celebrations for Là Fhèill Brìghde, Rosie's been desperate to visit Brigid's Well at Kildare, so while a few of our plans had to get put aside, Kildare was going to happen come hell or high water.

So on Wednesday (I'm skipping the museum for now because there's so much to get through...) we set off to Kildare. We headed to the town centre first and stopped to stretch our legs and have a spot of lunch. There's quite a lot to see in the centre, though given the kids we didn't do everything. I nipped in to the heritage centre and picked up a map of all the sites, and then we let the kids have a run around in a play park for a while. Our first stop after that was to the round tower, which is in the cathedral grounds:

It's originally sixth century, but was majorly rebuilt in the twelfth and I think the detail above the doorway there is a flame. The tower itself is the second-highest in Ireland, and the tallest one that you can still climb up (it was closed when we got there, though).

Also in the cathedral grounds is the remains of Brigid's Fire Temple, which is still used to light a fire on Lá Fhéile Bríde. When it's not home to a giant fire, it seems it acts as a shrine:

The kids decided they needed to add some offerings of their own, so they went to pick some flowers - buttercups and dandelions:

And I made some, too. Mr Seren wandered off around the graveyard, quietly being an atheist.

The cathedral itself pretty small, and full of Brigid's crosses up on the window ledges and hanging off the pews:

You can buy them from there for a good price, but at that point I didn't have any cash on me. I didn't feel comfortable taking too many photos because my camera beeps and the cathedral began to fill up with people as we were looking around, so it seemed a little intrusive. Back outside, near the entrance to the cathedral building, there's something called "Brigid's Kitchen," which was actually some sort of tomb. Built in the 14th century, it's empty now and you can go down and take a look. There's also some amazing gargoyles on the cathedral, although they don't beat the xenomorph at Paisley Abbey. Still, you can't bitch about gargoyles with cows:

There's a castle lurking in the town, and a fair few abbeys about the place, but we didn't venture that far. After lunch we went to the well (and thanks to my excellent map-reading skills from the leaflet I got from the heritage centre, we got a little lost along the way...). But we got there in the end, and the trip is so worth it. From what I understand, it's not the original well - that's on the roadside, but because the road is pretty narrow and there's no parking, it was eventually moved to the current site to prevent accidents and road blockages (the newer well gets its water from the same spring as the original, though). The guy at the heritage centre marked down the vague location of the original well on the map I took, but it's not very obvious and we didn't spot it - not that we really made much effort to find it.

But the current site is beautiful - it's set away from the road and it's all fenced off and lined with trees, so it's like going into a quiet garden. Once you've parked up you go alongside a shallow stream and then walk through an archway into the site itself, and there's a notice telling you what to do (if you're Catholic, I suppose...) just before you go through the arch:

The corn's very nearly ready in that field there...

After you've passed through the arch there's a small shrine to the left, with a polite notice asking for donations to help with the upkeep:

Further along and over to the right is the statue and larger shrine, which is separated off from the rest of the place by a shallow stream that you have to step or jump over to get across to the statue:

Off to one side there's a little archway where water from the well itself trickles along to join the stream, and then behind the archway there are several stations that lead up to the well, which is right at the end of the site:

In the left-hand corner, right at the back, there's a wishing tree that's covered in rags, socks, gloves, crosses, pieces of jewellery, and all other kinds of offerings:

We didn't leave anything at the tree ourselves, and I have to say it was looking a little worse for wear - if you're going to tie a clootie, leave some room for it to grow, mm'kay? And make sure it's easily biodegradable - some of these look like they're tied on a little too tightly, at that's not going to be good for the tree. There's a large cluster of baby socks on a couple of the branches, though, and you just know why they're there. It's heartbreaking to see, but at the same time it's almost comforting as well, because it's a way for people to express their grief, and maybe to hope and to heal. Just before we left a man and his son (I'd say about nine years old) came in, and they went straight to the tree. They obviously had some business to attend to.

When we arrived at the well there were a couple of families already there, and there were five or six kids running around splashing in the water. Tom and Rosie joined in and I went up to the well to make my prayers and offerings to Brigid. Just as I did at Newgrange, I made prayers for some people who asked me to, and I prayed for myself and my family, as well as Gaol Naofa. I gave my thanks and collected some of the water to take home with me, too, and just before I did I caught sight of a tiny wee fish darting about. It disappeared not long after that, but I took it as a good sign.

The kids were having a whale of a time and eventually, after doing my own thing, I wandered about taking photos and joined in. The kids came to have a look at the well and wanted to make offerings there, so I helped them do that. They went a little shy and tongue-tied, so I made a little prayer of thanks for them. Rosie in particular liked the well, and spent a fair amount of time contemplating life, the universe, and pretty much everything. Also probably trying to spot the wee fish:

Eventually the other families left - they seemed nice and the kids got on well with them, but I was glad when they went because it was nice to have a chance to just be there by ourselves. But even with the kids running riot the place still has that inherently peaceful and sacred feel to it. The kids splashing around seemed to be welcomed, rather than disrespectful; they were enjoying the place and it just seemed right and as it should be.

Rosie was mesmerised by the statue, and once the other folks had left she made some offerings there as well, then poured out a libation, and poured some more at the wishing tree and a hawthorn tree right by the stream inlet. She was determined not to leave anyone out, and then she set about righting some of the smaller statues that had been left, which had fallen over. She and Tom eventually began to get restless, so we made our farewells and went back to the car. We decided to take a little detour before heading back to the hotel, and ended up taking a drive through Glendalough, which is a beautiful place but it's difficult to stop and take photos when you're sandwiched between a logging lorry and a tiny car hellbent on tailgating you all the way along. Right at the top we found somewhere to park up safely, so we could take in some of the scenery:

This is an old pilgrimage route, apparently.

Then we headed into Dublin to get some dinner, and after we parked up I spotted a mural of the Táin:

Which is really long and I couldn't fit the whole thing in one go, unfortunately. But over dinner I ended up telling the kids about the Táin, and all about the scenes that are depicted in the mural, much to Tom's amusement and horror when it got to the part about Ferdiad's demise.

The next day we took the kids to a water park as a surprise, but before that Rosie begged to go back to the well. I promised her we'd definitely go back one day...

New videos!

Back in March, my colleagues and I at Gaol Naofa worked on producing some videos for our new Youtube channel. Those first two that we did focused on St Patrick's Day, and our intention from the start was to continue on with videos for other festivals in the Gaelic year - ones that are ancient in origin like the quarters days, as well as the more modern ones like Hogmanay and Là na Caillich.

Yesterday, on Tynwald Day - the Isle of Man's national holiday (which is usually on July 5th, but it moves to the following Monday when it falls at the weekend), and we released a bunch of new videos to go with the two St Patrick's videos we've already done. These are (and forgive me for regurgitating the list I already gave on the Gaol Naofa website...):

Lá Fhéile Bríde:

Detailing the lore and traditions associated with the festival that marks the first flourish of Spring.

Là na Caillich:

The Day of the Cailleach in Scotland, which falls on March 25th and marks the beginning of the Cailleach’s rest period, until she reawakens in winter.

Bealtaine:

Focusing on the traditions and customs of the festival of Summer.

Midsummer: Áine and Grian:

Introducing the Midsummer traditions in Ireland, and the issue of solar deities in Gaelic tradition.

Midsummer: Manannán mac Lir:

Taking a look at the Midsummer tradition of “paying the rent to Manannán mac Lir, which originates on the Isle of Man.

What we want to do with these videos is give a short introduction to each of the festivals, and hopefully articulate a sense of some of things that we can't always do with words alone. We're working on some other videos for another bunch of the festivals, which will hopefully be ready for release soon, and then we'll work on finishing the rest of the festival year as and when we can. And I'm sure we'll find plenty of things to talk about after that! 

Before I finish, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped me and Kathryn while we were putting these videos together - helping us source pictures or giving us permission to use their own, helping us find music we could use, offering feedback, and generally being wonderful and supportive. Mòran taing!

Brìde and her menagerie

Usually this day sneaks up on me somehow, but for once I managed to keep track of time long enough to be prepared. Hurrah! I'd make a terrible Brownie or Girl Guide. Whichever one is supposed to Be Prepared.

Aside from Samhainn, this is the festival that the kids love the most and are keen to get involved in, mainly because there are lots of things for them to do and make. Also, Rosie in particular thinks of Brìde coming around with her cow as being akin to Father Christmas dropping round, except this time we have to leave presents for her. I assured Rosie that we'd leave out some food (just like we do for Father Christmas, after all), but she insisted on something more:

She drew a picture before it was time to go to school on Friday morning and was going to colour it in later, but then decided she didn't want to ruin it. I've no idea why the cow is saying "oom," so I can only conclude that bovines, like gods, work in mysterious ways. Or else six-year-olds do.

I wanted to get hold of a kit to make our dealbh Brìde but the local garden centre didn't have anything that was particularly appropriate for the kids to join in with. The next best thing was a book with a set of pipe cleaners and some ideas for things to make, which were simple enough for the kids to make themselves. Tom wasn't sure he was keen on the idea of making a doll, so it seemed more inclusive, too, which was a plus. In the end, the day before we were going to celebrate, I made the dealbh Brìde and the kids made some of the things from the book. We ended up with quite the menagerie:

Tom made a snake all by himself, which seemed quite apt. Accompanied by a very authentic lizard, penguin, grape, and banana, I'm sure you'll agree. The grape ended up being repurposed as a lantern for Brìde, at Rosie's insistence. She's taken the festivities to heart this year.

So on Friday the house was cleaned and tidied, ready for the evening of festivities, and then we feasted on roast chicken with sticky toffee pudding (at Tom's insistence, and which he made), we danced and sang, and we invited Brìde in and set the icon in her bed. The house was sained and devotions and offerings were made, and the kids took forever to get to sleep because it was all just so damn exciting. At bedtime they decided they wanted to leave a blanket out each, for blessing, so I promised I'd do that for them. I put some things out for me and Mr Seren as well.

We didn't have time to fit everything in so some of it spilled over into today. Rosie and I made a cros Bríde each:

And then Tom decided he'd like one for his room, so I said I make another one if he wanted. He wasn't keen on doing it himself, so he picked the colours and I set to it. The one I did is the largest, while Rosie picked red and yellow for hers. Tom wanted a mix of all three:

For dinner this evening we had beef and barley stew with another go at Skye bannocks for after, which I blessed as I made them:

They certainly looked better than the first go I had at Lùnastal, but the blackberries I put in then were a nice addition. The sultanas I added this time round were good too, but blackberries have the edge, I think.

While dinner was cooking I had to nip out to the shops to get some bread and Rosie took it upon herself to write a poem for Brìde as she entertained herself with Minecraft. It was completely her own idea, and she was very excited to show it off once I got back. I insisted on taking a photo for posterity:

Then when I went to dish up the dinner and the kids were waiting at the table, there was a miracle! The kitchen windows had steamed up and a heart had appeared on one of the panes of the back door where we'd invited Brìde in the night before. The kids insisted that neither of them had done it and Rosie was so giddy because that just had to mean Brìde had been to visit, she almost passed out. There was definite communication with dolphins...

All in all, things seemed to come together nicely. As much as I've been at this for a good while now (by today's standards, anyway), now that the kids are starting to become more involved with things it's like being able to see it through a different point of view at times. One thing that's becoming more clear than ever is that it's the simple things that can be the most meaningful, whether it's a heart in the window or the first crack of sunshine after weeks of cloud and rain and sleet.

Brìde has been. Spring is on its way. Brìde is welcome...

Là Fhèill Brìghde

Since my last post I've been wallowing in the delights of a triple-whammy of never-ending Viral Lurgy Of Dooooom (ohhhh the delights of having school-age children), so while Là Fhèill Brìghde has been celebrated right on time here, I'm only just about mustering the presence of mind to write anything up about it. I hope you're all considerably less germy than things are 'round here.

Seeing as the kids were thoroughly under the weather over the course of our celebrations, they weren't too keen on getting too involved in much of anything so it was mostly just me left to my own devices this time around. I generall aim to try and encourage their interest rather than insist on their involvement, and for the most part Rosie is far keener than Tom is (if Gaelic Polytheism involved robots he'd be sold, but as it is...not so much...). So I ended up making a dealbh Brìde by myself one evening. I'm running low on supplies and didn't want to have to use any glue so it's a little bespoke, but it does the job:

Last year we used an icon that Rosie had made and she insisted on making underwear for Brìde (or "the lady who comes with the cow," as Rosie refers to her). I must confess that this year I didn't. Scandalous.

So anyway. The day before our celebrations had been spent cleaning and tidying, while on the Thursday itself I went into Glasgow to join my mother-in-law at a seminar that was part of the Celtic Connections festival. It was a talk on the state of archaeology in the Orkneys and I thoroughly enjoyed it - part of it was a wee slideshow accompanied by some traditional music, so I got to see lots of sites from around Orkney. Sadly, the point of the seminar was that most of them are under threat from coastal erosion so there were a fair few before/after shots (now you see the Pictish house! Now you don't...). My mother-in-law will be going on holiday to Orkney this summer and I'm thoroughly envious.

I got back home in time to start the dinner and decided to make a Shetland brönie for pudding (dessert); it's a kind of gingerbreadish bannockish...thing...made with buttermilk, so it seemed apt. It was very nice, but would've been nicer with a bit of rhubarb and ginger jam, I think. I set some aside for Brìde, anyway.

Tom was feeling rotten and was good for not much more than lying on the sofa groaning occasionally before sloping off to bed, poor thing, but Rosie was well enough to want to know what was going on and why she couldn't play with the new icon I'd made. She remembered from last year that Brìde would be coming to visit and wanted to take it to bed with her, so I decided to relent a little and got one of the old icons I made a few years ago out - a soft one made from a sew-it-yourself kit - and gave it to Rosie so she could take it to bed. At bedtime I told her to look after it and make a nice wee space for it in her bed, and maybe if she told Brìde she was welcome to come and visit, she might. I told her the words to say and Rosie repeated them back as she fussed about the icon to make her nice and comfy. I invited Tom to join in and he mumbled along from the top bunk of the bed with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.

Along with the old icon I'd dug out for Rosie I'd found some red raffia that wasn't doing much so I decided to make a cros Bríde with it, wrapped around some twigs of rowan. I placed it on my shrine and the next day when Rosie saw it she wanted to make one so I dug out some lollipop sticks and wool so we could make one together (just like I used to make as a kid - except I think we made them around Lent, for some reason, and nobody ever told us what they were for). She found it a bit tricky to do  it all by herself so we did it together, and ended up with this:

Which is now hanging over her bed. As we made the cros I asked her if Brìde had visited her in the night and she said yes she had. Rosie told me that Brìde had sat with her for a while and had told her not to worry about her school work - even though it's hard sometimes, it's how we learn, and even if we get things wrong, then it helps us figure out how to do things right.

But back to my evening...

The night was extremely windy and the rain was being thrown down in clumps and spurts. After putting the kids to bed I got to doing my own thing, put the icon in her bed with her wand and opened the door to invite Brìde in. I spoke softly into the storm and stood for a little while on the threshold before closing the door. I sang, made offerings, sained the house (not necessarily all in that order...), and left out some food for Brìde for the night; I meant to put some clothes out for blessing but somehow forgot (I was going to put something out for my niece, too, who's pregnant, so I kicked myself for that).

It was a quiet ritual (admittedly punctuated by the back door being dramatically pulled open by the cat just after I'd invited Brìde in, who then announced himself loudly, and then blown open again by the wind), and one I've done so many times now that it felt comfortable and comforting. Some people like to do something different for every festival - and yeah, sometimes change is good. But after nearly ten years of finding my way I'm starting to feel like I'm really treading in some familiar footsteps for each festival, each day.

More notes from the library...

The next lot of notes should be a bit shorter...Promise...

The Christianization of the Early Irish Cosmos?: muir mas, nem nglas, talam cé (Blathm. 258)
Liam Mac Mathúna
ZcP Volume 49-50 (1997)

Most folks who've been in the CR scene for a while have probably come across Mac Mathúna's article on the three realms in the Celtica journal (if not, it's really worth a read). I think it's safe to say that this article should be considered to be a companion piece to that one: although this article was published earlier than 'Early Irish Perceptions of the Cosmos,' it begins by referencing that article as establishing the Irish concept of "a three-fold division of the cosmos" as fact.

This article covers some of the same ground as the Celtica article and provides more examples of the three realms concept, but takes a different tack, ultimately proposing the idea that eventually the idea came to be articulated in a pair of words: nem (heaven - or sky) and talam (incorporating both land and sea). Or, as Mac Mathúna puts it - "From being confined to one corner of the nem - muir - talam conceptual triangle, where it shared the horizontal plane with muir, talam may now occupy the whole horizontal, subsuming muir, and finding in nem its sole contrasting opposite."

So. Now you know.

It also provides a wider context for the line muir mas, nem nglas, talam cé ("the beautiful sea, the blue heaven, the present earth") given in the Celtica article:

Ba deithbir do dúilib Démuir mas, nem nglas, talam céco imro-imchloítis a ngnéoc coíniud a ngalgaite. 

"It would have been fitting for God's elements, the beautiful sea, the blue heaven, the present earth, that they should change their aspect when keening their hero." (Blathm. 257-60)

Some Heathenish and Superstitious Rites: A Letter from Lewis, 1700
Domhnall Uilleam Stiúbhart
Scottish Studies: The Journal of the School of Scottish Studies Volume 24 (2000-2006)

This is a lengthy article so I'm just going to pick out a couple of bits I found interesting and potentially important; it's an examination of a letter "Ane Accompt of some heathenish & superstitious rites used in the Isle of Lewis given by a frend to Mr Alan Morisone Minister of Ness 15 April 1700" and there are several bits that prove interesting from a folklore perspective, describing certain customs and rites associated with various occasions and festivals that give details I've not otherwise seen before.

First up, there's probable mention of the practice of making offerings to Shony. The letter tells us:

"Others contribut a quantity of Corn & make malt of it, & brew it into ale, and drink it in the kerk [church] pouring the first coigfull into the sea, that they may have fish the better that yeir and sea ware for there land, And all the town will joyn in this work but now its abolyshed, they called this kynd of sacrifeceing Shion, but the Etymology of that word I know not.  Others killed ane heiffer or bullock and threw the blood of it into the sea wt certane rites and ceremonies promiseing to themselves therby the more abundance of fysh and sea ware to be brought ashore to them." (205-206)

This is a slightly different account to the one Martin Martin gives, and unlike Ronald Black, who links Shony to John the Baptist (Seonaidh) and, ultimately possibly Manannán, Stiúbhart suggests the name is evidence of Norse practice, from the Old Norse word son-, which means an atonement or sacrifice. An alternative explanation might link the word with the Lewis name for fairies, muinntir Fhionnlaigh.

The next bit I want to pick out from the letter relates to Là Fhèill Brìghde. The letter describes the making of the leaba Brìde (the bed of Brìde), made "in a Seive wt a little straw and clean cloaths," into which the icon of Bride was placed. The letter goes on to say:

"Then every persone in the family man woman and child put in something wch he daily wor into the bed, and after all was compleet for the service, all the familie fell on thr faces and wt high voices cryed ndanig briid, gun di riist." (206)

This is interesting in that I've never seen mention of clothes being but into the bed (that I recall!), and presumably it's for blessing, just like the practice of putting clothes outside for Brigid to bless in parts of Ireland. Clearly the bolded words are an attempt at articulating Gàidhlig, which Stiùbhart gives as '[Gu]n tàinig Brìd, gun dì [i] rithist.' Martin describes the ritual as well giving the words as "Briid is come, Briid is welcome." Stiùbhart suggests this is a mistranslation, when it should be as above - "Bride is come; may she come again." That has some implications for reconstructionist ritual, no doubt.

One final thing to note is that Stiùbhart mentions in his notes that Ronald Black is currently working on a book about the Gaelic year. All I can say is, YAY.




OK, I'll finish there for now, since I have to leave the house today. I hope you find these useful!

Là Fhèill Brìghde

Spring has been stirring already - unusually early for these parts considering previous experience - so celebrations began on time this year, and with less panicking than last year.

The trees are starting to grow their tiny leaf buds:

And the bulbs are proudly poking up through the ground and there are even some early daffodils thinking about blooming already. Aside from the storms I've been mentioning, we've had an exceptionally mild winter. There is snow on the mountain tops, across the water from us, but here we've only had a few slushy flurries so far. That's all changing, though; right now we're in the middle of a cold snap, which has finally necessitated putting the heating on to encourage ourselves out of bed in the morning.

We're getting an arctic blast just now, and apparently it will be hanging around. The day has dawned bright and frosty - sunny but bitter - I'm not sure whether that counts as fair or foul considering the weather prognostications for today, but according to the Met Office there's plenty of wintry weather yet to come.

Still, life is stirring.

The preparations began with the usual cleaning and tidying, and then, while Tom was still at school and it was just me and Rosie for the afternoon, we set about making our dealbh Bride. We all made one last year, but this time I didn't have time to include Tom in the preparations (I'm generally at my most able in the early afternoon, so I have to seize opportunities as they present themselves). I used his icon last year anyway, so this time I decided we should use Rosie's anyway.

She chose the colours and the materials for decoration, and I cut and bent things as necessary, and this is what we ended up with:

As we made the icon, I told Rosie about the story of Brigid, and how she would be coming to visit us in the night. I told her that the little icon we were making was so that Brigid would know she was welcome and that we were ready for her visit. This got Rosie very excited. "Mummy, we should make her a bed, in case she gets tired!" Thusly, Rosie set about with feathers and paper and glue to make a comfortable 'bed' while I did the fiddly bits for the icon. As she went about her work she said, "Can we put some food out for her as well? She might be hungry." Yes, I said, I will leave some of our dinner out for her, and pudding too. Sometimes it amazes me how a child's mind works.

As we began decorating the icon, Rosie decided that the lady who was coming to visit us must be a princess, because she has such pretty hair and such a lovely long dress. Ladies who wear long dresses must be princesses. But wait! What about pants? (Underwear). We can't make an dolly to welcome the 'princess' in and have it knickerless, that would be rude!

And so Rosie set about making a pair of woollen pants for the icon of a goddess.

After that, we sat about making our seasonal mural, which I put up in the kitchen for the quarter. I put some paper out and asked her what sort of things she thought of when she thought about Spring. "Flowers." So flowers it was. Then butterflies. Then flowers still in bud, because lots of things are still growing. And sunshine. Oh, and sailboats, so she stuck down the sea and made a boat to go on top. Then she drew in the sailor, but something was still missing...a surf board! In that went too. And green hills, with sheep! But we need a fence...

And this is how it ended up:

For once, the picture is totally Rosie's own idea, rather than something I've come up with, hence the gigantic flowers to the right and the blue sheep in the middle...Tom wasn't too interested in doing his own picture (he's less interested in artistic stuff, unless it involves computers, and after a long day at school that sort of thing probably seems like more work for a six-year-old). Instead, when Tom got home we made cakes, and I let Tom decide on the colour of icing. He decided he wanted blue, but said that maybe we should do some pink as well, because Rosie likes pink. So both it was:

The first batch I over-cooked, so I had to do another batch in the end, even though everyone insisted the slight crunchiness was yummy, but no! Everything must be just so. The burnt ones are offerings to the land spirits, as is traditional...

Then there was dinner - to be honest I didn't have any because I can't stomach much at the moment, so I had a bit of veg and that was that. Communal feasting is difficult when one cannot sit or stomach too much food, but there isn't much I can do about that, really. Everyone else enjoyed it, at least. Rosie told everyone that a special lady was coming to visit tonight, and could she stay up to meet her?

After the kids were in bed I needed some time to sit down and relax for a bit - it had been a busy day by my current standards, so while I would rather have spent the whole evening ritualising and quietly contemplating, meditating and generally being, it was going to have be somewhat shortened and done before bedtime while the next lot of painkillers did their magic.

Thankfully the dealbh Bride had dried, and so after my usual offerings and Good Wishing and saining and so on, my devotions began. I sang (or...attempted to...), and prayed, and welcomed Brigid in. As I opened the door to invite her in one of our cats came in and proceeded to make an unholy racket. In the end, I couldn't proceed to placing the dealbh Bride in her bed (the feather bed that Rosie had made, placed in the clay cros Bride basket I made last year) without carrying and fussing the cat at the same time, so that was definitely not how I expected things to go.

I managed to do everything I wanted but didn't have the chance to take time to contemplate outside as I like to; just take the chance to breathe and feel and think after I make my offerings to finish things off for the night. I had to go lie down, so I took myself off to bed and did the contemplation there instead. I felt restless and unsatisfied with myself in a way, because I wanted to be able to do things like I usually do, but at the same time I had to admit to myself that I can only do what my body is capable of, and things are going to have be different from now on. I should stop being so bloody stubborn. On the one hand, I think things were successful, but on the other I think being in such pain as I was meant I wasn't as focused or in the moment as I usually am. It was there, thinking and letting my body rest that I was finally able to feel, and focus. It was then that I felt connected.

I slept surprisingly deeply and well - a novelty for me these days, to be sure. Getting up was definitely easier than it has been for a long while, anyway. Tom spent the morning complaining that his tooth hurt, and sure enough he has his first wobbly milk tooth. Perhaps very apt, considering.

Today I've done some more devotions and will do some more baking if I'm up to it - some bannocks, perhaps - and then more offerings to finish off. There may be some colder weather yet to come, but that's par for the course in these parts. Even so, in this house at least, spring has been welcomed in; its promise has not gone unnoticed. I don't know how much I will be able to do in the garden this year, but I will at least be able to appreciate the warmer weather and the sun on my skin in the coming months, and the idea of that - after all the wind and rain and the dark cloud we've had - warms by bones just thinking about it.

Bits and pieces - links to books online

Some useful links to hard to find books popped up on the CR group on Facebook a while ago so I thought it would be useful to make a note of them here as I make some updates to my website as well, for any readers who might not be on the group; following on from the books that were mentioned on the group I decided to have a wander around Scribd to see if there is anything else of interest. It turns out that yes, there's probably a huge amount there, but that would make for a long and boring list that would make even my eyes crossed! So instead, here are just a few that I found or was pointed to via FB:

First and foremost, there is Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia edited by John Koch. It's incredibly expensive to buy otherwise and it's a fantastic resource so it's well worth taking a look at. Of all the Celtic encyclopedias I've seen, I would say this is by far the best, and certainly the most extensive work; a lot of well-respected academics have contributed to the entries here and it makes a great starting point for research. The downside to its extensiveness (all 2000+ pages of it) is that it's an absolute bugger to find anything quickly! But seriously. For any Celtic Reconstructionist I would recommend this encyclopedia as one of the absolute necessities for your bookshelf. In my humble opinion, anyway...

Less useful is Patricia Monaghan's Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Her research isn't great and sometimes she's way off base, but I thought it was worth noting in case somebody stumbled across it and wondered about it. You can do a lot worse, but you can also do a lot better (see above...) and personally I wouldn't rely on this book for serious research. This is from the same author as The Red-Haired Girl From the Bog, which I've tried to read many times and have failed...(I know a few folks who love that book but for some reason her tone really grates on my nerves).

Something a little different is a collection of essays in The Vikings in Ireland; there are some contributions in there from well-respected academics and it's a subject that's often neglected so I think it's well worth exploring.

Another book is Graham Webster's The Roman Invasion of Britain. I've yet to read this but I think I have it somewhere on my bookshelf, having inherited it from the library of a friend and colleague of my mother-in-law earlier this year. I've read another book of his, The British Celts and Their Gods Under Rome, which I thought was mis-titled but otherwise not bad.

The Archaeology of Celtic Art offers an up to date perspective on the subject and gives a discussion about the use of the term 'Celtic' within archaeology these days; many archaeologists are reluctant to use the term, preferring 'Iron Age' instead (although they'll happily sap Celtic on the title of the book so it will sell...). This offers its own problems, but there are many who criticise these 'Celtoskeptics' as denying Celtic heritage and everything that entails. Aside from that, there are lots of purty pikchurs of shiny things.

Symbol and Image in Celtic Religious Art by Miranda Green is one I've reviewed here; it's good, but of more interest to those of a Gallo-Roman flavour rather than the Gaelic or Brythonic Polytheist. There is also Animals in Celtic Life and Myth, which is another one I've reviewed. It's probably good to remember that Green is generally stronger on archaeology than myth.

Finally, I stumbled across a recently published essay by Mary Jones called Rethinking Imbolc. It's aimed at a reconstructionist audience and I think there's good research and references here. The essay offers a different perspective on Imbolc, exploring the associations of the festival with purification, and I think it's well worth a read; there's some good food for thought here.

That's all, folks!

Addendum(ish)

Winds are averaging around 70mph at the moment, apparently. So there hasn't been any sowing today, as I'd hoped, because I was hoping to be able to do it outside and avoid having to acclimatise any indoor seedlings before putting them out. Not gonna happen in this weather...

One thing I forgot to mention in my rundown of celebrations is the saining. I know some people burn juniper, but for me there are potential problems with practicalities like upsetting the kids' lungs and the smoke alarms, so I've never tried it. Water seems to be the more common option for generally festive occasions, so I feel more comfortable with it and it's less obtrusive as far as everyone else in the house is concerned. The options are silvering the water or using spittle (and yes, I'm aware of the practice of using stale urine, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea with cats and dogs, I'd rather not encourage them to pee everywhere. Plus I think my husband would probably question the future of our marriage if he found me sprinkling urine over the doors and thresholds...), and while I've used both silver and spittle in the past, I tend to prefer silver.

Silver pennies are common for use in this kind of thing, especially sixpences in the old days (before decimalisation in 1971), but these days I don't think there's really any silver in pennies at all. As I was cleaning out a cupboard, though, I found a jar of old pennies that I rescued from my grandparents house as everything was being cleared out after my gran died. My grandparents kept a lot of things of 'value' and eventually mum and my aunt gave up trying to find a good home for things and just decided to bin or send stuff to a charity shop. I didn't want to let the jar of coins go, though. That kind of thing fascinates me, and there was a war medal in there from the First World War, as well as coins from all over the world (including Nazi Germany). Some of the coins go back as far as the early eighteenth century, but most are mid-late Victorian, and some of them have been drilled so they can be worn as charms. One or two of them are sixpences, so I picked the most battered and beaten for silvering the last of the water I collected at Bealltainn:

I figured that made it crooked enough. And I liked the idea of using something that connected with some of my ancestors, too. It seems to have worked well so I think I'll be making it a regular thing in my practices for the future.

We still haven't got around to starting our Spring picture. I have a kind of flu hangover and it's still kicking my arse a bit.

Also: A number of people have mentioned that they've been unable to post comments on the blog because of browser issues. I've changed the comments so they open up on a new page, instead of below the post, which should make commenting possible now if you've had problems in the past.