New Article – Children and Family in Gaelic Polytheism

So I've posted this in a few places and might as well post it here, too:

Gaol Naofa is proud to present our latest article for the website, this time focusing on Children and Family in Gaelic Polytheism. 

Although the main purpose of the article is to give parents ideas on how to include children in a family-based Gaelic Polytheist practice, we hope it will also prove useful for individuals – whether youth or adults – who are new to GP, as well as to other sorts of multigenerational spiritual communities. 

The basics of belief and practice are broken down into their various elements, and practical ideas and examples of simple prayers are given that a child or beginner should be able to get to grips with easily enough. 

Read more...

Celtic Reconstructionism according to Mickopedia

Yes, you heard that right - Mickopedia, "The Irish Encyclopedia." Be the hokey here's a quare wan:

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism (also Celtic Reconstructionism or CR) is a feckin' polytheistic, animistic, religious and cultural movement, like. It is an effort to reconstruct and revive, in a holy modern Celtic cultural context, pre-Christian Celtic religions.

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism originated in discussions among amateur scholars and Neopagans in the oul' mid 1980s, and evolved into an independent tradition by the bleedin' early 1990s. Whisht now. Celtic Reconstructionism represents a bleedin' polytheistic reconstructionist approach to Celtic Neopaganism, emphasisin' historical accuracy over eclecticism such as is found in many forms of Neo-druidism. Story? Currently, "Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism" (CR) is an umbrella term, with a feckin' number of recognized sub-traditions or denominations. Whisht now and eist liom. [2]

From the feckin' Mickopedia entry. Holy blatherin' Joseph.

How about a bit more, for good measure. Grand so:

While the bleedin' ancient Celtic religions were largely subsumed by Christianity,[16] many religious traditions have survived in the feckin' form of folklore, mythology, songs, and prayers. Me head is hurtin' with all this raidin'. [6][17][18] Many folkloric practices never completely died out, and some Celtic Reconstructionists (CRs) claim to have survivals of Irish, Scottish or Welsh folkloric customs in their families of origin. Jaykers! [6][17][18] 

Language study and preservation, and participation in other cultural activities such as Celtic music, dance and martial arts forms, are seen as a bleedin' core part of the tradition.[6][19] Participation in the feckin' livin' Celtic cultures[20][21] - the oul' cultures that exist in the bleedin' "areas in which Celtic languages are actually spoken and in which Celtic traditions have been most faithfully handed down to the bleedin' present day"[22] - is a vital part of their cultural work and spiritual practice, that's fierce now what? [20] The protection of Celtic archaeological and sacred sites is important to Celtic Reconstructionists. G'wan now and listen to this wan. [23] When construction of the feckin' N3 motorway in Ireland threatened to destroy archaeological sites around the Hill of Tara, Celtic Reconstructionists (among others) organized protests and a coordinated ritual of protection, would ye believe it? [23][24]

Jaykers!

Expand your vocabulary, the Scots way

On this day last year my then five-year-old son had the joy of tasting the delights of the nation's favourite fizzy beverage (resulting in several hours of bouncing off walls afterwards, of course). This year will be a little quieter, I hope, since the kids are off school today because of the national strike.

In theory we'll be going to the supermarket today, if the roads have cleared from all the flooding we had yesterday - the town nearest to us was completely cut off in the floods, and we had half of this month's average rainfall come down in 24 hours - about 2 inches, I believe, often coming down as huge chunks of hail. With no sign of any let up in the weather any time soon I suspect it's only going to get worse; this month has been extremely wet already and the ground is absolutely sodden. We're not too badly off where we are - on top of a hill - but the dogs are feeling thoroughly bored and forlorn.

The weather is officially dreich. A good word, that. In honour of St Andrew's Day, it's only right to celebrate all things Scottish. So how about some more good Scots words?


Awfy - awful
Baw - ball
Blether - idle chatter
Blootert - extremely drunk
Boak (bowk) - retch, vomit (as in: 'Och wheesht, ye'll gimme the boak' Oh shut up, you'll make me sick
Boggin - stinking, no good
Bowfin - smelly, stinking. Worse than mingin
Braw - handsome, fine
Breeks - trousers ('pants'), i.e. breeches
Broon - brown
But and ben - a type of two-roomed cottage, generally with the door in the middle and a window either side
Cludgie - toilet
Corbie - raven or crow; a generic term for corvids
Coup (cowp) - a rubbish dump, tip
Crabbit - grumpy, grouchy, ill-tempered
Craw - crow
Druthy - thirsty
Droukit - soaked, drenched, sopping wet (or else: drookeet)
Dunt - bump ('A dunted ma heid' - I bumped my head) 
Fair - somewhat, very
Feart - frightened afraid
Foosty - dank, damp-smelling
Frae - From
Gallus - self-confident, outgoing, cheeky or daring
Geggie - mough (as in: 'Wheesht yer geggie!' Shut your mouth)
Gies - 'give us' (as in me - 'Gies it' Give me it)
Gin - if
Glaikit - silly, foolish
Greet - cry

"Don't cry, there's more in the pot."

Gubbit (gubbed) - beaten, thrashed, broken
Haud - hold (as in: 'Haud yer wheesht!' Hold your wheesht; Be quiet!)
Haver - talk nonsense (as in The Proclaimer's song "And when I'm haverin," in I Would Walk 500 Miles)
Hen - a familar (but also somewhat patronising, depending on context) way of addressing a woman, a term of endearment. "Dinnae fash yersel' hen" Don't bother yourself, hen/Don't go to any trouble, hen
Het - heated (as in 'Het Pint'); het up - worked up 
Hoachin - absolutely rotten, maggot-ridden
Hoodie - a type of crow, but also used as a general term for all kinds of corvids
Howfin - stinking; also: howling
Howk - dig, gouge
Ilka - every
Keek - look; 'keek!' is a Scots equivalent of 'peekaboo!' with babies
Ken - know, understand (as in: 'Ah dinna ken' I don't know; 'Ah ken fine damn well' I understand perfectly
Kich (or keech) - shit
Leid - language
Licht - light (and as such: bricht - bright, nicht - night etc)
Lum - chimney (as in: 'Lang may lum reek!' Long may your chimney smoke; wishing someone the continued prosperity to be able to keep their fire going strong)
Mawkit (maukit) - literally, it refers to maggots (mawks), it's used to refer to something that's absolutely rotten, filthy; often used to describe children (as in: 'Lookit ye, yer mawkit!')
Mickle - a lot, a great amount
Mind - remember (as in: 'Dae ye mind yon lassie?' Do you remember that girl (over there)?
Mingin - stinking
Neuk - corner (nook)
Ony - any
Piece - slice of bread with something on it, or a sandwich; pieces and jam/jeely piece - jam sandwich
Peely wally - pale, sickly-looking
Plook - spot (acne)
Shoogle - shake, bounce (as in, 'Am shooglin the wee bairn oan ma knee' I'm bouncing the baby on my knee); also shooglie - shaky
Skelp - smack (as in: 'Wheest, or Ah'll gie ye a skelp aroun yer heid!' Quiet, or I'll give you a smack around the head!)  
Skelpit - smacked
Sic - such
Sleekit - sly, cunning, slick
Sook - suck; someone who ingratiates themselves, sucks up, an affectionate animal ('Ya wee sook')
Tattie (tottie) - potato
Telt - told
Thegither - together
They - those (as in: 'See they weans' See those children)
Thrawn - stubborn, obstinate, contrary, difficult or awkward; misshapen, twisted
Toaty - tiny (as in: 'toaty wee footsies')
Unco - strange, unknown, odd, great, or as an adverb: very
Wan - one
Wean - child (possibly a contraction of 'wee ane' - wee one; or else referring to a child that has now been weaned (although it's not pronounced the same) according to some) 
Wheesht - hush, shush. Also found in Gàidhlig - 'Ist a-nis!' Hush now
Widnae - would not (also dinna - didn't, wisnae - wasn't etc)
Yin - one (referring to someone, a thing); Big Yin (Big One - a nickname for the comedian Billy Connolly)

And finally, some insults and swear words (consider yourself warned!). These are generally applied liberally in conversations, and calling someone such names can be a term of endearment or an insult depending on the context. There aren't many words that are considered to be extremely taboo, and the 'f' and the 'c' word tend to get thrown around a lot in social conversation, almost of like a form of punctuation:

Bampot - someone who's a bit daft, crazy, a silly idiot
Bawbag - ballbag (i.e. scrotum) also bawheid, fanny baws, cunty baws
Besom - a difficult woman. Can also be used affectionately - 'Ye daft besom' 
Clarty (or in Glasgow, 'clatty') - dirty; may also be used to describe a lady of loose morals
Cuntit - 'Cunted' - as in pissed (drunk) to the extreme, paralytic, exhausted
Daftie - a harmless idiot, silly
Dobber - idiot, tosser, wanker (kinda rude, associated with a penis; in England 'dobber' can refer to someone who tells tales, so be careful!)
Dunderheid - idiot, simpleton
Eejit - idiot
Erse - arse ('A face like a skelpit erse' - A face like a slapped arse)
Fud - 'the female genitalia'; less harsh than calling someone the 'c' word; an idiot
Jobbie - turd
Numpty - fool, moron
Nyaff - an irritating person
Pish - piss; can be used in a variety of ways, e.g. not very good ('That's pish!'), nonsense ('Yer talkin' pish'), an expression of disdain, pished - drunk, annoyed
Scunner - nuisance, or else a bore, sickening or disgusting person
Teuchter - a pejorative term for a country person, north of the central belt (especially in the sense of a Gàidhlig speaker)
Tollie - turd
Tube - (pronounced 'choob') idiot, tosser

Newark Castle - a day out

Try again, shall we? Blogger ate the first attempt...

It was a busy weekend and then somelast week, with an old friend coming to stay with us for a wee holiday. Naturally, playing the goood host I had to figure out a few things that we could do that would keep us entertained, and as it happened this mostly involved me failing at public transport (although to be fair, it mostly failed me), and getting slightly tipsy in places in and around Glasgow, which was fun for us, but maybe not so fun to describe here.

One of our better successes was a trip to Newark Castle in Port Glasgow - not too much of a trek for me or my knackered back. In the three years that I've lived in this part of Scotland I've never got round to visiting it, although I've wanted to. It's a castle tucked away next to some imposing shipyards - what's left of them now - and the main road for the west coast of Scotland south of Glasgow. Blink and you'll miss it, as you drive past.

It doesn't look like much from the front at the moment, considering the fact that it's all covered in scaffolding, so here's the back view:

(And so begins my best tour guide impression). It started off life in the fifteenth century as your typical tower house, surrounded by a defensive wall with corner towers that were used as lookouts. The wall was removed in the sixteenth century by the towerhouse's most famous occupant, Patrick Maxwell. He was a nice man. Or not. When he wasn't busy soldiering, he was busy killing his neighbours, friends, being generally unpleasant, and at one point locking his wife away for six months. Even his mother complained to the authorities about him at one point (the complaint didn't get very far, though - being best mates with King James VI probably came in handy there).

Patrick's wife eventually managed to escape her lovely husband after 44 years of marriage and bearing sixteen children. She ended her days in poverty, so not exactly the happy ending but probably an improvement with how it could have ended with ole Paddy. As I said, a nice guy, Patrick. Or not.

Anyway, from this angle, you can see just how close the remaining shipyards are to the castle:

And just how marvellous the weather was that day. The odd-looking tower to the right is all that remains of the original defensive wall that surrounded the tower. Here's a better view:

Which was eventually turned into a dovecot (or doocot, as it's called in Scots). Seeing as my friend and I were the only people there at the time, the castle steward was very forthcoming about everything, and opened the doocot for us so we could take a look inside:

Normally it's locked to the public, because there's still the opening for the original toilet - that the guards would have used as they stood lookout, I guess - and there's always some clever sod who has to try it out...You can go inside on request. Although in our case, the steward was more than happy to offer. What with the weather, we were probably going to be the only visitors that morning, at least. And no wonder:

That's a view from the battlements at the top of the tower; the lumpy horizon in the photo, that meets the clouds, are the houses at the top of the hill that surrounds Port Glasgow. The black cloud moved sloooowly, but it pretty much says DOOM.

The building is remarkably well-preserved, even if there are some major works under way at the moment. There are the obligatory spiral staircases (which my friend navigated with some trepidation, she's not keen on them):

Odd nooks and crannies:

Floor supports, no longer in use:

And outside, the opportunity for some mood shots:

Where that tree is, and further up river, there used to be more shipyards that crowded around the castle - since the decline of the industry, the derelict buildings have since been removed and the area returned to grass and woodland (and road). It used to be the other way round at one point, though - at the turn of the last century, with no occupant looking after the castle it fell into disrepair and was threatened with demolition to make way for more industry. It was eventually taken into state care in 1909 and preserved.

In the old days, ships couldn't get much further up river than this, and so Port Glasgow grew up on the old lands of Newark Castle to accommodate the imports and exports to and from Glasgow - tobacco, cotton, rum, sugar. Books never really mention slaves, but I've heard rumblings locally - one of those things everybody knows, that slaves passed through here.

The shipyards were the mainstay of Port Glasgow's industry, and before the days of metal ships, there was a need for wood, of course; from the eighteenth century onwards, this was often brought up the river in specially adapted ships with hatches in the side, that could release the timber into the water when they reached their destination. The timber was then left in timber ponds near the shore, where the wood was kept in the water to season it until it was needed. What's left of the timber ponds can still be seen poking up out of the river:

Just - you'll see it better if you enlarge the photo. The ponds started to fall out of use with the advent of iron ships, and the dredging of the Clyde up to Glasgow. Once ships had direct access to the city, Port Glasgow began its inevitable decline in the industry it was famed for.

A slightly different view up river:

And you can just about see Dumbarton Rock on the opposite shore - Alt Clut, the main hillfort of the Britons of Strat Clut (Strathclyde). A little further along from the timber ponds, on the Port Glasgow side of the shore, are the remains of a couple of crannogs - probably Iron Age, but possibly early medieval, and probably related to the activity over at Dumbarton Rock. You can just about make out the outline of them at very low tide, the mounds that are the remains of the islands the crannogs were situated on.

So that's about it. My tour guiding has officially run out of steam. I think in my first entry I did for this, that got eaten, I made a little housekeeping note - I'm trying to get back into writing again, after a long hiatus thanks to the ongoing back problems I've had (am having), but in the meantime I've been on and on at my husband and resident webtroll that the Tairis website has been frustratingly slow and unstable. Magic and all sorts of web wizardry have since happened and the site is now on a brand spanking new host and server (or different ones, anyway) and so far it's been running a lot better. Hopefully it will stay that way. 

Things that amuse me...

Clachan a' choin' - the dog's bollocks.

A less formal way of saying something is glè mhath, or maybe a little more emphatic - 's math sin!