Of Thoughts and Updates

          More and more my rituals are going towards being less outdoorsy and more indoor. I prefer the quiet of my home shrine and a small family feast. I guess I am going through an inward cycle right now. My Lughnasadh ritual was very much that sort of quiet time with myself and my Gods.

          I have around three more chapters to write in my book. Well I think just three more...not sure yet if I want to add some more topics to the ones I have planned. I'm also thinking of adding a journal which can be downloaded and printed out free by people who buy the book so that they can use them together. Again still in the planning phase. The book itself is giving me fits. I've taken to calling it "The Monster Project", because that is what it is turning into...a monster.
          I am re-reading a book on the Manx Calendar and I've yet to see a mention of Manannán Mac Lír in it yet...which seems a little weird to me, and one of the many hmmm moments I've had researching this book. After the Isle of Man, I'm going to start researching Scottish customs. I've ordered some books on Wales and Cornwall, but I'm also going to look for new books when I go to England next month. This should be fun... 

Air n-Aithesc and other things

Well, it is that time of year again, but it is also August 2 which coincides with the 26th anniversary of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Much remembering was done today, by everyone.

Last night I had a quiet ritual for Lughnasadh, and a feast with the family.

Don't forget that this is out now :-)

Air n-Aithesc: Air n-Aithesc 3.2 (2016)

Air n-Aithesc 3.2 Lughnasadh/Samhain 2016

A Call for Submissions

I have two calls of submission for you today.

The first one is for a book called An Leabhar Urnaí. Submission doors close January 31, 2016. Target publication date March 2016.

This second one is for the next issue of Air n-Aithesc. Submission doors close December 31, 2015. Publication date February 2016.

My hope is that you guys will be interested in submitting for both!

Air n-Aithesc Volume II Issue II

Happy Lughnasadh every one!

Air n-Aithesc: Air n-Aithesc Volume II Issue II

Volume II Issue II of Air n-Aithesc

Of Recommended Reading Lists - The Long Version

Previously I'd given a short recommended reading list, this one is a bit more comprehensive with a few more books added but it is still a very short list compared to what is out there. However, by the time you finish reading these books you will have a good foundation on which you may start to build your personal practice and finding new books to read on your own.

INTRODUCTION:

Get a sense of geography; figure out where everything was and is in Europe.  History is next; you need to have a look at the history of Europe and the Celts in general.  The reason for this is that no culture is pure and untouched.  They had contact with each other and so they influenced each other.

You then need to study the culture and history of Ireland. You might want to study the language too, as this can be a great way to look at the culture, some study resources here.

You’ll want to look at Irish mythology and folklore as well as comparative mythology from other cultures related to the Irish.

Learn about magic, trance work, meditation and divination through practical involvement. Again, many of the actual patterns and techniques are cross-cultural. Understanding the dynamics involved through personal experience will help you apply that knowledge to the specifically Irish forms you will find in the sources.

*History:

1.     Europe: You need to have a working knowledge of European history. European history will help you put into perspective who the players that may have affected the Irish were and where everyone was at a particular time in history.  Invest in a good atlas that has historic maps.

a.   Europe Between the Oceans: 9000 BC – AD 1000 by Barry Cunliffe.

b.   Ancient Europe: 8000 BC – AD 1000 Volumes I & II by Peter Bogucki and Pam J. Crabtree

c.    Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and Its Peoples, 8000 BC – AD 1500 by Barry Cunliffe

d. Historical Atlas of the Celtic World by John Haywood and Barry Cunliffe.

2.      Ireland: In order to follow a religion you need to know the history of its people and its culture.

a.   Pagan Celtic Ireland by Barry Raftery

b.   Pre-Christian Ireland: From the First Settlers to the Early Celts by Peter Harbison

c.    The Origin of the Irish by J.P. Mallory

d.   The Celts: Bronze Age to New Age by John Haywood.

*Culture:

1. Cattle Lords and Clansmen: Social Structure of Early Ireland by Nerys Thomas Paterson.

2. Land of Women: Tales of Sex and Gender from Early Ireland by Lisa M. Bitel

3. Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (Five Volume Set) by John Koch [Expensive but worth having]

4.   Guide to Early Irish Law by Fergus Kelly

5.   Early Irish Farming by Fergus Kelly

*Mythology:

1.   Celtic Mythology by Proinsias MacCana

2.   Gods and Heroes of the Celts by Marie-Louise Sjoestedt tr. by Myles Dillon

3.   Ancient Irish Tales ed. by Tom P. Cross and Clark Harris Slover

4.   Lebor Gabála Erenn: Book of the Taking of Ireland (5 Volumes) ed. and tr. by R.A.S. Macalister

5.   Myths and Legends of the Celts by James MacKillop

6.   The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Romance by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin

7. Celtic Literature Collective, Corpus of Electronic Texts and Sacred Texts: Ireland

*Celtic religion and religion in general: It is a bit tricky when it comes to the Celtic religion mostly because we don’t have direct texts on the subject matter and most of what we know for sure comes from interpreting archaeology.

1.  Ritual and Practice: Some of these books are good ones based on very good research but are not to be taken as the “gospel” truth.

a.   Stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton (mostly dealing with Britain but is good for ideas on the times of year)

b.  The Apple Branch by Alexei Kondrateiv (An amazing book on the stories surrounding the festivals of the Celtic Year, with lots of great information on the Celts. The actual ritual structure is more Wiccan in style so you will need to tweak that.)

c.   Deep Ancestors: Practicing the Religion of the Proto-Indo Europeans by Ceisiwr Serith (this is a great book that gives great ritual structure, as well as amazing definitions of the Gods, Ancestors and Spiritual beings. It can easily be adapted to the Irish year.)

d.   The Year in Ireland by Kevin Danaher

e.   Irish Folk Ways by E. Estyn Evans

2. Gods of the Irish: There are no really good books dealing with the Irish deities on their own.  You will have to look at mythology to see to that, however, there are books on the Gods of the Celts which should be read with caution.

a. World Full of Gods: An Inquiry into Polytheism by John Michael Greer (an excellent book on polytheism as a whole, highly recommended)

b. The Gods of the Celts by Miranda Green

c. The Isles of the Many Gods: An A-Z of the Pagan Gods & Goddesses Worshipped in Ancient Britain During the First Millennium CE Through to the Middle Ages by David Rankine and Sorita D'este

d. Celtic Goddesses: Warriors, Virgins, and Mothers by Miranda Green

Of Language Study (2): Old Irish

I've decided to brush up on my Old Irish...or rather study it all over again since I'm not just rusty, I'm totally a blank slate. Since I'm going on that adventure I thought I would share with you all the resources I am going to use to study. Maybe you'll join me!

Online Resources:

I don't have a lot of these yet, so if you know of any please let me know.

1. Old Irish Online: This is from the University of Texas at Austin and it contains readings and lessons on Old Irish as well as a nice overview of why they chose to have lessons on it.

2. Táin Bó Cúalgne: The Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cúalnge) is the central epic of the Ulster cycle. Queen Medb of Connaught gathers an army in order to gain possession of the most famous bull in Ireland, which is the property of Daire, a chieftain of Ulster. Because the men of Ulster are afflicted by a debilitating curse, the seventeen-year-old Cuchulain must defend Ulster single-handedly. This contains the Irish along side the English.

3. eDil: The electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language (eDIL) is a digital edition of the complete contents of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of the Irish Language based mainly on Old and Middle Irish materials. The text of eDIL is identical to that of the Academy’s Dictionary, except that obvious errors have been corrected where possible and that the published Additions and Corrections for the letters A-C and F have been incorporated.

Books: 

I must admit this is my favourite mode of study, there is just something about having a book in your hand...

1. Sengoídelc: Old Irish for Beginners by David Stifter. A book written for the beginner and contains 58 lessons with grammar and exercises (and their solutions).

2. A Student's Companion to Old Irish Grammar by Ranke de Vries. 

3. A Grammar of Old Irish by R. Thurneysen. This was first printed in 1946...so yeah, old but gold.

4. Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses by John Strachan 

5. Old-Irish Workbook by E.G. Quin. 40 lessons, exercises and their solutions. This workbook can be used along side Thurneysen's A Grammar of Old Irish but it needs to be read along side Old-Irish Paradigms and Selections from the Old-Irish Glosses by John Strachan 

Air n-Aithesc Imbolc/Bealtaine 2015

The Imbolc/Bealtaine 2015 issue of Air n-Aithesc is here! 

In this issue there are two articles from Morgan Daimler, the first is about Bealtaine celebration in a family setting and the second is about the fairy folk. We have some awesome poetry by PSVL and an excellent article about Manannán by Finnchuill. Saigh Kym Lambert has an article in this issue on "Fénnidecht Rites of Passage". I have two book reviews in this issue as well as my regular column "The Study" which deals with the 101 questions of the CR methodology and hopefully will later move on to more complex issues than that. Check out the Table of Contents below.

You may buy the magazine on this LINK

Of Trance Work (UPG)

Trance work was a very hard concept for me to understand. My mind could never be quiet enough for me to go into trance. I wanted something that is close to what is said the Irish Filidh did to see visions. The early Irish filidh are said to have composed their poetry and had mantic visions through various techniques involving things like incubatory darkness, liminal times or places such as dusk and dawn or doorways, and the ingestion of raw substances suuch as the meat of sacrificed animals. (1) I decided to go with the incubatory darkness route in my own way.

For me trance work was in the form of sensory deprivation. Sensory deprivation can occur naturally or the person practicing it can arrange it experimentally. You engineer a situation in which stimulation of your senses is reduced drastically. Experiments in this field have included floating people in soundproof water chambers and/or blindfolding them and reducing their ability to hear though the use of white noise. Even though short periods of sensory deprivation can be relaxing, a long period of deprivation can result in extreme anxiety, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and antisocial behavior. An example of such prolonged periods of deprivation is solitary confinement in small spaces. Sensory deprivation experiments, starting in the 1950s and have continued up to today, have shown that humans need constant sensory contact with their environment in order to function. The most common of the sensory deprivation techniques used today is the sensory deprivation tank. In the original concept, the solitude, isolation and confinement tank was devised as a research instrument in 1954. In the original tanks, people were required to wear complicated head masks in order to breathe underwater. These have been eliminated completely. In the latest models of tanks, a saturated solution of Epsom salts at a solution density of 1.30 grams per cubic centimeter is used. It was discovered that this density of solution allows one to float supine and have the whole body at or near the surface of the liquid. One's hands float, one's arms, legs, feet and, most important, one's head, all float. (2) I’m not using a sensory deprivation tank of course but I am using a blindfold, a dark room and a set of headphones that cancel all sound when worn without being plugged to anything. I've had some scary and varied results with this and will be experimenting more with it in the future.



Bibliography:

(1) Chadwick, N. Kershaw. Poetry and Prophecy. NewYork: Cambridge University Press, 1952.      
      Print.

(2) Gerow, Joshua R. Psychology: An Introduction. Second ed. Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, 
1989. Print.

A ritual to dedicate the next year to studying Manannan Mac Lir (along side my Gods)

Purifying Self:

Dip your hand into water, touch your forehead and say: “May I be pure that I might cross through the sacred.”

Dip your hand again, touch your lips: “May I cross through the sacred that I may attain the holy.”

Dip your hand again, touch your heart and say: “May I attain the holy that I might be blessed in all things.”

Petition Ritual:

Sit or stand in front of the deity Altar/Shrine and say a blessing for the three realms:

The Waters support and surround me.

The Land extends about me.

The Sky reaches out above me.

At the center burns a living flame.

Light the candle or flame at the center of the Altar/Shrine.  Say:

I light this fire to carry my prayers to the Gods of my ancestors.

Now you ask the gods, nature spirits and ancestors to join you.

I ask the gods of my ancestors to join me in my ritual, I ask my ancestors to guide me, and I ask the land spirits to aid me.  I ask all to be a witness to my endeavor.

Now insert a prayer for the gods you want to petition.

"Hail Manannan, son of the sea, and father of mist. I come to you with an open heart."

Purpose of the Ritual:

I call on to you humbly, Manannan Mac Lir, to accept me as a student on your path for the next year. I will make offerings to you at midday, each day and honor you on Midsummer's day.

Now it is time to make the offerings:

Pick up the offering for Manannan and raise it above your head and say:

To Manannan, I honor you. I offer you my hospitality and give thanks for your blessings on my endeavors.

Place offering.

Now thanks the gods, nature spirits and the gods for listening to you.

I thank the gods of my ancestors for joining me in my ritual, I thank my ancestors for guiding me, and I thank the land spirits for aiding me.  I thank you all for being a witness to my endeavor.

My Beltaine ritual

This was a quiet ritual for me last night at home. 

The Ritual:

What is needed: four candles (three for representing the gods, ancestors, and spirits, and one to represent the central or ‘hearth’ fire), offerings (bread, raw meat, and apples) a drinking vessel, a vessel to hold offerings (apple juice). Purifying water (I use rain water or spring water).

Purifying My Self Before Ritual:

I dip my hand into water, touch my forehead and say:

“May I be pure that I might cross through the sacred.”

I dip my hand again, touch my lips and say:

“May I cross through the sacred that I may attain the holy.”

I dip my hand again, touch my heart and say:

“May I attain the holy that I might be blessed in all things.”

Main Part of the Ritual:

Opening Prayer:

The fertile land below,

the blue sea about,

the vast sky above,

their blessings here tonight.

Kindling the Fire:

Lighting the candle.

I light the hearth candle,

May it grow strong,

May it grow bright,

May it carry my prayers to the gods.

Prayers to the Hosts:

Light a candle

A fire for the gods is here,

Excellent Hosts,

proficient in wisdom and skill,

splendid and hardy troupe,

generous patrons,

Morrígan, great warrior goddess, prophetess, and sorceress, I raise my voice in praise of you with wonder and awe.  I sit in your presence, oh great source of terror and comfort.

Lugh Lamhfhada, great warrior and god of many arts, I praise you.  Bright and shining god and flaming spear out of the chaos I honor you.

Fáilte!

Give offering

Light a candle

A fire for the ancestors is here,

for those whose graves we rest on

and whose fame we seek to follow.

A lamp to guide your way

through the mists

from Tech Duinn. 

Fáilte!

Give offering

Light a candle

A fire for the Fair-Folk and land spirits is here,

auspicious and kindly denizens,

hosts of the abundant land,

gentry of the hills and mounds,

Spirits and guardians of the desert,

People of Peace, 

Fáilte!

Give offering

Hail and Greetings to

The Three that are here,

Excellent Gods,

Beloved Ancestors,

and Kindly Spirits;

the three eternal fires

that illuminate the world.

Purpose of the ritual:

This ritual is to celebrate Beltaine

Main Offering/Sacrifice

To the Ever-Living Three

I give this raw meat and bread

in honor and in gratitude and in love,

honoring the ancient and ancestral

contract that binds us.

Give offering

Peace to sky,

sky to earth,

earth beside sea,

strength in each.

Hail to the gods,

love to the dead,

peace to the Good-Folk,

noble is each.

Personal Prayers:

My Gods, thank you for the blessing of strength and patients. I ask for your help as always, in my personal, spiritual, and precessional life.

Ending the Ritual:

Drinking cup filled with apple juice

I thank the gods of my ancestors for joining me in my ritual, I thank my ancestors for guiding me, and I thank the land spirits for aiding me.  I thank you all for being a witness to my endeavor.

Libate and Sip

Renewal of my formal contract with my household Deities

I decided to do three different rituals this Beltaine, the first of which was last night. I decided to renew my contract with my household Deities and ask them if they would be okay with me studying Manannán Mac Lír for the next year. It is a huge commitment for me and so I needed to be sure it was okay with my Deities. Here is the ritual I used:

Purifying Self:

Dip your hand into water, touch your forehead and say: “May I be pure that I might cross through the sacred.”

Dip your hand again, touch your lips: “May I cross through the sacred that I may attain the holy.”

Dip your hand again, touch your heart and say: “May I attain the holy that I might be blessed in all things.”

Petition Ritual:

Sit or stand in front of the deity Altar/Shrine and say a blessing for the three realms (Today I am sitting):

The Waters support and surround me.

The Land extends about me.

The Sky reaches out above me.

At the center burns a living flame.

Light the candle or flame at the center of the Altar/Shrine.  Say:

I light this fire to carry my prayers to the Gods of my ancestors.

Now you ask the gods, nature spirits and ancestors to join you.

I ask the gods of my ancestors to join me in my ritual, I ask my ancestors to guide me, and I ask the land spirits to aid me.  I ask all to be a witness to my endeavor.

Now insert a prayer for the gods you want to petition.

Morrígan, great warrior goddess, prophetess, and sorceress, I raise my voice in praise of you with wonder and awe.  I sit in your presence, oh great source of terror and comfort.

Lugh Lamhfhada, great warrior and god of many arts, I praise you.  Bright and shining god and flaming spear out of the chaos I honor you.

Next state the purpose of the ritual:

I would like to formally ask you to renew my formal contract with You both. I will make offerings to you daily and dedicate all my rituals to you and in exchange I ask for your guidance, blessings, fighting strength and prosperity in my life.

I would also like to ask you to let me study Manannán Mac Lír for the next year, making offerings to him in midday, and honoring him on midsummer day.

Now it is time to make the offerings:

Pick up the offering for An Morrigan and raise it above your head and say:

To the Morrigan, I honor you.  My Queen and honored Warrior, I offer you my hospitality and give thanks for your blessings and protection!

Now place the offering in the place designated for the Morrigan.  Pick up the offering to Lugh and raise it above your head then say:

To Lugh Lamfhada, I honor you.  Samildananch, I offer you my hospitality! The Voice of Thunder, I give thanks for your blessings and protection!

Now place the offering for the place designated for Lugh.

Taking of the Omens:

(I decided to use a direct yes or no method which my mother taught me using lots, two sticks on has yes on it and the other has no. The are in a large mug like cup with only their heads showing, I ask my question and shake the mug around and pick one)

My questions were: 

• Will You accept the renewal of the contract? The answer was yes.
• Will You accept me studying Manannán Mac Lír for the next year, making offerings to him in midday, and honoring him on midsummer day? The answer was also yes.

Now thanks the gods, nature spirits and the gods for listening to you.

I thank the gods of my ancestors for joining me in my ritual, I thank my ancestors for guiding me, and I thank the land spirits for aiding me.  I thank you all for being a witness to my endeavor.

I was really pleased with the energies in this ritual, considering the circumstances I'm in I was really pleased with how much energy I got out of the ritual.  I feel a lot better today for sure.

I hope my Beltaine ritual today goes just as smoothly.