Category: Reflections

This is the description of the sixth roinn saoghail that I introduced in my post, ‘Ceud Cheuman air an Ath-thuras.’ For an overview of the entire system, see that post. In our modern context this relates to money and business, but the original word implied relationships that were set by specific contracts and in which one member…

This is the description of the seventh roinn saoghail that I introduced in my post, ‘Ceud Cheuman air an Ath-thuras.’ For an overview of the entire system, see that post. This word is a calque of the Latin word uocatio, which in English has been translated as ‘calling.’ In this arena we advance ourselves, our aspirations and ambitions…

This is the description of the fourth roinn saoghail that I introduced in my post, ‘Ceud Cheuman air an Ath-thuras.’ For an overview of the entire system, see that post. In traditional society, the family was central to a sense of identity. Marriages, wealth, and even friendships were considered family affairs. Some scholars have even gone so far…

Continuing with my defining of the roinnean that I intend to define my time as part of a program of more balanced living, I’m turning to the eighth category: imchogar. There are times when we must take a step back and think about our lives objectively. At those times we need to see where we’ve come from, where…

As part of this experiment in managing my time in a more inspiring/balanced way, I’m going through each of the nine areas and describing them so that I really get them secure in my head. Today I am starting with the easiest to define: àm air falamh, time off. The word falamh means ‘empty,’ but…

Wheels turn. Wings beat. The night comes and goes. I had the opportunity to join a shamanic workshop a week ago last Saturday led by Leonard Howell — my first ever — and it did not disappoint, though the phrase ‘baby-steps’ is stuck in my head. Working and studying for years as an academic has trained…

Back in September I turned away from my pagan blog, Dream na Dhía, in order to focus on building my website Seanchas san Fhíseáin and begin cultivating a more deliberate presence on the web. That hasn’t changed but I have now found a seemingly endless propensity for distraction. Ironically this has not come from our…

I just spent the last three and a half hours cleaning the house. Some days this would bring a sense of accomplishment. Today it has put me in a foul mood, all the more so because it isn’t finished. I decided to stop early so that the whole day would not be lost, and showering…

Here under the light of the full moon I have been writing on the nature of éigse as a kind of poetic wisdom. I was working on the paragraph where I discuss the link between this kind of insight and madness when a memory suddenly came rushing back to me. Decades ago I was a…

During a bout of insomnia instigated by the late-night shenanigans of a certain wee man and after the now almost obligatory computer/console gaming that occurs late at night, I actually experienced what one of my readers referred to as an ‘existential style hangover.’ To skip the lengthy exposition and put it simply, why should I…

The New Moon a few weeks ago was accompanied by a level of energy in our household that usually only occurs at the Full. I wondered then what the Full Moon would be like: compensatory gentleness, the usual hyperactivity or completely insane? In keeping with my general ignorance of divine law in this matter, it…

Here in central South Carolina, the weather is rapidly approaching drought conditions. This might be expected on the one hand due to our position and history, but on the other it’s a 180 degree turn from where we were one month ago. Most people today see this as the simple mechanical result of the Earth’s…