Spring is my favorite time of the year.
Category: Celtic
The Sacred Fires of Beltane
Here’s an article that I wrote for the 2024 Beltane edition of the Òran Mór Celtic E‐Zine that explores the history of the Fire Festival of Beltane.
Awakening
Here’s an poem that I wrote for the 2024 Imbolc edition of the Òran Mór Celtic E‐Zine that celebrates the awakening of the year.
Noctiluca
Once upon a time, long, long, ago, there was a Celtic band called Noctiluca. Now, you might say, Noctiluca is not a Celtic name. No, it is not. Unfortunately, no one in the band spoke Gaelic. Noctiluca was the best they could come up with. One of the band members was an oceanographer, and Noctiluca, meaning “night lights” in Latin, is the name of a genus of microscopic phytoplankton that produce bioluminescence at night. Go figure, eh?
The Legend of John Barleycorn
Here’s an article that I wrote for the 2023 Lughnasadh edition of the Òran Mór Celtic E‐Zine that looks into the Scottish legend of John Barleycorn and the traditional songs associated with it.
Lughnasadh on the Homestead Remixed
As we spiral through the cycles of the seasons on our homestead, Lughnasadh comes to us as a time of balance … between sacrifice and blessing, hard work and reward, safety and danger.
Hawthorn: The May Tree
The Hawthorn, a tree that displays a prolific splendour of white or pink flowers at the beginning of May, is known by a variety of different names, such as “The May Tree“, “The Beltane Tree“, “The May Blossom“, “The Whitethorn“, “The Quick“, or simply the “May“.
Writing Poetry
I’ve been reading a lot of Irish mythology in the last little while. Looking at the English translations of the Old Irish (Gaelic), it is easy to see that many of these stories were once oral poems (probably originally translated from Proto-Celtic by the Christian monks). That got me to thinking about poetry …
Spirits of Samhain
Just for fun, here’s a little historical fiction short story that I put together recently, based on the Irish Iron Age culture.
Lughnasadh on the Homestead
I wrote this little color piece for an e-zine back in August. It captures some of the joys and fears of summertime on our homestead.