Tag: Nature
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Vervain: The Druid’s Heal All
Cover art by Cecilia Brendel “An ancient Irish prescription calls for seven balls of ground ivy, vervain, eye-bright, groundsel, foxglove, bark of elder tree, and young shoots of hawthorn well mixed together. These are made into a potion with bog water and salt and boiled in a vessel with a piece of money and an […]
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Irish Wildlife and Folklore
“We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife. The message is simple: love and conserve our wildlife.” Steve Irwin One of my favourite moments in Irish mythology is when Fionn is about to be attacked by a giant and he is rescued by a group […]
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A Winter Poem
Winter reveals her emblems In bare branch and Holly. She has arranged for me A tapestry of berry As my winter blessing. The sun sets, revealing moon Bedded down in marly clouds Laden with deluge. I take Winter by the hand And follow her Into the very heart Of her darkness. The moon is full […]
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Wolves in Irish Myth
“Trí ruip conberat duinechinaid: cú áraig, reithe lonn, ech daintech.” “Three brutes whose trespasses count as human crimes: A chained hound, a ferocious ram, a biting horse.” The Triads of Ireland Archaeological evidence suggests that wolves roamed Ireland liberally, so much so that it was known in some quarters as “Wolfland”. Wolf remains found in […]
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Plant Animism and Communication
“… originally believing in the existence after death, of the human soul. This belief had its root in the ‘animism’… and held its place in the remnants of ancestral worship… Their barrows, dolmens, and stone-circles point distinctly to their reverence for the dead, and their belief in their continued existence in another sphere of nature, […]