Thursday 24 November 2011

Faery at Large




Lough Graney © Gina Dean

I have met and spoken with others who have seen the Faeries. One man told me that he was strolling through the woodlands that border Lough Graney, (Lake of the Sun) in Co. Clare, when he saw colourful, lithe figures swinging in the branches of the trees. He said that some were as small as children, others as large as himself (he was about 5ft 6") and most were much larger. As he neared to them they swiftly vanished except for the feeling that the air felt as if it were electrically charged.


One night during a ritual a friend and myself became aware of a stream of miniature, multi-coloured lights flowing up and out of an old boreen to fix on to the branches of a hawthorn tree. Those lights twinkled away throughout the ceremony and only disappeared when we were finished.


Faery Paths are very like ley-lines in that they carry energy and respond to a divining rod or to a pendulum. It is not a good idea to build on them for very often people who move into such homes live a very disturbed life and generally end up moving elsewhere. There is an old place a few miles from me that has been sold at least twice and nobody lives in it more than a few weeks. It has now stood empty for several years. 


During the recent building boom a new property was built in our locality. The architects visited me to talk about water and whilst we were conversing I told them about a faery path that runs diagonally through the field the new house was to be built in. I actually showed them its route and a few strange looks passed between them, although they did say to me they would try to avoid the path.
Well, by the time the ground floor was built my wife had seen figures moving about at night time and when the top floor was erected I too saw figures moving past the window openings and also heard doors being slammed from inside the building, all very well except that there were not any doors in the place at that stage and nor was the roof on.
This is the third winter now the completed house has stood empty and that is bad luck, more so because the builder was taken ill just after he had finished building and has since died.





In similar fashion faery trees ought never to be cut down because it is said the person who does so will have bad luck. I have been told that years ago if one of those trees needed to be cut then a man from England would be invited over and paid extremely well to do the job!

Today we, who are pagans, have no fear of the faerie. In fact rather the opposite is true, for we welcome them to be with us when doing ritual, accepting and acknowledging their presence as being part of the normal order of nature as much as the birds that fly overhead. Consequently we have no iron or steel in our rituals or in the circle for the faerie abhors that metal and I will never do anything which is against them.

Friday 18 November 2011

A Visit to Faery


I am starting off with an apology to those of you who are very sensible and aware that the subject I will shortly write about is a sign of insanity on my part, except that it is not and was conducted to explore possible life in other realms.


Some years ago I used to spend a lot of time doing trance channeling. This came about by using certain cerebral skills that I learnt from the practice of transcendental meditation, something which I still practise for a few minutes twice a day.


Channeling brought in a considerable amount of information on variety of topics that I could not have learned from any other source.


The immediate area where we live is well known locally as being Red Cap Country (The Folk/Faery) with numerous faery paths criss-crossing the fields. The Folk have been seen playing hurling along their own roads and tales abound about who has seen them and who has not.


So it seemed to me that here was a subject that needed to be investigated.

Communication with Faery took a little while to establish, even though I had been involved with some healing work for a Welsh druid friend that bordered on that area some years previously. This time I had the assistance of a colleague who would switch on and off the tape recorder whilst I was in trance and would ask a set of questions which we had agreed on earlier.


The information gained was that The Folk stand between homo sapiens and creation, in fact they belong to Nature much more so than we do. Similarly, at the opposite end of the spectrum Angels, for those members of the major religions, stand between their God & homo sapiens. Just as people don't often see angels, the Folk are likewise hidden from our general sight living as they do on a plane of existence that borders our own and only rarely merges.



The Folk have a mentality which can best be described as 'playful' when in contact with us, however within their own domains the business of life and it's politics is just as serious as ours. During the channeling sessions the Folk would make use of puns in a light hearted manner; one of which was to describe another member of the Folk as being Terry Ibble - terrible!


On occasions, for reasons best known to themselves, they have been known to cross the division between the two planes of existence and live with a human. There is a story in my locality of a Faery woman who while her husband was assisting his neighbours to cut corn, ran across the field and jumped into a lake. Voices were heard rising out of the lake welcoming her back saying

" Hooray and Welcome home, Meela Moor as long as you didn't tell the verge about the egg water"

The complete meaning of this sentence is lost to us apart from the phonetic 'Moor' which may be the Gaelic mór meaning 'big' and 'Meela' or míle in Gaelic, meaning 'thousand'. Perhaps they were saying 'A thousand big welcomes'.

What we don't know is the language The Folk themselves use. Unfortunately the story was not told to me until long after I had stopped channeling and this is something that I am now loathe to resume practicing.




Wednesday 9 November 2011

A Samhain's Eve


On Samhain' Eve

a fire burned and candles flamed

under a waxing moon in a starlit sky.

Walked a single silent file of druids

thrice around a standing stone

each round a blade of the awen.

Forward then to a ritual home

breasted by elder,rowan and oak

a sacred circle awaited secrets.

Each hooded figure called

across the winds of time

ancestors, gods and fae folk

to bring their speciality

wisdom, history and humour

with old tales now forgotten

of mystery and magic.

The ancient ones live on

alive in their memory

they wander to imbue the land

and through the veil inspire

open minds with gifts.


(Let this then be a tribute!)


©MRL 08-11- 2011



The Samhain Fire




The Standing Stone




Dancing Candlelights

Monday 7 November 2011

Months of the year in Gaelic & Manx


I have noticed when surfing the world wide web that there is often a mix up between Irish & Scots Gaelic so I had the idea of putting some of my research to good use by listing the months in these languages. For good measure I have also listed Manx which arguably seems to be close to both Irish and Scots with a smattering of something else which might possibly be either Welsh, Norse or a blend of both?




As Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic)


Eanáir (January)

Feabhra [aka Imbolc] (February)

Márta (March)

Aibreán (April)

Bealtaine (May)

Meitheamh (June)

Lúil (July)

Lúghnasa (August)

Meán Fómhair (September)

Deireadh Fómhair) October

Samhain (November)

Nollaig (December)







Scots Gaelic

Am Faoilleach

An Gearran

Am Márt

An Giblean

An Céitean

An t-Ógmhios

An t-Luchar

An Lúnasdal

An t-Sulcain

An Dámhair

An t-Samain (Samhuin in Old Scots Gaelic)

An Dúbhlachd


Scots Gaelic is not the same as Irish Gaelic however similar. The two languages are distinct so an Irish translation is not a substitute for a Scottish Gaelic translation.






Manx


JANUARY. Mee s’jerree yn-gheurey. The end of the winter month.

FEBRUARY. Yn-chied vee jeh’n arragh. The first of spring, or vernal quarter.

MARCH. Mee-veanagh yn arree; also called yn-mart. The middle of Spring month.

APRIL. Mee s'jerree yn arree; also, Yn Avril. The end of Spring month.

MAY. Yn Baaltin; or, Yn-chied vee jeh’n tourey. The Beltein ; or, The first month of Summer.

JUNE. Mee-veanagh yn touree. The middle month of Summer.

JULY. Mee s’jerree yn touree. The end of Summer month.

AUGUST. Yn-chied-vee jeh’n ouyr. The first month of harvest.

SEPTEMBER. Mee-veanagh yn-ouyr. The middle month of harvest.

OCTOBER. Mee s’jerree yn ouyr. The end of the harvest month.

NOVEMBER. Yn-chied vee jeh’n gheurey. The first of the. Winter month or,

Yn Tauin, or Sauin, Hollantide month.

DECEMBER. Mee-meanagh yn-gheurey. The middle of the Winter month.