The picture of the illustrated ram of the Druid Animal Oracle, that plants named for the ram and a carving of a snake with a ram’s head lay at the ram’s feet. They exemplify the importance of this animal down through the ages.
Read MoreFrom the Puck Fair on Ireland’s Iveragh Peninsula to Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival, there are plenty of festivals celebrating Celtic culture. In differing ways, each stirs the imagination, revs up the spirit and loosens pent up winter blues.
Read MoreOver recent years, the grand Céad míle fáilte was extended to not only Kennedy, but Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both of Irish descent.
Read MoreHaving just celebrated Independence Day here in the U.S., I have been thinking about the number of Celtic peoples who helped form our early republic.
Read MoreTo me, tarot decks are like flash cards, teaching me aspects of mythology and folklore that I had not been exposed to in my education or family background. I love pulling cards just to learn a tidbit about another place or another figure. I feel the power of story strongly in a well-presented deck of cards. I invite you to try one of the many decks that are available not just stories from Celtic mythology but from other lands as well.
Read MoreToday, I am thinking about all the wonderful music, poetry, and other expressions of art that such summer beauty has inspired.
Read MoreCan you imagine what it was like for our ancestors? Damp, cold, standing water in the grasslands, dark days with only a fire for light and warmth? It certainly makes sense that they would create monuments to the Sun, calibrated to align with the Sun on the solstice when the sun is at its highest and the length of the day is longest. How they must have yearned for summer. How they must have watched for the signs of the turning of the seasons.
Read MoreThe picture above is one of my favorites. I came over the rise of the hill leading up to my favorite stone circle. There-smack dab in the middle of what I consider sacred space- was this little cutie looking right at me. I not only got the perfect picture but we also had quite a nice I-Thou communication going until his mother scurried him away. I liked the picture so much I chose it for the back cover of my new novel Amidst the Stones.
Read MoreLough Gur is one of the magical sites in Ireland often overlooked by tour buses and tourists, making it all the more worth visiting. Lough Gur is also the site of the Grange stone circle and enchanting ancient ruins. See Snapshots of Clare and Limerick for more.
This guest blog is from Leah Eggleston Krygowski, a book reviewer, avid reader, and aspiring writer who recently caught the international travel bug following her first trip to Ireland. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, John, and their two Cairn terriers.
Read MoreNo, dear reader, this is not a test of your memory. Last month at this time, you did read that I had pulled the World Tree as our tarot card for May. Here it is again; but, pulled from a different deck and at a different time. The coincidence is stunning, especially when we had seen it before in February.
Read MoreLet’s imagine today that we are traveling through the green, rolling hills of Oxfordshire, England. There on a far hillside we see a white horse. At least, we see a free-flowing, dynamic outline of a creature in motion that is usually viewed as a horse. Now imagine being of a time long ago when people were not exposed to media as we are today. It must have been an even more awesome and wonderous sight.
Read MoreSeveral years ago, I wrote a book of essays, A Smidgen of Irish Luck, about my travel to Ireland simply because I found extraordinary where there is ordinary, engaged in conversations in the oddest places and adjusted to the inevitable raindrops like a local.
Read More