Bealltainn

You ever have one of those days where you realize you used to have what you needed most but don’t because you thought you’d never really have a need for it so you got rid of it? Yeah, that’s me today…

With Bealltainn around the corner and the hunting trip for the store front coming up I figure it’s time to do some prosperity work.  I was given the idea of making Rowan Charms using red thread and branches. Of course I’m not as up on the knowledge of tree’s as I should be. And then I discover that in America we have Mt. Ash as the closest thing. Well dang there used to be one outside of my house in Utah! I thought I still had some clippings from it…but all I can find is a bag of leaves. Perhaps I can work with this…

Well the good news is I still have a couple days of hunting before I need the branches, so maybe …god’s willing… I can still make one in time.

So we are about a week out from meeting with our Realtor to look at some options. One is currently a top contender it has a back yard and greenhouse on the property so we can grow flowers and herbs for tea and cooking. YAY!! I’ll let you know how that works out. Also I would like to take some dwarf citrus trees up to Idaho from down here. To have fresh citrus in Idaho without going to the store?? Yes please!

On another note I have been getting back into jewelry making and have made a few necklace’s this week. Hoping they sell well at the store! Here’s a couple pics:  

new adventures

So a while back I posted about our new year’s resolution and our attempt to make this year better than the last. Well today I get to announce one of the big changes we are putting in place. We are moving back home to open up a new gift shop. While we love California being so far away from our loved ones is hard. And with our love of all things Gaelic we decided to open up a store called The Kilted Viking. Check out our facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TheKiltedViking to stay up to date on all the fun we will be having this summer as we open. And of course stay tuned here as I will try and share many of our adventures as we hunt for a store location do any redecorating place our orders and all other kinds of adventures.

So for now I will keep this short but fear not, I shall return soon with news and updates!

Slainte!

bridging the gap

With St Paddys day coming up I’ve been trying to figure out what to do. Over the past few years, I have been protesting the holiday and treating it as a day of remembrance for the burning times (that black mark in history when so called witches were burned at the stake) stemming from the myth of St Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland and the belief that this was about him eradicating paganism from the island. But this year with my new found connection to my Celtic heritage I’m struggling with the idea. To much of the world (or at least from my very American perspective) St Pats seems to be more about celebrating all things Irish (or supposedly Irish) and I want to get in on that…lol.

Another struggle I have is that in Heathenry, giving honor to our ancestors and venerated dead is very important and my protest of the holiday has given me another chance to do that. The other day I was reading “The Apple Branch” by Alexei Kondratiev  ( http://amzn.com/0806525029 ) 

and came across the Idea he put forth about celebrating the Saint Days as a way of honoring our heritage. He even put forth some ritual ideas for each of the Celtic Saints.

Now while I love his Ideas they just don’t work for me as I don’t have a group too celebrate with…and I’m getting less and less into be production rituals. But this got me to thinking, why not just light a candle for the ancestors of said country on that Saint Day? Whether at home or in a church. (I know most of my pagan/heathen followers just gasped..) but seriously take a moment and think it over. If you have a large amount of Irish ancestry chances are most (if not all) of them were Catholic (ok possibly protestant) and might feel honored by a simple prayer to St Patrick on their behalf.

Ok yes I know I’m delving into slippery slope territory of mixing religious traditions that maybe shouldn’t be blended. And I’ve been trying so hard for so long to not do that… and no I am not advocating a conversion to any belief system…nor am I converting myself. But just think about it for a min. many of us pray to (or at least give honor to) our ancestors in a religious setting that is foreign to them and expect them to just understand…well why can’t it go the other way from time to time. You know bridge the great divide and find some common ground? Or is this asking too much? Personally I think it just may work out after all, what better way to honor someone then with their own traditions?

So this year, I will pray to Patrick in the name of my ancestors and celebrate his day with as much gusto as I can muster knowing that it’s a new way to connect with my Irish blood. And hopefully I find a new connection to my past and my future.   

Sláinte 

The Kilted Viking

celtic pride

So it’s been a while since I’ve been on and blogged. I keep telling myself I need to get on here and post. Hell even my husband keeps telling me I need to post. But I’ve been going through a lot lately and I haven’t felt much like writing….I know I know that’s the whole point about blogging right? To talk about the things in life that get us down? …maybe…

Personally I have always been a bit more of a privet person. I keep a lot of my pain bottled up inside me (sometimes with the help of a bottle) then tonight while surfing facebook I found an awesome post on http://www.facebook.com/PrideOfTheIrish (one of my new favorite pages) and I was like yes!! That’s it right there…I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve had to pick up the pieces of my life dust myself off and  start over again.  And maybe it’s the Irish in me…or Scottish…or Welsh…ok well regardless I am a Celt!! Even if just part…

One thing I have been doing lately …while not blogging…is exploring more of my Celtic heritage.  Trying to understand what it really means to be Irish/Scottish/Welsh/etc. and you know what I have found. It’s not the food (although good) or the music (even though it does make my spirit sing) or even hot guys in kilts (seriously though…) that makes a Celt a Celt. It’s something deep down inside that drives you to want to be a better person…no matter how hard you have to fight to do it. It’s that drunk little leprechaun sitting on your shoulder cheering you on as you fight for the life you deserve.

We may be better lovers then fighters….but by God’s we are fighters when we have to be. Ok so honest truth time…I know I have given up on many fights in the past that just seem too hard to win, or just not worth the fight. But I haven’t given up on life and I won’t stop fighting for the life I want to live. And I think I may have finally had enough of life trying to kick me while I’m down that it’s time to stand up tall and say you know what life? You hit like a bitch! Have another shot of whiskey and keep on moving forward with my life rather the sit here worrying about what else Life has to throw at me.

This year I told my husband that my New Years resolution was that 2013 would be a better year than 2012 because we would make the changes to make it better. And even though life seems to be hitting hard right now…and so far I like 2013 less than 2012…I will not give up. And this WILL be a much better year !!

Slainte!

spirits of yule

A few nights ago my husband and I attended a local Celtic Christmas dinner and concert. It was amazing, the food was good and the music was awesome. Michael Mullen from Tempest played with Pog Mo Thoin and they did a bang up job. The best part? The only did two Christmas songs (well 3 if you count greensleves) ok so this isn’t a review of a concert….well not really. Right near the end they did two covers (remakes?) done in bluegrass style. One of Billie Holidays” Summertime” and one of Pink Floyd’s “wish you were here “ and surprisingly they were amazing covers. So good in fact they brought tears to my eyes. Ok so it wasn’t the music that made me cry but the memories. You see my Dad who is in his 80’s and in a nursing home 3 states away used to sing “summertime” to me as a lullaby. Billie Holliday was a favorite artist of his. So every time I hear her or that song it reminds of my dad….who is so far away and in such poor health. The other song “wish you were here” along with the sentiment reminds me of my dear sister who is even further away. She of course being a true fan of Pink Floyd and introduced me to them when I was 13.

The experience however was a good reminder of what Yule is all about. Family, and the bonds that bring us together. In the Heathen tradition yule is 12 days long and a few of the days are devoted to family and ancestral worship. So in a way for me it felt like my ancestors were trying to say “even though you are so far away from your loved ones, they are here with you right in your heart”…just as I am theirs and just as our ancestors are in all of ours. I think this is the most important thing to remember this time of year. I know its old and cliché but it is true the gifts we get and give this time of year are not what the holiday is all about. The gifts are just a symbol of the bonds of family and friendship, they are not the bond itself.

So remember that this year as you gather with your loved ones (or not) over a hot cup of Wassail or as you pass around that horn of Mead. Remember that Love for you fellow kinsmen (both by blood and by valor) is truly what this holiday season is all about.

Happy Yule to you all!

(How) to celebrate?

Growing up, Halloween was my favorite holiday. Perhaps because my mother hated it, but mostly there was something about the holiday that spoke to me. I remember anxiously awaiting all the spooky specials on TV. Like ”Disney’s Halloween treat” or “The Halloween that almost wasn’t”. I would start planning my costumes early (like late August/ early September) and by October first I would be down at the library checking out ever book on the subject. From arts and crafts, to “scary story’s”, to jokes and anything else I could get my hands on if my small town library carried it I read it, cover to cover at least twice by mid-October every year. And the icing on the cake was of course the big day its self. Not only the going to school in costume, and watching some movie( cause no kid can sit through a full day on Halloween) and the trick or treating, but that night at the elementary school they always had a huge carnival.  This would be full of games and contests, lots of food and a haunted house everything you could want to make the day exciting. The only problem was after that night, it was over. Somehow on November first, everyone seemed to go back to normal as if the Halloween festivities hadn’t happened at all.

As I grew, so did my love for October 31^st. although my perception of the night has changed many times over the years. In high school it became a night to go out and party with friends. It was odd at first watching this once playful night turn a little dark and mysterious.  But then it became even more exciting for me for it was about this time in my life I discovered my Wiccan faith. And so Halloween was sidestepped for Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of summer and the beginning of winter, which in all honesty is the origin of modern Halloween to begin with.  Of course the two holidays look nothing alike today. Halloween being a night of mischief and costumes and horror movie marathons, while Samhain is a night of remembrance for the beloved dead, at least in any wiccan circle I associated with.

Of course now I have walked away from most of my Wiccan practices in search of the reconstructed faith of my ancestors and find some new quandaries. In the Nordic path there is no Samhain, no holy tide on Oct 31^st. after all it is purely a Celtic night. Ok maybe Halloween is something very American these days but you get my drift.  So here I sit looking at this holiday from four different directions:

1-the Halloween of my youth, full of fun and adventure with just the right amount of creepiness.

2- the Wiccan Samhain that I have walked away from but holds a connection to honoring my ancestors (something big on my current path)

3- the Celtic Samhain that seems to be more of a new year’s celebration

4- or the Nordic…which is nonexistent.

In the meantime as I work my down this new path, I’m re-exploring other traditions and trying to re-invent the wheel on my own a little. I have a stack of craft magazines and books full of all sorts of wonderful nontraditional decorating ideas. My husband and I have started our own tradition of decorating a Halloween tree (a fake Christmas tree re purposed for this holiday) and have had much fun scouring thrift stores for decorations.  And along the base in place of presents we have a bunch of fake pumpkins carved up as jack-o-lanterns. Because after all this is the most wonderful time of the year.

not wiccan

Ok so I admit it I did start down this path as a Wiccan. In retrospect though, in the early 90’s in rural Idaho, I didn’t have many other choices. And while it worked well for me for nearly two decades, in the last few years I started exploring other options. Why? Well simply I needed something else. While I don’t see anything inherently wrong with Wicca and I do still think it is a valid religion for the many that it works well for, it just doesn’t work for me any longer.

So then what am I? Well at the moment, I’m not sure. I’m somewhere between Heathen (Nordic/Germanic Reconstructionist paganism) and Celtic Reconstructionist (also called CR as there isn’t a big word used for it yet). What both of these movements are doing is trying to re-create the pre-Christian religious practices of their ancestors (and I have ancestors from both cultures).

Well isn’t that Wicca? Um no, Wicca is a modern religion popularized by Gerald Gardner in the 1950’s. And while there is debate over whether or not Gardner’s work was based on an older system (most people now opting for the belief he made the whole thing up) but it now a very eclectic religion that borrows heavily from ceremonial lodges (the golden dawn, O.T.O., freemasons, etc.)as well as the eastern philosophies of Buddhism and Hinduism. Again not that there is anything wrong with this, but it is not what was practiced in the world of the ancient Celtic or Germanic peoples.

Another big difference between the two paths is that Wicca is pantheistic (all gods are one god and all that) while those of us on the Reconstructionist path are polytheistic (we believe in the existence of multiple gods who are wholly independent of one another). Where Wiccans like to work with archetypes like “Maiden, Mother, and Crone”; “The Horned God”; or “The Great Mother” (or “Father”)

Next, looking at ritual work or religious observances, we find many other differences. Wiccans cast circle, invoke the elements, and evoke the god forms and all that big show of ritual work. In CR or Heathenry it is simpler. Once a space is sacred it is sacred (unless desecrated) all that needs be done is give an offering of thanks, say a prayer or two and maybe ask for help or guidance. Magic is normally not done in a ritual context either (unlike most Wiccan groups who feel that rituals are mostly about magic’k’)

Of course I understand I’m treading a grey line as I try to blend between the CR and Heathen faiths, but then I am new to both and maybe one will win out over the other.  But I doubt it. For me I resonate heavily to the culture of the Celtic people, especially the Highland Clansmen of Scotland. While I feel closer to the Gods of the Nordic people save for Brigid, Llugh, Cernuous, and the Cailleach (who are all very Celtic). But many of the Highlanders have mixed descent of Nordic/Celtic ancestry and some even claim Pictish. So who knows, maybe I am on to something eh?

In addition to my Scottish identity, my Husband spent two years living in Ireland before we met and his stories and interest have blended with mine over time (of course I do have Irish ancestors as well as Scottish) so this with a strong Welch ancestry for both of us has created a kind of Pan-Celtic Identity for both of us. Then over the last year I have focused on my genealogy and come to find a very Germanic heritage as well, with Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland heavy in my family tree. So now I am exploring those cultural identities as well.  

What this means for me is I have a lot of homework in the future (never fear, I will share much of that with you) and lots of experimentation as I try to find new roots for my spiritual identity.  But for now I am content to having shrines to the various Gods I pray to, as well as to my ancestors and the land spirits around me. Lots of prayer and meditation will accompany my studies as will lots of Celtic music (bring on the fiddle and bag pipes!!).