In this practical and inspiring celebration of the festivals of the Celtic seasonal Wheel of the Year, Danu draws on her many years of personal practice and teaching to skilfully revive the ancient rituals and traditions of all eight festivals - Imbolc, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lughnasadh, Autumn Equinox, Samhain and Winter Solstice - helping you weave a more soulful, nature-centred way of living into your everyday existence. Throughout the book, beautiful illustrations in the Celtic style capture the special atmosphere of each festival.* Learn to call upon the deities to support and assist you in your journey* Explore Celtic starlore to glean spiritual insights from the heavens* Make meaningful gifts for friends and family* Cast spells for creativity, fertility and blessing* Decorate your home with crafts and altars to manifest sacred space* Use the abundance of nature in recipes for self-healing and for delicious feasts* Explore the deeper meanings of the festivals through magical guided visualizations

In true Celtic fashion, Rev. Dr. David Moffett-Moore views life as a celebration to be shared and a pilgrimage to be explored, tracing his roots to the O'Mordha clan of ancient Ireland and the McQueen's and MacLean's of the Scottish highlands. In Life as Pilgrimage, Dr. Moffett-Moore offers us the image of pilgrimage as a basis for spiritual health. Using the Peregrine falcon as an archetype for pilgrimage, this volume explores the roots of our ancient past to discover meaning for our modern lives. Celtic pilgrimage is about the journey rather than the destination: life is a pilgrimage from the place of our birthing to the place of our rising. This second edition is expanded and revised.

It was the Celtic bards who laid down the foundation of inner wisdom that has come down to us as Arthurian legend, passing their traditions to the Arthurian romancers of the 12th and 13th centuries. Thus the Celts provide an immediate bridge that leads to a very ancient world. Focusing on the Brythonic Celtic material and the "Taliesin" cult whose lineage preserved the mysteries through the Mabinogion and other texts, Awen: the Quest of the Celtic Mysteries reveals the sources of the British sacred tradition right back to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and, as some believe, further back still to even more ancient sources. Awen is a Welsh word often translated as "inspiration". However, in its fullness it has a much deeper meaning, an irradiation of the soul from paradisal origins. In the context of the Celtic folk-soul it casts the paradisal pattern by which the people and the land were harmonised. Through the aligned symbolism of the goddess, the sacred king and the stars, a compelling picture is built of a thriving mystery tradition which marries the constellations to the landscape, exploring as an example the interwoven five-fold and seven-fold stellar geometry of Moel ty Uchaf stone circle in North Wales, and the stellar alignments on the landscape of Cadair Idris.

This book is a magical journey into the realms of the Sidhe, the graceful "People of Peace" who are the overlords of the Faery Kingdoms. With beautiful full-colored illustrations by Jeremy Berg and text by David Spangler, author of Apprenticed to Spirit and Subtle Worlds, this is a journey not only into a mystical realm but also into the potentials of the human spirit and the possibilities of a new consciousness within humanity. "This joyous and powerful story sits well amongst other tales of faery and brings its own enchantment. I really found myself carried off as I read, and emerged at the end with a feeling of having been a lot further than I thought. I'd put this right alongside Goethe's 'Tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily' as of a kind that can only be written by a true initiate. And the pictures which accompany it carry their own power - drawing deep on the wells of lore and truth." - John Matthews, author of The Western Way and How To See Faeries.

Using story, scripture, reflection, and prayer, this book offers readers a taste of the living water that refreshed the ancient Celts. The author invites readers to imitate the Celtic saints who were aware of God as a living presence in everybody and everything. This ancient perspective gives radical new alternatives to modern faith practices, ones that are both challenging and constructively positive. This is a Christianity big enough to embrace the entire world.

Since its origins in the early eighteenth century, Druidry-a modern movement of nature spirituality drawing much of its inspiration from Celtic tradition-has evolved a rich body of ceremonial and collective practice. Celebrated privately within groves this body of lore provides a ritual framework for the celebration of the seasonal cycle and the spiritual development of the individual.To this wealth of tradition, The Druid Grove Handbook is one of the few publicly available sources. Compiled from the records of the Ancient Order of Druids in America (AODA), and edited by the AODA's current Grand Archdruid, widely read author and environmental blogger John Michael Greer, it provides a detailed survey of the evolution of AODA's ceremonial traditions, and the complete rituals for opening and closing a Druid grove, initiating candidates for membership, and celebrating the solstices and equinoxes, the four primary holy days of the traditional Druid year.

Journey to a hauntingly beautiful fairyland steeped in Celtic lore. Vivid, luminescent scenes vibrate with significant detail, deep meaning, and sheer beauty. Not everyone is lucky enough to experience these magical creatures firsthand, but this tarot will draw you into a unique realm of fey wisdom and guidance.

Primal Ancient Egyptian Magic Restored From the dawn of Magic, there was a primal form of magic which was ancient before the Pyramids were born. But unlike many religions, where belief and worship of the forces of nature were persecuted until they died out, Egypt built its new religions upon them. It is possible to find a golden thread of shamanic practice that can be recreated and still remain relevant and useful today. Nick Farrell presents this system for the first time in his easy to approach and relaxed style. It is a complete system in which a practitioner can experiment with at their own pace.

Get to know the Good God of Ireland through mythology, history, and modern worship. The Dagda is one of the most well-known of the Irish Gods, a king of the Tuatha De Danann and mediator between the Gods and mortals after the Gaels came to Ireland. A popular God among Irish and Celtic pagans, the Dagda is a powerful figure who reaches out to us from myth and memory. For those seeking to honor him today finding information can be difficult or confusing. Pagan Portals - the Dagda offers a place to begin untangling the complex history of this deity.

Although it has long been acknowledged that the early Irish literary corpus preserves both pre-Christian and Christian elements, the challenges involved in the understanding of these different strata have not been subjected to critical examination. This volume draws attention to the importance of reconsidering the relationship between religion and mythology, as well as the concept of 'Celtic religion' itself. When scholars are attempting to construct the so-called 'Celtic' belief system, what counts as 'religion'? Or, when labelling something as 'religion' as opposed to 'mythology', what do these entities entail? This volume is the first interdisciplinary collection of articles which critically reevaluates the methodological challenges of the study of 'Celtic religion'; the authors are eminent scholars in the field of Celtic Studies representing the disciplines of theology, literary studies, history, law and archaeology, and the book represents a significant contribution to the present scholarly debate concerning the pre-Christian elements in early medieval source materials. Contents 1 Introduction: 'Celtic Religion': Is this a Valid Concept?, Alexandra Bergholm and Katja Ritari 2 Celtic Spells and Counterspells, Jacqueline Borsje (available Open Access at the University of Amsterdam Digital Academic Repository) 3 The Gods of Ireland in the Later Middle Ages, John Carey 4 Staging the Otherworld in Medieval Irish Literature, Joseph Falaky Nagy 5 The Biblical Dimension of Early Medieval Latin Texts, Thomas O'Loughlin 6 Ancient Irish Law Revisited: Rereading the Laws of Status and Franchise, Robin Chapman Stacey 7 A Dirty Window on the Iron Age? Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Pre-Roman Celtic Religion, Jane Webster

A history of the cult of the ancient Druids, exploring who they really were and what role they played in the Celtic world. The author's interpretation of the facts is based on both archaeological and etymological findings. Peter Berresford Ellis sifts through evidence and, with reference to the latest archaeological findings and the use of etymology, shows that the Druids have been subject to a swaythe of propaganda and myth-making through the centuries.

Scottish Witchcraft is an introduction and guide to the magickal folk traditions of the Highlands of Scotland. Author Barbara Meiklejohn-Free, a Scottish hereditary witch, takes you on a journey through her own spiritual awakening into the craft and shares the ins and outs of incorporating these ancient magical traditions into your own life. Discover the secrets to divination, scrying, faerie magic, and communicating with ancestors. Explore herb and plant lore, Scottish folk traditions, and magic rituals for your specific needs. Filled with inspiring anecdotes, craft history, and step-by-step instructions, this book will help you begin a new chapter of spiritual discovery.

This interdisciplinary volume of essays examines the real and imagined role of Classical and Celtic influence in the history of British identity formation, from late antiquity to the present day. In so doing, it makes the case for increased collaboration between the fields of Classical reception and Celtic studies, and opens up new avenues of investigation into the categories Celtic and Classical, which are presented as fundamentally interlinked and frequently interdependent. In a series of chronologically arranged chapters, beginning with the post-Roman Britons and ending with the 2016 Brexit referendum, it draws attention to the constructed and historically contingent nature of the Classical and the Celtic, and explores how notions related to both categories have been continuously combined and contrasted with one another in relation to British identities. Britishness is revealed as a site of significant Celtic-Classical cross-pollination, and a context in which received ideas about Celts, Romans, and Britons can be fruitfully reconsidered, subverted, and reformulated. Responding to important scholarly questions that are best addressed by this interdisciplinary approach, and extending the existing literature on Classical reception and national identity by treating the Celtic as an equally relevant tradition, the volume creates a new and exciting dialogue between subjects that all too often are treated in isolation, and sets the foundations for future cross-disciplinary conversations.

Druidism was one of the greatest and most exalting adventures of the human spirit, attempting to reconcile the unreconcilable, the individual and the collective, creator and created, good and evil, day and night, past and future, and life and death. Because of the oral nature of Celtic civilization our understanding of its spiritual truths and rituals is necessarily incomplete. Yet evidence exists that can provide the modern reader with a better understanding of the doctrine that took druidic apprentices 20 years to learn in the remote forests of the British Isles and Gaul.

Using the descriptions of the druids and their beliefs provided by the historians and chroniclers of classic antiquity -- as well as those recorded by the insular Celts themselves when compelled, under Christianity's influence, to utilize writing to preserve their ancestral traditions -- Jean Markale painstakingly pieces together all that is known for certain about them. The druids were more than simply the priests of the Celtic people; their influence extended to all aspects of Celtic life. The Druids covers everything concerning the Celtic religious domain, intellectual speculations, cultural or magical practices, various beliefs, and the so-called profane sciences that have come down from the Celtic priesthood.

Poet, philosopher, historian, and storyteller, Jean Markale has spent a lifetime researching Celtic civilizations. He is the author of more than 40 books on pre-Christian societies, including The Celts, Merlin, Women of the Celts, and King of the Celts. He lives in the Brittany region of France.

We change and develop 'the past' with narrative, and we create 'the future' by re-mixing the stored elements in order to continue it onwards. All the verbal tenses cluster around the same mighty place, the same source of narrative and mythic significance. The people had a name for this place: the Well of Urdhr, Anglo-Saxon wyrd, one of three Norns of fate, Urdhr, Verdhandi and Skuld, who cluster around the Well. These Norns are mighty beings, beyond and above the gods, in the sense that they are eternal and know the fates, the rise and fall of the gods themselves. They are watchers of the Well and helpers to the Tree. The Tree, which contains all the worlds in present time, all the branches of the Now, is nourished at its roots by the Well's waters. 'Bright From the Well' consists of five stories plus five essays and a rune-poem. The stories revolve around themes from Norse myth - the marriage of Frey and Gerd, the story of how Gullveig-Heidh reveals her powers to the gods, a modern take on the social-origins myth Rig's Tale, Loki attending a pagan pub moot and the Ragnarok seen through the eyes of an ancient shaman. The essays include examination of the Norse creation or origins story, of the magician in or against the world and a chaoist's magical experiences looked at from the standpoint of Northern magic.' Dave Lee coaches breathwork, writes fiction and non-fiction, blends incenses and oils, creates music and collage.

In the ancient realm of the Celts, the seer was a person who opened a window to reveal a complete view of the cosmos, in which the otherworld and the everyday world interconnect. This was the essence of true perception and wisdom, known as glefiosa, or 'bright knowledge'. For the seer, the babbling of the stream, the swaying of treetops in the wind, the hunting and foraging of animals are all brimful of deeper meaning. The Art of Celtic Seership shows how to connect with this visionary wisdom, nurture it in ourselves and harness it to live in harmony with each other and with the earth, and to bring profound insight and understanding to our day-to-day existence. It describes the tools and techniques of the druids, bards and seers of old, and explains how we too can draw inspiration from the natural world and open ourselves to developing our prophetic and visionary powers. Practical exercises include calling upon your ancestors, working with your dreams, cultivating a connection with the faery folk, experimenting with trance states, entering into the consciousness of the stones, trees and other natural features around you, asking a question of the universe and listening to the reply and reading omens and signs in the symbols you encounter through the day.