Morgan Daimler's Blog, page 3

Book Review: Sacred Bones, Magic Bones

 Today I'd like to offer another book review, this one for Ness Bosch's 'Sacred Bones, Magic Bones'. As someone who has worked with bones for a long time the topic of this book immediately got my attention and I was curious to see what the author's take on the subject was. First, this book is not a simple look at bones in a spiritual context. Instead it weaves together several

Fairy Facts: Selkies

 In this installment of fairy facts we're looking at a popular one - selkies.Name: Selkie, Silkie, Selchie, RónThe name literally means 'seal' and may appear in English as selkie-folk or seal-folk to differentiate from the animalDescription: Selkies appear as seals in the water, like any wild seal except for their eyes which are said to be particularly human-like. They may go on land and

Fairy Facts: Slua Sidhe

 For this installment of fairy facts we're going to take a look at the Slua Sidhe, beings found in folklore as well as incorporated into modern Role Playing Games (RPGs). Åsgårdsreien by Peter Nicolai ArboName: Slua Sidhe (Irish) or Sluagh Sìthe (Scottish)In Irish the name translates to the Fairy Host or Army. In Gaidhlig the terms means Fairy People, Fairy HostIn Scotland the term may

Book Review: A Fairy Path

 Today I wanted to do a book review on a book that recently came out that I particularly liked: A Fairy Path by Daniela Simina. I really liked the author's previous book Where Fairies Meet which is a comparison of Irish and Romanian folk belief around fairies so I was excited to see this one come out as well.One of the best things about Simina's work is that it fills a gap in the English

Fairy Facts: Changelings

 For our next installment of fairy facts I thought we'd tackle one of the most widely misunderstood subjects: changelings. To be fair a changeling isn't a type of fairy, per se,; we have stories of a wide array of specific types of beings that leave changelings from the aos sidhe to trolls. They are called changelings instead of by a specific term because they are something that has been

Fairy Facts: Cait Sìth

 A recent discussion on social media has motivated me to start a small series which I am going to call 'fairy facts' which will offer a brief overview of specific types of beings often labelled as fairies or within the wider purview of the subject. This will not be an in-depth full article - I have already written a book, A New Dictionary of Fairies, that deep dives into various fairies and

The Cailleach

 This material is expanded from the Cailleach entry in my book 'Gods and Goddesses of Ireland'.The Cailleach's Stone, Cork, picture by me 2018“Ebb-tide has come to me as to the sea;old age makes me yellow;though I may grieve thereat,it approaches its food joyfully….I am Buí, the Cailleach of Beare;I used to wear a smock that was ever-renewed…”-   &nbsp

Three Book Reviews: Folklore 101, Fairytale 101, Sex Education 101

Today I wanted to do a combined review of three books by the same author, dr Jeana Jorgensen, because while the topics vary the wider purpose of each book is the same, to offer a solid basic introduction to a complicated topic. This goal is admirable and one I share myself, because I think that its important to have material that can bridge the gap between layperson and academic, and can offer a

My Published Work to Date 2023

 This year's updated list of all my published work. 2023 may best be described as the year of the magazine articles, but I did squeeze some other things in as well. Bibliography Articles“HealingRitual for the Ocean Waters”, Circle Magazine issue 109 summer 2011“AGaelic View of Samhain”, Celtic Guide, vol. 1 issue 10 Oct. 2012     “Celebrating

Christmas Traditions, Paganism, and Some History

 Every year I see social media absolutely flooded with terrible misinformation about the 'pagan' origins of several Christmas traditions. I wrote about this in 2015, covering some of the main claims at the time but that was 8 years ago and its worth revisiting this one. There is a driving determination to claim that Christians stole absolutely everything from pagans which I think we need to