Morgan Daimler's Blog, page 34

Lugh the Many-skilled

One of the most well known of the Irish Gods is Lugh, Lug in Old Irish, who is given several epithets including Lamhfada [long arm], Ildanach [many skilled], and Samildanach [many joined skills]. He is also sometimes called either Mac Céin, son of Cian, or Mac Ethlenn, son of Eithne (MacKillop, 1998). One of the epithets applied to him in the Lebor Gabala Erenn is ‘rind-agach’ which Macalister

Raven Lore - translation

There's a fascinating bit of text called 'Fiachairecht ocus Dreanacht' or, roughly 'Raven Augury and Wren Augury' that outlines in detail what exactly omens with these birds mean based on where they are when the omen is received. I've decided to do my own translation of this work by dividing it up into sections, starting with 'Fiachairecht' (Raven Augury). As usual I'll give the original Irish

The Value of Anecdotal Evidence, Older Books, and Modern Experience

  Generally speaking when you start to look for books on paganism one of the first pieces of advice you might get is to avoid things published prior to and during the Victorian era*, or books that rely too much on these as sources. Generally speaking this is good advice as this period was a time when scholarship was heavy on unsupported supposition and opinion and short on factual evidence. There

Robert Graves Influence on Modern Paganism

 I won't lie - I'm no fan of Robert Graves and I doubt you'll find many Reconstructionists who are. Writing in the 1940's Graves still had the Victorian mentality that said it was perfectly fine to invent history if the story you were spinning seemed logical to you. And in fairness Graves was no scholar but rather a poet and his work is the work of a poet. There is an excellent book by Mark

Two Views of the Leannán Sí

  Of all the beings in Irish - and more generally Celtic - folklore one of the most interesting may be the Leannán Sí. The name literally means 'fairy lover'* and we see two distinct pictures emerge in mythology and folklore of this type of being, very different in nature although both perhaps equally hazardous in various ways. 




'La Belle Dame sans Merci' by John Waterhouse



  The most well

The Doom of Otherworldly Love - a Poem

I know you have loved me
since before I was worth loving
A shadow in dreams, a glimpse
of a fair form in daylight.
You who are part of a world
not my own, yet somehow
belong to me as much as I
belong to you, inexplicably.
A constant presence in my life
A guardian, a guide, a lover,
Never more than a thought away.
Perhaps my heart was always
yours before it was even my own
And so I will send my

Bealtaine and the Other Crowd

"Being associated with a ceann féile (cheif festival), May Eve and May Day were supposed to be times of greater than usual activity among supernatural beings, Every lios ("fairy fort") in Ireland was said to be opened that night, and their inhabitants moved abroad in great numbers, often changing residence at that time." - Seán Ó Súilleabháin, 'Nósanna agus Piseoga na nGael'

Hawthorn in the

Following Personal Gnosis

   I write a lot on my blogs and various other places about a more academic view of my spirituality - facts, myths, translations. Hard, verifiable, provable things. Sometimes I think this may lead people to think I don't get as much into the experiential side of things although I do try to write about that as well - its just harder to talk about the more personal end of things. In reality

Wishes - a poem about fairies

  This was inspired by two things - a story called 'A Guide for Young Ladies Entering the Service of the Fairies' and a poem by my friend Jennifer Lawrence called 'Tam Lin's Garden'. Both are brilliant pieces of writing and you should read them immediately.

   People talk about wishes now as if they were cheap things
   Spending their desire on casual words and wants that are
   lost between one

Cétnad nAíse ~ Poem of Restoration

Doing this one a bit differently - going to alternate the lines instead of doing separate text.I hope you enjoy it. 


Cétnad nAíse ~ Poem of RestorationAd-muiniur secht n-ingena trethan 
I invoke the seven daughters of the stormy seadolbtae snáithi macc n-áesmar. 

shaping life's thread from boyhood to ageTri bás flaimm ro-ucaiter, 

Three deaths be taken from metri áes dom do-rataiter, 

Three