Celtic stuff

Hello you,

The BBC has just rung 11:11:11 and Big Ben has called all for one minute of silence. I wonder if the cannons and artillery barrages stopped in Ukraine. I doubt it.

I have received several messages from optimistic friends telling me that 11:11:11 is a new portal, my body is going to regenerate and the world is my oyster if  I can set my mind to it.

Only, as I sit there contemplating the rain pouring down the windows of my study, I am not feeling it. Another huge storm coming over fr…

Hello you,

Every year I celebrate the great Celtic Festivals and every year something new comes to my attention.

This year, I finally integrated the strange idea that there are in fact two Samhain. The one everybody celebrates on October 31st and then another one. On a date a week roughly after the 31st, the sun aligns in Cairn L of the great Irish monuments of Lochcrew. That is the alignment of Samhain. My friend john Willmott took that photo a few years back and has kindly agreed to let me u…

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This is the view from my kitchen window this morning... bleak isn't it. Just the right type of weather for Samhain. Long gone are the summer's days (if you had a decent summer and were not plagued by fires, high temperatures, and freak floods) and tonight, in Europe, the clocks are going backward. Why the whole world has to change times and cannot get its act together to do it at the same time (!) is still a mystery to me.

But then individualism is becoming more and more well, indiv…

Hello You,

How are you faring as the year winds down and the trees turn red and yellow in their Fall dance? Have you noticed that trees never seem to be worried that their leaves are changing color or even falling on the ground? They, unlike us humans, seem to be pretty accepting of what is.

Be more like a tree!

Always.

I learn so much from trees when I walk around the land. I have a very small grove of Scott Pines in a corner of my place and they fill me with joy. They grow like anything,…

Hello you,

How is it all going? Has the Autumn started in your neck of the woods yet?

As I wistfully look at the weather in Florence - still 30 degrees C and sunny - and look out of my window (gale force winds and rain), I am taking stock of this Summer's Harvest.

Saturday is the Harvest Full Moon and if you are interested in this kind of thing, then sign up for my Full Moon email? Here is the link www.baya.ie/fullmoon

I have been working on this for the past week or so. What, with the w…

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How are you doing? I mean, what with the droughts, the monsoon, the electricity, the fuel, the.... just fill in the blank space. Do you ever want to put your hands on your ears and beg the endless stream of things to be worried about to stop?

I certainly do and was toying with the idea of doing a series of EFT tapping Masterclasses for anxiety relief.

You know, show you how you can tap and help yourself think again and manage the legitimate anxiety better.

Then, I thought again.

Hello you,

How is it going? How has July treated you? Is your summer all that you want it to be? If it is, take time today to mull over what has been happening and if it is not, then all is not lost, we have another four weeks of summer to come.

Lamas is the celtic festival of the first harvest, the grain harvest. I know that we also celebrate the harvest on 21st September but that is a different harvest altogether. The Autumn Equinox is the hedgerow harvest, the harvest we preserve to feed…

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How have you been? I am just back from Italy and I am full of sunshine and the sea. Back to the grey weather of Ireland with a heart full of joy and hope.

So I thought we would spend a bit of time talking about The Dark of the Moon.

We are often aware of the New Moon and the Full Moon but rarely pause a minute between the two as we launch ourselves into the next planting of seeds or the next harvesting of the seeds we planted last time.

The Dark of the Moon, when the moon is hidde…

Hello again,

Here I am, still with my pullover and winter socks on as the weather is not improving over here in Ireland. And it is now June 14th and the Summer Solstice is on its way with yet again more fires to jump and more dancing outside. I don't see this happening any time soon here.

So, I got to thinking about ceremonies and rituals, traditional ones, ones that it is said our ancestors performed.

Well, between Beltane (First May) and the Summer Solstice (21st June) there were outside ce…