Woodland Bard

Brideog and Coire Chrann To recap, for this fourth part of a five part series ... This is the third and connecting cycle part of a legend of the deeds of Daghda, often pronounced like Doyda. The story moves into the deeds of Brideog and Coire Chrann, the children of the Mör na Coire Cíuín. To recap the first two parts, this is a lovely ancient story example of passage through three stages of what is called a Hero’s Journey. Departure  - the call for adventure. breaking from the mundane Initiation  - the meeting with the Goddess, Fae, Sidhe, your spirit mentor Return  - the courage and freedom to journal and live from your inspiration Daghda had approached the well of the Cailleach to drink and bathe and return his stamina, so he could return as the god of harvest and abundance each autumn harvest time. At the well he met the three hags, the Morrigna, and actually not bad looking. Their names are Badb (Medb, Maeve), Macha and Nemain, (Fea, Fae). They had invited Da

To recap, for this third part of a five part series ... This is a legend of the deeds of Daghda, often pronounced like Doyda, that is a lovely ancient story example of passage through three stages of what is called a Hero’s Journey. Departure - the call for adventure. breaking from the mundane Initiation - the meeting with the Goddess, Fae, Sidhe, your spirit mentor Return - the courage and freedom to journal and live from your inspiration Daghda had approached the well of the Cailleach to drink and bathe and return his stamina, so he could return as the god of harvest and abundance each autumn harvest time At the well he met the three hags, the Morrigna, and actually not bad looking. Their names are Badb (Medb, Maeve), Macha and Nemain, (Fea, Fae). They had invited Daghda back to stay with them, lay with them, love them, etc., within the hill. As a ‘Hero’s Journey’ a departure from his routine, ‘mundane’. So where is this place of sleeping, dreaming,  embra

I return to Sheela na Heroes part two at the end of this five part series. This is a legend of the deeds of Daghda, often pronounced like Doyda. I think this is a lovely ancient story example of passage through three stages of what some call a Hero’s Journey. I sometimes tell a shorter version to start a Tree Labyrinth session here at Carrowcrory. Departure  - the call for adventure. breaking from the mundane Initiation  - the meeting with the Goddess, Fae, Sidhe, your spirit mentor Return  - the courage and freedom to journal and live from your inspiration I live outside a village called Keash. There is a hill above Keash where  local people say the White Hag lives.  They say its impossible for anyone to enter the hill far, and be able to come back out out again. I cannot confirm that, because this is why I am here now to tell you about the deeds of Daghda. If you visit the hill above Keash and look up you will see a row of caves. Those caves were formed by sea aft

Various visitor’s to our Labyrinth Gardens use one of the Labyrinth walks to aid what they call  ‘A Hero’s Journey’. It’s not surprising as they can apply the three stages of a Labyrinth to three stages of a Hero’s Journey. Departure  - the call for adventure. breaking from the mundane Initiation  - the meeting with the Goddess, Fae, Sidhe, your spirit mentor Return  - the courage and freedom to journal and live from your inspiration I will continue now with a location.  It is south of Sligo town, south of. Lough Gill and there is Lough Lumman. Surrounding this lough are the Ballygawley Hills. On those hills are the remains of ancient stone cairns. Around 1974 was when I first heard the story of the Briefne chieftains being buried on the hills, covered by those stone cairns, so that as their bodies perished, the water from them would run down to the lough. Their spirit in this water rejoining the Cailleach’s womb through what is now Lough Lumman. I have heard similar

A close friend of mine revealed that his wife was annoyed with him for not keeping his iPhone location finder on while he worked away for a few days. He did travel to five different places in three different countries. There are two possible interpretations of this. One, she was worried about him having an accident and not being able to contact. Or she may not trust where he has been. I gather she must have some app to locate where her husband is at any time. Also, I hear that his ‘wife’ checks his phone, on his return, for locations too. To step aside from this issue, that is for that couple to sort out, it dawned on me how much our smart phone, if we own one, has become a serious journal tool, and we may not know it. Each day we may be adding photographs, videos, notes, thoughts, and if location is on, it records where we have been and even where we visited. All of this is storytelling content! All of these articles I write and post starts with photos and notes I have

Please, inner chatter fade away Meaningless meanful words I am eager to say Caressing words upon those who would like to stay Exchanging curiosities, if they will join me in play Trees are my calling to smile, explore and dare No more feeling humble, complex, but eager to share These sensory fountains flowing life to passionately care For moments cut loose from echoing words taunting despair Here is my basket of words connecting what I am feeling Questioning every furry leaf and thin bark I am peeling Rooting my connection to vibrant soil where I am kneeling Surrendering my soul to this insatiable pool of healing. Woodland Bard event dates Please support our Labyrinth Gardens work as a Patron from a dollar, a euro, a month ... Become a Patron!

First reaction from most people today I am sure would be, “Of course there is!”. The imagery they have in their minds when they think ‘Goddess’ is loving, encouraging, and transforming into new life, vitality, and abundance. A lovely grand image to carry. This writing is a sort of continuation of ‘Living With The Big Mystery’ from yesterday, so please excuse a bit of repeating here. Stirring my thoughts for this was a woman music artist promoter from Pennsylvania who was at a short seminar we attended during Tradfest in Dublin. She described something that I had always thought, but never heard it said from a USA person. She said that “Genre is hopelessly essential  for the American mind.  If something cannot be given a name, a group name it belongs to, put into a box or cabinet, and be labelled and indexed ... it just does not exist ... to an American” She was referring to music and explaining that when she handles Irish musicians breaking out around the USA, she has

At Labyrinth Garden sessions, one of the most personally challenging expressions from me is how to express a sort of ‘one size fits all’ connection to what I will say here as ‘The Great Mystery’. A huge passion I have is that people using our Labyrinth Gardens, especially the Tree Labyrinth, is they enjoy space and surrender to what The Great Mystery is to them. It is a contemplation space  for imagination and expressing imagination,  so this great question fuels it all Still, a very common word used is ‘God’, though the majority of Labyrinth Garden users are women so their most common word in that space is ‘Goddess’. Both God and Goddess causes me a bit of an itch of discomfort because I cannot vision The Great Mystery as having a gender, but maybe a constant dance of both genders together.  The old fables include many Gods and Goddesses, though. Sometimes I think of The Great Mystery as being the bond, ‘energy’, connecting the genders. Any of these interpretations are