A short clip from Glenafooka: a documentary about Irish folklore and mythology. Enjoy! … [Read more...]
Mending the tears in a displaced life
February 4, 2013 By 11 Comments
As I write this blog post, I'm sitting on a train. I've spent a lot of time travelling, this Imbolctide. I spent the weekend with friends in Edinburgh, celebrating the festival with food and crafts and ritual. Now I’m heading south to Birmingham for my grandmother’s funeral. I never met her, at least, not that I remember. I and my father and step-mother had talked off and on over the past few years about me visiting her in her nursing home, but in the end, it seemed too odd, to introduce … [Read more...]
The land does not belong to us; we belong to the land.
January 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Saturday was the first new moon after the winter solstice: in the Roman calendar, it was the first calends of the year, sacred to Janus. It was a religious festival probably celebrated officially in Eskdalemuir about 1900 years ago, at the fort built where the Rae Burn meets the River Esk. If I were a reconstructionist Pagan, living where I do, based on the past of this land, I'd have a host of Pagan religious traditions to reconstruct from: not only those of the Romans, but of the … [Read more...]
Sacred Space
December 25, 2012 By 2 Comments
On this Christmas Day, I'd like to tell you about a place that is sacred to Christians that had a profound impact on me. This is not the only Christian sacred space that has touched me or taught me a lesson. (I'm sure I'll tell you of another come Easter.) But this place is special to me right now because it is right here in Glasgow. But I can't just tell you about the place. I have to tell you the story... Once upon a time, in July of this past year, to be precise, I came to Scotland for the … [Read more...]
Whose land (spirit) is it, anyway?
December 3, 2012 By 14 Comments
Welcome to A Sense of Place, a new blog where four contributors with different perspectives will be sharing thoughts and experiences of our places, our connection with the land and all its peoples (human and otherwise), and the relevance of these to our Pagan spiritualities. Why this topic? I have two wonderful Pagan friends from the USA who are currently living in Scotland. When they arrived a year ago, they told me that they had wanted to come to Britain because “this is where you keep … [Read more...]
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