The fire was lit just before sunset. There are good magical reasons for that. In Celtic lore those moments and places that are ‘neither nor’, that partake of multiple qualities, or offer transitions are places and times of power. We were lighting the fire in the season of Beltaine, under the full moon of May, at the setting of the sun. That is what the novelists call well-omened. But the reality of beginning a spiritual work in that twilight hour... Read more

Background By way of continuing to introduce myself my wife, Liafal, and I keep sixteen acres in the top NE corner of Ohio, not far from Lake Erie. In a region dominated by commercial nurseries and truck-farms we have kept the original eight-acre parcel since 1975 (in Liafal’s case – I arrived in ’91). Used as a small farm during L’s child-rearing years, it has been converted into our small private Pagan park, with barn, kids’ play area and worship... Read more

This charm is my “repaganization” of a Beltaine Blessing from the Carmina Gadelica. Some other time we’ll talk about the place of rhyme and meter in Gaelic charms. For now, this blessing. Read more

Hello. Well… it’s kind of… big… in here… join me in imagining an echo, maybe… Let’s dim the houselights and get a fire lit. Let it be a Fire of Welcome. Let it be a Fire of Offering. Let it be warmth and light to the whole world . . . . Read more