In this installment of fairy facts we're looking at a popular one - selkies.Name: Selkie, Silkie, Selchie, RónThe name literally means 'seal' and may appear in English as selkie-folk or seal-folk to differentiate from the animalDescription: Selkies appear as seals in the water, like any wild seal except for their eyes which are said to be particularly human-like. They may go on land and ..read more

 Today I wanted to do a book review on a book that recently came out that I particularly liked: A Fairy Path by Daniela Simina. I really liked the author's previous book Where Fairies Meet which is a comparison of Irish and Romanian folk belief around fairies so I was excited to see this one come out as well.One of the best things about Simina's work is that it fills a gap in the English ..read more

 For our next installment of fairy facts I thought we'd tackle one of the most widely misunderstood subjects: changelings. To be fair a changeling isn't a type of fairy, per se,; we have stories of a wide array of specific types of beings that leave changelings from the aos sidhe to trolls. They are called changelings instead of by a specific term because they are something that has been ..read more

&nbsp;This material is expanded from the Cailleach entry in my book 'Gods and Goddesses of Ireland'.The Cailleach's Stone, Cork, picture by me 2018“Ebb-tide has come to me as to the sea;old age makes me yellow;though I may grieve thereat,it approaches its food joyfully….I am Buí, the Cailleach of Beare;I used to wear a smock that was ever-renewed…”<!--[if !supportLists]-->-&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp ..read more

Today I wanted to do a combined review of three books by the same author, dr Jeana Jorgensen, because while the topics vary the wider purpose of each book is the same, to offer a solid basic introduction to a complicated topic. This goal is admirable and one I share myself, because I think that its important to have material that can bridge the gap between layperson and academic, and can offer a ..read more

&nbsp;This year's updated list of all my published work. 2023 may best be described as the year of the magazine articles, but I did squeeze some other things in as well.&nbsp; Bibliography &nbsp; Articles “Healing Ritual for the Ocean Waters”, Circle Magazine issue 109 summer 2011 “A Gaelic View of Samhain”, Celtic Guide, vol. 1 issue 10 Oct. 2012 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; “Celebrating ..read more

&nbsp;Every year I see social media absolutely flooded with terrible misinformation about the 'pagan' origins of several Christmas traditions. I wrote about this in 2015, covering some of the main claims at the time but that was 8 years ago and its worth revisiting this one. There is a driving determination to claim that Christians stole absolutely everything from pagans which I think we need to ..read more

 I have always had a weakness for tarot and oracle decks because I love to see the different artistic interpretations applied to each card. But, as anyone who is interested in them knows, the market has become really glutted with decks over the last few years, to a degree that its hard to maintain any excitement for them (at least for me). There are a few exceptions to that though and this deck ..read more

 Doing things a little different today, a book review of a subject I actually don't know much about. I thought it would be fun to dig into a subject that's new to me so today we're going to be talking about T. D. Kokoszka's book 'Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods'. This one is out through my publisher Moon Books.Bogowie is a fascinating dive into Slavic paganism from an academic ..read more

In 2021 I had started a series of posts examining fairy folklore found in popular movies and shows. I've been on a bit of a hiatus from that but wanted to return to it with a look at Neil Gaiman's Coraline (the movie, not the book). Obviously I am not trying to argue here that the author's intention was to frame the story this way, although it may well have been, but what I want to do here is to ..read more