[witchywings]

good afternoon and friendly reminder that despite how gerald gardner and others have used it, samhain is the irish word for the whole month of november, the night of halloween proper is actually oíche shamhna (ee-huh, how-nuh, say how like in cow or now)as gaeilge, literally “night of samhain”. 

also irish pronunciation is super logical once you’re familiar with it! you guys are just mean holding a non-english language to english spelling rules

[mystic-revelations]

Scottish Landscapes By Gustave Dore

[thebeautifulbook]

IRISH FAIRY TALES by James Stephens. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. This copy with a beautiful art binding.

[lesoldatmort]

| p a t h |

An old god waiting for belated pizza delivery.

💀 Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Portfolio

[friend-crow]

True and sincere answer to all of the people who ask, "I have just seen X animal, what does this mean?":

Rejoice, my friend, for this is a most auspicious sign! You have received one of the greatest blessings known to human kind: you live in a world full of creatures! Take comfort and enjoy this divine blessing.

[rimonoroni]

if you're a goy that thinks Jewish culture and history and religion is interesting but don't want to intrude upon a closed religion, the answer is academia!! study Jewish academia oh my goodness the sheer volume of freely accessible literature written by Jews about Jews is genuinely staggering. please

[rimonoroni]

some random goyim out there: wow, i find Jewish culture and history very interesting, but i've determined that it isn't because i'm interested in converting. i just think that Judaism is fascinating, but i'm also aware that because i lack the cultural context of a Jewish person, i could easily misunderstand and disrespect this religion/closed cultural group as an outsider. if only there were a way for me to respectfully engage with specific aspects of Judaism outside of a conversion context........

every Jewish academic i've ever met in my life, absolutely frothing at the mouth: if somebody doesn't read my 900 page dissertation and six full length books about this specific niche aspect of Jewish culture written to be accessible to a goyische audience, i'm going to throw myself into the sea

[maureen2musings]

King Arthur at Tintagel

uniquedevontours

[pandorama-art]

late summer treasures 🍅✨

[c3rvida3]

Appalachian accent so thick that I started talking about the Science Museum, and my partner stopped me like, "So, it's a whole museum of different signs? Like stop signs, or what?"

[intheholler]

did i ghostwrite this

[sanctus-ingenium]

A certain fisherman [...] went to the same place again to fish, and he put a row of hooks on his heels in case he met the Púca again; he attached them like a horseman's spurs. When evening drew near, he made a halter of the fishing-line for the Púca. The Púca met him the second time. He himself caught the Púca, put the fishing-line over his head like a halter, and started to ride him. He drove him wherever he wanted to go, and he kept putting his heels with the hooks like spurs to the Púca's sides, so that the Púca was shedding blood from the pricks of the hooks.

Excerpt from "The Púca: A Multi-Functional Irish Supernatural Entity" by Deasún Breatnach

[whats-this-mustelid]

I just think that 'animals are living intelligent creatures that have feelings and deserve to be respected' and 'when done properly farming is beneficial to both people and animals and there's nothing wrong with raising and killing animals for food, clothing, and other products' are concepts that very much can and should coexist

[soracities]

i'm a simple girl: i see sunlight on the water, i find god

[soracities]

i hear the laugh of someone i love, i find god. the setting sun fills my room, i find god. i eat fresh strawberries off the vine, i find god. someone rests their head on my shoulder, i find god.

[the-obsolete-man]

5784 is approaching

[irelandseyeonmythology]

Donn potentially (?) becoming a god after drowning because he pissed off Ériu is objectively funny once you start thinking about it.

Do the Tuatha Dé ever get together and there’s Donn, in the corner, looking very wet and drowned and dead?

Do they ever greet him with: “Dia duit, Invader!”

Does he join the Tethra/Mannanán “Deity associated with the sea who is Done with this business” club? Do they even want him in the club?

Does Bres hate him because he was mean to his mommy? (Jail for the sons of Míl, jail for one thousand years)

Does Lugh hate him because he invaded Ireland (bad) or love him because he fought against the three sons of Cermait (good)?

Does the Dagda enjoy sometimes whacking him with his staff a few times just for the sake of establishing dominance + punishing him for fighting against his grandsons?

Is there a separate little place for the deities of the sons of Míl to hang out, or is he all alone, hanging out at Tech Duinn and being bullied by the TDD?

Do he and the Cailleach Beara hang out? IS there a Cailleach Beara for him to hang out with?

Maybe drowning wasn’t the worst thing to happen to him.

[crimeronan]

since a ton of people are getting into music as gaeilge because of hozier, can i recommend my fave artist, róisín seoighe? she's a native irish speaker and language ambassador whose lyrics often involve the preservation of irish culture and deep rage against colonization. níl mé marbh ("i'm not dead") makes me cry like a baby and sin do lamh ("reach out") makes me want to burn all of colonialism down. she's also done several collabs with imlé, another EXCELLENT irish language band that does modern-feeling rock and dance music! my fave of their collabs right now is ÉAD ("jealous").

both artists have less than 1,700 monthly listeners on spotify simply because they sing in irish & they deserve more bc their music Really Is Excellent. translations of many songs are google-able & when there Aren't english translations, it's really good practice for people learning irish!

[katabay]

king arthur and the body of sir (cei)

god kay makes me so sad. idk!! it's something about how his character becomes transformed in later narratives to the point of unrecognizability. it's lonely to read about!!! it's like you've buried someone, and then you turn around and someone who looks like them is standing right there, but it's also Not Them.

Caitlin R. Green, Concepts of Arthur

Sir Kay, Seneschal of King Arthur's Court, Harold J Herman

[snaketomes-deactivated20231116]

It’s great that a lot of people understand the nature of closed practices but they aren’t just closed bc of colonialism/racism. Yes some are closed bc of it but there’s some that aren’t closed for that reason.

A lot of them have always been closed, closed for thousands of years actually and doesn’t matter if your family has existed in a specific area for generations where there’s a closed practice there. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re welcomed to initiate. Ancestral ties or not.

I’m black with West African ancestry and I can give you a long list of ATRs I cannot initiate into- whether or not I have a specific ancestral tie to it or not.

It’s important to know this distinction because some folks are under the impression being anti racist, being with a person from a closed practice and the hypothetical “if racism didn’t exist anymore” doesn’t mean the cultures will open themselves up to them.

The oppressive systems could disappear tmr. And closed practices will still be closed. Point blank.