Celtic Ways Tales

The song Auld Lang Syne must be as worldwide, if not more worldwide, than Amazing Grace even though its usually sung with the lyrics of “ah um, rrr, um, rah, rah, ah um Old Lang Sine”. Its also credited as a Rabbie Burns, Robert Burns song. However, as with Salley Gardens by W.B. Yeats, it happened to be a learned song that Robert Burns shaped up. In old texts Robert Burns does make this clear too. However the distribution of Auld Lang Syne seems to have become awfully distorted Distorted through the spread of Colonial Britain, including the improvised plum exploding lyrics of “ah, umm etc… “ for most of the lines This revered song is said to have been written by Rabbie Burns in 1788, but the song can be traced back to a traditional song of the 15 th century that was “nicked” by George Bannatyne and inserted into his manuscript of Scottish poetry in 1586 with t he title of "Auld kindness Foryett," which still translates today as "auld acquaintances forgot" in the ...

Here’s wishing you, your families, friends, the most wonderful peace and sharing time over the next couple of days. If you are alone, wishing you a wonderful time of embracing nature and the gifts of living around you. If you are in despair, that you are able to look to your heart to find that light of joy or find something or someone that inspires this And for everyone a wish of good health, a return of good health for those who need this, and a moving on to a year of good fortune, protection, and lots of love shared. Here’s a photo of my card of this year, followed by link to a different arranged printable version that you can fold and display with your other greetings if you wish John and Claire xxx from Celtic Dreamtime Click Here for a printable version that you can fold and display with your other greetings if you wish

Ways To Celebrate and enter the new Growing Daylight Days Through this past weekend, many of you may well have had wonderful Yule gatherings with neighbours and friends who prefer “visits” with others at this time and then leave the Christmas, or return of the sun, day as a day at home with family, or at hotel or restaurant with family. Many northern hemisphere folk will have had their visiting totally limited to neighbours due to difficulty driving on the roads, and this is surely a good thing. I have not written anything new for this time of year so I would like to recap on past blog posting that I would love to share with you again. First, one reason for not writing anything extra for a Yule Blog this year has been due to work on my new podcast “Celtic Dreamtime Podscape”, and the current edition is the Yule edition which you can listen to and subscribe to here You may find me introduction to the tradition of Wassailing, and how a similar tradition may well have been in Ireland wher...

St. Lucy’s Day, December 13th, today Thanks to a Facebook posting by Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary I was inspired to compare Lucy with our Lasiar. Lasiar is a little known ancient “goddess” of Ireland, partially because most of these revered “goddess” women of ancient times were outstanding healers and teachers. Selena, if she was of these ancient times would probably have been one of these “goddess” women. There are several levels of legend to Lasiar and like other Irish “goddesses”, like Attracta, Grain and especially Brigid, Abbesses of monastic “cities” took on the names of these wise women to sustain their legacies. Unfortunately, when the Catholic church blessed them as being “saints” the reasons behind sainthood became very distorted from their origins. Lasier was apparently sainted for her ability to heal the blind. Maybe this was true of the Abbess Lasier who was daughter of Abbot Ronan of Kilronan, church of Ronan, founder of Kilronan monastic city which hosted the sacred ...

I have just received this “copy” from a Failte Ireland copywriter It was sent to me for comment and approval so I assume they are going to use it as part of their promotion of Spiritual Tourism in Ireland. I was absolutely delighted by this and will indeed use this myself too …. And it was said … Stonehenge, highlighted by evening sun casting powerful stone shadows across the land. This is an abiding picture that remains with John of Celtic Ways since he was 6 years old. John always knew where his interests lay and armed with an acute sense of self awareness he set out on a journey which evolved into Celtic Ways and now Celtic Dreamtime. A combined passion for history, sacred sites, faith and nature have all played a part in the passage from John the youngster to John the man. Along with his partner Claire, a wonderful harper bard who relays her stories and lore through her voice and harps, they have created an experience to be shared. This experience explores the past through st...

Reminder : What is Celtic Dreamtime A bit awkward writing this as I do have several southern hemisphere readers, but here in Ireland it is Northern Hemisphere season and weather so i feel quite present with the kind of dreamtime we are having here. Maybe you can open up this blog in June. With many people “Dreamtime” conjours up visions of that place we are during our natural sleep where stories are played out with no restrictions of time, place or space and they are as real in experience as the experiences of our waking time. For others, is a reference to the Australian Aborigine “way” of that “other world” that manifests itself in what is created on this earth and is the reason why animals take certain shapes, why bird species have distinct different colours and markings and why we are born in certain places, though it also accounts for many of us not actually being physically born in the place that is our earthly home. The Australian “walkabout” partially interprets this. The aborig...