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A Practical Guide to Irish Spirituality

By Lora O’Brien

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Published November 2012

Published from Roscommon, Ireland

ISBN: 978-0-9574994-0-9

Wolfpack Publishers

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Table of Contents

Foreword & Acknowledgements

IntroductionWarning Label

PART 1 - WORLD OF EARTH Chapter 1 - Ancestry Chapter 2 - Ancient Places Chapter 3 - Sacred Cycles

PART 2 - WORLD OF SEA Chapter 4 - The Sidhe Chapter 5 - Gods and Goddesses Chapter 6 - Otherworld Journeys

PART 3 - WORLD OF AIR Chapter 7 - Magical Craft Chapter 8 - Literature Chapter 9 - Priesthood and Community

ConclusionResources

A Practical Guide to Irish Spirituality - Slí Aon Dhraoí 

Irish Magic, Ancestry, Language, Mythology, Archaeology, and Other Interesting Things.

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What do Readers say about the Author?Lora is a highly talented and dedicated writer, with an envious turn of phrase. I would recommend

looking at any of her works for examples, as they are clear and concise, and deliver exactly what the reader is looking for. She is creative, extremely detailed and driven, and I would never hesitate to

recommend her writing skills, whether commercial or otherwise, to colleagues.

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World of Earth

Explores in 3 chapters that which can pertain to the realm of Earth.

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Chapter 1 is concerned with Ancestry; from your physical

location to your genealogy.

“Who are you? What’s in a name? Does your family name matter to you? Have you ever changed it, through marriage, divorce, or for any other reason? How many family names have gone into the mix that is you? How many of those names do you carry with you right now? In your Record, write the heading: Chapter 1 – Ancestry, and under that you can start a section for “Family Names”. List the family names that are connected to you, that you know right now, off the top of your head…”

Chapter 1 - Ancestry

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Chapter 2 is concerned with Ancient Places; from well known

sacred sites to your local woodland.

“Modern Pagans and New Age spiritual types often get a little confused with regard to ancient sites. While we cannot, of course, say with any degree of certainty exactly what did or did not happen at a particular site a thousand plus years ago, we can look at some basic archaeological classifications, and get a fair idea of which sites were most likely to have been used by our ancestors for ritual or religious purposes, and which ones were likely used as cattle storage. I don’t know about you, but for my personal spiritual purposes, I’d like to at least have a fair idea if I’m treading in the footsteps of ancient druids, or just plain old bullshit.”

Ch. 2 – Ancient Places

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Chapter 3 is concerned with Sacred Cycles; from seasonal celebration

to your life stages.

“The really interesting thing about all of these site and cycle alignments is that there’s probably a million more that we haven’t copped onto yet. Do you have a site that you could visit or drive to, that might be aligned in some way to one of the astronomical events? If there is such a site within reach, take it upon yourself to go and visit; sunrise, sunset, midpoint, see what you can discover. If at all possible (and I don’t mean easy, I mean actually physically and materially possible and workable within the context of your life), make a project of it. Experiment with your visits, take careful notes. Start a blog or join a forum, or attend a moot or social network event, and share your experiences with others, see what the group mind can figure out together. And of course, keep a careful note of it all in your record.”

Ch. 3 – Sacred Cycles

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World of Sea

Explores in 3 chapters that which can pertain to the realm of Sea.

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Chapter 4 is concerned with the Irish Sidhe traditions and folklore;

the Fae or Fairies of Ireland.

“The word fairy began from the Latin word fata (one of the Fates, a guardian or patron, protector spirit); in Italian fata, in Spanish hada, and in Portuguese fada. This moved to Old French as faie or fee (Modern French fée), and then into Middle English faierie (also fayerye, feirie, fairie). What is a fairy? Write it down, right now, what is the first thing that comes to your head when you read that line – What is a fairy? Describe it, capture it, but don’t think about it too much. Does it look like Tinkerbell? Is it like a cute ‘flower fairy’? More like a harpy or hag, a frightening crone? Or a bright, shining figure atop a fine horse, hunting horn and bow in hand, flaxen hair streaming in the wind? A tall, solemn, shimmering robed watcher? Or… what?”

Chapter 4 – The Sidhe

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Chapter 5 is concerned with the deities of Irish mythology; from

individual figures to how the story arcs fit together.

“In Ireland… we have layers of invasion, and pretty muddy waters when it comes to who was here first, whether they arrived fresh or evolved from earlier natives, how exactly they fit into that particular timeline, whether they ever actually existed as living historical figures, and even when exactly they stopped being gods and started being saints, or just story characters. As with our actual archaeology, our mythological and even literary archaeology is rather complex, even for the experts, and for the lay person can be confusing enough to frustrate the life out of you. This is no reason not to try to get your head around it though.”

Ch. 5 – Gods & Goddesses

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Chapter 6 is concerned with an Saol Eile; the Irish

Otherworld which runs side by side with ours.

“Imram literally means ‘rowing about’, and there are stories remaining that are among the oldest we have extant, perhaps as old as 600 or 700s CE according to Kuno Meyer, telling of warriors and kings who travel off voluntarily in a coracle, or small boat that is pretty much just a rounded wooden frame covered in skins. Why – why would they do that? Daragh Smyth suggests that this is probably an ancient rite practiced before death; to take to the sea out towards the Otherworld, found fairly suddenly when the sea dropped away over the horizon of the ‘flat earth’.”

Ch. 6 - Otherworld Journeys

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World of Sky

Explores in 3 chapters that which can pertain to the realm of Sky.

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Chapter 9 is concerned with Bardic skills, druidic powers,

and magical training.

“Féth Fia, or Féth Fiada is a ‘magical mist’, one of the powers of Druídecht (Magic, or Druidry). The term refers to protection by supernatural means, especially transformation or concealment. There are many, many examples of it in the tales, with Druids being the main creators or bringers of the mists, but St Patrick was a dab hand at it too by all accounts. In a gloss to the old Irish law text Uraicecht Becc, the ‘Small Primer’, Druids are defined as those who perform the fet fia ‘magical mist’, or the aisdinecht, ‘prophecy’, the latter of which we’ll get to later.”

Chapter 7 – Magical Craft

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Chapter 7 is concerned with surviving written material, available

academic texts and resources.

“These are words that are, in many cases, over a thousand years old. These words were learned by Druids, by Filí, by Bards, they travelled from learned minds, a golden chain of honeyed words, straight to the ears of warriors and kings. Hundreds of years later, Ireland had changed. These words were captured, faithfully transcribed by skilled hands, onto vellum made from the skin of cattle, scraped and stretched, using inks that were crafted from the picking and crushing of nuts and berries of our native trees. They were protected, and copied, they grew with the passing of time, and changed, and remained. Generations later, they were studied and re-crafted by the learned minds of the time, for the next phase of their journey, still many generations ago to us now, hundreds of years ago – moving to another language, a whole other world, a different format and structure. A new lease of life, and continuing audience. And now they are migrating to the next phase, digitally recorded, stored, archived, searched; evolving and changing to continue the education of Ireland’s people.”

Ch. 8 - Literature

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Chapter 9 is concerned with Priesthood, Celtic Christianity and its

influence, tribes and community.

“Priest, Priestess. There are terms which are more generalised, which have less baggage, less of that weight I mentioned, even which are non gender specific. We could use them instead. But I won’t be. I want the weight. I want you to understand what comes from this, with this, whatever you choose to name yourself, or what title you earn. This weight applies to Shaman, Lord or Lady, Druid, Witch, Sensei, Gothi or Gythia, Master or Mistress, Minister, Pastor, Rabbi – even to some of the more general terms like Healer, Teacher, Reader, Midwife, Mentor, Guide. You do not fulfil these roles in a vacuum, but in a community... The weight that comes with these titles is responsibility.”

Ch. 9 - Priesthood & Community

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The juxtaposition of humour, discomfort, and enlightenment is unique – “A Practical Guide to Irish Spirituality” can help you

change the way you think.

“This book spans the markets; from domestic to international, youth to mature, religious to curious, ‘new-age’ to Celtic Christian. It will be of interest to anyone who wants to connect to Ireland, in practice or

in spirit.”

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Meet the AuthorLora O’Brien is a published freelance writer since the tender age of 23, and an author since she was 26. That is longer ago than she likes to think about. Her books and articles span a range of topics, from Land Rovers to tattooing, but she always comes back to Irish heritage and spirituality. She co-organises Ireland’s national festival of magic and spirituality, Féile Draíochta, and is a guardian and manager at the Celtic royal capital of the West, Rathcroghan (Cruachan, home of Queen Maeve).

Lora lives in Roscommon, Ireland (the county to put a smile on your face and a story to take home), with her three wonderful children, and an incredibly patient partner - who supports every mad notion that actually makes sense, while summarily dismissing the ones that really don’t - (here follows the obligatory ‘pets’ listing of the author bio)… and a dog and a cat and a snake. And a tortoise.

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