Today's Oracle 21st March 2020

New Moon (Wisdoms of the Heart)

The new moon represents the wisdom of the heart, which come with emotional and spiritual maturity. Spiritual traditions everywhere tell of the compassionate wisdom (or intelligence) of the heart. Knowledge is acquired from the implicit and tacit meanings of things in their essence.

Invoking Tenderness and Compassionate Knowing.

According to the old traditions, the moon is revered as the queen of the night, beauteous and fair. On seeing the new moon rising in the night, the men and women of old Scotland and Ireland bow gently, bending a knee in admiration. "Hail to thee, thou new moon, guiding jewel of gentleness!" Shining in the night sky as the queen maiden of guidance and good fortune, the new moon brings graciousness and maidenly joys to daily life. She signifies tenderness, compassion, and the intelligence of a loving heart.

Along with reverence and rites concerning the sun, stars, and fire, lunar worship is a common feature of the old ways of the Celtic people. Alexander Carmichael, recording the prayers and customs of the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides in the late nineteenth century, observed these vanishing customs and rites, still then extant among the country people.

In the Island of Barra of the Outer Hebrides, the old men and women "make obeisance to [the new moon] as to a great chief. The women curtsy gracefully and men bow low, raising their bonnets reverently. The bow of the men is peculiar, partaking somewhat of a curtsy of the women, the left knee being bent and the right drawn forward towards the middle of the left leg in a curious but not inelegant manner." Carmichael records several invocations and prayers hailing the new moon, the jewel of the night sky:

"Hail to thee, thou new moon, guiding jewel of gentleness!
I am bending to thee my knee, I am offering thee my love.
I am bending to thee my knee, I am giving thee my hand,
I am lifting to thee mine eye, O new moon of the seasons.
Hail to thee, thou new moon, joyful maiden of my love!
Hail to thee, thou new moon, Joyful maiden of the graces!
Thou art travelling in thy course.
Thou art steering the full tides.
Thou art illuming to us thy face, O new moon of the seasons.
Thou queen-maiden of guidance.
Thou queen-maiden of good fortune.
Thou queen-maiden my beloved.
Thou new moon of the seasons!"

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are learning to see with the eye of the heart. There are meanings, understandings, and discernments known to the heart alone, and rarely seen or understood by the intellect, the discriminating mind.

When you begin to see with the eye of the heart, it will be as though a veil has been lifted before you. You will see more deeply into the nature of things, relationships, and events. Your discriminating mind will relax. With your actions more in accord with natural patterns around you, you will interfere less, allowing others and events to mature according to their own design and necessity. Your actions will be more secure and compassionate, supportive of what is implicitly good and natural. In time, these softer wisdom of the heart will bring you greater wisdom and nobility of character.

Today's Oracle 20th March 2020

Rowan (The Alchemical Wand)

The rowan and its red berries in winter are connected with the Otherworld. Twigs are sometimes worn on clothing for protection from malevolent spirits. Rowan berries signal chthonic protection, divination, good luck, and sometimes healing and the giving of wisdom.

Invoking the Qualities of Otherworldly Protection.

The rowan tree and its winter clusters of red berries signify the protection of the Otherworld within the human middle world. A rowan branch above the door protects homes from unwanted intruders, especially mischievous spirits. A small rowan twig concealed underneath garments protects the wearer while traveling. Eating the red berries of an enchanted rowan brings wisdom. But beware, a fire of rowan wood may entreat the presence of otherworldly spirits, both gentle and malevolent.

The rowan tree or mountain ash, is honoured throughout the Celtic world for its role in the magic and enchantments emanating from the Otherworld. Its aspect can be potent and fierce. In the mythological cycle of Irish tales, Etáin is struck with a "wand of scarlet rowan berries" and instantly disappears into a pool of water. In the Fionn Cycle of Irish tales, the hero Finn acquires understanding of all things by eating a red-speckled salmon that fed on the berries of the enchanted rowan tree overhanging the pool.

Rowan trees are favoured because they provide chthonic or otherworldly protection and good luck. People like to have one neighbouring the house and holy places or to secretly fasten small twigs to their clothes to bring good luck. A rowan branch above the door protects the home from fire and unkindly intruders and spirits. In a story collected in the last century in the lowlands of Scotland, the rowan protects the peasantry while watching the procession of faeries, which takes place at the coming of summer. From beneath a door arrayed with rowan branches, they can safely "gaze on the cavalcade, as with music sounding, bridles ringing, and voices mingling, [as] it pursued its way from place to place."

Rowan berries and rowan branches are the certain protectors of cows, sacred to the goddesses of the underworld. Rowan are kept in the barn "to safeguard the cows; put in the pail and around the churn to ensure that the profit of the milk [is] not stolen." In a story told in County Cavan in the 1940s, Charles King relays that the "old people would tie roundberry [rowanberry] to the cows' tails. They would make a small ring of the roundberry and tie it with a red rag, and slip it in as far as they could on the cow's tail.... That was done as a 'protection' against the butter being taken from the milk during the year."

Rowan wood also serves in divination. It is likely that the Norse carved runes from rowan wood. A rowan wand is used in divining the future. A fire of rowan wood casts spells and anticipates danger by summoning underworldly spirits, not all of them benevolent.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, the protection and good luck of the rowan are being offered to you. Are you presently engaged in challenging or risky situations that beg extra protection and comfort? Do circumstances or the time of year invite circumspection and care? Do you feel any need to shield yourself from the unkindness of others or from spirits in the psychic realm? The presence of the rowan suggests both caution in worldly affairs and the protection of unseen forces. Its otherworldly authority dispels fear and anxiety, enabling life to proceed beneficially.

It may be an auspicious time to consider and appreciate the chthonic forces at hand in your life. Such forces stir within the human realm, bringing vitality and even healing and guidance. In the slow, steady pace of the underworld, you may be dreaming or "seeing" in new ways, prompted by otherworldly forces stirring within your unconscious mind. In this way, the presence of the rowan is a means of divining your next step, goal, relationship, or endeavour. Usually, there is no great drama or vision, just a gentle and pervasive shift in perspective and inclination. Like the rowan's red berries in winter, changes accord with the rhythms of nature.

Today's Oracle 19th March 2020

Wells and Thermal Springs (Returning to the Source)

Wells and thermal springs are orifices or gateways to the sacred, hot interior of the goddess earth. Her presence marks strength and capacity in our personal and spiritual lives and the desire to express inner changes in our everyday lives.

Invoking the Qualities of Manifestation and Expression.

Wells and thermal springs are natural orifices of the womb of the goddess herself, the warm fires of the earth. Welling up from within, the waters press to the surface of the earth to refresh the land. By tradition, the local king or chieftain mates with the goddess by drinking or bathing in the waters. Fertility for the land is then assured, sometimes by flooding the surrounding land and creating the world anew. This fiery, watery presence of the goddess gives power to manifest inner changes in the outer affairs of life.

It is said that there are some three thousand holy wells in Ireland alone, many abandoned and overgrown, others used only to quench the thirst of livestock, and others engendering pilgrimage and homage throughout the centuries. Often sequestered in lonely hillsides and meadows or nestled in a wooded grove, the ambiance of holy wells is intimate, quieting, and numinous. Now dedicated to St. Brigit, St. Brendan, the Virgin Mary, or one of hundreds of local saints, they were once personifications of mother goddesses, generously welling up water to the surface of the land to sustain life in that locale. At the Well of Doon in County Donegal, for example, the bushes and trees near the well are fashioned with hundreds of rags and torn bits of plastic grocery bags, along with pacifiers, baby ribbons, booties, bibs, trinkets, photos, jewelry, strands of beads, rosaries, crocheted crosses, caps, shoes, and farm boots - all weathering in the wind and rain, the offerings of pilgrims over the years. The well is simple, a level place to kneel and pray and a small, cement-lined pool in which to fill your bottle with water for friends and relatives at home. The prayers for loved ones, for the childless and widowed, for the sick and infirm, and for blessings on family and kin are redolent of memories from an ancient time when wells were the preserves of goddesses and their devoted - though doubtlessly less penitent - supplicants.

In ancient times, people gathered at the goddess's wells for the great solar festivals such as Beltaine (May 1), to celebrate the coming of summer, and Lughnasa (August 1), to celebrate the harvest with ceremony, feasting, games, and races. In modern times, ancient rituals were felicitously attached to saints' days, particularly in midsummer. Most of what we know of these activities comes from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century writers horrified by the "idolatrous" practices of drinking, gambling, and faction fighting occurring on pattern (pilgrimage) days at holy wells.

According to ancient knowing, wells and thermal springs web the landscape with life-giving fertility and generativity. The well opens into the womb of the sacred earth. An overflowing spring is a symbol of robust fertility. A flood destroys and renews the land. The guardian or human protectress of a holy well or thermal spring is female, the few exceptions an overlay, like veneer on an ancient wood. From a set of thermal springs at Bath dedicated to the goddess Sulis, water rushes to the surface at the rate of over a quarter of a million gallons a day. When relaxing or sleeping close to her plenteous waters and steamy breath or luxuriating in her baths, the earth's warmth soothes and refreshes the body. The goddess's presence here is personal, sensuous, and all-embracing.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you want to manifest interior changes in your outer world. You may be feeling even a bit impatient to "get out there" because the vibrancy of your inner life needs exterior expression, affirmation, and contact with others. Your courage and artistry (whether you think of yourself as an artist or not) are urging you to put your dreams and hopes into positive actions and concrete products and activities. Whatever hesitancies you may have, it is time to let them go.

The upwelling of spirit is within you. Like a spring rising to the surface of the land, your creativity is needing expression in the world. No more practicing and preparing to begin. Get going, one step at a time. You must begin by taking the first step, and then another. Don't let seeing the big picture terrorize you, just take the next step toward manifesting your dreams. You already have all the strength and capacity you need. Begin.

Today's Oracle 18th March 2020

Taranis (God of Lightning and Thunder)

Taranis, the god of lightning and thunder, announces the swift and action-packed authority of the sky world. His actions can be benevolent or destructive. His presence signifies a need to be vigilant and to be ready to act swiftly.

Invoking Action and Vigilance.

Taranis is the Celtic thunderer, his name derived from the Celtic word for thunder, taran. A sky god associated with the heavens and storm clouds, Taranis presides over the weather and conditions of men and women below. The flash of lightning and the roar of thunder signify the capricious nature of the elements and the fortunes of human life. Often allied with the sky god Jupiter, Taranis brings a thunderous, mercurial temperament and destructive character to the company of sky deities.

Little is known about Taranis, the god of lightning and thunder. The archaeological evidence is scarce, with merely seven altar dedications to Taranis among the Roman-Celtic areas of Britain, Gaul, the Rhineland, and Dalmatia (former Yugoslavia ). It is possible that dedications on statuary of Taranis may have been rough-hewn and, like Taranis himself, exposed to the elements, perhaps placed in locations adjoining mountaintops where lightning and thunder were likely. He is closely associated with Jupiter, the most prominent of the sky deities.

Infrequent allusions to Taranis by Roman writers, such as the poet Lucan, are so unflattering that it is improbable that they are impartial, but rather made by a citified outsider commenting about the customs of the rural and agrarian Celts. Lucan, in his Pharsalia, avers that the Gauls encountered by Caesar's army witnessed the making of offerings, blood sacrifices, and even human sacrifices to the shadowy gods Taranis, Teutates, and Esus, though little else is said of them.

As the god of thunder and lightning, Taranis can convey destruction and chaos among his wary supplicants.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, your life probably feels beset with unforeseen changes. The swift pace of events can be unnerving and confusing. This oracle suggests that events are set into motion by natural forces outside your control. You are cautioned to be careful about your speech and actions and yet to be ready to act swiftly, especially if you or others are in danger.

Taranis is associated with the forces of nature. As it is prudent to take precautions and go indoors in inclement weather, it is wise to act in a restrained manner and to maintain a low profile when the circumstances of your life are shifting rapidly. Planning is often useless, even unwise, not only because of changing circumstances, but also because your mental clarity may be impaired. Like changes in the weather, the fast pace now occurring in your life will change soon. This oracle cautions against undue anxiety and suggests combining restraint and readiness in your present actions.

Today's Oracle 17th March 2020

Power of Place (Calling in the Spirit of Place)

The landscape, its hills, glens, plains, shorelines, nooks, and crannies, are the features of the body of the mother goddess, the earth. Place-names honour the unique qualities and lore of place. Similarly, honouring the power of place situates us in the passage of time.

Invoking the Qualities of Familiarity, Remembrance, and Continuity.

The Celts often name a place for its qualities and lore — a dell for providing shelter, a marshy corner for its soft and rushy bottom, a ring fort to signal an otherworldly ambiance, a meadow to mark the battles fought, or a holy well for its protectress. Affecting recollection, familiar places help us to situate ourselves in the passage of time and locale. Recalling such a place, Irish poet Cathal O Searcaigh concludes: "Contradictions are cancelled on the spot."

The landscape - its rocky slopes, the forks of a river, an elder tree, a spring at its source, a widening plain, or undulating hills - reveals the features of the body of the mother earth, the goddess herself. Her countenance is found in the physical appearance of each place. The power of each place is utterly unique, so that its physiognomy and stories, so familiar, are wedded to the memory of the men and women living there. In Ireland and other Celtic lands, power implicit in the stones and earth of a place is frequently distilled in place names, recollecting in a word or phrase the deeds and fortunes of memories past. Like tonic to the human spirit, the power of place - in all its nuances, the horrific and foreboding, the beautiful and innocent - links individuals and community to lore and locale.

In discussing a genre of Irish literature known as dindseanchas, the poet Seamus Heaney writes that its poems and tales "relate the meanings of place names and constitute a form of mythological etymology ... marrying] the geographical country with the country of the mind. Heaney continues:

"The landscape was sacramental, instinct with signs, implying a system of reality beyond the visible realities. Only thirty years ago, and thirty miles from Belfast, I experienced this kind of world vestigially and as a result may have retained some vestigial sense of place as it was experienced in the older dispensation. As I walked to school, I saw Lough Beg from Mulholland's Brae, and the spire of Church Island rose out of the trees. On Church Island Sunday in September, there was a Pilgrimage out to the island, because St. Patrick was supposed to have prayed there, and prayed with such intensity that he branded the shape of his knee into a stone in the old churchyard. The rainwater that collected in that stone, of course, had healing powers, and the thorn bush beside it was pennanted with the rags used by those who rubbed their warts and sores in that water... That legend, and the ringing ascetic triumph of rising in the frosts of winter to pray ... all combined to give Blemish a nimbus of its own.

The power of place is so intimate and "self-contained" that it is virtually hidden from those who inhabit the home, the locale, the village, or the city. Entering the place, the stranger "is immediately aware of the otherness and the intimate nature of the 'place.' One senses the odours unique to the place - its sounds and artifacts.... It is this quality of intimacy, based on uniqueness, that provides the possibility for placehood." By intertwining landscape and lore, the power of place connects the human psyche within the nexus of time and space.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are yearning for a place you can call your own, perhaps a home, a village, a region or country, or a community. You seem to want somewhere to root, to settle, and invest yourself fully. Not anywhere will do. The place must be uniquely right for you. The power of the place compels you. Its atmosphere, physical features, people, vegetation, smells, and wildlife attract you. It may be where you are but your psyche has not yet fully engaged it. It may be a place deeply familiar and redolent of personal memories. Wherever this place is, you are more fully alive there, as though the outer landscape mirrors the inner landscape of who you are and who you are becoming. This remarkable correspondence brings vitality and a sense of contentment and well-being.

Over the course of life, there are times to take pilgrimages to distant places and to garner their qualities to yourself. At other times, such as now, you are invited to situate your life in a particular place, to settle in and to mature amid the familiarity and memories built up over time. Surrounded by these intimacies as though encircled by the lacework of your life, your inner life and external surroundings blend together in support of each other.

Today's Oracle 16th March 2020

Faery Wind (Air)

The faery winds and whirlwinds of late summer burst forth suddenly and take a part of the harvest to the Otherworld. The winds signify the need to offer a part of our resources to the spirit world. The winds urge us to avoid indulgence and to serve our communities generously.

Invoking Exchange with the Spirit World.

The whirlwinds of late summer are the faery hosts out making their rounds. The whirlwinds come on the loveliest days of late summer at harvest time. Sweeping everything into their path, they pass over the countryside as if searching for hay, corn, or even animals. Haystacks are hit and lifted into the skies. Heaps of corn disappear into the faery winds. Sometimes men and women out harvesting blow away, too. The faery hosts raise the high winds to take what they need.

In Ireland, the old people say that it is the faery hosts who raise the high winds. Nodding their heads or tipping their caps at the wind as if greeting a lady, a small whirlwind is thought to be "the gentry," the faeries making their customary rounds about the countryside. A high wind, though, is fearsome and unlucky. Even if you are not blown away, it is unlucky to get a "blast." Grazing horses are known to snort to blow the "good people" out of their way. A characteristic story comes from County Donegal:

"I myself have seen a faery whirlwind on a summer day take all the hay of a holding into the firmament. They often raised high winds in harvest-time to get the corn they wanted. One year long ago a man named Paddy Bhride living east of here at Fál Garbh had the devil's own lot of corn sown - as much as the rest of the town land all together. When he had all his corn reaped and stooped there came a nigh of high wind and Paddy went out [and] there was not as much left as would sprinkle Holy Water on a corpse."

The faery hosts raise the high winds to take what they need of the harvest. As the winds sweep across the winnowed fields, they suddenly can pull a haystack into the sky. A man or woman, horses, and cows can be swept away, too. Sometimes the faeries speak or laugh as they pass across the fields, departing with an acerbic bit of faery whimsy:

"One fine autumn day long ago, a gang of men were reaping oats, and three women were binding the oats after them. They heard a whirlwind coming into the field with force. The women stood looking at the whirlwind. It was lifting the oats, taking it up into the sky, and whirling and whirling all the time. One of the women stooped, and pulled a wisp of grass from the side of the ridge, and when the whirlwind was making for them: "Here," she said, on purpose, "take that instead of me!" throwing the wisp at it. "Aw," said the whirlwind, "you grey goose's shit, it wasn't you I was after!""

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, your life will be enhanced by giving your money, resources, and time to worthy charitable and spiritual endeavours. Within the Christian tradition, tithing is a traditional - and often misunderstood - term for giving back to creation from the fruits of your labours. Numerous indigenous cultures have elaborate rituals for redistributing wealth. In many of the world's religious traditions, merit is acquired by honouring holy men and women with food and alms. In this oracle, the faery winds signify the otherworldly taking of a portion of the harvest to support the needs of the spirit world.

Because the spirit world constantly acts on your behalf, it is honourable to return a measure of your resources to it and to those who support prayerful and spiritual activities on your behalf. The faery winds urge us to avoid indulgence and to cultivate less attachment to material possessions. By consciously giving of your money and time, a natural sense of exchange and respect for the spirit world and all life will gradually extend to everything you do.

Today's Oracle 15th March 2020

Bards (Storytelling)

Around a fire, the old stories are told again. In the telling of stories the past more consciously bears upon the present. Set against the long story of life, the familiar and unusual mingle to form the contours and patterns of our lives.

Invoking the Qualities of Remembrance and Identity.

One local storyteller narrates the history of the people, another relays romantic tales playing fact against fiction, and yet another recites poetry as if words were waves upon the sea. Another storyteller, perhaps an itinerant bard, sings heroic ballads, runes and incantations, songs of romance, or lullabies for children. Genealogies and epics retain the long memory of generations and seldom change. Other stories fashion plots, both old and new, breathing new life and interpretation into changing circumstance.

The most well-known bard of the Celtic tradition is Taliesin Pen Beirdd, the bard of the isle of Britain, who lived in Wales during the second half of the sixth century. A large corpus of songs, poems, and lore are attributed to him. Although much of this work actually comes from medieval times, it is identified with Taliesin to enhance the prestige of the bardic orders in Britain. Nonetheless, the poems of Taliesin stemming from the sixth century, and probably predating his time, relay much of what we know of the ancient bards whose words bestowed blessings on friends and, on the darker side, the curse of satire on foes. Taliesin speaks of his origins:

"I was instructor to the whole universe.
I shall be until the judgement on the face of the earth. . . .
There is not a marvel in the world Which I cannot reveal."

Notwithstanding Taliesin's immodesty, the bards conveyed through the centuries the mysteries of lore and tradition. Stretching back before recorded time, the most important role of itinerant bards and village storytellers was to preserve a vast body of oral lore, including history and genealogies, poems and songs, epic tales, riddles, incantations, knowledge of disputes and settlements, and law.

Travelling from parish to parish in the late nineteenth century, Alexander Carmichael visited many such storytellers and recorded their tales and songs. The storytellers Carmichael sought out were already old; they had learned their poems and stories as children from old storytellers who had learned them when they were children. In this manner, the tales and poems Carmichael collected travel back in memory to the first half of the seventeenth century. Carmichael tells of an itinerant storyteller of early eighteenth-century Scotland, one Catherine Macaulay, who "wandered from house to house, and from townland to townland ... and remained in each place longer or shorter according to the population and the season.... [reciting] night after night, and week after week ... poems and stories ... long and weird." One storyteller of the Outer Hebrides was Janet Campbell, a nurse, who "had many beautiful songs and lullabies of the nursery... [H]er stories had a charm for children ... listening to what the bear said to the bee, the fox to the lamb, the harrier to the hen, the serpent to the pipet, the whale to the herring, and the brown otter of the stream to the silvery grilse of the current."

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, knowing and interpreting the long story of your life - or the long story of your family, community, or people - is important to you. Sacred texts, great literature, or science fiction that probes the boundaries of the future may unexpectedly seem more relevant to you.

Some of your own life stories will not change, or only slightly. Others, reflected in the mirror of current circumstance, will change dramatically. In the act of telling stories, the past more consciously bears upon the present. Former times are revisited and integrated, sometimes in startling ways. Familiar and seemingly stray events are probed for meaning. In your stories, the familiar and unusual are bound to mingle, forming the rich contours and patterns of your life.

The art of storytelling is active, not passive. Though a story is unchanged from an earlier telling, it nonetheless brings reminiscence, meaning, and identity. What is more, a changing story may contain the promptings and guidance of spirit. Watch your own tellings for changes - they may indicate a shifting of awareness as well as prospects for the future.

Today's Oracle 14th March 2020

The Sacred Three (Seeing in All Directions)

Odd numbers, multiples of three, and the triple spirals are sacred symbols in the Celtic world. Triplication of divine figures signifies the all-seeing and unifying presence of the spirit world. Look for the wider circumstances behind events.

Invoking Awareness of the Spirit World.

The tripling of supernatural figures and sacred attributes signifies the all- seeing and unifying presence of the spirit world. Triplication reaches its height in the images of the Triple-Mother Goddess. Tripling the image gives an air of magic and fervour to gods, heads, horns, phalluses, horses, and faces of supernatural figures.The image of the tricephalos appears to look out in three directions simultaneously from a single head.

The image of the Sacred Three pervades Celtic iconography and story from the pre-Roman period on through to the predominance of the Trinity in Celtic Christianity. Sublimity and power are linked to the tripling of images and attributes. The well-known Triple Spiral was carved on stones at Newgrange by the Stone Age ancestors of the Celts. Images of the Triple-Mother Goddess abound in the pre-Roman and Roman-Celtic period. By tradition, when the first Celts invaded Ireland, they were met by the three goddesses who protected the land. Brigit is sometimes triplicated or represented as three sisters. Powerful attributes such as horns and phalluses are triplicated.

Of particular significance in this image of goddesses and gods are the triple-faced or triple-headed images from northeastern Gaul, near modern Reims, as well as a few images from the south and west of Gaul and even from as far north as Scotland and Ireland. A triple-faced image may appear as a single head with three distinct faces, sometimes blended with one dominant face and two in profile. Occasionally, the heads in juxtaposition may vary in age, one old and two representing youth, and less frequently male and female faces may be combined together. Images from modern Trier and Metz portraying the Triple-Mother Goddess appear to trample on the tricephalos (triple-headed) god beneath, suggesting the dominance of the mother goddess over the triple-headed god.

The Celts, already linking the supernatural with the Sacred Three, took naturally to Trinitarian formulations in the early Christian period. In the Carmina Gadelica, Alexander Carmichael chronicles the hymns, runes, prayers, invocations, and customs of late-nineteenth-century farmers and crofters of the Scottish Highlands and the Outer Hebrides. One of the loveliest rituals invoking the Trinity is an evening ritual known as the "smooring of the fire," performed by the woman of the house:

"Peat is the fuel of the Highlands [of Scotland] and [the Outer Hebrides] ... Where wood is not obtainable the fire is kept in during the night. The ceremony of smooring the fire is artistic and symbolic, and is performed with loving care. The embers are evenly spread on the hearth - which is generally in the middle of the floor and formed into a circle. This circle is then divided into three equal sections, a small boss being left in the middle. A peat is laid between each section, each peat touching the boss, which forms a common centre. The first peat is laid down in name of the god of Life, the second in name of the god of Peace, the third in name of the god of grace. The circle is then covered over with ashes sufficient to subdue but not to extinguish the fire, in name of the Three of Light. The heap slightly raised in the centre is called "Tula nan Trí," the Hearth of the Three. When the smooring operation is complete the woman closes her eyes, stretches her hand, and softly intones one of the many formulae current for these occasions.
The sacred Three
To save,
To shield,
To surround,
The hearth,
The house,
The household,
This eve,
This night,
Oh! this eve,
This night,
And every night,
Each single night.
Amen."

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are focusing too narrowly on the immediate circumstances rather than looking at the larger context and possibilities for the future. The all-seeing vision of this oracle invites you to step back from the immediate situation, to scan events as though you were looking at them from a distance, and to imagine how possible outcomes might look from a future date. This enlarged perspective will inspire confidence, focus your intention, and simplify your actions.

In a larger sense, the Sacred Three reminds you that the multiplicity of forms and events before you are actually unified, if you were to see your life from an expanded perspective. The Triple Spiral expands in all directions. The tricephalos sees in all directions. The Christian Trinity represents the fullness of the Divine. By cultivating a wider vision, you will come to savor a grander unity beyond all the myriad forms and events in life. Your actions will become simple and efficient as you see the interrelations in your life.

UPDATE - On COVID-19

An update on COVID-19 (13th March 2020)

Whenever I am thinking about a situation or problem that needs solving I generally reach for my Tarot cards and start with a quick 3 card spread to see if anything comes to light. Usually it does, if I need more clarity I will try another spread to gain more insight on the problem/situation. So seeing as the UK government seems to be slowly reacting to COVID-19 and Boris is quite happy to listen to his experts I thought I would cast a quick 3 carder to see if it would enlighten me or certainly inspire me to think about the problem in a more logical and analytical manner. So have a look at this spread below and see just how it gave me some food for thought.

Introduction

How long will Covid-19 last and what can we do to halt its progress, longterm?

3 Card (Past, Present and Future) Spread.

Five of Clubs (Reversed)

The Past: Past events or influences that have played an important part in bringing about the current
situation, perhaps including those that brought one to the need for the question in the first place.
The effect of those events or influences on the present and how best we can use them to shape and
understand the future.

Upright: Indicates an agreement. It is a neutral card by itself. It simply means agreement: contracts,
commitments, transactions, etc.

Reversed: Trickery, complexity, involvement.

Two of Spades

The Present: Where the querent finds themselves at the present time. Opportunities and obstacles
in the current situation.

Upright: Signifies change. It’s the feeling of walking in one direction then suddenly you take a step
in another direction and continue on from there. This card deals with a definite change of course in
readings. Patience.

Reversed: The waiting is over. Stalemate ended. Beware of a new situation. The seeker, or someone
known to the seeker, may travel soon.

Ace of Hearts (Reversed)

The Future: Future events and fresh influences about to come into play that will operate in the near
future. Possible outcome of the situation. One's aspirations.

Upright: Focuses on the home. Another neutral card. The other cards surrounding the Ace of
Hearts will show you the actual feelings concerning “the home”.

Reversed: False hope, clouded joy, fulfillment delayed, false heart, unfaithfulness, false love,
change, alteration, sterility.

Personal Notes

This card has a lot to do with family and ‘home’ matters. It can also indicate problems or troubles
being relieved between loved ones. This card can also speak of good news to or from a family
member or possibly a marriage. It is said that if this card falls within the first three cards of any
spread it may indicate that the Inquirer is in an emotional or sensitive state of mind.

Conclusion and Outcome

I can see the past and present situations quite clearly, what matters is the final card (3). The Ace
of Hearts is telling us that if we stay at home for longer periods then the virus has nowhere to
go and the likelihood of it spreading is reduced dramatically. In turn this will delay the spread,
reduce infection and eventually the virus will die.

The logical way to solve this situation is to deploy our Armed Forces who are professional and
well organised. The plan would be to isolate area by area, as each area is clear then move on
to the next. Control is fundamental so we could addopte the same strategy that Italy has used
by restricting movement that is non essential and issuing travelling passes for movement around
the country for those who are clear and have important and necessary work to do.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO DO IS, TEST TEST TEST.

Setup military checkpoints outside major cities and large towns to supervise control over movement,
monitoring of clear areas and infected areas is paramount. Once everyone and everywhere is
clear a strict control of movement of people entering and leaving the country is vital to safeguard
the cleanup that has been done over the control period.

If this works then the strategy could be incorporated worldwide.

I know this all sounds a bit drastic but unless somebody can effectively and efficiently control and
monitor movement then we will not stop this virus in any other way.

Today's Oracle 13th March 2020

Cernunnos, Antlered god (Lord of the Animals)

God and guardian of the animal realm, Cernunnos' authority is heralded by wearing the antlers of the deer. He provides sustenance and protection for the animals under his care. His qualities are generosity and magnanimity.

Invoking the Qualities of Generosity and Magnanimity.

As Lord of the Animals, Cernunnos provides refuge, sustenance, and well- being for the animals of the great forests of Europe. Majestically portrayed on the Gundestrup Cauldron, the antlered Cernunnos sits cross-legged on the ground next to a great stag. Cernunnos also appears intimately allied with the mother goddesses, carrying cornucopiae and offering bowls of fruit and grain to animals. The sovereign Cernunnos signifies generosity and magnanimity toward those he protects.

As early as the fourth century B.C., Cernunnos appears in rock drawings from the Camonica Valley of northern Italy. Cernunnos's authority is heralded by his great antlers, signifying his lordship among the animals of the forest of Europe. Through the centuries, his symbols - antlers of a great stag, Celtic jewelry called torcs, and the ram-horned snake remained remarkably consistent. Drawn on cave walls by Iron Age Celts, he appears robed and standing, and arrayed with great antlers, torcs on both arms, and a ram-horned snake at his side. On the Gundestrup Cauldron, Cernunnos's portrayal is regal: he sits cross-legged on the ground like a hunter, grasping a tore in one hand and a ram-horned snake against his face in the other. He is surrounded by a bull, hound, boar, and otherworldly animals. A stag with identical antlers stands beside him, as though mirroring his image as an animal.

Extending his sovereignty to include imagery usually associated with the mother goddesses, Roman-Celtic statues of Cernunnos show him carrying abundant cornucopias, feeding animals, and offering grain or coins from a bag.'' Like the mother goddess, also common at this time, Cernunnos extends his protection to include the growth of crops and the health and well-being of animals and humans alike.

His best-known image comes from Lady Charlotte Guest's rendering of "The Lady of the Fountain," included in her translation of the Mabinogion. Cernunnos appears as the potent Lord of the Animals:

"Sleep here tonight, and in the morning arise early, and take the road upwards through the valley until thou ... comest to a large sheltered glade with a mound in the centre. And thou wilt see a black man of great stature on the top of the mound. He is not smaller than two men of this world. He has but one foot, and one eye in the middle of his forehead. And he has a club of iron. .. . And he is not a comely man, but on the contrary he is exceedingly ill favoured; and he is the Woodward of that wood.
And thou wilt see a thousand wild animals grazing all around him....
And the next morning I arose ... and proceeded straight through the valley to that wood.... And there was I three times more astonished at the number of wild animals.... And the black man was there, sitting upon the top of the mound. Huge of stature as the man had told me....
Then I asked him what power he had over the animals.... And he took his club in his hand, and with it he struck a stag so great a blow that it brayed vehemently, and at his braying the animals came together, as numerous as the stars in the sky, so that it was difficult for me to find room in the glade to stand among them. There were serpents, and dragons and divers sorts of animals. And [the black man] looked at them, and bade them go and feed; and they bowed their heads, and did him homage as vassals to their lord."

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you may not think of yourself as regal, as having a noble character; yet this capacity is developing within you. Others are already looking to you for strength, support, and guidance, even if you are not aware of your influence on them and your importance in their eyes. The "others" may be your children, employees, friends, partners, family, or neighbours. If you are not in a position of great external authority, your character is nonetheless leaving a strong impression on those around you. If your meditation has been strong, your spiritual maturity may be garnering such strength that it is beginning to show in your actions and presence.

Generosity comes from confidence and magnanimity from strength, an inner knowledge that life will always be filled up and replenished anew. More and more, your actions are spontaneous and unaffected. By responding to the needs of others unselfconsciously, you are participating in the natural urge of creation to increase in generosity and love.

Today's Oracle 12th March 2020

The Morrigán, the Raven goddess (Chaos)

The Morrigán signals the presence of sex, lovemaking, chaos, and often death to a particular way of being. Chaos clears the way for transformation. Often appearing in disguise, her qualities are confusion, chaos, destruction or death, and rapid change.

Invoking the Quality of Rapid Change.

The Morrigán presides at thresholds of change, namely conflict, life and death, and sexuality. On the eve of the battle, in the twilight between the armies, the Morrigán hails the victor in the shape of a great crow or raven, screaming encouragement to the favoured and death to foes. Voraciously sexual, her couplings with gods and heroes render protection and fertility to the land. Her presence signifies confusion, destruction, and, especially, rapid change.

After the Tuatha De Danann had defeated the Fomorians, a demon-like race inhabiting Ireland, and cleared away the slaughter, the Morrigán or Mórrígu (meaning the "Terrifying" or "Great Queen") proclaimed news of victory and peace to Ireland. Joined in a single voice, the ancestors, the rivers, the summits, and the sources of waters of Ireland demanded, "What is the news?"

"Peace up to heaven
Heaven down to earth
Earth beneath heaven
Strength in each
A cup very full
Full of honey
Mead in abundance
Summer in winter ...
Peace up to heaven ..."

Later in mythic history, in the Ulster Cycle and the Táin Bó Cuailnge (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) chronicling the great conflict between the provinces of Ulster and Connacht, the war goddesses Neamhain, Badhbh, and the Morrigán terrify the Connachtmen and "a hundred warriors died of fright ." Appearing as a great crow or raven, the Morrigán prophesies victory to the forces of Ulster and hides the deadly news from the forces of Connacht. The great hero of the conflict is Cú Chulainn, the Hound of Ulster. Throughout the epic cycle, Cu Chulainn himself is hounded by the seductive and clever Morrigán, who both aids and ultimately defeats him. She attempts to seduce him, he spurns her, and she attacks him in revenge. She tricks him into breaking his geis, his sacred oath: Cú Chulainn eats the flesh of a dog, his namesake. Weakened, he goes into battle. Shortly thereafter, the Morrigán appears to him as the Washer at the Ford, washing blood from his tunic, a sure sign of approaching death:

"She was washing blood-stained clothes in the stream, moaning and sobbing all the time. As Cú Chulainn watched, she lifted the garment she was washing out of the water and he saw his own tunic in her hands. Blood poured from it into the stream and turned the water red."

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are approaching or are in the midst of rapid change. While the appearance of a goddess of war may appear sinister, she also clears the way for a new order once the chaos and confusion have passed. With greater spiritual maturity and experience, the presence of the Morrigán is welcomed. Following in her wake, you can quickly and even graciously rid yourself of attachments to material possessions, bankrupt relationships, and harmful or futile circumstances. This oracle is auspicious: great psychological and spiritual progress is possible. Success depends on your conscious participation, as the changes now in progress are inevitable and you cannot change them. However, by consciously observing and welcoming the changes, a new order will quickly appear, integrating remnants of your old life with new elements you never dreamed possible.

Casting this oracle may also signal the need to remain in a state of upheaval and bewilderment for a while longer. At present, no future direction can be clearly indicated, and the oracle cautions you to wait and ask again later.

Today's Oracle 11th March 2020

Oengus/Mabon (Youthful Champion, Son of Light)

Oengus is one of the Tuatha De Danann, son of a secret union between Daghdha and Bóinn, the river goddess. Falling in love with a girl he sees in a dream, Oengus finds her and heroically wins her. Oengus and his counterpart in the Welsh tradition, Mabon, represent the youthful championing of innocence, virtue, and love.

Invoking the Defence of Innocence, Love, and Virtue.

Oengus is the son of a secret union of Daghdha, the Good God, and Bóinn, the river goddess. Oengus sees a girl in a dream and falls in love with her. Though he finds her and her companions living in a lake, they are shape-shifters who transform into swans every other year. Unable to persuade the girl's father to allow him to wed her, he turns himself into a swan and they fly away together as swans. Oengus represents heroic love, innocence, virtue, and the overcoming of obstacles.

In Irish myth, Oengus is the heroic champion. Variously known as the son of the goddess or the son of light, Oengus is one of the Tuatha De Danann, a race of supernatural beings forced to dwell underground with the coming of the Celts to Ireland. In the mating of the river goddess, Bóinn, and the Good God, Daghdha, Oengus is conceived. In order to hide their secret union, Bóinn and Daghdha cause the sun to stand still in the heavens for nine months, giving the appearance that Oengus is conceived and born on the same day. Imbued with the armour of the sun, Oengus becomes a wondrous youth, the champion of love, innocence, and virtue.

As a young man, Oengus dreams of a young girl he does not know. Upon awakening, he is passionately in love with her and sets out searching the countryside to find her. When at last he finds Caer ("Yew Berry"), she is living in a lake, a portal to the Otherworld. Caer and her girl companions are shape-shifters, and every other year, at the festival of Samhain, they turn into swans. All of them have lovely chains around their necks, except Caer's is made of gold. Though Oengus begs to marry Caer, her marriage signals the father's death and he adamantly refuses. Only at Samhain, when the thresholds between the worlds are as thin as veils, might he escape with her. Waiting until Samhain, Oengus turns himself into a swan and he and Caer fly away together, circling the lake three times to enchant the inhabitants to sleep for three nights and three days.

In the Welsh tradition, the youthful champion is the son of the Modron, the mother goddess. He is called Mabon, taken from his mother at the age of three days and held captive in a prison by Arthur for uncounted centuries. When, countless ages later, he is released, Mabon is older than any living creature. Of supernatural birth, he is destined to be a champion of the right and those on quest for the sake of love: Mabon's assistance allows Arthur and Culhwch to overtake Twrch Trwyth, a fierce wild boar, and to seize the scissors, razor, and comb between its ears. It is a quest within a quest, and only by securing this extraordinary prize can Culhwch wed Olwen, the object of his impassioned love.

Born of supernatural origins, Oengus and Mabon are prefigured champions, each a wondrous child, who has grown older to overcome the impossible.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are a champion of unpopular causes. You want to live honourably and honestly even if it costs you time and money. Pursuing honest work and maintaining faithful relationships are extremely important to you. Male or female, you are developing the noble character of a knight, striving from a sense of fidelity and virtue on behalf of everyone. In this matter, you are capable of great accomplishments, overcoming obstacles that would seem hopeless and fearful to most people.

Having drawn this oracle, you may also be facing a situation that tempts you away from virtuous actions and toward an easier and more convenient course. Do not mistake expediency for virtue. As with champions, you are being tested. Look closely at the situation, seeking to see the good, innocent, reliable, and honest. Any gain from acting cheaply or deceitfully will be temporary and vacuous. Rather than acting imprudently, act from a sense of principle. Whatever your age, the oracle promises you a youthful energy to champion an honourable cause, action, and outcome.

Today's Oracle 10th March 2020

Chambers in the Earth (Rhythms of the Otherworld)

Caves and subterranean chambers, natural or dug out of the ground, represent our desire to maintain an intimate connection to the Otherworld. Although our actions may seem slow or sluggish to others, steady progress is occurring in the rhythm common to the Otherworld.

Invoking a Slow and Rhythmical Course of Action.

Like their Neolithic and Bronze Age ancestors, the Iron Age Celts use caves and subterranean chambers for shelter, protection, and ritual. On the walls, they carve images of solar wheels and stag hunting, bringing the potency of the sun and the sacred hunt into the earth's interior chambers. These caves and chambers provide refuge from the harsh outer world and connection with the never-ending pulse of life within the earth's sacred interior, the sovereign mother goddess.

In the Valley of Camonica in the Alps of northern Italy, sacred rock carvings enhance the walls of natural caves. Largely composed of solar wheels, stag deer, and hunting scenes, these carvings transport the potency and virility of the sun, the stag, and the sacred hunt into the earth's interior. The rays of sun are depicted as immense antlers spreading like the branches of a tree. Cernunnos, the Lord of the Animals, has antlers flowering out of his head and wears a Celtic tore on each arm. Praying and dancing figures, penises erect, enclose around a stag. A solar figure appears as an arbiter between hunters.

Like many ancient cultures, the Iron Age Celts sought out caves and subterranean chambers for protection and shelter from weather, predators, and enemies. Within them they communicated with the Otherworld and dramatized the bringing and taking of life by depicting the fury of the hunt and the authority of the sun. Within the caves, the natural wombs of the earth, the mysteries of sexual union and fertility could be celebrated in intimate connection with the primal pulse of the sovereign mother goddess, the earth herself.

In later Celtic periods, mythological figures are thought to reside within famous tombs, especially in Ireland. The magnificent megalithic tombs at Newgrange, the Brú na Bóinne, in County Meath, are thought to have been constructed as the abode of the supernatural beings. In Irish literature, Newgrange is the dwelling place of the powerful god Daghdha, his wife, Bóinn, and son, Oengus. The kings of Tara sought to aggrandize their authority by claiming Newgrange and the nearby tombs at Dowth and Knowth as royal burial sites, even in the Christian period.

Hills, mountains, rocks, crevices, and caves are also favoured by leprechauns and faeries as dwelling places. As descendants of the people of the goddess Danu, the Tuatha De Danann, the faeries have long inhabited the underworld, the subterranean realm just below the ground, living within the ground and especially liking "faery mounds" apart from human habitation. Faeries and leprechauns often slip into the ground invisibly, as if the ground has swallowed them.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, the resources and rhythms of nature, and especially the Otherworld, would provide steady continuity in some aspect of your life. Aside from earthquakes affecting the earth's surface, the rhythm or pulse of Mother Earth is largely slow, regular, dependable, and certain. Constancy and consistency bring success.

Your creative ideas and enthusiasm are like the rays of the sun. By stabilizing your ideas and energies in the steady and balanced rhythms common to the earth and the practical aspects of human life, you will complete important projects, build confidence, acquire continuity in relationships, and achieve balance between the creative forces of earth and sky. For now, do not be concerned if you feel that things are going too slowly. Having drawn this oracle, the constant rhythms of Mother Earth are bringing balance and certainty into your life.

Having drawn this oracle, you may feel that a particular quality needs to be solidified to become a more permanent part of your nature. If so, inquire of the oracles once again.

Today's Oracle 9th March 2020

Tír na nÓg (Blessed Isle to the West)

The Tír na nÓg is one of many blessed and magical isles to the west. It is the land of the forever young, revelling in beauty, merriment, and harmony. Its qualities are joy, pleasure, peace, and blessing.

Invoking the Qualities of Harmony, Peace, and Blessing.

The blessed isles lie off the west coasts of Ireland and Scotland, as if to follow . - the sun in its homeward path. At the coming of the Celts to Ireland, the ancient Tuatha De Danann take shelter there. In The Voyage of Bran, Bran and his men wander the seas in search of the Island of Women, a land revelling in harmony, beautiful women, and merriment. In the Fionn Cycle, the young champion Oisín and the princess Niamh of the Golden Hair ride on the sea as if it were a plain to Tir na nÓg, the Land of the Forever Young.

The sanctity of islands to the west harkens back to a mythic time. Dozens of lake islands and islands off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland are revered as sites of homage and pilgrimage, associated with monasteries and abbeys in our time. The prospect of enchanted islands, beckoning the youthful and the adventurous, appearing and disappearing from sight, riding on shining pedestals to glisten in the sun, singing with music to sweeten the air, and bestowing gifts on the virtuous and forsaken has long inspired the Celtic imagination. "West of the sun," for example, is the island of Iona, St. Columba's (Colm Cille) holy strand.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, you are becoming more aware of the simple and delightful pleasures of living. The blessings of a land "flowing with milk and honey" in your own terms are coming into your life. Long-held tensions, grudges, hurts, and fears are losing their hold on you. Personal and professional conflicts are being resolved. Harmony and contentment are replacing disappointment and loss. Your life's work is beginning to manifest in clear and concrete ways.

True paradise is a state of grace. No one can give you joy or take it away. No circumstance can deprive you of your dignity or value. No dream come true is necessarily better than the delight and opportunity to dream. No accord, contract, job, relationship, possession, privilege, or status is better than your inmost vision of yourself, the paradise of being fully content and satisfied. In the Celtic imagination, such a blessing is westward, in the direction of the sun's journey homeward, inward to itself, deep within the pleasures of being fabulously alive.

Today's Oracle 8th March 2020

Faeries of Music, Dance, and the Performing Arts

Faeries love to dance, sing, and play music, and sometimes gift musicians (especially fiddlers and pipers) with great talent in fiddling or piping. Their presence brings talents and resources in the pleasures of dancing, singing, and music.

Invoking Talents and Resources.

The faeries are known to love music and dance for a night and a day or even longer. Great musicians, particularly pipers and fiddlers, are inspired by overhearing faery music, happening upon a faery wedding and learning the tunes, or encountering a faery who strokes the strings of a fiddle, forever enchanting it with tunes. So beautiful is faery music that an inspired musician will always be in demand to play and never again be poor.

IF YOU ARE DRAWN TO THIS ORACLE, the spirit world wishes to gift you with talent and creative inspiration. You may even feel as though you have acquired an invisible companion, a kind of muse from the spirit world to guide and inspire you. You may feel gifted by insight or sudden talent, as if inspired from an imperceivable, spiritual source. Music and poetry may seem to be coming out of thin air. If illuminating ideas seem to arise in your mind as easily as air fills your lungs, you are being inspired by the breath of the spirit world.

It is important to be gracious and generous to yourself during special times of inspiration and creativity. For some people, such times can lead to over stimulation and intense activity. Others become drowsy or drift from one thing to another. Still others feel lost or confused. Like prayer and meditation, times of inspiration require personal nurture and constancy. Be mindful of nourishing yourself with nutritious food, sufficient rest and sleep, healthy exercise, and supportive companionship. By acquiring regular habits of work and relaxation, creative inspiration will become a natural, routine part of your life.