Religious Tolerance

Bullheaded Black Remembers Alexander is a great new book by J. L. Taylor illustrating religious thought during the time of Alexander the Great.  The author does a brilliant job of tying in religious tolerance questions of the time with current issues today.

Link to Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1709165.Bullheaded_Black_Remembers_Alexander

Pagan Judaism

I have just finished reading a book about pagan Judaism (sometimes called Jewitchery) called Magickal Judaism by Jennifer Hunter.  This is a thorough overview of the history of Judaism with connection to its pagan roots. While I was sometimes confused by the intricacies of Jewish belief, this is simply as a result of my own ignorance and not a reflection on the quality of the book. I enjoyed the inclusion of Jewish-Pagan rituals and prayers, as well as the diverse opinions the author included. I recommend this book to anyone with basic knowledge of Judaism or Paganism who is curious about various Jewish-Pagan practices.

Link to Goodreads: Magickal Judaism 

Celtic Resources

I have been reading a wonderful book on pre-Christian Celtic beliefs called Kindling the Celtic Spirit by Mara Freeman.  In the back of the book, she lists a bibliography that is replete with scholarly books about Celtic paganism.  Some of the books are old and obscure, but I hope this list will be helpful.

The Silver Bough: 001 (Canongate Classic): McNeill, Florence Marian
The Wisdom of the Outlaw: The Boyhood Deeds of Finn in Gaelic Narrative Tradition: Nagy, Joseph Falaky   
The Celtic Heroic Age: Literary Sources for Ancient Celtic Europe & Early Ireland & Wales: Koch, John T.
Survivals in Belief Among the Celts: Henderson, George
Cornish Feasts And Folk-Lore: Courtney, Margaret Ann   
The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales: Episodes from the Fionn Saga: Young, Ella
Trioedd Ynys Prydein: The Triads of the Island of Britain: Bromwich, Rachel
The Other World, According to Descriptions in Medieval Literature: Patch, Howard Rollin
Hibernica Minora: Meyer, Kuno
Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist: Shaw, Margaret Fay
On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, Lects., Ed. with an Intr. by W.K. Sullivan: O'Curry, Eugene
Silva Gadelica: A Collection Of Tales In Irish With Extracts Illustrating Persons And Places: O'Grady, Standish H.
Miscellanea hibernica: Burd, Henry Alfred
Old Celtic Romances: Joyce, P.W.
Iona;: A history of the island: McNeill, Florence Marian   
Selections from Ancient Irish Poetry: Meyer, Kuno
Life of Merlin: Clarke, Basil
The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth: Graves, Robert
Folk Lore And Folk Stories Of Wales: Trevelyan, Marie
The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and Romance: hÓgáin, Dáithí Ó    
Medieval Irish Lyrics: Selected and Translated. With, the Irish Bardic Poet : A Study in the Relationship of Poet and Patron: Carney, James   
The Celtic Poets: Songs and Tales from Early Ireland and Wales: Ford, Patrick K.
Origin of the Grail Legend: Brown, Arthur C.L.
The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends: Briggs, Katharine Mary   
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy: Eliade, Mircea  (not strictly Celtic, follows many cultures)
Wales and the Arthurian legend: Loomis, Roger Sherman   
Crossing the Circle at the Holy Wells of Ireland: Brenneman, Walter L.
Stations of the Sun: Hutton, Ronald
Irish Folktales: Glassie, Henry   
Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community: Glassie, Henry H.
Ancient Irish Tales: Cross, Tom Peete
Early Irish Myths and Sagas: Gantz, Jeffrey   
The Stars of Ballymenone: Glassie, Henry   
Carmina Gadelica: Carmichael, Alexander

Online English and Gaelic Carmina Gadelica: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg.htm#

Also, there is a website called CELT, which is a searchable database of Irish texts and their translations: http://celt.ucc.ie/index.html 

Blessings,
Bridget Triskele

A Warrior's Creed

I have no parents:
I make the heavens and Earth my parents.

I have no home:
I make awareness my home.

I have no life or death:
I make the tides of breathing my life and death.

I have no divine power:
I make honesty my divine power.

I have no means:
I make understanding my means.

I have no magic secrets:
I make character my magic secret.

I have no body:
I make endurance my body.

I have no eyes:
I make the flash of lightning my eyes.

I have no ears:
I make sensibility my ears.

I have no limbs:
I make promptness my limbs.

I have no strategy:
I make "unshadowed by thought" my strategy.

I have no design:
I make "seizing opportunity by the forelock" my design.

I have no miracles:
I make right action my miracles.

I have no principles:
I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.

I have no tactics:
I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.

I have no talents:
I make ready wit my talent.

I have no friends:
I make my mind my friend.

I have no enemy:
I make carelessness my enemy.

I have no armor:
I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.

I have no castle:
I make immovable mind my castle.

I have no sword:
I make absence of mind my sword.


Anonymous Samurai, 14th century
Source

Inanna's Prayer

You for whom the house of love
Has become the house of death –
I Who am the Goddess
    Of love and death
    Open My arms to embrace you.
You are My heras, My heroes,
    My saints, My holy martyrs.
And whether you come to me joyfully,
    Or recklessly, or accidentally,
I welcome you.

Come, enter My house, renew yourself.
Eat from My table,
Sleep in My bed,
Taste unimagined pleasures.

Do you think you paid too high a price
    For pleasure?
I reward those who do not bargain
Who willingly or unwillingly
    Give their all.

The worst is over.
Death is not so terrible,
It’s the getting there that hurts.
Now rest
Now take comfort, now take joy
In the exquisite love
    That you have earned.

Source: The Pagan Book of Living and Dying by Starhawk and M. Macha NightMare

Declaration of Spirituality

As a child of the universe, I care for and respect the forces that give me life.

I am beholden to no gods, and neither was I born fallen, nor dirty, nor broken.  I do not need to be saved from anything: I save myself with reason and discernment.

With the power of free will comes accountability for my actions.  I am in control, compelled by no external forces: thus, I accept full responsibility for my choices.

I take no words—written or spoken—as literal truth.  Words are human creations, and each contains a context, a bias unique to the thinker.  I weigh everything according to my own perceptions and common sense.

The world is infinite possibility.  We are all beings of action, weavers in the web of experience and history.  Therefore, I prepare for any situation I might face, with the confidence that I can handle anything.

I am part of the energy that flows wherever there is life.  I will always survive because I never truly die—I merely pass from one form to another.  Ergo, the only thing that can hold me captive is myself.

Everything is a cycle, and everything is a process.  We are never truly at the top or at the end: there is always more to come.

I seek harmony and balance with all things, but when I perceive a threat, I take steps to prevent harm and defend myself.  I cannot be a victim if I am the one in control.

Rune of St. Patrick (Faedh Fiada)

At Tara to-day in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
        All these I place,
        By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

Source

Pagan Prayer

From infinity came Oneness,
From the One came the many,
And now we are part of the eternal family.
Every morning when I awaken,
I feel the loving grace of the Lord and Lady
Fill me with joy and wonder.
Every evening when I sleep,
They bring me dreams
Of beauty and peace.
Fairies of the rings, of earth, fire, wind, and sea,
Please bring joy, happiness, and love to me.
Each and every day, I am strong and healthy.
I am at peace with myself and my world,
And I am empowered by my inner flame.
I am free of stress and filled with bliss.
I am worthy of giving and receiving love.
I let go of the past now, once and for all.
All negativity and ill energy
Be cleansed from all parts of my body.
Blessed be, the self I used to be.
Blessed be, the self that I set free.