Amongst Trees and Roadside Things

Nut laden overhanging Beech Tree

macro shot of a Beech Nut

The Beech trees almost olive green are laden with nuts and soon squirrels will

dance on thin branches & to gather their winter fayre. 

A rare road marker

At the road side a rarity sits, it is almost a monument to old travellers, a

hand carved Milestone. The thoroughfares were littered with them once on main roads and byways, at junctions and forks in odd out of the way places; these sentinels stood marking the path and telling the distance.

A surprise came my way the other day. A call from a friend who said

'Can I use your poem "Moon Is" to decorate an entrance for the 

Body and Soul Festival at Ballinlough Castle?'

Needless to say I was delighted with this to me novel way of viewing prose.

Details:

Ballinlough Castle is located on the N52 (Kells to Mullingar road) approximately 3 miles south of Clonmellon and 4 miles west of Athboy. www.ballinloughcastle.ie

Body & Soul Festival bodyandsoul.ie

The words are :- 

Moon is 

                  subtle

Oval ivory white

                  countenance

A sensuous glow

                  disturbs

Who sits in quiet

                  encourages

Observance

                  merriment

At least

                  pleasures         

Tempts one

                  desires

To believe so

                  love 

Innocent  

                  lust

       

    She is an Earthy Woman

© MRL 2014

GOBLIN MARKET

Am pleased to be able to share this with you all.


Having sold-out in Brighton last year, a group of queer pagans are doing a mini-tour of Goblin Market,  starting in Bristol for one night - Saturday 12 July.
Later dates will be in Brighton (August) & London (September, hopefully)......and if all goes well, more venues later...Nottingham is one possibility.

They really need to fill the Bristol auditorium though I realize it's quite short notice.......so please spread the word to anyone one you know in the South-West & West of England or in Wales who might enjoy the show.

Tickets are now on sale online so please encourage people to buy them....if we do sell out (and I do hope so!) there will be few, if any, tickets at the door.

There are four links that will take you to the page:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/741745

http://bpt.me/741745

http://goblin-market.brownpapertickets.com

http://goblin-market.bpt.me

For those of you who would like to read Christina Rossetti's poem please follow the link 

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/16950/pg16950.html 

A Church in Disgrace

These last few days have been dreadfully sad as day after day more news of the horrors that were perpetrated on the babies and young children who died in the Christian Mother & Baby Homes is published. 


Putting into words exactly how I feel is exceedingly difficult, words like Barbaric, Vile and Despicable come into my mind. In some ways perhaps, I now have a greater understanding  of how the non-combatant Germans felt on hearing of the horrors of the concentration camps. For both organisations deployed their tyranny over the innocent.


This is the third set of diabolical secrets that have come to light in recent years and all of them against young women and children. I ask myself why should I be surprised, considering that there are ancient places in every locality in Ireland that have been used for the burial of unbaptised babies and suicides who were banned from burial in Roman Catholic cemeteries.  
ref: http://aheronsview.blogspot.ie/2011/02/sacred-land.html


One may ask how all these atrocities were ignored by the authorities and it is because of the dominance of a christian sect, namely the Roman Catholic Church who were given total control over the welfare of the nation's Colleges, Schools, Hospitals and various Institutional Homes.


The majority of people,the politicians, civil servants, Garda(Police) and Armed Forces personnel have been educated by the R.C.C. and brainwashed into believing that this particular sect is the sole authority of their one great God. Fear was and is the key. Keep the people in fear that they won't go to heaven unless they obey all of the R.C.C. rules. This Tyranny of Fear has been practiced by them for centuries.


A question that I have often asked of christian priests is this: 
"If Mr Jesus returned today would he recognise The Church as being an organisation that represents his views and values?"
This generally met with silence and/or a slight shaking of the head.


Although I am not a christian I did spend a considerable amount of time as a younger man researching christianity and other religions, none of which I was drawn to. Christianity is supposed to be based on Love and Forgiveness yet the way in which it is practised love and forgiveness are subject to conditions not mentioned by Mr Jesus.


Since the three sets of atrocities have come to the fore, there has been a steady decline of church attendance in towns and cities, as peoples awareness of the rights of individuals and the wrongs of church officials becomes apparent. That is no bad thing.

Stone Rings & Dry Sailors

The other day we went on a days' tour to some ancient sites.

About 3 miles outside of Tullow, Co.Carlow on the N81, we made our first stop to view the stone that ultimately led to the death of Niall of the Nine Hostages, according to Irish mythology. For it was here that he chained Eochaid, son of Énnae Cennsalach,a king of Leinster. However, all did not bode well as Eochaid broke free and killed his captors - the nine warriors who Niall had sent to kill him. Some years later Eochaid executed further retribution by killing Niall in Scotland with an arrow.

More recently this ancient stone was used in the healing of children suffering from rickets by passing them through the hole.

photo by courtesy of Voices of the Dawn

http://www.voicesfromthedawn.com/aghade-holed-stone/

Our second stop was to introduce our friends to The Chocolate Garden ref:http://aheronsview.blogspot.ie/2014/05/chocolate-ice-cream.html  
You can see from the photo what effect a surfeit of chocolate cake did to these two lads. Mrs H and I are of course immune from such antics, due to making regular visits to such establishments.

The High and Dry Sailors

The highlight of our tour and the jewel in the crown of the area was found about ten minutes drive away from the Chocolate Garden. An ancient site which the locals refer to as The Ring of the Rath or more formally Rathgall, sign-posted as Rath Geal - it matters not for this was the seat of The Kings of Leinster.

An ariel shot of Rathgall

Of all of the old places that I have visited this one has the most amazingly powerful earth energies flowing around and through the hill fort. We were all very aware of what we were experiencing as walked towards the rath. We didn't need dowsing rods or pendulums for each of us could sense the vibrant energies flowing through our bodies.

Up the pole & happy...

Entrance to the inner ring

Rathgall is a multivate hill fort, with four concentric stone walls encompassing an area of 18 acres (7.5 hectares) and encircled by mountains. The inner stone wall is roughly 1.3 metres high and the ring it encloses measures fifteen metres in diameter.

We explored the immediate area around the rath and found evidence of other stones, possible sites and a small copse.

Three 'wise' men

An inner trench

The outer perimeter wall

A blackthorn copse the home of rabbits and faeries

I do encourage all residents and visitors to Ireland to experience both of these ancient sites for am sure you will be delighted.

Parking to both places is limited to about three cars so you won't be crowded out by sightseers, plus access is an easy walk.