The First Harvest and Starvation as Genocide

 

Lughnasadh or Brón Trogain, the first harvest. Personally it just doesn't feel right to be celebrating bounty while there is a livestreamed genocide where mass starvation is being used as a weapon. This year, it feels more natural to observe the funerary side of this festival, remembering and honouring those who have lost their lives because of oppression. To remember those who have lived through or are experiencing starvation as a tool of genocide. To remember those who do not get to celebrate bounty. To remember our more-than-human kin whose very existence is threatened because of colonizer and capitalist "culture". And to remember our Mother who is Generosity, Abundance and Life. 

This season seems to calls for us to share with others to create and nourish community. Of course this doesn't have to be a literal harvest, but what blessings are being reaped in your life that you can share with others? How can we carry this way of being into our daily lives, throughout the year? 

Trying to live this way for me has personally helped soften the harshness of the state of things. Being able to see what beauty is still here and to be hold thankfulness in my heart.

Beannachtaí Lughnasadh 💛 

Íobair an choilíneachas. 

Íobair an caipitleachas. 

Íobair na tíoránaigh. 

Grá dár Máthair. 

Ath-mháthairiú i ngach áit. 

Saoirse dúinn uile. 

Sacrifice colonialism.

Sacrifice the capitalism. 

Sacrifice tyrants. 

Love for our Mother.

Rematriation Everywhere.

Liberation for Us All.

  

*********

{Illustration by @seanfitzgeraldart that was used for an old rad quarterly called The Country Grind...anyone else remember it?}

A GLÁM DÍCENN RITUAL---Satire & Sacrifice of False Kings-

{This post is a compilation of a few posts originally shared over on Instagram in 2024}

Glám dícenn was a form of satire said to be used by the filí, the poets of the druid class in lreland. It translates to "cry of extremity", and was a powerhouse of a curse, often targeting chieftains and kings.

To compose a glám dícenn, a poet would do so beneath a large Hawthorn with no spikes. The satire would be repeated twenty-seventimes during the circuit of a moon, while pricking a clay image of the target.

A description of a ritual that would be carried out was that before sunrise, seven different grades of filí would go to a hiltop with a Hawthorn tree. The hill would be at the place where seven different territories meet. Once in the positions of having their backs to the tree, facing their own lands and with the wind coming from the north, the filí would recite or improvise a satire towards their target. This ritual was carried out while holding a spike from the Hawthorn tree, in the other hand, a clay image of the victim, to be pricked with the thorn.

In another version, the filí would hold a spike and a "sling stone", which were put at the foot of the Hawthorn. If they were justified in their actions, the king or chieftain they were targeting would be swallowed up by the land. If, however, the filí were unjustified, it was said the land would swallow them up instead. A good reminder for us to be in right relationship with place, our Otherworldly crew and each other.

SACRIFICE OF THE FALSE KING

False king,

a triad of blemishes on your cheek.

Tyrant king,

your nipples unworthy of fealty's kiss.

Colonizer king,

Sovereignty's thighs are closed to you.

Ríshliocht de Geasa Briste--"

Amplachán,

cursed are your eyes

greedy sight.

Meabhlaire,

cursed is your mouth

lying words.

Coirpeach,

cursed are your hands

murderous theft.

Drochdhuine,

cursed is your cock

desired rape.

Eascara,

cursed is your heart

only hate.

By the Realm of Sky, you draw your last breath.

In the Name of the Gods, no air in your lungs.

By the Realm of Sea, your blood is spilled.

In the Name of the Ancestors, no heat in your

veins.

By the Realm of Land, your skin turns grey. 

In the Name of the Spirits, no life in your flesh.

By the Three Realms, in the Names of the Sacred Three, Comes your Three-Fold Death.

colonizer, tyrant, false

un-king.

Originally this ritual was created and carried out in response to the rise of all the greedy and fascist shit stains who are clinging to power and who are the bane to the rest of us. In its entirety, it took several months from beginning to end. Besides writing the satire, there were various other stages.

During the Samhain season i gathered the materials to create an effigy represent the false king, which took shaped over a few weeks. On the new moon before the Summer Solstice l did a "birthing" the effigy, animating and naming him. It was at the Summer Solstice when the curse was done, along with a symbolic "triple" sacrifice at a grave of a notoriously cruel landlord. After this, the "corpse" was dismantled and the foraged materials he was made of were brought back to the place where they were gathered. Those remains were placed in an ancient man made pool where evidence of sacrifice was found.

My Mentors through this process was both Macha as well as hÚath/Sceach Gheal/Hawthorn.

After this the beginnings of a ritual of land and water was healing started, which is still on going. A part of this is creating the Incantation of Right Relationship.

I've come to realize that ending something harmful is not enough, but perhaps more important, is dreaming and creating something new in its place. And while that is happening, reparations must occur as well.

*********

In preparation there were some resources of information and inspiration that i found really helpful. 

First two courses from the Irish Pagan School:

*"The Sovereignty Goddesses of Ireland" instructed by Gillian Kenny

*"An Introduction to Rosc Poetry" instructed by Geraldine Moorkens Byrne

And books:

*"Irish Saints Who Loved Malediction" by Ksneia

Kudenko {found in "Charms, Charmers and

Charming in Ireland"}

*"The Irish Comic Tradition" by Vivian Mercier

*"Ogham" by Erynn Rowan Laurie

*"The Book of the Great Queen" and "The Magic of the Otherworld" both

by Morpheus Ravenna

Creating an Incantation of Right Relationship--a Collaborative Ritual Process {part one}

 

During last Samhain, at the new moon, i started a process where i will explore what the Ogham has to say about living in right relationship. This started a few months previously when i was attempting to create a Rosc inspired incantation of

Right Relationship, in the voices of each fid of the

Ogham as i interpreted them. It had become obvious that this needed to be a deeper and experiential exploration.

This process is ritual, it is also taking honest looks at how all the toxicity of empire has entangled me, how i embody that. It is unlearning/relearning and enacting this in tangible ways.

Ritual/ceremony/sacred practice is just how i make

sense of alot of things. But with that can come the temptation to disengage with material reality, leading to bypassing. So having a devotional structure helps

keep my neuro-spicy self accountable.

Maybe some of you can relate?

For now i've opened the way with the feda of the first aicme and will be following up with a post about that hopefully soon.