…flit into my head as I walk the woodland sanctuary, for it is here that I feel able to simply be, unaware of even myself!
I imagine this is the same for most people, for it is in this state of unawareness that the creative mind begins to flow evenly, unstoppable.
It was in walking among the trees yesterday that thoughts began to emerge about writing and where it all began for me in earnest.
It was of course here at Bealtaine Cottage where I found “a room of ones own,” as Virginia Woolf referred to the creative space.
However it’s not just about space, but time also.
Here I have more time to simply be.
My brother Hugh understands the importance of creative space.
Hugh lives a solitary, happy life, in a small cottage without electricity, where he writes poetry and creates from hedgerow wood and excavated Bog Oak.
Although Hugh had never seen any of the images unearthed by Professor Marija Gimbutas, as she carried out her archaeological work in Old Europe, he was moved by the forces around his little cottage to carve this strikingly similar Bird Goddess image into an Ash walking stick for me. 
Much of the creativity I am immersed in is governed and directed on a deeply magical level by Mother Earth too.
I use the word “magical,” for what I cannot rationally explain.
The stories of shape-shifting can be found in many cultures throughout the world, but none so prominently as that found in Celtic culture.
Within the near area of Bealtaine Cottage can be found a wealth of ancient history many thousands of years old.
The Tuatha Dé Danann, the people of the Goddess Danu, were one of the great ancient tribes of Ireland.
These people who appeared to “land on top of a mountain”, Sliabh an Iarainn, a great brooding mass of sandstone rock and thin soil, visible from Bealtaine Cottage.
The ancient manuscript ‘The Annals of the Four Masters’, records that the Tuatha Dé Danann ruled Ireland from 1897 B.C. to 1700 B.C.
The Tuatha Dé Danann were eventually consigned to mythology, disappearing from the face of the Earth, but going underground, emerging later as ‘Aes sidhe’ (the people of the mound – fairy mounds)., now referred to simply as the Sidhe.
The people are known as “The Sidhe” or people of the mounds, or “The Lordly Ones” or “The Good People”.
Once consigned to the underworld the Tuatha Dé Danann engaged their powers of shape-shifting, emerging in many forms, even that of apparent human form.
In Irish mythology, we come across a number of stories about shape-shifting beings.
These shape-shifters are often goddesses, gods, magicians, witches, fairies and other supernatural creatures.
Shape-shifting is an important aspect of understanding the complexities of the influence of the Sidhe in contemporary Ireland, as it is believed this magic is employed to allow the Otherworld to communicate with humans.
A poem in the Lebor Gabála Érenn says of the arrival of the Tuatha Dé Danann:
“the truth was not known beneath the sky of stars,
Colette O’Neill is a writer and photographer living at Bealtaine Cottage in the west of Ireland.
Another five days.
Bealtaine.
The beginning of Summer.
This Bealtaine is the celebration of thirteen years of the Bealtaine project.
A project once considered the silly dream of a ridiculous woman.
Against all financial advice it was conceived and against all horticultural wisdom it was planned.
Planned, planted and grown!
This land is both resilient and regenerative…it can grow abundance without me.
I am now free to observe and delight, potter and sit, all the while simply ensuring the gentle maintenance of the edges and paths, free to harvest and raise plants for the Potager Beds which provide some of my food and much of my pleasure.
I have embarked on writing my second book, happy with the good reception of the first, 
I recently read this quote by W. H. Murray and found it to be true to my experience at Bealtaine Cottage over the past thirteen years…
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. “
Wise words…live your life!
Click here to purchase the book… 
Preparation is everything. 
This begins in the home and involves casting an eye over all that will be of importance during this sacred time of gathering.
I am driven with the desire to instil a sense of order upon Bealtaine Cottage as the Midwinter festivities approach.
There is a history to this festival that precedes the usual image we hold as the collective ideal…that of a more recent celebration, Christmas.
The Winter Solstice has been celebrated for thousands of years. 
Indeed, Newgrange here in Ireland, was constructed five thousand years ago, as a homage to the Midwinter Solstice, so this festival of Yule was immensely important to our ancestors.
This was because communities were not certain of living through the winter, and had to be prepared during the previous nine months.
Food and wine was ready to eat and drink ,as fruit fermented and animals were slaughtered as feed stocks dwindled.
Even during the morning, parts of the interior of this Irish cottage can be dim during the months of Midwinter. 
Light is what our seasons are measured in.
Light was and remains the important aspect of winter and our ancestors realised the connection this had to all life.
That connection, that sense of knowing the elemental forces that governed their lives, was so important to them, that many monuments were erected to this end.
Here in Ireland, Newgrange is the most important, monumental reminder we have of this elemental connection.
So today has been a day of tidying and ordering…cleaning the area around the cottage, sorting wool, and listening to gentle music as I go.
For lovers of Bealtaine Cottage and all aspects of ancient Celtic life and Goddess Permaculture found therein, there is a second website, growing daily and now with over 90 new blogs and several thousands of unseen photographs, as well as podcasts and stories… Visit:
In Ireland, because of its close association with the goddess Brigit, it became Saint Brigid’s Day.
Yuletide continues to be marked at Bealtaine Cottage through to it’s end on the first day of January. A time of great hope and lifting of one’s head towards the ascending sun.
SAMHAIN…The Celts believed that Oidhche Shamhna, Samhain, was an open portal in time. 
This weekend marks the prelude to Samhain.
Monday is the day of 
It is a time of in-between…between worlds as the Celts believed it to be… 
The Celts understood the year to be divided into two halves associated with the dark and the light. 
The dark half begins at sunset on October 31st with Samhain.
Both festivals are closely linked, but Samhain is considered to be the most important.
In Ireland, years ago, great preparations were made for the sharing of a feast that included the departed as guests of honour. 
To enable them to come and go freely, all doors and windows were left unlatched; a special cake was made exclusively for their consumption, and a certain amount of other food was set aside just for them. 
This had to be left untouched by any mortal hand for the duration of the ritual period. Eating the food of the dead was considered to be a major sacrilege and it condemned the perpetrator to becoming a hungry spirit after death, forever banned from sharing in the Samhain feast.
As Bridget Haggerty writes in “Irish Culture and Customs,” “…As with many of the old festivals, Christianity stepped in to do whatever it could to eliminate pagan rituals.
In this case, it was Pope Boniface who took the festival of the dead and made it the festival of all saints and martyrs.
Originally it took place on May 13th, but a century later, Pope Gregory III shifted it to November.
In Ireland, All Saints Day was instituted in 998 AD by Abbot Odilo of Cluny and by the 13th century, although many of the old Samhain rituals persisted as folk customs, November 1st had become firmly established as a Christian festival.”
All Saints Eve is now 31st of October…Samhain! 
So what was always and only a great Celtic celebration has been claimed by a relatively contemporary religion as its own! 
However, Ireland being an island and its people being thinly removed from its cultural heritage, as John B. Keane once wrote in the play “The Field,” we have not forgotten our roots!
In the play, “The Field,” the parish priest proclaims Christianity to be a “thin veneer” over Irish people, in a derogatory reference both to the people and pre-Christian Paganism alike. 
Regarding the compassion displayed for those who grieved and mourned the loss of family and loved ones, we were far removed from how the Romans described us as “Barbarians!” 
As for the souls of the dead, all were honoured, unlike the Christian church here in Ireland which regarded the souls of un-baptised babies as being condemned to “Purgatory”.
Such was the the belief as I grew up and for the countless generations of those in my family before me. 
This Samhain I will try to remember and honour all my family and friends no longer in this mortal sphere.
This portal to the Otherworld: a place of being for the Celts, where life existed, but not as we know it!
The portal is the Old Fairy House, which was once the gateway to Kilronan castle. 
This ethereal looking gatehouse was created many years ago, when only horses and carriages travelled the roads of the west of Ireland. 
It was built in the vernacular tradition, using water worn limestone hewn from the surrounding earth. 
Many years have passed since a horse or carriage passed by… 
The entrance is no longer a part of the old estate. 
Here it stands, watching the centuries pass by, unimpressed by progress…and perhaps, if stones could talk… 
I have a notion to bring my video camera with me next time…would you like a video of this enchanting place?
Samhain, (pronounced “Sow-when”) is the most important time in the Ancient Irish (and Celtic) Calendar.
The time of Samhain starts at dusk, when the light and dark are in balance.
This was never regarded as a time of death, but a time of incubation for Mother Earth. 
It was the onset of Winter that allowed the Great Mother to get ready the seed for Spring. 
Samhain is the Celtic New Year’s Eve. 
It is at this time, between worlds, that the veil is thin. 
A time of possibilities. 
A time to pay honour to those who are no longer with us in human form.
This was a time of endings and the promise of beginnings, a time for stillness and reflection. 
It was understood that in the dark silence of Mother Earth, when all appears dead, comes the promise of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed beneath the ground.
It is on this night, some believe, that time stands still, allowing access to other worlds and into new consciousness. 
As I walked the gardens today, taking these photographs, there was a real sense of endings and beginnings, of approaching a marker in time.
A sense of anticipation and readiness for the sabbatical that is Winter…for Samhain means “Summer’s End” and as the Celts believed, this was Winter’s Beginning. 
As an integral part of their culture and interpretation of life, the Celts held strong the tradition of The Transmigration of Souls, a philosophy I believe in.
The Celts believed in two lands after death, the Underworld and the Otherworld.
The Otherworld was the abode of the dead. 
This is interesting, as it strongly suggests a “life alongside the dead”…and in that an understanding of the “Night of the Thin Veil,” 
Archaeological evidence has drawn attention to the richness of Iron Age tombs and the abundance of grave goods within them. 
There is literary evidence from Caesar that seems to confirm at least part of the Celtic Beliefs system. 
In his description of the Druids, he alluded to some of their lore that related directly to the movement of souls between one world and another or between one individual and another. He states:
Lucan (Pharsalia: I) stated that the Celts considered death as merely an interruption in a continuous life, as the spirit passed from one form into another, or from one world to another. 
Other writers, such as Diodorus Siculus drew attention to similar beliefs – that the soul was immortal and, as its body deteriorated with age, it simply moved to another, usually located in another world. 
And so we celebrate Samhain…
I’ve been spending much of this week catching up with a great many tasks that were backing up around me…cork-tiling the bathroom floor and part of the Lodge floor, clearing the tunnel for the winter crops and all the usual stuff such as clearing and mowing the paths in the gardens! 
I have got a lot done because I made the decision last week to come off Facebook…and have shared my thoughts with you on this… 
I posted a number of pics on FB this morning, as so many people delight in seeing Bealtaine Cottage! 
It is, however, almost impossible to respond to comments left on FB as I simply do not have the time and am resolved not to negate my commitment to this blog and the second website at bealtainecottage.org 
Those of you who have followed this blog for any amount of time will be aware of the enormous workload I carry and will, therefore, totally understand this. 
Recently I came across this quote by Joseph Campbell and was deeply moved to meditate upon it for a while. 
It has inspired me to “go with the flow” much more and to simply get on and do whatever tasks need doing, rather than planning and then becoming despondent at what I have not achieved…I can be my own hardest and most severe taskmaster! 
I am determined to come away from this driven approach and relax into life more! 
I could do with taking lessons from Sammy-bear, seen here by the Catnip in the tunnel, out of his mind! 
Cats remind us all how we should relax…frequently and often! 
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.
I have found this to be comforting as I attempt to make sense of the chaos! 
This is a bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, and also the great festival of Lughnasadh!
I will stride forth on Lughnasadh Eve to a high point on a nearby mountain to welcome in the new season and pay tribute to Mother Earth and in particular, Mother Ireland. 
To celebrate the season is to turn one’s back on the machinations, arrogance and hubris of Man, seeking instead, the warmth and generosity of the Great Mother…Earth, in all her beauty! 
Before I go, just to let you know, I am writing a blog on the Bealtaine Cottage Good Life website, all about using sheep wool in the tunnel as I prepare it for the Autumn/Winter sowing and planting.
