Or, rather, a new beginning.
I’ll keep the intros short: my name is Finn, and I am a follower of the deity Brighid. My spiritual path is of Celtic origin, and is informed by Celtic Reconstructionism. That said, my path is my own path, and one that I have been creating and discovering for about five years now, and is not meant to be taken as historically Celtic, nor is it wholly Reconstructionist, though I strive to be as historically accurate and research as much as possible. Confused yet? Yeah, me too.
I strive for a healthy mixture of scholarly, historical research with what is known as UPG in the reconstructionist world–Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis–in my path. In other words, UPG is what you have found out that is not necessarily verifiable by the texts or traditions. My path-structure and mindest is largely UPG, while the practices, rituals, interactions and symbolism are largely based in research.
In a much simpler phrase, the personal reality is balanced out with actual reality. The trick is to try and make them both within reach, if not the same.
So, the reason for the blog? I’ve been trying to revitalize my spiritual path, and one of the ways I’m trying to do so is taking a long look at what I’ve done and come through, reviewing what changes have come my way, and updating my essays, rituals, and thoughts. I’ve kept a spiritual blog over at LiveJournal for a while, but the time has come for those dusty essays to find a new life here, which will invariably change (for the better, I hope) as I go through them.So, hopefully this will provide a good place for further codifying and consolidation of my path, and maybe it will even inspire others who are trying to do the same thing I am. And over time, I hope to have created for myself a working and living path–a living and breathing story. But, as they say, “Is maith an scéalaí an aimsir”–time is a good storyteller, and in the end, its story is the one all of ours melds into. But that doesn’t mean we can’t write our own.
