Website Update: New Resources Section

With summer comes cultural, spiritual and social gatherings. Along with a chance to celebrate and hold reunions with distant family and friends comes the opportunity to meet new people. Whichever kind of gatherings you attend, you may find yourself wishing you knew what to say in response to some of the questions that may arise about Gaelic Polytheism. Or, less fun, you may encounter some people who have misconceptions about Gaelic and Celtic traditions. Worse, you may cross paths with some exploiters. While we don’t like to dwell on the latter sort, unfortunately, dispelling misinformation is a necessary part of cultural preservation. Our cultures – languages, music, spiritual beliefs and ceremonies – cannot be preserved if misinformation is allowed to take the place of authentic ways.

So, to this end, we have prepared a small collection of materials, which can be utilized in person as well as on social media. We have a leaflet on Gaelic Polytheism and Gaol Naofa in particular (since we are only speaking for our particular tradition of Gaelic Polytheism), as well as some flyers about how to spot offensive vs. authentic practices. These are situated in a new Resources section within the site Library.

We hope your summer is going well, and that you receive the blessings of Áine, Manannán, the ancestors and spirits of nature this season. Slàinte Mhath!

June 13, 2014

New Stuff – Article and Youtube Channel

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh!

Just in time for Lá Fhéile Pádraig, Gaol Naofa is pleased to announce the publication of a new article for our website, along with the launch of our new Youtube channel.

This time of year tends to stir a bit of controversy and debate over St Patrick, and one of our members, Sionnach Gorm, has weighed in on the subject with a fantastic article on Pagans, Polytheists and St Patrick’s Day, where he explores the history of conversion, Patrick, and what that means for Polytheists and Pagans alike.

Complementing this, we’ve uploaded two videos to our new Youtube channel, concentrating on Lá Fhéile Pádraig. The first of those takes a look at the harmful stereotypes surrounding the day, while the second concentrates on the various misconceptions that we have encountered over the years. These are part of a series of videos on the festival year in the Gaelic calendar, and we’ll be working on further videos for the other festivals, and more, in due course.

Also on our Youtube channel, we’ve created a number of Playlists of videos that might be of interest to Gaelic Polytheists, covering subjects such as music, language, folklore, festivals, and more! If you subscribe to our channel you can keep up to date with any new additions as they’re added.

March 12, 2014

New Article – “Children and Family in Gaelic Polytheism”

La Fhèill Brìghde sona dhuibh!

Gaol Naofa is proud to present our latest article for the website, this time focusing on Children and Family in Gaelic Polytheism.

Although the main purpose of the article is to give parents ideas on how to include children in a family-based Gaelic Polytheist practice, we hope it will also prove useful for individuals – whether youth or adults – who are new to GP, as well as to other sorts of multigenerational spiritual communities.

The basics of belief and practice are broken down into their various elements, and practical ideas and examples of simple prayers are given that a child or beginner should be able to get to grips with easily enough.

Website readers may notice that the pdf files of most of our articles are now embedded in the site, as well as available on Scribd. Please let us know if you come across any broken links or dropped content that may have happened during these formatting changes.

We have also made some slight changes in organisational structure, with Annie Loughlin now serving as Uachtarán (President), organising and running Gaol Naofa from Scotland. After five years at the helm, Treasa Ní Chonchobhair is now filling the position of Leas-Uachtarán (Vice President). We would like to extend our deep gratitude to Treasa for her years of service and continued commitment to Gaol Naofa, as well as to Annie for taking her turn at the helm. For more details please refer to our page on Council and Structure.

February 1, 2014