This unique collection of living spirituality, rising from the depths of Celtic Christianity, represents a hidden, oral tradition of greatest power and beauty, handed down through countless generations of Hebridean peasants. During his travels, Alexander Carmichael would visit the peasants in their huts, spending hours in front of their peat fires while they "intoned in a low, recitative manner" these poems and prayers. This is the most complete anthology of Celtic oral tradition ever assembled.

• The first study of the full chronological range of Irish charms, from the Middle Ages until the present. • Includes survey articles, which give the reader a broad overview of major aspects of the subject. • Includes new discoveries in the field, information concerning which is not yet available elsewhere. • Includes articles dealing with folk medicine and traditional healing.

Covering doctrine and the lived experience of the world's religious practitioners, Call to Compassion is a collection of stirring and passionate essays on the place of animals within the philosophical, cultural, and everyday milieus of spiritual practices both ancient and modern. From Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism, through the Abrahamic traditions, to contemporary Wiccan and Native American spirituality, Call to Compassion charts the complex ways we interact with the world around us.

This book is a selection of modernized, paganized prayers and charms from volumes one and two of Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica, intended for use by Druids, Celtic Reconstructionists, or others interested in Celtic spiritulaity. The Carmina Gadelica is a six volume collection of prayers, charms, and folklore from Scotland assembled around 1900 by Alexander Carmichael. This book represents modernized, re-paganized versions of selected prayers and charms from the first two volumes of the series. It is designed to be used by Celtic Polytheists, Druids, or anyone else interested in Celtic Spirituality. All original deity references have been replaced with the names of Irish gods, and the language has been modernized, but otherwise the content has been kept as true to the original as possible.

"This book disperses the shadows in an obscure but important landscape. Lisa Bitel addresses both the history of women in early Ireland and the history of myth, legend, and superstition which surrounded them. It is a powerful and exact book and an invaluable addition to our expanding sense of Ireland through the eyes of Irish women."--Eavan Boland, author of In a Time of Violence: Poems"It is refreshing to read in a book by a woman on medieval women that not all clerics hated women and that not all men were oversexed villains consciously bent on exploiting women. [Bitel] challenges not only the medieval Irish male construct of female behavior, but she is also courageous enough to question constructs of medieval women invented by modern Irish medieval historians."--Times Higher Education Supplement

"On Pilgrimage" walks readers through the 12 stages that are common to sacred journeys, describing both the spiritual and physical process. It features over 60 pilgrimage destinations worldwide and emphasizes both the personal quest and the multicultural and multifaith dimension of sacred travel. Full-color illustrations.

In Brigid’s Footsteps: The Return of the Divine Feminine focuses on the Celtic goddess and Christian saint Brigid as an archetype of the Divine Feminine. Drawing on mythology, history, and transpersonal psychology, the author traces the iconic Brigid’s evolution from incarnation as goddess of wisdom, craft, and healing to embodiment as a saint of Celtic Christianity who served as midwife to Mary at the birth of Jesus. Part Two explores the suppression of feminine energies in mainstream western culture and the damaging consequences of living in our masculine-biased civilization. The final essays speculate on how the Divine Feminine may influence our masculine-leaning culture during the shift in consciousness Jung referred to as a “changing of the gods,” a time in which Brigid re-emerges as the spirit of liminal times and midwife to the Holy.