Fáidheadóireacht
Fáidheadóireacht is an Irish term which roughly means "soothsaying", "divination", "prophesying" or "prophecy" (please see here). A person who practices Fáidheadóireacht could be called either a Fáidh (male) or a Fáidhbhean (female). I use this term interchangeably with the English word "seership" and use both to refer to the reconstruction of various prophetic or visionary work hinted at in some mythological texts of Ireland. This is one of the primary goals, (after honoring the deities, ancestors and spirits), of my household.
There are other people in various neo-druidic, CR and neo-Celtic communities who are also working on practices similar to this, but unfortunately I find that they are turning to such methods as tantric practice, deity yoga, chakra manipulation, etc. and applying it to Fáidheadóireacht practices. My goal is to try to reconstruct ancient practices of Fáidheadóireacht found in polytheistic times in Celtic countries (particularly Ireland) which are devoid of references to methods not indigenous to Northern Europe.
While I have no issue with these practices, I thoroughly believe that they are best understood within the faiths where they are found and that they should not be taken from those faiths and implanted into a different faith of a completely different culture. While this may be more difficult to do, I believe that it is worth it.
There is bound to be controversy in reconstructing these practices, as there is precious little of the practices which have survived beyond basic descriptions, but I am optimistic.
I will add my essays and practices to this page as they are developed.
I welcome questions and requests for further information and assistance with these matters.
As I develop protocols and methods, I would be willing to instruct others in my specific ways of "seership". I thoroughly intend to make the background information available on this website, but not the actual methods or techniques. Those, I would be willing to share with devoted seekers in a more private manner.
To assist me in the "reconstruction" of these practices, I have been studying similar practices from other Pre-Christian Northern European cultures/religions. I am currently studying the reconstruction of various forms of seiðr and spae from various heathen traditions and have corresponded with a number of practitioners of this particular art. I am in the process of writing a brief essay comparing the reconstruction of these practices with similar practices in Irish lore and mythology.
I do not believe in charging money for the exchange of such information and will publish all works online and free to the public.
I can be contacted at miadhachain@yahoo.com
Some examples of the practices that I have been working on include:
- Imbas forosnai – we know the ingredients but not the recipe (courtesy of Cormac’s Glossary). It is" knowledge which illuminates". (As of present, I have published one essay online which deals with this technique. The essay describes only one possibility for attaining Imbas and one possible example of what I term "the internal machinations of the seer". I have since worked on other methods dealing with the "internal machinations of the seer" which I choose not to present in an open forum, but will present to individuals who sincerely wish to study this and put the effort into it. This will be the only work I publish, at this time which will present both background and method. Future essays will only present "background" information.
- tenm laida - illumination of song (some examples appear to include when Finn puts thumb in his mouth and chants to identify a skull, a fili also uses this to identify the skull of the first lap dog in Ireland. Other references involve Finn where after eating of the salmon of knowledge and putting his thumb in his mouth, he sang and through this method anything that he did not know and needed to, was made known to him). Since it was banned by St. Patrick, it apparently had some 'heathen' offerings also associated it with - according to later texts.
- dichedul do chennaib - extempore incantation - no offerings it seemed were needed nor was there any ritual as it appears to be just spontaneously inspired poetry.
- aisneis di chennaib (a)chnaime
- Tarbfheis - bull sleep - this is not something which I have actively explored
- Otherworld travels (note - this is very “iffy” – not something that was usually done on purpose or willfully to gain information, but is something that just "sort of happened)" indirectly during spiritual pursuits and at the pleasure of the deities and other otherworldy beings.
- Prophecy - this relates back very much to Imbas Forosnai
- Divination by Ogham – just one example I know of – but also some examples where they were used “magically”. Example include the story of Etain in which a druid wrote oghams on sticks of yew and cast them to discern her location and then there is this bit from wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogham_-_non-m
onumental_uses) accessed 11-17-2008. - Divination and the taking of omens by augury - there is a bit of information on this topic. We have some texts on birds from Ireland and we have Cicero's description of augury used in ancient Rome which he suggested was very similar to that used by his friend Divitiacus, a Druid of the Aedui and differed only in that it used birds native to his own tribe's area.
- Summoning of the spirits of the dead - one of the strongest examples of this would be the story of how the Tain was "remembered" with the assistance of the spirit of Fergus mac Roith which was summoned by a fili. THis is sometthing for which I have been developing methods and seem to have had some success
- Ecstatic trance and possible "deity possession" - there is only really the Welsh reference to the awenyddion to support this and these experiences are deeply influenced by the time I spent in a traditional Haitian Vodou Sosyete.
My blog, The Well and the Salmon, deals with many of the same topics discussed here.
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