October 24, 2015: Fulacht Fia Part One
2016-01-12
This is our annual Celtic Celebration for the Ancestors, that we hold close to Samhain, (Hallowee'en) when the veils between the worlds are thin. In northern Europe are found prehistoric pits, and it's thought that our ancestors gathered by them.
So to honour our Ancestors, we dig a pit, line it with stones, decorate it, and build a fire inside the Earth. Then we feed the fire milk, sage, oats, hazelnuts, and spirits. We also add tobbacco for the Ancestors of this Land. You can see the milk being offered to the Earth. We stay up late, tellling stories of those who have passed in our blood lines, our milk lines and our communities. This includes four leggeds and winged ones.
This year an amazingly huge storm with lightning and impressive thunder blew through at night as we were tending the fire. It was a hugely hot and blazing fire, and as the rain increased ahead of the main part of the storm, the steam rose off the stones in the firepit in a cloud that was very atmospheric. That's the fifth photo. I was snapping photos of this event.
The pace and volume of the thunder increased , and just as it got to the point where the space between the lighning and thunderclaps was getting shorter and shorter...about three seconds...(indicating how close the lightning is) I snapped a shot at the exact time a lightning bolt illuminated the firepit. That's the sixth photo.
In Peru, one way you become a Paquo (shaman) is to be struck by lightning, and we felt this was almost our experience.
