High-energy and committed!!! England born Chris, as well as Jim and Derrek like to enjoy ourselves, and like to get everybody around us to have a fun time, but we also are very dedicated musicians. Although it may seem like Claymore is just about jumping around and not appearing serious, all of us are committed to being the best at what each of us do. We have our regular drummer Don (Otto) Wilson out with us on most occasions also. We are truly passionate about the music. We are also very grateful for our family and friends, who come out or support us in many different ways.

You can find out more details about Claymore on their website or on their Contributor page on this website.

This anthology is the first of its kind to be focused on the horned gods of our ancestors and includes both scholarly essays, bardic retellings of stories such as that of Herne the Hunter and a number of experiential essays. Invocations and meditation journeys are also included.

The piece we bring you from this wonderful book is about the Celtic God Cernunnos and was written by the book's editor, the talented Sorita D'Este.

Bibliographic References for this article

Banier, Antoine; The Mythology and Fables of the Ancients, 1739; A Millar, London

Brown, Norman O.; Hermes the Thief, 1990; Lindisfarne Press; Massachusettes

Daniélou, Alain; Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus, 1992; Inner Traditions International, Vermont

Davidson, Hilda Ellis; The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe; 1999; Barnes & Noble, New York

Gimbutas, Marija; Anza ca 6500-5000 BC: A Cultural Yardstick for the Study of Neolithic Southeast Europe; in Journal of Field Archaeology Vol. 1.1; 1974; Boston University

Henig, Martin; A Corpus of Roman Engraved Gemstones from British Sites (2 vols); 1974; BAR; Oxford

Olmsted, G.S.; The Gundestrup Cauldron; 1979; in Collection Latomus 162; Brussels

Rankine, David & d'Este, Sorita; The Isles of the Many Gods; 2007; Avalonia; London

Ross, Anne; Pagan Celtic Britain; 1967; Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd; London

You can find out more details about Avalonia Books on their Contributor page on this website or visit the Avalonia website to buy the book or view their other fascinating titles.

Cernunnos & the Gundestrup Cauldron

For more information, consult the Wiki page for the Cauldron.

William, the Captain of the Bards of Mystic, says:

I was inspired to write that one after personally wandering through the fields of standing stones in Carnac, as well as visiting many dozens of sites throughout north western France.

Find out more about the Bards of Mystic on Myspace. More details will also be found on our Contributor page.

I am Ireland:
I am older than the old woman of Beare.

Great my glory:
I who bore Cuchulainn, the brave.

Great my shame:
My own children who sold their mother.

Great my pain:
My irreconcilable enemy who harrasses me continually...

Great my sorrow
That crowd, in whom I placed my trust, died.

I am Ireland:
I am lonelier than the old woman of Beare.

Mise Éire:
Sine mé ná an Chailleach Bhéarra

Mór mo ghlóir:
Mé a rug Cú Chulainn cróga.

Mór mo náir:
Mo chlann féin a dhíol a máthair.

Mór mo phian:
Bithnaimhde do mo shíorchiapadh.

Mór mo bhrón:
D'éag an dream inar chuireas dóchas.

Mise Éire:
Uaigní mé ná an Chailleach Bhéarra.

Pádraic Mac Piarais (1879–1916) was a teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist and political activist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. Pearse wrote stories and poems in both Irish and English, his best-known English poem being "The Wayfarer". He also penned several allegorical plays in the Irish language, including The King, The Master, and The Singer. His short stories in Irish include Eoghainín na nÉan ("Eoineen of the Birds"), Íosagán, Na Bóithre ("The Roads"), and An Bhean Chaointe ("The Keening Woman"). These are translated into English by Joseph Campbell (in the Collected Works of 1917). [Wiki]

Willie Meikle is a Scottish Author who writes Fantasy and Horror Fiction and has eight books published. Many of his stories and books are set in Scotland and are weaved with Mythology and folklore. Willie has had 130 stories published in the genre press, both in paper and on-line magazines and his work has appeared in the UK, Ireland, the USA, India, Greece, Romania and Canada. He has graciously allowed us to present an amazingly powerful short story called One Spring Eve.

You can find out more about Willie and his work at his website or you can read more details about this fantastic author in our Contributor pages.

Sora (aka Andrea Hunt) is an independent musician with a different philosophy on how she wants to share her music with the world. Perhaps it was all of the touring she did as a teenager with the Calgary Youth Orchestra and the Calgary Fiddlers that made her appreciate the subtleties of having a solid home base. It may have been the influence of playing with elite musicians and performing to sell out crowds that seeded her desire to mold a new musical lifestyle.

Her natural flair for Celtic vocal styling leaps out in her 2003 debut CD “Winds Of Change”. On this self produced project all 13 tracks were recorded live off the floor. “What you hear is what we did” Sora says. “Everyone was in the same small room at the same time”. The arrangements for each song were chosen specifically because they were so different from anything she had ever heard – which gave her the chance to put her heart and sound into each track.

You can find her music on Myspace or Corvid Media. You can find out more details about Sora on her Contributor page on this website.

Children of Lir

When on feathered wings take flight
'Oer the hills beating the time
To the swans final song
Sung so sweet, so for so long
As they leave rocky shore
Flying west with the sun
And I watch from the land I love
My past come undone

Oh Children of Lir where have you gone?
The hills they are bare but echo your song
Echo your song
The stones silently fall
And where do I belong?

On the hollow faerie mound
The silence calls mocking the time
When the swans haunting song
Carried far, resounding strong
And their stories they drift
Upon stormy seas
Lost in the waves of time
The island, it is me

Oh Children of Lir where have you gone?
The hills they are bare but echo your song
Echo your song
The stones silently fall
And where do I belong?

When the bells so loudly toll
An anthem rung drowing the sound
To the swans final song
Silver notes, fading, withdrawn
Change swiftly comes
On the wings of the dove
The voices once heard are gone
Where are they love?

Oh Children of Lir where have you gone?
The hills they are bare but echo your song
Echo your song
 Oh Children of Lir where have you gone?
The hills they are bare but echo your song
Echo your song
The stones silently fall
And where do I belong?
Do I belong?

We are incredibly privileged to have Andy as a Contributor to the show. He tells stories that are alive in his family today and that have come down through the ages.

He says:

The old Legends are a passion and a Joy, and the writings of Fiona Macleod are inspiration, in all I do.

I have been a Head gardener of 31 years for large house, and sill working, I see the years come and go from spring to winner, and love it all.

I retell the old stories.

Catherine Duc produces instrumentals blending Ambient, Celtic, Classical, Electronica and World music.

Catherine is a classically trained pianist and has studied recording and production techniques at the Concert Hall in Melbourne. She also has a Diploma in Film Music Composition from The London School of Creative Studies.

She was presented with the 'Instrumental Artist of The Year' award at the 16th Annual Los Angeles Music Awards. She has also won first prize in the Electronica category of a national song competition organised by Philips Australia.

You can find out more details about Catherine on Myspace or on her Contributor page on this website.

Byki is a powerful and personalized language-learning system. It locks foreign language words and phrases into your memory so that you can recall them perfectly and remember them forever. Put simply: Byki works, it's smart, and people tell us they can't stop using it.

Find out more about their premium and free Irish Gaelic products at the BYKI Irish Luck website.

Searching For My Wives

by William Bostock

Imagine how it all began, this marvelous, long journey of Humanity. Some souls work for peace and happiness. Others, though, despoil, degrade, and kill. This is a novel of past lives, reincarnation, and our occult history. Not many protohumans were alive, one and one-half million years ago, but all of us had souls, and souls persist, and there are souls which lived in hominids in Chesowanja, eastern Africa who have lived among us almost to the present day.

Shimmer loves his wives, Sita and Ahalya, and tries to share sweet lives with them, but the trickster Murk, intent on dragging Mankind down, drives black souls to attack the ones who love.

Come along as Shimmer leads migrations. Relive the waning of the Great Ice Age and the planetwide disaster. And remember how Old Kingdom Egypt travelled through a pleat in time to stabilize and rule the riverplains of northern India. Re-experience Murk's dark campaign to undermine that peaceful land, and once again respond to Shimmer and Old Shiver's call to arms and meet the enemy between two rivers at fabled Kurukshetra.

Find the podcast at Podiobooks.com.