This weekend I attended the Months Mind Ceremony for author and broadcaster, Manchan Magan, along with 2,500 other people at the Hill of Uisneach, the mythological and sacred centre of Ireland.
It was a remarkable ceremony, held on November 1st, to mark the festival of Samhain, believed to be the origins of Haloween, and the first day of the Celtic New Year, when demons, fairies, and spirits of the dead were thought to walk the Earth the night before when the separation was thin between the worlds of the living and the dead. The weather added to the drama, at times lashing rain with beating wind, and when hail stones came beating down, instead of dampening sprits, it was greeted with a defiant rousing cheer. The sun burst through the clouds, and even a rainbow magically appeared as if on que. Fires were lit and overall, it was just a magical experience.
Manhcan was a beloved national treasure in Ireland, as well as overeas; he rekindled our love for the Irish language, helping us to see its wonder through new eyes, and reconnecting us with ancestral traditions and sacred pre-historic sites that pre-date the Egyptian Pyramids.
Almost a year ago, to the day, on November 11th, my family attended a riveting talk Manchan gave to a wrapt audience entitled “Rewilding the Mind.
An odyssey in itself, Manchan covered the role of female deities in Celtic mythology and how symbols of fertility are present in prehistoric monuments in the landscape, links between Indian mythology and Irish legends, from sacred cows to milk rivers and the importance of reconnecting with ancient wisdom.
It was through Manchan’s podcast, The Almanac of Ireland, that I was introduced to environmental philosopher, Mathijs Schouten, our wetland hero in Our Blue World water documentary who led the crusade to save Ireland’s bogs and wetlands.
Manchan was warm and sincere and incredibly generous with his time, sharing what he knew to inspire others, including sharing an early draft of a chapter on Holy Wells with me, from an upcoming book he was working on. He was always busy a bee in the Bee Loud Glade, using the time given well.
From an incredibly talented family, his brother, Ruán Magan directed and co-wrote the Our Blue World Film. Manchan’s influence somehow founds its way into the film and we open with a Cree Nation creation myth that tells of how a Weesakechahk, built a boat and escaped a great flood.
Water has defined our sense of place and identity for thousands of years. As biospherian Mark Nelson reminded us, in quoting William Burroughs, ‘we need a new mythology for the space age, in which heroes are judged by how their actions help save our planet’. Manchan helped us reconnect with our mythology and ancestral wisdom, sparking and igniting a connection to the world around us.
