A deep relationship with all things as sacred survives for the Irish in many forms. There is the realm of knowing passed down through generations, as in the stories from Inishmurray islanders. There is the realm of farey folklore, present throughout Ireland and especially potent in the Benbulben landscape. Before we wander through more stories I want to consider why any of this is important. Of what relevance for us today?

These, and other, realms are legacies of ancient wisdom. The wisdom of being in right relationship with the Earth. And we are not. Squandering and cannibalizing the Earth’s treasures we now face devastating impacts including climate change and species extinction. For the Irish global warming is not hypothetical, it’s happening to their island now and is of huge concern as the shifts in weather patterns take their toll on farming.

In her book Walking the Maze Loren Cruden wrote, what is powerful and good is still present in the land and our potentials of relationship with it, and in the capacity of consciousness to retrieve or to know what needs to be known. This, then, is the relevance. To retrieve what needs to be known through our legacy and heritage of ancestral wisdom –  understanding, embracing and manifesting the power of right relationship with the Earth.