Beltaine in Ireland

Subject: Beltaine in Ireland
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Mar 01 - 03:34 AM

NOTE: Please feel free to cut and paste the letter below, add your own name at the end, and forward to individuals on your email list who you think will either send a contribution or will forward it on to others on their email list. This is an important time for earth healing, as is evident in the crisis on England's farms, and your prayers and contributions are needed.

Dear Friends,

Uisneach is the sacred site of the ancient goddess Eiru, from whom Ireland gets her name - Eire. It is the spiritual and physical center of Ireland. In ancient Ireland the land was perceived as being the living, breathing embodiment of the goddess Eriu. The rocks were her bones, the earth her flesh and the rivers her veins. Eriu was, and is, Ireland.

Once a year at Bealtaine, or May Eve, a great Assembly or 'Oenach' was held in her honor on the Hill of Uisneach, in what is now Co. Westmeath, between Athlone and Mullingar. The 'Oenach' was a yearly renewal of Community, focused on Uisneach and encompassing the entire Island.

According to tradition, all of the hearth fires in the land were extinguished on that evening and two great bonfires were lit on the top of this sacred hill as a beacon, a symbol of Eriu's eyes looking out over the horizons encompassing all that lived on her. These fires were seen as a centralizing spiritual force, thus ensuring the return of summer and the fruitfulness and harmony of the land and people.

The Fires will be re-lit this year at Uisneach and across Ireland on 28 April 2001 as a symbol of our connections to each other rather then our difference, as a sacred joining together in healing and in peace and in celebration of the Divine Presence in our lives. For more information on FIRE EYE see our website at http://www.fire-eye.org. Alternative arrangements are being made to move the site (if need be), in view of the current situation concerning foot and mouth disease, which is affecting the farmers and the land in Ireland. Please check the FireEye website on a regular basis for updates.

Your support with FireEye will help make this event a great success. The earth needs healing and we need healing, now more then ever before. We are encouraging people to perform rituals of solidarity on April 28, 2001; lighting fires (indoor or outdoor, physical or energetic) to connect with this great web of light we are reweaving; sample rituals will shortly be posted on the website. We also ask you consider making a donation to the project, either from your personal resources or from collections taken at solidarity rituals. Tax deductible donations is support of this year's FireEye events will be accepted by: Tumagain Community Arts Alliance (TCAA), 4105 Tumagain Blvd. East, Suite L, Anchorage, Alaska 99517.

Love and light to all, Patricia Monaghan