Blog Posts

As we approach the winter solstice, the pace of life in the natural world begins to slow down and move toward hibernation. The traditional folk calendar of the northern hemisphere recognizes this reality (increasingly the farther north you go!) and allows for social gatherings focusing on reaffirming communal bonds and values, things we need to… Read more

It’s just over a year since I established Hidden Glen Folk School and began a string of blogs about the contemporary relevance and need for tradition. Samhain – the Gaelic New Year – is fast approaching and seems an appropriate time to look back on the last twelve months. This last year has been challenging… Read more

The world is gripped in a crisis more profound than humanity has experienced collectively and simultaneously for a very long time. We are only at the beginning of the personal, social, and cultural tolls that this pandemic will visit upon us. If this is not the mortal blow that brings down the current world order… Read more

It’s like a parody of capitalism actually expressed out loud by the people who have benefited the most from it and are least likely to suffer its most negative effects: people should sacrifice themselves during this pandemic in order to save “The Economy.” It’s like the Biblical parable of Moloch come to life to demonstrate… Read more

The Scottish Gaelic language and culture have somehow survived to the present, despite centuries of deprivation, hardship, and persecution – much of it created deliberately by anglophone adversaries. From the usurpation of the upper echelons of Scottish society in the twelfth century, to the Statutes of Iona enforcing the angloconformity of the Highland aristocracy in… Read more

The idea that the Celts were or are inherently war-like, natural-born soldiers who love to fight, is one of the oldest and most persistent stereotypes that adhere to the present to both the Scottish Highlanders and Irish, although in slightly different forms and for different reasons. The image of Scottish Highlanders as innate brawny warriors,… Read more

There are many ways that people become captivated by the Scottish Highlands and its heritage: some people find out through DNA tests or family trees that they have Highland ancestors; some people have been dazzled by the music of the fiddle or bagpipe; some people are enamored by novels, films or television series such as… Read more

Another set of enthusiastic participants has completed the latest round of course offerings in the Hidden Glen Folk School – Reclaiming the Roots, for the second time, and Radicalizing the Roots, for the first time –, and it’s been a wonderfully enriching experience for everyone, including myself. Our group conversations have frequently reflected on how… Read more

Between the 18th and 20th centuries the élite of a handful of empires conquered most of the planet and justified their domination and exploitation with the myth that the “master races” alone were capable and worthy of wielding the reigns of power. Their superior civilization and genetic endowments – so the claim went – made… Read more

I have the rare and unexpected privilege to be in Memphis this weekend to present traditional Highland literature in Scottish Gaelic to the Memphis Scottish Society during their annual Burns Nicht Gala, so as to span the Highland-Lowland divide in the representation of Scottish heritage. (See a previous article I wrote about this issue at… Read more