Essays and Forays

This page will be updated every so often with new essays, reflections, and other works of prose which explore various dynamics of the Dinnseanchas work.  Topics may range from ecological interests, Celtic spirituality, Buddhist and Daoist thought, to narratives of travel and wanderings in the natural world.  Essays will open as a .pdf file.

Re-inhabiting the Earth 2010
An examination of five ecological powers–succession, decomposition, open systems, habitats, and niches–and the way in which they can be expressed through humans as a form of participation in the ecosystem.

What Use Are Poets in Times of Need? 2010
A talk presented at the 2010 Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Graduate Symposium at the California Institute of Integral Studies, exploring the ecological dynamics of poetry and social transformation.

Preserving Truth 2009
This essay explores the concepts of dán, geis, and the kingship traditions of ancient Ireland within an ecological context, deriving from them a cosmologically Irish perspective on Earth jurisprudence and the maintenance of right relationship with the ecosystem.

Re-Dreaming the Druid 2009
An exploration of modern Celtic spirituality in relation to Thomas Berry’s essay, “Reinventing the Human” in attempt to determine the fitness of it as a 21st century spirituality capable of meeting our EcoSocial needs.

The Song of the Silver Branch 2007
The seed thoughts which went on to sprout into Jason’s book, The Salmon in the Spring: The Ecology of Celtic Spirituality, examining the human-nature relationship through an ecopsychological and depth reading of Irish myths.

Wild Earth, Wild Mind 2006
A look at place in story in the Irish tradition, examining our relationship with nature from an ecopsychological lens.  Influenced The Song of the Silver Branch and the Place and Story chapter from The Salmon in the Spring.

Song of the Earth 2006
Music in the Irish mythic tradition seen through the lens of shamanic healing traditions and ecopsychology.

Soul of the Body, Soul of the World 2005
A fairly early essay examining the interrelationship of the body and the world in a cosmological sense.  Although my thoughts on this have changed and matured quite a bit since its writing it may still be of interest and presents a fairly unique take on Celtic cosmology, initiation, and the “Cauldrons of Poesy.”