The fire festivals of Ireland form one of the main cycles by which pagans mark the year. These festivals are still honoured today and used in conjunction with the cycle of the equinox as the basis of many a spiritual or ritual practices.
There are many many ways to get into the Irish Otherworld. The folk lore of Ireland is littered with tales of fairy rings, stray sods, fairy trees, mist walls, sidhe steeds, and boats. Each of these mundane appearing things are more than what they seem, functioning as a doorway or stepping over point from our world to the Other.
Ireland has long been a place set between the worlds and here to this very day we have some very firm and rightly observed lore about the folk of the Otherworld. From our early stories we are told the sidhe and the danger that may befall the unwary. One such danger is known as the fairy ring.
In Irish folklore there is much ado made of the powers of a Blacksmith. We see this in the high regard Goibhniu holds within the Tuatha Dé Danann to the deference that King Conchobar makes towards Culainn the smith in the Ulster cycle. The knowledge of fire held by these people, and the skill to use said fire to shape some of the strongest elements has long been held in high regard.
Our world has changed, and yet for all of that forward progress, some of us find ourselves looking back. Gazing into the past. Seeking insight and meaning. Searching for a greater connection to the natural world all about us.