I used to co-moderate a Celtic listserv called The Celtic Well. I still maintain my old Celtic web site and occasionally receive e-mails with questions about all sorts of Celtic stuff gu leor.

Today I had a question about the source of an “ancient Gaelic blessing” that I had heard of before, but didn’t immediately know the source. So I had to do some researching. It’s easily titled Deep Peace and is an ancient eolas or charm of healing put on the fairy fool Amadan by the blind poet Alan Dall. It was supposedly translated by Fiona MacLeod and can be found online here in her “Under a Dark Star, Volume III.”

Bill Douglas also did a choral version of it in his eponymously titled Deep Peace CD, which I have and thought of immediately. Anyway, it’s deeply inspiring, pensive and restful at the same time, and I think quite appropriate for this time of year. An excerpt:

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the sleeping stones to you!

Le meas.