A pilgrimage? What do you mean?

Pilgrimage come from the root word pilgrim, the Latin being peregrinus. Literally translated pilgrim means foreigner, essentially referring to one who comes from outside the jurisdiction of the legal courts of Rome and holds no status within Roman society.

Today a pilgrimage refers to someone travelling to a holy site, usually seeking blessing of the Divine.

I am most certainly traveling, and my destination is a place holy to me, but within the understanding of spirituality I have a pilgrimage is also a journey of transformation, not merely the physical act of going from one place to another but rather an act of Will within intent and purpose.

It is with the intent of returning home that I travel now.

Going home, so Australia then?

No, not exactly, although Australia is one of the stops on my journey.

Australia is where I come from, and will always be of deep importance to me and held with love but it is not home.

Neither is the US, I had hoped it would be and for a time it seemed like it might be sadly it is not.

Hiraeth, a Welsh word, means homesickness for a place you’ve never been, a place that may not exist anymore or may never have existed. It is a feeling I have known since before I knew the word.

The first time I truly felt it fading was when I stepped onto the streets of Dublin. Upon the Wild Atlantic Way I all but forgot the feeling.

My journey now is to Ireland’s western coast, however long that journey takes me.

Wait did you say “unsocial” media?

Yes I did. I have kept accounts active on other platforms purely for the messaging systems they provide as that is the only way some folks have to contact me however I have no interest in engaging in the platforms themselves.

Anything I choose to share, and I hope to share much of my adventures, I will do so here on a server that we own, on a web domain that is ours, my family’s resources.

I say it is unsocial because this space is mine, I do not need to represent anything beyond myself; my clan, my coven, my tradition all inform who I am but here I represent only me.

It also means I feel no obligation to hold space or grant grace to those viewpoints, or the people who hold them, that I don’t care for.

Comments are open on my posts but I will absolutely block some people from commenting, I will delete comments that I don’t want in my space.

I am not here to be social, I am here to share of myself.

O’Wayreth? since when is that your name?

As of now it is not legally my name; in a few months it will be the name on my birth certificate, drivers license, Medicare card, passport and all other government issued ID.

O’Wayreth, pronounced “au”Wayreth is an Irish naming terminology that means literally “of”.

I keep the name I was born with, and am proud to be a Noonan, but I am also “of Wayreth” and am glad to be able to be seen as such.

As far as I am aware it is a unique surname at this time, and I hope it remains so, for within my clan this is a name that cannot be gained by marriage or birth; only by those of an age to choose it for themselves if they wish. All my family are “of Wayreth” some of us wish our documents to reflect that.

Fae? What do you mean by that, is that some new fangled pronoun thing?

In a manner of speaking, or arguably an old one depending on your perspective on these things.

More than a pronoun it is a descriptor; for the way I think, what things matter to me, how I express myself, how I show up in the world, how I relate to others and ultimately who and what I am.

I have used fae as a pronoun for myself for sometime now, almost four years, within my household and clan. As I undertake this long pilgrimage home I do so as myself.

Wow that is a lot of exposition and some pretty solid boundary setting there, why is that?

I am anticipating that there are folks who will follow links from my other social media, find this journal and view it is an opportunity to try to reinsert themselves into my life, from which they have been uninvited.

In equal measure there folks who are close to me but outside the clan who will be surprised by much of what is here and I wish to provide some context for this journal and its entries.