Fàilte gu dearbh! ‘S e Alex a t-ainm a th’ orm!
Welcome! My name is Alex!

This is my little blog Eòlas air Ailig, the title being inspired by Ortha nan Gaidheal, or Carmina Gadelica as it’s popularly known, where many charms are titled ‘Eòlas air XYZ’ (Knowledge/Charm of XYZ). So let’s try to understand the word Eòlas. It is a Scottish Gaelic word that means ‘a spell, knowledge, or incantation’. This word means a lot to me as I carry the title of Eòlaiche (Charmer/Healer) in my daily life as a practitioner of Scottish folk magic, focusing on healing within the community and protecting against ill-influence.

Outwith my work as a Eòlaiche, I am a tarot reader/diviner, community educator, and student. My current degree is a BA in Community Education, however I am now leaving after finishing second year with a Diploma of Higher Education instead! My journey with education has taken me to study at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig — The Gaelic immersion college on the Isle of Skye.

Community education is something I have always held close to my heart as someone who spent her teenage years volunteering in communities and the past 2 and a half years doing paid community work. Helping communities and bringing back the understanding of the phrase ‘it takes a village’ is intrinsically important to me. My community education work has looked different over the years. It started with local politics and helping young people have their voices heard by local authority, and then became helping LGBTQIA+ young folk feel confident and comfortable with their identities, and have a Brave Space to occupy, as well as many other things, and later took a turn towards Adult Education as well.

My goal has always been to create a Brave Space for minority folk and so I will state here that there is absolutely zero tolerance for bigotry, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism or any other form of hate-fueled ideology. This is a queer and neurodivergent run blog. Do not bring that shit here. GTFO.

My goal for this blog is to create a space for folk to comment and engage in critical dialogue on topics surrounding Scottish folk culture, magic, belief systems, and the downsides that come with that – the historical and continuous impacts of colonialism, racism, capitalism, and other oppressive structures that have forced themselves onto us.

In order to keep things accessible I will try to keep uber-academic language out of articles, but I also do have a flair for using flowery language so apologies in advance for when it sneaks in. Some posts may be long, others just a photo; I want this to be a collection of things, a portfolio of sorts. We’ll see where it takes us all.

So yeah, this is my blog. Fàilte a-rithist, and make yourself at home!