The Irish & Scottish Origins of Halloween

Oct 29, 2014

James Swagger is a researcher, field investigator and engineer who has dedicated the last 15 years of his life to researching megalithic sites and ancient cultures. James has been to over 400 megalithic tombs dotted across Europe, in addition to stone circles and henges in search of commonalities and design. James utilizes his engineering background as a systems analyst as a utility to reduce the complexity of ancient megalithic sites. He returns to discuss the Irish and Scottish origins of Halloween. He’ll talk about the Irish/Scottish ‘Samhain’ festival originating in the British Isles about 1300 years ago. He’ll tell about Celtic pagan rituals that relate to the megalithic calendar and solar wheel. James says pagans inherited their solar worship from the megalith builders. He also talks about how the church aimed to Christianize the Celtic pagans and how the shift from Hallows day became Hallows Eve or Halloween. In the second hour, we’ll hear about the mythology of spirits and inter-dimension beings at Halloween. He’ll talk about the Aos Si, banshees, witches, fairies and supernatural women of Ireland. We also hear about the Tuatha De Danann, a race of supernaturally-gifted people in Irish mythology. Later, we discuss other deities and festivals of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland and variant branches of paganism.