The Seer
Oracle Card. Imbas Dispatch #41
Morning Shining Ones,
An invitation for you today, to enter the realm of the Seer with this week’s oracle card from my unfolding deck, Celtic Dream Oracle: Ancient Symbols to Guide Your Modern Life.
Seer
Keywords:
Darkness, Second Sight, Vision
Suit:
The Messengers
Symbol:
The eye of the Seer enters into the darkness opening a portal of sight to the Otherworld where the illuminated otherworldly eye peers back, a reminder that what you are seeking, seeks you.
Lore:
Ireland is an island of storytellers. Of seers. Long before Yeats, Joyce, and even the celebrated seanchaí, Peig Sayers, it was the filí, the poet-seers, who were the bearers of the lore. The mother of the word poetry is the Greek poiesis, ‘to make’, ‘to compose’, ‘to create’. Creation begins in the cosmic dark. It requires a sense of night vision, a second sight. One eye in this world, the other in the Otherworld.
In our mythology, Fedelm the banfhile, the ‘poetess-seer’, tells Queen Medb that she has returned from learning ‘verse and vision’ in Alba (Scotland), reminding us a thousand years later how poetry, the art of creation, and seership go together. Fedelm herself has triple irises in each of her eyes, a trifold vision that no doubt enhances her gift of imbas forosnai, the ‘light of foresight’. Fedelm can also be described as a banfháith, a ‘prophetess’, with her uncanny eyes and the light gold weaving-rod she carries in her hand. Women-poets in our tradition often embody an oracular power akin to the Pythia, the high priestess Oracle of Delphi. Fedelm’s weaving-rod speaks to the ancient motif of women spinning and weaving the yarn of fate - the three Moirai of Greek mythology, or the Norns of Norse mythology, working the threads of what will be.
We see such qualities as dall, meaning ‘blind’, ‘dark’, ‘obscure’; and cáech, ‘blind in one eye’, ‘hidden’, ‘veiled’, ‘mysterious’, and its more destructive variant, goll, as assets to seership. Mug Roith, the arch-druid of Ireland, is described both as fully blind and blind in one eye. He spends the first seven years of his apprenticeship under the mentorship of a fairy druidess, Banbhuana in her sídhe dwelling, her fairy mound. It is said he is the only druid who learned his craft in the Otherworld. This otherworldly sight endows him with exceptional skill in the magical arts.
In Gaelic tradition, the practice of poets entering complete darkness to channel their compositions continued until the 18th century. The darkness of the womb, of the origin, of Source, provides an inner-sight, a way of seeing, that no outward 20/20 vision can ever match.
When this card appears:
Have you become hypnotised by the outer-world? Do you see only what your physical eyes show you? How might you cultivate or enhance your art of seership (no matter how good your physical sight may or may not be)?
How might you have one eye in this world, the other in the Otherworld, one eye in light, one eye in dark, one eye in day, one eye in night, one eye solar, one eye lunar, one eye masculine, one eye feminine, one eye on time, one eye timeless, one eye separated, one eye unified?
Invocation:
Light a candle and set it in front of you. Place the palm of one hand over your cheek covering the corresponding eye. Place your other hand over your heart. Allow your covered eye to dissolve into darkness while your open eye focuses on the candle’s flame. Invoke.
‘I enter the magic of the dark,
I call to the Seer within me,
I see, I see, I see.’
Trust in the revelation that comes even if it takes time.
A reminder for members of The Celtic Creatives if you’d like to amplify this invocation, our Eye of Magic ritual is your ally.
Voices of Celtic Wisdom Course
I’m delighted to share that I’ll be teaching for the third consecutive year, a sacred triple on Voices of Celtic Wisdom, a 4-month deep-dive programme exploring the ancestral wisdom traditions of Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, and Cornwall. From December 2025 through March 2026, we’ll gather twice weekly with 35+ wisdom keepers, storytellers, and craftspeople including Aoife Lowden, Dougie MacKay, Ama Verdery , Cáit Branigan, Angharad Wynne, Tara Brading, Mari Kennedy, Phyllida Anam-Áire, Eimear Burke, Lucy O’Hagan… and other kindred souls, to learn old songs and stories, craft with materials gathered from these sacred lands, and nourish the marrow of our bones. We begin tomorrow.
Wishing you a restful and restorative Sunday, with droplets of otherworldly magic.
Croí isteach,
Jen x
Sources
Literary Sources:
A History of Irish Magic by Sally North and James North
Celtic Cosmology and the Otherworld: Mythic Origins, Sovereignty and Liminality by Sharon Paice McLeod
The Siege of Knocklong: Forbhais Droma Damhghaire, translated by Seán Ó Duinn
The Táin: From the Irish Epic Táin Bó Cúailnge by Anonymous, and Thomas Kinsella
Art Sources:
Jessie Willcox Smith






Thank you Jen, this was a rich and nourishing read, generous of you to share. Wishing you a peaceful midwinter season. Caroline x
I really enjoyed reading this powerful piece, thank you for breaking the history and lore down into understandable and highly resonant prose 🙏🏼