I’ve never worked with Manannán mac Lir before, and until a search before writing this, I don’t believe I was even pronouncing his name correctly.

Manannán mac Lir is a Deity of Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and Manx legend, associated with the Tuatha and the Formorians. He is the God of the sea, the oceans, and storms.

In New South Wales this weekend is the Labour Day long weekend. With beautiful 35C weather, and me in desperate need of a break from the work-uni-work-uni-millions-of-cats routine (as I wrote this, Pirate-cat comes to join me), the Muggle and I went for our first day trip north (of Sydney) in years.

The moment I stood on the sand and the waves greeted me, I said his name. Manannan.

Something within me knew that this energy was his. This day, this swell, these rips – this was his domain. It felt so different to my old beach home, so different to any sandy shore I had stood on before.

But it wasn’t just Manannan mac Lir that greeted me.

In learning to expand my psychic awareness, I was able to meet the Ancestral Guardian and Spirit of the land. He showed himself as a Koori elder, with a name I can only manage to pronounce in my mind with his correcting me. He told me the story of the land, the history of the stretch of beach we stood upon.

I was told off and belittled for losing concentration when he was telling the story, for not giving my complete self in that moment. I stated my case, and after being reminded that I am “a white fella” he seemed to use that as reasoning.

But in the end, he told me the tale. I stood still, I listened, and I felt honoured to have been able to share in such a moment.

Today I had the honour to meet two very amazing energies; a Deity of my bloodline, and a Spirit of Place whose face I was finally allowed to see.