Caiseal Mór

Caíseal Mór (, "Cash-el More"; 1961–2023) was an Australian sci-fi and fantasy novelist, actor, artist and musician.

Early life and education

Caíseal Mór was born in far west Queensland, Australia, in 1961. His parents were Irish immigrants who ran a cattle station, and his first language was Gaelic, as is his first name (pronounced "cashel"), meaning "circular stone fort". He was also described as part Indigenous. He inherited a love of storytelling and music from his parents, and in a long-held family tradition, learned to play the brass-strung harp as a child.

As a child, Mór was diagnosed on the autism spectrum as a savant, which he later discussed in his autobiography A Blessing and a Curse; Autism and Me (2007), where he wrote about the profound difficulties he had as a child with conformity and the judgement of others. In the book, he also mentioned being diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

After returning from travels in India, Europe, and North Africa in 1986, Mór was encouraged by friends to audition for the performing arts degree programme at the University of Western Sydney (Theatre Nepean) in 1987. He graduated with a degree in performing arts

Music Mór began creating musical art objects at university and later moved on to building shamanic style and tribal drums.

From around 2013 he collaborated with the singer and multi-instrumentalist Laya Rocha, with their early work "heavily influenced by Arabic, Turkish and Persian microtonal music". They released their first three albums under the band name Khatunaya. This was derived from ancient Persian, referring to a concept of heavenly bliss. Under this name, they ran a series of all-night concerts, known as the Dreaming Deep, which were based on Hindu and Sufi trance practices. An album of the same name was released in November 2016. After travelling to Mongolia and bringing in more guest musicians, they changed the band name to Moonlight Tribe, and created various versions of a work called Ninety-Nine Skies.

Death In 2023, Mór chose to undergo voluntary assisted dying following a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer.

Music and spoken word albums Circle and the Cross (Companion to the novel of the same name) (1995 ) Song of the Earth (Companion to the novel of the same name) (1996) Water of life (Companion to the novel of the same name) (1997) The Moon on the Lake (1998) Loom of Music (1999) [The Well of Yearning] (companion to Well-Spring Trilogy - books) (2002) Beautiful Hands (Celtic Harp) (2003) Divine Passion - Rain Water (2004) Divine Passion - Air (2005) What is Magic? (2009) Flow (2010) Alchemy for the Heart (Creative Trance) (2011) Dreaming Tree - Red (Creative Trance) (2012) Dreaming Tree - The Green Album (Dreaming Music and Creative Trance) (2013) Prana (2014) Dreaming Deep (2016) Ninety-Nine Skies (2016)