Áine, meaning brightness, is an Irish solar goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, faery queen of the high summer, fertility, sovereignty, wealth and especially love. She is celebrated at the summer solstice with great fire rites in her honor and her stories are shared widely. Her blessings mean a promise of protection and abundance with the coming harvests.

This goddess is greatly revered in particular in Limerick, Ireland and the village of Knockainey (Cnoc aine or Áine’s Hill) is named after her. Áine teaches us of beauty and radiance, the sacred feminine magnetism which is alive in the very joy of presence. As an enchantress, she teaches us the incredible power we have to inspire others by being in our embodied magic, our fierce wisdom and sacred sensuality. The goddess whispers to both enchant and become enchanted by the great mystery. She carries the archetypal wisdoms of many other love goddesses, and may be worked with in particular for love magic. She reminds us to embrace our inner passions, ignite the fire in our hearts and immerse in the sanctuary of self-love. She brings light and sweetness, creativity and expression, and is sometimes referred to as a sweetheart of the sidhe or faery lover, said to have taught mortals the true meaning of love.

Though primarily a solar goddess, Áine also carries lunar and water wisdoms within her harmonious vibrancy, sometimes even referred to as a lady of the lake. In this way, she is a significant figure in emphasizing the importance of the cyclical and regenerative quality of the natural world we are a part of. She also stands out as being a solar goddess, when we tend to see a lot more solar deities in a male form. There is a lot of power in this aspect of her. Áine is also associated with and adorned with the magic of the plant meadowsweet, or bridewort, infusing it with its very scent, and he is said to have command over agriculture, crops and animals. Being a shapeshifter as well, like many other Irish goddesses, she is at times represented by a red mare in folklore, one which nobody could outrun.

Áine is an important sovereignty goddess. In many stories she is being subjected to terrible acts and taken against her will, at which point she incites punishment upon her attackers. This seems to represent the karmic retribution naturally occurring especially as it relates to the oppression of the goddess. This being the sacred feminine as a universal energy and the innate sovereignty of female life force energy. She calls us into our own fierce boundaries. She reminds us of the way our very earth has been under savage exploitation and neglect, taken advantage of out of greed. In this way, her beauty and power invoke respect for the sacred feminine and for the earth. The land itself must be treated with a deep honor and reverence in order to prosper and yield its natural abundance. Áine is a significant Irish goddess to look to, with her teachings of fertile love, sovereignty and truly rich, cyclical wisdom. May we dance with vitality through summer in her flowering faery solar ring.

Envision a circle of beautiful, diverse soul sisters holding hands with tears flowing freely like summer rain, each other’s presence and vulnerability of the heart cherished. See them encouraging each other to feel fully and to be expressed to speak their truth and to dance with the elements. See them holding each other’s pain with care and compassion, in trust. See them recognizing both their similarities and differences with awe. See them receptive and inviting in the spirit of abundance, feeling enough exactly as they are. See them celebrating each others boundaries. See them as the embodied wisdom of resilience and reciprocity, rising in an empowered alchemy from exile into belonging.

It is so brave to hold up mirrors with one another, to be humbled in the honesty of the deep wounding of patriarchal conditioning that pits us against each other time and time again. It takes so much courage to sit with a sister and reveal the true tenderness of the heart while still holding compassionate boundaries. It takes such an incredible amount of devotion to the collective and the spirit of the earth itself. It takes a real generosity of heart, to put aside the ego while at the same time on a journey of reclaiming this long lost power and wisdom of the feminine.

The sister wound and the witch wound, which go hand in hand, are topics I have become so passionate about over the years. As women, the pain of having our voices cut off for so long runs deep, to the point where we can even inadvertently cut them off with one another as a byproduct, when the true medicine of that moment is empathetic listening. There is so much to go into on this subject of the sister wound, from how it began, to its everyday impact, to what we can do now to really be actively tending to this on a regular basis. I will still just be scratching the surface here with my deep dive thoughts, though I feel it really begins with profound honesty and self reflection on how this shows up within each and every one of us in different ways. The internalized misogyny of patriarchal wounding which can show up as the sister wound, is something every individual has an important role in being accountable for addressing within themselves.

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So what is the sister wound?

The sister wound is a deep inner programming that tells women that we should be in competition with one another and to expect betrayal, that we cannot trust each other. It painfully affects our sense of belonging making us feel excluded, not enough, insecure, and fundamentally disconnected. Feelings of jealousy and competition cause separation and then behaviors such as slandering and gossip perpetuate the belief that we are enemies even further. Another sister’s successes and wins can register as a threat to the nervous system. It is embedded in us as a survival strategy due to the conditioned belief that women’s worth is determined by what men and society at large think of what we achieve, how we look etc.

What is the witch wound?

The witch wound is a deep inner programming that tells women to be afraid of speaking their truth and claiming their power and gifts in the world. It propels the fear of being judged for showing up authentically in the world, being shamed for sexuality and creative expression, as well as condemned for practicing ritual and relationship with the earth. It causes a sometimes crippling fear of being seen in one’s knowledge and wisdom, having boundaries, and expressing one’s truth. Feelings of anxiety and invisibility, expecting condemnation and constantly doubting the self seem to be lurking somewhere in the background at all times. The witch hunts had women turning against each other for survival.

These wounds in conjunction have been devastating. Growing up with a big sister and struggling with comparison thinking as well as having had many experiences of betrayal from trusted women in general throughout my life, healing the sister wound is an an ongoing journey close to my heart. This continues to be a very significant part of my ancestral healing work which I believe is a lifelong journey. The reason I say this often is because to me it is a way of life, a heart-led devotion I consistently pour myself into. I feel as soon as I start to believe that I have fully healed or transcended something, I halt my capacity for growth and humility. I believe I can rise and expand and feel enough while still holding this truth. I say all of this because it feels honest and I think that is what we need more of in this age of online spiritual gurus and teachers and facilitators of every kind. I am also shocked by how often I have seen facilitators doing women’s work seem to be totally missing the topic of the sister wound, actively denying it in themselves, and even actively perpetuating it with other women. And I say this not from a place of judgement but from a place of deep care and concern. I feel strongly it is something we need to talk about more and continue to bring to light from the collective shadows. We are all carrying the sister wound in some way. This is many centuries of patriarchal trauma and conditioning deeply embedded in our blood and bones. To position oneself as transcended beyond it and to deny this within ourselves is to perpetuate it. The best thing we can do to truly heal it in the collective sisterhood is to be honest about it within ourselves and with each other about this. Taking ownership of this also reestablishes trust within sisterhood. Time and time again I have seen it arise in women’s spaces causing more division. Judging, shaming, condemning and dismissing each other if these feelings arise only perpetuate it more. Yes we are doing the work and we are healing the ancestral lines and the grandmothers are celebrating, and we still have a long way to go.

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Social media inflames these wounds whether we are conscious of it fully within ourselves or not. Hierarchies and comparison thinking are embedded into it and thereby the collective psyche. And yet we are also in an incredible era of sacred feminine spiritual entrepreneurship. Part of healing the sister wound is practicing celebrating each other’s work and seeing that there is more than enough for everyone. It is also about reprogramming scarcity. Part of celebrating and lifting up another sister’s work is giving due credit for when her work or idea inspired yours. The truth is the sister wound shows up with different faces in each of us, and so a huge part of healing it is moving beyond right and wrong thinking, while developing the capacity to hold multiple truths at once with compassion. This is not easy work. It is incredibly difficult work. This is the mucky, muddy, earthy, to-the-root work. The wildly difficult part is that this is all happening largely in the collective unconscious, which makes it difficult at times to take ownership. This is okay because it is a process, but each time we let our egos get in the way of our honest heart, we perpetuate the sister wound and the patriarchal power dynamics which made it in the first place.

So how can we hold space for someone when the sister wound or witch wound arises in a way that doesn’t perpetuate it? We can listen with compassion and continue to practice actively validating each other’s voices with intentional dialogue regardless of whether or not we agree. We can hold boundaries at the same time. Collaboration is a direct remedy for competition, not just collaborating on a specific project or event but embodying collaborative energy, meaning looking at how we can consider all sides with care. It means looking for solutions together in order to see each other as on the same team and not as enemies. It means revealing the vulnerable heart behind the wound which shows how we are impacted by this in each other. The patriarchal conditioning that has caused the sister wound in the first place wants us to see each other as enemies. It wants us to lust for power and control, dogma, and authority. Healing the sister wound is knowing that all of our voices matter and compassion and collaboration must become an embodied way of life.

How can we hold space for the sister wound and the witch wound within ourselves so as to not perpetuate them? This is where personal daily practice and ritual come in. We have to make space to feel our sacred rage too, for all of the injustices, to move that tightness stuck in our jaws from not being able to speak our truth and having our boundaries bulldozed over and to scream into pillows all of those unsaid things needing to be said. And when we go into the sacred rage we will find that it very quickly opens up into sacred grief, where too many uncried tears have been kept tucked away somewhere within the ancient self. We soften, surrender into the honesty of the broken heart, of just how devastating the sister wound has been. We can go and hold the hand of our inner child who learned from a young age that these wounds were the norm. We can master compassion for ourselves and others and be so endlessly patient with the process. When we deal with our unresolved sacred rage, we strengthen our capacity to communicate boundaries from the heart instead of from anger. When we deal with our unresolved grief, we strengthen our capacity to love unconditionally. We strengthen our capacity to remember why we are doing this work in the first place. We must also practice truly owning and sharing our gifts in the world, building our confidence and celebrating our own unique wins every day. This grows our capacity to celebrate the wins of other sisters as well as to cultivate trust within.

And all of this being said, we have to practice knowing our limits when doing the deep shadow work, reaching out for professional support as needed and tending to these big feelings in safe spaces as much as possible.

I do believe we are all doing our best and that is something I strive towards every day in my personal process. So let us take a moment today and with the coming Solstice to celebrate this collective healing movement and all of the profoundly deep work it takes to be on this path, holding these wounds with love while also reclaiming this immense creative, life-giving power that is the true essence of the sacred feminine. I feel so grateful for the sisters I have in my life and am so proud of us for being so brave along this journey. May we continue to cultivate trust, respect, resilience, beauty, empowerment, humility and strength with each other. May it ripple out into the collective sisterhood.

With wild care,

Sarah x

Please enjoy this guided meditation which I am sharing first here on Substack and if you enjoy it I invite you to check out my other guided meditations and like and subscribe to Heart Lore Meditations on Youtube.

Divine inspiration is the experience of total connection and attunement to the lifeforce energy that is within us and the natural world we are intrinsically bonded with. It is the ease of flow in the process of creation, an allowance of presence as that which wants to awaken seems to ooze out of us in the form of art.

This art may take shape as ritual, music, poetry, storytelling, and I feel there is a direct correlation as well with lovemaking. The common thread being this deep, blissful communion with the essence of the divine and the creative energy born of that place. It is the alchemical rebirthing process. Just as the natural world, we are in constant collaboration and communication with the seasonal rhythms of life/death/rebirth. This is worlds beyond the mundane and yet it can be experienced in the mundane too.

This is true bardic enchantment, being moved into the process of creation by the magic of life itself. This space is not only ecstatic, but oracular, opening up our channels to experience our art as prophecy, for what we create is always revealing something to us as well.

In Ireland this is known as Imbás. Imbás Forosnai (Old Irish for great knowledge or inspiration that illuminates) is known to be a special prophetic ability or clairvoyant gift that was channeled by the fili (Old Irish for visionary poets). Ritualistic in nature, it was a highly revered practice in early Ireland involving altered states of consciousness.

In many modern orders of Druidry, the word Awen, which comes from ancient Britain and particularly Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages, is similarly a term to refer to this concept of divine inspiration. It is thought to be the creative force that flows through poets and keepers of spiritual knowledge. The word itself means inspiration and is also connected to the wind and breath of life.

So how can we access this divine inspiration with greater ease?

It really begins with looking at the limiting beliefs we have around accessing it and embracing our sensitivity to it. I feel strongly that it asks us to drop into a certain vulnerability and presence with our feeling nature. And for many of us, vulnerability does not come easily. Just like coming up to resistance around feelings in any intimate relationship, a similar occurrence happens with our art.

It is something like a sacred romance with the moment, where creative expression is born. There has to be a willingness to be untamed, raw, boldly expressive and still softened in the heart. There has to be an openness to this level of intimacy with spirit, to allow imagination to unfurl, momentarily blending worlds in a magical place of infinite possibility. There is even a playfulness in this, a provocative curiosity.

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If we have beliefs of not enough-ness about our writing, for example, we can actually access our divine inspiration more effortlessly by choosing to be vulnerable with the presence of the raw feelings encouraging those beliefs. In doing so, we can also begin to question those beliefs which have frozen in us as creative blocks. In this space, the emotion can be felt and moved, and the spaciousness to receive inspiration begins to open more so.

Imagine what we could create if we only gave ourselves the freedom to be authentic to what is truly flowing through us in the moment. I really feel that poetry is the language of the he(art) which is also the inner hearth. When we are really and truly at home in ourselves and so in our hearts, there is a sense of safety to express vulnerably from a place of wisdom and grace. There is a reverence for the dreamtime, and that which is beyond linear time and physical space. The flow of divine inspiration then may move as a dance of giving and receiving in abundance.

Sometimes divine inspiration is sparked by participating in a ceremony, or drinking in the the art of others in some way. So many times I have found myself moved by a line in a song or story which evoked a huge wave of inspiration and stirred me into my own profound creative process. Ritual births more ritual. Art births more art. There is an immortality in that, a legacy.

Of course the simplest way to access divine inspiration is truly to go out to nature, to gaze upon the tumultuous ocean waves on a windy day, the sprawling woodlands laced with strings of sun just before twilight, and the glimmering ancestral star-speak on a clear night.

Some may find it more challenging than others to really access this, and some may feel it effortless since birth. It is definitely something we all have access to if we choose, or at least that’s what I believe. And beyond all of this, divine inspiration and how to access it is likely going to look different for everyone. Though isn’t it fun to explore these wonders together?

Join and I for our virtual spring ceremony FLOWERING this Saturday, March 14th. This event will include a guided ritual and teachings on the spring equinox as well as the Celtic wheel, a journey through the Welsh tale of the flower Goddess Blodeuwedd, mythopoetic teachings and a creative writing workshop. You are very warmly invited! Click here to learn more about the event and follow the link below to get your tickets.

Join us!

Everything in life does not become all rainbows and butterflies as soon as spring arrives. As we approach the spring equinox, which will be on March 20th this year, I find myself contemplating this liminal space. Specifically, I have been wondering about the relationship between grief and the spring equinox. For although the winter will be officially reaching a completion, and the dark days too, there will still be heartbreak, death, loss. There will still be dark days of heavy rains and seemingly unbearable storms.

So the reality is, sometimes we may be called into grieving in the spring time, for though the days are brightening in nature, there are always cycles happening within cycles simultaneously. We can attune to the turning wheel and become more and more aligned with it, and still the life/death/rebirth cycles are occurring from moment to moment in unique ways for everyone. There is so much power in honoring the organic flow of these cycles as they occur, for it is in the many faces of resistance that we stay frozen in painful rigidity, unable to even see the promise of the inner spring around the corner. Still, everything has its own timing, even resistance. Though, this practice of attunement to the turning seasons in nature, I have come to learn, is incredibly supportive in accessing a space of acceptance when those dark days do come.

The winter itself and even the spring rains, just as our inner landscapes, remind us of how to be fully present with the sacredness of our grief. They remind us that this undulation is truly vital for the flowers of our spirit to grow, that this is an inevitable part of life. Often when we are called into grieving, and we make the conscious choice not to run away from it, we may observe a natural softening more deeply into the heart that occurs. The purity of emotion has a space and allowance to be nurtured with care and presence. In this way, letting go has a way of bringing us closer to an unconditional sense of blooming love that permeates everything in an absolute unbreakable bond of connection.

The spring equinox in particular speaks to this duality, for it is a time when the day and night are of equal length and darkness and light arrive at a balance, as a reminder that one cannot exist without the other. It is also a hopeful time where light and warmth will continue to grow onward. Themes of cleansing and purification, rebirthing and renewal, as well as fertility are all largely present at this time. If there is resistance present, the spring equinox invites us in a gentle inquiry as to what we are holding onto still from winter. It asks us if we are ready to let it melt into the earth, to surrender to the fertile possibility of new growth as wisdom.

Surrendering to this multilayered, nuanced movement of cyclical nature feels deeply healing, for we are reclaiming the ancestral knowing of our intimate relationship with nature and self. Reestablishing this relationship supports us to see beyond the rigid structure of patriarchal society and conditioning. It helps us to cultivate self-awareness, community connection, enhance creative capacity and begin to cultivate mastery over our sacred emotional fluctuations and innately dynamic nature. It encourages a sense of devotional reciprocity with the earth.

Our grief and love are the embrace of dark and light, of winter and spring, a recognition of the incredible beauty of their interconnectedness. At this time we are reminded of how they are interwoven in many ways as one, and we are also reminded of our own interconnectedness with all of nature and each other. So this is an invitation into heart presence, with what is truly alive at this time, as we approach the spring equinox. This is an invitation also to not rush our inner winters to end if that is what is true, for we can still celebrate the arrival of the spring equinox even if our body still needs time to grieve. No matter what is happening, being truly present to the dynamic and cyclical wonder of the feeling heart is a very fertile place to be.

If you would like to learn more about the many facets of the spring equinox, cyclical living and the Celtic wheel of the year, as well as journey into the Welsh tale of the Goddess Blodeuwedd, join and I for FLOWERING this Saturday, March 14th. This workshop will include storytelling, mythopoetic teachings and a creative writing, poetry playshop. You definitely don’t want to miss it- click the link below to get your ticket.

Join us!

Join me for a magical evening in sacred circle with women, in celebration of the Full Snow Moon in Leo as well as the Celtic festival of Imbolc. We will be intentionally igniting that creative spark that begins to awaken within at this time, as well as deepening in connection with the ancient wisdom that dwells in our cyclical self, as is reflected in nature. This wintery full moon in a fire sign is beautifully synonymous with the themes of Imbolc, where water meets flame, both very different but palpable forces of creative energy. And it is this regenerative capacity that we have as women which is so powerful for us to build relationship with. At this time we are preparing ourselves to awaken from the long, dark dream of winter and a desire to weave those vast visions into form is stirring, just as the seedlings beneath the cold earth are too. And being a full moon, it is also a potent time to let go and release, this one in many ways is like a final cleansing, to make space for the abundant spring to arrive once again with the next turn of the season.

Where: Muse Mind & Body Studio, Victoria, BC

Cost: $35 CAD

Time: 6:30-8:30 PM

What to bring:

~Notebook and pen

~Water bottle

~Yoga mat

~Optional item for the altar

***This is filling up fast! Get your tickets here!!

**Read my article Teachings of the Irish Goddess Brigid

Ancestral healing is an immensely personal journey, as vast and unique as the timeless rings of a tree, as complex and nuanced as the furthest reaches of the ocean’s mysteries. And simultaneously, it is as simple and pure as taking a deep, recycled breath into that divinity which connects every living thing, which always has and always will.

This Samhain, under a dark autumn sky and the watchful eye of the crone goddess, I feel my ancestors nudging me to share more about what I have learned along this strange road to sovereignty. In many ways the journey began for me long before I had the words to name it, but I do recall the moment when I really began to intentionally open the doors of communication with my ancestors.

I remember sitting on my inherited sheepskin rug on my bedroom floor. It was a rug which previously had belonged to my maternal grandmother, whose mother had emigrated from Northern Ireland to Canada in the early 1900s. So my grandmother had passed away recently before, and I found myself with an altar now dressed with a large silver chalice and small cast iron cauldron which had also been hers. Having already been involved with a lot of work with the sacred feminine, these gifts were incredibly meaningful, and moved me to strengthen my healing work with my maternal line.

I had already felt the increasingly loud stirrings of this for some time. But I remember this moment because I was entering into an evocative meditation with Celtic harp filling the space. I began to speak to my ancestors directly, to invite them to be in communication with me, to ask them to step in with guidance, to let them know I cared. I felt a wave wash over me, and their response came as a sort of intense, full body experience. It began as a very visceral yearning, an all-encompassing surge of energy that seemed to tug at my very skin and bones, a calling to come home, and my mind was filled with images of faraway lands. It was incredibly sensorial. I was reading a lot of myths during this time, lighting candles in ceremony on shadowy nights, visiting the trees and listening to familiar music. The music was familiar, but in a way that was not from this life. The nostalgia swept in more and more, like the harvest winds, stirring memories of places that I only knew through stories and songs and mysterious objects passed down from my grandparents.

I recall it being a profoundly somatic experience, during a time when I struggled a lot with dissociation and the effects of codependency. For some time, I teetered on a bridge of confusion between fantasy and true psychic vision. Ultimately it would lead me to be pulled onto an initiatory quest which would teach me the art of discernment. All in all, I had a lot of grounding to do, and the summoning to the path of ancestral healing was loud and clear both internally and externally.

This whole journey began for me after already having explored an array of different spiritual traditions from different parts of the world. All of these traditions, I am grateful to have been taught something rich and expansive by, and they all held a piece of the puzzle. Many of them I still practice in part to this day, but all of them were still missing something for me. And over time, in cycles of losing faith and rediscovering it once again, I realized it was because I was missing from me. A calling to really be rooted in my own body and sense of self began to awaken. I was seeing more and more that this endless seeking for a sense of heart and hearth in other places and people was only ever leading me back to myself anyway. I had to learn to source what I was seeking without, from within myself. Some part of me knew this, the part that chose to listen to the call and to risk everything for that call.

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My experience with ancestral healing has been one to the underworld and the otherworld and ultimately back to my most sacred sense of sovereignty. I had to trade self-abandonment for boundaries. I had to let go of toxic relationships and become my own best friend and lover amidst crippling grief. I had to find my power as a woman. It was a journey into chaos and an emerging from chrysalis, a sort of alchemical rebirth from the cauldron of transformation. The feeling that initially called me, even long before I realized what it was, was so tangible and yet in many ways hard to put into words. I often say it even felt somewhat romantic, like there was an ancient lover calling me back into their arms, and yet I would soon discover that the lover was just me, calling me home to myself.

I remember the first layer to wade through being the shame, because it was nearly impossible to see and hear with true care when there was a heavy fog of shame draped over eyes and ears. There were times of rage, screaming into pillows until it began to change form. Then there was the grief, which for me often looked like cathartic crying and being curled up in desperate prayer at the standing stones. My lineage held a lot of unresolved pain, so among many other dynamic layers of discovery, these were fundamental steps on my journey of ancestral healing. And with every new layer, there was another invitation to step into courage and vulnerability, to reconcile with what has passed. And what is on the other side, I can say from my own experience, more and more, there is heightened vision, empowered gifts and the sense of freedom to share them in the world, fruitful relationships with the land and with others, as well as an overflowing well of compassion and abundance within the heart. There is a greater capacity to give back.

Of course, this didn’t all happen overnight and it didn’t happen on my own. In fact, I wouldn’t say it is all done either. I do believe ancestral healing is a lifelong journey which will look very different for everyone. It is an ongoing and immersive process, imbued with initiation after initiation. It requires so much humility, commitment, resilience and in my experience, community support. It is a very distinct shift from codependence and avoidance, to interdependence and reciprocity. To shed the programming of personal and collective conditioning is no easy feat, and is most definitely meant to be shared at the community grove, as we uplift one another in the process of sovereign rooting and rewilding.

Ritual, devotion and earth based spirituality had all been a huge part of my path and my work already up until that point, and looking back, I do feel there were a series of guided steps which seem something like destiny now, which led me to choose to open the doors of communication with my ancestors. And which eventually, when the timing and resources allowed, led me to listen to the call of the land. I did always have an insatiable thirst for mystery and in truth I was largely guided by my bardic devotion and lifelong love of poetry, which is a medicine deeply intertwined with the blood of my Irish ancestry.

I really feel that ancestral healing is multilayered and vastly complex, and what I understand up until this point, I feel privileged to have learned and I also know this understanding will continue to mature and evolve as I do. Ultimately, there are a variety of different approaches to ancestral healing, and all are equally as necessary. There also may be seasons where one approach is more accessible than another.

It may be that the lens for some is more galactic and celestial, or it may be more earth-based, and it may be both. It may be a deepening of a relationship with an inherited art such as music or writing. It may be a studious search to understand the history of a society and culture as well as its relationship to others and at different times. It may be a contemplation of common ground. It may be meditating with a tree every day, going to therapy and doing inner child work or having a heart-centered conversation with one’s parents. It may be crying for hours in a cemetery, and it may be journeying to the sacred sites of one’s ancestral lands. It may be listening to the stories of the people and the land and the culture, trying the food, caring about knowing. It may be a practice of forgiveness and a leaning into compassion. It may be a practice of listening. It may be a practice of speaking one’s truth. It may be tending to an altar, a fire, and making offerings to deities. It may be activism. It may be an elemental steeping. It may be a reunion with the goddess, and a mythical return to the womb.

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Ancestral healing may include a return to a renewed relationship with the land by learning the skills of homesteading, growing food, crafting, hide tanning and wholly living in a reciprocal relationship with the earth itself. It may include becoming attuned to the plant medicines that nourished our ancestors. It may be letting go of the habits and beliefs that depleted and wounded us as individuals and as a collective. Ancestral healing may be a search into one’s own bloodline and specific family history. It could be visiting the same towns where they lived, and sitting with the land. It could be observing the intricacies of day to day life and being curious about the culture. It could be learning a language or an instrument or a story. It could be all of these things and more.

My main motivation initially for ancestral healing, as it always has been with healing in general, was to know myself. I am a firm believer that in mastering this art we may ultimately exchange our stories with one another from an embodied space, a space in the heart. We become less takers and more givers. In so doing, we invite our earth kin into a place of more reciprocal harmony, shedding power dynamics and celebrating common ground. In doing so, we are more capable of meeting ourselves in a milieu of meaningful and compassionate connection.

For me, ancestral healing is a responsibility of this life. It is both an offering of gratitude for those who came before and what they have sacrificed, as well an opportunity to give back to future generations. The more rooted we become in our present selves, the more we see there are foundational values that overlap when we look to the roots of the collective and the many diverse trees that we share this earth with.

So this Samhain, I invite you to contemplate what your version of ancestral healing looks like. And maybe when the time is right, you too might become moved to open the doors of communication. You never know what callings might awaken, and there is so much beauty hidden in that mystery.

Please enjoy these specially curated Samhain writing prompts to nurture your path of ancestral healing:

1. If you could shapeshift into one creature for the night and embody its magical powers, what would it be and why?

2. At this most hallowed time of the third harvest, what is one ancestral plant spirit you are being called to get to know more deeply now?

3. Contemplate the long bony fingers summoning you deeper into the wisdoms of the crone goddess. Write a poem for her or as her in one of her many forms.

4. See yourself stepping, maybe for the first time, onto the land of your ancestors. What does it feel like? Where are you guided first?

5. Imagine yourself standing before a sacred well in a circle with all of your ancestral grandmothers, what would you ask and how do you feel they would respond?

6. Which ghost of your past or present (could be a habit, belief, block) are you ready to reconcile with and set free at this time?

The autumn equinox is the second amongst the three harvest festivals, with Lughnasadh and Samhain on either side, and it is a very special time when great celebrations in honor of the earth take place. This year it aligns on the 22nd of September, though its energies are always stirring in the days surrounding. As the beginning of fall, it is an ideal time to celebrate, with acknowledgement and gratitude, all of the blessings of nature that we receive. It is a time to harvest all that we have accomplished through the year so far, and to reflect on the hard work, nurturing and care for the visionary seeds that we intentionally planted in spring. Apples are of great significance at this time, for their rich mystical symbolism of abundance, health and harmony. The archetypal goddess moves into her crone aspect around the wheel. The night and day are of equal length, therefore similarly to the spring equinox, it is a time to reflect and seek balance both within and without. The days are darkening as we move forward and inward, opening to greater insights and a ripened, fruitful maturation.

Any time we arrive at a liminal space of balance, as what will soon be occurring on the equinox, there is a sense of a vast pause, where for a moment the constant ebbing and flowing of inner and outer polarities can exist in a sacred stillness of absolute harmony and possibility. At the spring equinox, there is more of a sense of fertile, outward creative energy born in the place where two opposites birth news life into being. And although it is enlivened too at the autumn equinox, it is distinct as well. It is slower, softer, and an awakening to a different flavor of creative energy. This creativity has a stronger night vision, as it penetrates the looming darkness of autumn and begins to tease open the psychic senses a little bit more. Evidently, the imagination is stimulated in this space and at the autumn equinox, it is more of an inward creativity ignited. The insights that open up in this space are incredibly significant, for they will usher in the next season where dreaming becomes increasingly heightened.

A visceral surrender also seems to occur at this time, as in nature, within the body, mind and spirit, as an organic sort of integrating after a lot of movement. A deep melting into gratitude takes place, along with a nostalgic feeling of simply being moved by the generosity of the earth and of the heart. There is an opening to receiving and acknowledgment as well, which so many of us struggle with so often. This is the ideal time to intentionally practice receiving abundance as well as taking time to acknowledge the self, each other and the earth. This is the essence of the second harvest, a great ritual bow in recognition and thanks for having a full belly and water to drink, for health and wellness, for the efforts of the self to resiliently continue moving forward through it all in the expansive grace of growth. We contemplate sacrifice and ways that we might also continue to give back in harmonious reciprocity with the world we are a part of.

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Summer can be so busy in its movement, so externally focused, productive in its potency, and with that can sometimes bring chaos, fatigue and overwhelm. As we really allow ourselves to receive the teachings of the turning seasons, to immerse in the inspired letting go of the falling leaves and to let ourselves truly grieve with how difficult that is sometimes, we begin to cultivate a true affinity and kinship with the earth itself. Deepening our understanding of intimacy and intentionality with the nature that we are already so profoundly intertwined with, also enhances the quality of intimacy and intentionality with each other. It is inevitable, because the more we are able to really embrace the dynamic cyclicality that is intrinsic to our being, the easier it becomes to hold compassion for this process as humans in connection. We become ever more rooted within our fluctuations and learn to really love them in their honesty too. Sometimes difficult feelings arise more at this threshold of transition, and a soothing medicine is to be present with compassion and let our gratitude hold hands with our grief. It is truly a time of quieter moments, entering into deep rest, rejuvenation and healing.

One prominent archetype which expresses itself beautifully at this time is the apple tree. In the Ogham, the ancient Irish alphabet, the apple tree-letter is called Quert. It is associated in Celtic mythology with the Isle of Apples, also known as Avalon. This otherworldly quality adds to its essence of immortality and capacity to heal, for the mythical spirit of Avalon is known to many as the land of eternal youth. It is unsurprising that the apple has such an iconic association to this land and is also its namesake. As such, the apple tree is strongly connected to the fae and is thought to be a bridge between worlds, or a sort of doorway to the otherworld. It is referred to with all of its magic within various roles in multiple Irish myths as the infamous silver branch/bough and also as the golden apple, respectively. It is also said that the goddess Brigid owned an apple orchard in the Celtic Otherworld and her bees would bring its healing magic to the earth.

The apple itself is rich, whimsically humble, and magically surreal in its simplicity. It is also so full of esoteric secrets. If you cut it one way it reveals the five-pointed star, plentiful with its own archetypal symbolism, and a nod to all of the elements at each point. If you cut it the other way, it reveals the seeded vulva or communion of the divine feminine and masculine polarities reflected at the core of each and every one of us, fitting for the harvest time when night and day are of equal length. The apple is a universal symbol for regeneration, wealth and health, like the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, and it carries a sweet, comforting scent which, often mixed with cinnamon and clove, stirs amidst the winds of change to signify the arrival of autumn. Apples really carry the spirit of generosity that is so familiar and nourishing at this time.

Though a certain biblical tale has attempted to distort the power of the apple by naming it in a negative way as indulgent, sinful or representative of all that is seductive, forbidden and dark, there is a resilience to this fruit that transcends all. Its stories of magic and hidden secrets are told far and wide across cultures in myth. They too drip with lush mystery and are infused with sacred sensuality, beauty and the wisdom of the goddess.

As the autumn equinox approaches, take a moment to sit with an apple and listen to its oracle, for it is far more rich with stories and magic than meets the eye.

Join my Autumn Equinox Intention Circle by clicking below!

Join me for a magical evening in circle as we celebrate the Summer Solstice with intention.

The Summer Solstice is the point when we become so wrapped up in light that the day itself is extended, all so we can remain held as long as possible in golden embrace of abundance. We continue to celebrate fertility, creative expression, vitality, and all that is bold, brave and beautiful in this life. And we hold all of this, in the knowing that the days will shorten once again moving forward, that darkness will come once again and that each cycle has its wisdoms to share with us.

So what creation are you in celebration of now and for these most radiant days? And what would you like to let go of, knowing this next turn will be towards the first harvest?

This is a liminal time, when elemental and otherworldly connection is amplified. The inner marriage that transpired at Beltane is now resulting in a potent outpouring of lifegiving energy and it almost feels like, anything is possible.

Let us wonder about the ancient magic and contemplate the wisdoms of the Summer Solstice with some movement, meditation, ritual and poetry play.

All are welcome and warmly invited!

What to expect:

Intro to cyclical living and the Wheel of the Year

Short yoga flow and guided meditation

Summer Solstice ritual and intention setting

Poetry play with creative writing prompts

What to bring:

Notebook and pen

Yoga mat

Water bottle

Sacred item for the altar (optional)

Register by purchasing your ticket from Eventbrite here.

There is a sort of nostalgia that seems to arise with a return to cyclical living. Not only does it feel familiar in a myriad of ways, it feels more natural too. I don’t know about you, but I want to live in a state of awe. I want to imagine. I want to feel the present moment with my whole heart. I want to dream but dream rooted. I don’t want to be pulled along a straight line by some programmed thoughts that were never even mine to begin with. It feels restrictive, binding.

So what exactly does it mean to live cyclically embodied?

One deeply nourishing way to live cyclically is to observe the turning seasons of the nature that surrounds us, and this is ancient wisdom for a reason. In doing so, we are invited to return to a much greater devotion and respect for nature, for each other, and in so many richly beautiful ways, with our own shapeshifting selves. We are invited to learn to become more present with change, and to find a greater acceptance in the inevitable flow of life, death and rebirth. We are also invited to begin to open the channels of communication with the elements of which we are made.

Caretaking the cyclical nature of self happens through the practice of presence in letting go and setting intention. It is looking at the way the trees and flowers express themselves so uniquely in spring and how those qualities are mirrored within the self. Doing this refines self awareness, reciprocity and collaboration with the elemental world of which we are intrinsically a part of. It assists us in shedding the heavy conditioning which keeps us disconnected from our heart and from our inner voice. It also encourages the cultivation of equality, as we organically rediscover and seek for our common ground as the tendency.

From personal experience, cyclical living is truly a process of attunement, in building a sort of intimacy with the earth. It demands inner work to be done. The way I see it now, the return to this way of being is a return to the dynamic essence of self. I say return because it truly feels like a coming home to inner harmony. Becoming the witness in one's rawness is vital. This is the quintessential rewilding of the self. And it is an ongoing process of reprogramming all of the rigid and dogmatic impressions that dwell stagnant in body, mind and spirit. Nature is the mirror, and the land is asking us to show up raw, in tears and a mess if that's what is true in that moment, but to do it with presence and compassion. Wading through the darkness then becomes less scary as it is understood more as an ally, and as a necessary step towards allowing in even more light. It is a practice of no longer rejecting our dynamic nature but nurturing a true care for it. It is in this presence that healing is uncovered and resistance is released. And this is no small feat, in a world that advocates for avoidance, that motivates by fear, and that consistently breeds doubt in our inherited capacity to truly create new worlds with not only every season but every moment.

Cyclical living is a holy reconciliation with feeling, and somehow through this process, the cycles that are not serving us anymore are more able to just be let go of. Cycles such as perpetual shaming, self degradation and invalidating of our most innocent essence are just a few examples. A return to cyclical living is a return to vulnerability, to trust, and yet simultaneously, a return to the magic circle that is our firmly empowered boundaries. Because cyclical living is actually a spiral dance, it tends to become easier over time in the process of expansion. Ideally, in the movement onward, we ultimately become more rooted within. But we must begin to explore embracing even the mini seasons which make up the dynamic ebbs and flows of self, on a daily basis as well.

On a more practical note, after almost 9 years of consistently practicing cyclical living, I have also made the observation of how much more naturally it feels to embrace certain projects and goals during different seasons. It used to feel so overwhelming to try to get everything done at once. I used to feel so much urgency to arrive at a destination. Now, it just feels so much more easeful and natural to be embracing the journey on the way to the destination, and to move more slowly and receptively in the knowing that there truly is a season for everything. Organizing projects and goals seasonally feels infinitely better.

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Travel is another great example of awakening the dynamic essence and learning about letting go. It shakes things up. It invokes wonder. It throws us into presence and flow. Travel is almost like jumping to different seasons around the world. It is like jumping to a different place and climate and story, all seeming to invoke a new aspect of self. And when you fall in love with a place, it will at some point invite you to let go. Just as with people and just as with this life itself, we will inevitably be asked at some point to let go. And so there is a time for love and a time for letting go, something that the practice of cyclical living teaches about. And so when we really consciously choose this relationship, this intimacy with the turning seasons of the self, we become much more aware of the harmonious and grounded expansion occurring organically through it. This only inspires greater gratitude.

As a woman I cannot talk about cyclical living without mentioning the menstrual cycle and the moon. I do believe everyone has the fundamental energetic polarity of masculine and feminine within the self, for it is after all, necessary for our very life to occur. A return to cyclical living is also a reharmonization of these polarities, for if everyone has an archetypal feminine and moon within the self, there is a direct correlation between cyclical living and dreaming and our innate capacity for awe-inspiring wonder. And how dreamy is it to be a woman whose menstrual cycle quite literally flows in synchronicity with the cycles of the moon just as the turning tides? Of course we are the elements.

Once we switch on the cyclical living lens, we truly begin to see the cyclicality in everything. Life is not this strict, scripted linear rulebook we have been brought up to believe, and it takes time to decondition the fear and to quiet the voices that speak against our magic and against change. What if change is medicine, expansion, growth? What if diversity of experience is what cultivates wisdom and empathy and therefore more harmony in the collective?

Now I am not saying to completely eradicate linear beliefs either, for they have their purpose. There is containment and structure and objectivity that has an incredibly significant and vital role. But what does it look like to hold that without an oppressive air of authority?

What does it look like to find freedom in curiosity instead of control?

The more we see the reflections of nature within the self, the more connected we feel to the land and to each other. It really becomes visceral, tangible, and embodied over time with consistent practice. It is almost like when we intentionally offer reverence to the elements, the same elements of which we are made of seem to respond in kind. Devotion to the land is quite literally devotion to the body, mind and spirit of the self and community.

A lot of people cringe and retract at the word devotion, which is entirely fair in my opinion, given the sad state of dogma-infected institutions that seem to be ever in need of a strong dose of humility. I feel strongly that devotion can be cherished in a way that is both humble and grounded in self-sovereignty. And if anyone has taught me this in a way that could actually land, it was, well, the land. And I mean in many ways, yes spending time in ceremony around the seasons in physical nature but just as importantly, the land as an archetypal terrain within the self.

Cyclical living just feels liberating.

So all of this is to say, as we inch closer to the climactic wellspring of stretched days and stirring sunlight, the chemistry of the collective is strong and creative energies are peaking. So if you haven't leaned into cyclical living yet, the nectarous scent of the Summer Solstice approaches, and what better time to start than now?

Let us gather for a sweet ritual meditation journey and poetry writing practice to attune with the nectarous aura and bursting chemistry that is alive in the seasonal self at Beltane.

At this time, we celebrate life in its fullest expression, whereas at Samhain, we honor the opposite, death and all of its wisdom.

It is a special reminder, as is the tendency of the turning wheel, that these ups and downs truly are mirrored in nature as they are in the self. The darkness promises the light just as the light promises the darkness, and they are in a way wed in an alchemical polarity within that promises expansion.

And it is especially at Beltane, we are invited into this creative rebirthing of the self through the experience of an internal courtship or what many call the inner marriage.

All of the land is awake, fertile and free, and full of vitality. The heat is increasing, and our sacred creative lifeforce energy is strong.

It is the time of its namesake, in Irish Gaelic, Bealtaine, meaning bright fire or mouth of fire. It is traditionally a fire festival of fertility, celebrated at the midway point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, and a time to pray for blessings and protection for the coming harvests. The radiance of the sun and inner light of creative potential is peaking as we welcome the beginning of summer.

Let us gather for a meditation in honor of the inner polarities and our own bright fire, and then harness that life giving energy through our creative writing, visioning the cycle ahead with intention.

Join me on May 2nd at 10am PST/6pm GMT via Zoom for 75 minutes

$20 CAD

Get your ticket on Eventbrite here and read more about Beltane here.

This dynamic yoga class is intended to enhance the creative inspiration that comes alive within the self especially with the arrival of spring. You will be guided through an intentional, opening meditation to connect with your inner elements, after which you will move through a beautiful, fiery vinyasa flow including sun salutations and various warming asanas to ignite that creative spark. You will be guided through a closing rest followed by a short journaling practice, at which point you will receive specially curated writing prompts to explore in real time and to then bring with you off the mat.

What to bring:

Yoga mat

Water

Notebook and pen

***

All are warmly welcomed!

Email sarahbrittany@protonmail.com to register x

The Spring Equinox is a portal. At the precipice where night and day, dark and light, void and vitality, meet as equals, there is a fierce, fertile energy that seems to open up within nature and within the self. There is a magnetic, creative power that we begin to draw from deep within. There is an excitement of self-expression and there is a wildly courageous voice that lovingly demands to be heard.

Of course if we actively practice attunement to the seasons, and really take time to introspect, integrate and dream during the winter months, the arrival of spring is that much more enlivening. When we have really taken time to celebrate what was previously grown and harvested, and let what no longer serves melt away with the snow, we are that much more open and available for newness.

If we have taken intentional time to go inward, slow down and pause, we have made more of a spaciousness within, through liberating stagnancy and releasing outdated beliefs. We have also processed and received the teachings of the last harvest. This spaciousness is one that may now be cultivated with all sorts of new growth, especially at this increasingly fertile time.

At Imbolc we saw the land stirring from its slumber, the seedlings which promised abundance ahead, wriggling beneath the cold earth but still up against some layers to push through.

The Spring Equinox is the celebration of the awakening of the land. Those seedlings have now burst through in the form of various blooms and this mirrors a similar occurrence within the self. It is a visceral sort of rebirthing experience, through the union of day and night, shadow and light, as it were. For a moment, polarities are in perfect harmony.

As such, it is fitting that the most absolute archetypal expression of fertility, the cosmic egg, and the essence of life-force energy comes to mind. The inner marriage and the love and care required to bring that union into harmony is really what allows new life to occur within the imagination.

It is interesting to note, with the images of eggs and bunnies and pastel-colored flowers which spring to mind around this time, some hares are capable of a rare process called superfetation, whereby they are able to get pregnant while already pregnant.

And through the portal we go, if we choose to harness this fertile energy which is reflected by nature within the self. There is something so powerful about moving in harmony with the seasons. It just feels right.

Now, onto Sheela Na Gig.

As mentioned, there is really this fierce, fertile creative energy that comes with this time of year, and it seems incredibly fitting that the ancient Irish cultural holiday, Sheelah’s day (March 18th), and the Spring Equinox (March 20th this year), fall so close together.

Sheela Na Gig is an ancient, feminine icon with an emphatically-spread vulva, found carved in stone on many churches and castles around the countryside, mainly in Ireland and some in the UK, France and Spain as well.

There is definitely an air of sacred rebellion to her, especially being on churches, and a sense of shamelessness and sovereignty in her archetypal expression. The vital power of sexual, life force energy is invoked and in many ways the sacred relationship between the womb and the voice as well.

She is shrouded in mystery in the best way and just like the most beautiful, provocative art, her symbolism invites all sorts of wild interpretation. Often found above doorways, she invites the onlooker in a way, to return to the divine womb portal of rebirth. This in and of itself, hints to the possibility of her being placed with a sort of protective intent.

In her most raw expression, Sheela Na Gig is a feminine figure reaching down with her hands, squatting and spreading her vulva out to the world.

There is a radical inspiration brought forth from Sheela Na Gig, to be brave and bold, and to birth the self into the world fully expressed and really claiming that creative capacity. A certain fearlessness is required to really liberate our art and to shamelessly share it with the world. We are reminded of just how impactful that can truly be when we open to the majesty and fervor of the creative feminine voice.

This coincides with the energy of the Spring Equinox without a doubt. We can feel it in our bones. We can feel it in the flowering landscape of the self. We can feel it in the flow state, which is so much more accessible when we open up that space within through seasonal observance.

In essence, we become more deeply attuned to the mysteries of life, death and rebirth. And because of the delicate dance of polarities that align so sweetly at this time in particular, and the ancient fertility lore that stirs in both the land and our hearts memory, this turn of the wheel feels especially similar to a portal. And this portal is not unlike the iconic divine feminine mystery that is the Sheela Na Gig. It is an opportunity to re-emerge from the womb of winter and tend to the new landscapes of self.

And through the portal we go, if we choose. Our creative capacity is infinite!

Isn’t it beautiful, how your sensitivity allows you to see so perceptively, so deeply into the soul of another that you may for a moment come close to perceiving the world from their eyes? This is the empathic essence of sensitivity. It is truly a gift of the goddess, and without a doubt, the amalgamation of the archetypal healer and its infinite facets.

Your sensitivity allows you to travel between past, present and future, gathering the ancestral keys and paving a road through the unknown. It is your holy mystery and your capacity to wonder. In many ways, your sensitivity is the watery landscape of your imagination.

Just think of all of the incredible teachings it holds.

This is a call to receive its elevated wisdom, to reconcile with the self-abandon, and to know with absolute certainty your right to have boundaries.

It is this same sensitivity which may have had you swept up in nostalgia, in full-body remembrance of those ancestral songs which carried you through rituals and through seasons lifetimes ago in the skin of the grandmothers. It is this same sensitivity which may have had you forgetting at times within a fog of fantasy. It is this same sensitivity that may have led you, time and time again, through cycles of disillusionment and re enchantment, only to become evermore grounded in your unwavering sense of self sovereignty.

It is this same sensitivity, which is your capacity to see beyond the masks, beyond the patriarchal conditioning, beyond the shame.

This is a call, to be so present with it, to become its witness and its ally, to become the oracular state of shadow alchemy. The moon will guide you and the seasons will hold you in their ever-turning embrace.

This is a call to the visionary flow-state of creative magic.

So, you are invited to hear these words now. Let your sensitivity be a doorway to your oceanic capacity for aqueous art, nectarous healing and endless waves of returning ancient love-lore. Let it be a song, a serenade by and for the elements that you are made of. Let it be a thrust of bardic bewilderment that ripples through your being and spills through a cathartic release of unhinged words on a blank page. Let it be okay and let it be revealing. Let it be your teacher. Let it be your pendulum and your crystal ball.

My gift to you is a personal poem I wrote last year in Ireland, in a moment of shadow alchemy, and recalling all of the times I have been called too intense and too sensitive.

Intensely Sensitive (audio at the top of the page!)

Now I howl aloud

With the bounty of solid ground

Never allowed to be proud

They said to me

A misfit, hissy fit

Throwing pillows indulgently

Shame, shame

Only yourself to blame

Silly woman

Crazy woman

It is not okay to feel

Please shrink at my will

Gaslight

Gaslight

Gaslight

Now I will summon all my might

This is the great undoing

The wilted flower blooming

Endlessly seductive

Dynamically impressive

I’ve become addicted

To dissolving the feminine oppressive

And yet I am still

Intensely sensitive

Now laugh at my intense will to live

And feel fully

To drink the moon

In melancholy

Then in psychic surrender

And throw myself into the belly

Of the moment tender

Unbridled passion

Adventure and longing

In some ungraceful fashion

The intensity of sensitivity

An obsession with belonging

Now I'll proudly feel my way free

From a society built on wronging

Watch me harness my gifts

Of feminine alchemy

To dissolve reactivity

And embody the wealth

Of intuitive reciprocity

Ritualistic creativity

Boundaried love and

Embodied bliss, envelop me

Intensely sensitive

The heart and the vision

The empathic medicine

For reconciling division

Intensely sensitive

All of my life

Dismiss, dismiss

There is no value in your strife

And in the mist

Of the hallowing dark goddess

I writhe and moan

An enlivened enchantress

But not too loud

To feel, to heal

Intensely sensitive

It is myself I will allow

With these gifts to see

Beyond the clouds

With a touch like incandescent velvet

A taste like the nectar of the gods

A scent like sweet words, truly meant

The growl of an orgasmic thrust in the present

What ecstasy might be made here

What humility might be made here

Where the wisdom flows through

A vessel clear

And these feelings are absolved of fear

What intensely sensitive

Yearning exists

In the divine communion

In the courtship ritual

Of this moment’s heartfelt kiss

Intensely sensitive

What pleasure exists

What an incomparable gift

Intensely sensitive

My goddess, you must be jealous!

I’ve been wanting to share this poem for a while, and I couldn’t think of a better time. I am grateful for this incredible group of women calling forth the SIREN SONGS for International Women’s Day!

& more!!

Poetry is akin to storytelling. Both, often swirling the subconscious realms and inviting the mythic imagination to come alive. Poetry is the abstract and enigmatic language of the heart and soul. It speaks in symbols and metaphors, directly reaching something deeply insightful in the unseen and often murky waters of the self. It is both born of and flowing back to this oceanic creative essence of which we are made.

Poetry is akin to storytelling and it is akin to our lifeblood, our breath, our nature and our very aliveness.

Where are my poets at?

We are in a society that praises scientific evidence, logic and rigidity over artistic brilliance, faith and flow. There is a fundamental imbalance conditioned in the collective. Did we not all dream last night? And do we not all have dreams of the future? In many ways we are missing half of the story, as it were.

Some of us are destined to carry the torch of reclaiming this creative medicine, to celebrate it always and especially when others aren’t. Because it isn’t about making money from it, or receiving fame and validation for it, and it isn’t about having all of the facts. It is about making art for the sake of awe, for the sake of love. It is about reconciling the imbalance. It is about unleashing the floodgates of emotional wealth and channeling it into creation which often ends up leading to better emotional health. It is about the ritual of it, the alchemy. It is about the curiosity of the human spirit.

Poetry is contemplating the stars that light up the inner night.

Many people resist poetry like they resist meditation, like they resist self reflection and making space in their lives for the undulation of creative flow to be expressed. In a way, it is resisting vulnerability with the self, a practice that would help bring us all a lot more into the heart-centered capacity for compassion. Prioritizing poetry is prioritizing vulnerability. It is prioritizing the freedom to wonder about the unseen, to be at peace with not having all of the answers, and to find gratitude in the very capacity to feel. For there are endless symbolic teachings hidden therein.

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Poetry is an archetypal exploration of life itself. It is witnessing the complex and nuanced elements of this strange journey and drawing understanding from it, often painting a picture or telling a story simultaneously. It doesn’t need to be overanalyzed as it is, in and of itself, a process of becoming. It is visionary and fluid. Poetry is actually a paradigm. It is a way of seeing the world in an artful and imaginative way, grounded by the earth in the form of pen and paper. It is ancient.

In many cultures, such as in ancient Ireland, poets were seen as oracles, keepers of divine knowledge and inspiration. They were highly respected channels of prophetic wisdom for the people.

Have you ever read back something you have written and actually understood something new from it or had some kind of revelatory experience?

This speaks profoundly to our capacity to become practiced in the art of divination through poetry itself, or at least to become more attuned to our intuitive nature. Because, similarly to storytelling, the archetypal dance of poetry quite literally stirs up visions in the subconscious realms of the listener or reader. It is both healing and regenerative, creating inspiration in others after it has already been created by inspiration, on and on.

It is even immortal in a way, in its capacity to shapeshift and be carried along generationally, to reach the blood and bones in a haunting way that often lives on far after it has been shared. There is something about it that is fundamentally mysterious, like love and grief and longing. It gently coaxes the spirit awake. And on the wildly unpredictable journey of life, it really shouldn’t be explained or oppressed by logic. It needs to breathe, just like we do. This is why poetry is medicine.

It is no surprise that I felt this article had to be written on Imbolc, as we celebrate the beloved Goddess Brigid of poetry, smithcraft and healing. Learn more and read Teachings of the Irish Goddess Brigid here.

I have been thinking a lot about the power of saying no along the journey of creating an abundant life, and how in a way and symbolically speaking of course, winter is the no of the seasons. It is a time to turn inward and to slow down, attune to the inner oracle and hibernate, as is reflected in nature.

For many women, our menstruation time is our winter, where our body pulls us in an incredible way to often not just slow down and stop, but to dream. As such, our winter is a vital part of life for integration, reflection, contemplation and becoming ever more open to the movement of the imagination. It is, as those dark nights of the soul on the turning wheel, a vital part of personal growth and expansion. The key is not to remain there, but receive its wisdom and when the time is right, allow the light in once again.

I have been noticing more and more in my own life, the juicy, regenerative, deliciously potent power of saying no. Now, I am generally not someone who sits back complacently and avoids stepping out of my comfort zone. In fact, I have ritually made a practice of stepping out of it, time and time again. I have always been, very much a ‘yes person’ as they say. But it isn't so much about the yeses or nos themselves, as it is about the visionary discernment and necessity of both, as well as the mushy chrysalis of maybes that undulate seasonally in between.

A lot of my life I battled with scarcity, which I now understand to be largely an ancestral wound. It was flecked with people pleasing, saying yes too often and especially when every bone in my body was saying no. This kept me staying far too long in situations I wasn’t happy in, pushing myself to do more when what I needed was rest, and allowing the pressures arriving from the external, to have too much influence on the choices I made. That is, until I began to truly practice honoring my winter moments, my holy and sacred nos.

It was fundamental for me to learn about the seasonal nature of self, and the sovereignty of my precious inner voice. I began to discover that the more I celebrated and trusted my no moments, it would bring me into a deeper connection with myself, other people and nature. It would also quickly open new doors which were much more in alignment with what I both desired and needed. The result of this was also getting really good at honoring the nos of others, as opposed to taking them personally.

In the quiet of winter, we can sense the subtle and hear the honest longings of our most treasured truth. We can sweeten the silence with a song of mythic memory and a humble inquiry with nature. But first we must always pause in presence, and listen.

If I had allowed the urgency and fear, and ultimately attachment, to convince me to continue saying yes when it was a no, I would have missed the much more harmonious alignment of my highest desire which was already on its way. Understanding this in an embodied way, has required cultivating a wickedly beautiful trove of trust within. It has invoked a personal power and courage in being fully present with all of my seasons. The more I practiced this and saw the results, the more I trusted it and the more I began to cultivate a true, soul-deep happiness.

Now, it is an ongoing practice and process because sometimes too, in those winter moments, a lot of coldness and fog can creep in, the doubts and anxieties may hover over the immaculate knowing, and it is in this liminal confrontation with the shadow, the no becomes profoundly more powerful. Because, if we can learn to dig into those icy caverns of our heart and find the warmth of the hearth even and especially in the darkest times, then self-trust and self-fidelity are exponentially increased. It is, paradoxically, about learning to say yes to the no, and trusting that the light will return in one way or another.

Suddenly the yeses and nos and maybes, the summers and winters and autumns and springs and everything in between, become much more meaningful. They are not just terms we fling around carelessly, but they are the wands and cauldrons of consciously creating our most ideal life.

I am celebrating a new wave of embodiment of this understanding since the last Winter Solstice, when I wandered and wondered in my ancestral home of Ireland, where I learned to confront my ancestral wound of scarcity and truly dwell in the embrace of the dark dreamscape so the light of abundance could pour in.

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Read my article about the Winter Solstice here.

And get a little glimpse into my ancestral healing journey in Ireland and beyond, among an array of other wisdom-keeping, story-oracles, in the second edition of Rebel Ma - Healing in the Time of the Feminine: Women’s Stories of Liberation. Click here to get your copy.

As I near the end of a 2 year cycle on my ancestral lands of Ireland, I am super excited to share about this book I have been working hard on co-authoring alongside 25 incredible women for the past three months!

My chapter Seeking My Mother Nature is a poetic and personal story about how the land has always called to me. It’s about my feminine and ancestral healing journey home to mother nature and home to myself. Through a journey of shadow work, inner and outer travel, mystic meetings with the Goddess and a whole lot of endless fascination with the mystery, I learned to heal. I learned to heal my relationship with the mother, overcome depression, anxiety and addiction, and eventually find my innate sense of sovereign belonging as a woman by following my inner guidance and returning to my roots.

This story is one of the most vulnerable pieces I have ever created. I speak of the raw and honest struggles I have had in the process of healing my trauma. I share about how I have been learning to claim my creative power as a woman through confronting my fears and following the devotional mystery home to myself.

My hope is that my story might inspire another sister to never give up, especially through the dark nights as the seasons are ever-turning and the flowers will bloom once again.

This project has challenged me in so many wonderful ways, to claim my shadows and strengths, to integrate some wild adventures, and to ritually rise up in the word-weaving alchemical power of sacred sisterhood. It has invited me to integrate so much of my spiritual exploration and to celebrate how far I have come by realizing my potential as a published author.

I am so excited for you to read through the incredibly dynamic stories of healing and wonder that this inspired collective has created!

I’m inviting you to support this beautiful movement by getting your virtual copy on the July 12th launch day for only $1.99. All proceeds go to the Middle Eastern Children’s Alliance (MECA) @mecaforpeace

This book project is founded and guided by Leadership & Embodiment Mentor, Author, Podcast Host and Publisher Saoirse Connolly @sessionswithsaoirse

Edited by Ron @isjusttolove

Cover Art by Dee Mulrooney @deemulrooney

Graphic Design by Nessa Finnegan @nessafinnegan

Not to mention the absolutely fierce lineup of contributing authors named below!

Want to know more? Comment and follow us on IG and FB as well as direct message to get your purchase link for launch day, this Friday, July 12th!

And don’t forget to Subscribe for more word-weaving magic x

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There is an intrinsic connection between the one who creates and the one who loves. Many of us artists have a gift of romanticizing life, seeing endless beauty and simultaneously wading through heartbreak. We feel incredibly deeply and have a visionary lens that sees beyond the physical realm. We are armored with the proverbial rose-colored glasses and are on an endless journey of infusing this sight into our works. These rose-colored glasses aren’t a tool for naivety, but for vulnerably seeing life through the aura of the heart. Imagination is as vital as the blood that pulses through our river-veins. Disillusionment is also an inevitable aspect of life as we grow, grounding us into the earth like the far-reaching roots of a tree. Through this process of discernment and emotional alchemy, an elevated state of romance can be discovered if we are open to it. It is one that is free of conditioning and false fantasies. It is a sacred sort of romance with life itself, one guided by spirit and one that harnesses the vastness of the imagination in physical form. The challenge is to trust it, while in a disenchanted society dominated by rigid and linear systems.

We can nurture our creative self through the practice of perceiving the magic in the mundane. We might meditate on a pen and see the similarities it has with a wand, through the words it weaves, the stories it tells, the lives it enchants, and the capacity it has to be a channel for such impactful power. Now some would say it isn’t the pen but the holder of it, but isn’t it really both? We are in constant creative collaboration with our environment. The more we turn on our lover lens, and let ourselves boldly wear those rose-colored glasses, the more we might see a bit of magic in everything.

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Our creative relationship is directly related with the land and with the seasons that we are in constant collaboration with. Spring and summer ignite our collective creative passion. We are all connected to this energy, activated by it, inspired and inspiring. We are in a process of expansive growth. We are playing with life, with our wonderfully diverse, creative outlets. The awe in witnessing nature is the precise moment when we are in the presence of communicating with it. There is a romance about it, a mystery. In autumn and winter, we stir in the dreamtime and in the integration. We rest and reset so we may reopen with the light half of the year and take action in bringing these visions into form.

The more we listen to the inspired impulse of our bodies in each moment, the more access to creative energy we actually have. This is because we let go of resistance and control, and surrender into the presence of our authentic truth. We prioritize our internal compass over pleasing others.

Romance, art and mystery intersect in the house of the lover. We may appreciate that most official definitions of romance refer to it enthralling us with the element of mystery. We are captivated by the risk. There is absolutely an infatuation that humans, and especially the archetypal lovers, have with the mystery. And what greater mystery is there in this life than the mystery of love?

Some of the greatest art is aroused by the wistful nostalgia of a dance with the shadow. As unpleasant as it is, pain has it’s role in teaching and inspiring us. We expand as we are willing to receive it’s wisdoms. We expand as we learn to make art from it.

The archetypal lover typically refers to the one who is moved above all by the heart, a hero or heroine of sorts, who would risk it all in the name of love. There is a driving passion, a fire, a boldness, an intensity. In it’s higher aspect, where self-love is first and foremost, the lover carries a certain magnetism. One of the greatest practices of self-love is actually allowing oneself to create. This, in and of itself, makes us more magnetic. It is also an offering of love to the greater whole. This life-force energy is the same energy that invited our very lives to be moved into form. In the same way, becoming embodied in this energy, invites more and more aliveness into our lives. It is an abundant state.

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The creative state is one of abundance and the more we become attuned to what our bodies are telling us, the more we can observe a quite tangible difference between the states of lack and abundance. In the state of lack there is a closure, a gripping fear, a seemingly inescapable sense of insecurity and so a feeling of being stuck in comparison, competition and survival mode. It is incredibly difficult to access ones creative, inspired energy in this state. In the state of abundance, there is more than enough for everyone, inspiration arrives easefully, there is a profound sense of connection to all, and we are eager to celebrate the gifts of others. Trust is at the core of an aligned, abundant and creative state. We must move out of survival mode and into trust, in order to let go of creative resistance.

The elevated aspect of the lover is attuned to trust, in the same regard, seeing the beauty in life and knowing that love is arriving externally as a reflection of the inner state. Any heartbreak can be turned into art. It is a romance of the present moment. There is no chasing, only attracting.

Devotion is, in a way, the elevated aspect of romance. It is the capacity to see the divinity within the subject of our affection and similarly, the subject of our creation. It is the acknowledgement that our intimacy with life and with our creative being, is sacred. It is something we all have. It is not a limited resource and it cannot be taken over by technology. It is innately spiritual and a practice of becoming enamored with our life-force.

So, to let go of creative resistance, we can start by intentionally celebrating each others creative gifts a little more. We can nudge ourselves a little further into vulnerably expressing how we feel. We can dream bigger, and imagine that our structured and necessary, linear, logical world is more harmoniously equilibrated with that sweet, cyclical, creative wisdom. We can listen to the voice of the mountains. We can proudly pose while writing prose in our rose-colored glasses, and sacredly romanticize some soul-stirring story that will be carried through the generational winds of inspiration. We can simply let go and let the creative energy flow.

This is the time when the sweetness of desire is aroused. Life is flowering all around, the thirst of the earth quenched by ambient showers, and the land is alive in full expression. The polarities of divine feminine and masculine come together in sacred marriage within as the sky and earth, the sun and moon, the magician and high priestess, the green man and the May queen. We celebrate abundant fertility, sensuality, and the untamed fire of creative expression.

Bealtaine means mouth of fire in Irish Gaelic and is in many ways the climax of spring, ushering in the summer. It is a fire festival of fertility, celebrated at the midway point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, and traditionally a time to pray for blessings and protection for the coming harvests. In 2024, that date is May 5th, although many begin festivities from May 1st.

On the Celtic wheel, Bealtaine is opposite to Samhain. As Samhain is the time to honor death and our ancestors, Bealtaine is the time to honor life in all of its powers of regeneration. The heat is increasing. The inner fires of creativity are reaching a culmination. Flowers are blossoming. There is a vital, free spirited energy all around. The planet is enlivened by its most intimate sense of connection.

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The seeds of intention we plant now will be growing at the Summer Solstice and ready for harvest at Lughnasadh and the following harvest festivals. This is a powerful time for creating visions for the year ahead through ritual and ceremony. We celebrate the blessings and gifts endowed to us through our personal power to create. We create life through our projects, service, art, music, relationships, and so much more. In each moment we are creating life with our words, actions, reactions and perceptions. We create life in the way we dance through the world. We create life in the great turning wheel.

There are so many ways to honor Bealtaine. On its land of ancient origins in Ireland, the fire festival takes place at the Hill of Uisneach in County Westmeath. It is the resting place of the sovereignty Goddess Ériu, the embodied divine wisdom of the land, and the namesake of Ireland itself. This place is said to be both the mythological and spiritual centre of Ireland.

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Ériu is the personification of the feminine essence of the land itself, the holy mother of nature's nourishing abundance. Her generosity and strength emanate from all corners of the deep woods. Her arms are outstretched landscapes. Her womb waters are the holy wells and crawling seas. Her breath is the great winds which wrap the mountains in curling whispers. She is the elemental rapture of intrinsic connectedness and the rooted understanding of one's own sovereign being.

At Bealtaine, we honor the Goddess of the land who sustains life, is so generous with her abundance, and who we are deeply connected to in a multiplicity of ways.

Making flower crowns is a common practice at this time, adorning ourselves as the land becomes adorned. Often hand fasting takes place as well, uniting couples in sacred ritual union.

Another common way to celebrate this time of the season is with the May pole. The pole itself represents the sacred masculine and the ribbons woven around it through dance, as well as the flowers it is adorned with, represent the sacred feminine. It is yet another representation of these dual aspects being united in a spring fertility ritual.

Bealtaine is a celebration of life in all of its vibrancy. We come together in community to dance, sing, embrace, feast and delight in the creative fire and the excitement of endless possibility. We witness the sacred union of nature’s polarities, as within, so without. This is the journey of harmonious life.

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The willow or saille (pronounced SAHL-YUH) in the Ogam, is an ancient moon-oracle of the watery woodlands, which carries with it the visionary medicine and ancestral teachings of the Goddess.

The willow sways with waves of subtle knowing, soft but rooted along flowing rivers, in moist meadows, and dense, swampy wetlands. It guides us to liberate ourselves from the density of life. In being as present as possible with our vulnerability, and surrendering to the sweetness of our dynamic nature, we may discover a certain lightness within.

This tree exudes feminine softness. It holds a wisdom which echoes with the grail-bearing voices of a thousand grandmothers. It is the archetypal journey of maiden, mother and crone. If we let ourselves stir in the lucid labyrinth of womb-poetry that the willow awakens, then we may learn to truly trust. We may wade into our imaginative, emotional realms of devotion and harness the psychic sphere of radiant, creative essence. 

Because of this creative aura, the willow has been traditionally sacred to poets, artists and musicians, all of which were considered oracular arts which had the power to awaken new states of awareness. It often supplied the wood in the creation of harps.

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In so many ways the willow reveals the resilient power of sensitivity. It reminds us of the intuitive and empathic gifts which lie therein. It soothes us with a gentle encouragement to own that capacity for profound intimacy with life. Those who have an intense ability to feel are uniquely gifted with naturally seeing and feeling between worlds.

Still, it is a capacity we all have, and it is with the guidance of the willow, that we may move more deeply with the moon and harness our innate seer-ship. It is with this practice that we begin to really bridge the gap between heart and mind, waking life and dreamtime, the ordinary and extraordinary.

The willow reminds us that flexibility and adaptability, as well as the power to slip into the shoes of another are all strengths to embrace. It’s example of generosity spills out through draping branches. It also warns us not to lose touch with the sense of self, sovereignty and personal identity in this process. If this amiability is given prematurely, it may be taken advantage of. Linear society may condemn it as weakness because it questions the rigid conditioning. This tree says to take care not to be swayed from our truth by others, and simultaneously to release rigidity, to remain open and receptive to the mystery.

The willow symbolically weeps with disillusionment, cautioning us to discern between true vision and fantasy, and to feel with honesty. It shows us that tears are life-giving, cleansing and healing, that they create space for an even greater power and vision. 

This tree warns of the potential shadow side to these aforementioned gifts but empowers the cultivation of the heightened expression of them. It is a tree of potent healing capacity.

In many ways, the willow invites us to surrender to the cycles into our lives, with a profound trust in knowing when to dream divinely and when to wake up and ground ourselves.

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Spring is a time of cleansing and renewal, and of ritual rebirthing of the self and home. For the witch, this means something beautiful and profound is occurring.

It is a dance with the seasons and a reawakening of vitality, an elemental immersion with the wheel of life.

It is not only a cleansing of physical space, but of mind and spirit, the removal of stagnant energies, the purification of anything clouding the sweet innocence of the soul.

It is a time to make space for the growing abundance to come. 

It's a great idea to take advantage of the new moon energies approaching the equinox for extra potency in spring cleaning rituals.

The Spring Equinox is a time for the witch to be very intentional with creating, as the fertility of the time powerfully enhances current visions.

The following are some of my favorite witchy spring cleaning rituals.

Ceremonial Sweeping: I love to bring a ritual aspect into house cleaning. Using the broom with focus and intention, I sweep the spaces I live in of all negative and stagnant energies, making space for the new. The broom is a powerful symbol archetypally for the witch and very fitting for the fertile beginnings of the spring. It represents among many things, transition, a gateway for moving between realms, union of masculine and feminine forces, and is ultimately a powerful tool for  the time.

Scrying with Snowdrop Flowers: I like to symbolically cleanse my vision with a scrying practice, with the first flowers I see come up at the beginning of spring. Snowdrops are often one of the first. They are the last tears of winter and they seem to carry a soft energy of innocence and are excellent for this ritual cleansing. Simply meditating with the flower and softening the gaze, allowing any insights and messages to come through in presence and connection.

Cleaning the Temple: This is the practice of cleaning the inner and outer temple. I love to take advantage of the times to connect with very simple clean foods, local and organic fruits and vegetables, lots of water and nourishing teas. I like to donate old clothes and items I don't use anymore, allowing them to be recycled with new life in the home of another. 

Springtime Magic Herb Blend:  I like to mix together some magical dried herbs which invoke that energy of cleansing, nourishment, renewal, protection, calming and abundance (such as bay, nettle, chamomile, lavender, red clover, violet, cedar). I keep some on my altar with my intentions for the new cycle. I always include some form of elemental prayers in any ritual. To welcome the spring with cleansing and protection, I may bring my herbal blend into a dance with each element. I may sprinkle some into the wind from the top of a hill, offer some to a bonfire, release some into a newly melted flowing river, bury some in the soil, all with a special prayer as a reciprocal gift of gratitude. 

Ritual Bathing: This means turning a bath into a cleansing ritual. It may include lighting an anointed purification candle and sprinkling some body-safe flowers and essential oils into the bath. I like to meditate with the water and mindfully cleanse every limb with intention, as if rebirthing the self from the waters of the womb once again.