Wise Woman Weekend New Website www.wisewomanireland.org

The Wise Woman Weekend has changed its email address to www.wisewomanireland.org. The new address reflects our brand new status as a registered charity – a decision that was taken to ensure the survival of the event that many women know and love. This year’s woman only gathering will take place on the weekend of May 25^th 2012, in the village of Dromahair, Co. Leitrim. As always the festival coincides with the full moon of Bealtaine.

This year’s programme and our wonderful array of workshops, ranging from personal development, through spiritual exploration to self expression through art and poetry, are displayed at the new web address. In the meantime we are beavering away behind the scenes in the new .org site, creating a beautiful new website that will be going live in March.

Our online booking form for the Wise Woman Ireland gathering will be available in March. In the meantime, you can book your place through our new email address: info@wisewomanireland.org (Please make a note of this, as our old .com contact address is now defunct).

Another piece of good news is that the cost of the weekend has been reduced from €140 to €125 and the Saturday night dinner and social evening still costs €15. We have a limited number of residential places available for women travelling alone and these are at the all-in price of €165, for the weekend, including accommodation.

Join us for a weekend of learning, discovery, celebration and fun, May 25th - 27th, 2012 in Dromahair, Co. Leitrim.

Irish Times Editorial for October 31st 2021

The Writers’ Group Homework was, “write something 800 words long with at least half of it untrue”, so I did.                                                                                                                  Judith Hoad   ©   2011 

“Editorial Leader Page.                                IRISH TIMES.                            October 31^st , 2021

Tomorrow will be a momentous day in the history of world economics.   At midnight tonight, Pierse Doherty TD will step down as Minister for Finance and his department, the Department of Finance will cease to exist.    It will be replaced by the Department of Transaction Compensation and Cooperation, in the care of Ming Flanigan TD, as announced by the Taoiseach, Richard Boyd Barrett, after his cabinet reshuffle last week.

This historic day arises from the ‘99% Movement’ that surged to prominence with world wide camps and marches that began in 2011.   When the Great Crash occurred and Wall Street and all other major stock exchanges failed on December 21^st 2012, (since known as 1% Friday), the new world order began to emerge.

The campus at Big Sur in California was a site of high security throughout 2013 and 2014  at the times when the Council for Economic Transformation, CET, was in session.   Our own ex-president Mary Robinson; Noam Chomsky, philosopher and linguist; Ngong nic, Native Australian and also a linguist; George Soros, financier; Dr. Vivien Camacho, campaigner for the Andean Ayllu and Huang Te, Chinese Confucian Scholar were the Core Group that discussed and set out the agenda for each of the subsequent Convergences that met every six months, with representatives from every nation in the world.

This apparently unwieldy volume of people was chaired with charismatic brilliance by the King of Bhutan.    His Majesty’s Kingdom has long ranked the success of its national economy by the standard of GDH – Great Domestic Happiness.   This, of course, over the years of Transition, since 2015, has become the standard of assessment throughout the world.

Tomorrow will also mark the demise of the United Nations which will be replaced by the World Congress of Cooperation Between Nations, which is expected to adopt the simpler title of Congress of Cooperation, COC.   The structure of the new organisation will only vaguely resemble the outdated UN.   What was known as the Security Council, on which the seven major armament manufacturing nations were represented, is to be abolished and the Cooperation Council will come into being, on which the seven representatives will come from the seven smallest nations of the world.   With five million of a population, Ireland is the most populous of the Seven Nations.   Our representative is Dr Martin McAleese, husband of ex-president, Mary McAleese.

With Ireland as well as Monaco, Samoa, Tahiti, Iceland, Bhutan and Luxembourg making up the CC, it is in Lichtenstein that the few remaining old economists and supporters of the outlawed WTO have sought refugee status.    Although Lichtenstein remains staunchly anti-reformist, it is thought unlikely that many of these applications will succeed, but Australia is anticipated to receive those that fail.   These people are likely to be located in the camps of the Northern Territory, formerly used to corral the Asian Boat people, when they attempted to migrate to Australia in the late 1990s and the early 20noughties.   The internees will be engaged in re-modelling the camps into comfortable, self-sufficient homes and will be required to attend self-improvement classes for two hours each day during which they will be taught how to grow food in the inclement conditions of the Territory and other skills, such as cooking, sewing, carpentry and the Arts.

Since the trial and conviction of the leaders of the IMF and the World Bank, the 99% Movement has appointed small groups, mostly comprised of women, on each continent.   They have been the trouble-menders who have assisted reforming governments in the establishment of various kinds of cooperative organisation to take the place of all the financial institutions in existence up to that time.

In a leaked memo from the Department of Justice, it would appear that the amnesty offered to criminals serving long sentences will include Charlie McCreevy and Bertie Ahern, disgraced former politicians and Sean Fitzpatrick, the surviving director of the discredited Anglo Irish Bank, wound up several years ago.   Their release on parole is expected to coincide with tomorrow’s Samhain Celebrations.

Local groups of the 99% Movement have undertaken to organise celebration parties in every major town throughout the thirty-two counties.   Pennants of orange and green, handmade by members of the ICA, have been sent to each local authority for distribution to all party areas.   New dances have been choreographed, which have been taught by all Irish Dance teachers over recent months.   U2 and Christie Moore have come out of retirement to perform music composed for the occasion.   They will appear live in the Phoenix Park tomorrow.   Large crowds are expected and everyone is asked to act as a Cherisher for the person on their right.

The Staff and I wish all our readers Happiness and Harmony in the Age of Cooperation about to be ushered in”.

Judith Hoad   ©   2011                                   

GOD AS GODDESS

Wise Woman Jan's inspiring poem and prayer- full of the truths we need to remember about loving ourselves just as we are -

MY GOD – by Jan

God is a woman – and on my side.

Anything that I really want to do is not frivolous. And spending lots of time doing it is what my Goddess wants me to do. She enjoys HER work and wants me to do the same.

My Goddess means me to do what I want to do.

My Goddess wants me to be fulfilled.

My Goddess wants me to fulfill my potential.

My Goddess is around all of the time and dwells within me. She isn’t living on high and looking down.

My Goddess is not a stern parent with rigid ideas on what is appropriate for me.

My Goddess is gleeful, fun-loving and creative. She loves life and wants me to love it too.

My Goddess is not sensible.

My Goddess does not want any more martyrs, thank you.

My Goddess is extravagant. She doesn’t recognise the concept of ‘enough and no more’ and doesn’t want me to, either. She didn’t make just one daffodil, after all – she made millions.

My Goddess is generous. She isn’t a cheapskate, or grudging, and doesn’t want me to be, either: with myself or with others.

My Goddess wants me to be good to myself.

My Goddess wants me to be powerful.

My Goddess will send me what I need. She will open doors and clear my path – even if not always in the way that I expect.

My Goddess will help me – all of the time.

My Goddess loves me and is kind.

MY GODDESS WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY.

© Jan McEvoy, 2011 .

MY PRAYER                     

O Goddess, please give me the strength to be kind to myself – and to others.

Help me to believe that I’m a precious being who deserves to be well-treated; and that there’s plenty out there for everyone – no need to stint, ever.

Help me to believe that I deserve good things to happen to me.

Help me to remember that time spent enjoying myself is not time wasted.

Please help me to stop procrastinating and to appreciate what I do achieve without pointing out all of its flaws and limitations. And help me to do the same for others.

Please help me to refrain from ‘raising the jumps’ on myself in my endeavours and so giving up.

Help me to remember that my childhood may not been great – but it’s over. And that it’s never too late to have a second, and better, one.

Help me to believe that it’s actually never too late to live the life that I deserve and to be really, truly creative and happy.

Help me to remember that the age I’ll be by the time I achieve what I want to achieve is exactly the same age as I’d be anyway.

Please help me to live the life that I want and not the life that other people sometimes try to hand me the dog-eared script for.

Help me to accept that both growth and healing take time and that I need not be impatient to do everything and be everything right now.

Yet please help me not to be frightened when I appear to be making progress.

Please help me to silence the Voice inside that tells me that I’m not so much when, actually,

I am an incredibly talented, productive and wonderful miracle.

Help me to realise, therefore, that, if I don’t speak out or put myself out there, then my unique voice will be lost forever.

Help me to remember that growing old beats dying young.

Help me to remember that my body is my temple – not my crack den.

Please help me to be grateful every day for everything that is wonderful in my life – and there is so much.

SO THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS BEING THERE. THANK YOU 

© Jan McEvoy, 2011 ..

Story Quilts

I recently attended a one-day ‘Quilt Making’ workshop in Boho Community Centre run by the 3 Cap Project – Three Communities Advancing through Peace. Roberta Bacic, a Chilean researcher in human rights & exhibition curator and Deborah Stockdale, textile artist facilitated it. The quilts in question were Arpilleras (pronounced ar-pee-air-as,) colourful 3D appliquéd South American textiles. These small tapestries of everyday life often have big messages, as Deborah puts it,

“Both domestic and universal, sometimes confrontational in message, they engage the viewer and the maker in a special journey “

During the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chile (1973 – 1990), many Chilean women made tapestries depicting the harsh conditions of life and the pain resulting from the disappeared victims of Pinochet’s repression - the sons and husbands of the women themselves. Arpilleras came to symbolize ordinary women’s protest against the brutal dictatorship. Although these women worked quietly using a traditionally feminine method, their arpilleras had wide influence within Chile and internationally. The arpillera workshops brought about solidarity amongst the woman, empowering them to speak out and become politically active in opposing the regime.

I was quite unprepared for the profound depth of the experience that followed in the creation of my own story quilt. Having watched a short film about the history of the craft, and looking at a selection of works we were shown a newly created Arpillera by women who had been subject to Robert Mugabe’s campaign of ethnic violence. We were then let loose on Deborah’s large collection of fabric, beads, threads and embellishments.




Detail showing the burning of a church depicted
by the women who had witnessed it

 

My own creation was a personal look into my journey of grief that followed the deaths of my parents, both from cancer and both too young - in their early 50’s. The process of making the quilt was a gentle, healing and creative act – a way of symbolically portraying my story, and also a way of deepening my own understanding of where I am in that journey. The result is simultaneously a cosmology, a spiritual unfolding, an act of gratitude for and an acknowledgment of my parents and also the ancestral line which proceeded them, right back in time to the cosmic unfolding of the universe – a big story indeed for such a little quilt!

This is my finished Arpillera which includes beads, shells and some holy medals

Here you can find a list of current and future exhibitions curated by Roberta Bacic.
On the 13th of March 2012,  International Women's Day will be celebrated at the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry with a taster of all the exhibitions that have been there non stop since 8th March 2008.

September Writing Workshops in Strandhill

file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Orfhlaith/My%20Documents/Writers
Creative Writing Workshops
Strandhill, Co. Sligo
Six Thursday Evenings
22nd September – 27th October 2011
7pm – 10pm
· With Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill M.Phil.(Creative Writing)
· Write with others in a small group, in a safe and supportive environment
· Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) method as developed by Pat Schneider
· All writing is treated as fiction
· Newborn material is not open to criticism
Open to all writers, male and female
For writers working in any genre
Cost: €50 for 6 workshops (paid in advance), €40 concession (paid in advance), €10, €8 per individual workshop. Bursaries or barters considered.
Booking: info@writersinksligo.com Call or Text: 0872799108
Writers’ Ink is an AWA (Amherst Writers & Artists) Affiliate

Strandhill Summerfest

Presents

Strandhill (Writing) Summerfest


Discover the Genius Within You

1st July—3rd July 2011

With

Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill, Ted & Annie Deppe
&
Joe Kearney

• 
  
  Time for you and your writing


• 
  
  Inspirational facilitators


• 
  
  Safe, supportive environment


• 
  
  Support to find and use your unique writing voice


• 
  
  Opportunity to share and celebrate your writing with others


• 
  
  Freedom to write in any genre


• 
  
  Beautiful seaside location


• 
  
  Great value


• 
  
  Feedback on your writing


• 
  
  Encouragement to overcome writers’ blocks and release the genius within you
  
  Strandhill Summerfest 2011
  
  Discover the Genius Within You
  
  “Genius is hidden everywhere; it is in every person, waiting to be evoked, enabled, supported, celebrated.” Pat Schneider
  
  
  Strandhill Summerfest is a weekend of writing and celebration for writers of all ages: beginners, advanced or established. It offers a gentle, supportive environment where it is safe to create new work.
  
  Again, we bring together our team of four inspirational facilitators whose aim is to nurture new writing.
  
  Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill’s workshops use the AWA method devised by Pat Schneider. These are multi-genre workshops which evoke and enable writing and encourage writers to find and use their own voices with confidence.
  
  Ted & Annie Deppe share their expertise as poets and teachers, their love of their craft and their joyful appreciation of all poetry.
  
  Joe Kearney is a writer and broadcaster whose voice is familiar to Lyric FM and RTE Radio One listeners. Joe offers an insider view of writing for radio.
  
  The Summerfest will be held in the home of Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill in Strandhill, Co. Sligo.
  
  http://www.writersinksligo.com/

Health and Beauty Event

We Want Your Wisdom!

Workshop Facilitation at

Wise Woman Weekend 2012

Applications are now being accepted for proposed workshops at the event in 2012.. If you have a workshop to offer perhaps you would fill in the details below and attach a photograph of yourself for use on the website.

Alternatively, forward this to any Women you know with Wisdom to share.

The event is not-for-profit and non-commercial in nature. It is run entirely on volunteer energy. Facilitators’ accommodation and expenses will be covered.

Here is the Submission Form
Please attach your photo in a .jpeg, .bmp or .giff format

Name*
Address
Email*
Website
Phone No.*
Workshop Title*
Workshop Type
Have you facilitated at the Wise Woman Weekend before?*
Workshop Description (50 - 100 words)*
Short Workshop Description (7-10 words)*
Facilitator Biography - to appear on our website*
Are there any other workshops you could do?
Do you hold any workshops or events you would like to promote through the Wise Woman Weekend Blog?
Can we email you information and promotional material about future Wise Woman Events? *
Attach file:
Verification No.:*

Photographic Contributions for Wise Woman Weekend

All of this year’s participants and volunteers are invited to make a contribution to Wise Woman Weekend in the form of their fabulous photos of the weekend.

These will be used to promote the weekend online and in the press in the future. In exchange for the photos used there are these wonderful gifts on offer:

•  Free Entry to next years event,
•  'Uisce Hour for Two' at Ard Nahoo Eco Retreat
•  a piece of crystal and silver jewellery by Julia Marafie,
•  a signed copy of Orfhlaith Ni Chonaill’s prizewinning book,
• ‘The Man with No Skin’
• The communal Art Piece created at the 2011 event

  Photographs must not intrude on any private or workshop spaces.  The permission of each person photographed must be given (in writing or by email) and submitted with the photos.  General photos (not showing recognisable people) are fine.  It is also acceptable for a photographer (after a workshop and with the permission of the facilitator) to set up a photo showing some of the willing participants plus some of the activities or products of the workshop.  Or alternatively, a photographer may gather a group of (exhibitionist) friends to pose for a happy photo of people enjoying the weekend – because that’s what people do J

The closing date for submissions is June 21^st 2011.  For further details contact enquiries@wisewomanireland.com

Name*
Address*
Email*
Phone No.
Photograph Title*
Names of people, if any in the photo
Did you get permission from those in the photo to use it?
Attach file:
Verification No.:*

Bealtaine Celebration in Co. Down

Bealtaine Celebration- 30th April 2pm – 6.30pm,
The Hermitage Cottage , Saintfield
Drawing on the wisdom of the old myths of this land, the creativity of the group and the structure and guidance of modern druidic practise we will co-create a celebration for Bealtaine with reverence for the individual, the land and the cosmos.

Meabh will lead this afternoon using her skills as a creative practitioner and student of the druidic path. It is suitable for people interested in uniting their creativity and their spirituality. There will be hot drinks available but bring any other refreshments you wish to share. Also please bring suitable outdoor clothes and any instruments you like to play, basic artistic materials will be provided.
Suggested donation of £10 to cover costs of running the day.
Contact Meabh on gra_thu@yahoo.co.uk or tel: 07969 624402

DANCING WITH THE MAY QUEENS

I am a counsellor/workshop leader/tarot reader living and working in North Leitrim. For many years I saw adverts for the Wise Women Weekend – in local shops and the library - and thought to myself ‘I would love to give that a go’. But I always seemed to be too busy or something else would be going on, and somehow I never made it. Then last year I had a stroke of luck. One of the facilitators had to cancel and I was invited to give a workshop.

So I planned my offering, wondering what the event would be like. When I turned up for lunch with the facilitators and organisers on the Friday I was happy to see a few women that I already knew, and to feel myself drawn into the warmth and excitement of the gathering. Having discussed our roles in the evening’s events we all moved to Ard Nahoo. This is a beautiful health and yoga centre near Dromahair – where visitors can stay in eco-cabins and generally get body and soul nourished. The opening ceremony for the Wise Woman Weekend was held here (and will be again this year) in the circular outdoor space of the Wise Woman Mandala.

Noeleen, who runs Ard Nahoo, sang accapella with her singing women as everyone arrived for the ritual and gathered in a big circle. The light was fading, midges biting (bring repellent!), the scent of the garden after a warm day filling the hazy blue air as we began to pull all this wonderful womanly energy together. And then I had one of those special moments of recognition – feeling the joy of gathered women, all anticipating a weekend away from routines and responsibilities - standing outside in the lap of Nature a shiver ran through me and I knew that this was exactly where I was supposed to be. It was not just special, it was magical.

The whole weekend proved to be like that for me. Empowering and full of funny, enlightening encounters with other women – and with myself. This year I am doing a workshop called ‘Dance your Feelings’. I am a chunky,  middle-aged woman who loves to dance (I say this so that other women realise it takes all sorts – and all sorts are welcome!), and I want to share what dancing does for me with other women. I am really looking forward to giving my workshop, but most of all I am looking forward to meeting a hundred unique women, celebrating and sharing everything that we are, and yearn to become. Stepping a little closer to the goddess within.

If you want to know about the Wise Women Weekend I could tell you about the workshops, rituals, shared meals and beauty of Leitrim. I could point you in the direction of the women who know so much more about it than me and have been developing its magic for years. I could give you one of the brochures that women have lovingly put together to communicate a little of what this weekend will be like. But really I would just say – come and join us. The experience goes beyond words, into the heart and soul. And whatever your experience is, you will find the opportunity to remember how alive you are, and how lucky to be a woman!

If you enjoyed this blog, I have more that might interest you at

www.inner-self-rachel-webb.blogspot.com

Wishing you all the gentle blessings of Spring

Rachel

The evolutionary women's tribe is gathering!

"The Keys to Feminine Power: Awakening the 3 Power Bases of the Co-Creative Feminine,"

A FREE online women's event happening this Saturday, April 9th

Hear about The Keys to Awakening :

THE POWER TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE,TO REALIZE YOUR DESTINY and TO TRANSFORM THE WORLD

Last year, over 40,000 women participated in "The Keys to Feminine Power," .

In fact, when you register for this event, you get a bonus audio download of an interview on "Woman, An Idea Whose Time has Come." and an interview Grammy Award winning singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette.

http://femininepower.com/teleseminar/

You can download after the event - just register and details will be sent to you.

Wise Woman Series: Ruth Marshall

Ruth Marshall

talks to

Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill

For 17 years I have been editor of Network Ireland, a holistic magazine for mind, body, spirit and earth. I inherited it in 1994, when it was seven years old and have carried it since then, voluntarily at first and then, as it grew, it became a small business. That’s been my main concern in that time. I also gave creative writing classes, sacred dance classes and taught reiki – as well as lots of other things, such as abundance groups for parents at the Steiner school; teaching in a Steiner school for teenagers; storytelling; writing, as well as being a single parent. And before that, I was a puppeteer, ran a wholefood shop in the Scottish Highlands, and was a folklore collector.

I took this year out and declared it a transition year for myself. So I went off to help run a B&B on the Isle of Mull for the summer and started training as a life and business coach as soon as I got back. It has been a wonderful training. Having done lots of counselling as well as counselling and psychotherapy courses, I felt that counselling keeps you going back into the past, into the hurt. In coaching the focus is on the future rather than the past. It’s about accepting where you are now and asking where you want to go, and what you are going to do about it? Because you are the one who can do it. You have all the answers within yourself.. I found it so empowering personally, just to sit in conversation. To really listen to another human being is to get a glimpse of the Christ, the divine, in the other person. I find it a huge honour to work with people in that way. I came to see that I don't really have to do anything; I just have to be there. The picture I have of it is that I just stand there in the doorway – like the goddess Brigit - holding the door open. If someone wants to step through that door, then I’ll accompany them. And if not, fair enough, but the door is there, and it is open. I have just finished training. On the last training weekend I felt myself given a robe and crown, felt them enter my body’s cells, my whole being. It made me think – that was some training!

I facilitate The Transformation Game which emerged from Findhorn about 35years ago. It’s a board game that a small group, 4 or 6 people, can play. I act as a guide. People play this using their own real life issues, using something they want to change. They focus on that and they move around the board, just like Monopoly but, instead of buying houses, they grow in awareness. They move from square to square with different actions. They learn a bit about what's holding them back from making the change they want to make. They learn what support is there for them in terms of their own actions and what support will come from the spiritual world, if only they will take the steps, take those actions and make the change. Huge things happen for people in the transformation game.

I work with personal transformation. I see that as related to Brigit as well. The three aspects of the goddess, Brigit, are poetry, healing and smithcraft. I think all of these things are working with fire; all of these are working with transformation. In poetry it’s the spark of inspiration; in smith work it’s transforming metal, changing the physical form; in healing it’s the life spark, life-force. It’s all transforming.

In my workshop at the Wise Woman’s Weekend in May, I will facilitate Games That Build Trust. There will be a bit of wandering about with eyes closed being accompanied by a guardian angel. There will probably be a bit of storytelling, and a bit of looking at our intuition and learning to trust what our gut is telling us. We will learn to trust what we already know, but have ignored because we don’t realise that we know it, because we don’t accept that we’re powerful enough to know. We can get too used to asking others because we think someone else has got the answers. Paradoxically, in order to learn to trust ourselves, we need to give ourselves up and trust that someone else is going to care for us. If we allow ourselves to let go of a lot of preconceived notions and let ourselves play with boundaries, we learn about where I end and something else begins.

In a lot of what I do I have to operate on trust. A coaching session or the Transformation Game are not things I can prepare for. People are going to bring all their own stuff. It’s not as if I can sit down and read a manual and know what to do when someone brings this or that. I just have to operate on trust. I do my inner preparation, and then, I’m just there. And if I’m feeling something I have to just say it and trust that whatever comes out my mouth has some relevance to the person. Thankfully, it usually does! I have to trust myself to speak.

I just realised that, without even intending to, I have been talking about trust, transition and transformation, which is the theme of this year’s Wise Woman’s Weekend. That happened completely miraculously and by happy accident.

I still feel like a relative newcomer to WWW but I’m happy to be part of it. And in this strange transition time for the Wise Woman’s, too, we all have to become comfortable with uncertainty. We don’t know where things are going, but we can, by our actions,
to some extent choose where they go.

Ruth Marshall is editor of Network Ireland magazine and a facilitator at the Wise Woman’s Weekend, 13th – 15th May 2011.
Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill is a writer and Event Manager of Wise Woman’s Weekend 2011.
http://www.wisewomanireland.com/

Consciousness and Gardening info on-line

Hello Wise Women,

Some are saying this is the time for the new feminine to take a leading part in the shift in humanity. They are saying that evolution is moving at a faster rate than ever and that being conscious, being aware is of utmost importance. It seems that there is an opportunity (of a lifetime) here for us women to step up to the mark and live the life that we are destined to live and in the process we can 'save the world', as in the Standing Silent Grandmothers story.

There is much happening to focus our attention on priorities. I am drawn to living consciously and living 'in light and love' as best I can. And I have been making preparations for life with less oil too – growing my own veg and making transition in many ways. Community life is getting better with local markets and more social gatherings outdoors in nature.

I'd like to share some information about online talks and courses which might help you. I've been taking one and find the process amazing.

This week in Dublin there's an interesting speaker Marianne Williamson http://www.seminars.ie/inspirational-seminars/seminar_details.php?event_id=194

This free talk is on too soon http://www.enlightennext.org/webcasts/ Awakening to your Highest Self. Join spiritual teacher Andrew Cohen and more than25 religious and cultural luminaries for a series of intimate and deeply inspiring stories celebrating the life-changing power of the student-teacher relationship.

Also this week there is an exciting free teleseminar event with Barbara Marx Hubbard Tuesday, March 22^nd (possibly available after the event too). It’s called Birth 2012: Co-Creating a Planetary Shift, and during the event Barbara will share a powerful vision for how we can activate and celebrate the emergence of a new kind of humanity on Dec. 22, 2012 in way that truly impacts the world. Next Tuesday’s event will begin building a global community of co-creators of this vision.

Click here for all the details: http://birth2012.com

For those of you unfamiliar with Barbara Marx Hubbard, she’s one of the wisest elders on our planet and an extraordinary visionary for our day. Leaders like Jack Canfield, Neale Donald Walsch, and Ervin Laszlo are supporting her vision for Birth 2012 to help put us on a new evolutionary trajectory of peace, sustainability and prosperity.

Here are some more sources for info on personal and spiritual development...

http://peaceambassadortraining.com/course/PeaceAmbassadorTraining James O'Dea teaches how to embody peace to cope in any situation....

http://www.futureofloveteleseries.com/

http://beyondawakeningseries.com

http://www.2011tappingworldsummit.com

http://soulfulwomen.com/3keys

www.theshiftmovie.com

http://sacredawakeningseries.com/library .

Hoping you are getting a chance to plant seeds to grow your own fresh food. Grow It Yourself http://www.giyireland.com/ and Green Friends http://www.ammaireland.org/greenfriends-ireland.htm have helped me in the garden.

http://www.grow-your-own.ie/videos.html

Wishing you well and hoping many various seeds grow well!

Love Kathleen

Sherrie Scott's Celebration of Brigid and Springtime

Sherrie Scott’s Celebration of Brigid and Springtime

Last weekend, I participated in a fabulous celebration of Imbolc and Brigid, facilitated by our own Wise Woman, Sherrie Scott. I was one of seven women who gathered in the cosy front room of the Mermaid’s Healing Arts Centre in Rossnowlagh, County Donegal. A big fire blazed in the hearth to welcome us. We sat in a circle around a square of red material, in the centre of which was a mound of earth in the shape of a volcano. At the top there was a spume of flame coloured cloth and when you looked more closely at the slopes, there were bulbs growing in the soil.

This was the setting in which we shared our knowledge of Brigid, Celtic Goddess, historical woman and Christian Saint. Brigid is known as the Triple Goddess, virgin, mother and crone. She is the keeper of the flame and also the protector of the home. Brigid’s flame burned in Kildare right up to the middle ages and was re-lit again in the 1990’s. She is a smithy, a weaver, a healer. Intriguingly, she is also the patroness of brewing and is once reputed to have changed water into beer! She is also the patroness of poetry and is my own personal Muse.

We wove Brigid’s crosses made from rushes while we considered the seeds of projects and ideas which we’d planted at Samhain and which had gestated over the long dark winter. We decided which of those should be manifested, which should be let go and which should be left to find fruition at another time.

There was a long, leisurely lunch over which we discussed various aspects of healing, particularly the chemotherapeutic properties of dandelion roots – (the dandelion is Brigid’s flower) and the power of honey (also associated with Brigid) to heal infected cuts.

In the afternoon, Sherrie led a drumming meditation in which she we journeyed to meet Brigid. As always, my Muse had plenty of encouragement and wisdom for me in my writing and all of my projects. Her advice to me was: write, love, heal.

Perhaps the most famous story of Brigid is the one where she asked the King of Leinster for land to build her monastery. Disparagingly, the King answered, ‘I will give you as much as your cloak can cover’. When she laid her cloak out, it covered all of County Kildare.

In a beautiful, dramatic moment Sherrie invited us to pull the cloth flame at the top of the volcano. We pulled and the cloth burst out, a huge sheet of flame coloured silk that covered the whole room, as Brigid’s mantle had covered Kildare. The ‘volcano’ was then divided up between us and we were gifted the bulbs and soil to bring home with us to where they too will manifest themselves.

This is soul work at its deepest and best. Well done, Sherrie, and thanks to the other women in the circle for making the day so special. I came away from there renewed and full of enthusiasm for all of the projects ahead. It’s a long time since I got such value for fifty euro.

Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill

Sherrie Scott is an Energy Therapist.
Contact: flowingtide@hotmail.com. Or 00353860811217
Up and coming workshops at Mermaids
26 & 27th February Spontaneous Painting Weekend Fee €150
26th March Journey to your Power Self Fee €50

She will facilitate a workshop at the upcoming
Wise Woman Weekend, 13th – 15th May 2011: www.wisewomanireland.com

Órfhlaith Ní Chonaill is a writer and facilitator of creative writing workshops. www.writersinksligo.com.
She is also the co-ordinator for the Wise Woman’s Weekend in 2011.

The picture of Sherrie's Mermaid's Arts Healing Centre, Rossnowlagh, is posted below.

Sherrie Scott's Celebration of Brigid and Springtime

Sherrie Scott's Celebration of Brigid and Springtime

The Wonderful World of Craft

With 2011 the ‘Year of Craft,’ I would like to share with you some musings on two great passions of mine: wool craft and wisdom.

The wonderful wisdom of craft is alive and well and blossoming in this information age. The Stitch ‘n’ Bitch movement has helped make craft trendy. The discovery of mathematician and crochet lover, Dr. Daina Taimina, that models of the complex hyperbolic plane of geometry could be made using crochet was a wonderful inspiration to crafters, and has slowly seeped into crochet patterns of all sorts. This also led to the fantastic hyperbolic crochet coral reef project, which has been exhibited all over the world. Crochet and knitting are starting to make it into the galleries of high art and be recognised as art mediums in themselves.

Online opportunities to sell hand crafted items like Etsy.com, where anyone can set up an online shop and offer their craft for sale to a worldwide market are a great boon to those of us wanting to make a loving living from our skills. Online communities such as weavolution, and the wonderful ravelry offer places to chat and share ideas and projects with like-minded people, check out some of the amazing work being done, and get inspired.

On a local level too there are gatherings of women who come together to knit, crochet, mend, inspire and motivate each other in craft. Skills are swapped and shared between young and old. Projects are discussed and admired and encouragement meted out. I have attended three such ‘craft circles’ in the last three years. I learned to turn a heel, to weave on a peg- loom, and marvelled at the amazing ‘backwards’ knitting of the Europeans! I taught a few crochet stitches and shared in the passion of the participants for all things wool. These gatherings are not difficult to organise, a poster in your local craft shop and library will bring the nimble-fingered out. One of those I attended was in a library, one in a craft shop and one in the homes of the members. All were wonderful, full of stories, skills and wisdom. Many are acts of generosity, where women produce items for charities, such as blankets for homeless shelters, or knitted egg-covers for sale at Easter to raise funds.

Women’s wisdom, their creativity and their loving kindness towards their family is made manifest in the items of clothing they lovingly create. One of my own cherished possessions is an Aran Geansai my mother knit for my father when they were courting 35 years ago. Both of them have sadly passed on but this symbol of their love remains and, fashioned from pure wool as it is, is still in great condition despite being worn regularly by me for the last 15 years!

Anyone who has been gifted with or made for themselves a hand-knitted jumper, scarf or hat knows the special quality inherent in such an item, a quality increasingly rare in our age of mass production. I refer here to an energetic quality as well as the physical quality arising out of attention to minute detail; literally every stitch is carefully knit with loving intention for the eventual recipient. The work is repetitive, meditative, and meaningful. How many of us know an Irish mother or grandmother who selflessly makes socks, hats and jumpers for all around her, but never for herself? She enjoys the abundant generosity of her work.

A great inspiration to me in my own path has been the work of the women of a remote Amazon rainforest people called the Shipibo. As the women weave they bring to each piece their healing songs. The energy of the song is imbued into the fabric, the songs become manifest in the geometric designs, which are then used as aids to healing. Their fabrics are prayers of good wishes and intentions for their community. Weaving and needlework is sacred work, in every action is sacred process.

Perhaps you are one of the mothers who gave up knitting when the kids got bigger, and haven’t touched a needle in years. If so I would like to encourage you, in this year of craft, to rediscover your craft, channel your creativity into it and maybe find or even start up a craft circle in your area. Perhaps enroll in the felting workshop planned for this years Wise Woman Weekend. I promise you that the rewards will be wonderful, many and wise!

Niamh