ASHES to ASHES : a guided art ritual at Samhuinn (Samhain)
Here in Scotland there is no doubt that this cross-quarter day in the 8-fold year has been marked since time out of mind. In the Scots Gaelic it is Samhuinn, a festival later Christianised as All Hallow's Eve, transported over the ocean to the Americas and brought...
Celebrating the Hairst : a visual poem for the autumn equinox
Autumn is the most poetic of seasons, wouldn't you agree? As we prepare to greet this latest juncture in our eight-fold year - the Autumn Equinox on Monday 23rd Sept - I was inspired to create a video poem in tribute. No great, sweeping epic - rather a modest visual...
Circles + Symbols : Organic Clothing + Accessories
At Lughnasadh I launched Circles and Symbols : an organic clothing + accessories line. Art. Merchandise. Fashion. Pretty controversial topics, especially when you combine them ... So many thoughts I could share. So many points upon which to disagree with...
Merry Making at Lughnasadh, the Lammas Fairs + Personal Mythology
Oh, yes - can you feel it? A perceptible sigh ... a letting down of energies ... a downwards shift ... a ripening ... Here in Scotland, it's Lughnasadh, or Lammas - the first of the harvest festivals and another gateway in our eight-fold year. Marking the...
Live Mandala Event : The Shape of Our Beliefs : Ancestral Bodies
This month's Patreon ceilidh is a live, online mandala-making circle, available to members of Clans Adder, Deer + Beastie. Not a member? No problem - there's still time to join us, if you wish. The space I'm creating at Patreon is designed to spark...
Launching The Woven Land Network with a Midsummer Party
A Midsummer party you say? Foraging and medicinal herbs, creative conversations and a ceilidh to round it all off - all hosted at The Ecology Centre in Fife. It was a no-brainer for me to attend the launch event of The Woven Land Network, especially...
We are being called to pay attention : Summer Solstice ☀️
“Are you sure/That we are awake? It seems to me/That yet we sleep, we dream” ~ Midsummer Night's Dream, William ShakespeareLooking to the folklore, I find that the Summer Solstice celebrations here in Scotland were centred on Midsummer Eve and the morning after, but...
A Slogan For Our Times
“We have an idea where the monsters are. So that’s where we're headed. Friends are forged on the dark road headed out of town.” And so it was that the day dawned and on offer was something we all had a feeling about, but weren’t quite sure exactly what was to occur....
Salt Circle of Tears
An invitation to a creative tending of our personal and cultural grief. Exclusive to members of Patreon Clans Adder, Deer + Beastie. June 2nd 2019 : 6pm BST (timezones here) An online event, hosted on Zoom. (Recordings for Patreon Clans Deer + Beastie.)"Grief is not a...
Beltane Big Sun ☼
Beltane welcomes the season of the ☼ big sun ☼ here in Scotland and together with Samhain - its opposite in the seasonal wheel of the year - marks one of the two most significant junctures in the annual solar cycle. As a cross-quarter day, Beltane occurs at the...
Spring Equinox, The Cailleach and our Way Back People
Already, we arrive at another of our markers in the solar cycle - the Spring Quarter Day that is the Vernal Equinox. Whilst researching Scottish folklore I find precious little that refers directly to this particular juncture. In K W Grant's Myth, Tradition and Story...
Imbolc and the creative cycle
It's easy to understand why in Scotland prior to 1600 CE the New Year wasn't celebrated until the end of March. The cold, short days and long, black nights of the Yuletide months are not practically conducive to energetic movement and lively social interaction. I have...