Today we have an Easter treat for you: a new episode of The Hedge School Podcast. In this episode, Hedge School founder Dr Sharon Blackie interviews teacher and creator of the Orphan Wisdom School, Stephen Jenkinson (https://orphanwisdom.com/). The conversation is focused on what it is to be an elder in today’s world, and on Stephen’s […]
Month: March 2018
Let’s reclaim Easter from the chocolate companies and revive traditional games
By Joanna Gilar I am an unapologetic enthusiast for festive happenings; for all spaces in which we grant ourselves permission to pause in our business, turn towards cyclical time and make magic in a great concord. Even though it is the colourful earthiness of older rites to which I would be drawn by inclination; even […]
Seasonal lore: the ‘Sea Mither’ of the Northern Isles
by Sharon Blackie As the clocks sprang forward by an hour this weekend, it seems that we have no excuse (not even the dire weather) to imagine that we’re in any season other than spring. It’s official. And so, after my last post about the Cailleach and some of the other Gaelic folklore associated with […]
Finding a sense of belonging among the hardy plants and canyons of New Mexico
by Kiva Rose Hardin “Myth is not much to do with the past, but a kind of magical present that can flood our lives when the conditions are just so. It is not just the neurosis of us humans trying to fathom our place on earth, but sometimes the earth actually speaking back to us. […]
Celebrating spring: Spring Equinox and the Cailleach
by Sharon Blackie I often hear statements like ‘The Celts didn’t celebrate the equinoxes; they only really celebrated the four cross-quarter days’ (Imbolc, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain). But the truth is, once we try to go back beyond the past few centuries, we have no real idea what the people in these islands who we’ve […]
The Hedge School Podcast: a new episode
Today’s special treat: on The Hedge School Podcast, Sharon interviews bestselling writer, author of the ‘Boudica’ series, and ‘shamanic dreaming’ teacher Manda Scott (www.mandascott.co.uk). The conversation is focused on contemporary shamanic practice, and whether it is possible to recreate an authentic spiritual practice based on what little we know about the traditions followed by our […]
My post-heroic journey: Hen Anderson
Hen Anderson established Spindlebrook No-dig Farm near Dartmoor and was part of the Save our Woods campaign which successfully prevented the privatisation of the public forest estate in 2012. She lives in a yurt on her farm with her partner Leo. What’s your life like at the moment? At the moment I’m living my dream, a […]
Singing with our ancestors: connecting to landscape through song
By Emily Heuvel I have always been a singer. I was born in the Scottish Highlands, and one of my earliest memories is of sitting on the swing in my garden, singing about the hills and the birds – about what I could see. That’s how it has always been. Traditional music was forged from […]