Join me in the dark of the year for some stories of the Cailleach. We will journey with the old crone as she travels to the Whirlpool of Corryvrecken to perform her age-old ritual of washing her plaid in the churning waters of her cauldron. The story will allow you an opportunity to renew that which has become well worn, a ritual of renewal as we enter the dark of the year. It is an invitation to consider what you wish to work on through the dark months.
Your invited to honor your ancestors - wether it be your beloved blood relatives or your distance bone ancestors. Our ancestors are also those linages we adopt - the wise elders as well as all those who only walk the land in spirit, such as Scottish bear, reindeer and auroch.
There will be time to digest and reflect on the stories and explore what meaning they hold for you.
In our last story you are invited to take your place in the circle of women as they pack the stone at the Shrine of the Cailleach away for the winter. The stones are passed around the circle, with each women whispering her gratitudes and prayers. You’ll be invited to record your inspiration from this story onto a collage piece in the shape of the river weathered stones.
We begin our evening by journeying with the Cailleach as she makes her annual pilgrimage to the churning waters of her cauldron, the Whirlpool of Corryvrecken. Here she washes her plaid in her ritual of bringing the land into darkness of the winter months.
Your invited to brig a circular piece of paper to make a collage with - inspired by our journey of entering the churning waters of the whirlpool (all details provided when you sign up and then log into the class page)
Honoring Our Ancestors
This is a time when we honor our beloved dead - those who we knew in life but also honoring our bone ancestors - those most ancient ancestors whose names and faces we don’t know - but perhaps whose traits and similarities we hold.
Our ancestors aren’t just those we are related to by blood and bone - it’s also our chosen family, those who we call elders. It’s ancestors of the land such as bear or wolf - who only walk the land in spirit.
Your invited to create a small ancestor altar beside you as well as sharing the names of those we grieve for, those souls which have moved from this world and made thor return journey home
Keening Circle
A keening Circle. Reclaiming the ancient radiation of keening isn’t always about wailing, crying and a cathartic release. It can also be quiet and comforting, even laughter and remembering.
A keening circle is what you need it to be. Perhaps you need to lie down and let the music wash over you.
Perhaps you need to move and embody the music and need to roar and let emotions move through you.
This is a circle which can incorporate all of these things at the same time.
My Cailleach doll beside one of the stones at the Shrine of the Cailleach
The Shrine of the Cailleach
Our final story for the evening is the Shrine of the Cailleach. Sitting in Glen Cailleach, just off Glen Lyon - Scotlan’ds longes Glen. Your invited to journey with me - to the women who lived in the Glen for the summer months up until harbesy when they returned.
Tign na Bodach (House of the Old Man) also known as the Shrine of the Cailleach
Samhain, their ritual to gather around the stones, to say their gratitudes to the Cailleacg as they cradled the stones. They whispered their gratitudes and their prayers, tucked little notes and objects into the shrine as the family of stones were packed up for the winter.
Cost & Booking
The cost for this keening circle is £49 approx USD $59
When registering you will be prompted to create a login which will allow you access workshop area with some details on our gathering, with downloadable templates, items to bring as well as the Zoom link.
This gathering will be reordered with the recording emailed out the next day
Feel free to get in touch with any questions (use the contact page here on the website)
Your Guide
Jude Lally is a forager of stories. You’ll find her out wandering the hills around Loch Lomond, readings the signs which guide her to stories in the land. Stories which she explores through art and ritual.
As a cultural & spiritual activist, she draws upon the inspiration from old traditions to meet current needs, for our grief-phobic culture doesn’t offer the tools to grieve. She uses keening, a practice in which the Bean Chaointe (Keening Woman) guided a community through a grief ritual, as a cathartic ritual to express anger, fear, and grief for all that is unfolding within the great unraveling.
As a doll maker, she views this practice as one which stretches back to the first dolls which may have been fashioned from bones and stones and the ancient stone figurines such as the Woman of Willendorf. She uses dolls as a way of holding and exploring our own story, and relationship to the land as well as ancestral figures.
She gained her MSc Masters Degree in Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland) and lives on the West Coast of Scotland on the banks of the River Clyde, near Loch Lomond. She is currently writing her first book, Path of the Ancestral Mothers.