This workshop will be recorded
Come join me in walking the Path of the Ancestral Mothers as we celebrate the Spring Equinox. We are reaching two years into a Global pandemic, with many changes having taken place. This mini online retreat is an invitation to sit and consider all that has happened. With stories of Breejah, a woman of the Bear linage, we will connect to bear through the ancient ritual of taking the Bear trance posture.
On the path of the Ancestral Mothers Spring Equinox marks a point where we emerge from the cave, it is an opportunity to review our time in the deep of the year and prepare to step back into the world. What do we wish to leave behind us and what do we pack up and carry as we return to the world.
STORY + RITUAL + ART
Cauldron ritual - Speaking to what we wish to leave behind us and what we need for the time ahead
Guided meditation - To visit the Cave of the grandmothers and the great She-Bear
Trance Posture - To assume the bear stance, handed down through thousands of generations a ritual pose which brings us into the energies of bear
Paper Doll - a ritual of going forth and coming back into the world
Coming Out of the Cave
In this afternoon retreat we make time to honor this holyday, to reflect on our time in the dark of the year and make intentions for going forth
Cauldron ritual - Speaking to what we wish to leave behind us and what we need for the time ahead
Guided meditation - To visit the Cave of the grandmothers and the great She bear
Trance Posture - To assume the bear stance, handed down through thousands of generations a ritual pose which brings us into the energies of bear
Paper Doll - a ritual of going forth and coming back into the world
The Cailleach’s Renewal
We’ll honor La na Caillich, day of the old crone which was one new year in an older calendar. In Scotland this time heralds a phase of wild weather which takes us from the wild roar of winter and into the spring like weather of frolicking lambs.
We’ll explore the story and symbolism of the Cailleach’s renewal as well as watching a film on this change as recorded in folklore stories.
Booking
The cost of this afternoon retreat is $55. There is one full scholarship place available - Please click here to apply for the scholarship - you do not need to explain any personal circumstances as to why you are applying for the scholarship place.
When you sign up you’ll be prompted to sign into an area where you’ll find some information and downloadable materials (paper doll, cauldron and bear art projects) to have ready before the workshop.
Your Guide
Jude Lally is an artist, writer and Cultural Activist, using art and ritual as empowering tools of creative resistance.
As an artist and Cultural Activist, Jude Lally is rooted in the inspiration of her Ancestral Mothers. All her work comes about through exploring her relationship with the land through art, ritual, imagination and creativity.
She uses the inspiration of old traditions to meet modern needs. Keening is one example, which was traditionally a way to lament the death of someone in the community, Jude uses it today as a way to address modern needs in allowing an expression of grief we hold for all that is happening across the planet. In using keening in this cathartic way she uses gestures of ritual which help inspire to work in creative ways in acts of resistance, working towards a restorative culture.
She calls herself a Radical doll maker who views her art as part of a practice that stretches back to the first dolls fashioned from bones and stones – such as the Woman of Willendorf.
She gained her MSc Masters Degree in Human Ecology at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland) in partnership with the Center for Human Ecology, with her thesis entitled ‘Fire in the Head, Heart and Hand. A Study of the Goddess Brighid as Goddess Archetype and her Relevance to Cultural Activists in Contemporary Scotland’. She currently lives in Asheville, Western North Carolina but is moving back to Scotland.