The Ancestral Mothers of Scotland
Since I was old enough to walk I’ve been exploring the local hills, and what I found up there was a glorious and all-enveloping silence. Through the years I sought out the liminal places and began a conversation with figures I came to call the Old Ones, my Ancestral Mothers.
I became a forager of stories, with an ear to the ground, and a foot in the Otherworld. Some of the stories are rooted in place, perhaps once told but never shared, while others, like stories of the Cailleach and Brighid are folklore, the lore of the people.
While perhaps others were stories that died out in a generation or two, and they’ve been sitting nestled in the cracks of a dry stane dyke (dry stone wall) or in among the mosses, waiting for the right ear to hear them.
These stories gave me meaning, purpose, and inspiration. They connect me to the land, to the winter winds and summer twilight. They are the rich tapestry that weave us back into the world, in a culture that strips away our connection to nature.
Gather the keeners
This Substack is also home to Gather the Keeners, for it was a grief, a longing, for something I couldn’t name but knew I was missing that urged me to look for and connect to the Ancestral Mothers.
In the Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller describes that we live in a grief-phobic and death-denying culture, no longer possessing the tools to grieve with.
It wasn’t that long ago we were far closer to death, when women tended to the dead and the Keening Woman guided the community through their grief and performing the ritual of guiding the soul home.
Reclaiming keening offers space to connect with grief, to let our hands and hearts process our feelings through creative projects such as making a keening doll or weaving grief with yarn. Keening circles provide a curated musical journey that allows for expressions of different faces of grief - from anger, to frustration and despair. Within the keening ritual is a liminal phase, one in which healing can take place, and one aspect of healing is defamiliarising ourselves with grief.
Paid Subscriptions are the monthly price of a fancy coffee
Walking the Path of the Ancestral Mothers - journeying around the wheel of the year sharing stories of the Ancestral Mothers
Monthly Keening Circles
Featured series: Keening Resources - Sharing stories of laments, interviews and books
Re-envisioning keening - creating new rituals inspired by the keening woman’s practice
Occasional Newsletters. A round up of posts, upcoming in person and online events plus whatever synchronicities are weaving their magic
Free Subscriptions:
Occasional Keening Resources
Occassional Newsletters. A round up of posts, upcoming in person and online events plus whatever synchronicities are weaving their magic
Previous series
The Ancestral Mothers Writing Group
A monthly (ongoing) gathering to help set your own goals around your writing, with some silent time to write, organise as well as time in groups to sharing what your doing and hear how others approach organising, writing and planning.
Stories of the Cailleach
A written series exploring seasonal stories of the Cailleach.
Journeying with the Bone Mothers
We will listen to these old ones in our different ways, meeting on Zoom once a month, sharing what we are working on through the deep of the year.
I will share a story or some music, or a tale of a Bone Mother. It’s a meeting place, so just turn up, share what you're working on, could be something personal, that you might be exploring through weaving or knitting project, or just turning up each morning in your own way.
