an ending within endings...
Hello and Welcome to A Year & A Day! We are here, in this the most disturbing, profound and challenging time collectively (and perhaps individually) of our lifetimes.
We are here.
Here we are.
How is your body, your heart, your mind? So, so, so much has been playing out within and without…and here we are in this fertile and feral fluster-cluck of endings.
In this 13 month odyssey on A Year & a Day, we are in the 12th month of our journey exploring the seasons of women’s lives. This is the last episode celebrating the Crone phase.
Joining me in this new moon in Pisces emergent collaboration are three brilliant women living their gifts in the wide arc of cultural rhythmicity, feminine empowerment and story; Adrianna Forte, Stasha Ginsburg and Marisa Goudy.
I am so humbled by this episode, by us! As I listened to the final edit of all our voices woven together I wept…this work, our voices = deep meaning for me! I am honored and so grateful for their generous offerings and for our collective ‘yes!” to do the work we are each doing, alone & together.
This teeny-tiny microcosm of an ending also coincides with the new moon opening in the last degrees of the final sign of the Zodiac cycle! And here in the northern hemisphere, we are in the final days of winter. This is a Matryoshka doll’s worth of endings and… the Spring Equinox is only days away! Mighty, unprecedented beginnings, re-patternings & shift-shapings await!
Just pause and take that in….dream into this new moon portal and then, in a few days take up the reigns and ride! I highly, highly recommend reading/listening to this new moon post from Dr. Mindy Nettifee [https://open.substack.com/pub/drmindynettifee/p/all-the-wishes-that-float-just-on?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web] - every word, the braiding of all the layers of this complex threshold and the sustaining fluidity in between.
In the past month I reached out to Adrianna, Stasha and Marisa and invited them to;
Tell me about crone energy through your lens, this could be a story and or a sharing of your relationship with her as both lived experience and as an archetype?
Enjoy their responses.
Below more about their work in the world, the poems read and pictures from the magic of fresh March snow and northern sunshine.
Thank you for your bright listening and all love, all ways!
Yours in the ongoing,
Tracy
Poems:
Cailliach Bheag an F’hasaich | Little Cailleach of the Wild
‘Duair bha an f hairge mhor‘Na coille choinnich ghlais,Bha mis am mhuirneig oig,Bu bhiadh miamh maidne dhomhDuileasg Lioc a Eigir,Agus creamh an Sgōth,Uisge Loch-a-Cheann-dubhain,Is iasg an Ionnaire-mhoir,B’ iad siud mo ragha beatha-saAm fad ’s a bhithinn beo.
Chuirinn mo naoi imirean lurach linAn gleannan grinn Chorradail,Is thogainn mo chrioslachan chnoEadar dha Thorarnis.’
That time the great seaWas a grey mossy wood,I was a joyous little maiden,My wholesome morning mealThe dulse of the Rock of AgirAnd the wild garlic of ‘Sgōth,’The water of ‘Loch-a-Cheann-dubhain,’And the fish of ‘Ionnaire-mor,’Those would be my choice sustenanceAs long as I would live.
I would sow my nine lovely rigs of lint (rows of flax)In the little trim glen of Corradale,And I would lift my skirtful of nutsBetween the two Torarnises.
from Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, 1900, p. 284 [https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg2/cg2109.htm]
The Hag’s Call
She is the essence of weather itself.She is the windtearing violently at the roof, squealing on the old gate,calling down the chimney.She is my fear taking human form,calling into me tonight -unexpected -seeking lodgings.Dressed as Karalalam,she torments me’til, at first sight of day,she flees.
Let me out to the wind after her.out of my concrete skin,out of my iron skull,because there’s a fierceness in methat desires the edge,the tempest,the change.Marrow stirs in my bonesreviving the awe of youthin my flesh,endingthe inertia of winter,reopening my sword-sharp eye.
Glaoch na Caillí
’S í an uain féin í.
’S í an ghaoth í
ag réabadh cheann an tí,
ag gíoscáin ar gheata críonna,
ag glaoch anuas an simné.
’Sí m’eagla i gcolainn dhaonna í
ag bualadh isteach chugam anocht -
gan choinne -
feis na hoíche á lorg aici.
Gléasta mar Karalalam,
cránn sí mé
go dtí go dteitheann sí
ag lóchaint an lae..
Scaoil mise amach sa ghaoth ina diaidh.
amach óm chraiceann coincréideach,
óm chloigeann iarainn,
nó go bhfuil fiantas ionam
a shantaíonn an t-imeall,
an t-anfa,
an t-athrú.
Smúsach ag smúrthaíl im chnámha
a athdhúisíonn scéimh na hóige
im bheo,
a chuireann deireadh le
stolpacht an gheimhridh,
a athosclaíonn mo rosc rinnghéar.
by Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin, an Irish-language poet living in Kerry [http://www.connotationpress.com/featured-guest-editor/december-2011/1150-ceaiti-ni-bheildiuin-poetry)]. This is her own translation from the original Irish.
Guest Collaborators:
Adriana Forte is a cultural architect, philosopher, and writer dedicated to bringing the cyclical nature of women’s minds into collective awareness. She aims to create spaces for provocative thinking, reflection and transformation through dialogue, writing, workshops, retreats, online group work, and one-on-one mentoring. Above all, she’s a mother to two amazing girls, a partner to an awesome guy, and an apprentice gardener living off-grid in a community in Australia. To tap into some of my written work, please visit https://theclab.substack.com/ To watch some of the conversations I’ve had that brought the cycle into culture, visit: https://www.youtube.com/@thec-lab/videos [https://www.youtube.com/@thec-lab/videos] |
Stasha Ginsburg is a transformative language artist, song tender and storyteller in Boulder, CO. She is the creator of the Wild remembering —formerly the Wild matryoshka. Stasha assists others in rupturing narratives and disrupting the old story with embodiment and mythos.
@the.wild.remembering IG
TheWildremembering
Facebook.com/thewildremembering
Substack.com/thewildremembering
Marisa Goudy is a myth worker, a story healer, and a writing coach. She’s the author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic and the host of the KnotWork Myth and Storytelling podcast. Marisa studied at the University of Galway and got her BA in Irish Studies and English at Boston College. She received her MA in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama from University College Dublin. The land itself is Marisa’s greatest guide and solace. She grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (traditional and ancestral land of the Wampanoag) and now lives in the Hudson Valley (originally home to the Esopus-Lenape) with her husband and two daughters.
www.marisagoudy.com, www.KnotWorkStorytelling.com
IG: @marisagoudy @knotworkpodcast
FB: https://www.facebook.com/marisa.goudy/ [https://www.facebook.com/marisa.goudy/]
https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling [https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytelling]
Substack: Myth is Medicine
And with enormous thanks to Kyle Gilmer at Residual Audio. kyle@residualaudio.com [kyle@residualaudio.com]
Cailleach image source unknown.
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