Ali Isaac's Blog: H A G , page 5

Little Rituals

Good morning! Happy (Gregorian) New Year to you! Whether you celebrate Christmas, the Solstice, or something else, I hope you are well, fulfilled, and looking forward to another circuit around the sun.

The gorse, one of my favourite wildflowers, is already in bloom. Its golden light reminds me of the sun, which feels appropriate as the days are beginning to lengthen. Its fiery colour in the deepest dark of winter is always a welcome and cheering sight. © Ali Isaac

The 6th of January is Women’s Ch...

Seasonal Blessings

Inside Oweynaghat, cave of cats, the Mórrígan’s conduit between the mortal and fairy realms, and birthplace of Queen Medb © Ali Isaac

I think about you a lot, you, my readers. I see your names when you join me, and I say them aloud and give you my thanks. Do you hear me? Do my words enter your consciousness like a small internal breath of air, a movement or feeling which expresses my gratitude? I thought this journey with the Cailleach, this surrendering to the dark and cold would be a lonely one...

December | The Turning Circle

Once, the Irish landscape was blanketed with dense forest… which probably did not look much like this. There is very little ancient forest left in Ireland. © Ali IsaacThe Way Forward

It’s a good thing to be wild, right? Turning back to the earth, becoming one with nature is something many of us aspire to and are in the process of relearning. Rewilding ourselves. It’s something we’ve talked a lot about on H A G in this year with the Cailleach. It’s a positive mind-shift, a lifestyle switch, especi...

H A G-Wise 5: Gathering the Threads of Matriarchal Wisdom

Seasonal image of red hawthorn berries against green ivy leaves on a gatepost © Ali Isaac

Hi, my fellow Cailleachs!

I’ve been procrastinating. I should have written to you last week, but the truth is, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed.

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November | Excursions into Darkness

It’s a year since I started H A G. Excursions into Darkness was my first ever newsletter, but I never sent it out, so you won’t have read it. It’s as relevant to me now, though, as it was when I first wrote it. I think of darkness as a female space, and a force for good, for without it, there can be no light: light emerges from the blackness of the universe in the creation of stars and suns; from the earth in the form of seedlings, as new life from the womb, and as the fiery arrow of Imbas from ...

The Cailleach's Circle: Answering the Call

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H A G-Wise 4: What is a life worth?

It’s 4am on a Sunday morning. I have been awake for an hour, and I have enough experience of this now to know I can’t fight it. So here I sit in my dark-dappled kitchen, cup of fennel tea on my right, phone and Braiding Sweetgrass on my left. I light a candle; I have been lighting a lot of candles lately, a way, perhaps, of bringing some light into the darkness that is spreading across the planet, a vigil for hope. With that tender flame flickering, I am ready to spin a web of thoughts into som...

October | Moving Between Worlds

This is not the post I was scheduled to write for October, but I am trying to listen to my intuition, and small events this week have stolen my attention and focussed it here, on the words I am about to write.

The magnificent mound of Rathcroghan, fortress of Queen Medb according to legend. In the foreground is a fallen standing stone known as Miosgaun Maeve, or Maeve's Lump of Butter © Ali Isaac

I am in pain today, the kind of pain that makes you sweat with the exertion of just accepting it, so ...

Moving Between Worlds

This is not the post I was scheduled to write for October, but I am trying to listen to my intuition, and small events this week have stolen my attention and focussed it here, on the words I am about to write.

The magnificent mound of Rathcroghan, fortress of Queen Medb according to legend. In the foreground is a fallen standing stone known as Miosgaun Maeve, or Maeve's Lump of Butter © Ali Isaac

I am in pain today, the kind of pain that makes you sweat with the exertion of just accepting it, so ...

The Cailleach's Circle - The H A G as Weaver

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