I think you are right and I think many of us feel it, although perhaps in different ways. When I went into the woods this time last year, it felt significant somehow that the group I joined turned out to be all women. How harmonious and gentle and peaceful those few days were. It was a slow way of living in which I really began to feel called back to the land, it showed me that we can live sustainably in partnership with nature. I cried when I left. My husband once said that all the small things I did in support of nature were impacting on our sons, and I hadn't even realised. Maybe as women we are turning our mothering skills to other areas, and by doing we are teaching, and that is a quiet underground revolution, or movement that can't be prevented by the gardaí, or government's, or the judiciary. I love Mary Reynold's idea of ARKs - Acts of Restorative Kindness - linking up across the country; she's talking about rewilding the land, but I think women are also rewilding themselves, we are all individual ARKs connecting across the land. And the fact that the patriarchy defending a soldier who beat a woman to within an inch of her life, at this solstice time of year, as the Cailleach is preparing to step back into her power, has certainly got women across Ireland rising up in shared anger.
Thank you Ali. I really love the image of ARKs connecting across the land. That is what it feels like (across the planet, even). I've also been thinking about the horrendous, appaling verdict on Natasha O'Brien's case. It made me think of something I heard a sociologist in the States say (and I'm paraphrasing terribly) about how the challenge for the next few decades is how to dismantle the androcentric systems (i.e. patriarchy) that are causing damage without those systems feeling so threatened that they regress to an even more restrictive and destructive state. Certainly. this week, the Irish judicial system has come under the full force of roused women.
Yes! I feel (more than think) the same. Also, unsure how to articulate. Its important and relevant to share felt sense as much as fully formed ideas, maybe more so. Thank you
Thank you Michaela, and love that you're at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Well done :) It's a place on my bucket list to try to get accepted to one day! Enjoy xx
Hello there, what a moving post. I think the poster you saw may have been for YES festival— a Molly Bloom celebration— in Derry last weekend. The catch line was - THE FUTURE: A Female Vision. I have the honour of being the writer in residence for the Derry / Donegal part of the Europe wide project. If it wasn’t for that , I guess this project is one you’re still gonna be interested in.
I hear you sister, and feel this in my bones. Thanks for sharing your heart x
Oooooh yes, highly likely that was the poster. It fits! It must have been an amazing experience to be the writer in residence to celebrate such an icon of literature! Xx
Thank you Annette. Really interesting and lovely to hear your experience and how you feel the pull too. And yes, that coming together gives me so much solace too. I feel like we can survive anything when we're in those spaces together!
I am half-Irish, half-English, born and brought up in England; I moved to Ireland 6 years ago now, having never known it before. And for the first time in my life, I feel at home on the land; it speaks to me and through me. My work is all about bringing elderwomen without children together, and although the work took off like a rocket in the UK when it began almost 15 years ago, here in Ireland it is more of a slow burn, but feels deep and sustainable. I've been writing a novel for 8 years which features the sovereignty goddess of Ireland, and of her role in the necessary rebalancing of the masculine/feminine principles as necessary to how will will find our way through the 'great turning' (Joanna Macy) of this time as humans on this earth.
I love that you shared your thoughts before you felt you had "fully metabolised and intellectualised" them; that is the feminine right there, pushing its tendrils up through the masculine :) x
Thank you Jody for sharing your experiences. I'm glad Ireland has been a place of soft landing for you. Hearing you are writing a novel which features the sovereignty goddess made my heart leap with joy -- her role in rebalancing the masculine/feminine is a theme/concept that I'm very drawn to. Can't wait to read it one day xx
Belinda. Thank you for this very timely post and keen observation. I believe many of us are feeling this inexplicable sense of what you speak of. Having just returned to live in Ireland after 40 years in the United States I came back here because of Eiru’s calling.
In 2017 I had the great pleasure of studying with Clarissa Pinkola Estés author of women who run with the wolves.
Dr. Estes‘s speaks of the notion of having a too good Mother, that’s some thing I am exploring in a book I am writing myself now.
If some of the mothering we received was too good, can it almost be a smothering as not good enough?
In the Taoist tradition of Qigong we speak of giving birth to a new self, by way of self-cultivation.
Perhaps unlike our mothers or grandmothers, many of us, have gone out into the world on our Šamanić journeys or journeys of any kind and come back with the kind of stories only going away, traversing through the streets, forests, mountain tops or depths of difficult terrain.
Many of us learned the benefits of going to therapy, something which was totally taboo when I was growing up in the 70s.
Meeting other fellow travelers on our paths for me in New York for yourself in London.
Spreading our self seeding spirits out to the world we flew in every direction we landed in every direction but now I believe we are finding our roots back home, bringing back the medicine of our travels.
This combined with one of the best outcomes of the pandemic was us all reconnecting online and realizing we could have community in ways that were not available to previous generations .
Dr. Estes’s speaks of the worst thing is to not have a story to tell. I believe Ireland and the women of Ireland have that story to tell, to share now.
Gosh Nadiya, thank you. YES.... all what you say about us going out to different places and parts of the world and on different journeys, learning and picking up all sorts of new experiences along the way and now coming to reconnecting to where we have come from, in our own ways, and bringing what we have with us... I feel that very strongly too. Thank you for articulating and naming this xx
I'm so taken with the imagery of women journeying to all corners of the earth, and coming to sense a call to return with the unique wisdom of their Odysseys.
Living in the Middle East, I'm often part of female only spaces. It's a part of life here that certain areas are reserved as female only: areas in the gym where women can remove their hijab, female seating areas in waiting rooms etc. I used to struggle with the idea but actually really enjoy it now. I find the sense of sisterhood strong here. It's comforting to be in an all female spaces sometimes; it feels like a sanctuary.
I think the women of Ireland are incredibly strong, creative and nurturing. When I get homesick I think of our gorgeous landscapes, the soft way of life, our sense of community. The female is indeed rising. Any female friends who have returned home love it! My friends and I rush to the sea when home to soak up that natural energy. I walk. I run. I just want to be outside as much as possible. The smells are so rich after coming from a desert. What is Mother Ireland? We are Mother Ireland.
Thank you Edel. "Strong, creative and nurturing", I've been working on a chapter of the book this week that touches on these very traits :) Living away from Ireland (although in a landscape not dissimilar to Ireland) I feel the same about that need to just be outside and in nature when I get home. Nowhere else can match it!
Edel, I recognise the name and reference to life in the Middle East. We both did an online novel writing course with CBC that I was unable to finish.Lovely to reconnect through Belindas wonderful words.
Fantastic! I must look into how to apply for retreats/residencies. School is winding down, thankfully so I'll get back to the novel shortly. Glad to hear you're back at it.
There is no word in English for a group of women together without men. Sisterhood is too specific. Hen party: insulting. All the other words: group, team, sodality, alliance, imply both sexes.
Is there an Irish word for a group of women together without male supervision?
Oooooh, Linda, this is such a good point. One I have never thought of. Do you know, I have no idea if there is a word in Irish for a group of women without male supervision. Although I'd be surprised if there wasn't. I'm going to have to look into this.
It does make me think of the old, no longer practiced, custom of booleying, where people used to take dairy cattle into the hills and remote places to graze over the summer. It was usually a job for teenage girls and young women, so women would spend a whole summer away from the wider community living together out on the land, sharing stories and tending the cattle.
I appreciate this post and am glad you went ahead and shared it as is. Felt senses are such a natural language and your words make perfect sense to me. I feel a pull to Ireland to know the place where so many of my kin came from. When I see pictures of Ireland, I see people who look so much like me and my family and wonder how many thousands of people I'm related to, who are still there. When I think of Ireland, I think of a homecoming. I hope to visit soon.
I feel it too, Belinda. Even though I'm not from this land (French born and bred), Éire is also calling me home, and has been for longer than I can remember. I've lived here with my Irish husband and 4 French-Irish kids for over 13 years, and I can't explain the pull I still feel to make home here. It's like something is moving and riding within and through me that simply isn't present elsewhere.
Just as the world is hurtling ever faster towards catastrophe, women from all walks of life are gathering and coming together in ever increasing numbers, and this gives me solace.
I think you are right and I think many of us feel it, although perhaps in different ways. When I went into the woods this time last year, it felt significant somehow that the group I joined turned out to be all women. How harmonious and gentle and peaceful those few days were. It was a slow way of living in which I really began to feel called back to the land, it showed me that we can live sustainably in partnership with nature. I cried when I left. My husband once said that all the small things I did in support of nature were impacting on our sons, and I hadn't even realised. Maybe as women we are turning our mothering skills to other areas, and by doing we are teaching, and that is a quiet underground revolution, or movement that can't be prevented by the gardaí, or government's, or the judiciary. I love Mary Reynold's idea of ARKs - Acts of Restorative Kindness - linking up across the country; she's talking about rewilding the land, but I think women are also rewilding themselves, we are all individual ARKs connecting across the land. And the fact that the patriarchy defending a soldier who beat a woman to within an inch of her life, at this solstice time of year, as the Cailleach is preparing to step back into her power, has certainly got women across Ireland rising up in shared anger.
Thank you Ali. I really love the image of ARKs connecting across the land. That is what it feels like (across the planet, even). I've also been thinking about the horrendous, appaling verdict on Natasha O'Brien's case. It made me think of something I heard a sociologist in the States say (and I'm paraphrasing terribly) about how the challenge for the next few decades is how to dismantle the androcentric systems (i.e. patriarchy) that are causing damage without those systems feeling so threatened that they regress to an even more restrictive and destructive state. Certainly. this week, the Irish judicial system has come under the full force of roused women.
Yes! I feel (more than think) the same. Also, unsure how to articulate. Its important and relevant to share felt sense as much as fully formed ideas, maybe more so. Thank you
Thank you Michaela, and love that you're at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre. Well done :) It's a place on my bucket list to try to get accepted to one day! Enjoy xx
Do! It's magical, you will love it. X
It's not only Ireland where this feeling is occurring. SHE is rising.
Hello there, what a moving post. I think the poster you saw may have been for YES festival— a Molly Bloom celebration— in Derry last weekend. The catch line was - THE FUTURE: A Female Vision. I have the honour of being the writer in residence for the Derry / Donegal part of the Europe wide project. If it wasn’t for that , I guess this project is one you’re still gonna be interested in.
I hear you sister, and feel this in my bones. Thanks for sharing your heart x
Thank you so much Kerri.
Oooooh yes, highly likely that was the poster. It fits! It must have been an amazing experience to be the writer in residence to celebrate such an icon of literature! Xx
Still onging, hand in is September! YES YES YES! 🤍
Thank you Annette. Really interesting and lovely to hear your experience and how you feel the pull too. And yes, that coming together gives me so much solace too. I feel like we can survive anything when we're in those spaces together!
I am half-Irish, half-English, born and brought up in England; I moved to Ireland 6 years ago now, having never known it before. And for the first time in my life, I feel at home on the land; it speaks to me and through me. My work is all about bringing elderwomen without children together, and although the work took off like a rocket in the UK when it began almost 15 years ago, here in Ireland it is more of a slow burn, but feels deep and sustainable. I've been writing a novel for 8 years which features the sovereignty goddess of Ireland, and of her role in the necessary rebalancing of the masculine/feminine principles as necessary to how will will find our way through the 'great turning' (Joanna Macy) of this time as humans on this earth.
I love that you shared your thoughts before you felt you had "fully metabolised and intellectualised" them; that is the feminine right there, pushing its tendrils up through the masculine :) x
Thank you Jody for sharing your experiences. I'm glad Ireland has been a place of soft landing for you. Hearing you are writing a novel which features the sovereignty goddess made my heart leap with joy -- her role in rebalancing the masculine/feminine is a theme/concept that I'm very drawn to. Can't wait to read it one day xx
I look forward to reading the results of your painstakingly coded interviews too :) xx
Belinda. Thank you for this very timely post and keen observation. I believe many of us are feeling this inexplicable sense of what you speak of. Having just returned to live in Ireland after 40 years in the United States I came back here because of Eiru’s calling.
In 2017 I had the great pleasure of studying with Clarissa Pinkola Estés author of women who run with the wolves.
Dr. Estes‘s speaks of the notion of having a too good Mother, that’s some thing I am exploring in a book I am writing myself now.
If some of the mothering we received was too good, can it almost be a smothering as not good enough?
In the Taoist tradition of Qigong we speak of giving birth to a new self, by way of self-cultivation.
Perhaps unlike our mothers or grandmothers, many of us, have gone out into the world on our Šamanić journeys or journeys of any kind and come back with the kind of stories only going away, traversing through the streets, forests, mountain tops or depths of difficult terrain.
Many of us learned the benefits of going to therapy, something which was totally taboo when I was growing up in the 70s.
Meeting other fellow travelers on our paths for me in New York for yourself in London.
Spreading our self seeding spirits out to the world we flew in every direction we landed in every direction but now I believe we are finding our roots back home, bringing back the medicine of our travels.
This combined with one of the best outcomes of the pandemic was us all reconnecting online and realizing we could have community in ways that were not available to previous generations .
Dr. Estes’s speaks of the worst thing is to not have a story to tell. I believe Ireland and the women of Ireland have that story to tell, to share now.
Gra Mor
Gosh Nadiya, thank you. YES.... all what you say about us going out to different places and parts of the world and on different journeys, learning and picking up all sorts of new experiences along the way and now coming to reconnecting to where we have come from, in our own ways, and bringing what we have with us... I feel that very strongly too. Thank you for articulating and naming this xx
I'm so taken with the imagery of women journeying to all corners of the earth, and coming to sense a call to return with the unique wisdom of their Odysseys.
Living in the Middle East, I'm often part of female only spaces. It's a part of life here that certain areas are reserved as female only: areas in the gym where women can remove their hijab, female seating areas in waiting rooms etc. I used to struggle with the idea but actually really enjoy it now. I find the sense of sisterhood strong here. It's comforting to be in an all female spaces sometimes; it feels like a sanctuary.
I think the women of Ireland are incredibly strong, creative and nurturing. When I get homesick I think of our gorgeous landscapes, the soft way of life, our sense of community. The female is indeed rising. Any female friends who have returned home love it! My friends and I rush to the sea when home to soak up that natural energy. I walk. I run. I just want to be outside as much as possible. The smells are so rich after coming from a desert. What is Mother Ireland? We are Mother Ireland.
Thank you Edel. "Strong, creative and nurturing", I've been working on a chapter of the book this week that touches on these very traits :) Living away from Ireland (although in a landscape not dissimilar to Ireland) I feel the same about that need to just be outside and in nature when I get home. Nowhere else can match it!
Edel, I recognise the name and reference to life in the Middle East. We both did an online novel writing course with CBC that I was unable to finish.Lovely to reconnect through Belindas wonderful words.
Hi Michaela!
This is gas - connecting across two separate lines! We're destined to be friends.
I received your email and will reply soon. I hope the writing is going well for you.
'Gas' indeed! Currently at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, feeling very privileged. Hope you're writing away too.
Fantastic! I must look into how to apply for retreats/residencies. School is winding down, thankfully so I'll get back to the novel shortly. Glad to hear you're back at it.
There is no word in English for a group of women together without men. Sisterhood is too specific. Hen party: insulting. All the other words: group, team, sodality, alliance, imply both sexes.
Is there an Irish word for a group of women together without male supervision?
Oooooh, Linda, this is such a good point. One I have never thought of. Do you know, I have no idea if there is a word in Irish for a group of women without male supervision. Although I'd be surprised if there wasn't. I'm going to have to look into this.
It does make me think of the old, no longer practiced, custom of booleying, where people used to take dairy cattle into the hills and remote places to graze over the summer. It was usually a job for teenage girls and young women, so women would spend a whole summer away from the wider community living together out on the land, sharing stories and tending the cattle.
Bit about that here:
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/0831/1211486-booleying-ireland-summer-migration/
I appreciate this post and am glad you went ahead and shared it as is. Felt senses are such a natural language and your words make perfect sense to me. I feel a pull to Ireland to know the place where so many of my kin came from. When I see pictures of Ireland, I see people who look so much like me and my family and wonder how many thousands of people I'm related to, who are still there. When I think of Ireland, I think of a homecoming. I hope to visit soon.
Thank you so much Darcy. What a beautiful comment. Éire will be there to welcome you whenever you can visit her xx
I feel it too, Belinda. Even though I'm not from this land (French born and bred), Éire is also calling me home, and has been for longer than I can remember. I've lived here with my Irish husband and 4 French-Irish kids for over 13 years, and I can't explain the pull I still feel to make home here. It's like something is moving and riding within and through me that simply isn't present elsewhere.
Just as the world is hurtling ever faster towards catastrophe, women from all walks of life are gathering and coming together in ever increasing numbers, and this gives me solace.