Sometimes, I think I’m one of the luckiest people on the planet. As well as living in a place I love, with a family I love (husband, dogs, cat and all), I also deeply love my work. After a few early decades of twists and turns and too much time off the path, now my books and other writings are well published, and my courses and workshops are well-attended. I feel as if I’ve finally fully stepped into what I believe to be my calling – though that’s a journey, for sure, that I don’t believe ever ends.
With just one disastrous exception (I guess we all have our haters, detractors and stalkers!) I’ve been incredibly fortunate over the past few years in having been able to collaborate with, and support the work of, many soulful and talented women across the world. These exchanges happen as they should: in a competition-free zone, with mutual respect and affection. And so today I wanted to take the time to acknowledge just a few of those women: specifically, those who are offering courses and workshops here in Ireland and the UK which are aimed at reclaiming our native traditions and/or finding authentic ways of living and being in these increasingly challenging times.
These are all women I know personally, and whose work I can vouch for; I’m grateful that some of them are also good friends. So if you’re looking for big-hearted, grounded, generous and gracious guides to help you in your journey, check them out.
Manda Scott
Manda is an award-winning and best-selling novelist, but also runs workshops on shamanic dreaming. As well as being incredibly generous to fellow authors, she’s a teacher of great power and integrity. If you’ve read her utterly brilliant Boudica novels, you’ll have some idea of the way she works. Find her here.
(I’m also eternally grateful to Manda’s partner Faith Tilleray, who designed my beautiful new website. Faith is more than a web designer: she’s a wonderfully strategic/analytical thinker with many rich gifts to offer the world. Find her here.)
Angharad Wynne
For those of you looking for inspiration within native Welsh traditions, Angharad Wynne is as good as it gets. Angharad offers a three-year training for people who want to work spiritually and ritually with the land and connect with these ancient, native spiritual threads. Find her here.
(Watch out for a ‘This Mythic Life’ podcast I’m recording with Angharad for Samhain.)
Joanna Gilar
My occasional co-conspirator and fairy tale expert Joanna Gilar has just launched a new initiative: The Story Commons. The Story Commons is ‘a wild-place space which uses folk and fairy storytelling to explore and restore our relationship to human and non-human communities’. Check out the just-launched website to find out more about Jo’s brilliant projects, courses and online journal. Find it here.
Karen Ward
If you’re interested in working with Celtic women’s circles, and with the energies of the divine feminine within an Irish context, Karen is an inspirational guide. Find her Moon Mná website here.
Moya McGinley
Many of you will know my very dear friend Moya from If Women Rose Rooted and The Enchanted Life (you’ll probably find her in the forthcoming Hagitude too; I can’t seem to shake her off!) From the beautiful Cosán Ciúin in Co Leitrim, Moya offers workshops on a variety of subjects, including her brilliant ‘The Soul’s Journey Home’ in which, among other things, you get to make masks and dance with Death. Find her here.
Christine Valters Paintner
If you’re interested in working within the Christian tradition, but with a decidedly Celtic flavour, my lovely, gentle friend Christine is the best of all possible guides. She offers a variety of pilgrimages, workshops and online courses, and she’s a fine poet, too! Christine is based in Galway; check out the Abbey of the Arts here.
Nikki Darrell
If you’re looking for ways of deepening and widening your knowledge, and working with the medicine and healing of the plants and of nature, Nikki’s ‘Plant Medicine School’ is a great place to begin. Nikki has a background in plant science, and is now a practitioner of herbal medicine, aromatherapy, and aromatic medicine; she’s exceedingly knowledgable on the subject of our native Irish plants. Find her here.
Caroline Ross
Caroline uses foraged wild and ancient materials to create beautifully crafted works of art, and offers drawing, illustration, wild crafts, courses, classes and life drawing tuition. I’m looking forward to collaborating with her during our 2020 HedgeWise festival. Find her here, and follow her as @foundandground on Instagram, where she has a beautiful and inspiring page. (She also happens to be a fine swordswoman who keeps threatening to teach me to use a sword; I can’t decide whether or not that would be a good thing or a bad thing for the world at large 🙂 )
Selena King
I’m delighted to introduce you to Selena, who will be working with me to facilitate Ireland-based events, retreats and workshops from 2020. Selena has been involved in group work for many years; working with ceremony, myth and Earth-centred wisdom, she enjoys creating and holding a safe space in which personal transformation can occur. She’s also working with Angharad’s ‘Dadeni’ tribe, and is training to be a Death Doula. (I’m still trying to persuade Selena to set up a website! – maybe this will help my case …)
Featured image by Andrea Kowch
I am looking forward to learning more about the fascinating work these women are doing! Tell me, what do you know of women in Scotland doing this kind of work? I will be traveling there in a couple of weeks. I’ve been reading If Women Rose Rooted with great interest and had hoped to visit some of the places and communities you write about, but I will not be making it to Ireland on this trip.
Hi Sharon, I too am wondering about Scottish connections. Especially around the Argyll area. Will you ever hold a workshop up there again?
Tracie Stewart
Hi both – I don’t keep a database, I’m afraid, so I’m not in a position to advise. These are simply the women I know and recommend and no-one in Scotland falls into that category. Tracie, right now I have no plans to revisit Argyll. I love it dearly but it’s just too long a trip now that we’ve moved to Connemara.
Im running a wisdom of the crone course, specially relevant to women who have had trauma, it will be on the isle of Lewis outer hebrides, Samhain week details here
https://www.workingtorecovery.co.uk/products/events-and-training/the-wisdom-of-the-crone-five-day-women-s-residenti.aspx
Dear Karen, I didn’t know about your new courses otherwise I would of course have included you in this list, as a friend of long standing from Isle of Lewis days! Wishing you all the best with it.
This is so timely, Sharon. Again! Thank you for sharing. I am at the beginning of my writing career and will be looking to have a website created. Your suggestions are useful
What a wonderful resource for us women, helping to connect us all in this time which cries out for more deep, soulful, nourishing and supportive connection between us all. Thank you Sharon! xx
Thanks for this wonderful resources. As a storyteller and priestess running courses and workshops in the South East of Ireland near New Ross, I felt a bit isolated but have now contacted your wonderful friends/collaborators. A sense of connection is deeply important in the work we do. Blessed be. Baya The Storyteller.
Brilliant!
I am currently working with Joanna on our storytelling choir. She is indeed a wonderful facilitator generously sharing her extensive knowledge and holding a generative and inspirational space
I just love your work. This article is excellent for resource. Thank you.
Sharon – you, your books, emails and journey give me hope! And inspire me to continue weaving all the threads of my life without knowing the end result or where it will take me – hopefully one day to Ireland as it calls me! Merci beaucoup
Profundamente agradecida por tudo o que tem compartilhado! Sua generosidade me comove. Pretendo estudar e aprender esses ensinamentos para compartilhar aqui no Brasil, onde vivo.
Your wonderful example of leadership and generosity can inspire us all. It’s this intentional field of cooperation and mutual exploration, not competition to shine a light on. The legacy of this work will continue to grow and live on long after us because the web is being woven… and the daughters who follow will do the same.
This is true of this work and can apply to so many realms… building networks rather than competitions. Of course, we still call correct what seems wrong when needed, yet the benefit of the web is too strong to be damaged.
Thank you Sharon! How beautiful of you also to break the chain of scarcity (hide/protect your resources, make them scarce) and move into abundance, sharing our resources. Plenty for all. Thank you.
I’m so excited to explore and get to know all these new wonderful women! Thank you Sharon for sharing!
What a list! And what an offering you give here Sharon. Your work has profoundly touched this American woman with Scottish/Irish/British ancestral kin. I read this and think, hmmm. Maybe I should move to the UK!
I am eternally grateful for the wisdom and resources you share.
The tribe of women you have introduced brings a sense of there being a rooted container in which to delve and play with story, myth and the wild. How do you talk about land based mythic story in North America
Thank you Sharon- this road map of highly respected resources is greatly appreciated (as is your collaborative generosity).
Thank you for this sharing. I live in Tasmania so won’t be partaking in these offerings, but I love the intent of lifting one another up. It seems to me the Feminine is rising, as is the Sacred Feminine. Women have so much to offer. I will look at how I might do something similar with the many wise women in my community. Journey well.
Sharon, your list of dear friends and co-creators brings tears to my eyes. I feel a sense of relief – I don’t bear the weight of reimagining the world alone! I get isolated in my little corner of the world – west coat of Canada, Vancouver Island – and am grateful for the connection. You might enjoy my website on bringing Indigenous ways of knowing and learning to education: https://indigenousknowingeducation.weebly.com/
Just a quick note: this blog post is very much about highlighting the work of women whose work I can personally vouch for, and who I know are very specifically working in an authentic and grounded way to help reclaim our native wisdom and traditions. I hope those of you who’ve submitted comments recommending all kinds of other people who are working on different things, and who I don’t know, will forgive if I don’t include them here. It’s not that I’m challenging them in any way, it’s simply for the reasons stated here. Thanks for your understanding!
Blessed indeed, to be in the company of such august women! I’m familiar with a few and pleased to make the acquaintance of the rest! Thanks for the introduction.