Celtic & Earth Wisdom
Around the Fire
Part 1 + 2
FREE Online Gathering Recordings
A 2-part series of songs & stories to transition us into the dark time of year
During this liminal time in the wheel of the year we are being beckoned to connect more deeply with our inner worlds and the ancestral realms.
Honouring the Darkening Days
Join us to learn old songs, stories, and practical wisdom from eight guest teachers who carry the ancestral wisdom of the W.I.S.E isles – Wales, Ireland, Scotland & England.
These gatherings around the virtual hearth are designed to bring warmth and inspiration to your heart as we transition into this time of winter’s dreaming in the northern hemisphere.
Our time together will be a taste of the goodness that’s to come in our upcoming 4-month course, Voices of Celtic Wisdom, starting 1st December.
Returning for its third season, Voices of Celtic Wisdom is a rich gathering of 35+ guest teachers and includes access to an online community space, PLUS a crafting package shipped to your door.
What's Included
We know that song and story have the power to awaken ancient memory, and be a balm for our human challenges.
Our prayer is that these calls will do just that.
- 2 recordings of our 90-minute online gatherings featuring 8 guest teachers from the upcoming 4-month course, "Voices of Celtic Wisdom"
- Songs & stories from the Celtic isles to connect us to our roots
- Insight into ancestral crafts & earth-based wisdom traditions
Our Guest Teachers
SEABHEANN 'WISE WOMEN' WISDOM
Phyllida Anam-Áire
Phyllida Anam Áire is an 82 year old Irish grandmother. She comes from an ancestral line of deep trauma. After boarding school in the 60s, Phyllida trained in Montessori, and then entered a convent. Her study in Theology and doctrine taught her a lot; not about God, but about dysfunctional patriarchal indoctrination.
Having finished her studies in humanistic psychology, Phyllida trained and worked for ten years with Elisabeth Kübler -Ross MD. After ten years working with Celtic Consciousness in Germany, she moved to Edinburgh to be with her son and grandchildren. Phyllida still shares her “Teachings from the Cauldron”, which is a combination of humanistic psychology and Spiritual wisdom.
DRUID LORE
JJ Middleway
JJ is a Druid elder in, “the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids”, which he has been actively part of for nearly a quarter of a century, frequently in a mentoring and teaching capacity. He is parent to four grown up children; six grandchildren and two step children.
JJ is an experienced celebrant, ritualist & poet weaving a unique magic into weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies. He is often asked to assist in creating a holding/ritual space at ceremonies honouring the eightfold wheel of the year.
JJ has participated, within a spiritual capacity, in various radio programmes, including Radio 4’s ‘Beyond Belief’ and Radio 2’s ‘Good Morning Sunday’. He has produced three CDs and a book of poetry.
JJ is passionate about Sacred Earth songs, singing the land alive through prayerful vibration. Within his circle, he often shares teachings and story, along with creating spacious periods of stillness.
JJ embodies a potent, deeply healing and inspirational space filled with heart resonance: For the land, ourselves and the wider community.
IRISH ANCESTRAL WISDOM
Aoife Lowden
SCOTTISH STORYTELLING
Dougie Mackay
Dougie is a native Highland storyteller with a passion for tracking key aspects of ancestral cultures through mythology, lore and story. A professional storyteller for over 12 years, he has been mentored by some of Scotland’s finest seanachies, seeking modern applications for these timeless tales.
His recent show ‘Animate Lands’ allowed a deep dive into the Fianna cycle, gleaning aspects of the older animistic culture once thriving on these islands. It was described as ‘a fresh and joyful take on Celtic lore and Scotland’s landscape’. In his “Myth as Medicine” course, he explores a cycle of northern myths with a group of students, tracking the treasure within each tale and offering exercises to journey with each story and touch the medicine within.
DRUID LORE
Chris Park
Chris Park is a Druid and artist immersed and versed in the lore and wisdom traditions of the Isles of Britain and Europe.
He lives in a luxurious hedge with a wayward family surrounded by beehives on organic farmland in the Vale of the White Horse, U.K. There he researches and teaches old ways and new, incorporating experimental archaeology, woodland crafts and organic architecture.
A prolific beekeeper, he teaches skep making, skep-beekeeping, mead making and apitherapy, lecturing to beekeeping associations and other societies upon related subjects. Often seen extolling the virtues of honeybee medicines.
He is of Welsh, English and Scottish heritage, with over twenty five years experience of druidry, cunning-folk and craft practices, and has been an active member of the Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids since 1997. He hosts ceremonies and gatherings in a sacred grove at home. With different hats on he is a professional storyteller, a musician, celebrant and ceremonial piper.
HONOURING THE DEER
Jessie Watson Brown
Jessie Watson Brown is a traditional hide tanner, ancestral crafter, educator and ceremonial space holder. Her roots are deep in the granite and mossy land of Dartmoor, Devon – where she grew up and continues to live and work. A landscape full of lithic reminders of those who came before, creative community, and ecological riches – all of which inspire her work.
Jessie’s work weaves together craft and nature-based skills with heart, ceremony and animism. Her offerings focus on honouring life and death, remembering the skills of our ancestors and stepping into our place in the web of life with responsibility, practical reciprocity and a deep commitment to unlearning colonial ways. She is particularly guided by the Deer as teachers, trail-makers, beauty-bringers and by their abundant generosity.
For 10 years Jessie has run a small hand-scale tannery in a stone barn on the moor – tanning mostly deer skins with natural ancient techniques using tree barks, smoke and fats. Jessie sees tanning as a gateway to relationship and kinship with the more-than-human world.
CELTIC CHANTS & SPIRITUALITY
Simon de Voil
Reverend Simon Ruth de Voil is an ordained interfaith/interspiritual minister, trained to be a sacred presence outside the conventions of traditional religion. As a sacred musician, spiritual mentor and worship leader he incorporates chant, ritual, storytelling and mindful practice to create a space for profound connection and sacred witness. Simon provides music for worship, ceremony, and prayer in a wide variety of churches and non-religious spiritual communities. He particularly loves to create music for meditation, healing services, and rites of passage.
Simon is also an experienced workshop and retreat leader, drawing on 15 years of study, training, and practice that grew from his time living and working in Iona Abbey. Although influenced by many traditions, Simon’s spiritual path and teaching is deeply rooted in Celtic Christianity, the wisdom of the earth, and in the Scottish land where he’s spent most of his life.
WEAVING IN REVERENCE
Rosemary Riedel O'Brien
Rosemary Riedel O’Brien is a multi disciplinary Artist specialising in hand spinning, weaving and natural dye techniques.
Rosemary’s work is inspired by the Earth and her elements. She works with heritage slow craft processes to combine ethical materials, spirituality and creativity- an alchemical combination that forms the foundations of her bespoke textiles and workshops that are rooted in reverence.
In 2019 Rosemary completed a 6 month Hand Spinning and Weaving apprenticeship at the Bright Moon studio with Artist Maker Imogen Bright Moon, in South-Eastern England. She has since gone on to create a number of seasonal collections and offer weaving tuition and weekend craft rituals.
She has been working consistently with commissions since completing her apprenticeship. Her unique approach emphasises the importance of the intention, symbolism and hidden meaning that each hand woven textile can represent within a persons life.
She lives near Dartmoor, England and continues to deepen her practice.
Meet Your Hosts
COURSE CO-WEAVER
Lana Lanaia
Lana is a musician, and facilitator of retreats, ritual & healing spaces. She lives in the Scottish Highlands, and her lineage is woven through many lands.
Lana has been studying and working with earth wisdom traditions & sound healing for over 25 years. She has a deep love for these holy Isles of Albion, her ancient places & wisdom. She has spent many years journeying to sacred sites, living in wild places, questing and communing with the land, sea & sky.
Lana’s work, through retreats, ritual, and sound, is an invitation to return to wholeness, to reawaken the songlines of the soul, and to enter into deep communion with the Earth as a living, breathing being.
COURSE CO-HOST
Sarah Long
Sarah is a Druid, holder of ritual and ceremony, artist and poet. She has been exploring Druidry and celebrating the wheel of the year for over 30 years, and carries a deep devotion and reverence for Mother Earth.
She weaves her magic in the mundane through organic gardening and her love of plants and the divine feminine. She has spent many years pilgrimaging to sacred sites, holding space around the fire and loves to share stories, songs and chants.
Sarah creates warm and welcoming spaces, allowing people to feel at ease and encouraging their own inspiration to flow. She has a generous spirit and a great gift of offering blessings.
Frequently Asked Questions
This offering is online through a video recording shared to you.
You will have lifetime access to the recordings of Part 1 + 2 of “Celtic & Earth Wisdom Around the Fire.”
You're Invited...
Whatever your lineage, we invite you to discover the ancestral wisdom of these sacred isles.
Register below to receive the FREE recordings of the 2-part call series, “Celtic & Earth Wisdom Around the Fire, ” where we have woven a lively bunch of teachers sharing ancestral wisdom, songs & stories from the W.I.S.E isles – Wales, Ireland, Scotland & England.
May this bring nourishment and inspiration to carry with you into your Winter dreaming.