Voices Of
Celtic Wisdom
A 4-month program exploring living threads of earth-based cultures
of Ireland, Scotland, England & Wales
With song, story, lore & hands-on crafting workshops,
including your own bundle of crafting materials from these lands
Registration open until 10th December
30th November 2023 – 25th March 2024
Thursdays & most Mondays at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT
May we
re~kindle the hearths
of our belonging to the Earth…
Teachers have been featured in
Many of us are drawn to
“the old ways”... but why?
What can we draw from the past in order to live a more fully connected life now?
Why is it that the Celtic culture, and other earth-based cultures of these lands, have a particular draw & allure for people during these times?
We have gathered over 20 incredible teachers who will be sharing bright threads of the ancestral traditions of these isles, and we invite you to join us as we drink together from this well of wisdom that is still very much alive.
Let us see what we discover together when we say yes to our longing.
What’s Included
This course is intended to be an in-depth study, and a gathering around the fire, where we will learn and grow together, untying the knots and re-weaving the thread.
- 19 Workshops with Guest Teachers
- 3 Crafting Classes with our wonderful Craft Teachers
- A beautiful bundle posted to you with specially gathered materials from Scotland, England & Ireland for making your crafts
- 1 Live Sound Journey
- 3 Community Calls with Hanna Leigh & Lana Lanaia
- A moderated community sharing forum (not on FB)
Welcome Gift:
Crafting Bundle
- 1 Scottish beeswax candle with Celtic knotwork design
- Scottish Spindle and Wool
- Straw & Irish Rush flowers for Brigid's Cross
- Deerskin Pouch-making materials from southwestern England
- Mailed to you in January
Over 4 months we will journey into a deep and rich exploration
of Celtic ways and culture; providing nutrients to feed our own sense of connection and belonging.
We will be joined by some wonderful elders, musicians, crafters and storytellers who will be sharing from the well of ancestral wisdom from these isles…awakening remembrance of ancient, yet timeless, animistic cultures and ways.
This course is intended to be an in-depth study, and a gathering around the fire, during these dreamier, darker months in the Northern Hemisphere.
We invite you to gather with us to hear and learn some of the old songs, stories, and lore; as well as to physically craft your own Brigid’s cross, deerskin pouch, and Scottish wool yarn.
May this series touch your heart and inspire your own connection to place, to your unique voice, and to your path of purpose and expression.
“If we have no stories, we have no past. If we have no past, we have no future”
-Seoras (George) MacPherson
What You'll Learn
Themes we will explore in this course include:
- What is “Celtic”?
- A brief history of Celtic culture, lands and people
- Longing & Belonging
- Blood Ancestry & Ancestry of Voice
- Living Celtic Spirituality: Ever Ancient, Ever New
- The Celtic Wheel of the Year
- Decolonising and Dreaming with the Land
Honouring Traditions
For personal use
The songs and stories shared in this course are intended for participant’s own personal education, healing and enrichment. In the traditional way, may we receive them, integrate them and allow them to live through us, before we consider sharing with others.
Preserving
We honor the path that each teacher has walked to cultivate and carry these songs, stories, crafts and traditions that they share with us. By joining the course you agree not to replicate, alter or dilute the content. Understanding that in doing so we lose the essence of that which we are wanting to preserve.
Respecting
We welcome the ongoing exploration and conversation around the appropriate ways to receive and honor these teachings. We see this as part of the education this course aims to provide – bringing awareness to the respectful ways to connect and learn from these traditions.
Presence
As if we were gathering together around the fire in the old way, may we come bringing our full presence. We invite you to have your video on and make a space where you can fully be with us, receiving the gifts of this wisdom.
How It Works
Step One
Confirm your interest by signing up on the registration page.
Step Two
Put the classes & bonus sessions on your calendar.
Step Three
Join us live for these rich, cultural singing workshops!
Why This Program?
The FOunder
Greetings, I'm Hanna Leigh
Greetings! My name is Hanna Leigh, (IG: @hannaleighsong) originally from California (Chumash territory). I am a Singer-Songwriter, Voice Doula, Weaver, and Devotee of this precious, living Earth. My people migrated to the U.S. several generations ago from England, Scotland, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.
For the past several years I have been on an inspired journey to reclaim ancestral wisdom and connect with the indigenous spirit of the “Great Sacred Motherland of Europe” – a term I first heard from activist Lyla June.
This longing for reconnection was the impetus to create a well-loved program called “Songs of Mother Europe”, which features song carriers from all over Europe who still carry the old songs. In the past year we have had over 700 participants in the course, which speaks to me of a collective impulse to remember and preserve ancestral wisdom.
This “Voices of Celtic Wisdom” course has been in gestation for over a year, and was birthed for the purpose of connecting anyone deeply drawn to the Celtic culture and lands (and other cultures of pre-Roman times) with threads of ancestral wisdom & lore that are still living in the landscapes and the people.
Scroll down to see the knowledgeable song-carriers, storytellers, and culture-bearers that we will have the gift of learning from!
Course Co-Weaver
Welcome, I'm Lana Lanaia
I was born in England, live in the Scottish Highlands, and have spent much of my life exploring the landscapes and sacred places of these Islands. I am a musician & sound healer, and have been facilitating classes and retreats for 20 years, as well working with the land as a biodynamic gardener.
My inspiration flows from my deep love for the Earth; of wild landscapes, forests, mountains, rivers, oceans, sacred sites, and the stars. Over the years, I have been learning from indigenous & healing traditions, ways that we may rekindle our relationship with self, Nature and our origins. I am passionate about re-awakening the ancient~living~wisdom within our hearts and lands; weaving remembrance that we are all children of the Earth.
Who Is This For?
Those who are inspired to connect with ancestral wisdom and remember “the old ways”
Those who feel drawn to explore the living threads of Celtic culture and pre-Roman traditions of the lands of modern-day Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales.
Those who wish to learn old songs & hear old stories – to touch, feel and craft with your hands using materials sourced from these beautiful lands
Those who feel a sense of longing for “home” and belonging, and to explore these themes through the Celtic mind
Program Overview
Through the songs, stories and crafts shared by our guest teachers, may the living reality of earth and ancient belonging be rekindled within you.
Classes are on Thursdays @ 10:00am PT / 6:00pm GMT
With additional classes on Mondays at the same time
30th November 2023 – 25th March 2024
Week 1
Thurs 30th Nov
Opening Call w/ Hanna Leigh
Week 2
Thurs 7th Dec
Ancestry of Voice w/ Gwilym Morus-Baird
Week 3
Mon 11th Dec
Laying the Groundwork for Celticity w/ Michael Newton
Thurs 14th Dec
The Wisdom of the Celtic Year Calendar w/ Dolores Whelan
Week 4
Thurs 21st Dec
Winter Solstice Sound Journey w/ Lana Lanaia
Week 5
Break
Week 6
Thurs 4th Jan
Kindling the Flames of the Midwinter Ceilidh with a Heart Warming Tale from Tir Na Nog w/ Dougie Mackay
Mon 8th Jan
Immram: The Celtic Deep Sea Voyage w/ Amanda Verdery Young
Week 7
Thurs 11th Jan
A Land of Gods: Dreaming to Britain before it was Britain w/ Manda Scott
Mon 15th Jan
Community Sharing & Integration Call w/Hanna Leigh & Lana Lanaia
Week 8
Thurs 18th Jan
The Ancestral Irish Keen for the Dead w/ Mary Mclaughlin
Week 9
Thurs 25th Jan
The Dreaming of Britain ~ the Brythonic Tradition w/ Angharad Wynne
29th Monday Jan
Women of the Well w/ Tara Brading
Week 10
Thurs 1st Feb
Celebrating the Goddess Brigid: Crafting Brigid’s Crosses w/ Terri Conroy
Mon 5th Feb
Community Sharing & Integration Call w/ Hanna Leigh & Lana Lanaia
Week 11
Thurs 8th Feb
Ogham: Celtic Oracle of the Forest w/ Jeremy Schewe
Mon Feb 12th
Wool Spinning in Celtic Culture: The history and practice of one of our oldest crafts w/ Alexandra Juliette
Program Deep Dive
Many may have forgotten the old ways, though gratefully there are those still keeping the skills, stories and songs alive, and others of us who are relearning them.
May our time together help us to remember our inherent belonging to earth and ancestral wisdom.
Teachers
Gwilym Morus-Baird
Ancestry of Voice
We often think of ancestry as something purely genetic, something that we connect to through our parents. This is indeed a powerful acknowledgement of ancestry, but it isn’t the only one. We can also have an ancestry of voice, language and culture that’s different to that of our immediate genetic family. Tracking this ancestry of voice into the deep past shows that many of our languages are related, and often sprang from one original ancestral language. By broadening the horizon of what ancestry can mean, we may find ourselves on the threshold of a different relationship to the human family.
This workshop will include an introduction to the history of our spoken words, as well as an opportunity to sing some old linguistic lineages.
Dr Gwilym Morus-Baird is a Welsh musician and author. He currently teaches courses on Celtic mythology at celticsource.online
Michael Newton
Laying the Groundwork for Celticity
The ancient and medieval Celts are amongst the favoured touchstones of neo-pagans, but the historical and cultural realities are more complex than they might seem. This presentation will discuss some of the problems with common assumptions about Celtic peoples and the most productive approaches for understanding their legacies and cultural expressions
Dr Michael Newton earned a Ph.D. in Celtic Studies from the University of Edinburgh in 1998 and was an Assistant Professor in the Celtic Studies department of St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia 2008-2013. He has written a multitude of books and articles about Gaelic culture and history and is a leading authority on Scottish Gaelic heritage in North America.
In 2014 he was given the inaugural Saltire Award by the St. Andrews University Scottish Heritage Center (of Laurinburg, North Carolina) for his “outstanding contributions to the preservation and interpretation of Scottish history and culture.” In 2018 he was recognized with the International award at the annual Scottish Gaelic awards in Glasgow, Scotland. The book that he co-edited with Wilson McLeod, An Ubhal as Àirde / The Highest Apple: An Anthology of Scottish Gaelic Literature, was awarded with the Best Gaelic Non-Fiction Book of 2020 by the Gaelic Books Council of Scotland. He was Advisor Historian for the video documentary Voices Over the Water (2023).
Michael established the online Hidden Glen Folk School of Scottish Highland Heritage in 2019.
Dolores Whelan
The Wisdom of the Celtic Year Calendar
Dolores will share a journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year Calendar. She will explore some of the core beliefs and ancient wisdom of the earlier peoples of these lands and other Celtic countries, and the relevance of the wisdom held within this calendar in today’s world.
Dolores Whelan is an educator, author and spiritual guide within the spiritual and mythological tradition of Ireland. She is passionate about the protection of sacred landscapes and the celebration of ancient Celtic traditions.
Dolores Whelan has facilitated workshops and retreats in Celtic Spirituality and personal empowerment for over 30 years. She has led pilgrimages to the sacred places in Ireland and Iona Scotland since 1990. She is passionate about bringing pilgrims to the sacred places in Ireland and to the protection of these places. She believes that the ancient wisdom of this country’s spiritual and mythological tradition when recovered will play a very important role in creating a more sustainable and balanced human community one that honours it relationships with the entire symphony of life
Dolores has written extensively on education, creativity and Celtic Spirituality. Her most recent book is Ever Ancient Ever New Celtic spirituality in the 21st century. She created a CD, A Journey through the Celtic Year, which explores the wisdom of the Celtic tradition though the Celtic Year calendar and co created a perpetual Celtic calendar with US artist, the late Cynthia Maya, which offers the wisdom held within the Celtic Year. She is a co-founder of both The Brigid of Faughart Festival, now in its 11th year and the Brigid’s Way Pilgrimage which is in its 6th year. Her work has been featured on RTE Radio and on RTE Television‘s Nationwide .
Dougie MacKay
Kindling the Flames of the Midwinter Ceilidh with a Heart Warming Tale from Tir Na Nog
Fire is a gift from the land of the gods. Nowhere is that more apparent than in cold northern climates with long, dark, cold winters night. To the celts the domain of the gods was Tir Na Nog, an verdant isle far to the West, of eternal summer, youth, beauty and birdsong. In this session Dougie will share the creation story of fire from the west of Scotland as we coorie in around the digital hearth fire and welcome in the new year in fine ceilidh fashion.
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’. On 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.
Amanda Verdery Young
The Celtic Immram ~ An Otherworld Journey to Receive a Vision for the New Year
Amanda will offer the immram, the fabled, Celtic deep sea voyage, in the form of a guided journey into the mysterious Otherworld. Here in Tír na nÓg, the Fey await to help, heal & advise you in seeking the truth at the center of your life at this time. Old Irish tales tell that when a holy longing gripped the heart of a Celt, they’d take their currach (a small wooden boat) out to sea with no oars, allowing the waters of life to carry their soul toward its deepest desire, toward the Land of its Destiny… imagine that kind of trust & surrender! Like the old sea voyaging tales, the immram as an Otherworld journey helps us let go of the oars for a moment, tune in with our holy longing and receive a vision for our year that is soul-aligned and strengthened by the magic of the Otherworld. Celtic goddess, Brigid, will guide our oceanic voyage towards a new dawn.
This will be followed by a sacred sharing circle, to express experiences, visions and feelings evoked by this course, as time allows.
Amanda Verdery Young is a certified shamanic practitioner, aspiring bard and initiated medicine woman in her Celtic ancestral traditions. She is devoted to helping others hear & heed the innermost callings of their soul and discover their deeper life’s purpose. A second generation Scottish-American with British, French and Irish ancestry, she continually works to love, heal & respect the lands of Turtle Island while re-membering the wisdom-ways of indigenous Europe. In her Wild Becoming Sanctuary, she offers members enchanting and ensouling invitations for crossing the many thresholds of the Wheel of the Year, into deeper self-knowing and self-trust. In her Wild Becoming Immersion, she acts as underworld guide to individuals navigating a holy rite of passage in their life.
Manda Scott
A Land of Gods: Dreaming to Britain before it was Britain
Manda will explore the vast history of humanity that lies behind us, with a particular focus on the indigenous peoples of the island of Britain and the cultures that may have flourished before the occupation and colonisation by Rome. She will explore an alternative history of how the world might have looked had the final battle of the Boudican revolt ended differently and how we can use the ideas this generates to dream new ways of being that allow us to reclaim our heritage as integral threads in the web of life, while also celebrating the creativity and resilience that has brought us to the twenty-first century.
She will lead us in dreaming/visualisation to give a deep experiential understanding of the past, present and potential futures.
Born in Scotland at 318ppm CO2, Manda Scott has been a veterinary surgeon, novelist, and columnist and is now also a podcaster, smallholder (r)evolutionary committed to the conscious evolution of humanity as the key to the poly-crisis. Her novels have spanned genres from crime through historical to Thrutopian and her eras have spanned from the Boudican insurrection against Roman colonialization (and all that led up to it) through WWII to the future five minutes from now. She’s been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, an Edgar and the Saltire Award, and has won the McIlvanney Prize. She’s host of the AccidentalGods podcast and co-creator of the Thrutopia Masterclass.. She has studied contemporary shamanic practice for over forty years and taught for twenty. She lives with her wife on a smallholding in the borderlands between England and Wales.
MARY MCLAUGHLIN
The Ancestral Irish Keen for the Dead
The word ‘Keening’ has gone mainstream in recent years but what does Keening actually mean?
The verb comes from the noun ‘Keen’ which in turn comes from Gaelic and the full Gaelic title is ‘Caoineadh na Marbh’, (pronounced ‘Keenoo na Mariv’) which means ‘Lament for the Dead’.
The Keen is a sacred and ritualised chant which was sung within the context of a Wake and had specific functions.
In this class Mary will cover some of the history and context of this ancient practice and note the changes that have evolved in it over time, right up to the present day as, after a century-long re-seeding underground, the Keen is once again rising in popularity.
Dr. Mary Mc Laughlin is internationally known for her knowledge of the ancestral Keening practice in Ireland. An acclaimed singer who has released five albums (one on Sony Music) and has had over a million hits on Spotify, she combines her artistry with an academic approach to the Keen, grounding it in its history and context.
Originally from Northern Ireland, and having lived, taught and studied in Ireland, England and the USA, she has collected a variety of degrees and certificates including Graduate Certificates of Education and Vocal Training, Coaching, Shamanic Studies, Sound Healing, an MA in Ritual Chant and Song and a PhD in Otherworld Irish Song.
She is an official Irish Research Scholar in the field of Irish Traditional Song Studies and specializes in the Keen and Irish Fairy Song. She has been an invited guest on many podcasts and classes including many of the Songs of Mother Europe series, where she has shared her knowledge of Irish song and culture. She teaches online classes in the Keen, Irish Traditional Singing and The Songs of Irish Faerie and is currently finishing writing a book on the Keen and looking forward to a release date in 2024.
Angharad Wynne
The Dreaming of Britain - the Brythonic Tradition
Following two thousand years of Christianity, few fragments remain of what was once the glimmering spiritual tradition of the British Isles – what we know as the ‘Brythonic Tradition’.
In this session, we’ll explore the rituals of the animist hunter-gatherers who repopulated these Isles at the end of the last Ice Age, the cult of ancestors that inspired the tomb builders of the Neolithic, what we know about the Druids and what lived on in the poetry and myths of their descendants, the mystical bards, who shared breath myth and poetry with the early Christian saints.
We’ll lift up some of the exquisite, fragile threads of this deep mystical and magical tradition, and undertake practices to bring central concepts into experience and ponder how the Brythonic tradition’s teaching about our kinship with all beings, within the seen and unseen worlds, can inform a contemporary spiritual practice today.
Angharad has spent much of her life exploring the landscapes and lore of this land. Since childhood, she has followed her feet along pathways back through the portals of ancient myth, folklore, history, song and poetry of Britain, and particularly of her native Wales.
Today, she draws together the fragments of our tradition, that can help guide and sustain a living spiritual practice, connected to this land and her creatures. She shares her learning and explores understanding and contemporary practice through retreats, storytelling gatherings, ceremony, dreaming circles, writings and pilgrimages. These are conceived as radical acts of re-membering our soulful, deep humanity and re-weaving ourselves back into fully engaged participation within the web of life.
Angharad is a published poet and writer, a storyteller, speaker, teacher and expedition leader. She is the founder of Dreaming the Land and Animate Earth Collective and leads Dadeni, a three year programme exploring the native spiritual traditions and practices of the British Isles
Tara Brading
Women of the Wells
Tara’s Women of the Wells workshop offers an introduction to England’s mythology and exploration of a powerful story called The Elucidation. She will be sharing wisdom about this story from a colonial-patriarchal perspective, and guiding us to remember the sacredness of England’s ancient heritage.
Tara Brading is a women’s educator, storyteller and songstress, focusing on uplifting nature-based feminine wisdom & ancestral teachings from Ireland & England. She’s been on a journey of remembering and reclamation for over ten years, honoring the earth based feminine wisdom left in her blood and bones.
She’s the creator of The Roundhouse, which is an online community that lovingly guides women into nature based feminine wisdom from the Irish traditions. She’s also the creator of Grail Priestess, a deep-dive program that guides women into heartfelt connection with their English heritage. She also runs a variety of other courses, events and workshops that serve thousands of women every year.
She journeys to Ireland & England regularly for pilgrimage, and currently lives on the ancestral lands of the Ute and Arapaho people in the mountains of so-called Colorado (USA).
Jeremy Schewe
Ogham: Celtic Oracle of the Forest
Take a deep dive into the Irish tree mysteries encoded within the ogham via 1.5- hour Zoom session in the Voices of Celtic Wisdom series. The ogham not only represents the twenty native “trees” of Ireland, but also the twenty primordial sounds that are the basis of the Irish language. Each Irish word is a verbal expression of a forest of letters and words waiting to be birthed into the universe from the mouth of the adept. Participants will learn about the practical and tangible characteristic of ogham trees, their connection with the ecology of the sacred Irish landscape, as well as the core magical principles contained within each of the twenty trees. Taste the essence of ogham divination as channeled by our ancient oracular Celtic heritage and bridge the time gap into powerful modern day utilization of this ancient craft. We will close the class with a 20-minute musical pathworking into the sacred grove of the Summerlands.
Jeremy is a Grail custodian, well keeper, and steward of the timeless songs woven into the sacred landscape. As an ecologist and devotee of the Great Mother, he has been tasked with the adoration of the holiest of holies, the preservation of sacred waters and forests, and the protection of the inner sanctum. Jeremy is a seanchaí of the Celtic Twilight and dreaming. He promulgates the spirit of Erin through his work as a musician, mythologist, author, and communitarian. He leads multi-faith pilgrimages to Ireland and around the world cultivating Deep Peace via prayer, song, and community – encouraging everyone along the Way to follow their dreaming.
Simon DeVoil
Celtic Christianity & Iona
What can Celtic Christianity, a spiritual tradition that emerged some 1400 years ago, teach us about living a good life today? Rooted in the clan and place-based cultures of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany, the Celtic Christian tradition speaks to modern hearts seeking connection with the living land and with our fellow creatures, and invites us to awaken our souls through beauty, ritual, and compassionate action.
In this experiential workshop, Simon will use song, storytelling, and prayer to share his living version and vision of a Celtic Christianity that welcomes all.
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.
Jen Murphy
The Celtic Otherworld, with a Sacred Site Ritual
In Celtic Mythology, there exists this world—our waking reality—and the Otherworld, home to our mythic ancestors; the Goddesses and Gods of our lineage, from which we are separated only by a thin veil.
The Otherworld is a place of co-creation that emerges from the land, our dream time, the collective unconscious, and through our soul bodies and imaginations.
In our explorations, we will voyage to the Celtic Otherworld rooted in the Irish tradition and navigate how being in co-creation with the Otherworld can cultivate deep guidance, trust and enchantment in our own individual lives, and in service to our collective times and what we dream in community for our cultures and indeed, our world. For me, being in partnership with the Celtic Otherworld is the key to a creative life.
You will have the opportunity to engage in a Sacred Site Ritual to anchor this creative spirit in your own unique sense of place.
Jen Murphy is the award-winning founder of the Celtic School of Embodiment. An anthropologist and mythologist by background, Jen is a cultural dreamer whose work is dedicated to evolving the Irish mythic feminine through scholarship, the body, and the arts, in service to these times.
Danu Forest
The Celtic Fairy Faith ~ Myths fantasy and traditional practices
The Celtic traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales are rich in fairy lore and magic which has caught the human imagination and been a source of deep inspiration for centuries untold.
In this workshop traditional Beanfeasa or Wisewoman, Danu Forest explores the realm of fairy and the fairy folk as they are known traditionally and through to the modern day, and discusses how we can explore this rich seam of Celtic spirituality authentically for our own souls wisdom and nourishment.
Danu Forest is a traditional beanfeasa or wisewoman of Irish and English heritage with over 30 years’ experience in the Celtic tradition. Born with the second sight she is a natural seer and is the author of several books including ‘Wild Magic’ ‘Celtic Tree Magic’ (Llewellyn) and ‘The Magical Year’. She holds an MA in Celtic studies and is a phd student researching the Celtic Fairy Faith.
Phyllida Anam~Áire
Living and Dying in Love with Life
The old Seabheann or wisdom women in Celtic times were Anam~Áire which translated means Soul Carer. They watched with the dying and traveled with the soul after death.
For this workshop, Phyllida will share some old rituals, mourning sounds and blessings she has witnessed as a child, from her own ancestors who were Irish Seabheann.
Phyllida Anam Áire is an 80 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.
Michael Harvey
Awen ~ Our Voices Summon the World
Awen. Our voices summon the world: Working with Myth, Landscape and Poetry from the Welsh Tradition.
Michael has been working with ancestral Welsh material for thirty years and is still often caught off-guard by how strange, relevant and resonant it is for us today. We will explore how narrative, landscape and our place in it are woven together in community to create a joyful, soulful and resonant sense making.
Michael has told stories both as a solo performer and with other artists throughout the UK
and internationally. He performs in English, Welsh and bilingually. He draws much of his
inspiration from the stories and landscapes of Wales.
He is a familiar performer in the UK festival and club scene and draws particular inspiration
from Welsh oral heritage and landscape. He combines depth of material with lightness of
delivery which is timed and paced to perfection and minted fresh for every audience.
Michael is an experienced storytelling coach and teacher and has taught internationally
both in-person and online. He co-led the Bleddfa Week of Storytelling in mid-Wales for
twenty years where many of the UK’s storytellers found their voice.
He has devised and toured collaborative work with the UK storytelling production company
Adverse Camber, was awarded a Major Creative Wales Award, took part in the the 3rd
Labo at La Maison du Conte in Paris and was a featured teller at the National Storytelling
Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Seoras (George) Macpherson
Celtic Sea Stories
The Celtic belief that by recording a story the spirit of the story and its teller would die, has meant that generations worth of stories of have been lost. Though some have been kept alive and live today, carried by storytellers and keepers of oral lore.
Seoras will share with us some Celtic Sea Stories bringing together myths and legends from the past, which he has collected throughout his lifetime, to provide an enchanting vision of Scottish life by the sea.
From kings and fairies to mermaids and druids each tale explores a different aspect of a forgotten way of life, carrying messages that transcend time, to awaken and transform us.
Seoras (George) Macpherson is a renowned Seannachie (traditional Gaelic storyteller and historian). He learned his first story in the 1930s when he was 3, and for the next seven years learned more stories from family members and old local storytellers.
He wasn’t allowed to tell these stories outside the house until he was 10, after which he was expected to share them, and to collect stories on his own initiative. This he has been doing ever since.
Born in Greenock in 1933 and brought up in Ardnamurchan, Seoras worked in the West of Scotland for many years before returning to his father’s home country in Glendale, Isle of Skye, to commit himself to storytelling and writing. He is a founder member of the Scottish Storytelling Forum.
Seoras tells stories on the sites where the stories occurred; on hill or moor, by the sea, river or loch, continuing an ancient tradition of Celtic storytelling.
Glennie Kindred
In Celebration of the Spring Equinox - A Moment of Balance
A celebration for Spring Equinox. We pause at the threshold and step between the worlds; finding our connection to the underlying energy of the Equinox through stories, simple Earth chants and heart-led ceremony.
Glennie is passionate about finding ways to help us to heal our relationship with the Earth and deepening our relationship to each other. She loves walking in the wild, sharing in community, gathering in circle to sing simple chants, rewilding – both ourselves and the land, communing with trees and plants, and celebrating the eight Earth Festivals. She has written and illustrated 12 books, to inspire our deeper relationship with the land, plants and trees; to inspire heartfelt creation of ceremony and celebrations, and always to strengthen our consciousness of Unity and healing.
Hanna Leigh
Ancestral Voice Reclamation
Imagine a time when our people sang together…daily and often. This class is a guided journey into remembering spontaneous singing as a natural part of being human on earth, and a space to listen with our bodies for the songs and sounds of our ancestors singing through us. We will also engage in a simple song-writing practice using words from the 4,000 year-old Proto-Celtic mother tongue.
Hanna Leigh is a Singer-Songwriter, Doula, Vocal Embodiment Guide, and devotee of this precious, living Earth. She has co-created two musical albums, leads community singing circles, and is a lover of the emotional and spiritual alchemy that happens through singing.
A big part of her current work involves supporting people of European descent to connect with their ancestral songlines. She also holds an online group program called “Birthing Your Wild Voice”, which supports women to shed old stories around their singing voices so that they may allow the earth’s wild songs to powerfully & joyfully sing through them.
Lana Lanaia
Winter Solstice Sound Journey
A sound journey & simple ceremony for honouring the Winter Solstice. Guided by soundscapes, voice, song, crystal tones & the beat of the drum, we are invited to listen, breathe, and heal with the Earth.
Lana lives in the Scottish Highlands and is a musician & sound healer known for her ‘crystalline voice’ and ‘music that infuses the heart’. She tends the earth, and guides retreats, pilgrimages and women’s journeys.
Lana’s inspiration flows from her deep love for the Earth; of wild landscapes, forests, mountains, rivers, oceans, sacred sites, and the stars. She has and continues to learn from the land, and ancestral traditions, exploring how we may remember and weave the threads of ancient wisdom within the living now.
Crafters:
These wonderful crafters are gathering beautiful materials for you as part of the physical welcome package
Terri Conroy
Celebrating the Goddess Brigid
The festival of Imbolg, in early springtime, is the time when we celebrate the Goddess Brigid. She is a Tuatha de Dánaan Goddess and is associated with the elements of both fire and water. As a Fire Goddess she is inextricably linked to the hearth flame, to the smith’s flame and to the creative flame of poetry. She is also a Goddess of Healing as she is associated with the sacred element of water and is patroness of Holy Wells. Associated with fertility because of her place on the Wheel of the Year, she is also midwife to new life and to new creations.
During this workshop, Terri will guide us in crafting our own Brigid’s Cross.
She will invite a “fire in the head” to create a poem about Brigid. Terri will also teach some of the folklore traditions still practiced as well as a chant created by Sínead Whyte.
Terri Conroy is the owner of the Hawthorn Academy of Healing Herbs in Connemara, in the west of Ireland. She teaches classes, online and in her garden “Danu’s Irish Herb Garden” about the benefits and uses of herbal medicine. She also runs the Wise Woman Way training. All of Terri’s work is to encourage women to reconnect with the Divine Feminine within and to become self-empowered and self-reliant.
Dorrie Joy
Artist, ceremonial leader & tradition craftswoman
On this journey Dorrie will be teaching handsewn deerskin pouches inspired by White Horse Hill Woman, honoring the old ways of 4,000 years ago.
Dorrie Joy is an artist, ceremonial leader & tradition craftswoman who holds workshops as sacred spaces that centre creativity as an intentional practice of soul mending & belonging.
Alexandra Juliette
Wool Spinning in Celtic Culture: The history and practice of one of our oldest crafts
Wool has been an integral part of many cultures throughout history, and it’s only within a few generations that the knowledge of this material has started to fade. Our ancestors have spun fibre into yarn for over 10,000 years, making it one of the oldest crafts. This session will share with you how this ancient practice was done in the Celtic lands and why it’s vital to keep the tradition alive and thriving. Furthermore you will learn how to spin using basic materials and more importantly, learn how to read the wool with your hands.
Alexandra Juliette is a wild crafter, traditional wool worker and the maker of the Ancestral Cræft podcast from the Scottish Borders. An artist in soul and a gardener in body, if she isn’t in the garden she can be found in the hills spinning wool on a spindle. Alexandra created her business Ancestral Cræft to host an online community of crafters who wish to reconnect with material and the land through ancient handcrafts. Her podcast offers a seasonal glimpse into a life enriched by slow living and making. Like the spider spins her web, through spinning we connect.
Bethan Bray & Peter Ananin
Ancestral Foods & Shrine Tending
During this workshop, Peter & Bethan will weave together both the practical traditions and the myth/folklore of Scotland, and how Schieling life plays a part in the roots of the Wheel of the Year in these lands.
We will be exploring the process of making ancestral foods, both as nourishment for ourselves and as offerings to the spirits of place – Bringing forth ancient wisdom rediscovered through the act of lovingly tending wild shrines.
Peter & Bethan will share deep insight into poems and stories of the Cailleach and the Bodach, and the way in which they are woven through deep time here in Scotland and elsewhere on these Isles.
Bethan is an artist and craftswoman, specialising in hide and wild pigment painting. She uses with the subtle world of ochres to reconnect with the heart of the Earth, restore deep intimacy with place and translate the primordial voice of animal, soil and stone.
Peter is a traditional tanner, teacher and craftsman focusing primarily on connecting people to our human and natural heritage through working with animal hides and other ancestral materials, as well as exploring Scottish folklore and how it weaves together the practical and the spiritual.
Together they run their small bark tannery from their home in the Highlands of Scotland, where they also run Ancestral Skills Gatherings and courses in Hide Tanning throughout the summer months – reconnecting people to place, and to ancient ways of being and working with the land. Tending to wild shrines is a deep love and ongoing act of devotion for them both, as is making traditional offerings and feeding their hearts and bodies with ancestral nourishment from the land on which they live
Simple Pricing
Pay In Full
Pay in full for:-
19 LIVE Workshops on Zoom
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3 Community Calls
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1 live Sound Journey
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Physical crafting bundle mailed to your address
Payment Plan
Pay in installments-
19 LIVE Workshops on Zoom
-
3 Community Calls
-
1 live Sound Journey
-
Physical crafting bundle mailed to your address
Extended Plan
Pay in installments-
19 LIVE Workshops on Zoom
-
3 Community Calls
-
1 live Sound Journey
-
Physical crafting bundle mailed to your address
Apply for a Scholarship
If cost is a barrier and you feel the pull to joining this course, we are offering limited partial scholarship spots to those in financial need. Learn more and click the button below to apply for a scholarship:
Community Gatherings
Community Sharing & Integration Call
w/ Hanna Leigh & Lana Lanaia ~ January 15th @ 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT
Community Sharing & Integration Call
w/ Hanna Leigh & Lana Lanaia ~ February 5th @ 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT
Community Gathering & Celebration
w/ Hanna Leigh, Lana Lanaia & Mitchell Hambley ~ March 25th @ 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT
Frequently Asked Questions
This offering is happening online through Zoom, with teachers joining us from several different countries.
Each workshop is 90-minutes in length. A few workshops will be 120-minutes
Yes. They will be recorded and sent out soon after each class.
No. The nature of the content delivery is that you purchase the entire course.
You will have access to the recordings for one year from the start date of the course.
No, all levels are welcome.
No. There will be a Q&A time during each call, though no one will be “put on the spot”.
No. Due to the delivery of course content, all sales are final.