CHANGE, A BANSHEE, AND MENOPAUSE
It's humid, it's hot and humid, so hot and humid that last night there was condensation on the outside of the windows.
Last night as I packed up a Banshee doll ready for her journey around the world to Australia I took a minute to say goodbye.
It is said that banshees were connected to great Irish families. It's also said that the names of those families (beginning with Ó) vary with the teller of the tale, so I'll go ahead and include mine - Ó Maolalaidh). Does making your own Banshee count? Perhaps not but my family has been in the West Coast of Ireland for hundreds and hundreds of generations (DNA analysis by Brian Sykes).
As I laid her out to wrap in tissue paper I heard a blood-curdling cry, coyotes with their hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck-raising yips and yelps. Then another alarm raised with the blazing sirens of several fire trucks and ambulances racing into the night. This started off the neighborhood dogs whose calls were added to by the mournful call of a faraway freight train.
These cries were all laments, a keening that spread into the night like wildfire, jumping from tree to tree, spreading out through underground root systems - but just like the Banshee’s Cry, this call intended for human ears, for she is announcing death, a million innocent deaths, and each a needless death.
I imagine her raising the cry as she travels through each country - and the world replying with a grieving, wailing, raging, rebelling, and committing heart and soul to the planet.
THE REPORT
Among all the stark findings within the just-released IPPC Report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was the unequivocal fact that the emission of greenhouse gases from human activities are responsible for approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900.
When this figure is averaged out over the next 20 years the global temperature is then expected to reach, or possibly exceed a warming of 1.5°C.
While carbons sinks have played a huge role in absorbing excess C02 they are reaching saturation. Because of uncertainty over ice sheets, scientists cannot rule out a total rise of two meters by 2100 in a worst-case emissions scenario. With so much excess water entering the oceans this is in danger of affecting the Gulf Stream, which is responsible for keeping Scotland wet and not too hot and not too cold, a shift in this stream could have huge effects on Scotland.
But one thing the report did say is that it isn’t too late to stop the worst of the warming.
As I read the summarized report findings I could feel a hot flush race through me. I am beginning ’the change’, women going through this metamorphism become invisible and irrelevant in our society, yet society has forgotten the power of the Crone.
CREATING A MEANINGFUL MENOPAUSE
As I read the summarized report findings I could feel a hot flush race through me. I am beginning ’the change’, women going through this metamorphism become invisible and irrelevant in our society, yet society has forgotten the power of the Crone.
I am walking the path, towards crone as I go through this natural rite of passage. I want to gather women so we can tell each other powerful stories, learn of helpful allies and celebrate this crone journey. We have trained all our life to be the crones that the world needs, the wise women that gather to tend to a world in crisis.
To create a meaningful menopause is to throw out that story of the irrelevant crone, send our roots down deep into an ancient spiritual bedrock and sustain ourselves with stories of hags and folklore, give ourselves a new empowering story and do this together in community.
All these materials are wrapped up in a new online course which will be launching in early September, in which we will:
Exploring menopause as a transformational journey - a rite of passage and a mythic journey
Calling on a midwife - Choosing a midwife figure, creating a midwife doll & tales of cultures who honored this rite
Create your own rite of passage -w with examples of women’s ceremonies, and ritual
Engage in this sacred journey as one of descent, the deep, and the return
Consider what it really means to ‘Becoming Crone’ and how we can embody these qualities
Plus exploring all of this through:
ART PROJECTS
DOLL MAKING
DOWNLOADABLE COURSE WORKBOOK
SUGGESTIONS OF RITUAL
GUIDED MEDITATIONS
COMMUNITY
