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Systems 8 – Cailleach
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Ireland and the Ancestors
Ancestors 8
In this final episode of the thread about those that have lived on the islands of Ireland since humans first came here, I sum up…
Ancestors 7
In the ancestors thread, I am not looking to replicate the vast work by scholars of Ireland, who know a great deal more than me…
Ancestors 6
First fruits – time of harvest’s beginings: for me, it helps to tune in to what our ancestors knew through the same patterns of seasonal…
Ancestors 5
When we think of the images associated with our past, the colours of the landscape weave through the people, their dwellings and their clothes. In…
Ancestors 4
If our beliefs arise from the how the world is structured, how might that influence not only our views today, but our views of the…
From this land, Crioch Fuinidh3
As this podcast uses the Celtic cycle as core pattern for releases of each batch of 8, this episode delves deeper into that pattern. It…
From this land 2, Crioch Fuinidh
When exploring ancestors on this land the remnants in language of older cultures are like threads in a tapestry that has become unwoven and if…
From this land, Crioch Fuinidh
I have lived in Ériu-Ireland, Crioch Fuinidh (a remote far off place a land on the edge) almost all my life with only a few…
Hands on
Practical 8
Gathering in ideas and materials from throughout the year, this final episode on practical skills encourages a stock-take of existing materials and projects, to see…
Practical 7
When harvest is in full swing, the practical skills are linked to its abundance. In this episode, I start with simple seed savings and preserving…
Practical 6
One of the things that I appreciate about traditional crafts is the thriftyness of finding a use for every part of materials from nature. In…
Practical 5
Linked to the thread on Ancestors, I decided to explore the pratical skill of working with plant fibres and wool and the basis for understanding…
Practical Skills 4
In the garden, this is considered the time of “hungry gap,” but wild perennials and tired brassica leaves can be turned into delicious pestos. In…
Practical Skills 3
In keeping with the release date of Spring equinox, this episode gets into more detail about seed sowing and how to build herb spirals or…
Practical skills in the Spring: compost and seeds
To support your hands on learning have a look through these resources. Mick Kelly of Grow it Yourself talks about making compost in this blog…
Practical Skills
How can I do it? What might I want to learn to begin again? This thread is about hands on know-how. When I was not…
Guided Meditation
Meditation 8
Samhain is a time of letting go. The leaves fall and sap stops flowing. This meditation draws you down to rest, where things can flow…
Meditation 7
This short meditation is about gathering in your own harvest of a day, a week, a month, a season or a year. It aims to…
Meditation 6
Drawing on the energies of first fruits celebrated at Lughnasa, this meditation seeks to help you nurture, appreciate and harvest anything that is fruitful in…
Meditation 5
Solstice is the traditional time, as the sun stands still, for us to stop and stand still too. This short mediation can be used at…
Meditation 4
In this short meditation, I invite listeners to find the energy of early summer and tap into it to map what is growing to life…
Meditation 3 Balance to re-energise
As this meditation is being released at the Spring Equinox it using the theme of renewal and balance. From underneath things can come back to…
A meditation- inner guide
A lot of personal development and support today comes from external guides, therapists, teachers and even gurus. While I do see the reason for sometimes…
Light the Beacon
This thread in the podcast series can be listened to as a kind of guided mediation-observation-connecting-practice and support. This offer is to help with so…
Interviews
Interview with Mike Cahn
Final interview of the series by request from some listeners, is with Mike Cahn, my partner in life and many projects. In this episode, he…
Interview 7 with Steve Golemboski-Byrne
In this interview with Steve Golemboski-Byrne of Lackan Cottage (recorded a few years ago), he shares his journey from the career and life he left…
Interview with Hannah Mole
I’ve been learning, collaborating, teaching and having fun with Hannah Mole of Earthcare since I met her while teaching Greenworks Permaculture courses more than 10…
Claire Templar Interview
Claire Templar came to Ireland inspired to find a new lifestyle in a cottage in the west of Ireland. This interview is from her early…
Morag Gamble interview
There is a principle in Permaculture called “Stacking” that refers to the efficiency in natural systems of elements carrying out more than one function or…
Interview 3 Denise of Votive Illustration
This interview seems particularly poignant to be publishing on AntiRacismDay 21st March, 2o21 given Denise’s strong desire to centre those who still suffer the worst…
Interview with Joanne Butler
The vervacious and consistently upbeat and passionate Joanne tells the her story in this episode from a gift of cabbages (I have always thought this…
Judith Hoad Interview
I interview Judith Hoad. 80 years old when I spoke to her in her small sunroom attached to a tiny cottage on a Donegal hillside…
Identity (mine)
Identity 8
In this final episode, I conclude my explorations of where my formative years have brought me and are still playing out in my life today.…
Identity 7
This episode follows my journey as a young adult as I continue to explore and find niches to grow into. I return to the US…
Identity 6
As I grew into young adulthood in the late 1980s in Ireland, I found refuge from the prevailing social norms in the experimental space of…
Identity 5
As I finished secondary school and prepared to step into the adult world, I took a formative trip to Nigeria to visit the home of…
Identity 4
In this episode, I talk about our family’s increasing privileges and our move from Dublin to the countryside of Wicklow. I juxtapose the cultural worldviews…
Identity 3
Having moved to the South of Ireland from Bangor in 1978, I tried to fit in to my new surroundings in South County Dubin. This…
Identity 2 (Mine)
I tried in this episode to examine the impact of growing up in Northern Ireland from the perspective of a child in the quiet town…
Identity Introduction Iteration 101
“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a…
After the Collapses (story)
After the Collapses 8
I read the final chapters and bring the story to its conclusion. I then reflect on what I was trying to explore through the creation of this narrative when I wrote it, and what I would perhaps change today, and invite creative collaborators to get in touch if they think there’s merit in working together…
After the Collapses 7
Jules begins her right of passage on her own, but when she joins the community of women, Rowan is witness to it all and hears a magical story.
After the Collapses
As the two main characters spend time together, after their meeting at the river, their conversation explores their opposing worldviews of technotopia vs a nature spirit based culture. They arrive into the gathering of women as Jules prepares for her young women’s rite of passage. I look back at this story from my present vantage…
After the Collapses 5
Continuing on the edges of real world magic, and how Jules can use ungated awareness to try to heal and connect to Rowen, the story continues.
After the Collapses 4
We go back to the intuitive instincts of our young protagonist Jules as she senses something of Rowan’s journey towards her. I discuss my intention in the development of her character as representing real, rather than Harry Potter, magic in the world for young readers.
After the Collapses 3
This episode explores how resources in the novel’s world are exchanged, and follows Rowan’s journey through new communities of the Isles.
After the collapses 2
“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” Arundhati Roy I want to show you that the world I am imagining in the story in terms of solutions is already here. Like Jule’s mother, there are many folk and medical practitioners in Ireland…
After the collapses
Musings and reading from an unpublished story I wrote in 2010 aimed at children on the cusp of adolescence. It is set a few generations after we make it through multiple systemic global collapses. Two young teens live in a changed Ireland which is now a land of many isles with pockets of regenerated wild…
Eco-system thinking
Systems 8
In the final episode of the system thread, I explain why, for the most part, I have kept politics and specific affiliations out of exploring…
Systems 7
This thread has focused on alternative structures and frameworks to bring about system change, in particular, regenerative systems. In this episode, I explore how a…
Systems 6
The episodes in this thread are a kind of recipe of ingredients for a regenerative community-led, just society. In this episode, I discuss the Co-operative…
Systems 5
How have we used means of exchange over the centuries and where money came into the story is explored in this episode. What do money…
The Thinking That Made Them – Sensemaking
There are frameworks designed by systems thinkers that can help us understand where we are and navigate an ever-changing context. I discuss two that I…
The thinking that made them 3 – Sociocracy
Continuing with an examination of how we could redesign systems for harmony in people and our planet, this episode continues with some of the Permaculture…
Permaculture principles: new/old thinking
What if we really learned from nature and didn’t work against her? What would that mean for our daily, weekly, monthly, annual and life rhythms.…
The thinking that made them…
If the thinking that has dominated the design of human systems for the last 100-200 years is what is causing a threat to all life…
Well of Being
Wellbeing 8
I have been using development as a frame for exploring what is optimal and what happens if there are interruptions or barriers. In this final…
Wellbeing 7
Continuing through the lens of development to help identify needs that may remain at any stage of life, this episode explores young adulthood. I focus…
Wellbeing 6
In each of these episodes in the Wellbeing thread, I’m using thoughts about developmental stages, and the needs that emerge in them, to highlight needs…
Wellbeing 5
Baby teens and their mentors, finding the way into identity exploration is the territory of this episode. It may help if you are looking to…
Wellbeing 4
As children grow, their observation of the world deepens. They absorb what they see around them, and bring their own logic and wisdom to their…
Wellbeing 3 – Playtime
Playmates, objects of play and natural play spaces are the focus of this episode in the Well of Being thread of the podcast. It continues…
Copy Cats: toddler needs and lessons for adults
Understanding childhood development is a modern view that comes from psychology in a modern world. The theories come from the observation of many children. There…
Born Happy?
“The true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a…
Cailleach 