The Hedge School presents
Beyond the veil
An online trilogy of Samhain-inspired immersive experiences
Sunday, Oct 27 | Nov 03 | Nov 10
7pm Irish | 2pm ET | 11am PT
Course Price: €108
Bígí linn ~ Join us
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“Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
~ Carl Jung
Winter is coming.
Beyond the Veil is a trilogy of online immersive experiences created in response to the season of Samhain. We have invited a host of powerful artists and activists to guide us through the fierce wintering we are experiencing on the planet today.
The ancient Wheel of the Year is a sacred map that can guide us to consciously navigate life, inside & out. As one world dies and another prepares to be born, Samhain offers us a powerful initiation into the portal of womb and tomb. Beyond the Veil is a cauldron for deep transformation and potent medicine for these bewildering times.
The Crone is calling us to cross over into the darkness on a journey of exploration through story, song, music, writing & communal ritual. Beyond The Veil is an invitation to dive into the creative cycle of life, death and rebirth - the great trifecta at the source of all existence.
Join us over three consecutive Sundays, when we will gather at the place between worlds, where the Crone tends to her cauldron, stirring her sacred alchemical brew, waiting for us….
The veils are thinning.
A rite of passage awaits.
Are you ready?
This three-part alchemical journey is led by three mná feasa (wise-women): Eimear Burke (Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, Celebrant, Seanchaí/Traditional Storyteller), Diana Beresford-Kroeger (world renowned Author, Medical Biochemist, Botanist, Climate Change Visionary and Polymath) and Alixa García (Colombian-born Multidisciplinary Artist, Award-winning Poet, Climate Organiser, Filmmaker). We will also receive the musical gifts of Jenny Ní Ruiséil (Yoga Teacher, Musician, Mentor, Coach) and Rawan Roshni (Palestinian/Balkan Singer-songwriter, Whirling Dancer, Sound Practitioner with further announcements coming soon.
Sunday, 27 October
with Eimear Burke; Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, Celebrant, Seanchaí/Traditional Storyteller
Sunday, 03 November
with Diana Beresford-Kroeger; world renowned Author, Medical Biochemist, Botanist, Climate Change Visionary and Polymath
Sunday, 10 November
with Alixa García; Colombian-born Multidisciplinary Artist, Award-winning Poet, Climate Organiser, Filmmaker
this is for you if you are ready to
Connect with Samhain as an alchemical force of empowerment
Receive the wisdom of the Crone guidance for these times
Attune to the seasons and rhythms of the natural world
Embody the power of cyclical living and weave it out into our world
Experience the transformative power of darkness
Shed and release old patterns and programmes, like the Witch Wound
Dismantle oppressive systems and structures, within and without
Remember our ancestors and honour our descendants
Find encouragement and kinship in our global Hedge School community
In Ireland, the ancients were rooted in the seasons of the Earth and aligned with the cycles of the Cosmos. They marked these gateways with ritual and ceremony and bequeathed us with a calendar map - the Wheel of the Year. The cycle starts at Samhain - the festival of the Dead. This is a time of hibernation and rest, reflecting the cues and clues of the natural world which draws deep within and surrenders. This is an invitation to drop into the fertile darkness of Samhain with us and surrender to the spectral realms of Scorpio season.
The Crone is the great gatekeeper of this portal and guardian of the threshold. She is the Grandmother, the Old One, the Earth Mother, the Wise One and the Mother of Bones. In Ireland she is known as the Cailleach, the divine hag. She is the Regeneratrix who ushers in the death medicine necessary for new life. This is a time of cathartic initiation. As Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés writes in Women who run with the Wolves, the Death Mother or Cailleach teaches us the wisdom of the bones.
"Crone... the most dangerous, the most radical, the most revolutionary woman in existence. This old woman stands between the worlds of rationality and mythos. She is the knucklebone on which these two worlds turn"
~ Clarissa Pinkola Estés
The ‘Witch’s New Year’ is a magical time where we are called to enter the cave deep within to purge and release all that rots and no longer serves us. It’s a time to tend to the cauldrons of incubation so that when the time is right we can regenerate and rise together. At Samhain we remember the departed and honour those from whom we are descended - our ancestors. It is also a time that invites us to lay our burdens down and explore our shared future as ancestors-in-training.
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Meet your guides
Kathy Scott | Host
Kathy is a cultural activist and creative entrepreneur dedicated to creating provocative experiences that animate the spirit of our times. Her greatest mission in this life is to nudge humanity forward by inspiring people to rise and lift each other up along the way. She is the creative director of The Trailblazery which was founded as a response to a need for deeper human connection and belonging in our world.
Eimear Burke | 27 October
Eimear is the Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) and lives in Kilkenny, Ireland. Eimear has private practice as a Counselling Psychologist and her interests in Druidry and psychology have led her to act as a Celebrant, helping people to design and enact meaningful rites of passage. Eimear has a deep love of the ancient Irish tales and has a passion for storytelling. She brings the old tales to new audiences, and - while remaining faithful to the stories - often examines them from new perspectives, so that listeners experience them as fresh and relevant. She particularly enjoys showing people the sacred sites of Ireland and telling the ancient tales right where they happened. Eimear is also a Priestess dedicated to Danú in the Fellowship of Isis. She is an Arch Druidess in the Druid Clan of Dana and a member of the Noble Order of Tara.
Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger | 03 November
Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a world recognized author, medical biochemist, botanist and climate change visionary. She possesses a unique understanding of modern western science and ancient Celtic knowledge. Orphaned in Ireland in her youth, Beresford-Kroeger was educated by her Irish elders who instructed her in the Brehon knowledge of plants and nature. Diana’s legacy project is to clone and map the entire global forest - creating a living bank of tree seeds to either mend or amend what remains of our global forests.
Alixa García | 10 November
Alixa García is a Colombian-born, globally-raised, multidisciplinary artist, award-winning poet, climate organizer, and filmmaker. She is a published author, exhibited visual artist, music producer, and cultural strategist. Her performances and keynotes have taken her around the globe, from South Africa to Mexico, the U.K. to Cuba, and beyond. She has presented at hundreds of universities, conferences, and festivals including Harvard University, the United Nations, and T.E.D.: Ideas Worth Spreading.
We have newly commissioned a Samhain-inspired Immram Immersion {guided meditation} by Kathy Scott in collaboration with composer Brian Crosby. The immrama are infused with Irish cultural motifs, images, words and phrases with an immersive ambient soundtrack to enhance the experience of this ancient culture and language in a unique embodied way. These practices blend the realms of science and spirit and navigate the terrain of psyche and soma - mind, body and soul.
Check out the teaser below…
More About Hedge School
Hedge School is a virtual homeschool rooted in Ireland that invites people around the world on a collective learning experience to find our shared humanity and resource our possibility as global citizens. Hedge School is an Irish drum beat with a global resonance. Back in the 1700’s, Irish education was outlawed and the process of learning took to the land. Hedge Schools gathered wherever people could find shelter; along hedgerows, fields, mountains, by rivers and under the stars. Out at these wild edges, our culture was kept alive...
