The Nudge | Dispatch 4

 

Welcome to The Nudge | Bealtaine 2022

This seasonal care package has been prepared by The Trailblazery team.

“The flower doesn’t dream of the bee.
It blossoms and the bee comes”

- Mark Nepo

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to prepare our latest care package for you, The Nudge, on the Celtic feast of Bealtaine or May Day. This is the gate into the bright (samos) part of the year which marks the beginning of summer and is another time when the veils between the worlds are thin, much like Samhain. The countryside here in Ireland will soon be covered with the white blossoms of the hawthorn and the bright greenness of new foliage. The Earth’s fecundity seems to be bursting at the seams.

Bel-taine, or 'bright fire' celebrates the God Belous (Bright one) and welcomes the “rekindling” of the sun. In many traditions and cultures it is a time of divine union and fertility.

This portal ushers in the sensorial season of blossoming, aliveness, fullness, risk and opening. We welcome the masculine energy as necessary to ensure the flowering, ripening and harvesting of the seeds sown in the darker times of winter and spring. It’s a time of  fertility, abundance and warmth. 

Traditionally, flowers were collected just before dawn on May Day and were strewn across the floor of a house. Garlands and posies of flowers were made and worn as talismans for protection and prosperity in processions and pageants. An old Irish tradition that lived on until the 1980s, was to scatter flowers on the doorsteps of neighbouring houses. More recent folk traditions tell that young women would wash away their faces in the morning dew that had received the first rays of May Day sunlight and another custom of going to a holy well at sunrise on May day to wash the dark winter. 

Bealtaine has always been associated with burning bonfires. The lighting of the Bealtaine Fire on the Hill of Uisneach is one of Ireland’s oldest traditions. In ancient times, a great assembly would gather on the Hill to witness the fire being lit by the High King of Ireland. The Bealtaine Fire is traditionally seen as marking the arrival of Summer in Ireland. This year, the festival will return on Saturday May 7th. 

Starting TONIGHT
Hedge School | Summer Programme:
“This place we call home”

Join us online TONIGHT for a cultural immersion to mark the feast of Bealtaine.

We are gathering a host of creative minds and hearts to join in a series of exchanges that connect Art & Activism, Culture & Climate, Entanglement & Extinction, Interconnection & Interbeing and the interrelated spaces that forge kinship between the human and more than human world.

We begin TONIGHT at 7pm Ireland with our Bealtaine gathering “Wild Awake | Rekindling Ancestral and Traditional Skills in Nature” where we will be guided by Lucy O’Hagan {ancestral skills teacher, ethnobotanist & wildlife tracker} with music by Ziggy Alberts {Australian singer - songwriter, poet, activist}.

The Summer Solstice Gathering, titled Field Notes | Exploring the Healing Powers of the Natural World, will take place on Sunday, June 19 at 7pm. Our guide for the evening will be Kerri ní Dochartaigh {writer, nature lover} with music by Bronagh Gallagher {singer - songwriter, producer, actor}

And finally, our Lughnasa Gathering, titled “About Trees | Finding our Roots in Order to Rise” takes place on Sunday, July 31 at 7pm. For our final evening, we will be guided by Katie Holten {artist, activist, author and creator of The Irish Tree Alphabet} with music by Caimin Gilmore {musician, composer, instrumentalist}.

Cost for one event is €33 with a season ticket to all 3 costing €88. If you can’t attend live, the 90 minute calls will be recorded and sent out the next day.

You can listen to our Bealtaine guide Lucy O'Hagan in conversation with Ray D'Arcy on RTÉ Radio 1 discussing her work at Wild Awake Ireland, the festival of Bealtaine and tonight's gathering at the Hedge School.

Ziggy Alberts Live

"We need to learn to see not just with Western eyes but with Islamic eyes and Inuit eyes, not just with human eyes but with golden-cheeked warbler eyes, coho salmon eyes, and polar bear eyes, and not even just with eyes at all but with the wild, barely articulate being of clouds and seas and rocks and trees and stars."


- Roy Scranton

Some Journal Prompts to inspire you, as we approach Bealtaine: 
 

🌸 What is ready to blossom in my life right now? 

🌸 What am I being called to grow into at this time?

🌸 What aspects of self, talents, gifts or projects am I willing to bring into the world at this time?

🌸 Is there a risk(s) I am being nudged to take, so that I can bloom and live the highest and brightest version of myself? 

What’s coming up over the next

6 weeks at The Trailblazery:

As the Great Wheel turns yet again,  we are invited to pause and remember what we have traveled through together. We are excited to let you know what we have coming up for you over the next 6 weeks here at The Trailblazery:

Morning Medicine May Series
starts next week

Announcing our second offering of Morning Medicine, led by our own Kathy Scott, this early morning practice series for women will take place throughout the month of May. It’s an invitation to experience a range of potent teachings that blend science and spirit, including breath work, meditation, movement, visualization, journaling and nourishing self-care practices.

This series of 8 sessions will run on Monday and Friday mornings at 7am, starting Friday May 6 to Monday May 30. These 40 minute sessions are recorded and sent out later that day for you to take in your own time if you can’t attend live. For more information visit our website here.

Moon Medicine

Our monthly gatherings, which moved online in 2020, align with the lunar cycle. We meet around every Full Moon and welcome inspiring guest luminaries to share her story, experience and wisdom with us. We also invite extraordinary musicians and performers to play at our gatherings. This is an opportunity to illuminate and celebrate our creative life force and sovereignty.

Tickets for our May gathering will go on sale on Friday, May 06. Cost is €25,  but we offer a limited number of free spots each month for those who need it. 

If you haven’t already, you can sign up to our Moon Medicine mailing list here to be informed of all upcoming events.

EnJOY these days - may the brightening light be yours.

Thank you for walking this path with us,

Beannachtaí agus Beir Bua

Kathy and all at The Trailblazery

 

Highlights of our gatherings

Put on the kettle, make a cuppa and watch some golden moments from the musicians and performers who have joined us here at The Trailblazery.

Recommended Resources

Here are a few reading, watching and listening pieces to nourish your senses in the days ahead:

♪ Listen: For your ears

 
 
 
 

Herb of Bealtaine: Hawthorn

Hawthorn is one of the sacred Ogham trees of Ireland. It goes by the name Huath in Irish,  being the tree that symbolises Bealtaine, the merry month of May! This is also a wonderful, magical herb of abundant medicine, know as a potent heart tonic. Hawthorn, or whitethorn, is easily identifiable during this time as her creamy blossoms brighten hedgerows, stone walls, fields and sacred sites. Herbalist David Hoffmann says, “A tonic in the true sense, Crataegus [hawthorn] can be considered a specific remedy for most cardiovascular disease.” 

Visit here for a recipe for a hawthorn heart elixir. 
 

✯ Watch: For your eyes

 
 

Celebrate the Festival of Fires - Ireland's Ancient East | Watch here
The Hill of Uisneach with Marty Mulligan | Watch here
Bealtaine in Irish Folklore & Society by Lora O'Brien | Watch here
 

❤ Read: For your heart

 
 

From the creative team behind Appassionata, they made a book called ‘Blathanna’ (this means flowers in Irish ) with flower installations all made by Ruth, Kasia & Ultan. It is shot by Sean Breithaupt & Yvette Monahan and designed by David Wall – A stunning curation of floral short stories in exceptional Irish spaces.


✬ Connect: For your Soul

 
 

Eyes as Big as Plates is the ongoing collaborative project between Karoline Hjorth (NO) and Riitta Ikonen (FI). Starting out as a play on characters from Nordic folklore, Eyes as Big as Plates has evolved into a continual search for modern human’s belonging to nature.
 

❤ Touch: For your pleasure

 
 

Hawthorn Handmade Skincare is made with love by Elaine in small batches on her family farm in the west of Ireland.

Visit here for more.

 
Kat Scott