The Hedge School presents
Winter Solstice: Grianstad an Gheimhridh
A FREE online gathering to honour the darkness and welcome the light
Saturday, Dec 21 | 9am Irish Time
in alignment with the moment when the Sun is lowest in the sky before reversing direction.
The nadir of the solar year awaits.
The procession of dwindling daylight reaches its nadir as the sun descends on the longest night of the year. The Winter Solstice is known in the Irish language as ‘Grianstad an Gheimhridh,’ or ‘sun stands still’. As we approach this darkest point on the great Wheel of the Year we tentatively await the returning of the light.
You are warmly invited to join this FREE gathering on the morning of the Winter Solstice to honour the precise moment the sun stands still. Weaving breathwork, visualisation, somatic writing and sounding in communal ritual, this special session is guided by Kathy Scott (Cultural Activist, Founder of The Trailblazery; Hedge School; Moon Medicine) with live music by Jenny Ní Ruiséil (Yoga Teacher, Musician, Mentor, Coach). Together, we will remember our ancestors, honour our descendants and claim our collective place in the world as ancestors-in-training.
Indigenous cultures understand the Solstices as turning points that provide potential for great change and transformation. 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.
For the ancients of these lands the Winter Solstice marked the still point of the sun, a collective pause before welcoming the new light and life born out of the womb of winter. As we embrace the darkness we also celebrate the beginning of the new cycle and the return to light as the days slowly start to become longer. This season serves as a great teacher, imparting lessons on the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth.
"Nothing makes the light, the wonder,
the treasure stand out so well as darkness
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés
The Winter Solstice offers us an opportunity to navigate the intricate dance of light and darkness in our lives today.
As a human family we have been navigating some of the darkest times that will take generations and generations to heal. It is hard to believe in miracles when so much has been lost. Yet we can take some solace in the knowing that darkness has an alchemical power that we can harness - a sacred presence that is pregnant with possibility.
Join us to connect with this potent alchemical power on December 21, at the exact moment when the sun stands still.
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Meet your Guides
Kathy Scott
Kathy Scott is a cultural activist, entrepreneur and curator of creative projects that animate the spirit of our times. A weaver of worlds, she is director of The Trailblazery with a mission to ‘nudge humanity forward’. She is also the founder of Moon Medicine, a transformative global women's movement and The Hedge School | Scoil Scairte, an award-winning (un)learning project celebrating Irish culture, heritage and language - ‘an Irish drumbeat with a global resonance’.
Jenny Ní Ruiséil
Jenny is an Irish speaker, musician and yoga teacher originally from Kildare. She is committed to exploring, practicing and living a heart-based, creative life, using the traditional teachings of the Himalayan Masters combined with the deep roots of her Irish and Celtic lineage as guides and frameworks. Her fascination with all things music, sound, language and energy-based has led her to explore the connections between these ancient spiritual practices (particularly mantra) and their relation to the body, heart and mind of today's practitioner, and how rooting ourselves deeply in a practice, lineage or tradition can help to facilitate an even deeper sense of home.
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...
