Category: <span>Imbolc</span>

Winter Stock-Take, Looking Towards Spring

Posted on 09/01/2020 by Terri Conroy

Here in Connemara we have finished celebrating the Winter Solstice and on Monday I went to a friend’s house to enjoy an evening with women friends as it was Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas. Traditionally in Ireland, this is the day when women put up their feet and relax or they go out and party with female friends before getting back to “business as usual”.

I always do a personal stock-take during the holiday season asking myself – What have I learned? Did I fulfill my aspirations and the plans that I made this time last year? What challenges did I meet this year? Did I have any successes? Was I happy? Did I make others happy? Did I make a positive difference in the world?

Doing this personal stock-take or reflection, I realise that I have learned a lot about myself, which is good because now I know some of the areas that need improvement and I know my strengths. One of my plant allies, Fuchsia was a great help and support when I was facing challenges. I feel so fortunate in having such good friends and allies in the plant world.

I fulfilled some of my aspirations and plans for 2019. For example, I wrote and published my second book – “The Weed Handbook Volume 2”.

(which you can buy from this website – along with “The Weed Handbook Volume 1”)

I battled with technology, struggled with websites, became creative with cameras and learned new skills to create my first ever digital herbal course., “Herbs for Winter Wellness”. This is available on the Udemy teaching platform and here is a link to it:

www.udemy.com/course/herbs-for-winter-wellness-from-danus-irish-herb-garden/?referralCode=C3D8822F078850AA3AD0

I am also thrilled that my other digital course, “Wise Woman, Goddess Training” has also taken off and I have students doing that too. Here is a link:

( danusirishherbgarden.com/wise-woman-training/)

I am happy to be sharing my knowledge about medicinal herbs as well as helping others to reconnect with Mother Nature and at the same time working to heal themselves.

After taking stock of my personal life I must conclude that despite some difficult times during 2019 and despite the let-downs, overall I am happy. I think I have done some good for the planet and for my community. I have continued to build a relationship with the plant community by co-creating with Mother Nature. For any one person that I met this year who was unkind and unpleasant, I was supported and encouraged by so many others and they made a bigger impression on me, Now I am looking forward to 2020 and I intend to have an amazing year, with the amazing people who are my friends and who I have yet to meet and with more wonderful plants.

To this end, I have just carried out a stock-take of my apothecary, my home medicine chest, to see what I have and to plan what I will need for 2020.

I see that I am very well stocked with medicines made mainly from weeds, plants that grow wild here, as well as a few garden herbs. It is such a reassuring feeling having so much good, natural medicine. I am ready now for any event, for any health issue. I noticed that there are several nervine herbs here – Lemon Balm, California Poppy, Skullcap, St. John’s Wort, Passiflora and Valerian. I remember being quite surprised by the abundance of these plants and feeling obligated almost, to make medicine. With so many people under stress these days I am delighted that I have medicine ready to help those with SAD, depression, nervous tension, anxiety and sleep problems. The plants have provided the medicine and those who need it will come.

What I will probably do this coming year is focus more on the plants and herbs that will help with physical problems, digestive issues and pain for example. I will dry more plants for teas and make some incense from the many beautiful flowers that will be growing. We do not know what the weather will be like but it is fun to make plans. Soon it will be time to be looking through the seed packets again! So much to look forward to and Imbolc, the beginning of Spring will be here before we know it. Let me know if you are looking forward to growing anything this year or if you have a home apothecary.

Danu’s Irish Herb Garden – Spring Intentions and Brigid’s Day

Posted on 23/01/2019 by Terri Conroy

Spring is almost here – only a week until Brigid’s Day Eve which is a great opportunity to check in with the intentions made at the new year. It is also a good time to make some Spring intentions now that energy is rising as the Earth slowly wakes up and begins to stretch. I made several intentions, or promises to myself, and as I begin to feel re-energised as Spring approaches, I find myself examining the intentions and adding more energy to them. One philosophy I read somewhere about intentions or resolutions, is that you should let someone know what they are so that you cannot then lapse or give in and lose face. So here goes, here are my intentions.

My second book about herbs – The Weed Handbook Vol 2 – has been started and is underway and I intend for it to be available to buy by Spring Equinox. You can pre-order a copy if you would like. I am also, almost ready to make available digital Herbal Workshops for those people who live a long way off and would like to attend my workshops but cannot. My HERb shed should be ready for use by mid summer; and, as the work there continues, I am continuing to beautify the garden with more herbs, flowers and trees.

As Brigid’s Day approaches, I am planning a little ceremony or ritual, dedicating all the work and my intentions to her. After all, she is a goddess of creativity! I always celebrate Brigid’s Day, following tradition, (the little we know) as well as creating some of my own rituals.

I follow the traditions of making Brigid’s crosses for protection of the home, outbuildings and for the car; a little Brídeog – a small doll made from rushes to represent Brigid – and I make a libation or offering of milk and honey, and oat cakes, foods that would be associated with Brigid. I also leave outside a scarf or piece of fabric so that when Brigid passes by, she can bless the fabric with her healing powers.

As the Earth is waking, green herbs are appearing that are tonic and cleansing. Nettles, Cleavers, Chickweed and of course Dandelion, among others. I make a small feast of these fresh cleansing herbs and I make a vegetable stew with barley – the traditional grain of old Ireland. Following these traditions I have created something and crafted something and used fire to achieve my Imbolc feast.

There is very little source material available regarding the Goddess Brigid yet there is sufficient information passed down as myth to know something about her. If things have been added over the centuries, I think that demonstrates both her popularity and that she is a “living” archetype. She is regarded as a Triple Goddess of Fire, looking after the hearth flame, the flame of the forge and the flame of poetic inspiration. She most DEFINITELY was NEVER a blacksmith!!! (One modern day writer has gone to great lengths to work out if Brigid ever worked as a blacksmith!) Her relationship to the forge was purely metaphorical. In ancient times, the people who were able to transform molten metals into things of beauty or of great use and value were thought to be working magic with fire and as a goddess of fire, Brigid is patroness of the forge.

Her remit is quite large. She looks after hearth and home and consequently offers healing and protection; she provides the passion and inspiration needed for creative work and crafting and is also associated with midwifery and fertility. It is no surprise then that Brigid is associated with Imbolc which is placed on the Wheel of the Year between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and is one of the eight fire festivals.

There is some dispute as to what Imbolc actually means; some scholars believe it means i mbolc meaning “in the belly” which could be referring either to the sheep who are about to lamb, thus providing the people with milk; or it could be referring to Mother Earth’s belly as this is the time when spring crops were sown and when other young were expected. An alternative suggestion is that imbolc comes from the Irish iomfholc which can be roughly translated to mean a great washing or bathing, that is, a very specific bathing such as for purification for example. An old Irish manuscript refers to a poem or verse that seems to bear this out,

“…..this is what is proper at Imbolc, washing the hands, the feet, the head”

and of course, springtime is a time of spring cleaning, both internally and in the house. In ancient times it is quite possible that people did not have the opportunity to bathe during winter or open up their homes to fresh air. By this time, Imbolc, the beginning of Spring, they would be desperate for some fresh, cleansing greens for themselves and be glad of the opportunity to clean their bodies and their homes.

The Goddess Brigid is said to have brought magical bees from the Other World to bring sweetness into our world. Perhaps that is why she has always been associated with Dandelion – one of the first spring flowers that provide the bees with nectar. The Sacred Oak is another plant associated with her so planting oak saplings would be an appropriate thing to do at Imbolc at the end of winter.

Although Brigid is a goddess of fire, she is also linked to the holy wells of Ireland and there are several holy wells dedicated to Brigid. It always feels nice to visit one of the wells and ritually wash my hands in the water for purification and to remove any litter or rubbish lying around. As fire is also associated with purification, I like to light a white candle, sit with it and mediate on the “rubbish” I could release and cleanse away.

How do you celebrate Brigid’s Day or Imbolc? Leave a comment below to let me know.

Danu’s Irish Herb Garden – Healing for Mother Earth

Posted on 04/12/2018 by Terri Conroy

The weather is growing colder and the nights become darker earlier. With the fall of leaves, the landscape changes and the trees appear skeletal. Their nakedness reveals other things within the landscape, things that are usually hidden, such as tussocks and hillocks and animal dens as well as the rocks and stones that are the bones of the land.

At this time of year I think of the Cailleach – the Old Hag, as she takes hold of the dying year and brings the seasonal changes of winter. She is in charge now until Imbolc, when Brigid, as a maiden goddess, will herald the return of Spring. The Cailleach’s mode of healing is rest and the deep sleep of winter.

Irish Goddesses are notoriously difficult to make sense of when they are compared to the Greek or Roman pantheons. They are very rebellious, not really fitting into any of the usual “Goddess boxes” and when we think of the virtue of healing, several Goddesses have responsibility in this area. For example, Brigid is the Goddess of Healing and Airmid is the Goddess of Herbs; and healing in the past always included herbal remedies, salves and medicines. Healing though, is so much more than oral medicine or topical applications and when we talk about our health and well being, I think we should also include the state of the land/Land as a component of our own health.

In ancient times, the health of the land depended upon the integrity of the king, his wisdom, truth and justice and his care of the land as his bride. When such a man was king the Land flourished. At the moment our Land is sick – the Land of Ireland and land elsewhere. A study has just announced that the fertility of Irish soil has fallen by 40% during this last decade and no-one knows why. No-one knows why? One expert suggested it may be because we do not use enough fertiliser!! But surely it is obvious! When the land is unloved and is only seen as a commodity instead of as our nurturing Mother; when the land is repeatedly poisoned instead of fed and appreciated; when humans neglect to care for the land, is it really any surprise that the Land is sick??

Our Land needs healing. To do this we must actively interact with and communicate with the Land and show love and appreciation. In the past we left offerings of gratitude, at Lughnasa for example when we gave thanks for the harvest; we allowed our old Mother to rest by leaving some fields fallow – to recover from their hard work. Trees and shrubs were planted around fields so that leaf fall could rejuvenate the soil. Birds and wild life were encouraged and tolerated as all life is connected and all beings have their place in the wonderful web of life. We knew that there were seasons for work, rest and for healing. We are learning now – possibly too late – that we must rely on all the other life forms to maintain balance and harmony and yet we allow badger culls and hare coursing. We remove ancient hedgerows and clear fields of bushes and shrubs…..It is a monstrous madness of destruction.

The Goddess The Morrigan is associated with death, war and destruction, was seen to incite blood lust and battle frenzy and her motif is the carrion crow. The crow however, does not create destruction, rather it cleans up after Death has visited. For me, The Morrigan is also a Goddess of healing who brings peace and calm after the battle, harmony and balance after chaos. She is also a territorial ancestress of the Land, a sovereign Goddess and she made a rather alarming prophesy. She foretold of a time when there would be “…no flowers in summertime, no milk from the cows, no fruit from trees and no fish from the sea. … the women would be shameless, the men without strengths, old men would tell lies and the politicians would make unjust laws……men would become thieves and there would be no virtue in the world.”

Will she be right? Is she right? What can we do? There is no point relying on politicians to heal our Land, this Earth, we must do it ourselves, one step at a time. Be a careful consumer and plant something – anything, just keep at it. Commune with the Land and with plants, become an ally. Do some healing. Anyone can heal anything, just go into your heart space and set an intention to heal. Make amends.

I believe that everyone does care and does want justice for the Land and the planet but it is so difficult to change the conditioning of a lifetime. Change is necessary though. Call on one of our healing Goddesses or to the Warrior aspect of the Morrigan for help and guidance and you will find a way to do something.

Let me know if you have any good ideas by using the comment box below. For each comment I will send a FREE packet of seeds to you. (Postage is 1.50e) These seeds will go someway to healing and beautifying our Mother Earth.

An Bhean Feasa – A Capricious Spring!

Posted on 02/03/201802/03/2018 by Terri Conroy

It is said that if Brigid’s Day is cold, wet and stormy, then the Goddess of Winter, An Cailleach, stays in bed and sleeps on not noticing Spring creeping up on her. However, if the day is fine on 1st February, the Cailleach gets up to collect more firewood as she means the winter to go on. This year, here in Connemara, the weather was mixed and we are finding that Spring is very capricious.

Rainbow and rain clouds

During the first part of February we had “never ending” rain which seemed to go on forever and people were questioning how much more the land could take. Then we had a day of sunshine and I was working in the garden enjoying the warmth of the sun when I noticed the dog was very busy with something under a Hydrangea. I went to investigate and found this:

Can you see the Bumble Bee in the Crocus?

She must have been one of the first bees out of hibernation but our Ribes haven’t flowered yet, nor has the Blackthorn and there are few Dandelions. I hope she was able to feed from the Crocus before it closed for the evening and wrapped her in purple silk.

The light in Connemara is very special – even magical and you can always tell the season from the effect of the light on the landscape.

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On our walk we saw Daffodils standing proud, golden trumpets wrongly foretelling that warmer weather was coming.

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Vinca Minor – a beautiful and medicinal plant is already in flower.

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The other signs of Spring were the Monbretia coming up through the grass in a truly bright shade of green.

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One of my favourite things to see on a walk, and can be seen all year round, is Moss. So velvety and soft and so varied.

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It makes me feel as if I am looking into a magical otherworldly realm.

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After the brief sunshine, the ominous clouds returned and plunged us back into that miserable greyness.

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The wind began to rise and it was bitterly cold, more so than previously. The Crocuses closed up and the poor Daffodils were beaten down. One of the benefits of the wind is that it dries up the land – but also my face when I’m outside!! Not so pleasant.

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The rain returned. There was talk of snow and storms. We poo-pooed the warnings here because we rarely get snow and we are on the west coast, far away from “The Beast“!! But the snow did come. Certainly not as badly as elsewhere but enough to engender a frisson of excitement.

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I hope the Daffodils will spring back when the snow melts. Strange to think of this happening outside when inside the polytunnel lemons are growing!

Is this because the polytunnel is very effective at creating a micro climate or is such variation due to climate change? Perhaps it’s the end of the world as we know it, in reference to St. Malachy’s predictions. It’s a sensitive subject and creates a great deal of debate. What do you think? Use the comments box below to let me know.

Springtime Simplicity

Posted on 01/02/2018 by Terri Conroy

Today is La Feile Brigid – Brigid’s Day, a day that always feel special and exciting to me as it is also Imbolc, the first day of Spring. There is a sense of anticipation in the air which is exciting because it feels like a renewal, a fresh start, a change. I was at my horticulture class today and when I returned home the sun was out and I was inspired to walk around my garden and have a check on it. I had left the garden alone since the end of autumn, apart from a little winter pruning here and there, because I had learned that it is better to leave old plants in place as insects and other creatures use them for shelter. Consequently, my garden looks a bit neglected and a bit bedraggled.

As you can see here, there is not a lot growing and the storms have knocked down the fence.

All the trees and bushes are bare but there is some colour from the Dogwood

It is difficult to see with all the bushes being bare, but this is a corner of my dedicated Brigid’s Garden.

And here is one of the first Dandelions, not yet in flower.

Dandelion is a flower associated with Brigid so it was lovely to see it today on my little meander. Thinking about Nature, you come to the conclusion that it is something immense and complicated and really we, humanity, have no idea how it all works. Then, just by quietly observing, you realise that is all quite simple really. Just allow Mother Nature to do her work and help out whenever you can. Do simple things like leaving plant material for the hibernating insects, leaving dandelions alone so that the bees can feed when they awake after winter hibernation. The goddess Brigid is renowned for bringing magical bees from her orchard in the Other Realm so that we would have sweetness in this realm. Perhaps that is why she is so fond of the Dandelion.

Imbolc – the beginning of Spring, that sense of anticipation in the air, a sense of good things coming and Brigid is, in popular folklore, regarded as being the bringer of plenty, helping things to grow and overseeing new beginnings and fresh starts. Every spring we make a fresh start in the garden, helping things to grow. We “spring clean” our homes ready for all the good things that are coming; these are simple and age old activities that enable us to feel renewed. Spring greens such as Cleavers are appearing and they can be cleansing and nutritional after the heavy winter fare.

Cleavers can be included in a simple green juice or eaten fresh like spinach. It spring cleans the system.

For me it is important to trust that All Is Well – I use the phrase as a mantra sometimes. I hadn’t been in the poly tunnel for ages and when I went in today I got something of a surprise.. .

Lots of lemons on the lemon tree! Despite a miserable and grey winter! I had been worried about the tree but it was fine. What a gift on such a day. Just simplicity at work.

Life can be as simple or as complicated as you choose to make it. Why not make it simple and avoid the stress? Life is too short, as a friend of mine recently found out, so simplify things. We can only find space in the house for so many things, so stop worrying about wanting to buy more. We can only wear so many clothes at one time. We can only be in one place at a time. Our children are only here and then they’ve grown and gone. As Springtime begins, we have a great opportunity to make a fresh, and hopefully, simple start to the rest of the year. Be happy and enjoy all the blessings of Brigid on this special day. Use the comments box below to let me know how you celebrate La Feile Brid.