Dear ones -

Yesterday evening, I watched the almost-full moon rise while the snow-dusted peaks dipped in and out of the clouds. Today, the wind gusts so strongly, even sitting, my body was having to work to stay upright.

Winter is still holding on here in East Kintyre.

Some say this moon would more traditionally have been called the Ice Moon or the Snow Moon in Ireland and Scotland.

And there are those who believe the ancient Ogham alphabet (dating back possibly as early as 1st century BC) corresponds to a lunar calendar which connects trees associated with the letters to the moons.

If that’s true, this moon is associated with the second letter L (Luis - pronounced ‘Loosh’) and, most commonly, the Rowan tree.

I’ve felt quite connected to the rowan tree for a while and I started wondering why the rowan tree might be associated with this time of year.

So… I went down a rabbit hole (this is why doing something as simple as sending you all an email never takes me as little time as it ‘should’…).

Gaelic Folk traditions involving the rowan tree and its possible connection to this time of year:

Remember - towards the beginning of February, we have the seasonal cross-quarter day (a day between the solstice and equinox), celebrated in the Gaelic tradition as Imbolc or Imbolg, which translates out to “in the belly”, referring to the very beginning of Spring and the quickening of life in the belly of the Earth, before the birthing to come.

Rowan trees are a pioneer tree - often one of the first to move into a space after a fire or other disturbance, growing quickly when there (the first letter in the ogham alphabet - Beith/ Birch - is also a pioneer tree).

They are cold-hardy and can make their homes in higher altitudes and rocky places where little else seems to want to grow. Because of that, they are often found around stone circles and hedges (the liminal spaces). There are traditions of them being planted around house doors or gates to offer protection. And they’re often found/ planted near wells and sacred water places.

Boughs of rowan wood (especially when combined with red thread) can be made into crosses of protection for homes, hearths, and birthing women (another form of sacred water). In fact, there are deeper associations with the divine feminine - the three main colors associated with her three forms (white/ maiden, red/ mother, black/ crone) are all connected to the tree which puts out white blossoms in May/ June, which become the red berries in August/ September, and then the bark and berries were used to create black dies (the bark can also be used in tanning, though in some places it was considered dangerous to use any parts of the tree except for the berries).

A member of the rose family, rowan carries similar connections to the planet Venus, since the rowan berry has a five-pointed star shape on the bottom of the berries, like the five-petaled rose Venus’s orbit makes.

Because the wood was considered capable of protecting from magic, but also casting magic, it's uses were mostly limited to divination rituals, ceremonial grain threshing, and… for spinning wheels and spindles which are also associated with the Feminine and women’s initiatory rites because weaving was often connected to the Fates, the threads of life, the passage of time, and the seasonal cycles of the natural world.

In plenty of folk stories and myths in Ireland, Scotland, and also in the Norse myths, rowan trees are associated with strength, protection, and vitality. The berries (found in Autumn) are full of vitamin C (you have to cook them first! don’t eat them raw!) and would’ve been a great help if you still had some at this time of year when diets were less varied and strength was needed to get through the last of the winter and into the early days of spring.

So we can see here this deep connection to fertility, life force, liminal/ initiatory space where life and death are side-by-side, and hardiness... much like this season of "quickening".

There are probably more connections and there’s plenty more that could be said, but I’ll leave it there for now. It gives you a taste of how simple “letter” might be associated with a certain time of the year, and could have been coded with ritual dos and don’ts, ecological observation and knowledge (including astronomy), medicinal awareness, and the shared meaning-making and cultural practices of folk belief which would’ve helped our ancestors belong to the places they lived, including the seasonal cycles, in a good way.

I can’t get enough of this stuff. It feels so deeply rooting and connective.

Sooo…. does this change how you connect to the moon at all in this moment? If the cloud-cover where you are allows you to look up and see her, our Grandmother, shining down, does knowing her name this month; knowing what qualities and lessons she wears in this moment… does that teach you anything? Does it give you a sense of what kind of help she might be able to offer you if you share your cares and worries with her? Does it offer you any ideas for how to act in this seasonal moment?

Take heart - the darkness never lasts forever. Light returns. Our work is to remember ways of being in right relationship.

New Podcast Episode:

A new podcast episode dropped today. This one’s a little bit of a special one.

Back in mid-October I received an email from long-time listener and spiritual development devotee Anne Ruel, sharing some thoughts and questions ep 49 had sparked for her as she considered questions of burnout, purpose anxiety, and integration in her own life and journey.

I thought about responding in a solo episode but had a suspicion a real-time conversation between the two of us would be richer. So in early December, we sat down and chatted all things “integration”.

Anne shared her story of starting with yoga and then moving further down the spiritual growth and development path through training after training (in yoga, energy healing modalities, life coaching, cacao ceremonies, etc)... and how she ended up feeling more burned out, alone, and lost than ever before. At the time, she hadn’t heard of the idea of integration. And she admits that though she’s beginning to suspect it was the missing piece for her, she feels mystified about what integration actually is, how to know it’s happening, and what signs might signal it’s complete.

So we get into it.

Along the way, you’ll hear us explore things like:

• the cultural rootlessness and lack of true mentors which leaves us with an immense inner hunger (and how capitalism wants us to feel that and why it can get us into trouble);
• reclaiming curiosity, depth, enoughness, our own power and self-responsibility, and the permission to do things differently;
• what wisdom actually is;
• the costs of coercive capitalism, prizing youth over older age, and punitive justice systems (and how those tie into integration, burn out, feeling lost and overwhelmed);
• setting boundaries (even with spirit guides and the things we love, partly as a way to maintain a sacred sense of connection);
• the relational dance of encountering Spirit and untangling ourselves over and over again;
• “peak experiences” as ruptures of our timeline;
• riding the “down wave” after a peak experience… (hopefully) without feeling like we’re having a psychotic break;
• how we might find who we are and what our purpose is;
• and at what point in our spiritual development journey transformation actually happens (hint: it might not be what you’re used to thinking it is)

…and more.

As you can probably tell from that list, this is a deep (and lengthy) conversation.

This might be one you want to listen to in chunks. I listened in for if there was a good place to edit it into two episodes, but decided to leave it intact as one. I leave it to you to find your right pacing for listening.

And I do hope you’ll listen. And share if it resonates. 

From where I stand, integration is one of the key (often missing) pieces to navigating the spiritual and wellness world with more integrity - whether we’re there to deepen our own journey, or as a guide/ teacher/ facilitator for others. 

Join us around the fire? You’re most welcome here.

And thanks, Anne, for reaching out with your questions, sharing your story and hard-earned wisdom, and joining me in this conversation. 

(B-t-dubs: If you’re a listener and find yourself with questions, musings, etc after an episode, and you’re open to recording us chatting about those - feel free to reach out. Maybe we can have a conversation, too) 

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with Love,

Kate

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P.S. I’m planning to launch next month a roundhouse offering where we circle up around the solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days of the year to explore/ remember/ reweave culture, story, and ritual/ ceremony of our animist European ancestors… as a way of tapping into rhythms of aliveness. In addition to the live gatherings, I would include a PDF with suggested rituals and inspirations for the season, personal reflection and inquiry prompts, and possible research inquiries for you to apply to your ancestry (if you know it), in a similar fashion to what I did with the Rowan tree above. I’ll have more info on all that soon, but if that sounds exciting to you, feel free to let me know and I can make sure you get the info when it comes out.

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P.P.S. These new Wheel of the Year Roundhouse gatherings are somewhat of a deepening of one element of Sanctuary. In listening in to my guides and the energy of these times, I’m hearing to shift Sanctuary towards being a place for deep, intentional rest. Again, more info will come, but I wanted to keep you updated, in case you had your eye on any of these upcoming offers.