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TA Earth headerWelcome to TA Earth, a range of resources looking at issues around Eco TA and our connections with: Nature and ecology, The Outdoors, The Planet.

 

 

Rose Rylands Video Blog for May

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Rose’s latest vlog for the Wheel of the Year looks at May and looks at Beltane and its importance to the Celts.

So here I am, in the month I wait for all winter – the merry month of May. I’m standing on the edge of the bluebell woods. You can hear, in the background, the steam trains. Below me is the river and beyond that is the yard where the
steam trains come and go. Representing the age of man and machine. It was the beginning of the industrial age that destroyed so much of what was so green and quiet and beautiful on the emerald islands we call home.

Today, I’m going to take you down into one of my favourite, most magical places. In the woods, there is a celebration of May and the beginning of the time of the faeries. So May was always heralded with a massive ritual
of celebration and fire festival to celebrate the coming of the great God of Fire, Bel. Beltane, I love the name, its like the banging of a drum.

Here, as I’m moving slowly into these ancient bluebell woods, I’m reminded of what is gentle, what is really sacred,
what remains and how nature valiantly, where she is allowed to, unfolds and puts on her best frock. and dazzles the eye.

Beltane celebrations

At Beltane, the Celts would light fires. and they would send their animals through the smoke. It was believed it was a cleansing ritual. Beneficent forces would then take care of the animals,
village and land.

The Celts also believed in gratitude. They believed that ingratitude created a kind of dark morass and pushed you through the veil in to the darkness. Bitterness, fear, resentment, anger and evil would only lead down the dark tunnel.

So, there was a great thanksgiving in May – a great celebration of fertility, renewal and re-birth. of life and flowers and the stars and the sun and the birds and all the wonderful things of this incredible world that we live in. All is held within, what the ancients called, Anima Mundi, the world soul, of which of course, we are all a part.

It was Parmenides who coined the term Amina Mundi and they could see the soul of the world encapsulated in the
galaxies and the earth herself, a living being. As it is said, everything is alive and magic is afoot.

When you watch nature, you can see that it is perfectly OK and that life is always born again in a new form. Each bluebell here is brand new growing from the bulbs and the roots of its ancestors. The earth is alive and magic is afoot.

Longer days

As the days get longer, our energy increases. By midsummer, its hard to sleep sometimes. Life is calling us, calling us. Here, all I can smell is moss and garlic, leaves and clean air given by the trees, breathing out. Thank god for May – a wonderful, wonderful month.

For as long as anyone can remember, the women especially, would dance around the maypole. Weaving together a multi-coloured braid to represent the web of life. There were great celebrations of this fertility and vigour of life. There were many handfastings and marriages and conceptions of children. It was believed that if a child was conceived on May Day, they would have certain magical abilities. They would be blessed.

What more can I say about this extraordinary month. It always fills me with so much hope after the long winter and the grey and the dark. Surrounded by the new hope of nature, by the magic, by the eternal. By that which comes and goes and comes and goes and comes and goes. God bless this beautiful earth.

If you enjoyed this and would like to know more about TA Earth or Beltane, join Rose on her Spiritual Ecology seminar online on 15th June. You can also read her blog for May.

Beltane and the Merry Month of May

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Maypole image - May celebrations

When Bel, the Celtic god of fire arrives and Beltane heralds the first of May, I always feel an uplift. There is something about the arrival of the ‘merry merry month of May’, a knowing that the trees will unfurl their green leaves and the bluebell woods will fill with a carpet of wildflowers and wild garlic, amid a sea of lilac. It is truly magical and people of old believed that Beltane heralded the awakening of nature entities such as fairies and sprites. The whole landscape begins to transform, a chorus of birdsong displaces the wintered silence. Despite the late Spring this year and continuing cold winds along the north east coast, this surge of new life and colour has chased away the grey, both inwardly and outwardly.

Disconnection

Last year I moved house. I was dislocated from the valley I grew up in, from all the familiar winding paths and streams, from the shelter of the deep green arms that had held me for so long. Familiar trees that had become friends, the magic of woods, wildlife and river. I know every inch – almost – and it’s a landscape that runs through my veins, and has long been my muse as a storyteller.

But life threw me a curved ball and I had to move. I came to the windy cliffs, barren and bleak heading into winter. A further cruel twist brought heavy roadworks outside my house for 5 months. It was like Mordor. I cried a lot, heartbroken, homesick and hating where I had come to live.

Moving is stressful

I intended to upsticks and move again as soon as possible. But moving is definitely one of the most stressful things and so I decided to just wait and regroup. And then, finally, Spring arrived. Martin Luther famously said: ”Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

”Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

Martin Luther

I have a little yard and a conservatory of sorts. When I came here the yard was gravelled over. Nothing growing except a cherry tree in the corner, battered by the high winds that prevail here. But I got help with removing half the gravel. I put in fresh soil, compost and manure, and made new garden beds. I had brought enough in pots from my last beloved garden to begin again. There were casualties and losses. One plant at a time this little piece of dead ground has started to some back to life. Every day I try to put a new plant in the garden, even if it’s a single marigold. Every time I go out I buy a plant, even if it’s just a viola from the supermarket.

Herbs in Rose's garden in May

Herbs

Over time I have planted all the culinary herbs and now have masses of sage, fresh marjoram, thyme, rosemary, parsley, coriander. Bit by bit the empty beds have filled with feverfew, daisies, catnip (which my cat loves) a sea of forget-me-nots, violets, marigolds, poppies and a variety of wildflowers. Friends bring me cuttings of plants that will grow a meter high and flower later in the summer. The clematis I brought in a bucket now spreads flowered arms across the fence and the hydrangea grows like a triffid. I planted my first two courgettes the other day and the conservatory is filled with healthy tomato plants, sprouting sunflowers and poppies.

First thing in the morning…

I love to step out first thing in the morning and sit in the conservatory, watching the birds on the feeders, the blossom now on the cherry tree, and as my little garden has begun to fill with colour and foliage, with birds and birdsong, I have found a growing pleasure in watching the changes every day, nourished by this surge of colour and life. My landscape, both inwardly and outwardly has come alive again. I cannot live without nature, without the green fuse, the heavenly harmony of plants, bees, birds – life.

There is much yet to do but I am not in such a hurry to leave now. There are still things here I don’t like – too much traffic and noise – but there are periods of peace and I am grateful again, and I cherish the new shoots that nourish me.

May Eve, May Day.

Beltane arrives halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. It is the start of summer and one of the great fire festivals. In a wild ritual and celebration of the vigour and fertility of life, people would dance in circles around the Maypole weaving the threads of life into a multi-coloured web. Maypole dancing was an ancient Norse rite, perhaps brought here by the Vikings and the pole originally a living tree representing Yggdrasill, the enormous ash tree that is the great “world tree” of Norse cosmology. But it was also a Celtic celebration and folklorists debate the origins of this most ancient of rituals.

Fire image - Beltane and May

May Queen

In a little village near here they still celebrate the coming of the May Queen – a figure linked to ancient tree worship. When a young girl is chosen to enact the role, she is decked in a white gown. She floats down the river on a raft of splendours and flowers. Then the May fair takes place with celebrations for the whole village.

I love that these celebrations still take place because we now live in a world where so much takes us away from nature, the fading of fairy stories and belief echoed in our fraying connection to the land, and to the wild within us. Nature bursts forth in May, reminding us of the cycles of time, that darkness will pass, that all life has its times of change, decay, death and renewal.

Rose Rylands

Rose Rylands is a Storyteller and walking guide based where she grew up on the East Coast at Whitby. Her mission is to connect people to the earth as a place of magic, mystery and meaning, to arrest ongoing harm to both ourselves and the natural world.

“My passion is to connect people with the earth as a place of mystery, meaning and magic through story. I suppose I am a sort of cultural custodian of my own small space and beloved bit of earth.”

Rose writes a monthly blog for us on the Wheel of the Year theme. Her next video blog from Rose will be coming out mid-June.

What is TA Earth?

TA Earth series explores our connections with our home planet and the world around us. We are inspired by Hayley Marshall and Giles Barrow’s pioneering work, Eco TA. Moving ‘toward an ecological understanding of the individual embedded in relationship with others and the wider natural world’. 

TA Earth header - spring equinox

Ostara, Goddess of Spring and Easter – the Spring Equinox

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photo of hare in spring - symbolising the Spring Equinox.

Ostara was traditionally honoured in April, and has now become blended with Easter. Rose shares her love of the Spring Equinox in this April edition of the ‘Wheel of the Year‘ series.

I wrote this blog on the day of Spring Equinox, 21st March. In the Wheel of the Year, this date marks the coming of my favourite of all the goddesses – Ostara. Sometimes known as Eostre. Resplendent, glorious and full of vitality, she is Goddess of Spring.

Ostara - goddess and spring equinox

She arrives with flowers woven through her golden tresses, birds dancing around her flowing robes, baby rabbits hopping beside her as she moves through the land. Her smile, a ray of sun, warms a wintered landscape, defrosting the earth as life bursts forth to greet her. This is the time of year when Nature begins to fully awaken and gets ready to put on her best frock.

Beloved Ostara, Easter Goddess of fertility, renewal, of birth and of balance. She is the oestrogen in the blood of women. She is beloved patroness of the easter egg. And the chocolate bunny, of daffodils, of hope and new life.

Between Spring and Vernal Equinox, a week apart, night and day fall into equal length, dark and light, masculine and feminine, inner and outer become balanced. Soon the days will lengthen as the Sun asserts his strength and the time of darkness is over.

Ostara was traditionally honoured in April, hence the time of Easter which takes place according to the lunar cycle. As above, so below. Now, Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full Moon that occurs on or just after the spring equinox.

In pre-Christian times Ostara was thought to have the head and shoulders of a hare, hence the association with easter bunnies.

Ostara, pre-Christian

Her story is very dear to my heart because it was in Whitby, near where I live, that a great Synod was held at the monastery of Abbess Hilda in the sixth century. The heads of the Roman Church came across from Italy to meet with the heads of the Celtic church who came down from from Iona and Lindisfarne. During the Synod the Romans persuaded the Celts to adopt Easter into the Roman Christian calendar. This was one of those many moments when pagan tradition, worship and ritual became appropriated by the church. The Celtic Christians shared a common love and reverance for nature with the pagan peoples of this land and believed in all life as sacred. But the Romans adopted a much harsher and dominant approach, banning all forms of pagan outdoor worship, buring the sacred groves, killing the Druids.

Celtic vs Roman Christianity

There is a famous Whitby legend that Hilda, when she first came to build her monastery on the wild cliff tops at Whitby, was faced with thousands of poisonous snakes swarming over the land. It is said that with her great power and presence and with perhaps a few strange incantations, she drove them off the cliffs. As they fell to the rocks below they were so terrified of her, they became petrified in midair, turning to stone, and so when they hit the rocks below all their heads snapped off.

Hence the famous ammonite fossils to be found strewn along the rocky shores and at the foot of the cliffs are known locally as Hilda’s headless snakes. These famous totems of Whitby folklore feature on the old town crest as three ammonites with a snake sitting above.

Ammonite found on the North East coast - Spring equinox

Symbolic tales

But, therefore, as with all myth and legend this tale is purely symbolic. As it was when Patrick drove the snakes from Ireland, and also when Hilda drives the snakes off the cliffs at Whitby. It is symbolic for the driving out of indigenous ways of worship by a Roman Christian authority. They created a split between spirit and matter, claiming the way to God was through the church. Goddess Ostara became the Christian Easter after goddess worship was banned by the church. Some of the more powerful and well-known goddesses became Christian saints. We can also see where some of the other pagan festivals were appropriated into the Christian calendar.

Picture of Whitby Abbey
Whitby Abbey overlooking the town

Marriage between Pagan and Christian

Whitby is a town where for centuries the elemental forces of nature have demanded respect. Where many old folk traditions, superstitions, ritual appeasement, invocation and thanksgiving have endured in an albeit God-fearing community. However, many pagan beliefs were never entirely driven away. There has been a long marriage between the Christian and the Pagan for centuries. Today as I celebrated the return of Ostara, I was able to go and sit by the river in the sunshine. From among the daffodils and I came away with a sense of renewal and nourishment, both outwardly and inwardly.

Please watch the video blog for more:

If you have enjoyed this blog look out for Rose’s May blog, coming soon.

Rose is running a series of workshops on the TA Earth theme coming up over the next few months. Click on the links below for more information.

Rose Rylands in life and hope

Rose Rylands is a Storyteller and walking guide based where she grew up on the East Coast at Whitby. Her mission is to connect people to the earth as a place of magic, mystery and meaning, to arrest ongoing harm to both ourselves and the natural world.

“My passion is to connect people with the earth as a place of mystery, meaning and magic through story. I suppose I am a sort of cultural custodian of my own small space and beloved bit of earth.”

The next video blog from Rose will be coming out mid-May.

Rose Rylands Workshops

TA Earth. Spiritual Ecology

Spiritual Ecology, Tues 15 June 2021 1 – 4pm

What is TA Earth?

TA Earth header - spring equinox

TA Earth series explores our connections with our home planet and the world around us. We are inspired by Hayley Marshall and Giles Barrow’s pioneering work, Eco TA. Moving ‘toward an ecological understanding of the individual embedded in relationship with others and the wider natural world’. 

Magic – lets explore it.

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In this March edition of her blog in the ‘Wheel of the Year‘ TA Earth series, Rose shares her understanding of true magic.

What a beautiful, powerful, suggestive, enchanted and loaded word! I feel I have little authority to speak on such a majestic subject, especially when so much has already been said and written. So I can only try to put into words my own understanding.

I was asked to say something about what real magic actually is, as opposed to the popular idea of witches, spells, waving wands and meddling with energies we don’t really understand. But do I believe in magic? Yes of course! Could I do magic? Probably. Why don’t I try? Because I don’t feel it is for me to interfere with the order of things.

But I believe we are born magical and that humans are multi-dimensional beings living on a garden spinning in space, children of a glittering cosmos, in a world full of unseen, interdimensional, otherworldly energies and realities, beyond the two dimensional world we see around us.

Magic is in nature

It seems to me that the most obvious place to look for magic is in nature, because the whole of creation is infused and alive with divine enchantment borne through different dimensions. Nature is an interconnected, living, numinous web of life in which everything is communicating a wild intelligence.

Much of magic has been forgotten, hidden or purposefully censored from our consciousness. Our ancestors once knew how to work with the magic in creation, to use magic to keep things in balance and to midwife certain energies between the worlds. Some people were trained to work in different ways with the magic of the inner worlds, intercommunicating through different dimensions from the angelic realms to the animal kingdom, with animals, birds, plants, with nature spirits, with earth herself.

The alchemist, magician, shaman and high priestess, all worked with very ancient, deep, primal forces, operating under certain strict laws and with highest respect. Their job was to maintain balance between this world and other realities.

Ancient knowledge

I think much ancient knowledge was lost when our pagan culture was banished, the wise women were killed off, the mystery schools were closed, ancient libraries were burned and goddess worship was outlawed.

But fairytales, told around the fireside over millenia provide a psychic map. Offering wisdom and teachings, and brimming with accounts of magical creatures, shapeshifters, hidden doorways, spells and transformation. Unforeseen assistance shows up just when our hero or heroine needs it most. A bird can speak and guides the way through the dark forest, humans are turned into animals. And then, a spell is broken and they are transformed into prince or princess. Help is always at hand, showing up when we need it most and arrives from a source of magic. These are the moments when just the right book mysteriously appears right in front of us, or synchonicities occur. Chance meetings, unforeseen assistance. Suddenly, there is a phone call and you get that job or that trip of a lifetime.

Magic is a form of grace. It is given.

Misuse of magic

But you only have to look to fairytales for sage warnings about the misuse of magic for power, profit or self seeking, for tales of darkness and evil acts perpetuated by use of dark arts. Stories told around the fire for millenia, warn us of dark enchantments cast by seemingly friendly characters who only later turn out to have other dastardly plans. Sleeping beauty pricks her finger on the poisoned thorn, falls under an evil spell and sleeps for 100 years. The child accepts the sweet and is bewitched by a dark charm. We fall for the seductive advert and buy something we don’t need.

This is magic manipulated, harnessed and used for selfish purposes. It is not given, it is not Grace.

Unfolding

Other than that, I need to look no further than the sunrise, or the flower unfolding in my garden. To hear the owl hoot at night or see the vast moon cast her light on a wild sea. To know that I live in a world where magic is constantly unfolding around me. If I simply open my eyes and heart, I can step into a world that was never ours but to behold in awe. Where there is something much bigger than us, governed by invisible forces and full of divine magic.

Please watch the video blog for more:

If you have enjoyed this blog look out for Rose’s April ofering, coming soon.

Rose is running a series of workshops on the TA Earth theme coming up over the next few months. Click on the links below for more information.

Rose Rylands in life and hope

Rose Rylands is a Storyteller and walking guide based where she grew up on the East Coast at Whitby. Her mission is to connect people to the earth as a place of magic, mystery and meaning, to arrest ongoing harm to both ourselves and the natural world.

“My passion is to connect people with the earth as a place of mystery, meaning and magic through story. I suppose I am a sort of cultural custodian of my own small space and beloved bit of earth.”

The next video blog from Rose will be coming out mid-April.

Rose Rylands Workshops

TA Earth. Storytelling

Storytelling: Connecting head, heart, earth and hearth, Sat 17 April 2021 1 – 4pm

TA Earth. Spiritual Ecology

Spiritual Ecology, Tues 15 June 2021 1 – 4pm

TA Earth. Loss

Loss of Language, Sat 10 July 1 – 4pm

What is TA Earth?

TA Earth header - hope

TA Earth series explores our connections with our home planet and the world around us. We are inspired by Hayley Marshall and Giles Barrow’s pioneering work, Eco TA. Moving ‘toward an ecological understanding of the individual embedded in relationship with others and the wider natural world’. 

Return of Life and Hope

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As Winter begins, in this season of Imbolc, to turn its face towards Spring, so our resident Storyteller, Rose Rylands looks outwards with hope. In this second of her blogs in the ‘Wheel of the Year‘ TA Earth series, Rose shares her love of this season.

If you have enjoyed this video blog ‘Return of Life and Hope from Rose, look out for her March video coming soon.

Rose is running a series of four workshops on the TA Earth theme coming up over the next few months. Click on the links below for more information.

Rose Rylands in life and hope

Rose Rylands is a Storyteller and walking guide based where she grew up on the East Coast at Whitby. Her mission is to connect people to the earth as a place of magic, mystery and meaning, to arrest ongoing harm to both ourselves and the natural world.

“My passion is to connect people with the earth as a place of mystery, meaning and magic through story. I suppose I am a sort of cultural custodian of my own small space and beloved bit of earth.”

The next video blog from Rose will be coming out mid-March.

Rose Rylands Workshops

TA Earth header life and hope

Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, Sat 20 March 1 – 4pm

Storytelling: Connecting head, heart, earth and hearth, Sat 17 April 2021 1 – 4pm

Spiritual Ecology, Tues 15 June 2021 1 – 4pm

Loss of Language, Sat 10 July 1 – 4pm

What is TA Earth?

TA Earth header - hope

TA Earth series explores our connections with our home planet and the world around us. It is inspired by Hayley Marshall and Giles Barrow’s pioneering work, Eco TA. Moving ‘toward an ecological understanding of the individual embedded in relationship with others and the wider natural world’. 

    Season of Imbolc – Hope Born Again

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    Following on from my previous video blog and the story of The Old Woman in the Cave, we have now entered the season of Imbolc and as if right on cue, in glides of one of the greatest deities of the Celtic pantheon, the glorious fiery divine power, patroness of Imbolc, Goddess Brigid. She of the sacred fire.

    Brigid, Brigantia, Breo-saighead, goddess of the hearth and home, fire, alchemy and smithcraft, light, healing, divination, prophecy and poetic inspiration. A sun goddess bringing the vital energy needed for birthing new life. Even under the snow, new shoots are bursting forth and I am careful where I tread.

    Imbolc – start of hope

    Imbolc, literally translated, means ‘in the belly’. It is celebrated on the 1st of February as one of the four great fire festivals in the wheel of the year and heralds the return of life giving light and nature about to burst forth when Spring arrives. It marks the beginning of lambing season, and I always feel an uplift of hope, joy and promise when I hear and see the first lambs. Spring is on her way.

    Imbolc – Time of hope

    Just as the sap begins to rise again in the trees, it is a time of birth and beginnings, a new weaving of life in all her myriad forms. Hope is born again. People gather for the Feast of Brigid, to worship and give thanks with lighting of fires, sharing of food, invocations, songs and each to weaving an ancient solar symbol of protection for the home – the  three pointed cross of Brigid.

    Sun through trees to represent Brigid and Imbolc

    For the Celts, the deities were inseparable from daily life. Their world was infused with relationship to the elemental forces, nature sprites, ancestral spirits, and worship of gods and goddesses alike. Their understanding of how the inner worlds related to the cosmos and the material world was profound. They built sacred sites where ley lines intersected, knowing these were sacred places of power where physical energies aligned with the sun and the cosmos were especially potent. Places of divine conjunction.

    Rose Rylands

    Rose Rylands is a Storyteller and walking guide based where she grew up on the East Coast at Whitby. Her mission is to connect people to the earth as a place of magic, mystery and meaning, to arrest ongoing harm to both ourselves and the natural world.

    “My passion is to connect people with the earth as a place of mystery, meaning and magic through story. I suppose I am a sort of cultural custodian of my own small space and beloved bit of earth.”

    The next blog is a video of Rose sharing about ‘Imbolc – Time of hope’.

    Rose is running a series of workshops on the TA Earth theme:

    • Loss of Language
    • Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm
    • Storytelling: Connecting head, heart, earth and hearth
    • Spiritual Ecology

    Take a look at our other TA Earth articles and workshops.

    TA Earth header
    Compass image linking to courses overview page

    Deeper relationship with the natural world

    Communication with the divine, the spirit world and the non human web of life, combined with a deep kinship and reciprocity was part of their culture, as it had been for thousands of years. Nature was known to be woven through with numinous magic and for millennia people lived with reverence for the living world around them. In all, the living world was the church of our ancestors.

    There was no separation between the seen and the unseen worlds. They knew full well that many otherworldly beings existing in other realities, could come and go at will. The veils were thin and much was seen, envisioned, midwifed and balanced in accordance with ancient esoteric laws and practices.

    Enormous respect was given to the gods and goddesses. Brigid was one whose appearance was welcomed with relief and warmly celebrated with thanks and praisegiving after the long winter.

    Ancient times

    It is hard for us to imagine how it was thousands of years ago when sacred fires were kept alight in holy shrines dedicated to Brigid. They were tended and fed with hawthorn, potent branches signifying entry to the Inner World, by priestesses who were also trained to tend sacred wells, groves, caves and places of worship in the hallowed hills. It was the time of Druid magic and wise women of the hedge.

    St Brigid's Cross to celebrate Imbolc
    St Brigid’s Cross

    In Kildare, Ireland, there was a shrine to Goddess Brigid where a fire was attended by 19 priestesses that it should never go out and would burn eternal. The Brudins, a place of magical cauldron and perpetual fires, disappeared when Christianity took hold.

    Arrival of Christianity

    When early Christianity arrived on these shores, millenia old customs and ceremonies were appropriated and moulded into Christian doctrine. Some of the deities and goddesses who had been celebrated and worshipped over thousands of years were banished. Others became Saints instead. Suffice it to say, Brigid is one of those who epitomises the marriage between the Pagan and Christian traditions. She remains strong as she bridges both worlds, albeit now as Saint Brigid.

    But eventually goddess consciousness rotted into the idea of a malevolant, putrid, evil underworld that was projected onto witches (the wise women).They became cast as the evil sorceress. Much esoteric knowledge and wisdom was lost and the later witch who practised occult arts became the half baked shaman, with only half knowledge.

    Loss of respect for the old ways – and women

    And there we have it – the fire and the cauldron, both symbolic and literal, tended by women, was extinguished by the banishment of pagan culture. It is a long and painful story . Too long to go into here when whole books have been written about it. But it involved a long and drawn out persecution of women. The banishment and murder of priestesses, nuns and women of the hedge. The genocide of the Druids, burning of sacred groves and banishment of millenia old ways of worship. These ways had kept humanity attuned to the deeper rhythms and cycles of nature, and responsibilities as stewards of both the seen and unseen worlds.

    Gosh…we have drifted a long way from there to the transactions we now have with our world.

    Brigid and Jesus

    The involvement of Brigid in the birth of Jesus became the stuff of legend. The story goes that Brigid was midwife and placed three drops of water on His forehead. An ancient Celtic myth tells that three drops of water were placed upon the head of the Son of Light in order to confer wisdom. I think it’s vital to remember that Jesus Christ was born in pagan times. The story of his birth is woven through with the symbolism of his time.

    Imbolc - harvesting seasons image

    But here, on the emerald islands of Britain, even until a few hundred years ago and before this industrial civilisation, grass was cut with scythe, earth ploughed by man and horse. Crops were harvested by hand, fires lit for both warmth, cooking, and to gather around. Life had it’s own simple rhythms in accord with sunrise and sunset, the turn of the wheel, the cycles of nature and the seasons. Each community celebrated the seasons with song, dance, rituals and gatherings. God fearing and yet still alive with the old ways inherited from ancestors.

    The household fire is sacred to Brigid. At the time of Imbolc the fire should be kept going, and each evening the woman of the household should smoor the fire, (cover it over to keep the fire overnight), asking for the protection of Brigid on all its occupants.

    Honouring Brigid through Imbolc

    There are many ways to honour Brigid.  She is sacred to so many things – but she is also known as Brigid of the Sacred Wells. In Druid ritual, Brigid is honored by placing candles around a well. The well is dressed with flowers and green foliage. Coins and silver objects were offered to the well. Many of her holy wells still exist, some thousands of years old. Her waters were said to heal all manner of disease.

    Lambing season - begins on 1 Feb, Imbolc

    I have a Holy Well at the end of my street that is now known as the Well of St Hilda. But eons ago it would have have been one of Brigid’s Sacred Wells. It is supposed to heal diseases of the eye. I might go down there and splash some water in my eyes and perhaps I will see more clearly..

    And now?

    So we labour on in lockdown and under a foot of snow. I am listening to the lambs in the field and hoping the farmer will take care of them. I feel in accord with Brigid. The well has been visited and I have been keeping my log burner going overnight. Keeping the fire burning and praying for poetic inspiration. I fight back the darker thoughts that prowl around the edges. I just live in hope that somehow a better normal will arise out of this Imbolc and new beginnings. Let the new weaving begin.

    TATO News Jan 2021 – launching TA Earth

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    Waking up to another morning with snow blanketing our part of the world brings to mind this quote from Albert Einstein.

    In the midst of yet another lockdown, we have all become more aware of how important outdoor space is for our physical and mental wellbeing. The Einstein quote sums it up wonderfully.
    We’ve got some new additions at TATO which we are excited about. We’ve launched a new series of workshops and articles, TA Earth, exploring our relationship with the world outside of our screens and homes.
    We also have more of our winter series of shorter evening seminars coming up in February and March. 

    Rose Rylands and TA Earth

    We are delighted that Rose Rylands, the keynote speaker from NETAC 2020 and Whitby Storyteller, has joined us. She is running workshops and writing a series on the theme of TA Earth – looking at our connections with nature, ecology and the planet.

    Rose is also recording some stories and video blogs for us. The first is called Picking Up The Thread. Click here to watch it. Check out her monthly blog here.

    Rose Rylands pic for news Jan 2021
    TA Earth pic for News Jan 2021

    Workshops with Rose

    TA Earth - Loss image for News Jan 2021
    TA Earth. Plant pic for News Jan 2021
    TA Earth. Storytelling pic for News Jan 2021
    TA Earth. Spiritual Ecology pic for News Jan 2021

    Loss of Language 
    Thurs 4 March 2021 1 – 4pm, £25

    Re-enchanting our vocabulary, expanding code and consciousness.

    Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm
    Sat 20 March 1 – 4pm, £25

    Explore a wider use of the senses and creativity.

    Storytelling: Connecting head, heart, earth and hearth
    Sat 17 April 2021 1 – 4pm, £25

    This workshop will help you become a custodian of stories from your own landscapes.

    Spiritual Ecology
    Tues 15 June 2021 1 – 4pm, £25

    The content of this workshop will cover reclaiming the spiritual wisdom and reverence for the spirit in all things

    Evening Seminar Programme

    Evening seminars coming up this month are part of our TA Winter Sparkle – beginning with Bev Gibbons’ and James Sweeney’s seminar on songs that have helped shape our lives – Soul Songs.

    Winter Soul Songs
    Life is a celebration image
    child ego state

    Soul Songs 

    Bev Gibbons PTSTA(P) and James Sweeney PTSTA(P) .

    Monday 8 February 5.00 – 6.30pm

    Life is a Celebration. Are You Celebrating, Just Getting Along, or Suffering? 

    Michelle Hyams-Ssekasi PTSTA(P).

    Tuesday 16 February 5.00 – 6.30pm

    Getting to know the Child:  An exploration of different structural models of the Child ego state

    Beren Aldridge PTSTA(P). Wednesday 10 March 6 – 7.30pm

    Other News for Jan 2021

    We are now putting the training and CPD programme together for 2020/21. Keep an eye on the Events Diary on the website to see what is coming up.

    We are also now recruiting for our online Exam Preparation Group for Sept 2021.

    We offer longer term training too. If you are looking to train as a psychotherapist – carry on reading.

    Foundation Certificate in Transactional Analysis

    We are now interviewing for the Foundation Certificate course starting in September 2021. This is a 1 year part-time course (1 weekend per month) covering the foundational aspects of transactional analysis. As well as being a standalone course, it is also the first year of our clinical training programme.

    Foundation Certificate

    News Jan 2021

    ‘Picking up the Thread’ – story told by Rose Rylands

    By

    As a Storyteller, Rose Rylands uses stories both old and new, to illustrate, challenge, delight, provoke and spark our curiosity. Together with her blog, this ‘Picking up the Thread’ story is the first of her monthly features. She will be using the Wheel of the Year as a basis to explore the theme of TA Earth.

    If you have enjoyed this ‘Picking up the Thread’ post, and Rose has whetted your appetite. She is running a series of four workshops on the TA Earth theme. Click on the links below for more information.

    TA Earth header picking up the thread

    Loss of Language, 4 March 1 – 4pm

    Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm, Sat 20 March 1 – 4pm

    Storytelling: Connecting head, heart, earth and hearth, Sat 17 April 2021 1 – 4pm

    Spiritual Ecology, Tues 15 June 2021 1 – 4pm

    Picking up the Thread – weaving our stories

    By

    Rose Rylands, January 2021                          

    Picking up the Thread. I was very glad when asked to put together a monthly blog and video blog for TATO to explore our relationship with the Earth and Environment – TA Earth. Any contribution I can make at this time feels a privilege.

    My blogs will be running around the central theme of The Wheel of the Year. So right here in the first month of the year, when everything feels like an ending and a beginning, while we are deluged with information and dispiriting news, I am starting with ‘Picking up the thread’. I like to remember that spring is around the corner, the light is returning, and the living world knows not of the pandemic or world economics.

    Wheel of the year diagram - Picking up the thread of the year.

    It is also encouraging to witness the groundswell of people now working together globally in many fields to sow the seeds for a new story to heal the earth for future generations.

    My Thread

    I am no expert in any field. I’m just a storyteller who profoundly loves the natural world and runs guided storytelling walks. I work in Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay, and the North York Moors National Park where I grew up. I’m not an academic, a mythologist or a historian. I just try to keep old stories alive and to be a kind of cultural custodian of my own few miles. Looking after the landscapes I grew up in and love. I can only speak of my own experiences, what I knew as a child and what I know now.

    I hope the following will lead into different themes over the coming months. For now I would like to begin with a love story.

    When I was a child my mother wasn’t always emotionally available. She carried a lot of pain from her own childhood. She kept it in her own secret inner space and she could often be distant, unreachable. She was kind, and took care of us on a practical level, but in many ways I learned at a very young age how to be alone. Especially when my elder sister first went to school and I was still at home. I longed to be closer to my Mum. She just wasn’t always able to be there in that way. ‘Go outside and play’, she would say.

    Outdoor Thread

    So, even at pre school age I would spend hours playing alone in the orchard garden in a make believe world. I would talk to the trees, climbing up in their branches and seeing each one as a different being with its own body and characteristics. I loved the cooking apple tree with the gnarly curled branches, the little red sweet eating apple tree too slender to climb but it had the best apples ever. The victoria plum tree bending under the weight of it’s juicy sweet soft plums, which I learned to share with the wasps.

    Copper beech tree - one thread in our stories

    But the great copper beech tree was my favourite and I knew it loved me. It was while high in the branches of that tree that I had my first real felt experience of being loved by a non human being and I loved it back. I had two sisters and although we all loved the garden. It seemed I was the one who just had to be outside all the time and became quite feral.

    Rose Rylands in Picking up the Thread

    Rose Rylands is a Storyteller and walking guide based where she grew up on the East Coast at Whitby. Her mission is to connect people to the earth as a place of magic, mystery and meaning, to arrest ongoing harm to both ourselves and the natural world.

    “My passion is to connect people with the earth as a place of mystery, meaning and magic through story. I suppose I am a sort of cultural custodian of my own small space and beloved bit of earth.”

    The next blog is a video of Rose telling a story ‘Picking up the Thread’.

    Rose is running a series of workshops on the TA Earth theme:

    • Loss of Language
    • Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm
    • Storytelling: Connecting head, heart, earth and hearth
    • Spiritual Ecology

    Take a look at our other TA Earth articles and workshops.

    TA Earth header picture

    I grew up near the river in a deep green valley of woods, waterfalls, streams and endless places to explore. It was a wonderland where everything seemed to be a new discovery. The outside was fresh and alive, wind, rain, sun, snow, each season with its own magic.

    Magic Thread

    Every day would bring another creature to be cared for in the animal hospital – a little caravan in the garden. A hedgehog, a bird fallen from the nest, a stray cat, a baby rabbit, an insect in a jar, a few minnows caught in the beck. I played with boys because they were more adventurous. There were endless journeys into the woods. We we made our secret dens and kept watch on the badger runs. Whole afternoons were spent transfixed on the riverbank. Watching as giant silver salmon flickered vertically in the water on the weir, before lunging upwards to clear the wall and heading upstream to the spawning grounds.

    Life held a constant sense of wonder, excitement, awe and discovery. I had immense freedom to roam and was encouraged to be outside for long periods of time.

    From the earliest I can remember I was immersed in nature and it was there that I found a deep comfort and sense of closeness along with enormous freedom. I didn’t know it then, but I had found a different kind of mothering in the arms of the Great Mother. It was there in her myriad forms that I found an enduring love that sustains me to this day.

    Healing Thread

    Love between humans is a divine gift, but the door of love also opens opens when we have a relationship with the earth. Then we don’t have to try to get it from other humans all the time. We might soften and become more forgiving. The nourishment is all around us. We are mothered. Love of animals, fish, birds and insects, sunsets and sunrises, trees, rivers, oceans and elements, love of the running streams, love held within both the body of our Great Mother and our human mothers. We are not separate, we have an instinctual body and we are part of the earth. And when we love enough, the healing becomes reciprocal.

    Hands up – I have been complicit in so many ways, part of a generation that has had enormous prosperity. We had material abundance and the freedom to travel. I don’t think any of us realised quite what harm we were doing to the earth with this way of life. And I didn’t get off scot free from the maternal wounds of my childhood. There have been years spent in TA therapy. But I have found that when I am in difficulty, long walks in nature have proved to be very healing.

    Somehow my work as a storyteller has also enabled a recalibration of my relationship with place. An adult understanding that has come through learning about our own indigenous history and wisdom. Our psyche, myth, and the earth are so deeply connected.

    Story Thread

    We humans have such a deep instinctual connection with nature and story. Nowadays, in working outdoors as a storyteller my passion has always been to connect people with the earth. A sacred place of mystery, meaning and magic.

    There has never been a better time to honour our place of belonging within the great tapestry of nature. I believe that when we begin to see this world as through the eyes of a child, with awe, wonder and reverence, we will start to find our way again, and both we and earth can begin to heal.

    Meanwhile I hope that wherever you are, you might be able to find a place outside. This may be under the sky, in the air and perhaps some place to sit. By a tree or some water and just bring your heart to listen, especially at this time when we are all being kept apart.

    “I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”

    John Muir – Founding father of National Parks