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TRISKELION LORE
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Shadow Cycles-Cyclic Wisdom for Mental Health

25/2/2021

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Are you aware of the cyclic nature of your life?
Living with aware consciousness means being alert to the cyclic phases that are pertinent to you in any one moment and being conscious of the choices made in that moment. 

Do you know:

  • When is the time for planting and nurturing the seeds of creativity or creating intentions and plans for those intentions to come alive?
    Spring - 3am-9am, New and waxing Moon, Days 3-9 of the menstrual cycle, Maiden time: 0-25 years old.
  • When is the time for holding the space for the growth of your seeds and intentions and celebrating the fullness of their reality?
    Summer - 9am to 3pm, Full Moon, Days 10-16 of the menstrual cycle, Mother Time: 26-50 years old.
  • When is the time for harvesting the riches of the cycle, for examining their worth, for sharing in community
    Autumn - 3pm-9pm, Waning Moon, Days 17-24 of the menstrual cycle, Maga time: 51-75 years old.
  • When is the time for letting go? For rest and completions? For endings? This is the time when the ground is prepared for the next cycle- the letting go, the bones, become the mulch for the next plantings.
    ​Winter, Dark Moon/New Moon, Days 25-2 of the Menstrual Cycle, Crone Time: 76-100 years old)

If we do not live with the cycles consciously, they happen anyway

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​"The shadow is everything about ourselves that we refuse to know or do not know, dark and light."

David Richo- Shadow Dance”

​At the age of 54, when I joined the School of Shamanic Womancraft - first as student, then apprentice and now teacher, the Wisdom of the Cycles became integral in how I lived my life. As a woman in the last months of my menstrual cycle at 54, I had lost the opportunity to integrate the living wisdom into that particular cycle. The diurnal (solar), lunar (moon), seasonal and life phase cycles have had riches of wisdom to offer in my personal life and in my work.

I understand that if I do not live with the cycles consciously, they happen anyway-the wheel keeps turning. What I have come to know in my work as a Counsellor and Psychotherapist is that far too often, the cyclic consciousness is suppressed, stuck, or wounded. Our responses become Shadows which we do not or feel we can’t know. Pushed aside, these shadows can often lead us in an unconscious and painful dance.
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Whilst the teaching of Cyclic Wisdom is central, it is also critical to recognise and call home the shadows that are often created by this suppression, stuckness and wounding. 

Mental health issues are often linked to a shadow wound

In Western medicine these "shadows" become diagnostic labels which are most often treated with medication: the effect of which is to suppress even further the psyche’s response. (A note: I am not anti-medication for mental health as such-sometimes it is a necessary and life saving/life enhancing gift of western medicine).
However, in working with the cycles, I have noticed that mental health issues are often linked to a Shadow wound at certain times of the life cycle:

  • In the maiden time-the Shadow wound is often to a person’s sense of identity and might result in personality disorders
  • In Mother time-the Shadow wound appears to be in relationships and sexuality
  • In Maga time-the Shadow wound appears as disorders of mood, for example depression and anxiety.
  • In Crone time-the Shadow wound appears as fear of letting go, fear of death, undealt with grief.
  • In the Centre of the wheel is Trauma-Which occurs often and is often relegated to the Shadowlands.

Shadow wounds or issues might occur at any time

Cycles are by nature, a movable feast- and of course these Shadow wounds or issues might occur at any time. I have found linking them with 'The Cycles' and creating awareness and intention a critical tool to enhance a person’s capacity for healing of self and welcoming home of the exiled shadows into a tender, accepting and wise relationship. 

My upcoming workshop on Shadow Cycles

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If you are interested in learning more about Shadow Cycles and mental health, join me in the Shadow Cycles series of workshops (all online currently), beginning with an introduction on 12th March and commencing the teachings of the Cycles and Shadow Cycles from Samhain in May.

There will be learning about the Cycles, the Shadow Cycles and approaches for integration. The workshops will involve personal work with your own Shadowlands, and will also be useful to broaden your skills if you work in the field of Mental health in a professional capacity.

Regardless of your purpose for attending, be prepared to dive deep and connect with your own Shadows, and be aware that you will be in a safe, confidential container of a group of like minded women.

For more information and to book click here. 
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The House of Belonging

29/12/2020

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Ruin at County Cork Ireland
On the cusp of the new calendar year, I find myself deeply resting. There is a sense in me of deep need for rest. Preparing for the wheel of time to keep turning. 
I have been contemplating David Whyte’s poem “The House of Belonging” (this is an excerpt-the full poem is at the end of this blog):

“This is the bright home 
in which I live,
this is where
I ask 
my friends
to come,
this is where I want
to love all the things
it has taken me so long
to learn to love.

This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
like the house of belonging.”

For a long time I felt like I did not belong to this land of Australia.
I belonged with my family – a very large and noisy family - who live here. I was born here. But I always felt drawn to the land of Ireland. And, it’s true that I do feel most at home there – spiritually – and “in my skin”- in a way that has been so hard to find here. 
I realise that the bones of my ancestors are not here in Australia. The layers of earth under my feet do not contain them. And yet, my home is created here. The bright cords of my heart’s love are here. My parents, my siblings, my children and grandchildren and my beloved partner. 
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My granddaughter Luna in my garden at Katoomba
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Luna and I in my garden at Katoomba
Here in these mountains “is where I want to love all the things it has taken me so long to learn to love.” I am here. It is now, and “there is no house like the house of belonging.”

At the end of the Calendar year and moving into 2021, may you find and dwell in your house of belonging, and may the year to come hold love and many dreams-come-true.

Here is the full poem.
'The House of Belonging'
BY DAVID WHYTE

I awoke
this morning
in the gold light
turning this way
and that

​thinking for
a moment
it was one
day
like any other.

But
the veil had gone
from my
darkened heart
and
I thought

it must have been the quiet
candlelight
that filled my room,

it must have been
the first
easy rhythm
with which I breathed
myself to sleep,

it must have been
the prayer I said
speaking to the otherness
of the night.

And
I thought
this is the good day
you could
meet your love,

this is the gray day
someone close
to you could die.

This is the day
you realize
how easily the thread
is broken
between this world
and the next

and I found myself
sitting up
in the quiet pathway
of light,

the tawny
close grained cedar
burning round
me like fire
and all the angels of this housely
heaven ascending
through the first
roof of light
the sun has made.

This is the bright home
 in which I live,
 this is where
 I ask
 my friends
 to come,
 this is where I want
 to love all the things
 it has taken me so long
 to learn to love.

This is the temple
of my adult aloneness
and I belong
to that aloneness
as I belong to my life.

There is no house
 like the house of belonging.
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December Newsletter

15/12/2020

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Photo credit: https://www.leomoonastrology.co.uk/single-post/2020/02/08/NEW-MOON-DATES-2020
Hi There
Although I have trained in many psychotherapeutic modalities since the 1980s, over all that time, the modality I kept going back to was Psychodrama.

Psychodrama is a group psychotherapy action method which was developed by Dr Jacob Levy Moreno (1889-1974) last century. The method is also used in one-to-one and relationship therapy these days. Psychodrama is also a developmental theory comprising of a theory of personality and development, called role theory. It is a sociological theory comprising of the science of sociometry: the measurement of relationships and connection in groups and community. 

The reasons I love psychodrama in particular and why I chose to train as a psychodramatist (which took 12 quite intense years) are many:
  • It’s ALL about relationships
  • It involves engagement and development of thinking, feeling and action (the 3 components of role), which few other psychotherapies do.
  • Creativity and Spontaneity are the cornerstones of psychodrama
  • It works
A note on the length of training: I completed my training (through AANZPA) relatively quickly. The training is not comparable to other education systems. It is based on role development, and progression through the training is driven by the trainee to a large extent. It also involves extensive personal development work. That is, my thesis and practical assessments were done only when my roles had developed adequately for me to step forward and say I was ready. 

Here is a quote I love from Zerka Moreno (in “The Quintessential Zerka” p.43). (She was J.L.Moreno’s wife) 
“Moreno’s vision was so comprehensive. With him, one worked all the time because life was constantly presenting itself to us. Everything was about relationships-ours to each other, extending to our near and far social atoms.”


Read Full Newsletter Here
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The Cave of Shadows

30/11/2020

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Image from Disney movie of Peter Pan (1953)
Have you ever wondered
Where in your body
Or perhaps your mind
Is tucked away
The Cave of Shadows?
And if the Keeper of the Cave (a fierce warrior by all accounts)
Would allow you in (or perhaps let them out)
Who or what might these shadows be?
Yours
You

There might be a tuneful singer
Who comes warily to the cave entrance
And suddenly shouts in retreat
“But I cannot sing!”
And as you lie in the softness of dreams
You hear your own beautiful voice of song as it drifts from some dark cranny at the back of the Cave.

And here are the terrified/terrorised and angry ones.
The Keeper takes special care that they remain inside
They are small. Tiny and misshapen
They have the sneakiest ways of escape
And when they get past the ever-vigilant Keeper of the Cave
(because they can)
They grow
Like a stain of ink in water.
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Image from Disney movie of Peter Pan (1953)
Have you ever wondered who or what
Lives in your Cave of Shadows
And have you met the Keeper of the Cave?
Yet.

The Cave of Shadows is the residence somewhere within your psyche and body of all those disowned, disavowed roles in you. They reside-pushed into the dark as things that are fear full or provocative or unacceptable somehow.

A cordial meeting with the Keeper of the Cave is a necessary venture if you wish to become intimate with the unconscious in your life. It is the work of a lifetime to bring the shadows of the unconscious into consciousness. Only then will we have a choice.
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November 2020 Newsletter

11/11/2020

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Here in the southern hemisphere Beltaine came last week (8th November) and we are still glowing in its’ aftermath - we are heading fast toward summer time. Last year we had horrendous bush fires, however it seems much damper this year in the Blue Mountains. 
I spent a wonderful 5 days off grid with my oldest friend Annie during this past lunar cycle. We have been friends since I was 11 and she was 12. There is such extraordinary value and pleasure in being with someone who has a long and close connection. Nourishment - which is one of my ongoing commitments to myself.

Full newsletter here
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Spirit Guides, The Beloved and Cranky Old Ladies

19/10/2020

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The 'Biddy' doll is created by a Crone woman who lives near Doolin in County Clare Ireland and was purchased at a tiny eccentric shop that also sells rare books that I can't remember the name of now.

Below is a letter I wrote to Biddy, my Spirit Guide**(see footnote).  I had been on a “Writing the Wild Soul” workshop with Geneen Marie Haugen (a wonderful writer and poet. See more of her via the Animas Valley Institute and read her poem “The Return”) Her provocation to us was “write a love letter to the beloved of soul: a mysterious other, the muse, the inner beloved, not a human beloved”. The following letter is the result.
Dear Biddy,
I can hear you 'humph!' as you fold your arms under your breasts. And there, right there, are your squinting and disbelieving eyes as you screw up your face when I tell you that I am about to write a letter to my beloved. (I do love your cranky wrinkled brow, and how your eyes, nearly disappeared into the wrinkled folds of flesh, still twinkle with love and tolerance of my frailties).
“So?”  I hear you say.

Biddy, you are my beloved. I don’t know how long you have been with me – maybe for longer than I have been me. Partly I don’t know because my listening skills are not up to par OR I have been afraid OR both.

I see your frustration at the long years of my ignoring you when you kept on and kept on knocking loudly at the door of my soul.
And every time I remembered and called for you (or noticed you knocking when my senses were for a brief time more astute) You were there. You are there.
Cranky – “It’s about time!” I would and still do always hear you say, tapping your foot impatiently.
And then you simply hold steady – loving me and guiding me.
You gifted me an Ancient Feminine Sovereignty – The Cailleach – her sacred places and magic.
You gifted me sanctuary – a small stone cottage on the side of a green hill of lush grass with a falling down stone fence and a creaking wooden gate enclosing a shambolic garden full of herbs.

I love my refuge in the dark womb of that cottage – fire blazing, slightly smoky, herbs drying as they hang from the ceiling. Safe and whole.


You told me :
  • I Am Creatrix - You meet my shaken belief in this with irritable demeanour and a laugh. You call my times of doubt “Cailleach’s variation on my theme”. I smile too.
  • The truth is in the relationship – not written on the inside of the back of my skull. You taught me how to speak the unspeakable and then afterward how to live with the repercussions.
  • I could create a different world – or at least make a difference in the world – if I look straight into the eyes of the other and speak what I see. And then listen in return.
  • I had the courage to do these things and more – and kept telling me, even when I told you I couldn’t as the weight of the dark heavens seemed to descend upon me.

You have taught me to sit alongside others in their greatest hellish darkness and to hold them with gentleness and kindness until they find that one tiny spark or flame which gives them strength to move forward – one tiny step at a time. (although, I hear you remind me….sometimes they LEAP when you least expect it!)
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You are the prayer for my ancestors and my future ones.
I know you when I crawl into the tombs on Sliabh na Caillig or walk the Cliffs at Hag’s head or sit in my front garden under the graceful oak branches of Sila na Gig.

I know you when I look into the eyes of my precious grandchildren, Kyden, Leighara, Sophie, Luna, Aiva and Axel. I know you now, when I look in a mirror, or a reflecting window or watch my hands move.

Thank you for standing with me in my darkest times, through the mulching times as I grow into my strength.
I love you.

PS. You may now cease with the tiny irish jig you are performing under your skirts and the crinkled look of “I told you so!” in your eyes. Smugness is deeply unbecoming and beneath your dignity…. Hah!!!

**Spirit Guide: having never quite reconciled the definition of such a being between “are they real” “are they imagined” and “are they an introjected role”***: I have to say- I don’t know and I don’t care: she is present for me and she works hard with me (and btw, loves me). 
***Role theory is a peculiarly psychodramatic way of thinking. You can read more about psychodrama on my website: www.katherinecounselling.com
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October 2020 Newsletter

19/10/2020

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How are you? I've been working on organising and streamlining my business recently to bring further order and balance to my life, including a commitment to a regular newsletter. I'm thinking about once a month, so do look out for them.
Read Full Newsletter Here

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the Last Irish Witch: Visiting Biddy Early

16/7/2017

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 It was a fine Irish day in County Clare when I made my visit to Biddy Early. I knew she was reputedly the last woman in Ireland to be charged with Witchcraft under the Witchcraft Act of 1586. That was in 1865 (only 3 centuries of terror). She was taken to court and acquitted- reportedly because no witnesses would come forth against her. She was born and lived all her life in County Clare: 1798 to 1874. A fiercely independent red head, she was famous for her healing skills and for her capacity to communicate with and cure the wrath of the faery folk. There is a story of her Blue Bottle (which has never been found)- she would gaze into the bottle and it would give her inspiration for the cure that was needed at that moment. People came from far and wide to obtain Biddy’s cures. I was keen to visit her place and feel herfor myself!
I knew it would be hard to find her. I had some clues from the internet. And her cottage was long for sale (still is, as a matter of fact, 1 acre of land and a ruined cottage, 75,000 euro- last year it was only 45,000 euro (approx.. $68,000AUD), so the irish economy must be picking up, or perhaps there is more interest in Biddy these days. But even the real estate map wasn’t very useful to find it. We (my intrepid investigator partner Geoff and me) knew the road she was on was on was a country road – an “R” road which usually meant that it was sealed and that there was enough room for 2 cars to pass each other(just).
True for this road. However, it was very winding and had almost no places to safely stop. After going up and down the road a
few times and not spotting anything that looked like a ruin or even a forest entrance, we turned off the road and came upon an elderly gentleman at the front of his elderly house. “Do you know where Biddy Early’s cottage is?” (me, slightly embarrassed about my obvious eccentricities)  “I do”, he said (without batting an eye lid, and as matter of fact as the sun rising every day) “I will take you there, follow me.”
As is the way of the Irish, he jumped in his car, and we followed him. No questions asked. He stopped on a bend in the road
. Hazard lights on (ours anyway, he had that thing the Irish have which is a trust that other cars will drive around you and not into you…………… doesn’t always work, mind).
Next thing I know, I am walking up a gloomy muddy track with this man. The house is not far from the road. It is in a wood. I didn’t stay for long. I felt anxious about being with this strange man I did not know. I am not sure why. Geoff was only down on the road 100 metres (or less) away (down on the road with the car- he has a magical belief that
staying with the car will stop someone from running into it) The picture of the cottage is above.
I could feel her there and was disturbed by my Irish gent guide who kept bobbing up and down at the window when I least expected him. I was sure I could see her shape in the wall. Take a look at this photo below.
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There are rather threatening stories on the internet about Biddy Early’s spirit. That she does terrible things to cars that belong to people who come to visit. That she gets angry if you do not leave her a gift when you visit. That she did terrible things to the man who purchased her cottage in the 1970s and renovated it, trying to create a tourist attraction. Apparently he went broke. The cottage certainly doesn’t show any evidence now of ever being renovated.
I did not find her threatening. I did not leave a gift- although many others had (pics below): I did make a promise to come back and see her, and bring other witching women with me. She really liked that, I could tell.
This is a place for women. She is not the Last Irish Witch.
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The Hag and The Witch- Meeting the Cailleach

6/7/2017

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I am standing on Slieve na Callaigh in Ireland and feeling quite astonished that a windblown woman wearing an official looking uniform is offering me a torch (and to hold my bag) so that I can enter the Cairn on this particular hill of the Cailleach. The wind is fierce, there are no lines of people, no cash registers. Geoff is not far away but there are no others.

I ask her "How do you say "Cailleach" in Ireland?" (a fiercely debated question in some quarters of my life). She says "kA-lee-Achhhh"- that soft ending that the Irish do so well right at the back of the throat that I have never been able to emulate. I tell her that the women at home in Australia call me that- "Cailleach". Her eyes grow round and she says in a voice that to my hearing is a gentle acknowledgement- "Ahh!! The Witch!!" and she nods slightly to me. As I have just now come from sitting on the "Hag's Chair" right next to the Cairn I feel warmly that somehow I have been named correctly.
And I entered the inky cold blackness with the torch, and this is what I saw.

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What do we know about the Cailleach?

She is one of the ancient deities about whom stories have been word of mouth- from a time when entertainment took the form of stories around the fire. She is known as Hag, Witch, Wise Woman, Healer, The Shaper of the Land.
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There is so much to explore, so much to learn. At this Cairn, on this hill, I know deep in my bones that meeting the Cailleach is entering into deep, deep relationship with the wildness of the land and the wildness of woman. Deep bone felt wildness.

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