As the season turns and the days shorten those embodying the court for our upcoming Samhuinn Fire Festival celebration have been called forth.

Our Cailleach this year will be embodied by the wonderfully talented Kat Bradley.

This year’s Cailleach is the keeper of the fire at the heart of the community. She holds space for the deep breath we must take together, to safeguard us through the uncertain winter to come. She is a witch, a shapeshifter, and a storyteller, and holds the balance between light and dark in her claws. Her journey this Samhuinn is that of a spiral dance, inward, through the dark of the cave, and then out into a moonlit Winter night populated by beings from the Otherworld. Her voice joins the community’s voices as we come together through an act of digital magic, in a chorus of celebration, embracing winter and the waning of the year. 

Our Winter King will be the inestimable Rob Thorburn and last, but not least, our Summer King will be the joyful Dave Rowell.  

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Summer and Winter coming together to help us remember the importance of celebration and connection, in a year where these things feel like a distant memory. This is not a time for battles and conflict. It’s time to honour that which we’ve lost and seek to move forwards positively. To fuse the old ways with the new, and to take a fresh look at how the seasons interact with and enrich each other.