Her hair is a waterfall
And Her body is a mountain
And She is the land
And the land remembers

As summer rolls out in long days, in heat and in rainfall, in growth and into harvest, we wish for ease and peace.  But the world beyond our threshold feels increasingly overwhelming, increasingly uncertain, increasingly threatened and threatening.  

There are times when it feels like everything is moving in the wrong direction, when the present feels like too much.  

And so I’m drawn to that aspect of Her which, in bringing seasonal change, is a reminder that we are all part of a bigger cycle, a longer story.  That not all narratives are short, and not all situations reach a quick or pretty resolution. The deep cut of the valley is formed through years of the river wearing it away. 

Living in the present requires us to situate ourselves in these long cycles of history and of nature. That doesn’t mean that we throw our hands to the sky and wait for things to change. She reminds us to take a breath, to widen our focus.  Get some perspective, ignore the chatter, and do the work.  When the world is on fire, gather your community in, connect to your community.   

So as winter approaches – physical or metaphorical – what have you done to prepare?  Can you look the Crone in the eye and say that you have done the work?  Have you shown your best self?  Have you led with love and empathy? Did you take the time to step back and look for nuance?

What I want to bring of Her, and Her story (and it is Her story, not mine, I’m just getting to hold it for a season), is Radical Connection.  Are you connecting with nature?  Realising that we’re all on this spinning rock together and it’s our duty to take care of it?  Connecting with human experience, realising that we have more in common with working people all over the planet than billionaires?  Connecting with your honest, authentic self?  Looked for the things we have in common, rather than what divides us?  Have you reflected, rather than just reacted?  Do you have the courage to be vulnerable?

Connection is a radical act in a world where division is a tactic.

I see Her most clearly as the protector of the Deer – I would warmly encourage groups with connections to animals, and the folklore of Scotland.  And as a Cailleach based in Glasgow, about to take part in my twelfth Samhuinn, and who’s run Glasgow-based groups/projects for the last two festivals… I say to prospective GOs and project leaders outwith Edinburgh: you really don’t need to be based in Edinburgh to take part. 

To prospective Kings / Queens / representatives of Summer and Winter!  Make yourselves known.  You are the embodiment of the immediate that is this turn, right now, of the cycle. She would like to hear what you have to say.

---

_{Image credits}

_{Samhuinn 24 (Lunistice) Siri Juulia Pantzar, Beltane 25 (Town Foxes) Charlotte ML, Beltane 23 (Myoinn) Richard P. Winpenny, Samhuinn 22 (Blue) Neil Barton, Samhuinn 2019 (Beasties) Vince Graham, Samhuinn 18 (Cailleach’s helper & puppet maker) Neil Barton, Beltane 18 (Convergence) Asier Goikoetxea, Samhuinn 2017 (Cailleachan) Vince Graham, Samhuinn 2016 (Dark Bower) Martin McCarthy, Samhuinn 2014 (Event Coordinator) Michelle Linnane.}