REGISTRATION is OPEN!
Click HERE for registration form.
Options to attend: Full Weekend, Saturday Only & Workshop Only
Brighid is an ancient role model for modern women - she was a leader and a revolutionary, a healer and a wise woman. The myths, traditions and tales of St. Brighid are often merged with the Celtic Goddess Brighid (also a powerful figure in the pre-Christian pantheon) giving us an extraordinary figure of exploration and inspiration.
“Brighid provides an image of empowerment, integrity, courage, and complexity. She was pagan and Christian, rich and poor, slave and free. She invites us, therefore, to focus on what we have in common, rather than on what divides us."
- Mary Condren
Throughout the world, trees have been regarded as a symbol of life: their bodies stand firm and strong within our current time and landscape while their roots seek the depths of the underworld and their branches reach for the heavens. Like women, each tree has a story that is unique and bears witness to her own experiences, and yet those stories are interwoven and overlapping, rooted in the common experience of womanhood. This year’s theme, “Rooted & Reaching” taps into women’s connection to the earth, to the seasons and cycles, and to the magic within a grove of trees. Come and be a tree within our forest.
Dr. Mary Condren - National Director of the Institute for Feminism and Religion - Dublin, Ireland
Author of The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland and her forthcoming book Brigit of Ireland: Spirit of Old Ireland.
Keynote Lecture:
The Festival of Brighid, also called Imbolc, is said to have been a 'holyday for spinners'. This description reflects women's ancient role of spinning and weaving the fragile threads of community. In very many ways, our ancestors sought to promote personal, communal and cosmic alignment, through their work, rituals, symbols, and spiritual practices. A potent symbol for these activities is the Irish crios (pronounced kriss), also called a belt or girdle in many cultures throughout the world. In her presentations during this weekend, Mary Condren will explore the significance of the crios as an artefact cultivating such alignment. On Saturday afternoon, you also have an opportunity to make a crios for yourself, your family, or community, weaving precious threads to remember your ancestors and welcoming new life into your world.
Mary Condren Th.D. has degrees in theology, sociology, and social anthropology from the University of Hull; religion and society from Boston College, and a doctorate in religion, gender and culture from Harvard University.
She is a Research Associate in Women’s Studies at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity College Dublin and Fellow of the University of Winchester in England; a former Research Associate in Women’s Studies at Harvard University, and has published widely on issues of feminism and religion, and on the interrelationship between religion, violence and gender. Mary is the author of the Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland and her forthcoming book Brigit of Ireland: Spirit of Old Europe.
At the festival, you will attend ONE of the following workshops. Click on the name of the workshop provider for full details and bio. Please include your top three selections on your registration form, in the order of preference.
Michele Barnes – Yoga for Your Inner Goddess
Lorenna Bousquet-Kacera – The Ecological Self: Reclaiming the Truth, Reclaiming Our Future
Holly Burn-Crain – Dancing in the Sacred Grove
Joan Clayton – The Tree of Tales
Penn Kemp – Celebrating Tree: A Writing Workshop - FULL
Margie O’Connor – Shape Shifting with the Tree Goddess - FULL
Sophia Bonnie Wodin – Celebration & Storytelling: Rooted in Tradition, We Branch Out to the Future
Friday
6:00 pm - :6:30 pm - Registration
7:00 pm (sharp) - 10:00 pm - Evening programming
Saturday
9:00 am - 10:00 am - Breakfast
10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Morning Ritual, Keynote Lecture
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm - Lunch, Vendors
2:30 pm - 4:30 pm - Afternoon Workshop
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm - Free time, informal programming
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm - Supper
7:00 pm - 7:45 pm - Evening ritual
7:45 pm - 9:30 pm - Concert: Celtic Harpist Jennifer White followed by an open mic & Ceilidh
Sunday
9:00 am - 10:00 am - Breakfast
10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Brighid's Crios & Cloak Ritual, Closing Remarks
For further information before registration, please contact us.
