In the Druid tradition, the Cailleach is the goddess who represents the dark time, the time of tearing down and decay, but also it is she who builds the bones of the land, the bringer of the mountains. Within nature and our own lives we find the same cycles of darkness, death and decay leading to renewal and rebirth. We cannot have one without the other. Hail to the Cailleach, an essential aspect of ...
Forsythia and Maple Leaves Welcome to the Cailleach, Goddess of the winter months. 🤍 The Cailleach, or the hag, has been feared and revered across Celtic cultures in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, for hundreds of years. Depicted as a veiled hag or an old crone, with one eye and deathly pale skin, she is said to have a bow-legged leaping gait, striding across mountains with a power to shape and ...
These are some pictures taken early this morning just as the sun was coming up. It seems like winter is finally beginning to arrive at Crossing Hedgerows Sanctuary and Farm. Yet we only have three weeks left until Imbolc which marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. But for now, the Cailleach is bringing her wisdom and beauty to the land and we stand in awe of her presence. ...
Now we have entered the season of the Yew tree - sentinel of death and the graveyard, rebirth and eternity. English Yew Tree This is likewise the Cailleach’s time. She brings us her wisdom as the old crone who presides over death. She is the storm, and the ancient creator of the land. She is the cold and the ice, the Queen of winter. The yew and the Cailleach are part ...
During our Samhain ritual, we honored the Cailleach, whose work encompasses death and decay. She is the hag of winter and the face of the goddess who is the crone. Many traditions have Holy Ones who embody this. Here at Crossing Hedgerows Farm, we recently built a new chicken coop. One of the reasons I wanted to do this, was so we could have a dirt floor and keep a compost pile going inside the coop for ...