hag; noun, plural noun: hags
a witch.
an ugly old woman.
Similar: crone, old woman, witch, gorgon, cow, old cow, old bag, old bat.
H A G is an email newsletter that arises from the intersection of female senescense with landscape, both mythical and natural.
In the old stories of Ireland, a woman past her childbearing years is often referred to as ‘hag’, or ‘crone’. Yet she also possessed great power; she could, for instance, confer kingship rights to a man either by sleeping with him, or offering him refreshment; who knows what magic swirled within the vessel she embodied, or the cup she offered. She was inextricably connected with the landscape, with its creation, and its movement through the seasons. She embodied the land.
In the flux of physical female aging, there is a maelstrom of energy, the journey of self-discovery, and the reinvention of identity. A transfer of power takes place from reproduction into self-knowledge, and it is liberating, confusing and exciting. In the midst of my own re-empowerment, I am reclaiming the word ‘hag’ for all women who have reached a certain age, but not passed their ‘best-by’ date. Female power accumulates with age. We are more than the sum of our reproductive parts.
H A G is for all women who are searching for a meaningful way to navigate their H A G years.
Senescence is the process by which a leaf buds into life, then passes from green through all its multiple shades and states until it falls from the tree, spent, having fulfilled its life’s work, and returns to the earth.
Senescence is the process of growing old. Of becoming H A G.
H A G invites you on an exploration into this anomaly of female being. Through the intersection of ancient and indigenous wisdoms, a growing awareness of the world about us, an acceptance of the interconnectedness of Other life entities, particularly our wild plant neighbours, the study of Irish mythology and folklore, laced with observations from the literary canon and engagement with literary criticism, H A G will seek to draw new meaning from what it is to be female and aging in the context of global patriarchal capitalist normativity that is on the verge of implosion.
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