My wonky basket that I wove in the woods back in June
When I went to Willow and Wild in the woods back in June, I learned how to weave a basket. When I returned to reality, I didn’t know what to do with it. I felt like it deserved to hold something special, but I didn’t know what that something special was, or should be. So I moved it around from one part of the house to another, hoping its purpose would be revealed to me.
Then I decided to try something. It had been on my mind for a very long time to learn macrame; I have powerful memories of my mother practicing macrame when I was a child. In the last couple of years, my mum has had two strokes, and she struggles to walk and talk. The idea of carrying on a practice which she absolutely adored seems important to me. I guess it makes me feel closer to her in a meaningful way now that language has lost its resonance. Anyway, I bought some string, opened up Youtube, and took the plunge.
What I found was that macrame is not a world away from weaving. It is the twisting together of fibres into interesting shapes, which may or may not be as functional and useful as they are beautiful. And I found it equally as absorbing and meditative as weaving willow. And with that, the purpose of my basket was revealed; I now keep my macrame tools and ropes in my willow basket, and something about that feels so right and fills me with joy.
One of my mum’s macrame wall hangings beside a portrait of myself and my sister. Apologies for the picture quality; it was taken around 1977/ 78.
This year, my journey with the Cailleach has unexpectedly brought me to a love of fibre, of weaving fibre, of twisting cordage, knotting string, bending willow, spinning wool, and so much more yet to come.
What I’d like to know is: what unexpected discovery has your H A G journey brought you? Is it a traditional craft? A dangerous sport not usually associated with crones? A particular knowledge or wisdom? A solo journey into the unknown? Digging your hands into the soil? Has H A G-dom changed you, or something in you, in a surprising way?
What’s your story? We all have one, and I look forward to reading yours. Hugs and blessings to you all.
Your newfound love of weaving fascinates me, Alí but weaving has shown up in different ways for me as I embrace my hagitude (a nod to Sharon Blackie). I'm learning to weave dreams and stories, nature and Reiki, rocks and wave. In my morning meditations, though, the willow keeps showing up as a dream image, a guardian or protector.
Hi Charli, sorry I'm only just getting bck to you now, I've been away for a few days. Yes, dream weaving and word weaving,the weaving of energy and light in Reiki, of the animate and 'inaminate' in nature, these are all ways of knowing, different manifestations of knowledge. You are weaving yourself as student and teacher. What an incredible journey you are on! I feel I am being drawn back to the land, to the wildness of it, that I have become too far removed from it in my lifetime and must rediscover its ways and its gifts. I am half way through Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass at the moment, it couldn't have come to me at a more opportune moment. The reciprocity of human and plants working together, how the wildness needs interaction with humankind to prosper is an unexpected lesson. With regard to the willow as guardian, that makes sense to me considering its association with water, and your previous comments of women as guardians of water. Perhaps the willow is guardian for the women who are guardians of the water.
And see how these conversations weave, too, and always, that calling to come back to the land, to the sacred. You have my wind lit up with ideas of weaving as knowing, and my heart open to the willow as a guardian of women who guard the water. That feels right. Robin Wall Kimmerer is worth listening to, as well. She has the intonation of the old ways, speaking in beauty but with knowledge. I see that in your writing, too.
What a lovely thing to say! Here in Ireland so much knowledge has been lost, stamped out under the boots of colonialism and wiped out by the famine. But Irish people are open to learning from other indigenous peoples, and learning from spending time with the land and the plants themselves, and even from scrutinising the old stories for the clues they might hold. It's establishing a new-old tradition I think. Kimmerer says the native peoples don't dictate learning but encourage people to go out and discover for themselves, or words to that effect, and that the knieledge gained will vary from person to person. But there are also many stories which guard against taking too much from the land, and describe the consequences. We dont have that in the west. I always think that nature has the answer for all our troubles. Today in the Guardian I was reading about a scientist who discovered a microbe that can break down plastic. Of course, it is being used for recycling plastic commercially, rather than breaking it down into harmless compounds... no money for investors in saving the world and nature, I guess.
Our lost ways gave rise to the culture of profit. Nature indeed has answers and Anishinaabe teachings say we are at a crossroads where humanity needs to choose between materialism and nature.
Yes, it does seem that way. Some humans are probably going to ruin everything for the sake of their own personal wealth. The earth will still survive, though we may not. All major civilisations have collapsed throughout history, victims of their own success, but they never had the power we do to create destruction on a planetary scale.
Omg you would love it! Wandered round the raised beds and a glass house full of tomstoes...heaven! All organically grown. Food vegan but organic and fabulous! And so many amazing courses going on today! The whole aesthetic is wonderful. If we all lived life that way there would probably not be such a climate disaster!
I have always thought an important element of Cailleach understanding is ‘weaving’. My understanding has always been of the underground, underworld ‘role’ being not limited to flow of water, but also the weaving of discarded debris from the last harvest and natural abundance into vessels of new life.
When humans make baskets, its not only from willow and hazel but also from dried straw and grasses too. We make things maybe for winter storage but also for spring and next summer use too. I have made new raised beds for the spring by weaving willow and hazel harvested the year before. People make votives for offerings around Imbolc from materials gathered the previous Autumn. I tend to often imagine similar happening constantly through winter, despite above ground being quiet.
I cannot think of examples at present, but there are some Gaelic translations into English that hover between weaving the underworld from Autumn to Spring and weaving with willow. There’s something related to the Hill of Keash related to that, and wish I could remember it. Aside from that, I’ve also always loved a bit of a proverb I heard as a child that ‘willow is the conduit between Moon and Water, and that’s why we are blessed and healed with water’.
I live in Iteland's lake country, according to local folklore there are 365 lakes in Co Cavan, one for every day of the year, and boy do we have a LOT of willow, so yes, that makes a lot of sense to me. The willow loves water, it has to be soaked before you can weave it. 💕
Our Tree Labyrinth had a lot of willow, combined with alder. The land was too boggy to walk on most of the year, but two years after willow and alder was planted, the Tree Labyrinth was walkable all year round.
Woah... so much in this comment, John, I hardly know where to start! Overall, I understand from this that weaving is very much associated with the folklore of the Cailleach? I totally get the weaving of new life below ground whilst all seems quiet above ground during the winter.
If you remember the thing about Keash, let me know, that sounds intriguing!
I'm actually planning to write a piece on the Cailleach and water, soon.
So I guess my interest in all things weaving comes as no surprise to you, then? 🤣
Oh... do you know anything about the Cailleach's club? I read somewhere that she uses a club to beat the earth into shape, and that it is made out of blackthorn, but I can't find a reliable source for it. It makes sense, its like a shilelagh, I guess. But I think that might be Scottish Gaelic tradition rather than Irish?
Anyway, thanks for your really fascinating information, I can always rely on you! 😍 Thanks John!
Did not know that! I was weaving todsy with your friend Kate Burrows and her husband, Alan... what lovely people they are! We were at the Slieve Aughty centre in Loughrea, what an amazing set up, have you ever been?
Its a long time since I have heard of the Cailleach ‘beating the earth. ‘Camán Buachalan’ I think I heard it as? In folklore originally a sheaf of ragwort gathered partially to prevent poisoning the cattle. This sheaf used to beat the leftovers of the season back into the ground to provide life to incubate for the following season. A bit like how and why we do composting and mulching at this time.
Its seems the folklore changed from ragwort to sticks, or merged, as this is also well connected to the Scottish Shinty and Irish Hurling. Both games originated in Persia and Balkans. I suspect these games originated from the earliest settled farms women beating the fields after harvest to create ‘on the spot’ compost to regenerate the land for the next season.
Either the women, or lads, somehow got the idea to fill a leather pouch with nuts or seeds to beat around with the sticks for a bit of teamwork fun. After harvest, between Lughnasadh and Samhain, when farmers had assets, it was also gambling time. So I’m sure wagers were placed on teams beating around the leather pouch.
Today, I would rather be thinking of ‘Cailleach beating the land’ being our composting and mulching rather than a sport.
I think misunderstanding is more likely to be behind this. Ragwort is perhaps the biggest menace on land, but it only appears on poor low nutrition soil. That Caillach beating traditions would only make things worse as it could spread seeds fast.
Pulling ragwort plants during wet September days is best, then burn them on Samhain fires, and put that ash, plus other compost back to the land to make it fertile and unattractive to ragwort. The pulling of ragwort on wet soil September days should be done 5 years running to have good effect.
But ragwort is the only plant that the cinnabar moth lays its eggs on. If the ragwort is destroyed the cinnabar moths are wiped out. I know ragwort is toxic to livestock, but they know this and avoid it when they are grazing. I suspect it is only a problem when whole fields of grass are cut and bundled and dried for livestock to eat that it becomes a problem. If that is the case, then surely the humans are the cause of the problem, not the plant itself, by their actions. It's a strange one, alright. You've never heard of her club being made from blackthorn then? I cant imagine the Cailleach beating the land into shape with a bunch of ragwort, especially not in winter.
Thank’s for that, as it’s a reminder that all species are on this earth for a reason. Cattle in fields was a major alteration from what was once, but many of us humans depend on that, have done for 1000s of years
As for sticks I’ve only heard and relate to willow and birch for beating the land to compost the debris. However, I have heard a few times of sloes and cailleach connection, so there’s a blackthorn connection of blessing when sloe jelly is made.
Also there is a Scottish superstition when seeing fallen Blackthorn leaves that have rotted to leave black skeletons, meaning the Caileach is around bringing winter weather.
Also , bad lack to pick up fallen Blackthorn sticks in winter and tap anything with them as that calls upon the Cailleach to bring on increased wintery weather.
But I still think the ragwort story is more related to mulching and composting, but not with ragwort in it.
Your newfound love of weaving fascinates me, Alí but weaving has shown up in different ways for me as I embrace my hagitude (a nod to Sharon Blackie). I'm learning to weave dreams and stories, nature and Reiki, rocks and wave. In my morning meditations, though, the willow keeps showing up as a dream image, a guardian or protector.
Hi Charli, sorry I'm only just getting bck to you now, I've been away for a few days. Yes, dream weaving and word weaving,the weaving of energy and light in Reiki, of the animate and 'inaminate' in nature, these are all ways of knowing, different manifestations of knowledge. You are weaving yourself as student and teacher. What an incredible journey you are on! I feel I am being drawn back to the land, to the wildness of it, that I have become too far removed from it in my lifetime and must rediscover its ways and its gifts. I am half way through Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass at the moment, it couldn't have come to me at a more opportune moment. The reciprocity of human and plants working together, how the wildness needs interaction with humankind to prosper is an unexpected lesson. With regard to the willow as guardian, that makes sense to me considering its association with water, and your previous comments of women as guardians of water. Perhaps the willow is guardian for the women who are guardians of the water.
And see how these conversations weave, too, and always, that calling to come back to the land, to the sacred. You have my wind lit up with ideas of weaving as knowing, and my heart open to the willow as a guardian of women who guard the water. That feels right. Robin Wall Kimmerer is worth listening to, as well. She has the intonation of the old ways, speaking in beauty but with knowledge. I see that in your writing, too.
What a lovely thing to say! Here in Ireland so much knowledge has been lost, stamped out under the boots of colonialism and wiped out by the famine. But Irish people are open to learning from other indigenous peoples, and learning from spending time with the land and the plants themselves, and even from scrutinising the old stories for the clues they might hold. It's establishing a new-old tradition I think. Kimmerer says the native peoples don't dictate learning but encourage people to go out and discover for themselves, or words to that effect, and that the knieledge gained will vary from person to person. But there are also many stories which guard against taking too much from the land, and describe the consequences. We dont have that in the west. I always think that nature has the answer for all our troubles. Today in the Guardian I was reading about a scientist who discovered a microbe that can break down plastic. Of course, it is being used for recycling plastic commercially, rather than breaking it down into harmless compounds... no money for investors in saving the world and nature, I guess.
Our lost ways gave rise to the culture of profit. Nature indeed has answers and Anishinaabe teachings say we are at a crossroads where humanity needs to choose between materialism and nature.
Yes, it does seem that way. Some humans are probably going to ruin everything for the sake of their own personal wealth. The earth will still survive, though we may not. All major civilisations have collapsed throughout history, victims of their own success, but they never had the power we do to create destruction on a planetary scale.
Omg you would love it! Wandered round the raised beds and a glass house full of tomstoes...heaven! All organically grown. Food vegan but organic and fabulous! And so many amazing courses going on today! The whole aesthetic is wonderful. If we all lived life that way there would probably not be such a climate disaster!
💕💞💕
Wonky = closer to god.
And the goddess???
Even closer!
That's a pretty good first attempt at basketweaving!
Thanks! I was making another one today! 💕
I hope you post a photo!
I certainly will... although it is yet again slightly wonky... much like me, I guess! 🤣
I have always thought an important element of Cailleach understanding is ‘weaving’. My understanding has always been of the underground, underworld ‘role’ being not limited to flow of water, but also the weaving of discarded debris from the last harvest and natural abundance into vessels of new life.
When humans make baskets, its not only from willow and hazel but also from dried straw and grasses too. We make things maybe for winter storage but also for spring and next summer use too. I have made new raised beds for the spring by weaving willow and hazel harvested the year before. People make votives for offerings around Imbolc from materials gathered the previous Autumn. I tend to often imagine similar happening constantly through winter, despite above ground being quiet.
I cannot think of examples at present, but there are some Gaelic translations into English that hover between weaving the underworld from Autumn to Spring and weaving with willow. There’s something related to the Hill of Keash related to that, and wish I could remember it. Aside from that, I’ve also always loved a bit of a proverb I heard as a child that ‘willow is the conduit between Moon and Water, and that’s why we are blessed and healed with water’.
The willow is only ever found along a stream or above an underground spring.
I live in Iteland's lake country, according to local folklore there are 365 lakes in Co Cavan, one for every day of the year, and boy do we have a LOT of willow, so yes, that makes a lot of sense to me. The willow loves water, it has to be soaked before you can weave it. 💕
Our Tree Labyrinth had a lot of willow, combined with alder. The land was too boggy to walk on most of the year, but two years after willow and alder was planted, the Tree Labyrinth was walkable all year round.
Oh, how interesting. And it has remained such ever since?
Woah... so much in this comment, John, I hardly know where to start! Overall, I understand from this that weaving is very much associated with the folklore of the Cailleach? I totally get the weaving of new life below ground whilst all seems quiet above ground during the winter.
If you remember the thing about Keash, let me know, that sounds intriguing!
I'm actually planning to write a piece on the Cailleach and water, soon.
So I guess my interest in all things weaving comes as no surprise to you, then? 🤣
Oh... do you know anything about the Cailleach's club? I read somewhere that she uses a club to beat the earth into shape, and that it is made out of blackthorn, but I can't find a reliable source for it. It makes sense, its like a shilelagh, I guess. But I think that might be Scottish Gaelic tradition rather than Irish?
Anyway, thanks for your really fascinating information, I can always rely on you! 😍 Thanks John!
As for wood, Shinty sticks used to be made with willow, sometimes elder. Hurleys originally ash wood. Today many of both made from hickory.
Did not know that! I was weaving todsy with your friend Kate Burrows and her husband, Alan... what lovely people they are! We were at the Slieve Aughty centre in Loughrea, what an amazing set up, have you ever been?
No, not been yet, but rave reviews from everyone I’ve heard go there.
Its a long time since I have heard of the Cailleach ‘beating the earth. ‘Camán Buachalan’ I think I heard it as? In folklore originally a sheaf of ragwort gathered partially to prevent poisoning the cattle. This sheaf used to beat the leftovers of the season back into the ground to provide life to incubate for the following season. A bit like how and why we do composting and mulching at this time.
Its seems the folklore changed from ragwort to sticks, or merged, as this is also well connected to the Scottish Shinty and Irish Hurling. Both games originated in Persia and Balkans. I suspect these games originated from the earliest settled farms women beating the fields after harvest to create ‘on the spot’ compost to regenerate the land for the next season.
Either the women, or lads, somehow got the idea to fill a leather pouch with nuts or seeds to beat around with the sticks for a bit of teamwork fun. After harvest, between Lughnasadh and Samhain, when farmers had assets, it was also gambling time. So I’m sure wagers were placed on teams beating around the leather pouch.
Today, I would rather be thinking of ‘Cailleach beating the land’ being our composting and mulching rather than a sport.
Ragwort??? Why ragwort? There must be some story behind that...
I think misunderstanding is more likely to be behind this. Ragwort is perhaps the biggest menace on land, but it only appears on poor low nutrition soil. That Caillach beating traditions would only make things worse as it could spread seeds fast.
Pulling ragwort plants during wet September days is best, then burn them on Samhain fires, and put that ash, plus other compost back to the land to make it fertile and unattractive to ragwort. The pulling of ragwort on wet soil September days should be done 5 years running to have good effect.
But ragwort is the only plant that the cinnabar moth lays its eggs on. If the ragwort is destroyed the cinnabar moths are wiped out. I know ragwort is toxic to livestock, but they know this and avoid it when they are grazing. I suspect it is only a problem when whole fields of grass are cut and bundled and dried for livestock to eat that it becomes a problem. If that is the case, then surely the humans are the cause of the problem, not the plant itself, by their actions. It's a strange one, alright. You've never heard of her club being made from blackthorn then? I cant imagine the Cailleach beating the land into shape with a bunch of ragwort, especially not in winter.
Thank’s for that, as it’s a reminder that all species are on this earth for a reason. Cattle in fields was a major alteration from what was once, but many of us humans depend on that, have done for 1000s of years
As for sticks I’ve only heard and relate to willow and birch for beating the land to compost the debris. However, I have heard a few times of sloes and cailleach connection, so there’s a blackthorn connection of blessing when sloe jelly is made.
Also there is a Scottish superstition when seeing fallen Blackthorn leaves that have rotted to leave black skeletons, meaning the Caileach is around bringing winter weather.
Also , bad lack to pick up fallen Blackthorn sticks in winter and tap anything with them as that calls upon the Cailleach to bring on increased wintery weather.
But I still think the ragwort story is more related to mulching and composting, but not with ragwort in it.
There is much similar with indigenous American tribal games such as lacrosse. I hadn't connected it to harvest/tilling before though.
Indeed incredibly similar and I wonder if they connect with the origins I mentioned?
Yeah, I don't know, but it would make sense.
Darn I gave a long reply to that, and it vanished! I will try another editor.