I’m speaking with Celtic studies and Gaelic scholar, Michael Newton. He’s a researcher and teacher with a history of recovering and interpreting original sources of Scottish Highland language, literature and tradition. He’s written multiple books and even produced and performed on an album of songs in Gaelic, and that’s how I discovered Michael’s work on my journey to learn to sing Gaelic laments and blessings, and learning about the tradition of keening, (which is a thing I do on certain occasions).
Michael has a folk school called The Hidden Glen where he offers online courses on topics in Gaelic culture and folklore. I’ve taken two of the courses:
Reclaiming the Roots (6 classes, new intake January 2020) is about deepening the understanding of Scottish Highland heritage during the era of the clan systems and the importance of the relationship to land and relationships with the more-than-human world.
Stories of Scottish Highland Immigration is about the experience of Gaels in the New World as told by Gaels themselves – we learn about the complex reasons for mass migration through their songs and remnants of the Gaelic bardic tradition.
And a new course in 2020 I’m excited to be taking is called Radicalizing The Roots: Deconstructing Whiteness Through Gaelic lenses and Decolonizing Scottish Heritage. This one feels like a natural extension if you're doing social justice or ancestral reclamation and healing work. (6 classes, new intake January 2020)
Resources for deeper inquiry:
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 1)
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 2)
Decolonization Is For Everyone, Especially White People (Part 3)
Books:
Warriors Of The Word: The World Of the Scottish Highlanders (Kindle)
A Handbook Of The Scottish Gaelic World
Papers:
Academia.edu
This special episode includes a 30 minute trancework exercise. I stack 4 different spiritual hygiene exercises, one after the other, to connect with earth, water, air and fire.
This episode …
Lindsay Tunkl is an artist and the author of "Origins & Endings: Seeing Yourself Through the Apocalypse". It's a divination deck and self-reflection inkblot kit that helps us grapple …
Sometimes A Wild God is a powerful poem written by storyteller, author, wilderness vigil guide, and poet, Tom Hirons. In this episode, I ask the poet …
In Part 2 of my conversation with Holly, we explore collapse grief and death rituals in COVID times, and share fairly extensively about why …
Holly is a psychotherapist and a lawyer, and what she calls a “collapsitarian” – she’s spent a long time tracking collapse from multiple perspectives …
I'm talking with Mimi Young about clairolfaction, wonderful plant allies for pandemic times, and how to work with tea in a magical – even ancestral – …
You can listen to episodes right here on the website, or if you prefer, in a podcast app. Listening in an app makes it easier to keep track of what you’ve already heard, listen without using your data plan and many other conveniences.