Gallery

Spring Equinox 2022

The Cailleach, sitting high up on her mountain throne,

casts one eye over the land.

The wisdom of years on the tip of one eyelash, flutters into the four winds.

It is held in the trees, herbs, petals of flowers

It is carried in the tales told,

Herstory in songs and poems.

The Four Winds are whispering secrets.

The people are sleeping,

they do not know

© Kathy Barenskie 2022

“I am the Gypsy Priestess

Wild Woman

Triple Deity

Shape Shifter and Crone.

I am the Morrigan

Man, Woman.

I am every One of You who dare to dream to be whole again.

So Integrate Me

Embrace Me

Breathe Me in

Love Me

For I am all the dark parts of you.

Do not fear me.

For I will not stand in the doorway, be the good wife and mother to the offspring of your nothingness as did Macha.

Nor will I curse you as did she in some passive act of anger.

Not that from me!

For I am not a victim

As was she.

I am the Warrior Goddess.

Ah, but a warning to you Father, Brother, Son.

Deny me and I will hunt you down, to sit as a Crow on the

shoulder of your corpse.

This I did to the hero Cú Chulainn.

Ah, yet do not fear me,

Come bathe with me instead

in the cool waters of uncertainty.

As I did with my consort the Dagda

There I will hold you in the sacred void.

We will join in union.

The death I offer is but a catalyst for life.

I am here to lift that curse of Macha

with open body.

My cold winters are a dark magic of loveless lust.

For the sacredness of my black soil is where the seeds of true life are planted.

So do not fear me,

I usher in prophecy and new beginnings.

Embrace my fierce Femininity.

And you Women,

Love your darkness.

You are not all sugar,

all spice.

Love Your Shadow,

for That is your strength.

Instead, channel me,

for I have seen your magic.

The real magic that all women do.

In simple acts.

Transforming a house into a home.

Adding colour, comfort and warmth where once was none.

Loving the grey into rainbows with heart and frills.

Turning basic into comfort adorned.

Heart hearthstone

I’ve seen the healing.

The real healing that only women do.

Sharing a cup of tea and company.

Giving of their sweetness in words that empower.

Swapping bitter nouns for kindness and a cup of honey.

To sweeten a life.

I’ve seen the Beauty.

The real beauty that only women own.

Miraculous bodies birth Spirit into this world.

Changing with age as gravity pulls. Yet growing more beautiful with greys and skin wrinkled and silver swirled.

Softness and full bodies.

Everlasting blessed beauty

I’ve seen the Wisdom.

The real wisdom that only women have.

Wisdom shared from the Hidden.

Blessings abundant.

I am the Morrigan

And I am every One of You who dare to dream to be whole again.

So Integrate Me

Embrace Me

Breathe Me

Love Me

For I am the dark parts of all of you.”

Kat Shaw Artist

Art and poem from Re-Membering with Goddess: Healing the Patriarchal Perpetuation of Trauma