The Weave Work School of Soul Recovery: the work of Dawn Dancing Otter

On the eve of Lughnasadh, I am reminded of the power of our OATHS.

The story of Lugh, from ancestral Irish lore, teaches how humans weave our destinies through the tempering and testing of our oaths in the storms and battles of life.

Lugh was the son of three tribes, his imprisoned Fomorian mother, Eithnu, his Tuatha de Danaan father, Cian, and his foster parents - the sea-god, Mannanan Mac Lir, and Tialtiu, the Fir Bolg Earth goddess. The lore of Lugh decocts a medicinal story of oath, fire, and transformation

Lugh’s oath to restore prosperity, harmony, and justice to his peoples would be fulfilled as he led High King Nuada, his father Cian, and the warriors of the Tuatha de Danaan into the prophesied second battle of Mag Tuired to defeat his maternal grandfather, the wicked Fomorian giant-King, Balór na Súile Nimhe (Balor of the evil eye). The oath of his ancestors, the oath of his passion, became the oath of his destiny.

Lugh’s life began in prophesy, his birth was the oath of his ancestors. His father Cian and his mother Eithnu had a clandestine romantic tryst, an unlikely meeting, as Eithnu was held hostage in a spire by own tyrannical father, King Balor. He was determined to block any chance that his daughter might bear a child, as his prophesied fate was to be killed in battle by his grandson. The lovers’ secret passion lead to Lugh’s birth, and upon the discovery of the babe, Balor snatched him from Eithnu and threw him into the ocean.

Lugh was saved from certain drowning by Mannanán Mac Lir, who delivered the baby to….

(Visit my Substack, WitchAF to read the rest of the article )

Lughnasadh sona daoibh go léir!

☘️🧚🏼‍♂️🌀💚

Artwork by InertiaK

Want to create a world beyond late stage capitalism? Ask an autistic person what they think.

Voices of Longing: Vocal Expression in Grief Ritual, a class with Dawn Dancing Otter, BFA, MA, DSocSci(candidate)

Reminder: join me on WitchAF Substack Live for a free class summarizing my doctoral dissertation foundational research in grief ritual theatre and vocalization.

🪶Learn about:

🌀What is known about grief, why humans grieve

🌀How have we historically supported each other in our cultural origins

🌀Grief practices that have been suppressed and lost from colonized assimilation and erasure of cultural forms of ritual.

🌀ambiguous loss and disenfranchised grief and how to recognize them

🌀Theories about the mechanisms of vocalized catharsis in processing grief

🌀class followed by Q&A w/ DDO

🪶This class is for you if:

🦋 you are a person who is interested in supporting grieving people

🦋 you are a counsellor, palliative care worker, or social worker, or interested in studying to become one

🦋you are a ceremonialist or facilitator of healing, rites of passage, circles or interested in studying to become one.

🦋 you are curious about loss and grief

The live class starts at 3:33pm Pacific Time. The live is free for everyone, the recording will be available for WitchAF paid subscribers.

See you at WitchAF on Sunday June 19, 3:33pm Pacific Time

📸Photo of Dia de los Mu***os in Mexico City, Tyc Sports

These two are my family, and they are my hope and joy. I couldn’t do most of the things I do without my lads. Love you, Wren and Bear 💚💚💚💚
We are celebrating an enormous academic achievement. I’m getting closer to being a bona fide Dr. DDO.

Me and these very cool women made the local Kenmare news :)

A day surrounded by gorgeous Irish women, walking in trees, and flowers made for the best time!

Validation is soul nourishment.

For adults, a lot of validation comes in the form of high-fives, or ‘you’re awesome’, compliments on your musical taste or your cooking. For this kind of casual validation to be metabolized, humans must have experienced a more intimate version of validation: being SEEN and CLAIMED by your kin folk, establishing trust that you are wanted just for being yourself as you are, and that you belong to people who choose you unconditionally.

Human beings need to experience kindred validation beginning very early in life, through a caring adult holding and rocking you, skin-to-skin contact, playing, laughing, and reading to you. As you grow, validation comes through time spent and deep listening from caring adults who provide a gradual increase of requiring responsibility of you, then acknowledging effort. If your caring adults mentored and modelled integrity through accountability, trust building, honesty, and forgiveness, you will gradually learn the value of behaving with integrity and accountability. When you became old enough to sit at the grown-up table and participate in taking appropriate responsibilities, your adult, caring kin ideally acknowledged your passage from childhood into adulthood.

Adults who were raised by and with healthy caring adults forge their validation in mutual trust. Intimacy is earned by showing up in reciprocity in the hard moments, the celebrations, and all of the moments in between. This is never equal in the sum total of moments, but is equitable in the cultivated trust in their life that people will show up for them without them needing to justify the need. Validation, in this context, is a basic need all humans have, as much as food and shelter, it is nourishment and safety.

For the many who did not receive this kind of validation from caring adults in infancy and childhood…

Continued on my Substack Article,

https://open.substack.com/pub/theweaveworkschool/p/the-healing-power-of-validation?r=41aqxv&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=solid

Hadestown, West End, at London’s Lyric Theatre and its current cast, Marley Fenton as Orpheus, Bethany Antonia as Eurydice, Rachel Adejiji as Persephone, the legendary Clive Rowe as Hermes, Alastair Parker playing a formidable, bloated billionaire style Hades, and Melanie Bright, Spike Maxwell, and Lauren Rae as the Fates, together with some brilliant ensemble performers; Michelle Andrews, Ollie Bingham, Sebastian Lim-Seet, Andrea Benedetti, and Femi Akinfolarin, as well as the SUBLIME live musicians…Hadestown UK delivered a transcendent performance. I am not prone to superlative, but i would place this show with this cast near the top of my all time favourites.

This cast has infectious, intimate, and familiar chemistry, the audience feels invited right in to their fight for emancipation, lead by the true love of Orpheus and Eurydice. I wanted them to WIN, (despite knowing the way this story ends! )

The piercingly tender voice of the young Marley Fenton, who properly sang in his Manchester accent, added a layer of authenticity in the working-class poet/starving artist theme in this post-industrial masterpiece. He truly has become the high waterline for Orpheus in this role, as he thoroughly brought the innocence, the determination, the sweetness and the storm.
I could not help but weep profusely so many times as Orpheus boldly followed his love Eurydice, countered by Bethany Antonia’s struggle between true love and survival, one foot in/one foot out approach. She gorgeously embodied the struggle of the traumatized maiden archetype, attracting the eyes and appetites for consumption of many, including the brutal Hades, masterfully, often frighteningly, dominant and self-centered. Antonia as Eurydice was able to stand strongly in her portrayal of the ultimate deal with the devil, a believable match to Alastair Parker’s formidable presence as Hades. I believed her fear. I believed her love. I believed her clarity in her moment of connection; truly feeling seen by Orpheus who offered her love songs and flowers, dissolving all cynicism for Eurydice, and for all of us.
(Part 2 of my review in comments)

Staying cool while London sizzles at this London West End production of my current fave musical!

Lovely Kenmare magic with my fave fey magic sister Sinead!
Tonight Hadestown in the blistering hotter-than-hades London West End