November 7 marks the halfway point between the autumn solstice and the winter equinox, a day traditionally known as Samhain.

I know that most celebrated on Halloween or the day after on the Day of the Dead, but technically the veil thins between realms for a week beyond that hallowed eve. 

Did you grow up believing that altars, like God, were outside of yourself? Beyond your realm of authority? That they were divinely inspired shrines that someone "up there" (a male priest, pastor, rabbi, etc.) bestowed with holy authority that imbued those sacred spaces with their power.

In this...

I am freshly back from a goddess pilgrimage to Crete and still feeling into the experience of immersing myself in an ancient culture that operated outside of the bounds of patriarchy, beyond the lens that has tinted all the history, philosophy, religion and literature from the past 2,000 years.

...

Yes, a literal first step. Walking in the woods is a go-to centering practice for me. When I am there, I notice more. And there is beauty everywhere. The woods are very accessible from my house. What unique beauty is accessible to you?

Start by looking around you and finding a path...

Sometimes pilgrimages go exactly as planned. Confession: never the ones that I plan! Often, however, their magic and transformative power lie in the things that go “wrong” and what we do with the detour.



Today we thought we were taking a ferry out to the Isle of May, a National Nature...

One cave's sacred herstory erasure tells a bigger story.

 I'm in Scotland doing what I love—

excavating our sacred herstory—in the wild. 

I am focusing on a sacred cave that bears the name of St. Fillan. I have been fascinated by it since I discovered it lay...

I slipped into the woods today. Down the dusty road from our house, through the fern where the rock garden sprouts from the earth, circles of stones, miniatures of the ancient Celtic monoliths. Someone has nestled shimmering glass rondures in a nest of bark among the stones.

I find the hidden...

Mother's Day can be complicated on the best of years. This year, even if you have a loving mom who's still alive (I do) and kids who are thriving (also true for me), there is a cloud that hangs over the day. 

The cloud is the looming leaked decision that would force women to become...

by Patricia Lynn Reilly

It used to be that the pressure to create resolutions and self-betterment plans was most intense around the new year, every year!

For most of us, however, the pressure spills over and we live in a chronic state of planning to be better and to look better, and resolving to...

They are just things. I keep telling myself that.

But why, then, am I hiding in my library while strangers (and a few friends) come and cart my life away? Why am I fighting back tears while writing this?

Because are stories are containers for our memories. They organize our life into...

by Monette Chilson

This week, I experienced one of those “almost disasters” that reveals the fragility of life. One of those moments that made me realize how little control I have over the part of my life that matters the most to me—the people I love.

My 17-year old son was in a...