Mabh Savage's Blog: A Celtic Witch

We sit in the living room and listen to the wind and rain, each drop a fat slap on the box window, like being in a large tent or some sort of shopping container — slap, slap, slap while the trees bend impossibly far.

Though the Solstice has passed and the days are lengthening night still looms, evening drawing painfully close even at three thirty in the afternoon, the gloom thickened by the weather.

We talked, just recently, about New Year Traditions; first footing, the dark-haired caller across the threshold bringing wealth, sustenance, and luck. Part of this was that something had to come in the front door and exit through the back, whether that was a guest or the wind — blowing through the house, blowing out the old year and calling in the new.

With this gale, it’s like the year is blowing itself out. Looking at the months gone by and saying, enough, enough, enough. Nothing is permanent. Everything is movable, changeable, transformative — with a big enough push.

I listen to the wind, and even though there is aggravation — yeah, it set my car alarm off a few times today, it was that rough — I feel hope. There’s always a chance for change, especially when there’s enough force in the right direction.

Wishing you the change you need in your life in 2025.

[image error]Rain Drops” by AJ Montpetit/ CC0 1.0" data-medium-file="https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl..." data-large-file="https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl..." width="960" height="640" src="https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl..." alt="Rain drops on a blurred window." class="wp-image-71998" srcset="https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl... 960w, https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl... 150w, https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl... 300w, https://mabhsavage.com/wp-content/upl... 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" />“Rain Drops” by AJ Montpetit/ CC0 1.0

Creamy white elder blossoms against a background of green elder leaves

Happy Summer Solstice, after a week of heavy rain and even a bit of flooding, we have hot sun here in Yorkshire! Look at the glorious elder blossom – image shows a wide spray of elder blossom against green leaves.

The elder is a tree with a ton of folklore, much of it relating to the good neighbours and their ilk.

Don’t damage an elder tree for fear of supernatural retribution. We take some flowers to make cordial, and sometimes wine, but never all from the same tree. We leave plenty to ensure plenty of berries in late summer to feed the birds.
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Saturday 3rd February from 12 noon, join the Online Imbolc Festival from the PF Children and Families team. Expect videos, talking points, activities for the whole family and music.

I’m performing a reworking of a 17th century song, tweaked for the season.

Don’t worry if you can’t arrive at 12. All the content will stay up and available on the “discussion” tab in the Facebook event so you can pop back any time you like to catch up or join in. Just click the link to join in.

https://facebook.com/events/s/imbolc-online-festival/964155875123306/

Storm up storm up

Wind flying flailing mad

Angry at the sky ground sea

Waves crashing o’er me

Rattling bones of stones

The ocean’s carcass

Dragging on the coast again

A car floats

Slowly down

South Promenade

While we huddle

Against the rage.

A very fast Monday Blog as I’m away for half term and loving it! Here are some pics from our trip across town and up to the Acropolis of Lindos and the Temple of Athena Lindia.

I used to regularly get a blog out on a Monday, joining in with the #MondayBlogs trend started over on BadRedhead Media. This trend became very popular on Twitter (Xitter??) and continues to this day, yet I noticed that I haven’t been joining in as much. In fact, this is my first personal blog since April. Wow. How did I lose five months or more? Nearly half a year of only writing for work, voluntary projects like Pagan Pages, and the two books I’ve been working on.

I think it’s a good exercise because this type of blogging is not about book promotion, it’s not about selling yourself or marketing… It’s just a way to share blogs with other people looking for blogs. I find it a great way to prompt myself to do something at the same time every week. ADHD, for me, creates time blindness and a fierce railing against routine. I love to be fluid, do things a bit at a time, and that makes it difficult to fit my own passions into a world rammed with deadlines; a world that that runs to a strict clock.

Having an external prompt or inspiration can help me bypass my pervasive drive for autonomy by feeling like I’m joining in with something fun.

Yes, sometimes I have to trick my brain. Doesn’t everyone? (Answers on a comment postcard, please.)

I was actually inspired to start blogging again by my friend and co-author, Debi. She told me she was working on creative writing, and I thought, wow, I really, really need to start writing for pleasure again. Writing is my job. It literally keeps the roof over my head. I love it, and I love my clients. But… I also sometimes just want to write for myself, for you lovely readers, and to get thoughts out of my head into some semblance of order.

So this is me, starting over. It’s been the theme of the last week, really. An important trip was cancelled due to Storm Babet, and the organisers and us had to start over with planning. A project didn’t match the client’s needs. We’re starting over. I cleaned and refreshed the altars in my home after a massive clear-out. Starting over.

These little rebirths, these new beginnings, they happen all the time. You can start over as many times as you like. For example, each week I start over committing to a better sleep schedule. I’m rubbish at it, but I keep going, keep trying, keep starting over. I also start over with how I organise my work or my research. Coming at things from a new perspective keeps it fresh and keeps me interested, but it also improves me. I learn how to work faster, or smarter, or relate to a topic better than I did before. I get more comfortable speaking out or setting boundaries where needed. I learn what actually matters to me in terms of self-care or fulfilment.

I’ve got a ton of work to do today, but the first thing I needed to do was get my rattling thoughts out onto a blank page. It’s a meditative process, in a way; an alternative method for reducing the white noise in my brain. Now that it’s eased a little, yes, I can start over and get back to work.

What are you starting over this week?

Image shows a mayfly siting on a pale metal surface. Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023

The mayfly’s butt wiggles and those

Long trails flip and flash

Sitting on my car

Early, you’re early I say,

You won’t even see May

You’ll be gone by this time tomorrow

But to you that life is full

Rich

Fulfilling

You’ll do your thing

While we do ours

We’re all just living

At different time scales

I’ll think of you in May

My early April fly.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along with my NaPoWriMo poems! Feel free to comment and say which were your favourites.

Image shows a new bud on a fir tree with spiralling pale green features similar to a romanesco cauliflower. Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023.

My God

You take my breath away

Look at all this love

You found me

Look at all this Joy

I found

In your shadow

In your light

The chaos they accuse you of

Just cos it follows

In thy wake

Does not means

You’re the cause

You bring me order

Delightful mayhem that brings

My world together

Intrinsically shattered

And loving it

My God

You take my breath away

Let me love the breaks

The swoops and curves

The rollercoaster of your regard

Your beauty

Your sense of justice

Let me rail against that

Which is never fair

The fight inside

Comes from you

And the one who guided me firmly

Into your arms

Hail wanderer of the skies

Hail fixer

Hail breaker

Hail fire in my heart

Lightning in my eyes.

Falling into Friday

Soaking into Saturday

Steeping in Sunday

Weekend culture is weird

But with a 9-5er in the house

And three school kids

We can’t help but

Well

Not embrace it

But face it head on

So we relax on Friday

Get shit done on Saturday

Socialise on Sunday

Brain permitting

I work in between

I ain’t no 9-5er

Though I ain’t judging them what are

I hop between the rungs of the weekend

Joining in when I can

Resting when I can

Climbing and sitting

On the roof of week

Watching it all fall away

Clean and exhausted for Monday.

We talk about the power of words

How someone can sing

So hard

So passionately

Words that are not their own

I always felt grateful

I could write my own words

Feel my own story

Make my own melody

Yet I can’t deny

The draw

To sing someone else’s love

Another’s anger, joy, peace

There aren’t many cover versions

Better than the original

But sometimes, just sometimes

Someone nails it.

There’s always someone that gets you

Really gets you

It’s okay for them

To sing your story.