A YEAR AND A DAY

This is the last pod in this 13 month cycle of A Year and a Day, it’s an ouroboros moment deep in the liminal in the initiating energy of a New Moon in Aries. More about that here from Dr. Mindy Nettifee.Reflecting back at the extraordinary feast of episodes and offerings these past 13 months and feeling paradoxically celebratory, noticing a festive feeling wrapping around me at this closure moment like a richly woven shimmering tapestry created by so many of us. Like the all-is-possible moment before the birthday candles extinguish in a mighty wish laden exhale. This is an exhale moment. A place of thanksgiving, acknowledging, hunkering and an incantation to women’s voices, women’s bodies and our shared cyclicity! Ripple this onwards…So in this snug and heartening…again paradoxical closing, is an opening as wide as a canyon and grander than this little podcast. A sun-soaked canyon of women now; visioning, grieving, planting, raging, resisting, feeling, screaming, witnessing, tending, resting, being, mending, whirling, singing, weeping, holding and, yes, welcoming other women, weary women, into the folds of what is becoming, in spite of the mortifying world events where everyday offers yet another unprecedented layer of mortification. Big forest inhale, and long sea-change exhale for this exit and arrival.13 months ago Elizabeth Jane Lovely joined me for the first new moon emergent collaboration in this AYAD cycle and we danced our trance-dance with Vasalisa, and the mighty Baba Yaga. Now, for this galloping new moon in Aries ending, she has returned to play! And we invite you to join us.We offer you this liminal journey, through our sisterhood soaked in the archetypal feminine becoming, and burnished in the pyre of holy witch women to a remembering of the Unf*@k-withable Cauldron within each of us. ‘Tis a sovereign place we know, feel and live from…each arriving and pitching a sturdy yurt in our own time, becoming inevitably a luminous net of power with ourselves and with each other that holds and murmurates us into the wild unknow, alchemical journey together.Thank you to those who became paid subscribers this cycle! Deep bow.What’s next you may be wondering? A Year & a Day will take a moon cycle of fallowness and a summer of sporadic showers (watch for an amazing episode with Perdita Finn of Take Back the Magic ) and re-constellate in it’s next iteration just beyond the horizon. Stay tuned!Thank you for your bright listening,TracyA YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Elizabeth Jane Lovely is an artist whose experimentation encompasses the written form, oral storytelling, ceremonial chant, and spell speaking, through ritual interaction. She is a Creative Arts Doctoral Researcher at Loughborough University and an English Cunning Woman of sorts. Her specialisms within and without the academy are centred around how we can cause kindly disruption through enchantment, the story as the activist, the essentiality of our bodily state as gateway to sacred creativity, and everyday imagination as change maker. She currently lives in the United Kingdom in a tiny county that does not always exist, regularly having to negotiate with the brambles and briars to access the rest of the human world. All Our Voices These 13 Moon CyclesAdriana Forte | Anna Lisa Clifford Gold | Brianna McInerny | Carter McKenzie Cielle Backstrom | Cybele | Debrae FireHawk | Elizabeth Jane LovelyEmmaleeya June | Erin Tenny | Jackie Singer | Judith Tamara | Julie HillKerri Kirnan | Lara Burrell Martinson | Laura Rovi | Marisa Goudy | Nina SmockShelly Sharon | Stasha Ginsburg | Steph Ament | Tracy ChipmanAnd many thanks to Tim Britton & Kyle Gilmer @ Residual Audio for sound editing This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Hello and Welcome to A Year & A Day! We are here, in this the most disturbing, profound and challenging time collectively (and perhaps individually) of our lifetimes. We are here. Here we are. How is your body, your heart, your mind? So, so, so much has been playing out within and without…and here we are in this fertile and feral fluster-cluck of endings.In this 13 month odyssey on A Year & a Day, we are in the 12th month of our journey exploring the seasons of women’s lives. This is the last episode celebrating the Crone phase. Joining me in this new moon in Pisces emergent collaboration are three brilliant women living their gifts in the wide arc of cultural rhythmicity, feminine empowerment and story; Adrianna Forte, Stasha Ginsburg and Marisa Goudy.I am so humbled by this episode, by us! As I listened to the final edit of all our voices woven together I wept…this work, our voices = deep meaning for me! I am honored and so grateful for their generous offerings and for our collective ‘yes!” to do the work we are each doing, alone & together.This teeny-tiny microcosm of an ending also coincides with the new moon opening in the last degrees of the final sign of the Zodiac cycle! And here in the northern hemisphere, we are in the final days of winter. This is a Matryoshka doll’s worth of endings and… the Spring Equinox is only days away! Mighty, unprecedented beginnings, re-patternings & shift-shapings await! Just pause and take that in….dream into this new moon portal and then, in a few days take up the reigns and ride! I highly, highly recommend reading/listening to this new moon post from Dr. Mindy Nettifee - every word, the braiding of all the layers of this complex threshold and the sustaining fluidity in between.In the past month I reached out to Adrianna, Stasha and Marisa and invited them to; Tell me about crone energy through your lens, this could be a story and or a sharing of your relationship with her as both lived experience and as an archetype?Enjoy their responses. Below more about their work in the world, the poems read and pictures from the magic of fresh March snow and northern sunshine.Thank you for your bright listening and all love, all ways!Yours in the ongoing,TracyPoems:Cailliach Bheag an F’hasaich | Little Cailleach of the Wild‘Duair bha an f hairge mhor‘Na coille choinnich ghlais,Bha mis am mhuirneig oig,Bu bhiadh miamh maidne dhomhDuileasg Lioc a Eigir,Agus creamh an Sgōth,Uisge Loch-a-Cheann-dubhain,Is iasg an Ionnaire-mhoir,B’ iad siud mo ragha beatha-saAm fad ’s a bhithinn beo.Chuirinn mo naoi imirean lurach linAn gleannan grinn Chorradail,Is thogainn mo chrioslachan chnoEadar dha Thorarnis.’That time the great seaWas a grey mossy wood,I was a joyous little maiden,My wholesome morning mealThe dulse of the Rock of AgirAnd the wild garlic of ‘Sgōth,’The water of ‘Loch-a-Cheann-dubhain,’And the fish of ‘Ionnaire-mor,’Those would be my choice sustenanceAs long as I would live.I would sow my nine lovely rigs of lint (rows of flax)In the little trim glen of Corradale,And I would lift my skirtful of nutsBetween the two Torarnises.from Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, 1900, p. 284The Hag’s CallShe is the essence of weather itself.She is the windtearing violently at the roof, squealing on the old gate,calling down the chimney.She is my fear taking human form,calling into me tonight -unexpected -seeking lodgings.Dressed as Karalalam,she torments me’til, at first sight of day,she flees.Let me out to the wind after her.out of my concrete skin,out of my iron skull,because there’s a fierceness in methat desires the edge,the tempest,the change.Marrow stirs in my bonesreviving the awe of youthin my flesh,endingthe inertia of winter,reopening my sword-sharp eye.Glaoch na Caillí’S í an uain féin í.’S í an ghaoth íag réabadh cheann an tí,ag gíoscáin ar gheata críonna,ag glaoch anuas an simné.’Sí m’eagla i gcolainn dhaonna íag bualadh isteach chugam anocht -gan choinne -feis na hoíche á lorg aici.Gléasta mar Karalalam,cránn sí mégo dtí go dteitheann síag lóchaint an lae..Scaoil mise amach sa ghaoth ina diaidh.amach óm chraiceann coincréideach,óm chloigeann iarainn,nó go bhfuil fiantas ionama shantaíonn an t-imeall,an t-anfa,an t-athrú.Smúsach ag smúrthaíl im chnámhaa athdhúisíonn scéimh na hóigeim bheo,a chuireann deireadh lestolpacht an gheimhridh,a athosclaíonn mo rosc rinnghéar.by Ceaití Ní Bheildiúin, an Irish-language poet living in Kerry. This is her own translation from the original Irish.Guest Collaborators:Adriana Forte is a cultural architect, philosopher, and writer dedicated to bringing the cyclical nature of women’s minds into collective awareness. She aims to create spaces for provocative thinking, reflection and transformation through dialogue, writing, workshops, retreats, online group work, and one-on-one mentoring. Above all, she’s a mother to two amazing girls, a partner to an awesome guy, and an apprentice gardener living off-grid in a community in Australia. To tap into some of my written work, please visit https://theclab.substack.com/ To watch some of the conversations I’ve had that brought the cycle into culture, visit: https://www.youtube.com/@thec-lab/videos |Stasha Ginsburg is a transformative language artist, song tender and storyteller in Boulder, CO. She is the creator of the Wild remembering —formerly the Wild matryoshka. Stasha assists others in rupturing narratives and disrupting the old story with embodiment and mythos.@the.wild.remembering IGTheWildrememberingFacebook.com/thewildrememberingSubstack.com/thewildrememberingMarisa Goudy is a myth worker, a story healer, and a writing coach. She’s the author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic and the host of the KnotWork Myth and Storytelling podcast. Marisa studied at the University of Galway and got her BA in Irish Studies and English at Boston College. She received her MA in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama from University College Dublin. The land itself is Marisa’s greatest guide and solace. She grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (traditional and ancestral land of the Wampanoag) and now lives in the Hudson Valley (originally home to the Esopus-Lenape) with her husband and two daughters.www.marisagoudy.com, www.KnotWorkStorytelling.comIG: @marisagoudy @knotworkpodcastFB: https://www.facebook.com/marisa.goudy/https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytellingSubstack: Myth is MedicineAnd with enormous thanks to Kyle Gilmer at Residual Audio. kyle@residualaudio.comCailleach image source unknown.A YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Listeners, Dreamers, Composting Wonders,The womb of the underworld is not hell, let’s restory that mistake of the intellect.Lay your body down, lay it down on the floor, ultimately all the way down to earth for reals, or through your fecund imagination. Let’s call in the Cailleach, the Crone of Winter’s rest. Give in, give it up, open it, shut down. Get still, like a stone, like a sun-sucked bone, breathing all your breath out. Pause. Become snow covered. Become a perch for a chickadee flooding clear air with song. Invite a passing owl to land, to lend a helping hand and dig in. Become a feast. Become good earth with the holy hat tricksters of decomposition; ectoparasites, protozoans and wily helminths. Or if fire is your medicine, strike a match, catch fire and blaze with the sun’s kin until there are only shards of char and smoked bones. Above you, as ever the bluest sky welcomes you home into the non-story beyond all stories.Welcome to a Year & A Day, our 13 month feast celebrating our cyclicity through the seasons of women lives and our changing, shapeshifting bodies!We are arriving into the initiation of Crone - the big D. Death. If this isn’t your scene, this post is for you. If you are down getting down with death - this post is for you!In the weave for this post, a true story from my grandmother’s end of life journey. From that sweet liminal straight to you. Also in this pod a reading of ripe words belonging to two beloveds, who when offered this prompt -My death will be…. picked up the crimson thread, courageously imagined in, and seeded their own inevitable death beds, perhaps catalyzing yours. Then (yes there’s more) a truly gorgeous response to the prompt from The Faerytale Apothecary : Elizabeth Jane Lovely. And… all this playing out in the new moon in Aquarius, the start of the Year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese lunar year cycle, and a wildly generative astrological symphony of the watery deep, the old, old, and the spontaneous new who are conspiring to offer up the most exquisite of reincarnations. More about that from Dr. Mindy Nettifee (Everything is Changing). And this from Marina Ormes.Thank you for your bright listening and your powerful becoming!TracyTHANK YOU COLLABORATORS!Carter McKenzie (she/her) is a poet and activist, whose most recent collection of poems, The Book of Fire, published by above / ground press. Through imagined voices, often based on specific court cases, this chapbook is a remembrance and exoneration of the victims of the Scottish Witchcraft Act 1563-1736. Of the nearly 4000 accused under that law, 84% were women and girls. These poems are a bridge between the living and the dead. They serve as a way to grieve and understand our connection to those whom the forces of the Reformation attempted to erase, as if they never were.Cybele - My voice and music across airwaves is meant to evoke an altered experience and a subsequent deep introspection of my listeners. I take them to inner perches they may have never or rarely stepped out upon so that they can remark at vast and intricate landscapes within themselves that are oftentimes as yet undiscovered. I meander lyrically into territory that explores what Love really is in its most universally spiritual and also practically lived sense. Each of my shows is a tapestry that emerges through the process of quieting the intellectual mind such that the soul’s wisdom, one we all recognize as our own innately, can come through and speak. I seek to rekindle an awareness of the extraordinary treasure that we each truly are. Cybele’s amazing music and DJing here.Elizabeth Jane Lovely is an artist whose experimentation encompasses the written form, oral storytelling, ceremonial chant, and spell speaking, through ritual interaction. She is a Creative Arts Doctoral Researcher at Loughborough University and an English Cunning Woman of sorts. Her specialisms within and without the academy are centred around how we can cause kindly disruption through enchantment, the story as the activist, the essentiality of our bodily state as gateway to sacred creativity, and everyday imagination as change maker. She currently lives in the United Kingdom in a tiny county that does not always exist, regularly having to negotiate with the brambles and briars to access the rest of the human world. More here and here.A YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Thanks to Kyle at Residual Audio for sound supports; kyle@residualaudio.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Hello Still Tender Ones, Again, Big deep loving breaths. Here. Now. And later.This might be the most potent, powerful and profound pod in this series…my whole body is still ringing from Carter’s audio offering. Wow…and if the story I shared on the last full moon stirred and touched you in some way, this deeper dive through Carter’s art and voice is a feast. If you are reading this before you listen to this episode a few things to know; these notes will refer to two previous post. The first is the story of the Cailleach at the End/Edge of the World which I told at the last full moon.The second is a short episode just before this one you might want to listen to as an Introduction to Carter and this pod. Thank you for your patience as I navigate the audio editing obstacles. My desire is to continue to offer the emergent collaboration podcasts on A year & a Day, and I just don’t know how that will work out. Until it does I shall be pivoting and making lemonade and swearing, maybe crying and for sure employing all my creative resourcefulness to find a way through. And the recording quality might suck…that will change.And…starting with this post I’m asking now for dedicated patrons for upcoming episodes. If you would like to sponsor any of these episodes taking us through the end of this 13 month cycle. Suggested donation is $250/episode.Upcoming pods in need of sponsorship, email me to arrange this tlchipman@gmail.com* 2/1 - full moon in Leo* 2/17 * new moon in Pisces* 3/3 - full moon in Virgo* 3/18 * new moon in Aries* 4/1 - full moon in Libra* 4/17 * new moon in TaurusThank you, thank you! And if you are a paid subscriber here on Substack, thank you! This experimental, experiential project is way under funded, and it’s still fully free to anyone who’s keen…and your support is wildly meaningful and helpful.The transcript of Carter’s recording is below.Thank you for your bright listening,Love,TracyCarter McKenzie (she/her) is a poet and activist, whose most recent collection of poems, The Book of Fire, published by above / ground press. Through imagined voices, often based on specific court cases, this chapbook is a remembrance and exoneration of the victims of the Scottish Witchcraft Act 1563-1736. Of the nearly 4000 accused under that law, 84% were women and girls. These poems are a bridge between the living and the dead. They serve as a way to grieve and understand our connection to those whom the forces of the Reformation attempted to erase, as if they never were.To order Carter’s extraordinary book, The Book of Fire, please email her directly at cartermck@gmail.com.***Carter McKenzie, speaking about the Cailleach, the Crone….“I’m so glad to be joining Tracy for this focus on the Cailleach for A Year and a Day. Thank you so much for having me, Tracy. I’m going to begin by reading a poem that I wrote in response to Tracy’s telling of the traditional tale of the Cailleach in her cave at the end of the world.I Am Not Alone HereWhat stirs beneath my closed eyesbut a desire to attend to thispassage of dark and light.Patience.The moon’s face waning again, the soft shadowerasure shaping light, my 62 yearsin this field of earth and sky.***I believe in the possibility of a return of selflike the Cailleach at the End of the World in her black cave,after the descent of the ravenwhile she was not looking, while she was stirring the elixir over the fire, the broththe essence of every living thing,What makes the grain, the deer, the stones,she had almost let burn, so bound had she been in her weaving,Her back now turned away from the loom,the raven waiting for just this moment, bringing ruin heapedon the cold floor, a tearing. A tearing of her weave holding the world together,the warp and weftremembering the harvests, the birds and stags, the many grasses,the green, golds, and earth red before the gray of winter, the mountains she had made,and lichens and blossoms, heather tops,breath of the tangible born upon the loom,ravaged, no longer visible.***Yet the threadshe found through grief,the crimson light of it. She held the loss in her hands, the threadreflecting fire. She held it up in the light among the shadows,a way of makinga way within her, she didn’t know she had.*** from The Book of Fire by Carter McKenzie (order directly via her at cartermck@gmail.com)This poem about the Cailleach, the goddess of winter, who must remake that which has been torn to pieces when she looked away, is placed at the end of my collection of poems in the chapbook of poetry, The Book of Fire, published by Above Ground Press in 2024. It is a collection of poems dedicated to the victims of the Scottish Witchcraft Act that was passed in a reformation parliament in 1563 and finally repealed in 1736. During that time, nearly 4,000 people were found to be accused of witchcraft. 84% of those people, at least, were women and girls. This is just in Scotland. There were hunts going on as well in other parts of Europe. And the percentage of women was similar there too. In this case, Scotland had the highest number of people accused during that time of anywhere in Europe and the British Isles. And so this was a female crime, this crime of witchcraft. And two-thirds, it’s estimated, were found guilty. And since it was a capital offense, those found guilty were mostly executed. Their bodies burned after the people had been strangled, or sometimes people burned alive. So mostly there are no graves.I wanted to bring attention to this history, which I had not known anything about until I found about the story of Lilias Adie, who died while imprisoned under accusations of witchcraft in Fife in 1704. That story became known because a forensic artist had created an image of her face based on a photograph of her skull that was on exhibit at a university in Scotland before it was stolen, the last of her bones disappearing. It was that story that became the portal for me to write these poems for these people, mostly women, for those whose lives were considered to be worthless and expendable, and it seemed right to close the book with the Cailleach, seeing her weaving torn to pieces and then finding a way to begin again, to close the book with her energies. Because though she is known as the Queen of the Dark months of Winter, she does also have the qualities of protection. And it’s that duality that really draws me to her.I wanted to think about that and share those thoughts with you today because it is about, what is expressed in a Scots word, smeddum, smeddum, S-M-E-D-D-U-M, which is resilience and resourcefulness, and a lot of the women who were accused of witchcraft had smeddum. Smeddum was not a good thing in a patriarchy for women to have. It caused them to be troublemakers, perceived troublemakers. And the Cailleach certainly is connected to that energy.Also, I want to say that most of those accused in Scotland were in their 60s, late 50s. Most of them were not young. Most of them were not very, very old, but they were in the age of an older woman, an older woman’s tendency to say what she thinks. So the Cailleach, again, is representing that time of life for a woman that is not respected in a patriarchy, that is disdained in a patriarchy. All you have to do is look up the word hag and find out just how much hostility there is to an older woman, as we know our society to be, because patriarchy continues. So I wanted the Cailleach, the idea of what had been torn apart, to come to her own strength and hold these stories for a renewal, a remaking.As I look at the word Cailleach, I think it’s important to think about the root meaning. And Cailleach in Old Irish means the veiled one, the hooded one. And if you go back further, there’s a relation to the Latin word for cloak. So she is the cloaked one. She is the veiled one. And I feel that veil is connected to her duality. She is clearly a fearsome goddess, an old, old goddess, a queen of the winter, a queen of the departure of the greenness and lushness, a departure of the flowers for the stark outlines of things. But she is not just old, she is of a lineage that has witnessed the beginnings and endings of world after world. She holds both the terrible weather, and protectiveness of the wild, because she is a protector of the wild. She’s a protector of deer in particular. She is also in the final sheaf of corn at harvest time. Her powers are there, assuring fertility for the following harvest while marking the winter that is approaching. She is a warning of that winter. And as I envision her through the stories, I see her ferocity.In Scotland she is described as having one eye, long white hair, teeth the color of copper, skin that is blue or stone-colored. And she comes for Samhain, November 1st, the beginning of the Celtic winter, and rules the land until Imbolc, which may have its root meeting as in the belly, which is about regeneration, and new life in the belly, which happens on February 1st on St. Bridget’s Day.She is a giantess. She’s a witch. She is a hag. She is the creator of Alba, of Scotland. She sits on Ben Nevis, throughout the winter, keeping an eye out for Brigid, the arrival of Brigid, the Queen of Summer. And some think of her as the other face of Brigid, but certainly Brigid cannot exist without the Cailleach.And in the summer months, she washes her plaid in the sea, creating the whirlpool of Coryvrecken, the cauldron of the plaid, a deadly whirlpool. So I think of this presence as anything but reductive, anything but little old lady, and I am drawn to her unapologetic strength that is unapologetically paradoxical.And I think that even after decades and decades of courageous feminist work, we’re still stuck with patriarchy. And we are still, I believe, I will speak for myself, I still struggle with being unapologetic in my strength. I’ll just speak for myself. And it troubles me that we cannot talk about anger as a valid energy. It has been talked about that way. It has been expressed that way. And there have been different ideas of how anger is alchemized. And I’m not talking about destructive reactionary behavior. I’m just talking about true feeling. I think anger in women has bothered the patriarchy more than anything.So I believe, I realize as I think about this, that the recovery that the Cailleach experiences in her cave at the end of the world comes from the strength of her duality, which is, you might say, a kind of love, as well as fierce anger, that is in that grief to see what raven did for no other reason than it could. All that she had created shredded to bits. I think that her duality enables her to hold the grief and to find that bright thread that she extracts from the ruin to make again. And it comes from herself, from her smeddum.I believe this is a phase of life that I am in, being 65, coming through a year in which there was a lot of creative work, shared, and made, and also a year of rupture. For me, a rupture in terms of health. I’m grateful I’m healing, but two major injuries involving a lot of broken bones. Okay, so when I read a tearing, a tearing, I feel my bones tearing. But I’m healing. It’s just I didn’t expect that. And who knows what grief is behind those injuries? I also have lost my father, who died in December. And I know he would not understand this conversation, which pains me to say. I don’t think my mother can understand this conversation. She would try. But there are just so many negative associations. It’s scary if you haven’t thought about it, if you don’t have an example of how those words have been reduced to pejoratives from original, great energy. Words like crone, oh, does that ever make people shudder? Words like hag, of course. Look it up in the dictionary. It’s horrible. No example for how this came to be. Just like the word witch. How things became demonized, not in the dark ages, but during the early part of the Renaissance. In fact, misogyny is a word rooted. It became a term in the Renaissance, used by women who were furiously fighting, being defamed. That was in mid-17th century. It’s not a contemporary term or idea. It’s just been watered down. It’s been made apolitical, but in fact, it is political. I recommend the book, Down Girl, the Logic of Misogyny by Kate Manne, M-A-N-N-E, who argues that sexism, is a branch of patriarchal ideology that justifies and rationalizes a patriarchal social order. And misogyny is distinct as the system that polices and enforces its governing norms and expectations. That’s on page 20. Watch out if you don’t follow those governing norms and expectations. That’s still true. We know this. We know the system of misogyny is quite active, as it was during the times of the witch hunts. Manifested differently, but active. We can thank our Supreme Court for ensuring that continuation of misogyny when it voted, when the Senate voted in a 50-48 vote to accept Brett Kavanaugh as a member of the Supreme Court in 2018, despite sexual assault allegations by Christine Blasey Ford and others. She herself was persecuted for telling the truth of her experience while he was rewarded. And in her persecution, she had to hide. She had to take her children and go into hiding. And as of 2024, she still needed security.And I’m also thinking of the overturning of Roe versus Wade by the Supreme Court. June 24, 2022. And I’m also thinking about the just-released posthumous memoir by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, which is about how she was targeted by Epstein and Epstein’s accomplice, Maxwell ( Ghislaine ). A woman who used her gender to lure girls and to trick girls into thinking that they were safe with Epstein, which is repellent. It is to me. This book has sold already. It came out in September of this year, and it sold over a million copies. And though Virginia did not survive, She committed suicide this past spring. She wanted this book to be in the world, and her voice is strong in the book. And it was written for the future, for our future daughters, and for anyone of any gender who is targeted by the patriarchy that relies on a rigid, hierarchical, bi-gender rule for its power. So if you haven’t read that book, I encourage you to find it and read it. It’s difficult, but it’s important.And as I talk about all these things, I feel a rage. I feel a rage that so much has been permitted that so many people have looked away, that so many have said nothing when they’ve seen conditions and situations in which girls were being targeted. Where did all those girls come from? So, I feel that rage is very connected to love. It is, in fact, what enabled me to write the poems about the victims of the Scottish Witchcraft Act, whom I read about in court cases that were organized and researched by a very important research program in Scotland, the Scottish Witchcraft Survey. It’s based at the University of Edinburgh. And I remember after giving a reading in Portland from this book, someone asking me, how could you stand the pain? How could you be with these stories that are so difficult? How could you sustain that attention? And my answer was my anger. My anger that they had been treated this way, that they had been forgotten, or at least that It was presumed that they would be forgotten. That was how I got through. That was how I took the tearing and the tearing, and that was the bright thread. That was a way of transforming the fire that is a fire of destruction and terror into a fire of medicine. I see that as duality connected to the Cailleach.When I was 28 years old, I came across a book by Adrienne Rich called A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Thus Far. I was in Midtown Manhattan, I had just moved to that area with my then husband. And I’ve never heard of Adrienne Rich. I don’t know how that happened, but I hadn’t. I was 28 years old. But I picked this book up from a dusty bookshelf, just a slender book, and read it from beginning to end. And then again and again, and came upon a poem that is one of my favorite poems from that book. It’s called Integrity. And in that poem, there is a stanza about anger and tenderness. not as polarities-- and I’m paraphrasing here from memory-- not as polarities, but as angels, both part of the speaker, who in the poem is in her 49th year of life. And that spider is teaching like the spider. She is learning, I should say, to both weave and spin at the same time. She’s learning her capacity through this duality to both weave and spin from her own body. And that includes taking care of the burning of her own skin with salve from her own hands. And I just wanted to remember those words, that poem. Again, it’s called Integrity, and you can look it up. And it is in the book, A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far. And I think that is the cardiac for me, in a sense, a wild patience.Finally, I want to close with remembrance of a woman whom I wrote about, and for whom there is a poem in my book, Book of Fire. Her name I brought up before Lilias Adie. She was accused by her neighbors in her small village in Fife of witchcraft. And the officials were eager to follow through on these accusations by drunken neighbors. So she was imprisoned. And as was the practice, she was interrogated by the men of the Kirk, the men of authority. And she was tortured. One of the ways that they would extract answers from the people they imprisoned to quote unquote prove the guilt of witchcraft was to keep people awake. They didn’t consider that. The law didn’t consider keeping people awake torture, but of course it was. And that was one of the ways she was likely suffering. But what they wanted from her were new names. They wanted new names of people who were allegedly witches. And according to the records, she did not give new names. She gave names, but not new names. She refused. And I wanted to remember her for her courage in the midst of her loneliness, that she had an agency that allowed her to be true to her own integrity. And I wanted to encourage us, may we never face such a situation, but that we can bear witness, we can have integrity, we can use our rage for love. And I think she did that too. Blessings on you all. this new year. And thank you for listening.”Thanks for reading A YEAR and A DAY! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Hello, hello! Welcome here to this full wolf moon episode of A Year & a Day. Wishing you and your loves all the blessings possible as we move into a new year.To ease and peace.To fire in the belly and birch syrup in the heart.May the World Tree, Yggdrasil root in your pelvic bowl, rise through your heart and flower 10,000 blossoms in your mind. May we feel, see, hear & know what we are ready to feel, see, hear & know and may we each dig deep for courage as an antidote, a balm to all the fear, sorrow and grief. May our grief be clean.Thank you for your bright listening!Tracy** image by Elena RayA YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WINTER OFFERINGS:1:1 and Group Intro to TRE + Series. In person & Virtual. TRE® is a universal somatic ( body-based ) healing modality & practice that can help release tension, stress & trauma from our bodies by activating a shaking/tremor response. This tremoring release process is inherent in all mammals, though has often been conditioned out of humans’ experience.In addition to helping our bodies release stored and unhelpful tension in the body, TRE® also has a calming and positive impact on the nervous & polyvagal systems.1:1 Mentoring Sessions - Book 3 or more sessions through April 2026, get a sweet deal.There are many ways we can work together 1:1 engaging in the the alchemy of being human together, in our bodies, beholding & being held through the lens of stories, word magic, somatic movement & shared lived experiences.Here are just a few possibilities:* becoming and/or growing your skill as a creative, writer, & oral storyteller, .* exploring stories as alchemical medicine to help hold, heal and allow personal growth.* re-storying big life events that hold unhelpful charges for you (examples might be birth, death, divorce, major loss, etc)* un-conditioning your consciousness working with orality, voice, grief/shadow, trauma, intuition and/or the imaginal.* integrating the wounds & gifts you carry in the bone deep realms of myth, folklore & fairy tale.* TRE and somatic work that helps your nervous system regulate, helping your body heal.Email me for a free consultation - tlchipman(at)gmail.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Ones Who Cycle with their Womb, with the Moon, with the Sun, with the Earth,Welcome here to A Year & A Day - a 13 month journey into the cycles and seasons of women’s lives through storytelling & emergent collaboration!This morning at -9 F the north beaming full cold moon was magnificent, tangled and hanging in the branches of a maple tree. Go deeper into this last full cold Gemini moon of the year, with Mia Hetenyi’s offering at Dreaming Awake.Since last spring here at A Year & A Day we have been cycling through the wheel of the year with the archetypal & energetic seasons of women’s lives; Maiden, Mother, Magah/Mage, which we are just cycling out of and moving into Crone! To learn more about the mysterious and shapeshifting phase of the Magah, listen here.Usually full moon posts feature a retelling of a traditional story, connected in some way with the archetypal phase we are in. We are mixing it up here for this full moon post with a powerful harvest of stories from women in my life. Women who are in their perimenopausal or post menopausal phase. Take your time here, lean in to the precious wisdom, vulnerability and strength here…Below are a few nuggets of wisdom and inquiry.Warmest wishes and thank you for your bright listening.TracyA YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Word offerings:Cielle: “ I am now in my Crone years and it has been important to listen to other women share their experiences of the phases we go through, as well as for me to reflect on my own. Often I think the phases of maiden, mother and Mage in my life don’t make a good story because the phases for me have been simple. Yes , I have experienced each phase as unique but each has been easy compared to many others. I am grateful for the relative ease.Here is an example. A menopausal friend has had hot flashes for about a decade. They frequently cause her to change her clothes 3 times a day. Her temperature swings are so extreme. I used to think she was really into fashion and changed clothes frequently in the day to match the mood of what she was doing. But really it is mostly about extreme bodily temperature fluctuations.For me, menopause only brought occasional “ warm waves”. I think I had a total of 3-4 what I called “Oh my God” hot flashes. I know women who have “Oh my God” hot flashes several times a day for years. I have menopausal friends who experienced rather extreme vaginal thinning and drying. I have had that but only very minimally. At one point i wondered if i might need hormone replacement therapy because I felt my energy levels were low. I discovered that the best wat to increase my energy was to get more hours of sleep.I think in many ways my relative ease in the adjustment to menopause is less common . So many woman are thrown off by this phase of life. I realize it is important for me to share my experiences even if they are not remarkable. “Anna Lisa: “ Nothing about my life is the same. I can’t even wear the same jewelry. I stopped putting up with b******t as I entered perimenopause and God just everything is different. As a young woman, I remember being judgmental about older postmenopausal women who had changed their names. But now I get it, nothing is the same, they felt like a totally different person, and so they needed a new name for the transformed identity. “Julie: “ One thing I’m sitting with and am challenged by as I move further into perimenopause is what I call my “Virginia Woolf complex” — this want for room/space/solitude/rest of my own amidst the tensions and demands of mothering/partnership/family/modern life… it can feel maddening at times. I am wondering how do we bring our husbands/partners/children/families along on this cyclical journey in a healthy way?”MAGE BIOS:Elizabeth Jane Lovely is an artist whose experimentation encompasses the written form, oral storytelling, ceremonial chant, and spell speaking, through ritual interaction. She is a Creative Arts Doctoral Researcher at Loughborough University and an English Cunning Woman of sorts. Her specialisms within and without the academy are centred around how we can cause kindly disruption through enchantment, the story as the activist, the essentiality of our bodily state as gateway to sacred creativity, and everyday imagination as change maker. She currently lives in the United Kingdom in a tiny county that does not always exist, regularly having to negotiate with the brambles and briars to access the rest of the human world. More at Elizabeth Jane Lovely and https://www.elizabethjanelovely.comAnna Lisa Clifford Gold lives in Fairfield, Iowa.Jackie Singer is a shamanic artist. She uses her singing voice for healing in one-to-one sessions and through songs and chants. ‘Songhold’, her forthcoming album of original sacred music is out on 4th December. As a storyteller, she has performed in many settings, and recently toured “Rhiannon Unbridled”, a one-woman show funded by Arts Council England. Originally trained as a Drama and Movement Therapist, Jackie is a celebrant and author of the book ‘Birthrites – Rituals and Celebrations for the Child-Bearing Years’. Now in her 50s, Jackie lives in Oxford, UK, with her husband, two teenage daughters and two cats. More here: www.jackiesinger.co.uk and also https://jackiesinger.bandcamp.comNina Smock lives in the Iowa Driftless RegionKerri Kirnan - is an herbalist living in Eau Claire Wisconsin https://www.etsy.com/shop/RiverPrairieHerbsTracy Chipman (she/they) is a generator & connector, weaver of language & healing. She is a poet and an author, who feels most alive in the wilds, discovering through emergence & intuition and when gathering with womyn folx. She resides in the traditional territories of the Ojibwe peoples, near Lake Superior in Northern Wisconsin. www.tracychipman.netWritten offerings by:Cielle Backstrom lives in Fairfield, Iowa, and supports folks on the path of embodied awakening. Her awakening in 2003 opened multiple inner doorways revealing just how “whole” life is and the huge range that it includes. This led her to study several tools which she uses as aids to assist her students on their path of awakening. These tools include compassionate listening, Focusing, Breathwork and energy healing.https://www.ciellebackstrom.com/Anna Lisa Clifford Gold - see aboveJulie Hill is an educator, artist, and writer who lives in South Minneapolis.**image by Elena Ray & sound support by Tim Britton. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Full Beaver Moon Greetings Dear Listeners….The faded rose, the deadheads of zinnias, the browning, descending, dissolving of what was once full bloom and vibrant with life. The Wheel of Life is turning, the Magah/ Mage reigns, cycling with the moon, the sun and the rhymicity of mystery itself. In these times there are unthinkable ruptures to witness, old, old, wounds - personal & collective to tend to. The Mage can remind us to heal, feel & know what we are ready to heal, feel & know.Welcome here to A Year & A Day, a 13 month journey through storytelling and emergent collaborations exploring the cycles of women’s lives. This full moon story - The Cauldron of Inspiration has us roving through the ancient lands of Wales with Cerridwen - a mythic Goddess, Sorceress/Witch and in some retellings a historical person from the north of Wales.Some sources say the story is connected to the Mabonogi - a collection of Welsh prose stories, compiled in Middle Welsh in the 12-13th centuries from oral tradition. Some sources say the myth is not part of the Mabinogi. For now, let’s stay in the mystery of it, for how Mage is that?In the story, Cerridwen holds both Mage and Mother roles creating some delicious contradictions which is again so very Mage.Here are a few prompts/reflections to explore after listening, once, or twice or more times as a portal to deepen into your life through the deep time magic of this retelling.Where are you witnessing, tending to what might need healing within you and beyond?Imagine into how your way of being in the world would change might change if you tasted 3 drops of Cerridwen’s transforming elxir.In what areas of your life are you, or are you not, practicing your arts of transformation?Where are you in the story - which images charm and/or trouble you? That is a doorway….Thanks for reading A YEAR and A DAY! This post is public so feel free to share it.Thank you for your Bright Listening!Gratitude in all directions,TracyCOMING UP at the next New Moon - an emergent collaboration with dear friend & colleague Jackie Singer.post graphic by Elena Ray. A YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Hey Changing Loves, Spicy and potent full moon in Aries with chthonic Scorpio moving through Mercury. For more juicy downloads on the sky stories playing out, check out Dr. Mindy Nettifee’s page.We are in the season of the Mage/ Matriarch here on A Year & A Day. The world is shifting and changing in ways that confound, rupture and invite a stronger potential for liberation - whatever that might mean, in a long game non-time frame. It feels like the Void, the unknown looms larger than ever, like we are so close, the veil is so thin, the cracks are splintering, widening, and the terrible and miraculous so powerfully at play. How is your heart? Can you lean into the Spirit beneath the tidal waves? Lean into the unseen? What action, consciously and intentionally, morally and whole (and half) heartedly can you take, speak, bloom into becoming? In this we are together - this Us-ness is more than human. Wishing you & us ease in the dynamism of these times as we move into the composting season, into the long dark. Enjoy this retelling of a tale i’ve been carrying for a spell, heard from a Dartmoor magician.Please consider becoming a paid subscriber and pass this story/message along.May our eyes grow accustom to the darkness to better see. May our grief be clean.Big thanks & bigger love,TracyThanks for reading A YEAR and A DAY! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Greetings from the threshold of Mabon, the equipoise of the Equinox and a partial Solar Eclipse New Moon in Virgo! Whoa. Wait. Here, before anything else I’m reaching out beyond the boundaries of time and space (because language can do that!) to offer you a permission slip (mine is pink) to pause and rest. Will you reach towards me, towards this slip of permission and take it?Can you allow a softening of your hefty brain, your forehead, jaw, pericardium? Soften, soften, soften your pelvic floor (like you just might pee) and now those mighty thighs. Can you let yourself spill downwards, becoming a mushy, gushy, pulsing puddle, pooling at your feet? Be a liquid lushness of iridescence, a stillness humming with dynamic life. Rest here for one minute or 10, breathing, softening, simmering. Come back when you are ready.~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ * ~ . ~ . ~ . ~ . ~Welcome back here to this potent New Moon collaboration on A Year & A Day - a 13 month journey exploring the seasons of women’s lives through story & emergent collaborations. Joining me for this episode is my beloved friend & colleague Judith Tamarah from Eugene, Oregon. Judith and I have been collaborating through fecund & curious conversations and wild deeds in the realm of energetic possibilities, healing modalities and ritual play for over three decades.In this collaborative outpouring we explore: * a retelling of the story of Inanna’s Descent * the transformation possible through the descent and the alchemy of scraping off the top soil of oneself to experience the bedrock of oneself. * the freeing power of this process & discovery as initiation into the season of the Mage, the Matriarch… the Magala!A YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.After you’ve listened, please share your experiences of The Mage. She is the one harvesting her life’s experiences, transforming, transforming, transforming and stepping into the freeing power of her voice…and wow can this be a wild & slippery slope. Your experiences matter, our voices are generative! I’d love to hear from you.And because this remains a free to all experiences, please consider becoming a subscriber, just a bit of flow from a relative few makes a massive difference to keeping this endeavor a joyful, powerful offering!Thank you for your bright listening!Much love,Tracy More About Judith:Judith is an Artist and Designer. She works with earth energies to design workspace and home spaces that support your creativity and power. Although her website is currently on hiatus, you can still sign up for her newsletter at judithtamarah.com to learn about her upcoming classes and workshops.Thanks for reading A YEAR and A DAY! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Dear Cyclical Beings,Welcome here to this New Moon in Virgo offering of A Year & A Day! Thank you for finding your way here.We are about half way through our 13 month journey exploring the phases of women’s lives through full moon storytelling & new moon emergent collaborations! Each of the women who have joined me since the first episode of this cycle are actively engaging with their lives, in their singular and authentic ways, through deep connection with feminine forward, liminal, intuitive, and place-based values and practices. It has been so rich and alive to sink into collaboration with their voices and their incredibly rich work in the world!As we enter Virgo season our exploration of the Mother cycle is winding down and I’m super delighted to share this emergent collaboration with Switzerland based Hakomi therapist, Shelly Sharon.A YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.In this episode Shelly and I dive into the Mother Wound - what that means, how consciously working with the mother wound might offer women deeper layers of healing around crucial experiences like trust and boundary setting, why sharing our stories is so valuable and so much more. There’s a lot in here. We also reference the story I shared earlier this month. A retelling of the Scottish story, The Stolen Child. I’ve listened through our conversation many times already, on top of being with Shelly when we recorded this, and the gifts of Shelly’s experience & knowledge continue opening places inside me that I’m grateful to explore more. Her substack has been quite helpful to me as well.Both Shelly and I welcome you into this conversation tapping into the Mother Wound.Thank you for your presence and your bright listening here! May we each hear, feel & know what we are ready to hear, feel & know.Much love.Yours in the ongoing,TracyPS. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Each month is seems there’s a new layer and/or hurdle to contend with to continue providing this pod. Even small monthly contributions help especially with new added expenses related to the podcast platform I’m using. Thanks for considering!___More about Shelly: Born into hunger, neglect, and abandonment, Shelly spent years outrunning the shadows of her childhood. She danced on world stages, brewed coffee for strangers, and shaped movements for social change. But once she found the stillness of deep meditation her appetite for healing opened and her true path revealed itself: Helping women to untangle the insistent grip of the mother wound so they can move with ease to the personal or professional experiences they yearn for. Shelly is a trauma-informed, Hakomi therapist. She’s offering 1:1 sessions, courses, and annual retreats, and is working on her first book.https://www.shellysharon.com/effortingtoresthttps://healingthemotherwound.substack.com https://www.instagram.com/motherwound_healingcoach/ https://www.facebook.com/shelly.sharon.7* recording background image by Elena Ray This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome here to A Year & A Day and the portal place of the new moon in Leo! What could be better to celebrate entering the Soul Shine Season of Leo than with this juicy, ripe and emergent collaboration with myth worker, writing coach and momma, Marisa Goudy. Wow! Come join us and to lean into the questions as the shaping, shifting, dancing poetry of mothering unfolds right here. This gorgeous conversation with Marisa is a a feast! Your comments are so welcome below! In case you missed the Selkie story connected with this chin way with Marisa, here it is. Oh, oh! And if you haven’t listened to the latest Harvest of Stories and amazing women’s voice around birth and being born, oh you will laugh and cry and be present to the miracle of our aliveness - please listen!And, if this journey through the seasons of women’s lives through story and emergent collaborations with the voices of courageous and brilliant women from around this living planet is your cup of tea, please considering becoming a paid subscriber!Thank you for your bright listening,Tracy** image O’Donovan’s door, Kinvara, Ireland. 2006.About Marisa!Marisa Goudy is a myth worker, a story healer, and a writing coach. She’s the author of The Sovereignty Knot: A Woman’s Way to Freedom, Power, Love, and Magic and the host of the KnotWork Myth and Storytelling podcast. Marisa studied at the University of Galway and got her BA in Irish Studies and English at Boston College. She received her MA in Anglo-Irish Literature and Drama from University College Dublin. The land itself is Marisa’s greatest guide and solace. She grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (traditional and ancestral land of the Wampanoag) and now lives in the Hudson Valley (originally home to the Esopus-Lenape) with her husband and two daughters. www.marisagoudy.com, www.KnotWorkStorytelling.comIG: @marisagoudy @knotworkpodcastFB: https://www.facebook.com/marisa.goudy/https://www.facebook.com/knotworkstorytellingSubstack: Thanks for reading A YEAR and A DAY! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome here for this full moon in Capricorn retelling of the Irish tale of the Selkie.We are fully in Mothering season as we move through the phases of women’s lives on this Year and a Day journey. Thank you for settling here for a story. Thank you for your bright listening.TracyA YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Admit somethingEveryone you see, you say to themLove me.Of course you do not do this out loud;Otherwise,Someone would call the cops.Still though, think about this,This great pull in usTo connect.Why not become the oneWho lives with a full moon in each eyeThat is always saying,With that sweet moon language,What every other eye in this worldIs dying to Hear.by HafizFrom: Hafiz, The Gift: Poems by Hafiz The Great Sufi Master. Translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Penguin Compass, 1999.JOIN me in the Driftless Region & Beyond:ROOTED EXPRESSION a Creative Retreat for Writers & ArtistsAUGUST 1-3 Keewaydin Farm Viola, Wisconsin This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome here for this Full Strawberry Moon story offering as we move into Mothering season with the powerful story of The Handless Maiden.While this story is indeed about a young woman and that of the archetypal Maiden’s journey, this story is deeply nourished by Mother energies. This is a (literally) brutal story (head’s up) AND it is also a story of the metalic bite of severance AND the most powerful, and soulful regenerations. Without the mothering here, there is no regeneration, no maturing of the Maiden. This mothering also comes from more-than-human entities…Who within you, needs regenerating? How might you connect with the mothering you need, within & beyond to heal the deepest wounds ?May this story soak and settle in you tending, loving and regenerating what you are ready to tend, love and grow!Also if you happen to be in the upper Midwest next month on July 19th please come deepen into this story as we gather in the wild boreal forest of Northern Wisconsin for the THE WILD WITHIN, a women’s day retreat exploring regeneration, the wild inside us through somatic practices, creativity & just being.More info and registration info. Early Bird Rates extended until Friday June 13.Thank you for your Bright Listening!TracyPS - Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This project is a labor of love and subscribing at any paid level helps keep this offering possible! Deep bow of thanks!A YEAR and A DAY is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit allheredwellfree.substack.com/subscribe