'Listen to your hearts
Find the truth that's beating there.
Open to your longing
For right living in the world.
Know that it is possible
For the point of power is now.
These are the most important things:
Hold your vision. Love with passion.
Speak your truth, and also listen.
Open to the dreams that call you
To a truer manifestation
Of the spirit of creation
And honouring of sacredness.'
The Power of Nine
Hi, I'm Dearbhaile, the second Bard of Glastonbury. Welcome to my website where you can find out about workshops, performances, lectures and whatever else I'm doing these days. If you haven't already seen the videos of 'The Heart of Ireland' and 'Strange Sisters say it for the planet' they are a good place to start as they definitely give you an idea who I am and what I'm about.
I open with the quotation from 'The Power of Nine', the poem that lead to my chairing as the Bard of Glastonbury in 2007 because this covers pretty well what I believe in, what I'm about. I want to play my part in the Great Turning, in this amazing adventure we're engaged in right now as we move into more life sustaining ways of being on the planet. I express this commitment in a variety of ways: through the workshops I run, performing with Strange Sisters and through my activities in my role as Elder Bard.
The website is called goodwillpatterns.co.uk because I initially set it up to share the text of the Goodwill Patterns booklet which I would describe as 'everything I've learnt so far in life that I've found helpful'. I am now offering a workshop based on this, 'Handling Conflict, Creating Peace' which I ran for Transition Glastonbury in January and can offer at a venue near you if you'd like and get in touch to ask. I am also writing an article 'The Practice of Gratitude' about how working with the Goodwill Patterns helped me cope with the various health challenges I faced in 2008.
The job of a Bard is to 'elevate the word' and this is one of my goals for this year. I put together a Bardic performance for the Glastonbury Symposium last summer and have had opportunities to perform parts of it since. I offer a workshop on Bardism 'Opening to the Awen' and am keen to perform as a Bard, particularly at the Sabbats.
The Work that Re-connects is still a major strand in my life. I'm delighted to be working with Maitrisara and Alex Wildwood to bring together the facilitators of this work throughout Britain in April. Jane Sanders and I have put together our programme of WTR workshops (see schedule). I offer the introduction to WTR 'Healing our World, Healing Ourselves' anywhere I can reasonably travel, so if you'd like to know more please get in touch.
