New Moon

This month, I’m writing to you in the quiet energy of the New Moon. Earlier this week, a solar eclipse crossed parts of Western Europe, and just as the sun disappeared from the sky, I too disappeared for a few weeks, missing my Full Moon Letter and Wheel of the Year Newsletter.

Life has been throwing some genuinely difficult things at me in a very short space of time.

A fluffy black cat sitting on a work table where I'm making Raven feathers from red silk

Hecate sitting amongst red silk raven feathers, during the making process

Including my cat escaping while I was travelling in Sweden. She is back now, and we are both glad to be together again, but it was a very stressful few days at Lammas.

A hand embroidered tie on Pocket dedicated to Jonnet Wilsoune of Kilbride, 1658

Pocket made for Jonnet Wilsoune made by Kirsty Fulton, designed by Tara M Dakini

While all these difficulties took me away from public life, the Pockets of Love Pilot Groups in West Kilbride have been busy stitching and have completed the very first Pockets of Love, remembering the women of West Kilbride and Portencross who were accused and tried during the 17th-century Witch Hunts in Scotland.

Each Pocket bears the name of an accused woman on the front and the maker’s name on the back, forging a genuine and personal connection reaching back across 400 years. 

To me, this is the most important part of the project, that the women are not just named, but taken into someone’s life. In the time and creative energy that it takes to make the Pocket, a deep connection can be formed, more substantial than a mere record of her name.

I’m sharing with you some photographs of the makers and the Pockets here, but if you would like to see them in real life, I’m hugely proud to tell you that these first Pockets will be exhibited at The Barony Centre, in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire.

The exhibition opens next week, on Wednesday 19th August and runs until Saturday 29th August. Entry is free.

Pocket in progress for Bessie Wodsyde of Kilbride 1658, showing front and back embroidered panels

Pocket in Progress for Bessie Wodsyde of KIlbride 1658, embroidered by Alice Young. design by Tara M Dakini

The Exhibition also features two life-size Raven sculptures, in a piece titled “Controlling the Narrative”, which asks us to examine how we think about the accused women and what stories have been told about them in the past and what stories we tell about them today.
 

A tabby cat sits on an embroidered Pocket in the midst of sewing materials

Pocket made for Helen Tam made by Eva Buetnner, designed by Tara M Dakini

I do hope you will be able to come and see the exhibition. If you’ve been wondering where I went, thank you for waiting for me, and for joining me in the quiet of the new Moon.