"To learn to speak is to learn to say 'our river has its source in an Otherworld well,' and anything we say about the hills and anything we say about the stars is a way of saying 'A Hazel grows over the Otherworld well our river has its source in.'" ~John Moriarty
There is a well in the Otherworld, where all the waters of this world have their source, and where the Salmon of Wisdom dwells. To taste water and know that is has its source in that well is to remember that this world is alive. My life, my work, and my writing are dedicated to bringing the taste of those waters to all whose hearts seek their nourishment. Come, drink deeply.
Seán Pádraig O’Donoghue
Seán is a poet and herbalist living in western Maine in the shadow of a chain of mountains that stretch south to Georgia and north and east across the sea to Ireland and Scotland.
He guides individuals in finding better ways to connect with the living world along their journeys toward healing, insight, meaning, and liberation. With compassionate listening and deeply intuitive insights, Seán works with clients to identify the patterns they want to shift in their lives. Then, he shares perspectives and strategies with them for connecting with plants, ancestors, and the land as allies in transformation.
Though I mark time more by the rhythm of changes on the land that the seasons bring than I do by the calendar of the dominant culture, I still love the opportunity that New Year's Day brings for reflection and transformation. Any holiday or festival being celebrated by the people around you is an opportunity to partake in mutual blessing while the community is focusing on gratitude, hope, and joy, whether or not you share others' conception of "the reason for the season." No matter what calendar you follow, the turning of the year is a liminal time, a time of putting the past behind you and stepping into new ways of being.
We live now in a time of rising waters, when the sun is obscured by the smoke of burning forests. We stand vigil, uncertain if the sun will return. We place lights on evergreen trees to bring brightness and the memory of life, marking a festival that carries echoes of the tales of a Winter-Born King, a bright light born of the darkest night, harbinger of hope. The night is not over, and there is time yet to dream anew, to dream each other Winter-Born Sovereigns, who come in the darkest hour to restore the wasteland with our wild love.
In winters of snow and ice, winters of the heart, and winters of our collective experience, Damiana awakens the memory of the invincible summer within us. Bitter, warming, and aromatic, Damiana grounds us into our bodies, stirs our heart to quicken the rhythm of the movement of our blood, and relaxes the tension we hold to allow the blood to flow freely to all of our parts -- and where blood flows, awareness goes.
Seán truly is a deep well. He has a way of listening and distilling such that a session with him is like having the heart of the world listening. His guidance has been for simple yet potent practices that have opened me into a profoundly deeper relationship with my own healing process and capacity. This is intimately intertwined with the potency of healing found in the earth around us, calling us all to a path of awakening.
Summer Starr
From the first moment I met Seán, I knew I could trust his guidance. I began studying drop-dose medicine with him, learning how to experience each plant toward my own deep healing. Seán is a pure channel of joy and a truly gifted herbalist. I feel forever grateful for all I have learned through him and for the ways in which I have healed my nervous system from old trauma. Seán is a teacher who truly understands the ways in which I learn.
Asaya Heart
Seán's work as a teacher and shamanic storyteller and herbalist is a beautiful gift for those who are blessed enough to be taught by him. I worked with him in Ireland and found his knowledge of Ireland and herbal lore and mythology to be truly profound. I would recommend him without hesitation!
Alan Cooke (Emmy Award winning filmmaker, philosopher, poet, and speaker)
I hold the most archaic values on earth... the fertility of the soul, the magic of the animals, the power-vision in solitude... the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe.
~Gary Snyder
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