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Bethany Dawson

Author // Writer // Editor

Latest Journal Entries

Eloquent of the Coming Change

The festival of Imbolc and how ancient Celtic wisdom invites us to create ritual to navigate thresholds.

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Let’s Talk Turkey

The stories that have inspired us to raise our own turkeys on our smallholding in County Down.

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On Behalf of the Good Dark

A gathering of women to celebrate the winter solstice.

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Reflections of a Swineherd

The roller coaster of raising, slaughtering and butchering pigs at home.

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A Monthly Midnight

When navigating a period of transition, a wise friend encouraged me to create ritual. Sitting beneath a full moon with poetry is where I began. Staring moon-struck into the sky is nothing new. I have volumes of poetry written by fellow lunar lovers. It is not really about the moon, it is about the space […]

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In Search of Fox

This piece was featured in Issue Eight of Freckle Magazine, an independently published magazine celebrating the people and landscapes of Northern Ireland and beyond. When the moon is full and the children asleep, I wander the fields in search of fox. There is a family tunnelled beneath an Ash tree; we have hair fragments and […]

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The Hinge of the Year

This year we have known eviction and generous hospitality; grief and deep joy; the bottom of the barrel and the flight path of an owl. As I gathered the material for another moon ritual, it was like having a conversation with elders who have travelled these paths before. I am a little less intimidated by […]

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Here

One of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of this season is to be present. I love Pádraig Ó Tuama’s work on the ways in which we can find shelter in the world by acknowledging where we are in all of its complexity. “To greet sorrow today does not mean that sorrow will be there […]

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The Healing Dark

This month’s moon is named in honour of an animal I have never seen. It is believed that the beavers labour to build their lodge at this time of the year before the hard cold sets in. Many of us feel that tug to hunker down, stockpile for the winter and hibernate. The ritual I […]

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Starling

Upstream is an offering of essays that map the landscape as I see it. Subscribers get full access to my work. If you are already a member, please login here. If you are not currently a member but would like to join, please click here.

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