heathergorse

[heathergorse]

I'm fitting a new door to my Internets today.

#faerie #fantasy #mine #fairycore #fairy aesthetic #fairy door #fairystyle #faery door

[heathergorse]

Hello! If you find yourself here because your copy of "Tales from Fiddlers Green" is now in your hands then welcome to my site and I hope you're enjoying all of the wonderful stories that Tales #2 contains!

I'm only an occasional poster, but perhaps you'll find something here you'll enjoy.

If you're already a Tumblr follower and are wondering what I'm talking about then my short story, 'Knots', has been published as part of this collection of mythic arts story and poetry.

I'm so honoured to have had my story selected from over 1700 submissions for inclusion in this amazing collection. You can get your copy HERE

#stories #short story #writing #writeblr #writers on tumblr #publishing #fiddlersgreen #Tales from Fiddlers Green #fantasy #amwriting #faerie #fairies

[heathergorse]

Mushrooms in the rain.

England, October 2023

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #woods #autumn #fall #mushies #mushrooms #mycology #rainyday #rainymood

[heathergorse]

If you're busy, but you have the chance to stop and watch a Red Admiral butterfly for a little while, always stop and watch the Red Admiral butterfly for a little while.

England, October 2023

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #light #autumn #fall #butterflies #butterfly #red admiral #ivy #ivy flowers #wild flowers

[heathergorse]

The glowing golden flame of autumn is lit.

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #trees #light #autumn #fall #countryside #golden hour #oak #woodlands #the woods #woodland #woods

[heathergorse]

Golden hour, golden retriever sees you and wants to say hello. I'm not sure it gets any better than that combo.

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #trees #mine #light #autumn #fall #countryside #golden hour #golden retriever #good doggo #woodlands #the woods

[heathergorse]

And in a blink, or at least it seems from my perspective, the better part of a year slips by.

Its been a year of major life changes that have taken adaptation and growth and are indicative of many good things that have been happening, but they have also taken attention and energy and so it is that spring and summer have flown by without a word, and before that only the briefest of attention could be given to autumn flowing into winter and beyond.

Now I'm into another autumn and it has already had its enchantments as the September light picks out the fading, curling leaves of a beech that stands sentinel over the fields beyond, looking towards the rest of the year.

I'm hopeful of spending more of the fading of this year here, but until then, I hope you can enjoy this autumnal enchantment as much as I am.

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #autumn #fall #fall season #trees #fields #countryside #light #sunlight #evening #field

[heathergorse]

Imbolc treasures are opening!

England, February 2023.

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #cottagecore #cottageblr #forestcore #wild flowers #flowers #snowdrops #crocus #imbolc

[heathergorse]

#stonehenge #england #winter #winter solstice #yuletime #yule 2022 #solstice 2022 #solstice #video #livestream

[heathergorse]

Last minute Samhain

Those pesky pixies are insisting on being included in my Samhain preparations, but they seem to be enjoying themselves so who am I to complain?

Samhain (along with Yule) is simultaneously the most observed and most ignored of all the stops on the wheel of the year. Halloween is a massive commercial entity and cultural touchstone, but that doesn't mean it's the same thing as Samhain. You can celebrate Halloween without celebrating Samhain (and vice versa) or of course you can celebrate both!

What if you want to add some simple ways to mark Samhain to your day, but you don't know much about it? Read on for a couple of ideas...

Samhain is the gaelic languages (remember, gaelic =/= automatically equal celtic; in Welsh 31st October is called Nos Galan Gaeaf and Welsh is an even more ancient language than the gaelic languages) name for the festival that marks the celtic new year.

A central part of the festival was the belief that this time (along with its polar opposite festival, Beltane) the veil between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest. It was a time to connect with the "good spirits" of ancestors as they were at their closest to us, but equally the "bad spirits" were close too. So, the ancestors were to be honoured and welcomed, the bad spirits were to be scared away and in this part the modern festival of Halloween has its root.

Ancestors would be welcomed around the hearth at the centre of the home with some form of depiction or item that belonged to them in order that they could help those living today. The tradition is still a part of many cultures today and is included in almost all neopagan descriptions of samhain celebrations.

Honouring ancestors then is a large part of Samhain, but what if this means nothing to you? Perhaps you're young and haven't lost anyone close to you yet. Perhaps you're happily exploring neopagan spirituality and all your ancestors were very strongly christian. Perhaps your ancestors were horrible racists, sexists, homophobes, transphobes etc and you don't want that in your life. Perhaps there's even more reasons why connecting to ancestors isn't something that you feel you can engage with or have any enthusiasm for.

So pick your own ancestors.

'Why not? The belief in ancestors is that they have made us who we are today and, with a little thought, it is easy to think of people from the past who have made us who we are today. What about the author of a favourite book? Why not even one of the characters from that book? This is about choosing for yourself, not having the decisions made for you. Just like we can choose our friends but not our families, we can choose to honour those who have helped to make us who we are today. So, if you don't have ancestors you wish to honour then pick the ones you do want to honour. Be grateful for those authors, artists, world-changers and creatives who make you feel good about yourself. Pick a favourite character who taught you to be a better person. Celebrate who you are!

Samhain is also a new year, so its a good opportunity in the year to try to be better. You never have to wait for a specific date to try and improve, but this is as good a line in the sand as any other. Is there anything you want to differently, or perhaps there's something you want to make better. Samhain is a good time to begin that.

Its the time of the year when the rule of the night over the day becomes longer and longer. Samhain is a good time to embrace that and embrace your night self. Step into the Samhain night (if its safe to do so) and feel the difference in all your senses between the night and the day. There's long nights to come yet, so make friends with the night if you can.

(One quick extra - if you've carved a pumpkin lantern don't just throw it away! Its food that can be easily roasted and pureed and can make some great recipes, so take the time to do a quick search for pumpkin recipes - and especially don't leave your pumpkins out on the ground outside as wildlife like hedgehogs can become very ill from eating them.)

However you're planning to spend your Halloween or mark Samhain this year, I wish you a happy and blessed one that is just how you want it to be.

#samhain #halloween #samhain 2022 #halloween 2022 #eclectic pagan #paganism #wheel of the year #fire festival #witch #witchy things #witchblr #witches of tumblr #the study #mine

[heathergorse]

Look at the mystical shapes of the twisted oak and then look closer.

Aren't the twisted limbs enchanting? No, that's not what you need to see, look again, look closer still.

Can you see it now? You're being seen too! Look closer still.

The wizened face of a tree spirit looks benignly upon you! You are blessed indeed to see such a thing!

There it is, deep wisdom in the eyes, deep lines in the face matching the deep lines of the bark. The tree spirit gazes upon you with love, will you do the same in return?

England, October 2022

#trees #tree #woods #green woman #the green man #tree spirit #dryad #nature #nature photography #outdoors #beauty #enchantments #england #naturecore #cottageblr #cottagecore #forestcore #forest aesthetic #forest witch #mine #the woods

[heathergorse]

An open letter to Sharon Blackie

I don't write much about trans issues. Its not because they're not of interest to me - they're of deep existential interest to me because I'm a trans woman - but it is not often that they cross with the topics of this blog.

When they occasionally do, I'll write about them.

So it is that I'm writing an open letter to the author and podcaster Sharon Blackie, after she made comments about transgender people in episode 13 of her podcast, This Mythic Life. Its an old episode, but I only very recently listened to it and it prompted me to write an open letter to Sharon in response.

I don't expect anything to come of this or many people to see it, least of Sharon herself, but it was simply important to me to write it. You can read it below:

Dear Sharon,

Gosh, but its been a good few years since I started to read your writing; I was a subscriber to Earthlines from issue 1 and ever since I’ve kept a close eye out for whatever you’re writing. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve recommended The Enchanted Life to! It's been over 10 years and I’ve enjoyed so much of what you’ve written. I’m passionate about story and place and how they can intertwine and so obviously there was a lot for me to enjoy!

I’ve listened to your podcasts for a while too, dipping in and out as time allows. So it was that I eventually came to episode 13 of This Mythic Life. I don’t think I can properly quantify how upset I’ve been since hearing it and I hope you’ll let me explain why. 

You see, I’m a trans woman. That’s a difficult “hero’s journey” to be on and there are many perils and monsters on the way. It's not an easy story but it is often a redemptive story, but I’ll talk more about story later. I can’t help talking in terms of story, I’m sure you can understand that. Listening to your episode 13 of Mythic Life was not a peril I was expecting to encounter.

Let me state as clearly as possible that I’m not trying to take anything away from what your body can do and its part in your identity, Sharon, as you expressed concern about happening in the podcast; I don’t think I know of anyone who would. I do know what it is to have things “tied up with my vision of who I think I am,” as you put it. There are also things I don’t know. 

I don’t know what it is to menstruate. I don’t know what it is to carry a child or give birth. When my cis women friends have discussed this together or told me about it privately its a time for me to be silent and listen and try to understand. It's absolutely not a time to express an opinion that is uninformed, it's absolutely not a time for me to try to prevent a conversation from happening because it's not something I can experience. 

I don’t want to take anything away from you, I don’t want to take anything away from any cis woman. I want to make sure I listen and try to understand whenever anyone trusts me with any part of their own story like that.

I wish that this was something you were wanting to do for trans women,  because going by your comments about trans (I’m going to presume women, but on the podcast you stumbled over your word choice here and went for “trans person” instead) people who have approached you about finding themselves in story it appears you haven’t properly listened to the stories of trans women yet, or of trans men or non-binary people. 

I’m going to hope that it wasn’t your intention, but your suggestion to the commenter who wanted to know where they fit into mythic stories that they go and create their own mythology, combined with your repeating comments about “third sex” people feels tantamount to segregationist language to me as a trans woman. It is very dismissive and, despite your protestations to the contrary, sounds incredibly exclusionary. Go make your own stories and maybe in 2000 years there’ll be mythic stories for trans people feels like being told there’s no place in these stories for you. How could that be? The podcast episode was about the mythic masculine and there is, of course, the mythic feminine. Are trans men and women not able to find themselves in the mythic masculine and mythic feminine by this assessment?

Sadly, your passing assertion about some cultures recognising a third sex is perhaps the worst of options. It suggests that you do not believe that trans women are women, or trans men are men. Is that a reasonable conclusion to reach, Sharon? Let me ask you respectfully and genuinely - do you believe that trans women are women and trans men are men? 

I believe that the right thing to say to a trans woman seeking to find resonance and meaning in mythic stories is to enable them to find it, to say that they are entitled to find it in the mythic feminine. I believe that the right thing to say to a trans man seeking to find resonance and meaning in mythic stories is to enable them to find it, to say that they are entitled to find it in the mythic masculine. I believe that that would have been the compassionate, inclusive and caring thing to do, Sharon, not to dismiss them to “third sex” segregation to come up with their own stories. To say that is to say to trans women and men that there is nothing for them here and that they should pursue their own culture elsewhere. I don’t believe any mythic story says that. 

Please, I implore you, please listen to the stories of some trans women and men and non-binary people because I think you would benefit greatly from hearing their personal stories and learning about their perspectives in a spirit of openness. To pursue and state the positions that you did in episode 13 of your podcast is rightly going to leave you open to accusations of transphobia, because what you have said and how you have said it is transphobic. It's entirely possible that this was not your intention at all, we are all subject to cultural and societal prejudices and can easily fall prey to them and this is a very hostile time for trans women particularly. 

I think it is entirely reasonable to respectfully and simply raise the question with you though, after what you said on your podcast and how you said it;  do you believe that trans women are women and trans men are men, or not? 

It can be a perilous road, being trans. Merely to express an opinion online, to step outside your door, to exist in public can be fraught with danger; I’m sure you’d agree that in that at least cis women and trans women have a great deal in common. Just as cis women are bombarded with messages from the world around them that they are less, so are trans women. Very sadly, episode 13 of your podcast told me that I was less and I suspect that I am not the only trans woman, man or non-binary person who heard it who felt that also. Words and how we use them can do staggering damage as well as incredible good. I want to believe that you had no intention whatsoever of doing harm and I hope that you won’t dismiss any possibility that you have done so; saying “I don’t say this in any way to offend anyone” as you did is not a free pass to not causing offence and harm. 

I’ll always value the different perspectives I discovered reading Earthlines. The Enchanted Life will always be a favourite, Foxfire Wolfskin was spine-tingingly good and Hagitude has had such rave reviews that I’m sure it more than deserves. I truly wish you every success with it. I can only hope that there’s a place for me to continue reading your writing, because right now I can’t imagine wanting to read the writing of someone who has currently left me with the impression that they believe I am not validly entitled to “my vision of who I think I am”.

#transgender #trans woman #trans pride #trans rights #sharon blackie #transphobia #open letter #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq representation #nonbinary #the study

[heathergorse]

Its been a riot of fungi this autumn, not content with appearing solo they're getting together for social gatherings!

England, October 2022

#nature #beauty #outdoors #mushies #mushrooms #fungi #mycology #fungus #autumn #england #mine #toadstool #the woods

[heathergorse]

Jupiter appears.

Moon disappears.

Faces emerge from the clouds.

Magic is real; look for it.

#beauty #nature #outdoors #mine #moongazing #moon #jupiter #stargazing #sky #cloudysky #cloudyday #clouds #call of the night #night #the night school

[heathergorse]

Entering the pathway of autumn.

England, September 2022

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #trees #woods #cottagecore #cottageblr #autumn #fall season #fall 2022 #september #the woods

[heathergorse]

May your Mabon be filled with great and many seasonal blessings, full of mushrooms, apples, acorns and the autumn colours of the woods.

#beauty #nature #england #outdoors #mine #trees #woods #cottagecore #cottageblr #mabon #blessed mabon #forest aesthetic #forestcore #the study

[heathergorse]

I've not been here as much as hoped, recently.

It's my own fault, I found this enchanting place and started spending time there 🤣

#gaming #selfie #disney #disnerd #disney dreamlight valley #dreamlight valley #dreamlight #mine