KERDÂ BLAIDÂ
This is a very special place on the Weavers’ Trail – it is where we witness, honour and celebrate sisters who have completed all three journeys, all thirteen moons and all 533 footsteps of the Wedjê Kerdâ. This is a wonderful accomplishment for the travelling sister but also a profound inspiration for everyone who is undertaking a trail journey or thinking about stepping into this braided river.
Some women travel here with quiet tread and whispered song; others choose to weave into the nourishment of the trail community through all the different ways that happens. Some women will step out of the final footstep and set off through the mist to explore a new beckoning path; others will choose to continue their journey here in some form, spiralling around and deepening into their Daweyo, Lagyâno and Soitlâ experiences, discovering new possibilities to braid into this river. Everything is honoured here.
This is not a graduation or a completion or a finishing line; those words are far too linear for this trail! To fully acknowledge our travelling sister as she finally steps out of the Soitlâ bone dreaming house, we use the word blaidâ: a celebration or joyous ceremony to mark her arrival, to honour her return, to witness that she has found herself here. And kerdâ means sacred trail, pilgrimage and quest – she has truly journeyed through all three journeys with commitment, wonder, courage, intuitive wisdom and trust. We honour you, sister, with this Kerdâ Blaidâ.
Each Soitlâ sister is invited to offer some words to this page that might catch something of the essence of her journey and a photo of herself or, if she prefers, a shrine or sacred item that she has worked with during her travels. The arrival of women onto this page will be steady but slow; there may be three hundred women travelling on the trail at any one moment, but it takes dedication and time to reach, enter and fully experience the Soitlâ’s dreaming house. I give gratitude to each woman who has come this far and send blessings to your onward journey wherever that will carry you. You are an inspiration to all your trail sisters and we thank you for everything you have shared along the way.
Sheri-Leigh
The trail seems to offer every sister exactly what she hoping to find. I wanted an anchor for my dreaming. A place to root and rest between magical adventures. Somewhere I could travel to and from. I hoped to find there a map with just enough sense of a landscape that I wouldn’t feel lost but without a guide leading me down only the well-worn paths. I am a fan of finding my own routes, happiest wending a little off the beaten track. Finding gifts from travelling companions along the route has been an unexpected joy. Sharing the trail with sisters, even though our paths have only lightly crossed, has provided the encouragement needed to keep going, a reminder of how far I’ve travelled or simply a reminder we are none of us walking this path alone. I’m nourished by the stories shared, grateful for the journey so far and considering this marker a pause, rather than an end to my travels on this trail.
Susan
The Weaver’s Trail is a dream come true for me. I live in California. After listening to Carolyn’s songs for many years and reading her books, I was so excited when Carolyn offered this on-line program. It has been everything I hoped for and much more.
My Wegjâ Kerdâ journey has been about finding ways to connect my life in a cultivated residential garden to the spirit of wild feral nature. My back garden is filled with trees, fruit trees, flowers and herbs and inhabited by a variety of birds, bees, butterflies, spiders, and other creatures. But the blue-bellied fence lizard is my portal to the wild. This small spirit companion calls me to awe and wonder in the presence of wild nature.
Carolyn encourages us to combine Proto-Celtic words like a string of beads without needing grammar or extra connecting words. There is no wrong way. As part of my trail journey, I wrote a Proto-Celtic chant about the lizard. My chant ends with the words: Welyo, weido, witsu. A loose translation is “Looking deeply into wild wisdom,” but it means much more than that when I chant it at my garden shrine.
We each find our own way of walking the trail. I deeply appreciate each sister’s way, whether it is through Proto-Celtic, or fiber art, or pottery, or song, or story. What a rich experience we are creating together. It is such an honor to be part of this community of sisters!
With love from Susan
Catherine
So here I stand, at the end of this trail on which I have been walking and dancing and singing and drumming and becoming aquainted with my wise hands (that I didn’t know at all before) for the last two years. This trail was my anchor, my always reliably open door to my deep inner soul’s world when I urgently needed to re-find it in times of having to be too much in the outer world, the place where I could always reconnect to my deep inner self. And not only that but also to this strong community of wonderful women walking the same trail, this clan of sisters, that became and still is my home clan, the place where I have this strong feeling to belong. It has been and still is the place where I can feel real kindness among women, spreading from our mother-sister Carolyn along all the trail, which was a wonderous and beautiful new experience for me. It is a place of integrity, of groundedness, of sincerity and respect. It is a place where I can always dive deeper into my already deep love to the land, to nature, to all our fellow beings on this wonderful mother earth.
One of the most special things I did along this path was when I stood at the threshold of Soitlâ: As a ritual of anchoring Lagyâno I spent a night vigil out at a wonderful place in open nature, seeing off the sun, welcoming the moon and the starry firmament, spreading wide above my head the whole night, and greeting the sun again in the morning. Fox said good night and raven welcomed me in the morning. At this vigil the picutre was taken, you see here with this text.
So here I stand, at the end of this trail, feeling so grateful for this very special time on the trail and also for the clan I may still walk on with the sisters, that I still may belong and still may tread on this mending trail in good company. Blessings to you, Carolyn, with lots of gratitude and to all the sisters from the banks of the Danube, the place where I live and where I walk and sing and pray our songs into the land.
Amanda
Like all the best journeys, my extraordinary adventure along the Weavers’ Trail took me into unexpected places. I started slowly, continually distracted by new ideas, and challenged by the crafting tasks of the Daweyo journey. By the time I reached the Soitla path, I was galloping and jumping for joy – and discovering a creative impulse in me I never knew existed.
The Weavers’ Trail has been a journey of discovery – of myself, of the place I live in and of the wonders around me. I moved from grief and uncertainty of my place in the world to a profound sense of wonder and of belonging. The depth of magic I have discovered has amazed me. My journey continues!
Blessings, Amanda
Jane
Jane’s words are coming soon…