Reclaiming Keening

1. Defining the Keen

Reclaiming Keening is a subscriber-based series exploring grief, keening, and reclaiming the rituals of mourning in Scottish and Irish traditions.

This series is inspired by the figure of the keening woman, traditional laments, the guidance of psychopomps, and explores the societal shifts which severed us from ancestral grieving practices. While we cannot return to these traditions exactly as they were, we can root ourselves in their wisdom to create meaningful rituals for today.

This series will offer a creative project and an online gathering which I’ll share in the next couple of next posts.

If this speaks to you consider becoming a paid subscriber to help support my work - which is a huge help in me getting my book written!

Many thanks to everyone who signed up as a paid subscriber - your support truly makes a difference and for that I’m really grateful.

This is the first post in the series which looks at what is the keen, plus a reading of John O’Donohue’s In Praise of the Earth in light of a huge wildfire I watched last night as I finished off this post.