Otherworld Well Hedge School

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When the Irish were living under occupation, their language, their stories, and their history were outlawed. How did they keep their culture alive? The keepers of the seanchas, the old ways, gathered children under hedges and on the banks of streams to pass on the knowledge that had survived the destruction of the old Bardic colleges, fragments of an oral tradition reaching back to at least the Bronze Age. These gatherings were called Hedge Schools.

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We, too, live in a time when the language that speaks most deeply to our souls is forbidden. The culture around us tells us that the wild and the dead have no voices and cannot speak to us. Our bodies know otherwise. They know that the rhythm of our ancestors’ heartbeats echoes in our own. They know that the wind in the Pines and the scent of Wild Roses on that wind carry messages that speak of our kinship with all of life.

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It is imperative that we remember the language, culture, etiquette, and stories of the wild.

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This is the purpose of The Otherworld Well Hedge School – through it, herbalist and poet Seán Pádraig Ó Donoghue offers weekly online classes exploring the ways we can connect with wild plants, ancestral traditions, and the land to heal ourselves, our community, and our world.