The Mother Cloak is part of an Irish ecofeminist community arts project called The Brat Bríde Cloaks Project, with over 300 women from across Ireland and the world having contributed Divine Feminine art, nature-themed embroidery and profound Goddess energy to the creation of this community cloak of power. This special cloak is imbued with the medicine of sovereignty, thanks to her protector and guardian, the formidable ancient Irish Goddess of Sovereignty, Ériu, whom the land of Éire or Ireland is named after. She also carries a message of honouring nature and preserving biodiversity, with hedgerows, fields, rivers, and trees, woven onto her outer layer. The Mother Cloak represents the Mother in all her forms: the Mother in the female life cycle trinity of Maiden, Mother, Crone; our beautiful Mother Earth; as well as our Great Cosmic Mother. She currently resides in Austin, Texas, under the custodianship of the Priestesses of the Spiral Path sisterhood and the Women’s Council for the True Earth communities, and is been actively woven into sacred gatherings, community rituals, and private ceremonies centering on celebrating the Divine Feminine and restoring her vibration to our world.
The Origin Story
The Brat Bríde Cloaks Project
The Brat Bríde (pronounced Braath Breeda) Project is a volunteer led women’s creative collective, with a mission to raise the Divine Feminine through the medium of art.
Michelle McMahon, a contemporary visual artist based in Co. Kilkenny, Ireland, started this visionary project in January 2022, following the Irish government’s announcement to create a new public holiday in honour of Ireland’s ancient Goddess and Saint, Brigid. This was the first time the state of Ireland officially recognized any female with a public holiday, and as such, was a point of great pride and celebration for Irish women.
The government’s announcement coincided with the devastating murder of Aisling Murphy, a talented young woman at the start of her teaching career. These two events prompted Michelle to channel her emotions towards something positive and gather groups of women together to create art in service to the Divine Feminine.
Brigid is one of Ireland’s most ancient and revered Goddesses, as well as Matron Saint of our fair Emerald Isle. She is also a Pan-European Goddess, often depicted in triple form as the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The mighty Brigid gifts us the sacred fires of awakening and transformation, and the holy waters of rebirth and healing. These gifts are especially celebrated during her feast day each year at the start of Spring, which aligns with the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolg at the start of February.
Inspired by the old Irish folk tradition of leaving out a piece of fabric, known as a “Brat Bríde”, on the eve of Brigid’s Day for Brigid to bless (this fabric would subsequently be used for its curative powers for the rest of the year), Michelle started gathering women together to create their own Brat Brídes in the form of art representing the Divine Feminine. Women were invited to create a print of a Goddess, matrilineal figure or feminine symbol of power that resonated with them on a piece of fabric. During these art gatherings, Michelle included presentations on Goddess cultures that existed before the rise of patriarchal religions, exploring a vast era of our prehistory (herstory) when the male was not the only face of divinity. (You may refer to our Divine Feminine Reading List at the end of this blogpost for support reading on this theme.)
“Exclusive male imagery of the Divine, not only instilled an imbalance within human consciousness, it legitimized patriarchal power in the culture at large. Here alone is enough reason to recover the Divine Feminine, for there is a real and undeniable connection between the repression of the feminine in our deity and the repression of women.” ~ Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
Within these Brat Bríde workshops, women designed and created a print using lino plates and cutters, and then printed on their own handkerchief sized cotton pieces of material. (We share more about these individual Brat Bríde designs further down in this blogpost.)
These workshops were curated and delivered by Michelle in partnership with The Butler Gallery and Grennan Mill in Co. Kilkenny, and co-funded by Kilkenny Carlow Education and Training Board, Kilkenny One Parent Community, Kilkenny Arts Office, Home Focus and SG Education Art Supplies.
Serving over 70 women in the community, these creative workshops not only gathered women together to create art, but fostered a sense of collaboration, empowerment and support through the learning of new skills.
A year later, all these unique Brat Brídes were ready for Brigid’s Day. The pieces of fabric were all sewn together and proudly exhibited at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, to celebrate Brigid’s inaugural bank holiday in February 2023. Brigid, on her first year having her very own public holiday matching the status of St. Patrick, was coming alive once more within the psyche of the Irish collective. It was indeed, a heralding of the Divine Feminine returning to our lives, our celebrations, and our world.
Brigid had lit the sacred fire of “imbas” (an old Irish term meaning “inspiration”), and within the year that followed, a beautiful new vision had formed: that of the Brat Bríde Cloak! All these individual brat bríde designs were to be brought together to create a beautiful cloak of Divine Feminine power!
Michelle and members of the Kilkenny One Parent Community got to work, amalgamating all the designs to create one collaborative art piece. Using screen-printing techniques, they created a bespoke Goddess fabric which would become the inside lining of their envisioned cloak.
With the generous support of Cushendale Woolen Mills who supplied the outer fabric, and the help of seamstress Fiona Sullivan, the first of 3 Brat Bríde Cloaks was created. Like the triple aspect of Goddess Brigid herself, there would be a Maiden, a Mother, and a Crone cloak. The first one created was dedicated to Brigid herself, representing the energy of the Maiden.
According to Cushendale Woolen Mills blogpost about Brigid’s Cloak, “Fiona Sullivan, lead seamstress on the project, was one of the first to wear the cloak and give it an inaugural whirl. Many of the other participants followed suit, revelling in the joy of wearing this legacy garment. The morning was one filled with emotion, pride, openness and celebration. It was a truly moving moment for everyone in the room.”
“This Cloak represents everything that is indigenous, strong and powerful of Ireland, St Brigid and women in our community. From the raw materials used to the many hands that have and will touch it – this cloak embodies the power of human and community spirit to lift and raise one another.” ~ Cushendale Brat Bríde Blogpost
Brigid’s Cloak, long before the creation of this one, comes with a vivid history. In our Irish folk tradition, it is said that Saint Brigid, who lived over 1500 years ago, traveled throughout Ireland looking for a piece of land to start her own spiritual centre or Abbey. On finding land in Co. Kildare, she approached the land owner to ask for use of it. The chieftain laughed at her request, but agreed that however much land her cloak could cover, she could have. And so the story goes, each of Brigid’s followers took a corner of her cloak, and under her guidance, spread the cloak out upon the earth. To their surprise (but not to the mighty Brigid’s, no doubt), her cloak spread out over acres and acres of rolling green fields in Co. Kildare. The chieftain kept his word, and because of Brigid’s powerful and miraculous cloak, she had land to build her spiritual centre. The remains of her abbey still exist in Co. Kildare to this day.
This modern Brigid’s Cloak, akin to its mythological ancestor, also spread out across the land. This time the length and breath of Ireland, and even overseas to the United States! Women gathered together from around the world to embellish the outer blue Cushendale tweed of Brigid’s Cloak with dandelion designs. The dandelion is sometimes called Lás Bhríde – Brigid’s Light, as it is one of the first flowers of Spring. The dandelion also represents the reclamation of the wild parts of our feminine selves that are so often cast aside like these so-called weeds in our current patriarchal society.
Among the many embroidery gatherings held around the country, the cloak participated in a special gathering of maiden, mother and crone in Co. Tipperary during the Summer of 2024 to honour the rite of passage of menarche. Continuing this rite of passage theme, Brigid’s Cloak made its way to Austin, Texas in the Autumn of 2024, commencing its stateside journey with the honouring of the “Bean Feasa” or Wise Women in this women’s circle community. During the Autumn Equinox, Brenda Ryan, Moon Mná Celtic Women’s Circle facilitator, co-facilitated a special Priestesses of the Spiral Path women’s circle with Heather Gatlin, celebrating those in their circle community who had passed through the rite of passage of the Menopause. Each wise woman wore Brigid’s Cloak as they shared their menopausal journeys in sacred circle.
With the approach of the Celtic festival of Samhain, Artist and Women’s Circle Facilitator Jessi Bostad hosted Brigid’s Cloak out on her property in the Texas Hill Country. Jessi invited her Deer Creek Sister Circle to call on the Morrigan to help release the old and embrace the new during this threshold season, while each women wore and wove magic into the cloak during this enchanted circle gathering. To complete the cloak’s trinity of Texan events, in November, Women’s Circle Facilitator and Menstrual Activist Clare of the Solstice led women in her Temple of the Goddess Moon Circle, in the threading of more beautiful dandelions and daisies along the cloak hem. Under the circle theme of Native American Grandmother Spider, the women embroidered their own potent web medicine into Brigid’s Cloak, contributing to the great thread of our communal sisterhood across oceans and continents.
By the time Brigid’s Day rolled around in February 2025, the public holiday was now gathering momentum in its third official year of celebrations. In Dublin, a city-wide celebration of women past and present, inspired by the Celtic Goddess Brigit, was being held entitled “Brigit: Dublin City Celebrating Women”. The Brat Bríde Project teamed up with Dr. Karen Ward of Moon Mná and Brigid’s Way to take part in this fantastic new Brigid’s parade. Kilkenny One Parent Community coordinator, Juanita Dunphy, wore the cloak, and led the way for the Brat Bríde team. They took to the streets in a vibrant and empowering celebration of creativity, community, and the strength and resilience of women. Together, they journeyed through the heart of Dublin, paying joyful tribute to the inspiring women who paved the way and those who will light the path to the future.
“We had an amazing day raising the Divine Feminine at Brigid’s Parade, celebrating women, dancing through the capital with Brat Bríde bunting on high … depicting various Goddesses that existed pre the rise of patriarchal religions.” ~ Michelle McMahon (pictured here, photo by Freddie Greenall)
All good things come in threes, as the old saying goes, and by February 2026 there were three cloaks of Divine Feminine power ready in time to celebrate Brigid’s Day and welcome in the start of Spring!
On Sunday 1st February 2026, Councillor Maria Dollard, vice mayor of Kilkenny opened the Brat Bríde Exhibition, celebrating Brigid the Goddess, the saint and the woman with a host of cultural and craft activities at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny. The three cloaks, representing the different aspects of the Goddess – the Maiden, Mother and Crone, were at the centre of the festivities. Harpist Ruth Lydon, performed a lunchtime recital to a packed audience in the main gallery, and ecologist / craftswoman Monica Fleming taught the crowd how to make Brigid’s cross brooches. Focusing on the new Mother Cloak, Michelle led an embroidery workshop in the learning centre, embellishing the green cloak with hedgerows, to highlight their central role in protecting Irish biodiversity.
Like the myth of Brigid’s cloak spreading out across the fields of Co. Kildare, the mission of the Brat Bríde Cloaks are to not only miraculously spread out across the land of Ireland, but to spread out all over the world. And as they do so, spreading their values of feminine empowerment, sisterhood, and community with it.
To date, over 300 women have been involved in the art, design, printing, sewing and embroidery of these beautiful Brat Bríde Cloaks. These women span the four directions (and continents) of the earth, with participants from not just all across Ireland, but the UK, France, Germany, Hungary, the United States, Costa Rica, Korea, Pakistan and South Africa.
This Summer (2026), the Mother Cloak bid farewell to her Emerald Isle home, and journeyed far beyond the ninth wave, out across the broad Atlantic ocean to the USA, to spread it’s medicine to the new world. Together with her sister cloaks, they continue to spread the message of the Divine Feminine and restore her vibration to the earth.
The original Brigid’s Cloak remains with The Brat Bríde Project’s Michelle McMahon (pictured above by Freddie Greenhall) and her community in Co. Kilkenny. Connect with Michelle on Instagram @brat_bride and @michelle_mcmahon_art
Eimear Burke (pictured above by Freddie Greenhall), the Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids (OBOD) in the UK and Ireland, is custodian of the Crone Cloak. Connect with her on Instagram @eimear_burke_druid and via her website www.kilkennydruidry.com
And the Mother Cloak is right here, having travelled with Brenda Ryan all the way from her home in Ireland to her other home in Austin, Texas. Connect with her on Instagram @brendaryanheartspace and right here on her website www.brendaryan.com
The Mother Cloak
It was the Spring of 2025, and it wasn’t just mother nature who was bustling with life. Michelle and the women of the Kilkenny One Parent Community were busy as bees in their sewing workshops, making the Mother Cloak with lush green tweed from Kerry Woollen Mills. Thanks to Karen Ward at Moon Mná for sponsoring the tweed fabric, the Kilkenny Arts Office for covering tutor costs, and the Kilkenny Volunteer Center for providing a bright space to host these workshops, it was possible to continue the Brat Bríde Cloaks Project and gather women together to learn valuable creative and social skills, and raise the energy of the collective Divine Feminine.
The Mother Cloak was complete just in time for the Uisneach Fire Festival in Co. Westmeath, held at the start of May to celebrate the ancient Celtic festival of Bealtaine. Each year, people gather from around Ireland and the world to the Hill of Uisneach – Ireland’s naval and ancient ceremonial centre, to celebrate the start of the Summer season.
Under a very welcoming Hawthorn tree in full Bealtaine bloom, festival goers were invited to come sit and embroider the outer wool layer of the green cloak with hedgerows and field boundaries, representing Ireland’s verdant countryside. Inspired by Michelle’s background as an environmentalist, and in conjunction with Brat Bríde Project supporter, ecologist and artist Monica Fleming, it was decided that the Mother Cloak would carry a noble mission of highlighting the importance of our local biodiversity and the need to preserve our native environment. In Ireland, the hedgerows and wild field boundaries play an essential role in providing native habitats for wildlife, and providing invaluable wildlife corridors from one habitat to another.
Being surrounded by Mother Nature’s rolling green fields and lush field boundaries on the Hill of Uisneach, festival goers had plenty of inspiration, as they embroidered their patchwork of fields on the outside of the Mother Cloak. The embroidery workshops were guided by Brat Bríde Project supporters Monica Fleming and Siobhán Lee, with Karen Ward of Moon Mná and sponsor of the Mother Cloak dropping by to say hi too.
The Hill of Uisneach at the centre of Ireland, is intimately connected with the ancient Goddess Éiru. In fact, Ireland is named after her. Not many people know that Ireland is named after a Goddess. Indeed, we are one of the only countries named after one.
Éiru was a mythological Goddess belonging to the ancient Tuath Dé Danann race. The Tuath Dé Danann (pronounced Too-ah Day Dan-ann), or the Tribe of Mother Earth, are said to have lived in Ireland prior to the era of patriarchy, over 5000 years ago. Éiru was their Goddess of sovereignty, representing the spirit of the land. When the Milesian invaders landed on her shores over 3000 years ago, Éiru insisted that they name this island after her. And so the land was named
Éire in her honour. The modern name Ireland is an anglicization of this name, which, millennia later, still holds Éiru’s untamed power and divine feminine sovereignty. It is said that Éiru met the Milesians here at the Hill of Uisneach, and that she is buried beneath a massive limestone boulder called the Catstone, on its summit.
“The stories contained in the oldest Irish literature tell us that women were important. Women – or goddesses – settled the land, personified the land, shaped the land, and represented the moral and spiritual authority of the Otherworld. These old stories contrast dramatically with the way women are represented in later, more patriarchal traditions. In the Biblical story of Eve, for example, the First Woman was the cause of humanity’s sufferings, bringing death to the world, not life. This view of women paved the way for centuries of repression, and there are many examples of that repression continuing today… it’s time to look back at those old stories, and remember who women once were in our native traditions, and can be again.” ~ Dr. Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted
In March the following year, the Mother Cloak made a trip to the AfterWords Collective Poetry and Art community in Kilkenny, where a community of women wove a beautiful river onto the cloak, meandering through the already embroidered fields and hedgerows.
The cloak itself continued to meander its way around the country, taking part in women’s sewing circles, sacred ceremonies, and rites of passage events throughout the land (including being worn as a wedding cloak!).
The Mother Cloak, now with its woven river, returned to the Hill of Uisneach in May 2026 for its second Bealtaine fire festival. She received a blessing from her patroness, the formidable ancient Irish Goddess Ériu, imbuing her with the medicine of sovereignty.
In July 2026, the Mother Cloak had one last adventure in the Emerald Isle before making her long journey to Austin, Texas. Soaking up the sacred vibes at Ireland’s largest stone circle at Lough Gur, Co. Limerick, we left with the powerful reminder that we are all held within the great circle of life, no matter where we are in this big wide world.
Be Part of Her Story
The Mother Cloak now resides in Austin, Texas, under the custodianship of the Priestesses of the Spiral Path sisterhood and the Women’s Council for the True Earth community, and is been actively woven into sacred gatherings, community rituals, and private ceremonies centering on celebrating the Divine Feminine and restoring her vibration to our world. And you are invited to participate in her ever-evolving story here on Turtle Island too.
“When women sit in circle and create/craft/sew together something magic happens. If you ever get a chance to wear the cloak, do … It takes your breath away as it is placed on you. The healing energy of it is palpable and so empowering to wrap yourself up in it!” ~ Sannie Cuddihy
Be part of this collective divine feminine journey with the cloak as we continue to meet its mission of raising the divine feminine.
Brat Bríde Designs
Here’s a brief spotlight on 12 beautiful Brat Bríde designs that women created to express their connection with the Divine Feminine. All these designs, plus many more feature on the inner lining of the Mother Cloak.
“For the last 4000 years the collective consciousness has been somewhat disconnected from the mother god and from mother earth. As a result, we have valued a version of god the father, who is outside and above us, in the sky. This distortion that god is only male, has been a massive trauma for humankind as a whole, and especially women. A lot of European archaeological artefacts have been uncovered to show that prehistoric civilisations honoured both the
masculine and the feminine, and that they especially honoured the feminine as the source of both life. The patriarchal religions have repressed these facts, leading to the repression of women. The female figure here resting near the cloak hood, is known as the Venus of Willendorf. She is a stone figurine found at a cave entrance in Austria, dating back to the Palaeolithic period, circa 28000 BCE. She is thought to represent a goddess / mother earth culture that flourished for thousands of years in what’s called “Old Europe”, pre the patriarchal dawn of male-based religions and systems of power.” ~ Michelle McMahon, Brat Bríde Project Leader & Kilkenny-based Artist. Connect with Michelle @michelle-mcmahon-art
“This Earth Goddess is bordered by snakes and lies side by side with the spiral. The spiral is actually a symbol of the snake, and the snake represents transformation, feminine wisdom and healing. Snake Goddess art is found across the world, including within Minoan (Crete) and Indian cultures.” ~ Eimear Burke, Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards Ovates & Druids (OBOD). Connect with Eimear @eimear_burke_druid
“In the indigenous perception of reality, we all live within the body of the Great Mother. This is what I hoped to convey in my Brat Bríde design. My relationship to the Goddess deepened when I started my Celtic women’s circle facilitator training with Moon Mná. On a profound shamanic journey, I connected with Danu, the primordial Great Mother of Irish indigenous spirituality. She did not appear in human form, but in the form of the natural world. All the fields and
hills and mountains and rivers. Her heart beating like a shamanic drum, bellowing out from all the sacred sites around Ireland. We’ve all been birthed from the Great Mother, and now She’s calling us back to her bosom, to remember these ancient truths. We are Her children. Originally painting this design with the dazzling red lifeforce of my own sacred substance – my menstrual blood – I took inspiration for the main art motifs from the Newgrange entrance stone in Co. Meath. Newgrange (Sí an Bhrú), is one of Ireland’s most ancient and sacred sites – a potent and powerful 5000-year-old earth womb, who’s chamber is aligned with the winter solstice sunrise. I incorporated the art from our Neolithic ancestors, with its wavy lines, spirals, and diamond patterns, into my Brat Bríde to symbolize the rivers, rolling hills, and sacred aliveness of the natural world, who is the Great Mother Herself.” ~ Brenda Ryan, Brat Bríde US Collaborator and Moon Mná Women’s Circle Facilitator. Connect with Brenda @brendaryanheartspace
“I created this piece which I call Sacred Mother, with the aim of depicting the Divine Feminine – the protector and nurturer of all Life. The circular forms surrounding the figure symbolise wholeness, unity and connection, while the crown represents the spiritual authority inherent in motherhood, nurturing and creating.” ~ Karen Thunder, Kilkenny-based Artist and Community Arts Facilitator. Connect with Karen @kthunder_art
“When creating this design, I was thinking of how the Goddess is often linked to waterways, like the River Danube and its link to the great Mother Goddess Danu. I was also thinking of the power of water and how the moon phases affect the tide. Also on my mind were the three sister rivers here in the South East of Ireland – the Nore, Suir and Barrow, and how sisters come together, just like the rivers opening up to the sea. Brigid is reflected in the design too, as there is reference to her
being a goddess of healing, symbolised by water, and being a triple goddess, symbolised by the 3 rivers”. ~ Deirdre Nic an Ghaill, Kikenny Artist
“The woman in the print is based off Hathor: the Egyptian goddess of love, fertility, pleasure, music etc. But the woman also represents Mother Nature who is in the roots of everything. The moons surrounding her represent fertility and Menstruation. I was just trying to fit in all things women in the piece and everything that makes up the divine feminine! The lines that emerge from her all join up at the center of her belly to emphasize the beauty that is fertility and birth and what the female body can do.” ~ Lynn
“This Brat Bríde design depicts Euphrosyne, the Greek Goddess of Good Cheer, Joy and Mirth!” ~ Eilís Walklett
“This symbol encompasses many aspects of the Divine Feminine. I started out drawing a vulva which births new life every day. The strength of a woman in birth is unrivaled. I draw intuitively and so my design evolved to a sense and feeling of my Matriarchal lineage, our collective matriarchal lineages. The beautiful connection of the egg that created me was formed in my mother’s fetus as she grew inside my grandmother’s womb! And with that, this symbol also represents the
Maiden, Mother and Crone.” ~ Sannie Cuddihy, Moon Mná Women’s Circle Facilitator & Wicklow-based Artist. Connect with Sannie @sanniecuddihyart
“My piece is about the females in my life. Goddess is my beautiful mother and the 4 daughters and 11 granddaughters she has. A family of girl power. “Mammy” has been a source of kindness, love, forgiveness, and support throughout our lives to this day. I have been fortunate. In the image, I have tried to portray the power of us all. Together. Under the cloak of my mother’s formidable love and protection”. ~ Siobhán
“My Brat Bríde design is entitled ‘Warrior’. It’s a mix of ideas, taking the stick female figure we are so familiar with and changing the gesture to represent a strong woman with shield and wave…always resilient and fearless. I based it on all the women in my family, my mother, mother in law, my sisters, my daughter and nieces” ~ Anne
“It’s about knowing, living and seeing from the heart. If we hold onto the truth that comes from this place, we will always know the way.” ~ Sophia Deeny. Connect with Sophia @woodmoonstudio
“This piece is not my own. I was merely the vessel through which it was forged. I’ve always been a fiery soul. There was a time when I denied this truth, causing my fire to burn so brightly that it consumed me, and all that was left was shadow and ash. When I learned to embrace my embers, I reclaimed my rhythm and freed the phoenix within me. As I rose with conviction like Brigid’s flaming arrow, I was reminded that I am to keep the sacred fire burning for all who
may need to find a way back to themselves. This piece is a symbol of my devotion to this calling. A flaming triple spiral with a tiny spark at its root, reminding us that we are all sparks fueling our own eternal journey of life, death, and rebirth as it unfolds throughout our existence.” ~ Clare of the Solstice, Embodied Coach, Creative Stylist, and Women’s Circle Facilitator. Connect with Clare @clareofthesolstice
Divine Feminine Reading List
Goddesses of Ireland: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Women, Dr. Karen Ward and Bernie Sexton (Acrobat Design & Publishing, Dublin, 2021)
If Women Rose Rooted: A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging, Sharon Blackie (September Publishing, 2016)
The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe, Marija Gimbutas (Harper Collins, 1991)
The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman’s Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine, Sue Monk Kidd (HarperOne, 1996)
The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soul, Anne Baring (Archive Publishing UK, 2019)
The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth, Barbara Mor and Monica Sjoo (Harper One, 1987)
The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness, Maureen Murdock (Shambhala, 1990)
The Language of the Goddess: Unearthing the Hidden Symbols of Western Civilization, Marija Gimbutus (Harper & Row, 1989)
When God was a Woman: The Landmark Exploration of the Ancient Worship of the Great Goddess and the Eventual Suppression of Women’s Rites, Merlin Stone (Mariner Books, 1976)
Womb Awakening: Initiatory Wisdom from the Creatrix of All Life, Azra Bertrand and Seren Bertrand (Bear & Company, 2017)
Women Who Run With The Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Ballantine Books, 1996)
The Backstory!
Michelle and I have been close friends for years. I met Michelle in 2002 as students in Bolton Street, Dublin Institute of Technology, studying for an MSc in Sustainable Development. Both passionate about environmental and social issues, the course seemed like a good match for our life path and future careers. Though both of us graduated with top honours, being an environmental professional didn’t end up providing the sense of life purpose or career satisfaction for either of us. Our friendship continued to grow after our masters. I consider Michelle the first real feminist I’d come across in my life up to that point. She was an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, bought me my first copy of the Vagina Monologues, and introduced me to the Sheela na Gigs!
Twenty years after our Masters Degrees, our life paths crossed once again. This time not as a calling to academia, but as a calling from the Goddess. It was February 2022, and as part of my Moon Mná Women’s Celtic Circle facilitation course with Dr. Karen Ward, I started women’s circles via zoom from my now home in Austin, Texas. Michelle, along with my sister Siobhán and friend Rhonda, joined the online gatherings. Michelle, having recently completed an arts course in Grennan Mill, was now musing with the idea of starting her own community arts project in celebration of Brigid’s new public holiday. And so, we journeyed together on our new paths, Michelle supporting me in my women’s circles and us supporting her in her developing feminist art vision. We circled together for over two years, meeting every Celtic festival. Together we encouraged each other to follow the guidance of the Goddess. For me it was Danu, for Michelle it was Brigid.
Our shared journey with the Divine Feminine traversed into much deeper territory, when we participated in a Global Sisterhood online course entitled Healing Eve with Anne Baring. Now we both had a burning passion to compost the patriarchy and restore the stolen medicine of the feminine. Our studies continued as we dove deep into revolutionary reads from authors including Marija Gimbutus, Merlin Stone, Barbara Mor, Sue Monk Kidd, and Sharon Blackie.
In July 2026, our journey together came full circle with Michelle gifting me and our sisterhood community here in Austin, Texas, the custodianship of the Brat Bríde Project’s Mother Cloak. What had initially brought us together – our love for the environment – was now embodied in this beautiful cloak, with its message of honouring and preserving our dear mother nature. The Mother Cloak beautifully represents the weaving together of both these medicine paths: eco-consciousness and the Divine Feminine. Essentially, they are not two paths, but one and the same.
