For the last two winters I have run a group for women called Wintering Together. We gather in a friend’s house. We light a candle. We share. There are stories and songs. We settle into silence. We acknowledge the slower tempo of the winter months. For just one evening every fortnight, we allow ourselves to rest together. Sometimes we just … Read More
On Women and Horses
Since creating my one-woman show, Rhiannon Unbridled, I’ve been thinking a lot about women and horses. Why is it that so many girls get wildly enthusiastic about ponies at a certain age? What is the connection between the way we control horses with bridle and bit, and the way men have sometimes tried to control women’s voices – witness the … Read More
Embodying the Goddess – everyday stories of women empowered
June 2019: “ENOUGH!” I am shouting. “Enough of saying yes when I mean no. Enough of the voices of women being silenced. Enough of the bodies of women not being honoured. Enough of the Goddess being written out of the story. Because we need her, now more than ever.” The bright lights are on me as I prise apart a … Read More
Grief and Gratitude – A Midwinter Ritual
There’s an old story that has been holding me through the last months of this ragged year: a story of the Cailleach, otherwise known as the Hag, the Ancient One, Old Woman Herself. It’s a story I learnt from the exceptional storyteller Tracy Chipman, but it feels like one I’ve always known in my bones. If you’d like to get … Read More
‘Self Marriage’ – A Personal Ceremony
In this blog I’m delighted to introduce Holly, a creative young woman, who invited me to co-design and hold a personal ceremony of ‘commitment to self’ last month. This is her story, told in her words and mine. Holly: “In September, Jackie held a space for me to honour my relationship with myself. It was a ceremony of self-love, self-reliance … Read More
Singing the Great Mother
Imagine climbing into the lap of a great mother, a soft, powerful, being who loves you through and through. She cradles you in her arms. She whispers to you that all is well, and in some unfathomable way, despite everything, you know this to be true. I don’t find this too hard to imagine because my mum was good at … Read More
Holding Against Extremes – Mothering and Making in a Time of Climate Emergency
Here we are, in an upstairs room at Oxford Playhouse: a circle of 20 adults, mostly women, and inside our circle are soft carpet, beanbags, babies. On our publicity is a delicate tissue-papercut of a pangolin, an endangered mammal, whose soft centre is protected by its scaly armoured back. ‘Fierce protection’ are the words chosen by one woman to describe her work … Read More
Imagining the Divine . . . as a Woman?
This is a tale of three statues, and the stories chiselled into them. It’s a personal story, and it is part of the reawakening of the power of the feminine; more hidden but no less important that the campaigns to bring equality to the workplace or the ballot box. One hundred years after getting the vote, women still have some … Read More
Embodying the Goddess
This transformational course starts April 2018. Just 12 places available, so do get in touch if you’d like to book!