In March, the world stopped and our human story was radically disrupted. Some glitches in the matrix have been exposed, revealing the fragility of our world while also revealing the power of our interconnectedness as a human species.
Sometimes opportunity can present itself in times of crisis. And as we remain suspended in a world between worlds I find myself wondering what wants to emerge from this emergency.
Our world is burning and we are witessing a systemic breakdown across many cultural fault lines from climate and environment to health, economics, politics, power, privilege, identity, racism and wellbeing. This is also an inside job and is as much a part of our individual nervous system as a part of our collective social infrastructure.
Everything we knew wasn’t working is now falling apart.
It has been termed a meta-crisis but we also know that as systems collapse, people rise.
These burning issues are a call to take better care of ourselves, each other and this place we call home. Our collective future hangs in the balance. I decided to go about answering that call with Hedge School – a home school rooted in Ireland that taps into a universal need for connection, belonging and hope.
Almost 10 years ago The Trailblazery set out on a mission to nudge humanity forward by creatively activating the spirit of our times. We have initiated many cultural projects in response to the crucible moments of our time like the ireland: iceland project, Rites of Passage, We Need to Talk about Ireland, Census of the Heart and The Freedom Project. We were born in a times of crisis and that continues to inspire our work today.
So in March when life as we know it came running to a standstill I felt that this was a time to act. As restrictions in social and physical connection were enforced around the world we decided to radically revive the Irish Hedge School education movement as a place for people to gather and reflect on the important questions facing our emerging future.
Back in the 1700s, Irish education was outlawed and the process of learning took to the land. Hedge schools gathered wherever people could find shelter. Situated along hedgerows, in fields, by rivers and under the stars, the non-conformists of the day gathered to gain knowledge. Oliver Cromwell called them trainings in “superstition, idolatory and the evill customs of this Nacion”.
At these edges, the culture was kept alive, the language was preserved and indigenous stories, traditions, customs and wisdom passed from generation to generation.
We decided to take a leaf from our ancestors’ wisdom and launch a Hedge School for our times. We invited people from all over the world to join us so that together we could find our shared humanity and resource our collective possibility as global citizens.
Hedge School is now a global learning community where people can find, share and generate culture, ideas, practices, resources and meaning making for our times. It taps into a universal human need for authentic connection and belonging in our world right now.
My original vision was that Hedge School would strike an Irish drumbeat with a global resonance. People have attended from across the world including Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Africa, Australia, US, Canada, Mexico and South America.
Our own late mystic John Moriarty once said “To be human, when being human is a habit we have broken, that is a wonder”.
At Hedge School I have learned that sometimes when things fall apart it can bring us closer together. I have learned that the human heart is a powerful organ of perception and understanding. I have witnessed the kindness of strangers and our shared human need for belonging and connection in these complex times.
I have also discovered that evolution is messy and that there are many ways of knowing. I have witnessed that when people from different walks of life come together a collective intelligence can emerge.
I have come to understand that it’s hard to make sense of these bewildering times but we can learn new practices, skills, tools and technologies to resources us and help us make meaning in this world.
Everyone is welcome at Hedge School. It’s an informal training ground where we can come together and ask big questions that inspire us to nudge our human capacity forward. It is grounded within the touch points of the Celtic calendar and wheel of the year. The fireside sessions are guided by inspiring trailblazers from Ireland and beyond who have illuminating new pathways across diverse fields and disciplines.
Our autumn series, Finding Our Way Home (September 18th-October 9th) responds to harvest time and the autumn equinox, the time when the day and night are of equal length. We will be relating to the Earth through different lenses including cultural identity, indigenous wisdom and trauma restoration. We will explore these themes from Irish and global perspectives as one of the burning issues on our world stage. It feels more important than ever as we see the impact of the blazing wildfires on the west coast of America driven by climate change right now.
Spiral 3 begins in Ireland with Manchán Magan, who has just published a new book, Thirty Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape, and Ceara Conway. We then travel to New Mexico to meet Woman Stands Shining, Patricia McCabe, mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader and international speaker of the Diné (Navajo) Nation with extraordinary links to Ireland. She will be joined by Colm Mac Con Iomaire, founding member of The Frames and master of traditional Irish music. The final destination is Scotland to meet Alastair McIntosh, writer, pioneer of land reform, professor and leading environmental campaigner and Luke Concannon, whose latest album Ecstatic Bird in The Burning is dedicated to "the power of active hope, in a burning world".
Kathy Scott is the founder and creative director of The Trailblazery, a cultural agency dedicated to creatively activating the spirit of our times. For HedgeSchool bookings visit thetrailblazery.com/hedge-school
