The end of a chapter

19 Saturday Feb 2022

Posted by Haloquin in Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic, Philosophy, Reflections, Storytelling

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ADHD, Adventures, Author, Bardic, Celebration, Commitment, Completion, courage, Creation, Dancing in Wales, Diary of an Adventuress, disability, elemental magic, Empowerment, Enchantment, Faery philosoper, Festivals, freedom, goblin circus, goblins, gratitude, learn magic, learn witchcraft, Living Life, Love, online course, Pagan, PhD, Philosophy, Plants, Power, Pride, process, Self Empowerment, steampunk, Stories, Storytelling, Strangeness of Life, The Enchanted Academy, Wheel of the Year, Workshop, writing

And that’s it. This month, on Imbolc eve, I finished my PhD corrections and submitted the final FINAL version. This week I got confirmation that it has been accepted!

I’m officially Dr Halo!

The thesis! Yes, I have a theme… “The power of storytelling to re-enchant the world” fits it quite nicely, don’t you think?

I celebrated with a trip to the bookshop, hot chocolate with friends, dinner for one and a movie… Then cuddles from my fella the following night, of course!

I started by letting my brain decompress and dealing with those bits of life that now need dealing with, like clearing out some old books to make space for the new ones! And contemplating where I go from here… With a foxy companion for Imbolc reminding me that spring is emerging from the dark, just like me. 🥰

If you’re on my mailing list you’ll know that I’ve got a whole bunch of monthly discussion based classes that I’m offering through Patreon, or which you can sign up for individually if you’d rather, starting with an online elements of magic workshop next month, on 16th March at 7pm GMT. (And in April I’ll be kicking off a ten week course working with them too…)

Find out more here

Uncover your inner witch - magical workshops in 2023 with Halo Quin - background image of lit candle on a beach at night.

And the Goblin Masquerade is coming together! Last autumn I was chatting with fellow changeling poet Kate Garrett, and somehow got the inspiration to host a goblin market followed by a Masked fairy ball this spring. Everything is coming together and we have music, talks, dancing, and even the steampunk debut of an Ominous Folk of Hopeless Maine show. It’s going to be a lovely day of community and play, and I’m considering it my party for escaping studenthood with a Doctorate at last!

Flier for the Goblin Masquerade in Borth, Ceredigion, Wales, 12th March, from 1pm. Free afternoon market, evening ball £6. Click for more details.

I’ve also been researching ADHD and neurodivergences… There’s so little support for adults with ADHD and we can do amazing things with the right help! So I’m writing occasional thoughts on that over here… On the newsletter “Living with Squirrels” not sure where it’ll go but you’re welcome to sign up if you like.

Living with Squirrels

So I guess I do know where I’m going next… To play with the goblins and re-enchant the world!

PS: If you want to get workshops, extra posts, advance access to material, and more things as and when the goblins inspire me… And support my adventures so I can keep building the academy into something sustainable you can sign up to my Patreon here:

Patreonise me! 😉

You cannot run from what you hold inside…

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by Haloquin in All Posts, Magic, Reflections

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challenge, Fear, Living Life, Magic, Ocean, Power, process, Strangeness of Life

I’m learning what it means to hold an ocean inside me.

Light shines from the depths

For so long I ran from water – fearing the depths of the ocean which engulfs, the river which sweeps away, the floods which drown. I knew its power, this water, I turned from it not because I thought it held no power but because I feared it because I knew its power.

Now I come to learn that I hold an Ocean within me. How can you hold an ocean within you and not break?

Trying to keep it contained lead to cracks through which it seeped.

I tried to build a relationship with Water outside of myself. This did not work. What I’ve come to realise is that what I ran from was what I carried within me. You cannot run from what you hold inside.

I feared that it would break me. If I had not begun the process of accepting it… it would have done.

Slowly I feel my way through holding an ocean within my self. Slowly, like the turning of the tides, I come to find the depths within my core, the power and the freedom there. Simply acknowledging that Water is so much a part of Me relaxed something clenched so tightly. Relaxing into my own nature, a source of perhaps my greatest power, allows me to hold it without breaking.

I will not be washed away as long as I remember that I AM the Water.

I have run from the things that hold power for me so often.

What do you run from? Which of those things hold power for you?