Starshine Roots

30/01/2026

I've been tuning into blackthorn for weeks now. It started blooming in early January; white flowers on bare black branches, no leaves to soften the contrast. And it's still not finished. No rush. No forcing.

Just the slow blossoming that this threshold time between winter and spring actually requires of us.

Brigid can also teach us to hold different states: fire and water, the forge and the well. She doesn't choose between them as she holds both.

It seems this is partly what the Celts understood as the divine: not transcending our humanity, but finding the part of us that can witness and hold all of it.

Self- energy.

The Irish language even seems to be built on this wisdom. We don't say "I am sad" - we say "Tá brón orm" - there is sadness upon me. The emotion lands on the body but you are not the emotion. You are the one who can notice it, locate it, hold it without identifying with it.

This is deeply somatic and the opposite of shame. It also gives us space to let these states move through us.

It's also the opposite of striving and achieving; it's about learning to be with, to receive, to witness.

In circle last night, we practiced accessing our compassionate witnessing selves through fire-scrying which is an ancient Celtic practice where we gaze into flame to drop into that observational state, seeing what's reflected back without grasping or pushing away.

We're learning what it feels like to tend the flame without pushing but instead staying present while the weather of our emotions moves through.

Six weeks of women tending their own flames. To be the witnessing presence. To hold many states without identifying with them, without becoming them.

I feel so grateful to be walking this threshold together.

19/01/2026

On winter solstice, I burned a Little Miss Sunshine t-shirt in my garden.

I found it during a clearing-out. Someone gave it to me about 15 years ago. I don't remember who. But I remember the feeling when I got it. Invisible. Not seen. Just the helpful one, the smiley one who suppressed her needs, her anger and her grief, and put everyone first.

Yes, the irony of burning Little Miss Sunshine on the day the light returns. But it wasn't about rejecting joy or light. I was burning away the performance of it. The mask. The good girl who never gets angry.

I've been in the fire for a while now.

The rage. The kind that's been suppressed for decades because girls aren't supposed to be angry. Women are supposed to be nice, accommodating, spiritually evolved.

Many of us learned early to push it down, transcend it, rise above. We were taught that anger makes us difficult, unattractive, too much. So we smiled. We managed. We kept the peace.

But the fire comes anyway. And when it does, we have a choice - keep suppressing it until we burn from the inside out, or learn to be in it.

Not bypassing with spiritual platitudes about transcendence. But actually feeling it. Moving it through the body. Expressing it in ways that don't destroy but do transmute.

It's been messy, necessary, sacred.

Brigid knows this work. She's a goddess of the forge - transformation happens through fire, not around it. The heat, the pressure, the burning away of what's no longer needed. That's how metal becomes blade. How raw material becomes medicine.

Tonight we work with embers. Not the raging fire but the steady flame we tend with intention. We decide what we feed our own glowing embers.

🕯️ Women's Drum Circle
🥁 7:30pm, 19 January
🏛️ Bristol Goddess Temple
💚 No experience needed. Drums available to borrow.

More info: https://fb.me/e/6qvetE0tJ

06/01/2026

🔥 **The Next Chapter** 🔥

I'm letting go of the big events.

The Celtic Tree Moon Sound Bath has come to an end. These collaborations have been beautiful - offering sound in sacred acoustic spaces, witnessing what happens when people allow themselves to be held by vibration and stillness. Thank you to everyone who came, who brought friends, who trusted the medicine.

⭕ My work now focuses fully on women's circles, drum gatherings, and 1-1 healing sessions. ⭕

This has been coming for a while. My body's been clear. Perimenopause on top of fibromyalgia - challenging, yes. But also a blessing. They've shown me where I need to be.

Like many women, I've spent most of my life in overdrive. Masculine energy, producing, pushing forward. I'm good at it. I make it look easy to many. But now is the time to let my feminine flow. To work as cyclically as is possible; not linearly by default.

Event logistics, coordination, and relentless marketing cycles require that outward, producing energy. They take me away from what I'm here for.

Holding space for women's deep healing asks something different. It asks me to be present, responsive, rooted in my body. Not in my head managing logistics.

🌀 This change is creating more space for me to go deeper myself. I'm a few months into my Celtic Shamanic Practitioner training and so grateful to be a part of it. If you'd like to be part of a free case study session (in exchange for timely feedback), please message me. 🌀

I'm also developing an ancestral healing circle for women, launching later this year. These deeper circles tend to become fully booked 4-6 weeks in advance. Want first-to-know access? Please send me a message.

Thank you for witnessing this shift with me and for being part of the journey. 🙏💚

***If you're called to continue with the larger sound experiences, please follow Brillo of NowTime as he continues the Primordial Drum gatherings - next one 21 January.***

03/01/2026

The land is sleeping. Seeds rest underground. Sap runs low, animals shelter in the dark.

January is not a beginning. It's the deepest part of winter's dream.

And yet the calendar tells us it's time for fresh starts, new goals, pushing forward. It's such a strange disconnect from what the earth is actually doing.

Winter has different medicine for us. Reflection. Restoration. Composting old stories. Feeding our roots in the dark where no one can see.

🔥 This Sunday 4 January I'm holding a Women's Woodland Drum Circle where we'll honour what January actually asks of us - not resolutions, but reflection. Not striving, but dreaming. More info here: https://fb.me/e/424cE4Nsx

And if you've ever wondered what happens at these circles, this blog gives you a feel for the journey: https://starshineroots.org/blog-1/what-to-expect-at-a-womens-drum-circle-in-the-woods

19/12/2025

I've been quiet here lately because I've been deep.

Two somatic women's Morrighan circles.

Sixteen women doing the hard work. The kind that doesn't bypass, that doesn't stay surface.

I haven't marketed the next Brigid Circle at all. Yet one circle is fully booked and the other has one space left.

Women know what they need. They're finding this work because they're starving for depth. For somatic practices that land in the body. For work that respects their own journeys, that doesn't shy away from what's hard.

This is what Kate who attended the Morrighan Circle wrote after six weeks:

"Over the years I have paid thousands of pounds on therapy, self-help books, workshops, etc. I achieved more, healed more and grew more in these six weeks than through anything I have done previously. There’s no way to say, ‘it was this,’ or ‘it was that,’ that helped most. It was all of it.

I’m not a great lover of group work but it felt safe in this circle.

One very unique thing about the work that I feel embedded the lessons for me was the sensory element. The scents of incense and anointing oils. The sights of the changing altar. The sweet and savoury tastes of the snacks, the smokiness of the tea. The sounds of instruments and our voices. The feel of our stones. These things, for me were very powerful.

I am a keen bolter - when things feel uncomfortable, I run away. Now I am slowing right down and listening - to myself, to the other person, to the messages in my dreams. This has made a profound difference in my life. I’m now growing roots instead of pulling them up every five minutes.

Often when we do this kind of work, the magic and realisations only last for the duration of the group or event. With this circle, however, I’ve experienced a real transformation. The ripple effect from the work continues on in my life even now, weeks later. I know I will use what I gained for the rest of my life.

Thank you again for all you do, Ruth!"

- Kate

If this calls to you, there's one space left on Thursday's circle

🕯️ Thursday 29 January for 6 weeks
🕯️More info and application form: https://starshineroots.org/events

04/12/2025

Woke well before dawn again this morning. Bleed coming, body doing that thing where I'm just... unmoored.

So I went to the harmonium.

G drone. Always G for me at the moment. There's something about it that just lands. And then working with the perfect fifth. Pythagoras discovered these ratios thousands of years ago. The mathematical relationships that create harmony. He knew sound was medicine.

And I feel it. The perfect fifth helps me release and open at the same time. There's joy in the letting go, in the surrendering. My body softens and I begin to come back to myself.

I love working with the bellows and letting the breath move slow, playing with the dynamics, the air creating these shifts in the sound. It's nearly like letting the instrument breathe with me.

This has been my medicine since I was 13, sitting at my organ in Northern Ireland. Playing and playing, working things through my fingers that I couldn't speak. Later I learned clarinet, got to grade 7, played in orchestras and wind bands - loved it all. But it was always other people's music. Always the "proper" way.

Now I get to bring all those years; the theory, the training, the hours of playing with others into how sound actually works as medicine. The perfect fifth does something. I feel it. My clients feel it at the sound baths, and in the one-to-ones. It moves through the body, shifts things, opens things.

This morning, after maybe 2 minutes with the harmonium, I started to yawn, things started to move through me. Grounded again. Connected to the earth.

I am so grateful for this work.

If you'd like to experience this with Brillo of NowTime and I; our last sound bath of the year is in the Anglican Chapel at Arnos Vale Cemetery on Friday 12 December.

Just three spaces left at 6pm, and 10 spaces at 8pm.

More info and tickets: https://fb.me/e/73yePTwE9

03/12/2025

✨ Let yourself be held at our last sound bath of 2025 in the beautiful Anglican Chapel at Arnos Vale.

🌙 A few spaces remain - three at 6pm, ten at 8pm.
Friday 12 December

More info and tickets: https://fb.me/e/73yePTwE9

✨“Beautiful, atmospheric space. Warm, thoughtful hosts. Very relaxing experience. Great sound. We were well looked after.” - Karen Bowles

The days are short, the cold goes deep, and everything in nature is turning inward.

Your nervous system may be asking for the same thing - to rest, to drop down, to let the darkness hold you for a moment.

Join Ruth and Brillo of Starshine Roots s for a Sound Bath in the Anglican Chapel. Let ancient stone walls and sacred acoustics create a space where sound does what winter asks of us - slow down, sink in, restore.

Two sessions to choose from:
6pm - as twilight fades
8pm - in the embrace of full darkness

📅Friday 12 December
📍The Anglican Chapel

To find out more and book, visit our website: https://lght.ly/h2l2a98

27/11/2025

🌿 As we approach the end of the year, I'm feeling deeply grateful for this community and the healing journey we've shared.

Before we step into a new cycle, Brillo of NowTime and I invite you to gather with us one last time (this year) for a Celtic Tree Moon Sound Bath in the chapel at Arnos Vale Cemetery

Let's root into our own wisdom and release what no longer serves.

If you feel called, come immerse yourself in the chapel's powerful acoustics and allow the sounds to guide you home to yourself.

With much love! Ruth x

An extraordinary sound experience brilliantly curated by Ruth and Brillo. Very definitely the best sound bath I have ever been to. Amazing!' - Clare Hughes

Experience the power of sound in the breathtaking acoustics of our Anglican Chapel. Join Ruth and Brillo of Starshine Roots for their final Sound Bath of 2025.

Immerse yourself in the chapel's soaring space as the phenomenal acoustics amplify the power of sound, making this an unparalleled sonic experience.

An evening of deep connection, inner exploration, and acoustic wonder in the magnificent Anglican Chapel.

🌳 Celtic Tree Moon Sound Bath🌙
📅 12 December, 6PM & 8PM
📍 Anglican Chapel, Arnos Vale

Find out more and book your place: https://lght.ly/i4381lo

26/11/2025

This is why we journey at The Mount Without. These stones have held nine hundred years of prayer, grief, celebration, surrender.

The drum opens the door. The space carries you through.

We called in the ancient healthy ancestors. They came. People went deep; the kind of deep you can't plan for.

There's a moment in one of these photos with Brillo and I catching each other's eyes mid-journey. That silent recognition of *oh, this is actually happening*.

The veil had thinned some more.

I'd been in agony all weekend. Chronic pain flaring, jaw locked tight. Somewhere in that nave, between drumbeats and the song of my harmonium, it dissolved.

Grateful for this extraordinary venue, for Brillo of NowTime, for everyone who showed up and surrendered.

What a way to close with our last drum journey of the year. So much gratitude for this community. Thank you and see you in 2026!

25/11/2025

I've witnessed the profound power of the drum to call us home to our bodies, our intuition, our creativity, our sovereign selves.

In a world that often leaves us disconnected and disembodied, drumming with women can be a potent remedy, gently shaking us awake, stirring ancient remembrance in our bones.

This is the medicine I offer at these drum circles: a sacred space to peel back the layers of conditioning to rediscover our true selves.

Whether you're craving ecstatic release or reverent stillness, this is a space to come as you are, with your shadows and your radiance. Held by the shelter of the hearth and sisterhood.

I understand the courage it takes to show up and allow yourself to be seen and held. I'll meet you with compassion, honouring you where you are at.

🥁 Women's Hearth and Drum Circle 🥁
🕰️ 7pm, Tuesday 2 December
🔥 Boiling Wells of St Werburghs City Farm

Spaces limited in the cosy barn and it fills up quickly. Drums and rattles available to borrow.

Can't wait to drum with you!