Wisewoman Rising

08/07/2025

Many women have asked me over the years to do an online menopause workshop, and I've said I prefer face-to-face teaching.
This is now changing as this work is really needed, so I've teamed up with the amazing wild woman awesome herbalist Danielle Kay, to do an on-line menopause master class next week. This way, you get a double whammy of two experienced medical herbalists and menopause mentors.
I hope you will join us. The link is in the comments x

24/03/2025

I've been shopping today to buy the ingredients for the Wise cake for tomorrow night's Wise Woman workshop at Philips Park. I always love facilitating reclaiming menopause workshops as it's good to work with women journeying through this very powerful rite of passage in a way that challenges the current narrative as we learn to work with diet, herbs, supplements and journey work to reclaim who we are becoming. If you fancy joining us you will be most welcome. If you can't make it on Tuesday night I am offering a similar workshop at the Seraphina Centre in Ashton on Wednesday evening xx

04/11/2024

This was a wise woman rite of passage like no other. I am honoured to have supported women through this journey through fire. I had to share this photo of myself and Daniel walking the fire. A powerful day and powerful photo. Thanks to Kelly Jane Roberts for sharing this xx

03/11/2024

Wow what an incredibly powerful day we had today on the wise woman firewalk. I have long been an advocate for rites of passage to take us through the big transitions in life. The menopausal transition is a powerful time for women as we are offered the opportunity to transform to wisewomen. It's is transition of fire often medicalised with women expected to fall into a big black hole of decay and invisiblity. wanting to develop a formal rite of passage I teamed up with the amazing Julie Pelzer-Vaughan who is a hypnotherapist and fire walk instructor to offer a day that is a rite of passage with women walking the fire at the end. What a honour it was to support this as women built the fire and walked it in bare feet to reclaim their most powerful self. I am still buzzing from witnessing this incredible transformation of wise woman wildness and power. Thank you to the amazing women who said yes to walking the fire... and did it xx

02/11/2024

I'm so excited about walking the fire tomorrow. I'm busy preparing Mugwort to enhance our experience of the fire and to reconnect to our most powerful selves as wisewoman. The mugwort oil is for annointing and the dried mugwort for our wisewoman medicine bags and to gift to the fire. In times past Mugwort was seen as a fire herb to be gazed through on fires to see the future. For this wise woman fire walk its about our feminine power and Una or womb wort is the allie that will guide us through this poweful midlife rite of passage. There are a couple of places left on this Xx

31/10/2024

As the veil between the worlds thins and we make the descent to the dark time of the year. We honour our ancestors and those who have recently died..
I had to share this beautiful Samhain poem by my friend Colette Healey
A Place at Table

Scrying in the firelight ;
With glassed and misty eyes
Silence save for her involuntary cries
As the whispered icy cobwebs trail soft against her skin
She opens up the portal and calls the others in

Soft at first they come and slowly they unfurl
These wraiths and forms of ghostly otherworld
She welcomes in those loved and lost; and hails them all back home
In liminal space united; and her not quite alone

Ancestors ; kindred passed and oft connected souls
A place at table laid for all to share a bowl
This Samhain night when veil is thin and Autumn stirs the air
Jack o lanterns burning and eerie all a glare

She pauses now and honours them : their time is only fleeting
Reunited only briefly ; and now she’s gently weeping
Once more they do turn back to hibernating earth
And Cerridwen stirs the cauldron of death and then rebirth

Colette Healey

26/10/2024

Well, Pete has persuaded me to write a book and I've gone and invested in a laptop. The book is close to my heart and will be about Re-wilding menopause and the sacred rite of passage of midlife women. It will contain a lot of my work from over the last few years on herbs, wisewoman workshops and spiritual approaches to Menopause. I have just finished a short story to go in it called the "Wilding. Petes promised to help me self-publish and do my layouts and photography in the style of his own published book.
Well you have all borne witness to this so I need to just get it done now and stop faffing! xx

17/10/2024

The journey through menopause is a long one and maybe it needs to be long for the transformation to happen. The apprentice ship for a wisewoman needs time. In a culture of few wisewoman and elder mentors we need time to unlearn what we have been taught about ourselves and deprogramme. That is part of the journey. To unprogramme the way we have been made to see the world and our place in it. One of thing we have been programmed to do when we had the being nice and nurture hormones of oestrodial and progesterone was to be tolerant and accepting of things people and our dysfunctional culture. To keep our mouth shut, be nice and to fit it and be like the herd. When we get to menopause many women tell of how they feel and angry and intolerant. How they speak their minds too. I ask what they are angry about, what they rage about and stop tolerating. Because when we think about it we often tolerate things that should not be tolerated and if we look around properly if we are not angry at what is happening around us. To nature, the land and politically then what are we feeling?? When we get to menopause particularly if it's a wild menopause we see through the bu****it and call it out. This is our righteous anger and sacred rage. It's makes us dangerous to patriarchy. Don't feel shame you feel this way. It's mother earth calling us to stand our power ###

15/10/2024

Yesterday was a good day. I always love filming with wild woman Danielle as we have such fun.
We ran away with Pete to Tockhole Woods and climbed trees. we had to for the turkey tails. It's always good to have a bottle of vodka and a big jar in your bag for some on-the-spot tincturing of turkey tails and a pestle and mortar for some of Samhain incense making at the ruins of Hollinhead hall near the well house. We loved the colour of black, red and purple. It smells divine.
We also did some Earth oracling which was powerful and insightful as in a meditative state we asked our questions to the land and walked out in silence to find answers. it was amazing what we got.
The second part of filming is on Thursday at Pendle craft for ceremony.
If you want to join us online we have some great forest medicine videos this month and our live zoom call next week xx

14/10/2024

In Autumn leaves fall, and plants die as they scatter seeds to sleep in the earth to germinate next spring. All life returns to the darkness of the earth. Nature has no issue with death or dying. Our ancient ancestors and Indigenous cultures understand this is a necessary process and essential to life.
This is the way of things; death and rebirth! Why is it that we as western humans struggle with this so much? In our perpetual youth culture of growth, we cannot deal with getting older and hiding death and grief. It goes against our capitalist society of perpetual growth which is why humans are in the mess we are in. We see life as only youth and growth. Its good for business too! sadly the earth cannot cope with perpetual growth! Neither can we!

The cycles of death and rebirth are necessary for survival and for new life in spring. At this time of the year like the trees, we are asked to let go of what is not necessary in our lives. to grieve and honour loss and death, of those we love, things we love and also for the bits of our life that we have lost.
Many older people know this and as a post-menopausal woman with experience in cancer care and care of the dying in my younger years I have seen much death and loss. I also see my own loss of youth as I age. It's Ok to grieve getting older but also good to understand that with this comes new life too and the gifts of experience and skills. Understanding loss and death as part of the cycle of life helps us to live life more fully, with authenticity and sovereignty. xx

09/10/2024

Petes done me a lovely poster for the next herb class at Philips park. Hope you'll come and join me? x

04/10/2024

I thought I would write a blog on Menopause as a rite of passage. A bit long but hope you enjoy it xx

https://edwinahodkinsonherbalist.co.uk/f/redefining-menopause-as-a-major-midlife-rite-of-passage

Menopause in mammals is rare. It is something shared by women, whales and chimpanzees.