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!

The Day of the Dead Ceilidh

The Day of the Dead Ceilidh The music is driving, the people young and old, with painted faces swirling, laughing.  The lights are low, and candles in front of an altar flickering.  On the altar are photographs of departed loved ones, flowers, fruit, bottles of beer.  This could be Mexico.  But it’s Oxford: Wolvercote Village Hall, to be precise.  It’s … Read More