Unbridling Women - Filming a Community Ritual

Aim

Raising funds to make a short film of a ritual on White Horse Hill on 30th April, unbridling the voice of the deep, empowered feminine.

A collective ritual in Oxfordshire

This Beltane eve, something special is happening in Oxfordshire, involving a stone, a 'scold's bridle', an ancestral place of power, and a bunch of good people devoted to liberating the voice of the divine feminine. If you live locally, you can be part of it. But for those of you not so near, we'd like to make a film so you can share the moment, and maybe be inspired to do something similar in your area.

Perhaps you've heard of a 'Scold's Bridle'? That instrument of torture invented in the Middle Ages to silence a woman accused of 'gossiping or quarrelling too much'. (Or perhaps just disagreeing with her father or her husband, and daring to say so.) You can go and see an example of a 'scold's bridle' in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It's a horrible metal contraption that thankfully is not in use anymore, and yet its legacy can still be felt. Any time that a woman feels her voice is not as valued as a man's. Any time she bites her tongue rather than make her needs felt. Any time she turns her fury inward in self harm, rather than confronting the wrongs in the world.  

We think it's time for change. We'd like to take the scold's bridle to a blacksmith to be melted down and forged it into something new. However, it's a historic item, and we can't do that - yet. So we're going to do the next best thing: work energetically. Not symbolically, but shamanically. We will gather the energy of all the trauma that adheres to the scold's bridle into a stone, and take this stone to a legendary blacksmith - Wayland - at his Smithy on White Horse Hill, Uffington, to be transformed. The stone will be buried, along with a ritual piece that symbolises the bridled feminine, made by Devon artist Jade Moon.  

Then, we will return from the hill to be welcomed by other women, who will have been building a 'pop up goddess temple' in a village hall nearby, - a precursor to a more permanent Oxford Community Goddess Temple, which we are dreaming into being. We will join in dance, singing and celebration of this collective unbridling – for ourselves, for our ancestors, for our daughters, for women everywhere.

We have heard from many women who feel the power of this event and want to share in it, but live far away or are not able to come on the day. For this reason, we want to make a short film. Clearly, it has to be made by a sensitive film-maker who understands the nature of the work. So we have asked Mika Rosenfeld, who made a beautiful behind the scenes film of Rhiannon Unbridled. £800 will cover her attendance and travel costs, plus editing. Any further contributions on top of this will be put towards the evolution of Oxford Community Goddess Temple.

This ritual has grown out of Rhiannon Unbridled, an Arts Council England funded storytelling show and workshops on the subject of liberating the voice of the deep, empowered feminine. 

A collective ritual needs collective support. When we work at an energetic level, we are changing the template upon which everything else rests. Imagine a world in which the voice of the Feminine - loving, compassionate, fierce in defence of the vulnerable, passionate, wise and embodied - is alive in our world. That is what this is all about. Thank you for being part of it.

Info on attending the ritual in Uffington.

This project successfully funded on 3rd May 2023