The Magical Essence of a Women’s Circle

A reflection on a year of women’s circles, seasonal gathering, and shared ritual

Beautiful food created for our Winter Solstice Women's Circle

A Spring Altar set up for Spring Equinox women's circles with butterflies and soil

Some of the beautiful women in our circle

Our file place dressed for winder solstice circle

Angela, the head witch and guide of women's circles at the Awen Room

There is a moment that happens each time a woman steps into a women’s circle. It is subtle and quiet, almost like the soft exhale the bush gives after rain. I never rush it. I simply notice it. Shoulders soften. Eyes change. Something inside her remembers that this is a space where she can let herself be exactly as she is.

I want to share something honestly. I never thought I would be someone who truly enjoyed women’s circles. I have sat in many groups over the years, both personally and professionally. I have listened deeply, held space, guided when needed. Yet for much of my life I have been someone who prefers her own company. That comes from old anxieties, from feeling judged, from learning early on to keep parts of myself protected. In face to face gatherings I often played my cards close to my chest. It felt safer that way.

But something has gently shifted in me.

I do not know if it is age, or menopause, or simply the season of life I am now in. Perhaps it is all of it. What I do know is that over the past year, something softened. Something opened. And the women’s circles I held felt different to any I had facilitated before.

The women’s circles I am speaking of began in Summer 2024. From there we moved together through Autumn, Winter and Spring in 2025, marking each turn of the Wheel with a seasonal gathering. What unfolded over that year surprised me. Not because I have not facilitated women’s circles before, I have, for many years. But because this time there was a different rhythm. A quieter magic. A sense that I was not only holding space, but also being held by it.

What has touched me most is the sense of community that formed. The women who come to these women’s circles are not necessarily friends. They do not see each other outside the gatherings. They are not there for social connection in the usual sense. They arrive because something in them is ready to pause, to reflect, to be witnessed, to be honoured. Sometimes a woman shares a full story. Sometimes she shares only a feeling, a knowing, or a single sentence. Sometimes there is very little talking at all, just presence.

It is also important to say that these women’s circles are not spaces defined by heaviness. They are places where women are held, where there is room to pause, to reflect, to connect with the seasons, the earth, and each other. Often there is laughter, sometimes loud and unexpected. There is cheekiness and warmth. There are moments of joy that ripple through the room. Some women come because this is the only place in their lives where they feel free to engage in ritual without feeling strange or judged. Others come for the food, the beauty, the candlelight, the atmosphere, the sense of being somewhere intentionally created with care. And sometimes, as part of that holding, emotions and stories do surface. When they do, they are welcomed and honoured as sacred, simply another expression of what is alive in that moment. All of it belongs.

I have watched women allow parts of themselves to surface that are rarely given room elsewhere. Not just the tender parts, but the playful ones, the curious ones, the parts that delight in symbolism and shared magic. Women carry whole inner worlds within their bodies and nervous systems. A women’s circle offers space for those worlds to be expressed in whatever way feels right on that day.

This, to me, is witchcraft in its truest sense. Not the Hollywood witch, not something dramatic or costume based, though honestly, how glorious my women would look in witches hats… perhaps we should add them 😉 But truly, this is the ancient work of tending. Of listening. Of creating safe containers where what is real can emerge naturally. I always arrive in circle as myself, open and grounded, while also holding the role of guide with care. The magic of a women’s circle is not in pretending to be anything other than human. It is in allowing what is present to be enough.

The seasons themselves shaped our women’s circles in ways I could never plan. Summer brought expansion and clarity. Autumn invited balance and truth. Winter offered depth and stillness. Spring softened us open again. Each gathering felt like a reflection of what the land and the light were doing at that time. Sitting together within that rhythm created a steadiness that many of us did not realise we were craving.

As the end of 2025 approached, I fully expected to hold another Summer Solstice women’s circle. I was looking forward to it deeply. But life had other plans. A critical family situation arose, and I made the decision not to run the circle. It was the right choice. And yet, I felt the absence of it keenly. That empty space left a quiet hole in my holiday season. A reminder of how much these women’s circles had come to matter, not just to the women who attend, but to me as well.

Over the first days of this new year, I have spent time reflecting and grounding myself again. I have also gently mapped out the dates for women’s circles in 2026. The first is on the website for those who feel called to join me, and the rest will be up soon. I keep each women’s circle intentionally small, with only eight women at a time. The intimacy is essential to the magic. It allows for trust, safety, and genuine connection. And if interest grows beyond that, I trust I will find a way to support the wider Awen community, perhaps by holding two gatherings rather than one.

A women’s circle is not about being fixed or transformed into something new. It is about being witnessed as you are, in this moment of your life. It is about honouring the deep inner work women carry from season to season, while also making space for joy, ritual, nourishment, laughter, and beauty. Sometimes it is reflective and still. Sometimes it is light and full of ease. Both are sacred, and both are needed.

If you have never sat in a women’s circle before, perhaps this is your gentle invitation. Not to change yourself. Simply to arrive as you are. A woman who has lived a whole year. A woman learning her own rhythms. A woman ready, perhaps, for a little more connection, a little more light, and a little more magic woven into ordinary life.

Blessed Be,

Angela 🌙🌿

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