(photo by a member of our group)
There is a latent memory deep inside my soul of a kind of knowing,
call it feminine intuition if you wish, a kind of ringing in the ear and
buzzing in the chest that signals Presence, the numinous, or entering sacred
ground.
On a recent pilgrimage to the sacred sites and stone circles of
Ireland with Amantha Murphy at Celtic
Soul Journies, I felt a
lot of that buzzing, and rediscovered the magic of fairy glens. Some part of
me, deeply slumbering, was awoken.
Ostensibly, I had flown to Belfast to be with this group of ten
women in the land of my feminine lineage, to learn more about the Celtic Wheel,
the goddesses and mythology of the land.
I had no idea what Celtic Shamanism was about, but I was very
intrigued by discovering something more about the land of my ancestors. I was
also intrigued by the description of the Celtic Woman’s Path - getting to
know the deities, the Celtic Wheel of the year and the seasons, and how to
access and deepen our communion by opening ourselves to Sacred Ceremony and
Ritual.
I was not disappointed - my inner child was delighted with the
discovery of magical fairy glens, mossy covered rocks and trees, and exploring
the connection between the feminine life cycle and the land. As well as exploring
two famous landmarks: the Giant's Causeway (one of the eight wonders of the
world) and the Cliffs of Moher, a truly misty, mystical experience of ocean and
rock cliffs.
The biggest revelation, however, was how 'things' like rocks can
speak to us.
Wrapping my arms around a huge dolmen in the middle of a field,
the ancient rock covered in lichen and smelling of the sea, I meditated on my
origins and somehow sensed the ancient sea that had covered this land, eons
ago. There were moments tramping through tall, wet grass and fighting our way
through blackberries and brambles that were less romantic, but the feeling of
being rooted to the earth, and connected with Spirit, was very strong. I was
there to receive messages from Spirit, and renew my belief in women’s magic.
At the end of one afternoon, after tramping around and through seven
stone circles in one field, we sat in our own circle around an ancient pile of
rocks or cairn, and re-remembered the women’s rites for birthing and dying. We
sang, ‘The Goddess is alive and magic is afoot!’ while waking in a circle. Then
we switched directions, walking widdershins around the stone circle, asking for
a dream, a memory, a song or something to come through. I left a gift inside
the cairn, letting my little gold painted rock fall inside the pile of dark
rocks, down a crevice, to feed the dragons underneath perhaps. Sounding, voices
and inner focus filled my heart, despite the chilled bum from sitting on damp
grass.
I felt blessed to have someone so knowledgeable about the myths
and stories of the land with us. After three or four hours of drumming,
ceremony and reimagining women’s ritual in the birthing and dying places, it
was time to go home and have tea.
One morning, after slipping down a very muddy, wet path into a
lower level of ancient rock and moss-covered trees in The Glen, on the side of
Knocknareaa Mountain in County Sligo (http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ireland-glen-knocknerea), we sat and listened to an insistent
drum beat while we journeyed inwards towards the ancestors. I saw flashbacks
from my childhood home, saw myself playing in the woods outside, and then heard
voices singing on a hill, around a fire at night. It was hard to tell if the
voices were inside my head, or coming from inside the drum.
Note from my journal: The split between the logical side and
the intuitive one is sometimes painful, the harsh inner critic so loud. Yet,
she feels herself melting, she sings, she opens, she forgets her separateness,
her defenses disappear or melt into the constant rain, the green green moss
enchants and delivers her over to the silent space just between head and heart,
the observer self, the open-handed receiver, the Feminine, the wonder it is all
here, only a breath away.
It was a strange and wonderful journey – we not only communed with
fairies and spirits, but shared delicious meals in restaurants or the homes we
stayed in, making new friends in friendly conversation on one level, and
dancing with the fairies on another. A seaweed bath in Strandhill spa was another kind of magical moment, calling up the selkie in me.
In a private session with Amantha, I learned that intuition and
dreaming are strong in me, and to trust the energy of things: rocks, trees, but
also inner feelings. The woman's creative center or womb is a source of
guidance - I can ask inside about how I feel, and if those feelings belong to
me. Guidance is always available. I am learning to trust my inner knowing and
let nothing get in the way of that.
As we sang one day:
We are sisters on a journey, walking now
as one
Remembering the ancient ones, the women
and their wisdom!
On my return, I pledged to keep an open heart and mind and resist
withdrawing and hiding myself away. Now my challenge is to find the magic in my
own ‘home’ landscape. With the changing leaves and colours, that shouldn’t be
too hard.
