Sacred Soul Journey of Ireland
with Amantha Murphy
Friday, May 27- Sunday, June 5, 2011
RESERVATIONS NOW CLOSED
Immersing ourselves into the Land of Eiru
She calls to us and we answer
The Mother is calling you home, calling to a space within, where we can rest a while, knowing we are being held and fed, loved and cared for, filling us, as we drink from the chalice, so that we may carry forward Her love/our love into all aspects of our lives.
As part of our journey upon the Way, we will gather the threads and weave ourselves whole, as powerful and light-filled Souls. We will sing and chant, and there will be times when we will hold the silence and bear witness.
For we come together to hear the pulse of Her nature and the beat of Her heart through the inner and outer landscapes of Herself/ourselves.
The land of Ireland is feminine, often referred to as ‘Mother Ireland’ and we acknowledge this as we journey upon Her body. We start our Pilgrimage connecting with the Fairy Queen – moving on to the Great Mother – and finishing in Tara with Maebh the great and wild Goddess of the land, who lay with the chieftain at Bealtaine for the fertility of the land and the people and with Tealta/Tea, the ancient Fir Bolg Goddess and Queen.
Upon this Sacred Journey we will walk consciously upon Her body and connect with honour and openness to the Great Goddess in Her many phases and places.
We will take space each day for inner work and create a space of safety to allow those aspects of our nature to emerge, flow and integrate, allowing ourselves the opportunity to be fully who we are in joy and in life.
Amantha Murphy is a Shamanic Healer & Teacher who follows the path of the Goddess. She started her work professionally thirty-three years ago as a clairvoyant and moved into trance mediumship and healing within three years. Since then she has worked with, and continues to work with, groups and individuals.
Her passion is the Land and returning to HER story – working through the Grandmothers and the “shining ones” the Tuatha de Danann. She has been running Sacred Pilgrimages successfully in Ireland since 1992 and returned full time to her roots in Co Kerry, Ireland in 1997. Amantha also works with the sacred ceremonies around the Celtic Wheel and is available as a Dula. Amantha’s teachings come from her Spirit and ancestral teachers.
Fri., May 27: Day 1 (L&D) Pick-ups, Grange Stone Circle and Lough Gur
Pick-up from Shannon airport at 9:30am, or local guest house at 10:00am.
From here we will be moving on to the Grange Stone Circle for our opening ceremony. The Grange Stone Circle is dedicated to Ainé, Sun Goddess and Fairy Queen. It is here at the summer solstice, that the first rays of the sun move through the two dolmen stones into the centre of the largest stone circle in Ireland. The Goddess Ainé is beloved of her people and guards the Land. Behind this stone circle we have Lough Gur, which Ainé is believed to have formed. We have stories here of a sacred tree within the lake, which magically arises every seven years and holds the fabric of Ireland together upon her branches. The area around Lough Gur has been inhabited for at least 5,000 years and the first Neolithic houses to be found in Ireland were excavated here. Next we visit Lough Gur, followed by lunch in Bruff. We then move on to Killarney, stopping en-route for a blessing of the waters at Brigid’s Well. Here we take time to relax before an early dinner.
Accomodation: Lake Hotel
Sat., May 28: Day 2 (B&D) The City, Gobnait and Sheela-na-gig, Innishfallen
9:30am Attunment
Today we will visit The City, place of one of the four great cities of the Tuatha dé Danann, the Gods and Goddesses of our land. The Tuatha Dé Danann were known for their magic and worshipped the Mother Goddess Anu. It is at this place that they placed two cairns atop the mountains behind the City and saw them as the breasts of Anu. It was here they worshipped her. Much later, when the first Celts came and conquered, the four great cities of the Tuatha dé Danann arose from the land and moved into another plane of existence: many say they moved to below the land Herself. From here we move on to visit Gobnait’s Well, one of the oldest wells of pilgrimage in Ireland and a Sheela-na-gig. The Sheela-na-gig is a stone carving of a pre-Christian female idol signifying freedom and creativity. Most were broken up during the reformation and some small ones still exist around Ireland, mainly on the ruins of old churches. The Sheela-na-gig has become a symbol for many Irish women as the right to choose and is becoming re-named as the Sacred Whore. Late afternoon we visit the Sacred isle of Innishfallen set within the lower lake of Killarney.
It was at Innishfallen that the first known writings, as we know them today, were produced. The monks wrote about the Gods and Goddesses as well as the later Christian word. Brian Boru, our last High King of Ireland, was educated here in the 10th Century. The island was also known for its healings. Many came to be healed here. The Island still holds the magic and mystery of those times.
Accomodation: Lake Hotel
Sun., May 29: Day 3 (B,L&D) Dingle peninsula, Dingle town and Inch Strand
9:00am Attunment
A day of visiting the Dingle Peninsula, where it is said, the first peoples came onto the land. Dingle is known for its standing stones and Oratories. The beehive huts show a forgotten time when a man and woman lived in communion with the land and Spirit. Dingle is still today thought of as a ‘holy place’. Many of the earliest Christian friars choose to live here in their ‘Beehive huts’ in silence and solitude. People are still drawn here to connect betwixt the worlds. Footprints of the first tetrapods – creatures that first left the sea to walk on land 365 million years ago – were found on this ancient land. Irish is still the first language to be spoken in most parts of Dingle. We will have time to visit the town of Dingle before making our way back.
Accomodation: Lake Hotel
Mon., May 30th: Day 4 (B) Scotia’s Grave, the Fairy Glen and Torc Waterfall
9:30am Attunment
Scotia was an Egyptian Princess, wife of one of the seven sons of the king of the Milesians, the first Celts to reach Ireland. It is said that she was well versed in Magic and used it against the Tuatha dé Danann to allow the Celtic ships to break through the guis put around the land to protect it. Scotia fought here in the Slive Mish mountains with Fodla, one of the three princesses of the Tuatha dé Danann and she was killed here and buried. There is a glen, where the fairy trees hold her energy still, protecting the land from her wrath. It was here also that the first ‘Kerry Diamonds’, Amethysts, were mined. This glen is an area rich in magic. We end our day at Torc Waterfall where the fairy folk gather amidst the trees and glens. Dinner on our own as we prepare to journey up-land.
Accomodation: Lake Hotel
Tues., May 31: Day 5 (B&D) Kinnitty Castle, stopping en-route at Killaloe
Today we journey upland, stopping first for lunch in Killaloe and visit Beal Boru, a massive ring fort used by Brian Boru and his men in the 11th century. It was here they would prepare themselves for battle. Brian Boru had a foot in both the Pagan and Christian traditions. The former tradition was of the peoples and the latter was, for so many Chieftans, political. The fort itself is first mentioned in 877AD. The energies here are strong.
We will stay in Kinnitty Castle for our next two nights. Kinnitty Castle Hotel is a gothic revival Castle located at the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains in County Offaly, in the heart of Ireland. The Castle has a long and turbulent history. The first Castle at Kinnitty was destroyed in 1209 and was later rebuilt by the Normans in 1213. The Normans were driven out by the powerful Gaelic clan, the O’Carrolls of Ely. Watch for ghosts.
Accomodation: Kinnitty Castle Hotel
Wed, June 1: Day 6 (B&D) Clonmacnoise
This ancient pagan site, where the ley lines converge from across the land, had it’s first Christian building in the sixth century. Built for St. Ciaran by King Diarmuid and from that point onwards it became the second most holy site in Ireland. The first being Armagh. Many monasteries were subsequently built on this sacred land, first made of wood and later of stone. The oldest surviving stone church is here in Clonmacnoise. Later still it became a central place of commerce for the centre of Ireland. For centuries it was the preferred burial place of the Kings. This place holds much power even to this day.
Accomodation: Kinnitty Castle Hotel
Thurs., June 2: Day 7 (B&D) Uisneach and Mullingar
We journey to Uisneach, the very centre and Soul of Eiru. It was here that She was worshipped in Her three faces and great ceremonies were held here at Bealtaine. A place where all the clans would meet. Peoples from the four provinces would come up the hill to ‘Midhe’ the fifth and interdimensional province. It was from the central fire here that all the fires in Ireland were lit. There was, up until the 1800’s, a road that went from Uisneach, the Soul of Ireland to Tara, the political and royal centre of Ireland. We will stop in the lively town of Mullingar for lunch at the Druid’s Chair. We then continue our journey across land to our guest house outside of Trim. Trim is known for its medieval Castle built in 1173 by Hugh de Lacy. In the evenings the castle is lit up outside and can be visited inside during the day. This castle was used for the set of the film ‘Brave Heart’ starring Mel Gibson in 1994.
Accomodation: Boyne View Guest House
Fri., June 3: Day 8
(B&D) Brú na Bóinne – Newgrange and Knowth
Today we visit the World Heritage Centre of the Brú na Bóinne, or Newgrange, where we will enter this spectacular passage mound. This largest earth-chamber in Europe is over 5,000 years old, approximately 2,000 years older than the great Pyramid and was a place of ritual used by the peoples of that time to connect to the Gods. The winter solstice sunrise enters the cairn from the 20th-23rd Dec. Knowth, with its 17 satellite small cairns surrounding it, is equally impressive, and is thought to have been built 500 years before Newgrange. It has a splendid array of decorated stones found to be engraved both within the cairn, where it could not be seen by those within as well as outside. The cairns are built of granite – dark and warm, even on the coldest day and quartz – white and cold, even on the warmest day. Even to this day archaeologists can only surmise how these cairns were built and how these huge boulders were moved.
Accomodation: Boyne View Guest House
Sat, June 4: Day 9 (B) Lough Crew and Tara
Lough Crew Passage cairn is on the hill of Sliabh na Calli – the hill of the hag, or witch, as is often referred to in these latter days. The main cairn is magnificent with the interior stones having the Neolithic hieroglyphs. The back stone of the chamber is illuminated by a beam of light at sunrise on the Spring and Autumnal Equinoxes. The Equinox Stone in the Hag’s Cairn is of similar design to Newgrange. It has been traditionally described as a Passage Tomb and place of ritual. Outside of the main cairn is the Hags Seat, where traditionally, the elder of the clan would sit for her tribe to receive illumination for the peoples.
Tara is the Royal Centre of Ireland and it was here that the High Kings and Chieftains were crowned. It was the place of the Ban Fheis – the sacred marriage of the Goddess and the king (Green Man)/ the people to the land. Priestesses of Maebh would lie with a chosen chieftain and he would be the head Chieftain for the year. Great enclosures here held the people and the Stone of Destiny, which screamed when the rightful heir to the Irish land touched it, is still here. We will also visit the fairy tree and the sacred well for our closing ceremony.
Accomodation: Boyne View Guest House
Sun., June 5: Day 10 (B)Drop off at Dublin Airport
Early start to Dublin Airport for sad farewells, till we meet again.
Investment: $2,999 and includes: All accommodations, all breakfasts (B), two lunches (L), seven of the dinners (D) all transportation and site entrance costs.
Not included: Air fare, personal insurance, gratuities, five lunches and two dinners.
Limited to seven people, so book early!
Each Pilgrimage is unique in that we follow the flow of the group dynamic and what emerges is always beautiful and ever unfolding, therefore the itinerary is changeable according to the needs of the group. We come together as strangers, we walk a while together, awakening to our selves and our many faces and we move on as Family, connected through laughter, loving, sharing and openness.
IMPORTANT: This pilgrimage will start at Shannon airport and finish at Dublin airport
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