I recently gave a talk at the Center for Spiritual Awakening in Pacific Grove, Calif., about a journey I took to Ireland this spring. I will be sharing that talk with you in the next several blogs.
Typical Irish landscape in County Wicklow with pastures bordered in yellow gorse, a thorny shrub, and flowering hawthorne I had the great good fortune this spring to go on a pilgrimage to Ireland. It was a two-week trip with a small group of about nine people. I was invited by my college roommate, Sharlyn Hidalgo, a spiritual teacher and author who has written several books including “The Healing Power of Trees,” based on the Celtic tree calendar, and “Celtic Tree Rituals.”
When I read the description of the journey, entitled “Connecting with the Spirits of Ireland,” I was hooked. The leader, Charlene Ray, described it as “...a sacred and intimate journey to connect with the landscape and beauty of Ireland…focusing on moving mindfully and with great reverence as we spend time reflecting and becoming present to the wisdom of the land and the longings of our soul.”
At the time, I wouldn’t have been able to say for certain what I was hungering for that this trip spoke to me so powerfully, but I have learned not to deny this call. At so many junctures in my life--when perhaps it was time for a change, or when I had depleted my resources and needed rejuvenation, or when I haven’t known quite what to do next--following my heart’s calling has always proven to be the right action, no matter how unclear it might have seemed in the moment.
Hawthorne and gorse Ireland is a country with a great mystical tradition. The original race, the Tuathe De Danan, also known as the people of the Goddess Danu, was considered to have mysterious Divine origins, arriving on magical airships on obscure clouds. It is a place that to this day is steeped in the unseen world, somehow managing to weave vestiges of its Pagan roots into the Catholicism that prevails in the country now.
But this is not going to be a travelogue or a treatise on the history of Ireland, mystical or otherwise. Rather, I want to describe a few of my experiences, and talk about how such journeys, large or small, can open you up and prepare you for transformation.
In my case, I have been feeling a sort of restlessness for a while, a sense that something is shifting in my world, without any concrete ideas of what that might mean or look like in time and space. So, when I felt my heart leap after reading the description of this trip, I hesitated not a moment before saying Yes. I agreed to go even before consulting with my husband, which I would normally do about something that was as time consuming and costly as this. Initially, he was not thrilled because it meant that I would miss our annual Memorial Day ranch weekend with old and dear friends, something we have been a part of for over 25 years. He came around, however, when he realized how important it was to me, even if I couldn’t explain exactly why.
But this is not going to be a travelogue or a treatise on the history of Ireland, mystical or otherwise. Rather, I want to describe a few of my experiences, and talk about how such journeys, large or small, can open you up and prepare you for transformation.
In my case, I have been feeling a sort of restlessness for a while, a sense that something is shifting in my world, without any concrete ideas of what that might mean or look like in time and space. So, when I felt my heart leap after reading the description of this trip, I hesitated not a moment before saying Yes. I agreed to go even before consulting with my husband, which I would normally do about something that was as time consuming and costly as this. Initially, he was not thrilled because it meant that I would miss our annual Memorial Day ranch weekend with old and dear friends, something we have been a part of for over 25 years. He came around, however, when he realized how important it was to me, even if I couldn’t explain exactly why.
Another pastoral Irish vista The Republic of Ireland is very rural, and the people have a deep connection with the land. Outside of Dublin and perhaps Cork, there are really no major cities, so the landscape is pastoral, lush and green, with patches of emerald green pastureland dotted with sheep and bordered by yellow flowering gorse, a thorny shrub, and Hawthorne trees, which were covered in white blossoms when we were there.
Just gazing at the landscape as we drove along was calming, and I hadn’t been outside Dublin more than a few minutes before I felt my inner being opening up in recognition that, indeed, I was in the right place at the right time.
As I would soon learn, everyone on our trip loved nature and was sensitive and open, so we were very compatible. Our very first stop after lunch was to visit St. Kevin’s Well at Glasnamullen and meet up with our guide, Rosaleen Durkin. Ireland, a cool and verdant island, is blessed with many, many natural wells fed by underground springs. These were places that were revered in Pagan times, sites where people would naturally congregate. Some of these wells later were on pilgrimage routes and thus these spots also held the hopes, sorrows, fears, dreams and prayers of many Christian pilgrims, who sought them out as holy places that could offer relief from their travails.
Just gazing at the landscape as we drove along was calming, and I hadn’t been outside Dublin more than a few minutes before I felt my inner being opening up in recognition that, indeed, I was in the right place at the right time.
As I would soon learn, everyone on our trip loved nature and was sensitive and open, so we were very compatible. Our very first stop after lunch was to visit St. Kevin’s Well at Glasnamullen and meet up with our guide, Rosaleen Durkin. Ireland, a cool and verdant island, is blessed with many, many natural wells fed by underground springs. These were places that were revered in Pagan times, sites where people would naturally congregate. Some of these wells later were on pilgrimage routes and thus these spots also held the hopes, sorrows, fears, dreams and prayers of many Christian pilgrims, who sought them out as holy places that could offer relief from their travails.
St. Kevin's Well at Glasnamullen in County Wicklow This lovely well, set in a little glen sprinkled with wildflowers situated just off the highway, would be the first of many that we would visit, each with a distinct and palpable energy. Our guide, Rosaleen, is part of an effort to rediscover and reclaim Ireland’s sacred wells, which in modern times have fallen into neglect and have been, in some cases, essentially lost to human knowledge.
This poem by the late Irish Catholic priest and philosopher John O’Donohue was read alongside the first well. I invite anyone who feels the faint stirrings of some unidentifiable longing in their soul to drink deeply of these words:
This poem by the late Irish Catholic priest and philosopher John O’Donohue was read alongside the first well. I invite anyone who feels the faint stirrings of some unidentifiable longing in their soul to drink deeply of these words:
For a New Beginning
In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time, it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And you stepped into new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dreams
A path of plentitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
In out of the way places of the heart
Where your thoughts never think to wander
This beginning has been quietly forming
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time, it has watched your desire
Feeling the emptiness grow inside you
Noticing how you willed yourself on
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the grey promises that sameness whispered
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And you stepped into new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dreams
A path of plentitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
I love that line: Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning!
Next: Morning practices and opening to Mother Earth
Next: Morning practices and opening to Mother Earth
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