Brigid’s Way is an alignment of ancient and sacred sites in Ireland that has become a Pilgrim Path to connect with the Goddess/Saint Brigid.  It is the inspiration of Dolores Whelan and Karen Ward and stretches from Brigid’s Well in Faughart, County Louth to Kildare. On the 27th June 2015 a group of Pilgrims will start their walk in Faughart, arriving at Brigid’s Monastic city in Kildare on the 5th July. This will be the third year that the walk has taken place. The following is from the Brigid’s Way Website explaining a little about the route and how the Pilgrimage came about, along with a short film about the first Pilgrimage that took place in 2013.

Origins of Brigid’s Way
Why this Pilgrimage route at this time?

As with many wonderfully profound ideas they seem to just arrive mysteriously. At the Brigid of Faughart Festival 2012 Karen Ward and Dolores Whelan attended a lecture given by Anthony Murphy (co-author with Richard Moore of Island of the Setting Sun: In Search of Ireland’s Ancient Astronomers). He spoke about the ancient alignment between the holy well on Faughart Hill in County Louth with the Curragh of Kildare, the two primary locations of worship to Brigid in Ireland.

As Dolores and Karen listened they realised that Brigid’s pilgrim path, which linked these two most prominent places of devotion to Brigid in Ireland, was unfolding before their eyes… This was both exciting and challenging! This initiative was inspired by a strong desire in these two Irish women to revive the ancient art of pilgrimage, a spiritual practice central to the indigenous spiritual traditions of this land.

Having many experiences of the sacredness of the land in Ireland and other countries, they believed that remembering, reactivating and walking this pilgrimage way had the potential to reconnect people with the sacredness of the land of Ireland.

They also saw that this pilgrimage had the capacity to awaken people to the consciousness of Brigid, who in all her different forms, Goddess, pre-Reformation Saint and wise woman, represents the divine feminine within the traditions of this land and belongs to the whole population of this country.

A little something to make the cat lovers smile…’Dear Diary…’

‘Cheesehenge’ by NatureCater. Photo: Ali.

Just back from the Court of Math and Cheesehenge. An extraordinary experience! (Stephanie tells me we were at an OBOD Retreat held at Cae Mabon in Snowdonia, and that Cheesehenge was in fact only a few inches tall. I refuse to believe her! We were at the court of Math and I was there at a sunrise ritual amongst the Red Leicester and Caerphilly Blue. But Stephanie says No! Story-teller and Honorary Chief Bard Eric Maddern was disguised as the magician Math, and our ritual circle was produced by our wonderful caterer Jade Fellows-Smith,who not only fashioned these monoliths but has also produced beautiful Reiki Healing Cards and runs Nature Cater). I am dreaming on…

‘Cheesehenge’ by NatureCater. Arial photo by Ali.

Eric Maddern as Math on the OBOD Retreat Cae Mabon May 2015

A poem by Rumi…

We are the mirror
as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste of eternity
this minute.
We are pain
and what cures pain.
We are the sweet cold water
and the jar that pours.
Soul of the world,
no life, nor world remain,
no beautiful women and men longing.
Only this
ancient love
circling
the holy black stone
of nothing.
Where the lover is the loved,
the horizon
and everything
within it.

~ Rumi

This is a lovely event that Stephanie and I will be involved with this summer…

Global Spiritual Studies Presents Sacred Scotland
7-19 July 2015

“The roads and waterways I’ve travelled over the past two weeks can be traced on a map of Scotland. But there is no map of the inner landscape  of memories, images and emotions that poured forth as the spirit of place in this timeless land led me home, ” says Linda Marson.

“I saw the remains of sacred sites, followed streams and waterfalls through fairy glens, lay atop a magic mountain and soaked up the sun and the breeze of a fairy tale landscape. No guide to this inner journey is needed, you simply live in the moment and trust what you see and feel.”

Linda, a tarot author and teacher, returns as special guest on the 2015 Scotland to help you use the tarot to interpret your inner landscape as you travel the magical outer landscape of this timeless land.

Anyone who’s been on a Gothic Image tour through Scotland will tell you it’s not only good for the soul but good fun! You travel in a small group of like-minded people with tour leader, Jamie George, himself a Scotsman who loves to share the secrets of his homeland with you.

Tour highlights include:

• 15th century Rosslyn Chapel with its ornate, arcane carvings, including many depictions of the pagan Green Man
• The enchanted fairy glen at Rosemarkie
• Islands of Orkney with their wealth of pre-historic sites – the 3000BC village of Skara Brae, the Neolithic stone circles of Stennes and Ring of Brodgar and the burial chamber of Maes Howe.
• Joining the tour on Orkney in 2015 will be Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm from the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Their knowledge of the Druid tradition will add a fascinating dimension to the sites we visit in Orkney and other locations.
• The Callanish complex of megalithic sites on the island of Lewis
• The stunning fairytale landscape on the island of Skye
• The beautiful island of Iona which radiates a special energy that brings peace to your soul.

Click here to download the full itinerary. If you have any questions about what to expect on the tour, please email Linda Marson – linda@globalspiritualstudies.com.

Click here to register online.

Cost
£2,495 per person, twin share
Single supplement: £300 per person
Deposit: £500, payable upon booking

For further details click here.

A beautiful and moving poem by Jay Ramsay…

THE BLOSSOMING
for Martin

You know the story. After months of grey
rain, wind and weather wet
the cherry blossom suddenly appears
with the merest touch of late April sun,
its three or four day lover. Blossom
filling the branches, and up against the blue
as you gaze up…its delicate pale pink chandeliers
each hanging by a thread, intact.

But then three days of blasting wind
billowing up the path, around the house
battering it, beating at it, torn
down in bucketfuls, coating the front bed
and the lawn inches deep—
with the waste of it only just blossomed.
Why do you care ? Because it’s moved you
because every beautiful thing you’ve seen

has entered your heart, aware or unaware
becoming part of you extending out
you can’t escape now, it’s too late
your heart is open and it can’t close again.
You care because it’s all you are
this beautiful ravaged world now
resurrected then crucified…and as the wind dies
with all we still have, as it returns.

I call it poetry, with or without words
the one language we know without speaking
that seeks us out from the Beginning
because it knows we must blossom
there is no other hope, no other way
to become human, but to love, and lose
turned inside out and outside in—
and this, my God and yours, is the operation.

~ Jay Ramsay