Bere Island.
During the first week of May, 2005, the season of Bealtaine, nine women gathered on Bere Island, off the coast of County Cork for a seven day retreat held by Celtic Fire and Faerie. During this time we worked with the Faerie Realm on the island, and on the Faerie Pathways that extend throughout Alba-On (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales). This was truly a time out of time. And the journey continued on after Bere. Here is a short account of some of what happened.
I went a week ahead of the group, with a friend, Penny Ann, and set up house on Bere Island. We were quickly steeped into the magic at a cellular, and Galactic level !! We lit fires in the hearth at the cottage and sat around the burning turf (oh the scent of that), we ate more food than I can now imagine (realizing that our bodies were craving the lifeforce in the Irish food), and we walked about on the island surrounded by the unbelievable beauty of early spring bursting forth. Primoses, bluebells, fuchia all the flowers of my childhood – and the deep, deep soul levels began to pour in for both of us, in the midst of incredible and side splitting laughter. I know now that laughter is Spirit’s way of gracing our receptivity. While we are laughing “They” can slide so much expansiveness into our consciousness.
On the 29th April we drove back to Shannon to pick up the group and escort them to Bere Island. Spirit was meticulous in choosing those who came. What a beautiful heart full group of women !!! I am still in awe at the easy way they all fell in together, not having met previously, and shared a cottage and meals and LIFE for seven days. We were also joined by some ladies from the island.
Each day was full to over flowing. Until that morning I rarely had an idea of what was going to happen. We did go to Shee (Sidhe) Head, an incredibly beautiful headland on the southwest on the island. The previous year I had opened a Faerie Ring there. This year we opened two more Faerie Rings. Now there is a trinity of Rings up there. We also made a Triple Spiral with little quartz stones and buried it beneath the turf. The Triple Spiral is gracing the center of the space that the three Rings hold. A portal was opened during the Ritual that Penny Ann and I did on Wesak Full Moon, before the group arrived. We were joined by women in New Zealand, Orcas Island, France, near Renne le Chateau and by a one who was holding the space on Mt. Shasta at the place where I had my awakening in 2002. The portal that opened is to Siriius. This is a timed portal, and it will expand to include gateways to the Pleiades and Orion also. The day the group went to Shee the portal extended to the Center of the Earth.
We worked with our beloved Faerie Lios – the one that I have written and talked about during the year. On the Tuesday afternoon we came, bearing many wonderful little gifts from the heart, tiny spiral shells, precious oils and gem stones. There was a feeling of great gratitude from the Faerie Kingdom as we worked with them. The clearing of the energies was easy, because we had worked with it over the year, even from workshops in Colorado. The group energy standing on the mound was the final link in the mound being able to release the blockage and the energy flowed freely through the inner dimensional entrance where the block had been. This allowed those Faerie Beings who had been trapped on the outside to return back into the mound, and also allows free passage now, both in and out. It was rather beautiful to witness this. We were asked to put our hearts to the ground and the group lay face down. I could see the wonderful energies of Heart, human, Faerie, Angelic lighting up and swirling around and through us all. What a delight this “work” is !! I had been told that this one point on the Faerie Grid being cleared would ripple through the Faerie Pathways of Ireland, through the entire Grid, even extending through Scotland, England and Wales. I did “feel” this as we traveled around Ireland in the coming weeks.
On the 29th April we drove back to Shannon to pick up the group and escort them to Bere Island. Spirit was meticulous in choosing those who came. What a beautiful heart full group of women !!! I am still in awe at the easy way they all fell in together, not having met previously, and shared a cottage and meals and LIFE for seven days. We were also joined by some ladies from the island.
Each day was full to over flowing. Until that morning I rarely had an idea of what was going to happen. We did go to Shee (Sidhe) Head, an incredibly beautiful headland on the southwest on the island. The previous year I had opened a Faerie Ring there. This year we opened two more Faerie Rings. Now there is a trinity of Rings up there. We also made a Triple Spiral with little quartz stones and buried it beneath the turf. The Triple Spiral is gracing the center of the space that the three Rings hold. A portal was opened during the Ritual that Penny Ann and I did on Wesak Full Moon, before the group arrived. We were joined by women in New Zealand, Orcas Island, France, near Renne le Chateau and by a one who was holding the space on Mt. Shasta at the place where I had my awakening in 2002. The portal that opened is to Siriius. This is a timed portal, and it will expand to include gateways to the Pleiades and Orion also. The day the group went to Shee the portal extended to the Center of the Earth.
We worked with our beloved Faerie Lios – the one that I have written and talked about during the year. On the Tuesday afternoon we came, bearing many wonderful little gifts from the heart, tiny spiral shells, precious oils and gem stones. There was a feeling of great gratitude from the Faerie Kingdom as we worked with them. The clearing of the energies was easy, because we had worked with it over the year, even from workshops in Colorado. The group energy standing on the mound was the final link in the mound being able to release the blockage and the energy flowed freely through the inner dimensional entrance where the block had been. This allowed those Faerie Beings who had been trapped on the outside to return back into the mound, and also allows free passage now, both in and out. It was rather beautiful to witness this. We were asked to put our hearts to the ground and the group lay face down. I could see the wonderful energies of Heart, human, Faerie, Angelic lighting up and swirling around and through us all. What a delight this “work” is !! I had been told that this one point on the Faerie Grid being cleared would ripple through the Faerie Pathways of Ireland, through the entire Grid, even extending through Scotland, England and Wales. I did “feel” this as we traveled around Ireland in the coming weeks.
Skellig Islands
When the week on Bere Island was complete most of the group departed. I had been asked to bring the “harvest” of the workshop to the Skellig Islands, and two women made the trip with me. We arrived in Ballinskelligs late in the evening and settled into a beautiful Bed and Breakfast which was situated right at a tiny beach. From the beach we could see the islands. The next morning we made our way to Portmagee to catch the ferry. We could not know until that morning if we would be going, as each ferry trip is weather dependent. It is an hours boat ride. Very exhilarating. Eleven of us on the boat, and the Swedish boat man! He dropped us off on Skelling Michael and moored his little boat in the sea nearby. We had two and a half hours. We began the six hundred foot climb to the top. It was quite a climb, and so rewarding. Skellig Michael, we quickly discovered, is a very special place. At the very top is the settlement of Beehive huts from around the fourth century. They are believed to have been built by a community of Culdee monks. Each of the little Beehives was unique and intriguing, and we wandered from one to the next. We will definitely return here, with a larger group, next summer and work inside these Beehives. I had a vision very quickly of us chanting as a group, with crystal bowls. MAGIC. The height of the settlement is wonderful, with a view of the mainland and the Small Skellig island close by. The Small Skellig is inhabited only by Birds. We went around this on the way back. Thousands of Birds and no humans. Quite a spectacular thing.
I found the ‘energy” on Skellig Michael” to be the clearest energy I have yet experienced, as though it were somehow off the earthly grid, connected into a realm where there was no discord. Because of that the feeling was of a longing to stay there. I had been aware from the information from both William Buehler and Maia of http://www.spiritmythos.org
whom I had talked with before the trip, that the Skelligs are on a very special point of the grid, the “lay” that runs from the ancient Atlantean Isle of Ruta. The lay then goes through Ireland, right through Uisneach, (another point I had been asked to visit and we did), and further into Scotland near Edinburgh, at Fortingall. At one point two of us stood in a Beehive and tuned into the grid and asked that any energies that needed to align with our assistance do so. I think what happened was actually very major, if how our lives have changed since then is any mark of it !!!!
Cashel
After that we bid adieu to Kathleen, and Penny Ann and I continued on our adventures. On the way to spend some family time with my people in Kilkenny, we visited Cashel. Before leaving America my guidance had charted out the places we were to visit. We found Cashel to be heavy with the Patriarchy and the Papacy energies, but underneath that overlay was the old magic of a true Celtic Church. We found Sheila na Gig carved sideways on one of the stones of the Cathedral, quite high and not something you would notice unless you were looking for her. I am still working on the layers of clearing in Cashel and this will also be a focus in my workshops. I believe this is a holding place for some of the heavier energies of bondage that have sipped into the Land of Ireland, when the old magical wisdom was swept away and replaced by a religion of bondage.
Glendalough, Co. Wicklow
Between visiting different members of my family we spend one day in Glendalough in Co. Wicklow. This is another old monastic settlement, with a beautiful round tower. The accepted translation of this word is Glen of the two Lakes, and there are two lakes. However, I found a reference once that its older meaning was Glen of Lugh, which had a much more powerful meaning to me. Lugh is one of the members of the Tuatha de Danann and a familiar Spirit in the work of Celtic Fire. I did find confirmation of this energy there. It was a Sunday afternoon and very full of people out from Dublin for the day, picnicking and frolicking about. It would be nice to return in the quiet of the early morning, or late evening in the middle of the week.
Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly
Our next adventure led us to Clonmacnoise. We were on our way to Uisneach when we were turned around by Spirit and asked to visit Clonmacnoise first. We were so happy we heard this request, because our time there was so rewarding. Like many of the sacred power points of Ireland, Clonmacnoise has been “touristized”. A constant stream of tour buses, restaurant, book store etc. It is much nicer when the site is still “clear” of all this, and yet, right in the midst of all the activity I had one of the most powerful meditations of the trip. Spirit led me into the ruins of a very small, very old church with no roof. I literally curled up in the corner and went into meditation. I was aware with my peripheral consciousness that the little ruin was surrounded on the outside by a bus load of German tourists and their guide, yet I was aware that I was not to move. I stayed inside my meditation space and not one of them came within the little ruin. They walked all around it, and I believe they were totally unaware that I was sitting there. Perhaps I had become momentarily invisible!! Anyway, I began an internal dialogue with my Guidance and asked about the lives of the monks who lived there. In that short space I was given the teachings of the Emerald Flame. This teaching will now be part of the Celtic Fire and Faerie work, and hugely so with the work in Ireland next year.
Uisneach
Uisneach is believed to be at the Heart of Ireland. My own feeling is that Clonmacnoise is hugely within that Heart Space too. Its energies felt womblike, embracing, almost like the feminine heart, while Uisneach felt more masculine to me. The hill of Uisneach is privately owned and visitors are not welcomed. One is instead welcomed by a sign on the gate that says, “Beware of Bulls and Suckling Cows.” Having grown up in the city this did put quite a tremor into my heart !!!, yet I knew that we must climb the hill to the place where the huge Cat Rock sits. Penny Ann led the way with a braver heart than mine !!!! Walking along the hedgerows at the edge of the fields, seeking invisibility, and walking through much cow (and possibly bull dung) we did reach the Rock and did a quick ritual !! There was a tremendous feeling of accomplishment on reaching the car once more, and I could feel the humour in the inner realms watching our little show !!
From there we traveled to Carrowkeel which turned out to be the most awe inspiring and consciousness shifting part of the whole trip.
Carrowkeel
We met our guide in Castlebaldwin and followed him in our little rental car, up the side of a mountain, along an uncovered road. As we rose, the beauty of the surrounding land came into view. This is the ancient land of the Tuatha de Danann, Moytura, Knocknarea, Benbulben, Carrowkeel, Carrowmore. We parked the cars. Martin mentioned there might be bad weather on the way, so Penny Ann and I donned our rain gear. Until now, throughout the entire month, though we had come prepared, the weather had been extremely kind with us.
Martin led the way; I followed and then came Penny Ann with her shillelagh. When we were about half way up a black cloud appeared almost instantly, and opened out sideways, pelting us with hard rain, carried on a strong wind. My small body was slightly lifted from the ground with the force, and I had the thought of wondering how prepared my wings were !! Martin scampered like a springhare up the mountain and disappeared. In a moment I was wet right through. The wind seemed to know exactly how to rearrange my raincoat and penetrate to the skin !!!
I arrived at a rock that was obviously on the outside of a passageway. I knew Martin had gone inside. I went in, on my hands and knees, along the stone passage that led into the belly of the mountain. It was dark. I felt my way around and sat down. He was sitting quietly opposite me. I waited for Penny Ann to appear, then crawled back out to the entrance to guide her in. I yelled at her, through the rain and wind, but Nature’s sounds were louder than any I could make !! I clambered out into the rain again and guided her in. She was exhilarated by the weather. Some people are !! I was aware that I was wet, and cold, and extremely uncomfortable in my physical body.
The three of us sat in the darkness and I closed my eyes and tuned into the place. It was an extraordinary feeling, being inside the mountain as the storm raged outside. As I sat there, I was aware that with my eyes closed I was seeing light in the rocks. It was truly bright and pouring out into my body. Some of the physical discomfort began to leave. I opened my eyes and the dark chamber was bright. I could see the details of the roof, and all the stones. Martin said that is what happens when you listen to the stones. I liked that!
This is the cairn where the Summer Solstice Sun comes through the lintel and lights up the womb of the chamber. It is not unlike New Grange north of Dublin, but that comes alive with the Winter Solstice. Martin, through his studies of this place has also revealed that the passage of the moon is also reflected at certain times through the lintel and into the chamber. See his Website at: http://www.carrowkeel.com
As I was sitting there I kept hearing “This is the spawning place of the Gods.” The meaning of this was to become clearer later on in meditation. We talked about it having a mental energy, almost like an earth academy, where the Teachers brought their students to learn through experience, rather than from books. I realized what a superior way of learning that is, because through the experience we get a download at a cellular level, which is immediate and goes right through the need to ponder, doubt and analyze.
There are two such passageways or “chambered cairns” open at Carrowkeel and when the storm had spent itself, we trotted around the mountain to the second one. This had a very different energy, more female, more womblike and Martina mentioned it was a sounding chamber. Penny Ann took out her little Tibetan sounding bowl and played it. We all did, taking turns, but Penny Ann had developed a Heart relationship with her little bowl and so it sang more clearly for her and we listened. I learned much about the power of sound and light combined.
After a delicious lunch of bread and cheese and tomatoes and a big pot of Irish tea we headed off to Carrowmore. I found the energy did not hold us here long, and so we headed off to Sligo town to visit Michael Quirke. Michael used to be a butcher on Wine Street, before he woke up. Now his butcher store is a place of mystery and magic and sparkling Irish stories. He carves all the figures from Irish mythology into wood. Each piece of art has a story behind it, in it, and Michael tells it like no other. Joseph Campbell did come to mind, an Irish Joseph Campbell. The stories poured out of his mouth with extraordinary wit and humour, and the deep wisdom and philosophy of the Gaels spinning out sideways and catching you unaware through the laughter. If anyone goes to Sligo town, go and visit Michael Quirke and save some money beforehand to buy some of his beautiful artwork!! (Michael Quirke. Wood Carver. Wine Street, Sligo Tel: 071-914-2624)
By this time is was evening and our last stop of the day was a certain Faerie Glen that was so deeply steeped in magic that I am still dipping into the well of mystery that abides there, and at the moment there are few words to describe the true magic of that evening. I return in my dreams to that place and will return again in body next summer.
This whole area will be where the bulk of the gathering next summer will take place. The trip is already forming, and the Tuatha are busy making plans for us !!!
Again thank you for your interest and your comments to the other messages I have sent out. I love to feel you all there !!! And I hope that some of you are feeling the call to come and play with us next year in Ireland. It will be in early September.
Much Love and Faerie Magic to us all
Áine