Information for Goddess Retreat UK [2024]

It is time to align the  energies for our travels, in May!

I have been gathering magic and we are already celebrating our circle!

Please sign the travel agreement >> Retreat Travel Agreement

It is time to align the  energies for our travels, in May!

I so am excited to share this retreat time with each of you and am busy planning some exciting new experiences for our journey!

We Journey to Avalon to touch sacred earth with the soles/souls of our feet.

You will walk the pathways of the ancient ones, feeling the energy of the hollow hills, sacred groves, deep waters, gardens of delight and speaking stones, that wait for you.

You will see with eyes that move far beyond time and space, as you listen to the winds that whisper your name. You are traveling with intention, to meet the deep mythic river that runs through the land and through your life. Whether your first time or you are returning to Avalon, the realm of the goddess and a place of deep history.

A prayer for the Goddess from Glastonbury, Avalon of Olde, Isle of Apples:

She is you. She is each one of you who braves the known and unknown alike. She is you who sees in the darkness and is not afraid because it is She who created the night. It is She who wombed the ecstasy of light from that deepest portal, the way in, the way through. That road once opened is now you. Each of you, who brave the known and unknown alike. She is each of you who see in the darkness and is not afraid. And continue to birth worlds of magic and the extraordinary.

May you each Know Yourself as She who Knows, She who Creates. She who Loves.
– JJ Levine

Practical Magic for our travels…

• Have you booked your flights yet? The pricing for all major airlines to London has remained fairly stable though out the last two months (East and West Coast), with less than hundred dollar fluctuation at best and some fantastic rates. Pricing will start to creep up soon, so best to secure these soon and Linda, the travel agent listed in the welcome can assist.
• Check your passport now. Make sure it does not expire within 6 months of traveling and plan on expedited renewal right away if it is feeling close.
• Remember that your retreat dates, basic travel information is in your welcome email
• Make your reservations for arrival night – May 8th – at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow (formally Arora Hotel) The Grove Bath Road, West Drayton UB7 0DG England. This is location of coach pick up, May 9th 9:30 am, or you may stay elsewhere and simply come to this location to meat the coach.

Important Links + Return to me when you can:

1.  The Emergency Contact Information is required for everyone joining the retreat. Download >>
2. Special Food Needs Fill In Form >>
3. Spa Treatments | Treatment Options 2024 >>

Weather + Packing

Creative casual wear is perfect.

Weather is generally 62-68 degrees.

Must haves:

• Walking Shoes or Sandals
• Cozy Layers for chilly mornings or rain (its an island)
• Swim suit (we have a pool + hot tubs on site)
• We have washer/dryer on site and hair dryers in every room

LINKS:

• Retreat Schedule Download: *Glastonbury Retreat Schedule 2024
• Communication Thread to say hi to one another and connect before we travel will open on JPI Classroom >>

From The Mist-Filled Path by Frank MacEowen:

“The landscape is a mirror.

It is a splendid revealer of things not often seen with the eyes of every day life. When walking out on a land it is good to invite the Eyes of the Seer and the Eyes of the Poet [Artist] to be present. These are eyes that see the true shape of things. Poets and Seers see things differently. When we relax the literal thinking mind and enter landscape with more fluid perceptions (a soft gaze) we soon find that we become changed. We are then able to connect with our primal, preliterate selves. This preliterate, or perhaps postliterate state, of consciousness opens us to the Great Mirror of Nature.

The Celtic tradition of divination and seership is rooted in an understanding that clarity of thought and vision can be found in nature. It is no accident, for instance, that many Celtics seers, ancient and modern, have been shepherds, drovers and crofters. These individuals are often out on the land hillwalking. Their souls are customarily deep in the consciousness required to receive vision, spiritual insight and prophecy. This thread of the Celtic tradition understands well William Butler Yeats notion of “the condition of quiet that is the condition of vision.”

The shepherds and seers are not some elite cast of human beings. The practice and refinement, these skills of vision and seership, are accessible to everyone. The difference is that modernity fosters atrophy of the senses, while the natural, rustic and rural spirit facilitates a healing of the senses. Family bloodlines genetically predisposed to seership, or living the entirety of our lives in a rural setting, are not requirements for cultivating these abilities. Removing ourselves, with some frequency from an urban setting and communing with the Great Mirror of Nature is. Through the Celtic practice of merging the human soul with the whole soul of nature and the soul of place, a deep healing occurs. A profoundly sacred education awaits us all.

The Celtic path of working with the beauty of creation is one of dialogue. It is not a one-way conversation. This work is about allowing ourselves to become one third of the sacred dialogue. We open ourselves to the inherent intelligence of the earth, and the earth leans towards us in response and the third thing is created; a true human be-ing. Those who follow the Celtic mystical paths have always perceived nature as sacred. There is an unspoken understanding that natural acts as a reflective mirror shining bake on our own soul’s essence and sometimes even prophetic information. The Great Mirror reminds us of our truest self. For this reason any spiritual work with the natural world whether prayer, pilgrimage, hillwalking, fasting, [art-making, mythwalking, art as ritual] or purification practices, is an invitation to return to the primal the original essence of who we really are.”

[additions – cc]
Lovely women, we are Circling and preparing our way!

I am seeding our ‘experience-to-come’, thoughtfully sharing what I think is most relevant with you in this message! As we move toward April, I will send these periodically with some thoughts to prepare the way…

Be thoughtful about over-researching the upcoming trip, leave space to dream, muse and take it in through the six senses. Create with some themes of this Pilgrimage…explore the essence of the Celtic Goddesses that speak to you and through you. Find them in image before you fix their purpose, seek their names and stories through your inner wisdom…
 
Explore the symbols of herb, sacred grove and lore, dip into poetry and Quest(ions), in your art and life. Whisper the ancient names: Aquae Sulis, Avalon, Stonehenge, The Lady, White Spring, Summerland, Chalice Well, Hollow Hills, Isle of Apples, The Tor, Otherworld. 

EXTRA DOWNLOAD:

 Brief History of Avalon has been compiled for the journey, touching on many features in the areas. We will be visiting some local and regional sacred sites during our stay, not all – but touching on these will offer some wonderful connections for your time in the UK!

There are many novels that offer connections to this place, these include original Arthurian Myths, The Mists of Avalon and the The Forest House (Bradley), The Bones of Avalon (Rickman), Grave Goods (Franklin) and one of my past travelers recommended the Maeve Chronicles (Cunningham). You may enjoy the Caitlin and John Matthews books for Celtic stories and mythic topics.

These themes are active and living…may they excite your senses. Begin to explore these in your creative practice. I will invite each of us to bring an object or piece of art for our altar space, to seed our time together.