Turas - Pilgrimage
The Cailleach, Shadow and a Pilgrimage to the Soul
As we approach the darker months and the time of the Cailleach, I am thinking more about the ancient archetypal idea of “pilgrimage”. The Irish word for Pilgrimage is 'turas', which is also the same word for 'journey'.
The idea of a pilgrimage is as old as humanity itself. It is a practice of leaving the familiar behind, a movement outward toward a sacred site and inward toward the uncharted terrain of the self. Each step sheds a layer of identity, until the pilgrim stands more raw, more open, in communion with both the landscape and the spirit within. The road becomes a ritual of surrender, a practice of letting go. Psychologically, pilgrimage symbolises our urge to grow, to stretch into greater consciousness, and to return home changed.
Photo by Ken Williams
The Pilgrimage to the Hag
Ireland’s spiritual landscape is marked by thousands of holy wells, many associated with saints, legends, and rituals. Whether in Christian or older pagan traditions, the well embodies the archetype of the source—the living, flowing threshold between worlds.
Yet beyond saints and wells lies a much older figure of pilgrimage in Irish myth: the Cailleach. She is the hag of winter, the storm-bearer who cloaks the land in snow. With her apron of stones, she shapes mountains and valleys; with her staff, she calls forth the dark season. Each spring, she drinks from the Well of Youth and is renewed, beginning the cycle again. The Cailleach is not cruel but essential: she teaches that endings and decay are sacred, that death is the soil of renewal.
Uragh Stone Circle, County Kerry (taken between showers of rain, on my way to the Cailleach)
To meet the Cailleach is to meet the shadow.
She confronts us with the truths we avoid—mortality, grief, fear—and yet she also miswifes wisdom. Like Jung’s concept of the shadow, she cannot be exiled; she must be honoured.
The Cailleach holds us, as she always has—through winters of the land and winters of the soul.
To walk to her is to walk into shadow, into transformation, into the paradox of endings that seed beginnings. Pilgrimage to the Cailleach is not simply a journey across landscape, but a descent into the deep pattern of life itself: death, renewal, and the abiding mystery in between.
Pilgrimage is never only about reaching a destination.
It is a ritual of departure, of stepping beyond the familiar and consenting to be changed. Each journey strips us bare, layer by layer, until we meet both landscape and soul in their unvarnished truth.
In Ireland, the word for pilgrimage is 'turas'—a journey outward through stone, mountain, island, and water, and inward toward the mystery of the self. Each journey is the call to enter the abyss of oneself, to face shadow, to endure winter, and to trust in the renewal that follows.
The Personal Pilgrimage
For me, pilgrimage has become a rhythm, a practice of fidelity to the depths. Each year, I travel the winding, windswept roads of the Beara Peninsula to seek the Cailleach herself. The journey carries me through fields and across low stone walls until I arrive at her silent, weathered form—a great rock presence shaped by myth into the figure of the hag of winter. Each time I go alone, carrying with me an intention, a prayer, a hope that some fragment of her archetypal strength and wisdom might seep into me. Some plea that she might help me in the rough crossing.
There, in the silence, I sit with her. She is the fierce face of transformation: the veiled one, storm-crowned, who cloaks the land in snow and reminds us that endings are as sacred as beginnings. Her presence strips me of pretences and calls me to let go—of roles, of certainties, of the parts of myself that no longer sustain.
Sometimes I find others had been there before me, leaving flowers, shells, coins, and strips of cloth tied with prayer and offering. Others had come, moved perhaps by the same hopes, and the same pleas and calls.
The Cailleach holds us, as she always has—through winters of the land and winters of the soul. To walk to her is to walk into shadow, into transformation, into the paradox of endings that seed beginnings. Pilgrimage to the Cailleach is not simply a journey across landscape, but a descent into the deep pattern of life itself: death, renewal, and the abiding mystery in between.
Upcoming Offerings
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4 Hour Live Workshop
Embarking on the Mist Filled Path
The Journey of Individuation | Sacred Time & the Numinous
Sunday October 19th, 2025
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In this workshop, we explore Carl Jung’s concept of individuation — the unfolding path toward wholeness, authenticity, and the deeper Self. Early on this path, we meet the shadow — the hidden, unconscious parts of ourselves cast out, exiled, or forgotten.
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The Cailleach’s Descent to the Underworld
Crossing the Dark Seas of Loss into Strange Country
This course will explore the grief we experience during transition periods. Grief is a constant companion with change. Together, we will cross the thresholds of change and learn, through the wisdom of the ancient Crone - The Cailleach, how we can come to support ourselves in the liminal places.
✓ Over 100+ Minutes of Immersive Video Lessons
✓ 30+ Page Companion E-Workbook
✓ CPD Certificate for Irish Professionals
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