Walking Between Worlds
Returning to the Well
Healing the Mother Wound - Mother Archetype and the Celtic Spirit
4 Month Program - February - May 2025
Available as a one time payment or payment plan.
In this Spring program, we will return to the metaphorical well that was symbolic to our ancient ancestors. The Celts viewed water as sacred, and it sprang forth from the earth, from the mother goddess herself. We will return to the well, to this gift from a divine world, to support ourselves and connect to the nurturing aspects of the mother within in the service of our own lives and that of our ancestors. In this seasonal program, we will explore how the negative aspects of the mother archetypal energy can impact our development and how we can come to cultivate a more integrated relationship with the nurturing aspect of that mother energy in order to move towards wholeness and heal it.
In the depths of darkness, in winter, we yearn for the returning light. In some Irish mythological stories, the Cailleach, the ancient crone, the goddess of winter, at the beginning of spring, turns herself into the Iníon Buí, ‘the yellow daughter’, and transforms into Brigid.
In this very first Walking Between Worlds Spring program, we will explore the mother archetype in our own lives. This is the most universally recognised archetype of the feminine in our culture. In Jungian Psychology, the mother archetype is associated with the qualities of nurturing, protection, loving care and compassion.
The mother goddesses were central in Irish Mythology. Danú was the mother of the Tuatha de Danann, the supernatural race in celtic mythology who lived in the sídhe, the mounds and hills of Ireland, under the earth. Danú was known as the earth mother. She was associated with abundance, nature, the cycle of the seasons and fertility. She was the keeper of the land. Other celtic mythical mothers such as Ernmas, who was mother to Ériú, Banba and Fódla, all deeply connected to the land in Ireland. The name for Ireland, Éire, comes from the goddess Ériú.
The mothers of celtic mythology embody many attributes. They symbolized the landscape, some were associated with magic, warriors and war, others with fertility and the qualities of creativity, abundance, and without question, the world of nature, the source of life itself.
The mother archetype is also central to our journey of individuation. Building a relationship with that nurturing inner mother potential is essential in our psychological development in order to support us on our path to wholeness and self actualization.
Join now!
Returning to the Well
Healing the Mother Wound - Mother Archetype and the Celtic Spirit
Available as a one time payment or payment plan.
The Shadow Aspect
Every archetype is a potential and every archetype has two sides, the positive side and the negative side. The mother archetype is no different. - On the one hand it nurtures and protects and on the other it can devour and suffocate.
This series explores both aspects, so we can come to know our own personal and ancestral story with this archetype, both shadow and light, and become curious and engage consciously with how it impacts us daily and how we can come to understand and thereby change and heal it for this generation and the generations to come.
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Potential for dependency and enmeshment with one’s own personal mother.
Tending and filling the well of others before our own.
Possessiveness in the relationship with one’s personal mother, finding it difficult to establish one’s separate ground, one’s own separate identity.
Difficulty pulling away from the influence of one’s own personal mother, to begin one’s own journey of individuation.
Comparison - not feeling good enough, often being compared to others and comparing oneself to others.
Self-blaming and a very punitive internal self-critic.
Feelings of guilt and shame for wanting more and having more than one’s own mother or ancestors had.
Making oneself small, minimizing one’s achievements so as not to stand out.
Self-sabotage and self-betrayal.
Difficulty in trusting oneself and expressing one’s true feelings and authentic self.
What is the seasonal program?
This four-month program engages with the Celtic world and spirit. It is set up so you will have weekly content to explore in digestible amounts and a monthly LIVE workshop to deepen your understanding of the concepts and ideas arising and share and hear from others to uncover what is resonating in the collective and what generates curiosity and wonder. This mix of videos and group work aims to enhance your learning experience while providing content to return to throughout the month.
Each month builds upon the next, exploring another aspect of the Mother Archetype and allowing you to fully experience, reflect, learn and heal from the mother wounds in your life.
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Nurturing a Relationship with the Embodied Mother archetype - your sensing, feeling Self.
Honoring the feminine in our lives, is to return to the wellspring of the body. Brigid is the patroness of childbirth, associated with motherhood, birthing anew, a new life. As goddess, Brigid kindles the flame of intuition and inspiration, lighting the fires of poetry and creativity.
To return to that well, we must return to the feeling body, something that we are often estranged from in our society and in the mother wound.
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Understanding the Shadow in the Ancestral Wounding
The mother wound is what gets passed down through the generations. This month, we will explore the emotions of shame and guilt in relation to stepping into our separate ground. We will explore the pain of comparison and competition, the experience of parentification and the impact of this, as well as the importance of establishing boundaries as we come to know the ancestral wounding in the stories of our lineage so we can make it conscious and begin to re-mother ourselves.
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Returning to the Source - Cultivating the Divine Mother Within
Core to the mother wound is the belief “I am not enough” “ I am not good enough”. Sometimes in our lives we experience the pain of those beliefs and are triggered - which means the early pain is awakened in the present day. We experience intense emotions that are uncomfortable and hard to soothe.
In this month’s exploration, we will look at how to support ourselves in our triggered places at vulnerable times with the support of our compassionate inner mother. We will explore how to cultivate a good enough mother within.
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Embracing the Story of the Ancestors
It was believed that the waters of St Bride’s well in Cork in the south of Ireland were made more potent because of the magical dew that dropped into the well from the faery thorn on May morning. At Beltane, the other custom in Ireland was for the children to go out into the fields and gather the flowers, the primroses and cowslips, and bring the flowers to the doorsteps of their neighbours’ homes as gifts.
This month, we will explore the stories of our ancestors and redefine our own narrative through them. What flowers will be symbolically gathered in those fields in celebration of the coming Summer, in celebration of wholeness, the mother line?
You will learn…
… how to gain insight into your relationship with the mother archetype and mother wound on your psychological journey.
… how to better understand the intergenerational impact of the negative mother archetype in your life and in the broader culture and society we live in.
… how to support yourself in changing your relationship with yourself and others.
… about the mother figures of Irish mythology, folklore, ancient stories, and poetry. You will engage with those stories in an embodied way to enrich your life journey.
… what it means to have a symbolic inner well where you can tend to that inner space with nourishment, compassion and love of self.
… to cultivate an embodied relationship with your intuition, inner knowing, creativity and self-trust.
… the power of a collective group experience when exploring the inner workings of the soul and the power of sanctuary.
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Depth psychotherapy research, theories and practices, somatic psychotherapy, psychology and neuroscience, Celtic mythology, ancient Gaelic wisdom in folklore and stories, the medium of poetry, art images, symbol and metaphor.
Each month will include:
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Introduce Monthly Theme: At the beginning of the month, share a 30-minute pre-recorded video on the monthly theme to explore ideas, images, and reflections from the world of Depth psychology, philosophy, literature, Irish folklore, and poetry. We will explore the emotions that are stirring within the specific month’s theme and how this learning can be a rich source of knowledge to support us in developing a relationship with our inner world and soul self.
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In the second section, we will deepen into story and mythology. For our ancestors, the world of storytelling, poetry, songs, and folktales shared around the hearth at night provided an escape from a harsh existence—an escape that brought them into the unseen world of imagination, psyche, and spirit. We will become curious about what images are stirring our own imagination today from these ancient stories and images, and deepen our relationship to our soul selves.
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An Immersive Experience Live and Recorded. 1.5 hour facilitation per month (total 6 hour live facilitation)
The Sunday Sanctuary Gathering draws on the features of all the Deepening the Senses workshops and includes ritual, mythology/folklore/ music, and poetry. It will be a space of reflection and exploration, a space for sharing and mutual learning. This space aims to create and cultivate a community of like-minded individuals who are on a path of discovery and self-development.
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After the LIVE workshop, I will send out a form for each of you to share your insights and experience. I will compile (anonymously) the reflections you chose to share and share with the group as a way to share the different perspectives we all have over the same theme material, allowing you to see other perspectives you may not have uncovered yet.
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COMPANION E-WORKBOOK
Each month, a downloadable workbook (6-10 pages) will be available. It will explore the monthly theme, offer exercises to deepen the experience and provide a space to note your experience through awareness, journal invitations, and personal reflection.
CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD) CERTIFICATE
For Irish Mental Health Professionals*, a monthly Continuing Professional Development Certificate will be available for download. (*If you are not an Irish Professional, you may check if your association will approve the certificate.)
WEEKLY EMAILS / BLOGS
I will send out an email each week that includes the relevant weekly links and allows you to break down the theme’s intentions with Journal prompts, reflections, and goals based on the monthly theme/workbook prompts.
PLUS! IRISH WORDS
A Focal Gaeilge/ Irish Word will accompany the theme via the weekly email to deepen your connection to the work, the word, the Irish ancestors, and the topic through the lens of the Gaelic language and Depth psychology.
Join now!
Returning to the Well
Healing the Mother Wound - Mother Archetype and the Celtic Spirit
Available as a one time payment or payment plan.
This four-month program engages with the Celtic world and spirit. It is set up so you will have weekly content to explore in digestible amounts, mixed in with a monthly LIVE workshop to explore the concept with the group. Each month builds upon the next, exploring another aspect of the Mother Archetype and allowing you to fully experience, reflect, learn and heal from the mother wounds in your life.
Exclusive Earlybird Gift
Nollaig na mBan
JANUARY 5th ZOOM GATHERING | 1.5 Hours
As a thank you for joining the program early, join me this coming January 5th; to celebrate the women and those who came before us. We will gather in a special Sunday Sanctuary Gathering for Nollaig na mBan, “Little Christmas.” We will light our candle at our hearthstone and meet one another from our homes all over the world.
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January 6th marks a traditional day in Ireland called Nollaig na mBan (meaning Women’s Christmas) or “little Christmas”. It was a day where Irish women, who worked tirelessly throughout the year had a day of rest for themselves. The man of the house stayed at home to take care of the household duties and look after the children.
Women typically gathered together in each other's homes to eat Christmas cake, drink tea, and speak about their lives. It was a time where they rested after the hard work and toil of the Christmas period. On the eve of Nollaig na mBan the tradition also was to light the candles. Known as Oíche Nollag na mBan, (The night of Women’s Christmas) twelve candles were lit in the windows of their homes, and all the houses were lit up in the dark. One resident of the Aran Islands noted it as being quite a sight, “the brightest night of the year”.
This coming January 5th, in celebration of women and those who came before us, we will gather together in a special Sunday Sanctuary Gathering for Nollaig na mBan. We will light our candle at our hearthstone and gather to meet one another from our homes all over the world. It will be an introduction to each other before we meet again at the Sunday Sanctuary in February when we begin Returning to the Well. On that Sunday, Oiche Nollaig na mBan, we will gather together to set our intention for ourselves, for the coming year, and particularly for the new series. We will drink tea together and listen to , music, poetry, and Irish folklore, in a shared space of ritual, that aims to support us to connect inward and begin the cultivating Sanctuary in our own lives for this coming new year and the coming Spring program.
I’m looking forward to meeting you all and us joining together in this old celebration.
Updated Bonus Course!
Creating Sanctuary
Creating an intentional space for yourself is a vital aspect of this work. When we create spaces of intention, we also create a container for the work together. At the heart of it is a lovely practice of consciously and intentionally making space for yourself. Use the time to get familiar with your sanctuary, to design or decorate it in a way that feels safe and welcoming and allows you to explore the work internally. It would be lovely to have it ready when we begin on February 1st.
FAQ
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All workshops, courses, programs and products are designed to support your personal development. They are not designed to diagnose, prescribe or recommend any specific psychological, psychiatric or physical health interventions. Anyone engaging in this work agrees to take responsibility for their own personal wellbeing and should they need to consult an individual licensed, qualified healthcare professional, they will do so at their own discretion.