A Journey Inward
The Cailleach’s Descent to the Underworld
Crossing the Dark Seas of Loss into Strange Country.
Sunday November 12th, 2023
9:00 am - 12:00 pm PST (Pacific Standard Time)
5:00 pm - 8:00 pm IST (Irish Standard Time)
Photo Credit: Seán Mac an tSíthighYou are invited to join me for a 3-hour live online workshop experience - Deepening the Senses – A Journey Inward – ‘The Cailleach’s Descent to the Underworld - Crossing the Dark Seas of Loss into Strange Country’ on Sunday 12th November 2023 at 9 am (PST) and 5 pm (IST).
This workshop is open to Ireland, USA, and Internationally.
Samhain marks the beginning of the darkest part of the year, the beginning of Winter. In the Celtic tradition, at Samhain, the Cailleach, the old hag or the wise crone of winter, leaves the mountains and begins her walk across the lands, bringing the winter storms, snow, and darkness with her. It is the time of the year where she makes her descent into the underworld to incubate the seeds of the new life. Darkness is associated with new beginnings. The potential of the seed below the ground. These are liminal threshold times in the changing seasons of our lives.
Every change comes with grief and loss. Even when we welcome positive changes, we are asked to let something go. There are many transitions and milestones that we meet on life’s journey - becoming a parent, losing a loved one, adjusting to an illness, children moving away, miscarriage, losing a job or a relationship coming to an end, or indeed, the dream of something that did not bear fruit. During these times of change and transition, we often feel bewildered and lost, frightened and overwhelmed, no longer sure of the path ahead. We feel we have no anchor anymore. We are standing in a strange country.
In the self-abandonment wound, when we start to come out of survival mode, there is a layer of grief and loss that we often meet when the freeze of survival thaws. This may be a loss of what didn’t get to be met when we were younger.
This workshop is a space where we will create time for reflection, to connect and reconnect in an embodied way to our inner ground, and to hear with the inner ear— what meaning can we glean from these challenging times on our journey? How can we support ourselves in this darkness to find a new ground? What seeds will we sow in the darkness this Samhain, and what will we bring forth into the Spring, at Imbolg, and the new life?
It is believed that at Samhain, the veil between the physical world and the otherworld is thin. This means that the spirits, the Aois Si, the Tuatha de Danann, can cross between the realms. During this workshop, we will explore the ancient world of the Celts and their rituals and customs to support life transitions and the natural rhythm of life, death, and rebirth.
What will this workshop look like?
We will journey inward, attuning to the stirring in our inner world, connecting to our place in the cycle of the seasons, and listening to the ancient wisdom held within. We will draw on the knowledge of mythology, the medium of poetry, music, and imagery to assist us.
The workshop will draw on understanding grief and loss and threshold crossings from psychotherapy, philosophy, literature, and poetry using images and music to support us.
When we listen to myths, we step into a timeless world, out of the rational concrete, into the symbolic life. This is the world of metaphor and imagination. This makes us more receptive to our inner environment, the energies of life, and the archetypal patterns living through us. This workshop will be an experience that will evoke the landscape of Ireland, its ancient customs, folklore, stories, and myths surrounding loss to engage your heart, mind, body, and soul self.
There will be a Q and A section in the presentation where you can ask questions and share your insights and reflections.
How will this workshop help me?
This workshop will explore how grief and loss are natural responses to changes in our lives; even the most welcomed change requires us to let go of something. It will deepen our understanding of what happens to us at threshold times and how we can begin to support ourselves to find new ground in this 'strange country.’
This workshop is a space where we will create awareness in ourselves and the body. We will draw on the wisdom of the ancient Celtic world and draw from psychotherapy, literature, poetry, art, and the ancient alchemists.
This workshop will be a space to set our intention for the coming darker months, what seeds need to be sown in the darkness this Samhain that I can bring forth, at Spring, into new life.
What does this workshop include?
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There will be a presentation that draws on understandings from depth psychotherapy, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, literature and poetry using images and music that evoke and stir the senses and imagination. There will be opportunity through gentle embodiment practices, to resource and support you to connect to your body to enhance that learning experience. Trauma is held in the body, and we need to return to the body to heal it.
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This workshop will take you on a journey into the inner world and soul self, invoking the spirit and wisdom of ancient Ireland, its stories, myths, poetry, folklore and ancient landscape. This aims to help you find your inner ground and light the way for you on this healing journey inward.
When we listen to myths, we step into a timeless world, out of the rational concrete into the symbolic life. This is the world of soul, the world of metaphor and imagination. This makes us more receptive to our inner environment and the energies of life and the archetypal patterns living through us. This workshop is cultivated with great care to create an experience for you to engage your heart, mind, body and soul self.
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At the end there will be time for answering any questions you may have, to share reflections and to help deepen the experience for you and the other participants.
Book Your Seat
This workshop is grounded in:
Depth psychotherapy research, theories and practices, somatic psychotherapy, Celtic mythology, ancient Gaelic wisdom in folklore and stories, the medium of poetry, art images, symbol and metaphor.
This workshop is ideal for you if:
You are at a threshold of change in your life at this time.
You are experiencing grief and loss in your life.
You have experienced endings in life – loss of a job, relationship, friendship, or losing a loved one.
You are curious about thresholds in your life journey and how to meet them and glean from them the gold of transformation.
If you are supporting someone experiencing grief and loss – professionally or in your personal life.
By the end of the workshop you will:
Find new ways of supporting yourself as you make these transitions in your life.
Create a space for yourself to deepen your understanding of yourself and honor yourself in this process.
Begin to feel more resourced to support yourself in your body to feel ease and presence in your life.
Recognize the hidden gold at these threshold times.
Experience the wisdom and the wonder of ancient Gaelic culture and tradition and how ritual has helped us navigate the seas of grief and loss through the ages.
About the host
Eileen Sullivan
I grew up in Connemara which is a wild and rugged on the Atlantic in the west of Ireland. I grew up in a small Gaelic (Irish) speaking community where Gaelic is still spoken today in the homes of people living there. Gaelic is an ancient language. Its traces, in written form, reach back to Ogham inscriptions on stone from the 4 th Century AD.
Gaelic is my first language. I did not speak any English until I started attending school at five years old. The region where I grew up was a major center for the work of the Irish folklore commission recording endangered folklore, mythology, sean-nos (old-style) songs, and oral literature. My own development, my soul self, has been greatly influenced by that physical landscape, and by being immersed in those ancient songs, stories, customs, myths, legends, and music since I was a child.
This is at the heart of these workshops and retreats. My desire is to share with you the experience of that ancient Celtic culture and spirit and, as a Psychotherapist, to connect you to how that can support and nourish your own personal journey to the soul self.
I hold a Master’s degree in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy, a Master’s degree in Social Work, a Degree in Social Science, a Diploma in Jungian Psychology, and a Diploma in Reflexive Supervision. These workshops have been honed and developed over a period of seven years. I am really delighted to be able to share them with you.
FAQs
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Live on Sunday, 12th November 2023
Start and finish times:
9 am – 12 pm (PST) Los Angeles, CA, USA / Vancouver, BC, Canada
11 am – 2 pm (CST) Chicago, IL, USA / Regina, SK, Canada
12 pm – 3 pm (EST) New York, NY USA / Toronto, ON, Canada
5 pm – 8 pm (Irish ST) Ireland and UK
6 pm – 9 pm (CEST) Amsterdam / Berlin / Paris / Madrid
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To register and book your place, follow this link. You will receive a welcoming letter via email 5-7 days prior to the day, which will give you more information and suggestions on what to have with you on the day to create a supportive space in your own home to embrace and enjoy this experience fully. And you will receive an email 2-3 days before with a Zoom Link for the workshop.
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If you wish to receive notifications on up-and-coming events and access to a regular exclusive Deepening the Senses newsletter, please click below to subscribe. I post daily on Facebook and Instagram, so please click and follow me there for daily inspiration.
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No refunds and no exchanges. You will receive a workshop recording if you cannot make it LIVE.