Between the Veils
Samhain Retreat
Sunday 29th October
2 - 9pm
Join me this Samhain for a magical afternoon -evening of ceremony, meditation, ritual practice, fire, feasting, Celtic folklore, wild wisdom and feminine mystery teachings as we celebrate the Celtic New Year.
At the end of October in the Celtic Wheel of the Year, we arrive at the mystical threshold of Samhain, the roots of our contemporary Halloween celebrations. Samhain honours the space between the closure of the fading year and the hope and renewal of Celtic New Year.
Spiritually and energetically, Samhain is considered the most powerful time in the Celtic calendar. It is a liminal time, where it was believed that the veils between worlds thinned and our ancestors lit great ceremonial fires, feasted, shared stories, cosmologies and engaged with rituals to endure the dark months ahead and honoured those who would not be crossing the threshold with them.
This makes Samhain an incredibly potent time for visioning, dreaming, connecting with ancestors and coming together in kindred community. Which is precisely what this Co Down retreat day offers you as well as sharing with you practical tools, ritual and wisdom to embrace the seasonal changes and understand your inner seasons and wild rhythms so you are restored and deeply nourished before entering the darkest days of the year.
The magic of Samhain is that of endless possibility. Since we return to the beginning, we can begin anew in any way we wish
Schedule
2pm: Welcome drinks and nibbles with Samhain stories
3pm: A Ritual to Reconnect With Your Ancestors. We will be creating a special ancestor bottle packed with herbs, trinkets and imbued with meaning and intention. It can serve as a focus for your energy and intentions as you move through Samhain, and make an excellent addition to your home or altar. It can also act as a dedicated tool for honouring our ancestors in the otherworld. This hands on ritual workshop isn’t about communing with, but honouring our ancestors.
5pm: Celtic Dreamtime practice and blessing
Enter the Otherworld, open to the mythic feminine and activate your inner bean feasa (wise woman) with mugwort tea, new year intention setting and a yoga nidra practice designed to help you meet the Cailleach, the Celtic crone archetype and wise old woman of Winter and awaken her wisdom and embody your desires for the cycle to come.
630pm: Silent Supper Club
It is traditional at Samhain to invite your ancestors to join in with the feasting by setting a place for them at the dinner table. Often a druidic supper is held in total silence but my ancestors would be raging if they journeyed all the way from the otherworld and for there to be no craic so we will hold our own, not so silent Samhain supper club consisting of 5 mouth watering, seasonal courses of savoury delights and sweet treats infused with magic. With a place set and served at the table for the ancestors, as well as experiencing food that nourishes the body and warms the soul in a beautiful fire side setting, we will engage with a few fun Samhain customs and traditions to make for a slightly spooky and entirely enchanting evening together.
What’s on the Menu for our Samhain supper club
To begin:
Magical mushroom canapés and welcome drink
Apple, sage and potato soup, topped with a crunchy hazelnut and oat crumb.
The main event:
Whole stuffed pumpkin, served with a pear and pomegranate salad and a raspberry dressing
For the sweet tooths:
Plum fig and rosemary galette, served with whipped cream
For afters:
We will close the evening around the fire with soul cakes, rosemary tea, sparklers and intention setting for the new cycle ahead.
Venue ::: Mother of the Woods
The retreat is held at a beautiful, spacious Georgian Hall nestled in 2.5 acres of ancient trees and wild meadows, in the rolling hills of Co Down.
Located on a small townland just outside of Belfast called Cargacreevy which translate from old Irish ‘Carraig na craoibhe’ as ‘Rock of the great tree’. Trees were sacred to the ancient ancestors and central to Celtic mythology and spirituality, and rocks were often gathering places for worship, which makes this old townland quite special.
The full address will be sent out upon booking but in terms of you locating yourself, the venue is an 8 minute drive from the M1 Saintfield Road roundabout, 20 minutes outside Belfast city centre, 10 minutes from Saintfield/Ballynahinch.
This experience will be deeply nourishing.
We will harness the energies available in the natural world at the time of Samhain in the Celtic Wheel so that you may recalibrate and refuel for the months ahead as the year slowly begins to fade.
About your host Emma Rose Lowe
Essential Nature Yoga and founder of the Celtic School of Sacred Arts
Emma is a Fertility, Sex and Pleasure Coach, Celtic Wisdom expert, Senior Tantra Yoga Teacher and Ceremonialist.
Emma has supported thousands of women to tap into their own, innate healing power, pleasure and inner authority. She uses ancient Tantric and Celtic practices validated by science to help you restore and remember your body's wisdom, natural rhythm and wild nature.
Join Between the Veils, Samhain Retreat, Sunday 29th October. £97 pp
Spaces are limited to 14 people for this event.
Please note, if you are joining or are a current participant on Belonging, the Celtic Wisdom program, there is a private Samhain event for you to join.