Betwixt and Between

Like the moth to the street light, I am always drawn to liminal places. Threshold places which are betwixt and between, neither here nor there.

The Keening Woman Retreat takes place on an island also known as the Isle of the Big Women - a place of myth and mystery, sitting in a threshold place between sky and sea at the wild edge of Europe.

The Eye of the Cailleach

Inspired by the keening woman, who in her role of bringing the community through the transformation within their grief, engaged with the Otherworld as she guided the soul of the dead home.

We too will step into liminal places - crawling through the Eye of the Cailleach (above), and gathering in the womb-like space of the cave.

The Massacre Cave

The island's mystical landscape offers a mirror for a journey of self-reflection, unresolved issues can gently bubble to the surface, being held by the land soothes both mind and body and can facilitate clarity and healing.

There is a power in these threshold places to offer transformation and in this week together we will dance between the worlds, honor our grief in a keening circle and small gestures of ritual speak to the things we haven’t yet got words for.

Each day will offer a new opportunity to engage with the land, and long lingering twilights will naturally draw you into a thing place, not quite day and not quite night.

At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds: to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.
— John O'Donohue. To Bless the Space Between Us

The liminality of the threshold places on the island provide a rich soil which for a new growth of creativity, sprouting new ideas, perspectives and possibilities.

Come join us for a transformational week, rooted in stories of the Ancestral Mothers and inspired by the creativity of the Keening Woman.