The wild west coast of Ireland provides a perfect background for this week-long exploration of our inner landscape using SoulCollage® as creative expression and the labyrinth to ground, integrate and deepen our experiences. Our retreat home for the week overlooks magnificent Clew Bay and Ireland’s holy mountain, Croagh Patrick.
Our time in this beautiful part of the world will offer experiences to explore both inner and outer landscapes, each informing and deepening our experience of the other. We are always most alive at our growing edge, the place where possibility resides, and our daily explorations of the Irish landscape will mirror this in the SoulCollage® cards we make.
This is an opportunity to reconnect to your wild soul, the part of you that longs to express itself and offer its unique voice to the world.
Our time in the studio will include creating your own collage finger labyrinth and how to add the energy of the labyrinth to your SoulCollage® cards, as well as a number of fun and easy mixed media techniques to add deeper meaning to your SoulCollage® cards.
“Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are.”
Ireland is a land where the imagination is alive. It is home to poets and fairies, to storytellers and legends. We will allow these energies to percolate and seep into the creative cauldron of possibility we create together.
Ritual and contemplation will connect us to the mystical energy of place as we walk the labyrinth made of ancient stones at Essence of Mulranny, our retreat home for the week, and as we explore Achill Island and walk a temporary labyrinth we will create on the beach (tides and weather permitting).
“At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons ...”
In addition to our studio days, our week together includes a day trip to Achill Island, a half day trip to local attractions including the town of Westport, and time in the little village of Mulranny. We will be visiting enchanting villages, strolling along the beautiful coastline, touring ancient castles and ruins, picnicking in the heather fields and gathering creative inspiration from the outer landscape.
Our studio days will include contemplative time in the landscape surrounding the studio, walking the stone labyrinth on the grounds of Essence of Mulranny, making SoulCollage® cards for the archetypal earth elements around us, creating a collage labyrinth, experiencing finger labyrinth meditations, creating a portable altar to use with our cards, and mining our SoulCollage® cards for their wisdom.
Let the mystery and beauty of this beautiful landscape awaken your senses and your soul. This unspoiled land provides a safe place of inspiration and experimentation to stretch yourself to your growing edges. The varied elements of ocean edge, mountain tops, grasslands, bog and heather hills will enchant and inspire you.
“Art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, in the eye of the storm…”
The Irish landscape calls us to find this inner stillness in the midst of the confusion in the outer world. The SoulCollage® cards we make guide us towards finding our inner peace, and the labyrinth can allow us to integrate these ways of seeing the world through new eyes.
INCLUDED IN THE RETREAT:
Workshop instruction and supplies for making SoulCollage® cards, including your own book of images created specially for this retreat
Seven nights lodging and all meals except for one lunch and one dinner
Transportation from Westport to the Studio (it is recommended to fly into Dublin airport and get a train to Westport where you will be met and transported to Mulranny)
All tour and excursion fees
NOT INCLUDED IN THE RETREAT:
Airfare and travel costs
Passport fees, photos and processing where applicable
Additional nights lodging
GETTING TO THE RETREAT CENTER
The retreat hosts will collect you at the Westport Train Station at 4pm on Saturday, May 4th and drive you to Mulranny, which is about 30 minutes from Westport. Our hosts are eager to assist you with any travel questions you may have. Email lora@essenceofmulranny.com with any questions.
Our wonderful host at Essence of Mulranny, Lora Murphy, walking the labyrinth
COST OF RETREAT
$3,295 for a private bedroom with shared bathroom
$3,950 for a private bedroom and bathroom
This workshop serves as a Qualifying Workshop for anyone who might decide to attend a Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator Training in the future. No previous experience of either the labyrinth or SoulCollage® is required to attend.