Celtic Wholeness

East & West, Head & Heart, Male & Female, Solitude & Community

with Kayleen Asbo

Celtic Christianity emerged as the joyous union between the deep nature wisdom of the Druids and the rhythm of prayer life and scriptural study brought from Egypt and France through the Desert Fathers and Mothers.

Influenced by John Cassian, nurtured by Saint Brigid of Kildare, St. Columba and many other early Celtic saints in the 5th and 6th centuries, Celtic spirituality offered a pathway of spiritual development. Its goal? Finding harmony, union, and attunement with the Divine.

Through practices that wove together solitude and community, head and heart, body and spirit, art and science, the Celts passionately pursued wisdom and beauty.

In this talk that will open the year-long series, Dr. Kayleen Asbo will follow the "blessing thread" of Celtic Spirituality as she traces the evolution of a story that has so much to offer the modern seeker. It  beckons us to wholeness and healing not only through what we think, but in the practices we can share together-- of music, art making, silent contemplation, intimacy with nature, reverence of ancestors and pilgrimage.

Celtic Prayer

Ritual, Rhythm, and Contemplation

with Esther de Waal

If you’ve dabbled in earthy spirituality before, you’ve seen her footnoted in every Celtic book.

If not, you’re in for a treat!

Esther de Waal, who has been called the “mother of the Celtic revival” - is joining us LIVE this Saturday for an exclusive masterclass!

Born in the Welsh borderlands, Esther has dedicated her life to unlocking the mysterious world of the Celts for the rest of us.

This weekend, Esther will immerse us in the world of Celtic prayer.

Contemplative and embodied, Celtic prayer is everything we need right now.

Join us to learn:

•  How to use rhythm and ritual to live in divine presence
•  The often misunderstood role of blessings in the Celtic life
•  The secrets hidden in the Celtic cross
•  What Celtic monks can teach you about being contemplative and active 
•  3 ways Celts sanctified the passing of time (and how you can too!)
•  How to turn your daily activities into a liturgy

Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to learn from one of the most renowned scholars in the Celtic world and deepen your spiritual life. 

Celtic Friendship

Anamchara, Hospitality, and Vulnerability

with Edward Sellner

Have you ever longed to feel truly seen? To have a friend who knew your depths, your desires, your fears - and could challenge you in your spiritual path?

You might be looking for an anamchara, a soul friend.

Saint Bridget was known to say "Anyone without a soul friend is like a body without a head." Like all Celtic Christians, Bridget knew that relationships were central to spiritual growth. In fact, if you didn’t have a soul friend, she might consider you spiritually dead, as no one can survive without a head!

Join us for a heartful masterclass where you will learn: 

• Why we need soul friends
• What it means to walk with someone through suffering 
• 3 Surprising places you can find a soul friend
• How to have a spiritually enriching relationship with animals 
• The unexpected role Egyptian hermits played in the Celtic world (over 2,500 miles away!)
• Stories of soul friendships, from Saint Patrick to the modern day!

Leading the class will be the anamchara expert, Edward Sellner. Professor Emeritus of theology, Edward has written more books on soul friendship than anyone in the field. We can’t wait to hear his wisdom and insight!

Don’t miss this exclusive class - come learn how to be a soul friend, and how to find someone who can truly see you.

Celtic Communities

Monks, Foreigners, and Eastern Roots

with Carl McColman

Monasticism in the Celtic world was a little wild, by modern standards.

Because the Celtic lands were so rural, people weren’t organized in towns and parishes like the rest of the European continent.

Instead, they were in small villages often centered around a monastery.

Monks took on the role that druids used to play: poets, scholars, wise men, storytellers, advisors.

And the monasteries became centers of learning, of family life, daily prayer, welcoming strangers, and much more.

The most surprising part? They learned much of this from Africa!

Join us for an unexpected masterclass about monasticism, and the pivotal role it played in the Celtic world.

We’ll learn about monks that went on wild adventures, hermits on untamed islands, and powerful women who were abbesses of both men and women.

… many of them becoming the stuff of legend, blurring myth and reality.

Our storyteller and teacher for the day will be the great Carl McColman!

For those of you who don't know, Carl is a popular contemplative teacher and author of many books on mysticism, Cistercian spirituality, and the Celtic tradition.

A passionate scholar, Carl’s classes are a dynamic blend of storytelling and contemplative wisdom. Not unlike those ancient Celtic monks!

Join us for this never before seen class to learn how you, too, can tap into the wild, sacred wisdom of the Celtic monks.

Celtic Mysticism

Thin Spaces, the Wild Goose, and Listening for the Heartbeat of God

with Kelly Deutsch

Mysticism invites us to live in liminal spaces. It reveals the untamed magic of borderlands: those spaces between the already but not yet, the here and hereafter, the tensile moments between life and death, what was and what will be.

The Celts called these borderlands “thin places.” Places where the veil between heaven and earth seemed tissue-thin. And while they venerated certain oak groves, seasons, and islands as “thin,” the Celts also knew that if we looked with the eyes of faith, everything was sacred.

We invite you to enter into this enchanted world, where the Spirit roamed wild and free! Join contemplative teacher Kelly Deutsch to learn how to see like the Celts did, and to explore:

•  The role of longing in Celtic spirituality - and how your own longing can draw you closer to the divine
•  The 3 kinds of Thin Places, and where you can discover them in your own life
•  How the enchantment of the world - seeing the Sacred sparkling from every stone and sycamore - will help you live in divine presence
•  The 3 things Celtic Spirituality has in common with most indigenous traditions (and one important difference)
•  How the Celtic name for the Spirit, the Wild Goose, reveals a critical part of mysticism

Through this masterclass, you’ll discover the Holy peeking out from all sorts of unexpected places.

Celtic Creativity

Contemplation's Forgotten Mother

with Tessa Bielecki

Are you hungry to dive deeper in your spiritual life? Eager to incorporate your body and the body of the Earth in your prayer? Perhaps curious about what it means to be a contemplative in the world?

Look no further than our upcoming workshop on the contemplative life!

Tessa Bielecki, a hermit and former Abbess, will be leading us through the ravishing landscapes of the interior life. Blending her Celtic roots and Carmelite formation with her decades of living in the wilderness, Tessa will guide us to the heart of divine intimacy - and offer us some tangible practices for living our spirituality in our bodies.

Join Tessa for a LIVE masterclass where you’ll discover:

• The forgotten mother of the contemplative life —and why you need her, too!
• Creative practices you can immediately use to connect with the Earth and her creatures
• Why greening your spirituality is more important now than ever
• How to resolve the controversy over what it means to be a contemplative
• The two spiritual practices Tessa recommends for a richer interior life
• Stories from Ireland that will turn your idea of Irish stoicism on its head!

Whether you're an experienced contemplative or just starting out, this class has something to offer. Tessa’s passionate wisdom has been called both “prophetic” and “a rollicking good time!” 

Celtic Landscape

Eco-Spirituality: Learning from the Land You're In

with Victoria Loorz

Sacred relationship with the land, waters and all creatures is a worldview and a practice deeply rooted in the Celtic tradition. And one that is desperately needed at this time of ecological and cultural unraveling. This session offers grounding to help remember and integrate the mystical, earth-honoring spiritual practices of our ancestors. These re-enchanting practices are needed to restore our culture's severed relationship with the rest of the alive and holy world.

Restoring intimate relationship with the whole holy earth also acts as a portal into a spiritual depth, a way of opening our eyes to see and hearts to sense the sacred flowing through and between all beings. Connect with a love that literally holds the world together—a love that calls us into communion with all creatures.

Celtic Streams

Saint Francis, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Holiness of the World

with Ilia Delio

Saint Francis, Teilhard de Chardin, and Celtic spirituality have a lot in common.

But did you know that there is a direct link to their influence upon each other?

Join the highly sought-after Sister Ilia Delio for a masterclass uncovering the Celtic threads through time! From Francis’s choir of birds to Teilhard’s cosmic mass offered upon the steppes of China, you’ll discover:

• How a thrust toward union is knit into the fabric of the cosmos
• How animals experience God
• How to discover “at-homeness” in your body
• The one “stance” nature teaches us that is essential for contemplation 
• The Celtic practice for opening to the beauty all around us
• Settle the controversy once and for all between theology vs. personal experience
• Where Francis was steeped in the Celtic tradition, forming the basis of his celebration of nature 
• Why the spiritual life of Earth, the ants, atoms and galaxies are critical to our own spiritual lives

Join us to learn how to weave these Celtic threads into your own life.

Celtic Wanderlust

Pilgrimage and Sacred Ferality

with Nick Mayhew Smith

Pushing deep into the marginal places of the landscape, doing battle with the very elements themselves, Celtic Christians placed a unique importance on wrestling with and reconciling themselves to power of the natural world. Leading missionaries such as St Columba and St Cuthbert spent almost as much time negotiating with wild animals and praying over the stormy seas as they did talking to the people they were seeking to convert!

In this fully illustrated talk, Nick Mayhew-Smith retraces some of their amazing journeys, exploring wild shores, dark hermit caves and lonely mountaintops, revealing places that are remote even today, places where Celtic mystery still lingers, where ancient rituals still resonate.

Early Christianity in Britain and Ireland promoted an intense and ultimately harmonious relationship between humans and the rest of God’s creation, in ways that give particular food for thought today as we contemplate the scars of our wounded planet.

Celtic & the Jungian Soul

Dreams, Myth, and the Hero’s Journey

with Sharon Blackie

What does Jungian thought have to do with ancient Celtic spirituality?

More than you might think!

Carl Jung is known for pioneering that powerful intersection between spirituality and psychology. From shadow work to archetypes, dreamwork to the collective unconscious, his discoveries propelled the advancement of interior development.

But did you know that Jung–the 20th century father of depth psychology–shared many similarities with an ancient spirituality?

Join the award-winning author of Women Rose Rooted for a masterclass where you’ll explore the parallels between Jungian thought and the timeless wisdom of the Celts!

In this never-before-seen class, you’ll learn:

• How the Celtic Otherworld relates to ancient concepts from Sufism
• Why pre-Biblical mythologies can enrich our lives today
• The dangers of ignoring the collective unconscious–and what we can do to prevent that  
• Why it’s important to pay attention to the characters that resonate with you–and how they can contribute to your spiritual growth
• Why your imagination plays a critical role in a contemplative lifestyle

PLUS practical methods to access the mythic imagination within you!

Celtic Feminine

Brigid and the Sacred Feminine

with Rita Minnehan and Phil O'Shea

Unleash the Sacred Feminine with St. Brigid!  

Saint Brigid may hold the secret to saving the Earth–and one another.

Named after the Celtic goddess, born to a Christian mother, and one of the few abbesses who ruled over both men and women–Brigid defied conventions throughout her lifetime.

As the world yearns for more of the Sacred Feminine - a presence that makes space for all peoples and species - Brigid’s secret is more urgent than ever.

Come meet the “flesh and blood” woman behind the legend! This masterclass will be taught by the current keepers of the flame of Saint Brigid, a ritual role that has been maintained in Kildaire for thousands of years! 

Join hundreds of fellow seekers across the globe to learn:

• How Brigid became the most powerful woman in Irish history
• How Brigid’s tenderness and defiance shattered the barriers that confined her contemporaries–and how we can live these qualities today
• What Brigid can teach us about inclusivity, feminine strength, and healing
• The covered up story of Brigid being installed as the first female bishop (?!)
• What Brigid’s care for animals reveals about our responsibility for all of Earth’s creatures
• How Brigid embodies the Sacred Feminine, from young bride to mother to wise woman–and how you can too (no matter your gender!)

Brigid blazed a trail through the annals of Irish history. Join us to discover her secret to incarnating the Sacred Feminine: a presence that is tender, defiant, and everything our world needs.

Celtic Imagination

The Enchantment of the World

with John Philip Newell

“Wholeness consists of coming back into relationship with what is deepest in all things;

that is, the of-Godness at the heart of the earth and all life forms and all people.”

— John Philip Newell
Internationally acclaimed scholar of Celtic spirituality

As we grieve the violence done to our planet, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

But what if there were tangible actions you could make to restore this rift?

Beyond recycling, diet changes, and advocacy, what kind of interior changes can we make that can help us make the shift to healing?

In this masterclass, we invite you to imagine a new way of being.

Taking cues from the nature-loving Celts, you’ll be immersed in a world brimming with relationships. Oneness. Communion.

The Celts knew every chickadee and chestnut was bustling with divine presence. And they knew that humans are not lords over these lands, but a part of them.

Come knit your soul back into the soil in this exclusive class with award-winning Celtic teacher John Philip Newell.

Together we’ll learn: 

• The one radical shift that must occur if we are to heal the planet–and ourselves
• The Celtic method of listening to the trees, waters, and animals
• Why the way we treat the marginalized guides the way we treat the land and waters
• 2 practices you can do today to contribute to the healing of Earth's sacred community. 
• How an intimate relationship with the earth acts as a portal into spiritual depth

As the wisdom of the Talmud reminds us: 

“Do not be daunted by the insurmountability of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work but neither are you free to abandon it.”