The Great Escape - 5 reasons to celebrate the Winter Solstice with us on Dec 22 at Orlagh House in the heart of the Dublin Mountains

“Winter Solstice is the death or passing away of the old pattern of the year, the old pattern of the sun, old habits, old structures…. and the coming of the new patterns, the new sun , the new possibilities. If you relive the myth at this time you tend to forget your profane condition - the habituations and narrowing of everyday life- and enter for a while into a much larger universe , a larger and truer ecology of being.”

Jean Heuston

The Search for the Beloved, Journeys in Mythology and Sacred Psychology

Dear Friends

As we approach the deep midwinter I felt the pull to share our why we are excited around our forthcoming Winter Solstice Gathering on Dec 22 at Orlagh House in the Dublin Mountains.

The Tale of Christmas present

This is time of year that can herald overwhelm and exhaustion. We are being colonised by commercial campaigns from Black Friday Sales to the John Lewis Christmas Ad. The season of advent means big business. When researching her film The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard discovered that, of the materials flowing through the consumer economy, only 1% remain in use six months after sale. As the environmentalist and author George Monbiot has powerfully argued, Christmas has now become a bizarre and overwhelming ritual of consumerism and insatiable desires. It’s a challenge to find any peace or goodwill amidst this invasion of our senses….

The Tale of Christmas past

The actual reasons for celebrating Christmas have long been debated. Five thousand years ago, ancient Egyptians celebrated the rebirth of the sun at this time of year. They set the length of the festival at 12 days, to reflect the 12 divisions in their sun calendar. There are several mythic narratives or story cycles that involve the Wheel of the Year. Some focus on the transformation of the Goddess – at Samhain she is Wise Crone, the Winter Hag who descends to the underworld. There she grows young and is impregnated with the new Sun which she will give birth to at Yule. Links have often been drawn to the Winter Solstice and the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Some people have also associated it with the birthday of the god Sol Invictus , the unconquered sun. This concept took firm root in many cultures and in 567 AD, Christians adopted it. Church leaders proclaimed the 12 days from December 25 to Epiphany as a sacred, festive season.

Our own ancestors had a life-affirming, mystical way of viewing and living life, in tune with the forces of Nature and magic. They celebrated the Winter Solstice thousands of years ago at Newgrange, a huge Stone Age megalithic monument that predates the great pyramids at Giza in Egypt by some 500 years and Stonehenge by about 1,000 years. The passage and chamber of Newgrange are illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. The light illuminates a stone basin below intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar discs. Marking the solstice was obviously of tremendous spiritual importance to our ancestors. The late great John Moriarty once said he had difficulty with

" the people walking into Newgrange the way they'd walk into a bank or a post office or the Dail. Newgrange is a wonderful mystery enacting itself but I'm not sure we know how to inherit it".

The Tale of Christmas Future?

Our Winter Solstice gathering is an exploration of how we can weave our inheritance into our future. The moment of solstice or any turning point in nature provides possibility for change and transformation. We have planed a great escape to Orlagh House in the heart of the Dublin Mountains dedicated to the exploration of stillness, wonder and the numinous. Just as the cycles of nature mirror what is going on deep in our psyches, our invitation is to join us to retreat, rewild and return to our senses. We have created a range of beautiful immersive experiences and rituals and that will help you reconnect with yourself, each other and wild world we live in. We would love you to join us at our Winter Solstice gathering to celebrate the past, evolve the present and change the future. Here are 5 reasons why …

1. Celebrate the Wheel of the Year

Yule (The Winter Solstice) is the second festival of the Wheel of the year. Coming into alignment with the true patterns and energies of the season and cycles brings us into greater harmony, balance and peace within ourselves and the world around us. Yule signifies the darkest time and also the rebirth: a time of silent renewal. As the Wheel turns we invite you to take time for contemplation. This is an opportunity to gain clarity on all that’s come to pass as the year culminates and lends itself to setting our intentions for the year ahead.

We will mark this turn of the wheel in our opening and closing ceremonies.

2. Celebrate the power of slow

Time goes by so fast so we are inviting you to rest and move slowly. At the solstice the sun appears to stand still in the sky so we want to take time to remind ourselves of the stillness within .This seasonal pivot has a natural power we can harness. We will celebrate the turn of the wheel by marking the still point of the Winter Solstice.

We will host a range of relaxing experiences like sound healing, yoga nidra, meditation and essential oils to help you to drop in deep.

3. Celebrate the return of the light

This season, more than any other, reminds us that from the darkness comes light. Winter makes evident that without periods of dormancy, there can be no renewal. It’s a potent teacher of the cycle of life, death and rebirth. The winter solstice honours the healing powers of the dark as it also marks the rebirth of the sun and the return of light and life.

You will experience different practices like body movement, breath work and visualisation to help you locate and expand your inner light.

4. Celebrate the call of the wild

We will align ourselves with the core characteristics of the season and allow movement to give way to stillness for a time so that we can see and understand the potential that lies within. We are reminded of the seeds burrowed into the frozen ground whose job it is to gather strength for the journey towards its blossoming in the spring. Like everything else in the natural world, we too are called to use this time to shore up our reserves in preparation for our own future flourishing.

We will include some elemental rewilding practices to honour the cyclical rhythms of Mother Nature.

5. Celebrate the ties that bind

This is a time of year to mark friendship, community and connection. The Winter Solstice is also a time to rejoice and awaken the irreverent spirit of pleasure so we might amplify it with the growing light of the sun. This is a time to be with people you love.

We will gather the tribes at Orlagh House and sit by blazing fires to enjoy mulled wine, a seasonal feast prepared by Natasha of The Vegan Kitchen and followed by an intimate music gig from I have a Tribe and Anna Mieke.

Solstice is a collective experience set at Orlagh House on a beautiful country estate with panoramic views across the Dublin Mountains and the Irish Sea. In the darkest part of the year when the days are shortest, Nature asks us humans to pause, draw inward and connect with our own still point. Amidst acres of winter wonderland we intend to unwind and attune to the rhythms of the natural world. We will be nourished by delicious warming foods, hot spiced drinks, candlelight rituals and blazing fires under the roof of our favourite rambling Georgian mansion.

Our informal faculty includes Anna Mieke {Musician & Songwriter}, Carol McInerney {Movement therapist & Dance Teacher}, Chloe McHugh {Sonas Sound Therapy}, Diarmuid Lyng {Father, Hurler, Campaigner), Laura Murphy {Artist & Creator of IMBAS}, Patrick O'Laoghaire {Artist & Musician} Siobhan de Paor {Poet, Activist & Performance Artist}

If you are feeling a call to adventure to celebrate the winter Solstice and reclaim your wild soul then this is for you….

Some Winter Solstice Experiences in store for you…..

· Wilderness Workshops

· Earth Medicine Practices

· Conversation + Storysharing

· Movement Sessions

· Sound Baths

· Yoga Nidra

· Healing Visualisations

· Live Music Performance

· Fire Ceremony Ritual

· Acoustic Meditation