Iona Pilgrimage
This island set apart, this motherland of many dreams still yields its secret, but it is only as men seek that they truly find. To reach the heart of Iona is to find something eternal.
A few places in the world are to be held holy, because of the love which consecrates them and the faith which enshrines them. Their names are themselves talismans of spiritual beauty. Of these is Iona.
Fiona Macleod
Please allow me to tell you about an upcoming pilgrimage I am offering! In April we are headed out on a transformative pilgrimage to Iona. It is designed especially for women who wish to reconnect with their true selves and the sacred feminine. Whether you are a woman that has given all of yourself to your family or your career and are aching for space to reconnect to self, this pilgrimage is made for you. This journey to the mystical isle of Iona offers a unique opportunity to rest, heal, and rediscover the divine within through the sacred landscape of this ancient and spiritual land.
I have so much I could say about the significance of this pilgrimage that I could likely write a short book. I won’t, but I do hope to give those that are interested a little idea of her history and what we will be doing there.
Iona is a small isle made of the world’s oldest rock, Lewisian Gneiss—the same stone as the otherworldly and ancient Callanish Stone Circle. Pink, black, and grays with crystal moving throughout. She truly is a mother land.
This is an isle where moss and crystal weave together.
Known as the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland, Iona is also believed to have been home to Druidic mystery schools long before Christianity arrived. It is the burial place of 60 kings, including Macbeth, and the island where the Book of Kells was created. Legend even says that Mary, mother of Jesus, journeyed here.
Steeped in significant history that not many know, Iona has become a place of pilgrimage for Christians, Pagans, and Druids who all feel drawn to its unique energy.
One could ask if Iona’s atmosphere is due to centuries of prayer or if centuries of prayer are due to it’s atmosphere.
Iona is place of new beginnings. A place of healing. A place of rest.
It is said that Iona was once filled with stone circles and that it was a center for Druids long before Christianity reached its shores. Iona’s Gaelic name was Isla na Druidhneach – Isle of the Druids. If they once existed, there isn’t much trace of megalithic structures now, but this may indicate that the island itself was considered sacred.
In 83 CE, Demetrius of Tarsus went on a mission for the Roman Emperor to draw a map of the north of Scotland. Demetrius told Plutarch that while sailing around the coast he had discovered an island that was a retreat for holy men who were considered inviolate by the local people. Some scholars believe this island was Iona and the date pre-dates Christianity.
There is a legend that Mary the mother of Jesus visited the island. There is also reason some believe that Mary Magdalene traveled there. Some say she lived out the remainder of her days in France but there is legend that she is actually buried on Iona. Something I will undoubtedly share more about.
Author William Sharp, writing as Fiona Macleod mentioned the prophesy of the second coming of Christ in 1910:
“When I think of Iona I think often, too, of a prophecy once connected with Iona…the old prophecy that Christ shall come again upon Iona, and of that later and obscure prophecy which foretells, now as the Bride of Christ, now as the Daughter of God, now as the Divine Spirit embodied through mortal birth in a Woman, as once through mortal birth in a man, the coming of a new Presence and Power: and dream that this may be upon Iona, so that the little Gaelic island may become as the little Syrian Bethlehem…. A young Hebridean priest once told me how, ‘as our forefathers and elders believed and still believe, that Holy Spirit shall come again which once was mortally born among us as the Son of God, but, then, shall be the Daughter of God. The Divine Spirit shall come again as a Woman. Then for the first time, the world will know peace’.”
The prophecy is that Christ will embody again on Iona, in a woman’s body.
Columba and Celtic Christianity
By the sixth century, the Druids had left, and the Christian missionary Columba (Columcille) arrived from Ireland with 12 companions. He had taken the name Columba, Latin for dove, as a religious name, preferring it to the one given at birth—Crimthann, Gaelic for fox. Interestingly, the dove is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit or Sophia, sacred feminine wisdom. His Ionian monks produced the famous Book of Kells.
There are endless tales about Columba, and he seems to be quite polarizing. Some see him as a saint, while others view him in a more complex light. His legacy is a tapestry of contrasting narratives, reflecting his multifaceted personality and the profound impact he had on those around him.
For some, Columba is revered as a holy man, a beacon of faith and spirituality who brought Christianity to the Scottish Isles. His miracles, devotion, and the monastic community he founded on Iona are celebrated as testaments to his sanctity and divine inspiration.
However, others perceive Columba through a more critical lens. They acknowledge his piety but also highlight his fiery temper and the controversies he was involved in, such as the Battle of Cúl Drebene. These stories paint a picture of a passionate, sometimes contentious figure whose journey was as tumultuous as it was devout to Christ’s message.
A year ago, I had the immense privilege of sitting with one of the oldest seanachi storytellers, a man whose memory is sharper than someone a quarter of his age. When I asked him about Iona, he told me how Columba had visited Iona long before settling there years later. Columba, grandson to an Irish king, had likely visited the Druidic mystery schools on Iona in his earlier years. This is why he returned when he was exiled from Ireland—he knew her magic.
At the end of the day, Columba started the monastic settlement on Iona, a sacred place that continues to be a site of pilgrimage and spiritual renewal. His influence endures through the ages, inspiring countless individuals to seek a deeper connection with the divine and the sacred landscape of Iona.
Our Pilgrimage
Traveling to Iona is partly a journey to the light, for as you travel west towards the isles, the quality of light changes – becoming translucid, more heavenly, and less earthly.
Isle of Iona, has also been known as Ì nam ban bòidheach, 'the isle of beautiful women.' It’s name originally meant something like, 'yew-place.' The Yew, for druids represented the divine feminine. The Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess. Yew wood was regarded as especially magical to the Celts, due to its connection with the ancestors. When it was called the Isle of Druids, when it was The Isle of Beautiful Women, and when a small island near Iona was named the Isle of Women is something we will explore.
While we are on Iona, we will immerse ourselves in her unique energy, allowing the land to teach us. We will sing, walk, and discuss sacred space. We will journal, participate in gentle activities, and jump into the sea. We will climb to the Well of Youth, visit the isle of Staffa, and break bread together. We'll craft, sit with a seanachi storyteller, experience a soundbath, and have a photoshoot to capture our true essence.
If you feel the call of Iona, then answer that call and make the journey to her. She is like a very old Crone, rocky and barren and eternally loving and gentle and tough and wise. She is very old. She is very holy.
There is no other place on earth quite like Iona.
Like all Shamballah places, Iona shall always be.
Iona is a Grail-lit Isle. Iona is deathless.
On Iona one finds the Rainbow which bridges Heaven and Earth.-Philip Carr-Gomm
Early bird pricing ends in a couple of weeks because accommodation books up fast on this little island. If you feel the call, please visit my website for more information and send me an email! I would love to talk to you more about it. Besides my children, I honestly don’t know if there is anything I feel more passion for. Taking women to sacred lands and above all else - Iona - is a heart calling.
For a reason still unknown to me, I feel bound to this isle and she has been telling me to bring you.
-amanda