Ireland: Into The Mystery

Ireland: Into the Mystery

“Is there an odyssey the female soul longs to make at the approach of fifty [sixty, seventy]—one that has been blurred and lost within a culture awesomely alienated from soul? If so, what sort of journey would that be?  Where would it take me?”

~Traveling with Pomegranates, Sue Monk Kidd

It was two years ago when Margaret Jones and I looked at each other and said, “Let’s do this. Let’s join forces and take a group of women to Ireland.” Margaret had been there several times. Me, never. She was good to take me on. We had planned to kick this off last year, but life had other plans, so 2025 became the year. We just got back a week ago Friday, and it was a magical trip. I’d like to try to explain why it turned out that way for me. Frankly, I’m still processing it and will be for a while, but I’ll share my initial thoughts with you.

There were ten of us traveling, along with our exceptional driver/guide, Edel from ei travelgroup. Of course, everyone will have a different perspective on the trip, but I’m sure each one would agree that the journey was extraordinary. Here are my thoughts.

Margaret and I knew from the start that we wanted to structure the trip around the framework of the Heroine’s Journey, an ancient archetype from stories dating back to 1500 B.C. that storytellers used (and still use) to chart the development of their characters. There is a three-part arc —preparation, transformation, and return — that guides the storytelling. This journey takes a character (or a real-life person!) from their ordinary life, through an unknown landscape filled with challenges and surprises, both good and bad, and then sends them home—the return—with newfound knowledge and insight.

All of that occurred, and we were most definitely real people, real heroines enacting the story structure in real time. We were intentional in our planning. We wanted them to see themselves within this ancient framework, and we took them to ancient places. Here’s the introduction to our itinerary. Everyone received a copy at Logan Airport, at the gate. 

June 2, 2025 – Tuesday, Logan Airport

THE HEROINE’S JOURNEY (HJ):  The Call to Adventure
The Journey starts with a Call. This may take many forms, but basically, it’s inviting the initiate, the Heroine, to her adventure. We all have many calls in our lives, as we have many journeys.

How did your Call come to you to take this journey?

We were all called to take this trip. Starting with Margaret and me, we signed up. How many decisions did each of us make that led us to say, “Yes,” to our call, bringing us together at Legal Seafood for our first group meal? We all hailed from New England, but most of us were strangers to one another at the start.

We invited people to explore both their inner and outer selves. This was not a typical sightseeing tour. It was a curated experience for women to connect with the sacred feminine in Ireland and in themselves.

THE HJ:  Departure – The First Threshold – Monday Night, June 2

The Crossing of the First Threshold (with guardians, helpers, and mentor)
This is the jumping-off point - the interface between the known and the unknown.  Different beings can appear at the Threshold and beyond, like mentors and threshold guardians.

Tonight, we’re off on a journey involving suitcases, tickets, planes, vans, walking, new discoveries. We’ll be building community with new friends – and immersing ourselves in the culture and beauty of another country. This is what we expect.

But what about the unexpected? We are aware of the familiar phases of any journey. The leaving home, the travel, the return. But what about the inner phases – the leaving, the adventure, and the return home? What is this journey about for you on the inside? What will it reveal within you?

We reminded them that they’d be existing for a while in the “in between” and that they had crossed a real threshold as they gathered at the airport. They were no longer in their “ordinary life,” otherwise known as their “comfort zone.”

The Latin word limen means “threshold” and from this we get the word “liminality”. It means “in between” and on a journey, we are in an in-between time. We’ve left where we were (Ordinary Life) and we’re out on the road until we return home.

We’re in a liminal time – together.

Here’s what Jean Shinoda Bolen writes about liminal times in her book Crossing to Avalon:

“During liminal times, we often become aware of synchronicity, a word coined by C.G. Jung to describe coincidences between our inner subjective world and outer events. /Synchronicities such as the uncanny and timely appearance of a significant person or opportunity are often choice bringers. Will we respond? And if we do, will it usher in a new phase of our lives? “

What synchronicities will show up for you, dear traveler?

Consider the timing of the opportunity to take this trip. At another time you might have passed on this call to adventure, but you did respond and here you are. You answered a Call.

They received an assignment. Those of you who have worked with me know, there’s always an assignment. Here it is:

The Assignment: (To be read on the plane)

What will be your inner journey as you traverse the stunning Irish landscape?  You’re about to find out! We’re asking you to track it. Not in a travel diary kind of way, but in a “moments” way. Things will stand out for you. You’ll notice. We’d like you to write down what you notice.

We gave them the intention—notice! And did they ever!

As we travel, Margaret will call your attention to the sights, the history, the stories that go with the locations we visit. But what will catch your eye? What will attract your attention?

You are collecting data – data that speaks to your soul as we go from day to day. Margaret talks about the land, speaking to you – what “words” did you hear from the landscape?

At the end of the trip, we’ll ask you to review and share (if you want) your findings and observations, such as “I noticed a lot about nature; or about people,” or perhaps you noted the feelings you experienced from things. You’ll identify the themes that emerged for you when you review and share what you collected. Alternatively, you may just share some of your observations. 

The Journey will have lots of messages for you. Listen!

We didn’t wait until the end of the trip. Almost every day, we were asking, what have you noticed? And their observations were rich and varied, and sometimes they noted very similar things. I can only report on what I noticed, but this task of being a witness made me think of physics, of all things. (I rarely think of physics!)

I proceeded to look up what it’s called when matter reacts to a person witnessing it. I knew I had read about this. I found a blog article written by Susan Borowski for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, https://www.aaas.org/taxonomy/term/10/quantum-mechanics-and-consciousness-connection.

She explains: “There is a theory in physics, ‘the observer effect’ that states that the process of observing a particle changes the way the particle behaves.” I was experiencing moments of synchronicity. Was this the “observer effect?”

Borowski continues, “Many who believe that consciousness creates and manipulates matter believe that the "Law of Attraction" can be explained by quantum mechanics. The crux of the Law of Attraction is that whatever a person focuses on will be brought into that person's existence, because the thought becomes directed energy which attracts those things upon which the mind is focused. If a person focuses on the negative in life, more negative will come. If a person focuses on the positive, more positive experiences will come. In short, ‘You bring about what you think about.’”

Maybe you know where I’m going with this, but I can tell you, we were focused, as a group, all 10 of us, 11 if you count the wonderful Edel, on finding spiritual meaning in the places we visited, and we did. We were focused on the positive. Were we attracting to us the things that we needed to see? Maybe.

He’s known for his “Pauli Principle.

My research into this principle of attracting what you focus on led me to the scientist Wolfgang Pauli, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1945. He’s known for his “Pauli Principle,” as the Borowski article describes, but what greatly interested me was the description of the “Pauli Effect,” which manifested in the spontaneous breakdown of laboratory equipment whenever he entered the room. You can read more about this if you research The Pauli Effect, but note that her blog discusses his collaboration with Carl Jung to study synchronicity, “in part because of the ‘coincidences’ surrounding his effect on matter.”

We ladies didn’t have anything break down (thank goodness), but we experienced a pattern that could be seen as an effect on matter. We had items go missing: at least three purses disappeared, some of which later reappeared; items were left behind (my magnifying mirror!), things were mailed off that we needed, a scarf was lost and found, and there were other losses, both small and large. (May I say, a particularly “large” one for me was losing a dental crown due to a particularly sticky caramel!) Nothing happened that derailed our trip, but it’s all worth noting. (Even after I took the tooth and put it safely in a little plastic bag, I thought I had lost it in a restaurant and had to call to ask about it. I had it all along.)

Equally remarkable was the support we offered one another after sharing our losses. Everyone jumped in to console and search for whatever was missing – and things were found. What was this about? Maybe a literal manifestation of the practice of letting go?

What did this spiritual pilgrimage, this Heroine’s Journey, signify for me?

What comes to mind right now are more synchronicities: having just the right mix of souls on this trip and the beauty we discovered every day; Margaret’s expertise filled us in on the history and significance of round towers and lady’s chapels, and Margaret’s ability to read our tarot cards, which we did almost daily was another source of insight. We were filled to the brim with meaning, awe, astonishment, and joy. I haven’t even mentioned how one of us would break out into song at just the right moments, and those songs are still running through my head.

There is so much more. I have more processing to do. I know I’ve shifted inside. How that manifests remains to be seen, but I can tell you this: it is all working within me. I know it is. I will go back. 

We read many poems during the trip. Here’s a great one to end with:

THE JOURNEY

Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again,

painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
enscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

first, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes
of your life.

You are not leaving.
Even as the light
fades quickly now,
you are arriving.

~ From David Whyte: The Journey: in River Flow