This event is now full. If you would like to be put on the wait list, email Lindsay McLaughlin at lindsay.mclaughlin66@gmail.com
Deep in the heart of winter women gather on the feast day of St. Brigid, February 1. Also known as Imbolc, Brigid’s feast day is an ancient Celtic festival midway between Solstice and Equinox, one that marks a deep turning toward the hope of spring. The women gather around a sacred fire, a flame that burned for millennia in Brigid’s monastery of Kildare, rekindled now with revived interest in the figure who is both Irish saint and Celtic goddess.
Brigid encompasses healing, art, music, poetry, fertility, midwifery, cultivation, untamed nature, and more. She is the embodiment of the Sacred Feminine, inhabiting the centuries both as Fire Goddess and incandescent Celtic Saint. In this dark time when all we have known and loved seems to be unraveling, what might this wise, wild, loving, powerful and holy woman be saying to us? Who is she calling women to be today?
Join us for a weekend's immersion deep into the glowing heart of the Sacred Feminine with stories that illumine the wisdom of Brigid of Kildare. Be touched by the quiet presence of the winter landscape, the deep knowing rising from the softly breathing Earth and her resting inhabitants. Participate in guided circles of story and ceremony, dance, drumming, and council. Weave community with women drawn together into a wild and holy journey.
Retreat Leaders: Lindsay McLaughlin and Leah Rampy with Lisa Bardack and Katy Gaughan bring years of dedicated learning, practice, mentoring and leadership in retreats, dance and drumming.
The retreat will be held at Wellspring Retreat Center, on 200 wooded acres just north of Washington, DC in Germantown, MD. The center has a simple and beautiful gathering space and accommodates guests in three adjacent cabins; both the gathering space and cabins are designed in harmony with the wild land around them and feature window expanses connecting to the surrounding woods.
The retreat begins at 3 pm on Friday and ends at 2 pm on Sunday. Please arrive between 1 and 2 pm on Friday to allow time to settle in before the program starts.
Participants in this retreat are requested to take a rapid COVID test before coming on February 2.
Cost for program, lodging, and six meals:
- $400 – double occupancy (register with a friend/roommate)
- $475 – single occupancy
The fee for this retreat is based on the nature of the retreat, cost of lodging and food, and modest compensation for four leaders. We realize that the fee may be beyond the ability of some and have obtained a small grant to provide partial scholarships. Scholarships apply to both single and double occupancy. Request a scholarship using this scholarship application form.
We have limited this retreat to 24 retreatants (five shared rooms and fourteen individual).
Register early to secure your place. Non-refundable $50 deposit required.
For more information, email Lindsay.
Brigid of the Mantle,
Encompass us,
Lady of the Lambs protect us,
Beneath your mantle,
Gather us,
And restore us to memory.
Mothers of our mother, Foremothers strong,
Guide our hands in yours,
Remind us how
To kindle the hearth.
To keep it bright,
To preserve the flame...
To kindle the light,
Both day and night.
--Celtic prayer for hearth fire