The Story behind the Callanish retreat ...

Though rather overdue for the next Episode, the title of which will be "My Budy the Demon", I will now interject the story of how the idea for a retreat at Callanish came about.

Last spring my dear children and I decided that we needed a long overdue vacation to a place not in Germany. My son spontaneously said "How about Scotland", but though my heart went out to this I had doubts the like of unpredictable often cold weahter, expensive, touristy in summer, mitches, etc. Myself quite willing to take on all of this and more, I thought that my children were not aware of what they were getting themselves into. So we proceeded to resolve the matter in our tried and trusted totally objective way, and threw a coin at a map of Europe (with eyes closed though my aim is very poor anyway). It landed on Alba, fair and square, and I said to the kids "Well, that's settled then!"

We did not regrett it. Funds were low and it was way too late to book propper accomodation, but we had the time of our lives with a tent and a rail pass. In the weeks before we left I came to be flying over Scotland in one of my meditaitons, as one does, and over the isel of Lewis was told to go make sure to go and see the Callanish Stone Circle. As the Outer Hebrides had always been a dream destination of mine this did not need much convincing. We survived an over night train ride from London to Glasgow, started to unwind with a cup opf tea as the train rattled happily along, the scenery outside becoming more beautiful by the minute. Honestly, I cannot understand why people would drive around Scotland in cars and vans. Sure, the roads are lovely too, but, seriously, they are not made for traffic! And the old train lines take you along places you could not see any other way,´plus there is a hop off hop on policy for tickets ... Okay, I will stop (at least, until I get a cheque from scotrail).

We made our way to Skye and went on a hike out to a bothy on the cliffs. It was very windy, even for Skye, and I could barely walk with 20kilos of luggage on my back. My then 9 year old daughter Lilith started complaining promptly, and Finn and I took her bags, but she still lagged behind, rather annoyed at the fact that we just walked on, totally ignoring her whining. Faced with being in a strange place all on her own, with lovely moory ground to digg her toes into, but also this annoying wind, and no choice but to walk on, Lilith started talking to her angel (kids are amazing), possibly for want of anybody else to complain to. The angel told her that momy was barely able to walk with the heavy bag and couldn't look after her (good angel!) and that if she set her mind to it, she'd get to the bothy on her own. It also told her to be at the Callanish Stone Circle on the full moon to receive a healing there. (I'm still very glad a full moon was only days away ...)

My daughter had very bad trauma when she was only a wee imp of one and a half. This kept coming up now and then and sometimes made it very hard to live with her. Not to mention the constant guilt this brought up. So, last summer we went to Callanish to heal my daughters heart! Oh what a place! I have seen many standing stones, having done extensive hicking in Devon, Cornwall and Ireland, Cairns, Standing Stones, Fairy Hills etc become almost matter of fact. As do rainbows in ridiculous places. But these stones are different. You don't have to take my word for this. The internet is full of people saying the same thing. My daughter said they where "calcified angels".

So, one night we walked up towards the Circle, the perfect and huge looking full moon reflected in the water of the loch. If you were imagining us to have the place to ourselves, think again! This was August in Scotland, favourite place of photographers, and a full moon. There was quite a crowd, perfectly reflecting both my daughter's resistance to healing and my fears that this might not work. We bravely ignored people trying to chase us out of their picture. Thank god, there were also some spritiual people holding space for us. It felt a bit as if representatives of all mindsets had gathered that night. Finn and I had a hard time getting Lilith to calm down enough to receive her healing, clutching a clear quartz all the time, but we did it. I felt something amazing coming into being but then not quite, as if my feet where lifted off the ground but could not quite stay there for the distraction, all the time telling myself that all was exactly the way it should be.

When we finally got up from our place underneath the central stone, a woman came towards us out of the dark, saying she was a star child and when we said that we had done a healing, she hugged us all. A night to remember.

And did this heal her, you will ask?

Yes. It took some time. It tooks some evolving. And it took some assistance here and there (like a heart healing chamber of light by Solara). But, yes, she got the healing. And the best thing about it? It still keeps getting better every day. For all of us.

With love to all!

Namaste

Us at Callanish