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Discover the Goddess in You!
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Come and experience this magical and mystical sacred journey with Finbarr Ross and Rabia Yildirim, our Turkish Guide. Finbarr is a ceremonialist, healer, and process facilitator of self discovery and spiritual wisdom; a native of the Emerald Isle and your guide on this exciting journey. Rabia is a folklorist on ancient cultures of Turkey and will immerse us in these ancient traditions and much more as we weave this sacred path. See Full ItineraryMore Spiritual Tours
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Dear ,
Through the Goddess, we can discover our strength, enlighten our minds, own our bodies, and celebrate our emotions. ~ Starhawk
What is the Goddess?
By Ixchel Tucker
There is so much talk these days about the Divine Feminine and the Goddess. Much of this is focused on how the Divine Feminine is reawakening, coming back into balance. There are Goddess Cards, Goddess books, so much available.
But how do we bring that into our lives? What does it really mean for us? A few things we can do are:
- Meditate with the Goddess, the Divine Feminine, the Water, the Moon, and the Womb
- Visit Sacred Goddess Sites and connect with the ancient feminine energies they hold
- Go inside - ask our innermost selves what is feminine, and how to bring out the Divine Feminine that is within us
The Goddess isn't just something out there to be seen, to be visited. As with everything, what we see outside is also within ourselves. So discovering the Goddess and the Sacred Feminine is an inward journey, one of discovering more of ourselves.
A few years ago I was introduced to a Path of the Sacred Feminine. It was nothing new, it was actually an ancient Native Path that is being reborn after a hundred years or more of being buried. It helped me discover what feminine and Goddess energy is, at a level that I have not seen taught by anyone.
If your want more information about this path, visit Path of the Sacred Feminine.In this article I would like to share with you the deeper awareness of what Sacred Feminine and also Sacred Masculine are that this path has rebirthed in me.
First of all, Divine or Sacred Feminine is not just for women. We all carry both feminine and masculine within us and it is through the full expression of both that we come into balance within ourselves and truly become one. This is not just a path for women, though women very much need it, so do our men.
The Sacred Feminine cannot exist without the balance of the Sacred Masculine. It is not that the Feminine is any better, or more important. It is just that the feminine aspects of the Divine have been weeded out of most practices, they have been lost, they have been buried. It is time for them to resurface, to come back into balance. It is time for women to discover that they are, and have always been, goddesses.
 I've seen that most of us women have lost the feminine within ourselves. It is still there, but has been overrun by the masculine aspects we have had to develop in order to work, live, and provide for our families. The feminine is more community oriented and in an age of "me", of the individual doing everything, isolated and needing to take care of themselves and their family, there has been little room for the feminine to thrive. We are coming out of that now, we have realized that isn't enough, people are once again looking for community.
As I began to connect with the Path of the Sacred Feminine I asked what being feminine was. I saw that I had lost much of it, and the rest had been subdued by lack of understanding and necessity. I had been a single mother of three, needing to get out and work, in the business world. I wasn't taught feminine values. I wore business suits. Even when I was relaxing I wore masculine clothing - jeans, t-shirts, and dull colors.
Through the meditations and journeys of the Sacred Feminine Path I asked  myself what it was to be a woman. These meditations connected me to the Womb (within both men and women) where all creation happens and everything is infinite possibility. The womb is a place where we hold, where we are safe, where we can be just as we are. Remember what it's like to just be held and comforted by your mom? Or, if you didn't have that experience, imagine what it would feel like. You can hold and mother yourself, or let the larger Divine Feminine hold you. It is a very loving experience.
As I discovered the power of the womb I also realized that it has been part of my nature to "hold space" for others. I have realized that this is a very subtle, but very strong power as well. As I energetically hold others they are more able to "do" (the masculine) the things they are here to do. They are more able to access their truth, their Divine aspects of who they are. I find that things move more smoothly around me.
I have also seen the power of intuition and connection become stronger within me. I've realized how the feminine aspects of our being are often more subtle energies, but they are such an integral part of everything. Even in the business world there is an understanding of intuition that is used in advertising, working with people, often in hiring and firing, business decisions and more.
Women have a natural ability to connect, to see subtle messages and act accordingly. In opening to this I have become much more aware of my energetic connections with people, animals, nature and all of life.
I've found that as I've worked with this Path, opening more to the Goddess within, that I can walk proudly in feeling the essence of the Goddess. I find that I am drawn to wear dresses, colorful clothing, to look like a woman.
I see the Goddess in all women, even those who aren't showing it a lot. It is time for us all to let the Goddess awaken more fully into our expression, into our being.
One way to help awaken your inner Goddess is on a Spiritual Tour with Finbarr. I've been working with Finbarr for a few months now and I can see the balance of the Divine Feminine that he holds. He has an deep connection to the Divine Feminine and works with the feminine energies.
Finbarr takes people to Sacred Feminine Sites, places of the Goddess, of Mary Magdalene, St. Mary, St. Sophia. He tells stories of these women and what they represented. We can learn from their wisdom. He connects you with the ancient energies through powerful meditations, rituals and ceremonies.
Whatever your path to the feminine, you will discover that the Goddess isn't just something of history, something out there to be found, the Goddess is YOU!
Blessings on your journey to Discover the Goddess!
Ixchel
 Ixchel Tucker is a ceremonialist and Keeper of the Women's Water Ceremonies, offered by the Path of the Sacred Feminine and the New Dream Foundation. She also serves as a Vice President on the board of New Dream Foundation, a non-profit organization designed to bring together Global Spiritual Community through the Sacred Feminine.
She does intuitive marketing and web design and works with Celtic Mystical Journeys and The Nature Doctor to help promote their work in world. You can find her at www.webdesignbyixchel.com
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Celtic Mystical Journeys invites you to 
Come Experience the Sacred Sites of Turkey
Land of The Ancient Goddess and
the Garden of Eden
May 15-26, 2010 (12 days)
Go to our Turkey Itinerary
Did you know that ...
- All seven of the early churches were in Turkey, and Turkey was the first Christian nation.
- Layers of cultures cultivated this area and the extended region known as the Garden of Eden of ancient times.
- This is the land of the Goddess of Antiquity: Kubaba, Kybele, Cybele and Artemis, as well as Mother Mary, who is loved here.
- This region saw the rise and fall of the Hittites, Assyrians, Cimmerians (the biblical Gomer), the Scythians (the Biblical Ashkenaz), the Polemies and Seleucids.
Here the infant Christianity struggled with both the religions of old and Judaism to become first the official, and later the exclusive, religion of the Roman Empire by the end of the fourth century CE.
 Adding to this potential opportunity to glean a more intimate awareness of the Goddess is the chance to visit these sites with other women and men of like-mind on this very specially designed sacred journey. Along the journey, the group will have private time for ritual, group sharing and meditation, as we facilitate a deepening relationship and understanding of the Goddess, often difficult to achieve in our busy contemporary lives.
Gift yourself with this journey and allow yourself to be transported back to a time when the Goddess was at the center stage of the world!
Bring along someone dear to you and share memories that will last a lifetime!
Each day will be filled with wonders that few have the opportunity to experience, as we nourish our spirit, our mind, our heart and soul.
Register Now!
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 Turkey & Istanbul Itinerary
May 15th - Saturday - Day 1:
Arrive in Istanbul and transfer to our domestic flight to Ankara.
Arrive in Ankara, where we will be met at the airport by our professional guide.
May 16th - Sunday - Day 2:
 Morning visit to the Mausoleum of Ataturk, founding father of the Turkish Republic and the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, situated below the citadel. With its crown of ten domes it was once a covered bazaar where cloth made from angora wool was traded. This world-famous museum houses a great collection of the Hittite Civilization antiquities with Neolithic statues dating to the 5th millennium BC and artifacts from Çatal Hoyuk.
In the afternoon, we depart for Cappadocia via the Salt Lake Road.
May 17th - Monday - Day 3:
Today we experience Zelve Valley, The Uçhisar Village, The Pottery Village of Avanos, and the Underground city of Kaymakli.
 One of the strangest regions on earth, with its surrealist landscapes. Several thousand years of erosion formed the Fairy Chimneys.
We visit Goreme Valley and some of its famous rock carved churches.
Cappadocia saw the penetration of Christianity into Anatolia. Following the footsteps of St. Paul, the first Christians came to settle in the almost inaccessible natural grottoes. They created the rock carved churches and the underground cities. The churches were painted with brilliant colors relating the important episodes of the Bible. The apogee of Byzantine and Christian Cappadocia took place between the beginning of the 10th Century and the second half of the 11th Century. Its magnificent rock churches and Byzantine paintings constitute an important part of the Oriental Christian art.
May 18th - Tuesday - Day 4:
After breakfast we depart for Nigde via Tyana.
Kemerhisar is to the south of Nigde and is scattered over three hills on the site of the ancient town of Tyana. Semiramis, the legendary queen of Assyria and founder of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, is thought to have been instrumental in establishing Tyana, which dates from 1200 B.C. as a late Hittite principality. Ancient remains on the site include a Doric marble pillar on the "Hill of Semiramis" and fifteen linked marble arches of a Roman aqueduct. A path leads from the south of the site to the Baths of Kemerhisar, which is mentioned in ancient writings. The warm water was drunk for its healing powers.
It is here that we get a feeling of Apollonius, the great philosopher often referred to as a Greek, but who was actually born at Tyana. Excavations are now underway in Tyana of a temple that marked his birthplace.
Our next stop is Nigde. Lying on a plateau, embellished by volcanic peaks, is this city of the Central Anatolian Region, which was called "Nahita" in the Hittite period. Since its foundation, it has been a major commercial center, standing on the ancient trade route between Anatolia and the Mediterranean.
Nigde Archaeological Museum. The museum rooms contain written documents of the Hittite period, statues, masonry, lamps, bronze and gold objects from the Roman-Byzantine periods, coins from the Hellenistic to Ottoman periods, carved wooden doors from the Seljuk period, and many other artifacts.
May 19th - Wednesday - Day 5:
 We drive to Pessinus, where we visit the Temple of Cybele, the Phrygian Mother Goddess who was also venerated by the Greeks and Romans. Discovered by Belgian archaeologists in 1967, it is surprisingly small, though it was once the most important temple in the area. Next to the sanctuary was a theater, which also served as the stairs leading to the temple, a combination that was unique in the ancient world.
Next we travel to Konya, a green Oasis in the middle of Anatolia, known for its Seljuk Art and mysticism. In the antiquity known as Iconium, this was a prosperous city on the way to the Orient. However the apogee of the city took place after the conquest of Seljuk Turks. In the 12th Century the city became the Islamic Cultural Center with a very high spiritual level. Free time to explore.
May 20th - Thursday - Day 6:
Visit Rumi's Tomb, Çatal Hoyuk, Whirling Dervish
 After breakfast we explore the Mevlana Museum, with the tombs of Rumi, his family, and outstanding members of the Mevlevi order. You can take time to meditate near the tomb of this awe-inspiring mystic and see what worlds might open to you.
This afternoon we have the rare opportunity to visit the 9,000 year old Neolithic site of Çatal Hoyuk, located on a vast prairie beside the active Hasan Dag volcano. The name means "forked mound" and refers to the site's mounds which formed as centuries of people tore down and rebuilt the settlement's mud-brick houses.
Here there existed a matriarchal, spiritual  and art-loving people who worshipped a Mother Goddess of a fertility cult that could have been the precursor of Artemis, or Cybele, as she is known in Anatolia. We visit a shrine for the ancient Mother Goddess with a sculpture of the Great Mother of Çatal Hoyuk seated with a tame lion on either side, showing that She was a sacred woman, the Great Mother of Nature, and the tamer and civilizer of the world as well.
 After dinner we will be treated to a performance by the Whirling Dervishes of men dressed in white robes, whirling and rotating around the floor. During this moving meditation the dancer focuses on his great love of God, and can thus attain divine unity.
May 21st - Friday - Day 7:
After breakfast we depart for Pamukkale, experiencing Aphrodisias en route.
Its ruins are as impressive as those of Ephesus. The Aphrodite Temple, the marbled stadium, the Theatre, the Odeon, the Agora and the Roman Baths are all beautifully preserved.
 After lunch we continue to Pamukkale, one of the most interesting places in the world, famous not only for the entrancing beauty of its unique geological formations, but also for its historical remains. Located above the theater of the area, the mineral water comes from the thermal springs of Mount Caldag and is collected in the "Sacred Pool" of ancient times, where we will have the option to swim amidst the Travertine Terraces,  a UNESCO World Heritage site, which are among the remains of Hierapolis (Holy City). The name Pamukkale means "cotton castle", derived from the dazzling white calcareous castles which are formed by limestone-laden thermal springs, creating a fairyland of bizarre solidified cascades and shell-shaped basins. Enjoy meditating in the waters, which change color according to how the light enters.
May 22nd - Saturday - Day 8:
Depart for Kusadasi via Miletus & Dydma.
 At Miletus we explore the Temples of Serapis, Athena and Asclepius. The ancient city of Miletus was the oldest and the most powerful of the twelve Ionian cities in Asia Minor
The Temple of Serapis is from the 3rd century CE. Only the very fine pediment is visible, the rest of the temple being concealed under dense vegetation. In the remains of the Temple of Athena, built in the first half of the 5th century BCE, there are six Ionic columns on each of the shorter sides and ten on the longer sides.
Before 500 BC, Miletus was the greatest Greek city in the east. It was the natural outlet for products from the interior of Anatolia and had a considerable wool trade with Sybaris in southern Italy. Miletus was important in the founding of the Greek colony of Naukratis in Egypt and founded more than 60 colonies on the shores of the Black Sea.
 In the afternoon we drive to Didyma and the Temple/Oracle of Apollo and the Artemis Temple. The design of the Temple of Apollo was influenced by the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus and the Temple of Hera at Samos.
Didyma was an ancient Ionian city, the modern Didim, Turkey. The town formed just outside of the sanctuary containing a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. Next to Delphi, Didyma was the most renowned oracle of the Hellenic world.
May 23rd - Sunday- Day 9:
 We spend a full day at Ephesus. Ephesus is the greatest Temple City in Asia Minor and was dedicated to the Great Goddess Artemis Diana. The Temple of Artemis Diana, built about 550 BCE, is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and one of the most complex temples built in ancient times. When the Temple was in use, it was brightly painted and inlaid with stone and had a marble sanctuary and a tile-covered wooden roof.
 Next we explore Mother Mary's House inside the ruins of Ephesus. In 431 CE it was here the Christian church declared Mary to be the "the God-bearer" in order to legitimize Christianity in the eyes of the people of Asia Minor. Prior to that time, she was not recognized by the Christian church. Many of the Great Goddess's titles were taken and declared to be the titles of Mary, including; "Queen of Heaven", "Divine Virgin", "Mother of All".
Visit St. John Basilica built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 6th century AD with the belief that it was the site of the tomb of St John.
Ephesus was one the biggest and most famous sites in the ancient world. Towards the 3rd Century BCE, Ephesus was located naturally on the crossing point of the commercial road and so gathered all the richness of the Orient. This city offers us its witnessing to the splendor of Asia Minor during the Roman Era. Among its numerous monuments, you will see its famous Arcadian Street, large Hellenistic Theatre, the Celsius Library, and the magnificent façade of the Hadrian Temple (2nd Century Corinthian style).
May 24th - Monday- Day 10:
After breakfast we depart for Izmir for an early flight to Istanbul.
Situated on two continents (Europe and Asia) and inheritor of a great history where we can still witness the remnants of five civilizations, Istanbul is one of the most fascinating capitals of the Orient. The antique Constantinople became Byzantium in the 4th Century. In 1453, the city passed from Christianity to Islam with the rule of Ottoman Sultans and a new name, Istanbul. Its urban profile has since then been symbolized by the minarets of its mosques. You will plunge to the heart of the history of the old Istanbul and discover its principal Byzantine and Ottoman monuments.
 Chora Church
Upon arrival in Istanbul we're off to visit Chora Church. Chora has mosaics from the 12th century depicting the role of Virgin Mary as the Mother of God, with the emphasis on Her being Mother rather than Jesus being the God, a profound thought to ponder as you take time to meditate in Her presence!
In the afternoon we explore the Topkapi Palace, the ancient residence of the Ottoman Sultans. Built by Mehmet the Conqueror on the ancient location of the Byzantine Acropolis, the palace is now used as a museum and has a wonderful view of the Marmara Sea.
May 25th - Tuesday - Day 11:
Blue Mosque, St. Sophia Museum and much more.
 Today, we visit the famous Blue Mosque, with its mighty dome, and the only mosque in Istanbul with minarets, and built on the site of the Great Palace of Byzantium in the early 17th century. Today it is a working mosque and is therefore closed to non-worshippers during the five daily prayers. The interior, with its lightness, spatial effect and color, is one of the finest creations of Turkish architecture.
Next is the St. Sophia Museum, formerly known as the Hagia Sofia (Holy Wisdom), a former Greek Orthodox Church that was converted to a mosque in 1453 by the Ottoman Empire and today is a museum. The supreme achievement of Byzantine architecture, it is the city's most celebrated monument. Large numbers of columns were brought to Constantinople from temples in Asia Minor, Lebanon, Greece and Italy, and the finest marbles and noblest metals were used.
Next we visit the At Meydani, the Ancient Hippodrome of Septime Severius (2nd Century), the Obelisk of Theodosius, the Serpentine Column and the Column of Constantine.
Afternoon shopping tour at the famous Grand Bazaar, the largest of its kind with 17 gates, 65 streets and 4000 shops in addition to its historical importance. Barter for colorful kilims, leather goods, pottery and jewelry.
The market was constructed in the 1660's as part of the imperial mosque complex, with its shop rents supporting the upkeep of the mosque as well as its schools, hospitals, baths and public fountains. Merchants sold such things as cinnamon, gunpowder, rabbit fat, pine gum, peach pit powder and many folk remedy ingredients.
May 26th - Wednesday- Day 12:
We say our farewells and depart for Istanbul International Airport grateful for all that we encountered and experienced on this sacred journey in Turkey.
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Register Now!
$2,975 USD Tour Fee (Excluding Airfare)
$2,875 USD Discount for paying by cash or check
$ 350 USD Single supplement rate (private room)
Trip Includes:
All hotel accommodations (11 nights), full breakfast and dinner each day, entrances to sites, helicopter ride, and ground transportation.
*
2010 Tour price is guaranteed unless the US $/Euro exchange rate drops
5% or more from the 10/1/09 rates or gasoline goes up over 5% from 8/09
UK prices. If required, a fuel or exchange-rate surcharge will be
declared in June. This has never exceeded$100 per person.
$500 deposit secures your place on the journey with the balance due 60 days prior to departure. For reservations call toll free 1 877 756 8763 or book online here.
Website: www.celticmysticaljourneys.com Email: Marianne@celticmysticaljourneys.com
For Price in Euros or Pounds Sterling please email Customer Service We offer travel insurance through the WorldTravelCenter
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Celtic Mystical Journeys offers Spiritual Tours to Sacred Sites of Egypt, Turkey, France, and Celtic Lands and more ...
Celtic Mystical Journeys was founded to blend the spiritual and physical needs of seekers and pilgrims like you. Experience first hand the beauty and mysticism of ancient wisdom as you explore the vibrational matrix of sacred power sites. Experience the perfect blend of the magical, the mystical, the familiar, and the uncommon.
See our full list of Spiritual Tours for 2010 at www.celticmysticaljourneys.com
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Contact Info
Toll Free Phone: 1-877-756-8763
Phone: 719 495 4845 USA
Phone: (011) 353-86-1000-272 Ireland
finbarr@celticmysticaljourneys.com
marianne@celticmysticaljourneys.com
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