A 5 Day Nature Based Retreat to immerse with the Ancient Wisdom of Amanita Muscaria & Celebrate the beginning of the Pre Celtic Year

Samhain Retreat 2026

28th October to 1st Nov

Ravensdale, County Louth, Ireland

Why This Retreat?

Step into the ancient wisdom of Amanita Muscaria, a powerful “Love Medicine” that opens the heart, dissolves hidden patterns, and gently rewires the central nervous system. In a safe, nature based container you’ll be guided to:

Cultivate self‑love and heal subconscious wounds rooted in ancestry, development, or relationships.
Dissolve patterns that can be causing fear, anxiety, physical pain or addictions including food, alcohol or substances.
Shift perception of time, space, and reality through a subtle, heart‑centered altered state rather than overwhelming “heroic” doses.
Integrate the experience with daily movement, meditation, sound, and the Scottish landscape, leaving you with a lasting practice you can carry home.

The Setting – Ravensdale, County Louth, Ireland

Nestled at the foot of the Cooley Mountains, with a view over the Irish Sea. The retreat takes place in a Traditional Irish Cottage and beautifully converted Barn, offering cosy cottage shared rooms. The natural surroundings set the nature based container amongst the Irish Landscape. We are a short distance to the Hill of Faughart, the birthplace of the Goddess & Saint, Brigid.

Irish Sweathouse Rituals in the sauna – purification on body, mind, and soul.
Fire Circle – songs, stories, and communal sharing.
Well Water - drinking and bathing daily to connect to activate & rehydrate
Sacred site visits to Slieve Gullion, Loughcrew, and Holy Wells.

Each day includes:

Morning movement to attune body and land.
Guided meditations that deepen the Source & Nature connection.
Dream Circles for sharing insights from Amanita & waking to the “living dream.”
Radical Rest (silence periods) to let the inner journey settle.

Practical notes: Moderate walking on uneven terrain (1–2 mi/day). Activities may shift with weather—alternatives will always be provided.

All meals are nourishing, well sourced, and served with love, allowing you to truly enjoy and unwind.

Amanita Muscaria Mushroom is also known as “Fly Agaric” works very differently than other Fungi or psychoactive medicines. In general, rather than a very outward and potentially overwhelming experience, if approached with respect, she calls us more inward to awaken the heart and dissolve patterns with love. This medicine is deeply soothing & rewiring for the Central Nervous System, helping us to overcome anxiety, fear, pain, addiction or imbalances that are affecting our life, health, relationships & connection with spirit.

This medicine is often feared, and she deserves great respect and the right approach for safety as well as maximum benefit. This retreat container will provide that with a cottage woodland setting, full immersion with the elements, grounding practices for the body, cleansing with the Irish Sweathouse, tree medicine support, nourishing meals & experienced facilitation with Tara Muirghein.

You can find out a little more about the properties with this short interview with Amanita Dreamer.

A vital component to this retreat is connecting with Amanita Medicine in the right relationship, so beginning on the best footing possible in order to receive maximum support and benefit. This in turn will open you up to healthy practices, the art of dreaming and allow you to continue with this connection moving forward into daily life.

Sauna goes far beyond the technology of hot and cold therapy, it brings a community spirit along with an ancient practice that can be found in many cultures and climates. Including Ireland & Scotland, where we have the ‘Tigh ‘n Alluis’ or the ‘Sweathouse.’ These were bee hive shaped stone structures with a small opening, found in uphill areas, often near to a well, stream or river. This was a place where people would come for healing, especially for respiratory ailments, rheumatism and women’s reproductive health.

Tara is passionate about the revival of the ancient practices with the Irish Sweathouse, bringing into fusion with the more modern Nordic Sauna. Sauna Ritual is fully immersive & awakens the senses, bringing the transformative power of sauna to life. We bring balance with the elements of earth, air, fire, water, combined with tree & herbal medicine.

This combination blends very well as one of the benefits of a Sauna ritual is that the more natural psychoactive effects of sauna can assist in the preparation and integration for psychoactive medicines. More importantly, it can bring a deep feeling of rest, reset and calm through the transformative heat, cleansing sweat, healing waters and the spirit connection of tree medicine.

Cailleach, Loughcrew & Slieve Gullion

*Artwork by Seán Fitzgerald*

The Cailleach is ancient primordial Grandmother known across Ireland and the British Isles, she is said to have scattered the great stones from her apron to form the landscape, also creating the Loughs by calling in the waters from the earth and sky. During the time of Samhain, she wakes from her slumber as she reigns over Winter and guides us through the darkness, embracing Death just as much as Life.

Her presence is felt most strongly at certain sacred sites in the land of Eruí (Ireland). At Loughcrew, or Sliabh na Cailleach (the Mountain of the Hag), a network of Neolithic passage tombs, each cairn a hallmark to her creative power. Within this hallowed ground stands the Seat of the Cailleach — her magical throne that signifies her essence permanently to the land she shaped.

Her mythic footprint extends beyond County Meath to the mountain Sliabh gCuillinn (Slieve Gullion) in County Armagh, where another passage tomb crowns the summit, the highest cairn in Eruí. Here too the Cailleach reigns, her presence echoing through the Pure Black Lake as well as the heroic cycles of Fionn mac Cumhaill and Cú Chulainn who walked these hills. These two mountains, are connected, standing as enduring monuments to the Grandmother's dominion over land, stone, water, and the turning seasons—a reminder that the old ones still watch over the landscape they once forged in union with earth and sky.

The Spirit of Amanita is very aligned with the Grandmother Archetype, just like the Cailleach, often feared and misunderstood. She can bring fierce lessons if not approached in the right way, but taking the time to get to know her, with love, respect and reverence. There is an infinite love and support that she can bring in many ways that we cannot even imagine. She guides us back to listening to our own hearts and living wisdom that ripples into our lives in deeply practical ways.

Trees are very much interwoven with Fungi as the Mycellium Network supports the trees and vice versa via the most highly intelligent communication & transportation system on this planet. Birch and Pine trees in particular have a direct relationship with Amanita as they provide the sweet sap, right nutrients and environment via their roots for Amanita Muscaria to grow. In addition Amanita provides the trees with nutrients in the soil via their mycellium as part of this symbiotic relationship. We will explore this communion with the Birch, Pine and Amanita on the land as well as through the Irish Sweathouse.

We will take time to connect to the trees, stones, land. mountains and waters that help us to remember what is innate in us. Attuning with the higher frequencies available in this land and sacred places, we can become more open and aligned with the natural human evolution that we are called to be a part of at this time.

What you will receive

2 x Irish Sweathouse Rituals
3 x sequential nights building with the Amanita Muscaria mushroom
Dream Circles to share what has emerged from the Amanita Dreamtime
Visit to Slieve Gullion, Loughcrew & Sacred Wells
Daily movement practice to attune with body & land
Guided meditations to tune in & connect with source
Integrated Rest times to enjoy Nature or Sound & Silence Sessions
Final evening with Fire Circle, Songs, Stories & Craic
Nourishing Vegetarian Meals
Single Bed in a Shared Room (Twin or Triple, with a Private Double or Single Available)
1 x Group Preparation and 1 x Integration Session (Online)

Registration

Deposit: From £495

Shared Double Room*: £990

Shared Triple Room: £1290

Shared Twin Room: £1490

Private Room: £1550

This retreat is limited to a small group of 6-8 people to ensure a more intimate experience,

early booking is recommended.

*Shared Double must be booked as a couple, 2 x friends or family members

Please email firetreealchemy@proton.me with any questions or to book your place with a deposit, alternatively click on the “Book Now” button to place your deposit.

Book Now

Payment Plans are available or if you need to make an alternative payment arrangement e.g. different currency, or financial circumstances, email firetreealchemy@proton.me
Deposit is required to secure your place, with the remainder due one week prior to arrival or in cash on arrival.
Additional nights booking for B&B are available at £65pp per night (27th Oct or 1st Nov)
Additional transport to/from Dundalk Station is available at 3pm on Arrival & Departure Day, this is £10 per person for each journey
Transport to/from Ireland & Retreat Location is not included, our location is just 20mins from Dundalk. 1.5hrs from Dublin and 1hr from Belfast. Bus services to Dundalk and local taxi services are available.
Deposits & Payments are non-refundable, registration is subject to the completion of the screening form.

Example Day Schedule

8am Gentle Somatic Practice

8.30am Breakfast

10am Meditation & Dreaming Circle

12.30 Lunch

2pm Depart for Sacred Sites

5pm Arrive at Cottage

6pm Dinner

7.30pm Radical Rest

8.00pm Meditation & Amanita Tea

Arrival Day (Wednesday)

3-4 pm Guests arrive

5pm Welcome Circle

6.00pm Light Dinner

7.30pm Irish Sweathouse

Closing Day (Sunday)

8.30am Breakfast

10am Integration & Closing Circle

12.30pm Lunch

2-3pm Guests Depart

Facilitators

Tara is a Ban Draoi, Alchemist, Facilitator, Mystic & Poet. She weaves together consciousness and Earth wisdom, harnessing a profound connection to nature, source & the elements through meditation, sound and somatic movement.

Tara began her path with nature & source at a very young age, often finding solace in plants, animals, landscape, sea and ritual, growing up connected with the lands of Ireland and Scotland. She has travelled to Peru, Brazil, Mexico and Guatemala, weaving the connection with her deep roots in Pre-Celtic lineage with other indigenous lineages.

This particular path connects spirits, ancestors, plants and lands together in order to facilitate an accelerated approach to source connection, transformation and accessing the self healing ability. In this time of rapid change and the impact on the earth as well as its inhabitants, a new approach is needed that is infused with the great wisdom of these ancient traditions.

Tara guides individuals in reclaiming their sovereignty and supporting the evolution of the soul. With a deeply practical approach to life, she embodies the living ecology of being as nature itself, inviting others to co-create a vibrant New Earth with hearts ignited and hands in the soil.

Explore more about Tara’s Work: Illuminating Wisdom Substack

Ari Liakeas has had a lifelong interest in dance and movement, taking inspiration from her mother. She has explored various cultural forms of movement, dance, and yoga, but Arabic dance particularly resonated with her soul, feeling inspired, uplifted, and empowered by the movements and the music.

She realised the deep connections of this form of dance to the feminine goddess aspect of life, and how the movements can bring profound health and healing to women on physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. Through dance and yoga, Ari has found her own transformative path to healing trauma deeply embedded within the body and soul.

Since 2016, Ari has been working professionally as a bodywork therapist and has worked in various settings such as clinics, spas, athletic events, charitable organisations and corporate environments. In 2018, her work took her worldwide, and in 2020, she founded Stellar Therapies to share her bodywork healing, dance and yoga expertise, running studios in southern Albania & Scotland and retreats worldwide.

She believes in creating an inclusive space for people to share and connect, a safe environment to celebrate community, reconnect with the self, and bring joy and healing on all levels.

Find out more about Ari’s work: Stellar Therapies

Stephanie has been on the shamanic path for almost 20 years and has been intensively involved with plant work for the past 6 years. She is also trained in trauma-informed body psychology methods such as Somatic Experiencing and Integral Somatic Psychology.

As a trained nurse, Stephanie works in a clinic specializing in addiction treatment, where she has worked with mindfulness-based practices, among other things, and assisted with psychedelic-supported therapy.

Learn more about her at: www.mondkreis.ch

Our Guides

Author, teacher, spiritual guide, healer, way-shower and pioneer; Dolores Whelan has blazed a trail in her lifetime to provide a potent understanding of the value of ancient wisdom and ignite appreciation for Celtic spirituality and the waning traditions of indigenous Ireland. Bridging worlds ancient and new, she has forged new paths and opened old ways.

The Celtic Spiritual Tradition is a way of perceiving the world, and a way of being in the world.

Dolores believes that the deep truths held within the soul and psyche of Ireland are now ready to re-emerge. Her work endeavours to support this awakening, both within the land and the people. Dolores is not nostalgic about ancient times and traditions; however she seeks to explore how this ancient wisdom can form the basis of a value system upon which a new society can be built she believes this is a crucial task for our time.

Find out more about Dolores Whelan’s work at www.doloreswhelan.ie

You can purchase her book Ever Ancient Ever New

Sandra Nelson is a Life Coach with Neuroscience, Usui Reiki Master and Spiritual Intuitive Reader. Priestess of Manannan Mac Lir Irish Sea God, she is actively a peace creator and keeper, based permanently in Ireland. Sandra facilitates multidimensional spiritual healing through a combination of spiritual map reading, by thorough investigation and unweaving of deconstruction of thinking before weaving through the Creation of Unique and specific prayer rituals, space holding and prophesy art, storytelling and poetry.

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Amanita Dreaming Samhain Retreat (Ireland)