Day 1 · Hearth Fire
Village Flame
We arrive, settle into pods, and kindle a shared sense of home with hearth prayers, simple food, and evening fire in the Celtic Fire Village.
Samhain · October 30 to November 2, 2026 · Isle of Iona
Celtic Fire
A Gaelic New Year Pilgrimage with Four Celtic Fires
At Samhain the year begins in the dark. Four fires are tended in village, heart, hill, and sìth spaces so that new life can rise from timeless embers.
Invocation
To save,
to shield,
to surround.
Drawing on Alexander Carmichael’s Carmina Gadelica, we practice blessing, incantation, and ritual from the Old Ways to tend four fires: Hearth Fire anchors the village, Heart Fire glows in the breast, Need Fire renews the year on the hill, and Fairy Fire flickers where the human world thins.
Four-Day Arc
The Celtic Fire Journey
The retreat follows a simple pattern: begin with the ordinary, deepen to the inner, pass through communal renewal, then return to the world’s edge where the sìth fire glimmers. Each day has a core fire and a core feeling.
Day 2 · Heart Fire
Inner Ember
Pilgrimage, silence, and prayer focus on the flame within the breast, with time at shrines and quiet corners to tend compassion and courage.
Day 3 · Need Fire
Hilltop Renewal
Weather and wind permitting, we ascend Dùn Ì, tell the story of the friction fire, and take part in a gentle, symbolic rite of communal renewal.
Day 4 · Fairy Fire
Edge of the Sìth
We walk the Fairy Hill and burial grounds in a spirit of listening, light candles for the dead, and close with a blessing at the world’s edge.
Stay
The Celtic Fire Village · Iona Pods
During Celtic Fire, the modern Iona Pod community becomes a temporary village for the retreat. Fourteen warm, simple pods gather around a communal court that holds our nightly fire and shared life. The village sits between Dùn Ì and the shore, an easy walk to the Abbey, Nunnery, and north beaches.
Pods are heated, with linens and outlets provided. Shared pods hold up to three pilgrims and feel like a small, modern bothy. Suites offer more privacy and are well suited to couples or solo retreatants who need a quieter nest. The Celtic Fire Village is at the foot of Dùn Ì and within walking distance of Brigid’s Pool, Martyrs’ Bay, the Abbey, and the Nunnery.
The Four Fires
Hearth, Heart, Need, Fairy
The fires of Gaelic tradition carry a quiet map for how to begin a year in the dark. Hearth Fire holds the ordinary life of the home. Heart Fire keeps a flame of charity within the breast. Need Fire is raised only when the valley calls for renewal. Fairy Fire reveals that the world has layers, and that not all light comes from this side of things.
Hearth Fire
Kindled and smoored with daily prayer. Hearth Fire is the ordinary flame that keeps bodies warm and meals shared. It belongs to kitchen, common room, and the quiet dignity of care.
Heart Fire
The inner ember of compassion and courage. Heart Fire is the Christ-light in the breast, or the soul’s own glow, that makes a person able to bless, forgive, and persevere.
Need Fire
Raised by friction when the valley faces misfortune. Need Fire is not an everyday flame. It is a communal rite of purification, a choice to let every hearth go dark so a new, purified fire can be called.
Fairy Fire
The “blue tremulous flame” of the sìth world. Fairy Fire signals that the ordinary field is also an edge. It reminds us that guidance and omen can arise where worlds touch.
Sacred Science
Celtic Heartfulness Paradigm
Participants in Celtic Fire will receive special access to the Celtic Heartfulness paradigm, an emerging framework being developed at Harvard’s Neurospirituality Lab. This work bridges ancient Gaelic wisdom with contemporary neuroscience, mapping how practices like hearth prayer, heart kindling, and ritual blessing shape resilience, compassion, and spiritual wellbeing at the level of brain circuits and lived experience.
The Celtic Heartfulness approach honors the Carmina Gadelica understanding that the heart is not merely metaphor but a living center of spiritual awareness. Through the retreat, you’ll learn practices informed by this research: practices that tend the inner flame, strengthen capacity for blessing, and deepen your relationship with the sacred in daily life.
This is a rare opportunity to participate in a living tradition that is also being understood through the lens of cutting-edge science, bringing together the wisdom of the past with the insights of the present.
Gaelic New Year
The Year Begins in the Dark
In the older Gaelic imagination, the year begins not with midsummer brightness but with Samhain’s dark. The night between October 31 and November 1 is the hinge into winter, the first step of what the Carmina calls the “dark half” of the year. Darkness is not an ending. It is a womb. What is hidden can ripen. What is buried can seed.
Samhain as the Day With No Time
Folklore speaks of Samhain as a time that does not quite belong to the ordinary calendar. Old stories describe it as a “thin time” when boundaries loosen, the dead walk gently, and fate can be glimpsed in ash and ember. The past draws close. The future listens. The four fires of this retreat are tended inside that no-time, so that the coming year rises from a living ember, not from an abstract hope.
Short Incantations for the Threshold
From the hearth and Samhain notes of Carmina Gadelica, we work with short, speakable lines such as:
“Lasair nan seachd sìthichean oirnn.”
Flame of the seven peace-folk upon us.
“Be the doorway safe tonight, the threshold blessed, the passage guarded.”
“Be the Three encircling this hearth, this night, this house.”
Journey Map
Four Days · Three Nights · One Village Flame
We gather for four days and three nights on Iona. Each fire has its own geography: pods and kitchen for Hearth Fire, shrines and cloister for Heart Fire, the height of Dùn Ì for Need Fire, and Fairy Hill and burial ground for Fairy Fire. The land itself is part of the liturgy.
Daily Flow
Four Days of Fire on Iona
The schedule below offers a shaped arc. On Iona the weather, the sea, and the needs of the group will also speak. If at any point you must choose between listening to us and listening to the land, choose the land.
Day 1 · Hearth Fire · Village Kindling
Afternoon arrival
Arrival & settling welcome
Check into pods, stretch your legs, and let your body land. Tea, simple snacks, and quiet conversation as people arrive. Site: Celtic Fire Village court and pods.
Check into pods, stretch your legs, and let your body land. Tea, simple snacks, and quiet conversation as people arrive. Site: Celtic Fire Village court and pods.
Hearth Fire orientation story
Why the Gaels began the year at the hearth, and how kindling and smooring prayers framed every day. Site: Common pod gathering space.
Why the Gaels began the year at the hearth, and how kindling and smooring prayers framed every day. Site: Common pod gathering space.
Evening village fire
Opening Hearth Fire ritual
A first fire in the village court, with short lines adapted from the kindling prayer:
“I will kindle my fire this night in the presence of the holy ones of heaven.” Site: Celtic Fire Village courtyard.
A first fire in the village court, with short lines adapted from the kindling prayer:
“I will kindle my fire this night in the presence of the holy ones of heaven.” Site: Celtic Fire Village courtyard.
Supper & common table table
Simple meal, introductions, and a first sharing of why each person has come. Site: Shared dining space.
Simple meal, introductions, and a first sharing of why each person has come. Site: Shared dining space.
Night culture by the fire fire circle
Weather permitting, we keep the night fire going. Songs, stories, or simply watching the sparks rise. Site: Celtic Fire Village courtyard.
Weather permitting, we keep the night fire going. Songs, stories, or simply watching the sparks rise. Site: Celtic Fire Village courtyard.
Day 2 · Heart Fire · Flame Within the Breast
Morning pilgrimage
Morning kindling of the heart prayer
A line adapted from the heart prayer:
“God, kindle Thou in my heart within a flame of love for neighbour, friend and foe.”Site: Quiet corner of Iona Abbey.
A line adapted from the heart prayer:
“God, kindle Thou in my heart within a flame of love for neighbour, friend and foe.”Site: Quiet corner of Iona Abbey.
Pilgrimage to the Hermit’s Cell pilgrimage
Silence on the walk out, a short teaching on inner fire, and time alone in and around the beehive cell.Site: Hermit’s Cell and surrounding hillside.
Silence on the walk out, a short teaching on inner fire, and time alone in and around the beehive cell.Site: Hermit’s Cell and surrounding hillside.
Listening practice practice
Gentle contemplative practice for noticing the “temperature” of the heart and offering it blessing.Site: Grassy hollow near the Hermit’s Cell.
Gentle contemplative practice for noticing the “temperature” of the heart and offering it blessing.Site: Grassy hollow near the Hermit’s Cell.
Afternoon & evening
Rest & shore wandering rest
Journaling prompts for the heart. Optional visit to Martyrs’ Bay, the bookshop, or a favourite stone.Sites: Village lanes, Martyrs’ Bay shoreline.
Journaling prompts for the heart. Optional visit to Martyrs’ Bay, the bookshop, or a favourite stone.Sites: Village lanes, Martyrs’ Bay shoreline.
Illuminated heart verse craft
Choose one line from the heart prayers and decorate it in a simple, illuminated style to carry home.Site: Abbey cloister arcade tables.
Choose one line from the heart prayers and decorate it in a simple, illuminated style to carry home.Site: Abbey cloister arcade tables.
Heart Fire vigil vigil
Tealights in a sheltered space, each one standing for a relationship, grief, or hope. Quiet watch together.Site: Nunnery warming-room remains or cloister, weather permitting.
Tealights in a sheltered space, each one standing for a relationship, grief, or hope. Quiet watch together.Site: Nunnery warming-room remains or cloister, weather permitting.
Day 3 · Need Fire · Hilltop Renewal
Morning ascent and spark
Extinguishing remembrance rite
A brief liturgy remembering how, in older practice, every home fire was covered before the Need Fire was raised.Site: Abbey cloister walk.
A brief liturgy remembering how, in older practice, every home fire was covered before the Need Fire was raised.Site: Abbey cloister walk.
Pilgrimage to Dùn Ì pilgrimage
Climb at a gentle pace with pauses for story and breath. The tale of the friction fire and why it was only raised in necessity.Site: Dùn Ì summit and Brigid’s Pool.
Climb at a gentle pace with pauses for story and breath. The tale of the friction fire and why it was only raised in necessity.Site: Dùn Ì summit and Brigid’s Pool.
Birth of the ember ritual
A small, symbolic kindle. We honour the idea of letting a new year’s fire be born from shared effort.Site: Terraced hollow below the summit, wind allowing.
A small, symbolic kindle. We honour the idea of letting a new year’s fire be born from shared effort.Site: Terraced hollow below the summit, wind allowing.
Afternoon torch & Samhain procession
Rest & sea views rest
Slow descent, journaling, and lunch by the water.Sites: Dùn Ì slopes, White Strand of the Monks.
Slow descent, journaling, and lunch by the water.Sites: Dùn Ì slopes, White Strand of the Monks.
Samhain torch procession procession
Torchlight walk between Abbey, St Columba’s Shrine, St Oran’s Chapel, and the Nunnery. Short blessings at each threshold.Sites: Abbey precinct, Reilig Òdhrain, Nunnery ruins.
Torchlight walk between Abbey, St Columba’s Shrine, St Oran’s Chapel, and the Nunnery. Short blessings at each threshold.Sites: Abbey precinct, Reilig Òdhrain, Nunnery ruins.
Day 4 · Fairy Fire · The Edge of the Sìth
Morning at the hill and graves
Pilgrimage to Sìthean Mòr pilgrimage
Walk to the Fairy Hill and listen for what the older stories call the “blue tremulous flame” of the sìth folk.Site: Sìthean Mòr (Fairy Hill).
Walk to the Fairy Hill and listen for what the older stories call the “blue tremulous flame” of the sìth folk.Site: Sìthean Mòr (Fairy Hill).
Peace Fire vigil ritual
A small, quiet rite honouring Fairy Fire as omen, blessing, and reminder that the world has more than one layer.Site: Ridge on Sìthean Mòr, weather permitting.
A small, quiet rite honouring Fairy Fire as omen, blessing, and reminder that the world has more than one layer.Site: Ridge on Sìthean Mòr, weather permitting.
Remembering the dead prayer
Short walk through Reilig Òdhrain and St Oran’s Chapel with candle or stone for those we carry in our hearts.Site: Reilig Òdhrain & St Oran’s Chapel.
Short walk through Reilig Òdhrain and St Oran’s Chapel with candle or stone for those we carry in our hearts.Site: Reilig Òdhrain & St Oran’s Chapel.
Departure & blessing
Closing circle closing
Final sharing, simple vow for the year ahead, and blessing for the journey home.Site: Celtic Fire Village courtyard or Abbey green, weather permitting.
Final sharing, simple vow for the year ahead, and blessing for the journey home.Site: Celtic Fire Village courtyard or Abbey green, weather permitting.
Departures travel
Ferries, buses, and trains outward again. The ember of the retreat travels back into many homes.Sites: Iona pier, Fionnphort, ferries and onward paths.
Ferries, buses, and trains outward again. The ember of the retreat travels back into many homes.Sites: Iona pier, Fionnphort, ferries and onward paths.
Facilitators
Warden of the Flame, Keeper of the Hearth & Sacred Musician
Michael Ferguson
Warden of the Flame.
Instructor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Neurospirituality Lab, Michael brings together Gaelic ritual, contemplative practice, and brain science. His work explores how inner fire, prayer, and imagination shape resilience and meaning.
Kate Tunnell
Keeper of the Hearth · Zoom Presenter.
A Harvard College alum and Celtic Studies fellow, Kate carries the Carmina Gadelica into living ritual. She volunteered at Iona Abbey in 2025, living on the island and deepening her connection to its sacred rhythms. Her work tends the seam between text and life, helping old knowledge find a home in contemporary practice. Kate will join the retreat remotely via Zoom.
Simon de Voil
Sacred Musician & Song Keeper.
An ordained interfaith minister and Scottish singer-songwriter, Simon lived and worked at Iona Abbey for two-and-a-half years, and has been making personal pilgrimage to the land for fifteen years, many of which has been while guiding groups of spiritual seekers through music, story, and personal sharing. His practices are rooted in Celtic Christianity, Gaelic tradition, and his Scottish familial heritage. Simon weaves chant, ritual, and poetry to create sacred space for profound connection.
Retreat Contribution
Pods, Fire, and Fees
The retreat has a simple structure. Everyone stays in the Celtic Fire Village at Iona Pods. The exact number of participants depends on how many people choose shared versus private pods.
Baseline Retreat Fee
- $800 per person for a shared pod.
- Two people share a standard pod, each with their own bed.
- Includes all Celtic Fire programming, rituals, and guided pilgrimages.
- Includes simple materials for small practices and crafts.
Private Pod Option
- Additional $250 to guarantee a private pod.
- Limited number of private pods, assigned as space allows.
- Final retreat size is set by how many shared versus private pods are chosen.
- Meals and travel are arranged separately and are not included in the retreat fee.
Pods are booked directly through Celtic Fire as part of retreat registration. The intention is simple: one village, one flame, and enough warmth for everyone to feel held.
Reserve Your Spot
Secure Your Place at Celtic Fire
To reserve a spot in a shared pod, send a non-refundable down payment of $250 via Venmo. This holds your bed in a shared pod and confirms your place in the village. The remaining $550 is due before the retreat begins.
To guarantee a private pod, send the full $1,050 ($800 retreat fee + $250 private pod fee) via Venmo. Private pods are limited and assigned as space allows.
All down payments are non-refundable and will be applied toward your total retreat fee. Once received, we will follow up with details on pod assignments, travel, and everything you need to prepare for Samhain on Iona.
Celtic Fire Blessing
Peace light of Hearth Fire to guard your home,
Heart flame of Teine-chrìdhe to warm your days,
Need Fire of Dùn Ì to cleanse your way,
Fairy Fire of the sìth to guide your steps at the edge.
May the ember you carry make bright your dwelling,
The glowing love of all creation burn radiantly within your being.