Already for a while I wanted to pay again a visit to my "homeland", Scotland. I was there a number of times, nearly every year. However, the last few years I walked other paths.
Early this summer I had a dream. I was with a man whom I did not know canoeing on the ocean. The question was where? In my dream I was thinking of the Atlantic Ocean on the Scottish coast, but I was not sure. It was a beautiful sunny day and I landed at a small island unknown to me. There was a small wooden house, a kind of tearoom. When I entered somebody told me the name of the island; I had never heard of it. Then it became very stormy and I got awake.
Curiously awakened, I searched the internet for the name of the island, which had been given to me and to my amazement it indeed existed, on the west coast of Scotland under the isle of Skye. The name was the Isle of Eigg!
That morning I felt the urge to make it my Scottish destination this summer. The isle of Eigg is a small island with one little road, no hotels, a few houses, 120 inhabitants, a little church in the middle of the island, a landing pier and a cafe annexed with a little shop, that was it.
And... there was a B and B on the other side of the island with a view on the volcanic island of Rum.
Impulsively I booked the B and B for 6 nights, perhaps a little bit long for an island where not much was happening. But on the contrary, this attracted me, nature, the sea and the silence. Also I had the feeling that things were happening there but in the unseen world and this became true.
Already many times I have visited the Scottish isles on the west coast, especially Iona.
And again the main thread in my journey became St Columba, the man who left Ireland in the 7th century and became stranded with his disciples on the small island of Iona on the Scottish west coast.
From Iona the Celtic religion was spread through Great Britain and Europe, and even further. Iona became a holy island with a beautiful abbey where monks did their work and where, during the ages, kings and queens were buried.
That did not happen on the isle of Eigg. However, there was a connection with St Columba through an Irish collegue from the same time, St Donnan. After a few days on the island it became clear to me, it was brotherhood at a distance.
After I had booked our stay on Eigg, I was here with my artist friend Keith from Yorkshire, two things came to my knowledge. First of all there was this remote beach near Cleadale, where our B and B was located, called the Singing Sands!
The beach produced frequencies of sound: the sea, the wind, the birds of the sea and this in hamony with sand-sounds: cosmic energy to create a connection between the earth, mankind and the universes.
When we took a walk to the beach, the weather was very moody, nearly dramatic, dark cloudy skies with flashes of light pouring through. A primeval feeling, like being closer to source, overcame me when I walked on the sands. It was low tide and I saw "my friends", faces in ancient stones, which were spread all over; also dragons were stretching themselves along the waterline and moreover, I saw a sea-Greenman with moss sticking out of his nose and mouth. In the background were the caves shaped by the sea and the winds in the rocks. And everywhere were little round stones with a hole in the middle, formed by hard little stones, and then they were filled with seawater and mirrored themselves in the light, like sparkling eyes looking up in the sky.
But I discovered more. There was a cave on the other side of the island, called the Massacre Cave, the cave of St Francis.
In the 16th century nearly the whole population, 400 souls, were killed here in the cave. They were the MacDonalds smoked to death by the Macleods, who came from the isle of Skye. In that time there was a long running feud between the two Clans and then the Maclouds approached by ship the isle of Eigg, all the inhabitants hid themselves in a cave, which could not be reached with high tide and had a very low entrance. You have to crawl inside but after that you enter a huge space. The plan succeeded and the Macleods, finding the island empty, took their leave. However, after they had left, one young man came out of the cave and climbed the cliff to see if the coast was clear. He was spotted by the ships. They returned, filled the narrow entrance with burning straw and the MacDonalds were smoked to death. Even in recent times bones from the deceased are still found.
As I am a "cleaner" and already was able to bring many dead souls into the light, I became aware of the reason of my dream. There was "work" to be done.
The weather did not improve much that week. One of the last days on the island I felt the urge to go to the cave. Just before that I met a very old Scottish man in a kilt with a drum on his back. He was an old Shaman. Somebody had told me that very often he slept in caves. He had just arrived on Eigg. I met him in front of the little cafe near the pier and spoke to him.
He told me that that night he had been in the Massacre cave, played his dum for hours and slept there. He said: "I was there to change the frequencies, if you know what I mean". "Yes", I said, "I do understand that, that is also part of my work".
This short meeting felt as planned between two old souls, to cocreate through time and space in divine timing. It made me feel happy.
So the next day, we set off for the Massacre cave. It was a little more than half an hour's walk from the pier on a path high on the rocks along the coast. From this side of the island the stony coast down below, looked dark and grim.
Suddenly the path sloped in the direction of the beach. It was steep and slippery. Where was the cave? From above we saw a cave deep down, but the entrance was too big. It appeared to be the Cathedral cave. Halfway down the path was a big stone, sticking out of the deep slope.
We decided to stop here. I went in silence and connected with the Massacre cave. Later on we became aware that we were right above it.
It felt good and energies were released. When we walked back I saw suddenly a small, easier little path going down and so we reached the narrow entrance of our cave. The sun started shining and stones in front of the cave started glistening when I made my altar in front of the entrance.The lightwork created literally light. A nice rounding off. So above so below.
Well was this the reason I had to go to Eigg?
However, there was more. I heard that there was a ruin of an old monastery called St Donnans Monastery in Kildonnan.
The next day our landlady dropped us halfway on the road to the pier, right on top of a hill. There... down left in a little wood far away, we might spot the old settlement.
No road, no signs, just a gate, a field, a moor, just use your intuition. After some efforts we found it on a lower hill, hidden behind the wood and looking out over the harbour and the sea. An old chapel without a roof, overgrown with weeds, a broken old Celtic cross and fallen gravestones and.. many sheep.
A beautiful spot leading us back to the 7th century. It felt a bit like coming home. The Celtic Christianity had looked for isolated places to lead a contemplative life, the life of a Hermit, like St Donnan. He founded there, as an Irish missionary, the first Christian community, a monastery with little stone cells overlooking the ocean.
It is said that St Columba warned him of the dangers of his mission. This became true as in 617 after Easter celebration, St Donnan and the whole community of 52 people were killed by Norsemen. So they all became martyrs.
Following this, new monasteries were established on more islands.
Archelogical digs proved that this spot, Kildonnan is prehistoric.
Before we left the hill I found something amazing on one of the walls of the ruined church. In a wooden frame with glass in front was a real sheela-na-gig, the mother goddess showing her fertility. Female energy in this very old place.
Back on the mainland we would meet St Columba twice more; in the beautiful cathedral in Dunkeld on the river Tay, where he had been preaching and a few days later in the highlands, in a little place named Kingussie. That is another dramatic story, which I will keep for another time.
Unconsciously we look for our old roots and through those meetings we bring healing and love, both for Gaya and for ourselves in favour of the whole universe.
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