Please note that the program is subject to change as organiser sees fit.
Flights to Heraklion need to be co-ordinated: arrival and departure times to fit with the pilgrimage schedule or alternative transport to and from we are staying becomes the responsibility/arrangement and cost of the individual.
We will arrive in Heraklion airport on the North coast of Crete in the evening (20.45) and travel straight to magical Matala on the South coast to settle in, share our first evening group snack and get to know each other.
Peaceful and colourful Matala, hippy heaven of the 60’s, becomes our base for the first 4 days of our pilgrimage. Breakfast is included in our simple twin room accommodation with aircon, in quiet setting with swimming pool.
From our base here we will enjoy the beauty of the beach and the pleasant bustle of the shops in town.
You can visit the famous ‘hippy’ caves where the first Neolithic settlers of this Isle lived, and which the Romans used as graves. Enjoy having time and ceremony on the secluded Red Beach, which is Paradise.
I will lead you in a Linear A inspired Ariadnean Libation Invocation to The Great Goddess, which you are invited to offer ceremonially at various times during our tour, and visit nearby sacred sites.
The Temple/’palace’ of Phaistos is aligned to the sacred twin peaked breast mountain of the Goddess Ida, this is where the famous and recently deciphered Phaistos disk (an invocation to the Ariadnean Mother Goddess) was found. We will have time for ceremony in Agia Triados ‘administrative centre’, the Tholus grave at Sivia, and view Kommos, Ariadnean port, right on a turtle beach where we will have time for a swim.
On our departure from Matala, we leave early to Knossos, before the crush of the tour busses arrives. We will explore Knossos, great temple palace, where we will be able to see the magical little known aspects of this world famous site, like the water sanctuary temple and the priestess houses (if it is open to the public), and experience walking on Ariadne’s dance floor, step onto the sacred road, find the yonic altar stone and priestess house of this famous sacred site, as well as having time to explore the temple grounds before looking around the shops outside the ancient site.
From here we will go to visit the wonderful newly reopened Heraklion museum, where room after room of Ariadnean Goddess treasure will take your breath away. There is good souvenir and Goddess statue shopping right around the museum.
In the evening we will arrive at our hotel in Malia, with sea front and swimming pool, where we will stay in simple twin or tripple room accommodation that have a small kitchinette. Breakfast is not included here, but the pool bar does lovely snack food and breakfast or you can get ingredients in the local shop to prep food in your rooms. Malia will be our base on the north coast for the last 3 days of our pilgrimage.
Here we will visit Maila temple palace complex with it’s great court, oracle (Betyl) stone, unique offering altars and remains of the great artisan city, which most belief to have been destroyed by the tsunami caused by the Thera eruption.
We will enjoy time on Malia beach, near to where the famous Golden Bee broach was found. We can visit the Bee Broach site and eat wonderful Greek homemade food on the beach while watching the sun set.
We will make a pilgrimage to Phouria and the deeply moving Ariadnean Priestess graves which were discovered undisturbed in the cemetery field there. Here we will make ceremony and pick the aromatic sage, sacred plant medicine of Crete, which we will make offerings with, as well as see the grave gifts of our priestess ancestors from Archanes. We will visit a wonderful little shop where one of the women who actually makes the Goddess statues and museum reproductions will welcome us with great Cretan warmth and friendliness.
From Archanes, we will make pilgrimage to the Minoan Peak Sanctuary on the top of Mount Juktas, to make libation offerings of honey, wine, and water into the yonic cleft, sacred source of the sacred mountain.
After a relaxed morning, we will depart Malia and hope to visit the small archaeological museum of Agios Nickolaos, housing a phallic betyl stone and the ‘Goddess of Myrtos’ libation vessel, from the oldest known home shrine in the settlement above Myrtos, priestess sistrums, as well as other local treasures (the museum was closed in 2020 and 2021, but hopefully will have reopened in time for our tour next year).
Alternatively we may explore the post palatial period (late) settlements of the Lasithi plateau, where the Goddesses with upraised arms statues were found.
From there we will go on to visit magical Gournia.
Here we will walk the streets of this ancient Ariadnean town and temple, enter the houses of potters, metal workers, smiths and wine makers, and find (and sit on) the sacred stone (betyl) on which priestesses would trance journey and oracle. Here you walk with the ancestors, and feel the breath of their Goddess loving ways guide and inspire you. The great altar stone is the perfect setting for your own spontaneous ceremony, and the Kernel offering altar invites our libation invocations, as of old.
From here we will travel over the mountain roads of South East Crete, all the way to Zakros, secluded little piece of Greek heaven, and site of not only the 4th largest (little visited) Temple Palace, but also the Gorge of the dead, and necropolis of our Ariadnean ancestors.
Set in an idyllic bay with a few little taverns, we will stay for 2 nights in simple 2 person room right by the sea and quiet beach tavern, with breakfast included.
The water here is the purest spring water in the whole of Crete and is said to have healing properties, which i can well belief, and which the ancient sacred pool and Temple springs attest to.
We will have a full day to enjoy the beautiful beach, visit the Temple Palace and, if wanted, walk the gorge (best done early in the morning as it gets very hot here during the day), as well as watch the sun set in the wine dark sea from a taverna on the beach.
Though none of us will want to leave, we will continue our circular route round Crete and visit Sitea archeological museum, where you can see the priestess jewellery box found in her grave at Mochlos, as well as many fabulous regional treasures, en route to delightful fishing village: Mochlos where we will stay for 2 nights.
Mochlos island is a beautifully and little visited Minoan town and ‘house graves’ high on the Western hill side of the island, overlooking the setting sun. Some of the finest stone work we will have seen in the museums is from here, and it had a thriving pottery and perfume industry, as well as small sanctuary.
We will connect to a specific priestess ancestor here and walk in the footsteps of our priestess self. We will go to the island by little boat on the full day we will have here, as the currents can be dangerous for swimming across, and arrange this on our arrival while enjoying lunch in the harbour. Snorkeling is good, but sea shoes recommended, for a lovely swim from Mochlos’ rocky shore.
From here we will drive to Myrtos on the South coast for our last day, and stay for one night in this traditional and charming little seaside town at the foot of the Dikti mountains, in air-conditioned twin accommodation with breakfast under the plantain tree. We will have our last evening group meal here.
Before arriving in Myrtos, we will drive into the mountains and explore the remote site of Kato Syme: Temple of Aphrodite and Hermes. High up on the bee buzzing mountain where the sacred spring of the Goddess still runs today. (For those allergic to, or afraid of, large number of bees, we suggest staying in the tavern at the start of the mountain trail).
On this excursion, you can expect to see griffin vultures and eagles in the stunning green mountain, on the way up to this ancient votive shrine site, where the sacred spring has been worshiped in various forms since the Neolithic, and the later Temple to the Goddess and God was famous in the ancient world. There is a living heart in this sacred site, the perfect place for personal reflection and gratitude offerings, as well as spontaneous ceremony to end our pilgrimage with.
Our last morning (25th) is for free time to have a last swim in the delicious sea, shop or chill, before we leave over the mountain to the North coast and Heraklium airport after lunch.
We will not want to leave this magic Goddess land resonating with the love for life of our ancestors, from which arose modern European civilisation and Priestess embodiment spiritual traditions, which sings in our remembered love for the ways of Goddess.
This will be an unforgettable journey of relaxation and connection, a time touched by the Goddess!
LIMITED PLACES BOOK EARLY!!!
