The Call of the Cailleach

A Portal of Transformation and Spiritually Inspiring Retreat

The Chalice Well Retreat House & Gardens, Glastonbury

12th – 15th December 2025

Join Natalia O’Sullivan & Charlie Merton for an intimate journey and a rare opportunity to stay within the Chalice Well Gardens.

You will have 24-hour access to the Chalice Well Gardens and the red spring water to drink and bathe in.

This special collaboration is fully catered by Anastasia Eden (a plant based chef) who offers nutritious, healthy, grounding and nourishing meals to allow you the opportunity to deepen and completely surrender into the retreat process. This retreat occurs over the waning moon a week ahead of the Winter Solstice as the earth withdraws to compost and renew itself, so too are you invited to turn inward. An opportunity to release outdated stories and rediscover your truest self.

This retreat is intentionally intimate, limited to just NINE WOMEN to foster a nurturing and transformative atmosphere.

Will you heed the call of Cailleach and join us on this sacred inner journey?

More Details

Together, Natalia and Charlie combine their expertise and deep connection to the land, sharing its sacred energy as a portal of empowerment. This collaboration is designed to support you in navigating your current life’s circumstances, opening pathways for growth and renewal through the wisdom and power of the landscape itself.

This retreat is not simply an escape, but a threshold – an invitation to pause at the liminal edge between seasons between what has been and what wishes to emerge. Here, in the sacred gardens, every footstep echoes with ancient song, and each breath draws in the memory of countless seekers.

The presence of the Cailleach can be felt in the hush of the soil, the shimmer of dew. Within this sanctuary, you are held in a circle of like-hearted women, each honouring their unique journey yet woven together in collective intention. Through ceremony and contemplative practice, the veils between the worlds grow thin, offering glimpses of inner truths and ancestral guidance. in the safety of this container, vulnerability is welcomed, and authentic transformation is not only supported – it is celebrated.

Introducing Natalia O’Sullivan

Charlie met Natalia in 2007, as part of her own ongoing healing journey. She spent a few years taking part in the Sacred Healers classes in London and took part in a number of retreats. Natalia and her husband Terry have been a great support offering me spiritual guidance and healings for almost two decades and Charlie feels it is an honour to be collaborating with Natalia within these sacred grounds at this potent time.

For the past thirty years, Natalia O’Sullivan has dedicated her career to ancestral healing, holistic therapy, and spiritual counselling. She integrates modern psychological approaches with traditional wisdom, drawing on extensive studies in psychology and a mastery of holistic arts, including shamanic traditions, spiritual healing, shiatsu, massage, sacred healing, and soul rescue.

Writing and Publications

As an accomplished writer, Natalia has co-authored Ancestral Healing Made Easy (Hay House 2021), and Soul Rescuers (Thorsons, 1999) with Terry and authored “Do It Yourself Psychic Power” (Element, 2002), “Mind Power” (Ryland, Peters & Small, 2003), as well as co-authoring “The Ancestral Continuum” with Nicola Graydon (Simon & Schuster, 2013). Her articles on spirituality and alternative health have appeared in Spirit, Light, and Living the Field Magazines.

www.soulrescuers.co.uk

Sacred Healer Retreats

These retreats are grounded in Celtic Shamanism, which fosters a spiritual bond with nature and helps restore connections with ancient ancestors. Participants are encouraged to develop a sacred understanding of the earth and to honour and communicate with those who came before.

The Structure of the Retreat

As the natural world retreats and renews itself, you too are invited to turn inward releasing worn-out narratives and reconnecting with your truest self.

This retreat is thoughtfully designed to illuminate the cycles of life. Our journey begins on Friday afternoon with a welcoming ceremony and opening circle. Saturday centres on awakening, while Sunday is dedicated to embracing understanding and wisdom. The day of enlightenment.

Each day is intentionally structured to support your inner work. Mornings begin in gentle quietude, guiding you to presence through meditation, devotional chanting (mantra), embodied yoga-inspired movement, and breathwork.

Throughout each day, Natalia leads immersive rituals, vision quests, and transmissions rooted in the ancient wisdom of the land. As you journey through Avalon’s energies and landscapes, you may rediscover forgotten aspects of yourself, awaken dormant magic, and experience profound transformation.

As evening falls, you are welcomed into calming embodiment practices like yin yoga, inviting softness, grounding, and self-compassion. From this nurturing space, you will be carried into a sound bath of gongs, crystal and Tibetan bowls, and elemental tones, intuitively woven by Charlie. These soothing vibrations help calm your nervous system, inviting deep rest and preparing you for restorative sleep beneath the stars.

Arrival and Departure

Orientation & Welcome Activity: Friday 12th December 2025, starting at 1pm
Room Check-In: Friday 12th December 2025, from 4pm
Check-Out: Monday 15th December 2025 (rooms to be vacated by 10am; retreat concludes at 12pm after closing circle)

Sample Daily Schedule

7:30 – 8:30: Fruits and teas
8:30: Morning meditation and chanting at the wellhead (weather permitting)
9:30: Embodiment practice (Yoga, breathwork)
10:30 – 11:30: Brunch
11:30 – 17:30: Sacred Healing Time guided by Natalia
17:30: Dinner and free time
20:00 – 21:30: Evening restorative embodiment practice (yin and restorative yoga), concluding with a bedtime story or sound bath

Please note: This schedule is a sample and may be adjusted to include additional activities in the local area as needed.

A Portal for Empowerment

With a small selective group of women ensuring a purposeful shared experience. In this rare gathering, the alchemy of place and people blends into a crucible for inner work, where individual insight is magnified by collective energy. Rituals attuned to the cyclical wisdom of the earth, guided meditations, and shared reflection weave the threads of personal transformation with the living mythos of the land. So, everyone’s voice is valued and each story respected.

This is a unique opportunity to work with both Natalia and Charlie unlike any other retreat, this is a rite of passage—an opening into profound transformation.

Journeying with the Cailleach

Throughout this retreat, we draw upon the wisdom and energy of the Cailleach, the ancient crone who is guardian of winter. Her presence supports us in letting go of what no longer serves, honouring our deepest intuition, and anchoring ourselves in the fertile, fierce wisdom carried within.

Who Is the Cailleach?

The Cailleach stands as a potent archetype of feminine wisdom, transformation, and the eternal cycles of nature. Rooted in Irish and Scottish mythology, she is known as a crone goddess, earth mother, and the hag of winter. The Cailleach embodies the dark half of the year, holding the powers of both creation and destruction, death and rebirth, and offering lessons of solitude, wisdom, and inner knowing.

She reminds us that endings are necessary for new beginnings to emerge—she is at once the destroyer and the protector, the initiator and the wise guide. Within our time together, we will connect to her ancient wisdom as she journeys through the starkness of winter, embracing the sacred darkness.

The Cailleach teaches that all life originates in the unseen. Roots extend quietly, seeds awaken beneath the frozen ground, and profound transformation takes place far from the surface.

For more information click here to download the brochure.

Avalon is often described as the Heart Chakra of the Earth, and the land resonates with powerful energies, especially deepening during the darker days of the year. The sacred grounds of Chalice Well Gardens and The Tor symbolise the union of the sacred masculine (Michael line) and the sacred feminine (Mary line), creating fertile soil for renewal, clarity, intuition, and rebirth.

Little St Michael’s Retreat House, Chalice Well

Constructed in circa 1600, Little St Michael’s is a beautiful Grade II listed house within the tranquil Chalice Well garden. Staying in the Retreat House offers you relaxing and inspiring space in the incredibly special environment of the house, and also gives full access to the gardens 24 hours a day.

Little St Michael’s is at the foot of Glastonbury Tor, next to the White Springs and a 10-15 minute walk from the high street.

Please Note: There is no Wi-Fi available on-site, and mobile phones should be set to airplane mode while you are on the grounds. Mobile phone use is permitted only when outside of the Retreat House and Chalice Well grounds.

Who Is This Retreat For?

This women’s retreat welcomes participants of every level and background. It is designed for those who feel called to unravel, release, and meet themselves with courage and authenticity. All yoga and embodiment sessions will offer options and adjustments tailored to suit different abilities and conditions.

For more information click here to download the brochure.

Investment

Single Room – Solo occupancy £1250
Twin Room – Sharing £1100
Triple Room – Sharing £1000

All rooms have shared bathroom facilities. All rates are per person and based on a sharing with a minimum of 2-3 people. If you are booking on your own we will allocate you a roommate, please note that this is a women’s only retreat.

For more information click here to download the brochure.

How Do I Book?

To ensure that this is appropriate we ask you complete an application form

Click here to complete the application/booking form.

A £350 non-refundable deposit is required to secure your place.

The full balance is due on or before 12th November 2025.

Once you have completed the booking/application form please wait for confirmation of your place before sending your deposit.

Name: NADAPRIYA YOGA & THERAPIES LTD
Account Type: Business
Account Number: 24052915
Sort Code: 23-05-80

Please click here to view the Terms and Conditions.