The Pink Lady of Dùn-Ì, Well of Eternal Youth

In 2002, I travelled to northern Scotland to participate in the 40th Birthday celebrations of the Findhorn Community. It was more than twenty years since I had lived in the community, and I was excited beyond words to be back in Scotland, my spiritual home, sacred place of my ancestors, and place of beauty, joy, and wonder.

I spent an uplifting and rejuvenating week at the Findhorn Community that year, celebrating the community’s Birthday. It was a memorable re-union, one where I was able to re-connect once more with cherished soul friends and family, as well as deeply share once again in the abundance of Love, Spirit, Joy, and Creativity that the beloved Community shines forth in the world. So much had changed in the 23 years since I had left the community, and yet soul connections never die. My experience was a taste of heaven on earth, just as it had been before, a seeming lifetime ago. 

After the week at Findhorn, I travelled by bus on the Community’s regular bus run to Iona early Saturday morning. The Community has long had a treasured retreat cottage on Iona: Traigh Bhan, located on the north-east side of the island I was really looking forward to connecting with that space and place again, too.

It was the month of October, and I remember anticipating the rain and cold and wind. Iona did not disappoint. But even with the harshest weather, if one loves Iona it all doesn’t matter, because her charm and special energies shine through in any case.

Even though I had been several times to Traigh Bhan, the Findhorn Community’s home on Iona, and had walked many paths there, I had not heard of the existence of a Well on Dùn-Ì, at the top of the highest landmark on the island – 333 feet above sea level. I had climbed Dùn-Ì before, but I did not know of the Well. A guest staying at Traigh Bhan told me about it, and I was immediately intrigued. I had to go and see it. Wow – a Well on top of Dùn-Ì. It seemed extraordinary that there would be a Well there. It really called me! I had to see it. There was no time to waste!

So the guest kindly offered to show me where it was.

Once I arrived at the Well, I was immediately struck by its magic and wonder, situated as it was by the edge of a cliff, and protected on two sides by large boulders. Despite the bitter cold and biting winds, I knelt to wash my face in her waters. It was an invigorating and joyful act as I stepped down carefully into the front opening of the Well to touch the water and say a prayer of gratitude for it. It seemed somehow very miraculous that there was this perfect Well on the top of Dùn-Ì.

As I climbed back up out of the small opening to the well, and back to flat land, I was feeling completely rejuvenated and thrilled to have seen the Well and to have touched its waters. Suddenly, to my utter surprise, a shimmering pink Light Being appeared in front of me, slightly to my right, a large being hovering in the air. 

The Being was beautifully ethereal, a shining Light, covered in perfectly round, flat, thin, pink opaque shells that tinkled in the wind. She greeted me and welcomed me to her home. She invited me around to the back of the Well, and showed me where her home was in the rock.

All of this happened in seconds, so quickly in fact that it seemed natural, quite normal. It was a flash of time. I didn’t mention it to my climbing companions as we began our descent down the great hill moments later. My focus became the trek down, as it required my total concentration.

It wasn’t until much, much later that I realized that the beautiful being was the guardian of the Well. I had begun to call her ‘The Pink Lady’, because of her pink shells that tinkled and sang in the wind. 

2012 My Near-Death Experience (NDE) - Soul Calling

Ten years had passed since my experience with ‘The Pink Lady’ at the Well of Dùn-Ì in 2002, and I had only mentioned the story of my encounter with her to one or two people. 

In the late evening of July 22nd, 2012, at my home in Ottawa, Canada, I suddenly felt an extreme pain in my abdomen. I struggled not to lose consciousness but I eventually passed out, hitting my head on the corner of my bedroom dresser as I fell to the floor, unconscious. 

I remember hearing the sound of a body hitting the wooden floor, and of seeing the body collapse and crumple to the floor. And I remember having the thought and awareness that it was my body that had hit the ground. My conscious awareness had left my body in a heap on the floor.

My next awareness was that of being in a very peaceful, tranquil, and completely black environment. It was somehow like being in a state of sleep. A dreamless sleep. A black void. It was a kind of neutral space, yet not an uncomfortable space at all.

I was just content to hang out there in the dark, not aware of anything, and of course not aware that I was technically unconscious. My consciousness was not in my body, it was resting in a dark void. And that was ok.

After an immeasurable amount of time in that space, suddenly a gentle, kind, and totally loving voice emerged out of the blackness and the voice ever-so-softly-and-gently whispered in my left ear. The voice said, “You know …. (pause) …., you could be dying here”.

Well, that got my attention! 

Still hanging out in the deep dark void, in a timeless reverie, I had been suddenly alerted to the sober awareness that I could be dying. It didn’t take long for me to register the meaning of those words, ‘you could be dying here’, and to acknowledge that possibility, because somehow I knew that I was not in my body, that I was not currently occupying a body. And it was an ok space to be in. It was a neutral space, in which I was being held lovingly and securely. I was perfectly fine there. There was no rush to go anywhere.

The possibility of my being in a dying process seemed perfectly plausible. “Ohhhh!” was my immediate response. The thought that I might be dying stirred and awakened my sleeping consciousness even though my consciousness was not inhabiting my body.  The voice stirred me out of the reverie that I was in in the black void. But I was still not conscious or awake in my body. I had no awareness of anything other than the blackness and the voice that had spoken.

Upon becoming aware of the possibility that I was dying, I also then became aware of wanting not to die. So, I said to the voice in the darkness: “But, I want to stay.” I was trying to communicate to the voice that I didn’t want to die!  At least, not yet, not now. I wasn’t ready to go. I really didn’t want to die.

This dialogue was, of course, all happening in the blackness; there were no audible voices, only telepathic communication. But it seemed as real as real could be.

The voice responded, once again, in a most exquisitely, loving, kind, and gentle way: “Well ….”, it said patiently, “you will have to say it again, and really mean it!” 

In that moment, I realized so many things. I realized that physical life on this planet is very, very precious, and fragile: here one minute, gone the next. I realized that I was being asked to demonstrate that I really, really wanted to live. And I also realized that I must have been living my life as if I didn’t really care about living or dying.

It’s true that I had been feeling extremely tired for weeks. I had been working day and night for months on a project that I was passionate about, but I was very tired. In fact, that that very day I had declared out loud, “I’m done”. I was tired of being tired, and something was going to have to change.

In any case, there I was, in the most unusual situation of needing to demonstrate how much I wanted to live, in order that I might continue to live! I realized in that moment that if ever there was a time that one had to be convincing of one’s desire and appreciation for life and for having a life to live, this was it. This was the moment. So, with all the strength and affirmation that I could muster, I said again, and this time with whole-hearted conviction: “I want to stay!”

Needless-to-say, I did come back to life, was taken to the emergency ward of the local hospital. The wound on my head was stitched, and I began to slowly recover from what appeared to be a diverticulitis attack. 

From that day to this day, I start each waking moment in the morning giving thanks for being alive. There is nothing like nearly dying to bring a great appreciation for life and its fragile nature! Life is a gift not to be taken for granted. I truly understood that now.

My NDE Recovery – ‘Go Home to Iona’

In the weeks following my return home from the emergency ward, I was very physically weak and on a liquid-only diet. I was focused on healing my digestive tract, getting my strength back, and resuming my regular life.

One day during that recovery time, I was sitting on the couch in my living room, just resting, when out-of-the-blue, the same voice that I had heard returned. The message was simple, clear and matter-of-fact. It said: “Go home to Iona”. 

I was shocked. While I totally loved the sacred Isle of Iona in Scotland, and had visited it several times, I did not at that time really considered it ‘home’. Not yet. I had not been to Iona for ten years. 

Nevertheless, the idea of going to Iona was quite uplifting and somehow both comforting and intriguing. I began to consider the possibility of traveling there but my immediate and over-riding thoughts were about how I could possibly manage it at all as I was still so physically weak from the near-death episode. 

I had no doubt that I needed to do what the voice was telling me to do. After all, it seemed to know what was best for me! But truly, the suggestion to ‘go home to Iona’ put me in quite a spin. How was I going to physically manage the long trip that would take me from Ottawa, Canada to Glasgow, Scotland, to Oban, across to Mull, and then on to the wee island of Iona? The journey itself would require strength and stamina that I had little of. 

Even more pressing was the question of how was I going to look after myself once there, on such a remote island, so far from significant medical care? How would I get help if I needed it? Where would I stay? How would I manage all the walking required to get groceries and necessities? Why was I being directed to go there? Was Iona going to help my healing process? Were there other reasons that I was yet unaware of?

Despite all these questions and concerns, I knew that I must do it. I must follow the directive, and go home to Iona. I trusted the voice.

So I went on-line to try to book a room for a few nights at the Columba Hotel in the village, on Iona. I had never stayed at a hotel on Iona before, but this time it felt like the appropriate thing to do, given my weakened physical state. I felt that by staying at the Hotel, I would be well cared for, and the possibility of staying at the Columba Hotel was quite exciting as it is so uniquely beautiful. My concern about costs and expenses would have to be overcome, as this was not a time to be worried about that.

I went on-line to search for available dates to stay at the Hotel in October. It was rather late, being already August, to be trying to book a room for just a few weeks away, as Iona is an extremely popular place to visit. Typically, over 130,000 people visit in a year. 

However, I was not expecting to find that there was simply no room available at all. My disappointment turned to trying to be creative about finding another way to be able to stay at the Hotel. I was feeling increasingly certain about the rightness of going to Iona. 

Suddenly it occurred to me that perhaps there might be a conference or a workshop happening at the hotel, something that I would be interested in and that I could participate in that would provide me with the opportunity to have a place to stay at the hotel.

To my complete surprise and delight, when I checked the Hotel’s website, there was going to be a weeklong retreat hosted there at exactly the time that I was looking for. And to add confirmation to the perfect timing of it all, the name of the weeklong retreat was “Coming Home to Iona”! 

There was room for me to be part of the retreat, and I had to marvel at the synchronicities and cosmic humour on display. I booked my flight, train ticket, and retreat package (including accommodation!) and began to pack for the wind, cold, and rain that I expected for that time of year. 

Within a few weeks, I was on my way! Unable to sleep at all on the plane because of the sheer excitement of this unanticipated trip to beloved Iona, the time passed quickly and before I knew it I had arrived in Glasgow and was boarding the train to Oban. All was well, and my energy was strong despite the lack of sleep. 

The train trip to Oban is very beautiful and frequently breath-taking with its rugged, pristine landscape and lakes. One cannot help but marvel at the ancient, untouched feel of the vistas. The time passed quickly, and I found myself thinking about the experience that I had had on Iona with the Pink Lady of the Well of Eternal Youth, on Dun-I ten years previously, the last time that I had been there. 

I only had a week, but it was a very eventful week! 

The highlight of the workshop group was a planned full-day pilgrimage to visit some of the primary sites on the island. I was somewhat surprised that the Well of Eternal Youth was not (at that time in 2012) included on the list of primary sites. The workshop leaders asked us to sign up to say a prayer, give a tribute, or explain the history of a site during the pilgrimage, so I volunteered to do a prayer for the Water at the Well of Eternal Youth, and that was accepted.

I was really happy about having an opportunity to raise awareness about the Holy Well, and to try thereby to elevate it once again to its status as a sacred site. I was so grateful to be able to ‘give back’ to the Well in this way, and to honour the Pink Lady this way, too.

The whole week was entirely magical and extraordinary. Iona has a way of sparking the soul into an awareness of itself, filled with life and beauty, sacredness and community. I knew in my heart that I was to return again to Iona for a longer period next time. I knew that I needed to open to more communication with the Pink Lady and the Well of Eternal Youth, and to learn more about the divine feminine Spirit of Iona.

Anne Kerr was a participant in my workshop group, and I am including here (with her permission) the beautiful prayer that she said at the Nunnery as part of the group’s pilgrimage around the island. 

I include it here because it was her prayer that helped spark in me an understanding of my mission to re-awaken and strengthen the awareness of, and a remembering of, the divine feminine principles that were and are part of the essence of Iona, the Mother God on Iona, the ancient Celtic Goddess on Iona, and the Ladies of the Wells on Iona. 

Anne Kerr was a beautiful strong elder spirit, a Brit, a Brighid. To me, she demonstrated that special, wise woman soul aspect that guards, tends, and nourishes the vibrations of truth, honesty, justice, and equality. I instantly loved and respected her.

I was very moved by Anne’s prayer at the Nunnery. Even though I had been schooled in a feminist perspective (while attending Carleton University’s School of Social Work in the 90’s in Ottawa), I had not really noticed the stark contrast between the dominant male structures of the Abbey that had been well-invested, and well-preserved over the years, and the women’s Nunnery which laid in ruins. Thankfully, recent years have seen more attention given to the Nunnery, and the garden there is always beautifully maintained. The place still emanates a strong sense of the divine feminine.

Still, I felt quite awakened by her observation, and it confirmed my feelings about the need to include the ‘Well of Eternal Youth’ on the pilgrimages around the Island. It seemed that the spirit of women and the divine nature of women’s historical roles was rising to greater visibility on the Island. I felt strongly that I had a responsibility to explore the divine feminine on Iona more, to elevate it, and make it even more visible. 

My time on Iona in 2012 healed me, and I felt a responsibility to share my experiences. I know that I am not alone in having had an experience of being healed physically from Iona’s invigorating life force. 

When I returned to Iona for a month in 2014 to explore the divine feminine and Iona, I realized that the wise-woman-soul aspect that I had experienced in meeting and listening to Anne Kerr was a truly vital aspect of the Spirit of Iona herself. In 2014 and then again in 2017, I met such extraordinary elder women living their lives so fully on Iona. These are women of great courage and faith, capability, independence, and brilliance. Truly inspiring women.

The ancient goddesses of wisdom, strength, and beauty most definitely have a permanent home on Iona in the form of the elder women who choose to live there, and indeed the strengths of the Goddess lives in all of the women there. They all help to sustain the vibration of the Divine Feminine on the sacred Isle.

The Sidhe and The Pink Lady - Notes from my 2014 Journal

The fairy people of Irish folklore, said to live beneath the hills, are often identified as the remnant descendants of the ancient Tuatha Dé Danann, People of the Goddess Danu. The fairy people are referred to as the 'Sidhe’. It is said that they retreated from sight once the druids and druidesses were being eradicated across the land during the Roman conquest of the United Kingdom. They retreated to the hills.

The Sidhe lived and live a parallel life, separating themselves from our dominant human consciousness and living in their own realm. They are part of our larger consciousness, though, a part of our human collective consciousness that has separated itself and has been less available for almost two thousand years. Hidden, like a deep sub-conscious part of ourselves, and relegated to ‘myth’, ‘fantasy’, and ‘fairy tales’. Like many mythical beings, the Sidhe (the fairy people) went almost extinct from our awareness.

Recently, there has been a wave of writers sharing about their experiences with the Sidhe (R.J. Stewart, John Matthews, David Spangler, and many others around the world). It would appear that the Sidhe, or at least certain representatives of these anciently wise and gifted beings are offering themselves in an openhearted gesture of reconciliation. 

The Sidhe, by allowing themselves to be more visible and accessible to humans, are making a wonderfully generous step forward towards us that will help in building and strengthening bridges of connection and communication. 

The Sidhe offer an experience of the re-birthing of wholeness for the human species. It is a gift to be able to make contact with them. The joy, wisdom, sincerity, spiritual integrity, and deep connection to the forces of creation and Nature that the Sidhe represent, is a timely gift to the human spirit, indeed. 

I feel that the communication that I have been experiencing with The Pink Lady is part of this intention of the Sidhe to foster more human contact. I am certainly very grateful for the opportunity, and have experienced a personal strengthening of my spirit as a direct result of the connection with her. 

I am experiencing a noticeable increase in feelings of joy and upliftment! Those feelings manifest as an irrepressible desire to dance in delight in Nature, an increased sense of wonder and joy in life, and a heightened sense of the sacred pervading everything. 

I would add the name 'People of Joy' to describe the Sidhe. 

Certainly we humans, so rooted in the material world, could find more balance and wholeness within ourselves by opening to receive the joy and sense of wonderment that the Sidhe of the elemental world offer us. And some of that Joy is in seeing, and showing gratitude for, all the sacredness in our lives, all of the beauty around us, and celebrating the joy aspects that are inherent in life expressing itself. 

The sun rising. The radiance of a full Moon. A wild flower blooming. The starry night sky. These are all our relations. They await our remembrance and re-connection with a part of ourselves lost so long ago. 

The Pink Lady: On Music
From Journal Entry Friday, September 17, 2014

This morning, in my room at Greenbank, on Iona, I decided to play a little music for The Pink Lady. I retrieved my shell rattle and fairy bell and began to allow the sounds from each of them to blend into a loving greeting to the Lady. Within moments, she was present. She had this to say: 

With that, she faded into the background and left.

I thought about what she said, and it was a good reminder about the nature of our physical and non-physical Universe. 

As I wrote, she came back to say this:

“In our realm, music is what you would call more ‘celestial’. It is light and tingly and could perhaps be described by a painting done in soft watercolours. You humans on Earth though have a vast range of possibilities in playing and listening to music. The sounds are deeper, the resonance fuller; the vibrations of harmonious and stirring music does indeed create a love vibration in the world. The vibrations go out from the instruments and engage with the vibrations of all other things. And the vibration never ends. 

Think of it as like a leaf that falls from a tree. The vibration of the leaf, its life force gradually leaves the cells of the leaf, but have you ever considered where the life force goes? It gets absorbed and becomes a part of the vibrations of the air, the earth, and water. The music of the life force of all creation continues on and on forever on a journey of perpetual transformation and change.”

“This is what is meant by the spiral symbol that is commonly seen in and around your sacred sites. Our people and those who understood and knew us put these symbols on things, on rocks especially because of their longevity and as signals and triggers to those who we knew would come in the future. These symbols speak a language and a subtle music that the soul recognizes. The human personality may not know what it is, but the human soul recognizes itself in the symbol.” 

“The spiral symbol expresses our understanding of music, sound and vibration, among many other things. That it is eternal and so always accessible. The creative spark of life, that which sings itself continually into being, is forever present and, like the spiral, it moves through and covers a whole ordered and complete space in the perfection of its expression. Like a feather held in the air and spiraling with the wind, so too, does all life move through the spiral dance.”

The Pink Lady continued,

“You have been reading and studying about the Druids. You may not yet realize how vital the part of sound, music, and dance was for the Druids. Here was a society, a great flourishing culture that really understood wholeness and were successful in using the knowledge they had of the Universe, human nature, and the unseen realms of creation to sustain their links with the creative forces. They were dedicated students of life! They celebrated life. The performing arts, bards, dancers and singers served a vital function in their communities. The serious pursuit of knowledge and wisdom was balanced with the joy and laughter that artistic entertainment brought. Druids well knew that life was to be celebrated as well as revered. In fact, the two aspects of celebration and reverence for the sacred were whole, holy.” 

A Song from the Pink Lady: At the Well of Eternal Youth
From Journal entry, Saturday, October 4, 2014

I have only a few more days on Iona. The weather has turned to its season of autumn. Today was a sunny day, with a cool wind. It was a good day to make my last ascent on Dun-I this trip.

The forecast was for no rain today. But as I arrived about one-third up on the way to the top up Dun-I, suddenly a cloud came overhead and burst open with hail and rain. I got completely soaked. There was no place to find shelter, so I huddled by a rock and surrendered to the intense baptism by ice and water. The cloud had arrived so suddenly! And it just completely drenched me. 

It was to be the first of two unusual water-related occurrences today. And I was reminded of how clouds have played central roles as harbingers of connectivity to the sacred throughout my month on Iona.

Curiously, the cloud came and dumped its entire contents on me just as I had started to turn to the left side of the path. I thought it would be a good day to explore an interesting area to the far left of the path, an area that had intrigued me for weeks. But it was not to be. Apparently, I was supposed to stick to the regular path today! The cloud of hail and rain ensured that once it was finished it’s event, I returned to the usual path and ascended in the usual way. 

Arriving at the top of Dun-I, I was completely dripping wet. Fortunately, I had decided to wear my rubber boots today because of the rain of previous days, and so thankfully, my feet were completely dry.

I immediately approached the Holy Well, noticing as I gazed at it from the top of the path, that it was looking really good, clear and strong, and full. I went around to the back of the Well as I usually do, hugged the rock, and gave my loving greetings to the Pink Lady, sending my thoughts of loving appreciation to the depths of the Earth. “I love you, Earth”, I said. “I honour you. I respect you. Please know that we humans love you.”

Then I walked back around to the front opening of the Well, and carefully stepped down into its sacred space, dipping my hand into the water and washing my whole face with it. I gave thanks for its purity and life. I gave thanks for my life. I told the water how much I appreciated it, and how beautiful it was. I hope that I always remember the exhilarating feel of that cold water on my face. 

As I savoured the moment, a song came to me thus:

I was touched by these words as I felt that The Pink Lady was singing a good-bye to me. Read more about The Pink Lady here: The Well of Eternal Youth.