The Coru Cathubodua Priesthood
The Coru Cathubodua Priesthood is a Celtic Polytheist Priesthood dedicated to the Morrígan in Her many forms, and honoring the family of Celtic Gods and heroes. Service, sovereignty, hospitality, and warriorship are the values that guide the Coru Cathubodua Priesthood. We are Pagan Polytheist priests working to advance our mission to honor the Gods and support our communities through acts of individual and community service and devotion. Guided by our Queen, the Morrígan, Celtic Goddess of sovereignty, prophecy, and battle, we welcome all who share this commitment to bringing these values to life for all people.
Vyviane Armstrong
Vyviane Armstrong has been event planning and arranging sacred site tours since 1999, with a special focus on Goddess and Sacred Site pilgrimages in North America, the UK, and Ireland. She has worked in travel and event planning for twenty years. Her belief is that travel is a holistic event, and a pilgrimage starts the minute the first hotel room is booked or the first guidebook bought.
Some of Vyviane’s favorite places to travel and explore are Ireland, Thailand, Wales, and road trips through North America. Her next travel goals are Prague, the Isle of Man, and North Dakota. Her favorite city is Sligo, Ireland, and her hometown is Atlanta, Georgia.
Lora O’Brien
Lora O’Brien is a native Irish woman with strong experience in Irish history, heritage, archaeology, mythology, & Irish Spirituality. You could call her Pagan, Witch, Druid, Priestess or Shaman, and you wouldn’t be wrong, although she doesn’t call herself anything but a Draoí – a practitioner of indigenous Irish magic and spirituality, in the simplest terms.
While working for 8 years as the General Manager at Cruachán – Rathcroghan Royal Site in Co. Roscommon, Lora was honoured to guide visitors both physically and spiritually to Oweynagat, the Cave of the Cats, the real life entrance to the Irish Otherworld.
She is still a tour guide (by special appointment only), a teacher, and writes Irish heritage articles and books, including: her earliest work ‘Irish Witchcraft from an Irish Witch: A Practical Guide to Irish Spirituality‘ in 2012, which combines her psychology studies with very accessible information and technique to provide a clear pathway for connection to Ireland; and ‘A Practical Guide to Irish Magic‘ (Llewellyn, 2017).
Lora is a co-founder and legal Reverend with the Irish Pagan Life Rites organisation, has been consciously following a pagan path for 21 years, and is a dedicated Priestess of the Morrigan for over 13 years. It’s hard work, but the benefits are… no, actually. It’s just hard work.
Gemma McGowan
Gemma McGowan hails from Kells in Co. Meath and has been a practicing Pagan and Witch since 2001. She lives and breathes her spiritual path working as a healer, teacher and Bard (storyteller, singer and songwriter) and serving as a Priestess to the Irish Deities, Brigid and Mannanan Mac Lir. Gemma trained in Progressive Witchcraft with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone for 7 years to 3rd degree High Priestess, Seer and Trance guide and now serves as High Priestess to her magical training group ‘Keepers of the Well’. Gemma has also trained as a Shamanic Therapist with John Cantwell and Karen Ward of Sli and Chroi, School of Celtic Shamanism, is a qualified Systematic Kinesiologist from The Academy of Systematic Kinesiology in Ireland and runs a healing clinic from her home in Kells. Gemma is also a full time Mum, to two small people, an avid forager and winemaker and has recently discovered she can play the harp!
Story Archaeology
Our favorite myth and storytelling podcasters, Chris Thompson and Isolde Carmichael will be joining us for our time in Leitrim.
You may learn more about Story Archaeology by visiting them at www.storyarchaeology.com.