In 2016 John Philip Newell began a teaching initiative of annual retreats to help reawaken awareness of the sacred in all things through the recovery of Celtic wisdom for today and to help translate this awareness into compassionate action in our lives and world. 

Celtic Wisdom 1 is the first of a three-part series of annual retreats led by the Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and his colleague Cami Twilling in which we explore the sacredness of every human being, the sacredness of the feminine, and the sacredness of Earth.

The teachings of this retreat are based on John Philip’s award-winning book Sacred Earth Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World (especially Chapters 1, 2, and 7 drawing on the wisdom of Pelagius, Brigid, and Teilhard de Chardin).

The essential text for the three-year Celtic Wisdom program is John Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth Sacred Soul. The shared prayer book for this program is Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter.

Celtic Wisdom 1 can be taken as a stand-alone retreat or in conjunction with Celtic Wisdom 2 and Celtic Wisdom 3 which can be attended in any order and at any of our retreat centers across the country or online.