Awaken to the Divine Feminine Conference
September 9 - 10, 2006
University of Reading, Reading, England

©Barry Dunford

Experience the Goddess, the Sacred Union, within you…   Reserve your space - Book now! or call Roma Harding on 01305 816644

Meet keynote speaker, Margaret Starbird, whose research inspired the Da Vinci Code and other best-selling books. Her work focuses on the power of the feminine to bring back balance in the world. She's the real thing! Margaret is the author of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar , The Goddess in the Gospels , Magdalene's Lost Legacy and Mary Magdalene Bride in Exile . Margaret explores Jesus and Mary Magdalene - the Sacred Reunion. Listen as Margaret interprets the meaning of their union and its effect on human society.

Featured Speakers
Claire Heartsong ~ author of Anna, Grandmother of Jesus: A Message of Wisdom and Love. Clare will share insights on restoring balance with the return of the Feminine Christ.

Niamh Clune ~ author of The Coming of the Feminine Christ. Following an extraordinary encounter with an Archangel in a rainforest in Canada, Dr. Niamh Clune went to work in Africa for Oxfam, UNICEF and the World Food Programme. Niamh will discuss her experience and what it means for us today.

Kathleen McGowan ~ author of The Expected One - Book One of The Magdalene Line, will share insights regarding the power and importance of folklore and cultural legend in the preservation of Magdalene's story and mysteries.

Barry Dunford ~ author of The Holy Land of Scotland: Jesus in Scotland and the Gospel ofthe Grail, will explore insights into the mystery tradition of St. John , with women as well as men initiates.

Dr Karen Ralls ~ author of The Templars and the Grail, The Quest for the Celtic Key, and Music and the Celtic Otherworld, will speak on The Grail Quest, about the medieval Knights Templar, pilgrimage, the Black Madonna shrines, and relics, with slides including those of the enigmatic carvings of Roslsyn Chapel in Scotland.

Simon Peter Fuller ~ author of Rising out of Chaos, will share insights into working with heart centered spiritual geomancy as transformers of celestial and terrestrial consciousness.

Finbarr Ross ~ ordained minister, facilitator of self discovery and spiritual wisdom, will explore Universal Consciousness, the mystical marriage within each soul. The sacred union of heart and mind where we experience a state of perfect balance.

Special Musical Performance
Ani Williams ~ harpist, singer and sound therapist will present Singing the Song of Sophia-Maria to awaken the sacred in each of us.

Special Meditative Reading
Joan Norton ~ author of The Mary Magdalene Within, will give a short meditative reading of the words of Mary Magdalene’s Way of the Heart and her place as Sacred Compliment to Jesus.

Descriptions of Featured Presentations
and Workshops

Saturday, September 9, 8.45 AM
Finbarr Ross: Welcome and opening message

Saturday, September 9, 9.00 AM to 9.15 AM
Joan Norton Reading: The Mary Magdalene Within
Joan will give a meditative reading of the words of Mary Magdalene’s Way of the Heart and her place as Sacred Compliment to Jesus.

Joan Norton, M.A., M.F.T., has practiced Jungian psychology for 25 years. A spontaneous breakthrough of Mary Magdalene’s consciousness in 1996 led to her first person narrative story of the Magdalene’s life with Jesus, published as The Mary Magdalene Within. The physical expression of Jesus and Mary’s love opened the way of Light for us all. Mary speaks clearly of our present era and the need for every woman to know the font of Ageless Wisdom within. www.marymagdalenewithin.com

Saturday, September 9, 9.15 AM to 10.30 AM
Niamh Clune Lecture: The Coming of The Feminine Christ Following an extraordinary encounter with an Archangel in a rainforest in Canada, Dr. Niamh Clune went to work in Africa for Oxfam, UNICEF and the World Food Programme. Niamh will discuss her experience and what it means for us today.

Dr. Niamh Clune was born in Dublin in 1952. After a successful career as a singer in London during the 1970's, she became a leading light in London's spiritual development movement. On the 11th of November 1989, Niamh experienced a terrifying encounter with an Archangel in a forest on the West Coast of Canada. In order to try and express the message delivered to her on that day, she wrote "The Coming of the Feminine Christ" (1998). This ground-breaking spiritual psychology delivers a shocking message to us all. niamhclune@eircom.net.

Saturday, September 9, 10.45 AM to 12.30 PM
Margaret Starbird Lecture: Jesus and Mary Magdalene the Sacred Reunion

Elaborating on the mystery of the "Lost Bride" in Christian mythology.

Explore the legends and mythology of the Sacred Union once at the very heart of the Christian faith. Margaret Starbird's work corrects the tragic "design flaw" in Christian doctrine-the loss of the Sacred Feminine. Her slide presentation includes an experiential activity celebrating the Divine Feminine embodied in Mary Magdalene.

Margaret Starbird holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Maryland and did further graduate study at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, TN. A "cradle" Roman Catholic, Starbird presents frequent lectures and retreats and is the author of several widely acclaimed books about the Sacred Feminine in the Christian tradition: The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (1993), and The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine (1998), both of which were cited by Dan Brown as sources in his best-selling thriller The Da Vinci Code. Her other books include The Feminine Face of Christianity and Magdalene's Lost Legacy: Symbolic Numbers and Sacred Union in the New Testament and Mary Magdalene Bride in Exile. www.margaretstarbird.net

Saturday, September 9, 2.00 PM to 3.30 PM
Karen Ralls Lecture: Places of Pilgrimage: Decoding the Feminine
Certain places throughout history have long had an association with pilgrimage -- but some, we know, have had an especially strong connection with the Divine Feminine. What does the 'Green Lady' of Rosslyn Chapel signify?.....What are the extraordinary traditions surrounding the Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene at Vezeley?.....What does Wolfram von Eschenbach's 'Parzival' really say? And what about possible Knights Templar connections to certain Black Madonnas? Author of The Templars and the Grail. Take 'the road less traveled' with an illustrated talk.

Dr. Karen Ralls, Oxford-based medieval historian, author and religious studies scholar, is widely recognized for her groundbreaking work in medieval history, theology and religious studies, and the origins of western spirituality. She obtained her PhD from Edinburgh University and was Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and also Deputy Curator of the Rosslyn Chapel Museum exhibition for six years prior to continuing with specialist medieval research in Oxford, England. www.ancientquest.com

Saturday, September 9, 3.45PM to 5.15 PM
Barry Dunford Lecture: The Mystery of the Celtic Mother Church as a precursor to the Johannine Grail tradition.
Barry takes us on a journey into the possible origins of Celtic Christianity in Britain. Were members of the family of Jesus personally involved with an apostolic mission to establish a Church of Christ in the British Isles? Furthermore, could a secret Grail church based on the mystery tradition of St. John, with women as well as men initiates, have been founded in Celtic Britain? An intriguing story begins to unfold.

Barry Dunford lives with his wife Theresa in the central Highlands of Scotland where he provides guided tours around local sacred sites. He is the author of "The Holy Land of Scotland: Jesus in Scotland and the Gospel of the Grail" which is the result of almost ten years of investigative historical research. www.sacredconnection.ndo.co.uk

Saturday, September 9, 7:30PM to 9:30 PM
Ani Williams Concert: Singing the Songs of Sophia-Maria
Ani has been dedicated to re-enchanting the earth for more than three decades. With her harp and ethereal voice Ani sings the song of Gaia and the heart of humanity, drawing from ancient Aramaic, Hebrew, Egyptian, and Celtic traditions. Come join your voices and hearts as we chant together for the Sacred Feminine, as she gathers momentum at this critical turning point in Earth's history. As Navajo Medicine Man Billy Yellow said, 'Our task is to chant the world, chant the beauty. The world is a reflection of our chanting.'

Ani Williams is world-renowned harpist and singer, and has recorded more than two-dozen albums of original sacred music based on ancient spiritual traditions. She has done seminal work in the study of sound healing and the relationship between musical tones, the human voice and healing. She founded Songaia Sound Medicine in 1994 and developed the Songaia CD's a series of sound meditations, used as an effective healing tool for her clients. She will be offering private Voice Spectrum Analysis sessions at the conference. Ani Williams has been exploring the role of Mary Magdalene in the emerging feminine since 1987. Her writings on Magdalene blend history with poetic depth, and she is currently co-producing a series of documentary films on Magdalene's role in the grail mysteries. www.aniwilliams.com

Sunday, September 10, 9.00 AM to 10.30 AM
Claire Heartsong Lecture: The Return of the Feminine Christ
Claire will explain the role of the Divine Feminine as an initiatrix of the Christing/Light Anointing process that was specific to the Christ Drama 2,000 years ago and is still required by initiates today. We know about Jesus as a Christ. We have not been told about the women who were also Christ's. As the much required presence of the Divine Feminine steps forward today in both men and women, the barren wilderness created by the imbalanced patriarchal paradigm will be healed.

Claire Heartsong is the author/channel of "Anna: Grandmother of Jesus," a highly received, transformational account that reveals the historical Jesus, the archetypal Christ, and the journey of the Christ initiate. The Anna story presents the powerful presence of the Divine Feminine in the Christ Drama. Claire is presently writing the sequel which will emphasize the Divine Feminine or Feminine Christ roles played by the women who not only supported Jesus but were his equals. www.claireheartsong.com

Sunday, September 10, 10.45AM to 12.30 PM
Margaret Starbird Lecture: “Sacred Union” of Jesus and
Mary Magdalene
Building on information shared in her first presentation, Starbird focuses on the “Sacred Union” of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and the important ramifications of their union for individual psychology and human society. Today’s event includes a discussion of symbolic numbers and principles of sacred geometry encoded in the Gospels, culminating with a celebration that images the Divine as partners.

Sunday, September 10, 2:00PM to 3.15 PM
Kathleen McGowan Lecture: How Powerful Women in History Were Vilified - and How We Can Restore Their True Stories and Bring the Balance Back!
Beginning with Mary Magdalene and following examples through history of many powerful women, most of whom were descendants of the Magdalene bloodline, Kathleen will illustrate how their true histories were intentionally obscured. The secret lives of women such as Pope Joan, Lucrezia Borgia, Marie Antoinette and Mary Queen of Scots will be discussed, using the clues left to us in art, folklore, and cultural traditions. By understanding the injustices of history and learning the powerful lessons left to us by these extraordinary women, we can begin to restore wisdom and balance to our modern world.

Kathleen McGowan's first novel in her controversial series about Mary Magdalene and her descendants, The Expected One, was published in Spring of 2005 and is based on 20 years of research. An accomplished screenwriter, film versions of her Magdalene book series are in active development. Kathleen studied international folklore, mythology, history and universal storytelling techniques throughout Europe and the Middle East. She is devoted to emphasizing the integrity and importance of oral traditions and cultural customs in the understanding of human history. The writings of this internationally published author and journalist have appeared on five continents, published in over fifteen languages. Her metaphysical essays appear in the Plume Books collections, "Hot Chocolate for the Mystical Teen" and "Magical Souvenirs". www.themagdaleneline.com

Sunday, September 10, 3.30PM to 4.30PM
Finbarr Ross Lecture: Universal Consciousness: Perfect Balance and Harmony
Explore Universal Consciousness, the mystical marriage within each soul. In this sacred union of heart and mind, masculine and feminine, and spirit and matter, we experience a state of perfect balance. This unity is symbolized by the Celtic and Aquarian crosses. The Divine Feminine Flame, embodied in Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, Isis, Quan Yin...., restores the feminine to its rightful place in Christ Consciousness. Experience the opening of the inner chalice, the symbol of the Divine Feminine, on this sacred journey of integration and wholeness.

Finbarr Ross, a graduate of Sancta Sophia Seminary, is a facilitator of self discovery, spiritual wisdom, and divine feminine emotional healing. He has been on a spiritual journey his entire life. His mission is personal growth and empowerment as a key to self-transformation as we discover the Goddess within. Finbarr utilizes his own experiences to help those willing to embark on this journey of self-discovery. He also lectures on Celtic spirituality, prayer, universal consciousness, and the power of forgiveness - a pathway to healing and empowerment. Finbarr created Celtic Mystical Journeys as a vehicle to facilitate personal growth. The sacred sites of Ireland, England, Scotland and France are used as a vibrational matrix to initiate the flame in individuals and groups. www.celticmysticaljourneys.com

Sunday, September 10, 4.45PM to 5.45PM
Simon Peter Fuller Lecture: GAIA – Mother of Creation
Through heart-centered, spiritual geomancy, Earth Healers - aware of their role as transformers of celestial and terrestrial consciousness - are now engaged worldwide in activating Earth's powersites and realigning her subtle energy grids. With a new foundation now established on the planet, ALL is to change in these “Last Days” of the old reality!

Simon Peter Fuller, founder of Wholistic World Vision, author of Rising out of chaos, an international speaker, geomancer and a lifetime world traveler. www.wholisticworldvision.org

Sunday, September 10, 6:00 PM
Closing Ceremony

Cost: registration £110
cost includes 2 lunches and 1 dinner
Where: University of Reading - Palmer Theatre
Reading, England
Book Now or call Roma Harding on 01305 816644 to reserve your space

Accommodation: available at the University
Book Now or call Roma Harding on 01305 816644 to reserve your space

Ensuite rooms £45 per night per person bed and breakfast
Standard rooms £30 per night per person bed and breakfast