The Island of 20,000 Saints
I first saw Bardsey Island in 2022 and I was deeply moved. Not just because of the beauty, I could also feel the stories that lay underfoot, the people who had taken the short trip over the sea to the island, but mainly because I could feel I needed to go there in the future. At that moment, the time wasn’t right.
On coming back home, I researched and wanted to find out all I could about the island that I discovered that it’s the final destination of the North Wales Pilgrim’s Way. The island of 20,000 Saints; there are an array of myths and legends associated with this small island, considered one of the most Holy islands in the UK. While these fascinated and interested me, the feeling and emotion I have with this island is a curiosity, one of which I am to follow.
Over the last couple of years or so, I could feel Bardsey Island around the edges, knowing it was there, waiting for me, in trust that I would go when the time was right. I could sense there would be a moment of ‘Now! You need to go now!’.
And as it was, this happened. In September 2024, I went walking. At the time I was camping at the bottom of Cadair Idris and could feel a pull in the direction of a path, not really knowing where it went. I took myself, following my feet to wherever I was being taken. As I walked with the rhythm of my steps, I started to hear my guides tell me it was time to walk to Bardsey Island, instructing me with when I had to go and how to do it. It was clear, it was concise. Noting everything down in my walking journal, I wrote down all I needed.
I continued walking in conversation with my guides and the Welsh land, eventually finding myself climbing up towards a nearby peak. Checking in with whether this was actually safe (I was using my best scrambling skills) and whether I needed to go, my guides shrugged and looked around. ‘You can if you want, but you don’t need to.’
So, I stopped to catch my breath and looked up, only to be met with a sight that took my breath away. On that clearest day, with the sun shining, in the distance I could clearly see over the sea, Bardsey Island! I burst out laughing, in shock and delight at such clarity being presented to me.
‘Ahh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Ok, I get it. I’m doing it. Yep, got it!’
Now, I’ve been in relationship with my guides and inner knowing for a long time and something that I’ve developed, and perhaps you have to with yours, is that I have such trust in them that I don’t need to question (not always anyway) what is being asked of me. This walk at the time of hearing it, I could have asked lots of questions, wondered how I was going to do it, wondered what the reason was and what would come out of it. But these are all questions from my mind. The only real sense I had, was that I have to do the pilgrimage and reach Bardsey Island, with trust that it would become clear why upon my walk. The only time my mind has really stepped in is when I’ve been structuring times and organising how I’m to get myself physically and logistically prepared for the walk.
Our intuition and guides love us dearly and want the best for us. This act of listening is a dive of devotional love and trust in my guides, and in myself. When we start to lift away layers of fear and control from the mind and life experiences, beliefs, stories stored within us, we may discover that we can start to lean back into surrender and embody safety in trust.
Have you ever had that feeling that you need to go somewhere, join a group, see someone but you are not entirely sure why? Some of my most profound life-changing experiences have been when I have gone on a walk, joined a workshop, sat down at a dinner to meet the person, heard the conversation or had the experience, exactly what I needed at that time, which led me onto a new course of discovery. Our guides and intuition are always just there, waiting for us to listen.
How incredible is that? What a support team to have!
So it is in May that I begin the walk towards Bardsey Island, over a period of two weeks. I will take it one step at a time, listening, sleeping, chatting as I go, with myself, those who walk with me, the land and my beloved guides.
It’s only the next step that we need to know about, with trust in each step that it’s taking us to where we need to be. And when it feels right, from time to time, take a moment to put your head up, take a breather and look around to see where you are, to check in if it feels like you’re on the right course.
