The Planting Seeds Podcast
The Planting Seeds Podcast
Special Episode - Join me for my Wombs & Waters Pilgrimage in 2025
This is a little bit of a different podcast: a little peek into the why behind my Wombs & Waters pilgrimage taking place 17-23 March 2025.
You will learn:
- Why Gozo & Malta?
- Why Wombs & Waters?
- Some magical experiences I had on the islands and what’s waiting there for you
- How to get access to the application page
Interested to join the pilgrimage?? Send me a DM on Instagram that says PILGRIMAGE and you will receive the link immediately.
Application deadline for the pilgrimage is 21 November 2024
00:01.53
Iris Verstappen
Hey, everyone. So this is a little bit of a different podcast than you're used for me. I would really love to talk today about my upcoming pilgrimage, my Wounds and Waters pilgrimage, and explain a little bit about how this is born, why I'm doing this, and why this is the only time that I'm offering it.
00:26.18
Iris Verstappen
So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me introduce this beautiful pilgrimage that I am supposed to be hosting around the vernal equinox of 2025. So a couple of years ago, I still lived in Malta. And many years ago, 2018, I had the call to go to Malta in Gozo for the very, very first time. And Everything about that first trip to Malta was extremely magical. I'll spare you all of the details but the two highlights were that I ended up assisting the home birth of the baby of the Airbnb hosts where I was staying and secondly I ended up visiting a non-touristy
01:15.86
Iris Verstappen
temple that is commonly known as the goddess temple and I had actually seen this temple in a vision years before and it was so extremely special that within the five days that I was there I heard this call like you must move to Malta and I was like what? What?
01:39.69
Iris Verstappen
What do you mean? And this is like a voice that I heard saying that, and as weird as this may sound, I trusted this voice. So I came home. I told my step-sister, yo, I got this message that I need to like move to Malta. And she was like, dude, you've been there for five days. What the hell do you mean? And eventually, this voice was strong so strong that I had to listen to this. So fast forward.
02:06.94
Iris Verstappen
A little over a year later, I moved to Malta and I started building a life there. And in the time that I lived there, I had many, many, many more of these calls, specifically in this goddess temple that I visited, like the first time I was there, that I was supposed to host a retreat, a pilgrimage in Malta.
02:29.94
Iris Verstappen
And I was like, I don't know, like it's such a hassle to organize this. Do I want to take this on? How am I going to do this? And I just rejected it. I just ignored it. I was like, okay, no, I'm not listening. I'm not doing it um until earlier this year. I mean, I was called to organize this pilgrimage like three times.
02:57.55
Iris Verstappen
And the third time there was a little bit more of an opening, but I still wasn't confident to do it until I went on my own pilgrimage to France and I met this absolutely incredible woman that I had an immediate connection with. Her name is Elizabeth. And when I asked her, where are you from? Because she has quite a special appearance.
03:27.70
Iris Verstappen
And I asked her, where are you from? And she answered me and she said, I'm from Sirius. Now, without like going all into the airy fairy aspects of this, Sirius is a star and all the ancient temples in Malta and Gozo are supposedly directed at this star so I have a very special connection with this star already like apart from anything but her saying that and her knowing the importance of this star especially for ancient people in the more like spiritual realm I was like I want to know more about this woman so I told her like are you aware that all sacred ancient
04:22.96
Iris Verstappen
temples in Malta are pointed towards the star Sirius like every time they built a new temple they pointed it towards that star she was like oh yeah I'm aware and then she said I've always wanted to go to Malta but it just never just never happened for me And for me, this was the moment where all like puzzle pieces were like falling into place and I took i didn just feel it. you know Sometimes you just feel things, you know things, there is this inner feeling of inner knowing where you're just like, yes, this is it and I have to follow this. So almost like there and then I said, okay, I'm supposed to organize this pilgrimage in Malta, but I don't wanna do it on my own and I feel that you're the right person, do you wanna come with me?
05:12.86
Iris Verstappen
Like this was all like within the first like 10 minutes of having like a proper conversation with this woman. And she said to me that she'd be honored. And the rest is history because from that moment onwards, everything for this pilgrimage went smooth. I knew exactly like which places to visit. I knew exactly which place we need to stay at. Like all the things,
05:42.54
Iris Verstappen
just fell into place. And so here we are. I have just launched this beautiful, beautiful program, Rich, and I am ready to take people on it.
05:54.09
Iris Verstappen
and I just want to be very very clear again like I've gotten the message I still don't know why exactly but I've gotten the message that this retreat should be happening on the vernal econox of 2025 for people who don't know what the vernal econox is the vernal econox is the econox that happens in spring in the northern hemisphere so that's the information I got that's what I listened to those are the dates that I booked and so We are ready. We are ready to call in 11 women on this pilgrimage and I just cannot wait. And so this pilgrimage is called Wounds and Waters. And um I want to explain to you a little bit more about why I want to say chose this title, but the title chose me. Like I didn't choose this title. It just landed in my consciousness and I felt
06:52.26
Iris Verstappen
This was a title I had to use. So as you all know, I have worked with the womb and with cycles for a very, very long time. And the womb is sacred to me. And the womb is also a metaphor. The womb is a metaphor for the portal towards creation. It's a metaphor for the cauldron in which life is built, in which projects are built, where creativity feels safe enough to go into the process of creation. So the womb is just so sacred for me and
07:36.27
Iris Verstappen
caves on earth have very often in ancient history been honored as the womb of the womb of the great mother and I've always been fascinated by caves and this fascination only grew when I lived on Malta because there's a million caves there and it's so beautiful and one of the things that was so special to me is going into an underwater cave and it was quite scary but it was also extremely beautiful and i felt so safe and held in this water protected by this cave and
08:27.41
Iris Verstappen
I remember feeling like, wow, this must be a very similar feeling as to what it feels like in the womb. Because the experience of sound changes when there is a protected space like a cave and there's water. I don't know what you've ever been in a cave with water, but the experience of sound and the experience of safety and the experience of being in your body shifts. I cannot, you you just have to come so that you can feel it for yourself.
09:00.24
Iris Verstappen
um But yeah, this has been such a profound experience. And I have in the past couple of years, last five years, I've been learning a lot about water.
09:15.30
Iris Verstappen
the meaning of water, the meaning of water in different cultures, water in ritual, honoring sacred springs and spring water, learning about the waters in our bodies, like different types of waters, lymph fluid, blood, tears, sweat,
09:37.41
Iris Verstappen
the acknowledgement that we are water. And it just felt so right to combine these two things that I hold so sacred, so sacred on my in in and on my own body and on the earth. And those two things are wombs and water.
10:05.40
Iris Verstappen
I hold them both so sacred. To me, they are the most alchemical sacred things in my life. I live my life according to my womb. I pray with water. I honor water. I want to be close to water. And so this is how This retreat name, this pilgrimage name has been born. And as human beings, we evolved from the waters of the Earth's oceans. The waters of the womb are our first landing place. We are born from waters of a body. Menstrual blood, the waters of our uterine lining, that's where we settled in after conception. Water gushes from the uterus during birth.
10:53.96
Iris Verstappen
We are born from the ocean of the womb of our mothers. And when we are moved, water flows from our bodies. Tears, sweat, amrita, sacred arousal. Water is home. And people across cultures, across traditions, way back in time, they understood this. They understood that water is home, water is life. Early civilizations embodied this wisdom. And there are numerous archeological records that show that both water and building sacred sites close to bodies of water held great significance to our ancestors. And all I want is remember this.
11:49.42
Iris Verstappen
So I'm inviting people to travel with me to the ancient and sacred islands of Gozo and Malta to immerse ourselves in the ancient wisdom of both our wombs and our waters, as well as the womb caves and the womb sites and the waters of the islands. This is a journey of deep remembrance, of tending to our body temples and restoring what was lost and remembering the ancient wisdom of these sacred sites, of these ley lines, of the energies that pulse through these islands because it's so magical. I cannot even begin to explain how magical it is. And so how this week that we will be spending together will unfold is we'll be focusing on a couple of pillars.
12:46.37
Iris Verstappen
We'll be focusing on sacred sites where we'll go feel into temples, caves, lay lines, but also churches. We'll be focusing on sisterhood and really focusing on feeling that deep connection with people who are on the same path. We will be staying in a sanctuary where we will have the safety to do ceremony to offer water and earth rituals where we can be in circle where we can be in prayer in song and for those who know me know that semantics and the senses
13:25.32
Iris Verstappen
are so special to me and such a beautiful portal to access both spaces around us by opening up our bodies but also accessing spaces within ourselves. So we'll be focusing on movement, on breath, on touch, and on sensory body work. I'm not going to reveal too much about this because It's just too sacred. And we will be experiencing all of these beautiful practices in a womb cave that is nestled under the house while where we'll stay. That's one of the reasons why I chose this house. I've been visiting this house for years and it's so special. like It's as if you move into the womb of the Great Mother.
14:18.57
Iris Verstappen
so sacred, so beautiful. And so everything, as you can hear, everything in this pilgrimage is meticulously chosen. I have listened for years and like cooned out for years what we're supposed to be doing where we're supposed to be going how this retreat this pilgrimage should look like what the days should look like which people should be involved who is making the food where you will be sleeping where you will be staying where on the island this has to be specifically like i meticulously
15:04.05
Iris Verstappen
thought it all out, felt it all out. And so this is the culmination of a lot of the work that I've been doing for so many years. And I am calling in 11 women who are craving deep remembrance, deep womb healing and homecoming. And I am calling in women who are ready.
15:30.64
Iris Verstappen
who are ready to step into the almost like metaphysical mystery of the great mother that is waiting to be revealed to you. This is not for the faint-hearted. This is not just gonna be like, oh, let's ah let's do like a chill beach retreat and chill on the beach. No. No, no, no. No, this will be a sacred pilgrimage.
15:59.23
Iris Verstappen
And it's one of the most sacred, special things I've ever gotten to organize. And it's here. It's happening. It's a sacred pilgrimage to the ancient temples of the earth to restore and remember the inner sanctum of our own wombs. This is really for the strong-solved women who walk the path of the goddess.
16:27.80
Iris Verstappen
the witches, the priestesses, the wise women. If this is any term like this that resonates with you, if you're listening in and you're like, that's me, I'm supposed to be there, come join me. Because this is the only time I'll be doing this. It was very clear that I'm supposed to be organizing this on the vernal economics of 2025 specifically.
16:53.40
Iris Verstappen
So this is the only time you can't you can't say to me, oh, you know, I'll come to the next one because there won't be a next one. I'm not doing this a second time unless I hear a another call, but I haven't heard it. So this will be the only time. This is your only chance to experience something like this. And I trust that if you're supposed to be there, you're going to apply.
17:23.15
Iris Verstappen
only way to apply is click on the link below go to my Instagram send me DM and tell me that you want to join that's the only way because I'm not promoting this to towards the bigger public so this is your only very only chance all right I hope this is made it all clear as soon as you hear the call you'll get all information you'll get access to the frequently asked questions and as soon as you have applied and made your payment you'll gain full access to our full schedule
18:09.22
Iris Verstappen
because I'm very protective and respectful of the off-grid sacred sites we will visit, because some of them are not even in tourist guides. They're only known by locals, and I truly want to keep it that way, because I don't want anybody to just flock to go to Van Malta, because Iris mentioned this cave. No.
18:30.05
Iris Verstappen
This is very sacred. This is very specific. So once you've applied and secured your spot, this is when the full schedule will be shared with you. And I cannot wait to meet you. I trust if you're supposed to be there, you're going to listen to that sacred yes. And I'm going to see you in Gozo and Malta next year on the Vernal Echinox of 2025.
18:58.73
Iris Verstappen
And I can't wait to see you there.