Are you ready for a spiritual adventure in the Himalayas?
What is a pilgrimage?
A pilgrimage is a heart opening sacred journey. Its purpose is to broaden our perspectives and to invite transformational experiences that often lead to cathartic shifts in consciousness, healing and deeper levels of understanding of ourselves and our interconnections with others and the environment. Upon return from a pilgrimage, life is seen through a new awakened view. A sense of renewal and the wisdom gained from a pilgrimage experience enhances our lives in profoundly significant ways.
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For two decades, Yana Castle, PhD has been offering private individual and customized small group pilgrimage tours to Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. We hope you will choose to join us on one of these exceptionally unique life-changing journeys!
Yana Castle's tours are suited to those who prefer a private pilgrimage for themselves or to travel on a guided pilgrimage with their family, friends or small like-minded group.
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Cost: Approximately $2500 (depending on your choice of accommodations). Airfare not included. Tours are 7 days and 6 nights and are offered throughout the year.
The following tour descriptions are samples based on recent pilgrimage journeys: Healing Wisdom Tour, Nepal Mandala Tour and Skydancer Pilgrimage. See below for descriptions of each tour. Note they can be customized to suit your particular interests. Please contact Yana with your preferred travel dates. She will do her best to accommodate your request. |
Healing Wisdom Tour
This specialized pilgrimage tour concentrates on your personal healing with instructions and practices in:
• Eastern healing methods (Ayurvedic, Tibetan and shamanic). • Indigenous methods (meet with renowned healers, jhankris, shamans, kumaris, tulkus and yoginis. • A master class in singing bowl sound healing. • A Vedic medical astrology chart and reading. • Tibetan Yoga instruction. • Visit with medical incense specialist. • A two day meditation retreat in a spectacular mountainous setting. • Guided tours to sites with a focus on healing throughout Kathmandu Valley. For more details, see individual tour page. This tour is recommended for medical professionals, alternative health practitioners and those with a serious interest in Eastern healing methods. Some participants choose this tour to discover adjunct and alternatives methods to conventional Western treatments with the aim to facilitate their own personal healing or professional practices. Thank you for this tour, Yana. The trip was quite the adventure and it definitely gave me what I was looking for in many aspects so I thank you again for setting this all up for me! It was worth every cent! |
Nepal Mandala Tour
.This pilgrimage tour is a general overview of Himalayan arts, spiritual traditions and culture in the Kathmandu Valley. Included in this tour:
• Visit shrines and temples to gods and goddesses of the Buddhist, Hindu and indigenous Newari traditions throughout Kathmandu Valley. • Learn a sacred Charya dance (once considered a highly secretive prayer). • Visit with shamanic healers. • Guided tours to major temples and shrine sites and museums. • Learn about the iconography and architecture, rituals and other practices of the peoples of this Himalayan region through lectures with art curators and local scholars. For more details, see individual tour page. Artists, historians, students, retirees and those with a deep curiosity of the East and the Himalayan culture are encouraged to join this tour. My time in Nepal with Yana was mind-expanding and magical. Nepal’s soulful, ancient culture taught me a lot about myself. It enriched me. As a result, I left Kathmandu feeling empowered and renewed. Thank you so very much for trusting your calling, your intuition bringing us all here on this very important journey that will no doubt change all of our lives. |
Skydancer Pilgrimage
This tour focuses on Tibetan Buddhist temple and shrine iconography and ritualistic practices of the dakinis (skydancers) and female deities of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition (Tara, Vajrayogini, Vajravarahi, Kurukulla, Simhamukha (lion-headed dakini), Yeshe Tsogyal (Queen of the dakinis) and Sera Khandro.
You will receive: • Tantric meditation instruction and dharma practices in a mountainous retreat setting. • Dream yoga and Tsa Lung instruction (yoga of the ancient Bon tradition). • Private audiences with yoginis, female shamans, healers and emanations of Yeshe Tsogyal and Sera Khandro. • A lecture on the peaceful and wrathful dakinis in a beautiful setting in Boudhanath. • Guided tours to sacred sites throughout the Kathmandu Valley with a focus on the dakini and the sacred feminine. For more details, see individual tour page. Recommended for beginning and advanced female practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, healers and women interested in the divine feminine and Eastern spirituality. My first visit to Nepal, guided by Yana Castle, was a journey of both heart and soul. Yana's knowledge of Kathmandu and the Sacred Feminine provided a special foundation for exploration and inquiry of Nepal, as well as for my own spiritual unfolding. I greatly appreciated Yana's contagious passion for this magical land and her people. |