Connecting with the Divine Feminine

In the Footsteps of Mary Magdalene
Sacred Pilgrimage in the South of France
October 4-11, 2025

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Photo by Anthony Berisha on Unsplash

Join us for a profound journey of reflection, connection, and ritual, as we experience the divine feminine through sacred pilgrimage to sites across the South of France in the fall of 2025. Spaces are very limited — save yours today, or get in touch for more information.

Led by lecturer guide Veronique Flayol with Haden faculty Megan Lyon and Hill Snellings, we’ll visit Saintes-Maries-de-la-mer, Aix-en-Provence, Marseilles, St. Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, and the very grotto of Mary Magdalene at Ste. Baume as we follow in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene. Here’s a short preview of all that we’ll explore and experience together:

A personal invitation from your sacred pilgrimage leader, Megan Lyon.

Greetings Haden Friends and Fellow Pilgrims,

Welcome to this Pilgrimage.  Please join us on this holy journey in the footsteps of Mary Magdalene in the South of France. The tradition of Mary Magdalene in Provence reflects the deep desire to connect with the archetypal embodiment of the Divine Feminine. This is our opportunity to join together in an outer journey of discovery that also spirals inward to marry together our inner masculine and feminine, our logos and our eros, our thinking and our feeling.

The Magdalene Tradition defies the patriarchy, and embraces the special knowing that each of us has in our hearts. The Magdalene Tradition helps us to see more deeply with eyes of the heart. The Magdalene Tradition is a journey inward and homeward to inner wholeness, holiness, and joy.

Our pilgrimage together will commence in the Camargue, at Saintes-Maries- de-la-mer in the South of France where, tradition holds, Mary Magdalene came ashore from her boat without sails to commence her ministry. We follow in her footsteps, with a night in Aix-en-Provence to visit the Temple of Diana and the Black Madonna known as Notre Dame de l”Esperance. Then onward to Marseilles where Mary Magdalene preached her message of love and perfect thunder, and where we encounter another Black Madonna. We continue to St. Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, where, even as we visit Mary’s relics, we hear of her continuing living presence to the people. At the beautiful forest of St. Pons, we learn the creation of anointing oils, and we follow along the river that led Mary to her retreat in the grotto cave. We conclude in Ste. Baume, in the mountain hermitage where she lived out her days, clothed only in her long lustrous hair, and there we will have time to walk her paths and  visit her grotto before concluding at the Marseilles-Provence airport where one may depart home or continue on to other destinations in Europe.

A Haden pilgrimage is infused with and informed by ritual. There will be time for group sharing and individual reflection. We are blessed to have a local guide for our pilgrimage, Veronique Flayol, who is steeped in the Magdalene Tradition, and began her relationship with Mary Magdalene as a child. She will share with us her personal connection with the Magdalene Tradition and [miracle story].

As the season of darkening days approaches, I welcome the light embodied in Mary Magdalene. On this pilgrimage, we will dance under her moon and strengthen our heart bonds. The Haden Institute community is full of compassionate soulful seekers and together we provide rest for each other’s souls, present attention for each other’s stories, and encouragement for each other’s movement towards wholeness. What a gift! 

If the Magdalene Tradition is new to you, I urge you to read Megan Watterson’s Mary Magdalene Revealed. I found it uplifting and transformative.

This pilgrimage will be especially meaningful for those seeking a place of renewal and rejuvenation, a path through the dark wilderness, a way to embody and live out a sacred calling within them that is still taking shape, a third thing to emerge from the tension of opposites as logos and eros spiral about you: the peace of inner wholeness abides. 

If you are willing to step into the mystery and allow it to transform you, other seekers and I will be there to witness and honor your journey. As the Haden pilgrimage Bard Tim Hussey asks in his song, “Tell me, Dear Pilgrim, what do you seek?”

Much love and deep peace,

Megan

Haden’s Sacred Pilgrimage Leaders

Megan Lyon

Pilgrimage Leader

Megan Lyon, owner of Inner Path, a spiritual direction and wellness practice in Charleston, WV, offers individual spiritual direction and group facilitation that encourages creativity, contemplation, mindfulness, and communion with the deeper Self, the Holy, each another, and the earth. She graduated from Haden Institute in 2017 where she now serves on the faculty.

Hill Snellings

Pilgrimage Co-leader

Hill Snellings, a graduate of the Haden Dream Work Training Program, is a life-long spiritual seeker and explorer.  Working with fire and water, stone and sand, rituals and the risible — he offers an experiential crucible for your use in transformation and individuation.  A follower of Mary Magdalene and Kali, he bows and, with a Trickster wink, beckons.