Aisling Árann is a 'something' that began to happen when a group of idealistic people came to live on Inis Mór, Aran Islands, in 1985.
When asked what was going on there, people might have answered in any of the following ways:
"It's a dream that a group of people have to live a life inspired by the Celtic monks" "It's a project to create a lifestyle that rejects consumerism and globalisation and roots itself locally"
"It's a focus for alternative types, intellectual radicals and spiritual practitioners who want to change the world"
"It's a place to hang out, reorientate yourself, recover, learn and find out what you really want to do with your life"
"It's an organisation set up by people who want to create a spiritual and cultural centre on Inis Mór"
Aisling Árann is all of these things and more. When we considered these very diverse ways of describing ourselves, we felt that if we ever lost any of these aspects of ourselves, we would be the poorer for it. Fortunately, at the time, we had a Jungian analyst in our midst who gave us a tool for understanding ourselves. The resulting series of articles entitled 'The Four Ways Plus' is an attempt to describe ourselves and what we do as accurately as we can.