Transformative travel in Egypt is not about ticking monuments off a list. Egypt is a living, breathing body — a spine along which the currents of history, spirit, and mystery still flow.
Mara’s Transformational Group Tours include:
- Private Visit 2 hours inside the Great Pyramid at Giza
- Private Visit 1 hour in the area surrounding the Sphinx, between it’s paws etc
- Private Visit 2 hours to Abu Rawash (some tours)
- Private Visit 2 hours to the Osirion at Abydos
- Private Visit to Sekhmet at Karnak Temple (some tours)
- Private Visit to closed tomb of Thutmose III (some tours)
At the entrance to the Great Pyramid, expressing joy, awe, and gratitude for an unforgettable experience.
Hello and welcome. I’m Mara. I first arrived here in 2000 knowing nothing, but Egypt changed me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Over the last twenty years of living and guiding here, I’ve stumbled, laughed, cried, and marveled. These writings are part of that journey — stories where temples, people, and daily life meet the inner path of transformation. I hope you enjoy them and I hope to meet you in person when the time is right.
Egypt meets each traveler exactly where they are.
Some arrive seeking history, some seeking themselves, and some seeking both. Egypt is patient: it will give you what you are ready to receive. No more. No less. And I like to think I am in a very different place that I was when I first came here.
I don’t want to give the impression that I’ve “arrived” anywhere. I’m still very much on the journey of life myself. Some days you’ll find me deeply reflective, tuned in to the energy of a place. Other days I’m practical, keeping an eye on logistics and making sure everyone’s comfortable. And yes, there are days when I’m simply tired and in need of coffee.
When you travel with me, you won’t meet a polished guru with all the answers. You meet a real person, still peeling back the layers of her own onion. Sometimes I’m one person in the morning, and another by the afternoon — and that’s part of the honesty I bring. These journeys teach me as much as they teach anyone who walks them with me and I love when my guests become my teachers and guides.
Why Egypt Transforms
There is a subtle hum in the temples at dawn, a rhythm in the Nile’s flow, a story whispered by sandstone walls baked in the sun. Transformation happens here — not as dogma, but as resonance. It might strike as a shiver in your spine beneath a towering column or archway, a sudden insight in the quiet of a tomb, or even in laughter shared with a fellow traveler.
Egypt’s lessons are not confined to monuments. They live in conversations with people today, in the overlooked lives of 19th- and 20th-century rulers, and in navigating the ebb and flow of officialdom — a lesson in diplomacy, patience, and timing. Over the years, I’ve learned to stop butting heads and start observing the currents: sometimes miracles emerge quietly from where you least expect them.
What Makes Travel Here Transformative
People often ask me why Egypt feels different, why a journey here seems to shift something inside. I think it comes down to three things:
1. Sacred Places in Sacred Time
It’s one thing to stand at Karnak with hundreds of tourists. It’s another to find yourself alone in the dark with Sekhmet in her chapel, at midnight in the Great Pyramid or in the depths of the initiation tunnels in Kim Ombo, when the world outside is sleeping and all you hear is your own breath. I arrange visits that give you that kind of space. Sacred places are not limited to the ancient temples. An equally and modern sacred place can be a hut in a remote village with an old Sheikh banishing djinns from your presence.
2. The Inner Journey
Transformation doesn’t come from being told what to feel. It comes from having the time and safety to listen to yourself. Maybe that’s journaling on the boat deck at sunset, meditating in a quiet temple, or simply sitting in silence. Egypt gives you that space — I make sure it’s there.
3. The Human Connection
At Mara House we will gather around the table in the evenings, sharing food and stories. You will meet people, not just monuments. When you are open and asking questions, the answers come from the most unexpected sources. Often, these simple human moments end up being the memories guests treasure most.
My Role as Your Facilitator
I am Mara: ordinary, flawed, deeply curious, endlessly fascinated by Egypt. Not an expert. Not someone who “has arrived.” Just someone who has cycled through the empty streets of Luxor in the early mornings, listened to the stories of locals, laughed, cried, and screamed in the face of bureaucratic headaches, and quietly learned how to open doors that few others even see.
I guide without imposing. I share without preaching. I listen. I hold space for reflection, insight, and wonder. I weave together history, energy, and story, offering a lens for understanding, but Egypt itself remains the teacher.
I am a companion on your journey: sometimes storyteller, sometimes sounding board, often simply a witness. And when opportunities pop up, they bring the group a new experience — that’s part of the invitation. The group itself becomes part of the journey, creating a dynamic and magnetic attraction all its own.
“My biggest problem is when people expect me to have all the answers or to be perfect. I’m not. But I do my best. On my journey I have realised that everyone is always living the best moment and day they can — their efforts may not match expectations of others or even themselves, but it’s the best they are capable of at that moment.”
What Sets My Journeys Through Egypt Apart:
Many online “transformative travel” offers promise sacred rituals, initiations, guaranteed breakthroughs, or exclusive access. It can sound wonderful — but Egypt doesn’t work like that. Transformation isn’t something handed to you; it’s something you allow.
Over the years I’ve learned to plan carefully yet move flexibly — because no two days in Egypt are ever the same. Sometimes the most profound moments come when things go “wrong.”
Like the night a world-famous hollywood actress arrived at Mara House just after I’d sacked my cleaner, while my manager was called back to the army for refresher training. There I was — frazzled, asking my guest to carry her own bags upstairs – to the top floor!. Only later that night did I realize she was the star of my favorite TV series I watched every time I returned to Ireland. The booking had been in a companion’s name and though the credit card was hers, my conscious mind did not take it in. She could have stormed off to another hotel, but instead she laughed, stayed, and, each morning we shared stories over breakfast. What could have been a disaster became a week full of unexpected grace.
That’s the essence of Egypt: the alchemy of structure and surrender, where plans give way to presence.
The Three Pathways of Transformation
I first came to Egypt in 2000 as a tourist, knowing nothing — absolutely nothing. Yet the moment the plane door opened, I felt something intangible, something that gripped me and never let go.
Living here has not been easy. Egypt tests you. There have been good times, frustrating times, and moments that felt like miracles. I’ve lived through the upheaval of January 2011, the presidency that almost bankrupted the country — and me — the army’s return in 2013, and all the shifts that followed. It sounds dramatic written down, but often the hardest part wasn’t the politics, it was the quiet loss of everything I had built. Then came Covid and another collapse. Now there is the nightmare of Gaza weighing on us all.
Alongside Egypt’s storms, life brought its own personal upheavals. In 2010 I discovered writing as a way to let the pressure out — a valve when I felt like I might burst. What began as private notes became reflections, stories, and fragments of the journey.
The posts gathered here show something of that progression — from the chaos of those years, to the slow shaping of resilience, and to where I am today: not “arrived,” but wiser, calmer, more able to stand steady in the winds of change that have become the norm. Better able to tune into and derive meaning from the intangible “something” I felt in the first moments back in 2000. With a clarity that enables me to bring relevant information to the consciousness of those with whom I interact – only when invited.
Yes, a part of me still longs for the calm of those early years, 2000–2011. But without the turbulence that followed, I would not be in the steadier place I now find myself. These writings are not polished lessons — they are footsteps on the path. Perhaps, as you read, you’ll find echoes of your own journey in them too. I invite you to travel with me on one of my transformative journeys, let me introduce you to Egypt and accept what it has to offer you.
A. Temples and Gods as Teachers
Stories where myth, stone, and silence meet — the ancient world still offers lessons.
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Sekhmet: Egypt’s Fierce Goddess of Power — What happens when you meet a lion-headed goddess in her sanctuary?
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Narmer Palette: The Stone That Dreamed a Nation — Carved siltstone that whispers of unity and beginnings.
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Heka: The Ancient Egyptian Magic — Why the Egyptians didn’t separate religion from science.
- In the Hidden Sanctuary: A Meeting with Sekhmet — Intimate encounter with power and the use of anger.
- Luxor Temple: The Temple of Man — Designed to shape the human soul.
- Abydos Temples – The Priests Who Kept the Heartbeat | TheSevenKeys #6
- The Maker’s Hand — Unseen Genius at Abydos (Seven Keys #5) —How small carvings can shake your certainty about time.
- Return of the Djedi? | TheSevenKeys #4 — Might now be the time to awaken your sleeping Djedi warrior??.
- Omm Sety (Dorothy Eady): The Woman Who Remembered Ancient Egypt | TheSevenKeys #3 — a modern story of re-incarnation.
- How the Stones Found Me (Seven Keys #2) — Sometimes you don’t find Egypt; Egypt finds you
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Abydos & Dendera — The Seeker’s Path (Seven Keys #1) — Temples guarding more than history.
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Medinet Habu: The Pharaoh’s Bargain with Chaos — Lessons about order, destruction, and resilience.
- Karnak Temple: Where Time is a River You Can Step Into — Columns that don’t just rise; they flow.
- Ancient Echoes: The Eerie Vibes of THUTMOSE III’s Tomb
- The Day the Mountain Moved — Even stone landscapes can shift in unexpected ways.
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Isis & Osiris — Love, Loss, and the Underworld — Divine stories still shaping human understanding of love and grief.
- BioGeometry: Re-Discovering Ancient Knowledge — A modern doorway into forgotten Egyptian science.
- Lost Symbols of Egypt — and my mission to find them.
- Was Yuya Really Joseph from the Bible? — Where history and scripture collide in the tomb of an ancient noble.
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The Egyptian Story of Creation — Before Genesis, a lotus and a mound of earth told beginnings.
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Scota – Ancestor of the Kings of Ireland — Is it Scota’s DNA that makes Egypt feel like home?
Explore more about Egyptian history and culture.
B. Wrestling with Life in Egypt — The Early Years
Moments of frustration, laughter, and ultimately inner growth — the personal journey of an outsider learning to fit into a different culture. I am not proud of some of these stories and it would be easy to delete them and bask in the present space. But I leave them as testament to my own transformative journey through life – in Egypt. Reading through them recently brought home another truth to me – the truth of the saying “it’s all irrelevant – at the end of the day, it’s all actually irrelevant” Everything changes and everything passes. At the end of the day – what is important? What is important?
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A Trip to Egypt Can Be Life-Changing — Some feel it instantly and others don’t feel the change til later.
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How Do I Handle the Fear that I’m Feeling? — Learning to breathe when life turns upside down.
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Worry is Only a Habit — A Bad One — Egypt taught me worry doesn’t solve anything; action sometimes does.
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The Power of Words — and Lack of Words — What silence can say louder than speech.
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So Happy to be Tired! — The strange joy of exhaustion when it means something real.
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Feeling Grateful… — Small mercies in the middle of chaos.
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Fear or Freedom? — How choosing to stay in Egypt became choosing freedom.
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What Now? What Not? — Learning that sometimes “not doing” is the only wise choice.
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Where is the Sense in it All? — Sometimes I wonder if God is having a laugh! playing games….
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How Are You Doing Today? — A glimpse of my thoughts on daily life and global politics — raw and unpolished.
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Nice to Be Appreciated! — Gratitude that comes back unexpectedly.
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Magical Mara & the Tale of Darkness — A playful parable with a bite of truth.
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I Just Want My Life Back! — Raw honesty from the days everything collapsed.
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S*** Happened (Literally!) — What Did I Do? — Egypt’s way of laughing at your plans.
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Miracle on Salah El Deen Al Auby Street! — Grace in the most ordinary of places.
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When There is Nothing to Do — What Do You Do? — Egypt’s answer to waiting: patience with teeth.
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Egypt -Wading Through Mud — the frustration of not being able to get anything done – victim mentality.
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Lost My Head in the Bank! — when something simple is just the last straw!
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Reality — Which One? — How Egypt taught me truth depends on perspective.
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War or Peace? The Power of Words — Language matters more than politics.
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You’re Just Not Good Enough! — When self-doubt knocks louder than Cairo traffic – and the root causes.
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Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned! — Morphing into Sekhmet!.
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Egypt: Dishonesty & Thoughtlessness — Hard lessons about trust, survival, and grace.
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Watching Paint Dry… and Dry… and Dry… — Patience, Egyptian-style.
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I Watched TV and Ended Up with a Hotel in Egypt! — How James Brolin and a TV show set me on this path.
Travel advice – everything you need to know from Mara on navigating Egypt
Current Transformational Tours
For some, reading these stories is enough — Egypt meets you where you are. But if you feel called to walk these paths in person, I now personally facilitate two journeys shaped by my years of living, stumbling, and learning here. They are not rigid packages or “retreats.” They are living experiences, designed with space for history, silence, laughter, and the unexpected.
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Sacred Journey: Remembering Along Egypt’s Chakras
A 14-day pilgrimage through Egypt’s great temples, aligned with the body’s energy centers — from the root at Aswan to the crown at Alexandria. A journey of alignment, story, and inner listening.
There is a second journey in the making so please check back regularly if you are interested.
Email me maraegypt@gmail.com directly with any questions and/or to reserve your place.
Our Jewel in the Crown
I cannot emphasise strongly enough what a precious opportunity we currently have for after-hours private access and time alone in the sites of Egypt such as the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx enclosure, or the Osirion at Abydos. This rare privilege is included in my transformative group tours — see more about private visits here.
Closing Invitation
Each story is a mirror — for me, my guests, and perhaps for you. Dip into whichever draws your eye; the path through Egypt is never the same twice. If one day you feel called to walk these paths in person, my door at Mara House Luxor is open.
If you are a teacher, guide, or leader wishing to bring your own group to Egypt, I can take care of the groundwork — from permits and planning to daily logistics. You choose whether I travel quietly in the background or remain unseen; my role is to make sure you are free to focus on your group while everything runs smoothly.
Whether you are here to read or to travel, I hope you find in these stories a spark of recognition — something that stirs, lingers, and perhaps begins to transform.