About Us

Heart With Wings Specialist Tours is part of Andante, a Mediatory Consultancy and Conflict Resolution organisation specialising in independent inter-religious work. See https://andantemediation.com

HEART WITH WINGS

Even to non-religious people, or non-literalist holders of faith, so many places which are either mentioned in sacred texts of various religions, or associated with the history and mythologies thereof, have a breathtaking ring of legend about them. Many of them are, so to speak, 'in our blood', enshrined in our collective memories and consciousness. Others might be newer to us and hold an air of exotic fascination.

Here at Heart With Wings, in our experience many people are captivated by the idea of visiting these places and understanding the mythologies associated with them, but shy away from being told that stories are necessarily literally/historically 'true', or truer/better than other beliefs and interpretations. Other specialist tours that focus on religious histories/scriptural stories tend to blur the lines between history and faith, 'telling' you that this happened in that place, as if these traditions and stories are necessarily 'facts', or on the other hand (and, in our view, just as problematically) dismissing and diminishing them as ‘just made up’. Our tour leaders have the passion and respectfully secular academic knowledge to engage with you about the fascinating mythologies surrounding these places, without any insistence on them being literally/historically 'true/untrue' or 'historically accurate/inaccurate'. Indeed, we help you to be excited about different interpretations, different reasons for differing locations, differences in stories about places, etc. Far from allowing our academic standpoint to detract from the importance of these places, we get excited about the power of mythology and the potential beauty of faith, from an academic standpoint without any dogma nor attachment to literalist belief.

We visit some places where certain aspects of great religious stories possibly/probably/likely/certainly happened, others that likely inspired a myth tradition but are unlikely to be 'accurate' locations, others that were more likely mythological associations that most likely didn't 'happen' at all (along with our passion that this should not detract from the power of the story nor of the location), and we have the respect, passion, expertise and education to be able to distinguish and engage with-and-between each.

Along with a maximum five other people (therefore a far more relaxed, personal, potentially bespoke experience than mass tour-bus tours), you will be accompanied by two passionate guides with university degrees in Studies in Religion (and further tertiary qualifications between them including Arabic Language, Peace and Conflict Studies, Mediation and Conflict Resolution, Facilitative Mediation, and Education) to talk with you about the history, mythologies, stories, and traditions associated with the places you visit.

Your Tour leader has extensive experience on-the-ground in each of the places that we will visit, giving you safety, passion for the region and locations, and first-hand lived knowledge and experience.