Caim is a Scottish Gaelic word that means:
“Sanctuary, an invisible circle of protection drawn around the body with the hand to remind one of being safe and loved, even in the darkest time”.
Caims are invisible because you are the only one that can see them, feeling yourself in your own space where no one can enter.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in The Little Prince:
“Here is my secret. It’s quite simple: One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”
My Story
‘Invisible Caims’ is the passionate creation of Giada Gaslini.
Originally from Milan I started very early to be a serious world traveller. I was moved, at first, by a deep curiosity, as my father used to take me watching aeroplanes.
My decision to spend all my savings exploring new places led me to wander by campervan around Australia for months and to spend a month in a Buddhist monastery in Nepal as a key part of my spiritual quest started years ago. At that time, I was swinging back and forth in many directions but did not feel inside that I was truly happy.
As a result of twenty years of travelling through my personal and professional experience as International Events Manager , I began to write, and co-authored a non-profit book with 33 other Italian women. This book (“Donne che emigrano all’estero”- “Women moving abroad”), is about our stories of life in different countries.
Presentation of the Book in Edinburgh 
Moving abroad has meant a change of identity for me. This started with my name, which has had to adapt itself to different phonetic rules. At a deeper level, I felt that I was lacking the definition of who was behind that name.
I also made sound recordings of myself reading some of my writings. These formed part of audio accompaniment to a photographic exhibition (“A Bench on the Road – We are all Immigrants”) and it performed around Scotland as well as at the Piccolo Theatre in Milan.
Spirituality
Wandering in search for answers, I have been learning to heal myself with holistic therapies instead of traditional medicine.
It’s hard to summarize my spiritual journey as it is something that started lives ago and still continues.
I have been studying and practicing Buddhist teachings and meditation with the traditions NgalSo Ganden Nyengyu, Fpmt Mayayana, Theravada Vipassana in Nepal, India and Italy. I’ve been in the Five Tibetan Rites with Silvia Salvarani, one of the most accredited Italian teachers of Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga. Approached the imaginal world and dreams with the psychologist Elio Occhipinti and went through a regressive hypnosis journey with the vision of the psychiatrist Brian Weiss.
Shamanism has been part of my life, firstly through a natural recognition of rituals and ceremonies as a solid aspect of my life cycle and further on in a more formal training with the Two Years Shamanic Course and Shamanic Teacher Training from the Toltec Tradition run by Two Birds at Anam Cara, in the north of Scotland.
I have also become Teacher for Shamanic Yoga and Integral Yoga with Selene Calloni Williams who has authored several books on psychology, deep ecology, shamanism, yoga, philosophy, and anthropology. In her Academy, I have also become a qualified Forest Therapy Guide (Shinrin Yoku) and Ikigai Coach and I am part of the Italian-Swiss Association for Counselling and Coaching, Aiscon.
I have also become a professional Numerologist studying for a Diploma in Esoteric Numerology with The Connaissance School of Numerology and I’m a member of the Association Internationale de Numerologues – the International Association of Numerologists.
Art
My Creativity has always been manifesting in different ways: from writing, to developing a personal self-expression through the use of colors in a more traditional Art Therapy.
Between 2015-2017 I run a project named ‘Drink In Art’, organizing private exhibitions in local flats to promote Edinburgh-based artists.
At some point I realized that painting and music were helping my emotions to flow out. It also became clear that this holistic approach was allowing healing to take place. I became enchanted and decided to use my international experience to merge my skills and my passion. Through ‘Invisible Caims’ I was able to merge my Art and Spirituality backgrounds together.
Nowadays, my travels have become transformational inner journeys for our lovely tribe…our Inner Explorers in the longest journey ever: from our Mind to our Heart.
In 2021 I opened the Art and Spirituality Centre in Gorgie, Edinburgh which has become a social enterprise with different facilitators and therapists.
Logo
Our beautiful woman in red symbolizes creative fertility holding in her right hand a brush to draw a Caim around herself. Her left-hand pauses in the Gyan or Om Mudra, which brings peace and increases concentration. She represents Art and Spirituality in a circle of protection.
There are four reasons that inspired me to choose this name, ‘Caims’:
Firstly, our workshops are held in safe peaceful places, where our love and intentions is to focus on you as a person. We aim to create a special bubble of protection, starting with a Caim Ceremony, drawing an invisible circle with incense around our bodies. Letting the magic happen, we feel protected like the Celts used to do.
Secondly, before even knowing that there was a name to call it, this circular gesture is something I’ve been doing every morning over the last twenty years to protect myself.
Thirdly, this Gaelic word is my homage to Scotland, who welcomed my spirit back home.
And finally, one of the original Celtic names of my birth city, Milan, is Medhelan. Like ‘Caim’, this means ‘Sanctuary’. This is my homage to my past.
