Fire

Week 12

I'm on fire right now... four blogs in as many hours... I'm going to suffer tomorrow, oh wait, it already is tomorrow!  Birds have been up for ages, it's light outside, my son will be getting up for school soon. Geez!

Fire
I love working with fire. I use candles a lot with my healing work. Nothing fancy, just a nice vanilla scented one from Morrisons.  I light it and send my thoughts to those who need healing. The flame holds my gaze for a time and I get lost in it.

I use fire for my 'workings'. Admittedly, these aren't very often and when I do do them, they kick arse. I think my last working was in 2010.  I won't go into details about the who and what and how but they always involve fire, mead and my cat Booster.  I don't work from a book, it all comes from the top of my head, inspired actions by spirit.  Booster always comes and sits on my lap when I'm fire gazing. It's so easy to get lost in the flames... I like to study how the fire takes the wood, where it builds up, where it burns fiercely... understanding fire is important.  Well, it is for me.

A few years back, I did a working on a group of people who were really awful internet pagan bullies. I did my thing, Booster sat on my lap, I drank mead and took photos. The next day I was going through them and this is what I found. It's not been edited.. it is what it is. What do you see?

I met Marion Green at a pagan event in Reading (SCRAPE) and after her talk on elements and tools, I told her about the working and the picture above. I asked her what it meant (what with me being a noob) and she said 'it means it worked'.  And you know what? It totally did work. Those nasty people soon fell off the scene they'd dominated for years and rarely raise their heads.  I only reflected back what they emitted. No wonder they were knocked off their feet, awful people!

This picture was chosen as picture of the month on the Warband forum. It was on the front page and someone joined the group as soon as they saw that picture.  They had an infinity with unicorns and she became one of my good friends, the same friend I talked about in the Healing Energy blog.  Every action has a reaction and every reaction ripples out.

Coloured candles for spellwork? Nah! Personally, think that's all a load of nonsense but knock yourself out if that's what you wanna do.  To each their own.

Booster

Fear

Week 11

Fuck it!

Fear
One of the reasons I didn't write my blog leading up to the operation was fear. I was going through one of my phases of being consumed by my fears.  The operation involved general anaesthetic and I had it in my head that I would go under and be lost to it.  For weeks, I had my Will going around my head, who would I leave what to and who would raise my son.  I even spoke with my friends about it.  It wasn't the fear of dying, it was the fear of what I was leaving behind and how it would be without me.  So I did a video Will and posted it on my desktop, I made sure all the passwords and log ins for the websites, emails etc were all written down.  I bust my arse getting jobs finished before I went in for the op.

The evening before my op, I told myself that they wouldn't operate if I was at risk and if anything did happen, I was in a hospital and they'd be monitoring me and not to worry.  It's daft... fear. It grabs you and then digs in deeper and sets all kinds of insecurities off.

A few years ago I had a t-shirt made up to remind me:

FEAR? 

MEH!

FACE IT...

FUCK IT! 

Fear of the event is usually worse than the event itself as they say.. working yourself up, getting anxious... and then it's never as bad as you thought it was going to be.

This obviously doesn't apply to real fear - of violence and other such traumatic things. That kind of fear cannot be dismissed. It's justified.

For all those other fears, anxieties, things you have no control over... try this:

"Saying Fuck It is like massage for the mind
Relaxing you, releasing tension, giving up on things that aren't working.
John C. Parkin argues that saying Fuck It is a spiritual act:
That it is the perfect western expression of the eastern ideas of letting go, giving up and finding real freedom by realising that things dont matter so much (if at all).
This is The Fuck It Way.
It works very simply: if you're feeling stressed about something, say Fuck It you feel instantly better."

FUCK IT! 

Yep, I feel better already

The other thing to consider is that you can call your fears to you, to make them manifest into reality. This is told in the story of rabbit in the medicine cards I use.. in my words.

One day Rabbit was eating grass and spotted Eagle flying high above.
Rabbit was afraid 'oh no, it's Eagle, what if he sees me and eats me'
Eagle hadn't seen him.
Rabbit shouted out louder 'oh no it's Eagle, he's going to eat me'
Eagle noticed something below and went to have a look
Rabbit ran 'shit, Eagle is going to eat meeeeeeeeeeeeee!'
Eagle swooped down and got Rabbit and ate him.

As this story shows, Rabbit medicine people are so afraid of tragedy, illness, disaster, and "being taken," that they call those very fears to them to teach them lessons.  The keynote here is: what you resist will persist! What you fear most is what you will become.

If you pulled Rabbit, stop talking about horrible things happening and get rid of "what it" in your vocabulary. This card may signal a time of worry about the future or of trying to exercise your control over that which is not yet in form - the future. Stop now! Write your fears down and be willing to feel them. Breathe into them, and feel them running through your body into Mother Earth as a give-away.

Makes perfect sense to me.... face your fears and say FUCK IT... don't let them bind you, enslave you to them or depression surely follows, inability to act and all those things you feared, will come to you. Best to face them honestly.  It's not easy to do... you'll get there though, so don't give up.  Takes a strong person to see these patterns, face them and deal with them.  Don't beat yourself up, have faith x

Empathy

Week 10

Two blogs in one night and the last one was really emotional.  So here goes a hopefully shorter blog! (bet it's not lol)

empathy

According to the Oxford dictionary

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Wikipedia

Empathy has many different definitions that encompass a broad range of emotional states, such as caring for other people and having a desire to help them; experiencing emotions that match another person's emotions; discerning what another person is thinking or feeling; and making less distinct the differences between the self and the other.[6]

Since empathy involves understanding the emotional states of other people, the way it is characterized is derivative of the way emotions themselves are characterized. If, for example, emotions are taken to be centrally characterized by bodily feelings, then grasping the bodily feelings of another will be central to empathy. On the other hand, if emotions are more centrally characterized by a combination of beliefs and desires, then grasping these beliefs and desires will be more essential to empathy. The ability to imagine oneself as another person is a sophisticated imaginative process. However, the basic capacity to recognize emotions is probably innate[7] and may be achieved unconsciously. Yet it can be trained[8] and achieved with various degrees of intensity or accuracy.

Empathy necessarily has a "more or less" quality. The paradigm case of an empathic interaction, however, involves a person communicating an accurate recognition of the significance of another person's ongoing intentional actions, associated emotional states, and personal characteristics in a manner that the recognized person can tolerate. Recognitions that are both accurate and tolerable are central features of empathy.[9][10]

The human capacity to recognize the bodily feelings of another is related to one's imitative capacities and seems to be grounded in an innate capacity to associate the bodily movements and facial expressions one sees in another with the proprioceptive feelings of producing those corresponding movements or expressions oneself.[11] Humans seem to make the same immediate connection between the tone of voice and other vocal expressions and inner feeling.

Empathy is distinct from sympathy, pity, and emotional contagion.[12] Sympathy or empathic concern is the feeling of compassion or concern for another, the wish to see them better off or happier. Pity is feeling that another is in trouble and in need of help as they cannot fix their problems themselves, often described as "feeling sorry" for someone. Emotional contagion is when a person (especially an infant or a member of a mob) imitatively "catches" the emotions that others are showing without necessarily recognizing this is happening.[13]

Why am I quoting dictionaries? Because the word empathy is used in the spiritual circles to mean something very different.  I've had this discussion with a friend before and it got a little heated.  This word is now used to mean those who can psychically pick up another's feelings, emotions and  intent. Like Deanna Troy from Star Trek Next Generation.  Deanna was half Batazoid and they are telepathic, so she could hone in on someone and pick up their impressions from them.  They called her an 'empath'.  Now everyone is using this word and it raises my hackles a bit.  Probably for the same reason why the way the word shaman is banded about... but that's another blog and oh boy, will that be an epic soapbox rant!

You are not an EMPATH. You are feeling empathic (which most humans are capable of) and a jolly good thing it is too, to be able to empathise with someone.  It's very different to sympathy and pity too, as it says in the descriptors above.  Having the ability to be able to empathise with people, to help them by relating to their woes, is a gift in itself.  I use this when I do tarot readings or having a heart to heart with someone. I relate things that have happened to me, to help people understand that they can face similar problems and get through it.

If you have that extra ability to pick emotions up, you are not an empath, you are clairsentient.

the ability for a person to acquire psychic knowledge by means of feeling

Now there's three types of spirit communication. Clairvoyance - to see; clairaudiance - to hear, and clairsentient - to feel.  Derived from French 'Clair' meaning 'clear', 'voyance' meaning 'vision' etc etc. It's also considered a type of ESP.  What it is, is not the normal run of the mill empathy. Most humans can show empathy, I say most, those with conditions such as Aspergers Syndrome have difficulties and I'm sure there's other conditions that remove this ability or reduce it.  Then there are people who really have it in abundance... that's not 'normal', that's clairsentience.

Why does it matter I hear you cry? Because it does. The same way that not everyone who practices witchcraft is Wiccian.  Like those who practice wicca aren't all initiated Wiccians (note the capital letter), like people who say they are a druid and haven't done the 21 years and people who do some drumming and think it's shamanic........... it does matter.  If you are going to openly declare your psychic/spiritual abilities then get it RIGHT or you end up looking daft.  And the forums will rip you apart, what with all that love and peace floating about lol.

That said, I do concede that the term 'empathic' is used beyond it's original meaning.  Star Trek Next Generation (which I'm a fan of) is 17 years old now.  Think about it... when did the new age lot start using the word 'empath' - bet it was after Deanna Troy came on our screens.

Meanings aside, the ability of clairsentience is one I have in abundance.  This is when you really need to learn how to not walk around the supermarket 'wide open' like I have done.  One time I was in Morrisons and there was this girl who walked past me, ouzing misery off her, can't blame the poor girl, the crap she was going through was bad.  She walked past me and I felt horrible, an empty feeling of pure hopelessness... of despair and pain.  I didn't know the full extent of all the crap she was dealing with until much later and she had every right to feel that way, poor girl.

I read a great article on empathy today that I will share with you. It rings very true with me... give it a read and see whether you tick all the boxes.  If not, that just means you're a run of the mill caring person who gives a shit about others feelings and likes to comfort them.  Nothing wrong with that, if only the world had more people like that in it.

You recall my last blog and I mention about the news? This is a paragraph from the empathy article:

Empaths are sensitive to TV, videos, movies, news and broadcasts. Violence or emotional dramas depicting shocking scenes of physical or emotional pain inflicted on adults, children or animals can bring an empath easily to tears. At times, they may feel physically ill or choke back the tears. Some empaths will struggle to comprehend any such cruelty, and may have grave difficulty in expressing themselves in the face of another’s ignorance, closed-mindedness and obvious lack of compassion. They simply cannot justify the suffering they feel and see.

I have What Dreams May Come on video.. I've had it since it came out and I've still not watched it because I know it will ruin me.  The Notebook... omg, beautiful film but the ending!  I'm sure other's got their hankies out but I reckon I used the whole loo roll.  And that's what it's like for me.. even though they are actors, in a film, I get over emotional and then it rattles around my head endlessly. I try not to watch them too often and in the case of What dreams may come... I have put it off for over a decade. I think that's cos Lorna said it was a sad film, she's in spirit now, I keep looking at it on the shelf and thinking of her, so I think I'll give it a watch this week.  Maybe.

The news slays me. Another thing I pick up is when I stop to help at road accidents. I pick up the panic, the shock and I feel myself choking down their emotions, tears prick my eyes and I have to tell myself to sort myself out so I can help the people (first aid, moving traffic before emergency services arrive).  I think that's why I never ventured in to the medical profession or the police, I'm too vulnerable.  I am hoping to start a carer in caring for the disabled, I like helping people, I like using my abilities to put people at ease, to heal.

Anyways, it's 4.40am, that's two blogs in three hours and my knees are telling me it's time to get off the chair.

So there you go... being an empath/clairsentient doesn't mean you are telepathic.. that's another thing entirely. I love sci-fi as much as the next person but don't confuse it with real life... that's how scientology etc got started!

Please don't be offended by my passion... that's just who I am.... like Marmite (vegemite sucks!)

Aha! Just spotted this paragraph in the empathy article... how bloody true!

Even complete strangers find it easy to talk to empaths about the most personal things, and before they know it, they have poured out their hearts and souls without intending to do so consciously. It is as though on a sub-conscious level that person knows instinctively that empaths would listen with compassionate understanding. Then again, for empaths, it is always nice to actually be heard themselves!

Energy healing

Sorry this is late.  I've been out of commission these last couple of weeks due to having the operation on my knees. Sitting at the computer was too painful. Still hurts a bit now but when you have to write, you have to write. So here's a very late E.

E is for... energy healing

I am a healer. I can't remember exactly when I discovered this but it's been for most of my life. I trained with the SNU church for a couple of years and they have a certain way of doing things. I was told you weren't allowed to give clairvoyance during healing. They also wanted you to work through the chakras. I soon realised that this is not how I work.

I'm not sure if this is the correct term, but I am a visual healer. That means that I am drawn to a certain area that needs healing.  Whilst healing after a Sunday service at the SNU church, the young woman was sitting down with her eyes closed. I had my hands hoovering over her sides when I was drawn to her stomach (sacral) area.  I could see nodules on her ovaries and I received some other information about babies and a miscarriage. So I gave it to her gently.. and you do have to be gentle when passing on sensitive information like loss. She confirmed she had polycystic ovaries and validated the other things I'd said.  She was genuinely surprised as it was her first time at the church and it had been things she'd been thinking of that day, an anniversary was coming up and it was playing on her mind.

Generally, this is how I work.  My hands heat up, my eyes 'find' the area that needs healing and I either go hands on or hoover above.  I like to test people too.  I ask them to close their eyes and tell me where they think my hands are. I hoover my hands at least 4 inches over them and every single time, they've been able to tell me where my hands are. Energy is felt.  I am the vessel channeling this energy through me and into them. I don't know how I do it, I just know that it happens. How would I describe what it feels like? Hmmm, that's a toughie. My eyes are closed, images come from the darkness behind my eyes.  I get a sense of something, it's probably spirit giving information, I can't give 'platform' clairvoyance yet.  My hands tingle. I imagine the energy passing into them, washing away the negative energy from that area and then imagine it drawn down into the earth and dispersed.  I'm usually in an altered state when I do healing.  It kinda just switches on. I give my hands a good shake and wipe off anything I've drawn out.  I read Betty Shine's books years ago and love her way of describing healing.  It was before I'd got the internet and when I did get online and looked her up, she'd sadly passed a year before.  When I read her website and all the words of condolence, I bawled, it really had felt like I had known her through her books.  I definitely recommend reading her books to anyone who's doing healing or clairvoyance. It's so simply written and honest. Would you look at that... she passed away on the 26th March 2002, which is tomorrow..blimey 12 years already.

Remote healing is just as valid as 'hands on'.  With the invention of the internet, first their came msn groups and forums. I remember being on Spiritualists Open Circle and doing remote healing for members in the group.  Private messaging giving readings.  People dismiss the ability to give readings over the phone or electronically but some of the best ones I've done have been this way.

Oh yeah, the healer always needs healing themselves, usually too busy helping others, than helping themselves.  It is important to not to give too much of yourself or you end up drained, ill and taking on the person's ailments.

The news

I don't know about you but watching all the terrible things in this world, does me in.  If there is a missing person or there's an accident, I will know if they are alive or dead.  Quite simply, I get an almighty chill through my body.  This also applies to friends on my Facebook who post up about a friend or family member that is ill or been in an accident. If I go cold, I know that they will pass over soon.  Of course, you can't tell people this because it's not the right thing to do.  In those cases, I will light a candle and send them healing to accept the transition and pass over peacefully with minimal pain.  Nothing wrong with hope.  In other cases where they are ill/injured and I don't go cold, I will comment positively and light the candle and send them some zapp.  I have only been proven wrong once (so far) and that was when my friend Doro was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  I went cold. I cried and cried, such a lovely person and I didn't want her to die.  A group of us did remote healing once a week at a certain time and I sent her everything I had, as did others. I even got my drum off the wall and tranced out on the gentle beat.  I had given her 18 months but that was 5 or 6 years ago now.  Her condition was very serious, when I say she was told she would have to have a hysterectomy and then when they went to do it, realised the cancer had spread too far, they wouldn't do it. She had radiotherapy (that left her with a host of digestive issues) and was also self-medicating with homeopathy. I truly believe that the combination of her treatment, her positive attitude and our healing, she not only beat her cancer but was totally clear of it. She has been given the all clear for these last 5 years, something the doctors are still baffled by.

I have in the past, been able to predict when a missing person has died and some times even been given information about how.  It's not like you can broadcast this stuff, so when your prediction is proved correct, so I write it down and tell a friend about it and then pray I'm wrong, I don't like being right about this stuff. I could give examples but I really don't want it to look like I'm blowing my own trumpet here because that's the furthest from what I'm trying to do.  There's some high profile cases that I have been right about and I'll happily tell you about them in person but it seems wrong to publish it on a blog.  But I will share this one with you.

Joanne

It was 2005, a young woman called Joanne had gone missing around Valentines day. Her boyfriend was on the news begging her to come home.  I went cold and then I was visited by her.  I had never encountered this kind of thing before. I didn't know what to do. She wouldn't leave me alone. She kept showing me things and wanted me to contact the police about her case. I must have spent a week crying from the grief and how distraught this spirit was in.  So I did it, I rang the police force dealing with the case. Ever done that? Ever rang up and given information from spirit to the police before? OMG! It went something like this: 'Hi, I need to speak to the team dealing with the case of the missing woman from Hull. Please don't think I'm a nutter because I've never done this before but this woman won't leave me alone. She's told me that there's a big bin behind a restaurant, something like New Hong Kong and there's stuff inside that he's hidden, a rug I think. He boyfriend has killed her, he's a big CSI fan, he thinks he knows forensics and got away with it. Her body is in a shallow dell, there's water and she's covered in leaves. She hasn't told me where, that's all. Please don't think I'm crazy' and the whole time crying.  Horrible horrible horrible and even now, I'm welling up at the memory.  The officer was nice about it, she said thanks, took my details and I never heard anything from them.  The woman left me after I'd made the call, I asked my guides to come down and help her cross over.

I was living in Letchworth in 2005. This woman had lived in Hull. I moved to Yorkshire 3 years ago. Last year, I suddenly started thinking about her and what had happened.  So I Googled it. Every hair stood up and I was in tears again.  I found the news report of when they had found her body. It was in a location that was very much like I had described.  I want to go to those woods... I need to finish the job, I don't think she's at rest.  He had stopped for fuel with her body in the boot of his car at my (now) local petrol station! Her body was found a few miles from where I now live!  Whilst typing this up, I had a quick search for the story so I could link it and found some things that bought it all back.  It seems that the information I passed on was accurate.  I can't say why she came to me in the first place but it freaked me out enough for me to 'shelve' myself until I was ready to deal with it.  It's a big responsibility and I wasn't ready for it.

Source:

Back inside his house he used string to tie together the hands and feet of the lifeless Joanne. He then bundled her body into bin liner bags and secured them with tape."
Dyson drove from Hull to Howden to fill up with petrol and from there took the body 75 miles away, to isolated woodland near Hovingham in North Yorkshire, where he carried her body around 250 yards until he found a concealed dip in the pine trees.

Other links to the story.
Daily Mail      Telegraph       BBC    Mirror   Guardian

I really feel the urge to find out more, to go to the place she was buried and see what else needs to be done. She did after all, chose me to pass on the message.  I didn't realise until this moment, what that meant and I'm honoured that my light reached out to her. RIP Joanne x

Another thing I just realised. There's the same age difference between her and her killer boyfriend as there was between me and my ex.  My ex was a psycho and abusive too.  He also also into martial arts, body building and thought he was a big hard man.  She even has the same coloured hair as me.... maybe that's why she chose me............ oh man, that really has got me thinking now =o((

Death

It is a subject that has kept cropping up this last week and last night, a beautiful old lady died at the age of 110.  Maybe my blog was late because I needed her words to inspire me.  Who knows.

The one thing certain in life is that you are going to die.  Morbid? Not really, it is a reality. I have found this last year, I have been very conscious of my own mortality and are times when I constantly think about me dying and what I'm leaving behind.  It's not constructive or healthy but it is natural considering I am going through the grieving process.

I lost my estranged brother to cancer last March. I also lost my ex-best friend Lorna to a heart attack. I lost a brother Knight Ghyll to cancer. I lost a friend and colleague Gail to a bike crash. The one year old boy called Ryan who I'd been sending healing to, died of the same cancer my brother did and another biker mate Tom died of pneumonia. All within a couple of months.  By July, I was a total mess. I was laying on the table at my osteopaths (he is also a reiki master and acupuncturist and clairvoyant) and he was sorting out my knees with acupuncture and talking about why I was upset.  He asked me why it was that I believed in the after life and spirit contact but was upset about death.  I replied that it wasn't the dying, it was what I left behind that upset me.  What would happen to my son, my home, my possessions, my cats... what would people say at the funeral, to my son, who'd raise him, would me cats be put in homes .... you get the idea. The thought of all of this ate me up inside.

As time has gone on, this fear has eased off but it's still there. Depression amplifies this fear and I'm up and down with that due to my current physical state. I'm due to have general anaesthetic next month for an operation on my knees. I have been sedated before but not totally under, that deep sleep could be a wonderful thing where I travel or it could be the death of me. I think it's the thought of the needles that's doing me in the most and the loss of control over my body.  So now getting my Will in order and going to do a video telling people what I want/don't want at my funeral.  In a non-morbid way, I've been planning my funeral music for years... music is such a big part of my life and when I've been to others funerals, the music played at them represented who they were.

I think it would be a good idea to make sure your family and friends know what you want to happen with your remains, the sort of funeral you want and what you represent. I've been to too many where the funeral was the last thing that person would have wanted and it was more what their family wanted. That's not right.

Yesterday the oldest survivor of the concentration camps died aged 110.  You may have seen her on documentaries about people living active lifestyles well past their 100th year. Alice was the lady who played the piano. Her music kept the spirits up in those retched places and gave some hope to those who had none. She continued to play until the day she died. It will be easier for me to copy and paste the news article about her life. It's worth sharing.

"I think I am in my last days but it does not really matter because I have had such a beautiful life.

"And life is beautiful, love is beautiful, nature and music are beautiful. Everything we experience is a gift, a present we should cherish and pass on to those we love."

Ms Herz-Sommer recalled "always laughing" during her time in Terezin, where she and other inmates put on occasional concerts.

She said the joy of making music had kept their spirits up.

"These concerts, the people are sitting there, old people, desolate and ill, and they came to the concerts and this music was for them our food. Music was our food. Through making music we were kept alive."

Life IS beautiful. Love IS beautiful. Nature and music ARE beautiful. She never lost sight of this and this resonates with me hugely.  I see the beauty in everything around me... even when I'm low.  So thank you Alice for reminding me that inspite of the horrors you face, life can be good.  What an inspirational, beautiful person.  Rest in peace, you've earned it x

Naked trees

Bare blue skies

Last years leaves

Litter the ground

Cold winds blow

A mighty chill

Rain turns to snow

The sun climbs higher

Daffodils and crocus

Snowdrops and catkins

Life has burst thru

The cold hard earth

Life is imminent

It's waiting to bloom

Green shoots and colours

Birds return home

Colder weather will come

Life still breaks thru

Defying frozen death

Under frost and snow

New life breaks thru

Winters death begins to wane

Sunny days and blue skies

Wake us up within

New life in Springtime

The lambing season not far

Cold winds may blow

Spring has been announced

written by me =o))

Edited to add that, life is about death. As a pagan, you observe the season changes.. when the world is reborn (spring), when it feeds us (summer) when we harvest (autumn) and when the world dies (winter). It's all about life and death cycles.  For some, death is just the next big adventure. Every culture, faith and religion in all corners of the world has their own version of what happens when you die, where you go and what you do.  As a medium, I know spirit goes on... death is only a transition. But by gods, it's a painful one, especially for those left behind.  As a healer, I try to make the transition as peaceful as possible but that's another story.  Thanks for reading x

Dreamtime

I saw this in the prompt list and thought hmmmm... think I'll give that a go.

Back in 1998, I met one of my spirit guides. Everyone has a Native American one it seems.. at that time I wasn't really aware of any of my guides, although I'm sure they were there all the same.

I was laying on my bed whilst on the phone to Lorna with a piece of Laboradite on my forehead, as you do, when I became aware of an Aboriginal man standing there, not wearing much and holding a big staff. He told me I could call him John, although that wasn't his real name. He also told me that we used to walk the Songlines together in a past life and that he'd stayed in spirit and I'd decided to be reborn. I have always had a longing to return to Ayres Rock/Ulura, although I've not been there in this lifetime.  I have friends in Australia and I intend to go there in the next couple of years.  Money is very tight but it's worth saving for.

Just wow! Source - here

The songlines are what we'd call leylines or meridians. They are energy pathways, linking places in the land. In the UK there are several main leylines that have prominent monuments on them. They are ancient procession routes, pilgrims walked them and worshiped at key locations on the way. These can be found throughout the Earth.  Some are so straight, it's a wonder how the ancients were able to map them without our modern instruments. Look at the pyramids - there's no clear view, yet they managed to line them all up within a few degrees. There's so many examples to give, it makes you think 'how' they did it. I find this all truly amazing and it's something I'm deeply interested in.

Source here

People seem to think that because you know about a past life, that it means you know everything about it. Not true. I am shown glimpses of it and then I have to work it out.  Also what I knew then, isn't what I'm supposed to know now unless I'm shown it.  I have found that I am able to tap into old knowledge, I seem to just know things... I will be given inspirations during a working to do something a certain way, which I believe is spirit guiding me. I certainly do not own any books on that sort of thing. I have had many past lives but as I always say to people, it's what you learn in THIS lifetime that's important. Usually there's a repeat lesson to learn... not sure what my one is. I keep coming back though, hmm.

I am a big dreamer. I travel in my dreams. I often get a flashback of my dreams a few hours after I've woken up.  They are always in colour and always so real.  I find myself thinking that I've been somewhere and then realise that it's only a dream memory, not one from actually going.  Very discombobulating. Had to get that word in somehow hahaha!  Your dreams are the key to your subconscious. I like to do dream analysis and have a couple of books that I use for reference. One is all doom and gloom, everything you dream is going to mean something bad... and the other is one of those you find in WHSmith, basic, with pretty pictures and a more user friendly.  Using keywords from these and some clairvoyance, I am usually able to give a good reading on a dream.

I have woken up, sitting up in bed before talking Italian. I can't speak Italian. I was talking to my great grandad, whom I never met.  I have woken up talking to a knight sitting on a chair in the corner of the B&B room opposite Beaumaris castle. That was freaky.  I often wake up talking and more recently 'what are you doing?' to a person who's saying something to me whilst I'm asleep. There's only me in the room.  It's really annoying! I have been woken up after it felt like I had been stabbed in the hand.  I turned the light on, looking at my hand to see if there was a mark and remembering the pain but couldn't see any evidence.  He's not visited recently but for a while, I could hear a deep voice and there was a man with tight curly black hair talking to me.  I got the impression he was Greek or from that part of the world.  I did consider whether it was my voice and even downloaded one of those apps on my phone to capture it happening. Haven't yet.

Dreamtime art, done for a school project! See more here

Lizard is one of my totem animals. Lizard is dreaming. Yes, I incorporate the beliefs of many nations, into my own. Their stories resonate with me. Yes, I have since met my Native American spirit guide.. I didn't want to be left out lol.

Living in a dreamworld

Reality within reach

Crystal blue skies

And a warm sandy beach

High peaks capped

With white fluffy clouds

Fast mountain rivers

With mist as their shrouds

Lost in space

As time passes by

Billions of stars

Burn holes in the night

Faraway places

That call to me often

Ayres rock, plateaus

Table top mountain

The inevitable question

Breaks my astral dream

My son wakes me and asks

'Mum, what's for tea?'

by me circa 1999

Crystals & Chakras

I'm staring at a blank page now for the last few hours... not feeling it this week. But will give it a go... (2 weeks later and I'm finally attacking it lol)

Crystals
I was introduced to these in 1998 by a friend who taught me about crystal healing and using them in meditation etc.  I have a big collection now and there was a period when I didn't touch them for a few years but I've rediscovered them and started using them again.  I haven't done any courses on it but I do have a couple of good books that I use for reference.

I have found that when I do a tarot reading for someone, I get them to pick a crystal from the box, they then hold this during the reading. After the reading, I look up the stone they've chosen in the book and every time, it's relevant to what's going on with them at the moment. The stone picks them.

I use crystals every day.  I usually wear a bloodstone bracelet and have a variety of necklaces with crystals in.  Each day I'm drawn to a particular one and I'll wear it.  Some times I carry them in my pocket, depending if I'm ailing, then I'll pick up my crystal book and look it up, pick a crystal and pop it in my pocket or under my pillow. I use two books 'The Crystal and Mineral guide' by John Lee - a booklet really that I got for £3.50. No pictures but very good for reference. The other is a bible sized book 'Love is in the Earth' by Melody, also no pictures but full of crystals you've never heard of and it's more detailed. My friend Andrea was lucky enough to meet her and helped her work on the second book.

Apothylite

I've heard people talk about working with crystals and some times, my fluffy-radar goes off and I glaze over. Scientific fact: everything on this earth vibrates. Each object has a vibration rating. We cannot see/feel those vibrations but they can  be measured with scientific instruments (don't ask me what ones, I don't know).  The theory is, and is one that I believe in, is that by placing an object with a certain vibration level, on an area that needs healing, it will assist in balancing that area and thus help with the healing.  Do I think crystals 'talk' to you - no.  Do I think they feel pain - no. Do I think they are the cure all for everything - no. Do I think they have magical properties - mmm some times but that depends on your definitions of magic.

Quartz ball

Crystal balls have always been deemed as magical.  Historically, crystals have been used as talismans and worn for protection.  Solomon wore Lapis Lazuli on his breast plate.  People have worn gem stones in jewellery for as long as people have adorned themselves with clothing.  Usually the early examples are those that weren't mined and were found on the beaches, in rock faces etc so amber (which isn't technically a crystal as it's fossilised tree sap), jet, amethyst, jasper, quartz ...  Those ruby, diamond, sapphire, emerald rings and fine jewellery are crystals - just a higher grade and 'flawless'.  People have always been drawn to crystals and gemstones.  I have a lovely ruby in fuchite piece with several rubies in it but it's a fraction of the price of a gem stone quality ruby you'd pay hundreds for at a jewellers.

Amber set in silver bracelet

I have quite a large collection now. I used to be able to name each one and tell you what they are good for but as they say 'if you don't use it, you lose it' and that knowledge is in the back of my mind blocked in by other things.  It comes back to me and I have started to use crystals again.

My favourite pieces at the moment are quartz, lithium, clear, rose and smokey; melinite, lapis lazuli and amethyst.  I have a lovely quartz crystal ball with huge infractions that look like an icy landscape. There is a piece of jewellery I bought off a friend that is copper with snowflake obsidian beads and the main piece is a triple terminated smokey quartz. It was one of those pieces I was instantly drawn too. I left it a few weeks and it was still on her stall, so I bought it. I put it on and was drunk within a few minutes. It was exactly like being really drunk! My friends were on the floor laughing at me trying to speak a straight sentence and I was slurring my words a bit.  Never had that happen to me before... so I only wear it now when I need to do some spirit work or during meditation.

click - Black Orchid Designs

I read in Caitlin Matthews book 'Singing the soul back home' that people shouldn't put crystals on 'just anywhere' and they can actually cause a lot of damage to the auric field if they don't know what they are doing.  I can see her point because there was a fad a few years back where colleges were doing two day courses and then that person was 'qualified' to be a crystal healer and at that time, they charged £40 for a healing session. It was a new age healing explosion and worth lots of money.  Another friend of mine did a course for nearly two years, where she learnt about the human body, the organs and intricate details about crystals, making elixirs and all sorts of things.  She knew was properly trained and knew what she was doing.  These types of courses are less popular at colleges now, the fashion has moved on to other areas thank gods!  So I have to agree with Caitlin, don't just go putting any old crystal on your chakras without knowing what you are doing. That crystal has a certain vibration, that is interrupting your energy field and energy centres.... wearing certain crystals around your neck is not suitable.  There are loads that make you feel spacey and open you up - why put that on all day? Are you mad?! Those are the ones you wear during meditation, spirit work, or dream time.  Do your research.

Black Kyanite

Another interesting debate came up on the pagan group I'm on, the other week.  What are your thoughts on ripping crystals from the earth and does it affect their 'power' from the trauma of the extraction?  There are parts of the world where people are forced to mine these gemstones, living like slaves and being paid pittance.  Most of the time, this is for the high grade gemstones.  The crystals on the market are a bi-product of mining, things they find along the way, things that don't aren't flawless.  Malachite is a bi-product of copper, so you will find tonnes of the stuff around copper mines, just thrown away as slag.  I love malachite, the colours are amazing and it's highly charged like copper.  I think if people mine ethically, pay the locals a good wage and don't exploit them, then I don't see the issues.  You're never going to know 100% what you have in your collection was extracted ethically and if they've lost their power from being torn from the earth, then how come they still buzz in your hand and you're drawn to one stone in a basket of many?  I don't think they have feelings, they are lumps of compressed particles.. get a grip people lol.

Multi Chrysoprase

Chakras
I bumped into a chap who comes to the local moot and we were having a great chat about chakras in the crisp aisle in Morrisons.  I was wearing a lapis luzuli necklace as I had a sore throat and blue is the throat chakra colour.  He picked up my sore throat and started to dry cough, I wasn't coughing but I was dying for a drink as my throat was thick and dry.  I picked up off him, like the top of my head was coming off.  This is all whilst chatting about stuff.  He hadn't shut himself down and he'd been told that you don't close your base and crown chakras. This isn't the first time I've heard this and you know what, that's utter nonsense!  You can't shut down an energy point, you won't die if you do either! Who makes this stuff up?!  I went on to describe to him how to open/chose your chakras (and by that, I mean the main 7) when you want to be open/closed for spirit work.  Think of it like a dimmer switch I told him. When you want to open up, you turn the switch round and the light is brighter, when you want to close down, you dim it right down.  Turning a light off doesn't mean it's broken either or we'd never turn our light bulbs off.  He also said that he couldn't visualise things in meditation.  Imagining an image and visualising it are THE SAME THING. When I sat in circle and we opened and closed our chakras, each time I would visualise it differently, your mind will find a way of relating these things to you.  One week it would be a spinning coloured ball, another it would be a big bubble, or my fav would be sitting in a big coloured flower and the petals open/closing around me.

Aha! Another flash of inspiration...  a flower opens in the morning light and follows the sun. It closes at night. It does this every day.... and doesn't die does it?  So closing your crown and base charkas won't kill you.  You can't keep them spinning madly whilst the others are dimmed cos you will be totally imbalanced and like my friend, have headaches, unwanted spirit attention and at the other end, your over active base, governs your bum and down.  If you're having issues below the waist, dowse your base chakra and I'll bet that it's off balance.

Keywords here would be: DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING SOMEONE WRITES IN A BOOK. It is after all their opinion and most of the time, they are fluffy and don't know what they are on about. Don't read their words as fact and base your practises on them.  I've been there and done that... take everything with a pinch of salt and question everything.  You will know in your gut if it's true for you or not. Go with your gut always.

Righto then... I have another two blogs to pen later but first, I'm off to circle, which I've not been to for weeks for a variety of reasons.  As I said to my friend earlier, I can't write about these things if I'm not practicing them!