The vaccine division
The vaccine drama has stepped up a pace this last week, with increasing division as judgments fly around and persecution is rife.
I still hold true to my sentiment that it should be about freedom of choice as to what we put into our blood stream, not about what anyone else thinks and certainly not about being pro or anti.
We have to move on from this division in society, the us and them, the right and wrong, the black and white, and realise that there is always a middle ground and always another way - an open minded one at that.
In chapter 2 of the Yoga Sutras, verse 46 reads, “sthira sukham āsanam” which means that a yoga posture (āsana) must be firm and comfortable. Some āsanas will have more comfort and some more firmness, but they will have both. Verse 47 asks how this is achieved and the answer combines intelligent effort and appropriate effort. Like two sides of the same coin when the effort is appropriate, a release will happen. This applies as much to the breath as to what you are doing physically. Through this ‘right’ effort and release, there is a union, a coming together, a merging with the infinite.
Verse 48 asks what is to be gained from this practice. The answer is simple - dark/light, hot/cold, wet/dry, happy/sad, together/alone; we will no longer be disturbed by pairs of opposites, so we can endure change and variation much more clearly. It’s not that it won’t affect us, but that it won’t disturb us.
In the Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2, verse 38, Lord Krishna advises Arjuna to treat success and failure, profit and loss, unhappy occurrences and happy ones just the same. We are encouraged to flow, to do our duty, without worrying about the results. So it must be with life too. We must do what feels right for us and not be disturbed by our choices made if we are to experience the peace of mind we seek and release us from our suffering.
We each have a right to make a choice based on our own bodies and intuitive guidance and we should not feel that we have to defend this. There are always two sides to every story and always a middle ground. Fretting about what others think or defending the choices we have made only serves to diminish us and achieves nothing. It also sets us up for war - attack/defend, and the world needs greater harmony, not less.
When we are clear in our own heart and mind about the choices we are making and the path ahead then we will be less disturbed by anyone else - the yogi will be less disturbed (see above). A yoga practice at this time can be extremely helpful (at all times when I come to think about it!) to help strengthen us. The mind is a tricky thing, but yoga helps us to know more of it and stand strong within ourselves (standing up on our own two feet, able to see all sides).
If we feel we need the vaccine then we should have it, if we feel we don’t need the vaccine, then don’t have it, it’s very simple, we should not allow ourselves to be disturbed by others about it. Furthermore, those of us who attack would do well to question the reasons for this - are we trying to start a war? What right do we feel we have to judge others for their decision made? Perhaps we might delve into the root of this, whether it’s fear, a sense of righteousness, or because of our conditioned response to life (we do what everyone does without questioning it).
We should remember that karma has a habit of biting us in the bum when we least expect it - that which goes around comes around. There are always at least two sides to every story and innumerable lives lived and absolutely always another way, one of oneness and unity, if we allow it. We are ALL human after all.
Covid has ushered in huge change for us all. The way we have been living and abusing this planet has to change if we are to ensure the survival of humanity in years ahead. Yet there is this desperation to return to the ‘normal’ of the old world, to get travelling come what may, regardless of the impact on the environment.
It’s too late to go back to how things were and would we want to anyway? It’s difficult though and I say this as a now ex-traveller (I loved to travel and see the world) - that world has changed, travelling (certainly in the short term) will never be what it was and in many respects I’m pleased about that.
I’m weary of hearing of the number of people who have gotten the vaccine just because of travelling. As if somehow we missed the point to it all. Not the vaccine, I couldn't care less if you had the vaccine (in the nicest possible way!) What I mean is the desperation, as if our ability to travel demonstrates that we’re through the worst of it now, as if life has returned to some sort of order and normalcy - it’s become certain again.
There is no certainty in life, there never has been and never will be. Yet we are always trying to make it certain, buying into it, quite literally, as if having the latest technology will save us all, lining the pockets for the wealthy, selling out on our souls and on this beautiful planet as it is reaped of all its raw materials. The fact we call them raw materials is the give away - we sell out time and time again. We sell out on our health and wellbeing and we sell out on nature, we are continuously seeing ourselves as separate, buying into more of the illusion and literally buying, buying, buying.
We would do well to remember that despite the seeming chaos, the universe is always in perfect order, and more fool us for thinking otherwise. The trouble is that as our logical minds can’t figure it all out, we drop into fear easily when we lose sense of being in control of things. But we’re never in control, not really, not of the universe and its workings, the only thing we can control is the way we react to life as it unfolds, and ultimately, this is all about our minds.
Our mind needs to let go of thinking that life has to look a certain way. Sure, it’s difficult to let go of that which we love. I loved the freedom of getting on a plane and seeing other landscapes and cultures, but it came at a cost, not least to my bank balance but to the world at large. There has been a grieving as I have tried to come to terms with this new world of settling in one place, but heck, look at what a beautiful place it is, I live in paradise and yet its so easy to overlook it.
We all have the power to create the life of our dreams, to cultivate a positive perspective, to see through the view of illusion. Connecting with nature at large and with the moon can help with this. Nature talks to us, the moon talks to us, if we let it. My plants talk to me, stones talk to me too. People think I’m mad because it’s beyond their level of comprehension but its true. We live in a vibrating world of energy, communicating, we just need to get ourselves and our left brain logic resistance out of the way to appreciate it and tap into it.
There is so much more to us than we can ever realise in this lifetime. I’m keen to give it a try, but nonetheless I am aware of the depth of our conditioning that prevents us from accessing these deeper dimensions within ourselves, let alone out there in nature and the universe at large. Just because we don’t understand something or it’s beyond our realm of understanding, does not stop it being real, but we will often dismiss it anyway and accuse someone of being mad. But who is truly mad, the dreamer or those who don’t dream, the believer or those who don’t believe?
Again its not one or the other, but about unity and about settling more into the infinite, knowing more of the self, that doesn't feel the need to defend or attack as there is nothing to lose or win, just a whole heap of experience - the soul is frequently seeking opportunities to experience itself. There is always the need for discernment of course on the spiritual path, especially where new age spiritualism is concerned, the spiritual ego is tricky, but so is a closed mind.
I led a Reiki One attunement session today and with the moon waxing up now, it has become clearer that we have to pave a new way and we each have a role to play in that. I had hoped we might make it to Orkney this summer, or even Glastonbury, but I realise that I will merely be feeding the energy of hanging onto the past and the way life was lived. Sure, it’s messy when we enter a new way of being, because it is unclear how that will manifest itself into our reality, but we have faith to help us keep going with the flow, at least, once we’ve let go into the flow.
My new dowsing rods took me to a random stone in the middle of a complex of fields in rural St Andrew’s yesterday evening with the moon rising one side and the sun setting the other, and the message was clear. We must trust in the flow and in the intuitive guidance we receive. We have to hold strong to that regardless of what anyone else thinks or believes. We each have our own journey here on planet earth and we should honour that, knowing that we are all one ultimately.
There is no doubt that this super full moon eclipse (not that we’ll see the eclipse) is truly encouraging us to let go. Let go into the flow of the path that covid is taking us. The more we resist it, the greater our suffering will be. We should focus on cultivating greater faith and trust so that we don’t lose our energy and disempower ourselves. The universe always has our back even if we don’t realise it. The goddess too, if you are fortunate to have a relationship with Her. Let’s be the change we want to see in the world and let everyone else go on about their day in their way - think union, not division.
Happy waxing full moon, she’s an insightful one, go within!
xx
The winds of change
The winds of change have been blowing in. Change is in the air and the winds the last month have definitely been ushering this in.
At yoga this morning, there was an agitation in the air as people were reporting a range of symptoms form sleeplessness to tiredness to not being able to switch off. This is vata. Wind is vata. There has been a lot of vata in the air of late!
The one helpful thing we can do is lie on the earth, or at best, get our bare feet on the earth instead. The earth grounds us and literally brings earth into the body to counter all the air.
The other thing we can do is practice yoga. Yoga is a practice, I’ve written about that before, so we just need to roll our mat out, lie on it, breathe and connect with our body. Yoga will also help to earth us and ground us and calm us right down. It relieves our suffering - is the unlinking of our link to pain (see the Bhagavad Gita!).
We can practice Reiki too. Only this week a Reiki practitioner/yoga teacher asked me if it was safe to continue giving Reiki/teaching yoga while pregnant and whether she needed any particular protection technique. This interested me. I practised Reiki throughout both my pregnancies, my boys were infused with Reiki while they were eggs in my ovaries, let alone in the test tube and later as embryos inside me. I also practiced yoga literally up to the birth of both my boys.
Reiki by its very nature cannot harm, and yoga taught consciously should not harm either, but this highlighted to me how separate we are from our soul and our intuitive guidance, that even as Reiki practitioners and yoga teachers, we might question it. I never have, as it happens, because Reiki and yoga saved my life and connected me to soul and I have trusted in all this ever since.
This is not something you can learn from books or you can be taught by others. To cultivate faith we have to practice and feel it for ourselves, deepen our connection to spirit, to soul and to our intuition. It is not always easy, and it doesn’t tend to happen overnight. I have been practising daily for the best part of 17.5 years now, people forget that. Spiritual practices are exactly that, practices. We have to put in the effort.
Kriya yoga highlights this, that it is not enough then to talk about it, or imagine it, or read about it, we need to take action and we need to have awareness and not be attached to outcome. Unfortunately, in this day and age, the focus is always on outcome and the fruits of our labour to validate our place in the world - look at social media.
Yoga has in many instances become nothing more than an exercise class devoid of any philosophical or spiritual underpinning and basis, the soul has been ripped from it, as it has become instead a billion dollar industry. Like any fitness industry, it is becoming a fad. I can see it happening. People know that yoga could help them, by its very nature it relieves suffering, but people aren’t altogether prepared to practice it. To experience the benefits we have to practice and we have to be ok with practising for the sake of practising without being attached to outcome!
This is difficult in these times of instagram where it is all about what you look like in a posture rather than how you are living your life. Even the idea of the outcome is an illusion! We get lost in form and forget about the reason we came to yoga in the first place, and sometimes when we hit an emotion or some kind of obstacle (an injury or tightness) we give up, because it all becomes too much like hard work.
Reiki doesn’t let us bypass quite so easily, and this is the reason I really love it. Despite various organisations trying to organise Reiki and therefore running the risk of taking the soul out of it, it won’t let itself be abused like this. Reiki is Reiki. It is a spiritual healing technique. It is the energy of love. You cannot strip the soul from love, it’s an inherent part of it thank god. Like yoga though, it is a spiritual practice, so one does need to practice to truly connect with it.
Which brings me full circle. It is in the practising that we cultivate faith in the practice and also in ourselves. We begin to get out of our own way, to notice our neuroses, our insecurities and all those unhelpful and limiting core beliefs about our lack of worthiness and not being good enough. These drop away the more we practice and get beyond the mind and the ego and touch something deeper inside us that we know on a deep level is beautiful and pure, despite our inability to recognise it on the mundane level of our existence, instead filled with a lack of love for self.
This comes too in time, a deeper respect for our soul and inner light, for all that we are and have been and all the gifts we have brought with us into this lifetime. We bring with us lessons from others lifetimes too and karma that needs releasing and settling, so that we don’t keep taking it with us - and more - into any future lifetimes (yes Jan, we sometimes have to go to past lives too and the Akashic records, the records of each soul:-))
Often the questions we ask of others, are the questions we should be asking ourselves, tuning inwards and deepening our connection to our intuition (being in-touch). This asks us to lie still on the earth sometimes and breathe, practising yoga and Reiki for the fun and joy of it without any attachment to outcome. It asks us to drop our crap and our feelings of victimhood and blame hood and be present to this wonderful life that we have been gifted, if only we can realise it.
The wind is ushering in this change and the super full moon (as it is close to the earth) will be ushering in more of this next week too. We really are being asked to see beyond the illusion of this life that we are all living here on planet earth, to remember the dream and the way it was meant to be, and to let go of giving our power away to politicians, institutions, organisations and anything that tries to take the soul out of our being.
My yoga teacher and I were talking about the way modern yoga tries to train the body to be a certain way, much like our education system, as if we are all in a sausage factory and being churned out the same way, all of us the same sausage for ease of fitting into this world. Only that we’re not all the same, not at all, and nor should we be treated as such. She was telling me the story of the tiger trained for a circus. We can train a tiger to do something, much like we can train the foot to do something in yoga. But in the process, not only do we remove the tiger ness, the intelligence, the soul then, out of the tiger, but we remove the intelligence and soul out of our foot too.
Who are we beyond what we have been taught by our parents, education system and society? Who are we when we really drill down. It’s scary because the more we peel the layers away, the more we realise how much we have been limited by all our life experiences to date, and the more we have taken on everyone else’s stuff, their beliefs, prejudices and ways of seeing the world. We cling to our sense of right and wrong, forgetting that there is always two sides to a coin.
The only way out is to get deep within, being still and quiet and practising. Then we come to know our truth and we come to trust in it. We don’t doubt the soul despite the obstacles which will be place din our path to challenge it and to deepen our faith to it. It’s not all love and light on the spiritual path, more fool new age spiritualism for leading people down the illusionary path in thinking that this it is and for people buying into it. It’s not about wearing crystals or attending courses, it’s about doing the work on ourselves by ourselves and believing in it.
Enjoy the waxing moon energy, a fab time to plant seeds and cleanse crystals, also to go in and feel into the changing energy. Don’t forget to ground yourself too.
x
Plant a Tree
As part of our Plant a Tree Project, we have been growing a variety of saplings for you to plant yourselves in your garden. The project will officially launch in Autumn 2021, but until then, if you are keen to get going, please email emma@beinspiredby.co.uk to organise collection of your sapling.
Saplings are free and available to everyone!
What you will need
Compost
Spade
Rooting compound (optional)
Water
How to plant your tree
Gently press the pot from both sides, turning the pot around.
Place the sapling on its side, gently pulling the sapling with one hand and the pot with the other.
If the root is still a bit tight loosen it a little with your fingers or a trowel.
Dig a hole slightly deeper and wider than the pot.
Water the hole if the earth is dry.
Place a mixture of general compost and earth in the base of the hole. If you have any, mix in a little rooting compound (about 25ml) in the hole and the earth compost pile.
Place the sapling in the hole with the top of the covered root ball level with the ground (i.e. don’t bury the stem)
Compact the earth around the root ball with the heel of your hand as you fill in the hole with the remaining earth compost pile.
Water the base of the sapling.
Continue to care for your sapling per instructions below!
Ongoing care
Ensure to water regularly for the next 6-8 weeks. A young tree even up to 1.5 years old will require regular watering during a dry spell.
Talk to your tree and place your hands on it, maybe even giving it Reiki if you are Reiki attuned!
Slowing down with yoga
Life is busy, that’s the message I’m receiving, people working 50-60 hour weeks, not coming home until 10pm from the office, working weekends, never able to properly switch off, always on the go, checking phones for messages and emails, rushing from one meeting to the next, never feeling truly in control or on top of anything.
It’s a funny old world we now find ourselves in post-lockdown, still so much uncertainty hanging in the air – life has always been uncertain but now more so than ever before – and no one really sure what might happen next with the threat of vaccine-resistant mutations, and travel plans taking shape last minute now. There’s no guarantee even then, that plans won’t have to change at the last minute, and do people want to take that risk?
Life has been changed. Even life in the yoga and wellbeing world has changed. Yoga classes are no longer what they were, people have found other ways, online yoga is huge, you can practice from the comfort of your own home and for free, squeezing it in with the myriad other things that have to be achieved in a day. There are pros and cons to this, a pro that people are still able to get practising, but it’s a shame when yoga becomes little more than a tick box exercise, or is a rushed activity, where we’re not truly present.
There’s a lot to be said for getting to a class, not least because of the collective energy that comes from connecting with others on the same vibrational field, but also because it is not so easy to zone out or bypass, there’s no chance of checking your phone when you hear it ping as you can so easily do at home, nor fast forward your way through the bits of the practice that you don’t like (yep, we all do it!), and finish early, and not taking or making time to rest at the end (often the most important part of the practice!).
It doesn’t help that yoga has reached a saturation point and become so trendy that it might well soon begin to go out of fashion. This is the trouble when we extract just one part of a practice, like mindfulness, being extracted from Buddhism and now used as a tool to increase productivity and the bottom line in many working environments. It’s not that management don’t care, more so that wellbeing has become another tick-box exercise, to ensure the business is seen as caring, even if it’s not so much about staff’s individual wellbeing, but about how the business is performing.
Yoga is a victim of all this too. Always we are told that yoga can make us feel better, is the panacea for our loss of mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. And it can be, of course, but to be truly effective, on a long term and transformational basis, it needs to be viewed holistically, not simply as another exercise routine. It has benefits of course, keeps us nimble, fit and – in theory – healthy, but for yoga to be truly effective it needs to be practiced regularly, with attentiveness and awareness.
Kriya yoga is the yoga of action as detailed in the second chapter of Patanjali’s yoga sutras. This particular section is aimed at people who have an unsteady mind and are subject to the kleshas (the afflictions, including ignorance, ego, desire, aversion and fear (that’ll be all of us then!)). Patanjali details what can be done to calm down a little bit before being in a position to meditate.
This is what people forget and the whole mindfulness craze has done nothing to ease this. If your mind is unsteady, the worst thing you can do for yourself is attempt to meditate. My Ayurvedic doctor has always said this, that it is essential the digestive fire is balanced first as this will create a calmer mind, which will feed the heart and immune system and allow us to sit for meditation without being de-stabilised by it.
If you are all over the place, your digestion is causing heartburn and acid reflux, or you’re constipated, then you absolutely need to address that first, before you even begin to contemplate sitting quietly in meditation. It is absolutely essential that you do what you can to calm the mind before you begin, and what we eat is one of the easiest ways to positively impact our state of mind – we are what we eat. The process of preparing food can be a meditative, grounding and centring practice for us, helping in its own way to calm our minds.
We should also never overlook the benefit of getting our hands in the earth. My Ayurvedic doctor regularly recommends this to people; get your hands in the earth and see how your life will be positively changed by this experience (my life was totally changed by getting my hands in the earth). Growing our own vegetables and fruits has benefits beyond the process of growing, as it can help to nourish us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and prepare us to meditate!
Throughout chapter two of the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali offers a practical approach, a path to practice (sadhana) including purification, reflection and surrender. He introduces kriya yoga, the yoga of action, which comprises three parts:
Tapah – to heat/purification and make a certain effort towards doing things that are positive and constructive and in the right direction, such as getting on our mat and eating better.
Svadhyaya – reflection, reading texts such as the Yoga Sutras, and reflecting on them as a guide and holding ourselves up to them – how are we doing?
Isvarapranidhanani – surrendering to a higher principle, this the idea that we are not in control, that the world does not revolve around us. This awareness encourages an acceptance of our place in things, that there is something higher.
Thus, like karma yoga in the Bhagavad Gita, we are encouraged to do the work on ourselves, to practice yoga, for example, without attachment to the fruit. Instead we surrender our efforts and make them as an offering to the greater good. Most of the time we have a motivation of gain, so it can be helpful letting go of things that don’t work out. We can remember these attributes of kriya yoga by the 3As:
Action
Awareness
Acceptance
This is yoga in action then, taking action, with awareness, and with acceptance of where we are at, without expectation of gain. It’s a practice, like Reiki, it cannot be learned just by reading about it in a book, we actually have to get practicing, whether that’s on a yoga mat or not! There’s this wonderful quote that I often share on retreats from Vanda Scaravelli’s book, Awakening the Spine:
“Why are we doing yoga?
For health reasons? Perhaps a walk in the park would be better. To help someone else? There are so many ways of helping people. To make money? This is surely not the best way. Out of a sense of duty and discipline? Or for some obligation towards ourselves coming from our puritanical background?
No nothing of the kind. No motivation no aims, only an agreeable appointment for the body to look forward to. We do it for the fun of it.
To twist, stretch, and move around, is pleasant and enjoyable, a body holiday.
There is an unexpected delight in meeting earth and sky at the same moment!”
Talking of retreats, I’m writing this on Sark, a few hours before the final yoga class of the weekend. There is something extremely special about Sark and about retreating here. I heeded the call to the dolmen here yesterday, it’s a magical place, first time I’d been able to get out there on my own. This was only an hour before kirtan with Katie and Adam, which took me to another place, the vibrational shift from kirtan is very real, for me Bhakti yoga is the most direct path to the divine and absolutely calms the mind.
We’re on retreat here again next weekend, and back on holiday a couple of times over the summer, before retreating again a few times in the Autumn. People are in need of the opportunity to take time out from these busy lives that they are leading and to go within and actually see what’s happening on the inside. It takes courage because we don’t always like what we see, but the soul is calling for greater embodiment and yoga, kriya yoga can take us there, and retreating on Sark absolutely gives us the space to be held in our practice too.
I hope you’re not too busy to lay out your mat and go inside yourself and be truly attentive to what is happening. Classes are still there, for when you know you need to be less distracted by everything else going on in the outer world, both online and in person, and there is always the earth to walk upon, barefoot is best, hug a tree, find a power spot, sit down, feel the sun on your skin, smell the air, be present to life as it is unfolding moment to moment – watch the moon.
Love Emma x
Fairies!
I took possession of a pair of copper dowsing rods recently. It had been on my mind and I’d started reading some books on dowsing in relation to ancient and sacred sites, then I went for SHEN and Jo had some on her table, so I took it as a sign!
We took the rods out to this ancient track near St Saviour’s church here in Guernsey, the whole area is alive with ancientness, and while I’d thought I’d found the ancient stone that a doswer guy had told my stone friend about, it transpired that that wasn’t the stone! It gets confusing, all these stones, but apparently this stone, was hidden behind a hedge, not quite as obvious as the stone I had found instead.
So I set off with my dowsing rods down the track, asking them to lead me to a neolitic stone and they did! And it turns out it was the stone, hidden, as I had been told, behind a hedge. Beginners luck! I was inspired that’s for sure, and Eben then set off with the rods, trying to find more Neolithic stones, Elijah is not interested, nor E for that matter, but they’re still happy to entertain my love of these ancient places.
This one is special. I have been back at night and I am pretty sure this is a place of ethereal beings. Guernsey used to be awash with them, fairies especially. We talk regularly with the magic fairies in this family; they have gotten us out of many a tight spot with our need at times for parking spaces or to make it up Saints hill and to school on time. We really do believe in them in our household, but seeing them is another matter.
I’ve always had an infinity with fairies. My stone friend loves them too and it is perhaps no coincidence that my parents recently had a clear out and passed to me a couple of fairy books that I had stashed at their house. One was from childhood, a little flower fairy book, but the other two I had been gifted in my early thirties when I had opened up to the possibility of fairies again, this because I had returned to Guernsey from all my yoga training and I had a sense that I needed to connect to the energetic landscape and beings of Guernsey. Again another sign – things appear and reappear in our life at just the right time.
We have a couple of fairies (statues) in our garden, and I have actively tried to create an environment where they will feel safe, especially with my moon garden and healing herbs growing strong. Guernsey was awash with them one time, you only have to read the Guernsey folklore books of Edgar Mac Culloch and Marie de Garis to realise that fairies played a prominent role in our local folklore, together with witches, let’s not forget them!
We have the fairy cave at Albecq where I spent a lot of time in my teenage years, albeit we called it Barnacle Point and went swimming off the rocks there. Then there’s the fairy cave up at L’Eree, where I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 15 years, and only now does it reveal more of itself to me, these places have to trust us first, and the fairy ring out at Pleinmont, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to wish my dreams true out there, and they do come true in the end, it really is a magical place if we can tap into the energy of it. There’s ancient pathways throughout the island too that you just know are home to the fairies, my boys have grown up appreciating the reality of this.
My cousin Yo is another fairy fan and has pointed out places where we might see them, but always reminds me that I need to quieten things down a little, be a little stiller on the land, if they are to reveal themselves to me. I have been quieter recently, many late night wanderings and sitting out in nature, at places where fairies traditionally were said to live. They have revealed more of themselves to me, there’s a certainty that wasn’t there previously but as always they need to trust in us and their trust in humanity is continuously challenged with all the roads and buildings destroying their homes.
Many of you will think me mad of course, our mind can only sometimes accept what it sees, and doubts the existence of other realms. But we live in a world of realms, our perception of reality is always different, one sees life one way, one another, there is an illusionary quality to it, nothing is really black and white, because our perception is always tainted by our conditioning, and this is different for each of us too. We can never truly know how another sees life, even those who have grown up together will see life and experience reality very differently – there’s the well-known notion that every child will have a different experience of family life.
Perhaps some of you have also seen fairies locally, and I don’t mean just when you’ve had too much alcohol to drink! Guernsey is rich in ethereal energy, it’s rich in ancient sacred sites, we have two Goddess statues on this tiny island, there’s something incredibly special about that, and dolmens aligned to sunrise, and menhirs that stand tall over the land. Guernsey is a special place energetically, we had a concentration of witches too, and even now many healers on the island, and this quartz which just amplifies everything – positive and negative!
It’s a potentially powerful healing place if you can find the power spots and lay or sit upon them. These power spots are spread all around the world, and the ancients knew how to access them and created sacred sites to tap into them, honour them and connect all the elements – and create a grid of energy, like a matrix, that links us all together. It goes without saying that elemental beings will collect at these spots too and if you are a sincere practitioner and do no harm, then they may well reveal themselves to you too. It’s an invitation to be still and to connect with the land and ‘see’ what it might offer you.
Love Emma x
Happy Beltane
Happy Beltane!
I celebrated by jumping the fire on Beltane eve, with a Pagan friend, watching shooting stars and the orange moon rising as I cycled home. I managed to get up for sunrise too, wetting my face with the first dew of the morning, before heading out to a dolmen to meditate. It was cloudy so no sun alignment, but I had headed out for sunrise on 30 April so had found alignments then instead, but more of the mystery shall remain for another year as there are only so many sites one can access in any given sunrise period of time!
I honour the Goddess, and clearly others do too, as someone had already made it to Her before me this morning; she is now suitably adorned and I walked the path to the well, for more sprinkling of water and cleansing, and then back home to the family who weren’t at all interested in joining me this morning for sunrise!
”Beltane honours Life. It represents the peak of Spring and the beginning of Summer. Earth energies are at their strongest and most active. All of life is bursting with potent fertility and at this point in the Wheel of the Year, the potential becomes conception. On May Eve the sexuality of life and the earth is at its peak. Abundant fertility, on all levels, is the central theme. The Maiden goddess has reached her fullness. She is the manifestation of growth and renewal, Flora, the Goddess of Spring, the May Queen, the May Bride. The Young Oak King, as Jack-In-The-Green, as the Green Man, falls in love with her and wins her hand. The union is consummated and the May Queen becomes pregnant. Together the May Queen and the May King are symbols of the Sacred Marriage (or Heiros Gamos), the union of Earth and Sky, and this union has merrily been re-enacted by humans throughout the centuries. For this is the night of the Greenwood Marriage. It is about sexuality and sensuality, passion, vitality and joy. And about conception. A brilliant moment in the Wheel of the Year to bring ideas, hopes and dreams into action. And have some fun…”
We’ll be making a wish box charm today, we did it a few years ago, it’s lovely to engage the children.
You will need:
A small shallow cardboard box. Shoe boxes are good.
Rose petals
Sunflower seeds and/or poppy seeds
Paper
A piece of willow bark or piece of willow, an acorn or oak leaf
Something that represents your wish (see below)
Take a piece of paper and write your wish on it while visualizing your wish coming to life and growing. You can do this alone, with friends, or as a family. If you want to, decorate the lid of the box, with a triple moon, pentacle, heart, or any symbol of your choice. Poke a few holes in the lid - this will help your wish/plants, to grow. Take your box and sprinkle some earth into it. Put in your paper wishes, wish symbol (see below), and seeds/bark/acorn. Cover with another layer of earth. Mix the rose petals with the seeds and scatter them on top. Cover with a final layer of earth and place the lid on top, leaving enough of the rose petal/seed mixture to scatter on top of the box when you are planting it.
The best time for planting your Wish Box is just after a fresh cleansing rainfall as this gives you a bright new start, but if the season is dry just give the earth a good watering the night before. Dig a hole two inches deeper than your wish box and lower it into the earth carefully while concentrating on your chosen wish, visualizing it coming to fruition. Imagine your wish growing with the flowers reaching skyward. As you cover the box with earth say:
"Dream that lies within the earth awaken now. Hope that sleeps awaken now. The stars await as so do I. Grow true, grow strong, toward the sky."
If you don't have a garden you can make a mini wish pot that can live on a window ledge and it works just as well. Just replace the box with a terracotta pot - one wish and one symbol per pot following exactly the same instructions as above. Remember that wishes are only to be used for positive motives.
I’ve extracted this from The Goddess and the Greenman, who have a lovely shop in Glastonbury, where I bought one of my favourite Goddess statues. You can read more here https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/beltane
Happy Beltane, may you opportune the potent energy today and enjoy all that life and the Goddess offers you.
Love Emma x
Trust and faith on the waxing moon
Here we are, retreating on Sark, and I cannot tell you the relief; I’m a traveller at heart and my feet were itchy for new territory and my eyes for new landscape. I love Sark as most of you know, love Sark, love Sark, it’s got a deep soul. Here we are on the Soulful Sark retreat and unintentionally on a waxing super full moon too, there’s a divine timing to these things!
When I realised, I was a little aghast, because I have had a funny run of full moon retreats, the one on Herm, also a super full moon where my waters broke 7 weeks early and E and I had to be transferred to Guernsey by lifeboat in the middle of the night with the full moon shining roughly over head - that moon had been all about surrender and I did have to surrender to the flow of things, I wrote Dancing with the Moon about this.
Then there was a full moon retreat in Glastonbury where many of the ladies spent the weekend in tears, the full moon triggering a big release, let alone the energy of Glastonbury and the Goddess permeating the land there too. There was another full moon, a blue one on Samhain last year, when we were on Herm and there was a risk of us not getting back as the wind as so strong, triggering again, for some. So I did say no more retreats on full moons, as the weather is often challenging and the tides to, but here we are…
I’ve been giving a lot of Reiki this week and have noticed a commonality in that there has been a common imbalance in both root and crown chakras. I’ve a sense that this full moon is all about trust and faith; trusting in the support of the earth below us and faith in the sky above us. I love this interplay. There’s this beautiful quote from Vanda Scaravelli’s book, where she questions why we are practising yoga and writes:
“…We do it for the fun of it. To twist, stretch, and move around, is pleasant and enjoyable, a body holiday. There is an unexpected delight in meeting earth and sky at the same moment”.
I have been reading this beautiful little book called “Sun, Moon & Earth” about the alignment of them all, of teh relationship between earth and sky and the stone circles which track the movement of the moon and sun and the effect this has on us on earth. Stonehenge stands testament to this, as the oldest known calendar, remarkable! Even here on Guernsey we have ancient stone alignments, to the sun most definitely, but to the moon today. I found a stone alignment to the Beltane sunrise this week, which excited me, as the land and at the ancients revealed more of themselves to me.
Here on Sark there is a perplexing dolmen as its alignment makes little sense, We visit it when we’re here, maybe sometime it will reveal itself to us. I find that you have to build a relationship with these places, allow them to talk to us, a little bit like the moon, we have to be with her, notice her rising and setting and the time in the sky in-between and then she reveals more of her learnings and messages for us to navigate our lives.
Full moons, and especially super full moons, shine a light into the shadows, highlighting areas of healing, where we might need to pay attention, let go of an outdated story, something we have been holding onto. I had a trigger in my own life this week, so that I could see an old pattern more clearly, feel it in my body too, so that i could see more of the truth of it, and realise that it wasn’t my stuff, but someone else’s that I had taken on. This is the joy of working with the moon, she helps us to know more of our own truth. She also helps us to cultivate greater trust and faith, as does yoga and Reiki and spending time in nature.
Pay attention to what’s happening in your life, some old pattern coming up again, that same old situation, the same thought going around and around, same ache and pain in the body, same disagreement with someone, highlighting where we’ve changed and need to let go (the sting in the tail, it’s a Scorpio full moon). So do, use the full moon to forgive (yourself as much as anyone else) and notice where you have resistance to this and are holding onto your victimhood, this will often be so subtle that we have to really drop into it, accept where we are creating our own limited story and version of ourselves, the victim is a tricky one.
If we cannot forgive then basically we are allowing ourselves to continue playing out the victim. It takes courage to be really honest wit ourselves, some part of us will keep on bringing it up until we make resolution, or don’t and then it will just keep coming up again and again and we will find ourselves stuck, blaming everyone else rather than taking responsibility ourselves. It’s challenging at times, to see where we are off track and to take ownership of that. Good luck!
Trust and faith. That’s where it is at. Trusting in the universe, in ourselves, faith in the powers that be and faith in ourselves. We can be all of it! There’s a sting in the tail of this moon though, Scorpio, so pay attention! We will likely be triggered. There’s also passion to it, so maybe we get to notice more of where we should instead be placing our energy, what makes us feel alive?
Sark makes me feel alive and we’re already enjoying our time here, soulful Sark on a waxing full moon, clear skies to, I’m grateful for the powers that be that have brought me here this weekend with a very lovely bunch of students and friends.
Enjoy the wax!
Love Emma x
Vitality, power and the super full moon ahead
We’ve a super full pink moon approaching next week, 4.31am on Tuesday 27 April. I’m really excited about this and have been avidly watching and feeling into the moon since before the last full moon. The skies are so clear at the moment that it’s difficult to miss her.
I spent the last full moon in a dolmen, which was really special, because more of the dolmen revealed itself, this after the Spring Equinox, where I found a sun alignment. I followed the waning moon, visited the same dolmen on the new moon to feel an energy shift and see the most incredible skies without the light of the moon, and all these stars, even a shooting one! It was most definitely an emotional new moon, I was teaching Level One Reiki that day and there was definitely a vulnerability in the air.
Yesterday on the waxing moon I taught another Reiki Level One and the energy was very different. I had felt deleted on Saturday but yesterday there was a definite shift, and I was up early for sunrise, which helped to further energise for the day ahead. I even managed to get back out to a dolmen last night, to feel the energy shift on the waxing moon, skies still beautifully clear but no shooting stars, just a sense of something in the dolmen instead.
I’m expecting the energy to keep building this week. Full moons illuminate into the shadows, and they have a whole heap of energy to them too. Yikes, my waters broke six weeks earlier than expected (or perhaps just at the right time!) on that fateful super full moon in October 2016 on Herm! Who knows what might happen this weekend, although I’m hoping that Vicki’s waters don’t break on the first of our run of Sark retreats, this one the Soulful Sark retreat. What a time to run a soulful retreat - in the build up to a super full moon! I’d like to say that was planned, but it wasn’t, at least not by me.
I am continuously reminded though, that there is a timing to everything. Reiki enters our life when we need it the most, then it connects us to people at just the right timing. I am continuously blown away by this, it really is like magic, and I am delighted that increasing numbers of people are bringing Reiki into their lives as they seek greater meaning in their lives and recognise the need to explore, reveal and integrate their spiritual side, as well as attend to the many wounds we bring with us into this life and create within this life too, self healing then.
We are being awoken, I know it is becoming a little of a cliche, because everyone is saying it, but it is true. There is a bigger picture at work here beyond our mundane existence, if only we can see through more of the maya, the illusion. We’re being encouraged to do so though and this is evidenced, as I mentioned, by the increasing numbers of people opening themselves up to the spiritual. There are lots of tears at the moment, a combination of overwhelm, busy, busy, busy and also still this ongoing uncertainty about what might come next, because life has been turned on its head.
Of course many are crazing a return to ‘normal’ whatever that might be, some certainty, because it is known, and are hopeful that the vaccine will pave the way towards this, but I can’t help thinking it’s just a sticking plaster, just a flood gate, holding back the water, for now anyway. Like ants trying to save the eggs and rebuild the nest elsewhere, busy, busy, busy, this keeps us feeling sane, because on some level busyness is known and tried and tested and gives our life some meaning.
But many are awakening, perhaps you too, perhaps you awoke a while ago now, and recognised that we have been sold a lie. Humanity has become fragmented, we have lost our way. We’ve become obsessed by technology and science, to the detriment of our own sanity and wellbeing. Does technology truly make our lives easier, or do we find we are more rushed than ever? Does our emphasis on science, as a representation of western supremacy, makes our lives happier, more contented and fulfilled?
We are all born with the wisdom to heal and preserve life, and all living things are connected - even Covid, it’s not something to be feared, but something that brings with it the opportunity for transformation and change, to take greater responsibility for our health and wellbeing, to look honestly at how our lives are being lived, at our priorities and the way we utilise our precious time on Planet Earth. The greatest lie is the one that has us caught in fear, that has us thinking that a Covid diagnosis finds us in hospital fighting for our lives (and this is a reality for some, but a very small minority), that has us scared to live.
I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I have been party to recently, where people tell me how extremely busy they are, don’t have time to truly connect with children, or friends, no time for their spiritual practice, to live the life of their dreams, impossible to live any other life, because of the demands of work and the need to pay the mortgage, pension, all those things that lay heavily on us - the price for being alive in this age. Maybe there is no other way, maybe the only way is to get caught up in the craziness of thinking that’s the only way and paddling like mad to stay afloat. I always wonder what might happen if we just let go.
Let go of how we think it should be, of what society has told us, of the political agenda, let alone the pharmaceutical one, of having a good hard look at what life might mean for us, on Planet Earth, if only we could take the time to slow down and smell the roses, hear the bird song, appreciate the abundance of life lived in connection with nature, our nature, nature generally out there, with all its splendour and beauty. The tide that comes in and out in its own rhythm, the moon, cycling, the sun up and down, the birds and their morning chorus, collecting worms, pottering, knowing their place in the grand scheme of it, all of life trying to live, we all of us, ALL living things have an intelligence, an intelligence to live.
But how are we living? Sometimes it can be helpful to ask ourselves this. We’ll offer a million reasons to maintain the status quo. We feel we have no choice. We feel we have no choice. This is part of the lie that we have been sold.
Through media and clever advertising campaigns, the majority of the world’s population have been conditioned to rely heavily on modern technology and to buy into the illusion that power and money create happiness, this at the expense of our health and wellbeing. We feel we have no choice. Money buys happiness. Busyness lets us feel safe, gives our life purpose…until we slow down and ask, what next?
Many are recognising this now though, and making changes, re-aligning themselves, finding a new way. Reiki helps people to connect more deeply to their truth and to see things differently. It changes things. I love nothing more than sharing Reiki with people and seeing them coming alive again, beginning to recognise that they have a choice as the veils are removed one by one, as their consciousness strengthens and their vibration raises and what wasn’t fitting anyway, not drops away.
We begin to take back our power, that’s what really happens and we re-evaluate and make changes, realise that what was once a priority is not so important now. Our families start to see more of us, more of the real us too, not the us we have been groomed to be in this world, but the authentic version of us despite to break free, to dance, sing, express ourselves as the creative beings that we are at heart. All of life is a creative process why should we be any different, why would we want to want to be different?
This notion of power is very much in the field at the moment; reclaiming our power, trying to keep our power, cultivate our power, noticing the ways in which we are giving our power away and decreasing our vitality. It is this, this loss of vitality, that is also drawing people to Reiki.
Reiki is the gift of vitality and self-healing encoded into the genetic makeup of every living being, the higher self’s connection to the universal energy that breathes life into all living things. We are all born with the wisdom to heal and preserve life, and all living things are connected - our ancestors used and relied on their own abilities and instincts (their natural gifts) but unfortunately these basic skills have been forgotten and overlooked in humanity’s relentless ambition for achievement and progress.
There are a number of things that weaken our vitality and the free flow of the universal life force in each of us, including:
· Too much alcohol
· Poor diet
· Insufficient exercise/excessive exercise
· Drugs (both pharmaceutical and illegal)
· Not enough rest/sleep
· Stress
· Tobacco
· Negative habits
· Negative thought patterns and core beliefs
· Time spent on phones and social media
· Too much TV
· Poor breathing
· Negative psychic activity
It really is time to look more honestly at how we are spending our time here, to see where we are losing our energy and doing something about it, reclaiming our power and taking ownership for our experience of life, take responsibility for how we are living and to see through the lies we have been sold, and to appreciate the many lies we tell ourselves too, in our denial. The super full moon will illuminate more of this, help to shine a light into the shadows. It’s a scorpio full moon too, so it has a sting in its tail, we won’t be able to ignore it!
For those needing some help feeling into this moon, I’ll be running the online Reiki share through Zoom on Sunday night as usual, 8.30-8.50pm, check the timetable for details, we’ll be feeling into the moon and being open to what it is trying to reveal to us.
But otherwise take time to reflect, to consider how your life is being lived. Don’t try to figure out how to make changes, because this becomes overwhelming and we can only base our thinking on what has happened previously, so if we want the new, we have to surrender to something else to usher that in for us…and that happens when we let go. Nature abhors a vacuum; we let go and we open up to allowing the new in, and it will rush in, when the timing is right and the conditions are set, it’s like planting seeds, we prepare the soil, and wait…the universe has our back, we just have to believe in it.
Happy week!
xx