The Ongoing Effects of the Solar and Lunar Eclipses

Wild night here last night. Winds from the North West hit us hard and the last 24 -48 have been no different. Managed to get to sleep at last only to be woken around 2am by a bang. Fearing the worst we ventured out into the night expecting the arial to have come off the chimney only to find it was the lid that had blown off the water butt. Stored that inside and crawled back to bed but then of course it took ages to get back to sleep again.

So today I’m wrecked but at least it has an explanation whereas until I read this yesterday
http://angstoic.com/2015/03/the-week-ahead-march-29-april-5/

how I was feeling was not really making any sense. I have been tired and yes it’s been busy but this was a different kind of tiredness, the kind that makes you feel lethargic, lacking in enthusiasm and any get up and go has completely gone.

The article helped put things in perspective. For some reason once it had passed I had forgotten all about the solar eclipse, Equinox and the super moon and had certainly not connected this in any way with the upcoming lunar eclipse on Saturday 4th April.

It is worth reading the article if you haven’t already clicked on the link, for it did help me make sense of things and made me realise that there is in fact nothing I can do about any of this for the time being, that it is in fact best to just ride it out, as anything I do try is unlikely to make any difference anyway.

I do know a lot of people who are struggling at the moment and all of the planetary activity combined with the changing of the clocks last weekend has undoubtably thrown us out even more than we would otherwise have been.

Me? I’m up as I have to work but once I have finished I’m going to lay back, close my eyes and try and recover some well needed sleep 🙂

On not meditating

Meditation came up in discussion with one of my blog followers recently and I was saying that I don’t meditate at all. I find that this often causes people to be surprised for there is a common assumption that anyone who is in any way spiritual must meditate.

It is known that practicing meditation brings great benefits. The studies that have taken place on the effects meditation has on the brain and therefore on mental health all support the benefit of daily meditation. I have no idea on a personal level though as I have never been able to meditate at all.

Instead of meditation I practice Reiki. Studies have also shown that Reiki has a similar effect on the brain to meditation but although it makes me be still and focused I am aware that it is not actually meditation. I also spend time in light trance when working with clients which in itself is a way of finding stillness but again it is not meditation. Likewise when I undergo shamanic journeying, I am still, I am in a trance like state, and sometimes may appear to be asleep but again I am not meditating, far from it.

The practices I work with are in fact the opposite to meditation. In most forms of meditation the aim I believe is to clear and empty the mind or focus on one thing like a mantra for example. In Reiki, most of the time, my mind even though at rest is aware of the energy, paying attention and receiving information. In light trance with clients I am receiving information constantly and then acting on that information. When journeying I am again gathering information, making decisions and choices and, as before, although I appear at rest and my mind relaxed it is still in some way, active. Rather than emptying my mind the practices I work with fill it but not in the same way that the Ordinary Reality that is everyday life does. Probably the nearest I get is when I go for a meditative walk, focusing as I place my feet upon the earth, the feel of it beneath me and the Earth energy I breathe in with each step that I take.

In the past I have tried to meditate but because I can shift into trance at will it is easy for me to do so and the space that others use to meditate I use to journey. When I first began training in Chios Energy Healing I worked very hard to practice the Orange-Red Ball Meditation that is part of Chios but had to contact my teacher for help as whenever I did this I would end up, not where I was supposed to be, but journeying. Yet I am most of the time, quite relaxed, my mental health is good, my mindfulness and being in the moment is part of what I try to do as I move through my day. I fully believe that for some people, like me, meditation is not a prerequisite for being able to walk a spiritual path in any way.

I also believe it is important to find the way that works for you and only you can know this, whether it be meditation or anything else. As with everything is it also important not to feel pressurised by anyone or anything to do something that doesn’t fit, nor be led to believe that what you do is any less because it is not the norm. When working with students I always explain this to them, that what many of us offer are suggestions, possible tools but their job is to decide which ones work, which ones sit well with them and which ones they wish to make part of their life or practice, knowing that everything else will be there if and when they need to make use of it.

Web of Life Connections – Hummingbird

I have worked with Hummingbird a lot and always love it see it come up in the cards. Hummingbird is firmly woven into my web of life 🙂

It is important when a familiar connection or teacher comes up, not to assume you know whatt it’s message will be though.

The message from Hummingbird today is:

‘Be steady, take your time and the impossible will become possible. Rushing into things is never a good way to approach anything new even when it feels that it is what you want to do. There is nothing at all to be gained by rushing’.

 

Shaman Pathways Web of Life 

Becoming More Zen

One of the things I am short on a lot of the time, with myself anyway, and which I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, is patience, but two things I am doing at the moment are teaching me this, not through lessons but by involving me in something I really want to be doing to the extent that the journey becomes so much more important than the process.

The first of these is the training work I am doing with the Order of the Bards, Ovates and Druids. I began this around eighteen months or so ago as a Bard and for the last few weeks have been working as an Ovate. I can honestly say that this is the first thing I have done where the process is more important than the end result. In the past when I have trained I have always had the end result in mind, the certificate that will let me do something, or the next course ahead of me but this time there is none of it. The journey itself is enough.

The second thing I am doing is a certificate in coloured pencils with the London Art College. Now one thing I should probably explain is that I usually work in watercolour. It’s quick, immediate and hard but not impossible to make changes. Even painting as I do in layers of watercolour compared to most art forms it is quick. Coloured pencils are also layered but in a completely different way. Work is done by making small lines on the paper, building up layers of colour in a tiny area and then moving on to the next. The course material says 4-5 hrs for each exercise. Nothing I have done so far has been that quick. The piece I am working on at present will take me over 50 hrs but I actually don’t care. With each tiny piece I am immersed in the process, it becomes zen like and meditative and in this I find I have immense patience.

This has all got me reflecting on how much in the past I have chosen or needed to be focused on a goal. When I was still in a mainstream job within an organisation someone else set the overall goals but I was still working away setting smaller goals that would lead to the overall one. Even since working as a therapist I would still have been setting myself goals, Reiki 1 went my goal became Reiki 2 and then Masters, by training in massage it let me achieve anatomy and physiology and so it went on.

Perhaps it is part of getting older but I no longer set myself goals or targets, work ebbs and flows and I roll with it. Each quiet period with work gives me time to do something else like paint or draw, go out for lunch, meet up with friends, study or enjoy the garden. For courses I never try and plan but rather wait for students to appear and they do 🙂 I have learnt over time that the less I do, the less I interfere, the more it all works out. I have always believed that if the energy is right then things will happen and if it’s not I cannot make it so which means I don’t do marketing or goal setting, nor do I have a business plan or even a view of how and where I’d like it all to go.

So really I am working on being more ‘zen’, not pushing to make things happen, not hurrying through any aspect of my life. I am allowing myself to have patience with myself and to live in the moment only focused on what I am doing at that time, no longer planning or looking ahead but enjoying what is happening now and I am enjoying it 🙂

Strange Stories in the News

Two stories have come to light over the last 24 hrs. I want to give myself time to reflect on them but also wanted to share them here. I’m afraid the link option on WordPress isn’t working today so you will have to copy and paste.

My immediate thoughts are that just as it seems things are changing and society as a whole is becoming more open, people pop up to prove otherwise. I suppose there is the argument though that some years ago these occurrences wouldn’t have made it into the press as it would have been the norm.

Fee free to comment while I reflect.

The Burning of a Wooden Tower is a Pagan Practice

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-foyle-west-31958819

Religious Eclipse Ban

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-31989913

 

 

 

20th March 2015

Supermoon, Solar Eclipse and Spring Equinox Alban Eilir all in one day. Let’s hope the clouds are kind and stay away so we all get chance to experience it in this reality and not just energetically.

Spring Equinox is a great time to be sowing seeds ready for the months ahead. These can be the seeds of a project you have in mind, or of something you would like to bring in for example.

As the influence of this powerful day has already been building for some weeks and will continue for some weeks after the 20th you still have time to sow your metaphorical seeds if you miss the day itself. Me, I held an Alban Eilir ceremony today to sow mine as I am sure I will be too caught up in the eclipse tomorrow to think of it then.

Web of Life Connections – Will

It took me some considerable time today to connect with Will. It is one of those connection cards that I have no recollection of making and my reaction when I drew it was ‘Oh’. Since this I have made a coffee, settled myself down, all the time with Will floating around in my mind. It was only when I sat still, centred myself and allowed my mind to let go that I found the connection I was seeking.

The message that came from Will is:

‘As humans you exert your Will all the time but if you can allow your soul to lead you and your sense of free Will to let go then resistance vanishes, the flow increases and life becomes easier’.

As I finished typing this in my head I had the following:

‘Resistance is futile’.

🙂

Shaman Pathways Web of Life

Doing something I don’t enjoy

Earlier today I needed to take some photos, or rather get my husband to take some, for Shaman Moon, a blog column I write in Indie Shaman Magazine. This should have been easy, we were both around, we had time and when we first woke the sun was shining but then the sea mists closed in. By the time we were both ready to move outside with the camera and my drum it was grey and murky. So I did what I would do in most situations like this – I asked for clarity, which in some cases can mean being still and listening or it can mean paying attention in other ways, using other senses.

As soon as I had asked I noticed the daffodils coming into bloom and realised that the light of the sun comes in many forms. I then noticed that there were no shadows to affect the photos, that it may not be sunny but it was at least dry and from this I knew there was no putting it off.

Sometimes I can place ridiculous restrictions around myself or things I need to do especially when it’s not something that I want to do. Restrictions such as I will do that if x and y are so, and if x and y are not so, the opportunity may be missed completely. There are times when it is necessary and acceptable to do this, when doesn’t feel right to do something for example, but sometimes it is just a delaying tactic, something that I construct when I don’t really want to do something, a form of resistance as it were. This was certainly the case with the photos. I don’t particularly enjoy having my photos taken, or rather I don’t mind the taking of them, it is seeing them afterwards that can be the problem. I, probably like many of us, have an image in my head of how I’d like to be seen, and when I look at photos I don’t often see this. Instead I see myself getting older, my hair not how I hoped it was looking, my clothes not the way I thought they were and so on and so forth.

Getting over myself I dragged my husband off the computer, out into the garden and instead of worrying about anything just told him to keep clicking, to let things flow and in the flowing maybe, just maybe there would be something that didn’t make me cringe.

Happy St Patrick’s Day Everyone

The sleeping mind

It’s strange how sometimes my head is buzzing, full of ideas that I could write about, full of things I want to say or to share and then at other times………nothing 😦 I expect you have guessed already that is one of those nothing times!

I think we need these times, just like we need times when we benefit from being still and resting so our minds need to do the same. The problem is that I for one expect it to always be there, switched on and ready to go when I need it and to switch off and rest when I wish it to, a bit like a light I can turn on and off at will really.

Days like today when it is clear that my mind wishes to lay down and sleep can be frustrating as there are things I need to do, like writing this blog for instance, but if I am honest with myself I know that pushing it will have no effect and that all I can do is roll with it. My mind, like the muscles in my body cannot be pushed, needled, persuaded when it has had enough so I will let it be now in hope that it wakes up full of ideas later in the week. So this is me signing off until then 🙂