ritual
How To Avoid The Sunday Blues
I am sure you can easily picture the following scene. Your weekend has been somewhat action-packed. You have had your night out with friends, been for a meal with the family, and perhaps had a couple of hours at the gym on Saturday morning. The weekend was awesome, until Sunday evening arrives. Then your mind turns to what the week ahead could have in store for you…and your mood suddenly change for the worse.
If you suffer from what is known as the ‘Sunday blues,’ then it is essential you look at what you can do, from a practical point of view, to make the first day of the week far better than you may currently be experiencing it.
It is imperative you begin by looking at the actual reasons you dread your Sunday evening, and having done so, focus on what you can do about it. Get ready to take some action! Continue reading
Shamanic Healing For Chronic Illness
When treating chronic illnesses, such as depression or pain, we too often look only at the symptoms, and not the root cause. The fact is, most if not all of these conditions have at their foundation some form of loss: the loss of sensation, loss of control, or the fear of loss. For this reason shamanic medicine can be quite effective as a form of treatment.
Shamanism, the connection between the physical world and the spirit realms, is all about connections. As we look closer at chronic illness, we find that much of it is caused by a lack of connection: to our authentic selves, to our spirit guides, to nature, and to our intuition. This is whey shamanic healing can be of great value.
For thousands of years, before the emergence of modern medical practices, shamans were the healers and diviners of the community. Fortunately, their practice is as strong today as it was then.
A trained shaman is able to determine which type of healing we may need: soul loss or retrieval (often through past-life work), spiritual retrieval (a power animal, angel, or other spirit guide), or reconnection to the earth and spiritual realms. There are shamans with different specialties, just as we have physicians with different areas of practice. Continue reading
Spiritual Cleansing
With a new year comes the opportunity again to better ourselves, but how many of us consider the spiritual along with the physical or mental? Like our homes or our cars, our spiritual selves accumulate ‘junk’ over time and need cleaning too.
The first clue that a spiritual cleansing or psychic clearing is overdue is that general feeling of heaviness, emotional clutter, or being overwhelmed. Just as we tend to get depressed when our living space is a wreck, if our spiritual essence is no longer working properly, neither will we as a whole unit.
A perfect way to get started, which is inexpensive and environmentally friendly, is to smudge your physical space with a healing herb such as sage, or something stronger like frankincense. As you burn these herbs, focus on ridding negative energies and memories and repeat a mantra such as, “I release that which I no longer need, and focus now on the present.” Continue reading
Spiritual Rituals Provide Sacred Space
Spiritual ceremonies, where humans gather together in a circle, are especially potent. An energetic hoop gathers over the circle to assist in the endeavor for the gathering, whether it be for the purpose of celebrating a new birth, honoring a solstice, or to express anything of importance to humanity, as individuals, or as a group.
Altars are also powerful. They are a gathering place for spirits to provide protection and shielding, to aid in a calling or, perhaps, to provide a sacred place for the energy of one who has crossed to another dimension to gather and connect. Or, we might choose to build an altar dedicated to providing an anchor for our business when we are away, the same as when we are present. Continue reading
Catching The Bogey Man
At a particular time in their life, some people may feel that they have not achieved much success in their career, romantic life, or health and well-being. And often these people accept it to be due to their own wrongdoing. But negative energy in our lives is not always of our own volition.
Granted, when applicable, we should admit that we sometimes might have been operating from a negative vibration, which aids the expansion of such feelings of doubt and a lack of confidence. But sometimes these negative energies in our lives are caused by dark and destructive spiritual forces.
There are unknown entities out there patiently waiting for the opportunity to take control of some unsuspecting soul, especially if you are experiencing trauma, chaos or indecision. One of the main reasons these entities find it so easy to take over and manipulate us in these opportune moments, is because we are feeling overwhelmed and vulnerable. Confusion takes over and our defenses are down. We do not always have the clarity in such difficult times to see what is impeding our progress. Continue reading
A Symbol To Know The Unknowable
This morning, I ran into one of my friends in our little Spanish town, and we decided to grab a coffee and catch up. I was delighted at how she took an interest in my Om/Aum pendant. She commented on how I seemed to treat my pendant as something rather sacred, and with respect – an interesting observation! She loved the flow of the shapes, and asked if the pendant had any specific meaning.
I had to remove the pendant and study it closely to try and remember what I was taught years ago, in order to give her a brief description to the best of my ability. One by one I tried to connect with each swirl in the design and was surprised that I had remembered quite a lot of what my mentor had taught me. It was a long time ago, when we used the Om/Aum chant in our meditation sessions.
With my pendant on the table I began to explain the meaning of the dot at the top of the symbol, and recalled that this related to the silence after chanting Om/Aum. It represents the Enlightened Self, and is known as the transcendental state of Turiya. Continue reading
Programming Your Crystal
In a recent psychic reading, the client had just visited a psychic fayre, with no intention whatsoever to purchase any more crystals for her collection. She did browse one counter with its beautiful arrangement of crystals. As much as she kept walking away from that particular display, she felt one particular smoky quartz calling her back! So yes, she bought it. Her question to me was how she could best go about programming her new purchase.
Although crystals given as gifts are said to be more powerful, it is my belief that there are also times that a crystal will call out to us, because it has a certain role to play in our lives at a given time. A quartz crystal given as a gift will often be given with loving intention, which is empowering in itself. I have spoken to students who are convinced that they feel at their academic best when wearing a quartz-crystal given to them by a loved one, not to mention the sense of safety and self-confidence a cherished crystal tends to instill in us. Continue reading