beliefs
Do You Believe In Magic?
Do you believe in magic? I certainly do! I have not only experienced it, I have also been told by several different psychic readers over the years that I am descended from a very long line of witches. This does not really surprise me, as it is a well-known fact that people like me were called witches in our time.
People that were labeled witches were often those that others confided in. They were the sages that others went to for advice from spirit, the ancestors, or the cards, runes, bones, and many other divination traditions.
They were also the healers who cured with herbs and tinctures. Most witches had a sense of what plants and food would aid in healing the body and strengthening the mind.
And they were the mystics who blessed the tribe with rituals and ceremonies, and the prophets who guided the community’s warriors and leaders.
When people don’t understand something, it creates fear. The ‘evil witches’ often also knew too many of the local secrets. So, the witches were branded as malicious and wicked, instead of being appreciated and admired.
They were shunned, ridiculed, and even executed. Common methods were hanging, drowning, and burning at the stake. Burning alive was often favored because it was seen to be a more painful way to die.
But the esoteric wisdom and knowledge was passed down to select members of families and communities for generations by word-of-mouth. Not everyone was trusted with their secrets and not much was written down at that time either, for fear of persecution. But some would rather practice alone to avoid harassment, and much wisdom was lost in the process. Continue reading
Things That Go Bump in the Night
I have never been one to base my beliefs on popular opinion, rumors, or superstition. My beliefs regarding the supernatural or paranormal come solely from my personal experiences, as well the trustworthy accounts of my immediate family. So, if I tell you there are indeed ‘things that go bump in the night,’ you can be sure that I am speaking of personal experience.
When I was a little girl, for example, my father was the first person to bring the supernatural to my attention with a story of his own paranormal experience back in 1946. His story was the first to whet my appetite for investigating the paranormal and the mystical.
The Second World War had just ended, and my dad was only 20 years old at the time. The United Kingdom was still recovering from the horrendous aftermath. As a result, people were seldom out and about after dark. In fact, from what my father told me, there was not much socializing in those days and at night the streets were mostly deserted.
One night, after my dad had walked my mom (his future wife) back to her house, he decided to take a shortcut to his grandmother’s place, where he was living at the time. It was around 11pm and the short route took him past the graveyard on a street called Columbus Ravine. It was here that he saw the strange sight of a lady walking up the road in what appeared to be a Victorian costume.
“That is odd,” he thought. “A woman out alone at this time of night and dressed like that? Maybe she attended a fancy-dress party?”
He did not want to alarm her. After all, she was all by herself, it was dark out, and there was no one else around. To put her mind at ease, he therefore thought it polite to greet her.
Throwing The Bones
Before studying various Western disciplines of healing and divination, I trained to become a sangoma some 30 years ago, on the borders of Mozambique and Kwazulu-Natal in Southern Africa, where I learned among other things the divination method known as ‘throwing the bones.’
A ‘sangoma’ casting the bones is the African equivalent of the Native American shaman, the Old Norse rune reader, or the European Tarot reader. To uninformed Westerners, indigenous African methods of divination are often thought of as ‘witchcraft,’ but just like there is good and bad in all cultures and professions, the true calling of the African diviner or shaman is a spiritual one of seeking advice through the wise ancestors. In the same way modern Western diviners rely on spirit guides, angels or the ascended masters for divine guidance, so the African diviner relies upon the ancestors.
My training came about after I consulted another sangoma and was told it was my calling to become sangoma myself. She also cautioned me that until I took up this calling, I would repetitively become ill – and how right she was!
Eventually I heeded the ‘calling’, as unusual as it was at the time for a young English woman to enter the mysterious realm of African mysticism in the country in those days. Training was harsh and intense with my mentor and included coaching in various disciplines, such as divination, dream interpretation, ritual, indigenous medicines, and herbalism over a two and a half year period.
One of the divination methods I was taught is known as ‘throwing the bones’. Since the beginning of recorded history the notion of throwing tokens, casting the dice or drawing lots to interpret the divine will of spirit and the ancestors has been viewed as symbolically linking the diviner to his or her mission. Casting or throwing the bones is an ancient practice native to many regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, and North America. In Southern Africa it is a long-standing ritual among the sangomas of the Zulu, Swazi, Xhosa and Ndebele tribes.
Each bone or token used for casting is part of a kit the sangoma carefully selects with the guidance of spirit, initially with the help of a mentor. Spirit and the ancestors instruct the seeker as to the symbolism and meaning of each sacred item in the collection, and precisely shows the student where to find it and which one to use in a divination. In Southern Africa, a mentor assists the thwasa (trainee sangoma) in the process of learning to receive information from the bones, and in reading the patterns in which the bones are likely to fall.
Love, Joy And The Pursuit Of Happiness
According to the United States Declaration of Independence “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable birthrights of every human being given to us by our Creator, God, Source, the Divine.
Sadly, I find very few people to be successful in their pursuit of happiness. The same is true for finding love and joy. It seems many are merely stumbling through life trying to find it.
A teacher once told me life is like school. For some of us it’s like kindergarten – easy, uncomplicated, and lots of fun. For others it’s like graduate school with lots of difficulties and challenges to overcome.
Searching for joy, love and happiness does seem to be a ‘wild goose chase’ for many people. It truly is like chasing wild animals. The faster we run after it, the more it seems to flee. I don’t believe joy, love and happiness can be found. Well, at least not in the ways that many of us are hoping to find it.
Like happiness, the right to love is also the natural inheritance of every person. The well-known channeled text, A Course in Miracles, delves into the idea of love from a spiritual perspective. It states that it is impossible to teach love. Instead, the goal should be to remove the blockages or obstacles we have to allowing love’s presence in our lives.
I have seen repeated evidence of this in doing readings for many years now. Certain reading themes are repetitive and common themes are ‘finding love,’ or the ‘lack of love,’ or ‘loss of love.’ In all these readings one thing always becomes very clear: love itself is not an ‘out there’ thing. It is also not something that can be received from another person or thing.
In readings, Spirit will often say, “Love is not a feeling.” This one initially took me a while to understand myself, until I realized that love is in fact an intrinsic quality of being. It is already within each of us. We refer to it as the Higher Self, the Soul, or the Spirit. No one is ever separated from this innate love because it is an intrinsic aspect of our very being.
Enlightenment Is For Everyone
The term ‘enlightened’ seems to be everywhere these days. But what does it really mean? From a spiritual or metaphysical perspective enlightenment simple means refers to our level of awareness. Enlightened people are deeply aware – of themselves, the world around them, of the realm of Spirit
In a world of increasingly empty noise and superficial values, true awareness has become a rare commodity. It’s easy to immerse ourselves in all the empty noise and meaningless materialism. It’s much more challenging to look at the things of this world with greater depth and see these things (and yourself) for what they really are.
When we begin to see more clearly and authentically we become more enlightened. We begin to see the light of truth. And when we do, we become more aware how our beliefs, choices, and actions all have consequences.
For example, you might be tempted to answer with harsh words to someone who has wronged you, or to swat a spider in the sink rather than take it outside. Each one of these actions, no matter how small, radiates outward and impacts the world around you.
Choosing peaceful or harmonious action is a vital step on the road towards enlightenment. Stop to think, before you act.
Another common thread in the fabric of enlightenment is lack of attachment. In many spiritual traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, unhealthy attachment is seen as the root of all human suffering. This could be an attachment to material wealth and possessions, to beliefs and ideas, to people and animals, or to our memories and our ego.
Enlightened people are able to release attachments that are not serving their best interest and highest good by letting it go gracefully. If you spend less time worrying about these earthly fixations and obsessions, your spiritual inner being will naturally start to flourish. And once it does, you’ll become more aware of the signs, synchronicities, and subtle messages the Universe sends us all the time.
Have you been asking Spirit, God, the Universe for the same thing for years? Has true love been on your manifesting to-do list for as long as you can remember? Are you constantly struggling with your finances? Are you still looking for that dream job?
It is not as if you have done nothing to make miracles happen for you. You have been working faithfully with your guides and the angels. You have studied the Universal Law of Attraction and the art of manifesting. You have consulted psychics, mediums, healers, diviners and astrologers, and all of them have been telling you ‘it’s coming.’
But still, nothing.
So, what gives? Why has your heart’s desire not arrived yet? I hear this question time and again from clients and I have even dealt with it myself in my own life. So, if this is happening to you, you are certainly not alone.
And no, your intuition is not ‘broken’ and your guides are not ignoring you! The Universe is not too busy making other people’s dreams come true. There are many factors involved in successful manifestation and various possible reasons for the lack of results in your life. Often all you need is a few simple adjustments to create the perfect climate for receiving divine guidance and many blessings.
Firstly, there is the aspect of divine timing. It is often true that we must first work through some very important life lessons and do some personal work, before you can receive what it is we truly desire.
If you truly feel you’ve done all your work, but your desires still are not manifesting, then ask your guides if there is something you are missing, or have possibly been unwilling to see, that is still holding you back. This is also a great time to get a second set of eyes on the situation.
It may also be that those involved in the fulfillment of your desire have not completed their work. In that case, either resign yourself to be patient while setting an intention for them to make rapid progress, or ask your guides if a suitable replacement can be found that is willing to step up now and step into the role.
Uproot Limiting Beliefs With Denial And Affirmation
Denials and affirmations are two methods of prayer or meditation that can be used to shift our experience of life. They are simplistic statements of truth that enable us to reprogram our subconscious mind and consciously create at a higher level.
These spiritual techniques are used by many in the New Thought and New Age spiritual movements and are amazingly effective for breaking old habits and thought patterns.
These two spiritual practices stem from the understanding that there is one Infinite Consciousness that is by its very nature benevolent and good. Many names have been given to this Infinite Consciousness or Infinite Mind, such as God, Source, the Universe, Higher Self, Spirit, the Divine, and so on.
The premise of denials and affirmations is that our individual mind is connected to the Divine Mind, and also that our mind is creative in the same way as the Divine Mind. This concept is found in varying forms in various religious and spiritual traditions.
Hindu philosophy, for example, is based on the belief that Brahman is the supreme universal force and ultimate reality to which each soul or athma is connected. The Buddha teaches, “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.”
In the Christian tradition, Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
When I was going through a difficult time in my life, Jesus jokingly came to me with these words. He has been one of my spirit guides for many years, but on this occasion, I didn’t find the ‘mustard seed’ metaphor very amusing.