February 2018 – Healing and moving forward

In terms of Wicca at the beginning of February we celebrate the festival of Imbolc which is seen as a time of purification and readiness for the growing light of the sun which will gain momentum as we head towards the clocks changing in March and thus longer days at last!  Like the new buds unfurling out of the dark wintery earth, we too are emerging slowly from our hibernation and brushing ourselves down ready to greet the onset of spring and our ‘rebirth’.

I want to share with you an experience of Starseed Healing which I had yesterday at my friend *Karen’s fabulous ‘Temple of Light’ in Wallasey, Wirral, just over the water from Liverpool.  I had the 24 Strand DNA Activation just over a year ago, by Karen, and I wrote an article on this for Kindred Spirit magazine which was published last June.  (I may post this on this blog at some point).  In a nutshell the DNA activation is an amazing journey, it involves ‘psychic surgery’ which I’m sure many of you will wonder what on earth I’m talking about.  It’s basically where an incision is made in your etheric body, i.e. the energy surrounding your physical body, and the therapist stands back to allow light workers to re activate all 24 strands of our DNA, which are the blueprint for the lives we are meant to be living.  Having this procedure means that you are re- programmed if you like, your connection to the divine is renewed so that you are able to fully see which path you are meant to be taking in this life.  So, as a follow on to this, Starseed healing works on the etheric body with aid of tuning forks. The therapist looks at all the meridians flowing through your body and with the help of the sound vibration is able to assess whether they are running freely or whether there are any blockages which will be holding you back.  The tuning forks pick up on these blockages and then that area is worked on until the energies are flowing freely once more.  It is strangely relaxing, even though at times it feels like you’re sitting in Big Ben’s clock tower with chimes sounding all round your head!  Sometimes you hear a dull sound which is the sign of a blockage, and then you hear the clear chimes of the tuning fork once the energy is back on track.  I can’t say I felt anything in particular, just relaxed and quite peaceful.  Once the session was over, Karen was able to fill me in on what she found, and this is the most interesting part in many ways for the client.  Karen told me I had a blockage from my left shoulder to my elbow, which was uncanny as for several weeks I’ve had muscular pain in exactly this area.  It’s a dull ache which spreads from my shoulder down my tricep towards my elbow, and is has improved, and today feels even better.  She found blockages in my root chakra (which relates to money apparently) and in my solar plexus (anxiety) and a deep rooted blockage in my chest area.  There were a few on my fingertips too which is strange as apparently my palms were full of hot pulsing energy, as were my feet which I was glad to hear.  During the session I was thinking a lot about the things that I think ‘block’ me and hold me back and I think I know what the deep rooted ‘blockage’ is that was in my chest.   I feel I have acknowledged it, it might take a while to deal with completely, but today I feel I have made progress.  I don’t need to worry about what I can’t and haven’t done, but just focus on my path, keep moving forwards, don’t look round to see what other people are doing or not doing, just keep that direction in view and remember my individual power.  Interestingly, Karen saw St Brigid whilst she was working on me, and as she is the goddess of Imbolc I thought this was quite a coincidence...  St Brigid stands for healing powers and gifts you are able to give with your hands.  She is often depicted with fire coming out of her palms, full of creative energy.   To me it was a sign that I am now able to move forward with my creative projects, to trust and believe, and not get distracted by the burning of anyone else’s light! 

*Karen Owen can be contacted at Temple of Light in Wallasey, her Facebook page is called ‘Temple of Light’.

Practical Magic

Imbolc is all about cleansing yourself, starting afresh, healing has to start from within.  What better place to start than your home?  Get a sage stick (available to buy in many crystal outlets/online/ or from Samantha’s Spells FB page) and smudge yourself and your home.  This is done by wafting the smoke from the sage stick around oneself and around each room in your house.  Make sure you start upstairs first and finish with opening your back door to let the negative energy out and open your front door to allow new positive energy in.  Smudging is an old Native American Indian tradition to cleanse a person’s energy or the energy within a dwelling.

Crystal of the Month- Shungite

I hadn’t heard of this stone until I stumbled upon it and wow what a find!  It’s only found in Russia and is incredibly ancient, 2 billion years old!  It’s known as a powerful healing stone, which is why I wanted to add it to my collection, and is the only natural material found to contain fullerenes which are powerful anti-oxidants.  It is due to these that the stone gets its miracle healing properties from, as if used on a regular basis it should help to keep the body functioning healthily and combat any nasty foreign bodies found to be threatening one’s health.  It’s also good to keep near your computer or office equipment as it will neutralise the effect of the electromagnetic radiation given off by TV’s/phones/computers. 

Shungite will purify water too, so pop it in a glass of water for half an hour or so before drinking it, but don’t forget to take the crystal out!  Alongside my moldavite I am going to start using this during my Reiki sessions with a family friend who I am treating.  It’s lovely and smooth to touch and is almost like a small piece of coal, and to hold it makes me feel serene and at one with myself.

Angel Card of the Month – A Favourable Outcome

This card suggests that a situation you are concerned about has already resolved itself with fairness and justice and you will be pleased with the outcome.   You may not necessarily see the results right now, but be assured they are all in hand and the sooner you can let go of your worries, the quicker your favourable outcome will manifest itself to you.  Possible specific meanings: a legal matter will settle in your favour/your new relationship will be long-term/ you’ll get your desired job/the money will come through/a healing will occur.

Moody Moon

This month we have no full moons, as January we had 2 incredible ones!  March we are also due the honour of witnessing another calendar month containing 2 full moons, so we can have a rest in February.  There is however a new moon and a partial Solar Eclipse on February 15^th at 21.05 in the sign of Aquarius.  New moons are new beginnings, opportunities and great times to start afresh.  Being in Aquarius, unusual pursuits are particularly favoured, as is anything to do with air, so communication/travelling by plane/sending letters are also well marked at this time.  If you want to ask for a raise do it today!  If you are applying for a new job get it sent off today.  If you are going on holiday it’s a great time to fly!  Unfortunately for us we are unlikely to see the solar eclipse, it is only visible from Antarctica, the Atlantic, the Pacific and Southern South America. 

Any babies born on this day will have their moon in Aquarius, and as the moon is about emotions, this will mean that they are good at keeping their true feelings under wraps.  Aquarius is the sign of the pioneer, the political trailblazer, the unique individual, so they are likely to have an unorthodox emotional attachments and maybe even be a bit of a loner.  Aquarians are gregarious and have lots of friends but find it harder to connect with one special person.  If your partner is Aquarius you are honoured!

Eat: Blood orange, cockles, clams, mussels, cabbage, cauliflower, Oysters, Venison, winkles

Play: If you are so inclined, go and see where your nearest Reiki Attunement Centre is and do your Reiki One.  It’s incredible!

Love: Your hands.  They are incredible what they can do.  They make, they touch, they put things together, they are weapons, they can heal with one stroke or touch, they can be hot or cold, they feed us and they allow us to experience a wealth of emotions with the soft touch of our fingertip on an object.

Relinquish Control- January 2018

January 2018- Relinquish control

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to write about for this month’s column.  I wanted to avoid the usual ‘resolution’ stuff as sometimes that all gets a bit boring and predictable.  I’m not going to suggest that you write ‘new year resolutions’ this year, for what you are going to achieve this year is so much more than just ticking a load of things off a list, or crossing off the ones you didn’t do.  It’s going to be part of the bigger picture.  I remember last January asking you to do a resolution star.  Did you do this?  It was rather more like a wish list I guess, asking you to make some dreams into a reality, to really push the boat out with what you wanted to set in motion to achieve.  Did you do this?  Or like me did you think about doing it, do it and have now forgotten what you did with it??  Well I’m telling myself that I don’t need a list from last January to know whether I have achieved what I set out to achieve!  Moreover it’s not even about berating one’s self for the stuff we didn’t do and cheering ourselves on for the things we did do.  I would prefer just to reflect upon the year itself and ask what lessons have I learnt?  What have been the themes of the year?  Many people get to New Year’s Eve and don’t want to look back over the year, whether good or bad, they just want to leave it in the past and move on. Yet sometimes we have to look back wards in order to move forwards.  It seems an awfully difficult thing to take a step backwards, whether it be in a work situation, a financial one, or an emotion one.  We don’t want to revisit those situations or feelings that we found ourselves in when we were in that place from before.  But it is worth remembering, particularly if you feel, ‘why am I going backwards, I feel embarrassed/ashamed/like I have failed’ that for many, a step backwards allows us to be in a better position to move forwards.  Yes it can be demoralizing to take a step back, but if it allows you to regroup, re assess and examine what you need to learn from this, then you will take double the steps forward that you would have done originally. 

I was talking to my friend about the column and what I was going to write for January and she told me that the biggest ‘theme’ of her year if you like, had been the discovery of how wonderful people can be and how caring during difficult times.  My friend has a family member who has this year been diagnosed with cancer and she said how they have been bowled over by the gestures of kindness and love shown to them all over this year.  Sometimes it takes a crisis to really be shown who your true friends are and to bring out the best in people.   So I was wondering what have the themes of my year been? (If I just move the cat who is sitting on my notes I’ll be able to tell you).  Ah yes, like many other people we’ve had some disasters this year, Bob (aforementioned cat) going missing, my mother fell and broke her leg badly, my sister is still out of work a year on, I thought I’d bought football tickets for my husband’s birthday and there was a mess up so he and my Dad got to Anfield and there were no tickets…… the kids have had head lice TWICE now (most recently found some yesterday)….a tragic death in my best friend’s family……. I’m sure some of these sound familiar to you too.  But what I have noticed isn’t necessarily the theme of disaster, for there were good things too, (bob returning, my charity dancing which I loved, getting articles published in Spirit and Destiny and Kindred Spirit mag), but moreover the feeling of not being able to control everything.  Even when you think you have all bases covered life comes up and bites you on the derriere so to speak with a little surprise that you just weren’t expecting! I am a very organised person, so I like to be in control of what is going on in my home, my work, and my life in general.  Unfortunately life doesn’t work like that all the time!  But it is certainly a lesson for me in relinquishing control.  Sometimes if you are able to ‘let go’ of the things that you worry about everything turns out ok in the end.  Worrying really really does not change anything.  Things will happen whether you worry or not.  There are times when life seems at a standstill, yet things are moving and changing all the time, it’s just we cannot always see them.  Like the sprouting of new life in the spring when we see the green shoots emerging from the earth (I can see snowdrops starting to sprout already), things are evolving and changing, we don’t see how they are growing underneath the earth, but be assured they are.  Likewise some changes occur so slowly that we don’t notice them until later.  Watch a huge Ferris wheel, it moves so slowly that it appears not to be moving at all, but it is moving nonetheless.

Practical Magic

Write down your worries.  Write EVERYTHING down, from daft little ones like ‘I’m worried I might over sleep tomorrow’ to the big ones.  What do you gain from worrying about these things?  Are any of them likely to change by your worrying?  Can you do anything practical to alleviate your worries?  (e.g. if one of them is worrying about over sleeping then you can set more than one alarm or ask a friend or neighbour to give you a wakeup call).  Lots of worries can be alleviated by practical measures or by sharing them but we have to accept that some things you really cannot change.  Worrying about whether it will rain or whether you got that new job or not isn’t going to change the outcome.  But you can take a brolly and you can do your best in an interview, and if it’s not gone your way this time then there’s always next time.  Once you’ve got your list and you’ve assessed if anything on there really deserves the energy of your worrying, then burn it and as you burn it imagine being free of all those worries.  As thoughts come into your head just gently bat them away and try to imagine how wonderful it would be to be worry and stress free.  If you have some sage (sage sticks for smudging) light this and ‘smudge’ yourself and your house.  Smudging is an old Native American ritual for ridding your aura and your house from negative or damaging energy.  The sage smells quite pungent and will purify the energies it comes into contact with.  Hopefully you will feel a little lighter.  You can do this to your home and around yourself as often as you feel the need, but take care wafting your lit sage stick!

Crystal of the Month – Black Obsidian

This crystal is often used for protection as it absorbs negativity, particularly negative energy which has created a ‘smog’ around you.  It is also used as shield against psychic attack, so if you are doing any spiritual or psychic work this stone will guide and protect you.  It was used as a tool for scrying in days gone by and can still be used on your third eye to gain prophetic knowledge or past life healing.  Given our theme this month is about releasing the past year and learning from it, your black obsidian stone will aid you in dealing with any life lessons that have cropped up over the last 12 months. We have to deal with and then release the past in order to move forward.  

The crystals themselves are formed when molten lava has cooled very quickly, before having the chance to turn into glass.  Obsidian comes in many colours, rainbow which can be iridescent and snowflake obsidian.  The black obsidian is the best for working with past life issues and protection.  If you feel you have lost a sense of direction in this life, place it on your third eye (middle of your forehead) and ask the question ‘what am I meant to be doing here, what issues from my past lives should I be learning about’ and possibly you will start to intuitively feel the answers.

Angel Card of the Month- Your Children Are Being Watched Over By Angels

This card comes up when Archangel Michael wants you to know that he is paying particular attention to your children. He is guiding them to stay safe and ensuring they develop their spiritual gifts and discover their divine life’s purpose.  Perhaps your children have been ill over the winter months with colds and coughs they cannot shake off, be assured Michael is looking after them. (although he may have taken his eye off mine again with the resurgence of head lice…) Possible specific meanings: Your life’s purpose involves children; a healthy pregnancy and birth is shown; an adoption will be successful; spend time with indigo and crystal children; take care of your inner child; a child in heaven is happy and sending love; your children are okay; give worries about your children to god and the angels.

Moody Moon

There are 2 full moons in January and both are supermoons!! This is going to be a very special, powerful month.  Basically a supermoon occurs when the moon is full at the same time as her orbit is closest to the earth, so the moon will appear much bigger and brighter than usual.  The first full moon is on January 2^nd at 02.24am in the sign of Cancer.  Cancer is an extremely sensitive sign, usually associated with the mother and the home, and is ruled by the moon herself, so this might be a particularly emotional day for those born under this sign of the zodiac.  It may also highlight matters within the home and family that need your attention.  This full moon is also called the Wolf moon, as villagers used to hear the sound of wolves howling around this time of year.  (All the moons were named by Native American Indians as a way of keeping track of time).  There is a  second full moon this month and thus is named a ‘Blue moon’ as it is unusual to have two full moons in one month, in fact it only occurs once every 2 or 3 years, but this year we have two full moons happening again in March!  I really think the first 3 months of this year are going to be quite spectacular with lots of drama and important events occurring.  So the Blue moon occurs on 31^st January at 13.26 in the sign of Leo, this sign is about drama, ego and loyalty.  To add to the mix there is a total lunar eclipse at 13.29 on the 31^st, but unfortunately this won’t be visible from the UK.  If you are lucky enough to be in north Eastern Europe, North America, the pacific or north and west South America you will be able to see this magnificent eclipse.  A total lunar eclipse happens when the moon travels through the dark central portion of its shadow and the earth blocks all direct sunlight from falling onto the moon’s surface.  When a total lunar eclipse occurs the moon is called a Blood Moon, hence the old saying ‘there’s blood on the moon’ which foretold of disaster.  This is just superstition, for the red colouring is only due to the fact that as the sun’s rays pass through the atmosphere some of the colours are filtered which causes the light that does reach the moon to have a reddish hue, hence the fact that the moon is called a blood moon.  Depending on the atmosphere during the eclipse different colours of the light spectrum may also be filtered out, so sometimes the moon will take on a yellow, orange or brown look.

The new moon falls on January 17^th at 02.17 in the sign of Capricorn.  New moons are a good time to start new projects, anything started now will have the strong solid influence of Capricorn.  Don’t expect quick results though, Capricorn is ruled by the goat, sure footed but slow and steady.  Think ‘the second mouse gets the cheese’ and you won’t be disappointed.

On 4^th January you might be lucky enough to see Quadrantids Meteor shower.  If you look to the northeast after midnight you may see up to 80 meteors per hour, although the brightness of the recent full moon may hinder the display somewhat.

Eat: root vegetables, blood oranges, salmon, skate, lamb.

Play: Want a dog but your lifestyle just wouldn’t work with it?  Log onto borrowmydog.co.uk and you can register to borrow other people’s dogs for walkies, cuddles or the odd weekend.

Love: The fact you get to start anew in January.  Anything is possible!