Dreams Part One

Dreams have been an inspiration to many people throughout the ages. Robert Louis Stevenson, Mary Shelley, Graham Greene and Stephen King used their dreams to provide the characters and plots for their fictional books. Barbara Cartland dreamed the story-lines to her novels - in fact, she believed God gave them to her in this way! Many artists have been inspired by dream images, especially Salvador Dali and those of the Surrealist Movement. The composer, Guiseppe Tartini dreamed the entire ‘Devil’s Sonata’, following a dream Edward Elgar wrote the first theme of his Cello Concerto and Igor Stravinski composed an entire octet whilst asleep. The music for Paul McCartney’s favourite and most successful record, ‘Yesterday’, was heard first in a dream.  

Rapprochement Card Reading

Taken from the card of Justice by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber: This card depicts the naivity of youth yet it contains very ancient wisdom. It is a winged angel that carries the heart-tipped-star-encrusted spear of Ultimate Truth. This extraordinary spear cuts through obscuring veils to reveal hidden wonders. The bright, shining blade only deals punishment that is deserved, or provides protection for validity of innocence. The scales held in her right hand weigh all factors, and finds the pivotal point between truth, order and justice. Yet she is not blindfolded, and she sees all sides of any given question. Behind this impartial Angel of Justice, a pink sky indicates the dawn of recovery as Justice must prevail. The angel has chosen to take her stand on a huge leaf of neutral space that Justice brings to a world in chaos in terms of ecology, health, finance, education, well-being, legal and all other necessary attributes. Without Justice, no kingdom, society or organisation can survive for long. 

Now is the time for seeing the other person's viewpoint. It is time for a balancing out of accounts on a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level. Conflict resolution involves the risk of letting go of power in the short term for rewards in the long term.

Gipsy Vans - A Poem

 Gipsy Vans by Rudyard Kipling

Unless you come of the gipsy stock
That steals by night and day,
Lock your heart with a double lock
And throw the key away.
Bury it under the blackest stone
Beneath your father's hearth,
And keep your eyes on your lawful own
And your feet to the proper path.
Then you can stand at your door and mock
When the gipsy vans come through...
For it isn't right that the Gorgio stock
Should live as the Romany do.

The Wood Wide Web

Trees remove the dangerous levels of carbon dioxide from our air, and make wood from it. They give out helpful oxygen! This huge synthesising work takes place in addition to supporting wildlife and providing beauty free of charge!

Pollution affects trees, the climate change causing them distress. They find hot summers, cold winters, floods and droughts difficult to cope with. Many infections and pests, especially from abroad are killing them. We all need to think of planting a suitable tree that will help wildlife and the planet. The oak, for instance, supports over 2000 species and 300 of those only live on the oak tree! 

Glastonbury - A Visit

I had not been to Glastonbury for at least 35 years so it was a delight to visit again and see the amazing changes - and also see so many things that stayed the same. It is a place where legends associated with all my favourite characters are brought to life. Perhaps a pre-Christian holy site, since the days when Joseph of Arimathea* brought two goblets (believed to be the Grail from Golgotha after the death of Jesus) to our land and placed his staff into the ground. The hillside is now called Weary All Hill because he and his group were exhausted from such a vast sea and land journey. I recently attended a family wedding at the ancient church of St Just in Cornwall where Joseph's boat is said to have arrived into the small bay. Joseph is an ascended master and I sense his energies all around

Card Reading

From ‘Mystical Healing Reading Cards’ by Inna Segal 

Card number 12 Experience Rebirth page number 33

This current era signposts a path of inner transformation. Over the next few weeks you are offered an opportunity to review your life, and find out what is missing, and what is needed. You will find the time to be involved in this inner awakening process so you can delve deeper into your inner being and learn more about who you are, and where you are going with your life. You are asked to choose a new and slower path that involves the development of sensitivity and empathy, kindness and openness. This requires a level of inner growth that you have been yearning for and is an opportunity to review your life to remove old ideas, beliefs and ways of being that do not serve you. When you replace them with meaning, purpose and service to others, the old, irrelevant ways disappear from your life and you will embrace the new path of awakened faculties within yourself that you never thought existed. You might up chanting, walking in nature, find new friendships, take up a new course or new reading uplifting or challenging books or watch podcasts from thought leaders that will expand your mind and awaken your abilities. 

World on Fire - An Extract

In the Serbian concentration camps of the early 1990s, the women prisoners were raped, over and over, many times a day, often with broken bottles, often together with their daughters. The men, if they were lucky, were beaten to death as the Serbian guards sang national anthems. If they were not so fortunate, they were castrated or, at gunpoint, forced to castrate their fellow prisoners, sometimes with their own teeth. In all, thousands were tortured and executed.

In Rwanda in 1994, ordinary Hutus killed 800,000 Tutsis over a period of three months, typically hacking them to death with machetes. Young children would come home to find their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, on the living room floor, in piles of severed heads and limbs.

In Jakarta in 1998, screaming Indonesian mobs torched, smashed, and looted hundreds of Chinese shops and homes, leaving over 2000 dead. One who survived - a 14-year-old Chinese girl - later committed suicide by taking rat poison. She had been gang raped and genitally mutilated in front of her parents.

In Israel in 1998, a suicide bomber driving a car packed with explosives rammed into a school bus filled with 34 Jewish children between the ages of six and eight. Over the next few years, such incidents intensified, becoming daily occurrences and a powerful collective expression of Palestinian hatred. “We hate you” a senior Arafat official elaborated in April 2002 “and the air hates you the land hates you the trees hate you there is no purpose in your staying on this land.”

Reuse, Renovate, Recycle!

Our unique and finite planet is labouring under the weight of pollution, in the air, the soil and the seas.  If we are to survive as a species, we need to care for the environment and practice ecological ways of living. All species are interdependent - ie all dependent on each other. Our logging, mining, farming, arable growing, are all eating into the land that was once available to other species. Our forests are on fire year after year due to long term droughts, high winds and little rain. What can you do I hear you ask! Reuse, Renovate and Recycle whatever you can, and stop purchasing vehicles, white goods, furnishings, and most of all stop using chemicals and stop eating meat and meat products. 

The Hierophant - The High Priest

From The Star Tarot - The Hierophant. The Inner Teacher/Spiritual Advisor. There are times in your life when you may feel lost, and disconnected, uncertain how to get back to your true self. This is the time to seek the wisdom of the Hierophant. He is the revealer of sacred information and he helps you to reconnect to your soul self. The Hierophant instructs you to listen. He symbolises the mediator between the spiritual world and the material world. He shows you the path how to live a spiritual life on Earth. The number is five – the number of spiritual self which struggles to learn how to express itself. The Hierophant is the Enlightened One who gives spiritual guidance. This is the bridge between the spirit and human form. He shines spiritual knowledge and divine love into your heart, awakening your soul purpose. The Hierophant  is your inner voice that inspires you to practice spiritual values in your everyday life. If you listen, you can learn the lessons. This card indicates a need or desire to discover the Divine being within. The Hierophant inspires you to walk your talk and practice your brand of spirituality with integrity and authenticity. You are encouraged to trust your intuition and to see the Divine in all things. You will channel cosmic knowledge, and blend and balance your inner self with your outer world, understanding how all things are connected. He gives you the courage and desire to look at your beliefs and values to see if they align with the Divine Plan. This will rebalance your life. Does drawing this card show you that you are ready to take on this role or that you still need further training?  Is your spirituality a true commitment? Use this time to re-evaluate where you have come and where you are going! You true destine path awaits - choices are required. By Cathy McClelland.

The Turin Shroud Photograph

The veil cloth that Veronica gave to Jesus on his walk to Calvary, and upon which his face left an imprint, is immortalised in every Roman Catholic Church in  6th station of the cross, but this event is not mentioned in the New Testament. There are crudely painted cloths but they are not original. However, the Turin Shroud is not a painting, but a photograph on cloth, and it has blood on it! So it is a very strange item indeed! 

During the massive cathedral building programme of the 12th - 14th centuries, relics were demanded by the papacy to bring pilgrimages to these expensive places of worship. The Turin Shroud has been carbon dated to 1260-1390, just the date of the required relics. However, it is obviously not the winding sheet of the corpse of Jesus. An early Roman Catholic Bishop recognised this. However, it is the image of a crucified man of this date, so therefore who might this be? 

Description of the Shroud:  It is a long length of cloth that comprises of an unusual herringbone flaxen twill fabric. The threads were bleached prior to weaving and hand spun. It is 14 feet 3 inches in length and 3 feet 7 inches wide. It has no mildew despite being in damp conditions for centuries. It has no brush strokes, no pigments or dyes. It shows two full length images, one of the front and one of the back of a naked and bearded man, with a moustache and shoulder length hair. It shows the body bore lacerations that are consistent with flogging. There are small puncture holes in the forehead consistent with a crown of thorns having been placed there. Also shown is a knife wound to his side. His wrists, and his feet are pierced in a way that is consistent with Roman crucifixion. He has his hands folded over his groin. Many measurements have been taken of the subject and some researchers have stated his strange physicality is that of a man who has also been, not only crucified, but wracked.