Gaelic Blessing for a Young Girl
I bathe the palms in showers of wine, in the lustral fire, in the seven elements, in the juice of the rasps, in the milk of honey, and I place the nine pure choice graces in thy fair fond face, the grace of form, the grace of voice, the grace of fortune, the grace of goodness, the grace of wisdom, the grace of charity, the grace of choice maidenliness, the grace of whole-souled loveliness, the grace of goodly speech.
Validate what you like in the Other person - their values, actions, skills and abilities. Look for areas of rapport, agreement and similarities. Ask genuine interest questions and be open to speaking your truth and to listening with an open heart. Want the best for the Other, so they can be confident, content and productive in their life. Focus on a way forward to always improve the quality of the relationship, setting daily goals to please each other. Expect the best and give the best, but bear in mind that some people are naturally better at relationships due to empathy, being articulate and being more consistent and steady in their thinking and relating style.Women are usually better at collaborations than men, though there are exceptions.
Can you discuss everything, your priorities, hopes, and ambitions, your personal thoughts and feelings, even those that other people might not like? Do you feel fully accepted as a person and do you feel you develop yourself with this person, growing in understanding of yourself and of them too? What are your criteria for a relationship and does this person tick your boxes?What are the boxes. Define what you are looking for in your relationship. Do you think you are a good match? Are you close friends who communicate well or do you feel you need to put on an act or a mask to please this person?
The Journey to You - A Shaman’s Path to Empowerment is a book by Ross Heaven that links spirituality and science. It will guide you on your spiritual path in a grounded way that has benefits for you and the world today. It provides healing practices and techniques, such as image work, journeying and soul retrieval and draws on the latest scientific research and provides guidance from leading figures. For each book sold, there is a contribution to the Dream Change Coalition for Rainforest protection and the preservation of indigenous shamanic wisdom.
The shaman asks ‘does it grow corn?’ Or does it have a useful purpose that provides value to people? We are all gods of a kind, that can assist, support and provide, and we have a responsibility to do this. The shamanic world is experiential but it has purpose and meaning, without which it is null and void.
Anne Askew was a young woman, highly educated in theology and was examined in 1545 at Sadlers Wells in London and before the Mayor of London and the Arch Bishop Boner for Protestant heresy. At this stage, she could without much compromise have saved her life, but her behaviour became increasingly uncooperative with the authorities. She was singularly uncaring about the status of those interviewing her and was able to retaliate with her own interpretation of the Scriptures in any argument.
On the 18th of June 1546, she was interrogated at the Guildhall and within a few days was incarcerated in the Tower of London. On the 16th of July, she was carried in a chair because she was so weak and was taken to the stake at Smithfield. Even at this stage, she was assured of the Kings pardon if she recanted. She refused and the fire was lit.
St John’s Day is a fire festival, three fires are created, one of bone (the bonfire), one of wood (the wake fire) and one of bone and wood (the fire of St John). Goatsbeard and masterwork used to be made into crosses, but crosses can also be made from hypericum branches. It is a day to bathe in the water of holy springs (I used to bring home water from the springs in Springfield Park, from my mother’s home in Glengarriff, or from my local spring at the Elizabethan Hunting Lodge, and put the water in with my bath water with some Hypericum flowers!
It is a day to collect fennel, rue, rosemary, lemon verbena, mallow, laburnum seeds, foxgloves, and elderflower to make an incense/smoke sticks that are said to repel all evil. Yarrow is also burned, a herb sometimes used for the I Ching divination. It is likely that the red antibiotic juice of Hypericum was used by the Knights of St John, where it’s common name, Wort of St John could have originated. The Wort of St John is a medicinal plant that blooms at midsummer when the feast of the Baptist is celebrated often by ecstatic dancing, carnival processions and costumes as the plant is also known to have antidepressant qualities. St John is known as the Sacred Clown possibly because of his wild living style of wearing goatskin and eating locusts and honey and crying out for repentance and to prepare the way for the messiah.
Speakers use words to influence the minds of their listerners. Writers use language to affect and influence their readers.
Connotation: A connotation is an implied meaning. Words can have associations other than their literal meaning.
Emotive Language: Writers often seek to arouse certain feelings or emotions in the reader, for example, pity or anger. This can be done by using emotive language e.g. words and phrases that have certain connotations. A reporter writing about a crime could write for example, “a burglar stole some jewellery from Mr Bolton’s house.” This just tells us the facts. If a writer wanted to influence our emotions, they might write, for example, “a heartless burglar stole jewellery of great sentimental value from the frail pensioner, Albert Bolton.” The word ‘heartless’ makes someone sound deliberately cruel. The word “frail” implies vulnerability and helpless. The term ‘of great sentimental value’ tells us how important the jewellery was to Mr Bolton, and increases our sympathy for him.
In a conversation with Karyn, she thinks that if everything in the world was created by God, so was evil - so God is not entirely good. Does wholeness involve both good and bad?
No I don’t think so. I believe that God is entirely good. His wholeness demonstrates a positive direction towards holiness, purity, healing, and the relief of suffering. As everything has its equal and opposite, I also believe that there is a devil, a demonic like energy which opposes God’s direction and is therefore hateful and destructive.
In our society, we attempt to catch evil people, punish them and lock them away from doing any further harm. This is in order to protect those who wish to live in accordance with the laws of a caring and just society. These two energies cannot live comfortably together. Therefore they are permanently in conflict. On a personal level, we also need to fight against all kinds of selfishness, such as resentment, jealousy, hatred, and greed, or any other emotion or action that can harm another person. Yes, the devil does exist and those who enjoy time in his company will spend eternity with him.
What does meditation do? Meditation strengthens our concentration and allows clearer thinking. It reduces stress and tensions, relieves frustration and anger. It lowers cholesterol and blood pressure. It helps us to realise our addictions and obsessions and helps us to relieve them. We can gain greater creativity. It helps us with understanding ourselves and develops greater resilience to illness. You will have more joy and appreciation. You will develop greater intimacy with others, more being the real you and less falseness and lack on congruency.
How to: Find a quiet place, sit comfortably and close your eyes. Take some deep breaths, allow your breathing to return to normal, and relax your body. Choose a word or phrase that is especially personal and meaningful. Breathe through your nose and repeat the word or phrase. Continue for five minutes.
Extract from A Novel Approach to Healing by Angela DeHSP - a Highly Sensitive Person:
In recent years, I've come to understand what it means to be a "HSP". Through this, I've looked at the bigger picture of my life and seen how and why stress (the biggest factor undermining human health) has affected me.
Because stress levels are determined by ones own sensitivity, being a HSP meant my biochemistry suffered big time, creating a string of mystery health issues over the years that pre-empted my need to develop coping strategies. Whilst I did plenty of research into my biochemistry in order to stabilise my health, the most difficult aspect was to develop the emotional resilience I lacked, being the main source of my high stress levels - something that is common among HSP's.
