Mine Quick Voice of Aquarius

First steps in Self-Healing

Having said the immune system is not only a physical entity but has a mental and emotional counterpart which is always part of the health solutions we seek. The premise to achieve good health is ‘as above so below’. This saying is a popular modern paraphrase of the second verse of the Emerald Tablet, a compact and cryptic Hermetic text attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus.

Another way of describing this premise is by the principle of correspondence -not I hasten to add as scientists do, having a selective meaning in quantum mechanics, rather in the day-to-day common-sense appreciation of its meaning. Like unto.

In health terms if we say we feel good, we mean some kind of balance is being experienced between our mind and body. It isn’t saying everything is hunky dory -indeed we might be in the process of suffering illness or injury or struggling to emerge from some dark place emotionally and mentally. What it is saying is the balance of health is tipping in the right direction. Like unto. The change driver can be mental, emotional, or physical.

And when the inner nature of our energetic BodyMind posits itself as the change driver extraordinary things can happen. Reports of Yogis who have lived hundreds of years are too numerous to be dismissed. Feats of endurance and death-defying conquests overcoming impossible odds are reoccurring patterns in recorded history. And in daily life our admiration extends to neighbours and friends who have stoically extended their active lives by refusing to accept prognosis of terminal illnesses.

In some circumstances the change driver be activated by the physical form of the BodyMind.

Here are a few examples. Two people have a body-blending sexual union and in the aftermath they feel mentally and physically wonderful -indeed they might also say they feel spiritually united. A person addicted to a stimulant of some kind will say they feel good on experiencing its effects. A pain sufferer who has a high threshold of resistance will say they are coping okay without pain relieving medication. People taking drugs to combat illness can say they feel better when the drugs kick in and stabilise their condition.

These prior examples show the ‘feel good’ factor is temporary and dependent upon repeating or maintaining the physically induced ‘inputs’. Now -look at the same examples which can have a negative mental and emotional outcome.

When the body-blending sexual union is driven by desire to relieve mental and emotional frustration -the result is exhaustion, a kind of peace which temporarily drives concerns ‘out of the window’. It does nothing to enhance mind and body union. When the stimulants addicts take wears off, they are back where they started, the harmony they experienced is absent. The person who is able to resist extreme pain without medication not only suffers tiredness from the effort, but they can also lose function physically by the resistance they manifest. People dependant on drug medication to overcome illness not only alter the natural chemistry of the body -they affect the ‘chemistry’ of their mind.

It is said we are what we eat. Some 60 chemical elements are found in the physical body, but what all of them are doing there is still unknown. Roughly 96 percent of the mass is made up of just four elements: oxygen, carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, with a lot of that in the form of water. The remaining 4 percent is a sparse sampling of the periodic table of elements.

It is generally agreed we can ‘engineer’ the mind to control adverse physical responses, as we also admit damage control is rarely permanent. By the same token we acknowledge uncontrolled emotion can injure ourselves. Only when we treat the physical body with the respect it deserves are we able to achieve healthy balance of the BodyMind.

The physical body manifests an intelligence on its own account -we can be aware of this by changes in the mental and emotional feelings experienced. Although we most often only acknowledge this intelligence after the fact, there is an awareness, sometimes described as ‘gut reaction’ forewarning of change. Before you think of dismissing this statement soberly remind yourself we have been physically evolving for tens of thousands of years, and analysis shows we are hybrids -having genetic roots arising from other biped, quadruped, and other ovoviviparous species. You only have to look at the functions of these other species present in our modern-day world to realise they express an instinctual intelligence which governs and guides their form of life.

Man is also instinctively intelligent, however, in the course of evolution we have programmed our brain minds to behave rationally -or to put it in simple English; to think, amass, and recall thought. And we conceitedly describe ourselves as self-aware beings, distinctly different and more evolved than any other form of earthly life.

Self-healing can only be lastingly achieved when both minds, above and below, are treated in tandem. To do that we need to re-install and develop instrumental consciousness -learn from the world of nature how that is done.

So, having understood how and why self-healing can work -in my next post I’ll look at means and methods you can employ to activate the self-healing nature of the BodyMind.

Having recently lost my beloved cat -here is a poem that reminds us they are more intelligent than us humans!

Cat Secret

I couldn’t match the ease of her repose,
those watchful half-closed eyes unseeing
would not blink or curiously follow threat-less change.
Yet in a moment she could walk, run or leap,
engaging organ, bone, and muscle to action
apposite events. Instinctively known.

Self-named Creator, war maker, king of beasts.
Really? I tried but never could BE as she.
Unimpressed, she knew I needed her –a kind
of insolence aware of my demands -making me
question – is she a form of life I’ve yet to live?
Did I not pass that way on evolution’s path

Cat secret understood?

Yet, when she called for food or care
I would hasten as if her soul demanded
desiring body it has not, and resting
in dreamless sleep fear possession-
that something I am not would uncoil
in my head, mocking my intelligence.

Now she has passed me by, heading
to the grey havens and the Mirrorless Sea,
her secret intact. Now my kingly nature
sits squat upon Eternity’s endless shores
beggaring love, ears a-cock to hear again
her demanding call, the herald of rebirth.

Your Health -Above and Below

In self-healing terms the first step toward self-management is to recognise the physical body is not simply a combination of physical chemical pathways, observable and treatable scientifically.

What we call our mind; the emotional, mental, and spiritual (or higher) nature is energetically related to our physical conception. In other words, self-healing powers embrace the BodyMind -the entire spectrum of life giving and taking influence, and our health (body and mind) is dependent upon the interrelationship of energies that comprise this union.

You cannot divorce the relationship between body and mind and expect lasting good health outcomes.

Health treatments -be they for the recovery of mental and emotional disorders, or body repair, holistically benefit from the BodyMind approach, which will always take a causal view of a person’s health needs.

Key to management and maintenance of good health is the immune system ‘above and below’.

‘Below’ the body’s immune system is a wonder to behold. It defends us from attacking bacteria, viruses, and parasites. A vast network of cells and tissues constantly on the lookout for pathogenic invaders, and when an enemy is spotted, a complex attack is mounted. It consists of many types of cells, organs, proteins, and tissues. Crucially, it can distinguish your tissue from foreign tissue, and can dispose of dead and faulty cells and clear them away out of the body.

Made up of special organs, cells and types of chemicals that fight infection, the constituent parts in our bodies are white blood cells, antibodies, the complement system (proteins whose actions complement work done by antibodies), the lymphatic system, the spleen, the thymus, and the bone marrow. In common parlance the lymphatic system consists of tubes producing cells that clean and dispose of bacteria -a dustbin cleaner. The spleen is a blood filtering organ that removes and destroys old or damaged red blood cells. The thymus filters your blood and produces a type of white blood cell called T-lymphocytes. Bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside your bones, produces red blood cells of a type that carries oxygen, white blood cells we use to fight infection, and the platelets we need to help the blood clot.

An underactive BodyMind immune system does not function correctly and makes people vulnerable to infections. It can be life threatening in severe cases. If the immune system is overactive we can suffer from allergies, foods, medications, stinging insects, hay fever, asthma, hives, dermatitis, and eczema. If it compromises and attacks itself, autoimmune diseases arise, including multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, type 1 diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels).

The BodyMind’s mental and emotional immunity has a physical relationship with the limbic system located between the brain stem and the two cerebral hemispheres that govern emotions and memory, within the hypothalamus plays a key role activating the sympathetic nervous system, which is a part of any emotional reaction. The cerebrum, the large, outer part of the brain, controls reading, thinking, learning, speech, emotions, and planned muscle movements like walking.

If we are not emotionally and mentally balanced, i.e., harmonically expressive of our BodyMind character, the immune system will labour to achieve its purpose, identifiable illness, and disease -physically and psychosomatically can take root.

How we manage our mental and emotional nature is critically important -and it must account for the instrumental nature of our consciousness. We are not islands, or containers -at best we are houses with controllable front and back doors, and viewable windows we are able to curtain, when we are not openly inquiring. The house ceases to be home when all the doors are locked, and the windows barred. The BodyMind becomes a prison.

In purely physical terms there are 11 organ systems in the human body, the integumentary system, skeletal system, muscular system, lymphatic system, respiratory system, digestive system, nervous system, endocrine system, cardiovascular system, urinary system, and reproductive systems (male & female). All have self-healing, self-managing capability peculiar to their own design -yet they all are dependent upon the BodyMind immune network of ‘fighters and defenders’ to work efficiently. And as described the emotional and mental counterpart is a key player which has the potential to drive change and ensure compliant health of the BodyMind.

So, there you have it -put the immune system right, ‘above and below’ and you are your own Master.

Next week I’ll talk about the How’s and Why’s. Microcosms and Macrocosms?? All will be revealed.

The poem I’ve written for this week is a reminder that every moment of our lives is recorded -just as the bay rocks hold the music of the sea.

Jewels of Memory

Bay rocks hold sung music
of the timeless sea.
Smooth faced archipelago’s
thrust the shore seeking waves
into cuts of ebony dark basalt pillars
to thunder down
and suck back the shifting sand.
Giving ebb and flow
chasing grains that move
the face of geography.
Baring pebbled bones
psychometric jewels of memory.
to us, the fossilised visage
of the years before….

To Be… or not to Be

As many of my correspondents know, I’m a healer and have been so for well over 50 years, I have run a complementary health business, am the life long president of the JCPF charity; https://www.jcpf.co.uk/ , which is dedicated to healing, and currently applying my energies to assist people get the best out of life, whilst restrictions imposed by the government to curb the spread of coronavirus have given rise to all kinds of health problems. Self-healing is my major theme. For many the need to do the right thing, what best actions should be taken, are prompted by fear -or in the very least worry about what is best to do.

Does the constant keep safe messaging in the media reassure, or does it make you resentful for loss of liberty?

The UK government is telling you it is guided to make decisions by data -as most other governments dealing with virus are also doing. Statistics -or as some would say damn statistics are formulations of data which can be presented in different ways to voice ‘truth’. For instance, recent week’s news show France, Italy, Spain, Ireland and the Netherlands, have joined a growing list of European countries suspending or restricting the rollout of the Oxford Covid vaccine. The ‘data’ response in the UK from Prof Andrew Pollard is the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine is safe, and that “safety is clearly absolutely paramount” but about 3,000 cases of blood clots occur every month in the UK from other causes.

What are you to make of that? Are European leaders being fed ‘bad’ data?

Personal awareness of vaccine side effects are not ‘data’ driven, and of course largely don’t feed into the statistics we get given. In my position I get to hear of peoples health problems as and when they reach out for help. Some people have had the vaccine and not experienced any side effects affecting their current state of health -but some have. For example, a lady in her late sixties who has ongoing leg problems which give her pain noticed the pain has increased significantly since having the jab, a lady in her nineties, generally healthy and a keen gardener, experienced dizziness and fell heavily, smashing the upper part of the humerus arm bone and chipping the wrist only days after receiving the vaccine. Previously not subject to dizzy spells. Another woman, much younger -a key worker, suffered hallucinations whilst negotiating stairs -another became so ill, she had to take sick leave from work. Persistent headaches and gut issues have been reported in the belief their un-wellness occurred or was exacerbated after having the jab. And I’ve also been informed of the unexplained death of a young man who had no underlying health conditions -who died 7 days after getting the vaccine.

By and large vaccine side effects are not life threatening on their own account, and medical diagnosis can and does in the majority of cases identify and record ‘other’ causes. The current range of Covid-19 vaccines have all been produced for rollout within a year -setting new records on vaccine development. The FDA, for example, have only approved the vaccine for emergency use at present, the EMA has given it conditional approval and are currently being lobbied by European countries who have suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. In the past vaccines had a profile of development ranging from 3 to 15 years, and no doubt these new vaccines will continue to be in development for years to come. There is a body of informed medical opinion which states it’s too early to decide if the vaccines are safe and effective -equally there are strong voices in the pharmaceutical industry and Healthcare services who are adamant it is safe, though they are not unanimous on the degree to which the vaccine is effective.

So, who do you believe?

The vast majority of people can only express faith in accepting, or in some cases for refusing, the vaccine. We (the majority) are not technically competent to evaluate it. Much of our life is influenced by knowledge we ourselves do not possess. If your phone stops working you might get a knowledgeable person to repair it -you might dump it and buy another. If you shop for something and they don’t have it -you go to another shop. You don’t ask yourself can I make it myself, you assume the need can be met by someone skilled in that service. And when someone you care for, or a pet for that matter, is unwell -what is your first question you ask? Have you seen a doctor? What treatment are you receiving? If not why not?

If you are unwell -what is the first thing you do?

Interdependence is good -the sharing of skill, the sharing of service, and the giving of care, but if that interdependence is faith driven, it means you live most of your life on the assumption ‘everything will work out fine’. And I don’t need to tell you it doesn’t -do I? this post is not about me making a case for or against taking the vaccine -it’s your choice. It’s about having you realise when all things are taken into account, be it about your lifestyle, your passions and work interests, or your health -you and only you are the final arbiter.

My interest in promoting self-healing is to restore and strengthen your identity, advise ways in which your own voice can determine need without being dependant upon the ‘voice’ of others, be they campaigning you to engage, or its your voice seeking out answers to strengthen personal security. We can -and we do -refer to our mind and body as separate entities. The way we think causes us to do that, but in reality they are one and the same. Mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. Your identity is not the product of a composite -separates with the need of one another. No.

Your identity arises and develops from the harmony of the BodyMind -and dare I say it, designed to be self-sufficient.

Hamlet’s famous soliloquy reflects the agony of not knowing the true self.

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to?

… and so it goes on, to end in this fearful proclamation

….. conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of Resolution
Is sicklied o’er, with the pale cast of Thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment,
With this regard their Currents turn awry,
And lose the name of Action.

In future posts I’ll further this theme of self-healing -ways and means which maybe have never occurred to you.

The Path of Self Discovery

Before I introduce my self-healing crusade, I must make a mention about scams. Over the past year the number of phoney emails, texts, and phone calls has gone through the roof. Often repeating hour on hour, day after day their scary messages. Media providers appear unable to prevent -never mind stem the flow of these opportunistic thieves. If it were simply a case of pressing the delete button we might simply write them off as annoying –but that doesn’t undo the damage they do to our well-being.

In some instances, so carefully presented they appear only to refer to you, they cause anxiety, fear, and distress. They also make you hesitant to answer the phone and maybe cause you to miss genuine calls for help, family and friends communications, and necessary updates on genuine commitments you have. And of course, if you link into social media sites –again you can be subject to unwarranted abuse.

Spare a thought for the seniors in our population, often having to battle with daily demands in order to sensibly live, who get caught up in this endless flow of scamming demands. It’s not just money we can lose -mental and emotional confidence in self can be lost also. People can become generally distrustful, less than willing to open up and share concerns and care –in short their identity is submerged and troubles of other kinds, seemingly unrelated, characterise their waking and sleeping hours.

Self-healing is not only practises to boost your well-being, but also the means of restoring awareness of your identity, an acceptance of change which alters behaviours;

it is a process to regenerate purpose -without which we are vulnerable to an ever-changing reactive world. In this post I want to make you aware, whatever you believe in, or not, whoever is important in your life, or not, self-healing can only begin when you realise the environment you occupy is a game-changer.

Environments directly and indirectly influence our behaviours -physically, mentally, and emotionally. I’m not simply talking about the mood of the sky we walk under, the appearance of welcome sun, the feel of natural places, or for that matter the closed in areas we can occupy, be they home, shops, places of work etc.

Environments are living entities -they breathe, give and take, characterise our responses on many different levels.

There’s no such thing as a ‘clean’ environment -they comprise many influences, some of course are human, some are nature generated -some positively healthy, some not. But what we must understand environments are not static -they are forever moving and changing. Because we are influenced by the space we occupy it points to the fact we are not walled-in containers of energy -quite the opposite, we are instrumental of living forces 24-7.

You wouldn’t think so given how we mostly define our wants and needs rationally, which if they do account for our environments -it’s in acknowledgement of our need of place, like or dislike. Whereas the reality is our entire nature -be it the manner of thought, expression of emotion, or our insight of purpose, is integral with the space we occupy.

If you’ve had a personal reading with an astrologer, they will advise on strengths, weaknesses, opportunistic trends, and periods of time when the going can get tough -and when best to action your intentions. And you will also know you can’t get the personal reading unless you can advise time, date, and place of birth. Planetary forces are yet another level of environment that influence our BodyMind character. The astrologer can advise on these planetary force influences uniquely configured at the time of our birth , which you take with you throughout your life. It’s another way of recognising environments are not pick and mix options -they are part of us and we are part of them.

So, to summarise -self-healing can only be effective when we actively acknowledge, accept, and implement the influences we give and receive from the environments we occupy. To do that harmony between our conscious, unconscious, physical, emotional, mental nature has to be our purpose. In short we must develop BodyMind consciousness.

And why is this self-healing development especially important right now?

The world is in the grip of a pandemic -the virus that is causing lockdown, innumerable deaths, and other health issues is not going away. The science of vaccinology not only cannot keep up with the spread of variants, the means by which it combats the virus development is only partially (time bound) effective. Which is why next week I’ll be talking about defence -how YOU can mitigate -even defeat the virus.

The poem I’ve written for this week can be interpreted in two ways -a call to someone you love, and as an invocation to the undiscovered Self.

If I could be

If I could be where you are found
when night gives way to day
beyond the boundaries of my sense
then this all too busy mind
would rest and I would simply be,

where the crocus stamen imitates the sun
leaves grow green and branches stretch
and a thousand sounds I cannot hear
form a circle where you are found
there I will rest and simply be.

Forward -into the Present

Photo by Domen Mirtiu010d Dolenec on Pexels.com

In last weeks post I talked about the power of nature, how we ourselves can be stimulated to rediscover the child within. I guess like myself you will have childhood memories, some good, some not so good -but on the whole we recall the good. These memories come back into consciousness in a number of different ways -they can be awoken by children, things they say and do, reminded by something we read or view, and they can also return when we feel oppressed or restricted causing us to retreat from the impersonal expressions of life. And during the past year for many social restrictions have disordered routines -had you think aimlessly, wonder what day it is, had you bed late, fill hours with TV you would otherwise not watch -and in general lose the forward looking nature previously common to the order of your life.

What happens now?

As of this week children return to school, care homes relax some of their restrictions, outdoor meeting can tentatively begin. What is actually happening is a shift of consciousness. People are beginning to look forward, visualising more interactive socialising, anticipating normal working hours. Expressions of frustration, injustice, and anger will find voice -and for some the child within will behave badly. Yet for most ‘picking up where you left off’ will be acts of joining together broken ties, reliving purpose, strengthening the bonds of love. What will happen, however we express, is a forgetting.

Many have had weird and wonderful dreams -some that frightened, some peopled by strangers -who somehow we knew, and some suggesting long lost feelings were yesterday’s experience. Youthful expressions of movement and change -desire and need having the same meaning. Yet, as you know, such remembrances most often retreat and disappear before breakfast is done. And do we remember to remember them? We try of course, particularly if they gave us good feelings -even the best of effort fails after 24 hours. Now ask yourself this question -how much of your past can you remember?

Not a lot -is it?

Even autobiographical writers struggle to remember their past. As honest as they maybe they will be selective -some parts of experience will never see the light of day. Critics of the self-confessing famous will take a stab at their recollections, inferring intentional memory is recorded to express their desire to be remembered, for posterity to benefit from their life’s purpose. And personally? Give it some thought -some efforts, achievements, expressions of thanks received. Are they forgotten -are you taken aback by recall, and you did more than you are currently thinking you did? The stark truth is we forget more than we remember.

Why are we so forgetful?

The reason why is because our BodyMind is not designed to be a repository. It’s not a bucket that fills with life’s experience, growing heavy as time passes -finally to plunge into the abyss of death. No. We human beings may be complex creations, but in essence we are no different to all other forms of life -we are instrumental by design, or to put it another way, we in common with every other form of life are borderless beings.

As I write this I’m listening to music on the radio. Just happens to be of the kind of music I like. As the songs come and go I get a strength of like feelings -when the DJ talks between tracks I ignore what they say. And do I remember what I had good feelings about, maybe also tapped my feet to -10 minutes ago? No I don’t. Are those experiences available somewhere for me to re-experience? Yes they are. In this technological world we now live in I have choice ways. I can record -I can hear those same songs again because someone else has recorded them -or I can simply wait until I hear them again on another station at another time. And what about the DJ’s annoying chatter I blanked out because it didn’t interest me to listen -has that been recorded by me, whether I like it or not?

The answer is yes, but in same way my like of songs are not stashed into a bucket of experience -they, like all memory good, bad, indifferent, and ignored, are available but rarely brought back into present consciousness. You don’t need to be psychologist to know that we are selective by nature, yet be reminded we are not the choosers we like to think we are. Life’s experiences are mainly caused by reacting to conditions of life about us at any one time. Our rational minds in most instances will label reactionary knowledge as chosen to know.

Man’s conceit is his undoing. He assumes he has (or can have) control over his own experiences. In reality he does not.

As you look forward to a return to ‘normal’ life, do not be regretful of opportunity missed, of expressions you did or didn’t make, or wish you had. Life has not been shortened –time is not a measure of values, be it by years or nanoseconds. Memories should not define you. If you are brave, moments will fulfil -they alone will forward you, engage and satisfy. Life so lived is a great adventure and will forever keep you young.

As I’ve been talking about memory, about time, the poem today is not mine, it’s the first verse of ‘Burnt Norton’, the first of the Four Quartets by TS Eliot.

Burnt Norton: Verse 1

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.

Stimulating the Child within

An unexpected mild sunny day in the last throes of winter has raised the spirits of many -young and old alike. People flocked to the countryside and the beaches, and bright sunlit faces were much in evidence. The young in shorts and tank tops sprawled on the ground intent on starting a summer tan, children on beaches making sand castles, and the brave swimming in the sea! Selfies on phones, picnics in progress, and no worries for the morrow. The government propaganda machine still whirled away pasting its keep safe messages in the Sunday papers and news bulletins, but from what I could see no one was taking a blind bit of notice.

It’s amazing what a little sun will do. Nature is a great healer. When the sun is out it’s not just a welcome dose of vitamin D, it’s a power of creation and our instinctual reaction will, without regard to our questioning thoughts, take on a more agreeable state of mind.

In last week’s post ‘Self Discovery -the path to Freedom’ I wrote about how lockdowns have damaged and weakened our ‘bubble’ environments -the threat to our well-being; immune systems compromised, and how defensive attitudes of mind affect our health generally. Traits and behaviours develop as like attract like experiences -our identity is developed by the environments we create within from the environments we associate from without. At birth we trust our instinctual nature -we allow it to guide and protect. As we grow to adulthood we ‘put away childish things and see in a mirror darkly.’

The child within never dies -it is silenced by the rational mind.

In our modern technological world children often grow up too quickly, and by so doing lose the well springs of their born nature. Very young children -from a child in arms right through into their pre-teenage years benefit from being taken to nature areas frequently as they have an instinctual understanding of natural environments. This ‘education’ ensures the instinctual mind can remain active and positively influence the development of the rational mind. The energetic expression of children is naturally give and take -they not only ‘burn’ -give out strongly, they also draw energy from their environments. Often, in pre-school children, that can be from their loving mothers -and what mother has not fallen asleep with a child on their lap, only to be awakened by the resumption of the child’s activity?

If the child’s living environment is restricted -they don’t get out and about, they will quickly deplete it.

The draw of energy ceases to stimulate, brothers and sisters will quarrel, they can become unruly -and the needful pattern of activity of give and take is disrupted. This leads to the child drawing upon its subtle energy body -what we term sometimes as our second breath. This is damaging to the child’s growth. If you add to that the character of activity which often takes place in restricted environments, like the stimulus of game applications and fantasy entertainment on phones and TV’s, the child takes on mental attitudes it has yet to learn how to control. Sleep can be disrupted and its natural healing power weakened. Creative activities which draw upon inner resources should be included to their developing life, this will give them cause to enjoy the connection that only the soul-born nature can give, and positively stimulate the given and take nature of their energy bodies.

As children become youths continued interaction with Nature will help them express and balance the emotional mind better, it also educates by constantly reminding them that life is cyclical; birth and death is a fact of daily life -consciousness should develop with their born awareness tutored by experience of the natural world.

The ego should not develop inwardly-tuned, if it does it will develop insensitive uncaring attitudes towards others.

Adults can rebirth the child within by accepting the instinctual urge is the causal power within whenever we experience the desire to break the pattern of our daily lives, without ‘good’ reason. Often this can be felt when the natural world attracts us -as it does most fulsomely when the sun is shining. Weather of course is forever changing and some days it’s so forbidding we won’t want to leave home -we can’t rely on the frequency of sun bright days, so we must seek the stimulus we need by acknowledging the simple fact that our personal ‘bubble’ of energy moves and activates change when we share it with ‘foreign environments’. Sharing is mostly seen as a people thing, but this doesn’t always help release the child within -too often these are confessional sessions, which whilst they have a relieving effect don’t bring about a renewal of energy.

The only way to release and stimulate the child within is to share yourself with nature.

And so it was on Sunday last walking by the sea, I along with hundreds of others observed a man, naked as the day he was born, walking the beach, entirely unselfconscious with a smile on his face. He paused only once to share a few words with a mother and child -the child playing naked in the sand. Nobody rushed up to him with words of reproof -instead most people smiled -some laughed. I daresay some were thinking he had a screw loose -and maybe, just maybe ….

some could feel an unaccustomed urge to give rein to the child within.

In times such as these if you can restore your born nature and expand consciousness to reunite with its soul-born nature you can positively influence and help the lives of those you love.

As I’ve been talking about the child within, rediscovering the Self through nature. the poem I’ve written today is a reflection on what Nature gives.

Apples are seeds

Where do apples grow, when having hung
their time, leave the bough and mate
with earth their heady juices?
Will the tree’s creation pure
of thinking out its life,
leach away the sun born fragrance
in the dust bowl of dying summer
for no better end than having been
portrayed of life?

Or may I sense with keener eye
having end gives proof.
The apple grows and loses shape
and may never multiply, yet cannot die
for spring may find a rose in bloom
where once there was an apple fair.

Self Discovery -the path to Freedom

Headline in Monday’s popular paper, the Daily Mail, is ‘Slow March to Freedom’. All papers are reporting on the expected relief from pandemic lockdown, noising on the one hand frustration to the cautious approach, and on the other -talking about the damaging effects lockdown has been having. We are used to living in a fast moving world -a world surrounded by events affecting our quality of life. Our personal actions that support and promote eating, sleeping, work, and the taking of pleasure -all of which have social dimensions, have us develop a ‘bubble’ environment, through which we absorb life changing influences of the world at large.

What lockdowns have done is damage and weaken our ‘bubble’ environments.

And the result is mental and emotional disharmony on a scale never before experienced. The restrictions forced upon people during the 2nd World War, of movement, availability of food, entertainment, etc. didn’t have the same effect, because we were able to draw strength and comfort from those around us, and we shared a common purpose; to defend ourselves against the enemy. Paradoxically war restrictions actually strengthened our individual ‘bubble’ environments. In today’s world the enemy is within, because the ‘threat’ is unseen, and by no means commonly understood or accepted.

I’m sure you would like to think when restrictions are finally lifted, life can return to normal -but it won’t, will it?

Quite apart from the expectation of regular vaccine roll outs, or of the controversy surrounding their efficacy, the damage done to our personal ‘bubble’ environments will take a long time to heal. People been physically affected by restrictions on movement, being less fit, eating and drinking too much for comfort reasons, the imbalance has weakened the immune system. Mentally and emotionally the effects are far reaching. Defensive attitudes designed to preserve well-being have the opposite effect -they erode one’s awareness and acceptance of Self.

In short -the BodyMind’s sense if its identity has lost awareness of itself.

Maybe not such a problem if we hitherto had full awareness of it -but the majority of people didn’t. In order to understand and appreciate the prime importance of self-knowing, we need to start at the beginning, from birth.

Birth in our physical world is governed by the vibratory light rate peculiar to all and everything our senses interact with. Unlike the inner world conscious of dark matter and dark energy where all experience is present, in our light-world perception is time-lapsed, and consciousness is divided between the present and the past, bringing to birth a hierarchical form of consciousness. Sensorial experience is forever changing and at a subconscious level we remember the sensorial experience. In turn by reaction, the subconscious reminds the sensorial mind (otherwise called the brain-mind) its remembered experience when like attracts like conditions occur.

Traits and behaviours develop as like experience is qualified good (give me more) or bad (once is enough), and from this activity identity begins to form. All identity has a moral beginning; initially that begins with an acceptance or rejection by the instinctual mind we are born with. As the subconscious arises it qualifies the instinctual mind experience, and as the interactive expression within the brain-mind grows stronger, a new form of consciousness develops. We call that the rational mind.

By the time the child is two to three years old the developing rational mind is in conflict with the instinctual mind, likes and dislikes changing, demands taking on character and Will (root of self-awareness) becomes evident in strong emotional moments. As the influence of the rationally-minded world grows and the child becomes a youth the instinctual mind ceases to develop its instrumentally born form of consciousness, and reverts to a ‘flight, fight, and procreate’ reactionary mind. When the youth becomes an adult the survival instinct will have taken root in the rational mind and will have a strong bearing on how their adult life will be lived. The soul nature prior to birth still exists, but its instrumentally tuned nature only interacts with the rational mind on a like attracts like basis -as such it forms what we call our unconscious mind. It can be channelled, but for most people such connections are described as inspirations which cannot be demanded or rationally explained.

What does this tell us about the human condition, which so often repeats the history of mistakes ad nauseam?

Can we change the process that develops the personality? We can’t change the process of energy intelligent creation, incarnation is governed by vibratory order of energies that form us prior and post-birth, but we can influence the balance of intelligent energies which make up the human condition.

Often, pregnant women in ancient Greek and Roman high society, encouraged by their husbands, would place statues of Gods or Goddesses in their bed chambers; believing such influences would educate and protect the child to be. Fanciful thinking? History would suggest not -the Greeks are acknowledged to be a seminal influence on the development of philosophy and science, the Romans, famous as architects, law makers and as masters of military prowess. Tribal cultures throughout the world in the past who lived close to nature put an emphasis upon the development of the unborn child; shaman would advise the expectant nature and directly influence their betterment prior to birth. And in the ancient civilised world, irrespective of religious differences, the astrological influence of strengths and weaknesses would be advised during pregnancy –all to the purpose of influencing the unborn child to emerge into the world aware of its soul nature.

In our modern world, we get told of the negative prior-birth influences

-children born with physical and mental handicaps due drugs the mother had been taking, and only indirectly are we told of the mental and emotional difficulties of young children in society whose birth has been fostered by ‘addictions’. We must remember that our behavioural nature is not only influenced by what we eat and drink, it is influenced by our environments -they too can and do affect the unborn child. We accept that children can be strongly influenced by their parents, by religion, politics, and ways of life generally, but it doesn’t occur to us that the child in the womb can be influenced to retain its pre-birth soul state, whilst at the same time developing a harmonious relationship between the instinctual and rational mind –yet this can happen.

In next week’s post I’ll advise ways in which we can positively influence the child’s development -not only the parent and offspring scenario but also from within your adult self.

As I’ve been talking about the enemy within, the damaging effects of negative thinking, the healer is love. the poem I’ve written champions that power. The Snow Moon by the way, is on 27th February.

Love’s Credo

Fuse emotion and thought into one
their hidden sounds are in harmony,
words and actions unwedded rest
in our past and future memory.

Stand and shout and jump for joy
the Snow Moon waxing sets the tide
moves our mind and seeds our life,
the twin of soul we cannot hide.

Tomorrow comes tomorrow goes,
Time cannot erase or change
this union that the Law agreed
was right to be a binding creed.

To Know Oneself

In last weeks post I wrote about the health damaging effects the lockdown is having -whilst the News maintains and reinforces ‘stay at home’ messages on the one hand and encourages you to believe all will be well when everyone (including children) are vaccinated. The ‘Sword of Damocles’ (fear of the unknown) not only engenders negativity -it represses our energetic nature, which is root and branch to sensible life.

Scientists tell us that our energy comes from food -that chemically we are machines, and from input we form adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the primary source of energy for all body functions, and our stored chemical energy is used to replenish the ATP we require for sensible life. The scientists are right but only partially right -the tail is wagging the dog!

Last week I proposed this question – Can we identify the energies we feel within ourselves? And my answer was -it’s bio-magnetic, interpenetrating every cell of the body and is a movement of force, and its emotional character stimulates thought. Environment is everything. Individually we generate environments from within ourselves and by interacting with ‘foreign’ environments. When we are prevented from doing this -as we are by the lockdown measures, the ‘machine’, lacking the stimulus, behaves badly. We overeat, under exercise, get depressed, get bad-tempered, and lose hope.

Personality changes.

Personality is defined as a characteristic set of behaviours, cognitions, and emotional patterns evolving from biological and environmental factors -as such it is generally referred to as our character, and as you might expect there is no generally agreed definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions with one’s environment, defining personality by its traits and behaviourally based approaches. My understanding of personality has developed from the interaction I have with other species of earthly life, higher forms of life, and the awareness of parallel worlds.

All life is cyclical. Time measured observations show life spans vary enormously, from micro-seconds to millennium. The human physical cycle has a potential of 120 years that has rarely been achieved because the inheritance at birth, and the environmental mix of outward and inner demands exert influences to shorten life span. The human personality begins as a formation of characteristic traits in the foetus, comprising parental physical, emotional, and mental conditions, and higher vibratory influences varying in accordance with environment the foetus and its mother occupy. In the pre-natal state, the child’s Earthly Will nature is absent -at this juncture of life the child’s soulful nature is all things to all men.

The bond that most mothers feel during pregnancy is created by their own nature needing to bind their Earthly Will with the unborn infant. From the moment of physical birth, the child is in conflict with its inheritance -activity that will ultimately shape its own Earthly Will.

Initially, a child is only outwardly interested in food and comfort. Instinctually it knows that food is necessary to survive. Comfort arises from the satisfaction of receiving food, and it generates awareness of energy as a source of protection. The ego is born -the new born child aims to survive. As the child grows, day by day, week by week, the environment it occupies attracts; initially the mother, then the father, then other siblings, family etc -all of which is based upon a like attracts like basis. The child’s reception is governed by its instinctual mind, a complex of physical emotional influences that draws upon the soul nature’s demand to support survival.

The world of Men is the major force of attraction because instinctively the child knows that from the focus its mother has given by her Earthly Will. The child has has an inborn knowledge of the natural world, which was received during womb life; it is accepted without question because it is naturally instrumental -the conscious mind has yet to develop rationality. As reception of outside influences increase it will change and re-evaluate the dependencies it has on human influences, and develop a Will of its own.

From this beginning the personality takes shape, traits, and behaviours develop in the instinctual mind, and will form the basis upon which consciousness will develop. The influence of family and other human beings is critical in determining how that child will develop in later years. Human consciousness begins its development from the moment a child is born, and it is radically different from the consciousness it has prior to birth.

In the pre-birth state, all influences, whether they originate in physically transmitted DNA of human character, or they come from other soul-like sources, are not subject to the formulation of an identifiable character -ego is absent in the foetus. What is present is an instrumental form of consciousness that acknowledges, accepts and releases without establishing choice. As such it has a universal nature, and its direction and life span is determined by the balance of influences present at any one moment of time.

There’s an old saying; to know where you are going, to determine your future, you must know where you come from -or to put it more simply; to go forward you must first go back.

I will continue this theme of self-discovery in next week’s post.

As I’ve been talking about self-discovery, here’s a poem I’ve written that makes a comment on that. By way of explanation to aid reading, Azoth is the name given by ancient alchemists to mercury, the animating spirit hidden in all matter that makes transmutation possible, and Hur is the name given to the Earth’s inner chamber -its ancestral heart.

Azoth’s Daughter

When your eyes hook to the morning star
still and shining, free from tears;
sleep warm lungs slake the cold unfeeling air.
Untold thoughts of troubled dreams disperse
and the earth untrammelled by your feet awakes.

And as your senses find their root in earth
The pretence of knowledge dies;
you become the bride of nature -the soul
formed dream, all true and understated.
Your voices stilled by heavens majesty.

And when you have gotten empty
the worldly oyster smashed in search of pearl;
your body becomes the honeycomb chamber
for every seed bearing tree.
Your love a legion of unlimited power.

And if your senses can remain alive
To dissolve the last of human care,
love weary worshipping truth is discovered
with every fish, fowl and bee;
in the wheel forming heavens of Hur.

Truly the daughter of Azoth;
at one with the life giving earth,
shape shifting intangible air.
in marriage to the polygamous sea
aflame in the untouchable fire.

Spiritus Animatus!

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce the publication of a new book on Astrology by my wife Pam, who many of you know is a professional Astrologer. The book ‘THE MAP of LIFE’ is available in bookshops and on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Map-Life-PamAshenden/

A flash of light in the universe and a new soul is born. See your map of life simply explained and unfold before you with this easy to understand guide to Astrology. This easy to understand guide shows you how a horoscope is put together. Examples of famous people give insight on how Astrology provides maps of life which can guide and advise the best course of actions. Pam’s spiritual approach gives a deeper understanding of natal charts, shows how to know yourself and others and encourages you to be your own astrologer. Know yourself, understand your strengths so you can overcome your weaknesses and live a happy life.

The Sword of Damocles

This time last year we would watch or listen to the News -now it’s no longer The News -it’s the Pandemic News! What else is going on the country or the world is largely not reported, unless of course it’s about clashes between high powered politicians. The way the psychology works is first the good (pandemic) news, then the bad, finishing up with an anecdotal ‘lets make you smile’ piece. And if you are a persistent news watcher -the weather forecast is an upbeat finish, storms, floods, and snows notwithstanding.

In the latest round of ‘messages to keep you safe’ the expectation of a return to normality is carefully downplayed by ‘events’ due to happen, which include social distancing measures, pubs with no beer opening, and gatherings of any kind limited. The success of the vaccine roll out also means they are likely to give it to you again in six months’ time as a ‘booster’. Why? The virus is mutating and here to stay until further notice.

Whatever your view of the lockdown measures, or for that matter, the health threat of Covid-19 and its variants, the need to ‘shut up shop and stay at home’ is having serious health damaging effects. ‘What if’ has become central to currency of thought and feeling. And fear of the unknown engenders negativity.

The parable sword of Damocles is an ancient moral parable popularized by the Roman philosopher Cicero, now commonly used as a catchall term to describe a looming danger. The tale in summary, centres on Dionysius II, a tyrannical king who ruled over the Sicilian city of Syracuse during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C. Though rich and powerful, Dionysius was supremely unhappy. His iron-fisted rule had made him many enemies, and he was tormented by fears of assassination—so much so he slept in a bedchamber surrounded by a moat and only trusted his daughters to shave his beard with a razor.

The king’s paranoia came to a head one day after a court flatterer named Damocles showered him with compliments saying how blissful his life must be. ‘Since this life delights you,’ Dionysius replied, ‘do you wish to taste it yourself and make a trial of my good fortune?’ When Damocles agreed, Dionysius seated him on a golden couch and ordered a host of servants wait on him, treated to succulent cuts of meat and lavished with scented perfumes and ointments. Damocles couldn’t believe his luck, but just as he was starting to enjoy the life of a king, he noticed Dionysius had also hung a razor-sharp sword from the ceiling. It was positioned over Damocles’ head, suspended only by a single strand of horsehair. From then on, the courtier’s fear for his life made it impossible for him to savour the opulence of the feast or enjoy the servants. With mounting feelings of impending doom, he asked to be excused, saying he no longer wished to be so fortunate.

Rightly so, many writers have been stressing the need to develop positive outlooks, usefully advising how you can switch off negative trains of thought and promote positive helpful thoughts. All good, but as you may have noticed yourself changing your way of thinking 24-7 is a bit like eating chocolate, initially you get a good feeling from doing it, but it doesn’t last. The determined try and try again, the not so successful put on weight from eating too much chocolate.

I was taking a walk on the beach at the weekend -there was a lot of socialising going on -between dogs. Us humans were carrying our ‘worlds’ around with us -some less introspective than others. The dogs were not taking a blind bit of notice, cavorting and carrying on, kicking up sand, chasing balls, getting wet in the sea. The owners on chasing, after pets who had slipped their leash, becoming over friendly with strangers, and rescuing them from ‘boy meets girl’ conflicts, were changed from inward looking people to outward looking ‘care for others’ kind of people.

There’s a how to do it clue here -let me explain.

Thought, however you want to describe its cause and effect, is a movement of energy. Before you think (if you can for the moment accept thoughts as singular entities) there is already a movement of energy which causes you to have thought. Can we identify that energy making movement? Yes we can. It’s bio-magnetic, interpenetrates every cell of your body and becomes a movement of force within which we feel with our emotional mind. Simply put -this is energy we have which generates our sense of feeling. Its emotional character stimulates thought. Ok… so we may be talking nanoseconds of difference here, but the point is this –the source of change is feeling not thought.

Have you ever wondered why young children can cry one minute and laugh the next? Or why you can scold an animal, one moment its tail is between its legs -the next looking to gain your approval? The reason why is because their instinctual minds are strongly governing their emotional reactions. For a variety of reasons (which I won’t go into here) as adults we tend to possess our feeling mind influences, which inextricably binds to our thinking mind and, by so doing, prevents us from clearly acknowledging causes of change.

Right now, as you are reading these words, millions of people are mentally and emotionally at variance with themselves. Outputs are widely different, some have periods of depression, others generate anger and physical violence, some aided by medications live in a ‘half awake’ world. Physically some may lose weight, lose their appetite, develop a reliance on stimulating or alcoholic drink. And some may be overweight pandering to the feel good factor of eating. Needless to say if the body labours too long without restoring its needful balance, something serious can go wrong.

Environment is everything. Individually we generate environments from within ourselves and by interacting ‘foreign’ environments. If you spend most of your day in the same place, and with the same people, your own feeling mind will become neutered by it. Yes -I did say neutered; loss of your sexual identity, or as you might more generally term it, self-awareness. What happens here is the feeling mind which has its roots in our instinctual behaviour, interacting with the sameness day on day, hour on hour, lacks stimulus -and the more it lacks, the less aware it becomes. Hence why so many people reach for stimulants of one kind or another to reassert themselves. Of course this problem is not peculiar to the pandemic -but the restrictions imposed make this problem much more widespread. If you don’t think you can change it -you retreat into the thinking mind, and like a kite pulled by a gust of wind, fly from your grasp and tumble about the atmosphere at the mercy of the air currents.

So, how do you fix this -prevent this from happening?

Very simply -and to be fair for those not so simple-minded it doesn’t only require a determination to change -you have to keep at it. CHANGE YOUR ATMOSPHERE!

Change of environment will stimulate the feeling emotional mind -it will generate an atmosphere of self-awareness you can take back to your home and/or your workplace. For some it can include interaction with other people with whom you are not connected with daily, but for most it means interaction with nature. The only requirement nature asks of you is -be present in both mind and body. The world of nature doesn’t have yesterday’s or tomorrow’s -it doesn’t have hours in the day. It is present constantly.

Get good at doing this and your thoughts will not stray into negative territory. Get good at this and others will be attracted to you, perhaps next week I can tell you the more of it.

Since I’ve been talking environment , here’s a poem I’ve written as an example of how nature can interact and benefit us.

In Fangorn Forest

Come; lay down your head on my brown roots,
cease the heavy stride, let anger dissipate.
The shroud about your form does not belong;
would leave, if you allow my shade to soothe,
the aromatic air transport -as my leaves
rustle and tap to the Green Man’s music.

What short and troubled lives you have.
What fantasies I hear you sing.

Man, you are so sad, so full of woe!
I’ve heard your feet pad against my earth
many-times before -and not once have I known
you understand the purpose of your Beings’ worth.

You are more like me than you will ever know.

Let every organ recalibrate and renew;
go naked underneath my Sun Star canopy.
Let not age concern you, as it does not me.

You are not the first biped to pass
me by, or spread the self about my bark
to drink the peace -yet I think you different
from most I’ve known; a link you have
that still might couple in the green
and undo that darkness common to your ties.

Come, lay down your head and let me share
the secret, that unburdens men and makes trees wise.

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce the publication of a new book on Astrology by my wife Pam, who is a professional Astrologer. The book ‘MAP of LIFE’ is available in bookshops and on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Map-Life-Pam-Ashenden/dp/3710348560/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=The+Map+of+Life&qid=1612874137&sr=8-4

Common Sense -Intuition & Inspiration

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

As I write this blog the papers and TV are full of the concerns arising over the new strain of Covid-19, namely the South African variant -and yes another one that’s got the scientists scratching their heads. At the same time we are being informed of groups congregating and being fined. Where is their common sense -has it ceased to function? Now common sense isn’t simply an instinctive awareness of what’s right and wrong as advised by peers and close family -it’s the outward awareness of a born ability we all have called intuition.

Intuition –what is it? -It’s a power of mind & body –we can term as ‘Soul Power’

Does everyone have it?

Yes –capability is not limited or excluded by disablement of any kind.

Are humans the only forms of life that have it?

No! All soul bearing forms of life have it. Man is conceited in thinking that his power of reason makes him uniquely able to be self-aware.

How do I know if I am expressing it?

In lots of different ways you will be expressing intuition -here are some examples:

• Déjà vu. Awareness of place, persons and things not consciously experienced before and cannot be identified as a return of memory.
• Rightness or wrongness of feeling. Having definite feelings about someone or of a place without prior experience –and this may manifest before actual contact or visit.
• Precognition. Knowing what someone will say before they speak. Expecting communication or something to happen without reason for why it should occur. Having dreams that don’t make sense until an event explains the meaning.
• Knowing you made a ‘wrong or right turning’ after the event and for which reason cannot satisfactorily answer.

Is Intuition my sixth sense?

Yes and No –Yes in that it’s a receiver and transmitter of consciousness and No it’s not a sense additional to and common with the five senses we ordinarily know. It’s the brain if you like of the higher senses.

So can you give me a definition of what Intuition is?

Yes. It’s the power of mind able to manifest unrestricted by time and space a present knowledge, and functions whenever the conscious brain mind is in harmony with environment -and not biased by its expectations.

Is there any difference between intuition and inspiration?

Not in the way we generally use the words –but there is a difference –inspiration is the act of arousing consciousness by actively relating to an idea –this can shift our consciousness to facilitate intuition knowledge.

So how might I be inspired?

For instance –the example of another person’s action or output can inspire you to attempt what they have done. A work of art can inspire you to paint, a mindfulness practice can encourage you to meditate, somebody’s work profile can interest you to study the knowledge portrayed.

Can you make intuition work ‘on demand?’

I thought you would never ask –yes it can! And this is how:

Your mind and body being is a receiver and transmitter. The brain mind is a communications centre that spends most of its time responding and stimulating physical, emotional and mental activity of the five sense world we live in. We have to use the human system differently if we are to encourage the intuitive principle of action to manifest. Develop the attitude of listening – acknowledging – letting go. This will encourage the reception of LIKE need and facilitate intuition.

Don’t assume that intuitive awareness is about serving your own needs –it does do but -by the way, rather than directly. It operation effects the law of Karma, the law of Attraction and the law of Regeneration and is manifested by the desire for union of The Self –and that’s always more than what you may think is contained within you!

Force yourself out of character… Destroy some sacred stones!

According to the bias of your nature either give time to yourself or give it to others. Work on your weakness – time is one of Forms ‘sacred stones’ – shift in consciousness can start from here… Introduce ‘something for nothing’ into your life – brain mind reasoning justifies itself by recognisable beneficial actions – something for nothing breaks the cycle and introduces higher mind reasoning. Give something away that means something to you – this is more difficult, objects are proof of logical development, again by doing this you destroy a sacred stone! Stop thinking what you are not doing – even harder, this says that thought without action is not yours, not in your control. Self-reflecting is the Form mind re-asserting itself.

Assume you are going to ‘die’ before the day is out! This is the greatest blasphemy of all – No future and no past – these are the pillars of form consciousness.

Make your Self and the Environment – Self – Sufficient!

Stop being a user! Treat everything and everyone as essential! Some people are users more habitually than others – but we all will, pressured by time, in making value decisions and most of all when we are not in control of our own thoughts!

Look out not in – even when it’s painful!

Cultivate your emotional and physical responses by projecting your self being –these system bodies of energy are the intuitive voice box of our conscious life. When we hold thoughts in and suppress our emotional responses we become minders of machines –watchers of who we are and that makes us vulnerable to being used by others.

Dispense with boxes – buy in to tubes instead!

We are used to owning the ideas, actions, statements and commitments arising in ourselves as they represent the “I” of our conscious being. Strike “Ownership” from your language –if you must be attached – be attached to everything & everyone! Be tubular, be instrumental!

To live holistically is to be guided intuitively, it gives CHANGE the title of King and FORM becomes the ruled subject. Do this and your life will be enhanced; healthy, creative and forever interesting –oh, and by the way the body doesn’t age so quickly!

Since I’ve been talking about Intuition and Inspiration, here’s an example of how those two forces combine. I wrote this poem for my wife many years ago -it still gives birth to my universal Self every time I read it.

Love kept from Death

Here am I at fifty-two praising a cornfield spread with red poppy,
sucking the stalk of green rye, browning my white legs thinking of you,
not looking for a poem, absorbed in the singing oblivious of time,
soft in the arms of my Blue Gowned Queen breathing the Tao.

The dog runs and a rabbit leaps, a nesting bird wings to blue sky;
the trees sigh over dry, shadows laze, dissipate and thicken,
insects hum, the ground crawls, and my throat prickles with pollen:
the wind is a hot lover’s tongue wilfully breaking the form of my words.

I am thinking of you how peaceful things are, not wanting a poem,
words to name things, to remember how, when, and why chosen.
Knowing my communion is heard, tasted in another place,
asleep to my sounds. Seen by you in the same speechless way.

You cannot see as I do the distant mill seized by a man’s breath
stamped on the hills blue edge, stilled to the cloud race and the birds wheel,
or the train clacking on the hill slope repeating its times table under bridges.
Or know my thirst and my next intention, the last emotion, this present smile.

I have stopped thinking of you. I am being with you: a poem without words,
a syllabic sound in the throat of my Blue Gowned Queen,
a man poised ever to fall upon a rusted sworn blade.
A known soul in a shared silence, in a form happy to be still,
un-phrased, unsung, in a love kept from death twenty-four years.

The Elohim of Seeing

This blog is a commentary on some of the views expressed by my correspondents on the subject of the lockdown, and understandably some have strongly felt opinions. Regarding natural health benefits I’ve been reminded to caution people who have underlying health conditions to always check if the food or supplement benefit is appropriate support for the illness they have been diagnosed with, and I welcome responses which can advise from experience -what did, or did not help.

Good quality food is by far the best way to maintain a healthy flow of bodily nutrition, but it must be said supermarket shopping (whilst it’s the only option for some) is a mixed blessing. For example, if you are a meat eater, most meats are from animals who have been reared on what are called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), also known as “factory farms. Cows are (mostly) fed on corn which biologically is not their natural food, they are often kept in confined spaces, and to keep them ‘healthy’ are injected with antibiotics. Once meat is exposed to air, it gradually turns from red to a not-so-festive brown or grey colour. To keep meat looking appetizing, some supplies treat it with carbon monoxide, used at low levels maintain or stabilize the natural red colour of oxygenated meat. Chicken is also factory farmed, even so-called free range chickens.

Naturally fed chickens have yellow meat -not white. Evidence from a study in 2020 in the UK showed white striping muscle disease in some supermarket chickens (appears as thin white lines, mostly impacting the breast area), and should be avoided if at all possible. If you are fortunate enough to buy from a real butcher, not only can you query where and how the meat is farmed, you will find their cow meats are grass fed, and chicken reared in natural environments. If you have no choice it doesn’t mean meat from supermarkets is bad -it all meets food safety requirements, but it will be almost impossible to determine the quality of what you are buying.

For obvious reasons much of the vegetable sold in supermarkets has been frozen prior to display. Once it starts to thaw it will lose freshness quickly, and thereby its nutritional value. A good example of this are cucumbers -if you buy one on a weekly shop for use over a week, by the time your next shop day is due it will have gone mushy. Again, the quality is also determined on how vegetables are grown -if they are force-grown, like many mushrooms are, then their health benefit will be much lower than naturally grown. Can you buy from a greengrocer who sources vegetables and fruits locally? If you can I recommend you do -the difference in quality will be appreciated immediately.

Regarding supplements, which you may well feel are necessary to ensure the ideal nutrition your body needs the best way to take them is either in powder or liquid form, not only because you can add many of them to drinks, or find they are supplied in drink form, but because you will be getting more value by doing so. Tablets are chelated -that is coated not only to preserve the supplement, but also to swallow them. It means the stomach has to digest the coating before it can get to the supplement. All tablets come with RDA -recommended daily allowance. What the RDA cannot do is determine the value your gut will get after digestion -so it’s a guide but by no means an infallible guide.

There’s a lot of talk about the need of vitamin D -you can get that in powder form too, which brings me on to another subject from my correspondents -the virus and vaccines. Studies on the frequency and spread of the virus are in agreement regarding the most virulent periods of the year. Summer and Autumn show less infection spreading -which is when naturally received vitamin D from sunlight is at its highest.

The vaccine hasn’t been warmly welcomed by all country populations despite political urging to do so -for example in France. Reason for this is a respected professional body of opinion have made their views public concerning (a) the short timescale of the Covid-19 vaccine development, (b) the virus variants, (c) immunity. In summary what they are saying is this, the hitherto profile of vaccine development has been 10 years plus or at best 6-7 years. In response to treating human to human corona flu-type pandemics quickly, viral vector vaccines, which use a virus genetically engineered so that it can’t cause disease, but produces coronavirus proteins to safely generate an immune response have been developed, and RNA and DNA vaccines, a cutting-edge approach that uses genetically engineered RNA or DNA to generate a protein that itself safely prompts an immune response have also been developed. This has dramatically cut the down the timescale for producing human to human corona type vaccines, however the current covid-19 vaccines have yet to be fully evaluated in stage 4 of development which takes place after the vaccine has been approved and rolled out to the general populations -that could take upward of 4 years, and in the meantime variants of coronavirus are evolving at a fast rate.

No one is suggesting that virologists and the industry generally are trying to ‘cut corners’ or producing inaccurate testing results. Immunity expectation after the roll out is in question. Just recently Israel advised the Pfizer vaccine as having a 33% effectiveness -a report that has since been ‘quantified’ as unreliable, though the truth may be that variants developing have made it less effective than trails showed. Norway has published in January results of 13 elderly vulnerable patients having died from taking their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Those who died were described as having severe underlying health conditions and were all aged 75 or over. (The number of deaths has since risen to 33, out of about 55,000 people who have received the first dose of the vaccine in the country). And it has made the anti-vaccine lobby more suspicious to know that the UK, USA, and Israel, are working on a legal framework which if implemented would protect manufacturers from being sued if the workability of the vaccine is challenged.

Given these reports and concerns expressed by some scientists and researchers there are too many unknowns it is not surprising that some people are reluctant to take the vaccine. It must be said, however, that many who have received vaccines have not reported any ill effects, and that includes to my personal knowledge elderly and vulnerable people. Some people who have no history of illness required to be treated allopathically (and are currently healthy irrespective of age) are particularly concerned not to have the vaccine. The indications are vaccines will need to be administered, either as they are formulated today or ‘adjusted’ to account for variant development, on an annual basis. At the end of the day it’s a personal choice -if you do or if you don’t.

I would finally like to say, irrespective of your food likes and dislikes, of your concerns over the virus and vaccines, restrictions on movements that affect all levels of society, are having an ‘ill health’ effect in all kinds of ways. Common-sense is in short supply -of course you should adequately protect yourself when it is necessary to mix with other people, of course you should make every effort to eat and exercise sensibly, but most of all you must recognise thoughts and feelings travel faster than physical viruses, and combating feelings of depression, frustration, anxiety, and anger, is your number one priority. Body and Mind are not separate -they affect one another. We are designed to be channels of energy, both mind and matter. Have purpose which does give of yourself. Do this and the basis of good health will be strengthened.

Since I’ve been talking about animals the poem I’ve written for this post is:

Slaughter

And their vacant eyes;
to me dull, relative
brother-like, unto my blood.
Lesser and labelled more the beast
for being servant,
yet I fear
I fit my moulding them
too perfectly.

To moo
and peer moronically alive
cross thicket hedge, un-decides
the place of puppet and the master,
their voices turn
the thicket’s harsh of prickles
and point its spears to Man.

I- cannot divide the poet
from the brain
let reason coldly justify,
will not take the pound of flesh;
less my Alice
lose the Elohim of Seeing.

Galactically
My one eyed prism of awareness
in their field
sees acceptance as
instrument of Right Order
in this temporal world.

It takes the fence of our divide
and blends the prickles too
the slavered green of changing grass
and into focus
brings us less our lying tongue
to the point of light.

If at first you don’t succeed….

As I write this blog the UK news and in many countries around the world is focussing upon vaccination programmes -seen as the first line of defence to defeat the virus and put an end to the pandemic. In the UK the programme is geared to treat front line workers and the vulnerable first. The vulnerable are classified as having underlying health conditions.

So, what is meant by an underlying health condition?

It’s a medical definition that applies to any person, irrespective of age, who has an illness which weakens the immune system. The vast majority of people who contract an illness will go to their GP for diagnosis and treatment if it persists and over counter medications do not relieve it. In some cases where the nature of illness attacks the immune system, such as Immune system disorders, Rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, Multiple sclerosis, and Psoriasis, will be treated with immune suppressing drugs that include steroids in order to ward off the illness. Unfortunately such treatments are more apt to develop complications of COVID-19 compared to those who don’t use these drugs.

Generally speaking older people have weaker immune systems, but that doesn’t mean it applies to everyone over the age of 60.

A weakened immune system, which makes you vulnerable to COVID-19 can be caused by a number of factors besides certain medications treating illness as already mentioned. Lack of sleep, anxiety, low vitamin D, too few fruits and veggies, high-fat diets, too little time outdoors, lack of exercise, too much alcohol, grief, and of course, nicotine. You’ve only got to scan this list to realise current restrictions on movements, inability to work, loss of face-to-face contact, can develop discontent, destroy your sense of purpose, and cause overindulgence and inactivity.

Over time the human immune system will develop antibodies that will neutralise viral infection, as was the case in the 1918 flu epidemic. And one has to be reminded the superpowers of the 18th and 18th century globalising their influence wrought havoc amongst indigenous peoples whose immune systems had been environmentally protected before invasion. And people who have little or no interaction with allopathic medicine can have adverse effects from being introduced to it.

It is recognised the majority of people who get the virus are in the under sixties age groups.

The majority of these age groups are people who work for a living -many who now are furloughed or have lost their means to earn income. So, the difficulty we face is whilst restricting peoples movements reduces transmission of the virus -at the same time these restrictions are having unhealthy effects.

So, what can we do about it?

In my mail last week I pointed to ways in which we could strengthen our immune systems and actions we should take to minimise the risk of getting the virus. This week, I would like to add something about foods and lifestyle.

We need to shop more discerningly!

Some foods are loaded with nutrients called antioxidants -look for these; Elderberry, button mushrooms, Acai Berry, oysters, watermelon, wheat germ, low-fat yogurt, spinach, sweet potato, broccoli, garlic, chicken soup, pomegranate, ginger, and tea (choose your favourite)!

Every time a sheep baa’s he loses a bite!

The old saying also applies to us when we talk whilst eating -the damning difference is we unconsciously eat whilst we do that. Feel what you eat and drink -the emotional nature of our body system will then capitalise on the nutrient value of what we ingest. Eat and drink for its own sake -if you do so watching TV some part of the nutrient value will be wasted.

What else can you do?

And talking about TV, as most people are watching more, or playing games -tune in to programmes which benefit both mind and body. Laughter is a good medicine -helps stimulate, try for comedic films and shows. A bit of romance does you good as well! Try to avoid programmes that portray violence, health problems -and, dare I say it; news. Particularly news about the virus! Oh, and by the way whilst games stimulate grey matter they also shut you off from body awareness -not to mention being addictive.

So, the message is if you are still struggling -try, try, and try again!

The poem I’ve written for this post is:

The Reassuring Voice

Ah, winsome love what aches your heart
breaks the rhythm of mentor’s rhyme;
stuns you into silence?
Does the world debase, sully your native innocence,
trade on gentleness, draw on the giving Self?
Do you fear the well has gone dry,
your effort a hoist of cold rocks?
Brain tired of strictures, of duty
and of duty denying the Self?

Fear binds good with bad
Gives security cutting edge.

Let go, let go.

Give your mind a rest,
pulse your heart in Nature’s way.
Feel the moment,
Rebirth your innocence…

And know
this is a better way.

The Eye of the Storm

This is my first blog mail of 2021 and I wish you all a happy new year, though I guess you will not be champing at the bit, wanting to get moving and doing stuff you’ve promised yourself. The start of a new year usually means re-establishing or generating want or needful actions, but not this year. Instead we must carry on where we left off -restricted to only necessary actions out and about, and indoors doing our best to keep in contact with loved ones and friends.

As I write the UK powers that be are informing us we are in the eye of the storm with grim statistics to back up the statement. What they don’t want to say is it’ll get worse before it gets better. And given the plan to vaccinate the entire population over the age of 18 before the autumn are still promoting the expectation of social distancing measures next winter! We need to pause and think this through. 30 odd percent of the population is asymptomatic according to research -if you (and that includes children) are in that category it’s not unreasonable to suggest you wouldn’t want the vaccine. Data available, but not widely circulated, advises the vast majority of people who have sadly passed away, suffer from underlying health conditions, or whose immune systems have been weakened by their lifestyle.

And why is the virus now ‘out of control’? We have a new variant which infects us more easily -and that despite the fact lockdown measures have been heightened in the last month to include the entire UK. So -does that mean more people than hitherto are flouting the restrictions? Maybe not -and here’s the reasons why. We’ve just had Christmas, or sort of, a period of time when mostly drink and eat more than we normally do. How many, for example, fall asleep in front of the TV, not because they have been sleeping in bed less, but because the body is in overload and needs to shut down. Add to that generous helpings of wine and spirits, and the evitable chocolates and you get a mix which will cause the body to labour. The net result is a weakening of the immune system. This problem was further exacerbated by the expectation of family mixing -which at the last moment was banned. Result? People shopped for more than themselves -but you don’t throw it out do you? So -Christmas and New Year fare has lasted longer than it might otherwise have done -and the body system overloaded for longer.

And what happens when you are restricted from seeing and socialising with other people? We lose the emotional and mental interaction, feelings we share outwardly and experience a rise of inner emotional and mental frustration. And what do we do to counter negative thinking? We tend to eat more or/and more and at different times. The body’s cycle of input and output is impacted. It struggles to manage itself. Result? Weakening of the immune system. It is well known if you exercise the body overall (and I don’t mean hard) the action will develop lactic acid to the muscles and in turn reduce your feelings of appetite, not to mention giving the brain mind a rest from viewing itself. A walk before you eat is helpful to controlling your appetite.

We also know the majority of drugs used to treat underlying health conditions, including antibiotics and antidepressants weaken the immune system. If you must take them do everything you can to eat sensibly and exercise regularly. Another big help is to drink plenty of non-stimulative beverages, and that ideally includes plain water.

Now regarding this new variant of the virus we must be mindful of often used surfaces we touch when out in supermarkets and other food stores. The number of supermarket employees going down with the virus has increased dramatically in the last month, and be aware that reusable face masks do need to be sanitised regularly. As I’ve mentioned a number of times before use coconut oil on your hands and face and in the very least up the nostrils and on the lips. Studies carried out in the Philippines have shown the oil does break down the contact connection the virus makes to attach itself to you.

The poem I’ve written for this post is:

Great Isis Breathes

The shortest day has breathed its last
and now the leaf gowned evergreen
silhouettes the moon cream night;
and an eerie coldness starts to bite.

Snails have long since curled in shells
unforgiving winter reigns supreme;
now the ruffled Robin sleeps
and nocturnal foxes roam the streets.

Migrating birds have long since flown
the bare branched trees bend voiceless
to the ice gloved wind; their boles
and root claws shelter scavengers.

Warm-blooded folk close their doors
and shell like dream of foreign sun
church and chapel toll their bells
the great and good go volunteer.

And all the while great Isis breathes
incarnate; giving, taking, birthing
trees and birds, moles and men
power greater than our human ken.

A Shepherd’s Tale

I do hope my post this week finds you well If you are locked down like I am, markets falling, pandemic raging, loved ones distanced from you -I urge you to read this extra long mail before the new year looms on the horizon. Whether you are religious or not the message of love is universal.

You may or may not know there are two Bethlehem’s in Israel; one in the South near Jerusalem and the other in the North near Nazareth. Gospel accounts of the Jesus’s birthplace are only found in Matthew and Luke –not mentioned in Mark or John, or in the Gospel of Hebrews, otherwise known as the Aramaic Matthew. It is Bethlehem in Judea that is referred to in Matthew and Luke. The other Bethlehem is in Galilee, known as Bethlehem of Zebulun, approximately six miles outside of Nazareth, whereas the Judean Bethlehem is some 68 miles away. One has to question why Joseph, who lived in Nazareth, would have taken a pregnant woman on such a long journey to comply with a census demand in the South when the Roman administrative centre for the North was Sepphoris -less than five miles away?

For that matter why would he need to take Mary, since the registration of wife, siblings, and other dependants was made by men, or otherwise by women in powerful positions who owned land. The purpose of the Roman census was to establish who could be taxed. We are told by the gospels that Joseph was betrothed to Mary and they both lived in, or in the proximity of Nazareth. If that were true at the time of the birth, or nine months before -they would have been breaking Jewish law and living in sin. Joseph, we are told was a carpenter, yet his work would have included building or repairing dwellings, making agricultural tools, and have required skills to work metal, make drains and culverts. And we must not assume he worked on his own but had or was part of a business employing others. And according to Apocrypha writings Joseph had sons older than Jesus.

How come Jesus’s birth took place in or near Bethlehem?

It is well documented a riot took place in Sepphoris around 4 – 5 BC. The Jewish population rebelled against Roman & Herodian authority which resulted in the city being burned and 2000 Jews crucified. Tenable reasons for Joseph and Mary not being in Nazareth when Jesus’s birth took place are (1) they were on their way to Mary’s family who lived in Sepphoris and Jesus was born prematurely (Anne the mother of Mary and Joachim her father, according to New Testament Apocrypha Gospel of James, lived there), or (2) they were fleeing from Sepphoris to escape the conflagration and birth took place before they could reach home. There is no evidence of a census during that period of time.

Mount Carmel is but a few miles from Bethlehem and dotted with caves, as also are the Galilean Hills at the top of which is Bethlehem, and in those days Bethlehem was a large town, not a village. The Essenes had a community on Mount Carmel and some of their calling lived in villages and towns of Galilee –this branch of the Essenes, by far the largest, were known as Nazorean’s. there is reason to suppose Joseph was a Nazorean -his son James the Just became leader of the Essene community in Jerusalem in later years.

The Way of the Sea was a coastal plain that extended the length of Israel, from Judea, Samaria to Galilee and beyond. Shepherds at that time were regarded socially as the lowest of the low and were of two kinds; those who lived and tended flocks close to villages and towns and the more nomadic groups who moved up and down the Way of the Sea. The nomadic shepherds were mostly of mixed blood, hailing from the desert regions East of Israel, and those with roots in Galilee and Samaria. The Samaritans were at odds with the Judeans and had been so for some 400 years as they believed their Pentateuch bible was the authentic word of Moses and Abraham. They were also more liberal than the Judeans and allowed intermarriage with non-Jews.

I’ve provided this background so you may better understand the scenes described in my poem, ‘A Shepherd’s Tale’.

Consider, discuss, decide as you must. A boy
of nine I was, given to play? Yes-
but impatient to grow. A minder of sheep
and goat, not quite a shepherd, you understand.
Arab Jewish Samaritans, lowborn we were
under Roman rule in the land of Moses.

Tent dwellers; nomadic in the Way of the Sea
we moved our flocks from pasture to fold
over plain, hill slope, through mountain pass.
Self-sufficient, our mixed blood had no ties
in towns and we were shunned in cities.
At that time there was much disquiet,

camel borne travellers would hail us
seeking safe passage to Damascus
anxious for news, telling of homes destroyed
of livestock lost. Herod by the sea of salt
in hope of cure, still covetous of power.
Riots and Roman soldiers everywhere.

It was the hottest time of year -too hot.
My father the elder shepherd of our band
decreed we leave the plain of Armageddon
skirt the Galilean hills and drive
to Mount Carmel and fold there in cool caves
the pasture good, the Kishon river close.

Unusual for time of year it rained unexpectedly.
Wet and freshened I explored cave and gully
gaping at rock paintings, sling shooting
hawk foolish enough to target our flock.
When night fell there was talk about events
on the highway, riots in Sepphoris.

Mahmud was our Rabbi, a Samaritan
Who taught us boys by rote from a scroll.
He would disappear for days on end,
reappear warning of wolves, thieves in hiding,
bringing herbs, fruits, figs, salt preserved fish,
feet, hands, and body bruised and bleeding.

But not this time -from the tomb of Rachel
he had seen columns of soldiers, pillars of smoke,
people fleeing carnage, a forest of crosses.
He arrived much distressed. Nearby, he said,
there is a camel camp of Persian men,
star diviners, here for some special event.

So deep the dreamless sleep I slept, when roused
I complained of being woken. My father’s
command to dress was brusque and impatient.
Mother soothingly said be quick no time to rest.
Sheep and goat were want to break the folds
and strange lights had appeared in the heavens.

Girding mantle, grasping staff, sling, and pipe
I joined the men grouped around a fireside
where Mahmud, repeated yet again
to disbelieving ears, of a vision given
in prayer, how an angel of the lord appeared
announcing birth of a messiah to all men.

How he had run to the Kishon River
to impart this news to the Persian men,
and they, exclaiming in response said this
was the proof, the final proof they sought.
And without delay broke camp and headed east.
The river shining phosphorus in the night.

Did I hear a voice as we knelt in prayer?
For when Mahmud said follow me, I knew
the angel would want us shepherds go!
Find the birthplace, give tribute to the child.
More in fear I think, of unearthly things,
Claiming protection of the women folk,

some herders stayed with the folded flock.
For me this was adventure, side by side
my father leading with Mahmud we trod
the Magi’s tracks. An uphill beaten track
Nazorean’s often trod beyond Bethlehem
to Elijah’s tomb. In silent awe we came

to where the light was strongest; there halted
by a well-dressed Jew, then let pass. Mahmud
having yet again spoken of his vision.
We entered a cave, two donkeys tethered
looked at us curiously –and there
in a lamp lit area no bigger than a tent

a babe in swaddling clothes lay in the arms
of a woman and before them, three Magi.
Also, an Arab woman, an older sage-like
Jew and a fearsome looking man whose smile
belied his looks. The air perfumed –a scent
so strong my head whirled with feelings.

We knelt on the hard stone in a presence
of many persons unseen; God’s angels
I know them now to be. We presented
lamb and kid –the best of the litters
we had, and in turn were given sweet wine.
Yet I was not allowed, and she, seeing this

beckoned me to drink from a leather gourd
that hung from the cradle bed, a sweet
warming juice. I drank gazing as I did upon
the new-born baby’s face. Then not asked
but sure of rightness I began to play my
shepherd’s pipe. With eyes closed he smiled,

as if somehow, he had heard me play before.
The tune was new to me and full of majesty,
my fingers moving my brain asleep
I lost all sense of time, only just aware
of his mother’s happy face; the attention
of all that were in that holy place.

As dawn began to show we took our leave.
My father with pride made much of my tune.
There was curious talk about the older man,
was he her husband? Why birth in a cave?
They were not poor, and the Magi had
given gold! There had been talk of Herod,

more so the riots and of Rome’s steel hand.
Yet for all this talk as we returned, the paths
aglow, I sensed my nomadic life would never
be the same again. We had gained in status
been received as equals –us lowborn
shepherds; and feted at a godlike event!
Yet despite this, seeds of doubt took root.

The holy book lost its magic -I questioned
why Jews and Gentiles warred, sacrificial lambs,
the militancy of God. Instead, I dreamed of union
in remembrance of the child, believing
he would one day share our daily bread
forever hopeful that our souls might wed.

Consider, discuss, decide as you must
the burden of proof is a human need.
My shepherd’s tale, straightforwardly said
is to you a plea -that in the body’s Keep
your soul should no longer groan and weep
but celebrate the Love that is Heavens Bread.

Breath of Life

In the current environment where restrictions on movements and socialising, repress our need to share interests and concerns with loved ones, we turn inward, the Self seemingly less knowable. In last week’s blog I said evolutionary consciousness is a state of awareness ‘outwardly’ born. I probably left you wondering how to achieve that -I also advised the practice of being PRESENT, as the child is, but it’s easier said than done. So, today I will advise how you can get started -practices easily carried out in any given waking state.

The root to all forms of consciousness is Breath

Dictionary definitions are not helpful, they only refer to air taken in and expelled from the lungs, or given the appellation of life force. Breath is not only a function of forces in lung bearing creatures -it’s a function of forces in all forms of life -yes I did say that, all forms of life. So, what is happening for example in a plant or a mineral? It’s the same process that happens in you. A movement of energy takes place when we breathe causing a reaction of energy movement in the bloodstream and lungs. What follows is a movement of energy that accounts for the energy reaction initially made -in humans we breathe out carbon dioxide. Ultimately we know breathing keeps us alive, directly and indirectly causing the continuation of life in every cell of our body. A plant and a mineral has the same function -the difference is they don’t breathe air as we do, they breathe in terms of energy, seen and unseen. Oh, and by the way, so do we, but we consciously don’t know it

We tend to view breath only as an intake of need, whereas the movement of energy is a causative process that operates from without to within and vice-versa. The efficiency of that process is determined by the body of energy we can call the Self. Plants and minerals do this very efficiently, but like everything else life is qualitative, in accordance to its design, a measure of what it takes to change and evolve. You can say the same about animals -but no you can’t say that about us humans! We are very poor processors. When we breathe wrongly the nervous system maintains a level of unnecessary stress. As a result we get ill from internal mismanagement and shorten our lives. If we breathe correctly our health, both physically and mentally, is much better.

This is how to breathe correctly

Breathe in and out of the gut -that’s what babies naturally do. Observe animals -they also do it naturally. Now -why is that so hard to do? I mean how do you keep it up -do it all the time? You may notice even as you are reading this your thought processes are reacting, whether supportive of this guidance or not, the result of thinking will move the centre of breath intake and expression upward toward the chest. Two things are happening here when you are in thinking mode. The brain in your head in particular the cerebrum, is biased to produce alpha rhythms, i.e. the inward management of thought processes. When this is happening the brain in your gut (oh yes -there is a brain in your gut!) is being suppressed. You probably know the brain in your head represents the largest part of your central nervous system, and the brain stem is regarded by science as the lowest most primitive part of the CNS -it controls basic survival functions such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, digestion, taste, hearing, and sight. The stimulus for these functions comes from the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system. The instinctual mind centre is in the gut from where our breath naturally cycles -if we allow it to operate as our body design intended we maintain good physical and mental health.

The way you breathe directly affects the function of the brain in the head!

Naturally, the breath cycle is a wave like motion -now you may fine tune it by time measures of inward, still, and outward breath, but that’s not essential to get the balance right between the brain in your head and the instinctual brain of the body. When you initially practice wave breathing from the gut you will complain it doesn’t allow you to think -so sitting or standing still is not the right way to get the function back -the right way to re-introduce it, is to walk. When you walk your senses must remain alert for obvious reasons -your thoughts will be focussed on getting from A to B. Just one other thing to do -you need to walk in a balanced way, i.e. with your weight centred between the ball and the heel. If you revert to thinking on other things, or you might say ‘unconsciously walking’, the body balance will shift to your heel, if you are in a hurry and your thoughts are biased to future expectations, their expressions become shortened and pithy in character, and the body balance will shift forward to the ball of the foot.

Give it a try!

Don’t expect perfection. It’s not possible in today’s information pressured world to get this right 24-7, but the more and longer you persist -the better the benefits. The brain in your head becomes more like a processor, which is what it was designed to be, and less like a storage if information and access alternatives. Your energy levels will improve because food requirements are less governed by appetite -are more instinctively managed, and dare I say it you may even look younger as your health improves!

Next week it’s Christmas and I plan to give you a bit of unwritten history of arguably the most influential man who ever lived! The poem I’ve written for today has echoes of breathing….

The Rook

In the stone-hard furrows
of a winter fallow field
head down
pecking the ground
the rook -knows a lean meal
when he sees one.

With a non-stop brain
in the belly unlike you
-‘I’ brain conscious,
his beak keeps pecking
burning calories
getting little and less.

Until slowly
little is no more
and weakness halts him.
Observer and naturalist
take note
the rook has no name.

This bare faced
creation of feather and bone
constant host
of protozoa
is an avatar
not found in your books.

His smallest parts
are self-known
unicellular kingdoms
unbounded by form and time.
He knew that before
his face was feathered.

The half-closed eyes
have no regrets
as he caws
the one last time.
What does
your looking tell you?

Do you suppose learning
comes from observing,
dissecting, magnifying?
Can you rise above sympathy?
If so, why can you not
reveal the mystery?

He caws not for bread
or his mate
long since dead
he caws for his life
that bounds
from his head.

See –now
the wings
no longer lift
the legs do not move.
The order to rest
is final.

Perfect.

Learn from that
if you can.
The rook who didn’t need name
whose belly forever guided his brain
shows you life’s three-fold harmony
how life transforms without pain.

Wheeling as you do
caged between
Earth and Heaven,
what release
does your harmony bring
self-appointed surrogate King?

The Knowable Self

You could say that knowing yourself is taking notice of whom you are and for most that will mean ‘looking’ at the self through the thoughts and actions we have. Some people devote their lives to this analysis in the belief they improve themselves and perhaps others also by the record of effort. Have you noticed how time and all its attendant reflections of thought cease to matter when we are able to DO the right thing in the right place with the right people for the right purpose? In the aftermath of such experiences we are hard put to describe exactly what happened simply because we were living the moment in present consciousness.

If analysis and reflection is the answer to all our actions, why are we not getting consistently wiser? We don’t -we continue making the same errors as before. The history books tell us how Hitler made a fundamental error attacking Russia, because when less than 200 years earlier Napoleon had clearly demonstrated how it should not be done! How many times have you said to yourself ‘here we go again!’ or kick yourself for not seeing the obvious… meaning we’ve been here before?

This merry-go-round of error and reminder continues to wind us up because we are not consciously efficient. If you take a modest view of life’s knowing journey you realise soon enough that most of what constitutes knowing comes from the experiences we subjectively develop. In relationships for example, doing involves many different kinds of experience – self-knowing comes from the big picture, a ‘subjective overview’ which escapes analysis and reflection. So, what are we experiencing unconsciously which can from time to time be felt in present forms of consciousness? To answer this question we need to understand the instinctual nature; the process of being we inherit physically, emotionally and mentally.

After birth we take food instinctively, our thoughts are not reflective, language is not yet learnt. As our persona develops we culture the habit of eating -consciously think about what we eat because our sensorial reactions indicate delight, disgust or disinterest. The instinctive action of fuelling the body however, does not change – the effect is so deeply subconscious we are able to engage our consciousness to other matters almost entirely, confident the actions of our body mind are in our best interests. The body and its functions, quite apart from its impressive chemistry, is a remarkable example of inherited knowledge – it’s always in a doing mode… only when the alarm bells ring do we, ‘the masters’, take notice.

Many situations in our lives are ‘managed’ subconsciously. Housewives will tell you they have routines – some parts are automatic and never brought to present consciousness, other interests can be thought about, as they carry out their routines. The accounting clerk, familiar with doing arithmetic calculations in the work environment, can finger-tap out statistical solutions whilst the conscious mind is paying attention elsewhere. The machine minder after a period of consciously attentive training, knows the sequence of operations -actions becoming so familiar the conscious mind ceases to prepare for them -it consigns operations to the unconscious, and time awareness alone triggers instinctual conscious acts to stops and starts the regulative actions required of the job in the right order. Consciously the minder can think about something else- read a book perhaps. And subsequently acts to service the machine as an interruption to this other activity. No doubt you can think of activities that you perform that fall into this category of ‘secondary action’.

These examples serve to show how our consciousness develops and the more we want to do the more we rely upon this ‘reminder’ mentality. Education as taught in our world means to remember values that can be drawn upon to enrich life’s experience, but clearly it is not a faultless process -if it were mankind could show progression -gains from efforts and the mass of knowledge, harmonise his entire self.

If you were to become the pupil of an Hindu guru, he might in due time give you a mantra to aid development. The mantra, a word or phrase, needed to be intoned during your meditative practice. The key to mantra usage is REMAIN FULLY CONSCIOUS OF THE MEANINGS IT GIVES YOU. The guru knows when giving the mantra it is a key to PRESENT KNOWLEDGE -if the pupil consigns awareness to the “secondary action” of their mind – the purpose and power of the mantra will not be realised.

The examples of the minder, accounts clerk and housewife show our earth born mind’s work on more than one level -a dichotomy of differences; consciously doing, unconsciously proposing. The example of mantra usage advises the way of instrumental consciousness -living and learning in the flow of consciousness. If you stop and think about it, you will realise states of acute awareness when time, place and purpose are consciously experienced in totality. They create harmony in body and mind. We may have moments of acute perception, like in dreams and inspirational thought from time to time -but invariably we retrogressively value them.

Some people think that meditation means looking inward, sorting and ordering consciousness, and some think it means being changed by what they inwardly experience. Observe the child and how we are all drawn to acknowledge the power of its life – the child experiences present consciousness, momentary awareness taking place before our eyes. We can love animals for the very same reason. The path of self-knowing demands present consciousness; it requires developing the instrumental mentality you are born with. What is senile dementia but the collapse of ‘reminder’ consciousness and a reversion to child mentality? Present consciousness is forever doing, changing, non-judgemental and expressive of harmonising actions. Consider the esoteric meaning of the Narcissus myth – this beautiful young man is arrested by his reflection in a pool and thereafter remains a prisoner of his own image. The message is simple; if you look at and admire the reflection of conscious Self, the evolutionary actions of the entire Self are blocked.

So the points to remember are these:

1. Evolutionary consciousness is a state of awareness ‘outwardly’ born and varies with individuals according to their state of awakening.
2. Nothing (essentially) is new, there are no forgetting real values – we awake to what is present.
3. Consciousness evolves harmonically by outworking the change of awareness through our conscious being.

What we need to do is this:

a. Practise being PRESENT as the child is, truly aware of every moment.
b. BE what you DO as often as you can.
c. Give everything your complete attention, don’t let time-based conditions control you.
d. Meditate on this mantra Awareness is not perception. Awareness is – perception was.

Our consciousness as we truly KNOW it, is extremely limited, not only do we remember little; our present consciousness is but a small part of the entire Self. The DEPTH of what we consciously experience is largely unknown. All control is based on self-awareness. The first and last commandment of life is….. “KNOW YOURSELF”, said to have been inscribed above the gates of the Delphic Oracle.

In the coming weeks I’ll continue to advise ways and means by which the bottom line of all our needs can be met. The poem I’ve written for today’s blog is an expression of that maxim ‘know yourself. I hope it reaches into the depths of your mind.

Oracle

Time brokers these intentions of mine,
some become deeds and some
scatter like seed in the winds.
My instrumental hand is a forge of cause,
heating, hammering, casting Love.

Deeds are doings of my better born seeds
some grow like trees and some
gently perfume moments of privacy.
My instrumental voice is a flute love shapes,
healing, reassuring, divining Love’s song:

Time will forget the music of my rhyme
words like works will transform
and return to the wheel forming heavens.
Yet this Instrument Self will stay fused into One
Love’s emissary burning bright as the Sun.

Are you looking for a way forward?

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is pexels-photo-556666.jpeg — Photo by luizclas on Pexels.com

In last week’s blog ‘Old as the Hills’, I spoke about day-to-day life being on two levels, adhering to directions promoted by the factual world for our material needs, and on the other hand inwardly defining our present and future on a ‘what if’ basis. I posed this question; should our must have needs be driven by the ‘truths’ of the objective world, or should they manifest from our higher nature -that state of consciousness which is not governed by the time/form expression of knowledge? And in answer I said you needed to be conscious of the ‘driver’, which in essence is day-to-day awareness of your inner self. Unlike the ego we necessarily develop our higher nature is eternally present, it’s not judgemental, doesn’t demand, or compare you to others. What it does do when you allow it to be present -is give awareness of self-purpose.

In the current environment self-purpose is taking some pretty hard knocks, even non-communicative, unsocial, people can’t avoid restrictions -they have to eat and a shop or supermarket visit will have them feel defensive, judgemental, not to mention the emotional feeling aftermath, which for some will bring on depression. On the bright side those of us who have pets know just how supportive they can be -and would you believe, know when we are down and need cheering up. Thank God for the animal world! They can teach us a thing or two.

We all have a natural instinct to protect ourselves when our day-to-day self-awareness is threatened; a reaction born of our animal nature. We call it the self-preservation instinct. If it’s not governed by our higher nature it only achieves to defensively underwrite the objectively important needs of life. However, when you respond with the awareness of your higher self, actions are promoted which not only protect present needs, they also strengthen your real character; building knowledge of your true Self. How so you might ask?

Conceptually Man is no different from all other forms of life, he is an open system of consciousness at all levels. The time honoured phrase, ‘I am what I am’ denoting self-consciousness has encouraged Man to develop a hierarchical knowledge of life where in Earth terms he regards himself as the evolutionary head. We go so far as saying self-consciousness is soul and other conceptions, for example trees and plants, don’t have souls. Believing, as we do, in our autonomous nature creates barriers between ourselves and other forms of life, and worse still, because we have ‘our heads in the sand’ develop blockages within our Self.

If you look carefully at the people around you, it is noticeable the sensitive types get most problems – They may also get the “better rewards”, but nonetheless can, and do get burdened by mental and emotional down drafts which disrupt their natural harmonies. The satisfaction you have in life is a direct result of the control you manifest in character, both to the world outside and the universe inside. We have natural methods of control which we are oblivious of – my aim to have you recognise these means in yourself.

Has it ever occurred to you what the first musical instruments were? They were the drum and the pipe -it tells us something we need to acknowledge. The drum can be anything which vibrates sound on impact. The first of our species recognised was sound is carried by vibrations, not only did the sound carry beyond his vision, it also enhanced awareness of himself. And the pipe which came in as a close second, developed awareness of himself. We call this process of awareness -instrumental. Our ancient forebears had much simpler ego’s than we do today -they didn’t question the process -they accepted the benefits.

We cause a great many actions in our lives without awareness of their effects – you may not think you do, and perhaps only afterwards think on what you did. The wisdom of hindsight has very little value if our thinking practises do not evolve. If control is developed only by the ego it will be repressive and restrictive of our naturally born instrumental Self. You can be efficient, capable of starts and stops, and protective of yourself without awareness of the higher self, but if you want the ability to recognise good and bad conditions, be progressive and evolutionary, be creatively stimulated -then you must engage the instrumental nature of your consciousness.

In the coming weeks I’ll advise the ways and means by which the bottom line of all our needs can be met. The poem I’ve written for today is an echo of freedom, an event that really did happen, and I hope it will instill you with thoughts of positive outcomes.

Somewhere in Time

We’ll go east, west, wherever’s best
down garlanded leaf shaded lanes.
Mortals without plan, purpose, or price
heading for the green untrammelled earth.
Who knows what gems we will find
when the email and phone are left behind?

Curious, in want of some old-fashioned tea
off the beaten track, we drove
past cows on road, Sheep on verges,
turning; where to now? there’s a cottage café
thatched and worse for wear; an open door.
Our taste buds anticipate, we stop to explore.

A low beam ceiling gives a closed in feeling,
the windows are small the chairs worn
and the counter displays farm eggs.
Beyond is a kitchen of sorts, and a kettle sings.
A tousled head with long sideburns pops up.
‘It’s coming on twelve –be you wanting a cup?’

‘You’ll have some tea, cakes maybe?
Sit yourself down the rooms’ all yours.’
We look at the bare boarded floor
the unpainted oak blackened door, and then
at this bent great hulk of man, and say
‘Tea for two please, apple pies and cream.’

Strangely, he makes no sound moving around.
His eyes purr ‘my pleasure, he says -come far?’
‘Portsmouth’ I say. ‘Is that so?’ he replies,
ambling off with a shake of the head. ‘Well, I be.’
All is silent –what can he be doing back there?
The silence is deafening, like a church at prayer.

The mustiness of wood makes us feel good,
the smells of coal ash and oiled table cloth,
the sight of a clock that silently ticks
all fits -when the room darkened by cloud
starts doing something and opens our minds,
slipping and sliding into past times.

Serge and coarse vests jostle and rest
starched collars and crinolines appear,
chained Albert’s and hatpins sparkle with light.
We hear pipes tapped, the snorting of snuff,
feel the smell of leather and tangy felt hat.
The growl of a dog facing a cat.

‘Now here’s a rose fresh cut –somebody knows!’
And he gives me a nod and a wink.
I swear I didn’t ask this tousled grey head!
Awake as from sleep, smilingly secret
we toast adventure, a day to remember
you, me, and the apple pie vendor.

Old as the Hills

In this world where all truths must have objective criteria, in other words -seen to be believed, day to day life functions on two levels. On the one hand we must adhere to directions promoted by the factual world for our material needs, on the other -inwardly define our present and future on a ‘what if’ basis. Invariably our ‘what if’ mind is a subjective narrative which is stimulated by our desires -more of, or less of, reacting to the strictures of our must have needs.

Now, the question is this -should our must have needs be driven by the ‘truths’ of the objective world, or should they manifest from our higher nature -that state of consciousness which is not governed by the time/form expression of knowledge?

The question is as old as the hills. In good times when our relationships are secure, daily needs equitably met, and futures holding no fears, it rarely bugged the mind for answer -in fact the question isn’t formulated. In our present world where needs at all levels have become insecure by an unseen enemy and fear underwrites all enquiry, many are running around like headless chickens because their state of consciousness is not governed by their higher nature.

If you type into Google the word Soul, Wikipedia has the top spot describing it as a computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney pictures, if you refine the search to ask what is the soul of a person, you get this; ‘Soul or psyche (Ancient Greek: ψυχή psykhḗ, of ψύχειν psýkhein, “to breathe”) comprises the mental abilities of a living being: reason, character, feeling, consciousness, qualia, memory, perception, thinking, etc. Depending on the philosophical system, a soul can either be mortal or immortal.’

The hanger is in the last sentence -either or! As I said to begin with, ‘all truths must have objective criteria’. To state the Soul can be mortal or immortal is frankly, nonsense! It gets worse! If you Google the word Spirit, top of the list you get a dictionary definition, to whit; ‘the non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character; the soul.’

Clearly, the information world, the governor of our daily needs, not only doesn’t know the difference between Soul and Spirit, neither can it make up its mind if its mortal or immortal. This is why my question is as ‘old as the hills’ -and why I’ve had to formulate it today. We seem to have forgotten what the ‘driver’ is!

I guess the next qualifying question is; ‘How do I know if the ‘driver’ is present?’ You can’t even begin to know if your mind is constantly cluttered with day-to-day wants and fretting about relationships. The start point requires SPACE -yes, space -periods of time when you are consciously clear of your concerns, when the moment is not an avenue to receive or give out, but a moment that allows all thought and feeling to be acknowledged -accepted, and released, in other words when you don’t try to OWN anything. You don’t have to be sitting cross-legged on the floor invoking a deity, or mentally intoning positive thoughts. There’s nothing wrong about such actions but they don’t create space.

To achieve space -walk, preferably unencumbered by bags with your phone switched off. The movement at walking pace, around 2-3 mph, enables you to observe by a process of acknowledgement and acceptance of what you see, hear, or smell, and the act of movement causes release. Provided it’s not your own back garden, nothing you are sensorily aware of belongs to you, so you can accept without conditions. If you do that, truly observing, your own possessive thoughts, no matter how positive or negative they might be, will not intrude, and the result will be a calmer feel better state of overall health on completing the exercise than it was before you started.

When you do this the ‘driver’ will be present. No -it’s not evidenced by a discarnate voice or the sudden arousal of a positive sense of wellbeing. The evidence is in how you subsequently deal with day-to-day events, and the needs thereof. The higher nature we all have is eternally present, it is not judgemental, neither does it demand, or relate to your own or others assessment of your worth. What it does do is give you awareness of self-purpose

Practise, and I can assure you life will have better meaning. Headless chickens will not disturb you!

The poem I’ve written for today is a herald of summer but it has just as much meaning in November & December!

Seeking Winds of May

Down the winding lane I walk
hid by hedge and under bough
that skirl their leafy sounds anyhow
in the seeking winds of May.

Going nowhere with a purpose
talking secrets with my feet
marching to the cyclic beat
of natural worlds at play.

Pausing at the path smooth head
over which the white clouds scud
stopping, watching cows chew cud
hear the dark horse neigh.

Ambition-less, I am asexual
just conscious of my nose
down I go where the river flows
to greet the end of day.

Not wanting less than everything
I sit rod-less on its banks
eyeing the silver fishes’ shanks
oblivious of time.

Then someone overshadows me
Bow in hand, feminine and fey
and about me SHE draws a line

in the seeking winds of May.

Evidential Messages

If you have belief in the After Life you will know what is meant by the title of my blog this week -in short such messages can give proof loved ones are alive and well beyond the grave. Individually we will have different demands of proof as they relate to our personal relationship histories -and more dependent upon the balance of our mental and emotional health at that time. Guilt or anger can block reception, and of course feelings of grief following a loss can numb the mind to any form of evidence.

In the current environment the normal concerns we have for the health of our loved ones has intensified and we endeavour to follow whatever advice is promoted by politicians who are adamant they follow the science. At present vaccine trials providing positive results is having more air time than the daily negative statistics of positive covid tests and recorded deaths. Everyone involved to produce a viral-free environment is doing their best to make it happen.

If you are looking for evidential messages -trying to gain comfort and reassurance in the welter of information streaming abroad through all and every media method of communication, and not yet satisfied, you are one of many. Ultimately the goodness of your health, physical and mental well being, is based upon what you personally do to promote it -actions that are evidential.

During the earlier lockdown phase that began in March I published advice on how to care for yourself and your loved ones -in addition to the sensible public advice on washing hands, social distancing etc. One of the first things I mentioned was using coconut oil on hands and face (in particular nose and lips). A clinically conducted trial in the Philippines on taking it internally positively recorded preventative benefits, which is interesting because the population uses the oil more so than we do in Britain, and their death rate due to Covid is less than 2.0% -and that in a less socially controlled environment. If it interests you to read more about this study, click here https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2020/10/19/scientists-in-the-philippines-claim-coconut-oil-destroys-coronavirus/

Unless a mask is close fitting to the skin and has a ventilator it cannot be a 100% form of protection, though it will guard you against the coughs and splutters of covid positive people. On wearing any other type of mask or shield will generate a moist atmosphere from your breath and the air breathed will mix with that before ingested to the lungs -hence why I recommended coconut oil which breaks up the outer coating of the virus -which is its means of attaching itself to you.

What can you do to maintain good health, or otherwise fight off cold and flu like symptoms?

Take vitamin D -why D? Because naturally you would get that from sunlight, and we don’t get much of that this time of year. What does it do? Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body. These nutrients are needed to keep bones, teeth and muscles healthy. It also helps lift depression and mood changes. Take Zinc -why Zinc? It helps the immune system fight off invading bacteria and viruses. The body also needs zinc to make proteins and DNA, the genetic material in all cells. And if you have a stuffy nose and mucous in the throat -have a warm water and salt gargle, works wonders.

Given most of us have to get our food from supermarkets detoxification is an insurance against build up of toxins in the body caused by the ‘preservative’ elements in food. Drink herbal tea, or just green tea, ginger, or rooibos tea. Got a sweet tooth then add honey, don’t go down the sugar route! And what can you include to your menu to further help? Fresh garlic, cloves, ginger, and if you are spicing things up -turmeric. And if you are not spicing things up -take turmeric as a supplement, you don’t have to be suffering aches and pains to get benefit from turmeric.

We are spending much more time indoors, not only because of the time of year, but because we are restricted on outdoor activities. Most of us have central heating -it dries up the atmosphere and that facilitates the spread of viruses. If you don’t have a humidifier -drape damp towels over the rads or place containers of water in the direct emanation of their heat. Have some essential oils? If so, any one of these have natural antibiotic antiviral properties -cinnamon, peppermint, eucalyptus, geranium, lemon, thyme, or oregano oil. Put a few drops in the water.

Given all the right things you do ingesting food and drink, it won’t have much effect if your BodyMind ‘clock’ is too slow or too fast. What does that mean? If you eat after 7.00 p.m. the body takes longer to process it and not so efficiently and you tend to sleep later, or you sleep when the body is still dealing with your food. If you comfort eat that also will upset the ‘clock’. All this means you get up later and again alter the body ‘clock’. So, quite simply develop a routine of eating and sleeping -and stick with it. Ideally get up by 8.00 a.m. breakfast before 9.00 a.m. Lunch 12.30 -1.30, Evening meal between 6 and 7. A warm non-alcoholic, non-caffeine drink late evening is fine.

Now lastly, what are the evidential messages that show you are maintaining good health?

You sleep well
You get up feeling refreshed
Bowel movement should be at least once a day
Mentally your mind should be clear
Emotionally you are not moody
Physically movements do not fatigue you (you can get tired from over exertion, but that’s not the same thing).
And most of all -you feel good in yourself; not worrying or cooking concerns.

Poem I’ve written for this week is:

The reassuring Voice

Ah, winsome love, what aches your heart, breaks
the rhythm of your mentor’s rhyme, stuns you into silence?
Does the world debase and sully your native innocence
trade on your gentleness, draw on the giving Self?
Do you fear the well has gone dry and life’s effort
a hoist of cold rocks, the brain tired of strictures,
Of duty -duty denying the Self?

Let your fears flee to the winds
Let go memories that haunt you
Have them find oblivion in the shifting sands of time.
The healer’s hands cup your face
The power of love turns back the clock
Years vanish and youth smiles
The mystery deepens
wordless expressive
timeless love

©TonyAshenden

Childish Things

Last week I wrote about our greatest enemy -fear. And fear is the No. 1 stress maker. The effect of stress upon relationships can cause breaks, in any event it will affect how we express and change the nature of the bond we share. It can turn the emotional mind inward -at best needless self-reflection, at worst causing anxiety. When a child sucks its thumb we are inclined to believe it is reverting to the emotional bond with its mother -comforted by the breast, in retreat from an insecure world. When we are adult we ‘put away childish things’ (to quote 1 Corinthians 13:11), instead we revert to our smartphones, computers, and TV’s.

I know, I hear what you say, smartphones are essential. In our present world of restricted social and work interaction the mobile phone has become a lifeline; a means of staying in touch with loved ones we cannot see, to shop, manage the business of making a living, monitor and make decisions on how we spend -but it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s a comfort -if you leave the house without it, you are not dressed right, or if it’s mislaid, everything stops until you find it. We may not like to admit it but we are addicted to the damn things. And for many social media is a mental and emotional environment that begins before breakfast and doesn’t cease until they fall asleep -for them it has become a compulsion -without it, they don’t feel connected, feel unwanted, unappreciated, lacking purpose. That innocent looking wad of metal and plastic in your pocket or handbag can ruin real-life relationships, suppress the ability to be conscious of real time, change the nature of your BodyMind energies, fill the heads with useless information, and determine what is done next.

We don’t initiate -we react. A Brave New World scenario where the elite govern by suggestion, where freedom of choice is the mantra of power, refusal is not smart, and people without phones and computers don’t count.

IT gurus hire people they call attention engineers. Experts in usage statistics from which they develop advertising strategies and give birth to new applications designed in such a way people stay connected for longer. Whenever we upload a picture or update our status on social media, we wait to see how many people will like the picture. How much like has gone to us? How many social shares and comments our post has got. According to research, when you use a cell phone, a chemical continuously discharges from your brain, which is called “Dopamine”. This Hormone is called the “Feel Good Hormone”. According to studies, this hormone is released if you drink or smoke. It means we can be addicted to our cell phones or a soap on TV as we can be slave to drugs. There are restrictions over the usage of drugs and cost alone can limit how much you drink or smoke, but cell phones, computers and TV’s are made easy to buy and there are no restrictions on usage. Whenever we feel uneasy or lonely, more often than not, we think about using our cell phone, laptop, or switching on the TV.

And how often do some people represent themselves on social and business media not as they are -instead how they would like to be known? You know it happens a lot, so in turn you become cautious on how you represent yourself to them. They fake you and you fake them. Not good is it? It is a fact that the way some people represent themselves on social media is not the real way they show a fake lifestyle. As much as they seem to be happier on social media in real life they aren’t as happy.

Stress, anxiety and depression are the outcomes of reactive lifestyles. We are constantly being addressed by the media 24-7, even when we are asleep, so to speak ‘dead to the world’, the subconscious mind is mulling over concerns and needs, and though you might not realise it also open to ultra-high frequencies that propagate like to like communications. So, how do you deal with it?

To start with we must accept that the world of IT is here to stay -the need of phones, computers and TV’s won’t go away. What we must do is reduce the level of reactiveness in our lives and regain our true identities. The way to do that is to uniquely create -it can be as simple as doing something with your hands, making, repairing, gardening -even cleaning. Any activity requiring focus and attention which provides a pleasing result. It can be artistic if you are so minded, and if you’re not, crafting is a capability open to all -again simple does the trick as well as a more skilled person does. And if you can’t engage in a practical way -give a service to another person. Why creative -why do I call it a game-changer?

Before you had the ability to speak and interact consciously with the world you had a very clear idea of what made you happy. Consciously that was comfort from eating, sleeping, and knowing you were cared for -feelings that arose from the instinctual urge to live. That urge is a maker, a creator born of a higher Self. When we get older and ‘put away childish things’, see in a mirror darkly, know only in part, we forget who we are, take comforts to assuage anxieties. Giving rebirth to your creative nature is the road to regaining your true identity -love of oneself.

I hope you like the poem I’ve written today -it beats like the heart, remind us of our true self.

Love Chant

Who moves my hand tapping the keys,
whirls my head, weakens my knees,
fingers my heart, turns works into art?

Who is the voice stopping all fears,
providing true rest, drying all tears,
shaking my head, raising the dead?

Am I the puppet in a God like play
centre stage on a Summer’s day
pulled by strings any which way?

How am I able make gold from waste,
hold the tongue and check its haste,
cause this poem chant like a heart?

Feel the force that heals by hand,
Instantly causing the lame to stand,
Or know how I’m able to speak?

It can only be Love that truth of old
Creation’s cause made to one mould
Power to all to prevent Man’s fall.