On being a lightworker and a ghost story

A disembodied spirit jumped on to me while I was visiting a recently-ex-drinker. This person had been forced into abstinence by medical necessity. 

Alcoholics tend to attract disembodied spirits, or ghosts, if you like. Ghosts never quite followed the light and are stuck in a miserable space of nowhere, always having needs not being fulfilled, seeking out depression and misery as that is the frequency they dwell in. I guess the ghosts that loved a drink while living, love a drink while dead. Perhaps you could call it some kind of hell? Anyway, I’m not one that physically sees disembodied spirits as I’m walking around in ordinary daylight, (I have seen them while deep in process giving Shiatsu bodywork, but that’s another story) however I’m pretty sure I felt the moment this particular entity decided that I’d do. I was sitting on my friends couch, and I guess this entity was bored shitless as my friend was no longer drinking or smoking, I felt it attach to me.  

I hadn’t had a drink for ages - well a month, but that’s a long time for me. I’d been feeling fabulous and not missing it at all. But on the way home I noticed every. single. bottle shop. And not only every single bottle shop, but every pedestrian that happened to be carrying a bottle of wine. The shops gleamed at me with their yellow lights as I passed by.  

The traffic was terrible, the hour was late, and I realised I'd be home past dinner time with hungry kids and at least half an hour of food prep in front of me, If not more. I decided to go to Rouccos for dinner, order the kids some pizza and spaghetti, and skip the whole clean up altogether. After this decision was made I realised I could order a glass of wine. That’s exactly what happened. I’m pretty sure it was the entity influencing my decisions.  

The wine gave me a terrible headache after a couple of hours. I knew I needed to get rid of this thing. In the meantime I discovered someone I thought a friend had unfriended me over a relatively impersonal disagreement. Yes, it was only facebook, but it still hurt. This was upsetting on top of having an alcoholic entity hanging out with me. 

I knew what I needed to do, I trained in Alana Fairchild's channelled healing modality Soul Guidance and Sacred Mentoring TM- soon to be renamed Saraswati Healing - last year. It is a gorgeous modality that involves creating a sacred container for channelling spiritual light and using the Crystal Mandala Oracle and accompanying books for guided healing processes. It always feels heart expansive and amazing. You come into your session with an intention, and that intention is flooded with spiritual energy to be made manifest. You have the choice of working with Angels, Ascended Masters and Goddesses, each with their own flavour. There are 54 possible unconditionally loving beings within the deck and healing processes to come through and offer healing and guidance for you.  

After a couple of days of finding the time (cause you know, mum life ), I ran an Ascended Masters 333 healing template  

I was drawn to study with Alana because I find she is divinely clear channel. The particular prayer for clearing entities and karmic clearing within the template is exquisite and complete. I made sacred space and using the Crystal Mandala oracle deck, pulled my ascended master for help. Mataji. Mataji is a Hindi word meaning ‘mother.’ As the story goes Matajii is an unconditionally loving spiritual being who lives in the centre of the Earth, holding space for us all with loving embrace. She is a grounding energy and of the base chakra. Perfect, because the base chakra is associated with tribe, family and our sense of belonging. The unfriending had upset me greatly, was weakening my base chakra, and draining my energy.  

The beautiful entity clearing prayer gently encourages the disembodied spirit into the light. A further message and guidance from spirit healed my leaky chakra, ridding me of my emotional upset over the unfriending completely. The whole process takes about an hour, and I was left blissful and relieved of my suffering, and no cravings for alcohol since.  

I’m soon to be offering these sessions one on one and am looking to run group sessions which will be an evening of guided process and sharing in circle. You create an intention for whatever you like, be it personal growth or healing for humanity. 

What I love most about this modality is that every time you offer healing to yourself, you offer healing to all. Gathering with others to generate a sacred container and channel healing light for ourselves that we can then send out to wherever it’s needed is powerful and important. And right now particularly, the world needs healing light. And that is what this is, light work with unconditional love. 

Also I’m going to be running a Goddess template at the Sistahood Rising festival in November  this year, so very much looking forward to that! 

I look forward to sharing more of this with you soon.  

Alana Fairchild can be found at www.alanafairchild.com

The artwork in the background of this image is by Shiloh Sophia Mcloud

Safe herbal immune support for Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

With a global pandemic and winter upon us (here in Perth), this is an anxious time for everyone but especially for those of us due to give birth in the coming months.  I love herbal medicine for protection from illness and immune support however not all herbs are proven safe in pregnancy - so what to do to nurture your health and immune defences while pregnant?

Pregnancy takes more nutrients out of you than any other time in your life - except breastfeeding, which takes more. In classical chinese medicine it is said that pregnancy depletes jing- life force - due to this very nutritionally taxing time. 

If you’re low on certain nutrients your natural immune defences may be reduced leaving you more susceptible to succumbing to illness or suffering a longer duration of infection. 

Eating lots of wholesome, clean and fresh foods is the best response. Think the rainbow of vegetables and fruits, whole milk, whole grains, avoid flour based foods, deep fried foods, overly refined foods (chips, milk chocolate, lollies) Get as much nutrition as possible into your day, and leave out foods that are inflammatory and drain your energy to digest them. this means no overeating, not too much sugar, you know right from wrong. 

Our culinary herbs containing rosmarinic acid are have wonderful immune boosting properties, these include rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, sage and oregano. These are all delicious in soups and stews so add plenty to your meals. Lemon balm is lovely as a tea, is easy to grow, and also calms your nerves and helps you off to sleep. Enhance your connection to the herbs by thanking the plants for helping protect you against illness as you sprinkle them into your dinner.  

IF you are nutrient deplete, supplements are a good way to build up your reserves again. Iron is commonly depleted during pregnancy so get your levels checked and ensure you’ve got good reserves. Zinc, B vitamins and other micro-minerals are important and a good pregnancy multi-vitamin will ensure you get adequate levels of these in combination with a nutritious diet. 

Plant Medicines can help you

Not all herbs are deemed safe in pregnancy however there are plenty of herbs that can be used to help you get over an infection, prevent a virus from doing serious damage, or to boost immunity beforehand.  Echinacea builds up the immune system and staves off colds and flus,  and has been proved quite safe for pregnancy and breastfeeding. Elder flower is  beautiful and nurturing, as well as delicious. Astragalus and Baical skullcap are especially supportive against Coronaviruses and are both quite safe in pregnancy. I recommend chatting with a qualified herbalist for specific doses. 

And Sleep. 

Personally for me, pregnancy was the only time in my life when I would crash as soon as my head hit the pillow and slumber all night long - until the very last weeks when my belly got in the way. Melatonin is produced at night time and especially while we sleep. Melatonin is also one of the best defences we have against the Coronavirus sweeping the globe right now. This powerful antioxidant repairs and prevents damage caused by the virus and researchers are investigating the possibility of using supplemental melatonin in treating Covid-19 patients in hospital. You can boost your natural reserves by getting up just after sunrise, spending a good amount of time outside during the day (and boosting your vitamin D levels - another important immune defence nutrient) and making sure you turn off screens an hour before bed and have some wind down time. 

Also every hour of sleep you get before midnight is worth twice as much as the sleep you get after midnight. I find for me, lights out at 10pm is optimal, and I’m a night owl, so lights out earlier as you wish. 

Why we need healing with the divine feminine, and what that actually means

Over the last few years there’s been a LOT of media coming out about the divine feminine, or the sacred feminine, but what does that really mean?

I know personally, back in 2012, the words feminine divine started to pop into my head when I was meditating, so as the years went by and I noticed other people were talking about this, I took a lot of interest. Here’s what I make of it.

We relate feminine principles to attributes such as nurturing, receptivity, nourishing, intuition an even organising.

The divine feminine isn’t about biological sex, neither is it something only of benefit to woman. We all have a balance of feminine and masculine within us. The divine feminine has been squashed under the patriarchal reign of the last whatever-thousand years.

The feminine supplies the nutrients needed in order to grow. Like the placenta and the womb, and breastmilk, or like the rich fertile soils that grow plant life of earth. There’s been a cultural decision to bind the feminine and not allow her to flourish. We’ve been this way for so long that women are commonly bigger patriarchs than men. It’s ingrained. And this is not about being anti-men. No body benefits under a patriarchy.

Our patriarchy is evident in the way we plumage the earth for her resources, taking, taking, taking but not allowing the resources to replenish. It’s evident in the way we (as occupants of earth) have been fighting and trying to achieve domination over each other for ever. The way we put profit before people, animals and the environment. The objectifying of the female body not out of a place of respect but of a wish to occupy and control. The way it’s common across many cultures for children to be sexually abused, married young and sold to the sex trade. All of this action is done without consideration fo the wellbeing and nurturing of the individual. There is a saying in Japan, There’s no such thing as a wise woman. This belief is reflected through many cultures on our planet. The feminine for so long has not been able to speak. But the feminine, if allowed, would not allow our bodies and our earth to be raped.

Of course the symptoms and consequences of patriarchy above apply to a much smaller scale in our own lives, the way we choose to live in our loss of power and control over ourselves, the way we work ourselves to the bone, stressed, frazzled, how we get lost in distraction. We’ve forgotten how to go inwards and trust our intuition, and we ignore what we know is right.

The divine feminine isn’t a doormat. We have been traumatised, in our personal childhood, and as a culture collectively. The divine feminine teaches us about feeling and processing that trauma so you can move onto other things and lift other people up. The divine feminine in her wisdom stands tall in her conviction. When something is not right she puts it right. I spent the weekend in workshop with Alana Fairchild in discussion about Goddess energy, the stories and lessons that the goddess energy tells. Goddess Tara tells us we have a divine given right to say no thank you to what is not right and what does not serve. Goddess Isis sees us through the healing process. Feeling all the feels, processing the pain. There is a purity in the darkness and through it we can rise again, this is the teaching of Isis. And Kali, with her sacred fury. She is all about the power of truth and wisdom over the falsehood of the ego. I find through reflection and embodiment of these goddesses, their stories and principles, I bring the divine feminine through myself.

The strong, protective, divine masculine merges with the divine feminine in a beautiful union. If the divine masculine in us devoted it’s logic, strength and protective qualities to protecting and allowing the feminine and to protecting the earth and our communities - then we would see true healing and true evolution take place.

This blog was strongly inspired by our discussion during the workshop with Alana Fairchild over her weekend, and her book The Kuan Yin Transmission, pictured above, is an extension of the workshop content. I haven’t read it yet but looking forward to snuggling in with my signed copy.

5 things to try when your kids are driving you crazy

Roll out your yoga mat and stream a yoga class. 

After weeks of a particularly bad, clingy, tantrummy, destructive terrible twos phase (here’s hoping it’s a phase) I was starting to be worn down and cracks were beginning to show. In a particularly frustrating moment I found myself yelling at my kids and saying things like ‘don’t come near me’ feeing exasperated at the 78 things to be exasperated about. Anyway ‘don’t come near me’ …this is heartbreaking for little people to hear. 

I knew I’d gone way too far and after big cuddles and apologies I sat down to an online yoga class where the teacher asked us to sit in the self-awareness mudra (legs crossed, index fingers to thumb resting on top of your knees) and set an intention. Today’s intention was about giving ourselves a compliment. It was unnatural to give myself a compliment in that moment feeling terrible as I did about my angry mummy self, but also exactly what I needed. I set my intention. “I am a calm, loving and wonderful mother” 

Immediately after a few moments of peace with the intention, my two-year-old interrupted me for something or other, but I already felt so much better. Sometimes he wants to be cuddled for the entire yoga class, and I just do poses around him as best I can. 

I use gaia.com for yoga and I particularly love the ‘yoga every day’ series on Gaia but there are other paid yoga streaming services and free classes on you tube. Find one you like

Get out of the house to the park. 

I prefer parks where the children are fenced in so they can’t run away and force you to chase them. If your kids are past the running-away-to-potential-death phase, then the world is your oyster. Children absolutely thrive in nature. Fresh air, breezy trees and safe places to jump around and socialise. There are other parents for you to chat too. What’s not to like. 

Garden.

Hands on planting, weeding and especially watering with tiny little watering cans, connects you to the earth and brings peace and calm. Plus kids are so cute when completely absorbed in their little gardening tasks that you completely forgive them for being massive pains in the ass. 

Surrender.

Sometimes just lying back on the couch and reading them stories for an hour, running around and playing games and following their lead is the best thing you could possibly do. Forget the housework, and what YOU wanted to get done that day, just be. Janet Lansbury, my go-to toddler parenting guru, says that children are the best directors of their own play. The games and activities they come up with are exactly what they need for their growth and development at that time. So listening to their ideas and following that lead is the best way to go. Requests for screen time apparently don’t count as development though, so when this happen, redirect, wait it out and distract with toys and other games… or just put paw patrol on and have a goddam break for 45 minutes. 

Get Childcare

Give them to their other parent/relative/friend/ babysitter for a couple of hours and take yourself on a date with yourself, for yourself. Long soaks in the tub, art gallery, the movies, or one of my personal faves, staying in bed with books, magazines, netflix and cups of tea all day long. You freaking deserve it. 

Nurturing your feminine spirit in a misogynistic world

Once, sitting on an outside table having a drink and a laugh and chat amongst travelling strangers, I witnessed an assault that was born of nothing other than pure misogyny.

I was 18, and was earning my living and a bed, by doing a bit of cooking and cleaning at a ‘backpackers’ I use the term loosely.

Graham, the owner, was hiring out rooms, mainly to young backpackers in Byron Bay.

On this night however there was myself, my friend Tasman, a 28 year old Australian male, Graham, 52, grey hair and sharky eyes, another person my memory no longer places, and a new arrival, a 27 year old petite, pixie cropped, red head from Sydney. I can’t remember her name, but she was a writer, and she had booked a room for a couple of weeks to concentrate on her writing. She was filled with hope and optimism and self assurance. She spoke with conviction. I was impressed by her. To my 18 year old self she seemed mature and worldly.

We were all chatting, smoking cigarettes, laughing. Getting to know one another.

And then out of the blue, while this pixie-haired vivacious woman expressed her opinion, shark-eyed Graham picked her up by the hair, and threw her like a rag doll against the balcony railing, disgust and fury on his face. She bounced from the railing to the floor, knees buckling.

I screamed at Graham to stop, so did she. It’s a bit of a blur, 16 years ago now, but I ran to a couple of doors to a much friendlier backpackers to use the phone to call the police. Tasman took the victim to his room downstairs and sat with her until she figured out where she was going to go next.

I was shocked. There was nothing in the conversation to provoke an attack like that, particularly from a complete stranger. They weren’t in argument.

I don’t know why Graham attacked that woman. But I can make a few guesses. I believe that shark-eyed Graham felt he was being outdone by this intelligent, beautiful and driven young women,and he was threatened by her.

He didn’t believe she was entitled to her opinions. She was talking, sharing her story and he wanted to silence her. So he used force.

I moved out of shark-eyed Grahams backpackers the next day. He spoke to me in the living area. After a string of derogatory slurs aimed at the assault victim, he threatened me indirectly “I don’t know who rang the cops but if I find out anyones been speaking to them I’m going to …………………” I can’t remember his exact words. He knew it was me of course, this was his way of silencing me. It worked, I didn’t make a statement when the police dropped by and invited me to the station.

This is an extreme example, but all women have been silenced or ignored in our culture in one way or another. We’re spoken over socially, and corporately. We’re judged negatively for speaking with firmness or certitude. We’re seen as less worthy both physically and financially. And it’s complete bullshit.

This is why womens circles are important. This is where we can speak, be heard, not be judged or disregarded. Not be forcefully silenced. And when we sit together, we help heal these long held wounds. And we can overcome them, and in turn help our community overcome them. And little by little, we will heal the world.

The divine feminine is rising. And she is just as worthy as the masculine.

Womens circle is starting this Saturday at The Meeting Place, South Fremantle. Bookings are essential. Send me a message or email. xxx I'm be honoured to sit in circle with you.