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Seeds Of Thought

Embracing Our Vulnerability

28/12/2020

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Living In An Open-Hearted Way Can Bring Both Sunshine And Showers
As I walk along my chosen path to help people establish the essence of who they are and overcome the effects of bullying to find their true identity, it is necessary for me to continue to place one foot in front of the other on my own odyssey too. 

We are being encouraged all the while in the 21st century to be open-hearted, authentic, honest and true to our nature in our individual quests. It is a courageous route for us all to take because in doing so we are being prompted constantly to embrace and show our vulnerability.

In our own hero's journey, where we triumph over adversity, we expose ourselves in order to build rapport and trust with any person that we wish to work with who recognises their own story of suffering in our sharing too, this is our triumph.

However, the exact same action that we carry out in speaking our truth in order to attract new friends towards us can also invite old foes that might wish to seek out and exploit our defencelessness for their own gain. They might be notable abusers, bullies and other critical influences that we have experienced in our past who continue to try and keep us small or indeed quiet for their own benefit or justification. In sharing our story with the world we have to be ready for this type of scenario too, for if we aren't fully prepared for it, we will continue to absorb, collapse and descend back into the realm of adversity, very quickly. 

Both forces are at work in the universe constantly to help us develop and evolve towards where we need to be as human beings. When we start to bring awareness to all aspects of the situation that we encounter we can start to see the overall divine plan for our lives and the state we need to be in, between triumph and adversity, if we are to keep an even keel within our lives, one of serenity and peace. 

Recently I have chosen to share more of my 'overcoming the effects of bullying to find my true identity' story in order to hopefully connect with other people that might be continuing to experience this situation in their own lives too. I wasn't however prepared for the storm that was about to present itself when my truth started to permeate in the direction of my own immediate family.

Over the past month it has felt like I have been very much walking between the eye of the storm and the tempest that has then come to surround me.

Many people have indeed expressed their admiration in my direction for my very brave account of what it was like for me to grow up within my own home, at school, college and then in the workplace, all within a bullying type environment, when I chose to express myself both through poetry and film as part of Anti-Bullying Week back in November. This is when I felt I was in the eye of the storm and completely in the flow of life, stepping forward on my path. 

Conversely however, completely unknown to myself at the time, my comments were also being received in a very negative, fearful way by some of the people that have been closest to me in my 50 year existence upon the planet. In fact they found my statements to be most shocking and hurtful as their version of events, their own truth, was being perceived quite differently to that of my own. 

Here, the thunder, lightning, downpours of rain and howling gales have been difficult to experience once again. It has been necessary for me to batten down the hatches for a while, an old age survival strategy of mine. However, with all the personal development I have done on myself over the years, together with the support systems I now have in place, both with regards to individuals and communities in my network, I have been able to continue to stride onward towards my goal.

In the past I would have felt totally uprooted by this experience when the hurricane has come to hit, this time around however I have been able to weather the storm and come out the other side perfectly OK, grounded, centred with my roots, trunk and branches all still fully intact, I can still stand tall within the forest. 

This primarily is because I have been far more aware of what has been going on around me when the winds have started to pick up this time around. I have been able to take my share of responsibility within the events that have occurred, I can perhaps see now where other people are coming from and what their angst is all about connected to me and my living situation. I have been able to accept this scenario for what it is and not tried to change the process that has been instigated, instead I have let the necessary healing start to take place. I have released my attachment to any outcome and let go of any expectation as to what the final result of all this will be, I have just acknowledged that it is all taking us somewhere to where we all need go. Things are a lot better I believe as a consequence because of this change in mindset. 

​At this moment in time I am inspired by the words of Oscar Hammerstein II and his song that he wrote in 1945, 'You'll Never Walk Alone', which also happens to be the anthem to my favourite football club, Liverpool FC. I am choosing to recount all the words here as I believe they bring hope at this time to us all.

You'll Never Walk Alone.

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark

At the end of a storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone

Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone  

Indeed if your story in any way matches my own, you will always have me here in support of yourself in your corner, if you choose to connect with me in this manner. You don't have to walk alone through the storm you are encountering we can do so very much together. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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When Being Privileged Is Not A Privilege

9/12/2020

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My Second Parental Home
One of the paradoxes of my bullying story is that I actually feel somewhat blessed to have been able to live my life in fairly comfortable accommodation throughout. In these places nature has always been at my beck and call and I have felt well looked after, nurtured and nourished, even over-nurtured at times too perhaps.

For sure, I consider myself to have led a privileged life, one where I have perhaps been spared the ravages of reality and an ordinary existence thus far by sheltering within my parental home for a period of time that has far exceeded the norm. 

This however has led to its own pitfalls and problems, living within my own comfort zone and also finding envy at every turn from peers, contemporaries and dare I say relatives too. I have come to realise that being privileged or being in a privileged position is not necessarily a privilege.   

The shaman exists on the edge of society, where he or she is able to view community from the periphery, upon the margins. I have always lived on the edge of town. I have felt most at home with clear access to fields, grassland, moorland, woods and shoreline. It is here that one can properly commune with nature and start to see where the social models we live under are failing, or going wrong altogether, and hence the apparent reason for me to want to remain separate from all of that. I just haven't found a valid alternative as yet that is right for me to move on to.

My living accommodation, rather sadly, has for a long time been viewed by my friends and foes as a place where a great deal of projection can be placed upon it. Projection, as I have come to realise later in life, is just another form of bullying. When it is perceived that things are such a way when in reality they are far from it. 

This is not to disguise actual bullying because this was apparent too throughout all of my upbringing and was first witnessed, outside the family unit, when a betrayal by a so called friend led to more than two years of tyranny from brothers in arms. 

The boy that I had befriended in the early part of secondary school used to come and play with me in my own house, the first parental home that I grew up in. That was before one day I saw his bike not parked outside of my gate but propped up against the wall of a notorious lad across the street. Someone who had perhaps always looked longingly in my direction, festering a degree of envy towards the perceived lifestyle I seemingly led, with two doting, loving parents. 

It is a potent mix when a traitorous friend combines forces with an envious foe, living in such close proximity to my own existence. 

It was the early 80's and one of the most popular programmes on TV at the time for any would be teenager was the Blackadder series. In it, within one of the sketches, Edmund Blackadder asks Baldrick his servent 'Where is the Nutcracker?', of which Baldrick replies saying, 'Oh, it's his day off!'

A fairly innocuous statement one would imagine, one that is pretty funny for most, indeed myself too no doubt when I first heard it and yet it was subsequently used as weapon of destruction towards me to cause me ridicule as to what my family life was like down the road, just because I lived in a slightly bigger, privately owned, detached house compared to my playground buddies. 

My father in his own life journey had done very well for himself, working his way up through the ranks of his business, earning 50p a week when he first started with the company right up to being senior partner some 40 years later, working for the same firm all of his salaried life. He was then able to leave the business on his own terms and move into a fairly abundant retirement without any real financial worries. 

On his upward curve through life, taking his family with him, I was able to live in better houses than the majority of my immediate friends. The second house I lived in, just to put you in the picture, was a six bedroom house stood in at least one acre of grounds that included a tennis court within the garden. 

I like to feel, that naturally, I am a person of a generous nature and wish to share my bounty with others. I have a fairly open, honest and authentic streak within me that endeavours to welcome people into my life. I have found also however that in my openness I can leave myself quite vulnerable and exposed to those that are perhaps not fully appreciative of me and my circumstances. 

I have thrown many a party when I have been allowed the space, inviting a number of guests inside my own four walls, some great evenings have been had, cooking fantastic meals, offering wine, women and song. I jest, it wasn't quite like that. 

However in inviting people into my parents residence, then in the same way that I was ridiculed for seemingly having a 'Nutcracker' at my service, I was then deemed to live on 'The Blackler Estate' where we had wildebeest and other game from the African Plains running about here, there and everywhere within the Serengeti. 

Was this innocent jesting one asks? Or was there more poisoned arrows, cloaked within those statements of envy and jealousy? Certainly as they followed the then distant 'Nutcracker' jibes I found them quite hurtful until later in life I was able to bring a whole lot of healing to the issue at hand and realised that my buttons weren't so easily pressed any more.  

In the shadow work that I engaged with through David Richo and his book 'Shadow Dance' I gained enlightenment in the fact that envy and jealousy just mask the qualities of admiration and protectiveness. Those are the qualities that are readily at hand for us to absorb back into ourselves when we take the negative aspect of the shadow and transform it into the positive alternative instead.

The irony now is that I find myself at times envious of others, and have to remind myself or bring myself back to a mode of first attention to realise that this is just admiration and I am capable of living and leading my own life in just the same way that this person is should I deem that to be the path that I wish to take also. 

So, in short that person is acting as a guide to my higher self and what is possible for me in my own life once I start to put my mind in that direction and take self responsibility for the benefit of all. It is only then that I can start to bring parity to my life and lead a happier existence, free of the cages I otherwise find myself in, it will be the same for you too. 

I cover issues like this in my Transformational Talk sessions as part of the Shamanic Practices that I offer. If you are interested in investigating issues like this yourself I can help you once you click on the links below and we answer The Call To Adventure together as part of my Introduction Services. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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Our Allies Of Nature

10/11/2020

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A Lockdown Gift - Our Ability To Reconnect With Nature
One of the more positive things to have come out of the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown of 2020 has been our ability to reconnect with nature. 

Faced with vast periods of time spent alone at home, stuck between four walls, with only a tablet or phone screen for company, we have yearned for the great outdoors and taken every opportunity to go out and fill our lungs with fresh air and deepen our connection with the world around us. 

If we have been unable to venture into the wilderness like before then we have become more aware of what has been happening on our own doorstep. We have begun to value intimate time spent with bird, bee, flower and tree in the gardens, fields and hedgerows close to where we live. 

We have learnt that experiencing a restrictive, controlled, bullied existence is not a healthy one for us, short or long term, as many an oppressed individual would testify. It can lead to poor mental health, stress, anxiety and depression. Here we live our lives as fragmented souls cut off from our true selves and wider community, no amount of consuming can ever fill the void left behind. 

Whether we wish to live a life closer to our own nature or that of the planet itself, the plants and animals are just waiting for an opportunity to become more acquainted with us, to act as our allies. 

Flower essence and shamanic practitioners are trained to tune into what these allies want to communicate to us at a more profound level. They do this through capturing the spirit of the plant through a bowl of holy spring water and then sampling it or just understanding what an animal’s unique power and essence is from the characteristics and behaviours that it wishes to display to us all. 

This knowledge can then filter into a more expansive body of shamanic practices and healing techniques designed to restore any qualities we are lacking, bringing us back to a state of wholeness and balance, helping us to vibrate at a higher level of energy frequency to that which we do now, moving ourselves from a place of fear to one of love. 

If you would like to reconnect to nature yourself and want to tap into what the flora and fauna is wanting to communicate to you why not join me on a Medicine Walk or engage in a Flower Essence Consultation to discover 'The Essence Of Who You Are', these are the best routes into discovering the Great Mystery of how we are all interrelated and connected. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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Why Resilience? Why October?

26/10/2020

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The Hedge Bindweed Brings The Quality Of Resilience, But Why October?
The Hedge Bindweed is the flower that wanted to present itself to me as the next natural Flower Essence Of The Month for the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences last October. With a quality of resilience and a message that 'Persistence Pays' we may have to ask ourselves why in particular this time of year? 

The question is a valid one because initially when this flower essence was gathered it soon became obvious that the prime objective for collecting it was its relationship to being able to help alleviate some symptoms of bullying. Indeed, of all the flowers in the range that have come to assist in helping people overcome the effects of bullying to discover their true identity this flower is the flag bearer of that campaign. 

This is because even though the flower itself can be seen as a bully in the way that it clambers over, suffocates and strangles other plants in the garden, the more it gets cut back the more it comes back stronger. It gives us the power of creating a strong root or centre to our being and indeed embrace the quality of resilience because each time it gets knocked down it gets back up again. 

Resilience by definition according to Google is 1) the capacity to recover from difficulties, i.e. toughness and 2) the ability of a substance to spring back into shape, i.e. elasticity. So in order to be resilient you need to have both of these qualities combined that of toughness and elasticity. 

In October, going by the Celtic calendars, we are about to enter winter, (officially winter starts on November 1st). At this time the majority of the deciduous trees in the Northern Hemisphere are either shedding their leaves or preparing to let them go. The week of Halloween and Bonfire Night sticks fervently in my memory as being the time when the majority of leaves fall from the trees within the year. 

Nature at this time is preparing to let go of anything that no longer serves it, the trees are readying themselves to go back to their plain wood, their root, trunk, branch and twig and nothing else. This is so they can become more resilient to the frosty mornings and sub zero temperatures of the winter months. They don't carry any baggage with them at this time they tough it out with the bare essentials, so that they can spring back again in March to be in full leaf.

So this is why the Hedge Bindweed appears as the Flower Essence Of The Month for October and offers us the quality of resilience, by being persistent we too will navigate the colder months and begin to bloom again in the spring.  

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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Hedge Bindweed Flower Essence
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The Lunar And Solar Blends

16/9/2020

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The Synchronistic Messages Behind The Moon And Sun Cycles
Little did I know when I first started collecting flower essences of the journey I was about to be taken on in order to understand everything that was needed to be learnt of each individual essence. This included each one's unique quality and message that it wanted to convey to me in order to be shared with the rest of the planet for everyone's benefit. 

Firstly I was introduced to how the flowers appeared within the year, month by month, then where they were located within the landscape, next how they related to one another and finally how they connected with synchronistic events that were happening at the time, had occurred in the past or, as it turned out, would be experienced in the future.

This was all designed to make me pay more attention to the essences and the level of healing ability they were capable of both for the individual and that of the collective. All the time however I was being subtly shown how they related to the lunar and solar cycles too, which opened me up to a whole new level of learning.   

My first essence I ever created was the Blackthorn which was gathered on a New Moon at the start of the financial year in 2019. Three weeks later I was being prompted to collect the Bluebell on a Waning Half Moon. It was soon being made obvious to me that there was a pattern of collection for me to follow working with the moon phases, not necessarily in the normal chronological order. I would then be tasked with the sun phases too.

This sequence I believe was to help disguise, at first, the depth of meaning held within the particular lunar cycle I was working with and how they were all ultimately connected. This revelation only started to dawn on me towards the end of collecting all of the initial seventeen essence range. Some quite interesting commonalities started to come to light within each individual, New Moon, Waxing Half Moon, Full Moon and Waning Half Moon essence as I began to bring them all together, let alone within the Solstice and Equinox essences also. 

For instance when analysing all the New Moon essences I began to discover that if the Blackthorn's message was 'Knowing The Way', the Ox-Eye Daisy's was 'Bright Eyes' and the Dandelion's 'Keep The Faith', then together they would be assisting us in 'Knowing Our Purpose'. This is because their individual qualities of direction, vision and trust, when combined, point us towards a new quality of assurance. 

Similarly if we look at the Waxing Half Moon essences of Foxglove, Hedge Bindweed and Wild Daffodil we begin to discover that these are all essences that bring us more 'Aware Of Boundaries', whether this is guarding our threshold, reaching out beyond it or preventing people encroaching within it. We become more vigilant when the qualities of protection, resilience and discernment are unified.  

With the Full Moon we combine the essences of Red Campion, Montbretia, Snowdrop and indeed Red Valarian, as the thirteenth flower essence. Their respective qualities of connection, courage, determination and truth give us a new resolve for our life. Here we can 'Search For The Hero' within ourselves, find out 'Where There's A Will' there's a way and thus finally how 'To Thyself Be True'. By all doing this we begin to establish that 'We Are The Campions' and find out that we have discovered 'The Drive Of Our Life'. 

For the Waning Half Moon it is more about 'Loving Yourself'. When we combine Bluebell's beauty, Nodding Thistle's confidence and Yarrow's acceptance we begin to truly bring the quality of peace to our being where we are able to gain an 'Inner-Sense' of who we are, acknowledge 'It Is What It Is' at the end of the day and thus begin to 'Be The Best Of The Best' as far as we are concerned. 

As for the Solstices and Equinoxes then the flowers of the Wild Rose, Meadowsweet, Daisy and Primrose begin to bring us 'Fully Present' bringing our attention to every second of every day. They teach us to both seize and enjoy the moment whilst being responsible for it and treating it as if it was our first ever upon this Earth. That way we are able to be happy living our lives in a constant state of renewal, where new beginnings can be initiated forever more. 

If you wish to experience the Lunar and Solar Essence blends for yourself then why not check out the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences today and begin to live a happier life yourself too.

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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About Flower Essences
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The Power Of The Mind

16/9/2020

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Our Personality Types Can Take Over Our Mind
For a couple of weeks up to the end of August and the start of September my mind was not my own, it had been taken over by what I call the Giant Caterpillar.

The Giant Caterpillar is made up of eight different personality types, what I have learnt in my shamanic training to be known as the 'Robes Of Distortion'. They come to distort the mind from what really lies at the very heart of us all, our true nature.

These personality types have been employed over the years to safeguard ourselves from the conditions that we regularly encounter in our lives as we grow up, to make us appear small, to get us to disappear or to fit in, none of these behaviours however serve us very well in the long term in fulfilling our true potential.

I know these different personality types to be the judge, the superior mind, the indulgent mind, the drama queen, the brain mind, the victim, the ramrod and the workhorse.

Respectively, they seek to criticise us, make us believe we are above all of the circumstances that we encounter, distract us into doing things as addictive pleasures (indulgences), make everything we do into a drama, be constantly over analysing things, bring us sadness as we adopt a poor me attitude, become impatient and frustrated with the way things are turning out and also make us appear to be busy, whilst engaging with all the wrong things in order to do so.

These personality types work to distract us, to side track us away form our purpose, sometimes they work alone and other times they all gang up to join the same shenanigans. Recently I have encountered both the judge and the indulgent mind in my own life. The judge is one of the most powerful of the personality types sometimes called the inner critic.

I have been guilty most recently of going on to social media sites both Facebook and LinkedIn and doing what I call 'compare and despair', comparing my progress through life and my business to that of others and basically doing myself down as a result in my progression. This is the judge at work being critical of my endeavours, this can lead to both depression and sadness.

With the indulgent mind too, we are led into temptation, often as a result of the above. We are distracted away from our purpose by sometimes some very attractive propositions but that which take us away from what perhaps we need to be concentrating or focusing on.

Our job when we experience these personality types is to start to question what is happening and indeed sit down with that personality type and get to know it better, what it is called, when it appeared in our life, what function it is here to perform, what is its belief, when does it get triggered, and what would make it feel more whole etc. That way we can start to ascertain what it is about and how we can perhaps redeploy it if we wish to, to perform another task for us and make it work for us as a friend or ally rather than a foe.

That is basically what I did two weeks ago I sat down with both the judge and the indulgent mind and got to to know them better, there reason for appearing and their purpose and since that time I have started to rediscover what has been going on at the very core of me and, through meditation, discover where it has wanted to take me. I can't describe it really but I feel a lot more peace about me now and have a realisation about just what has been going on with me internally and now have a real idea as to what is going to work for me going forward, where I can get both the judge and the superior mind to start to perform new tasks for me.
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When we truly get in touch with our 'Diamond Of Consciousness', what is going on at our very centre, our inner butterfly, where we are able to replace all the fear generated by the robes and the Giant Caterpillar and are able to transform it into pure love, our individual essence begins to shine through.

If you wish to start to investigate your own Giant Caterpillar and Robes Of Distortion why not contact me and we can set up a shamanic introduction into my work, by taking 'The Butterfly Journey' and discovering for yourself where you are on that route towards metamorphosis and a far brighter future, from caterpillar to wandering, to chrysalis, emergence and imago. I look forward to hearing from you.

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below. 
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Shamanic Practices
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Negative Indications

25/8/2020

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Each Flower Essence Will Both Have A Negative & A Positive Indication To It.
When Dr Edward Bach created his now famous range of Bach Flower Essences he dealt mainly with negative indications, poor emotional states of mind that he would encounter before finding the particular quality he was looking for from the plants he was dealing with, in order to restore himself to a state of parity from that malaise. It is no different for the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences too. 

Here, my own essences are designed to help you overcome bullying to discover your true identity. Thus, it goes without saying that each individual essence, from the 17 in total, will highlight a negative indication that you will have felt within a bullying type scenario. It will also make you aware of the positive indication that you require in order to counteract this and help you come back into a state of balance. 

Bullying can be a very debilitating circumstance to deal with in your life and also to be able to evolve from without help. If we are bullied, we can feel lost, unloved, unsure of our purpose, be vulnerable and feel very apathetic towards life. 

These are just a handful of negative indications that we can be suffering from that I have selected from the first five essences in the Allies Of Nature range, the Blackthorn, Bluebell, Red Campion, Foxglove and Wild Rose to illustrate the point.  The same could be said of the other essences in the range too had I gone through the other 12 bottles and their negative indications also.   

The negative indication is the thing that we most recognise that we need help with, it maybe for instance that we are not happy with the way that our life is progressing at this moment in time, we maybe coming up against all sorts of rules, regulations and restrictions, all elements that we might be encountering under a Covid - 19 bullying set of circumstances from our government.

The ideal flower essence to counteract that negative indication from my range would be Yarrow, for it deals with all of those feelings of frustration with the positive quality of acceptance. Once we learn to accept this scenario we soon find we can carry on with our life as per normal as 'it is what it is' at the end of the day.  

Similarly we might be feeling a degree of despair within our life, having a feeling of loss or separation, being distant from others. Both Coronavirus and bullying can do this to us, to make us go inward. This is the negative indication associated with the flower essence Montbretia. This flower encourages us to 'Search For The Hero' inside of ourselves and to rediscover our courage, connecting us with our own inner fire and lighting a beacon within not only for ourselves to follow but others too possibly. 

I maintain if one is prepared to follow the whole calendar wheel of flower essences with myself and the Allies Of Nature range you will gradually bring yourself back into a state of wholeness by adding each individual quality that you maybe lacking, or need work on, from month to month. That's if you truly wish to be able to become the best person you can possibly be. 

So my advice to you, if you have ever suffered from any bullying before is to look at my range of flower essences in my online shop to see how best the flowers can help you with the negative indication that you might be feeling at this moment in time and let the essences start to work their magic on you. Then, together with my other shamanic practices we can take you on a journey to help you be the person you were always destined to be in your life. The true adult butterfly. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
Allies Of Nature Range
Shamanic Practices
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The Future Of Capitalist Society

18/8/2020

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Have You Got The Sense That All Is Not Well?
The reason why you are here (reading this blog) is because you know you are different. You know something that others don’t, or they're too scared to admit to. 

The ship that we have decided to board to take us to our desired destination in life is not going to get us there, it's ill fated, not all of us will make it. You may well have questioned this boat’s viability as soon as you stepped on to the gang-plank or it may have only dawned on you the further that we have sailed away from port. 

Not that you may have had any choice in the matter, your parents may well have bullied you into making this voyage by buying you your ticket well in advance, or society may well have reserved you your berth as soon as you emerged onto the planet. You yourself may well have believed initially this was the only way to travel in the 21st century and willingly put the money down for your fare out of your own hard earned coffers, that’s if your peers didn’t actively persuade you to take the passage with them, thinking there was no real alternative. 

This however is a huge wrought iron ship with four funnels. It has engines that burn away day and night, hungrily eating up all the fossil fuels onboard. It scythes through the ocean like there is no tomorrow notching up the highest of speeds on this its maiden voyage with no thought to the wildlife that it leaves behind in its wake that choke on its fumes and feed on the litter being dropped over the railings from high above. 

This is the capitalist good ship RMS Titanic, it is deemed unsinkable and is due in New York in record time in a matter of days, it is just a case of  continuing to stoke the boilers and we will be there in good time, no problem. 

Call it being psychic or what I don’t know, but you've just got this feeling that not all is going to go to plan on this voyage. 

Maybe you are concerned about the speed in which we are travelling, how much smoke continues to pour from the chimney stacks creating the smog above the vessel? Maybe you wonder whether the lookout in the Crows Nest can see the waves breaking on the bergs ahead moving as fast as we are? There is less of them now due to climate change but there is still enough of a risk. You wonder what safety measures are in place, how many lifeboats there are on deck for the millions of people onboard and if there is any back up plan or other ships sailing in the vicinity to the route we are heading on? 

You feel an urgent wish to wail at the officers in charge upon the bridge just to slow down, pay attention, take it easy, conserve energy and look to the horizon, steady as she goes. You lie awake at night listening to the sound of the propellor churning away at the back of the boat, concerned that it will be still rotating come morning as we hurtle away into the dead of the night. 

Not that others haven’t raised concerns before, they have, they have just been reassured by the captain that all is OK, all is well and everything is on schedule. Those people have left their question in the question pile and gone back to partying at the captain’s table, fine dining in the restaurant, gathering around the piano, listening to the orchestra out on the deck, locking away their insecurities deep into their psyche, forgetting about what their instincts have been telling them all along. 

I am onboard too and I share your sentiments exactly, I’ve not felt at home on this vessel from the start, I’ve searched high and low for a way off this ship but it is just too darn big and the drop to the sea level too much of a jump on one’s own. If there was anything ever to happen to this boat, some major collaboration would have to take place in order to get as many survivors off this vessel as is possible. 

These are the thoughts that pass through our minds, as our eyelids begin to close and we go off to sleep once again. 

And then it happens, the juddering in the darkness we have all feared, of bolts and girders buckling and water spraying everywhere. We’ve hit something be it peak oil, a rise of 2 degrees centigrade in global temperature, the 8 billionth person to be born upon the planet, the loss of the Northern White Rhino or the outbreak of Covid - 19. There is panic in the midships and the captain cries out from the bridge ‘All Stop!’ 

An immediate reconnaissance is carried out aboard ship to assess the damage, temptation is to restart the engines again almost immediately and to plough on regardless, but enough of us now know the real fate of this vessel and it is time to plan our exit if we are to have any chance of a more meaningful life at all. 

Fortunately for us there are some skilled seamen and women aboard, capable of piloting a lifeboat with the intentional communities, sustainable development centres and Transition Towns that we already have in place across the planet but we realistically need an entire new vessel to be able to save this amount of people and a mayday has only just been raised to the RMS Carpathia some miles away.

Can that boat possibly reach us in time? Is there anything that we can do to save ourselves and keep ourselves afloat before then? Is there another outcome to this story? Perhaps we can change the way that we look at life before it is all too late?

​That is why it is imperative that we overcome any bullying we have encountered in our own lifetime to date, so that we can make the right choice as regards to what vessel we wish to be traveling on, finding our true identity in the process because such circumstances depict that we all need to be operating to the best of our ability now and going forwards. 

​If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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Bullying Nature

22/7/2020

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Why The Caterpillar Dominates Our World At This Time!
We as human beings, at this moment in time, seem to hold dominion over nature. With each day that passes so the imbalance between our own population and the rest of the species upon the planet becomes ever more extreme. 

Both through the continual building of our own numbers and the way that we choose to live, we impact on the rest of our ecosystem. This is proving to be detrimental not only to those other creatures that live alongside us but to ourselves now too. We can visibly see the influence we are having on the world around us with the melting ice caps and deforestation visible from space, as well as the plastic pollution that can be witnessed within our oceans first hand. We are a species out of control, out of alignment with the rest of the Earth.

When Coronavirus came along, regardless of whether it was man made or came from nature itself, during lockdown, the rest of the planet was able to gain some temporary relief from our continual onslaught. Both the waters and the airs around the globe began to become clear again and the animals of the land and the sea started to venture out of the depths of the wilderness to reclaim their natural territory. It was like as if an electric shock was being administered to Mother Earth to pump new life back into her body and to help her fight back. 

Yet in this time of societal upheaval, if human activity was being restricted and we were less evident as a species on the surface of the planet, we were still growing within our own households, out of sight of everything else, the world over. 

In 2020, as a population, up to the time of writing we have birthed another 79 million people on to the planet, where only 33 million have departed in the same time span (a mere 644,000 of them being attributed to Covid - 19). That means we have created a net population increase of 46 million since the turn of the year. All those people need to be housed, fed, clothed and watered. This is space that is needed for the human being at the expense of nature. We are bullying the rest of the planet into submission with our continued expansion and consequent consumption. 

I believe there are some simple reasons behind this phenomenon. What lies at the heart of it all is a feeling of lack and fear deep within us, of people not being whole and fulfilled, always wanting more, be that stuff or children, in order to fill a massive void within us.

This feeling of lack stems from our family upbringing, childhood, playground activity and reaffirmed society values, where we are bullied into a life determined by others whilst we remain unaware of who we truly are and our authentic place within the natural world. There is no rite of passage any more that encourages us to voyage out into nature to be able to gain the knowledge we require as to what our true identity is all about. 

Bill Plotkin states in his book 'Nature And The Human Soul' that we now live within  a 'Patho-Adolescent Society'.

My personal interpretation of this is that we live in a permanent state of adolescence without ever truly growing up. As many of our leaders exist in this state too, not ever having had any real affinity with nature themselves, we are being led down a cul-de-sac with nowhere to go except oblivion.

Bill would say that 'in current Western and Westernised societies, in addition to the scarcity of true maturity, many people of adult age suffer from a variety of adolescent psychopathologies - incapacitating social insecurity, identity confusion, extremely low self esteem, few social skills, narcissism, relentless greed, arrested moral development, recurrent physical violence, materialistic obsessions, little or no capacity for intimacy or empathy, substance addictions and emotional numbness'.

Any amount of this is brought on through bullying, criticism, control and abuse and the consequent trauma that happens to us as a result of all this.

In effect what we are talking about here is what I class as a caterpillar way of being. Where we continue to eat up the world, consuming all the while, unaware of our true potential that lies within us, the ability to transform into the butterfly we are all capable of being. 

We have a whole mode of communication that connects us to the caterpillar growth model in existence every day that encourages us to compete at the expense of others, knocking people down and bullying them into submission so they are unable to do that to us. We need to be aware however that there is another way of relating that is more collaborative, supportive, encouraging and indeed loving that will take us closer to evolving into the more aspirational flighty form of ourselves that we ultimately desire, one capable of creating everyone as winners.  

If we are to heal the world and bring it back into alignment we must first heal ourselves, then change, develop and evolve into the more complete human beings we are capable of becoming. That way we can help nature do likewise but we first have to stop and take responsibility for ourselves again. For if we do not then Mother Earth will surely strike back more strongly than ever before, if not through another pandemic then famine, drought, flood or other extreme weathers and circumstances designed to test the survival spirit of the human being to the limit. 

We have a choice now to change and make long lasting amendments to the way that we have been living to bring us back into balance with the rest of the Earth. I suggest that we take this opportunity now before it is too late and the world is too far gone. 

​If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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The Rainbow Warriors

29/6/2020

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Could Sun-bows Herald The Gathering Of The Rainbow Warriors?
When walking the fields around my home recently, in the late evening, as the sun has begun to set, under lockdown, I have come across a phenomenon in the sky, that I am not sure everyone is aware of. 

It happens when the sun reaches a certain angle to the Earth where the solar rays are refracted by ice particles contained within the cirrus or cirrocumulus, high clouds of the upper atmosphere. Here a rainbow effect starts to appear with a full halo or partial arc around the sun. 

Seeing this prism effect within the clouds prompted me to revisit a book that has lain idle upon my bookshelf since the time I first read it back in 2017, when I was in the middle of my shamanic training, it is entitled 'Legend Of The Rainbow Warriors'. 

In the book a whole chapter is devoted to the time when this phenomenon, known as the whirling rainbow or sun-bow, is seen on a more regular basis within the skies. It is said to be a herald of a new age that comes with 'the promise of peace among all nations and all people'. 

It is a time where 'the Secret and Sacred Teachings (of the First Nation people) are to be shared with all races. Enough Children of the Earth will be awakened by then to carry the responsibility of the teachings and the healing process will begin in full swing'. 

Some elders say that the sun-bow 'can be understood as a sign to the people of a necessity to live a life in respect and harmony with all the creations that make life possible: plants, animals, waters, minerals, winds and other human beings'. As this starts to happen so the spiritual ideal of the Sacred Hoop begins to be restored to wholeness. This is when people of all the colours of the rainbow, all the four directions of the Earth begin to come together to create lasting peace with all the other inhabitants of the planet. 

Astrologers name this time as the Age Of Aquarius, Buddhists recognise it as Shambhala, Christians the Great Tribulation and 'Legend Of The Rainbow Warriors', believe it or not, refers to it as the Age Of Flowers. 

Steve McFadden, author of the book, writes 'In this prophecy, these people would wear feathers and beads, and communicate with the flowers. The flowers, it is said, would guide them and support them as they walked their life paths. Once you learn to communicate with the flowers, you will be lead from flower to flower to help you eliminate prejudice and hate from your life.'

I was amazed when I reread this book, for I was sure on my first perusal that there was no mention of flowers or flower essences within the prose, and yet it would seem as if this is one of the main features of the book, pointing the way forward to a new way of being in the future. Once more it seems to give an explanation to me of my most recent journey, arguably making sense of my entire life to date.

How could I have missed such valuable information before I wonder? I obviously wasn't ready to receive it then, being in the middle of my course and not yet having been introduced to the significance of the flowers within my true vocation. Only now perhaps when my study is complete does it all start to make sense. 

I believe that the time of the Rainbow Warrior is now, for me at least, as I begin to see the sun-bows in the sky more often. Believing it to be a portent of a time where anyone that cares about nature and loves the creatures of the Earth begins to stand up within society across the globe to create lasting change. 

Maybe the onset of Coronavirus has brought this state of awarenesses to the fore as under lockdown our connection to nature has been heightened. We can but only hope that this is truly the case. 

I will continue as best I can in doing what I am most able to do to cultivate change endeavouring to win over as many hearts and minds as I can with my shamanic and flower essence practice and my poetry too of similar ilk. I'm sure all fellow like minds, other Allies Of Nature are attempting to do the same thing too. 

So let us get prepared to come together, in one large collaborative effort and start to make peace, bringing this world back into balance after Covid - 19 as the prophecies are seemingly urging us to do. It feels like the time to act is now in any case. 

If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.
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    Simon Blackler 
    (Swallowtail)
    Flower Essence &
    ​Shamanic Practitioner

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