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.

Little did Derek Chauvin know when kneeling upon George Floyd's neck what the next 9 minutes would bring for himself, George, the black population, and humanity as a whole, I would imagine.

Racism, is in effect bullying. Bullying of a group of people purely because the colour of their skin is deemed to be somewhat different to what we might experience ourselves. We see the other person as separate from us, where the human connection and commonality between us has been lost.

Maybe the person comes from a separate neighbourhood, a different country, a contrasting part of the world, experiencing a varying culture and set of life circumstances to us. Instead of seeking to understand and begin to know that individual, extending the hand of love towards them, we choose to concentrate on the separateness, the fear and feeling threatened by the other person. We end up punishing them for not being like us. 

I speak from personal experience, my life path is one of being bullied. Ironically experiencing the flip side of the coin, as a privileged white male, certainly within my own peer group, in contrast to other caucasian youths that lived within my own neighbourhood. I was seen to be different. I seemingly had more than others, a bigger house, larger amount of wealth, more loving parents and these guys were envious of my upbringing and lifestyle. 

I actually ended up having a similar experience to George. Years of bullying by my own tyrants, two individuals in particular, led to a pivotal moment, a crescendo, where one of the protagonists placed his arm around my neck, playfully demonstrating to his counterpart of what it would take to strangle somebody.

Unfortunately for him, and for me for that matter also, he pulled his arm a little too tight around my windpipe and I blacked out and fell to the ground. Just like George, I was able to offer up little resistance to what was happening at the time, almost accepting it as the norm. That was, until immediately after the event where I realised the ramifications of what had just happened. Fortunately I was able to get back up onto my own two feet again. On doing so I felt immediately empowered to go and get help to start to bring about some sort of change. 

This I think is what is happening now, the black population is getting back up on its own two feet again on behalf of George and for their own sake too. They have been suppressed for far too long and this is perhaps the moment that has come to trigger a whole race into action and bring about lasting transformation. 

We of course have been living in an unprecedented time of late, the Coronavirus lockdown has placed restrictions on society across the planet like never before. If there has been any feeling of unrest going on behind closed doors then this scenario will only have exacerbated the situation. A pressure cooker of ill feeling could well have been building up in households across nations not necessarily related to racism, just in experiencing what it is to be a human living through this time with our own unsatisfactory set of life circumstances playing out within our own mind. 

Under such a situation it only takes a tiny spark to explode a powder keg of emotion that has been pent up for decades, centuries, millennia even, and rightly so too. It may well prove to be the instance that brings a great deal of things to a head within the world that need to be healed within our own society and then moved on from. 

What the black race will have to do now, if my own circumstances are anything to go by is to seek to make themselves stronger in whatever shape or form is deemed possible, not by way of further conflict, but by way of questioning their oppressors and enquiring into how a more even society can be experienced and parity formed. 

For when I was being bullied, I didn't realise that I was the type of person that could be bullied, or would be bullied. So when one oppressor left, it was only a matter of time before another oppressor arrived because I hadn't done anything to change myself and my own way of being.

I realised I had to change my own behaviour, the way I conversed with people. I needed to find myself, get in touch with my own belief system, be sure of my own abilities, worthiness and purpose, to create a tougher core that was not to be pushed around any more so I was more able to stand my ground. This took many years of investigating and experimentation before the right path, teachings and tenets started to present themselves to me through my own personal development and eventually finding The Shamanic Path. 

If we resort to rebellion at any time and seek to become the oppressors ourselves, to retaliate through more violence, then we are no better than what we have experienced first hand ourselves. Sometimes, I grant, this is a necessary process if our oppressor won't listen to us or is not prepared to enter into a negotiation with us, but ultimately there are only losers in this scenario.  

If we are to follow Dr Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis, where we realise that the only options open to us, by way of communicating with one another, are through being a parent, adult or child, then when we become the oppressor or are the oppressed we are acting out the parent / child scenario. Here we can only bring heartache and pain to our world. Our challenge or invitation is to try and shift that emphasis into the realm of the adult. Here, a more supportive space of enquiry exists in a place of love, not one of fear. Here we can bring peace to ourselves, others, our community and our planet for the benefit of everyone in the future. 

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.

In the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences the 'Flower Essence Of The Month' for June is the Foxglove, it brings with it the quality of 'protection' and the message of being 'The Guardian Of The Threshold'.

However, the Chalice Well also has a Foxglove flower essence within its range of flower essences too, bringing with it the quality of 'alignment' and the message to 'Stand Tall And Be Counted'.

When we come into contact with both ranges how can we decide which of the two essences is most suitable for us? Why is there a difference in the qualities that they offer and messages that they wish to bring? Where can commonality be found and the meaning of the two essences bridged?

At first glance there may seem to be quite a disparity between the two Foxglove essences within their respective ranges, however on closer inspection the mutual theme starts to become more apparent.

Within the Age Of Aquarius, the age we are entering now, more collaborative ways of working is said to offer the best way forward for us all. When attending the Accredited Chalice Well Practitioner Course in 2019 I learnt through that study that this spirit is very much upheld within the Chalice Well way of making essences. 

When capturing an essence in a collaborative way, many students or practitioners are all interpreting the message that the flower wants to bring to them independently. The insights that they receive about the essence will be very different. The beauty of the essence creation is only portrayed when people are able to communicate the enlightenment that they personally have been given, only then can the common themes be picked up on. It is through the weaving of the strands of the web where the meaning behind the essence is ultimately established. 

Of course essences of the same flower can be gathered under very different circumstances, in daylight, after dark, on different moon cycles and having various contrasting events going on within the field, within the wider world, so subtle nuances may always be apparent between essences. 

However when you take these two examples of the Chalice Well essence and that of the Allies Of Nature essence too, a bridge indeed can be formed between the ranges. 

The Foxglove carries with it the colour of magenta. Magenta is a colour that is a cross between both red and violet. Red is associated with the base chakra, violet the crown. In the words of the Chalice Well 'the Foxglove essence helps to create greater alignment of body and soul with higher energies. The life force then flows from crown to base'. 

It can be noted that all the petals of a Foxglove have a very feminine receptive shape to them, whereas the overall appearance of the flower itself is very erect and masculine in demeanour. This plant seems to summon upon the energy of both the masculine and the feminine, through the kundalini, the twin snakes that spiral up the spine bringing the life force with it. 

I know from my own experience that when we start to tap into the kundalini it is like experiencing 'The Guardian Of The Threshold', because when you connect with it you begin to enter a new, more spiritual realm. 

The kundalini is a benevolent force, one could say the protector of the sacred. Therefore when the Foxglove 'Stands Tall To Be Counted', when it is stood in alignment, we can see that this is one attribute it takes to be a guardian too. Hence we begin to see the link between the two essences become clearer.

The essence journey can be a very interesting one, the flowers are great educators for life in general. When we see difference we are encouraged to seek commonality for a better understanding. In this instance of what it is to be a Foxglove. For people and their differences however we could be being encouraged all the time to find out  what the commonality is between us also and ultimately what it is to be human. 

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.