Category: depth psychology

The book explained and a real-life example

.Reading time 7 minutes.

The book comes out in April 2021 and is currently open for pre-orders on the publishers website

PRE-ORDER here

This book is aimed at people, who are becoming curious and start researching the Earth-based spiritual path. Perhaps you read a couple of books, articles or seen some films that drew you into the world of witchcraft, Druidry or, may be a Shaman figures spoke to you from a place unknown. You might have had an experience that sparked your curiosity and you would like to seek further what your path might be.

The book is in the series of Pagan Portals, which are aimed at beginners, but also can be helpful and insightful for experienced practitioners. These books include unique and personal experiences of practitioners from many nature-based spiritual paths, which make them unique in a way of finding information you might not find otherwise. They can also be looked at as Introductory guides into a particular subject.

Pagan Portals Intuitive Magic Practice touches on an important subject of intuition, which many pagan practitioners would agree is one of the ingredients that are worth including in your spiritual magical practice. The subject does require some research, self-insight and practice. If you take the book as some beginners’ steps into this practice you can develop it further overtime, which has a true potential to change your life.

I had some feedback recently on the book from a woman, a mother, a person, who has begun a journey of searching for something more. Earth-based spiritual path began unfolding for her subtly, with gentle feelings here and there and the land began to call to her inviting into joining in with a place, nature, wilderness out there and within. She never engaged in spells and witchcraft yet curious about what a life of a magician might be like she began researching. Her other reason was to break away from a strict authoritarian religious views of her close circle growing up. She felt stifled by the religion unable to explore for herself until now. I recommended she looks through Pagan Portal series books to see if anything jumped out at her and begin reading. The books are short and concise with clear messages and good writing. They are engaging and reader-friendly with practices that can easily be incorporated into anyone’s life.

She gave me an example of her engagement with mu book. At first she said she was not receiving it. I thought her way of putting that was interesting and very relevant to the subject of intuition. Receiving it… or not. At the time her experience was that she went through an event when after she followed an external advice she felt sharply ‘in her gut’ that it wasn’t right for her.

In her own words:

And thus I ignored my own intuitive wisdom.

The gut feeling is not a coincidence, as a lot of our heart-felt and emotional experiences are stored in the gut and it is closely linked with our hearts and brains. It is a rich, futile soil for where signals are often clear, sharp and difficult to ignore. She ignored the message coming from her body – the body is another ally of Intuition, as well as, emotions, the heart. At the same time she struggled to ‘receive’ the messages in the book – how curious. Only when she decided to undo the action she knew was not the right one for her and for her body and attempted to engage with the book again she heard it and was able to engage. You see there are defences within us against Intuition, as we had been programmed to ignore ‘such nonsense’ and use common sense and logic. There is nothing wrong with logic yet without intuition we are not able to discern the best way for us. Logic follows, heart/gut discern and is always in alliance with the body and on your side. Mind is not always in alliance with the body, as we all know.

She reported that a gentle, non-forceful writing helped her continue, as I guided her through my personal examples, which she found useful when applying theory to practice.

In her own words:

So now I started reading again. And it sinks in and makes sense!
Your style of writing suits me. It feels ‘neutral’. Not judging or telling what to do (as is my experience from growing up in a Protestant community). The way you ‘mix’ theory with your experiences, makes it understandable and recognizable.

I encourage you to give yourself a chance to remain curious with and enchanted by the nature-based spiritual and magic path. The earth-based faith is a place where you have a chance to find yourself. It can open up doors and possibilities for transformation and clarity like never before. Here I am going to say it and invite you to ‘Follow your intuition’ towards what calls you. Trust yourself to know the answers to the questions you have been asking for a long time. We all have to start somewhere and I hope my book will open up one such door for you.

The book is also specifically relevant to the work of a White witch and her magic practice based on intuition. If you know the witch in you wants to speak and awaken and you are empathic and intuitive by birth and have always known it, this book will offer you an alternative way of building a practice, the way you want it to feel and work.

Thank you for your support and following.

Much love and many blessings!

Magic and fear do not mix

.Reading time 3 minutes.

No magic will ever come out of fear. Something that I feel is important to name and talk about. Do not attempt magical workings when motivated by fear. There should be a need, a great, clear, solid need for performing magic or doing a spell, but that need must not come from fear.


Fear is a sign that something is not right, so my advice would be to work with fear and resolve it first and foremost and see if something else remains or comes out of it that can be worked with, but do not jump into working magic as soon as you feel fear or a threat of some kind. Magic work will not have lasting results, if any, and can actually turn into something undesirable.


Understanding the principles of working magic, I believe, comes from the inside. Even in a traditional ritualistic practice, which covers the basics and fundamentals that are useful for all magicians to know and understand, 80/ 90% must be coming from yourself, not a written-down prescription. The most true place to know things, to hear what is right and what is not, comes from you. It is your unique intuitive knowing that will inform you the best when you need it. Trusting that takes work, time and building a belief system that is grounded firmly in self-value, trust, love, respect and complete acceptance. In order for that new way of being to become natural, first one must attend to their own psychology, thoughts, behaviours, beliefs and patterns. Diving deep into unconscious material is paramount in order to come out the other side born into what you were always meant to be, in order to be fully restored to your original state. Start today. It will ease your life immensely in all areas if you put the work in.

If magic is an integral part of who you are it is an added blessing and learning to understand what your unique way of working magic is a path worth pursuing. Again if it’s meant for you it will become a necessary part of your way of being. All you need to do is stand back, relax and get ready to receive. The first rule – always be ready to receive, a challenge in itself for many, but as said above, with restorative work anything is possible. Never lose the belief that anything is possible, as it’s always been as certain as the sun rising every day! See what you experience and feel when you read me say that – a good starting point in your self-reclamation work.

My book on Intuitive Magic Practice is a good resource on reclaiming your voice with techniques, practice descriptions and personal examples. It is accessible to all.

Publications


Wishing you good solid learning this year and growing into who you truly are

If the Sun was a god… and walking in all weather

.Reading time 8 minutes.

The Sun is a solar deity in nature-based spiritual practice. It is both of the Fire and Air/sky elements. Worshiping the Sun God or following its cycles, manifestations, presentations and cycles means it is looked upon as sacred energy of the earth, which plays an active role in the life of the natural world and our own.

On my walk in the rain this morning I got thinking about the Sun, as a god, and Yule celebrations that are coming up. How do we look upon the Sun when it is not shining and in darkness? How do we think of it, speak of it? Notice the language we use around darkness and no so bright weather. There are many parallels between the decline of the Sun, it being hidden, the darkness and human psyche. The main element is that we are in denial of it whether we are aware of it or not. Rejection of the darkness is an old thing, as old as humanity, but I always wonder if it has to continue quite the way it had done. The work of psychotherapy throws a lot of light on what human shadow really is, personally and collectively, and it is my strong belief that the work of integrating your darkness can be one most valuable, if not the most vital, part of the personal journey. Until one becomes of aware, first, then accepting of his/her own dark materials, not a lot will change and projections, judgements, victimhood, blaming, pretending will carry on impeding relationships, progression, understanding and acceptance of things as they are. This is where nature is the most wise, I have always believed. It is all light and all darkness naturally.

Why do we deny rain, sleet, strong winds, floods and fires? They represent emotions within ourselves, very strong ones, the ones we had always been told to fear, reject, suppress, etc. I believe this has been the biggest wounding on earth to humans via humans. Again nature is one such source that can reconnect you back to your humility and heart. It can help reawaken and let the lost emotional parts of yourself be accepted back into the whole. We are meant to be whole, both, logic and feeling, mind and heart with the body holding it all together.

The language we use around weather is a good example of yet another rejection seemingly external, but it is very much internal. Dreary, bleak, dark, miserable – are the words we hear every day whenever the sun is not shining outside. If it is not bright and warm it is not worth ‘worshiping’, yet even the Sun needs recharging, like a battery, like any of us, in order to shine bright again in a few months’ time. We continue to judge it for not shining, leaving us in darkness, nevertheless. This, I believe, is due to lack of understanding, valuing and accepting our own inner darkness.

This phenomenon, please notice, can also happen in reverse when the Sun is scolded for shining too much, instead of too little. It is the rejection of light instead of the darkness. Emotions of ecstasy, mania and depression come to mind and depending on what your experience is with mental health you will understand what I mean. We all heard of chronic clinical depression, but no one has of chronic clinical happiness. It is more complex than that, of course, but ‘happiness’ can be a warning sign, always wanting, moving, needing, asking for the light or pretending to be that way, can bring serious consequences to psyche when not in balance. Nature is the key to bringing things together, to demonstrate to us through weather, seasons, and elemental presentations how to be with it all without judgement.

In nature-based spirituality folk welcome both the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice. There is an understanding of the value of both points in nature and in life. We welcome equally the point when the Sun is at its peak and we also celebrate the Sun’s return and acknowledgement of where it has been during darkness.

I saw deer playing and chasing each other in the bush as I walked passed the hedgerows with trees up on a hill. I would not have been able to witness that was it not quiet, empty and winter time. That’s a blessing to me!

Going back to those ‘negative’ adjectives the opposite for me would be when I walk in all weather is raw, fresh, renewing and completely natural. There is no life without the rain and there is no light without the darkness. It really is simple. The rainy landscape offers refreshing perspectives, new insights. I get inspired by wintery silhouettes and transparency and vulnerability of the land. At this time of year everything is exposed and paths are clear to walk to ponder over the bare branches and bones of the natural world. The clarity of mind for me during this time is like at no other time of the year. I love vulnerability and openness in nature and internally during darker winter months.


The darkness is the conservation of energy so it can shine brighter in months to come. Yet we are in denial of any validity of the darkness externally and within while wishing for the light to shine brighter. Want it here, now, in this way and that without considering how things become one way or another or where they roots from. There’s a cycle, a very wise one, the wisest. Nature is not here to please or pacify. It does what it must and what it has always done regardless of collective preconceptions, personal projections and human storytelling.


Yule is such a time and opportunity to reflect of the meaning of light and warmth and the Sun as a God, a spiritual, astrological, seasonal phenomenon that has been here since the beginning of time and every year offers lessons for reflection and potential change of views and perspective.

Yule Blessings, everyone!

Control – earthly and spiritual manifestations

.Reading time 5 minutes.

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Control in the earthly realm is a defence and a place of safety for when emotions feel overwhelming and ‘out of control’. If one was to relinquish control (a core belief), one would disappear for not being able to cope with the flood of feelings. Control serves a function and rightly so in some circumstances when psychological struggle is so great there is no other way. However, to describe this state as it would look externally it would appear one-sided, devoid of emotional engagement and deep sadness for not being able to ‘go there’. This can apply to controlling the environment, others, behaviour, events, structures and yourself that often goes hand-in-hand with self-harm. To decide whether to let go of the control and open up fully to life is a difficult and personal decision that involves a long recovery process.

Sometimes when earthly control becomes unmanageable and challenging one might turn to spiritual in order to feel containment. This is spiritual by-pass and manifestation of that arrival into the spiritual realm will look the same. There will be impossible to progress or be in a way that spiritual is due to that emotional disengagement. One would feel resentful and unfulfilled, as spiritual doesn’t do control. It operates differently and is accessible to everyone but depends the road you approach it from.

In the spiritual there is only flow, there is no tangible experience of pain, loss, time and space. It flows and manifests. It is like the wind, not static or contained, therefore, impossible to control however hard we might try. It requires a completely openness emotionally, physically and letting go of thought structures, etc. Difficult right? Yes, but not impossible. If we manage to engage with the fleeting spiritual experience only for a minute that is already something that will never be taken away. It is moments of bliss, complete alignment with something much bigger than us, a sense of utter stillness, sweet-tasting and transparent like air. In that place we can’t work for ourselves or against the other, we have to work with it. It cannot be manipulated.

With questions come in lately about the publishing process and whether self-publishing is better or worse than a traditional route, my answer and recommendation is to look deeper into your relationship with control, your sense of self, your ability to allow for things to happen, your beliefs about how life experience comes into being. As my life is intuitive in every aspect this is something that comes as anything else natural would. My mind, body and emotions operate in a way that it has its own way of arriving at answers. Perhaps, you are similar? The route that you choose is dependent on many variables, but one thing you can look at is yourself. What are you like with control and why? Do you have faith and trust in what is right will be? Do you believe that things happen for a reason and only when all the elements are aligned something comes into fruition? Can you go with the flow? It applies to anything and this process is no exception. Writing is another process that the idea of ‘control’ amidst others can be explored. I truly believe in experience. Once you had an experience you should be able to self-reflect, analyse (if you prefer that word) and make a choice based on your awareness of your experience. So far for me, e.g. I am a traditional publishing type of person for many reasons. It is about pace, not having control is a benefit, freedom to create in the meantime and many more other factors will be clarified as I go along, I am sure. It is what it is right now and never say never, things change and turn, but what you need to know is your inner true, most fundamental make-up with how you are in the world, with others and yourself. Know yourself and you will be able to find answers to anything.

Beauty in a heartbreak

.Reading time 3 minutes.

When a heart breaks magic happens. It reawakens qualities in us we forgot existed.

Ever since I was young I have been an advocate of feeling. Feeling deeply, openly, letting your pain spill out into the world like a cry from a place of the darkest shade. There’s beauty in suffering and sorrow and that is because something in us awakes when we are broken hearted, sometimes subtly, sometimes profoundly and we all know that nothing can be the same again and we are changed by it. It often goes unrecognised as we are programmed not to feel, shamed and punished for it from tender age and so it goes from one system into another. For as long as I remember I have been revolting against the oppression that is ‘no dark feelings are allowed’ and have been fighting against suffering in silence. It damages the soul to the extent of it being either abandoned or exiled.

Do you know what a gift it is to be able to feel to the deepest places which only soul can touch? Sorrow speaks of the depth of feeling one is capable of and most of the time it speaks of the power of love that is immeasurable and precious. Through the pain it shines like nothing else.

If only we let ourselves feel to the full open capacity, with honour and compassion not only healing occurs but a transformation that takes us to another level of being present in our authenticity. There is nothing more real than a broken hearted being. It’s raw, it’s tender, vulnerable and beautiful.

In my practice I work with feelings more than anything else. It is the work of carving the light out of a dark cave that is pain and trauma. It is hard, labour intensive, emotionally taxing yet when the break occurs and the heart turns to healing through allowing feelings to flow, results are stunning in its beauty. One touches the soul place once more and it speaks of all that’s been forgotten and suppressed. It offers gifts to us that we had always had within and now we can use them.

Feelings are wise. They live in our bodies and attempt to bring us back to who we are truly from the first moment before the world stamped its hard armour onto us. Through opening up to pain we recognise and accept and visit all the places within that had iron gates on them for what seems like eternity. It is that stepping off the predictable, lit and well-walked path into the dark woods where treasures lie and transformation back into the soul beckons.

‘Help yourself’ magic

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Spring Equinox

There is nothing like spring coming back that invites us more into life. It calls for awakening from stillness and dreaming of dark winter. It pulls a body into a much needed stretch, into a new kind of movement and engagement with the world. It offers that space to hear a new song from within ourselves that had been hibernating and birthing in darkness.

It has been a tough winter for many in 2019 that made us stuck in chaos, confused and stalled, not much movement other than in dreams and other types of realities. The process had been necessary, as everything is always is, and the purpose of the ‘stuckness’ was to explore ourselves from a position of where we are and who we are, what are our realities and do they serve us. It has not been an easy download to understand and integrate, however, relying on intuition and instinct had been useful even those areas halted in space that invited asking help from outside. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with asking for help from outside when we are stuck and this can be particularly useful and necessary for those of us, who is not used to asking for help and instead there for everyone else. This was partly the work of this winter to get to know that pattern again from a perspective that actually it is absolutely ok to ask for that hand that we need to hold on to and it is ok not to lead once in a while. I also realised that when you do ask for help you then are able to help yourself better – an interesting insight, which manifested through some magical workings that also involved asking for help from the elementals. This is something I have not done before necessarily in this way, but, as always based on the intuitive knowing this is what came through.

I asked ‘Help me’ while in nature doing the work and two days later I got it. It came as a voice, a message, an insight that said ‘Help yourself’. It contained the energy of giving back to me the knowing and responsibility for my own healing. We are the best healers for ourselves without a doubt, but that does depend very much on our relationships with ourselves. Doing the ‘self’ work whether it is through a therapeutic relationship, spiritual practice, other activities, all of those together, will put you in touch with yourself like nothing else and that is the most important element to ensure one lives in a way that it ‘whole’, fulfilling and peaceful. Without a doubt the best gift of self work is you integrate back into what you were always meant to be with all your beautiful resources, qualities, unique gifts, resilience and potential intact. In order to get there we often need to ask for help, we need to learn to reach out and relate, connect without fear or judgement. We need to be vulnerable to become truly strong and grounded and we need courage and strength to be vulnerable when it is terrifying.

This spring feels already like a very nourished, turned over soil that is ready to share its bounty and wisdom with us if we are willing to be patient with our newly planted seeds, warm and kind with ourselves, accepting of all that we are, good and bad, twisted and glorious, strong and weak – all of that richness that is the soil of our bodies and the light of our souls. I am excited to see what is to come. It is all new again.

Shadows at dawn

.Reading time 4 minutes.

The pull of a new calendar year is strong, as if something in me can’t wait for a clean sheet of paper to start writing another story. It yarns for the taste of spring, for fresh changes. This is very much in the collective at this time of year and I do have some resistance to being caught up in the collective yearly pattern, as I know there isn’t a need to be in that place, yet here I am. Have you noticed how pictures of bluebells begin to pop up here and there around this time? People post them everywhere. It pulls us out of here and now in an instant and we begin to wonder.

Anger is often present for me during this month, which is one of those months I wait to be done with. The cycle of holidays every year and all that comes with it brings a lot of ‘don’t want to be part of it’ feelings. It is quite uncomfortable with a bitter taste that needs to digest and integrate before a new something is seen and experienced. I guess what I refer to is some shadow elements of the psyche is brewing on the surface of my unconscious and, yes, I do recognise it. It needs expression, but also containment. It is angry, expressive, violence-like, impulsive. It needs attention and love, but it doesn’t mean it is a nice picture to look at. It is often not and it can be loud especially in dreams when I know how to parcify it during waking hours.

Very similar in nature if you notice in certain places, like the one I just came from, e.g. everything was grey and not just in a way of rainy skies, but the whole atmosphere was covered with colour grey, dull and feeling like it’s not enjoying it. I describe this energetically, but visually it looks like a wet, old rag, for example, that can do with a bit of whiteness injected or a dirty water that’s stagnated. It needs renewing, refreshing.

If I was to describe it as a feeling in the body that would be stress, exhaustion, sleep deprivation, ‘bags under eyes’ type of presentation. It is a sort of wanting to rest yet being restless as monsters are moving within in the dark, under the ground.

I know the ‘beast’ very well although I haven’t seen it or heard for sometime. With me the triggers are stress and being stretched or asked to do things I don’t want to do. These have been running for years. During this time I also pick it up from others easily and that overwhelms me a great deal. December is like the remains of something, like the last residue of some unpleasant drink or wet ashes post fire.

This year has all been about doing things differently and the above patterns have also run their course. Enough is enough I’d say. There’s got to be another way of expressing shadow material so that it doesn’t just have its needs’s met and go back into a state of being parcified, but it has a chance to transform into or balance with the opposing force. Something is needed immediately as these things arise. More transforming and less keeping in awareness I’d say. I will give it a go next.

Happy 2019! Let it offer more explorations and awareness. Further success and achievements, more joy and satisfaction.