Greetings!

So..... how was Mercury Retrograde for you?

As I wrote in my last newsletter, just after the Lunar Eclipse, we were in an exceptionally unusual astrological / astronomical state where five planets, not just Mercury, were in retrograde!

I had intended to continue to write my newsletters weekly during this period, yet it suddenly felt right to go through the Mercury Retrograde Phase being ‘in the moment’ and refraining from ‘transmission’ until it went forward again, so here I am! Many apologies if you have been waiting with bated breath........

For me, Mercury Retrograde was exceedingly positive - Obi and I had a fabulous time together AND our inaugural Half-Day Workshop was a complete success - great fun; inner peace and increased energy for all who came: including us! Our Monday Night Talk was also very special indeed. No communication issues whatsoever, so a big ‘tick’ for both events!

We got beautiful feedback from people who attended including a lovely video from Hazel & Samantha who came to both the workshop and talk.  Thank you very much to you both! You can click here for a full write-up of our delightful afternoon as well as see their video.

I was then blessed to have beautiful AirBnB guests to a couple of weekends ago, who came especially for my ‘famous’ cooking (their words!) All were delightful and their stay enabled me to write up and photograph one of my news bread recipes - Three Flours Easy-Peasy Artisan Bread, which is this week’s Recipe - utterly yummy and great with my Yummylicious Organic Butter

Then, the icing on the top of the cake for me has been the first visit of my beautiful nephews to my home, together with my parents, who brought them back with them from their four-week ‘grandparent duty’ at my Brother & Sister-in-Law’s home in Millburn, New Jersey.

Being 10 1/2 and nearly 7, they were fascinated by everything - especially Tinkerbell (one of my precious cats) and Ronnie & Ginny: my outdoor cats. Ronnie was easily bribed by the kids shaking their treats tin, though Ginny took one look at them and ran for her life!

Thankfully, Tinkerbell was her most sweet; calm and patient self and let them stroke her; brush her and give her cuddles! 

I let them sleep at the top of the house, next to The Alchemy Healing Room, where my special weighted Chakra Tuning forks and Meridian Tuning Forks are laid out for the Sound Treatments I give to clients.

They were utterly fascinated by them and asked lots of questions, so I illustrated how to use them, starting with the meridian ones. I passed them along the different meridian points on their bodies, starting with The Lung Tuning Fork, which runs down each arm and then finished with the largest fork: The Governing Vessel, which goes from the base of the spine, up and over the head, and finishes at the nose. They both ‘shivered’ from the vibration: really feeling it keenly!

When I placed the Heart Chakra Weighted Tuning fork on their chests, their reactions were very interesting - Jack, my eldest nephew, found it too much, whereas James absolutely loved the sensation saying ‘Oh...... that’s sooooo nice!’ then immediately wishing to activate the Governing Vessel one and holding it over his back, remembering that this is where it needed to be held! Totally adorable!

He proceeded to wish to do this every day and several times I heard them both ‘playing’ with their favourite forks, using the weighted ones to activate the meridian ones and remembering where they went on or over the body.

They asked if Tinkerbell had treatments: of course! So we went down to my bedroom where I keep the very magical 111 Hz Weighted Tuning Fork by my bed (it’s great for bringing balance into the body and also for pain relief) and I proceeded to show them how to give a treatment to Tinkerbell, who was a willing recipient, lying in her favourite place on my side of the bed: she LOVES the vibrations and massage!

During their stay here, we all went down to the Old Town and Jack went on the Go-Karts twice - winning the second time (as a dutiful Auntie, each race was videoed for posterity!) and they both enjoyed the trampolines and climbing on the old fisherman’s boat in the Fishermen’s Museum and the next day, I treated us all to a trip on The East Sussex & Kent Light Railway.  The boys loved this particularly as they had never been on a steam railway before!  They decided that First Class was the way to travel, rather than Third!  Later that afternoon, I took the boys to St Helen's Woods and showed them the special Hidden Oak Tree; we fed the horses in the meadow and they loved the spring - not just for the fun of climbing up and down the bank, but also they were blown away by the taste of the water from the well - we  all had five cups each! 

I guess the trip that stays with me the most was when Dad & I took them to The National Mining Museum in Wakefield on Friday after we had driven up to my parents’ home in Nottinghamshire on Thursday, which took a record 6 1/4 hours due to terrible weather and traffic - the boys came with me and were exceptionally good for most of the journey with just one altercation between them when James accidentally broke (thankfully not irreparably) Jack’s exceedingly expensive headphones! At which point Jack turned from a doting big brother to a super angry boy, resulting in terrible things being said to each other, so Auntie Em’s love and diplomacy was called for and peace was restored!

Well........ why was I so affected by the visit to the Mining Museum?

My Dad had paid for an underground tour, so we went ‘down t’pit’.

Just going down in the cage 140ft was sobering enough, particularly when the retired miner - our guide - said that miners would be sent down to the bottom in 28 seconds; much faster than the 90 seconds we took!

The stories of the exceptional hardships of the 1780s in this mine named ‘Hope Mine’, where whole families worked together - the father being the only one with a candle; the mother generally working up to 8 1/2 months pregnant, lugging coal along on her hands and knees, whilst their poor child (from as young as 5 years old) would have to sit in the pitch dark, tethered by a rope to an airlock trapdoor, where they would be told when to open and shut it (hence the phrase ‘shut your trap’) - it must have been terrifying!

The stories of not only the multiple deaths due to accidents or flooding but also the resulting positive changes in working conditions in our mines profoundly affected me and made me even more thankful for all the blessings and privileges we all enjoy today; how lucky we are indeed!

Appallingly, it was only after a freak flood in 1838, which drowned 126 miners, 26 of whom were children and women, that the legislation was changed in 1842 (where all females were excluded from working in the mines and the minimum age rose to 10) and 1911, where the age was raised to 14.

The tragedy is that there are parts of our world where children as young as 5 are still being exploited today..... it poses the question: How can we have come so far spiritually, yet such conditions are still being endured in this world of ours?

My nephews are very privileged and I think they - Jack in particular - were taken aback by what they saw and heard and I am trusting will perhaps appreciate more their good fortune and lifestyle.....

I feel that their visit has been both illuminating, as well as educational: I also treated us all to an afternoon on The East Sussex & Kent Light Railway, too, where we initially sat in a Third Class Carriage and then changed to the First Class Saloon, where they decided they preferred First Class to Third! For sure!

I am looking forward to future visits, where further excursions and activities will, I trust, give them a wider range of life experiences that are generally alien to well-to-do American Family life!

My inspiration from their visit, and in particular their fascination with my sound healing ‘tools’ is to have Sound Healing as the basis for our next Talk on 22nd September and our Half-Day workshop on 23rd September. I discussed this with Obi and he, too, felt it was an excellent idea.

Why? In order to illustrate the tremendous healing power of sound as well as showing how Obi and I work with it in our own unique ways,

At the Talk, some of the areas we will be concentrating on will be exploring the History of Sound Healing, right back to its origins, as well as illustrate how it is possible to bring the whole body back into balance, as a group, in 20 minutes! (I’ve done it before with a group of 24 individuals as a Business Networking Event – very powerful indeed!)

The Half-Day Workshop will be more hands on, and all attendees will be treated to to a mini treatment as well as learn more about the different kinds of sound tools that can be employed to bring balance back into our bodies as well as unblock ‘energy blocks’ and relieve pain.

More details will be coming soon and I will send out a separate Newsletter and Link early next week.

In the meantime, I trust that you have enjoyed August and we look forward to hopefully seeing you at the end of September.

Until next time……..

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