Falling Leaves and Hedgerow Harvest

As I’m writing this in October the hedgerows and trees are beginning to change colour, and I’m looking forward to the reds, oranges and golds of the leaves before they fall.  I love this time of year, when the early morning air is crisp, and later in the day there’s often a tang of wood-smoke.  True, it does get cooler, the nights draw in, and there’s usually quite a bit of rain, yet there are also those sunny days with clear blue skies when it’s great to be outdoors, picking hedgerow fruits and kicking through the fallen leaves.  I hope you enjoy the visual feast of leaf colour in your nearest gardens, parks or countryside.

Beltain Reiki Retreat in the Cotswolds

This year I have so far held two Shamanic Retreats—the third takes place in November—and they have been a great success.  In May the Beltain Retreat was held at Stanton Guildhouse in the Cotswolds, with 12 of us participating, including myself and my friend and co-facilitator, Jackie Gleeson (see below).   We did some Reiki—of course! - and the main room is ideal for this as it's large enough to put out 5 therapy couches.  It’s a very cosy and comfortable venue, with big sofas and a roaring fire in the wood-burner, so it’s suitable for all seasons.  However, the outside space is also lovely, and when we carried out some of our Shamanic work we found, to our astonishment, that there are two ley lines crossing in part of the garden.  That was a real bonus, so we took the chance to use that space to create a small stone circle for our ceremonies, which everyone also used as a peaceful outdoor meditation space—the energy there was wonderful.

Summer Solstice Shamanic Retreat for Reiki Masters

My other venue for retreats (and for my residential Reiki Master/Teacher course) is Caxton House near Skegness in Lincolnshire.  Jackie helped me with this as well, and we had great fun!  It was really an exploration of Reiki as a Shamanic path, so we did various activities from Celtic and Native American Shamanic traditions, including setting up a Solstice Shrine—see the picture below of the collection of beautiful objects which the participants had brought along.  

Of course the highlight of the weekend was the dawn ceremony to welcome the Solstice Sun.  We had to get up very early—about 3 am—to walk the short distance through the dunes to the beach where Paul, co-owner of Caxton House, had already set up a fire pit for us—now, how many hoteliers do you know who would do that?!  We created our stone circle on the beach, energising it both with Reiki, and by chanting and drumming as we paced around it, and then we stood inside the circle to honour the four directions and their corresponding elements (East/air; South/fire; West/water; and North/earth). Then we settled down around the fire pit to await the sunrise at about 4.30 am, and fortunately the low cloud on the horizon cleared just in time, so as soon as the first sliver of sunlight could be seen we began drumming and chanting with great enthusiasm until the sun was fully up.  After that we threw aromatic lavender on the fire to reconnect with air and fire, and walked barefoot down the beach to paddle in the sea, to connect again with earth and water—although one brave soul (see on the right of the photo) actually went swimming and said the sea wasn’t really that cold—but rather him than me!  We had a celebration dinner that evening, and I took a photo of the starter because it looked so pretty—Paul is a fantastic chef, and everyone justifiably raves about the food!

Yet Another Book!

I’m due to finish writing my sixth book by the end of November, and this time I’ve been collaborating on it with my daughter Kathy Roberts, who as well as having done Reiki for 17 years, also has lots of experience in writing manuals as part of her job.  That’s quite a different skill to book writing, so the reason for the collaboration is, not surprisingly, that this one’s entitled “The Reiki Manual”.  It is due to be published in August 2010, and it will be in a larger format than my other books.  It’s designed to be a comprehensive training resource for Reiki students, professional Practitioners and Masters, as it will cover all the basics people need to know on Reiki 1 or Reiki 2 courses, so it can be used during a Reiki class, or beforehand as preparation, or afterwards for revision.  However, it will also cover all the information people will need in the future in order to practice Reiki professionally, to help them to comply with the National Occupational Standards for Reiki, in order to be on the National Register of Reiki Practitioners, and there’ll be ideas and suggested activities to help Reiki Masters in their teaching practice, too.