4th April Musings – Cycle of Life, Death & Rebirth
Here we are again on Monday 4th April for the weekly musings. This week the theme is the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Thanks so much for being here as we settle into another working week. Perhaps you are trying to read keep up or chase your tail as the week begins. There’s a lot going on at the moment. People I’ve spoken to tell me they are finding it very difficult to keep up. There’s lots coming at you all the time. People feel bombarded with information and things to do. You may be feeling stressed or wound up. So let’s just start today with three deep breaths. So, sit down, stop whatever you’re doing. Don’t try and multitask. Just take three deep breaths.
Allow your shoulders to drop. Give yourself permission just to breathe. And relax!
I have lost count of the number of times this week that I’ve used the phrase, “I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with this”. Because there’s been so much coming in. It’s almost like my my brain is on old dial up internet rather than broadband or fibre. It can feel overwhelming. Quite a few of you came back to me after last week’s musings and said that you really resonated with the message of needing to pause and stop. To slow down and give into self love and surrender. So if you didn’t catch that last week, I would urge you to go back and have a look at it.
Use this as your reminder that it is okay to stop. It’s okay to take a break. You’re here to enjoy life not to endure it. Find some time for you. And I appreciate it sometimes that mindfulness can be difficult if your brain’s busy. Or if your head’s full. You’re trying to maybe breathe and follow a meditation but you can’t because your brain’s on overdrive. Do something else then. Maybe go for a walk. Get outside or do some exercise. Dance, or do something to get that excess energy out. When you start to move your body, you find the brain calms down. Maybe put a piece of music on and just go nuts for five minutes and let yourself go! It’s all about having fun.
Practising what I preach
I had a really busy week myself last week. There was so much coming at me it was very overwhelming. But I took some time for myself despite the manic pace of life. I went for my first float in Hydro-Ease in Dundonald. If you have never been, please go and book yourself a session. It is amazing. You go and you essentially float in about 25 centimetres of water with half a tonne of Epsom salt. It’s the most lovely thing to allow your body to relax in that space. And it really surprised me how long it took my brain to settle. I have booked another session and I can’t wait to go back. Because I think the more you do it, the more you’re going to relax.
So it’s important to give yourself that time. That’s what I did last week in the middle of a busy week. My logical brain was screaming at me. “Why would you take this time out when you are so busy?!” But I thought no, because I must walk my talk and practice what I preach. And if I don’t actually take the time to recharge my batteries, then I will not be able to be of service. I had so much on last week. First-aid training classes, admin and ambulance shifts for St John and a Reiki Master class to teach as well.
The logical part of me might have said let’s not do that. Let’s go off and just work, work, work. But thankfully, I listened to my intuitive self that said no, you need to take this morning off. You need to go and float. Relax, allow your shoulders to come down. And it was the best thing ever because it was like a reboot for the brain. I’m keeping up with that too because I’m going for Reiki with my Reiki Master this afternoon.
The cards I’ve chosen today I have come from the Shamanic Medicine Oracle deck. The reason I’ve chosen this deck is because quite a lot of people have been asking about shamanism lately. Asking when courses will be running again and when I be teaching it in person. I will be teaching The Medicine Wheel shamanic practitioner course in person again from September 2022. That sounds ridiculously far away, but it’s really not. There will be some introductory events and some more information coming out over the summer months. So if shamanism is something that speaks to you or you’re just intrigued as to what it’s all about, do get in touch with me. It usually runs on the second Sunday of the month. Starting on Sunday September the 11th. I’ll be giving more details about it nearer the time.
April – Stress Awareness Month
Shamanism is a way of life. It is a way of understanding and embodying what’s going on in life. Particularly when the energy is very busy and chaotic and you feel overwhelmed. You can tune into what’s going on around and within yourself. Tapping into the support that’s all around you. You will find actually it’s very beneficial. Today is also April the fourth and as the fourth of the fourth it is a Power Day. It is a day full of angelic and spiritual support. Personally I find that my guides and spirit helping team are always close at this time of year. They’re always there, you just need to call.
April is also Stress Awareness month. You will have noticed over the last few weeks, the message from the cards has clearly been about self care and self love. So I want you to carry that forward into April. Remember that it’s okay to not be okay. It’s okay to have emotions and for things to come up. Please talk. Reach out. Don’t suffer in silence.
The Death Card
The cards that have come up from the shamanic deck this week really speak of transition. Of change and stepping out of your comfort zone. And again, the theme of surrender that’s been going on in the last couple of weeks is carried through the cards that have come up today.
The first one is the death card. This is not something to worry about. This is not about a person dying as such. It’s about understanding the cycles of life, death and rebirth. The fact that energy is never created or destroyed. It just changes form. But what this card also talks about is the fact that we sometimes have to step out of our shadow. We have step from the shadow into the light. It’s about stepping into that light. Stepping out of our comfort zone and that means sometimes that we have to let old stuff go. So I would ask you, what are you holding on to that you need to let go off? What old patterns of behaviour? Which old thought forms? Do you have limiting beliefs or habits? We all have habits that are not good for us!
Are you doing things in a way that you know isn’t really working but you’re kind of stuck? Maybe you feel really pushed to make a change but you’re not sure what that change is. Is fear holding you back from stepping fully into your empowerment? This card really speaks of the change in energy state when you let go of old energy. The energy changes form and moves into something else. The other cards that came up were the ancestors and then the birth. So they all feed into each other.
Ancestors
The second card Is The Ancestors card. We think about this death card and the fact that you know maybe souls do need to transition and move on. But that energy and that wisdom gets passed into the ancestral realms. And we can draw upon that. It’s all about wisdom. When was the last time you honoured your ancestors? Or when was the last time you actually took a moment to be really grateful for the wisdom that has been passed on? Everything that they went through for us? Every piece of wisdom, every piece of guidance, okay, yes, there will be there will also be mistakes. There will be also traumas that we’re carrying.
Ancestral healing is a massive part of shamanic practice and massive part of healing in general. But this card really speaks of the wisdom. We can tap into that wisdom at any time. You just need to sit quietly and listen for it. Maybe get some photographs of your ancestors if you have pictures available. Write their names down or even just bring them to mind. Even if you don’t know who they are.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to just be biological ancestors here we’re talking spiritual ancestry too. Do you identify or have an affinity with a particular culture or a particular ancestral heritage? Well, then maybe look into that a little bit more. Maybe from a spiritual point of view, there’s wisdom there that needs to be passed to you. Ancestral ties, wisdom and guidance is something that we learn a lot about in the medicine wheel course.
So, the death card coming up, first one, stepping into your power. Letting things go. Transitioning into a new way of being. Harnessed with the wisdom of the ancestors.
Birth
The third card that came up today was the birth card. I almost see these three cards as the ancestors looking down on the cycle of life, death and rebirth on Earth. That things have to pass on. To transition in order to be reborn and to renew. There’s the concept of reincarnation. Concepts of renewal of energy even in nature. We see this through the seasons at the moment. We’re currently in the springtime season. So we’re seeing the new lovely rebirth and growth and this is very much in tune with this card. It’s all about birth and renewal.
But also, think about when something is birthed into existence. It takes a lot of faith to trust that it’s going to work out. A lot of faith to step into the unknown. And to birth something into existence. Imagine from the point of view of a baby being born into the world. From the baby’s point of view, it must be very, very frightening. They’re in this lovely nurturing environment and then all of a sudden they are birthed into this other strange place. Full of bright lights and noise and they don’t know what’s going on.
The act of feeling the fear but having to move forward and to surrender the control. That ties directly back into the death card. The transition and the need to let go of the need to control how things work out. To step really forward embracing whatever comes to you. Embracing the spirit of renewed, fresh energy. This is the time of year for that with the freshness of spring. We’re working with the seasons here. Working with the seasons to lean into ancestral guidance and wisdom.
So take a moment to light a candle and think about some of your elders that have passed. Think of the elders that are still here, talk to them ask for their wisdom. In today’s society, unfortunately we often sweep our older generation under under the carpet. Out of sight out of mind, but they carry a lot of wisdom. And it would be worth our while to really tune into that. To learn from their wisdom and to learn from the mistakes they’ve made. And to learn from the things that they would pass on to us -if only we would listen. Then perhaps our renewal process would be so much easier. We can blossom and grow.
Transitions – cycle of life, death and rebirth
So I really think the three cards today, Death, Ancestors and Birth speak of this being a time of transition. This is a time where you have to ultimately make a choice. Do you keep doing the things you’ve always done? In which case you will continue to have the same result. Or are you brave enough to let all the old things go? To step out of your comfort zone. And to lean in to the spiritual wisdom around you and the guidance within? Are you able then to birth something new into existence? So ponder that this week. Let me know what you think. Does it speak to you with a message that you can take?
Personally I can take something from it. Can you? It is about having the bravery to step forward. But we can step forward together as a supportive community. Remember as well, you’re more than welcome anytime to join into our Intuitive Life Design coaching group where we talk about things like this on a regular basis. Also for those interested in intuitive development with tarot, we also have our Mystical Moon Days group. A fortnightly meeting where we primarily focus on Tarot but we use intuitive development tools along the way too. So there’s lots of things out there and you can join any one of our supportive programmes.
You will hopefully have got the newsletter on the first of April with the details of the Easter holidays. If you’re not on the mailing list you can join here. I’m going to leave this with you for now. Leave me a comment. Leave me some thoughts as to how this spoke to you. I look forward to speaking to you all again next week.
