April 2020 - Gillian Monks

Month: April 2020

How To Offend A Toothbrush

On April 26, 2020

This morning on Facebook I saw this very question. One lady was sad that the usefulness of her long-lasting toothbrush had finally come to an end and she didn’t want to offend it by using it to clean anything else before finally disposing of it. Another lady wanted to know how on earth you actually offend a toothbrush? I would have liked to answer her at the time but couldn’t stop to do it then – however, the druid in me can’t let it go – so here is my answer – see if you agree with it or understand what I am talking about. There are actually two ways in which we can ‘offend’ an inanimate object.

Firstly, everything resonates with energy – scientifically proven fact. Mental thoughts, spoken words and emotions also have vibrating energies – also scientifically proven fact, as illustrated in the many research programmes involving plant life and how it responds to certain actions being performed near to it or various emotions and/or thoughts being directed at it… sometimes from hundreds of miles away.

I acknowledge that a toothbrush is an inanimate object rather than a plant which ‘lives’ but it will still resonate with energy and still be subject to thoughts, (and the intentions they contain), so at some very low level of resonance it will react to the unharmonious thoughts being directed at it while its owner/user is contemplating throwing it way or otherwise destroying if.

For those of a more

All You Need Is Love

By Gillian Monks

On April 15, 2020

In Musings of the Hearth

Springtime is full of loveliness and makes unconditional loving easier.

The pop group The Beatles certainly had it right when they sang those words all those decades ago. When we have done and said and thought all that we can and our backs are up against a wall, (as they are now with Covid-19), all we have left is to show our love. I have just read something written by a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) which says that they view the empty towns and villages, the deserted roads and streets as a huge act of love – love and consideration of humanity for each other in taking care not to put each other in more danger at this crucial point in our history… in other words, our very absence demonstrates our true presence and intent.

We can show our love for each other and the world around us by any number of mundane and seemingly inconsequential actions but the sum total – and the effect it has on both giver and recipient – is incalculable. For love is not simply a transient emotion; it is a very real and potent energy… the absolute best.

With our modern predilection for having things demonstrated I can prove it to you. In 1992, Bruce Tainio, of Tainio Technology, a division of Eastern State University in America, determined that the electrical frequency of the healthy human body is somewhere between 62-78 Hz (Hertz). Everything has an electrical frequency, including diseases which resonate at a lower rate than a healthy body. For instance, colds and ‘flu have an electrical frequency of 58 Hz. A human body under stress or exposed to pollutants can easily drop in resonance to 58 Hz or below. Perhaps a correlation between Covid-19 and the worst effected industrial areas of the world may be noted here? The literal danger our health carers are in equally becomes more apparent as their state of exhaustion and stress results in a drop in their energetic resonance and leaves them vulnerable to the infection they are attempting to protect everyone else from.

However, the particular point I wish to make here is that a human body experiencing emotions or mental states also resonates at an equally identifiable frequency. Such feelings as gratitude, empathy and compassion can be measured at the massive resonance of 200 – 350 Hz., but for someone expressing the emotion of unconditional love, the resonance is off the scale – it is so high that it is immeasurable.

So here is something that absolutely everyone can do in our universal time of need. Balancing intellect with emotion, we are all capable of sending out loving thoughts… to other people… to those working on our behalf (and that also includes all the other services and key workers, such a delivery drivers and shop workers)… to the beauty and bounty of the natural world. We can do it anywhere, anytime… sitting in our favourite armchair, lying in bed, having a bath, peeling the potatoes. But the love must be unconditional – no fear or grief or judgement attached – the kind of unrestricted and pure sensation we experience when we see a little kitten or puppy, or a new born baby – that complete gush of joyful and wholehearted emotion; a sensation of giving of oneself, totally.

For those of us who are lucky enough to live with family or friends, a good way of boosting our own resonating energies is to give – and receive – hugs… good strong, long hugs which last twenty seconds or more. A warm and generous hug acts upon the vagal nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system which has a beneficial knock-on effect on all the major organs in our body and stimulates our immune system. Such a simple action. Give yourself and someone you care about a tonic this minute; find a member of your household and give them a good long hug.

Many of us live solitary lives, but, whether we realise it or not, we are never truly alone. We are connected to every other person on – and off – the planet at a higher level. We are also connected to the world around us by similar energies. Send out your loving good wishes… to someone or something specific or simply to the ‘world’ as a whole. Tap your chest over where your heart beats and imagine a beam of pure, gentle light pouring out of you. Add your loving emotion to it. You will discover that one of the side-effects of this incredibly simple activity is that you, yourself, become altogether calmer.

Alternatively, if you have difficulty with the concept of unconditional love, try feeling gratitude instead. Look around you and acknowledge all that you can feel grateful for and give deep thanks for it. Yes, we all have a very great deal to be thankful for; if you don’t believe me, try writing a list and include everything, from the roof over your head to the clothes on your back and the food on your plate. Look around you. Don’t just stop there… be thankful for the sunshine, the wind and rain and the birds and animals, the earth and the flowers and all the insects which pollinate them… and the fact that you can see and hear and feel… and that you can breath, unlike thousands of other unfortunate souls who have been – and still are – battling to do just that. Eventually, you will find that your appreciation deepens and starts to become something altogether more loving and joyful – go with it and give it your all, for this is the beginning of unconditional love and the ultimate answer to all our woes and difficulties. One of my favourite sayings is that we cannot always be cured, but we can always be healed. Love is healing. Love is transformative. It is portable, mobile, able to be sent out and directed by beings of all ages and abilities. It can change your world… our world… the world. You have the answer in your own hands… in your own heart. Make the most of it today, every day. All you need is love…

Practical Action – Walking With The Goddess This April

By Gillian Monks

On April 6, 2020

In Musings of the Hearth

Wish to take back control of your life? Ready to try something new? Want to heal the world around you? This month I am introducing the power of sound and the miraculous effects it can have on stones which you will be shown how to use in the healing of all the major chakras of the Earth. To support and guide you, we shall be making connection with Taliesin – the famous magical Welsh poet, and Melangell – the Celtic saint based on ancient belief and practices.

All the work I introduce in these modules is completely fresh and new and channelled from the inspirational divine sources quoted each month. I sometimes feel that I cannot take responsibility for what each month contains as it has been given to me direct – I work in partnership with these ancient archetypes… they tell me and I simply work with it… explain it… write it down…

As the spring flourishes around us, the April module of Walking With The Goddess is ready for purchase, it is only £5.

To buy direct: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/

To read more about it or purchase previous modules: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/walking-with-the-goddess/

Come and join us for something completely different, inspiring and satisfying. It might also prove good therapy in these challenging times as it will also help you to feel personally empowered and healed too.

The Garden Of Hope

By Gillian Monks

On April 6, 2020

In Out and About

My herb garden!

As the saying goes, we live in interesting times! One – among many – blessings of having to stay at home is that I now have enough spare time to venture out into my much neglected garden. My herb garden in particular has been abandoned for at least five years, first while I helped to look after an elderly neighbour and then laterly when I became so involved in my writing.

This is certainly not ‘gardening’ for the faint hearted… more a form of jungle warfare?

Perhaps it is because of the menace of Covid-19 that I now feel the call of this sunny little corner, wedged into the right-angle of two protective boundary slate walls. I first designed and built it over twenty years ago when I was recovering from a long term illness. I was also having problems with my shoulder joints – commonly called ‘frozen shoulder’ – but discovered that, while small repetitive movements, such as peeling potatoes, would greatly exacerbate my symptoms, hauling slabs of slate around and heavy digging actually improved them.

As I slowly regained my health, my herb garden became my passion and my lifeline. I could be found out there, even in the cold and damp. If I wasn’t working in the garden itself – carrying a plastic chair about with me so that I could regularly sit down to take a rest and recover my energy – I would be sat in my little garden outside my backdoor – another link in my recovery… a story for another day – sowing seeds or potting up seedlings. When I was too weak, or the weather too bad to get out into my garden, I would lie in bed and gaze at the poster-sized picture of my garden in the sunshine which I had hung on the wall opposite me and dream and plot and plan and enter into another world altogether.

The natural world is naturally healing and for those of us lucky enough to have access to a garden, allotment or land – even a balcony or windowsills – we can use these small spaces to connect to the wider world and all the growth and new life which is bursting through the old, outworn winter dross. Perhaps there is a parallel to be found here as we leave behind our previous lifestyles and enter new, uncharted waters? Here we can find inspiration and healing, for the soil itself contains enzymes which mend frayed nerve ends and uplift our depressed emotions. Here, some of us might be lucky enough to find the way out of the conflict of life before coronavirus versus the new regime now imposed upon us, and the crisis of emotion and fear which has resulted from it. As in the case of my own neglected herb garden, none of us should have abandoned Nature and now she holds the key.

In my own time of need, I find myself reaching out for the magical little plot of land which helped me once before. There is something unique about what can be created when humanity and the natural world come together and harmonise in a symphony of mutual respect, effort and growth. It is quite different from the wild, untamed spaces, or the distorted and abused areas of mass agriculture. When humanity and nature listen to each other and connect in loving like-mindedness, then truly can we create heaven on earth.

Ah, there it is… found it! This shot taken from exactly the same place as the previous photo.

As for my own recent endeavours, I was fortunate to have help with the clearing of my faithful little plot. Under a summer-hot sun but cooled – and buffeted – by strong, warm winds, we valiantly wielded saws and secateurs as we carved our way through the over-arching brambles and cut back the prolific ivy which had encased the walls in three feet deep lush green growth. I would normally try to avoid strip clearing in this way, but in this case, there was no sensible alternative. The nine foot long brambles, multi-rooted couch grass and other so-called ‘weeds’ have loved and protected my earthy space while I was busy elsewhere, and it is time for them to hand that responsibility back to me. Now the plot is practically a blank canvas. Only my lemon verbena bush and lad’s love (both wildly leggy and misshapen) remain, along with some red veined sorrel, agrimony, a few purple polyanths, a feeble acer and a cypress tree which began life as a forgotten seedling in a six inch pot and is now a tree of over ten feet tall!

Slightly different angle – it is just possible to make out the outline of the old beds.

I assiduously sorted through my box of old seed packets last week and have sown lots of test trays and pots to see what might still be viable. I prefer to bring plants from seed – unless they really are difficult or more rare – I’m not very good at stratifying stuff in my fridge! If possible, I would prefer to ‘use up’ what I have left over from other years before I am tempted to seek new seed. I find that there is an odd freedom in not having so much choice.

As my own personal symbol of Life and Hope, I shall keep you posted as to how my reclaimed garden develops. Next on the agenda… getting to grips with digging out the roots!!!