Gillian Monks

'Making Fairytales Come True'

Category: News (Page 1 of 3)

News-Blog Instead of Newsletter

Greetings! I wish you all a joyful adventure for the  new year!

Thank you to all you readers who have sent me the seasons greetings and all the kind souls who have enquired if all is well with me.

You probably know me quite well by now. I believe in telling it like it is and speaking the plain truth.

Many people, both at home and across the globe – including myself – are experiencing ill health. The symptoms are chest infection, a hacking cough, disrupted sleep patterns and utter weariness (among others) which drags on unremittingly for months. (This is NOT Covid-19.) Recently, I have heard that it is actually an adult form of Whooping Cough, also known as the Hundred Days Cough… and I can well understand that particular description!

I have been ill since the beginning of November. My publisher has been ill for even longer. Courses of antibiotics have helped temporarily, but it stays with us with the temerity of super glue! I am not sure if I am gradually recovering or simply beginning to learn to live with it.

I had hoped to send out a newsletter for Midwinter, but due to on-going ill health, severe storms which succeeded in severing our telephone cable, (depriving us of the internet for nearly a fortnight), and various other mishaps, it simply never happened.

In desperation, I have decided to send out a simplified newsletter in a blog post to bring you up to date. This will be the third time that I have deleted much of what I had previously written… but you know what they say, third time lucky!

WALKING WITH THE GODDESS

I am amazed to realise that it is nearly four years since I last had a book published! (Except for my two ‘Eat Cheap’ booklets which I feel don’t really count.) ‘Spring In Your Step’, the sequel to ‘Merry Midwinter’ came out while all the world was devolving into chaos at the beginning of the pandemic. Apart from that, 2020 was an amazing year for me because I could stay at home and simply write, write, write, with absolutely nothing to distract me – it was crazily wonderful! I wrote three books!!!

Since then, the aftermath of Covid has been much harder to deal with and life has taken many odd twists and turns. In fact, as far as getting anything into print is concerned, it has stalled quite dramatically.

Now, I happily feel that I am back on track again.

I am NOT going to commit myself to a date when ‘Walking With the Goddess’ might be officially published, but you can depend on me letting you know when it is finalised. It will definitely be out some time in the next month or so, more than that I cannot say. It has already been to the printers once and now needs any corrections making before it goes off to print.

This is a wonderful book to start the spring season with. ‘Walking With the Goddess’ contains simple authentic suggestions and practices appropriate for people of all religions and spiritual beliefs. The ‘Goddess’ is the Earth itself, and readers will learn to literally walk not on her, or against her, or in spite of her, but WITH her.

‘Walking With the Goddess’ is a practical and experiential book covering a twelve-month cycle which the reader can pick up at any point throughout the year. In conjunction with some of the old Welsh deities and archetypes, (ten female and six male) readers will learn to work with elemental and healing energies using a variety of mediums including the specific energies of stones and trees, the development of intuition and the power of intention and thought forms. Readers will also learn how to access their own genetic coding and memory, step into – and out of – the Cauldron of Rejuvenation and Rebirth, and much, much more.

For each month, there is a guided meditation to follow – a journey to make – which will trigger new understanding, introduce new possibilities, and guide you to re-evaluate your path so far.  (Links embedded in the book take the reader to recordings of myself talking you through each journey – easy to click on for a really in-depth experience.) All the content has been freshly inspired and channelled and contains activities appropriate and necessary for our unique times.

Just as importantly it encourages the reader to become proactive in working on and with the land, growing things, wild seeding and planting, getting involved in charitable projects, and eliminating harmful domestic substances from our homes, agricultural land and public spaces. It will help readers to becoming more intimately and actively aware of the seasons and encourage them to celebrate them in their thoughts as well as openly acknowledging them in their daily places and life.

With freezing weather and winter storms, this time of year is dominated by water. As disrupted and intensified weather systems lash our planet, I offer this brief exert from ‘Walking With the Goddess’ for you to follow – one that will help to calm and heal the extreme effects of water when unleashed upon our world:

JOURNEY TO HEAL WATER

Science has now proved that we can change the structure of water molecules by our thoughts. Begin positive practice with the element of water today.

Bring a large glass or jug of water and an empty bowl into your healing space.

Settle yourself comfortably… close your eyes, take three deep breaths and allow all the hurly-burly of your day to melt away… and relax…

Open your eyes again.

Place your hands around the container of water for a couple of minutes and feel your love flowing out of your hands and through the glass into the water.

Take a few sips of the water in the glass. What does it really taste of? How does it feel in your mouth and as it slips down your throat?

Slowly pour the water from the glass into the bowl. As you do so, watch how the light catches the stream of liquid. Listen carefully to the sound of the water as it runs… falls… splashes…

Bend over the bowl and breath in the moist scent of the water.

Plunge your hands into the water and swirl them about in it… then simply rest them, submerged and still… What does water feel like?

Lift the bowl up onto your knee and wrap both your arms around it. Draw it to you as you would a small animal or child.

Look deeply into its depths and imagine a beam of softly glowing light above your head. This is the light of conscious energetic healing. Imagine it flowing down through the top of your head… down your spine… and back up through the front of your body to the crown of your head… and then back down your spine and up the front… and back down your spine… only this time, as the light surges up the front of your body, sense and see that you are also drawing healing earth energies up through the soles of your feet… up through your legs and into your body to join the upper healing energy as it travels back towards your crown…

When both energies have reached your head, feel or see them flowing back down through your neck… and into your arms and chest (where they also collect your own loving wishes of gratitude and healing) and sense them spilling out of your heart and the palms of your hands which you now hold over the surface of the water…

Stay in this position and activity for as long as you wish – for as long as feels right to you…

When you are ready to stop, feel the energies withdraw from the water and return back up your arms, through your chest and into your head – the higher energies disappear up out of the top of your head and the lower energies flow back down your body… into your legs and out through your feet into the earth.

Give loving thanks to All That Is for allowing and supporting you to do this loving, healing act.

Breathe deeply… open your eyes… move your feet… fully return to your present time and place.

Set the bowl of water down. When you are ready to leave your healing space, take the bowl of water with you. You need to carefully, gently and mindfully pour it away onto the earth, or into some other water source, preferably onto a garden – but even down the drain will do – knowing that the love and gratitude with which you have instilled that water will then connect with any other water it comes into contact with and communicate your loving intentions – and so your message will spread.

If you wish, now is the time to draw or write down anything from the experiences you have just had.

 

LOOKING AHEAD TO SPRING AND CAE NON

Another casualty of the pandemic and being confined to home or five-mile limits for travelling was our land and the spiritual retreat which we are slowly growing at Cae Non. The site is seventeen miles from our home, and we were unable to legally go there for quite a long time. I also had problems with arthritis in my knee and couldn’t have walked about on the land even if I had been able to travel there. And then there was also the little matter of cows from the neighbouring farm crossing the stream and breaking through the fence onto our land, leaving new growth stripped bare and the ground a miry mess of hoof-sized potholes.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the land has been busy doing its own thing throughout the past three years of relative neglect and all is absolutely blooming! This has also been greatly facilitated by two very dear friends who were able to spend time on the land in our place and have kept everything well maintained. They have even built a little log store round the back of the Hafod and erected a tool store which was kindly donated to us by a neighbour back in the village.

Now, a temporary electric fence has been erected to keep the cows at bay and work is moving ahead once more.

It has been an absolute joy to spend time at Cae Non again; it is such a deeply peaceful spot.

The path up the field to the Hafod, a corner of which can just be glimpsed in the distance.

I have always wanted to plant a proper hedge around the perimeter of our land. Apart from being a good investment as a barrier, it is also an excellent ecosystem for flora and fauna.  However, it is a very long stretch, even just to complete the side the cows have been coming through, so the task might require spreading out over two or three winters. At this stage we are also still debating what trees to order for the best, most effective stock proof hedge which will also thrive in wet, clay land.

Most of the existing herb beds will have to be completely replanted, but my son, (who is a medical herbalist) is planning on extensive extension of our cultivated area, and a functional but decorative ground plan of rectangular and circular raised beds has emerged. Coupled to clearing more land to plant a medicinal arboretum and pruning hundreds of metres of willow fedging, we have more than enough to be getting on with.

The days may be short at present, but there is always a cosy welcome inside our little Hafod, where the wood burning stove glows with warmth, the candle-light falls softly, and the kettle is always singing, ready to make the next round of hot drinks.

Even in these darkest days which I adore, there is a little part of me which is looking eagerly forward to being able to get out in the winter air.

And then, there is always the joy of looking ahead towards the coming spring. it really isn’t that far ahead now…

IN THE MEANTIME….

I wish you all a wonderful New Year for 2024. Create as much joy and feel as much love as is humanly possible and treasure each moment.

More from me soon,
With my love,

Gillian.

 

Falling Leaves

Virginia CreeperThe kindness and support I have received from friends, family, acquaintances and medical staff alike over the past few weeks has been a constant source of delight, wonder and amazement to me.

For those of you following me on this journey, I did indeed manage to lower my blood pressure sufficiently and my operation at Glan Clwyd hospital went ahead as planned.

That was on Monday, 20th September. I returned home the same afternoon, totally as high as a kite on the after-effects of the anaesthesia. After napping for three hours, I was then awake for twenty-five hours, planning my future, mapping out my winter and spring work schedule, even designing the cover of my next book and bopping around my bedroom in the golden autumn sunshine to the strains of favourite pop music from my young years back in the ’70’s.

Then I worked for three days over the weekend – admittedly at a slower, more considered rate… and then went down with a throat infection which has made me feel vulnerable and miserable with a stiff swollen neck, rough throat and cough. I hold my hands up. I should have paced myself better. Mea culpa.  Happy days!

Yesterday, I attended a consultation with my specialist at Ysbyty Gwynedd. The cancer has been successfully removed. None of the lymph nodes also removed during the operation had been in the least affected. All clear. Celebration!!!

But. There always has to be one, doesn’t there? There must always be some ‘governor’, criteria to steady and balance and help to slot everything into perspective. Mine, now, is that the cancer might still be lurking around and in my system somewhere, ready to dive in and stir up my life all over again when I least expect it.

I had already been informed that I would have to take medication – in the form of tablets – each day for the next five years, also take a course of radiotherapy, have regular yearly check-ups and mammograms. Now my consultant is advising me about the efficacy and wisdom of that other emotionally loaded little ‘c’ word… chemotherapy.

Some forms of breast cancer respond very well to chemo and shrivel and die at the mere suggestion. Others are completely unaffected by it. To discover which category my little ‘visitor’ falls into, some of the cancerous cells have now been dispatched, post haste, to a laboratory in California.

It will be about two months before any further treatment of the nasty invasive kind can take place. My task at present is to recover my health and strength.

In the meantime, I have other tasks to fulfil on other levels.

My heart goes out to all the many people who are currently undergoing or have in the past gone through the painful transformational challenges of ill health. It is tough in the extreme. Personally, I have learned to bless my physical body and the varying state of my health. It is a great guide, an all-knowing teacher and a source of wonderful experience and opportunity.

Right now, I have a great deal to process and work through on many levels, so none of you – even my nearest and dearest – might hear anything from me for a few weeks. I am absolutely fine, but I ask that you understand that I need this time and space – please do not take offense. I love you all dearly – and yes, that applies just as much to the reader who has only just discovered my blogs as it does to my closest friend and is not said lightly or glibly but felt deeply and sincerely by me. Love and gratitude – along with the inevitable accompanying sense of joy – is what my private, inner philosophy is based on.

You might come across me sat alone at the beach, or somewhere along a woodland path or out on the mountain side, but I shall be in deep communication with all that is around me and with all that is buried deep within me. I shall be full of love and joy. Rest assured that everything is just as it should be with me.

I might even post a few blogs during that time – I have some ideas which I would love to share with you all.

In the meantime, a huge ‘thank you’ to you ALL for your loving support. It is also incredibly humbling. I have verily floated on a warm sea of good will and loving wishes and it has been such a massively beneficial part of my experience recently – I cannot convey just to what degree I feel wonderfully blessed by you all.

With my love.

Inspiration With A Spring In Your Step

Spring In Your Step coverComforting and inspiring – seasonal poems, recipes, craft and gardening projects, celebrations, festivals and bits of history dotted among tales of modern life in Wales and an unusual childhood in 1960’s Lancashire. Read from cover to cover or dip into as the fancy takes you. An uplifting new approach to spring with timeless humour, poignancy and wisdom. Just what is needed to combat late winter blues and the challenges of Covid.

Give yourself – or a loved one – a treat. Perfect for Mother’s Day.

‘Spring In Your Step; Discover and Celebrate the Magic of Springtime’
by Gillian Monks

Buy from Herbary Books

Buy from Amazon

 

 

My Free Gift To You All

Nantlle Ridge in SnowI am offering the January module in the on-line digital cycle of Walking With The Goddess for free. It is my wholehearted gift to all those who might wish to complete or newly begin this exciting adventure. As the years turn and the 2020 cycle reaches its conclusion and the 2021 cycle just begins, this month appropriately features the goddess, Arianrhod, weaver of cosmic time and fate, who will help us to birth a new and better future. It also includes Dwynwen, patroness of lovers, who’s special day is celebrated at the end of January and who will help us to further develop our own capacity for unconditional love.

To register to receive this completely free information – which also includes an audio guided journey, one-to-one support and private Facebook discussion page – simply click on this link: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/checkout?edd_action=add_to_cart&download_id=825

You will also find lots more information about the other eleven months/modules , which Welsh higher deities are featured, what topics are covered and how they can support and help us by clicking on: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/walking-with-the-goddess/

I realised nearly a year ago that it was amazing synchronicity that I should decide to forge this new path in conjunction with the Celtic Welsh gods and goddesses of old just as the pandemic was first making its presence felt. Each month I have intuited and channelled what I have been told. Sometimes, as in the case of this month of January, this has delayed the writing and distribution of the module as I waited until the time felt just right and the information was ready to flow.

I wish all of you a year in which you will find connection and love. Only then shall we all be able to come together to heal and build a new and better world.

With my love.

Cast Your Bread Upon The Water

Gillian in drawing roomAround the turn of the millennium my family and I joined in with Operation Christmas Child, originated by a couple in Wrexham and eventually taken over by the charity Samaritan’s Purse. The whole concept is to decorate and fill a shoebox with suitable items for a child between the ages of 2-4, 5 – 10, or 11 – 14. Ideally the contents are a mixture of school items, toiletries and toys, destined for youngsters in war-torn zones or natural disaster areas… little ones who might have lost everything or have very little.

I encouraged my own son to put together boxes for boys of his own age and he had a lot of fun thinking about what a lad might like and how much he could shoehorn into the confines of a shoebox. Having only the one son, I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed choosing all sorts of little girly sparkly pretty things which, normally, I never got to even look at let alone buy. In the shoe boxes we sent out we were encouraged to also include a Christmas card with a personal message. I used to also stick in a photo of us all with my contact details.

As my son grew up and life got busier it was an activity which gradually fell into abeyance within our household and I have to confess that I had completely forgotten all about the shoebox appeal… until yesterday when I received a message from a young lady in Serbia. As a child she had received several shoeboxes over the years and faithfully kept the cards and messages which accompanied them. She tells me that the other day she was looking for something and came across the cards and decided that she would like to send her thanks.

To say that I was surprised to receive her message was a major understatement… but I am also utterly delighted, touched and humbled. How often do we reach out to others through anonymous charitable acts, never expecting to hear more about the recipients, let alone receive thanks. My greatest joy is that the little girl who was has grown into a beautiful, accomplished and highly educated young woman with a good job, living in a world which is infinitely better than the one she grew up in. Knowing that I was able, for even a split second, to help support and bring encouragement and happiness to that little one to help her on her way is far more thanks than I could ever rightfully expect. To be able to now put a face and name to one of these children is simply the icing on the cake.

This has truly been my very best Christmas gift!

And you can depend upon it that next autumn I shall once more be filling a shoebox. So far, in the last thirty years since the charity was started, 178 million boxes have been delivered to little ones in need.

Might I interest you in also participating in this enjoyable and very worthwhile activity?

https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child

Riding The Winter Skies

Sunset across field

In a couple of weeks it will be the Solstice – Midwinter is almost upon us! Belief in the Wild Hunt is widespread at this time of year. Here in Wales it is led by the King of the Tylweth Teg, Gwyn ap Nudd, who as psychopomp has a very particular function to fulfil. I invite you to sign up for the December Walking With The Goddess module and take your own guided journey with Gwyn across the winter skies.

Similarly, this months module gives you the opportunity to learn the functions of Mother Holly who, in similar fashion, guides her reindeer-driven sleigh through the frosty atmosphere. Both guided journeys are written out with the audio recording embedded within text so that you can experience the journey just as you wish. Mother Holly also helps to facilitate the deep healing of parental/family problems and rifts, especially where mothers and children are concerned. Try it and see – the support is provided to help you access your own innate wisdom, qualities and strength.

Just as importantly, whilst many Christmas activities are destined to be very different this year due to the effects of the pandemic, I encourage you to take this opportunity to completely re-evaluate your Midwinter/Christmas celebrations. To be truly authentic to your own beliefs and spiritual needs, whatever you participate in during Christmas should make your heart sing. If it doesn’t, don’t do it… or change the way you perceive and approach it. Hospitality, love, friendship, forgiveness and peace – everything you participate in over Midwinter should encompass at least one of these qualities, and if it doesn’t, scrap it altogether and do something else. If nothing else, surely the pandemic has taught us that life is too short to waste and opportunities to be out and about and to spend time with other people are far too precious to squander.

Lastly, I suggest ways in which you can embrace the Darkness of this time of the year and work with it rather than resenting and fighting it.

Give yourself a completely different experience and a real refreshing treat and come Walking With The Goddess this December…

Buy December’s module now: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/checkout?edd_action=add_to_cart&download_id=771

More information: https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/walking-with-the-goddess/

I wish you all much joy over the Midwinter period and that you find deep healing and peace.

With my love.

It’s Here!

New Book Dress Rehearsal

‘Spring’ is not quite this large – it is just the perspective of the camera shot – but I promise you that it is a good read!

It is said that if winter comes, can spring be far behind? Well, for me, winter truly begins this weekend… and my third book, ‘Spring In Your Step’ will be published ten days later. And here it is! The proof copy (which is why it has that dark strip across its front cover) just to make sure that there is nothing else that needs doing to it before it goes to print.

The book takes us all from the cold, snowy, dark depressing days of January through the spring months to the very edge of summer and explains how the celebration of the return of spring has developed over the years – not only in the U.K. but in other parts of the world too, it is just another common thread which humanity shares – but contains loads ideas of how we may enjoy these often difficult days of bad weather when the light and warmth of spring and summer seems a very long way off. There are lots of examples of how we might genuinely and authentically celebrate and enjoy these first few often inhospitable months of the year and use them for planning and laying the groundwork for the rest of our year… which, hopefully, will literally give you a real ‘spring in your step’. Like every other season, it is not really what is happening in the rest of the world but how we choose to see it, and hopefully, my third book will help everyone to recalibrate their perception of the first season of the year and make the absolute most of these fresh young spring days of hope, inspiration and potential.

‘Spring In Your Step; Discover and Celebrate the Magic of Springtime’ can be pre-ordered now on https://herbarybooks.com/product/spring-in-your-step/

‘Dementia Diary’ – published 30th September

On the 30th September, my dear friend and fellow author, Ali Sinclair, has her first book, ‘Dementia Diary; A love story to the end’ published by Herbary Books.

Ali has produced a charmingly frank, honest, sensitive, and very personal account of one woman’s challenge to single-handedly identify and care for her beloved partner who develops frontal lobe vascular dementia and it makes remarkably compelling reading. It is interwoven with poems and diary exerts which encapsulate Ali’s emotions, humour, confusion and frustrations as their love and life together is increasingly tried and tested by Bob’s deteriorating health.

The brisk, lively pace of the narrative also refreshingly illustrates how and why it is perfectly permissible to feel fear, anger, and despair and how Ali often manages to dig deep and draw on reserves of patience, love and understanding. Ali hopes that in honestly and authentically sharing her experiences it might help others in similar circumstances.

I really wish Ali well with her first venture into the literary world. It took her a great deal of courage to re-open old wounds and re-read her diaries so that she could write her beautiful, touching and inspiring story of determination, tenderness and love… to the very end.

Ali Sinclair Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ali-Sinclair-Author-106303377845196

Join her for the book launch on Zoom, 5th October 7 PM! https://zoom.us/j/96659447639?pwd=R2hQd0lGM21aamE4YXNhSGVjdWJ1QT09

 

The Goddess Don

Lammas 2019Greetings !

I hope that you and your loved ones are still safe and well?

August is upon us and the start of the grain harvest. The seasons are turning and our challenging situation with Covid-19 still stalks us. But here we are. The sun is shining, the crops ripening and a different – but potentially very positive – future lies before us. A future which we can all participate in reforming and rebuilding.

This is the theme of Walking With The Goddess in August which introduces you to the mother goddess, Don. She will help you to identify and connect to elemental energy and encourage you to develop your own relationship with such an entity. Working with elemental energy, you will be able to begin to directly heal all that is amiss and broken upon our planet – including humanity itself. This you can achieve. It is not difficult or complicated or necessary to be gifted in some special way. You can begin today. Take charge of the future and become empowered in your own creation of an ecologically sustainable and harmonious new way of life.

It is up to you – the decision is yours – the way is found by unlimited connection and unconditional love to all.

https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/checkout/

With my love to you,
Gillian.

Glorious June!

Flowers for the goddessJune is here! A gorgeously inspiring month of flowers, light and beauty. With it comes a new module of Walking With The Goddess inviting you to blend and meld with the natural potency and energy of the Sun as we approach Midsummer, to experience a wondrously joyful dance with the Lady of Flowers, and to harmonise your wisdom and channels of connection with the Owl Goddess, Blodeuwedd.

You will also be guided to open your eyes, become more sensitively and intuitively aware and deepen your psychic abilities to understand what is going on around you in your personal, domestic world. And you will be encouraged to formulate a new future – reject a return to the out-worn ‘old norm’ and dream into being a vibrant new  normality.  This is a joyous, celebratory month and the activities of this module reflect the optimism and potential of an alternative bright future.

This is a fresh and totally original way of experiencing and interacting with ancient archetypal deity, both for the self development and the healing of our planet.

Click on the link  https://www.earthwalking.co.uk/walking-with-the-goddess/
to find out more. It only costs £5 and there is no obligation to fulfil any task or to continue. If you would like to discuss anything with me about the digital course, simply send me an email or message.

One way or another, I very much look forward to hearing from you!

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