Vision 13

Vision

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s you are reading this, the team here in the office are busy preparing for the Vision Spiritual Showcase (on March 25th and 26th). Have you booked your tickets yet? For a weekend that is full-to-bursting with everything spiritual, paranormal and holistic ... all we need is you! (See our advert on P10 for more details). In this issue, Vision explores mystical Tibet and its fascinating traditions. You can read about the amazing Mummified Monks (P24) and explore Shangri-la: the legendary lost Eden

on Earth (P20)! Don’t miss our interview with Derek Acorah about his new show: Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns (P6); our real-life ghost story (P18) and our look into the results of the BBC show Alternative Medicine (P48).

Do keep sending me your letters, I love to find out how you are getting on with our tips. Don’t forget, that if your letter is printed you will win a prize (see below)! I hope to see many of you at the Showcase. Until then, have a great month.

Diana

Congratulations to our Visionaries Co-ordinator, Nance Turner-Collings on the arrival of Bodie Thomas, born on 2nd February. Lots of love from all at Vision.

Letters

Each letter published will receive a copy of Pure Calm from the Pure Series worth £10.95, courtesy of New World Music. Let Stuart Jones’s fluidity and perfection on keyboards clear your mind.

The Star Letter will win four titles from the Pure series including Pure Calm, Pure Dreaming, Pure Love & Light and Pure Tranquility – worth a total of £43.80.

For further information and a free catalogue, contact New World Music on 01986 891600, or visit www.newworldmusic.com We reserve the right to edit letters.

Star Letter Business Success I just want to say a big thank you to you and your magazine for helping me get my business off the ground. Thanks to you all, people are now asking me to do residential courses in the future; as people from all over the country have been calling. It’s fantastic! Looks like it’s time to get my thinking cap back on: what with getting the business going and trying to become an author at the same time. I’ll manage to slot it in somewhere, just as I always do.

Once again, a giant “thank you”.

Debbie Rushbrooke, Ipswich

Spiritual Help Thanks for a wonderful magazine, it is packed with interest from the front to the last page, it’s been a great help in my spiritual development. Your magazine tops the others, it’s well presented and it’s fairly priced at £2.95 (but even if it was priced more, I would still buy it). I like the pages on Vision shop, (of which I will be ordering soon). The Reviews page is interesting as is Coven Corner.

It’s snapped up as soon as I see it in the shops.

Shane Stannad, Great Dunmow, Essex.

Breath of fresh air I was amazed to find your magazine on the shelf of my local newsagent. It was a breath of fresh air and has inspired me to continue with my creative spiritual work and finally start the book that’s been in my thoughts for ages. In the near future you could be reviewing it in your wonderful magazine. You never know!

PS Could you possibly include more information on events and workshops in Northern Ireland Carol Coney, Dungannon, N. Ireland.

Ed.: Ok, folks, over to you! Do you have an event in Northern Ireland? Drop me a letter/email for our Day Tripper section.

3 Errata, Vision 12: P40. Image for Eihaz as left and not as printed.

Vision 13

P6 Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns

P8 Phenomena of Rudi Schneider P11 Visionaries P14 Footsteps of the Yeti P16 Experiences Explained P18 “Spirit writing told me to leave”

And the rest...

P28 Destiny Doctors P46 Competitions P60 Next Month P75 Subscriptions P76 Reviews P82 Day Tripper

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P20 The Road to Shangri-La P24 Mummified Monks P26 Himalayan Singing Bowls

P44 Spiritual Relaxation for Children P30 “I saw myself come out of my body�

P32 Love on the Cards P36 Tibetan Meditation P39 Crystal Ball Reading P42 Tibetan Superstitions P43 Dream Directory

P48 Alternative Medicine P50 Tibetan Acupressure P52 Talking to Texas P54 Bless this House P55 DIY Qi Gong P56 Opening the Heart P58 Coven Corner

P62 Astrological overview P63 Horoscopes -

your April forecast

by James

Christie 5 Vision 13

Spiritual phenomenon Derek Acorah speaks to Diana Jarvis about his new series and his first Live show in York.

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here are as many opinions about what Derek Acorah does for a living as there are stars in the sky, but if you meet him it is likely that you will feel as I do. Derek Acorah is a genuinely nice man. His enthusiasm for the paranormal and the spiritual is palpable and permeates everything he does. Especially Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns, his very own series, which has been aired on Living TV. I asked Derek how he felt about the new show and believe me, his enthusiasm came across in every word!

“I’m absolutely thrilled about the live show (held in York) and the new series. For the last 10 years I have wanted to be part of a show that would allow the public to express how they feel and recount their own experiences. There are quite a few elements in the new shows that give them this opportunity. I believe that many people have had experiences and have been afraid to speak out through fear of ridicule.”

Derek takes the psychic and paranormal to viewers’ doors with Doorstep Divination, a part of the show that is very dear to Derek’s heart.

Danniella and Derek descend on an unsuspecting householder that Derek is drawn to as he drives around. If they are amenable, Derek then goes into the house and does them an on-the-spot reading. As the show is live, they can then say how they feel for the whole world to hear. The results have been exceptional.

“I think it’s important that they (the chosen member of the public) have the opportunity to experience a live reading and give feedback on the spot, knowing that I have no prior knowledge.

I feel it will give people the courage to discuss the subject more openly. It’s important to make critics rethink. I wanted to do something that could be checked and verified. I was also quite happy to go into a sceptic’s home and I got that opportunity in one of the programmes.

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“In one show we visited an architect that had bought a pub he had made into a home. He said at the door that if I came in I would get nothing from him, he said he’d make a show of me.

Danniella asked me if I still wanted to do it … of course I did! We sat down with the man and his wife in his back kitchen and started the reading. I made a point of not looking at the man so that I was not influenced by his body language. I picked up his father who gave him some specific advice about a problem with his house. At the end of the piece he got up and hugged me.

Apparently he’d never heard of me or mediumship and said from now on he would have a major

rethink. After the show the man used his dead father’s advice to sort out the problem with his house. He got in touch with the producers of the show shortly after and told them that I had accurately picked up something that no-one but he and his father could have known and that the advice from his father had saved him thousands of pounds!”

Viewers have certainly been vocal about Derek’s readings. I watched from the audience of the live show in York, as Derek gave a reading to a York resident. The whole of the outside broadcast at the man’s house was shown live on a plasma screen so that the audience could see that Derek didn’t go in until the cameras were ready to film the piece.

The

“Without a doubt, the best starting point is your local spiritualist church.

Many people find that they can feel uncomfortable when they’ve attended for the first time because, like any group, there can be politics. Just avoid that and concentrate on the spiritual. You will gain so much and be helped to develop in the right way.

Never forget your guides are there to help you and make sure that you take notice of any messages you receive from them, they are there to help.”

So what are Derek’s goals for the householder was visibly amazed as Derek described people on the other side – he confirmed that Derek was spot-on!

Doorstep Divination is not all the show is about, though. Derek seems to get a great deal from his contact with spirits haunting various locations. He is followed into these buildings by his intrepid co-presenters Danniella Westbrook and Angus Purden. I asked Derek how he got on with them both.

“Fabulous! I had met Danniella on the programme Loose Lips and had spoken to her at length. We had got on very well indeed, I liked her very much.

When Living were choosing my copresenters I put Danniella’s name forward. I had also met Angus, I felt he

During the live show in York I watched the investigations with interest.

At the end of one of them the team were talking about helping out the spirit resident. I asked Derek how he felt about spirit rescue – helping to pass spirits from earthbound to the ‘other side’?

“We have done a lot of rescues during the series. I think it is an absolutely fabulous element of the work I do, it is so important. We have been able to rescue and send over many spirits that needed help and it gives me a great thrill to feel I’m helping in this way.”

Derek is known for being a

I am not too concerned about looking too far into “ the future and trying to plan and expand. I just want to do the best I can in the present and leave the rest to Spirit. I don’t think you can go wrong if you put yourself in their hands.

”

was right for the show and again, Living agreed. We have all become friends and I think it shows in the programmes. I speak to both Danniella and Angus on a regular basis when we are not filming.”

So are either Danniella or Angus psychic?

“Angus says he isn’t and that’s that!

However, Danniella is starting to feel things – she feels that her intuition has been enhanced since filming Ghost Towns but is not sure how. We will have to watch and see how they develop!”

medium, but I wondered how he felt about other subjects within the field?

“My house has an array of different crystals, which I’ve collected over the years. I have carefully placed them in the property and I often meditate with crystals. Our home (Derek shares his rural home with his wife Gwen and his dogs) is like a crystal sanctuary.”

Derek has many, many fans and a common question is “how can I learn to develop my psychic potential?”. I asked Derek if he could offer them any advice.

future?

“I am not too concerned about looking too far into the future and trying to plan and expand. I just want to do the best I can in the present and leave the rest to Spirit. I don’t think you can go wrong if you put yourself in their hands.”

Ghost Towns is touring around the British Isles and visiting some of the most haunted towns in Britain. I wondered if Derek had a location anywhere else that he would really like to visit?

“I would love to go to Salem (Massachusetts, USA). I think it would be an amazing experience. I am making every effort to try to get out there to do something.”

Finally, I asked Derek what he would most like to say to all his fans out there.

“I am thrilled and ecstatic so many people are turning out to support Ghost Towns and are getting themselves involved. It is wonderful that they are prepared to tell their stories and free themselves of their fears. I would say – don’t fear ridicule (if you believe) – stand up and be counted! I am so grateful for your support and your kindness.”

As I left at the end of the Ghost Towns live show and watched the hundreds of fans streaming out of the studio I couldn’t help but think that Derek has got his wish … people stood up and were counted!

Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns can be seen on Living TV, Tuesdays at 9pm from 31st Jan to 28th March.

7 Vision 13

Materialised limbs, cold breezes and moving objects – Paul Adams explores the life of one of the world’s most impressive mediums.

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ince the dawn of Spiritualism and the development of mediumship, orthodox science has struggled to come to terms with the phenomena of the séance room. Many mediums have been tested to see if they were faking their skills – and the most tested medium is Rudi Schneider. A young Austrian motor mechanic, Rudi became an internationally renowned physical medium in the years between the First and Second World Wars.

Rudi Schneider was born 27 August 1908 in Brannau-am-Inn, Austria, and in a large family was the youngest of six boys. As a youth, Rudi enjoyed football and was particularly interested in aeroplanes and cars, ultimately making the motor trade his profession. The Schneider family, headed by Josef Below: Schneider with fiancée Mitzi Mangl

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Schneider (a printing compositor) and his wife Elise, became interested in séances in the spring of 1919. Rudi’s brother Willi, senior by five years and then 16, developed mediumistic abilities. Using a table-like apparatus with a pencil attached to one leg, he was able to write out answers to questions set by the family members. Willi’s trance personality ‘Olga’ claimed to be the notorious dancer Lola Montez, mistress to the King of Bavaria.

Captain Kogelnick, a customs official, attended Willi’s séances and was impressed. Soon Germany’s foremost psychical investigator, the flamboyant Baron von Schrenck-Notzing of Munich, became interested in the phenomena. During one blank séance ‘Olga’ requested assistance from Willi’s brother. Shortly after the request, Rudi sleepwalked into the room and joined the circle. ‘Olga’ then began to manifest through Rudi and the psychic career of one of the most powerful physical mediums began.

Willi Schneider continued as a medium with a new trance personality into the mid 1920s when his powers ultimately began to fade.

At his Munich laboratory, SchrenckNotzing undertook a detailed examination of Rudi’s mediumship. To eliminate possible fraud

Above: Harry Price (right) demonstrating the control procedure on Schneider

he employed an electrical controlling procedure by which medium and sitters were linked by metal gloves and socks forming a circuit, with warning lamps immediately giving away any attempts to break the circle. Despite the strict control and with Rudi secured in the traditional curtained ‘cabinet’, Schrenck-Notzing recorded the movement of objects within the séance room and the partial materialisation of limbs. During the 1920s, British, French and American investigators also tested Schneider.

Despite two Viennese professors asserting that it was possible to duplicate levitation effects by normal means, his reputation continued to grow. However, in February 1929 Schrenck-Notzing died suddenly and Rudi’s mediumship was left without a benefactor, there being no one in Germany able to continue the Baron’s work.

The British psychical researcher Harry Price, now famous for his investigation of Borley Rectory, had

become convinced of the reality of physical phenomena. After many years of exposing fraudulent mediums, he had become convinced by his sittings with Willi Schneider at Schrenck-Notzing’s home. He had also attended a séance with Rudi in 1925. Following SchrenckNotzing’s death he immediately travelled to Munich and arranged for sittings with Rudi at his own organisation, the National Laboratory of Psychical Research in London. Price’s first series took place in April 1929 again using the electrical controlling technique.

Impressive phenomena including movement of the cabinet curtains, movement of control objects and the partial materialisations of spirits. Price was so impressed he issued a £1000 newspaper challenge to anyone able to

Above: Price demonstrating the control procedure, 1929

Impressive phenomena including “movement of the cabinet curtains,

movement of control objects and the partial materialisations of spirits made Price issue a £1000 newspaper challenge to anyone able to duplicate these effects under identical conditions

”

duplicate these effects under identical conditions. There were no takers.

Subsequently, Price personally made the same challenge to the famous magician Noel Maskelyne on the stage of the Coliseum Music Hall. A book by Price on Schneider’s mediumship followed a second successful series of experiments that ended in January 1930.

In the autumn of the same year, Schneider travelled to the Institut Métapsychique in Paris to give sixteen séances for Eugene Osty, a leading French investigator. Using sophisticated equipment Osty was able to prove that the medium produced a form of energy capable of absorbing infra-red radiation.

Osty also recorded telekinetic phenomena including bell ringing and witnessed a white mist within the séance room.

Back in London between February and May 1932, Rudi gave a third and final series of sittings for Harry Price. With an automatic camera set-up

Price photographed the movement of objects, sitters experienced tactual phenomena, there were more materialisations and again infra-red

radiation was affected, all with Schneider being physically controlled by the sitters.

However, Price was a complex and controversial figure and things eventually turned sour. During the course of the sittings Price was furious to learn that Rudi had agreed to séances with members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), an organisation with which he had an uneasy relationship.

Price obtained a photograph which purported to show Schneider with an arm free from control. It also implied that Schneider was manufacturing phenomena. He purposely sat on the evidence for a year until after Lord Charles Hope and Lord Rayleigh had tested Rudi, before publishing it in a report claiming the Austrian was a fraud.

The photograph itself is ambiguous and SPR member Anita Gregory subsequently claimed in a book published posthumously in 1985 that Price faked the picture to frame Schneider as revenge for collaborating with a rival organisation.

There were further séances in England in 1934 but they were poor and by now Rudi’s powers were waning. Rudi married and moved to Weyer in Upper Austria where he ran a driving school.

The most scientifically examined of all mediums died of a brain haemorrhage on 28 April 1957 at the age of 49.

Further information on Rudi Schneider can be found at www.harryprice.co.uk

Above: Price’s photograph showing Schneider with arm free from control

9 Vision 13

The time: A cold foggy January evening The place: The Highwaymans Tavern, Selby, N. Yorkshire The Visionaries: Nance Turner-Collings, Dean Ballance, Diana Jarvis

H

ello again my friends, welcome to another investigation undertaken by the Visionaries.

Heavy equipment and my heavy pregnancy notwithstanding, we braved the wilds of Selby in North Yorkshire to visit The Highwaymans Tavern in the hope of discovering more about the spooky-goings on that have been reported. Here’s our story.

Nance Turner-Collings

11 Vision 13

Background For those of you who pay attention, you’ll notice that we have mentioned The Highwaymans Tavern in one of our past investigations. This pub is now managed

by Dave and Val, our hosts when we were at the New Inn in Selby. When were at the New Inn, we picked up a message which we were told directly linked to The Highwaymans Tavern, so we felt obliged to visit and see if we were being led somewhere. Read our investigation … and see what you think!

When I first went down the corridor I felt that I had been transported to the Rovers Return! I could see a lady that I believed was a previous landlady, she had beehive blonde hair and was called either Patty or Patricia. There seemed to be a strong female connection to the past and there was a ‘working mans’ club’ atmosphere.

When Dean went into this area he got a stronger feeling of stables and felt that he should be outside.

Di felt strange here and heard a voice saying “you’ll know when you go up”. She was sure that the pub was laid out wrong.

told who the person was.

She also picked up a little boy, but didn’t know whether he was “actual” or “residue”. He was wearing long shorts or cut off trousers and had black wavy hair.

He was around 4’6” high.

Before the investigation Even before we’d settled in to a night’s investigation, Di felt a man come into the bar via the front door. She saw him walk along a section of the room that she felt used to be a corridor many years ago. He was a tall man (around 6’), with thick, grey hair. She said that he looked very “weather-beaten” and that he actually turned to look at her before moving on.

Main Bar Area, corridor and toilets When I first walked past the snooker table area I heard the name “Arthur”.

Arthur told me that he still visits but sits in different parts of the bar. He considered the regulars to be a “jolly bunch of people”. He said that he knew people knew he was here.

Dean tuned-in to a Russian sailor who used to drink in the pub. The sailor gave Dean the impression that the pub was notorious for fights and that there were possibly stables linked to the pub.

At the end of the bar is a corridor leading to the toilets. In this area we all felt different!

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Attic Rooms Behind the Bar I was told by a spirit that the pub had no real connection to Dick Turpin and I was also told that the name of the pub is wrong. At this point I was given the date 1762. I felt very light-headed and I could see someone pulling an object that looked like a sack. I felt that whatever was going on was very ‘cloak and dagger’ and that the person pulling the sack had no morals at all. I also got a bad headache. Spirit said that there was a “Sherlock Holmes” situation going on here.

When Dean entered he felt that he was being watched and was also very lightheaded. He had earache in his left ear.

He also felt that he had been touched, he felt the hair was standing up on his neck and his necklace was rolled around by something!

When Di went behind the bar, she heard someone say that they would just “bundle her up and…” . She said that the atmosphere was “nasty”, as if someone had been abused. She also got a bad headache over her right eye. Di was quite insistent that someone had been treated really badly or even worse. She said that she had heard a female voice say: “my life is not my own” and felt that this Spirit was really afraid. However, she was not

When I first entered I got the strong impression that the building has a ‘personality complex’. I felt cramped up, as if things were just ‘wrong’: like the attic section felt as if it should be detached from the rest of the pub. I could also feel someone in the room who was not happy at all. A very opinionated, standoffish type of person, with a domineering nature. I felt that they were male and quite short.

Dean reported that he felt very cold, but a ‘Spirit cold’. He picked up the names Alice and a Julie or Julia. He said that someone had been beaten and abused here, he could see a woman with a long plait in her hair. He also picked up on the name Edward and he saw ‘Alice’ – she had ringlets in her hair. He was then given the early 1700’s.

When Di went into this room, she felt that somebody was kept in here. She felt the little boy around too, but didn’t think he was “kept” in there. She said she

could see a woman with long wavy hair who was plump. She also got pains on the left side of her jaw. She said that somebody had been beaten around and thought it could be the woman. Then she heard a voice saying “she’s dead – she’s dead”. The rest of the crew noted a strong smell of toast in the room – a burning smell (nothing in the kitchen, we checked).

Children’s Room When I went into this room I felt that it should be a formal dining room. I also suffered from hot sweats, but the room was not hot. Funnily enough, when I was on the landing I felt like I wanted to cry or attack someone! I felt very uneasy like I was unable to enter the rooms from the landing.

When Dean went into the room he picked up a man by the window that he felt was a town crier.

Di felt that there was a real atmosphere in this room, as if many spirits had been through. She also felt that the room was very warm, much warmer than the other rooms, even though it wasn’t ‘actually’ that warm. She also felt very dizzy.

Secret Room In another small box room there was a door to a secret room. We took it in turns to stand in the box room near the secret room to see what we could pick up (entry to the secret room was not safe).

I thought that the box room itself would have been a pantry, I also felt that someone may have died up the stairs. I kept getting the feeling of hide and seek.

Dean felt that someone was hidden away in here, possibly from the law. He said he’d had a similar feeling throughout the pub. He felt that someone may have died here, possibly taking their own life.

Di felt dizzy, sick and had to leave the room.

Equipment Dowsing: Both rods and pendulum registered activity in the bar area where we picked up the most information.

EVP: We had a new digital electronic dictation machine for this vigil and it came up trumps! We had carefully ensured that there was no previous recording before we prepared an Electronic Voice Phenomena test. We asked questions of ‘thin air’ and left gaps for Spirit to speak to us. Over one of our

tests, we heard the muffled voice of a woman. There had been no-one speaking at this point except Di, who was asking the questions. Who spoke, then?

The Highwaymans Tavern is on Ousegate in Selby, N. Yorkshire 01757 704068 Next month we are at Ye Old Sun Inn, Colton

Opposite far left: Nance dowsing in the bar area.

Opposite middle: Dean notetaking in corridor Oppositeright top: Nance with orb Opposite right bottom: Di with EMF meter on attic stairs.

This page left: Di with EMF meter in Living Quarters This page above: Dean in bar with large orb behind

History of The Highwaymans Tavern

Living Quarters The living area felt that it had a really nice atmosphere, much nicer than the rest of the pub.

I also saw a blue light flash right across the room, with no obvious explanation.

Dean said that he felt safe in this room, that it was different from the rest of the building and that for some reason, spirit don’t cross the threshold.

Di didn’t pick up any Spirit activity in this area at all, but she felt totally comfortable and safe.

The Highwayman Tavern certainly has a chequered past! It is first recorded as The Malt Shovel, a reference to the fact that it is sited next door to the Maltings. After that it became the Jolly Sailor. This name is not surprising, given Selby’s history as one of the largest docks in North Yorkshire at the time. These docks were right outside the pub, where the river still runs. Many sailors would have enjoyed a drink here, and the pub was known to be a frequent haunt of sailors from the Eastern Block and from Russia. Dean had sensed a Russian Sailor. He had also picked up that the pub was rough, with a lot of fights. He was quite right on this too.In the 1960s the pub was known as a ‘rock and roll’ pub and was full of Teddy Boys. Perhaps this is the period I picked up with my landlady with a blonde beehive? One thing that we all picked up is the ill-treatment of a woman who had been in the pub. We already knew that there had been the death of a woman here from our investigation of the New Inn where Nance had picked ‘her’ up (see Vision 11). However, we did not know how she had died. There are records

documenting the death of a woman in the 1970s, who was the partner of a previous landlord. She had died in mysterious circumstances: she was found dead at the bottom of a set of stone steps which are situated behind the bar. The police investigated, but were obliged to return an open verdict as they could not prove that she had been pushed but could not be sure that she had died by falling, either. The landlord that was partner to this lady is still alive and lives abroad.

When this happened, the pub was known as the Jolly Sailor. As each of us independently picked up feelings of a woman being abused we would probably not make the best jury, should the case ever properly open again!

One other point to note is that the front of pub has been totally changed and the front entrance would have originally run through the area where Di had seen the Spirit man walking. It was also confirmed that Dean was correct when he picked up stables, they had indeed been located at the back of the pub. The corridor towards the toilets was originally the back yard area.

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Vision 13

Richard Freeman braves the rocky mountain slopes of Tibet in search of the Yeti

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here can be no mystery beast of which the public perception is so wrong as the yeti. For the man in the street, the word yeti conjures up a white-furred monster stalking the eternal snows of the high Himalayas. This idea may come from the yeti’s popular western name ‘abominable snowman’. In fact, the yeti is not abominable, does not live in snow, and is not a man. This popular delusion dates from 1921 when a telegraphist mistranslated the Nepalese/ Chinese term metho-kagmi as ‘abominable man of the snows’. The term actually means man of the rocks, much like the word ‘yeti’, the westernization of the Sherpa term yeh – meaning rock creature.

Also unknown to the general public is that there seems to be three distinct types of yeti. The teh-lma is 4-5 feet tall and walks erect. The meh-the is around 6 feet tall and when walking is sometimes on all fours and sometimes erect. The huge dzu-the is generally around 8-10 feet tall. Also, yetis are not white. Their fur has been reported as black, brown, grey, or reddish: but never white.

One of the most dramatic sightings took place May 1942. Slavmir Rawicz, a Pole sent to a Siberian gulag, escaped with a number of other prisoners in 1941. The men walked an amazing 3000km across Mongolia, Sinkiang, and Tibet. On the borders of Sikkim and Bhutan they entered the narrow Chumbi Valley, where they encountered two huge ape-like creatures on a ledge. The creatures were reported as being over seven feet tall with rusty-brown fur, thick

necks, and long arms. It is believed that one was a male and the other a female.

Rawicz did a drawing of the beasts; it shows high, domed heads like those seen on adult male gorillas. The animals did not behave aggressively but the men were so frightened that they took a different route causing one man to fall to his death.

Usually, the yeti is seen alone or in a pair. However, Jean Marques-Riviere

inches tall and covered with reddish hair.

When it approached him he became fearful and threw a rock at it. The creature moved off making a sound like ‘go-ro, go-ro’.

A few weeks later, at the same place, Yang Wanchun saw another yeren.

The creature had not noticed him so he crept closer. He watched the creature for an hour during which it made 12 different vocalizations, variously akin to a bird chirping, a leopard growling, a dog barking, a pony neighing and an infant crying. It was 8 feet tall and three feet across the shoulders. The legs looked powerful and the long arms hung below the knees. Its head was larger than a man’s with a prominent brow ridge and sunken eyes. Wanchun finally threw a rock at the creature and it ran off, rapidly ascending a hill and grasping branches as it went.

The evidence for the yeti and its Chinese cousin is compelling. In 1959, explorer Peter Byrne was shown a mummified yeti hand in Pangboche Monastery, Nepal. Byrne later stole some finger bones, replacing them with human ones. The bones were smuggled back to England, by none other than actor Jimmy Stewart. These were examined by a number of experts. Primatologist W C Ostin Hill declared that they looked like Neanderthal finger bones. Fred Ulmer noted they were larger than a gorilla’s finger bone and anthropologist George Agogino thought they were characteristic of a huge ape. Zoologist Charles A Leone did serological tests on some skin from the specimen and found it was not human, gorilla, monkey, pig, cow, horse,

The creatures were reported as being “ over seven feet tall with rusty brown fur,

thick necks, and long arms. Ît is believed that one was a male and the other a female.

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claimed to have seen a group of ten on the Tibet/Nepal boarder. He had fallen in with a group of men looking for the yeti and trekked through jungle for 8 days with them. Finally, they came upon some huge footprints. Following the footprints they heard a booming noise, at which point the Sherpas with them refused to go on. Three men advanced on the noise and came upon a group of ten yeti, all around 10-12 feet tall with brown fur and gorilla like faces. They stood in a natural circle of rock and one of them was beating a hollow tree trunk whilst the others looked on.

The yeti is not confined to the Himalayas. It is also known in China where it is called the yeren, meaning ‘wild man’. Most sightings come from the Shennoggjia forest in Hubi province and the Qinling-Taibaishan Reserve in Shannnxi province.

It was in the latter area that Pang Gensshen encountered a yeren on June 6th 1977. Pang said it was 7 feet 6

is no reason why these giant “There apes could not have retreated to remote forests and valleys … and still walk the earth today. ” or goat. Soon after that, the bones vanished and no one to this day knows of their whereabouts. However, George Agogino had kept a small piece of skin.

In 1991 it was analyzed and found to be “not human, but near human”. Soon after this the rest of the hand was stolen from Pangboche Monastery.

Dung, supposedly from a yeti, was discovered in 1959 and when analyzed contained the eggs of an unknown parasitic worm. As most gutdwelling worms are peculiar to one host species it is likely that whatever produced the stool was an unknown species.

Hair taken from Shennoggjia forest was analyzed via particle-induced x-ray emission. It was found that the hairs had a high zinc/iron ratio and were chemically and structurally different from all known species. An unknown species of higher primate was suggested.

More recently a hair supposedly from a yeti was found in Bhutan. It has so far not been matched to any known species.

What is the yeti? The small upright kind may be a relative of orangpendek, a creature reported from the jungles of Sumatra. It appears to be a bipedal ape related to the orang-utan.

The medium sized yeti may be a mainland form of orang-utan. Today these apes are only found in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, but fossil remains have been found on mainland Asia. I once spoke to a man who had seen an orang-utan on the Malayan peninsular during his national service in the 1950s.

Finally, the huge yeti may be a descendant from a monster ape known

from fossil teeth and jawbones.

Gigantopithicus lived in China around 500,000 years ago. The shape of its jawbone suggests it was a biped.

Gigantopithicus was the closest thing to King Kong that ever lived.

Judging by the size of its teeth and jaws it must have been 10 feet tall.

still alive today. There is no reason why these giant apes could not have retreated to remote forests and valleys… and still walk the earth today.

Gigantopithicus fossils have been found alongside the bones of rhino, elephant, tapir, and panda; all of which are

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Diana Jarvis explains your weird experiences.

White column mystery Would you take a look at the picture I’ve sent? You can see my two grandchildren, but at the side of the picture is a strange white column. What is it? I don’t have a camera strap and there was nothing I could see that could possibly obscure the lens. The picture was taken on a 35mm camera with a standard film.

Marlene, West Yorkshire Diana’s Answer: Thank you for the picture. As you are using film, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the strange image on the right of the picture could simply be a developing fault. It could also be a reflection, but I don’t think so. It is very uniform and it seems to have depth. It looks just like a ‘vortex’; a paranormal phenomenon that is allegedly a stage of spirit manifestation. I am intrigued and think that there is a good chance you have captured something that is paranormal. Children are very sensitive to Spirit and Spirit love being around children. I think your little ones may have some friends in Spirit.

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If you would like to share your experiences, send them to Diana Jarvis at the Vision address or email: experiencesexplained@visionmagazine.uk.com Please give as many details as possible – tell us what you saw, how you felt, and what you sensed etc. We reserve the right to edit letters.

Dreamtime travels I have a recurring dream that intrigues me. I will feel and see myself hovering about my own body that is lying on my bed. Then I will feel myself shooting off somewhere. After a very short time I will get a sense of urgency and want to return to my sleeping body and will see myself going back into it through my head! When I go back in I would feel like my ‘soul’ (for want of a better word) is all folded up and I have to shake myself to fit back in. I’m always exhausted when I wake up after one of these dreams.

John, Stoke-on-Trent Diana’s Answer: This ‘dream’ seems just like astral projection to me! Allegedly, our spirit leaves our body every night to travel into the astral realm to learn and explore. Those people who have reported being able to astral travel describe their experiences in an almost identical fashion to the way you have described your dream! I don’t think this is a dream you have to be concerned about, more an experience you may like to become more aware of. I don’t have space to give you more details here, but I would recommend you read Matt Burton’s article on Lucid Dreaming in Vision 9.

Fishy past-life?

I am very interested in spiritual things and decided to try a past-life regression. The odd thing is, I didn’t actually go back to any past-life, but I had the strangest experience. I felt like I was swimming like a fish and that there was something stuck in my throat, it felt like it was closing up and couldn’t breathe. I could feel myself gagging to clear my throat and felt that this was the way I died. Ten minutes after the meditation I started to wretch uncontrollably, still feeling like there was something in my throat. I’m ok now, just intrigued.

Lindsay, Brighton Diana’s Answer: With many types of meditation or hypnosis we often feel as if we have experienced very little when we have actually experienced a lot. It seems to me that you may have been reliving a pastlife in a very dramatic fashion. Or should I say pastdeath: for you may have been experiencing your own passing over, possibly by drowning, or maybe by suffocation caused by something being lodged in your throat. The other suggestion I have is that this may have been a past-birth. We live and breathe in amniotic fluid as a foetus (swimming) and gag to breathe air when we are born. Going back to either of these milestones in a past-lifetime does suggest that transformation is likely to come through in your own life now as well:expect dramatic life-enhancing changes!

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Juliette W Gregson writes about St Mary’s School in Blackpool: home of a literate spirit and a moving statue!

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t the beginning of the 19th Century, Robert and Helen Cookson had lived at Layton Hawes Farm, an extensive property of 500 acres, which stood on the borders of the townships of Lytham and Marton. The land where the Cooksons once farmed is now the site of Blackpool airport, but the old farmhouse can still be seen on certain photographs taken of the air pageant which was held there in 1909.

The five Cookson sisters never married and they lived in Blackpool for many years. By 1851, Helen, Teresa and Margaret were living at No 1 Belle Vue Square, at the end of the Strand, in Blackpool. The sisters were instrumental at the very beginning of the school which was to become Layton Hill Convent. This later became Layton Hill Grammar School which was then merged with St Joseph’s College and finally became St Mary’s RC High School, which is where my story begins.

An atmospheric building, many nuns have lived and prayed at St Mary’s over the years. Today the road next to the school is called St Walburga’s as it was on the hill of the same name, but in 1901 the road was known as the ‘Lonely Lane’. Not a surprising choice of name really, I’ve seen this place in a thunderstorm: it does look very spooky and very lonely indeed.

The chapel extension was built in 1910-1920 and has been added to over the years; most of the original orchard has been built over now. The building itself is dedicated to a Cornelia Augustine Connelly ( 1809 – 1879 ) she was known as a woman, wife, mother, foundress and educator, she helped set up the many convent education schools in England and the North West.

From 1989 to 1990 I was lucky enough to attend St. Mary’s as a 6th former and was delighted with the brief history I could find out and the stories of paranormal happenings, I’ve always had an interest. Apparently, there is a white lady that walks the grounds of the original chapel, which had to be spiritually cleansed. She is said to be a nun who fell to her

Above and right: External views of St. Mary’s Below: Cornelia Connelly and nuns.

death from the 3rd floor, records are unclear about whether she was pushed or committed suicide. It seems that many nuns had a difficult life at St Mary’s, there are many babies buried in the grounds that were mothered by the nuns, but never made it past infancy.

There is a story that a nun was asleep in the 3rd floor dormitories and ‘dreamt’ there was a fire. She went to look for the fire to put it out, but in the morning the remains of the nun were found, but no evidence of a fire. One wonders who told her story if she died?

rehearsing I fixed my “AsgazeI was on the statue and, as I watched amazed, the Virgin Mary slowly blinked!

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As well as a bit of an atmosphere in the convent and its grounds, there are also underground passages that run the length of the school. I was lucky enough to know the caretaker while I was a pupil at the school and he kindly let me explore the passages: which was fascinating to say the least! The only

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place I could not go was in the room of the Head teacher, it was occupied most of the time. Personally, I believe there was a trap door there that led to a church down the road that was used during both World Wars.

I had several unusual encounters when I was at St Mary’s. When I would walk ‘there and back’ to class through the chapel I always felt very uneasy, almost like I was being watched. I then found out that the chapel was notorious and had been spiritually cleansed, needless to say I found a different route to class!

One day I was keeping a low profile outside the art room at school. I had checked that there were no classes and there was no-one in the room: the door was locked. You can imagine my utter horror as the door handle began to move, and then rattle. I just ran back up the stairs, white as a sheet. After a few minutes I decided to venture back down, there was one way to the room and one way only. This was not the smartest decision I have ever made! When I returned, I was horrified to

find that someone or something had written on the huge wooden door, ‘Leave this place!’.

Perhaps the strangest thing that ever happened to me while I was at St Mary’s was during a practice run of the school play. I was rehearsing in the main hall with a few friends. As St Mary’s is a catholic school, there were many devotional objects around, including a huge statue of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus in the hall. As I was rehearsing I fixed my gaze on the statue and, as I watched amazed, the Virgin Mary slowly blinked! I just ran. I was too afraid to tell my friends what I had witnessed, but I did do a bit of digging. It seems that years prior to this incident, a cleaner left the school for no apparent reason. Someone did manage to get an answer out of her and of course, as she had told them in confidence, it became common knowledge. She had left because she’d seen the statue of the Virgin Mary move of its own accord…

Juliette can be contacted via her website on www.blackpoolghosts.co.uk

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Michael Standing Wolf follows the well-trod path to Shangri-La; the legendary Heaven on Earth

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ince the dawn of human history, human beings have always looked for someone or something to blame their woes upon, whether it be the Devil and his minions or some vaguely defined “principle of evil”. Conversely, we have also long harboured dreams of a utopia – a place free of misery where those who reach it may dwell eternally in a state of consummate bliss.

In some traditions the yearnedfor utopia is called Eden; an idyllic garden in which nothing dies and all creatures live in harmony. In others it pictured as a vast hall to which warriors travel after death, rewarded for their heroism with an eternal round of wine, women and song. In this scenario the Scandinavian Valhalla immediately springs to mind, of course.

In the Himalayan Buddhist tradition there is also a belief in such a utopia, for it is there, deep in the heart of this imposing mountain range, that the legendary paradise of Shangri-La is said to exist. Shangri-La, more than any other legendary utopia, has captured the hearts and minds of those who believe that there must be something better than the fickle and illusory happiness of this present world.

published his classic tale, Lost Horizon.

The book was made into a film by Frank Capra in 1937 and then remade in 1973 by director Charles Jarrott.

In Lost Horizon Shangri-La is portrayed as a mystical valley where all the negative aspects of human life have effectively been kicked into touch.

Isolated from the outside world, ShangriLa is portrayed as a veritable haven of peace and tranquillity.

Shambhala The legend of Shangri-La is based upon an ancient belief that there was indeed a utopia in the Himalayas called Shambhala.

In the 16th century, travellers from Europe who visited the court of Akbar the Moghul emperor were told bizarre stories of a paradisiacal world in the Himalayas. The stories were ancient and were themselves based on 10th Century Indian texts which also spoke of this land of peace and plenty.

Some Buddhists believe that Shambhala did exist in ancient times, but eventually disappeared. Others claim that Shambhala didn’t cease to exist but merely became invisible so that it would remain impervious to the influences of the outside world.

Many indigenous cultures around the world believe in the concept

In the Himalayan Buddhist “ tradition there is also a belief in such a utopia, for it is there, deep in the heart of this imposing mountain range, that the legendary paradise of Shangri-La is said to exist.”

Shangri-La first ingrained itself in the public consciousness back in 1933 when the novelist James Hilton

of a future age of enlightenment when peace and tranquillity would be restored, normally under the guidance of a

messianic figure who would return to rescue his people when they were in dire trouble. To this day many Druids believe that Arthur will return to bring peace and enlightenment to the British peoples during a time of terrible spiritual darkness.

In Tibet there is a similar belief connected to Shambhala or Shangri-La. Some Buddhists are convinced that a great warrior will arise and conquer the forces of evil. At that time, they say, Shambhala or Shangri-La will once again become visible as a beacon of hope to the world.

Some ideas about Shambhala are drawn from the Kalachakra Tantra, which details a succession of Kalkis or Chiefs who perpetuated the Kalachakra teachings in Shambhala. For instance, the Basic Tantra comments: “Then Vajrapani’s emanation, King Suchandra from legendary Shambhala, entered by miracle into the splendid globe of phenomena”.

Creating Our Own Shangri-La Others believe that Shangri-La is not so much a literal place, but more of a concept which existed long before it took root in Tibet. Some say that the ‘Shambhala idea’ was taught in ancient Iraq or Siberia even before the Buddha gained enlightenment.

According to this idea, Shambhala or Shangri-La represents an ideal; the attainment of a perfect society filled with perfect people. By the application of rigid self-discipline, spiritual exercises and meditation we may actually be able to create the perfect society that, as a race, we have longed for so intensely.

It should be noted at this juncture that ‘the Shambhala Way’ is not commensurate with conventional Buddhism. The spiritual and meditative techniques are Buddhist, but the application of them is very different.

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The Shambhala Way is still actively taught in Tibet. Its followers sincerely believe that goodness can and will prevail if we all come together.

Locating Shangri-La As with all legendary utopias, numerous theories exist concerning where Shangri-La is, or was, located.

One popular idea is that it lies in a secluded valley between India and Tibet surrounded by impregnable mountains. China and the China/Tibet border has also been earmarked by some as the home of Shangri-La or Shambhala, proponents suggesting that a series of valleys in the KunLun Shan range really do contain the mysterious ‘Kingdom of Peace’. Tao Qian, China’s most famous pre-Tang Dynasty poet, talks of Shangri-La in his work The Story of Peach Blossom Valley.

Intriguingly, other ancient sources suggest that Shangri-La – or something very similar to it – may actually exist underneath the remote plains and mountains of Asia.

Shangri-La, it is suggested, may simply be the tip of the iceberg; the small above-ground peak of a massive subterranean civilisation.

In 1982 Alec Maclellan wrote a book called The Lost World of Agharti (Souvenir Press) in which he

picture idyllic scenes of snow-topped mountains and azure blue skies. Some say Shangri-La lies in the shadow of a crystal mountain that dazzles the eyes with its pure whiteness. Others speak of lakes of pure water, and magnificent palaces beyond human description.

Shangri-La in the Modern Age Whether or not Shangri-La really exists, it cannot be denied that the idea has burned itself into our collective consciousness. During World War II, when the Americans were increasing their bombing raids on Japan and the Japanese territories, sorties were launched from Changchun, Shenyang and other bases in north-east China.

However, to frighten the Japanese, the Americans spread rumours that their aircraft were actually based in ShangriLa. President Roosevelt was questioned by reporters about this in April 1942.

“Where are they flying from today, Mr. President?”

“From Shangri-La”, he replied with a dead-pan face.

In actuality they’d been launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet that very morning. In 1943 a new Essex Class carrier was launched. Its name?: The USS Shangri-La.

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Intriguingly, other ancient sources suggest that Shangri-La – or something very similar to it – may actually exist underneath the remote plains and mountains of Asia.

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explores the possibility that Agharti – another name for the Lost World – is synonymous with Shambhala.

Shangri-La, he suggests, may actually have been the capital city of a much larger kingdom.

Every now and then explorers and researchers offer up tantalising glimpses of what ShangriLa may look like. Their descriptions excite the senses and force us to

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Shangri-La is a name that persists in rearing itself in our modern age in numerous contexts tied in with the concept of peace between nations.

Shangri-La, for instance, was also the name of a presidential retreat in the USA. Now it is known universally as Camp David.

Pop culture has not been immune to the “Shangri-La Factor” either. We forty-somethings may well

remember that the Electric Light Orchestra actually got a song in the charts called Shangri-La back in the 80s.

Is there really a Shangri-La? Is it really possible that, tucked away in the mountains of Tibet, a kingdom of peace, happiness and tranquillity awaits to be revealed to the world as a model of what our future could be like if we really try?

I’d like to think so.

WIN The Secret of Shambhala!

Author James Redfield continues his remarkable mystical series of books based on his international bestseller: The Celestine Prophecy. The Secret of Shambhala is a must-read for anyone with an interest in human spirituality and takes you on a trek to find the hidden city of Shambhala, alleged to be hidden in the wilds of Tibet. Vision have teamed up with Bantam to offer 12 lucky readers a copy of The Secret of Shambhala, which is published by Bantam in paperback at £8.99. For your chance to win a copy all you have to do is answer the following question: “The Secret of Shambhala is one of a series of books by James Redfield. Name the first book in the series?”

Put your answer along with your name and address on a postcard (or the back of a sealed down envelope) and send to: Vision Shambhala Competition, 42a Main Street, Garforth. LS25 1AA, to reach us by 19th April 2006. Normal Vision competition rules apply.

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Matt Burton investigates the ancient mummified monks of Tibet – did they really mummify themselves?

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f I were to say the word ‘mummification’ to you, it would no doubt turn your thoughts to Ancient Egypt. It is well documented that the Egyptians chose to preserve the bodies of Pharaohs, believing that this would secure a successful re-birth into the afterlife. The process included treating the body with preservatives, which would prevent decay (embalming) and removing the internal organs, which contain moisture and bacteria (eviscerating). The body would then be dried and finally wrapped in a thick layer of linen.

Mummies have, however, been discovered worldwide. Known locations range from the tower of Saint Michael in Bordeaux, to the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. But, by far the most intriguing Mummy was discovered in 1975, high in the Tibetan Himalayas. Here, 12,000 feet above sea level, inside a small house, sits the near perfectly preserved body of a Buddhist monk. That may not seem extraordinary at first, but the plot thickens as the body shows no signs of traditional mummification techniques.

There is no evidence of embalming, which is remarkable considering how well preserved the body is. The mummy is in such a good condition that an eyeball still peers eerily from its socket.

Considering that an eyeball usually takes 4-5 years to fully decay, the sheer impossibility of this Mummy is revealed in the fact that carbon-dating confirms it to be over 500 years old!

In addition to the lack of traditional mummification methods,

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there are also no environmental factors present that could have mummified this body. He is not frozen in a glacier like mummies discovered in the Alps, nor has he been preserved by scorching desert air, as with those found in China. Yet the monk’s skin is unbroken and hair still rests on his head. The baffling question, therefore, is simply how did this corpse become so immaculately preserved for half a millennium? The astonishing answer is that the monk mummified himself by drying out his body and eliminating all bacteria within, by means of a process that took almost a decade to complete.

Self-mummification existed amongst certain Buddhist sects in Tibet and Japan (it is no longer practiced since it became outlawed as a form of suicide in the late 19th Century). The most commonly cited method consists of three stages, each lasting around 1000 days.

During the first stage, the monk must modify his eating habits and stick to a strict diet of nuts and seeds from the forest. He must also subject himself to exhausting levels of exercise, including lengthy treks into the mountains. The purpose of this initial stage is to lose a vast amount of weight. Restricted diet and strenuous exercise reduces the body’s level of fat, therefore lowering its overall moisture content and making it substantially less prone to decomposition after death. The dieting also initiates a slow starvation process, shrinking parts of the body which are more liable to decay and destroying bacteria in the digestive system. Ordinarily, after death, bacteria from the abdomen eat away at the body from the inside, which is why annihilating such bacteria is essential to successfully self-mummification.

During the second stage of the process, the monk’s diet is restricted even further. He can now only eat very small amounts of bark and roots from certain pine trees, further reducing his levels of flesh, moisture and bacteria. The

vigorous exercise regime is abandoned, replaced by relentless meditation and chanting. Meditating allows the monk to focus on his task, while the lack of any notable exercise causes the muscles to shrivel. It is also believed that some Buddhist monks were able to miraculously raise their body temperature through concentrated meditation; the persistent meditation displayed at this stage could have been a way of literally drying out the body from the inside.

By the end of the second stage, the monk is now near to death. He has been on a diet of nuts, seeds, bark and roots for almost five and a half years, leaving him as little more than a living skeleton. At this point, Japanese monks would drink tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree. This tea triggers urinating, vomiting and sweating, which dehydrates the body even further. This is soon followed by a drink of water from a hot spring. The water contains a small amount of arsenic, but not enough to instantly kill the monk. The arsenic serves to kill off any remaining bacteria

The mummy is in such a good condition that an “ eyeball still peers eerily from its socket. Considering that an eyeball usually takes 4-5 years to fully decay, the sheer impossibility of this Mummy is revealed in the fact that carbon-dating confirms it to be over 500 years old!

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in the stomach and, as arsenic does not get eliminated from the body, it remains long after the monk has died, killing off any organisms that attempt to eat the corpse. Despite the Tibetan monks not having access to these exact substances (found more commonly in Japan), they would have most likely have drunk something similar.

The third and final stage now begins. The monk situates himself in his final resting place and continues to meditate, even more vigorously than before. He now eats nothing. Extremely mal-nourished, he is simply bone and minimal tissue. Within two weeks of this third stage, the monk passes away, still meditating to the very end. When the 1000 days of stage three are complete, a

fellow Buddhist visits the monk’s final resting place and examines how successful the process has been. If everything has gone perfectly to plan, the body is immaculately preserved. If not, the body has already begun to decay and the entire, gruelling 3000 day process is wasted, with the monk decomposing like everybody else.

So why would one choose to self-mummify? A suggested reason is that these monks sacrificed themselves, turning their bodies into holy statues, which would sit high in the mountains, looking down into inhabited valleys, bringing prosperity and health to the people. Indeed, living Buddhists have been known to look to self-mummified forms as objects of worship.

Another possible reason is that self-mummification may have been a way of passing into the afterlife once Nirvana has been achieved. Nirvana is a Buddhist concept, where one becomes omniscient and transcends the continuous process of reincarnation on earth. Many believe that a mummified form represents an existence in this world, simultaneously combined with an existence in the plentitude of Nirvana.

Whatever the reason, the dedication that went into such a process cannot be denied. And, where some may see it as a needlessly drawn out suicide, maybe a decade of dedication is a relatively small price to pay for a legacy that could last for thousands of years to come?

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he origins of these beautiful bowls are shrouded in mystery. The first people to venture into the Himalayas from the West reported that monks had told them the bowls were used to eat from. Was this because the visitors had to prove themselves to be ready to receive thousands of years of spiritual knowledge? There have, however, been reports that after giving birth women were required to eat from the bowls for a period of time. This is supposedly to enable them to receive a homeopathic dose of the metals contained within the bowls whilst they were recovering from giving birth and feeding their baby.

The bowls may have been born from an amalgamation of Shamanistic knowledge (known as Bon) from Mongolia, meeting Buddhism in Tibet.

Originally called Tibetan Singing Bowls, sadly, due to the political situation in Tibet, there are very few (if any) singing bowls being made there. The families holding the ancient knowledge of the use and the making of these bowls have travelled to other parts of the Himalayas, so perhaps a more accurate name for them would be Himalayan bowls. The bowls are also made, used and sold in Bhutan, Nepal, and India. They may have been part of the bell family, and date back to Bronze Age China 4,000 years ago. The Himalayan bowls are made from a magical recipe of five to twelve metals, however most are made from seven, corresponding to seven sacred heavenly bodies: gold (Sun), silver (moon), mercury (Mercury), copper (Venus), iron (Mars), tin (Jupiter), lead (Saturn) Legend also says that meteorites found on the mountains were added to the mix to reinforce the connection between heaven and earth. It is believed that each bowl-maker had their own alchemic

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Lyz Cooper introduces us to the sounds of Tibet: Himalayan singing bowls blend of metals they used and that these ‘trade mark’ blends would be desired for different reasons. Those wishing a more silvery tone or quality to their bowl would be attracted to a maker producing bowls with a more silvery blend, for example. The blends would have depended on the ore that was available in each region.

Each singing bowl has its own colour, shape and personality - no two Himalayan bowls are the same, even if they are the same size. The traditional way of making the bowls is to handhammer them, therefore each dent and mark on the surface of the bowl affects the tone and colour of the sound. I believe that just as ancient swords were infused with prayers and intention with the blow of the hammer, so were the bowls. Decorations were sometimes added afterwards which may have been

Holding it in your “ non-dominant hand, run the stick around the outside of the rim until the bowl begins to sing.

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specific to a region, period of time or bowl maker. Some decorations are designed to ward off evil and offer protection, some bowls have sacred symbols and mantras etched or written on the outside. More contemporary bowls feature carvings of Buddhist and

Hindu deities. The intention behind these bowls was that as the bowls were played, the sound would go forth into the universe, taking the prayer, mantra or energy of the deity with it – rather like a sonic prayer flag.

Types of bowls Shaped bowls The bowl featured in the picture above has a prominence in the centre. This is an eighteenth century ‘Lingam’ bowl which would have been played by a male elder within a temple or community.

Some bowls are known as fountain or star bowls. If your bowl has markings on the inside such as a ring or stars, try filling the bowl with water.

When struck or rubbed in a particular way, one or more fountains may spring forth. Star bowls produce a star shape in the water when the bowl is played. Try also filling the bowl with other substances to alter the sound.

Japanese bowls These bowls tend to be machine turned, and therefore are smooth on the inside and out. In Japan they are played by striking them on the outside while chanting or saying prayers, but you can also play them by running a stick around the outside. As they are often made with fewer metals, and are machine made, these bowls have a clearer tone with fewer harmonics.

Choosing your bowl I truly believe that most of the time your bowl(s) chooses you. Sometimes you will feel one almost jump off the shelf saying ‘choose me, pleeeeease choose me!’

If you ask a lama with a singing bowl “ in his hands, whether it is true that they are used for psychic, psychological and physical purposes, he will smile and reply: ‘Perhaps’.

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Joska Soo, p5, Singing Bowls, Eva Rudy Jansen, Binkey kok Publications

Sometimes you may be drawn to the dirtiest, grumpiest bowl lurking in a dark forgotten corner somewhere – one that literally says “go away!” when you pick it up. If you feel a tugging at your heartstrings and are unable to put it down, yet alone contemplate anyone else to handling it: then perhaps this bowl is for you.

This can happen when you need a particular ‘sonic vitamin’ fix, or are working through an aspect connected with the chakra that bowl connects to.

When choosing a Himalayan bowl it is always good to state what you would like the bowl to help you with, such as, “Please guide me to the bowl that will help me to work on and balance my heart chakra.”

Once your bowl is bought, cleanse it with the method you prefer (you may like to rinse it under running water and leave it to dry naturally, or maybe you would be more comfortable meditating with it and asking for cleansing). Now spend time getting to know your bowl by meditating with it and playing it. Holding it in your non-

dominant hand, run the stick around the outside of the rim until the bowl begins to sing. When it has reached sufficient volume, take the stick away and allow the song of the bowl to bathe you on all levels. The energy of the sound will permeate your being at a cellular level, gently balancing mind and body and nurturing and developing your spiritual self.

The Himalayan bowls are a gift. I believe their full

potential is still being discovered as the use of sound for healing and transformation is being ‘remembered’. I have been working with the bowls for twelve years, which is a blink of an eye in the life of these ancient tools. However, in this time I have witnessed people recover from long-suffering illnesses and make quantum shifts in their awareness.

At The British Academy of Sound Therapy we use these beautiful instruments as part of a treatment to help improve health and well-being: many people report being transported to other realms when they hear their ancient song.

The bowls have so much more to teach us and I remain their ever faithful student.

The British Academy of Sound Therapy has a large stock of antique and contemporary Himalayan and Japanese singing bowls and accessories. If you would like to purchase a bowl, or find out more about how you can use these wonderful tools for healing and transformation, please contact us on: 01273 835811 or email us on soundworks@sacredsound.net

27 Vision 13

Dave Brennan

Michael Standing Wolf

Do you have a problem which you lack intuition to solve? Do you have any questions about the future to which you seek answers? Native American Michael Standing Wolf will use his Spirit Stones and psychic Dave Brennan will consult the Twist of Fate cards to offer a fresh view on matters.

Which way should I go?

I’ve been interested in spiritualism/psychic powers etc. for a long time and sometimes I feel I know where I’m going in my life; then other times I feel lost and don’t trust my instincts. I’ve spent a lot of money on psychics and have never really had anything back from them.

This is quite frustrating. I guess I’m asking you for a little help?

Nyree, Bolton.

Book Success?

I have written a children’s book, which has recently been published; it is my first published book and I wonder if it will be successful?

Fiona, Kendal

Michael Standing Wolf’s Spirit Stone Reading: Rabbit, Mouse and Eagle. Rabbit tells me that you are not only confused about your future, but also apprehensive about it. Rabbit medicine can be destructive; the more you worry about something the more likely it may be to happen. The problem is that you don’t trust the psychics you’ve consulted and you don’t trust your own instincts either. Mouse tends to suffer from tunnel vision. Stand back from your spiritual activities for a while and take a new look at things. Eagle says you can trust your own judgement, but you need to fly above the landscape of your life and take a fresh look. Spirit will guide you down the path you are meant to walk – when the time is right. With the guidance of the Grandfathers you can do this. Your future awaits you!

David Brennan’s Twist of Fate Reading. Cards Chosen: 2 of Clubs; 2 of Spades; 10 of Clubs; 2 of Spades 7 of Hearts; 10 of Diamonds; 9 of Clubs; 7 of Clubs; 8 of Clubs. Maybe spirit has nudged you to write in, Nyree? You are very practical where money is concerned and I do see money coming to you. There is a suggestion that you may be considering a new enterprise, if so, don’t hold back as luck is on your side. In fact, apart from a few minor disagreements around you, material matters seem well-aspected. Do not be afraid to ask Spirit to help you, for they surely will. Ask and you will receive, you have got the capability to move forward spiritually and I am sure your path will become clear when the time is right. Relax and let it open before you.

Michael Standing Wolf’s Spirit Stone Reading: The Fox, The Medicine Lodge. The Fox indicates that a successful career lies ahead of you, but there is a proviso; you need to manage your career and business affairs very carefully and avoid being duped by those who may want to take advantage of your success. I don’t see anything like this happening right now, but it may pay you to be a little guarded in the future. The Medicine Lodge gives clear direction to your writing. Your books should both provoke thought and encourage moral and spiritual behaviour.

The spirits are telling me clearly that your writing is not – I repeat not – meant to merely entertain young people.

Your books should be written with the intent of inspiring them. A final thought: get cracking on that second book and avoid “second book blues”; the failure of many writers to follow up the success of their first publication with a second!

David Brennan’s Twist of Fate Reading. Cards Chosen: 2 of Clubs; Ace of Spades; King of Hearts.

The cards that have come up for you are full of advice, rather than a clear “yes” or “no” answer. There is counsel to beware of investing money and to get external help with marketing. You need to be sure that you remember there are ruthless people out there. You have the Ace of Spades in a prominent position: this indicates success, but do not be fooled into thinking that it will come straight away. Don’t give up on your books whatever the outcome of this one is … keep going and work on a second now! I believe that Spirit haven’t given me a straight answer because if I told you “yes, you’ll make millions” then you’d never write another book. So get writing!

Will my marriage survive?

My husband decided to leave me about 6 months ago. He said he needed a couple of weeks away from me to decide what he wants in our marriage. We haven’t been getting on recently but I was prepared to change to make it work. We have 3 children: 12, 9 and 6 yrs old. I’ve asked him twice now to come back but he said he doesn’t know what he wants any more. He’s now living in his brother’s old house, renting on his own, he’s told me he’s not seeing anyone else. Can you tell me if my marriage is over or will he want to come back to try again?

Mrs D Blinston, Doncaster

Where is home?

In the last year I have lived in several places, none of which I have confidently called ‘home’. I feel the need to move on, but being only 17 it is difficult. My insecurities about where I live have led me to make irrational decisions concerning my education. Will I find a career to become passionate about and a place I really can call home?

Amber-Lee, Ipswich

Dreams and Disasters I am recently divorced, recovering from a mastectomy after breast cancer, my car has been smashed and my 4-year relationship has ended. I’m coping as well as I can after my mastectomy and being a single parent again. In my most recent dream the hose from my tumble dryer was emitting things, the first looked like a dead fly, then the most beautiful butterflies came out. After a while babies were coming out around 3-4 months old.

Have I got something to look forward to more cheerful than recent events?

Katrina Clay, Nuneaton

Michael Standing Wolf’s Spirit Stone Reading: The Frog, The Papoose. As long as you want your marriage to succeed then you should work towards a reconciliation, but Frog urges you to be realistic and accept that at some point in the future you may need to cut your losses and move on. In short, work towards getting back together, but start to remodel your life as if you weren’t. Too many people in your position are kept on a knife-edge for months or even years by a prevaricating partner who can’t make their mind up whether to go or stay. Set a date and tell your husband that you need to know by then whether he’s coming back or not. If he still can’t give you an answer then move on. Papoose wants you to focus on your children.

They’ll be feeling pretty vulnerable at the moment and will need all the love and reassurance you can give them.

David Brennan’s Twist of Fate Reading. Cards Chosen: 2 of Spades; Queen of Spades; King of Hearts. You are a home builder, a carer, a worrier: your family is everything to you. Your husband on the other hand is a wanderer who has to be out and about, doing this and doing that, he soon gets bored with things. It seems to me that he has another agenda, he can be deep, this causes suspicion on your part. It may be that your husband sees the grass greener on the other side and has female friends, but I do not foresee this as a problem that will destroy your marriage. There appear to be lots of little problems that have contributed to this major one, and when it is resolved, (which I believe it will be) steps will have to be taken to avoid it ever happening again. The King of Hearts representing your husband is on Hope, and so if you are hoping he will come back, he will. The dilemma has had a definite effect on one of your children, this will help in its own way to grant your wishes and desires towards a reconciliation. You have got to think about your children and yourself before you think about anything else.

Michael Standing Wolf’s Spirit Stone Reading: The Horse, the Badger. Horse speaks of someone who likes to travel, but it is clear to me that your constant desire to relocate has nothing to do with a sense of adventure. You keep moving because your own insecurities won’t let you settle, just as they won’t let you make sensible decisions regarding career or education. You are still young, and normally we have to move a number of times before we feel secure and happy. However, you will only feel secure and happy permanently if your confidence grows. Badger represents ‘home and hearth’, indicating that finding a stable environment to live in should be top of your list of priorities. Badger also has strong connections to Mother Earth, and urges you to spend some time developing your spiritual side. This, in turn, will help you gain the confidence you need to forge a career in the big, wide world – and, if you try hard enough, you will.

David Brennan’s Twist of Fate. Cards Chosen: 2 of Hearts; 10 of Hearts; Queen of Hearts.

Patience is the key at this point, do not give yourself timescales, as these only bring pressure. Certain plans have come to an end, these I believe are to do with affairs of the heart. The correct decision has been made as it is time to think seriously about your self and your future career. Go back to your original career plans, whilst ensuring you are making every effort to concentrate on finding somewhere you feel settled. Pull out all of the positve aspects of your plans and put them into practice as best you can now. Everything will then begin to fall into place. The cards show that you are moving forward even if you can’t see it and that you are already on the way to achieving your ambitions right now – so go for it!

Michael Standing Wolf’s Spirit Stone Reading: The Snow Wolf, the Wolf, the Humming Bird.

The Snow Wolf indicates that your life will never be idyllic, but it can be happy. Just don’t be too downhearted when trials large and small pop up from time-to-time. Wolf says that they are not being sent to upset you, but rather to teach you spiritual lessons. Every trial makes you stronger and a better person for the experience. The good news comes in the guise of Humming Bird. Humming Bird speaks of joy, happiness and industrious activity. Make the sensible decisions in life that are beholden upon all of us and it shouldn’t be long before you have a smile on your face. Your dream is interesting and superficially indicates a “cleansing” and “good following bad”. However, there are deeper, positive meanings which the Grandfathers will reveal to you personally in due time. Keep your chin up and stay positive!

Dave Brennan’s Twist of Fate Reading. Cards Chosen: 2 of Hearts; 7 of Hearts; Ace of Spades; The first thing that I can see is a partnership in the near future and it looks very much like that is something that will please you! I can also see a wonderful lady around you who you can confide in and trust; these type of people are rare in our lives, so treasure her! There is a suggestion that maybe you were hoping to get married again and now you believe you’ve missed your chance. If that is the case, then do not despair, I certainly believe that a permanent partnership is on its way. As you’ve had such a traumatic time, I’m delighted to see that health is also well aspected, so you have a lot to look forward to. Your positive thoughts can only contribute to better things coming towards you. Enjoy!

Send your questions about the future to: Destiny Doctors, Vision, 42a Main Street, Garforth,LS25 1AA, or email destinydoctors@visionmagazine.uk.com Please include all details you feel are relevant.

29 Vision 13

Medium Simon Goodfellow tells us about his amazing astral projection experience and how he developed his abilities

S

imon Goodfellow is a medium that has made a name for himself with his accuracy and compassion for his readers. He is particularly well known in Spain, where he has made his home, but he has also got quite a following in the UK, where he is returning to tour. Simon took some time out from his work to tell us about his introduction to Spirit and the unseen worlds.

“I guess the first time that I realized I had psychic abilities was when I bought some Tarot cards. I have a very good friend, who is experienced as a psychic and an old hand at divination.

She convinced me I should give it a try, so I got a pack. I was amazed: I could read them straight away! Friends and family that I gave readings to told me that I was spot on with my interpretations; it was as if I’d been doing it for years.

“Needless to say, from that moment on I was hooked and wanted to explore the other worlds that were opening up to me. I think the weirdest moment I have ever had was when my spirit guides first contacted me. I have several guides, as do we all, but at this stage I was not aware of them. Then, suddenly, I started to hear an inner voice that was not my own and I could feel invisible hands touching my hair and my face. The touching came with a wonderful warm and loving feeling – otherwise I think I would have run away screaming!

“After a while I managed to ‘tune in’ to my guides so that I could work with them. The first guide I started

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to work with on a regular basis was a man called Bozene. He was very strong and had no problem in making his presence felt! He has told me that he is Atlantian. Apparently, he and I have a connection from a former life where I lived and worked in Atlantis. I am very drawn to crystals and work as a crystal healer, so that made perfect sense to me.

“Bozene would come to me through my meditations or in dreams.

My dreams of him were always very vivid, he is a certainly a very strong character! My first out-of-body experience was during one of my contacts with Bozene. As I was relaxing into a meditation, I could feel him

“

I felt a rushing sensation and found myself flying at great speed over water.

”

around me. Then I felt that I was being lifted up and I experienced a sucking feeling; the only way I can describe it is to suggest that it might be what one would feel if being sucked through a vacuum cleaner! It sounds funny … but it happened.

“Then things got weirder. I felt a rushing sensation and found myself flying at great speed over water. The odd thing is, if you had asked me before it happened how I might feel, I would have said that it would scare me stupid!

However, when it happened I never had any feeling of fear at all. It seemed very natural and all around me was a great warm and loving feeling.

“I was consciously aware that I was totally separated from my body, but I had no worries or cares, I had left them all behind. As I flew I remember seeing what looked like ice pyramids and standing in the centre of one. I have no idea how long I was there, I just remember being there. I did eventually return to my body; I experienced a falling sensation and finally found myself juddering awake on the bed. Even though I had such a wobbly ‘re-entry’, I felt completely overwhelmed with a feeling of love when I awoke.

“I’ve had some very emotional experiences while giving readings. One that sticks in my mind is when I was giving a reading to a lady over here in Spain (Simon works from Spain but comes over to the UK to tour and catch up with friends). The lady’s brother had passed over in a very strange way and the lady had always believed that he had been killed. She had no closure at all, she had never really found out exactly why he died. I managed to connect with her brother and gave her enough validation for her to be absolutely sure that it was him. He also told her that he had not been killed, he had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She cried, as much with delight at knowing what happened to him as she did by being able to communicate with him. It was a very emotional moment for me too.

“After the first few times I connected with Spirit I realized I had

if you had asked me before it “happened how I might feel, I would have said that it would scare me stupid! However, when it happened I never had any feeling of fear at all.”

been given a gift. I decided to train properly: I attended the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, where I learnt all I needed to be able to continue to develop.

I do truly believe that I was destined to become a working medium so that I can give help and closure to people who are suffering with loss.

“My belief in Spirit is very strong. I think it is important that if we are given a gift we do not abuse it. I know that our loved ones are around us helping and guiding us through life. I also believe in Past Lives: I do feel that most of us have been here before and that your body may die but your soul lives on. Life is eternal. I have been asked if I believe in “bad spirits”. I have to say that I don’t believe in bad spirits at all … only bad people! I think that the doom and gloom needs to be removed from mediumship because speaking to Spirit is an uplifting and beautiful thing. Not only that: Spirit

has a sense of humour – just ask any medium!

“I had such a dramatic introduction to the Spirit world that it has taken me a long time to achieve balance between my spiritual life and my everyday life. It takes a while to get used to a whole new dimension, but I think I’m at a place where I can manage both. I would like to travel the world and help as many people in as many countries as I can. Mediumship is my life’s work.”

Simon is currently touring the UK, you can still catch him and JewelMarie Leaf at the following venues: Saturday 8th April: Maplewell & Stainthorpe Village Hall, MaplewellWednesday 26th April: Memorial Hall, Potterhill, Pickering. Doors for both events open at 7pm.

Tickets on the door, call 07762 538850 for more information.

31 Vision 13

Samantha Hamilton introduces us to her Tarot Love Oracle. Choose a card and find out more about your love destiny!

A

fter reading the tarot for twentyone years I have found that the most popular questions asked are those relating to love and relationships.

Most of us want to find out what the future holds especially possible love affairs.

Tarot is one of the ways of predicting our affairs of the heart and can also give you a great deal of help and advice as well as a clear answer of the way things are likely to turn out.

The Tarot Love Oracle is designed to help you answer your most pressing love question and to give you some sense of direction. Just remember that not all of the future is fixed, things may change if appropriate action is taken.

“

When you interpret your answer, try to avoid seeing what you want to see, see past your desires and listen to the message.

”

To receive a clear insight on your love life, sit in a quiet space and try to clear your mind of all the worries of the day. Take a few deep breaths and concentrate on the cards opposite.

Now close our eyes and hold your finger over the page and let it fall naturally. Before you read the answer on the back, get out a pad and pen. Look at the card you have chosen and ask yourself the following questions: 1. How does this card make you feel when you look at it? (First impression)

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2. What do you see in the card (images, describe) 3. What part of the card draws you most and why?

4. What colour do you feel is most prominent in the picture?

5. What is happening in the picture?

6. If you were in the picture, how would you feel?

7. If you look at the scene in the picture, what do you think happens next?

Write down your answers and keep them to hand. If you decide to use the Oracle on a regular basis, you will find that this is an invaluable journal for you. It will also help you to learn the secret knowledge of the tarot: symbols.

Symbols are the language of Spirit!

Now that you have done that, read the message on the back of the card that you have chosen. Read your answers to the questions too and see how they both compare. When you interpret your answer, try to avoid seeing what you want to see, see past your desires and listen to the message. Most Tarot readers will choose to have a reading from another reader so that they can avoid making this mistake, seeing what you want to see does not mean that is what will happen!

The cards that I have featured in this Oracle are those of the Major Arcana.

Arcana comes from the word ‘Arcane’, meaning hidden.The Major Arcana reflects events that happen in everyone’s life and will mean something to

everybody. Each tarot card in a deck also has a number of correspondences, such as the Zodiac sign or planet that they are connected with. I’ve listed these in the oracle for you as well, you can check them up for the card you pick to give you more information on your love destiny.

Perhaps you have chosen a particular card because you are destined to meet someone of the sign connected with it, or maybe you will meet someone whose personality traits match those of the planet corresponding with your chosen card.

Note this information down with the questions you’ve answered and with your Love Oracle reading on the back of the card. This should give you a lot of information to go on.

Perhaps you have “ chosen a particular card

because you are destined to meet someone of the sign connected with it

”

Don’t forget that we may all have a love destiny, but it takes more than a pack of cards to make it work for us. You will need to make things work too, whatever your destiny ... so go out there and make it happen!

The cards illustrated are from the Rider Waite deck (available from Vision Shop, page 79) and are perhaps the most wellknown cards available. If you are a beginner and you would like to work with an easy-to-read pack, the Rider Waite may be just what you need!

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3: The Empress

4: The Emperor

When the High Priestess appears you must follow your hunches with someone you have yet to meet in a place of learning.

There will be an air of mystery around them.

For those in an established relationship, holding back on your partner will only cause distrust.

A wise women can help you resolve any resentment.

This is a favourable time and your charisma will draw in the lover who will sweep you off your feet. They have an erotic imagination and are also skillful in the kitchen.

For those in an established relationship, this is a highly creative and fertile time for those wanting a child.

Be careful of being possessive and smothering the one you love.

You identify with your own ego, “love me, love the world” is your truth now. Someone in your work environment who likes to workout, but appears aloof, will be your perfect love match.

For those in an established relationship beware of wanting to dominate, as this will put a strain on your relationship causing distance between you.

6: Lovers

7: Chariot

8: Strength

9: Hermit

Emotional change for the better and contentment is taking place. You will be romantically associated with a person who is philosophical; a leader of a group and who has your best interest at heart. You will have much in common.

For those in an established relationship traditional values will be of importance as you are both coming into a time of spiritual growth.

When the Lovers appear they predict that you are making an important choice. Marriage, engagement or even an eternal triangle are possible. A blind date is also forecast with someone who knows your innermost thoughts For established relationships, the Lovers denotes a time of fulfillment and a stirring of emotions, promising a blissful union.

Letting go of your past will create room for destiny to introduce a lover who travels for a living. The colour blue is important to them.

For those in an established relationship, the wall of pain that you have built around you can be demolished as the forces at work encourage challenges which can be overcome making space for warmth and tenderness.

You must succeed in fully loving yourself before you can love another. This is a time of self nourishment and healing. For the unattached, someone who likes music and movement could be the partner for you.

For those attached: acknowledging your own faults and facing the truth will arouse long lasting passion again.

This is the time to declutter your thoughts on a particular relationship that has ended. Someone who is well educated and has an interest in alternative therapies can be the love link you have been yearning for.

For those attached: massage and aromatherapy could help bring you together in mind and body.

10: Wheel of Fortune

0 :The Fool

Uranus

11. Justice

When the Wheel of Fortune appears in your reading be ready for a roller coaster ride of love.

For the unattached: someone who has a fondness for gold and the eastern way of life could be your long term partner.

For the already involved: expect change and excitement when you take the opportunity to express yourself more sensually.

1: The Magician

Mercury

12. The Hanged Man Neptune.

2. High priestess

The Moon

13. The Death

Scorpio.

3. The Empress

Venus

14. Temperance

Sagittarius.

4.The Emperor

Aries.

15. The Devil

Capricorn.

5. The Hierophant Taurus.

16. The Tower

Mars.

6. Lovers

Gemini.

17. The Star

Aquarius.

7. Chariot

Cancer

18. Moon

Pisces.

8. Strength

Leo.

19. The Sun

The Sun.

9. Hermit

Virgo.

20. Judgement

Pluto.

21. The World

Saturn.

12: The Hanged Man

13: Death

14: Temperance

15: The Devil

16: The Tower

Around you is a feeling of stagnation, and frustration. Tap into your dreams, awaken your spiritual beliefs, create a loving environment for meeting a person who has an interest in mysticism and love.

For the established relationship this is a potent and romantic time, fantasy and fiction can play a major part in strengthening your love.

After much sorrow, love can now heal the pain.

Ask yourself “Am I now ready for an involvement with someone who can turn my world upside down?” They may appear secretive and seductive, you may have to take a chance, but isn’t it worth it?

For those attached, a readjustment will have to be made if you wish relationship to evolve.

Temperance is urging you to be honourable: what you do now will effect a special relationship. Someone you first meet in a place of healing and is involved with medicine will become important to you. Take your time discovering their qualities as this friendship has deeper potential.

For the already involved soft music can be healing for you both.

This card predicts you have strong desires for power and others will see your sensuality.

Someone who is in high authority will make their feelings about you felt. This can also predict a quick marriage for those looking for commitment.

For those already involved: take advantage of the love being offered to you as this is a passionate time.

Dramatic changes are heralded in personal relationships.

For the unattached: expect to meet a lover with an unusual name whose career involves steel or fire. This will be an extra ordinary romance!

For the attached: new information will change how you feel about your current relationship.

0 :The Fool

1: The Magician

If you are still searching for love and you have drawn this card expect to meet someone very different from you, from a different background or culture.

Fall in love and open up to taking a risk with your heart.

For those in an established relationship; an uninhibited attitude towards sexual matters will reconnect you to your partnership in a more fulfilling way.

Vitality is the key and love is so close with someone you already know.

This person is younger than you and shares your interest in business matters. They have the qualities of an Air sign. Those in an established relationship may want to take a chance in finding love outside their existing partnership. Be aware of the potential danger to what you already have.

5: The Hierophant

2: The High priestess.

10:Wheel of FortuneJupiter

Libra.

11: Justice You are seeing true beauty in those close to you, especially someone who has reentered your life. This a favourable time for engagements or marriage.

For the unattached your love link is with someone in the field of law.

For those in an established relationship doing everything in moderation may strengthen weaknesses.

17: The Star

18: Moon

19: The Sun

20: Judgement

21: The World

This is the card of pure unconditional love, healing energies, wishes fulfilled.

If you are searching for the ideal partner, someone who has these attributes and has a link with water and the US, (who also speaks with a sexy voice!), shall hold out the promise of a deep and fulfilling relationship.

For those in an established relationship, stimulating conversation can restore the passion.

The message is to listen to your intuition and meditate on your dreams for clear insight into your emotional needs. You have yet to meet a creative individual who will be your perfect love match.

This will happen through an invitation.

For the attached: you may find that outside influences are causing you to question your relationship .Poetic verse will create more romance.

This is one of the most positive cards in the Major Arcana. Love flows easily into your life. For the single: you will meet someone who lives in a city and whose roots are connected to Australia or the Caribbean. Self-belief can create the love bond you wish for.

For the involved: a second honeymoon and a birth in the family is on the cards.

This card indicates that you are releasing past hurts on a particular relationship by applying forgiveness.

You will meet a person who may be coming out of a long commitment and could be older than yourself.

For the established: your own instincts are aiding you to heal old wounds between you and your partner.

Singles selecting the World card as part of their destiny are sure to meet someone who is positively outgoing and easy to be with.

The other person will be more than willing to take it to the next level.

For the involved: this card is telling you to follow your dreams as fulfillment is assured now. This can also be the endings and beginnings of a new relationship.

35 Vision 13

Karen Aitken reports back from the Himalayas on her exploration of Tibetan Meditation

L

ife has a funny way of offering gifts out of the blue! In August 2005 my best friend Clare, who lives in Australia, dropped in for a visit during a round the world trip. Clare is a party animal, so my partner Karl and I were surprised to hear that she’d planned a 4week Buddhist meditation retreat in Nepal to round off her travels.

I asked her if she’d like company, as I suddenly had the impulse to go too. She said it was a perfect idea and Karl agreed, explaining how much potential for self-development there was.

We arranged to meet 4 months later at the Monastery and off she went to carry on with her tour.

I didn’t know anything about Buddhism, and I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, so instead I researched the Monastery. Kopan Monastery is situated just north of the ancient Buddhist town of Boudhanath on the Kopan hill. Rising up out of the terraced fields of the Kathmandu valley it is visible for miles.

(See www.kopanmonastery.com) The monastery was founded in 1971 by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe Rinpoche (deceased). We were honoured to receive a rare visit by Lama Zopa towards the end of the month, and I was very happy to receive a blessing from him. Kopan Monastery was conceived as a place of study and meditation for both the Himalayan sangha (Buddhist community) and for their many foreign students. It is their vision that the monastery allows a meeting place for East and West and between the spiritual and the worldly.

Kopan is now a thriving monastery of 360 monks, mainly from Nepal and Tibet. Nearby is Khachoe Ghakyi Ling Nunnery, which houses 380 nuns. Most of us visited the Nunnery at some point during the month, and I was lucky to make friends with several of these amazingly focussed and happy

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women. Monks and nuns from the age of seven come from all over Nepal, Tibet, India, Bhutan, Sikkim, and even Mongolia to attend this Gelugpa monastery, and to receive a classical monastic education. In addition to practicing many varied religious ceremonies, the monks and nuns construct exquisite mandalas with coloured sand. Taking many months to create, these are ceremoniously collapsed after specific events, demonstrating the nature of impermanence.

The first ‘One Month Meditation Course’ was held at Kopan in 1971. This now attracts up to 200 students each year. These and other shorter courses provide an opportunity to “sample the Dharma” (Buddhist teachings) and reflect on living a meaningful life. Students are requested to remain within the monastery for the entire month, having no contact with the

outside world, making it easier to focus on the teachings.

I had a smooth and uneventful flight to Nepal and from there it was a 5km taxi ride to the Monastery. During this taxi ride I had a first-hand opportunity to witness living conditions in Nepal. It was a fairly intense culture shock as the region is very poor.

Entering the monastery, one of the first things I saw was a notice, advising visitors and students of the house rules: 1.

No killing of any creature 2.

No stealing 3.

No lying 4.

No sexual conduct 5.

No taking of mind-altering substances (drugs, alcohol, tobacco) Points 2, 4 and 5 were a walkover, however, 1 and 3 were a challenge!

My fellow students and I soon realized how often we tell little white lies which

are intended mostly to make us look good or to spare someone’s feelings. If you’ve ever tried walking over large areas of grass or concrete in a hurry on a hot afternoon without stepping on at least one insect, (never mind lots) well that’s a real challenge.

I soon located Clare and we caught up. We had decided not to roomshare, as it was a meditation retreat after all, and we’d win Gold Medals at the Chatterbox Olympics. There was a mix of ages and nationalities. The youngest student was 17 and the oldest 65. Some were Buddhists desiring a focussed retreat, whilst others like myself were novices. Lots were in-between and knew about meditation, or breathing.

Our first day was an introduction to meditation and to our Our routine looked like this: 6.30 – Morning Meditation 7.30am Breakfast (Porridge) “Yoga 7.30 – Share”, sweeping and 8.30am cleaning communal areas 9 - 11.30 Teachings and Meditation am Stretching/Loo break (10 10.30 am mins) Lunch (Vegetable Stew and 11.30am Rice, with fruit) 2 – 3pm Discussion group 3.30 – Teachings 5.30pm 5.30 – Tea break 6pm 6 – 7pm Meditation 7 – 8pm Dinner (Soup) 8 – 9pm Evening Meditation.

teachers. Venerable George Churinoff, an American monk, delivered teachings and guided meditation practice through the day and Venerable Ani Karin, a Swedish Nun, presided over morning prostrations and took the first and last meditation of the day.

…we learned basic “ protocol. For example, it is considered rude to sit with the legs outstretched and the feet pointing towards the teacher. Also, one should not lean back (lazily) against walls, or other supports.

Interrupting the teacher is also not usually tolerated…

”

P36, 37, 38: Images © Karen Aitken, Willow Lodge Therapies.

Silence was maintained from first thing in the morning until after lunch. This was a delightful change for me as I teach and deliver complementary therapy. I can sometimes be talking for hours on end.

For two weeks we held to this routine, then we went to one meal a day with longer meditations. It’s amazing how much you can wolf down in one sitting!

We had sweet tea or hot chocolate for breakfast and dinner.

With no breakfast or dinner we had more time for auspicious practices such as turning the prayer wheels and circumambulating (walking clockwise) the Stupa (sacred monument containing precious relics of enlightened beings). I found this useful for my meditation practice, as I did gazing at the proliferation of dazzling orange marigolds that grow everywhere in Nepal; or following the flight of the numerous friendly butterflies.

If there is one criticism I could offer, which might help potential participants, it is that there was an almost complete lack of physical exercise.

The morning prostrations did little to offset the stiffness that creeps into your body after a whole day in the lotus position. Even for those who were simply kneeling or sitting cross-legged (chairs were there if required) on the cushions it was sore joints that proved to be the one of the major distractions to focused meditation.

I decided to rise early (at 5.00am) to run through Tai Chi warm-up exercises, a yoga routine (that Karl, as a

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yoga teacher, had designed for me) and some Qi Gong. Word spread quickly and I often found myself with company for my morning calisthenics. In lieu of conversation we shared the groaning of our waking muscles, and some glorious sunrises before meditation.

In the Gompa (Buddhist Meeting and Teaching Hall), we learned basic protocol. For example, it is considered rude to sit with the legs outstretched and the feet pointing towards the teacher. Also, one should not lean back (lazily) against walls, or other supports. Interrupting the teacher is also not usually tolerated, but Venerable George was very generous and allowed lots of questions.

The teaching focussed on the Lam Rim, which means “the stages on the path to enlightenment”. These are the teachings of the first Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (about 563 – 483 BCE). He was given the name “Shakyamuni” after he achieved enlightenment. I learned a lot about the origins, beliefs and fundamental practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

Our meditation practice was basic but profound. Often described as the conscious cultivation of the mental faculties, meditation embraces many techniques that together help to promote, calmness, one-pointed concentration,

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loving kindness, compassion, a sense of wellbeing, and insight into the nature of reality. Our meditation course focussed initially on increasing awareness of the breath, and then developed with exercises in visualisation of the Buddha.

However each student chose to sit, we all had our hands cupped at navel height, the right sitting on the left with the tips of the thumbs touching. Essentially it was not how many times one forgot or was distracted that mattered, but how often one remembered the meditation and got back into it again.

Discussion groups in the afternoons were often hilarious as we asked our group leader, an experienced student, lots of “off the record” questions and during the month friendships blossomed as we learned new things together.

After 4 weeks had passed I was honestly a little unsettled. Part of me desperately wanted to continue with the focussed study and not to become reimmersed in the forgetfulness of my old routines. The rest of me wanted to eat, drink and be merry. I thought it would be wise to get some perspective on the situation (just to make sure I wasn’t brainwashing myself) and I decided on the evening of the last day to accompany Clare and 10 of our chums from the course to a Pizza Restaurant for a big pizza feast. From there we went to an Irish Pub and then onto a nightclub to round off the experience. Ironically it was called The Funky Buddha. No escaping Nirvana perhaps?

In the end, I believe that it’s not what you learn that matters, but how you put it into practice. I have decided not to come to any conclusions about Buddhism until I have listened again to all of the instructions (9 CDs) and repeated all of the meditations. Ask me again in 6 months

Sammi Addey explains the art of scrying with a crystal ball, as taught to her by Jewel-Marie Leaf. Do try this at home!

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ook into your crystal ball and tell me what you see! I used to wonder how crystal ball readers could tell you things just by staring into a clear ball. All I could ever see was my upsidedown, wonky reflection staring back at me! Eventually, I decided to find out what it really was that a crystal ball reader sees when they delve deep inside the swirls of the unknown.

I visited the home of Jewel-Marie Leaf in York, a wonderful lady who was born into a small spiritual Italian family in Sardinia. It was her mother who was the first to notice that Jewel was clairvoyant, at the tender age of 3 years old! Jewel would tell her mother of visits from Jewel’s Grandfather, who had passed over. She has since moved to Yorkshire, where she gives spiritual readings using her 83-year-old Austrian crystal ball, who she has curiously named Rosie-Gladys. Jewel kindly unravelled the mystery of the crystal ball to me in the hope that I could pass on these teachings to you, our readers.

The first thing that

Jewel told me was how afraid people can be of the crystal ball. People seem to think that if they go for a crystal ball reading, they will be told of their woes and misfortunes! This is not the case at all.

Jewel is passed on messages by her spirit guides and she says that they like to refrain from giving her information that would only cause more confusion to the person having a reading. I did find this out when Jewel kindly offered to read for me and being the nosy Gemini that I amhow could I refuse! I have to say that it was a fantastic reading, answering all the questions I had.

I found that reading a crystal ball is not that dissimilar to tea-leaf reading and it works a lot better for those who don’t like drinking tea! Jewel told me that the ball is a focus tool and can take years of practice to be able to master with confidence, but she has given me a few tips to speed up the learning process.

Before you go out and spend a fortune (pardon the pun) on a brand new crystal ball, follow the steps on the next page and see if you have got what it takes to be a crystal ball reader. Just remember to take your time, relax and enjoy the experience. You cannot get it wrong, you can only say what you see.

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Scrying in Water First of all, you need a clear bowl of water and some black ink. You can use food colouring, but ink is preferable as it forms a ‘slick’ on the surface which makes the bowl easier to read. If you do decide to use food colouring, sugar the water! It changes the density and allows the food colouring to swirl on the top.If you don’t, all you’ll get is a bowl of coloured water!

Put a couple of drops of ink in the bowl.

Remember – you are looking for shapes to trigger thoughts in your mind. Do not discount anything you see. You may find that the first things you see are stars, masks or faces, but whatever you see, analyse it using your own psychic intuition – then, write it down. Don’t try too hard, let your mind drift with the swirls in the bowl.

Do the same again with a fresh bowl of water and ink drops, what can you see now? Analyse it and write it down. When you find that you can see shapes, you will be able to put together a storyboard. For instance, if you see a fish, a boat and people – it may mean that you are taking a trip overseas with family or friends.

Spirit speaks to us in symbols, so think about what these symbols mean. The more practice you have, the easier it will become to unravel the message. The language of symbols is very important in

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spiritual work; translating the symbols is made easy by the large number of books that tell you about their meanings. You could even use a dream directory (like the one that you can collect with Vision) to help you to interpret the symbols.

If you are struggling to see anything in

If you are struggling to “see anything in the ink then keep trying ... – it will happen.

”

the ink then keep trying: you need to be able to relax and fully open your mind – it will happen. Try to relax or even meditate before you try to scry, it will doubtless help and put you in the right frame of mind. Trust your inner knowing (your intuition) and you may surprise

yourself at how easy it can be to pick things up, once you open your mind and your intuition.

When you are comfortable at reading the shapes that are being shown to you through the ink drops, you can move on to using a clear bowl of water. With this technique you are looking deep into the water to see if anything appears to you, as you did with the ink drops. However, now that there is nothing specific to look at, this may take a little more time and concentration.

It may help you to disturb the water by swirling it with your finger. This creates ripples; and ripples create reflections and reflections create shapes. Perhaps you will see an image of a door appear. If so, maybe this could mean that doors are opening for you. As you focus on the door, see if it opens. If it closes on you, then perhaps now is not the time to chase opportunities that aren’t really there!

The symbols you see will be images we can all relate to.

One thing to remember is that you should interpret the symbol first and foremost by determining what it means to you. Do you think a black cat is lucky or unlucky?

People’s opinions on this vary, your opinion will be the one that counts if you see a black cat in the water.

Take this into account before you make a decision on what the symbol means.

Scrying in a crystal ball

and ask for a blessing from your personal deity(ies). Imagine that your aura is getting larger and is filled with white light. See the light filling you and also the ball.

Sense that all negativity is flowing out from both you and the ball into the ground through your feet.

When you feel that you have mastered scrying in water (I have to warn you that this may take you years!) then you can move onto scrying with your own crystal ball.

If you do not yet have your own crystal ball you can choose from many different types. Jewel uses a rare Austrian crystal but you can choose to use any kind that you prefer. Some people prefer to use a clear glass ball. Some prefer clear quartz because of the energies that quartz holds.

However, if this is your desire, be aware that you will need to put a lot of money aside for a completely clear quartz crystal ball.

The alternative is a quartz ball that has flaws, small imperfections that can hold wonderful rainbows and shapes that help you to focus. Don’t discount the quartz crystal that looks ‘imperfect’, they can be truly wonderful for reading! You can also use other types of crystal ball, another good choice is black obsidian, some people find black balls (or even eggs) easier to read. Apart from a ball, the other popular choice is a mirror. Black mirrors are the most commonly used, they are usually charged by the light of the moon and are particularly good for scrying when you need help with psychic matters.

Whatever you choose, remember that you are not looking at the ball, you need to shift your gaze past the sides of the ball and look through. It can also help to

You can also use smudge sticks to cleanse your ball, don’t forget to offer up a prayer too. Some people find it helpful to ask that all the messages they receive are true and before they attempt to scry .

“When you are reading for another person, you will need them to hold the ball to impress their energies on it ...” ignore the sides. Sometimes a ball, egg or mirror will choose you, rather than you choose it!

You may want to cleanse your new purchase. Check first that the crystal you have chosen is safe in water (most are), then simply run it under a cold tap. If you are lucky enough to live near a fresh running stream, use that; if not, a tap will do. Then leave it to dry in the sun. If you are using a mirror, youwill be best served by leaving it to dry in moonlight. If your crystal is not suitable for water or you are not sure, simply sit with it in your hands

It can also help to make your crystal ball ‘special’. Many say it is best covered when not in use; most readers would be horrified if anyone other than themselves and their client touched it. When you are reading for another person, you will need them to hold the ball to impress their energies on it; other than that, keep it away fro mischievous fingers.

Be open to the messages that we receive every day and do practice, this is an art well worth acquiring. When you’ve finally mastered the technique: don’t forget to “look into your crystal ball and tell me what you see”!

Jewel-Marie is available for private readings and you can see her and Simon Goodfellow at the following venues: Saturday 8th April: Maplewell & Stainthorpe Village Hall, Maplewell Wednesday 26th April: Memorial Hall, Potterhill, Pickering. Doors for both events open at 7pm. Tickets on the door, call 07762 538850 for more information.

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Rosalind Collier explores the superstitions of the Tibetan people

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ibet has long been regarded as a mysterious and exotic place, only in the last few decades has the shroud of mystery been lifted and the wondrously rich culture of Tibetan life been revealed to the world. The people of Tibet are deeply superstitious, especially with regard to important life and societal events such as a wedding or the New Year. Given the location and the lifestyles of many of the people of Tibet, superstitious practices still thrive and are taken quite seriously.

Tibetans are regarded as being very spiritual, and many of the festivals celebrated have numerous customs and

practices which are aimed at bringing forth good luck or fortune and warding off bad luck, death, and misfortune. On the 29th day of the last month of the Tibetan year the festival of the banishment of evil spirits takes place. At night a bowl of flour soup and a bunch of burning straws are taken into every room, and the evil spirits are called out.

Then the soup and straws are taken away from the houses and thrown away and left to burn. This practice works very like a banishing or cleansing and is still heavily practiced by many in Tibet.

It is not just ritualistic acts that make up the superstitions adhered to in

If a traveller encounters a funeral “ procession, the source of running water or a passer-by carrying a pitcher of water, then it is said the traveller will have good fortune awaiting him.

�

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Tibet; animals and birds feature prominently in their superstitions, in particular the vulture. In Tibet, the vulture is often thought of as an omen of death and if one perches on a rooftop, it is believed that death or misfortune will soon befall the household. It is easy to see why vultures are associated with death when you take into account their carnivorous palette. It is probably this association which influences another practice of Tibetans regarding death.

Occasionally a corpse will be fed to a vulture as a symbol of charity, in the hope of ensuring a better reincarnation for the deceased.

Superstitions regarding the weather also feature in Tibetan folklore, especially as the monsoon season approaches. Other weather (such as snow) is seen as either lucky or unlucky depending on when it falls. Snow is a universal symbol for the winter months and can be viewed as a symbol of renewal or as one of death. If snow falls during a funeral it symbolises a barrier to death for the bereaved family, if snow falls during a marriage procession it is believed that the newlyweds will face many misfortunes or difficulties.

For an individual travelling through Tibet there are many superstitions and practices to ensure good fortune. If a traveller encounters a funeral procession, the source of running water or a passer-by carrying a pitcher of water, then it is said the traveller will have good fortune awaiting him.

Another practice of the Tibetan people that has become more of a superstitious custom is the offering of a white scarf during greetings, visits to shrines, marriages and death ceremonies and other occasions. The tradition was derived from the ancient custom of offering clothes to adorn the statues of deities, but gradually it evolved into a form of greeting, with the white scarf symbolising purity.

Intuitive astrologer, psychic and dream interpreter Samantha Hamilton continues Vision’s monthly alphabet round-up of the most common dream scenarios.

Common dreams beginning with the letter NAILS If you are hammering nails in your dream, you are being told that through a period of consistent hard work and determined effort you can achieve that which you thought was beyond your reach. Nails are also, of course, a symbol of persecution, punishment and suffering due to their connection to the Crucifixion of Jesus.

NEIGHBOURS Our neighbours are the characters in the screen play of the desires we would wish to act out . To see yourself helping a neighbour you can expect a gift or assistance. If you see yourself having an dispute with a neighbour you may expect disillusionment or resistance to you ideas or ideals.

NAKEDNESS OR NUDITY Being naked indicates a willingness to show your true self; you are open to explore new avenues and the adventures. Your experiences will bring a whole new meaning to you.If the nakedness is your own this predicts a windfall or monetary gain through a new encounter. If you were dreaming of someone else who was naked you see and are willing to accept others for who they truly are.

NEPTUNE The god the of sea appearing in your dreams represents unpredictability in you emotional states. You may feel unable to move forward in you dealings with people.

Patience is required and trust in your instincts at this time will allow insight into your feelings. Do not allow yourself to be manipulated when making decisions involving others. There is also a warning here of possible bad investments and risky stock market dealings.

NAVEL To see a Buddha contemplating his navel is showing you a time of calm and inner reflection. To dream of another’s navel is a time of sensuality, intimacy and of a new love affair. If you saw yourself as a belly dancer dancing with others this is a time of celebration of the feminine. You will now be moving into your true, natural rhythm of life.

NEEDLES To see yourself threading a needle is telling you that you are very fortunate indeed as your current situation will improve on all levels providing you were threading the needle with ease. If difficulties were encountered or you were impatient you can expect a time of setbacks and disappointments. To prick you r self foretells of interference from relatives and superficial friends. Expect arguments and petty squabbles and back -biting.

NETTLES Nettles signify success after battles.

Because of your courage and determination you win through, the correct action has been taken and you are about to reap the rewards.

All projects which have met obstructions in the early stages will now be successful.

If you were stung by the nettles this foretells you need to be careful of deceitful associates and it warns of difficulties cause by interfering people or broken promises.

NEWSPAPER To dream of seeing yourself reading a newspaper shows that events outside your sphere of control will bring favourable outcomes to your plans and desires. An auspicious time is ahead of you! Seeing yourself using newspaper as wrapping indicates joyful reunions with friends.

Generally, this is a positive dream.

‘N’ NECKLACE This object appearing in your dream indicates love in various form. A symbol of giving love, the necklace can also mean domestic strife and quarrels if it appears broken.

A grand or large necklace can also signify the wearer’s need to attract attention or divert attention away from one’s weaknesses or foibles.

NIGHT To perceive of the sky at night in your dreams foretells of delays, obstructions and diversions on your path. If the sky was black then expect to hear of news of and illness, an unexpected change which will force you to change your lifestyle. If the sky were moonlight with the stars shining brightly this is very favourable and positive as you can gain fresh insights to an old problem.

You will feel revitalized and inspired to make a difference in your own life or someone else’s.

NINE The number nine represents the completion of a phase or period of creativity, the final birth of an idea into practicality, the birth following a pregnancy, the culmination of any gestation or growth period into tangible results. Spiritually it also relates to endings and to perfection and to the number of orders of angels.

NURSE This dream carries the meaning of motherhood. The need to nurse others means you are wishing to nurture or be a mother. Conversely being a patient of a nurse reflects on the need to be mothered or cared for. You will be enjoying life and feel abundance around you. Nursed by an old fashioned type sister communicates the need for domination or sister rivalry.

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Are your youngsters having trouble sleeping? Marneta Viegas talks us through a spiritual bedtime

A bath (with more lavender), “ toilet, teeth and a glass of warm

milk every night will condition your child to realize that it’s time to sleep. Keep to the same routine, they will eventually become tired as you do this, instinctively knowing it’s time to sleep.

”

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M

arneta Viegas has been in the Dragons’ Den and survived!

Those who saw Marneta pitch to the Dragons on the BBC’s popular programme, will know that her main aim is happier kids through gentle visualisation. So take a look at her uplifting and spiritual techniques for a bedtime routine… and get some sleep yourself!

If you want to have a peaceful night and your child is having trouble settling, the first thing you need to do is to establish a routine. Children need to feel secure at all times and bedtime is no different. There maybe some opposition to start with when you try to put new ideas in place, but stick with them, they really work.

Children need to feel secure and loved and hugged. Make sure they go to bed knowing that you love them and any naughtiness has been forgotten. The atmosphere your child experiences at bedtime can profoundly affect how well they settle. Make sure your child can’t hear loud noises from other rooms and create a calming atmosphere with calming music and soft lighting. A few drops of lavender in an oil burner or on a tissue next to your child’s bed will bring calm and a feeling of security.

A bath (with more lavender), toilet, teeth and a glass of warm milk every night will condition your child to realize that it’s time to sleep. Keep to the same routine, they will eventually become tired as you do this, instinctively knowing it’s time to sleep.

When your child is in bed in the pleasant atmosphere you’ve created, there are several things you can do to help relax them even more. Practice a couple of slow deep breaths together. Get your child to imagine they are blowing up a huge balloon or blowing bubbles of peace into the room. If you can, make bedtime a magical time, let him/her choose his/her favourite story and cuddle a favourite teddy.

If there is a deep resistance, have a chat with your child and find out what the underlying problem is – it

maybe that s/he really has a fear of being alone, or is scared of the dark or feels lonely or missing out. Talking about his/her fears and getting lots of attention, understanding and assurance from you will help immensely. Sprinkle invisible fairy dust in the air or draw a circle of protection around them. Allow time for children to blow away their worries and fears.

As you talk. try massaging his/her hands and feet gently – this can really help your child to let go and relax.

Remain patient and relaxed yourself, if you react to any temper tantrums with a tantrum yourself it will mean you’ll have

noisy robot. Now, you are going to see if you can switch the robot off and make every part of your body completely still.

Start with your right leg – bring all your attention to your right leg and turn off the switch. Your right leg becomes totally still and silent. Do the same to your left leg, switching off the switch and watching the bright lights on that leg turn off.

Switch off the light on your stomach and make it very, very still and quiet inside.

Now, do the same to you arms, turning off the lights and letting your arms become very still and heavy. Finally, turn off the switch in your head. Switch off your mouth, switch off your nose and

Children need to feel secure “and loved and hugged. Make sure they go to bed knowing that you love them and any naughtiness has been forgotten”

to start from scratch again. Read a story in a calming and slightly monotonous voice, ensure the content of the story is uplifting and encourages positive thoughts.

Ask your child to repeat a calming affirmation three times such as; I am calm/peaceful/quiet/relaxed. You can do this with them too, it helps them to feel reassured instead of silly! Finally, get your child to lie down and relax all the muscles in their body. You can help them by reading out the following relaxing meditation.

The Robot Close your eyes, be very still and imagine that you are a robot. Your whole body is made of metal. The lights on your arms and legs and stomach are flashing brightly. The robot also makes all sorts of beeping and bleeping noises. It is a very

finally switch off your eyes. You should feel very still now. See how still you can make your robot body. Don’t forget that if you move anything, then the lights will go back on – so stay as still as you can.

How long can you stay completely still and quiet for?

Combine these tips with a lot of love and caring and, with practice, the whole family will have a quiet and peaceful bedtime!

Marneta Viegas has produced a series of CDs perfect for bedtime and suitable for both little boys and little girls. In addition to the above routine, you can you’re your child a wonderful story which will have a positive effect on their outlook and their sleep. Have a look at Marneta’s website for more details and don’t forget to enter our great competition to win the CD of your choice from RelaxKids. www.relaxkids.com

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WIN a pair of tickets to a seminar with Gordon Smith & Doreen Virtue – worth £150!

V

ision has teamed up with Hay House Publishers to offer you the chance to attend a one-day seminar with Gordon Smith and Doreen Virtue PLUS runner-up prizes of 5 hardback copies of Gordon’s new book Through my Eyes and 5 hardback copies of Doreen’s latest hardback Goddesses and Angels!

The lucky winner of our competition will receive a pair of tickets to a one-day seminar: Healing with Mediumship, Angels and Goddesses at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on 21st May 2006.

Take advantage of this rare opportunity to work with Gordon Smith, the ‘Psychic Barber’ and Doreen Virtue, the world-renowned angel expert.

Gordon will help you to discover the different ways you can tap into and work with your own innate healing

powers in order to help yourself and others. Whether you have the psychic gift of seeing, sensing or hearing this seminar will help you to sharpen your healing gifts and to receive clear messages.

Doreen has taught tens of thousands of people throughout the world how to invoke the power of the angelic realm. Now, for the first time, Doreen will share the secret wisdom of the goddess throughout the ages. With this ancient knowledge you will have the power to transform your life and create the reality you desire.

For your chance to win this fabulous prize, simply answer the following question: Gordon Smith is also known as the ‘Psychic …..’ ?

Send you answer on a postcard or the back of a sealed-down envelope with your name and address to: Vision Gordon and Doreen Competition, 42a, Main Street,

Garforth, West Yorkshire LS25 1AA to reach us by 20th April. The first correct entry drawn after the closing date will win a pair of tickets to the one-day seminar ‘Healing with Mediumship, Angels and Goddesses’ at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow on 21st May 2006.

Tickets are available from Hay House Publishers by calling 020 8962 1230. If you would like to find out more information on this and other events please visit; www.hayhouse.co.uk Terms and Conditions: There is no cash alternative. Transport, accommodation and sundry expenses are the responsibility of the winner and are not included in the prize.

10 runners-up will receive either a copy of Through my Eyes or Goddesses and Angels.

All prizes will be distributed by Hay House Publishers, Vision accept no responsibility for the distribution of prizes. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

WIN a Relax Kids CD of your choice – 5 CDs to be won !

D

oes your child have trouble settling at night? Relax… with Relax Kids CDs, especially prepared help parents organise bedtimes and give their children a peaceful and magical night’s sleep. These inspirational compilations are the brainchild of Marneta Viegas, candidate on the BBC’s popular series Dragons’ Den. Marneta is passionate about helping children to grow in a positive environment and these

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CDs are the product of her work and her passion.

Vision have teamed up with Relax Kids to offer you the chance to win a CD for your very own Princess or Wizard. Full of relaxing music and wonderful, positive meditations, this CD will ensure that bedtime is not badtime!

For more information on Relax Kids products, visit www.relaxkids.com or contact them on 0870 350 5035. Give yourself and your child a great night’s sleep!

To win the CD of your choice just answer the following question: What BBC programme did Marneta Viegas appear on?

Send you answer on a postcard or the back of a sealed-down envelope, with your choice of either Wizards (for boys) or Princesses (for girls) and your name and address to: Vision Relax Kids Competition, 42a, Main Street, Garforth, West Yorkshire LS25 1AA to reach us by 20th April. The first 5 correct entries drawn after the closing date will win a CD of either ‘Wizards’ or ‘Princesses’.

Terms and Conditions: There is no cash alternative. All prizes will be distributed by Relax Kids, Vision accept no responsibility for the distribution of prizes. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

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This knowledge will be invaluable in helping you to recognise and develop your child's natural talents and to understand what makes your child behave and react in the way he or she does. It will help you to help them to live a more fulfilling, contented and successful life. Each interpretation is divided into three sections - detailed below Laying down the foundations Essential character, emotional and feeling nature, relationship with mother and personality.

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he Open University and the BBC co-produced a series of programmes entitled Alternative Medicine: required watching for anyone interested in alternative therapies. If you are a therapist, you will know for yourself the benefits of alternative treatment used in conjunction with standard medicinal practises. However, unlike mainstream treatments, complementary therapies are not easily backed up by science in how they work.

The three part series tells the story of a remarkable journey taken by scientist Kathy Sykes to uncover the truth behind the world’s most ancient medicines. She set off to discover whether they really do work and, if so, how. It was a journey that challenged views of who we really are and how best to treat ourselves.

In the first programme we saw Kathy’s studies of Acupuncture, used for thousands of years in China.

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Diana Jarvis talks to Dr Tom Heller about the BBCs fascinating series: Alternative Medicine. Do complementary therapies work? If so, can that be proven scientifically? Read on …

She discovered powerful evidence that ancient Chinese doctors had found a way to manipulate the power of our own minds.

Kathy began her journey in China where she heard and saw powerful evidence that acupuncture works. The most astonishing scene is in a Chinese hospital in which doctors perform openheart surgery on a young woman – using acupuncture instead of a general anaesthetic. In China, she discovers, acupuncture is used alongside western medicine and, at times, as a replacement.

I watched Alternative Medicine and was astonished that the results of scientific tests showed that Acupuncture can be proven to work … on some illnesses. This does not mean that it is efficacious for everything, but goodness, what a breakthrough!

I spoke to Dr Tom Heller of the Open University’s Faculty of

Health and Social Care. He uses some Complementary Therapies in his own GP practice and one of his most amazing experiences involves Acupuncture. He says: “My story is a personal one that is probably rather typical of health care professionals who become interested in CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Some years ago I developed chronic sinusitis that left me with facial pain that lasted for about five years and was really quite disruptive to my enjoyment of life. After loads of allopathic stuff including nasal steroids, long-term antibiotics and a nasty ENT operation, the pain remained more or less the same. Enter the acupuncturist… after a few needles in my toes, and other seemingly random spots, I was entirely pain free and pretty much converted to the CAM idea. Now come on… needles in the toes to get rid of facial pain… what’s going on there?”

The second programme in the series looks at spiritual healing. Kathy investigates the power of healers and discovers that although there is no evidence that healers have any special powers – their patients do appear to recover. It’s a mystery that Kathy only finally solves when she discovers that each of us has a powerful selfhealing mechanism that healers have found a way to manipulate. Kathy explores this extraordinary human capacity and finds the key to triggering it.

The results of her experiments are quite remarkable, without a

doubt spiritual healing appears (from a scientific point of view) to work, but so does someone pretending to be a healer!

It seems that belief that you are receiving healing does prompt the healing process within (correctly termed the Placebo Effect), releasing an ‘expectancy chemical’ called Dopamine. In the programme a gentleman with Alzheimer’s disease was given spiritual healing. As Alzheimer’s is caused by a lack of Dopamine being produced naturally, his response to healing was significant: because he believed he was being treated and so the brain released Dopamine. It is hoped that scientists will look further into Dopamine and its effects on selfhealing, but the implications of the studies already done show us the power of the mind to help us heal ourselves.

I asked Dr Heller about the Placebo Effect.

“There are so many physiological changes that occur through the power of the mind. The Placebo Effect is really not one thing, but a whole range of ways that the body can be induced to heal itself. All healing really comes from one’s own body, although sometimes it needs a bit of an external stimulus or outside assistance. I personally believe that this is sometimes stimulated by a specific intervention, whether it is classified as a CAM, or comes within the treatment spectrum we use as orthodox health workers.”

In the third programme Kathy investigates the ancient practice of Herbalism and discovers that not only do herbs have powerful healing powers but that some of them may provide answers to medical conditions that continue to baffle modern science! In Britain she meets people who are pinning their hopes on herbs – some with remarkable results. And in Germany she meets the scientists who are taking them apart and submitting them to rigorous clinical trials. Out of this has emerged at least eight ‘super herbs’; herbs that in clinical

‘s

Alternative Medicine

watched Alternative “IMedicine and was astonished ...

Acupuncture can be proven to work … on some illnesses.

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trials perform as well, if not better, than their pharmaceutical competitors.

I asked Dr Heller how he used CAM in his own practice.

“In our practice, in a deprived area of Sheffield, we have a herbalist, an acupuncture specialist and a massage worker. Their work has been evaluated and always comes out very well from patient feedback. It is wonderful having a whole range of therapies for people to choose from. We have also set up a large project financed from a grant from the Big Lottery Fund that offers Tai Chi, Yoga, Pilates and Relaxation sessions and is now running teaching sessions for local people to learn more about these therapies.”

So, it seems, we (believers in Complementary Therapies) are not all mad after all… science is now coming

round to the idea that there are some answers that they haven’t found the questions to yet! CAM is now so strongly supported, the Open University have decided a course on CAM is warranted.

Dr Heller has been instrumental is producing the course now on offer at The Open University, K221 Perspectives on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. This one-year course is designed for any anyone who holds an interest in this area and is looking for an accessible, yet rigorous introduction to complementary and alternative approaches to medicine and health. There are no previous qualifications that students taking K221 will need prior to study. However, it is suggested that if you haven’t studied for a long time or are not very confident of your academic capacity, you should start with the first level course.

“Our course will certainly not conflict with the training that therapists receive within their chosen specialty. The course will help them to look at a wide range of issues within their own therapy and within the wider CAM spectrum. It will help them examine and explore their own work, although it is not a ‘how to do it’ course for any specific therapy. It explores the background and social and scientific contexts of the world of CAM. It’s had really positive feedback from the students who have studied the course in its first year, many of whom have also been therapists. Most of the tutors on the course also work as CAM therapists as well.”

The Open University, in conjunction with Dr Heller, has produced a free booklet entitled Alternative Medicine – The Evidence, which explores the themes of the series. It summarises the most frequently asked questions on complementary therapy and provides further information on The Open University K221 course. Additional information can be found on the BBC / Open University website, open2.net. For a free brochure Alternative Medicine – The Evidence call 08700 100 878 or log on to open2.net.

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Vision 13

Angela Benson samples the ancient art of Tibetan Acupressure

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hen I first arrived at Equinox New Beginnings for my Tibetan Acupressure session I was greeted by the sensual aroma of fragrant oils and a smiling Wendy Blease, my therapist for the night. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, so seeing a friendly smiling face and hearing Wendy’s comforting Yorkshire lilt was just what I needed, along with a nice hot cup of tea! While I was gratefully drinking my tea, Wendy explained how the Acupressure might affect me and what I should do to speed any healing or emotions that may come to the surface.

“Drink lots of water over the next 48 hours”, said Wendy. “The Acupressure can release a lot of toxins that are built up in the body and the water will help to clear them out of the system quicker.” Wendy also explained that the process can release pent-up emotions and that a relaxation session was included at the end of the session so that there is time to assimilate and release these emotions. “In extreme cases I have known people to sob for hours after the therapy”, says Wendy. “If this happens to you, please don’t think I’ve done something really horrible to you”. I looked at Wendy and wondered how anybody could think that of her! “If you do get any side effects after the treatment, just call me”, she reassured.

There are two-structured religious teachings in Tibetan Culture today: Buddhism and Bon – which means to invoke a deity. There is very little information available on Bon, but it appears to be an ‘earth’ religion; similar to Hinduism. Bon developed about 1,000

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years ago but kept the philosophies of a much older prehistoric culture, according to Bon practitioners, these philosophies spread to northern India about 6,000 ago where they developed into Ayurveda.

Tibetan Acupressure works alongside Tibetan Ayurveda. Ayurveda says that human beings are composed of the following: five elements, seven components and three excreta.

According to Tibetan medical tradition, the three humors, seven components and three excretions all need to be in perfect harmony for good health.

The Tibetan energy system also has three Channels know as Rtza (which

means veins); these are the primary link between the subtle (etheric) or ‘Diamond Vajna’ body, and the physical body. They are made of light and vibrate at a frequency that is beyond physical sight.

I had opted to try a full massage treatment, which involved a shoulder, arm, neck, face and head massage, the latter being unique to Tibet, using light pressure on the meridians. Meridians are pathways of blood flow and Qi around the body. Qi (or Chi) is the oriental name for the vital energy that flows through us.

Once prescribed by Tibetan physicians for conditions such as anxiety and restlessness, this therapy is performed

with the client fully clothed in a reclining or lying position.

I wondered what the difference was between Tibetan and Indian Head massage. “In general, I would say that the Tibetan concentrates on putting pressure on meridian points in a more targeted way than the Indian. Tibetan also tends to be a gentler pressure. The aim of the treatment is to make a positive change to the recipient’s energy system with specialised massage techniques.”

Wendy gave me a form to fill out with some basic medical history so that she was aware in advance of anything I had suffered from that may affect the treatment.

As I sat and had my shoulders massaged I could feel that wonderful feeling I think we all get when someone takes the time to try to make us feel good. I was comfortable and enjoyed the experience, as I did with the whole massage. The highlight for me, though, was the head massage. I felt like I was

prescribed by Tibetan physicians “Once for conditions such as anxiety and

restlessness, this therapy is performed with the client fully clothed in a reclining or lying position.

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being taken back to a time when my mother used to brush my hair, it felt divine, especially when Wendy rubbed jasmine oil into my hair. I really benefited from the relaxation session at the end, too. Lying down on a couch with soft, fluffy towels, the smell of jasmine in my hair and feeling really pampered I could have drifted away to my own little Nirvana. It was truly wonderful and the experience was considerably enhanced by Wendy, whose dedication to helping and healing shone through in everything she said and did. As for the beneficial effects on my health – you’ll have to ask me in a month’s time! My thanks to all at Equinox for their background information and advice.

You can experience Tibetan Acupressure and a number of other therapies and courses at Equinox, visit www.freewebs.com/equinoxnewbeginni ngs/ or telephone 01709 817030 You can also email: equinoxnewbeginnings@tiscali.co.uk or visit them at their shop and therapy centre: Equinox New Beginnings, 43 Tickhill Road Maltby, South Yorkshire.

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Holly Davis is an animal communicator and healer.

She keeps many animals herself and one of her horses, Texas, has been helping with her healing practice. Holly talks about her work with Texas and her menagerie

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nimal Communication is an extension of Healing. I have found that my ability to be able to communicate with my patients have really helped to understand and treat them. For me, the ability to work with energies that relate to those being exhibited by the animal through their electromagnetic energy field (often referred to as the ‘Aura’) is vital. I’ve always had an inner knowing of how animals were feeling and I had always wanted to communicate with animals.

Then one day, very suddenly, it happened!

I was out with my horses and I suddenly had a ‘knowing’ that they could hear me and they all came and stood right in front of me staring at me. Even my daughter noticed how they were acting and asked me why. There was no way of explaining how I knew they could hear me only that I ‘knew”. I told my mare Kayleigh that I needed proof. I figured out that the best way to get this was to tell her that I was going to take a step forward and wanted her to do the same. I stepped forward and so did she, then it tried it again. The 3rd time she didn’t move so I mentally asked her why.

Her reply was “because I didn’t want to” … and that was the first time I actually heard an animal speak. I then spoke to my other horses and then went inside to speak with my cats. I was so open at this time that communication between the animals and myself went on constantly for 4 days (I hardly slept!).

Eventually I managed to find the on/off switch for my ability and got some sleep. Since then I have been able to tune in as and when needed. Before I had learnt to switch off, I’d be driving down the motorway and I’d hear the cows in the fields at the side of the road and

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chickens going past on the lorries! Even now I can be in a supermarket buying vegetables and find that I’m having a conversation with my rabbits asking them what they’d like!

I am often asked how animals ‘speak’. Obviously this speech is not in a verbal form by the animals themselves, rather, the words that come are our own interpretation of what the animal is saying.

The Animal Communicator (often known as an Animal Intuitive) is simply the go-between for the animal and their caretaker.

Before I started working with my animals to help heal other animals I had to be sure that what was happening was ‘real’. I spent 12-18 months having my work verified medically, so that I knew that what I was receiving was correct.

I’ve been working professionally for 6 years, with the majority of my clients I use animal communication and animal healing, I have also been running workshops throughout the UK. I think

Before I had learnt to “ switch off, I’d be driving down the motorway and I’d hear the cows in the fields at the side of the road and chickens going past on the lorries!

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that healing research is very important so I try to get involved as much as I can. I’m currently writing a book called Texas Highway, which was inspired by my horse Texas. I also work with what I have termed Transpersonal Interspecies Communication, which is communicating with the higher consciousness of anything living including humans and animals. Depending on which ‘part’ of the animal I connect with makes a difference to what kind of information comes through.

I have had some amazing experiences while communicating with animals. One of the most profound was when my mare Kayleigh was ill. She told me she was ready to be put to sleep and I was hysterical. She told me it was my ego making me cry and that instead I should be pleased for her, as she had been so ill for such a long time. It was the week

before she was put to sleep that I experienced so many coincidences it was nothing short of amazing! I was deluged with messages from everywhere, people emailing and phoning as Kayleigh was passing over, many from people who only knew she was ill. I suddenly realized death wasn’t the end after all and was happy for her. I didn’t even cry when she was put to sleep and, not surprisingly I find I can still talk to her.

Texas, my stallion, who helps me with my healing work, started to talk to me 5 years before he lived with me, even though I had never ‘met’ him. He didn’t speak like other horses and his type of communication was very new to me. Texas helps me when I’m working with people and other animals, giving advice and insights.

In the physical he is a very ‘male’ dominant horse and very handsome. He gives information on what type of healing should be used and has also given me warnings about people and situations that I should stay clear of.

I work with all kinds of animals from rabbits to horses and all kinds of problems from behavioural to severe illness… and sometimes just check-ups. I give distant healing as well: in fact 90% of my work is done over the telephone as I can still view the animal’s body and thoughts this way.

I believe in reincarnation and have had past lives with many of my animals, family and friends: including Texas. I also believe in multidimensionality and that time is curved not linear, so that past life injuries can suddenly become a problem as they are actually playing out at that time somewhere else. I tend to view animals and people as a soul that uses a body as a way of being here and experiencing rather than a body that just happens to have a soul.

I work with spirit guides, many of my own animals are guides too. I also

have ‘human’ guides but tend to work with my animal ones more as they resonate with me somehow.

Texas tells me that I should be veering towards teaching more than anything else, as he feels I should pass on what I’ve learnt and what he teaches me.

I run Animal Communication, Animal Healing and Animal Angel Workshops to do this. I’m not one who likes to be in the public eye (I prefer being in my fields in my Wellies looking a mess!), but in order to spread the word, teach and so I can work with the people who need me, I have go this way about it.

I’m totally devoted to the animals I work with. In the past I have been in a position where I needed to give up this work because of finances. Texas

insisted that I plod on and trust him.

Having that faith in him has now paid off, as has the hard work, because doors are starting to open. Had it not been for Texas supporting and guiding me I wouldn’t be here doing this now, I’d have given in years ago! My aims are to help bridge the divide between the animal and human kingdoms. Animals have a lot to offer by way of our own healing and they are also our teachers (you only have to look at how they live in nature: we’re the ones destroying our world). When people learn to connect with animals it can completely change their life like it has mine, when people are ready to experience this, I want to help them to achieve their goal. Also I would never give up talking to animals and helping to

heal them as I feel this is my life’s work, what I came here for (it’s all in my natal chart too!).

Holly and Texas have got together with a message for Vision readers: When we choose to communicate with the animal kingdom and view things as they do, it changes everything. Our view of death, birth and how we live our lives are all affected. Animals are our equals, in many cases they are very evolved souls, sometimes far greater than ourselves. We all came here to learn and to experience but many of us get lost along the way and ego takes over. Much of what the animals teach is how to be at peace with your self and how to ‘find’ yourself. Don’t feel you have to follow another’s beliefs, set religion or another’s rules. Live harmoniously and experience for yourselves through your experiences rather than following someone else’s lead because of fear.

We can all connect with animals. I teach workshops to show people how, people are amazed at how easily they can do it! Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and visualize the animal in your mind. Focus on their face and connect with their eyes. Whilst doing this, ask them a question in your head but ‘send’ everything to do with that question.

Words, feelings, mental pictures, all of these are required. The clearer you are, the easier they will ‘hear’ you. Then sit back and wait to see what information comes back to you: it’s as easy as that.

Practicing on others animals is good as you can also have validation from the owners. Also asking a horse where its back hurts and then having the vet check it out is good validation. It’s when we get validations that we begin to believe ourselves. Belief makes it more real and acceptable, then it happens!

You can read more on www.nirvanasprings.co.uk or www.texashighway.org.uk Tel: 01994 241255

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Samantha Hamilton explains the subtle art of cleansing your home to clear out negativity and positive influences

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very home can benefit from space clearing, whether an old house with lots of others’ energies, or a new one with the smell of fresh paint.

Space clearing is a term applied to the practice of ritually clearing out old negative energies, blessing your home and attracting positive energies into it.

When you are preparing yourself to do a space clearing, I believe it is best to ask at all times for guidance from the angels, in most cultures there are traditions for invoking help from the unseen.

We have the power to generate and make the difference. When you ask for help and connect with your “ruling” angel (I’ve listed these below) they will help you to heal your spiritual, emotional and material world. Then you can accomplish things that you never thought possible! It is important for you to remember that they are always there in the time of need, and will offer guidance and assistance whenever we are open to receiving. Ask and you shall receive!

SARAQUAEL Archangel for the sign of ARIES 21 March- 20 April ASHMODIEL Archangel for the sign of TAURUS 21 April- 20 May

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In my experience writing a prayer to my deity and my guides is a great start. I also ask my angels to stand by me and support me. I then light a blue candle for healing, a red and green candle for abundance and a pink candle for love, peace and harmony. I find that playing soft, spiritual music can help the

angels of the four quarters (compass points/ element). These are the mighty Archangels Raphael (East/Air); Michael (South/Fire); Gabriel (West/Water) and Uriel (North/Earth). Imagine them with you and protecting you: huge, powerful angelic being with wings large enough to enfold you and your house as well!

Space clearing is a term applied to the “ practice of ritually clearing out old negative

energies, blessing your home and attracting positive energies into it

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mood, music has been proven to affect us and certainly affects those beings in other realms! Cleanse your candles with essential oils, (jasmine and rose oil are both excellent choices) and then make a clear statement of what it is that you want to bring into your life and your home. As an example you may say: “ Cleanse this house and heart of all negativity from the past and bring happiness, abundance and a love of life to all those who dwell in them.”

You may also like to ask for help from the

Here are your ruling angels (sources vary)

Make the time that you put aside for space clearing special.

Remember that it will draw to you just what you put into it, so be sincere and make sure that if you have a problem you don’t visualise that… visualise the results of having it removed! Space clearing can be done more than once, if you feel that things seem to hit a bad patch, it will not hurt to ask for negative energies to be cleared again. Make your home a spiritual place and positive things are sure to follow!

ZURIEL Archangel for the sign of LIBRA 22 Sept- 22 Oct BARUEL Archangel for the sign of SCORPIO 23 Oct- 21 Nov

AMBRIEL Archangel for the sign of GEMENI 21 May- 20 June

ADNACHIEL Archangel for the sign of SAGITTARIUS 22 Nov- 20 Dec

CAEL Archangel for the sign of CANCER 21 June- 20 July

ORPHIEL Archangel for the sign of CAPRICORN 21 Dec- 19 Jan

ZERACHIEL Archangel for the sign of LEO 22 July- 21 Aug

CAMBIEL Archangel for the sign of AQUARIUS 20 Jan- 18 Feb

VAEL Archangel for the sign of VIGRO 22 Aug- 21 Sept

BARAKIEL Archangel for the sign of PISCES 19 Feb- 20 March

Like the image above? Buy the poster from Vision Shop (P78)

Andrew Norman shares his considerable experience and skill to bring us a series of ‘doit-yourself’ articles on Qi Gong. Collect the whole series for a complete exercise routine.

What is Qi Gong?

Qi Gong means work done to enhance our vital energy and is a method of balancing the mind and body through exercise and breathing. Qi signifies the flowing of internal energy, which you can manifest through your movements.

Gong signifies external power which is demonstrated by the movement of hands, feet and body. Through practice of Qi Gong, a feeling and understanding of internal and external power and strength is developed.

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Ball Holding Qi Gong The type of Qi Gong I teach is known as Ball Holding Qi Gong. The forms (different excercises) include the movement of an imaginary ball (which is actually a ball of very real Qi) that you hold and manipulate. What you are about to begin is a wonderful journey. The following is Form 1 of a 4 part sequence. Each set of movements gradually becoming more involved. Remember to relax, breathe naturally and enjoy.

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1. Start Position: The Standing Pole Stand naturally, feet shoulder-width apart with your arms down by sides, leave a slight gap under your armpits. Relax your ankles and your knees, hips, spine and neck. Now your shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands will relax. Keep your head vertical. Curl your tongue back and touch the roof of your mouth to produce saliva, which should be swallowed on the out breath. This will keep your throat moist.

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2 and 3. When you are ready, breathe in 4. As you breathe out, imagine you are holding a and gently raise your forearms, bending at bubble between your palms and gently push your the elbows, turning your palms in to face palms together. Feel the surface tension of your each other at shoulder-width apart. Hands bubble. Push together to about football size. On and fingers should be relaxed and concave. breathing out, notice a slight pause in your Stop the movement when your forearms breathing before your next in-breath. This is are parallel with the floor. Try not to press normal and is called the cycle of breathing. elbows against your sides.

(Inspiration, expiration and pause). Imagine pushing the bubble together but don’t burst it!

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5. Now concentrate on the centre of 6. Now breathe out and rotate your your palms and draw your bubble palms; right hand above your back out to shoulder-width apart. bubble, left hand below, as if you Breathe in. Don’t go too wide and are caressing your bubble. Feel the drop your bubble. buzz.

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9. As you breathe in, draw it back out, palms to shoulder-width.

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10. Breathe out, rotating your palms, this time left palm on top, right palm below.

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7. Breathe in, rotating your palms back to shoulder-width apart.

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11. Breathe in and rotate your palms back to their original position (4) shoulder-width apart.

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8. As you breathe out compress the bubble.

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12. Breathe out and return your arms to your sides.

This is one cycle of your exercise. Repeat from here another seven times completing eight repetitions.

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Dr Ron Bonewitz explores the Heart Centre with a potent visualisation so that you can live your life with your whole heart

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ost readers will be familiar with the term ‘heart chakra’ – the middle chakra of the seven energy centres. Although incorporating the heart chakra, the Heart Centre is much more than just an energy centre; it is, literally, the centre of our entire being.

Thus, opening the Heart Centre is much more than just balancing the energy of the chakra. It is about healing the inner Being at the most profound level.

This is even reflected in our language of the heart as a source of

Being: ‘going to the heart of the matter’ means we have touched its pure essence.

When we say ‘you have reached my heart’, it means our very soul has been touched; ‘with all my heart’ means total commitment, as it comes from the very deepest level of our being. ‘To open your heart’, means to be willing to take in the love of another person; ‘giving your heart’ means to fall in love. And, ‘wearing your heart on your sleeve’ means that you are openly looking for love. The heart, then, is also an organ associated with

feeling. The heart expands with joy, or it has the feeling of shrinking with anxiety or disappointment. A broken heart is a feeling associated with a great deal of anxiety, pain, or discomfort in the heart area - a feeling that a precious connection has been broken.

The first channel of communication for the heart is through the throat and mouth. It is the newborn’s first channel of expression as it reaches for the mother’s breast with the lips and mouth. However, a baby doesn’t reach with the lips and mouth alone; it also reaches with its heart. In the kiss, we retain this movement as an expression of love. However, a kiss may be a mere gesture of love, or an expression of love; the difference is whether one’s heart is in it or not, and that depends on whether the channel of communication from the heart is open.

The second channel for the heart is through the arms and hands as they reach out to touch. Here, too, the action can be an expression of love, or just a gesture, depending on whether the feeling flows from the heart into the hands. Loving hands are

At that point, see your heart “centre as a room, with you

inside...You may see your blockages as rubbish or litter within the room, or perhaps as some sort of obstacle.

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highly charged with energy, and have a healing quality in the touch.

The third channel of communication of the heart is downward through the waist and pelvis, to the genitals. Sex is an act of love, but once again, it can simply be a gesture or a true expression of love if one’s heart is really in it. If the feeling of love for one’s partner is strong, the sexual experience has an intensity that makes the conclusion an ecstatic event. In such a case, one can actually feel one’s heart leap for joy at that moment.

As the heart heals, becomes more open, all of the functions of human life become richer and fuller. If one wants to live fully and richly, it is only possible if one opens one’s heart to life and to love. Without love—for one’s self, for one’s fellow human beings, for nature and for the universe, a person is cold, detached and inhuman. The lack of this love, that is, an open-hearted connection with everything that surrounds us, leaves us with a sense of alienation, and separation from the flow of life around us. That is because the flow of life within us is blocked.

The heart is the most sensitive organ of the body and any interrupting of its rhythm of function, either physically or psychically is a terrifying experience.

In order to protect ourselves from this terror, we erect defenses. These become powerful barriers, and are the blockages that must be worked through in later life to realize the full re-awakening of our heart-self. The newborn is born with a fully open heart. The infant born into an environment that is less than totally loving will immediately begin to erect barriers to protect him or herself from the unbearable pain this creates. In other words, the heart begins to close. This is an entirely unconscious process, which is

why in later years it is easy for us to deny – or even notice – that it has ever taken place.

Opening the heart is a life-long process. It is, in fact, what we live our entire lifetimes for. Every other action in our lives works toward this in one way or another. Spiritual growth is seen by many as a process of connecting to something outside ourselves – someone or something ‘up there’. This is looking entirely in the wrong direction. The flow

opening the Heart “ Centre is much more than

just balancing the energy of the chakra. It is about healing the inner Being at the most profound level.

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of love that is God (or what other name we care to name this force) comes from the heart. God is within us, and always has been. It is only through our selferected barriers that we fail to recognize this. Our physical, mental, and emotional bodies are all reflections of the connection (or lack of it) with this inner Being, the Divine within. Thus real spiritual growth comes from working on that which is within us that keeps us from the full experience of this inner flow. How to begin? A simple but potent

meditation/ visualisation is an excellent trigger for the lifeprocesses that begin the opening process: Clearing the Heart Focus initially on your heartbeat. As you become more and more focused on your heartbeat, feel that heartbeat as the centre of your being, as if everything that you are is focused in that beat. Feel yourself becoming smaller and smaller with your heart centre becoming larger and larger, until you feel as if you are ‘inside’ your own heartbeat. At that point, see your heart centre as a room, with you inside.

When you feel comfortable there, notice that in one of the walls there is a window. As you look out of the window, you will see that what is outside is... the Universe. The Universe is the source of everything in our lives, inner barriers included. The unbalanced thoughts and feelings underlying these are that which has taught us: that which has propelled us into learning. But as we begin to reach out to re-harmonize ourselves with the universe, we no longer need these things.

You may see your blockages as rubbish or litter within the room, or perhaps as some sort of obstacle. You will also find at hand whatever tools you need to remove these with. As you begin clearing up, open the window and shove the debris outside, returning it to the Universe.

When you have finished, close the window and return your cleaning tools to the proper place. Then, begin taking deeper and deeper breaths focusing on your heartbeat. As you do so, visualize the area of your heart becoming smaller and smaller and your body becoming larger and larger, until you have both returned to your proper size.

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Witches’ Kitchen

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ello again Vision readers, April is the month when we start to feel brighter and happier, the dark nights are well and truly behind us and we start to come out of our shells. We are now thinking about and planning outdoor activities as the weather gets warmer, but we still need to have our umbrellas at the ready as April is notorious for its rain showers. Just as rain is cleansing, we may also think about cleansing our bodies by eating a healthier diet and drinking plenty of water. As the old saying goes “my body is a temple”, which are very wise words especially if we need a bit more energy and a more positive mental outlook? These factors are all crucial to develop our full potential both in our day-to-day lives and our magical life. To be able to meditate we need a clarity of vision which we cannot hope to achieve if we are feeling down in the dumps and lethargic. So go forward this month with a spring in your step and a focused mind. Take care of yourself and you will find that life takes on a whole new meaning: it’s so much easier to enjoy it when you feel great!

Andrea.

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Meadowsweet Gender: Masculine Planet: Jupiter Element: Air Powers: Love, divination, peace, happiness Meadowsweet can be placed on the altar for love spells or as a dried herb which can be used in love potions. If there are lots of family arguments or squabbling children in the house meadowsweet can be placed around the house to keep the peace.

Medicinally as an infusion meadowsweet is good for upset stomachs, indigestion and heartburn.

Goddess of the Month

Freya (also known as Frayja) Freya was the Goddess of Beauty, Love, Marriage, Fertility, War and Wealth Freya was the wife of the powerful Norse God Odin. She was a sky Goddess responsible for weaving the clouds and therefore the sunshine and rain).

Also responsible for weaving the fates, as well as being a “seer”, who could predict the future but never change it. As a warrior Goddess, Freya was also Queen of the Valkyries who helped the transition of warrior’s souls into Valhalla. In addition to this Freya was the protector of women in labour, ensured fertility and brought women love and marriage. Freya is normally depicted riding a chariot pulled by two black cats. Usually Freya is seen as a blonde with bright blue eyes whose beauty no man could resist; she also wore a magical necklace called “Brisingamen”. Freya is best invoked for spells and rituals concerning Love, Marriage and Fertility. She helps with our intuition and aids clairvoyance, particularly on matters of divination. Freya can also be invoked to help with new beginnings and also when we are going through periods of transition in our lives.

“I want a baby” Dear Coven Corner, I have been trying for a baby for quite a while and not yet fallen pregnant. I would love to become a mother more than anything.

Is there a spell I could try to help me conceive? Please Help.

Amanda Parkin PS: I’m 26 years old.

Dear Amanda, First of all, as you are only 26, try not to worry about getting pregnant to the point where it consumes your every thought!

When we worry too much, the result can be a massive block in energies, which in turn makes it more difficult for us to achieve the very thing that we so wish to have.

Below is a spell you may want to try out, but be absolutely sure this is what you want as fertility spells are very powerful and very effective!

Fertility Spell 9 x white tea lights 1 x Brown or natural coloured Egg 1 x Plant Pot Enough soil to fill the plant pot Grass seeds 1 x Green felt tip pen This spell is done at the start of a new moon or anywhere up until the moon is full.

Moon Meditation.

Meditation is not only a good way to relax but also to establish a link with the Goddess and God. It will also help to raise your levels of awareness. This moon meditation is a way of getting to know the Goddess and her energy, which in turn will enable you to work with the Goddess in a much closer way when performing spells and rituals. Try this meditation and make that connection!

The Meditation It is important that you are somewhere quiet where you will not be disturbed whilst meditating. You may also like to play some relaxing music in the background.

When you are relaxed and comfortable in a chair or lying down, breathe in deeply three or four times, with each breath you become more relaxed.

From the tips of your toes to the top of your head you become more relaxed, imagine a blue sphere of light around you, protecting and keeping you safe. Now visualise yourself on a warm spring evening standing on lush green grass with a gentle breeze ruffling your hair.

The sky is a deep blue velvet with twinkling stars scattered across it, the moon is bright and shining down on

you, feel its energy and magick all around. There is a lady walking towards you dressed in a beautiful silver robe, her hair is long and flows behind her, she holds out her hand beckoning you to follow her, go with the Goddess and see what she wants to show you………….

After a few minutes return to the patch of grass where you were standing, thank the Goddess, take in some deep breaths, wiggle your fingers and toes and when you are ready open your eyes. This meditation is also good to use when you need an answer to a question or some clarity on a situation. Don’t forget to write down all you have seen and felt in your Book of Shadows for reference later. (Don’t have a Book of Shadows for your magickal work? See Vision Shop (P78-81) and get one!

Ed.)

Place the 9 tea lights in a circle on a table and light them all, then place the egg in the centre of the lighted tea lights. After you have done this, say aloud that you wish to get pregnant and have a baby. Now take the green felt tip pen and mark the following on the egg: A circle on one side of the egg to represent your partner A circle with an equal armed cross in the middle, on the opposite side of the egg to represent yourself.

Take the plant pot, fill with soil and bury the egg in the soil, now sprinkle the grass seeds on the top and water immediately. Now blow out the candles and say “so mote it be”. You must water the grass seeds every day. As the grass grows imagine yourself becoming pregnant. When the grass has become very long, cut it and tie it in a bundle with green and red ribbon, then place under the bed or suspend above the bed.

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Paula Garton takes a look at the effect of the planets’ movements in April

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here is a total eclipse on 29th March at 8 degrees. Aries has Mercury conjoining that degree on the 22nd – what this means to us all is that we will need to actively sort out any problem by relaying news as quickly as possible. This emphasis on news and its speed of travel on 22nd could result in a huge amount of information coming via our news networks… we shall have to wait and see.

The planets are moving backwards and forwards this month so we may find that we are not sure which way to move. Saturn turns direct on the 5th after 4 months of retrograde motion so our discipline and boundaries are put back in place, although slowly (as this month Saturn will be slow in its movement).

In the past four months we will have lost our discipline and direction or become insular and low in confidence, so if this is how you’ve been feeling don’t worry: it was in the stars! In the sign of Leo our bones, teeth and skins will have suffered with aches, blemishes and infections, the entertainment industry will have suffered a lack of funds and difficulties with bureaucracy and promotion and we will have had difficulties in expressing our talents and creative activities as time wouldn’t allow it. Work will have taken our time and so leisure pursuits seemed doomed.

All that is about to change (thank goodness!), albeit very slowly. The first thing that we are likely to see improve is how much leisure time we make and how much creative spirit will return. Children will not cost so much to run and may behave better around authority figures. Times they are a changin’ for sure but there is more clearing out to come first…

Pluto the planet of power,

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control, extremes, fanaticism, secrecy, destruction and the rebuilding of life and resources turns retrograde on the 2nd .

This highlights a need to leave the past behind and move onto a new future.

Unfortunately, the regressed movement causes a desire to have power and control over others with obsessions and disorientation. Your reality is tested as possessions and people are removed from your life, resources are hidden so you cannot grow or move forward, causing frustration. Often likened to rebirth, this retrograde movement will last until 4th September, when the planet turns around again. We are going in the right direction, but won’t notice that for some while.

April is not a good time for global agreements as super powers and governments all want control, causing a flourish of conflicts worldwide as political rulers try to defeat their opponents by subversive action due to obsessive desires for supremacy. The atom bomb through nuclear fusion arrived when Pluto was discovered in 1930 and it has made its explosive presence felt dramatically ever since. The resurrection of Nuclear power will most likely become more of an issue in a bid to control the energy crisis; the Government will want to assume control without considering the future consequences of their actions.

It’s starting to sound like doom and gloom again isn’t it, but be reassured!

Jupiter is still retrograde but it is moving quicker in April than in March so our desire will be to resist control, and not accept other peoples philosophies that are in conflict with our own. Protest banners will be out and constraints will be difficult to enforce until July, when Jupiter turns back to its normal path. If we don’t like what is being thrust upon us, we will confront it! This is amplified

by Jupiter in Scorpio, (whose ruling planet is Pluto), and with Pluto in Sagittarius, (whose ruling planet is Jupiter). This is known as a ‘mutual reception’, the planets are working together in each other’s ruling sign; revealing information to the masses about the philosophies and laws of the world around us. Corruption will be uncovered and knowledge that government bodies do not want revealed will come to light. April is certainly an interesting time as people uncover information they do not like and start to rebel against oppression and control.

Vision readers will be expecting it, so will be prepared and ready for action (better start preparing the banners now!).

Babies born at this time will be very vengeful (as are people born with Jupiter in Scorpio) so be careful that you do not put them down… they won’t forget!

Let Vision’s no-nonsense astrologer James Christie guide you through the month ahead...

Your April Forecast

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here is an odd kind of moodiness making its presence felt throughout April and you’ll be hard pressed to define the cause of it. Whilst not exactly being anti-social, you’ll find yourself looking for some ‘time out’ on your own and will use this time to examine some key life pathway priorities.

You will use close and trusted friends as sounding boards for some of your thoughts and ideas and through this process you may well come to realize just how lucky you are to have these people on your side. Having said that, you will become aware that one key player, a lover or partner, is probably holding you back rather than pushing you forwards. You will also become increasingly aware of the fact that there are other people around you who are doing what you would like to do – and the question you’ll be asking yourself is – if they can do it, then why can’t I? It’s a good question and it demands an honest answer. The chances are: you can!

21 Mar – 20 Apr

Cash & Careers: April may start

Relationships: Young Arian

on a mundane and routine vibration but the energies do take an upturn around the 20th, when some new career project is launched that is destined to take up rather more of your time than you might imagine. It seems inevitable that many of you will be taking work home in the evening while others will be working longer hours than usual.

Finances are stable and you will be concentrating on reducing loans and debts. Maybe there’s a bit more to that than meets the eye: perhaps one of the reasons you can’t do some of the things you’d really like to do is because the weight of debt and responsibility hanging around your neck? There is likely to be some significant conflict with a partner on the subject of financial priorities on the 12th and 13th and although this dies down pretty quickly, it will again become an issue of contention on the 22nd and 23rd. Compromise may be the solution, but who is going to compromise?

singles who are looking for love and/or some romantic adventure should not have too many problems this month.

There are two periods – the 16th, 17th, 18th and a wee bit later on the 25th, 26th and 27th – when affairs of the heart (and the sexy bits of the body) are very well starred indeed.

That is… if you’re young and single. If you’re not and/or if you are locked into an established relationship where romance has been replaced by habit and compromise, then I suspect that April will not be the happiest of months.

Too many issues are being buried that need to be brought out into the open for honest discussion and clarification. Your problem here, and it is one that I suspect you are all too well aware of, is how do you have a discussion with someone who does not want to hear what you have to say? You are likely to resent the fact that you are not getting the support and cooperation that you feel you deserve.

21 Apr – 21 May

Your April Forecast

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ine years out of ten there is a mood of restlessness permeating through the House of Taurus and this year it will be there in all its glory.

You’ll find it very hard to settle into any kind of routine and your thoughts will either be on the distant past or the immediate future. Wherever you are, you’ll be thinking of being somewhere else and whatever you’re doing, there will be half a dozen other things you’d rather be doing. On the one hand, lighter nights with a zing of Spring in the air make you feel excited and ebullient, while on the other hand, lack of funds or insufficient free time to do what you want to do bring frustration and depression. Travel aspects and travel plans are relevant throughout the whole month but travel schedules and timetables will be changed more than once. Artistic Taureans ache with creativity and overweight Taureans lose some weight: not through diet but through an adrenalin rush. Shy Taureans become an awful lot bolder while brave Taureans become downright silly.

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Cash & Career: April will be a high earning month but the temptation to overspend on pleasures and luxuries will haunt you every step of the way. This trend needs careful monitoring otherwise, come May Day, you’re going to be broke and as you well know (or should do). May is going to be an expensive month in its own right if you are to bring all your plans to fruition – so you need to keep as much as you can in reserve.

Watch the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. You will come under unexpected pressure to make quick decisions around the 19th 20th, but back off from this if you can – and if you can’t then make sure you’ve got an escape route through the back door that leads to plan B. While there may be frustration and disappointments around the 13th and 14th, both ego and bank account get a major boost on the 26th and 27th which should release much of the tension and suspense that will have been building up over the preceding three or four weeks.

Relationships: Yes, well, Spring is in the air and so are your hopes and your expectations, especially regarding romantic and sexual encounters. There is a solid sexual energy thumping away throughout the month but more importantly, (in my opinion anyway), there is a romantic thrall that makes life really worthwhile and very exciting. Your emotions are likely to be all over the place, so watch your words and don’t get too carried away with the magic of a midnight moment (watch for this on the 1st, 21st and the 28th) and try not to be pushy or possessive in pursuit of your romantic quests.

Around the 14th 15th 16th keep any emotions of jealousy well in check as they will be unfounded and are no more than an indication of your emotional insecurity. It may never happen: and probably never did!

Nevertheless, April looks like being a romantically vibrant month that also vibrates very nicely on a purely sexual level.

Your April Forecast

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he Spring equinox brings brighter moods of confidence and this is a marvellous time for shrugging off old burdens, dumping a load of old baggage, and for taking a more positive view of your future options. Furthermore, April is a key month for faith in your hunches and your intuition – follow neither your heart nor your head: go with your intuition and your gut feelings.

Somewhere around the 20th you will be given the opportunity to introduce some important changes to your lifestyle.

Although you should not rush blindly into this, you must go forwards rather than just marking time or trying to retreat into your history. You will be pleasantly surprised (if not actually amazed) at the amount of support and encouragement you’re going to get from some of the key people you have around you. One person (a member of the opposite sex) will go out on a specific limb for you, which should tell you something about where they’re coming from!

22 May – 21 June

Cash & Career: Obviously, we are all concerned about financial security and career stability but these items do not appear to be all that high on your agenda at this time, so you’ve either got the security and stability you need or you haven’t. If you haven’t got security and stability it will not matter to you as there are bigger things of far greater importance on your mind at this time which transcend a nine to five mentality – and I think this is great! It may well be that the emotional and romantic aspects of your life are being given precedence, but it might also be that you are experiencing a sudden boost of spiritual energy that causes you to review your whole life pathway. Look, I’m not suggesting for a moment that you’re going to give your cash to the RSPCA and become a Nun or a Monk, but there is this beautiful, refreshing awareness manifesting itself in your soul that says that there is more to life than heart and mind.

Relationships: Well… for better or worse I reckon April is going to be a funny month for relationships and affairs of the heart, and when I say funny I mean funny peculiar rather than funny ha ha! Now I’m sure you’re going to ask me what I mean and the truth is: I’m not sure if I know! On a purely secular level it could turn out to be a very sexy month and one where you may well be shocked by your own behaviour. On an emotional level, emotions are all over the place as you try to decide whether something is ‘on’ or ‘off’ and this syndrome will be something like a light switch. The switch is ‘on’ one minute, then ‘off’, and then ‘on’ again. Some divisions within the framework of family loyalties crop up on the 6th 7th and 8th and again on 22nd and 23rd and although there are exhilarating feelings of adventure and excitement, there are also a few dollops of guilt that you are going to have to learn how to deal with, especially if they are unwarranted and unjustified.

Your April Forecast

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pril promises to be a much calmer and happier month than March might have been and most of this will be brought about by your determination to keep things on an even keel. You may have some issues with some of the key people around you, but for the time being you’ll be content to put them on the back burner. You will benefit from high levels of physical energy that enable you to get practical things done during the first couple of weeks, but be cautious about making rash and impulsive decisions around the 14th even if it means putting someone’s nose out of joint. (If a third party is so adamant that a decision should be made, let them make the decision!) Not for the first time this year there will be a conflict of loyalties between your business life and your personal life around the 20th and 21st but, having learned from past mistakes, you will make every effort to find the middle ground and your idea of compromise should please most of the people around you.

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22 June – 22 July

Cash & Career: Travel aspects have interesting connotations at the beginning of the month between the 1st and the 7th and this could be an excellent, if slightly unusual period for mixing business with pleasure and for all aspects appertaining to networking and educational course work. While there might not be any actual salary improvements in April, financial confidence is on the up and there could be some beneficial links with those nice people from the Tax Office or VAT. It is even conceivable (and I don’t say this lightly) that they have decided they’ve made a terrible mistake and it’s them that owe you some money! You might wait ages for the cheque but it should be reassuring to know it’s in the post and it should get to you eventually, even if it’s a year down the line. Towards the end of the month, say the 22nd onwards, think in terms of teamwork rather than individual effort. Progress may be slower this way – but it’s also a lot safer. Work shared is also work halved!

Relationships: April is a period wherein you’ll work very hard to be sweet and nice to people, keeping your innermost thoughts very much to yourself. Does that make you duplicitous and deceitful? No, not at all – just highly tactful and diplomatic! Travel aspects around the first week could help to bring deeper understanding to troubled relationships. Providing you are thoughtful in your presentation, this could be a key period for persuading other people to see things from your point of view and to elicit a lot more cooperation and understanding, so don’t miss this favourable opportunity. The 5th of April will be a key date for defining the future direction of long-term relationships and partnerships, but all the good that is done on the 5th could be undone on the 20th if you succumb to the temptation of laying down unrealistic rules and conditions. Single Cancerian females will be challenged by an exciting sexual opportunity on the 28th or 29th – Dare you say yes? Dare you say no?

Your April Forecast

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hile it is true that April offers some high drama and excitement, there is also a great deal of satisfaction to be gained from some of the smaller things in life. You may well develop the awareness of having some really good friends who prove their worth not by what they say, but by what they do. You will receive some appreciation of your professional efforts that you might have thought were being taken for granted. There will be a number of social invitations forthcoming throughout the month, which you do need to accept as these same invitations have an important role to play in the furtherance of your business and career ambitions. There is no shortage of emotional support, but I have to admit that the source I am thinking of might not be source that you are thinking of.

Your emotions will be volatile during the first couple of weeks, but providing you do not over-react to sudden changes of schedules, you should be absolutely fine.

23 July – 22 Aug

Cash & Careers: Yes, there may

Relationships: It may have taken

be part of you that is projecting into your mid and long term future as you consider a variety of career options, but events fall into place this month that should make it perfectly clear that you are safe and secure where you are for the time being.

Your work history over the last three months or so will already have confounded some of your critics and, as such, this is a time to push further forwards with new ideas, and if they are a bit radical, well so much the better! If there is any criticism at all, it will come softly and constructively from the lips of a close friend, and as such it should be worth listening to. If there is a mini crisis of confidence around the 21st or 22nd take a big breath (okay, in your case two big breaths) and keep your head down.

By the 28th or long before, the crisis will be past and you will be in a stronger position to make your voice heard and get your own way on a matter of principle.

you a while to get to where you are right now, and where you are right now is in a very strong and commanding position where relationships and affairs of the heart are concerned. If something is working well, it will now start working even better, but if it hasn’t been working so well, you have a clearly identifiable opportunity to change the rules and dictate your own terms – or to walk away. You can be safe and secure in the knowledge that there is something – someone – better around the next corner. It is not the time to take any nonsense from someone who says one thing and then does another and it is not the time to tolerate any kind of double standard! A low period around the 1st is tempered by much brighter moods coming in by the 6th. The 22nd and 23rd sees you entering one of the busiest periods of your year so far – so if you have to do some rescheduling in your diary, do so with gusto and confidence.

Your April Forecast

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mm… Well… If you’re looking for a calm, quiet, peaceful, tranquil and predictable April, I reckon you can forget about that right now!

Every indication suggests a completely opposite trend and if the first few days are anything to go by, you’re going to be a very busy little bunny who is run ragged! Expect romantic and sexual opportunities, last minute travel aspects to exotic places, and ever present temptations to take a chance and make a really major career change. If things do quieten down at all it won’t be until around the 24th or 25th when you’ll have to apply the brakes a bit just to come up for air! Frankly, it doesn’t matter if you’re 19 or 90 – April is a really amazing month and you’ll enjoy the taste of every single minute. Perhaps, just perhaps, this has got something to do with the fact that some very protracted problems have now been sorted out – or are getting sorted out – once and for all.

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23 Aug – 22 Sept

Cash & Careers: The events

Relationships: It is probably in

falling into place between the 8th and the 12th will have an influence, not only over the rest of the month but also over the rest of the year. Seemingly you have a well-defined window of opportunity to take a chance, possibly a short cut, and jump up several rungs of the ladder all at once. Do not be hesitant about this, for opportunities of this magnitude do not come along every day. You may be given some time to think about this, but we’re talking about days here: not weeks or months! Traditionally, Virgo-born folk are not good at making important decisions under pressure, but this is that one time when you have to break free of the preconceived Zodiac stereotype. By the 23rd or 24th the opportunity will be lost, so you’ve got about 10 or 11 days to make your mind up about something that could change your future financial outlook in a very major way. Yes, I know it’s a gamble, but so is life!

the emotional and sexual departments of your life that we will see the greatest degree of satisfaction – and you can interpret that word “satisfaction” any way you like! Old cynic that I am, I’m not ashamed to say that I think April will be a marvellous month for all things romantic, with some very high highs hitting the ceiling around the 5th, 6th and 7th: and again on the 11th, 12th and 13th. Beware of cold feet on the 22nd, don’t try to slow something down that really does not want to go slowly at all.

The only reason that Ali Baba’s flying carpet crashed was that Ali Baba stopped believing that his carpet could fly – and I’d hate to see you get hoist by Ali Baba’s petard. Ouch! Painful! Unnecessary!

Even very elderly Virgoans in their twilight years may be challenged by a member of the opposite sex to recapture the vitality of their more youthful days ... and why not!

Your April Forecast

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n easy going month without too many dramas or crises but, nevertheless, a productive month for making steady progress towards your goals and ambitions. On more than one occasion you will feel hurried by third parties who think you are travelling too slowly and in this event you should resist the pressure to travel at anything other than your own speed. Consider the fact that those “third parties” may well be running a bit too fast for their own good.

April augers well for all family aspects and for making one or two new friends who, although untested, may well turn out to be the lifelong variety. Social aspects are pleasantly aspected throughout the month but are particularly highlighted between the 15th and 17th and then again between the 21st and 23rd. A bit of caution is advocated towards the very end of the month when third parties may let you down by not doing what they have promised to do.

23 sept – 23 Oct

Cash & Careers: A very positive

Relationships: The powerful

attitude is prevalent on the work front and your enthusiastic mood should be quite infectious. No surprise then to see you making unexpected headway, especially between the 4th and the 7th

emotional trends of March not only carry over into April, they actually intensify.

This is a month of promises and commitments and of planning weddings and/or engagement parties. It is a month for falling in love for the first time, or for the last. Changes to domestic routines around the 9th or 10th will put smiles on almost everyone’s faces. Female Librans should beware of chance encounters where caution is thrown to the wind and middle-aged male Librans run the risk of making a fool of themselves with a much younger female around the 20th or 21st 22nd of the month. Careful chaps, keep

with plenty of co-operation from colleagues and work mates and a few nods of notice and approval from bosses and MDs. You will find yourself working extra overtime between the 13th and 18th but here again, this effort will be noted and rewarded. It is within this same period that you will be given the opportunity to take a short cut, or to move completely out of one industry into another, and although I’m not going to suggest you decline this opportunity, I do suggest you approach it with caution and circumspection and consider the longterm implications and commitments.

Ladies in particular should be reminded of the fact that girls get minks the same way that minks get minks.

your thoughts to yourself as private fantasies rather than becoming a laughing stock! Yes, I accept that there may be some genuine heartache here and that there may be more at stake than just some sexual gratification. Even so, great caution and circumspection is still most strongly advised.

Your April Forecast

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he dark tides of Scorpionic dissatisfaction always run deep during the April period of the spring equinox and as with your Zodiac opposite (Taurus) there will be an ongoing mood of restlessness haunting you throughout the month. Even if you’re rolling in cash right at the top of the career tree and even if your romantic life is so good that you’re writing the Karma Sutra backwards, you’ll still be asking yourself “is this enough?”. If you’re not doing any of the aforementioned, you’ll know you’re not getting enough and that will make the feeling of dissatisfaction ten times worse! There is a cure for this malaise, which is to take life a lot less seriously and to get out there and have a good laugh! Trouble is you won’t feel like laughing. You want to count your million gold bars of bullion and make love to Gods or Goddesses beneath a magical moon and to the music of Heavenly choirs. Hey, don’t we all…you should be so lucky?

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24 Oct – 23 Nov

Cash & Careers: It’s a bit of a

Relationships: Quite a cosy few

soggy, boggy start to the month and you are likely to feel very bored by daily routine matters. You will be actively looking for a few distractions and experiencing a few frustrations when you don’t find anything worthwhile. Slowly, around the 7th or 8th, you get your professional head in place, but there must be some clash of personalities around the 17th when someone ardently disagrees with your policies and priorities. Brighter energies start filtering through on the 20th and 21st, when you will find a greater degree of co-operation and understanding forthcoming from friends and colleagues, but you will be under some pressure to make a compromise on a matter of principle. You will need to think carefully about whether this is worth it! Expect a small cash boost on or around the 24th which won’t be enough to invest, but will be enough to blow on a really good night out or a short holiday.

days at the beginning of the month as long as you’re prepared to go with the flow and allow (up to a point) a partner to dictate the pace of things. Some notable social boosts create excitement around the 8th or 9th and there should be at least one posh frock and black-tie event during April’s second week. The 16th 17th and 18th will be an intriguing period when you are likely to get drawn into other people’s dramas and will be on the receiving end of privileged and confidential information – secrets that you find hard to keep secret! Actually, there could be something of a quite serious moral dilemma here and you may feel compelled to tell a third party what’s going on behind their back – although whether they’ll thank you for it remains to be seen. Shy and introverted Scorpios will find April is a rather powerful month for smartening up their acts and for getting out and about a bit more, so throw caution to the wind and do it!

Your April Forecast

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he whole of April augers well for all family affairs and domestic issues.

Within the framework of this mood of harmony and communication may be a few long-standing negative niggles and issues, these can be brought to the surface and be dealt with once and for all, providing you are prepared to swim with this beneficent tide and go for it.

Therefore, it would be a good idea for you to be open and candid about your views, hopes and dreams etc., for rather than rejection, you’ll find a reassuring degree of understanding and co-operation. The 5th 6th and 7th will be a time for reunions and family gatherings. Watch out for a contact being made with an old friend or flame that you haven’t seen for a number of years. Stability and emotional commitment will be the major talking points during the last dozen days of the month and I think you should be well pleased with the result of these conversations and negotiations, as they are likely to swing in your favour.

24 Nov – 21 Dec

Cash & Careers: There are very

Relationships: Again, without

few (if any!) threats and dangers this month. It would appear to be a calm and progressive period without any high drama, which I suppose could be a bit frustrating for you if you’re in any kind of a rush or hurry. Things fall into place in their own time, although having said that, you should be on the receiving end of important information around the 17th, 18th and 19th, which boosts your career confidence when you look to the slightly more long-term future. Some Sagittarians will be exploring the feasibility of generating extra curricula income and in this connection the word “consultancy” springs to mind. You have information to offer, so capitalise on it!

It’s April, so obviously there must be some dealings with the taxman around this time – and if this has been something that has caused some anxiety to date, then you’ll be pleased to hear that these anxieties are removed by month’s end.

wishing to sound repetitive, April looks like being a calm and steady month for affairs of the heart, albeit with the accent on families and family commitments.

Young single Sagittarians will make some very strong romantic and sexual connections in the first couple of weeks, but could run into a bit of hassle around the 15th if they cannot be honest about their emotional feelings. Yes, there is some safety in silence, but if someone obviously has some very strong feelings for you, you must tell them where they stand. Social aspects are very bright between the 1st and the 7th and then again around the 22nd and 23rd, while the last days of the month bring about a quieter, intense energy. Older couples will find themselves quietly agreeing on a number of things, while young couples will be holding hands on the back seats of ten year-old bangers promising to love each other for ever. Yes, well, ... that would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Your April Forecast

A

pril could be quite a tricky month for a lot of Capricorns – especially those members of the sign who have to juggle half a dozen balls at the same time. The Capricorn employer cannot be one of the boys. The Capricorn mother can’t function as The Great Lover if she’s got three screaming kids hanging on to her stockings. The Capricorn who will not take risks cannot expect to enjoy fabulous adventures! So, maybe you have to do some work this month to define your priorities and decide what really is of greatest importance to you at this stage in your life. In your dealings with other people you can help yourself enormously by being candid and open and to avoid any kind of bullying tactics with those who do not always share your visions. In particular, avoid any kind of conflict or confrontation around the 14th as this might have long-term ramifications. No, don’t bully, but where necessary do hold your ground.

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22 Dec - 20 Jan

Cash & Careers: Expect some

Relationships: The strong

power play in professional situations around the 5th, 6th and 7th and while it is important that you make your thoughts and feelings known, keep your calm and do not blow your cool. Some changes to work plans or routines around the 10th could well be annoying – but are nevertheless to your advantage, even if you can’t see it like that at the time.

There will be a difficult business meeting on or around the 15th – it will be a oneto-one affair, and this is the time to take the gloves off, and whoever you’re talking to, tell them exactly what you think and exactly what you want. After that, it’s up to them, and that takes your head nicely off the block. Travel aspects are looking even more relevant in April than they were in March and journeys by train may be particularly interesting. Throughout the month there is a continual crossover whereby business and pleasure do mix, but it’s likely to be a very strong cocktail.

emotional trends of March continue into April – there is the back-up and emotional support from a “significant other” but now, with the scent of spring in the air, there will inevitably be an upturn in your libido. Capricorns can improve their love lives by telling their partners exactly what they want! A few ghosts from your past might give you a hard time around the 14th or 15th and you need to deal with them directly and without any compromise. Social aspects come to the fore from the 22nd of April onwards and this bright and cheerful energy can only enhance romantic vibrations. Young single Capricorns will be having some very late nights and might not find their beds until dawn. All Capricorns need to be reminded that beds are not just for sleeping on! Some younger female Capricorns will be getting it in the neck from an overbearing parent who thinks only they know what’s best!

Your April Forecast

A

pril promises to be quite a lot calmer than the volatile days of March, but you still cannot afford to be complacent in the face of constantly changing targets and priorities. There is an inconsistency of attitudes coming from people in authority and also from partners on the home front. The 1st to the 7th sees you taking a third party’s advice and doing whatever you can to get a bit more out of your social life. This leads to criticism around the 8th or 9th that you’re either slacking or not taking things seriously enough. Just can’t win, can you! By the 15th or 16th you will (rightly) come to the conclusion that if you are going to upset somebody somewhere not matter what you do, you might just as well do it, and work a bit harder to please yourself, doing things your way for your own benefit. If this type of attitude raises a few eyebrows, so much the better. There are a few sets of eyebrows that need to be raised!

21 Jan – 19 Feb

Cash & Careers: If you can be

Relationships: Quite an ebullient

left to your own devices, to do your own thing your own way and without someone watching over your shoulder, then April can bring some firm and fine rewards and you should enjoy a deep sense of personal satisfaction. Especially around the 16th or 17th, when one specific goal is scored and an ambition is fulfilled. If, on the other hand, you have got someone looking over your shoulder and putting their two pennorth in when it is neither wanted nor needed, either tell ‘em to push off and let you get on with what you’re doing, or simply stand to one side and let’s see if they can do it any better. (They can’t, so you’ll be completely vindicated and it will just go to prove that on the work scene you are more important to a company than the company is important to you. This is not a bad psychological position to be in as it gives you the confidence to call a few more of the shots.)

entry into the month with some nice sexy romantic vibes putting a smile on your face up until the 6th, when some killjoy tries to wipe the smile away by telling you what you should be doing. You will resent this interference in your personal affairs, and will resent more being judged by someone else’s standards. Okay, you could just shut up and put up, but you will be inclined not to, and for what it’s worth, I really do not think that you should. Arguments and confrontations, then, seem inevitable around the 7th, 8th or 9th and I really feel that it would do you no harm at all to put your cards on the table even if it does cause a few tantrums and tears. The whole emotional situation becomes a lot calmer and kinder from April 22nd onwards. People start showing you a greater degree of respect and one person in particular will have learned that they can push you, but only so far and not without retaliation.

Your April Forecast

P

isceans are not, as a rule, the most egotistical people in the world, and therefore, if throughout April your ego gets a number of significant boosts, this is no bad thing. If it brings you out of the water and gives you the confidence to do a few things you’ve been meaning to do and to say a few things that should have been said weeks or months ago, it’s a move in the right direction. On the 7th something small, but very important, falls into place to bring you emotionally closer to someone who already plays an important role in your life. On more than one occasion you will find yourself discussing long-term future plans. The fact that you are pulling together towards common goals brings a deep sense of satisfaction and no small amount of emotional reassurance. This is also a time for reviewing certain work practices and for realising that something has got to go. There are only 24 hours in any given day and you’ll not be in a mood to want to waste any of them.

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20 Feb – 20 Mar

Cash & Careers: In the first week

Relationships: If there is going to

of April you will be thinking about a number of important work related issues and will talking to some of the key players around you, using them as sounding boards. You will be served well in this respect and as a result of this process you will initiate some quite major changes on or around the 24th, designed to give you a little more free time and to take the pressure off situations that have become a little too volatile and uncertain since the beginning of the year.

Somewhere around the middle of the month, say between the 15th and the 18th, you’ll be opening a new bank account and older, wealthier Piscean males will be checking off-shore investment plans. Ladies of the sign are likely to spend more than they are earning, but at least they appear to be getting something back of some worth.

Be it a ball gown or a Bentley, there is something new in the wardrobe (or on the drive) before the month is over.

be any area of conflict in Piscean relationships this month, it will have something to do with money. Lady fishes want to ‘spend, spend, spend’, while male fishes want to ‘save, save, save’ and while this could be onerous for everyone, God help you if you’re a Piscean married to another Piscean!

There are going to be some right old fireworks in your house this month, and that’s for sure! Things should start sorting themselves out by the 23rd or 24th, but only with compromise and some very creative accounting. I suppose that younger members of the sign who have yet to get locked into mortgage payments on the first of the month might come in for a bit of a lambasting from their so-called elders and betters.

Apparently they are not taking life as seriously as they should! If you ask me, “serious” has got a lot to answer for, and all Pisceans could benefit from lightening up a little bit.

A copy of Relax with Cats CD FREE to the first 30 subscribers of Vision!

Relax with Cats is the new CD from the composers of Purrfect Symphony. Cats have been known for their calming effects on humans, their purring lulling us into a relaxed and calm state. This wonderful composition has to be heard to be believed, it has been proven to reduce stress levels and aid peaceful sleep. The music itself is enchanting and flows right through the 60 minute CD. The background of cats purring fits in so naturally you may find that you don’t notice it alone, but hear it as part of the composition.

Research confirms that cats purring can: Bullet: Lower stress levels and blood pressure Bullet: Create frequencies that help muscle tissue and bones repair.

Accompanied by a booklet with some fascinating cat facts and an introduction to the feline choir featuring on the album, the whole album is just purrfect!

To get your own copy of this CD and 12 copies of Vision for the price of 10, just telephone, email or mail your subscription to Vision quoting code RWC01 (details below).

Offer ends April 19th 2006.

Purrfect Symphony will dispatch all CDs, Vision accept no responsibility for their distribution.

Relax with Cats is available from Purrfect Symphony, visit their website at

www.purrfectsymphony.com or you can give them a call on 08700 625879

ref RWC01

by Diana Jarvis

Recommended Darkness Visible by Ross Heaven and Simon Buxton (Destiny Books, £11.99) Are you afraid of the dark? If so, why? It seems that in our modern society we are conditioned to respond to opposites: good and bad; black and white; male and female; dark and light. If light is “good” then dark must be ’bad’…

Not so! Many readers will be accomplished meditators, communing with the ‘still, small voice’ that is found within. Eyes closed, they look inside, rather than outside, for clarity and illumination. How can one become illumined (enlightened, filled with light) by going into one’s own dark spaces?

This is a book which explains the relevance of seeking clarity in the dark. Covering a number of shamanic and indigenous mystical practices, it shows how many races and beliefs have welcomed the dark as the pathway to the divine. Do not be mistaken here, this is not a book of ‘the dark side’ or ‘evil’. Quite the contrary. It includes a number of simple exercises that the reader can practice

in their own time and space as an introduction to dark work.

I think that anyone who is seriously ‘seeking’ will benefit from reading this book and trying out the exercises. It will make you think, it will give you a different perspective, whether you agree with the writers or not. This is surely a ‘good’ thing? Perhaps, if you are lucky, you may find that within the dark of this book is the ‘light’ that you were seeking. A spiritual tutor of mine told me “there is no light where I am”.

Maybe this is what he meant…?

Reader Offer: Vision readers can order a copy of Darkness Visible at the special offer price of £10.00 including P & P (RRP £11.99). To order, contact Deep Books on 0208 693 0234 or email them on sales@deep-books.co.uk quoting “Vision Darkness Visible Offer”. Offer ends on 20th April 2006.

The Tibetan Oracle Pack by Stephen Skinner (£14.99,Carroll and Brown) The Tibetan Oracle Pack contains an ancient system of divinationwhere you can find out a great deal about the type of person that you are, as well as information about those around you. The Oracle has been around for over 500 years. It has 12 animal signs, each of which has one of five elements which can combine with it. I know that I am a Hare in Chinese Astrology, by using the Oracle I can determine that I am a Water Hare. Unlike other Oracles on the market, The Tibetan Oracle Pack gets down to the nitty-gritty. You can find how

Channelling by Shirley Humphries Battie (Godsfield Press, £9.99, out in April) Channelling is a term that has been bandied about for years. Not many people really know what it is.

This book sets out to de-mystify the subject so that you can not only learn what channelling is, but also how to do it. Thank goodness! There is nothing worse than getting all fired-up about the subject of a book, feeling convinced of the worthiness of being able to practise the subject … and then find out the book doesn’t tell you how to do it!

Written in a way that anyone should be able to understand, this little book could open up whole new worlds to you, as it tells you how to connect and

76 Vision 13

to bring more luck into your life, what type of person you should marry and helpful numbers for when you are making house-buying decisions.

It only takes a bit of application to get to grips with the Oracle and the accompanying book helps immensely. As the book is illustrated (not all support material for cards are) it makes it even easier.

It was a refreshing change for me, as an established reader, to find a different method of divination that told me a bit more than the ‘norm’. If you’re looking for a new outlet for your own divinatory skills, try The Tibetan Oracle Pack. It’s quite likely it will become a firm favourite … if not ‘the’ favourite!

Reader Offer: The Tibetan Oracle Pack by Stephen Skinner is available to Vision readers for the special price of £12.99 with free P&P (normally RRP £14.99). To order, please call Carroll and Brown Publishers on 020 7372 0900 or email your contact details to mailorder@carrollandbrown.co.uk quoting ‘Vision offer’.

communicate with beings on other levels: from Ascended Masters, Sages, Angels and even extraterrestrials! The step-by-step instructions mean you can easily see where you are going wrong if you are.

So all you have to do is practise! Try it out for yourself, you may find that you have a natural talent you haven’t yet discovered! Reader Offer: Vision readers can order Channelling at the special price of £7.99 (rrp.9.99) with free p&p. For credit card orders please call 01903 828503. Cheques should be made payable to Hamlyn and sent to LBS, PO Box 4264, Durrington, Worthing, West Sussex, BN13 3TG. Please quote reference HAM 664 when ordering. Offer closes 19th April 2006.

How to tell the Future by Sally Morningstar (Southwater, £8.99) How to tell the Future is a difficult book to put down. No matter how long you’ve been interested in spiritual matters and no matter how much you think you’ve learnt, there is always more you can add to your repertoire.

With this beautifully illustrated handbook of the magical and mystical you are sure to find something that you didn’t know and, more importantly, something that you can try out straight away. When I picked up this book I found that I was looking at the shapes on my fingers and interpreting them from the Palmistry section, instead of reading it from front to back as I should have been doing for a review. Then I found out what ‘once in a

blue moon’ really means and I was hooked.

All pretence of doing a standard review had gone!

This is definitely a ‘dip in’ book. The more you ‘dip in’ the more you’ll find out that you didn’t know. If your leisure time is eaten up and you simply can’t sit down for a couple of hours to read, you will find this book invaluable. You can learn in bite-sized chunks, but still have everything that you are likely to need within one volume. Nicely illustrated, written in layman’s terms : this book is sure to please and would make an excellent edition to any magical bookshelf.

You will find rituals, techniques, spells and projects. Just dip in and try some!

The Way of the White Clouds by Lama Anagarika Govinda (Rider Books, £12.99) Have you ever wanted to visit the Tibet of old?

The Tibet that was not ravaged by cultural changes, the Tibet as it is perhaps meant to be? If so, this is the book that will take you there! The Lama takes us on an amazing journey, which is also a kind of pilgrimage to learn more about his own spirituality. Written in a manner that allows you to view the vast mountains with your inner eye, you can visit temples; meet holy men and have your journey accompanied by the gentle and uplifting words of a remarkable man. During his journey, the Lama gets the opportunity to go to places and visit people that it would be impossible to do today. This is the joy of the book, that we in our comfortable, but sometimes spiritually empty Western society, can get a real

Guitar Meditations featuring Billy McLaughlin (New World Music, £10.95) Guitar Meditations is said to be perfect for meditation, yoga or healing. I was surprised therefore, when I found that I was transported to happy, sunny holidays I’d had, rather than the inner world of meditation. I found myself drifting with this soaring, yet serene composition, but to places I’d been, not to places I hadn’t.The effect was just as profound as a meditation, I could switch off the outside world and reminisce, recalling memories clearer. The tracks vary in their intensity, but all of the tracks spoke to me at a level I didn’t expect. I don’t doubt for one minute that this CD will work well in all the areas that it claims to; I am just delighted with the effects it had on me personally. I would recommend this album, it will give you space to recall and a place to dream, while creating a beautiful, peaceful atmosphere around you.

Reader Offer: Vision is delighted to have teamed

taste for the beliefs and wisdom of the Tibetan Buddhists. You don’t need to be a Buddhist to enjoy this book, certainly if you are you will read it with delight. I am not, but found that there was much in it to appeal to my own spiritual side, not to mention the opportunity to explore an alien landscape with a fragile beauty, that I may never be able to do in ‘real life’. The Lama’s journey was undertaken during the last few months of Tibetan independence. He sadly passed away in 1985.

Reader Offer: Vision magazine readers can buy The Way of the White Clouds (RRP: £12.99) for the special price of £10.99 plus free p&p. To order please call Ebury Press on 01206 255 800 and quote “Vision”. Offer closes 19th April 2006.

up with New World Music to offer readers the opportunity of purchasing Guitar Meditations by Billy McLaughlin at the very special price of £8.95 (normally £10.95 rrp), plus free postage & packing for UK residents. How to order: To order Guitar Meditations please contact New World Music on 01986 891600 and quote the following reference code V0306, or write to: Guitar Meditations/Vision Offer, Ref V0306, New World Music, Harmony House, Hillside Road East, Bungay, Suffolk, NR35 1RX. For further information and a free catalogue on music for relaxation and well-being please call New World Music on 01986 891600 or visit www.newworldmusic.com. Closing date for this offer is 30th April 2006.

77 Vision 13

As seen on www.livingtv.co.uk

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Oracle Pendulum Complete with a divinatory chart and a life management chart; this pendulum is your oracle of answers! £13.00

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Love Pendulum Complete with a chart for divination and instruction leaflet, this pendulum is especially designed for questions of love. £13.00

Amethyst and Quartz Crystal Wands Perfect for healing or directing energy, these beautifully shaped wands will enhance any home or healing sanctuary. Each one is different (as are all natural crystals), choose from either Amethyst or Quartz. Approx 5-7cm long £9.00

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Disclaimer: All items are sold on their quality and aesthetics only. No magical results are guaranteed.

Official Derek Acorah’s Ghost Towns merchandise 1. NEW Ghost Towns T-Shirt.

Choose S, M, L, XL, XXL £20.00 2 Heat Reactive Mug. Plain until you fill it with hot liquid ... and Derek appears! Not suitable for microwaves. £12.00 3.LED pen.

Barrel lights up green. Perfect for note-taking during investigations! £8.00 4. Baseball cap. Adjustable head-strap. £13.00 5. Umbrella £23.00

Witches Pendulum Complete with chart for divination and instructions, this pendulum is designed to help with magical questions. £13.00

Crystal Ball This clear crystal ball comes with a stand and is packaged in a silk-style lined box. Great for beginners, use with the tips in the article on Page 39. Approx. 7cm diameter. £19.00

Spherical crystal pendulum A beautiful pendulum in a genuine semiprecious stone. We will do our best to supply the stone of your choice: Amethyst, Avenurine, Rose Quartz or Quartz. £10.00

Crystal Balls & Crystal Bowls by Ted Andrews This book takes the ancient processes of divination and scrying out of the realm of the supernatural and places them in the domain of natural knowledge. £10.99

Semi-Precious Runes This stunning set of 25 runes is presented in a luxury embroidered and lined velvet drawstring bag.

Each set comes with an insttuction booklet explaining the meaning of each rune and how to cast them. £23.00

Triple Goddess Symbol (Stirling Silver) Symbolic of the Goddess this charm is reputed to bring stability and security. £8.50

Choku Rei Healing and Protection Pendant

Bast (Pewter, gold, silver)

Dolphin Triskilian (Pewter with silver and crystals)

For happy love and friendship, this pendant comes gift-boxed with matching chain and presentation card. £13.00

Wear this pendant for guidance and inner peace.

Boxed and on matching chain. £11.00

Ai Universal Love Pendant

Pan K’uei (Pewter/brass/copper) This magical talisman comes in its own box and with matching chain. For health and prosperity. £10.90

£15.99 £18.50 These pendants have been produced under the guidance of Reiki Master and Teacher Dr Allan Sweeny.

Each pendant is presented in a gift box with matching chain. All pendants are finished in gold and silver.

Pentagram of Swords (Silver Plated Pewter) Directs magical energy and works as a protective shield. Includes 18” chain. £19.50

Practical Guide to Astral Projection

by Denning & Phillips Develop your ability to astrally project and go anywhere! £8.99 + £2.95 + P & P

Open Pentagram (Silver Plated Pewter)

Venusian Pentagram (Silver Plated Pewter)

Ideal for all-round magical use, can be empowered for any positive purpose. £15.50

Inscribed with Earth, Air, Fire and Water, to attract love to you. Includes 18” chain. £13.25

Book of Shadows Practical Guide to the This is a blank book designed for use as a Development of Psychic magical diary. Imitation leather cloth cover with Powers Book of Shadows stamped on the front and spine

by Denning & Phillips in gold foil. An instruction sheet for

A useful and simple-to-understand guide to developing your innate psychic ability. £8.99 + £2.95 P & P

Wish Spell Perfect for any wish you have: “an it harm none”. Easy to use with full instructions. £8.00

consecration and use is included. £10.99

Is Your Pet Psychic?

by Richard Webster Learn about the fascinating world of pets and their innate psychic ability. £10.99 + £2.95 P+P

Love Spell

Lottery Spell

Attract love into your life with this simple to perform runic spell. Comes with full instructions. £8.00

A genuine spell which we hope (but don’t guarantee!) will bring you excellent results. Easy to cast with full instructions.

79 £8.00

Disclaimer: All items are sold on their quality and aesthetics only. No magical results are guaranteed.

Vision 13

The Yorkshire Way of Feng Shui

by Carole Chui & Angi Brereton

Meditation for Beginners

by Stephanie Clement Meditation for Beginners offers a step-by-step approach to meditation.

Improve concentration, relax your body quickly and easily, work with your natural healing ability, and enhance performance in sports and other activities. £10.99 + £2.95 P & P

Yorkshire people are known for their straightforwardness. This book is just that – a simple and straightforward explanation of how you can put Feng Shui into your home and life. Now you won’t need complicated calculations and a house that has a range of mountains behind!

Suitable for complete beginners, our very own Carole Chui is co-author. Recommended. £9.99 + £2.95 P & P

Briar Archangel Cards These beautiful cards have evocative pictures of the four holy Archangels on the cover, are individually cellophane wrapped and left blank for your own personal message. Perfect for meditation and reflection, as well as framing!

Choose from (left to right) Raphael, Michael, Gabriel and Uriel. £3.50 each

The Quest Tarot

by Joseph Ernest Martin This deck is the first that allowes you to use the tarot like a Ouifa board, getting answers to yes/no questions and spelling out words, names and phrases.

The cards also contain gems, months and season indicators; eye, hair and skin colour; Hebrew letters; rune symbols and astrological symbols. The enclosed book presents ways to work with the deck. £32.00 + £2.95 P+P

The Wicca Bible by Ann-Marie Gallagher This is your one-stop shop for information on all aspects of Wicca today. It includes belief and philosophy, gods and goddesses, herbs and trees as well as Wiccan practice.

Recommended. Price: £12.99 + £2.95 P & P

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Tarot of Love Cards The Tarot of Love cards are a version of the tarot focussed on relationships. They finely balance the feminine and masculine and with an extra Soul Mates card, the deck is 79 cards.

Price £19.50 + £2.95 P & P

The Meditation Bible

by Madonna Gauding This is a definitive handbook for those wishing to master meditation. This authoritative volume includes meditations for calming and centering, living mindfully, developing love and compassion, solving problems, manifesting your dreams and connecting with the Divine.

Price: £12.99 + £2.95 P & P

Disclaimer: All items are sold on their quality and aesthetics only. No magical results are guaranteed.

Twist of Fate divination tool Twist of Fate enables you to easily tell fortunes with cards. This original item makes it easy for an absolute beginner to give readings immediately with accuracy. £33.95

Divining Rods These beautifully crafted wood and brass rods are perfect for any type of divining. The arm of the rod moves independently from the upright, assuring you of accurate responses. Do not confuse these with lighter, inferior alternatives. £24.99

Meditation Incense Handmade loose incense to aid in meditation.

Charcoal and incense burner required. £6.50

Witch Stones Suitable for beginners these beautiful gemstones come complete with explanation and casting chart. £13.00

Original Rider Waite Tarot Kit First printed in 1910 these cards are ideal for beginners and are one of the most widely-used decks in the world! If you want to learn the cards or want to teach somebody to – this is the set to choose! (See P32 for some examples) £19.99 + £2.95 P & P

Karma Clearing Incense

Love Incense

Astral Travel Incense

Handmade loose incense to help to break old karmic habits.

Charcoal and incense burner required.

Price: £6.50

Handmade loose incense empowered to attract love to you. £6.50

Handmade loose incense to aid astral travel. £6.50

Charcoal Disks Self-igniting disks for use with incense burner and loose incense.

Price: £3.50

Empowerment Incense Handmade loose incense to empower and increase courage. £6.50

Loose Incense Burner Disclaimer: All items are sold on their quality and aesthetics only. No magical results are guaranteed.

Attractive ceramic burner for use with charcoal disks and loose incense.

Price: £7.50

1. To order you can phone, fax, email or write to Vision Shop, 42a Main Street, Garforth, LS25 1AA. Tel: 0113 286 6789 Fax: 0113 287 2293 Email: sales@visionmagazine.uk.com We accept postal orders/ cheques/ credit/ debit cards.

2. All goods are subject to availability.

3. All prices include VAT plus free postage and packaging. (Unless otherwise stated) 4. We require 28 days for delivery although most deliveries are dispatched within 7-14 days of receipt of order.

5. Damaged goods notification must be made within 7 days of delivery.

81 6. If you are not satified with your goods a full refund will be given on the return of items.

Vision 13

Send your events to: Day Tripper, Vision, 42a Main Street, Garforth, Leeds, LS25 1AA or email editor@visionmagazine.uk.com Every Monday: Yoga/Relaxation beginners, Healthyspirit, 37 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, Manchester, 10am-11.30am. £6.

0161 434 6784.

Last Saturday of the month: Guardian Angel Workshop. Our Angel Therapists˙ are trained and certified by Doreen Virtue.

Belfast, N. Ireland. £40. 02890 223748

Every Monday: Meditation class, Healthyspirit, 37 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, Manchester, 7.30pm. £4. 0161 4346784 for more details.

Every Saturday and Sunday: Workshops and Meditation. Ticket only. 0113 2495355 www.crystalspiritualcentre.co.uk

Every Monday: Evening of Clairvoyance, Chrystal Spiritual Centre, Lupton Avenue, Leeds. 7-9pm. £5 (& buffet). 0113 2495355 www.chrystalspiritualcentre.co.uk Every Tuesday: Spiritual Awareness Group, Spiritual Inspirations, 4 Hurn Road, Drayton, Norwich. 01603 897724, visit www.spiritualinspirations.co.uk email: Every Tuesday: Psychic Night. Chrystal Spiritual Centre, Lupton Avenue, Leeds. 79pm. £5. 0113 249 5355 www.chrystalspiritualcentre.co.uk Second Tuesday of the month: Newcastle Pagan Moot, Bob Trollops Bar, Newcastle Quayside, Newcastle. 7:30 p.m. Back room: ‘Private Party’ sign on the door. Email: nclgathering@hotmail.com or 07890 340484 First and Third Wednesday: Open Circle.

Equinox New Beginnings Holistic Therapy Centre, 43, Tickhill Road, Maltby, Rotherham. £4.00. 7:30 - 9:00 pm. Tel: 01709 817030 .

Last Wednesday of every month: Pagan Moot, Function Room, rear Queen Victoria Pub, Snettisham, Norfolk. 7.30pm. 01485 541704, email: julie.gillott@btinternet.com.

Last Wednesday of every month: Reiki Share. Equinox New Beginnings Holistic Therapy Centre, 43, Tickhill Road, Maltby, Rotherham. £5. 7:30 - 9pm. 01709 817030 Every Thursday: Awareness/Development, Chrystal Spiritual Centre, Lupton Avenue, Leeds. 0113 249 5355, www.chrystalspiritualcentre.co.uk

Saturday March 18th: Psychic & Complementary Therapy Fair/Market, Community Centre, Scott Road, Selby, 10.30am-4pm. £2.50. 01484 860643, e-mail: auctor@supanet.com Saturday March 25th: 1-day Practitioner Training, Hopi Ear Candling, Willow Lodge Healing Therapies, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire,10am–5pm, £95. 0845 226 3132, www.healinglodge.co.uk Saturday March 25th: Find your ideal life work. 1-day workshop, 9.30am-4.30pm. £36.

Healthyspirit, 37 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury. 0161 434 6784 Sunday March 26th: Psychic & Holistic Fayre, Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, Dorset, 10am–6pm, £1. Graham on 08990 797979, email: greenwaysix@hotmail.com Sunday March 26th: 1-day Practitioner Training in Indian Head Massage. Willow Lodge Healing Therapies, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. 10am–5pm, £95. 0845 226 3132, www.healinglodge.co.uk Monday March 27th: Body Detox Practitioner Training, Willow Lodge Healing Therapies, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

10am–4pm, £374.00 (Includes full kit).

Distance learning course: £175.00. 0845 2263132, www.bodyenergetics.co.uk Saturday 1st April–Sunday 2nd April: Edinburgh, Body & Soul Fair, Guest Speaker : Shabdan. £3.50/£2.50, W/end £5/£4. 01368 862717, www.bodyandsoulevents.com

Every Friday: Evening of Clairvoyance and healing. Chrystal Spiritual Centre, Lupton Avenue, Leeds £5. 0113 249 5355 www.chrystalspiritualcentre.co.uk

Saturday April 1st – Sunday April 2nd: Consciousness Development Program (Module 1); 1pm–6.30pm, 45 Great Cumberland Place, Marble Arch, 020 7723 0544; web: www.iacworld.org; email: London@iacworld.org

Every Friday: Meditation. 12pm, Healthyspirit, 37 Barlow Moor Road, Didsbury, Manchester. £4 0161 4346784 for more details.

Sunday 2nd April: Start of 2-year Spiritual Healing Course - Accredited. Equinox New Beginnings, Rotherham. 01709 817030, www.freewebs.com/spritualrays

82 Vision 13

Monday April 3rd: Astral Travel for personal development. Free lecture; 7.30pm, 45 Great Cumberland Place, Marble Arch, 020 7723 0544; www.iacworld.org; email: London@iacworld.org Tuesday April 4th – Friday April 7th: Consciousness Development Program (Module 1); 7 pm–9.30pm, 45 Great Cumberland Place, Marble Arch, 020 77230544; web: www.iacworld.org; email: London@iacworld.org Saturday April 8th: Psychometry Workshop, Cedars Spiritualist Church, Anglsea Road, Ipswich. £15. Debz: 07753 637897 or email djrushy@yahoo.com Saturday April 8th: Evening of Mediumship with Simon Goodfellow/JewelMarie Leaf, Maplewell & Stainthorpe Village Hall, Maplewell. 7pm. £8. 07762 538850 Saturday April 8th: 1-day Practitioner Training in Hopi Ear Candling, Willow Lodge Healing Therapies, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. 10am–5.pm. £95.00. 0845 226 3132, www.healinglodge.co.uk Sunday April 9th: 1-day Practitioner Training in Indian Head Massage, Willow Lodge Healing Therapies, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. 10am–5.00pm. £95.00. 0845 226 3132, www.healinglodge.co.uk Monday April 10th: Tarot Course,8 weeks.

Heights of Tranquillity, Landseer Road, Ipswich. £85. Debz:07753 637897 or email djrushy@yahoo.com Monday April 10th: Body Detox Practitioner Training, Willow Lodge Healing Therapies, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

10am–4pm, £374.00 (Includes Bio-Energiser Detox Therapy kit). Distance learning course: £175.00. 0845 226 3132, www.bodyenergetics.co.uk Thursday April 13th: Women’s Full Moon Lodges, Snettisham, Norfolk. Spirituality, meditation, crafts, ceremony. Contact Julie 01485 541704.

Friday April 14th: Consciousness Development Program (Module 1); 10am–10pm, 45 Great Cumberland Place, Marble Arch, Details 020 7723 0544; web: www.iacworld.org; email: London@iacworld.org