Countdown to Thanksgiving...

It is only eleven days until Thanksgiving. Where has the time gone? I love that there is a time set aside that as a country we can take a day, regardless of our religion or ideologies, and just be thankful.

What a wonderful time of year...

For the next few days I will be reflecting on ways we can show our gratitude. Today, I started a reflection on my facebook page of what I am thankful for and will list each day a diferent note of gratitude. If you have a facebook page, join me? We can spread a wave of gratitude. In your first post just announce your intention...

Make me your friend on Facebook: Find me as Reiki Dojo

Some Days It's All About Making People Happy

I'd like to remember how easy it is ... every day ... just to share a laugh, a smile... even with a total stranger. It makes the day so much better, doesn't it?

This is Matt, I found him on youtube but you can follow him around the world in this video...and read more about him at wherethehellismatt.com



This all led me to another thought...I need a crazy way to travel the world and get paid to do it...

Ohio Drama

I've never given much thought to the Ohio Department of Agriculture...I mean, how would they affect my life? I'm almost certain that John and Jacquiline Stowers wouldn't have thought that the ODA would affect their lives either prior to December 1, 2008 when 12-13 SWAT team agents swarmed their home. The reason? According to the court, search warrant and affidavits, county health department officials and an ODA enforcement agent said, "they believed the Stowerses were operating a retail food establishment without a license.."

The Stowers maintain that they were running a private members only food co-op.The public could not buy food there.



Food, cell phones, the children's computer and the family's entire year's worth of stored food, including meat that they'd raised and slaughtered to sustain them, was confiscated. The Stowers children who are home schooled have lost their lessons that were on the computer. And while that may not sound like a big deal, trust me, having experienced home-schooling three children...the computer is the school. Another issue I have with the computer being taken was that the children's father is currently serving in Iraq and that is their main mode of communication with them. The children and their mother are actually living with their grandparents while he is out of the country.

I read about this horror at Granny Miller's blog...and kept thinking...a decade ago, that could have been our home, our family. There are so many similarities...I home-schooled, co-oped, and stored a years worth of food... and no, I don't live that life any more...I garden and Kroger instead of co-oping, my daughter is in a public school... but I could still feel the horror that I know those people felt.

This really shouldn't be happening in our country...
Really.

I shudder to think that this could have ended like Ruby Ridge...thankfully, it didn't.

Prayer Candles

I am always telling people that I will light a candle for them...and I do...because the energy that fills the candle, the faith behind the energy, can change someones life.

I don't think I've actually ever given directions for creating a prayer candle on this blog though...

Of course, the easiest way to start is with a store purchased candle but if you have the time and ability to make your own beeswax or soy candle...go for it! The more personal your candle is...the better.

Choose one that fills you with the emotion you are trying to evoke with the candle. For example, when I am seeking safety or protection for my home or someone I love, I will often choose a spice scented candle because it evokes strong memories of family (pumpkin pies at holiday time)...When I want to charge my relationship I will choose a scent more primal, more exotic like patchouli or frankincense...but most importantly, choose the scent you can identify with. There is no right or wrong...

However, that said...if I have a financial need (a new job for instance or extra holiday money), I always choose by color first (GREEN) and scent second...

When you are ready to fill your candle with intention, find a quiet place or in an emergency try to at least quiet your mind...

Hold the candle between your palms, rolling it so that you are feeling every part of it while you focus the power of Reiki into the candle (just as when you are giving Reiki to a person.)

You can anoint your candle with oil, drawing the Reiki symbols above and below and around the circumference of the candle (you can do the drawings dry as well if necessary.) When you feel your candle is full...state your intention and "seal" it into the candle with three finger "taps" (I will also usually chant the name of the most relevant Reiki symbol)...

When you have "prayed in" the full intention that you are willing (and please, make sure you word your intention VERY carefully...I have had many students call and say...this didn't work because...and after carefully asking them questions discovered that it did work...they got EXACTLY what they'd asked for...even though they'd "meant" something different than what their words had "said."

Never doubt the power that your words have.
Believe in the power of your faith in the power of Reiki in your life.

You know the secret to molding and shaping the events that make your life and that is a giant responsibility. Use your Reiki wisely and for the betterment of all concerned.

Establish A Sacred Space

Attunements are just the beginning, regardless of which level you are at. The only difference between a beginner and a Master, is that a beginning Reiki practitioner must conscientiously choose to do Reiki every day, must sometimes force themselves to do Reiki everyday, and a Master lives Reiki every day. Reiki is as much a part of a master practitioner’s life as breathing…

I tell my beginning students, “Set up your Sacred Space immediately and then get in the habit of going there every day, even twice a day. Fill your space with things that will please your senses…scent, light, color…fill your space with those things that in your mind and your thoughts make that room holy ground.”

Let’s think about that for a moment. Your sacred space is your holy ground. Cleanse it, charge it, care for it…love it…invite in Reiki, invite in your Spirit Guides, Ascended Masters, Beings of Light…invite in the Creator.

This is the place where you should feel most at peace, most at ease, more yourself than anywhere else. Your Sacred Space is your spiritual home.

This is the place you will want to use your Reiki.

In the beginning you will have to make yourself go to the space…but after you “experience” the difference merely having such a place to “Be”…you will be drawn there and soon, it will be the place that you want to be.

My mornings begin in my sacred space. I light incense, meditate, remember, and thank.
My evenings almost always end there.

I hope you will take my advice and start setting up your sacred space today. If you have questions about setting up your sacred space, feel free to call me.
Remember, the attunement is just the beginning of your sacred journey.

White Magic...Spells...Ethics...

I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like to...busy summer, busy days...but that isn't really an excuse because I am so passionate about Reiki and the healing that has taken place in my life because of Reiki...

I feel like I should be doing more, giving more, teaching more...
That isn't to say that I don't use Reiki daily and some days more than others...only to say that I wish I could impact the world more than I am. And then there are days that meeting one person, touching one person makes me feel like I have changed the world(the Universe)in some profound way...but maybe only I changed.

Yesterday, I had a very distraught woman call asking for a psychic reading and having her just utter those worlds my third eye flared to life and I knew so much more than I wished to...I touched my forehead asking for a softer reading...and asked her if I could just throw the (tarot) cards for her. She agreed and I laid out a reading...the cards were for me proof of what I already "knew" in my mind...

To make a long story short, the woman's fears involved her marriage, the other woman, and what the other woman was capable of...

Fears I hear repeated over and over by so many clients.
What I usually say is "Hug yourself, Love yourself enough (respect yourself enough) to walk away from this man...because he is damaging you..."

From my experience, no woman wants to hear this. They want the magic elixir to save their marriage...to make their husband have eyes for them and only them again...

Few are brave enough to ask me for a spell.
She did.

I tried to explain my feelings on white magic, black magic (and gray magic)...
I tried to explain that any spell designed to affect his free will really wasn't in her best interest but that I would more than gladly prepare intention candles for her healing because that was truly what was needed. Healing to replace the energy he'd sucked out from her...healing to reinstate her mind, her body, her spirit to wholeness...

She begged and pleaded fr a spell and in her instance (because she so fervently believed that black magic was already being used) I wavered...but only long enough to smack myself in the head and tell myself "NO!"

Their are ethics to what I do as a Reiki practitioner...
I am no mere white witch.
I am no mere black witch.

I have the power of the entire universe at my disposal and with that power comes responsibility and self-control. Reiki heals. But in the wrong hands it can be changed and manipulated (one of the reasons Reiki is actually feared in some of the rural areas of Japan.) It is easier for Americans to embrace the white light and believe that with the true pureness of intention Reiki heals in a way that is for the good and betterment of all concerned...and that's exactly what I strive for...

It's all about intent.

Lughnasdh Blassings

Blessings on you and yours and
We Celebrate the First Harvest
Blessed Be

I am glad to have the ancient fire festival days to help mark time around my calendar. And this August 1 will be especially poignant because as Randy and I walk the protection circle around our house, I am certain both of us will be thinking similar thoughts. How thankful we are to have found each other and how much we will miss each other while he is away for business the next six weeks...

We will harvest some of the vegtables from our garden (of which I made a dinner of grilled eggplant, greenbeans, fried green tomatoes, and salad last night)...

I hope to make a corn sheaf dolly to save until next spring when I will return it to the ground...

We will sit around a fire, much like our ancestors did, facing the fact that autumn will soon be upon us...

If you want to learn more about Lammas/Lughnasdh