Blossoms 2021

The online version of our seasonal Tree of Life Cycles newsletter for Blossoms 2021 – includes a VERY SPECIAL OFFER during May.

Beltane | May Day | Ascension | First Cross-Quarter

(Click here to read about the names we chose for the annual cycle of traditional festivals throughout the year, and why we chose them).

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Welcome to our Blossoms Newsletter!

In the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Britain, this time of year is quite delightful. Right now my lawn is covered with primroses, ladies-maid, bluebells, white bells and many other magical Spring flowers. When I was at primary school (ages 5–11) we danced around the maypole, weaving coloured ribbons around the pole as we circled it, weaving in and out of each other. What a beautiful symbol for the Tree of Life!

In England in the 17th centur,y the Puritan government cancelled all so-called ‘pagan’ practices (including Christmas for a while!) The Long Parliament’s ordinance of 1644 described maypoles as “a Heathenish vanity, generally abused to superstition and wickedness.”

So the maypole disappeared from our culture for several centuries, until it was revived in the late 19th century. Generally speaking, the so-called ‘Roundheads’ seemed to be keen to prevent people having fun. Rather like Malvolio in Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night. Malvolio is like Archangel Samael, or the astrological Saturn. In this drama, another character, called Sir Toby Belch balances Malvolio out a bit, rather like Archangel Zadkiel or astrological Jupiter. Toby challenges Malvolio, saying:

Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?

But one very ancient pagan festivity, the Padstow ‘Obby ‘Oss, took place in Cornwall, remote from London, so the ancient practice was never interrupted. Until Covid…

If you have been following SoulSchool Newsletters for a while, you will probably have already discovered what a special event the Padstow celebration of May Day is, and how sad we were to realise last year it had been cancelled. And now, in 2021, cancelled for a second year in a row. So, just to remind you, and to pay homage to this magical rite, here is a video for you to watch:

Blossoms

UNFOLDING | ABUNDANCE| JOY | SPRING FLOWERS

The ‘tree’ of your life is revealing the first flowering of your intentions. Whatever you have been holding in your heart as an intention for the future will now be showing exquisite, charming signs of growth. These delicate flowers are your hope for abundance coming down the line.

But the soft, sweet blooms need protection from rough winds, late frosts and extremes of rain or dry weather. Every flower on your ‘tree’ is a promise of fruit when harvest time comes around, but without your love and attention the natural progress towards a fruitful Autumn may not necessarily be reliable. Watch over your ‘tree’ and be sure to talk gently to it, encouraging the blossoms to unfold their petals and reach for the sunshine. When the Sun in the sky hides its face, then you must shine encouragement on your blossoms. You carry sunshine in your heart and you can spread it around, even on grey, cold days.

The May Day flowers are made into a pretty crown for the little girl who is chosen to be the May Queen, and this celebration expresses the confidence that Blossoms brings us. This is the time of magic and fairy wisdom, and we can see and feel the power of Mother Nature as she fills the gardens and woodlands with sweet-scented floral abundance.

Blossoms exercise

• Visualise a beautiful place in a garden or woodland. In your mind’s eye, you are sitting under a tree full of blossom; you are surrounded by green grass, shining with dewdrops. You can see Spring flowers – blue, pale yellow, lilac and white. Listen to the birds singing.
• Enjoy a sense of flowering beauty throughout your body, as though the energy that has been quietly building over the last few weeks is ready to expand into joyous manifestation. This can feel like a magical tingling sensation throughout every cell in your body, as you just know that more delight is growing in your life.
• A white hare comes softly bouncing towards you and sits just in front of you, gazing intently into your eyes. You find yourself smiling and realise the hare is sending you a heart message: “All is well in your garden. All is flourishing. All is growing and unfolding according to plan.”
• You reply from your heart: “Thank you. I am reassured. I feel safe and content.”
• Write down any experiences in your Journal, with the date.

Archangel Gabriel – The Messenger

Keywords –Change, messages, spiritual growth, signs, guidance
Heavenly Body – Mercury
Colours – Green, turquoise
Festival – Blossoms

Heaven’s Golden-winged Herald, late hee saw
To a poor Galilean virgin sent.
How low the Bright Youth bow’d
and with what awe
Immortall flowers to her faire hand present.

RICHARD CRASHAW (c.1613–1649)

About Gabriel
Gabriel’s name is usually translated as ‘God is my strength’. The Hebrew word gaver literally means ‘a man’, but implies strength and power. In occult tradition and in the work of the Austrian visionary Rudolf Steiner, Gabriel is associated with the Moon. But this Archangel has more similarities with Mercury (aka Hermes and Thoth). His tasks are mostly to do with communication, which in astrology is a function of Mercury.

Gabriel is often depicted as a heavenly messenger and, perhaps, librarian. In a legend from the ancient Jewish text, The Haggadah, Moses is told he has one more day to live on Earth, so he writes out the Torah on thirteen scrolls, twelve for the twelve tribes and one to keep in the holy Ark of the Covenant as a benchmark, in case anyone tampers with the other twelve. Moses becomes anxious about the amount of time he has left and God slows down the Sun, so it will not set until the task is complete.

Finally, Moses hands out the scrolls to the tribes, instructing them to keep the commandments. Then Gabriel takes the most beautiful scroll and carries it through the heavens to the highest court, so that all celestial beings can witness Moses’ piety. Later in the story, Gabriel is one of the Archangels who comforts Moses as he is dying. Gabriel arranges a couch for Moses and Michael drapes it with a purple garment. This tells us something else about Gabriel – he is a psychopompos (someone who helps the living pass over into death) which is another similarity he has with the astrological Mercury and why I say they are the same archetype.

Watch my video about Gabriel to find out more about this great Archangel…

Calling on Gabriel
Gabriel helps us to develop our ability to receive and communicate messages from the celestial realms. He brings us messages all the time – but do we listen? He is a herald of change, and his warnings can help us adjust so that a change becomes an opportunity and not a crisis.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you REALLY want change?
• Or do you feel safe and comfortable in your present zone, even though it’s not perfect?
• Does the idea of change terrify you?

Meeting Gabriel will help you organise yourself, and make sense of your emotions and beliefs.

Your journey to meet Archangel Gabriel
For a few days before going on this journey, start gathering together items that will remind you of Gabriel’s energy – blue, green or turquoise fabrics; a suitable gemstone, and a coloured and/or scented candle. Find quotations that speak personal messages to you, especially if you have come across them recently, and also words that have always appealed to you. They can be from poems, psalms, prayers or popular songs. Be lighthearted in your quest and ask Gabriel inwardly to help you find suitable materials.

Here’s my guided journey to make contact with Gabriel. To get the best out of it, please also take a little time preparing, as suggested in this guide.

After coming out of your visualisation, speak the following Invocation to Gabriel:

SoulSchool News

The complete Shefa Method Course FREE during May

The Shefa Method Self Study Course is available FREE during May, giving you eight weeks of powerful content that can change your life. (The Supervised version is also available at the greatly reduced priced of £300, or two monthly payments of £150 — limited places available).

Why have we offered this course, developed over many years of research, for FREE? Right now, we feel it’s vital as many people as possible have access to the powerful tools we are creating, regardless of income and life situation.

But, please, read the description carefully before enrolling. Make sure you are ready for the commitment. Don’t just say yes because it’s free. Say yes because you want to change your life and make a difference!

Extra bonus offer!

Take up The Shefa Method free during May and get my new Accessing Angelic Realms Course HALF PRICE! That applies to Self-Study and Supervised versions. You’ll be sent your Special May Offer 50% Discount Code when you enrol on your FREE Shefa Method Course using the button below.

Free Archangel mini-course on website

In April I put out five blogs with videos called Getting to know Archangels, under my Mystical Wisdom banner. In parallel, I published eight Signs and Wonders videos covering the eight Archangels – Guardians of the Gates of Light – on the lower section of the Tree of Life. These are now collated into one place, so the whole series is easily accessible for you to follow as a short, but very helpful course. Click here to watch both series.

Gateways to higher realms

Accessing Angelic Realms (see above to get it half price during May) is the second in the Gateway series of courses. Creating Abundance is planned as the third course and will be announced in the Autumn. It is not essential to follow Fundamental Courses before you enrol on a Gateway course, but if you think you might like face-to-face training as a healer and/or teacher with me in 2022/23, then the best plan is to start from the beginning and learn The Shefa Method, which is FREE during May (see above).

The Angel of Secrets: Sigil One – The Book of Raziel

I am SOOOO excited! I first started this project back in 2007, but it’s now coming into blossom! Will has now started the typesetting for the first Sigil of The Angel of Secrets. This is a series of novels – I’m calling them ‘Sigils’ – about a very rational young woman who is training as a lawyer. But her world view is challenged when she has a vision of an Angel when standing by her grandmother’s death bed. Beth Morgan has been summoned to find an ancient artefact that can change human consciousness and initiate a radical change for humanity.

Apart from helping me work out some plot details, Will has also devised a series of intriguing puzzles and is enhancing the books with a set of illustrations, made to look like old engravings, complete with sonnets for each one. We are planning amazing prizes for the first to unravel each book’s secrets, once we publish.

Go to angelofsecrets.com for a flavour of what these books are about and meanwhile, I’ll keep you up-to-date with progress.

Recommendations

Film

Enchanted April – Directed by Mike Newell (1991). Written by Peter Barnes. Stars Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen and Jim Broadbent. Available to stream free on YouTube (not very good quality) here or get the DVD from Amazon here. Click here to watch the trailer on YouTube.

This is an old movie I saw years ago – it was made in 1991, so thirty years old! I discovered it again recently and thought it was very suitable to recommend at this time of year. Even though ‘April’ is in the title and not ‘May’, this is definitely concerned with Blossoming. It’s about the delightful transformations that can happen when people step outside their usual dreary environments and step into Springtime.

This is a British movie with a host of well known British stars, most of whom are ’National Treasures’ by now: Miranda Richardson, Josie Lawrence, Polly Walker, Joan Plowright, Alfred Molina, Michael Kitchen, and Jim Broadbent. All good names.

The story is based on Elizabeth von Arnim’s 1922 novel and begins in London, where the February weather is wet and windy. An unhappy wife notices a classified advertisement in a newspaper, offering a castle as a holiday let. A castle in Italy! In order to make her own getaway, Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence) needs to find three other women who would also value a break in their usual dreary (or demanding) lives. So we see a group of souls, all of them unhappy in one way or another, coming together in the magical surroundings of an idyllic setting. All they have in common, it seems, is the need to leave their troubles behind them. In some cases that also means their husbands, but husbands are tenacious and troubles follow them! Unexpected twists and turns in this beautiful, tranquil place allow all the participants to undergo subtle transformations. They blossom.

My dressmaker’s eye was enchanted by the 1920’s costumes as well! Delicious and uplifting, I definitely give this five out of five stars!

– Theolyn.

Book

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake – The Bodley Head (2020). Get it from any good bookshop or Hive.co.uk (£15.45 hardback, £5.99 eBook, paperback coming soon).

Merlin Sheldrake, son of Rupert, is an extraordinary fellow. There’s no doubt he is an excellent scientist, as his detailed studies demonstrate, but he is so much more. Like his brother Cosmo (and his mother, the overtone singer Jill Purce) he is a musician, and he also turns out to be a fine writer. Like his magical namesake, Merlin weaves a spell of enthusiastic joy around you as he deals with the infinite complexities of life on this beautiful planet of ours.

We may already understand that fungi are a kingdom of their own, quite distinct from plants and animals, but the extent to which we owe our very existence to the wide variety of fungal enterprises is quite mind boggling. To put it simply, we could not exist without them (whether outside or inside our bodies); plant life is sustained by them, with mycelium (those fine white strands you see around the base of roots) working in cooperation with plants, exchanging chemicals and water, feeding each other and cooperating in all kinds of astonishing ways.

We see how nature cannot be reduced to the outcome of competitions fought between species and individuals, but is actually more dependant on cooperation. Furthermore, this book even challenges the idea of ‘individuality’ being an accurate way to describe organisms. Walking the ‘Wood Wide Web’, we are more co-dependant than we realise.

One of the more profound aspects of Merlin’s description of the marvels of life is how, once we understand the delicate intricacies involved, our philosophy of life radically changes. It is a book about the whole, about how no one life-form can exist without its fellow species, which invariably include more than one kind of fungus somewhere along the way.

This book is infectious in its delivery – I couldn’t read it fast enough and gobbled it up as fast as I could (Merlin actually soaked a first copy of his book in water and grew oyster mushrooms on it, which he then ate. He plans to incorporate another copy in one of his brewing experiments!) That said, I know I will be returning to it time and again, as the notes and huge bibliography (about a quarter of the book) are a good introduction to many related topics I know I will want to explore. This is a landmark book and comes with all the recommendation stars I can give it! – Will

Websites – for foodies!

Internet Lazy Cat Kitchen lazycatkitchen.com

This is absolutely my favourite foodie website and blog. Ania offers many yummy-licious vegan recipes on a regular basis. Really special everyday main meals and breakfasts. PLUS sweet dishes, cakes, brownies, muffins, biscuits… this is such a magic cookery treasure-house!

BBC Good Food bbc.co.uk/food/diets/vegan

You might also like to explore the BBC Good Food website, where they have a speciality section for vegans.

I’ve often found the BBC website turns up trumps if I want make something that traditionally would not be vegan, such as these brownies, for example!

Have a look around and plan a feast…

And finally…

We will be reducing some of our video output throughout May, in order to give us more time working on The Angel of Secrets, but there’s lots of content for you to catch uo with on the website – check out the new dedicated Angels page (which will be growing over the coming weeks) and my well-stuffed Blogs archives, where you will find lots to interest you.

The next Tree of Life Cycles Newsletter will be Golden Boughs at the Summer Solstice.

Wishing you a basketful of Spring flowers and Angel blessings,