Clear as Quartz

The Oracle of the Teabag

Thinking back to the Buddhist weekend I've just had, while not only serving as a sufficient form of punishment for my long-suffering teenager (who would have preferred a weekend gaming online but is currently banned from the computer), it was also the occasion where we discovered The Oracle of the Teabag. Hee hee.

Looking at an empty teacup with a cold and damp teabag-on-a-string left inside it, I was telling my son how pretty much any slightly heavy object on a cord or chain of some kind could be used as a pendulum. So it seemed like a good idea to consult the teabag. Oh yes, and what a chuckle that was.

Feeling the buzz

After I had my Reiki attunement I began to doubt that I was able to channel the Reiki energy, since I couldn't really 'feel' it. I have to say, that has all changed.

I was at my mum's tonight and she's not a well person, there are many health problems that she has. I offered to do a little bit of Reiki on her in the time I had and almost as soon as I put my hands on my mum's shoulders, I could feel my arms tingling. It was quite powerful. But what is even more interesting is that it hasn't stopped since! In fact, I'm still 'buzzing' as I type up this post!

More to Life Than This

According Peter McNab on his very enlightening site More to Life Than This, "People seem to be searching for something else in life that will bring back the meaning to their lives that the material has failed to manifest."

I would say that kind of thinking was the trigger that brought me to the point of where I am currently at, in trying to learn new things on far more complex and inward levels - although even as a wee nipper, I've always been a person set on digging deep and finding out what really makes me tick.

Peter is one of the country's top Master NLP trainers, and I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with him on a number of occasions in different areas of my work. On his site, he says that many people are asking the question "Is there more to life than this?" and he argues that people are searching for the things that will bring that meaning back (or in for the first time, I might suggest).

A Buddhist weekend for two

Was I out on the lash last weekend with my friends sweating it in a club until 3.30am? Nope. I was on a basic Budhhist course run at the Tara Buddhist Meditation Centre in Derbyshire. It was a last minute decision, probably cemented by the fact that my son was in trouble at school in the week and I felt that dragging him along would be suitable punishment (he's 15 - what do you think?).

Mind you, my club nights are very rare nowadays, so it wasn't as if I was pining to be on a podium. I think I just wanted to simply find out more, and seeing as it is my quest now to follow a journey of self-discovery, it seemed like a reasonable way to spend a weekend.

Book review: Essential Reiki by Diane Stein

Diane Stein's 'Essential Reiki: A complete guide to an ancient healing art' is not a new book, since it was first published in 1995, and being a Reiki book that published the sacred symbols used within the attunements, it was also considerably controversial for its time. However, I consider this book to be an excellent and valuable resource on Reiki and one that anyone who is interested in Reiki healing should read.

Stein is not a stickler for tradition and to be honest, as we're living in a modern world, I don't blame her. She believes that Reiki is something everyone can do with the right training, and not a 'power' that is to be bestowed upon only the special. The book is both an introduction and a wonderful and inspiring insight into this ancient healing art, as well as a guide to practising it. 

Beginning my journey with Reiki

It is one week ago that I completed my Reiki level I with Alison Levesley, otherwise known as the Soul Coach. For anyone about to embark on the journey, it is a very surreal experience, let me tell you.

The actual process of the attunement – the ritual by which you become open to channelling the Reiki energy – is quite an experience, mainly because it is so far removed from what we’d normally do in Western training sessions!

Alison did some clearing in the room using sage and crystals, and I was sat in a crystal grid while I waited for her to perform the attunement. I didn’t see what she did exactly because my eyes were closed and I was in a deep meditation, as well as the fact that a lot of the ceremony went on behind me, but I know that sacred Reiki symbols were drawn around me and onto my palms.

Getting your head round Reiki

Reiki is a difficult concept to get your head around, to say the least, especially for logical left-brainers like myself (though my spiritual path is one of tapping into my creative right brain as much as I can).

Reiki is an ancient healing art that many people believe has been around really since time began, although it came into the ‘modern’ Western world in the early 1900s through Mikao Usui, a Japanese Sensei who developed the Usui system.

With Reiki, you are working with an invisible energy that ultimately, you cannot prove is there. But whilst there is little scientific research available, the benefits of Reiki are well-documented and even the NHS part-fund a Reiki healer at the University College London Hospital to help cancer patients.  

Out there could be in

I remember meeting my friend and colleague Graeme Waterfield about 4 years ago, when he came to work at the young people’s drug project that I used to be employed at (before I made the dedicated leap into journalism). I found him mediating in the store room cupboard and thought “Hello, what a weirdo!”

Still, I’d always been interested in seeking some kind of enlightenment for myself and even though I thought Graeme was a little bit ‘out there’ (he actually isn’t, but I was a little bit ‘in there’ at the time), I was interested to find out more about his spiritual practices.

About Clear as Quartz

Hello. I’m Andrea Wren, and I’m definitely embarking on a new era in my life in spiritual terms – whatever that may be. Although it has taken a few wild goose chases to get to the point I'm at, I know that my direction in life is altering.

I think that whenever we embark upon changes in our lives, being able to track the thoughts and processes that come about through those changes is incredibly helpful to our development. Certainly, that’s the case for me.

For many human beings, there is so much time and energy spent on the trivial and the futile, while the important stuff gets left behind. We struggle to make our lives meaningful with the meaningless. You only have to pick up a copy of 'Heat' magazine to see that, or head to the high street to find yet a new season of 'must have' fashion or a gadget you just can't live without.