I’ve always loved writing. During my early school days I developed a love for English literature because of a kindly teacher and every lesson was an adventure I looked forward to.
I wrote a few lyrics for friends when I was an Art student, mostly because I was able to manufacture the most absurd phrases on the spot. This lured me into thinking that maybe I might become a songwriter one day, and after the late John Peel read out some of my lyrics on the radio one evening my confidence soared. However, as a troubled teenager with other mindless agendas, I relegated writing to the something to do later in life drawer.
A few years ago, I duly completed an adult education course at City Lit entitled Towards a Novel. This taught me some important rudiments, including writing without extraneous text and, especially, not to attempt completing a novel in a week! The five hundred words a day writing technique of the great Graham Greene resonated with me (although his words would have been far better crafted than my own). A novel, I learned, is written in the same way a marathon is run, at a regimented and disciplined pace. Even at this stage there was a distinct voice in my mind telling me that I should write. What, however, was unclear.
Deciding to practise what I’d learned, I duly wrote my first novel, a crime thriller. And I learned another lesson, not to get too excited once you’ve finished a manuscript and someone takes notice. A certain company requested the full manuscript and, a few months later, a glossy, impressively bound publishing contract flopped through my letterbox. My delight was soon quashed by someone in the know who pointed out that this company were basically self-publishers offering spurious deals with hidden and costly add-ons.
Having at least proved to myself that I had the discipline to write a book, I self-published the novel independently. Yet the nagging voice was still present, telling me there was something more important I should write. I tried ignoring this but it kept coming back again like a boomerang. In an epiphany one day, I decided to focus my writing on my brother’s story in an attempt to fathom his troubles.
I’d been generally sceptical of my brother’s claims that the cottage we moved into as children was the source of his troubles, and that something had tormented him ever since. This was despite the undeniable truths of his claims: paranormal events were witnessed by others and the eminent priest Dom Robert Petitpierre also documented some of them. By immersing myself in Jason’s perspective and listening to him when he was lucid, I opened my mind to the possibility of this dark influence on his life.
Writing fiction had been far easier than writing something as challenging and raw as my brother’s life struggles. My thoughts on how to approach writing something so emotive and personal changed many times. Once I almost decided to collaborate with someone else, rather than face the buried emotions alone.
Writing is like making a good sauce. Essentially you firstly need good ingredients, ones you’re familiar with that add a definite punch. Then you begin the experiment…
Our troubled childhood years provided a plethora of emotional prompts and motivation to write the book, providing I could manage the emotional rollercoaster throwing me in every direction. Amidst the backdrop of our parents’ volatile and failing marriage and the downfall of my highly sensitive younger brother, these emotions breathed too many ingredients into the writing cauldron. I didn’t expect them to bubble and spit back at me quite as vehemently.
Having too many ingredients, as it turned out, had thrown a definite curveball into the mix of telling this story. As well as an enlightening exploration of how paranormal influences affect highly sensitive people like my brother, I’d wanted the book to be an important contribution towards understanding human consciousness.
Perhaps I was naïve in underestimating the emotional impact of writing a personal memoir. Then there’s also the research to consider, assembling facts accurately as well as transcribing stories from other people personally involved: this perspective is crucial if we want to write something that reads truthfully and has enough emotional impact to leave an indelible message.
The grief that emerged was visceral and hard-hitting, facing the fact that I’d basically failed my brother at the beginning of his troubles. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties, sitting on the edge of his soiled bed, that I did that all-important thing…
I connected with him.
I wanted to help unravel the mayhem his life had spiraled into and he also needed a voice. The question was whether I was up to the challenge. Thankfully, once I’d fully understood the true extent of my brother’s addiction and resultant mental health issues, I was able to fully immerse myself in his story from his perspective.
True, some of the things he professed still seemed too far-fetched and I wasn’t enlightened enough to understand the effects that paranormal encounters, perceived or otherwise, can have on someone like my brother. This became a journey for us both. Just because something didn’t seem possible for me, didn’t mean it wasn’t real for him. And he needed that acknowledgement and empathy, to tame his fear and torment and curb the escape route he had chosen because of a lack of connection.
My brother has thankfully survived, just, and enabled me to tell his story. He’s Not Mad He’s My Brother had several previous titles, each one swayed by my varying approaches and emotions. In the end, the book is his voice, hoping to encourage our understanding of mental ill-health.
Gratifyingly, it won the Local Legend national Spiritual Writing Competition in 2024.
I never saw myself as an author. Why would I? I struggled at school and only got my English GCSE at night school later. My grammar and spelling leave a lot to be desired, yet here I am, published.
The change happened when my Mum died. She’d told me she was writing a book about her life experiences, and that turned on a switch in my brain that started me writing too. Now I write in my journal, at least, every single day. I also started writing about my own life experience – although that manuscript will not see the light of day – and really got the writing bug. I came across a website that had an active blog so I started writing blogs about being an expat bar owner in Spain; I had pages published in two collaborative books, ‘365 Life Shifts’ and ‘Why Did I Move to Spain?’
Then, as my spiritual journey and business grew, I started writing about the places, buildings and spirits that I had the privilege to experience during space clearing, the removal of negative energies and entities from properties. This is the other world I live in!
Living in a different realm was normal for me as a child and I was much happier spending time with my spirit friends than I was with living people. In fact, people terrified me to the point I would hide if the doorbell rang and often shake as I walked across the classroom at school. Back then, I truly believed everyone could see the spirit world that I could and it wasn’t until I was around twenty years-old that I found out this wasn’t the case.
Around that time, I was working as an estate agent in London and I was unknowingly space clearing every property I entered. If I saw, heard or felt a spirit, I would send it to the light. It sounds simple because for me it was. And I was able to sell properties that had been stuck on the market for ages, just by going into them.
A few years later, I met someone who would change everything. My family had moved to a new home and whilst I knew we didn’t have any earthbound spirits, the feeling of the house was uncomfortable. My new friend casually said, “You want to try space clearing.” I had never heard of it before. So I followed her very basic instructions, going from room to room, clapping and waving incense, and as I did so all these images started to appear in my mind of the things that had happened in the house. This was exciting.
Since then I have spaced cleared every property we have ever lived in, as well as clearing for friends who have come across problems. Yet I never imagined it would turn into a business and give me the material for my first published book.
Spirituality became my main focus in 2020, when I found myself unable to work because of lockdown and had time on my hands. I threw myself into studying with Kyle Gray and became a certificated Angel Guide, reading oracle cards. While training, I did hundreds of free readings online to help people navigate the strange world we found ourselves in and pretty soon people were offering to pay me!
This was the answer I was looking for. I needed to earn money, I wanted to keep doing this work and here was the solution. So I created a website and added space clearing to it, thinking it would be a small part of my business because the properties would need to be nearby and the clients would have to be spiritually minded.
I was wrong! I had cleared a holiday home for a friend about ten years earlier and she then contacted me with an interesting question. She had tenants renting her grandparents’ home and they would not give her access for essential maintenance work. She was desperate to keep the house in good order and wondered if I could space clear it from just a basic floor plan and the address.
I had no idea if I could work remotely like that but I was willing to give it a try, trusting my intuition. As I started redrawing the plans, information and pictures started to land in my head telling me about family parties, the tenants’ heartache, even descriptions and the names of my friend’s grandparents.
Okay, now I knew that I could work remotely, but would the results be the same? They most definitely were: within twenty-four hours the tenants had allowed the builders in and the maintenance work was scheduled. I was as delighted as my friend and now knew that my angels and guides didn’t need me to be physically present in a location for them to work through me.
I now work with a number of business people on a regular basis to keep the energy of their properties positive, as well as with a number of estate agents who use my services to help them sell properties faster. They also get the bonus of knowing that the energies of the properties have been enhanced for the new owners to be healthy, happy and abundant.
So this was what I really needed to write about, sharing many exciting and eye-opening stories of space clearing and encouraging readers to make the energies of their own homes more positive. Echoes Within Walls was published by Local Legend in 2025.
From a young age I was very interested in spirituality. The first thing that started my spiritual journey, was collecting crystals as I was captured by their beautiful colours, shapes and patterns they had. At the time I didn't know the meanings or healing properties of crystals, but I knew that they helped me feel calm and at ease.
After a while I started to research and read lots of books about crystals. I was trying to absorb as much information as possible to learn about them, and what each one is beneficial for. I loved how each crystal could help on emotional, mental, spiritual and even physical levels.
For me I was looking for crystals to help calm an anxious mind, and help with stress and pain on the physical plane too. I then started to learn to meditate whilst using crystals to help make me relax, and take me out of a stressful state for a while.
Meditation helped slow my over-active thoughts, whilst the crystals made my whole aura fill with peace and tranqulity. I have kept a routine of meditating 4 times a week, to help keep me aligned and focused.
Past lives have always been a passion of mine. I just love learning about how our pasts can influence our lives now and in the future too. I have read lots of books and articles on this subject, and I feel such a connection to this spiritual area in particular.
I started to look into ways I could access or see my past lives, and began learning about the Akashic Records, which are an energetic library in the ethers, which holds all our past and future lives.
I learnt how to access my own Akashic Records, to experience what happened in my past lives. What I learnt was that some of the anxiety and pain I was experiencing in this life, came from traumatic events that happened in my past lives. Our souls hold onto thoughts, feelings and emotions from past lives and experiences you had, whether good or bad.
Learning about the soul and holistic healing, pushed me into wanting to learn how to do readings such as oracle cards, past life tarot & astrology. I began writing on these topics so that others could learn a bit about these subjects, so they could explore and dive into various healing modalties.
I began writing as a hobby but felt like I wanted to either do a spiritual blog or write a book, but at the time never had the confidence. I wrote a few poems then wrote more a few months later, but just left them in a notebook and never gave them another thought.
One day I decided to go back to my notebook and write more and wrote about how others can start writing poems too. After a few weeks I decided to create a book which featured my poems, how people can write their own poems, do art therapy & much more.
After writing my book, I looked into how to help the mindset and boost mental health. I began looking at how affirmations can help change thought patterns. I began writing positive affirmations for myself at first, then wrote some for friends, family and others too. I thought what if I began writing affirmations that rhymed, like in poetical form.
I began researching how rhyming sticks in our minds better and easier. Just think of a nursery rhyme, you often remember it as it rhymes. I found that rhyming helps with neurodiverse minds too. So I began writing some rhyming affirmations, which turned into more and more. I wrote them to help emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically, so they can help on each level of our being. I created another book which had rhyming affirmations in.
I then wanted to look into how mindfulness can help men and their mental health. Men's mental health is such an important topic, that I wanted to look into how mindfulness activities like meditation & writing poetry can help men, express feelings through various avenues. So I began writing some mindful exercises in my notebook that could help men. I didn't intend to create another book but I did.
Afterwards, I began writing a few awareness poems for charities, to shine a light on important topics such as : Suicide, CPR, Homelessness, Animal Cruelty & much more. More poems turned into more and more, and again I am creating a book full of awareness poetry.
Words are very healing and I want to show others how to put their own thoughts and feelings into writing, to create a powerful and healing piece of work. Writing has helped my anxiety, along with spiritual therapies. In the future I want to write more poetry, create more affirmation products, begin doing more spiritual readings & keep learning as much as I can.
“You do what?” is usually the response I get when someone asks what I do. When friends ask my family what I do, it ranges from business consultant to teacher. No one seems to know exactly. I guess it fits well with the twenty-two-hour window of possibility as to the time I was born. My Mum has one version, my Dad another, and my Grandmother a different one too. I was born a mystery so why not choose a vocation which no one can define too. I guess the question might be is, did I choose the vocation or did colour choose me?
To understand that we need to go back to near the beginning, and like all good stories, let’s start with once upon a time…
One Sunday morning, when I was about six, we were visiting my grandmother, I remember very clearly being absolutely mesmerised by a magical rainbow shining brightly on the ceiling. It was caused by sunlight shining brightly through a string of glass beads on the windowsill.
For me these colours on the ceiling were incredibly exciting, they seemed alive and full of stories and endless adventures. Little knowing this was my first encounter with my future life’s calling.
The beads were there because my grandmother wanted me to give the beads to the little girl next door. Somehow those beads never did quite make it to next door. Instead, they were carefully unstrung in order to create many rainbows.
Jump forward in time to my early twenties and you find me in London at Richmond Theatre, training in special effects make-up with George Frost, an amazing man full of stories of working on films such as African Queen, James Bond, and “doing make-up” for Marilyn Monroe. It was a blessing to have met George, and although I didn’t pursue a career in make-up, being in the film and theatre industry had an unknowingly familiar feel to it.
I met Jan around the same time and when she started talking to me about colour healing it was as though she was talking a language that my Soul understood. It was much like tuning in an analogue radio and from that moment on colour radio has been broadcasting on full service ever since.
Soon after Jan became my teacher at the Colour Harmonic Foundation, I excelled in colour psychology and had an aptitude for translating the language of colour into human behaviour. The follow-on training was to learn how to treat the body with coloured light, however, I knew by then I was on a different colour journey. Thereafter I started helping people to bring colour to life through dreams, drama, and story.
My mission, if you like, was and continues to be, helping people become more conscious of the colours they surround themselves with. Part of that conscious awareness is learning to perceive colour as a living energy. One of the best ways I help people with that is to suggest to someone that as much as they may dislike a colour, maybe, just maybe, the colour feels the same way about you too! This is where the drama and story comes into its own. If you were a colour, how would you feel, act, and show up in the world?
In the 90’s I gave regular talks and consultations at some of the leading health spas and resorts around the UK. It seemed I had a natural gift and ability for speaking on behalf of colour and being able to help people know themselves more through colour.
During that time, I was a regular guest on many TV shows, which included working for Manchester United Television presenting on the history and psychology of the Man Utd football strip. I did dating shows for couples to explore their compatibility purely through the colours they had in their wardrobes and the colours they had in their environment. Wherever we place colour, it always has a story to tell, and it seems that I just happen to have the gift to tell it.
A few years before that in 1991 I was in a book shop in Norwich. It was one of those ordinary kinds of days where I was browsing through the Mind Body Spirit section. I had picked up two books wondering which of the two to buy as I could only afford one. “They look interesting books” said the lady now standing in front of me. I hadn’t noticed her come upstairs into the quiet corner where the Mind Body Spirit section was situated. At a guess, she was mid to late sixties, kindly looking, with an interest in the books I had chosen.
Before I had the chance to reply to her about each book, she boldly stepped forward and assertively tapped her right index finger two or three times on the cover of “Other Lives, Other Selves” by Roger Woolger. Again, before I could say anything she said, “I would buy this one if I were you. You never know it might just change your life one day.” With that she turned around and walked off.
When I went downstairs to pay for Other Lives, Other Selves, she was nowhere to be seen. To this day I strongly believe she was an angel in disguise. Nine years later I trained with Roger Woolger in his method of Deep Memory Process. DMP is a way to explore the many lives of the Soul and all of its unfinished business. It just so happens that colour is an amazing time traveller. It can take us into the past, the future and the present too, all at the speed of light. Choose a colour and let the storybook of your Soul do the rest.
As well as a practitioner I also became a trainer of the method. Roger was not only my teacher, but we also became very good friends too. The lady was absolutely right, both the book and Roger did change my life.
By now you might have guessed I love stories, and that love spreads across into film too. My passion for film started very young. Somewhere around the age of 9 or 10 I wrote a film script in purple ink on a school typewriter, knowing exactly how to lay it out and where to include director comments. I remember feeling upset and frustrated when no-one believed that I just knew what to do. I now know, through my studies of archetypes, colour, drama, psychodrama, and past lives, that they are all tools to access the many different stories we tell to and about ourselves.
If I hadn’t followed this path I would have loved to work with film, directing probably. During a coaching session some years ago, my coach suggested I had in a way woven film directing into my work anyway. It was only when he pointed out how I create and bring scenes to life for clients and groups, directing them in ways to bring healing and transformation.
In lockdown I got the wonderful opportunity to teach Masterclasses to animation and film students around the world about colour as a visual narrative in film. We brought colours to life through character building and colour scene setting. Have you ever watched a film without sound, and just paid attention to the colour?
Somewhere in the middle of all of this there was the dream in 2011. Well, more like that in-between state of sleeping and waking. I was living in Lisbon at the time. A male voice simply said, “Of course, you are the colour ambassador you know” I woke up with such a start, looking around the room and then the apartment to see where this speaking person was. Needless to say, there was no one there, physically there wasn’t anyway.
It was one of those experiences that stays with you, the kind that won’t leave you alone until you’ve gotten the message. I mentioned to a few trusted friends, they responded by rolling their eyes, followed by something along the lines of, “Duh, yea, of course you are”
I tried it on for size. When someone asked me my title I would half mumble “Colour Ambassador”, I’d come to realise that maybe my friends were right and maybe I was a kind of spokesperson on behalf of colour. I often talked about and described my work as giving colour a voice. But still…
I worked with a coach to help me to feel comfortable or feel worthy of such a title. It helped, at least I was able to say “Colour Ambassador” without swallowing the words. Then one day whilst giving a talk in Dubai, the host of the event introduced me by saying, “We are very pleased to welcome Global Colour Ambassador Mark Wentworth…” Global seemed to be the magic word that made it feel real, and that it finally was a truth belonging to and referring to me. Every day feels like an honour to serve and speak on behalf of something so magnificent.
I work with individuals and groups using colour, dreams, drama and story, as a way of exploring creative projects, stuck points, team building, confidence and general wellbeing. I’ve brought colour to life in numerous settings and in many creative and different ways, from sitting in front of the lion’s enclosure at London Zoo dressed as a Roman “Colour Expert” Soothsayer at a corporate event, to working with creative teams setting new goals in the skyscrapers of the Middle East, teaching colour healing to nurses at New York’s Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital ER department and helping final year students in NYU Steinhardt’s Performing Arts Department explore their creative potential through a ColourDrama Masterclass.
Over time I have carefully woven these different threads together to create what is now called Colour PsychoDynamics. Its purpose is simple, to help people live their own best life.
I have to date worked professionally with colour for thirty-six years, my journey has been exactly as my 6-year-old self experienced it, full of stories and endless adventures all around the world. I help people to develop a deeper relationship with themselves through this amazing thing called colour.
It is often said that children are some of our best teachers. One Saturday morning when teaching a group of children in downtown Beirut, 12-year-old Kareem politely raised his hand and declared that this had been his best Saturday morning ever, and if I promised to do colour work forever, he would attend every class. I am deeply grateful to Kareem; my answer was, and remains, a most definite, Yes! I promise to do this colour work forever!
This colour radio station remains well and truly tuned in.
It was with great honour that in 2023, I was awarded the Zerka T. Moreno Award from the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama (ASGPP). The award is given to an individual for distinguished work in psychodrama, sociometry and group psychotherapy, and for professional activities leading to the utilisation and awareness of psychodrama around the world. My training and supervision in psychodrama is ongoing.
A journalist once wrote; “Mark Wentworth is to colour what hearing is to music. He observes, he notes, he delves, and he emerges with answers, which can be as astounding as the realisation that comes from the understanding of a symphony in all its glory. By sharing his deeply personal love for, and joy of colour, he invites us to join him in seeing rainbows of hope and understanding where many of us just see cloudy grey skies” As my life story has unfolded, it has become clearer that I chose colour as much as it chose me. It is something that lives with me and through me on a daily basis. Being born at a mysterious time seems fitting to work in the place of betwixt and between, the place where the rainbow ends, and the colour stories begin. I’ll meet you there.
From just about as far back as I can remember my life has been marked by an interminable series of esoteric experiences - a kind of battle on the spiritual plane running in the background of my personal software programme - informing and influencing events in the tangible. I soon stopped sharing with family what appeared normal to me, as my stories would inevitably be met with rolled eyes and enquiries of ‘more tea?’
As a young man with three chords at my disposal I cheekily dared to call myself a musician and ran around half the planet making an unholy din. A botched spinal operation at the age of thirty two soon put a stop to that, however, and with no ready knowledge of natural health at the time I succumbed to the NHS-offered cocktail of pharmaceuticals as all quality of life slipped away and I morphed into two years of immobility and pain.
Searching high and low and inbetween for solutions, embracing Harley Street, a Bolivian Shaman and Chinese medicine I ended up spending six weeks in Andalucia with an ex-patriot Russian Bio-energetic healer who, for all intents and purposes, gave me my life back. This was the steepest learning curve I’d ever encountered as I learned about healing energy, diet, exercise, meditation, fakirs’ beds, malignant entities and Russian magic. I returned to the UK healed and with a head full of new ideas and fresh dreams.
After two years of living with no quality of life whatsoever, watching season follow season from my Wimbledon window I decided that I wanted to live as intensely as possible! And that is how I went to live in the most intense city on the planet - Rio de Janeiro.
I’d long been a fan of Latin American ‘magic realism’ and coming to live in South America I soon realized how that literary genre had come into being. Working as an English teacher I’d be teaching classrooms full of oil company executives and other businessmen – pragmatic people, to whom talking about spirits walking through the room was second nature. I found the acceptance of different planes of existence, the frequencies of the spiritual plane and the physical, co-existing in everyday parlance both intoxicating and stimulating. Brazil was filled with spirituality – the syncretic Afro-religion of Candomblé with its Orixá deities such as the goddess of the ocean Iemanjá who engendered such devotion and gratitude to the ocean and the elements, the practice of Santo Daime, involving the ingestion of yagé, and a pantheon of other elemental practices.
A brief sojourn turned into a love affair with Brazil, which lasted for five years until the tragic death, in a car crash, of my mother in Bavaria which saw me unexpectedly, and under sad circumstances, return to Europe to help sort out her affairs.
A couple of months later I was back in Brazil, before finding employment in Colombia, another destination whose spiritual influence had weaved itself into my psyche through the magic realism of the works of Gabriel García Marquez. More magic, of both the black and white variety, was to be experienced there. I encountered some incredible healers and spiritual practitioners and finally got to have the ultimate ayahuasca experience in a clearing on the top of a hill in the Colombian jungle south of Cali, under the stars, presided over by Taita Angel Chinmoy from Putamayo. A beautiful, life-changing ritual during which I met everyone I had ever met in my life, floating up to me in a place that I, and others, call ‘the dazzling darkness.’ I was also healed of the mourning I had been going through since the tragic death of my mother in the crash, and finally found peace, laying her soul to rest on a Colombian mountainside.
I spent a total of ten years in South America between Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia and Cuba, another year and a half in California, and a further ten years in Thailand. I returned to the UK finally, after twenty-two years in exile, at the beginning of 2022. Twenty two years in countries with deep spiritual roots gave me the feeling I’d been constructing a temple within. I certainly returned to the UK a much changed man. I also returned with a burning desire to create – create what I didn’t know, but the desire to somehow contribute in some small way to the New Earth humanity was surely rising up through the frequencies towards.
And so it was that in around April 2023 poetry chose me! Spiritual poetry! Poetry for New Earth as I have since christened it!
My first poem ‘The Time Before The Moon’ was turned into a beautiful song by the wonderful Canadian singer-songwriter Lynda Szabo. This was most touching and encouraging. I began to pour all that I had been assimilating on both my inner and outer journeying during the past two decades into poems. One a week, one every three days, then more frequently. As I write, some eighteen months later I’m putting the finishing touches to my first volume of verse.
During the last nine months, with the encouragement of my sister Jackie, I’ve been reciting my poems at poetry evenings around London, Oxford and as far north as Glasgow. Naturally quite shy, with a low, soft voice it wasn’t easy for me at first, but I’m becoming more comfortable now and have enjoyed being touched by the incredible poetry I’m hearing from other poets at these events, as well as making new friends along the way. In May this year Jackie and I held the first event of our own in the wonderful Baroque-Edwardian environs of The Bedford in Balham, South London called New Earth. We’ve featured many of the uplifting spirits reciting poetry we’ve met on our journey this year. We’ve just held our third event and our ‘family’ grows each month.
As I sit here writing this article, I wonder if the stars themselves guided me to do so. The calling to write has always felt like an echo through time—I can’t recall when I first heard it. It feels like it’s always been there.
I entered my first poetry competition when I was in the infants and later took part in my primary school’s Inter-House poetry writing competition in Year 5. My school had Houses, similar to Hogwarts, but instead named after places in the Lake District. I composed a poem about the things that occurred when the wind blew—it almost felt like a song in my head as I wrote it. Despite there being over a hundred entries, my poem was chosen, and my House won first place. I still have the little paper book it was printed in, and I enjoy reading it now and then to reignite feelings of nostalgia.
In Year Eleven, I entered another poetry competition. I had finished my classwork early, so my English teacher brought over an advertisement for the school poetry competition to give me something else to do. I wrote a poem about nature and Earth, inspired by a Don Bluth film called A Troll in Central Park, which my family had picked up at a car boot sale. That poem felt even more like a song—its melody rising in my mind as I wrote. The classroom became background noise as I focused on the words. I felt like I was sharing my own interpretation of the film’s story. When I learned my entry had won, I was delighted. My win was announced in the school paper, and my poem was featured. I received a stack of Michael Morpurgo books worth about sixty pounds. Having already read Why the Whales Came in English, I was thrilled to win more of his books.
Reading those books further deepened my love for reading and writing. In 2015, I enrolled in a writing course taught by a published author to receive feedback and grow my skills. Each week had a different theme. Romance week pushed me outside my comfort zone, but I ended up writing a somewhat tragic love story titled Finding Albert, inspired by the film title Finding Nemo. I received valuable feedback from the course and enjoyed hearing about the other students' journeys as well.
It wasn’t until 2019 that I began writing my first book, Starlight Life. Earlier that year, I took part in a “Write Your Own Daily Flame” contest through an inspirational quote email subscription. I didn’t win, but I was named a runner-up and my quote was shared on their Facebook page with credit. That small confidence boost may have helped spark my book-writing journey.
At the time, I had a Facebook group called Starlight Life (now Living in the Starlight), where I posted quotes about positivity and spirituality. I created it to help myself through the grief of losing my Grannie, and I liked to imagine her watching over me from the stars.
After years of writing posts in the group, I decided that Starlight Life would become a book. I’d either write poems on my computer or jot them in my notebook whenever inspiration struck. Each composition felt like I was crafting a thought, a feeling—something I couldn’t previously express. Some feelings had lingered in me for years. Others arrived suddenly, as if they’d been waiting for me to bring them to light.
The emotions that stirred as I gazed at the stars. The calmness of sipping tea. The imagined messages from spirit guides. All of these became threads in the tapestry of Starlight Life—a weaving of starlight. One poem came to me during a thunderstorm when I couldn’t sleep. It became a metaphor for anxiety and racing thoughts. You could say inspiration struck like lightning that night. Another poem, inspired by rainbows, reminds me of my Grannie. When I read it, I picture her as a beautiful celestial messenger of light—appearing mysteriously to bring hope, then disappearing just as mysteriously.
I self-published Starlight Life through a company called BookBaby, and it was released on December 17, 2021. After around two years of writing, editing, finding a publisher, illustrator, and designing the cover, I felt liberated. I had shared the starlight within me for others to see.
If you ask me what my hopes are now, it’s that more people will discover Starlight Life, be inspired by it, and begin living their own starlight lives. I also hope to create something beautiful again—another interweaving of starlight, with a new title. Starlight Life is a poetry book that invites readers to reflect on their personal philosophies, nature, and spirituality.
As for my own philosophy—I believe the spiritual world is like a mirror. People are likely to see an image of the god or goddess they worship reflected back at them. I also believe that when we sleep, our spirits travel through astral projection, but our waking minds struggle to translate those experiences. Dreams, then, are our mind’s jumbled interpretations of those nightly journeys.
The unexpected spiritual experiences I’ve had—seeing faces in meditation, hearing unfamiliar voices saying my name, and witnessing orbs—have solidified my faith that there is more beyond this life. I’ve even had vivid memories of astral projection and flying. These moments were breathtaking.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I believe that whatever lies beyond this life is beyond our comprehension—brilliant and bright as the interweaving of starlight. Perhaps that’s why we don’t remember our lives before birth; the truth may be too much for us to hold.
What we can do is write our own stories, whether or not we are writers. I believe there’s a book in the library of the universe for each of our lives. I hope we all make ours a good one.
Rev. Clare Hinsley earned her Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D. specialising in Metaphysical Counselling, from the University of Sedona. She offers Consultations, Oracle Readings, runs Higher-Self Groups as well as creating Art and Orgone Healing Devices.
Living the benefits of a Metaphysical existence, Rev. Clare’s personal journey soon became Divinely guided. It was quickly realised how individuals, when living in lower vibrations, find it a challenge to tap into Divine energies. A low vibrational existence is draining and it becomes a struggle to break away from an auto-pilot lifestyle. In order to help others find their own abundant, pure energy sources Rev. Clare decided to share much of her wisdom gained and enlighten as many others as possible to their own abilities. Her book, The Happiness Warrior: Finding Your Instinctive-Self Within Western Civilization, was formed and self-published in 2021.
As Rev. Clare continued to allow the Divine energies to expand within her, they pulled her away from an engineering career and returned her to creating art, to the degree of which she has been termed ‘The Quantum Artist’. This term was gifted by others, as they themselves, felt and benefited from the healing and inspiring energies emitted from her Orgone.
Her latest Orgone, named ‘The Beginning,’ is a truly stunning piece. When One looks at it, the healing frequencies can be felt. This piece contains powerful crystals such as Turquoise, Ethiopian Opal, Selenite, Tigers Eye and more.
Metaphysical Minister Clare Hinsley, was Divinely guided to combine the power of Orgone, the memory of Sacred Geometry and Scalar Wave technology to create healing jewellery, charging units and energetically emitting pieces of Quantum Art. Her Orgone Devices combine natural crystals and metal, joined together in resin. A year of spiritually guided training created a unique programming ceremony of which each Orgone Device undergoes.
The initial programming is done by Rev. Clare, via a Scalar Wave machine which contains Tesla bifilar coils, Lakhovsky’s MWO’s (Multi Wave Oscillators) and more. Each ceremony is a combination of Sanjeevini healing, I-Ching, and Alchemy which gives the Orgone the highest vibration. One may experience their powers from the photo, as these pieces can be felt consciously (by those who are energy sensitive) or sub-consciously. At the end of each ceremony, Scalar Waves enable a reactivation of all Orgone Devices previously created and programmed by Rev. Clare. In this way, these Orgone Devices are being re-energised as more pieces are being created.
The power of Scalar Wave healing was made clear to Rev. Clare when she was gifted her first MWO. As this was placed under her pillow and she shut her eyes, she saw a vision which is graphically shown below. Rev. Clare received a spiritual message to create ‘The Vision’ graphically as others would sub-consciously recognise it as a healing light language.
Researching Lakhovsky, it was found that he was Nikola Tesla's teacher. Lakhovsky conducted numerous, successful, treatments using his Multi Wave Oscillator. Lakhovsky compared the living cell to an electrical oscillating circuit. He says within the cells nucleus are tubular filaments or minute oscillating circuits, endowed with a capacity to oscillate at a specific frequency. Health is oscillatory equilibrium of cells, disease is oscillatory disequilibrium.
Lakhovsky discovered that concentric oscillating circuits could harmonise individual cells frequency when given the wave length range of ten cm to 400 m, corresponding to frequencies of 750,000 to three milliards per second. Rev. Clare’s programmed Orgone Devices restore cellular health and combat against negative and harmful frequencies within our environment.
If One is looking for a more personal healing session, Rev. Clare offers Metaphysical Consultations, Higher-Self Groups and Talks. Metaphysical Consultations aim to realign One with their Soul Purpose. Individuals who stray from their own Divine path will feel out of sync and may experience symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress, and unhappiness.
Metaphysical Consultations unblock stagnant, negative energy and allow the energy to flow freely within the body bringing a new sense of inner peace. By highlighting areas where individuals need to focus on, it is possible to make small changes in order to enjoy the flow of life. Rev. Hinsley is an approachable, heartwarming, Metaphysical Minister with the ability to heal individuals and instil them with the confidence to deal with everyday life situations as they occur.
When one comprehends how to adapt to new experiences, the greatness of an inquisitive perspective towards the future begins. Working with positive spiritual energies, Rev. Hinsley achieves a pure, non-medicated, approach to healing while addressing the root cause of the issue.
Rev. Hinsley focuses on philosophies and practices from Eastern, Native American, Shamanic, ancient Egyptian, and Western origins. This knowledge is adapted and verbalised in a way which allows any individual to find the benefit within their own lives.
Upon examining one’s own existence it is possible to increase one’s connection with their instinctive side, while teaching how to overcome and avoid negative external influences. Consultations can be done in person or on Zoom. Currently residing in Wiltshire, United Kingdom, Rev. Hinsley is eager to promote the incredible benefits of Metaphysics on mental and physical health.
As a member of the International Metaphysical Ministry, all consultations are without bias or judgement as well as fully confidential. From a child, Dr. Hinsley had undeniable mystical abilities. During her teenage years, she followed a socially acceptable path which led her into engineering. She worked for a main stream automotive manufacturer, designing engines, until her late 20’s when she became a full time mother of two boys.
Once the boys were of school age she returned to the engineering field, which she enjoyed. Throughout her life she contained a deep felt need to focus on her mystical abilities in order to help others. It was then that she found herself drawn to studying Metaphysics and her abilities really started to shine.
Dr. Hinsley received her Bachelor of Metaphysical Science, B.Msc., and her Master of Metaphysical Science, M.Msc., from the University of Metaphysics. Her book The Happiness Warrior – Finding Your Instinctive-Self within Western Civilization has now sold in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
Be it Metaphysical Consultations, paper, canvas, wood, commission work, or Orgone, Rev. Clare aims to instil the highest vibrations into all her creations and work.
Karen L French is a best selling author on sacred geometry, with widespread acclaim for popularising complex concepts and themes. An artist and game designer as well as an author, she utilises her knowledge in her own transformative artworks and designs. Through her books, art, games and talks, French enjoys sharing the inherent possibilities of numbers, shapes and colours to effect very personal changes in spirituality and self-development practices.
She has a Joint Honours degree in Mathematics & Management Sciences and an MSc in Management Sciences, both from the University of Manchester, UK. French has a life long passion for understanding and interpreting recurring patterns and symbolism. In her early career Karen spent many years in international marketing, during which time she was published on several occasions.
THE GATEWAY SERIES
Gateway to the Heavens and The Hidden Geometry of Life have become international classic texts. Central to each book in the Gateway Series is the Gateway, a geometric symbol comprising of the fundamental geometric shapes and principles. The Gateway can be used in a variety of ways to describe and explore our relationship physically and spiritually within perceived reality.
Throughout history humans have looked for order and patterns in our surroundings and the stars in our quest to understand our purpose in life. Over many generations humans have discovered that sacred geometry holds the key to the mysteries of the universe, both in science and spirituality.
Gateway to the Heavens: Spiritual messages hidden in the sacred geometry shaping reality
In Gateway to the Heavens Karen investigates these geometrical mysteries and explains the purposes of geometric shapes that are the unchanging, building blocks of reality, such as time and space. She reveals their hidden messages as ever-present signs and symbols that commune with our hearts and souls, guiding your spiritual pathway. She shows you how these have been consistently represented through numerous media across the Ages, in all cultures. Karen also teaches you how they have a direct bearing on you and why you are here. Also, why this knowledge can facilitate the expansion of your conscious awareness of reality.
The Hidden Geometry of Life: Alchemy of creation blending sacred geometry, light, sound, the elements & intent
Delve into the creative process, into the heart of existence and its composition of geometry, energy of light, vibrant colours, and the Classical Elements of water, fire, earth and air. Wonder at how nature exploits all these things in her myriad of creations. Discover how sound carries the geometric code in its waves of vibration that activate, energise and change as it moves through all of Her creations.
When light, sound and the Classical Elements are incorporated into the Gateway to the Heavens the vibrant Gateway to Becoming model is established, summarising the alchemical creative process. When imbued with intent the latent power of this model is formidable.
This knowledge of the alchemical creative process has been known about and harnessed down the Ages. Our ancestors understood the powerful effects gained with the use of specific intent in their spiritual creative practices, such as temple design, use of mandalas, magical sigils, design of fetishes and even body art.
Our ability to be creative is a truly incredible faculty. So is our resourcefulness as we employ the myriad of Nature’s materials around us in our own resourceful endeavours. Our creativity as a science blended with spirituality invokes the alchemical fusion of materials, light, sound, mathematics, symbolism and the power of intent to produce living works of art.
Further books in The Gateway Series will be following soon. They will provide potent applications that utilise the summary content of these first two primary texts.
Find Karen L French’s books on Amazon, The Great British Bookshop, Waterstones, via good book shops, as eBooks and from Karen’s website.
TRANSFORMATIVE ART
When creating her artwork Karen clears her mind, even meditating, before selecting a canvas and materials. Every piece has an element of order and chaos to it, but these are not predetermined. Colours choose themselves as the work progresses. Using mixed media and specific materials, such as ground crystals or metallic leaf, includes an additional layer of vitality. Sacred geometry always features and provides the main message of the piece, while the colours indicate emotions or aspects of the human experience the geometry relates to. Karen also draws geometric symbols and light language on the back of the artwork to activate it.
Karen’s intention is to convey the effect of transformative alchemy using spiritual art for a personal perceptual experience. This art is an alchemical mix, where the intent, process, tools, materials and symbolism are essential ingredients of the overall piece. Much like yantras and mandalas Karen’s pieces are tools for connecting into with your Mind for receiving healing, guidance and inspiration. Transformative alchemical art can even change the viewer in some way, physically, subconsciously, or emotionally. Through symbolism the timeless, boundless and formless are made concrete as images to explore reality.
You can view Karen’s art in her galleries on her websites.
Message Karen directly if you are interested in buying her original artwork.
Cards and prints can be bought via her website or from ThumbNail Media.
GAMES
Karen L French has created several board and card games based on sacred geometry and symbolism, both for spiritual practice and also traditional family fun. Her first one is being released soon with Liminal 11 publishing. More will follow.
Since 2008 Karen has travelled extensively in the UK and parts of the USA, promoting my books and art through various events, talks, workshops, TV/ radio interviews and articles, etc. As geometry and symbolism is embedded in every culture and discipline she is privileged to meet a wide cross- section of people.
Thank you to everyone for your support of my work over the years. It is really appreciated!
All human beings contain an inner scientist and an inner artist, in varying degrees and forms. The scientist in us seeks evidence, hard facts and rational frameworks. The artist in us seeks nonverbal means of expression and connections with aesthetics and sublimity. My life has involved an ongoing attempt to find a balance of these, and to use them together to inform my spiritual development.
I would argue there is typically more balance between these two aspects of human nature in childhood than there is in adult life. For example, my daughter Leila is 7, and her school education includes a balanced mix of reading, writing, factual learning, art, music and physical education. This mix is almost universal across education systems; it is broadly understood that for children to be well-rounded and happy, they need art, music and movement as well as intellectual learning. When children express themselves through all of these, they cultivate the many sides of their being, like a diamond refracting light through every plane, and this is vital for their development.
The word holy comes from the Latin word holus, which means whole, and by being in touch with all sides of their nature, children express their natural holiness. Children don’t need spirituality bolted on to this, for they are spiritual enough already when expressing themselves in this multifaceted way. It is of relevance, in relation to this, that a recent major study found that mindfulness meditation was not helpful for schoolchildren. This didn’t surprise me at all – I think that art, music and sport are the ways that children can be fully present. They don’t need meditation, and if anything it may inhibit their natural spontaneity.
While the idea that children should have a balance of art, music, intellect and exercise in their life remains widely held, the idea that adults need such a balance is more rarely grasped. The transition to adulthood typically involves a funnelling of activity into specific channels. As young people transition to university or work, life comes to be dominated by work, which in turn can lead to a narrowness of being that is in notable contrast to the range of expressive modes available to children. I venture that not many young adults maintain a healthy balance of art, physical exercise, music and intellectual work, but many may feel called to get it back. It is at this time in the life cycle that many people start to explore what it means to lead a spiritual life in ways that extend beyond the conventions and dogmas of established religion. The psychologist Fowler referred to this as the individual-reflective stage of faith development.
Reflecting on my own life, as I moved into a career after university, my life was imbalanced, and this needed fixing. In the rush to be a ‘success’ in academic and work pursuits, my passion for art that defined much of my life up to that point was getting little expression. I had lost my wholeness, and my mental health was suffering as a result. I did occasional art and movement workshops, as punctuation marks in an otherwise imbalanced life. If I was not in work, I was mostly either tired, drinking alcohol, or both. It took a lot of effort to shift my mindset out of that rather emaciated worldview and toxic lifestyle, and into something new.
For me, spiritual searching started in earnest at around the age of 25, and involved reading, art, music and movement. I read all kind of books that talked of different ways of encountering the spiritual or mystical, and how this connects to the post-Enlightenment scientific-philosophical culture. I found an organisation called the Art and Spirituality Network and went to a range of workshops that they ran in which visual media, movement and the spiritual quest were fused. I started practicing Five Rhythms, which is a spiritual movement practice, and I listened to music that I experienced as a whisper of the great mystery behind physical existence. I also started a folk band.
My thirties became an expression of that seeking effort, and the outcome was the writing of a book called Paths Between Head and Heart, about the complementary nature of science and spirituality. It was published when I was 39. My life now, as a forty something, is a pretty good balance between painting, music, intellectual work (I am an academic psychologist) and time in nature. There is room for improvement in the movement domain, and I’m working on that.
Why do I think music, art and movement practices are so important for mental health and the spiritual life? One central reason is that they provide ways of expressing ourselves, and interacting with reality, beyond the confines of word-based language.
Language provides us with a way of communicating and reasoning, but it is a limited sign system and can neither describe nor express the fullness of ourselves and the cosmos. If our means of expression becomes limited to words, we become a partial human, increasingly afraid of the portion of our being, and of reality at large, that cannot be captured in this way. It matters not how seemingly artistic a person is, it matters that they are active in non-verbal domains, exploring ineffable, non-linguistic ways of relating to the existence around us that lives without language – plants, animals and nature at large.
Such activities connect us to the numinous source of the known world. It is my belief that this source of the physical world is intelligent in ways that are beyond the capacity of the human to grasp. We can see evidence of this intelligence everywhere, but we can’t grasp its operations rationally any more than a fruit fly can make sense of human intelligence. Where understanding and discursive rationality fall short in the spiritual quest, the arts can step as ways of providing a sense of connection to the Great Mystery and a way of representing it in symbolic form.
I was born during the war and very early in my life had a sense of the Divine watching over me. My parents’ garden and early life in the New Forest fostered my relationship with the natural world and I fell in love with its sounds and scents.
I had visionary experiences and tended an altar next to my bed. I created small songs in my playing which was largely on my own. When I started the piano at seven, again I loved creating new pieces. The one I still have is called The Still Lake – an inspiration from the natural world.
I was taken regularly to church and can still sing much of the hymn repertoire by heart. As a teenager I encountered the Anglican choral tradition – singing in a classical church choir. These pieces did move me into another way of knowing – in the incredible white space of St Mary’s Southampton and the rich acoustics and the impressive organ.
At Oxford University I was responsible for chapel music; this in the end led to embracing the growing folk traditions in worship such as Sydney Carter who was then regarded as relatively radical with songs such as the now very familiar Lord of Dance.
My interest in the joining of spirituality with justice persisted in the heady days of working in Notting Hill just after the race riots. I became not only the writer of anthems (for women’s voices) but also folk songs with the five chords I had learned. In my repertoire, Bob Dylan rubbed shoulders with Estelle White and women who were finding their feet as song writers. I was in a community that wrote songs around current events – developing a spirituality born out of the injustices of that time.
In my teaching in schools, these traditions coexisted, and youngsters started writing their own material. My doctoral research included spirituality as an important part of the process. This research into children’s musical development was translated into five languages and I was delighted to explore this in lecture tours and in-service training. I received an MBE for my work in music and education.
I have published widely on music education, including an edited book on spirituality and music education. With the two children that I bore in my marriage I became fascinated by how connection was made with babies which engaged me using improvising chanting and creating material.
Following a serious illness, I entered the world of shamanism and the so –called New Age where I found a different spirituality filled with drums, rattles, journeys, chakras and general appreciation of resonance. Ideas of embodiment and dance often drawing on various drumming traditions filled this exciting world which opened up new areas within me. I was healed by this world of musicking, ritual, meditation and started to compose in a new style acknowledging systems such as chakras and energies in the natural world.
At this point my academic research took a new turn on the work of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) the medieval mystic and visionary – song writer, theologian, healer, and so on. I caught her connections between music and spirituality, and I started to perform pieces about her using her music around the world. It initiated many discussions of spirituality and gave me sufficient confidence to realise my own performing skills. I became a hymn writer, and my work is used internationally - a collection published by Stainer and Bell of inclusive language and ecological hymns – A Rainbow to Heaven.
Around this time there arose a massive interest in spirituality – in education, in religion, in business, in psychotherapy. I attended various groups and was fascinated about how they overlapped and yet were also distinct. As Professor of Applied Music at Winchester University and an Extra-ordinary Professor at North West University, South Africa I initiated arts projects especially those involving wellbeing with various groups of people.
These community arts events included interfaith dialogue through music. These continued on the ZOOM platform. Others included diverse people. Radical musical inclusion resulted in composed pieces for various cathedrals including professional musicians, community choirs, adults and children with learning difficulties and school children.
I began supervising research into music and spirituality in various contexts. I still lecture internationally on wellbeing, spirituality, and radical musical inclusion culturally and personally. I initiated a considerable series of books on music and spirituality for the publisher Peter Lang drawing on these diverse worlds and the experience of many people from five continents.
These include my own book, Experiencing Music-Restoring the Spiritual; Music as Wellbeing, the edited collection Queering Freedom: Music, Identity and Spirituality: Perspectives from Ten Countries and my own autobiography Freedom Song: Faith, Abuse, Music and Spirituality: A Lived Experience.
I founded MSW – Music, Spirituality and Wellbeing – an international network sharing expertise and experience in this area with members in five continents (website link below).
I became ordained as an Anglican priest with a desire to bridge the various worlds I inhabit in music and spirituality. I am now nearly retired from paid work but with more and more work in composing, performing, and writing and am exploring the resonance of the natural world through the digital technology of The Music of the Plants working with my friends in Living with Harmony and recording improvised music for meditation. I am moving further and further into this world. The visions, the chants, the liturgy, the rituals are brought together in new and (I hope) healing ways.
I am an Indian born New Zealand citizen who presents myself as an actor, author of ‘Seeking the Spirit Within’ and ’29 Seasons’. I came to New Zealand when I were 18 to pursue a BSc in Physics from the University of Auckland.
In 2018, I proudly received the ‘Award of Distinction’ at the Plain English Awards in Wellington, New Zealand and the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards in the same year. I have also featured in Riverside radio as a guest in London recently.
My passion for writing stems from my father who is himself a voracious reader and an eloquent writer. I learnt reiki healing at the age of 15. My love for the healing arts was introduced by my mother who is herself a Reiki Master.
My profound eclectic experiences in New Zealand led me to spiritualist practices such as shamanism and varied other healing modalities.
I also have had deep spiritual journeys in New Zealand with the acclaimed Medicine Woman program for spiritual seekers which led me to self-discovery and enhanced psychic abilities.
My other features include an excerpt in a book titled ‘Echo, Untitled III – page 48’.
One must look beyond the physical into the spiritual…
…which can only take place when one is receptive to all that is good.
In a melodramatic multidimensional world that we reside in, it has taken a potpourri of spiritual experiences to bring me to a point of summing up all that I have been exposed to in my spiritual book.
I was brought up in Hinduism all my 18 years of life, after high school, I moved to New Zealand which brought forth a whole new world of change. I made Christian friends in the university which thereby made me curious enough to imbibe Christian values and seek baptism in an ocean.
Once I got baptized at the age of 22 to a world of unknown, I became a staunch fanatic of new age Christianity. One afternoon, I was contemplating on the vagaries of life which made me feel melancholic about the way human life is limited in its potential. That was the day of Easter.
After the Easter church service, I was going back home when I felt the touch of the Holy Ghost in my spirit. That was the most surreal spiritual experience of my life so far. It purged me out of the dimmed lights of despondency and enlivened my spirits to the zenith. I was so ecstatic beyond words that I could never imagine I was even depressed a moment ago. The fire of the Holy Spirit was what touched my spirit within. I became jubilant, fiery, and overjoyed by this sudden breakthrough.
I wanted to immediately go preach the Gospel to all the ends of the world…I have never been happier and more exuberant in my life.
The touch of the Holy Ghost lasted for a week, almost keeping me wide awake at night with spiritual elation, it felt like nirvana.
The book sums up my eastern and western views as to what it takes to inculcate spiritual values that humans in a physical world take for granted.
The seven years of Christian life I led were interspersed with the excitement of a new life, new ways of living and worshipping, a whole new way of being and creating…albeit it lasted only so long due to other inferior and unforeseen circumstances.
In my heart of hearts today, I still pray to Jesus, but I have been exposed to Buddhism before I did become a Christian and all these vivid memories of who I was and who I aspire to be became somewhat mystical.
I believe in transcendence after all. The one supreme force that binds the mass and elementary particles of this universe together. The omniscient being that traverses its own course in this big wide star system. Although we are blinded by our ego to the point we ignore our inner truth or see ourselves for what we truly are, the laws of the universe are intricate and inescapable.
Karma has its own laws and what we need is a law-abiding force to be fair and square to each and every being. The whole human existence and the reasons behind our daily mundane life are like little stories that we co-create together. How good or bad a life is not always determined by our actions, but in a whole grand scheme of things, left to the universal forces of nature.
Sometimes, a mere mortal life seems mundane but intrinsic to the spiritual growth of a human life. The only way to break this monotony and seemingly endless problems in life is to meditate and become one with the Almighty.
Spiritual values such as love, kindness, bravery, compassion is all highlighted in my book that highlight the importance of becoming as pure as God, but in a mundane life, it can be challenging to imbibe such core values. My personal mantra is to do your best and be at your best and leave the rest to God. The good actions shall reap good rewards, whereas the bad deeds will sow what they reap. It is as simple as that.
Even our thoughts, our words have little karmic consequences which ultimately teach us to become better spiritual versions of ourselves. It Is the ego that separates us from the spiritual truth and all we need is an open mind and a receptive heart to understand the spiritual laws of the universe and attract the very best.
We would not take our wealth to the heavens, but it is only our actions and the consequences thereof that are counted when we return to heaven. Whatever good we have put in, will always come back in one form or the other, whether it is the current life or the next, but we must endeavour to always be good. God truly perceives every word, every action, every inaction, and every little detail that resides in us.
Founder Sarida Brown recalls the beginnings of Caduceus and, together with current editor Simon Best, remembers some special issues.
As I began to recall the early days, the reality of ‘Caduceus Journal’ flooded into my awareness as constellations of remarkable contributors, advisers and designers flowed through my heart’s memory.
Initiators, explorers, teachers and communicators of transformation in consciousness, healing, science, ecology, arts – all touched by the yearning to resolve apparent paradoxes into deeper/higher knowledge and unity, both in their particular fields and in service to humanity and the planet.
How did Caduceus start? In summer, 1985, I was on a 6-day, individual retreat, camping high in the French Alps, guided personally by Pir Vilayat Khan. On the last day he asked me to contemplate how I could serve in life. The answer came clear: to create a magazine about healing that represented all traditions, holistic and scientific, of all ages and regions (an innovative approach for that time); it was puzzling because I’d never written, nor edited, nor run any business.
New Year, 1986: a gathering of about eight friends at my Sufi guide, Rabia Joyce Purcell’s centre, Barton Farm in Bradford-on-Avon. Still puzzled, I recounted my guidance and the group said, ‘We’ll do it’. A wonderful designer, Charles Hill, offered to design a leaflet and the template. June, 1987, around a garden table at David Lorimer’s, Lyn Macwhinnie proposed the name Caduceus, in part because it denoted freedom from any specific group. I had no idea what a house editing style was, so editor Ian Macwhinnie designed one.I had no idea what a business plan was, so we managed without one – in pre-publication subscriptions we received exactly the amount needed for the first issue, which came out in August, 1987.
This was before computers: Carol typed the copy on a typewriter and Roy pasted columns and graphics onto pages to be photographed at the press. There was no Internet: people relied on us for information about leading edge topics and luminaries, courses, events and books.
Caduceus was soon valued for its pioneering exploration of themes that had been ignored or considered taboo. For example, in Issue 9, Leo Sides (a wonderful, heart-full man) broke through the silence about AIDS, at that time still a disease for which there was no medical alleviation or cure – Leo, and his friends, subsequently died of it.
Issue 13, Intuition. Issue 14, Dying – at that time, summer 1991, death was a no-go subject; the quality of articles and quotes are still riveting and relevant. Issue 18, Surviving and Transcending Abuse – again, definitely at the time an unmentionable subject. Issue 20, Birth. Issue 25, Anger. Issue 26, Love. His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote an article, World Peace, to celebrate our 50th issue (actually in issue 51). Issue 54 (Winter, 2001-2), The Spirit of Afghanistan. So many great contributors to honour, from all holistic fields. Issue 12 (Winter, ‘90-91) was our first colour cover, but it was not until no 65 (Winter, ‘04-05) that we produced our first, full-colour issue. Just before that, in 2002, we launched our website.
I called Caduceus Journal my dervish, who required that I stay awake at all hours, on many levels, giving me the richest dervish teaching. I feel awe at the privilege I have been given in this lifetime of editing Caduceus, gratitude to the spirit of Pir Vilayat who opened this opportunity for me, humility when I think of such wonderful people who have contributed to the Journal over the years, and admiration and deep appreciation for Simon, editor since 2006, for his skill, intelligence and dedication.
Simon Best
I took over the reins from Sarida with issue 67, after she had decided she wanted more time to pursue her other interests. At first it continued to be produced at her house in Leamington Spa, but in due course I carried on producing it from my then home in Midhurst, W Sussex.
Among some special issues, I recall issue 71, which highlighted tributes to Eileen Caddy, co-founder of the Findhorn community, among which were two articles by Mike Scott, of The Waterboys, who had lived next to her at Findhorn in the early days – and now here, in issue 100, also remembers Jay (p 5). No 71 also featured the stunning revelations of cymatics, which we have continued to cover in articles by pioneer John Stuart Reid.
EMR hazards are a long-term interest of mine and so have featured in many issues, including this one. Similarly, we have covered many health areas including vitamin D, iodine, raw milk, seaweed, cholesterol and statins, vaccines, Fukushima radiation and ozone therapy. Issue 97 was devoted to the latest theories and research into cancer, one of our most important issues. On the spiritual side, subjects have included Jesus’ family and its Glastonbury connections, Yogananda and Kriya Yoga, the warnings of the Kogi Indians, the mysteries of Rosslyn Chapel, sacred geometry, shamanism and the spiritual effects of sound and light.
The way forward
This issue is a watershed in many ways. When I took it over in 2006 its finances and prospects were buoyant but the ‘08/’09 recession undermined the situation significantly, as it did for many niche market publications. Some went online only to save costs, others simply ceased. Caduceus could have gone digital only, but readers made it clear that most preferred to read a print version. So, it continued in that form, but it came at a cost – letting go the advertising manager, subscriptions/diary secretary and other help. This was a struggle but I was determined to keep it going.
And so it has continued to be; we have no wealthy donors nor business sponsors, unlike some other publications. But the effort has finally culminated in this 100th issue which, with gathering the tributes to Jay, has involved a huge amount of time and work to make it one of our best issues to date.
But the way forward has to be to ask each reader to become more actively involved in helping to promote Caduceus if it is to survive and expand. This means asking you to promote it on all social media available to you. Caduceus has limited resources to promote itself online, but certainly wants and needs to increase its presence; this would be multiplied many, many fold if you, the reader, helped in as many ways available to you. After each issue Jay would email his entire network about it, which always resulted in new subscriptions. I would ask you to follow his example and do what you can to help Caduceus to thrive again.
Since writing the above in issue 100, we have covered many topics, up to the current issue, 108, that include: Sleep; Vitamin C preventing infant vax damage; Vitamin D benefits to prevent Covid (issue 104); glyphosate damage; Ivermectin treats Covid; Water (issue 106), including Deuterium-Depleted water to treat cancer, 4th Phase water, and Molecular Hydrogen health benefits; Spike protein detox, Importance of IR in sunshine, and Sadguru Sri Sharavana Baba (issue 107); Weaponizing the weather (issue 108), how the heart really works and the Open Air Factor.
Full current and back issue contents can be viewed on our website below and from the free, downloadable PDF under the Back Issues menu on the site. For more information on Caduceus please contact Simon Best on 01373 455260.
