January 7 2013  (Monday)

The Christmas decorations had been cleared away, a very refreshed and relaxed Mary opened the door and wished me and a friend I’d brought along, Happy New Year. We all had stories to tell, mine was that the most significant thing that happened to me linked to the last session.

Although I’d intended to take a break between the end of Never On Sunday, (my third novel which I sent out to readers on the 20^th of December) and beginning the new parenting book on the 7^th January, I felt driven to begin the Friday before New Year. As the structure unfolded and the characters began to form I realised that I needed a ‘super’ person or thing to deliver some important messages to parents and children. As I pondered this I called a friend to talk it through with her.

‘How about using an animal?’ she asked.

‘Animal?’ she wasn’t getting it. Whatever I use needed to come through the air.

‘Yes, you could use the qualities of the animals to show what qualities the parents needed at that particular time.’

It was a brilliant idea but it needed to be something that came through the air like a… butterfly.

I suddenly understood the significance of the butterfly showing up so often on the web and in the cards. (See Blog entry 1 Giving In) Although my friend suggested the eagle (to aggressive) and the owl (only comes out at night not so readily visible) I knew, that kind of knowing that comes from somewhere inexplicable that it was the butterfly. Interestingly since that day I haven’t got the butterfly card or picked it out on the web.

There was a new face and a missing one from the previous session. This time it was my friend who had to introduce himself, and he was equally warmly welcomed. The prayer was for a joyous 2013 and the meditation about forgiveness, about finding peace though forgiveness, which would have been right at home in A Course In Miracles.

The exercise was getting messages from tea leaves, a practice that’s been dying out with the advent of tea bags. However, Mary made a big pot of tea with loose leaves and those of us who didn’t want to drink it simply swirled our cup around three times, tipped out the fluid and attempted to get messages for our partners from the shape of the leaves in the cup.

Initially I was paired with my friend, two novices who also knew each other was not a great combination, and although I could see the shapes of countries in the leaves I believed I was making it up, because I knew he wanted to travel. I could also see a bull and a lady and thought that perhaps he would go to Spain (later we agreed he may meet a Taurean woman).

Anyway we swapped and I had to read for someone I didn’t know. It took a while before I was confident enough to try to describe what I was seeing, partly because she was so accurate with things from my cup. Lots of birds and aeroplanes, a Statue of Liberty, palm trees, and again many more things that made sense then that I’ve forgotten now. The problem was that we were trying to read for each other at the same time and I was so busy trying to make sense of her leaves that I couldn’t concentrate on what she was saying to me.

Anyway, I found myself asking her if she had a garden that needed work doing on it, whether her husband helped and when she affirmed he did I told her he needed to lighten up a bit and not take himself so seriously. I saw that she had a project that she would begin and would think at some point that it wasn’t working, but that she should continue because it would become part of something bigger. I saw her walking away from a flaming building toward a figure, and knew that she needed to walk away from an old flame who would be happy for her to stay. Se nodded confirmation. I also saw but could not interpret the Tarot card 9 of Pentacles, which Sam or resident Tarot specialist interpreted as using her inner knowing in a project she was beginning, that her success would be based on something only she knew.

I think, given more time, I would have become more confident at interpreting what the pictures meant, instead of just describing them. I think I need to develop an understanding of the symbolism of the pictures. Even as I write this I heard a voice in my head say ‘what you need to do is move yourself out of the way and allow the words to come.’

Here’s my question. If you’ve experienced this, how long did it take you to trust what came out of your mouth and not doubt it?

My friend discovered he’s very sensitive. After many years of scepticism he was like a mirror image of me the week before – dazed. I took him home and fed him chocolate biscuits and sweet tea to ground him. He’s definitely going again.