March 4^th 2013 (Monday)

Tim’s back from his hols, on time and eager to share his pictures, his news and his tan. We arrived in time to find our seats taken by two new people, a young man and a young woman. The centre of the room was occupied with a beautiful display of flowers, candles and crystals. It looked beautiful and an air of excitement was already building.

As we settled into place Mary announce that Zoe would be taking the circle. We didn’t quite whoop, but were all very pleased. This would partly leave Mary free to attend to a new puppy she’s caring for till he can be found a new home. As he was scratching at the door we decided to bring him into the room.

We were only a couple of minutes into the opening prayer when he vomited on the carpet. I shan’t bore you with all the gory details but just suffice to say that it seemed to be coming out of both ends of him, and as he kept moving around he was leaving a trail which Mary was struggling to keep on top of.

It became obvious, even after liberal sprays of Febreeze, that we couldn’t work in the room. But there was an alternative. At the end of the garden at Oak House is a purpose built meditation shed. It would need a bit of heating but the general consensus was that we decanted down there instead. I had often seen it from the window but never really thought about it as a meditation space.

  It was decorated inside with pictures of Native Americans, dream-catchers, and other totems, with chairs already laid out in a circle. It took only ten minutes with a couple of very efficient heaters to get it warm enough for us to re-convene. Without Mary, who decided she would stay and attend to the ailing puppy, we began with a prayer for its healing.

The focus of the session was to concentrate on each of the seven of us in turn to get message from spirit for a) our spiritual development and b) our everyday life.

It must be a measure of the frequency of my participation in these groups that I’m much more relaxed about accepting what comes into my head; skiing in Mount Blanc, a motor bike, one member putting down a crutch and walking away from it, another dressing up in a blonde wig while still another reaching for the salt to add to her meal then changing her mind. All of these things meant something to the people for whom I’d got the messages.

The messages I was given all centred around writing, having more fun, and being protected by spirit. One in particular saw me with a shield against which toy arrows were being aimed, but were just bouncing off. As this was related to writing I took it to mean that I’d be able to cope with any criticism of my work. This was an important message for me because I really struggled with one of the stories I had to write last week. At the back of my head was the thought of how it would be received by my community, some of whom could well see me as naive at best and a traitor at worst.

Unfortunately, given the late start and the individual nature of the messages, we ran out of time for Zoe to do another trance demonstration. I was really hoping for this, as she says sometimes when its dark enough people have actually seen the guide overlaid over her face. We had the right lighting conditions but alas no demonstration.

The two new people are very experienced, and I do hope they keep coming.

And the puppy? Apparently he’d eaten a whole tub of fish food that had fallen onto the floor. He was fine once it had all come out.