Well, I don’t know how the Festive season crept up on us again, the past few months seem to have flown by and I’m mindful I’ve not been blogging for a while! So I’m just writing a catch up to let you know what’s been happening at Reiki Drum and also to wish everyone all the best of the season.
Since my last post I’ve been teaching lots of Reiki and Reiki Drum classes. We had some great ones in East Herts, South Wales and Suffolk, all well attended and adding to the growing numbers of Reiki Drummers around the UK (thanks to Linda Pollard and Jackie Stevens for helping me to organise these). I have also run several Reiki Drum Master Teacher classes and it’s wonderful to see the technique working its way around the country with new teachers who are inspired and wanting to share its magic with their own students. I am thrilled that Diana Malone has taken Reiki Drum over to Abu Dhabi and will be running courses there in the New Year. If any Reiki attuned individual in Dubai or Abu Dhabi reads this and would like to find out more, please contact me in the first instance. For those Master Teachers who are wishing to teach Reiki Drum, there are assessment days scheduled throughout 2011, but places are limited, so please book as soon as you are ready to avoid disappointment.
We also had a lovely Reiki weekend retreat in Suffolk at the marvellous Phoenix Centre back in October. Three days completely immersed in the Reiki teachings were just perfect with the teachings centred around Kuan Yin, and the Divine Feminine. I met some new Reiki friends and it was a joyous weekend, well supported by Spirit. Thanks to Trish Dent http://www.shiatsu-trish.blogspot.com/ we enjoyed a feast of macrobiotic vegetarian meals every day. I can really recommend the Phoenix Centre as a great place to run workshops and retreats, magic happens there! Next year I am running a Sound & Light retreat at the high vibrational Dev Aura in Lincolnshire 24th-26th June to celebrate the Summer Solstice and will be blogging more on this in the New Year (see Retreats section for details). Places are actually filling up for this retreat so if you are definitely interested in coming along, then please let me know. Another exciting event will be the Reiki Drum Share taking place 20th March for the Spring Equinox, more details to follow in January.
This year has been a year where I’ve really concentrated on updating my own skills and knowledge. I was blessed to spend ten days of inspirational teaching with Frans Stiene in Spain at the end of September, but the true blessing was the friendships I made with fellow European Reiki Masters, (I also picked up a few words of Dutch… always a bonus)! I have also thrown myself fully into my gong studies with Sheila Whittaker and enrolled on the College of Sound Healing’s Gong Practitioner course. Sound Healing really inspires me and I think it’s the perfect marriage when used with Reiki energy. This coming weekend I have the exciting opportunity to open up the throat chakra and attend three days of teachings by Jill Purce from the Healing Voice. We’re going to be concentrating on overtone chanting and other voice work. As a teaching Reiki Master I feel it is always necessary to continually update one’s own education so it can be shared with our students, and I endeavour to pass on the wisdom from all of these inspiring souls at my own workshops and retreats. I have sometimes discussed the financing of this study with other Reiki students. I have personally found that even when my finances haven’t been as shiny as I would have liked, the Universe ALWAYS provides when I have some form of spiritual or self development training in mind. The Universe wants us to improve ourselves and grow to the best of our abilities and so I always trust now when a course presents itself that will enhance what I do and can do for others.
We had a well attended and wonderful Samhain celebration and Reiki Share in East Herts at the end of October. I introduced aspects of the Remo HealthRhythms programme into the evening (always fun), we shared stories about loved ones passed and the Reiki Drum journey to meet up with our Ancestors was a powerful and moving experience. For those students who have trained with me in previous workshops, the next share will take place to coincide with Imbolc on January 31st 2011.
Perhaps one of the most joyous weekends was spent at the College of Sound Healing’s annual conference in November. Not only was it a lovely weekend of sound with lots of inspirational teachers (Professor Surinder Singh, Danu Fox, Steven Ash amongst many others), but I had the complete privilege to attend Bilal Lukele’s South African Chants & Rhythms workshop. As is always the case, the Universe guided me to this workshop for its own specific purpose (clever Universe!). Bilal had promoted the workshop as being a path to happiness and that and the rhythm aspect really appealed to me. What transpired was a complete surprise! Bilal was born in South African and due to his political beliefs was expelled from school as well as being one of the youngest people to be imprisoned by the apartheid regime. He was also hospitalised for four years in appalling conditions. He was told he would never walk again, but through his own strength of character he turned this around and made himself walk. His story during the workshop was one that many of us in the West can just not imagine and personally moved me to tears. The horrors he had endured as a prisoner and hospital patient at that time in South Africa are so far removed from the comfortable, safe lifestyles the majority of us in the UK enjoy. Despite these trials, Bilal comes across as one of the most joyous happy people you could wish to meet. At the end of his workshop I had to thank him. I’d been fixating on some perceived minor negative things in my life in the run up to the workshop and hearing Bilal speak reminded me of the “Just for Today Be Grateful” precept. I’ve blogged on it before but it’s very easy for us to forget exactly how much we do have to be grateful for. So my heartfelt thanks goes out to Bilal for that reminder.
Thank you to those amongst you who have purchased the “Reiki Drum – A Bridge Between The Worlds” CD. I’ve had some really positive feedback and it is lovely to hear that people can benefit from Reiki and the Drum in this way. There is still time to place an order for a copy should you wish to give a healing gift for the festive season.
For those of you who listen to radio, I’m going to be talking with Steve Shephard of Southern Spiritual radio tomorrow evening (Tuesday December 7th) at 20:40 on his Reiki Healing slot “Just for Today” Tune in if you would like to have a listen.
I am hoping to celebrate Yuletide and the Winter Solstice at Kanti’s Yule/Solstice Drumming evening at the Clophill Centre in Bedfordshire. Whatever you are doing this year to celebrate I hope it is a joyous and happy time spent with people you love, and let us all get excited about the joys that await us in 2011!
Course and Event dates for the first half of 2011
Reiki One Shoden – January 8 & 9, February 19 & 20, April 30/May 1
Reiki Two Okuden – January 15 & 16, March 26 & 27,
Reiki Masters Shinpiden – May 6-8
Reiki Drum East Herts – January 29 & 30, March 5 & 6, April 2 & 3, May 21 & 22
Reiki Drum Hampshire – February 26 & 27
Reiki Drum Master Teacher Assessment – February 17, May 20
Karuna Reiki® – February 4-6
Reiki Drum Share Day/Spring Equinox Celebration – March 20th
Sound & Light Retreat – 24-26 June
