Recently, Jeff Lilly of Druid Journal did a reading on the meaning of my name. My name and I have a long history not all of it so harmonious! It all started when we researched our names in the school library in 9th grade.

My full name at the time was Paula Jean Ambrose…which roughly means, “Little, God is Gracious or Gift of God and Immortal.” At this age I was more about feeding my ego however, than truly seeking to understand where I fit in with the “little, or small” translation of Paul.

The meaning of Paul irritated me because physically, I was the furthest thing from being “small” and the paradox of this grated against me to such a degree that I decided to create my own version of the meaning by moving my last name forward in the sequence to create, “Little, Immortal, Gift of God”. This was pleasing to the side of me that was angry about being big yet couldn’t stand to be small

Of course, the mismatch I felt regarding the meaning of my first name did not go by unnoticed by my peers. At fourteen, my already (5’7″ built German-tough) frame seemed better suited to football than modeling…a fact that everyone seemed compelled to point out to me, and actually sometimes still do come to think of it! LOL!

But here, hidden within the name I didn’t like…was an aspect to my Nature, that as Jeff would later uncover and point out to me, is one of the great gifts of my Soul.

Jeff, through his name reading, was able to dig deeper into the name energetically and I must say that my understanding of my name and gratitude for it has really grown! Thanks Jeff!

Paula is the feminine form of Paul, and dates back to Latin. Paul was a Roman surname, and meant literally “small”; it is related to paucity, pauper, few, and even foal. The phonosemantic meaning of Paul, like the peal of a bell, is of Source energy arising from a point and speading to fill a volume. As this is your first name, this is your public face, your social role.

I don’t know your middle name; but in my experience this name is frequently more inward-looking, a more personal name. It’s also often related to the name of one of your guides. For example, my middle name is Paul (and there are no coincidences, Paula!), and I have frequent contact with Apollo, and (according to Slade) my primary guide’s name is Paul also.

The name Kawal, as a last name, is related to the spiritual energy wrapped up in your ancestral guides. Now, I don’t mind telling you I had a pretty tricky time coming up with the origin of Kawal. It’s a name found in Japanese, Hindu, and Arabic, but I think it most likely that your name comes from Polish Kawal, which in modern Polish can mean either “chunk, piece. part” or refer to a sort of conspiratorial practical joke. The “piece” meaning is older, and is more likely the source of the name. Spiritually it is a balanced, even energy that emerges from confinement and, with an act of will, spreads out into space.

I note that both of these names reflect expansion, volume, and light energy. It is the name of someone on an extraordinary journey!

Jeff pinpointed many things that resonated deeply for me in his reading. My last name changing to my married name heralded a time of extreme evolution for me and in many ways amplified my budding spiritual talents…strengthening what was hidden in my first name all along…a connection with energy, a point of emergence and expansion.

This actually speaks to the healing and intuitive work that I do as well, as I focus intently on Divine Light and expand it out until I can not only see the way my client operates but can actually bring those operations to a place of expansion within them. So in a nutshell he was able to use my name to see and help me to become even more conscious of the spiritual gift that has influenced me the most throughout my life.

Also Jeff’s research is top-notch. Kawal is a difficult name to place, a mystery to even my husband’s family and up till Jeff threw his hat in the ring, all attempts to research it came up short of any satisfactory translations. If you would like to have him read your name, simply click here to go to his site

Thanks Jeff…and Namaste!

I haven’t done a tarot reading for myself in ages…so the other day I decided to whip out the cards with the idea of getting a larger picture of my current growth and development.  I went into the presence and drew three cards as follows:

The Queen of Cups

The first was the queen of cups; dreamy and contemplative, she is the very image of one who walks between the worlds. She is the stable aspect of the element of water. The still pool, deep well, the cup, the cauldron and the depths of ones own psyche. The well of the Soul that leads to our own inner mysteries.

She also embodies feminine power, exerting a seductiveness that has nothing to do with physical beauty but rather a beauty that radiates out from within…the beauty of a well developed spirit.

She is the mystery of emotions and the subconscious mind and she will reflect to you your inner-most desires and fantasies.

She calls us to discover our own depths and bring forth new qualities from within. She advocates an active and healthy inner life, exploring and experiencing feelings and information from beyond the exterior senses, demonstrating how life is enriched by learning to trust our intuition and spiritual gifts.

The Six of Cups (Reversed)

This one was interesting to me. The traditional meaning of this card indicates an absolute refusal to let go of the past. It is the clinging to old traditions, past glories and successes that prevents any achievement in “the now” for fear of not being able to compare.

My guides however told me that the card was chosen for its imagery and to look closely at the symbolism. As I gazed upon the empty cups I got an entirely different meaning…it was one of letting go and emptying out as it applies to learned information. Let me explain.

There are several stages of learning, take driving a car for example. First, there is unconscious incompetence; this is the time when you are not even aware that you do not know how to drive. Second, is conscious incompetence; at this point you begin to understand that this is something you don’t know how to do. Third, is conscious competence; this is where you learn how and can do it, however you are having to work at it. Fourth, is unconscious competence, this is when you are driving, talking on your cell phone and applying make-up all at the same time! (Just kidding) the point is that driving is now an unconscious skill, something you can do automatically without thinking about it.

My guides gave me the meaning through the symbolism of the card, that this was about emptying out and surrendering control. It is this leap of faith and trust that creates an opening for unconscious competence to occur

The Two of Wands

This card is the warrior armed with the courage of his/her convictions. I was not at all surprised to draw this card as in my last post I mentioned the presence of the Archangel Michael and this card had his energy all over it!

It is the dedication, willpower and hard work it takes to bring an idea to fruition. This card is also about pushing out personal boundaries and venturing beyond comfort zones. It is choosing risk over security in order to have the chance of knowing what you are truly capable of.

Overall Understanding

This tarot meditation spread spoke to me on many levels all at once. On the surface it is pretty obvious that I am working on going deeper to reveal more of my spiritual gifts and talents, that trust and surrender is required by my current growth and that this involves pushing my comfort zones and will require a high level of devotion to rework my personal boundaries.

On the deeper level I get that this is connected to my awakened healer; emptying the past, trust and surrender are required as that part of me has suffered greatly through past life experiences and of course, all of this…is going to and already has made me quite uncomfortable!

However these are the lessons before me in order to have full access to my heart chakra.  Since understanding and working with this energy center in my body is the next step on along my Highest Path and Purpose, it’s very cool that a spread like this in the Tarot can give me so much information on how to move through this process!

Share Your Experiences with the Spread!

Have you had any interesting tarot experiences that you’d like to share? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments section of this post! We look forward to hearing them and examining how our Guides like to use the cards

(Images are from The Sacred Circle Tarot by Anna franklin and Paul Mason)

Have you ever found yourself in the completely unexpected situation of realizing that being aware of our intuition and being compelled to act upon it can be two different things?

Awareness for some is enough to change behavior but for others something more is needed…as many people are aware of their intuitive responses and are still unable to follow them.

Why would that be?

In any situation in life, we have several possibilities and/or choices in front of us. The choices that we pay the most attention to are the ones that we perceive to be the most significantly linked to our needs and wants (as in general this determines what people value).

For many people developing their intuitive abilities, intuition is not yet linked to anything, so while they can see it, they can’t really perceive it as a choice. This due to how our brain categorizes our experiences.

Categories and Experiences

When we make the decision to develop our intuitive abilities, we reach success by engaging a process that creates an awareness of our intuition and how we personally experience it. This is what allows us to cue into prompts from our Higher Selves, Angels and Spirit Guides.

The first step of this process involves creating a space (or category) within ourselves that houses our criteria for intuition. We then sort through our experiences (matching this criteria to the memories that fit) and place them into our category of intuition. This in essence, gives us an awareness of how we experience intuition. It tells us what to look for so that we can identify when we are having an intuitive experience.

Going through this process allows us to discover (now that we are clear about what we are looking for) that the voice of our intuition has always been there in the background, it was simply running outside of our conscious awareness because we had no framework in place through which to internally reference it.

As we go along with this new reference point of intuition clearly defined, we add more experiences to our category and it gets larger…expanding our view of our intuitive responses to life.

So how do we link our intuition to our values so that we can see it as a viable choice?

One of the best ways to do this is to watch what we are attending to when we are faced with making a choice. We are almost always attending to one of three things, the cause & effect of making the choice, what it means to make the choice or what the relationship is between our behavior and the choice. The following questions are useful in determining what we are paying attention to:

1. Cause & Effect – What do I believe listening to my intuition can/will make happen in this situation?
2. Meaning – What does it mean about me to make the decision of listening to my intuition?
3. Relationship – What is the relationship between using my intuition and the situation I’m thinking of?

Once we know what we have been paying attention to that is preventing us from being able to act, we can quickly re-frame the experience so that we are now paying attention to something that allows us some freedom and mobility within our thoughts about being intuitive.

Our thoughts about the situation will tell us exactly what our brains are looking for, and where the links to our intuition that carry the most impact, can be made.

For example, Cause and Effect:
Lets say I’m getting the intuitive impulse to start a business and my immediate thought is that all new businesses fail…this is a generalization that would make my intuition hard to follow but my mind is telling me exactly where to go here.

So I would challenge this assumption with. Since new businesses often fail, you want to be sure that your business is a success.

This structure is very different and invites me to explore my intuition rather than ignore it.

Example # 2, Meaning:
If I think listening to my intuition to open a new business is irresponsible, I’m not likely to want to align myself with this idea because it is most likely against my value system to be irresponsible.

I could serve myself much better by saying, Since opening a new business is a large responsibility, gathering information intuitively gives me a larger pool of knowledge through which to make the best business decisions possible.

Example # 3, Context:
If I’m thinking that using intuition in (business situations) means people won’t like me, then I might stop myself from accessing my intuition in these situations in order to avoid isolation.

A good re-frame would be, So using intuition in business makes you think that people won’t like you, but your intuition is often very useful in creating connectedness with your friends.

All of these responses start to link our intuition with valued resources. In the above scenarios these resources were represented as success, responsibility and connection with others.

The more we link our intuition to the things that we value in life, the easier it is for us not only to access but also to act upon and the stronger a resource it becomes!

Image Credit

When I was twelve, through the book Dragons of Autumn Twilight, I was introduced to the wonderful world of Krynn, a place where magic…real magick was as natural as breathing for the inhabitants. To some it was a reason for being, for others it was something to dislike or mistrust. Despite these differences however, it was acknowledged by all as a channel of power that flows into and shapes the material world.

If I am to be completely honest, though I would have to admit that my interest in magic began even earlier, while still in grade school. At a young age I developed a hunger for fairy tales, especially those involving magic (of which there were many to choose from).

My favorite movies all involved magic; the Neverending Story, Labyrinth, the Dark Crystal, the Secret of Nihm, the Hobbit, Willow and the Last Unicorn just to name a few.

Like the characters of these stories, I longed for my initiation to begin, to cross paths with some wise wizard and be drug helplessly into the arms of adventure…

At some point I became convinced that there was a part of me that did not belong here on earth but came instead from some other world or plane and that because of this, I had brought something with me that was trying to awaken, if I just knew who I really was…where I came from…I could find it.

I wondered when my teacher would appear.

Words began take form and develop within me with such velocity that I could feel their truth. It was a phrase that I dared utter only within the shelter of my most sacred internal spaces:

Life IS magic…

While I didn’t understand this completely, I felt the loss of my soul’s sorcery quite deeply and a portion of my being mourned it quite literally. I felt as if I had been unintentionally dumped in an alien plane in which the life blood of everything was missing.

Never mind that this sense of displacement was actually true, when looked at from the perspective of a star-traveler soul!

The idea of being alone in this way caused me to panic and I frantically pawed at life searching for the corridor to the place from which I came and where my hungry soul could drench its thirst and feel the magic, the breath of life itself, course through my veins.

Alas it seemed that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a way to physically leave…and believe me, I tried vehemently to will myself home or to another realm that seemed a close match as I didn’t know what or where home really was! I never realized just how close I was coming during my astral travel and in my dream space…to doing just that!

No Satisfaction

With this dynamic playing in the background my teen-aged years became a completely frustrating time. The mentors I was looking for never showed up in the small town I lived in…a place where (back then) you would be very hard pressed to find a metaphysical bookstore. There weren’t even these sorts of sections in the larger bookstores in the one mall our town and the surrounding area possessed…so I poured over fantasy books for clues devouring all things at my disposal that just might reveal some sort of teaching…anything even remotely close to what I was looking for was closely examined. It wouldn’t be long though…before the adventure found me.

Until it began in a recognizable way however, I was alone with this quest that I dared not speak for fear that others, when they realized I was serious, would label me insane. Rather than endure the lectures that would follow, I kept silent…and so I held my secrets very close to my heart.

The Unfolding of My Secret Heart

Those of you who read this blog, know that I have absolutely no such fears now…I know my magic and how to express it!

I am in constant contact with the life-blood I was seeking and know how to shape and mold the world before me. I actually consider my profession to be very magical

My tools are a bit unconventional by the standard of some. Not everyone believes that the way you breath can change the world, or that our souls and unconscious parts can talk, that everything in this world is a reflection of the Divine, or that energy is more real that what we often term reality…and that what we think to be unchangeable is actually very fluid in Nature and is simply responding to our expectations…but I digress.

A School of Wizardry

I am tempted now toward wondering how it might have looked if I had found a secret school of magic during that delicate time? What if I could have attended a school of esoteric studies? What might life have looked like?

Well, I think it would have looked something like the Grey School of Wizardry!

Below is a letter from HeadMaster Oberon Zell-Ravenheart in which he explains how this school of magic came about.

Esoteric Education: Restoring the Wonder
By Oberon Zell-Ravenheart
Headmaster, Grey School of Wizardry

Once, not too long ago . . . education was considered a rare privilege to be earned or granted, a goal to achieve, a dream to fulfill. Schools were seen as repositories of esoteric knowledge that would unlock the keys to the universe, and the secrets to success. Scholars were held in the highest esteem by all members of society. What we take for granted today was once considered a cherished opportunity to be strived for at any cost. Consider this: less than a century ago, women in traditional European Jewish culture (which prides itself on education and scholarship) were not even allowed to learn how to read! And many women today in traditional Moslem and Hindu societies are still not allowed the “luxury” of literacy. Indeed, throughout most of human history, education—even the basic ability to read, was limited to a small and privileged class of literati. Now, at least in America—it is available to everyone, and anyone.

Did you know that 60% of American high school graduates cannot find their own country on an unmarked globe of the world? These same graduates think cave men lived with dinosaurs! Indeed, there is a deliberate anti-intellectual and anti-educational current running through our entire country, which is even influencing the outcome of national elections! Pop Culture has supported disdain for education; How did a terminally depressing song—“The Wall,” by Pink Floyd, with the refrain, “We don’t need no education”—become the hit of a decade, and the theme song of an entire generation?

I have always had an obsessive love of learning. I want to know everything! As soon as I learned to read, at about age two, I began to devour every book and magazine in the house. When I visited friends, I’d spend my time just reading the books on their shelves. My reading compulsion even extended to the fine print on cereal boxes! The first time I saw the inside of a library, I was agonizingly torn between sheer delight at the vast number of books available to me, and utter dismay at the realization that I could never possibly read all of them. My own personal library today has several thousand treasured volumes—many of them dog-eared from frequent consultation. And I am constantly obtaining more, and reading them. When I’m not actually writing, I’m usually reading.

Unlike many of my friends when I was growing up, I passionately loved school. I could hardly wait ‘til summer vacation ended and I could return to classes, armed with fresh questions for my teachers from my summer of reading everything I could get my hands on about everything that interested me. When I wasn’t actually in class, I spent as much time as possible in the public library, and was on a first-name basis with the librarian, who would always set aside new arrivals in my favorite areas for me. In high school, I served as a teacher’s assistant in biology, edited the school literary journal, published a student newspaper, was very active in the Latin and chess clubs, and had a major role in every school play. And I continued most of these activities and involvements all through college.

I have spent most of my life in learning and teaching. When in college I read A.S. Neil’s Summerhill, B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two, and learned of Maria Montessori’s schools. After receiving a BA from Westminster College in Pre-Med, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, I shifted my interests to Developmental Psychology and Education, entering the graduate program in Clinical Psychology at Washington University, and earning a Teacher’s Certificate at Harris Teacher’s College. My first post-graduate job was with the newly-launched Head Start program, and I served as a public school teacher and school & family counselor for several decades.

Student Attitudes

Oprah Winfrey said this about why she chose to build a new school in South Africa rather that in the US: “I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn’t there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers.” (Newsweek, Jan. 8. 2007)

From my own observations growing up in public schools, college and university, and from working many years as a teacher, one simple fact became overwhelmingly clear at all levels: Most students hated school! They only attended because it was compulsory. They did everything they could to get out of actually studying, from watching TV and not doing homework as kids, to partying all night in college. Their interests centered around their friends and relationships, not around actually learning anything. Many of them barely scraped by, some by cheating (often in elaborately creative ways), and many simply dropped out as soon as they could. When I was in high school, one of the most popular songs proudly proclaimed:

Don’t know much about history Don’t know much trigonometry
Don’t know much biology Don’t know much about algebra
Don’t know much about a science book Don’t know what a slide rule is for.
Don’t know much about the French I took (Sam Cooke, “Wonderful World,” 1958)

So what was wrong with all these U.S. schools? How is it possible that generations of students could come away from classes in history, science, geography, literature, foreign languages, and mathematics feeling bored out of their skulls—believing that these were terminally dull subjects with no relevance whatsoever to anything they considered important in life? How could such fascinating studies as natural history, evolution, astronomy, cosmology, geology, archaeology, paleontology, anthropology, psychology, sociology, biology, and all those other wonderful “logies” fail to engage the interest of young minds—even in the passionate era of the ‘60s?

How can students and their families sit idly by, unprotesting, as “controversial” books and essential topics of study are systematically removed from their school libraries and classrooms by illiterate religious fundamentalists and corrupt politicians?

In lamenting the sorry state of our public schools, and the many failures in our American educational system, analysts have blamed just about everything—television, video games, teachers, parents, the home, society, politics, lack of funding, and “the younger generation.” And all of these may indeed be factors. But few seem to have considered that perhaps the entire concept of education as it is presented today may be fundamentally at fault.

And I think this is the core of the problem. School and education is no longer viewed by students, or the public, as something special, something to aspire to. Learning is seen more as a distasteful and onerous drudgery, akin to working in a factory (as in that Pink Floyd song). Something one must do, perhaps, but hardly as something one would want to do. This is clearly, an untenable situation for public education.

Harry Potter and the X-Men

And then (drum roll) along came Harry Potter! After numerous rejections by short-sighted publishers who couldn’t imagine any reader interested in stories taking place in a school, Scholastic Inc. had the good sense to publish J.K. Rowling’s delightful Harry Potter series, and the rest is history. The Harry Potter books have become the biggest-selling books of all time. With seven novels and movies, and more toys, games, clothes, ancillary books, and other tie-ins and spin-offs than you can wave a wand at, Harry Potter is the greatest literary phenomenon ever known.

And here’s the truly important thing: These books are being most eagerly read by kids! Clearly something is happening here, and understanding it may be the key to an entirely new concept in education.

Every kid (and many adults as well!) who reads Harry Potter wishes that they could attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The very fact of its exclusivity makes it irresistible, to say nothing of the lure and wonder of forbidden and arcane knowledge it promises. Magic and Mysteries, spellcraft and sorcery, hidden history, secret societies, wands and wortcunning, bedknobs and broomsticks, bell, book, and candle, things that go bump in the night…everything that the mundane (“muggle,” in Rowling’s parlance) world doesn’t know about, or believe in. Hogwarts epitomizes all the reasons why Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are the most popular holidays of the year for kids (and many grown-ups!). Embracing the dark, rather than fearing it, is exhilarating and liberating!

Consider also the enduring popularity of the “X-Men” comics, Marvel’s best-selling series—which began publishing in 1962, and have spawned an ongoing animated TV series and three feature-length movies. As with the Harry Potter stories, the X-Men saga centers around a very special school for mutant misfits with various uncanny abilities and powers: “Professor Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Children.”

Mystique

Young people find the lure of secret societies and esoteric associations irresistible. They yearn to be on the “inside” of an exclusive group, to access forbidden knowledge and arcane secrets unknown to their parents and their contemporaries. “Knowledge is power,” they know, and “with great power comes great responsibility.” The enormous appeal of the classical “Hero’s Quest” in literature and films bespeaks its intense relevance to every adolescent. They identify with Harry Potter; Frodo Baggins; Luke Skywalker; Dorothy Gale of Kansas and Oz; Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy of Narnia—and every other young hero and heroine of every story, as they discover who they truly are, and what they are truly here for. For the Quest is always and ultimately to discover one’s own life mission and destiny.

And every Hero’s Quest story begins with a wise mentor figure—the “Wizard”—imparting crucial knowledge to the young hero that he or she must know in order to fulfill their destiny. And this is where the idea of a very special and exclusive school of mystical knowledge and arcane wisdom enters the picture.

One of the most learned men of all time, Confucius (551-479 bce), became the first private teacher in history. Such was his reputation, that people sought him out to teach their sons. Confucius took any student eager to learn, and along with the regular subjects, taught his personal wisdoms on developing responsibility and moral character through discipline.

In ancient Greece, (long acknowledged as the seat of philosophy and wisdom), the value of educating their children was recognized very early on, with some households engaging their own teacher. Through the first centuries ce, Roman families often had educated slaves to teach their children. (“Teaching Through the Ages:” http://historyeducationinfo.com/edu1.htm)

The first known school of philosophy (meaning “love of wisdom”) was Plato’s Academy in Athens, founded in 385 bce. Plato was Socrates’ greatest student. Later, in 335 bce, Aristotle opened his “Peripatetic” philosophical school at the Athens Lyceum. Other “Mystery Schools” were founded by Pythagoras and others.

In fact, all early schools and academies were really exclusive “Mystery Schools,” and in that very mystique lay their appeal.

In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church took charge of teaching the sons of nobility, entrusting that charge to monasteries or specially designated learning “centres.” Many of these centres evolved into the distinguished learning institutions of today, including Cambridge University, whose first college, St. Peter’s, was founded in 1284.

With the establishment of higher learning in the early 1700s, the curriculum of college preparatory and universities broadened considerably. However not all things were equal inside the schoolroom. In 1749, Ben Franklin’s concept of an academy of learning consisted of an English school and a Classical school. The Latin master had a title, and the English master had none. The Latin master made twice the salary, and the English master had twice the students.

High school, originally known as “terminal” school, came into existence in 1821, in Boston, for boys 12 years and older. Once more, law entered the educational fray, dictating that towns of over 500 families must have a high school with the prescribed curriculum. Towns with over 4,000 inhabitants were required to teach Latin and Greek, as well as other extra subjects.

Agriculture boarding schools enjoyed a very brief existence in the 1820s and 30s, having been established in the country to fulfill the needs of “idle and morally exposed” children from the city.

At the beginning of the 20th century, parents and the general public began to demand more practical and useful curriculums, and in so doing, may have helped elevate teaching to a respectable profession. (Ibid.)

Unfortunately, this demand and trend towards a universal education diluted the mystique of learning itself. When a thing is available to everyone and mandated by law, it ceases to be regarded as something special; it becomes “common.” What is needed today, I believe, is to restore the wonder and mystique that once surrounded the very idea of education.

The Grimoire and the Grey School

In 2002, I convened the Grey Council—an assembly of two dozen respected and learned mages and sages, elders and teachers. Council members follow many different paths, but all hope to spark the imagination, beauty, and power of the minds of seekers everywhere. We worked together over the year 2003 to weave our best lessons into the Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard (New Page Books, 2004). It was specifically designed for all the Harry Potter readers who might want to seek further, and explore the genuine “Wisdom of the Ages,” as once taught in the ancient Mystery Schools, and imbedded in traditional “Classical Education” into more recent times. For wizard literally means “wise one,” and wizardry is, pure and simply, wisdom. Much like the term philosopher means “lover of wisdom.” And it certainly seems that the present world could use a great deal more wisdom!

The Grimoire, however, was only the first phase of a long-range Vision to make available the Wisdom of the Ages for a new generation and a new Millennium. It is both an essential handbook of Apprentice-level Wizardry (like the Boy Scout Handbook) and a basic textbook for a full seven-year academic curriculum of Wizardly studies. Thus, its lessons begin very simply and become more complex as students advance.

The book was an instant best-selling success, encouraging our publishers, New Page Books, to commission several sequels and spin-offs, of which six have since been published, with many more in process. The next phase of the Vision was to establish an on-line School of Wizardry to serve as a larger context for the Grimoire and wisdom teachings, and where all the readers whose appetites had been whetted could go for further study.

And so, on August 1, 2004, the Grey School of Wizardry opened its virtual doors. Designed for students of all ages over 11, the Grey School provides an extensive seven “year-level” program of studies, at an Apprenticeship level. Graduates will be certified as “Journeyman Wizards.”

The Grey School was incorporated as a non-profit educational institution in the State of California on March 14, 2005. And on September 20, 2007, we received our IRS Determination Letter for our 501(c)(3) for educational and charitable purposes.

Curriculum

Taking the Grimoire’s basic curriculum as a starting point, the Grey School of Wizardry offers additional classes, lessons and practical exercises, links to other websites with specialized materials, etc., and many color graphics and images which could not be reproduced in the printed book. Class materials and interactive lessons are designed and taught by highly-qualified faculty members and lectors, presently numbering about three dozen. Over 275 classes are currently available, in 16 Departments, and new ones are being added continually.

Courses offered in the Grey School provide a grounded classical education in history, mythology, geography, mathematics, literature, natural history, general science, astronomy, chemistry, physics, zoology, botany, and even Latin—with ancient Greek , Egyptian, and Sumerian to be offered shortly. The performing arts are included as well, with classes in poetry, music, theater, and illusion. The wonderful thing is, with the mystique of enrolling in a magickal “School of Wizardry,” our students are eagerly studying all these subjects which would bore them to tears if they were taking them in a mundane public school!

Social Interaction

The Grey School is highly interactive, and includes not just academic materials, but four Elemental “Houses” (Sylphs, Salamanders, Undines, and Gnomes) in which young students may socialize with each other. Each House has a faculty Head and student Prefect to moderate the forums, etc. A similar set of four Elemental Lodges (Winds, Flames, Waters, and Stones) have been created for adult students, who now comprise ¾ of the student body. Our students’ ages range from 10 to 73.

We have a diverse selection of social forums, clubs, and a student-run newspaper. The forums provide a venue for people to gather. The Great Hall includes areas for General Chatter, Challenges, a Bardic Circle, and much more. Office forums provide access to the Administrators and other positions. Houses and Lodges have their own forums, plus separate Youth and Adult forums for mingling. There are Departmental and other forums as well.

Clubs allow members to explore interest in a special area outside of classes. They also provide venue for students and faculty to socialize, share information and plan projects related to their club’s theme. Every club has a Faculty Advisor as well as student officers.

The Grey School publishes a quarterly student-run school magazine, Whispering Grey Matters, with its own forum area in the Great Hall. All students may submit their original work (essays, poetry, photos, artwork, etc.) for consideration. Staff members also gather news from the Administration, Departments, clubs, and other sources.

As of the end of November, 2007, the student body (1,000 students) represents 49 of the United States (all but Delaware), a number of US military bases, two American Embassies, and 22 countries: Australia, Austria, Canada (8 provinces), Chile, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Ireland, Mauritius, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Rumania, Scotland, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. Our northernmost student lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, while our southernmost resides in Santiago, Chile.

The Future

In January of 2006, the Headmaster and Headmistress toured Australia on behalf of the Grey School, and the following July the School held its first annual Conclave at a park in Oregon. Four regional Conclaves were held in 2007, and more are planned for 2008. Other Grey School assemblies, events and presentations are happening all around the U.S., and in other countries as well. The Grey School is really taking off!

Many students and faculty members are now beginning to dream seriously of a physical campus—ideally a castle like Hogwarts, or a large country estate like Prof. Xavier’s. A perfect facility could be an old monastery or retreat center, providing classrooms, dormitories, offices, staff residences, kitchen, dining room, meeting hall, library, laboratories, gardens, etc.

The enrollment and tuition fees for the Grey School are very low, as we have wanted to make this education available to all including impoverished students. We even have a specially-funded scholarship program for those who are unable to meet even these low rates. Additional funding has come through small donations, sales of school-related items, and royalties on Grey School textbooks that are being published by new Page Books. But stipends for teachers are currently all less than $200 per month, and all are greatly underpaid for their dedication and work. We would like to compensate our faculty more appropriately, and we would like to acquire a suitable facility for future offices, classrooms, and residences.

As Oprah Winfrey said about her new school for impoverished girls in South Africa: “I understand that many in the school system and out feel that I’m going overboard, and that’s fine. This is what I want to do. I wanted to take girls with that ‘It’ quality, and give them an opportunity to make a difference in the world.” (Newsweek, Jan. 8. 2007)

And this is what we want to do with the Grey School of Wizardry—to find students who have unique potential that is not being addressed by their experiences in public schools, and give them the inspiration and information that will enable them to go out and make a real difference in the world. This is true education. For the difference between wisdom and stupidity is really all about considering the consequences—”unto the seventh generation,” as the Hopi proverb says.

In closing, here’s what one of our students had to say about the Grey School Vision:

Just Imagine…
By Stacy, Prefect of the Society of the Four Winds

Ten years from now: Over a hundred have graduated to Journeymen Wizard, and another thousand Apprentices continue in training. The pendants we wear are no longer merely logos of the school we attend, but the symbol of our Order. And our symbol is not just recognizable to those whom we call brother and sister, but to the greater world, both Magickal and Mundane. We are respected as honored and reliable sources of wisdom, guidance and hope to the communities we live in. We are recognized in congress, the military, in covens and conclaves, and through our deeds we are recognized as an organization devoted to helping influence the evolution of the world.

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With this congruency I’ve walked forward and have received more than I could have asked for in every respect.

I have a highly conscious friend who is fond of saying that the people you interact with will teach you what they need from you…this absolutely true!

In working with people, one of the things that has consistently come up is the desire to have an in-person relationship with their Spirit Guides. However, they have no idea where to begin.

This is what prompted me to create a free Spirit Guide Meditation. I wanted to offer some support to the people who order readings and so I’m happy to announce and launch the recording, here…on the blog.  Just click the graphic below and fill out the form to be emailed the meditation.

Click ME:

This meditation is designed to clean your chakra system, achieve a place of connection and openness with your guides as well as travel with the information they share and fully integrate it from the highest spiritual levels into the environmental levels of your physical experience.

With deep love and appreciation, I offer this to my readers, clients and to anyone seeking assistance with connecting to their guides

Be sure to drop me a line to let me know how it is going!

Love and light,

PK

Trail of Breadcrumbs

The Archangel Michael has been trying to get my attention for several weeks. These subtle communications began with work I was doing with another coach. I was coaching her to start her new career which combines a wellness food and supplement store with her health coaching services. When she found her store location she said there was a shop next door to it that always reminded her of me and she sent me a link to their website. From there I was led to the Archangel Michael pendant.

Michael kept showing me images of my spiritual self wearing the pendant and then in my NLP Practitioner group I became aware of a lady who channels angel healing and I watched her perform one on my friend Raj. I could literally feel the energy radiating out from her and affecting certain areas of my body even though she was not doing the healing for me.

To be honest I wasn’t at all sure what Michael was trying to tell me at first. I searched the internet for angel attunements, I looked up Reiki courses and tried searching for Michael in every way I could think of hoping he would lead me to some better understanding.

Angel Communication: If Subtle Hints Don’t Work…They Use a Hammer!

Then my daughter brought home a whopper of a virus, knocking us out of commission for nearly a week with skyrocketing fevers and terrible congestion. I was the last to get it and knowing that I allowed myself to become sick was like an alarm bell going off saying, what have I been ignoring that I need to take care of?

I thought maybe it was some accounting organization that was on my “to do” list…I cleared that out and it didn’t help. So then, I moved onto these all important “must have” documents I’ve been meaning to finish. I completed my revocable trust, will, my health and financial powers of attorney and still…nothing. Finally, after taking both of my children to the doctor and learning that they each had ear infections it clicked…I’m not listening…that is what this illness is trying to tell me.

Surrender

I already knew who it was I needed to listen to but I was bewildered because I had been looking for signs. Finally, the house cleared out for a day as the children and husband resumed a normal schedule and I surrendered. Michael, I said, I don’t know what you want…please show me.

The Attunement

I took the dog for a walk on the trails behind the house as I find the nature setting enhances my ability to receive messages as does the exercise. While walking with her I went off into a whole other world entirely safe under her watchful gaze, unconsciously moving along this trail we know so well.

Michael told me he wanted to teach me how to attune with him. He gave me a set of instructions which I followed to raise each of my chakras to his vibrational frequency.

Then he ran his energy through them, sprang forth from my crown chakra and bombarded me with light until we were deep into the void…nothing existed outside of the light…that’s all that there was.

When I returned to myself I found him standing directly behind me but it was more like he was standing inside of me except that he is sooo enormous he hovers high above my head. I understood that I was now an extension of his hands and a channel for his energy.

More on Mission

During this process Michael showed me a rapidly playing movie that explained the necessity of this energy connection with him and I received a lot more information than I knew previously about what my soul agreed to do on this planet.

In this movie was a map with points of light (representing geographic areas of high spiritual vibration, potential points for movements in the expansion of human consciousness), Michael explained that he has been with me from birth for the purpose of supporting those areas and that this mission is one that has been passed down to me through my Grandmother’s family in Cedaredge.

At this point he turned the conversation over to my Higher Self who explained some of the major turning points that happened last year and how they are significant in the present.

As I left the trail, Michael said the attunement process would continue for awhile and that I would receive a sign when it was complete, at this, he once again showed me his pendant.

Energy Shifts

When I returned home from the walk I went by a mirror as I removed my coat and stared into the largely dilated pupils of someone in deep trance. This didn’t really surprise me as it took me quite some time to get fully back into my body.

Something about the shift in energy made me simply irresistible to my dog though. First she tried to get all of her massive German Shepherd self into my lap for a cuddle and when that didn’t go to her satisfaction she followed me all around the house for a time whining audibly if I traveled to an area in which she is not allowed to go

Even the neighbor’s dog seemed affected as she ran tearing out of her yard toward me when she saw me out to check the mail…when she finally caught up with me she danced with her ears back begging to be stroked.

It’s funny how animals are often the first to respond to changing energy, come to think of it my palm chakras opened for the first time during the attunement, perhaps there is more to this petting stuff than I realized

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The vision started while I was walking my dog on the wooded bike trails behind our house. I rounded a corner and came face to face with the body of a man out in the cold. His crisp blue eyes were trapped in a frozen gaze. I noticed the honey color of his hair and mustaches…a part of me recognizing him, yet I did not know him from this life.

As I watched, I saw myself drop down beside him from atop a horse, close his eyes with my fingertips and say a prayer as I silently took in how he had died. I heard my inner dialog speak of waste, it appeared he simply was unable to make it back to the settlement.

Initiating Past Life Memories

The above scene came to me not long after setting an intent to understand any past life lessons that held significance in this current life. I idea of past lives was unsettling to me at first. A part of me wanted to know and a part of me wanted to run away from whatever may have happened before. It was not until I became congruent with my desire to grow, and use past lives to do it, that I actually remembered one.

How Can Remembering a Past Life Help Now?

There are many ways in which remembering a past life can be helpful. Some will point out to you why you have always been attracted to certain time periods, cultures or ways of life, why certain places, people or things can seem so familiar or why you are locked in a certain pattern of behavior or in relationships with certain people.

Past lives represent the opportunity to resolve long standing resentments, passions, agreements and other forms of energy contracts we with make with others that carry on from lifetime to lifetime. With the past lifetimes resolved you can more easily fulfill your purpose in this one.

It is a way of bringing all of the strength, knowledge and wisdom you acquired over the lengths of several spans of human existence into the life that you’re currently living.

How Do I Know if Something I’m Experiencing is Past Life Related?

First and foremost, ask yourself. Your spirit knows and will give you an honest answer. Some other ways of noticing telltale signs of past life experiences are instances of deja vu or a feeling of unfounded recognition and knowing, extremely strong emotional reactions that seem to be out of place for your current experiences and unexplainable attraction so deep that you seem to move without the permission of your mind toward this person, place or thing.

The Opportunity to Heal

Understanding ourselves from the perspective of a previous life time can make sense of some of the people and situations that surround us in our current one. Meeting people that we have history with can be very difficult in the here and now, understanding what that history is, helps us transmute the situation into an opportunity to heal.

I was atop a castle wall standing amongst loyal men and my husband, watching my knight ride forth into battle against another army. I saw him strong and shining fight on as his men fell around him until he was knocked from his horse.

I did not think, I simply lept from the wall and turned into a great white dragon. I flew to him, sheltering him with my enormous body as I transformed back into myself. I was actually more fierce and wild looking as the woman! The men that had been surrounding him fled, their battle lust driven from them by the sight of the dragon.

Pulling his helmet from sweat soaked hair, I moved to support his head in my arms and noticed as I did the great gash in his torso. I placed my hand on the wound and prepared to heal him when he grasped my hand and said, “No.” He continued, “ There is no other place I’d rather die than in your arms…it’s better this way. This way, I can take our love onto the next life knowing that neither of us betrayed our vows for the of sake it.”

I buried my face into his neck and shoulders and wept. I could not act against his will and so we held each other until he took his last shuddering breath… “In the next life, my love,” I whispered, “In the next life.”

When I encountered this knight in my current life our roles were reversed. The attraction and need for a relationship with one another possessed a power of its own. So we lived through it once more, transmuting the bond that tied us together through time. Eventually, we were free, and moved on to the real reason we came into our here and now, wiser and better prepared…having learned from each other what it was that we really needed to share.

I know some people who are currently caught up in reliving past life interactions with each other. You never stop learning from past life experiences. They are powerful teachers when re-lived and they are even more powerful when transmuted, which leads me to the next subject.

Past Life Workshops & Coaching

I have plans of putting together some special workshops featuring past life integration, dream work & trance and a line of coaching that specializes in past life work. If you’re interested in the workshops please e-mail me, and I’ll get more information to you, I need to gauge interest before setting a date.

And if you found the story of this past/present romance intriguing and suspect that there is a lot more to this than I have mentioned here, I would like to say, that you’re intuition has not misguided you. Although it is too long for a blog post, I did include the story of this entire past life and all of the ways it unfolded into my current one, in my upcoming book.

Hopefully you’ll be able to satiate your curiosity for the details soon!

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