Well, what can I say about the Ancestors? As it’s nearly Samhain, and the veil is already thinning, I guess I ought to say something. For those who know them, words don’t mean a lot. Knowing they are close is really special. And, if you haven’t met them yet … well, where do I start? The subject is as vast as the number of people in your ancestral line!

Each culture has its own way of remembering their beloved dead, of working with them, helping them and, of course, honouring them. So, all I can do is mention a few things which are meaningful to me. If they don’t mean much to you, do something else. I can only speak of my journey with the Ancestors. It won’t necessarily be the same as yours. You will need to find your own way home.

And, be very sure about this – HOME is the perfect word to describe the experience. There is nothing quite like suddenly realising all the people who have gone before you are still there, helping you, supporting you and, of course, loving you … well, unless they are very grumpy ancestors. There are a few! All you can do is keep blessing them!

So where do I start with this huge topic? At the beginning… my first encounter was with a gentleman who was two hundred and fifty years behind me. I asked to clear a specific thing from the ancestral line and he was the one who started the problem. And goodness me, he was very, very grumpy. By jolly, he made it quite clear it was his dysfunction and he liked it. It gave his life meaning and purpose. It made him feel strong and it made everyone else who came after him miserable in one way or another. But I was determined it was going to stop in my generation. So, what to do? It’s one thing to have done the training and quite another to be faced with an invisible angry person who thinks you are meddling in something which doesn’t concern you. Gulp!

But one of the many ways you can help your ancestors is not necessarily to heal them, but to love them, to acknowledge them, to honour them, or even just to offer them the quality they lacked in their lifetime. I discovered very quickly that this man had never been loved. Not once, so I simply blessed him with the love and compassion from deep within my heart. He was astonished, puzzled, overwhelmed and, within a very short time, a completely different ancestor. After all, love is the greatest healing modality of them all!

After that, when the Ancestors discovered I was aware of them, they were all coming forward wanting one thing or another. That is the downside…. in our culture they have been ignored for so long now they think it’s great when they are finally noticed. I mean if you’d been ignored for hundreds of years wouldn’t you be pleased to be acknowledged? So you have to make sure you set very firm boundaries and let them know you will only work with them when it is appropriate. If you don’t do this, you will find them, turning up all the time. They can be relentless! But they are also loving, encouraging, supportive.

Another experience happened some time ago, a few weeks   before Remembrance Day. I became aware of a Tommy around me, but I didn’t know anyone who had fought in WWI. In the end, I asked because the man was not going away and when I found out his name, I asked him to step closer – having already set my boundaries so he couldn’t come closer until he was asked… there is nothing wrong with insisting the Ancestors treat you politely!

It turned out he and the others he fought with were afraid no one would remember them and their great sacrifice was going to be forgotten because there were so very few people left who knew what they did. All they needed, bless them, was for someone to do that, to remember what they did in The Great War, so we could be free. I lit a candle for them on my ancestor altar and said I would do that, and I was reduced to tears when I stood for the two minutes silence on 11/11. My ancestor turned up with his whole battalion. I was completely surrounded and we all stood in silence together. I felt such love from these men, such relief and I remember them all now every year because no one should forget what they did just because they are gone now. Well, gone for most people anyway.

But, please don’t think working with the Ancestors is always serious or painful. It can be if someone needs help, but, there are happy times as well. After all, being reunited with some of these people, especially if you have known them, is quite beautiful. And just knowing they are there brings great joy, not to mention relief, as does knowing they are more than happy to help and support you when you need it. It means, despite appearances to the contrary – quite simply – you are never alone. Not ever. They are always there – all you have to do is… well, allow yourself to perceive them, to become aware of their presence in the best way for you. Some people see, some hear, some know and some feel. But in the end, whichever way you experience the other realms, your heart will always know and it will open to receive the love these people have for you.

I am glad the Ancestors are in my life now, even the grumpy ones, though I never dreamed I would ever say that! But they are part of me. I carry them all in my DNA. I am the sum of all those who have gone before me and I love them dearly, especially when they make me smile.

So on 31^st October light a candle for your beloved dead and welcome them home. The light will show them the way. In our house we have dinner, setting another place for any who want to join us and putting some of our food on the plate for them. It is a simple thing the Celts used to do at Samhain and we like it. They honoured anyone who has passed, welcoming them home for the night, and the Church eventually took a lovely festival and used it to vilify our honoured dead, turning them into nothing more than ghosts and ghouls. It’s even worse now with Trick or Treating… but I won’t go there. We don’t open the door and we eat by candle light, sitting afterwards while the candle burns down because most of the Ancestors never knew about electric lighting. It brings us a little closer to them. But, in the end, just do what ever feels right for you. It will be perfect.

And don’t forget a partner or spouse who has passed can still be counted as an Ancestor. They Are known as Ancestors of the Heart. You simply have to let them know they are included. They will come because you have loved them, whether they are a blood relative or not. And trust me when I say – they will be happy to be remembered and to know they are still loved because they – like all the others – have not gone.

Bright Blessings Gailx

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I think describing the way energized particles are ejected from the sun as the sun vomited is perfect. It gives you such a vivid mental image and you can almost see all those tiny pieces of solar energy (called the solar wind once they leave the sun and whiz towards us) flying away from the star. It looks beautiful and is amazing… until, of course, they slam into the Earth’s magnetosphere. That’s when those of us who are sensitive run into trouble. As the Earth’s magnetic field is disrupted, so are all the other smaller magnetic fields held within it, including ours. It’s a macrocosm and microcosm thing.
We also have to deal with a huge influx of light cascading through our system as well and it is rather like a really bright torch being pointed into all our dark places, illuminating them, and showing us all the things we have carefully left there where they can’t be found or even seen. Foolishly, we think we are safe, but this kind of light exposes them and brings them all up to the surface so we have no choice but to deal with them. How lovely for us, eh?
So, for those of you who knew the sun developed a coronal hole* last week, the chaos which followed with all the usual symptoms – exhaustion, mood swings, headaches, joint and muscle pain, nausea, irritation … the list goes on and on unfortunately – would have come as no surprise. It was only a pain in the proverbial! If you didn’t know, it will explain why you felt so appalling. Or, alternatively, you may have even been tempted to get a BIG stick and smack the back of someone’s head… or maybe it just me! But having your nerves severely jangled for days on end can cause all sorts of unusual and unexpected responses.
(*A hole forms in the surface of the sun allowing particles from the centre of the star to be ejected rather than just surface matter flying away.)
The really sensitive ones among us can feel the actual eruption from the sun’s surface. It’s a bit of a shock and then everyone else feels it about 48 hours later when the energized particles actually arrive – it’s a long way from the sun to here! And coming so soon after the week at the end of September when we had 8 solar flares, it has probably been a bit much. So, now things have started to settle, I thought I’d recommend a crystal to work with: Unikite.

Unikite – Stone of Vision and Transformation
Key Qualities: Release and Re-birth
Helpfully, the qualities of Unikite are balancing and stabilizing, both of which will help enormously and it also release emotions, so it will help you get rid of anything the influx of light brought up for clearing. It also resonates with the frequency of love, compassion and kindness which is useful again because we need all those to help ourselves and deal with other people who may have erupted into a full blown healing crisis. The stone is dedicated to balancing the emotional body, which will have a good knock on effect on the mental body as well, so if you don’t have a piece, dash out and get a bit immediately!
One of the other things Unikite does is help you release anything which is inhibiting your growth. This is good because this is what the solar flares are designed to do as well. So the two things work well together to help you move forward on your spiritual path. It facilitates re-birthing and allows you to integrate insights from your past and often enables you to see the root cause of the blockages which are surfaces, so you can clear them completely. What a fabulous stone!
Helpful Tip: if you have been feeling emotionally confused, anxious, depressed or as if you have no idea what the future holds for you, sleep with Unikite under your pillow. I think that description covers most things we have been experiencing since these huge energy shifts started earlier in the year and we are back to dashing to the nearest crystal shop, probably looking for an industrial sized stone. But, fear not, even a small tumble stone will work!
Sleeping with Unikite will also help if you want to resolve any issues from your past. When you wake, you will often find you have greater clarity about the whole situation and have new ideas about how to deal with it. Unikite encourages you to live in the present rather than the past, so it is great for this kind of work.
Chakra Work: the most beneficial thing to do right now is to use Unikite on the base and earthstar chakras – simultaneously if you have two pieces or work with the base then the earthstar. It stimulates these chakras, enhancing the grounding mechanism, and it will allow any excess energy in your system to move down through the base chakra, so it can be safely earthed. This will include excess electrical energy from flare activity and any mental and emotional energy you have generated during your clearing process. This will also mean you are more grounded, which is useful when your system is taking a battering! And if you add red jasper at the base chakra it will bless you with strength and stamina, which is exactly what we all need at the moment!
Heart and Thymus – the stone works powerfully at these two energy centres. It also connects the energy of the thymus chakra with the heart centre, which helps you be more loving and compassionate towards yourself (and others, of course!). It also helps you clear low self-esteem here and develop a real sense of self-appreciation.
Brow – It opens and activates this chakra and clears the way for the knowledge from the higher aspects of yourself (Higher Self, I AM Presence or Soul, depending on your current level of development) to flow down to your heart for understanding and implementation.
Meditation – hold your Unikite and notice the way the pink and the green swirl and blend together to make up this beautiful stone. Feel the serene energy of the stone flow into you, calming you. Ask it to balance and stabilize you on all levels – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – and sit quietly while this happens. Feel the crystal start to warm you and translate that warmth into self-appreciation. Allow yourself to become aware of yourself in new ways and to fully acknowledge exactly how special and unique you are and what fabulous gifts you bring to the earthplane.
Now ask the Unikite to bring to the surface anything which is inhibiting or limiting your growth process and or your ability to fully appreciate yourself. And, when the stone does this, intend that any negative energy is released with ease and grace. You do not have to re-connect with it, just breathe it out. Let it float safely away on your out breath.
If you become aware of any blockages in your chakras during the release process, place your stone there and ask for its help. Or if you feel any tension in your physical body, you can place the stone there as well. Just remember to blow on the stone to clean it if you move it to move than one location.
After a while, if you want to, you can use an affirmation to enhance your release process. And remember: sound + intent = healing or result. The thought you have before you speak or make any kind of sound will have a huge affect on what you want to achieve. So set the intention you want to resonate the whole of your physical body and your subtle bodies with the sound of your words and keep repeating them until you feel the vibration everywhere. And, if you can think of a better way to phrase this – go for it. The affirmation is only a guide for you to follow. However, you do not have to follow it blindly!
I release limitation on all levels and allow myself to open to a feeling of self-appreciation.
So, I hope you enjoy making a new friend with Unikite. It is a lovely stone and it will support anyone who is feeling lost, overwhelmed or who is having trouble focussing on the here and now. And if you are lucky enough to have more than one piece, leaving several in a bowl in a room will bring a gentle calming energy into your environment – what more could you want with all this mad, disruptive energy about? It also helpfully reduces the effects of electromagnetic smog.
And one last thing – if you need to boost Unikite’s vibration of love and compassion – use it with Varisite, Tugtupite or Dioptase.
Unikite is a stone which just keeps on giving. Have fun with it!
And I’d keep a piece handy for the last Supermoon in the series next week which is also designed to bring up more of our stuff…
Some days it feels like it will never end, doesn’t it? And, at this point, all we can do is hang in there and remember Unikite is happy to help. All you have to do in return is offer thoughts of love and gratitude after it has helped you! And clean it … leaving a stone cram-packed full of all your rubbish is a cruel thing to do!
Bright Blessings Gailx
info@crystaldragongail.com
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Well, who knew Guardian Angels had their own day? You do now!! Make sure you send some thougts of love and gratitude their way. They do, after all, do a sterling job… whether we are aware of it or not.

And since I was thinking about angels it came ot me I hadn’t done a blog about them… unless you count mentioning Metatron in passing. I thought my biggest task would be deciding which if them to write about since there are so many, but Cassiel made it easy for me, mainly because he gave me no other choice!!!

Apart from seeing Cassiel’s name on a list of angels ages ago, I knew nothing about him until one morning I was at my computer trying to do something else and my little voice started shouting – look up Archangel Cassiel. The only way to stop it was to start looking, but I wasn’t in the mood – a bad back and arthirtitc fingers were plaguing me, and I could hardly believe my eyes when I got the line which said related healing issues …yep – there are no prizes for guessing what Cassiel’s areas of expertise are … back pain and arthritis. I could almost hear him laughing!

I asked for help immediately. It came immediately, which goes to show you don’t always need to reach for painkillers, and then I was like a woman possessed, reading everything I could find! And I was staggered all over again because every bullet point I made could be applied to someone I knew. Isent them all the information and a few weeks ago they returned the favour when I was having trouble with something and they said – don’t you need Cassiel? Of course I did. Like always, when you’re stuck in the mire, you forget everything useful you ever learned and you have to wait until someone reminds you! Now I am busy asking for everything on that list!! Thank you Cassiel!!

I thought I was done then and could relax, but no … after spending some time with Cassiel I was soon typing again and the result is the piece below. I knew I would be writing again this year, but I rather imagined in would be about dragons or wild space adventures. Still, I suppose some people would actually consider writing about the angelics a work of fiction or, at the very least, fanatsy, so I guess we’re back to that same old place of the universe having a warped sense of humour!!! You forget that at your peril.

Have fun if you build a mandala and let me know if anything exciting happens! I myself can feel a half day workshop downloading into my brain. Cassiel seems to want to play! I guess it’s watch this space time …

Bright Blessings Gailxxx

Mandala Work with Cassiel by Gail Montague

Cassiel is the Angel of Temperance, but he has many other names as well, including the Angel of Serentity. He will, when asked, help you open to Divine Love and Light, so it can flow in, around and through you, and into all you say and do. His energy is soft and subtle, calming you on all levels. But it is also powerful. Some have described it as profound. For me the initial contact was like being plugged into the mains supply!

So, what exactly is temperance? Basically, it means moderation and one way to achieve this is by managing your thoughts, emotions and actions. It is not about control. It is about balance and grounding any inappropriate excess energy which you may have picked up from your environment or other people, or energy you may have generated yourself.

And serenity? Well, that’s on everyone’s wish list! That wonderful feeling of deep inner peace – peace within yourself and your life, and what you are faced with on a day to day basis. It’s learning to be comfortable with the total surrender of everything which no longer fits into your life and it’s also about allowing energy to flow freely on all levels without becoming blocked in your system.

One of the qualities Cassiel brings as a gift is balance and manifesting this in your life is very often the first step towards becoming more serene, mainly because it helps you to manage those thoughts, emotions and actions in a more harmonious way. So working with Cassiel to achieve balance is a good place to bring about the changes you want to see in your life.

One way to calm and balance yourself is simply to sit in stillness. In fact, one of the things Cassiel teaches is that to be in harmony with yourself and your life means taking time to be rather than do. So sitting with Cassiel, relaxing in his energy is very beneficial and a good way to amplify this energy, making it readily available for you to utilize is to build a mandala with the intention of grounding Cassiel’s energy in the room where you are working.

Pale blue is the colour of stillness and if you visualise it, you will find you start to relax and become very still indeed. You can just do this and ask Cassiel to join you, but you can also enhance the whole process by using a pale blue candle and blue crystals.

I suggest using blue lace agate and amazonite since these two crystals will deepen the connection to Cassiel. Blue lace agate also activates the throat, brow and crown chakras, bringing them harmoniously into alignment which will in, itself help, you to become more balanced and its energy is particularly soft and soothing. You can add aqua aura, but it is expensive and not always necessary, but if you already have some ….

Lepidolite will also help because the keyword for this stone is acceptance and, to become more balanced in all you say and do, you do need to learn to accept yourself and all aspects of your life. You can either place the stone in your mandala or use it on your solar plexus chakra while you are sitting quietly, so it can work there.

If you place the stone on the chakra, think carefully about the intention you want to use while you work – what do you need to work on around the word acceptance? Do you simply need the energy of the quality in your system? Or do you need to release something before you can move into the energy of acceptance like feelings of anxiety or fear? Lepidolite contains lithium so it is a terrific stone to use for stress release and it will clear the solar plexus with ease and grace, especially if this is the intention you set before you start working. Think about it because clear intentions always get clear results.

Also include clear quartz in the mandala. This absorbs, amplifies and transmits any energy it is exposed to – if you ask politely, of course. Remember quartz is empowered by thought forms, so ask the crystals to do that with the energy Cassiel downloads.

If you like, you can set a piece of quartz aside and ask Cassiel to place his energy in the stone so you can keep it with you. This will enable you to keep manifesting balance in your life after you have finished working with the mandala. And don’t forget you can add to this process by asking your quartz to amplify Cassiel’s energy when it is transmitted to you from the crystalline lattice inside the stone.

So – the instructions are simple. Build your mandala, using the stones suggested or the ones you are guided to use. Then direct your thoughts about what you want to achieve with your mandala towards the stones e.g. connecting with Cassiel or holding Cassiel’s energy and transmitting it so you can meditate with it. The crystals will be happy to help and and make sure they are laid out in a circluar shape. This both contains the energy and allows it to flow round and round, allowing it to build and making it more readily available for use.

If you are using a candle, place it in the centre of the mandala, light it and start your meditatation by gazing into the flame. This will help you quieten your mind and allow your thoughts to simply float away. Then, when you are ready, ask Cassiel to join you. Thank him for coming and take a moment to attune to his energy as it enters your mandala and breathe it into the whole of your Four Body System, clearing it, so more of his energy can flow into your system, allowing your vibrational rate to rise.

At the most appropriate point in your meditation ask Cassiel show you how to manifest balance within and without so it fills your heart and flows out in your surroundings as a blessing to all – as always, as you have been blessed, so you bless in return.

At the end thank your crystals and Cassiel for their help and dismantle the mandala unless you are guided to leave it for a while, radiating energy into your environment.

Other Points

Cassiel rules Saturday, so if you work with your mandala on this day, your connection to him and his energy will be enhanced.

Cassiel brings two other qualities – harmony and serenity. You can work with these if you are guided to do so. Cassiel is also very good at teaching you patience if you feel you need to avail yourself of that particular quality. It is, after all, considered a virtue and it’s usually one we sadly lack! And, as an added extra, he can also balance all your chakras, if you ask him to.

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