Grace in Grief: Six Months After My Husband’s Passing

051It’s been six months since my husband was suddenly gone in a car accident last February. Only six months, yet, a lifetime. The surreal first month, caught in a flurry of details and rituals. The memorial service panorama of faces across a thirty-six year marriage passing before me in one afternoon…. Carrying a box of ashes to a droughty cemetery in Norman, Oklahoma. Leaving them on the desk of a friendly, Okie-speak girl for later burial in his parents’ plot.

I kept waiting to see my phone ringing showing “husband” and I’d tell him all about it.

The weeks back home in California melted into tasks accomplished–sending death certificates, a new trust drawn up, closets cleaned, home repairs. Long, quiet nights.

Emotion held at bay until a witching hour visit last month. Supposedly between 4 and 5 o’clock in the morning our spirit selves can make contact with the other side. There have been similar “dreams” where I’m lying in my bed, asleep and yet aware. I can see and hear a normally unseen dimension around me. One night I heard a grand party going on and a man stood next to my bed playing a saxophone. As I awakened to complete consciousness, he disappeared; the music faded. Last January my dear friend, Jeanie, appeared a week after she’d passed over. Her grandson sat on the foot of my bed as she spoke lovingly to me to say goodbye.

The visitation/dream from my husband, David, came five months after he got confused driving in road construction along I-35, hit a cone, spun into a concrete wall and was then broadsided by a van.

As I lay in my bed, dawn was an hour away, when I was awakened by the sound of running water. David stood next to the window, his back to me, wearing only his boxers, which was always his sleeping attire. He seemed to be washing his hands, another night-time ritual. My first thought was, “There’s no sink there.” (Our Oklahoma bedroom had a sink outside the shower. In my California home, the bathroom is down the hall.)

He looked at me over his shoulder and smiled. I got the impression he could do special things in this spirit dimension, even conjure up a sink. He stepped to the bed and slipped between the covers with me. After months of solitary sleeping, the intense joy of feeling my husband next me was beyond description. Our arms joined like, two halves of whole fitting together.

Image 13His face was bathed in a golden glow. He looked 35 again. The handsome guy I married. “You look good,” I said.

“So do you,” he said. He pulled me closer. “I was so stupid. I crawled away. I wrecked the car.”

An image played in my mind of his spirit body seeing the aftermath of his accident, the chaos and destruction. He watched helplessly, irritated with himself for making an irrevocable error of judgment.

Until that moment, I’d pictured him going to the light, surrounded by angels walking into a pink sunset. A Hollywood ending. Maybe that came later.

In our bed, I felt the regret and the longing and the last goodbye. He stretched out over me. So wonderful, so right, so fleeting. My arms gathered across his back and held on as long as it would last. I knew it wasn’t real and yet it was utterly real.

Don’t go…don’t go….

As the rays of sunlight rose above the horizon, he dissolved in my arms. I came to full consciousness, flat on my back, tears trailing into my hair. I lay there two more hours, flummoxed, gob-smocked.

A true period of grief began. Sadness, weeping spells. Also, came the grace. A prophetic friend living hundreds of miles away sent me a “word from the Lord.” My pain was not unnoticed…. A wonderful healer gave me a full body massage and therapy session… I took a class in sound therapy and received a whole array of healing frequencies from bells, singing bowls, tuning forks and Reiki…. My Supernal friend, Sue, administered a healing energy treatment to heal regret.

After thirty-six years, there were regrets. I was focusing on the lost opportunities and missed moments. The healers helped me turn from regret, move toward gratitude and remember the happy times. I needed to be grateful for the family we created–first, two fabulous daughters and now two wonderful grand kids and the joyful anticipation of the next one next in February. Yes, a year from David’s departure, we will be welcoming our younger daughter’s first child into our lives.

It seems only appropriate to end this with a passage from the Bible, the book that held my husband’s constant fascination and guided his life.

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness Psalms 30:11

**************

Life reflected in books:

A Spiritual Memoir and Introduction to Energy Healing

“Powerful memoir that touched my soul”

EVER-FLOWING STREAMS: Christ, Reiki, Reincarnation & Me

“What I needed on my journey of spirit”   

Available as ebook and paperback Amazon or paperback at

**************

Life-inspired fiction:

The Healer & the Lawyer: Opposites Attract AIN’T LOVE GRAND?  Visit Author Den Page

 

Coo-Coo for Coconuts

A few weeks ago during my meditation hour I asked, “Is there anything I should be adding to my life?”

The answer came quickly, “Coconuts.”

Interesting. You know how it goes, suddenly coconuts were everywhere. I walked into Sprouts and couldn’t miss hundreds of cans of coconut water. Did you know coconut water is so close to human blood plasma, that it is administered intravenously in emergency situations  to save lives? It’s a great pick-me-up with electrolytes and potassium. I stocked up and use it as the base of my shakes.

Next, I went for a massage and energy treatment from the wonderful Dale Arend, aka Dahlia, (author of  Follow the River) and she slathered me from head to toe in coconut oil.

Finally, a book on the benefits of coconut oil popped up in my email. Coconut Oil: Miraculous Benefits for a Healthier, Skinnier, and More Beautiful You  by Amber Cavill extols coconut oil in all its glory. While it used to get a bad rap as a heart clogging menace, those fears have been disproven. In fact, coconut oil may actually lower cholesterol levels. It improves thyroid function and can reduce belly fat. See Dr. Oz’s article on the benefits of coconut oil here.

Cavill’s book covers the range of ways coconut oil can be incorporated into a healthy life style. Use it for cooking, skin care and even your sex life!

Here are a few items from the list of 100 uses for coconut oil at the back of the book:

  • Substitute for other cooking oils
  • Use in salad dressing
  • Natural antibacterial skin cream
  • Use as a diaper and baby cream
  • Use a natural sunscreen (SPF4)
  • Condition damaged hair

Order Coconut Oil: Miraculous Benefits for a Healthier, Skinnier, and More Beautiful You  and discover for yourself all the joys of coconut oil. Personally, I love it as a chemical-free skin cream. Look for an organic version in your grocery store with the baked good items.

I’m definitely coo-coo for coconuts!

Tapping into the power of Crystal Grids

Funny how Spirit leads the way. A couple of weeks ago I got message, “we will teach you about sacred geometry” (See post on Sacred Geometry). Since then, books and sites have come my way that didn’t seem to be about scared geometry and yet, they’ve held lessons about the power of geometric shapes in the universe.

One such book is Crystal Grids: How and Why They Work by an author with the creative name of Hibiscus Moon. I’ve been following the Hibiscus Moon website for a while. She deals with crystals and stones in a myriad of ways. Her breezy style hides a geeky science teacher under the surface. I’ll bet she was a fabulous class room teacher. Now, the world is her student as she teaches through the Internet.

Crystal Grids goes beyond most books about stones that simply tell about their supposed healing properties. This book goes into the science supporting the idea of energy in stones and the power of geometry throughout creation. Sacred geometry goes back to the Greek, Plato. He credits information from the lost continent of Atlantis for the five basic geometric patterns now called the Platonic Solids. These shapes can be found throughout nature and down to the smallest molecules.

Crystals are formed in breathing taking geometric formations. According to Crystal Grids, placing them in geometric patterns can create an energy field. Using stones in this manner is not new. Indeed, it’s easy to see how people of the past were accused of being wizards and witches for employing what will probably be understood in scientific terms for energy transference in the not-so-distant future.

If you’re interested in the emerging field of energy healing and vibrational medicine, Crystal Grids is a fascinating introduction to working with the medium of crystals and stones.

For more information visit the Hibiscus Moon Crystal Academy

Tuning into Sound Therapy

“Sound is the medicine of the future”—Edgar Cayce

Sound is energy; Sound is Color; Sound is Form; Sound Transforms Form; Sound Can Heal

10603320_824314280933637_3442040983692971082_n Debbie Nuccio Durrough, Reiki and Karuna Reiki® Master Teacher, and Heartbeat of Reiki Drumming Master Teacher TUNE INTO SOUND

by Dana Taylor

As someone who works with healing energy, I’ve developed a rudimentary understanding that healing energy has a frequency wave. All sound also carries a frequency. Can sound waves be used for healing? It makes sense in my world. So, when the opportunity came up for me to take a seminar on Sound Therapy, I signed up for the course at the Learning Light Foundation in Anaheim, CA. Debbie Nuccio Durrough teaches many modalities of energy healing in the Southern California area. Her website, Tune Into Sound, presents a treasure trove of educational information about a variety of healing-related subjects. Debbie presented an overview of the various tools of sound used by healers to promote wellness in their clients.

Tibetan Tingshas—These cymbals date back to ancient times and have been used in healing, ceremonies, and meditation for centuries. They were a new experience for me. Their pleasant full-toned ring permeated the air. Debbie tapped them together to initiate the tone over a volunteer lying on a massage table. Used as an awareness tool, it was interesting to hear the tone “wobble” over areas that needed healing. Fascinating!

Singing Bowls—Made out of opaque glass or metal, these bowls can be played to produce an amazing array of tones. Incorporated intuitively be a healer, the possibilities to aid healing are intriguing. I need to start my collection!

Tuning ForksThe frequency of a tuning fork is very specific and tangible. I purchased an OM tuning fork, which is set at 136.10 Hz. The tone can be heard by the ear; the waves can be felt by the body. These are powerful tools to inject frequencies directly into a client, either over specific organs or at reflexology points on the hands and feet. They aren’t to be used carelessly. Healers should receive Tuning Fork Safety Protocol Training before implementing them in a healing practice, as they are not appropriate for everybody. People with steel implants, stints, or pacemakers may have them disturbed. Pregnant women might go into labor. Used properly, a tuning fork can be employed as an effective therapeutic tool.

I’ve been playing with the one I purchased on myself. It’s interesting to “feel” the energy waves as I pass it over my body after “inviting” it on a rubber hockey puck that serves as the “striker.” There are palpable differences over areas where I’ve had injuries. I’m applying it on the reflexology areas on my palm to treat certain organ systems. I can see that it would be efficacious in releasing blockages in the energy flow.

Drums–While Debbie only touched on the area of drumming (they are a whole other learning curve in themselves), she demonstrated the ocean drum she uses as she begins her healing sessions. Hundreds of bebes are sealed into the well of a hand-held drum. As they roll across the surface of the drum, they sound like ocean waves or rain falling, excellent for inducing a meditative state.

On the table–I volunteered to be the client as Debbie demonstrated all the sound therapy tools. First the ocean drum hummed over my body; next the tingsha cymbals scanned, revealing a dodgy knee and an area of concern  in the abdominal region. Debbie stimulated those areas with the tuning fork, along with applying the vibrating rod to reflexology points. She finished up by running Reiki energy from head to toe. Wow, I got the full treatment! Not surprisingly, afterwards I was thirsty and tired–sure signs of cleansing and healing. I slept like a rock that night.

Summary: Sound Therapy is an area of worthy of exploration in the ever-growing field of holistic medicine. Here are some links to related articles on Sound Therapy altMD, EHowHealth, Singing Bowls, Tuning Fork Therapy

**********

F“Powerful memoir that touched my soul”

“What I needed on my journey of spirit”

Available in the Kindle Store at Amazon

EVER-FLOWING STREAMS: Christ, Reiki, Reincarnation & Me

Edgar Cayce for the Ages

There are classic books you tell yourself you should read….sometime. You might even come across one in a bookstore and buy it to read…sometime. The Story of Edgar Cayce: There is a River by Thomas Sugrue is one such book for me. Finally, Edgar Cayce had popped up in so many of our Supernal Spiritual Development Circles, I decided I should break down and read the book.

I first learned about Edgar Cayce in the 1970’s through the work of Jess Stern. Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet played a major role in kicking off the New Age movement.  Cayce lived from 1877-1945. Born in Kentucky, he was steeped in the farming and Protestant culture of his time. He became famous for giving amazing psychic health and life readings while asleep. He left behind over 14,000 documented readings covering treatments for almost every medical condition. Beyond that, he touched on such subjects as philosophy, metaphysics, reincarnation, history, and the future. The Association for Research and Enlightenment was formed in 1931 to explore the areas brought to light in the Cayce readings. The Association based in Virginia Beach is still following its mission:

The Mission of the A.R.E. is to help people transform their lives for the better, through research, education, and application of core concepts found in the Edgar Cayce readings and kindred materials that seek to manifest the love of God and all people and promote the purposefulness of life, the oneness of God, the spiritual nature of humankind, and the connection of body, mind, and spirit.

There are now multiple volumes about every aspect of Edgar Cayce’s life and work, but There is a River was the first. Thomas Sugrue was handpicked by the Edgar and Gertrude Cayce to tell their story. He first met Cayce in 1927. He knew the man, not the legend. There is a River is the product of personal interviews with Edgar and his family,  who struggled with making a life while possessing an amazing, but often burdensome, gift.

Though the book is over 70 years old, it’s easy for the modern reader to get involved with the story and the characters. Sugrue was more storyteller than biographer and captures the emotions of his subjects. Edgar Cayce comes across as a humble, simple man of great Christian faith. When he first shows signs of his extraordinary gifts, he is bewildered and frightened. As a product of the South, he fears his abilities may be of the devil and constantly weighs actions as good or evil. The love story between Edgar and Gertrude Evans is sweet and compelling. She became his wife and helpmate in every way. She followed him to the grave only four months after his passing.

There were no grand triumphs during Cayce’s lifetime. The dream of opening a holistic hospital only lasted two years, thanks to the Great Depression. The small victories came in the mail—the thank you letters from people who benefitted from the Cayce readings. There is a River was first published in 1943 and ironically played a part in hastening Edgar’s death. Stuffed sacks of letters requesting readings induced him to sacrifice his health by stepping up the readings beyond his capacity.

Thanks to meticulous work of longtime secretary, Gladys Davis, and the devotion of the oldest son, Hugh Lynn Cayce, the readings lived on.  The A.R.E. carries forward the work. Hopefully, Edgar and Gertrude on the other side are aware and well pleased that their lives of service are appreciated by those who have followed.

Opening Chakras with The Lord’s Prayer

Update: November 2023 My YouTube meditation Opening Chakras With the Lord’s Prayer has been opened over 19,000 times. Because of increasingly intrusive ads, I’m making my meditations available -ad-free here at Supernal Living. You can find it in the Opening Chakras Meditation page in the main menu.

Dana by Dana Taylor

What’s the deal with chakras? For some people they are as tangible a part of their body as a hand or foot. For others they are a strange Eastern concept, as fanciful as fairies, vaguely having something to do with yoga. For many years I was in the second category, but along the way, as I came to understand more about energy and health, I set off in search of my chakras.

the_LORDs_prayer_clipart.162200811_std[1]

There are many helpful books on the subjects, but I’ll give you Cliff-notes version here. “Chakra” comes from the Sanskrit meaning “wheel, ” used in yoga to describe energy centers of the human body. Seven main chakras run from the groin to the top of the head. Colors, vibrational frequencies, and organ systems are associated with them in Eastern medicine. Balanced, clean chakras are necessary for optimal health. The chakras also serve as communication paths for connection to the Divine.

Many meditation techniques teach visualization methods for finding the chakras—focus on each center and send a ray of colored light up the body. One sleepless night a couple of decades ago, I didn’t have anything better to do than look for my chakras. I remember lying in bed, focusing on the base of my body (root chakra), picturing red color filling a spinning disc. Darned, if I didn’t actually feel an awareness.  So I kept moving up. Here are the basic chakra centers and corresponding colors:

chakras[1]

Sensing energy centers is part of my work as a Reiki therapist. One method to open chakras that is more Western-friendly, is using the Lord’s Prayer. Dana Williams’ The Lord’s Prayer, The Seven Chakras, The Twelve Life Paths covers a lot of territory, including astrology. Her segment on The Lord’s Prayer caught my attention. The technique is also mentioned in The Healing Spot by Jan Phillip Holland, Ph.D., M.Ht.

Lately, I’ve been opening my prayer/mediation times in this manner, using the Lord’s Prayer from the top chakra down to get the energy channels moving and connected to Spirit. Sit comfortably, eyes closed. To better feel the energy fields, lift one hand above your head about six inches, point your fingers toward the crown of your head and slowing circle. You may feel a slight light-headedness, perhaps a tingling sensation. Move your hand to the corresponding area of the body as you travel to each chakra center, continuing a gentle circular motion.

Our Father who art in heavenwhite light above the head. Imagine a God finger of light entering the crown of your head, beaming a high frequency of healthy energy

Hallowed be thy namepurple light beaming into the forehead. Circle your hand a few inches in front of your forehead. Picture radiant amethyst light entering the forehead, stimulating the pineal gland and warming the brain, eyes, sinuses, and skull. This is where divine connection can enter the mind with heavenly thoughts. Quiet the mind and experience only the present moment.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be doneblue light to the throat. Circle your hand before your throat, picturing an exquisite blue shaft of light beaming into the neck and mouth. This chakra represents our power of speech. We call things into being. Claim health and personal empowerment. Imagine the thyroid gland basking in the blue light, absorbing healing energies to regulate all the systems of the body.

On earth as it is in heavengreen light opens the heart. Circle the open palm over the heart, imagine emerald green light sending divine healing and love to the heart chakra. The heart connects with the Creator and loved ones with very real etheric bonds. Emotional wounds can impair the ability to open the heart chakra and lead to a sick physical heart. Imagine a green laser of light opening a healing portal in the chest. See healing light cleansing and strengthening the heart and lungs.

Give us this day our daily breadyellow light feeds the stomach. Circle the palm in front of the stomach, imagine a sun yellow light sending spiritual nourishment. It’s here we feel hungry for physical food, but we can also feel an emotional ache in the pit of our stomachs. Healing yellow light feeds both the physical and emotional needs of the stomach and digestive organs.

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.orange light below the belly button. Circle an orange light, soothing the deepest regions of the gut and bowels. This is the area we store guilt and grievances. Unforgiveness of self and others creates deep-seated life-long illness. Lift old grudges and regrets to the orange light. Let them go. Ask for divine help to forgive and forget. Feel the healing frequency of orange light restore intestines and the vital organs of the digestive system.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evilred light to the sexual centers. Red is a highly stimulating light frequency. The area of sexual energy can generate the highest ecstatic connection for human love or the greatest depths of violence and fear. Use the red light to heal memories of sexual abuse or shame. Ask for a transformation of red light to symbolize love and creativity. It is the place of new birth. Radiate healing red light to regenerate reproductive organs.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory foreverrun the energy into the earth down for grounding. Now imagine all the colored lights and energy swirling around and through the body. See white light entering the crown, down the body, and traveling through the feet into the ground, connecting heaven and earth.

AmenAnd so it is. Feel the whole body light and filled with Source energy.

Click through to YouTube and join me for a session of healing energy as I lead you through opening your chakras with the Lord’s Prayer.

*********

Visit the Dana Taylor Books and Bio Page