An Open Letter to #FreeNazanin
An Open Letter to Nazanin Ratcliffe
Update March 8, 2021– it’s been five years since I originally wrote this post. Nazanin served her first sentence and now faces new charges. Gabriella now lives in London with her father, Richard. The world still watches and laments the power plays between Iran and England, using this mother as a pawn. See the video below of many women sharing Nazanin’s poem, A Yard of Sky.
On April 3, 2016, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a 37 year old charity worker, was arrested without formal charges by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard at the airport. She was returning to the UK after a visit with her parents. The passport of her 22 month old daughter, Gabriella, was confiscated. Gabriella is in the custody of her grandparents. Richard Ratcliffe, Nazanin’s husband, is trying all avenues to obtain his wife’s release. She remains in prison.
Dear Nazanin,
I am one of the over 800,000 people around the globe who have signed the petition at Change.org requesting your release from prison in Iran. There are countless stories of social injustices and people wrongfully imprisoned. No one person can embrace or follow them all without going mad. However, your story ~ your face, your child, your parents, your husband ~ has become personal to me. It may be because you are near the age of my daughters and your darling Gabriella could be my grandchild. The idea of you wasting away in a prison cell, separated from your toddler and husband, Richard, trapped as a political pawn, hurts my heart.
I’d like to apologize to you, Nazanin. I’m very sorry that as part of the older generation, the one that was supposed to make the place a safer, kinder, more loving place, we have failed miserably. The fact that two countries, in this case Great Britain and Iran, find it acceptable to punish you for their political disagreements, is reprehensible. With all the technological achievements the human race has made in the past decades, we have come no closer healing old grievances. Consequently, your little girl receives no good answers as to why her mother has lost all freedoms. She is barred from seeing her father and can’t go home. The sadness and fears of her grandparents’ situation must be leaving an indelible impression.
And for what? Because Great Britain never paid an old debt to Iran? Or perhaps you are being held as a bit of collateral for a later political deal. The power players may think themselves very clever, but it’s a weary game that nobody ever wins. I’m sorry, Nazanin, that civilization hasn’t broken through old patterns and risen to something smarter, kinder, and compassionate.
But know this, Nazanin. I am praying for you every day. I am one of many. I know you’ve felt like giving up. You’ve even stopped eating, become sick and despondent. Everyday I send you ribbons of energy and color. In my mind’s eye I imagine a different color uplifting you. I hope that on a physical level those colors manifest themselves to you in a tangible form of encouragement.
I even pray for your captors, your guards and handlers. I pray they treat you well and offer you moments of grace. Of course, I include your husband, daughter, and parents in my meditations. They need all the strength they can muster.
This world is really a very small place. Rulers of little countries vying for power is ridiculous from a higher viewpoint ~ like watching one army of ants battle another army of ants on the jungle floor. I pray for the day that small-minded leaders give way to humans of higher intelligence offering positive creative solutions to the self-inflicted problems of the present.
It’s time to say, enough. The old ways have not served us well. Let us find new ways to create a better society for all the inhabitants of Planet Earth.
Until then, I will continue to pray for you, Nazanin. I hope you sense the Light overcoming the Darkness.
Sincerely,
Dana Taylor
Read More about Nazanin
Iran Hold Briton as Arms Deal Bargaining Chip
Nazanin Radcliffe Held Without Charge
Sign Petition at Change.Org
Opening Chakras with the St. Francis Prayer
Lord make Me an instrument of Your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine master grant that I may
Not so much seek to be consoled as to console
To be understood, as to understand.
To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
And it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it is in dying that we are born…
To eternal life.
The classic prayer associated with St. Francis of Assisi offers a path to peace and reconciliation. I offer it now as a twenty minute meditation to open energetic connection to the Divine.
Update: November 2023 My YouTube meditation Opening Chakras With the St. Francis Prayer has been opened over 6,000 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.
Bright Blessings– Dana
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Send Healing Energy to the Departed and Their Loved Ones
Part Three in a Series
A close friend of mine, Thom, lost his long-time partner, Wayne, three months ago. Wayne’s passing was not a really a shock. He was 79 years old and in frail health. As parting experiences go, Thom and Wayne were a more fortunate couple than many. They had spent months in seclusion avoiding Covid-19 in their lovely island home. Over the summer, Wayne had been strong enough to nurture his beloved vegetable garden. Thom posted pictures of Wayne’s impressive heirloom tomatoes for Facebook friends to see. One fateful fall morning, Thom got up early to head downstairs to make their coffee and let Jake, their dog, outside for a while. When he returned to their bedroom, he found Wayne collapsed and unconscious from a stroke.
For Thom, the day tilted into a surreal jumble of ambulances, medivac helicopters, phone calls to Wayne’s children, doctor updates and a dash to the hospital. By seven o’clock that evening, Thom and the family circled the hospital bed and said goodbye as Wayne took his last breath. In many ways, it was a beautiful passing. A gentle passing. For Thom, it was the beginning of the unavoidable journey through grief.
Power of Prayer Beyond Death
We’re living in an era of death and grieving. As a spiritually aware person and energy healer, I consider praying for the departed and their families an extension of the healing work I do. I firmly believe death is not an end but a transformation from physical to non-physical. It’s a birth. And I’ve been in enough birthing rooms to know it’s not an easy process. Certainly life outside the womb is a big adjustment for a newborn. I suspect there’s a corresponding birthing process to other dimensions that is equally taxing and sometimes traumatic. (See my post Conversations with the Afterlife.)
The classic books by Dr. Michael Newton, Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls, give us a glimpse of life-between-lives through hypnosis sessions with his patients. It appears the afterlife is far more complicated than a gentle reunion with loved ones or meeting an angel and dwelling forever in clouds and playing a harp. Our consciousness moves into other dimensions and often requires healing after traumatic passings or difficult lives. Even people who led fairly happy lives go through pangs of separation.
Healing prayers from those of us on the earthly plane aid in the transitional process. Prayers project power and frequency into other dimensions as surely as they do in our familiar three dimensional reality. My Supernal Friend, Sue, has a practice of praying for departed souls for a year after their transition. She asks for divine helpers to aid their adjustment and bring them peace for their grieving process of the life they left behind. Her efforts have been validated in messages from the other side through mediums. My husband, David, once came through unexpectedly to thank her for her prayers. His gratitude surprised us, because they’d shared an uneasy relationship on this side of the veil.
Healing for the Bereaved
Healing energy for people going through the very real wounds of grief is entirely appropriate. Humans truly bond at an energetic level. We create cords of attachment. Death severs those cords as surely as cutting off an arm. The term “broken heart” is literal. Deep grief can trigger a myriad of physical problems. (See article Physical Symptoms of Grief.)
Six months after my husband’s death, the grief hit me. A sadness I couldn’t ignore or simply talk away. I was fortunate to have a network of energy healers to help me through. Reiki treatments and massages from a gifted energy healer helped me rise out of the depths of my despair. David and I were granted one lucid dream encounter to say goodbye. (See Grace Through Grief: Six Months After My Husband’s Passing)
In this age of massive Covid deaths, helping people through grief is crucial. Reaching out to our friends and family with prayers, presents, cards and more is something we should all be doing.
The veil between this life and the next is becoming thinner all the time. Netflix has a new series entitled SURVIVING DEATH that explores the various avenues of afterlife communication. Interviews with mediums, ghost hunters,and reincarnation experts all raise tantalizing questions about life after death. For people suffering the worst throes of grief, it’s comforting to think their loved one still exists at some level. But there is no denying the loss of the physical presence. The departed are sorely missed. (Watch SURVIVING DEATH TRAILER)
Grief hit Thom hard. He lost thirty pounds the first six weeks. His normally ebullient personality couldn’t overcome the sadness. But, he is working through it with the help of a network of friends. The outpouring of flowers, gifts, phone calls and messages helped. Jake, their Australian shepherd, has been a comforting companion and faithful walking partner. Wayne’s grandsons visited to clean the garden and chop wood for the fireplace. Thom knows many people love him and wish him well. He will always miss Wayne, but in a million memories and otherworldly moments of awareness, he knows at some level, Wayne is always with him. He is now making plans for the future.
This era of sadness is also an opportunity for all of us to reach out and do something for someone else. Discover the power of your prayers to help others. By serving each other, we can rise out of our collective grief. Only then will we build a better future for ourselves and generations to come.
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Visit the Dana Taylor Books and Bio Page
Send Healing Energy Meditation
by Dana Taylor—Part Two in a Series
I’ve been asked how I send distance healing to others. Below is a teaching meditation to help people learn how to tap into the quantum fields and send healing energy. In my experience, it is an act of co-creation with Spirit. Those of us who devote time and energy to distance healing all develop our own ways of connecting and transmitting. Often a healing session will take on a life of its own, sending images, information, and instruction. They can be quite the Supernal Adventure! I hope you find this helpful.
Bright Blessings– Dana
Energy Healing in the Age of Covid
by Dana Taylor –Part One In A Series









