My Home Town

There used to be a few esoteric shops in Reading, witchy and crystal clad. There used to be a few holistic festivals too, but they are almost all gone, apart from a few, Stardust is a good one.

Reading’s spirituality has gone. It’s like Reading has experienced soul loss. Is its chakra has been blocked? Maybe its ley lines have been crossed? Or maybe its aura has been shattered, I don’t know what has happened, but it has.

Fortunately, something has shifted, people are coming of the wood work, psychics, healers, reiki masters, shaman, artist, visionaries. The Winter Giant visited Reading last Christmas. Something magical happened, just for a while, we stepped into the mythic. A tale of welcoming with open arms and an open heart, a story of compassion and giving and love. It was beautiful.

 Winter Giant

Reading prison is now closed. It is, unfortunately, famous for holding Oscar Wilde. He imprisoned for being gay, so I am glad its closed for that very reason. But now, in his honour, it's open to the public as an art house. More interestingly, I have recently discovered that we have a hidden, lost King.

I went for a walk with my son today in Reading’s town hall museum, and found out that there is a lottery funded team, searching for the lost King.

Henry I

Reading Abbey was one of the wealthiest monastic houses in England, and one of northern Europe’s most prestigious religious centres. It was founded by Henry I, who was the son of William the Conqueror, in 1121. It later became his resting place in 1135. After his death in Normandy, his body was brought to Reading Abbey, sewn into a bull’s hide. He was laid to rest in 1136 somewhere in the grounds, and to this day, he still lays there. 

During the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, the Abbey was destroyed, leaving only a few remains. There is no record of where Henry I and his wife, Queen Adeliza are buried, only that it was in Reading Abbey, beneath a great altar.

Reading Abbey and its surrounding areas was once Readings spiritual hub, its connection to Spirit. As I watched my son run around the Forbury Gardens, it dawned on me that it still can be, a new alternative, esoteric, all inclusive, multi-faithed spirituality, we’ve just forgotten about it. 

I truly feel that we can rekindle the spiritual fire of Readings heart.

Readings Chalice, womb of our Mother Earth, Font of Forbury Gardens. Kai and I placed flowers in the water as an offering to her.

We have a stone circle, filled with water and life and all sorts, standing beautifully is a statue of shells, symbol of the Divine Feminine.

We have a mountain, Forbury Hill, we have a huge stone cross sat erect and proud, facing the entrance to the Abbey ruins, a powerful symbol of the Divine Masculine.

We have a grotto, a womb tomb, flanked by the two holy thighs of our Mother.

We even have a fairy tree, mulberry I think. An ancient and twisted and beautiful tree, a temple of nature and the nature spirits. I offered a ribbon to the branches.

The garden is guarded by a great lion, Ottorongol, Hatun Puma, Chocchinchay, the Golden Jaguar. He is a protective entity; The Lion of Reading.

When our lost King is found, I believe that a new emergence of spirituality in Reading will arise. This is my prophecy.

Reading Abbey

We already have Reading Festival, an Abbey, and now a lost King just like our King Arthur, lets create a Glastonburyesc city, a haven of spiritual freedom. Apologies to Reading Borough Council if the Forbury Gardens are over run with hippies and the trees covered in ribbons and fairy offerings, there are there, hiding, one day they will return, I’m sure of it, just like our lost King.

A Letter to America

Dear America.

Firstly, I would like to say, that just like here in the United Kingdom, I know you are not ALL the same, you are not all crazy arse white people, and no, I’m not black. 

I am a shaman, my tradition is with the Q’ero people of the Andes mountains, so I feel energetically linked to the Americas, otherwise I’d be like everyone else in the world, just watching the Merican shit hit the fan.

As a shaman I see shadows, I see reflections in the world of my own inner landscape. In that I also see a reflection in America to our own craziness (thankfully not as crazy/deluded/corrupt as you guys) in England, so know that what I say has some reality in our own culture too, sadly, I know how beautifully fucked up we are.

Over the last few decades you have changed. The once Great America is now a chaotic cesspool of political drama, religious dogma, disrespect, disillusion and disconnection. Racism is the same, if not worse, than it’s ever been, and it’s all being stirred by the dirty hands of people with unquenchable, insatiable desires for power.

We follow you in our pop culture, film, drama, our young idolise you guys. The thing is, you are us. (funny how you call yourselves U.S, us) You are us for another reason, you are our ancestor’s children, you are our relatives; we, Europeans. You left us back in the 1600s because of us, we fucked up. You left because of religious persecution, punishment, we didn’t know what to do with you. Some of you left for other reasons, unfortunate reasons. Some left for adventure, seeking new possibilities! We waited, you didn’t come back. It was a dark time for us too, we made huge mistakes, our ancestors made huge mistakes; we still are making mistakes.

So for that I’d like to ask for forgiveness, I’m sorry.

The American dream is dead, it’s more like an American horror story, a nightmare, what happened? Watching you is like watching history, you are stuck in a time loop. You are destroying the homes and lives of those who You took the land off of in the first place, just like you did when you arrived. You are building walls of hate against the very neighbours in the south that offer their food and services to you, just like you did when you arrived. You are segregating, abusing and murdering our black brothers and sisters, and their children, OUR children. They are being killed by a massively corrupt police society, seem familiar doesn’t it? What’s next? Civil wars? Assassinations? World war?

The place YOU have named America is not yours, it never was, you stole it from the native people of the land; did you even ask them what their land is called? Destruction, murder, genocide, rape. Not just of the land and its animals, but ALL the people. The dreamscape that you hold so dear is crumbling because it’s built on lies, corruption and violence. The bones of these atrocities are sticking out of the ground, tripping up all who walk across it. Some see it, I have friends who I know who live there who see it, and they are those who give us all hope. But many do not. It’s time to open your eyes.

The hidden shame and guilt is seeping up through the veins of American culture and its people. Instead of acknowledging it, making it right, making peace with it, you ride it, buy it, bury it, eat it. You blow it up, shoot at it, inject it, hang it, control it, rape it, abuse it, laugh at it, sell it, bludgeon it, vote for it, until it goes away. But don’t worry, you are not alone, we in Europe have our own shit to deal with.

End your morbid obsession with external sexualised beauty, it’s not that beautiful. Stop using Jesus’s name to justify hatred, judgments and segregation, he was not white. He was a brown skinned Semite Jew, who never spoke a word of English. He fed the poor and needy, and took care of the homeless, he defended woman, and preached love and acceptance. He also never conformed to any religious or political views. I’m pretty sure he would be against guns too; another fucked up obsession, seriously, get rid of them.

You fail to see that the bad guys and villains, like in your movies, don’t all talk with a terrible British accent. They are not the Russians, nor are they the Koreans, they are not the Mexicans or Muslims, they are also not black people, or strong women with pussy’s ripe for the groping, nor are the LGBT community. I’m afraid it’s an inside job.

Clinton or Trump? I have seen the timelines of both, both will cause pain and suffering, both will cause more of the same, the circle will keep turning, never evolving into a spiral. We always get what we’ve always got if we continue to do what we have always done, or thought, or voted for.

I see America as a police state, there is no freedom. One day America, you will be great again, it has vast potential. But this will only come with reconnection to those you have segregated, it will only come when you give back the land to its true inhabitants, it will only be great again once everyone is free to think and feel and love and chose as they wish. Everyone deserves to be held in the arms of the Sacred.

Those who are awake, teach your children to love and forgive, teach them acceptance and that they are perfect exactly who they are. But more importantly, listen to them, let them teach you!

Yours hopefully,

A Concerned citizen of our planet.

The Bearded shaman