Tag: Spiritual Service

Welsh Light

I was very happy to receive a message from the lovely Angela Brigenshaw, who runs Aberaeron Spiritualist Church, with her husband David. Angela asked me if I would like to serve the church, for a divine service on the Saturday, and for a demonstration of trance on the Sunday. I agreed to serve as I love serving Welsh churches, my late father was Welsh. So in my own little way serving Welsh churches, is my way of remembering and paying my respects to my dad. Myself and Angela agreed the dates for both demonstrations to be the 3rd and 4th August 2024. Angela also invited me to stay with her and David whilst I was in Wales, this was a welcome invitation as it would save me the cost of a hotel. Angela also asked if I would like to serve The Ray of Light Spiritualist Church, up the road from them in Llechryd, I said I would if they would like me to serve. During the following week the lovely Linda Mulvey contacted me from The Ray of light giving me a booking for a demonstration of mediumship 6th August 2024. Angela told me I was welcome to stay with her and David until after the demonstration at The Ray of Light. Angela told me they have trouble getting mediums to travel that far to serve them, the least they could do was put the mediums up, who are prepared to travel to them, I thought this was very kind of Angela and David to accommodate we circuit mediums who serve their church.

I arrived at Angela and David’s home at around 4.45pm 02/08/24, after a nearly 6 hour journey from my home near Winchester. I encountered traffic jams on the M4, which delayed my arrival, I was glad to not be driving, I was given a warm welcome, we had dinner and caught up as I have not seen Angela and David for several years. The next morning the sun was shining, it was a beautiful morning, enhanced by the beautiful welsh countryside and mountains. I took a picture of the landscape as I felt blessed to be there, we had breakfast and I relaxed then meditated to prepare for divine service at 2.30pm. Aberaeron Spiritualist Church is around 200 yards from the seafront, the energy of the sea provides beautiful energy, we arrived at church and Angela and David set about preparing church for divine service, apart from the church they have a separate hall adjacent to the church, which they use as a tea room with table and chairs and a kitchen area, they also use the tea room for workshops which is a great use of the space, and helps promote the family and community of spiritualism, the energy in both buildings was amazing. I felt very comfortable to be working there, to my surprise and delight the church was well attended, also present were Ray and Tina Abbot who I had been Facebook friends with for several years, it was great to meet them in person.

At 2.30pm the service began, for the inspired address I read out my poem far away. talking about grieving for the loss of a loved one, and how we as spiritualists should not hang on to the pain of grief , but to let our loved ones go with love to continue their eternal journey. but also to remember the blessing our loved ones in spirit were to us to help ease the pain of grief and the physical loss of our loved ones. A lady said to me before service, that they talk about some strange things at church but at 2.30pm they will be spiritualists. I added in the address that spirituality is a 24/7 thing not just when we are at church, and that I have the same human frailties as everyone else, but as a spiritualist I know that I am connected to something far greater than myself, that guides me in life, and that I endeavor to put the teachings of spirit into practice in my daily life, to turn my negatives into positives and the through the teachings of spirit. I had been on a journey of self discovery, which to me is true spiritual development, and that all people are in a state of spiritual development whether they are aware of it or not.

It came the time for me to demonstrate mediumship to bring messages from loved ones and life guidance from spirit. I must say I felt my link with spirit was not as strong as it usually is, and felt like I was struggling to connect, note to self do not dink a bottle of wine the night before service. but as the demonstration went on the energy of spirit got stronger and stronger, to my relief and the mediumship flowed, I still felt that I had not worked very well. David told me after service that people enjoyed the way I presented mediumship and were impressed by some of the evidence given, after a cup of coffee and a slice of gateaux, myself and David set the church up ready for my demonstration of transfiguration and trance the following evening. Angela and David very kindly took me out for dinner at a local restaurant, we had a lovely meal, then went back their home and a early night was had by all. Aberaeron is a beautiful welsh seaside town and Aberaeron Spiritualist Church has a beautiful energy within, and I must say the congregation were lovely, with the sunshine I feel truly privileged to have served there.

With Ray and Tina Abbot

Transfiguration~Trance Aberaeron Spiritualist Church 04/08/24

It was a lazy morning rising around 10am we had coffee and toast , myself and Angela and David were sharing stories from the platform circuit. I enjoy talking with other mediums, about our experiences on the circuit, I could feel my spirit guides energy building around me I knew it was time to be quiet. So I went to my bedroom played my farm town game, and watched a couple of documentaries on YouTube. I always get apprehensive before a trance demonstration, as it is a step into the unknown and very experimental, it was good to be in my own little world for awhile, Angela cooked a marvelous Sunday lunch, then it was time to meditate and shower to prepare for service. We got to Aberaeron Spiritualist Church at 5.15pm, myself and David had set up the cabinet the day before, so all that needed to be done was play my Enya greatest hits CD and switch the red light on to build spirit energy for the demonstration. Angela made me a cup of coffee, I sat in the tearoom quietly and asked Angels, Spirit Guides, and Loved Ones. To draw close to me to prepare for trance, it came the time to walk across to the church, to my surprise and delight the church was full of people 48 in total, David had to put out extra chairs to accommodate everyone.

I gave the sitters a brief spiritual history of myself, and I explained how transfiguration and trance works, then I discussed health and safety rules with them. 1. please turn your phones off as loud noise, will bring me back to my consciousness with a thud, I told them noise had happened before in three previous trance sits, Each time I was ill taking me a week to recover. 2. please do not touch me as it will bring me back into my consciousness hard. 3. if you need to leave for any reason, or you feel ill please raise your hand, and David will ask my spirit guides to step back, when I am back you can leave. 4. Please use the loo now as you will not be able to use the loo during the trance. I opened in prayer and began my countdown into trance state, as I began my countdown, I heard a voice clearly within my mind saying the name John, my spirit guide Li said to me their is a lady here who needs to hear from John. I continued my countdown to trance state.

My consciousness had arrived within my sacred space, a place of unconditional love, it was time to enjoy the peace and connection of this sacred space, awaiting my spirit guides to bring me back into my physical and material consciousness. After awhile I found myself half in my physical consciousness and half in my sacred space, David had asked my spirit guides to step back and allow me into consciousness, as a lady was feeling claustrophobic and wanted to leave, once she had left and David went back to his seat. I was taken back to my sacred space, in no time at all I was back in a half in and half out state, this time a young man was spooked by the church being in darkness except for the red light upon myself and needed to leave. Once the room had settled again I was taken back into my sacred space. and then a third time I was called back because a medium needed to use the loo and several ladies joined her. This time I was not in a half in half out state, I was more or less back into my physical consciousness, I could feel the spirit of a man on the outskirts of my aura, I told the congregation that as I was going into trance I was given the name John, and spirit guide Li had told me that there is a lady here that needs to hear from John. A lady at the back of the church put her hand up saying my husband is John, I endeavored to give the lady a message from John but his energy was very weak, I invited the lady to sit in front of me. As I knew John was desperately trying to communicate with her, but I could not go back to my sacred space, as by this time through the disturbances to the trance, had greatly weakened the energies and my spirit guides with John stepped back, I apologized to the congregation for not being able to continue, explaining why I could not continue, also that I had never before been called back out of trance state before. I closed the meeting in prayer.

I really felt that I had let people down by not being able to continue the trance, but it ended due to extraordinary circumstances by people needing to leave, due to sickness, becoming frightened, or a medium having a weak bladder, the feedback given from some of the people in attendance was largely positive, they witnessed transfiguration, felt the healing energies being generated from the cabinet, saying they felt better than when they walked in. some gaining insight from the teaching given through me by spirit guide Li. All in all I am happy with what was given by spirit through me in trance state. I am very aware that I need to learn the lessons from that trance session, as demonstration of trance to the general public is fraught with danger, and I think spirit made those lessons apparent in that meeting. In future my trance demonstrations will be ticketed to a maximum of 20 people, they will also be vetted as to their physical and mental health, and they are not of a nervous disposition. Also that they are genuine seekers of spiritual truth. I thank spirit for the lessons learned.

Divine Service Ray of Light Spiritualist Church. Llechryd 06/08/24

Another lazy morning with a lovely breakfast, with spiritual discussion with Angela and David. I went to my room to play my farm town game, and to watch YouTube videos as a way of relaxing before service, I had done most of my packing as I intended to go home after service at Llechryd, as there were road works on the severn bridge causing several miles of tailback, leaving Wales at night time I would avoid the tailback at the severn bridge. Angela cooked a marvelous lunch of lemon chicken pasta and salad, it came the time to shower meditate and load the car ready for service and my journey home. It is only a shot drive to the coracle hall Llechryd, I followed Angela and David in their car, arriving there at 7.10pm, there is a petrol station opposite the hall I took the opportunity to fill up with petrol for my journey home, and parked at the coracle hall. The Lovely Linda Mulvey who runs The Ray Of Light Spiritualist Church, welcomed me to her church, which is a small room within the coracle hall, to my surprise and delight the small room was full of people, most of whom I recognised from the two demonstrations at Aberaeron Spiritualist Church.

The lovely Tina Abbot introduced herself as she was going to be the chairperson for the evening, a gentleman was handing out small scrolls of paper, my scroll read, “Live your life like a candle burning bright with love, so others can see the love in themselves. AR” I thought I must include that in my address, for the address I read out my poem Go I, talking about freewill and grace, and that we should have grace for others as we all make mistakes and do bad things. Having grace for others to me is all about true spiritual development of the soul, I read out the spiritual saying I had been given, I spoke about self love and how spirit need us to shine our inner love light to all. It came the time to give messages from loved ones guides and angels, the messages were positively received, the mediumship was called to time, after notices and closing prayer, I chatted with a few people thanking them for coming to my services, the feedback about the services I am pleased to say was positive. I gave Angela and David my heartfelt thanks for their amazing hospitality and spiritual chats. Without them the three services could not have taken place, as going home after each service would have been logistically impossible and expensive. I can honestly say it has been a real privilege, to demonstrate at Aberaeron Spiritualist Church and Ray Of Light Spiritualist Church. The hospitality I received, the warmth of the welsh people I met, and the beautiful welsh countryside, I left Wales 9.30pm and arrived home 02.10am.

With Linda Mulvey Angela and David Brigenshaw
With Rosyn Deksnis

THOUGHTS

It warmed my heart to see the high level of dedication that Angela and David Brigenshaw, and Linda Mulvey, have in running the Aberaeron and Ray Of Light Spiritualist Churches. It was refreshing to be in the company of dedicated spiritualists, spirit need dedication and commitment not only from we mediums and healers, but also those dedicated and selfless people who run the churches, who keep the doors of the churches open. to facilitate the spiritual seeker, through these dedicated people welsh light shines brightly for all who seek spiritual truth. It was also refreshing to see a mixture of age groups in both churches, hopefully the youngsters will carry the light of spirit into the future, when we have passed into the higher realms, whilst it was a privilege to serve both churches it was also massive a learning curve for me.

There was discussion about how ignorant people have become about spirit communication, and I agree the most haunted tv program and the ghost hunting business that sprang from it, coupled with celebrity and showbiz spiritualism, has done a lot to damage peoples perceptions of mediums and spirit communication, and spiritualist churches. People are ignorant due to a lack of knowledge being shared, about how spirit communication works, and the spiritual development that is necessary on both sides of life, to achieve accurate and meaningful spirit communication. Not only to provide evidence of survival after physical death, but also to give messages of guidance healing and comfort to those who need it, also allowing spirit guides to share the truths of eternal life, to help us develop new ways of thinking being and doing, raising consciousness to help better our lives and our eternal path.

Every time I demonstrate mediumship now, I ask people not to stare at me with a blank faced, or to start gurning at me with arms folded when receiving a message from spirit. As this is very unsettling for the medium and the spirit communicator, I usually remind them that I have done a days work, and travelled however many miles to be there, and the fact is I am getting petrol money, it is not a celebrity show where they have paid a lot of money to get in, so I tell them there is nothing in it for me I am there to bring spirit to them. All we need from them when they get a message, yes, no, or I do not understand. So I can ask spirit for clarification on what they are giving me, so that the receiver of the message can identify the spirit communicator and the information being given. Once upon a time we did not need to tell people this, but more and more mediums and chairpersons, are having to tell congregations at every service, to turn their phones off and to answer yes or no or I do not understand when receiving a message. Back in the day there were only spiritualist churches, which attracted the genuine spiritual seeker, now mediums are demonstrating in pubs and trying to get theatre gigs, this adds to the showbiz mentality of those who attend right I have paid my money now I want to be entertained, and all this belittles genuine mediums and the development put in by both sides of the veil to achieve good spirit communication.

As discussed above, the transfiguration and trance sit at Aberaeron Spiritualist Church, was a massive learning curve for myself Angela and David, inviting the general public many of whom had never been to a transfiguration and trance demonstration was a mistake. on all our parts. my spirit guides told me that the church would be full, but we did not expect 48 people, Aberaeron is a small church so with 51 people in total the church was bursting at the seams. As discussed above the transfiguration and trance was cut short, due to 3 stoppages in the demonstration, I am pleased the people who needed to leave or use the loo, followed the safety protocols put in place, by raising their hands, David asking spirit to step back, worked but in the end spirit energy was insufficient to continue, I decided the next day after discussion with Angela and David, that I would limit future transfiguration and trance sits to 20 people and make it a ticketed event, to attract the more genuine spiritual seeker to attend. With stricter controls in place, I feel strongly we need to educate people about spirit communication and how it all works, so these problems do not arise again, and to teach people that a demonstration of mediumship, is not Saturday night at the london Palladium. Whilst my time in Wales was a privilege and a total blessing, I am thankful for the lessons learned.

Stephen Rowlands 07/08/24

Finding Balance In 2022

As I sit contemplating my yearly boxing day blog, I am wondering were to start, going back to October 2021. I was working as a relief worker for Two Saints at their Acton Lodge Hostel, a support worker had resigned due to his ill health giving a month’s notice, as a replacement had not been found, the manager asked me if I would like to work in the community rather than being hostel based. Working in the community would mean supporting clients in sublet accommodation, as well as clients in hostels awaiting sublet accommodation, the clients had previously been homeless suffering with drug, alcohol, and mental health issues. I jumped for this new opportunity as I wanted to do more to help clients, rather than day to day hostel duties. I explained to my manager that I had no experience of support work, but I would love to give it a try, as I hoped to become a full-time support worker, I had applied for the vacant position. this would mean I would have practical experience, and it would support my job application.

I feel I have learned important lessons during my time employed by Two Saints. I will discuss the lessons I learned throughout this blog. January 2022 started with me suffering with covid. Although I felt I had recovered enough to do my first service, which was a zoom demonstration of mediumship for Bognor Spiritualist Centre, the meeting went well although my voice became hoarse, and the meeting was called to time, fortunately before my voice gave out. A private reading with me was raffled, I was told lots of people had bought raffle tickets, because the reading would be with me, I know this sounds arrogant, but it made me feel good to know that my spirit team’s work, through me was touching heart’s helping people and making it’s mark.

I started out with a caseload of ten clients, and considered as a complex caseload, because of the client’s lifestyle, addictions, and mental health. I realise now as I am writing that I had bitten off more than I could chew, I started to realise that I had been thrown in the deep end. As a relief worker I was not entitled to travelling expenses, but I was expected to visit clients using my own car, and I had to get business insurance for my car, as at times I would have to take clients to professional appointments, such as doctors, dentists, and hospitals, or to the council, or to get benefit assessments, or to move clients from one property to another with their belongings. I was also not entitled to a company phone, as I could not give clients my personal phone number, this made things difficult, if a client wanted to phone me they had to leave a message at hostel for me, or if I needed to phone a client. I would have to drive back to hostel to phone them, or call hostel staff to call the client to give them a message from me.

In January 2022 I was interviewed for the role of support worker along with other candidates, I was unsuccessful in my application, and the job was offered to another candidate. I was a bit miffed as since October 21 I was working the vacant post without the correct renumeration, phone or training to do the job being asked of me, my manager asked me to do certain online training courses, but when I tried to do the training courses, I was not allowed to do them as I was still a relief worker. A week or so later I was told they could not employ the successful candidate in the community role, as she did not have a car or driving licence, she had started work at a hostel a bus ride from her home.

I was offered the support worker role. In hindsight I should have rejected the job offer, because it was clear I was second choice for the role, as a colleague reminded me a few days later. But I was happy as now. I would be working on a full-time basis, the working hours were 9am-5pm, which would allow me to earn a decent wage and accommodate my spiritual service, on the 7th February 2022 I started work aa a homeless recovery worker, not only did I have to manage my caseload, a new world of training had opened up for me, which meant I would lose alot of time to do training. I was working longer and longer hours to keep up with my caseload and the admin that comes with it, my predecessor had not done up to date support plans for the clients I had inherited from him, or arranged housing benefit for a client , which led to extra workload, with me asking lots of questions, as I had never dealt with housing benefits before.

It was at this point I realised I was becoming stressed, with my workload as I was working extra hours to keep up, also doing 3-4 services a week online and in person. I was not getting anytime for myself and quality time with my wife. I just seemed to be constantly working, the only respite I seemed to have was when it was time to sleep, as in the darkness of the night there was no expectation of me. and I could relax, at times I still had to meditate to relax enough to sleep, as to what I needed to do or worrying about what I may not have done was heavy on my mind, me and my wife had booked a 11 night cruise to the canary islands in March, which I was very much looking forward to, as I had never been on a ocean cruise before, and it would be a break from everything visiting new places, a time to rest and relax and spend time with my wife, who I missed as I was always working, and hoping to be inspired by the sea to write new poems.

My wife and I were very excited to travel to Portsmouth, to board our cruise ship the valiant lady 21/03/22. We were greeted with a champagne reception when we boarded, my wife and I had booked a rock star suite on deck 11 at the stern of the ship, we sailed later that day having a gorgeous steak dinner before bed time, it was an 80’s cruise and live entertainment was provided by Martin Fry of ABC, Toyah Wilcox, Annie Logan of Altered Images, and Carole Decker of T’Pau, and Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet. It was great to see them perform their hits live, over the cruise back in the day I loved all of my heart by ABC, and always wanted to see it sung live, so to watch Martin Fry singing All Of My Heart was truly my best highlight of the cruise, Veronica spent the first two days of the cruise in bed sea sick, to cut a long story short, the food was great and to a very high standard, the staff were wonderful, but other than the 80’s entertainment, there was not really much else to do on board the ship, apart from drink and lie on a sun lounger, there was also a blues band that entertained during the day in one of the bars.

Our cruise was struck by tragedy as a passenger had to be airlifted to hospital, due to a medical emergency, and we had to sail back a few hours so the helicopter could reach our ship, a man committed suicide by jumping overboard, he told his wife he was going to get some air as she was going to bed, his wife woke up 8 hours later to find that he had not returned to her, and a ship wide for him began, he captain made a tannoy announcement that the man was seen on cctv, jumping overboard and that no one else was involved, under maritime law we had to sail back to the man’s last known position, and search for him, we sailed back and the ship carried out a 100 mile search with the help of the French coastguard, once we had reached the search area me and Veronica and many passengers looked out to sea to see if we could spot him. The man was not found and an eerie silence fell upon the ship, our hearts going out to his wife and family.

Our cruise had been badly delayed, but it was no one’s fault the tragic circumstances for the delays, could not have been anticipated, it meant for me and Veronica that we spent a lot more time at sea watching movies in our suite, day trips were cancelled and our time in port was shortened, we did manage to visit Santa Cruz, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, and Lisbon. But basically it was just like being dropped off at the shops, in Tenerife me and Veronica walked around the shops and had coffee in a cafe, I remarked to Veronica “we could have done this in Eastleigh”. In Santa Cruz we hopped on board a coach trip that took us around the local sights and places of historical interest, with a very informative tour guide, that was a lovely day.

We landed back in Portsmouth 01/04/22, we saw the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier The Queen Elizabeth. to be bluntly honest I could not wait to get off the ship and go home, as I felt quite depressed this may sound very ungrateful, but due to spending a lot of time at sea with nothing much to do except eat and drink, and the tragedy that had occurred on board, coupled with the stress I thought I would escape from with this cruise, my mental health was way worse than before the cruise. I do feel blessed that me and Veronica could afford the cruise, but tragedy aside I guess cruising is not for me, tragedy aside my Veronica loved her time at sea and we may book another cruise in the future,

I returned to work 04/04/22 as expected I spent the first day replying to and actioning received emails, and visiting clients over the next 3 months my work load got heavier and heavier due to staff sickness, and being expected to cover hostel duties, as well as my own caseload and my off sick colleagues caseload, this I shared with another colleague who was also feeling stressed about he extra workload, I also had 2 complex clients that were being evicted and moved to another address, plus another client who I was trying to get sublet accommodation for, this involved a lot of report writing phone calls and emails, I was working longer and longer hours to keep up with my work load, coupled with doing 3-4 demonstrations of mediumship a week, I was not getting any adequate rest or quality time with Veronica, more than once I would get home at 7pm a quick meditate and tune in, and would be demonstrating mediumship by 7.30pm. During April 2022 I self published my collection of poetry titled Reflections on Amazon UK.

Over time I was becoming more and more stressed and anxious, as I could not keep up with my caseload and the workload it generated, I was also having to take time off to do training, which was giving me less time to focus on my workload. I had already resigned once before but was talked out of it by the service manager, things were coming to a head as I was becoming more and more stressed and dreading going to work each day, I took a weeks holiday in July, to decide what I was going to do with my life, and whether I could cope with stress and anxiety, and continue to do my job also realising the stress and anxiety, was getting harder and harder to rise above, and this would have a very negative effect on my spiritual service and marriage, my mental health was effecting my physical health as I was finding it very hard to sleep.

I unloaded my worries and woes onto my spirit guides, Red Cloud advised me if I did not find balance soon in my life, I would become to ill and I would be no good to anyone, and it would cut my pathway short, and they with me would not be able to achieve future service, I was reminded when I worked for an agency working around my spiritual commitments, I was rested and the household finances did not suffer, this was a lightbulb moment for me, although I realised Red Cloud was stating the obvious, my stress and anxiety was really affecting my train of thought, I decided to resign from Two Saints and go back to working for an agency so I could earn money have a better quality of life, and be well and rested enough for my spiritual service. 11/08/22 was my last day of working for Two Saints, it was a frantic day trying to complete the tasks my service manager and unloaded on me that day, I was full of stress and anxiety, my service manager asked me to return as a relief I told her I would think about it, a colleague asked me if I would come back as a relief, I told her with the way I was feeling I would not be back, staff had a collection for me, I received a lovely farewell card a bunch of sun flowers 2 bottles of my favourite wine sauvignon blanc and a box of maltesers, I was touched by their generosity.

My colleague Louisa invited me for farewell meal and drinks after work, I picked her up at the hostel she worked at and ranted about the events of the day, but I was touched she wanted to say a proper farewell to me, the sun was shining we sat in a pub garden had a drink and a meal which was most welcome I dropped her off in Gosport after the meal and went home, feeling relief about leaving my job and sentimental about my time with Two Saints, a curious mixture of emotions. I took the following week off to meditate and rest to get my stress and anxiety under control, midweek I went back to driver hire and signed on with them, a temp to perm job with meals on wheels was mentioned, I told them that the hours suited me and the hourly rate was good, I had a current DBS certificate so I start straight away, 22/08/22 I started work with meals on wheels and I have not looked back.

I am currently applying to work for meals on wheels full time on a 22 hour contract, which accommodates my spiritual service, I am renewing my DBS certificate once that is done I will be full time with meals on wheels, my stress and anxiety did not dissappear, it took a lot of meditation and self healing before I felt myself again, so I say to all take the time to be kind to yourself especially with mental health, myself and Veronica had a lovely week in York, to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary 07/09/22, sadly HM The Queen passed away 08/09/22, myself Veronica and the whole nation felt her loss as she was the only Queen we had known throughout our lives from birth, whilst in York I was invited to demonstrate trance healing at Harrogate Spiritualist Church, which was an honour and a blessing to do, 11 people received healing that night, also people saw loved ones and guides appear in the cabinet.

Spiritually I have got busier and busier, I am very blessed to say my 2023 diary is full, 2022 has taught me that I am not 30 years old anymore and I cannot do now what I did then, work full-time and do 3 demonstrations of mediumship a week, I have not got the energy I had 32 years ago, but hopefully now I have things in place, whereby I have balance in all areas of my life and the energy to fulfill all my commitments, I have also learned that I am not as mentally tough as I thought I was, and that self care with mental health is just as important as physical health.

Express The Great Spirit Within Throughout Your Life

How can a person become a medium and clairvoyant?

Every child of matter that seeks to serve the Great Spirit is a medium for the Great Spirit. Am I to say how he can evolve his souls. Has it not been told you so many times? Tell him to love his neighbour as himself. Tell him to serve, tell him to seek to uplift, tell him to do everything which will express the Great Spirit within him. That is the highest phase of mediumship. I cannot tell him how to become a clairvoyant, but I can tell him how to open the eyes of his soul so that the light of the great spirit can reach him. That is by the same method.

Silver Birch

I know the above quote from Silver Birch is old fashioned by today’s standards of equality, but it rings true for all of us whoever we are who call ourselves mediums, and spiritualists. Their is much more to mediumship than giving messages, today we focus on the mechanics of mediumship, how to receive and give messages from spirit, but turn our backs on the teachings of spirit love, kindness, compassion, to uplift all through our service to the Great Spirit. We must put into practice in our daily lives the teachings of spirit, for our own spiritual development and service, to all who are called to serve the Great Spirit as a medium, as Silver Birch says to serve and uplift is the highest phase of mediumship.

In modern times the great umbrella of spiritualism has become an industry, I feel it is a double edged sword, on the positive side the spiritual industry is creating greater awareness of a eternal universe and life, on the negative side the teachings of spirit are being shunned in favour of the mechanics of mediumship and fame and fortune, whereby I have heard mediums talking about developing their brand and the best way to market their brand, this to me is a total travesty of the teachings of spirit, that spirit have been giving us throughout the event of modern spiritualism, we have turned our backs on spirit teachings and the spiritual pathway of service to others, in favour of fame and money jealousy and ego are rife, amongst many mediums who try to topple another to be the top of the pile to gain stardom and fortune.

I have said for many years spiritual development is not for wimps, and this is very true through the teachings and practice of love, kindness, forgiveness, and compassion, our spirit evolves the light of the Great Spirit can reach us and becomes more powerful within us, we vibrate at a much higher level of awareness to spirit, and able to give much more through our mediumship, it is not easy to be loving kind and compassionate, to people who hurt us or we feel the weight of the world upon us, and this is where true spiritual development is happening, one of the greatest spirit teachings is to be loving, kind, forgiving, and compassionate, to those who vibrate at a lower level of understanding, people who are unkind selfish who will do anything and hurt anyone to get to where they need to be in life those who are violent hurt, maim, and kill. As I said spiritual development is not for wimps, but putting into practice in our daily lives the teachings of spirit, we can truly evolve as people and mediums.

There is much more to being a spiritualist than just attending a church or centre, to await a message from our loved ones, the teachings of spirit are there for all and given by spirit for us all with the intention of putting their teachings into practice, so that each and every soul can evolve to a much higher level of understanding and awareness, in doing so the collective consciousness of the human race evolves, and the light of the Great Spirit evolves, in todays spiritual industry the practice of mediumship has become more of a cabaret act, than the sacred practice of spirit communication, the 7th principle of spiritualism is eternal progress open to every human soul, by turning our backs on spirit guides and their teachings, and not promoting the teachings of spirit into practice, we are denying spiritual growth and evolution to all who come to spiritualist churches and centres, we as spiritualists should be learning from and developing with the teachings of spirit by making the practice of spirit teachings our way of life through service to others, to me the greatest way to express the Great Spirit within, is through spiritual healing, in whichever way we can heal and uplift others and our world.

To believe in something and not to live it, is dishonest. – Mahatma Gandhi

Stephen Rowlands 17/10/21

2020 A Year Of Change 2021 A Year Of Hope Seek And Ye Shall Find

At Christmas time 2019/20 I wrote about my optimism for the coming new year 2020, and without a doubt 2020 has been a massive year of change for us all, due to the covid19 pandemic, where many have lost their lives before their time, and many have suffered grief and loss throughout 2020, as a country the economy has suffered due to two national lockdowns, taking the country into recession, as I write this 25/12/20 it appears we are headed for a third national lockdown, which will cause the economy more harm and take the country as a whole into a deeper recession, The government has done its best to support people with the furlough scheme, and also support businesses that have had to close during lockdowns, but many have fallen into hardship losing jobs and livelihoods, placing greater pressure on social welfare and services also charities, the NHS has worked miracles to treat covid19 patients and to treat patients with other health conditions, although there were many NHS services cutback because of the covid19 onslaught, to help keep the NHS afloat whilst doctors and nurses were redeployed to treat covid19 patients.

My heart goes out to all who have passed into spirit due to the covid19 pandemic, and all people who are grieving and suffering financial hardship, and to those people who are suffering mental ill health, the lost lonely and confused the pandemic and lockdowns, have caused harm to peoples mental wellbeing, it is very hard as a nation to find something positive in 2020 due to covid19, I am a key worker as a security officer and a relief worker for a homeless charity, I was not financially affected by lockdown myself and my wife who is also a key worker as a carer in a care home, we managed to keep our heads above water and live comfortably, and we are very grateful for this blessing, I look to the lessons covid19 is teaching us as a collective human race, as I believe covid19 is teaching the human race it must change it’s ways, if the human race is to survive living on mother earth, during lockdowns the air became sweeter and far less polluted, as people used their cars a lot less only for essential travel, the animal kingdom flora and fauna flourished as they were far less impacted by the human race, we could feel mother earth healing beneath our feet, as far less industrial waste was being released into the atmosphere and buried in the ground, people had time to step back from the rat race the work/rest/play cycle and think about what is important in life, and the direction of their lives covid19 is teaching us the value of family friends and quality of life over money, and the joy of simplicity covid19 is teaching us we will not survive on mother earth if we the human race do not change our ways,

2020 effected my spiritual service and pathway as all my church bookings were cancelled, at the beginning of the March lockdown I thought to myself what shall I do now, my spirit guides came to me and said you will have serve us online now, people will still need guidance and the teachings of spirit to assist them on their path, I have always been against doing live readings on Facebook, as now due to the “Spiritual Industry” everyone is a medium, and becoming a medium is seen as a way of making money, and Facebook was and is choc a bloc with people giving free live readings, marketing their wares to get paid private readings, I decided to start doing Facebook lives in the format of a Spiritualist Church service, to accommodate prayer spiritual teaching and absent healing, and that spiritualist church goers would have a familiar online place to be as the churches were closed, many spiritualist churches started doing their services online, and to me and many this has been a very positive step by doing online services, it has brought spiritualism in the UK out to the world, I have been blessed to meet many people from all over the world whilst serving spirit doing online services, but Facebook live had its limitations and in the wisdom of Facebook they took the share screen facility away, making it very difficult for mediums to give messages from loved ones in spirit Angels and spirit guides, and as if by magic Zoom emerged an online meeting service, that enabled we mediums to give spiritual teaching and messages on a face to face basis, and to replicate spiritualist church services as best we can, in a meeting setting we can also play music during online services.

Through the power of Zoom I am now serving new churches and centers in an online capacity, but managed to actually demonstrate mediumship in three spiritualist churches between lockdowns, I was blessed to give charity readings via the Facebook group spiritual uplifting coming together as one, to raise money to pay for funerals for people who died prematurely due to covid19 run by my lovely friend Claire Louise Sutton, I have also given charity readings to raise money to train a hearing dog for medium Andy Musgrave, and to raise money for Stacy Cooper who has and will be undergoing major operations, and also to demonstrate mediumship monthly on the Slough Spiritualist Church Zoom demonstrations, alongside gifted mediums Charlotte Underwood Bill Hughes and Sarah Wawman, I realised people would get fed up with seeing my face all the time, in my Zoom meetings for my Facebook group Spirit Divine Centre, so I invited other mediums to demonstrate their mediumship for, Spirit Divine Centre and this has worked very well and I am thankful to all the mediums, who have demonstrated their mediumship now, I find myself running an online spiritualist centre I feel guided by spirit to do this, as I feel the need to share spiritual teachings as well as giving messages, so I have been doing Stevie’s GasBag a spiritual discussion group, and demonstrating transfiguration and trance to allow spirit guides to give their teachings, and to answer questions from spiritual seekers, on guidance from spirit we did our first trance distance healing via Zoom, which I am told a few people benefitted from it, so I intend to do more trance distance healing in 2021.

Dedicated to June Moore President Walton On Thames Spiritual Church

In the year of 2020 I have felt very guided by spirit, back in November 2019 it was a freezing night and I was grateful for my nice warm comfy home, and my nice warm cozy bed, I thought of homeless people and how they survive on a very cold night, and how blessed I am to have the comfort I have, but felt useless as to how I could help the homeless on this very cold night, so I prayed that the homeless find warm shelter and food, and that I may be used in someway to help the homeless, in December 2019 I was sitting by my laptop bored, and an incoming email pinged up it was from whiteknights recruitment, telling me that my CV matched there requirements and would I like to become a relief worker for the homeless, I was amazed by how they had found my CV, as for the past 30 years I have been working as a security officer, and my CV is on security job sites not social services sites, I can only say that my prayer had been answered, to be used in someway to help the homeless, I went along for interview that day, and to my surprise being a relief worker for the homeless, has a lot of similarities to my roles in security, my interview was successful and I applied for an enhanced DBS certificate to allow me to work with vunerable people.

In my 30 years as a security officer I have had experience of homeless people, from moving them on from buildings to arresting them for theft, to feed their drug and alcohol abuse, when I was a store detective, but have always felt compassion as to what must have happened to them, to live their lives in abject poverty addicted to drugs and alcohol some mentally ill, or a relationship breakdown rough sleeping on the streets, surely no one can choose that lifestyle realising drug and alcoholism mental illness homelessness, is a series of incidents in someones life that leads to a life on the streets, one memory comes to mind I was a store detective for a well known chain of chemists, a rough sleeper came into the store one day to pick up his methadone prescription, I kept an eye on him as the usual trick with drug abusers, was to collect their methadone then steal something from the store to sell, true to form this guy stole a sandwich a piece of cake and a soft drink, I arrested him outside the store, and took him to the security office I could see he was visibly hungry, on the search he had paperwork on him for housing and drug rehab also a couple of job applications, he told me he was trying to get his life back as heroin had destroyed his life, he was living on the streets and hungry my compassion kicked in, this guy was working very hard to turn his life around, he was not stealing for his drugs habit he stole because he had no money, I let him keep the sandwich cake and drink, this was against company policy as it could not be resold and would have been binned, but I let him keep the food as he was so obviously hungry, I escorted the young man off the premises sending him healing along the way, outside the store I shook his hand and wished him well for the future, he could not thank me enough for allowing him to keep the food.

In March 2020 my enhanced DBS certificate came through, and I started work as a relief worker at two saints hostels, my main duties are cooking and cleaning, wellbeing checks on residents, assisting support workers in their duties, updating daily logs, access control, and being a friendly supportive ear to residents, funding for the homeless has been cut in half due to government cuts, I felt as a spiritualist medium I could do something to raise funds for two saints, so they can continue their valuable work to get homeless people, off the streets and into homes and work, with drug and alcohol rehab and mental health support, I came up with the idea of organising a fundraiser for two saints, by doing an evening of mediumship, with fellow mediums Bill Hughes Charlotte Underwood and Sarah Wawman, but what to call the fundraiser I pondered, my spirit guide Red Cloud came to me and said, why not call it The Spirit Of Christmas as you have been guided into this work, and the teaching of Christmas is all about love kindness and compassion, I thanked Red Cloud a week or so later my medium friend Bill Hughes, started raising funds for Nightwatch his local homeless charity, it made sense to me to raise money for Two Saints and Nighwatch as myself and Bill were working for the same cause, myself Bill Charlotte and Sarah did The Spirit Of Christmas demonstration of mediumship 23/12/20, the total amount raised was £555.48, I looked up the angel number 555 and it told me to expect great change, that evening a colleague told me of a job vacancy nights on a 4 on 4 off basis at a homeless hostel, seeing this as a sign I applied for the job, which if I get it will provide financial security for myself and my wife, and give a deeper meaning to my service to spirit and expression of the will of the great spirit.

2020 has not been without personal tragedy as family friends and colleagues have passed away into the higher life, and I feel very blessed to have had those people in my life, and I wish them well and blessings to them for their journey in there new life, on a happier note myself and my beautiful wife Veronica celebrated our first wedding anniversary, on a lovely holiday we had in Torquay and with the money we saved when our cruise was cancelled, we refurbed our lounge including black out curtains, to accommodate transfiguration and trance, I wrote and self published my first book Messenger, about my early spiritual development and poetry, a real highlight for me was giving a talk on imagination via Zoom to The Unity Spiritual Community Of Salt Lake, I also started a home spiritual development circle that has been disrupted by covid19 but Zoom allows me to continue teaching, and in 2020 I have learned to focus on my spiritual path in life, and with the deepest gratitude I thanks all who have shared my path for the love friendship and the lessons, looking forward to 2021 I am looking forward to demonstrating transfiguration and trance for The Centre Of The Open Heart in San Francisco via FB live, and serving spirit in Churches and Centers via Zoom and hopefully in person, as one day covid19 will have run it’s course leaving its lessons hopefully learned, the future to me is the undiscovered creation and feel totally blessed that my path is guided by spirit, I say to all look forward seek and you shall find.

Stephen Rowlands 30/12/20