This Sunday, 11 May, is Mothers’ Day in China. Just like here, it’s a day for families to celebrate the strength and love that mothers bring into our lives.

And this year, it’s a chance for us to reach out to some particular mothers in Beijing who have experienced the worst thing a mother could endure - the death of their own children, at the hands of their own government.

They call themselves the Tiananmen Mothers. They are a group of predominantly Chinese women who never wanted to be activists. But when their children were killed in the violent military crackdown on the Chinese pro-democracy movement in 1989, everything changed.

All they ask is the freedom to publicly mourn without harassment, the release all those who remain in prison in connection with the 1989 protests, full public debate about the events and an independent inquiry into what happened on those dark days almost 19 years ago.

All they want is justice. Led by Ding Zilin (who was nominated for a Nobel peace prize), they face great personal risk every time they speak out. They’ve suffered detentions, repeated interrogations, and prolonged house arrest. It’s a long, dangerous, and all too lonely campaign.

We can never restore what they’ve lost. But this Mothers’ Day in China, we can show these brave women just how big their global family really is, and how much we appreciate their courageous stand for justice.

If you take a moment to fill out a Mothers’ Day card online, we’ll deliver your comments directly to the Tiananmen Mothers by Chinese Mothers’ Day. Just click below to complete and send your card:

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/china/mothers.asp

This Mothers’ day in China, let’s take a moment to show the Tiananmen mothers that on this day — which has become so bitter sweet for them — they are not forgotten. They are never alone.
Please fill out your card today.

Thank you,

Kate Allen
Director, Amnesty International UK

Spiralling are now stocking Himalayan Singing Bowls. We have a range of sizes and weights in stock, each one supplied with a beater, and sounding beautiful.

Himalayan “singing” bowls date back to around the 6th century BCE and were traditionally made from seven metals (copper, tin, silver, nickel, iron, zinc and gold). Most modern day bowls are made in Nepal (beware of bowls claiming to be antique, or from Tibet, as it is illegal to export these items).

Bowls are played by running the supplied stick around the outer edge of the bowl, making it vibrate. Bowls have a lovely resonance and the “song” can last for a long time after you stop playing. Every bowl has its own unique song, often rich with harmonics. By measuring its main note, it is possible to tell which chakra a particular bowl is aligned with.

Bowls are great tools for meditation and can induce a very relaxed state. They are also used extensively in sound therapy and chakra balancing, as well as being very useful for space clearing and cleansing.
www.spiralling.co.uk/shop

Om Shanti

At some time or other, most of us suffer from insomnia. Perhaps just for the odd night or two, or maybe for months on end. In fact, it’s estimated that one in four adults will suffer from insomnia at some point.

Traditionally, insomnia has been treated with sleeping tablets and other medicinal remedies. But with the move away from drugs treatments, is there another way?

I believe there is, and I’m looking for some help to prove it. The ability to sleep is connected with brain waves; if you haven’t got the right sort of brain waves (alpha waves), then it’s unlikely you’ll be able to sleep. Most of us achieve this, but sometimes something stops us developing these alpha waves and sleep remains out of reach.

I’m conducting some research into insomnia using sound therapy. I believe that the instruments I use can help remove the obstacles to sleep and allow these alpha waves in. If you currently suffer from insomnia, and have done for six weeks or more (on at least several nights in any one week), and would like to try an new approach, then please get in touch. The treatment is completely non-invasive - I use the sound, vibration, energy and frequency of instruments for the treatment, so don’t need to touch you at all. To take part in the research, you will need to be able to get to Nottinghamshire for treatment for one hour a week for three consecutive weeks, or live within an hour’s drive of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

For more information on sound therapy in general, please visit my website.

For more information about my research into insomnia, please email me.

Beltane is the Spring fertility festival which takes place on May 1^st. At this time of year everything in the natural world is in growth and this is the time to celebrate union, fertility, love and sexuality.

It is the festival which celebrates the Heiros Gamos, the sacred union between Horned God and the fertile Goddess. In days gone by, it was re-enacted by men and women to ensure the fertility of the land. People made love in the woods and forest, slept outdoors and watched the sunrise. They walked the labyrinths and mazes and dressed in green to honour the Earth at this time.

The Horned God is usually known as Herne the Hunter, the wild man of the forests. Herne is transformed into a white stag, and legend has it that he chased the Goddess who turned into a white deer. The Horned God has also been depicted as Pan, the Goat God, Zeus the Bull and Amen the Ram.

Over time, these depictions of the Horned Lord were turned into the Christian version of the Devil, whose lustful nature gave birth to the slang word “horny”, although the old German word for “lust” actually meant “religious joy”.

The God and Goddess become spiritually transformed through their union and the combination of their energies brings fertility to the land.

Celebrations included dancing the Maypole, a symbolic dance showing the entwining of male and female energies. Garlands of May blossom were used to decorate houses. A Beltane fire was lit at this time, all other fires in village having been extinguished. The participants jumped the Beltane fire to symbolise cleansing and purification. A couple jumping the fire together were pledging themselves to each other. Cattle would be driven through the smoke for protection and fertility. At the end of the evening, villages each took a burning stick from the fire to re-ignite their fires at home.

Another common celebration at this time of year was (and still is!) Handfasting. Handfasting is a form of sacred marriage which originally lasted for a year and a day, and would be renewed at the end of this time if the couple both wished it. These days, a Handfasting can be fore the traditional year and a day, or for as long as the couple wish, and it is popular to leave the time open, so that the union can continue for as long as it works.

This festival of sexuality was repressed by the Church and turned into a celebration virginity and purity. The May Queen came to represent not a fertile, sexual Goddess, but a young, chaste maiden. The repression of sexuality continued, and has resulted, even today, in many people finding it difficult to find a way to celebrate this festival without embarrassment or the fear of causing offence.

You can focus on the fertility of the land, if this suits you – this is certainly an issue in today’s world. Or you can use this festival to explore sexuality and love. Our Beltane meditation CD does just this – a guided visualisation which takes you to witness the sacred union between the Horned Lord and his Goddess, and then invites you to explore your own sexuality, and how you feel about it. We also several other items which are symbolic at this time – Pan Pipes, Beltane incense (hand blended in Glastonbury), statues of Herne the Hunter and of course, of the Goddess in her many guises.

Recently, I posted an article about the “artist” Guillermo Vargas Habacuc who considered starving a dog to death to be a work of art.

There has been outrage the world over about this act of cruelty, and certainly the number of hits An Ode to Spirit has received for that article suggests that people simply will not accept depravity such as this, no matter what the perpetrator chooses to call it.

I’m posting about it again to call all members of Facebook to join the group speaking out against this man. Facebook members can join the group here but if you’re not yet a member of Facebook, you can sign up here (it’s free!) and then join the group.  Don’t let him get away with this cruelty - he’s been asked to repeat it at the Central American Biennial of Art later this year.  You can sign the petition against that here.