For most of us insomniacs the night is no gift. Even if we’ve done our best to follow a sleep-inducing routine, we may not fall asleep or stay asleep. Many of us sleep soundly until two or three a.m. only to awaken and lie tossing and turning until morning.
What psychotherapist Philip Carr-Gomm proposes in his latest book is a six-step program to cultivate better sleep. Based on the latest sleep science and tested through his sleep clinic, he offers understanding and relief. I’ve been following Philip since he was Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, a position he held for thirty-two years (1988-2020). I participated in his sleep clinic a few years ago, so was pleased to see the outcome of his studies appear in the form of this book.
What Philip proposes is a shift in our attitude toward sleep. Those of us who suffer from insomnia know that lying in bed worrying about all the things we have to do tomorrow and how wretched we’re going to feel, is the absolute worst thing we can do. The shift is this: Think of the night as a magical time when “the conscious and unconscious minds, the ego and deep self can cooperate to give you the fullest possible experience of life” (20.)
Sleep is not time wasted nor is the time we spend trying to sleep. Rather than suffer, we can transform it into a magical time using a set of tools and techniques. What occurs at night while your body is at rest is: healing, problem-solving, creativity, inspiration, and spiritual development. What Philip outlines in this book is a way to encourage and allow that shift in consciousness so the magic can happen.
His work is both scientific and spiritual. You will learn about your body but also about your mind and spirit. What does he suggest will lead to a generally good night’s sleep.
Spend time daily with Nature. Communing with trees, plants, and animals and spending time in the sun helps put our Circadian rhythms back on track.
Address your stress levels through daily practice: mindfulness meditation and visualization, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, sophrology, or yoga nidra. Philip has studied these practices and leads weekly meditations on “Tea with a Druid.”
Tend to your emotional life in whatever way works for you (counselling, journaling, dealing with your stuff, etc.)
Part 1 of the book is structured in six steps. Briefly:
Stop fighting and reframe the night. If you can’t sleep, then rest and meditate. This alone will induce a shift in consciousness. Something that I’ve researched myself is how meditation lowers the speed of our brainwaves from beta (jumpy, monkey mind) to alpha and theta (a blissfully creative state.) I use this technique to write novels.
Tune in to your personal sleep story, your patterns and nature, and your chronotype. Are you a lark or a night owl? When is your optimal bedtime?
Understand the body and how it’s affected by various substances. Here, Philip provides his opinions (based on facts) about what works, what might work, and what doesn’t work.
Create a sleep-inducing setting.
Experiment with techniques. He describes thirteen methods to either send you to sleep or into a creative mode.
Explore rituals and routines that work for you.
In Part 2, Philip answers most every question ever asked regarding sleep.
All in all, The Gift of the Night is a step forward in sleep consciousness. If you find one or two things that help you personally, it’s worth the cost. For me, it’s visualization and binaural beats; for you it may be hypnotherapy, EFT, or a daily yoga practice. Note that if you purchase the audio edition, Philip will read the book to you in his soothing British voice. For a sample, join him for “Tea with a Druid”—live-streamed every Monday at 8pm UK time (noon on the Pacific Northwest coast)—for a conversation and meditation lasting 20-30 minutes. You’ll be in the good company of hundreds of druids from around the world who meet together in the sacred grove. You can find recordings of over 250 of these programs on his YouTube channel. And you can read or listen to interviews here.
One more thing. This lullaby from the Highlands of Scotland is one of the most beautiful and relaxing pieces I’ve ever heard. You can listen to it here. It’s called “Healing Sleep.”
Interviewers ask so many interesting questions, some that really make you think. Sometimes it takes me days to think about the question and craft a decent, honest answer. I particularly hate anything about “favourites” — what is your favourite . . . ? Who can have just one?
Jean the Book Nerd opened doors into my mind where I had to ramble and reminisce. These were all valid and pertinent questions. Not all interviewers ask such questions.
In “Writing Behind the Scenes” I talk about my creative process and venture into mystical territory that I haven’t revealed before. I hope you enjoy the interview. Please leave a comment or question that doesn’t ask about favourites!
This Old Golden Land is a book about Orkney written by Helen and Mark Woodsford-Dean of Spiritual Orkney. Helen is a British archaeologist who fell in love with Orkney over several visits and moved there permanently. Helen provides, not only the archaeological perspective with the expertise of an experienced and knowledgeable tour guide, but also includes her own journalistic musings and, at some points, a window into her soul. She is a mystic and poet, as well as a scientist. I did not always agree with her opinions, but she did make me think.
The book is subtitled “An Alternative Orkney Guidebook for Spiritual Seekers, Mystics, and Pilgrims.” I most definitely fit into the latter three categories and was intrigued by the book when I heard my favourite Druid teacher, Philip Carr-Gomm, read passages from it during “Tea with a Druid #146.” I ordered it from Helen and Mark, who self-published it, and it came, inscribed, a couple of weeks later, all the way from their home in Orkney. I read it right away and added my own musings. One suggestion I have for the authors if they do another print run is this: use a bigger darker font. The book is packed full of information and beautiful photographs but the font is too small for these old eyes, even with my thick reading glasses and I found I was straining to read it in bed (which is where I do most of my best book reading.)
Helen writes: “In many ways, Orkney is the golden land. There’s a strange light here. We’re at 59 degrees north, so the sun never gets directly overhead, not even at midday in midsummer; we nearly always have the sun at an angle and that gives us the oddest light. This light is desired by artists and photographers — they flock here . . . “
My Orkney Saga
Indeed. I traveled with my friend Jackie to Orkney in August 2009 for our “Men in Kilts” tour and experienced the old spiritual sites in this golden land. We rented a car at Glasgow Airport and drove up through the Inner Hebrides (where To Sleep with Stones is set), across the Highlands, and then to the far north coast of Scotland where we caught a ferry to these incredible islands. We stayed in Stromness and Kirkwall while on the Orkney Mainland where most of the big stones stand. Then, we caught another ferry that took us all the way north to Sanday.
Orkney has only been under Scotland’s jurisdiction since the 15th Century. After the Indigenous people (Picts) were — I’m not sure what word to use here as it describes a history much like what happened to Indigenous people all over the world particularly in my country, Canada, and twists my gut — overtaken by Norway, Orkney was Norse for about 700 years. This affected the language, dialect, and place names which evolved from Old Norse. When you walk the streets of a town like Stromness, the feel is definitely Scandinavian, not Scottish. Sadly, there were no men in kilts except the tour bus driver we encountered in Kirkwall; although I swear I saw the girls from Doc Martin walking down the narrow street.
The people are wonderful and the land beautiful. Golden. We went to Orkney Angora and I bought hand-dyed angora yarn from the woman who raises the rabbits, spins the wool, and runs the shop. We saw cows. Lots of cows. We went to the Italian Church built by WWII prisoners of war. We went to an amazing ice cream shop in the middle of nowhere, except that it was somewhere. And we adored the stones.
The Ring of Brodgar
One of the sites that impressed me most was the Ring of Brodgar. This four-thousand-year old Neolithic circle is one of the largest in the British isles. It currently has thirty-six stones of a possible sixty, twenty-seven of which are still standing. When we arrived there in July at the height of tourist seasons, there were few people there and, as is often the case, after traveling from British Columbia all the way to Orkney, who do we meet but a woman from Vancouver! The circle faces northeast which is the direction in which the sun rises at Summer Solstice. It is enchanting.
Helen says that if you stand in the centre of the ring and speak normally, anyone with their back touching a stone can hear you as if they’re standing right beside you. Is that magical or what? I would have liked to experience that when we were there! Unfortunately, that’s not possible. The centre is a sensitive area and off limits. But think what this meant to the Neolithic people! Did they build this effect into the structure? If you happen to know why and how this phenomenon occurs, please leave a comment to explain. I’m quite blown away by this. I mean, what would happen if someone chanted or drummed in the centre? Could it create an altered state of consciousness? I want to experience this.
Skara Brae
Another famous site is Skara Brae. It was uncovered in the 1850s when a storm swept it free of the sand dunes that had hidden it for who knows how long. Archaeologists believe it was constructed over a period of six hundred years while it was in use, beginning around five thousand years ago. It is very much a seaside stone community. It was excavated by archaeologist Gordon Childe (1928-1930) and Clark in the 1970s. Helen says that the First People who lived here in these houses did so for about three hundred years and produced middens of domestic waste. During the three-hundred-year phase, the people built covered passages through the middens that connected about ten houses. Can you imagine walking through a covered stone passageway to your friend’s house five thousand years ago? Maybe taking a bowl of oyster and crab chowder to your grandmother? There are rock beds and rock dressers or altars, sunken stone and clay-lined refrigerators. It’s also been hypothesized that Skara Brae was not a cluster of familial homes at all, but a spiritual space for pagan magician/priests to meditate, something akin to a Neolithic monastery. But who really knows?
A year ago, during meditation, I conversed with a spirit who may have come from this place. At least, I believe he did. This is what I heard and wrote.
He began dramatically with this: “enfolding, folding in on itself like a flower that dies after its bloom, your earth is disappearing into the void slowly.” As apocalyptic as that sounds, he went on to say his name was Siarba (it sounded like Sharpa but I saw it written as Siarba.) He was once a shaman, healer, builder of the stones. “You are right when you see the stone houses. They are ours. We traveled up and down the coastline. We built houses. We lived, weathered the storms and winds of the seas, raised our children, ate the fish, smoked the seaweed to see things when the moon was full, rattled shells and blew the horns of the sea gods. I loved you.”
When? “When the earth was fresh and clean and not folding in on herself. When the birds sang of stories and told us where to find the fish. When the whales came. When the world was plenty and love was full like the moon.”
Where? “There (I envisioned Skara Brae) and when the wind came and the sea raged we walked south crossing waters. Moving, always moving, thousands of your years. But there is no time once you surpass the physical and move into spirit. Don’t fear it. The earth changes but spirit does not and in the ever-growing darkness there is light and love.”
Contagion
Helen writes of a term called “contagion” — not the kind of contagion we think of during a pandemic, but a different kind. This contagion is an archaeological term that refers to the “spread of power or energy through the senses.” Basically, when generations live in the same place, ancestral power and energy are transmitted through the land. I like this. I know this. Dylan McBride reveals this in To Sleep with Stones.
Sometimes, when we are open and walk the land we sense this power and energy. This love for the land transcends time and space, transcends generations. It is ever-flowing energy. We might touch a stone or shell or other artifact and feel it like a rush or ripple up our arm. Put our hands in the earth or sea and feel alive and empowered. It is one of the reasons, spiritual pilgrims walk the land barefoot and meditate in sacred sites. It is one of the reasons people go to the wild places to heal and pray for miracles. Why they pick up stones and shells and bits of driftwood as they wander.
Almost everywhere I’ve traveled, I’ve picked up stones that called to me and brought them home. In Sanday, the farthest island north, I found a perfect sand dollar on the white sand beach. Yes, Sanday has blue water, white sand beaches, and very few people. We stayed in a charming cottage there and breathed sea breezes that refreshed our souls.
I will go back and stay longer. I will go back and ask Helen to take me on a tour behind the scenes to experience ritual and the magic of this golden land. If you are considering the same, please do connect with her and buy a copy of her book before you go. You can find more information here. Tell her I sent you.
Stromness Kitty
Skara Brae showing covered passages
The Doc Martin Girls from Stromness
I love the Standing Stones
The Ring of Brodgar
Heather at the Ring of Brodgar
The sea is never far away.
The view from our B&B on Sanday
https://orkneyangora.co.uk/
There be cows. I love cows. And do they ever know how to intimidate you. Look at that stance and stare!
Blue water and white sand beaches on Surprising Sanday
Call Helen. Go there. See for yourself. This is a magical land . . . a golden land.
This is an excellent post by a kindred spirit who explains mediumship from a clear and simple perspective. As you might know, I’ve been studying mediumship and exploring my skills the past couple of years.
I’m sending a virtual hug to Green Magick for all her wisdom and offerings. If you explore and follow her blog, you’ll find out what I mean.
I’m beginning my research on a new novel by delving into the world of mediums. I started with Bridging Two Realms by John Holland, a practicing psychic medium who is well respected. What Holland offers in his latest book (2018) is triple-fold.
First, Holland offers knowledge. The Spirit World is a different dimension to our material world. It’s all around us and vibrates at a very high frequency so we can’t see it with our physical eyes. But it’s there, and our loved ones are part of it. Where the veils are thinnest between the worlds, we sometimes experience it. For example, in a church or temple, in the forest, in a sacred landscape, we may feel ourselves as a spiritual being. I call these my “sacred spaces” and seem to experience this phenomenon most on the high hills of Ireland like Tara, Uisneach, and Croghan, where prehistoric kings were inaugurated.
Also, a sacred grove of trees, whether real or envisioned, can have a similar effect on me. And water. The ephemeral presence of water seems to lower the veils and is perhaps why we are so drawn to it and can relax and open our hearts when near it. Think falling in love on the beach—with yourself, with another, with a feeling or idea. I’m sure there are places you too have felt the divine presence of spirit. Be they angels, or faeries, or the spirits of our ancestors, at times we feel them near us and it opens our heart.
Second, in this book John Holland offers technique. He explains how to become the “bridge” between the “two realms”. The subtitle of this book is “Learn to Communicate With Your Loved Ones on the Other Side.” Holland believes we all are capable of this, and he wants us to be able to do this ourselves. “Psychic ability is simply the natural extension of our intuition” (116). The word “psychic” is from the Greek psychikos meaning “of the soul.” He says, “All mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums” (82). A psychic perceives by reading your aura. A medium receives info from the spirits. People have different psychic strengths and he offers a set of questions to guide you in finding yours:
Clairsentience: a kind of inner knowing or feeling or sensing. This is akin to that gut intuition we are familiar with, or a strong, sometimes surprising, emotional reaction.
A few years ago, I visited a local Anglican church. I hadn’t been to church since I was fourteen, but I felt compelled to go. The moment I saw the choir come in wearing their colourful gowns, I burst into tears. After the service, I joined that choir. People were shocked. “You’re going to church?” I stayed with that choir for two years before I couldn’t reconcile it any longer with my pagan beliefs. But, I am still great friends with the musical director and she introduced me to the Sacred Web: a marvellous choir of wise women who sing of nature, spirit, and social justice. Feelings cannot be rationalized and sometimes we don’t know why we must do something. But we must. For as Robert Frost says, “way leads on to way.”
my aunt always wore…
Clairvoyance: inner seeing/vision through the third eye consisting of “images, pictures, symbols, and colors” (139). Mediums often communicate with spirit people in this way: “they’re showing me a bright red sunhat…”
Clairaudience: inner hearing or “the ability to hear names, dates, certain sayings, and yes, even songs and melodies”. Sometimes we hear our name called out.
Once when I was driving home alone, and on the cusp of a life decision, someone yelled at me: “rape crisis centre”. I’d never heard of a rape crisis centre—this was thirty years ago—but when I got home, there was a phone message. I ended up working as a volunteer sexual assault counsellor for the next two years; something that propelled me into a paying job in a woman’s shelter, and later, my first job as a counsellor in the school system. Even the work I am doing today in support education harkens back to that voice, that moment of connection while alone (or not so alone) on a snowy country road in Ontario. Again, “way leads on to way.”
In the second half of Bridging Two Realms, Holland offers exercises and techniques to open and develop our psychic awareness.
A meditation practice is the keystone of any of this work. The more we meditate and shut down the hubbub of the rational mind, the more we are able to hear, see, and feel, the presence of spirit. Working with chakras and visualization also helps to develop intuitive powers. I’ve been working with the chakras for years, but I learned something new in this book:
“The base and crown chakras should always remain open and balanced, allowing you to be a conduit for energy to flow through your system” (184).
https://ambujayoga.com
The other five chakras in between can be opened and cleansed, but then should be closed. This practice opens us to spirit. As does prayer. Prayers are “thoughts infused with love” (75). How beautiful is that? You can pray for your loved ones and they can pray for you.
And this brings us to Holland’s last offering. Hope. For what are we without hope? When our loved ones move on to the other realm, we are left here, sometimes in shock, sometimes in despair, sometimes just feeling so alone we can’t go on. But Holland wants us to know we are not alone. Maybe our loved ones are now “spirit people” but they are still with us, still accessible. They reach out to us in many ways. Here is a partial list of how we perceive them:
Feeling a loved one’s presence
Finding shiny coins, such as pennies and dimes
Electrical items switching on and off
Sudden appearance of specific animals, birds, and insects — butterflies are a big sign!
Scents coming from no known physical source
The morning my mother passed in another part of the country, I was driving when my car was suddenly full of the scent of Stoned Wheat Thins, our favourite crackers. Of course, I burst into tears. My mom was there with me and there was no doubt about it.
Several times over the years, I’ve been awakened by the presence of someone standing at the foot of my bed. When it first started happening, I thought it was an attacker and I’d reach over, petrified, to switch on the bedside lamp. Of course, there was never anyone there…except there was. I don’t know who these visitors are, but now I know they’re not malevolent. They’re here watching over me. In the dream state, the veils are thin. This is another place we can experience the spirit world and bridge two realms. We are with our loved ones in our dreams.
And so, there is hope. Not only will you meet your loved ones again when you pass over into the spirit world (call it what you will) but they are around you now, watching over you, offering guidance and, most of all, love.
John Holland is quite a personable man. If you’re curious, here’s a video interview of him discussing Bridging Two Realms.
Have you had any experiences like this? Please share.
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