We are so often reminded about the need to watch our weight but it is
surprising that just one portion too much each day can pile on more than a stone
in weight each year – and every year! If we can’t get weight off during the summer,
most people find the winter a more difficult time. Weight gain is
exponential: the more weight we have, the less active our life, so the more
weight we gain. This puts a strain on joints, increases our risk of fatty liver,
heart disease and strokes, and is now said to increase our dementia risk also.
The Wendy Stokes Page
Features, interviews, articles, dream analyses, Q & A, etc., by Wendy Stokes
Wednesday 24 April 2024
Saturday 20 April 2024
The Holy Grail - Part Two
The Grail Knight chosen for the Grail challenge must be of the most sincere integrity. Merlin reserved seat at Arthur’s table, known as the Siege Perilous, for the knight who would seek the Grail. In Christian de Troyes, Percival was to take that seat (Galahad in Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte D’Arthur).
The story of the Holy Grail was first written at the end of the 12th century by poet, Chretien de Troyes. Chretien’s patron was Mary of Champagne, the daughter of Louis VII and his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. The Champagne Court loved music, poetry and entertainments. This story features a young knight, Percival, who stops for the night at an extraordinary castle. The owner is a disabled king. That evening, at dinner, a strange pageant takes place. Blood flows down the blade of a lance onto the hand of the man carrying it. Two boy servants follow him with a tray of candles. Then in walks a beautiful girl carrying a gold cup emblazoned with gems as another other girl follows her with a silver platter. A single communion wafer provides sustenance. Percival is told it is rude to ask questions! In the morning after the pageant, he learns that if he had asked questions, an important healing would have taken place.
Thursday 18 April 2024
Your Gift Meditation
This is a free YouTube meditation written by Wendy Stokes and presented by Erica Longdon.
Visit: http://angelhandsheal.co.uk/welcome/Wednesday 17 April 2024
Native American People
"In the Lakota/Sioux tradition, a person who is grieving is considered most holy. There's a sense that when someone is struck by the sudden lightning of loss, he or she stands on the threshold of the spirit world. The prayers of those who grieve are considered especially strong, and it is proper to ask them for their help. You might recall what it's like to be with someone who has grieved deeply. The person has no layer of protection, nothing left to defend. The mystery is looking out through that person's eyes. For the time being, he or she has accepted the reality of loss and has stopped clinging to the past or grasping at the future. In the groundless openness of sorrow, there is a wholeness of presence and a deep natural wisdom." ~ Tara Brach
Tuesday 16 April 2024
The Mountain Dreamer - A Challenge
It doesn’t interest me if you are good looking. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself and if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not hurt another. I want to know if you can be faithful and trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty - even when it’s not a good day, and if you can endure great hardship and can still abide in God’s presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout wildly and ecstatically to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for those in need.
It doesn’t interest me who you are, or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else has fallen away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep.
Meditation on an Artwork
I met Frater Bia on Facebook and we
were speaking about the Holy Grail and what it means. He showed me this artwork of a golden
chalice, and tree with a doorway in the trunk. I had just this week found notes
of some meditation work with my long lost, and revered esoteric tutor Yvette (oh
you probably know her under another name) where we would meditate in the circle
and she suggested my entry through a similar doorway and I reported to her what
I discovered inside. So last night, I went through this Facebook friend’s artwork.
Who was there in her 1940s sitting room, Yvette of course, the one who held the chalice for me.
This is what she
revealed last night: To find the Grail is to appreciate “awe and wonder”, and
she spoke about how Jupiter was known to the ancient Babylonians and is Father God
of expansion and benevolence, inspiration of heroes, and how he always outshines
his predecessor, the old father God, Saturn, who was so mean and greedy that he ate his own children.
Monday 15 April 2024
Synchronicity!
Carl Jung devised the term ‘synchronicity with his colleague, the physicist, Wolfgang Pauli, but neither explained the concept to any definitive degree. Probability mathematicians have questioned the theory, as coincidences can occur that look to be unprovable.
Marcel Sternberger was a methodical man of nearly 50, with bushy white hair, guileless brown eyes, and the bouncing enthusiasm of a czardas dancer of his native Hungary. He always took the 9:09 Long Island Railroad train from his suburban home to Woodside, N.Y.., where he caught a subway into the city.
On the morning of January 10, 1948, Sternberger boarded the 9:09 as usual. En route, he suddenly decided to visit Laszlo Victor, a Hungarian friend who lived in Brooklyn and was ill.
Accordingly, at Ozone Park, Sternberger changed to the subway for Brooklyn, went to his friend’s house, and stayed until midafternoon. He then boarded a Manhattan-bound subway for his Fifth Avenue office. Here is Marcel’s strange story:
Saturday 13 April 2024
Cornwall - A Visit
St Just Well |
When hordes of invaders, Angles, Saxons, Vikings, Jutes, and others,
arrived from the Continent of Europe, the indigenous Celtic people were driven to outlying
lands, to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. In these places, the Celtic languages survived, and we have traditions handed down the generations by the Druids, famed throughout the
ancient world for poetry and storytelling, their love of family ties and their
knowledge of the law.
Friday 12 April 2024
The Grail and Ark
What is the Holy Grail? Many ask this question - and there are many interesting answers! However, we don't know what The Grail is, as it has never been found to our knowledge. It is described in many ways, and always as something with the greatest of abilities for healing and transformation!
Wolfram’s title of the Grail in his poem is “lapis exilis” - the philosopher’s stone and it bears the inscription “Any Templar appointed by God’s hand to be master over foreign people, must forbid the asking of his name or race, and help him gain his rights”. Dated 1210AD This was a declaration of human rights 5 years prior to The Magna Carta.
The Grail first features in a 1118 poem by Chretien, a name that means Christian so we know he wasn’t a heretic. He was a troubadour (a writer of courtly love and aristocratic or religious devotion), of the ancient town of Troyes in the Champagne region of France. The poem describes several motifs; a knight with a pure heart, a mysterious castle, a lame 'fisher' king, and an enigmatic procession of servants carrying items, such as a lance, a sword, and a woman who carries a dish that holds a communion wafer.
Because the Grail Castle knights and the Knights Templar wore white, there could be be a connection between them. The Champagne region was a rich and important commercial area. Bernard of Clairvaux, the nine original Templars, and Chretien, all came from the Troyes region of which Chartres, once a Druidic grove, was the spiritual centre.
The Grail first features in a 1118 poem by Chretien, a name that means Christian so we know he wasn’t a heretic. He was a troubadour (a writer of courtly love and aristocratic or religious devotion), of the ancient town of Troyes in the Champagne region of France. The poem describes several motifs; a knight with a pure heart, a mysterious castle, a lame 'fisher' king, and an enigmatic procession of servants carrying items, such as a lance, a sword, and a woman who carries a dish that holds a communion wafer.
Because the Grail Castle knights and the Knights Templar wore white, there could be be a connection between them. The Champagne region was a rich and important commercial area. Bernard of Clairvaux, the nine original Templars, and Chretien, all came from the Troyes region of which Chartres, once a Druidic grove, was the spiritual centre.
Wednesday 10 April 2024
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