Life has its many quirks, but it is not until we truly become aware of who we are and our purpose in life that the many things that have occurred previously fall into place. Our divine guidance is there for the asking. Unfortunately for many souls this does not happen, either because they have a closed mind or that they have not attained the level of evolution to move forward. Everyone is different in that aspect, each making their own journey at the speed that is relevant to them in their awareness, understanding, desires and beliefs.
Much I believe is attributable to our upbringing and the understanding and awareness of 'all that is' of our parents, although we should each make our own minds up on everything and not blindly follow others. In this respect I was blessed with loving, caring parents who were very open minded and always encouraged us offspring (I was the eldest of six) to follow our own pathways, but they were there to guide us when necessary.
My father was an engineer and classed himself as an atheist, as he did not have much time for accepted religion, although he never imposed his views on us children. He had a much wider view and believed that there was some enormous power, beyond his comprehension, that directed and guided our lives and what happened in the world. Mother was the quiet authority in the background, who had time for everyone, no matter who they were and her words of wisdom were invaluable.
It is said that 'truth' is stranger than fiction and it is something that I now firmly believe in. The turning point for me came about eight years ago when I was introduced to the spiritual viewpoint of life through helping a very good friend deal with losing both her parents through illness within twelve months. She was the only child of the marriage and only had distant relatives, who were mainly elderly, and although supportive lived some distance away. During her counselling it was suggested that she go to see a local husband and wife team who were healers and spiritual mediums, with a good reputation for their loving and caring attitude.
After her first visit Debbie asked me if I would accompany her on the next visit and give her my opinion. Although she had found the session very beneficial the information that she was given was as she said 'unnervingly accurate' and they didn't know anything about her and never asked anything.
We went several times and the sessions were certainly 'eye openers,' such that I decided to go for a reading myself. I have always had an open and inquiring mind and thinking 'outside the box' but it does come as a bit of a shock when told of something that happened to me personally when very young, especially when the mediums didn't understand the information, but gave it as received.
When I was about six I contracted pneumonia, not once but twice in the space of twelve months, then I had bronchial pneumonia, which was a bit dodgy considering my immune system had not recovered from the previous bouts. This left me with fluid on my chest that lasted until I was given the all clear at ten years old, but during this time I had to have a spoon full of malt and cod liver oil capsules regular everyday, even being administered when I was at school, and the only pupil to have this treatment. This was what Sue Geiss the medium saw and conveyed to me even though she said she did not know what it meant.
To me this was an amazing revelation and in hindsight that was the moment that changed my life, for the better. Other snippets followed, my awareness changed and synchonicities occurred on a regular basis that previously I would probably not have noticed, or even if I had the significance would probably have escaped me. I began to meet similar people with a spiritual insight about them and through one of these meetings it was suggested that I should join a development circle to learn more about the spiritual aspects of life and a name and contact number were given to me.
So began my long association with Carol Green, International Medium and Spiritual Teacher extraordinaire, who taught me, and all her students how to connect with our higher self and the spiritual realms through our guides. To go into the quiet and listen and feel to establish a connection and working relationship with them and any communicators that wished to come through. Carol is a professional who guides, encourages, explains and cajoles her students into believing in themselves, as she says 'you all have the ability, if you wish, to use it for the greater good; it's not a game, it's serious, but can be fun as well.' Such is her standing with all her students, past and present (many stay with her for several years), that she commands their respect for her loving,caring no nonsense attitude, and the waiting list to join one of her groups continues to grow. Most of her students 'graduate' to become mediums in their own right but a few, like myself, have a slightly different pathway to follow, usually in alternative healing therapy in one form or another or aspects of teaching. Whichever route through life we have been guided to follow, Carol's teaching is invaluable in showing us how to use all of our abilities for a successful and meaningful outcome. My pathway, and Carol agrees, is a combination of teacher and healer by using the spoken and written word.
It was shortly after I had joined Carol's group that I started to have visualisations, or daydreams as some people would call them. These would be quite vivid and last about ten minutes and were a little confusing to start with as they appeared to be concerning me in the present time, wearing ancient clothes but using futuristic star wars technology. A sequence of these scenarios happened over a period of about a month. It was like a window that had been opened on the past, but a long time ago. Yet it was to be some while before I really understood that these were old memories from a previous time and preceded the story that I was going to write.
Around this time the story of Arthur and Excalibur began to filter into my mind and slowly the thoughts developed and expanded and I knew that I had to commit them to paper. Initially my thoughts were about Excalibur and what happened to it on the death of Arthur and I thought that this was where the story would start. How wrong I was. Having written about two thirds of what was to eventually become the last chapter in the book, realisation dawned on me that I had started in the wrong place. Sitting in the quiet at home one evening my inner thoughts and feelings led me to the conclusion that I had to start the story with Arthur, who and what he was and why he was given the sword. These thoughts had an urgency about them and seemed to be very important and I realised that I was being directed that way for a reason, albeit unclear at the time.
The starting point had to be the conception of Arthur and to follow his life right through until the end as every bit was important for the reader to understand the foundations that were laid then that would bear fruit now.
I have never attempted to write a book before, a little bit of poetry when the mood has taken me, a few business reports, seminars and talks but nothing anywhere near 160,000 words. Yet I felt strangely confident that I could do it, even though I was working full time. I had no major commitments, other than Carol Green's class once a week.
So began the 15 months that it took to write, and as it turned out that was the easy bit. The proof reading, editing and chasing the publisher when they lost the file became the hard grind. An invaluable tip here if you edit and proofread your own work (professional cost is at least $3,000 for a work this size), because you wrote the story and read what you think is on the page as against what is, read it from back to front page at a time. You will find over ten times more silly mistakes this way. Nearly every book these days has mistakes in it as it's too costly for publishers to fully check, so don't aim to be a perfectionist.
Most of the people that have read the book and given me feedback have enjoyed it and many have felt the spiritual flow and undercurrent in the story. Some have commented that I have obviously done alot of research before writing, like the lady in Cornwall who wrote: 'I have immersed myself in it over the last week and have found it very atmospheric. Thank you for a very good read! You have obviously done a great deal of research and the geographical shape of Britain at the time comes over very well. I have known Cornwall since a young child... your descriptions reminded me of the many layers of land and time below what we know today. Which brings me to the aspect of your book that intrigues me most; the sense of spiritual connection you obviously recognise.'
Now I must make a confession, as I told the Cornish lady and others, this is what Carol Green calls 'inspired writing.' Research was negligible, mainly the Roman spelling of the English towns and forts, which I did after I had finished the story. I wrote it with the feeling that I was there and the more that I wrote the more that I was sure, I could see the scenes and landscape in my mind's eye as I wrote. Even my niece and nephew, who are both in their late twenties, commented that I wrote it as if I was there, and yes I believe that I was. I also believe that I was guided in what I wrote as sometimes I would be looking at a blank screen on my PC, knowing where I was going but unsure how I was going to get there until I typed the first sentence. Then it just flowed, slowly because I am not fast on the keyboard, but flow it did, even being given words that I would not normally use or sometimes not sure of the meaning. In each case it was the correct word.
So if it was not just me writing it, who was it that was guiding my thoughts and prompting my memory, as the person that I feel that I was does not come into the story until midway through. That is Berius (a.k.a. Eru the Elder) and joint guardian and keeper of the sword whilst it was in Arthur's possession. I had a sneaking feeling of who my co-author was as every time that I was annotating Merlin's thoughts, which I thought would be a short paragraph, I ended up with a page, sometimes more.
Yes his thoughts seem a bit repetitive at times but he obviously wanted to stress his point, because what he had to say made alot of sense and it was like people were not listening. Merlin like Berius and the other Elders that are in the story came from a very ancient lineage and could converse telepathically and read others' thoughts. They were also very adept at remote viewing so each was aware of what was happening at any one time if they so chose.
Part way through the story I had occasion to go to an open day at John and Sue Geiss's healing and awareness centre, the couple that gave me those initial readings. It was a lovely spring day and there was a young psychic artist doing chalk drawings of the energy of one's guides around a person's head and shoulders. I asked Rebs if she would do mine (the result is on the back cover of the book).
She had no idea that I was writing a book until the session was over but what she said was confirmation of what I had suspected. The blue and green on my left side she described as a very magical and strong Merlin type energy, although she wasn't given his name, that matched my own energy and on my right she said of the pink that she saw the Lady of the Lake floating towards me. She was there simply to keep the balance because of our strong energies. The head and shoulders were mine and she saw me riding a horse and the red and yellow on my head was my helmet. Rebs comment was that I certainly had powerful and magical friends and that he(Merlin) and I had travelled many lives together and were very good friends.
It was good to know that the help that I was receiving was from excellent quarters and everything seemed to slip into place and I understood why the story seemed to flow easily from that deep memory as if it were yesterday.
Life was good and very interesting and I was working, writing and having a small social life, then I decided to have a break from writing in December 2007 and relax and socialise a little more. That didn't go down too well with my guides and co-author Merlin, perhaps because I extended the break for just over two months before bowing to pressure to continue writing.
In our life we have been given freewill and choice as to the pathway we take but one thing that I soon became aware of was that if you connect with your guides and agree to work with them for your own evolution and the greater good you lose a degree of that option. Your guides are working for your best interest in guiding each of us through the maze and jungle of life and if you decide to ignore them for whatever reason they have ways of gaining your attention. Sometimes this is subtle and sometimes quite drastic and I have had occasion to experience both.
During the early part of my writing I was given a message at Carol's group at four different times by different people and the message was always the same; slow down you are doing too much. Now perhaps I was living slightly in the fast lane at the time so it came as a shock when the final message was slow down or we will stop you. I thought that I had slowed down, but I was wrong, as the following week as I was taking a small and light bag of rubbish down the stairs to put in the refuse bin, and holding the rail, it felt as if someone grabbed my lower left leg and pulled it out of joint. I didn't fall but had to sit down immediately and watch my knee swell up. I was flat on my back and out of action for four days whilst it healed, just able to hobble to the bathroom when necessary, too uncomfortable to read, write or do anything except rest.
When I mentioned it to Carol Green the following week she admitted that something similar had happened to her because she was ignoring her advice, in her case it was a shoulder pulled out of joint.
Now the subtle way was in many respects much more frustrating and longer lasting. Because I had taken extended time out from writing my guides made sure that nothing would get in the way again until I had finished the story, time seemed to be at a premium for some reason, as if they wanted the story completed quickly.
All my attempts at a little social time fell flat, whatever I had tried to arrange always fell through, except Carol's group and the small group of friends there. Anything that wasn't spiritually connected was out, I was ring fenced until I finished the book. Every time I asked for a little time for me the answer was always the same, all in good time when you have finished the book. Talk about frustrating, but like the good little fellow that I am I got on with it and completed my task, or so I thought.
Then I got my little bit of freedom before the real grind started – reading, editing, correcting, then the same again, and the same again. I lost count of how many times I read my book in the process, but I still enjoyed it and that sense of achievement each time. Then when I thought that I was finally done, the publishing house was bought out (and they forgot to tell their authors) and they lost the file which caused another delay. I was beginning to wonder what had happened to the urgency that my guides had deemed so important before, with all the hold ups that occurred before the book was finally published in June 15 2009.
That is another story that I will try and explain in the blog, but basically time-lines had changed as everything had got pushed out, because many things were not ready for the changes occurring in the world.
Many things happened during and after writing the book, but I will expand on them more in the blog for those that are interested. So many important and interesting things (to me anyway) happened in what was a relatively short space of time. Events that probably would have passed me by unnoticed had I not opened my mind and awareness and connected with my inner self – my real self.
By Gordon Etherington
Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 9781425160388
302 Pages
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