In December of 2003 my dear friend and confidante, Dr. Gerri Leigh, passed on. She was a woman of honesty and integrity who could make your soul sing and your spirit soar. When she left this plane of existence I realized that sometimes, in our search for the sacred, we miss that which is well within our grasp. The feminine spirit is with us each and every day, manifesting in our mothers, sisters, friends and in every woman we are blessed to cross paths with. I have always found a purity of the soul within women.

Dr.Gerri Leigh was a parapsychologist, author, inventor, astrologist and much more. She was a breath of spirit that illuminated my life. She wrote to me via email everyday for over two years until her passing. Free from inhibition and bristling with insight, she was instrumental in my spiritual evolution. As a television personality, as well as a print and radio star, her words have assisted the spiritual development of countless souls. She was, and will always be, a divine beauty and transcendent vision that I wear as a talisman of health and well being.

The Eternal Feminine Spirit
There is a sacred dimension to all women. Each offers an unique perspective and mystical sensibility. I have been surrounded by women throughout my life. My mother is one of eleven - nine of them being girls. I began my life in my grandmother's home surrounded by my mother and her sisters. Added to my mother, aunts and grandmother, I have two sisters, no brothers, and the majority of my friends have always been female.

Women have always played an important part in my life and my spiritual evolution. Like ‘Sacred Mother Earth’ they give us life, nurture us and provide us with wisdom and guidance. Women have a special connection to the earth and to nature. Their roots are ancient and they speak a sacred language. Every woman is a goddess and should be loved, honored and respected. If we celebrate the sacred feminine we honor the spirit and embrace the soul.

Kate Green in her book ‘The Hundredth Woman’, reveals how women nourish our inner strength. Her novel is a marvelous tapestry of love and purity which acknowledges the feminine face of god. ‘The Hundredth Woman’ is a beautiful jewel, a metaphysical adventure which activates the higher self. Kate is yet another of the precious and amazing women I have been blessed to cross paths with in my life. Her book is positive and inspirational, a testament to the generosity of spirit that women possess. It is a vital and uplifting contribution to the spiritual landscape.

We live in a male-dominated, patriarchal society and if we are to survive, we must use feminine wisdom to balance to our troubled planet. We need to facilitate a return to caring that is an major aspect to the feminine spirit. The empowerment of women would increase our humanity and begin a process of nurturing and healing. Men need to embrace their feminine side as this will bring them to a more personal relationship with their spirit and soul.

The sacred female nurtures that which sustains all life. She is our divine mother and a vessel of ancient wisdom. From Aphrodite, to Athena and Lilith, humankind has throughout history embraced and celebrated the goddess in her many manifestations. If we look within to our feminine spirit we can see a vision of growth and well being. By honoring the true power of women we create a soul directed energy which nurtures and heals. When we respect the innate feminine wisdom that all women possess we give ourselves the courage to transform both ourselves and our environment.

Inspirational Women
A big part of a Shaman's journey is to not only look within one's soul, but also to explore one's own family and history. When people say to me "Have you had a hard life?" I invariably reply "No, I haven’t, let me tell you about my sister.”:

Wendy is the middle child of three and is a constant source of pride and inspiration to us all. She gives me, and all who know her, a reason for hope as her positive life transformation is nothing short of miraculous. She was born premature in 1967, barely weighing in at two pounds. It is a miracle she survived as her twin brother, who was not as fortunate, passed away shortly after birth. She is, by blood, my cousin, but by spirit she is my sister, my muse, and my friend. Her birth mother already had more than a few children, while my parents only had me; so we took her home from the hospital. Her situation at birth, and our dysfunction as a family, are part of a never-ending story of struggle and triumph over adversity.

We grew up encompassed by the darkness created by living with alcoholism. From our parents to our aunts, uncles and cousins, it was always a cross we had to bear. Wendy is a woman of warmth and passion who, through all her struggles, has managed to preserve the beauty of her soul. She married young; and, with the birth of her first child, was diagnosed as diabetic. Her condition is now severe enough that she is on the 'pump' to cleanse her blood. Previous to that, for many years, she was taking five or six needles worth of insulin a day. Aside from her diabetes she also has a floating kidney, a skin disease and numerous other complications from diabetes. Through all this she has maintained a ‘Pollyanna’ outlook, always seeing the bright and good side of life.

Wendy’s first marriage was a troubled one and she departed from that relationship with a two-year-old child and a two-week-old baby. As a single mother and a diabetic her life is more of a struggle than most could imagine. She has, with wisdom and grace, built a great life for her children.

There is, in fact, more to her story than her illness and marital problems. One of her blood sisters died of a drug overdose, her niece was murdered, and a cousin committed suicide - a cousin she was very close to. All these momentous events have taken their toll, yet her spirit remains strong and she has remarried and built a beautiful environment for her children to grow up in.

Wendy has built a life for her children that is truly a song worth singing. I honor her every day for what she has accomplished. She is a hidden treasure of female spirituality, with dauntless courage and an unswerving devotion to her husband and children - she continues to enlighten and enrich the lives of all those around her. She is my sister, my friend, my inspiration and ‘I Love Her’! Her uniqueness of self, and triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds is a testament to the strength of the feminine spirit. She is a refreshingly honest woman who speaks simple truths. She is forever a part of who I am, and her focused reverie makes me appreciate the sacredness in everyday life.

Every woman I have met in my life has provided me with a meaningful personal experience that has touched me to my very soul. To explore the divine is to explore the feminine. There are many more women who have inspired me on my spiritual and shamanic journey. Here are but a few : Mamere, Am, my sister Laurie, Teresa, Drea, Colette, Janice, Dr. Gerri Leigh and Buffalo Bear Walks With Wolves. All these women are mysterious and beautiful souls who dance to the universal rhythm of life.

Finally, in the pantheon of women who have influenced me is my wife, Karen. There is not enough space here to do justice to the major contribution she has played in my life. Karen is a woman of beauty and intelligence who fills me with love and never ceases to impress and amaze me. I am blessed to have her in my life. Her strength, courage and intelligence inspire me daily.

Conclusion
Life is a sacred journey, if we are to triumph over adversity we must begin by embracing and honoring the feminine spirit. Celebrate your mothers, sisters, and all the women who grace your lives. Women are the key to our evolutionary journey, they are a precious gift overflowing from God. A spiritual awakening is within our reach. Through reality and revelation we can illuminate our path with the glow of Sacred Mother Earth thereby ensuring a positive future for generations to come.

Recommended Websites:

www.hundredthwoman.com

www.thesacredfeminine.com

www.womanwisdom.com

www.honoringyourbelly.com

www.goddessmystic.com

www.goddessschool.com

www.awakenedwoman.com

www.globalgoddess.org

May the Sun warm your Heart, The Moon light your Path and Sacred Mother Earth embrace and protect you always.

~ The Ancient One With Heart Of Buffalo Journeys With Spirit Of White Wolf ~
© 2004 Micheal Teal

To access The Ancient One's website please go to the Links page.

Crop Circles (Pitkin Guides) Click on image and pink underlined text to visit Amazon.co.uk. Prices range from £1.38 for used copies, to £3.50 for new ones.

This Pitkin Guide is not yet available in the US.

It’s fashionable for those interested in ‘unexplained phenomena’ to deride the scientific method, even though this system of experimentation and rational thinking has given us agriculture, medicine, industry, low infant mortality etc. If paranormal investigators are ever to be taken seriously by the scientific community, they have to be careful about their experiments and the way results are expressed. With disappointment, I found this book is filled with a long list of claims supported by the frailest of evidence - for example, crop circles cause some illnesses and cure others, and pregnant women should avoid circles at all costs, as should those with pacemakers. Serious allegations like this should be backed with evidence from repeatable evidence, not supposition (‘if the battery on my laptop ran out inside the crop circle, then it might stop someone’s pacemaker’).

Normally, I would really get the knives out for an author who writes “tests have been carried out to measure the effects on living tissue of water potentized within crop formations. The heart rate of suitably immunized guinea pigs was used as an indicator of the level of energy present”. It is hard, in a short review, to express how idiotic the sentence is. What does ‘potentized’ mean? Who carried out the tests? What were the guinea pigs immunized against, and why? What type of ‘energy’ is contained by the water? What control method was used? And, most importantly, have these experiments been independently reproduced?

In this case, I’m inclined to be more forgiving. Psychic Tymes contacted Ms Pringle to discuss the book and her research and she told us that the book had been severely dumbed down at the publisher’s insistence. While I would not support a claim that her science is 100% sound – the methods are dodgy (measuring hormone levels through skin resistance, for example), her sample sizes are way too small, and repeatability of results seems to be a problem – a visit to Ms Pringle’s website will show that she is sincere in her quest for understanding. After all, Newton, Boyle, Darwin and Faraday were all amateur scientists and history might judge Ms Pringle more favorably than I do.

Other parts of the book, freed from pseudoscience, are much more interesting, and with text and illustrations that explore the history of crop circles and their effect on modern society. I particularly enjoyed (but fail to be convinced by) several eyewitness accounts of what appeared to be atmospheric turbulence creating crop patterns.

In summary, I commend the book - the photos of the English landscape are simply stunning - it's hard to find words to convey their beauty - and more than make up for the dreadful text that accompanies them. Even better, visit the author’s website (http://home.clara.net/lucypringle/) to revel in the wonderful photos (and buy the 2005 calendar while you are there).

Crystal Medicine by Marguerite Elsbeth
Publisher Llewellyn
ISBN 1567182585

Review by Claire Greenberg

The author brings together new age healing practices from around the world that make use of the sacred power inherent in stones. The book tells us that healers from tribal and shamanic cultures use stones and crystals when doctoring patients, and that many cultures venerate stones as indestructible and absolute reality, the source of all life, and the very bones of Mother Earth.

The problem with this book is the author was trying to do just too much with the text. She tries to synthesize North American based Shamanism with Wicca, throwing in an attempt to marry both of those systems with real empirical science. The end result is a mixed bag that pleases no-one. That is a shame as she has tried hard to give the reader a lot of information in a very nice visual package.

Use the book as a reference work on the stones and minerals. There is a lot of work in the second part – the stone encyclopaedia. Take on board the information regarding cleansing rituals. Dip into the chapters that speak to you as an individual. But do not read it in a linear fashion from cover to cover, as you may find yourself feeling annoyed by some of her assumptions.

Does the book work? North American Shamanism, Astrology, Numerology, Eastern medicine, Wicca and western science may be fine belief systems separately but they do not work together to my way of thinking. Unfortunately for the author, a lot of the reviewers on Amazon.com agree with me. I am sorry I could not give this book a glowing reference – I would have liked to have done so. Better luck next time, Ms Elsbeth.