The Spirit

Alice: In your poems with Anna this week I can see that you've written about the sacred heart, about religion, your family and memories.

(about the picture)

Emma: Its of me, as the sacred heart of Mary. My memories of that moment are gone now. They're missing. I can imagine what it was like though to be a child.

Alice: What do you imagine?

Emma: I imagine I was with my Mum in her arms. And you told me she looks like my sister. Just a little bit of it.

Alice: I did.

Emma: I don't know what my Dad is going to say about me. He's so embarrassed of my photos of me as a baby that I put on facebook when I shouldn't.

Alice: He's propbably just protecting you.

Emma: Can you tell me what protecting is.

Alice: Its means he cares about you and he's trying to keep you safe.

Emma: And trying to love me in my own heart?

Alice: Yes. Exactly.

Alice: In your cards, with Anna it says the spirit is something that stays the same even when other things change. Has something stayed the same since then for you?

Emma: I don't know. I don't know what that means. I don't know why.

Alice: I mean between the little girl Emma and the grown up Emma do they still have the same feeling in their heart?

Emma nods.

Emma: Also read this poem I wrote with Anna before about the big heart i have for my family.

A Gemstone for you Dad

Dad, you and Mum make me feel loved. I think I can remember being inside your belly, Mum. I think I remember being in your arms, Dad. My brain doesn't think like other people's but it's creative - Creative of my memory and emotions. That's why I'm afraid sometimes with other people. But my heart is full, I feel very deeply inside me. Dad, I feel emotional when I think about you in my life, And your mum too, my grandmother - I just want peace with my family, that's what I always wanted. Because I always love you. I would you give you a stone about spirituality, To be peaceful, calm and mindful about feelings and thoughts, In the present moment, which means to be there in more space - In your own space Dad, I meant, with the things you like to do. That's what I want for you.

I know I have a good stone in the family - A double stone: opal and tourmaline. I'm rich in stones and very spoiled but I'm not that born rich - I'm not a princess, I'm giving that up for children for their childhood. My stones are the "softie" stones - because I'm a bit fluffy, A bit emotional, a bit loving and confusing - but loyal, trying to be nice. That's my personality in the family, Dad. One of a kind, no one else like me.

Alice: Great and then we can put the new poems underneath.

Gaia Oracle -

Guidance, Affirmation, Transformation

By Emma Brodie

with Anna Maria Dell'oso

Love is positive, and that's why Rhiannon gave me some brand new Oracle cards when we went shopping to the New Age shop. I know I have a lot of oracle cards sets but Rhiannon gave the new ones to me because lately I have been a good sister to her.

Emma: So hard to describe them, so many new words that I can pick. Sacred heart for instance, I want to know what that is. Can you tell me more of that, Anna?

Anna: It sounds a bit Catholic to me, from the Catholic faith that I remember in my childhood. Sacred heart were words I heard a lot.

Emma: Really? Can you tell me a bit more about that?

Anna: It's to do with the Holy Spirit, I think, and having a scared centre of love.

Emma: So everybody wants to have those things do they? Or is it hard to say?

Anna: It is hard to say but I think 'sacred heart' means you have a central part of yourself that can be about love and understanding other people, of having compassion for other people.

Emma: Here it is, what the card says: "You are entering a period of deep and heartfelt love, a deeply emotional time where you focus on, question and think about the things you value deeply."

Anna: Well that's interesting because I think they are your values, Emma.

Emma: What are values?

Anna: They are beliefs about things that really matter to you and they are the things that you live by. Like, say, if you believe that kindness is truly important, then you will live guided by kindness - like, being kind will be so important to you that you will choose to be kind whenever you can.

Emma:It's not about having power, is it?

Anna: That's right, values are not about power, they are about the things that you try to do that make you the best you can be - like, for you, I can see that you value relationships and people, you like working hard, being helpful, and you enjoy being curious about spiritual things

Emma: Like religions, like being Jewish and being Christian, but not in my own life.

Anna: You mean you want to know about different religions but you don't want to be of that religion yourself?

Emma: Yes, but sometimes I want to because of heaven, I want to see of heaven and ... Umm ... hmm, you don't like heaven, do you Anna?

Anna: Hahaha, well spotted, Emma. No I don't. I actually don't believe heaven is a good thing for human beings to believe in -

Emma: Really? Really?? But why?

Anna: Because I think it stops people from realising they are already in heaven by being alive. It is a privilege to be alive. If we want heaven, we have to work at it, it's near us right now, not somewhere far away - like the beauty of heaven, it could be here and now if we all want it to be.

Emma: It's not rich, is it? Not up there? Not Tiffany's rich sparkling? I'm not trying to offend anybody but I'm just trying to understand of it -

Anna: No, of course you're not offending anybody, Emma - it's actually a very interesting question, the whole heaven thing. There are a lot of different opinions and beliefs out there but to be honest, thinking about it all sometimes makes my head hurt -

Emma: Can you tell me of different opinions? What's 'different opinions'?

Anna: Well I'd love to Emma but I'm still typing up the things you said before about heaven that I missed - and they were really good but I'm too slow ... oh damn I can't remember now - hold on, let me think - what did you say before about heaven and being perfect? It was really good!

Emma: I think we better get back to the cards -

Anna: But I'm trying to write down everything you said -

Emma: Well don't struggle too much ...

Anna: Hahaha, fair enough. Let's move on from heaven and look at these words here:

"I am in tune

with my inner light and wisdom ..." Want to add anything to that?

Emma: 'And such deep passion to it ...

And your heart is growing ...'

Anna: Cool, that's really good. Then it says:

"I am guided

Always by love

I energetically share my light -

Emma: "- of bright light,

shiny and spotless, polished and sparkling

Hearts trembling with tender lips ... " What's that?

Anna: I don't know Emma - what do you want it to be?

Emma: Share my wisdom with others ... ' With rhymes? Rhymes, what IS that word about Anna?

Anna: Stay with the poem for now Emma -

Emma: Ok I'll stick to it. ''I am one with the earth and stars' Are they religious factors, like this card? Everybody needs factors in their personality.

Anna: I think this card is about how your religious ideas - like the things you are interested in about religions - how that happens due to your childhood, like what your family believes when you are growing up ...

Emma: I don't understand what my parents believe, i don't understand what that is.

Anna: I think it's a good idea to talk about that with your parents. Especially now that you will be travelling - like, maybe it's a good idea when you go to Italy to sit inside a beautiful church and feel the atmosphere of being spiritual. You can ask your mum about churches, about being Christian, anything - all those questions will mean a lot because there are a lot of ancient and beautiful churches in Italy ...

Emma: Yes, with all the candles I loved, and the smells of oil, remember, on our foreheads?

Anna: That was during the christening you went to, wasn't it?

Emma: Yes, can you explain the oils, what's it for?

Anna: Ok, the oils are about making God's spiritual mark on you, about healing, forgiveness and about life and death

Emma: And gothic? It's similar of the Addams family, they like weird things, they have wonderful graves, I've been to my grandfather's grave ...

Anna: Whoa, Emma, that's quite a flight of ideas - we're getting distracted -

Emma: I'm sorry, let's focus again.

Anna: It's time for us to pick some beautiful words from the cards ...

Emma: How about the truth of it?

Anna: The truth of it?

Emma: Yes.

The Truth of It

By Emma Brodie

The truth of this sentence I've just made

The truth of healing, night wind and legacy:

Legacy which is "what you pass on to people after you die"

It's like all the good things you want people to remember you for.

For love I meant, remember you with love, for love.

It's like a sacred journey up there,

Up in the sky.

I don't know what's with hearts in these cards but it's about the spirit

I'm looking in my oracle book and here it is, here is what it says:

Life cycles, Family, Transformations,

Transformations, family, life cycles, the truth of those words,

Like old people losing their memories, it makes me so sad.

I don't want to see my mother's heart hurting about my grandmother.

She cannot read my poems, she's losing all her memories,

All of the past and all of the present, like right now all lost.

She doesn't read my things, she needs some help.

It's like a journey through time and space -

Time and space, what does that do?

Emma is tearful. Anna holds her hand.

Anna: Wow, Emma, that's a very big poem, full of emotions. Did it make you cry to write it?

Emma: Yes.

Anna: That's what writing is like sometimes. Let me give you a hug ... It's a big feeling of love and sadness inside when you think about your grandmother, isn't it?

Emma: Yes.

Anna: The book of the oracles says this, Emma: "We are born of the earth and to the earth we will return. Yet spiritually we are never born and we never die. We never come and we never leave." That is saying there is a part of us that lasts forever and it is is not affected by space and time.

Emma: Space and time, do you believe in it?

Anna: Yes. What about you?

Through Space and Time

By Emma Brodie

Of magic, excitement and enchantment of legacy,

Travelling through space and time, the spirit of the Tardis

Like a legacy of Dr Who, leaving behind the adventures of your life:

Like enemies and friends, villains and heroes;

Stories of scientists and doctors, stories of fantasy and reality -

My grandmother loved Dr Who.

We are all in the Tardis, my whole family,

Or just myself really, make it just me,

In space and time, rolling out there, a bit scary,

Looking at what's next of the Oracles on the Hidden Path card,

On the Moonlight card, the Night Wind card and on

My Favourite for the ending of this story -

The Ocean of Eternal Love