Moorlands Gathering on the 23rd of May at the Swan in Leek.
10.30am to 6pm – Fair and talks
7pm – 9.30pm – Dahm the Bard from Glastonbury (Druid singer/songwriter).
£5 for the whole day
£3 for the evening only
Discount for Pagan Federation members
For both: ring Dorilyn on 01782 502708 to reserve tickets.
Pagan author Marion Green is giving a talk at Rudyard Visitor’s Center on the 16th of May:
“The history and practises of the village wise-women and cunning men”
10 am to approx. 5.30 pm
£44 with veggie lunch included (£40 if you bring your own)
Simon Tansley’s horoscopes for Friday 26th December to Thursday 8th January
Aries – March 21st to April 20th
Book an in-person reading with Tarot reader and Reiki healer Simon Tansley on the Spooky Staffordshire website:
http://www.freewebs.com/spookystaffordshire/parties.htm
An exciting time of possibilities. It is time to plan ahead, think and expect the best. Set your resolutions in place. There are new beginnings and you are surrounded by a lot of love. Things are coming back into balance. You are being creative though you need to prioritise a little where you put your energy. You have negotiated your way through challenges at work and you can be confident about the future, expect news within weeks. At home you can be satisfied with the way things are but also feel excited about where they are going. The major cause for concern has been relationships but even here, given time, things can, and will, resolve themselves.
Taurus – April 21st to May 20th
There are challenges and changes around the home. You may be honest to the point of bluntness but some people have been taking advantage and it’s time to let them know. You are feeling uncertain about the future but it is time to be assertive and know that you can have better. Last year you never really felt settled, it seemed to be one thing after another, both good and bad, but you have learnt how to prioritise and where not to compromise. There are all sorts of possibilities for the future and, although it seems to be in the hands of fate, you have more power than you think you have. There is a regular pattern to your home life and, although it is not time to rock the boat, it is time to grasp the opportunities for change. Relationships are improving all the time but this is mainly because you expect nothing less.
Gemini – May 21st to June 20th
You are having to put up with certain delays. Your mind is set but you have to wait for the right time. Let go and trust. You are looking backwards too much, understandably so, but now it is time to break the mould. Be yourself and be optimistic, it is enough. You make your own luck but sometimes that makes you think the problem must be you, it’s not – it’s just a matter of the right time. Enjoy what you have and it will naturally lead you to what you want. You are not responsible for everybody, “No” is sometimes the best way to say “Yes”.
Cancer – June 21st to July 22nd
Happy times! News of a birth or new beginnings. Home is good and there are positive developments around relationships. You may be feeling particularly nostalgic but it’s not going to get in the way of you enjoying yourself. You have made some sound investments and you can continue to do so if you are subtle about it. Workwise there are positive developments, you have earned them. There is a lot of love around you at present and there are some intriguing developments happening, the negative will turn out to be the positive. Relax and enjoy these good times but beware of some jealousy too.
Leo – July 23rd to August 22nd
It’s party time and, despite your best efforts, you are going to enjoy yourself. Blow away the cobwebs and refresh yourself ready for a new cycle with the New Year. Let go. There have been many disappointments to contend with this last year but if you play your cards right the next one will be a lot better. You certainly feel ready for change around work, don’t rush things and you can get to where you want to be by the summer. There is a breath of fresh air around the home and you will be feeling energised enough to do what needs to be done. Things look good socially but try not to overdo it as you want some energy to take advantage of opportunities later on.
Virgo – August 23rd to September 22nd
There are some intense people around but they, generally, have the best of intentions – to get you fired up and moving forwards. There are opportunities for teamwork and a sense of new energy and fresh starts. It is time to let bygones be bygones. You have had some useful assistance recently but now it is time to motivate yourself too. There has been a certain amount of success around work but, again, it is time to move forwards into new territory with a brave heart. At home things have been quiet in an active kind of way and are destined to become active in a quiet kind of way. There have been some challenges around relationships but you have risen to them and are wiser as a result.
Libra – September 23rd to October 22nd
Patience. Good things are happening and though they may rock the boat it is time for that. You are at the beginning of an adventure. Restore your energy, refresh yourself, bide your time. The omens are good, the new is about to happen. Do not be afraid to stand your ground, and even fight your corner, at work. Wisdom comes from experience. There are agreements at home and you will have more than one reason to celebrate over the coming weeks. Things are changing as they always do, get yourself prepared because when it happens it will all happen at once.
Scorpio – October 23rd to November 21st
Good news. Something arriving from a distance, you’ve been waiting months for this. Be careful with the advice you are given, some of it is not meant for you. Let go and see what happens. A phase is over but you are able to move on. There have been possibilities around finances but there is still something from the past to be resolved. There has been good news around work but it is yet to be set in motion. There has been a coming to terms over a challenging home situation and now you can move on big time. The past can only hold you back if you let it. You are ready for something new.
Sagittarius – November 22nd to December 21st
Things are going to get a lot clearer in the next few weeks. You are feeling positive about the future and a lot more in control of the present. You are making some big decisions. There is a lot of love coming from one area of your life and there is progress in all areas. One thing to beware of is talking yourself out of what is going on by imagining the worst instead of going for the best. There are changes around work but they are to your benefit. There are challenges at home but they can be worked out as a team. Relationships look particularly beneficial if you allow them room to breathe.
Capricorn – December 22nd to January 19th
There are surprises, and unusual twists and turns along the path. You are going to get the results you want but not the way you expected. You will have plenty of time to enjoy your own company and to get on with something creative. You know how things work and you are going to make them work. Rise to the challenges, believe in yourself. Things are getting clearer around work and you will be able to pull it all together. Home routines are in a state of flux and it may be time to take a few risks. Relationships seem to be looking after themselves but that doesn’t mean they’re not wonderful.
Aquarius – January 20th to February 19th
There are decisions to make but either way will work, just aim high. There is a lot of communication happening and cause for celebration. You are going to be flattered by all the attention you receive but you deserve it. You have worked hard and are beginning to see the results, it is not time to stop but now you can play hard too. Things seem to be balancing themselves out at home, in fact there are one or two surprises and very pleasant visits to come. You have set yourself some fine resolutions and they will create the changes you wished for.
Pisces – February 20th to March 20th
You’re taking on too much. Take a different approach and say goodbye to bad rubbish. You feel caught between a rock and a hard place, let go. Think about now, just get on with the simple things. It feels as though other people are in charge, start with negotiating a compromise then stop taking things so seriously. The past has got you here, yes, but now it’s time for something else. Things look good at home and answers lie here. Don’t make it such hard work for yourself, take some time out, you’ve earned it.
Book a Tarot party in Staffordshire from only £12 pp:
http://www.freewebs.com/spookystaffordshire/parties.htm
Traditionally a Medium or Psychic will use a ‘Spirit Guide’ to assist them in their readings. Here’s a brief description of what a Spirit Guide is believed to be, and how they interact with psychics.
Every culture in the world has believed at some point in angels and demons, or in helpful or harmful spirits. From the ancestor spirits of Haiti’s Voodoo culture to the Catholic idea of the Guardian Angel, Human beings have always felt the presence of somebody, or something looking over their shoulder.
As children we are much more sensitive to our guides than we are as adults. Perhaps your own children tell you about imaginary people they have spoken to, or maybe you remember such figures from your own childhood. Some of these things may be imagination; others may be more spiritual in nature.
Many Psychics and Mediums believe that everyone has a Spirit Guide. Some say that each person has many guides, and that guides can appear and leave at different points in your life.
It’s also believed that when you have a strange co-incidence, such as thinking about a song and then immediately hearing it on the radio, it’s your guide saying ‘Hello, I’m here for you,’
It’s very rare for someone to see a Spirit Guide with their eyes, or hear them with their ears. Spirits are said to communicate on a completely different level. If you’ve ever had a ‘funny feeling’ that a particular person was calling you before you answered the telephone, that’s your natural intuition talking to you. Spirit Guides work in much the same way.
The point of a Spirit Guide is to help you to grow as a person. This doesn’t always mean that they set out to make life easier for you. But if there’s something you need to learn, a duty you have to perform or someone you are destined to meet, your Spirit Guide helps you to achieve this.
Psychics and Mediums often get to know their guides very well. The guides help the Medium to connect to the spirit world and get information from other realms. It’s almost like plugging in a modem to access the internet.
Psychics don’t think of their guides as ‘evil spirits’ or demons, although in less enlightened times that’s how they were thought of.
Modern mystics trust their guides to help them with life’s challenges as well as with their readings for clients. It’s like having a good friend on the ‘other side’ who will offer helpful information. Some Psychics also say that when you’re having a reading your guides are having a chat with each other and relaying information!
Spirit Guides are traditionally never harmful, aggressive or devious. They are helpful, calm and kind, and they try to guide and steer each person towards spiritual enlightenment and helpful life lessons. They don’t always agree with everything that you personally believe, and they sometimes try and steer you in the opposite direction to where you think you want to go. However, they can see a little further than you can, and sometimes it’s best to give them the benefit of the doubt.
If you’d like to get to know your own Spirit Guide a little better, start by trusting your intuition a bit more. Listen to that feeling in your tummy when you have to make an important decision. Ask your guides to help you when you face life’s struggles. Guides and their wisdom often appear in dreams, so to really get to know your guides consider keeping a dream diary for a few weeks.
Learn more about our psychics at www.freewebs.com/spookystaffordshire
The raw food diet – is back to basics best?
By Layla Randle-Conde
Everyone knows that fresh fruit and veg are good for you, and that overcooked fast food isn’t so great. Many people try to incorporate fresh fruit or uncooked veg into their diets. But the Raw Foodists differ from those of use who are just trying to make healthier choices. A completely uncooked diet they insist, is the only natural and completely healthy diet there is.
Raw foodists eat mainly fruit and vegetables, but they also include nuts, unpasturised milk and other foodstuffs in their diet, so they don’t exist entirely on leaves and roots.
A diet of raw, completely uncooked food seems pretty bizarre to anyone brought up on a typical western diet. If your gut reaction is ‘Yuck!’ then you’re not alone. But are our diets so unnatural and skewed that this old fashioned, cave-man way of eating is actually the right diet for good health?
Hype and fashion aside, there are some very real health benefits to leaving your beans unblanched. Much of the vitamin content and all of the natural enzymes in a plant are destroyed when it’s heated above a certain temperature. Eating your veggies raw means you get all the nutrition, plus your precious enzymes get to go off and do useful work elsewhere in your body – fixing your skin or keeping your organs healthy. Enzyme levels deplete as we grow older, and this contributes to aging, both inside and outside the body.
On the whole raw foodists do have incredible skin. Scientists and nutritionists continue to debate the value of detoxing the body. But a raw food diet of just 2 weeks makes your skin glow and your eyes brighten. If you’ve ever looked closely at the skin of someone that exists on burgers and chocolate milkshake, go figure.
They also tend to be pretty trim. You lose a lot of weight on a raw food diet. But is this weight control and peachy glow to the skin because they‘ve added raw food or taken away greasy burgers?
It looks like a bit of both to be honest. The diet’s devotees have devised many elaborate recipes and delicious combinations of food. You could eat a different raw meal every day of the year. But the diet is as much about what you don’t eat as what you do. We’ve all sat there and devoured a whole carton of French fries. But who is going to sit there and eat that amount of raw potato? Going raw automatically cuts all junky foods out of your diet.
It’s pretty much impossible to be overweight on a diet of mainly fruit and vegetables. You couldn’t physically eat enough of the stuff. There’s also a real lack of inflammatory foodstuffs in the raw diet, which contribute to acne, greasy or dull skin and other unsightly problems.
All the fibre in the raw diet helps with elimination, meaning that the digestive system is functioning in a healthy way. This can prevent all sorts of major and minor illnesses, from spots to bowel cancer. The body is also able to better absorb the huge amount of nutrients present in raw food as opposed to cooked.
Some experts believe that cooked, refined and pasteurised foods induce a ‘stress reaction’ in the body that does not occur when raw foods are eaten. This causes the body to attack itself, almost as if it were attacking a virus. Others insist that cooked and refined foods cause allergies and other health problems in different ways.
Raw Foodists will tell you that their diet makes them feel fantastic and look much better than before they went raw. It seems undeniable that adding a lot of raw food to your diet is really very good for your health and your looks. But some nutritionists warn against going completely raw. Some raw fans find that they lack essential vitamins and minerals, while others have contracted food poisoning from raw eggs and meat. This number is a drop in the ocean compared to all the people that have died of heart attacks following the western style junk food diet. But it’s still a real danger.
Some people see raw foodists as cranks, while others believe they are brave pioneers of a new approach to nutrition. I believe we can learn a lot from the Raw Foodist’s experiences, and that we should appreciate their advice and experience in this dramatic reversal of the western diet. Adding a lot more raw foods to your diet, while taking away the worst foods will have positive and noticeable impact on your health and appearance. But Raw Foodism is still in its infancy and like all new ideas, it certainly takes a bit of getting used to!
Read more of Layla’s articles on Helium:- http://www.helium.com/users/485743/show_articles
Meet our readers on the Spooky Staffordshire website! Find us at www.freewebs/spookystaffordshire.com
The Chained Oak - artist's impression!
The chained oak doesn’t really have a witches face like the one above, that picture is courtesy of A. Daniels and the Photoshopping is mine (Layla Randle-Conde). The tree is very spooky and eerie though, well worth a visit.
Natural ways to boost your immunity and shake off illness By Layla Randle-Conde.
Easy ways to boost your immune system
Shake off that cough for good and get your energy levels back up. Whether it’s a cold that refuses to budge, grotty skin or just a feeling of being tired all the time, chances are your body needs some help to recover. Here are seven cheap and easy ways to boost your immune system.
Orange:
All fresh fruit and veg provide immune-boosting chemicals. But the colour orange is a clue to some of nature’s most immune-boosting foods. Oranges themselves are not only high in immune-boosting and body healing vitamin C, they rank as the fruit people like the most – or hate the least. If you’re a fruit fan then up your intake of raw fruit, paying particular attention to berries and citrus fruits. But if you rarely eat anything straight from the tree, consider treating yourself to a sweet, juicy Satsuma. They’re easy to peel, as sweet as sugar (almost!) and filled with vitamin C. Orange juice from a carton is a poor substitute, so go for the real thing if you can.
Carrots and sweet potatoes are a great food for your body as they are packed with beta-carotene, which your body uses to boost different kinds of infection-fighting cells. Go for any orange fruit or vegetable and try not to over cook your carrots – they work better raw.
Sleep:
If you’re getting by on less than six hours a night then your immune system could be taking a battering. Sleeplessness through stress or caffeine overload is very common. If you find an earlier bedtime difficult cut out caffeine, cigarettes and other stimulants in the late afternoon. Even an hour extra a day can seriously improve your health and your mood.
Echinacea:
Now available in supermarkets as well as health food shops, this fantastic herb helps boost the immune system and shake off illness. Some reports claim it can cut the risk of catching a cold by 50%, while others claim it can knock a day or two off your cold symptoms, help you get back to normal quicker. Start taking it as soon as you feel poorly and stop when you feel well. Take it with vitamin C for best results and don’t take for more than 2 weeks at a time – it’s less effective when taken over a long period.
Let it be:
You know when your computer freezes up and you have to re-start it? Like a computer, your body is doing hundreds of little things every second that you don’t know about. If you’re poorly and run down your body is trying to repair itself. Give your body a chance to recover properly by not bombarding it with other stuff to do. Junk food that unbalances the blood sugar, cigarettes that pump the lungs with poisonous chemicals, alcohol that must be processed through the liver. All this has to be dealt with immediately, so sorting out that lingering cold comes further down the list. Cut out ciggies, booze, fried food, white bread and anything sugary for a couple of days and notice how good you feel on the third day.
Walk:
When you’re tired and run down, perhaps the last thing you want to do is run around the park in your shorts. We should all exercise regularly for health’s sake, but it’s a great mood booster too. If you’re sitting at a desk or shut away at home all day your immune system will be suffering. A gentle walk around at lunch time every day can chill you out and get your body moving without setting foot in a squash court.
Omega oils:
Did you know that there are cells in your body that actually eat up bacteria? Imagine if you had lots of these cells pumping around your body – chances are you’d shake off illnesses a lot quicker. Omega oils increase the activity of these cells and strengthen all your cell membranes – meaning you can kick infections into touch and bounce back to good health. Try to eat some oily fish such as salmon, mackerel or tuna three times a week, and consider supplementing your diet with cod liver or fish oil capsules.
Tomato:
From salads to pizza toppings, tomatoes are a fantastic food for a healthy immune system. Packed with immune-boosting vitamins C and E, they also contain loads of disease-fighting photochemical. Strongly linked with cancer protection and recovery, tomatoes are an ideal food for anyone feeling under the weather.
Most fruits and vegetables are better for you raw, but some of the chemicals in tomatoes work better for your body when cooked. So break out the ketchup and have a double helping of tomato sauce on your pasta! One of the best foods you can eat when you’re ill is fresh tomato soup. There are lots of recipes on the internet and everyone has their own favourite.
A mixture of cooked and raw tomatoes in your diet is best, but watch out for the hidden fat and sugar content of tomato-based dishes and sauces.
Everyone’s body chemistry is different, but start making a few changes today and you’ll notice the benefits within a week or so. You might even shake off that cold for good!
If you enjoyed this article, please take 5 minutes to visit our website: www.freewebs.com/spookystaffordshire
