Your FREE Report “7 Ways to a Wonderful Life” Including bonus material
“The Anamcara Experience Experience – Ready to Radiate” Introduction and Chapter 1 Plus
“An Irish Heritage – Songs Stories and Blessings” Introduction and Chapter 1
Text © Tony Cuckson 2009 All Rights Reserved
Published by Irish Blessings, Teach na comh Aislinge (The House of Shared Vision), Corrogue, Dowra, County Cavan, Republic of Ireland
Quoted Excerpts © Marianne Williamson: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles,” Harper Collins, 1992, from chapter 7, section 3 .
To the best of our knowledge all artwork included in text is in the public domain.
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“7Ways to a Wonderful Life”
Music - Herbert As promised, here is your special report “7 Ways Ways to a Wonderful Life.” Apply these seven principles each day and you will come to enjoy more and more. You will enjoy this extraordinary gift gift we call life. This Irish storyteller and and writer of inspirational eBooks and eCourses uses the term “Love Is Flowing Eternally,” to remind us of the essence of our life’s experience. This helps to remind us all that we are loved unconditionally. This is the main objective of this short and wonderfully powerful report. It is to help you remember that you are “forever enough. It is focused on giving you direction in enjoying your life no matter what age, religion, social class or other category you care to name. Lets begin with the seven steps to fulfilment. Each has been given a one-word title beginning with the letter P. This is to aid your memory. All these steps are important. Think of yourself going on on a journey. journey. This is a journey were you get get to spiral upward. This spiralling upward takes you you into greater and greater experiences of gladness and joy.
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PURPOSE
Madonna of the Mount – Thomas Cooper Cotch You are born from a creative intelligence that intends you to be a unique expression of love in form. You are not simply something that came here to be filled with information. More information will not bring you a life of fulfilment. In order to have a fulfilling life experience you have to come to know your purpose. This isn’t merely more more information. It is a different way of seeing and feeling the world. In finding such purpose you are then free. Where the needs of the world and your talents meet there lies your purpose. Make it a priority to celebrate whatever talent or talents you you have. Concentrate on your your strengths. You are a co-creator of this universe. Dream huge and allow your your imagination free flow. Do not hide your light under a bushel. You are magnificent beyond your present limited way of thinking. Go out of your head a little. Come to your senses. Enter your heart. Learn from your inner teacher the direction that makes your life worthwhile.
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PASSION
Love-Frozen Love-Froz en - Siber
Without passion life tends to be be a lukewarm expression. This is why wisdom teachers tell you that you are not to be lukewarm about how you are to creatively express your talent. Passion is where your your heart lies. The leading science of today says that you are a form of frozen light. This is fine so long as the essence of this light does not become frozen within within your body. body. This is the freezing of love as it is intended to flow through the form you call “my body.” It takes tremendous courage to allow the promptings promptings of your heart. This is the meaning of the word “encourage.” It means to move into your heart. Your heart’s desires have been made subservient to the wants of others. You have been filled up via an education process that was meant to help you unfold. Its purpose was to flower your beauty and creativity. You are encouraged to be be more concerned about your pension than your passion. As one of my favourite poets advises, “risk all for love. “ This risking our love is scary but we lose much of our life by refusing to take a flying leap. The invitations from this Irish storyteller storyteller help you “come to the edge.” Sometime we give you you a push. Then you will will find you can fly.
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PRESENCE
Love locked out – Anna Lee Merritt
Presence is something (or more a no thing) thing) difficult to define. It is easier to know when you do not have presence. This is the state most of us spend our lives in. You know this state when you have locked love out of your heart and not made its free flow your primary purpose. Allowing the free flow of love is one of the m ost essential ways to have a full and rewarding life. The Ready to Radiate weekly ezine available FREE from http://www.anamcaraexperience.org/ helps you remember remember to be present to your moment-to-moment moment-to-moment experience. It teaches you about your relationship to time. It shows you how to create more time for the people and actions that you love to do. It teaches you the beauty of your your essential self. We know you are “forever enough.” enough.”
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This ezine is here encouraging and supporting supporting you to “be here now.” We see the beauty of life in the West of Ireland. Ireland. This beauty is not just here but everywhere. We gift you the present of a heart free of anxiety anxiety and longing. We show you how to go home to your your heart. We teach you about about your essence. We show you how to come home to your “homeplace.”
PRACTICE
The Primrose Path of Dalliance, Farringford – Helen Allingham We are each required to walk our own unique path. This walking requires certain kind of practices. Whether we are aware of it or not we practice what we believe. Most of us believe in ideas that keep us from expressing the wonder at the heart of who we are. are. We are human human beings. The word human means, “the individual sound of God,” or if you don’t like the word God, “ the individual sound of creative intelligence.” Most of us practice a mantra. This is the mantra that goes goes something like this. “I am a separate person, living in a body in time and space and I will achieve what I can with the given resources resources available to me.” This is the mantra called the mantra mantra of separateness. It guarantees guarantees that you you will suffer. It guarantees guarantees that, like Narcissus you will focus on your self-image and try to make life within this time and space dimension as comfortable as possible. There is a different kind of mantra. It is a practice leading to the experience of enchantment. You are not required to chant but but you are required to practice.
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Whatever you practice you will become. You will attain to true happiness when you become what you are intended to be. That becoming is wired into you. It is not something you learn but but a flow you learn to enter. It will not necessarily make you a better person. It will make you you whole. In order to unfold this flow you are required to practice asking and living a certain kind of question. You go on a quest. quest. Only these are questions that take you you into a different kind of world. This is the world you belong to and have come here to celebrate.
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PERSISTENCE.
Pilgrim at the Gate of Idleness – Sir Edward Burne-Jones Our Ready to Radiate weekly ezine available FREE from http://www.anamcaraexperience.org/ will show you how to achieve all you desire. You will learn to approach each day as the blessing it is. You will learn to gently allow all you need to enter your your life. We will introduce you to the power power of creative ritual. You will discover discover the joy of discipline rather than feeling it is a prison. prison. You will walk a path that takes you higher and higher into feeling good about yourself. You will walk and talk this path with others. others. This will be through through our Irish Blessings Forum.
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PROSPERITY
Echo and Narcissus – John William Waterhouse Real prosperity begins when you you know your your purpose and follow it with passion. You will be less interested in how you look and how how you imagine you you are seen. You will recognise beauty and not ignore her through spending time looking at your own image. You will come to the lake of presence and see your true reflection. No longer will you feel out of place like some ugly ducking still being run out of town because you haven’t yet yet been shown who you really really are. You will celebrate your swanlike nobility and reflect your true nature. Maybe for one glorious moment you will know what it is to be your true Self. Out of this knowing there is gratitude. Out of this knowing knowing comes the daily practice of thankfulness. It is the way of reaping reaping what you sow. You learn how how to be present to delight and joy rather than be absent from from this experience. In doing this you you will feel prosperous in a way you you have forgotten. Your heart will feel glad. Out of this gladness gladness will flow untold gifts. gifts. You become someone with the ability to attract what you desire. You become the attractive being you always are.
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POETRY AND SONG
Following the Example of the Gods - Siemiradzki
You are not required to be a poet or a singer in order to follow a life of purpose, passion and prosperity to name a few of the wonders of a life flowing in such a direction. You do, however, need to learn a new language. This is a language of heart song, of heart story and of heart blessing. This language is needed to take you on a journey beyond the tower of intellect that simply fills you you up with more information. You do not need more more information. You need to follow the example of the Gods and sail your boat for the other shore of insight. This is a different way of seeing. Your being more informed is as likely to sink the boat as propel you toward your hearts desire. Every heart has a unique song song to sing. Poetry is the way in which you you are intended to express in the world. This poetry can be in words, in movement, in stillness and myriad ways that can grace your your life and others. Poetry is a grace that embellishes your life. It is the sound that is unique to you. The only real real question is, “Are you prepared to be purposeful and passionate to express this grace note you are.” The Sun Never Says
Even after all this time The sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me." Look what happens with A love like that, It lights the Whole Sky. ~Hafiz From: The Gift , Translated by Daniel Landinsky
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Our greatest blessing will be to help you you realise how blessed you truly are. Our intention is to invite you into the realisation that you you are “forever enough.” You will always be forever forever enough. You cannot earn your forever enough. enough. It is always with you except that it is locked out or frozen. The 7 Ways to a Wonderful Life are intended to invite you to open the door and come before the fire that burns no wood. Please feel free to send this short 7 Ways to a Wonderful Life report to anyone who you feel might benefit. In this way you are gracing gracing the world with the presence of purpose, passion, presence and so much more. We only ask that you do not change the content without express permission from Tony Cuckson.
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Rosa “Compassion” – From our Garden at Teach na Comh Aislinge
The Anam Cara Experience Workbook Welcome to the invitation to Soul Friendship. Here is the workbook workbook that is intended to assist you to get the most out of this unique and exciting eCourse (Now on offer at a discounted cost of $19.97) entitled The Anam Cara Experience – Ready to Radiate. Why do I need a Workbook?
This workbook workbook is central to the course. course. It is designed designed to facilitate your your learning. It is designed in such a way that you practice what you are invited to learn. The Anam Cara Experience – Ready to Radiate invites a very different way of being in the world. It is intended to allow you to feel more expansive expansive and in touch with the true Source of your full creative potential. You can read this course material and you will be more informed. This, however, will not give you you the experience that is the the essence of Soul Friendship. This course is practical in its approach. It is a practical teaching that is intended to lead you into the experience of joy. This is your birthright. When joy is experienced then you are living from Soul.
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Without practice and application this course can simply become another something that you know about. Except that the Anam Cara experience will take you beyond beyond what you normally consider knowledge. Please - do not make the content of this course simply more information.
It may be exciting information and it will likely make you feel inspired but without engagement with the practices there will be no real real change. There will be no experience of the transformational. There will be merely the experience of more information. Without practice, which is intended to prepare you you to receive your your birthright, you might be better informed but you will have missed knowing the beauty at the heart of who you are.
Email Instruction
This workbook is supported supported by email instruction. Every two days you you will receive an email that will be related to the the content of this workbook. workbook. The emails and the workbook are to be seen as complementary. complementary. These emails are designed to serve as a reminder of the beauty that is ready to radiate through you into into this world. These will often be supported by additional material that you can use should you desire. Each email should be printed out and kept together with this workbook. The development of Soul Friendship Friendship is unending. It takes you into into what we in Ireland Ireland refer to as the Timeless. Because you are a creative being, you are designed by life to expand in a creative way. This, as you will learn in this course, is not only within within the life that you think you live for a given period but for all time. Life is experienced joyfully when you are in alignment with how this creative expansion expresses through you. you. When you are out of alignment you experience non-ease. If non-ease non-ease persists then it turns into disease. Soul friendship is health because it emanates from that dimension which is whole and holy. Whole is the meaning of the word health. The invitation to Soul Friendship is simply that. It is an invitation. An invitation is something that you send out into the world. You are, in effect, inviting celebration and you are asking others to be present. The experience you are inviting is one of presence. This is the felt Oneness with the radiance at the heart of who you are.
Ready to Radiate Email 01 – Welcome to Soul Friendship
You will receive your first email shortly. This welcomes you to the course The Anamcara Experience – Ready to Radiate. It takes as our starting point the beautiful quotation by Marianne Williamson from her book Return Return to Love.
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Our deepest fear is not that that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our dark that frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about about shrinking so that that people won't feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine, as children do. We are borne to make make manifest the glory of God that that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission permission to do the same. same. As we're liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically automatically liberates others.
The Anam cara Experience is one that will, if you allow it, open your heart to the wonder of who you you truly are. This is a treasure beyond measure. However, there is a paradox to be lived in acquiring this treasure. Although this is available to you for free you have to be prepared to commit time to opening your heart to receive its beauty and power. Read the email entitled Ready to Radiate – Introduction Introduction and complete the exercise as requested. Such committed action will eventually eventually lead to you radiating as Love in Action.
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The Dream of the t he Prisoner – Moritz Ludwig Von Schwind
How much time do I have to spend on this material?
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A soul friend will ask you, “How much time do you want to spend in the prison of the separateness from Love dreaming you you are free.” The Anam cara invites you to open open the door of your time bound bound prison and find it has never been locked. locked. They invite you on the Hero’s journey. This is not only the adventure of a lifetime but also an adventure beyond the limitation of time itself. Only they know that like the prisoners in The The Allegory of the Cave in the story told by Greek philosopher Plato in the Republic. In this story the idea of venturing outside the cave is to frightening. frightening. Better to be in prison and dream rather than become an Outsider who is free. An Anam cara is one who is an a n Outsider and will tell you that Soul friendship is really a love affair that you you enter with yourself. yourself. The question then becomes, becomes, “ How much time do I want to spend being in love with who I AM? It will be your choice. In the beginning you can expect that you will resist the invitation to love that you you are. To many people this may appear quite illogical. illogical. “Who,” you might might ask, “doesn’t want to feel more loving toward themselves?” The reality is that most people don’t really spend very much time in connecting with the joy that is at the the heart of their life beyond beyond their life situation. Most people, when asked how they are, will at best tell you that they are OK. Those who walk in beauty radiate something more beyond words and beyond OK. OK. They will tell you that this ‘beyond’ is not something that you can merely know about. about. It is a living experience of everything that you already are. The amount of time you commit to developing your personal love affair with your creative Self will be up to you. Everyone is individual individual in his or her learning abilities. In a real sense, se nse, this course isn’t about teaching you anything you don’t already know. What this eCourse is really about is learning to accept the invitation to let go into that knowing. There will be some aspects of this eCourse that will really speak to your heart. There will be other other parts that you will likely struggle struggle with. It is those aspects you struggle with with where the real work begins. This is the work of turning straw into gold. This gold is who you already are and are invited to mine and be mindful mindful of. No matter how much time you spend on developing your connection with the Source be consistent. You will make progress progress more o f Unconditional Love it is important to be f U quickly if you commit to practicing at least everyday if not twice everyday. everyday. In the beginning there will be resistance as you learn a new skill and give up old habits that keep you tied to old ways of seeing the world and your place within it. In matters of Soul Friendship you you have unlimited time. This does not mean that you have the licence to waste time. It means you understand understand that you have have a responsibility to make your life the beautiful expression it was created to be and is intended to be. This is your real responsibility in this world not only to yourself but also to each of us who are your brothers and sisters. With practice Soul Friendship begins to build until this is your natural way of being in the world. This is the real way of being in the world. If the practices of of Soul Friendship do not lighten your life and give you a sense of joy and hope for the future then they are likely being practiced from a sense of wilfulness.
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While this may be needed in the beginning the practice tends to become heart directed and one willingly enters the practice for the joy experienced within the practice. practice. With practice one changes from wilfulness into willingness. This is to be expected so do not feel discouraged in the beginning should you find resistance arising.
Putting Ignorance Ignorance to Flight – Giovanni Battista Tiepolo – 1696 - 1770
The Issue of Resistance The direct experience of Soul Friendship will change your life. While this change will impact you in ways you may not even begin to imagine, there is a part of you called the ego that will resist such change. As you take this journey into your radiant Self expect to meet with resistance. This resistance will be rationalised in many ways. So while you should expect to meet with such resistance you will be invited to move beyond it. Resistance is a part of any development process. It is not to be be judged but neither neither is it to be indulged. It is simply to be observed and brought to light. Habits, as they say, die hard. Joy is a habit as much much as joylessness is a habit. One is the natural experience of being tuned to your Source Of Unconditional Love. The other is the unnatural consequence of being locked out of your connection to this Source.
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As part of this course structure you will receive email reminders to support you in your endeavour to enter the beauty at the heart of who you are. It is intended that these invite you to move beyond the resistance of being the beauty that is always there within you. This is the living creative expansion at the heart of all Creation. Ready to Radiate Email 02 – Intention to Commit
Your second email that supports you on your journey into The Anamcara Experience – Ready to Radiate will be received by you shortly. This email expands on the issue of commitment and resistance. It includes an exercise you are asked to do as a symbol of your continuing commitment to releasing the radiance within you. Remember that you are essentially committing to another way of being in the world. So be kind to yourself. Resistance to this new way of being will arise. One key aspect of Soul Friendship is the continued willingness to forgive any resistance that arises within you. This forgiveness is only what what one would expect from a true friend. The Anam cara true Self. This then allows Experience is the deepening of the friendship with the true your light to shine and gives permission for others to be the shining ones that is already potentially within them.
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The Enchanted Garden – John William Waterhouse – 1849 - 1917
Trusting the Process The Anam cara Experience is not a one-off one-off experience. It is a continuing process of movement beyond limitation. It is the expansion of the process of life creating as Love. This process is an endless journey into the deepening connectedness with the Source of Unconditional Love. The emotional attitude that is required to deepen this this connection is one one of trust. This is trust in the process process as it is being unveiled. unveiled. It is not a process that adds anything to you. you. It is a process of letting go into the the radiance that you already are. When moving through this process there will be times when you feel very uncertain. This is when trust and faith in the process is required. You are a unique reflection of the Divine expressing in form. How that expression of Love is to manifest manifest through you is known to you alone and will at times be unknown. unknown. There are common common signposts along the way but the way the signposts are to be interpreted is unique to you. An Anam cara invites you to express this this uniqueness. In doing so there will be times that you feel that you have entered the unknown. It is at such times that you need a true friend of your your Soul. They will encourage you to hold faith with the process unfolding within you. They will hold faith with the radiance that is being birthed out of what appears to be be a place of unknowing. An
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Anam cara will tell you this is an essential part of the process of the creative. The creative is always new and so at one point in the process is always unknown. Ready to Radiate Email 03 – Trust, trust tr ust and trust again.
Your third email that supports you on your journey into The Anamcara Experience – Ready to Radiate email expands on the issue of trust in the process. It includes an exercise you are asked to do as a symbol of your continuing commitment to trusting and releasing the radiance within you. you. Trust is one one of the most powerful “magic skills” that human beings are capable of.
The introduction to this Anam cara Experience – Ready to Radiate Ecourse has started with outlining the most important issues of commitment and trust to and in the process. Without this commitment and trust the unfolding of the radiance within will be mired in the continued attraction of that which serves your sense of separateness from Love. So having set some essential attitudes, which are really beatitudes, required for the journey let us move on to looking at the two words around which this whole course is centred. These are the word word Soul and the word Friend
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The Wounded Angel – Hugo Simberg – 1873 - 1917 1917 The Artwork
Included in the workbooks are pictures that this writer has chosen in order to invoke a connection to those aspects of ourselves that we tend to be unfamiliar with or refuse to acknowledge. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. These pictures have stood the test of of time. This is because they are created through the artist from a connection to the timeless. They deal with the symbols symbols that the heart understands even if the head does not. This artwork adds colour and beauty beauty to the material you are presented with. Some of the email exercises invite you to invoke felt connection with the subject of the artwork. This has to do with your connection or resistance to the beauty within you. The artwork tends to reflect timeless stories in fairytales or mythology. mythology. This is the language of the soul. This writer has checked to ensure that all the artwork is out of copyright and in the public domain. The pictures are used with this understanding. Should this prove prove to be incorrect please advise the writer of this fact at
[email protected] and he will take action to rectify it.
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Reflection: The experience of Soul Friendship is subtle and is a felt experience. It is not simply more information. It is a new way of living and being that is natural and and beauty filled. Some of the practices require that you write about what you are journeying through. The preferred way of inviting this friendship is via hand and and heart. This is why writing your private and personal personal thoughts in a journal journal are advised. The hand and and the heart are intimately connected through the act of writing. The journal exercises invite to you experience learning in a new way. This will become clearer as the the course The Anam cara Experience – Ready to Radiate develops.
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The Anam Cara Experience Workbook CHAPTER 1 MAP REFERENCES
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A Knight at the Crossroads - Viktor Vasnetsov
Reference Points for the Journey The picture above is called “A Knight at the Crossroads.” This picture has been chosen by this writer to reflect the situation of one identified only with the mask of persona. The knight can be seen as a symbol for the Hero. This reference to the Hero throughout this course includes the heroine. heroine. In this picture we see not only that the knight looks tired but also the beautiful symbol represented by the white horse is literally exhausted. The landscape is devoid of beauty and there is the representation of death shown by the skull s kull lying on the ground. We cannot read what the writing on the stone pillar says. However, the title of the picture gives us some sense of hope. The knight knight is at the crossroads. This happens to us all at various various times in our life situation. The Anam cara Experience that is the journey into Soul Friendship is a different crossroads. It points you in a very different direction. It points you into the knowing of the true Self. In order to begin the journey into Soul Friendship we need to be clear about some reference points. The key reference points we will begin with are with the reference to Soul and to Friendship. The importance of one’s direct connection to the experience of Soul cannot be over emphasised. The Master Jesus pointed to this importance when he said, “ What profit it a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul.” Man in this context includes woman. Before this writer attempts to introduce you to the qualities of Soul let us examine something closer to our present understanding understanding of who we think we are. This is what 25
we call our personality. We all have a personality personality and we all recognise recognise the personality of others. You will not meet with any sentient being who does not express in their own unique way through what we call the personality. For the purpose of this course The Anam cara Experience – Ready to Radiate this writer wishes to clearly distinguish between what is called the personality and what is called the persona (or mask). For the purpose of this course we will take the word personality as the way the radiance of who you are is reflected through you and expresses in form. This is the free flow of your authentic Self as it expresses moment moment to moment. This is your self, free of judgement, expressing your feeling sense of joy as and in Creation. Creation.
Most of us do not move through through life in this way. We operate our life situation, not from the radiance of personality but from the conditionality of persona. persona. We wear a mask of conditions that we judge to be acceptable or not. We show a particular face to the world to get what we want. We show this face to the world so that others accept us. In intimate relationship we take the risk of dropping the mask and revealing aspects of ourselves we tend to keep hidden. The true purpose of relationship is to be a mirror mirror for the true Self that radiates as Love in action through the personality. This radiance that flows through through the personality is the radiance of Soul. The persona, the mask, and the ego ego fear this radiance. This fear is beautifully illustrated in the quote from our introductory introductory support email. This is the quotation from the book Return to Love by Marianne Williamson that is the experience an Anam cara invites you to return to. Our deepest fear is not that that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our dark that frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We are meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shines, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.
In order for this radiance that we are born to manifest in form to shine through the personality, you are required to enter the heart. You are required to know know through direct personal experience what an open heart feels like. Once knowing this experience you learn through spiritual practice to keep the heart chakra (energy field) open and empowered. In this way you are are attuned to your real source of power. power. So let us begin to set some reference points. The journey of the Anam cara is the journey from identification with the limitation of the c onditioned persona to the glorious freedom of the radiance of the Soul as it flows through the personality free of judgment and conditionality.
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We are going to look at the way the persona uses language and the qualities that are associated with the maintenance of the mask or image that each of us presents to the world. Then we will do a similar exercise with the language and qualities qualities of the Soul. So to be clear, let this writer recap on the difference between persona and personality. In this course persona is what you tend to refer to as I or me and mine. Personality on the other hand is the free flow of radiance through the body emanating from your felt connectedness to the Source of Unconditional Love.
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Isle of the Dead - Arnold Böcklin - 1827 - 1901 1901
The Language of the Persona The language of the persona is a language that seeks to make secure what is known. We tend to speak about the present and the future in relation to what we already know. The language of the persona is largely conditioned by the individuals individuals past and by the collective consciousness of the environment into which the person is born. The persona may seek new experiences but those that are of the Soul are not only new in the real sense of being new they are transformative. Through the experience of the Soul the individual person moves through levels of consciousness that impact the personality in transformative ways. ways. While there may be changes in the life circumstances of the individual persona those changes tend for the most part not to radically transform their view not only of themselves but also of their world. Here is an outline of the type of language you you can expect to engage with on the level of the persona rather than a Soul level. The language of persona will for the most part be rational.
We live in a time of the rational and scientific. In the language language of the rational everything can be measured and reduced to something that can be defined in words. If it cannot be measured measured then it tends to be seen as non-existent. Most people in the world today are focused on the rational rational way of viewing the world. This is not to say this is not a functional way of seeing the world but it is to say that it is a limited way of seeing the world. The word tree is not the tree. The word used to describe something will only tell you about about that thing. In that sense living from the persona is always second hand.
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The language of persona references I rather than I AM
Most of the language of the persona is the language of 'little me.' It is the language all about my life situation. For many of us, this is the only only language we know. It will be the only language that is engaged with unless there has been the call to the experience of the Soul. Soul. This language tends to be endless talking ‘about’. ‘about’. It is opinionated opinionated and tends to be based on judgement of a personal sense of right right and wrong. It tends to be predictable and based not in the moment but on the moment as defined by past experience. It is not the language of I AM. This is the language that is holistic, wise, and compassionate and arises in response to the moment. The language of the persona cannot invite healing in the real sense. The language of the persona is the language language of one who believes in a separate sense of self. The language of of the persona can give give you communication but it takes at least one person engaged in a conversation to be tuned to Soul in order for the communication to become communion. The language of the persona defends against depth
Most conversations are about what is known. known. John O’Donohue, the the poet and Catholic scholar, said that when real conversation happens the forces of communion are invited from the invisible world to join in such Holy Communion. He said however, that this invitation to communion in this world of form is tending to become less and less available. Communication has become reduced reduced to what is called the sound bite. Strange to say that we now have more and more means of communication and are less and less able to enter the silence sil ence which is the true t rue domain of communion beyond what is thought as rational. It is this writer’s experience that many people defend themselves against ideas that threaten to transcend their view of the world. This is no different to the way it has always been. However, when the the heart is left out of the conversation people become become lonely. This is because they are unable unable to allow or be allowed to become the the revelation they are. The language of the persona is a language of time
The language of persona arises from the idea that the person lives only in time and space and form. As a consequence, they divide divide their lives into broad segments. These segments comprise what is called the the past, the present and the the future. Most conversation is about the past or the future. The fact is that most of us as persona are not present to this moment unless it is clearly defined and known. The language of the persona tends not to understand parable, paradox or the real in depth meaning of fairy tales or the stories as told by sacred teachings. The language of the persona tends toward the literal. It takes the words and sees in the words words a meaning according to its life experience. The persona tends to see itself and its language as fixed within a given time and space. It calls this understanding (which it does not understand at all) and says this is the way it sees things.
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The language of the persona is not a language of revelation.
The language of the persona tends not not to be revelatory. While the language may reveal things ‘about’ you, you, the language does not tend to reveal who you are. Soul Friendship is the invitation to revelation. Revelation does not mean that you pour pour your heart out in an emotional catharsis, although it can mean that as part of the process to becoming free of the idea of who you are as a limited time space phenomena. In Soul Communion there is always the possibility of the new. This is the arising of Creation in the moment. moment. The personality tends to be illuminated within that moment. moment. The individual comes to have revealed a depth to them that radiates through their personality. One connected in the connection to Soul tends not to claim this revelation as their own but merely the arising of the grace of Creation in any one moment. The Soul Friend knows that that to claim any aspect of the beauty of Soul as something distinct from the Beloved is to invite its loss. The persona is not something that one is invited to look upon with some kind of distaste. An Anam cara invites you into the revelation revelation that you are so much more. As the Master Jesus said, "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?" The answer is nothing, nothing, except that you remain ignorant of of your nature as timeless, limitless Love creating Self. It isn’t that you will be condemned in anyway for forgetting forgetting this limitless Loving Self. But as a consequence of forgetting, you only live a life that wisdom teachers call an illusion. The personality is needed in order to give up the attachment to the limitation of persona. It is only a person who is willing to surrender the little "me" for the real I AM that comes to understand the purpose of Creation and the part that they play within that creation. This willingness to be all that you are is the invitation of The Anam Cara Experience. It is the invitation from a Soul Friend who knows that each of us is a part and not apart from the All One.
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The Stone Breaker – John Brett
Qualities of the Persona Outlined below are a brief series of aspects that can be agreed by most people as defining what is understood in this course The Anamcara Experience as the persona. One very important aspect of this outline is that a persona is not to be considered something that one should judge to be be in any way bad. The full development of the personality assists in the journey into the experience of Soul Soul Friendship. No part of the journey into the transpersonal is facilitated by judgement. judgement. Discernment is necessary and we will be looking at this practice later in the course. Lives in time and space and form.
The ego or persona is guaranteed to feel separate. The person feels that they are defined by an agreed limitation. This limitation is that the person is born, they experience a life situation for a given time and then they die. This is the experience of most people who have ever lived lived on the planet. There is usually hope that one might might get to a place where one at least continues with some sense of identity but this is not felt to be certain.
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Attached to a body, mind and emotions
The persona is attached to the experience of the body, the mind and the emotions. This is who people say they are. This is how one does indeed experience the world. However, the attachment to these things things is what gives gives rise to suffering. It isn’t that you are required to give give up the personality in order order to enter Soul Friendship. It is, however, required that you give up the ignorance of i t being who you are in total. tot al. The Anam Cara Experience invites you into the experience of charisma. This is where the personality flows from the experience of Soul. Attached to many other things
The persona is a combination combination of things that that one identifies with. This includes family, nation state, political affiliation, religious affiliation or none. It includes the work that you do and the place you live. It includes your status and how big or small your home is. Your persona is defined by gender, gender, age and race. All of these things are only aspects of the unique person that you are. They are your playgrounds in which you are able to express the unlimited within the boundary of the limited. Again, there is nothing to say that any of this is right or wrong. What is important is to be able to recognise the limitation involved in being solely identified with all or any of that, which comes and goes. Judges in terms of opposites
The persona lives in opposites. Broadly speaking, the the persona lives between the one extreme it calls good and and the other extreme it calls bad. It lives between that which it is attracted to and that which it resists in some way. The persona, which is presented to the world, is those aspects of the person that that will bring it what it desires. Those aspects that arise within the persona that do not bring the desired results are hidden in what is called the Shadow. This is that aspect of the persona persona that we hide from others and which the Soul tends to use to enlighten the one who represses this none loved energetic. Advances by the acquiring knowledge
The persona is developed through through experience in time and space and form. In this given age its primary way of advancing is through the acquisition of what it calls knowledge. This is not to suggest that knowledge knowledge is in anyway to be viewed viewed as something that should be refused. There have been great advances in the the alleviation of suffering of humankind through the advancement of scientific and medical advances. There have been advances advances made in many beneficial ways. However, despite all our vast knowledge the world appears to becoming a more violent place. Knowledge does not know and is not wisdom. The persona cannot acquire what is referred to in this course as knowing. knowing. We will develop a deeper deeper understanding of this experience of knowing as the course progresses.
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The persona tends to be self-serving.
The persona is, for the most part, self-interested. It acts from an interest in acquiring something for itself. This acquisition may be as subtle as the idea that the person is a good person. They act from the desire to establish an image image acceptable to themselves. There is no suggestion here that one should not act responsibly. The key word here is respond. This means to be fully in touch with one’s motives and one’s environment. The persona tends toward reaction rather than responsibility. It tends to react from from much that remains unconscious. It follows known patterns that it is comfortable with. The persona tends to be loving
This may appear opposite to the above. above. However, most people in this world of form form desire to love love and be loved. This is a reminder to the persona of its true home. The writer uses the word love with a small l. This is what most people understand by the word love. They love within boundaries and and conditions. Maybe the only time they experience unconditional love is at the birth of a child or when a loved one is dying. The persona loves within boundaries and only knows what it is to Love when that persona is transcended. One thing that needs to be clear in understanding of the above. To live as a true individual is to become become personified. Carl Jung called this process process individualisation. It is a process where you go beyond identifying solely with the persona. In doing this you do not lose anything. anything. In fact you get to leave the prison prison house of identity within limitation of time and space and form. To remain solely identified with the persona alone you are, in fact, fa ct, giving up the possibility of knowing that you are not the limited time space experience you think you are. To move beyond the mask of persona is to invite the experience of Heaven on Earth. This transcending of persona does not leave you you empty. You get to know (not (not in an intellectual way) that who you are is far beyond who you once thought that you are. You might not change that much on the outside but you will see and feel the world from a very different perspective. You will have allowed the Soul to express through through you as a unique person in the the world of form. This is what a soul friend invites. They are, in effect, asking you to give up rags for riches. Ready to Radiate Email 04 – Releasing the Mask of Persona
One of the key practices of the Anamcara Experience program is to trade the rags of judgement for the riches of discernment. The mask of persona is not given up through judging it as bad. Read the email supporting s upporting this part of the course and commit to establishing esta blishing non-judgemental attitude within your life situation.
Having considered the qualities of the persona and its relationship to the personality let us now consider the language and the qualities related to soul.
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Viviane and Merlin in a Forest by Gustave Doré - 1832 - 1883
The Language of the Soul The language of the Soul is a language language that most of us are unfamiliar with. This, the writer contends, is why many people feel lonely for something that they cannot readily explain. The language of the Soul is a timeless language language full of beauty and grace. It is not a reductionist reductionist language but like like the nature of Creation Creation itself is expansive. The physical experience of such expansiveness is the feeling we call joy. 34
The absence of joy in our life situation is mostly down to the absence of Soul in our life situations. The language of the Soul is a feminine language. language. It is not the language of the gogogetter. In fact, by Soul standards, every one on the planet, apart from a few exceptions, (and mercifully these numbers numbers are growing) growing) we are all go-getters. go-getters. The language of the Soul comes through a heart devoid of judgement and willi ngly present to the moment as a servant of Love. The language of the Soul is full of paradox.
This is one of the key ways in recognising rec ognising that you are having a Soul conversation. The person you are talking to in words will invite you beyond beyond words. Your rational mind will tend to go reeling and you will do one of two things. You will defend your known position or your heart will sense that here is an invitation that you do not meet everyday. Most people who use the normal way of thinking about the world consider paradox to be logically unacceptable or even senseless. This is true from a logical perspective but not from the perspective of the heart. Most wisdom teachings are paradoxical. This is because they reference the experience that is both apart from and whole at the same time. Only those who have glimpsed those dimensions beyond the limits of time and space can be said to understand the language of paradox that is the language of the Soul. The language of Soul is creative
This does not mean that the language of the Soul is only for artists, poets and other artistic types. Creative here means the arising of the new. There is plenty of art and poetry being produced in the world that is simply a tampering with what is known. All real art transcends time and space and, in that sense, is not not personal. Real art is that which the artist allows to come through them into the world of form from the formless. This is the experience of Love Love in action. The language language of the Soul can come through a motor mechanic; an accountant, a nurse or any one engaged in action that for one moment is lost in the experience of the timeless. The language of the Soul is Timeless
The language of the Soul is expressed e xpressed in time and space relevant to the time and place in which the individual is born. All expressions of Soul are unique. For one with access to the Soul dimension the language of the Soul is available throughout all time and space and within all cultures. The one with access to the Source of Unlimited Love knows beyond knowing about that they can feel the same sense of beauty reading a soul passage written by Lao Tzu in China many thousands of years ago as much as reading a passage by Jesus two thousand years ago. ago. The one with access to the Soul dimension does does not claim to know the only way. There are six billion people living on this planet so in that sense there are six billion ways. ways. That which creates forever does does not create two things things the same.
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The language of the Soul is symbolic
The soul speaks in symbol. These are symbols that connect the universality of human kind. These symbols exist in all cultures cultures and throughout throughout all times. The meaning of symbols transcends time and space. They are representations representations of archetypal energy patterns that every individual is subject to. We see these symbols represented in fairy tales throughout all cultures cultures and time. We see these symbols represented represented in the modern storytelling phenomena we call movies. movies. These are symbols that we are invited to personally reclaim as are own. They then become your power to cross the threshold places where the Soul invites those willing to venture for the purpose of and in the service of Love. The language of the Soul is Beauty
Anything that evokes the the feeling of the beautiful is Soulful. Beauty here is not what we normally understand in modern modern terms as glamour. The beauty that is spoken of here transcends time and space. It is not conditioned by culture, politics or the whims of what might be be called fashionable. Fashionable tends to be the latest way in which one, conscious of image as who they are, is manipulated by the collective called the fashion media. The beauty that comes via the Soul Soul radiates through the personality. It is as if the person was lit up from inside and this, in fact, is a good analogy. analogy. The person recognises that something revelatory is pouring through them at that moment. They do not claim this revelation as their own but merely recognise the arising of the grace of Creation within them.
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Snow White – Marianne Stokes
QUALITIES OF SOUL The qualities of Soul
Whatever can be said in words about the soul is only only that. They are only words. words. However, words up to a point point are necessary. The soul is defined by the writer of this course as the bridge to the Source Of Unconditional Love. This Love Love (with a capital L) is not only unconditional unconditional but also unlimited. You are not in anyway required to earn it but you are required to learn the practices that will allow you to bridge the limitation of persona to the Source of All Creation that is creating you in each moment. Another thing to remember is that that the Soul is not a thing. The language we use for the Soul invitation is the language of the heart. heart. This language is key to the ability to connect to this Source of Unconditional Love. The learning of this language language is a major part of this course. The Soul lives beyond time and space and form
We live in an age when we think that if we cannot measure and define something s omething then that something does not not exist. You cannot measure the Soul except that you you feel it. When you feel it you know know for certain that it exists. This does not mean that it exists
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in form because it does not exist in form but it animates that which is in form. The Soul does not exist exist in what we call time. Time, as we will discuss later, is a construct of the human mind. Time as such does not exist. Only the NOW exists and has ever existed and will ever exist. The Soul does not have a body, mind or emotions.
This for the persona persona and the ego appears to be non-existence. non-existence. The person will ask "Well, if I don’t have a body, a mind and emotions then what is left of me?" The Anam cara will tell you that you cannot live without a Soul but you are, for the most part, living in ignorance ignorance of this fact. Your ignoring this experience is what, for the most part, will cause you suffering -whether it is a mild case of doubt to the extreme of physical ills such as cancer or mental illness. Because you cannot sense the existence of the invisible does not not mean it does not not exist. In fact, existence as form does not arise without the existence of that which is formless. The difference is that the formless is not born and does not die. die. The invitation to Soul Friendship is to invite you into the security of knowing you live forever. The Soul is detached from things
Because the Soul is not attached (which does not mean that you feel nothing) it is free to be everything. It is free to allow Creation to flow in the unique way that creation is always flowing. The experience of joy (so rare in most people’s lives) is the free flow of creation through a body, mind and will that tuned to the Source of All Creation. Joy is not an emotion. Joy is a feeling of Soul. Joy is not an emotion of the persona. We will be examining the difference between feelings and emotions later on in the course. Detachment does mean emotional detachment but it does not not mean absence of feeling. Feeling is a natural response response to the world. If you want to see detachment in action then watch the play of very young children. It does not mean that these young young children experience an absence absence of feeling. It does mean that they have not yet learned how to judge feelings as right and wrong. They have not yet learned to attach value judgements to flows of experience. The Soul is not judgemental
The Soul uses the persona as a call to be the knowing of the true self. The soul does not judge. The soul allows for the expression expression of Love Love as action in form. This is the free flow of the energy energy of creation. Creation looks upon all that it creates and says, "This is good." This expression "This is good," should not be seen as opposite opposite to "This is bad." Creation is for the highest good of all because it is created as Love. This energy of Love is timeless, is formless, is unconditional, unconditional, and simply is. One cannot know this through the persona. It comes through the personality personality of one willing to be in service to Love. In being in service to Love Love one becomes what one serves. If you serve serve the master that you call persona then you are serving time. You are serving a life that will bring you some degree of satisfaction but not the expansiveness of joy in Creation.
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The Soul does not advance
There are stages of soul growth but you do not improve improve on Soul experience. What happens is that you enter deeper and deeper experiences of Soul, including the dark night of the Soul. This experience is like taking off veils to reveal deeper and deeper beauty and unconditionality. unconditionality. This is not self-improvement self-improvement in the way that most people understand self-improvement. There is nothing wrong with improving your your skill sets. There is nothing wrong in learning to be more functional in the time, space and form continuum that you live and have your your being in. This assists you and many many other people. If, however, you you do not source directly that which is beyond improvement you will still be caught up in opposites. Sometimes these will be judged good and sometimes these will be judged bad. Without direct knowing of Soul you will be unable to see them as simply the play of opposites in the world of form but that you who are primarily formless and forever.
The Soul serves the All One
The Soul more than anything anything serves Love. It does this as a creative act without judgement of good or bad. Remember the Soul is not a thing and does not work in deciding between this action and that action. This is personality. The action of the Soul is always Love in action. It is complete in itself. It does not not judge whether whether or not the action is good or bad because Love acting from the formless in form is miraculous. It is beyond beyond the constraints constraints of the laws of time and space. It is the source of real healing which Masters of Soul have used in their ministry from time to time.
The Soul is the bridge to Love
The Soul bridges that which is in time and space and form with that which is beyond time and space and form. Do not think that you will in an instant disappear. Nothing on the outside will appear appear different. What will be different will be how you you experience what you now call the world. You will live differently when you are Soul directed and willing to have your life so directed. You will not feel the sense of separateness that is the lot of those identified solely with the persona. You will still be subject to the laws of time and space and form but recognise that you live beyond these limitations. You see these limitations for what what they are. They are there for the dance of Creation. The tragedy is not that they are there but that those who are the play of Creation are ignorant of the play. To conclude this section let the writer remind you that the Soul is not a thing. It is more a flow. The personality tends to be thought of of as a thing. It is for most people the thing that they identify with. with. However, it is very important to see the world more as a verb verb rather than than a noun. noun. Nothing, in reality, is static. The body
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is not static. It is a continuous flow of different energies. energies. Some of this flow lasts moments and others last years. Your body is not a thing but a process that moves within time and space and has its life energy emanating from beyond time and space. You are not not a thing either. You are a being that is becoming. This becoming transcends time and space and form. It is the journey into higher and higher higher expressions of Love. Love. It requires a willingness on your part to venture venture into that which is unknown. This venturing into the unknown unknown is fearful for the persona but not for the Soul. The Soul delights in the creation of the forever new while the persona clings to that which it knows. Soul invitations often come come at what the persona terms terms difficult times. This is when we are forced to wake up and ask real questions about what it is to be a human being living in form on the earth in time and space. Such is the invitation to the Anam Cara Experience. It is a wake up call to rediscover the beauty at the heart he art of your existence beyond the mask of persona. Ready to Radiate Email 05 –Finding Yourself at a Crossroads
With the allowing of the Soul the personality radiates light and joy. With that let us get ready to radiate. We begin with our first key lesson. This is the opening of the heart through the understanding of spiritual poetry.
So let us now continue the invitation to the experience of Soul Friendship. The primary way in which we are going to do this is through the understanding of the symbolic language of spiritual poetry, spiritual storytelling and spiritual song craft. There are distinct stages of this revelatory process and it is the wish of any Soul Friend that you at least be given the the invitation. The Anam Cara is aware that this invitation can be refused and is likely to be refused by most people. Except that the Anam Cara cannot refuse to give this invitation. invitation. To do so would be like the sun refusing to shine on someone because they seemed not to appreciate the life giving force that the Sun gives. So with this introduction about the path of the personality personality and the path of the Soul let us continue the invitation to meet the beauty at the heart of existence. Let us now look at what it means to be a friend. © All Text Tony Cuckson 2008
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THE ANAMCARA EXPERIENCE Ready to Radiate By Tony Cuckson
What people are saying about this course Dear Tony, Who Has Changed My Life, Thank you for being. And thank you for being YOU. To me, you are a beacon, illuminating the way Home. When I read your your words, I sense that you are carrying me Home. Love, Peace, Joy and Happiness to you and Bee, Mary McGillis - Mary's Moments Radio Show Canada
Yes Tony, I am so s o very excited about this……….you are such a wonderful teacher…. I can tell I am on a new path, a new adventure in my life………I am so excited to have you as a guide. I think your teachings can benefit so many. many.
Brenda McGarvey USA
About this Course •
Discover the path that returns you to your true homeplace.
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Learn the meaning of what it is iis s to feel called ca lled to adventure and the rewards of the journey.
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Find out the five stages involved in this journey called Life.
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Know how to hold the tension t ension of feeling uncertain and make it a part of learning how to feel deeply deeply creative. creative.
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Learn the language that the heart understands and that will lead you into a sense of wonder.
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Learn the real secret of making time your friend and overcoming time poverty.
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Find out how to allow the song that you have come here to sing to flow through you
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Learn the four practices that th at you need to know in order to create in the way the Universe intended that you create.
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Enjoy the power of art, poetry and storytelling to engage and delight your creative imagination.
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Find the mirror within that always affirms that you are the fairest fairest of them all.
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Learn to trust in the process that will take you beyond the limitation of doubt and fear into your real power.
Through this course you are invited to celebrate your life and claim your birthright. You are hereby invited to become become a friend to that which will radiate through you into the world and allow you to be in joy in yourself. yourself.
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THE ANAMCARA INVITATION .
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you should decide this information isn't right for you, email me and I'll refund you in full. No questions asked. You have absolutely nothing to lose!
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An Irish Heritage Heritage Stories Songs and Blessings Introduction Song – Danny Boy
Story – Return to Tir Na Nog Blessings - The Blessing of the Road
Song – My Lagan Love
Story – The Stolen Child
Blessings – The Blessing of Wisdom Song – Raglan Road
Story – King of the Faeries Blessing - The Blessing of Deep Peace Conclusion
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TRADITIONAL SONGS, NEW STORIES AND BLESSINGS
Music - AntoineAntoine-Au Au uste-E uste-Ernest rnest Hebert St. Patrick’s Day is the the day we celebrate the patron patron saint of Ireland. He is, however, only one of a holy trinity of national saints. These three are St. Patrick, St. Brigid and St. Columcille. What characterises any nation are their songs and stories. One other characteristic that is quite unique to Ireland is her number of blessings. Irish blessings probably out out number all other nations across the world put together. St. Patrick’s Day is a both a day of remembrance and celebration. What is it, however, you are being asked to remember? What is it you are being asked to celebrate? It is the day in which to connect to that which is sacred and that which is whole within each of us. A saint is not someone who is different from any one one of us. They have their good good days and bad days. However, they remember one thing that we we do not. This is a remembrance that more than just a cerebral memory. It is that they know know who they are and most of us do not.
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Most great stories, great songs and blessings are written in order to remind you of what it important. They are written to answer answer key questions questions about life. They invite purpose, passion and compassion. compassion. They answer questions questions such as “Who am I?” I?” and “Why am I here?” Ireland is a land apart both physically and spiritually. There are parts of her that will always remain wild. She will not be tamed. It is happy happy to be with what the mystic poet Rumi called bewilderment. Ireland invites you you through her songs, stories and blessings to live at threshold places of magic and mystery. This magic and mystery is contained within the songs and stories that are still being sung and and still being being told. These songs and stories contain deeper invitations. They invite you beyond the known and into the wildness of heart that is bewilderment. This wildness invites meaning. It takes you into a way of seeing beyond your normal normal way of seeing the world. These songs here are heart songs. They are songs that most everyone everyone has heard even if they do not know them. Included are links to renditions of these songs that this Irish storyteller considers invite the heart to cross threshold places beyond and absence of wonder.
The stories are new. These stories have one major major theme, the relationship you and I have around the issue of time and our heart’s connection to what in Ireland is known as the timeless. Without this connection to the dimension of the timeless you miss out on the meaning of what it is to be alive in this world.
The Arcadian or Pastoral State - Thomas Cole In Ireland we have a name for this timeless dimension. We call it the Land of the Forever Young, Tir na Nog. This is not just an old Irish story but but also an ancient invitation to the beauty and power at the heart when it is at home. Stories are told because they get beyond the intellect and the censor. They lull you into a state where
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the heart knows what the head cannot. In such a state you can become one who is a seer. You get to see what it means to be the unique creative dance dance you are here to be. Then there are the more more common Irish Irish Blessings. We begin with the most well known blessing that begins “May the road rise rise up.” This is not just any road. road. This is a road that is most definitely less travelled. If it were not, there would be no sense of blessedness to be realised. Blessings are not something you simply say or do not say. They are a learned, or more accurately, a revealed way of living. They are a revelation about you and why you are here. You are the author of you own heart song, heart story and heart blessing. You are intended to express your heart. You do not have have to be a singer, a storyteller, or member of the clergy. clergy. You have to be willing. You have to intend that the life you you live will be gifted. gifted. It is always that but it may not not be revealed to you. If you could glimpse one moment the truth of who you are then you would be celebrating another saint’s day! It would be your own saint’s day. You would be in that moment the revelation that you truly are. The songs, stories and blessings for St. Patrick’s Day are revelations in their own way. way. They invite invite you to sing the universal song that created you to be sound of body, mind and soul. Their invitation is layered. If you take them on a literal level then you may miss the invitation to feast on your life. Like all great stories, songs and blessings they can deepen within you if you accept the invitation to come along the enchanted way. Next time you hear the song Danny Boy let it trigger a remembrance at the heart of this song. Next time you you hear Lagan Love let it not simply be a remembrance of a song about a woman who sings a song of heart’s he art’s desire. Next time you hear or read the Irish blessing “May the road rise up to meet you” let yourself be reminded that the road you are on is more than you might ever imagine it to be.
Fairy Tales – Mary I Gow
The stories here are based upon old ones but but written for modern minds. They are written to remind you of the beauty and wonder that you are created to express in your unique way. They are written to remind you you to invite the celebration that is your life as it is intended to be. So let us journey on into the wild. Let Let us take the road that rises up. Let us go along the enchanted way and venture into and return to the Land of the Heart – the Land of
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the Forever Young. Let us remember that we are one of the beautiful people who in the Irish story of the Battle of Moytura have had their beauty at times driven underground by the forces of doubt and even despair. We can be heroes and questors. Let our weapons be our songs and our stories, warts and all. In telling our stories we we become heroes. We open the heart and we become magicians. We begin to trade rags rags for riches. riches. We begin to turn the lead of self-doubt into the gold of our true nature. This is the invitation from all saints. They each said it in their own way. They each, in their own way and in their own words and in the customs of their day, invite you into awareness of the beauty at the centre of creation that you are not separate from (although you may feel separate from it.) At the heart of the Christian message that St. Patrick brought to Ireland is the story of Love in form. It is the story of one who was willing to allow the song of Love to sing through through Him. He was the greatest of storytellers and invited the greatest of blessings. That invitation is always being given. It can only be known (beyond intellectual knowledge) through the heart that knows in ways the head cannot.
Vision of the Christian Church – Casper
This invitation is made in a different language. language. It is a language that children understand. It is the the language of metaphor, story, riddle and magic. It will leave you at times confused but take you to the threshold of your bewilderment. If you only cross this threshold place once it will be enough. Then you will understand the invitation of the saints.
David Friedrich
This invitation to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is not just an invitation in words. To allow you to cross the threshold threshold into the beauty of who you you are this storyteller has selected pictures that say more than words might ever say. These pictures are painted by those who intended you to remember what is of central importance to living a life of purpose, passion and prosperity.
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Now with the advance of modern technology you can listen to the songs and watch as singers bring the words alive with music and passion. Included in this invitation to song, stories and blessings are links to allow you to listen to the songs. If you have never heard these songs before then it is advised that you listen to them prior to reading about what they invite you you to experience. Even if you you have heard these songs before it is worth listening to the particular renditions that this Irish storyteller has selected. So let us begin with Ireland’s national song, the one that unites sinner and saint, Catholic and Protestant, and anyone who has a heart. Listen to this song by clicking on the picture below Music - Sir Edward Burne-Jones
Eva Cassidy – Danny Boy
Click on this hyperlink to listen to this extraordinary rendition of this most beautiful of songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=852gverKRPo
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Oh Danny Boy
Summer - Jean Léon Gérôme Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying 'tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide. But come you back when summer's in the meadow Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow 'tis I'll be there in i n sunshine or in shadow Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so. And if you come, when all the flowers are dying And I am dead, as dead I well may be You'll come and find the place where I am lying And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me. And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me I simply sleep in peace until you come to me Words Frederick Weatherly and music traditional
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What makes the song “Danny Boy” Boy” such a wonderful song? I think it has one ingredient that many songs do not. not. It is, of course, a love song. What is so rare rare about it is that, for this Irish storyteller, it is a song sung by a father for a son. There are many love songs songs and laments sung by a son to a father. Many are about the distance felt by the son from his father. Yet there are few songs songs as tender and as heartfelt as the song “Danny Boy” that reflect the longing of a father for his son, who he may never see again. For the Irish, this song is a sort of alternative alternative national anthem. It gets sung at sports events. It is a song sung by Catholic and Protestant without without disagreement. It is the song that unites the heart and the hearts of Irish men and women and those whose heart is still tender enough to feel the longing for a father’s love. This song is a great invitation from a father’s heart. It is to be sung and celebrated for that alone. It is the heart of a man expressing the feminine dynamic dynamic of tenderness and longing. It is not the heart of a warrior sending his song off as canon fodder for the the glory of the nation state. “Danny Boy” is a lament. The father’s son is going off to the Great War, except there is never anything great great about war. The only great war is the war against against separateness from Love, which is, in the words of modern mystic Alan Watts, a flowery combat rather than a conflict. This song begins with the call of the pipes. The pipes are a war instrument. They are the greatest instruments for lamenting. They will tear at your heart as much as invite you to combat. They have at their heart a constant drone. drone. It is the drone that keeps you enchanted and even haunted. It is wintertime and the pipes are calling a son to war. It is always wintertime when the heart heart is in conflict. conflict. You have come down the mountainside and hit the valley’s bottom. bottom. There is no more more seeing from afar. The eye of the seer is lost on the floor of the glen. Others without the vision of the heart have brought the victory of separateness from Love to the father’s front door. The son is being called to war rather than unity. The Lament for Icarus - Herbert Draper Who is this man? He is, it seems, a true gentleman. gentleman. He is, it seems a true lover lover of nature and the flow of the seasons. He knows the rhythm of nature. He knows that his son will go away. This is and has been the rhythm of of the Irish psyche for a long time.
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The summer goes, so the song continues, and the flowers of creativity die when the land is giving her sons to that that which is less than than Love. This father knows knows this. But he is different from most. He is not afraid to lament his son’s leaving. leaving. He is not afraid of the beauty and sadness of this lamenting. He marries his masculine nature to his feminine nature and allows his heart song to be heard. The son is going to war. He is going to have have to armour his body in order to protect himself from weapons intent on destroying him. him. At least, however, he is not leaving a father whose body is armoured by by fear that he might be seen to weep. No this is a true warrior father, one who has done done the heart work. This is the warrior who knows how to dance as much as he knows how to fight. He can let go into lamenting his son’s leaving. I think this wonderful song allows us, men in particular, to feel and say something that is left inside and largely unsaid. unsaid. We sing our hearts’ hearts’ out at football games, boxing matching and other places where men tend to gather together to watch the stuff of modern warrior warrior games. games. This is when there is felt to be a collective bond. Very often it is a time when son and father are truly together. The real challenge and invitation of “Danny Boy” is in the one to one experience of a father as a warrior of Love. This is the warrior who wills to Love and is willing to sacrifice for the sake of Love. Love. Sacrifice here means to sanctify and make sacred. A son will remember those moments when the father was absent. He will remember also those moments when the father says “son” in a way that the son knows that the father is directly expressing unconditional love. The son will not remember all the hours his father spent forging his career. He won’t won’t remember remember all the things his father bought him. He will remember his father’s voice and the A Heavy Burden - Arthur Hacker invitation and intonation when it is time to come home to his father’s warrior heart. He will remember how his father taught him to dance dance the dance he has come here into this world to be. All else is a form of compensation for words unspoken.
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Did Danny Boy ever return from the Great War to end all wars? The song does not tell us. That is also its beauty. It is saying, saying, “Don’t wait!” wait!” Do not allow that day to come when the relationship between father and son finally ends on the floor of the glen. It tells us not to wait until a time when summertime turns to the winter of absence and even indifference. This is not at all easy. This is why it is termed warrior hood. hood. Danny Boy is the soldier but the real warrior is the father. Do you imagine for one moment that this father would not choose to go to war war in his son’s place? The father knows the seasons and the time for every purpose purpose under heaven. This song reminds us of the primary primary purpose under heaven. The purpose is Love expressed in form. The chorus of the song ends, “I love you so.” Four words that end what is really the national anthem of the divided island of Ireland and unites the North with the South, Protestant and Catholic, saint and sinner alike. This song, I suspect, will be sung throughout and beyond beyond time. If enough of us commit to being warriors w arriors who will learn to dance and feel and love what is expansive and creative more than what is destructive, we can not only sing these words but also say them, and live them. We can say them with a heart full of confidence. As men we have little confidence in saying to our sons and daughters, “I love you so.” Some of us, I suspect, would rather die than say it. Some of us, particularly during our teenage years, would rather die than hear it.
Who Knoweth the Spirit of Man. John Byam Liston Shaw
My father never said it to me. He only ever said it once but not in those exact words “I love you you so.” This was not unusual for his generation of men. He earned and provided, but there is one moment (amongst others) that will always abide with me. It is the one one moment when I could really say that I had come home from the war that is the separateness from Love.
This is the story.
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DISHARMONY IN THE KEY OF C “he leadeth me beside the still waters - Psalm 23”
Still Water - Fernand Khnopff
“Well, we could try the 23 rd Psalm, suggested the choir master. In the ancient St Patrick’s Cathedral of Armagh he sat perched on the edge of a battered old stool. He stretched his long legs so that they were at an angle to this small chair. Under his weight the stool’s stuffing peaked out from the faded tartan covering. Beneath this covering a mass of grey foam seemed to struggle for breath. This choirmaster waited for my reply. My breathing became like the grey foam huddled beneath the shabby tartan covering – frayed at the edges. “I’m sure that’ll be fine,” agreed my father. This was agreed without consultation with myself. This was the way we often agreed things my father and I. I squinted at him with my bad eye. He was dressed, as I’d never seen him dressed before. Everything he wore seemed shiny. This shine was evident even in the dim light of this huge cathedral. He wore a dark da rk suit smelling slightly of camphor. His hair was shiny too. He wore the big brown shoes. “Sensible shoes,” he called them. The laces, always too long, made a slight swishing sound as they flew left to right as he walked. Now, they lay limp upon the leather uppers caught by the reflected light for the huge organ keys. It was then he seemed to remember his manners and asked. “Is that OK, son?” ever so softly, in a way I’d not ever heard before.
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I was held by this new sound as he asked again with ever more tenderness in his broad Liverpool accent that had mellowed over time. “That’ll be OK, won’t it, son?” I didn’t reply. “You know that one, don’t yah, son?” he enquired again, softly. Sure I knew it but I only wanted to listen. I wanted to listen to him say “son” with that special sound of tenderness again and again. Never mind the bloody 23 rd psalm. Just listen to me Da saying the word “son” like I’ve never heard him say it before. At least not in my remembering. Now, often in my imagination I have him audition for the part of my father. I have him play the line with the words, “Do you know than one, son?” I have him say it over and over and over again. Like I’m directing him in a movie movie of my life and I say, “Very good good George.” I say, “but could we try it just one more more time.” Maybe for the 1,000 1,000 th time. “Just one more time,” I ask, knowing that it would be too long till he played this part ever again. And yes, I’d have given him that call to say he’d got the part of playing my “Da” in the real life movie if only the choirmaster hadn’t hit the chord of C and changed our harmony.
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Music - Antoine-Auguste-Ernest Hebert What characterises any nation are their songs and stories. One other characteristic that is quite unique to Ireland is her number number of blessings. Irish blessings probably out number all other nations across the world put together.
Most great stories, great songs and blessings are written in order to remind you of what it important. They are written to answer key questions about life. They invite purpose, passion and real prosperity. They answer questions such as “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?”
Ireland is a land apart both physically and spiritually. There are parts of her that will always remain wild. She will not be tamed. She is happy to invite you you into your wildness. Ireland invites you through through her songs, stories and blessings to live at threshold places of magic and mystery.
This magic and mystery of Irelands songs, stories and blessings are still being sung and still being told. These songs and stories stories contain deeper invitations. They invite you beyond the known and into the wildness of heart that is bewilderment. This wildness invites meaning. It takes you into a way of seeing
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beyond your normal way of seeing the world. It invites you out of any any sense of disheartenment. The Irish have been a great nation of lamenters and the word word lament comes from the root of the word 'care.'
These songs here are heart songs. They are songs that most everyone everyone has heard even if they do not know know them. Included are links to renditions of these songs that this Irish storyteller considers inviting the heart to cross threshold places beyond our normal everyday absence of a sense se nse of wonder.
In Ireland we have a name for this timeless dimension. We call it the Land of the Forever Young, The The Land of Tir na Nog. This is not just an old Irish story but also an ancient invitation to the beauty and power of your heart when it is at home. Stories are told because they get beyond the intellect and the censor. They lull you into a state where the heart knows what what the head cannot. In such a state you can become one who is a seer. You get to see what it means to be the unique creative dance you are here to be.
Irish storyteller Tony Cuckson invites you to clai m your Irish Heritage through stories and songs and blessings. There is no requirement requirement that you be Irish. There is a requirement that you still wish to feel a sense of beauty at the heart of who you are. This ebook "An Irish Heritage includes songs such as Danny Boy, Raglan Road (as sang by the great Luke Kelly of the Dubliners) and My Lagan Love. These are songs of inspiration and connectedness a land steeped in the timeless.
In order to celebrate this heritage of songs, stories and blessings this Irish storyteller has written an ebook inviting you to celebrate what it is to be connected to your heart song, your heart story s tory and your hearts blessing.
You are likely to know the songs songs and blessings included in this book. What you will not know is their deeper invitation of what the island of Ireland has never quite forgotten in the the race toward less and less time. The land of Ireland Ireland has never forgotten the Land of the Forever Young and never forgot the hearts life of magic and mystery.
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The songs, stories and blessings included in An Irish Heritage are revelations in their own way. They invite you to sing the universal song that created you to be sound in body, mind and soul. Their invitation is layered. If you take their meaning on a literal level then you may miss the invitation to feast on your life. Like all great stories, songs and blessings they can deepen within you if you accept their invitation to come along the enchanted way.
When you have read An Irish Heritage then the next time you hear the song of this song. Next time you Danny Boy let it trigger a remembrance at the heart of hear Lagan Love let it not simply be a remembrance of a song about a woman who sings a song of heart’s heart’s desire. Next time you hear or read read the Irish blessing “May the road rise up to meet you” let yourself be reminded that the road you are on called "my life" is more than you might ever imagine it to be.
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"AN IRISH HERITAGE" Songs, Stories and Blessings Tony Cuckson About this Book The Songs •
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Danny Boy - The invitation from a father to a son. This song reminds us of our primary purpose. purpose. The purpose of Love Love expressed in form. Includes links to song by Eva Cassidy. My Lagan Love - This song is about about a stream. This stream is the flow of of your life when you are are in love with your creative creative ability. It is a life filled with blessing of all kinds that you are then able and willing to share with others. In this way the stream never dries up and the lily fair that is your true sense of beauty grows. - the meaning of what it is to feel called to adventure and the rewards of the journey. Raglan Road - As this song by the great Irish poet Patrick Kavanagh tells us you can be walking along a city street minding your own business and it happens. At any moment you can be called along the enchanted way. Enchantment can happen at any time and if you are alive then it should be happening. The Stories
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Return to Tir Na Nog - This story invites you to learn that the land of Tir Na Nog - the Land of the Forever Young is not just some old Irish story. This Irish storyteller brings alive the old Irish stories for modern minds. This story is about someone who hasn’t enough time and wants to get her life back. The King of the Faeries - Many of us are are riddled with doubt. doubt. We feel we have lost the magic and mystery we are are intended to be. In Ireland we are aware of threshold places where we can be invited to remember what is really important. But what if we fell down down the rabbit hole hole and couldn’t get get back unless we could answer the central question of our lives? The Stolen Child – Inspired – – – – Inspired by a poem by the great Irish poet William Butler Yeats, we enter the story of the child who is called away to the
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waters and the wild. In the child’s place is left the changeling. What if that changeling were you? The Blessings •
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the The Blessing of th e Road - This is a full appreciation of the most common of all Irish Blessings that begins, "May the Road Rise up to meet you." This blessing isn’t just about how you might travel through an Irish landscape. At its deeper level it invites invites you to understand understand the journey of of your life. The Blessing of Deep Peace - Deep peace isn’t something that you learn to get. It is a state of mind that you tune into. In this modern age of running ever faster in order to stand still a real understanding of deep peace will give you more than any other thing. Why? Because deep peace is a feeling that goes beyond time. The Blessing of Wisdom - We do not need more more knowledge. We need more wisdom. Wisdom is not something that you acquire through the intellect but through the heart. This gives you a different way of seeing the world. You become and insider insider rather than an outsider. You become empowered in the way that creation intended.
On each page of this book is a picture. A picture, they say, paints a thousand words. These pictures will speak to you you on a level beyond intellectual intellectual understanding alone. They are included with the intention that they they open the heart of the blessing you are intended to be. When this happens then you will want to do one one thing. You will want to share this blessing with others. Then a magical thing begins to happen. happen. You will find that the more you give give these Irish Blessings Blessi ngs away through song, story and blessings the more they come back to you. This is not because you are a bargain hunter hunter but because you are not attuned to a fundamental fundamental law of life and Love. You become attractive in a very new way and blessings flow. Included in this book (available now as a download) are links to all the songs. These renditions are the best that this Irish storyteller knows. knows. All these songs can be sung unaccompanied and will make you lots of friends should you ever feel enchanted enough to sing them to others.
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Download this book now and tune into a heritage full of passionate song, uplifting story and blessings.
An An Irish Heritage Songs, Stories and Blessings
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“A generous heart is never lonesome.”
Tony Cuckson is a storyteller and Anam cara, born one of twins in Milford, County Armagh in Northern Ireland not far from where Macha ran her legendary race at Navan Fort before giving birth herself to twins. In Ireland the mythic and one's own personal story never seem far from one to the other, with frequent overlaps and meaningful coincidences.
He weaves Irish mythology into his updated wonder tales and peoples them with those known as the Tuatha de Dannan. These are the people who were once the Shining Ones and who were driven underground by the invading Milesians. The Tuatha de Dannan are the people who then became the fairie folk known as the little people. As a storyteller Tony takes this metaphor and turns it into stories for modern minds and hearts. Using storytelling, songs songs and poetry from Ireland and beyond you are are invited to reclaim the beauty that you are. Tony invites this return to beauty and power through writing and in live performance using storytelling, song and poetry. This storyteller has the following eBooks and eCourses in preparation for adding to our websites. These include “Gracenotes for a Wonderful Life” “Heartsongs for Disheartening Times” “Making your Life Matter – Lessons from Desiderata” “Saint Patrick – A Hero’s Journey” “7 Stories to Heal your Life”
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If you are interested in knowing more about any of the above or have any a ny comments or questions about the ebook or eCourse please direct these to one of the following email addresses. If you would like to receive information about our coming radio blog, podcasts and video presentations related to the material above please contact this storyteller on either of the email addresses below.
[email protected] [email protected]
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