 Dear Friends,
When we opened our shop in Lampeter last summer, we had the enormous privilege of being able to take part in a beautiful dedication ceremony. Jan Morgan-Wood and Nick Wood, editors of Sacred Hoop magazine (www.sacredhoop.org), conceived and guided the ceremony, asking all our friends and helpers, visible and invisible, to witness as Geoff and I offered up a prayer bundle – a bag containing objects representing our prayers for Cygnus and for you all. Jan and Nick then touched our crown chakras with an eagle's feather, and asked, among other things, that we be granted the ability to nurture our 'new baby', and, to help us to do that, to be enabled to see as an eagle sees: with wisdom, perspective and foresight. Then everyone present danced in a circle and sang a Native American chant.
Well, that ceremony was certainly not a game! Geoff and I were quite overcome with the energy and radiance of those precious moments, and felt sure that a doorway to a higher level had genuinely been opened for ourselves and Cygnus.
However, having had some experience of 'initiation' ceremonies in the past, we knew that – after the contact with the higher level has been opened – then comes the test! The higher energy cannot draw us upward – through the ‘eye of the needle’ so to speak – nor can it do its work for others through us, unless we are prepared to let go of our former selves, whatever that may entail, and follow the Light were it leads us despite temptations to do otherwise. That is why, if you look carefully at your own experience you will notice that, after the attunement, the initiation, or whatever, there is always a test. Will we be true? Will we remain true to our original intention despite whatever storms may assail us?
So.... after that beautiful ceremony last summer we said to each other, 'Well, that was wonderful. And now the er, 'brown stuff' is going to hit the fan!'
And sure enough it did.
The financial maelstrom that arose and nearly swept us away, you already know about. But that was not the only thing that happened. Right in the midst of all the intense work of finding a way through our financial difficulties, getting the shop going and keeping The Cygnus Reviews on-stream, at a time when we were already working impossibly long hours, we were asked by Claire Nahmad, an author for whom we have a huge amount of respect, to help her with the editing of a book she was writing. Called The Secret Teachings of Mary Magdalene, we could see it was going to bring through teachings of immense power and wisdom, with the potential to release a healing of the human psyche on a very deep level. So there was absolutely no way we could, or would, say no to this opportunity to share in some small way in giving birth to this book.
Well, that whole experience of doing the impossible was not like 'passing through the eye of a needle'. It was like being shoved bodily through one! Oh how we would have loved to throw in the towel! There were days when we would have given anything to be able to have a rest. And days when we just felt monumentally stupid, because so many spiritual authors these days tell you that there should be balance in your life, you should be abundant, you should feel joyful, you should rest, you should do what you want, you should take care of your body, and if your life is a mess it’s because of your thoughts, so you should change your thoughts, etc etc. But, valid though these ideas may be, deep down, our feelings said something different. They said that sometimes it is necessary to pass through the fire of sacrifice. Sometimes sacrifice is the price that has to be paid for something new and better to be brought into the world, or into one's own being. Sometimes it isn't a good idea to avoid adversity. Sometimes we need to go right through it, and come out the other side. And, crazy or not, we felt compelled to stick to our feelings. So we did. And Claire, with her co-author Margaret Bailey, did too, obedient to their task despite all kinds of obstacles, inner and outer, so that the teachings of Mary could see the light of day at the right time, after 2000 years of obscurity and slander.
Now, their work has come to fruition and The Secret Teachings of Mary Magdalene have been published, in an absolutely lovely edition, beautifully typeset and bound and, best of all, full of spiritual ideas and teachings that are like rain in the desert. We hope you'll want to tell your friends about this book, and also your local bookshop. After all, as Claire says, 'The Magdalene legacy is not that of a bloodline. It is infinitely more profound and immeasurably more significant. It is a legacy of transformative love.'
One more piece of news before we close: we've just published a Cygnus Book Club edition of a book we're sure you'll find helpful. Called The Diamond in Your Pocket, it's by an American-born teacher called Gangaji, who is coming to London in May to give a series of talks.
We first heard about Gangaji last summer, when Barry Stevens, the artist who produces the mandala prints and cards we sell in our shop, lent us one of her tapes. Hurtling back and forth on our many journeys between Lampeter and Llangadog, Gangaji's lovely voice and gentle wisdom became, for us, a refuge of stillness. We were so impressed by the kind, humorous and completely unpretentious way in which she answered questions from her audience, deftly leading them, with questions of her own, from confusion to certainty, and from turmoil to great peace. And that's why we decided we had to make her book available to you. We hope you enjoy it, and everything in this month's Review!
With our love,
Ann, Geoff and all at Cygnus
Photographs © Cygnus Books 25-Apr-2006
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