Voyage to Sweden: or three Masters at Sea.
I have used the word voyage to describe a recent journey to Sweden to visit my Reiki Master Krishni Borang, and because it felt like a voyage of discovery, with boats and water too. As we came into land we could see all the magical islands that make up the Swedish coastline. The first test was a powerful thunderstorm which caused the plane to shudder, self treatment and good old fashioned prayer was my hello to Sweden.
Krishni’s home is on Orust, an island on the way to Norway, with stunning coastal views. My travelling companion Touch editor and Reiki Master Deb Hoy skilfully made the transition of driving from left to right and within two hours we arrived to find a lovely meal waiting and lots of catching up to do. A friend once described being with Krishni as being caught in an energy vortex, well that certainly proved to be true on this trip.
We met a professor, Sweden’s number one expert on waste disposal. Krishni and Debs were able to look at eco loos and discuss compost management while I was interested in different forms of insulation, water supplies and gardening. We also saw some extraordinary homes in a local eco village including an ark made from a recycled boat, standing in the forest alongside an artist’s studio which almost seemed like a tree house, and another with recycled light panels made with bottles and a house following the Golden mean (the Fibonacci spiral) in its construction.
We wandered down to a lake through the forest with our hosts to a nearby lake. Under the full moon, silver skeins of light rippled across the water. We saw a beaver swimming in the distance. One day, just before giving Krishni Reiki, as we looked out of the window and there stood a magnificent bull Elk in the next field in front of her house. Krishni said that this was the first time she had seen one come so close. I didn’t realise how big they were.
Here is a reading from Jamie Sands and David Carson’s animal medicine cards.
“Elk your antlers reach to the sun. Show me that Strength and Stamina are one”
We often saw deer playing as we drove along; their medicine lesson is gentleness. While Beaver, is akin to water and earth energy, the doer in the animal kingdom a builder, perhaps of dreams? Then we met a wolf, perhaps a story too long to tell but suffice to say he turned out to be a lost dog running down the centre of the main road who we befriended, one blue eye, one brown just like the shape shifting wolf, dragon woman in the Samurai story of the forty seven outcasts. (47 Ronin – a great film). I digress as often happens in my Reiki life, the wolf is a symbol for a pathfinder, the dog is a loyal and loving friend.
Then we drove to Gottenburg not to sightsee but to visit a friend, a second degree student of Krishni’s living with advanced stage cancer. While Krishni and Debs gave her a treatment, I treated her friend who had a broken collar-bone. After the treatment she shared more animal images with me as she had seen both an eagle and a bear whilst I was treating her. Although we had not chatted much before the treatment, it turned out that she was a psychotherapist who done considerable shamanic training as well as learning Reiki with Krishni. Stranger than strange these three Swedish women had actually met at a healing conference in Oxford years before.
The eagle in the shamanic traditions represents, Great Spirit, the connection to the Divine and yet the ability to remain connected and balanced within the realm of earth, whilst the strength of bear medicine is introspection.
The day Krishni gave me a Reiki treatment she made one comment, your heart seems very tired: I have lived through some interesting times since 2007 so I was not surprised! After the treatment She and Debs made me an outdoor bed under an elm tree near the holly and wild rose bushes in Krishni’s Bach flower garden. She told us that she had planted nearly all the plants used by Dr Bach in her garden so that visitors could just sit in the energy of these bushes and trees to absorb the healing they needed. After that I would slip out in the early mornings for a walk and then sit near different plants before breakfast.
So much to tell, I could talk of hats, markets and signposts advertising second hand lions, woodland walks, black cats late night Thai and Indian feasts, meditation and chat, a new fridge and boats but what I would love to share was the trip to Karingon (two dots on the a and o make it sound very different). We took a ferry to this incredible car free island about 35 mins from the mainland. It was a sunny day and after a stroll on the pier, we walked over the rocks to the woman’s part of the skinny dipping beach. After a little while I summoned up the courage to follow my master in. I made it to a rock where we just lay listening to the sound of the waves lapping as the sun warmed our skin, distant bird cries …I drifted, it was like receiving the most perfect Reiki treatment. We took a longer ferry route home, as I stood on the deck watching the other boats flying through the foaming water and looked at the red and saffron colour houses and shops in a little port I couldn’t help thinking how in tune people here were with their surroundings. How simple and ordered life seemed to be in these island haunts.
The grand finale was on our last day, taking a car ferry across a small lake and visiting a marina where we watched the sun go down over the water and the large orange tinged harvest moon rise on the other side of the bay simultaneously. What a gift! My journey home was filled with grace and as I arrived close to my home town I saw a magnificent rainbow arched over the white horse on Westbury Hill and I knew without doubt I had been in magical Reiki realms: my tired heart was healed.
This article was originally written for Touch Magazine. You can visit the website at www.touchmagazine.net.
