The St Lucian government sent us on a little trip… on my usual monthly visit to immigration to extend my visitors visa, I was told that I needed to leave the island and come back before they would keep extending my visa. Apparently as a non-citizen, you need to leave each year, something I wasn’t aware of. Interesting timing tough, you see I had been in St Lucia for 18 months already and no-one had mentioned it, not a peep about it. And now that our slavery healing work had begun, hey presto! Combine that with a deep desire to go on a little holiday, to have a rest away from it all (even in tropical paradise there’s that need). Our wishes came true! On paper finances said ‘no, no, no’ to our trip but we managed to make it happen (spirit really wanted us to go)… a 3 day break in neighbouring Martinique. Of course we knew we were going to do more than to have a break and to visit Bruno’s sister who lives in Martinique, there was energy work to be done. The ex-slaves on Pigeon Island who were longing to re-unite with their loved ones wanted us to go, the ex-slaves held energetically in Martinique wanted us to go and of course spirit wanted us to go (see previous post – Pigeon Island). So with a little push from Immigration, we went! But first we popped along to Pigeon Island to take a ‘piece’ as promised. We took a splinter of wood from a very old building (don’t worry we didn’t take it off the precious building, it had already fallen off… promise!) which sits right next to the spot where the mourning ex-slaves were ‘hanging out’, also a small piece of root from a hanging tree, the type where the roots grow down from the branches, like tears. In our planning, we struggled to find accommodation close to the port that we were arriving into, nothing was coming together, and then we found something in a totally different spot which felt perfect. We realised that it was close to a monument that Bruno had mentioned several times, it’s a monument to slaves who drowned at sea. A ship was anchored in the wrong spot during a storm and hundreds of lives were lost. Those who lived were transported instantly, traumatised, to the plantation to which they were assigned. It felt like the right place to visit and to do some energy work. As usual it turned out perfectly. Of course things didn’t go to plan. Instead of resting the first day, we spent the day driving around Martinique, it was a lovely day but we were knackered and certainly didn’t have that holiday feeling we so craved. We also had what seemed at the time, a mishap with a placenta, but that’s another story :). We vowed to have a restful morning the next day (I know… only one morning!) and to go to the slavery monument on Sunday afternoon. We relaxed and it felt good, we debated should we go to the monument that afternoon, there were frustrations… we weren’t resting enough, but also we came to do some energy work and weren’t doing it. Grrrrr! We decided to call it quits for the day and to go to the monument the next day, our last day in Martinique. Bruno’s sister had invited us for lunch so we decided to go to the monument first. Of course things didn’t go to plan :). We walked into the local village in the morning, just like you do when you’re on holidays, went to the ATM, popped into a couple of shops etc. Time felt strange and we moved very slowly, as if we were being dragged. At the time I thought it was the heat, the sun was beating down, but in hindsight it was more than that. With the morning gone we headed off to lunch with the plan to go to the monument after (I know!). Problem was that Bruno’s sister lives up in the hills, quite a way from where we were staying. Getting to the area was pretty straight forward but once we were close it became impossible, or so it seemed. We took turn after turn which looked familiar (from visiting on the first day) and felt right but kept taking new roads, discovering new areas. And with every turn we passed old plantations, some abandoned but most revived in ways to become homes, resorts etc. We felt heavier and heavier. I felt calm (just as well because I was driving and on the other side of the road to what I’m used to!) but Isabella was becoming more and more upset, Bruno became more and more angry. We were in the most beautiful hills, lush green, cool, amazing views of the valleys and mountains close by, absolutely stunning. You see with each turn, each section covered by our compact hire car, we were getting the attention of ex-slaves who had been walking and re-walking certain paths for hundreds of years and who didn’t know what to do to be able to change that. Perhaps they didn’t know there were options at all. We were getting their attention and were collecting them along the way. The emotions were intense, hence Isabella and Bruno picking up on sadness and anger. Bruno was voicing that he wasn’t able to make his own choices, that he was being controlled etc… sounds like the energy of slavery hey! At one point he even stomped his feet. My lovely friend Kathy Baker, who helps us to make sense of so much stuff, later explained that the foot stomping was linked to the traditional dance of the ex-slaves. We knew the anger was linked to the slaves and that Bruno was picking up on it, it didn’t make it any easier though. Have you ever set off to find a place, not managed to find it, and given up?… well that was us. A couple of hours of driving around we felt defeated and headed back to the south of the island where we were staying. We felt terrible to let Bruno’s sister down, we couldn’t call and hoped that she would understand. We decided to head straight to the monuments while we still could… what we felt we came for. Of course things didn’t go to plan. We were heading down the motorway, I was driving toward our accommodation thinking that the monument was close by… it wasn’t really. We had words, illogical words, the type of illogical words when other energies are involved. We argued about where we were going, how to get there, my going the wrong way, it being too late to go to the monument, but the monument was the reason we were in Martinique, so we had to go, oh boy! Many deep breaths were taken. But we managed to navigate our way to the section of the island where the monument is. There’s a beautiful coastal road, really beautiful, dotted with holiday homes, lovely beaches, sweet villages. Once we started to drive on that road it felt like we had one giant sigh of relief, we were setting souls free on that coast, some were leaving us, bit by bit we felt better, we actually felt relaxed and cheerful. It felt like a whole bunch of slaves had arrived to the coast all those years ago and had been transported to the hills to do their ‘work’, and this was their chance to be brought back to the same coast to leave again. It also felt like an even larger ‘bunch’ had escaped and fled to the hills, and had to stay there for fear of being caught, and this was also their chance to be brought back to the coast to leave. Eventually we foundhe spot, the monument. It’s a beautiful monument to a very sad event. Bruno had been there many times and felt deep sadness each time. This was his chance to transmute that energy. I handed things over to Isabella and Bruno to ‘do their thing’. It felt right, they are after all descendants, of then-slaves. I held the space for them. Bruno said some beautiful words and released the pieces taken from Pigeon Island. Bruno cried, I cried, Isabella chuckled. Such a relief ! And back to our relaxing accommodation we headed to prepare to leave early the next morning, job done! (If you are interested in finding more about the memorial, it’s called ‘Anse Caffard Memorial’. It was created to commemorate the abolition of slavery and the sinking of one particular ship which moored during the night after the importation and sale of slaves became illegal. It comprises 15 figures made of white stone and standing 2.5m tall. The white stone symbolises death and the triangular formation of the figures represents the the shape of the ocean routes the ships took when the slave trade was at its height.) Our good friend Kathy Baker explained later that on the ferry we were tracing the journey made by slaves who were transported from St Lucia to Martinique. So all along the way, healing was taking place. Of course! May the healing ripples run far, wide and deep! Way back, before our daughter Isabella was born, I received guidance from spirit… to ask my lovely friend in the UK (who lives in an amazing old house that was once used to house slaves in transit, and which hosted terrible butchery and abuse of women) for a ‘piece’ of the house. Something that she could pop in the post to me. Something that we could use in a ceremony here in St Lucia to help to re-unite the men who made it to the Caribbean as slaves, with the women and children who didn’t make it. A few weeks later, it arrived, an envelope containing bits and pieces, some plaster, dust etc. Perfect! I was keen to get going with the ceremony but it felt important to wait until Isabella was out in the big wide world, sure she was with us in my growing belly and making her healing energy known not just to us but to those she came in contact with, but she needed to be here. So the envelope was put aside until the time was right. And that time came, Isabella was a few months old, and the energy felt right. and this is what happened… “So, this morning we headed from home Isabella, Bruno and I. As I drove from our home, I couldn’t drive very fast at all, there were so many beings with us and it felt like they were creating wind resistance! First stop was the old sugar cane mill to collect a piece of the machinery which still stands – a splinter of timber which was hanging off the supports for the machinery and a piece of the roof timber which had fallen. The machinery was dated 1879 and it’s amazing how well preserved it is. There were many slaves still there, working, as if they didn’t know what else to do, and some were afraid to leave. The emotions there were so heavy, a feeling of such sadness and desperation. Bruno asked them to come with us. His ancestors are a mix of slave and slave master so not all agreed, some didn’t trust and stayed behind. We drove even more slowly (the weight on the car was incredible) to a sacred hill where there is a beautiful healing portal of love. The weather was unusually cloudy and grey. We offered the pieces to spirit by burning them along with sage, a page from the local newspaper which was all about the events in southern US at the time (churches being burned), a written intention page and the packaging that the pieces of the UK house came in. They were carried to the site in a woven basket made by women in Kenya and were burnt in a coal pot which is a traditional clay pot used to cook here. We could see hundreds, thousands of spirits ascending, releasing from their bond, maybe even more than that. The land felt lighter and the sun started to shine very gently. Then we popped the ashes into the same plastic bag that the house fragments were wrapped in and headed to the north of the island, to the Atlantic side, a spot where many battles occurred, just next to a place which was once an island (called Pigeon Island). Bruno climbed over the rocks and released the ashes into the ocean, washing the bag in the waves at the same time. And the energy felt lighter again. On our journey from the hill to the place of release, we were guided to drive through a local town which holds a lot of density, and of course the car got even heavier. On the way back we could feel the relief along the same route, we could almost hear the sighs and could see some sparkle coming in. When on the hill I was shown that some slaves stayed behind at the cane plantation, and that we should go back to check, and to ask them to leave. That they would have felt or seen the others go and would be more likely to follow. So we did just that. The place we first visited felt so much lighter and we could see and feel the remaining slaves leaving, bringing even more light. The image attached is from after the release, I didn’t want to capture the energy from before and interfere with the work. All in all, the ceremony, although so simple, felt really effective and complete. Of course Isabella was a happy girl during the work and as soon as the spirits were ready to ascend she fell into a deep sleep, waking after the ashes were released to the sea. She then fell asleep again on the way back to the cane plantation and woke in the brightest, giggly mood when leaving. In the days leading up to the ceremony she slept so much. I could feel some of the spirits were being prepared to leave, getting their things ready to travel and she was helping them through the whole process, all the while being a baby! What a clever girl :).” We have since returned to the sugar cane plantation and to that spot where the machinery lies and it feels so different, no ex-slaves. At first it felt empty, nothing, and then with later visits it felt full, brimming with the energy of nature, it felt green, lush and calm. Beautiful! My friend in the UK ceremonied at the same time with profound shifts taking place. It’s so lovely to be able to do such simple things to create change… which of course we can all do. Happy days!!! May the healing ripples run far, wide and deep! |