Radionics 101, as Taught by Suzanne

March 18th, 2010

(In response to the many questions on geopathy I’ve been getting over e-mail, I am hereby posting the following excerpt from another E-book I am working on, tentatively entitled “Ghost Hunter”. I hope this assists you all!)

I have noticed over the years certain correlations between geopathism and haunting activity, as well as various illnesses in people. If you have enough geopathic rays in a given area, ghosts can be caught and kept there in a manner very similar to a lobster or crab trap. Yes, it is possible to send the ghosts into the Light, but the basis is still there for the haunting. It will eventually attract more ghosts, and will hold them for years until a spiritualist comes along to clear them out. This is one thing I want all prospective ghost-busters to check for in an investigation of haunting.

My first awareness of geopathic phenomena came when I was describing “the corner of death” in my back yard in a Feng Shui class, and the instructor pointed out that this was a radionics problem. There was a geopathic ray cutting through that corner of my back yard, which energetically killed anything I planted in that corner. I got instructions as to how to locate it and what to do about it, and I reclaimed that corner. And so this aspect of my education began.

Radionic problems encompass a completely different area of knowledge where your dowsing skills will come in handy. It is helpful to bear in mind that everything is energy. If it is made up of atoms, then it is made up of energy. If you go past the atomic level, past the tiniest possible gluino, neutrino or quark, what do you have? This field of primal energy has been called ether, the unified field, or the nagual, depending on what approach you take to quantum physics. So, if you put one energetic structure in an energetic field, something will happen. The human body is no different.

Over the years many people have discovered that energy is organized in many different ways, in the field of dowsing you will find names like ley lines, geopathic (sick land) rays, noxious rays (earth rays) and related topics. All of us are sensitive to these various types of energy to varying degrees. A lot has been written and researched about this topic, mostly in Europe. Lately in the United States we’ve become more aware of physical stress and immune dysfunction caused by proximity to power transformers and the like. The American Society of Dowsers and the U.S. Psychotronic Association are probably the best sources of information in this arena.

Ley lines are well documented. They are highly beneficial and can be compared to the meridians of the human body. Ley lines are the meridians of the planet; when they are clear and flowing, the planet is healthy. The best and cleanest water supplies are usually found along ley lines. Wells located along ley lines in Britain are thought to have healing qualities. Crops grown along ley lines are greener, healthier, more disease resistant, more vital and with greater productivity even though the soil is exactly the same as outside the ley line. Fishing is better, animals are healthier, trees are bigger and so forth. You will generally find power centers (sacred sites) along ley lines. It’s not a good idea to actually live on a ley line, because such intensified vibrational interference can create stress in the physical body.

Earth Chakras. These are vortexes that compare to chakras in the human body. There are lots of them around. Some may correspond with geo-magnetic centers. Classically, the big cathedrals in Europe were typically built on top of “old religion” worship sites, usually on geomagnetic centers, like Chartres, Notre Dame and Winchester Cathedral. Stone cairns like Stonehenge and Avebury are also good examples, as are most Indian mounds and medicine wheels. There are also sites like Ayers Rock in Australia and Round Rock, Texas that feature a similar geo-magnetic energy. Ghosts will stick around these energetic structures to perpetuate their haunting activity. Sometimes ghosts will actually bend these Earth energy vortexes out of alignment, so not only do you have to walk the spooks into the Light, but you also have to heal any mis-alignment of the energy vortexes. Make sure these Earth vortexes are aligned with Divine White Light, but don’t attempt to close them as it may cause trouble for the residents of that region, just as a closed chakra in your own body can cause sickness.

There is also such a thing as a bad (or dark) vortex, and you’ll probably know it when you feel it. These can have various causations, including dark-side occultism and extra-terrestrials. Yes, I’m serious. These vortexes should be cleansed and closed with Divine White Light and angelic assistance. If you are unsure or don’t know the difference between a vortex and an earth chakra, just go into prayer-mode and encompass the whole area with Divine White Light through visualization and ask the angels to fix it.

Noxious rays are well documented and pretty obvious. Those who can see them say they look like distorted heat waves rising from a really hot surface. Vegetation looks bad, won’t grow, or dies off. A tree in a noxious ray will grow with a spiral-twisted trunk. Ants build their mounds along the perimeters of these areas. Dogs will not sleep in a noxious ray. Children will absolutely fight going to bed if it is located in a noxious ray. People sleeping in noxious rays experience immune dysfunction, infertility, and reduced life expectancy. Sleep is disturbed, sores won’t heal, broken bones won’t knit, arthritis and heart conditions arise, and conditions that were thought cured or in remission come back with a vengeance. I know one lady who had beaten her lupus into remission years ago, moved to a piece of property with a lot of noxious rays on it and discovered the lupus was making a comeback. I know of a small boy that died of leukemia because his bedroom was in the back of the house in a noxious zone. If an office building is built in a noxious zone, employees will experience double the number of sick days, lowered work productivity and will exhibit every stress related health syndrome. Cracks in a driveway, foundation, or sheet-rock, trouble with plumbing and electrical work, and other similar deterioration will follow the path of a noxious ray. Noxious rays create “cold spots” in buildings that cannot be accounted for by placement of windows or doors.

When underground water lines, rivers and streams cross one another in a given vertical area, they create an E.L.F. field from which noxious rays emanate. E.L.F. stands for Extreme Low Frequency. These are energy waves, below the threshold of hearing, that vibrate (usually) below 10 cycles per second, or Hertz. Flowing water has a frequency of 8 Hertz, and when two or more water veins cross, a new frequency is created which produces a noxious ray or vortex. Most noxious earth rays can be redirected or diffused with copper tubing or copper wire. For example, placing a length of copper wire or copper tape along the floorboard where a noxious ray enters a room will block the ray and send it upward. A series of copper pipes or rods inserted vertically into the earth where a noxious ray enters the property will diffuse the ray. The older a developed area is, the more geopathic zones will be present.

Geopathic rays are a variation of noxious earth rays, but are caused by man’s activities. Possible causes include underground water lines, electric lines and transformers, cable T.V. and telephone lines, microwave communications dishes, satellite T.V. dishes, underground fuel storage tanks, cellular phone antennas, traffic signal arrays, man-made building materials, industrial and military activities. Activities of people create a lot of environmental noise. Take careful note of how many microwave communications dishes there are around your area. These arrays can broadcast at frequencies that can cause large numbers of people to exhibit flu-like symptoms with no causal bacterial or viruses present.

A friend purchased a clothing resale shop in the Heights neighborhood of Houston. Everything physically seemed all right, but things were energetically off. The place had a heavy feeling to it. The shop had been owned by three older people who each were in decline due to ailments such as heart trouble, arthritis, and cancer. My friend had trouble keeping the energy clean and kept getting sick herself. It wasn’t until a couple of months after she closed the shop and liquidated the inventory that we finally figured out that the shop and the liquor store next door had a geopathic ray going through them. I wondered why I had to consciously make myself go there, and why it was hard to focus while there. It happens all the time. Restaurants, no matter how good they are, if built in geopathic zones, will not be able to overcome the bad energy and so will close down in a matter of months after opening. You will know this is the case when you dine in an otherwise nice restaurant, with good service, good atmosphere and good food, yet cannot seem to go back because it just didn’t feel right.

A lady was referred to me for a radionics consultation while at a psychic fair. She complained of not being able to sleep since she moved into her new split level brick house, which was creating a great deal of physical stress for her. I had her draw a map of her home site, then I tuned in and dowsed. She had one big honkin’ geopathic ray going diagonally through her house. I told her the cheap radionic cures: put a series of copper rods vertically into the ground along one part of her fence, and royal blue tape along a particular area of floorboard in both the upper and lower stories. If that didn’t work, I told her I had some other options. She called some time later saying she was sleeping much better.

Construction materials will often prove a factor in both radionics analysis and paranormal investigations. For example, people will buy mobile homes thinking they will have more freedom to move around. The only problem with a lot of these pre-fabricated homes is the level of toxins they can contain, including chloroform, formaldehyde and other potential cancer causing agents. I understand that the newer ones aren’t supposed to be quite as toxic. On an energetic level they can be even worse, depending on where you put them. You see, because of the materials they are made of, mobile homes are “orgone” or “earth energy” collectors. Tornadoes are naturally pulled toward orgone energy dense zones, which is why tornadoes always seem to hit mobile home parks first. Some prefabricated steel buildings, as in industrial parks, have similar energy collecting capacity. This energetic element can also amplify geopathic stress. I’m not saying that you can’t live and work in such structures, as sometimes it is unavoidable, but you do have to be aware of your surroundings. Mobile homes are best placed nestled among mature trees on otherwise uncluttered land.

We mentioned EPA Superfund Sites earlier. Houston is literally dotted with these toxic sites. Housing developments have been plopped on top of pools of toxic sludge containing all sorts of deadly stuff. There is a correlation with the above-mentioned geopathic or noxious rays with industrial toxic waste sites. It is an example of like attracting like. Or which came first: the chicken or the egg. It can start with a few geopathic rays, then as a result of sympathetic frequency someone puts an industrial site there, which creates a toxic dump site, then years later, some greedy developers cover the sludge with a thin coat of sand and put in a housing development, which in turn attracts people of that same particular sympathetic vibration. Sick land, sick people… sicker land, sicker people.

If you have ever known anyone who has lived on or near such a site, then you know it can make people sick. The Brio Toxic Waste Site off Beamer Road in south Houston adjacent to the South Bend subdivision certainly imprinted itself upon the residents on all levels. A portion of the subdivision was built on top of the sludge pond and has that sludge coming up through the lawn and the plumbing. People living in those homes came down with all sorts of immune system and respiratory troubles, including cysts and cancer. Women living in those houses gave birth to severely disabled or sick children. The sadness of the sick residents can easily leave behind a shard of consciousness large enough to haunt. Notice how it is all related? You may not be able to clear out the toxic sludge or clean up the water table beneath it, but you can block the geopathic rays and send the ghosts into the Light.

Dowse what “cure” will work and its application in each situation. Blue tape, copper wire (and devices made from copper wire), copper tape, copper rods, prayer, and scalar wave psychotronic devices are some of the standard solutions for geopathic zones. Reiki can also be used to heal a geopathic zone. Whatever you decide to use, it is still your intent that makes it work. Simply state, “this is to deflect the noxious ray” or something to that effect, while you are putting the “cure” into place.

Since ghosts are usually sensed by instrumentation as an electro-magnetic field, usually with an associated temperature drop, it makes sense that various types of energies can perpetuate their activity indefinitely, if permitted to do so. If you clean up the energetic environment, then it is easier to clean up the etheric environment.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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Native American Tobacco Ceremony

March 18th, 2010

I have a wide number of applications for a special type of prayer called “Tobacco Ceremony.” The divine messenger, White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman, brought the “Tobacco Ceremony” to us some 500 years ago. I will typically use this ceremony when clearing haunting activity.

With this prayer ceremony, I found that I can anchor light anywhere, block-in or block-out any form of energy or entity, and “clear” an area of unwanted influences. For example, I felt the energies were “off” at one psychic fair I was at. I went outside and quietly walked around the building, doing the ceremony, giving thanks and asking that anyone, energy or entity be excluded from the building if it is not “working for the Light” or if it is not there for the betterment of all. Ten minutes afterwards, two of the “psychics” quickly packed up and left. I had never thought about them, either. Interesting, huh? I know a “channeler” that can’t do readings in an area I’ve done ceremony on. What does that say about what was being channeled?

You don’t need to smoke or use a special pipe. What I do is offer a pinch of the dry herbs in each direction. You may also choose to burn the herbs on a charcoal to offer the smoke. I carry a pouch filled with a generic mixture of tobacco, sage, cedar and sweetgrass, which is symbolic of the four directions. Other tribes use other herbs.

Let’s do it, shall we? Place yourself in a state of grace. Begin with an open prayer/invocation, and then start by facing EAST (or what you perceive as east), which is the start of the Medicine Wheel, holding a nice little handful of your herbs. Raise your hand offering the herbs, and begin by addressing the “Grandparents of the East”. The “Grandparents” referred to in this ceremony, includes ancestors, ascended masters, angels and the spiritual hierarchy of the planet. Give thanks to the Grandparents for all of their assistance, offer your handful of herbs and ask them for their assistance once again (insert request here), thank them in advance for their help and drop a pinch of the herbs in their direction. Do this exactly the same way facing SOUTH addressing the “Grandparents of the South”, then WEST, then NORTH. Then kneel to address the EARTH MOTHER beneath your feet, making sure to thank her for feeding you and giving you a place to live, and offer the herbs and your special request and thanks. Then stand again and talk to SKY FATHER (God, Creator, Wakan-Tanka, etc.) offering herbs, thanks, your request, and thanks in advance for this assistance, and dropping some dry herbs. Any breeze will carry the herbs to where they need to go. It is done. Give thanks. Whatever you asked for is on its way if your intent was correct and pure. This is the short form. White Buffalo Calf Pipe Woman’s version is considerably more involved.

If you are a smoker, you can do this ceremony very casually and even surreptitiously. Light up a fresh cigarette, face east, offer the smoke from your hand as you pray, then take a deep draught and mentally exhale the prayers as you blow the smoke carrying your prayers up to the Grandparents of each direction as described above. Works just fine. It’s the intent that matters.

I will remind you of the importance of Universal Law when doing “ceremony”. Prayer, especially a focused prayer like this, is a powerful form of thought/energy transmission. You will get back that energy multiplied in accordance with your intent in putting the energy out to begin with. Some people say it is multiplied three times, but in truth there is no ceiling on the multiplication aspect. So, for example, if you pray for advancement on your job, ask that it be done in harmony and for the best and highest good of all concerned… not just yourself. I know one lady that did ceremony to get a promotion, and got it, but because it was not done in a harmonious way, she was fired a month later. You can do ceremony to attract a new love to your life, by putting your “spec sheet” out in this prayer ceremony, but you cannot manipluate any person in particular as that will backlash on you. You get the idea.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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Chakra Jewelry

March 9th, 2010

Typical "7 chakras" necklace from www.turtleisland.cc

If you log onto http://www.turtleisland.cc and then go to the “medicine necklaces” page, a pair of very sweet-looking necklaces you will see are the “7 Chakras Necklaces”.

Chakras are the popular name given to the energy centers associated with the endocrine system, associated with 7 particular points on the body. Where did the whole concept of chakras come from? Around the turn of the last century, a group of theosophists translated a whole lot of Eastern texts ranging the whole gamut from health, philosophy, religion, yoga and meditation? They were the vanguard of the spiritualist movement, which eventually became known as the New Age movement. Granted, they got some of this stuff wrong. Some of it, like Ledbeatter’s The Chakras, really qualifies as one of many fluffy intellectual dead-ends. What good is all that fluff if it isn’t packaged so you can actually use it?

Where knowledge of chakras comes into play, is where you really start coming into awareness of your mental/emotional attitudes and their effects on your health. You can often stop a syndrome in the physical body by catching the causal attitudes and releasing them. So, if you tend to have lots of sinus pain, try to approach the basis of it within your own mental/emotional frame of reference. Is your nose out of joint? Are you crying on the inside? Are you feeling sorry for yourself, and if so, why? After doing a little self-checking, you may discover that you don’t need to take that antihistamine!

Sometimes one chakra may be over-stimulated by your circumstances. For example, the root chakra, which is located just below the base of the spine, will tend to be dominant under times of extreme stress, family issues, times of anger, and challenges to survival. While it is good to bring up the root chakra energy to help keep you going, it is not good to live like that. People who live from their root charkas tend to repeat and not learn from their mistakes, and tend to be in a lot of drama.

If you are under a great deal of stress, if anything, this would be the one time to settle down and meditate, and connect to your Divine Source. Bring in divine wisdom through prayer and meditation so you can consciously discover and release any patterns that are bringing stress into your life, and then change it all for the better. Bring in White Light from the heart of God in through the top of your head to fill your whole body, then balance your energy centers so the head chakras are more in control. Getting the head chakras to connect with the heart is important because it will tend to determine the quality of your life.

To my way of thinking, everything is a tool, and anything you put on you, within your energy field, has the potential of making you stronger or weaker on an energy level. In other words, my jewelry is just another way to package different energies that people need help with. While both of these necklaces are intended to balance and optimize the energy centers associated with the endocrine system, each of these has its particular focus.

The “7 Chakras Necklace I” Necklace is dainty and sweet, and suitable to wear to the office. The central stone is a Moonstone, which is both an activator for the other stones and possesses a very soothing vibration to assist the wearer with all of the transitions in life. Moonstone also connects the head chakras with the heart chakras. Working from right to left, from the 1st to 7th chakra, we have Snowflake Obsidian, Carnelian, Tiger’s Eye, Green Jade and Rose Quartz (for the thymus and the personal heart) on either side of the Moonstone, Blue Onyx, Sodalite, and Amethyst. This combination of stones would be described as soothing. Instead of firing up your root chakra, we’re grounding and smoothing it out with Snowflake Obsidian. Famed Houston psychic Rick Ferguson says this necklace works as an emotional balancer and has a lot of water and dolphin energy.

The “7 Chakras Necklace II” Necklace features a much more aggressive assortment of stones, including four classic “master healer” stones. Again, the central stone is a Moonstone, and working from right to left, from the 1st to 7th chakra, we have Garnet, Carnelian, Citrine, Malachite and Rose Quartz (for the thymus and the personal heart) on either side of the Moonstone, Turquoise, Lapis Lazuli, and Amethyst. Garnet, Citrine, Malachite and Lapis are all pretty aggressive. This version is intended to open and stimulate all of the energy centers with the kundalini fire for increased energy utilization. Great for times when you need an extra energy boost, but it can make some people feel “antsy”. This is not for someone who is angry, but rather for someone who needs a little help in standing up for herself.

If you have any questions about stone medicine, or other topics, feel free to drop me a line.
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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc

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Proper Smudging Technique for Clearings

March 4th, 2010

I just noticed that, even though I have always included instructions on how to do a proper Tobacco Ceremony on my assorted blogs and my electronic books, I somehow forgot to include these important instructions on my blogsite for easy access.

If you are one of a score or more of people who have contacted me asking for help in dealing with the negative side of the paranormal, I have likely either instructed you by e-mail, coaching you over the phone, or I just sent you the PDF of my e-book, “Fat-Free Spirituality” so you could get it for yourself.  I’d rather coach people to do it for themselves, thereby empowering them to help others. The ol’ spoon-feeding syndrome isn’t good for the collective consciousness.

When the typical person comes to the realization that they really are being haunted, it is normal to panic. So much of so-called “western civilization” is geared around denial of the spirit world and higher dimensions. Most people start their search for paranormal help by reaching out to clergy only to be rebuffed or told to find a psychiatrist… and it is a sobering experience after a lifetime of mainstream religious indoctrination to realize that the support isn’t a two-way street. The next thing most people do nowadays is to get on the internet… which is where most people find me. Yes, I do get referrals from members of various friends and paranormal research groups. I prefer to empower people through instruction, but some folks are too scared to attempt the D.I.Y. approach, at which point I will offer to do a cleansing, whether by remote or in person, for a modest fee.

In getting the background on the haunting activity, I usually tune in and check for the presence of geopathic phenomena, and I always ask whether there is use of prescription medications, alcohol or pot in the household.

The first stage of clearing is e-mailing the person the “White Light” symbol from the Joray tradition, to print out on both paper or on Avery label stock for them grid their house by slapping the symbol to the ceilings of closets, behind every picture on the walls, and preferably stapled to the inside of the roof facing down into the house from the attic. The symbol takes the house to a higher court and typically makes any ghosts very uncomfortable… it is serving them “notice of eviction”.

The next thing to do is prepare to “smudge”, which is a Native American technique. You need a sage and cedar smudge stick for this. If you can’t find one of these locally, you can either order them on-line or from me. You will need to hold something underneath that smudge stick so you don’t spread embers as you walk through the house… most use an abalone shell, but a salad plate with work perfectly.

Smudging is typically my second stage of clearing. Once you have the basic implements ready, you crack open the front door, make a prayer (out loud) invoking your angels and ascended masters to come in and assist you, then light the cedar and sage smudge stick.  You begin by going to the back of the house smudging each room in a clockwise circle, while talking to the ghosts. Tell the ghosts that this is your home and that they have to leave it, preferably to go into the Light since they are no longer in physical form. Keep smudging and talking until you’ve chased them out the front door. In multi-level houses the smudging must be repeated on each floor, again, working from the back of the house forward until they are chased out the front door. It is especially important to point out that ghosts like to hide in the in-between places such as attics, air conditioning intake vents, stairways and closets, so these must also be smudged. When you are done, close the front door and “seal” that door by smudging it in a clockwise motion. All of these actions must be done with focused INTENT. More advanced spiritual practitioners will talk with such entities and then walk them into the Light to make sure they get there.

The third stage of clearing is doing “Tobacco Ceremony” both outside and inside the house. I prefer doing outside first because it has a pressure cooker effect.

The fourth stage of clearing is to do an energy clearing on anyone in the household. Any etheric cords must be cut, their energy field must be cleansed, and any chakras have to be unblocked. The first thing that most poltergeists do is “slime” people’s head chakras to keep them from realizing the ghosts are there.

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Those interested in purchasing an E-copy of Suzanne Powell’s book, Fat Free Spirituality – Handy Tips from a Big City Shaman can contact her through her site, http://www.turtleisland.cc   She also offers a line of energetic products, pendulums, natural stone “medicine jewelry”, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap”.  

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No-Eyes’ Prophesies

March 7th, 2010

The other night I was knocking around my workroom, and out popped my copy of “Phoenix Rising” by Mary Summer Rain. It is about No-Eyes’ vision about this time frame of transition we are in. Looking through the lists in the back of the book, about the various stages of the days of the phoenix… we’ve already seen a lot of the prophesies fulfilled, and we can see the bigger, nastier ones walking down the street.

* Bush is currently trying to stack the courts to become impotent to strike down bad laws or to uphold our Constitution. The Supreme Court is predicted to be making some very bad decisions in the next few years… bad enough to send people into the streets in protest.
* There’s gonna be a lot more American soldiers all over the world fighting. Terrorism, discord between countries, undeclared wars, clandestine activities, high level secrecy. It will go to a nuclear exchange (this was predicted before the invention of DU missiles) in a number of places, including U.S. soil.
* Trade deficits between nations will become crippling, and many will default on loans, leading to economic hardships, discord and saber-rattling the world over.
* Jobs are being outsourced in staggering numbers, which will cause staggering amounts of unemployment, which will cause waves of consumers to default on loans. The post-9/11 cheap credit spending frenzy is coming back to roost. The financial PACs are already lobbying to make it impossible to file for bankruptcy. If enough people lose their jobs, then real estate will lose its value.
* Excessive taxation, particulary of the people who can least afford to pay. The Republicans have been overreaching on all levels. In Texas, Gov. Perry unveiled H.B. #3, which taxes the people with the lowest income at an additional 5%, while the taxes get lower further up the income scale… up to $80,000 a year pay 2.66% and those earning six figures get a huge tax cut. Insane.
* Stock market misdealings and decline. Increase in corporate crime. Duh. Enron and WorldCom are just the tip of the iceberg. There will also be a lot of small business failures, factory shut-downs, and construction decline.
* It will come down to cash becoming the only accepted tender.
* Major devastation in California, earthquakes in new areas, record-breaking flooding, soil erosion, intensified hurricane devastation, increased tornado activity and damage, sinkholes, rapid temperature inversion, crippling winters, higher pollution levels, widespread surface blazes, greenish hue to atmosphere. Mt. St. Helens is getting jiggy again, Yellowstone Park is seriously active, and they’re seeing earthquakes on both the southeast and southwest coast of Canada. Expect to see major stuff along the New Madrid Fault.
* Disease outbreaks, rise in homicide/suicide, germ warfare release accident… predicted long before chemtrails, but probably including some more direct and intentional releases intended to kill off large masses of the populace. Given the contempt that the Bush’s neocons have for everyone that isn’t making beaucoups of big bucks, I wouldn’t be surprised to see that coming down in the next couple of years.
* No more separation of church and state. As the religious leaders buy and demand influence in the affairs of state, the state will eventually start meddling in church affairs. Religious oppression. More religious groups going to court to force their restrictions on the public. The masses will question all of it… about bloody time.
* Increased UFO sightings and interaction with other intelligences. Just wait till Bush’s guys start seeing the transdimensional aliens that have been hovering around them for years.
* Widespread acceptance of the paranormal and ongoing life after death.
* Nuclear disasters, including several close calls with nuclear power plants. No-Eyes said there will be two catastrophic melt-downs, seeping radioactive dump sites, radioactive pollution of land/rivers, radioactive releases due to geological instability, major accidents during transport of nuclear missiles and/or waste.
* Taxation refusals. War resistance. Draft evasion. People’s revolt and resistance movements. Public’s discovery of coverups. Riots.
* Major upheavals within governments.

We’re pretty much there, gang. Let’s make the best of it. Know where your food is, know your land, know where your water is. Gather and learn all you can about natural curatives. Get into your bliss and gather the true power of the gifts of Spirit while you can. That inner work is your ticket through the mess. A lot of people are becoming awakened nowadays, too. I know because I am making and selling a record number of custom pendulums.

On the other side of all this predicted upheaval, we can expect a greatly whittled-down population to be living in harmony with the land, using non-polluting energy sources, growing their own food, and adapting Native American philosophies and ways of living. It is worth hanging in there for.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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Cat Devas

March 7th, 2010

For a couple of years now, I’ve been experiencing a particular phenomenon while I am in bed. Sometimes late at night, but mostly in the early morning, I would feel some unseen being pulling down on the edge of my mattress a few times, about 2/3 of the way down on the mattress from my head, just to rattle me up. What was it? Aliens? Poltergeists? This has been most noticeable on weekend mornings, since I am up early on weekdays.

While talking to another cat-owning friend, we compared notes on the phenomenon. It turns out that she has actually seen the being responsible. It looks like a 2-foot tall red-headed guy. It smiled at her while rattling her up by pulling down on the side of the mattress, as if to say “rise and shine!” She was certainly rattled, but once she came to her senses, she figured out that it was not an attack and that no harm was meant, and that the little guy was actually smiling rather sweetly. What was the guy doing in her room? Over time she noticed that he was there when her little boy cat wanted out in the wee hours of the morning.

We finally came to the conclusion that it was a cat deva because it only bugged us when the cats wanted our attention or wanted to be fed or let out. The next time I felt that tug, I told the deva that the cats have plenty of food and water and that I really want to sleep in a little while longer, and “gee thanks a lot” for looking after my cats’ interests.

I really need to talk to the little guy about negotiating peace to get Lily to stop bullying Anna.

Each animal and plant group in a given chunk of land has an associated deva. The cats have a deva, the cows have a deva, the horses have one, the ants have one, the earthworms have one, the oak trees have one, the pine trees have one, and so on. Devas simply look after their plant or critter groups and assure their health.

Ordinarily, most people’s threshold perception of a deva is the sight of a languidly floating or flying sparkle, or perhaps a rattling group of leaves not accounted for by a breeze. Just project a beam of divine Love & Light to them and thank them for being there.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc

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Uptick in Alien Activity

March 7th, 2010

Long-time Lightworkers generally have a lot of experience in dealing with UFOs and alien visitations.  A bunch of people I know are experiencing a marked increase in visitations and sightings. It ain’t all nice, either. I was recently sent this link to NASA UFO footage and recordings: http://www.youtube.com/v/X-RPWhigpQg&hl=en&fs=1&amp

I live in the Houston area, which is on a coastal plain that tends to hold smog in place, much like Mexico City or Los Angeles. When I notice stars in the sky, they tend to be either fixed (like the big dipper) or really big and obvious.  In the past couple of years, and even more this year, a number of people have noticed such phenomena as: clouds going behind the moon, “stars” going behind the moon, two moons at the same time, the moon moving in an obvious manner (as in seeming to follow a person), stars that should be at a fairly normal distance from the moon changing their position by a noticeably wide margin from one night to the next.

I’ve laid out in the yard at my parents’ house up in Centerville, TX, well away from the city smog, and watched the action-packed sky. Centerville is along the I-45 corridor between Houston and Dallas… I can also tell you that our commercial aircraft are not the only beings using this corridor. Some of the lights up there that were alternately moving or staying stationary were clearly NOT commercial aircraft.

I often wake up to the feeling of presences in my room, often hearing an odd high-pitched tone late at night, and occasionally the sounds of voices talking (but not in recognizable words), my dreams will shift to being more frightening during these times as well. I invoke my angels and request assistance when I become aware of things happening. I’ve been making it a point to ask Archangel Psion to send his associate angels to protect me during these periods. I tend to catch up on my sleep when I do my Transcendental Meditation program in the afternoon or evening.

Recently, a customer of mine was telling me how she was being “told” that she was being prepared to channel Jesus himself very soon, and that she didn’t need to study any more, and that this presence would tell her all that she needed to know. I am long familiar with the pitfalls of newbies who open themselves to channel in an effort to fast-track their development. I tuned in and found that she has some aliens trying to call the shots. Rather than bursting her bubble, I told her that what she told me sent up some red flags and that she needed to start testing these presences and their information in a number of ways.

My friend up in Tomball, TX, spent most of her life living along the I-45 corridor between NASA and points north, and has been experiencing alien phenomena all her life as well. A couple years back, a group of very high-looking aliens used her big yard as a vacation spot. This friend experienced an alien home invasion last night. After a day of packing excess items for storage so she could put her house on the market, she drifted off to sleep, waking to the sound of at least 7 people inside her house, tromping around on the newspapers she was using in packing. She was frozen in fear and elected to “play possum”. She experienced one of them using some sort of device to paralyze her legs. This normally unshakeable woman was so frightened that she couldn’t remember most of the basic methods that commonly work to ward these guys away. What got them to leave was her getting out of fear and “giving up” (to the effect of being willing to accept whatever they wish to dole out, whether it included her death or not), which effectively quit feeding them (they eat fear like pop-corn). After they left, she got up and looked around to find that they have fished around in her kitchen cabinets, turned on the TV and radio, and moved some stuff around. She checked on her husband, who said that he saw some beings over him that looked like my friend, only with a blank face. He knew it was my friend for real when she walked in carrying a handgun and calling him by name. They compared notes and she discovered that she had 3 hours of missing time. No, she didn’t get a look at them.

I have a buddy in Santa Fe, NM who has witnessed and experienced such a wide array of phenomena, it is hard to recount all of it. My friend has been an experiencer from her early childhood onwards, when she was actually taken up in spaceships to see the Earth from space. She has been kidnapped and forced to do a number of things… everything from making and tending half-alien babies, to performing the hula for aliens as little as 2 years ago. She has witnessed new varieties of aliens popping up out there in Santa Fe and environs… there is a truly nasty pale-skinned, white haired and blue eyed alien race that make the standard gray reptilians look tame. She found out that the bigger reptilians like to drink Drano to get drunk. There is another variety of aliens that dress up as biker gangs with weird motorcycles that literally do their best to run people off the roads. There is another variety of aliens she calls “robo-cops” that drive around in “off-looking” police cars that you can’t see into. She has been followed by big balloon-like crafts (think “Rover” from The Prisoner TV series) both while hiking in the mountains as while driving home from the market. Lately she has seen how a particular super-thick darkness descends, enveloping a room or house, blanking out all light in the surroundings… her defense is to jump up, turn on as many lamps as she can, and yell at the aliens to get the hell out.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc

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Making the Best of a Bad Dowsing Conference

March 7th, 2010

Awww man… I gotta say that last year’s Lone Star Dowsers regional dowsing conference didn’t meet expectations… not in the least. Apparently the local group left it all in the hands of two entrenched, cranky old women who had no real idea how to pull it off.  I’ll estimate that the total attendance was perhaps 3 dozen. The organization is out the rent on three small hotel ballrooms that were put together for the conference. My guess is that the vendors’ table fees may have covered the ballroom rental for the first day, but not for all four days. They really went in the hole.

 There was no sound system to amplify the voices of the speakers, so that anyone speaking in a very soft tone in the very back of the room (where the vendors were) was apparently heard all the way at the front of the room where the speakers stood.  A simple cheapo karaoke machine with a couple of add-on satellite speakers would have made all the difference in the world. Turns out they had a small PA system (in the trunk of a car, no less), but couldn’t find the microphone to it. All this woman had to do was hit the local music shop or Best Buy to pick up a replacement microphone (probably less than $20).  That would have saved a lot of irritation throughout the conference.

They did get one ad in the Centerpoint Project newsletter and the Indigo Sun, but those didn’t hit the racks/mailboxes until the first week of the month… and the conference didn’t start until the second week… only one week to be seen. They needed to have those ads out for at least two monthly issues ahead of the conference. There were no press releases. They e-mailed a flyer out and asked everyone at the monthly meetings to bring a friend. No direct mail like the Dallas dowsing club does when they do the conference every other year. Actually, I get the mail-outs from dowsing associations throughout the country. Last week I got one from the Arizona group announcing their conference. In a word, the promotion was not mis-handled so much as it wasn’t handled at all. Pitiful.

Okay, so I tagged one of the organizers and told her… “Hey, I’ve got 30 years in advertising, marketing, public relations, trade shows, graphics and printing… next time, please CALL ME! Let me help!”

Later on, I e-mailed and offered to create an Excel database list of membership that could be used to do quarterly mailings. In a word, I am volunteering to correct the problems and help save that chapter.

ON THE FLIP SIDE…

The lack of traffic allowed us vendors to get to know each other. We have connected and are making plans to do our own events. I will probably be building some websites for others, and we are all networking and swapping knowledge. We are planning on pushing for some changes in the local organization, and failing that, will probably plan to create our own dowsing association chapter. In other words, I’ll be making man times the money long term that I should have made at that conference.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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How to Put on an Event

March 7th, 2010

Any event, no matter what the focus, whether it is a music festival, gala fund-raiser, carnival, county fair, educational conference or pow-wow, has its staging requirements in order to assure success. Having just come away from what was supposed to have been a 4-day regional dowsing conference that fell flat on its kiester, I really felt the need to describe this for quick reference. With some 30 years in advertising, marketing, PR, graphics, printing and all related activities, I can offer some simple guidelines so that any event planners out there can be successful. It isn’t rocket science, but it does require a certain amount of organization and a real plan.

At a minimum of 6 months in front of your actual event, you need to have your date and site completely solidified and your committee in place.  If it is a yearly event, you sign the contract to reserve the venue for next year before the end of this year’s event. The bigger conferences and trade shows sign multi-year contracts to get the better deals. If your core audience has other competing events in the same time frame, you have to make sure you are not competing for those people because it will hurt you! How important is this? It is the very foundation.

Believe it or not, I’ve seen various groups still trying to find a venue as little as one month ahead of their event… it doesn’t work. Some years ago Texas Chiropractic College was trying to bring a high-society donor crowd to their gala… and they scheduled the gala for the same night as the Junior League of Houston’s gala… the result was a very expensive party for some 200 chiropractors and none of the society swells… and yes, they lost a lot of money on it.

The deposit money for next year’s event must come off the top of this year’s event’s income.  If you don’t have all the money you need to reserve your venue at that point, negotiate for the latest point they will accept the money to give you time to get sponsors.  Local companies are certainly willing to sponsor… for example, Green Mountain Energy, some radio stations and BFI have been very active in their sponsorships. 

If this is a big event which will take a lot of capital to put on, then fundraising events have to begin as early as possible, perhaps 9 months in front of the big event.  You name it… fashion trunk shows, psychic fairs, pub crawls, book signings, brunches, and concerts at local venues where part of the door is donated.  Be creative. 

Raffles or silent auctions are often a part of either pre-event fundraising or the event itself. Of course your group can always scrounge some stuff from around the house to give away, but if you are selling those tickets to raise money, you need some worthwhile stuff, so this is where your network of contacts will be valuable.  Gift cards are all the rage these days, but one or two larger ticket items help close the deal.

Your committee is important. You need “doers” instead of “talkers”. Make sure that everyone is clear on their jobs. If you don’t know your committee, find some small tests for each person.  Personally, I’d rather have a couple of unimaginative people with a “git-er-done” work ethic than a pack of self-serving drama-queens any day. Meet with your committee regularly. E-mail really helps to stay in touch.

I’ve also witnessed a local renaissance festival in the Pearland area, that lost the rights to its name because one of the staffers held the DBA on it, so when this flim-flammer finally left (taking a lot of vendor booth money with him), they had to change the festival’s name, and as a result couldn’t put on the event because they had to get re-licensed and re-permitted, and of course, the local power-brokers at city hall threw a monkey wrench into the works, and they had to wait another year to begin recouping their investments.

There is also a renaissance festival in west Texas that’s been floundering for the past several years because of crooks on the staff and a complete lack of money to either make necessary upgrades to the property (the dirt road keeps washing out) or even do basic advertising.  They’ve blown their credibility for the last time this year.  If you’ve got a situation where you’re mopping up after someone else, you either have to go large and rewrite the paperwork so you can get a loan, or start over from scratch.

Have your whole itinerary mapped out by 120 days before the event. This is GO TIME. You need to start promotions with the chambers of commerce, networking other non-profits, giving lectures and having informational booths at other events, and doing press releases at 4 months ahead of your event in most cases.

You can locate local, regional, state and trade publications over the web nowadays, and build a database spreadsheet to make mailing out your press releases faster and easier.

This is also the point where you need to start booking your display advertising since most magazines have their ad deadlines one or two months ahead of publication. You need to set appointments with advertising managers to negotiate some deep discounts on display advertising and how much they are willing to help you out by peppering their calendar with PSA mentions, not just to promote the event, but to recruit volunteers… you have to get the media people on your side.   You can start with small announcement ads for volunteers, talent and vendors in appropriate newsletters at this point, if you don’t already have them lined up. Please bear in mind that the very LEAST amount of advertising you can get away with is one solid month of coverage in front of the event.

Getting radio stations to mention your event is great, but it’s very much a crap shoot… they need those press releases ahead of time, too.

Remember that all of the broadcast and print media are hurting, so they cannot afford to give much space to press releases, so you often have to buy space to get mentioned in their community events calendars. 

You must also have flyers ready for volunteers to place into appropriate retail outlets and take to other events… sometimes you can get a printer to donate flyers.  The thing about flyers is they have to be out several months in advance to be picked up by the target audience.  Flyers are probably the most effective single method of advertising, so use this method!

You need to be booking talent, speakers and vendors as early as you can and throughout the process. Bands book their gigs for months in advance. The more popular the band, the further in advance you have to book them, and all the more important that you are not conflicting with bigger events in the region.  If your timing is good, often a band will donate their performance for P.R. purposes.  Most bands make their real money from CD & cassette sales.   

Vendors that work a whole festival circuit need the lead time to work your event into their schedule as well. You don’t want to leave any of this for the last minute. You want GOOD vendors, not the psychiatric cases that come out of the woodwork.

Keep a comprehensive contact database and don’t attempt to commit anything to memory. The more you get done in the 120-90 days before the event, the less stress you will have and the more successful the event will be. You have to have a plan and work that plan.

E-mail is the very last method of advertising you should consider. It is a great tweaker, but you cannot rely on it. I’ve seen event organizers attempt to float all of their advertising by e-mail and it simply doesn’t work. Bet on the spam filters removing most of it.

Websites are all-important nowadays, and it isn’t expensive or difficult to put a decent site together and get it registered on the search engines.  Make the maximum use of it.  You can have pages for the event itself, as well as pages for vendors, talent, volunteers, and all events leading up to the big event.  A good website keeps you from having to answer the phone at all hours.  Have a good contact form so you can build a customer database.  Have a full event brochure available in PDF format for easy download.  PayPal is an excellent tool for handling money… you can put PayPal buttons to sell tickets and various merchandise.  You can feature links to CafePress to sell imprinted merchandise such as mugs, caps and t-shirts. The quicker you get a website up, the better.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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Paranormal Activity in Relation to Interpersonal Issues

March 7th, 2010

Back on Thursday the 11th I got a phone call from a lady who had a full-blown poltergeist haunting that was clearly making her miserable… she initially called looking for my shop, and I explained the nature of my business. Sharon found my website and wanted a Defunker.  I asked what was going on and it turned out that she was in distress, wasn’t getting any sleep because an entity kept trying to rape her repeatedly. It was also effecting her ability to handle basic business. She had run through her unemployment compensation and was having trouble getting employment for the first time in her life.

This had been going on for some months “beginning last March” and she was essentially at the end of her rope. She had brought in a total of four different clergy, including her religious denomination’s bishop, for a total of three visits… the third time, they told her that this was coming from within her and they couldn’t do anything about it… they abandoned her saying that she was wigging out because of the stress of being unemployed. She was devastated at this abandonment. I told her that I wasn’t really surprised. I sent her the Joray “White Light” symbol and my “Fat-Free Spirituality” PDF book to read so she could “get it for herself”. I gave her instructions to print out the symbol and slap it anywhere, particularly any “in-between” areas and behind every possible picture on the walls, under the bed and so forth to grid the place.

On Saturday the 13th I went to handle the cleansing of her apartment on Richmond. It was hot out… in the 90s. The grass was getting parched. I asked her lots of questions about how things had gotten to where they are. Of course there were some layers involved. I got that there were no real geopathic difficulties in that particular building, but that there were more than likely some in the apartment complex and surrounding area… and that could make a difference. The longer

One situation that figured prominently was that she had worked in an office that had a very religious back-stabber that was likely doing her own version of energy work to slam anyone that posed a threat to her. Sharon was fired from that job for the first time in her life. Adding insult to injury, the recruiter that had placed her was now aloof and not really trying to assist her any more after so many years.  What happened? Sharon really felt like she had been severely interfered with by this woman.

I started by dropping a pair of Rick’s special energy tools in the center of the living room… a labyrinth disk featuring all of the 72 names of God, with the banishing side up, placed on top of a Harmony Board. I called in my angels and asked for assistance in taking this entity up into God’s Light. I lit a smudge stick, cracked the front door, and began walking around the small apartment, working from the back forwards and around every area, talking to the ghost and selling it into going into the Light. Following that, I took my pouch of “medicine mix” and performed the Tobacco Ceremony indoors, then took my Ceremony outdoors to permanently anchor God’s Light to the whole building. In a building with eight apartments, I just made it tough for anyone or anything that was not working for God’s Light to hang around that building. I checked my work with a pendulum. Sharon had laid down on her bed while I was working the outside… and was pleased that this was the first time that she hadn’t been molested in a long time. I checked to make sure the entity was indeed gone… it was.

When I finished that, I found a small stool and a little table and set up my SpaceBoard to quickly clack out any debris, entrainment, cords or whatever that might be stuck on Sharon. She felt very calm and relaxed afterward. I spent some time coaching her on the use of God’s White Light and how to use God’s Metallic Gold Light to defend herself. I also told Sharon how to send God’s Love & Light to the recruiter with a gift tag, and filling her office with that spectrum of energy as if she is physically in that office, even though she is only on the phone. Sharon isn’t one of those people who is in the victim mentality. She is accustomed to focusing on what she wants to create and seeing things fall into place because of her focus. This whole thing with the ghost and the backstabbing woman putting the whammy on her was simply and completely outside of her experience to date.

Sharon picked out a small Defunker I and also purchased a “Prosperity Ball” and an “Absolute Truth Ball”, and paid me for my time and a little tip besides.

I e-mailed on Monday to ask how everything was, and the next day I received an e-mail saying: “I have not gotten rid of the spirit yet. Saturday night I had an unexpected major attack, Sunday night I had a mild attack, last night I had a mild attack. I guess I’ll just continue to pray.”

I called and coached her on handling things. She used the Defunker to ward the critter off but was still under attack. I told her she needed to have that “Absolute Truth Ball” with her in bed to provide a clean field all the way around her as she slept. I pointed her to some of the passages in the PDF book I had sent her and went over it with her. I told her that I would do some absentia work on her place that evening.

I tuned in and, yes the previous ghost really was gone, but another different one had come in to take its place… kind of like getting rid of a bad boyfriend, but still having to deal with his jerk friends afterwards. This particular entity had apparently been waiting on the sidelines for an opening.

For good measure, I consulted with a psychic friend who tuned in and confirmed this, saying that these two ghosts had followed her from several lifetimes back, and that I needed to erase what she called a “vapor trail” from that other abusive ghost that was still attached to Sharon, and probably brought this one in, and possible another one after this one leaves. Kind of like how an ex-heroine addict can smell heroine on another person. This second ghost was not the least bit comfortable being in that building since I had done Ceremony to anchor God’s Light to the place, but it apparently had nowhere else to go. I did the energy work that evening, filling the whole apartment with God’s White Light.

She called saying that it bothered her some more, but it was greatly diminished as to be more of a nuisance. She called the problem at 95% corrected. I told her that this is really more of a good thing for her, because she is learning how to deal with these things on her own. The whole experience is ultimately empowering and she can take the knowledge with her anywhere.

Later on the 26th she reported that she is doing well. Sharon is keeping the back-stabber boxed in God’s Gold Light to limit any further interference, and Sharon’s recruiter is pleased to be working with her once again and is beating the bushes for other assignments. She’ll be just fine.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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Pointers for Crafters

March 7th, 2010

I know a lot of people who have gone into crafting various items for sale. Nice stuff… feels good, looks good, and ideally geared for a specific market segment. Believe me, I’m rooting for you! I want you to succeed!  In an effort to assist, I hereby offer some very basic advice.

BE UNIQUE.  Sell the sizzle.  Everything may fall into specific merchandise categories, but the idea is to make your product stand out with a different approach.  You can either invent your own categories or go broke buying pay-per-clicks for “jewelry”.

KNOW YOUR MARKET NICHE.  If you are going for interior decorators, then fine. My niche is obviously “new age” or “metaphysical”, so everything is tailored to that audience.  If you do wholesale, you have to know the types of shops to aim your message at, and what grabs their attention.  I’ve worked fairs where people balked at my pricing up until they watched – and probably felt – me blessing a freshly-crafted piece of jewelry… then they BOUGHT!

BUILD A WEBSITE. It has become the cornerstone of merchandising that you cannot do without these days. It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg… you will need a computer, a copy of Microsoft FrontPage (something like $200), your own URL (that’s the address for your website. The price varies by how long you purchase the rights to your URL), and a web-hosting service (a server that people access your website from… I pay $5.95 a month).  The tough part is getting photographs of your products… and good digital cameras are a lot cheaper these days . Make sure your web-host has FrontPage extensions enabled. I have gone to doing almost nothing but web sales and the occasional trunk show to get rid of old inventory… sure beats the hell out of hauling stuff all over the state, setting it up and having to stay with it all day long hoping for enough sales to cover my expenses.

DISPLAY.  I’ve worked a lot of little fairs… psychic fairs, music festivals, pow-wows and such.  Spend some time on creating your display to both show your craft in an optimal setting and to protect it.  It has to be strong enough, heavy enough, easy to set-up and tear-down, and so forth.  If you are doing outdoor events, you have to gear your display so that it will hold up in windy weather.  You will absolutely need an E-Z Up canopy if you do outdoor events, and be sure to spring for the side panels.  If you have lots of little items, like rings, you will probably need to put them in glass display cases, away from little klepto-maniacs.   

ADVERTISE.  Trade links with merchants and webrings, register with wholesale directory sites, consider getting on Google Adwords and Yahoo for their targeted pay-per-click programs (be real specific on your keywords). Run select print advertising, even if it is just classifieds in the backs of targeted magazines.  Make sure you have enough money to run a decent campaign, and make sure you hit your product’s prime buying season (with me that would be August through February).  Some things advertise well in local publications, some in national. Check the pricing and negotiate to get the most bang for your buck.

WHERE TO SELL?  Some crafts are well adapted to the local flea market, some aren’t. Some do well at church or community craft fairs, county fairs, chili cook-offs, barbecue cook-offs, motorcycle fairs, music festivals, rodeos, and so on. You have to figure out where the market for your merchandise is… what seems to be moving at what event, and what the ideal price range is for that event.  I’ve been to fairs where I made a lot of money $1 to $5 at a time, and others where I made all my sales $20-$50 at a time. 

I knew a psychic who did the whole circuit of redneck bible-belt county fairs… dressed as a gypsy… with a crystal ball… and really made a living at it.  The costume and playful “gypsy” demeanor kept the “fundies” from feeling threatened and her expertise in palmistry kept customers coming to her.

NETWORK.  Most all business is conducted through networking of one sort or another.  If you vend at fairs, get to know the other merchants around you and find out what fairs and festivals they vend at.  Swap e-mail addresses.  Send each other reviews of different vending venues.  Caravan to events and vend near one another for safety.  I was referred to a biker festival that I couldn’t work, but I sent the info to a friend, who got the last booth space and was able to pay the rent on her domicile as a result.  That buys a LOT of goodwill. 

DO NOT CONSIGN.  Repeat: DO NOT consign!  As you and your crafts get known, you will be invited to put your stuff for sale in people’s shops. They’ll walk up to your booth at a fair and oogle your crafts, and tell you how much they’d love to have your stuff in their shop.  Just smile sweetly and tell them that you do wholesale with a small minimum purchase.  Of course the merchant wants your stuff… that way they can populate their shop with inventory without having to buy it (and that’s poverty mentality).  Since the merchant has nothing invested, he has no reason to push or take care of the consigned inventory.  You, however, will run the very real risk of losing your stuff.  Either an undercapitalized shop will fold without warning and your stuff will disappear, or your stuff will get damaged. If they can’t buy your stuff, don’t give it to them.  You have money, time and materials invested, so you have to be paid for your goods.  You can offer to do a trunk show at their shop, giving them a percentage of your sales, if they advertise it as an event on their calendar. The most you should be willing to do is take a post-dated check for part of their purchase (try to get ½ of the purchase up front).  I’ve been there.  

Resist the urge to put your wares in a “crafters’ mall”… you are even more likely to lose them. You don’t want to have your stuff taken in a landlord-lien arrangement.  You don’t want your stuff to be locked out of your reach. Most have contracts that demand that you put in a full day’s work at the crafters’ mall a couple of times a week.  Such an arrangement restricts your ability to work festivals where the crowds would be more apt to spend money with you.  

BOOKKEEPING.  One method that helps the most at tax time is to write the events you’ve worked on a calendar, along with mileage, meals, motel, booth fee, and sales. Put the sales tax you collected at each event in an envelope and keep it separate from all other monies so you don’t get caught flat-footed when the time comes to fill out that state sales tax form… you should just have to make sure your figures match and get a money order.  All this also makes it much easier to do income tax. Consider investing in Quicken or other tax preparation software. Spread sheet programs are great for keeping records of sales, customer mailing lists and festival contacts.   I still use an accountant, but I walk in with everything categorized, documented, and totaled, to keep the accountant’s cost down.  

OPEN A SHOP?   Well… I can only tell you what’s worked at all the successful shops I’ve seen.  A crafter that is experienced in marketing his wares will eventually get some insight into market dynamics.  Some will take this step because there is a certain ego satisfaction in “owning a shop”.  Some don’t feel the need to be tied down to a shop as it can be a drag. If your shop is in a weekend flea market, then your weekends are tied up so you can’t do festivals, and you will have to deal with the dickering mentality and the neighborhood hoods.  If your shop is in a shopping center, you’re also looking at an ironclad lease contract.  If you want a shop, my recommendation will be to do the research on the area, create a business plan and get a loan so you will have the money to advertise as well as survive the first two years in business.

If you open a “new age” shop, do so in late summer so you can have the stock for the Christmas and New Years’ holidays, and begin advertising before you open your doors.  After February, the sales tend to ebb and flow at a much less intense rate.  The more successful shops tend to keep a full calendar of lectures and workshops going to keep traffic coming into the shop year-round. If there is room, consider having a periodic well-advertised open-house or psychic fair to introduce new people to the shop. Have a guest book so people can sign up to get your newsletter.

Most successful “new age” shops will also tend to have private spaces for a psychic reader, astrologer or some kind of health professional like a hypnotherapist, Reiki Master, massage therapist or reflexologist. Such professionals build a relationship with the shop… they bring in business by promoting their services, while the shop benefits from traffic, books appointments and either collects a percentage or flat rental fee for the space.  It is important that your instructors and resident readers/healers are of the highest integrity.  The best “new age” shops build themselves as a resource to the community, not just gift shops.

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Rev. Suzanne Powell manufactures and markets a full line of line of natural stone “medicine jewelry”, subtle energy tools, pendulums, angel and fairy art and “spiritual soap” through her website, http://www.turtleisland.cc  

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