Canadian Society of Questers

Evelyn Rattray

I first heard of Evelyn Rattray in 2003 at Raymon Grace’s dowsing school at the Hansen property on Swan Lake in Vernon BC. Raymon and Evelyn had worked together on First Nation’s reserves across Canada to break through the multigenerational trauma caused by the residential school system. Through dowsing Raymon would identify key components of the trauma and Evelyn using native shamanism would reach inside the person and release the abuse.

Evelyn born in Telegraph Creek BC to a long line of native healers was able to avoid the worst of the residential school system hidden away in the bush by her parents and grandparents. She was taught in the native traditions but did not receive full training as her mother passed away early. Evelyn laments that she missed key aspects only her mother could have taught her. In spite of that she has done a lot of wonderful work.

Evelyn moved from Telegraph Creek to Salmon Arm BC to be nearer to Kelowna’s International Airport as she is constantly being called to do healing work worldwide.

She spoke at the 2017 Quester’s Fall Conference in the Prestige Inn in Salmon Arm about her work and the difficulties imposed on the First Nations. She had a question and answer session with a room full of Questers. What one sees in Evelyn is gentleness and humility. She is soft spoken and caring.

Looking at her eyes one sees her staring off into the distance as if her eyes are focused on infinity. It is as if she can see the time when the First Nations will reacquire its lost traditions and greatness. Breaking the trauma she may have brought that day closer.

ZSL

From the Editor: I first published this story back in 2007 on my blog. My friend, Aleda, sent it to me. I loved the story and posted it. I believed that it is a grand story with a lesson for everyone. I had many, many, comments and emails from it, which showed that it touched hundreds of people. We seem to need many stories about love and about kindness to help us keep hope, love, and peace burning strong for us all. If you are called to leave a comment, please do. Or, send the comment to me with instructions to publish it, or to keep it private, and I will follow them. My email is Judith-hirst@questers.ca.

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Here is the story written by a thankful Mom!

I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service. Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith.

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, ‘To Meredith’ in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, ‘When a Pet Dies.’ Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,

Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn’t sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.

Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you.

I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.

By the way, I am wherever there is love.

Love, God

Walk in peace.

November arrives to remind us that there are 54 days until Christmas. And, it is a good month to clean up your “mess”. A mess is anything that is not in order or that is unresolved. Some say that a “mess” as any incomplete task, obligation, or other unresolved commitment. A room that needs cleaning is a good example of a mess because the room is not in order. We all have messes in our lives that need attention. Here are some examples that might resonate for you.

Do you need to clean out closets and drawers?
Have you made a will and power of attorney request?
When was your last dental and physical checkup?
Does your car need servicing and winter tires?
Have you outlined clear and meaningful goals to guide your decision-making or are you flying by the seat of your pants?
Have you balanced your bank account and made a plan for your financial future?
Do you need to start an exercise plan? Have you found a gym?
Are you in need of a new eating plan?
When did you last clean out your home office or your spare room or even your garage?
Is it time to start down sizing?

Feel free to add to the list. Many writers have described that a physical mess in our environment causes us undo mental stress. If we have too many messes and stresses, then we often go into overload and we crash. If humans crash, it shows up as depression, anxiety, and dysfunctional relationships as well as mental illness. Our decision making may become irrational causing further “messes”.

Do not try to do everything at once. Take one item, and decide what you want to do with it, and then schedule it on your calendar, like any other appointment, and get it done.

You will feel so much better!

Einstein is Right!

A survey of the stars using the Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed the accelerating expansion of the universe and Einstein’s ideas about gravity, a team of astronomers said. ………..

The survey, published this week in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, confirmed that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, propelled by a mysterious force called dark energy. “Our results confirmed that there is an unknown source of energy in the universe which is causing the cosmic expansion to speed up, stretching the dark matter further apart exactly as predicted by Einstein’s theory,” said Van Waerbeke in a statement.

The astronomers were able to find where the dark matter is using a technique called weak gravitational lensing, where light from distant galaxies is observed to bend as it travels through space.

The General Theory of Relativity, a manuscript published by Albert Einstein in 1915, holds that gravity arises because matter warps space and time, meaning that light bends near massive objects, such as the core of a galaxy.

—This story comes from https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/astronomers-back-up-einstein-again-1.954678#ixzz0jXVQTfyO. Read more about this “blast from the past” to see what else they had to say!

“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and around and about me was the whole hoop of the world… I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit and the shapes of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw that the Sacred Hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as day light and as starlight and in the centre grew one almighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father,and I saw that it was holy.”

From the vision of Nicholas Black Elk (Lakota Holy Man: 1863 – 1950) . Black Elk was a famous wičháša wakȟáŋ (medicine man and holy man) and heyoka of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) who lived in the present-day United States, primarily South Dakota. He was a second cousin of the war chief Crazy Horse.

What is this world condition? Body is the world condition. And with body and form goes feeling, perception, consciousness, and all the activities throughout the world. The arising of form and the ceasing of form–everything that has been heard, sensed, and known, sought after and reached by the mind–all this is the embodied world, to be penetrated and realized.

Quoted from Samyutta Nikaya ((Saṃyutta Nikāya SN, “Connected Discourses” or “Kindred Sayings”) is a Buddhist scripture, the third of the five nikayas, or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka, which is one of the “three baskets” that compose the Pali Tipitaka of Theravada Buddhism. Because of the abbreviated way parts of the text are written, the total number of suttas is unclear.)

Editor’s Note: These vision quotes are favourites of mine that I have used in my classes over the years.

Picture from Rocky Mountain Outlook Community News

Have you ever had a dream where you are either walking along a river or canoeing along a river, when all of a sudden, a large speckled fish jumps out at you? More often than not, the fish will be a trout! We currently associate the trout with fly fishing, and all the mysticism that follows fly fishing. Think – “A River Runs Through It” – the movie about learning of life through fly fishing trout. Trout are found the Americas (Argentina has great trout fishing), China, New Zealand, Ireland, Russia – you are getting the picture. Trout are found in all areas of the world.

The trout, then, is an icon or symbol of life at its primitive form. The trout like colder water over warm water; are fussy about what they eat, and as a group, seem to have definite food preferences, and are described as predators. Some species will eat their own eggs or hatched young. The majority of the species spawn in the fall or early winter – the rainbow trout spawn in the spring. With all this information, what then, is the message that the Trout brings?

Trout is about living in the present. The trout lives in a water environment and water is about emotion. The trout’s message is not to get lost in the emotion. Instead, use the emotion to carry you to that place where you grow and thrive. The trout hunts; it is a predator. However, it does not hunt its prey to extinction. Fly fishermen marvel how the species hunts one type of larvae for several hours and then, as a community, switches to a different prey. Man could indeed take a lesson about how to hunt without hunting to extinction.

The trout is also about swimming upstream and not taking the easy road. It may be telling you to “rise above the water” (emotions) for the rainbow trout is noted for “walking on the water” when on the hook and seemingly in danger. Many trout escape their captors using this technique. The trout jumps out of the water to catch food. It is also about being still. Many trout quietly spend the day in the shade of a log or a river bank, slowly swimming, taking life as it comes. The trout literally waits in the calm side of islands or in the calm pool created by rapids, taking the food that is carried down stream to them. Trout then, is also about patience. When Trout appears to you, take note of the surroundings that you are in. This will help you decipher Trout’s message.

Walk in peace!

Editor’s Note: This is a reprint of an article written by Judith Hirst in May 2007, in the Angels and Ancestors May Newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Well, it’s over and done! And, it was wonderful! The conference got off to a fabulous start with MC, Roger Joyeux, who set the emotional theme of the gathering – the theme of love. He also did a great job of keeping the events on time. Roger and Jacqui Rose’s enthusiasm for the Raffle Table draws throughout the two days kept all of us entertained and wishing we had purchased more raffle tickets.

Day One was filled with two marvelous presentations by long time Quester members, Tyhson Bannigan and Merope Gervais. Tyhson reminded attendees to clear themselves and ground every morning before starting out. He gave some great tips for working with our pendulums, and led us through some examples of clearing. His demonstration of clearing a person in pain, on stage, and then teaching another to do it was so powerful to the audience. He ended the session with a hands-on session for dowsers to find water.

Merope provided not only a history of what she has been doing, but at the same time, provided a great history of the Canadian Society of Dowsers, now Questers, and how Questers has contributed to the pool of knowledge that we can all tap. As leader of the Calgary Dowsers, Merope has grown the club over the last ten years and shared much of her dowsing abilities with them. Merope’s presentation touched on so many topics and healing modalities that many of us think she should come back to do a workshop on just one modality.

The evening presentation by Dr. Ken Johnston had the audience spell bound as he walked them through the pictures showing his life behind the scenes in the Apollo and Challenger programs. He included pictures of the moon showing the facilities already located there by other space beings, and talked about the secret space program that based in the American space program and collaborates with beings from the stars.

Day Two was full of magic! Cindi Johnston started the day with her presentation on Shifting Timelines. This tied nicely in to Dr. Ken Johnston’s (no relation) talk the night before. Cindi is a superb story-teller, and she shifted the audience through several of her life experiences as we lived her story. She mentioned several times that we need to work with the children and work to save the children. The session ended with an extremely powerful meditation that grounded us and started a healing process. Check out her newest book at http://www.shiftingtimelines.com.

Chris Lee’s session on Life in the Past Lane carried on with the theme of timelines. Chris walked us through what a hypnotherapist does, and shared some case histories with us. Everyone was excited to learn that seeing the main past life that is causing this lifetime’s problem could shift and end the problem. He sited cases about ending phobias such as fear of heights, fear of success, and fear of water to show the power of hypnotherapy. Many signed up for his sessions to clear their issues. You can find out more about Chris’s brand of hypnotherapy at http://www.pastliferegressionandprogression.com/.

In a first of its kind session, the Quester’s board had a session to dialogue with the members about what the future would look like and listen to comments and ideas from the members. The discussion talked about fees, conference fees, online workshops and an online Questers group. Volunteers popped up to work on ride sharing, billeting, and the Quester’s Twitter and Facebook pages. Discussions about the state of the funds, Quester member’s generosity, and the amazing amount of love in the room abounded.

Many of us have never heard of John of God. In the session by Josie RavenWing, we learned about her experiences from the very beginning of her work with John of God (who lives in Brazil), and is an extraordinarily gifted healer. Josie leads groups to Brazil to – The Casa de Dom Inácio (the house of St Ignatius Loyola) a spiritual healing centre in Abadiânia, central Brazil. As part of her workshop on Sunday, Josie led those present through two unbelievable healing sessions.

The Saturday evening keynote was by Sue Paulson who talked about “Heaven is Here”. Sue shared her story of illness and recovery, and talked about the every day miracles that are occurring all around us. She talked about how we all have the power to make changes to our lives. She inspired the audience and treated them to common sense practices that can change one’s life.

Each conference ends with a closing ceremony. Roger Joyeux led the group through another love in to wrap up the day and half sessions. It included breathing, gazing, drumming, singing, dancing, and lots of hugging.

The next conference is in September, at 108 Mile House. Get all of the details here – at https://questers.ca/conferences/fall-conference/.

See you at the fall conference!

And I saw that the Sacred Hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as day light and as starlight and in the centre grew one almighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father,and I saw that it was holy.”

–From the vision of Nicholas Black Elk (Lakota Holy Man: 1863 – 1950)

Evelyn Rattray

November 1 2018 and Time To Clean Up Your Mess

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Details For the Spring Conference in Red Deer May 4–6, 2018