If ever there was a zodiac sign to represent personal growth, it’s Scorpio. I am now taking submissions (writing and art/photography) for issue 5 of Starflower Living magazine.
Issue 5 themes for the New Moon in Scorpio (due date, October 4th): soul mates, sexuality, transformation, empowerment, letting go, grief, old baggage, psychology, secrets, depth of character, compulsions, deep emotional connections, ancestors, debt, inheritance, jealousy, abandonment. Health: sexual organs, organs of elimination, menstrual cycle, sexual infections. email: office at starflowerpress dot com
Have you signed up to Starflower Living magazine yet? Issue 4 is out in two weeks. Lots of interesting articles along the theme of relationships and beauty. I hope you enjoy. ~ Veronika xx http://www.starflowerpress.com/living/index.shtml
Autumn has arrived in Cumbria. The garden rewards me with handfuls of blueberries. Such a treat! It won’t be long till I have to start ordering in firewood, but for now, my main celebration of Autumn is: enjoying the elderberries and rosehips, autumnal mists in the fields, and in the use of foods in my kitchen: butternut, blueberries, apples and pears.
In two weeks, my daughter Bethany will be travelling to Bangor University in Wales to study music. I spend each day mentally preparing for this huge change to family life.
My daughter Eliza started A levels this week, and is loving her new teachers. It is such a joy to hear her sharing her delight.
As the days grow darker (and colder!), my time will be spent writing. Things came to a bit of a lull during the school holidays. Autumn will see me release some e-books all based on ten steps.
I will sink myself back into writing my novel a few days a week (really looking forward to that), and the remaining time will be divided between the recipe books and editing Starflower Living magazine. I have to admit that I’ve really enjoyed stepping back into a magazine-editing role (but without the stress of bulk mailouts). If you’ve not yet read this digital magazine, you can download the first issue FREE from the Starflower website. www.starflowerpress.com Each issue is just £2.50
For this weekend only, I am running a special offer. If you order a mentoring or astrology session off my website, you can have a second session FREE (for any member of the family). Offer expires Sunday 7th Sept, midnight (UK time)
However you celebrate Autumn, I hope you enjoy it. For my southern hemisphere readers, enjoy Springtime! Love, Veronika x
Many years ago, in fact it was the first time I was living in England (about 1994), I heard a voice in my dream so real that I wondered if it was a dream. The voice said to me: You will write The Beautiful Birth book. At the time, I was working as a Media Officer for Compassion in World Farming having just finished a stint doing the same job for the Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
I thought it an odd dream ~ my work was about animal welfare and animal rights. What did I know about children? And actually, at that time, I wasn’t even interested in having babies. (How quickly that would change ~ I gave birth two years later!)
But the voice was strong. Kind, but strong. I popped into a beautiful little New Age bookshop that morning. It was called The Open Window, and was in my village of Petersfield, Hampshire. Two books on waterbirth literally fell off the shelves (spooky, I know) and landed at my feet. I bought them, and devoured every page.
My mother, who had birthed eight children, had given birth unassisted at home to the last three. If I had any idea of beautiful birth, it would stem from her experiences of tuning in with her body and birthing in private.
So, my life changed. In 1995 I set up the National Waterbirth Trust (in NZ), wrote affirmations for a CD called Peaceful Pregnancy (which my husband did the voice over for), and in 1996 gave birth to my beautiful daughter Bethany, by candlelight and the sounds of Mozart, in our bedroom. Oh how my life was to change. Between then, and 2002, I had given birth again, and lived in three countries, and began publishing The Mother magazine (which I went on to edit for 12 years). www.themothermagazine.co.uk
Seconds after giving birth at home, by candlelight and Mozart, to my daughter Bethany.
Writing The Birthkeepers was, I believe, the book I was told about in my dream. It describes the three biological needs of a birthing woman, and how important they are for an easy and ecstatic birth. Half of the book contains stories from women who had empowered births. As the subtitles states, it is reclaiming an ancient tradition. To birth, in tune with our bodies, is to do what our ancestresses did long before man interfered with the birthing process.
You may have noticed in the media the story of the King Family. I urge you to watch this clip and then compare the story to that which we have been ‘fed’. The parents have now been arrested.
If you believe in freedom, and the right of parents to make informed decisions about their children’s health, then please sign the petition. By signing this, you are not only helping this family, but taking a stand for every family who believes in freedom and honesty.
https://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.png00Veronika Sophia Robinsonhttps://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.pngVeronika Sophia Robinson2014-08-31 10:26:122014-08-31 10:26:12Informed Health Choices ~ what rights do we really have as parents?
It’s a beautiful Sunday morning here in the Eden Valley: birdsong; sunshine pushing its way through the clouds; the view of green fields, fells and trees from my writing room.
I’ve felt the shift towards Autumn for several weeks now. It’s not in the leaves, so much as the light and the chill in the air. My Autumn Bliss raspberries would normally be coming into fruit now, but we had them in July! My blueberries are being picked on a daily basis even though it’s still August.
In 20 days (yes, I’m counting), my first-born leaves home and heads to university. I’m so thrilled and excited for her, but I have to admit my heart is hurting, and I go to sleep and wake up with tears in my eyes.
Auckland, New Zealand
I still remember the early years of parenting, when Paul was often working seven days a week, and looking at the clock counting down the hours until 6pm when I could get the girls to bed. Sometimes the days seemed soooooooo long. Now, they don’t seem long enough.
Bethany is busy unpacking and dismantling her life so she can take only essential belongings to her room in the university halls. From time to time I pop into her bedroom to see where she’s up to, and the energy is already so different. How easy it is to create our lives based on possessions. How easy it is to forget that we don’t take anything with us when we die.
The imminent parting of the ways feels like a death, and I’m grieving. I cry for all the times I wasn’t a great mother…all those times I could have done better. Life is too short for regrets, I know, but I will never get those days back again, and nor will my daughter.
I pray that as the years pass, she will remember my smiles rather than my frowns. That she will take comfort from the times I slowed down on our walks so she could examine a wildflower or pick her thousandth raspberry or gooseberry.
Bethany playing violin at Mike and Petra’s handfasting ceremony.
More than anything, I hope that the roots of a stable and loving family life that Paul and I have strived to provide for her (and Eliza), will give her the wings to take flight and explore this big and amazing world. I’m thrilled that modern technology has allowed her to already ‘meet’ the people who will be studying a music degree with her, and those with whom she will be sharing halls.
I am thankful for all the years she had of child-led education, and being able to handcraft her own learning and develop her love of music in a way that was meaningful to her.
Yes, change is in the air. It is symbolic that she leaves home at the time of the Autumnal Equinox, and, astrologically, as Saturn conjuncts my natal Moon. Autumn is Nature’s way of showing us that it is okay to let go. That everything has a season. That we must die to the old and surrender to the bare nakedness of Winter. From that descent into the dark, we will surely rise again.
https://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.png00Veronika Sophia Robinsonhttps://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.pngVeronika Sophia Robinson2014-08-31 09:36:092014-08-31 09:36:09Change is in the air
As some of you know, until last year my daughters were home educated. Our approach was very laid back: child-led, free range learning.
Bethany did two years of A levels in one year, and is off to Bangor University (School of Music) in 30 days!
Today we got Eliza‘s results. She did so well in her GCSEs! She, too, did two years of school work in about 9 months…we couldn’t be happier with her results:
A star for her science practical;
A for English Literature;
A for biology;
Bs overall for science, English language and history (and a handful of As for coursework).
And get this: She started maths at foundation level, and worked her way up 4 grades to the highest level maths and has come out with a B.
There’s so much to be said for letting children choose their learning path and deciding if/when they choose formal education.
Just preparing to publish issue three of Starflower Living. It will be available on Monday from www.starflowerpress.com If you’ve not yet tried some Starflower inspiration, you can download the first issue FREE. Subsequent issues are just £2.50 to anywhere in the world, and instantly downloadable. Enjoy! Love, Veronika xxx
https://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.png00Veronika Sophia Robinsonhttps://veronikarobinson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-1.pngVeronika Sophia Robinson2014-08-21 14:24:192014-08-21 14:24:19Starflower Living ~ the magazine for a courageous, heart-centred lifestyle
One thing I’m always banging on about to my teenage daughters is: read the label!
You may not know, but in 1993 when I worked as a media officer for the Royal New Zealand Society for the Protection and Care of Animals, I wrote a book about the history of the RSPCA in NZ (The Compassionate Years), and I launched the ‘ban the battery cage’ campaign to free laying hens from a life of cruelty.
Did you know that a battery hen lives its life in a cage the size of an A4 piece of paper? Its feet stand on the cage of the bird below it.
A hen is born to scratch the dirt and take dust baths. She is born to feel the sun and the rain on her. She is not born to live her life in a cage with the excrement of other birds falling on top of her.
A friend once said to me, when reading The Mother magazine, that the level of passion I have could probably be applied to anything. She laughed and said ‘you’d probably be this passionate about chickens!’ My friend, bless her, had no idea. No idea at all. “Funny you should say that,” I said. Imagine the look on her face when I told her about my campaign in NZ.
As part of that campaign, I began writing articles to educate the sleeping public. Well, surprise surprise, half a dozen ‘top eggs’ from the Egg Board came to visit me and my boss and demand I stop writing such articles. Why? Because, believe it or not, I was ‘hurting’ their industry. Imagine!
My boss was terrified. I, however, knew exactly what I was doing. The ‘top eggs’ argued that we had to have battery eggs to make them affordable for all those poor single mums. “RUBBISH,” I replied. “Lentils are cheap. Beans are cheap. And they’re nutritious. Animals shouldn’t be suffering in order to feed humans.”
So, here I am, 21 years later, and still passionate about the chickens. To my horror, I have discovered that, at least in the UK, you might ‘think’ you are buying organic free range eggs because it has the Soil Association logo on it ~ but what you are buying are eggs from hens which have been VACCINATED. How this is even legal is beyond me.
This is a law suit waiting to happen. Talk about duping the public!
When I buy carrots or beans or onions or any vegetable labelled organic, I do so in the understanding that the farmer has not used chemicals or toxic products on the food which is going into MY body. I pay MORE for organic food than non-organic food, and I do so for three reasons: I am mindful of what goes into my body. I care that the farmers who are working as naturally as possibly with their crops are rewarded for their work; and I care that Mother Earth isn’t loaded with toxic chemicals. It might be an ‘in the moment’ decision, but the consequences are far reaching. I trust that my buying decisions are making a difference on those three levels.
When a person buys an animal product (whether it is eggs, dairy or meat) that is labelled organic, they do so on the understanding that animal welfare is a primary issue. They do so in the understanding that the animals are not given hormones or antibiotics. HOW THE HELL vaccinations are allowed under the ‘organic’ banner is mind boggling. Not only that, it’s a disgrace that there is no MAJOR label on the front to identify this to the consumer.
Many parents choose not to vaccinate because they know of the dangers of such a poisonous product. These same parents would WANT to know if the eggs they were eating or feeding their children came from a creature which had been ‘poisoned’.
Don’t believe a vaccine is poisonous? Would you drink it? I rest my case.
Vaccination is also an extremely ecologically unfriendly business. (see The Mother magazine, issue 35 July/August 2009 www.themothermagazine.co.uk) That this whole industry has managed to insidiously slither its way into organic farming is a biological nightmare. The Soil Association should be pulled to task on this.
Unless you have your own chickens or are getting them from a friend who you KNOW isn’t vaccinating, don’t assume your local organic free range eggs are as wholesome as you’ve been led to believe.
Free range SHOULD mean that a hen (or other animal) has freedom at all times to range outside.
Barn eggs are from hens stuck in sheds. Barn is not a ‘cute’ term.
Beware of signs which say Farm Fresh Eggs or Happy Hens. They’re highly unlikely to be happy.
Unless you see the hens ranging in fields with lots of space between them, they’re not free range.
Salmonella concerns come from hens being cramped in close quarters and in unhygienic conditions. This is NOT a concern for truly free range hens with well-cleaned nesting boxes, so using this vaccine to ‘protect’ them is just ridiculous and shows no understanding of the disease.
According to the Soil Association’s own literature:
“Organic is a term defined by law. Any food products labelled as organic must meet a strict set of standards which define what farmers and food manufacturers can and cannot do in the production of organic food. Organic product sold in the UK must by law display a certification symbol or number.
Unlike many other food assurance schemes, the combination of legally defined standards and regular third-party inspections, mean that when you buy an organic product you can be confident that the claims made on the label about how the food has been produced can be believed. A healthy animal is better able to resist disease than a stressed one. Organic livestock farming aims to prevent disease from occurring by promoting health. This is achieved through appropriate diet, high welfare standards for housing, amount of housing space for each animal, and taking measures to reduce stress. Organic farm animals: • Must have access to fields (when weather and ground conditions permit) and are truly free range • Must have plenty of space – which helps to reduce stress and disease • Must be fed a diet that is as natural as possible and free from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) • Must only be given drugs to treat an illness – the routine use of antibiotics is prohibited • Cannot be given hormones which make them grow more quickly or make them more productive • Must not be produced from cloned animals.”
Where does it say on there that they can be vaccinated?
If you’re old enough to remember the 1980s, Edwina Curry caused quite a storm in this country by claiming that most UK eggs had Salmonella. Now flocks of chickens, including those endorsed by the Soil Association (a logo of organic foods), are vaccinated. Chickens can carry two species of Salmonella: S. Enteritidis and S. Typhimurium.
If you are caring for hens, keep their nest boxes clean and ensure good hygiene. Cook your eggs well.
Ingredients of salmonella vaccine:
I had planned to give you a list of the ingredients of the salmonella vaccine.
However:
“Due to legal requirements, certain sections of this web site can only be made accessible to health care professionals. We invite animal healthcare professionals to register an Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health web site account to obtain access to all restricted content on this web site and on many other Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health web sites.”
Surely if ‘you are what you eat’ is so important, then this should be a matter for public record? Why isn’t this information readily available?
Anyone who has done indepth research into vaccines will know without doubt that there is no place for them in the food chain.
