Afissos, Spagyric Medicine & The Cats of Greece

Hello all. 
I'm just landing back at home after half-term away in Afissos, Greece with my youngest.
It is a remote seaside village, out of season, so very quiet. 

It was steep and beautiful, so I have returned with strong legs [good news as I had weakened for nursing a knee tendinitis July-October]. I had to take 4 breaks on the way from beach to home at the beginning of our stay ... and only one by the end! 

Afissos sits in the Pagasetic Golf, a ring of mountains and water on the edge of mainland Greece ... with a small mouth out into the Aegean Sea.

You'll see a small red dot where we were staying. We had to drive by coach from Thessaloniki to Volos, under Mount Olympus! The longest tunnel I've ever traversed in a coach. You could feel the mountain above! Then the roads disappear and you're on your third bus, traversing the tiny coastal roads that practically touch the sea and head to Afissos and the very tips of the dragon's tail at the end. 
You'll see Alonnisos to the far right of the map screenshot. That's where I studied to be a homeopath, though I've only been there in person to study once for 5 days before covid. I flew to Skiathos on that occasions, into an airport with the shortest runway in Europe and I certain knew about it! Then a memorably bumpy watercat ferry to Alonnisos. None of it is exactly accessible, and Alonnisos, I remember, was cut off from the mainland September to March! 

Thunder Water, Spagyric Medicine & Diagnostic Face and Eye Reading. 

We were visiting the wonderful Dr Carina Lopez Stamou and her husband Sakis. Carina is a Puerto Rican American homeopath & naturopath from New York, also skilled in facial diagnosis and iridology. Sakis is Greek and an alchemist & maker of spagyric medicine [which is an ancient branch of herbal medicine that originated in the writings of the alchemist and physician Paracelsus(1493-1541)], as well as a chef. They dream of building a dispensary of all this magical medicinal stuff [and homeopathic remedies made in this way!] in Greece. 
I wish I took photos of the huge vats of "thunder water" and shelves of jars of wild harvested medicines they collect, as well as some of the spagyric processes I saw around me and the bottles and bottles of spagyric medicines. I brought a spagyric preparation of yarrow home with me. The amount of work that has gone into creating this magical elixir is moving and astounding! 

"The Cats Of Greece"

Another highlight, I have been sat on by "The Cats of Greece" ... which was very pleasurable because I'm allergic to cats, yet I LOVE cat vibes. We acquired 5 pet cats that lived on our veranda for the 12 days we were there ... and a community dog who came home with us one night and guarded our door. 

Sometimes we'd be attended by up to 10 patient cats whilst dining outside by the sea. Some of the kittens were a little less patient, but they were too cute for objections. Afissos are tolerant toward their "Cats of Greece", drive around them & feed them left-overs. Greeks are not great eaters of left-overs, I gathered, so the community cats and dogs were pretty healthy looking overall, with a little bit of an eye infection doing the rounds. 
I did think about catching a cat in a towel, swabbing a few eyes and knocking up a nosode on my Sulis to drop in water bowls around town! 
It seemed like a rather temporary solution, and on the whole they were doing well. 

Here's one waiting for my sardine heads:

Oxi Day

With my Greek friends, I attended the Oxi Remembrance Day [Oct 28th] ceremonies. The children of the village did most of the speaking and it was wonderful to see them visibly expanding with pride in their responsibilities. The more confidently they presented, the more celebrated they were by the crowds around them; often being hugged by a number of grand-father figures as they moved away from completing their part. 
I was a deeply moved amateur anthropologist [I'm a sociologist / anthropologist by first training], trying to be as inconspicuous an observer as possible by engaging best I could. 
Oxi means "No!" and it represents the day that the Greek dictator of the time said "no" to the Italian dictator Mussolini. [The irony that we were celebrating the "No" of a dictator didn't escape my attention.] The atmosphere was one of reverence at a funeral and the elders were certainly not dry eyed. I suspected they had lost fathers and uncles at least among the defence army. 

The church was beautiful, and had a tower to the side of it with a huge bell in the top. When they rang it daily, the dogs of the community all began to sing together with the bells! Bells clear the energy of the air and in one of my proving groups we have been talking of the significance of bells in every village for energy clearing. 

This was my ascent to home, so I visited the little shrine a few times a day to marvel at the paintings and soak up a bit of the energy and wonder at the saint who has a bowl of salt with eyeballs in it! 

Blessing received. 

After the ceremony, when we were all gathered in the square, the Papa [Greek Orthodox priest] came to bless his flock and stopped by me, sternly took my hands and told me I will have a whole year of blessings ... which I gathered was a bit extra to what he was generally offering. Either he knew I will need it, or that I wasn't likely to be appearing anywhere where I could collect the blessings for a while. Either way, they were bestowed and I may be needing them as some of my next work is to present "The Darkest Remedies" at CHE [Centre for Homeopathic Education]. It'll be the first time I've taught there and it is not a light subject to interact with and teach. My interest comes from the many, dark PANS / PANDAS cases I find myself handling; very challenged individuals with a lot of psychotic symptomatology and darkness going on. 

So, I'm back now to focus. What's next? 

I hope you have enjoyed my little tour and slideshow. 
It was an inspirational trip. I came back with a fairly major desire to learn more about reading faces and eyes diagnostically, having had mine read [it was far from all good. I have some work to do.]

Family things settling. The school year settling. Operations done and settling. 
No more conferences to organise or attend. 
A bit of teaching [CHE, The Helsinki School] and some 'constellating' in Forest Row later this month. 

Otherwise, I'm buckling down to course writing, course selling, seeing my clients, finishing moving to my new website ... and building and adding value to my membership [comment below if you want to join.]
And preparing for winter in England. 

What are you focussing on at the moment?

How can I assist you if you need some ideas, advice or a little celebrating?

Our next Live Teaching Q&A is November 15th. 

You can book here: www.bookhomeopathyonline.as.me/q
If you are a paying member use your coupon code when you sign up. 

Very best wishes
Wren.