My name's Diane Thompson. I'm a practising visual artist. For me it has been a long journey back to the world of Spirit filled with challenges and doubts along the way. As a young girl I regularly attended the Methodist Church with my mother and my two siblings but I found the services uninspiring. At the age of eight my mother noticed me fervently praying in church and asked me after the service what I was praying about. To her surprise I told her I was asking God to please not make me come back to this boring place again. My prayers were answered. To my mother's credit she never made me go back. I still continued to talk to God until, as a teenager, my adored cat went missing and I prayed to God to bring him back unharmed and I would be at God’s service forever. He never did come back and in my anger at being ‘ignored’ I stopped talking to God and developed my interest in art, white witchcraft and basic astrology.

My ‘First Fleet’ convict heritage has also held a fascination for me, but when studying Australian history at secondary school, I found the lack of stories connected to the Indigenous Australians disheartening. I also felt a great sense of shame about the impact colonialization has had on the First Nation people and at every opportunity I attended programs run by Indigenous leaders in an effort to learn about their cultural heritage and intimate engagement with country. In fact it was the first time I had a vision of a past life when I moved up to Guilford in Central Victoria. I was wandering through bushland when I had a strong sense of deja vu. I had once walked this same terrain without the clothes I had on, carrying a digging stick. At the time I wondered whether this premonition was just a figment of my imagination. My experiences on country later in life have affirmed this deep connection with the indigenous lineage.

 

It wasn’t until I attended ‘The Completion Seminar’, conducted by Hardo Bottin, that I reconnected with the spiritual worlds through Holotropic Therapy. After completing the seminar Hardo introduced Ken and me to The Centre, the Independent Church of Australia. My initial attraction to The Centre was through the healing services and spiritual study courses they provided. I was wary of getting too deeply involved with ‘religious groups’ but was drawn to the teaching and the charisma of Mario Schoenmaker. As time went by I started to receive signs of the divine through my daily mediations in the bush and now have reached an understanding of the spiritual worlds that I wish to continue to cultivate through the nutrients of study, prayer, meditation and fellowship.

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In 2015 while meditating in the bush I had on overwhelming sense of light flowing through me and my hands started to burn and tingle. I knew I was being guided to develop a healing program. I have since completed Rieki level 1 and 2 and now include the chakra healings in my daily meditations.

 

I always look to the world of nature for guidance in every way. As a mother of two boys and stepmother of three, I constantly ask the spirit guides for direction in this role. I look for images in my meditation to inspire my next art project and ask for signs to guide me on my life’s path so I can add value in all directions.

 

I love to read the mystical teaching of sages, including Rudolf Steiner, discuss the spiritual significance of events with my husband Ken, seek advice and stories from like minded friends and learn from living spiritual teachers such as Stephen Cugley and Helen Martineau. In 2018 I was ordained into the Sun mysteries as a Melchizedek priestess in a powerful ritual celebrated in the Grail Chapel surrounded by family and friends in our community. 

 

With the completion of the building of a dedicated space on our land for spiritual devotion, called the Grail Chapel, life is steering me towards the next exciting chapter in my spiritual development and I am excited about the future, wanting to share my discoveries with others.