THE PROCESS OF WRITING WOMAN THROUGH THE AGES

THE PROCESS OF WRITING WOMAN THROUGH THE AGES

Nowadays I see having been rejected at birth by my father on account of being the ‘wrong’ gender as the greatest gift I’ve received in my life. If that sounds strange, I’ll explain: had I had the idyllic childhood that my two young grandchildren in Devon are at present enjoying, I would certainly have become neither a writer nor a therapist and – apart from my wonderful family – these are the two things that have brought me the most satisfaction. Being brought up strongly Catholic had instilled in me a belief in God that I treasure, yet it took many years and a great deal of excellent therapy firstly to be able to believe that I was lovable and secondly to rid myself of my father’s brainwashing that I was ‘stupid’. 

When, at the age of forty-seven, I became interested in complementary therapies, my religion initially got in the way of following my friends who believed in reincarnation. Then, in 1991, a lecture I heard about the strongly Christian ‘sleeping prophet’, Edgar Cayce, caused an instant conversion! Furthermore, through subsequent study, I discovered that acknowledgement of reincarnation had been pretty much universal in the early Church – until the Council of Constantinople in AD 553, when the power-hungry clergy were happy to follow Theodora’s desire not to return to Earth as anything other than an Empress!

Joining the Edgar Cayce Association then led to my obtaining a ‘Past-life reading’ from Aron Abrahamsen, his one-time associate, who not only described five previous lives that rang true for me, but also said that I’d “come this time partly as a writer, to disseminate information on the spiritual life”. This resulted in my embarking upon a book (Karmic Release) aimed at showing how the past can affect the present and then, after obtaining a Diploma from the Jungian psychotherapist, the late Dr. Roger Woolger, demonstrating in that book how his unique brand of past-life regression (which he named Deep Memory Process therapy) worked in practice.

Over the ensuing years of practising the therapy with clients, often rejoicing in the relief from problems that they obtained (just as I had myself through Roger’s work), six further books gradually followed. Through the course of all this, more of my own previous lives began to surface – often through flashbacks to other countries that I was visiting – and this caused me to hold in the back of my mind the notion of one day writing a follow-up to my autobiographical first book.

When, however, I finally embarked upon this new project, the idea came to me of focusing on womanhood and I soon realised that my own past experiences seemed between them to cover most aspects of that subject. Here, too, my rejection at birth no doubt played a role in my interest in women of the past who had either been initially ignored or subsequently forgotten purely on account of their gender. Sometimes I learnt on my travels about women I’d never heard of, but obviously should have. Upon returning each time, further studies led to my discovery of other significant women in the country concerned. (The only problem was that, over the years of writing the book, I kept hearing of more and more remarkable women, but one has to be firm and draw the line somewhere!)

When it came to writing my own very long story, the fascinating thing for me was to find that a great change had taken place. This was because, on Woolger workshops, the students would learn from him how to get others into a relevant past life, guide them through it and then help them to release the samskaras, i.e. remaining traumas, from which they were still suffering. (This not only helps to gain healing for a present life, but also to note the learning from the past one.) Whereas now, after reflecting upon the glimpses that I’d had of the past, each time that I sat down to write each story, the details came of their own accord. 

The worst that happened was on a visit to beautiful Myanmar, where I got bombarded with memories of being a dreadful queen who’d thrown Buddhists into prison. Not something one would at all want to remember, but fortunately I was with a close friend who was able to nurse me through it! In Ravenna, on the other hand, I saw not just one, but two past lives! One was of a martyr who’d set herself the task of ‘rescuing’ prostitutes by converting them to Christianity; the second was of a young girl who’d been forced into prostitution after losing all her family and their abode in a fire. Of course unpleasant in a different way, that gave me some insight into how brothels are run!

Rest assured, however, that not all of the book is that gruesome! When it comes to more recent times, I’ve recounted the marvellous stories of, for instance, the pioneering black tennis player, Althea Gibson, plus one of my personal heroines, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, mother of the seven siblings who are all brilliant musicians. At one point a chapter on ‘Loss’ felt appropriate and then the year 2020 seemed to merit one of its own. In conclusion (while not ignoring the horrors of, say, the Taliban) reflection upon the massive changes for the better that I’d observed in my then eighty-one years brought me much hope for the future.

KARMIC RELEASE, published in India in 2006, is now out of print, but I believe it to have served its purpose.

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WOMAN THROUGH THE AGES, Ann Merivale

Did you know that the first named piece of writing was the work of a Sumerian woman in approximately 2085 BC, while the world’s first novel was written by a Japanese woman in the eleventh century? Or that Hildegard of Bingen, the great twelfth century Abbess, writer, and composer, defied the Church’s traditions by viewing feminine sexuality as a gift of God? Or that one of China’s most powerful Emperors was a woman?

These are but a few examples of the facts in this autobiography with a difference, Woman Through the Ages. Author Ann Merivale, a deep-memory process therapist, has used previous lifetimes in her own history to illustrate the roles we all play in preparation for returning to the source whence we’ve come.

Skilfully weaving her personal story into each area and time period covered, Merivale highlights the injustices wrought on women for centuries, as well as their many achievements. Woman Through the Ages gives a fascinating and comprehensive picture of womanhood through the ages and concludes that the time for equality and greater respect for feminine energy is finally arriving.

 

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ANN MERIVALE  is a Woolger-trained Deep Memory Process therapist. She lives in Worcestershire but also works at the Ripon Natural Health Centre in N. Yorks.

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Category: On Writing