In January 2011 I was invited to give a talk about my work with Spirit Children in Geneva. This was to mark the occasion of my shamanic practitioner colleague Jackie Teoh's launch of Living Resonance. Jackie and I were a little concerned how my work with the spirits of dead children would "go down". However, we both felt the paintings made to honour spirit children were beautiful and their stories deserved to be told. On that day we had a room full of people and many of them came up to me for a private conversation after the talk/presentation. We used a beemer to project photographs of the paintings on the wall behind me, so the spirit children appeared to 'stand behind me', as I spoke. As things turned out,  most people present in that room had a connection to a dead child. (In shamanic terms you would say: they all had an 'appointment' to be there that day). People told me about stilborn babies, abortions, dead siblings, cousins and miscarriages. They all said: " I had no idea it was possible to do this kind of work, to make a painting of the spirit of a dead child". They were referring in particular to children lost before the parents could take a photograph or even treasure a scan (ultra sound) picture as physical 'proof' the child ever existed.

I made this video in 2014. It was my first video creation and  very imperfect - but sincere. That is why I have not updated it since.

 In our culture the assumption is that the dead 'are gone' and lost to us. Indigenous peoples have many ways and ceremonies for honoring their dead and their ancestors. We have lost that art.  The fact that in the Western World the traditional Church teachings forbid us to talk to spirits (as an evangelical Christian friend has reminded me on more than one occasion), does not help things either. In our culture the dead are 'gone, lost to us', we have no vision of where they might have gone on to. It is my personal belief that our spiritual framework for life and death situations is impoverished. In my client work I observe time after time again how people crave a personal connection to the Divine and a "cosmology", a map to the other worlds.

On the journey that is my own life I discovered that Spirit Children are not far off. They came and went for spiritual reasons, so there is no guilt and no blame. They can be loved and honored. Their journey continues in the Other World and it is a beautiful place. Seeing glimpses of that place can bring comfort and closure to bereaved parents.

This painting was made for a mother of 4 boys. She lost a child, a little girl. 

I have painted the baby girl's face in silver near the mother's heart.