Ian's August 2026 Newsletter

I was very glad that I had a good supply of Solaris and Mulla Mulla whilst conducting my annual European and Japanese teaching tour from mid-May to mid-July this year. 

The journey started in England and I kept travelling east until I hit Japan. England was cold, grey and rainy with a maximum temperature of 14deg – nothing too unusual about this, but for the next two months, in mainland Europe, there wasn’t a day under 32deg. Many days were in the high 30s, including three days during my German workshop when it reached 40deg. Fortunately, the one air-conditioned room in the hotel where I stayed and taught was the workshop venue. 

Here in Australia, we can experience very hot weather, but unlike Europe we have air conditioning and often a late afternoon storm rolls in which usually lowers the temperature. Most European houses and hotels only have small fans in their rooms and this year the heat didn’t drop very much during the evening, so sleep was difficult. 

My workshops in England, Switzerland and France (the first three on the trip) were all White Light Essences. It's a lovely workshop and we greatly enjoy hearing how deep the participants can journey inwards and connect to Spirit during the meditations on each Essence. The Spiritual workshops are very different to the majority of the one-day workshops as well as Levels 1 and 2 where I share a great deal of information. The White Light Essence workshop travels at a very different tempo. Even though I discuss a lot of the qualities of each Essence and share case histories on them, the focus is on experiencing the remedies on an inner level.

This workshop always reminds me of the amazing complexity of life and consciousness. During the meditations, many participants experienced an inner journey to the locations where the Essences were made, even though the majority had never physically been there. Each meditation is very different. The Air Essence one is very light and ethereal and it’s incredibly hard to bring people back from the Earth Essence meditation because inwardly they go so deep. The Fire Essence meditation is always much more comfortable on a cold winter’s day than when the temperature is in the mid-30s Celcius. People get incredibly warm during this meditation! Many participants also experience vastly different spiritual beings, ranging from guides, nature spirits, star, angelic and ascended beings. Others will experience past or future lives, if there is a relevance to what’s happening with them in this life.  

Their wonderful and profound experiences leave me feeling very grateful and honoured to be the catalyst bringing through these Essences which have the effect and healing that they do. It makes it all worthwhile when I reflect back on some of the very difficult challenges I experienced making them – such as climbing on all fours along the knife-edge at the top of Schafberg mountain in Austria to make the Air Essence or climbing in the dark down the rotting vertical wooden rungs of a ladder descending down Putucusi mountain in Peru opposite Machu Picchu after making the Angelic Essence. This was one of only two occasions in my life when I thought I might die! My attitude when making the Essences has always been, “If you’re sending me here then you’ve got to look after me and keep me safe.” I have noticed that Spirit seems to have a very perverse sense of humour and often sends me to the most difficult of places. When I received the message that I had to travel to the sacred caves of Patal Bhuvaneshwar in northern India near the Tibetan border to make the Earth Essence, I offered the suggestion that the Jenolan caves outside of Sydney would be an equally excellent place to make the Essence. But this was ignored. I had been to these caves four years earlier and like my only other trip to India, had become seriously ill. India is the only country I have problems travelling in. Fortunately, on this Essence making expedition to the caves, it only took a number of months to fully recover!  

When Jane and I are packing for a long teaching trip and all three suitcases appear, our Sydney silky dog, Rosie, gets very maudlin and will usually hop inside the suitcase hoping we will take her with us. Fortunately, we have very good people who she knows that we can draw on to come and house and dog-sit while we are gone. This year in Switzerland an animal whisperer named Nicole attended the workshop. Danila, our Swiss workshop organiser, lost her cat during the workshop after she got out and didn’t return. Nicole was asked if she could tune into the cat which she did and gave very precise instructions where the cat could be found as well as why she had disappeared. I, like everyone else in the room, was very impressed and I asked if she could tune into Rosie and check how she was doing without us. In recent years Rosie has taken to weeing at the front door if we go out at night and leave her at home. I had resorted to putting her in the garage, with her mat, if we were going to be away in the evening so I also asked Nicole about talking to Rosie about this behaviour. Jane and I were amazed at what Nicole reported back to us after communicating with Rosie. She also offered some great suggestions including that if we were going out in the evening, to leave her cushion by the front door with some of our clothing together with a recording of our voices to soothe her. I love how our work allows us to connect with so many wonderful people in so many great locations around the world. 

When Jane and I are travelling we like to explore the nature, art and wine of each country we visit. I try my best to avoid teaching on my birthday and this year I chose to celebrate it in Portugal. The food and the landscape is sensational in this country. My main focus for this year was to explore along the Douro river and the surrounding stunning countryside. it. After a couple of wonderful days in Porto, we travelled inland to the little village of Provenze, staying in a vineyard that has been in production and held by the same family since 1536. It was a wonderful base from which to explore the Douro valley. Traditionally, this is the region that, for centuries, has produced port, which is then transported down the river to Porto for international distribution. This region is putting a lot more focus on other wines, especially whites, rather than purely port. A wise move, as younger people are drinking far less wine, especially fortified ones such as port. One of the joys of travelling through Portugal is discovering fruit trees heavy with ripe produce in the most unexpected places. Depending on the season, you may find yourself picking and enjoying fresh figs, pomegranates, cherries or mulberries straight from the tree. It also has some fantastic body surfing and the world’s biggest and most treacherous waves at Navare. I body surfed there last time, but only for a short time as the water was incredibly cold! 

I have been teaching my annual workshop on lake Garda, Italy, for over 25 years and it is always one of the great highlights of my trip. We always have well over 100 participants for all the workshops I teach there over a four-day period. The majority of participants all attend year after year, which builds up a great camaraderie. This special bond exists too with Anna Giuliani and her children, who have run Green Remedies, our Italian distributors for all these years. They have great staff and many of the teachers have come over to spend time with me and see the Bush Essences in person in their natural habitat. Christina Settani, one of the teachers, proudly presented me with her new book on Bush Essences and the chakras and there is a new Bush Essence book project underway between myself and Italy. 

It’s been a tradition for many years that on the Saturday night there is a special bingo party for all participants as well as their partner and families. After dinner, there are many great prizes to be won, including mountain bikes! One year Anna rode into the restaurant on one of these prizes! 

Belgium was the next stop and here our new distributor, Noemie, was organising her first workshop with me. We had met the previous year at my London workshop but she was keen to also come this year to the French workshop and I must say I love her persistence and determination. Her train was cancelled at the last minute and not to be denied, she rearranged her itinerary, which involved a large detour to Brussels airport, French trains and a hire car. She has also been demonstrating her tenacity in dealing with the Belgian bureaucracy and the constant challenges with labelling law changes and regulations. It’s said that if you can get things passed in Belgium, you can get them passed anywhere in Europe. 

Unfortunately, after ten minutes the young woman who had offered to translate the workshop totally froze and couldn’t function – a tad disconcerting for me! Luckily, everyone except two people were happy for me to teach in English. The couple who didn’t speak great English sat at the back of the room with our translator, who felt far more comfortable with this and did a great job quietly translating for them. In Italy and Japan, I have had the same translators, Erica and Muchie, for my workshops for over 25 years, whilst Carsten, our German distributor, translates my workshops there. I wonder who will be translating next year in Hasselt, Belgium 

After Belgium, it was on to Germany and the heatwave! Afterwards we had a few days off in Assisi and Siena, Italy, before heading to Japan. Unbeknownst to me, I had booked our time in Siena on the day their famous horse race around the huge town square is held. It’s been going on since the 13th century and pits each of the 17 districts of this medieval town against each other. Before the race, the streets are filled with each district represented by their drummers and trumpeters and supporters dressed in medieval costumes. It was an incredible highlight of the trip. 

Our Japanese distributors, like Italy, are a close-knit family, with 3 generations working in the business and it’s always great to catch up with them, along with some good friends we’ve met at the workshops. For the last few years, we have had dinner with these friends and Muchie, our translator. 

Luckily, on returning to Sydney in the middle of winter, we have been greeted by wonderfully mild weather and a profusion of early spring flowers. We took all the staff on a bush walk last week to enjoy this beautiful display, which has made being back home especially enjoyable, along with the joy of being reunited with Rosie and our family.