Women + Power: Grace Quantock

In celebration of International Women’s Day, I’m interviewing some very strong and dynamic women on my site this month. We’ll be talking about empowerment (and a little tarot and intuitive arts as well).

Today’s interview is from a woman that I admire very much, former sick chick turned wellness provocateur and founder of Healing Boxes (a non profit company that sends hand picked care packages to people who are ill), Grace Quantock. In my opinion, Grace is a real life earth angel, on a mission to inspire and heal others. This sparkling dynamo is what real power looks like. You’re going to love what she has to say:

Q: What does it mean to be a powerful woman?

Grace: To me it means to know yourself. Knowing your talents and what challenges you, being able to connect to the inner core of strength and magic that lives in you and work from that place. I think there is a lot of humility in power too, knowing where you end and the Divine begins as well as where you intersect. Awareness of your edges, your boundaries and when you need to reach out to earth/energy/angel allies.

I know some people consider power in terms of what outward success you have, the numbers you command in terms of money, approbation, following and so forth or even the amount of sheer oomph you can put behind your intentions and workings. However I don’t recognize power that way. It is a platform which supports us beyond numbers and if the only talent you can give to magic is a bull dozers worth of power then I think perhaps you need to spend some more time studying the subtleties. Because all that ramming all your power into something will do is drain you and create magical overkill.

A powerful woman knows herself and finds contentment and potential there.

Q: When do you feel most powerful?

Grace: When I am moving. I love practicing yoga, dancing, exploring and adventuring and I feel most powerful at these times. Perhaps one might expect the answer that I would feel most powerful during ritual or when filled up with raised power but really at those times, I am simply a conduit. They feel more humbling and awe-inspiring than anything else. But when I am moving, outside by the sea or in the garden, stretching myself and fully embodying the physical. Then I am celebrating the power of the body which is my home, I am joyously alive and moving from my inner self outwards, adventuring through the world.

Q: Tell me about an experience in your life that made you feel empowered.

Grace: One of the biggest empowerment opportunities for me was several years ago when I was talking to my husband, and explaining how I was fed up with always being seen as the ‘ill person’ and fed up of people finding our healing practices weird. We had sent ourselves to self-taught ‘Healing University’ and were studying anything and everything in the art of wellness. But I always seemed to be forging new paths and doing things no one had heard of before and I was tired of feeling like I was an interesting exhibit in a zoo. So my husband said something that changed my world, he asked me “if you are always tired of being the Sick Chick, why not flip things and turn Trail Blazer?” And so I did and my book (and subsequent movement) was born.

Q: What inspires you to be on your path?

Grace: Gratitude, I’m filled with it every day, it’s almost funny. I truly believe that we are angels, answered prayers, kind hearts, an untapped resource, a potential inspiration explosion. We have the potential of the ages trapped inside us. We are the result of a million years of evolution. We are the cumulation, the success, the thriving survival of all of our ancestors. We are the instigation and hope for future generations. We are here on this beautiful planet for a tiny fraction, a mayfly, firework, glittering second. We have no time, and too much talent to waste. Living from this place, I believe that I do not have the right to not live and give all I can. Being born at this time, in this space is a blessing but it comes with the responsibility to give life my all and love all I can. I don’t mean work myself into the ground, I mean use my talents, take opportunities, realise I have very little to be unhappy about and so finding the joy in everyday then embodying that. With sparkles on. Why not? I could have been dead many times over already, that I’m not is a miracle and so I’m going to live like the miracle we all are.

Q: How can tarot or other intuitive arts help women to feel empowered?

Grace: When we use the cards and our magics to ‘know the future’, empowerment is not there so much (in my opinion). Mainly because I don’t believe in one set future. I think there is a path we can follow in life, but so many decisions of us and millions of others affect our possibilities. But once we tap into our intuition we can feel if we are on our path and choose to step off it, blaze a new trail, create change or course correct back to what works for us. When magic is used to try and hide from the future it isn’t helpful or empowering. I can’t read cards to tell you things will all be ok or won’t change. However, when we use the cards to know ourselves, to inform decisions, to fully understand a situation that is unfolding or to see what path we are on or to see what actions we can take to make the future brighter (which could or could not include ameliorating struggles), there is empowerment there. Tarot and intuitive arts can be tools through which we interact with the Universe and our ‘fates’. If we see our lives as something that happens to us, buffeted continually by outside forces over which we have no control, then we can use tarot and magics as keys to involvement in our futures, to interact with the world and be involved in the course of our lives. I have found this very empowering and I hope that more even women pick up the tarot tools to their own (inner and outer) freedom.

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Bio:

Grace Quantock is a Welsh wellness provocateur, writer and founder of Sick Chick to Trail Blazer and Healing Boxes CIC. Grace’s popular Soul Detox Sessions combine tarot, intuitive reading, Spiritual Response Therapy and Sparkle Reiki to clear old patterns and blocks to joy. Join the Trail Blazers’ Movement by signing up to the newsletter at www.gracequantock.com and follow Grace on twitter @grace_quantock

Social media:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/grace_quantock

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gracequantockPage

Website: www.gracequantock.com

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Super love and hugs to Grace for coming here and sharing her thoughts about empowerment!

Blessings,

Theresa