You’ve heard of wishing on a star, but what about wishing on an apple?
Standing at the island of her vast, stone kitchen in her vast, stone house, Reverend Bunny Love-Schock takes a pretty knife and cleaves an apple in two, revealing its five shining seeds.
“If we cut across the apple, instead of down the length, we get a natural pentagram, a star,” explains Bunny, 46. “These are great for making wishes, potent and powerful.”
Wishes are bread and butter for Bunny, who is an ordained “inter-faith minister”, as well as a personal coach, podcast host and self-professed ‘Mother Manifester’.
She’s also been dubbed “Mother of Scotland” by the United Nations, according to her website.
So I’m here at her remote Blairhoyle home near Stirling, surrounded by statuettes of the Virgin Mary and Mother Earth, Bibles and Qur’ans, crosses and crystals, to suss out what those titles actually mean – and how a girl named Gail from Glasgow became “Bunny Love-Schock”.
What kind of name is Bunny Love-Schock?
“Bunny’s my middle name,” smiles the reverend, reclining gently on a mustard chaise in her round ‘broch’, or living room. “Schock is my married name, so that came from a really practical place.
“And Love is one I added in a long time ago. I’d read that in Victorian times, women of faith who didn’t necessarily define themselves by a religion had ‘love’ in their name.”
Growing up with no real religion and a granny in the Spiritualist church meant Bunny has never felt tied to one faith, but her interest in “the many ways people talk to what I call God” has been lifelong.
“As a child, I thought everybody could talk to the dead,” Bunny shrugs, sipping peppermint tea nonchalantly from her kitschy witch-themed mug.
“Then when I was about 7 or 8, I just asked my mum one day: ‘Can you find me some people that have got a different way of talking to what we can’t see? Some Jewish people, some Hindu people?’ And bless her, she did.
“I was such a weird child!”
How Bunny became ‘Mother of Scotland’
It’s easy to see how that spiritually curious wee girl grew up to undertake a ministry with interfaith foundation OneSpirit.
And it was her subsequent work as a minister and celebrant, performing weddings (“elopements are my favourites”), naming ceremonies and funerals for people of all faiths, which saw Bunny named “Mother of Scotland” at the COP26 climate summit.
“When COP26 was in Glasgow, I was invited to be involved in opening lots of ceremonies for indigenous leaders from the likes of the Amazon, New Zealand and the land we know as America,” she explains.
“I was being perceived, in that role, as a ‘Mother’ of Scotland by the UN.”
But before she undertook her ministry to become “Reverend Bunny Love-Schock” in 2017, Bunny lived a fast-paced, glamourous life in the arts.
Fast-paced past life as Dubai high-flyer
Straight out of school she studied dance at St Martin’s College, and quickly became a choreographer then creative director.
Life in that world took her all over the globe, including to Dubai, where she worked with luxury brands such as Lamborghini and Graff Diamonds, helped launch lavish campaigns (including Sarah Jessica-Parker’s shoe line) and rubbed shoulders with the glitterati.
“It was funny, because I think the day before, I watched an episode of Sex in the City,” recalls Bunny about that SJP campaign. “I was like: God, I would just absolutely love to meet [Sarah Jessica Parker].
“Then that day, my boss was like: ‘We’ve got to go, come to this meeting’… And there she was. I still have a pair of shoes that she signed – she was lovely.”
This wasn’t the first time Bunny had seemingly “manifested” an experience by making a wish out loud.
She tells me about the time she needed £1,000 for a new laptop, and later found exactly a grand in an old handbag.
And that she never buys tickets to events, because she always gets them at the door on the night. The one time she didn’t (for a talk by author Marianne Williamson), she decided to grab a drink instead – and Williamson walked into the pub where she sat after the event.
She even manifested her husband, James.
‘Letter to God’ brought Bunny her dream man
“Having been in a really sort of violent, oppressive and damaging relationship, I got very angry at God,” she says.
“And then I wrote a letter to God about exactly the type of person that I would love to meet. Someone trustworthy, fun, with a really solid name – such as James.
“I remember writing the letter, and then I set it on fire. Three days later, I met James on a train.”
It may sound woo-woo, but Bunny explains that manifestation isn’t about asking for something and waiting for the world to give it to you.
It’s more about training your brain to know what you want and be on the lookout for it.
Manifestation ‘is like playing Yellow Car’
“It’s a bit like playing Yellow Car,” says Bunny, who now offers life coaching in manifestation techniques.
“We have this brilliant thing in the back of our brains called the Reticular Activating System. If you tell it to look for a yellow car, suddenly it’s like loads appear.
“It’s the same with whatever you’re looking for, whether it’s a house or a new job or a partner.
“You get really clear on exactly what you’re looking for, then leave it to your body to find it.”
Her methods may be far from provable, but looking around, it’s hard to refute them.
Whether by wishing on apples or training her brain, she’s manifested the life of her dreams – a successful business, loving partner, sweet pet cat Shadow and a hilltop home for it all.
I can’t imagine what more Bunny could want.
“A ceasefire in Palestine would be a fantastic start,” she says gravely. “But closer to home? Nothing material. For me, ongoing trust in myself has more value than anything.
“If I’d known it was possible to trust myself the way I do now when I was in my 20s, it would’ve completely changed my life.”
Conversation