(Image : The Earth Sanctuary, 2002)

The Lady Dragon (Shakti) :

...So, what is ecopyschology ?

Definition, courtesy of Wikipedia - Ecopsychology is a project which intends to interconnect psychology and ecology to a new scientific paradigm. The political and practical implications are to show us ways of healing our alienation and to build a sane society and a sustainable culture. The founder and most important exponent of ecopsychology is Theodore Roszak.

Another definition, the whole works : http://www.goshen.edu/bio/Biol410/BSSPapers98/nussbaum.html#anchor66197

(Wow, does the link actually work ?)

Now, my ramblings about ecopsychology ...

I have always told people, "It´s not the knowledge, it´s the FEELING!"

If you have the knowledge, that is perfectly fine, but if you have it only in the head, and there is no heart stuff about trees and rocks and moss and wind and sun and stars, then the knowledge just sits there in your head, dry-eyed and square; it doesn´t even help you to understand your environment better.

Someone made a comment in a previous blog : "I sat under the figtree, and I cried."

That is exactly what I mean.

Not because I am being sentimental about Mother Nature, but because if you don´t get involved, the whole of you, body included, in the feelings of awe and reverence that are evoked for example by monumental trees, then you don´t get the point.

For me, ecopsychology, deep ecology, ecofeminism, are all about the WOW!

Sensation, the bubbles in the stomach, the butterflies, the need to shed a tear or two. The blood that rushes. We have been so cut off from our own nature that it will be necessary to cry a lot before the body can relax in its own light, in its own right, and then, maybe it will be time to think about strategies and solar panels.

I like to repeat this. It´s not "Mother Nature" that we have rejected as an evolving species, it´s ourselves! The very web we are made of!...

And if you want to heal, don´t think for a moment that you will escape the pain of re-membering all the ways we have been litterally maimed, mutilated, cut off from our original belonging to the Web of Life.

Studying Ecopsychology is a good start, but also do try to get your feet out of your shoes, and start walking on the good earth.

Theodore Roszak, courtesy of Brother Google :

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC34/Roszak.htm

"Grok" this last article, and you will grok what the Earth Sanctuary is all about!

A poem and another definition (taken from the first link provided herewith):

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes no.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver.

"Mary Oliver's poem has a lot to say about the relatively new approach to conservation called ecopsychology. Ecopsychology combines the human element from psychology, with the study of how biological systems work together from ecology. A more in depth explanation of ecopsychology is that it seeks to help humans experience themselves as an integral part of nature. When this is accomplished, humans can proceed to commit to "helping heal the earth, as well as healing ourselves". In the past, environmental action has consisted of scaring and shaming those who over consume or do not recycle, which proved to be quite ineffective. Ecopsychology, in contrast, attempts to create positive and affirming motivations, derived from a bond of love and loyalty to nature. "

Helping people to re-discover this bond is what our work is about, in an environment that is especially dedicated to this process.

Hug you, people!

:-)

The Wizard :

(Pic : "The Little oaks of Brocéliande (2005) are growing in Spain")

*Note* : At Samhain 2005 Mika and I went to a workshop/retreat, led by Philip Carr-Gomm, in Brocéliande. There we met the Old Forest for the first time...Oh blessed time!

Then we took a lot of acorns and planted them here in Spain. The pic shows the little oaks growing...As I used to say : "The Old Forest travelled in our pockets!"

Tuesday, June 1oth :

Sometimes people come to the Earth Sanctuary, and the first question they ask is...What can I DO (to help)?

That is so... not-it... at all!...

The real question is ...What can I BE?

THAT is the why and wherefore of the creation of this space.

What can we BE ? What can we be that we are not yet? What can we re-member of the pieces of ourselves that we lost? What could we be if we were free to do that ? What could we become if the space behind our eyes was freed from the suffocating struggle of "me" against "not-me"; the horrendous process of carving one´s niche in a world gone crazy, ga-ga, bonkers.

So maybe the first thing would be to sit down, right there under a tree, and consider, contemplate, just LISTEN to all the answers that will surely come up if you ask the right question.

What could I BE ?

And then - and only then - once you start to see the answers inside your own mind, once the answers to that question become clearer - please take the time to cry for a while. And you will want to cry - seeing all that you are NOT, and all the ways society has cut you to pieces. Maybe you will have the puzzle right there before your inner eyes from the very first; perhaps you will only get an inkling. Perhaps you will do that process in stages. Perhaps you are one of those thunderbeings that go boom-boom throwing lighning sparks into the velvety night. Any way you may choose - this is the right question and the right answer. Do look at the pieces, and let yourself become sensitive to how you could put them back together again. Then you will be on the right track, right there beside us who are already walking this Path.

And then...only then, maybe we will let you rake the patio, or cut the dry grass, or rebuild a wall. Or talk about permaculture and solar panels. Only then. Perhaps. The Earth Sanctuary is not about solar panels and ecology (though we might get interested in that too, of course, given the right circumstances). We do not "save the whales", you know, we save people, one by one, one precious soul cargo after another. People. We do not only plant leek and carrots, as essential as this task may be. We plant people. Lol. Because it´s the people who need to be "saved" nowadays, so crazy have we become as a race!

So, do sit down with a cuppa - and just look right ahead of you, relax, and ask yourself : What can I BE ?

See? You "grok", my friend? :-)

Treegod

There’s a cairn growing in Spain’s Prades mountains, each stone imbued with intent and meaning, giving focus to a place that in the human heart, my human heart, has a feeling of sacredness, of significance. Now, I do not know what the traditional significance of ancient cairns were but one thing I do know is what it means to me, my own personal significance.

My cairn is a place of focus, an anchor point for the human mind, to stop and think, and express a sacred feeling. Here, Nature isn’t just one anonymous environment amongst other anonymous environments. Here, the human mind sees or creates something special to focus the mind in Nature, where it recognises that it comes from Nature, that it is a part of Nature and that Nature is sacred.

(Images "Tsaktso II, Africa my heart cries for you", soul card Nr. 87, collage on cardboard,

and "Summer Solstice", soul card Nr. 88, collage on cardboard, Shakti G., June '07)

The Bliss-O-Meter :

Seen from a conventional angle, I have always been a little crazy, but as I grow into maturity, my craziness sits there and looks at me with baleful eyes...Do something 'bout me, or else!
Anyway, the other day Mika called me The Bliss-O-Meter, so it can´t be that serious, tee hee.

The Lady Dragon :

Zis is a vely vely fonny zing I kaught in zee Internet...

---------------------------------------

Euro- English :
Received the following important news article via email.

The EU Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

;-)

Treegod

A "creation story" based on the Druidic realms of Annwn, Abred and Gwynvid.

From the beginning there has existed a great black cosmos, womb to a vast number of vast stars, swirling like a cauldron, that is called Annwn. At first life had not yet stirred, nor had consciousness and even order was in an infantile state, being born quite by accident.

Out of this though, another accident was born, one called Abred. In Annwn there was a cosmic decay, emanating energy which the young Abred learnt to feed off of and began to grow and adapt in Annwn. It found itself on lifeless planets where it adapted to land, sky and sea and then grew and diversified to form a living web of many beings that surrounded the planets. One of these, of importance to us, has been know by some of its inhabitants as Earth or Gaia.

Now some of the beings of Abred began dieing because they could not avoid the cosmic decay of Annwn. But although there bodies returned to Gaia, they were not lost for their energy would be taken up again by Abred to continue its existence. The dead of Abred left layer upon layer and Abred stood on top of this, growing, multiplying and diversifying, and also changing the very substance of sky, land and sea as it evolved. But here there was no conscious purpose directing its evolution, everything happened automatically, balanced between the inner impulses of Abred’s beings and the conditions of Annwn.

The beings of Abred developed many different attributes to survive both the decay of Annwn and their own part in the living web of Abred. Organs and senses were created and adapted in the aid of survival. Many parts for each creature, but one for some which could coordinate the organs and senses within the environment. This is the mind, within which lies the flame of Gwynvid, though it started as only a spark, if that.

One species though began to create a real fire within them. They weren’t remarkable, they weren’t very strong, nor fast, their senses were not acute and they lived as scavengers. But what they did have would change the world and make it what we know it as today. Within them Gwynvid grew and grew, it lit up their minds and with its fire they transformed their world through a brief transcendance of the limits of instinct and environment to plan and design with purpose, creativity and vision and so the pursuits of science and art were born.

But here the story does not end. These species, the ancestors of humans, had started the flame of Gwinvid growing in their minds, and it still flames now in our own minds. But we are far from finished, Gwynivd has still yet to fully manifest. Our lack of limits from instinct and environment has been a separation from the balance of Abred and at times we live in unbalanced excess when we do not nurture the flame of Gwynvid within us. Abred recoils at our stupid actions and has retaliated, at first to teach us, but one day to destroy us if we do not learn. Gwynvid at once, is our best quality if given good focus, but our worst if we let it burn unchecked. Now, in this time, it is crucial to create our own balance between Gwynvid and Abred, before Abred turns its wrath against us.

(Image : "Shamballa", Shakti G, collage on paper, 2005)

The Lady Wizard :

I listen to the Song of the Earth,

The little river babbles, the birds are happily chirping,

The wind-gong softly plays with the wind: klung - klang - kling...

Froggie down at the pool goes "kroiiiink",

The new doggie on the premise barks her heart away,

Mika is listening to Celtic music and the sound drifts up to my terrace.

Far far away I can hear the drone of the highway.

Elsewhere, bombs are falling.

Elsewhere there is a desert of sand and blood.

Elsewhere mothers are crying for their young sons, killed in senseless battles.

The guy comes up to me this morning and tells me, in awe : "I have been walking around, there is so much peace here, and it is...solid."

And I pray. Continually, I pray for the world.

Treegod

“Human beings were created to contemplate and reflect the universe. They are not themselves this great perfection, but are particles of perfection.” Cicero

“God is your mirror in which you contemplate yourself and you are His mirror in which He contemplates His divine attributes.” Ibn Arabi

“Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.” James Lovelock

I thought I’d be explaining this concept but this time it’s come to me through a poem;

The Mind of Gaia

Gaia could see,
She could hear,
And smell, taste and touch
The creation of Herself.

Gaia created and created,
But none of Her creation She knew,
For She had no mind
With which to know Herself
Or the creation of Herself.

But then Gaia awoke,
As from sleep.
Her mind was born,
One like a shining mirror
For Her to reflect on Herself
And know Herself.

This mind wondered at the mystery it saw.
It created arts to express it wonder,
Sciences to explain its wonder
And religions to experience its wonder.

This mind called itself humanity,
For we humans are the infant mind of Gaia,
Still developing and evolving,
Still learning what it is
To be the mind of Gaia,
Still struggling to find a balance
With the power of this gift.

Great Gaia,
Through my mind know yourself,
Your wonder and mystery,
As it unfolds.
And also teach me to live with you
Not merely in you,
To know and respect
That I am a part of you
So that we may evolve together,
In harmony.