In honour of the season, here's a poem about Easter/Ostara:
Easter
No, Ostara!
Goddess of the spring,
found in the yellow of daffodils,
found in the gambolling of lambs,
found in the youth of spring
but her name was taken for the resurrection of the Lord.
So Easter,
the resurrection of a Jewish godman,
or the new life of a german goddess?
Who cares!
As long as there's the hope for a brighter future.
(Adam Brough)

HAPPY OSTARA TO ALL !
Our Ostara (our doe rabbit) is also happy because she just had 4 little kits. Each time we check to see if they're all right, we can't help but say: awwwww...!!! So cuuuuuuuuuute!!!
(more pictures to come soon...)

Dog Whisperer and Ecopsychology
“Dogs have found themselves in an odd predicament by living with humans. In the wild, dogs don’t need humans to achieve balance. They have a pack leader, work for food, and travel with the pack. But when we bring them into our world, we need to help them achieve balance by fulfilling their needs as nature intended them to be.” From Cesar Millan’s website here; http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/tips/retrain_balance.php

For some while we’ve been watching the Dog Whisperer, which shows a different side to dogs than simply “training them” to obey commands. It shows much more subtle ways to interact with the dog by fulfilling its natural instincts and giving it a balanced place in human society. It’s been really good as it has shown me what I do right and what I do wrong, so I’ve learned a lot. Generally I’m proud of how I handle dogs, especially when I see just how different the dogs in my life are from the dogs on the show, much more “well behaved” or, more appropriately, balanced.

But watching the Dog Whisperer you realise that it’s not the dogs that are at fault, but the owners that don’t treat them in a balanced way. “Well behaved,” then, doesn’t mean how controlled the dogs are but how sensitive the owners are to their dog’s behaviour, and how they treat and train them without depriving them of a healthy expression of instinct. Dogs aren’t robots that you just “program” to your requirements; they have their own set of instincts that if played around with too much or denied healthy expression, can cause problems, as shown in the Dog Whisperer.

And in some ways this reminds me of Ecopsychology. Our own psychological health is largely affected by how we interact with nature, not just the organisms and their habitats that are found outside of human society, but also the parts of nature that have found a niche within or alongside human society and even the instinctual self found within humans. We also have instinctive needs that society usually ignores. I think the way we interact with our dogs and other domestic animals can reflect our own instinctive and psychological state of being and even our relationship with nature in general, which is why I think of Ecopsychology.

Of the writings on Ecopsychology I’ve seen, most of them are about human’s relationship with natural environments and also our own inner ecological health, but I’ve never really seen anything about how we interact with the parts of nature within human society, whether it’s our pets, livestock, “pests,” and even our plant pots and useful vegetables, and the health of our “inner-animal.” I am convinced that Ecopsychology has a role to play within the domestic situation and that things, like The Dog Whisperer, can have their own place within Ecopsychology helping to shape a healthy place for humans within nature and a healthy place for nature within humans.

I also want to share something I learnt at college called the Five Freedoms, for how to treat livestock, but also how we should treat any domestic animal, even our own “inner-animal”;
1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst - by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from Discomfort - by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease - by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour - by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind.
5. Freedom from Fear and Distress - by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.

(Image : T´was an accident!...Photographed an angel!...;-) - Shakti)


Our religion is the open sky
and its sacred music is the sound of water over rocks.


Our religion, friends,
Is the one that embraces all life
And truly honours it.


Our religion is the one that has forests as cathedrals,
air as communion
and every human being as priest and priestess.


Our religion is the one that sees the Universe in a grain of sand,
and the smile of Divinity in every flower.


Our religion is the one that does fear neither death nor light,
because the body is fully fulfilled in every in-taking breath.


Our religion is one that does not exist yet, and still,
is recreated in every shining sunrise.

(Image : Shakti G., - My Guardian Angel sends me a feather!...)

Shakti:



This morning I was thinking about how my way to PEACE has changed over the years...
In the Sixties I was a flower child, with kohl around my eyes and multicoloured Afghan dresses (been one of the first ones to hit the streets of my provincial hometown, Geneva, Switzerland, with a blue-and-red Afghan dress and red leather boots, hahahaha!). I had this slogan wrapped around my head "Peace, Now" and would endlessly sit in meetings, and rallies - and even sit on the ground with my buddies, if it was needed. And we would talk, talk, talk. Talk our heads off sometimes it seemed. Did we ever achieve anything ? The question remains open. I don´t think we impacted much on international politics, lol!
I know I changed, though. Progressively through all the years I came down from Cloud Nine, first of all because what with the Afghan dresses and all, dangly Indian earrings, and above all, because of my pretty little self - nobody ever took me seriously enough to actually ask me HOW I would bring about my programme of "Peace, Now"... And thank you Goddess, nobody ever really asked, because at that time it was all a question of FEELING, I couldn´t have told anyone how I meant to bring about Peace, and even less...world peace.
Anyway, at that time, it was the bearded, long-haired cutie pie that I was accompanying (...being the decoration of, shall we say) that was having the lead role in everything. (Had to get to grips with that subject too, lol)
More than thirty five years have passed, 35 years which have mauled my life, have shaped it, sculptured it; I had ample time to swallow, regurgitate, vomit sometimes, and digest, digest, digest. Do my homework.
I´m a wild crone now.
I´m a "woman who runs with wolves" now.
I have "hugged the monster", and made my inner peace with my Animus. (Who wants a war with Aragorn anyway - *wink-wink*)
I´m OK. Now. So.
What about Peace? Mmmmm...?
Well, I´ll give it to you in a nutshell. I have learned that nothing, but NOTHING - changes things so rapidly and neatly as...taking action! Don´t talk about it : do it! Walk your talk.


That´s all. End of advice.


Says the wild crone, looking at the Earth Sanctuary through the window,; the hills roll right down to the Mediterranean. And 108 acres of this mountain are liberated! This is the year 8 of the Third Millennium, I am a Druid now.
(Hey! That´s Year 20 after the Harmonic Convergence of 1987! Darn my bodicious gollywag, we´re getting there! Heehee.)
;-)