Lothlorien-Nemeton Seedgroup

2008-10-06T01:38:00.000-07:00

Just a note to say this blog will no longer updated. We've moved!
So please, replace this blog's address with this in your favourites... http://lothloriennemeton.wordpress.com/
All of the blogs have been moved to the new address, so there's no need to come back here to look at your favourites :)

Love and Blessings from the whole Lothlorien Nemeton Seedgroup

2008-09-17T02:37:00.000-07:00

Just scanning through Wikipedia for the myths and beliefs of Aborigines; Dreamtime, Rainbow serpent etc and then I find this quote…

"Aboriginal people learned from their stories that a society must not be human-centred but rather land centred, otherwise they forget their source and purpose...humans are prone to exploitative behaviour if not constantly reminded they are interconnected with the rest of creation, that they as individuals are only temporal in time, and past and future generations must be included in their perception of their purpose in life" C, Morris

That's ecopsychology if ever I knew it! (Something for Grove of Quotes? Lol)

Now excuse me, I'm going to express my "inner-Aborigine," commune with the Rainbow Serpent and connect to the Dreamtime with the didge-voice of the Earth :)

2008-09-12T02:12:00.000-07:00

You hear the Earth speak, or is it the Earth? A deep, vibrational rumbling, with a fluctuating rhythm resounds within a valley. No, it’s my new didgeridoo, and that’s me trying to polish my use of it.

I have a nice hornbeam didgeridoo in England, waiting to journey here to be with me. But recently, I got myself another one! This one’s made of bamboo, and I have been practicing on it a bit recently. Beautiful thing it is! It has some nice patterns on it, one being a “rainbow serpent.” So I decided to call it Rainbow (after thinking Water, Light-Water, Water-Light or Spectrum). My other one I called Dubh, which means black in Gaelic (very Earthy name).
Anyway, a few days later, I see the biggest and clearest rainbow I think I’ve ever seen in my whole life! Confirmation if ever I saw one ;) And a nice picture too…

2008-09-01T01:05:00.002-07:00

Ovate... at last! Or por fin en Español!

As soon as I got over the last hurdle of the bardic grade, everything else just took off.

I'm finding the ovatic experience very interesting, it's had the effect of bringing intuition and imagination together with creative results! It's fun to read the landscape and its inhabitant's energy as "personality" (silly humans, anthropomorphising again).

I've been writing stories about how a tree told me a story about how it and it's kin came into being, and about how a norse Earth Goddess, Nerthus, came upon the knowledge of the properties of trees, herbs and other growing things and shared that with her children.

As you can see, my imagination has been inspired! Perhaps you'll see some of the reults here :)

What I really am looking forward to is the herbology bit. I don't know a lot and really want to develop this part of my ovatic experience. Before you know, I'll be so deep in herbs and herbology you'll find green things growing from my skin! Haha!

2008-08-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

A throne fit for the King and Queen of the Forest, where they can view their domain in all its glory. And occasionally people can sit on it too, getting a monarch’s eye view of things ;) Or at least sit there, resting and looking at what comes to the bird feeders (not a lot in summer).
It came from an acacia, and I think it makes a nice rustic addition to the Earth Sanctuary. Lur the Alsatian sure seems to like it! J

2008-08-20T02:05:00.000-07:00

I’m an English foreigner in foreign lands,
But I’m a human being.
I am man in a world of men and women,
But I’m a human being.
I’m a white European in a world of many colours,
But I’m a human being.

I'm a scientific druidic Gaian with some Christian ideas in a world with many beliefs,

But I'm still a human being!
I’m one facet amongst many on the human diamond,
I’m a human being.
So let’s relate human to human
On individual merits,
Because we are human beings.

(However, occasionally I take up a fly-swatter and become the fly-swatting elf, so some say... LOL!)

2008-08-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

He is an English Elf, you understand ?
Elegant, with an endearing smile, long hair, very composed and cool...

And he goes about the kitchen with a fly-swatter, sighing "I´m so glad I´m not a buddhist, or a Jain!"...Splat! Splat!"

The flies, flat on their backs, are no more.
R.I.P.

*grin*

2008-08-15T01:49:00.000-07:00

Treegod:

We have a poster in our home of a stag on one of the doors. One day Mika was standing in front of it in such a way that she looked like she had antlers, so I decided it was time for the camera. First I took pictures of her and then she of me, one of which I’ve included in this blog.

The thing is that one of my favourite celtic gods is depicted surrounded by animals, sitting cross-legged as though meditating, with two great antlers stretching from his head, whilst holding a torc in one hand and a serpent (horned) in another. There are a few ways to interpret this, as we have no reliable way of saying what the ancients thought of him, although we can make a few educated guesses.

One that I like is that Cernunnos represents a whole picture of human nature. For one thing, we can recognise that human nature is still very much an animal one, driven by instincts to live and survive and continue life beyond your own, like any organism. It is represented by the animals that surround him, the antlers on his head and the horned serpent in his hand, unmistakable signs of his animal nature. But also, we see other qualities that would not exist by instinct alone. In his other hand he holds a torc, a celtic neck ring, and also wears one around his neck and not only that, but also wears clothes, things that instinct alone could not produce in such a complex and intentioned way.
The other nature of Cernunnos, or any human, is that we don’t just have instincts to help us live; we don’t rely purely on reacting to circumstances. We have abilites like intellect and imagination that take us beyond our circumstances and recreate them in a more complex and intentioned way.

One of the problems of humans is that it disconnects from one or other of these natures, it does not handle them in an integrated way and so becomes imbalanced. This is like the split that comes between the body and mind. In Ken Wilbur’s book No Boundaries, he talks of this split as on that resembles a horse and its rider, where one aspect, the mind, is separate, riding and controlling the other aspect, the body. But he says that this view is unhealthy, that really these two parts are more a part of each other than we realise and so uses the centaur to illustrate it. The mind and body aren’t separate parts like a rider and its steed, but they are two “distinct” parts that aren’t so easily separated, like a centaur.

I am a centaur,
My skill and power I wield as one,
My culture and wildness reconciled,
All intellect and instinct integrated.
My guiding spirit
One of focus but not of control,
One of flow but not of randomness.
My body thinks,
My mind feels
For mind and body are one.

Another part of what Cernunnos means to me, and many others, is as man, maleness, masculinity. Perhaps we can see him as a man before male-dominated society arose, a man aligned with the Goddess and holding reverence and respect for her in her femininity, seeing her as the temple through which new life arises.

For many centuries female-denying Patriarchy has dominated human societies, allowing men to dominate women. Recently, and quite rightly, feminism has arisen to redress this imbalance. This is good news for women, who need to break free from the shackles of Patriarchy and find new strength in their own feminine identity. But men, yes men, also need something to be free from Patriarchy; men also suffer, because it destroys something in us men to subjugate womenkind, even if we do think we’re “on top.” But men can’t really rely on feminism to be free from Patriarchy because, let’s face it, we aren’t women, and also we need to reconnect to a healthy male identity and not be subjugated before a female-dominated inversion of Patriarchy.

I suggest masculism as a healthy counterpart to feminism and a healthy expression of masculinity that is not found in the female-denying Patriarchy (or, for that matter, male-denying Matriarchy). Although the term masculism isn’t clear because it is used by both men like myself, seeking a healthy gender balance, and men that oppose feminism. I hope I’m clear enough in my use of the word.

I think, like Cernunnos, men should find the strength, drawing on our masculine qualities, to be at the service and support of women who are themselves at the service of life, acting as gateways to human life, for Cernunnos tends the temple of the Goddess ensuring that she has the right support to carry the future into this world. Because without her, there’d be no more life.

2008-07-17T02:33:00.000-07:00

...Don´t even *think* about jumping over the iron gate if you are not *presented* to the doggies!

They are looking awfully nice, but they don´t like strangers, hehehe...

See that green glint in the lady boxer´s eyes???...

...And who wants to meet Sister Wolf lurking around in the deep deep night ?...

;-)

2008-06-30T00:54:00.000-07:00

Treegod

South Downs

The South Downs are chalk hills in the South East of England. They range along the coast, through Sussex, then they u-bend in Hampshire and end up as the North Downs in Kent. In between the two Downs there is the Weald, filled with much farmland and the traditional English patchwork landscape.

Some years ago my dad owned a flock of South Down sheep, a breed traditionally associated with the South Downs. With these sheep we grazed some of the South Downs as part of a Conservation policy planned by Conservation organisations that manage the South Downs. From this I learnt a lot about the ecological history of the Downs. I also spent time with conservation volunteer groups, scrub-bashing (clearing scrub) on steep slopes to help preserve the grassland habitat.

Centuries, even millennia, ago, the Downs, like much of Britain, was a sea of trees, interrupted only by “islands” of other habitats and human settlements. In time, human agricultural practice changed, and much of the Downs became dominated by sheep grazing, seeing the loss of much of the old forest. Over time, this new land management created a new ecosystem, one traditionally associated with chalk grassland. The fertility went down allowing specialist species to flourish on low fertility chalkland.

This special ecosystem flourished for quite some while, until the Second World War. At this time, the country needed to make its own food and not rely so much on imports from overseas. This meant that land use had to change. Places, like the South Downs, had to give up their traditional agricultural practices and employ intensive arable farming.

Within a few decades, this had quite an impact on the South Downs. Much grassland was ploughed over and given to arable use, whilst other parts, that weren’t grazed, soon transformed into gorse and hawthorn scrubland. Now only 5% of the traditional chalk grassland is left, and only that because it was grazed by rabbits. Had the rabbits not suffered from mixomatosis, there would have been more of this chalk grassland habitat left, with its distinctive flowers, grasses and, of course, the butterflies.

The conservation policy, employed by many conservation groups, on the South Downs, is the maintenance and restoration of the traditional chalk grassland by “bashing” the scrubland and traditional grazing (or mowing) of existent grassland. In fact, here is what it says on one website, dedicated to the conservation of the South Downs;

Brighton & Hove has many areas of what was traditional downland, also know as chalk grassland, a priority European Habitat. The chalk grassland is the product of centuries of sheep grazing. However with changes in agricultural practices most of these areas have disappeared while those that remain have become neglected. Without the grazing the remaining chalk grassland will slowly deteriorate as nutrient levels build up favouring coarser species like nettle and bramble at the expense of wildflowers such as cowslips and violets. While reintroducing grazing would be the best solution it is often not practical in the short term. In these cases the grass is mown instead with the cuttings removed. This helps keep nutrient levels down as well as preventing scrub (hawthorn, blackthorn etc) becoming established. http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=b1000289

Think Globally, Act Locally

From the local view of conservation, this makes a lot of sense, to continue the traditional ecosystem as it has been from centuries and maintain its beautiful and unique biodiversity. However, this policy doesn’t seem to meet the needs of our current global environmental problems. Part of the problem is deforestation, and this in turn is damaging the Earth’s ability to recover from the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that are being pumped into the atmosphere by human combustion. So by stopping the natural processes of the Earth from turning the South Downs from grassland into forest, that it could become, the process of burying CO2 into the Earth and keeping the Earth at a liveable temperature, is impeded.

I do not propose that current policies are wrong. I may be wrong and the traditional way of maintaining chalk grassland has no real impact on, or is beneficial to, the global climate. This requires research. What I do think is that local conservation policy should be aligned with the wider global situation, of which it is a part, so as not to follow its own isolated agenda.

Human ecosystems have replaced non-human ecosystems extensively and this includes the chalk grassland of the South Downs. As an ecosystem, it is not as efficient as non-human ecosystems in keeping the Earth's living systems in a liveable state. With this in mind, instead of seeing the traditional chalk grasslands as deteriorating due to neglect, it could be said that its ecology is entering a new phase appropriate to the current environmental and agricultural situation. Once upon a time the South Downs was a sea of forest, like much of Europe. The humans started to transform the landscape, bringing a new phase in the South Down’s ecosystem, chalk grassland. Now that grazing is not needed on the Downs, a new ecological phase is being entered into, where the original forest processes, that dominated the British Isles before human agriculture, are starting to come back into their own.

In his book, Revenge of Gaia, James Lovelock talks about dividing England into three parts, one part for the production of resources, like food and energy, another for human habitation and another for the Earth to establish its own non-human ecosystem, non-human being my own emphasis. Places that aren't needed for human habitation or resource production could be left completely unused by humans and left to its own devices, and this would include nature reserves and national parks. Any management needed would not be to restore or maintain the habitat, but to allow for human access, as I believe it is important and healthy for humans to interact with nature, even if just for a walk. But I'd also suggest that there'd be places where no human can enter, leave it completely wild, akin to the demilitirized zone along the border between North Korea and South Korea, something very difficult in England as every square inch seems to be inhabited by human action, even some of the more "wild" places.

Really, this isn't about the South Downs, it's about how local conservation fits into a global scale conservation and how local groups and organisations can align their policies and actions within the wider global view of things. There is much globalisation going on, politically, culturally, technologically and even environmentally. There is a growing emphasis on global cooperation between nations, manifested in organisations like the UN, European Union and others. In this world, we cannot afford to ignore what's happening in other parts of the globe, because the world is becoming a smaller place. We especially cannot ignore the threat of climate change in favour of our sentiments of localised conservation "traditions," that may be outdated in our present situation. The global situation may not suit traditional local situations, but it’s a small price to pay to preserve the Earth in its current state of environmental regulation.

Dangers of Generalising Local Issues

But just to show that local conservation cannot be generalised, I'll make a contrast between the South Downs in England, where I used to live, and the Prades Mountains in Catalonia, Spain, where I live now. The South Downs global conservation policy could be one of letting the deciduous shrubs and trees naturally grow, that would then produce more O2 than the grass and bury more carbon than the grass.

However, the Prades Mountains may need more work. It has an abundance of evergreen trees, but in today's world, deciduous trees are needed as they are more effective at burying the carbon to help reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. In this situation, there may need to be a plan to replace the dominant evergreen trees with deciduous trees to better facilitate the burial of carbon. Perhaps recreate the oak and laurel forests that apparently were here before forestry industry cut them down and replaced them with more productive pine trees.

But my work is not to remove the evergreens, we need every tree we have. No, I have in mind to plant more deciduous trees and direct the competition in favour of the deciduous trees already growing. I will never see my area of the Prades covered in deciduous trees, but at least I can make steps in that direction and research the local environmental situation.

Where the Downs may need to be left to its own devices, the Prades may need some work. But don't take my word for it, I've barely scratched the surface. This has been mainly a hypothetical excercise, to investigate the possibility of aligning the conservation of local ecosystems with the Earth's global ecosystem. I probably don't know near enough things about how local ecosystems fit into global ecosystems, but this is where I can start to know.

2008-05-27T10:03:00.000-07:00

Treegod:

I'm just finishing an interesting journey. You see, for a while I've been doing the bardic grade in OBOD (Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids) and I'm just writing a report on it, in the hopes I'll be getting onto the next grade, the Ovate.

It's funny, I feel like I've been a Bard for quite a while. I've written hundreds of poems, some stories and a few pieces of art. I certainly don't have a shortage of creativity. I started writing poems a lot when I first came across Paganism. I think so many people encouraged creativity and wrote poems and did other types of art, it seemed only logical for me to have a go myself.

The thing is, it wasn't just a nice pasttimes to enjoy myself with, it soon transpired that it had a deeper role to play in my life. I soon realised, that the "nice words" (and sometimes not so nice words) were ways for me to express and discover what lay within the depths of my soul, it gave me a written mirror to look at a part of myself, and learn about me and the world around me. I was also developing how I viewed the world and what I felt about it, many of my poems reveal a philosophy in the making.

One thing I came across in other people was some idea that "I can't write," something I vowed from the beginning never to do. I had the feeling that it didn't really matter because, first, they were personal and for my own enjoyment, first and foremost, and second, I was not aiming to make them look nice, I just wanted to express whatever was in me, so the form of it didn't really matter. But fortunately my rather informal style of poetry, what I call poetic prose, have been enjoyed by others. I think it's because of what the content said rather than what medium it came in.

I used to get inspired in the oddest places, like on a lawnmower, working, or late at night, when I just couldn't get to sleep as my brain would keep me awake at night, buzzing away with thoughts very loudly. So I'd have to rush to find a something to write on and with, or if I had no pen or paper, I'd often take my mobile phone out to write something there and store it. Very useful.

Nowadays, I don't write so much. I think perhaps it has to do with the fact I've reach some level within me, and I no longer need my poems to express something deep within me. I don't think I have any writers block or anything. I think my poetry was something I used whilst I was going through a very experiemental time in my spirituality, I used it to really experiement with many different thoughts and philosophies, anything from Christianity to Paganism, from Nihilism to Environmentalism. I suppose now I feel I've become more orientated in my spiritual life, I have a set of values and know which direction I want to take my life, so there's no use experimenting any more. I do more writing, like the ones in these blogs, I describe my ideas which are clearer and more focussed than before.

I came to OBOD´S Bardic grade with a tiny bit of a headstart, where I'd already developed my creative expression, self-discovery and love of nature a lot. But it¡s been good to really look at where I'm at now. Now, I'm looking forward to discovering what the Ovate grade holds and see how far I've come and how much further I can go!

2008-03-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

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...)

2008-03-07T03:32:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-03-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

(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.

2008-03-06T01:50:00.000-08:00

(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.)
;-)

2008-01-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

(Photo: Golden Eagle)

We (The Lothlorien Nemeton) live amongst some beautiful mountains and are surrounded by some pretty cool wildlife. I recently did some looking on the internet to see what I could find about the Prades, anything. Historically, ecologically, geographically and found there’s quite a lot in English. One in particular led me to write this blog, as it mentioned birds of prey that can be found here.

Above our place in the valley are beautiful cliffs and often we hear and sometimes see eagles around there because they have a nest up there. We sometimes even have some suprising views of them by the side of the road, whether sitting on a branch or flying off.

Now being an Englishman from the South East, seeing a bird of prey is quite something. I’ve seen Buzzards flying high and obviously who hasn’t seen a Kestrel hovering at the side of a motorway. I’ve even seen Red Kites when I was doing work up near oxfordshire, but never a wild eagle! Apparently there’s only one pair of Golden Eagles in England, in the Lake District and all the rest live in Scotland or Wales.

Mika has been telling me that there are a few of eagle here in the Prades mountains. First is the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) , which is quite well know in most of the Northern Hemisphere. Then there’s the Imperial Eagle (Aquila Heliaca Adalberti) , though which Imperial Eagle I’d guess must be the local Iberian type. And apparently, I found on a website, that there are, or were, some Bonelli’s Eagles. This is quite a wealth of eagles to have around, especially for me but even then, their may well be plenty more types around aswell.

Also, there’s plenty of other birds of prey. There’s kestrels, though those I don’t usually see them in the mountains, often we see hawks and/or peregrine falcons (not that I can tell the difference) sitting on powerlines beside roads and at nights there are owls about, looking after things when all other birds have gone to bed.

I think I’ve whet my appetite a bit, I’m definately going to be scouting around on the ‘net for more things that inhabit these beautiful mountain, and with a bit of extra insight, who knows, I might spot things that I may never have noticed before!

-Adam-

2008-01-19T09:17:00.001-08:00

(Little mallow plant in Mika's hands)

(These are a couple of extracts from an article about Ecopsychology written by Adam)
Psyche meets Gaia

We can do all we want about the effects of our “collective neuroses,” by saving whales, ethical consumerism, ethical industry, sustainable living etc but if these aren't reinforced by a deeper psychological healing then our actions won't be quite so effective. As Karen Armstrong said, “Neuroses are much more difficult to get rid of than beliefs. We can all change our opinions more easily than we can eliminate destructive patterns in our lives, however hard we try. It is the same with religion and, surely, the same with a culture. Our religious beliefs may have changed but our emotional compulsions have remained.” If we only change the effects of things, then we can easily slip back into our old habits and compulsions. If we do not add a psychological depth to ecology, then no matter how many trees we try to save, humanity may find itself slipping back into old patterns.

This ecological unconscious has been denied because of beliefs that we are somehow distinct from nature, or that we are the pinnacle of its evolution. But our evolution does not proceed from nature in an independent way, it proceeds within nature, in an interdependent evolution. So to heal ourselves, we need not only look at our personal and interpersonal relations, but also by placing psychology within a broader arena, that of Gaia, can our health be greatly enhanced, as this is the very place that we grow within and depend upon for our existence. Our reconnection isn't just a physical one but also a psychological one. Our relationship with nature isn't just one outside of us but also within us. The journey of the soul is a part of nature, not apart from it.

2008-01-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

(Picture: Blue Tit of The Earth Sanctuary, taken by Mika)

Becoming the Child

In a starry night

when the sky is filled with lights,

I am the brightest one,

I am thoughts of hope

and every good wish.

I am inspiration and expression,

reflexion and manifestation.

I am the inexhaustible creative spirit,

the joy you see in flowers,

the strength you feel from the trees.

I am opportunity.

I am the seed and the fruit,

the fire in the roots and the solar god,

I am imagination,

every dream that becomes reality.

I am passion,

the pleasure and the harmony,

the grass under your feet,

the perfection of a snowflake.

I am a god of rythm,

the performer of sound,

I am delight.

Because I am darkness too,

I am not afraid of the lightless,

I am silence and meditation,

I am the serenity in the newborn ,

the twilight and the midnight,

a relentless potential,

the promise of a sunrise,

I am the timeless and eternal,

a limitless dancer of creation,

I am becoming the Child.

I am realisation.

-Mika-

2008-01-01T01:46:00.000-08:00

The Druid´s Room

...Out of the Druid´s room come all kinds of strange noises.

Frogs croaking, leaves rustling, boar grunting, stag calling, birds chirping, and in the background, the sound of dancing waters...

Yes I have moved again! Gods, it must the twentiest time in...well, five years.

The "castle" is so big, we move around as our personal processes progress, and Blondie-Lightstar - my youngest daughter - needed a more private space, so I left her Merlin´s Tower, which has an autonomous entrance, and have moved down to the central flat again. I´ll be quite far away from her late night arrivals, I won´t expect her earlier (New Year´s Resolution Number One!) - I won´t hear her and so I will just go on sleeping the sleep of the just...Now that is what I call a pleasant change!

Just so you won´t think I am an overbearing mother, I´ll remind you that during those nights during which Blondie was dancing her heart away in her furry red ball slippers, I always ended up sleeping with her dog, Kayla - a wonderful boxer bitch, but nevertheless I´m past the age of baby-sitting...Besides, Kayla always ended up plunked in the middle of the bed, deeply asleep and heavy as a stone, and I ended up like a doughnut around her! Seriously, I may need hip replacement surgery...(naaah just joking)

Ah independence (independent-dance), what a wonderful feeling (Both ways, for daughter AND for mother)...

My new room is like a matchbox.

But.

I have now a glorious art room (which was the original bedroom, but I switched).

And a room just for ironing!

*sigh*

It´s the first of January 2008, and things couldn´t be better!

...Or could they ?

Mmmm...My birthday is two weeks away, so I might be expecting interesting stuff.

Anyways, a Happy New Year to all of you who are reading this,

Prosperity, Health, and Happiness (not necessarily in that order!)

Shakti.

:-)

2007-12-27T01:06:00.000-08:00

(Image : "Gaia´s Children", Collage, Shakti G., 2003)

H-O-P-E

means...

Help Our Planet Evolve.

(Anon)

*grin*

2007-12-19T02:04:00.000-08:00

The Wizard of Lothlorien : Electricity

My boiler broke down. Technician? Not available. Money ? Nope, not at the moment.

So...No more lovely lengthy showers, no warm water (have to warm up the water with pots). AND ...it started to snow! Just my grubby luck.

So, no central heating system and no warm water. And it´s below zero outside.

How bloody NICE.

And it´s been like that for a MONTH!

But, hey!

What a lovely lovely experience. I mean it.

It got me thinking about the basic luxuries, electricity and gas to start with. At least I can warm up pans of water, and do the dishes with that! Mmmmmmm....warm water.....

Fluffy Nordic bedstuff, delicious.

Warm water for the dishes, delicious.

Light on my night table to read by, delicious.

A fire in the fireplace - and an unending supply of wood (what with 108 acres of woodland!...)

De-li-cious.

A live connection to the Net, delicious.

A good car, delicious (I can go to the supermarket for coffee with Mika, and have a warm moment! Delicious, scrumptious, splendid, DELECTABLE.)

I can make a PIZZA in the oven, and eat it all warm and cheesy and crunchy : incredible.

Synthetic blankets to watch a bit of telly : Thank You.

Thank you, Universe, thank you, THANK you!!!

And it got me thinking... but how on Earth could Humanity survive in the wilds for millenia without these luxuries??? Old people, sick people, children, women giving birth...

I tell you, my friends, I´m awe-fully GRATEFUL!...

And don´t worry about me, I´ll survive.

2007-12-19T01:16:00.000-08:00

Treegod:

The Soul of This Land is My Soul

The soul of this land is my soul.

Created and taken from its core,

A great cauldron of love and hate forged my being,

Its strengths and weaknesses bred my complexities.

My fruits are the fruits of this land.

My body yearns tastes and textures for its life,

Taking what it can when it can.

But the great consumer must be consumed

and return to the land.

My face is one of the land’s many.

To look at it is to celebrate nature’s diversity.

To love or hate it is to be deceived.

For the face blocks out what is truly beautiful.

My life is the land’s life.

It gives all I need and will take it back,

We should nurture it as it nurtures us.

What I do is for the land.
My heart is driven by the land’s heart.

The blood flows round and round.

The twisting, turning and circling never ending.

My true heart will never fail.

My mind is the land’s mind.

Thoughts expressed by the land for the land.

A tapestry of consciousness expressed in me.

All knowledge coming from the no-knowledge within

2007-10-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Gustav Jung

“Common people retreat from the world to country houses, the seashore or the mountains, but it is always in your power to retreat into yourself. Give yourself this retreat; renew and cleanse your soul completely.” Marcus Aurelius

“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” Joseph Cambell

There I was, watching a beautiful scene unfolding before me. The large sky a clear blue and the sun shining upon lush green grass while birds dance and fly around trees and under bushes. Then I think of something... I remember something....something inside... something... something... “ADAM! Wake up daydreamer, get out of ‘your own little world’ and join us in the real world will you.”
The outside invades, pulling me out of my inner space, a subjective psychic space that noone can touch, even me apparently.

This is a problem, society’s unwritten dogma is that the objective material world has more worth than a individual’s subjective world but if it has any worth then it is for objective and materialist reasons. But the one thing I think makes humans human, is this ability for inner space, the abstract world as opposed to the concrete. It’s where our culture comes from, our arts, sciences, religions and ethics. Without it we’d be like any other animal, following the drive of instinct within the restrictions of environment. Inner space allows us a partial transcendence of environment and instinct to create new ways of living, problem solving, invention, an alchemy of mundane objects and situations transformed by the psychic powers of the mind, namely imagination, intellect, vision and intuition.

For years I haven’t properly been able to live in my inner space, I’ve been pulled out of it for some reason or another. For the last couple of years it’s been a bit of a battle to maintain it, what with 40hrs work a week, then domestic duties like dog walking, mowing the lawn, DIY, etc etc etc. Some of them necessary but also some not so. After this you might be able to find inner sanctum, that is if you’re not socialising or too tired to do anything but sleep. Was it worth me sacrificing that much of my time just to lose out on a vital part of myself? I don’t think so but all this comes from a society that unconsciously (or even consciously) makes its people a mere product of and resource for its materialism.

Through my life I’d occasionally go into natural places just to be away from these things. I’d sit under stars and just look up at them on cool nights, I’d find a secluded place somewhere in some woods and called it my “sacred grove.” Sometimes what I thought I was doing was connecting to nature in some deep mystical way. Perhaps I was, but mainly as I look back, it was really out of necessity to find my inner space again, to preserve that essential part of me. This is a practice I do now, I sit in a tree, by a stream or by my cairn to let my inner space play, or even work, just by itself with nothing outside imposing itself upon it.

What about now? Well now, I work on that inner space, I have the freedom to do that without it being denied me. Am I getting lost in “my own little world”? No, because my inner world is filled with energy, it is not some distant disconnected experience but something that is growing with vital energy which I learn to focus and flow with. In fact, my inner world hasn’t just been idly sitting within me, because it does find its manifestation. My dream was to live and work closer to Nature and also live in a spiritual context. Now, I live in the countryside, working on gardens, conservation and also on my own spiritual developement. So when people tell me I’m just daydreaming I can look around me and see what my dreams have become because I took an opportunity that so many others miss.

I know that I definitely do live in the objective world that I share with others and I do not want to run away from it. At the same time I have an inner world, just as real as the outer world for me, just as important to me as the outer world because it is from here that my life and destiny unfold, manifesting themselves around me and fulfilling the potential of my human spirit.

2007-10-02T23:45:00.001-07:00

Just for fun! The Luna looking Italian!

;-)

2007-10-02T01:37:00.000-07:00

Treegod:

“Gaia can regulate without the need for foresight or planning by the biota. The regulation is entirely automatic.” James Lovelock

“Pooh hasn’t much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right.” Piglet in Winnie-the-Pooh

"Only the development of his inner powers can offset the dangers inherent in man's losing control of the tremendous natural forces at his disposal and becoming the victim of his own achievements." Roberto Assagioli

Once upon a time our animal ancestors had an automatic and unconscious balancing system between internal instinct and external environment, there was no need to think about it. This also meant that we had our place in the universe, a context and meaning, which was an innate part of us which didn’t need thinking about.

The meaning of life is automatic for most plants and animals, no thought required, they have an organic initiation into the mysteries of the universe. But humans are no longer so automatic, we have minds that need to find a meaningful place in the universe because it is not automatically given to us through our genes or environments. Instead we require a cultural initiation, one that involves the abstract creativity of the human mind, making definitions and values that weren’t there before.

This has been a creative leap forward for us, with so many great arts and sciences that have moved us into new ways of living that our instincts alone cannot create. Unfortunately this also means we can no longer have a care-free existence, we are no longer automatically regulated by nature’s processes, instead we have to regulate ourselves. This lack of self-regulation is shown in our abuse of our environment, polluting and destroying it, which in turn changes the environment’s balancing system to our disadvantage.

We have to create our own balance, we cannot use our societies or governments to do that because who guides them? Each individual should learn its own balance and creativity. And if we rely on Earth to balance us, well, at the moment she’s reacting very badly to our imbalance and trying to dislodge us. If we want to survive we have to take our own balance into each and every individuals hands.

Once upon a time I was into the Taoist philosophy which to me was about “going with the flow.” The idea I read about was a bit anti-intellectual. It saw the human condition as marred because instead of letting things be organic and “flowing” the intellect would set up false definitions and “deform” the Uncarved Block, a concept used to describe things in their original nature before they were tampered with.

In some ways we do need to learn to “go with the flow” at least as far as nature is concerned. It is something that needs no guidance. As James Lovelocks quote above says, Gaia is an entirely self-regulating sysem, it’s too big for us to take the responsibility of running it. In Nature, there is a natural flow and rhythm to things which industrial humanity has tried to struggle against and take short cuts through, much to the detriment of the earth’s life, which includes humans.

What I don’t want to “go with the flow” with is the aspect of humanity that disturbs humanities place on earth and sends it into ecological disaster. Flowing with any society with a mindless herd mentality means being flooded in the “inner space” in “service” of its external pressures. My self-meaning, self-motivation and inner context can be hijacked by the flow of society, which itself is unconscious and with a materialistic view that humans live to work, to earn money, to buy stuff and the earth is premanufactured consumer stuff. This time I’ve got to be focussed and use my intellect to discriminate what flow I should “flow with” before I’m in carried away unconsciously by forces that I want nothing to do with. This is something I talk about in another blog soon.

Earth does not need regulating, but its humans need regulating. By what? The earth’s changes would kill us off, and the “higher powers” of human society aren’t always the most ethical choice for guidance. So then, we have to regulate ourselves, which brings the quote from Robert Assagioli into focus, that we can only look inside ourselves, at our own powers and learn to develop them in harmony with Gaia before we destroy ourselves with them. The tragic thing is that the Earth may change so much that humans may no longer be able to participate in the Earth’s evolution, we may become extinct, though life here will still carry on in some form without us.

Now one challenge remains for us, which is, are we as a species so stupid that we ruin the chance for future generations to continue participating in the evolution of Gaia, expressing humanities unique place in it? For me I have hope that humanity can be intelligient enough to continue existing. I am optimistic enough that humanity can change its ways, because to be proved wrong doesn’t bear thinking about.

Here’s an article from http://www.global-mindshift.org that has provided me with much inspiration for this blog; http://www.global-mindshift.org/discover/viewFile.asp?resourceID=224&formatID=252

2007-09-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

THE OGAM STICKS
(Shakti)

For some time in my druidic studies I rejected the Ogam.
Don´t know, wazzat, couldn´t understand it. Just looking at it was too much!
And suddenly a few days ago, I started to write it on a piece of paper, and it...flew!
It suddenly made sense! I got it!
Wow, seize the moment!...
And now I´m making sticks and sticks... One, two, three, four, five...
Next ones will be burned on real wood, these ones are "just" cardboard ones, but hey! they do look good, don´t they ???

;-)

2007-09-05T00:57:00.000-07:00

Shakti :

COLOUR OF THE HEART

We have just received the best of all possible compliments!

A friend from OBOD has been visiting us for a week, and as he was travelling through the country in a day trip, he said...Look at the landscape! (Meaning end of August, dry, harsh, grey and ochre) And then he said...I know another Spain!

Meaning... a green Spain.

Visitors often comment that they don´t feel like being in Spain at the Sanctuary.

As a matter of fact in spring this place looks like a piece of Ireland!

It´s not something that comes naturally, you know.

There´s a spirit here, we actually promote the green phase of this land, we cherish it, we embrace it. Which is not the case of the people around here. You can see the difference when you come up from the village. Spain is truly the Wasteland.

And as you come up the road towards our valley here, you start to breathe a different air.

It´s something subtle that hasn´t entirely got to do with the fact that you go up a mountain and that there is more oxygen to breathe!

What you feel... is the colour of the heart.

Our green heart.

:-)

2007-09-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Secret Garden", collage on cardboard, Shakti G.)

Shakti : (I´m writing - the pioneers (Mika & Adam) are preparing the garden for winter, lol)

THE BODY ARCHAIC
In one of the psychosynthesis marathon workshops I have been leading here in Spain, a lady once told me, in a down-her-nose sort of classy way : "What an archaic body you have!" Besides being slightly miffed by her remark, - Gee lady, what´s on your mind ? Are you saying that I look old ? Or - Goddess forbid! - fat? - I was quite intrigued by it, and later Googled the definition of "archaic", just to be sure I had understood.
Lots of fascinating stuff came up.

Like ... "Archaic" (definition --->): Archaic Of, relating to, or characteristic of a much earlier, often more primitive period, especially one that develops into a classical stage of civilization: an archaic bronze statuette; Archaic Greece. No longer current or applicable; antiquated: archaic laws. See Synonyms at "old". Of, relating to, or characteristic of words and language that were once in regular use but are now relatively rare and suggestive of an earlier style or period. [Greek arkhaikos, old-fashioned, from arkhaios, ancient, from arkhein, to begin.]

Ah so. Indeed ?
I deciphered then that a) she meant that I wasn´t a modern scarecrow Picasso type - and b) that being...err...round-shaped (with femenine curves, that is!) is considered by certain people (classy?) as "no longer current or applicable, antiquated", which miffed me even more! Mmm... So the next time I saw her (she was a regular of my workshops) I asked her what would be the CONTRARY for her of the word she had used describing me, in the context that she had used it. She looked at me again (down her nose!), and said"Why, CONTEMPORARY, of course!" Which sent me right back to Google! (Bear with me, this is fun!)

Contemporary (definition ---->): adjective 1 living, occurring, or originating at the same time. 2 belonging to or occurring in the present, EXISTING NOW (emphasis mine). 3 modern in style or design (contemporary art, contemporary litterature) • noun (pl. contemporaries) 1 a person or thing existing at the same time as another. 2 a person of roughly the same age as another. Mmmm...(again)

So I went right back to the group that day, asked for the Talking Stick, and said... Lady, first of all, I don´t "have" a body, I AM my body, which cannot be "archaic", it is CONTEMPORARY, because it exists with me HERE AND NOW, it is the temple of my soul right here under your classy nose, second - we are the same age, so we are CONTEMPORARIES. YOUR body, dear lady, is as "archaic" as mine, or, alternatively, as "contemporary" as mine! Which is it ?...
Then we all had a good laugh...and Pass the cookies if you please.

It took all my group leader´s discipline not to say what really came to my mind. You see, the funniest thing of all is that the lady in question had... a wooden leg.
And what I really wanted to ask her was...Oh ? Really ? Archaic ? Who? Me? And what is YOUR style? Pirate-of-the-Carribean?

... A bit late...but...DONE! ;-)

2007-08-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

Hello, this is Shakti. I am making a Goddess Prayer Book for one of my friends, altering an old We'Moon Agenda, and I found several wonderful poems...

This image is of one of the spreads in the Prayer Book, and I want to share a poem that goes like this :

SEARCHING FOR THE DIVINE

She was searching searching for the Divine, not Buddha

with that fig tree up his back or Christ with his bleeding hands

or Mohammed on the mountaintop;

something honest, whole as an apple.

Not distant wind in white pine nor sparkling boundary water,

not spire of Notre Dame piercing cloud nor frozen glacial peak;

something close necessary as breath.

Not April trillium or hovering angel-bird,

not beaded, bearded guru or stone goddess with swollen breast;

something sweet tender as newborn.

She was searching searching for the Divine.

Not goat-footed Pan or dizzy Sufi dancer

Not a medicine man with a sacred pipe

Not a saffron-robed Tibetan monk

Not a t.v. preacher with a big mouth

Not a banker with a closed book.

She was searching searching for the Divine.

She burned Pakistani incense, peered into crystals,

lit white candles, but god could not be kept on her little altar

could not be kept in a good book, in a Holy City,

in a cave on a cross in Sunday School; god could not be kept

in a museum wrapped in a mummy skin; god could not be kept

silent in a little three letters word.

She grew wild as lightning in a snow storm.

Thus, the Divine found her,

exhausted as a bear hibernating in sleep

dreaming by a yellow spring listening to her heartbeat

a steady source of heat -

and when she awoke alone in her bed,

she found the Divine inside herself by Rising and Shining

like a sun.

( Ann Megisikwe Filemyr - 2001)

Wish you all a nice Summertime !

And thanks for Reading.

:-)

2007-08-18T01:37:00.001-07:00

("Water", Mika, Photoshop)

Learn the patterns of creation.
Learn the patterns of destruction.
Weave your knowledge into tapestries of wonder.
Be in awe of your own magic.
And be humble before the magic all around you.
Marvel at your place in the Dance of Love and Life.
May your spiritual gestation be complete,
and may you,
like the great mother herself,
birth your own sun
to illuminate your journey.

(We'Moon Agenda, 1995)

2007-08-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Shekinah", watercolours on paper, Shakti, 2003)

PRAYER OF THANSKGIVING

Oh, Great Goddess, Creatress of all things,

hear your children´s prayer of thanks

for this our Mother Earth,

Who with seed of star power

Has given us volcano, wind and cloud,

spider, tiger, human child,

golden grasses - grain to feed our bodies.

Oh, Great and Loving Earth-Mother,

your gifts nourish us,

and give us strength.

We find you more beautiful

in every sunrise.

You, whose rich, dark soil

has given us birth,

Whose ample arms hold us in a warm embrace

wide as the summer sky,

deep as thunder´s song.

May we be worthy.

May all your children, in all forms

and in all places, be richly blessed.

And may we know our place in the Great Harmony.

(We'Moon Agenda, 1995)

2007-08-14T07:58:00.001-07:00

Summer Mandalas (Shakti)

These are Mandalas I have been painting yesterday for the cover of a group Report that we are writing for the Earth Sanctuary.
The red one is the Core Group Mandala (Mika, Adam and me, three energies working as one in the context of bulding the Sanctuary); the pale blue one is the Earth Sanctuary banner; and the last one is "The Star of Eärendil". Ah well, I´ll put part of Tolkien´s poem here :

When the sea of night fades into light
A ship goes sailing through the dawn
A star upon its mast so bright
To wake the sleepers from the night

Giving hope to those who weep
Giving hope to those who dream

Aiya Eärendil, Elenion Ancalima!

See?
:-)

2007-07-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

From the book "Thinking like a mountain, Towards a Council of All Beings" :

INVOCATION (John Seed)

"We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia and pray that the breath of life continues to caress this planet home.

May we grow into true understanding - a deep understanding that inspires us to protect the tree on which we bloom, and the water, soil and atmosphere without which we have no existence.

May we turn inwards and stumble upon our true roots in the intertwining biology of this exquisite planet. May nourishment and power pulse through these roots, and fierce determination to continue the billion-year dance.

May love well up and burst forth from our hearts.

May there be a new dispensation of pure and powerful consciousnee and the charter to witness and facilitate the healing of the tattered biosphere.

We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia to be with us here. To reveal to us all that we need to see, for our highest good and for the highest good of all.

We call upon the spirit of evolution, the miraculous force that inspires rocks and dust to weave themselves into biology. You have stood by us for millions and billions of years - do not forsake us now. Empower us and awaken in us pure and dazzling creativity. You that can turn scales into feathers, seawater to blood, caterpillars to butterflies, metamorphose our species, awaken in us the powers that we need to survive the present crisis and evolve into more aeons of our solar journey.

Awaken in us a sense of who we truly are : tiny ephemeral blossoms on the Tree of Life. Make the purposes and destiny of that tree our own purpose and destiny.

Fill each of us with love for our true Self, which includes all of the creatures and plants and landscapes of the world. Fill us with a powerful urge for the wellbeing and continual unfolding of this Self.

May we speak in all human councils on behalf of the animals and plants and landscapes of the Earth.

May we shine with a pure inner passion that will spread rapidly through these leaden times.

May we all awaken to our true and only nature - none other than the nature of Gaia, this living planet Earth.

We call upon the power which sustains the planets in their orbits, that wheels our Milky Way in its 200-million-year spiral, to imbue our personalities and our relationships with harmony, endurance and joy. Fill us with a sense of immense time so that our brief, flickering lives may truly reflect the work of vast ages past and also the millions of years of evolution whose potential lies in our trembling hands.

O stars, lend us your burning passion.

O silence, give weight to our voice.

We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia."

The Lothlórien-Nemeton Seed-Group.

2007-07-20T03:36:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Watering the Grand'Mother...", Mika)

Hello, dear Readers :

Just a note from us to say that we will probably not write every day now: we will come back full force in September.

Spain is very hot, and the gardens need us now.

Hugs and best thoughts to every reader,

The Lothlorien-Nemeton seed-group.

Mika, Adam and Shakti.

2007-07-10T03:51:00.000-07:00

(Images of the Sanctuary)

INside OUT/OUTside IN!...

We are talking a lot about what the Sanctuary really is.

What it is for.

Why we are here, standing up to the storms and the heat, and the difficulties of maintaining this piece of land, this mini-Gaia of a place!...

What we come up with, and what we agree on, is the fact that we protect this place to become a sanctuary, a place of reverence and awe. Not exactly because we revere Mother Nature (we do!), but because this place can become a reflection of the soul, of the parts of our wild soul that have become so blunted by life in "society".

Sitting under the Grand-Mother (the giant figtree in the patio), and feeling the emerald coolness beneath her branches, it´s easy to let the soul spill out. Just to be there, safe and secure and cool and joyous, just completely at ease with the world.

To be or not to be here, on this planet, and how, that is the question...

We are made to live under the trees, we Europeans are, anyway. The Celts said so, and though trees are disappearing fast and everywhere, and we have forgotten about the ancient forests and the Celts, the deep emerald coolness of the Grandmother reminds us of the Forest of our heart, the fertility, the goodness of being part of this planet, the rightness of living in this watery green world.

There is a whole spiritual dimension in our work with this place, you know.

There is a spiritual rebirth in the green connection. It´s not about protecting Nature;Mother Earth will burn us out, the little rats that act like a nuisance to Her. Are we more than fleas on her hide ? Nah, don´t think so. We, the human species, are in danger, not Her! She will be here long long long after we have all gone to dust!

All the rest of the place will perhaps turn into ruins, but here the trees, they are a-growing.

And I sit in the shade, and I know what the word "God" means for this body...

I have to laugh about people doing reiki to trees.

Hey, friends, it´s the other way round : sit still, let the trees share their ki with you,

and the trees will heal you...

Mama Dragon, sitting under the big tree, shaking in silent mirth.

:-)

2007-06-22T04:15:00.000-07:00

(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!

:-)

2007-06-12T02:36:00.000-07:00

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? :-)

2007-06-09T09:19:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-06-09T03:51:00.000-07:00

(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.

2007-06-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

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.

;-)

2007-06-06T02:38:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

(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.

2007-06-04T01:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-05-30T01:02:00.000-07:00

("Dragon Riders", Mika, watercolours)

Treegod (Adam):

Let me tell a story of one contemporary Druid's encounter with the past. It's Druidry dudes, but not as we know it. :)

Our "hero" is Fluffyfire Bambi (or Bob). He's been initiated into the Ancient Order of Tantric Wicca Neo-Druids and has risen through two grades (with a mysterious amount more to go).

Well, one day he's walking through an ancient woodland, which legend has it was the haunt of many Druids in ancient times. As he's feeling the strange, otherworldly energies he comes across a HUGE oak tree he's never seen before,
"That's strange, I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday."
So he approaches it and finds that there is a clearing surrounded by many Oak trees of the same size.
And standing at the centre, a man in a white robe holding a staff.

"Wow, a Druid, probably an ancient one, I'll go and talk to him. Excuse me."
But the Druid doesn't hear as he's concentrating on something...
Fluffyfire Bambi... stuff it, Bob then shouts for attention.
"EXCUSE ME!"
But the Druid jumps and swings his staff at Bobs head, "Go away! Don't do that to me, I'm deaf in one ear, fool!"

Bob feeling bad apologises but then says, "You didn't invoke peace did you? Otherwise you'd feel better."

"Peace?" says the Druid, "What use for peace have I when I planning to kill lots of romans?"

Bob's thought's are confirmed, he's meeting a real live ancient Druid. But talk of killing makes him queasy so he says "It's bad karma to kill, isn't it?"

"Karma? What on earth is that?" The confused Druid asks.

"It's like energetic justice, get what you give sorta thing. My Arch-Druid says that you can clear bad karma by chanting the Awen. Aaaaaaaoooooooweeeeennnnnn"

"A-what? Most peculiar thing I've ever heard." And the Druid scratches his head in confoundment.

"Maybe you use Imbas?"

"What's cutlery got to do with chanting?"

"Oh. Oh well." Then looking around and admiring the trees Bob says "Isn't Nature lovely?"

Thick with sarcasm the Druid answer "Oh yes, just peachy. Only last week it offered me the gift of a flooded home and last winter all my food got eaten by a greedy fat bear!"

"Oh dear. Still isn't Druidry wonderful?" And Bob confidently smiles .

"Wonderful? WONDERFUL!? I've spent 20 years training and all it's worth is "wonderful"! It's bloody hard work! It's bad enough that I failed my last exams and have to start over but then I get offered a measly "wonderful"."

"You failed?" Says our fluffy hero, "That shouldn't happen, I think your Arch-Druid is doing it wrong."

The Druids eyes bulge out and heat proclaims to high heavens "I am the Arch-Druid! I'd swing for yer if I weren't so old!"

"Calm down, we're all friends, just have faith in the Lord and Lady, pray to the gods and say hello to the fairies. That's what my friend says to chear me up."

Well poor mister Druid, he's almost blind with so much eye bulging.
"GODS! FAIRIES!! I'm an evangelical hard-core Atheist! Bloody gods...I've been trying to teach those bloody superstitious barbarian tribes they're deluding themselves and now you're telling me Druids have succumbed to this IDIOCY!"

The Druid starts a torrent of spitting, stuttering and growling until no more can he take and he launches himself at Bob.

"Love and Ligh...oof" Squeals Bob and the Druid keeps thrashing him.

"Make love not...YAAAARRRR! "Flip" it, I can only take so much." And so Bob responds in kind.

So we shall leave these two fellow Druids to their exchange of culture, I'm putting bets on the old Druid to win ;)

2007-05-29T11:09:00.000-07:00

(Image : "The Guardian of Destiny", Shakti G., acrylics and watercolours, May '07)

Shakti :

Wind whooshing through the branches

Grandmother figtree leaning into the sun

Birds singing their aleluiahs

Green-hearted woman sitting here

Resting her weary bones

Awash with bliss

(May 29th, a green day, a good day)

2007-05-28T08:53:00.000-07:00

(Image : Ways of the Wyrd, The Road to Xanadu, collage on paper, Shakti G., 2002. )

Shakti :

While Mika and Adam are taking Adam´s Mum, Fran, to one of those funny bars on the beach where you can get Spanish tapas (all kinds of little plates with strange-looking E.T (=tiny extraterrestrials with a lot of tentacles in hot sauces), I´m baby-sitting the doggies (and the chicken, and the bunnies) and exploring the Web on a chase about the concept of the Wyrd.
A simple definition :
"Wyrd literally means 'that which has turned' or 'that which has become'. It carries the idea of "turned into" in both the sense of becoming something new and the sense of turning back to an original starting point. In metaphysical terms, wyrd embodies the concept that everything is turning into something else while both being drawn in toward and moving out from its own origins. Thus, we can think of wyrd as a process that continually works the patterns of the past into the patterns of the present. "
Think of it as karma, but with the sense that one can actually change one´s wyrd by taking some kind of voluntary action. Fate is not something blind that happens to you, it is a weaving of factors, some of them being obligatory (if you are unconscious of them), and some of them you can transform by an act of awareness. (Why oh why didn´t you write that letter, that e-mail, that comment in our blog ???...Why didn´t you follow that hunch, see the sign, grok the synchronicity ?... See?)
Oh, that´s weird. Yes, it has become "weird", but a long time back it was your wyrd, meaning : your destiny.
I like that much much better than the concept of a wrathful God distributing gifts or chastising the believers.
Here you have an interesting article about the subject :
http://www.wyrdwords.vispa.com/heathenry/whatwyrd.html

Mmm... this is a wyrd-weaving post, if you catch my meaning.
;-)

http://www.wayofwyrd.com

2007-05-26T07:27:00.000-07:00

Shakti the Wizard :
Sometimes I write around the corners, and sometimes I fly right off the page!
Sometimes I´m laughing while the words dance around my head like crazed bees...
Makes sense ? Of course. Well, this was one of those moments...
Get a-going, and keep straight on, the road has a lot of racy curves!...
Say it aloud, you´ll get a spin and end up giggling. It´s a metaphor, of course.
(Image : "Lothlorien-the-Beautiful", Mika G., 2007)
Metaphor : –noun
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.” (def. 1).
2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
Wyrd: The word "Wyrd" is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and roughly corresponds to the concept of "karma" in Hinduism. Although wyrd can be personal it is often linked to whole families, tribes, and even races. Unlike Karma, it is not totally fixed. One can move within one's individual web of Wyrd in accord with the amount of consciousness one commands. The less conscious one is, the more one is subject to the seemingly random workings of Wyrd, in contrast to "orlog" which is impersonal and cannot be manipulated.
Alkymia of the Wyrd :…The Baba Yaga is chanting in the fragrant vapours while stirring the soup with a wooden spoon, her white hair all crazy about her face : The Old Iron Pot is floating on a tormented sea, Yeah yeah yeah. And then she goes on, smiling all the while, like the wild woman we know she really is…
"An alchemical vessel it is indeed, says Master Yoda who lives right next door. The fires of awareness are stoked every day in this very cauldron, carefully, tenderly tended to, the fires which gobble up inconsistencies and mash things with dark wings that go bump into the raging, raging night, - the lowlow fires that transform possibilities into good nourishment for the whole village, into soul-food for the hungry." Oof, say that again, Sam!
I´ll say so myself if you allow me to: the brew is savoury, to say the least. The kitchen team is rosy red most of the time (could it be for the tiny crystal cups of bubbly wine?). Anyway, they dance around the fires, breathing on the curly violet-orange-blue flames. More leek! More potatoes! More curry powder! …they call, taking turns with the spoon, sampling the creation with delight. But tchee, there always comes the moment when a tiny voice suddenly pipes up, chirping the dreaded : "Oh! I´m BOOOOOOOORED!..." , and then… … all the ravens fly off with a great whoosh, and we all start to shake in our boots, let´s try this, let´s do that, now a new adventure happens on the horizon, and the old Iron Pot goes a-floating into new waters, with a sky behind it like Turner´s paintings, all about the glory of the light.

The Old Pot´s Al-kymia is working again *sigh*, and the dark angels sort of pile on one another in a corner, all agog, and screaming away the daylights, - all the dark angels go RAOTKF (Rolling Around On The Kitchen Floor)!... Imagine, imagine, imagine! "Imaaaaaaaaaaaaa-gine all the peeeeeeeeeeee-ople…"…Oh oh oh!... Ah methinks it´s not the shiny new tools that will save our day, but the patched, recycled, mended, bumpy Old Faithful – tried this way and that by time and eeeeeeeeeek-spee-rience. Brewing the right mix, the mix "just right" as Goldilocks says, salt, curry, savoury celery, and the exact hidden ***Magik*** ingredient that gives the brew its smooth, smoother, smooziest consistence in town! Brace yourselves, Thrones and Glories. Here come the gnomes, and the trolls, and the fairies – all the little precious ones! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - breathe in, the spicy savoury (((("vibration"))))… Mwahahahahahahaha Come on, come ON, do inhale, DO, lol!
Post Scriptum – The so-called Dark Angels are "dark" only because they don´t have any sense of RHY-ZZZ-M – babbedee babbeda – babbedoo... doo! ;-)
It rains on the plains in SpainZ…And the Spanish Armada goes a-floating near the Old Iron Pot, just to have a see; a see, you see, a siege, a seat to see the company of dragon riders that swallow innocent people whole, and spit out the bones, good people that they are! Whoa.
...And the Baba Yaga, half screeching crone and half Jedi-knight, she still has some life in her tired bones, after all!

That. Was. A. Metaphor. If you´ll pardon me.
The Dragon Lady, Upstairs.
;-)

2007-05-22T03:37:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Grand-Mother at Sunset", pic Shakti G.)

Shakti :

Last week I restored Faerie Corner.
You see, once upon a time there was a nice place between two small pine trees, with a clump of ivy and tiny white stones, that I simply "knew"...Mmmmm....this is a Faerie Corner, no doubt about it! I have a knack for discovering these places.

I don´t really know what it is. This one was very, very small - the tiniest crack between two stones, there was some grass and a bit of moss, but the air feels somewhat different, there is a shimmer, a vividness, a tinkle to it, concretely in this one, it had something very special... And then someone moved a fence, moved the stones to make a place for tools or something, and the tiny corner disappeared! Heeew, I was disappointed! This person has now moved on, and last week I went back to clean that garden, and found the corner there. A bit awry, you understand, all sad and abandoned, lots of dead leaves, but it called to me, hey you, big person, would you please clean up the place? So I did, very carefully, restoring the tiny corner of Faerieland. I cut the dead grass, took out the dead leaves, raked the space, watered it, gently touched the remaining ivy, transmitting my nwyfre, my energy, my connection with the sacred land, and generally prayed for it to come back, back, back...as it was before.

This morning as I passed by close, the grass was singing softly: there was a smile, a ripple about it as if the fairies waved their little hands, and you could hear the faintest giggle coming through the carpet of ivy.

Now before you say "are ya mad", I will own that I don´t see fairies, only through the eyes of my heart...is that not where they really exist ? *smile*

2007-05-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

The world in the eyes of my dog...

Mika ? See yourself reflected in Kayla´s eye ?

You gotta love this pic!

2007-05-16T03:55:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Tree Dragon, Adam Brough, watercolours)

(Article authorized by the author)

Mika :
"A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong."
The world that J. R. R. Tolkien describes in 'The Lord of the Rings' is a world where Nature has a great power, great enough even to face and fight the Enemy. Environment in 'The Lord of the Rings' is a key to every different adventure and it is as present as any other main character. Landscapes, lakes, mountains and trees all have their own names in the different languages of Middle-earth, and some even revered by nearby peoples.
In the eternal struggle between good and evil, Nature is on the side of good. The different realms of Middle-earth fight against Mordor, a dark deserted place where no green thing grows. One of the strongest and most unexpected enemies Sauron finds is the Shire, a green land whose inhabitants dwell in peace and happiness. There is a great power in the Shire, as Gandalf says in 'The Fellowship of the Ring', though what exactly that power is we do not know. However, it is certain that the Shire's calmness, and the way its inhabitants respect and work with the environment, is a strength more powerful than bravery or pride. Nature is not just seen as important to hobbits, for if we look at the Elven Realms we find no less admiration and respect for it. The Elves, one of the highest beings in Middle-earth, have a deep link with their environment. Greenwood the Great, or Mirkwood as was known after Sauron came to Dol Guldur, largest of the woods of Middle-earth; Rivendell, the dwelling of Elrond where houses, bridges and roads were made to fit and blend in with Nature; and Lothlórien, the fairest place in Middle-earth. Indeed in the Golden Wood, the elves' close relationship with Nature reaches its peak, for the Galadhrim live actually in the trees, huge golden trees called 'mellyrn'. It is even said that Lothlórien is reminiscent of the garden of the Vala Lórien in Valinor. Valinor, of course, also has a deep connection with Nature, with its two most beloved and revered things having been two trees, Laurelin and Telperion, which shed both golden and silver light that bathed and lit the beauty of the land.
But what about Dwarves and Men? Dwarves are more drawn to stoneworking and smithcraft than the joy of Nature, and not all Men seem too concerned about it either. Stone cities such as Minas Tirith or Osgiliath show us the distance between humans and Nature, but yet it is true that the people of Rohan do show somewhat more of a connection, but still in no way as much Elves or Hobbits. But there are indeed fair places among the dwellings of men, such as Ithilien or the plains of Rohan. Indeed, if we look closer, while Minas Tirith is built of stone, the most sacred thing that lies within the city is a tree, the White Tree of Gondor, seed of Nimloth of Númenor, descended from Telperion of Valinor.
Another race of Middle-earth that is deeply related to Nature are the Eldest of beings of Middle-earth, the Ents, the shepherds of the Trees. These are wonderful living things, walking, talking trees who protect the forests of Middle-earth, peaceful and wise, not very drawn to adventures or wars, and as much alike to hobbits than to any other being in that aspect. But as kind and quiet as the Ents may be, if they are roused they can be terrible and they will fight fearlessly to protect the trees and forests. So it was in the War of the Ring, where the least expected stroke that fell on Saruman was given by the Ents who flooded Isengard and revenged their dead kin, trees that Saruman had fallen and thrown into the fires of Isengard.
But not everything could manage to endure the evilness of Mordor, even when its Lord was destroyed. The beauty and the peace of the Shire was damaged by Saruman, and trees fell and rivers polluted, but even here Nature wins again, for what was the gift of Galadriel to Sam? A tiny seed, not very useful it seemed to the hobbit for the long and perilous journey ahead, but it was that seed that gave life again to the Shire. And what was once was green and full of life started to become so once again. Tolkien disliked allegories and did not want his work compared to any real topic of his time. We won't now compare Sauron and Saruman with the rise of industry and modern technologies, but we can learn a lesson from Tolkien's work - respect for Nature and for living things, for they are all older than we are and they have endured more than we will all ever endure.
And to quote Professor Tolkien: "Every tree has its enemy, few have an advocate. In all my works I take the part of trees against all their enemies". Now, if only we would all play the part of an advocate for Nature, maybe we would regain a glimpse of the Shire or Lothlórien in our own woods.
(Researched and written by Annúnagar, CoE)

2007-05-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Imbolc", Shakti G.)

Treegod (Adam) :
Hello All,

I created this blog for my Grove of Quotes blog. Here I start with some quotes then explain and express a view that's flying round my head. I might not put all of these blogs here, but if it's important it may make a show ;)

“This tendency to abstraction may be irreversible, because education today is only concerned with the conscious. The teacher delivers his knowledge the same way a waiter brings a drink to a customer. He has to feed pupils with the official programme. The thing that matters is the programme, not the teacher.” Itsuo Tsuda

“I thought the purpose of education was to learn to think for yourself.” John Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society

“In the space age the most important space is between the ears.” Thomas J. Barlow

“Genius is the ability to put into effect what is in your mind.” P. Scott Fitzgerald

We humans have come a very long from the days we used to swing around trees, barking or howling against competitors and for mates. We’ve created ethics, we’ve invented arts and sciences to reflect our awe and curiosity at the world, we’ve overcome standing on the razors edge of survival and spread all over the world building great cities with great cultures. Yes, we’ve come a long way... or have we?

Well yes, we have come a long way, it’s true but at the same time we’ve got a long way to go. Each human is made of the same stuff, mostly, we’ve all come from the same evolutionary tree so we have, or should have, the same potential for genius. I’m not just talking about intellectual, university type of genius but also emotional, spiritual, physical etc.

But when you walk down a town or cities street is it full on creative geniuses? No, it seems people have forgotten something vital to human life. People seem to have ditched in human quality for human quantity, people are more human doings rather than human beings. We´ve built something and then lots of humans started thinking “that’s it.” I beg to differ, we’re still in the developing process and always will be as evolution never stays still.

We have a great piece of biological technology encased in our skulls which the average person only uses 10% of and “geniuses” use up to around 20%, not because they’re born with a “special” gift but because they nurtured something that is in the human mind already. Look at it this way (analogy time), the brain is a type of dragon which can roar, breathe fire and fly but all it gets taught to do is maybe breathe a little smoke and then spends the rest of its life in some life-sucking beauracracy career where it acts as little more than a paper-weight or door-stop! Do you see my point?

The education system doesn’t let anyone nuture the “inner-dragon” of genius and if it does, it’s often by accident. Instead it feeds the brain with information that it only has to passively accept, without any great effort on its part. It’s a bit like todays dominant form of pleasure the tv, a lot of programmes you just have to sit and watch with no thought. All furniture in the house is no doubt facing the tv, where once upon a time social activity was based around the hearth.

When you’re sitting around a fire, you can’t just passively sit there hoping to get entertained, you have to entertain yourself and others. Around fires people get bored with nothing so they start talking, then singing and playing games and even inventing new things to play, sing and talk about. When I sit by a fire with others I can imagine why the fire of the gods is equated with intelligence because its here where we have room to sit and think and become “divinely inspired” by our thoughts.

Education in most schools consists of giving information to students as though students are just computers to be programmed. They’re given a lot of information but not the skills to be able to use that knowledge. Often people leave the education system not knowing what to do with life so instead go for the easy option to just earn money and not much else. But us humans can be quite spectacular if we can really experience our own potential.

One friend of mine who was trained in a Native American tradition told me that a rare but possible totem was the human totem. A person with a human totem is someone that embodies problem solving. The trait that all humans have to one degree or another is the ability to solve problems. Where most animals see things and reacte automatically, human can make a space inside their minds to imagine something in many different ways to see if there’s any new way of seeing it. But this isn’t something that can be taught passively, but one that each person has to develop for themselves or to “think for ourselves” as one of our quotes say.

One thing is that intellect is severely undermined. It’s usually seen as something that retains information and explains things in a dry, rational way. But to me it is more creative than that, it is not just about knowing and explaining, it also produces abstract thinking and problem solving. To me creative intellect is something that takes experience and knowledge into the imagination to use them in new and innovative ways.

One animal that also has such a trait, to what extent noone knows exactly, is the dolphin. There was a series of experiment where a dolphin had to come up with new and creative behaviour which of course they couldn’t know except by the clue of rewards. In the end their behaviours became so complex that the scientists couldn’t even keep track of it.

But this isn’t about the intelligence of other animals, this is about human intelligence. We’ve become a very innovative species, our whole world and its landscapes have been transformed because we have created so many different ways of living. Of course some of these are having adverse affects with things like global warming, deforestation and the destruction of habitats.

I don’t believe human intelligence did this, human intelligence is more intelligent than that. Our technologies and cultures were created by intelligent people; geniuses, revolutionaries and visionaries but they are maintained by people who haven’t developed the mental tools to cope with our modern abilities and opportunities, our ethics don’t always match our sciences.

The future of humanity lies in the new generations. The concept of a better humanity is not something far off but one that lies with the new generations, if we let it and our best means of doing that is through education. Instead of “restaurant schools”, as Tsuda might have said, we should find alternative ways of education, it doesn’t have to be a posh school, maybe home-schooling. We need new education that gives the students the initiative to become self-learned and self-directed individuals, where people can learn to direct their own lives and know where they’re going instead of relying on societies and governments that themselves don’t have a common purpose.

I want to see a better world, with better people, deeper people. I want people using the potential that lies within them. So first I’m going to work on myself, learning to be self-directed and interested in my life and its potential. Then I’ll find what opportunities I can to pass my experience onto other people. And then... well the skys the limits I guess ;)

2007-05-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

("Forest in my Pocket", watercolours, Mika G.)

Treegod (Adam) :

One of my favourite films, funny, intelligent and inspirational has to be the Dead Poet’s Society with Robin Williams. I’d recommend anyone to see it. It’s all about a very strict American boarding school called Welton whose “pillars” are Tradition, Honour, Discipline and Excellence. Although the students call the school “Hellton” and describe the four pillars as Travesty, Horror, Decadence and Excrement. Basically an unorthodox teacher comes, played by Robin Williams and starts causing “trouble” by the standards of other teachers and parents, although as we shall see, he just wanted to inspire the students to live their own life!

Here’s a link describing it; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Poets_Society

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner…"

This is the original quotation they adapted for the film by Henry David Thoreau. The whole film was about carpe diem, latin for seize the day, which is also emphasised in the quote above. Suck the marrow isn’t at all morbid, it just means live life because it’ll soon be taken away. To not let life pass you by but to grasp it and take up every bit of it that you can. A wasted life is no life at all!

Also it’s about noncomformity. In the movie, most of the students are put into Welton because their parents make them go, it’s their parents that decide the life and career they will lead. One student finds he has a passion for acting but his father abhors the idea and wants him to become a doctor and so forces is son not to do any acting, although the son rebels!

No, I can’t live someone elses life, that’s their responsibility, if someone else hasn’t lived their life why should they stop me from living mine? I’ve got to live my own responsibility and make my life unique and extraordinary and “suck out all the marrow of life” and so once again we come full circle back to carpe diem!

Here’s some quotes by Robin Williams character John Keating I found here; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/quotes These really are inspirational, but don’t just read these, watch the movie! And don’t just watch the movie, live life!!!

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.”

“They're not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts. Full of hormones, just like you. Invincible, just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they're destined for great things, just like many of you, their eyes are full of hope, just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? - - Carpe - - hear it? - - Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”

“Sucking all the marrow out of life doesn't mean choking on the bone.”

“I thought the purpose of education was to learn to think for yourself.”

“Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Don't be resigned to that. Break out!”

2007-05-13T11:39:00.000-07:00

(Image : "Faeries & Goblins", Altered Book)
Hello! I´m the third part of the Lothlorien-Nemeton Seed-Group.
I´m the Wizard of Lothlorien (my blog is in the Links), and an Ovate with OBOD.
I´m also Mika´s Mum, for those who know her, so I live at the Earth Sanctuary, with Mika, my other daughter, Blondie (yes, a nickname!), Adam (Treegod), three dogs, cats, chicken, bunnies, and a community of a thousand trees!
I´m a trained therapist (psychosynthesis), an artist (Altered Books & Artist Trading Cards) and a aspiring Druid.

I´ll be writing here too, so...see you soon!

2007-04-25T06:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of posts ago we showed you this fence but unfinished because the gate wasn't built yet.

Here is the gate now finished and so the fence is ready to keep boar out.

Mission accomplished!

That and also another fence on the other side of the garden to keep them from coming up.

Mission doubly accomplished!
*grin*

PS: We shall show you that second gate as well in a future post.

2007-04-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Bee Hive Walk

Mika knows someone that knows someone that keeps bees. Now Mika knows him. Well anyway, Mika struck a deal with him; we have land, he has bees, so he can keep bees on our land. We didn’t have to do much, just clear away vegetation from the track and hand over a key. Then the beekeeper, at night, brought the bees in their beehives and placed them there.

Why at night you say? Well, it’s to make sure that all of the bees are nice and dormant because before nightfall, everybee goes home, no late nights out...

Well, having spotted them through the trees from the road in the car before, I decided to have a walk and see them a bit closer. Not too close though, of course!

When I got there I was expecting only a handful, maybe 5 or 6, of beehives. Little did I know I was in for a suprise. With the two dogs, Chispa and Luna in tow we rounded a corner to the hazel orchard where the hives are. Well lo and behold, there before me stood something like 30! Still not too close you understand.

Now I’ve seen small groups of hives and they have quite a buzz of activity from them, but this was a great cloud of buzzing honey industry. Just thinking about walking near it made my skin itch and cringe. And the noise! I was standing at least 20 feet away and could hear it as though I were standing next to it.

With all those busy bees buzzing about, you could say our flower beds and vegetables with be well and truly fertilised, not to mention the honey, YUM!

2007-03-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

It was playing cards that brought me the idea to buy rabbits. I (Mika) will explain...

While playing a "blackjack" card game, I thought that it would be funny to have bets to make the game more interesting, so of course, because we are animals lovers we had this hey, not so crazy idea to have a "couple of rabbits" as the final prize, lol. So the first that would won 50 games would receive them! The game then became REALLY exciting.

When the games were finished, I was the winner and so Adam and I went that day (Sunday) to the famous oh so plentiful street market to get MY own rabbits! When I saw them I just said: "We won't get only 2 but 4 because they're too nice!" so we've bought one more couple (male and female) so we have 2 couples.

The characters are, Ostara, the grey and white one, named after a germanic spring goddess; she seems a bit of a boss type, confident and strong-willed and she often hangs around with Indiana Jones (or Jones for short), the grey one, who's the most active zooming around like I don't know what and we swear he has the theme tune of said movie going through his head! There's also Monty, the black one, named after Monty Python, he's the most curious one, scouting things out and looking at "things". Then last but not least we have Peppermint, a black and white angora, whereas the others are shorthaired. She's the smallest and also the most affectionate one prefering to eat and be held by someone than adventuring around like the other three.

Now the chicken share their home with those tiny furry balls in the same building although separated by a cosy cage for the rabbits and sometimes we even take them upstairs in the patio so they can practice their jumps, run, stretch properly, and exercise other rabbitness-es . They are proud little happy rabbits and they bring a lot of tender feelings to the house.

2007-03-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Wow, life in this valley can be quite adventurous and chicken coop life too.

Let me tell you a story...

Once upon a time, just last week actually, we cleaned the inside chicken coop of dirt and browney-white shit (sorry for the image but that’s country life for you, lol) and replaced it with wood chippings. We added some baskets aswell so that our two chicken can start laying eggs and then, because it felt empty, we decided to get more chicken (plus one randy cockeral is just too much for two hens)

So on Sunday we went to a village where they hold this really big street market once a week with stands selling just about everything to hoards of people. We waded past fruit stands, clothes stands, music stands, shoe stands and lots more stands just to get to the animal stand. There’s plenty of interesting things in that market and the animal stand is no exception. They, rabbits, guinea pigs, chicken, partridge, quail, cockatiels and budgies. They’ve even had a gorgeous white pheasant and some peacocks.

So peering into the cages we chose six chicken, three small ones called quicas and three multicoloured ones which look quite pretty. So with a box full of chicken we headed home to introduce them to where they will stay for the rest of their lives. I say “will” tentatively as you shall see. The three little ones has some difficulty as they weren’t able to use the perches like normal chicken but the other new ones did. The difference between the old ones and the new ones is that the new ones get a bit hysterical around us humans, which doesn’t work in our favour...

The next day after getting these chicken, Mika was letting them out into their enclosure when all of a sudden out flew one of the multicoloureds right over the enclosure fence! Well, we just couldn’t see where it had gone amongst all those trees and bushes. Will it survive? Will we get it back? We hoped so. Well it did come to hang around near the others because it was lonely, but no matter how we tried it could not be coaxed nor caught and we don’t think it will just fly back in, it’s got too feral.

But that’s not the end of it. Another day I (Adam) went into the enclosure and wanted to have a closer look at the new ones and even see if I could pick one up. What a mistake, before I could blink a multicoloured flew up and out! So I ran out through the gate to catch it with a “interested” dog helping me corner it. But it flew away. BUT I decided to follow it anyway where I realised, passing the gate, I’d left it open. Well one of the quicas decided to escape running into some undergrowth. Even with fast legs and two “sniffer” dogs I just couldn’t find them.

Since then I’ve seen the second escapee twice, the first time I almost caught it and the second time I saw it with the first feral one, so at least they have company out in the wild and they’re still looking healthy and well-fed. The lost quica on the other hand has not been seen and we’re not sure if it learnt to perch which it would need with so many hungry ground animals prowling around.

So we’ve done some work to stop this from happening again. Using a net we have covered the enclosure which, we hope, will stop any more flying out and also stop those hungry eagles getting at them aswell. The three remaining new ones have settled in and have found the older ones to be good teachers in the “Chicken Way”, scratching and pecking at the organic left-over food we give them rather than chemical rubbish that they could be fed. The two quicas have also managed to learn to perch above the ground alongside the others.

These chicken can be hard work, with something to do on a daily basis, but their own work, as egg factories and as compost creators, more than makes up for it. Also it’s fun sometimes just to watch them and their curious behaviour. But the best is yet to come, because in mid-spring we hope to have some chicks, which will be another challenge altogether.

(Picture above: The older ones)

2007-02-22T23:51:00.000-08:00

Come meet a women of triple aspect,

I follow a stream deep into woodland,

To its source, to a spring.

By some magic I squeeze into the hole

And move into the dark waters.

Deeper I go and warmer it gets

Until its power soaks through me,

Washing my wounds,

Gently soothing them

And then covering them over.

I follow light out into the world

And chant the chant of Healing.

Come meet a woman of triple aspect.

I follow an old worn path across a field

And before me stands a mound.

Through its doorway I enter to meet ghosts!

Ancestors, memories come forth,

Flow through me and weave you wise words.

And this they do,

A creative spirit flashes across my mind

Like sparks whne striking a flint.

A web of words spring from my tongue

With threads of joy and sorrow.

I follow light out into the world

And chant the chant of Inspiration.

Come meet a woman of triple aspect.

I follow sounds of industry and thick black smoke

Rising from the mouth of a cave.

I enter its darkness and searing heat

Holding an ugly black stone.

I reach forward into a boiling vat of fire

Suffering the burning that writhes up my arm.

I retrieve my hand but the stone has gone

Leaving a shining sword with perfect blade

And perfect balance.

I follow light out into the world

And chant the chant of Transformation.

I meet Brigid of triple aspect

And I chant

Healing, inspiration, transformation.

This is the nature of her flame.

Hail Brigid!

2007-02-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

Cold is being replaced by a warm breeze that indicates that spring is about to come. You can feel how the land is ready to receive the new seed and see signs of life that begins to appear on each corner at the Earth Sanctuary. Here we plant the "seeds" of our hopes and dreams for the coming summer months.

Adam’s thought’s: Coming to Spain I have a different experience of Imbolc time, it’s a bit like spring and temperatures even resemble summer just without the humidity. But the one thing that I do miss is seeing snowdrops. These little white flowers epitomise, for me, the Imbolc season, they can be seen growing up through snow and their drooping heads seem to whisper to the sleeping earth to wake up from winter. They truly are a little springtime in the last stretch of winter and so they have a special place in my heart.

2007-02-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

Cunning devices to beat wild boar

If you go down the woods today you might spot a wild boar or... down in the Garden of the Goddess!

We had some juicy vegetables and fruit growing which the boar happened to find and take for themselves. After all the hard work on the garden, it feels devastating to find it all ploughed up.

Years ago the boar would be hidden deep in the forest but the hunters come along and pushed them out, which means you could find one virtually on your doorstep. The Earth Sanctuary is a safehaven for these creatures where they aren’t hunted which is why they are so brave and use our back garden as a restaurant.

Ok...we LOVE nature and its denizens but we still need to keep our hard work safe, and our lettuces! LOL !

So we set about digging and weaving to make the fences but we still lack a bloomin’ gate. Hopefully in the future we’ll get that gate up to show you AND keep the boar out!

2007-02-13T10:01:00.000-08:00

From the masses of humanity,

From their souless masks,

I seek sanctuary

Intent upon the needs of my soul

And my humanity.

Somehow by a miracle of sacred truth,

Despite all delusions

Imposed by such soulless masks,

My soul touched a thread,

A thread of fate

That guided me to a truth never expected.

In the world of masks

The thread exists but is heavily obscured.

In this outward world of masks

The threads vital vision is threatened by destruction.

So I seek necessary sanctuary

And I look at the inward world,

Beyond the masks

And forces of destruction.

Here I find a mirror,

Polished and pure,

That reflects my mask

And the soul-filled eyes shining back.

Here I recognise the first glimmer of sanctuary

As I look deep beyond the mask

Into the truth of my soul

Through all distractions of the mask world.

The masks tell me I’m wrong,

They try hard to deny my truth

For they do not recognise their own

But I trust in truth and follow my thread.

Because of this I now see an outward sanctuary

Hidden from masks,

Where my thread weaves

In trust and truth

Among the threads of others.

I know it is well said that

No outward sanctuary is recognised

When the inward sanctuary is neglected.

-Adam-

2007-02-12T11:14:00.000-08:00

Trevor

When we work in the garden Trevor is always nearby. Trevor is an Erithacus rubecula, more commonly known as a robin. You would think he’s just a bird searching for bugs and bits but the way that he observes our work makes us think he is up to something more than that... It’s the way he scans us! The way he flies from branch to branch, watching us from different angles that makes us a bit nervous. He looks so clever, so determined, like he’s making notes of our every move. He makes us suspect that Goddess Nature has sent a guard to keep everything in order and balance.

The Earth Sanctuary has a lot of beautiful places and “micro-sanctuaries”. One of those places we call the Garden of the Goddess, and it is there precisely where Trevor makes its appearance each time. Trevor likes us and we like him and that’s why he gets closer and more trustful each day that passes. We made a deal with a bird as eco-warriors that we will care about nature’s balance and harmony and that we will do good for the land that it is his and our home too.

Maybe he’s just a bird and maybe he’s just searching for bugs and bits but for us his care and observation opens our eyes to a spirituality that is friendly with Nature, and gives us the possibility and hope to celebrate the simple and beautiful moments that can still be found living on this planet Earth.

2007-02-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

The Lothlórien-Nemeton Seed Group was created in 2006 as part of the OBOD Seed Groups programme. One of the main duties of our seed group´s core team is to protect and maintain the 108 acres of woodland where we work and live respectfully without interfering with nature and its wild ways of healing itself.

Where contemporary society constricts and erodes the human soul and nature´s soul, Lothlórien gives us the right space to recover and heal in the safety of sanctuary.

The word "nemeton" means "woodland sanctuary" or "sacred grove". This invokes in us a vision where nature is given freedom and respect and in return, nature allows the human beings that are its guardians and visitors to manifest their inner spiritual truth(s).

The Lothlórien-Nemeton Seed Group, then, stands for this inner star that we call the Self, so that it may shine in the dark, and act as a spiritual beacon in the otherwise self-destructive reality that we call "civilization". As Guardians, we work hard to preserve a sacred inner Forest that is as vital for human life than it is for nature itself. Thomas The Apocryph wrote : "The Kingdom is in you and also around you". Thus, taking care of the Kingdom, within and without, is our most important and freely elected task.

This is not an utopia. It is an inner vision come true.

(Imbolc 2007)