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

H-O-P-E

means...

Help Our Planet Evolve.

(Anon)

*grin*

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.

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

“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.

Just for fun! The Luna looking Italian!

;-)

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

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 ???

;-)

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.

:-)

(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! ;-)

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.

:-)

("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)

(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)

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?
:-)

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.

(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.

(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.

:-)

(Image : The Earth Sanctuary, 2002)

The Lady Dragon (Shakti) :

...So, what is ecopyschology ?

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

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

(Wow, does the link actually work ?)

Now, my ramblings about ecopsychology ...

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

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

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

That is exactly what I mean.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Theodore Roszak, courtesy of Brother Google :

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hug you, people!

:-)

The Wizard :

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

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

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

Tuesday, June 1oth :

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

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

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

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

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

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

What could I BE ?

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

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

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

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

Treegod

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

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

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

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

The Bliss-O-Meter :

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