Winter Solstice-Rituals for the darkest day of the year

 

Here in this human world, sometimes we must experience darkness before we can choose the light. Winter solstice is when the earth is at Her darkest nadir and She pauses, preparing for the next cycle of the seasons. This is why, despite the marginalization of spirituality in our world, this one time of year, with its multiple celebrations from various traditions, is still honoured in most of the world.

This is the time of year to venerate darkness, the Shadow, all the negative experiences in our lives, in the lives of others, and in the world, as one interconnected net of being. From the darkness comes the polarities necessary to choose the light, for the next cycle of growth- restoration, rest, sinking in the cave of the collective subconscious, going within and finding new directions for the new year.

With that in mind, let’s turn our attention for a moment towards our own defensiveness, anger and irritation with others. Let’s reflect on how we often jump into the limbic high jack and collapse into defensiveness to protect our vulnerabilities. Those soft spots in ourselves that hold sadness, unworthiness, grief and hopelessness. Let’s turn towards our own capacity to truly listen to others, to be willing to compromise for long term gains, to respect others’ rights to self-determination.

 Internationally, I will re-iterate what others have stated as the basis for peaceful co-existence among nations: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non- interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

 To strengthen our ability to create peace- I have created this ritual for solstice. Gathering with others is the most powerful way to perform this ritual, but if you don’t have a spiritual tribe, you can come together with, then doing this alone is also very effective.

 Ahead of time, ask your tribe to bring an inspirational reading, or dance or poetry or song to share. With your tribe, from a circle. Set a large candle in the centre of the circle. Give each person a small candle, perhaps a small tealight. Wherever you are, make the space as dark as possible, turn off all the lights, blow out the candles. Sit for a few moments in the darkness. You can play soft  music if it helps people to focus.

 Here at the darkest day of the year, we can honour three worlds of Gaia- the mineral world, the plant world and the animal world.

 The mineral world During the winter months this world gives us rain, snow, winds, sky, clouds to help us by cleansing events- snow, rainstorms, torrential atmospheric rivers- we honour their activities as helping us clear away the past, purging old beliefs and behaviours which we no longer need or want. Next time there is a climatic storm of any kind, step out into it and give blessing to the mineral world for helping us blow away the past, to grow and develop.

 The plant world  Trees enter into a state of suspended animation. Perennials have a temperature memory that tracks both time and temperature, ultimately allowing them to figure out how cold it has been and for how long. By keeping tabs on interactions among proteins, plants identify when to activate the core gene that breaks dormancy. Trees and shrubs drop their leaves, go into their roots. Photosynthesis and respiration decelerate, and growth halts.

 The animal world  Many beings in this world sleep, or hibernate in one form or another. Bears in their caves, giving birth to their young and suckling their young on the fat they accumulated from autumn harvests. Fish and other amphibians go into the mud or other dark caves and sleep. Humans also feel the pull towards isolation, astrologers study the stars and sky events, gardeners read seed catalogues and draw out next year’s gardens, writers write, dreamers dream, healers take rest.

 Light one candle in the centre of the circle.

 Let’s begin the new year as the earth pauses in her cycle to create aspirations in three realms of human consciousness. Individual, collective and global.

 This candle is a metaphor for the one source which we all come from. It is the sun of our Soul.

 Let’s put our hands on our hearts and imagine a radiant light developing there, like the candle in the centre of the circle. Let the heart light fill your whole body, sinking first downwards through your body to your toes, and then rising up into your throat, head and crown.

 Now your whole body is radiant light, wellbeing, peacefulness, joy and the power of source energy. Let this radiance fill your whole body and especially focus on any areas that may be constricted or in pain or illness.

 Individual intentions

Set an intention for yourself individually. These can be aspirations about your personal health, career, work, abundance, what you want to create in the next year.

 Relational intentions

 Now imagine that you have strands of light energy that can be sent out to everyone you have known in your life. These can be beings or pets who have passed. Take and moment and visual all these beings filled with light, love and joy. You can also send out strands of light to the three worlds of Gaia- the mineral world, the plant world and the animal world. See these group of beings gathered around you in loving kindness with an interchange of light, love and joy. Imagine that we are all embracing inter-being- helping each other with growth, expansion and the care of Soul.

 Gaia intentions

 Imagine now and put your focus towards Gaia as a whole interconnected being. With millions of cells participating in the creation of one complex, beautiful, blue pearl being in space.

 Take a moment and send peace to all those who are in war zones, those who live in areas where there is violence, hatred, fear, destruction and defensiveness. Let’s send prayers to these people and imagine, and they can all come to peaceful terms with those that are in conflict.

 Specially let’s send peaceful intentions to the people and all beings who live in Gaza. And to all those who are fighting and struggling with invasion and violence in the Ukraine. Let’s imagine at this moment, not in the future, in this very moment, that they experience a moment of inner peace, that they can find a way towards resolution, mutual respect and prosperity.

 Inspirational Readings

 Now I light my candle from the One light and read my inspirational reading, and if I want, I’ll comment on the meditation and some intentions for the new year. Let’s go around the circle clockwise for opening. Let's allow each person to speak in turn without comment, just presence.

 

Let's end with a chant for peace- 

Blessings for the new year.

 

 Photo credit  Lawren Harris- Group of seven

 

 

 

 DEATH MEDITATION

This practice was taught to me by a channeled fellowship called The River. I included the mediation in my blog-Julia Star’s Blogsite and my book about the River teachings-Soul Catching-Discovering sacred connections in our environments. This book is available on my website-Visionaryjourneys.net. This death meditation is similar to Buddhist practices with same intentions but created for contemporary people in these times.

Winter is the best time of year to practice the Death Meditation. If possible, choose quiet times at night, especially between one and four o’clock. This is a practice best reserved for individuals aged 28 years or older. It is sound practice to allow the first 28 years of maturation for the ego to develop in a healthy way. This is a practice that is beneficial for those who are at the end of their lives, or those who want to let go of the fear of death, or those who want to live more fully without the shadow of death in their psyches. There are some old souls in young bodies who may also benefit from this practice but be observant if you are the care giver that the young one does not fall in nihilism with this practice. It is meant to enlighten, enliven and create joy, not ego ruminations about loss of control.

As is so beautifully stated in Psalm 23- “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Notice the poet did not say “death’ but ‘the shadow of death’. The rod and staff refer to the crook and walking stick that shepherds would typically carry to release caught sheep out of thorny bushes and drive away predators.

We do not fear death as much as we fear dying, the process of letting go. However, releasing old habits, old selves, even old friends and family is often necessary for deep change. We die to our old selves and then can welcome new future selves.

To practice dying is an ancient training which many wisdom traditions incorporate in one way or another. The Buddhist tradition recommended that monks and nuns find a corpse that had been freshly laid on the ground and sit by it every day to observe how the flesh gradually corrupts and is transformed until only white bones remain. This is obviously not an option for us in these times. But we can prepare for dying and embrace our inevitable passing.

This is an extremely powerful practice to face fear in any situation, but especially during journeys, which often bring an ego death. This practice is also helpful for any practitioner who wants to work with dying clients, especially using plant medicines to ease the transition out of this life.

Generally, the progression of release goes in much the same manner as a real death; first the body is dissolved, then the senses (hearing is the last to go) and then the identity and concepts are released.  Whatever comes up, dissolve it in death.  For example, if fear of meeting demons arises, tell yourself that in death, there will be no one left to be afraid.  Like the proverbial tree in the forest, there will be no sound because no one is there to hear it.

Begin by a small ritual of opening into sacred and multidimensional space-walking the four directions, lighting fragrant plants, lighting a candle. Keep the room dark and cool. State your intention for doing the Death Meditation and then, if that falls in line with your beliefs, ask your spirits, guides and essences who travel with you to aid you in completing the meditation deeply.

Find a comfortable position lying down on the back, flat on the floor without a pillow, arms comfortably by the sides and palms facing upwards.  You may want to cover yourself with a warm blanket because the body temperature drops while in deep meditation (unless it is a meditation to rise the body's temperature). It is best to do this meditation alone, unless it’s a guided group experience. Playing music through most of the meditation can be inspiring, however put your music to end after about 15 minutes, as you prepare yourself for the final stages of dying.

Start by stating to yourself ‘I will die tonight. I will not see the dawn’s light” or words with similar meaning. Let that thought sink in. What do you notice? Breathe deeply if your first response is fear. This is natural, let it pass. Remember this is a practice so when your moment to pass truly comes, you will be able to let go easily and joyfully.

Imagine you have the gift being able to say goodbye to all your acquaintances that you met in this life. Take your time and say your farewells to them, say everything you want, knowing this will be the last chance the two of you will meet. You can also say fare thee well to ones who have passed on, animals and environments such as a favorite beach, forest, or plain.

Address the body one part at a time and visualize that part is dying.  Start with the feet and work up to the head.  Say to yourself “My feet are now dying. I want to thank you, feet, for carrying me through this life, for all the pleasure and sensory orientation you gave me. For carrying out the Soul’s desires by keeping me safely upright.”-or words to that effect. Bring to mind all the experiences that were enriched by your feet-walking in the snow with the feet bound up in hiking boots, walking on cold sand in winter, receiving a foot massage with scented oils from your beloved.

As impressions arise, address them by telling yourself that these things will no longer manifest because you are dying.  And let go slowly, let each impression arise and address it as if this is your last hour of life.  Let yourself cry if sorrow arises and move on.  When you have cleared all attachments to one part then release it and move up the body. Spend time especially with joints, hands and the charkas as you move through the torso.

As you work up the body, a multitude of impressions may arise, anger in your gut, sorrow in your solar plexus, your Mother in your knee.  Now comes the difficult part, you must clear each of these parts before you can release them.

 How can you release your stomach to death if all the anger from your previous marriage is pent up there? 

How can you release your need to be recognized by talking, if all your grief from childhood is still in your throat?

And on it goes, be gentle with yourself, be thorough and don't expect to fully achieve release with one meditation.  Remember in the old days, forty days and forty nights were given to this method.

 

When you have let go of the body, go up the centre channel of your spine and release any sensations that might still be there. Then rest your awareness in your crown chakra. Now you will release all of your five senses, except for hearing which will stay until the last and even remain after death.

With the same process of bidding farewell, let go of each sense with gratitude, appreciation, love and of course, sorrow and grief.

Finally, you will release all concepts about who you are. You will release all personal identity, leaving not a trace behind. This may be the most difficult part. Each time a concept of who you are arises, dismiss it. Saying something like “Once I was a (mother, young man, husband, sister, helper, healer, troublemaker, addict…) but now I am dying. I am no longer any of those concepts.”

You will know when the meditation has been successful. You will travel past fear, past regret, past sorrow and past any glib concepts you may have about what happens to you after death.  Don't let the ego fool you by letting the astral body slip away into a fantasy land. Remember, with the true death of identity, there is no one to experience heaven or hell. When this meditation is done deeply and sincerely, we can let go of death in life and fully and joyfully appreciate each precious moment.

VisionaryJourneys.net

 

Elysian mysteries revealed after two thousand years of secrecy

 

The Mystai are approaching.

We can hear them approaching. Singing, playing drums, flutes and cymbals which resonate thru the valley, made hot by the setting sun. This is the month of fall harvest…and death. And rebirth.

They have been walking since dawn. The water carriers are tired, they run ahead the dusty brick road with the amphorae of sweet cool well water and wait for the slowly walking gathering to reach them. Men, women, and children dressed in white linen robes holding palms leaves to shield themselves from the hot sun of late afternoon.

Today is the first day of the Greater Eleusinian Mysteries.

Dromena, deiknumena, legomena. Things done, things shown, things said.

These are the esoteric teachings that could not be revealed, on pain of death. The mysteries were kept secret for between two to four thousand years. They were held about seventeen kilometres from Athens in an agricultural valley. These were the mysteries which could never, ever be revealed, in speech, writing or intimation. Otherwise, the initiate could suffer from the ire of the gods…something no Greek or denizen of the ancient world would risk.

The Mystai have  been preparing for these ceremonies for a year and one half. They have been on strict diets, given long passages to read and memorise, and encouraged to follow an honourable life without lying, cheating, sex or violence

But now the veil can be lifted, and the mysteries can be, at long last, be revealed. We are at a great crossroads in our evolution, and we need all the help we can get to make the next jump up in consciousness. The benefits of the wisdom of the mythology, rituals and plants used in the Kykeon, there at Eleusis and else where in Europe and the near East, can now be divulged - as people like me gradually remember and choose to share their past lives memoires.

Tonight, the Mystai will meet the gods, in person. But first their pride and arrogance must be shed with humour and licentious teasing. We put on our rags to imitate Hecate -who told Demetra who had kidnapped her daughter.  Once we have blackened our teeth and put on tattered rags, we join the other priestesses along the Sacred Road from Athens to Eleusis. Along the way, some priestesses leash up the black dogs of Hecate and lead them, snarling and barking down to the Kifissos bridge, the bridge of truth. When we arrive, the first Mystai are in sight. When they get close enough, we start hurling insults and shameless sexual innuendos at them. They must let go of the arrogance and hubris which initiates typically have. We must help them shed their self importance and indemnity so when the gods come into their bodies and minds tonight, they can welcome them with surrender and sweetness. We tease and make them laugh, the same way that Baubo made Demeter laugh when she was on her way to liberate her daughter. Baubo is the cunt goddess, she is depicted as a face on top of a huge cunt. She represents raw female sexuality and by extension, the fecundity of the earth herself.

This is the part of the lesser mysteries that we enjoy the most. We can say anything that comes into our heads to the tired pilgrims. For the wealthy initiates, easily identified by their expensive white silk robes, and followed by fawning slaves, we are particularly acerbic. The younger initiates tend to laugh along with us, but there are those, men in important positions in Athens, and other capitals around the Greek speaking world, who glare at us threatening. But we are assured in our position. We pick up our skirts and prance in front of them, revealing our own dark mystery between our legs.

“Would you like to drive your chariot into this Hades?’ I taunt a young man who looks positively resentful about the teasing. He shakes his head and keeps trudging over the bridge.

“Son of the underworld, would you like to abduct me?” I lift up my cotton tunic to show him my breasts. He is momentarily distracted, then smiles.

“Ah fair priestess, you know that I am a Mystai and can’t engage in dalliance with you fair maidens.”

Then we both laugh, he continues his journey with a lighter heart, and I spy another Mystai who needs some taking down.

No one can charge the priestesses of Eleusis. No one would dare to insult those who speak directly to the gods. Especially because we can have communication with Demeter the patron goddess of the mysteries.

For the poorer hierophants or those who are crippled or infirmed, we are a little kinder, we tease them gently about their handicaps. If they are struggling to get over the bridge, we discretely help them. Life has humbled them enough with their physical suffering. And we want all of them to reach their destination-that huge, cavernous temple called the Telesterion, or End place.

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As the last Mystai shamble into the courtyard outside the Telesterion, the Greater Propylaea, and our work is done until the evening. The Mystai are given a Kykeon, but not the sacred Kykeon they will receive tonight. They must have empty stomachs for the dramatics that will begin at night fall.

We have learned from painful experiences over the centuries, how to mange the ever-greater numbers of initiates who come for the Great Mysteries. They cope better with the emergence of the gods within if they are tired, humbled and have an empty stomach. We ask them to maintain silence, only absolutely necessary communications are allowed. We must orient them towards the sacred visions which will accompany tonight’s dramas. They are taken to segregated bathhouses, for men and women. Here slaves mix unashamed with their masters and mistresses. In the eyes of the gods, humans are equal in their weaknesses and perfidious fickleness.

The dramatic myth that we shared at the Eleusinian mysteries was the story of Demeter and Persephone-the mother goddess of the earth and her daughter.  And her husband of the underworld-Hades. We must remember that the culture and belief structures we live in today are vastly different from those ancient peoples of over two thousand years ago. They had not been educated in science and the dualistic beliefs of Christianity and later, the Western reductionist world view. They viewed the world more accurately and lovingly as a world where everything is animated with divine sentience-from ancient olive trees to storm clouds, to the whispering of wind in leaves or crawing of ravens. They believed the gods were present in all circumstances and events. Perhaps we could understand their deep faith as an emersion in the archetypal landscape of the inner psyche. Their inner worlds were not so separate from the outer world as we see this separation now. Dreams, omens, unusual events in every day were interpreted as powerful harbingers from the transpersonal realms of Soul.

When the Mystai were ready and brought into the telesterion, the drama of Greater mysteries begins gently with slow deep drumming while the priestesses gave out the Kykeon, literally a sacred mix of plants and herbs which only the privileged few know. The amphora were very heavy and young stronger priestesses and priests are chosen to carry the amphorae around the sleeping platforms of the Telestrion. We worked in twos or fours, depending on how many cups the amphora could hold on to its hooks. The amphora carrier poured the Kykeon into the cups, balancing the heavy pottery amphora on his or her knees. The cups were held by a priestess. Each priestess was in charge of one pottery cup. Her life depended on getting that same cup back from the initiate. Each cup had to be drunk to empty and then handed back to the supervising priestess. In this way, no Kykeon was split or stolen by crafty initiates.

The recipe for the Kykeon was a highly guarded secret. It was assumed by outsiders that the Kykeon was made by the priestesses but in fact, the recipe was held by only a handful of priests, castrated men who dedicated their entire lives to the temples of Eleusis. There were many secrets in these temples, and many camouflaged obscurities. The hierophants of the temples believed that giving the recipe to the women was dangerous- they were the ones who went out of the temple gates to gather the ingredients for the Kykeon., they could be captured, tortured and made to divulge the recipe. However, the castrated priests did not leave the compound, and only with guards at their sides. They brewed the sacred Kykeon in secret vaults underground, carefully guarded by the temple warriors-both male and female. However, the populace assumed because the Kykeon was given out by priestesses, they knew the recipe, but they did not. If any guard dared to try to peep during the brewing of the sacred Kykeon, they were blinded or executed depending on the extent of their crimes. There was utterly no mercy for any who tried to discover the mystery of the Kykeon. To this day, this protection spell is still active, a long term, multi dimensional curse not limited by time or distance. No on has yet to absolutely know what the ingredients of the sacred Kykeon were.

But as priestesses, we certainly knew its effects, which were relatively similar from one year to the next. We could gauge how long it would take for the gods to come into the bodies of the Mystai, when they would lie down and become quiet, when to begin the drama of Persephone returning to the world in a metaphoric play of re birth. What sweet tears of joy they shed. How thankful and amazed they were the next morning, when at last they could break their fast and return to everyday life. But with the visions which the gods gave them during the night.

The drama started with light flutes and string instruments, to bring to mind how the story begins with Persephone picking flowers in a meadow. During this time, the Kykeon was served. Verses are read out as we work thru the sleeping platforms carved into the rock, to imitate the chambers of Hades. There is little light, the Telesterion has no windows, we work by torch light. Then when every Mystai have drunk of the sacred Kykeon, we signal the actors, and the story can begin into its more dramatic narrative-the rape and abduction of Persephone by Hades.

Priestesses in the temples were divided into several categories, depending on their ability to predict the future and diagnose illnesses. The temples were funded by wealthy patrons who came to the temple at other times outside the Great Mysteries for guidance and prescience readings. The highest oracles were the women who were most easily possessed by the gods. They uttered prophecies, sometimes utterly incomprehensible, other times full of insights and wisdom. The prettiest and most gifted oracle was chosen every fall to play the part of Persephone during the dramatic presentations of the Great Mysteries This was a coveted position and honour, and there was much jealously and competition among the priestesses for this honour.

 There were also many slaves who were tasked with keeping the temple keepers feed, watered, dressed and overall happy. There were body workers, cooks, gardeners, midwives, wine makers, stone masons, carpenters, architects, herbalists, crones in charge of daily maintenance of the living spaces. The temples were busy all year around and filled with all sorts of people, animals and many kinds of plants grew in the gardens and around the fountains. If there was a paradise on earth at any time, it would be Eleusis. But its downfall was inevitable once the patriarchal bellicose religions got hold of the human imagination. This was the warning of the mysteries, then and now.

The oracles were encouraged to remain virgins, and never marry. They were allowed oral sex, usually with the castrated male slaves or other women. In this way they avoided pregnancy and could remain priestesses dedicated to their spiritual work. They were not celibate, but they avoided pregnancy and marriage at all costs. They had various birth control methods which they used themselves as well as selling birth control and abortive methods and herbs to the general public.

Priestesses were chosen from the near by villages, although the women could also come from as far away as Egypt, and many gifted girls were found among the Egyptians because of their past association with the gods.

The myth of Demeter and Persephone briefly, is about the earth goddess, Demeter who was the archetype associated with the gifts of grains, agriculture and climate. She has a beautiful daughter, Persephone who is abducted by the god of the underworld (the unconscious). Demeter is distraught when she can’t find Persephone anywhere, and no one has witnessed the abduction except the sun and a crone goddess, Hecate hear Persephone’s cries but didn’t see who had taken her. Although she has a good idea who. Meanwhile Demeter, in her sorrow and anger wrecks havoc upon the earth, there are droughts, fires, the seas rise, and the fields crops are damaged. Animals and plants die off, humanity entreats the gods to return the environment to normal.

Demeter has many adventures before she finds Hecate, who tells her what she heard. Then Demeter rushes down to the underworld and finds her daughter, but her daughter has married the king of the underworld, and because she ate seeds from the pomegranate while in the underworld, she must return to the underworld for as many months as the seeds she ate. Thus, when Persephone is in the underworld, we have fall and winter, when she emerges, we have spring and summer.

A simple myth explaining the seasons?

What really happened at Eleusis? These ceremonies formed the basis of our present civilization, the Western world took instructions from these mysteries, many if not all of the greatest thinkers, mathematicians, artists, poets and bards attended the mysteries. They have reported, by all their accounts, that the mysteries were the most profound experiences of their lives. These great souls include Socrates, Plato, Cicero, Plotinus, Sophocles, Aristotle, Epictetus, the military leader Alcibiades, the playwrights Euripides and Sophocles, and the poet Pindaros, emperor Marcus Aurelius. Pindar,

Or a narrative, not about the past, but about the future.

Next posting will continue with the revelation of what the mysteries really meant. Not only for the denizens of ancient Greece, but for us now.

Picture downloaded 

 The Return of Persephone - Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) - PD-art-100

https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/eleusis.html

Connection-Soul Catching in the Environment

 

Soul Catching is a way of life and therapy which I have developed over many years of studying with a

spiritual fellowship called The River. Soul catching was developed from observing and practising different spiritual traditions, and studying quantum physics and psychology and over forty years of front-line counselling. This philosophy forms the basis of both a life path and a counselling model. 

                This practice is based on the premise that we do not live inside ourselves. Our consciousness is not a little nut of awareness, hidden somewhere behind our eyes or in our hearts. Our souls, that part of us that is deepest and most essential, lives outside of our skins, in the world. So the world is not only a metaphor for our consciousness, but it is our consciousness- our soul.

                Soul lives outside of the self.

                When I first started to grasp the significance of this truth, I realised that I could use the world and environment as a kind of mirror in which I could glimpse the deepest thoughts of myself and my clients. I found that strange things started to happen when I proceeded to ask people what they noticed in the environment around my office. Animals turned up who had never turned up before. They cawed, sang and hummed around the windows and glass door. Sometimes they came in through the sliding glass doors if they were open, or asked to be admitted. Machines also turned up and roared up and down the street or in the air, unusual events transpired which I had no explanation for except-notice this!

                Over time, as I developed this awareness, I wondered how every time I asked questions into the world, my questions were answered in immediate and profound ways. A bird with an incomplete song turned up when I was working with a young woman with depression, a murder of ravens turned up and flew in big circles when I was working with a man who was deceiving himself and others sexually, planes suddenly started to roar overhead when I worked with a woman whose ambition was driving herself into chronic pain.

                Once I was working with a woman with anxiety. Carol (pseudonym) and I were working for about forty five minutes and I felt that we were at an impasse. We had explored aspects of herself and externalised them as hungry ghosts. That had led to some cathartic understandings about how her own unrealistic and cruel expectations were causing the panic. Then we sat in silence, I felt both completed with that line of therapy, and also expectant that there was more. How could we proceed? Usually before the environment is about to give me a clue as to where to go next, I feel a kind of emptiness and lightness come into the room. In other words, I feel that my ego, that little layer of neo-cortex which is the fixing monkey mind of my consciousness, becomes stilled and expectant. I sink into a deeper place.

                At that moment,  a humming bird came up to a rose bush outside my window and hummed very loudly into the silence of our thoughts. Carol noticed the hum of the bird and instantly knew that she must hum, chant and sing daily. Humming is therapeutic for trauma and anxiety, and used in somatic experiencing as a treatment for PTSD.

                For many years, I kept thinking that we, my clients and I, were using and interpreting the environment as a kind of ink blot, a way of gazing into a mirror, of opening the door to the unconsciousness.  I persisted with the notion that  it was all me, inside my little brain or heart, sitting in my chair and my client sitting in their chair, interpreting events which were unrelated to us but which we had decided to pull into meaning. Then one day as I walked by the river, I asked for further insight into how Soul Catching functioned.  Half way along the return trip, I saw a river otter down by the edge of the water. I walked over quietly because seeing an otter is unusual along this pathway. The otter was chomping on a little fish, and in a flash, I realised that it wasn’t just me interpreting the environment, it was also the environment interpreting me. I had called the world for an answer, and the river otter gave it to me. I wasn’t only eating the world, the world was also eating me.

                In a flash I understood the world in a completely different way, a more connected, gentle, loving and whole (holy ) way. My question had sent me an otter, eating a fish from the river, representing taking wisdom from the world. But the otter was also eating the significance of me, noticing her and perhaps in some way I altered her life also in that moment.              

                Here is the leap in understanding. The client interpreted the humming bird as a need to chant more. This part is easy, it fits with what we know about accessing the unconsciousness with techniques such as dream analyses, following random associations and using abstract images as a mirror. But the leap, the truly wonderful part of Soul Catching is that in that moment, the mirror is also active in the process. Not only is the mirror alive; has sentience and is imbedded in the significance of the moment, but that imbedded meaning changes, is flexible and somehow arises in a way that defies time. The humming bird in that moment was also called, for her purposes, to glimpse some part of her soul. Perhaps simply to find nourishment or for other more mysterious purposes which we can only guess at.

                 Soul was captured at that moment as a humming bird. Now, the mirror is also alive, so the hummingbird in that moment also was active in her exploration of her own being and wisdom. By invoking openness, to notice the environment as a living participant in All That Is-we were both sitting in the room in a kind of altered state, a state of consciousness that we can call the World. And then we can engage soul for answers. This works inwards and outwards because the reality of time is not linear, nor is space therefore as limiting as we imagine.

                I am not a physicist but I have read books about quantum physics and am constantly amazed how this new science sounds so much like ancient teachings. We are entering an age when this quantum physics will echo and confirm the wisdom of our ancestors. You don’t have to be a physicist to understand that all consciousness is inter-related. And therefore, if you are approaching life from a scientific perspective or a psychospiritual or intuitive perspective, you can understand that the world outside of ourselves arose and lives in much the same way that we do inside our bodies, day by day. Quantum physics explains that all events take place in a way that all possibilities are first explored and, in some way, tried out, before a ‘real’ or chosen path is taken. We are led to stop thinking of time as linear event, but rather spherical. Then the mysterious ways of how Soul Catching works, starts to make some sense. In the same way that photons are able to know ahead of time in the double slit experiments, if the slits that they are being forced to pass through will be open, single or double and will instantly explore all possibilities and choose the one that is most likely –so too, when we call on the sentience of all that surrounds  us to give us guidance, it All turns up with answers. We have only to notice and then to act.

                Not understanding our deep connection with the environment is the basis of the hunger that I see in some many of my clients. This emptiness is created by seeing ourselves as separate from the environment and drives people to seek fulfillment with substance abuse, unhealthy relationships, drivenness towards greater and greater production and acquisition - addictions of many kinds. From these addictions comes dis-ease. We are so disconnected with the part of ourselves which lives outside of our skins that we have lost our souls.

                We can now enter in the awareness which spiritual teachers have extoled from the beginning of our creation-all things are connected, sacred and inter-dependent. The world is our mirror and we are a mirror for the world.

Try this! Soul Catching in the natural world

·         Go outside to a favourite place in nature. You can also use a counselling room, but the outside environment, especially a natural place  has more interesting items to catch. Face a direction that appeals to you.

·         Stand for a moment with your eyes closed. Become aware of your body, how your feet rest on the earth, sounds, scents. Close your eyes and come fully into the moment. Release any thoughts, obsessions, or worries that you may have.

·         Now open your eyes.  Notice the world around you- as it is. What is the first thing you notice? Don’t edit your first choice no matter how incongruent or insignificant it seems. At these times, everything is significant and everything is meaningful.  You may notice, events, sounds or objects in the environment. Do not begin to go within seeking interpretations at this point. Just notice. Be as clearly observational as possible.

·         Go back inside and write out what you noticed with just a few words. E.g. east-a chickadee sang.

·         Now for the soul catching. The world turned up at that moment with a message for you-what is it? Ask yourself “Where in my life is this sign significant?” E.g., Where in my life is  there a singing bird? Or you may ask the opposite question such as “Where in my life is there not a singing bird?”

·         Follow back, follow back. Keep asking yourself why this sign has meaning for you.   E.g., The bird was expressing herself. Perhaps I need to be joyful in my communications?

·         You will know when you come to the soul message by a feeling of resolution, relief or joy. The Aha! Moment. E.g. That’s it! I’ve been really afraid of saying some things to some people that need to be said.

·         Write down the message and remember to create an action commitment for each insight E.g. In this next year(month, week day)  when I feel I need to, I will speak up and say my truth, even when I’m afraid. Just like a chickadee singing, without expectation, just as an expression of who I am.

Mindfulness for anxious times: The Clearing breath, Circular breath and Body Scan

 

This past year of quarantine has been incredibly difficult for all of us. 

I talk to lots of people across the country about how to manage anxiety. One of the first things we all need to do is acknowledge that these are time when there is much to be anxious about. Then we can cope better by putting new strategies in place. One of best strategies to cope with the current high stress level is to practice some kind of mindfulness, intentionally for at least ten minutes a day. The benefits of mindfulness are myriad. Check out the resources at the end of this posting.

I consider these three mindfulness practices: clearing breath, circular breath and the body scan, to be essential and foundational for any kind of inner reflection, intentional change and mind/body neuro re-structuring. If calm abiding can be established, then any kind of personal change is facilitated.

Calming the brain stem by engaging the somatic responses of the para-sympathetic systems allows the whole body/mind to slow down and become present rather than perseverating in worrying thoughts. When the mid-brain can calm down, this allows the higher functions of the neo-cortex to engage. The neo-cortex is the place where higher functions are located. These include language, compassion, being able to take the perspective of the Other, math skills, logical follow thru skills…all functions you need in these times to live well.

There three practices bring the mind out of worrying about the future (anxiety) or obsessing about the past (depression). These practices silence the unrelenting self-stories that keep us trapped in a negative bias.  Mindfulness is also an excellent preparation for any kind of medical intervention or other stressful events. It is most helpful to do this scan in a quiet safe environment, but if you can’t access a quiet, private room, then these techniques can still be used almost anywhere. Don’t try to drive or operate heavy equipment while doing these practices.

Step One

Bring your body into quietness by straightening the spine and bringing your attention to your breath. You can take any posture as long as you are comfortable and your spine is straight-sitting on a mat, in a straight back chair or lying down. Ensure you will be undisturbed for at least 15 minutes.

Bring your awareness into your spine and make all the adjustments you need to make it straight, light and comfortable. This allows the body to breathe without physical posture blocks. Now-take a long breath into your belly, blow out slowly. You should be able to hear your out breath-like the sound of a wave or wind. Do this three times

Step Two

For the next few moments, imagine that your breath is coming into the base of your spine on the in breath, travelling up your spine as you lungs fill, and then pausing at the crown of the spine until you naturally feel the need to release. On the out breath, imagine the breath going down the spine, slowly starting at your crown (7th chakra) until it reaches the root of your spine again. Pause. Repeat. As you imagine your breath going up and down your spine, notice areas where you have less awareness. Spend extra time in these unconscious places-these are typically areas that need more attention.

Step Three

Start the scan by taking a comfortable position, either sitting, or lying down. If you choose to sit up, ensure that the back is straight. Say to yourself “For the next few moments, all I have to do is follow breath and be in my body. If sounds or events arise, I will not attach any significance to them. Now I will begin come fully into the present moment, without trying to fix anything. I will just be present. If thoughts arise, I will gently let them go”

Bring your awareness back to your relaxed body with an even, unhampered flow of breath through your nostrils. Enjoy the simple awareness of breathing and relaxing the body. Do not try to control the breath in any way; just let it sink into the abdomen.

Step Four

Beginning with the feet, bring awareness into that part of the body. “My feet are relaxing, they are warm and heavy. Focus on your feet until you feel all tension drain out of them.”

As you begin to release tension from the feet, visualize them filling up with light (warmth, vitality, calm-your choice), each cell being infused with vitality and well-being.

Move up the legs to the knees and then the rest of the body. The sequence that works well is: feet, ankles, calves, thighs, pelvis, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms, wrists, fingers, neck, face, and scalp.

Step Five

When you have finished relaxing the whole body, go back to any part which may still be holding tension and stress. Breathe into the area. Imagine it becoming light, warm, and relaxed. As you breathe out, say to yourself “Relax,” and enjoy the sensation of letting go.

Step Six

If this is preparation for an intervention or stressful event, now introduce the best case scenario for the outcome. Visualize yourself coping well with your challenge. See in your mind’s eye the best possible outcome. Then let it go. Set an intention for the rest of the day (hour, week, challenge).

Resources:

You Tube Rick Hanson “Hardwiring Happiness” 13 minutes on the neuropsychology of mindfullness

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2018/09/8-ground-rules-for-better-emotional-self-care/

https://www.gaiam.com/blogs/discover/how-to-be-more-mindful-just-by-breathing-and-walking

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus-disease-covid-19.html

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

https://www.anxietycanada.com/

https://www.rickhanson.net/newsletter-signup/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyu7v7nWzfo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9H9qTdserM-Also his book ‘Why Zebras don’t get ulcers’ by Robert Saponski

https://tricycle.org/magazine/tonglen-spot/

How to cope with stress: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx7cpWcF5Nw

Mother's Day Special- the true meaning of the COVID 19 pandemic

The true meaning of the COVID 19 Pandemic and what we should be learning from it

Sometimes lessons are presented to us in ways that are so obvious that we miss them.

This pandemic has shut the world down now for two months, taken thousands of lives and threatens to crash our economic structures globally. In short, the human world has been brought to a standstill and nature is waiting for us to learn our lessons or prepared for more pandemics which will be worse.

Honestly I feel I am repeating myself, again and again.

But when I listen to dominate media sources, I don’t hear the wisdom of these times being clarified or elucidated in any but the most superficial and panicked way. The narratives run towards survival, blame, and victimization of humanity. I’m tired of hearing the whiney voices of people bemoaning their losses. And I reply:

You think this is bad! Unless we mend our ways, there is much worse coming!

Nature or Gaia, represents a whole network of interconnected beings, who like us, exist physically, emotionally and spiritually.  The three worlds of Gaia are: animal, plant and mineral or inanimate. These worlds are composed of many beings who all share the same morphic structures. These morphic resonances create a shared energetic field which all members have in common. Each species has a collective consciousness called species mind. All beings of the earth are nested within a greater hierarchy called Gaian mind. These energetic communities can be compared to conferences or courts where beings congregate in dream states, discuss and come to decisions about the future of the planet. These worlds were seen clearly by our ancestors, of all races. But in this misguided Cartesian flat world of modernity, we have forgotten and minimized our awareness of the Gaian mind, and our responsibility to all our siblings of Gaia.

This pandemic can be an opportunity to return to our older, wiser understanding of nature as embodied, sentient and representative of our own souls. The earthly networks of life are putting us on notice, and because She has ultimate power, we must either surrender to the lessons of growth and evolution or face extinction.

Gaian mind speaks to us in very simple terms; Her language can be understood by all. We don’t need to be an academic, priestess, or epidemiologist. We just need to pay attention to the events of our lives and be open to the environment around us.

Let’s follow some of the clues.

First, this especially virulent virus spread from wild animals to humans. There is controversy about the exact location, but the dominate narrative appears to be that this virus came from a dirty, disgusting wild animal market where wild creatures are caged, tortured, made to live in horrible unnatural circumstances. The animal kingdom is already angry at us humans, we have destroyed about two thirds of animal life on the planet and replaced it with our own domesticated animals which we need for meat, leather and manure. Of course, the animal world is infuriated by our dishonourable use of the earth’s resources, and the extinction we have caused to hundreds of their members every year.

So the pandemic is a lesson to teach us how to treat the earth’s creatures and resources more honourably with a spirit of compassion and love which we would naturally extend to the loved humans in our lives. These are our brothers and sisters, not just metaphorically, but actually. They share the same DNA, live in the same environments and we share a common mother, the earth. The animal world is developing viruses which are uniquely virulent to humans. They are designed to stop us in our tracks and take a step back. Gaian mind is giving us notice to review our behaviours, world views, and core values.

Clearly the earth is moving towards ridding her environments of the pesky parasites, humans, who have become arrogant, dissociated from the values of life and liberty, and are heading towards mass destruction not only of their own species, but taking a whole lot of other species and beings with them.

Here’s the thing to consider in this great shift we have to make towards realising our interconnection with nature. You can’t connect with someone or something you don’t know. Most people I counsel know almost nothing about their natural environment. When they go for walks outside, they have no idea of what trees, shrubs, flowers or fungi they are seeing. They don’t know the names of the birds they see and hear. Most people have zero nature relatedness. For most humans right now, we are living in a phantasy world of human-only inventions, technologies and consumables.  As Terrance McKenna said- we are the only species in the history of the earth to entertain ourselves into extinction.

We have also completely lost the ancient wisdom of recognizing the environment as the greater soul of human consciousness, which we are intimately connected with. The olden techniques of feeling intimately connected with Gaian mind, omen reading, using the environment as a mirror of the soul. These are all rituals and strategies to develop our awareness of interconnection. These techniques were minimized and fulminated by the last four to five hundred years of Cartesian thinking of separateness, control and commoditizing everything we can get our hands on.

We have also become incredibly disconnected from the first and most essential tool for understanding interconnections-our individual bodies. Many people don’t live in their bodies and treat these sacred vehicles of consciousness, like unconscious tools to be used and ignored when not needed like they use their cars, grass mowers or  computers. We have also learned how to abuse other people, turning them into slaves to our desires; underpaid workers, stressed care givers and sexual commodities.  The Cartesian era was needed to help lift us out of the control and manipulations of the spiritual hierarches of the past two thousand years. It has given us many benefits and insights into the complexity and awesomeness of the natural world. But we must proceed with scientific investigation hand in hand with the core truth of inter-connection.

What I do to the Other, I also do to myself.

The Other, can be anything or anyone who is in your life in an unconscious and un acknowledged way-your own body, those you have conflicts with, the environment, the animal and plants worlds, and natural resources from the earth of all kinds.

As long as we can collectively catch and torture wild animals of any kind, if we can keep wild animals in horrible filthy conditions, and sell endanger species for insane needs of corrupt medical models, as long as we can treat the earth’s resources like commodities, not gifts-then get ready for the next pandemic coming your way brought to you by the more-than-human natural world.

Theory is wonderful and can direct our lives in effective, compassionate and holistic ways. But theory must be put into action in small daily ways.

Try this!

1.       Develop earth honouring livelihood

The quarantine is giving all of us humans some time to reflect and grow. Reflect on right actions can you begin in your daily life-is my livelihood harming or caring for Mother Earth? What actions that dishonour the Mother would you like to diminish or stop? Be realistic. Develop right livelihood, right diet, right physical movement, use of materials from the earth.

E.g. I will volunteer for the board on a local non-profit recycling organization and give four hours a month to them.

2.       Develop earth honouring relationships

Reflect on your relationships-with other humans, other animals, the plant and mineral world. Can you imagine that each being is conscious and sentient and participates in its own unique way to the interconnectedness of the world at large- eagles, beach stones, someone half around the world whom you have never met. How could you bring this awareness more in line with earth loving ways-celebrations, honouring rituals and gathering, simple gathering together as a community?

E.g. I’m going the women’s circle next full moon and participate in the sharing circle.

3.       Develop earth honouring spirituality

Develop an awareness of the outer world, especially the natural world. Spend time every day in the more-than-human world to appreciate nature. Take your meditations outside and let the beauty of nature remind you how to be joyful, present and mindful. Learn Soul Catching (Star, 2014) to develop ways to feel closer to nature. Develop a spirituality that honours the earth. If it doesn’t than abandon it immediately. 

Let your inner light shine!

Be radiant in all activities.

Love the Mother.

Our Broken Children

Let’s face the truth here.

Our children are broken.

Our children are dying young, by suicide or violence, living on the streets, becoming depressed and anxious, not fitting in, not coping, not having kids, not working, not creating any kind of life they want for themselves. By recognizing what the Dark Machine is doing to our children, we can stop supporting it and maybe, maybe, slow down the environmental and social destructive forces that it creates.

First, let’s stop assuming that the problems with our young are their own fault. We can see that despite therapy, billions of dollars of mind numbing medications, millions of dollars of social programs and education initiatives, life coaches, inspirational speakers-they are still slipping, and slipping fast into illness, anhedonia, disconnection, and general despair. As a counsellor I see it all the time, either the young people themselves, or their parents and grandparents talking to me.  They sit across from me full of helplessness. They tell me how despite everything they do for themselves or their children and grandchildren, these young people, are still failing.

As Leonard Cohen wrote in his song “Everybody knows”:

Everybody knows the war is over

Everybody knows the good guys lost

Everybody knows the fight was fixed

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich

That's how it goes

Everybody knows

There is a general sense of foreboding with most sensitive people I know. They recognize at some level that we are on a precipice of disaster, and no one seems to be able to stop it. There is no honourable war to fight now; the wars for goodness and justice are over because we all lost. You only fight if you know who to hold accountable. In the past, sociopathic leaders and socio political groups with ill intent towards humanity and Gaia were visible. They dressed up so we could see them, proclaimed themselves openly as leaders. Now the true leaders of the Dark Machine hide. We know they are the top 1-10% of income earners, sometimes we can find their faces on the internet, but we can’t meet with them, vote for them or have any influence on their policies. Through their manipulations using technology, political structures and cultural control, we are forced to be obedient to their hungry ghosts of power and control. Or, if we willing to make the sacrifices, we can be quietly or openly defiant. Or, we can choose to try to ignore the crisis and hide in triviality and homocentric activities and world spaces. Which one do you choose?

Usually we start by blaming the victims. We ask them to change themselves as individuals-change their brain chemistry, or their beliefs and cognitive errors, or their goals or work habits. Usually we start with the individual and work out to bigger circles of influence-individual, family, social, community and then global. But I propose a different approach. Let’s start with the big picture first, with the global perspective-with Gaia Grief.

Expecting young people to make all the changes doesn’t work. I know many who although are good people with earth honouring values, are completely spent with surviving. With the erosion of labour laws, worker collective rights and protection from political corruption, they struggle with long hours of low paid work and relatively high cost of living.  Our economic inequalities are returning to pre WWI standards. The typical young person, especially if they have a family, haven’t the energy or time left over for self-reflection, or motivation to change. They are immobilized by the enormity of the situation, overcome by their own emotional responses of anxiety, depression and disconnection. Often their despair makes them unable to think clearly, act or change. Some young people I counsel, cannot rise out their beds in the morning, especially on the week end when they don’t have to go to work. They slide into hopelessness, dark and despairing thoughts. They hope only to survive another day, that day, if they can get by without killing themselves. And many do suicide, every single day.

Let’s take the simplest, most elegant analysis here. If our young people appear to be broken, then they are and they probably have good reason to be. We have handed over a broken world to them, and at some level they know there is no going back with the environmental destruction we have wrought upon Gaia.

There is much to be depressed about, as the media is constantly reminding us. The National Geographic estimates that one in four mammals is at risk for extension in the next few decades.

Mass die-offs are individual events that kill at least a billion animals, wipe out over 90 percent of a population, or destroy 700 million tons—the equivalent weight of roughly 1,900 Empire State Buildings—worth of animals.

And according to new research, such die-offs are on the rise.

Downloaded from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/1/150113-mass-die-off-disease-animals-environment-science/

In recent decades numerous studies have predicted that habitat destruction will doom some 20 to 50 percent of Earth's species within 50 years. Downloaded from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/5/110518-species-extinctions-habitats-science-animals/

Downloaded from https://www.wanttoknow.info/massanimaldeathsnewsarticles

Just as an example of our studied ignorance- when I was researching the rate of die off and extinction rates, I noticed that the direr of predictions had been expunged from the National Geographic website.

I remember as a young woman in my twenties and thirties watching clouds of shore birds rise up from the Gulf Island waters, huge flocks of swallows returning from their southern retreats, butterflies and moths so abundant that as I walked through my grandparents fields that I could catch them with my hands if I wanted to. Those large collections of animals are all gone now. If I see 2-3 shore birds along the beach, I think that’s a good sighting. If I see two butterflies in my garden I stand transfixed by their presence. I never see swallows any more where I live, the owls have gone, so have the bats and night hawks and the gorgeous lute like call of the Swainson’s thrust. Is no one noticing this tragic and brutal die off? Am I the only one with memory cells left? I met dog walkers along the river where I hike and they comment on several birds they have seen. I look at them sadly and tell them, there was a time this delta had huge flocks of birds, they gathered and flew around in huge cloud like formations which darken the sky.

As Terrance McKenna once said Western civilization is a loaded gun pointed at the head of this planet.

(Downlo9aded from https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/9243.Terence_McKenna)

Is that what is happening? Are we all just so deep in denial that we have forgotten to look at the truth?

Let’s be frank here, the problem of our broken children isn’t only a problem of brain chemistry, early childhood trauma or ancestral trauma, wrong thinking, poor parenting or lack of discipline. This is much deeper and more profound than these simplistic answers. The proof of my theory is this-just ask any young depressed, anxious or addicted young person how they feel, really feel deep down. Then ask if they have any good reason for these negative feelings- and often they will tell you they had good childhoods, happy family and parents, their basic needs were taken care of, but somehow they are uneasy in a way that we as humans have not seen before in our young.

Do we have collective amnesia about the mental health of past generations? Here is what I remember, only fifty years ago. As a child and teen, I didn’t know anyone with (the list): anxiety, depression, allergies, autism, addictions or anyone who was on any kind of psychotropic medications. NO ONE! My grandmother in her 80’s took an aspirin every day for her arthritis, that was the only person I knew who was taking meds or who had any kind of chronic illness. We assumed in those days that most people were healthy and they were. Now it is assumed that most people have something wrong with them, some illness either mental or physical. We assume they should be taking expensive meds for these disorders. Does this not seem strange to you?

I believe that those who support the Dark Machine, those with outdated beliefs, are afraid to face the reality of how they are destroying families, children, teens and young people all over the globe. Their propaganda is built around ‘family values’, by which they usually mean patriarchy, Gaia dishonouring life style and uncontrolled consumerism. So it’s in their own best interests to keep this inconsistency a secret and they do this by turning on their own victims. They accuse the 99% of being lazy, overly worried and negative, misinformed and lacking resiliency. Their solutions are more hard work, medications, and expensive therapies. Their solutions are that young people continue to keep them in their glass palaces of privilege, concern themselves with non-issues and project their anger onto the  ‘evil’ Others- Arabs, Muslims, Blacks, Right Wing, Left wing, the Russians…your choice. They seek to keep us distracted with superficial homocentric entertainments such as social media, fashion and comparative self-worth images which show the 99% what they are missing. It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

 I honestly think that if all anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications were banned tomorrow and everyone stopped taking them, climate change would stop. Right then, right there. There would massive revolutions, demonstrations in the street; those who are orchestrating environmental destruction would be forcibly taken from their positions of power. I’m not advocating violence; I’m just predicting that within the next couple of decades, if we have that long, we will see revolutions such have not been witnessed before in human history. Because we are a species of slow learners, it seems we have to really feel the pain deeply before we decide we must change. We have chosen frivolity over survival.

I had the good fortune of feeling what those with severe depression and anxiety must feel a few days ago. I woke up black as soot in my Soul. I hated myself, others, the world. I couldn’t hug my husband nor be courteous to the other people I met. I felt like I weighted a ton of massive, immobile black substance that couldn’t be transformed or lightened in any way. When I tried to say some positive things to myself, I didn’t believe it, even for a second.

 I’m going to be OK.

Ha! How do you know? Don’t feel OK right now and we’re supposed to live in the moment-right?

So what if I feel better for a while-soon this darkness will return, because it’s real and that other positive thinking is just horse manure.

Even the thought of taking some plant medicines to lift me up a little from this funk, seemed superficial and pointless. By chance or karma, I didn’t stay in this place for long. Somehow something healthier and more enlightened in me took over and by noon I was my usually positive self. But I felt gratitude for the experience because now I know how my son who has severe depression feels every single day. Non-stop, no let-up except with alcohol and other numbing drugs.

So what can each one of us do with simple everyday actions that can at least slow these coming end times? Something simple and plain?

I think each person who is concerned about their children and coming generations, must develop their own plan and actions to address the global crises we see coming towards us. For me, its commitments to my counselling, my writing, my giving of time and experience to disadvantaged individuals and community groups, to my own personal and spiritual growth. I purposely look for joy and appreciation every day, especially towards the non-human worlds of Gaia-the mineral, plant and non-human animal worlds. Creating and doing ritual with metaphors of interconnection, growing my own organic garden where I can appreciate Gia’s beauty, growing my own personal mycelium of like-minded people, supporting each other, discussing our thoughts and observations, being kind, practicing compassion. But always, with a view of the global picture-all life, all beings, all perspectives. And always with the intent not to be overwhelmed by Gia Grief.

I create in my imagination a future for humanity which will be unbelievably free, beyond anything we can picture right now. As soon as we can learn the simple but profound lessons of interconnectiveness, then wars, hunger, social manipulation and Gaia plundering will collapse. Because everyone will understand-that is done to the Other, is done to oneself first.

Realistically I don’t want to ignore the signs of disaster, the five horsemen of the apocalypse. But I won’t be overcome by them either. I somehow still have the ability to arise every day with some light and radiance in my heart, and go forward with some hope of the future. Right action, with compassion and a view of the whole. (Star, 2007)

Now for the practical part. Here are some suggestions to put theory into practice.

Try This!

·         When a young person, or not so young person expresses a mental state of anxiety, depression or substance dependence, try starting the conversation with the global perspective first.

Are you worried about the state of the world? Do you think you have a good future ahead of you? What do you see in the next fifty years in terms of environmental inter dependence? Do you seriously consider that humanity has a future?

·         If they have any amount of self-reflection they will probably answer that they have grave concerns about their future and the future of their children and grandchildren. Recognize those concerns, don’t minimize them. Their emotional states are probably based on real influences, in the real world. Acknowledge their pain. Acknowledge their struggles and predicament. Witness the truth of their experiences.

·         Then, when and only if they are ready to move through the despair, talk to them what could possibility be positive in the present state of the world. I see massive personal growth, and recognition of inter connectedness and inter dependence. This will be the basis of the next leap up of growth and consciousness. We will recognize our Good Mother and stop abusing Her. We will see the Other is actually just a reflection of ourselves. We will understand the environment is a mirror of our Soul.

·         Plan out a few things they can do today, this week, this month, this year to help this great leap up in consciousness be less brutal and destructive. Simple everyday solutions. I want to dance more. I want to develop a daily ritual that reminds me of interconnection. I want to create art that reflects the goodness of the earth.

·         Let it be simple, doable and something they can start today.

Turn up with your intentions.

Start today.

Work with what you have in front of you.

Resources:

Star, J. (2007) The three great ways-balancing work, love and spirituality. Cowichan Bay: Long Boat Press.

Star,J. (2018) Soul Catching: Finding sacred connections in our environments. Cowichan Bay: Long Boat Press.