How far can our passion take us beyond the current condition of the world, beyond the current dominance of the western mindset and its self perpetuating fall-out – as Venus crosses the July 1st eclipse point, Mars trines up with Saturn and we approach the Capricorn Full Moon here are a few quotes and questions to challenge and invite beyond the known….wasteland or wilderness? Which would you choose…
“I have been part of a circle for many years. It is one of the most important connections of my life. One reason the circle is so powerful is that it is informed, in fact shaped by, the Grandmother Spirit. The spirit of impartiality, equality, equanimity. Of nurturing but also of fierceness. It has no use for heirarchy. Or patriarchy. Tolerates violence against itself for a while, but will sooner or later rise to defend itself. This is the spirit of the Earth itself.”
Alice Walker (1)
Where is the Earth not bucking, and have we seen her really rise to defend herself, yet – where is her spirit within you…..
‘Recommendation’
Promise me,
Promise me this day,
Promise me now,
While the Sun is overhead
Exactly at its zenith,
Promise me.
Even as they
Strike you down
With the mountain of hatred and violence;
Even as they step on you and crush you
Like a worm,
Even as they dismember and disembowl you
Remember, brother,
Remember:
Man is not your enemy.
The only thing worthy of you is compassion –
Invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
The beast in man.
One day when you face this beast alone,
With your courage intact, your eyes kind,
Untroubled
(even as no one sees them)
Out of your smile
Will bloom a flower.
And those who you love
Will behold you
Across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying
Thich Nhat Hanh (2)
Do you have the courage, truly, and what gives you that courage – have you or are you facing the beast alone, truly, and can you do so ‘untroubled’…..
“Anyone who has laboured to release the Goddess from the darkness of centuries of abuse has returned from the excavation with a paradox. She who is dead is alive. All we have to do is open our eyes an extra sixteenth of an inch, and there she is, dancing in every apple blossom, in the song of every purple finch, as well as in the flames of passion that we call life.” Marion Woodman (3)
Is there a ‘fire in your head’, in your heart, and does it speak to you with the language of the world, of nature and spirit….can you ‘see’ life, and if so, what is this seeing telling you……
‘Wickerman’
“Yeah, a river flows underneath this city
I’d like to go there with you now my pretty and follow it on
for miles and miles, below other people’s ordinary lives.
Occasionally catching a gimpse of the moon,
thru’ man-hole covers along the route.
Yeah, its sometimes dark but if you hold my hand,
I think I know the way.
Oh, this is as far as we got last time
But if we go just another mile we will surface surrounded
by grass & trees & and the fly-over that takes the cars to the cities.
Buds that explode at the slightest touch,
nettles that sting – but not too much,
I’ve never been past this point, what lies ahead
I really could not say.
I used to live just by the river, in a disused factory
just off the Wicker
The river flowed by day after day
“one day” I thought, “One day I will follow it”
but that day never came
I moved away & lost track but tonight I am thinking
about making my way back.
I may find you there & float on wherever the river may take me.
Wherever the river may take me.
Wherever the river may take us.
Wherever it wants us to go.
Wherever it wants us to go.”
Jarvis Cocker (4)
How many of us are deaf to the river? Does the roar of the log-jam, of the power-dam of the city drown you out? Can you find its voice within and has the river spoken to you, inviting you to return, to let it take you wherever…..
“To lose yourself: a voluptuous surrender, lost in your arms, lost to the world, utterly immersed in what is present so that its surroundings fade away…..to be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery. And one does not get lost but loses ones-self, with the implication that it is a conscious choice, a chosen surrender, a psychic state achievable [literally and metaphorically] through geography.
That thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you is usually what you need to find, and finding it is a matter of getting lost.”
Rebecca Solnit (5)
Freedom from the known, the ability to surrender, what have we surrendered in the name of choice…..how do you navigate the unknown…..
“In the Fifth World, Illumination will be the central theme. Spiritual awareness will be common. Illumination radiates from the center. The focus is on truth; all the knowledge in the world is useless without faith. We humans have to willing to take a chance. What is wisdom? It’s an inner knowing of truth, without a shadow of a doubt. But, it can’t stand alone – its tied to the other qualities on the Medicine Wheel. This life is not a game, but is based on the wisdom of the trees, the grass, the stones, and all of life. Wisdom is also having a dream. If you have no dream, you can’t tap into wisdom. If a person has an idea that flashes into their mind, thats the beginning of a dream, But, they must bring life into the idea and develop the dream, or it will pass on.
Nothing works without the focus on truth, wisdom and faith. If we don’t have faith in ourselves, nothings going to work. You can have all the wisdom in the world, but if you don’t have faith and aren’t willing to step out and do something about it, nothing is going to happen.
Illumination is coming in the Fifth World…..”
Grandmother Twylah Nitsch (6)
I once got lost in the city of Lisbon, at least momentarily, deliciously….coming down on foot from the Moorish castle on one of the seven hills next the Tagus, I entered a small square surrounded by tiled houses, old folk at the doorways, chatting, a fountain beneath the tree at its center, and was washed through by the enchanting sound of a zither playing the Harry Lime theme from Orson Welles ‘The Third Man’ – all time stood still and I forgot where I was, and yet, came fully home to that place, flooded with an eternal moment…..how long it was before the road beckoned me on I do not know…..
(1) ‘We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For’ – Alice Walker; Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2007
(2) ‘Recommendation’ – from ‘Call Me By My True Names: The Collected Poems of Thich Nhat Hanh’ – Thich Nhat Hanh; Parallax Press, 1999 (quoted in ‘We Are the Ones…’)
(3) ‘Dancing in the Flames’ – Marion Woodman & Elinor Dickson; Shambhala Publications Inc. 1996
(4) ‘Wickerman’ from ‘Acrylic Afternoons’ in ‘ Caught By The River’ – Cassell Illustrated, Octopus Publishing Group, 2009
(5) ‘A Field Guide To Getting Lost’ – Rebecca Solnit; Viking Penguin 2005
(6) ‘She Whose Voice Rides On The Wind – Grandmother Twylah Nitsch’ from ‘Profiles in Wisdom’ – Steven McFadden; Bear & Company Inc., 1991
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