Fellowship of All Life

(Image : The Sanctuary, soul card, SG, 2005)

…Personally, I think that “Ecopsychology” is another name for Neo-Druidry. Some may not agree of course, and that is OK, they say that among 10 Druids there are 11 opinions! Lol.

In general and very roughly, there are four groups of so-called “Druids”, and I think that it is very useful to learn how to distinguish them, because they show vastly different ways of being in concrete reality, and also vastly different aims.

The Old Ones, of which practically nothing is known. They didn´t write down their teachings,have never built a temple in stone,  and have not left a mark in History, apart from some really faint traces that have been handed down the long corridors of Time. I list them because they are the genesis, the origin, true or false, of the other three groups.

The Romantic Ones, which are a re-creation of what a past century felt about the subject, a century in which there was no electricity, no highways, no Internet – and in which nothing was really verified. That´s where you can find the robed Druids and Druidesses who know all about casting spells and calling to the ancient gods, though they often dine at McDonald´s; those are the ones that are traipsing through the new forests, or even public parks sometimes since not so many forests are left, in flimsy fake-medieval robes, and trying very hard to look ancient, though most of them haven’t even got to the ripe age of 50. (No offense meant, it is just a passing remark, that happens to be true.)I think that these people are compensating the harsh reality of modern life, the very hardship of what our society has become, through happy dreams.

The Reconstructionists, who are very serious people who think that intuition is a valid way to perceive History, (particularly “His-Story”, lol), and are very precise about a lot of rather vague stuff,

And then there is a new group, which is still largely a sort of seed-group, which is pushing through the earth, straining towards the Sun, like a very modest plant still, – The Future Druids, the Gaian Druids, or Neo-Druids.

Our Druid Grove is part of this last group. We do believe in intuition, use it a lot, but do not think that it is really a valid way to “re-construct” the past, because such an enterprise as rebuilding an imagined past according to non-verified present beliefs distorts what is happening in the present, and sometimes even veils what should be happening if we are to correct past facts that have brought us to this collective disaster of a present, (yes, a long sentence, read it again, lol); we don´t need robes and wands and staves, but yes, we care about the Future of Earth, and in midst of this preoccupation for the becoming of the human species of which we are a part, absolutely, we understand that humanity needs a new Myth, for “without a Vision the people perish”, so, having gone through a real Druid training (OBOD), we might as well be called “Druids”, OK, Neo-Druids, if you will.

…This Vision that we have been so clearly a-creating in our far away valley these last few years, is that of a Humanity that would finally consciously acknowledge the simple fact that we human beings are Children of Planet Earth. Whatever our nations pretend to be, first and foremost we are Gaians, Earthlings. From all Internet users down to Eskimos and Bushmen.

(Sorry to draw such a scale, I actually do not mean to imply that people who are not Internet users are not human, lol.)

Yes, we envision a number of people starting to live the Gaian vision, very discreetly at first, inside themselves to begin with, people living with the clear knowledge that some things have to stop, like the desecration of the planet. I´m talking about people who would truly understand, because they have been coolly trained, that things cannot go on like they are, running around in stupid circles, that something must change, and that this “something” is the very structure of the patriarchal ego, which is an extremely limited historical view, even of physical reality: since man walked on the moon  (at the very least) and invented quantum physics,  we do have a pressing need to get out of the Freudian back alley:

Everything in our lives can be aligned to prosperity, agape *and abundance of intelligence, which is how Nature really works. There is no real necessity to botch human evolution.

We could, yes we could. We could do it, you know. Difficult ? Yes. Impossible ? No. Anyway, what with Climate Change and Peak Oil, we may be forced to change. Change into what, is now The Big Question.

If you find it difficult to accept the idea that our civilization is still barbaric, and that we DO have to evolve as a species, don´t change anything except this basic understanding, which you have to “grok” with your very bones : we are Earthlings, and we will have to deeply acknowledge this fact. Or we will disappear. Easy choice. And a long long process. Do we really have the time?

It all boils down to the fact that all of us are collectively responsible for the welfare of all of humanity, and of the entirety of the planet.

War is a boorish, unrefined, uncultivated, churlish way of facing collective problems. Warriorship as a patriotic demonstration can best be used on an entirely different  level : I mean, a mental way of tackling problems, of grappling with reality. I do think that we have enough enlightened brains on this planet to create an entirely new game.

As for us as a group, as a Project, as a Neo-Druid Grove, we have made that choice already. Actually, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, we are deep into the consequences of it. As a group we have touched the brass tacks of what it means. This sense of consciously  “being on the side of the woods” (as Tolkien says through Treebeard), is what makes us Neo-Druids. We may even, if the Myth becomes as necessary as bread, sew some nice white robes and dance through our very own woods. We may as well, since we so deeply feel part of the Great Fellowship of Life on this Earth.

In this deep sense, we have the Vision of a huge Rainbow of Consciousness/Energy spanning thousands of years, from the Old Ones right down to us, the Druids in jeans. A new Ark of the Covenant, if you will. Or a new lease on our renting this planet from our great-great-grandchildren.

…Rivendell lives! Long live Rivendell!

 ;-)

 PS.- Agape  : Christianity. Love as revealed in Jesus, seen as spiritual and selfless and a model for humanity.

1. Love that is spiritual, not sexual, in its nature.
2. Christianity. In the early Christian Church, the love feast accompanied by Eucharistic celebration.

In the New Testament, the fatherly love of God for humans and their reciprocal love for God. The term extends to the love of one’s fellow humans.

Animus work

(Image : The journal shown here is part of the work I did for my PS course, “Book of Merlin”, SG, 2005).

The Animus (the masculine part of women) is usually, and culturally, projected on men. We fall in love with the Aragorns of the world, we never stop to think that maybe this lovely ruggedy energy could actually be ours. Ever seen a hairy Arwen ? Lol. Such is our deep deep cultural conditioning.

But I discovered that lots of our courageous Prince Valiant energies could be ours, it´s a question of looking inside and being truthful with ourselves. In my PS work, way back then, I realized that I was sort of in awe with Strider (Aragorn)- (no, not the actor, Tolkien´s character), because these energies were mine. I didn´t want to be Arwen, I wanted to own my Strider energies, and what a wonderful addition to my life!… I also realized that a whole part of the events of my past life had incorporated these energies, oh yes, I certainly did some rather non-female things in my life!…

All of which, being my real life experience, had me thinking that maybe our culture has some rather shady agenda dividing people into male and female stereotypes. That´s what Jung (GrandPapa Carl Gustav) tried to say when he formulated that men have a female part of their psyche (the Anima), and women a masculine part (the Animus). Though…mmmm…Granddaddy being a staunch Swiss macho man (Goddess knows I´m familiar with those characters having had a very Swiss e-dew-kation!), he naturally thought that the Anima business was more “normal” than the other one!

Anyway, I did work with my Animus, and even gave him some really well-known faces at the time, Merlin for one, Gandalf, my inner Druid, (yeah, I know he´s a Mayar, not a Druid), Aragorn-Strider, and Elrond, the half-elven. (You must have guessed that I am a Lord of the Rings fan ?…).

It helped a lot to feel that these “masculine” energies were actually mine! So I stopped projecting them “outside”, and could finally let my men be the troubled, fragile, chinked beings that they really were…oh blessed relief for them…See my point?

This post goes with the preceding one about Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. The Sun was considered a female entity by the ancient Celts, as it still is in the German language : die Sonne, der Mond. When I speak about a shady agenda above, it is so, or why should solar qualities systematically be attributed to the masculine, and lunar ones to the female? Examining both, you get to understand the agenda, lol.

Note *** Just so you get this right : yeah, I am an Elf, and yeah, I am 3000 years old! (No, not Arwen.)

Hahaha

The Final Initiation

(Image : “Druid Review”, final exam, SG, 2009)

A year or so after receiving the lovely scroll that marks the end of my formal training as a Druid at OBOD (actually you may find out that it never ends!), the final Initiation.

…I was in the kitchen, talking with Mika and Adam (the other two parts of the Earth Sanctuary Project´s coregroup) over coffee one morning, about how hard it is sometimes to maintain this land, and how sometimes we would love to travel or go someplace different, smaller, easier, – and how we couldn´t ever go back to living in a town flat, when a sudden realisation hit my brain.

I, who thought I couldn´t ever live in a town again, had the sudden vision that all the trees of the world were now rooted in my heart, and the mountains, and the rocks, and the little river, and all the animals, deer, fox, squirrels and eagles, and that I could, without batting an eye, pack my suitcase and go…anywhere!

Tears just welled up in my eyes.

All the forests of the world are now rooted in my green heart.

I have become the Grove.

Asse-asse-asseverate!

(Image : “Use Your Imagination” Journal, recycled paper bags, SG, 2010)

Couldn´t resist…

I do declare, earnestly, nay, I avow, I allege, I asseverate, that this feckless tyro, this neophyte, this greenhorn, this factitious filibuster, this facetious sassy tenderfoot, this pesky pugnacious rogue, is causing quite a pother among the class.

…Happy translating, dear BabelFish!

Don´t mind me, it´s just a pretext for uploading a new image!…

(The Lady Dragon laughing, obstreperously, of course!)

The Legacy

(Image : Revamped “Use your imagination” Journal, recycled paper bags, SG, 2009)

…Yesterday I counted them : I have created 18 journals in less than two years! Only two of them are completely finished, cover to cover.

I consider them as “works in progress”. Usually I go back and take them up, adding, changing, sometimes quite drastically. Like this one, “Use your imagination”, which I started two years back.

I´m quite happy about the results; these are already a nice legacy to leave behind to my children and grandchidren. They´re proof that I have existed in exactly this way, with a happy colouring and enthusiasm (“enthusiasm” meaning “transported by the gods”), and what a peculiar, odd, quaint and kooky way this is.

…Wait a minute! Eighteen in two years, and assuming this won´t slow down too much (given the happy-go-lucky way “the gods” daily transport me!), it means 180 journals in twenty years from now! Woah. They will have to rent a TRUCK to move “The Legacy”! …(Or make one huge bonfire!)

Hahaha

 

PS.- Not counting the 1.157.822 posts that constitute my group work in the InnerNet!

Bah, maybe the Net will crash, and good bye all good intentions.

 *sigh*

Anchoring the Light

(Image : Mandala 46, Anchoring the Light, SG, watercolours)

…Not much more we can do these days, but anchoring the Light as concretely as we possibly can.

Catawampus

(Image : Soul card 126, SG, 2009)

…I love words!

Just found a shiny new one, that I never read before in my long, long journey as a reader : catawampus.

D’ you know what it means ?

Well it means… askew, awry, positioned diagonally.

It´s quite a useful little word, as in : We took a short cut and walked catawampus accross the field.

…Did you ever hear that ?

A sense of impending doom…

(Image : “Impending doom”, soul card, collage on cardboard, SG, May 2010.)

“We do not own the Earth, we only borrowed it from our granchildren.”

(Anon)

I think I´ve mentioned this before,  I feel very uncomfortable about what is ocurring around the world, and that feeling comes through in my art lately. I see a necessary Change coming, a radical Paradigm Shift, about which some people have been talking for quite a goodly number of years now, myself included.

At the Sanctuary we´re extremely aware of the Peak Oil problem,  and how this is going to totally change our lives; we´re aware also of the climate crisis. We are downsizing and re-skilling, learning NOW how to live with less, because when the deep shit hits the final fan, it´s going to hit hard. Be prepared.

Downsizing : These last months we have reduced our plastic trash a whopping 80%, and the rest is selected, organic goes to the chicken. Yes, we have a chickencoop which gives us an average of 6 to 8 eggs a day, and we have a veg patch. That means having learned to manage chicken, and caring for a kitchen garden. We eat less, we eat better, and leave a lot less garbage. Re-skilling : Mika has learned to make bread with about every grain available. We still depend on the supermarket for some products, but are learning to make our own (basics). We are very aware of what we buy, are  buying more recicled and ecological stuff, (including second hand furniture), and we´re not going on holiday on a plane.  The house is paid for, the car as well. We have an eye on gasoline prices. All this is shorthand for : be cautious, be aware, be prepared.

Forty years back when I told my mother, let´s eat brown rice, – she told me in no uncertain terms that I was crazy. So I got used to being thought of as a bit of a zany bird, what with my eco-ideas. Now these very same ideas are becoming mainstream fast, and Alleluiah, at long last.

But we don´t know if there is much time left, we already live on borrowed time as a civilization, maybe it´s too late for the majority, and the crash will be hard. Another thing that will become very handy indeed is knowing about group processes. Believe me, friends, when the survival of your family depends on your neighbours, you better know how this functions! That´s one thing for which, as a group, we are thoroughly prepared.

When asked what he thought about civilization, Gandhi answered : “It´s a good idea”. The man must have had a dark sense of gallows’ humour.

Naa-niiiiiii!

(Image : Little Mister Sunshine, on Mamiiii´s knees, photo : Tata I-a, MDG, 2010)

“L´homme propose et Dieu dispose.” (Anon Le Grand,  ze French Anon)

Grandmothers propose and grandsons dispose, if you will pardon my French!

I told my daughter in no uncertain terms that no way do I want to be called “Granny” or anything remotely like it! So we said, OK, so Alex will call me”Ya-ya” (Granny in Catalan), but after trying it on, well, I´d rather not, ”La Yaya” is the other Grandma, thank you very much. So we said, what about “Nana” ? Mmm, nice. Nana, I can digest.

But no.

D´you know who that screech is meant to bring about running : Na-niiiiiiiii!! which means just about anything from Gimme-my-bottle-and-not-too-warm-eh? to Lift-me-up-quick-I-wanna-see-sumpthing!…Yeah. Me. the Wizard of Lothlorien. Ha.

So be it,  – Nani it is. And …Maaaami-iiiii (Mama), Tata I-a (auntie Mika) and Da-da (Adam). Awa (agua, water), Maaa-meh (dáme, give me) and other wonderful words which we have a hard time not imitating! Like in:  ”I-a, maa-meh awa”! (Mika, give me water). Family in stitches.

Ecopsychology Junior!

(Image : photo Tati Mika, 2010)

This is Alex, now 14 months old. He walks, well, he stumbles about, and enthusiastically bangs his head on most corners, which has his Nani (me) very worried, and running after him to prevent major disasters. Apart from that, he is an angel, very easy. A little sunshine guy with Paul Newman eyes, lol!…

And yes, this is the third generation of the Earth Sanctuary.