Today I tried a new magical technique for the first time thanks to the Goddess Circle's Creativity Course. A sort of spirit walk (an idea I don't really know anything about and could well have go. I centered myself and connected with the divine and asked to be lead to those things I needed to create my artwork and whilst I did find some interesting physical things, something else happened, several somethings actually.
Firstly the process was really interesting and useful and pretty wonderful. I walk a lot, but always to either get somewhere or to exercise, I always wear my Ipod headphone (shutting out the world a bit) and although I do notice my surroundings on these walks I don't really notice them in a very deliberate and "conscious" way. So going on a walk without a particular purpose other than a vague plea to the universe to show me what I needed to see was very different. Very quickly I found myself in a very calm, spiritual headspace which kept up for the whole hour of my walk, despite the fact I was mostly walking in suburbia through some busy roads. In fact I had to work very hard to ground myself after the walk and ate something as soon as I got back home because it was actually a little difficult to stop being in that headspace. Definitely a powerful technique even in the way I was doing it. In fact it reminded me an awful lot of a technique a friend once described to me about 10 years ago. They said that when they came to live in a new city, they would always go for a long walk in the city to attune. Each city having it own rhythm and until my friend had attuned themselves to the rhythm then they could quite "get" the city - would find themselves getting lost perhaps or not finding the opportunities they were looking for.
A little over halfway through the walk it suddenly became very apparent that amongst the items I was picking up and the photos I was taking a message was trying to come through. Some truth or idea that the universe maybe thought I should know. Since the point of the exercise was to listen to whatever I needed to hear I let the idea just flow, even though it didn't fall in the category of a feather for me to stick on my artwork. The message built up slowly though, in layers until I felt I had an amazing idea, an idea which I could translate back into art...somehow.
I began by being drawn to little leaves and veins within them. Noticing that sometimes the colours of the veins was in a stark contrast to colour of the leaf, and sometimes less visible.
Firstly the process was really interesting and useful and pretty wonderful. I walk a lot, but always to either get somewhere or to exercise, I always wear my Ipod headphone (shutting out the world a bit) and although I do notice my surroundings on these walks I don't really notice them in a very deliberate and "conscious" way. So going on a walk without a particular purpose other than a vague plea to the universe to show me what I needed to see was very different. Very quickly I found myself in a very calm, spiritual headspace which kept up for the whole hour of my walk, despite the fact I was mostly walking in suburbia through some busy roads. In fact I had to work very hard to ground myself after the walk and ate something as soon as I got back home because it was actually a little difficult to stop being in that headspace. Definitely a powerful technique even in the way I was doing it. In fact it reminded me an awful lot of a technique a friend once described to me about 10 years ago. They said that when they came to live in a new city, they would always go for a long walk in the city to attune. Each city having it own rhythm and until my friend had attuned themselves to the rhythm then they could quite "get" the city - would find themselves getting lost perhaps or not finding the opportunities they were looking for.
A little over halfway through the walk it suddenly became very apparent that amongst the items I was picking up and the photos I was taking a message was trying to come through. Some truth or idea that the universe maybe thought I should know. Since the point of the exercise was to listen to whatever I needed to hear I let the idea just flow, even though it didn't fall in the category of a feather for me to stick on my artwork. The message built up slowly though, in layers until I felt I had an amazing idea, an idea which I could translate back into art...somehow.
I began by being drawn to little leaves and veins within them. Noticing that sometimes the colours of the veins was in a stark contrast to colour of the leaf, and sometimes less visible.
Then I saw the cracks in the pavement and the cracks in the asphalt. Cracks which I knew were caused by the roots of trees, breaking through the concrete cages we have built for them.
I thought about the roots of other plants around me all stretching out, connecting and growing unseen in the soil all around me, carrying information, drawing in water and nutrients.
I heard the songs of bird piercing into my mind carrying, messages and connections.
Eventually when I was sitting in a park somewhere I noticed
I had this sudden clarity of vision, of interconnectedness with this little seams of gold running from me to the bird, me to the person mowing their lawn and I thought about this planet we live with with all these precious little roots, veins and seams of interconnectedness and how we connected a million or more times a day without even realising it. Like the person mowing their law and how they didn't know I was there, hearing them mowing but they made the connection nonetheless.
It was all so joyful and lovely...but that wasn't the point of the message.
I left the park and started for home. No sooner had I shut the gate behind me when a couple of cars went past. The noise of their engines was a connection with me. But not a single clear note like a birdsong, or a deep conversation but a sort of scatter-gun of connection - throwing out the noise of their engines out into the universe with no purpose and not a care in the world about who and how many people might hear it. This started me thinking that really the seams and veins and roots of the unseen connections in our world have become distorted, instead of these rare and precious moments we are actually deluged with connection all the time; whether we like it or not. Advertising, TV, Radio, car noises and so many other things are like a tidal wave of connection which both drown out the important things and make it all a lot less precious. Seams of gold, become cliffs of gold and suddenly they are not that valuable anymore.
Now partly this is because I was on a spirit walk and had deliberately opened myself up to hear all this. But the noise is going on and even if we tune it out, it is still there and we are probably using energy to tune it out. I am not sure what this means I have to do (at this time), other than write a blog post, create some art and sent this message out into the world for people to ponder on. I don't think becoming a hermit is the answer, those connections are really precious and we shouldn't run away from them. So I would love to hear any other interpretations of this!
I heard the songs of bird piercing into my mind carrying, messages and connections.
Eventually when I was sitting in a park somewhere I noticed
I had this sudden clarity of vision, of interconnectedness with this little seams of gold running from me to the bird, me to the person mowing their lawn and I thought about this planet we live with with all these precious little roots, veins and seams of interconnectedness and how we connected a million or more times a day without even realising it. Like the person mowing their law and how they didn't know I was there, hearing them mowing but they made the connection nonetheless.
It was all so joyful and lovely...but that wasn't the point of the message.
I left the park and started for home. No sooner had I shut the gate behind me when a couple of cars went past. The noise of their engines was a connection with me. But not a single clear note like a birdsong, or a deep conversation but a sort of scatter-gun of connection - throwing out the noise of their engines out into the universe with no purpose and not a care in the world about who and how many people might hear it. This started me thinking that really the seams and veins and roots of the unseen connections in our world have become distorted, instead of these rare and precious moments we are actually deluged with connection all the time; whether we like it or not. Advertising, TV, Radio, car noises and so many other things are like a tidal wave of connection which both drown out the important things and make it all a lot less precious. Seams of gold, become cliffs of gold and suddenly they are not that valuable anymore.
Now partly this is because I was on a spirit walk and had deliberately opened myself up to hear all this. But the noise is going on and even if we tune it out, it is still there and we are probably using energy to tune it out. I am not sure what this means I have to do (at this time), other than write a blog post, create some art and sent this message out into the world for people to ponder on. I don't think becoming a hermit is the answer, those connections are really precious and we shouldn't run away from them. So I would love to hear any other interpretations of this!
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