Sixnon,

Aside from the usual enthusiasms about site – yes, it’s been raining, yes it’s cool and yes the neighbours clacking bamboo chimes tilt and clank in the wind, but oh! Kind, fellow, you need praise. This is what needs to arrive before your departure – a kind of hymn told in the best Celt spirit to you, and your brave four who are setting out into the void:

Strike deep, young man, the chasm, and there find the serpent with the jewel. Enjoy the rest of Ma Cactus as she feeds you soup with a spoon. Light out across those clouds and settle into rocks, early morning, where your feet sit rested on the ground. You are ancient. They will not find you there. You have earned your rest.

Enjoy again the meal of generations as you ripen and fall as fruit from the tree. Your skies are your skies. Carry and hold and care for your community and allow intrigues early escape. An upturned bowl is the sky – and you shall drift as you are eaten. Mother Cactus will return you to your bed, sated and plain.

That was a half-willed, half watched – a dream cultivated into prophecy. Best wishes for your journey, your own double-journey and your families. You are one of those fellows.

Much love,

C

.... from Bellingen, I can heartily recommend the work of Claire de Valero for those in need of Craniosacral work. Claire has trained with Franklin Sills in Craniosacral Biodynamics which addresses even deeper tidal motions within the craniosacral system.

"Craniosacral Biodynamics



Craniosacral Biodynamics is an approach to the teaching and practice of Craniosacral Therapy which acknowledges the deepest foundations of the human system. In this approach, we, as human beings, are seen to be an expression of the wholeness of life itself. Life is experienced to be undivided and the human system is perceived to be an expression of this whole . In this concept, a vital life force is perceived to express this wholeness within all of manifestation. This vital force is perceived to express a biodynamic potency within the human system. The human system organises around the expression of this potency. It orders and integrates all cellular and tissue function from the moment of conception until death. This biodynamic force is called the Breath of Life. It is considered to be the basic ordering and healing principle within the human system and maintains and integrates all of its life functions. It manifests as a subtle inner breath called primary respiration. Its expression generates a rhythmic impulse in the body called primary respiration. It arises quite literally at the core of the body; in the brain and spinal cord, and the fluids which bathe them."



from The Karuna Insitute website

Claire may be contacted on (02) 66562530 and (0424) 065 471

Simon

During my work, I often see the interactions of people in time and geography as if from above, the Eagle's perspective (or indeed the Colibre).

A life of an individual appears in time as a landscape viewed from above such that to the the people moving about within that landscape the geography is three dimensional, but they cannot see beyond the horizon in each direction. From the heightened perspective, it is possible for me to see how the interactions with the past and the future are influencing the current situation (which includes those pasts and futures because they are, infact, contained within the individuals). This is something like watching a person moving across a physical landscape. From their perspective, they may have no idea of what lies in front of them, but from a higher vantage point, one can see that the path of another (if a consistent direction and velocity are maintained) will cross theirs at a given time. Now this metaphor is limited, and the term higher connotes no description of correctness or morality, but it gives an impression of something for which there is limited language in this culture.

That observation has shown me time and time again that the movement of humans about the surface of the planet seems to have profound implications at an energetic level. Now the implication differs depending upon the intent of the movement and the mover, but it shows me the truth behind the indigenous perspective that humans are needed to recreate certain vibrations (in song, dance, ceremony) in order to assist in the healthy functioning of the planet. I do not purport to know all of the mechanisms in which this function is carried out, but I am deeply aware of and respecting of my immediate quality of felt experience when the spirits of the environment communicate with or through me.

In that deep knowing, I am aware that the planet, a being moving through it's own cycle of evolution and movement through consciousness, is deeply in need of the intentional support of those I would call "her children". My journey with others to Venezuela to assist in that process is an honour and a privilege in which I am deeply grounded and supported.

The experience of being the Great Mother Goddess, Mother Earth, then changed into actually becoming the planet Earth. There was no question that I - the Earth - was a living organism, and intelligent being trying to understand myself, struggling to evolve to a higher level of awareness, and attempting to communicate with other cosmic beings.



The metals and minerals constituting the planet were my bones, my skeleton. The biosphere - the plant life, animals, and humans - were my flesh. I experienced within myself the circulation of water from the oceans to the clouds and from there into little creeks and large rivers and back into the sea. The water system was my blood and the meteorological changes - the evaporation, air currents, the rainfall, and the snow - insured it's circulation, transport of nourishment, and cleansing. The communication between plants, animals, and humans, including modern technology - the press, telephone, radio, television, and the computer network - was my nervous system, my brain.



I felt in my body the injury of the industrial insults of strip mining, urbanisation, toxic and radioactive waste, and pollution of air and water. The strangest part of the session was that I was aware of rituals among various aboriginal peoples and experienced them as very healing and absolutely vital for myself"



account of a Holotropic Breathwork session of a young German woman in Stanislof Grof's, The Adventure of Self Discovery

"The Adventure of Self-Discovery: I : Dimensions of Consciousness : II : New Perspectives in Psychotherapy (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanist)" (Stanislav Grof)

Simon

Especially during this month when I have not been physically present in Avalon, there has been a significant amount of telephone based consultation. People often ask how to pay me for this service but i do not have, nor do I intend to have at this time a scheduled fee for this service. I have, however, added a donation button at the bottom right of the screen. Those who feel to make a donation as exchange, please use this facility at your discretion. Alternatively there is a link to a site called Kiva which details a program of micro-loans for African small business. Although I cannot vouch for it personally, it strikes me as a sound practice, and I would be happy if loans were made there as a form of exchange.

These options are just that, and there is never any pressure or obligation in that regard.

Simon

A DOORWAY TO THE GODDESS

I was called to have my first meeting with the sacred healing plants of South America through several extraordinary events of synchronicity. So much so that I knew without any doubt that this was an answer to what had surfaced only days before as a longing to break through the invisible constraints I sensed I had placed upon my life.

Here are excerpts from my writings in the weeks that followed;

‘My journey into the sacred plant kingdom has undone me in a totally unexpected way. I did not have visitations from angels, demons, plant devas or my ancestors but instead I was melted and moulded ever so gently into the arms of the Mother. As I sang, in ceremony, I travelled with my sound to what felt for me to be the matrix of creation. I experienced the way sound interacts with the masculine principle and calls it into form. How the feminine principle of sound brings the Void to life with its vibration. I saw how the essential structure of my life is created by what I evoke from the subtle vibration of thought, the denser words that I utter consciously and unconsciously into the world and the pure sounds of sacred chanting I love so much’.

And a week or so later;

‘The essence of the plant spirit is still with me. I feel different in my body, more present, and yet my footsteps on the earth lighter, my movements more fluid.

Lizzy says she sees that I am growing a new light body. I don’t know what that means and yet I sense I am being recalibrated, reassembled. I feel new messages softly dispersing through my cells. I am deeply held by softness and am told that I have been opened to the true strength and presence of the feminine essence within me.

My efforts to support myself and others for so long have taken me far from my only source of true support. The armouring of effort is being dissolved, and I feel in myself how the tension created by my solitary acts of doing immediately creates a blockage of the conduit to my inner guru, to the knowing beyond my ego stories’.

And again;

“Resting in the feminine, what does that mean?” Karen asked me yesterday.

It is lying in the arms of the Great Mother, where I am thought and moved by her, and where I feel her great love and compassion for the human condition. It is where there is nothing to be done other than remain mutable enough to hear the next directive from within’.

And finally;

I have just realised that the bliss accompanying this new state of being I keep safely hidden, for fear that there is no place for it in this in world. I sense that it will challenge the broader consensus view of reality and that the sheer weight of this view will somehow crush it out of me. Yet I know it is sustenance for my hungry soul. I have been deeply blessed.

Two extraordinary years have passed since this journey. The great gift of the sacred plant teacher Is still with me. The doorway to the Goddess remains open. I feel her calling me into her arms again.

I sit and listen.

Kerrie

Further to my thoughts below, Kerrie has recently mentioned to me her feelings that perhaps people felt themselves "not dysfunctional" enough to warrant interest or active engagement in the pursuit of healing of the manner Dr. Hampejs offers. Certainly his interest, as a MD in Neurology and Psychiatry, is in the curing of "endogenous depression", but it is my experience that the reach of the Sacred Medicines is far deeper than the relief of immediately obvious symptomatic response. It is my feeling that these Sacred Medicines can teach us much about the nature of our individual beings, and the relationship of our individual selves to broader aspects of ourselves, our species and all the species with whom we share this beautiful planet. Without doubt there is, in this time, a prevailing sense of inability to find a meaningful place to stand amongst a species which shows many signs of rampant self destruction. There is often found a feeling of inability to make any real change within a cultural paradigm which seem to support deeply unhealthy and dysfunctional relationships with community and environment. I would suggest that there is a deeper cultural, and perhaps global malaise which all of us carry somewhere within our being. It is this realm that, in my experience, the Sacred Medicines work within and help us to address. As with any teachers, they show us the way, and the work of healing is effected by the individual with a delicate balance of honesty, courage and grace.

"It's the therapist's job to find the client's soul, and love it! That's all I'm really interested in, to tell you the truth. I believe that love is the healer, and I believe that you have to see with your third eye, and hear with your inner ear in order to find the soul, because it is so stricken. It's so stricken by oppression that it fears to come out....



....So you have to be extremely careful with bodywork, because the body often carries a psychotic corner, a rejected psyche. Deadened from the neck down- the body is dense, opaque matter, unconscious..,,



,,.and bodyworkers sometimes think they know what the body should do. They don't! - any more than the analyst knows what the psyche should do. Bodywork that is an exercise in power is entirely wrong, another violation of the body. The needed body is the bodywork where the soul is listened to, respected, and given it's outlet. The soul loves to move, to express to be free, and hates domination and desertion. Bodyworkers must surrender any power ideas, must surrender because the soul has taken all the power it can take. It will not tolerate any more.



Listen to the soul. Love it. Give it back it's dance. Then give the soul a format for understanding, for integration, and for anchoring"



Marion Woodman, Addiction and Sacred Emptiness.

Simon

There is a bumper sticker campaign in Bellingen currently. "Free Speech is not Sedition" and "Free Speech is not Terrorism". As any headline editor know We Humans, being exceptionally well adapted to pattern recognition tend to see the patterns which are dominantly programmed (via parents, teachers, media and all other manner of cultural propogation), and the cultural mind of the moment seems hell bent [pun intended] on diving into fear. As such there is a tendency in the instance of a car flashing past to see "Sedition" and "Terrorism" . Many of us are able to recognise the machinations of the controlling mind, but the reminder is needed that the reminder of such things is not!

I stopped a woman in the street recently as she alighted from her sticker adorned car. Our conversation proceeded along these lines.

"It is you know."

"What?"

"Free Speech"

"...is what?"

"Sedition"

"....uh..yeah..well it is NOW! It wasn't when I stuck it there!"

It seems there has another meeting of the Bellingen chapter of "the body against sedition laws who produced these stickers", and consensus has been reached with regards to a course of action in relation to this conundrum. The word "not" is to be crossed out with permanent marker and the word "now" inserted in it's stead.

I decided upon a different approach, searching for anagrams to utilise the now superseded stickers somewhat more poetically.

whilst I honour the work of those who seek to limit the impact of repressive legislations within the political system, I have often seen in my life the impact that being in opposition to things makes upon individual lives, and indeed collective psyches. As a middle point between opposition and apathy, I am suggesting that we become ontological cut-up artists, find poetic anagrams of our internal linguistic make-up and, as individuals and as a collective, become objects of art, poetry, and beauty shining our light as inspiration to others into the world....

Simon

As previously mentioned, it is my intention to support other heart centred business by providing a node in the network of information distribution.

I have often been asked to clear physical space by clients who have been impressed by the efficacy of the energetic clearing within their bodies. Whilst I am capable of performing such tasks, it is not my particular area of expertise, and as such I have regularly referred to William Cadman's Heart of Place. William has recently offered me some documents which explain the nature of his work, and I am making them available here, so that others may have a glimpse of his unique view of the world of healing.

Heart 1.doc Heart of Place introduction

Heart 2.doc Heart of Place Introduction 2

Simon

As many of you know, final preparations are underway for the rapidly approaching departure for a rescheduled seminar with Dr. Valentin Hampejs in Venezuela. For that reason I will not be in Avalon until my return. I will be in Merida with Deborah, Kerrie and Justin until February's end whereupon they will return, and I shall remain. To that end, there is a possibility of a second seminar beginning on or about the 10th of March. I can adjust the start time of the seminar within a few days in order to accommodate the limited flights to Venezuela from Australia. Anyone inspired by the forthcoming journeys of the brave Avalon pioneers mentioned above, please contact me as soon as possible to speak of possibilities. The information provided here and here gives Dr. Hampejs' details of his seminars. Please read both documents carefully as they provide all material details of the seminars, as well as his perspective on Shamanic Medicine.

I will be available for appointments in Avalon and Bellingen upon my return to Australia, but cannot give specific dates as yet. Obviously the interest in a second seminar will influence my return date. I hope to be keeping an ongoing description of the Venezuelan unfolding (subject to network availability) so will update my plans as they arise and pass away (those of you who have been witness to the machinations of the airline flight booking system for the coming journey are permitted here a wry smile or indeed a hearty guffaw).

Despite many obstacles, I feel very grateful to have this opportunity to share with others what I find to be a most profound and efficacious healing process.

I apologise if my absence from Avalon and Bellingen inconveniences those who wish to see me, but the nature of my work is very much informed by the connection with the Sacred Medicines of the Amazon and Andes, and I dearly wish to have the opportunity to share these great healing teachers with others in a safe, supported and state sanctioned environment.

I wish you all a productive, nurturing and fulfilling 2006.

Blessings

Love

Simon