.....another option for the creation of more sustainable, sustaining stories......

Technorati Tags: consciousness, deep ecology, healing, retreat, council of all beings, story

For most people, eating organic means a trip to the local whole- foods store and, often, a hit to their wallets. For the Dervaes family, eating organic requires only a trip to the garden. The family of four raises 3 tons of food each year -- enough to supply three-quarters of their diet and maintain a thriving organic produce business to boot.



Jules Dervaes, along with his three grown children, lives on 1/5 of an acre in suburban Pasadena and cultivates about half the property, or 1/10 of an acre. Given that the average American's diet requires 1.2 acres of farmland per person, the Dervaeses are eating quite well off one-fiftieth of the land the rest of us require.

Full article here from the same publication which posted this (by way of juxtaposition) discovered at Grist magazine.

Technorati Tags: Climate Change, consciousness, Earth Healing, evolution, Food, health, Middle East, Oil dependance

Back at the turn of the millennium, the local government I was working for asked community members to contribute their vision of the municipality in the year 2025. As an environmental planner, I attended the community's presentations with some interest.One group that responded was a gifted-students' club from an elementary school. In their envisioned future, they imagined a community with only indoor parks. Beyond these parks, there would be no trees, no plants, no birds, and no animals. Freshwater would be gone, because lakes and streams would either be dried up or too polluted to support life; drinking water would have to be created from desalinization plants on the coast. In the future these children predicted, universities and colleges would be closed because everyone would learn -- alone -- through their personal computers.As the children spoke, I sat with tears rolling down my cheeks. Had I really just heard what they'd said? Had the appreciative and encouraging municipal council heard the same thing? Why would children who lived in an idyllic natural environment -- surrounded by trees, a rich diversity of plants and lush gardens, abundant wildlife including deer and cougars, large forested parks, and fish-bearing streams -- imagine a future that was ecologically dead?

the full article can be found here AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Our Planet's Future Isn't Dead

I recently discovered this article by Karen Hurley whilst examining a link to my site from the Future Hi website. It, to me, segued nicely from my previous post, pointing to the need to acknowledge our collectivity, the power of our stories to be made manifest, and the very real need therefore to be conscious of and in the stories we tell ourselves and our children of our present and our future.

Simon

Technorati Tags: children, Climate Change, consciousness, Earth Healing, evolution, health, story

"The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the Earth."

TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

"The phrase 'Sense of the Earth' should be understood to mean the passionate concern for our common destiny which draws the thinking part of life ever further onward. The only truly natural and real human unity is the spirit of the Earth. . . .The sense of Earth is the irresistable pressure which will come at the right moment to unite them (humankind) in a common passion. "We have reached a crossroads in human evolution where the only road which leads forward is towards a common passion. . . To continue to place our hopes in a social order achieved by external violence would simply amount to our giving up all hope of carrying the Spirit of the Earth to its limits."

So wrote Teilhard de Chardin the visionary Jesuit author, geologist, paleontologist, and philosopher-theologian in 1955. 8 years prior in his 1947 work "La formation de la Noosphère" he elaborated upon Verdansky's notion of the noosphere

"No one can deny that a network (a world network) of economic and psychic affiliations is being woven at ever increasing speed which envelops and constantly penetrates more deeply within each of us. With every day that passes it becomes a little more impossible for us to act or think otherwise than collectively." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (The Formation of the Noosphere, 1947)

The term garnered much popularity with science fiction writers, technofuturists, transhumanists, cyberpunks and other denizens of the cyber-realms, but was coined long before the notion of a globe spanning digital data network became anything near a physical reality. My point in raising the idea is that the notion that collective human action and intention can have profound material consequence is not a new one, nor is it a singularly "spiritual" one. Terrence McKenna in one of his many entheogenically inspired ramblings suggested.

"The planet is some kind of organized intelligence. It's very different from us. It's had over 4 billion years to create a slow moving mind which is made of oceans and rivers and rain forests and glaciers. It's becoming aware of us, as we are becoming aware of it, strangely enough. Two less likely members of a relationship can hardly be imagined - the technological apes and the dreaming planet. And yet, because the life of each depends on the other, there's a feeling towards this immense, strange, wise, old, neutral, weird thing, and it is trying to figure out why its dreams are so tormented and why everything is out of balance."

Phillip K Dick, the visionary science fiction writer who gained much noteriety after his untimely death suggested in his Man, Android and Machine that;

...the noosphere...no longer served as a mere passive repository of human internal information (the "Seas of Knowledge" which ancient Sumer believed in) but, due to the incredible surge of charge from our electronic signals and information-rich material therein, we have given it power to cross a vast threshold; we have, so to speak, resurrected what Philo and other ancients called the internal linkLogos. Information has, then, become alive..."

This understanding has reproduced itself again and again throughout history, clothed in various metaphors and devices. The notion of the noosphere is today studied in Ivy League institutions who find hard rationalist evidence for it's existance. Something deep within the human psyche propels thought and deed to bring into manifest reality what has long been intuited and heartfelt...That humans are intricately connected with each other and with the Mother Earth who gives them the ground stuff, the physical being, the biology, the brain, the opposable thumbs to spin these ideas out of the ethers and bring them to fruition in matter.

We have been made intimately aware of the capacity of humanity to turn this potential for manifestation into the 'dark Satanic mills' of Blake's visions, or the scarred war torn landscapes which are available for our vicarious viewing from the safety of our loungerooms at the flick of a switch. One must look considerably deeper than the monolithic, corporate state's vision of reality to see the vision of hope and faith in the potential for good in the species which has appeared again and again in the history of thought, art and deed. Nonetheless that vision remains.

We stand at a crucial moment in the evolution of the species, and it is well within our power in this moment to realise our interconnectivity, our place within the species and upon the planet and bring to bear our considerable personal power within that process to realise that which has been intimated by many who have come before us. If we do not, it seems, we acquiesce to a social order which believes it can only be maintained by 'external violence' and control and in doing so denigrate the very great gift of life that we are offered.

in Peace

Simon

Technorati Tags: consciousness, evolution, Middle East, Peace, Teilhard de Chardin

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious" C G Jung

Recent events in the Israel and Lebanon have been give such a wide variety of written responses that it makes little sense to me to inject my own opinion into the sea of opinion masquerading as objectivity in the datasphere. One thing that I have witnessed is a deep sense of hopelessness and inability to act which has been evident in those who have been exposed to “news” of the situation. During the week I have received a number of communications offering suggestions as to what individuals can do to be constructively engaged in the peace process. I am reproducing two such ideas below.

Nicki Scully offers the following;

Dear Friends,



Last night on the news I saw an interview with hooded Hezbollah fighters, covered from head to toe looking directly at the TV camera through small holes cut into their hoods. Barely distinguishable amongst their plain white garments stood a small hooded child! I knew I could be silent no more. This insanity must stop! What is happening in the world is intolerable.



I fervently believe that if mothers and grandmothers take a stand we could change things. If women all over the world stand up and proclaim for all to see, hear, and know with certainty that all women, on all sides of every conflict, are sick of sacrificing their children to the abomination of hatred, cruelty, and unnecessary death, we could change things. The children are the future for all of us. What hope is there for a world where children grow up knowing nothing but fear and hatred?



September 21, 2006 is a UN sanctioned International Day of Peace. I propose that on that day at precisely 10 AM (in each time zone), all women everywhere on the planet stop whatever they are doing and step out into the street, or up to their government headquarters, or gather in a prominent public place and proclaim with one voice “NO MORE WAR!!!” or “LET PEACE PREVAIL!” or whatever words of power or silence best expresses their cry for peace. We can also stand firm in our resolve within our families and invite the men of heart we know to join us in this declaration.



If we could find a way to communicate with and unite all women, even for a moment, our stand will pass like a great wave around the world, and soften the hearts of fathers, uncles, brothers and government leaders who believe that aggression and retaliation are the only valid responses to current world situations.



I offer this idea as a seed that can be watered by your thoughts and input and passed on as a collaborative effort to unite women and create peace. My hope is that if we circulate this message through all our networks and circles, we will reach enough women by September 21 to make a difference. We are not helpless!



Please copy this letter onto a new page before you send it on— forwards are usually filtered out as spam. Add your name if you wish, and your own impassioned plea to get the word out to the women of the world. You can send me any ideas or suggestions and I will post them on my new page, http://www.shamanicjourneys.com/womenforpeace.html. Hopefully, our message will find its way into Darfur and Iraq, into Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, into our own urban war zones, and into all places that are being torn apart by conflict. It’s time to hear the voices of the women. It is not too late!!!



With Prayers for Peace,



Nicki Scully

http://www.shamanicjourneys.com

Whilst Marko Pogacnik offers this;

AGAIN FIRE IN THE MIDDLE EAST - WHAT CAN WE DO?



Again the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians has increased. The Middle East is threatened by another fire. What can we do?



One could say, that the power structure (etheric body) of the Earth, within the framework of the Earth changes has become strong enough, to be able to transform conflicts into creative processes, capable to bring forth proper solutions. The problem is, that the connecting link is missing, that would enable the healing powers to flow towards the given conflict situation. The healing powers are not capable to function properly, because the countries in stress are flooded by negative emotions and thought forms. Yet human beings are capable to create the missing link, if we do connect the critical situation in the Middle East with the dimension of eternity. By this a bridge would be created, through which the powers of Earth and universe can act in a healing way.



But, how is it possible to find connection to eternity and its unprecedented power? It is coded at the centre of a human heart, it can be also reached through the energy systems of our back.



After connecting to the source of infinity within oneself, one should shortly build up in one's imagination some images from the landscapes of fight. Then direct the power of eternity towards the realms of war, so that it can become creative there. One can accomplish this through different venues:



imagine to lay hands upon the critical landscapes,



or create with the help of both hands a vessel in front of your heart centre. Imagine to fill the vessel with the source water. Water will take in the information of infinity. Afterwards imagine that you are directing the water to war realms, to be spread there.



You can discover some further methods.



Sempas, July 20th 2006, Marko Pogacnik

Technorati Tags: Earth Healing, healing, Middle East, Peace

The somewhat confusing FeedBlitz subscription service has been replaced with a Feedburner subscription. This service seems considerably easier to manage. If you would like to receive updates to this site via email, please enter your email address above the "Subscribe" button to the right and then follow the instructions provided.

Simon

Speaking for itself...

Technorati Tags: breath, chanting, healing, retreat, Song, Sound

LIz Watters, long standing Avalon resident, healer and African tour leader will be beginning an eight week course designed to make a foundation for spiritual and shamanic understanding and practice. The course starts Friday 21st July at 10am - 12:30 and will run for for eight weeks thereafter. Cost of the course is $400 with concessions available. LIz may be contacted by email;

lizzywatters [at] hotmail [dot] com

(please fill in the usual details for the email address which is formulated thus to prevent spam)

Love

Simon

Technorati Tags: healing, shamanism, training