For those who cannot access youtube at the moment for whatever reason, here some notes that I wrote before a Zoom gathering a couple of days ago, illustrating similar thoughts in a different way:
It is time to re-MIND ourselves and remember our intimate connection to the cycles of our mother, the earth. When we are born we know and feel the intimate link and flow of life energies between us and our mother.
We live and breathe in cycles.
Birth – death – birth…
Life’s nature, OUR nature is cyclical.
As children we know this. It makes sense deep within. It gives us a sense of belonging. I work a lot with children: young ones and within adults. Growing up in Western cultures and societies, children often lose their close connection and innate knowing. About 100 or 200 years ago we more or less successfully tried to create an illusion that we are not dependent on earth cycles and natural laws. That we can control or at least influence them.
As a child I knew that strawberries only grew in June in our garden, and I was eagerly awaiting “strawberry season”. There was a blueberry month, a mushroom month, an asparagus month… Spring was the time to prepare the garden and plant according to the 100-year-farmers calendar and the moon calendar, summer was berry-time (yay!), autumn was preserving time and mushroom time and juice-making time and grape-picking time, winter was story-time. My mum would sit down for once and knit and tell stories, even my dad found a bit of time to read stories to us. Today I consider myself fortunate that I grew up aligned to these cycles.
Our ancestors knew about natural cycles and their deep interdependence and interconnectedness. Nowadays I meet many people who have forgotten about natural cycles or are not aware how much they influence us and how much life depends on them. Our vitality, our creativity, our fertility, our wellbeing on all levels (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) depends on them. Our ancestors honoured and followed the cycles closely – they knew about the interconnectedness of all life and had ceremonies and rituals to acknowledge this connection.
Growing up in urban settings and in cultures that no longer integrate cycles as an essential part of life has led to a loss of old folk lore. Young ones no longer nurture their innate knowing about cycles. And older ones notice and suffer from the consequences of not living according to natural cycles. Our modern Western (colonised and christianised) culture no longer shares the stories of natural lore and the interconnectedness of all life. It is time to revive our indigenousness, feeling the deep connection to the place we come from, the place we live in... and out of that naturally comes the caring for the place we come from and the place we live in – feeling the togetherness of the world wide web of life, not on screens, but within our hearts and with all our senses.
It is time that we share the stories of our ancestors with our young ones, teach them about vital cycles and life-supportive ways of living aligned with all life forms on this planet and beyond.
It is time that we teach, once again, (young) women about their moon cycles linking their whole being, their fertility, their vitality, their power to create to the moon.
It is time that we teach (young) men to trust their intuition and the guidance of their heart when cultivating the land and relating to each other and other beings.
Inspiration for a regular practise
On Earth day – every day – we can remind ourselves and remember and reactivate what we know deep inside and what is our natural state of being. Go outside, if you can, immerse yourself in nature. If you can’t, sit on your veranda or open the window wide. Feel the sun or rain on your skin. Listen to the birds or to the wind whispering in the trees. If you are outside, lie in the grass and feel the earth… feel her heartbeat…
The birds are the messengers of these times and great teachers. Invite them into your space and let them know that you are open to listen. Let go of expectations… and simply be and allow things to happen… open yourself to whatever will be…
Trees are also powerful teachers and able to assist us to re-establish the connection to natural life cycles. Sit with a tree… open to his/her messages… in whatever form they will show up…
If you don’t have any trees growing nearby, visit them in your imagination… Feel the bark touching your back… feel the flow of their life juices underneath… hear the sound of the wind in the leaves… watch the mesmerising light spectacle when the sun shines through the leaves, painting quivering patterns onto the ground… Allow yourself to sink into tree-time… becoming slower and slower… until you feel the stillness of the forest flowing through you… until you feel the connectedness of all the trees in the forest in your body… feel how you are the forest…