Here in Victoria, Australia our second lockdown begins. The weather sets the tone. Yesterday it snowed not so far from here.
linked to – https://dversepoets.com/2020/08/04/poetics-looking-out-the-window/
Going Deeper In
Here in Victoria, Australia we are going into our second lockdown. There are more rules this time and in the State capital, Melbourne, there is a night time curfew and only the food shops are allowed to open. They’re telling us it will take six weeks to stop this second wave but already there’s talk of a third wave happening in Hong Kong as returning diplomats exempt from quarantine spread the virus.
On Earthweal this week Brendan asks: “What’s strange in your world/country/city/home/backyard/forest/ocean/head/heart today?” https://earthweal.com/2020/08/03/earthweal-weekly-challenge-strange-world/
Going deeper in
a spirit wolf howls
as the moon grows full.
Alone in a book lined study
an astrologer casts a chart –
full moon in Aquarius square Uranus,
Mars in Aries square Pluto –
the fighter and rebel activated
as the old world implodes in
disorientation, confusion,
anger and frustration –
this could go on for months.
Going deeper in
the spiritual warrior and
the sacred rebel awaken.
The spirit wolf howls
now is the time to find
inner courage and strength.
This could go on for months.
Out on the astral planes
an old Indian drums.
The Earth turns.
The old must die before
the new can be birthed.
Getting away from it all
New Covid 19 restrictions here mean that I am not able to get out much at all right now. I am missing the times when I lived closer to the bush and could access it easily. Here’s a haiku from that time.
As it is I’m retreating to my inner life and seeking to find balance away from all the conflicting opinions, stress and fear. Here’s another haiku I wrote some time ago about the inner freedom found in meditation or in just opening to the simple joys of sitting in the garden watching the birds fly.
linked to:- https://earthweal.com/2020/07/31/earthweal-open-link-we
Taking flight
"So you think you can fly" said the plover to the pigeon, "I'll show you flying." Taking off from the rooftop in a wild sweeping curve, a swooshing, wheeling arc, the plover shrieked, banshee-like. The pigeon simply coo-ed and strutting back and forth along the eaves deigned not to notice the plover's antics. Enraged, the plover swooped, pulled out of the dive Then flew in ever faster, tighter circles. Unmoved the pigeon coo-ed once more, and with a loud clatter of wings became airborne, collected companions - an entire flock performing aerial ballet - gained momentum and flew off to distant parts bearing messages of hope. Night fell. The plover wailed out across the lonely sky a trailing plaintive cry. The night deepened. Linked to https://dversepoets.com/2020/07/28/poetics-flights-of-fancy/
Upon this Sacred Earth
At places of spiritual power
the divine enters the physical
Signs of the sacred
glimpsed beneath the Bodhi tree
where Buddha became enlightened.
Journeying there
a hippy chick from Oz
back in the day
slightly crazed
mightily dazed
a travel worn child
sitting at Buddha’s feet.
Signs of the mythic
glimpsed at the Hill of Tara
the Irish home of the Fae.
Journeying there
a grandmother carrying burdens
back before the virus
heart sore
care worn
opening to the magical
in swirling golden mist
Signs of something greater
glimpsed in mystic moments
upon this sacred earth.
Journeying here and there
across a lifetime’s wanderings
always travellling on
shedding burdens
seeking healing
moving through inner darkness
towards a higher light.
linked to:- https://earthweal.com/2020/07/27/earthweal-weekly-challenge-sacred-landscapes/
What makes a landscape sacred? From what do wells and mountains and rivers and islands inherit their power? Long habitation and use? Leys and magical rooks? Unconscious cultural material which has followed us for hundreds of thousands of years? Innate animal affinities which provide us with our native compass and speak our origin myths?
— Brendan
In the future
You may not think it so but the way to Unity lies across a trackless wilderness beneath a darkening sky. Many expect the path to that fabled destination to be a wide avenue lined with roses but no. Although the ways to Unity are diverse they all involve venturing into unknown terrain. Many trials and tribulations can befall the traveler as they journey across rough ground and vast swamps of despondency.
Unity is not so much a city as a locality. The people live in holons – self sufficient groups that combine together to form a cohesive whole that is somehow greater than its parts. This larger grouping is known as Unity.
The guiding principle behind this system is that Earth is a living organism and that all life within the biosphere is of value. Strangely even rocks, rivers and mountains are considered to be conscious entities aware of their position in the larger environment.
Many of our children’s children’s children x3 live in Unity. The first founders of the place drifted there after the pandemic when the global economy collapsed. They were seeking a way of life that was more in tune with nature and more accommodating of difference. Of course they knew they would have to build this place themselves.
It began with a collection of caravans, campervans and tents gathered in a remote valley many miles from the nearest city, The remoteness meant that internet connections were sporadic but slowly the word got out. People willing to work hard came from all over the world seeking a simple, peaceful way of life. What they hadn’t necessarily expected was that the hard work was on all levels – physical, emotional, mental and even spiritual. All traces of old separatist thinking had to be released so that new, holistic ways of being could assert themselves.
There are many fabulous sights, philosophies and ways of being at Unity which would take many months to tell. Perhaps the most wondrous of these is that the way to Unity was found during the pandemic. Before that solitary individuals scattered across time and space had stumbled upon the possibility that Unity might exist but it wasn’t until the 2020s that there was a collective awakening. As global conditions worsened more and more people came to see that the way towards a simpler, more ecologically balanced way of living lay within their own hearts and minds. It was these people that began to find ways to traverse the trackless wilderness that lay before them.
All the Way
I am tired of all the panic, misinformation, police intimidation and rampant fear right now. Covid 19 is a terrible pandemic but sometimes I think the media and governments are compounding the situation. My poem today is a lighthearted look at an alternative perspective.
I heard of a man
who’s going to walk
away
taking only what he needs
he’s giving everything else
away
and heading off
to walk the beaches
all the way
around the fringes
outside of the mainstream
away
from all this craziness
following his heart
all the way
to where his soul meets the sky
and learns to fly
away
free, unbounded, untrammelled.
I hope he makes it
all the way.
linked to: https://dversepoets.com/2020/07/23/open-link-night-5/
and https://earthweal.com/2020/07/24/earthweal-open-link-weekend-30/
Re-wilding
I’ve been reading all the excellent poems written in response to this week’s challenge on Earthweal about connecting with the wild. They reminded me of this post on my old blog ‘Being in Nature’.
“The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”
“Go out in the woods, go out. If you don’t go out in the woods nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.”
“Bone by bone, hair by hair, Wild Woman comes back. Through night dreams, through events half understood and half remembered…”
quotes from Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype
Messages from the wild
In a dream reality
I return to nature.
I heed the call of the wild
imprinted in my memory
the sonic whistling of dolphins
surfing the waves
and the wordless song of whales
breaching just off shore,
dorsal fins waving at me,
one huge eye holding my gaze,
an opening to an ancient consciousness.
Now, restricted and confined,
the sounds of the wild come in winter winds
and the sudden piercing cry of the plover
nesting on the roof of an empty house.
Disturbed by the maintenance guy
she swoops and shrieks
protecting her territory,
setting clear boundaries
in this time of the virus.
Messages of the wild
coming to me, even now
the joy of being alive.
prompt: For today’s challenge, let’s contemplate messages from the wild.https://earthweal.com/2020/07/20/weekly-challenge-messages-from-the-wild/
Idle Speculation
Here in Victoria, Australia with the State capital back in lockdown, the borders closed and our movements controlled by the police and the army – I retreat online. There I read that comet Neowise (new wisdom?) now visible in the northern hemisphere will not return for nearly 7,000 years.
Idly I wonder what this visit from a comet would portend if these were Biblical times. Perhaps a clue to any clue to any significance lies in what happened 7,000 years ago.
Online I discover that 7,000 years ago was a key time in human development. Around that time large groups of people moved from a hunter/gatherer way of life to a time when tribal groups settled in agrarian communities. There is genetic evidence that men almost went extinct then in a phenomena known as the “Neolithic Y chromosone bottleneck”. Their genetic diversity collapsed to the point where there was only man to every 17 women. This occurred mostly in Europe and the Middle East.
Researchers at Stanford University have hypothesized that this occurred because inter-tribal warfare led to many groups of men being wiped out and with them, their particular type of Y chromosome. They hypothesized that wars, if they repeatedly wiped out entire clans over time, would also wipe out many male lineages and their unique Y chromosomes in the process. Only the most dominant, war like men would survive. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180529185356.htm
This period was also a time a rapid sea-level rise and the earliest known seawall was built around a settlement in what is now Isreal. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222560#pone.0222560.ref047
A fiery comet
means nothing or everything.
Will we go extinct –
rising seas and warring men
obliterating all hope?
Let’s find a new way –
feminine consciousness,
planetary renewal.
