I just saw this on my Facebook Feed and am posting it here for anyone interested.
Message from White Eagle, Hopi indigenous on 03/16/2020:
This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you. If they repent of the problem and consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, they will fall into the hole. But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal. Take care of your home, take care of your body. Connect with the middle body of your spiritual House. Connect to the egregor of your spiritual home. Body, house, medium body, spiritual house, all this is synonymous, that is to say the same. When you are taking care of one, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis, have the aspect of the eagle, which from above, sees the whole, sees more widely. There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is also a spiritual demand. The two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. But without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and lack of meaning. You were prepared to go through this crisis. Take your toolbox and use all the tools at your disposal. Learn about resistance with indigenous and African peoples: we have always been and continue to be exterminated. But we still haven’t stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire and having fun. Don’t feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time. You don’t help at all by being sad and without energy. It helps if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists. Also, when the storm passes, you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world. You need to be well and strong. And, for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy and bright vibration. This has nothing to do with alienation. This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you go through this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties … This is what is asked of you. Let them take advantage of this time to perform their vision seeking rituals. What world do you want to build for yourself? For now, this is what you can do: serenity in the storm. Calm down and pray. Everyday. Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day. Good things emanate, what you emanate now is the most important thing. And sing, dance, resist through art, joy, faith and love.
Crown chakra clearing – A shield of light. Calling in higher light for help and protection. Quartz crystal, tourmaline and fluorite
This is what I wanted to make yesterday but it took 24 hours and a deep meditation to work how to do it. In the process I decided to stick with working with stones and crystals for a while longer – it’s very grounding.
So this is the end of my first week of self isolation – it hasn’t gone all that well. It started last Sunday morning when the endocrinologist I had a appointment to see on Monday rang me at home and told me not to come into the hospital because – ‘the situation was changing minute by minute’! He arranged to conduct my appointment by phone on Monday morning.
Feeling panicked I went for a walk in the bush to calm down then saw the supermarket was being mobbed so thought I’d better get in there and buy some food while there was still some left. I wrote about that experience last Sunday.
To keep my stress levels in check I decided I would take my mind off things by doing a craft project a day then post photos of what I made online. I have been posting what I make on Facebook and Instagram but for some reason haven’t got around to posting on my blog. I think this is because I have a fixed ideas about blogging – maybe it’s the name WordPress – I always feel I am supposed to use a lot of words when blogging and organise my thoughts into coherent sentences. As my thoughts aren’t particularly coherent at present I haven’t been blogging.
As it is events over the past 48 hours have conspired to make blogging an essential stress release so here’s the craft projects I completed during the week:-
Day 1 – Monday -the endocrinologist rang again and told me that the existing thyroid problem I have means my immune system is compromised. I decided that as my age already puts me in the at risk category I’d better get serious about self isolating against corona virus.
Carnelian and Ruby necklace – stones that resonate with the sacral chakra and promote wellbeing
Day 2 – I stayed home and self isolated. I had some idea that I could maybe sell what I made online but quickly realised this isn’t the right time to focus on money and anyway, I can’t go to the post office to send off stuff. Getting used to being self isolated is taking a while.
Aquamarine Necklace – throat chakra clearing
Day 3 – I realised I needed to get some more prescription medication before the corona virus situation in Australia got any worse so I went to the pharmacist. I wrote about that experience during the week.
Crystal pouch made from vintage Indian embroidered cloth suspended on a necklace of garnets – the stones pictured are black tourmaline, garnet and smoky quartz which all resonate with the base chakra and help clear survival fears
Day 4 – stayed home – started to feel I could this self isolation thing
Protective amulet
Day 5 – a quiet, contemplative day
Pink Tourmaline, pearls and rubies. The heart chakra and learning to treasure nature’s gifts.
Day 6 – the day went fine but the evening got a bit rocky when I checked the latest coronavirus news. To cap it off just as I was falling asleep at night a phone text message pinged. I have a very small house so even though the phone was in another room I could hear it. As it was quite late I thought I’d better check it in case it was important. It turned out to be a message from a distant relative I rarely see and have very little in common with. She told she doesn’t do Facebook but if I want I to keep in touch with her I can text her. I checked the time – it was 11.09pm so I didn’t bother texting back to tell her I wouldn’t do that. The intrusion woke me up and I couldn’t get back to sleep for a couple of hours.
Green Agate and Pink Tourmaline necklace – heart chakra stones – emotional healing and connecting to nature.
Day 7 – Sunday – one of my daughters rang and asked if I could spare some toilet paper – they’d run out. I had bought a big pack when the panic started so said I’d give them a couple of rolls in exchange for some BandAids which I needed but had forgotten to buy. I put a box of stuff for her and her kids just inside the gate. Some time later she arrived with one of her little kids in tow. They walked straight past the box and came right on inside. It was lovely to see them and somehow because we’d all been so stressed we forgot all about social distancing.
After they’d gone I did some beading but it was real struggle. I loved the stones I was working with but couldn’t get into a creative flow. One thing that hit me while I was working is that I can’t run to the shops every time I run out of something. Here’s what I ended up making. It will probably get remade into something I like more at a future date.
Bracelets of tourmaline, fluorite and pearls.
It was sometime after my daughter left that I realised we’d handled the visit all wrong. It was time to put some rules in place about social distancing and about the fact I’m self isolating. Hard thing to do. We sorted it out a bit but I’m still not sure if she really understands just what it all involves. I’m not sure I do either.
Later I checked the latest coronavirus news across the globe and was very alarmed by it. To add to my stress levels I had just turned out my light to go to sleep when a bright torch light shone in my bedroom window. The gate then banged open and a loud male voice called out ‘It’s the Police’. I leapt out of bed and opened the front door expecting to be told I had to evacuate immediately because of some natural disaster or something. Instead two policemen grilled me about my identity and my street address. Bemused I answered their questions. They then informed me that they had the wrong address. Apparently the girl in the adjoining property had rung them and said someone was walking round her backyard. They quickly ascertained there was no one lurking in the shadows, apologised and left.
I went back to bed but felt too churned up to sleep so got up to write this. Self isolating is proving to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don’t think I’ll do any beading this week. I’ll still keep going with the craft a day idea but I’ll make things that don’t make me want to run to shops and buy more suppplies. I’ll post what I make on WordPress too though I may not be able to write about it in coherent sentences.
This morning I realised I needed to get a repeat on my blood pressure medication just in case we go into lockdown. I drove to one of those big pharmacy chains and dropped off my script. The pharmacist had to check they had what I needed in store for a lot of stuff had sold out. Luckily he had it but said it would take a while to fill the script as they had so many to do.
To fill in time I went into the supermarket in the hope of finding some kind of frozen green vegetables that I could store for a couple of weeks. The freezer section was as empty as it was on Sunday afternoon. Interesting the only frozen greens I saw were packets of kale. I left them there – seems like many other people had the same reaction to the stuff too.
There were far less people in the store than there’d been on Sunday. The panic buying seemed to have stopped but maybe that was because there wasn’t that much left to buy. Many, many shelves were empty. People who obviously hadn’t been out to stock up before were wandering around looking completely bewildered. I saw one couple stocking up on bulk Coca Cola and heard one man yelling into his phone about toilet paper but they were the exception. Most people looked very serious and were obviously buying practical stuff. Everyone was practicing social distancing and giving each other a wide berth.
It seems that, in the absence of any clear information from the Australian Government, people are beginning to make their own contingency plans. What little information the government does provide often conflicts with the information given out just minutes previously. It makes about as much sense as graffiti tags on a disused train carriage.
When I went back to the pharmacists I discovered many other people appeared to have had the same realisation about prescription medication. There was a steady stream of people getting repeat scripts filled. The man directly in front of me was collecting three big bags of medicines for three different people. The pharmacist knew him and they joked about how he wouldn’t need to come in for a couple of months. The woman behind me had a special needs kid with her. Some people are really going to have a tough time with all of this. My daughter with the autistic child told me all the respite and home care services she uses have decided not to do any more home visits for the time being.
People generally seem to be starting to realise that this stuff is real and that the vulnerable are going to be the ones who suffer the most. I heard sober reports on the evening TV News saying as much. Maybe, hopefully, one good thing that will come out of all of this will be a greater awareness of needs of the less fortunate members of society.
The only sensible thing I’ve heard our Prime Minister say recently is that things are going to get worse. Shame he didn’t follow up on that with clear directives as to whether the schools are shutting or how people that go from one temporary job to another are going to survive when the work dries up.
We are entering unknown territory with no clear path ahead. Seems like over here in Australia we will have to find our individual pathways through this chaos.
digital image created by overlaying several photos
“a distant view can open our mind/hearts especially at this time of health concerns and panic
So please share your photos or creative “distant” views on the positives that can result from this current unrest?“
_______________________
Last week a friend in Thailand sent me a link to an article he read in The Bangkok Post:-
“The rapid pace of deforestation, urbanisation and road building are major factors in the spread of infectious diseases across Asia, including the coronavirus, health and environment experts said on Wednesday.”
I was thinking about these ideas when I went for a walk in a lonely bush reserve yesterday. I took the photo below there then added the word at home on my computer.
After my walk I went to the supermarket to stock up as I have decided to self isolate because of underlying health issues. The supermarket was full of people doing exactly the same thing. The idea that we are experiencing a pandemic has swept into our collective psyche in much the same way as a major storm sweeps across the ocean. (I took the photo below a few years ago just as a big storm was about to make landfall.)
When I was in the supermarket a woman said to me; “Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.” She is completely right. We are in unknown territory now. None of us know where this is all going or what the outcomes will be. One unexpected side-effect is that people are beginning to re-discover older, quieter way of living that we’d forgotten about. In Italy people inside their houses are singing to each other across the empty streets. (I can remember that when I was a very young child a Swiss immigrant used to stand on his balcony yodel to a fellow countryman in a neighbouring street in much the same way that people in Italy are now singing). There are reports that people in Wuhan, China are hearing birds singing – something they thought didn’t happen in that crowded, frantic city. Suddenly, in the absence of traffic the sounds of nature are re-asserting themselves.
Who knows what will emerge in other parts of the world as more people self isolate. In my little world of friends and family I am hearing that people are doing things they’d all but forgotten about. I have started making my own bread. One of my daughters is preparing seeds to make her own sprouts. Others are return to handcrafts they used to do ages ago.
Swirling to us now – out of the mists of time – reconnection to an older, quieter and slower way of living.
I’m in a risk of death from corona virus category. I read an internet post last night that said mostly old people were dying of it but that was ok because they were all conservative voters anyway. The gist seemed to be that getting rid of the old people would create a better world. Being an old hippy who has voted Green since the 1980s and was involved in many radical social and political movements since the 1970s I disagreed with the writer. I must be getting old and cranky for I disagree with a lot of what’s being said these days.
Self isolating is something I’ve been choosing to do for quite some time now. It suits me fine. I find it amusing that society is finally applauding my hermit tendencies.
At home I write, I journal, I make handmade books. Some books are light and breezy. Some are places were I contemplate life’s more complicated moments –
I make bread.
I make handmade objects that have personal meaning for me.
I spend a lot of time in nature. There I walk, look at the plants, birds, waterways and sky. I take photos that I sometimes post online.
I keep in touch with family via the phone and internet but lately I’m finding it easier to keep out of touch with much of the news and social media. After all, the main message they’re telling me at present is that I am at risk of dying. Gee whizz – do they honestly think I didn’t think of that before? I did ‘The Swedish Art of Death Clearing’ last year. My affairs are in order. I already know I will die one day. I don’t need to read it every time I go online.
This past week I have been going back and re-reading a journal I made a couple of years ago about the Buddhist concept of impermanence and the Japanese haiku tradition of writing a death poem.
Here’s one I wrote earlier (a few years back when I was into haiku).
I have a nephew who lives in South Korea with his Korean wife and young child. Coronavirus has led him to develop a dark gallows humour. Everyday he posts photos of life in Korea at present- people in full hazard clothing spraying the streets with disinfectant are his favourite topic. Beneath these he writes scary accounts of what might happen if Coronavirus becomes a pandemic. Today he posted a link to some expert saying ‘millions might die.’
What do you say to a man you remember reading picture books to as a child – picture books full of pretty pictures and happy endings?
“Remember to breathe,” I said while comisserating with him about the terrible situation in his adopted country.
“Look for beauty,” I said right after I said: “a prediction is not a fact, no matter how ‘expert’ the expert.”
Over here in Australia people are panic buying. There is no toilet paper in the supermarkets. Stocks of painkillers, pasta, flour and sugar are also low but, for some reason no-one really understands, toilet paper is the main thing people are stocking up on. Of course, this has led to lots of toilet jokes on Facebook and Twitter. Years back I used to ask my nephew not to tell toilet jokes at the dinner table. Now they’re the funniest thing anyone can think of say!
My nephew has yet to reply to the comment I left on his Facebook post. He may well reply: “Easier said than done, Auntie Sue.” I guess all I could say in reply to that would be: “We just don’t know what’s going to happen next. The unexpected can always occur.”
My response to prompt by blogger Miriam Hurdle of ‘A Shower of Blessings”
In a torrent it comes – a crashing, thundering waterfall of change washing away old certainities.
The water is muddied – the sludge, the toxins and the pollutants of this system are being flushed to the surface.
What can we hold onto now? The shore is a slippery slope crumbling under the pressure.
Fear is coming to the surface – ancient complexes of not being good enough or clever enough to have a voice swirl in the wild waters.
The cultural programming that patriarchal capitalism is right and mighty – the supreme force on earth – still controls our minds yet it is that very force that got us into this mess. It is that very energy that muddied Gaia’s pristine waters.
If we step back from the raging torrent, if we face our fears, if we retreat within to find peace and gather strength we can break free and come together to clear the muddied waters. We can create the world anew.
