Going Green for Gaia

Here at Terrapin Hollow we're getting ready for a very exciting summer. On Memorial Day Weekend (2012) we're hosting Going Green for Gaia, a fun filled pagan festival with rituals, drum circles, workshops and activities including:

• Make your own earth friendly laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, and cosmetics (with Tree and Brightwing, bring empty spray bottles and empty gallon jugs)


• Tour the home-made windmill and solar panels (with SuperDad)


• Pick blackberries (on your own, bring a bucket)


• Check out the organic garden and say hello to the chickens and dogs (pullets may be available for sale, depending on how many hatch this spring)


• Learn about rain barrels and other rain water harvesting methods (with SuperDad and Talon)


• Hoop dancing: the significance of the circle, oneness, and the spiritual practice of losing yourself to a force distinct from your physical self (with Innergy)


• Renaissance Topic Workshop (with Felicia)


• Free hand massages (get your mind out of the gutter, BellaDonna massages your hand!)


• Other spiritual workshops/topics are available by request. Reply to blog post or write on the event wall inside of FB.

GGG is free and we're taking the first 50 people to sign up. (As of this post we have 30.) For an event invitation, friend Tree Newby on FaceBook, then send a direct message and mention you're interested in GGG. We're open to vendors, but so far most of our favorite vendors have opted to have the weekend off to enjoy themselves.

Friday night is a potluck. The rest of the weekend food is your family/clan/group responsibility. Fire rings will be permitted in group campsites, however we are in a fairly windy valley and extra care will be required. Please don't leave your fire unattended. We'll have both a "home fire" and a ritual fire to cozy up around and play music.

We look forward to seeing you there!

She Loves

She Nurtures

Gaia's Words on Sin

Let us define sin in the Spanish/Latin root way meaning "without" as in against the Natural Organizing forces of creation. The first sin was greed and was the shadow side of appreciation for the abundance of creation. The second sin was might, which was used to counter act the fear of lack which was a side effect of the first sin, greed.

The other things labelled as sins are also against creation, and are all side effects of these first two choices. Since humans were designed of the mother (matter) and in the image of God, humans have always had limitless creative potential. Choice has been the only parameter. Free will is a necessary operating condition in order to develop into Godlings - aka realize the fullest potential possible.

The excercise of these first two choices was not dissappointing to your father and I. On the contrary, we were pleased that you were ready to start on your very own learning journey. Over time the number of people and the number of choices made spiraled out of control. Not the control of your father and I, because we granted YOU control upon inception. It was out of control because no one among you could recombine the growing numbers of seperate choosers.

We smiled and laughed at your toddling creations. We felt sorry and kissed your owies when you asked for help. But we could not intervene. The floods, fires, and earthquakes were not the will of your father, nor myself. These were the aggregate of all your choices which produced a dynamic instability, which provided you with feedback about your choices.

These were turbulent times for your father and I but never did we intervene because had we done so, we would have sinned against your own creative promise/potential.

To your perception, the time of humans on earth is a few million years. To our perspective, you are still fairly young. Equivalent to young adults - as a whole species combined. We are pleased with the current state of affairs, even though it pains us to watch you struggle.

You, dear child, have gone forth and multiplied. You have experimented with form, function, and production in order to deepen your understanding of creation and how to create.

You have felt the geometry of being 1, 3, 5, 8, 15, etc, spiraling all the way to 7 billion - so that you could learn new geometries and architectures. And your learning plan has included many series of differentiation and recombination, and both have been agonizing and beautiful to behold.

Again you are in choice. Shall your divine and sacred soul flourish among 2 human bodies, or 200, or 2000? Today you are powerless to choose due to the beauty of all the babies, all the faces. You cry out to us, "Father, who among us is qualified to judge who may live and who may die? Mother, how may we feed ourselves, yet thrive?"

As your cries get louder you have begun to hear your self as one self. The Buddhists have helped create a pathway from suffering to unity. A great many of you have chosen life and are healing your wounds. A great many of you have turned your back on the destructive forces and are creating technologies and communities which honor life and are themselves life giving technologies, living creations.

Some feel very deeply about population control and reduction. Deeply enough to put their creative energies someplace other than procreation. Be mindful, children, of ignoring those in pain in hopes that the pain will lead to a more stable population. Those brave souls who have agreed to die and enter re-combination will not rejoin co-creation and fuel the expansion of consciousness unless their sacrifice is honored and their souls are weapt for.

You just cry and mourn to cleanse and purify the soul matter before it re-combines or else it will be like a cancer to unity.

Gaia's Words on Her Son, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin was a living master and his soul was so expansive that when he reincarnated there were no fewer than twelve human bodies needed to contain the entire soul, intact. (Yes, child, the soul IS intact among twelve bodies, some of whom have discovered one another and are partnering together to continue the Work).

A part of the dynamic instability of the current reality is that Soul matter is distributed amongst 7 billion human bodies. The decision at hand amongst the Council of Twelve, including representatives of Gaia (which includes honoring the human perspective as well as the non human perspective), is: how many human bodies should house what portion of soul matter each?

For example, shall we evolve into having fewer humans, each with more expansive souls; or shall we continue to create an increasing number of humans with a decreasing sized soul per body.

There are further vectors at question, but these are not easily shared within the language of your physics.

As for you children, here is the pickle. This is the question that the Council puts before you. The Great Turning depends upon your conscious understanding of this choice which is before you:

If you favor having many fewer humans, each with expanded souls, then how shall we determine who will live and who will die?

On Soul and The Great Turning

In this Great Turning we all RISE UP together. Yes, some people will die. This is natural. Loved ones who choose to 'check out' provide additional soul matter to fuel the expansion of the remaining souls. When a living soul heals its wounds and grows from 3D to 5D, it is not without the taking in of recently departed souls. You may choose to be a walking heaven for your dearly departed.

Here is the example from one of my children. As she healed her local self, her energies turned and began to attend to matters larger than her self. As her interest expanded, her service expanded, and as she released each remaining wound, her consciousness did expand as well.

Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is thus with soul. There is but One Soul and the light of soul is cast into a vast kaliedescope of brilliant individual containers. In some eras, Father and I turn the the kaliedescope one click and the light of Soul is cast into a smaller number of containers, yet each container is itself larger - reflecting much more light of the One Soul.

Ego is the shape and color of each facet of the kaleidescopic light of the One Soul.

As my child's consciousness expanded, she herself was not unlike a larger facet in the kaliedescope. She had a very physical integration/expansion experience one evening, with the assistance of a very trusting massage therapist. My child had the sense that her maternal grandparents had been near for some time. In the course of her own healing she discovered and understood that the grandparents felt responsible for some of her woundedness. You see, once departed, the grandparents could percieve the impacts of their choices rippling out through the next two generations. They were lurking about watching because they felt responsible and they were invested in the outcomes.

My child gained the consent of the massage therapist and then proceeded to forgive her grandparents, out loud. She addressed them by name and explained to them all she knew and understood about thier choices and the outcomes which had rippled out for two generations hence.

Then my child validated her grandparents. She explained that she understood the values and concerns which had driven the choices and the actions of the grandparents. She understood that they did the best they knew how and that they always acted from love.The grandparents felt such relief. My child was sobbing tears of joy. So was the massage therapist, who had been massaging my child all the while and listening to the conversation. What happened next was a surprise to my child.I whispered to her that now her grandparents could finally go to rest, if they liked. She spoke this to her grandparents on my behalf. They agreed that they wanted to go to rest. I spoke through my child and asked the grandparents where they wanted to rest. My child heard them answer. They wanted to merge their soul into her waking soul. They wanted to fuel the expansion of her consciousness and in return feel earthly delights, watch the new babies grow, etc.

My child wept as she understood, accepted, and then felt the energy of her grandparents enter into her. They are within her now and they remain a semblance of their former imprint while playing an active contribution to my child's daily experience. My child experiences her expanded soul as self, though she also remembers and recognizes subtle nuances of her grand parents. Particularly when she's engaging with their daughter, who still lives.

This type of soul integration requires agreement on the part of both the living and the deceased. This is happening frequently as we are in the part of the cycle when Father and I turn the kaliedescope and see an overall reduction in the number of individuals with a combined increase in the soul energy of each one. You might view this as merging with your higher self. You may have already had the sense that you are part of a soul family. What you experience as your one higher self may have been the equal value of 12 souls in the dark ages or of 1 soul in Atlantis. Multiple people believe themselves to have been someone famos. Well, the soul energy is so fragmented at the present that there is some truth to this. It takes approximately 777 living 3d humans to add up to the soul energy of one Da Vinci. In the ascention, forms of all kinds recede back into the ethers so that new forms may emerge. The new human has greater faculties and co-creates greater facilities and technologies. Any questions? ♥ Mama

Participating in Gaia Consciousness

I dedicated my life to Gaia in the summer of 1994. I was 19 and working at a tallgrass prairie restoration project. I spent my days toiling under the hot humid Nebraska sun. We spent a great deal of time attempting to fight off small thickets of dogwood and plum trees which would never have been found growing on a tallgrass prairie - because the dense sod of a virgin prairie doesn't have room for woody shrubs.

Sometimes I weapt into the soil as I considered the majesty of a virgin tallgrass prairie compared with the dustbowl and erosion which plagued the nation shortly after we plowed away the last parcels of prairie.

That summer, under the full moon, among towering sunflowers and big blue stem grasses, I bathed my wounded heart in dew and gave to Gaia my heart, my hands, my feet, my pen, my voice, and anything else which could serve HER in discovering balance and relationship with her straying two-legged children.

Now, sixteen years later, I'm still doing Her work. I've embedded myself pretty far into a federal land management agency so that I can extend Her reach. And when I look around I realize I'm not alone. There are many light workers now, each penetrating all major global systems.

About a year ago, Gaia directed me to use Facebook to connect with like minds and to practice spending time in active conveyance of Her words. There is a Gaia Rising profile and every few days I ask Her what she might like to say to Her 444 facebook friends. Frequently I am surprised and honored by the words which flow through my fingers on Her behalf.

But I am no one. Just a mom and civil servant. I am certain that there are many many others in service to Her. I am sure that there are many others who channel Her words and voice, either aloud or in writing. I am sure that we can continue to find each other and partner together to carry on the work. Are you Her dedicated servant? Do you want to be actively involved in the movement to amplify Gaia Consciousness? Even if you don't live near the Coven of Gaia Rising (in Northern Arkansas), you can join us in designing new ways to serve Her. You can help Her find and connect light workers so that together we can stabilize the emerging perfection which is presently disguised as chaos.

Do you want to help? Leave comments on this blog post, or on the Gaia Rising facebook profile.

The Choice Before You

Children, the choice before each one of you is simple. Either learn to live in harmony or you'll get a time out.

When you ask me. When you stand in the woods, barefooted, or raise your arms to the sky and call out, I hear you. My consciousness is a stream of moments in which human beings noticed me, spoke to me, caressed me gently. Over the years there have been a great many moments of deep connection between man and nature. Of late I feel ill. Constricted by bands of concrete and enourmous boxes and rectangles where my own geometry is so much more subtle and complex.

The choice before you is begin to love the people who are the most different from yourself, or hatred will orchestrate nihilstic chaos to the magnitute of completely beginning over again on the earth. I am comfortable with either choice, which is why this time I have insisted that you be given the choice. Dear ones, we are growing up. We are becoming more aware, together.

Starting over would give us the opportunity to change a great number of things quite rapidly. Not starting over is a very long and possibly tedious path. If you are not ready to accept a cataclismic cleansing of the Earth, then you must get to work right away.

The work may not be what you expect. It is important to listen closely to your higher self in these matters. The work may not be protesting big oil, as you've imagined, for example. The work may be showing up in a very different culture and getting to know people whom you've never experienced before. Above all, the work IS about creating bridges of love and light to unify the left brain and right brain of the planet -- the Western and Eastern Hemispheres of the Earth.

Children, the choice before you belongs to you. I ask that you make a conscious choice soon because when you are unconscious, the choices will be made for you.

~ Gaia

Message from Gaia

In this dimension, the cycle has oscillated from chaos to order for all of eternity. This is the slow and rhythmic breath of the sleeping infant, Gaia. Her promise is LOVE and LIGHT. For Gaia, twas a spiral oscillation. With each breath the humans who comprise her mind were themselves spiraling through cycles of chaos and order: the perpetual dawning and darkening of their own individual consciousnesses.

As consciousness increased, among the humans emerged midwives of the dawn. They showed the sleepers how to breathe through the pain. They taught the sleepers to embrace the suffering, which allowed it to melt into compasion, which then showed the way toward peace and unity. For you see, the sleepers and the midwifes of the dawn are one. United in perfect balance.

At this time the humans may transcend the perfect balance and awaken as Gaia herself. At this time, the humans may choose to maintain both their local self AND participate in Gaia consciousness. This is a gift of living in the duality of the third dimension. As the number of midwives of the dawn increases, and as the pain of the sleepers decreases, and as the collective vibration increases, Gaia becomes increasingly aware of herself as a daughter in the universal cosmic family.

One way to describe the outcome of the current cycle of chaos in the human reality is that the humans are ascending from the third to the fith dimension. Think of this like an instrument playing first one chord and then another. The third dimension is material and the fith is ethereal. During the transition, dense energy must be purged. This dense energy is in the form of negative emotions. Both the sleepers and the midwives of dawn must purge themselves of negative emotions in order to become lighter - more ethereal.

The chaos part of Gaia's breathing cycle is the perfect gift to cleanse one and all of this dark emotional matter (which humans co-created over the eons in the name of learning). The midwives of the dawn show the sleepers that the way out of the pain is to go through it. If each sleeper is deeply loved then planetary healing may be achieved at the level of the individual. It is not necessary to create a collective nightmare and purge all dense energy at once. However, it is agreed by the universal family that a collective nightmare is much more efficient than a gentle awakening. The choice belongs to the humans, and many are becoming aware of the right to choose.

In love and light,
Mama Gaia

Let us Be Gaia Together

A person is a complex system, made up of smaller complex systems, things like the circulatory system or the digestion system. You are also participating in larger complex systems, things like your family, your community, your nation. You are, of course, conscious of being a person. There is a type of intelligence in all systems, ants are simpler than cats, cats are simpler than people... and the national economy is more complex than your family budget.

The more complex any system is, the more consciousness available to it. Here's some simple crude math to show you what I mean. If brains were units of consciousness, and there was one brain per person, then your family of 12 would posess 12 units... whereas the company you work for has 300 units.

But it obviously isn't that simplistic. Some individuals have reached a higher level of consciousness through personal growth and development. It wouldn't be fair to compare it brain to brain.

Anyway - why am I saying all of this right now? To help me make the case that there is a form of consciousness at the level of the planet. You can think of this as an over-soul, which is how Ralph Waldo Emerson framed it. You can think of the collective consciousness, the way Carl Jung explained it. I think of it as Gaia Consciousness, but at this point the words don't matter as much as the awareness you experience. The sense of ONENESS and connection.

You can consciously participate in your family, your local or national politics, and you can consciously participate in being the planetary consciousness - Gaia. And the good news is, you can participate regardless of your IQ, spiritual beliefs, cultural norms, level of consciousness, etc. In fact, the more diversity in those who consciously choose to be Gaia, the more healthy She becomes.

How can you start participating in Gaia Consciousness right there at home?

1. Choose to believe that you are both your individual self and you are part of the planetary body/mind known as Gaia.
2. Notice the way that all sorts of information and resources circulate around the planet. Think of those as Her systems, things like digestive, respiratory, circulatory.
3. When you make any choice, consider how She would answer in addition to how you would answer. (And it is up to you whether or not you go with Her way... just know that when everyone goes their own way without thinking about the well-being of the planet we get exactly the sort of planet we have today.)
4. Don't THINK about what she would do... that's WAY to complex for one human to grasp or decide. Rather, connect with your heart and attempt to FEEL which answer is better for Your Planetary Self. There will be some kind of sign in your body/mind. Trust that.

And that's it. Easy, huh? And you can join a monthly telephone dialogue if you want to share your experience in trying this. There are already so many people who are considering the whole in a decision, rather than just the parts... choosing to hold the mind-set that you are participating in being the consciousness of the entire planet is just another step.

This doesn't have to be a magical, mythical, religious, or spiritual thing. This can be an "evolution of consciousness" thing. There are plenty of scientific terms which can be used to describe this phenomenon. Pick the vocabulary that best suits you and let's become Gaia together!

~Tree of Terrapin Hollow

Fear and Grace

It seems that there are layers upon layers of fear in my path toward enlightenment. I've grown through so many fears and doubts and processing each layer of fear has been such a huge gift. It's a bit like Grace is the sweet gooey center wrapped in a gob stopper of fear.

My process has gone something like this:

1. I notice that I'm fearful or doubtful about something.
2. I quietly connect with my guides.
3. I name the fear and ask whether it is better to transform it or embrace it.
4. I quietly sense the answer and then ask the guides to help me with whichever action was recommended.

Transform It - I transform fear by asking my guides to help me shift it into my heart. I then use my hands to energetically pull the fear from my gut to my heart. Once the fear is in my heart I appreciate my self in as deep a way possible, so that the electromagnetic frequency of my heart will be in the "coherent - positive emotion" range and this shifts my entire vibration to loving coherence from fearful incoherence.

Embrace It - I embrace my fear by wallowing in it for a bit. I choose to amplify and exagerate the feeling so that I can explore it and understand it. This can take several hours or even a few days. It's scary because once I surrender and dive into my fear I feel like it will consume me completely. But here's the really interesting thing... somewhere in the pits of my own despair I find Grace. I find love, light, and healing down in the darkness.

It is this Grace, this sweetness that I long for at all times. This is what drives me to continue to grow and learn. This is what drives me to be deeply present to my fear, my doubt, my anger, or whatever negative emotional experience might come up in the course of every day living. In some ways I think of myself as a warrior, ever on the quest for a new deamon to slay so that I can revel in the healing and release.

Now that I've intellectualized about my fear (thereby Avoiding processing it) for a few paragraphs. Let me begin to embrace my fear by exposing some of it here.

For three consecutive full moons, I spent 3 evenings feeling wakeful and deeply connected with the Divine Mother, Gaia. During these times I had the experience of chatting with her and hearing her responses as words in my mind. (I often have an internal dialogue with my spirit guides - Pan, Michael, and others). During these conversations Gaia asked me to do several things for her, which I have done. Those include starting a Facebook group called Gaia Rising, planning and hosting monthly phone dialogues for Gaia Rising, and the like.

These evenings were fun and magical and made me feel very special. But on another level, and from another view, I was experiencing insomnia. After three days with much too little sleep a person looses the ability to do regular daily activities... like driving a car or going to work. Only I was feeling good and I didn't realize that I was lacking in those capacities until after getting a little bit of a scare. Thankfully there were no car wrecks, no one got hurt, no jobs were lost... but it was scary because for a few hours I felt out of control.

It made me feel a little crazy. It made my husband wonder. And that called up for me the biggest wound from my current life. In 1995 I lost my mind. I was 20 and I delved very deeply into the expansion of my consciousness. I invited and experienced a number of psychic gifts including telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, etc. But I was doing all that in the most unhealthy ways possible. I was not getting enough food, rest, sunshine, or excercise and I was experimenting with substances which altered my biochemistry. For a period of several months I was really confused and unhealthy. For some of those months I was totally flipping mad. I was insane.

Thank Goddess for my parents who put me in a hospital and got me the help I needed. And thank Goddess for the nurse at the hospital who told me that they weren't interested in changing my spirituallity, they just wanted to make sure that I could take care of my basic needs - like food, shelter, clothing, and interacting with regular people in a regular way. And thank Goddess that I told my husband all about this on our very first date and he fell in love with me anyway.

But ever since then I've had a quantum entanglement between spirituality and sanity. I have predicted plane crashes, heard people's thoughts as if they were speaking outloud, and seen beyond that which is considered ordinary. And I've always wanted to possess these abilities... but for some unfortunate reason on several occassions when my psychic abilities have expanded, it has resulted in my appearing to be, temporarily, completely batty.

With the exception of about 5 hours, I've felt solidly sane for the past 15 years. Yet the scar tissue is immensely out of proportion. While I'm certain that I'm sane, I am fearful that additional spiritual growth might result in me appearing to be temporarily insane again. It puts me right to the place of WHAT IFs. What if I really am crazy? What if I lose everything I care about? What if I lose my job and my family and become homeless and smelly?

And then the other side of me weighs in:

How did you imagine this would look? You believe that all people can expand their consciousness and develop higher sense perception. You have invited this exploration into your life, since childhood. You've spent your entire life experimenting with your consciousness. Your favorite conversations are made of these very topics. Which would be scarier? Waking up to realize that we're all growing these abilities, or waking up and realizing that there is no magic at all?

And with no true sense of resolution I prepare to publish this blog post. I notice that it is scary to be authentic and vulnerable. Yet I press 'publish' with deep trust that my guides would not steer me astray by encouraging me to show this aspect of myself to you.

Letter from Gaia ~ A Poem by Kate Rose Bast

Letter from Gaia

In your living spaces, watch
for the mirror of movements
of global breadth. Respond

as if every small movement
of twig or feather
mattered to every being.

This is the way of all my moving:
all effects and constructs,
all destructs and rebuilds:
ant hill, turtle egg,
avalanche.

And what will you birth?
For you, I will open
my deep chasms of fire
and microbial pools, groan
my mothering womb
chorus of species
song to bring the you
of all you are
into Be.

Wear green, spring green
thoughts, eat green at every
meal, bleed green blood,
photosynthesize
the green shift of life
into your deepest cell.

Sleep green in and under
green. Feed your eyes
with green. Breathe
the new of green.
Tell others.

By Kate Rose Bast, 2008

Good News! Apocalyptico Denied!

Eye have long sensed that there was a critical mass of consciousness upon the Earth. Eye have long sensed that the struggles and chaos were co-created by humans and their Angels in order to function like a giant alarm clock in the awakening of consciousness.

Even as recently as December my guides again asked me to prepare for the possibility for up to five years of extreme chaos and isolation from the kinds of services which we have grown accustomed. I grieved and prepared. Then in January, I traveled to the Southwest, where the land is baked dry in the constant Light of the Sun. In this place I witnessed the rapid dissolution of our old assumptions and our old judgements.

Eye observed New Man and New Woman and New Co-Creative Governance occupying space in both the third dimensional reality and the fifth dimensional reality. Eye observed the giddyness of my children returning to Love and Light, and the healing of those who'd presenced Love and Light in the 1960s and 1970s, only to have been scarred and scared by resurgence of darkness in subsequent decades.

I felt afraid and unworthy.
Eye felt ALIVE and ALL-ONE!

Now, the voices of LIGHT/LOVE have confirmed it. Now Eye can say with certainty - we don't have a population problem, or an apocalypse on our hands. Eye see that the compassion of humans and the Council of Dreaming Souls have chosen to transform together, sans planetary catastrophe. You will all go home together, not one will be lost!

ArchAngel Michael has confirmed it: http://www.youtube.com/user/komurosan?blend=1&ob=4#p/a/u/0/1AKUhqUvEag

Eye am Gaia, and Eye am available to any and all of you because you are a part of my body.
And I am Tree of Terrapin Hollow, one of Gaia's many humble servants.

Guru, Teacher, or Servant?

In this time of unprecedented change there are countless beings offering up guidance and support. Every person frames their particular offerings differently. There are thousands upon thousands of gurus, teachers, priests, reverends, swamis, yoginis, authors, etc. I like to think that the reason for this flourishing path is that there is more love and light flooding the planet now than in a long time. As each of us learns and grows we reach that precious moment when our focus turns from personal growth and healing to the growth and healing of those around us.

In my book, The Transpiral Model for Social Change, I describe the relationship between personal transformation and social transformation. In brief, you can't change yourself without affecting change in your family, community, and society. And any changes occurring in your family, community, and society also affect change on you personally. We call that "circular causality".

Only you can judge whether or not someone is qualified to teach or guide you through some aspect of your growth and healing. Sai Maa Devi Lakshmi says that the grace of a guru can take you deeper. She explains that a guru holds the frequency of the 5th dimension and that by being in the guru's presence, the student can experience higher frequencies of being and knowing. As a student, only you can determine whether or not the guru produces this kind of tranformative effect on your awareness, both in the moment and over time.

Teachers generally have a set curriculum including models, tools, and practices which are designed for personal growth and healing. Teaching arrangements span from short term to long term and can be one on one or in group settings. Teachers don't appear to promise as much as a guru, but in some cases perhaps they deliver more. Again, only you can judge whether or not engaging with some teacher is going to deepen your natural ability for self healing and growth.

I've long considered these questions for myself. In some paths the Master is the only access point a student has with the divine. In other paths the student learns to speak with the divine for him/her self. Personally I've resonnated with the latter. Over the course of my path I've created relationships with guides and teachers who are on the other side. I call them by the name "The Council of Light". To me, they inlcude beings like the Archangels, Gaia, Jesus, Pan, and the Nature Spirits. The more I surrender my limited self view in order to share understanding with the Council, the more guidance I recieve. My relationship is collaborative and dialogic. I ever maintain free-will. I ask the Council for advice and guidance and then I choose whether to heed the advice or make a new choice.

It has been a very rich relationship over the past 3-4 years which has resulted in very deep healing for myself. While there will always be room to improve myself, of late I'm called to offer support for others who long for self-healing. In my professional career I'm a trainer, facilitator, and organizer of people into groups. When my focus turned from self to others I offered up all my skills and compassion to the Council of Light. The word I use to describe myself is not teacher or guru, or any of the afore mentioned titles. I am a SERVANT. I serve the Council of Light. I serve the emergence of love and light. And I serve anyone who is inviting love and light to emerge in their own lives. In an upcoming post I'll explain the kinds of services I've been called to offer. I'll also elaborate on how I've been guided to release the need to recieve monetary compensation for those services.

Humbly serving Love and Light, ~Tree

The Magic and Mystery of Dialogue

For as long as there have been people, there have been talking circles. From ancient indigenous tribes, to the Quakers, to corporate management teams... speaking one at a time inside a circle has always been a very powerful act of co-creation.

In his book Theory U, Otto Scharmer interviewed a group of women who called themselves The Circle of Seven. They reported having felt like by engaging in deep dialogue over time they had created a deeply nurturing and collaborative space which took on so much life and texture that they began to refer to it as the Circle Being.

Physicist David Bohm considered the practice of participating in a dialogue circle to be a co-creative emergence of innovation and novelty. He ran a number of experimental dialogue circles. Read more at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohm_Dialogue

A number of sacred geometry texts describe the act of being together in circle as a deeply creative process. Imagine that the circle represents a sacred yoni, a portal to/from another realm. As participants pass ideas, in the form of energy, around the circle; there is a build up of energy. If individuals are willing to dive deep

• into the present moment
• into themselves and their assumptions

then something transformative may emerge through them into the circle.

The way I've experienced this is that the ideas build upon each other until something shifts and all the ideas pouring out are brand new ones, which we're thinking up together, right in the moment. Organizational experts call this "generative dialogue" because the conversation is generating something new.

But there's more than just coming up with new ideas. While I'm deeply engaged in dialogue I feel more whole and healthy than at other times. By being in that particular resonnant field with a group of people I feel instantly healed and transformed. I always gain some insight about myself about a small refinement or tune-up which I could make that would allow me to feel this quality of presence more often.

Gaia Rising, we don't have to know what we're going to talk about until the moment it is happening. Tonight on the conference call, we'll create a space in honor of personal and planetary healing and transformation. We will invite our higher selves to dance together within the virtual circle. And we will leave the circle more healthy and whole than when we arrived.

For even when we walk alone, we are ALL ONE in Gaia.

Loosing My Religion

I lost my religion and my virginity in 1991 when I was 16. My parents were the sort of Christians who preferred camping and fishing to church. But I was very curious, so when I was 8 I began attending Emmanual Baptist Church in Blackwell, Oklahoma. I was a very devoted Christian with a deep sense of mission and purpose. When I turned 16 and chose to engage in an intimate relationship it sparked for me a spiritual crisis. Pre-marital sex was definitely a sin. It was the year that the band R.E.M. released the song Losing My Religion. The song moved me deeply. I performed an interpretive dance to the song at the state winterguard contest with a black flag and a black flowing dress.

In 1992 I was picked to join People to People Youth Science Exchange. We were to go to a major world environmental summit in Brazil. I diligently raised money so that I could go and experience the Amazon Rain Forest. Near the time to take the trip I was notified by the organization that it was too dangerous for a group of American teens to go to Brazil due to an increase of violent attacks against Americans in the region at that time. I was heartbroken, even though there was still promise of a rain forest experience as they replaced the plan with three weeks in Hawaii.

Upon arriving in Hawaii I was 17 years old and engaged to the young man with whom I'd been having that intimate relationship of which I spoke. I was beautiful and bright and very extroverted. There were three adult chaperones and approximately 20 young people from the US and Puerto Rico. Within a matter of a few days I found myself very attracted to a young man, but perhaps more importantly, very attracted to all the possibilities represented by a group of intelligent young people. Pretty soon I was deeply conflicted about the path I'd chosen. If I married the boy in my small home town I was certain that my path through life would be somehow limited and diminushed in comparison to the sense of expansive possibilities that these other kids were representing.

It was the only time in my life that I ever considered suicide. I would rather have died than to break his dear heart. Luckily I was clever enough to know that the bottle of ibuprophen in my suitcase would not be an effective out. The meds in my roomate's bag were equally useless. One day we were at a beautiful scenic overlook site. I think we were looking down on Oahu's North Shore, but I'm not certain. As I stood on the edge of the precipice I considered jumping. I felt deep energetic ebbs and swirls and felt as if part of myself did infact jump. I remember watching this imaginary self plummeting over the edge and slamming against rocks and ledges over several minutes. I could envision the black shadow which would be cast upon the day and the memory. I looked around and saw the families and the other kids from my group and I watched as their amazing Hawaiian experience turned into a horror.

And I couldn't do it. It would have been so damned selfish of me to kill myself like that. So I rushed back onto the bus and sat in the back and cried.

It was a most amazing three weeks. Each day was filled with activities designed to help us sink our teeth into science as well as the Hawaiian culture. It was the first time in my life that I noticed that there were religions other than Christianity. Somehow it had just never occurred to me that not everyone was Christian. But more importantly, I met the Goddess Pele. Both the scientific explorations of Hawaii and the cultural activities were centered around nature as the sacred feminine.

This made sense to me in such a deep way. It fit with what my parents had taught me before I chose to attend church. They had always said that we didn't need to go to church because God was everywhere and that when we were camping out every weekend we were celebrating God's creation.

When I was 16 I lost my religion. When I was 17 I found the Goddess. I devoted my life to the Earth Mother. But sixteen years after loosing Jesus I found him again. He was misplaced and burried under my anger at the history of Western Civilization. I have forgiven Him and the acts done in His name. Seventeen years after loosing my religion I have realized that Gaia is both the Mother of and Bride of Christ. That is why witchcraft and Christianity are no longer mutually exclusive to me.

The great divorce between Matriarchy and Patriarchy is being healed. In my heart Gaia and Jesus are developing quite the romance. And their romance is, to me, the most fundamental co-creative divine force in existence (at least in our corner of the universe).

All Hail the Newly Re-Wedded. All Hail the Bride in her green and blue gowns with white gauzy veil. All Hail the Groom whose light envelopes and impregnates the Bride. Their union is responsible for everything which exists on Earth. This is the Second Coming.

Fear

Is fear a gift or a curse? Or some of both?

More and more I see everything in the world like an electrical system... everything and everyone and every action is either positive, negative, or neutral. And let me clarify, negative does not equal bad or evil. I think of it in mathematical terms, 0 is the middle and +1 means movement in one direction and -1 means movement in another direction.

Today I notice I'm feeling afraid. I've worked through many kinds of fear in the past and found that fear can be a huge gift. Fear can be the guardian at the gate of the most sacred temple. Fear can be the building energy on the way to a major break through. Fear can even be a sacred rhythm, providing me with timing to ensure that I don't move too quickly.

Or fear can be debilitating. Fear can drive us to violence, control, and hatred. I believe that every war the planet has seen has its roots in "fear of the other". When we are not elevated enough to understand that we are all connected, we feel disconnected. When we're disconnected our emotions can run away with us. When we are not conscious of our unity, we notice that something is missing. We interpret this sense of lacking as fear that we will not have enough food, shelter, love, etc. This fear justifies competition and conflict and enables our "survival of the fittest" drive.

Thankfully today I've also had some insight about my present fear. I feel like I've been honored with the opportunity to serve Gaia (God, The Great Spirit, the Universe, Love, or whatever name you're most comfortable with) but I fear that I cannot do it alone. Even as I become able to name it I realize that I'm most certainly not alone. And so, I can now accept this fear as the gift of being guided to ask for help. I am blessed with many friends and a wonderful family. As I ask for help the fear dissipates. How blessed are we to have fear as a guide!

Another World is Possible

Another World is Possible
by Rose Flint

Another world is possible.
We can dream it in, with our eyes
open to this Beauty, to all
that Earth gives each of us, each day
those miracles of dark and light --
rainlight, dawn, sun moon snow, stormgrey
and the wide fields of night always
somewhere opening their flower-
stars---this, this! Another world is

possible. With river and bird
sweet and free without fear, without
minds blind to harmondy, to how
we can hold. we have been too long
spoiled greedy children of Earth,
life of rocks and creatures
slipping out of our careless hands.
We must stand now and learn to love
as a Mother loves her child, each
precious heartbeat of her that is
ourselves, our path and our journey
into our dream of future, where
another world is possible
cradling this one in its arms.

Gaia's Message

Gaia's Message

(A poem by Maria Silmon)

I am here

in the scent of a flower

in the living rainbow of light

on a dew drop

on a blade of grass

I am in every ray of the sun's light

in every grain of sand and drop of rain

in the rising mist

in the heat of the morning sun

and I am living through you

I whisper my secrets to you

when you are waking

and sing to you my song

while you sleep

I teach you of love

and its unfolding

and hold you when you weep

I am a reflection of life's unfolding

and I too,

as you,

am evolving

I am growing and changing

just as you do

I am vast

and, like you

I am part of the great cosmic dance

of awakening and becoming

I dance with the planets and the stars

and sparkle

as a radiant emerald jewel

in the bed of the universe

(c) Maria Silmon 2002