EarthShip EcoTraining

Construction has begun on the new EarthShip here at Terrapin Hollow. From 6/11/2012 through 6/16/2012 we'll be hosting an EarthShip EcoTraining. Learn how to build an earth friendly home out of tires and aluminum cans. Based on the work of the orginal Garbage Warrior, Michael Reynolds, an EarthShip home is a beautiful, low cost, highly sustainable homage to Mother Earth.


Come to the beautiful Ozark Mountains of Northern Arkansas for a week and we'll feed you and teach you everything we've learned in the last 7 years on our homestead, Terrapin Hollow. You can check out the home-made wind-mill and solar panels, rain water harvesting, organic gardening, chickens, and even learn to make your own earth friendly laundry detergent and cleaning supplies. We'll have some indoor sleeping space, and/or camping. Bring your grubby clothes so you can get your hands into the dirt while you gain first hand experience in sustainable construction.

Why lend your back to this project? Terrapin Hollow is not just our home, it is a place of peace and renewal for others. As soon as the EarthShip is done, we'll have indoor lodging for up to a dozen people in two attractive cabins. At that time we'll launch our non-profit retreat center. We'll host spiritual events, sustainability workshops, writer's retreats, leadership development training, meetings, etc. There are other blog posts about Terrapin Hollow.

We hope you'll trek our way and have some fun in the sun with us. We're 36 miles from the Folk Music Mecca, Mountain View, AR. Most summer afternoons there are dozens of circles of musicians picking and grinning 'round the courthouse square. Also, we're in very close proximity to Blanchard Caverns and to the Buffalo National Wild and Scenic River. Heck, you could even borrow our canoe... Friend E. Steven Newby and/or Tree Newby on FB. Or reply to this post.

Oh, and as for the food, we'll be providing farm fresh eggs and veggies and store bought lean meats and carbs. I will probably get a keg. And I can cook a variety of dishes for vegetarians and omnivores. If you're vegan I'll need your help making sure you get what you need. The nearest health food store is in Mountain View and is quite small, but there's a Whole Foods in Little Rock.

In love and light,

Tree of Terrapin Hollow

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!

Enlightened Planetary Interest

The most prominent economic theorist of the previous age, Adam Smith, theorized that every consumer would act under his or her own best interest both in earning as well as spending money. It was called Enlightened Self Interest.

It is this concept which led to the inception of corporation: an immoral entity, which if considered an individual, would qualify as a psychopath. It was only too easy for the elite capitalists at the helm in large corporations to become exceedingly wealthy with little to no awareness of the environmental and social costs of doing business.

There is a great imbalance in the planetary distribution of wealth. The poorest island and coastal African nations stand to be submerged in as soon as 50 years. The world is still plagued with slavery, extortion, child labor, sweat shops, etc. And all based on this economic theory of Enlightened Self Interest.

But lately there is so much disruption and dismay that people are looking beyond the needs of themselves or their immediate family. People in struggle have awakened to the need to help their neighbors and become active in their communities. It is the emergence of a higer order economy: Enlightened Planetary Interest.

The desire to survive has awakened the possibility of peace and planetary cooperation. Millions of individuals and groups are stepping up to create Reality 2.0. Each one is focused first on self healing and next on service to The Greater Good. And part and parcel of the peace is radical acceptance of diversity. People will celebrate one antoher's cultures and religious perspectives. We'll understand the kaliedescopic nature of creation and manifestation. We'll appreciate those who appear to be very different from ourselves.

In times of great change, a coalition of determined visionaries leads the emergence of an entirely new order, a new way of being. At this time that new way is characterized by awareness of the delicate interconnections of all life. Welcome to the age of Enlightened Planetary Interest. Welcome to the Dawn of Gaia Consciousness.

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

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.

Terrapin Hollow

Terrapin Hollow is a 40 acre nature preserve in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. The land is mostly forested and is surrounded by thousands of acres of forests and meadows. Home to kids, chickens, dogs, cats, bear, birds, turkey, and deer; Terrapin Hollow is a wild green curve of land embraced by the Little Red River. Walk leisurely along a trail through the ancient bolder strewn hillsides as you ponder your connection to Gaia.

At Terrapin Hollow we harvest rain water for household use as well as to water the organic garden. The 102 foot tall wind generator provides all our power. We will soon start construction on a cob/strawbale home. When that project is complete the home we are in now will become a guest house, at that time we'll begin hosting retreats and workshops.

If you are interested in short term work in the areas of gardening, renewable energy, or green building techniques, please contact me. We'll provide room, board, and a wage in exchange for your contribution to Terrapin Hollow.