Listening to seeds through an attention to Mother Earth ritual in the making
I kindly invite you to come into dialogue with (urban) nature through reinterpreted exercises from trainings I have followed and through the gentle guidance of plant medicine Blue Lotus. I have great experiences with these gentle plant medicines that I would like to share with you.
Exercise No. 1
Start by walking in silence and find yourself a spot from where you would like to start the observation exercise.
Look at the sky and try to find out from which direction the sun rises. Close your eyes. Imagine the sun warming you (also when it’s not there). Look at the trees and find out if there’s a predominant wind direction. Do you notice height differences in the landscape? Wonder how the water flows in heavy rain.
What kind of soil do you find here? Grap some soil, squeeze it. Is it sand, loam or clay? Is it compact, loose? Does it feel fertile?
In a teaspoon of soil there are more organisms than there are people on planet earth. One teaspoon contains billions of organisms that are vital for recycling nutrition that help plants and trees to grow. Dwell on this for a moment.
Exercise No. 2
Start walking and enter the garden. Pay attention to how you walk and where you walk. Try to open your heart as much as possible to what you meet.
Gently start touching as much as possible along the way. Become aware of the elemental beings: anything hard and firm like stones and the ground belong to the earth beings, anything that is movable like flowers or flying insects belong to the air beings. Anything flowing like water or leaves belong to water beings. Anything rich like seeds and fruits belong to fire beings.
Try to use all your senses. Try not to make a distinction between what you normally experience as pleasant or unpleasant. Everything is part of the same world, that of elemental beings.
Stand still for a moment. What do you feel? What impression does it make? This impression is the Essential (het Wezenlijke) that meets you and leaves an imprint in your soul.
The elemental beings are most happy when they are allowed to shape the garden according to their assignment: the laws of nature.
How does it feel when you thank them for being there, for their work? And how does it feel to say good afternoon to them when you leave the garden? Would you like to give it a try?
Exercise No. 3
close your eyes
find your balance
be in an instant inside
look with all your eyes
let light shine on your fore head
feel this light traveling throughout your whole body
through the skin, and outside
there you are
standing or sitting
move along
through the ether
feel your breath
this breathing is moving you
when you inhale
exhales the earth
when you exhale
breathes the earth
let this sink in
could there be such a thing as we are one
because of what we do and what we believe in
with this discovery
we can be anywhere
in and in between
under
up
outside
inside
we can go through doors and portals
both visible and invisible
The ritual in the making is specially made for the Dancing on the edge april edition Listening to Seeds.
Thanks to Blue Lotus en cacao ceremony leader Araliyah Bosma and teachers Carmencita de Ruiter and Hanako Lodder.