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Eco Shamanism

Newsletter

February 2020
 
The nature of revolution(s)
2020 - a revolving number, especially on Sunday when there will be a date palindrome 02.02.2020
Fresh leaves arriving out of an old tree - a distinct turning, or revolution, of growth Photo: Lucy Stott
In the last newsletter I asked that you click on the links and photos in the newsletter to help the new web name, www.ecoshamanism.org.uk, climb up in Google rankings. Thank you to all those that did and please do so again with this newsletter, it all helps!
The snowdrops have arrived right on time for Imbolc at the beginning of February, the time of the year midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Change is in the air and in the ground - all is waking up after the winter sleep. And on that note we would like to offer our Balancing the Flame booklet out again. This is a short read of the Celtic Seasonal Festivals and we have updated it slightly. We would encourage you to read the Imbolc chapter. Anyone who wishes to receive a copy, or those who'd like to see it again, we will happily send it to you. The booklet is in the form of a large pdf file and we can send it to you via dropbox - email Mandy and she will despatch it forthwith. PS - it's free.

In this newsletter Mandy revolves around half millenniums, Jane flows with news of her river work and Freya awakens, slowly, with a Beech tree. 
Snowdrops arriving in time for Imbolc at the beginning of February
A couple of notices
A couple of notices - Shamanic Sundays has become a bi-monthly event so the next one will be on Sunday 1st March. This February there will be an Introduction to Eco Shamanism at the Isbourne Centre in Cheltenham.
 
Eco Shamanism & Instinction weekend workshop arrives in Kent this May
A new development is an Eco Shamanism & Instinction weekend at The Quadrangle in Kent, a beautiful venue 45 minutes by train from London. Click on the link above to find out more. All three of us will be there and we are looking forward to deepening into Eco Shamanism and teasing out Instinction on the way.

For all other workshops, events and the training starting this year please scroll to the bottom of this newsletter for links to the website.
Revolving spiral - is this creature extinct or a dream of it's species?
Revolution(s)
Mandy explores half a millenium
Today I noticed how much lighter it is at 5pm . . .  the everyday lengthening of the year as it goes through another revolution which mirrors all those previously. Yet the progression is cyclical, always moving onward helically (in a spiral) like the fossil above.

Let us widen our perspective in time. Half a millennium ago there was a major conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn at 21/22°. For those of you who get a little goggle eyed at astrology, these two slow moving planets were together in the sky (from our point of view) in the constellation of Capricorn at 21/22°. Saturn is all about structure, tradition and time whereas Pluto is all about bringing truths to the surface and transformation. You could say that the structures and traditions (Saturn) undergo an authentic transformation (Pluto). Saturn is also the ruler of Capricorn so it's a bit of a double whammy. There was a revolution at this time 500 years ago, the Protestant Reformation. This very same conjunction has also literally happened in the last month, on 12th January 2020.  We are currently experiencing the beginnings of another revolution or reformation, a Climate Revolution. Interestingly the first was a religious transformation whereas now it is based around science . . . the two heavy weights of human belief systems.

Whilst I was very aware of this 'big' date I wasn't aware of other synchronicities (although I am now!). The number 500 keeps popping up . . . I was recently discussing a dream with Jane and the Biodynamic Preparation 500 came up in the conversation. My Facebook page recently had its 500th 'like'. I picked up a book in a charity shop by chance and on reading it found it was set both in the 1500s and the 2000s. Elizabeth l reigned in the 1500s and Elizabeth ll reigns now.
Dr John Dee was an astrologer, alchemist, astronomer, occult philosopher and mathematician. He was also advisor to Elizabeth l, setting her coronation date using astrology - Prince Charles, heir apparent in our times, is close to these sentiments.
In the last year or so, the word 'Instinction' has re-emerged after having become obsolete, or extinct, in Shakespeare's time, 500 years ago (I am bringing it back as a key word in our understanding of what it is to be human). During this time I have also been talking and teaching about the 'inner wits', the inners senses of common wit (sense), imagination, fantasy, memory and estimation (instinct) to which those in the 1500s were more attuned - referenced by Shakespeare himself. Out of the blue, immediately following the conjunction on 12th January (at which time there was a gathering of our local XR group) I was asked by the Wyvern Dowsing Group to give a talk a week later on 20th January 2020. I gave a talk on Instinction . . . featuring our 'inner wits' amongst other things.

These are the v. wyttes remeuing inwardly:
Fyrst, commyn wytte, and than ymaginacyon,
Fantasy, and estymacyon truely,
And memory, as I make narracyon;
Each upon other hath occupacyon.

Stephen Hawes, The Pastime Of Pleasure, XXIV "Of the Five Internall Wittes"

This 500 years elapse of time is a revolution on a much wider time scale than the annual return of the Snowdrops and the lengthening of the days . . . it is the lengthening of perspective over half a millennium. What I find most interesting is how we in the 21st century do not, on the whole, value our inner wits, or inner senses. We know when something is 'not quite right' about a situation by an 'instinctive' feeling yet this cannot be quantified by hard fact . . . unless we start to believe that these inner wits are actually . . . hard facts. Our education system encourages the 'science' subjects and squeezes the arts and this is mirrored in our society in general . . . if we don't have evidence of a 'fact' then we cannot believe it as such and so it is degraded to the realm of unimportance. In the Climate Revolution we are asked to listen to 'the science' and it is certainly compelling, it is awakening us to how we, as modern humans, are changing the temperature of our planet Earth (amongst other theories). Frightening scenarios of species rapidly becoming extinct, including humans, have created a theme of urgency and an extraordinarily fervent and growing climate movement. This is very necessary, in my view, yet it centres around science, material fact, which is only half the story. We are creatures of our inner wits: we dream (fantasy); we shape our lives around our wishes and imagination (how we direct our lives in the now and the future); we have 'gut' feelings (estimation); memories that shape who we are as we continue to exist in the moment but have no substance in reality; and we have common wit (common sense) which informs our rationale, or our understanding of matter. Which brings me to Eco Shamanism and the balance of our inner and outer selves, the knowledge that matter and spirit aren't separate yet function best when they are equally informed.

Perhaps in another 500 years humans will have evolved, helically, into a state of grace where spirit and matter are of equal import, or are of no import at all as they/we may well have arrived at a the point that Eco Shamanism strives for - to 'become one with our Earth' and have found a harmony of existence within themselves/ourselves (inner wits) and that which is outside ourselves (fed by our outer wits or senses). Whichever it is the dream of humans as a species will continue, just as the fossil in the photo above lives on . . .

And finally there is a theory within Eco Shamanism that death is the end of one existence and the beginning of another (see photo below). When we 'become one with our Earth' this theory becomes entirely practicable, in my way of thinking! If you want to explore these notions further, please come on one of the day workshops which give a taster of the flow between our inner and outer wits. There is an Introduction to Eco Shamanism in Cheltenham this 23rd February and an Instinction day at Millers Farm on May 2nd and a weekend of both in Kent at the end of May.

Mandy
Death is the end of one existence and the beginning of another
Otters, Wolves and Beavers 
Jane is preparing for more River Pilgrimages

The photograph above shows the confluence of the Wolf and Otter rivers near Honiton in Devon. There are otters on the Otter but no real wolves on the Wolf (yet) though there would have been once. They appear to be a breakout group that have arrived of their own accord, probably following their inner wits. There is not a Beaver river but the exiting news for many of us is that there are beavers on more and more rivers and they are spreading and working their magic as landscape architects. At Otterhead lakes, from where the Otter river springs, the beavers have dammed a small stream and the result is quite astonishing - the dam has formed a body of water teeming with life and vitality. This land is owned by the water authority who are testing the water up and downstream of these dams and have found that beaver activity filters out impurities from the water and holds it back to lessen the risk of flooding downstream! These small creatures that were hunted and driven out of this land might start to make a comeback for they can do something so beautifully and efficiently that we need as humans and so much better than we can. Further downstream at the confluence of the rivers human activity is less pleasing: muddy water running off from fields where the soil is compacted; plastic bags that contained animal feed or silage stuck high up on the waterline; litter floating on the surface; fly tipping, and yet there are snowdrops, the evidence of deer and otter, and beautiful willows and with Aldi and the East Devon Council offices in the background.

Having walked the Wolf River from source to the Otter it is time to start the Otter which starts at Otterford lakes and ends in Budliegh Salterton. I am doing this in stages starting on the 17th with a friend and colleague and anyone is most welcome to join, look out on the land and rivers section of the website for more details as they unfold. In March, Mandy and I are walking the next leg of the Usk River upstream from Usk town close to the time of the Spring Equinox, as an act of pilgrimage - more details here.

As an addendum and in reference to Mandy's writing, beavers became extinct 500 years ago, the last one being shot in Scotland in 1526 (so became extinct due to human activity). This weeks local Forest of Dean newspaper had a beaver spread about the beavers introduced in the area, a few miles from where Mandy lives, to help with flooding and biodiversity. They are settling into an enclosure at Greathough Brook, a thoroughly great name for their new domain. Mandy was not aware of the beavers demise 500 years ago and this synchronicity is testament to 'instinction' . . . or even a hard fact!

Jane

Awaken to the awakening
Freya is reminded that this season of awakening need not be rushed.
Drawn out by the sun to an honoured Beech tree, and a climb to the crest of a hill that forms the wide valley here. The sunlight in and out of the clouds, clouds dappled with rain, wind gusting along the hill top.

Along the way glossy Holly, dripping green Yew, Mistletoe pompoms swaying in the Ash and tangled twigs of sketchy Hawthorn. The Beech herself standing tall and wide armed, expansive; echoing the broad views to distant mountains. I have come to give thanks to the Beech, as guided in an earlier journey. Gratitude for the sanctuary she wraps around me, gratitude for the gentle feminine acceptance she cloaks me in, gratitude for welcoming me home again.

As I sit amongst her roots, the prickly Beech mast crackles and the leaves rattle like butterflies trapped against a pane of glass. Low branches rise and fall, knocking together. The pointy tips already beginning to show brown velvet-soft buds; for now tightly furled. I direct my attention down into the ground, to mingle with the roots, down into the hillside, away from the exposure to the wind and the sun. I remember that this time is a seeding of energy, there is time for stillness and rest and all that is required is to awaken to the awakening and not to rush. This gentle beginning needs nurture and nourishment if it is to grow.

There will be more Hands on Herbals in the spring, once the plants are plentiful again. Details in the next newsletter.

Freya
2020 events update
in date order

What's happening this year - anything in blue and underlined is a weblink.  Many workshops are at Millers Farm in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. Any questions or enquiries please get in touch.

Eco Shamanism day workshop - 23rd February - Isbourne Centre, Cheltenham
Shamanic Sundays - 1st March - Millers Farm
Learn the Shamans Journey - 14th March - Millers Farm
Healing in Nature day (Eco Mapping) - 15th March - Millers Farm
Usk River Pilgrimage - 22nd March - meet in Usk
Teaching the Shamanic Journey as a Healing Practice - two spaces remaining - 25th & 26th April - Millers Farm
Instinction day workshop - 2nd May - Millers Farm
Eco Shamanism & Instinction weekend workshop - 29th to 31st May - The Quadrangle, Kent
Dark Venus 24 hour workshop - 20th & 21st June - Millers Farm
Plant Eco Shamanism weekend - 26th & 27th September - Millers Farm
Eco Shamanism Course/Training - starts 8th October 2020 at Ragmans Farm, Glos
If you have any questions feel free to message, ring or email Mandy. If you know someone who might be interested in any of the above please forward this newsletter to them.
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