A Worrying Trend

If I was writing this in the 70's or 80's then I would probably be announcing that my den had been found, trashed,burned, or taken over by kids..but it is 2013 and it is safe...why? because whereas in my childhood/youth the river,trees,meadows,scrapyard,railway areas were frequented by little bands or tribes of kids...but today they are nowhere to be seen! Good for my nature place but not good for the kids...it is a worrying trend..a combination of parental paranoia and the mass use of playstations and x boxes has ensured a whole generation of youngsters are bound in cotton wool and know very little of the real and natural world. this does not bode well for them and their health, but also it is not a good sign for the care of the ecology of the planet in the years to come,how can they protect and nurture nature if they are oblivious to it? We need the wild brought into the schools...take them out to it, teach them of it..but education, alas seems pre-occupied with ensuring the continuity of the corporate empire, teaching the kids powerpoint presentations and how to be and act in business....yawn! if i was a kid i would have been bored to tears with it! so parents! wake up! let out your kids...conquer your own fears about lettin your kids run wild and let them be healthy. I remember in my 20's i went thru a phase of nightclubbing (i was so into dancing and trance techno) and after the club i started going with a few friends into the woods where we would carry on the party by having a fire and climbing trees. word spread around and soon 30 or 40 people would attend these bacchanalian gatherings...i remember going mad at some of them as they thought the idea of collecting firewood was to break branches off living trees.!!! I pointed out all the dead wood on the ground, and explained that l;ive wood not only destroys the trees but doesn't burn well anyway...EDUCATION! we need to re-connect the kids to the great outdoors and we need to teach them how to respect it! SOON!

the origin of churches?

My nature shrine has become potent in both the inner and the outer worlds...but this is not unique, any space in nature...if nurtured and meditated in, becomes, over time a sacred place.I am not physically there right now, I am here, in my house, with a laptop on my knee..but in my mind and heart the shrine exists, as real as if I am there...it therfore exists on many (some Overlapping) layers of reality.It has become a multidimensional sacred space. It has become like a nest in my mind..where i can find safety, peace and healing. maybe the origin of churches began like this? I imagine ancient communities long long ago..within these communities some will have been touched with the desire and need to get away from the everyday and seek solace in quiet nature..maybe they spent so much time there that they built a rough shelter...then maybe they just stayed...then things happened...maybe a couple of people were guided or healed by the hermit...and before long a stronger structure was built on the place made sacred.The origin of churches? well at this present moment in time it is just me and nature...and my intent to cultivate the sacred in my beautiful little hideaway

The Day The Cameras Came By

Out of curiosity I viewed my nature place on Google Earth. I could see my city clearly as a passenger in a very high plane could see it..grey mainly..with little splashes of green, the curling band of the river..the countryside in the distance. I zoomed in..I could see the roads, the railways...aha! the golf course....i homed in a bit nearer...eventually I could see the green strip that was where my nature place was located..is that it?!? It made me realise just how near civilisation it was...yet civilisation seems so far away when I am there. For when I am meditating in my green space, surrounded by the circle of outward spanning nettles, brambles, rosebay willowherb, trees and of course the wood it seems I am in the midst of a remote nature...well in some sense I am, for it is not frequented, it is unknown, it is the edgelands...so near to civilisation, and yet so far! I guess the bird in the nest in the tree that is one of many along a busy road, or the ant in the ant nest in the centre strip of motorway feel similar..they are near in their way to the system and its movements, as I am in my relatively larger scale when I am hidden in my secret shrine..getting on with our nature bliss...its nice to know that even on Google earth I am hidden from the satellites as they orbit...as all they see is a strip of green and a few darker splodges of tree...one of many patches of green within and around the modern world...glad I didn't have a fire the day the cameras came by...or else my cover would have been blown:)

The Quest For The Perfect Place (The Evolution Began)

It was probably about a decade ago that I started casually looking around for a place where I could evolve a retreat zone within the nature places of my locality.All the wild places in my vicinity I knew well having been a wanderer and a walker for as long as I can remember. I don't own dogs, so I don't walk for that reason...I am one of those people that just enjoys being out when I can. I find it meditative, relaxing, inspiring and of course it keeps me physically fit.But a park bench isn't for me, I need somewhere where i can be alone, not even see another human being at times, and living on the edges of a city, that can be difficult.It is not antisocial, rather it is medicinal...for being a somewhat finely tuned individual regarding others, I need time and space to get to my own energies and rhythms, to totally wind down to that spot that all meditators know about. So I kept this thought in mind as i walked...the weeks and months and years passed...always in the back of my mind....i walked the river, toyed with a couple of places, but either the vibe wasn't right..(too dank and undergrowth filled) or it would be easily discovered... I walked the railway and checked out parts of the embankments...no...could be seen from houses, or one of the bridges...i looked at the potential of many trees for treehouses...none were right..well one was, and i had plans for it..but it got struck by lightning and was felled so bang went that one! Then one day out walking I remembered some of the places i played as a kid...an area between a railway and a golf course..mmmmmm...lets see...the railway zone was rampant with nature over in places quite wide and steep embankments...one raised embankment stretched out into some wild meadows, one lower and one higher...the higher one the end of a natural escarpment. beyond this were some woods which descended down onto a golf course.The woods were tangled and at the top where it adjoined the meadow full of undergrowth...the meadows had clusters of hawthorn trees some growing out of an old ditch...i lifted the boughs and entered the dry ditch...beyond was an area full of brambles...it came to me like a eureka moment...if i could clear the brambles this place would be the right one!...I got to work...and the evolution began.

The inner nature child

There is a lot of talk these days about the inner child, how we should nurture it...rescue it even...and this is GREAT! but it oft seems that its all 'gooey ickle cute babyish sort of inner child stuff...which has its place of course...but what about the other sides of the inner child...the BiGGeR inner child. the one that stayed out all day and came back smelling of firesmoke and with cuts and grazes. The tree climber, the den maker, the army strategist, the lone dreaming scout? what of them...this inner child..(if yours was ever like this) is RAGiNG or crying to be found...he/she recoils from the sterile order of the corporate life...this inner child holds the keys to your soul...it is brave, it is daring....and it wants you to see it and be it...can you hear its call? I think that my nature place is a bit of this for me...just be-ing out in the wilds...making fires and a mud hut...its not even a two fingers raised to the system sort of thing, it is a natural extension of who i am, what i want to do...and it is helping to make me whole again:)remember the old, and so valid magical saying...'an it harm none..do as thou wilt....

Desire Paths

The pavement is concrete, it runs parallel with the tarmac road, we people walk it without thought..for it is there, they have in most cases in our localities been there for our whole lives, they were dreamed up by someone, or some people, a a long time ago for convenience...the best way to string various locations together.The village grew, some turned into towns, some into super city. We each know our own network of pavements in our localities...we walk them without thought, it is virtually automatic. Now, take a turn off this grid, maybe to the river, to the fields, the woods, away to somewhere that has not paths made from concrete. we find paths still...rougher ones, but paths nontheless...a field has one across it, or alonside it..now add the weather to the picture..imagine it rains for 2 whole months, the current rough path becomes a sludgy no go zone, the dog walkers curse at their daily mucky walk, and if it is bad enough a new way through or along may develop, maybe it skirts around the muddy obstacle, but the grass gets trampled down, other walkers see that this has occured and follow suit...it may over time become a new path, a desire path, not created by a council office and diggers, but by human whims, a desire path..how many of our paths are desire pathways? I know places in my locality where council laid paths are ignored, and the locals use the way though the wwods and fields, because it is quicker, and for some people pleasanter...a desire path. i have to be careful with my desire paths when i am approaching and leaving my secret nature place...as i don't want it to be discovered, so i have three different ways...one easier (which i had used too often and now am forced to leave grow back again, and two more difficult, which involve ducking and diving under hawthorn boughs, and up sometimes slippy wooded slopes...i tread carefully, so as to disturb the undergrowth as little as possible...maybe i should use stilts:)

Meditation by Fire

I don't always have a fire when i am gaining peace at my nature spot, but when I do it is always a special occasion for me. I have loved fires since I was a child and my dad used to make them on beach holidays. Over the years I have enjoyed them on camping trips with friends, at festivals and other times such as when i spend a long time at my bower. Every part of the fire process is a ritual for me, from the collection of the wood , to the lighting itself, and then to the enjoyment of the fire in progress, and the keeping it going...until finally, the putting out of it.When i decide to have one i take my old trusty daysack with me and head into the wooded areas to the north of my bower. Here i walk and pick as I move, suitable small dry sticks and twigs which will form the base of the fire. Once the sack is full I return, drop it off and head back to the bigger pieces. I don't need too much for a few hours worth of fire, I keep them small when here, its not, after all a beach bonfire with loads of people round it, its just me, and i want to keep it safe, and not burn down my retreat area!! When I am happy with the wood, I arrange the twigs, from the smallest upwards, like a small structure,which awaits the flame. Then i offer a blessing, something along the lines of , 'May the spirits of kinship,healing and protection be with me around this fire, may this be a fire of peace, of reflection and all for the highest possible good'...i may burn a little sage if i remembered to take some with me.Then I light it, nurture it, tend to it, until i can add the bigger bits and start to relax. I read somewhere once that ancient mystics used to stare at the flames of a fire to balance the energies of their heads, and they noted how cats seem to sit close to fires in what appears a meditative state. Well, I find cats quite a wise species of animal and i find fires have a hypnotic effect, so i softly stare at it, and relax...let the natural energies work their magic on my westernized head....and feel all the better for it:)

I couldn't find any new fire pic from my bower so here is one from the coast a couple of months ago...larger this though, than the ones i have for meditation.

Solstice Poem

The sky gone all cornflower, blue as it gets. The worlds turned full circle, and magicked our heads. We've all felt it coming, we know its the time the revelry risin, the sun's done its climb. We feel the forces, we move down its path, have trust in the moment, freedom to laugh. Solstice expressions, from our eyes they shine midsummer bliss, 'cause its solstice time peace brothers and sisters, peace and love at the time of the magical solstice...

nettle flagellation

Last evenings foray resulted in a bare arm covered in nettle stings..ouch! One of the perils of having a hard to access nature shrine i'm afraid. Recently, my 6 year old son asked me, 'dad, you said nature is good for you, so is it good to be stung by nettles?' I had to smile! I went on to explain about the fact the nettle as a species, has probably been around a mighty long time and over some of this time it probably grew into having these stings as a form of protection. I mean, not many people are willingly going to walk through a large stand of nettles, so they tend to thrive once established out in the wild.It also brought to mind a programme i watched a while ago where some participants in a jungle ceremony preparing to ingest the hallucinogenic vine ayahuasca, were being flagellated with bunches of nettles to bring any resident evil spirits to the surface for purging.interesting! Well, I am not about to undertake a nettle whipping, as the two dozen little bumps on my arm were painful enough, but maybe there is something in it- and if so, then my sons logic is not too far from the truth. Actually, more or less every time i go to my sanctuary i end up with a scratch or a graze, a bite or a sting. From a nettle to a hawthorn spike, or a plain old midge bite. Just one of those things, as i said, but worth it, for the peace of the place when i get there.

Warning..contains moderate nudity:)

The foxes and birds don't mind...the trees and plants certainly don't mind...and me...well now and then i kick off my jeans and feel the elements on my skin....after all...no one can see me:)

Where I 'Plug In'

Whenever I head out and make the relatively short journey to my hidden bower I feel a growing sense of excitement. The day eases away as i tread the secret paths and enter the undergrowth.the sun dapples through gaps in the leafy ceiling of the small wood and the air cools my skin.The rhythm is different here. A 'Clap ClAp clap' of a disturbed wood pigeon penetrates the air, the rustle of twigs and leaves as a mouse rushes away. It is approaching the solstice right now, so the trees are heavy with bright and fresh green leaves. I find it energising. Eventually I alight in the clearing. Each time I am relieved to find that it has not been discovered. The mud hut in the centre is still standing. I scoutabout, looking at the changes in the trees and bushes i have planted from seedlings...doubly excited as my 2 year old blackcurrant bush has 3 berries ripening on it...its first fruit ever! I pull up a few encroaching rosebay willowherb spears. The mass of rosebays are up to my shoulders now towards the North East of the circle heading towards the treeline in a large clump a few feet wide and deep. In a month this will be a sea of bright pink flowers, and later still, a mass of fluffy cotton like seeds...The ground in the cleared centre is hard, smooth, compacted from my numerous visits, i sometimes wonder what someones reaction would be if they stumbled upon this place! It emanates magic for sure! I settle on the dry ground, feel the evening air upon my face, and breathe deeply..this is my medicine...it is where i plug in, it gives colour to my eyes and skin, and the green energies suffuse my aura. Ahhh! the magic of nature:)

my place in the edgelands

I share it with many lifeforms...foxes sunbathe in it from time to time, birds nest nearby, mice walk thru it, and of course all the myriad forms of 'bug' native to the british isles make use of it...but humans? Apart from me, no-one knows of this place. They come near, very near at times, but they know not, that beyond the tangled barricades of bramble, the thick stands of nettles and the numerous small trees and shrubs, there is a hidden magical place, where i spend some of my time, doing what i do, in a place of reverence and awe, of the rhythms and dances of nature all around me. Here i work with nature, I have an idea, plant something,trim something, and nature responds with her own magic! It was, when i found it, a thick inpenetrable mass of brambles, very little else, but now, having created a large circle within,i have the pink of rosebay willowherb, the vivid blue of forget me nots, daisies, many variants of fern,new saplings, and all around the circle, i have planted seedlings, mountain ash,silver birch, goat willow, blackcurrant bushes and buddleias...nature knows i am here to uplift and be uplifted, so she protects the place, it has not been discovered....and this blog is my effort to share this evolving magic with you, to tell the story of the creation of my 'druid bower' and to tell the stories of wonder and evolution that occur within its magical circle, so hello, enjoy, and hope u will be inspired