Poppy Palin's News
Welcome all green-spirited beings who care deeply and shine brightly
This website aims to recognise, and rejoice in, the wild spirit inherent in all creation
through evocative words, eloquent images and soul songs.
May we all celebrate our capacity as co-creators using whatever gives we have, with
wisdom, compassion and deep insight.
And may we all open our eyes, hearts and minds even if it hurts
Poppy endeavors to update this website as often as she can but she is quite often unable due to debilitating pain. Similarly it may take a while for an answer to any email you may send to her but she always tries to respond as quickly as she can.
poppypalin@gypsymoondesign.fsnet.co.uk
Above: Stones from the River
Above: Please contact Animal Aid in the UK for copies of this postcard
Coming Soon
The Return of
The WAKING THE WILD SPIRIT TAROT Book
It was to be an eBook but now, thanks to Slippery Jacks, it will be an actual hard copy book again!
Watch this space for more information on how buy the rare OUT OF PRINT book that accompanies Poppy's tarot deck
Above: A passage from the book
All proceeds from this venture will go to animal charities, of course!
'This is my favourite deck of all time. the colors and images speak through me with an ease that no other tarot has been able to do. If I could only have one deck to read from for all time this would be it. As an oracle it will tell you what you need to know.'
Lisa Silver Crow Perrault
BELOW IS A LINK TO A NEW TAROT SITE. This link will take you directly to POPPY'S TAROT
http://www.myDivination.com/index.mdv?SetTarotDeck=60dcc9418fd30fbc013716b21990f1ff
The site is well worth supporting as a new venture. Here is a link to it that doesn't go directly to Poppy's work
http://www.mydivination.com
***
" I send the ENERGY of LOVE and GRATITUDE to the WATER and ALL living CREATURES in the GULF of MEXICO and it's SURROUNDINGS. The whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae and ALL LIVING CREATURES. I AM SORRY. PLEASE forgive me. THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!"
Prayer by: Dr. Masaru Emoto
***
If you do one thing for the animals (and your own soul) today please visit
And watch the trailers for the film due out Spring 2010
Thank you
***
Please note that Poppy's work is now available from
Slippery Jacks is a green-spirited, and spiritual, company set up to support creative potential. With printing, publishing and web services, our role is that of catalyst. We offer our intention to work ethically, and honestly, for the benefit of our wonderful Earth.
Any proceeds Poppy may make from SLIPPERY JACKS will go to animal aid charities/animal welfare organisations etc. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Below: Dartmoor ponies by Gary Howe
****
A Gentle Reminder
Poppy Palin's tattoo design for charity
Although Poppy cannot be speedy in her response she will design any nature-based or meaningful tattoo she is able to free of charge but only if the recipient is willing to donate to one of the following charities:
***
ADVANCE WARNING OF AN IMPORTANT EVENT
IN THE UK
AUGUST 2010
Celebrating Human Creativity
Crop Circles are Made by People
Why make myths when truth is beautiful?
A brief article will follow shortly!
JULY 2010
Inspired by the season's local wild flowers
Above: Poppy's handmade jewellery using only recycled or vintage findings and embellishments shown here next to local wildflowers
There are necklaces, earrings and bracelets in this green-spirited range
If you are interested please contact Poppy and see
on this site for more creativity-for-charity
****
Below: Excuse the poor scan but here is one message from
that has to be shared...
Please support BUAV in any way you can
JUNE 2010
*** May this summer solstice see both your creativity and compassion in full bloom ***
Wishing you a truly inspired midsummer!
Here are some of Poppy's house plaque/sign designs
Above: Enamel Paint on a wooden plaque
Above: Acrylic and enamel on a stone
Do just ask if you are interested in any of Poppy's imagery, paintings etc.
poppypalin@gypsymooondesign.fsnet.co.uk
But be prepared for a slight wait as she is not always able to use the PC
Thank you
ALREADY SICK OF THAT 'BARBEQUE SUMMER' STENCH?
DON'T storm in and ransack your neighbour's party (tempting as it may be to see them wearing their 'hamburger' as a hat) JUST JOIN THE CLUB and peacefully support a cruelty-free world.
Get empowered, do the right thing
MAY 2010
PROMOTING VEGAN AND VEGETARIAN LIVING
http://vegetarianworldtour.wordpress.com
A Vegetarian Family's World Tour
Vegetarian food is fun! Whether a veggie dish is your main course, an accompaniment to meat or a tasty dessert, fun can be found in the flavours, colours and origins of the food, in unusual facts and by learning what other families around the world tuck into. Grab some family members, a copy of this book and some enthusiasm to explore your own taste buds as well as the fun to be had around food. You may find the whole process, from preparation to eating, more enjoyable than you imagined!
A Vegetarian Family’s World Tour contains:
• Over 125 delicious global recipes, tasty enough for veggies and meat eaters – from soups, salads & starters to main courses & desserts
• Adaptable recipes that are often suitable for vegans or those with food intolerances
• Folktales from around the world
• Activities and suggestions for family food-fun
• Food rhymes
• Cultural and culinary information
• Kitchen tips for easier, more successful cooking
• A calendar of festivities from around the world
• Did you know..? Fact boxes accompanying most recipes
• Full colour flags of all the countries visited
• A world map, helping you to imagine your way around the globe
• Over 160 spiral bound, glossy pages for ease of use in the kitchen
• Imperial as well as metric measurements throughout
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The return of the blue skies due to Icelandic Volcano dust grounding planes in the UK
Above: The first truly (and consistently) clear skies seen in Somerset, UK for a long, long time...
Below: Little fluffy clouds...remember them? Here's what the sky looks like when the clouds are natural plane-free phenomena
Below: The next day the planes were back. This says it all
And below is the degeneration in the sky the following morning...
Chemtrails, contrails...does the exact term matter? THIS IS NOT RIGHT!
The solution? Well, it seems fairly obvious! But are you personally ready to make that commitment and (some may say) personal sacrifice for the sake of the All?
Or is this what you will tolerate
Or this?
Because of apathy, disconnection or disempowerment?
Above: What to look out for...fat trails which spread and then eventually seem as if they are just naturally occuring clouds.
LOOK UP, BE AWARE OF THE SKY, POINT IT OUT, PASS IT ON!
This problem seems to be global but Poppy is only able to record her findings in south west England (see the Glastonbury, Somerset pictures below) If you have any jpeg images of the 'phenomena' where you live then do send them to Poppy for inclusion on her con/chemtrails page as a resource for others who are, as yet, still unconvinced by this huge problem. Please send to:
poppypalin@gypsymoondesign.fsnet.co.uk
It may take a while for Poppy to process them but she will hopefully include them on this site ASAP
SHE WOULD MUCH RATHER BE DOING SOMETHING CREATIVE THAN CATALOGUING THIS AWFUL DEGREDATION OF THE SKY BUT SEES THIS AS MUCH TO IMPORTANT TO LET SLIP BY!
Above: A typical 'dropping bobble' type trail across the sky above Glastonbury Tor...
And below: How this trail spreads so that you would think it was a cloud if you hadn't seen it leave a plane
Below: Close ups of two different 'bobble' trails before they begin to drop their 'bobbles'...
PLEASE SEE THE UPDATE ON THE CON/CHEM TRAILS PAGE ON THIS SITE
Coming soon: A CD version of Poppy's songs so far and PERMACULTURE PAINTINGS
MARCH 2010
Here at last is another recording from Poppy's archive of material recorded with Gary Howe
This song is builds up as it goes along and was recorded to be played through headphones. It can be played through your media player if downloaded. Hopefully an MP3 version can be created soon. Click on the link below to hear
Below are the lyrics
Lost in Loss
1.
Shadow of a cloud passing over a hill,
Memory of a dream that can move you still,
Notion of a life in the lines of a hand,
Nothing but shadow where I used to stand.
2.
Scent of warm rain falling over parched land,
Footprints of a gull haunt the empty strand,
Motion of a shark sliding under dark sea,
Nothing but loss at the heart of me...lost part of me.
CHORUS
Cross my heart...score out my eyes,
There's nothing left...but I can't die,
My time is past...but still I pass
3.
Ripples of a curse that was never lifted,
Arcane patterns where the sand has shifted,
Sense of a song that will never be written,
Nothing but loss where the frost has bitten
Crossing over me, crossing over me, crossing over me...crossing me out
Chorus
4.
Whisper of a lie behind an old curtain,
Rumour of a story that was never certain,
Snap of the bracken on the blackened ground,
Movement of a hand where the last man drowned.
5.
Sigh of a ghost in a shuttered room,
Creak of the wood of a broken loom,
Dust of a moth behind an old curtain,
Rumour of my life that was never certain
Movement of a hand where the last man drowned...was never found
Crossing over me, crossing over me, crossing over me...crossing me out
CHORUS
I'm lost in loss, I'm lost in loss
*****
75 DEAD STARLINGS FOUND IN SOMERSET UK
Just over a mile from Poppy's home
FEBRUARY 2010
*** DEEP WINTER BROKEN HEART ***
DEEP WINTER BROKEN HEART was inspired by personal pain and loss, especally for the land which is being destroyed daily. In the time it took to create this image the quirky heart-shaped crack-willow - a tree which thrives on the wet Somerset levels and which appears on the right hand lower edge of this painting - was destroyed, as was the willow that inspired the tree in the background...
To resist meaningful change is futile yet to witness destruction for 'change's sake' is heartbreaking.
The land is becoming as homogenised as we are...a brutal reflection of a soulless existence, regimented and controlled to within an inch of its life.
To all our detriments.
In memory of the two bold individual trees and to all who dwelled within and around them.
Above: The Somerset Levels, January sunset
Below: The Rev. Sydney Smith
An unassuming looking gentlemen with a spirited and quiet wisdom
Five favourite Sidney Smith Quotes:
Do not try to push your way through to the front ranks of your profession; do not run after distinctions and rewards; but do your utmost to find an entry into the world of beauty.
Heaven never helps the men who will not act
The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities
Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature intended you for, and you will succeed
And the most pertinent of all is
It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can
So, when faced with the below images what do we do?
Above: Images from an undercover investigation undertaken by an unsung hero, the beautiful and outstandingly compassionate Kate Fowler at Animal Aid.
We can't all be Kate but as Sidney Smith suggested can't we all do SOMETHING?
With Love
JANUARY 2010
Please go and watch the film at this site
And offer any support you can. Thank you!
Above: Poppy's lovely handmade Lorica (faux leather) boot leaves its mark next to a fox's track on a pristine field.
Above: X marks the spot where two travellers met. Who was it that left their trails on the unsullied blanket of snow?
Considering our beautiful creature-kin, when better than the start of this (calendar) year to consider becoming vegan? Or to re-commit to your vegan intentions?
Or even to become a vegetarian if you haven't yet made that step?
Join Poppy in re-commiting to striving to survive by causing the least suffering possible in 2010.
Here's a few images - and accompanying comparisons - you may find thought provoking. Hopefully they will be unsettling enough to enable a shift in perception.
Above: It's certainly not a new idea to make this comparison but does this building remind you of anything?
Above: How about this view of it?
How about these intelligent, gentle beings standing crammed togther, penned in the mud, bewildered and afraid?
And how about the idea of sentient beings standing behind barbed wire with their 'identifying tattoos' and 'yellow stars', defined as 'livestock' and classified only as numbers, waiting for the 'final solution' at the mercy of other 'sentient' beings?
How about the little ones being seperated from their mothers...
While the mothers huddle together in the mud? Their cries of distress can be heard almost half a mile away
Now look at these pictures...
Or maybe the images below make it easier to see?
PLEASE MAKE THE CONNECTION!
Different species, yes: a different interpretation of the Oneness of Being.
But same conciousness. Same pain. Same right to life.
Are you (unconsciously) still buying into what you may have been taught about other beings having no feelings...about 'man's dominion over the beasts' etc? Do you think they matter less than you do because they do not speak your language?
Every time I pass these effective deathcamps or see the cattle truck on the road or hear those cries - the impotent bellows of rage and pain and confusion - I feel just like the good German citizen who did nothing. I, like them, am complicit. I do not cry out against the atrocity in my midst, nor do I storm the gates. All I do is try my very best not to engage with 'the machine'; the industry of suffering - this slavery, this genocide - that our fellow beings are forced into. I implore you not to be complicit either. Do as much as you can. Just because you can't do EVERYTHING don't be deterred from doing SOMETHING to extract yourself from the horror in our very midst. Even if you still walk by without seeking to release the prisoners then do not deny them also. Acknowledge them in your own quiet, determined, compassionate ways.
This subjegation and systematic slaughter of our creature-kin in this way is not normal, natural or inevitable.
We no longer need to eat meat to survive. We no longer need to wear other creatures skin to be warm.
There are alternatives. Buy OUT of this industry. Do not fund this holocaust.
Do not consider the murder of any being as a 'cull'
Do not consider any being as 'live stock'
Do not consider sitting on the skins of slaughtered innocents as desirable and luxurious
Do not consider a shop window display of body parts and internal organs as normal
Do not consider a high street chemist that does not stock one product (or its ingredients) that hasn't been tested on animals as 'how it is'
There are countless ways we are de-sensitised to the true atrocity of what is done to other creatures:
Please notice them, do not perpetuate them.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE PERFECT. Little shifts in conciousness and behaviour mean a lot.
Still unconviced?
Watch Earthlings
Read
Eternal Treblinka
Charles Patterson
£16.99
From Animal Aid
And look around you, lest we forget
For those who said it can never happen again, it is. It never stopped.
DECEMBER 2009
Want a good reason to keep recycling and cutting down on packaging etc. in 2010?
Above: This albatross chick was fed plastic junk by its parents as they clearly thought it was food.
Thanks to David Green for the albatross image and information.
A scene of beauty (above) and a scene of devastation (below)
Both at Wellow, UK, in deep midwinter.
Hearing the rooks in the rookery filling the skies of Wellow with wonderful corvid cawings and croakings I wondered what the scavenging, carrion-seeking rooks eat come hard-frozen days like these?
In fact what do the birds eat that rely on the hedgerows when the hedgerows are so brutally ravaged by the farmers?
Another (unwelcome) mystery...
Above: A wild poppy on the first day of December in Somerset, UK...a miraculous thing or a sign of dramatic changes in the seasons? This Poppy has certainly never seen such a thing before!
Please see two new pages on this website:
and
NOVEMBER 2009
A Musical Update, at last!
Below are links to two songs and two snippets of song ideas that Poppy created with
Gary Howe some years ago.
Song Number One is MADMAN inspired by many things but mostly about releasing the wild spirit in joyous celebration...
Song number two is FENNY written about Fenny Castle in Somerset (a faery place, sadly now with no public access...although this may be just as well!)
Above: The mysterious 'place between places' FENNY (faery) CASTLE
'You're like a rock in a stormy sea, you bring me back to another part of me...'
Snippet number one is called 'I Can't See Me' (sadly it was saved by the wrong name as were her other tracks!) It's a good sample of what Poppy used to do musically. Thanks to Gary for his instrumentation.
Snippet number two is another fragment of a longer piece that was written in the'Cocteau Twins' style (with no discernible lyrics). Instead it was based around Poppy's friend's daughter's name...'Deia'. It definitely wasn't meant to be known as Hippy but here it is anyway.
Also the
section has finally been updated so please do have look at that!
March 2009
PLEASE NOTE: There are only a few of Poppy's tarot decks left for sale. That may change by the time you read this as Poppy may no longer be able to update this site so if you are interested quick action is advised! The rest of Poppy's decks are OUT OF PRINT and only available for collector's prices on the Internet. However, an e-book is being produced to accompany the rare WAKING THE WILD SPIRIT deck and will be available in the near future through Amazon. Proceeds as ever will go to charity as well as to the producer of the book, Jennie Austin. If you would like one of these RARE tarot decks please contact Poppy ASAP
Thanks for your attention and have a beautiful spring.
Above: Spring around my corner image with thanks to Sahana
Above: Duckpond image with thanks to David Green
PLEASE READ THE FEBRUARY 2009 UPDATE
And the other updated news for recent months
However Poppy is going to be unable to do any further updating for a while due to a decline in health. She will return and add further information and imagery as soon as possible. Please be patient if sending emails, you will be receive a reply ASAP
Thanks for your patience and love to you all
****IMPORTANT****
Images from Poppy's Waking the Wild Spirit Tarot (NOW OUT OF PRINT) are being sold as greetings cards by
and
POPPY RECEIVES NO PAYMENT AT ALL FOR THESE CARDS AND THEY WERE ONLY CREATED TO REGAIN INTEREST IN THE TAROT (AND HOPEFULLY ATTRACT A NEW PUBLISHER FOR IT) AS WELL AS TO SHARE THE IMAGES.
Do enjoy them if you chooose to buy but be aware that
THIS VENTURE DOES NOT EARN POPPY PALIN ANY MONEY
And so she is not able to donate it, as she usually does, to animal charities
Above: The Wild Spirit greetings cards being printed and sold by the two outlets
February 2009
Just somehting sent to me by David Green that has to be shared...
Here, the male swallow's wife is injured and the condition is fatal.
She was hit by a car as she swooped low across the road.
Here he brought her food and attended to her with love
and compassion.
He brought her food again
but was shocked to find her dead. 
Aware that his sweetheart
is dead and will never come
back to him again, he cries with adoring love.
Finally
aware that she would never return to him, he
stood beside her body with sadness and sorrow .
Millions of people cried
after watching this picture in
America and Europe and even in India . It is said that the photographer sold
these pictures for a nominal fee to the most famous newspaper in France .
All copies of that newspaper were sold out on the day
these pictures were published.
And many people think animals don't have a soul or
feelings?
January 2009
Let's celebrate truth as well as beauty and start the new calendar year off with a bit of activism!
This is a tough one seeing as
MOST NEW THINGS ARE MADE THERE,
Let's try and boycott anything made in China...it's a REAL challenge!
And a worthy one because not only because SECOND-HAND or LOCALY and ETHICALLY produced better but, well here's just one good reason why...
URGENT ACTION NEEDED FOR CATS IN CHINA
THE CHINESE NEW YEAR WILL BRING UNIMAGINABLE SUFFERING TO CHINESE CATS AS THEY
ARE BEING SKINNED & BOILED WHILE STILL ALIVE IN SOUTH OF CHINA. CAT OWNERS
ARE TERRORIZED BY CAT NABBERS.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION!
Cats are skinned and boiled while still alive in Guandong, a south of China province. For full story, please read this latest news, and take action for the defenseless which are suffering unspeakable pain and agony. link: http://www.antifursociety.org/ActionAlert.html
Please write to the Guandong authorities (cc to the Chinese Embassy) asking them to stop this horrific practice.
Your message will be more effective if you fax it or send it by snail mail in addition to emailing it. Regardless, please send them a message of disapproval. NOTE: Since this information may bring emotions to a high level, it is very important to keep it to polite messages or efforts to help those most unfortunate beings maybe in vain. Feel free to use the letter below, edit it or write your own. The important thing is to make it sincere and polite on behalf of the defenseless.
OPEN LETTER TO THE AUTHORITIES OF THE GUANDONG PROVINCE
IN CHINA
(with copy to a Chinese Embassy nearest you)
Guangdong Foreign Affairs Office
Tel: (8620) 81218888
Fax: (8620) 81218569
Email: webmaster@gdfao.gov.cn
Dear Sir or Madam,
Newspapers worldwide are reporting about the extreme torture of cats that are skinned and then boiled alive by butchers in Guandong. Thousands of cats are sold to the Guangdong restaurants, and most of these cats come from other provinces where cat nabbers have become infamous all over China, terrorizing cat owners who fear that their cats may be stolen to be sent to Guandong restaurants. The shocking side of this story that's making human beings all over the world shiver with indignation is that cats are skinned and dismembered alive, and still alive when thrown into boiling water to finally finish a most hellish suffering with their last breath.
It is with profound distress that I am writing to you regarding this most Inhumane treatment of cats and ask you wholeheartedly that you put a stop to it immediately. The West is horrified by so much vileness, and this will certainly not be a postcard that China would want for the world to see. It is because of these practices of a minority that the important and rich Chinese culture and history have become so stained and repudiated by most countries which have adhered to humane laws to protect the most defenseless members of our planet: the animals. It will not be difficult for China to adjust to this new era since most Chinese people abhor these extreme cruelties. The minority in your society who delight themselves on this type of cruel bloodshed are a few and they will only destroy China's respectability around the world. Surely, not all Cantonese are proud of the smell of blood tainting their culture and history.
Quoting General Secretary Hu Jintao on December 18, 2008 commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the reform: "the spiritual poverty is not socialism," can be translated also for non-humans as these practices are certainly a great poverty of spirit and one that will bring shame to the Chinese civilization. It is now a good oportunity to follow on his Excellency Hu Jintao's footsteps to a rich and spiritual socialism.
Respected Guangdong Provincial party committee, the provincial government, Guangzhou Municipal party committee, the municipal government leads: These acts have driven people around the world beyond their limits of forbearance. There is nothing that should justify such horror, let alone something as selfish as the culture of food based on the suffering of the innocent and the defenseless.
I appeal to your conscience and the compassion that you surely have in your hearts, to put an end to so much suffering inflicted upon the most defenseless members of your society: the animals. Please make it illegal for butchers to inflict so much pain and agony on the voiceless and defenseless animals. Please investigate these atrocities, and forbid any food and beverage that is based on cruelty, and capture and destroy the suppliers and sales of live animal companions for food, immediately. Modern laws and regulations must be instituted immediately to avoid this type of traffic and the extreme suffering involved with it. No nation should have to be embarrassed of their own country because of a minority that can only bring shame and disgrace upon itself. It would be to the great advantage of China to put an end to this horrific treatment of animals to show the world that it is also compassionate and civilized, and has the ability to be an effective part of the third Millennium.
Sincerely,
Full name
Website and group name if any
Country, city
And if that wasn't enough...
A country notorious for its animal cruelty now presents lions and tigers on horseback...
At a zoo in South East China, a horse is forced to carry a lion around an enclosure. The horse is kept in motion by a trainer with a whip; this horse has no choice but to perform. In order for the horse to perform these brutal acts it had to be subjected to torturous training, stripping it of all its natural instincts. Furthermore, the horse endures continual pain as the lion claws the horse's body to maintain its balance.
And here's something else you can do about it:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/hope-for-horse-made-to-carry-lion
SIGN UP!
It's so hard not to get incensed with rage when cruelty is perpetrated on other beings. In fact it is virtually impossible to feel anything but a gut response of deep anger and even vengeful hate when confronted with the pain and suffering of our kin, no matter what 'suit of clothes' they physically wear in this version of reality. But the best response, as we all know, is to BE THE CHANNGE. If we were all the change we wanted to see and really behaved as if we knew that
WE ARE ONE ANOTHER
And, moreover, that
WE ARE ONE
Then it would be truly impossible for cruelty to continue.
Wouldn't it?
So, here's just as a quick check. When did we:
This year, on this day, we need to find the balance of doing and being and we need to laugh
Not because we don't care but because we do!
Because we want to feel good and for all our relations to feel good too
'The System' is ridiculous and we need to stop taking it and ourselves anything like so seriously. It is the major change of perception that will set us free. Yes, we need to know how we are controlled, why and by whom or what. But the way we respond to that decides if we remain controlled or refuse to be bound by fear, worry and stress.
From the DAVID ICKE NEWSLETTER
And if you value your humour as highly as your free will
to be compassionate, questioning, creative beings
Visit
The Truth Coalition
Plus an absolute essential for all of us is to click on to:
MEANWHILE...
POPPY TAROT NEWS
A very kind woman called Jennie has offered to make the WAKING THE WILD SPIRIT Tarot book (now out of print/stock and selling for collector's prices) into an E-book that would be available here and on Amazon etc.
Obviously Poppy would give all proceeds to charity if there has to be a small charge.
Great news for those who have bought a deck without a book!
Watch this webspace for more details (which will appear eventually!)
THANK YOU
December 2008
***Merry Midwinter ***
Above: Penwith at Winter Solstice, 2003
Here is part of the most beautiful evocative seasonal poem/carol written by Christina Rossetti in 1872...it has always been a favourite piece of Poppy's
In the bleak midwinter,
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago
Above: The Somerset levels, Midwinter 2008
How familiar are our winter hedgerows with the narrow blackened fingers of our native species reaching to a blanched, yet soon to be burnished, sky?
How beautiful are they in the late afternoon's chill?
Well, here's the close up and horrifying reality of what lies beneath...
Not a berry to be eaten by a hungry bird, no seed to fall to the earth, no shelter from the storms
Just ripped and shredded branches laid open to disease by the brutal machine cutting that saves the farmer time and makes our once green and pleasant land so neat and tidy.
Above:Wild rosehips in a hoarfrost...sadly this is no longer a familar sight
So, all hail our custodians of the English countryside! And we wonder why we no longer see the birds in our gardens?
This cruel, brutal shredding goes on year upon year here in Somerset. You can see the Tor of Glastonbury in the background of the second image.
How much longer will we see such short-sighted, selfish behaviour as part of the 'scenery'?
THERE IS NO 'ENVIRONMENT', we are not 'environmentalists'.
There is no outside/inside: no countryside/creatures/self
There is only Oneness
What we do to the land and its inhabitants we do to ourselves. How could it be any other way? So, what does this say about us? All of us?
Yet amidst the searing pain we may feel for experiencing such a travesty we can still pause to acknowledge incredible people doing truly inspiring things...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/nov/14/walkingholidays
http://www.myspace.com/awalkaroundbritain
***
Below is an update on Burma from Poppy's friend
El-Branden Brazil
Over the past few weeks, the ruling military regime in the Southeast Asian country of Burma has locked up over 100 human rights activists and sentenced them to long terms in prison.
They join with Aung San Suu Kyi, the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as political prisoners in Burma.
Just as many people came together to help Nelson Mandela when he was imprisoned in South Africa, I want to do something to helps Burma's political prisoners and Aung San Suu Kyi in their courageous struggle for human rights and democracy.
Will you join me in signing an online petition to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon? The petition asks him to take immediate action to secure the release of all political prisoners in Burma, urges him to travel to Burma, and asks him to support a global ban on weapons sales to Burma's military regime.
As you may know, Burma is ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that uses torture, systematic rape, and political arrests to suppress a nonviolent democracy movement. Last year, a peaceful march lead by Buddhist Monks called the "Saffron Revolution" was violently crushed by the Burmese military. Nearly 2000 political prisoners remain in jail. The regime continues to use intimidate the movements leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
I hope you will join me in helping to stop these abuses. A great organization -- the U.S. Campaign for Burma -- is leading this effort.
You can sign the petition by going here - http://uscampaignforburma.org/action/2008-petition.html
Thank You
***
ARE YOU AWAKE TO CHEMTRAILING?
Please go to Youtube and search for:
Chemtrails UK Government admits deadly spraying
and
Chem/contrail Timelapse - 73 Planes Before Breakfast
to inform yourself about what governments have done and are still doing
YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS!
Photos will be added here that have taken of around Somerset and the West of England as people should be aware and learn to see these things for themselves.
Above: This is what a usual plane contrail looks like on clear day over
the Somerset Levels: the trail disperses almost immediately
And here are some chemtrails over the Somerset, December 2008
Somerset, December 2008
Taken in the USA
Taken at Rodborough Hill, UK
Above: The distinctive cross shape that marks out a set of CHEM(ical)TRAILS
Some days the sky is full of their criss-crossing, spreading lines
The CON(densation)TRAILS from passing aircraft are mainly water vapour and disperse quickly even though they too are full of pollutants we already know about
What are Chemtrails full of? And how are they affecting all life on this planet?
It's not about doom and gloom but just being AWAKE, or conscious of what is going on, so that we can BE THE CHANGE we want to see externally within our own lives.
IGNORANCE IS NOT STRENGTH
Just as
FREEDOM IS NOT SLAVERY!
Its all about passing on information: empowering ourselves and therefore others too. It's not about being negative, its about recognising our true power-full nature as INFINITE CONCIOUSNESS and expressing that without fear. We live in dangerous times but not for the reasons we may think. Times when we have to say 'I am not a terrorist' before speaking our truth plainly, without anger...
Please don't turn away: face up and Be!
Above: Fantastic flyers for up and coming David Icke events...
I just hope that humanity can encourage and assist all beings to get off their knees (or their bellies) so that all beings are free and equal!
More 'better' news soon!
And please don't forget the tattoo design for charity offer mentioned in November's news
November 2008
*New for Winter*
Poppy Palin Tattoo Design for Charity
Poppy was inspired in this idea by a wonderful woman called Jane who has been so patient in waiting for months for her tattoo design to be completed. And here it is...
Although Poppy cannot be speedy in her response she will design any nature-based or meaningful tattoo she is able to free of charge but only if the recipient is willing to donate to one of the following charities:
This last charity has been set up by two incredible women, Jean Bird in the UK and Jelena in Serbia ,and especially deserves your attention, even if you are not interested in tattoo designs or donating at this time. Please go to the green-spirited links page of this site for more information on what they do.
One of the dogs the charity has helped: Robi before and after
Poppy's new idea means if you are thinking about a tattoo for the spring or summer next year now is the time to ask! Please email:
poppypalin@gypsymoondesign.fsnet.co.uk
with your requirements or ideas and again please be patient when waiting for a response.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
Here is news of another beautiful project that would welcome your contribution if you feel so moved...
Simply put, most of us want to protect Utah's wilderness because we care about the future of Utah's amazing wild lands. In order to make that care and concern more visible, participants in the Utah based "Women Protecting Wilderness" project have been collecting short testimonials and pictures from people describing why wilderness matters to them. These testimonials are being turned into the "Wilderness Quilt" - a visually exciting, attention-grabbing exhibit comprised of over 100 photos and "testimonials" (transferred to fabric) - that will be displayed as a part of an outreach and wilderness education project at the Salt Lake City Main Library during the last two weeks of November.
So far we've collected more than 80 testimonials from Utah wilderness supporters all over the country. We need more to complete the display and would love your help! Please take a moment, and submit a testimonial now. (We welcome testimonials from men as well as women.) Here's what we need:
Please send your picture and testimonial to deeda@suwa.org.
Thanks,
SUWA and the Women Protecting Wilderness Project
Here is what Poppy sent:
Wilderness is no words
yet its lyricism is the language of my soul
As it is of wings kissing air,
As it is of air lifting leaves,
As it is of leaves sipping light,
Unfettered; glorious; essential.
Beyond and within us it lies, sustaining and reflecting,
Revealing our own beauty in its bare crags and deep crevices.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
To the wild land we honour
To the wild lands we are.
***
And here is what her friend Kristen in New Mexico,USA sent:
If there is a God, then the Creator is to be found in the sacred beauty of the natural world, not in mankind's lifeless inventions
***
To continue with the topic of wild land and its native inhabitants here is a link to a devastating documentary that should be required viewing for all. Cut and paste this into YouTube:
UNREPENTANT: KEVIN ANNETT AND CANADA'S GENOCIDE (documentary)
It is not easy to watch but it will open your eyes and
heart still further to the absolute neccessity of us all WAKING UP NOW to our
interconnectedness with ALL BEINGS.
No exceptions, no excuses.
We are one another
Above: Kevin Annett, an extraordinary embodiment of the ALL who exemplifies the self-less need to stand for truth, whatever the personal cost. When we completely accept that we are eternal - expressions of the energetic One temporarily experiencing ourselves from a unique (apparent) physical perspective - then any material consequences of our actions become irrelevant. How can such a transient issue as being disliked, outcast or ridiculed matter when we know ourselves to be undying, evelasting everything-ness?
All things must pass, including this fabulous, but utterly temporary, bodily suit we wear so what are we waiting for...
LET US FEARLESLY BE TRUTH!
Today, tomorrow and always.
Thank you Kevin Annett for reminding
us that we can all do this.
And if, for whatever reason, we do not feel that we can then let us at least support those (like Kevin Annett) who do stand for truth.
Animal Liberation...Human Rights...Eco-Awareness
One Issue : One-ness!
Be AWARE, Be KIND, Be FREE
As EACHOTHER
October 2008
Ah, here we are again at my favourite season, so delicious I want to preserve it like a jar of translucent, jewel-like apple jelly so I can spoon it up whenever I feel like a dose of beauty.
October inspires me so much, which makes it so incredibly hard when I am not physically capable of keeping up with the creative demands of my soaring spirit; a spirit that would have me painting, writing and crafting twenty-four hours a day if it could. The pure creator-energy of which we are all a part surges through me as silver-white birds take wing over brown fields and the drifts of fragrant smoke hang over the lanes. Instead my creative time per day is severely limited by pain in this wonderful, but unreliable, body-vehicle I have chosen to occupy this time round! But at least I have that time, so this is not a grumble...just a squeak of frustration! Wouldn't it be wonderful to stretch that which we perceive as time and become forgetful of our physical boundaries (which are all illusory anyway) and just CREATE eternally? I guess that comes with the 'death' experience but for now...well, I don't know about you but I'll keep trying!
In celebration of creativity I am including some images of when I was a singer in a Pretenders tribute band...a fantastic outlet for me. I rejoice I was able to do that at all, bringing a fabulous dream to fruition even if for a short time.
From left to right: Gary, Paul, Kelv, POPPY/Chrissie Kind and Dickie
Here we are performing one of our rare gigs before my health totally collapsed...
pretenders/SEGMENT/ITEM0001.DAT
It was a short charity performance for animal welfare organisations and huge fun due to the warm support of the audience.
That night I truly lived my lifelong dream for a good cause: such a joy!
Chrissie Hynde herself would have approved of my synthetic boots and cruelty-free outfits for her tribute!
Soon I shall add some of the music I wrote when in my other original band, GYPSY MOON. I have now let this musical dream go but still feel the lyrics are worth sharing with you.
Meanhile I will leave you with some stunning images I can see from my kitchen window and within a very short distance of where I live. Even when we are housebound or limited there is always exquisite beauty to be found! I sincerely hope that you find your source of inspiration today and can
LIVE YOUR DREAMS NOW!
Happy Autumn to you all, may the season of mellow fruitfulness bring you many unexpected gifts
And P.S soon I will be discussing next month a new idea I have for THE GREEN SPIRITUALITY HANDBOOK which I would appreciate feedback on. Is another book neccesary?
While I ponder this question I keep coming across quotes that make me think about how to write about our vital connection to 'The All' when it seems impossible...
If you think that the Truth can be known
From words
If you think that the sun and the ocean
Can pass through that tiny opening called the mouth
O someone should start laughing!
Someone should start laughing wildly -
Now!
Hafiz
(Sufi Poet)
There is also one from Wittgenstein:
'Whereof we cannot speak
Thereof we must remain silent'
Should I remain silent now?!
September 2008
What a shame that I have been offline for so long, I do apologise although mostly it has been out of my hands. I was alerted one day that my website had vanished and was then asked repeatedly by people when it was coming back. The problem was I couldn't even answer about where it had gone. One minute it was there, the next it was an advert for Orange! :-( This caused me much stress as I simply couldn't sit at the PC long enough to get any advice and people on the phone at the companies I dealt with treated me like an idiot for not knowing 'jargon'. No one could tell me why I now had an Orange advert in place of my fully paid up website...or how to get rid of it! Finally I was approached by a wonderful woman called Kristen from New Mexico who recommended her PC whizz pal Jimi in the USA. I would like to put any work his way that I can as he is utterly MARVELLOUS and I thank him for his selfless dedication to the web-cause of someone he doesn't even know. Here is his email for PAID work...
I am not suggesting for a moment he will do freebies! He is UTTERLY TRUSTWORTHY and kind, two rare things to be treasured!
As recompense I decided to create my own act of kindness when I found an abandoned Barbie doll inthe road by where I live. I guessed it belonged to the little girls who live in my terrace and had an idea...
That was the label she carried and here is her transformation from naked, bitten tangle-haired doll to a fairy doll...
I had her hung outside their front door one night so they would get a lovely surprise (I hoped!) in the morning. She is carrying two discs that read
HANG ME OVER YOUR BED
FOR SWEET DREAMS
Please pass on the magic!
PRACTIC RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS TODAY
It's so heartwarming you won't have to worry about rising fuel prices for the winter: you'll glow!
Also, if you get a chance, check out a very long piece available on YOU TUBE by David Icke on the Big Brother State.
It is a talk he gave as part of standing for the so-called 'Big Brother' Bi-Election near Hull this summer. Make your self comfortable as its long...very long. David likes to talk and he is so good at it! I just lay on the floor and liistened but aparently there are some great accompanying graphics if you are able to watch. Apart from of his ideas on the condition of the Earth in relation to us pesky humans its fascinating - and scary - stuff.
If you think Mr Icke is still a joke I suggest you educate yourself pronto as sadly you'll need this information sooner or later. He may not be the most endearing character in the world but ITS ABOUT INFORMATION, not characters. Personally I really admire his staying power and ability to stick to his research and insights in the face of horrendous ridicule over twenty years. The great thing is that he knows that he is INFINITE CONSCIOUNESS having a human experience from a unique perspective and so the (temporary) ridicule of his human 'vehicle' (not his eternal self) is truly 'nothing to be scared of'! What a great inspiration such fearless behaviour is and how edifying it is to observe someone walking his own talk so boldly in this (perceived) world.
Plus what he says is at the very least interesting and certainly worth looking into to see how deep the rabbit hole goes...
Above: One of the many great images from David Icke's site!
It is my wish that you have a stunning Autumn, best season of all!
June 2008
PLEASE
As the sun, and the greening of the land, reach their powerful zenith this month please use that tide of natural energy to make a compassionate pledge ...
Align yourself with the powerful point of full moon at Solstice and VOW TO BE STRONG IN YOUR CONVICTION THAT ALL BEINGS SHOULD BE FREE!
Here are three ways to take action to back up your pledge
This is Nativity
She was an innocent creature, who had, through no fault of her own, ended up a street dog, uncared for and unwanted.
She was taken off the streets by a man,
Guillermo Habacuc Vargas, a man who calls himself an artist. Perhaps she thought
she had found soemone to love her but instead she was taken to his gallery for
an art exhibition. Perhaps he wanted her company there? But no.
SHE WAS HIS EXHIBIT.
She was tied up and left - starved to death as an example of his art. WHILE PEOPLE WALKED BY HER AND LET IT HAPPEN SHE SUFFERED STARVATION AND DIED. Worse even than this, he has been invited back again to do it this year.
WE MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN!
PLEASE GO TO
www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html
or try
http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition-sign.html
DO IT NOW and DO WHAT YOU CAN to find out as much as you can about this hideous crime against sentient beings and then PASS THE INFORMATION ON
And here is an urgent message from Kate at Animal Aid...
ONE LAST PUSH
TO SAVE THE BADGERS!
Hilary Benn (the Secretary of State for
Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) will be taking a decision on the ‘culling’ of badgers in England within the next few weeks.
PLEASE E MAIL HILARY BENN TODAY-EVEN IF YOU HAVE DONE SO BEFORE- AND PLEASE
GET AS MANY CONTACTS, FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES TO ALSO E MAIL HILARY BENN STATING
THEY ARE AGAINST ANY CULL.PLEASE DO THIS NOW!
PLEASE HELP THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO SHOW THAT PUBLIC OPINION IS TOTALLY AGAINST ANY CULL-YOUR E-MAIL WILL MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE!
E MAIL: bennh@parliament.uk
PLEASE ALSO COPY TO: PS.Hilary.Benn@defra.gsi.gov.uk
IT IS IMPORTANT TO SEND TO BOTH ADDRESSES.
IN ADDITION: PLEASE ALSO WRITE TO/E MAIL
YOUR MP AND ASK THEM TO WRITE TO HILARY BENN EXPRESSING YOUR OPPOSITION TO ANY
CULL.
David Green asks me to share:
This link is for the
Tibetan people whose way of life and faith is threatened.
T here is no petition presented, it is just
signatures creating a wave of appreciation, love and support for them,
across the world. Please share and pass it on.
http://www.for-the-people-of-tibet.net/
Power is doing what you can, beause you know it matters
Power is not focussing on how huge the problem is and how little you can do but knowing that your gesture is part of an overall movement towards love, understanding, equanimity and freedom.
Power is knowing ourselves to be a cell in the body of Creation: a cell that is healthy and cooperating to make the entire body well
What is personal is always universal and vice versa
TODAY I WAS POWERFUL BECAUSE I KNOW WE ARE POWERFUL
I was powerful when I saved a fly from drowning in my tea
I was powerful when I forgave myself for messing up something beautiful
I was powerful when I was grateful
I was powerful when I admired another's efforts as my own
I was powerful when I was the change I wanted to see
For all our relations, this solstice and always,
May we be compassion and may we be respect
May 2008
What a difference a year, or two, can make...
I planted a local, organically grown apple seed in Auntumn 2006 when I was too ill to leave the house. I prayed that as it grew I too would grow in strength and that we would both find a new place to live that would nurture us both. Well, here is my delightful apple pip less than two years on, he is over six foot and thriving in a new garden!
Whatever ails you, whatever hurts you as you read this today, PLEASE HAVE FAITH. All things must pass, all seasons change, and you can change your world by thought, kind deed and PRAYER. Prayer is a focussing of intent with awareness of both our individual and collective part in the All. It is not a beseeching of Deity but rather an acknowledgement of our own unique power within the glorious One-song of the Uni-verse.
WE ARE THE CREATOR!
So, if you ever need faith just come back and look at my lovely tree...or better still, plant your own, with love!
Below are two beautiful little oaks that I planted as acorns last Autumn.It seemed for a while I was just staring at empty soil and they wouldn't germinate and then in a space of weeks...wow!
This reminds me NEVER TO GIVE UP, to dream harder! And that with care and attention (and a pure, heartfelt intent) I can gow to my full potential towards the light. I hope it helps inspire you too. Besides anything its a miracle...all that information held in such a small seed!
April 2008
Happy Spring!
Poppy recently received a campaign letter from an animal welfare organisation that reminded her that GOOD PEOPLE DO SOMETHING. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by grief or rage at the plight of our creature-kin, now is the waxing time to focus on what we can do, however small we may feel that something is. When we feel discouraged then we can recall that our drop in the ocean is the ocean and together we must be the change to see the change!
It would be a wonderful thing if this month everyone could donate a small amount to an animal welfare organisation. Poppy suggests UNCAGED to support their action against Proctor and Gamble - GLOBAL BOYCOTT P and G Day - which is officially held on Saturday 17th MAY 2008. UNCAGED are a not-for-profit organisation that is entirely dependent on public support.
Underpinning the work of UNCAGED is:
Although the concept of 'environment' is somewhat superfluous to those who have a sense of their one-ness with all creation UNCAGED still have a green-spirited, holistic approach that will surely appeal to those who enjoy Poppy's work. Their work on behalf of us all, and the All, is vital. Besides donations they are also seeking people to get involved, giving their time to run street stalls to raise money and awareness.
Their website is at www.uncaged.co.uk or to get involved with the P and G campaign you can email their headquarters via max@uncaged.co.uk or phone 0114 272 2220
Animal Aid is a charity that would certainly benefit from more practical support. They are always looking for school speakers and run regular courses across the country for those who wish to engage in this invaluable service. They also do a great deal of work for WORLD DAY
World Day for Laboratory Animals
Every year on April 24th,
compassionate people around the world speak out on behalf of the victims of
vivisection. World Day for Laboratory Animals is a time to reflect upon the
suffering of millions of mice, cats, monkeys, fish, rats, dogs, birds, rabbits,
pigs, horses and many other species. Despite mounting evidence demonstrating
that the information gained by using animals cannot be reliably applied to human
medicine, the suffering continues, and both animals and people continue to die.
The UK conducts about 3 million ‘procedures’ on animals every year, which is more than any other EU country. They are poisoned to death in ‘safety’ tests and in disease research, they are surgically mutilated, blinded, burnt, starved, psychologically tormented and infected with lethal viruses.
Animal Aid campaigns to end all experiments on animals, and there are positive signs that things are beginning to change. A poll of British GPs found that more than 80 per cent are concerned about the reliability of animal research. In the European Parliament, a large majority of MEPs has called for an end to primate experiments. And in a move that is resonating in scientific circles around the world, leading US government agencies have declared that using animals to test the safety of drugs and chemicals is unreliable, expensive and slow. Their goal is to switch to modern, humane testing methods within ten years.
The British government must make a similar commitment and be forced by public pressure to be true to its word.
To find out more about WORLD DAY action and the work of this fantastic charity go to www.animalaid.co.uk
May our thoughts be prayers and our deeds be prayer-in-action.
Let it start with this : we are all beings and may all beings be free...
February 2008
Here is a poem Poppy wrote when she first moved to the Somerset Levels area of the UK in 2001. It was inspired by the rhynes, or drainage ditches, which line the endless flat fields of this manmade, yet still mysterious, landscape. The rhynes are often filled with 'green stars' of algae which swirl into arcane patterns that reveal, then conceal, the strange reflections in the dark, still water beneath. What if there were someone beneath the green, in the dark mirrored beyond, staring up...
Watching from Underneath
Green stars, caught in your swirling
hair,
Crowning a milky brow
Unlined by worldly care.
Blanched eyes, into the ether stare,
Reflections of tearing clouds,
Passing through ribs laid bare.
Fall now, lured by a face so fair,
Adored by a thousand snails,
White as the wildest mare.
Embraced now, riddles and reeds ensnare,
I’m smothered, held fast by love,
Caressed by the river’s prayer.
Cold now, bubbles of breath declare
My worship, open mouthed,
I’m drinking the draught prepared.
Released now, a love no longer shared,
I’m falling away from you,
I’m drifting in dark despair.
Rise up, towards all worldly care,
Discarding your widow’s weeds,
Your absence is everywhere.
Blind now, sight failing like the air,
I’m ravaged by mouths of loss,
Old bones that the fishes share.
Green stars, caught in my swirling hair,
I’m gazing up at the sky,
Remembering life up there.
The image above show the dark waters and the algae stars while the image below shows a half submerged silvered mirror, like a faery moon shining through the green.
January 2008
In lieu of any more current news here is an as yet unseen piece
that Poppy wrote for a book on crop circle making.
Circle Dancing
Top of the Croppies from 1990/1991
By Poppy Palin
Memory is a funny old pickled onion, with layer upon tangy layer peeling away
until you realise there’s nothing much left in the middle. So it is with
my recollection, some seventeen years on, of the crop circles of this time.
When I try to think back over their artistry and particular placement of such
‘formations’ I get nothing solid. Walking round one track of flattened
wheat past another person holding a set of bent coat hangers dissolves into
another image of another flattened track with a man lying down trying to conjure
up the Mothership. I am definitely not the best person to ask exactly where
I walked during that heady time but as for the people involved in what was a
rapidly burgeoning phenomenon in 1990/91 I remember them well, or so I’d
like to think. As an artist - and at the time an art teacher - I was interested
in the beauty of the designs, of course, but as a writer I was even more interested
in the human response to the whole crop circle fandango. Here, then, is what
I recall.
My first experience was being dragged off to a field by a dual carriageway on the outskirts of Bath by my then boyfriend (I was young enough at twenty four to have a boyfriend and not a partner). We shall, for the purposes of preserving his dignity, call him Tim. Tim was a local of a village near Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, and had become acquainted with a bunch of lads who had alerted him to circles. I was a resident of North London who had just broken up from school for the summer holiday and was staying down in my preferred area of the West. So it was that Tim took me to Newton St Loe and I trailed up things called tramlines and then wandered round a field of flattened corn for the first time.
I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Passages and circles? But I loved being out in the early evening sun, all alone in this swaying field of crop - in fact I felt a bit miffed that someone had vandalised it. Tim advised that I was meant to feel the force or vibes of some kind because that’s what people apparently did in crop circles. Yet to someone who had lifelong experience of the ‘unexplained’, i.e. me, it didn’t feel like anything other than a nice field. The idea that people had blinding headaches and fell over in awe in these things didn’t sway me. Tim was disappointed that my psychic sensitivities didn’t alert me to something…anything…but my interest was more practical. Who, not what, made them, that’s what I wanted to know? Tim thought it was space ships perhaps and, wait a minute, there…look! Over there! A little green man was running through the standing crop, did I see? I must have done. He had looked evil. Tim, my scientific boyfriend, was spooked. Quick, we had to chase after him.
I wish I were joking but I am not. If Tim he thought he saw an apparition, well who was I to say her hadn’t? I’m not sure if Mulder was even invented then but just for that one evening I wanted to believe, for Tim’s sake. So I chased through the itchy, scratchy crop and found doodly squat but yet more bent stalks.
By the time I got to my next crop circle visit Tim had made me a pair of coat hanger dowsing rods and I was off with all the others, eyeing the squashed crop balefully as I meandered up and down the mysterious rows and rings. Other people were walking round with swinging rods, ooohing and ahhhing over the dramatic responses. But me? De Nada. I just wasn’t getting it, whatever it may be. I quickly got bored with the rods just sticking straight out and began to watch the people instead. To my surprise there were lots of them. The sun shone, the crystal pendulums were in full swing and a distinct air of earnestness hung like a pall over their proceedings. Over in the centre of a swirl of crop would be a meditating figure, in another someone chanting or channelling while others looked on in awe. It was enough to goad me into the naughtiness I felt throughout my whole brief encounter with the genuinely wacky world of the circles…and later, their makers.
The next thing I knew there were crop designs (the newly named ‘pictograms’ or ‘agri-glyphs’) of Led Zeppelin Remastered proportions appearing and ariel photos to show me what I had actually been walking round in. It was a revelation to see the crop art in its entirety after all those seemingly meaningless mazes I’d been traversing all summer with Tim. He was hooked on finding the next one and the next, of just being there. Something fantastic was actually happening in his neck of the woods and there was no way he was going to miss it. I was just hooked on watching the madness that ensued around me, from people collecting on the gate for entrance fees to someone playing a song to the Pleiades on a tin whistle. Badly.
That winter Tim and I experienced one of the most bizarre experiences I’ve ever heard of which occurred late one night at Stonehenge. To say it involved altered time, a UFO and a seven-foot black entity doesn’t even cover it. I’ve written about this in three other published books but suffice to say Tim was drawn deeper into the world of the mysterious and I, hating my chosen profession and my London location, couldn’t wait for summer 1991 when I could move to Wiltshire and join him in the search for truth, whatever that may turn out to be.
Things took a definite turn for the more interesting in June 1991. I moved to a room in Bath and we first went to the Waggon and Horses at Beckhampton near Avebury in Wiltshire. Tim had heard it was the place to go to hear all the circle news and so we went with another couple. The most notable thing about the first night there was we weren’t allowed into the hallowed Tack Room were the circling meetings took place –the doors were closed to us – and Tim’s mate had his new leather jacket stolen. Oh, and we met Rob Irving.
The charming Rob was like a magic talisman that gave you access to all circle areas. He came out of the Tack Room for a beer and homed in on us. Who were we, what were we doing here? We gave him cigarettes and he gave us snippets of juicy gossip from behind that big studded door. That was the night he did his impersonation of Pat Delgado trapped behind an invisible force field – like a psychotic Marcel Marceau. I hadn’t laughed that much in an age. I didn’t have a clue who Delgado was but I soon found out, as that was the year of Operation Blackbird or some other covert sounding debacle. What was clear was that Rob was far more interesting than most people I met and everyone coming out of the back room seemed to know him and want his attention. Thankfully Rob didn’t find us too tedious with our lack of insider circling knowledge and seeing me game for a laugh (and probably as a potential admirer of his) he invited us back. We had our backstage pass.
Only Tim and I returned, his pals not being too keen on stolen jackets or weird goings on. The next time Rob gave us entry to the Tack Room and we sat down at the fringes of the ‘big table’. I wouldn’t have had to be a sensitive to notice how unwelcome we were by the rest of the distinctly motley crew assembled there but I wasn’t going to let that spoil my fun. Then to my astonishment Rob discreetly slipped his Dictaphone out under the table and the meeting kicked off.
It seemed to consist of a bunch of old geezers bickering, one theory tumbling out over another with scant regard for social etiquette. Distinctly well-to-do, educated men in the main they raised their voices and then lowered them in subterfuge. I recall being mightily peeved by their implication that they had the secret but weren't telling…yet. Rob just smirked. I looked around and now know that I was seeing George Wingfield, Jurgen Kronig, someone that may have been Montague Keen or Archie Roy, Richard Andrews, Busty Taylor and the only woman I can recall being there besides me, all the way from Leicester Rita Goould and her special friend (Ron?) I suppose Lucy Pringle was there on most occasions though - it was so hard to tell as the room was dominated by plummy public school men (Busty excepted). The room was always so full, everyone straining to be seen or heard around the periphery of the ‘big table’. And there was I, an outsider in with the apparent insiders as they tried to put together an answer to the what, why, who and how of the crop circle enigma. This they did noisily and with a level of bad manners usually reserved for the classrooms of North London in which I taught. Only the accents were different. It was a bicker-fest with the veneer of a civilised Upper Sixth common room debate.
That night, after the ‘meeting’ was adjourned (and nothing was solved or even agreed on) I wandered round the Waggon with a man and his dowsing rods – these were proper job rods, not like my (now abandoned) coat hanger efforts. Richard Andrews seemed a very competent sort of chap and intelligent too but as his rods pivoted and swung he was coming up with stuff vis-à-vis the layout and location of the place that I found rather quirky to say the least. Yet he was pleasant and it was fun, dowsing for spirits and leylines when most people were watching TV.
Then we went there all the time, as if addicted. I think Friday was the ‘big night’ but we probably went Saturday too. Then, as now, I didn’t drink so I was a clear-headed observer of human behaviour and the politics of circling. No one ever introduced themselves; all I ever received from the assembled throng was a supercilious once over and dismissal as not being of suitable interest. I was tolerated as an Irving acolyte but I wasn’t suitable material to include in the chain of command that was rapidly being established. We’ll see about that, I thought.
Next time we arrived Tim and I wrote CROP CIRCLES HOAXED TO ORDER in the dirt on the back window of his Fiesta then we sauntered into the pub and waited. Hoaxing was the latest buzzword. Either circles were ‘genuine’ (made by unspecified supernatural forces) or ‘hoaxed’ (made covertly by blokes) although how you can ‘hoax’ a beautiful creation is beyond me. Before we knew it people were rushing in and out yelling “whose is that car?” and “ the hoaxers are among us!” The level of paranoia and the desperation to find the culprit responsible for this pesky phenomena and/or the solution to the greatest mystery of all time was palpable. We smirked. Irving smirked. Rob Irving was already suspected as a Government spy/member of MI5 (how did he live when he didn’t work and wasn’t a private income sort like some of the ‘croppies’?) and so he loved to hype things up and set people running about, accusing each other and hypothesising wildly. We had spent many evenings in his flat in Bath while he whispered to one member of the crop Illuminati on the phone about another of their number then had the other person phone him, only for him to wind them up about someone else. Subterfuge was the name of the game - that and one-upmanship. Irving just saw what was already there and took advantage…he was, as with Brian in the Monty Python film, a very naughty boy. But fun.
I caught the bug of naughtiness from him and before I knew it was verbally prodding Terence Meaden when he did a talk on vortexes and sending George Wingfield letters of protest about his elitist attitude. I had taken great umbrage at Wingfield suggesting in the Waggon that we could all hire planes and do what he did if we wanted access to the truth he intimated he had acquired (but, as yet, was unwilling to share). Personally I didn’t care a cockerel’s fart who or what made these things but I did object to such wilful snobbery and the (empty) claims that he had inner knowledge of the answers that he couldn’t possibly share with anyone who didn’t have a handsome income, as he did, from IBM. I had expected the debonair chap to be a little aggrieved that someone dare challenge his mystical/masterful authority but I hadn’t expected to be treated with such suspicion was I was. Wingfield and his wife both circled me with deep suspicion and hostility, questioning Irving about my origins and my possible role as a spy/infiltrator. If I had dared to question the party line (i.e. his) I must surely be up to no good. As it was Rob certainly played me off against them. I have no idea what he actually told them about me but no doubt it was inflammatory. The fact I was only a teacher would have been far too dull for such people to consider when they wanted intrigue and espionage.
Meanwhile the crop circles and shapes just kept of appearing regardless (or because of) the level of interest in them. Barbury Castle happened and I was utterly amazed. I even heard myself utter the immortal words ‘no human could have made this!’ Standing up on the hill fort on a breezy evening seeing that awesome shape it did seem as if some fabulous supernatural force was at work below me in the field. But people needed to know more and the buzz around me was focussed on what on earth was it trying to communicate with all those cogs and triangles? People thought they knew, of course (the Earth was dying, Mother was calling out etc.) but I didn’t care enough to hypothesise – it was eloquent enough as a piece of art. I also thought it was very kind of the designers/makers to provide us with a lofty vantage point from which to see their art in full – a feature of many of the subsequent ‘pictograms’ that were, and still are, made.
Rob definitely thought that crop circles were just art, art for the people by the people, and this was my own open-minded position from then on in. Crop art was (or should have been) a beautiful egalitarian form of communication that was why I resented bigwigs pretending the ‘formations’ (as they insisted on calling them as if they were mysteriously formed and not made) were their exclusive property. I understood back then (and know now for sure having seen enough being made) that crop circles could be created by people…people being unique expressions of the Creator themselves. Why not? We can do anything if we think we can! As an artist myself I thought it more than likely that someone had sussed out a good way of sculpting in corn and creating ‘happenings’ or installations by which you could observe the viewer’s response to your creation. At the time it appeared unlikely that it was solely Doug and Dave’s ideas and output we were seeing in the fields (and the newspapers) but I appreciated their down-to-earth sentiment and liked them as folks far more than the elitist, precious crew in the Tack Room. Then I met the circlemaking U.B.I (Tim’s Wiltshire friends) and knew, for a brief time, the sensitive Paul Randle and his mad pal Bart (who liked me to apply his make up). Then I knew for sure that there were other teams out there creating gorgeous crop art as an altruistic act. Tim even went out and joined in with them but I never did. We would often drive along through Wiltshire and Tim would say ‘we did that one’ quite casually. I had no reason to think he hadn’t – why lie when you were getting nothing out of it?
Talking of lies, it is worth mentioning here that the supposed ‘materialisation medium’ Rita Goould had been a suspect for Barbury Castle and she turned up a great deal in the rumours of the time. I found this a hilarious idea, along with the notion that she was receiving ominous rhyming communications from some strange force/organisation. Rob was always on the phone to her about something like this. I think it turned out in the end that she was actually sending these communications to herself and other crop Illuminati for some reason. She always seemed like a harmless but cuckoo woman to me, a notion confirmed when she introduced me to a group of people who were the maddest I have ever known (one of whom thought he was a manifestation of John the Baptist, an alien and Hitler.) Oh, and she also tried to sell me her Avebury caravan, complete with mock-Tudor beams, because she was moving to Loch Ness.
It was now being said that Irving, no longer content with spectator status, was out making circles with a newcomer to the scene, Jim Schnabel. Jim was from the USA so it figured that he just had to be CIA or FBI, paid to come over here and discredit the whole genuine ‘phenomenon’. Whatever that meant! Whatever it was, a whole industry featuring books, t-shirts, photos and talks/conferences/workshops was growing up around the crop art at this time. An industry that certain people try and keep afloat to this day, refusing to acknowledge that they know as well as I do who makes the pretty designs each summer. Such is the human nature I love to observe.
To end the ‘season’, as people had begun to refer to it, the ‘Mandlebrot Set’ crop design happened out of the ‘sacred landscape’ of ancient Wiltshire. Uncannily, this fractal image was discovered close to Cambridge University. People were blown away by it and the whole notion of the ‘season’s finale’ was born – as were a glut of fractal design posters and an interest in quantum physics and chaos theory. Nice one, Cambridge!
My own season’s finale was the caricatures I lovingly drew, egged on by the ever-naughty Irving. I don’t know what his motivation was there, to get me ostracised for good and all, perhaps? To provoke violence over the Tack Room table? My pictures were, if I say so myself, pretty damn good and featured Busty in his plane while Wingfield flew like superman over Avebury and Kronig sat on his UFO; Colin Andrews with his paradigm shifting in a Hopi loincloth; Pat Delgado as a Jester with the Coca Cola logo in the crop (‘yes, this one’s definitely the real thing!’) and Meaden being taken up in a spacecraft’s beam rather than a vortex (‘Holy electrified spinning air, I’ve finally seen the light!’ But, oh, how badly they went down! As Rob carelessly threw my A3 sheets onto the ‘big table’ in front of the self-appointed experts there was not even a titter. Being a Palin I have never felt very enamoured of those who can’t crack a smile over the absurdities of life and I slunk away disgruntled, determined to do something with my images.
As summer turned to autumn and the last
of the crop disappeared the elite looked for other vital things to discuss over
the inner circle table. What would next season bring? Was Wilhelm Reich relevant?
Who were the ‘Friends of Hecate’? Anything to try and sustain the
mysterious momentum. But for me my money and my interest had run out and by
winter I had returned to London to teach. My own circle dancing days were over
- for a while at least - but the circus continued to come to town every summer.
December 2007
Westhay Nature Reserve, Somerset Levels, UK
Images as ever are by Gary Howe
This wonderful place is the site of one of the greatest wildlife spectacles anywhere in the world: the roost of seven million starlings, many of them migratory birds from Russia overwintering in the West of England.
Around this time of year they can be seen at approximately four p.m. swirling and swooping as one body through the darkening sky. Some evenings they will roost in the redbeds of Shapwick Reserve, across the Levels, but visitors are often graced with this most moving sight at Westhay.
It is hard to think of anything that expresses the individual interconnectedness of all life more eloquently than this breathtaking display. The intelligent, beautiful individual birds are such a cohesive unit at twilight that it is a great inspiration for anyone who has faith in the ultimate unity of each unique aspect of Creation . The sound of their wings alone can move the soul deeply.
Go there this winter if you can!
October/November 2007
TWO IMAGES OF THE INTERIOR OF STONEY LITTLETON LONG BARROW ON OCTOBER 30TH
Aren't these wonderful images? Both capture the incredible numinous halo that appears in the chamber entrance at this time of year. Both were taken inside the passage of this Neolithic womb/tomb in Somerset. The pale glimmering in that pulsing darkness is so evocative of the primary polar forces of existence, at one yet at odds always. Similarly this place is an absorbing paradox - deeply loving yet unsentimental, wholly welcoming whilst remaining unsettling. Within its folds the scent of loam and stone entice us to rest our bones even as we are suddenly expelled, thrust back outside by our fears into the waning light of an autumn afternoon.
Here are two more autumnal images of Overton Hill, Wiltshire, taken by Gary Howe
These show the delicious contrast between the two faces of Poppy's favourite month, October.
On the left the cold bright crispness that turns to shades of muted periwinkle and indigo as twilight approaches and the land's chill breath shrouds the scene from human eyes. It is then time to go back to hearth and home, to the blessing of our own burrow or nest.
On the right the stark bones of the season, stripped by a ragged wind, , a sight which touchs a part of us so deep it can hardly become known to us, by turns unbearable and ecstatic.What better place to visit but a silent long barrow, ringed with solomn beeches, at this time of passing into the Beyond.
Each year Poppy experiences a yearning inside to keep this time of mists and sighs forever. She recommend,amongst others, Ed Alleyne Johnson's 'Purple Electric Violin Concerto', Albinoni's famous 'Adagio for Organ and Strings' and Kate Bush's 'The Sensual World' as great 'soundtrack to Autumn' listening.
Overton Hill is on the Marlborough Downs along the Ridgeway and the tree covered barrows are known locally as 'hedgehogs'.
***
Waking the Wild Spirit Tarot
As many of you may know, the Waking theWild Spirit Tarot has (sadly) been out of print for several years. Here are some of the images that Poppy has updated. Poppy has all the remaining copies of this Deck/Book set, contact her for details.
More tarot images to be added soon!
***
Above: Spiritwalking
Please do come back soon and see any additions to this site that POPPY is (slowly) able to make!
Meanwhile here is her latest update
SPIRITWALKING
A book which has all profits going
to animal charities
in the South West of England
Available to pre-order now from
Synopsis of SPIRITWALKING
"Spiritwalking" is a practical
guide to working with the 'unseen', including spirits, entities and energies,
be they human or otherwise. Drawing together the wild craft of the shamanic
practitioner and the wise counsel of the medium or psychic, "Spiritwalking" takes the reader through a practical course in becoming an effective, empathic
spiritwalker; one who can look beyond our physical existence in order to bring
healing, balance and deeper understanding. It includes examples of 'unexplained'
or 'paranormal' events from the author's own life and offers ways that we may
understand them whilst giving instructions for how to deal with similar situations.
This book is a highly original 'how to' manual that will enable anyone to deal
with unwanted psychic intrusions, balance inharmonious energies or welcome in
spirits who can work with us for positive ends. The personal examples from the
author mean that this book is not a 'dry' read but rather is entertaining as
well as instructional. It will give the reader an opportunity to understand
how we may work with the unseen in everyday life and will bring a deeper understanding
of our 'otherworldly' counterparts who share our space, be that indoors or in
the landscape of city or countryside. It is an accessible course which is suitable
for anyone with an interest in finding more meaning in life; a reader need have
no beliefs for here is a pure, fresh approach to spirit-full living which only
requires an open mind and a sense of adventure.
Here is an article about the book
SPIRITWALKING
Living and Working with the Unseen
As with so many areas of esoteric exploration
and self-realisation spiritwalking contains a central paradox. The core premise
of living and working with the unseen is comprised of two elements which may
seem diametrically opposed yet flow into a seamless whole. These two components
are:
1. Contemplation: Contemplation in its various forms is
a deep communion, usually alone and in silence, with the unseen aspect of existence.
This spiritual, or within, aspect of spiritwalking allows us to establish a
conscious connection with the omniscient Source of Being. By so doing we also
connect with the many expressions of Source energy that emerge from the centre
of power - including, of course, our own eternal internal being. This re-union
enables us to live more purposefully and care-fully in the manifest world.
2. Action: This
denotes the actual living of a spirit-full life, engaging respectfully and perceptively
with an apparently ‘ordinary’ seen physical reality - the walking
part, or without aspect, of spiritwalking. Our daily actions become informed
by our inner realisations and so we have new insight into our sacred world and
our particular place in it. With this perspective we are able to work with other
beings for the good of the All.
As we can observe from this brief introduction, contemplation and action form
a loop, one feeding the other endlessly. These two fundamental elements of spirit-full
existence merge within the transfomative cauldron of ourselves to create a more
dynamic way of experiencing existence. They give us the opportunity to be more
rounded individuals, growing in wisdom and compassion within the greater whole,
and allow us to re-member how to be fully in our power. The power we refer to
here is power with, a collaborative and co-operative experience.
However, before we consider spiritual contemplation and action in more detail
we must first apply a procedure that is as essential as putting on a crash helmet
when going on a motorbike. This procedure is psychic protection - the defence
of our essential energy. All beings have this radiating animating force, be
they animal or human, incarnate or discarnate, and consequently we are surrounded
by ‘invisible’ external energies at all times.
To help us accept this we can refer to
what we already understand about ‘invisible’ forces. We are now,
wherever we may be, surrounded by radio and microwaves, as well as mobile phone
and television signals - all of which are travelling around in the air, doing
what they do regardless of us. We know that just because we can’t see
them doesn’t mean they aren’t there as they make themselves known
to us each time we make a call or switch on the radio. We do know that to expose
ourselves to such forces may have adverse consequences. Similarly to open up
to extraneous unseen energies during contemplation may have unwanted effects
on our being, however subtle. So we need to anticipate this as a matter of course
and to be safe.
Although what follows is a sketch of a much more detailed procedure, here is
a quick means of psychic protection for primary use.
Simple Shielding
1. Ensure that we feel our connection to our bodies and the Earth, experiencing
our feet planted on the ground as we stand or sit.
2. Take three deep breaths through our nose, feeling the abdomen inflate as
we take air in, hold for three, and then feel the abdomen as we release the
sustaining air again.
3. Using our preferred method either envision in the mind’s eye (visualise)
or describe (verbalise) a protective flexible seal that covers our body from
head to toe. For example, imagine that we are stepping into a light rubbery
all-in-one suit of vibrant sky blue. Experience this as a reality on the screen
of our inner vision as we pull this bright membrane up over our knees, up further
over buttocks and stomach, sliding our arms and puling it up to our neck. Or
if description is our stronger skill then simply describe this process vividly.
Finally imagine donning a full face cap of the same flexible shining material
– a material like a second skin that allows us to still see through its
diaphanous covering.
4. Now we experience this suit glowing, emitting pure white light until we are
engulfed in a brilliant sphere. Either see or state this.
5. Whether we are seeing or speaking our procedure we should then assert ‘I
am protected, may only those who come for my highest good draw close and may
the rest turn back, unable to approach the cold fire (or kind-light) of my protection’.
Now we have a basic way of protecting ourselves can now consider opening up
for contemplation.
CONTEMPLATION
There are five core aspects to contemplating the unseen and exploring our relationship
to the All and these are meditation, connection, chanting, prayer and affirmation.
1. Meditation:
By this we mean entering the silence, safely shifting our awareness from the
mundane to the Great Mystery without becoming ungrounded or confused. We can
achieve this by use of controlled deep breathing as we consciously and systematically
relax our body and still our chattering mind. We are creating a quiet pool within,
an oasis of profound reflection where we may observe our thoughts as they rise
and let them go. Continuing with this watery analogy we may use the sound of
the sea as an aid to the process, experiencing the breath being taken in through
our nose to the lungs as the waves being taken from the shore, held for a moment,
and then released in a steady rush through the mouth with a sound akin to the
rushing of the tide back to the shore.
2. Connection:
From this place of meditative stillness we are able to centre ourselves without
the distractions of ‘ordinary’ reality. Once we are centred within
we can then ‘plug into’ the Source that is to be found at the Greater
Centre. Without external or internal interference we become an unblocked conduit
for pure life-force energy, allowing it to flow through us unimpeded. The invigorating
and inexhaustible life-force of Creation will refresh and strengthen us, allowing
us to be fully in our power – recharged. This union also allows for us
to feel our importance as a valuable one within the One, thus making us more
confident of our individual worth and aware of our relationship to all beings,
be they seen and unseen.
3. Meditative chanting:
Once we have entered the silence we may use chanting as an aid to focussing
more deeply on the oneness of being. Although when we chant we are no longer
silent (or entirely still) we are engaged in a repetitive act which becomes
hypnotic, not distracting, carrying us deeper and facilitating our receiving
that essential energy. A positive mantra, such as Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo (dedication
to the Mystic Law of life), or a simple resonance such as Aaaah (the
sound found in so many names of worship (for example, Shivaaaah, Jehovaaaah,
Allaaaah, Danaaaa, Krishnaaaa etc) can help us ‘zone
out’ extraneous mundanities and become harmonised with the pulse of Creation.
A rocking motion whilst chanting can help this hypnotic effect.
4. Prayer: This
is a way of quietly acknowledging our personal power whilst in the silence of
connection, using pure thought, word or visualisation to shape our will in the
ether. Contrary to popular belief, prayer does not have to involve supplication
to an outside force. Here we are not petitioning an externalised omnipotent
being, an adjudicator who assesses worthiness and grants wishes. Instead we
are offering a deep acknowledgment of the force that flows through all things,
including ourselves. This force, as we personally understand from our contemplations,
makes us a conscious creator as part of the greater Creator Consciousness. We
have direct experience of our connection to every aspect of existence and so
naturally our prayerful reflections on life, even if they focus particularly
on our singular lives, will be for the good of the All.
We may use words to express gratitude and to focus on the positives, clarifying
our hopes and dreams whilst we imbue - or charge up - the lyrical content with
our associated heartfelt, soul-full feelings. A simple prayer of this type may
be something like:
‘I acknowledge the beneficent Greater Spirit of which I am a singular
expression and I feel the love that lies at the heart of Creation, and of my
own created self. May this boundless love radiate ever outwards and may I represent
it in all I do, say or think.’
5. Affirmation:
When we affirm we select an aspect of our prayerful intent and establish it
firmly in our consciousness by repetition. For this the affirmation needs to
be succinct and impassioned. We don’t want we give energy to that which
is not desirable and so therefore ‘no more war!’ may be
a noble sentiment but ‘let there be peace’ is far more
successful. In the former we naturally see images and feel the pain of violence
and discord whilst in the latter we automatically feel the calm, loving essence
of what we desire for all beings. Therefore a good example is:
‘Let there be peace and let it begin with me’.
This internal affirmation leads to action as we practically work towards what
we want to see manifest in the physical world.
ACTION
As we have just established, our contemplation will inevitably raise our personal
energies and awareness to a level where we will want to integrate the extra-ordinary
into the apparent ‘ordinariness’ of our daily lives – supporting
the unseen desire of our will with corresponding deeds.
Integration of these energies can involve the following active aspects of spiritwalking:
1.Trance Journeying: Through continual rhythmic deep breathing we may intensify our state of meditative
relaxation until it becomes a trance state. We may then use our inner senses,
most prominently our mind’s eye and ear, to make an etheric pilgrimage
to another astral reality. This we do by using our innate creator consciousness
to fashion a landscape from etheric energy. This ‘astral office’
is our workspace in the beyond where we may have safe interactions with non-corporeal,
discarnate beings – most notably our companion spirits who are our otherworldly
guides through life. Once we have an established place of ‘work’ and have a firm relationship with our companions we may use this place as a
base to move further into the beyond. What we do here supports and reflects
what we do in our physical lives, it is a way of actively seeking unseen wisdom
that can be applied to seen reality.
2. Receiving Guidance:
This we do either by actively entering into informative dialogue with trusted
spirits safely in the astral office space we have created. Alternatively we
can engage in guided, or automatic, writing whilst in a trance state. The latter
is like receiving ‘cosmic dictation’ and gives us a valuable set
of notes to refer back to as we move through our daily lives.
3. Living in Awareness:
This means actively participating in life from the new holistic perspective
we have. This is ‘walking our talk’, being unafraid to acknowledge
we are constantly interacting with other non-manifest realities, forces and
beings. This realisation brings with it a new accountability to all Creation,
be it physical or non-physical. Our relationship to matter and spirit can never
be denied once it is experienced so deeply and personally and we will find ourselves
to be far more responsible as well as leading a life that is truly meaningful
and
wonder-full.
4. Watching our Thoughts:
With our awareness of energy, especially thought- energy and the power of the
imagination, we will find that we now have a practical obligation to watching
what we put out as ‘cosmic debris’. Our projected will, as a trained
spiritwalker, must be concentrated on what we wish to create rather than dwelling
on what we do not want to experience. This vital shift in consciousness and
behaviour can be shown in the example of litter. We probably have always mentally
berated those who drop waste in hedgerows etc. However, this adds more energy
into the matrix of what we do not want. Instead we must actively represent what
we do want by collecting litter uncomplainingly with the thoughtful affirmation
‘I am the change I wish to see, so may it be!’ By combining inner
determination with affirming life-action we are part of the solution, not the
problem.
5. Keeping it Clean:
This means not adding in our energy into things that are degrading, cruel and
divisive. As we have established, there is no division between our ‘harmless
thoughts’ and the energy ‘out there’. When we are empowered
we know the power we have and use it consciously for the good. This means that
engaging with violence either ‘through a lens’ of the television,
through the pages of horror fiction or through a computer console is no longer
something we can do as ‘harmless’ and ‘not real’. Anything
we engage in and give our energetic attention to for any length of time is real,
either ether-real or manifestly so. Nothing exists that was not dreamed into
being first! For a film, book or game to engage us there has to be a level of
involvement and that is enough for us to experience the creation as powerfully
as we would our own dreams, let alone our daily lives.
The vast quantity of undesirable thoughts
that have been unleashed throughout the ages, either as part of an organised
belief or simply as part of a ‘harmless’ engagement with a programme
or idea, still cause us problems today. These concentrated outpourings of fear
and anger do not readily disperse from the astral levels close to our own and
can be troublesome for us. It is for us to turn the tide and to cease adding
to this etheric detritus. When we are fearful of the bad stuff ‘out there’ we are disconnected and clearly disempowered. In contrast to the self-limiting
and isolating way of being that is fostered by fear spiritwalking is about an
intrepid expanding of awareness and a personal response-ability as part of a
vibrant, burgeoning whole. Rather than live in ignorance and resentment spiritwalkers
wish to see and know to the best of their own unique ability.
SEEING AND KNOWING
Seeing and knowing are the two primary spiritwalking skills. To see is to look
beyond - to gain insights through inner visions (contemplative insight). To
know is to trust these intuitions and insights and to integrate them accordingly
into daily life (active application). With an awareness of infinite possibility
we can keep the balance between wild fancy and profound understanding and so
use our grounded approaches to make decisions.
Here is an example of this sensible yet sensitive and practical philosophy as
applied in daily life.
Joshua and the Lightening
When out walking I had found a local field that interested me. It was unlike
all the surrounding fields and left rough and unploughed. I would constantly
find little things that revealed to me that in the past folk had dwelled here
and worked the land – many clay pipes and bone buttons for example. Because
my wits and empathy were heightened due to my constant spiritwalking practice
I detected a sense of melancholy there and I often stopped to think about these
previous inhabitants. I always kept my psychic sight honed so that I would be
able to pick up any clues for the land and to witness the spirits of the place
- be they human, animal, faery or elemental.
One sunny afternoon I was walking as usual when I was stopped by the figure
of a middle-aged man in simple peasant apparel. He told me that he was called
Joshua and that he had been struck by lightening on a spot he was still standing
on. He told me how shocked he had been and of his not wanting to go away from
his family and life in this place. He simply couldn’t move on, he wasn’t
ready, it was too soon and too sudden. Yet centuries had passed and he knew
all the people and things he loved were gone. Indeed, I was the only person
to have witnessed him in over three hundred years. I promised to come back and
talk to him when I could, hoping that I could convince him to cease his earth-bound
existence and move on. Meanwhile I asked my companion spirits for their advice
and kept myself open, yet well protected.
One day I was in the toilet at home when Joshua appeared in the empty bath!
He was in a state of great agitation. They were ploughing up ‘his’
field, he said, and it unsettled him deeply. I was the only person who could
help him, wasn’t I, so could I escort him to meet his family? Now? I agreed
of course and without ceremony I instantly shielded myself, accessing my wonderful
companion spirits for their assistance in this delicate matter. Even though
I was in the most undignified physical position I still managed to help this
man leave this physical realm at last and to be reunited with the energies he
knew as his family. Spirit is no respecter of manifest matters like modesty!
The next day I went to the field. Sure enough there were several new furrows,
one running through the spot where I had met Joshua. Spiritwalking enabled me
to be prepared and to work for the good, understanding the vital connection
between all beings and all states of existence.
Spiritwalking is functional and assistive, not prescriptive, offering us the tools and the framework, the means and the meaning. This is why I felt the need to share this with readers, both in my new book and in this article. With spiritwalking as a starting point we can embrace the in-sightful yet ‘self-centred selflessness’ that leads to peace, wisdom, creativity and a lasting fulfilment. Go well and walk with spirit!
*****
PLEASE NOTE:
Poppy also hopes to get some of her music uploaded onto the site at last! This will happen within the next year hopefully.
Thanks for your support!
Above: Image for New Witch
Above: Wolf Tattoo Design
Above: Green Man Tattoo Design
Meanwhile do help save laboratory animals by joining the SPEAK campaign against the propsed animal lab at Oxford, UK
SPEAK Campaigns
PO Box 6712
Northampton
NN2 6XR
Tel: 0845 330 7985
Mob: 07906 497317
Email: info@speakcampaigns.org.uk
Do also attend the protests to stop live exports at Dover
For the animals, as ever!
