Hungry Ghost Retreat

Today is my new moon retreat day, a chance to spend time alone with my inner guide. 

A retreat (even a short one) needs some definition or it is just a vacation: I want to broaden my inner experience and gain clarity. I need open-mindedness and a little discipline in order to maximize my effort. The most important components to arrange are solitude, silence, and simplicity. I will do less talking, less business, and more personal thought and action. 

My theme today is Depth: What is my Truth, my intentions, and my purpose?

Agenda:

1. Retreat plan

2. Read "The Earth Path"

3. Truth Walk

4. Garden observation

5. Permaculture tips for August

6. Set a sacred intention

7. Healing art practice

1. Retreat plan:

I made this plan yesterday - I have most of today alone, but it will be very hot later, so I plan to be outdoors in the morning and inside all afternoon. This schedule is just an outline that allows for some spontaneity: Spiritual unfolding requires a certain amount of surrender. The reward will be more vitality, more focus, and more inspiration in the weeks that follow.

• 7 a.m. - Earth-Quaker Practice: Ground with the Earth, sit in silent listening, read from a devotional book, write in my journal, and set a prayer mantra for the day 
• 8 a.m. - Morning Truth Walk: What is true today for my body, mind, heart, and spirit?
• 9 a.m. - Work in the garden: Begin with a senses exercise, then continue with weeding, mulching, and planting, moving slowly, with a great deal of observation.
• 10 a.m. - Sacred intention meditation and art practice: Make a garden totem

2. Read "The Earth Path":

I'm reading Starhawk's book, The Earth Path (2004), which is all about how to connect to nature. She talks about three different ways to view our role on Earth:

• First, the exploitative, capitalist view that the earth is ours to harvest (which has caused so much destruction).
• Then the negative environmentalist view that humans are a blight and the earth would be better off without us (which allows us to disengage from an active role in her healing).
• And third, that we are an integral and needed part of nature; that animals, forests, and grasslands need the human animal to be wise partners in order for us all to thrive.

This third model is the one most indigenous cultures have used for centuries. "On this continent, fire, prayer, ceremony, and myth were all ways indigenous people attempted to influence and understand their environment."

"...we must learn to be present in and interact with the natural world that surrounds us, in the city as well as the country or wilderness. Instead of closing our eyes to meditate, we need to open our eyes and observe. Unless our spiritual practice is grounded in a real connection to the natural world, we run the risk of simply manipulating our own internal imagery and missing the real communication taking place all around us."

I'm looking for the similarities in Quaker mysticism and Starhawk's magic. "Magic might also be called the art of opening our awareness to the consciousness that surrounds us, the art of conversing in the deep language that nature speaks." I think George Fox would probably not have been open to the thought that nature had 'that of God'; believing that we are part of nature was on the edge of blasphemy - for witches to believe but not Godly folk. It's a pity, because as mystics, we should have understood it, as we are finally doing so now.

Starhawk says that the discipline of magic brings us the change of consciousness that we need in order to hear what the earth is saying. "And listening to the earth, doing the rituals the land asks us for, giving back what we are asked for, will also bring us healing, expanded awareness, and intensified life."

3. Truth Walk:

I will practice this walking meditation, as I focus on depth and my life path.

 

1. Savor life: Name out everything that is wonderful about this day and this moment. Continue this for 1-2 blocks. 

 

2. Persistence: Turn a corner, and bring attention to my path. Where is it leading me today? What are my top priorities and how can I meet them with determination? Continue this for 1-2 blocks.

 

2. Service: Turn a corner, and focus on my tender heart. Send loving thoughts to my neighbors, my family, my community, the world, and plan how I will serve them today. Continue this for 1-2 blocks. 

 

4. Purpose: Turn the last corner, and speak a prayer out loud - “Spirit of the Universe, Give me Light to fulfill my purpose right now: to love and serve my family,  my community, and the Earth, lead a simple life of integrity, and be a creative force. ”

4. Garden observation:

Starhawk, and others I have read recently, talk about being rooted in a very specific place, a special spot or “home base” that we return to over and over again, on a daily basis, to observe and listen. I am rooted in this plot of land I've lived on for 37 years, and I've probably touched most of the soil surfaces over the years. I know the weeds, the birds, the insects, and the micro-climates. 

Lately I've been standing with bare feet on a patch of bare ground in my backyard, looking east at a little past dawn, to ground and observe the sky. Today I'm going to start my gardening by settling in that spot first to run through Starhawk's exercise on Coming into Our Senses (abridged here): 

Close your eyes, just to shift your focus away from what for most of us is our dominant sense.

Sniff the air. Take some long, deep breaths through your nose, followed by some short sniffs. Become aware of what you smell. The air is full of information. Imagine for a moment that you have the nose of a dog or a wolf. What would the breeze be telling you? Can you smell the trees? The moisture on the wind?

Feel the air on your skin. Become aware of the touch of the breeze, the temperature. ... Become aware of your weight, your stance, the pull of gravity on your body, your sense of balance or energy or fatigue.

Open your ears. Imagine that you have the ears of a deer, that you can shift and point in any direction. What sounds do you hear? Do you hear birds? Traffic? Voices? Insects? What do your ears tell you?

Now open your eyes. Add sight to the information you are receiving from all of your other senses. What do you see when you focus on a point or an object? What do you see when you extend your vision into wide awareness?

 

5. Permaculture tips for August:

Starhawk is also a teacher of permaculture, which uses "long and careful observations rather than careless intervention." I studied permaculture for a short time, and I'd like to go deeper this month. Here are a few tips for August:

• 

  Bean plants with old pea stalks tucked under for mulch

  Succession planting: I've planted beans outside my ring of peas on the tepee, and today I snipped the dried pea stalks at the base (leaving the nitrogen in the ground).
• Green Mulch: Mulch is a biodegradable layer of organic material added to the top of soil. It mimics a forest floor with a protective layer of leaf litter, to retain moisture, suppress weeds, and create humus. Green mulch is made by chopping up whatever weeds or plants are handy - I use plantain, rhubarb leaves, and old pea vines that I've snipped. (I don't put pea vines straight into the compost because they are stringy, so I chop them up with a lopper and spread them around as mulch.)
• Save seeds: I will save a few pea pods that have started to turn brown, and put the pods in an envelope for next spring.



Broadleaf Plantain

• Broadleaf Plantain (Plantago major): Plantain often pops up where soil is compacted, and we had a bunch pop up this year after we re-organized our garden beds. Plantain is a nutrient accumulator, and benefits the soil if left to grow and die back on its own. Where I don't want to see plantain, I cut the leaves back monthly and use them as mulch, or give them to the ducks. If I leave the roots intact the plant will either regrow, or the roots will decay, enriching the soil and attracting beneficial soil organisms.

6. Set a sacred intention:

Starhawk says, "We are faced today, in a world of global crisis, with the need for overarching change that can come only from a shift in paradigm, in our basic assumptions about the world. To change a paradigm, we must be able to express clearly what the new paradigm is."

She has an exercise called Sacred Intention that helps you to discern the particular work you are called to do. I've been using a similar process for years now, and I'm quite clear that I'm called to work on earth care, with all my skills. My problem is that it's such a large project, and I'm pulled in so many directions.

Today I'd like to begin to discern the particular pathways I'm called to go down, the skills I will use, and the growth and help I need.

I intend to facilitate earth care support and growth in my Meeting community, using my leadership, research and writing skills, and my optimism and resilience. I need the encouragement and support of that community also; and I want to introduce ways to ground our community in earth spirituality.

I intend to work as part of the Climate Revolutions by Bike team to grow a city that values and supports bicycling as a radical climate action. I will use my organizational skills to keep us on track. I want to grow my communication and media skills, and my courage to talk truth to power. I also want to find a way to ground this team in earth spirituality.

I intend to share my growth and learning about earth care with the wider world with my blog and my art, using all my writing and art skills. I need guidance from my inner guide, to discern what projects to work on, greater tenacity, and courage to reach out to a larger audience.

7. Healing Art practice:

I like the idea of art that heals the planet - something that helps cement a deep connection to the earth; art that builds a culture of caring for place; art that heals people, softens hearts, opens minds. I'd like to be part of that, but my inspiration has run dry. This month, because my theme is depth, I'm going deep to prime the pump of my art wellsprings. I'm going to explore-

• Eco-art therapy
• Making nature shrines and charms
• Craftivism
• Photography, words, and signs

My first step today was to make a small garden totem at the spot of my morning meditation. I combined a duck feather, yarn, bamboo and a sunflower head... Can't await to find new things to add!