I have always sought out books and movies where the environmental setting is a central character. Whether set in small town in Idaho, or central Edenborough is not as important to me as whether the story feels accurately positioned in its landscape and time. More than once I’ve watched a high-tension action film set in the French Alps and the question foremost in my mind is not, “What will happen to these characters?” Instead, I focus on the landscape and wonder, “Did they really shoot this film in the Alps? It sure looks like the Canadian Rockies to me.”
Place is a Central Character
Now I see the greater role that places serve as a central character in many people’s life stories. Place is not just a prop, but is a conscious character and participant in the theatre of life for all of us. Increasingly, I have a knowingness that our homes, workshops and other places serve as geographic and spiritual entities, as conscious intelligences in our individual karmic beingness.
How do I experience my homeplace, called RiverNest, as a conscious participant in my current life stream? Well, it probably appears that I am talking and singing to myself throughout the day because I am actively communicating with the nature around me. Or I’m standing in place, quietly listening for a response from garden plants after I asked: which tomato plants need extra water today? Also, I love to hug the big ponderosa pine tree that gives me shade and comfort. In my nearly daily ritual stroll, I say thank you to the South Fork of the American River that roars past our home at nearly 6,000 cubic feet per second during each snowmelt season.
Oneness with Places
I am deepening my experience of Oneness with RiverNest and its conscious Spirit of Place to a greater level than ever before during meditation, dreams and shamanic journeys.
- When I visit our kind and loving ponderosa pine, she sweeps me into her core so that I can merge with her knowingness and vibrant energy. I feel grounded into her roots and stretched to reach the sky. I continue to breathe, like relaxing into my mother’s lap.
- At the riverfront, I feel a surge of joyful energy from a tangle of plants at its shore, the tiny beings living in its submerged ‘beach,’ and noisy pods of whitewater rafters on the surface gliding past our home on summer days.
- I feel the holy energy bond of The Ancient Ones, those who live in oneness with the earth, supporting me whenever I ask for their help. to go on Spirit journeys in a spirit boat. They smudge me before and after each journey. We are a rollicking bunch of sailors, singing ditties about the nature of the earth and of great odysseys and crusades for the good of the whole. Our boat is a simple craft, like a dory without a sail and nearly no need for its oars. Once we arrive at a destination, we hop to our roles in the collaborative healing for all the place and participants, just as we had intended.
- The nature god Pan reminds me that I am just one of the countless species on the planet. I am one spot in the web of life — not insignificant, but also not the center of all things. He says? reminds me? that by joining the web, I am more powerful and successful as a handmaiden of Gaia than when acting as a solo soul.
- Gaia, Earth consciousness stretching throughout the biosphere, smiles beneficently and we giggle together like sisters who share a silly secret. A silly secret that always brings tears of shared compassion to my eyes.
The Opportunity of Partnership
I now realize that when I am willing to play with the conscious intelligence called Spirit of Place, I have an opportunity to come into partnership. That is the next step, full co-creative partnership. The adventure continues.
This worked for me. It could work for you. If you want to learn how to come into partnership with your homeplace, let’s talk about it. Contact me for a complementary 30-minute consultation here.