Sitebeheerder – Page 5 – Ecological Leadership

Earth Elders Speak

This statement reflects the wisdom of the Spiritual People of the Earth, of North and South America, working in unity to restore peace, harmony and balance for our collective future and for all living beings. This statement is written in black and white with a foreign language that is not our own and does not convey the full depth of our concerns.

The Creator created the People of the Earth into the Land at the beginning of Creation and gave us a way of life. This way of life has been passed down generation-to-generation since the beginning. We have not honored this way of life through our own actions and we must live these original instructions in order to restore universal balance and harmony. We are a part of Creation; thus, if we break the Laws of Creation, we destroy ourselves.

We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, have no choice but to follow and uphold the Original Instructions, which sustains the continuity of Life. We recognize our umbilical connection to Mother Earth and understand that she is the source of life, not a resource to be exploited. We speak on behalf of all Creation today, to communicate an urgent message that man has gone too far, placing us in the state of survival. We warned that one day you would not be able to control what you have created. That day is here. Not heeding warnings from both Nature and the People of the Earth keeps us on the path of self- destruction. This self -destructive path has led to the Fukushima nuclear crisis, Gulf oil spill, tar sands devastation, pipeline failures, impacts of carbon dioxide emissions and the destruction of ground water through hydraulic fracking, just to name a few. In addition, these activities and development continue to cause the deterioration and destruction of sacred places and sacred waters that are vital for Life.

Powerful technologies are out of control and are threatening the future of all life

The Fukushima nuclear crisis alone is a threat to the future of humanity. Yet, our concern goes far beyond this single threat. Our concern is with the cumulative and compounding devastation that is being wrought by the actions of human beings around the world. It is the combination of resource extraction, genetically modified organisms, moral failures, pollution, introduction of invasive species and much more that are threatening the future of life on Earth. The compounding of bad decisions and their corresponding actions are extremely short-sighted. They do not consider the future generations and they do not respect or honor the Creator’s Natural Law. We strongly urge for the governmental authorities to respond with an open invitation to work and consult with us to solve the world’s problems, without war. We must stop waging war against Mother Earth, and ourselves.

We acknowledge that all of these devastating actions originated in human beings who are living without regard for the Earth as the source of life. They have strayed from the Original Instructions by casting aside the Creator’s Natural Law. It is now critical for humanity to acknowledge that we have created a path to self -destruction. We must restore the Original Instructions in our lives to halt this devastation.

The sanctity of the Original Instructions has been violated. As a result, the Spiritual People of the Earth were called ceremonially to come together at the home of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe Bundle. These Spiritual Leaders and those that carry great responsibility for their people from both North and South America came together with the sacred fire for four days at the end of September 2013 to fulfill their sacred responsibilities. During this time it was revealed that the spirit of destruction gained its’ strength by our spiritually disconnected actions. We are all responsible in varying degrees for calling forth this spirit of destruction, thus we are all bound to begin restoring what we have damaged by helping one another recover our sacred responsibility to the Earth. We, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, offer our spiritual insight, wisdom and vision to the global community to help guide the actions needed to overcome the current threats to all life.

We only have to look at our own bodies to recognize the sacred purpose of water on Mother Earth. We respect and honor our spiritual relationship with the lifeblood of Mother Earth. One does not sell or contaminate their mother’s blood. These capitalistic actions must stop and we must recover our sacred relationship with the Spirit of Water

The People of the Earth understand that the Fukushima nuclear crisis continues to threaten the future of all life. We understand the full implications of this crisis even with the suppression of information and the filtering of truth by the corporate owned media and Nation States. We strongly urge the media, corporations and Nation States to acknowledge and convey the true facts that threaten us, so that the international community may work together to resolve this crisis, based on the foundation of Truth.

We urge the international community, government of Japan and TEPCO to unify efforts to stabilize and re-mediate the nuclear threat posed at the Fukushima Dai – ichi nuclear power plant. To ensure that the Japanese government and TEPCO are supported with qualified personnel and information, we urge the inclusion of today’s nuclear experts from around the world to collaborate, advise and provide technical assistance to prevent further radioactive contamination or worse, a nuclear explosion that may have apocalyptic consequences.

The foundation for peace will be strengthened by restoring the Original Instructions in ourselves

Prophecies have been shared and sacred instructions were given. We, the People of the Earth, were instructed that the original wisdom must be shared again when imbalance and disharmony are upon Mother Earth. In 1994 the sacred white buffalo, the giver of the sacred pipe, returned to the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people bringing forth the sacred message that the winds of change are here. Since that time many more messengers in the form of white animals have come, telling us to wake up my children. It is time. So listen for the sacred instruction.

All Life is sacred. We come into Life as sacred beings. When we abuse the sacredness of Life we affect all Creation

We urge all Nations and human beings around the world to work with us, the Original Caretakers of Mother Earth, to restore the Original Instructions and uphold the Creator’s Natural Law as a foundation for all decision making, from this point forward. Our collective future as human beings is in our hands, we must address the Fukushima nuclear crisis and all actions that may violate the Creator’s Natural Law. We have reached the crossroads of life and the end of our existence. We will avert this potentially catastrophic nuclear disaster by coming together with good minds and prayer as a global community of all faiths.

We are the People of the Earth united under the Creator’s Law with a sacred covenant to protect and a responsibility to extend Life for all future generations. We are expressing deep concern for our shared future and urge everyone to awaken spiritually. We must work in unity to help Mother Earth heal so that she can bring back balance and harmony for all her children.

Representatives of the Council

Chief Arvol Looking Horse

19th Generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe

Spiritual Leader The Great Sioux Nation

Bobby C. Billie

Clan Leader and Spiritual Leader

Council of the Original Miccosukee

Simanolee Nation Aboriginal Peoples

Faith Spotted Eagle, Tunkan Inajin Win

Brave Heart Society Grandmother

Headswoman & Ihanktonwan Treaty Council

Ihanktonwan Dakota from the Oceti Sakowin

7 Council Fires

2014

Our Home is the Universe

Our home is the Universe, the Universe is here

Go to a place that calls you…enter that place as the most sacred place on Earth. You are like Moses who climbed the mountain to stand before God.
There is a song in the Universe, a rhythm. The Sound of the Beginning vibrates through everything that has Being. The rhythm is so slow; we cannot hear it with our ears. We can only tune in to with our heart and whole being.
When we do that, we are connected and nourished by the Power of Life. Life force, Prana, Holy Spirit.
Let your heart move with it, gently, as you notice all the creatures around you, as you feel the Earth under your feet, carrying you, as you welcome the sun and hear the awakening Earth around you, as you hear the songs of the wind through the leaves. All around you is the rhythm of the universe, the sound of the Beginning. The birds know all about it, the trees and waving grasses and the flowers in their splendid simplicity. They all know it and they join in the song. Let the inform you about it all, they have waited for you coming.
It is the music of the spheres, the elders say…listen to the stars and the moon, they join the song on their own way.
To pay attention to the rhythm of the Universe is being guided to the Essence: creation comes out of the womb of God.
To pay attention to the rhythm of the Universe is knowing the goodness and blessing that encompasses all of Creation. We humans have forgotten our place in the circle of life. We have forgotten the old Wisdoms; what it means to live in harmony with creation.
Today is day of Homecoming; knowing who we are.. We listen again to the rhythm of the dance of Life. It is never too late to join!
And as you bring your meditation to a closure, thank for all that you have seen and felt. Thank also for what you have not seen yet and would like to know and understand. The Wisdom of Creation , of Universe and Earth will be disclosed to humble hearts.
Just be aware if something has changed in how you feel in your body. Where thereinsights, unexpected things that happened, memories
or songs that came to you?

Write a few lines, a prayer in your journal.

free picture Internet

About the Drum and the Heart Beat

Playing the heart beat is the core of the process of reconnecting with the Earth. We connect with an ancient universal knowing. When we connect with the rhythm of the Earth and her life, magical things can happen.

We feel it in our bodies and if we tune in to rhythm of the Earth, the ancient pulse of life, we help to restore the balance in ourselves and in the Earth. When we are still and listen and hear our own heart beat, we can hear the heart of the Mother beating in the whole.

We take another step in our growth in an intimate relationship with the Earth, when we begin to feel the resonance between our own heart beat and the heart beat of the Earth. It can be a deep moment of homecoming. Some can really feel the heart beat and others sense it. It you feel this resonance it might result in a sparkling synchronicity when everything begins to flow..

The heart beat is not just imagination, but grounded in scientific evidence. The energy of our Earth Mother is measured as electrical units per second, which are called Hertz. In the book of Marcello Barros on Ecospirituality he quotes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian. ( I have no information about the English translation of the book).

“The German physicist W.O. Schumann discovered in 1952 that the Earth is surrounded by a strong electro magnetic field. It is formed between the surface of Earth and till the beginning of the ionosphere, about 100 meters above us. This field has a resonance ( called the Schumann resonance ) which has more or less a constant level of 7.83 hertz. Experiments have shown that outside this biological frequency humans cannot be healthy.

For thousands of years with this pulsating frequency a reasonable ecological balance developed. In the eighties and even more in the nineties of last century this frequency increased from 7.93 to 11 and to 13. The heart beat of the Earth became faster. And that while more and more ecological extreme situations began to emerge.

If we want that the Earth finds her rhythm back, we have to start this process in ourselves. We know that the Earth and we are one body. We need to do everything with less stress, more calm and most of all with more love, because love is the harmonizing energy. We need to breathe together with the Earth and move with the pace of her heart beat, in order to restore the ecological balance. The rise of the frequency of the Earth helps us to grow and transform. The electro magnetic systems of the human body are responding to the shift in the Earth Mother’s electro magnetic system. The shift in the collective awareness of humankind will go faster too. We can understand in a deeper way the lessons of the path of initiation” ( Leonardo Boff)

The call of the Drum

Since the beginning of Civilization, drums were one of the main universal signals for calling people together for noble intentions. There were / are humanity’s common pulse. Drums do not know about race, domination, differences, hatred, jealousy, greed, language, human diversity. They know the magic of inclusivity and the full joy of one common heart beating. The drum connects: to all life of all time, to the heart beat in my body here and now. Our world needs drum circles, where people play the drum together, reducing stress and building harmony.

Every drum is unique and has her own voice. A drum is always female, because it is a symbol of the womb. A drum is alive and you need to build a relationship with the drum. If you are given a drum of you buy one, in a sacred session the drumkeeper in yourself has to be awakened. It is a great responsibility to be a drumkeeper.

Playing the drum while attuning to the heart beat of the Mother moves one’s consciousness to the inner worlds of visions and dreams. If you want to go into deep meditation and prayer, then play the heart beat in a very concentrated way for about twenty minutes. You might have entered the realms of your soul. A drum takes you to the center of the Earth. Here your body, spirit, mind, emotions become one with what is greater than yourself. Into the original Oneness you have travelled!

The heart beat is manifested through playing a special rhythm on the drum. It is the healing and reconnection with the four realms of human existence: mental self, spiritual self, emotional self and physical self.

There are 2 foundational rhythms:

four steady beats followed by two quick beats.
two rhythmic beats: one /two

In YouTube you can find your drum classes! Or look for music where the heart beat is drummed and play along. That is also a good way to learn to play the drum. E.g. Music of Sacred Earth Drums. David and Steve Gordon https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sacred-earth-drums/id5631066 Available in I tunes

I thank my Mother Earth Spirituality teacher Swan Medicine Woman for introducing me to the drum and for awakening the drumkeeper in me.

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Article from Leonardo Boff in Hemel en Aarde huwen, Marcelo Barros, page 41

inspired by Jamie Sams

Elly Verrijt, August 2017.

Mother Earth Spirituality

Mother Earth Spirituality

Mother Earth Spirituality: the ancient insights about our connectedness with the cosmos and the whole community of life. Humans of all ages have expressed their embeddedness in nature in rituals, ceremonies, songs and stories.

Mother Earth Spirituality has the same features all over the world, though symbols might differ. The deeper meaning of which they speak is universal.

Mother Earth Spirituality speaks of the Soul of the human at all times. When we connect with our soul, we will discover what is known from the Beginning of times. All the great religious traditions speak of this mystery. It is where the mystics are at home.

To know our place in the sacred universe is a soul journey, a process of initiation into the mystery of creation. It is not a scientific knowing, but an intuitive knowing. Our soul knows the deepest intentions of the universe, of God’s plan for creation.

Only from this depth of knowing we comprehend the meaning of our present time and the depth of the transition of our Earth at this moment.

To reconnect with the Universe and Earth is soul work and an initiation in deeper levels of consciousness. It is the works of shamans, spiritual guides and healers. It is a mystical path.

We modern humans have a long way to go in the process of healing our Earth connection. We have never felt that deep connection with the Earth, therefore we do not know what a felt connection with our soul is. With the extinction of the Neanderthal human that instinctive way of knowing was more and more replaced by the mental-spiritual development of the human. So we have to reclaim the gift of our ancestors.

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free picture pexels

August 2017

Elly Verrijt

Healing the Divine Feminine

The ancient tradition of the Moonlodge

Women do not go on vision quests. That is for men. Women suffer and labor enough by going through the cycles of menstruation, birth etc.

Women need to be nurtured and helped to be receptive to the Divine Feminine as to help heal the world/Earth.

In indigenous traditions women are given a minimum of three days of silence a month. With menstruation time of if not applicable at new moon or full moon.

During this time the women visualizes opening her womb to receive the fertilization of Great Mystery’s love; this love gives force to her dreams. She opens herself to conceive of her dreams and visions and the dreams and visions for humanity, the web of life, the Earth.

Absolute silence: no reading, no music with words, no input. She listens to the silence in the silence.

Sing, drum, dance , return thanks, poetry-creating, only self – expression, thanksgiving/receiving. Light food and water.

The woman will get up at night and pray and connect with the Eternal Flame of Love. Sit on the earth, feed the fire and wait for the vision to come.

Jamie Sams, The 13 Original Clan mothers

August 2017, Elly Verrijt

Walking the Medicine Wheel

The Medicine Wheel is a process of transformation. It is an example how the Native American people used the symbolism and the energies of the Earth as a way to see where they were on their way in life. Knowing the Medicine Wheel and living with the Medicine Wheel is learning to live a full life, a life in beauty. The end of the journey is seeing how all things have been part of a Divine Cycle, a circle that has taken you through a journey of transformation. In the course of your life, you have to walk the wheel again and again. And each time you approach the beginning of the wheel in grace. The Medicine Wheel is sometimes called the Sacred Hoop. ( Circle)

As you look at the process of your life you might see the circles you have passed through already. So you learn to value each sacred step you have taken. The Medicine Wheel shows us the lessons we have learned and by sharing them others will learn too.

Physical life begins at birth., which is the South Direction on the Circle. We will travel through the circle that South to North path until we reach the place of the Elder, in the North. The East is the home of the Golden Door, the entry point to all other levels of awareness and consciousness. Spirits of the Ancestors who have finished their Earth Walks, leave the Wheel at the North and follow the Hoop to the East. Once again we come through the Golden Door in the East as spirits are born again into physical bodies in the South. Always remember that when you walk the wheel you are in company of all those generations before you. They walked the wheel and became wise people. They carry the wisdom of Mother Divine Those who pass it on carry the wisdom of Mother Earth.

The fire that burns in our belly, burns also in the center of the Medicine Wheel. It is the same light and all originate from the fire of the Beginning.

The powers ( talents and lessons) of the Four Directions can show us the way. Traditional native American teachers always teach the children of their Tribe to feel the Wind, so that they can know what to do if they are lost or afraid.

If the Wind came from the West, they should sit still and look inside their hearts for courage or an answer.
If the Wind came from the South, they would stop thinking that they have all the answers and learn humility and perhaps listen to another child that knows the way home.
If the Wind came from the North, the children would know that the Elders, in their wisdom, knew where to look for them.
When Wind came from the East, they were to use their good sense or logical ideas that would bring an answer to their quest.

In understanding the lessons of the sacred Wheel we learn to touch life in a deeper and more gentle way. To live the Medicine Wheel, we are asked to see the gifts of growth each direction offers. When we as Children of the Earth lose our sense of where we are and how we fit into the medicine Wheel, we lose sight of the unified circle and how to live in a sacred manner.

East South West North

Illumination Inner child as teacher To look within Place of Elders, wisdom

New beginnings Innocence, healing Introspection, silence Insight, prayer

Eagle Tenderness of a deer Bear, Buffalo

Morning Noon Evening Night

Spring Summer Autumn Winter

First quarter Full Moon Third quarter New Moon

Light, Fire Soil, Body Water Air

Mind Bodily Self Emotional Self Spiritual Self

Male Energy Child Energy Female Energy Male Energy

YELLOW RED BLACK WHITE OR BLUE

Child Adult Senior Ancestor

Medicine Wheel, free picture ancients origin net

INSPIRATION

Sacred path Cards, Jamie Sams ISBN0-06250762-1

Our Evolutionary Journey

Our Evolutionary Journey

art:M.Southard

Let us remember that we are on an awesome evolutionary journey; 13,7 billion of years of evolutionary experience are stored in every cell of our body. The memory of the whole process of creation is stored in our body, mind, soul, DNA.
All great changes in the Cosmos, history of the Earth and of life we have lived through. It is available to us, if we only are ready to remember.
You close your eyes and you remember how the first living cells emerge.
You are one among the first living cells. You know what to do and where to go.
You remember your life in the primal seas.
You have lived through earlier great extinctions and ecological crisis.
You have seen how the Earth has come through and found solutions.
You remember the emergence of life.. the plants moving to the land, the birds, the flowers, bees, all life …
You see the mammals appear and the first humans. Your body knows of eons of time. You see how humans have survived on Earth up till now.

You remember the time of your birth in this moment in time of the Earth and the evolution. Your cells know about the present moment, a very special moment of awakening in the long journey of the evolution.
You have learned how all humans and other being are connected, we all remember how the Earth community is meant to evolve.. To grow to a new consciousness as to be able to survive the present time of transition.
See this special time in the history of evolution and tell every cell of your body that it is time for a new awakening.
You see all over our beautiful blue planet beings, like me and you, one by one they step forward into the light. They and we are aware how we are connected through the heart, the whole community of life.
Tell your cells about the first flashes of awakening, light, newness, connectedness and feel again that sense of wonder. Your first awakening to a consciousness beyond the bounds of your physical self.
Remember the emergence of your inner Light, of your inner knowing. Feel the joy, the warmth, wholeness, wisdom, security of the light of the presence you are.
Remember every step in your growth of consciousness, and each moment you experience(d) yourself as new!
You remember the qualities of all those that have guided and inspired you, the Divine guidance you have received, all along. You are opening to your next awakening now.
Your whole body connects with the light at a planetary scale. Your work in the world calls you now. ..…it is part of your evolutionary call.
You will grow step by step in your passion to create…more and more from your potential Self will be manifested. You will be part of guiding the world in transition.

Elly Verrijt, 2017

Inspiration; Gateway course Barbara Marx Hubbard.

While I was building up the Eco learning Center De Gaarde ( in The Netherlands) in the first years of this millenium I heard about Barbara Marx Hubbard. The Foundation for Conscious Evolution gifted me with the opportunity to participate in the online learning process in Conscious Evolution. A great gift, only the promise that I will make Conscious Evolution more known in the World.

Therefore my gratitude to Barbara Marx Hubbard and her foundation for her work and enthusiasm.

The Right Pad in Looking at Food

photo S. Mulyadi Kalimantan Indonesia

The “Dharma” of Food

The title of this reflection might puzzle you as much as it puzzled me. I found this thought-provoking article in Resurgence &Ecologist magazine( www.resurgence.org) Issue 294. (2016, Jan./Febr.) Vandana Shiva reflects about the deep meaning of food, as she has done so long already in her work as activist for preserving seeds in India.

Guided by her inspiring thoughts and fierce words, I will reflect with you on the sacredness of food.

First of all let us try to understand the meanning of the word “dharma”. That is not so easy, because the concept dharma is an unique Indian concept. The author considers this concept a gift of Indian Civilisation to humanity of today. Dharma is like a compass, a lamp on the path of humanity searching for right action and right livelihood.

In reading more of Vandana Shiva over the years, she has thought me so much about the sacredness of food and the mirror food is of the whole web of life. There is no word with the same meaning as dharma in Western languages. Dharma is also not limited to religion but is part of the different aspects that make a culture. It is clear that all religions from India know the concept of dharma. Mainly it means “the right path”. Looking at the etymological root of dharma it refers to ” that which sustains”: the universe and all creation, from macro-cosmos to micro- cosmos, from the finest microbe to the largest mammals. Dharma refers to the interconnectedness of all life. The opposite of dharma is adharma, that action, that way of life that violates the ecological laws and balance of the planet and our care for each being, irrespective of gender, race, caste, age or class.

So dharma helps us to choose between right or wrong, gives use right values and insights to take action for a harmonious and sustainable world.

A choice is a dharmic choice if it contributes to holding together and is adharmic if it leads to ecological destruction. Or to say it in the line of writings of Thomas Berry: a choice for action is good if it fits in the circle of life.

Vandana Shiva mentions very old resources in Indian literature on the sacred meaning of food and realizes that the depth of insights is very congruent with modern findings from the science of agro-ecology and the best thinking on the principles of food justice and food ethics.

Food itself is Brahma, the Creator.

Do not look down upon food.

Do not neglect food.

Ensure an abundance of food all around.

In dharma food is creation, the cycle of life is a food cycle, good food is medicine, and the growing and sharing of good food, in abundance, is the highest duty.

Those words can lead us into deep reflections and through that to great insights. What is good and right in fulfilling our duty in providing and sharing good food in abundance. Every piece of food we eat comes after a choice we made consciously or not for this food to eat. E.g. do we allow toxic food to enter our sacred bodies?

From what circle of production does this food come? Is it grown with much love and care by generally speaking poor farmers in East or West, or does is come from great agroindustrial farms? Have you ever tasted the difference? Have you ever thought about the effect and consequences of your choice for the poor farmers? How this pushes them into debts, stess and even suicide? Acoording to Vandana Shiva 300.000 farmers in India have committed suicide in the past years. So the food on our tables, the crops on our lands are the domain of ethical, political choices!

But do we have a say in what we choose to eat? Do we know what choices there are if we walk in the (super) market and fill our shopping carts? How have we really been able to make a choice between healthy or unhealthy foods or have others done that for us, long time ago, far away of close by?

Vandana Shiva is very strong and clear when she says: ” The human capacity to choose between healthy food and unhealthy food is being taken away. Instead of ensuring that food is the source of health and wellbeing, all consideration of growing healthy, safe, nourishing and healing food is being banished by a technological fundamentalism that promotes GMOs. Instead of seeing food as the creator, corporations and scientists developing GMOs are taking over the role of creator through patents on life itself. Instead of assessing how the use of toxic chemicals and GMOs is affecting the web of life – the bees and the butterflies, the earthworms and soil organisms, the biodiversity of our plants- assesments built into biosafety laws are being blocked through deregulation under the influence of industry in country after country”.

The principle of abundance is violated. Now abundance becomes scarcity.The old ways of seeds saving and sharing seeds will disappear and have disappeared already where seeds are made non- renewable. Where all kinds of rules and genetic manipulating make seeds scarce. Farmers are no longer free to produce the seeds they want and seeds are intentionally destroyed so that farmers depent on the market and have to buy need new seeds every year. That causes great debts for the farmers. There is also scarcity in the field when diversity-rich farming systems are now replaced by monocultures. There is scarcity because good foods turn into poison by toxic chemicals.

It is clear that choices for good food production and handling have to be made. It is the choice between happy farming and growing healthy foods and the greed of earning as much money as possible, control of harvests and the market.

How will we understand in a new way that it is our duty to help Mother Earth to be truly nourishing as she has been for billions of years? How can we grow in our respect for food and understand the sacredness of food?

May we understand the changes and conversion needed in our personal consumptions and in ways to act on behalve of farmers, soil, and the food for future generations.

And to conclude this powerful sentence of Vandana Shiva: dharma protects those who protect dharma.

Soul Journey (1) : the Journey of the Hero

The Journey of the Hero

Somewhere along the path of our life, we might find ourselves in a difficult situation.To really face the questions of our life. The long road of finding the connection with your Essence asks much courage, and bravery. You are a hero if you dare to listen to your deep knowing and longings, to be true to what you feel and realize and to act upon it all.

We have the choice for a life in comfort, boredom, walking away from any difficulty and risk and not hearing the quest of our soul and to be dictated by our ego-desires. Or you are going to leave our comfortable home, start on our own journey and say goodby to the path that every body walks.

1.Listening to the signs to depart

There is a poem by Mary Oliver. She describes so well that this is a moment full of temptation. One evening she says, while there was a storm and the path was full with branches and stones, I left my house. And there were all kind of voices who told me to stay home. But I decided to go, in the dark. I could not see where I was walking, and I left all those voices behind me. And the further I went, the more I walked in the light of the stars amidst the dark clouds. And I began to hear another voice and I knew that it was my own voice, the voice of my true self, my Essence. Now I was determined, to save the only life that I can save, my own life.

Tell me, she says in another poem, what are you going to do with your one wild and precious life?

http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/maryoliver.html

Do you dare to go on the journey that will ultimately lead you deeper to your true call in life? Do you dare to listen to your feelings of uneasiness, knowing that something has to change in the world, that Mother Earth calls on us and that our love and goodness will help to heal her? Real love will never go unnoticed. Are you willing to come out of denial about the way we improverish the web of life and are part of the unraveling of the life systems, as Joanna Macy calls it. That place of pain and shame, deeply buried in our soul. We will look into it and find beautiful ways to live on Mother Earth and be in her service. Are you aware that to look for your unique call and work in the world is the most important thing to do? Come let us go and set out on the journey.

2.The Call

The sacred literature of the many spiritual movements and religions tell us about people who in wondrous ways came to know what they had to do in life. Do you remember one of these stories? The story of the Buddha, of Jesus, of Muhammed. Do not think that only such extraordinary people experienced special ways to find their call. You are as special and each human is important enough for such a story. So do not think of yourself as small: this time with so many challenges and crisis in the world is for us, who are not extraordinary, but special in our giftedness and aspirations. Take time to reflect, to meditate and to get used to the voices in yourself. Do not be afraid if there many. Listen to those voices, dreams, longings that make you happy and full of love.

There are also stories of the person who tries to escape from the highest purpose of his life. Often people will get sick, experience all kind of calamities in their life, if they run away of what is asked from them. In the Christian Bible we find the Story of Jonah, the prophet wo did not want to go to the city where he had to deliver his message. He embarked on a ship, the ship was hit by a storm and Jonah ended up in the sea and was eaten by a whale. One day he found himself again on the beach. He had become obedient and went to the city where he was sent to.

3. The underworld and the world of shadows

New parts of your emotions and deep feelings will make themselves known to you. Old wounds break open again and your seeing, thinking is no longer clear. You loose direction and you find yourself in a desert, a swamp or a dark wood. Sometimes people cannot stop crying. There is darkness and depression and often so much anger. You are lost and meet now monsters and wild beasts on your way. Your life is one big disenchantment. You have to deal with your shame and take responsibility for your choices and for all you have left undone. Now the challenge is to face the shadows of yourself and find self- forgiveness and self- acceptance. To say yes to your life in whatever ways it has enfolded itself.

4. The Most Holy: the soul is full of light again (Illumination)

Now I begin to feel my true Self, my Essence. it can be after years of darkness and turmoil, sometimes after not so long a time. I am attuned again to the journey of my soul. Only my soul knows what is real, only my soul can discern what is Divine and what Gods gift is. I know myself as an expression of the Divine. My eyes are opened to see how all is connected and I experience a deep sense of Oneness. My heart is opened; the purifying fire of my pain has brought healing and I begin to know what love is. I become more and more a channel of love. My eyes SEE the other person. And my love for myself is deep enough now so that I am not constantly seeking the love of another human. I can give love and am not so needy anymore. The heart is at rest and in peace. It is important not to become proud of all these special experiences. I have not worked for it, do not deserve it, but humbly say that this state of bliss is the gift of God for me. I need to continue my way in all simplicity and not let the whole world know that I am so extra ordinary and that I am the “guru” of every body.

5. The return to everyday life

“What do you do after Illumination” a pupil once asked the master. “The same as what you did before illumination”, the master said. To cut wood and bring the water into your house”. Do whatever comes on your path: in the ordinary is the highway for spiritual growth. There is only one way to measure it….do I grow in my capacity to love!

Now the hero is home again…..

Elly Verrijt, 2015

God our Mother: Sofia in the Christian Tradition

God our Mother: Sofia in the Christian tradition:

In the ancient Christian tradition, even in the time of the Old Testament, she is known as the feminine face of God. So easily we look to God only as father, with all the gifts of a father. Might be our whole life we have only prayed to God as our father, but what about God as our Mother? God has also the deepest qualities as a Mother. We find beautiful texts about this in the Old Testament. See: Ps. 131, Yes 66, 13, Hosea 11,3-4, Yes 49, 15, Yes 42.14

So how will it change our experience of God, if we pray to God as our Mother?

Sofia is the partner of God, the feminine face of God. God is mother to us, in the abundance of creation, in the care of creation, in the Earth that sustains us, day by day in our living. Sofia is the Mother of creation.

Sofia is at the side of the Creator from the beginning.

In the tradition of Israel we learn that to create is to draw a circle, to set boundaries. The Bible says that in the beginning there was Chaos, but the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. In the story of creation we learn that God created by separation of the land and the water.

You see this in the book Wisdom, 8, 22-39. Just read and meditate this passage.

“Yahweh created me, (Sofia, Wisdom), first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works. From everlasting I was firmly set, before the earth came into being….

……I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence, at play everywhere on his earth delighting to be with the children of men”…

When you are given the name Sofia, you are gifted with the deep wisdom that is in creation.

We are given eyes to see and a heart to and a mind to understand. We are gifted with the wisdom in creation, with cosmic wisdom coming from the heart of the creator. As long as we can be so deeply touched by the beauty of creation, the goodness of God in every part of creation, we are not in Ego, but open to the deep wisdom of God as a gift.

Then it is our call to let others share in this wisdom, let others feel our deep love and compassion for all of life and your power to fight for all life.

God and Sofia work together, then in the Beginning and in our days, now creation is so threatened. Also now Sofia has to fight with God against the present and future chaos, because the present humans have lost wisdom.

Sofia has two sides in herself: the side that is directed to the dark knowing, the knowing of eternal truth. She knows the truth, not because someone told her, but because she is deeply connected with the creative power of God. And there is that side that is very much directed to everything around her. She knows the situation of creation at his moment…she can feel the deep pain of creation. She will defend life with her whole being.

Sofia, Wisdom the source of all life. She is cosmic energy. She is wind, breath. Sofia is beginning. She is the feminine force in the Cosmos, she gives birth. Sofia is mother, sister, bride, daughter.. all expressions of the feminine power.

In Sofia we see the feminine face of God, the Most High, the Father. She is the Mother of God, like Maria is the Mother of Jesus. We see the Mother of God in the beauty of creation, in the fertility of creation, in how creation is caring as a Mother for every creature. Not only for the humans. Sofia makes it possible that God can be Mother of all that is alive…

Sofia is from before the Beginning.

She will help us to know, who we you are…..from the Beginning in Gods dream…called to life and given the call to help God to be (a) mother in creation and for creation…

Sofia is God’s sharing of Himself with all creatures. She is in all things, like the air receiving the sunlight. In her all creatures have their full life… She is the love that unites everything in creation…

She remains unseen, glimpsed only by a few…

Sofia is the mercy of God in us.

She does the work of forgiving, the work of transformation from brightness to brightness.

Sofia, show yourself to us, that we may see you in the beauty of creation.

Unveil your mystery to us, in our understanding of the order in all of creation.

Help us to connect with your power to create…

Be a compassionate presence in us to our broken creation.

Elly Verrijt, May 2017

Inspired by Van Sofia tot Maria. The rebirth of the Hidden Mother in the 21^st century

Anine van der Meer ( in Dutch) ISBN 978 90 77408 55 1