This blog post marks the first weekend of Open Spirit’s brand new and pioneering course, and it also marks my first contribution to this journal.
After many hours spent this summer in Sam’s garden discussing the work I was developing for my holistic science dissertation, I am now entering into the work that Sam has been developing for the past 30 years, work that she calls holistic spirit. The movement from holistic science to holistic spirit is evidently a fluid one, and actually if I am honest holistic spirit has been what I’ve been studying all along! Really, there is not much difference. Both are explorations into the nature of being human, of being animal, and of being creatures of the universe.
What does the word ‘holistic’ mean? The word finds its root in the Greek word holos, meaning whole. Its most dominant usage has been in the context of holistic medicine or holistic therapy, which examine the whole of the person rather than dividing the person into separate parts. In the context of science, holistic means to utilise our whole selves in the scientific enquiry, exemplified by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who used direct perception and imagination to come into relationship with his study subjects and therefore encounter his study subject in their wholeness. So, what does holistic mean in the context of spirituality? What does it mean to practice holistic spirit? What does a holistic spirituality look like? Following on from a thought of one group member, I will leave these as open questions with no answers and carry the question marks with me as I journey through the year.
What I do know is that when I read the vision of Open Spirit, it felt like a meeting of words on paper with unspoken and unknown words in me. There was such a deep understanding and a deep connection, I could barely contain my excitement. When the day finally came to begin our explorations into holistic spirit, I found myself a little overwhelmed. On the invitation to introduce myself to the group and to say a little about what my intentions were with this course, the bigness of what all of it meant to me felt like a wordless ocean, ebbing and flowing through every cell. The words that came out did not do justice but they were to do with developing an embodied spirituality authentic to my own native traditions. Basically it’s about returning home; to myself, to community and to the Earth.
We began our journey of the day by placing our human story in the context of the wider story of the Universe, and arrived in human form as hunter-gatherers. Hunter-gatherers we became, first through a trance telling from Sam, and secondly through our own meanderings, foragings and beings. Here is an account of group member Kengo’s experience with the curious eyes and inquisitive hands of a hunter-gatherer…
I got up and went outside, towards the explosive reds of a maple with the sun behind. For this exercise, we were to spend one hour alone, in silence, in the spirit of our innate hunter-gatherer, lead only by that which most draws us in. Amongst the dazzle of five-pointed leaves, I came across a small wind chime held by the alert figure of a robin. His handsome red chest crafted from stained glass, fluidly mixing with the buff and brown of his plumage. So much care to capture his essence, how the wire frame turned into his spindly, poised legs.
Kengo’s sketches
I continued to saunter around the garden and noticed an earthen figure of a hare looking up at me from between two flower pots. Its eyes were of a steely glaze, ears pulled back with a look of wild determination. What was it that was drawing me to these objects? It struck me when continuing my journey into the dark corner of the garden. Hanging shamelessly upside down from a string was the figure of a bat, wings outstretched, revealing its little rodent body. I chuckled to myself. It was made from plastic, a cheap child’s toy with visible mould lines, but unmistakably bat-like nevertheless.
Whoever made this, probably a Chinaman, had taken the time to look, as I have, and notice what makes a bat, a bat. As had the creator of the robin and the hare. I stepped back and realised the placement of the figures; the robin high up in the maple tree, the hare, hiding between the flower pots and the bat in the dark corner of the garden. I was moved by this sensitivity, how we as humans, create figures that give us joy inspired by the beings we share our world with and then we even place them where they would feel most at home.
Before this day, I had been feeling unusually black in my heart, mourning the catastrophic damage that we are causing to our planet. Trivial as it may first seem, in this hour I touched a glimmer of hope, amongst all the madness, of an aspect of the human spirit that if fully embraced, could just save us all.
I end with deep gratitude for this first step in our journey into the restoration of love, and with a poem from group member Abigail and a tree from Juliette…
Art piece created by Juliette
Child of the Earth
Heart beats blood
swallowing death
swallowing terror
listening to the stories
she can barely speak
I can barely listen to
She trails her violation
an endless ghost of extinction
in this insane world
horror upon horror
human cruelty
and the pull to love
and the need to trust
myopic repetition
ruthless suppression
no voice for the raped
no justice in death
only in the lightening of the edges of clouds
and the shimmering of insects
and the climb of the rose
only in the steady, persistent joy at waking to the sun,
knowing warmth loves us into being
can we know we are of the earth and made by the stars
Invitations for the new Open Spirit Courses are going out today!
After months of conversations, planning, writing and preparation it feels deeply meaningful to send out invitations, dates and details and then wait and watch as the mysterious spiritual alchemy of a group coming together unfolds.
I experience all spiritual community as emerging mysteriously from the deep stream of life. My role initially seems to be a kind of quiet listening… to hopes and longings, needs and questions… both within myself and others until a certain kind of purpose or beginning starts to crystallise.
After quiet conception, there’s a gestational growth spurt of active organisational work, as basic structures, from course outlines to venue, start to take form and move towards a new birth.This early stage isn’t possible without some parenting and support, such that already ‘two or more are gathered’ like a seed crystal holding the blueprint for a community to build on.
So I’d like to acknowledge the encouragement and enthusiasm of Beth Thomas, who will be assisting me in offering these new courses. I’ve been privileged to supervise Beth as she writes her dissertation for an MSc at Schumacher College, in which she is making her own exploration of the fourfold way of knowing so central to my own understanding and experience of holistic spirit. I’d also like to honour the generosity of Juliette Rich who has offered to be our host in her newly refurbished and beautiful period home and garden in central Dartington (picture above). A loved and lovely home base is such a helpful vessel and holding for group work.
I’m also deeply grateful to soul friends Helen, Jan, Karen, Debbie and others who have shared their hopes and longings and encouraged me to share my own and create this new beginning. Everything emerges out of relationship, with the Source and with each other. Thank you.
The third and final of our Open Spirit resurrection appearances, took place in the Wood Sisters Red Tent at Quest in late July where Open Spirit hosted a full day programme on Sunday 27th of July with a theme of Welcoming the Sabbath Bride.
Our Quest weekend had started on Thursday as members of all the Living Spirit groups, Wood Sisters and friends got together to transport, raise and decorate the Red Tent as a sanctuary space for Quest Festival. It was a real pleasure to bring all these different people together, including men and women across several generations (from mid teens to great grandmothers) and create community together for the weekend.
Sam started the morning with a moving meditation on being held by the Great Mother. It was a great blessing to start the day with about 30 women gathered together in stillness. Open Spirits Juliette and Hilda then held open sanctuary space, while outside the Red Tent Katie kindly ‘womaned’ the stall and welcome desk.
After elevenses, Sam’s workshop on the Divine Feminine transported us back to the Biblical times of the Matriarch Sarah through a trance telling of her story which rooted back into Ancient Mesopotamian culture and religion, portraying Sarah as a priestess of Ur. (Based on the book, Sarah the Priestess, written from her doctoral research by Savina Teubal). For some participants this gave a whole new perspective and connection with the Hebrew Bible and the matriarchal roots of Judaism and Christianity.
More open sanctuary followed, held this time by Totnes Vicar Debbie Parsons and artist and writer, Helen Sands, with soulful harp and singing from musician and thanatologist, Abigail Robinson. After lunch our final workshop was given by Ian and Gail Adams of Beloved Life who introduced us to several female mystics from throughout the ages, from a Desert Mother to contemporary poet Mary Oliver. Quotes, reflections and original poems from Ian’s new book Unfurling were woven together beautifully with time for quiet, sharing and a simple ritual.
The day and the weekend concluded with a collaborative ceremony co-ordinated by Debbie, Helen and Sam. We gathered through silence and song and then named some of the aspects of the Divine feminine & masculine which had been invoked during the day… Nanna and Ningal, Inanna and Dumuzi, Asherah and Yahveh, Mary and Jesus… and engaged with the following words from Clarissa Pinkola Estes & the Bible, illustrated with a simple mime
From ‘Untie the Strong Woman’ (Blessed Mother’s Love for the Wild Soul)
‘The Mother I most often carry with me everywhere is the Woodsister La Nuestra Señora,
Our Lady of Guadalupe, she whose mantle is fashioned of moss from the north side of trees at sunset, she who has star shards caught in her wild silver hair.Her gown is soft, coarse-woven cloth with the thorns and weed seeds and petals of wild roses caught in it.
She has dirty hands from growing things earthy, and from her day and night work alongside her hard-working sons and daughters, their children, their elders, all.’
‘Any human being needing comfort, vision, guidance, or strength is heard by the Immaculate Heart…..And thus, Blessed Mother arrives immediately with veils flying, to place us under her mantle for protection, to give us that one thing the world often longs for so :
the warmth of the mother’s compassionate touch.’
‘…and we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Source of all Being are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to the other.For this comes from the Source who is spirit.’
(2 Corinthians. 3:18)
Then we shared a collaborative ceremony of passing on the veil or mantle of priest’hood’ and taking it in turns to give and receive blessing, closing with a final circle of hebrew song and shared prayers of thanksgiving which made a beautiful conclusion to our time in the Red Tent. Deep thanks to all who worked so hard throughout the day to offer a warm welcome, inspiration, creativity and sanctuary.
Invitations for the new Open Spirit Courses are going out today!
