The Doors To The Wild Self

"The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious.  If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door.  If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door.  If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door" 
- Clarissa Pinkola Estes

These photographs are not a tacit invitation to imbibe hallucinogens, I have never done so and most likely never will.  However, even without taking them; Fly Agaric have always been a doorway for me.  They seem to me to be wild and wise and incredibly ancient - always asking difficult questions and expecting an answer.  Asking me to connect to the sacred aliveness of the land and honour it, know that I am part of it and it is part of me.  Protect it. 

We all know the earth is in trouble and it seems that there are a multiplicity of ways that we could (but don't seem to) help - or at least be less of a problem.

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http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world?language=en

The above link is to a talk by the extraordinary mycologist Paul Stamets, it's called '6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World' .  There is also an article in the most recent edition of The New Scientist that details new research that has been done into the plant kingdom that shows that plants definitely respond to all sorts of stimuli and can be shown to see, hear, smell, taste and touch.  The article also suggests that plants have consciousness - not news if you are a Shamanic Practitioner but this is 'Science' making these assertions.  Plant consciousness - our Grandchildren will learn about a very different world to the one we think we know.

Will they see the spirits in the trees?  Will they speak and more importantly listen to these incredible repositories of wisdom?  Will they truly know themselves to be part of the land, part of the planet, nothing more or less than another piece of an incredible, living whole?  Sadly it doesn't seem that likely.

 So what does it take to change this?  It is my personal theory - and one that I know is shared by a number of other women working at the moment - the first one to spring to mind in particular is Clare Dakin of Tree Sisters (if you don't know about Tree Sisters please look here) - that the only way to get back into connected harmony with out earth is to get back into connected harmony with ourselves.  We need to discover our own interior flora and fauna and learn to feel our own seasonal rhythms and hear our own silent symphonies.

If we can re-connect to ourselves; swim in the deep oceans of our grief at the destruction of our inner forests and wild places and release what we can through the containers of our tears.  (These transmuters of passions, bringers of flow are a potent way to release, to change.) If we can re-member who we really are, then our wild selves will not be able to do anything else but start to once again nourish, nurture and serve the magical web of interconnection that is our beautiful Earth.

It is frequently being said at the moment that human's are too selfish to adequately respond to the climate crisis - but imagine if we understood that we are the planet and it is us.... what then?