Our modern human world! Wow what a few years this has been, a world where humankind can even consider a practice such as fracking. Whatever you views Brexit still rumbles on, A declared Climate Emergency! while during a global pandemic here in the UK there is outrage about what holidays we can take! Daily spiritual practice and meditation grounds me in all this turbulence and creates a sacred container for me to meet the world in the way I seek too with a deeper connection to my own truth. Here I open to claim my own personal sovereignty as a part of this great and beautiful earth. I recommit to my way of Ahimsa to do no harm in my daily actions, as I stumble and fall in this, I come back to the holding of this way, my growing experiences with an animistic worldview supports me in this we live in much more than a human world! In a recent meditation, as I closed my eyes and honoured the altar to the ancestors, a phrase came to me “Empowered Insignificance” – I immediately connected to this and a smile came from the centre of my body. Since then I have explored and found meaning in these simple words and how they support my own way and contribution to everyday life. Without doubt and whatever my own self-importance may have to say I am quite insignificant in the vastness of the universe and yet the paradox in this is that it is incomplete without me. Here I am empowered in my Insignificance. I live in Scotland and here we have a lot of wild open spaces – this I feel is one of the reasons why Scotland has been the birthplace of a number of inventions, we have space to breathe and allow deeper intuitions to emerge. The land shapes us and however much we try we cannot shape the land nature is way more powerful than us. Chernobyl in Russia shows us this after the nuclear disaster in 1986 in a short time nature reclaimed what is hers anyway – just up the way from me in a glen is a spot I stop sometimes at night, if it is clear it is possible to see the milky way across the great dark sky, this puts me in perspective of my place in the whole amazing universe, I stand empowered yet quite insignificant. I am not talking about self-worth here as this is a different personal journey, we each can take if we wish to claim our power in a society, I see seeking to disempower each of us, but more about our place within the whole. As a student of bees, they know this wisdom. This brings me to the next insight. The wisdom of nature is greater than the collective of humanity, nature supports life and so often humans collective ways do not, more often looking to economic growth and shortcuts over life enhancing ways and yet we humans are part of nature and this great vast eco system and an essential part with a specific role to play as guardians, I believe that our own wellbeing is connected to our own connection to the earth.. How are we doing if this is so? I don’t know but am open to the idea that organisations such as Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion and even the recent virus are answers to prayers spoken over many years for new ways and a return to treat the earth with respect. Here in Scotland we are in a government declared “climate emergency!” that seems to have been lost in the insanity of Brexit and more recently the response to the Pandemic. I love the Earth and somehow intuitively have always known I am a part of this vast eco system, this understanding cause deep pain and joy as I seek ways to live my love. This is why I am a Druid and work with Shamanic Methods and deepen into Animism as a way in the world to be learning how to be in a sustainable respectful and honouring relationship with the being I love so much; it shows me how I can step towards this and as I do it brings me to this place of empowered insignificance. I was once told to not use the word love for the earth but I know of no other for what is in my heart. Empowered insignificance brings a great freedom to me, as I know there is very little I can do, so I had better do something and each day I seek to be kind and hold hope. In my personality I am like a nettle in many ways, a bit of a sting yet full off nourishment, I guess I am tired and have to work hard to keep the hope shining and focused with the pulls of modern day living as I seek to be true to this. The life I live sustains this for me and I plan for more space to express my insignificance in an empowered way. Today it was honouring the plants I share my life with in the garden I am a guardian of as I centred myself beyond the smallness of my self-importance and out into the vast body of the land that surrounds me I am insignificant and yet with this wisdom now embodied within me I am empowered to seek ways to contribute to the whole in a life enhancing way. The bees teach me about the web of life and how interconnected we are, one authentic act of self-forgetting here in Scotland will ripple out into the world in a blessed way, today as part of this I am empowered in my insignificance yet know I can touch the world in a beautiful empowered and gentle way. A new set of dates are up on the website for our “sacred activism events” which are still held as a distant experience. I also will be next month as requested bring out the first of oakenleaf’s monthly newsletter and meditation recording so look out for this coming mid September.
Shamanic healing near Perth, Scotland