Conscious Cooperation with Nature AKA Subtle Activism

“Problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them.”

— Albert Einstein

We are all unconscious from time to time - from believing that our perspective is the only one that matters to not having a point of view at all. Many have the unconscious bias that as humans we are better than - even separate from - the rest of the natural world. This sense of superiority and self imposed isolation devolves into ways of thinking that weaken our connections of all kinds – to family and friends, to those who are human but different from us, to the wider world outside ourselves and finally to a sense of alienation to our own inner ecology and balance.

As I read and listen to mainstream news, observe the world around me and attend to many of my clients, I notice that more and more, numbness and indifference are the result of this sense of separation.

Every day in our thoughts and feelings are examples of the power of this shadow world that clouds our mind and lead to beliefs like:

• I’m only one person how can what I think matter; how do I count?
• Money and power speak louder than integrity and collaboration.
• Society – and my lifestyle in particular - depends on those corporations that are too big to fail.
• The world is too complex – and screwed up - to be understood by the average person.
• Young people are ill informed, self-absorbed and inarticulate.

It’s almost impossible to face this contorted thinking and heaviness alone. Sometimes I feel that I’m being sucked inevitably into vortex of some black hole.

Here in Central Virginia where I live, one struggle against shadow power takes the form of the Atlantic Coast pipeline – a monument to unnecessary construction and destruction of the environment in service of corporate profit.

Not only will this pipeline spoil some of the last natural forested area on the eastern seaboard – the George Washington National Forest - but also has the potential to endanger the headwaters of nearby rivers.

The tree cutting began several months ago and recently the pipeline builders – Dominion Energy LLC – requested even more time to extend their tree cutting operations. While losing these trees has already been a blow to the environment, extending the cutting time would interfere with the migratory birds nesting season as well as the habitat of certain bat species.

It seems like a predictable grind…first appropriation of land and homes in the pipeline’s path; next trees are cut down, now the birds and bats are further endangered…what next?

For a small group of us this was just the opening we needed to spark another “outbreak” of conscious cooperation with Nature. What this means is that we gathered together with the intention of opening to the power and interconnection with the natural world.

Imagine linking to the web of mycelium in the earth, the unseen communication system between jellyfish or the interstitial layer of our own bodies to approach the natural world as an equal partner in achieving balance. It’s like saying: “We humans bring certain skills and talents, you oh trees, birds, mountains and nature spirits also have great power and experience. Could we sit, think and share together then combine them into some new spiraling, fractal and unfolding of infinite possibility?”

So for an hour we did. Sharing our individual perceptions of nature’s concerns, experience and advice with our own and then consciously weaving these individual strands into a shining and colorful tapestry of intention, which we then grounded into the core energetics of the planet.

It felt wonderful - a graceful kinship and dance of right relationship.

Caroline Casey, one of my favorite, wise teachers says that synchronicity only happens on a stage calibrated for equal and conscious collaborative endeavors.  That popped into my mind when three days after our subtle action with Nature we heard that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled against Dominion Energy’s request to extend their tree felling operations, requiring them to stop and honor their original commitment not to interfere with bird migration pattern.

It gives me hope and inspires me/us to do more in partnership with the natural world! Perhaps it will for you too. If it does and you want some advice, you can be in touch with me for some basic instructions on entering into conscious cooperation with Nature.

For a Few Days in Spring

Each year as the winter temperatures begin to fluctuate with the coming warmth of Spring, a delicate pink haze appears on the delicate weeping cherry tree in my back yard. Her beautiful soft color shimmers against the cloudy gray skies that alternate with bright blue warm days - the blossoms so etherial it seems impossible that they will survive. But since the past two days have been warm, this willowy beauty has burst forth with cloud of color - glowing and bold against the sky.

This incomparable show will only last for a few days but it's a miracle of Nature that I anticipate with pleasure every year.

Simple Pleasures

They're here!!!!

Of all the harbingers of Spring - robins, daffodils, clearing rains washing into crystal skies - my personal favorite is the blossom of the Dogwood tree. And lucky, lucky me, I've got two beautiful trees - one pink and one white - in my front yard.

Ahhh, and this morning after a drenching rain followed by the emergence of the sun, the buds burst into blooms!!!

I have no real idea why this particular form of Nature's beauty touches me so and it probably doesn't really matter. I could spin a story, look up the mystic correspondences, energies and properties that the Dogwood embodies but I'm not gonna do it! Instead, I'm just going to love 'em and revel in the simple pleasure and wild and dangerous beauty that Nature weaves in every moment. Knowing that my nature is part of this tapestry too.

Are We the World?

For the past three weeks to prepare for my research trip to Greece and hone my subtle activism skills, I've been leading group meditations. These gatherings were designed to unite those present, include the energies of Nature's subtle realms, and mix in archetypal and ancestral emanations. Once these forces were brought together, attention was placed on ripening certain seed qualities (we worked with clarity, courage and strength), deepening them and sharing this potent and vital force with the entire planet through the quantum field.

If and how we are all connected through what some call the quantum, dreaming or Akashic field is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. That's partially because of my Master's thesis and also the reason I'm going to Greece. To roll out that pilot study from my thesis to incorporate a larger audience.

It's also why I took a course in "subtle activism" last summer. I think of myself as a shy activist. With a recent exception to participate in the Women's March on Washington in January, I'm not generally someone who takes to the streets even though my convictions are very strong. My contributions have always been more subtle such as energy work at a distance through the quantum dreaming field. And that's what subtle activism is. Joining a group together in a real or virtual sense, creating a strong sense of coherence within the group and connecting with the larger global and even cosmic field.

And while there are theories about how we are connected, how it all might work, there is quite a bit of evidence that the connection is real and measurable. Check out the Global Consciousness Project for some fascinating reading. 

I wanted to test my equipment and the coherence of these group meditations so I took some measurements with my trusty random number generator (RNG) to check it out. Very simplistically, the RNG algorithmically spits out numbers with no discernible pattern which replicate the natural chaos of the quantum field. If something occurs in the area of the RNG which leads to a coherent pattern beyond 2 standard deviations, it is considered to have effected or structured the field in a statistically significant manner.

So what happened in the meditations? Increasing coherence! The graphs below show the pattern of whether or not accumulated deviation demonstrated a structuring effect during any particular meditation. Randomness, the natural state of the field, is shown by the squiggly line. As this line approaches or touches into either the upper or lower parabolic line showing 2 standard deviations from expected measurements, something coherent is happening to the field.

Perhaps we are structuring the field with our intention. Or maybe a resonance is happening between all the quantum energy being generated and information is being transmitted from the meditation space into the field. I believe that there is indeed a cascade effect where individuals make internal shifts and change the field which in turn acts on the individuals within it and changes them. 

The personal is the planetary and even the more, the cosmos lives within us as the ancient story of Indra's Net as translated by Sir Charles Eliot (1935) proposes: 

In the Heaven of Indra, there is said to be a network of pearls, so arranged that if you look at one you see all the others reflected in it. In the same way each object in the world is not merely itself but involves every other object and in fact IS everything else. In every particle of dust, there are present Buddhas without number.  

As Mr. Spock would say: fascinating!