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3/16/10

Barefoot Barding








Yesterday I wrote about the joy of doing your true calling and what you most love as a profession. The Barefoot Bard, Mick Dodge, graced my yard and home with his presence today and began to share some Earth Gym training tips. He is a truly
inspiring example of someone living his dream and walking his talk. One need only spend a short time with him to feel the practical brilliance he carries and shares so freely. He brought over one of his favorite old growth forest sticks and swinging stones in the elk skin bags and invited me to try dancing with them. It was SUPER FUN and really anamazing full body training in resonance with the land. He also really is inspired by butoh, my daily practice and dance.

We are scheming some very exciting new and great collaborations--so stay tuned for many announcements and new training films soon to come.

He sent me the message below after our session and when I read it I felt it said everything I wanted to share about today's dance and more, so he is the first MomoButoh guest writer/bard to appear in this blog. Hope there will be more great guest contributions like this to come.

Yoish!
Thank you for sharing food and foot. It was a good day and good sharing for me.

I have been on foot for a long time stealing shoes and reminding soles to foot the dance of the land and remember their primal (prime animal) inheritance by stepping out of the "defeeted" stride of domestication and follow their naked soles into wildings of the land.

Engaging a "Animist" like you shifts me into a relaxing form, a rhythm of thanks, shifts me into sitting with the fire and breathe "as" wind. Understand that you inspire the desire to move, your practice and presentation, your present to the land, your
gesturing of the wilding sings the calling of the land and flames the desire to move. I saw the wind rise.

So why sit? Because it is rare and so wonderful to share with the fire what i witnessed.

Dance "with" the fire, until you dance "as" the fire, is a mantra i was taught while in my cave in the Misty Mountains on the Island of River (the olympics).
I had built a fire in my cave and began to train in the movement forms that i had been trained in, fighting. Shadow boxing, throwing punches, kicks, fighting with my shadow on the cave wall. But the fire would distort my moves, weave them into other fluid forms, and so i began to move as those shadows. It was at this time, after years and years of
training as a fighter, and training others that i realized that i
never liked fighting. What i liked, what i was craving, what i desired was the dance. So i expanded my movement, turned into the fire and filled my wind with the words, "Teach Me!. I accepted the fire as my teacher and began to follow my feet in tracking it's source.

I carried this practice out into the gravel bars, would build a circle of stone, and wait for the sun to rise and begin dancing in the circle, moving as a coal, build into a flame, learning to balance my fire, my desire. I would stay in this cirlce of stone as the flame, as the desire, from sunrise to the sun setting beyond the edge of the land. I realized that the solar fire, was released through the wood of a fire, the wood, trees releasing it's flow. The fire and trees taught me how to craft and cultivate my internal desire. How to place a goal on the desire, as i placed coals on the fire, and use my wind to release the wilding.

So i sat last night at the fire, did not dance. I sat and honored and gave thanks for engaging you on this path, reflected upon your path and dance, and gave thanks for your footing of the land.

Dance As Fire,
Run As Wind,
Embrance the Stone,
Flow as the Water within,
Train in these four ways while in your naked feet,
And with your Touch wide open,
With your heart wide open,
With your soul wide open,
the earth will teach!

Barefoot Bard's Earth Gym Poem spoken with Mick Dodge, danced by Momo to music by Muzikas.
See video:
http://maureenfreehill.blogspot.com/
"Stick and Stones" Duet with Mick Dodge & Momo to music by Calexico
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BLACK BIRD MEDICINE

BLACK BIRD MEDICINE Recently, I had a dream in which a blackbird with a purplish sheen to its head appeared inside the back window ledge of my car. I tried to help it escape through the window, but it didn't want to leave. I recognized this as a medicine dream, appropriate for this moment in time. I found many online references to Native American Blackbird Animal Medicine which together weave a great tale. My bird book describes the Brewer's Blackbird: black with a purplish sheen to the head, a purplish green sheen to the body and a white eye. MEANING: Creativity, Detail, Foundation "Blackbird medicine people love to sing and have the ability use their voice to heal and inform." Black Bird People are learning to use their gifts and talents to manifest their dreams into physical reality. Blackbird people have a talent that is ready to be released to the world, for all to see and hear. Blackbird is encouraging you to do it! Bird People should remember that all birds are messengers from Great Spirit. When Black Bird Medicine grabs your attention it is asking you to embrace your own talents and reveal them to the world. In the springtime, Blackbird is heard whistling beautiful songs from dawn until dusk. Blackbird cannot hold their talent back. Blackbird flies alone and does not typically form flocks. They may associate with other birds that share their same habitat, otherwise they are doing their own thing. Even though Black Bird Medicine is an aggressive bird, the fight never lasts long. They are known for their melodious voice where they sing from high places such as; rooftops, trees and any other elevated perch. It is interesting how they enjoy standing alone singing and catching the attention of others. Humans recognize singing as a creative talent that not everyone masters. When Blackbird Medicine comes in front of you, it is asking you to recognize your creative talent. While this may not be singing, there is a talent that you should allow to shine. In other words, do not hide your Light under a bushel, sing it from the rooftops! Adult male Blackbirds are easy to spot because of their yellow eye-ring and bill and they are often seen carrying their melodious tune from trees, rooftops and other elevated perches. When Blackbird builds a nest, it is with careful detail, attention and with a firm foundation. Blackbird is so inspirational toward creativity, that The Beatles even wrote a song about him: Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these sunken eyes and learn to see All your life You were only waiting for this moment to be free Blackbird fly Blackbird fly Into the light of the dark black night Blackbird fly Blackbird fly Into the light of the dark black night Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise You were only waiting for this moment to arise You were only waiting for this moment to arise Black Bird's message is about your creative talent, building a firm foundation to create and paying close attention to the details while at the same time sharing your inspirational gifts with the world. Blackbird is saying: you were only waiting for this moment to arise, you were only waiting for this moment to be free. Blackbird medicine people have the ability to use their voice to heal. KEYWORDS: totem animals - Those with blackbird totems make excellent shamans and trance channelers. The blackbird male's distinctive song during breeding season is loud and melodious with flute like qualities. Males often sing from high perches and both sexes produce a variety of sounds which include mimicking other birds. Blackbird medicine people love to sing and have the ability to use their voice to heal and inform. They are also good ventriloquists. The blackbirds iridescent black plumage holds the energies of mysticism and magic. Druid legends say that the birds of Rhiannan are 3 blackbirds which sit and sing in the World tree of other worlds. Their singing puts the listener into a sleep or a trance which enables him or her to travel to the otherworld. It was said to impart mystic secrets. Those with this medicine often have a hypnotic influence on others as well as an uncanny ability to move between the seen and unseen worlds with clarity. They make excellent shamans and trance channelers. Blackbirds are timid and prefer their own company over the company of others. In humans shyness and insecurity in group settings is common. Vulnerable to outside influences those with this totem need to remember to clear accumulated influences from their energy field on a regular basis. Blackbirds spend much of their time on the ground. Its locomotion includes walking, climbing and hopping forward and backwards. They forage for food in open spaces although cover is always near by. When foraging in leaf litter under trees they sound like people walking . In humans this suggests an ability to remain grounded in the earth energies while walking a spiritual path. When resting the blackbird is frequently seen stretching, legs extended back, side wings in full extension, tail spread, and the head tilted to one side as if listening. Yoga and movement therapy are beneficial for those that hold this totem. The blackbirds flights are low, short and undulating but fast and direct over open country. They move with determination and focus and can teach us how to do the same. When blackbird flies into your life your connection with nature and the forces of creation increase. The magic of the underworld surfaces in your life. Awareness is heightened and change on a cellular level begins. The blackbird teaches you how to acknowledge your power and use it to its fullest. Blackbirds are, for some people, considered a good omen. Others believe that the Blackbird brings the lessons learned in meditation. It is also associated with travel to the Otherworld and the mysteries found there. Blackbird people are good to call upon when spiritual matters are at hand, and often, while rare, they are the best people to have when in a group.
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Steve Habersetzer is busy at work on a gypsy wagon, trying to get the exterior finished in time for the Fourth Annual Woodworkers Show, Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 7-8, 2009 at the American Legion Hall in downtown Port Townsend.

10971370253?profile=originalThis wagon is a special commission by Whidbey Island resident, Pushkara Sally Ashford, who is putting it into service for "SingPeace! Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony." Ashford plans to travel around the United States and Canada with a group of troubadours, gathering communities together to sing and talk about peace.

"I've been surprised and delighted to witness the pilgrimage taking shape and building momentum," says Ashford. "We've recently been invited to take 'songs for a culture of peace' into schools as part of the curriculum. Over the coming months, we will be going in the gypsy wagon from neighborhood to neighborhood, town to town, sharing this repertoire with choruses, choirs, song circles, and at festivals, camps and retreats."

The first few months of the journey, SingPeace! will culminate in an appearance at the 2010 Northwest Regional Folklife Festival in Seattle in May 2010.

Ashford designed the 14-foot-long, 8-foot-wide living space during a course at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, "How to Build a Gypsy Wagon," taught by Jim Tolpin and Habersetzer. The wagon will soon have modern "green" amenities, such as a marine composting toilet, an on demand propane water heater and a solar electric panel for the 12-volt electric system. It will soon have a galley and tiny hearth, as well. "It's essentially like a boat that goes down the highway," Habersetzer says.

10971370266?profile=original

Steve Habersetzer uses hand tools to cut the shallow rectangular void where the hinge will rest for the door on a cabinet he's making. "This is more traditional woodwork," he says. "A lot of people would use a router to do this. This is more fun and not as loud. Once you learn how to do it, it's probably just as fast."

Habersetzer knows well the life in a gypsy wagon. At one time, he lived in one himself. That one, he says, was only 6 feet wide. He built his first gypsy wagon, or "vardo," 25 years ago, and several have followed. All of them are designed to suit the owner's fancy - whether for living, playing or working.

Inspired by horse-drawn carts used by the English Romano people, this wagon is a "ledge" design, which includes a small extension on each side, supported by hand-painted wooden brackets, and a small porch on the back. Other vardo types are called the Burton, reading, bow top, open and brush, and they all function as traveling living spaces.

This is the most collaborative wagon project Habersetzer has created. Ashford has recruited other area artisans to take part. The decorative woodcarving is done by Laurence Cole, and Jeanne Moore of Northwest Potpourri and Susan Leinbach, another local seamstress, are at work on the upholstery and interior furnishings. The stained and etched glass is created by Everett artist Stan Case, and Don Tiller is in charge of the decorative painting.

The SingPeace! wagon is on view outside of the Pope Marine Park Building throughout the Port Townsend Woodworkers Show. A SingPeace! gathering takes place at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, following PT Shorts. Songweaver and director of PT Songlines Laurence Cole - along with visiting song leaders Sara Tone from Olympia and Rob Tobias from
Eugene, Ore. - gather to lead participatory singing on Saturday from 1 to 3 p.m. and again from 6 to 7 p.m. The singers will be on hand again on Sunday from 1-3 p.m.

* http://www.ptleader.com/main.asp?SectionID=101&SubSectionID=471&ArticleID=25583&TM=33184.13

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Pushkara Sally Ashford, a resident of Whidbey Island in Washington, commissioned this handcrafted gypsy vardo which was built by Steve Habersetzer in collaboration with other artisans. Habersetzer built his first tiny home over 25 years ago and describes them as “a boat that goes down the highway.”

Pushkara designed the house during a workshop at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking called, “How to Build a Gypsy Wagon,” taught by Jim Tolpin and Habersetzer. The home measures 8-feet wide by 14-feet long. It has lots of storage, a comfy bed, a hidden away composting toilet, a basin with on-demand hotwater, a two burner cooktop, photovoltaic electric power and LED lighting, and a French propane stove for heat, an outdoor shower and ice box.

SingPeace! Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony was inaugurated at the Port Townsend Woodworkers' Show in November 2009. Its journey has continued with events on Whidbey Island and around the Puget Sound Region: Rainy Camp in Carnation, a 2-day retreat at Yoga Lodge, Earth Day, and DjangoFestNW in Langley and Whidbey-Camano Land Trust's 4.2 million dollar fundraiser for the purchase of the 664 contiguous acres of undeveloped land, the Trillium Community Woods. SingPeace! was featured at the Northwest Regional Folklife Festival in Seattle, May 2010. Sponsor of Rasur Foundation International's BePeace Foundation Course, SingPeace! hosted international peacemaker, Rita Marie Johnson at Whidbey Institute in 2011. Recently, the troupe made its way to Occupy Seattle where it was joined by members of the Seattle Peace Chorus, Seattle Labor Chorus and the Raging Grannies.

The SingPeace! mission has been to bring people together in community to "craft a culture of peace through music." The gyspy vardo has an added layer of intention to help inspire “people who are looking at smaller footprint options for housing and energy use,” says Ashford.

I want to thank Dan at Mangrove Seed for tipping me off to this story. Thanks again Dan!

Blogs, photos and videos available on the Tiny House Design and SingPeace! websites.

SingPeace KitchenSingPeace Kitchen SinkSingPeace Stove

Read more…
mick

Yoish! I feel it is necessary to warn the shod and sedentary that there is a danger in stepping out of shoes and engaging the land with your naked soles and learning to step into your primal body memory. Because it will “make sense”! And “making sense” is addictive. It is a challenge for the tender feet at first. But it is an adventure! After all it requires that you pay attention and give up “Marching with Denial and Domination”. But in time and with practice paying attention to where and how you place your foot begins the awakening of a new story. The soles open and the flow of sensory information stimulates a deep fire inside of you, a remembering of a deep desire to step further into playing with the land, craving more and more tactile sensory flow, storing it in your body. You just might find yourself wondering around in the mountains as i did, wondering about the story that you are living. You begin to feel and track the simple things in your life. Where does the water i drink come from? Where does the food come from? Why is there a stink in the wind i breath? Why is there so much noise? When was the last time that i rested my eyes on natural organic reflections? Why do i fear touching the land? What is wrong with the story of civilization? It is an interesting thing to notice about story. The fundamental meaning of the word is to store. We gather things. Then we store them and then we release them. When you begin to follow your feet out of denial. You begin a journey that opens a sensory flow that “stores” in you feelings that change your awareness, and releases a new telling, a new story. A story is good if it “makes sense”, making sense in the most direct meaning of the word, direct touch of the land. “Making Sense” by touching the land. I found this foot notion of “making sense” in the book Spell of the Sensous, by David Abhrams. I took this foot notion along with the book on a long Foot Quest in the Cascades. I trained with it for days and days. I would read a few pages and then go on a long footing and think about what i had read, or i would build a fire, gather some stones, dance with them until a trance and think about “making sense”, pulling with my muslces into “common sense”, “community sense”. It is a good training manual. But he left out a very important point: Take this book for a walk or run in the last of the wild. For the sedentary have forgotten this point, have forgotten how to “make sense” with their feet and “make story”. I do the same with the exuberant animal manuals. They are foot notions to guide me into understanding the predicament of our modern sedentary living. Just check out the essay Pathology on Parade on the website. Training requires three things, knowledge, skill and desire. These three points are like a three pointed compass that guide me into “making sense”, “making story”. So my warning is that following your feet will change your story, change the way you feel the way you think, the way you share story, the way you relate (play) with the land. Much easier to stay defeeted in the story of domination and denial, not healtheir or happier, not making sense, just less effort. I share the pictures of my bed roll and tent, one suggestion for stepping out of the shoe box.
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SingPeace! A Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony

Singing for Peace and Global Harmony off the end of a gypsy vardo - Romany for wagon or caravan - to my mind evokes a colorful, ever-resourceful community on wheels but also close to the earth, at the heart of which is the universal appeal of their life-sustaining music and dance.


This SingPeace! Pilgrimage was conceived at the intersection of our recent economic downturn and the simultaneous rise of the human spirit’s hopes for positive change evidenced by chanting, singing and dancing in the streets around the November elections. Such a heartfelt and joy-filled outpouring can, if we let it, serve to heal the aching soreness and open, suppurating wounds, strengthening the understanding and bonds among us.

I was a little girl, maybe 7 or 8, when I attended the Seattle Junior Programs production of “Once Upon a Clothesline by playwright, Aurand Harris, often described as "America's most produced children's playwright.". My childhood memory and visceral reaction to the play are far from “cute,” and “humorous” as it is described in several available online narratives.


In my version, the most vivid images are of two doll-like grown-up sized Raggedy Ann and Andy characters perched like clothespins on either end of a rope strung left to right across the stage. Between us - the audience - and the clothespin rag dolls was the bright light of a sunny day, warm and reassuring, filled with the promise of a new day. On the other side, that is, upstage of this demarcation line, was the darkened den of a clearly malevolent black widow spider, whose huge floor to rafters web the “clothespin dolls” would be caught in, if by chance they lost their balance and fell backwards from their precarious perch. She, Pinette, did and he, Pinno, went to rescue her.


We, the audience, squealed and squirmed, witness to the clothespins’ many tense and hair-raising encounters with the monstrous spider, before they made their way back to the light. Those frightening images have stayed with me for over 60 years, by the way. Here’s what one online source says about the play:
Cast: Pinno and Pinette, two clothes pins; Two Birds; Black Spider; Mrs. Ant and her little son, Junior; Mr. Cricket; Dr. Bettle; Mr. Grasshopper; and his Three Little Grasshoppers. Unit set. This play must be read to be appreciated. It's humor is contagious. The preparations for Pinette's rescue from the Black Spider are hilarious, and the actual accomplishment of the rescue is a superb bit of high showmanship.”


Okay, right. For the grown-ups, maybe.


In more recent years, I’ve come to appreciate the play’s universal theme in epics, traditional myths and everyday life of the darkness - that which is at best un-understood and at worst life-denying - in its triumphs and death throes with the life-affirming light. I’ve come to feel that it’s our choice as human beings to acknowledge and even embrace the dark side while upholding and living in the light.

The play I saw in 1948 was staged at the Seattle Repertory Playhouse, a theater whose founders and brilliant artistic directors, Burton (Pop) and Florence James, were my first drama teachers. Later, during that same year the two were named by the House Un-American Activities Committee in a scourge that damaged the lives, careers and families of many talented, esteemed and contributing members of the Seattle community.


The James were cited for contempt, fined and sentenced for refusing to tell the committee whether they were or had ever been members of the Communist Party. Pop James died before his name and reputation could be cleared, but Florence James emigrated to Canada. She was instrumental in the founding of the acclaimed Globe Theatre in Regina, Saskatchewan. She was much honored for her work in Canada, receiving, among other awards, the Legion of Honor Medal, the Queen’s Silver Medal, and the Diplome d’Honneur from the Canadian Conference of the Arts.


My family was one among many caught in McCarthy’s spider web. Ironically, I shared a dorm in India for a couple of years in the mid-1990s with Florence and Pop James’ granddaughter. Each of us, receptacles of the pain and confusion our families had suffered, had never breathed a word of it to each other. Upon learning years later about her family history, I told her, “My God, we’re related!”


In 1998, at the same Playhouse where I’d seen “Once Upon a Clothes Line,” our families gathered for the final performance of “All Powers Necessary and Convenient," a play about the impact McCarthy’s HUAC, as it was referred to, and of the treatment we’d suffered at the hands of the local interrogating body, the Canwell and Veldi committees.


The play was researched, written and directed by Mark Jenkins. Jenkins recounts that the run's final performance, "was dedicated to the family and friends of those called by the committee. Relatives of the fired professors and the Jameses were present. After the play, people stood up and told what it was like for them as children whose parents were tracked and questioned by the FBI. We also installed a plaque honoring the Jameses, recognizing their artistic accomplishments in Seattle over the years. It was a very cathartic event, very moving.” Additionally, the State of Washington apologized to the descendants of Pop and Florence James.


I recall that post play event as an emotionally trying discussion that revealed painful schisms among my family members and others similarly impacted. We were spaced as distantly as we could get in the theater. In my case, the distance eventually gave way to considerable healing and forgiveness, though I’m still aware of the absence of a sense of belonging, with a subtle, persistent underlying expectation of the proverbial rug being ripped out from under me. I mention it, here, because I think we are very often too quick to judge, attack and bruise those with whom we don’t see eye to eye.


I’ve included a biography of the James at historylink.org and a report from the Seattle PI and Times archives regarding productions in 1998 and 2002 of the play, “All Powers Necessary and Convenient.”

"All Powers Necessary & Convenient"
http://www.lib.washington.edu/exhibits/allpowers/play.html

Today, time is speeding up. No, time has collapsed. We are in a period of accelerated activity; that is, many, many more events are compressed into the space of a single moment in time. I’m fast approaching my 70th birthday (2010). I have to ask for the hundredth time, “What will I be when I grow up? What is my part and role in the epic dramas of our day? And what is left undone?” After all, I’m still here.


A “singing telegram,” a melodic message, accompanied awakening from a dream. My Soul Voice sings: “You will live in other people’s houses, and the work you do will be known long after your name is forgotten.” It repeats several times, at least three, so that I can retain the words and tune in my waking state. So, there’s work to be done and I’m not the “doer.” It’s not about me, per se.


Gathering up the sum total and essence of my life, it seems to come down to a only a few constants: singing - coming together in community to share music and dance; the quest for inner and outer peace and healing and the odyssey that has taken me around the world already half a dozen times or more; and an abiding yearning for liberation in love - the bond within a spiritual partnership that signifies ease, transparency and unity of purpose in pursuit of the highest goals of human consciousness. That’s all.


Ah, we would be traveling troubadours - peace pilgrims - greeting and joining together in song with communities around the globe. Gypsies. A “singing revolution.” It’s not a big leap from that vision to the concept of a gypsy wagon. This would be a “green machine:, communicating with much forethought in the construction but with few words the intention of a smaller/ softer carbon footprint, incorporating old and new technologies for a greener, more sustainable and affordable lifestyle.


I could imagine visiting inner city parks and community centers, attending festivals, camps and retreats, meeting school children and seniors, college students, corporate and factory employees, the troops, showing up at intentional communities, churches and demonstrations to SingPeace! Not a performance, per se, as the point is participation and inclusion, making music together with a few lead voices in the universal language of peace and global harmony.


In the words of 13th century Sufi poet, Rumi, set to music and sung by Laurence Cole:

Out beyond ideas there is a field.
There is a field, I will meet you there.
Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing
there is a field. I will meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is twofold and thought-bound.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other,”
Just don’t make any sense.
--Jelaluddin Rumi

http://www.laurencecole.com/music-3.html

I’ve noticed that the closer we come to the light, the darker and longer shadows become. But in that light, we’ve begun to understand how rigid ideologies have divided and set us apart. We’ve fought and died for nothing, in a sense, because conflict and wars don’t change the fact that we’re all on this earthship together. We come here, expressly, to learn how to get along - to treat each other and this creation with utmost dignity, respect and love.


It’s a messy business, at times, as learning and lessons are a very individual thing, involving multiple modalities, intelligences and timings. In other words, we don’t all arrive together and in sync at the door of paradise, though wholesale positive change is in evidence at critical mass: when enough of us align our thoughts and intentions for the common good.


Since its beginnings, this country has relied on war to establish its primacy. Cyclic economic downturns have been followed by war. Ours is a war mentality and a war-dependent economy. We're always “gearing up” for the next one. When ideologies that have become institutionalized also have a vested economic interest in the outcome of a conflict, we forget about learning to get along, justifying ruthless and wanton acts of violence: collateral damage, ethnic cleansing, atomic, chemical and bioweapons, or the even more insidious and dehumanizing forms of power grabbing, manipulation and control exerted by the deceitful power-hungry few against unsuspecting masses.

J.D. Martin sings:

There’s another way
Beyond the blue and gray
Where we all can lay
Our weapons down
There’s a brighter light
Beyond the wrong and right
And if we let it shine tonight
I know we’ll live to love again another day
There’s another way.
http://www.garrett-martin.com/music-store/albums/i-dreamed-rain

The documentary film, “Singing Revolution” by James and Maureen Tusty chronicles the peaceful uprising by the Estonian population after years of repression by the USSR. “Most people don’t think about singing when they think about revolution. But song was the weapon of choice when Estonians sought to free themselves from decades of Soviet occupation. The Singing Revolution is an inspiring account of one nation’s dramatic rebirth. It is the story of humankind’s irrepressible drive for freedom and self-determination.”


They did it! They took back their country, their culture and their lives without so much as raising a fist.
http://www.singingrevolution.com/cgi-local/content.cgi

So, while we’re still mucking about in the harsher realities, the sooner we get to singing our intention for “another way,” the sooner we’ll meet and merge with a brighter light. Hey, we don’t have to wait until we die to do it!


From recent observations, I would say that the “Singing Revolution” has already begun: witness the Ubuntu choir Network http://www.ubuntuchoirs.net/index.php and other such open circle choruses around the world; the remarkable attempts by Mark Johnson, a film maker who has brought musicians around the globe together in the film, “Playing for Change: Peace through Music.” http://www.playingforchange.com/
Look at the burgeoning number of devotional chant and sacred sound gatherings stirring hearts and bringing increasing numbers of folks together to sing.

The opening gong for Sing Peace! A Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony, took place at the equinox on March 21st (2009) on Whidbey Island in Washington State. Laurence Cole, director of Songlines Choir, one of the Ubuntu Choir Network, whose mission is to ReEnChant the World, led songs of Peace and Global Harmony.
Patricia Duff, writer for the South Whidbey Record, did a lovely feature article for the event. http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/whidbey/swr/community/41391304.html
And Jim Tolpin, a founder of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, was on hand to give a slide show about his 30 year love affair with gypsy wagons. I’ll be taking his week-long course, “How to build a gypsy wagon,” in May, after which construction of my wagon will get begin in earnest on Whidbey Island. http://www.ptwoodschool.com/Home.html [Course took place in May, after which I commissioned one of the instructors, Steve Habersetzer, a Port Townsend farmer and craftsman, to build the wagon I designed. (The wagon was in the last stages of completion, as of Dec. 15, 2009.]


Even without the vardo, my “pilgrimage” is already underway. As the light of my intention grows brighter and more focused, it is met with many opportunities to refine my understanding while gathering in community with others who have heard the call.
More about the present course will appear in this blog and on the SingPeace! website.

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Gary’s Caravan Dream

Here is your opportunity to participate in Gary Young's dream of a World Peace Caravan.

When I was in Arabia filming four years ago, I had a dream, which was connected to the Arabian research I had been doing that had resulted in my novel, The One Gift.

In this dream I saw the captains of three small caravans merge them into one. That caravan was headed to a city I thought was Bethlehem. When I had this dream, I thought, “Well, my goodness; how fun it would be to create a reenactment of the Three Magi taking gifts to the Christ child for Christmas in 2012.”

I shared my dream with my wife, and she said, “Yeah, Gary, get real; like you’ve got time for that.” So I put it on the back burner and never gave it much thought.

Then when we went back and were filming 3½ years ago, I had the dream again; and the dream took on a little more size, shape, and form. So I shared it with Mary again, and she said, “Oh come on, Gary; when are you going to do that?”

And I said, “Yeah, you’re right, honey.” So I put it on the back burner again.

Last June 1, I had just gotten off the phone talking to my friends Dr. Mahmoud Suhail in Oman and Dr. HK Lin in Oklahoma about our frankincense project and how they were both coming to our convention. I said, “After convention I’ll take you salmon fishing.” They were very excited.

I went to bed and dreamed about salmon fishing, even to the point where I’d hooked this big Chinook in the Salmon River, and it was taking line down the rapids. I was standing in the boat fighting this big salmon. The sun came out from behind a cloud and blinded me, and everything went absolutely white. I put up my hand trying to shade the sun out of my eyes, hang on to this salmon, and fight the line at the same time. All of a sudden the sun went behind a cloud, the light came out of my eyes, and I was able to see again. However, when I looked back to see where my line was, the river was gone, the line was gone, and there was a trail where the line used to be—and coming up the trail was a caravan.

The Caravan Dream Expands

Gary's dream continues and expands. He is now making it a reality. Come join the World Peace Caravan!

Well, that dream lasted for 2½ hours, and it wasn’t about a reenactment of the three magi. I saw six caravans merge, and later through the dream realized they were six of the religions of the world: Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Islam. They all merged into one caravan to forge a better future for the world’s children.

As I was watching this, all of a sudden I was on my horse and was leading the caravan. You know how dreams are; they always change. We camped at night, and the children played and ran through the tents and around the fires, yelling and playing and having a grand time. They all spoke the same language of friendship. People from every walk of life were sitting around the fires talking, and we had entertainment and special speakers from different religious groups, sharing, educating, and teaching.

The caravan entered Jerusalem at daylight as the sun was coming up, and the last person in the caravan entered Jerusalem as the sun went down. My dream had somehow switched from coming into Bethlehem to coming into Jerusalem. The caravan was over 5 miles long, with over 5,000 people in it. The next day, there was a three-day peace conference held in Jerusalem at the International Convention Center.

That dream is now going to become a reality; the event is going to take place in April of next year. We have an office, an 800 number, an advisory committee, and a director of the project, Jay Anderton.

I’ll tell you a little bit about how that happened. Before I went to Jerusalem, Mary asked, “What are you going to do in Jerusalem?”

I said, “I’ve got to find somebody to help me with the caravan.”

She then asked, “How are you going to do that?”

I replied, “Well, when I get there, I’ll figure it out.”

Finding Help in Jordan

While driving from Israel into Petra, I was thinking that I had to find somebody to help me in Jordan, so I decided to go to the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Having stayed there many times, I know a lot of people and thought maybe they would be able to direct me to someone who could help. However, when I arrived at the Crowne Plaza, it was closed for renovation.

So I drove back downtown. I hadn’t eaten so I pulled into another hotel and thought that it would probably have a restaurant, maybe a buffet, and sure enough there was a buffet. A gentleman greeted me and showed me to a seat. As he handed me the menu, he said, “How may I help you?”

I looked up at him and said, “As a matter of fact, you can help me. I need a man who knows the King of Jordan, a man who knows the Minister of Tourism, a man who speaks English, a man who knows camels, and a man who knows the history of frankincense—and I need a man who can help me with the Jordanian national television station.”

He blinked his eyes and stepped back and said, “Well, could I have a minute to make a couple of phone calls?”

I said, “Sure.”

I filled my plate at the buffet, sat down, and started eating. A man walked up to my table and said, “I understand you want to talk to somebody who knows about camels. I work in the Aqaba office, and my boss’s name is Omar. Omar has been a tour operator for 27 years, he speaks 5 languages, and he was an ambassador to the United States. He’s related to the king, and his sister works for the Jordanian national television station.”

Omar is now on our advisory committee.

Read more…

Encounter with the White Lion

10971370482?profile=originalMarah, white lioness, Timbavati, South Africa

ORDER OF THE WHITE LION

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The White Lioness, symbol of Sacred Activism, appeared in my meditation, blessing the SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony.  On the night of the Lunar Eclipse, I discovered the video conversation between Andrew Harvey & Linda Tucker, shaman and author of "Mystery of the White Lions: Children of the Sun God," learning from them, the role of the White Lion in our collective evolutionary metamorphosis.

The white lion is a rare breed, known in legend to reappear when humanity and Mother Earth are undergoing an "evolutionary metamorphosis." I was completely unaware of these lions, their message and their plight until joining a Stephen Dinan and Barbara Marx Hubbard on my first ever Shift Network call in October 2010. As a prelude to this course, Barbara talked about her book, "Emergence."

Though I'd heard her name as a "futurist" through the years, I wasn't drawn to look into her message. But some kind of activation was taking place within me as I stood, headphones on in my kitchen - it was dinnertime - nodding my head, "Yes. Yes. That's right, yes," I kept saying aloud. And, of course, I signed up for her upcoming course.

That was on a Thursday evening. On Friday, I would attend the Bioneers Conference via satellite. Bioneers' mission is "to inspire a shift to live on Earth in ways that honor the web of life, each other and future generations." My mission, the gypsy wagon journey of SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony, is an expression of a common desire to support this shift.

I awoke early Friday morning to meditate. Nodding out and in a meditative/dream state, I witnessed the following:

I am walking along a dirt road with a small group of people. One person, a tall man, is walking alongside me, his arm snugly around my shoulders. I don't look up to see who he is; instead, I ask telepathically. He tells me his name, "Larry," someone I know, and who I recognize in that moment as an "evolutionary partner," a suggestion from Barbara on the call.

Up ahead and standing at right angles across the path, is a white lioness, her head and eyes turned in our direction. A few paces in front of me and my friend is a stocky young man with a buzz cut and wearing a t-shirt. His pace has slowed. "He has a luger," my friend says quietly. Everyone takes an audible breath in and stops in their tracks as this young man takes aim at the lioness. Suddenly, I break free of my friend's arm. I can feel the fear for my safety from the crowd as I walk forward to engage the man with the gun in conversation. I have no recollection of our exchange, but it clearly diffuses a very tense situation. The young man is "disarmed," and does not shoot the lioness.


I arrived late to the second day of the Bioneers Conference, in time to hear these words: “The tale of the hunt glorifies the hunter, until the lioness tells her own story." The speaker, Elizabeth Kapu'uwailani Lindsey, was sharing her experience as an activist for climate refugees. She is an award-winning filmmaker and anthropologist who is also the first Polynesian explorer for National Geographic.


Then, I watched an online talk with Andrew Harvey author of, "Sacred Activism," in which he stated that the white lion is the symbol of "sacred activism." I recognized myself and my life purpose in that phrase, as it more nearly and neatly describes who and what I'm about than any other.

Barbara Marx Hubbard and the white lion, two rare breeds putting in an appearance at the same moment in time, the planets aligning, messengers forthcoming, all conspiring to ring the bell of my "calling"

Friends might laugh, not out of derision, but because they knew it all the time. I come from a long line of "activists," after all. I've been slow, aware of the tricks ego is bound to play and the folly of those who court power positions. Not a pretty sight anywhere in today's world.

While on that call with Barbara, I'd heard, once again, the deepest of all heart-longings: my wish to be "ordained," commissioned by the divine, for whatever I was meant to be and do in the world. I'd embraced the concept and path of "Sacred Activism," but I was not satisfied until I heard the lioness tell her story.

This, as it turns out, is not a metaphor. The white lion found me; and it keeps reappearing. I can't explain how I discovered the online video dialogue between Andrew Harvey, author of "The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism" and Linda Tucker, African Lion Shaman and author of "Mystery of the White Lions: Children of the Sun God." The two are setting up an Institute for Sacred Activism in South Africa.

In this dialogue, Linda Tucker points out that the white lions are here to assist in the evolutionary leap in consciousness. As "children of the Sun God," Kings of the Kings of the Beasts, they can and do ordain all actions which support Mother Earth and humanity's evolution.

What humanity needs now is a-lion-ment. Symbol of "Sacred Activism," the White Lion embodies the qualities of higher consciousness. The Seven Principles are Celebration, Oneness – One Mind, Love, Respect, Freedom, Peace, Courage.

Watch video:
Andrew Harvey : Author Scholar Mystic : Praise

Below is an introduction to a lion-hearted woman. She spoke during the 2010 Bioneer's Conference and helped to confirm my sense of having been "ordained" in my encounter with the White Lion.

Dr. Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey is the first Polynesian Explorer and female Fellow in the history of the National Geographic Society.  An anthropologist specializing in ethno-navigation, she is collaborating with Google and other strategic partners on a geospatial Map of the Human Story.  Based on the indigenous science of way-finding, the project is being constructed using a variety of methodologies.  The map will provide dynamic data of the human condition to help forecast emerging patterns worldwide.  Produced in a visually robust and universally accessible way, the map reflects Elizabeth’s commitment to serve all people.  Her work serves as the cornerstone of what will become a ‘cultural trust,’ a digital repository for present and future generations.

In 2011, Elizabeth embarked on a 186-day expedition to every continent to explore and document teachings critical to navigating the complexity of our times.  Her journey will result in  a multi-media platform of digital, television, publishing and live events.

The former Miss Hawai’i also works with United Nations Ambassadors on behalf of environmental refugees who are faced with the punishing realities of the climate crisis. A U.N. study predicts there will be as many as 50 million environmental refugees by 2012. There has been no other time in history where the fabric of the human story has been more vulnerable.

Elizabeth’s keen insight and first-hand accounts from the world’s most fragile regions make her international speaking engagements an inspiring call-to-action. She offers global audiences the rare invitation to experience unsung societies. Her expertise of native science and ancestral wisdom are helping reshape western perspectives.
On Elizabeth’s most recent expedition, she journeyed to Satawal, Micronesia where she recorded the traditions of the palu, Micronesian non-instrument navigators. Lindsey, who was raised by native Hawaiian elders, earned her doctorate in cultural anthropology specializing in  ethnonavigation. She spent almost ten years documenting master navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug who is considered the greatest wayfinder in the world. Her documentary film, “Then There Were None”, which chronicles the near extinction of native Hawaiians, is considered a Hawaiian history classic and has received numerous awards including the prestigious CINE Eagle. She has created scholarships for children in India and the Pacific and plans to expand her efforts this year. In 2004 she was named Woman of the Year in Hawai’i.
Elizabeth serves on the international boards of the Tibet Fund, Islands First, Blue Planet Foundation and is an advisor to the National Geographic’s Enduring Voices Initiative and the Paris-based NGO ProNatura.

Mapping the Human Story

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BePeace Foundations Course Retreat
International Peacemaker, Rita Marie Johnson

Whidbey Island, WA (north of Seattle)

August 1-4, 2011

Register Here: www.regonline.com/wi_bepeace

 

SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony, the Whidbey Institute and Aldermarsh are honored to host the BePeace Course and its founder, Rita Marie Johnson, offering a full-service retreat that includes accommodations and meals. Give yourself the gift of taking a "time out" from a too-busy life, to truly imbibe "BePeace".

BePeace is a 32-hour experiential course that teaches individuals of all ages easy-to-learn techniques to master the power of heart wisdom through scientifically proven methods, a practice which combines HeartMath, a biofeedback method for “feeling peace,” and Nonviolent Communication, for “speaking peace.” BePeace brings together the essence of each in a powerful, synergistic approach for increased effectiveness and creative, peaceful living. We are delighted that BePeace Foundations Course creator, Rita Marie Johnson, will be the instructor for the first of these courses offered in the Northwest region.

SingPeace! offers the "celebratory component" with singer/songwriters, Sharon Abreu and Mike Hurwicz.

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They will be joined by Songweavers, Laurence Cole, Aimee Kelley-Spencer and Aimee Ringle.10971369872?profile=original

BePeace creator, Rita Marie Johnson, has received acclaim as an international peacemaker. Founder of the Academy for Peace and the Rasur Foundation, in Costa Rica, Rita Marie has recently returned to the United States after 17 years. Since her return in 2009, Rita Marie has initiated BePeace in eleven states and in Canada, Europe and Central America. Rita Marie teaches at the United Nations University for Peace, is on the Advisory Board of the National Peace Academy, and she was a keynote speaker at the 2009 Student Peace Alliance Department of Peace Conference in Washington, D.C.


Retreat Package: Course, Meals and Accommodations:
*$850 until July 26
 

*Scholarships available for classroom teachers

*$625 for local participants not needing housing
Registration closes July 26

10971372479?profile=original

Read more…

Pillars of Peace

Our latest research report, the Pillars of Peace, explores the attitudes and institutions that underpin peaceful societies.

Published

10 Sep 2013

The Pillars of Peace is the latest ground breaking research from the Institute for Economics and Peace. The Pillars of Peace Report provides a new conceptual framework for understanding and describing the factors that are associated with peaceful societies. The research is based on an analysis of over 4,000 data sets, surveys and indices; it is the first empirical framework that aims to measure positive peace.  

The Pillars of Peace describe the attitudes, institutions and structures that are associated with peaceful societies.

Pillars of Peace

The research defines 8 key Pillars that underpin peace; these Pillars are both interdependent and mutually reinforcing, meaning that the relative strength of any one Pillar has the potential to either positively or negatively influence peace.

These Pillars are: a well functioning government, a sound business environment, an equitable distribution of resources, an acceptance of the rights of others, good relations with neighbours, free flow of information, a high level of human capital, and low levels of corruption.

Measuring positive peace

 

Peace is not just the absence of violence, it is much more. Peace is best understood through the concepts of "positive peace" and "negative peace". Negative peace is the absence of violence or the fear of violence; it is the definition of peace that we use in the Global Peace Index (GPI). Positive peace is the attitudes, institutions and structures, that when strengthened, lead to peaceful societies. 

The Pillars of Peace has been developed to measure the positive peace factors that create peaceful societies. These same positive peace factors are positively associated with development outcomes, and the flourishing of human potential. 

Launch of the Pillars of Peace Report

The Pillars of Peace report will be launched on the 10th of September with a panel discussion at the United Nations in Geneva. The discussion will use the report as a basis to explore a new approach for increasing resilience and well-being, and the necessity for positive peace to be included on the post-2015 development agenda.

Pillars%20of%20Peace%20Vision%20of%20Humanity.PNG?itok=pZ0XVFdj

Contact us

Vision of Humanity is an initiative of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). IEP have offices in New York and Sydney. For more specific inquiries related to the peace indexes and research, please contact IEP directly.

Media: media@economicsandpeace.org
Education: educators@economicsandpeace.org
Data request: info@economicsandpeace.org

Sydney Office

PO Box 42, St Leonards,
NSW 1590,
Sydney
Australia
Tel: +61 2 9901 8500

New York Office

3 East 54th Street
14th Floor
New York, New York 10022
USA
Tel: +1 (646) 963-2160

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/#/page/news/693
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SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony

Northwest Regional SingPeace! Earth Gym Quest
"CRAFTING A CULTURE OF PEACE"

Cultivating the Earth Soles

Singing the Soul's Song


SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony is welcoming groups to Questing Camps at Asherah, a lovely retreat site on on South Whidbey Island. The Gulf oils spill brought home the need for sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel consumption. Since the SingPeace! wagon needs a tow to move about the country, we've chosen to wait upon viable alternatives before making the journey.


In the meantime, growing in my mind and heart is the vision of bringing folks to Whidbey Island for a questing experience. As you may know, I have been training since December with the Barefoot Sensei, Mick Dodge, who has recently created a dojo (traning hall) on Whidbey Island. My goal from the beginning was to make the "Misty Mountain Quest," a journey that Mick, as a "foot fitness outfitter" guides into the Olympic Rain Forest. The quest, taken this summer, has brought me into a refreshing new relationship with the Earth. Life "makes sense;" it has been enriched and simplified since my return.


Additionally, I attended "Singing Alive," a summer harvest of sweet harmonies shared in community with singer/songweavers from our northwest region. I returned home feeling: we must keep these gatherings going throughout the year! Why not invite groups from around the region to participate together? Why not as often as once a month? These could be overnight or weekend events, with perhaps a longer gathering during the summer months. Mira Gulum said, "Yes!" to hosting them at Asherah.


Why not combine the Quest with the Song? They go together, after all, because from the "question" arises a heartfelt response that yearns to be shared and brought into harmony with others of our "tribe." Inherent in the song crafting and sharing of our songs lies a potent path to peace.


Our Earth Gym practices are all about crafting and weaving back into the earth: crafting the soles, crafting the sticks, the cowhide sandals and moccasins we sometimes wear, weaving with trees, toning with stone, finding our comfort zone in diverse, natural environments.Toning our bodies, minds and spirits, renews our relationship with ancestors, tribe and land. These six comprise a holistic practice that "makes sense." Training with the trees, the mountains, the river stones, the earth, water, fire, wind, until we recognize our unity within them. "ME" becomes "WE" and we find our way home.


Starting at Asherah as a "base camp" on Whidbey Island, we will quest and explore on foot to the east, west, north or south, asking the Earth to "teach me." Returning to camp to voice some aspect of that experience, we can try sounding, harmonizing, "Crafting a Culture of Peace."


At present, I am scouting to find out if any of you whom we've met on the SingPeace! and Earth Gym journey would like to participate. We need to hear from you!


For now, I will leave you with the poem crafted following my Misty Mountain Quest:

Blessings of the Misty Mountain Quest


In this Misty Mountain home,

Earth, tree, water, stone,

Sound in me an ancient tone,

Finding my comfort zone.



Rainforest mystery

'Mid giant majesty,

Soft-draped moss-strewn tapestry,

Finding their weave in me.



While in my hammock lay,

Bubbling river songs relay,

Dip naked: cool water, root, limb and clay,

Finding among them new ways to play.



In the misty morning air,

Kingfisher, eagle, songs we share,

Touch each stone and place with care,

Finding "stone family," I weep there.



Spot a lichen-coated driftwood shaft,

With saw and knife blade, a calming craft,

"Hoh H2O," my rain stick staff,

Finding a friend to foot the path.



On a Misty Mountain Quest

Exploring my comfort zone,

apart from the rest,

Winding upriver, silt-lined glacial pool, a test,

Finding my dance, in pure waters I'm blessed.



In a circle of sharing we are all bound

To story our quest, hidden secrets we've found.

Pulling food from our packs, we offer around,

Finding tribe among humans on this sacred ground.



In these encounters, I ask the Earth to"Teach me,

"Listening to understand with honor, humor, humility.

Heart open in a land unbranded by human greed,

Finding my home amid nature's ecstasy.


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2/7/10

Exuberant Animals

Here is another post borrowed from Maureen Freehill's MomoButoh blog. To see, read and enjoy more of her daily Butoh practice, visit her blog:

http://maureenfreehill.blogspot.com/2010/02/exuberant-animals.html







Barefoot Bard, Barefoot Sensei Mick Dodge, Walking Mountain Yoga, Training with the Elements, Exuberant Animal
Training
, No Child Left Inside! check out these links for awesome body training for health & fitness in direct connection with earth and
community.

Health and Exuberance Prescription to Take Daily:
Vigorous Physical Activity --- Real Food & Pure Water --- Outdoor Exposure in Nature --- Quality Sleep & Rest --- Positive Social Experience
---
Play and Good Humo
r --- Meaningful Engagement with the World -from the short form pamphlet for Exuberant Animal Movement
I met this amazing exuberant animal of a man yesterday hanging upside down by a strap from a picnic shelter on the beach. A friend of his had watched my daily dance with the newspaper on the beach and said it reminded her of the "Barefoot Bard" named Mick who I had to meet. Well, it was true. I was stunned by the liveliness and kinship I immediately shared with this passionate fellow. He quickly introduced and articulated an entire program of fitness training that centers around connection with the elements of nature as playmates and guides. It is always done barefoot and outdoors with simple objects like sticks and stones that can be found and made most anywhere. He also designs and makes these objects and special non-shoe barefoot coverings and leads trainings in this work. I felt I had stumbled upon a very familiar and somewhat more yang/active/masculine form of my daily dance practice. This system goes by a number of names. The pamphlets he handed me were from a Seattle based loose organization of trainers called "Exuberant Animal." It made more sense and inspired me more than any fitness program I have ever heard of. Other titles of his work include Walking Mountain Yoga where he takes trainees out into the clear cuts of the Hoh Rainforest and they interact with the stumps, logs, sticks and trees as teachers. They also do tree planting and forest restoration projects as training too. Neat!

I love the entire premise and practice of this work. It is a way to achieve physical vitality, lots of fun AND meaningful engagement with the natural world. They call it "proven countermeasures to the challenge of the modern world." It is unique also because along with training the traditional Body, Mind, Spirit, they include equally important training with the Land, Ancestors and Tribe. Wonderful! One of my favorite parts of the propaganda he gave me is the logo that graphically represents the purpose of this work as an infinity
symbol path. It traverses from the wilderness of the mountain through the village of community in the center and into the city of technology/culture/commerce and back again. It included ALL aspects our
current earth system in one gracefully simple balanced and dynamic image.

So, my daily dance today was to take the paper "menu" he had given me with the basic "Short Form" of the Exuberant Animal daily movement practice for "vitality and physical happiness." Before I looked at it, I handed it over to my friend to read aloud the instructions as he filmed my spontaneous responses to the cues. It was a super fun game and the way I interpreted some of the instructions turned out to be quite different from the diagrams on the page. This is another thing I love about this system--like butoh, it is totally flexible, playful and responsive to who, when, where and what is available at the moment. Really, the best way to tell about this whole movement is to show the videos. Below are three from Mick and Walking Mountain and my own playful interpretation with thanks to AL for filming and directions. Enjoy!
Today's Question: How do you train and get fit? Do include your local tribe, ancestors and land as part of your fitness routine? How?





videomusic by philip glass

http://maureenfreehill.blogspot.com/2010/02/exuberant-animals.html
Read more…

3/19/10

Sing Peace!






I believe that each and every one of us has a special calling and a unique role to play in this great emerging world. We will know it by our great desire and joy with embodying it. Some are brave and strong enough to answer this call with great passion and dedication. Dear Pushkara Sally Ashford is one of those people; a singing grandmother who wants nothing more than to make Peace on Earth a reality for her progeny and many generations to come. She is called to spread peace is through a pilgrimage of song, dance, communal gatherings and celebration in and around a beautiful hand made gypsy wagon that she designed to become a center-peace for SingPEACE gatherings and events in the Northwest and beyond.

This afternoon Pushkara; her son Dave visiting from Woodstock, NY; Mick Dodge the Barefoot Sense Say; Charlie the dog and I gathered to make song, dance and film at her new gypsy wagon. It is an exquisite work of art and so inspiring in the late afternoon sunlight at her home overlooking Puget Sound and Mt. Tahoma to the south. The wagon is parked next to a great grandmother Big Leaf Maple with a Buddha face peering out of its side. Below the tree is the grave of Pushkara's beloved dog, Miwa. It is truly a place of peace and
grace that I felt honored to dance upon. We began with the song "I'm On My Way" from the back of the wagon. This seemed so appropriate because
we all are pilgrims on our respective paths moving on our way toward Peace and Global Harmony. When asked what she would like to happen with
this pilgrimage she said she would like to encourage those she meets to find their own sources and stories of peace. Mick had brought out a number of his hand crafted staffs and training items and I danced with them while Pushkara sang, Uncle Dave drummed and Mick filmed and interviewed us. Such a joyous & peaceful way to celebrate this last day of winter together!

I will add another daily dance film we made with the grandmother maple tree to this post soon. For now I just want to get this first one out into the world asap because Pushkara & Co. are heading to a big peace rally in Seattle and an event with Congressman Jim Mcdermott at Town Hall in honor of her mother's lifetime of activism on Sunday 3/21...This is the maiden voyage for the SingPeace wagon to the big city. I wish them all the best and hope I can join them the next time round. For me, Sunday will be an Equinox celebration of pole dancing--to hopefully finish stripping thelast 11 poles for the new tipi.

What is your calling? What are inspiring sources and stories of Peace and Harmony in your life? Are dance, song, craft, beauty, travel and creative collaboration sources for peace in your life?

Thanks for watching. Enjoy!
video


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3/18/10

Fuji Stick & Stones











Yesterday I received a transmission from Mick Dodge the "Barefoot Sense Say" about training and connecting with sticks and stones. He then graciously gave me an object that brought tears of gratitude and joy to my eyes as he encouraged me to begin to practice with it. The object is a walking stick that was carried by foot up Mount
Fuji. It was branded at each station on the way up to remember the journey (see video of entire stick below). Today's daily dance lasted at least 20
minutes, so this 5 min edited version is longer than the usual film but I wanted to give a sense of the energy that builds through this kind of
training. It feels so inspiring and effortless to keep lifting, moving and building strength. Because I am working outdoors with natural
materials I also gather energetic support of surrounding elements and living things as well as the Earth itself; especially when I am barefooted. I am really so excited to be moving toward a new and unexpected level of strength, flexibility and balance by including these new practices in my daily butoh training. Thanks again Mick!

Recently I heard of research stating that being barefoot and "earthing," in footwear that is not rubberized like skin moccasins or felt bottomed shoes, tends to neutralize the harmful effects of all the EMFs from electronic equipment we are
inundated with these days (cell phones, computers, electric appliances, etc.). This, added to the building craze (even in Harvard research now) that recognizes the benefits of barefoot running and exercise for the body, are making being barefoot (or in footwear that is nearly bare) more and more appealing. Since I lived many years in Japan and Hawaii, I already take my shoes offindoors. Now, being around Mick and the springtime is reminding me of this regularly, so I am being shoe free outdoors more and more often these days....Hooray!

As you probably know if you follow the blog, I tend to be a very free form mover and definitely believe in letting the soul move first and the body follow. Actually, this is some of the most soulful and freeing body strength training I have
experienced; even considering the very rigorous body training I have done with Jingju Bejing Opera, Body Weather and other butoh teachers.
Mick's transmission with metal, stone and wood objects was to create a pattern and repeat it then release it--literally let the object fly out
of your control. That is powerful really, the body knows and grows from this type of patterned movement repetition as we well know because we
learn to crawl, walk, run, etc. Of course this is also old news to the folks who lift weights in gymnasiums but it is totally different practicing reps with Mick. He invites you to freely choose the movement pattern then repeat it a few times till it is well established in your body and finally release the object (rock, stone, stick, etc.) you are moving with and open to even more freedom than before. Suddenly because of the contrast, you feel lighter and freer than before you did the lifting. If you love something set it free! He calls the training items "mass" rather than "weights" because he feels each different material has a totally different lesson to teach and way of moving. I totally
agreed and felt huge difference immediately with how I was moved by metal balls, the carved stones, the wooden sticks and the stones that
were not carved. Many people who train with weight believe; the higher number of pounds that you can lift up means the stronger you are. I now
experience and agree that the measurable weight alone can not determine how strong you will get. The various materials, how close or far and
with what (hands, feet, mouth, etc) you hold them in relation to your body; the directions you move; and so much more each contribute to overall fitness.

And as for that stick gifted from Mick and Fuji San...WoW. I am very humbled, grateful and inspired by it. I read this article and saw these pics from a climb by blogger Andy Gray
and it has me even more grateful. I hope my practice with this stick can
do the gift justice. Thank you all.

Thanks for watching. Enjoy!
videomusic: Ustad Ali Akbar Khan
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Namaste, SingPeace! friends,
With the SingPeace! gypsy wagon on the road, we are counting in smiles, not miles. As the journey begins, each of our recent short trips with the wagon has had a celebratory air, full of surprise encounters, challenges and fun.



Steve Habersetzer, the master craftsman who built the wagon, kindly towed the wagon across the water with his '57 Chev pickup. We've posted photos of Steve and Susan Leinbach, the seamstress who stitched the lovely interior furnishings - cushions, pillows, duvet cover, curtains and flouncy valance - for the wagon. We were met at the Port Townsend ferry dock with smiles, curiosity and comments of well-wishers: niece, Gabriella Ashford, and her three children, Ella, Nathaniel and Everest rode their bikes down to see us off. Deborah Shomer, one of our singing angels, was on hand to bless our launch. Richard Rhydes and Richard Epstein, members of the Whidbey Island cheering section for the SingPeace! project since the outset, happened along at just the right moment, on their way to a sushi lunch and a movie at the Rose, a charming Port Townsend theater.

Once on the ferry, Steve went over key points of the wagon's working systems, which I'd piled into a kind of manual. Propane, the tiny hearth and cook stove, water, outdoor shower, composting toilet, hitching mechanism: these were clearly going to take more than a cursory once-over, but there was no time like the present to begin learning what I'd need to know when we're the road.

I was reminded of bringing my first-born home from the hospital. 'My God,' I thought, 'what an awesome responsibility this is. And it's my call!' Birthing the wagon from conception and design, and nurturing every phase of it's construction to get to this point, was nothing compared to actually being charged with its daily feeding and care.

On the Keystone side, I jumped in my car to lead Steve and the wagon to Yoga Lodge. We were slow going on the highway, 40 mph in a 55 mph zone; I pulled to the shoulder a couple of times to let traffic go by. But the red sports car in my rear view mirror didn't pass with the other cars. What was that about? I finally got a view of the "Exuberant Animal" sign posted on the car's passenger door. Mick Dodge, the Barefoot Sensei, was bringing up the rear. He'd come to welcome the wagon home! Our little caravan made its way with ease and grace the short distance to Yoga Lodge, with one hitch: Steve's truck could not haul the wagon up the steep rise in the soft surface of the road. We tried 3 times and spun out 3 times. We all agreed, it would take a 4-wheel drive truck to get up the hill. We had to unhitch in the lot below and leave the wagon for the time being.

That same afternoon, I met with Wendy Dion and her husband, Dan, attending to other matters - namely, connecting up the projector and speakers for the film: "Sound of the Soul," which we planned to show as part of our homecoming program. Technology got the better of us; we would have to to work out the kinks with expertise none of us had. That, too, would have to wait for another day. Wendy agreed to take that bit on.

Fortunately, we had the cushion of another day or so to work out the wrinkles in our plans. Richard Epstein, who is a local contractor, wasn't expecting my SOS call for a tow, but he and Greg, one of his crew members, met me at lunchtime. We (they) managed to hitch the gypsy wagon to Richard's 4-Wheel drive truck. That was all we needed to get my 3500-lb. baby up the hill and in place for the weekend. Richard and Greg had some great practical suggestions to me about hitching and unhitching for the long-term as we get out on the road.

By the next day, Wendy had worked out the film projection dilemma. We'd also found a solution to transportation questions. We'd rent a shuttle to make the 2-mile trip from the Park & Ride to cut down on traffic and parking volume on the private road to the Yoga Lodge. This latter turned out to be a non-problem, but the article, "Giving Peace a Chance," in the newspaper announcing our coming had stirred some alarm among Wendy and Dan's neighbors; we were in "peace-making mode" on all counts.

Our homecoming at Yoga Lodge was to be a two-day encampment, with our out-of-town guest singer-songweavers, Laurence Cole, Rob Tobias and Sara Tone and friends staying overnight at the Lodge. We would be serving a few meals for program contributors on the weekend. Having worked out details of the menu beforehand with Wendy Dion - I would take the dinner meal. Wendy, with her Bed and Breakfast expertise, would handle the morning. What a bargain! Much relieved by the easing of various hitches and glitches, I went home to cook.

My daughter, Wendy Ashford, who has kindly photographed and helped to video the SingPeace! events, came up from Seattle on Friday night. Deborah Shomer arrived to help around noon on Saturday. Laurence Cole and his partner, Deanna Pumplin, already on the island, stopped in to say hello. Dizzied by details, but with the help of a thorough list and two able helpers - Deborah, Wendy - I (we) managed to pack up the car and get on the road in good time.

Next stop, the car rental place where we rented the van that Deborah offered to drive up island. It would serve as shuttle. Deborah and another friend, Lee Compton, agreed to make alternating runs. We had folks on the road, as well, directing drivers away from the private road to the Park and Ride. Making peace is not a pastime; we were quite literally going the extra mile to keep it.

By dinnertime, the cast of thousands was assembled. Wendy Dion had enlisted some competent volunteers to help out in the kitchen, and in other ways. We gathered around the table, about 14 of us, for a welcome and blessing - going around the circle, singing our names and hearing them echoed back several times by a musical, if goofy, choir of voices.

Having ample time to settle in, laugh, sing, to warm to each other, and to share food together are luxuries that I want to nurture as part and parcel of the SingPeace! journey. Nothing hurried; at ease and in harmony, on the ground and in good company wherever we go: these are pieces of the peace inside of the huge commitment and effort that comes with making such a pilgrimage. Not exclusive to those who came together around the table that evening, we seek to embrace in harmony and joy those we meet.

More than that, we have talked long about how folks should be able to take something home with them that they can share with their families and communities. While our "Songs for a Culture of Peace" -- those shared this weekend by Laurence, Rob and Sara -- hint at what it could mean to live in unity with nature - our own and our Earth Mother's, I have to ask: "Why am I not singing my song?" I want to hear everyone's voice; I want to hear everyone's song and story.

The great spur for me in making the SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage is a yearning and call that never went away - to sing out and to tell my story. This blogpost is yet another attempt. Among those who know my story of having searched for my voice for decades, I find more and more are seeking and finding their own voices. "You may not know the impact you're having," one person told me, "but because of what you're doing, I found my voice today."

I'm not interested in spectatorship. We've lived too long listening to other people's songs and forsaken our own. SingPeace! is a collaborative effort to reawaken and rejoice in each other's song.

You can see from the Yoga Lodge photo albums that we hosted a small but enthusiastic crowd both days. I saw sheer delight in their eyes as we sang together on Saturday night. At the end of the evening, we showed clips from the Sacred Music Festival from Fes, Morocco. Sunday got a lazy start, but Mick Dodge enlivened the afternoon miming a computer "powerpoint" presentation. Half of the group stayed inside to sing while the other barefoot bunch followed Mick outside for Earth Gym practices with sticks, stones and tree weaving. I got a chance to do a little of both, hanging upside down from a tree for the first time! Thanks to Marianne Aylmer, who was along to help, I made a safe, if somewhat ungracious, descent. A less happy fate fell to 4-year-old Everest, who in the photo is seen flipping and rubbing his noggin.

I haven't said much about the gypsy wagon. There was a moment on Saturday afternoon, as we were setting up, that I pulled out my guitar and sang a blessing I'd learned in India. Laurence happened along with his drum. A few others were about. I watched Mick do a little celtic whirl as he danced down the path. Over the course of the weekend, the wagon was explored and crawled about by all in attendance, with much appreciation for the craftsmanship, beauty and sheer fun of it.

I haven't yet mentioned Kevin Rio Kipur who offered to haul the wagon with his 4-wheel truck. Rio is the perfect driver, experienced and fun. He throws his arm out the window, his fingers forming the victory sign, shouting, "Peace!" More about Rio in a later post, but you'll see him in the photos with the kids and his dog.

At the end of the second day, it took a while for our band to gather together, but we caravanned in the late afternoon into the center of town in Freeland, sang a few songs, met some old friends, and gave some tours of the gypsy wagon. Then, we drove into Langley, the sweetest little seaport town on Puget Sound. By now, it was getting late and cold. There was no legal way to park, so we pulled up in an intersection. While Rio kept his eyes out for the sheriff (he's been arrested in Langley for skateboarding on the street), the songs of Sara, Rob, Laurence and Deborah attracted a small group of tourists from India who ran over to us and began dancing around the gypsy wagon. They had a quick tour as we shared some memories of Mumbai and the Indian state of Maharashtra. Then, we were off!

The last feat of the evening was Rio's skillful hauling and unhitching of the gypsy wagon - in the dark - at my home. In all of the months of building, I'd never once imagined this moment. I live at the foot of a very steep hill. I had no plans to bring the wagon to my house. I had no plan for it anywhere on Whidbey Island! In my mind's eye, it and I would always be on the road.

Not so fast. The dream is one thing; the physical reality of having this wagon, what to do with it and how to do it is a different matter entirely. Every day reminds me of that. This is another wake up call - one that I hear and am responding to. I'm finding the courage and stamina to take the next step and the next as the vision moves from dream to actuality.

More to come in further posts, but let me not forget to thank you, all of you, who are participating in this SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony. I am much humbled and very grateful for your presence. The journey is ours; we make it together. Bless you.

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10971370277?profile=original

Singer/songwriters, Sharon Abreu and Mike Hurwicz will be in residence for the BePeace Course Retreat, August 1-4. Register for course: www.regonline.com/wi_bepeace.

Sharon & Mike's website: http://www.irthlingz.org/irthlingz/

10971369872?profile=originalSongweavers, Laurence Cole, Aimee Kelley Spencer and Aimee Ringle will join us for singing 'n mingling around the SingPeace! wagon, Wednesday evening, August 3. http://www.laurencecole.com/songweavers.html

She looked around to see where in the world an army didn’t exist.

It was Costa Rica. So that’s where American peacemaker Rita Marie Johnson settled down 15 years ago to begin her quest to change the world.

Johnson is the director of the Rasur Foundation International and the founder of the Academy for Peace for which she developed the “BePeace Foundations Course.” She brings her teachings to Whidbey Island for a retreat at the Whidbey Institute at Chinook from July 31 through Aug. 4.

One of the program hosts, SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony founder and island resident Pushkara Sally Ashford said the program seeks sponsorships in order to send local teachers and community members to the BePeace Foundations Course at the institute’s Clinton campus.

The program has been taught widely in schools in Costa Rica since 2004 and is now moving into the United States. Rasur Foundation International aims to train educators in the BePeace method who, in turn, can train other teachers, students and parents in their local communities. The BePeace Course strives to equip people to use skills to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner, while also providing life skills for making positive choices in general.

In Costa Rica, Johnson was able to influence lawmakers to establish the Ministry for Justice and Peace.

Also, since returning to the United States in 2009, she has taught at the National Academy for Peace in Shelburne, Vt. and in other locations around the country, including a model school program in Denton, Texas. The course in August will be the first in the Northwest region.

Ashford is excited by the prospect of creating a “BePeace” community on Whidbey Island.

“SingPeace! co-coordinator Julie Vosoba and I took the course with Rita Marie Johnson in Santa Cruz in April,” Ashford said.

The two singers have been spreading the word about the Whidbey Institute course ever since and stressed the celebratory component of SingPeace! that includes their fellow singer-songweavers who will share the experience at the institute. To that end, they have planned a pre-retreat meeting at Unity Church in Langley so folks can acquaint themselves with the practices of the BePeace program.

The meeting is from 7:30 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, June 28 at the church at 5671 Crawford Road. The goal is to eventually hold an ongoing series of classes designed for adults, families and children.

“Long-term, we plan to form a BePeace hub here on Whidbey that will ripple the methods for feeling, speaking, teaching and singing peace out into the community,” Ashford said.

It is not an unlikely vision as Johnson’s methods are meant to resonate with people from all walks of life and all ages.

The practice combines a scientifically proven method for “feeling peace” with a clear path for “speaking peace” that creates a compassionate connection to other people. The idea is a sort of “pay-it-forward” model, creating a continuum of non-violent behavior from one person to the next. Johnson says there are two skills that are essential for achieving a nonviolent way of life. One is an emotional skill, “feeling peace,” defined as the ability to remain peaceful under stress.

The other is a social skill, “speaking peace,” which is the ability to communicate empathically and honestly to others.

“Peace infrastructure is a new concept,” Johnson said.

“We have infrastructure for war — why wouldn’t we have infrastructure for peace?  It’s so important to the well-being of our children.”

Her program has been extremely successful in Costa Rica. The Academy of Peace, where the program was first implemented, won the Changemakers Innovation Award: Building a More Ethical Society, and the Costa Rican Ministry of Education decided to implement BePeace in the national school system.

As an international peacemaker, Johnson has presented BePeace workshops in eight states and in Canada, Europe and Central America and at the United Nations University for Peace. In 2006, she completed a speaking tour in Japan on Costa Rica as a model of peace and in 2007, she served on the plenary panel “Women of Power” at the International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas. That same year she was the keynote speaker for the World Day of Prayer at Unity Village, Mo.

Johnson was also instrumental in creating the National Peace Academy of the USA at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ashford, who built a SingPeace! caravan in which she lives when traveling to spread her musical message of peace, is excited by the prospect of leading the community on such a journey.

“It’s the nature of pilgrimage that you never know exactly where it will lead,” Ashford said.

“This one is a collaborative effort that has brought many elements; many ‘pieces of the peace’ together. BePeace is the latest addition to the journey and one that presents a clear path and steps toward peace,” she said.

The course is hosted by SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace & Global Harmony, the Whidbey Institute and Aldermarsh/Marsh House Retreat Center.

The Whidbey Institute BePeace Foundations Course is from 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 31 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4. An early registration discount of $100 is available before July 1. To register visit www.regonline.com/wi_bepeace or call 341-1884. The Whidbey Institute at Chinook is located at 6449 Old Pietila Road in Clinton.

http://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/lifestyle/124319498.html

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Costa Rica disbanded its army in 1949, just a few years after the poem "Rasur or "Week of Splendor" was written in Spanish by Roberto Brenes Mesén. This prophetic poem, translated to English, tells the story of a master teacher, Rasur, who enters a mountain village and awakens the children to the ways of peace. The children's relationship with Rasur, opens the way to peace among all of the villagers. The poem became the basis of a proven, skills-based method for peacemaking now taught in the public schools and at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica.

10971369859?profile=originalhttp://rasurinternational.org/documents/poem.pdf

I
Facing the town of Escazu,
among the emerald hills, hidden,
we found the village of Quizur.
Something really strange has happened
in this humble village:
from each crack of the old walls
rays of the purest gold are glowing,
the wind goes back and forth
joyful in the golden light
of the most exhilarating and bluest sky,
moistening our eyes with the sweetest
nectars.
As if enchanted, the mountain sings
with its crystal voice,
with the help of the tumbling waters
that come downhill, twittering along.
There is a melodious rumor,
so distant, so sweet,
just like a breeze 
playing
with the flutes in the fronds,
over the valleys and the hills.
II
The children from this village,
and the children from vacationing families,
they have all met here, this morning,
and they have gotten lost,
beyond the deepest valleys, in the hills
bathed with splendor and turquoise lights.
Julian, the painter.
David, the mystic writer of tales,
and Servulus, too.
They have all parted.
They followed the paths which end
by the banks of the river.
Damian, the engineer.
Armando, the town’s judge.
Benjamin, the ox­ driver.
They all followed the paths through the woods,
heading for the hills.
Spread throughout the forest,
women call out the children by their names.
Only the leaves, like tongues, rustling on the trees,
answer their calls with slow and deep voices,
as if a chorus of echoes
repeated their cries at a distance.
The forest is no solitary place,
it is the divine mansion of magic deities,
who are always busy preparing
the magic brews, the fragrances,
the subtle virtues of the herbs,
the many tastes and syrups made with fruits.
Then they give them to the birds,
to men, and to themselves;
Thus they live surrounded by honey and perfumes.
But this morning the dryads' voices
are louder than the wind's:
you can almost see their white voices
entangled with the vines,
like climbing tresses aiming at the peaks.
Damian now presses on his march,
he calls his friends' attention.
Then they hear a chorus of children.
The children they are searching,
the children they cannot see...

The voices drift through the darkest pines.
The ox­ driver is restless.
He has never heard of
either cave or grotto large enough to hold so many children.
The Justice reassures him, then:
"If they are singing, they are well.
Magical shepherds guard over the flocks of children on this earth,
since they are the flowers of eternal beauty,
the flowers of truth and goodness."
Damian noticed a little hut uphill and he headed towards it.
Benjamin could not recall that hut but then, as they got nearer,
the three men felt the strongest magnetic force which held them to the ground,
as if with many intangible chains.
They could not move.
They looked at each other in astonishment.
The three of them, transfigured,
without really understanding, apprehended and grasped the truth:
they were stepping into a forbidden circle.
At a distance, next to the hut,
they were able to see a reposing silhouette,
as if carved from light itself:
The same light which was now
spreading upon the forest.
It seemed to come from inside the mountain.
They felt a sensation of not belonging to the world;
their most subtle sensations floated to the surface
A world of visions and enchantment came alive.
Coming from underground
the children's voices were flying like birds and they were singing songs
of the bluish dawn breaking in the forest.
All the villagers were running to the mountains,
their souls were exalted.
But none of them could cross
the line separating that world of mystery,
from this other world of things,
that is unable to express,
like us,
their deepest feelings.
The tongues of the leaves became silent once more.
Only Silence itself with its mossy feet, was stepping over the forest floor back and forth,
but leaving everything in perfect neatness,
as if the forest was an altar.
The radiant figure in front of the hut, suddenly interrupted its rest:
and then a point of light seemed to move:
The hamadryads rose to their lips,
the horns that were hidden in the vines,
and the music of the wind spread all over;
Wise and witty was their melody,
full of youth and human kindness.
Absorbed, as if entranced,
the visitors heard inside their minds,
a revelation of intimacies,
secrets known only to themselves.
It was an invitation to invade
each chamber of remembrances.
It was a call to consciousness itself
in order to evoke the images of dreams, in order to judge reality
while lying among the leaves and the vines.
But, since time is the creation of men, nobody knew for how long
this enchantment flowed from their own souls.
Suddenly they were awakened
by the repeated singing
from Dryads and children
throughout the enchanted woods.
It was for the first time
the villagers had ever felt inside their minds
the discovery of a totally unexpected, interior kingdom of light and ideas,
Their first primal thought blossomed that day.
Damian and the Judge were calling out to the children.
Nonetheless, their calls were only raindrops
over the darkened hair of the stormy night.
The flocks of children seemed
to get together and then to separate:
they seemed more obedient to an unknown call
than to their own wills.
Then the villagers began to recognize the only word
which was coming out of the children's row:
“Rasur! Rasur! Rasur!”

III
Evening,
wearing her robe of most splendid blue,
lies over the hills and is observed from the village:
David and Julian, Damian and Armando, they are talking,
it is more a soliloquy than a conversation.
They feel their souls as if they were vases bursting with clear water;
they would express their feelings
in one single, soft outburst of their breasts,
as water being emptied into the earthen container at the well.
Then David says:
"Today you cannot complain
that my tales are pure fantasy;
your eyes have observed,
your hearts have responded
to the calls of vision and have felt
the illusion and the rapture."
Even Benjamin, the ox­ driver,
was transformed, and so he said:
"The words coming from Rasur
are fireflies shining in the dark,
enlightening my mind as never seen before;
I do not understand what is happening inside me:
I am another Benjamin
and for the first time I am discovering within myself another Benjamin,
more powerful and real then the other one,
who was a mere illusion.”
"Around Rasur," states Julian,
"the light seems whiter, the air purer,
his eyes seem to read from the deepest waters,
the ground, the light, the air;
and his gestures and his words surround you in mystery
and go deep into your thoughts.
He provokes a feeling
of being initiated into the occult,
as David used to tell us
when he read the Iambic and the Proclus.
Rasur is a source of miracles and a miracle:
The effects of his acts go far beyond
the expectations of the artist or the mechanic.”
Then Julian extracted green gemstones
from his pocket,
and showed them to his friends,
"These are the work of Rasur,
Myria, my daughter, told me,
as she has learned from Rasur
in the grotto,
when his figure glowed with a light
coming from inside his body
which has cleared the darkness there,
in the enchanted cave:”
She said to me:
"The luster of the green leaves
was made of earth and sun,
is made of air, of water and life,
is made with the air's life,
with the water's life,
is made of earth, sun and fire,
because everything in this world
comes from the divine mind,
and it is the essence of the world's life.
Our own hands may heal,
because they possess the healing powers found in the roots of plants:
they may heal, they may poison,
they may kill, and alleviate,
and soothe and provide exaltation,
they may turn the ground into
brilliant luster, shining in the sun.
Look at the tree: it changes
the dark matter in the soil
into shining green leaves, and yet
you do not consider the tree
to be a miracle.
I do as the tree does:
I provide a certain glow to the pebble that tomorrow shall be dust or soil.
The Dryads who taught its tasks to the tree,
taught me as well, and they shall teach you, too,
if you should obey their Call."
Then Armando exclaimed:
"I sense a bit of paganism
in what Myria has just told us,
and also in what I hear from Grisda. Rasur has told them
the immortals never forget whom they have loved:
If we creatures of the flesh do forget our love
then it was never a true love:
they called love what was desire,
that vanishes into thin air
after it reaches the object of its lust. True love is born within the soul,
in  the divine mind,
and it is the essence of the world's life.
it travels with the soul as its companion,
and it searches for the beloved beauty and finds it, at last, next to itself,
within the soul."
Grisda, my daughter, has affirmed this with such certitude,
that my own son Florio, smiling, incredulous
has asked her: "Then, who is Rasur?"
"Who he is I do not know,"
she answered, “But when I look at him, adoration is what I feel.
In his presence my ideas
struggle in turmoil,
and I am a goddess,
hovering over the ground
When I find myself in Rasur's World,
my life is like the lark in the fields,
soaring from the earth up into the sky, at daybreak.
We youngsters all become older,
and good and so beautiful,
we believe ourselves to be angels.
When Rasur speaks to us
and tells us that we are all imprisoned gods,
not one of us is coveting a doubt.
Rasur penetrates into our thoughts,
as if they were halls of his own home; we do what he wishes,
we feel happy to do what is pleasing us.
Next to Rasur we live not in obedience as he does not command us,
because his will is ours."

Florio was mocking no more. Then, he asked me:
"What is your opinion of all this? Julian, I await your answer."
"I cannot answer you, for the time being, because brilliant sparks
are lighting in my mind,
and answers you shall see
in my paintings, in my landscapes.
Today I have learned to paint;
I shall paint as never before.
Today I learned that light itself
is the container of the very essence of Divinity,
that it creates reality and illusion in this world.
Out of Nature's imagination
come flowing the forms, the colors, the ideas conceived and expressed
in light, in lines, in the shapes:
they all come out in the form of satyrs,
they all hide in themselves the divinity,
they provide the world with sense and beauty.
Without their divine core,
like drawings in the breeze they would be..."
At that very moment, a beautiful girlish voice was heard,
it came from the garden across the path,
and the girl was leading a bunch of village children.
None in the group of friends could recognize the girl;
they had never seen her before, but delighted,
they listened to her clear voice explain:
"In the presence of Rasur, our minds are set on fire,
the ideas turn to amber. When he leaves all remains as glowing coals
under a veil of ashes.
In silence he talks to us,
in silence we see his mind and his love.
You already know how he reaches
our deepest thoughts,
as he enters our souls
as you enter the aisles of a church
as you go along through the paths in the meadows.
In the presence of Rasur,
all is beauty, all is ease;
our fingers turn into ten little fairies,
creating shapes and colors around them,
giving life to them with their touch.
Flowing from his eyes,
is medicine and magic:
a powerful evocation
calling up a swarm of memories, a turmoil of impressions
which used to dwell in limbo, where things left no trace,
if they ever were things.
We are empty caves through which He runs carelessly,
and we cannot help it:
we are His;
as the mango seed is to its fruit,
as the wing is to the bird.
He just taught us last night
that deep in the soul of the Earth
Paradise Lost becomes eternal reality;
that we may reach that Eden
by following the paths which extend throughout our own selves.
We know the guardians
in the mountains of Quizur,
from the Miner's Stone
to the lower slopes
which end just in front
of the church in Escazú.
We shall never be alone,
in the hills and forests
of these magic mountains.
The guardian rangers of these woods are all friends of Rasur's;
they have also become our friends. Their bright shapes intertwine
with the many other shapes at twilight. No one will deem them real beings.
But you know reality is not what it appears to be.
Yesterday Rasur called to us:
"I create as the tree does,
from the darkened earth I start,
leaves and flowers begin to grow,
and the delightful fruits as well.
From what you call darkness precious gems I make:
gilded stones glowing under the light of the cave.
Once a silkworm a loom
from the lilies stole:
But, I do not need to steal a loom
to render thoughts
where I knit the finest cloth;
where I paint the landscapes
and create the earth, the skies,
the souls of those who worship me,
and even the souls of gods I sometimes visit,
bidding you farewell and leaving...
Surya, the twelve­-year­-old sorcerer, interrupted that moment,
and with the voice of an exalted Muse exclaimed:
"I am perceiving the call of Rasur. Look at the top of the hills!
The Guardians have lit the little hut; the entrance to the grotto!”
Suddenly, springs and waterfalls of joy
came down the hills.
All the children of Quizur began to climb,
and chanted:
Rasur! Rasur! Rasur!
The call was expanding through the dales,
as trumpets sounded played by the Dryads,
hidden in the wind.
Each one heard his own name distinctly pronounced in the wind:
It was that loving voice!
The voice they had heard that very morning in the cave!
IV
"Something great is happening,
in the village of Quizur,"
Said Julian to his friends,
and to the many neighbors
who came to express their
feelings and their concerns.
"Be happy", he reassured them,
"Joy is coming down the hills,
joy from an Enchanted Child."
"I have been thinking
that like Rasur,
there was also Krishna, the Worshiped Child of India.
Krishna, like Rasur did,
has called upon the children,
to fill their minds with images of things to come.
The gods go deep into the spirit of men,
to find a place where divine will may grow
and flourish in the world of the future.
It is through Man that deities create the Universe.
It is in each of you that I discover a golden thread
among the ordinary colorless threads in the fabric of life.
Look: the twilight seems like a broken wire frame
where beautiful rags hang, illuminated with strange lights,
an eerie luminescence now mixed
with our everyday sunlight,
an unknown clarity coming from the deity our children call Rasur.
You already know
that gods sometimes appear to us dressed in the poorest rags,
like the fairies do to meet you on the road.
Sometimes they also turn into a beautiful child
and leave men awestruck.
Saint Augustine, one day,
looking across the Mediterranean Sea,
exerted all his efforts in order to comprehend
the infinite power of God and His infinite wisdom.
Suddenly there appeared a child,
and with a seashell he carried ocean water
to a little well he had dug in the sand.
Slowly, he went on with his duty.
The Saint came to him and asked
what was he doing.
“Inside this little well I want to pour the ocean,”
he replied.
“Impossible that is”, the Saint replied.
“I am doing just as you have done,” said the child,
“I am pouring an infinite amount of water within the limits of a hole;
just as you try to enclose God
inside your mind.”
Look at the hills again!
The little hut at the top is shining,
as brilliant as a crystal reflecting fire.
The luminous shape walks around the hut
like a protecting deity: our children are safe!"
V
Julian is painting;
through his improvised workshop's window
one can see the mountain,
now called the Mountain of Rasur. Julian's palette was like a garden
where one could only see
the wild colors of the tropical forest.
The artist looked at the landscape
and then he painted,
as if he did not have a canvas before him.
He used his brushes as if they were needles,
he embroidered the contours of his drawings:
the little hut, the shining guardian,
the mountain itself,
all bathed in amber light.
Each new stroke on the canvas seemed to add
a torrent of fresh light.
One could almost see the landscape coming through the window,
as the spiritual vision of the horizon,
adhering itself to the artist's brush,
getting colors and infiltrating the artist's mind and eyes.
Each individual line of the painting seemed to attain
an extra-sensorial conception:
each stroke looked forward to the next, holding each other like sisters.
This exhilarating race with the brush was the artist’s delight at every hour,
each color incarnated a new experience of spiritual intimacy,
an image, an emotion,
all of them surging
from the unknown abodes of his inner self, until that day.
Everything was then revealed to him,
as if he were looking in the mirror of nature,
at that place where images are born for the happy reality of living things.
He painted as in ecstasy, a dream of many things,
trees, hills, the little hut, the wandering clouds
under the splendid morning sky.
When he removed the brush, after that last stroke,
the canvas seemed to him
the masterwork of another,
something like the expression of ideas
which are always found around the hills,
as if they were the winged fragments of divine truths,
perceived from the heights,
at that long­awaited hour when the deities
favor us with their divine wisdom and sweet inspiration.
Even more astonished was the artist
after looking at the wild dances of lines and colors,
since it was the same as the rhythm which was bursting in his soul
and slowly flowed to the painter's brush!
Voices heard at a distance disrupted the enchanted moment.
The painter took off his apron,
he stored the inks, the brushes and palette.
An hour of creation was gone now,
it was now in the limbo of things­that­were,
but then... who knows?
VI
The farmers,
the villagers
who live in Quizur,
facing Escazú,
are standing speechless
since they cannot express
their feelings
about what happens
on the fields,
and on the roads
and paths
around Quizur.
Their children repeat
one name only:
Rasur! Rasur!
They never stop praising
the wonders he performs;
they tell how he draws
in mid-air,
how the beautiful shape remains and glows,
like the flight of fireflies,
and refuses to disappear.
He polishes the pebbles
that the children bring him
in their pockets,
and they sparkle
like precious jewels
at an elegant store.
A girl called Denya brought him a badly wounded bird:
With a movement of his hands and with his breath
he healed it.
A boy called Flip tells us
how Rasur answers their questions without words,
as he always knows their thoughts, and their nightly dreams.
He slips into
their most intimate secrets.
Nothing is hidden from Rasur:
They have become transparent,
like the air and the crystal,
and he speaks to them at a distance, without using his speech,
and proudly they obey him,
but nobody notices
his soft commands.
And nothing do they know
about this Child,
who descended from the mountains,
who became the Lord of the Valley.
Yet they all adore him,
for the magic of his being,
for the beauty of his face
and the fire in his hands,
always modeling, always drawing, shaping what he wishes,
following a certain image created by his fantasy.
Nothing sleeps in his presence,
neither the children nor the flowers,
not even the sleep­-inducing mimosa dares to close its petals and slumber,
when in front of Rasur's eyes.
The rumors of the Earth
are climbing up the trees,
and they tell Rasur the news
of its magical world of music,
with special words of remembrance,
mysterious remembrances,
from other lives in other lands.
In the darkness of the evening
they have seen him,
wandering through the hidden paths, returning to the earth,
by unknown mysterious ways.
There, in the deepest caves,
the gnomes have carved
a hall of stone for him.
So they say, Ania and Myria.
Out of every corner in the hall,
ancient voices from the past speak to him:
They remind him of the many ideas,
of the many plans and intentions
that were in his mind
once he had decided to come down
to the village of Quizur.
There his imagination
is renewed,
full of power
it evokes a river of images, of things­to­come,
and things­that­were.
Of eternal light is
his mind flooded,
and from the highest peaks he calls.
To the Hall of Being they come:
those who were happy and great:
the Supermen of the Spirit,
from every corner of this world,
they gather in merry assembly.
What Surya has understood, ­she is only twelve­-years­-old,­
is all wonder for the engineer,
for the artist, for the ox­ driver,
and it astonishes the analytic mind of that honest judge, Armando.
She then explains that Rasur and other Great Beings,
that met on the highest peaks,
are masters of the natural forces that the wise men call the laws,
of those forces
generating every single thing
in the Kingdom of Life.
They are all the Inspirers,
not the Makers:
there are other invisible intelligences
which are forces always designing and shaping
those atomic substances that conform everything existing on the Earth.
Their creative will
is the Supreme Will,
coming from the Brings
who harmonize their wishes to create supra­-sensible models,
on the basis of eternal archetypes,
of a long­-gone evolution.
In the Hall, Rasur is sitting, remembering
he is a child no more,
that his present form is just a segment
of the celestial circle which is of his Real Being,
just like we are.
We are like the fingers on his hands,
and provide a shape
to inspirations coming from his mind.
He teaches us how to create,
as he puts in ours a phosphorescent spark,
which slowly kindles our creative imagination.
He makes us understand the rumors among the trees,
the many sounds of the haunted, wild night,
the voices of hunting beasts.
Those sounds are just the voices of new creations,
from the essences and substances in the sap
that the smallest creatures on earth make,
even those in the depths of the soil.
Those forest sounds are the thoughts of the gods of Nature
that the ancient Greeks called Pan;
and who started the renewal of the world.
For all the forms in Nature there is an Autumn
but the voices of god Pan
bring Spring for them again.
Each morning he sheds light over the newborn forms
which were conceived the night before.
So the presence of Rasur in these beautiful hills
has brought us the vision of mysterious things
which cannot be observed with the eyes of humans.
All Nature is alive before us,
full of sensibility and a mighty intelligence.
Now we understand about the swarms of tiny creatures,
which destroy, build and renew the world,
as a myriad of little hands working forever
only to create the infinite charm of Nature.
VII
To Julian's house
Damian came.
A group of friends is admiring the artist's landscapes. Armando, the judge,
is expressing his feelings: "Everything comes alive on these canvases:
joyful light
runs and jumps
up and down the hills,
from the top
to the river banks;
the frothy waters of the streams, they give me this impression
of slow waters,
like a reflecting lens
that explodes
in a thousand emerald lights,
as if they had inside themselves the hidden enchantment
of this countryside
at this time of the day.
My senses are strained, awaiting a great surprise; tasting a miracle
about to happen.
The paintings around me seem to share
this most intimate anguish.
The beauty of your paintings
still remains in the hands of our Creator. They receive inspiration from the Highest,
murmur of a spring,
flowing among your rocks
and your grass, your trees,
and your water and mountains,
your colors contain the wondrous sap, that comes from a glance of fire
and from the many things that breath and palpitate in the lights
or in shadows of a sunset
yearning for the night.
The sky you paint is animated, with clouds and birds
crossing slowly
as if they were thoughts, traveling towards
a distant horizon of mystery,
The air in your paintings
seems bathed in the purest waters,
it looks blue in the foreground,
dark and golden in the mountains far away.

All that is found in Surya's narration,
inside the strange paintings I can see.
Even when it rains across the valley, you will find sunshine where we meet.
I believe that now I am grasping
what has happened inside your heart.”
Then David ­that silversmith, that mystic­
spoke and said:
"He who knows only one truth,
is stuck like an anchored ship with no sails.
You have lived with an anchor until that day
when the presence of Rasur
broke the chains sustaining your anchors.
Now your world is slowly beginning to spin in the other direction:
towards a different path.
The science you know is like a curtain, and it has been ripped apart,
and now you can see the real causes of things;
beyond the mere forms of things.
The Joy of Life is now entering the concentric spheres
of your six senses.
The Wonder of Life is changing you; because, until now,
you did not feel like you had lived.
Your science is now a beautiful dead object
if it insists in extracting the content from the form,
and if still studies things separated from their spirits.
The beauty you see in these paintings
lives forever in the eternity of firmament.
Anything that is eternal
is the soul of a single instant
as the infinite is the soul of a single atom."
Silence covered them
as a white fan spreading
under the light of thinking minds. The workshop's little window enlarged as a stage
showing a new spiritual horizon over the face of the earth.
So delightful was the pleasure they all felt
that the dream­like enchantment seemed to have no end.
Damian was more of a matter­of­fact young man,
and here he is in the presence of something he has been seeing and feeling
these last four days.
And thus he spoke:
"As shown in Julian's paintings,
from the valley I have seen the glow
of the little straw hut,
near the top of the hill
and I have seen flocks of children entering the hut.
I have heard the strangest narrations, about the caves and caverns of Rasur;
lthough I do not know if what they say
is the truth or a mere creation
of their mind's fantasies.
But, nevertheless, I join them
in their happiness,
scattered over the hill and dale,
along every road and path,
near the valleys' inns and shelters,
as if Springtime were offering them a blue carpet
to enter the mansions of Nature.
Spring seems to laugh with them
in the blue and purple colors
of the wild flowers,
in the little songs of birds
or in the slow everlasting chanting of the stream.
A Holy Gospel of Beauty and Joy
seems to spread under the light of these surroundings:
I have never seen before the like of it. Julian's paintings have revealed this ecstasy,
and have the happiness that he felt
as did the children and people from the village."
“While I was painting”, Julian, the artist, said “Nature herself was nurturing me with dreams.
Hers is the beauty appearing in the dreams of trees,
of grass and weeds,
of hills and rocky peaks
we find in these surroundings.
Because all these things are alive
and they always dream about beauty.
The forest is always aware of its life and of its dreams.
And the waters in the streams
are also dreaming as they flow.
The clouds of purest white
descending from the slopes,
are roaming these valleys,
and dreaming as they float,
over the long valleys,
from Grecia to Escazú,
and from there to Santa Ana.
They drift on,
like a flock of sheep in the distance;
they fly over the fields and the plains and disappear into the blue sky,
as long forgotten strands of the fairest hair.
Such is Nature:
She creates as she dreams on;
Like any other artist she dreams of her creations
before providing them with a shape,
in her womb of clay.
Likewise, I have always lived dreaming, happily,
the dream of Nature that lives in my paintbrush,
on the canvas, on my paintings;
it grows and leads,
as the tendrils of the vine look forward to the hold.
My astonishment is like yours:
Never before did I paint
with such joyful feelings,
never with such easiness,
and with such delight. Art,
when not born of inspiration,
is just an artist and an easel.
The joyful artist feels a flow of creation within himself,
just as the playful stream
carves shapes inside the caves.
Ever since Rasur
has been living among us,
this countryside seems full
of images of fire,
they go off and on like fireflies do, flying between the reeds
and the jagged edges of the leaves;
Images all around are flying,
willing to live forever
they flow upwards as a fountain,
born from Nature's imagination, running to find a place
in man's creative spirit:
they yearn to be fixed
in words or in a brush of light
in the blue air of my paintings:
I wanted men to feel what is not apparent.
I wanted to share what I now perceive in this ecstasy infused by Rasur.
Joy is like a spring of water that overflows
and runs over the fields,
as in that region of Umbria
where Francis of Assisi roamed, always singing:
"There is no valley of tears
in this Holy Land of Umbria."
All creatures living in these dales,
now feel like living under a new grace: when they stop to pick up a thistle
when they walk arm in arm
or just rest under a tree.
Men's voices are clearer and stronger,
they sound like the rushes at the river,
those manly voices from the country lads.
Silver and crystals may be found in the shining voices
of women and children,
so happy they seem to be
since they are company to the adolescent god,
since the day they learned to love Rasur.
Now that we live in Rasur's presence we share remembrances of people,
we recognize landscapes
which are not from these places of ours.
He mixes our lives with those
from other people,
other civilizations.
I have found myself
painting about exotic places, strange dances and processions,
which I had never seen before.
They are so real in my hands
and I am overwhelmed with wonder:
It is like living
in a garden of dreams,
this glorious place of Quizur,
with all its children, all its people.
Part of Rasur's enchantment it is all. 
This is why we love this adolescent god, Rasur...

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…to the Spiral of "The Work That Reconnects" as developed by Joanna Macy

Songs for Going Forth

Songs of Gratitude

Songs for Seeing With New Eyes

Songs for Honoring Our Pain for the World


The Great Turning is a global change of heart and ways of living, a more nurturing, appreciative and sustainable relationship with the Web of Life, a shift toward a life-enhancing human presence on Planet Earth. Songs, especially when sung together and in harmony, are a vital tool in the Great Turning and a great enhancement to the interactive group processes developed by Joanna Macy known as the Work That Reconnects. They help us experience in the body our connection to each other and the planet, summon our collective courage, enliven us and inspire us to play our part in creating a life-sustaining society.

We present here a collection of songs that are easy to learn and sing in groups, at "Work That Reconnects" gatherings, in our work in the world, in our daily lives. They are grouped thematically around the four points of the
Spiral, a conceptual guide used in Joanna Macy’s practices.

Click on a song category in the spiral above to see a list of songs exploring that theme, or use the pull-down menus above to go directly to a specific song. The individual song pages feature lyrics and recordings of the songs and each of their parts, so that you can learn them, teach them and pass them on. Soon this website will enable you to recommend songs to add to the collection and help grow this site into a worldwide resource to sing in the Great Turning!


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Laurence Cole: This Fire

Links take you to Laurence's website:

Do You Wanna Sing Open the Morning

(Laurence Cole)
August 28, 2010

Let Us See the Beauty

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Oh Morning

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Humbly

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Can't Do It Wrong / My Life Is So Cuckoo

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

We Shall Sing

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Out Beyond Ideas

(Laurence Cole)
August 28, 2010

To Wonder

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Songlines

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Heaven Is Just

(Laurence Cole)
August 28, 2010

The All In Every This

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Sanctuary

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Handsome Land

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

We Give Thanks

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

When We Come Into Our Calling

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

This Fire

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Sacred Circle Song

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

If There Ever Was One

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010

Songs For Singing

(Laurence Cole)
September 24, 2010
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Mahamrityunjaya Mantra

https://www.youtube.com/user/Shadowlande From Zecciah Blackburn: www.thecenteroflight.net A brief excerpt of this mantra as sung by Hein Braat with a restful video that can provide deep relaxation to release stress. Video created by: http://www.dancinginthemirror.com The full CD of Braat's singing can be found at: http://www.yoga-ez.com/gayatri-mantra.html Mahamrityunjaya Mantra, or, Mantra for Liberation Mahamrityunjaya Mantra Om tryambakam yajamahe Sugandhim pushti-vardhanam Urva-rukamiva bandhanan Mrityor mukshiya mamritat from the Rig Veda I am told the meaning of the prayer mantra is: Om, we pray to the One who sees all-whose grace manifests everywhere like sweet fragrance, who bestows prosperity, and who nourishes all beings. May the Supreme Spirit free us from bondage and death, releasing us into the oneness of our immortal nature. May liberation unfold as naturally as a ripe fruit simply falls away from its branch and becomes free. Explanation The mantra is a prayer to Lord Shiva who is addressed as Sankara and Trayambaka. Sankara is sana (blessings) and Kara (the Giver). Trayambaka is the three eyed one (where the third eye signifies the giver of knowledge, which destroys ignorance and releases us from the cycle of death and rebirth) Full Mantra Trayam-bakam yajaamahey sugandhim pushti vardhanam Oorvaa-ruka-miva bandhanaan mrithyor mooksheeya maam-amrithaath Aum rudhram pasupathim sthaanoom neelakanta umapaathim Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi Kaala kantam kaala moorthim kaala-jngyam kaala naasanam Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Neela kantam viroopaaksham nirmalam vimala-prabham Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Vaama devam maha devam lokanaatham jagath gurum Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Deva-devam jagan naatham devasham vrishabathvajam Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Gangadharam maha devam sarvaa-barana booshitham Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Anaatha param-aanandam kaivalya pada-dhayinam Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Swarga-bavarka-dha-dharam srishti-sthith-yantha-kaarinam Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Oothpathis-tithi-samhaara kaathaara-gneyshwaram gurum Namaami sirasa dhevam kim no mrithyu karish-yathi. Maarkandeya-kritham stothram ya-padeth siva sanithou Thasya mrithyu bhayam naasthi naagni-sowra-bhayam kwachith. Sadavartham prakarth-thavyam sangate kashta naasanam soochir-bhoothva padeth stothram sarva sidhi pradhayagam. Mrithyu-jeya mahadeva drahimaam saranaa-gatham Janma mrithyu jaraa-rokai peeditham karma bhandhanai. Thavakas-twath-gath-praanasth-vachith-dhoham sada mrita Ithi vignaapya devesam triyambhaka-kyam manum jabeth. Nama shivaya saambaya haraaya paramaathmane Pranathak-lesa-naasaaya yoginaam pathaye namah. Significance of Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra Devotees strongly believe that proper recitation of the Maha Mrityunjaya rejuvenates, bestows health, wealth, long life, peace, prosperity and contentment. It is said that chanting of Shiva Mantra generates divine vibrations that ward off all the negative and evil forces and creates a powerful protective shield. Besides, it is said to protect the one who chants against accidents and misfortunes of every kind. Recitation of the mantra creates vibration that pulsates through every cell, every molecule of human body and tears away the veil of ignorance. Hindus believe that recitation of the mantra ignites a fire within that consumes all negativity and purifies entire system. It is also said to have a strong healing power and can cure diseases declared incurable even by the doctors. Many believe Maha Mrityunjay Mantra to be a mantra that can conquer death and connect human beings to their own inner divinity. Peace, peace, peace, Pushkara
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