Sulum Factum Magus

I am very lucky in where I live. I have magnificent forests a short drive from my door, and I often go for walks there, to reconnect with myself, nature, and the essentials of life. Indeed, more than luck, because I chose to live where I do, because of my love of the forests – or the bush as we say in Australia. It is so easy to forget in the tumult of the Western World, the bustle of the city, and the intensity of the workplace, that humans are but one form of life on this planet. Western culture takes for granted that humans are superior to all other life forms, and that nature is ours to use, exploit, and to eradicate for condominiums. We can trace this back to Judao-Christian world views expressed in biblical terms as God giving Man dominion over the beasts of the field etc.

However this is not the pagan world view. While pagans believe all sorts of different things, a common thread running through the modern neo-pagan movement is respect for nature, and for other forms of life, based upon a view of humans as one of many life forms, each playing an important part in the bio-sphere of our mother the Earth. The mechanistic view of Western Culture sees nature as blind, and beasts as “dumb”, and humans as the pinnacle of evolution or creation, depending on whether you subscribe to the scientific mythology or the religious mythology.

My view is that the natural world is full of life and consciousness and intelligence, but that most people, imprisoned within their individualistic symbolically mediated communication methods, have lost the art of communicating with this intelligence and spiritual energy that manifests through nature.

Today, my walk took me through the rain forest. A light mist cloaked the trees, and the thick clouds let loose sporadic showers of gentle drops. I passed several glades of native violets, as I walked under the canopy, padding along on a thick bed of leaves. Bright red berries of native raspberries beckoned from the side of the path. On a wet week day, there aren’t too many people about, so there were plenty of birds to keep me company. Inquisitive little finch like birds came to check me out, as I stood still for a breather. Rufous fan tails fluttered up the path in front of me. The Wompoo pigeons were calling in the canopy arround me. Everywhere underfoot were the bright rainforest berries of summer. I stopped to talk to a bird that appeared on a branch in front of me. How are you, I asked it in my mind’s ear. How are the insects? Plentiful, it told me, before hopping along its journey. As I made my way along the ridge line, the canopy thinned out, to make way for magnificent white mahoganies. Gradually the path became thinner and more overgrown, the further I tracked away from the road and the car park. I caught sight of a medium sized black bird flying off in the under brush, and turned a corner in the path to see what looked like two handfulls of twigs, planted side by side in the ground – the bower of the Satin Bower bird, which he uses to attract a mate.

The path opened out onto a small clearing, with a large log along one end. I sat on the log, and called my Deities, and honoured the elements, and sat in quiet contemplation. I expanded my aura, reaching out to embrace the forest around me, eyes closed, listening to the sounds of the bush – the many varieties of birds, and the sound of drops of water falling around me onto the forest floor.

There is a music in the sounds of the bush, the twitters and clicks of the birds and insects, and the pat of the falling drops of water gathering on leaves before plopping onto the ground. To become attuned to this music, allow your attention to dwell on your heart as you breath out, and on your third eye as you breathe in, gently, lightly. Feel full of joy and a sense of connection with everything around you. When you feel that you have got the rhythm and pace of this music, allow yourself to join in with it, by making clicking noises with your tongue and popping your lips quietly and gently. Other gentle noises that you can use to join in with this music are the sounds you make by gently sucking air through your top teeth. Try to imitate the sounds around you, of birds, drops, insects, or whatever you can hear.

If you have made the correct preparations, you will find yourself being a part of this magical music. There will be no separation. The energy that moves the rain, the birds and the insects will also be moving you, and you will be part of the music.

There is no further description of this that I can give – except to encourage you to try this out for yourself. You won’t regret it, I am sure.

Blessed Be,

Robyn.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 2:08 pm and is filed under A Pagan Life, Australia, Pagan Practice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.