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The Sacredness of All Things

As an animist, I see, honour and acknowledge that everything has a spirit, its own energy, its own sense of being, from beetle to bear, sequoia to sea, walnut to wind.  That energy is what makes it what it is – I’m not a physicist by any means, and I barely understand it, but I do know that even in “inanimate” objects, molecules or atoms are moving at incredible speeds, giving the table I am writing on its density, for instance.  All things hum, have a vibration, have an energy.  My bathwater, treated as it is to remove bacteria, is still water – run off from the local reservoir, filled with the songs of rain and wind, of tears and urine, all the things that is “water”, since time began (if you believe in a linear version of time). The carrot from my garden is full of the energy of the earth, the sunlight and the water, packed with its own vitamins.  My cats are fluid energy, predator and friend, singing their own songs of sleep and comfort, hunting and love, sunbeams and radiators.  Everything is a collection of energy that forms a distinct pattern that we recognise as a chair, a computer, a loved one. 

Seeing this energy, honouring it for what it is, it becomes less easy to dismiss things.  The spider can no longer be crushed simply because it has found its way into our home.  Household cleaning products that pollute our waterways are an abomination.  Sweatshop factory clothing, clear-cut forests and unsustainable fishing become grievous crimes against the energy that is life. The food that we eat, what we consume, becomes sacred. 

I recently read that people are trying to breed featherless chickens.  To make it easier in the killing stages and get them ready for production into meat.  This is me is a crime against life.  It completely denies the nature of what a chicken is – it is no longer acknowledging a chicken as a chicken – it is merely a product, food, something to be consumed, a resource. Like a forest or a field of wheat, it is just a crop – its value is in the return of investment.  It denies the acknowledgement of wheat as wheat – a precious form of life that contains the seeds of the next generation much as we humans and every other thing does.  Its potential no longer lies in life, but in financial gain.  This is a singularly human trait – to observe and treat other living things as such. 

In honouring the food that we eat, we re-establish that connection to the sacred, to life itself.  Life has no opposite – it simply is.  Most people think that the opposite of life is death, however, death is a singular event, thus making birth the opposite of death.  Life has no opposite. 

As a vegetarian, I see the killing of animals for food in our modern, comfortable lives completely and wholly unnecessary.  It’s a wasteful process, using up so much energy in its production.  When compared to growing fields of wheat or corn, the yield is so much greater (because that is what is important to us now) and the cost is so much less, both financially and environmentally, especially if it is grown organically.  I could go on about how the rainforest, the earth’s lungs, is being destroyed to make way for grazing cattle to fill an unnecessary predilection for eating meat, but that is easily found on the internet and other resources.  A good starting point on ethical food can be found on the Druid Network – http://druidnetwork.org/ethical/food/index.html.  Travel and research further, and you will be horrified at what you find out about the meat industry. 

Growing as much of your own food as possible, being a part of the process, nurturing plants so that they may nourish you, and honouring the cycle, knowing that one day my body will nourish the soil as I lie in the ground with nothing but a winding sheet, to slowly decay and feed the earth – this is all part of the process of honouring the sacredness in all things. It is part of the exchange that has nothing to do with money – it is the give and take, the relationship with the earth that all living things do.  It’s just us humans that screw that up, taking and taking, more than we need, giving nothing in return, crapping on our home – and even our crap has very little nourishment to it!  Seeing the sacredness, learning about the give and take, is what my Druidry is all about – that is what any relationship is all about. 

Words are clumsy when it comes to trying to describe the emotion I feel when I connect with the sacredness of all things – which I try to maintain throughout my life, every minute of every day.  It is no easy task – in Zen, we can only do our best, for it is all that we can do.  We are not Buddha.  We lose that connection from time to time. The point is not to berate ourselves for this, but to learn from it, and re-establish that connection as often as we can, reminding ourselves over and over again how beautiful and wonderful the process of give and take can be. A true relationship is a gift.  We should never take this gift for granted.

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Waking Up to the World, again and again…

It’s funny how time away, especially time spent in the great out of doors, surrounded by wilderness and wildness, can really change your priorities. 

I’ve just spent a week away in Norway, cross-country skiing amidst silent snow-filled woods and frozen fells, hearing the voices of the giants and the trolls in the howling wind, the beauty of the gods and goddesses in the winter landscape that sings to my soul.  It made me realise how much time I have spent inside this winter, enjoying the comforts of my new-ish home.  I needed to get out. I needed to kick free, like a horse that’s been kept too long in its stall. 

I spent waaaay too much time on Facebook in the weeks leading up to this holiday.  It’s a very easy thing to do.  Wanting to keep up with friends, seeing what is happening in the wider world – addictive to the core.  But it’s a way of keeping up with the world without being a part of it – it’s a passive role as opposed to an active role. Keeping to the indoors after sharing my body with a virus, I became very passive indeed. 

In the midst of a swirling snowstorm on the high fells above Lillehammer, shattered after many, many kilometres of skiing, still recovering from a cold yet mustering the energy to get back to the apartment, knowing that no one was going to get me back but my very own self – it changes everything.  That is why I love cross-country skiing so much. It is you and the wilderness.  If anything happens, goes wrong – if the weather changes suddenly, or you break a ski or a pole, it is up to you to sort it out and get yourself back home safely.  Of course, it’s always a good idea to ski with at least one other person – and I had my husband.  Yet still, out there with the light failing and the snow stinging in my face as we turned for those last two kilometres through the storm, falling over as legs give way to exhaustion and getting back up again, nose running and eyes watering – you know you are alive. 

That’s a reminder that we all need more often than not. 

It’s a reminder that insidiously slips away in the comfort of our modern homes and our modern lives.

Like Druidry, like Zen, like life – it’s easy to read about it. The secret is doing it. You will never get fulfilment from reading or hearing about things. It’s all in the doing.  Druidry teaches us about connection and relationship, of the wonder of life itself and the spirit of life that hums within all things.  Zen teaches us to wake up to the wonder, again and again, every single day, every single minute. I intend to spend much more time outside, studying and learning from the world around me, not letting the temptations of social networking or passive screen entertainment to seduce me into a less than active role. It was a lesson well-learned, and I am thankful for it.

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Me at the BBC!

So, my first radio appearance here, on BBC Radio Suffolk  Promoting East Anglian Belly Dance Superstars… and belly dance in general!  Hear the interview on my website at http://www.gypsydreamsbellydance.co.uk/latest-news.php

 

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Meh.

Reactions are interesting things.  They can only truly happen once – every emotion following them is built upon a memory of the event.  We all have an initial reaction to things – some people cover theirs up, some people let it all out emotionally, some people simply have a “meh” and move on. 

How we react to things – is this in our control?  I would like to think it is.  I’m not advocating not reacting, or suppressing reactions to the extent that we become cold and frigid, uncaring.  But I think it is a very interesting concept – it is emotion combined with instinct.  A bear walks across our path in the woods – we have a reaction.  Someone tells us they love us – we have a reaction. Our car skids across the road on ice – we have a reaction.  Deep down in the limbic part of the brain, most of the physical parts of reaction are engaged – adrenaline, tears, laughter.  That’s the first thing to hit us. The second is our emotional response – fear, sadness, joy.  

Next up is usually a mixture of learned behaviour and patterns that we have created over our lifetimes.  From quite an early age, we are told and we learn not to let all of our emotions and reactions run riot.  We can’t have what we want – the five year old has a tantrum.  The parent (rightly so, in my opinion) tells the child to stop. We begin to learn to control our desires as we separate ourselves further from the parental embrace that gives us everything we need – the difference between desire and need is established. 

In our learned behaviour, we have created all sorts of attachments to memories and feelings that will colour our future reactions.  We have been hurt by someone in the past – when a partner says they have something they want to talk to us about, we may instantly jump to the conclusion that they want to end the relationship – our initial reaction is insecurity.  It may or may not be well off the mark.  If we can let go of these attachments, then we can simply react accordingly to each situation.  How much smoother would life run if that were the case? 

Again, this is not a suppression – that does us absolutely no good at all.  Through meditation and mindfulness, gained through meditation (Zen techniques and philosophy), we learn to observe ourselves, our thought patterns and our behaviours.  We learn that we react in different ways to different things, and noticing the reactions enables us to shift slightly out of our pattern in order to create more harmonious ones with the rest of the world.  

Druidry is about connection.  If we are truly connected, our reactions to things would be much different than what they usually are.  If we realise that we are connected to the person who cut us up on the motorway, our reaction wouldn’t be filled with anger – there might be an initial adrenaline surge as we hit the brakes, avoid any possible accidents, the initial swearing – but afterwards we don’t have to get angry.  That person is made of the same stuff we are, existing on the same planet, breathing the same air, having joys and difficulties in their own lives.  We can simply acknowledge that and move on with our own lives, thus changing our reaction to events. We avoid any accident and continue driving, concentrating on our own path through the lanes. We aren’t suppressing any emotion, because there isn’t an emotional attachment to suppress anymore.  We can’t attach to the reaction either, because it has been and gone. 

Acknowledging that we cannot control other people has a great deal to do with our attachment to our responses.  I can try to manipulate my husband, but I ultimately have no control over him whatsoever, and vice versa.  When we realise that, everything becomes simplified.  We don’t have to become passive – we can still make our point, without becoming upset that the other person doesn’t agree with it. We can still protest on Wall Street.  We can work to make the world a better place with care and compassion for all living things.  We just don’t have to get so attached to it. 

In essence then, is the “meh” attitude one worth having? Next time someone upsets me, I’m going to give it a try. I’ll simply say “meh” and get on with my own life, for it is the only one that I can change for good or ill.  I’ll let you know how I get on.

Fab photo shoot!

We had a great photoshoot last night at Emily’s studio, Venture in Framlingham, Suffolk.  I love all my gypsy ladies! These are Lisa’s photos of the photoshoot – can’t wait to see the final pics!

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The Belly Tribe

Reading Nimue’s blog today got me to thinking about tribes. I used that word, tribe, last night in my belly dancing class – describing what we are, what the other ladies mean to me.  That sense of belonging somewhere, with people who share similar views, passions and goals is very inspiring!

With our belly dance tribe, we practice what I call gypsy fusion – it combines traditional Egyptian and Turkish belly dance moves, and to them we add American Tribal style moves and combinations, as well as elements from other fusion belly dance styles.  We incorporate flamenco and eastern European influences, melding it all together into one beautiful dance style that gives us a unique identity among the other belly dance tribes. 

Each form of belly dance can be seen as a tribe – there are the cabaret dancers, with their lovely sparkly costumes and long flowing locks, swishing veils around with fluidity and seeming abandon.  There are the ATS dancers, with their vocabulary of moves based on an improvisational style (which we incorporate in our version as well), who stand tall and proud in what they do.  There are the gothic dancers, dark and mysterious, the innovators who are constantly changing their styles and incorporating new ones, inspiring us all.  Each tribe works off from one another, supporting the same love of the dance and yet celebrating each tribe’s own uniqueness. 

I love my gypsy belly dance tribe.  Based on the historical evidence that has come to light of the Romany peoples origins being quite similar to the Celts in their Indo-European roots, so too have we incorporated elements from other cultures along our own journey.  More and more we are using improvised dances, with cues and a language that comes solely through the dancers to communicate what will happen next – most of the time the audience don’t even see or even notice these cues.  This style means that no matter where we are, no matter how many dancers we have, no matter what the music, we can all dance together, flowing as one tribe with the music moving in our blood and through our souls in the ultimate expression of creativity. 

Dancing is a language unto itself – for it is a form of expression.  Without words, we convey moods, attitudes, stories and images.  Being able to use our bodies in the flow of awen that is inspiration and creativity is a true joy that should never be taken for granted.  Proud of bodies, no matter what their shape or size, we use them to tell our stories of who we are, who we would like to be, what we have achieved and what we would like to achieve.

Improv belly dancing, in the ATS form has coined the term “flock of birds” to represent the idea of all the dancers moving together unchoreographed yet utterly in sync with each other. When this is done well, the spirit truly does soar, your essence blending with that of your other dancers and creating something that is truly special.  You have moments on stage or in class, when everyone is completely and utterly in the moment, and it just flows, like starlings at sunset. 

A lot of hard work goes into this, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my belly tribe, and the tribes of all other belly dancers – no matter what tribe you are in, we all do it because we love the dance, and are inspired by it.  Every single person is carrying on a tradition of beauty, or even using old ones to create new traditions that will continue to inspire future generations as the dance evolves.  So, a huge thank you to all who have inspired me, to all the teachers and students out there who slog it to class through the rain and snow, to those whose families support them in what they do.  It means a lot to belong to a tribe, and the belly tribe is a great tribe to belong to!

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At dusk…

Sitting in the conservatory at dusk, my favourite thing to do, I saw this little lady come through the hedge, with her boy fella – he wandered off before he could have his picture taken…

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Have your say, every single day.

It’s easy to feel helpless when it comes to having your say in today’s society.  I remember how hopeless it all felt when the last elections were being held – I knew that no matter which way I voted, due to our unfair voting system, the Conservatives would win in my local area, let alone across the country.  The only light of hope in those dismal days were the fact that Brighton managed to elect a Green MP.

I have since come to realise that things aren’t as hopeless, and we are not as helpless as we may think.  Think about it – what is the biggest motivator in secular society? Money. Following on from that idea, how we spend our money is our biggest say in society.  With every pound or dollar that we spend, we are casting a vote in one direction or the other.

Consider this next time you are buying something – any food item bought that is not organic is a vote for using pesticides and other nasty chemicals.  Any toiletry item that is not organic and cruelty-free is a vote in favour of animal testing.  Every pack of cigarettes says that we don’t care about our health, other people’s or our effect on the national health care system.  Every non-organic and non-biodregradable diaper thrown away into a landfill is shouting – WE DON’T CARE ABOUT OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE!

I have a vote, I have a voice, I have a say. With every penny spent, I am telling the world my views.  Money talks.