Living Sanctuary, Weekly Practices 56, Where Depth Is Surface
Wendy Robertson Fyfe
Fossil Rock, Whitesands, Dunbar, Scotland/Alba, Earth. image: wrf
Occasionally, we* offer a Weekly Practice for paid subscribers in Abbey Of Soul to all subscribers as a further glimpse of the kind of work we’re developing here. Today we offer such a glimpse, …
Hello Dear Folk at Abbey Of Soul ~
Here we are in another week already spinning around … anyone else feeling time quickening like maybe some kind of Earth quickening … or/and maybe just us aging in our human Earth body; stranger experience than l thought it would be;)
Such a beautiful monthly Sacred Conversation last week with Abbey Of Soul grappling and wondering in awe with 'The Dawn’ and ‘The Holy’ after being with Cuddy’s (St Cuthbert’s) Cave in Northumberland, England. Entering, being with the East and beginner’s sensing again about/with ‘The Holy’, what/who is that? Like if/when we assume nothing … So rich, like experiencing for the first time, again … Warm invitations to our next gathering on Monday, 7 April at 6pm BST.
We’ve spoken here before about the current culture as ‘surface’ and the way deeper life is forsaken. The reality of source/sourcing such as with dream, deep imagination, symbol, image, the unseen, intangible, metaphor, underworld, soul is forsaken. Meanwhile, a hollowing that extracts from Earth’s body feeding consumerism for particular profits for a few whilst feeding a different kind of hunger filling/a-voiding the void is created. We’ve spoken about the pilgrimage of soul by way of deep remembering and being shaped by such depths, hollows and longings in transformations as Earth continues emerging. Maybe that’s the work we’re here for in these particular transformational times, shifting from creating hollows of ‘consumption resources’ to soul pilgrimage ‘sourcing’ and hollows weaving reshaping where the Gods, Goddesses, Earth Community, Cosmos, including Humans, can sing together. What if all are holy?
Then, sometimes … like … yesterday:
We’re walking along Whitesands in East Lothian. Part of the beach is fossil and carboniferous soil. Tree root hollows from earlier times when the land now known as Scotland/Alba was on the Equator with lush rainforests, now fill with the salty sea’s tides at the surface of things in the North.
Sometimes, surface is depth.
Isn”t this the point, bringing depth to the surface when ripe, or fiercely shaped as land here where Earth psyche and human soul meet in a particular way? We have experienced both ripe and fierce, likely you have too, and likely to again for are we ever truly ‘complete’, yet …? The rock here on the surface beneath our feet in this part of East Lothian is shaped from the Late Carboniferous Age, that’s 326 - 299 million years ago … and getting older;) Let yourself breathe that in fully … 326 - 299 million years ago.
It is quite something to step on foot, experience the strong energy where we find no mobile internet signal.
Carboniferous soil and ancient rainforest hollows now in the North. image: wrf
Volcanic activity, now plugged volcanoes, along the coast here such as Yellowcraig, North Berwick Law up the road and Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh, show markings of fire shaping land. The marks of moving glaciers scraping rock surfaces show the way ice then shaped where we tread now. Imagine your hand on the drag, feeling the force, feeling the power of such a glacier. Feel the power move up through your hand into your arm … your body … fill your body. Stay there a while … a source.
Marking by glacier’s moving weight in Earth’s fierce reshaping planet. image: wrf
What/who came before us was/is fierce. Earth; as fierce and tender. Fierce re-shapings are part of what/who made possible for us to be here now, ancestors; to walk on a fossil surface and hear skylarks singing, to breathe at all. Is that also holy? Who/what might we be making possible to be here in 299 million years time in some form?
We met Pan, unbidden, here one day some years ago. Having hollowed us earlier in a different kind of way from extraction of minerals/breath for profit and feeling a heat of fire now burning up through our feet from the carboniferous rock … up through our body sparking ancient-new life alive. Transformation, opening to being re-shaped by greater beings as Rilke would say, from The Man Watching).
… What we choose to fight is so tiny! What fights with us is so great. If only we would let ourselves be dominated as things do by some immense storm, we would become strong too, and not need names. …
… This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings.
Sometimes our reshaping, like these current times, necessitates fierce sourcing of strengths, vulnerabilities, capacities, being with the unseen and uncertainty, surrendering into the shapes Earth is creating and requiring now through empowerment in the best kind of Earth-based ways. What if human sourcing into/with soul is a priority right now?
Sometimes, the reshaping is exquisite tender nectar like the skylark songline to the heart-cracking open. Sometimes we are taken through the fire and ice cracking of unimaginable metamorphosis. Who would do that other than be as well prepared as one possibly can within Earth Community and supported by human community.
Imagine being that rainforest on the Equator now being in the North, imagine being that rainforest in fire, imagine being fossilised then re-shaped by ice glacier movements. Maybe these forces are already in/are us. It is not surprising that we/we do what we can to a-void feeling that excruciating agony, perhaps by consuming or addiction, or ... Trauma may not only be human as much as embodied in human with the exquisite and the excruciating spoken here previously. Imagine an ending, a death of a kind, or final, by force that cannot be by-passed, perhaps like these times. Beauty and horror, like larvae to dragonfly metamorphosis.
There is much currently about ‘nature connection’ and ‘wellness’, yet not so much on surface core wound embodiment in land too which is a deep, deep scar in the psyche and soul of the world and Cosmos therefore humans too; way more than individualised, though becomes embodied experiencing. Sourcing (even Sorcering;) to be with both nectar and agony, in experience now, is another way to meet and experience The Holy; to pass through such core ending of one way into the sacred beginning, or remembering, re-shaping of another. Not always ‘nice’. Sourcing necessary.
‘Nature connection’ is way more than falling into another kind of extraction bathing or ‘tell me more about me’, though clear mirroring can be a rich gift in a distorting, lost culture as we have found in falling into all of that too. We now find and experience conversations, ceremonies, dreaming and more about a precise intimacy with The Divine, with The Beloved. It’s not always a great marketing call but those ready will hear her:
“here, Earth has a particular beauty longing for you that you too are longing for; oh, and you’ll also be taken to the places you least want to go to … oh, and by the way, you may be taken there anyway so why not get prepared, sourced, and ready to go through the fire where your longings meets the world’s longings and aliveness.”
The pilgrimage is not always soft, sweet and tender though often is beyond the previously possible. The pilgrimage can also be fierce so sourcing is vital for the journey, for any life.
As we have found, it is one thing to choose to enter into a particular self-designed ceremony (also great!), it can be quite another to be reshaped in the ice and fire of a full Earth life’s ceremony … which IS life and death itself. Are you ready, are we ready for The Holy in all fullness or ‘just the ‘nice’ bits’? The Pilgrimage itself is not special, it’s healthy normal. But then … healthy normal is a miracle is it not, or is that everything is a miracle?
In our experience, a guide (human or/and other than human) who has surfaced from the depths of being held and holding such experiences can be there through such an experience for another.
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The invitation for practice this week, that is, practice by way of remembering, cultivating devotion bringing the holy into the everyday, is to wander, wonder with and explore what sources are innate with you or that you have already practiced/cultivated to this point in your life? What sources, gifts, skills, talents empower you at the surface of your days currently. Make a list of them, paint them, dance them, wear them, wander and sing with them more consciously as a practice, be surprised, bring gratitude. There may be stories to go with the sources, how you came by them and when. Include your ancestral lineage gifts, qualities, skills (human and ‘other-than-human’).
You might wander in the deep imagination and the unbidden, or/and on the land and speak out your findings so far. Notice any responses whether inward promptings/feelings/thoughts/images or in the outer world like changes in the wind, bird call ... just notice without making meaning or interpreting. As always, leave love offerings to The Beloved.
Let what and who you know of your sources so far embody further in your being like rooting in the ground under your feet, breathing the air around, drinking in the water of life, feeling warmth of sun (imaginally if these beings are not present where you are currently). Practice the embodiment of sourcing, maybe like magic, at different times of the day like training new muscles which may hurt to start.
What/who is surfacing/has surfaced from the depths that you are aware of now perhaps not previously seen or lived? Maybe these are related to the above innate gifts, qualities, skills, devotions and practices.
Just notice, mark in your journal, maybe like glacier markings you too have markings. We’ll continue next week, so definitely no need to rush. Indeed, you may want to linger here longer before moving on.
The Earth isn’t finished yet; neither are you and neither are we.
As always, we love to hear from you and any musings, experiencing, sharing.
Human also where depth is surface. The ledge to the right holds seams of coal in view. Yet there is a different kind of holy inner sourcing breathing into the world than extraction from. image: wrf
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Are you called to dive ever deeper down creating the next surface of ‘things’, on your Pilgrimage of Soul? To explore dreams, experiencing, musings emerging from today’s Weekly Practice in a one-to-one Soul Coracle container, or longer Soul Currach through the underworld rivers of soul?
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Testimonial
Reflecting on my soul mentoring journey with Wendy ….what regularly astounds me about our sessions are the insights that arise from apparently nothing, and yet from everything. Wendy is acutely attuned to the threads of the underworld and possibility, guiding with deeply held sensitivity, and posing questions that often initiate a sense of clarity and a joyful revelatory, WOW!! The journey has me. David
Thank you to our paid subscribers whether you are new here or have joined in from the beginning of Abbey Of Soul. We deeply appreciate your support for this ancient-new work too!
If you would like to become a paid member of Abbey Of Soul you can do so here. You will receive additional weekly practices and monthly Sacred Conversation gatherings on-line. Abbey Of Soul is currently continuing being re-shaped … a good time to join-in …
We trust that Abbey Of Soul is feeding your soul in the Mysteries of death and life through the veils where you, Earth/Earth Community, and Cosmos sing in the hollows. Let us know ~
Earthsong blessings to you, kith and kin this Earth miracle day. Remember Earthsongwave Dawn Chorus on Tuesday 1 April, another opportunity to listen and sing in Ceremony with Earth Community and Cosmos.
In wild wonder
Wendy/PI’A
along the same carboniferous soil beach … joy says “hello”. image: wrf
* We refers to Wendy as multiplicity of human/more-than identities/community. We refers to a wider group of humans/more-than.
"The seer views from the deeper eyes of eternal and prophetic vision beyond current individualism and human-centric identities prevalent in Western extraction cultures; from a deeper truth. The seer carries and brings forth a thread of the eternal through Earth’s generations." wrf. from Substack: The Seer
… walk … talk … dream … vision … myth …
