Earth Medicine, page 27
We make a start by becoming aware of the cycles of activity within Nature, which is demonstrating to us how the universal mind operates, and then by putting ourselves into harmony with it.
Consider that nothing can be done without love, wisdom and power, and that they form a triangle that must be balanced (see Figure 40). Even to make a cup of coffee requires all three – the love or desire to will the act, the wisdom to know how to do it, and the power to complete it. These are the three attributes of the Spirit which are being cultivated, and to ensure that we do not get it wrong and ourselves out of balance, we learn from aligning ourselves with Nature. Power without wisdom and love is dangerous. Wisdom without power and love is dry and academic. Love without power and wisdom is weak and foolish.
The Medicine Wheel teachings inherent in this system of Earth Medicine help us to relate consciously to our own individual Spirit so that the life we are living comes more into harmony with it. The Higher Self can ‘converse’ with us in our inner thinking. That is why periods of meditation are so essential – times when we can turn off the chatter of the external world all around us and which wants to consume us so we can ‘listen’ in the stillness of our own being.
That contact comes to us not through the Surface Mind, the reasoning mind, but intuitively and it comes unexpectedly like a flash of lightning. It is usually followed by a response from the reasoning intellect which will argue against whatever is intuited and then that flash of inspiration becomes lost or at best obscured.
We need to learn to trust our intuitiveness and act upon it, then new courses of action open up before us and our lives come more into harmony with their intended purpose and with the flow of Nature.
3.2
‘As Within, So Without’
THE PRINCIPLE ‘AS WITHIN, SO WITHOUT’ BROUGHT WITH IT A recognition by the Amerindians and ancient peoples that what was happening in the natural cycle of activity in the external world of physical reality was a reflection of that within the human entity, and vice versa!
The Circle could be seen as a Wheel of the Year that is constantly turning as the seasons change and the periods of daylight and darkness vary in length, revealing the ebb and flow of time-energy. The gradual unfoldment of the seasons of the year, cycle by cycle, from spring to summer, through autumn and winter, and on again to spring, together with the ebb and flow of the tides of the Moon, were indicative of the way the subtle energies within the human organism operated. It was by coming into harmony with the flow of Nature that a person was able to attain equilibrium between the physical, emotional, mental, sexual and spiritual aspects of their own nature.
Just as the flow of the seasons and the tides of the Moon take place whether we live in a rural area and are sensitive to their moods and changes, or whether we live or work in the concrete surroundings of a big city and are not aware of them, so there is movement of the subtle forces within us whether we are aware of them or not.
I would draw attention to four occasions within the seasonal cycle which indicate specific points of change in the energy potential of Nature and thus within ourselves. These four occasions can be located on the Earth Web and provide co-ordinates by which Time and Space can by synchronized. These four locations are the Winter and Summer Solstices and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, each of which is determined by the movement of the Earth around the Sun and the angle of the Earth’s surface in relation to the Sun. They are, therefore, solar-orientated.
In pre-Christian Britain (then known as Prydain – Enchanted Isles) and northern Europe, these four turning-points of the yearly cycle were recognized as solar festivals – Ostara (Easter) on the first day of spring (21–24 March), Litha or Midsummer’s Day (21–23 June), Mabon on the first day of autumn (21–23 September), and Yule – which later became Christmas – on 21–23 December. The festival dates varied from year to year, but for the purpose of providing an uncomplicated and practical working model, mean dates have been selected here. These are 21 March, 21 June, 22 September and 22 December.
The solstices are pivotal points in the year and are when the days are longest or shortest. They are like switches which bring about a change either to increasing light or to decreasing light – from longer nights to longer days, or from shorter days to shorter nights. Each solstice is a pause between a change in Nature. And each provides a vital clue for humans, too, for they are appropriate times to pause and to take stock of your life and to seek to come into harmony with the changing flow of natural forces.
Christmas has its ‘festival’ origins in ancient times with the celebration of the Winter Solstice (Yule) around 22 December. It was a festival of reunion, of recognizing the importance of one’s ‘togetherness’, with a family and of relationships with other individuals. It was a time to be thankful for family ties and the value of friendships.
The Summer Solstice, on the other hand, around 21 June, was an occasion to celebrate one’s individuality and creativity. It was a time to concentrate on personal considerations.
Since the solstices are ‘switch-over’ points in the flow of cosmic and solar energies, they were recognized as opportune times to bring to completion what had gone before in one’s personal life, and for fixing the intentions for what one aimed to achieve in the period ahead.
Mid-way between the solstices are the equinoxes, when the days and nights are of equal length. They indicate periods of rapid change in the yearly cycle when the change in the direction of solar and cosmic energies has become plain and noticeable. They emphasize the principle that energy takes time to come into form and to move out of form. The Spring Equinox is the first day of spring (around 21 March) when the increase in light is becoming evident. The Autumn Equinox (around 22 September) is when the waning of the light is becoming apparent.
There were four other periods which were marked in ancient times by festivals which enabled people to identify readily with the energies of Nature and to harmonize with the powers of Nature that were finding expression in the environment around them. These were fire festivals that were associated not with solar but with lunar energies. These Moon festivals were Imbolc around February eve, Beltain on May eve, Lammas around August eve, and Samhain on November eve.
Because witches also celebrated these festivals and called them Witches’ Sabbats, they became associated with witchcraft, but they do not have their origins in witchcraft. Witches were eclectics and borrowed them from one or more ancient sources of origin. Modern witches have devised their own ritualistic and religious interpretations of the meaning of these ancient festivals.
In some divisions of the Christian faith, these very same ancient festivals appear, but they are called ‘Saints’ Days’.
In each case the symbology has been changed, and in each case has tended to obscure their original relevance.
In ancient Britain and northern Europe people met together on these festival occasions not just to celebrate an annual event in the seasonal cycle, but to become personally and collectively in harmony with the flow of Nature’s energies at these pivotal points. Marking these occasions enabled people to become attuned to Time. That was their true purpose. By becoming actively involved with the natural forces, they were able to find a focus for their own energies and to bring into being the things that would enhance and enrich their lives, both individually and as members of a family or community.
That was the true purpose of the festivals then, and that purpose is no less sound today whether they are observed by groups of people or merely tapped into by lone individuals recognizing these high points of the year on their own.
Let us now follow the ebb and flow of these tides of Nature through the seasons, and the eight festival occasions of ancient times, because they can help us to understand the cycles of energies within ourselves.
SPRING The Tide of Activation
The Spring Equinox around 21 March marks the balance-point or centre of the time when the life-force rises around the time of Imbolc and the Earth and Nature ‘come alive’. The sap rises and shoots appear above the ground and we, too, feel motivated to get things moving again in our lives after the limitations of winter. The influence of the Tide of Activation is not only in Nature around us but also within ourselves.
This tidal power reaches its peak around Beltain (May Eve). Beltain stresses the unity of the male and female, the pollination aspect of Nature which creates joy and beauty and new life. In our own lives it emphasizes the need for freedom to develop our own potentials and our own individuality.
The Summer Solstice marks the balance-point, or centre, of the time when this Tide of Activation is ebbing and becomes quiescent at Lammas, going ‘within’ through the Autumn Equinox and Yule (see Figure 41).
This period when the tide of the cosmic energy is running in the Earth is an appropriate time to put the emphasis in one’s life on earthly and material things. It is the time to initiate new projects and to develop plans that will bring material benefits to the physical self.
The Tide of Activation is positive and yin moving to yang.
SUMMER The Tide of Growth
Summer is the season of rampant growth and rapid progress. The Summer Solstice around 21 June marks the centre or mid-point of the waxing of the Binding Force, the force of molecular attraction, and the Tide of Growth which rose at Beltain and reaches its peak at Lammas on 1 August when creative self-expression reaches its climax.
The Tide of Growth makes us pause to celebrate our own individuality, and take cognisance of our personal attitudes and approaches to life so that we can better focus and consolidate our efforts and make the fullest use of our potentials.
It reaches its peak at the time when the Earth is at its most bounteous and gives so generously of her substance, so it is an appropriate time for us, too, to experience the joy of giving and the gratitude that should come from receiving. The emphasis, then, is on generosity and benevolence.
It is a time also for gathering in the fruits of past efforts, and to experience enjoyment from them. The benefits are not solely materialistic for there is much to be learned from the lessons of past endeavours.
The autumn Equinox marks the balance-point or centre of the time when the Tide of Growth is ebbing and it becomes quiescent at Samhain around 31 October.
The Tide of Growth is also positive and yang.
AUTUMN The Tide of Recession
The life-force in Nature goes inwards at Lammas and can be clearly seen to be receding at the Autumn Equinox around 22 September, which is the centre or balance-point in the fall of the Tide of Recession. At Samhain on 31 October the tide has receded to a point when the energies are disappearing into the realm of the unmanifest, so the human emphasis at this time should be on spiritual principles rather than on material benefits. At the human level the pull is to relate more to others and for the support which comes from association with a group, family or community. Samhain indicates the death of the old and the promise of new beginnings and of rebirth. It is a time of transformation and the change of emphasis from outer activity to inner growth.
Figure 41. The seasonal tides
Yule at the Winter Solstice marks the balance-point of the life-force in its resurrection path towards Imbolc where it again becomes external.
The Tide of Recession is negative and yang moving to yin.
WINTER The Tide of Consolidation
Winter is the season of withdrawal and consolidation, beginning at Samhain when the Binding Force goes inwards. At the Winter Solstice around 22 December, the tide has reached the mid-point in its passage within to Imbolc where it vanishes into the darkness of the invisible and can no longer be seen or sensed. It is like the darkness of night at the New Moon when the two luminaries, the Sun and the Moon, are no longer visible, but we know they are still ‘there’, not through any leap of faith, but through the assurance and certainty of true knowledge.
Yule recognizes the importance of sharing, and stresses the value of obligation and responsibility. It celebrates the joy of belonging, and the value of family ties and close relationships, and of goodwill towards all humanity.
Imbolc, celebrated around 2 February, marks the time of making adjustments and of purifying the intent in preparation for the arrival of spring and the transition to a new cycle of activity as the Wheel of the Year turns again. The name implied ‘quickening’.
Imbolc brings the first light of illumination. It is like the narrowest crescent of the Moon on a crisp night. Its emphasis is purification, not so much moralistically but in the sense of concentrating and focusing the intentions. It is an excellent time for meditation and contemplation.
The Spring Equinox marks the mid-point in the resurrection path of the Binding Force towards Beltain where it goes external.
The Tide of Consolidation is negative and yin.
Synchronizing with these natural tides of time-energy enables us to put ourselves in harmony with Earth and the life-systems it supports, and to open up channels within ourselves that have become blocked. It leads the way to living our lives more purposefully and effectively and to the attainment of the contentment and fulfilment which eludes so much of humanity because it is out of tune with Nature and with the Creation.
Figure 42. The tides of time-energy on the Earth Web
Putting ourselves in tune with Nature and with Earth attunes us also to our own Higher Self.
3.3
The Personality Mask
WHEN AN AMERINDIAN PAINTED HIS FACE, IT WAS GENERALLY for the purpose of expressing personality, or a particular quality or trait or emotion. Often it was representative of an animal or bird that emphasizes the desired quality or trait. It was a mask – a means of expression.
Likewise, your personality is only an expression of you. It is not actually you, any more than your physical body is you. It belongs to you, like the physical body belongs to you. It is yours, but it is not you. It is the way you experience and respond to the world.
The personality ‘mask’ is what the True Self – the inner ‘You’ – puts on to perceive the physical world in the dimension of time. According to the oral teachings, there are twelve categories of such ‘masks’, twelve principal areas of perception, twelve broad ways of expression – one for each segment of the Wheel of the Year. These were examined in some detail in Part Two of this book.
The ‘Personality’ Self is in conscious existence – a state in which you see, feel, touch, taste, smell, know and think, but are limited by space and time. But the True Self – the inner you – is in a state that is beyond time and space.
Those statements may appear to be either profound sense or simplistic nonsense. Actually they are neither. They are facts of our daily experience. For instance, when you go to sleep you withdraw from conscious existence by leaving the world of the senses. When you wake in the morning you may remark that you had a good night’s sleep by not recalling anything of what happened during the sleeping state. You have no memory of that state when you were withdrawn from conscious existence, only an awareness that somehow it was ‘good’. During those hours you never ceased to ‘be’ even though you were not conscious of self.
A lifetime is like the waking time. Death is like the sleep time when we are withdrawn from waking existence yet never cease to ‘be’. So each lifetime is like a new ‘day’ – another opportunity to develop character, which is a condition or quality of the nature of the developing True Self, that inner you. Each lifetime is a challenge to grasp the potentials with which we have each been entrusted, and to nurture the inherent talents into expression and form. Each lifetime is based on the achievements and failures of our former lives. Just as each new day is affected by what has been done in the days before, so our next lifetime will be shaped and conditioned by what we make of the present one. We are what we have become through what we were before.
Your True Self – the inner you – did not come into being on the day of your birth. Only our logical and ‘conditioned’ thinking leads us to assume there was a ‘beginning’. After all, when was the beginning of you? Was it at the time of your birth? Hardly. For did you not exist in your mother’s womb before the day of your birth? Perhaps it was the time of your conception? But, surely, that was only when the physical body you occupy began to be knitted together and fashioned in accordance with the DNA code contained within the genes? That was not you, it was only a blueprint for the vehicle being provided for you to occupy for the span of a few years in time. It was only an expression of you. The real you, then, has no material existence! The personality ‘mask’ you put on has only temporary existence.
You appeared in the physical world, apparently out of nowhere, and one day you will disappear from the physical world at death and the real you will return from whence it came.
The dimension of existence in which you now appear is the dimension of time. And the timing of your physical appearance not only determined the perception point from which you were to look out and observe physical existence, but also the category of personality mask you were to put on and through which to formulate and express your True Self and the Earth influences with which you were to work.
Ancient knowledge postulated twelve broad personality categories, twelve perception positions on the Wheel of the Year, twelve expressions of Earth influences. No position is better or more important than another. Just different. Each provides essential qualities to further the progress and development of the individual True Self behind the personality. No position is more advantageous than another, none easier or more difficult. Each provides responsibilities and challenges, advantages to work with, and disadvantages to overcome. Each contains its own strengths and weaknesses – strengths to enable growth and development, and weaknesses to be turned into strengths.
