Ablaze of sunshine yellow, you flicker across the moor.
So dazzling in your intensity, our spirit shifts at core.
Why we are attracted to you, we are not sure. 
But in your intoxication, we do pledge our own amore.

With your alluring coconut scent, you draw us further in.
Enticing us with your golden flame, encouraging us to sin. 
Magnetism so very deep as this, you can only be our kin.
Yet with prick and barb beware, there’s still needle and a pin.

For despite the beauty here in front, there’s truth to know and share. 
Is one prepared to walk with one, to feel the heat and dare.
For when one burns so very bright, and passions start to flare.
Ferocity consumes us all, and authenticity is laid bare.
 
So determined that you are, to crumble us to dust.
To jolt us out of any rut, to fire us up with lust.
To risk the life we so do treasure, to gamble it, boom or bust.
Your energy comes to wreck our life, so we don’t turn to rust. 

We welcome you when you arrive, to set our matters right.
But to live with you day on day, gives us such a fright.
If you are to be our love of life, you clearly are a sight. 
But to our centre is where we must retreat, to bring our true delight.
​
By Simon Blackler
Copyright © Simon Blackler 2023

​If you care to comment on this poem at all and the emotions that it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.

Last weekend I completed a Shaman's Doorway course with Northern Drum, which is an introduction course that operates as a stepping stone to all of their teachings. 

'Well, what's extraordinary about that Simon?' I hear you say. To be honest, it was actually the second time that I have completed the course with them. Many moons ago, some 9 years and 3 months to be precise, I embarked on somewhat of a baptism of fire onto my shamanic pathway. For in late April 2013 not only did I open myself up to the teachings of Chis Luttichau but that of Mac Macartney too. 

For some strange reason, that only myself and the Universe truly know, I decided to do Embercombe's Journey Program right on the back of my first Shaman's Doorway experience. I literally drove from the completion of Chris' course in Sancreed, Cornwall to Higher Ashton, Devon on the same afternoon, traversing some 120 miles in total, so as to amalgamate seven days of personal development work together. 

I had met Mac some five years previously when I approached him about Authentic Leadership, which I had just learnt about through Neil Crofts. I rather naively thought at the time that this was a fairly new and innovative leadership concept.

I remember walking into Mac's living room the day that we agreed to meet just thinking that I must be a natural shoe in to life at Embercombe, the fact that I knew about Authentic Leadership and Mac practiced it, both were a natural fit for one another as far as I was concerned and an immediate collaboration together was surely the only course of action ahead!

To say that I was a little wet behind the ears was a bit of an understatement I think. Mac tried his best to paint a little more realistic picture of the likely way forward for me given the fact that Authentic Leadership had been around for the best part of two decades as far as he was concerned and he had all the team he needed all around him already. He advised me that a pathway that involved volunteering at Embercombe Friends Weekends from 2008 - 13 was perhaps a better way to start my association with the Valley Of The Fire than what I first envisaged.  

Gathering together my shattered illusions I set out upon that trail instead, and met a huge number of incredible people connected to Embercombe in the process. 

In my early training with Neil, he introduced me to a nature based practice that I later found out, is what First Nation people call, a Medicine Walk. A stroll out into nature that is designed to ask a question of the flora and fauna all around us and then to witness the answer that comes back to us through synchronicity and metaphor. It was an exercise that made my heart sing, as if it was given to me as a tool for me to use for the rest of my life for my own sake and that of others too. 

Having had a taste of this one nature based practice it only whetted my appetite for more. I enquired with all sorts of organisations like Bill Plotkin's Animas Valley Institute and even Embercombe itself to do an apprenticeship in this field. However, it was only through taking a walk with Mac one day on his land that the possibility of engaging with Northern Drum arose. Mac recommended Chris to me as they both shared the same Native American teachers, the Metis people. 

Having both men as guides, utilising both of their strengths and wisdom in order to help me along my own personal path seemed like the way to go for me and hence when the possibility of engaging in both schools of thought within a week presented itself to me I jumped at the chance to engage with it all. 

However, a twist in the story lay up ahead that I wasn't wholly prepared for. It was spelled out to me, in no uncertain fashion, upon The Journey Program itself how much I projected in Mac's direction with my own life purpose, vision and dream.

Being presented with the mirror that I was given to look at myself through came somewhat of a shock to me. I no longer liked the look of what I was seeing and I immediately became very conscious of how I was being and behaving around Mac. I became fearful of my own positive or 'golden' shadow, my own potential. I wasn't living my own full life. 

I began to realise that even though I had embarked on two community builds that year to continue to offer support to Embercombe in the building of The Linhay, which I had pledged to do through its match funding application, I was finding it increasingly difficult to be on the land and remain in the company of the founder of the organisation itself. I had lost the ability to communicate with Mac, man to man, brother to brother. 

I knew I had to step away no matter how much of a wrench it felt like at the time, for how long I was not sure. Part of me wondered if I would ever return. I had to go and find myself as a person in my own way. To really become aware of my own strengths and weaknesses and where I sat on the whole spectrum of masculinity. I had to fully immerse myself within not only a Vision Quest Guardianship Training through Northern Drum but also a longer term Three Year Shamanic Training with them too.

It was only through this experience that I began to find out the man I was destined to be. Through that process I would discover a joy of flowers, of all things, the essences of which would become my ultimate teachers and to whom I had to connect with more deeply to be closer to both the feminine and masculine aspects of myself, to bring myself back into a place of wholeness and balance.

So that was the way of things for a while, as a fully accredited Shamanic and Flower Essence Practitioner trying to build up the Allies Of Nature brand with all of the experiences that I had accumulated in my own life. That was before I started to hear the land of Embercombe whisper to me again on the wind.

Mac, himself, from time to time would pop up on my radar, in one of my dreams perhaps, or there was this course or that program from the Embercombe newsletter that peeked my interest, until that is an opportunity to back row on The Journey Program came in my direction with an unmistakable shout that I just couldn't ignore. My soul was ushering me home and I seemingly just had to attend that September, for reasons I could not fathom. It was such a simple way to re-engage too where all other routes to a return had proven to be far more difficult to negotiate. 

Little did I know on re-entering the gates at the top of the hill as to what the real purpose for my re-engagement was. Apart form bringing a fair degree of peace to my own and Mac's connection I believe, I was soon being presented with an opportunity to have a look at an Embercombe Men's Weekend that was struggling to fill its places. It was an invitation that was being offered to me by our much loved, and now sadly departed, Fiona Barnes. 

I saw a sign upon the Embercombe land that week, or more accurately in the heavens above, that was calling me like no other thing had done before. I had witnessed the constellation of Orion in the sky when exiting the furthest yurt in the West village at 4.00am to take a stroll into the wood. As I looked up to the mythic character above, so a shooting star flashed through that part of the zodiac. It was an omen for sure I thought, of what was to come next in my life, even if I wasn't fully aware of the significance of it at the time. 

In the end it wouldn't seemingly matter that I pitched an alternative Men's Weekend idea to the core team and for this notion to seemingly fall on stoney ground compared to what other people's offers were like of a similar ilk. The die had been cast in my own heart, for my own purpose had been discovered, I had found my true love. 

The Orion Reborn Mens Program had been conceived and although it would still take time to form within the creative womb and be birthed, when it finally came fully out into the light it started to become a project of real gravitas and integrity for me. 

Operating outside of the confines of Embercombe was liberating, soon a new, more aligned venue for the concept would present itself to me to host the program, along with a chef totally onboard with the ethos and then four women began to appear to hold space with me in what I am now calling 'next level' men's work. That is men's work that is to be witnessed by women and not solely to be conducted within a male only environment.  

The myth of Orion has been slowly percolating away within me since last autumn when I first really became aware of it. More fervently it began to come forward after serendipitously visiting the Aboriginal Songlines exhibition in Plymouth in February where I synchronistically bumped into Rachel Fleming of Embercombe too, someone who I had given a complimentary Medicine Walk to when she was the editor of Source Magazine that I believe helped light her own path forward back then.

Orion, in Greek Mythology, is known as 'The Great Hunter', however he is so good at hunting that he brags that he can hunt any species to extinction. Mother Earth doesn't take very kindly to this notion and hence sends a scorpion to poison and thus kill him and so he is then banished to the heavens seemingly forever.

However, a more fuller story according to the Aboriginal Songlines is that Orion was a male figure that pursued 'The Seven Sisters', the seven archetypes of women, across the planet for his own gain, driven by lust and desire, so much so that he ended up taking Merope against her will. Orion is a raper and pillager of the Earth and the deep feminine. This is ultimately a story of toxic masculinity.

This myth is played out upon the heavens nightly as Orion pursues The Seven Sisters, The Pleiades, across the night sky through Taurus as a reminder to us all of the toxic masculinity that is still in existence around the globe today.

When Orion eventually comes back to Earth however and is reincarnated, or reborn, he attempts to avenge the atrocities he has administered in the past by becoming the protector and guardian of the planet instead. He embodies a more divine way of being, to truly honour the deep feminine. He therefore begins to chart the necessary transformational journey that all men have to face today if wishing to bring more alignment to our way of being and happiness back into our hearts. 

As part of my second Shaman's Doorway experience this past weekend I took a Medicine Walk around the lanes of Manaton asking nature the question as to whether I was on the right path with the Orion Reborn Mens Program and how to fill the course for the start date in November. I got presented with a whole smorgasbord of inspiration saying that everything I was currently doing was all as it should be. One of the most notable sightings of which was a thrush that had just recently caught a snail and was in the process of eating it. The tap, tap, tap of the snail shell hitting the road had gathered my attention.

My teacher Chris had told me that if you see any hunter within nature swoop down and catch its prey whilst you are on a Medicine Walk then that normally means that you are right on track to what you are meant to be doing in life and here was such a sign to back up at least three other signs I had seen of a similar nature in previous weeks, with numerous cats and kestrels catching all sorts of mice and shrews. 

The Journey ahead now seems set to me and maybe at last I am beginning to fully embody the pledge I made at the end of the Journey program itself 'to live a sacred life and so help create a sacred body for the Earth, giving a voice to all the inhabitants of the Earth that as yet cannot speak for themselves' and this is my joyful vow.

And so I must continue upon my joyous way in bringing this program more fully into existence for the benefit of one and all honouring the second sacred law of the First Nation people that 'Everything Is First Born Of Woman'. 

I now see my two Shaman Doorway experiences as bookending my journey from caterpillar to butterfly. One allowing me to enter into the wilderness of my chrysalis for the transformation to begin the other to complete that passage of my life where I am able to exit more fully into freedom, to truly fly with all the gifts that I have to offer the world and be in a place of true servitude to both humans and the planet alike. 

So here we have it, the complete 24/7 Allies Of Nature flower essence support system to assist you in whatever personal development program that you choose to invest in with Allies Of Nature, be it The Flower Power Trip, The Butterfly Journey or the Orion Reborn Mens Program. These essences are designed to give you every quality that you require to bring yourself back into wholeness and balance from any controlling, criticising, conditioning, bullying, abusing and traumatising behaviour that you may have experienced in the past.

Ever since the Blackthorn first introduced itself to Simon Blackler back in March 2019, each individual flower in the range has stepped forward at the opportune moment to offer its qualities and message for the benefit of both humans and the planet alike. Indeed when Simon put a call out 12 months ago to search for new allies in order to create some commercial blends out of popular personal bespoke essences that he had created for some of his clients, the likes of Buddleia for August, Clover for October and Ivy for November were soon calling to him from the fields and hedgerows to be included in his range. 

These new flower essences have helped Simon form the blend that has come to assist people that have a tendency to always be pleasing others but not looking after themselves. These people give from a position of lack, hence the flowers that have stepped forward like Buddleia offer replenishment and Clover, abundance. 

Also there has been a blend created to assist in altering sleep patterns, to help bring Equilibrium back into one's life by offering people enough opportunities to rest. Thus a flower like Ivy has presented itself with the quality of vitality. 

It has been the same in 2022 also, where the likes of Gorse, Greater Stitchwort and Meadow Buttercup have gained Simon's attention, when  seeking out suitable flower helpers for his blend that assists people to come into their true power and potency. The Gorse has brought ferocity and the Meadow Buttercup, empowerment. 

With monthly review sessions for the two Flower Essences of the  Month that Simon recommends, there is a constant monitoring of progress that is being made with any particular client. Simon will make people aware where there have been subtle synchronicities at work so people's attention is heightened towards how the flower essences are influencing their healing journey when they take the essences every day and every month of the year. It is only then that the real power of flower essences and how they work can be truly illustrated to someone. 

Why not try them out for yourself under Simon's guidance by engaging in any of the personal development programs mentioned above and start to change your life for the better an essence and a quality at a time. Much love x

Well what 'The Deep Feminine' ultimately speaks to me about is the womb, the holding place, the void for which the spark of creativity then flies from in the form of the divine masculine in fact.

One of the two sacred laws of the First Nation people as I understand them, states that 'everything is first born of woman', so if you are a man or male thing, or this spark that I have just talked about then that act of being male initially comes out from this holding space of woman, the place of birthing, of nourishment and vast nothingness and stillness.

So the deep feminine means to me things like Mother Earth herself, our soul, where this quietness and calm resides at our centre, our inner void, our presence, our essence, all the creatures on the planet that are closely connected with this and in particular all women that we know that display similar if not the same qualities and abilities within our society.

So we as men need to respect that natural law and bring back a real appreciation for the feminine aspect of our society and within oursleves so that it is able to establish an equal footing within our community again. So that the deep (divine) feminine is empowered and the divine masculine stands by guarding and protecting it so that it can continue to grow and flourish, rather than raping and pillaging it, which the toxic masculine would have done in the past and still does to a large degree across the planet today, a consciouness which needs to be brought to a rapid halt.

This is the imbalance that we as men wish to evolve away from, distancing ourselves from toxic masculinity in order to become more divine in nature. This is something that we will be endeavouring to do through my new Orion Reborn Mens Program of which the Facebook Group for it has only just recently formed in support of the wider transformational program of the same name that I am offering later in the year to my fellow brothers.

If you are interested in this program or know of anyone else that could be please do not hesitate to get in contact with me about it. x 

Is it time for 'Radical Honesty'? - Are you fed up with all the shit that is going on in the world, all the crappy situations, where we collectively are taking the planet to a place that is all to cock?

Are you exasperated at all the false news, the disinformation, on both sides of the divide? Do you find it hard to negotiate the path ahead because you come across a social media feed from Addis Ababa, Timbuktu or Peaknuckle, Arkansas that claims this or that which is going on in the world and we need to follow this particular route in order to live our life in order to be safe, cowering away from life with fear in our hearts? That's if mainstream media hasn't totally befuddled us also?

Well, I for one believe it is time for change, for 'Radical Honesty'. This starts from within, with me and you, and our ability to speak our truth to ourselves and to one another, within circles or in groups, online or face to face so we can gain an insight into somebody's own authenticity, a handle on their real truth and where they are coming from in life, what their experience has been like in order to gain a true understanding of them as human beings. This is what I aim to give you in any case, with my own authenticity.

You will note in my posts if you study them at length that when I use the word 'I', I am most likely going to be talking about something that I believe, or what is working for me or that I am still processing in my own ongoing healing journey. When I use the term 'we' or 'you' I come from a place more of authority, of knowing it as a fact.

There is a debate at the moment as to which way to go as a facilitator of personal development, where perhaps one should be showing all the credentials of a person totally in control of his or her life by just posting 'we' posts all the time, and that seems as if it maybe coming in my life more in the future, but there is still work to be done on the self too at this present moment in time.

As I continue to post about 'I', I hope to build rapport with people that see me as an authentic coach for them, someone who has experienced things very similar to themselves, if he isn't continuing to do so now too, especially with regards to my fellow brothers and helping them speak out about the troubles we continue to experience, 'coming out' if you will, about being in touch with our more feminine sides, with our emotions, trying to shift our perspectives away from toxic masculinity, no longer following the traditional male archetype but hopefully embracing a new divine way of being in ourselves, more in touch with nature.
​
If you feel you would like to reach out and touch base with my own authenticity so that you can start to bring forward your own then please PM me today. There will be opportunities to speak your truth into circles I am setting up very soon through the Orion Reborn Mens Program. Much love x

Toxic Masculinity remains rife within our society today, how do we feel about this?

We see it in Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, we see it in altercations at the Oscars, we see it in the governance of pandemics, we see it in what we believe to be conspiracy theories, hell we see it in the way that we as human beings continue to expand across the planet without any respect towards nature and our fellow inhabitants within our world.

It is a 'power over' way of being, where we seek to bully, control, criticise and condition our fellow citizens towards our way of thinking. We take resources from the planet as if they are solely meant for us regardless of where they are in the world and what purpose they ultimately serve. We are selfish, we operate from a place of lack and scarcity, we hoard and we live in fear. If anyone dare challenge us we lash out with our own style of retribution.

This mentality only continues to make us feel more and more alone, isolated within the world, where, in solitary confinement, surrounded by a million cans of baked beans and a thousand rolls of loo paper we are bereft without any fellow human contact, none of any note in any case. Just an inanimate scroll of a social media feed where all of our emotions are hidden behind a wall of words without any genuine, physical human contact.

We yearn for connection with other kindred spirits and yet we do everything within our power to push people away, to take their energy away from them, just so that we can survive for a minute longer upon this globe of ours lost within a multitude of galaxies. This isn't the way to be in the world that we live in, we know this deep down at our very core but we know of little alternative as we have only experienced this one way of living to date, a caterpillar way of existence.

This continued treadmill of life where we continue to give and give and give to a system that very rarely returns any favours to us, unless we spend 25 years or more at our current task eeking out incremental payments towards our dreams from a very modest existence where only 1% of us truly win within the life that we encounter. The rest of us are continually in debt to it and it feels as if we will never have our head above the water. Once we do eventually surface it is often beaten back down or held below the water line as we drown in feelings of unworthiness, being under appreciated and unloved.

We can however turn it all around by adopting a 'power with' attitude, to seek to serve others, to be expansive with our unique gifts that we have to offer the world, to be supportive, compassionate and caring towards every living being that we encounter. In essence we are being urged to become more feminine in nature, opening up to our own divinity, softening the masculine aspect of ourselves where we begin to operate out of a place of abundance, joy, fun and frivolity. Here we begin to feel that we have any amount to share with others and once more we start to come back more into alignment with the Earth herself.

We can choose to share resources, to provide for others, to respect our fellow creatures upon the planet, giving them the space and respect that they deserve too. We begin to value them and work with them to create a planet where we can all begin to work in harmony with one another, sing the same song, being in tune with the rhythm of Gaia.

It is clear we need to pitch our voices higher, to place them up an octave or two if we are to lift the vibrancy and frequency of the planet to a more loving way of being, honouring our own divinity and butterfly self. This is possible however once we know our journey to date and how we have come to be where we are today.

If you are a man and you want to transform yourself from a place of toxicity to one of divinity why not check out my upcoming 13 month personal development project in the form of the Orion Reborn Mens Program. 

If you are a woman why not check out The Flower Power Trip and The Butterfly Journey and let's see what we can do by way of an introduction to each other.  

Together we can make the difference that we seek. I sit and wait patiently to be of service to you, whoever comes over the horizon first to be welcomed through the gateway into a new realm, one where some very fluttery kindred spirits exist just waiting to make contact with you, once you begin to find your reason for being on the globe at this time, your life purpose.

Why not come and join the new paradigm that is beginning to form and connect with me today, I can't wait to hear from you in order to get started.

On pastures near, on pastures far, all green they are with clover.
Abundant white flowers on summer days, and still when autumn’s over.

Three leaves there are aplenty, and yet we search for number four.
To see the one in myth and lore, with petal leaf one more. 

We wish and hope for joyous view, to be met by lucky charm.
To feel one’s life is fuller than full, and none will come to harm. 

To give one’s gifts, in bounty time, with no fear of lack or loss.
For cup to burst beyond the brim, offering presence without cost.

For one’s pledge with this simple bloom, is to treasure and to nourish.
To help a person upon their way, to flow and then to flourish. 

For cow to graze, and feel the calm, to keep the storm at bay.
Be soothed by nature’s balm, be happy upon such glorious days.

To feel you are so very blessed, to be grateful for this wealth.
To know the fortune that you have, in just being in great health.

No need to seek such distant fame, for here and now is all enough.
To love and be loved, cherished much, honoured, without all the huff and puff.

By Simon Blackler
Copyright © Simon Blackler 2021

​If you care to comment on this poem at all and the emotions that it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.

A tribute to the sisterhood, of all you provide and do.
To nurture and to nourish us, from the many to the few. 
To welcome us in bucket loads, allowing us such peace and rest.
Where we drop into to your comfort zone, and feel so ever blessed. 

Your support is such a treasure, it touches us so deep.
Our hearts are opened ever wide, to which phoenix tears do seep.
We know you have our back you see, to you we can so trust.
To keep us in the here and now, to boom and not go bust. 

You have become dear family, in the journey to return us home.
To an ancient knowing, healing quest, one of lifelong roam. 
In housing squirrel, shaman of our forest, gatherer of our nut.
You lift our spirits soaring high, pulling us out of our deepest rut. 

The seed pods that you have given us, such inspiration they do bring.
Of all the gifts we have to give, of all the songs we have to sing.
Deep breaths we sigh within your presence, as we sink into your wood.
To dream of projects still to come, to realise if we could. 

With red ribbon we do honour you, with our life we do so pledge.
We give you all of our waters, harmonised with love, in wedge. 
We glorify you with our urine, we sanctify you with our piss. 
Because without you in the forest, we’d never rescue our remiss.

We witness nuthatch upon your branch, swallow upon your twig. 
We appreciate the marriage we have, of a commitment oh so big.
Of the deepest, sincerest feminine, where even sun can come and bask.
Where fire and water do so meld, all contained within one nature’s flask.

​By Simon Blackler
Copyright © Simon Blackler 2021

​If you care to comment on this poem at all and the emotions that it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.

You’re the autumn fruit for the butterfly, a harvest for the bee.
Sweet nectar for the hornet, every insect’s joy and glee. 

To you they all do flock, to bask and feed galore.
On clustered lilac stock, nature’s larder full and more.

So much beauty to behold, from Small Tortoiseshell to Red Admiral.
Such a potent candy store, plentiful chocs of salted caramel. 

All Lepidoptera they do descend, Cabbage White to stunning Peacock.
Replenishment is that assured, with sugar hits like seaside rock. 

From fly and flea, to wasp and me, you’re such a homing beacon.
As nourishing as the apple tree, whatever power we are seeking. 

To dip our tongue into your bloom, is heaven sent and made.
To suck your bounty until content, from fullest flower to seeds that fade. 

What treasure it is that you do grant, to Brimstone, Painted Lady.
Giving energy to the winter months, courage to bird more sure than maybe. 

For wings to beat and then to fly, to keep momentum up. 
Reservoir of nutrition in the bank, abundance floweth over cup. 

​By Simon Blackler
Copyright © Simon Blackler 2021

​If you care to comment on this poem at all and the emotions that it brings up for you then please feel free to do so below.