I peer into the distance, to catch a peek of thee.
Inquisitive and wondrous, of the discs of white I see. Yellow yokes of iris, stems and stalks abound. Churchyard and meadow strewn, memories lost and found. Looking back across my life, I reminisce upon your gems. Picture postcards of sentiment, of rivers Seine and Thames. For here where all the waters go, heading on down stream. The sparkly highlights of the falls, is where I catch my dreams. Those twinkles in the flow, is where I am at one. My purpose comes to view, when all is said and done. With your essence in my heart, my vision’s clearly seen. Of all events that make me, me, all I’ve ever been. Your insight goes beyond the veil, to another realm. Where ancestors exist, fallen ones, captains of the helm. Lined up they are with advice for me, to live each day my last. Do what makes me happiest, bring joy and have a blast. For one will never know, which day brings final curtain call. To a life led unfulfilled, hopelessness and certain fall. But if I look to thee, magnificent Ox-Eye Daisy. I can find the route for me, kick back and make life easy. In the sunlight and the shadow, you beckon me to come. The present and the afterlife, in harmony and in hum. Criss cross I do the threshold, step on step of stone. Jumping along an invisible thread, bright eyes to lead me home. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below.
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Running about the garden, with my little yellow net.
Tottering in and out of borders, wondering what life I’d met. Chasing fellow brethren, through flowers and the veg. Pulling wings off Cabbage White, avenging atrocities of the dead. Then one moment that did change, you appeared above the hedge. A power came to greet me, placing love in heart, in wedge. So vibrant in your colour, yellow, magenta, cyan, black. Shining well beyond that of mine, I could never now look back. What pleasure had you brought to me, in one mere fleeting glimpse. Little did I know then, how long before meeting hence. Three decades flew by, plus a year or two besides. Travel needed to foreign lands, different times and tides. But there again you were, in garden, bobbing through the bush. My pulse began a racing, to a beat I could hardly hush. For here you brought an energy, like which I had never felt. Throbbing up my vertebrae, my body began to melt. A tingle and a rush of blood, my head was all a swoon. Giddy with delight on seeing you, one moment not too soon. All ablaze in sunshine, of daffodil in hue. A dream to be together again, just that of me and you. But what about the purpose, connection thirty years apart. A thought I must just ponder on, not knowing where to start. And so a journey then began, of peak and then of trough. Of looking for my life and path, before spirit cried enough. A dozen dances of the wheel, had come and gone by then. Camped within Druid valley, awash with poetry and of pen. Nights spent under canvas, daytime in and out of lodge. A training in completion, no false identity to dodge. Here I was in element, to nature in just keeping. Touched so deeply by the land, tears continued on the weeping. And so it was upon the vale, where swallows kept a coming. Swooping low and fast, bringing messages of becoming. Darting here and darting there, a gilding and a sail. A flish, a flash, a loop or two, one glorious coloured tail. Whispering ever so quietly, each one they said the same. My mirror that of Swallowtail, I’d found my medicine name. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below. Why The Caterpillar Dominates Our World At This Time! We as human beings, at this moment in time, seem to hold dominion over nature. With each day that passes so the imbalance between our own population and the rest of the species upon the planet becomes ever more extreme.
Both through the continual building of our own numbers and the way that we choose to live, we impact on the rest of our ecosystem. This is proving to be detrimental not only to those other creatures that live alongside us but to ourselves now too. We can visibly see the influence we are having on the world around us with the melting ice caps and deforestation visible from space, as well as the plastic pollution that can be witnessed within our oceans first hand. We are a species out of control, out of alignment with the rest of the Earth. When Coronavirus came along, regardless of whether it was man made or came from nature itself, during lockdown, the rest of the planet was able to gain some temporary relief from our continual onslaught. Both the waters and the airs around the globe began to become clear again and the animals of the land and the sea started to venture out of the depths of the wilderness to reclaim their natural territory. It was like as if an electric shock was being administered to Mother Earth to pump new life back into her body and to help her fight back. Yet in this time of societal upheaval, if human activity was being restricted and we were less evident as a species on the surface of the planet, we were still growing within our own households, out of sight of everything else, the world over. In 2020, as a population, up to the time of writing we have birthed another 79 million people on to the planet, where only 33 million have departed in the same time span (a mere 644,000 of them being attributed to Covid - 19). That means we have created a net population increase of 46 million since the turn of the year. All those people need to be housed, fed, clothed and watered. This is space that is needed for the human being at the expense of nature. We are bullying the rest of the planet into submission with our continued expansion and consequent consumption. I believe there are some simple reasons behind this phenomenon. What lies at the heart of it all is a feeling of lack and fear deep within us, of people not being whole and fulfilled, always wanting more, be that stuff or children, in order to fill a massive void within us. This feeling of lack stems from our family upbringing, childhood, playground activity and reaffirmed society values, where we are bullied into a life determined by others whilst we remain unaware of who we truly are and our authentic place within the natural world. There is no rite of passage any more that encourages us to voyage out into nature to be able to gain the knowledge we require as to what our true identity is all about. Bill Plotkin states in his book 'Nature And The Human Soul' that we now live within a 'Patho-Adolescent Society'. My personal interpretation of this is that we live in a permanent state of adolescence without ever truly growing up. As many of our leaders exist in this state too, not ever having had any real affinity with nature themselves, we are being led down a cul-de-sac with nowhere to go except oblivion. Bill would say that 'in current Western and Westernised societies, in addition to the scarcity of true maturity, many people of adult age suffer from a variety of adolescent psychopathologies - incapacitating social insecurity, identity confusion, extremely low self esteem, few social skills, narcissism, relentless greed, arrested moral development, recurrent physical violence, materialistic obsessions, little or no capacity for intimacy or empathy, substance addictions and emotional numbness'. Any amount of this is brought on through bullying, criticism, control and abuse and the consequent trauma that happens to us as a result of all this. In effect what we are talking about here is what I class as a caterpillar way of being. Where we continue to eat up the world, consuming all the while, unaware of our true potential that lies within us, the ability to transform into the butterfly we are all capable of being. We have a whole mode of communication that connects us to the caterpillar growth model in existence every day that encourages us to compete at the expense of others, knocking people down and bullying them into submission so they are unable to do that to us. We need to be aware however that there is another way of relating that is more collaborative, supportive, encouraging and indeed loving that will take us closer to evolving into the more aspirational flighty form of ourselves that we ultimately desire, one capable of creating everyone as winners. If we are to heal the world and bring it back into alignment we must first heal ourselves, then change, develop and evolve into the more complete human beings we are capable of becoming. That way we can help nature do likewise but we first have to stop and take responsibility for ourselves again. For if we do not then Mother Earth will surely strike back more strongly than ever before, if not through another pandemic then famine, drought, flood or other extreme weathers and circumstances designed to test the survival spirit of the human being to the limit. We have a choice now to change and make long lasting amendments to the way that we have been living to bring us back into balance with the rest of the Earth. I suggest that we take this opportunity now before it is too late and the world is too far gone. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below. Lament there is apparent, of a bloom that’s here and gone.
Opportunity that has been lost, of petals now are none. Time is of the ebbing, minutes sped past so very few. I’m left reminiscing, of mere seconds spent with you. I travel near, I voyage far, for one more tiny glimpse. Can’t bear the thought of another year, without your scent or sense. My heart lifts just one final notch, when at last you come to view. A solitary head upon a single stem, to you I must ensue. A flower of rare beauty, a floret of such gem. I think about you daily, with that special type of chem. I dream upon the hour, where united we are once more. Where my pulse can beat a pace, back on cue for sure. If I am to think another thought, to keep you in my mind. Wishing that I’d seized the day, when there was more of you and kind. I long for your return, when passion is forever here. Where to you I can pledge my trust, and little of my fear. Such a catalyst you are, of enthusiasm and fervent. To live each moment as if my last, without question of repent. Walking with you hand in hand, apathy a thing of the past. Carpé diem with the Wild Rose, love unbridled and very fast. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below. Could Sun-bows Herald The Gathering Of The Rainbow Warriors? When walking the fields around my home recently, in the late evening, as the sun has begun to set, under lockdown, I have come across a phenomenon in the sky, that I am not sure everyone is aware of.
It happens when the sun reaches a certain angle to the Earth where the solar rays are refracted by ice particles contained within the cirrus or cirrocumulus, high clouds of the upper atmosphere. Here a rainbow effect starts to appear with a full halo or partial arc around the sun. Seeing this prism effect within the clouds prompted me to revisit a book that has lain idle upon my bookshelf since the time I first read it back in 2017, when I was in the middle of my shamanic training, it is entitled 'Legend Of The Rainbow Warriors'. In the book a whole chapter is devoted to the time when this phenomenon, known as the whirling rainbow or sun-bow, is seen on a more regular basis within the skies. It is said to be a herald of a new age that comes with 'the promise of peace among all nations and all people'. It is a time where 'the Secret and Sacred Teachings (of the First Nation people) are to be shared with all races. Enough Children of the Earth will be awakened by then to carry the responsibility of the teachings and the healing process will begin in full swing'. Some elders say that the sun-bow 'can be understood as a sign to the people of a necessity to live a life in respect and harmony with all the creations that make life possible: plants, animals, waters, minerals, winds and other human beings'. As this starts to happen so the spiritual ideal of the Sacred Hoop begins to be restored to wholeness. This is when people of all the colours of the rainbow, all the four directions of the Earth begin to come together to create lasting peace with all the other inhabitants of the planet. Astrologers name this time as the Age Of Aquarius, Buddhists recognise it as Shambhala, Christians the Great Tribulation and 'Legend Of The Rainbow Warriors', believe it or not, refers to it as the Age Of Flowers. Steve McFadden, author of the book, writes 'In this prophecy, these people would wear feathers and beads, and communicate with the flowers. The flowers, it is said, would guide them and support them as they walked their life paths. Once you learn to communicate with the flowers, you will be lead from flower to flower to help you eliminate prejudice and hate from your life.' I was amazed when I reread this book, for I was sure on my first perusal that there was no mention of flowers or flower essences within the prose, and yet it would seem as if this is one of the main features of the book, pointing the way forward to a new way of being in the future. Once more it seems to give an explanation to me of my most recent journey, arguably making sense of my entire life to date. How could I have missed such valuable information before I wonder? I obviously wasn't ready to receive it then, being in the middle of my course and not yet having been introduced to the significance of the flowers within my true vocation. Only now perhaps, when my study is complete, does it all start to make sense. I believe that the time of the Rainbow Warrior is now, for me at least, as I begin to see the sun-bows in the sky more often. Believing it to be a portent of a time where anyone that cares about nature and loves the creatures of the Earth begins to stand up within society across the globe to create lasting change. Maybe the onset of Coronavirus has brought this state of awarenesses to the fore as under lockdown our connection to nature has been heightened. We can but only hope that this is truly the case. I will continue as best I can in doing what I am most able to do to cultivate change endeavouring to win over as many hearts and minds as I can with my shamanic and flower essence practice and my poetry too of similar ilk. I'm sure all fellow like minds, other Allies Of Nature are attempting to do the same thing too. So let us get prepared to come together, in one large collaborative effort and start to make peace, bringing this world back into balance after Covid - 19 as the prophecies are seemingly urging us to do. It feels like the time to act is now in any case. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below. Guardian of the threshold.
Protector of the kin. Lookout on the vision quest. Silencer of the din. Sentinel of the boundary. Sentry of the edge. Gatekeeper to the woodland floor. Scout upon the hedge. Doctor of alignment. Chiropractor of the spine. Charmer of the cobras. Channel of the divine. Waymarker to the sacred realm. Signpost to the bee. Conductor of the inner fire. God of kundalini. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below. We are the campions, standing tall and straight.
We are the campions, lined up by verge and gate. We are the campions, proud troop upon the view. We are the campions, regimental through and through. We are the campions, flowers of hottest pink. We are the campions, come to make you think. We are the campions, an army of the hedge. We are the campions, urging you to pledge. We are the campions, magenta blooms of beauty. We are the campions, of service and of duty. We are the campions, a legion to unite. We are the campions, in purpose we delight. We are the campions, with petals of cerise. We are the campions, lapels without a crease. We are the campions, a squad of florets shone. We are the campions, root to stem as one. We are the campions, with message to connect. We are the campions, to settle an old debt. We are the campions, a force of greater good. We are the campions, to help you if we could. We are the campions, here throughout the seasons. We are the campions, around for all right reasons. We are the campions, a battalion of your trust. We are the campions, belief in us a must. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below. There’s a freshness to this place, like which I’ve never seen.
There’s a wind, a breeze, an inkling, lifting veil of life and dream. There’s grass beneath my feet, soft, moist, like never tread. There’s an expectancy apparent, of an existence hanging by a thread. Stood tall, eyes pierced, to horizon, crystal to the view. There’s a nudge from behind me, of a presence unimaginably new. A force that continues pushing, of a creature’s mighty thrust. I look down upon his shoulders, my limbs buckling to his trust. For now I feel him in me, my legs and his are one. Calves strain, muscles, sinew, as in a moment we begin to run. At first I think I’m mounted, riding powerful, masculine beast. But then I see my hoof hit ground, will wonders never cease. My hart begins to pound, animate pulse pumps and quickens. Adrenalin, blood, spirit, coursing vein thickens. My nostrils start to flare, as we power on the charge. I and he as stag, passed bush and gorse we barge. Antler not in evidence, a steed not in his prime. Still development to be made, whether his essence or mine. Suddenly there is nervousness, a palpable, convincing fear. For what is that upon our path, no other than grizzly bear. Such a shock to see him there, immediately it is break. All senses alert and paralysed, as if bitten by a snake. My eyes wide eyed and open now, I’m back upon my bed. What more I wonder of Running Deer, my name whispered to me by the dead. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2020 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below. Can One Moment In History Do Enough To Shift Consciousness? Little did Derek Chauvin know when kneeling upon George Floyd's neck what the next 9 minutes would bring for himself, George, the black population, and humanity as a whole, I would imagine.
Racism, is in effect bullying. Bullying of a group of people purely because the colour of their skin is deemed to be somewhat different to what we might experience ourselves. We see the other person as separate from us, where the human connection and commonality between us has been lost. Maybe the person comes from a separate neighbourhood, a different country, a contrasting part of the world, experiencing a varying culture and set of life circumstances to us. Instead of seeking to understand and begin to know that individual, extending the hand of love towards them, we choose to concentrate on the separateness, the fear and feeling threatened by the other person. We end up punishing them for not being like us. I speak from personal experience, my life path is one of being bullied. Ironically experiencing the flip side of the coin, as a privileged white male, certainly within my own peer group, in contrast to other caucasian youths that lived within my own neighbourhood. I was seen to be different. I seemingly had more than others, a bigger house, larger amount of wealth, more loving parents and these guys were envious of my upbringing and lifestyle. I actually ended up having a similar experience to George. Years of bullying by my own tyrants, two individuals in particular, led to a pivotal moment, a crescendo, where one of the protagonists placed his arm around my neck, playfully demonstrating to his counterpart of what it would take to strangle somebody. Unfortunately for him, and for me for that matter also, he pulled his arm a little too tight around my windpipe and I blacked out and fell to the ground. Just like George, I was able to offer up little resistance to what was happening at the time, almost accepting it as the norm. That was, until immediately after the event where I realised the ramifications of what had just happened. Fortunately I was able to get back up onto my own two feet again. On doing so I felt immediately empowered to go and get help to start to bring about some sort of change. This I think is what is happening now, the black population is getting back up on its own two feet again on behalf of George and for their own sake too. They have been suppressed for far too long and this is perhaps the moment that has come to trigger a whole race into action and bring about lasting transformation. We of course have been living in an unprecedented time of late, the Coronavirus lockdown has placed restrictions on society across the planet like never before. If there has been any feeling of unrest going on behind closed doors then this scenario will only have exacerbated the situation. A pressure cooker of ill feeling could well have been building up in households across nations not necessarily related to racism, just in experiencing what it is to be a human living through this time with our own unsatisfactory set of life circumstances playing out within our own mind. Under such a situation it only takes a tiny spark to explode a powder keg of emotion that has been pent up for decades, centuries, millennia even, and rightly so too. It may well prove to be the instance that brings a great deal of things to a head within the world that need to be healed within our own society and then moved on from. What the black race will have to do now, if my own circumstances are anything to go by is to seek to make themselves stronger in whatever shape or form is deemed possible, not by way of further conflict, but by way of questioning their oppressors and enquiring into how a more even society can be experienced and parity formed. For when I was being bullied, I didn't realise that I was the type of person that could be bullied, or would be bullied. So when one oppressor left, it was only a matter of time before another oppressor arrived because I hadn't done anything to change myself and my own way of being. I realised I had to change my own behaviour, the way I conversed with people. I needed to find myself, get in touch with my own belief system, be sure of my own abilities, worthiness and purpose, to create a tougher core that was not to be pushed around any more so I was more able to stand my ground. This took many years of investigating and experimentation before the right path, teachings and tenets started to present themselves to me through my own personal development and eventually finding The Shamanic Path. If we resort to rebellion at any time and seek to become the oppressors ourselves, to retaliate through more violence, then we are no better than what we have experienced first hand ourselves. Sometimes, I grant, this is a necessary process if our oppressor won't listen to us or is not prepared to enter into a negotiation with us, but ultimately there are only losers in this scenario. If we are to follow Dr Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis, where we realise that the only options open to us, by way of communicating with one another, are through being a parent, adult or child, then when we become the oppressor or are the oppressed we are acting out the parent / child scenario. Here we can only bring heartache and pain to our world. Our challenge or invitation is to try and shift that emphasis into the realm of the adult. Here, a more supportive space of enquiry exists in a place of love, not one of fear. Here we can bring peace to ourselves, others, our community and our planet for the benefit of everyone in the future. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below. Foxglove V Foxglove In the Allies Of Nature range of flower essences the 'Flower Essence Of The Month' for June is the Foxglove, it brings with it the quality of 'protection' and the message of being 'The Guardian Of The Threshold'.
However, the Chalice Well also has a Foxglove flower essence within its range of flower essences too, bringing with it the quality of 'alignment' and the message to 'Stand Tall And Be Counted'. When we come into contact with both ranges how can we decide which of the two essences is most suitable for us? Why is there a difference in the qualities that they offer and messages that they wish to bring? Where can commonality be found and the meaning of the two essences bridged? At first glance there may seem to be quite a disparity between the two Foxglove essences within their respective ranges, however on closer inspection the mutual theme starts to become more apparent. Within the Age Of Aquarius, the age we are entering now, more collaborative ways of working is said to offer the best way forward for us all. When attending the Accredited Chalice Well Practitioner Course in 2019 I learnt through that study that this spirit is very much upheld within the Chalice Well way of making essences. When capturing an essence in a collaborative way, many students or practitioners are all interpreting the message that the flower wants to bring to them independently. The insights that they receive about the essence will be very different. The beauty of the essence creation is only portrayed when people are able to communicate the enlightenment that they personally have been given, only then can the common themes be picked up on. It is through the weaving of the strands of the web where the meaning behind the essence is ultimately established. Of course essences of the same flower can be gathered under very different circumstances, in daylight, after dark, on different moon cycles and having various contrasting events going on within the field, within the wider world, so subtle nuances may always be apparent between essences. However when you take these two examples of the Chalice Well essence and that of the Allies Of Nature essence too, a bridge indeed can be formed between the ranges. The Foxglove carries with it the colour of magenta. Magenta is a colour that is a cross between both red and violet. Red is associated with the base chakra, violet the crown. In the words of the Chalice Well 'the Foxglove essence helps to create greater alignment of body and soul with higher energies. The life force then flows from crown to base'. It can be noted that all the petals of a Foxglove have a very feminine receptive shape to them, whereas the overall appearance of the flower itself is very erect and masculine in demeanour. This plant seems to summon upon the energy of both the masculine and the feminine, through the kundalini, the twin snakes that spiral up the spine bringing the life force with it. I know from my own experience that when we start to tap into the kundalini it is like experiencing 'The Guardian Of The Threshold', because when you connect with it you begin to enter a new, more spiritual realm. The kundalini is a benevolent force, one could say the protector of the sacred. Therefore when the Foxglove 'Stands Tall To Be Counted', when it is stood in alignment, we can see that this is one attribute it takes to be a guardian too. Hence we begin to see the link between the two essences become clearer. The essence journey can be a very interesting one, the flowers are great educators for life in general. When we see difference we are encouraged to seek commonality for a better understanding. In this instance of what it is to be a Foxglove. For people and their differences however we could be being encouraged all the time to find out what the commonality is between us also and ultimately what it is to be human. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below. |
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