Newsletter Summer 2021Bonjour dear brave souls, it has been a while…my longing is to sit around the same fire with you all, for the time of a few heart songs and rooted soul stories…closing my eyes...imagining. I am in France still.  My present home “Praising the rooted standing ones and all the ones who have gone extinct. I am sitting on the Ancestors’ bones and on Death seedlings. The vultures are mentoring me to pay attention. Here in la Drôme in the South East in France the water flows from 1000 fountains, the water is well and drinkable, she reminds us… I am in France accidentally as if spat out of England! I have not said good bye to England/Albion and have not been welcomed here in France while dictatorship is showing its flags... so I live where we all live…in between stories. A very creative and chaotic place to court. My body is recovering from long covid thanks to you generous funders, the plants, healers and prayers. The heat, the mountains and the wild ones have supported me also. Fear often grabs me at 3am when I wake up gasping for air, we both learn to dance and she leaves for a bit with the sun rays. Who keeps you company I wonder… This full newsletter is a delicious basket of French and English offerings. May some of it feed you deeply and beautifully.  What I am working on and |
"The human soul is hungry for beauty… When we experience the Beautiful, there is a sense of homecoming". 
 the Ash tree under a microscope, sorry!
 eARTh art in the forest by Azul Thome
 eARTh by Azul Thome
 eARTh art by Azul Thome
 eARTh art in the forest by Azul Thome | This morning I would like to write about the toxic spell I am under with COVID19, the proposed journey from pathology to pathosophy through the sacred work of grief composting and the vital feeding of Soul. What happens if we move from allopathy to allosophy? What is the root of the collective terror and disorientation we feel? Can the disappearance of our nomadic freedom be the awakening call for loving more furiously and for radical generous cœurage? I am writing so when I forget again and fall under the strong spell cast on us, I can at least return to it. May it be so, inshallah and inshgaia! I have no answers. I am sharing my experience of the last 2 months when I was not sure I would come back from madness and illness. The last 9 months has seen me feeling dis-eased, very disorientated with a brain unable to do simple tasks I have been experiencing deep physical and psychic pain while feeling uncontrollable raw emotions. I am deeply exhausted with cough and breathlessness. The above list holds the perfect materials for an alchemist and a medicine person to be born and/or practice. The above list also holds dangerous materials and definitions for a corrupted system to use to control us and put on under a spell...the spell of terror, blind obedience and of course increase isolation from all that matters... DEPRESSION in OUR SYSTEM unable to grieve I took a risk to seek support from the allopathic system of my gp practice 2 months ago. I was immediately put on antidepressant, painkillers and valium. I took it all and walked again on that path of medicated pathology. I had to find something I had lost the last time I was there. So I put the pills on my altar and prayed for a safe return. After a few days of swallowing the pills I gradually stopped crying, the pains in my body dulled and a feeling resembling a voiceless stupor wrapped over me. I became controllable again, pacified and numbed. WILD GRIEF, MOVEMENT and FOREST After a few weeks I stopped it all and allowed myself to feel what i had parked for the experiment. First my immense grief, sorrow and rage moved again. I allowed my body to move and paint, stitch and embroidered through the many stages of pain and I relearned to lay on the forest skin while breathing with the trees, my kins. I needed to leave the home of Soul to return to it with some refreshed clarity. I am unsure if it is wise to use myself as the raw material but sometimes we are required to be the laboratory, the alchemist, the temple, the dangerous path, the prima materia and the patient all at once. PATHOLOGY and PATHOSOPHY Being conditioned to pathologies, our experiences of pain, strong feelings and suffering all our life we seem to look for something to fit these symptoms into. ME, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, depression, psychosis, bipolar, autism, manic, etc... When tired and alone we just want to rest there, for a moment, for a sense of veneered belonging, a home, however dysfunctional it is. I noticed that when I think of dying it gives me the same feeling of rest and belonging!!!? That makes me suspicious, it awakes in me to the possibility that something dangerously unfriendly is going on in our world right now. A world that makes us want to rest and belong in the arms of the system that harms and controls us... Are we part of a human system that would rather see us dying than living? Looking at the evidence, it is probably the case. After all our healing system is all about illness, not about well being, kindness or the thriving of life. People who are truly alive are dangerous! Perhaps because they are fearless, interconnected to the web of life and compassionate... These pathologies were named and defined by whom and for whom? Why have we accepted them with such docility? Same question can be transferred onto every part of our society, politics, laws, truths, all over the world ... These pathologies become prison cells, they take away our freedom, stifle our imagination and crash our dignity. They enable medication to be passed on without proper check about its true effect. Power is never shared with the sick and the suffering one. Our return to the web of life, to our wild grief, to our songs, dance, art, poetry, old stories and empowering myths are never part of the prescription. We are never asked about our relationship to our visible and invisible allies and to our well and wise ancestors. All of these threads are never spun by doctors and patients.. They are bellitelated, shamed and laughed at most often. They are flipanteley and dangerously named as irrelevant matters and discarded. If you have ever been in a psychiatric hospital you will know what I mean. Hospitals are the same. We love you nurses and some docs. It is the system and the anesthesia I am addressing here. OTHER WAYS I am reminded of a few of my mentors. Francis Weller about depression: " depression is a plea from the soul to stop all you are doing and go down on your knees to feel your grief" Martin Prechtel who said to a director of a psychiatric hospital: "Aha this is where you keep your shamans!" and of Malidoma Somé : What a real shaman sees at a mental institution So if we look at the spell of ALLOPATHY: "treatment of disease by remedies that produce effects opposite to the symptoms," The definition says it all. How can I break the strong spell of allopathy . I call on Sophia, I call on Allosophy: "wisdom born of the other" "Allo" means 'other..."Al": means 'beyond'... Where is 'Pathosophy' in this? where is "the wisdom born of suffering, of feeling" Where does she reside? Why is the breath of freedom and respect that come from the enquiry not encouraged by our medical system? I let you guess. SOPHIA Sophia is the feminine aspect of divine wisdom. You can see that She is not what the people in power will want to foster in the people they are meant to serve and protect. Recently I have been offered another emerging pathology : "long covid or post covid, or covid syndrome". In the uk the medical system is setting up a series of test at the end of November to identify us and create a new illness. The illness will lead to new medications . I rested there for a few days, in the seat of being part of the reffered one for the new experience. My ego and love of pioneer adventures got confused. I even felt relief again to belong to some study of suffering even if unknown. To fall into the void, to fall into the unknown frightens me, so I grab prematurely onto some offered solutions, like a shocked amnesiac, anaesthetised zombie. I realised this morning that I had given up the fight for beauty. That by being offered a comfortable and easy solution my whole being was weakening even more, divatilasing. By being offered a pathology woven in the terror of Covid19, added to the growing control of our lives, the world wide authoritarianism and a mad making system I became even more unwell. I was under a spell. I am under a spell. And the forgetting keeps happening, the falling asleep - again and again. It took me to look into the eyes of a painting I made in the forest to wake up to my strength again. That tree is becoming my temple. |
eARTh art by Azul Thome : "PATHOSOPHY"
SPELL
Yesterday after watching a very disturbing french documentary - Hold Up - about the possible horror happening behind the scene of covid I saw my giving up, my wish to die rather than having my freedom taken away even more.
I did not want to see what will happen to me or the beings I love. I was horrified to not be able to see my family. I am experiencing the crumbling of my livelihood. Feeling the loneliness and powerlessness...but worst of all what could I DO in the face of such a worldwide sickening and so frightening madness ? I think we have passed the hummingbird story of doing individually all that we can. It might be a time for the murmuration of starlings now, working together in unity. And the teaching of mycelium is coming into our psyche again through books, talks, psilocybin and the return of the fungi. It is time to get together, go underground and create a mycelium of support and resistance.
ALLIES and GUIDES
I remembered my childhood archetypes/sheroes and heroes like Boudicca, Mandela, Tree, Pocahantas, Hypatia, Robin Hood, Kali, Gandhi, River, Lords of the Ring, Le Petit Prince, the Suffragettes, Raven, Dr King, the courage of the people of Beirut, the Jumping Mouse story, the Four Sisters of the Last Forest on Earth story...
MADNESS and WILD GRIEF
Last night I howled and screamed in ways that could have got me 'locked up and down'. I felt fury, rage, lostness, fear, sorrow with stretched claws and thick fur, with sharp long teeth eating the moon.
I felt in ways that no city dwellers can allow themselves to do or can dare remember how. For the fear of going mad or being ostracised and locked in is too great. So we take the blue pill even if its promised bliss is a slow killer. I remember days taking both the blue and the red pill. I propose a third element...
CEREMONIES and HIDING
I still hide to enable my wild grief to bring me back home to the wild truths, unless I'm in ceremonies with other humans. These ceremonies have stopped due to the 'lock down' and restrictions...it costs our psyche and our heart greatly. So they must be internalised, they must go underground, they must keep happening in secrets, in the forests and in our psyche.
The touching of madness, the crashing down beyond the level of gravity, the rage of my nomadic soul to be locked down, the disorientation and terror of the lack of congruence in our leaders and neighbours, the pains and suffering, the sleeping and waking in a state of torpor...they all become a gate toward the deepening understanding of my human family.
LONG COVID
These are not just personal states of being. may we not be caught in the emerging net of the next pathology: Long and post COVID.
I now see that these experiences of dis-ease are a response to our freedom being taken away from us.
A gagged scream due to the trauma of knowing our elders are locked in their room with a key, unable to be touched by their grandchildren or by the sun. Future mothers are giveing birth with a mask, the children are beaten up and masked and forbidden to touch and be touched in kindness! Many of us cannot travel to see our loved ones.
We know that what we are obeying does not make sense and that the root of the word obey means 'listening' not losing our humankind rights . Yet we want to be good citizens... But when a situation is called a war with an enemy to win over...we have lost our freedom. A very madening dynamic.
We know that there is a fat great lie seeping into our daily cup of tea. That there is no more debats, no press with integrity left, no freedom of speech about the situation of covid. If we say - hold on a minute, let's challenge this - we are called conspi-racists...or...or...
I let you fill the dots with your own experience...
It is deeply disturbing, I long to sit with each one of you unmasked in the forest around the same bon-fire to share our uncensored truth. But fear has sipped in our own hearts now. It will take great practice and discipline to stay awake!
So this morning I woke up pledging to fight for freedom and fearlessness until the day of my death.
The words came this morning:
I will die in the fight for life and freedom composting terror when it comes.
I will find my tribe in the mycelium of resistance and join them in service to all that matters,
I will not live and die in pacifying comfort . I will live and die for Sentient and Civil rights.
I will keep feeding my well and wise ancestors while seeking their support,
I will keep seeking the solace and wisdom of the trees, the children, the mycelium, the ravens and the river.
I will let the bird songs remind me of mine.
I will keep my appointments and gasp in joy at the rooks being on cue at dusk and dawn announcing the shift in things.
I will keep painting and making the conversations beyond words to listen to our beautiful mamatay.
OUR FOR-GETTING
The memory of our ancestors were kept and passed on to the children through songs, stories, ceremonies and rituals. They also had the sonlines and the ways of seeing the invisible gold threads of the mycelium of connections of the great web of life.
Yesterday after watching a very disturbing french documentary - Hold Up - about the possible horror happening behind the scene of covid I saw my giving up, my wish to die rather than having my freedom taken away even more.
I did not want to see what will happen to me or the beings I love. I was horrified to not be able to see my family. I am experiencing the crumbling of my livelihood. Feeling the loneliness and powerlessness...but worst of all what could I DO in the face of such a worldwide sickening and so frightening madness ? I think we have passed the hummingbird story of doing individually all that we can. It might be a time for the murmuration of starlings now, working together in unity. And the teaching of mycelium is coming into our psyche again through books, talks, psilocybin and the return of the fungi. It is time to get together, go underground and create a mycelium of support and resistance.
ALLIES and GUIDES
I remembered my childhood archetypes/sheroes and heroes like Boudicca, Mandela, Tree, Pocahantas, Hypatia, Robin Hood, Kali, Gandhi, River, Lords of the Ring, Le Petit Prince, the Suffragettes, Raven, Dr King, the courage of the people of Beirut, the Jumping Mouse story, the Four Sisters of the Last Forest on Earth story...
MADNESS and WILD GRIEF
Last night I howled and screamed in ways that could have got me 'locked up and down'. I felt fury, rage, lostness, fear, sorrow with stretched claws and thick fur, with sharp long teeth eating the moon.
I felt in ways that no city dwellers can allow themselves to do or can dare remember how. For the fear of going mad or being ostracised and locked in is too great. So we take the blue pill even if its promised bliss is a slow killer. I remember days taking both the blue and the red pill. I propose a third element...
CEREMONIES and HIDING
I still hide to enable my wild grief to bring me back home to the wild truths, unless I'm in ceremonies with other humans. These ceremonies have stopped due to the 'lock down' and restrictions...it costs our psyche and our heart greatly. So they must be internalised, they must go underground, they must keep happening in secrets, in the forests and in our psyche.
The touching of madness, the crashing down beyond the level of gravity, the rage of my nomadic soul to be locked down, the disorientation and terror of the lack of congruence in our leaders and neighbours, the pains and suffering, the sleeping and waking in a state of torpor...they all become a gate toward the deepening understanding of my human family.
LONG COVID
These are not just personal states of being. may we not be caught in the emerging net of the next pathology: Long and post COVID.
I now see that these experiences of dis-ease are a response to our freedom being taken away from us.
A gagged scream due to the trauma of knowing our elders are locked in their room with a key, unable to be touched by their grandchildren or by the sun. Future mothers are giveing birth with a mask, the children are beaten up and masked and forbidden to touch and be touched in kindness! Many of us cannot travel to see our loved ones.
We know that what we are obeying does not make sense and that the root of the word obey means 'listening' not losing our humankind rights . Yet we want to be good citizens... But when a situation is called a war with an enemy to win over...we have lost our freedom. A very madening dynamic.
We know that there is a fat great lie seeping into our daily cup of tea. That there is no more debats, no press with integrity left, no freedom of speech about the situation of covid. If we say - hold on a minute, let's challenge this - we are called conspi-racists...or...or...
I let you fill the dots with your own experience...
It is deeply disturbing, I long to sit with each one of you unmasked in the forest around the same bon-fire to share our uncensored truth. But fear has sipped in our own hearts now. It will take great practice and discipline to stay awake!
So this morning I woke up pledging to fight for freedom and fearlessness until the day of my death.
The words came this morning:
I will die in the fight for life and freedom composting terror when it comes.
I will find my tribe in the mycelium of resistance and join them in service to all that matters,
I will not live and die in pacifying comfort . I will live and die for Sentient and Civil rights.
I will keep feeding my well and wise ancestors while seeking their support,
I will keep seeking the solace and wisdom of the trees, the children, the mycelium, the ravens and the river.
I will let the bird songs remind me of mine.
I will keep my appointments and gasp in joy at the rooks being on cue at dusk and dawn announcing the shift in things.
I will keep painting and making the conversations beyond words to listen to our beautiful mamatay.
OUR FOR-GETTING
The memory of our ancestors were kept and passed on to the children through songs, stories, ceremonies and rituals. They also had the sonlines and the ways of seeing the invisible gold threads of the mycelium of connections of the great web of life.
“I had drunk so deeply of grief and innocently gambled so hard with fate and irony that a special kind of vision was gathering in my eyes, not entirely clear just yet. This was the same look people saw in your eyes when you have died for beauty and come to live accepting nature as life with no promise of paradise, and mad at people who couldn't see that.”
― Martin Prechtel,
An other musing
When we 'become ill' there are choices opening to us. Important and vital choices of how to position ourselves within the constellations and systems available to us for healing.
We can identify with the ill-ness or/and identify with the Alchemist, the Medicine person in us who is longing to be initiated into their full beingness.
WHat I am saying is that - We can identify with Pathology or 'Pathosophy'!
I have been deep diving with the word Pathosophy and its medicine for many months now...an astonishing and opening journey...
When we become dis-eased we must remember that it is not a failure, something to fix, to hate, to even adore, to shame, nor something to use as currency for all the past suffering never composted...
Illness is NOT an invitation to the insane medical industry, that grew around our suffering, to join in...not always and mostly not.
Our suffering is absolutely NOT a permission to be owned through the naming of our pains, by pathologising it, medicating it, categorising it and essentially owning and gagging our freedom&capacity to become intimate with the ecosophy of our living world!
I see too many people profiting and making insans fortunes by keeping people entangled in a system that is rooted in fear of grief, terror of death, dismembered from soul and beauty.
A system that has no more filament of connection to the living world, the invisibles worlds and the well and wise ancestral world.
I propose that -The illness and the disease can become the raw material, the prima materia that the Artist and Alchemist within us can create a workshop, a forest, a lab around .
.All is there to initiate us to become a fuller, wiser, ripened human being.
I have been ill most of 2020. It has become an experimental event. I am becoming the alchemist through also being, the ill one, the illness, the lab, the paintbrush, the paint, the howling, the despair, the delight, the awe for it all, the suffering and the wisdom born of it all. It became an entity and a deep exploration which is still going on.
I call Her
"PATHOSOPHY: The Wisdom born of suffering"
I drew a triangle with Pathos (suffering/feelings) Logos (reason/study/logic) Sophia (feminine divine wisdom)
Within the triangle lives an interrogation mark. Anima Mundi stepped in for a while, then the Field of Rumi and today it is empty again.
I thought that Pathosophy wanted to be away from pathology but today she turned back towards it and a marriage of the three, PATHOS, LOGOS and SOPHIA has taken place.
I am curious to know how this lands on your hearts, bodies and souls.
I sense that there might reside something here that could be of benefit to many ill and pained people right now...
To move from an over identification to suffering, to the wisdom born of suffering...to move from the illness within to the medicine person longing to be initiated within the ill one using the illness itself to make gold out of lead...and in that way we initiate our world a little.
Azul Thome
When we 'become ill' there are choices opening to us. Important and vital choices of how to position ourselves within the constellations and systems available to us for healing.
We can identify with the ill-ness or/and identify with the Alchemist, the Medicine person in us who is longing to be initiated into their full beingness.
WHat I am saying is that - We can identify with Pathology or 'Pathosophy'!
I have been deep diving with the word Pathosophy and its medicine for many months now...an astonishing and opening journey...
When we become dis-eased we must remember that it is not a failure, something to fix, to hate, to even adore, to shame, nor something to use as currency for all the past suffering never composted...
Illness is NOT an invitation to the insane medical industry, that grew around our suffering, to join in...not always and mostly not.
Our suffering is absolutely NOT a permission to be owned through the naming of our pains, by pathologising it, medicating it, categorising it and essentially owning and gagging our freedom&capacity to become intimate with the ecosophy of our living world!
I see too many people profiting and making insans fortunes by keeping people entangled in a system that is rooted in fear of grief, terror of death, dismembered from soul and beauty.
A system that has no more filament of connection to the living world, the invisibles worlds and the well and wise ancestral world.
I propose that -The illness and the disease can become the raw material, the prima materia that the Artist and Alchemist within us can create a workshop, a forest, a lab around .
.All is there to initiate us to become a fuller, wiser, ripened human being.
I have been ill most of 2020. It has become an experimental event. I am becoming the alchemist through also being, the ill one, the illness, the lab, the paintbrush, the paint, the howling, the despair, the delight, the awe for it all, the suffering and the wisdom born of it all. It became an entity and a deep exploration which is still going on.
I call Her
"PATHOSOPHY: The Wisdom born of suffering"
I drew a triangle with Pathos (suffering/feelings) Logos (reason/study/logic) Sophia (feminine divine wisdom)
Within the triangle lives an interrogation mark. Anima Mundi stepped in for a while, then the Field of Rumi and today it is empty again.
I thought that Pathosophy wanted to be away from pathology but today she turned back towards it and a marriage of the three, PATHOS, LOGOS and SOPHIA has taken place.
I am curious to know how this lands on your hearts, bodies and souls.
I sense that there might reside something here that could be of benefit to many ill and pained people right now...
To move from an over identification to suffering, to the wisdom born of suffering...to move from the illness within to the medicine person longing to be initiated within the ill one using the illness itself to make gold out of lead...and in that way we initiate our world a little.
Azul Thome
And words from Khalil Gibran on
PAIN
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break,
that its heart may stand in the sun,
so must you know pain.
Much of your pain is self-chosen
.It is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.
Therefore trust the physician, and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity:
For his hand, though heavy and hard, is guided by the tender hand of the Unseen,
And the cup he brings,
though it burn your lips, has been fashioned of the clay which the Potter
has moistened with His own sacred tears.”―
Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
eARTh art by Azul Thome: "PASSAGE"
Listen... Water brings a Message (We belong to Life)
| The Message of Water was given to Azul Thomé on 2nd December 2016 by the River Dart, Devon, UK after she fell on her knees asking the river how to love when there is so much loss? | "I was deeply touched by this message and felt the water call me to translate her words into the spirit of a song, that Mother Water could speak through music to our hearts and call us home... |
LISTEN...WATER BRINGS A MESSAGE (We belong to Life)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
The lights in the sky tell the story
of a tribal people that listened to the voice of the earth
The fires on the land tell the story
of a human kind that got lost and forgot what was sacred
Mother water brings her message
“Wake up and remember your birthright belonging to the Earth
If you don’t stop sleeping,
if you don’t come home soon
Then there is not long left now, there is not long left now, there is not long left
My dear child do not worry about me
I recover quickly with the song of the birds and the love of the trees
With prayers moving around the Earth, I regain balance with your tears
So remember you songs, do not focus your energy on saving me
Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen and learn
Bring the change to your hearts first
All of us
Ancestors, soil, water, plant, air and animals
Are calling you humans to us so we can save you
Sacred beauty,
sacred beauty
Open you heart
to what love truly is
You were loved all along,
always have been and forever shall be
By all of us who you think that you are saving
You were loved all along,
always have been and forever will be
By all of us who you think that you are saving
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Ayla Schafer
www.aylaschafer.co.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
The lights in the sky tell the story
of a tribal people that listened to the voice of the earth
The fires on the land tell the story
of a human kind that got lost and forgot what was sacred
Mother water brings her message
“Wake up and remember your birthright belonging to the Earth
If you don’t stop sleeping,
if you don’t come home soon
Then there is not long left now, there is not long left now, there is not long left
My dear child do not worry about me
I recover quickly with the song of the birds and the love of the trees
With prayers moving around the Earth, I regain balance with your tears
So remember you songs, do not focus your energy on saving me
Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen and learn
Bring the change to your hearts first
All of us
Ancestors, soil, water, plant, air and animals
Are calling you humans to us so we can save you
Sacred beauty,
sacred beauty
Open you heart
to what love truly is
You were loved all along,
always have been and forever shall be
By all of us who you think that you are saving
You were loved all along,
always have been and forever will be
By all of us who you think that you are saving
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life
Wake up, come home, remember in your bones
That you belong to life"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Ayla Schafer
www.aylaschafer.co.uk
The River Dart, Devon, England
THE ORIGINAL ~ MESSAGE OF WATER was given to Azul Valerie Thome on 2nd December 2016 by the River Dart, Devon, UK: It is the guide of all SOULand's offerings to our passaging world.
" My dear child do not worry about me, Water. I recover quickly with the song of our birds, the love of trees, with movement, moments of rest and the prayers moving around our Earth. I regain balance with your heartfelt tears, your remembered songs added to the ones of so many now. Do not focus your energy on 'Saving me'. Something way more profound is taking place right now, listen and observe!
All of us; Soil, Water, Plants, Air, Animals and all Ancestors are Calling you Humans, to us so we can Save your species. We know and have known for a while that you do not have much time left if you do not wake up to your birthright Belonging to Earth and come Home soon, real real soon. We keep dying, we keep Giving Away our Lives to shake you up from a deep and very long amnesia. Once you can allow the truth and quality of such Love to permeate through your traumatised being and desolate soul you will wake up from a life time of anaesthesia to your immense grief and capacity for Love.
When you create containers of sacred beauty that opens your Heart to what Love truly is then you will realise with a massive sob that you were loved all along, always have and for ever by all of Us who you think You are Saving!
You have five years as a species to Wake up, Mature and Remember in your bones that you belong to Life "
This was followed by a series of interviews :The message of water in Conversations with Grief & Water was read to each person activating a unique response.
So far I have spoken with and recorded Joanna Macy, Jon Young, Francis Weller, Manda Scott, Pat McCabe, Megan Hollingsworth, Stephan Harding, Pablo Servigne, Stephen Jenkinson, Simon Be, and Li An Phoa…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here the full Message of Water is spoken by Azul Thome
With care and attentiveness for all who matter... Azul
" My dear child do not worry about me, Water. I recover quickly with the song of our birds, the love of trees, with movement, moments of rest and the prayers moving around our Earth. I regain balance with your heartfelt tears, your remembered songs added to the ones of so many now. Do not focus your energy on 'Saving me'. Something way more profound is taking place right now, listen and observe!
All of us; Soil, Water, Plants, Air, Animals and all Ancestors are Calling you Humans, to us so we can Save your species. We know and have known for a while that you do not have much time left if you do not wake up to your birthright Belonging to Earth and come Home soon, real real soon. We keep dying, we keep Giving Away our Lives to shake you up from a deep and very long amnesia. Once you can allow the truth and quality of such Love to permeate through your traumatised being and desolate soul you will wake up from a life time of anaesthesia to your immense grief and capacity for Love.
When you create containers of sacred beauty that opens your Heart to what Love truly is then you will realise with a massive sob that you were loved all along, always have and for ever by all of Us who you think You are Saving!
You have five years as a species to Wake up, Mature and Remember in your bones that you belong to Life "
This was followed by a series of interviews :The message of water in Conversations with Grief & Water was read to each person activating a unique response.
So far I have spoken with and recorded Joanna Macy, Jon Young, Francis Weller, Manda Scott, Pat McCabe, Megan Hollingsworth, Stephan Harding, Pablo Servigne, Stephen Jenkinson, Simon Be, and Li An Phoa…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here the full Message of Water is spoken by Azul Thome
With care and attentiveness for all who matter... Azul
SOULand: Making the World of our Longing ~ has recently become SOULand : Making the World of Earth's Longing
in response to Corona Virus insights.
While being sick with the virus, in the last few weeks, I saw that much will be changed after this phase of lock down.
Personally and collectively we are going through an initiation, a collective Rite of Passage.
My identity, positioning, offerings and responding to and in our world are now all in the sacred compost heap of Soul, of Anima Mundi, at her service.
This post is to honour and celebrate, in your good company, all of the active prayers that moved through me in the last 5 years. Bowing in front of them all, while thanking each vision and projects for the unravelling, initiating and the tempering medicine they carried so generously...
Thanks to you all for your part in it whether that is as an apprentice, a mentee, a participant or a supporter of all kinds, forms and species alive and dead. In awe and wonder!
With gratitude, grit and attentiveness ~~~
Azul Thomé ~ active visionary of SOULand
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOULand is an ensouling response to our uninitiated, traumatised, collapsing and transforming world.
It is a growing programme of nature-informed rituals, a mycelium of trainings&apprenticeship, eARTh and mentorship. To restore and weave our humanity back to a deep & wild relationship with the Earth, mature the human soul and co-create the world of our Earth's longing. It is a vision of sanctuary, a great giveaway. It is soul activism.
Making the World of Earth's Longing
Longing is the language of SOUL. A current moving through us, whispering wildly to us how to come back Home.
Most of us behave as if we were homeless to our SOUL and orphaned to our Earth with great consequences.
When we feel deep longings moving through our bodies and through our dreams we are blessed by SOUL. So what happens to these Longings? Why are we in such dire state if SOUL constantly speaks through our imagination, hearts and dreams? Are they like seeds falling on concrete? What does our SOUL need?
These longings moving through us... could be bringing us to one of the initiatory gates of grief. Grief of not being welcome, wanted, enough, or of not knowing enough, have enough support, money, skills etc...Paralysis, shame and envy can become the new guests in our beings.
Grief is a gate that most of us want to avoid at all costs, even if it costs us our lives ~ therefore we never move beyond the call of SOUL. An initiation to empower us to create the world of our longing is miscarried.
We stop, numb and stay small not to feel our sadness, our numbness, our fears and anger. We are not skilled in Grief neither in Love. A terrible poverty takes place in our heart and imagination.
SOULand provides collective spaces for the release of our sacred grief, so we can meet ourselves as creative gifted human beings ~ a little more empowered and resourced to make the World of our Longing as a great gift...
Initiation
Initiation is a invitation to wildly court and lean into the SOUL of four Sisters - Grief, Love, Death and Birth. There is no true initiation without the ‘small’ death of our personality, our set positioning in life or our childlike naivety.
A well held initiatory ritual will bring us closer to a homecoming, a return to our interconnectedness with all of life, transforming our sense of being homeless or orphaned into belonging. Most importantly we move from being zombies in our lives to being fully aware of our death and therefore offering our lives fully for the thriving of Life...
https://www.souland.org
Facebook Page
Grief Composting Circles and Apprenticeship
The Grief Compositing Circles are communal rituals of 4 hours infused with beauty and connection with all beings, humans and all others.
Grief in this context is the welcoming of anger, fear, sadness, despair, numbness and the mystery of all these emotions as we welcome them in a collective safe space.
The Circles hold an important part in total darkness as if in a compost heap, a womb or a kiva. Sounds and wailing are freely used to encourage our wild and sensuous selves to be present. Wild means of nature, not feral or out of control!
CIRCLES: https://www.souland.org/grief-composting.html
TRAININGS: https://www.souland.org/training.html
FACEBOOKGROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/griefcompostingcircles/
The Message of water
Water is SOULand’s main guide.
One grey day of December I found myself by the river Dart in Devon who gifted me with an astonishing message of Love.
‘’My dear child do not worry about me, Water. I recover quickly with the song of our birds, the love of trees, with movement, moments of rest and the prayers moving around our Earth. I regain balance with your heartfelt tears, your remembered songs added to the ones of so many now. Do not focus your energy on 'Saving me'. Something way more profound is taking place right now, listen and observe!
All of us; Soil, Water, Plants, Air, Animals and all Ancestors are Calling you Humans, to us so we can Save your species. We know and have known for a while that you do not have much time left if you do not wake up to your birthright Belonging to Earth and come Home soon, real real soon. We keep dying, we keep Giving Away our Lives to shake you up from a deep and very long amnesia. Once you can allow the truth and quality of such Love to permeate through your traumatised being and desolate soul you will wake up from a life time of anaesthesia to your immense grief and capacity for Love.
When you create containers of sacred beauty that opens your Heart to what Love truly is then you will realise with a massive sob that you were loved all along, always have and for ever by all of Us who you think You are Saving!
You have five years as a species to Wake up, Mature and Remember in your bones that you belong to Life "
https://www.souland.org/water.html
Conversations with Grief and Water
Conversations with Grief of Water is a series of interviews with women and men engaged fully with our collapsing world, our dying systems and our grief. People engaged with deep love and longing to fully participate in our world in ways of soul and beauty. They respond to the message of Water received on 2nd of December.
So far I have spoken with and recorded Joanna Macy, Simon Be, Li An Phoa, Jon Young, Francis Weller, Manda Scott, Pat McCabe, Megan Hollingsworth, Stephan Harding, Pablo Servigne and Stephen Jenkinson… each one bringing a thread for a cloth weaving in the past, present and future… I anticipate mystery and our bone memory to be awakened by it.
https://www.souland.org/conversations-with-grief--water.html
Earth Temples on the edge of cities
I have a vision of an Earth Temple at the edge of every town and every city. A circular womb-like place of astonishing beauty celebrating all of creation .. a place to rest into, reflect, pray, listen, speak and sing to all sentient beings and restore our animist selves.
After a year of dreaming, drawings of the Earth Temple have arrived. It is 25 Meters wide. Blessed by 2000 generations of ancestors. 4 living entrances and a Kiva in the centre. A Feminine shaped Temple for all. Made of the local material found on site.
I am calling for a meeting with anyone who resonates with helping create the first Earth Temple - Makers, Cobbers, Strawbellers, Glassmakers, Carpenters, Alchemists, eARTh Artists, Planners, Weavers of Natural Laws, Shambhala Warriors, and other cracked and called human beings.
https://www.souland.org/earth-temple.html
Longing is the language of SOUL. A current moving through us, whispering wildly to us how to come back Home.
Most of us behave as if we were homeless to our SOUL and orphaned to our Earth with great consequences.
When we feel deep longings moving through our bodies and through our dreams we are blessed by SOUL. So what happens to these Longings? Why are we in such dire state if SOUL constantly speaks through our imagination, hearts and dreams? Are they like seeds falling on concrete? What does our SOUL need?
These longings moving through us... could be bringing us to one of the initiatory gates of grief. Grief of not being welcome, wanted, enough, or of not knowing enough, have enough support, money, skills etc...Paralysis, shame and envy can become the new guests in our beings.
Grief is a gate that most of us want to avoid at all costs, even if it costs us our lives ~ therefore we never move beyond the call of SOUL. An initiation to empower us to create the world of our longing is miscarried.
We stop, numb and stay small not to feel our sadness, our numbness, our fears and anger. We are not skilled in Grief neither in Love. A terrible poverty takes place in our heart and imagination.
SOULand provides collective spaces for the release of our sacred grief, so we can meet ourselves as creative gifted human beings ~ a little more empowered and resourced to make the World of our Longing as a great gift...
Initiation
Initiation is a invitation to wildly court and lean into the SOUL of four Sisters - Grief, Love, Death and Birth. There is no true initiation without the ‘small’ death of our personality, our set positioning in life or our childlike naivety.
A well held initiatory ritual will bring us closer to a homecoming, a return to our interconnectedness with all of life, transforming our sense of being homeless or orphaned into belonging. Most importantly we move from being zombies in our lives to being fully aware of our death and therefore offering our lives fully for the thriving of Life...
https://www.souland.org
Facebook Page
Grief Composting Circles and Apprenticeship
The Grief Compositing Circles are communal rituals of 4 hours infused with beauty and connection with all beings, humans and all others.
Grief in this context is the welcoming of anger, fear, sadness, despair, numbness and the mystery of all these emotions as we welcome them in a collective safe space.
The Circles hold an important part in total darkness as if in a compost heap, a womb or a kiva. Sounds and wailing are freely used to encourage our wild and sensuous selves to be present. Wild means of nature, not feral or out of control!
CIRCLES: https://www.souland.org/grief-composting.html
TRAININGS: https://www.souland.org/training.html
FACEBOOKGROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/griefcompostingcircles/
The Message of water
Water is SOULand’s main guide.
One grey day of December I found myself by the river Dart in Devon who gifted me with an astonishing message of Love.
‘’My dear child do not worry about me, Water. I recover quickly with the song of our birds, the love of trees, with movement, moments of rest and the prayers moving around our Earth. I regain balance with your heartfelt tears, your remembered songs added to the ones of so many now. Do not focus your energy on 'Saving me'. Something way more profound is taking place right now, listen and observe!
All of us; Soil, Water, Plants, Air, Animals and all Ancestors are Calling you Humans, to us so we can Save your species. We know and have known for a while that you do not have much time left if you do not wake up to your birthright Belonging to Earth and come Home soon, real real soon. We keep dying, we keep Giving Away our Lives to shake you up from a deep and very long amnesia. Once you can allow the truth and quality of such Love to permeate through your traumatised being and desolate soul you will wake up from a life time of anaesthesia to your immense grief and capacity for Love.
When you create containers of sacred beauty that opens your Heart to what Love truly is then you will realise with a massive sob that you were loved all along, always have and for ever by all of Us who you think You are Saving!
You have five years as a species to Wake up, Mature and Remember in your bones that you belong to Life "
https://www.souland.org/water.html
Conversations with Grief and Water
Conversations with Grief of Water is a series of interviews with women and men engaged fully with our collapsing world, our dying systems and our grief. People engaged with deep love and longing to fully participate in our world in ways of soul and beauty. They respond to the message of Water received on 2nd of December.
So far I have spoken with and recorded Joanna Macy, Simon Be, Li An Phoa, Jon Young, Francis Weller, Manda Scott, Pat McCabe, Megan Hollingsworth, Stephan Harding, Pablo Servigne and Stephen Jenkinson… each one bringing a thread for a cloth weaving in the past, present and future… I anticipate mystery and our bone memory to be awakened by it.
https://www.souland.org/conversations-with-grief--water.html
Earth Temples on the edge of cities
I have a vision of an Earth Temple at the edge of every town and every city. A circular womb-like place of astonishing beauty celebrating all of creation .. a place to rest into, reflect, pray, listen, speak and sing to all sentient beings and restore our animist selves.
After a year of dreaming, drawings of the Earth Temple have arrived. It is 25 Meters wide. Blessed by 2000 generations of ancestors. 4 living entrances and a Kiva in the centre. A Feminine shaped Temple for all. Made of the local material found on site.
I am calling for a meeting with anyone who resonates with helping create the first Earth Temple - Makers, Cobbers, Strawbellers, Glassmakers, Carpenters, Alchemists, eARTh Artists, Planners, Weavers of Natural Laws, Shambhala Warriors, and other cracked and called human beings.
https://www.souland.org/earth-temple.html
Life Cairn in Totnes
Every 24 hours, between 100 and 150 species of animals, invertebrates, fungi and plants go extinct. They will never court, sing, nest, seed, or dance their life-bringing rituals again. They are not dead - Death being food for the birthing of new life, no they are extinct! ...
Can we ponder on the difference in our own heart and the impact on our soul?
We are increasingly noticing that we need to gather and rise up in circles and community groups to meet the enormity of the consequences of our long term disconnection to the interconnectedness with all of Life thus bringing up an immense grief, un~skilled and feared in many of us.
On the 1st December, the Totnes community is invited to create a Life Cairn, a memorial for the honouring of Extinct Species. Please join us if you are touched by the 6th massive extinction of Life on Earth and want to give Away your gifts, broken hearts and talents to this offering.
Artists, singers, musicians, children, elders, mothers, fathers, lovers of all sorts and all two, three and four legged welcome!
https://www.souland.org/life-cairn-in-totnes.html
See Life Cairn in Totnes Event on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/events/1773741646245298/
"WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter"
Our womb is a place of great wisdom for ourselves and one another, to stand soulfully and maturely on and for our Earth's wellbeing. Any trauma will create a dam and a great blockage to the river of our lives.
A Wombelt is made using the backstrap weaving method. Making a Wombelt is a ritual, a rite of passage, a way back to mattering, to honour our womb and the space holding it. We are weaving ourselves and our stories back together for one another, to skill up, to mend, to actively pray for one another.
Because we Matter, we are matter, mater, mother, Earth...
Life Belts
A day ritual of backstrap weaving for men and woman called to make the world of their longing by weaving the soul threads of their lives around a tree.
Collective Wombelts
WomanFest, the first All Women Radical Participation festival.
Azul wove for three days. She invited the women to respond to the question ‘What is your deepest wildest longing?’. 73 women wrote their response onto a roll of fabric. Each scroll was inserted into the weaving, therefore creating a collective Wombelt of our deepest and wildest longings. At the closing ceremony, the belt was given away and wrapped around the hips of Tanya Jacut, the visionary woman of this festival.
Oxford Storytelling festival
Azul was invited to weave her Wombelts. She decided to create only one ~ a collective Life Wombelt weaving people’s longing into it. She invited people to respond to ‘What is the world of your longing and belonging?’. Their responses are written on little fabric scrolls and inserted in the weaving. There is 108 responses offerings in this belt. The belt is to be given to a cave yet to be found. A cave, a Kiva is an Earth womb able to listen to such a soulful gift.
https://www.souland.org/wombelt.html
https://www.facebook.com/wombelt/
Inner Council of a Woman Queen
The archetype of the Queen when welcomed in its entirety is in service to something bigger than herself. The Queen with her King learns to listen and protect life both within the inner council and within her community of human and non-human beings.
The other 8 archetypes of the woman are then at her service. They are the Mother, the Child, the Nun, the Maiden, the Lover, the Huntress, the Magician, the Crone.
Listening to our inner council brings us to meet our inner archetypes, to welcome their lights and their shadows, to nourish decision-making for the thriving of Life.
Each flag became an invitation for the Daimon of one archetype to find the place to belong and share their deep wisdom. The meeting of the archetype and the other than human invites and welcomes an animist understanding of our archetypes.
This is a generous response to a prayer for soul sanity.
https://www.souland.org/inner-council-of-a-woman.html
Inner Council for men and women to come 2019
Returning to Earth what was stolen
Returning to Earth our silver, gold, precious stones, diamond, ivory, coral, platinum.
All those have been extracted with terrible violence and destructive impact to all living beings. The mining destroys rivers, people, animals and whole ecosystems to feed our greed and addiction to power.
I invite us to join me as I also return the result of my time as a goldsmith and silversmith in our mountains, forests, rivers and seas. To feel our sorrow, say sorry and make amend to come back momentarily to some resemblance of sanity.
We can then honour our creativity and the alchemist in us by using local and renewable material in a sacred way again.
https://www.souland.org/returning-to-earth-what-was-stolen.html
Every 24 hours, between 100 and 150 species of animals, invertebrates, fungi and plants go extinct. They will never court, sing, nest, seed, or dance their life-bringing rituals again. They are not dead - Death being food for the birthing of new life, no they are extinct! ...
Can we ponder on the difference in our own heart and the impact on our soul?
We are increasingly noticing that we need to gather and rise up in circles and community groups to meet the enormity of the consequences of our long term disconnection to the interconnectedness with all of Life thus bringing up an immense grief, un~skilled and feared in many of us.
On the 1st December, the Totnes community is invited to create a Life Cairn, a memorial for the honouring of Extinct Species. Please join us if you are touched by the 6th massive extinction of Life on Earth and want to give Away your gifts, broken hearts and talents to this offering.
Artists, singers, musicians, children, elders, mothers, fathers, lovers of all sorts and all two, three and four legged welcome!
https://www.souland.org/life-cairn-in-totnes.html
See Life Cairn in Totnes Event on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/events/1773741646245298/
"WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter"
Our womb is a place of great wisdom for ourselves and one another, to stand soulfully and maturely on and for our Earth's wellbeing. Any trauma will create a dam and a great blockage to the river of our lives.
A Wombelt is made using the backstrap weaving method. Making a Wombelt is a ritual, a rite of passage, a way back to mattering, to honour our womb and the space holding it. We are weaving ourselves and our stories back together for one another, to skill up, to mend, to actively pray for one another.
Because we Matter, we are matter, mater, mother, Earth...
Life Belts
A day ritual of backstrap weaving for men and woman called to make the world of their longing by weaving the soul threads of their lives around a tree.
Collective Wombelts
WomanFest, the first All Women Radical Participation festival.
Azul wove for three days. She invited the women to respond to the question ‘What is your deepest wildest longing?’. 73 women wrote their response onto a roll of fabric. Each scroll was inserted into the weaving, therefore creating a collective Wombelt of our deepest and wildest longings. At the closing ceremony, the belt was given away and wrapped around the hips of Tanya Jacut, the visionary woman of this festival.
Oxford Storytelling festival
Azul was invited to weave her Wombelts. She decided to create only one ~ a collective Life Wombelt weaving people’s longing into it. She invited people to respond to ‘What is the world of your longing and belonging?’. Their responses are written on little fabric scrolls and inserted in the weaving. There is 108 responses offerings in this belt. The belt is to be given to a cave yet to be found. A cave, a Kiva is an Earth womb able to listen to such a soulful gift.
https://www.souland.org/wombelt.html
https://www.facebook.com/wombelt/
Inner Council of a Woman Queen
The archetype of the Queen when welcomed in its entirety is in service to something bigger than herself. The Queen with her King learns to listen and protect life both within the inner council and within her community of human and non-human beings.
The other 8 archetypes of the woman are then at her service. They are the Mother, the Child, the Nun, the Maiden, the Lover, the Huntress, the Magician, the Crone.
Listening to our inner council brings us to meet our inner archetypes, to welcome their lights and their shadows, to nourish decision-making for the thriving of Life.
Each flag became an invitation for the Daimon of one archetype to find the place to belong and share their deep wisdom. The meeting of the archetype and the other than human invites and welcomes an animist understanding of our archetypes.
This is a generous response to a prayer for soul sanity.
https://www.souland.org/inner-council-of-a-woman.html
Inner Council for men and women to come 2019
Returning to Earth what was stolen
Returning to Earth our silver, gold, precious stones, diamond, ivory, coral, platinum.
All those have been extracted with terrible violence and destructive impact to all living beings. The mining destroys rivers, people, animals and whole ecosystems to feed our greed and addiction to power.
I invite us to join me as I also return the result of my time as a goldsmith and silversmith in our mountains, forests, rivers and seas. To feel our sorrow, say sorry and make amend to come back momentarily to some resemblance of sanity.
We can then honour our creativity and the alchemist in us by using local and renewable material in a sacred way again.
https://www.souland.org/returning-to-earth-what-was-stolen.html
EARTH WISDOM TENDERS - DECLARATION AND PRAYER
OUR DECLARATION, ACTIVE PRAYER and VISION STATEMENT
Earth Wisdom Tenders is
FOR ALL SOUL ACTIVISTS WHOSE FAITH, BELIEFS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES ARE ROOTED IN EARTH WISDOM.
Earth Wisdom Tenders
We are Tending to all life on Earth in our troubled time, we are an eclectic group of people who are learning to deeply listen to the Earth, to the visible, the invisible and to the non human world ~ to honour their wisdom and knowledge, and to hear what they need from us right now at this time of crisis and extinction.
Honouring the wisdom of the Earth and Indigenous cultures, we work with the cycles of nature and the cosmos, and what we perceive as the great mystery.
Longing for a place of healing and connection, we seek to create a re-emergence and a rewriting of these ancient ways, through ceremonies, rituals, initiation and rites of passage, to enable our deep soul connection and wisdom to reawaken.
We sit in Council of all Beings, we Tend to the Children of all Species, we Initiate our Young ones, we claim our Elders, we Ancestralise our Dead and we recreate Community as a service to all of Life.
"We are Earth Wisdom Tenders…...
When all sentient beings are our sisters and brothers
When we actively remember that we belong to the living web of Life
When all laws and decisions consider the wellbeing of the children of all species
When we trust that our Earth can talk through us of her deep knowledge and wisdom
When we stand for all land, water and all beings to be free from ownership, colonisation and commercialisation…
When we understand that we are all re-apprenticing to these ways
Our dear Earth is 4.5 billions years of age, she is our Wise Elder whom we learn from and tend to”.
With Love and Cœurage
Earth Wisdom Tenders
www.earthwisdomtenders.net
FaceBook: GROUP
OUR DECLARATION, ACTIVE PRAYER and VISION STATEMENT
Earth Wisdom Tenders is
FOR ALL SOUL ACTIVISTS WHOSE FAITH, BELIEFS AND SPIRITUAL PRACTICES ARE ROOTED IN EARTH WISDOM.
Earth Wisdom Tenders
We are Tending to all life on Earth in our troubled time, we are an eclectic group of people who are learning to deeply listen to the Earth, to the visible, the invisible and to the non human world ~ to honour their wisdom and knowledge, and to hear what they need from us right now at this time of crisis and extinction.
Honouring the wisdom of the Earth and Indigenous cultures, we work with the cycles of nature and the cosmos, and what we perceive as the great mystery.
Longing for a place of healing and connection, we seek to create a re-emergence and a rewriting of these ancient ways, through ceremonies, rituals, initiation and rites of passage, to enable our deep soul connection and wisdom to reawaken.
We sit in Council of all Beings, we Tend to the Children of all Species, we Initiate our Young ones, we claim our Elders, we Ancestralise our Dead and we recreate Community as a service to all of Life.
"We are Earth Wisdom Tenders…...
When all sentient beings are our sisters and brothers
When we actively remember that we belong to the living web of Life
When all laws and decisions consider the wellbeing of the children of all species
When we trust that our Earth can talk through us of her deep knowledge and wisdom
When we stand for all land, water and all beings to be free from ownership, colonisation and commercialisation…
When we understand that we are all re-apprenticing to these ways
Our dear Earth is 4.5 billions years of age, she is our Wise Elder whom we learn from and tend to”.
With Love and Cœurage
Earth Wisdom Tenders
www.earthwisdomtenders.net
FaceBook: GROUP
 We sit in Council of all Beings, we Tend to the Children of all Species, we Initiate our Young ones, we claim our Elders, we Ancestralise our Dead and we recreate Community as a service to all of Life. Our Declaration is : "no laws and no decisions shall pass that in any way could harm the children of all species" FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE DURING THE EXTINCTION REBELLION INTERNATIONAL ACTIONS IN LONDON 7th to 20th Oct 2019 | Earth Wisdom Tenders We are called the ‘Earth Wisdom Tenders’and are an eclectic group of people who are learning to deeply listen to the earth and the non human world, to honour their wisdom and knowledge, and to hear what they need from us right now at this time of crisis and extinction. We are guided by the wisdom of the past and indigenous cultures and peoples of the present, we work with the cycles and rhythm of the earth, the planets and cosmos and with what we perceive as the great mystery. Many of us feel grief and great poverty that we have lost these missing practices that were and are woven in intimacy with our living world. In the past we may have been labelled as pagans, druids, witches or hippies. This longing to find a place of belonging and healing has created a re-emergence and a rewriting of these ancient ways, through ceremonies, rituals, initiation and rites of passage, to enable our deep soul connection and wisdom to reawaken. We sit in Council of all Beings, we Tend to the Children of all Species, we Initiate our Young ones, we claim our Elders, we Ancestralise our Dead and we recreate Community as a service to all of Life. We are called the Earth Wisdom Tenders : Tending to all Life on Earth in our troubled time "We are Earth Wisdom Tenders... When all sentient beings are our sisters and brothers When we remember that we belong to the living web of Life When no laws and no decisions shall pass that in any way could harm the children of all species When we know that our Earth talks through us of her deep knowledge and wisdom We are Earth Wisdom Tenders when no land, no waters and no one is owned, colonised nor commercialised for power and control. Our dear Earth is 4.5 billions years of age, she is our Wise Elder whom we learn from and tend to”. With Love and Cœurage Earth Wisdom Tenders |
"Oh Liberty, hear us, and speak in behalf of but one individual, for a great fire is started with a small spark. Oh Liberty, awaken but one heart with the rustling of thy wings, for from one cloud alone comes the lightning which illuminates the pits of the valleys and the tops of the mountains. Disperse with thy power these black clouds and descend like thunder and destroy the thrones that were built upon the bones and skulls of our ancestors."
— Kahlil Gibran
All Welcome | These Bones represents all our Ancestors who have not been Honoured ~ of all Species. These Bones represent our Mother Earth Stones Everyone longs and deserves an honorable ancestralising It is our Duty of Care to tend to our dead We will Gather the Bones, sooth them with pigments, red ochre and oil, we will create an altar on site and let the tide take our prayers. It will be temporary Altar for the Ancestors of All Species to be tended to, blessed and loved with courage. We will seek the support and healing from the Well and Wise Ancestors to gather and bless the living to thrive during the Actions and beyond BRING: Drum Rattle Pigments and oils Songs |
WE WILL BE ON XR FAITH BRIDGE ~
FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE
with Love and Cœurage
#extinctionrebellion
#earthwisdomtenders
#xrfaithbridge
A young apprentice to SOULand GRIEF speaks with beauty of her experience and commitment
"As a collective of apprentices we spent three days in the rich embrace of SOULand. It is now a few days further along the road that I can reflect on the qualities of that embrace and give echo to what struck me and stays with me as I integrate and walk along.
SOULand is a place that opens with a question: What is your longing? Are you ready to die for it? Are you ready to give yourself away to it? What do you have to give ? Can you keep giving regardless of the rest? Can you move with grief away from lack and complain towards giving and repairing?
Over and over, SOULand presents me with the occasion to give, repair and be of service. This spring, we gathered as apprentices to Grief and Soul. Once more, I felt the confirmation that grieving collectively is a gift to life, to the lives of our ancestors and to the life that is to come. It is the freeing of the river that clears my vision of stiffening regrets. In the darkness of our Grief Composting ritual, I experienced tears of despair, transformed progressively into a screaming desire to live, and finally rested into a quiet readiness to appreciate what is and come back home to laughter. In darkness still, I could hear our individual voices merging into a large song of grieving, loving and questioning what aches.
Here we learn how to sit with each, supporting each other and not saving each other, entrusting the expression of our grief to the alchemy of compost.
Time is dense as every-thing, every-one and every of their expression is amplified by the attention it is gifted within the very particular embrace of SOULand.There is consistency in this attention, there is commitment, there is the belief that over time and breakdowns, there is the possibility to transform all that matters. Here I learn to make prayers, to say them out loud, to infuse them into what I do. I am encouraged to make mistakes, to stumble and fall, and stand back again. SOULand cultivates deep care and beauty and asks us to visit the edges of this comfort where the fertile soil lies to grow our longings and bring them into form. "
Titiane ~ an Apprentice to SOUL and Grief in 2018-2019
Titiane has been SOULand apprentice for almost a year now. She has started to bring her offerings to other places. We are blessed as a world and I am bereft to loose her. First Gate of Grief: Everything your Love you will Loose. Truth ! Blessed all be. Azul
NEXT FULL APPRENTICESHIP to SOUL and GRIEF held by Azul and guests ~ starts FEBRUARY 2020. It will be again in 2 parts, Zoom calls in between and a one-on-one mentoring session ~ More details soon
eARTh: Azul Valerie Thome
eARTh by Azul Valerie Thome
Women all over our Earth are gathering and rising from the ashes of genocides, slavery and betrayal. There is a new tide and all of life is at stake! Time to mature and offer our gifts fully with the support and blessing of our Sisterhood!  Clare Dubois ~ Azul thome and Tiana Jacout @ WomanFest 2018 Women...
 part of SOULand Programme The sisterhood is gathering...  WomanFest 2018 | When I was kindly invited to the first WomanFest near Frome, Uk last year, I had no sense of what I was going to. I just could not say no! Something in its calling courted me. All was in place for the Grief Composting Circle and WomBelt to be offered to this extraordinary and timeless gathering! My luggage were mostly filled with yarn and my heart growing with trepidation to arrive on the edges of what we know where life thrives! I was not sure why I went all the way from Slovenia to Frome...until I got there. I soon found a tree, tied myself to her and wove a WomBelt ...for three days. I invited many Women to write on a tiny scroll the World of their deepest Longing. Each piece of fabric was carefully rolled up and inserted in the 4 meters WomBelt. Many tears and heart sharing were witnessed by that sweet tree, delighted she was to see us women so raw and real. The belt was then offered to Tiana Jacoult who held the original vision of WomanFest. We know what it costs to hold Visions to better our world. We need support from all willing. Three of us wrapped the belt around her womb and hips to bless, protect, guide and praise all of her future actions in service to our world's well being and sanity. Women all over our Earth are gathering and rising from the ashes of genocides, slavery and betrayal. There is a new tide and all of life is at stake! Time to mature and offer our gifts fully with the support and blessings of our sisterhood! SOULand will be present at WomanFest this year in a Black Tent created especially by the Blissfull Belltent . We will be in the woods at the radically participatory WomanFest 2019 this Aug. We will be there for the Maturing of Women's Soul offering tasters of the full programme of SOULand. ~ Inner Council of a woman Queen ~ ~ Black Tent Council for menopausal women ~ ~ WomBelt: Weaving Women Back into Matter ~ Returning to Earth what has been Stolen ~ ~ Grief Composting apprenticeship ~ ~ Soul ripening emergent rituals ~ ~ Earth Temple ~ ~ eARTh: Art Infused with Ritual... for Earth! All this to prepare and ripen each woman to offer her praise to Life, her Genius and her Innate Gifts to our dear Mother Earth in our incredibly enlivening, troubling & transmuting times... Azul-Valerie Thome SOULand: Making the World of our Longing www.souland.org |
My deepest most passionate longing is to create a place called SOULand where we pray 3 times a day everyday in songs, communion and silence.    | No electricity for 20 years, no wifi, internet, mobile phone. They pledged poverty to not take from the already very poor. They make their flour with ancient wheat grown by a neighbour, bake their bread. honey, olive oil, sweet chestnut flour are from their land and sentient beings. Their vegetables are stored in old washing machine barrels to last as long as possible. Each day the 8 wildish sheep with large bells need tending. They help lessening the fire risk by eating the grass on the many terrasses made by the ancients of this land in the Ardeche in France. Each week people from all sorts of background and walks of life, all pilgrims, come to pray and find a portal to spirit again. Some bring walnuts from their fields, butter (getting rarer in France) or chocolate from Carrefour. Abundance always seem to enter that space. Hermits living near by take care of the flowers for the tiny dark chapel made of schist, stones and local wood...so dark it takes a minute to see the simple icons, the long candle and the quiet welcomed stove in a corner. Two 'little brothers' live there in a tiny Monastery 'La Demeure notre Père'. One 'brother' arrived as a young man at 20 years old 43 years ago, Paul. He went for a week from Holland and never left. The other arrived 36 years ago and is now 73, Jean-Michel. They follow and are totally devoted to Jesus and to some books that are not easy to take in as a woman (an other post). ...yet my heart opened like a pear tree blossom in their company this last few days perched in a sweet little wooden cabin by a stream where I lived and prayed. 3 times a day there were set time for praying together in the chapel in communion, in songs and in silence sometimes. I kept staring at Marie, she looked dignified, beautiful and kind there. I needed that energy so gratefully. It has been a road of real mystery and quite humbling which I needed . These people have been sharing their place with a hospitality, generosity and 'bienveillance' that as a non Christian I feel truly blessed by. Their openness to 'the other' has disarmed me...and taught me much. Their impact on our earth is like the one of a honey bee... pollinating, creating beauty, living within mystery and of service to the greater whole. That perhaps is the important element when setting up a place of sanctuary, that it is of service to a Divine entity. Creation, Pachamama, God, Jesus, Allah or anything else that connects us to the great mystery...then perhaps there is a possibility to get a glimpse at what being a human being could be and offer a place of rest and listening. They fought, were grumpy, impatient and rough sometimes... They never pretended to be nor wanted to be perfect. Their humanity on their sleeves, knowing themselves, they fell down so many times and kept getting up to stand for life. They work all the time through waves of elated exhaustion (63 and 73 they are) ~ welcoming a 'stranger pilgrim' and praying times always take priority. We prayed for two/three brothers to find their way there and stay to help out. And they want to keep working until the last breath...retirement? from what :-) they say? Everything for them is borrowed and to be tended to. I think it might be love. They are to me the pioneers of tomorrow. Feeling blessed to have followed my broken heart after the suicide of a friend, to share a moment with these beautiful sacred and scarred souls. Thank you! Azul www.souland.org |
I am writing with gathering butterflies in my belly to let you know about the most adventurous vision I have ever followed and activating as I type ~ it is called : SOULand Pilgrimage 2018 which started on 2nd January this year by the river Dart~ 13 Lands, 13 Water, 13 Hosts and 13 Pilgrimages completing on 21st January 2019. It will be followed with a book ~ gathering the harvested of shared stories of the many ways and practices for the caring, feeding and maturing of our Human Soul.
I will be travelling with SOULand's bundle of Grief Composting, WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter, Soul&Sanity making conversations with Grief, Love, Death and Life the four sisters of our last forest.
We will offer Water ceremonies. One2One mentoring will carry on for a handful of people. eARTh infused with rituals will be the gold thread of the pilgrimage.
The relationship between Water, Women and Soul will also inform the ongoing active prayer journey.
You can follow me and join us if you can in Totnes, California, France, Sicily, Belgium, Malvern, Ireland, Scotland, Bristol and Totnes for our LIFE CAIRN.
Switzerland, Canada and Slovenia are also being considered at present...
See HERE for full list of the various countries I will be actively praying with and where I will share what is emerging.
I will be moving following the invitations, what is being revealed and the rhythm of the moon throughout the year.
There are ways of supporting this SOUL maturing Pilgrimage journey with our newly hatched crowdfunding ~ set up by two dear sisters who have my back!
If you want to be kept informed about SOULand Pilgrimage 2018 enter your email HERE to receive SOULand Newsletters
Blessings on all our journeys and offerings as we get increasingly tempered and more than ever...needed! .
Azul-Valerie Thome for SOULand and for my mother (who died 3 months ago) and the 2000 generations behind...it is time to live this wild and precious Life while we can...for the living and for the dead.
Thank you for reading and for your support. See you perhaps weaving the gold thread somewhere on our astonishing little blue Home.
I will be travelling with SOULand's bundle of Grief Composting, WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter, Soul&Sanity making conversations with Grief, Love, Death and Life the four sisters of our last forest.
We will offer Water ceremonies. One2One mentoring will carry on for a handful of people. eARTh infused with rituals will be the gold thread of the pilgrimage.
The relationship between Water, Women and Soul will also inform the ongoing active prayer journey.
You can follow me and join us if you can in Totnes, California, France, Sicily, Belgium, Malvern, Ireland, Scotland, Bristol and Totnes for our LIFE CAIRN.
Switzerland, Canada and Slovenia are also being considered at present...
See HERE for full list of the various countries I will be actively praying with and where I will share what is emerging.
I will be moving following the invitations, what is being revealed and the rhythm of the moon throughout the year.
There are ways of supporting this SOUL maturing Pilgrimage journey with our newly hatched crowdfunding ~ set up by two dear sisters who have my back!
If you want to be kept informed about SOULand Pilgrimage 2018 enter your email HERE to receive SOULand Newsletters
Blessings on all our journeys and offerings as we get increasingly tempered and more than ever...needed! .
Azul-Valerie Thome for SOULand and for my mother (who died 3 months ago) and the 2000 generations behind...it is time to live this wild and precious Life while we can...for the living and for the dead.
Thank you for reading and for your support. See you perhaps weaving the gold thread somewhere on our astonishing little blue Home.
13 months international journey for the re-infusing and re-weaving of Soul into our lives
16/12/2017
SOULand Pilgrimage 2018 second land and water is in San Luis Obispo in February
We will be creating spaces for Soul to feel welcome again. We will learn with passion and little patience to feed, care, court and praise Her back into being.
I look forward to a deep and wild conversation with you all in the company of Grief, Love, Death and Life as if our Wild and Precious Life truly Mattered.
Azul-Valerie Thome
| Azul-Valérie Thomé is hosted by Donna Helete San Luis Obispo is the first stop on Azul's 13 month international SOULand Pilgrimage in service to the care, health and maturing of the human soul. She brings with her a vision, sacred questions and a bundle of soul nourishing practices and rituals, including the Grief Composting Circle and the WomBelt workshop to bless, heal, celebrate and protect women's wombs, divinely timed offerings that are in such need right now. Azul Valerie Thome will be traveling from the UK this February on the first international stop of her 13 month SOULand Pilgrimage generously hosted by Donna Helete. Registration for Workshops & Trainings WomBelt Workshops & Apprenticeships for Women ~ 2/7 (Wed.) For all women - all day ~ 2/18 (Sun.) For all women+apprenticeships - all day Each WomBelt (event & apprenticeship) = £65 = $95 depending on exchange rate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Grief Composting Circles ~ 2/11 (Sun.) Circles for Men and Women - 3pm-7pm Grief Composting Circle = £20 = $30 depending on exchange rate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Grief Composting Circle ~ Basic Training ~ 2/23-2/25 (Fri.-Sun.) 3 Day Training, all day each day. Must attend all 3 days. Non residential. Grief Composting Training = £380 = $550 depending on exchange rate ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Other offerings during the month of February include Individual sessions of Soul&Sanity (50 min.) with Azul in person or via Skype eARTh commissioned art work. Art infused with rituals infomred by our Motehr Earth for the Thriving of Life. Please email Azul directly for an initial chat on Skype: soulandinfo@gmail.com Grief Composting Circles are regular collective grief rituals informed by the work of Sobonfu Some, Joanna Macy, Francis Weller and Azul-Valerie Thome WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter are events that bring 13 women together to bless, heal, celebrate and protect their wombs, the wombs of other women and of Mother Earth herself through the art of traditional backstrap weaving combined with story sharing and prayers. |  Azul-Valerie Thome of SOULand  Hosted by Donna Helete  |
“Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver
More about SOULand Pilgrimage 2018:
This coming February, Azul-Valerie Thome will visit San Luis Obispo on the first international stop of a 13 month SOULand Pilgrimage which will launch from Azul’s home in the UK in January 2018. She will weave her visit to 13 lands, 13 rivers, 13 hosts, along with 13 prayers into a book in 2019. Donna Helete will host Azul during her stay.
She brings with her a Vision of a place called SOULand in Europe. A Water Mill/ land based Hospital and School for SOULand practitioners. A Place and a Programme to learn and remember rituals and practices for the care, health and maturation of the human Soul.
Azul brings with her sacred questions:
How do we remember, repair and create a soulful culture?
Azul brings with her a bundle of soul nourishing practices and rituals with the intention of giving people the experience of soul tending and training those who wish to carry on these practices.
Descriptions of Events and Offerings
Grief Composting Circles that weave together the traditions of Sobonfu Some, Francis Weller and Joanna Macy along with Azul’s own wisdom teaching.
The Circles are a 3.5 hour experience while the training is 3 days long.The Grief Composting Circle Training is for men and women wishing to hold circles for the well being of their community. In order to sign up for the training, it is best to have had the original experience of the Grief Composting Circle so please plan to sign up for both.
WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter. For Women. This full day workshop brings 13 women together to bless, heal, celebrate and protect their wombs, the wombs of other women and of Mother Earth herself through the art of traditional backstrap weaving combined with story sharing and prayers.
eARTh: Art infused with ritual, informed by Mother Earth, for Life. Azul will bring some eARTh pieces for sale and is open to commissioning new works in a collaborative process.
One2One: Soul&Sanity - Azul will offer a limited number of individual coaching sessions while she’s in town.
We hope you will join us on this pilgrimage to bring these soulful gifts to our community.
Azul and Donna with the support of a great community
SOULand Pilgrimage San Luis Obispo:http://www.souland.org/california-feb-2018.html
SOULand:www.souland.org
More about SOULand Pilgrimage 2018:
This coming February, Azul-Valerie Thome will visit San Luis Obispo on the first international stop of a 13 month SOULand Pilgrimage which will launch from Azul’s home in the UK in January 2018. She will weave her visit to 13 lands, 13 rivers, 13 hosts, along with 13 prayers into a book in 2019. Donna Helete will host Azul during her stay.
She brings with her a Vision of a place called SOULand in Europe. A Water Mill/ land based Hospital and School for SOULand practitioners. A Place and a Programme to learn and remember rituals and practices for the care, health and maturation of the human Soul.
Azul brings with her sacred questions:
- What does our soul need to thrive?
- What happens to Life when Soul is starved or traumatized?
- What are the connections between Soul, Women and Waters?
- Is the state of our Waters connected to the state of our Soul?
- How do we move from mental-health to soul-health?
How do we remember, repair and create a soulful culture?
Azul brings with her a bundle of soul nourishing practices and rituals with the intention of giving people the experience of soul tending and training those who wish to carry on these practices.
Descriptions of Events and Offerings
Grief Composting Circles that weave together the traditions of Sobonfu Some, Francis Weller and Joanna Macy along with Azul’s own wisdom teaching.
The Circles are a 3.5 hour experience while the training is 3 days long.The Grief Composting Circle Training is for men and women wishing to hold circles for the well being of their community. In order to sign up for the training, it is best to have had the original experience of the Grief Composting Circle so please plan to sign up for both.
WomBelt: Weaving Women back into Matter. For Women. This full day workshop brings 13 women together to bless, heal, celebrate and protect their wombs, the wombs of other women and of Mother Earth herself through the art of traditional backstrap weaving combined with story sharing and prayers.
eARTh: Art infused with ritual, informed by Mother Earth, for Life. Azul will bring some eARTh pieces for sale and is open to commissioning new works in a collaborative process.
One2One: Soul&Sanity - Azul will offer a limited number of individual coaching sessions while she’s in town.
We hope you will join us on this pilgrimage to bring these soulful gifts to our community.
Azul and Donna with the support of a great community
SOULand Pilgrimage San Luis Obispo:http://www.souland.org/california-feb-2018.html
SOULand:www.souland.org
River of Words and Images by Azul Thomé:
A place to lay what moves, touches and inspires.
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