Page 194 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

Experiencing Yin-Listening

Near the end of a lovely holiday in 2014, I communed again with the spirit of the island in

Georgian Bay and received a clear message about my life-purpose.

You do not need this setting any longer to take you to the ancient depths. The way is open

now in your own body-soul. This island has mothered you. These rocks and waters have

healed and repaired parts of your psyche. That healing is done. Now you walk with the

teachings of reconnection alive in you. Anywhere you go, you can enter, if you choose, the

spirit of the landscape and listen to its soul. Often you will hear aching and longing, a desire to

be seen and heard. You may sense broken story-lines and many wounds of ignorance, abuse,

or neglect. Repairing each of these is NOT your work! You are meant to tune the listener to

the land. That is enough for this lifetime! Let others assume their responsibility as they begin

to listen.

Though I’d already been hosting workshops and retreats to assist people in communing with

the anima mundi, the Soul of the World, I was inspired by this message to carefully examine

the intuitive listening process I’d experienced over the years to create a reciprocal relationship

with Nature. There are several simple yet vital steps that help to re-establish our instinctual

kinship and respectful etiquette with the Earth.

The first step is to allow yourself to be magnetically attracted to something in the

natural world. Take time to be fully present in your body through meditation, deep breathing

and slow, spontaneous movement, preferably in silence rather than with music. When you

have consciously engaged your body, move outdoors and trust your feet to guide you. Walk

slowly, allowing yourself to feel as though something in Nature is gently pulling in a particular

direction. You may find yourself in a familiar place or somewhere new and unexplored.

Though you might anticipate being attracted to a particular tree, when you get there, it could

be the stone at the base of the tree that is actually calling your attention.

The second step is to closely observe what has called you – an animal, clouds in the sky,

a flower, a body of water. For the purposes of this exercise, I will refer to trees... Gradually let

yourself come into relationship with the tree’s ‘otherness’ by honouring and observing the