Transition Glastonbury's 'Heart and Soul' Group

This group is looking at the 'inner transitions' that are part of the Transition process.

'Action for transformation starts with becoming truly aware of how we feel: within ourselves, in our communities and in relation to nature. It faces up to the reality of disease- the spiritual dis-eases of dis-equilbria, stunted growth and cancerous growth. Rather than pushing away or masking existential pain with consumptions or addictions it recognises its value. The pain is the mantra. Its the signal which points us to where healing is called for. That's why we need to feel it, to go into it, to see where its coming from and to find out what it asks of us.Healing then becomes a process of re-creation- opening up the channels of creativity' -'Alastair McIntosh from 'Soil and Soul'

So far we have been drawing on the 'Work That Re-connects' (group-work resources based on the work of Joanna Macy, John Seed and many others in the deep ecology movement). We offered an evening and a day workshop last year and hope to offer some more this year. We have also started a monthly Open circle (more about that below)

We plan to expand the heart and soul aspect of TG by looking at how we can include the arts more- poetry- visual arts-film making as a means of raising awareness and evoking our connection to the earth. Rachael & Dearbhaile & Jo (Strange Sisters) are doing a poetry performance for the March event & offering a workshop called 'Elements of Transition'

The other aspect of this group's role is to look around at what else is going on that can feed into this area, so get in touch if you are offering anything which fits into this area

Healing Meditation, Intention and Prayer for Transition

Inner transition: outer transition

The benefits of intention, healing, meditation and prayer in saving the planet and ourselves.

Join us in regular healing meditation!

I was thinking about what Joanna Macy says about the need for using the ‘hands, head and heart’ in the way we approach the changes that need to happen to save the planet and ourselves. I have also been thinking about the permaculture principle of assessing what resources we have available that can be used in a more effective and sustainable way to benefit the whole system e.g. Glastonbury in transition.

When pondering on this I realised one of the greatest resources we have that we could use to much greater effect with very little effort is in fact ourselves, and in particular our thoughts and intentions (the head and the heart). I looked into this and have found a large amount of research and evidence that shows how effective this is. I have given just a few links below that illustrate this which I think make fascinating and inspiring reading.

This is obviously not a new idea but it is one that TTs could use for much greater benefit . We do not have the material or financial resources of the trans-national corporations involved in destroying the world through greed and the desire for power and control. We do however have one another and we can through our minds and hearts tap into a much more powerful and vast resource. The sum total is greater than its parts and if enough people start to think in a certain way the indications our that we can change things for the better. In permaculture terms it is a resource that we have in abundance so it should be utilised much more ~ brought more into the ‘design’, and it is inherently sustainable and very cost effective in terms of time and energy.

Links that show how effective this can be:

1. Book review and website: ‘Healing, Intention & Energy Medicine: Science, Research Methods & Clinical Implication’ by Wayne Jonas MD, www/nursingknowledge.org

2. Book and website: ‘The Intention Experiment’ by Lynne McTaggart (author of ‘The Field’), www.theintentionexperiment.com

3. Article online and link: Meditation, Prayer & Spiritual Healing: The Evidence’ by Marilyn Schlitz PhD. Considers over 1600 studies that show overwhelming evidence. http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/sum05/evidence.htm

4. Article online and link: Scientific Research of Prayer: can the power of prayer be proven? By Debra Williams DD. http://www.plim.org/PrayerDeb.htm

5. Website and book: Experiments using shamanic healing and toning to clean water that was polluted and other shamanic ways to help the planet. ‘Medicine For the Earth’ by Sandra Ingerman. www.medicinefortheearth.com and articles on this in www.shamanicvisions.com

6. Article online and website: Spiritual activism and ritual in the shamanic magazine The Sacred Hoop: www.circlelivingearth.org about the alchemy of social activism.

7. Book and websites: ‘Alchemy of Light’ by Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee. About the power of spiritual consciousness as an agent of global change. www.goldensufi.org and also www.workingwithoneness.org

This idea also reminded me of the story from just after the 2nd world war when some leading Nazis were interviewed and asked why they think they lost the war, they said something along the lines that they thought it was due to the British using a secret weapon that helped to counter act everything they did which was associated with the 9pm one minutes silence where people throughout Britain and the world stopped what they were doing and concentrated their thoughts on good will and peace, a link to this is: http://bahai-library.com/index.php5?file=pole_writing_ground

I suspect quite a few people involved in TG or other transition towns probably already have a spiritual practice or a quiet time. Myself and my partner Jane Sanders for example try to meditate morning and evening, we do not always achieve this but we manage to do it fairly regularly. I also know Marke Pawson of TG meditates and sends out healing every morning, so Marke has made a start on this idea already.

Having talked with Marke about this idea at the transition tea yesterday we decided to go public to invite you all to join in. Marke usually does his meditation anywhere between 7.30 and 8.30am I think, so we are going to try and do the same as well as roughly the same time in the evenings. We do not think it is absolutely necessary to be all meditating at exactly the same time as long as enough people join in. Just use as much time as you can to be at peace, and focus positive intention and good will or use any other practice you like that projects good energy at the planet, people and specific places, anything from just one minute up to about half an hour is fairly typical.

Maybe we could also think an appropriate time for a one minute silence which does have a specific time everyday ~ any suggestions most welcome?

With best wishes from Andrew

The open circle

with Rachael Clyne, Dearbhaile Bradley and Jane Sanders

The whole process of looking at scary scenarios and hearing bad news about the state of the planet can get overwhelming at times. It has an impact on all of us whether we are already engaged with activism or just beginning allow some of this information affect us for the first time.

It’s important to have time to reflect and give attention to the ‘inner transitions’ that are being required of us as we engage with these issues.

The open circle is a monthly group. It has recently been described as part of the 'digestive system' of the 'body' of Transition Glastonbury! It’s about people having a chance to share their experience both the good and the not so comfortable.

This is not a teaching group- though there's alot of learning to be had about how we hone the skills of communicating clearly with each other and deal with conflicts both inner and inter-personal,- essential ingredients of establishing resilient communities.

It’s also about acknowledging the shift of consciousness necessary for 'transition' to happen.

The open circle is one place to check in with each other, to see how we are all doing with all of this and to find out what we might need to resource us on the journey ahead.

Venue: Glastonbury Natural Health Centre- through the metal gates at the bottom of Silver St.

Dates: (Please note that they are sometimes on Thursday evenings and sometimes on Friday evenings) Please do book your place as the room is fairly small. Call Jane on 01458 833382.

Cost: We ask for donations towards the cost of the room and for replenishing the Transition Glastonbury tea supplies!

July 18th Fri

Time: 7.30- 9pm

Other Resources:

Poetry

Link here to a collection of poems, quotes and articles. poemsarticles

Poetry on video: Drew-Dellinger

Websites

Transition Culture Check out the report on the Findhorn 'Positive energy' conference and the news that 'Transition Towns' are featuring on the archers- Transition Ambridge!

The Great Turning

Global Mind Shift

The Great Turning Times Has a quarterly newsletter which you can receive by email or see online

Great Turning times links page Their links page is well worth a vist!

Chris Johnstone- Author of 'Find your Power'

Anima Mundi- The world soul

Elizabeth Sahtouris- Living Systems

On-line films

When the world is burning- what is being born?- Trailer for the Global oneness project

Global oneness projects films about Permaculture

Big Picture TV- Talking heads - talking sense

Audio