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Do we empower others to empower ourselves? Or are

Do we empower others to empower ourselves? Or are we empowered naturally through acts which contribute to other’s agency? ⁣
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In this world rooted in hierarchy, I keep finding this split. ⁣
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Some claim to fight for change but are really seeking power and/or popularity. Self-ordained leaders empowering themselves under the guise of empowering others. A me for we.⁣
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Then there are those who are empowered through empowering others. Chosen to lead by those they serve, lifted by the collective they contribute to. Grounded in humility, wise from experience, harnessed by their humanity. A we for me.⁣
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As advocates of ideas, are we practising what we preach, or just preaching? ⁣
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One creates celebrity. The other creates collectivity ... I think. ⁣
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Or perhaps we need both, a spectrum of everything. But if so, how do we cull the ego who dwells here blocking growth and perpetuating pain?⁣
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We all glean the information we preach through a cascade of other’s expressions. Nothing is ever completely our own, our very existence the result of a microbial tide. Our words a cascade of language. Our opinions a ray within a prism of experience which has lived and died in the hearts and minds of time. ⁣
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Like an anchovy, as my friend Lucy says; new, made old, made new again. ⁣
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As we rise with this Libra full moon, we get to decide what we take and what we leave. How we evolve, and what it means to truly live in relation to other beings. ⁣
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What would you choose if we could choose again? (and we can)

When the crown of a tree drops its leaves, it does

For months while I recovered from the virus, the r

For months while I recovered from the virus, the radius of my life consisted of a micro migration between the bed and a chair.

At night, as I slipped between states of sleeping and awake, a collection of stars known here as ‘Orion’, spread themselves across the sky.

As I sat, watching the days and nights pass, I began searching the stars’ stories. Within the thousands that exist, a theme of commonality rose to the fore; sharing that regardless of our ancestors' place on the globe, when they looked up at this set of stars, they saw the shape of a warrior and a story of how this warrior got there.
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To name just a few cosmologies, in Hungarian mythology, the stars are seen as the hunter Nimrod. In China, people know the constellation as their great hunter and warrior, Shen. The Hittites (a Bronze Age people of Anatolia, present-day Turkey) saw their mythical hunter, Aqhat. The Sumerians (southern Iraq) saw the story of Gilgamesh who battled the bull of heaven. The Egyptians associated it with Osiris, a powerful god. The Australian Aboriginals of the Great Victoria Desert know the stars as the hunter, Nyeeruna (*). The Seri people of northwestern Mexico, call the three stars which create the ‘belt’, Hapj (a name which means ‘hunter’).⁣⁣⁣
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As I slowly became well again, I found hope in the knowledge that despite differences in culture, language, environment and cosmology - in these stars (and through shared grounding in sacred ecology) our ancestors saw each other as well.
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⁣⁣⁣* I was reading Tyson Yunkaporta’s ‘Sand Talk’ at this time which greatly influenced the star search and guided any lessons learned.⁣
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#liminality #sacredecology

Yesterday I collected my sister’s children (afte

Yesterday I collected my sister’s children (after she got knocked by a ceiling lamp) and took them out into the falling snow. ⁣⁣
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While her youngest, Rex watched each flake fall with wonder, the elder two argued about who was better at spelling.⁣⁣
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I wondered at what age kids learn humanity’s most destructive idea: “I am better than you, you are less than me” * or whether it has been wired into us over the last 1,000 ish years as words like **hierarchy came to use in this language. ⁣⁣
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A friend sent me the text on slide 2 (via BBC) which seemed to sum up one of two approaches this hierarchy has taken. And it had me reflecting on my past 10 years working within this space, and all the times I was like this woman mentioned. ⁣⁣
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I also thought about all the uncomfy work over more recent years that helped me begin to move away from that binary, ego-led approach to change. And how I still catch myself on my ugly high horse now and again.⁣⁣
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Yet, despite the separatism we sometimes fall into, I see so much growth in society, especially those who show up on these communities. Only a few years ago, the conversation around environmentalism and social justice were ‘fringe’, as spiritual ecology and anarchy is now. ⁣⁣
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Our growth collectively is incomplete and imperfect, but as @ decolonize__ shared today, “you deserve to celebrate not only who you’ve become, but who you could’ve become and fought not to”. ⁣⁣
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Despite our growing pains, we are slowly rooting down together through listening, un/learning, mistake making and partaking in deeply uncomfortable conversations with each other and with ourselves.⁣⁣
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As the new moon resets our sails tonight, perhaps we can use past growth as inspiration for our next phase of individual and collective work.⁣⁣
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♥️ Happy Lunar New Year tmrw to all those celebrating. May this new beginning offer good health, bundles of happiness, and loving luck.
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♥️ ID: Holly stands in the soft silence of the falling snow dressed in a coat made of upcycled fabrics and a big ugly hat that keeps her warm.⁣⁣
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♥️ *quote from Tyson Yunkaporta’s book, ‘Sand Talk’⁣⁣
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♥️ ** notes on the word ‘hierarchy’ in comments

Bottled sunshine, accompanied by a little roundup

Bottled sunshine, accompanied by a little roundup of projects and peoples who have illuminated me recently. ⁣
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(@mikaelaloach ‘s post today motivated me to finally coalese):⁣⁣
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[ROOTS]⁣⁣
I spent much of the weekend reading through the work of @weaving_earth and @lead2life (via @emergencemagazine ‘s ‘seeds of radical renewal’ course outline). Their works explore regeneration grounded in embodied alchemy, spiritual ecology, reverence and reciprocity. Beautiful projects I recommended exploring and supporting.⁣⁣
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[HEARTWOOD]⁣⁣
• @riverford has a Marmalade kit for £5.95 which taught a granny skill my grandmother(s) did not live long enough to pass down. The kit made about 25 jars, plenty for us and plenty to gift to our neighbours. ⁣⁣
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• @theslowfactory has opened up their Spring curriculum and their ‘faculty’ and subjects explored have me hopeful for the future of critical thinking their collective wisdom holds. ⁣⁣
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• @michaelmeade_mosaicvoices also has a course starting this week on ‘hidden abundance’. I find M.M to be a wise soul with great advice on how to avoid getting caught up in divisiveness and despair, guided by mythology and philosophy from around the world.⁣⁣
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• I finished @jez.hughes.399 ‘s book the ‘heart of life’ which I deeply recommend. Especially for those on these islands. It offers guidance on how to ground oneself in navigating the complexities of the seen and unseen worlds, by stepping into the cycles of earth intimacy through place-based wisdom and ecology.⁣
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[CROWN]⁣⁣
• For all the artists out there, @cindymilstein ‘s call for submissions for #AnarchistCirclesAreBeautiful creative reimagining closes 15 Feb. ⁣⁣
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• For those who prefer sharing prose, submissions for @loamlove ‘s ‘living through liminality’ close 12 Feb.⁣⁣
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[SEED] ⁣⁣
I bought ‘A is for activist’ by @innosantonagara for my Capricorn niece, Ivy. It’s beautiful and cheeky, a great reminder of how each unique seed weaves into the diversity of the whole. A message shared powerfully this week in @climateincolour ‘s ‘what is my role in the climate movement’ .⁣⁣
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I’m also quietly obsessed with how #HumanDesign might help guide us on how to sow our unique seeds i

I took a workshop this wknd with the Celtic author

I took a workshop this wknd with the Celtic author, psychologist, + mythologist, @sharonblackiemythmakings . ⁣⁣⁣
The event explored a set of stories born in this season between “the slow emergence from dark dreaming days of winter, into the rise of spring”.⁣
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We explored the element of perpetual fire, around which many of our traditional cultures were raised. While following the folklore and tales of Brigid as she transformed from a Celtic goddess associated with the landscape in this season of #Imbolc , to a Christian saint. ⁣⁣⁣
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A transformation which found her preserved in texts alongside her archetypes as a Poet, Alchemist, and Smith. Offering plenty of symbolism. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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In alchemic tradition, metals born in the womb of the earth are believed to be incubated by its fire + deemed to be as alive as u + I. The development of these living metals is accelerated by the Alchemist, who helps nature find balance through the art of transformation. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Pre industrialization, the Smith’s job was to transform those sacred metals into tools. Which were considered almost magical, because of how precious the metals are + the skill necessary to forge tools from them.⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Fire, in many ways, is what made way for the evolution of our society. It’s also one of many elements we lost touch with as our kinship with the earth severed. This has led the majority to misunderstand + fear fire, “demanding fire always be put out rather than letting it burn for the sake of renewal”.⁣
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Applying this knowledge to literal wildfires, offers a soft metaphor: when land is tended to with the tools of sacred land practices, which remove, rearrange, cultivate + convert vegetation, it mitigates the ‘destruction’ wildfires ‘cause’, cultivating renewal / balance in its place.⁣⁣⁣⁣
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These same tools of intentionally removing, rearranging and cultivating what serves renewal can be applied to our personal / societal growth too. So that when ‘fires’ burn in our in our person or society, we learn to sit with the heat as the Smith does. Forging tools of transformation for a new world to be born, rather than focusing on the the destructive noise of the flames.

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