Nature – Temple of Why

Being Autumn

Autumn is a time for the cyclical reflection. Once again we have the opportunity to go inward. Just as sap draws down into the trees, our energy draws inward. How can we work with Unee at this time? It is a great time for connecting deeply, for feeling, for sensing and for trusting our intuition.

What needs our attention spiritually that we have ignored? Where have we ignored our intuition hoping things would be different than they really are? Where has our perception not lived up to reality?

Unee asks us to be autumn. To settle, to draw inward, to intuit – not think – about our lives. As the trees let go of the leaves, let go of your thoughts and let your intuition rumble and subtlety beckon you. Where is she leading?

Quiet, quiet listen to the leaves as they fall, not clingy, not striving, just letting go and drifting down to the ground. Next spring these old thoughts will have been fertilized in the ground of Unee and will resurface new and nourished.

Acorn meditation

I meditated with an acorn today. I have been carrying it around in my pocket for about week. After a few moments she started pulsating. Just lightly, as if telling me she is alive. I know she is, she is bursting with quiet unrealized life, while at the same time full of ancient wisdom.

We can learn a lot from acorns, they’re unassuming, small, easily broken. But if they are left alone to align with nature, they will and we all know what happens when an acorn bursts forth! A mighty oak is created, the strongest of trees with the deepest spiritual knowing.

Isn’t that what Unee is telling us? align with nature, get in sync and let our mighty oak within burst forth!

Down the Rabbit Hole

It has been awhile, I have been off exploring and searching again. I guess for me searching never ends. The good news is the path seems right and true, nature based spirituality being in tune with nature is the only truth.

Unee reveals herself to us everyday if we get out of the way. As mother energy in the Universe she is always present. Getting in rhythm with her is the way to connect with the greater Universe and to be in sync. We all know what happens when we are out of sync – we don’t feel well, we are anxious – we just know something is off.

Unee, the mother of the Universe can be trusted, she has no agenda, she doesn’t care if you follow her or not, she just is. She is the basis of being. Energy flows everywhere, can not be created or destroyed, Unee is the keeper of that energy all goes back to her.

We will function best when aligned with nature, when we are truly sensitive to all living beings around us. We need to learn to read the energy around us so we know what is impacting us at any given moment. For example, any cable news channel is spewing negative energy, it should all be avoided, we don’t want to pick up any negativity.

Most mainstream religions have been highjacked by negative entities. They have become judgmental, based on manmade rules , based on someone else’s ego and agenda and are basically unhealthy. Even nature based religions, Druidism, Witchcraft, “old religions” are twisted into something human made with rules you must follow.

Unee wants us to meditate with her trees, in her forests, by her streams. She wants us to be in sync with the cycles of the moon and live by her tides. Respect nature, recognize energetic changes, avoid ego traps – yours and others – and maybe a spirituality will emerge that is pure.

Breathing in the times of change

Now is a great to access nature for healing. Walking in the cooler weather is easier and more comfortable and the colors of Fall are all around us.

I go out and take some deep breaths and then start to look for colors in nature. I breathe in the green of the grass and focus on exhaling through my heart. I see a beautiful orange pumpkin and breathe in the orange color into my sacral chakra, then exhale through my chakra. I usually spend three breaths on each chakra and more on areas that seem to need attention.

I look for red to breathe into my root chakra and then again, breathe out through the chakra. Yellow leaves are breathed into and out of my solar plexus chakra clearing old stale emotions hiding there. The blue sky clears my throat chakra I usually spend a bit of time on my throat chakra, I have issues with my thyroid and have had trouble “finding my voice” sometimes in the past. I exhale fully through my throat chakra.

I look for indigo in the shadows of mountains or stone walls and breathe that into my third eye and finish with lavender in my crown chakra.

If it is a nice sunny day, I breathe in beautiful fire energy of the Sun through my crown chakra to energize my chakra and store energy. I breathe out of my crown chakra back into the heavens sharing my positive energy with the angels.

My last effort is purposely exhaling deeply in nature, the trees and other plant life use my carbon dioxide for their healing. I thank nature for healing me.

I always feel better after breathing in the times of change.

We don’t need a deity, do we?

Haven’t we moved past the “my God is better than your God” phase? Maybe not, but maybe we should. I think we all agree there is a life energy of some sort out there that defines living versus not living. Most deity based religions state that God is in us and around us, so life energy would be somewhat universal. I think we get into trouble when we try to identify too strongly with and become too attached to “our” deity. Maybe if we genericize the deity and just agree that there is a life energy it is a place to start.

You can have a “personal relationship” with this energy, how could you not if it is in you and around you? It would treat everyone the same or else you would have to curry favor with it, not very deity like. And what of worship? again, life energy is in us and around us so kinda seems it is there whether we “worship” it or not. Maybe we are worshipping for our benefit? So that would seem to be able to come off the list.

Does the deity bless certain people and not others? I think some people think so, but again I would think a deity would treat all equally otherwise we are attributing human characteristics to a deity. If the deity treats all equally then how or what we do when approaching the deity i.e. worship them, is irrelevant. The deity acts for all.

Deity seems a human construct to help personalize non personal interaction with life energy. Religion would seem to be a man made construct to satisfy the attributes man has given to a non-human deity. Religion drives conflict and it is a manmade construct.

Spirituality with out a deity is so much more. Spirituality is alignment with the flow of energy from a life energy that we all exist as a part of and can not be separated from. We are a part of nature so to align with nature is to align with the flow of the universe and the life force energy of the universe.

Prove me wrong.

Photo by Merlin lightpainting on Pexels.com

Trees in Daily Practice

I have just started a new practice to help me connect more closely with nature and the resources available to us. Trees have been an important part of Druid and other Pagan practices, but there is not a lot of documentation on how they were used. Generally different types of trees were used to make wands and other magical tools. Groves of trees, especially oak, were often the site of rituals and other services.

I believe we can share energy with certain trees to help us with challenges we are facing in our lives. James Redfield’s Celestine Prophecy is a good book to reference on sharing energy with plants and trees. Certain trees are associated with unique properties that can be incorporated into our practice. Respectfully touching, sitting and leaning against or standing by certain trees can support us in ways unique to the individual species of tree.

Here are some characteristics that can be accessed in communion and meditation with individual tress:

Apple: To increase abundance and prosperity

Birch: Helps heal our deepest wounds

Catalpa: Used to enhance creativity and embrace uniqueness

Cedar: Helps break spells, provide clarity and focus

Cherry: For increasing love and sweetness

Elm: Believed to enhance psychic abilities and to help to achieve justice

Maple: For enhancing balance and learning to go with the flow

Oak: For strength, courage and deep roots or enhancing groundedness

Olive: For divine healing

Pine: Releasing guilt, healing

Sycamore: Sharing energy may enhance love, fertility and protection

Walnut: For health and healing

Willow: Helps us learn to bend and not break, to be flexible

Sit with a tree, hug a tree, breathe with a tree and think of their individual qualities. I find they enhance my sense of well being and I gain a greater appreciation for nature.

New Moon Druid Temple Dedication

The Temple of Why is now dedicated specifically to 21st Century Druidism. The mission of the Temple of Why will be to advance the knowledge of Druidry and to reawaken its practice as guiding beacon for those seeking a greater connection with flow of nature and incorporating it into our everyday experience. Secondly, to activate Druid magic that still exists in the DNA of those called to the path of Druidry.

May magic abound.