Monthly Archives: October 2023

Our Collective Dreams Create the Future

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With the news being as bleak as ever with even more wars and collective disasters hitting the world. It can be easy to turn a blind eye to all this and just switch off the news while increasingly living in your own safe bubble at home, work and study. We may be spurred into action in different ways by taking part in protests at the collective insanity of our politicians and corporations but also I feel we are called to dream a better future for ourselves and the world.

In Shamanic cultures they have a concept of dreaming the world into being, it could be said we are all living in a collective dream and we all collectively dream or create the world we experience. So what we dream is pretty important. So what do we dream? Many people are dreaming of more money, a better job, better life experiences, holidays etc. Some of the more religious amoung us are dreaming according to the dictates of their religion, perhaps where a saviour fixes the world for us and saves the day by returning and creating a new world some day, some are dreaming of a spiritual world which we can escape to when we die. Still others are caught in the collective dark spell of the media spin, and dream whatever we see on our screens, whatever we are fed as news on current affairs. This all seems so passive and is very much dictated to by others. Many people have handed over the power of our collective dreaming to someone else, the religions, the politicians, the journalists and so on

However this handing over of our dreams to the dictates and spells of others is disempowering and very much leads us into victim consciousness as the collective dreams dictated by the powerful few are often quite negative. So like the shamans who dream their world into being every day through art, song, poetry, dancing and ritual, maybe we are meant to do something similar.

We can take charge of our collective dreaming by imprinting the universe with our own frequency of what we would like to see and dream in humanity – these dreams and visions of a better future can help transport us over disaster both personally and collectively. If we all starting dreaming something great for ourselves and the world every day thats beautiful meaningful, a world where life wins, love wins, and benefit is given to the many not just the few then what a world it would be

It all starts with IMAGINATION and imagining the world or our lives different to the way it currently it is, then creating our vision in some way through creative means, then when we have seen how wonderful it is – starting to put this vision into action.

The negative spells of the mass media can no longer touch us when we are collectively creating a beautiful world rather than just passively reacting to the latest drama we are given. The negative experiences can be seen as opportunities to grow as people in different directions rather than just a bad experience, and then we can all grow and create together – a life that is both beautful and meaningful and well worth living.

So what are you dreaming? Because this dream helps shape the future for all of us.

Collective dreaming

Dreaming of a better way and a new world is my vision

where reality and imagination make a harmonious collision

The ashes of a dark night has gathered around

A collective nightmare we have created and found

But its in our dreaming wonder power 

To create a new future from seed to flowerI

ts starts with asking what have we have chosen to believe?

In religions and media sorcery is what we are meant to serve

To the world who just wants to grow and thrive

In responsibility – are we doing whats right or do we dive   

 Into gruesome shadows – where is our spiritual gold?

That we can release on the earth in exchange not sold

For the heavy energy and negative spells

Collective transformation one by one to dwell

In harmony and recopticity, not separation and hate

But love and understanding and compassion a better fate

For all the world for you and me

Let it be so and blessed be

The purple forest – The ideal community

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I have been musing on the importance of community lately. We can have online community like with the bloggers and facebook but its not the same as in person communitym but it seems community of the kind where we all gather regularly and value each other is a scarce resource in todays world. The media often seeks to divide people into groups over issues and then these groups fight. Us versus them kind of groups is not real community – where there is sharing and a common purpose – where friends stay friends for years and years. I would love to see more communities springing up in my area and when they happen I hope to be part of them, to grow together for years even till we are old – thats the ideal.

A magical forest with berry purple vegetation
The sky is warm in an abundant golden hue
tangerine orange trunks are also in view
Vines flow down like necklaces in natures treasure chest
Or the emerald hair of a forest maiden hidden there in rest
The community of trees stands to attention
They whisper of love and often mention
to each other that they matter
Then their whispers turn to chatter
Great friends these trees are
Growing and aging together so far
Happiness is to be in these woods
Where company and fellowship is understood

Eco Printing – working in harmony with nature

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Yesterday I discovered eco printing as an art technique which I loved. Basically you print on paper from real flowers you may have collected from your garden or a friendly local flower farm. The act of going out into nature and collecting the flowers is therapeutic in itself – flowers are beautiful and they hold a healing energy all of their own. You can spend time with the flowers communing with them and asking their permission to be part of your sacred art project – selecting the ones with the most vibrant colours and interesting shapes to be part of your page. Flowers, like all plants communicate something of their essence to us in their scent and vibration and its usually all positive and uplifting – a real peaceable break from the cares of mundane life or the latest sad happenings in the news. Nature provides, she has all we need to create beauty, harmony and abundance in our lives.

Once the flowers have been selected then you can place them in water ready. Then the paper needs to be prepared by soaking trimmed sheets of heavy duty watercolour paper in soya milk in a tray for about 30 minutes. Then you prepare your workstation, 2 kitchen tiles, a piece of cloth cut to the size of the 2 tiles when their placed side by side and the paper that also fits the dimensions and length of the two tiles.

First you place the 2 tiles down side by side, then the cloth goes on top of that, and then the paper on top of the cloth in layers. You then fold the piece of paper to match the size of one tile and then open it out again ready to receive the flowers. You place the flowers, leaves, petals (nothing too bulky) on the paper in a design. Then you fold the piece of paper with the cloth around it, place the tiles around that also in a “sandwich” – then clip the tile, cloth paper flower sandwich together.

You then place them in a cauldron with a little water in the bottom on a medium heat to steam them for around 30 minutes also. Once the steaming has finished you can open your tile sandwhich and the print is revealed inside. Pealing off the petals and leaves, the paper should hold an impression of the flower and leaves.

Then once all the debris is removed and its dried some – you can then start to go over the design in pen to pick out interesting details, black fineliner or posca pen is ideal for this

These peices of paper are ideal for cards or framed on their own – but if you want to make pattern images for digital printing, like the images I have made shown in this blog, then you can take a photo of your work, then trim the photo so its cropped clean, then use something called a layout app to make a mirrored repeat pattern of your image. This is then ready to print onto fabric to make scarfs or cushion covers of whatever your imagination can set sight on.

The petals and leaves can be collected and dried for other projects or composted – making this a truly eco friendly and beautiful project.

The Mystery of Creativity and Innovation

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Creativity is a beautiful and amazing thing. So many people really love and admire true creativity when it becomes responsible for an amazing piece of art or a new innovative design, technology, fashion, books or a new product.

However, not everyone finds it easy to accept the new, when the new comes along. Often if a culture is not ready for it, it can be shunned, labeled, locked away, hidden or otherwise removed from society as an aberration.  Sometimes in the case of technology, we have to wait for the infrastructure to change to accommodate the new as often networks of all kinds remain outdated. An easy example of this would be the fax machine – a really common item may be a bit outdated now but most offices do contain the fax machine somewhere – but when was it invented? it was actually invented in 1843 well before it was needed or could be accepted by the culture and also because it needed new infrastructure. Education too always takes a long time to catch, you may not know it but our education system is often hopelessly outdated and often fails to prepare people for jobs in a fast-paced changing world. New jobs become available and exist due to the rate of change and innovation, that nobody is equipped to fill because training hasn’t caught up.

So what skills can we learn in the modern world that would be useful in these times? Creativity could be one such skill. What is creativity? its often considered a little bit mystical a mysterious force that brings an idea from the ether into solid reality as something new. Creativity could be considered thinking outside the box or its ideas that have value.

Creativity is used to fuel innovation which is something that’s really important in these times of transitions and change in all aspects of society and in the ways we evaluate what we think we know about the world.

You may not know it but theres different types of innovation

Theres sustainable innovation which is looking at ways we can care for and sustain our planet

Service innovation – which is innovation around services

Experience innovation – which is all about providing an experience, for instance, Apple produced a product with a  specifically designed a box that was slow to open to provide the ultimate anticipation experience upon receiving and opening the product. This innovation can be anything to do with the user experience in a variety of different ways.

Then there’s my favorite, impossible innovation this is innovation that is way ahead for its time that seems impossible such as the moon landing initially was years ago something that seems impossible now, but actually, it may become reality one day.

Creativity and innovation is also really important in our society because it fuels social change. A recent example we could look at on this is the recent amount of technological innovation which has caused mass changes in our society now everyone has a phone which has changed peoples habits and behavior.   The internet has caused huge changes in the way people do things and continues to do so with new ways now of earning money online and the new easy connectivity around the world that didn’t exist before

So what is innovation? innovation is applied creativity. Creativity, a mystical gift we all have to some degree, applied usefully to create innovation and drive mass culture change. Possibly and potentially world-changing.

Fluidity modernity is a constant flow of innovation that is changing the world every second of every day.

Innovation while being fuel for mass culture change around the globe is also quite lucrative. In the UK alone in 2007, 1.8 billion was spent just on innovation and the generation of interesting ideas.

So the nitty gritty… how do you do it? is creativity and innovation truly so mystical a gift that is for the creative few, out of the grasp of mere mortals. Well not everyone thinks it is, many people think creativity is something we all have and is something we should all be using and if we really utilized it well could potentially bring about some amazing changes in society.

Creativity is all about divergent thinking.. that’s our out of the box thinking. So how do you do that? Many people claim to not be able to see the box let alone think outside of it – but is that really totally true.

A really easy process and an example would be – just think of all the uses for something like a pencil.

You may think ok – you can draw or write with a pencil so these would be the ordinary every day uses for a pencil but then if you decided to think a bit more creatively you may think well really what else could you do with it – you could use it to put your hair up its wooden and burns so it could be used to start a fire it could be used to make holes in the ground for seeds a weapon chewing erasing.

So this is a really good start in our creative brainstorming – but then what happens if we add something else to the equation.

Didnt mention the size of the pencil or the material

so what could we do with the pencil now – build a house a rocket ship  titanium pencil used to sculpt, edible pencil

So what happens when we say it doesn’t have to function as a pencil

ok so now we get new possibilities – its a ruler, chopsticks, fidget spinner table leg tree support.

But then when we get truly divergent thinking – we may actually have to totally suspend our ideas of reality and what we think the world and the pencil should look like in reality to get something new.

So how could we do that? well an example would be to take the pencil to a totally fantastical place and imagine its uses there

For example – lets take the pencil to the land of harry potter – so if harry potter was going to use the pencil in his land – what would he use the pencil for?  In this example, we can begin to suspend reality and begin to think in ways that are not totally logical or linear to produce new results.

Examples could be as a wand as a mind-reading device, for recording dreams, records conversations, write spells, mind reading pencil, or you could use a giant pencil instead of a broom to fly with, in the game Quidditch

So there we have come up with quite a few ideas that are a little bit out of the box that could potentially become something new one day.

Creativity and innovation is not out of the reach of everyone –  maybe if we all applied a little creativity magic to our lives we could you come up with some amazing ideas to change your life, live with interest and colour and variety, and inspire the lives of those around you.

This blog post has been inspired by the talk by Josh Hart who used meditation and spiritual pracices to fuel innovation and design – given in the Tech hub, 3rd May 2018

JOSH HART
“The Mystery Behind Creativity and Innovation”

This is an interactive talk unpacking the mystery behind the nature of creativity by delving into the uses of divergent thinking. Cognitive barriers tend to prevent creativity being accessed whenever a person wants, there are structures and tools you can use to overcome this problem, to give yourself step by step innovative thinking, whenever you need it.

Josh Hart VA, author of Phenomenological Design. He has an MA in Design Futures. He is a Designer and Director of Mindfulness Design. “I am a multidisciplinary designer with a keen passion for design and mindfulness. I thrive off creative challenges and collaborative experiences.”

Mindfulness Design is a new company, based in Cardiff that promotes innovation and mindfulness within a business

Tir Na Nog and the Humming Bee Poetry

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Lately I have been writing a lot of poetry about all sorts of things, often about the things I experience in my inner world and visions and also the things I would like to see or dream into being in our world.

I was thinking about where my ideas and poetry flow from and I realised it came from a place within me which is a kind of land of poetry beauty youth and song which could be called Tir Na Nog. I wrote a poem about this beautiful place and made it into a video for you to enjoy below

Tir Na Nog

come away oh human child to the land so fair
Where the stars reflect in your eyes and light your hair
Where the swans glide dancing on the lake
And the moon shines brightly in the wake
Of a breeze that brings fragrances so fine
from every land of the spirits awakening the divine
Where the wolves howl from every mountain crag
and the deers skip and run in the woods to brag
of another round of the sun sailing round
The sky blue way up high, where the night and day cycles
are honoured in sacred dance oh so vital
where the colours are vibrant and bright
and the soul takes poetry song bird flight
You will find me here amid the roses red
Where their thorns bring forth blood but it is said
Their beauty makes it all worth while
This never land is always in our hearts
For creativity wonder is its cupid darts

Talking to the trees and plants growing
Creeping up into the air before sowing
Their seeds in the wind to be rooted
In the soil, in the ground never looted
By predators but bringing forth abundance
as this garden springs around, lucious and green
With leaves of emerald and bronze, with their flowers seen
Amid the foliage bare – I am always there
Humming a tune like the bees without a care

The rain flies down in sheets soaking
to the skin, in cold ecstasy cloaking
Everything with a sparkly shining lustre
I listen to the water drops as they pop
With lazy frog song on the lake atop
The lilly pads with the luminous lotus’s
Opening and closing just to ask us
How we wish to seek the delight
of enlightenment so that we all might
See its fruits blossom in suffering mankind
Across the human land not here where all is kind
but where there is grime, crime work and toil

The fish leap in tune with the rain and frogs
a Bubbling gurgling waterfall tune, I walk a log
Crossing a river and I wonder at the majesty
of this place, the horses nearby neigh of the traversty
That people lose this place of play
In growing old, and serious but they say
The youthful eternal world never went away
Its just meant to be rediscovered
Its a hidden treasure meant to be uncovered

Its in the sound of the rain, or in the waves that crash
Its in the flowers of spring time or in the stags that bash
Their horns to fight for their way
Its in the dawning of each new day
This land is their splendor
The mirror that shows the way tender
Paths that wind us in sight
Of the poetry land that is our right

Its in laughter and play and lazy days
where all our cares fade away
Its in the bright cheerful rhyming of the celts fair
Old Blighty and Ireland green you will find it there
Most of all you will find it in you own dear heart
When you embrace a loved one or make some art
The forgotten land is all around
Its just waiting to be found
For me its my stomping ground
One by one, in harmony entrance I will see you all there
My oh my there our wishes shall fly frolicking bare

I was also considering how I was humming a tune like a bee in the poem above and I wrote a poem about that about, how my poem starts with a a humm, a consious connection to the universe like a bee. I will probably make this one into a video also and when I do I will update this page with it, but for now the written form is below.

Go tell it to the Bees

Bees hum their tune so hummm
humm de humm so humm some
say their tune is a drone
but to me it is music yet unknown
The humming of the bee goddess
In her necar voice helps me to dress
My rhyme with honey sticky and sweet
She has a gown of stars, for this universe is ours
The origin of sound is sacred and the bees hold its key
It is where all poetry starts to flow within me
This lovely humble insect forever in my throat
Messenger of the gods, their vibration is the boat
To the rich life of the hive honey divine
a world of working play where everything is fine
Let me be found in the flowers with these insects
For they drink the ambroisia of deities of every sect
and none, sometimes in rhymes they are simply having fun
humm de hummm so humm is the music bees make under the sun

The universe is humming in tune with all its bees
and inhabitants little insects, plants birds animals you see
The earth spinning on its axis revbrates the same
There is no particular deity you can really name
That holds creation together in its abundant flow
But the little bees humming show the way it should go
Without the honey makers of the world all life would end
The collapse of all civilisations is in their demise to send
Their song without symbol or gong is what makes us carry on
So preserve your bees and treat them with all kindness and respect
Its the honours that all life anyways deserves and expects
Humm de humm so humm – We are the universe hear our plee
Treat all life with compassion and theres no regrets for the you and me