this looks familiar

balance...

... how do we find it?

How do we stop one aspect of our life from dominating all others?

Can we change the balance?

imagination

"Many people dismiss the notion of other dimensions to our life as mere imagination. However, as those who do not have the conventional five senses can testify, there are many more ways of understanding the world. Imagination is one of them, a faculty we should not dismiss as mere fantasy... Imagination is the ability to experience the world other than by our five senses. It is the ability to experience aspects of the world we would not normally be able to encounter...Without imagination, we cannot transcend our material existence.

A true realisation of this comes when our inner sacred grove begins to grow. There comes a point when we realise that the place is real and has an independant existence. We might gain access to it through our thoughts, but it is not something that we have created...Our discovery of it is, in fact, a rediscovery of something with which we have always been linked." (ref: White and Talboys, 2005)

Time

The measurement of time is not absolute. Time is perceived by humans in a relative fashion by using human created units of measurement. Examples of human created units of time are the measurement of seconds, minutes, hours, and days. (ref: http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/3c.html)

The measurement of time is not the same for all observers. It depends on the relative speed of the observer, i.e., the measurement of time depends on the physical condition of the observer. (ref: http://ignca.nic.in/ks_31_cn.htm)

According to Lokesh Chandra, "Time dwells in the depths of full mind. Deep inside us it interweaves the real and the unreal. Sacred time is the pure becoming, where the time of physics is no longer determinant. It is the flowing onward of the essence of life, a value centre in many principles of being, as we seek to create newer and even individualised eyes. The mind renews itself in the intuition of time. It is the laughter of the gods out of which emerge our newest sensibilities of expanding consciousness."  (ref: http://ignca.nic.in/ks_31_cn.htm)

I like laughing gods.......

smelling the past

"...that quiet crack and pop. It's the sound of still moments in tranquil places." (Wilkins, 2004)

"A smell from your distant past can unleash a flood of memories that are so intense and striking that they seem real...called a "Proustian Memory". It's named after Marcel Proust, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century...We humans smell with a yellowish area in the roof of each nostril, just underneath and between the eyes. This yellowish area is called the olfactory epithelium....Once the nerves leave the olfactory bulb, they're sent to two main destinations...one of them is...the limbic area of the brain, an ancient region that deals with emotion, pleasure, motivation and types of memory associated with food...according to Professor Rachel S. Herz, 'the ability to experience and express emotion grew directly out of the brain's ability to process smells.'" (Kruszelniki, 2001)

"...limbic brain. This is where the soul physiologically lays down its memories of experience...its developed sense of the past peppering the present with anticipation, with expectation..." (Restall Orr, 2004)

bridges

Bifrost... the bridge to Asgard

teaching

Who teaches us? How do we know what it is we have to learn? The best teachers are the ones who teach us without us realising. They are the ones who enter our lives and before we know it, we are learning.

What about knowledge we get from other worlds and times? Who are those teachers? I see these spirits as cloaked beings. No faces, no gender, but a strong presence and something to tell, something to teach.

There comes a time though, when the teaching is done, when enough books have been read and enough lore has been memorised. It is at this time that the student needs to do, practice, experience, move. When we do this, there is a new path to follow. Ironically, on this new path, there are more things to learn and perhaps even new teachers.

Of course, my teacher had to tell me this! But I do understand this now.

My most important lesson so far, "...open up [your] mind- the rational and irrational...accept possibility...and realities beyond our understanding..." (Restall-Orr, 2004)

arrival

dynamic birth - transformation - arrival

Berkano

Berkano "may be interpreted as a symbol of the tree goddess...female and motherly...In the early Germanic period...the birch tree was particulalry maidenly in form, but motherly in function; both tree and rune express the essential paradox of birth, death and transformation that is at the heart of woman's mysteries." (Paxson, 2005) Gundarsson agrees and further states, "it especially rules the birth processes of spring..." (in Paxson, 2005) Berkano can be expected to turn up at significant life passages and it indicates birth and becoming, rootedness and the feminine.

In Norse and Germanic mythology, the Earth mother is Nerthus. In his book Germania, Tacitus (our Roman Friend) writes an account of the Germanic tribes that worship Nerthus and how each year she is brought from her island upon a golden cart and paraded before her people. In this way, she encourages peace amongst tribes, families and clans.

knowing

"An ancient and unutterable longing drew up

through me, gathering me like a needle and

thread gathers silk." (Kim Wilkins)