Council of Gnomes Blog

Reminder from Mano: Touch the leaf of a tree, bush, or flower and tell it you love it. Barbara documented the following gnome encounter in May 2011. It sounds so natural and matter-of-fact, someone unfamiliar with her dedicated striving through the years might imagine that she has a secret channel into the elemental realm. In a way she does—a connection she has been moving toward and cultivating in one way or another for all of her 88 years. Even now, I never observe her taking her communications for…

Reminder from Mano: Send blessings to the plants along the freeway. Mature elementals have volunteered for this difficult job. Back in the late 60s, I had a job for a while selling children’s encyclopedias door to door in San Francisco. The very charismatic leader of this group of young women was Werner Erhard, and the motivational tools he was using to encourage us to work on ourselves (while selling a lot of books) became the foundation for Erhard Seminar Training (EST). One morning-meeting “mantra” I remember was, “Every day,…

Reminder from Mano:When you see a beautiful view, tell the elementals of that land that they are beautiful. I have been doing Marko Pogacnik’s January meditation, “Staying Connected with the Matrix of Life” (you can find it on his website under “meditations”). As a first step, I become aware of my elemental heart, holding it upon my hands at the end of the breastbone and feeling its exquisite quality. Marko says, “The elemental heart is a holographic piece (a fractal) of the heart of the Earth. Human beings…

Reminder from Mano:When you step outside, say hello to Mother Nature. The “art as a cultural deed” theme brings me to the value and blessing of powerful places that teach us, through their access vortexes of beauty, to connect—up and down, horizontal and vertical, through prayer, art, imagination. The Amphitheater is a shining example. In her 2014 book Celebrating the Magic of Jim’s Road, Barbara tells the story of where she lives, a small, vibrant spot off Alba Road in Ben Lomand. Through the years, it called to…

I recently heard a talk about Joseph Beuys, a German post-WWII artist, extremely influential, who wrote, drew, painted, and created displays and action installations. One of these installations, or social sculptures as he called them—“Honey Pump in the Workplace”—had a system of transparent tubes conveying honey around a room, as people shared their ideas in 100 days of conversation. Bueys made the case that we are all artists, that we can moment-to-moment enliven the world with our thinking, our warmth of heart, our commitment to the deep rhythms…

Reflections on Little Drawings by Barbara Thomas When Mary Jane quoted Dennis Klocek advocating “art as a cultural deed,” I was charmed and curious. “What does that mean?” I pondered, and was then stunned and delighted to realize that it is what I have been doing for over 35 years. It is what my art is about, what I am about. Long before I met Mano, to relate to in person, he guided me into the experience of doing little drawings while traveling or in meetings. I would entertain…

Thinking back to what I wrote in the December blog, when the little ones (of the gnome world) showed up during my massage and asked the therapist to tell me that I don’t need to work so hard to see them because “I already do”, I felt an immediate confirmation—that relaxing into “knowing” that comes not so often as to be taken for granted but often enough to stick in my heart as a guiding star. Barbara often says, “Now that the gnomes have us—have our attention—they’re not going…

I seem never to tire of stories people tell about how they have come to trust their own unique ways of communicating with plants, animals, angels, and elementals. I think this is because such stories remind me of the rather saucy declarations I have occasionally made since retiring: What else is there for me to do in this lifetime but to develop these extra layers of consciousness and know them intimately? As alike as the stories and suggestions sometimes seem—for example: even if you initially feel foolish, ask…

One thing I keep thinking, particularly as I read the daily news, is that a significant missing link in the ongoing conversation about climate change is the consultation with nature itself—with the trees, the nature spirits, the elements. Although my own steepings and ramblings in the nature spirit realm continually build my trust, I can’t even imagine how a New York Times news article or op-ed piece, or, for that matter, a climate change book-club conversation, could convincingly advocate for learning to listen to what the plants and animals have…

There is joy in fulfilling to the fullest whatever rung on the hierarchical ladder I occupy. I don’t exactly know what place that is, but I know a couple of things: it is always a good idea to turn the question over to higher guidance, and the growth edge is in knowing when to step into the challenge of leading and when to relax into following. And sometimes my challenge is to be conscious that in letting others help me I allow them to fulfill their own roles.…