Council of Gnomes Blog

On a tip-off from Barbara, I have been listening to the April 1 to 14 talks from the “Guardians of Nature” telesummit (http://guardianspiritsofnature.com). I missed most of them in real time but decided to purchase replay access. So far, each of them has held something quite important for me—a reminder, a coherence with Barbara’s notebooks, a new thought or anecdote that has caught my imagination and thus can serve as a touchstone. The “Choose Love” title comes from Australian Michael Roads, who ends his talk with this encouragement:…

In this time of great change, all attempts to reach toward a new paradigm of unification—joining again the elemental, angelic, and human realms, the right brain with the left, spirit and science, the complex marvels of nature with the human fiddling that is instinctive in our beings—all of these attempts surely have a role to play. They don’t always agree or even get along, and probably none of them, alone, is complete, but we can honor them and strive to reconcile and integrate them. My brother has worked,…

On Friday the 13th, Barbara and I were back at her dining table talking about our respective journeys and how they related to what the blog is to become. We were remembering our first planning conversation at this table, nearly two years ago, and Barbara exclaimed: 30 blogs later! Let’s call Andrea to take another picture. (Andrea Boone lives on Barbara’s land and took a similar picture for the first blog, published April 22, 2013). We are feeling pretty chipper about this endeavor. We have some readers—some “preaching…

In early January I (Mary Jane) heard a two-day presentation—“Where Is the Elemental World?”—by Dennis Klocek, whose biodynamic agriculture work takes its inspiration from Rudolf Steiner. What I’ve always deeply respected about Dennis (I did a seven-month Consciousness Studies course with him some years ago) is that he is always working the indications from Steiner, testing them out, finding new applications, weaving them together by way of Goethe’s observational science. That’s what Steiner said we should do—move the original insights further, rather than simply forming and re-forming them…

 This exploration, this continuing attempt to bridge the long-time divide between humans and nature spirits, is of mutual urgency: humans need the elementals because they carry a living knowledge of the earth that we have lost; they need us, because we embody the great, progressive, experiment of freedom, of conscious collaboration on the planet. Barbara’s work with the elementals is founded on this shared need, and she is so secure in her inner serenity and her task that she can give herself over to their influence, without fear.…

On a recent misty morning, entering the amphitheater with Barbara, we first acknowledged the trees—admirable old friends, even of mine by now. We had just a bit of time to do this ink-stick drawing exercise we had in mind, and Barbara had greeted the Mother Redwood perfunctorily, then turned to set out our materials. “Come back here,” she heard the Mother say, “and greet me with your heart.” She laughed and happily complied, setting the energy right for our meditative task. We began by choosing our “brushes” from the sticks…

One day as Barbara walked to the amphitheater, she heard Mano say,  “You were an exuberant child raised in a household of repressed adults.” “Looking within,” she says, “I could see the truth I had never realized before. I wanted to be free to express that exuberance, that passion for life, the joy and delight in the mysteries Mano was revealing to me. It didn’t happen all at once. I had to deal with the fear of being ‘too much’ for people. This dilemma was solved when, talking with…

. . . . in which the gnomes encourage Barbara to call on Faerie Time when she’s feeling there’s not time to do all she wants to do What is time up to? Everyone seems to be talking about how fast it’s going (like this comment from a friend: “I blinked, and September was OVER”). For myself, Monday becomes Friday in a quick morphing flip, but then when I think back to Monday it seems ages ago. I stopped in at the local tea house the other day and, when I…

. . . .about when, as Barbara first began connecting with the gnomes, they gifted her with the Heart of a Gnome . . . Sometimes, along the way, I am just moving one foot after another when, suddenly, I receive a gift. For example, I have recently been seeing praying mantises—one on a sunflower, the next on a chair outside my door (this one gracing me with a slow sweeping waltz up my arm), and then yesterday, three in the garden: one that hopped onto my finger from…