This image is the card 8 of Wands from Mary White’s Mary-El Tarot.
August 2015 is full of Mycelium Bees and Stardust
I am quite fond of saying that “Mycelium, Bees and Stardust are the central mysteries of the Living Love Revolution”. I am certain I do not fully understand this statement yet, and I enjoy watching the threads of these mysteries weave a tapestry of guidance in my spiritual pursuits.
I do know that my entry into the work that I now call Ecomagicks happened in 2010. I was living in Seattle’s Greenlake neighborhood with Lance and Baca, next door to the amazing Nekole Shapiro and her family. One October morning, I went outside to find that the entire front of the small cedar shake house I lived in was surrounded by a ring of large brown mushroom. What did this mean? I did not know and thus I began to look deeper into the mysteries of mycelium. Bees and Stardust also caught my attention as potential sources of spiritual guidance and as I looked into what they are, they began to reveal themselves to me. You can hear some of my understanding here in this podcast: Mycelium Bees and Stardust: Looking to Nature for Our Humanity
My event schedule for August 2015 has magically lined up to provide me with the following activities:
Mycelium
On August 7-9 the Radical Mycology Collective is offering a three day course: Recomposting Life: Building Allyship with Fungi in Community Resistance and resilience to a small group of 50 people in order to deepen the social permaculture of people working with mycelium as holistic teachers. I was fortunate enough to notice this offering on the day before the deadline for registration. My partner Mark Welch and I will both be attending. I know it will be a great source of inspiration for me as the Radical Mycology Convergences of 2011 and 2012 greatly developed my sense of hope for the future. Those events provided me with a foundational understanding of how to merge the fields of forest ecology, mycology, permaculture and magickal practices into EcoMagicks.
Bees
August 21-23 2015
Bee-centered Beekeeping Conference: A Gathering of Bee Luminaries including Benjamin Pixie, Jacqueline Freeman and Michael Theile
This amazing conference includes my amazing friend and co-creator of EcoMagicks Benjamin Pixie who has been working with me for the last two years creating the Surrender event. This year he co-lead the Creating a Polli-Nation Path and worked with Tink and Seven Root to establish a bee sanctuary structure on Windward’s property. Benjamin will be helping me celebrate my birthday on Friday Aug 31st by teaching a Bee Magick Medicine class at White Oak Center from 10am-Noon.
Jacqueline Freeman runs the Friendly Haven Rise Farm with her partner Joseph outside Battleground, WA which is the venue for this conference. I had the great fortune of meeting her and watching her teach last year at the NW Women’s permaculture gathering. Spirit bee is her website and she is the organizer of this event. She regularly teaches classes on biodynamic bee tending practices. Her book The Song of Increase: Returning to our Sacred partnership with Honeybees came out earlier this year.
Michael Jostin Thiele first came to my attention because of his presence in the Movie Queen of the Sun * by Portland filmaker Taggart Siegel. I watched the movie and the special feature interview with Michael and wrote him a letter thanking him for his work and asking if we could meet in person. In the fall of 2011, he graciously allowed me to visit his home with Tai Kulystin, Robyn Thoren Smith, Rick Smith and Veronica Monet. I took pictures and recorded our conversation. Michaels deep love of bees and his concerns for them touched my soul. His understanding of Rudolph Steiner’s biodynamic principles and the belief that bees create an electromagnetic field that represents and the heart of our Gaiac bodies are potent magicks. Michael has focused on feral bee colonies in his desire to restore and invent more appropriate methods for tending bees. His website Gaia Bees and his classes recall and Re-Member the sacredness of bees as spiritual guides. He works with his hands and meditates in a state of inter-beeing, watch his videos and follow him if you want to improve your relationship with nature.
Bee Dances *By the way, the picture of the woman dancing with bees on the cover of the Queen of the Sun Movie, that is Tink. Sara ‘Tink’ Mapelli has been dancing and working with bees for many years and she also participate in Surrender this year. If you are interested in her work click on the link in her name. She is hosting two special bee dances on August 29 and Sept 19th.
Stardust
August 24-30th Reclaiming B.C. Witchcamp
This year’s camp theme is an exploration of a particular telling of the Greek Myth “Artemis & Orion”.
More Magickal Education & Community Building Events for you!
Sept 26 & 27 Seattle, WA Esoteric Book Conference
I’d like to draw your attention to two particular offerings Stephanie Spoto called “Lilith and the Challenge to patriarchal monarchy: John Dee, John Selden and Catherine de’ Medici”
And Ezra Sandzer-Bell’s presentation Plant Music Medicine
Mary-El Tarot An amazing Tarot deck I found while researching images for our July HermaphroDeities Advanced Temple. I am in love with this deck and really enjoying using it!
Blogs to watch out for
Gods and Radicals is “a daily site of beautiful resistance & a non profit pagan publishing collective”. The managing editor is Rhyd Wildermuth whose main blog is paganarch.com. Rhyd is one of the organizers of the Many Gods West event
Sept 15th Internet Submission wanted for Gods & Radicals
Gods & Radicals are putting together their first hard copy issue and calling for submissions with a Sept 15th Deadline
Here is my favorite of Rhyd’s essays so far : Putting Out which is a radical deconstruction of sex work, “the new economy” and capitalism.
And Speaking of radicals and the deconstruction of social norms, many thanks to Christina Dietrich for turning me on to this blog:
Bethany Webster “Womb of Light: the power of the awakened feminine” The most recent Blog post there was deeply healing for me: Leisure Time, Motherhood, and Mother Wound
and if you have not read Christina’s writing, I offer you this link with respect and reverence. This is a documentation of the profound level of insight and restoration that a person can engage in when they are commited to embodying personal and ancestral healing: Christina Louise Dietrich
Upcoming EcoPsychology Educational events to look forward to:
EcoPscyhology offerings at Lewis & Clark College:
Sept 25th 9am-4pm
The Neurobiology of PTSD with Suzanne Best
Lewis & Clark College Graduate School South Chapel
and
November 6th 9am-4pm
Prescribing Nature – Incorporating EcoTherapy Methods into your Clinical Practice
Patricia Hasbach
Lewis & Clark College Graduate School South Chapel
and finally I leave you with this gorgeousness: Maya Angelou Video “Love Liberates”