From Crisis to Possibility—Kysthusene-Gilleleje (Denmark) 3-5 May, 2013

By Miquel Colon Bofill, guest blogger

In a Danish environment where nature itself invites reflection, the meeting “From Crisis to Possibility” was held from May 3rd to 5th. The organizers that initially led me to this were two people who, like many others, had completed Barbara Marx Hubbard’s training as “Agents of Conscious Evolution.” The same setting had previously been chosen for the celebration of “Birth 2012″ on December 22, 2012. This date was chosen to mark of “The End of Time,” the end of a cycle on December 21, 2012, and the event provided the opportunity to celebrate December 22nd worldwide as the birth of the new human, who is consciously co-creating his/her reality.

The mentors who had initiated bringing Barbara Marx Hubbard to Denmark had joined forces with other groups, including Transition Time and “The Learning Village,” who were already very active in developing hubs and circles. “The Learning Village,” using “The Art of Hosting” methods was responsible for guiding the appropriate dynamics for group conversations that were vibrant and full of creativity, and for harvesting the contributions made by the participants.

A Journey of Discovery to South Africa and the White Lions

By Ann Coveney, guest blogger

I have always had a strong feeling of connection to southern Africa. It probably became evident during the 1950s when television came into my life and the BBC started to run programmes about wildlife around the world, especially that of the African bush. When my fellow pre-pubescent friends hankered after a horse, my choice would have been a lion. A chance meeting with some South Africans visiting Spain, where I have lived since the early 1960s, enabled me to visit South Africa in the early 1980s, and I became very interested in what was happening there. After growing up in England with the whole colonial attitude, I was now seeing a different picture—but still from a white person´s point of view.

Sometime in 2012 I happened upon a website advertising a “Coming Home” journey to South Africa, including visits to an elder shaman and to some white lions (www.ourdivinemedicine.com). The journey was to be led by a South African woman who had grown up in Europe and the States, had qualified as a medicine woman in the West African tradition, and who was now about to return to her own country and her own mixed roots, with a view to helping maintain the African traditions alive. We were to visit revered beings and sacred sites. This sounded perfect and I signed up. It was time to go back.

A Pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago: Following the Milky Way

Elyn Aviva first walked the Camino de Santiago in 1982 and wrote a classic travel narrative about her experiences—Following the Milky Way. In this podcast, Elyn talks about the Spanish pilgrimage, what it was like 30 years ago, and about her books.

Watch it:

Celebrating Tara

By Nora Judge, guest blogger

The Hill of Tara in County Meath, Ireland, is best known as the seat of the Ard Rí, the High Kings of Ireland. But what is less well known is that it is also claimed to be a chakra point in the landscape, which has been equated to the solar plexus or “seat of personal power.”

Tara is a vast landscape that focuses on the ceremonial hilltop, comprised of at least four Neolithic cairns, dozens of barrows, holy wells, standing stones, and other earth works. The surrounding landscape has seven outer defense forts,  a series of five ancient entrance roads, and two cursus monuments. Why then did the Ard Rí  (High King) use this spot to consummate his sovereign rule with the goddess? Let us consider what happened at the site.

Malta: Islands of Dream

Join Elyn Aviva and podcast host, Gary White for their interview with Francis Xavier Aloisio, author, artist, and tour leader for ancient sites on the islands of Malta.

Pilgrimage to Malta, March 2013

By Elyn Aviva, blog host

Gary and I were mystified that we felt called to return to Malta* so soon. We had gone there the year before, in April 2012, completing a decades-long desire to visit the sacred sites on the islands. Our two weeks in Malta were intense, exhausting, and transformational.** The ancient megalithic temples (some over 6,000 years old) are unique and powerful beyond anything we had experienced elsewhere. When we left, however, we had absolutely no desire to return. It had been too powerful.

But last December, I began to hear a gnat-like whisper in my ear: “Malta.” The whisper soon turned into an insistent, seductive Siren’s*** call. “Malta!” I asked Gary if he was hearing what I was hearing. He cocked his head to one side and listened, then nodded.

Ice Age Art at the British Museum

Join us for a conversation about our recent visits to the exhibition of Ice Age art at the British Museum in London.

 

Finding Myself in The City of Shrone, Co. Kerry, Ireland

by Howard Goldbaum, guest blogger

The City of Shrone is not mentioned in most of the tour guides to Ireland. Even those aiming to provide a trail for the spiritual seeker rarely include this enigmatic site at the eastern edge of Co. Kerry, although Elyn Aviva and Gary White do mention it briefly in Powerful Places in Ireland*. Local author Dan Cronin called it “one of the most ancient places on earth, where religious ceremonies of one kind or another have been enacted for the past six or seven thousand years.”

The City of Shrone contains, within the circumference of its ancient walls, a timeline potpourri of ancient Ireland: a possible ruined megalithic tomb, an Ogham**-inscribed stone, an earthen mound, a penitential station, a primitive cross-inscribed stone altar, a nineteenth-century cottage, and a modern “Our Lady of the Wayside” statue of the Virgin Mary. Of particular interest to the pilgrims who still visit the site yearly on the May Day (Bealtaine) celebration is its bubbling holy well, a dynamic symbol of the continuity of Ireland’s sacred sites.

Powerful Places Update – by Elyn Aviva, blog host

Gary and I have returned from another eventful pilgrimage to Malta. Here’s a photo to intrigue you: the rising spring equinox sun sending a carpet of light down the central aisle at Mnajdra Temple; the light stretches all the way to the main altar. Mnajdra was constructed as a kind of observatory of the heavens—and it still functions today. We were fortunate to be at the 5,600-year old (or older!) temple on March 20 to watch this powerful event. I will post a longer description soon.

A Hidden Link Between Maya and Egyptian Pyramids?

by Judie Fein

Whenever I go south to Mexico, I marvel at the monumental stone structures, which reach toward heaven, that were left behind by the Maya. When I went to Egypt, I stood at the base of pyramids that pointed toward the sky, and contemplated the cosmology of the Pharaonic civilization that built them.