Elemental Flow In
by leopard

Air: Thoughts on Spirit

As a boy I used to work on the farm with my father. Though mechanized with tractors and seeders and harvesters a large part of the work was still manual. We would take a break from the season's seemingly endless chore, in this case walking up and down the rows of sugar beet hoeing out any weeds not knocked out by the herbicide, and share our thoughts in the silence of those great fields.

I remember talking about church, which at the time I was trying to understand and participate in. It is a very clear memory of my father looking out across the farm and telling me that he felt he didn't need to go to a church because this was where god lived for him, in the plants and the trees and the sky and the changing seasons. This vision of god has always stuck with me, and I have seen it reflected again and again in the walk and talk of other people involved in diverse spiritual paths, most noticeably in the Native American traditions and in the Rainbow Family way. This animism is also found in many other traditions worldwide as well as in much ancient mythology.

It is in this way that Zuni Mountain Sanctuary is a church. Not because of any set doctrine or creed, any written or even wholly agreed upon principles or belief system, but because we know in our hearts that the land is more than a piece of property that we share, more even than a home to the Stewards and a place to visit and stay. It is a place where a great spirit is in all things, a place where we can come to feel that presence and share ourselves with it, a place to be with the cycles, a place to be still, quiet, receptive, away from the cities, the schedules, the pressures and thrills of life in the three dimensional realm. As we turn off the road onto the gravel track that leads toward the Notch there is a part of us that sighs with deep relief because we know we are getting a little closer to elemental part of ourselves where we are the mountain and the trees. The Giants are ancient spirits that choose this still rock form to guard this small stretch of high desert, and serve now as gate keepers to this Faerie land.

Fire: Energy of Ritual

I arrived at ZMS the day before summer solstice. The journey cross country was slow and hot, like some vehicular bondage which once released heightens the joy of arrival. Coming together again with familiar friends and new folks who have returned or been drawn here for the first time gives a strong feeling of being part of a bigger group mind heart.

On the longest day we all shimmy swagger sway and stroll around the altars. East, tucked away in the trees, the focus seems to be with each other, the circle of colorful dancing drumming chanting folks that have gathered. South, the circle opens up, we look towards the mesa that separates the land from the world of roads and places to go. Eden, all in red asks us "why are you here?" What do we hope to carry with us into the gathering, into our lives? What do we bring?

West, a small hill above the pond just as the sun is setting, watery reflection in the sky and on the water. The vision is very moving, sharing it bonds the group further and draws our focus beyond the land to the curve of the earth and the oceans. Some laugh and congratulate the impeccable timing.

North is a long walk around the houses and the studio site, the chickens and the upper pond, leaving the back road into the woods where a labyrinth path has been drawn in the dusty earth. We all walk the same path to the final circle. Tired and peaceful the flow of life is easily felt between us and the land, beyond the fences where the mountain is whole, the flow between all who have ever lived here, person, plant and animal.

Earth: Everyday Action

We got up at four to a breezy morning, the stars shifted from their more familiar evening sky positions to fire the bisque kiln. Many hours of work and inspiration, many hands, Faerie and child had moved to fill this kiln full of pottery over the last few weeks after the summer solstice had passed. The unexpected wind meant we had to keep a vigil over the early 'candling' stages of the firing, as Venus rose over the peaks and the sun softly brightened the sky. Hour by hour the flames were turned up, the kiln sealed tighter, the fire living as an entity within the brick confine where our work was subjected to this intense heat. The following day was a bread day baking thirty loaves for the farmers market.

Living on the land requires a constant creation and visioning of how the community can support itself, make living here comfortable and sustainable, and keep the land secure.

Bread and pottery are currently the main income.

The last firing of the first kiln built on the land and flames leap out into the dark night hungry for oxygen when we put it into 'reduction.' Opening it at Lammas we find beautiful colors that have bled into cosmic formations settled into the fired earth of bowls and cups.

The Lammas gathering marks the first pour of the foundations of the new studio, a month later and the roof is on, the straw bale walls up and ready for finishing touches to the greenhouse section, the windows and doors. Last week much help came from many labor day visitors and posse of men from L.A. who were coming to the Sanctuary for the first time to help on the project and to bring their philosophy and practice of healing SM sex magic to the land.

Water: Paths We Take

The necessary physical work that is happening coincides with our spiritual need and focus at all turns, even when the land where god is in all things seems to create an endless list of things that need doing and projects that need initiating and seeing through to the end, and living simply sometimes seems infinitely complicated. We live within a tight chain of cause and effect where what we put out comes directly back to us, a place where we are directly responsible for what gets done, and what doesn't. Within all we do there is the reminder of the elements that we visit with at the altars, and their endless correspondences. By creating new ways to provide for ourselves, using raw materials and simple technology, exploring new ways of living together, questioning needs and desires, expressing ourselves while developing the vision of living lightly on the land we are learning to interact more fully with the mystery behind being.

It can be a delicate balance often tipping towards a greater focus on the earthly realm, yet thankfully the faeries continue to be a spiritually focused tribe able to always return to that connection, however we experience it, reminding each other of our ability for awareness, care, healing, joyfully working towards an enlightened society.