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The 3rd Visit With The Sleeping Giant |
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Planting the chakra spikes (Sept 23 - Oct 9, 2007)
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The 3rd Visit With The Sleeping Giant |
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Planting the chakra spikes (Sept 23 - Oct 9, 2007)
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On our first visit to the Liverpool Giant, near the end of our stay, we walked from the root chakra to the crown carrying water. And on the second visit, fire was carried down from the crown to the root. This trip we focused on the Earth element. We planned to plant a spike into the ground at each of the chakras, and to put into place a means of connecting with each of them and to the entire path they are a part of. We felt that to plot this path would increase awareness at the energy centres themselves, and would also encourage a clearer flow of energy throughout the Giant’s body.
We’re still discovering how the Giant is situated in the landscape of the city. During this trip we made a few major changes to the map, shifts which led to intuitions of other important paths to follow. Further discoveries on upcoming trips will likely lead us to other changes. But in the meantime, we can still put into place what we think we know, and be content to let the future reshape the paths we have discovered so far.
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Before we left Toronto we constructed seven spikes to insert into the ground. Each one was made from a piece of 2" wide bamboo. The spikes ranged in length from 6 to10 inches. Part way down the length, 40% of the wood was cut away, leaving a tongue of bamboo longer than the rest. Each spike also had a piece of cut glass inserted into its top, with the point tucked into the hollow bamboo and the flat end upwards. We also brought a set of bamboo chimes to Liverpool with us. The chimes have 6 lengths of bamboo hanging from a half-coconut shell, and they make a lovely resonant, hollow sound. The seven bamboo chakra spikes we fashioned are similar in shape to these bamboo pieces hanging in the chimes.
Hanging the Heart chimes - Sept 23
On our arrival in Liverpool we reacquainted ourselves with friends there, were led from person to person in the midst of their busy lives, and thereby were eventually introduced to Jacqui and Jamie who live right beside Sweetheart Park and who tend to the upkeep of the place sometimes. (As it turned out, we’d already met Jamie, who had watched the Rock Game being played in Sweetheart Park last time we were here.) They invited us into their kitchen and we told stories about what we’d discovered of the Giant so far. We talked about the plans to plant the spikes and showed them the wind chimes. We envisioned the chimes hanging from one of the trees in Sweetheart Park. Ringing the chimes from here would be heard throughout the Giant’s body and would especially resonate in the spikes once they were in place. Jamie quickly took action and got a ladder to climb up into a Maple tree standing in the northwest corner of the park. And so the chimes were hung.
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Those who reside in the heart easily and naturally make connections and unite people together. This seems to be an intrinsic quality of the heart chakra itself. We’ve known the Giant’s heart to be a meeting place in the body. It seems appropriate that the chimes would hang here, sending their music throughout the body whenever they’re moved by the prevailing winds.
The Hara spike - Sept 24
The following day we set out to plant the first spike. We met up with Ambrose and Liz at the Leaf Café in Roscoe Lane in the Giant’s hara. They have made St. Luke’s church their place of work. The outcome of this meeting was that they agreed to bring the heartbeat of the Giant from Bigheart to Sweetheart Park on the last Sunday of our stay. After a talk and a sandwich we all went together to the burnt-out church to plant the hara spike.
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About a year ago we left a glass ball in each of the Giant’s chakras. One was tossed in through a window of this old church. We looked around and couldn’t find the ball. However we decided to plant the spike approximately where it would have landed. The continuity of the work done a year ago to the work going on now felt good. I had a strong feeling that any conscious action, however small (like the tossing in of the glass ball) opens the door to more action along similar lines. Turns out it wasn’t an insignificant thing to do at all, and each time we do these simple things, the landscape of the Giant becomes bit by bit more conscious. The important thing is to keep doing it.
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The spike’s placement is directly in line with a strip of indented concrete down the inside of the wall, and about 8" in from the wall. The soil was soft and easily dug up. We drew a tarot card after the planting: King of Cups. We washed our hands from a bottle of water that Liz held for us, tipping the water out carefully to make sure there was enough to go around. Then we said goodbye to Liz and Ambrose, and went to meet Sal on the front steps of the church.
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When Sal arrived she was feeling quite sad, overwhelmed by life’s difficulties. Familiar territory for us as well and we knew it had taken her a good bit of courage to come at all. But after a talk and some rescue remedy she began to feel better, so we set out together for Sweetheart Park. Along the way we told her how we had hung the chimes the day before, and she realized that Jamie is someone she knows - a friend of a friend. She was pleased with the synchronicity and beginning to feel the flow of the Giant’s energies.
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We stopped for tea at Café Porto which happened to be right beside Jamie’s new office space on Rodney St. This café had just newly opened; we were a few of the first customers. The owner was very proud of the impressive photographs on the wall. They were his own work, pictures of architecture in Portugal and Liverpool. He showed them to us one at a time. He was also proud of his pastries so we ordered three different ones and shared them between us. Sal drew a tarot card from the deck: 7 of Cups.
We sat at a table close to the window. As we sipped tea and talked, I noticed that the view offered by this window led directly up a street lying perpendicular to Rodney. We sat at the bottom of this street as if to receive a vision pouring down the avenue right into the café. While we spoke of other things, my eyes were curiously drawn up the street for quite awhile before I really became conscious of the energetic pull it was having. The street seemed to be wide and slightly uphill, although this may not even be the case. There was no traffic moving on it. I remember remarking and laughing that it looked “European”, not being able at the time to find any other way of describing its unique flavour. There was an expectant air about it. Something was brewing up there, just out of sight - a welling-up of energy that would soon break its hold at the top of the street and flood the open passageway below it. It seemed uncanny that we would have such significantly-placed seats in this brand new café at just this moment. However we did not remain in the café to view whatever was about to come down the street. Instead, we thanked our host, wished him the best of luck, crossed Rodney St and moved upstream. It is a short street, a passage into the university campus. Soon we were in the midst of a teeming throng of students who were whooping and wielding plastic clubs and swords, wearing pale blue t-shirts with LUSU Pub Crawl on them, colourful leys around their necks, and generally stirring up a frenzy for a night’s drinking. It was like a big cauldron being stirred up over a fire, just about to boil over. We navigated through the crowd who were oblivious to anything but the pumping energy they were a part of. Incredibly, just a few steps away from the crowd, we came to the quiet and peaceful bench in the university garden. We sat there for a moment before going on. When we arrived at Sweetheart Park we saw a newly-planted garden around one of the trees, and a cleaner space generally. Jacqui had been at work. It was getting towards the time we’d seen Jamie arrive home from work the other day so I was keeping an eye out for him again. I picked up a few more walnuts that had fallen around the tree. (This is prime time for the ripe nuts to fall and I had already collected a bagful.) Sure enough, within a few minutes Jamie came around the corner. He and Sal talked about mutual friends and were happy to be together. Jacqui joined us. We invited everyone to come along for the walk from Bigheart to Sweetheart Park with the Giant’s heartbeat next week.
It seemed like many layers were working their connecting ways at the same time. While we were meeting up with people, planting the spikes and moving through the Giant, I wondered what other massive undertakings were also arranging themselves. We were moving through many currents, large and small, some of which were visible to us and many more that were not. We drew the third tarot for the hara spike here - Page of Swords. We plan to continue this way of drawing the cards - one at the spike that is newly planted, one at some location along the way to Sweetheart Park, and one at Sweetheart when we arrive. After Jamie and Jacqui left we walked with Sal to her dance studio on Hope St. We stood on the street looking up at the big windows of the studio. Ambrose has an office right next door. |
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After our trip to Liverpool in May 2007 we began to believe that as the Giant awakes, newly awakened conscious energy in each of the chakras will move toward and finally meet in the Giant’s Heart Chakra. We wrote a series of play outlines that presented this shift in the Giant’s consciousness in story form. Later on, back in Toronto, as we looked back on this third visit with the Liverpool Giant, we realized it might be wise to pay attention to the events and the energies we encountered as we followed the paths from each chakra spike back to Sweetheart Park. These paths remind us of the chi lines encountered in humans. It seems that the Giant must have such energy lines too. And if the Giant is so very big (and we’re so very small) we should be able to travel along these Gi-chi lines that run through the Giant. And as we do we’d be able to experience the flow (or blockages thereof) of the Giant’s conscious energy as it made its way toward the Heart.
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Following this line of inquiry caused us to re-examine all of our experiences while planting the chakra spikes and following the paths to Sweetheart Park. Although it was certainly true that Sal was feeling sad within her own life when she arrived to meet us in the hara that day, it could be equally true that she was expressing the flow of the Giant’s hara energy as it moved along a Gi-chi line. Maybe that desperate sadness she felt was that which arises when the Giant’s conscious energy is blocked in its flow along the path that leads to the meeting in the Heart. Interestingly enough, we had a similar expression of this energy on the all-day trek during our first visit. We had seen a family having a highly emotional argument in almost the exact same place. Of course that argument was personal to them, but just as certainly they were expressing the same blockage that Sal was sensing when we met her there. Makes you want to be consciously active at this place on the hara Gi-chi line. Actually such activity is already occurring there: Liz and Ambrose are involved in revitalizing the site of St. Luke’s church with community concerts and gatherings. Or, to put it from the Giant’s point of view, the hara is starting to relax and dissolve the blockages on the Gi chi line there and Liz and Ambrose have turned up as part of that expression. So in this narrative about our third trip we’ll try to pay attention to specific sights of the Giant’s chakra energy along the Gi-chi line we followed after burying the spike. At the end of each day’s description we’ll mention one or more events that seem particularly compelling. In the case of the hara spike, Sal’s arrival was one; also the students massing for the pub crawl outside the student union at John Moores University. The student mob was quite indicative of the dissipated, almost animal energy often encountered in the Giant’s hara. From time to time in this narrative we’ll also try to include other sights of the chakra energy that arose during our visit. In the case of the hara: the first sight of Steve upstairs in the Mello when we first arrived, never putting down his paint brush for the whole of a half-hour tour of the new enterprises there (the hara is always active and ready to act). Generally the activity of Greg and Steve and the TAO is a good sight of the revitalization energy of the Giant’s hara. |
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The 3rd Eye spike - Sept 25
We packed our bags and got on the #17 bus and headed for the crown chakra. The crown park has been mowed once this year - the summer profusion of grasses and wildflowers is over, now clover and a mustard-like yellow flower are about the only blooms. There’s one single rose flower on the bush that was so profuse in May and June. We walked around, Allen took lots of photos, and I browsed around the area of the northern fence, getting a feel for a good place to plant a spike. But a large black helicopter was idling above and just to the east of us. It had arrived just after we did, and stayed menacingly above us the whole time we were there, about 20 minutes. Clearly, it was watching us. When we moved off towards the iron church it made a circle over us, and I went to sit on the steps of the church to be out of its sight. Once Allen joined me, it flew away. Not the time to plant the crown spike today. We continued walking south.
It was very windy. The flag on the iron church has blown to shreds - just the slimmest remnant next to the pole. Allen found another key to the crown gate, but amazingly the old one was still sitting on its perch where he’d left it, so he used it to open the gate and we walked through. With always the western side of the Giant in view to our right, down to the harbour and the Mercy River, we walked south, stopping a few times to enjoy the view. At the copse of trees where the yellow room stood, we looked for a place to bury the 3rd eye spike.
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We had been made more cautious from our experience with the police helicopter so Allen kept a watch out while I found a good place for the spike and dug the hole. But on this occasion there was no disturbance. I stretched in under the low branches of a Whitebeam tree and carefully dug the hole in among the roots. In fact there was a feeling of rightness and well-being while planting this spike, similar to the time last spring when the rose and wood arrangement was placed right about here.
Before totally covering up the spike I walked in the riverbed and found a shard that could easily be removed from the sandstone-like layered rock sides there, then placed it over the glass top of the spike, then covered everything up with just a thin layer of soil and sticks. The spike is planted about 3' away from a Whitebeam tree, the one with the thickest trunk, north and up the hill slightly from the 5 trees that made the Giantroom. The spot is about 4 o’clock to the tree trunk when facing north. After burying the spike we pulled the first tarot card: Knight of Wands
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We continued walking south, all the way to the bottom of the park. Along the way we met and spoke with a woman who was out with her 5 sheep dogs. These dogs were all kind of crazy - distorted and disabled in different ways, and all of them mad for chasing sticks. She was very happy to meet two Canadians. She invited us to come to her home in Vauxhall, we were welcome to come and stay any time. She likes to entertain visitors from other countries and a pair of Canadians would add nicely to her list. It was all pretty weird. After leaving her we continued down the long open field that ran down hill. Quite a vacant and rather disorienting place. A group of young rowdies came along while we were sitting on a bench halfway down. They caged a good number of cigarettes from us before moving along. Another group of teenagers were actively doing nothing at the foot of the grassy slope. They never came into the foreground but hung around the edge of wherever we were, not in a menacing way, just slightly unsettled and unsettling.
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We totally skirted around the throat park, didn’t enter it at all, and by the time we reached the throat marketplace we needed to sit down for a rest. I remembered seeing a restaurant on a previous walk through the market and had made a mental note that I’d like to stop in for tea sometime. So now I led the way and went looking for that place. I couldn’t remember exactly where it was. We went up and down a few streets and I wondered if this place called Kane’s was the one I had been so attracted to before. Strangely, it didn’t feel the same, but since there was no other teahouse around I eventually decided it must be the one. I felt a bit confused that a place could have such a different aura one day to the next. We went inside. It was at first disorienting to me, partly because I had imagined it so differently. We went up a few steps to the right and sat at a table on this raised area. The table was so crowded around with wooden chairs facing in all directions that it was difficult to squeeze into place. All these cluttered chairs and the wooden scraping sounds they made when moved about, brought up a strong memory of a ski chalet. I began to hear sounds from my distant past when I had entered a bustling and very cluttered and noisy ski lodge. So while I was sitting down in this mostly empty tea house, a part of my mind was also inhabiting a completely different building. After a minute or so the disorientation passed and I was more completely present in Kane’s Teahouse. There was just one other customer and he was sitting with the owner up at the front of the restaurant. They were having an animated and friendly conversation together. Once we were seated, the owner came over and gave us a menu - again, I was surprised by how differently I had imagined the place and its food to be. We chose to share an omelette and fries. The food was presented to us carefully and with a kindness rarely seen in restaurants. We relaxed here. We had come to a good place. After eating we pulled the 2nd tarot card: 2 of Wands. We moved on, deciding to go through the curved student’s residence. I immediately felt that we had made the right choice. Without knowing why, I felt pleased to be walking by here. An energetic woman, dressed all in black, very fit and full of energy, passed us from behind. I admired her as she went by. Then to my surprise she turned around and began speaking with us. She wanted to know why we were walking here and where we had come from. We told her we often walked from Everton southwards because we had made a movie of this part of town. She was keen to know if we were interested in “true-life stories of people”, and proceeded to tell her own story of drug addiction and violence and gangsters in the family. She hadn’t quite quit the drugs, although she was trying to. She stuck out her tongue to show us the tiny hit of white powder wrapped in a bit of plastic for later use. She gave us an animated and frank revealing of her history of drug use and her present state of struggle with it. She showed photos from her wallet of her 18 year old daughter and 3 year old son. We walked as she talked. She said she used to live in the curved residence when it was subsidized housing but everyone was moved out. Now she lives nearby - she pointed southwards towards Sweetheart Park, which was still out of view as yet. She pressed upon us her resume which someone had recently prepared for her. I tried to give it back after looking it over but she insisted we keep it in case we found a reason to contact her with some opportunity. We hugged warmly and parted company at the corner of Brownlow Hill and Russel St, she heading home and us on to Bigheart Park. I appreciated her fiery vitality. Just that quality that has got her into so much trouble in the past is also her unique gift. Another inhabitant of the heart chakra. |
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We sat in Bigheart Park for awhile and put up a poster for the upcoming screening of our Giant movie in the metal frame on the side of the hydro building. We walked to Sweetheart Park where I picked up a few more walnuts. I had a closer look at the resume. The address on the resumé was that of the building right next to Sweetheart Park, the same building as Jacqui and Jamie, right beside where we were sitting. Just before we left we pulled the third tarot card for the 3rd eye chakra: 2 of cups.
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Two energy events come to mind for this Gi-chi line. The first is the woman and her dogs up on Everton Brow. She was a little unbalanced, and her dogs particularly so, slightly grotesque actually, though not in any menacing way. She was disorienting to be with, and the feeling was that she had become this way because she has had to follow an independent path. This called to mind the tarot card we pulled for the 3rd eye on our last visit (2 of pentacles). The world around her seemed to be like the wavering sea and the tossing ship in the background of the card. The woman with the resumé we encountered near the end of the path expressed this same disorienting quality. Both these encounters could be good sights of the distortion evident in the 3rd eye’s conscious energy as it makes its way along the Gi-chi line to the Heart. Good places for some actively conscious work such as chanting or music or mindful movement. Another thing we are beginning to notice as we follow the Gi-chi lines from spike to heart: there are places of rest and peace along the paths throughout the Giant’s body. Kane’s Teahouse is such a place (as was Café Porto on the hara Gi-chi line). It seems like a good idea to look for and gain experience in such places as we move throughout the Giant’s body.
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The Root spike - Sept 26
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At about noon we arrived in the cemetery in the root chakra with the intention of finding a place to plant the spike. We stood near the spring and considered some possible places. There are many areas in the yard where we’ve had strong experiences before but none of them seemed right for the spike. Then we looked up to the next level, along the promenade directly above the spring. We walked up there and were quickly drawn to an old gnarly tree. No doubt about it, this was the right place.
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Allen dug the hole and buried the spike while I alternately moved around and sat with the tree. It was good to sit here in this undisturbed, unrecognized place that’s out of the flow of traffic down below. It seemed to have an older and more intimate connection with the spring. And the tree is an old character standing apart from the crowd, too. It has two trunks and is full of ripe red berries. I remembered that the last time we were here in May it had been in full flower.
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The spike is planted about 1 ½’ from the trunk of the tree by the rock wall, between the paths of 2 levels along the promenade north of the spring. Looking at the cathedral from here, it’s about 3 or 3:30 from the trunk. A very strong place to revisit while chanting in Toronto.
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We drew a tarot card: The Hermit. As we were on our way out of the cemetery we met Steve and Holly and her parents walking there. We happened to meet right next to a tree of the same species as the one up above. Holly said it was a Hawthorn. We walked north and stopped in at the Number Seven Café on Faulkner St. We ordered a bit of food at the deli counter and took it into the adjacent room with the slim hope of finding a table. There are only 4 or 5 little tables in the place and there were plenty of people around to fill them. Luckily there was an unoccupied one, though, so we sat down. We stuffed our packs and camera bags as much out of the way as possible in this tight place. A man sat by himself by the window. He had made himself comfortable, with his coffee and laptop on the table in front of him, and was taking his time to type and think and gaze out the window. Clearly, he was not feeling at all in a hurry to eat and leave, even though this is mostly a take-out place and customers are not encouraged to linger. But this man had both space and time in this fast, tight place. I was fascinated, and once again became aware of a different reality below the surface of the most apparent one. Soon we relaxed too, and slipped under the rule of quick-in-and-out to a more spacious and open dimension. We took our time, cleared away a space on the table for the tarot cards, and drew the 5 of swords. This is the same card that had first come out of the deck at the root spike, but at the time we had used it to push out the next card - the Hermit. We left the café and walked to Sweetheart Park. There were 2 men surveying the park very thoroughly. We stayed for about a half hour, and they were busy the whole time, taking readings from one corner to another, measuring the girth of trees and making calculations and notations about every little thing. They told us they were doing some work for the council but they didn’t know what the info would be used for. Someone who lives in the adjacent building came by and wanted to know what they were up to as well, and she said she had an uneasy feeling that there were plans for this place. Indeed, it feels precarious, some change is in the works. We pulled the last tarot card for the root: King of Swords. We stopped in at Gerry’s bookstore. We spoke for quite awhile before mentioning the surveyors, but when we did he went out immediately to speak with them. They really don’t know what’s up but they gave him the number of someone who might.
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Curiously enough two significant sights of the Giant’s root energy occurred prior to planting the spike. On the night before we went for a walk and stopped at the bench on the east side of the cathedral (just inside the border of the root chakra). We had been there before and remembered that it was a good place to sit and talk. Soon after we sat down we saw and heard the big black menacing helicopter to the south of us, this time threatening someone else’s movements, not ours, somewhere around the warehouses to the south. This day had begun with the helicopter hovering over the crown and was now ending with it at the root. We wondered if, from the Giant’s perspective (rather than from the personal perspective) the helicopter was an expression of some kind of protective mechanism that was indigenous to both the crown and root. As we watched the helicopter shining its spotlight down on the warehouses below, we spoke of these chakras as both being entrances to the Giant, and both of them having many societal taboos associated with them. We were seeing the helicopter as occupying the place of a kind of “flap” at each of the polar chakras. But it’s still hard to know just what this flap is, how it works and why it’s there, how it’s the same and how it’s different from root to crown.
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The second sight came the next morning just before we set out to plant the root spike. Steve was cleaning up the house. Morph had left a half-dead mouse by the front door and he could not be convinced to finish it off. He’d already eaten a can of catfood and was satisfied with that. So Steve took on the chore. Having to kill the mouse was a very emotional event for Steve. It was done with a great deal of compassion, and when it was over it was over. So: police protection at the very base of the root (helicopter), a necessary death as the conscious energy of the root passes through the hara (mouse), then surveyors in Sweetheart Park at the very end of our day’s activity. Very King of Swords these surveyors, as if the arrival of the root’s conscious energy in the Giant’s Heart heralds some upcoming drastic changes. And things won’t just change a little bit as the Giant awakes, everything will be entirely restructured and reconfigured. We always took it for granted that transforming energy from another level must arrive through the crown chakra, but it seems that the Giant is also receiving a good bit of conscious energy coming in through the root. Energy through the crown must come from the cosmos, energy through the root must come from the earth, from spirits, from the ancestors - from beings and shapes that come from before to shape our being in its present form. No accident that the sacred spring is in a cemetery. Other parts of the Giant’s root have this same ghostly quality. About a week after we planted the root spike we met Sal and Sallyann for dinner in a Chinese restaurant just through the huge arch on the border leading into the root. After we ate we walked through the deserted warehouse area below Chinatown. Wherever we walked it was empty and strange, as if beings unseen were out there too, walking along with us. And it felt like these were present-day ghosts, ancestors of a more modern persuasion, out and about in just the same way that ancestor ghosts from days-gone-by can be seen and interacted with in St. James Cemetery. |
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The Heart spike - Sept 27
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This afternoon we planted a spike in Bigheart Park. We began digging a hole over by the eastern fence, but had trouble finding a place free of roots. By shifting the position just a bit out from the fence, we found a clear area and it went in simply and smoothly. It can be found by standing on the mound in the middle of the park and looking towards the spire of the catholic cathedral. It’s planted along that line of sight, 4 feet from the fence. We drew a tarot card after the planting: The Sun
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We took a circuitous route to Sweetheart Park, walking through the older section of the U of L campus. This is a very extensive area that we haven’t explored much so far. There are several huge old buildings with ornate architecture, like the Foresight Centre, and beside them some very modern and streamlined buildings. There’s some renovation and construction going on in one section that looks like it’s been ongoing for a long time and will be continuing for a long time yet.
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We were keeping an eye out for a place to stop to pull the 2nd tarot card before arriving at Sweetheart Park. There are several little cafes and restaurants in the area that the students frequent. We approached one, but it had just shut down a few minutes earlier. Then another which still had its doors open but the chairs were being put upside down on the tables. It was 3:15 - these places must just cater to students at lunchtime. We didn’t stay at Sweetheart Park for too long. The King of Wands came out of the deck. A few parents were bringing home their kids from school along Cathedral Walk. They all live in the row of flats beside where we stood. |
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There were many sights of the Heart as it awaits the arrival of the conscious energies from the other chakras. We went to the Giant’s Heart every day as we followed the Gi-chi paths from each freshly planted chakra spike to Sweetheart Park. We saw Jamie and Jacqui (who live next to Sweetheart Park) many times and we stopped in often to talk with Gerry at his bookstore (just around the corner on Mount Pleasant). But perhaps the strongest sight came later on. After a week of planting the chakra spikes, Allen and I took a trip to Wales. We stayed for a day and a night on Gerry’s land. While sleeping under the huge Oak tree I had this dream:
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Many people were gathered together on a large piece of land in a rural place. It may have been a summer solstice celebration. It wasn’t the common sort of celebration that’s often seen nowadays where there are kiosks and things to buy. None of that. There was only nature, and people moving around on the land. At such a gathering important things that are generally unknown and unconscious are here revealed and celebrated. Some of the people present had attended these events many times and are themselves masters in their various arts of revelation. Gerry was there, one of several hosts, or elders. He invited me to come with him to meet a sculptor who was also present.This sculptor was standing alone when we approached him. He was a quiet man. He turned slightly to his right and a block of wood appeared in front of him, standing on a pedestal that put it at about head height. It was about 1 ½ feet thick and 2 feet tall. He asked me my name. When I said En, he remarked that it’s a young name. Then he lifted his hands to the wood and began working. As he carved the wood, the pedestal turned slowly and consistently in a clockwise direction. In this way the work that he had just completed was revealed to me where I stood to his left. He worked quickly, silently, seemingly effortlessly. The work was greatly detailed, very finely finished and even smoothly polished. The whole thing was completed in just one full rotation. He lifted the piece off the pedestal and handed it to me. At this point it transformed into a piece of clothing. Not a special or ceremonial robe, but this was a dress to wear everyday from now on. It was spring green in colour with a very large silvery-white collar that came down onto my back and over my shoulders and made a bodice in the front. The carving he had made was inscribed in this collar. The rest of the dress was also unusual - the fabric was made of a pounded wood barkcloth, very soft and supple and comfortable to wear. After we left the sculptor, Gerry and I walked to one of the buildings that was nearby. We went inside. It was huge, with carved wooden relief scenes on the walls that were about 50 feet long and 30 feet high. The walls were so large that they easily accommodated them. Gerry pointed up at one of the reliefs that hung close to the ceiling. The scene here was of many people together, all of them looking forward as if in a class photo. Because the relief was up so high, I couldn’t make out the details of the faces of the people too well, however I had the strong feeling, and intuitive remembering, that I was looking at a group of people I know intimately, and have known for a long, long time. It was a very old sculpture. It would have been carved very many generations ago. But the people here continue to be connected together. We meet up and part over and over, but the true connection is never lost, and always recognized when it is revealed each time anew. |
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The Throat spike - Sept 28
In the early afternoon we arrived in the throat park and planted a spike in the northwest corner, under the southernmost tree of the three young Black Locusts who stand there together. At first it was difficult to find a clear passage between the roots, but when eventually we did, the spike went in easily. It’s situated 4 feet from the trunk, in a direct line from the trunk to the spire of St Francis Xavier church.
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We pulled the 2 of pentacles out of the deck, then put it back in. Next, the 8 of wands came out, which was also replaced. The Knight of pentacles was the third. Each time, we replaced these cards because they themselves had shown us that we weren’t making the necessary preparations to be looking at the cards to begin with. We talked about how we had become sloppy and were moving too fast without enough attention. We decided to spend some time to get into a clearer state of mind, then start over again. The throat can be hard to work within, even quite resistive if we don’t pay conscious attention to what we are doing.
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We sat in meditation for awhile, then walked separately around the field. We each looked more carefully at the area we moved through. The trees near the middle of the park are dying. They’ve already lost most of their leaves, and a lot of their bark has peeled off, now lying in strips on the ground. It looks like they’ve been poisoned, their health made worse by trying to revive them with an overdose of fertilizer. There’s a circle of grass around them that’s greener than the rest, but the trees will not revive. Other trees in the field are meeting the same poisoned end. We wondered again about the toxicity here. Just what lies beneath the surface of this field? Many magpies were hopping around on the ground near to the dying trees. Large, very noticeable birds, but impossible to approach. Crows, also, like to perch in the branches, ominously. Shadows in the shadow trees.
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We walked beneath the corridor of healthier trees planted alongside the western edge of the playing field. We moved along and across the paths that crisscross the field, remembering the day during our first expedition a year ago when we moved about singing in the rain. We found the remnants of a receptor dish in a tree along a path. This delicate paper umbrella has lasted for a whole year! There’s a tough resistance here. Eventually we met up together in the middle of the field, picked up a long strip of bark from beneath one of the dying trees, and brought it to where the spike was planted. It was placed over the spike, along the line of tree and spire. We felt ready to look at the cards now, and pulled the 10 of wands from the deck.
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We walked over to the bell at the far side of the nearby church. We were planning to record the sound of the bell (by tossing a stone at it), but the fan in the wall of the factory next door was making too much noise. On the way back we noticed that the fence was down along Soho St, so we entered an empty lot that we hadn’t been able to get into before. There’s an incredibly dense and high and thick hedge of purple-flowering Butterfly-bush along the north line of this lot. This species is robust and successful all over the city, growing out of the brickwork of abandoned buildings and sprouting like tufts of hair off the rooftops, but this is certainly the most lush plantation of it I’ve seen. It grows in wastelands and any disturbed place. It was exciting to see a form of life doing so well here. I felt this was an important discovery because I have envisioned the throat field as a botanical garden, but at this point the land is far from being able to support the growth of most plants. By allowing this species to thrive where it anyways wants to, it might begin to transform the area, encouraging other species of plants, insects, birds after it. This species could get a whole ecosystem started.
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We stopped in at the sandwich shop on William Henry St. We got to talking with the same man who we spoke with a year ago. We asked about the history of the field. He said it was only about 10 years ago that the tenements that were there were leveled. He showed us a photo of the kind of buildings they were. About 5 floors, no lift, solid buildings that looked good enough, and probably were fine when they were built in 1936. They were knocked down and bulldozed into the ground. The hills along the perimeter of the field are actually heaps of rubble with just a layer of topsoil and sod over top. He wasn’t surprised to hear that the trees are dying because he also feels the toxicity in the earth. Recently streetlights were put up in the area, supposedly to deter the many drug deals that go on around here. He says it’s thick with drugs at night. But putting in new lights didn’t change things - “They cast shadows where the rats can hide.” There are many signs posted along the streets saying that just lingering in the area is due cause for suspicion. We walked south and away from the throat field. I felt sad for the hard lives of the people who had lived here, and for those who live here now. There’s a thick and persistent confusion that isn’t met with enough compassion or kindness or understanding, so it proliferates. We walked on to the market where the vendors have their cheap clothes and purses hanging for sale. A few sausage wagons amidst this, but no fresh produce, even though it’s harvest season. We walked to Sweetheart Park and sat for only about 15 minutes, which was long enough to be greeted by 2 of Jacqui’s neighbours who we’d met in her flat a few days ago. The Knight of Pentacles came out of the deck.
Later on that night we were speaking with Sal and Sallyann. Sal had an idea for the throat field: To build a labyrinth there. Hedges of butterfly-bush could delineate the paths, and stones could be placed underfoot. The middle area where the trees are dying seems just the place for it |
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It’s a little bit hard to grasp the sights we had of the conscious energy of the throat as it makes its way to the Giant’s Heart. Certainly the argument and the fight that almost ensued in the market place are expressions of the blockage this energy faces. This was quite an explosive and ill-tempered event, even though the actual fight never quite materialized. Interesting that the Magician card was pulled concurrently. It was the second card of the three we pulled that day (after the initial confusion when we were pulling cards willy-nilly). Its placement in the unfolding Celtic Cross spread would make it the sideways card that “crosses” or “blocks” the chakra significator card we pulled during our first visit in 2006 (the Queen of Wands). For a look at the developing tarot card spreads for each chakra click here.
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It’s almost like there’s too much creative juice in the Giant's throat chakra. And with the crossing Magician card as a cue, there’s the feeling that the strong ability inherent here is only in its very beginning stages. Easy to push too hard at the start, to act too willfully and become entangled in the need to strike out against what appears to be in the way and thus unfair. Whatever blockages there are along this Gi-chi line, they would tend to colour the conscious energy with an aggressive and even angry expression. This leads to a second sight of the throat chakra we’ve often had: that the throat has been poisoned in some way, that some old wound is lying just underneath the surface. Whatever happened with the Giant in times gone by to cause this wound is hard to know. But it seems that some opening of this ancient wound must occur before the energies of the throat chakra can be unblocked. There’s some old trauma here that must be released before anything else can occur. Despite the difficulties accompanying this, there would be some very positive benefits from dealing with the trauma. A great deal of creative energy is stored up just beneath and would come rushing out as soon as the hardened protective tissues around the wound are dissolved. The throat chakra has many stories to tell and songs to sing, a huge creative energy just waiting to be released. The rubble of the old buildings just under the top soil of the field, the poisoning of the soil, the gangs and drugs that seem to be strong throughout the field area have buried all this and are keeping it covered over. They’re part of the resentment and stubbornness that tries to keep the trauma in place. Just what caused the trauma and how to release the creative stories that lie just beneath the hardened surface - it’s hard to say. But Sal’s idea to construct a labyrinth in the field might be a strong initial step towards a way to work things through. |
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The Crown spike - Sept 29
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We met up with Sallyann outside the Mello at 1 pm, and the three of us walked through the busy shopping area to the bus station. We got on the #17 and rode up to the crown. There was no helicopter this time. It was very clear and easy to be there. Sallyann chose a place for the planting, and she dug the hole and planted the spike too. Although she had some initial doubts as to whether she was doing it correctly or not, these doubts soon dissipated because there is obviously no right or wrong; there’s just following the inclinations and inner guidance as closely as possible, taking action and moving on.
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The spike is planted in line with the lamppost in the SW corner of the park, as it lines up with the northern corner of the church tower. Continuing this line in the other direction, it’s 11 feet backwards to the fence. A short spike, planted just a bit deeper than the others were.
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There were still some plantain flowers in bloom, and the spike went in right beside a good-sized clump that was standing proud in the grasses. We walked around the field. Allen picked up 3 items while he was moving about: 2 different leaves and a small dry stem. The three of us were each attracted to different ones - there was no problem choosing. They were good snapshots of the 3 different energies we had for the work. We decided not to bring them along with us, but to place them on top of the planted spike. We drew the Justice card from the deck and then we left.
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We walked southwards through the churchyard, showing Sallyann this and that about the Giant along the way, like the key at the fontanel. We sat on the 3rd eye amphitheatre steps and looked east to the river. Often there’s a strong wind up there, but on this day it was unusually calm, so we basked in the sunshine and lofty view. We walked as far south as the 3rd eye spike, then followed the riverbed westwards to Shaw St, descending through the concrete structure of levels along walkways and steps, until reaching the crossover close to Brow St.
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Sallyann led us further east than we’ve gone before to her workplace which is on Ste Anne St near Rose St, just north of the big police station (which looked a lot like a fortress to us). The building she works in is owned by the North Liverpool Rehabilitation Co. Indeed the building is well rehabilitated. Apparently they undertake to fix up old decrepit buildings in the neighbourhood that are worth saving. We spoke of the possibility of them being useful in implementing the idea of the throat field’s labyrinth, even though their focus is on buildings. Walking through this area showed us a different energy than we had seen so far in the Giant’s throat chakra. There is some conscious work going on here to attend to and restore the neighbourhood. We walked up through Mansfield St by the Police Station. It felt like a dark and narrow canal that emptied into the northwest corner of the throat field. We went to check on the throat spike that had been planted the day before. On the other side of the tree trunk from where we planted the spike was a pile of fresh shit and some crumpled paper. Not a conducive sight to stay nearby, so we went to sit on the main barrow and told Sallyann what we’d learned of the history of this place. We walked to Bigheart Park, entering from the northeast via the parking lot. This was a good way to enter, as it turned out. It gave us a fresh perspective on the park. In fact the last few hours of traveling together had taken us through new territory and expanded our experience of the Giant. We showed Sallyann the placement of the heart spike, but didn’t stay long. We moved quickly on to Sweetheart Park where we drew the 8 of Wands. |
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It is a bit surprising that we left the objects we found that day behind in the crown instead of carrying them down the path to Sweetheart Park. This could be indicative of the type of blockage that can easily be encountered here in the crown. The conscious energy arising here shows a tendency to stay instead of flowing away. This has often been seen on other trips: we’ve often found what seemed to be significant objects initially, only to leave them behind when we left. When we have managed to bring them along it’s only been for a bit of the way. Basically we haven’t been paying enough attention to the conscious energy of the crown. There have only been two times when we’ve been conscious enough ourselves to be able to help the energy flow down from the crown. Both times occurred during our 2nd visit in May 2007. We were able to bring the rose and the wire frame to the third eye (click here to see some photos of rose and frame). Quite a sight and a real clearing of the Gi-chi blockages in the third eye when they arrived and were assembled. We were also able to bring fire all the way down through all of the chakras, although it was interesting to note that it was hard to keep the candle lit while we were in the crown (click here to see photos of the fire containers).
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So the conscious energy in the Giant’s crown might need some help initially to get it moving. Interestingly the tarot cards drawn seem to point to this. The Justice card at the top of the Celtic Cross spread (click here to see the crown cards from all three visits) shows the dharma energy arriving in the crown. This dharma is important action that needs to be carried out. But it’s not so much for the crown itself, as it is for the crown to pass on to the other chakras. The Queen of cups is crossing the chakra’s significator. This queen is very self-absorbed in the “energy” cup she holds, holding onto the incoming energy and keeping it there with her. The Page of cups to her left seems a bit uncertain what to do with this information and is somewhat unsettled just receiving it. The energy must be sent on to the other chakras, the dharma wheel must be set into motion (the wheel of fortune to the right). The 8 of wands that receives the energy has no set way that it wants to do this. It just passes the dharma energy on to wherever it’s needed through whatever channels are appropriate.
Another thing that comes to mind, we might be more mindful of other paths the conscious energy of the crown could take as it makes its way to the Heart. This seemed to be part of our experience that day. We followed a number of different paths as we made our way down through the Giant after planting the spike in the crown. We stopped for a while at the top of the steps just inside the gate at the border of the crown. There might be a path down this westward view we’ve stopped at and looked at many times before without actually going that way. Coming along the dry waterway after leaving the place of the third eye spike was a new path to us. We arrived in the field where the throat spike was buried from a new and quite different direction. We all felt the way we approached Bigheart Park was unexpectedly strong. Perhaps we need to find new gi-chi lines to accommodate the variety of expression the energy in the crown often takes. And if we do the energy arising there will be less likely to stay in the crown, hopefully it will start to flow on to the Heart more easily . |
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The Will spike - Sept 30
We had just one more spike to plant, and that was in the will chakra. We had made some arrangements to go away the next day. We had reserved a rental car and got directions from Gerry to visit his land. We also planned to visit Carol, a friend of Gerry’s who lives near Trefriw in northern Wales. But before taking this trip, we both felt it was important to complete the planting of the spikes, and this was our last day to do so.
What we had in mind was to plant the spike in the courtyard garden beside the Projection Gallery on Roscoe St. We had come to this garden last spring, while carrying fire down from the crown, and at the time it was a good place to stop and listen in to the Giant’s dreaming. The front gate to the courtyard was locked now, though, and we didn’t have a key. Steve and Greg had gone away for a few days so we couldn’t ask them for one. I phoned Mike, who has his studio on the top floor of the gallery. I left a message that we’d like to come over, but didn’t hear back from him. So we walked over there, assuming that if Mike was there he’d either have a key to the courtyard gate or be able to let us in through the garage-door entrance in the gallery. He was there, we had a good friendly visit, but he didn’t have a key. He lifted up the garage door and was surprised to see that the wooden sliding doors had been pulled shut across the entrance. This was strange, because in his memory these doors had never been shut before. And they were immovable from inside. We tried for about 15 minutes to pull and push them open, but to no avail. We were stumped.
We returned to the Seel St house and went through all the many keys that hang in the hallway. We took 4 bundles of them back to the Projection gallery and tried them all in the courtyard gate, but of course none of them worked. A security car passed us, then stopped a little way along the alley while we tried all the keys in the lock. When we finished, he moved on.
It seemed like we had to give up the idea of planting the will spike in this garden. We returned to the Seel St house again. Allen especially was very involved with this problem of where and how to plant the spike. He was stirred-up and agitated, knowing that we had to do something, but also convinced there was nowhere else in the will chakra to plant the spike. Finally he asked the Giant to help him know what to do. After a short rest of about half an hour or so, he told me we had to go out again right away to find the place and plant the spike.
He was definitely on to it. We discussed the so-far unspoken idea that the garden next to the Projection Gallery was probably not the right place for the spike after all. Certainly all our attempts were meeting with refusal. And another difficulty with the location came strongly to our minds: maybe we shouldn’t plant the spike in a place that was inaccessible to anyone who didn’t have a key. Could it be that this backyard garden was too private a place to be appropriate for such a public thing as the chakra spike?
Maybe we were a bit slow at reading the signs, but the problem was we simply couldn’t think of anywhere else where the spike could go. The will chakra is a fairly small area, and we had scoured it thoroughly on this trip and had seen no other options. The empty lot we had used during the all day-trek on our first visit in 2006 was now a big hole in an active building site. The garden by the Projection Gallery seemed like the only possibility. However, the idea rang true that it wasn’t the place. The Giant was not allowing us to make a mistake about this planting.
We went out again and walked further east, still moving within the will chakra but in an area that we hadn’t explored enough yet, and hadn’t realized its boundaries. We went past the quiet bench, unable to enter there because it was Sunday and the yard was closed off. Many security guards sat in their cars along the route.
We kept going east, and remembered Abercromby Square with the big garden in it. We headed in that direction, passing by a few small planted areas along the way, considering every tiny bit of unpaved ground as a possible candidate for the spike. When we arrived at Abercromby Square we both had a good feel for the place but of course it was locked up tight. Along the western edge of the garden there’s a row of 6 or so picnic tables, outside the gate, all chained to the iron fence. We sat down at one of them to consider what to do next.
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Almost as soon as we sat down, 2 young guys crossed the street and walked towards the garden right beside us. One at a time they stepped up onto the nearby table, then on to a cement pillar, then jumped down into the garden. It was so easy for them to do this; it didn’t require any real effort at all, and they certainly had no hesitation. And we were situated to watch precisely how it was done. Right away we recognized that these guys had come by to show us exactly how to enter the garden. The Giant could not have sent more detailed instructions. Nevertheless, we sat for a few minutes and fanned the doubt in our minds. These guys were at least 30 years younger than either of us, way more agile in body and mind, and not inhibited by the illegality of the act, however innocent it may be.
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We considered our options. Either jump the fence now, when the place was quiet, (indeed the whole area was almost empty of people, without even a security car in sight) or come back tomorrow morning before leaving town, when the gates would be opened but many more people would be around. It was about 5:30 pm. We walked around the outside of the garden to make sure there was no better entrance than the one we had just been shown, and also to get a sense of where to put the spike once inside. Clearly, the spike should go under some big trees in the corner of the garden nearby to where we sat, and the way in was 2 steps and a jump away. There were no other options.
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The 2 guys were still inside, sitting on the grass near the middle of the garden. But as soon as it was decided that Allen would enter the garden and I would photograph from outside, they stood up and walked to the fence and showed us how easy it was to get out as well, the same way they’d come in. So smoothly and gently are we shown the way. The whole spectacle was pretty amazing and we were laughing at the same time as being keyed-up and determined not to miss the chance to act. Allen put the spike in his pocket and easily jumped into the garden. I handed him the digging tool. He went directly to the spot under a big Maple tree and it took only a few minutes to put the spike in the ground.
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The spike is situated 5 feet from the base of the large Maple in the SW corner of the garden. There are 3 big trees in this area, as well as a few smaller ones. There are 3 points that, when lined up in a straight line of vision, show the placement of the spike: 1) a red Warning sign that’s on the iron fence on the western side of the park, 2) the trunk of the big Maple tree, and 3) a bench along the southern fence that faces into the middle of the park. Allen stepped easily outside of the garden. We sat down on one of the benches again, satisfied with the way things had worked out, and drew a tarot card. The Lovers. We got up to leave and noticed a thin magazine on the next picnic bench with the title “A Giant Party” written on the front cover. There was a picture of the big female puppet called “The Liverpool Giant” being paraded through a large crowd of people in downtown Liverpool in August. Strange, but neither of us had seen this magazine until just now. We laughed a lot at this one. It felt like the Giant had been playing with us all day, that we had been in a game where we had to follow all the clues to be lead to the destined spot for the spike. We picked up the magazine and headed for a nearby pub.
At the pub we drew another card, the Ace of Wands. While repacking our bags, I realized that we’d left the digging trowel by the fence. Allen had placed it beside the concrete pillar while he jumped out of the garden, and neither of us had picked it up. So we returned to the spot and found it right there. I began to bend it straight, the same way I had done countless times during and after using it in all the other locations. But this time, with just the slightest of pressure, the handle snapped away from the metal shovel. What timing! The work was done, the last spike planted, and the shovel was no longer a necessary tool. We walked to Sweetheart Park, amazed and pleased by the day’s events. We had to persevere throughout the day, had to make use of the will to plant the will spike. We realized that the will has an intelligence in action. Now the area of this chakra is extended further east than before. At Sweetheart Park we drew the last tarot card: the 8 of cups |
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It has always been hard for us to find places to work in the will. Everything seems to be locked down tight, and whatever location we finally find is bound to be closed or unuseable the next time we come to town. The open lot we used for the first day-long trek in Oct 2006 was being dug out for some major building effort when we came again the next spring. The bench in the courtyard of John Moores University is a very good place to listen and look for the will’s arising energy. But as it turns out it is very well watched by security geezers and is often locked away behind gates and bars. The only time we were able to use it was during that first visit. So it shouldn’t have been all that surprising that the backyard garden we used last spring was impossible to penetrate when we came again this fall.
But there is an upside to this closed down nature of the will: there is always an open place to inhabit, and once you find it, invariably it turns out to be a strong and quiet and intimate space. Now it may be hard to find a way in, but once that way of the will is discovered the ability to act is freed. It was very easy on the first day-long trek to write the Giant’s signature. The intimacy of the group was a tangible thing when we stopped in the garden during the second trek. And this time there was a very sweet and personal connection to everything in Abercromby Square when we planted the chakra spike. It was all completely that very moment with nothing left out and nothing brought in - no thought, just action and being.
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It’s interesting what the tarot cards show (to see the ongoing chakra tarot spreads click here). The Lovers above bringing down the conscious energy arising within the will - a completely naive and direct intimacy. The Ace of pentacles as significator shows how the will chakra hands out opportunity particularly towards the fulfilment of some actual thing, some goal. The Ace of wands crossing shows the obstacle: wanting to deal with the ideal of the goal rather than the goal itself, to be conceptual and take up the idea about the moment instead of just entering into the moment itself. The ten of wands to the left (vector from the past) brings many different ideas and concepts - it’s all such a burden to carry. The Moon to the right (vector to the future) shows the throwing away of the rational and the trusting of the intuition. The 8 of cups below shows the reception of the energy - no fixed location. Each time the intuition manifests one must travel to a different location to find the way to be in the moment. So the sight we received of the will chakra’s conscious energy is that of a strong resolve that is intimate and intuitive and expressing itself as in-the-moment action. The blockages we encountered all had to do with our inability to shift and change our idea of what and where and how and when. The moment we abandoned our own thoughts and ideas, we were led step by step to exactly what needed to be done. Despite the fact that this shift was difficult and even disorienting to make, the actual experience we had was really quite playful. And in the end this unlooked-for spike location extensively changed the way we were seeing the Giant’s shape. Up until this time we had been unable to travel very far east as we explored the various chakras. The fact that the will spike is in Abercromby Square opens up a vast new territory and calls our attention to the whole “left side” we have been unable to access. It seems to be telling us to find and explore the “left side” Gi-chi lines. As the conscious energies of the various chakras make their way to the Giant’s Heart, many of the blockages we find expressed might be eased if we paid attention to these new Gi-chi lines. Oh, and I’m thinking the pub at the corner of Cambridge and Mulberry streets might be a place to stop at again. |
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A Journey from Bigheart to Sweetheart, Oct 7:
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Over the past few weeks we had been inviting people to join us for a special event in the Giant’s Heart. So at about 1 pm on this Saturday afternoon, people began arriving in Bigheart Park. Ambrose came with a buffalo drum and Liz had a snare drum. They would listen for the sound of the Giant’s heartbeat and keep that beat with their drums. Steve had his flute. He would also find the music of the Giant’s heart. Holly, Jamie, Sal, Allen and I would have other work to do: We would find the dispersed emotional presences in the park, and gather them together into a bead bowl that we had brought for this purpose. (Everyone here had already been given a small bead bowl of the same type. All those people who we know so far to be Keepers of the Giant’s Heart have one of these bowls.) We placed the large bead bowl on the central mound. We uncovered the spike.
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We handed out a string of colourful flags to everyone who wasn’t playing an instrument. Then we all began to spontaneously move throughout the field. At first our steps were uncertain, and the drumming was slow and quiet, each note a tentative probe into unknown territory. Gradually our movements and the Giant’s heartbeat became more distinctive and lively. The sweet sound of the flute drifted like a spirit song through the field.
Those of us with the flags soon came together and joined the individual strings to make one large circle. We moved as a unit to one part of the field, led by whichever one of us was the most strongly drawn onwards at the time. We surrounded an area where an emotional presence was lingering. We came in closer, and closer still, until we could pick it up in our circle and carefully carry it over to the bowl. We put it into the bowl, each person working in their own way, each with their own sight of the sentience that we carried. Once in the bowl, it was content to stay there without any further interaction.
Once it was settled there, we would go out again and find another. Each one was different, but they all had a unique and recognizable life force. Sometimes we approached cautiously as if to avoid disturbing or scaring off a shy animal. At other times we rushed in towards a spot and quickly scooped up an emotional bundle. Once I remember herding a dispersed feeling into one area before lifting it as one unit and bringing it to the bowl. There were places that were more emotionally felt, and others that were pure action.
At a certain point the large circle split up into several smaller groups, and we moved very quickly to specific places in the field. People were seeing evermore clearly where to go, and were going there immediately, without hesitation. When a few people found and began to encircle a sentient presence, the others would come to help.
The tempo picked up, we began moving around fast and the drumming and flute became very active. Each of us was moving in accord with the energies we were stalking. Personally, I remember being swept up into an ecstatic dance and being drawn gradually towards a point at which all the other people converged at the same time. We lifted up an emotional presence that was huge - one person could not have managed it alone. We held it aloft and moved it, or it moved us, in a circuitous route back to the bowl.
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Altogether, we brought in 7 different emotional bodies. We all approached the central mound, rejoined the flags together, made a big circle around the bowl and sang the Ah Ma Ee chant. The drums and flute became quiet for the few minutes of chanting. Then we extended the circle to its widest circumference, let go of the flags, and each of us moved to the outermost edges of the field. We stayed out there for a few minutes, as if to let the contents of the bowl unite into one energetic pattern. Then we all came inwards and met at the bowl.
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It was time to move on to Sweetheart Park. We covered up the spike again and gathered in all the flags. One person picked up the bowl with all its contents, and carefully began carrying it along the path to Sweetheart Park. The drums and flute danced us along. The bowl was passed from person to person along the way. We all made up an easy and wonderfully joyful procession through the streets.
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When we got to Sweetheart Park, we placed the bowl in the middle of the circle where the Rock Game had been played. Once everyone was gathered in around it, we lifted it up and everyone put their hands underneath in a pile of hands-under-hands. Then the hand at the top was slipped out to the bottom, over and over. One by one we were changing hands and laughing with the unspeakable joy we were all feeling.
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All together we walked it over to the chimes. Someone handed Steve a string, and he quickly climbed up into the tree to attach it to the bottom of the chimes so we could ring them from below. Each person had a turn holding the bowl in one hand and ringing the chimes with the other. I remember this as a very intimate moment that was also somewhat funny, due to its utter simplicity and playfulness. It felt like we were connecting with all the chakras of the Giant and announcing this new energy. Not only announcing, but making the vital contents of the bowl accessible to the whole Giant by way of the paths that had been opened up between the chakras. And at each chakra spike that had been planted, the resonant sound of the chimes vibrated with the message that is the bowl’s contents itself.
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So now there is a communication system open and operable in the Giant’s body.
It is interesting to remember that from the time we all met in Bigheart Park and went over the general idea about what we were intending to do, until we all parted after ringing the chimes in Sweetheart Park, there had been hardly any words passed between us at all. Everyone had been completely active and in tune with the work, or play, at hand.
