The second trek through the Liverpool Giant

This is an account of our second journey within the body of the Sleeping Giant on June 2, 2007. When we made our first journey in October of 2006 we were trying to see the energy of the Giant’s seven chakras. This time the main intent was to see the Giant’s dreaming.

The Giant’s dreams are richly on display in the three dimensional world all around us. In fact it’s quite possible that the day-to-day life throughout Liverpool is itself an enactment of the Giant’s dreaming and we are all expressions that continually unfold from the Giant’s unconscious being. All of the Giant’s unconscious dreams arise and subside quite effortlessly. But from time to time we’ve noticed a dream with a completely different quality - a dream that seems to be self-aware, an elder dream that is more mature, that is large enough to hold all the others. Something that seems to us to be the result of conscious dreaming.

Just what are these conscious dreams? One thing we’ve noticed that seems to be true - they all have to do with awakening. We’re interested to find out more, particularly how to participate in this conscious dreaming ourselves.

On Saturday morning we left the Seel Street house at 10:15 and walked down Bold Street to the bus terminal. It was Saturday and the street was already busy with shoppers and people moving in all directions, especially through the plazas. We each carried a fire container, one for coals and one for a candle.

Even though they weren’t lit up yet we were very aware of them in our hands; they held our focus steady. They were unusual companions to walk around with in the everyday world but it felt like standard practice from the Giant’s perspective. Walking this way gave us a clearer view of the ongoing unconscious dreaming that pervades the whole city - it’s not limited to the Giant’s physical body. In the area we were now walking through, every moment and every place was rigged with hooks to pull people’s attention this way and that; lures of attachment in the form of advertisements, throbbing music, bright glittering colours, attractions for all the senses and desires. A ceaseless manufacturing of need. The people, too, were advertisements and enticements for each other. Yet Allen and I were unaffected as we moved along a swift, unimpeded river of conscious energy that flows right through the marketplace. It was as if we were invisible - at least we seemed to go not only unnoticed but untouched by the multitudes of grabbing hands of the great machine of desire. We could see and hear and feel in every way the tugs and whistles around us but were unmolested and undistracted by it all. Not surprising that such a strong flow of conscious energy attracts a lot of unconscious dreaming around it.

We came to the bus terminal and waited for 10 or 15 minutes for the #17 to arrive. Actually we just missed one. We might have caught it if we’d run but had no inclination to do so. This place is always pumping busy. A few blocks of street is closed to all other traffic and serves as the terminal for all the busses in the city. They pull up fast to their stops, stay for just long enough to unload and load up again, then leave to make room for the next in line. No lingering. Plenty of people standing around waiting for their bus. Even though the wait isn’t long there are still lots of faces looking impatiently down the line. Waiting is an uncomfortable activity when the attention is fixed on what hasn’t yet arrived. People tend to get annoyed and crabby. But then there’s the sight of a busload of people settled in their seats, all looking forward as they’re carried along to their destinations. People like to be on the move - the motion keeps pace with their dreaming and pacifies uneasy minds. Faces become more satisfied, innocent and relaxed. Individual dreaming can continue along uninterrupted but there’s also this being embraced by a collective dream, the bus’s dream, which has the effect of linking people together on a level they may not be aware of, but react to nonetheless. We pay tickets for this communal ride - we’re picked up, transported, and dropped off without any compromise to our personal choice. We become characteristically quiet and still during the ride while suspending our own momentum in favour of the bus’s.

There’s something about all these individual dreams being picked up and carried along by one larger dream that’s similar to the upcoming theatrical work that we are intending with this Giant story. A play can get people to somewhere they can’t get to on their own, or at least make that transition a lot easier and swifter. In this way the bus can be compared to the play. Both are larger vehicles of transportation. Interesting to see that there are systems in place that are already doing this work. So there are no changes that need to be made but there is a necessary shift to make from the pervasive unconscious dream state to the awakened state. The play is a conscious enactment of the Giant’s dream of awakening.

#17 bus pulled up and we stepped aboard, took our seats, and rode up to the top of Everton Brow. We got off near the Iron Church and walked a bit further north to the empty lot where we had made an essence of plantain a few days earlier. In all directions from this small park the land slopes downwards - this is the highest ground. There are two walking paths through the lot which are well used by the local people as a short cut from one busy street to a parallel one. In the middle of one of these paths is a burnt patch where a fire had been lit not so long ago.

It seemed appropriate that we begin here, so we made some receptor dishes and set them in the ground around the perimeter of the burnt area. They were surprisingly like the wide-open pink roses that were growing in the lot. We placed some coals in the smoke pot and angled a small magnifying glass between the coals and the sun. The coals began to smoke almost immediately. It was extremely easy to kindle the Giant’s crown chakra from the rays of the sun. Apparently there’s a natural receptivity that the crown chakra has to being lit from a distant energy.

Once the heat had spread through the coals, the fire was brought to the candle by touching a match to the coals. Throughout the day we would keep the fire alive by lighting one from the other so that there was never any time when they were both out and only at most a few minutes when one of them was out. Although we didn’t plan it ahead of time, Allen carried the coals for the full trip and I carried the flame. We became familiar with the feel and maintenance of each one and had no thoughts of switching over.

We each had brought something to the Giant’s crown chakra. I had a dried spray of Whitebeam flowers which had been in the essence bowl in the root chakra earlier that week. Allen had a figurative piece of bark which had been found under a tree in the throat chakra park.

We drew one tarot card and, without looking at it, placed it face down close to the fire containers. Like on the last journey, we were using this tarot deck as a means to show us pictures along the way, but of a different sort than can be taken with a camera. We didn’t speak of them or think of them much at all during the day, but just let them arise and wrote each one down to look at them more closely later on.

We sat quietly for a few moments until we could each tune in to the Giant’s conscious dreaming. This was an important part of what we would be doing throughout the day. To stop all other activity and to listen was really a pleasure. Quite quickly we each received a vision:

En: There is a gentle opening and receptivity above the Giant’s crown chakra. It’s a large area, not inside the physical body but above it. Although this is the Giant’s body and not my own, I can easily feel the gentle expansiveness. And I also see, on a large scale, the corona of flowers that had made the crown essence. There is a wafting of rose perfume moving through this crown area along with the silent but momentous opening of a flower.

Allen: A flag is blowing in the wind. It is the flag on top of the crown church but not exactly that very one. That flag has a cross on it. This one has an open flower.


	*Crown Chakra* An innocent young woman with a chattery disposition has traveled from the Celestial Realm to attend the meeting in the Heart. She arrives in the Crown chakra of the Giant carrying an elixir in a glass vial which is etched with the emblem of The Rose. Her arrival starts the wheel of dharma turning. She summons six emissaries from the Celestial Realm and sends each to a different chakra to influence the course of events that lead to the upcoming meeting in the Giant’s heart. For those that are able to see her she’s known as the Rearranger.

We took our objects (the flower from the root and the bark from the throat) to different areas of the lot and placed them in the space. A second tarot card was removed from the deck. Then we turned them both over. Once we were packed up and ready to leave, we picked up all the receptor dishes and found a place for each of them around the area.

This routine of finding and defining the space with receptor dishes in each chakra, tending to the fire, bringing out and speaking of the items picked up along the route between chakras, pulling tarot card #1, tuning in to the Giant’s conscious dreaming, speaking and writing down the dream, consolidating the dream into a short written form, burning this written copy, pulling tarot card #2, placing the items in the landscape, looking at the tarot cards and lastly, placing the receptor dishes appropriately around the space before leaving - this was repeated at each chakra.

We began our walk southward. We had to carry the coals and flame carefully because there was a strong wind blowing. The flame went out several times while we were in the yard of the Iron Church and we had to keep stopping to light it from the coals. After this I began shielding the flame by carrying it next to my body. Throughout the rest of the day the flame was constantly attended to and mostly it required carrying it with the lantern’s opening next to my heart.

Just south of the churchyard there is a gate. The gate is always open and it’s a clear demarcation of the Giant’s physical body. The crown chakra includes the areas on both sides of this gate. The park where we first lit the coals is actually above the Giant’s physical body and this gateway is the top of the Giant’s head, the fontanel that remains receptive even after it gradually closes after birth. The landscape makes it very clear that the crown chakra is a large area mostly above the physical body, but also including that receptive area inside the head. Every time we’ve come to this gate there has been a noticeable wind swirling around the opening. This day was the same, with strong currents and even a whooshing sound. A few days earlier Allen had found a key nearby which he placed on a small high ledge of the gate, ready to use for making a proper entrance to the Giant’s body. He removed the key, placed it in a small opening in the ground along the line of the gate, and turned it. We entered the Giant’s body.

We came to the place where the Giant’s room was put up last fall. Whereas we took some time choosing the place last year, on this return visit we were drawn to it naturally. Once an area is recognized and attended to it opens up, becomes receptive to communication. That opening stays for some time, if it isn’t abused, and can be returned to again and again for further meetings and a deepening of intimacy. It is like this along the paths of the Giant - the Giant can’t really be said to exist, nor can it be said not to exist. But the more these paths are traced across the landscape, the more people will come along them and experience the Giant and eventually the Giant comes into view. We are all already inside the Giant. It is a gentle work. There is no insistence and nothing to learn. Just an awakening.

There’s an old, dried up riverbed nearby to the Giantroom area. Kids love to ride their motorbikes through it, being challenged by the bumps and necessary quick turns they have to make to navigate it’s valleys and banks. They’re like insects buzzing over and around the Giant’s body. The sheer size of the Giant and their tiny size in comparison make them just a tickle on the skin of the Giant, not big enough to be a bother or even all that noticeable.

We sat down and brought out items that we’d picked up as we’d traveled from the crown chakra to here in the third eye chakra. We hadn’t showed them to each other before now and when they came out of our pockets and packs we were surprised by their beauty. A rosebud from the bush in the crown chakra that smelled so fragrant and a burnt piece of bark from where we had been sitting came together into a standing figure. And the musical shape of a bent wire held two circular metal pieces. They were arranged without any difficulty at all. We kept looking at them with wonder. They displayed an amazing grace and beauty. We became quiet to listen in to the Giant and see the concious dreaming.

En: A voice is blessing us as travelers - giving a blessing of safe passage, the journey beginning from here to parts unknown. I lift my eyes and see a light-post which seems remarkably alive - it has a large glass globe on top like one big eye, and seems to be aware of us, friendly and attentive.

Allen: A hot air balloon is tethered to the ground, with a ladder going up to it. It’s loading cargo to go somewhere far away - not within the city. There are travelers in the basket and others heading towards the basket.

Third Eye Chakra

A mentally strong and visionary Explorer leaves the Realm of Mountain and Sky to bring an ancient book to the meeting in the Heart. This book is crucial to everyone there: it contains the story of the very group they will soon become as they take on the task they must do together. The book is locked, but there is no doubt that everything the group needs to know is written inside. The Explorer is exhausted from his long journey. When he arrives on Everton Brow he falls asleep. When he awakes the book is gone and he has forgotten his mission. With the help of others he remembers that there is a meeting to attend and he begins to search for the missing book.

	*Third Eye Chakra* A mentally strong and visionary Explorer leaves the Realm of Mountain and Sky to bring an ancient book to the meeting in the Heart. This book is crucial to everyone there: it contains the story of the very group they will soon become as they take on the task they must do together. The book is locked, but there is no doubt that everything the group needs to know is written inside. The Explorer is exhausted from his long journey. When he arrives on Everton Brow he falls asleep. When he awakes the book is gone and he has forgotten his mission. With the help of others he remembers that there is a meeting to attend and he begins to search for the missing book.

We left the arrangement of items where they stood, added more coals to the smoke container and placed a new beeswax candle on to the remnants of the old one. After distributing the receptor dishes among the branches of the nearby trees, we continued our southward journey through the vast ocean of the third eye. At first the descent was gradual. We walked slowly across the wide open park. Very few people were around and nobody was close by. There are stands of trees in the park, none of them really old, but mostly there is open space. So we had the long view of the Giant’s whole body to the south, and most of the city of Liverpool, the docks and the Mercy River to the west. We looked outward and over this vast expanse of land, and at the same time were experiencing it as an inner sight of the most intimate sort. The way to make something hidden, to keep it secret, is to have it so pervasive that no one notices it. But we did notice. It’s an awesome sight.

It wasn’t until we turned west and made a steeper descent, crossing a main street where the gorse grows thickly at the edge of the park and continuing down the hill of Everton Brow, that we lost the exhilarating view and began to move through a neighbourhood. We were walking down the Giant’s neck. Even though we were carrying along with us the recent energies of the crown and third eye, while we walked in this throat area our attitudes slowly shifted from the outward-oriented long-distance view to a more local perspective. On the right we passed a single building containing pub and grocery store that was reminiscent of the architecture and a way of living that no longer exists here. It stands alone, tall and slender, well-tended and decorated, but it still looks like it might roll down the hill into the schoolyard below because it no longer has any buildings of its own kind nearby. On the left is a large area under construction. The old buildings had been torn down to accommodate this new pile of brick housing.

Apparently this whole hill used to be covered in simple housing with very steep narrow streets. It’s an old part of Liverpool but there are few indications of those times left now and those that are still around will be gone soon. I wonder what memories are buried here. It’s strangely quiet. Down the road a bit there’s an empty friary and a church that’s now closed to the parish, with the front door locked and the yard untended. An old bell stands to the side. A few days ago we went by there and tossed a few stones over the fence to hit the bell to hear what the ring sounded like. I wonder if this bell will ever peel out its song to the neighbourhood again.

We stopped here and sat down near the Black Locust tree. Along the route between our last stop in the third eye and this throat chakra park we had each picked up several things. We brought them out now. This was not the graceful display of elegant objects as in the third eye. I’d found an abandoned bird’s nest on the ground before leaving the third eye area and some other things after that. Allen also had several things. They were a motley group. It took a long time to settle them into a precarious arrangement. Some of them we didn’t use at all.

We took a break, rested a bit to settle our thoughts, then tuned in to the Giant’s conscious dreaming. The image of a frame, like a window, kept presenting itself to me and with it the feeling that there was something to see through it. But nothing was appearing on the other side. With more examination there was only further elaboration of the frame itself. I wanted to see more but couldn’t. Sounds from the neighbourhood were becoming more musical, though, so there was a softening of the territory all around where we sat and also a sense of music coming closer, as if from a far distance. I was beginning to hear more of its subtleties.

En: A thick, squarish frame of bright flaming red colour presents itself. The frame is empty within, like a window or hole where something could pass through. I begin to hear music and singing coming through the frame.

Allen: A boat sitting still on the water. From the side there is a full vision of the boat and all the ocean below the boat, right down to the ocean floor. A long line from the boat with a grappling hook on the end is pulling things up from the bottom of the sea. It looks for artifacts and pulls them up. The smoke container came from this place. There’s an archives at the bottom of the ocean.


	*Throat Chakra* The Dancer arrives in the Throat chakra from the Archival Realm where all the stories and songs and dances of a vanished civilization are stored. She reaches back into the archives and brings forth an important myth that took its form many years ago. People listen and begin to dance. They soon come alive within the myth and directly experience their distant past. Three dances are danced on three separate nights. As the final dancing reaches its climax, three seeds materialize. The Dancer will bring one to the meeting; the people will plant the second in their community; the third will be planted in some other place as the ancient stories and dances are performed.

We crossed busy Islington Road and came into the marketplace of the throat. Since it was Saturday the market was in full swing with the same vendors as usual trying to sell stuff out of the backs of trucks or from under display tents. We had a rest here and took turns sitting with the fire containers while the other used the public toilet in the square. This was the cleanest public toilet facility I’ve ever visited! There’s an office inside the building where a woman has her headquarters. She’s on duty for a full working day, tending the sinks, floor and toilets like in her own home. A steaming pail of hot water and mop are at the ready. The place is curtained and spotless. It’s a remarkable amount of full time attention to keep this place pure and sparkling clean.

Again I was surprised that even in this marketplace nobody approached us to ask about the fire. The candle flame in one container was openly visible and there was usually at least a wisp of smoke from the other. People were milling around in a relaxed way while we waited for each other. But no interest. We left the market and continued walking southward. A man crossed our path in front of us. His dreaming was so thick that it left a tangible trail of smoke behind him. We realized that this happens all the time, that people are continually moving through each other’s fields of dreaming. This instance was not uncommon, but just unusually noticeable.

We walked through Bigheart Park but didn’t stay long. We adjusted the one receptor dish that was still there from a few days ago and had a look around. I found a clump of chamomile and dug out a piece of it with its roots and enough soil to keep it alive for a short, unplanted journey. I watered it, wrapped it up and packed it carefully in the top of the backpack.

We arrived in Sweetheart Park. The day before we had borrowed Steve’s cart and gone back and forth several times from north of Bigheart park to Sweetheart, hauling rocks. Rocks are not that easy to find in the city - lots of concrete and bricks, but real rocks are rare. North of Bigheart there are several mounds left by construction workers who have heaved up a few rocks along with the other rubble. We picked some up, hauled them to Sweetheart Park and put them under the walnut tree to be ready for the Rock Game scheduled for 4 pm today.

It was a bit before 4, with enough time to bring out the items and pull the cards. In fact everyone was quite late, so we had lots of time. The chamomile was planted in the garden near to the Walnut tree. It had survived the journey well and wasn’t drooping at all. It could spread here. Allen had picked up a ring of keys somewhere along the way, and a branch like a dancer. Everything was placed together in the garden. Then we tuned in to the Giant’s dreaming:

En: A strong sensation of heart expansiveness. The huge open heart includes far away places and times. It is love. A shared joy and communication. A letter is received, and I have it in my hands. Hand-written on stationary. I open the letter and begin to read. It is from someone who is renewing contact after a very long time. Beginning to remember the deep connection with this person who I knew many lifetimes ago.

Allen: A rectangular table with 7 people sitting around it. 3 on one long side, 2 on each of the shorter sides, and one long side open. On the table is a long cloth bundle tied up with cord. There are fine implements inside. A clock is also on the table.


	*Heart Chakra* A woman is sitting in her kitchen in Liverpool when a letter is delivered into her hands. The letter, which is written in the language of the heart, is from a very old acquaintance she has forgotten about but with whom she has a deep intimacy. An extraordinary meeting is upcoming. It will happen in her home. Six others are already traveling towards the meeting and she will be the seventh. Everyone is bringing essential skills and objects to use in an important endeavour together. They're coming from unimaginable distances and have some work to do along the way. She is the only one of the seven who doesn't have to travel, but she has to make all the preparations.

Steve and Holly arrived just as we were burning the composite page. Then Sallyann and Sal showed up. We spoke a little bit about the trip we’d taken so far, then it was time for the Rock Game. Everyone chose their rocks from under the Walnut tree. As usual for a Rock Game, we went in turn placing the rocks until they were all on the playing surface. The game was played within the confines of a circle that was already marked out on the ground. Actually it wasn’t quite circular, but slightly oval. 40 feet by 36 feet. (I’d paced it off the day before.) We’ve never been able to figure out the history of this circle. The ground is old asphalt throughout but plants growing up through the cracks delineate the circle and make it a very prominent part of the landscape of Sweetheart Park.

The Rock Game is usually played indoors on a raised table so this was quite a different experience. In order to place the rocks people had to walk right on to the table. We had some pretty big rocks, but even boulders wouldn’t have been too big on a playing surface this size. The game took about an hour to complete. 6 rocks down, then 2 rocks removed, then those two rocks replaced. At the end we placed the lantern on the surface, moving it around in turn until everyone was satisfied with its placement. As soon as the game was completed, Marta and Mike rode up on their bikes, ringing their bells. We all stayed in Sweetheart Park together for awhile, and were joined by a man who apparently had watched the whole Rock Game from a window in his nearby flat. He said he was fascinated by the game and wanted to know more about it. He thought the whole play of the game was beautiful and he was grateful that the space was being used in this way.

Sal left us after the Rock Game, but everyone else traveled on together. We crossed over Mt. Pleasant Rd and came into the area of the will chakra. Last year the will was difficult to maneuver through. There were locked and fenced-in places that couldn’t be entered, with just one small opening into an empty lot where we laid out the Giant’s signature and put up some flags. Even that place was only open temporarily. It’s a construction site now, with all remains of our passing erased, and a heavy fence denying all entry. I had the feeling that access to the will chakra would keep shifting from place to place, that each time we returned there would be a different opening. Sure enough, there were only locked places now but one of those places is used by the TAO to park their truck. So a key was available - Steve had it in his pocket. He opened up the gate and we entered a private backyard that was partly for parking, but mostly a garden.

The seven of us sat on three benches, making an arrangement very close to what Allen had so recently seen while in Sweetheart Park. We all listened in to the Giant’s conscious dreaming, then each of us told the rest of us what we had seen. We passed the pen and notebook around so that everyone could write down a version of what they’d seen and already spoken of to the group. Then it went around again. This time everyone wrote down a short version which we burned on the coals. We didn’t compose a composite image of the conscious dreaming like we had been doing when it was just two people, however later on Allen and I were able to put one together.

En: Something impossibly far away in the distance but simultaneous in time. Then a pipette, a slender glass tube, linking my sight to that place and event. It is a precise instrument, having the effect of a powerful telescope but much simpler in design. It reaches across time and space to make visible and immediate related events. Still very far away, but now visible, is a single person in a small boat heading this way. Coming to the meeting.

Marta: Fire beneath; heat and wind blow something dark (burnt) upwards, something light without defined shape that swirls upward.

Mike: A black horse rearing up on hind legs; bright smoke surrounds a bowl/dish with light or fire coming from it.

Steve: A pond/pool overflows in a drip/trickle onto a rock with iron inside. The rock is worn away and the iron has worn down into the shape of a pin. The rock had one root-like bean growing down and counter-clockwise. There is nature’s smile and thoughts of cake.

Holly: Hands on the earth make a watery but solid rock grow up from the ground. The rock is knee-high and pale, icy blue and nearly clear.

Sally Ann: A figure offering something, a lightness in their hands. It’s unsure whether the offering is an object or an emotion. Then comes a feeling of growing, broadening, opening, developing - a lovely feeling of openness and strength.

Allen: A (possibly medieval) man in a hooded cape approaches. He brings a rectangular wooden box which contains important objects for the group to use.


	*Will Chakra* A wise old artisan from across the Great Water arrives in the Will chakra. By following the path on an oilskin map he finds the entrance to an ancient well which is hidden within the city landscape and invisible to those who live nearby. By summoning and interacting with the spirit of the well he is able to make a collection of transformative instruments. While he works he becomes younger. When the work’s done, the spirit of the well gives him a long rectangular wooden box so that he can safely carry the instruments to the meeting.

We all brought our objects to a small area of the garden under some hanging plants behind the benches. Many pairs of hands swiftly arranged and rearranged the things until they melded into the landscape so completely that they probably will go entirely unnoticed even though the garden is well-tended. Again there’s the sense that this work is almost invisible to the usual way of perceiving. It occurs quickly, without any hesitation, and it’s only with an acute attention that it can be seen happening. But if there’s even a glimpse of it in the making, it leaves the mind wondering and trying to remember its particular details. What I’m remembering from this experience is that seven people were moving so fluidly that it had the effect of an ephemeral dance. I caught a glimpse of hands placing and settling objects so gently, so intimately, that they seemed like the hands of angels. This all happened spontaneously, without design. We all know how to do this work. It’s our indigenous way.

We walked to the burnt-out church in the Hara chakra. This space has been closed for quite some time, locked and blocked up for many years (or so we’ve been told). But it’s energy seems to be changing of late and it’s gradually becoming more accessible. When we first came to Liverpool last fall it was full of boats (an installation for the Biennial) though we were only able to look inside from a scaffolding platform. Now this May we found it was possible to go inside as part of an exhibition of photographs of the bombing in World War 2. So we’d entered the church just the day before, and today we had managed to get a key and were able to be there again on our own.

By this time Holly and Steve had left, and Monica, who happened by and knew Marta, had joined us. We entered the church by a side door and locked it behind us. This old gothic church has no roof and all the furnishings inside are long gone, leaving one big open space. The high walls block out all visual contact with the city that surrounds it, and actually give more than visual protection because immediately upon entering we closed the door on the busyness and constant distractions outside. We were inside because we were separated from the city, but we were outside because the church has no roof, it’s totally open to the sky above. Once again we were in a sort of garden. Not a landscaped garden, for sure, but here plants have been able to grow undisturbed up the walls, filling the open windows where stained glass used to be, and carpeting the crumbled remains of the floor. We moved about individually, stepping over wild beds of tiny plants and tangling vines where architecture used to be.

After a little while everyone gravitated towards the few wide steps that would have been the transept of the church. We sat down together and everyone brought out their found objects and added them to an arrangement in the middle of our circle. It was a colourful display - an orange flower, a bright red ribbon. We added some cedar resin to the coals. We all closed our eyes and tuned in to the Giant. We didn’t begin to speak of what we’d seen until everyone had opened their eyes.

Allen: An old man with a bard’s harp is singing in St. Luke’s church. His song is shaped like a large, bright-light circle with a hole in the centre and it hovers in the air over the water-filled hole at the centre of the church.

Marta: A forest lined with fir cones - dark green trees. The space is dark but snug. Above there is a bright ball or balloon bouncing light about.

Mike: Mounds of exotic and brightly coloured pigment - pinks, oranges, blues, being mixed by hands.

Sally Ann: Long grass. Something small and happy (kid/animal) hopping around. Clear clouds moving.

Monica: I felt a warm breeze and then a cool one. I kept hearing all the sounds of the street. I asked the Giant if it liked oranges and then I opened my eyes.

En: Immediately a camel colour pervading; then a camel with rider, riding through the desert, very joyously. Coming to meet here, like the boater was in the will chakra vision. Very complete people coming to join a meeting that’s happening after a long wait.


	*Hara Chakra* An experienced and worldly man leaves his oasis in the Desert Realm and rides towards the meeting. He brings his songs and his art along, as well as an inherited alchemical recipe. He’s singing a hearty song to the rhythm of his camel’s stride as he rides along through the starlit night. When he arrives in the Giant’s Hara he takes up residence in the burnt-out church. He organizes many artistic events, exhibitions, concerts and shows throughout the Hara.

We didn’t want to leave the arrangement of items where they were - everyone thought there would be a better place somewhere else, so we got up and looked around. In a minute a grotto was found, the size of a small window frame, in a room to the left of the main open area of the church. Everyone agreed that this was the place. I watched people come and go to this shrine area, placing their objects carefully while there, then backing away to give room to the next person.

As in the will chakra, I was amazed by how beautifully everyone moves while doing this simple work. We’re all so natural and at ease and automatically know exactly what to do in every detail. These gestures and actions happen so fluidly, all our awkwardness disappears. When we act this way we’re moving in concert with the Giant’s conscious dreaming. With more practice this kind of acting can grow into a fuller play where our actions are flowing from the Giant’s conscious dreaming without interruption.

We went outside the church, Mike locked the door and dropped the key into his pocket. What a different experience from last October. At that time the hara was all blocked up. I had the feeling that in its own time, and with gentle persistence, the Giant's body can open up. We just need to be patient and persevering.

We continued walking southward. Part way there Mike and Marta decided to drop their bikes off at Mike’s nearby studio. Monica went with them. They would meet us later in the root chakra. Allen, Sallyann and I continued on and arrived at the spring in the graveyard when dusk was falling. We sat down between the spring and the Whitebeam tree from which an essence was made several days before. In a few minutes we were rejoined by the other three.

We put the two fire containers to either side of the rock shelf we were sitting beside, and laid the items for the root chakra between them. Once again everyone tuned in to the Giant.

Allen: A woman approaches the root-spring with a crystal orb to give to us. But first she goes to the spring water gushing from the wall and washes it.

Monica: A quick image, only seconds. Happy and playful. A figure making bubbles.

Sally Ann: I saw a figure up on a hill or cliff. Then I could see from that perspective down towards the land and water below. Then felt a free-fall into cool soft water.

Mike: First saw a mountain and then a railway line curving away in the distance with embankments of either side.

Marta: A dark cave in a dark forest.

En: In a valley an untended, lush garden. Also old ironwork and stonework. Looking closer, a very detailed cut crystal in an irregular form, somewhat like the wings of a bird. Heavy and precious. Also a bright turquoise fabric.


	*Root Chakra* A mature woman at the fullness of her power leaves her forest cave in the Middle Earth Realm to come to the meeting of the Heart. She arrives at night in St. James cemetery. She is carrying a piece of the Primal Rock. It’s heavy, of the earth and has a complex shape. It’s main quality and strength is receptivity. Over a number of nights the woman moves throughout the cemetery and one by one she gathers four different spirits into the rock she carries. First the Water Sprite of the Sacred Spring; then the Dryads from the nearby trees; next the ghosts of the human heros who are buried there; and finally a single ray of moonlight.

At the beginning of the day the first spark of fire had been kindled in the crown chakra of the Giant. It was kept alive and carried down the length of the Giant’s body, and here in the root chakra it took on a different aspect - a flowing liquid fire. As we held this one flame together, each of us drawn into its primal, sensual energy, our faces were illuminated by its heat and strong red light. Moving downwards in the body on this day had been a progression from the heights of lofty vision to a grounding in the earth itself. Whereas the first walk up to the crown ended with fireworks, celebration, expansion, with singing and light pouring out of the Iron Church, this day ended with quiet voices in a circle in the earthy place of the root as darkness settled around us. We watched the one thick flame, then simultaneously we each brought our candle away and planted it into the earth. It soon went out.

Before leaving, Allen gathered up all the burnt fire sticks. (Later on when we reached the house he placed them along with the coals from the coal burner into the kitchen hearth.) We left the root chakra together and headed for the Seel St house. Monica went her own way. Allen and I walked behind Mike and Marta, watching the candle lantern swinging lightly in Marta’s hand. It looked so right, so natural, yet also awesome. This tiny light, kindled by a ray from the sun, is visible, and it moves gracefully through the world.

The 2nd Journey Within The Sleeping Giant
(Jun 02, 2007 ~ 11:00 AM - 9:30 PM)