"All good things must come to an end", or at least move somewhere else.

Which is exactly what's happening here, the Grove of Quotes is moving to pastures new. I'll no longer be updating the blog here, instead it will be here... http://www.thegroveofquotes.wordpress.com

All the old posts are there and all of the new ones will be there too.

Blessings
Adam aka Treegod

“We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors we borrow it from our children”

“Everyone alive is descended from somebody smart enough to survive the past. But you must not worship your ancestors. The sole purpose of your ancestors’ existence was your life. And the sole purpose of your life is your offsprings’.” Stephen Baxter, Mammoth

“The future enters into us in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.” Rilke

The Ancestors worked for me, they worked to develop and manifest their wisdom; their experiences of the past and visions of the future, that have been past to me, not as a finished product, but as a work in progress. It is now my duty, not to my Ancestors but to my Descendants, to carry on this work, to have a vision of the world, of where it is and where it is going, and be a midwife to the future.

To honour the Ancestors, with thanks I take up the work that they did for the good of me and carry it even further. But to honour the Descendants I must fulfill for them what my Ancestors worked to fulfill for me. It is my Descendants’ expectations that I must live up to, not my Ancestors’, because it is my Descendants that will inhererit all the good and bad legacies of my life, it is they who will have to deal with the consequences or opportunites that I have to give to them, not my Ancestors.

My Ancestors; parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc, are answerable to me as though I were a boss to them. So I ask them, “I am your future incarnated, what can you say you’ve done for me, the Descendants and for the future of the world?”
And in turn, my Descendants will ask the same of me and I aspire to reach a point where I can rightfully say “I have done well for you my Descendants, now do well for your Descendants.”

“It is a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them.” Rose Macaulay

I bought a book of quotes from various British celebrities, thinking maybe it’ll be amusing, and I can get a bit of insight and inspiration from my fellow Brits. Yes it has been but there are some quotes that I think “fuck you very much. If that’s British then I’m not,” like the quote above.

The truth, or even Truth, cannot be left unexpressed, to fester in the soul of a human. Some problems cannot be psychologically digested alone, they need other people to add different dimensions and solutions that one solitary soul cannot come up with on its own. And if a soul cannot connect with a soul by communicating and expressing itself, then it’s lost an essential quality that makes it a soul. It can become introverted and cut off from the opportunities in the world around it. It can waste away.

I’m in despair; I need another quote, one that speaks sense and Truth…
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King Jr

Aaah, yes, much better. :)

Jolly good show that man. Just what one needs after seeing something that’s just not cricket, what what! (British? Well, just a tad lol)

(Photo of Mas De Gomis taken by Mika 2008)

“Concern with the environment is no longer one of many "single issues"; it is the CONTEXT of everything else- our lives, our business, our politics." Fritjof Capra (I told you I’d repeat some quotes lol)

“The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things.” Tao Te Ching. http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/taote-v3.html

We’re living in a bit of an eco-fallacy. Somehow “ecology” got sidelined as a mere “subject” within human existence, like it’s optional. Simply inventing the word ecology can create a split, and instead of being the whole context of our lives, it’s become a specialist subject.
I can imagine, one day in the future, a teacher talking about the word ecology as though it were a footnote in history…

“Well, long ago, humans thought as though we were somehow separate from the world around us, from the processes that sustains life. We used this word “ecology” to describe the natural processes, but described it as though humans aren’t a part of it, which has had very tragic circumstances.

“Some while later, humans were suffixing “eco” onto nearly every word as they realized just how connected to ecology they were; things like ecopsychology, ecobusiness, ecopolitics etc. But the term “eco” was used so much it became superfluous and wasn’t needed for anything anymore, because every aspect of human existence was realised as a part of “ecology”. We cannot talk about human existence without ecology…”

Perhaps in the end, “ecology” will become superfluous. But before then, we need it, we need the idea of the importance of ecology and that idea needs reinforcing, it’s a word that will help us properly orientate our lives. And perhaps then, when our lives are so suffused with the concept, we can do away with the word.

But not yet…

"We hope to see a Europe where men of every country will think as much of being a European as of belonging to their native land, and that without losing any of their love and loyalty of their birthplace. We hope wherever they go in this wide domain, to which we set no limits in the European Continent, they will truly feel 'Here I am at home. I am a citizen of this country too.'" Winston Churchill

I’ve been getting “European.” Perhaps it’s because I live in a different country from my origin. Perhaps it’s because I live with my Swiss girlfriend and her multi-lingual family (5 languages altogether!)

But also, I see the world changing in a specific way. No longer can we be so localized within our nations, worldwide communication and travel is uniting humanity and transcending local cultural boundaries. Globalisation has taken hold and is in progress, for good or for bad. I hope for the good, of a common humanity and our place within Gaia.

I look through my family tree at my genetic heritage; English with Scottish, Irish, and possibly Welsh and German. That is of the past, but what of the future? I feel myself as defined by my potential future as I am by my inherited past.

But my future isn’t just European, it is a common humanity, coevolving within itself and with the living planet of which we are a part. That I feel has been part of humanity’s destiny even when it first spread beyond Africa, across the globe, diversifying, genetically and culturally. And with our present levels of travel and communication, we are brought closer into a smaller world.

Our mix of different cultures in such a small world can be a very volatile mix where cultures find themselves at odds. But I believe, even through our diversity we can find unity, because at the end of the day, despite cultural, national or racial identity, it is our humanity that remains.

"The grove is the centre of their whole religion." Tacitus
He's talking about druids of course. I have a druidic streak in me, hence the GROVE of Quotes lol. I thought "maybe I could explain the concept of Grove and make it official and all that." But noooo! I don't think I need to. If you really need to, you can always look up wikipedia, or somewhere on the net! Just know this; I like nature, I like trees, groves are sort of open air church-library-universities for Druids. Nuff said! :D

BTW, the picture is a Grove in the making ;)

“What I know of the Divine I learnt in the woods and fields. I have no other masters other than the beeches and oaks.” St Bernard

“When I’m through with thinking I wander in the woods gathering handfuls of flowers.” Ryokan

What better way to relax and know your own inner freedom than in nature. No social pressures, no defining yourself by the peer pressure or the judgements of others, just the silence of the trees and the invisible movements of many creatures.Then in the sacred silence of Inner Space comes a response; that you are who you are, that you can breathe, live and be human.

The challenge is to keep that with you, always.

“Through us, Gaia has seen herself from space, and begins to know her place in the universe.” James Lovelock.

“We are not living on the Earth, we are part of how it lives.” David Richo

"You did not come into this world, you came out of it. You are not a stranger here." Alan Watts

"Concern with the environment is no longer one of many "single issues"; it is the CONTEXT of everything else- our lives, our business, our politics." Fritjof Capra

I'm reading a druidic text and come across an exercise that says something like "Imagine yourself as part of the Earth." Ridiculous.

"Imagine..."

Imagine!

Why? Is it not something that's not real? Do I not breathe, eat, shit and walk my existence as "part of the Earth" everyday of my life? Don't the FOUR quotes above say it all!? As my girlfriend once said (on some different but similar thing) "I can't breathe imaginary trees."
FEEL (in your bones) that you are part of the Earth, REALISE (in your soul) that you are part of the Earth, but don't delude yourself with IMAGINE!

Silly people, trying to imagine things when, really, it's all very real! ;) hehe

Now excuse me, I'm going to breathe CONCRETE air from CONCRETE trees!

(I love these quotes so much I'm sure they'll turn up again (and may have even turned up before! hehe))

“A short saying often contains much wisdom.” Sophocles

This is the quote that defines this blog, at least its form. I can be inspired by a quote and write something about the subject or I can write about something and find the quote that really helps focus what I’m saying. But it doesn’t really define the philosophy, or philosophies, that I talk from. Saying things that are “my view” (and it is) doesn’t help because I could be experimenting with any view whatsoever; from cake baking to the Apocalypse, without regards to where I’m coming from or going! Although all of this is my view, and I’m not using it to represent anything else, I live in a larger world that I exist as part of and can’t just write these blogs as though I come from out of nowhere or “out of the blue”…

So, I want to start this blog afresh, and give it some sort of focus. Then a quote inspired me (surprise surprise!)…

“We are not living on the Earth, we are part of how it lives.” David Richo

Aha! There we have it.

I want this blog to be a part of how the Earth, Gaia, lives, because humans emerged and are evolving within Gaia, as do all of the views that we hold, (and even if they sound unGaian, they still cannot exist without her!). Whatever we do is a part of Gaia, not apart from her, whatever I talk about, the sense, the orientation, of these blogs is Gaian, even if I never actually mention Gaia or planetary scale ecosystems in the Grove of Quotes.

My views might sound Christian, Pagan, Ecopsychological, Psychosynthetic, Environmentalist, or Humanist because all of these have influenced my way of thinking. But they are all Gaian, they are all Gaia, because they originated within Gaia and are sustained by her… so long as humans are honourable and work to the benefit of our living home.

I haven't posted in a long time, most of my efforts have been on the Lothlorien Nemeton and a newish one, the Wyrd World Chronicles. But somethings have been changing so I will (hopefully) be writing more here. See you soon!